Real Time Facial Expression Recognition Using Webcam and SDK Affectiva

Facial expression is an essential part of communication. For this reason, the issue of human emotions evaluation using a computer is a very interesting topic, which has gained more and more attention in recent years. It is mainly related to the possibility of applying facial expression recognition in many fields such as HCI, video games, virtual reality, and analysing customer satisfaction etc. Emotions determination (recognition process) is often performed in 3 basic phases: face detection, facial features extraction, and last stage - expression classification. Most often you can meet the so-called Ekman’s classification of 6 emotional expressions (or 7 - neutral expression) as well as other types of classification - the Russell circular model, which contains up to 24 or the Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. The methods used in the three phases of the recognition process have not only improved over the last 60 years, but new methods and algorithms have also emerged that can determine the ViolaJones detector with greater accuracy and lower computational demands. Therefore, there are currently various solutions in the form of the Software Development Kit (SDK). In this publication, we point to the proposition and creation of our system for real-time emotion classification. Our intention was to create a system that would use all three phases of the recognition process, work fast and stable in real time. That’s why we’ve decided to take advantage of existing Affectiva SDKs. By using the classic webcamera we can detect facial landmarks on the image automatically using the Software Development Kit (SDK) from Affectiva. Geometric feature based approach is used for feature extraction. The distance between landmarks is used as a feature, and for selecting an optimal set of features, the brute force method is used. The proposed system uses neural network algorithm for classification. The proposed system recognizes 6 (respectively 7) facial expressions, namely anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise and neutral. We do not want to point only to the percentage of success of our solution. We want to point out the way we have determined this measurements and the results we have achieved and how these results have significantly influenced our future research direction

Are Instructed Emotional States Suitable for Classification? Demonstration of How They Can Significantly Influence the Classification Result in An Automated Recognition System

At the present time, various freely available or commercial solutions are used to classify the subject's emotional state. Classification of the emotional state helps us to understand how the subject feels and what he is experiencing in a particular situation. Classification of the emotional state can thus be used in various areas of our life from neuromarketing, through the automotive industry (determining how emotions affect driving), to implementing such a system into the learning process. The learning process, which is the (mutual) interaction between the teacher and the learner, is an interesting area in which individual emotional states can be explored. In this pedagogical-psychological area several research studies were realized. These studies in some cases demonstrated the important impact of the emotional state on the results of the students. However, for comparison and unambiguous classification of the emotional state most of these studies used the instructed (even constructed) stereotypical facial expressions of the most well-known test databases (Jaffe is a typical example). Such facial expressions are highly standardized, and the software can recognize them with a fairly big percentage, but this does not necessarily point to the actual success rate of the subject's emotional classification in such a test because the similarity to real emotional expression remains unknown. Therefore, we examined facial expressions in real situations. We have subsequently compared these examined facial expressions with the instructed expressions of the same emotions (the Jaffe database). The overall average classification score in real facial expressions was 94.58%

Többrendszeres kompakt távvezetékek és tokozott kapcsolóberendezések megvalósítását és üzemeltetését támogató kutatás = Research supporting the application and operation of multicircuit compact lines and gas insulated switchgear

