International Conference Sheds Light on Mine Action Trends and Concerns

During the International Conference on Requirements and Technologies for the Detection, Removal and Neutralization of Landmines and UXO held in Brussels September 15–18, 2003, many global viewpoints and models emerged from the discussions. Some of the ideas triggered strong emotional reactions during the conference. Several of the new ideas might have a short lifetime; others have the potential of forcing breakthroughs; and all of them are subject to further debate

A Cognitive Science Reasoning in Recognition of Emotions in Audio-Visual Speech

In this report we summarize the state-of-the-art of speech emotion recognition from the signal processing point of view. On the bases of multi-corporal experiments with machine-learning classifiers, the observation is made that existing approaches for supervised machine learning lead to database dependent classifiers which can not be applied for multi-language speech emotion recognition without additional training because they discriminate the emotion classes following the used training language. As there are experimental results showing that Humans can perform language independent categorisation, we made a parallel between machine recognition and the cognitive process and tried to discover the sources of these divergent results. The analysis suggests that the main difference is that the speech perception allows extraction of language independent features although language dependent features are incorporated in all levels of the speech signal and play as a strong discriminative function in human perception. Based on several results in related domains, we have suggested that in addition, the cognitive process of emotion-recognition is based on categorisation, assisted by some hierarchical structure of the emotional categories, existing in the cognitive space of all humans. We propose a strategy for developing language independent machine emotion recognition, related to the identification of language independent speech features and the use of additional information from visual (expression) features

A Novel Adaptive Probabilistic Nonlinear Denoising Approach for Enhancing PET Data Sinogram

We propose filtering the PET sinograms with a constraint curvature motion diffusion. The edge-stopping function is computed in terms of edge probability under the assumption of contamination by Poisson noise. We show that the Chi-square is the appropriate prior for finding the edge probability in the sinogram noise-free gradient. Since the sinogram noise is uncorrelated and follows a Poisson distribution, we then propose an adaptive probabilistic diffusivity function where the edge probability is computed at each pixel. The filter is applied on the 2D sinogram prereconstruction. The PET images are reconstructed using the Ordered Subset Expectation Maximization (OSEM). We demonstrate through simulations with images contaminated by Poisson noise that the performance of the proposed method substantially surpasses that of recently published methods, both visually and in terms of statistical measures

COACHES Cooperative Autonomous Robots in Complex and Human Populated Environments

Public spaces in large cities are increasingly becoming complex and unwelcoming environments. Public spaces progressively become more hostile and unpleasant to use because of the overcrowding and complex information in signboards. It is in the interest of cities to make their public spaces easier to use, friendlier to visitors and safer to increasing elderly population and to citizens with disabilities. Meanwhile, we observe, in the last decade a tremendous progress in the development of robots in dynamic, complex and uncertain environments. The new challenge for the near future is to deploy a network of robots in public spaces to accomplish services that can help humans. Inspired by the aforementioned challenges, COACHES project addresses fundamental issues related to the design of a robust system of self-directed autonomous robots with high-level skills of environment modelling and scene understanding, distributed autonomous decision-making, short-term interacting with humans and robust and safe navigation in overcrowding spaces. To this end, COACHES will provide an integrated solution to new challenges on: (1) a knowledge-based representation of the environment, (2) human activities and needs estimation using Markov and Bayesian techniques, (3) distributed decision-making under uncertainty to collectively plan activities of assistance, guidance and delivery tasks using Decentralized Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes with efficient algorithms to improve their scalability and (4) a multi-modal and short-term human-robot interaction to exchange information and requests. COACHES project will provide a modular architecture to be integrated in real robots. We deploy COACHES at Caen city in a mall called “Rive de l’orne”. COACHES is a cooperative system consisting of ?xed cameras and the mobile robots. The ?xed cameras can do object detection, tracking and abnormal events detection (objects or behaviour). The robots combine these information with the ones perceived via their own sensor, to provide information through its multi-modal interface, guide people to their destinations, show tramway stations and transport goods for elderly people, etc.... The COACHES robots will use different modalities (speech and displayed information) to interact with the mall visitors, shopkeepers and mall managers. The project has enlisted an important an end-user (Caen la mer) providing the scenarios where the COACHES robots and systems will be deployed, and gather together universities with complementary competences from cognitive systems (SU), robust image/video processing (VUB, UNICAEN), and semantic scene analysis and understanding (VUB), Collective decision-making using decentralized partially observable Markov Decision Processes and multi-agent planning (UNICAEN, Sapienza), multi-modal and short-term human-robot interaction (Sapienza, UNICAEN

EUDEM: The European Union in Humanitarian Demining

The EUDEM project tried to provide the European Commission, as one of the largest sponsors of research in European humanitarian demining, with a survey titled A State of the Art on Humanitarian Demining Technology, Products and Practice. Current practices and emerging technologies were discussed so that applied research can be directed toward solving real problems. Sustainable demining has to become more than a man with a probe

Numerical Analysis of the Crack Growth Path in the Cement of Hip Spacers

The use of temporary hip prosthesis made of orthopedic cement (spacer) in conjunction with antibiotics became a prevalent method used for prosthetic infections remedy; consequently, this method makes bone cement (PMMA) more fragile. Hence, the necessity of reinforcement incorporation is crucial to strengthen the bone cement. In this study, the finite element (FE) method was used to analyze the spacers behavior. FE model using an implicit integration method was used to simulate the mechanical behavior of the spacer under static loading. In addition, the extended finite element method (XFEM) was also used to investigate the fracture behavior of the non-reinforced and reinforced spacers. The results of this numerical analysis showed that the simulated crack initiation and propagation were in a good accordance with in vivo radiography and in vitro experimental observations. The full-stem reinforcement of 8 mm using reduce significantly the stress intensity factor and, consequently prevent the spacer fracture effectively. The FE models developed in this study contribute to help mechanical designers and engineers for prostheses’ quality and durability improvement. Abstract must be 200 words maximum, without figures or refs.             &nbsp