Detail Enhanced Multi-Exposure Image Fusion Based On Edge Preserving Filters

Recent computational photography techniques play a significant role to overcome the limitation of standard digital cameras for handling wide dynamic range of real-world scenes contain brightly and poorly illuminated areas. In many of such techniques [1,2,3], it is often desirable to fuse details from images captured at different exposure settings, while avoiding visual artifacts. One such technique is High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging that provides a solution to recover radiance maps from photographs taken with conventional imaging equipment. The process of HDR image composition needs the knowledge of exposure times and Camera Response Function (CRF), which is required to linearize the image data before combining Low Dynamic Range (LDR) exposures into HDR image. One of the long-standing challenges in HDR imaging technology is the limited Dynamic Range (DR) of conventional display devices and printing technology. Due to which these devices are unable to reproduce full DR. Although DR can be reduced by using a tone-mapping, but this comes at an unavoidable trade-off with increased computational cost. Therefore, it is desirable to maximize information content of the synthesized scene from a set of multi-exposure images without computing HDR radiance map and tone-mapping.This research attempts to develop a novel detail enhanced multi-exposure image fusion approach based on texture features, which exploits the edge preserving and intra-region smoothing property of nonlinear diffusion filters based on Partial Differential Equations (PDE). With the captured multi-exposure image series, we first decompose images into Base Layers (BLs) and Detail Layers (DLs) to extract sharp details and fine details, respectively. The magnitude of the gradient of the image intensity is utilized to encourage smoothness at homogeneous regions in preference to inhomogeneous regions. In the next step texture features of the BL to generate a decision mask (i.e., local range) have been considered that guide the fusion of BLs in multi-resolution fashion. Finally, well-exposed fused image is obtained that combines fused BL and the DL at each scale across all the input exposures. The combination of edge-preserving filters with Laplacian pyramid is shown to lead to texture detail enhancement in the fused image.Furthermore, Non-linear adaptive filter is employed for BL and DL decomposition that has better response near strong edges. The texture details are then added to the fused BL to reconstruct a detail enhanced LDR version of the image. This leads to an increased robustness of the texture details while at the same time avoiding gradient reversal artifacts near strong edges that may appear in fused image after DL enhancement.Finally, we propose a novel technique for exposure fusion in which Weighted Least Squares (WLS) optimization framework is utilized for weight map refinement of BLs and DLs, which lead to a new simple weighted average fusion framework. Computationally simple texture features (i.e. DL) and color saturation measure are preferred for quickly generating weight maps to control the contribution from an input set of multi-exposure images. Instead of employing intermediate HDR reconstruction and tone-mapping steps, well-exposed fused image is generated for displaying on conventional display devices. Simulation results are compared with a number of existing single resolution and multi-resolution techniques to show the benefits of the proposed scheme for the variety of cases.            Moreover, the approaches proposed in this thesis are effective for blending flash and no-flash image pair, and multi-focus images, that is, input images photographed with and without flash, and images focused on different targets, respectively. A further advantage of the present technique is that it is well suited for detail enhancement in the fused image

Detail Enhanced Multi-Exposure Image Fusion Based On Edge Preserving Filters

Recent computational photography techniques play a significant role to overcome the limitation of standard digital cameras for handling wide dynamic range of real-world scenes contain brightly and poorly illuminated areas. In many of such techniques [1,2,3], it is often desirable to fuse details from images captured at different exposure settings, while avoiding visual artifacts. One such technique is High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging that provides a solution to recover radiance maps from photographs taken with conventional imaging equipment. The process of HDR image composition needs the knowledge of exposure times and Camera Response Function (CRF), which is required to linearize the image data before combining Low Dynamic Range (LDR) exposures into HDR image. One of the long-standing challenges in HDR imaging technology is the limited Dynamic Range (DR) of conventional display devices and printing technology. Due to which these devices are unable to reproduce full DR. Although DR can be reduced by using a tone-mapping, but this comes at an unavoidable trade-off with increased computational cost. Therefore, it is desirable to maximize information content of the synthesized scene from a set of multi-exposure images without computing HDR radiance map and tone-mapping.This research attempts to develop a novel detail enhanced multi-exposure image fusion approach based on texture features, which exploits the edge preserving and intra-region smoothing property of nonlinear diffusion filters based on Partial Differential Equations (PDE). With the captured multi-exposure image series, we first decompose images into Base Layers (BLs) and Detail Layers (DLs) to extract sharp details and fine details, respectively. The magnitude of the gradient of the image intensity is utilized to encourage smoothness at homogeneous regions in preference to inhomogeneous regions. In the next step texture features of the BL to generate a decision mask (i.e., local range) have been considered that guide the fusion of BLs in multi-resolution fashion. Finally, well-exposed fused image is obtained that combines fused BL and the DL at each scale across all the input exposures. The combination of edge-preserving filters with Laplacian pyramid is shown to lead to texture detail enhancement in the fused image.Furthermore, Non-linear adaptive filter is employed for BL and DL decomposition that has better response near strong edges. The texture details are then added to the fused BL to reconstruct a detail enhanced LDR version of the image. This leads to an increased robustness of the texture details while at the same time avoiding gradient reversal artifacts near strong edges that may appear in fused image after DL enhancement.Finally, we propose a novel technique for exposure fusion in which Weighted Least Squares (WLS) optimization framework is utilized for weight map refinement of BLs and DLs, which lead to a new simple weighted average fusion framework. Computationally simple texture features (i.e. DL) and color saturation measure are preferred for quickly generating weight maps to control the contribution from an input set of multi-exposure images. Instead of employing intermediate HDR reconstruction and tone-mapping steps, well-exposed fused image is generated for displaying on conventional display devices. Simulation results are compared with a number of existing single resolution and multi-resolution techniques to show the benefits of the proposed scheme for the variety of cases. Moreover, the approaches proposed in this thesis are effective for blending flash and no-flash image pair, and multi-focus images, that is, input images photographed with and without flash, and images focused on different targets, respectively. A further advantage of the present technique is that it is well suited for detail enhancement in the fused image

DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF INTUMESCENT FIRE RETARDANT COATING ON VARIOUS STRUCTURAL GEOMETRIES

Materials are very prone to catching fire regardless of its type. Once it catches fire, it will take certain amount of time to wipe it off depending on the rate of burning. A small fire will take less time to be cleared where by a big burn out will take a couple of hours to wipe it out. Buildings nowadays can be prone of catching fire and its build on various structural geometries. As it is, Traditional fire retardants are not very effective especially when there is a huge breakout of fires in plants and platforms. These traditional fire retardants also contain halogen and releases toxic vapours thus leading to a severe threat to life and environment. By contrast, intumescent coatings are relatively thin-film products that expand rapidly in a fire to insulate the steel. They come in various formulas that include a mixture of binders and acids that react under temperature to expand up to many times the original thickness of the film, creating a char that insulates the steel. In general, steel loses half its strength at 1,100 °F and begins to degrade as well as starts to loose its properties. Consequently leads us to the aim of this project which is to study the details of the expansion of char and heat shielding performance on various structural geometries with respect to inorganic fillers, (Aluminium Tri-Hydrate) and without filler. Researcher will develop an intumescent coating formulation with inorganic fillers and with no filler in order to get the comparison of optimal performance for char expansion and heat shielding performance on the various structural geometries. In order to meet these challenges, IFRC will be developed and tested on geometries such as T-joints, Elbows, I-Beams and Pipes. The development of coating will consist of three agents mainly Acid Source (APP, Polyphosphate), Carbon Source (EG, Expandable Graphite) and blowing agent (MEL, Melamin) followed by Epoxy, Boric Acid, Polyamide Hardner, etc. Once this coating is mixed, it will then be applied on the various structural geometries. This coating will then be tested in furnace and fire (Bunsen burner). The char expansion as well as heat shielding will be thoroughly observed and results will be obtained and further studied

Finger Knuckle Analysis: Gabor Vs DTCWT

Knuckle biometrics is one of the current trends in biometric human identification which offers a reliable solution for verification. This paper analysis FKP recognition based on the behaviour of two different filtering and classification methods. Firstly, Gabor Filter Banks techniques are applied for finger knuckle print recognition and then the same database is analysed against Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform technique. The experiment is evaluated to identify finger knuckle images using PolyU FKP database of 7920 images. Finally, these two different systems are compared for false acceptance rate FAR, true acceptance, false rejection rate FRR and true rejection. Extensive experiments are performed to evaluate both the techniques, and experimental results show the pros and cons of using both the techniques for specific applications. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.150518

STUDY ON CHAR EXPANSION AND HEAT SIDELDING OF INTUMESCENT COATING BASED ON INORGANIC FILLERS

Fire Accidents are constant threat to man and materials. When a fire occurs it takes a long time from hours to days to put it off depending on the burning material and other circumstances. This can be reduced in term of risks with the help of findings on Intumescent coating. Traditional fire retardants are not very effective especially when there is a huge breakout of fires in plants and platforms. These traditional fire retardants also contain halogen and releases toxic vapours thus leading to a severe threat to life and environment. By contrast, intumescent coatings are relatively thin-film products that expand rapidly in a fire to insulate the steel. They come in various formulas that include a mixture of binders and acids that react uuder temperature to expand up to many times the original thickness of the film, creating a char that insulates the steel. In general, steel loses half its strength at I, I 00 °F and begins to degrade as well as starts to loose its properties. Consequently leads us to the aim of this project which is to study the details of the expansion of char and heat shielding performance with respect to two main inorganic fillers, (Fume Silica & Aluminium Tri-Hydrate ). In addition, researcher will develop an intumescent coating formulation with inorganic fillers to get the optimal performance for char expansion and heat shielding performance. Studies will focus mainly on the expansion of char that is influenced by inorganic fillers. Firstly, an Intumescent coating is to be made by the provided formula. Expandable graphite is to be grinded and sieved into various sizes. Inorganic fillers (Fume Silica and Aluminium Trihydrate) are also added .as part of the mixture for the Intumescent coating. There are also other additives involve in developing the coating such as, Melamine, APP, Epoxy (Bisphenol A), Boric Acid, ACR Polyamide Hardener, etc. Once the coating had been completed, it is than applied onto steel plates and left cured uuder room temperature. The experiment is further carried out by heating the Intumescent coating using Buusen burner to a certain temperature. Expansion of char is to be thoroughly observed as well as also the performance of heat shielding. Results obtained are discussed and further studied

The Caenorhabditis elegans D2-like dopamine receptor DOP-2 physically interacts with GPA-14, a Gαi subunit

Dopaminergic inputs are sensed on the cell surface by the seven-transmembrane dopamine receptors that belong to a superfamily of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Dopamine receptors are classified as D1-like or D2-like receptors based on their homology and pharmacological profiles. In addition to well established G-protein coupled mechanism of dopamine receptors in mammalian system they can also interact with other signaling pathways. In C. elegans four dopamine receptors (dop-1, dop-2, dop-3 and dop-4) have been reported and they have been implicated in a wide array of behavioral and physiological processes. We performed this study to assign the signaling pathway for DOP-2, a D2-like dopamine receptor using a split-ubiquitin based yeast two-hybrid screening of a C. elegans cDNA library with a novel dop-2 variant (DOP-2XL) as bait. Our yeast two-hybrid screening resulted in identification of gpa-14, as one of the positively interacting partners. gpa-14 is a Gα coding sequence and shows expression overlap with dop-2 in C. elegans ADE deirid neurons. In-vitro pull down assays demonstrated physical coupling between dopamine receptor DOP-2XL and GPA-14. Further, we sought to determine the DOP-2 region necessary for GPA-14 coupling. We generated truncated DOP-2XL constructs and performed pair-wise yeast two-hybrid assay with GPA-14 followed by in-vitro interaction studies and here we report that the third intracellular loop is the key domain responsible for DOP-2 and GPA-14 coupling. Our results show that the extra-long C. elegans D2-like receptor is coupled to gpa-14 that has no mammalian homolog but shows close similarity to inhibitory G-proteins. Supplementing earlier investigations, our results demonstrate the importance of an invertebrate D2-like receptor's third intracellular loop in its G-protein interaction

