Near ground level sensing for spatial analysis of vegetation

Measured changes in vegetation indicate the dynamics of ecological processes and can identify the impacts from disturbances. Traditional methods of vegetation analysis tend to be slow because they are labor intensive; as a result, these methods are often confined to small local area measurements. Scientists need new algorithms and instruments that will allow them to efficiently study environmental dynamics across a range of different spatial scales. A new methodology that addresses this problem is presented. This methodology includes the acquisition, processing, and presentation of near ground level image data and its corresponding spatial characteristics. The systematic approach taken encompasses a feature extraction process, a supervised and unsupervised classification process, and a region labeling process yielding spatial information

The Khoros software development environment for image and signal processing

Data flow visual language systems allow users to graphically create a block diagram of their applications and interactively control input, output, and system variables. Khoros is an integrated software development environment for information processing and visualization. It is particularly attractive for image processing because of its rich collection of tools for image and digital signal processing. This paper presents a general overview of Khoros with emphasis on its image processing and DSP tools. Various examples are presented and the future direction of Khoros is discussed

Perceptual Components for Context Aware Computing

In this paper we propose a software architecture for observing and modeling human activity. This architecture is derived from an ontology for context awareness. We propose a model in which a user's context is described by a set of roles and relations. Different configurations of roles and relations correspond to situations within the context. The components of a context model are used to specify processes for observing activity. The ontology for context modeling is derived from both a bottom up system's perspective and a top-down users' perspective. As we define each element, we describe the corresponding components of a process-based software architecture