Improved methods and system for watermarking halftone images

Watermarking is becoming increasingly important for content control and authentication. Watermarking seamlessly embeds data in media that provide additional information about that media. Unfortunately, watermarking schemes that have been developed for continuous tone images cannot be directly applied to halftone images. Many of the existing watermarking methods require characteristics that are implicit in continuous tone images, but are absent from halftone images. With this in mind, it seems reasonable to develop watermarking techniques specific to halftones that are equipped to work in the binary image domain. In this thesis, existing techniques for halftone watermarking are reviewed and improvements are developed to increase performance and overcome their limitations. Post-halftone watermarking methods work on existing halftones. Data Hiding Cell Parity (DHCP) embeds data in the parity domain instead of individual pixels. Data Hiding Mask Toggling (DHMT) works by encoding two bits in the 2x2 neighborhood of a pseudorandom location. Dispersed Pseudorandom Generator (DPRG), on the other hand, is a preprocessing step that takes place before image halftoning. DPRG disperses the watermark embedding locations to achieve better visual results. Using the Modified Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (MPSNR) metric, the proposed techniques outperform existing methods by up to 5-20%, depending on the image type and method considered. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are ideal for solutions that require the flexibility of software, while retaining the performance of hardware. Using VHDL, an FPGA based halftone watermarking engine was designed and implemented for the Xilinx Virtex XCV300. This system was designed for watermarking pre-existing halftones and halftones obtained from grayscale images. This design utilizes 99% of the available FPGA resources and runs at 33 MHz. Such a design could be applied to a scanner or printer at the hardware level without adversely affecting performance

NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near Real-Time Capability for EOS (LANCE): Delivering Data and Imagery to Meet the Needs of Near Real-Time Applications

NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) is a virtual system that provides near real-time EOS data and imagery from the AIRS, AMSR2, LIS (ISS), MISR, MLS, MODIS, MOPITT, OMI, OMPS, and VIIRS instruments, to meet the needs of scientists and application users interested in monitoring a wide variety of natural and man-made phenomena. NRT imagery from LANCE are available through NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), Worldview, FIRMS and most recently through Worldview Snapshots a low band width application that has replaced the Rapid Response Subsets. Over the past year: data and imagery from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on board the International Space Station (ISS), OMPS and VIIRS-Land have been added to LANCE. In the coming year LANCE will integrate the MODIS NRT Global Flood product, VIIRS Black Marble nighttime lights and Cloud Mask and Aerosol Dark Target from VIIRS Atmosphere. Here we provide a brief overview of LANCE, focusing on what's new and describing how these new data sets have been used to monitor lightning flashes, hurricanes and fires. For more information on LANCE visit: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/lance

The Vehicle, Fall 1986

Table of Contents Selling Poetry: Honesty with the InvestorPatrick Peterspage 2 Father\u27s Book, Jan. 1984 (A Fictional Autobiography)James T. Finneganpage 3 Pet Day in Afternoon KindergartenDan Von Holtenpage 7 Dental Dreams in the Bathroom MirrorDan Von Holtenpage 7 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 8 SilenceJoe Hortonpage 8 SkullMichael Salempage 9 The TunnelJim Harrispage 10 Lindenwood CemeteryJean Chandlerpage 12 Into the SeaDan Seltzerpage 13 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 13 WindowsJim Harrispage 14 Little Pieces of YouStuart Albertpage 18 Slicing the AppleAmy Callpage 19 Winter WalkLarry Mitchellpage 19 Komical KellyJohn Fehrmannpage 20 Thermal SueJohn Fehrmannpage 20 Death PoemBob Zordanipage 21 Venice, ItalySherry L. Clinepage 22 RoadkillPhil Simpsonpage 24 I Hate CowsLori Delzer, Joe Crites, Becky Michaelpage 32 Telephone Operators: 1942Jim Harrispage 33 Expiration Date 3/8/65Edward Schellpage 34 Desert FloorPatrick Peterspage 35 PhotographLawrence McGownpage 36 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 37 Coping with NightStuart Albertpage 38 PhotographDan Mountpage 38 One On OnePatrick Peterspage 39 An Acquired TasteTina Wrightpage 40 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 40 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 41 When Children Are Alone, The Devil SpeaksTom Greenpage 41 BobChristy Denphypage 42 Gut & ScissorsDane Buczkowskipage 42 This Old HouseAmy Callpage 43 MortgageTina Wrightpage 43https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1048/thumbnail.jp