Designing and Analysis of Wideband Antenna for 4G and 5G Applications

297–301A wideband antenna design for 4G and 5G applications has been analyzed and evaluated in this research. The advanced technology equipment’s are getting smaller, which require compact and miniaturized antennas. The antenna designed in this research work is investigated for wideband operations for time division duplex long term evolution bands from band number 33 to 43 and for 5G New Radio n78 band. The design is ruled out for size miniaturization and wide bandwidth so that it can be used in any compact radio device. The antenna design is simulated using CST Microwave Studio and is fabricated on low cost easily available FR-4 substrate. The results are simulated and measured for 4G/5G bands for sufficient radiation characteristics, bandwidth, gain and minimum reflected power

DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF INTUMESCENT FIRE RETARDANT COATING ON VARIOUS STRUCTURAL GEOMETRIES

Materials are very prone to catching fire regardless of its type. Once it catches fire, it will take certain amount of time to wipe it off depending on the rate of burning. A small fire will take less time to be cleared where by a big burn out will take a couple of hours to wipe it out. Buildings nowadays can be prone of catching fire and its build on various structural geometries. As it is, Traditional fire retardants are not very effective especially when there is a huge breakout of fires in plants and platforms. These traditional fire retardants also contain halogen and releases toxic vapours thus leading to a severe threat to life and environment. By contrast, intumescent coatings are relatively thin-film products that expand rapidly in a fire to insulate the steel. They come in various formulas that include a mixture of binders and acids that react under temperature to expand up to many times the original thickness of the film, creating a char that insulates the steel. In general, steel loses half its strength at 1,100 °F and begins to degrade as well as starts to loose its properties. Consequently leads us to the aim of this project which is to study the details of the expansion of char and heat shielding performance on various structural geometries with respect to inorganic fillers, (Aluminium Tri-Hydrate) and without filler. Researcher will develop an intumescent coating formulation with inorganic fillers and with no filler in order to get the comparison of optimal performance for char expansion and heat shielding performance on the various structural geometries. In order to meet these challenges, IFRC will be developed and tested on geometries such as T-joints, Elbows, I-Beams and Pipes. The development of coating will consist of three agents mainly Acid Source (APP, Polyphosphate), Carbon Source (EG, Expandable Graphite) and blowing agent (MEL, Melamin) followed by Epoxy, Boric Acid, Polyamide Hardner, etc. Once this coating is mixed, it will then be applied on the various structural geometries. This coating will then be tested in furnace and fire (Bunsen burner). The char expansion as well as heat shielding will be thoroughly observed and results will be obtained and further studied

STUDY ON CHAR EXPANSION AND HEAT SIDELDING OF INTUMESCENT COATING BASED ON INORGANIC FILLERS

Fire Accidents are constant threat to man and materials. When a fire occurs it takes a long time from hours to days to put it off depending on the burning material and other circumstances. This can be reduced in term of risks with the help of findings on Intumescent coating. Traditional fire retardants are not very effective especially when there is a huge breakout of fires in plants and platforms. These traditional fire retardants also contain halogen and releases toxic vapours thus leading to a severe threat to life and environment. By contrast, intumescent coatings are relatively thin-film products that expand rapidly in a fire to insulate the steel. They come in various formulas that include a mixture of binders and acids that react uuder temperature to expand up to many times the original thickness of the film, creating a char that insulates the steel. In general, steel loses half its strength at I, I 00 °F and begins to degrade as well as starts to loose its properties. Consequently leads us to the aim of this project which is to study the details of the expansion of char and heat shielding performance with respect to two main inorganic fillers, (Fume Silica & Aluminium Tri-Hydrate ). In addition, researcher will develop an intumescent coating formulation with inorganic fillers to get the optimal performance for char expansion and heat shielding performance. Studies will focus mainly on the expansion of char that is influenced by inorganic fillers. Firstly, an Intumescent coating is to be made by the provided formula. Expandable graphite is to be grinded and sieved into various sizes. Inorganic fillers (Fume Silica and Aluminium Trihydrate) are also added .as part of the mixture for the Intumescent coating. There are also other additives involve in developing the coating such as, Melamine, APP, Epoxy (Bisphenol A), Boric Acid, ACR Polyamide Hardener, etc. Once the coating had been completed, it is than applied onto steel plates and left cured uuder room temperature. The experiment is further carried out by heating the Intumescent coating using Buusen burner to a certain temperature. Expansion of char is to be thoroughly observed as well as also the performance of heat shielding. Results obtained are discussed and further studied