Towards Contextual Action Recognition and Target Localization with Active Allocation of Attention

Exploratory gaze movements are fundamental for gathering the most relevant information regarding the partner during social interactions. We have designed and implemented a system for dynamic attention allocation which is able to actively control gaze movements during a visual action recognition task. During the observation of a partners reaching movement, the robot is able to contextually estimate the goal position of the partner hand and the location in space of the candidate targets, while moving its gaze around with the purpose of optimizing the gathering of information relevant for the task. Experimental results on a simulated environment show that active gaze control provides a relevant advantage with respect to typical passive observation, both in term of estimation precision and of time required for action recognition. © 2012 Springer-Verlag

Detector Technologies for CLIC

The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) is a high-energy high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider under development. It is foreseen to be built and operated in three stages, at centre-of-mass energies of 380 GeV, 1.5 TeV and 3 TeV, respectively. It offers a rich physics program including direct searches as well as the probing of new physics through a broad set of precision measurements of Standard Model processes, particularly in the Higgs-boson and top-quark sectors. The precision required for such measurements and the specific conditions imposed by the beam dimensions and time structure put strict requirements on the detector design and technology. This includes low-mass vertexing and tracking systems with small cells, highly granular imaging calorimeters, as well as a precise hit-time resolution and power-pulsed operation for all subsystems. A conceptual design for the CLIC detector system was published in 2012. Since then, ambitious R&D programmes for silicon vertex and tracking detectors, as well as for calorimeters have been pursued within the CLICdp, CALICE and FCAL collaborations, addressing the challenging detector requirements with innovative technologies. This report introduces the experimental environment and detector requirements at CLIC and reviews the current status and future plans for detector technology R&D.Comment: 152 pages, 116 figures; published as CERN Yellow Report Monograph Vol. 1/2019; corresponding editors: Dominik Dannheim, Katja Kr\"uger, Aharon Levy, Andreas N\"urnberg, Eva Sickin

Forming of a functional biofilm on wood surfaces

The protecting and staining properties of biofilms grown on oil-treated surfaces of Pinus sylvestris L. sapwood were investigated with respect to their potential to create homogeneous coloured surfaces. Linseed oil pressure-treated blocks of P. sylvestris L. were evaluated after 36 months of outdoor exposure. The biofilm was characterized by colony counts and PCR cloning, the interactions with wood were assessed microscopically. The results show that a biofilm consisting of Aureobasidium pullulans has the potential to create protecting and staining functions on a wood surface. The conditions and factors which lead to a selective growth of A. pullulans are discussed with respect to the practical application of the formed biofilm in the field of environmental and civil engineering. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Polypyrrole Additional functions to bio-based façades

AbstractDue to the crisis of 2008 the construction and real estate market became more demand-driven. Architects, builders and developers are looking for high-quality solutions for the realization of sustainable buildings. Supplying SMEs experience an increasing demand for bio-based materials with lower environmental impact and additional functionality including smart functions. The development of sustainable products with higher added value is required to increase the innovation potential of the building and construction industries.Polypyrrole is a biopolymer with very interesting and yet relatively unexplored features for construction. By applying PPY to bio-based carrier materials, like wood, bamboo or bio-composites, environmentally friendly building products can be realized with multiple features. In this paper an inventory will be given of potential (smart) functions that can be added to bio-based building materials treated with PPY. Functions discussed will be the protection against micro-organisms and UV-radiation. It will allow the realization of biological multifunctional building façades without using environmentally harmful substances.Finally the adding of (smart) functions will be discussed as strategy to introduce new bio-based building components to the market. Here they will have to compete with existing products already known by the different building professionals

Detection of outdoor mould staining as biofinish on oil treated wood

Stains on wood are often unwanted in outdoor applications, dark stain formation however is essential to the development of a new protective, self-healing and decorative biotreatment for wood. The biotreatment is based on the formation of surface covering mould staining on linseed oil treated pine sapwood during outdoor exposure. This specific stain formation is called biofinish and an assessment method is proposed in this study. Analysis of the visual stain coverage and quantification of the darkness generated useful input for the detection of biofinishes. Analysis of the microbial composition of a biofinish by PCR amplification and (Sanger) sequencing of fungal DNA sequences was appropriate for identification of Aureobasidium, as the dominant genus in several biofinishes, however our results indicate, that a more in depth, next generation sequencing method is preferred for a more elaborate biofinish assessment method. With the basic assessment method, biofinish formation was determined for oil treated wood specimens exposed outdoors in the Netherlands and some selected sites outside the Netherlands. Biofinish formation was demonstrated to be reproducible for pine sapwood, which was treated with raw linseed oil and exposed in the Netherlands. Furthermore olive oil is discovered in this study as a supportive factor for biofinish formation, regardless of the wood type, whereas biofinish formation was not detected on wood treated with stand linseed oil. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd

Hydrophobierung von Holz. Erkenntnisse aus 7 Jahren Freilandtests fuer neue Entwicklungen

Vor etwa 10 Jahren begann das europäische Forschungsprojekt „Natural Resins“ mit dem Ziel eines biozidfreien Holzschutzes allein durch Hydrophobierung des Holzes. Die Idee ist einfach: Ohne kapillares Wasser im Holz gibt es keinen pilzlichen Abbau. Das Holz sollte, obwohl in GK3 bewittert, durch Hydrophobierungsmittel so trocken gehalten werden, dass sich keine Fäulnis entwickelt. Als Hydrophobierungsmittel wurden u.a. pflanzliche Öle und Harze eingesetzt. Beteiligt waren in diesem Projekt u.a. folgende Forschungsreinrichtungen, BFH (Deutschland), SHR (Holland), Reichsuniversität Ghent (Belgien), VTT (Finnland), Universität Bangor (Wales), Imperial College (England) und mehrere Industriepartner. Es gab viele Screening- und Labortests. Vor mehr als 7 Jahren begann die BFH mit den ihr in diesem Projekt obliegenden Freilandversuchen. Im folgenden Beitrag werden die Erkenntnisse aus über 7 Jahren Freilandprüfung mitgeteilt, die Vor- und Nachteile von Hydrophobierungsmitteln auf Basis von Pflanzenölen betrachtet und aufgezeigt wie hieraus die gegenwärtigen Entwicklungen von neuen Hydrophobierungssystemen von BFH, Sasol Wax GmbH und Steinbrügge + Berninghausen GmbH entstanden sind. Das Grundprinzip Holzschutz durch Feuchteschutz ist geblieben, vieles andere ist neu

Learning to Look in Different Environments: An Active-Vision Model which Learns and Readapts Visual Routines

One of the main claims of the active vision framework is that nding data on the basis of task requirements is more ecient than reconstructing the whole scene by performing a complete visual scan. To be successful, this approach requires that agents learn visual routines to direct overt attention to locations with the information needed to accomplish the task. In ecological conditions, learning such visual routines is dicult due to the partial observability of the world, the changes in the environment, and the fact that learning signals might be indirect. This paper uses a reinforcement-learning actor-critic model to study how visual routines can be formed, and then adapted when the environment changes, in a system endowed with a controllable gaze and reaching capabilities. The tests of the model show that: (a) the autonomouslydeveloped visual routines are strongly dependent on the task and the statistical properties of the environment; (b) when the statistics of the environment change, the performance of the system remains rather stable thanks to the re-use of previously discovered visual routines while the visual exploration policy remains for long time sub-optimal. We conclude that the model has a robust behaviour but the acquisition of an optimal visual exploration policy is particularly hard given its complex dependence on statistical properties of the environment, showing another of the diculties that adaptive active vision agents must face