Fuzzy Free Path Detection based on Dense Disparity Maps obtained from Stereo Cameras

In this paper we propose a fuzzy method to detect free paths in real-time using digital stereo images. It is based on looking for linear variations of depth in disparity maps, which are obtained by processing a pair of rectified images from two stereo cameras. By applying least-squares fitting over groups of disparity maps columns to a linear model, free paths are detected by giving a certainty using a fuzzy rule. Experimental results on real outdoor images are also presented.Nuria Ortigosa acknowledges the support of Universidad Polit'ecnica de Valencia under grant FPI-UPV 2008. Samuel Morillas acknowledges the support of Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under grant MTM 2009-12872-C02-01.Ortigosa Araque, N.; Morillas Gómez, S.; Peris Fajarnes, G.; Dunai Dunai, L. (2012). Fuzzy Free Path Detection based on Dense Disparity Maps obtained from Stereo Cameras. International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems. 20(2):245-259. doi:10.1142/S0218488512500122S245259202Grosso, E., & Tistarelli, M. (1995). Active/dynamic stereo vision. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 17(9), 868-879. doi:10.1109/34.406652Wedel, A., Badino, H., Rabe, C., Loose, H., Franke, U., & Cremers, D. (2009). B-Spline Modeling of Road Surfaces With an Application to Free-Space Estimation. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 10(4), 572-583. doi:10.1109/tits.2009.2027223Bloch, I. (2005). Fuzzy spatial relationships for image processing and interpretation: a review. Image and Vision Computing, 23(2), 89-110. doi:10.1016/j.imavis.2004.06.013Keller, J. M., & Wang, X. (2000). A Fuzzy Rule-Based Approach to Scene Description Involving Spatial Relationships. Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 80(1), 21-41. doi:10.1006/cviu.2000.0872Moreno-Garcia, J., Rodriguez-Benitez, L., Fernández-Caballero, A., & López, M. T. (2010). Video sequence motion tracking by fuzzification techniques. Applied Soft Computing, 10(1), 318-331. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2009.08.002Morillas, S., Gregori, V., & Hervas, A. (2009). Fuzzy Peer Groups for Reducing Mixed Gaussian-Impulse Noise From Color Images. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 18(7), 1452-1466. doi:10.1109/tip.2009.2019305Poloni, M., Ulivi, G., & Vendittelli, M. (1995). Fuzzy logic and autonomous vehicles: Experiments in ultrasonic vision. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 69(1), 15-27. doi:10.1016/0165-0114(94)00237-2Alonso, J. M., Magdalena, L., Guillaume, S., Sotelo, M. A., Bergasa, L. M., Ocaña, M., & Flores, R. (2007). Knowledge-based Intelligent Diagnosis of Ground Robot Collision with Non Detectable Obstacles. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 48(4), 539-566. doi:10.1007/s10846-006-9125-6McFetridge, L., & Ibrahim, M. Y. (2009). A new methodology of mobile robot navigation: The agoraphilic algorithm. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 25(3), 545-551. doi:10.1016/j.rcim.2008.01.008Sun, H., & Yang, J. (2001). Obstacle detection for mobile vehicle using neural network and fuzzy logic. Neural Network and Distributed Processing. doi:10.1117/12.441696Ortigosa, N., Morillas, S., & Peris-Fajarnés, G. (2010). Obstacle-Free Pathway Detection by Means of Depth Maps. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 63(1), 115-129. doi:10.1007/s10846-010-9498-4Picton, P. D., & Capp, M. D. (2008). Relaying scene information to the blind via sound using cartoon depth maps. Image and Vision Computing, 26(4), 570-577. doi:10.1016/j.imavis.2007.07.005Zhang, Z. (2000). A flexible new technique for camera calibration. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22(11), 1330-1334. doi:10.1109/34.888718Scharstein, D., & Szeliski, R. (2002). International Journal of Computer Vision, 47(1/3), 7-42. doi:10.1023/a:1014573219977Felzenszwalb, P. F., & Huttenlocher, D. P. (2006). Efficient Belief Propagation for Early Vision. International Journal of Computer Vision, 70(1), 41-54. doi:10.1007/s11263-006-7899-4Qingxiong Yang, Liang Wang, Ruigang Yang, Stewenius, H., & Nister, D. (2009). Stereo Matching with Color-Weighted Correlation, Hierarchical Belief Propagation, and Occlusion Handling. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 31(3), 492-504. doi:10.1109/tpami.2008.99Zitnick, C. L., & Kang, S. B. (2007). Stereo for Image-Based Rendering using Image Over-Segmentation. International Journal of Computer Vision, 75(1), 49-65. doi:10.1007/s11263-006-0018-8Hartley, R., & Zisserman, A. (2004). Multiple View Geometry in Computer Vision. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511811685Lee, C. C. (1990). Fuzzy logic in control systems: fuzzy logic controller. I. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 20(2), 404-418. doi:10.1109/21.52551C. Fodor, J. (1993). A new look at fuzzy connectives. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 57(2), 141-148. doi:10.1016/0165-0114(93)90153-9Nalpantidis, L., & Gasteratos, A. (2010). Stereo vision for robotic applications in the presence of non-ideal lighting conditions. Image and Vision Computing, 28(6), 940-951. doi:10.1016/j.imavis.2009.11.011BOHANNON, R. W. (1997). Comfortable and maximum walking speed of adults aged 20—79 years: reference values and determinants. Age and Ageing, 26(1), 15-19. doi:10.1093/ageing/26.1.1

