Occlusion Handling using Semantic Segmentation and Visibility-Based Rendering for Mixed Reality

Real-time occlusion handling is a major problem in outdoor mixed reality system because it requires great computational cost mainly due to the complexity of the scene. Using only segmentation, it is difficult to accurately render a virtual object occluded by complex objects such as trees, bushes etc. In this paper, we propose a novel occlusion handling method for real-time, outdoor, and omni-directional mixed reality system using only the information from a monocular image sequence. We first present a semantic segmentation scheme for predicting the amount of visibility for different type of objects in the scene. We also simultaneously calculate a foreground probability map using depth estimation derived from optical flow. Finally, we combine the segmentation result and the probability map to render the computer generated object and the real scene using a visibility-based rendering method. Our results show great improvement in handling occlusions compared to existing blending based methods

Phylogenetic similarity of aerobic gram-negative halophilic bacteria from a deep-sea hydrothermal mound and Antarctic habitats

Deep-sea halophilic strains, 4 halomonads and 1 pseudoalteromonad, were isolated from high-temperature hydrothermal fluids of the TAG hydrothermal mound in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Two of the TAG halomonads were closely related to Antarctic halomonads based on 16S rDNA sequences (1350bp). Subhydrothermal vents and Antarctic terrains are known to provide high-salinity habitats for halophilic life. The TAG-Antarctic halomonad kinship indicates the wide distribution of halophiles over globally distant habitats, regardless of large differences in temperatures of the habitats. This suggests that microbial eco-physiology in Antarctica (and sub-hydrothermal vent), which has been studied in terms of temperature adapation, may be complemented by halotolerance and halophilism studies

Differential Scanning Calorimetric Studies on the Melting Behavior of Water in Stratum Corneum

The melting behavior of water in human stratum corneum (s. corneum) has been studied by sing differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the temperature range from -40° to 20°C. The DSC thermogram was analyzed in terms of the amount of about water and the melting temperature of water in s. corneum. Extraction of the s. corneum with the mixed solvent of chloroform: methanol (2:1, v/v) or 0.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate aqueous solution decreased the bound water content, whereas extraction with water did not change the bound water content. The melting temperature of water in the s. corneum was lowered as the water contents decreased. Extraction of the water-soluble components from the s. corneum increased the melting temperature of water when the water contents were constant. The results suggest that 20–30% of water in the s. corneum is bound water interacting strongly with the protein or lipids in the s. corneum, and the excess of water over the bound water content is unbound water solubilizing the water-soluble components such as amino acids and urea in the s. corneum. The thermodynamic theory for freezing-point depression is favourably applied to the melting temperature change of the unbound water, which implies that the water-soluble components are present as an aqueous solution in the s. corneum. Measurements of the melting-point depression of water in s. corneum provides us the quantitative information on the amount of water-soluble components in the s. corneum. This technique is a sensitive and useful tool to evaluate the hydration behavior of s. corneum

Underlying Assumptions and Designated Verifier Signatures

In this paper, we define an underlying computational problem and its decisional problem. As an application of their problems, we propose an efficient designated verifier signature (DVS) scheme without random oracles (related to symmetric pairings). We formally redefine the (Strong) Privacy of Signature\u27s Identity, and prove our DVS scheme satisfying security based on the difficulty of the problems. Also we prove that the difficulty of the computational problem is tightly equivalent to the Strong Unforgeability of our proposed conventional signature scheme (without random oracles) related to asymmetric pairings. We believe that our underlying problems are profitable to propose many efficient cryptographic schemes

Crystal Chemistry and Magnetic Properties of Manganese Zinc Alloy "YMn2Zn20" Comprising a Mn Pyrochlore Lattice

The chemical composition, crystal structure, and magnetic properties of a manganese zinc alloy with an ideal composition of YMn2Zn20, which comprises a pyrochlore lattice made of Mn atoms, are reported. The compound is stable only when In or Al is partially substituted for Zn. We have determined the actual chemical formula as YMn2+dZn20-x-dMx, with M = In or Al, and have identified the characteristic preferences with which the incorporated M and excess Mn atoms occupy the three crystallographic sites for Zn atoms. The Mn atoms in the pyrochlore lattice possess small magnetic moments that interact with each other antiferromagnetically but exhibit no long-range order above 0.4 K, probably owing to the geometrical frustration of the pyrochlore lattice. As a result, the effective mass of the conduction electrons is considerably enhanced, as observed in the related pyrochlore-lattice compounds (Y,Sc)Mn2 and LiV2O4. However, the presence of excess Mn atoms with large localized magnetic moments comparable to spin 5/2 tends to mask the inherent magnetism of the pyrochlore Mn atoms. It is suggested that "YMn2Zn18In2" with neither excess Mn atoms nor site disorder would be an ideal compound for further study.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in J. Solid State Che

An Immunity-Based Anomaly Detection System with Sensor Agents

This paper proposes an immunity-based anomaly detection system with sensor agents based on the specificity and diversity of the immune system. Each agent is specialized to react to the behavior of a specific user. Multiple diverse agents decide whether the behavior is normal or abnormal. Conventional systems have used only a single sensor to detect anomalies, while the immunity-based system makes use of multiple sensors, which leads to improvements in detection accuracy. In addition, we propose an evaluation framework for the anomaly detection system, which is capable of evaluating the differences in detection accuracy between internal and external anomalies. This paper focuses on anomaly detection in user's command sequences on UNIX-like systems. In experiments, the immunity-based system outperformed some of the best conventional systems

A Cyber Attack-Resilient Server Using Hybrid Virtualization

AbstractThis paper describes a novel, cyber attack-resilient server using hybrid virtualization that can reduce the downtime of the server and enhance the diversity of operating systems by adding a Linux virtual machine. The hybrid virtualization consists of machine- and application-level virtualization. The prototype system virtualizes a machine using VMware ESXi, while the prototype system virtualizes a server application using Docker on a Linux virtual machine. Docker increases the speed at which a server application starts while requiring fewer resources such as memory and storage. Performance tests showed that the prototype system reduced the downtime of the DNS service by exploiting a vulnerability with no false positive detections compared with our previous work