An Active Speaker Detection Method in Videos using Standard Deviations of Color Histogram

Active Speaker Detection (ASD) refers to the process of predicting who amongst a number of speakers whose faces appear on screen is speaking (if any) at any given time within the duration of a video. This paper proposes a novel method for determining active speakers in videos based on the standard deviations of Color Histograms (CHs) of the mouth region from frame-to-frame. The reasoning behind this is that the lips of an active speaker will open and close exposing and concealing the inner contents of the mouth such as the vocal cavity, teeth and tongue at fairly regular intervals in the process which are of different colors. Therefore, if the mouth region can be accurately localized and the changes in the color activities in that region analyzed during speaking such information can be used to detect if a person is actively speaking or not. The lips of a non-speaker are usually closed and at rest, so the CHs for such mouth region are expected to be fairly constant and as such the standard deviations should be low. If an experimentally determined threshold could be set, it can draw the line between active and non-active speakers. In this work, 53 videos available online from Channels TV news, one of Nigeria’s most popular TV stations were used to create 250 video clips totaling 3.6 hours, each ranging from between 15 seconds to 1 minute in such a way that the faces of two speakers were always simultaneously visible in any order in the duration of each video clip. The active speakersActive Speaker Detection (ASD) refers to the process of predicting who amongst a number of speakers whose faces appear on screen is speaking (if any) at any given time within the duration of a video. This paper proposes a novel method for determining active speakers in videos based on the standard deviations of Color Histograms (CHs) of the mouth region from frame-to-frame. The reasoning behind this is that the lips of an active speaker will open and close exposing and concealing the inner contents of the mouth such as the vocal cavity, teeth and tongue at fairly regular intervals in the process which are of different colors. Therefore, if the mouth region can be accurately localized and the changes in the color activities in that region analyzed during speaking such information can be used to detect if a person is actively speaking or not. The lips of a non-speaker are usually closed and at rest, so the CHs for such mouth region are expected to be fairly constant and as such the standard deviations should be low. If an experimentally determined threshold could be set, it can draw the line between active and non-active speakers. In this work, 53 videos available online from Channels TV news, one of Nigeria’s most popular TV stations were used to create 250 video clips totaling 3.6 hours, each ranging from between 15 seconds to 1 minute in such a way that the faces of two speakers were always simultaneously visible in any order in the duration of each video clip. The active speakers in each second of the video clips were manually labeled and used to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology which achieved a prediction accuracy of up to 99.19%. in each second of the video clips were manually labeled and used to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology which achieved a prediction accuracy of up to 99.19%

Biometric Enabled E-Banking in Nigeria: Management and Customers’ Perspectives

The adoption of biometric technology is rapidly increasing around the globe due to the increasing sensitivity of security issues. With the recent 2015-plan and collaborations of the Central Bank of Nigeria to incorporate biometrics into her banking system, it is imperative to assess the perception of the managers and customers to the use of the long-awaited biometrics for secure, seamless and successful transactions.  The banking sector touches the daily lives of at least 60% of the over 150-million Nigerian population and it is expected to increase as more security measures are put in place.  Therefore, this empirical evaluation captures the factors influencing the perception of the bank management and ATM users. A total of 740 respondents participated in the survey cutting across different age groups and educational backgrounds. Descriptive statistics and T-test analysis of the survey showed that management and customers of strongly support the adoption of biometric ATM in Nigeria. Keywords: E-Banking, Biometric, ATM,  Security

Cost-Effective Medical Robotic Telepresence Solution using Plastic Mannequin

Robotic telepresence is an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution that has a huge potential to address the problem of access to quality healthcare delivery in rural areas. However, the capital and operating costs of available systems are considered to be unffordable for rural dwellers in emerging economies. In addition, most of these communities are not even connected to the power grid. In this paper, the authors reduced the cost of engaging a robotic telepresence solution for rural medicare by using plastic mannequin and solar photovoltaic technology. An IP camera was fixed in each of the eye sockets of the plastic mannequin. These cameras are connected to a mini-computer embedded in the plastic mannequin. A Wi-Fi module establishes an Internet connection between remote physicians and rural heathcare facilities. The system is powered by a solar photovoltaic energy source to guarantee power availability. Another unique feature of this solution is that it gives the patient a better impression of the physical presence of a physician. Comparative cost analysis with robotic telepresence available in the market showed that our system is more affordable. This development will increase the adoption of robotic telepresense in rural telemedicine

Identifying major civil engineering research influencers and topics using social network analysis