Egy- és többrendszeres, kompakt távvezetékek szigetelési távolságai kisebbek, mint a konvenciális konstrukcióké, mégis biztosítani kell a távvezetékek biztonságos üzemelését. A projekt célja a kompaktizálásból eredő túligénybevételek felderítése, ezek megelőzésére, vagy redukálására alkalmas módszerek kidolgozása. Összehasonlítottuk a visszacsapás bekövetkezésének valószínűségét a magyar 400 kV-os vezetékek jelenlegi oszlopainál, illetve a lehetséges kompakt konstrukcióknál és megállapítottuk a konstrukció egyes paramétereinek hatását a villámbiztosságra. A számításban tekintetbe vettük a szigetelőket igénybe vevő nemszabványos és szabványos lökőhullámok roncsoló hatása közötti eltérést. Megvizsgáltuk az oszlopokra szerelt túlfeszültségkorlátozók pozitív hatását. Hálózati kisérletekre alapozott szimulációs számításokkal elemeztük a többrendszeres nagyfeszültségű távvezetékek rendszerein a tranziensek kölcsönhatását, elsősorban az önműködő visszakapcsolás hatásossága szempontjából. A vizsgálatok a szekunder ív folyamatos, intermittens szakaszára és a visszakapcsolási tranziensre terjedtek ki. Elemeztük az azonos oszlopokon haladó, különböző feszültségű rendszerek elektromágneses kölcsönhatását is, olyan távvezetékekre, amelyek nagyfeszültségű és középfeszültségű kompenzált rendszereket tartalmaznak. Megállapítottuk, hogy a kölcsönhatás nagy mértékben veszélyezteti a középfeszültségű vezeték visszakapcsolásának hatásosságát, és kidolgoztuk e veszély elhárításának módszerét. | Phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground distances in single and multi-circuit compact lines are shorter, than in conventional constructions. Nevertheless, one has to provide for a high reliability of transmission lines. The project aimed at finding the overstresses in compact lines due to electromagnetic coupling and the ways of theirs prevention or limitation. The probability of back-flashovers was compared for conventional and compact 400 kV towers and the dependences of this probability on the main parameters of the tower construction were analyzed. The difference between disruptive effects of standard and non-standard waves was taken into account in the simulation of back-flashover process. The positive effect of line arresters was also investigated. The electromagnetic interaction of the transients in individual circuits was studied for multi-circuit EHV lines, first of all from the viewpoint of the efficiency of automatic reclosing. The simulation of the elements has been verified by HV field tests. The investigation covered the intervals of continuous and intermittent arcing and the reclosing transient. The interaction of transients in multicircuit lines containing circuits of different nominal voltages was studied, mainly for towers, containing HV and resonance grounded MV circuits. Transient studies showed, that electromagnetic coupling of HV and MV circuits may make ineffective the reclosure of MV circuits. This danger can be prevented by transpositions in the HV circuit

Entrauschen chemischer Messsignale zur Verbesserung der Nachweisgrenze

Ziel der Arbeit ist, Messsignale aus dem Bereich der analytischen Chemie optimal zu entrauschen, um Nachweisgrenzen herabzusetzen. Dazu wurden drei mathematische Methoden der Signalbehandlung eingesetzt und verglichen: Faltung mit Gauß-Kurven, Fourier-Transformation und Wavelet-Transformation unter Verwendung verschiedener Waveletfunktionen. Gezeigt wird der Vergleich anhand von Messungen von je zwei anorganischen und organischen Arsenspezies mittels HPLC-ICP-MS. Alle Methoden der Signalbehandlung können hierbei erfolgreich zum Entrauschen eingesetzt werden, allerdings in der nach steigendem Entrauschungsvermögen sortierten Reihenfolge: Faltung mit Gauß-Kurven – Fourier-Transformation – Wavelet-Transformation. Am besten geeignet ist die Verwendung von Symlet4. Die Nachweisgrenzen werden um den Faktor 5,8 verbessert. Weiterhin wurden mittels DPASV Voltammogramme von Cadmium aufgenommen. Bei diesen ist die Basislinie auf Grund des fließenden Grundstroms sehr strukturiert. Außerdem ändert sich der Grundstrom von Messung zu Messung. Die Faltung mit Gauß-Kurven konnte hierbei nicht sinnvoll angewendet werden. Sehr gut geeignet sind jedoch Fourier- und Wavelet-Transformation. Die niedrigste Nachweisgrenze ergibt sich nach Entrauschen mittels Coiflet2, wobei eine Verbesserung um Faktor 322 erreicht werden kann. In der HR-CS-AAS, der dritten vorgestellten Analysenmethode, stehen sowohl herkömmliche 2-D- als auch 3-D-Spektren zur Verfügung, wobei die Abbildung von drei Dimensionen neue Auswerteverfahren ermöglicht. Am besten zum Entrauschen geeignet ist sowohl bei zwei- als auch bei dreidimensionaler Betrachtung Symlet4, was in Übereinstimmung mit den Schlussfolgerungen bei der Auswertung der Chromatogramme ist. Durch Symlet4 werden die Nachweisgrenzen um den Faktor 5,9 (2-D) bzw. 7,0 (3-D) verbessert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass dreidimensionale Spektren besser entrauscht werden können, die Weiterentwicklung der AAS zur HR-CS-Technik somit von großem Nutzen ist

Does microplastic analysis method affect our understanding of microplastics in the environment?