Improved standardization of flow cytometry diagnostic screening of primary immunodeficiency by software-based automated gating

BackgroundMultiparameter flow cytometry (FC) is essential in the diagnostic work-up and classification of primary immunodeficiency (PIDs). The EuroFlow PID Orientation tube (PIDOT) allows identification of all main lymphocyte subpopulations in blood. To standardize data analysis, tools for Automated Gating and Identification (AG&I) of the informative cell populations, were developed by EuroFlow. Here, we evaluated the contribution of these innovative AG&I tools to the standardization of FC in the diagnostic work-up of PID, by comparing AG&I against expert-based (EuroFlow-standardized) Manual Gating (MG) strategy, and its impact on the reproducibility and clinical interpretation of results.MethodsFC data files from 44 patients (13 CVID, 12 PID, 19 non-PID) and 26 healthy donor (HD) blood samples stained with PIDOT were analyzed in parallel by MG and AG&I, using Infinicyt (TM) software (Cytognos). For comparison, percentage differences in absolute cell counts/mu L were calculated for each lymphocyte subpopulation. Data files showing differences >20% were checked for their potential clinical relevance, based on age-matched percentile (p5-p95) reference ranges. In parallel, intra- and inter-observer reproducibility of MG vs AG&I were evaluated in a subset of 12 samples.ResultsThe AG&I approach was able to identify the vast majority of lymphoid events (>99%), associated with a significantly higher intra- and inter-observer reproducibility compared to MG. For most HD (83%) and patient (68%) samples, a high degree of agreement (<20% numerical differences in absolute cell counts/mu L) was obtained between MG and the AG&I module. This translated into a minimal impact (<5% of observations) on the final clinical interpretation. In all except three samples, extended expert revision of the AG&I approach revealed no error. In the three remaining samples aberrant maturation and/or abnormal marker expression profiles were seen leading in all three cases to numerical alarms by AG&I.ConclusionAltogether, our results indicate that replacement of MG by the AG&I module would be associated with a greater reproducibility and robustness of results in the diagnostic work-up of patients suspected of PID. However, expert revision of the results of AG&I of PIDOT data still remains necessary in samples with numerical alterations and aberrant B- and T-cell maturation and/or marker expression profiles.Stemcel biology/Regenerative medicine (incl. bloodtransfusion

Pharmacological Inhibition of Caspase and Calpain Proteases: A Novel Strategy to Enhance the Homing Responses of Cord Blood HSPCs during Expansion