This paper focused on applying social network analysis techniques to co�authorship network in order to discover the influencers in Civil engineering research field in Nigeria. It further applies the Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) algorithm to uncover the major research topics in this field. The research used 663 publications downloaded from the Scopus database, with the year of publication ranging from 1968 to 2018, using Nigeria as the case study, Civil and Structural engineering as the field of research. The study was carried out using the centrality measures in network analysis such as degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality for co-authorship network analysis of authors and text mining using the LDA algorithm to discover the research focus of the authors. Also, the relationship between the centrality measures and authors’ performance, measured in terms of citation was investigated using regression analysis. The results showed that there was a significantly positive relationship with betweenness centrality and closeness centrality for performance, but a negative relationship with degree centrality. Also the topics discovered using the LDA algorithm helped to reveal the major focus of Civil Engineering research in Nigeria. In conclusion, it is recommended that based on the co-authorship network of civil engineering research in Nigeria, which wa

The Predictive Validity of University Admission Examinations: Case Study of Nigerian Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination

For a sensitive university admission aptitude screening device like the Nigeria’s Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination [JAMB-UTME], it is imperative that the predictive validity be constantly ascertained. The core objective of this study, therefore, was to establish the predictive validity of the JAMB-UTME. The case study and ex-post facto designs were used.  The populations of study were the Senior Secondary School Leavers admitted to Nigerian universities via the JAMB-UTME.  8,139 students’ records from a private university in Nigeria constituted the sample.  The predictive power of the JAMB-UTME in predicting students’ performance in the university’s semester examinations was tested with regression model.  The results suggested that the JAMB-UTME had positive but low indices of predictive validity, which varies across the academic sessions and programmes of study.  It was not significant for some programmes. It was recommended that JAMB should embark on a more pragmatic review of the content of the UTME to enhance its predictive validity

Multi-instance contingent fusion for the verification of infant fingerprints

It is imperative to establish an automated system for the identification of neonates (1–28 days old) and infants (29 days–12 months old) through the utilisation of the readily accessible 500 ppi fingerprint reader. This measure is crucial in addressing the issue of newborn swapping, facilitating the identification of missing children, monitoring immunisation records, maintaining comprehensive medical history, and other related purposes. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the potential for future identification of infants using fingerprints obtained from a 500 ppi fingerprint reader by employing a fusion technique that combines multiple instances of fingerprints, specifically the left thumb and right index fingers. The fingerprints were acquired from babies who were between the ages of one day and six months at the enrolment session. The sum-score fusion algorithm was implemented. The approach mentioned above yielded verification accuracies of 73.8%, 69.05%, and 57.14% for time intervals of 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months, respectively, between the enrolment and query fingerprints

Data on the key performance indicators for quality of service of GSM networks in Nigeria

In this data article, the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Quality of Service (QoS) of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks in Nigeria are provided and analyzed. The data provided in this paper contain the Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Stand-alone Dedicated Channel (SDCCH) congestion, and Traffic Channel (TCH) congestion for the four GSM network operators in Nigeria (Airtel, Etisalat, Glo, and MTN). These comprehensive data were obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Significant differences in each of the KPIs for the four quarters of each year were presented based on Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The values of the KPIs were plotted against the months of the year for better visualization and understanding of data trends across the four quarters. Multiple comparisons of the mean-quarterly differences of the KPIs were also presented using Tukey's Post Hoc test. Public availability and further interpretation and discussion of these useful information will assist the network providers, Nigerian government, local and international regulatory bodies, policy makers, and other stakeholders in ensuring access of people, machines, and things to high quality telecommunications services. Keywords: Quality of service, GSM networks, Call setup success rate, Drop call rate, Stand-alone dedicated channel congestion, Traffic channel congestio

Datasets on demographic trends in enrollment into undergraduate engineering programs at Covenant University, Nigeria

In this data article, we present and analyze the demographic data of undergraduates admitted into engineering programs at Covenant University, Nigeria. The population distribution of 2649 candidates admitted into Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Information and Communication Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Petroleum Engineering programs between 2002 and 2009 are analyzed by gender, age, and state of origin. The data provided in this data article were retrieved from the student bio-data submitted to the Department of Admissions and Student Records (DASR) and Center for Systems and Information Services (CSIS) by the candidates during the application process into the various engineering undergraduate programs. These vital information is made publicly available, after proper data anonymization, to facilitate empirical research in the emerging field of demographics analytics in higher education. A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file is attached to this data article and the data is thoroughly described for easy reuse. Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions of the demographic data are presented in tables, plots, graphs, and charts. Unrestricted access to these demographic data will facilitate reliable and evidence-based research findings for sustainable education in developing countries. Keywords: Analytics, Sustainable education, Higher education, Data mining, Engineering, Smart campu