Two analytical methods – both in active use at different laboratories – were tested and compared against each other to investigate how the procedure influences microplastic (MP) detection with micro Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (μFTIR) imaging. A representative composite water sample collected from the Danube River was divided into 12 subsamples, and processed following two different methods, which differed in MP isolation procedures, the optical substrate utilized for the chemical imaging, and the detection limit of the spectroscopic instruments. The first instrument had a nominal pixel resolution of 5.5 μm, while the second had a nominal resolution of 25 μm. These two methods led to different MP abundance, MP mass estimates, but not MP characteristics. Only looking at MPs &gt; 50 μm, the first method showed a higher MP abundance, namely 418–2571 MP m−3 with MP mass estimates of 703–1900 μg m−3, while the second method yielded 16.7–72.1 MP m−3 with mass estimates of 222–439 μg m−3. Looking deeper into the steps of the methods showed that the MP isolation procedure contributed slightly to the difference in the result. However, the variability between individual samples was larger than the difference caused by the methods. Somewhat sample-dependent, the use of two different substrates (zinc selenide windows versus Anodisc filters) caused a substantial difference between results. This was due to a higher tendency for particles to agglomerate on the Anodisc filters, and an ‘IR-halo’ around particles on ZnSe windows when scanning with μFTIR. Finally, the μFTIR settings and nominal resolution caused significant differences in identifying MP size and mass estimate, which showed that the smaller the pixel size, the more accurately the particle boundary can be defined. These findings contributed to explaining disagreements between studies and addressed the importance of harmonization of methods.</p

Influence of the Secondary Arc on the Operation of Single Phase Autoreclosure of the 400 kV interconnection between Hungary and Croatia

Faults on EHV lines are generally single-phase-to-ground ones and not permanent in the majority of cases. Thus single phase auto reclosure (SPAR), at which the faulty phases are tripped for a short time, eliminates the predominant part of the faults [1,2]. The secondary arc, which follows the high power arc after tripping the faulty phases at both side of the line may endanger the successfulness of reclosing if the duration of the switched off interval (dead time) is not long enough to ensure the extinction of the arc. The secondary arcing times recorded on different EHV lines or measured in laboratory tests show significant spread, consequently, to select a dead time according to the longest experimental secondary arc extinction time is not feasible. During commissioning of the double circuit 420 kV interconnection between Hungary and Croatia several staged faults were initiated to analyze the arc extinction performance. Initially the line was in operation by connecting the two circuits in parallel along the 1/3rd of the full length. In this configuration the longest secondary arc extinction time was 4 seconds and the secondary arc has not extinguished in 27s in one of the tests, so the line had to be tripped out to clear the staged fault. Later on, the length of the Croatian section of the line has been significantly shortened after putting a new substation into service. The increased performance of SPAR of the new arrangement has been proved with field tests. A realistic representation of the secondary arcs is essential in determining the auto-reclosure performance of EHV transmission lines. As shown in the paper, the random variation of the arc parameters influences significantly the arc extinction time. The results of the field tests confirmed the importance of the distributed nature of the transmission line and the nonlinear characteristic of the arc resistance in the intermittent region of arcing, where temporary extinctions and sudden re-ignitions in the arc channel produce transient wave processes along the line

Optimization of microwave-assisted extraction of ergosterol from Agaricus bisporus L. by-products using response surface methodology

This work intends to valorise by-products of the industrial processing of mushrooms to obtain ergosterol as a value-added compound. Agaricus bisporus L. is the world’s most consumed mushroom and one of the richest sources of ergosterol. Microwave-assisted extraction was used to replace conventional techniques that are time-consuming and need large amounts of solvent. Time (3-20 min), temperature (60-210 ºC) and solid-liquid ratio (1-20 g/L) were found the relevant variables to analyze the extraction process. To maximize the ergosterol extraction yield, response surface methodology was used to optimize the process. The global optimal extraction conditions were determined and comprise: 19.4±2.9 min, 132.8±12.4 ºC and 1.6±0.5 g/L, yielding 556.1±26.2 mg of ergosterol per 100 g of mushroom by-products. In the MAE optimal conditions, it was possible to obtain ergosterol in a similar value to the one obtained in other works when using the Soxhlet extraction method with a significant decrease in the time of extraction. The results show the potential of using the by-products of an agroindustry, mushrooms processing industry, as productive sources of ergosterol.The authors acknowledge FCT (Portugal) for financial support to CIMO (PEst-OE/AGUI/0690/2014), Sandrina A. Heleno (SFRH/BPD/101413/2014) and L. Barros (SFRH/BPD/107855/2015), to FCT/MEC and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to LSRE (Project UID/EQU/50020/2013), and to QREN, ON2 and FEDER (Projects NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000014 and NORTE-07-0162-FEDER-000050). The authors also acknowledge Xunta de Galicia for financial support of the post-doctoral researcher M.A. Prieto, and to Patrícia Diz for some support in MAE experiments