Combining Stereo Disparity and Optical Flow for Basic Scene Flow

Scene flow is a description of real world motion in 3D that contains more information than optical flow. Because of its complexity there exists no applicable variant for real-time scene flow estimation in an automotive or commercial vehicle context that is sufficiently robust and accurate. Therefore, many applications estimate the 2D optical flow instead. In this paper, we examine the combination of top-performing state-of-the-art optical flow and stereo disparity algorithms in order to achieve a basic scene flow. On the public KITTI Scene Flow Benchmark we demonstrate the reasonable accuracy of the combination approach and show its speed in computation.Comment: Commercial Vehicle Technology Symposium (CVTS), 201

Influence of defect-induced deformations on electron transport in carbon nanotubes

We theoretically investigate the influence of defect-induced long-range deformations in carbon nanotubes on their electronic transport properties. To this end we perform numerical ab-initio calculations using a density-functional-based tight-binding (DFTB) model for various tubes with vacancies. The geometry optimization leads to a change of the atomic positions. There is a strong reconstruction of the atoms near the defect (called "distortion") and there is an additional long-range deformation. The impact of both structural features on the conductance is systematically investigated. We compare short and long CNTs of different kinds with and without long-range deformation. We find for the very thin (9,0)-CNT that the long-range deformation additionally affects the transmission spectrum and the conductance compared to the short-range lattice distortion. The conductance of the larger (11,0)- or the (14,0)-CNT is overall less affected implying that the influence of the long-range deformation decreases with increasing tube diameter. Furthermore, the effect can be either positive or negative depending on the CNT type and the defect type. Our results indicate that the long-range deformation must be included in order to reliably describe the electronic structure of defective, small-diameter zigzag tubes.Comment: Materials for Advanced Metallization 201

SceneFlowFields: Dense Interpolation of Sparse Scene Flow Correspondences

While most scene flow methods use either variational optimization or a strong rigid motion assumption, we show for the first time that scene flow can also be estimated by dense interpolation of sparse matches. To this end, we find sparse matches across two stereo image pairs that are detected without any prior regularization and perform dense interpolation preserving geometric and motion boundaries by using edge information. A few iterations of variational energy minimization are performed to refine our results, which are thoroughly evaluated on the KITTI benchmark and additionally compared to state-of-the-art on MPI Sintel. For application in an automotive context, we further show that an optional ego-motion model helps to boost performance and blends smoothly into our approach to produce a segmentation of the scene into static and dynamic parts.Comment: IEEE Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV), 201

Laryngoscopic Image Stitching for View Enhancement and Documentation - First Experiences

One known problem within laryngoscopy is the spatially limited view onto the hypopharynx and the larynx through the endoscope. To examine the complete larynx and hypopharynx, the laryngoscope can be rotated about its main axis, and hence the physician obtains a complete view. If such examinations are captured using endoscopic video, the examination can be reviewed in detail at a later time. Nevertheless, in order to document the examination with a single representative image, a panorama image can be computed for archiving and enhanced documentation. Twenty patients with various clinical findings were examined with a 70 rigid laryngoscope, and the video sequences were digitally stored. The image sequence for each patient was then post-processed using an image stitching tool based on SIFT features, the RANSAC approach and blending. As a result, endoscopic panorama images of the larynx and pharynx were obtained for each video sequence. The proposed approach of image stitching for laryngoscopic video sequences offers a new tool for enhanced visual examination and documentation of morphologic characteristics of the larynx and the hypopharynx

Agile Data Offloading over Novel Fog Computing Infrastructure for CAVs

Future Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) will be supervised by cloud-based systems overseeing the overall security and orchestrating traffic flows. Such systems rely on data collected from CAVs across the whole city operational area. This paper develops a Fog Computing-based infrastructure for future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) enabling an agile and reliable off-load of CAV data. Since CAVs are expected to generate large quantities of data, it is not feasible to assume data off-loading to be completed while a CAV is in the proximity of a single Road-Side Unit (RSU). CAVs are expected to be in the range of an RSU only for a limited amount of time, necessitating data reconciliation across different RSUs, if traditional approaches to data off-load were to be used. To this end, this paper proposes an agile Fog Computing infrastructure, which interconnects all the RSUs so that the data reconciliation is solved efficiently as a by-product of deploying the Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC) technique. Our numerical results confirm the feasibility of our solution and show its effectiveness when operated in a large-scale urban testbed.Comment: To appear in IEEE VTC-Spring 201

Nanomembranes in biotechnology: Separation of small and large biomolecules

Membranes are widely applied in many industrial areas. However, due to the thickness of the membranes the transport of biomolecules across a membrane is impeded by the relatively long transport times. Nanomembranes, in contrast, provide ultra-fast diffusion times and speed up the transfer of biomolecules significantly. Difficulties in production, the fragility, and hydrophobicity of current nanomembranes prevented their widespread use. However, the key characteristics of nanomembranes are very attractive for a broad variety of applications in e.g. biomedical applications, bioseparation technologies, biosensors, and membrane bioreactors. We have made from hydrophilic polymers in waterproof porous nanomembranes and they are therefore especially suited for use in aqueous media, such as used in biological systems. It can withstand more than tens of thousands time its own weight in water and can be used in a wide pH range and in the presence of a broad range of electrolytes. The porous hydrophilic nanomembranes surface is planar with a thickness between 50-150 nm only with uniform pores and a tensile strength of at least 0.1 MPa. Pore diameter can be adjusted according to application from 10 nm to 500 nm. Currently our porous hydrophilic nanomembranes can be produced on large scale from 1 to 250 cm2. It can additionally comprise (embedded or on the surface) bioactive substances, such as enzymes, substrate receptors, active drugs, etc.. The use of our porous hydrophilic nanomembranes allows for ultra-high speed diffusion of biomolecules, but also selective transport of compounds. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract