PORTABLE IMAGE-BASED HIGH PERFORMANCE MOBILE MAPPING SYSTEM IN UNDERGROUND ENVIRONMENTS – SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

The progression in urbanization increases the need for different types of underground infrastructure. Consequently, infrastructure and life cycle management are rapidly gaining in importance. Mobile reality capturing systems and cloud-based services exploiting georeferenced metric 3D imagery are already extensively used for infrastructure management in outdoor environments. These services minimise dangerous and expensive field visits or measurement campaigns. In this paper, we introduce the BIMAGE Backpack, a portable image-based mobile mapping system for 3D data acquisition in indoor environments. The system consists of a multi-head panorama camera, two multi-profile laser scanners and an inertial measurement unit. With this system, we carried out underground measurement campaigns in the Hagerbach Test Gallery, located in Flums Hochwiese, Switzerland. For our performance evaluations in two different tunnel sections, we employed LiDAR SLAM as well as advanced image-based georeferencing. The obtained absolute accuracies were in the range from 6.2 to 7.4 cm. The relative accuracy, which for many applications is even more important, was in the range of 2–6 mm. These figures demonstrate an accuracy improvement of the subsequent image-based georeferencing over LiDAR SLAM by about an order of magnitude. The investigations show the application potential of image-based portable mobile mapping systems for infrastructure inventory and management in large underground facilities

Atypisches Erythema induratum Bazin bei tuberkulöser Osteomyelitis

Zusammenfassung: Hauttuberkulosen können sich mit sehr unterschiedlichen klinischen Bildern manifestieren und damit die Diagnosestellung erschweren. Wir stellen den Fall einer 79-jährigen Patientin vor, mit einer atypischen Präsentation eines Erythema induratum Bazin (EIB) am Oberkörper und einer tuberkulösen Osteomyelitis des Olekranon links. Aus den Biopsien der EIB-Knoten konnte M.tuberculosis kulturell nachgewiesen werden. Das widerspricht der klassischen Vorstellung, dass das EIB als Folge einer Hypersensitivitätsreaktion auf Mykobakterien entsteht, und unterstützt die Hypothese, dass das EIB auch durch eine hämatogene oder lymphogene Streuung von lebenden M.tuberculosis entstehen kan

ACCURATE VISUAL LOCALIZATION IN OUTDOOR AND INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS EXPLOITING 3D IMAGE SPACES AS SPATIAL REFERENCE

In this paper, we present a method for visual localization and pose estimation based on 3D image spaces. The method works in indoor and outdoor environments and does not require the presence of control points or markers. The method is evaluated with different sensors in an outdoor and an indoor test field. The results of our research show the viability of single image localization with absolute position accuracies at the decimetre level for outdoor environments and 5 cm or better for indoor environments. However, the evaluation also revealed a number of limitations of single image visual localization in real-world environments. Some of them could be addressed by an alternative AR-based localization approach, which we also present and compare in this paper. We then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches and show possibilities for combining them to obtain accurate and robust visual localization in an absolute coordinate frame

Internet of Things in Agricultural Innovation and Security

The agricultural Internet of Things (Ag-IoT) paradigm has tremendous potential in transparent integration of underground soil sensing, farm machinery, and sensor-guided irrigation systems with the complex social network of growers, agronomists, crop consultants, and advisors. The aim of the IoT in agricultural innovation and security chapter is to present agricultural IoT research and paradigm to promote sustainable production of safe, healthy, and profitable crop and animal agricultural products. This chapter covers the IoT platform to test optimized management strategies, engage farmer and industry groups, and investigate new and traditional technology drivers that will enhance resilience of the farmers to the socio-environmental changes. A review of state-of-the-art communication architectures and underlying sensing technologies and communication mechanisms is presented with coverage of recent advances in the theory and applications of wireless underground communications. Major challenges in Ag-IoT design and implementation are also discussed