Background: Expansion of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) is a well-known strategy employed to facilitate the transplantation outcome. We have previously shown that the prevention of apoptosis by the inhibition of cysteine proteases, caspase and calpain played an important role in the expansion and engraftment of cord blood (CB) derived HSPCs. We hypothesize that these protease inhibitors might have maneuvered the adhesive and migratory properties of the cells rendering them to be retained in the bone marrow for sustained engraftment. The current study was aimed to investigate the mechanism of the homing responses of CB cells during expansion. Methodology/Principal Findings: CB derived CD34 + cells were expanded using a combination of growth factors with and without Caspase inhibitor-zVADfmk or Calpain 1 inhibitor- zLLYfmk. The cells were analyzed for the expression of homingrelated molecules. In vitro adhesive/migratory interactions and actin polymerization dynamics of HSPCs were assessed. In vivo homing assays were carried out in NOD/SCID mice to corroborate these observations. We observed that the presence of zVADfmk or zLLYfmk (inhibitors) caused the functional up regulation of CXCR4, integrins, and adhesion molecules, reflecting in a higher migration and adhesive interactions in vitro. The enhanced actin polymerization and the RhoGTPase protein expression complemented these observations. Furthermore, in vivo experiments showed a significantly enhanced homing to the bone marrow of NOD/SCID mice

A New Fuzzy Additive Noise Reduction Method

In this paper we present a new alternative noise reduction method for color images that were corrupted with additive Gaussian noise. We illustrate that color images have to be processed in a different way than most of the state-of-the-art methods. The proposed method consists of two sub-filters. The main concern of the first subfilter is to distinguish between local variations due to noise and local variations due to image structures such as edges. This is realized by using the color component distances instead of component differences as done by most current filters. The second subfilter is used as a complementary filter which especially preserves differences between the color components. This is realized by calculating the local differences in the red, green and blue environment separately. These differences are then combined to calculate the local estimation of the central pixel. Experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed approach

assignFAST: An Autosuggest based tool for FAST Subject Assignment

Subject assignment is really a three-phase task. The first phase is intellectual—reviewing the material and determining its topic. The second phase is more mechanical, identifying the correct subject heading(s).&nbsp; The final phase is retyping or cutting and pasting the heading(s) into the cataloging interface along with any diacritics, and potentially correcting formatting and subfield coding. If authority control is available in the interface, some of these tasks may be automated or partially automated. A cataloger with a reasonable knowledge of FAST[i],[ii] or even LCSH[iii] can quickly get to the proper heading, but usually needs to confirm the final details—was it plural? Am I thinking of an alternate form? Is it inverted? Etc. This often requires consulting the full authority file interface. assignFAST is a Web service that consolidates the entire second phase of the manual process of subject assignment for FAST subjects into a single step based on autosuggest technology. [i] Chan, Lois Mai and Edward T. O'Neill.&nbsp; FAST: Faceted Application of Subject Terminology, Prnciples and Applications Libraries Unlimited, Santa Barbara, 2010.http://lu.com/showbook.cfm?isbn=9781591587224. [ii] OCLC Research Activities associated with FAST are summarized at&nbsp; http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/fast/ [iii] Chan, Lois M. Library of Congress Subject Headings : Principles and Application: Principles and Application. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, 2005

mapFAST: A FAST Geographic Authorities Mashup with Google Maps

When looking for information about a particular place, it is often useful to check surrounding locations as well. FAST geographic subjects provide clean access points to this material, and a Google Maps mashup allows users to see surrounding locations that are also FAST subjects. Moreover, the Web Service to the underlying data is also open and available for use. The map interface allows for simple selection of a location, with links to enter it directly as a search into either WorldCat.org or Google Books

On the construction of interval-valued fuzzy morphological operators

Classical fuzzy mathematical morphology is one of the extensions of original binary morphology to greyscale morphology. Recently, this theory was further extended to interval-valued fuzzy mathematical morphology by allowing uncertainty in the grey values of the image and the structuring element. In this paper, we investigate the construction of increasing interval-valued fuzzy operators from their binary counterparts and work this out in more detail for the morphological operators, which results in a nice theoretical link between binary and interval-valued fuzzy mathematical morphology. The investigation is done both in the general continuous and the practical discrete case. It will be seen that the characterization of the supremum in the discrete case leads to stronger relationships than in the continuous case. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.17818410