The Vehicle, Fall 1986

Table of Contents Selling Poetry: Honesty with the InvestorPatrick Peterspage 2 Father\u27s Book, Jan. 1984 (A Fictional Autobiography)James T. Finneganpage 3 Pet Day in Afternoon KindergartenDan Von Holtenpage 7 Dental Dreams in the Bathroom MirrorDan Von Holtenpage 7 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 8 SilenceJoe Hortonpage 8 SkullMichael Salempage 9 The TunnelJim Harrispage 10 Lindenwood CemeteryJean Chandlerpage 12 Into the SeaDan Seltzerpage 13 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 13 WindowsJim Harrispage 14 Little Pieces of YouStuart Albertpage 18 Slicing the AppleAmy Callpage 19 Winter WalkLarry Mitchellpage 19 Komical KellyJohn Fehrmannpage 20 Thermal SueJohn Fehrmannpage 20 Death PoemBob Zordanipage 21 Venice, ItalySherry L. Clinepage 22 RoadkillPhil Simpsonpage 24 I Hate CowsLori Delzer, Joe Crites, Becky Michaelpage 32 Telephone Operators: 1942Jim Harrispage 33 Expiration Date 3/8/65Edward Schellpage 34 Desert FloorPatrick Peterspage 35 PhotographLawrence McGownpage 36 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 37 Coping with NightStuart Albertpage 38 PhotographDan Mountpage 38 One On OnePatrick Peterspage 39 An Acquired TasteTina Wrightpage 40 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 40 PhotographStephanie Eihlpage 41 When Children Are Alone, The Devil SpeaksTom Greenpage 41 BobChristy Denphypage 42 Gut & ScissorsDane Buczkowskipage 42 This Old HouseAmy Callpage 43 MortgageTina Wrightpage 43https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1048/thumbnail.jp

Expanding NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near Real-Time Capability for EOS (LANCE)

NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) is a virtual system that provides near real-time EOS data and imagery to meet the needs of scientists and application users interested in monitoring a wide variety of natural and man-made phenomena in near real-time. Over the last year: near real-time data and imagery from MOPITT, MISR, OMPS and VIIRS (Land and Atmosphere), the Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) has been updated and LANCE has begun the process of integrating the Global NRT flood, and Black Marble products. In addition, following the AMSU-A2 instrument anomaly in September 2016, AIRS-only products have replaced the NRT level 2 AIRS+AMSU products. This presentation provides a brief overview of LANCE, describes the new products that are recently available and contains a preview of what to expect in LANCE over the coming year

Dark sectors 2016 Workshop: community report

This report, based on the Dark Sectors workshop at SLAC in April 2016, summarizes the scientific importance of searches for dark sector dark matter and forces at masses beneath the weak-scale, the status of this broad international field, the important milestones motivating future exploration, and promising experimental opportunities to reach these milestones over the next 5-10 years

2016 Research & Innovation Day Program

A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1003/thumbnail.jp

CMB-S4: Forecasting Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves

CMB-S4---the next-generation ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiment---is set to significantly advance the sensitivity of CMB measurements and enhance our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe, from the highest energies at the dawn of time through the growth of structure to the present day. Among the science cases pursued with CMB-S4, the quest for detecting primordial gravitational waves is a central driver of the experimental design. This work details the development of a forecasting framework that includes a power-spectrum-based semi-analytic projection tool, targeted explicitly towards optimizing constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, in the presence of Galactic foregrounds and gravitational lensing of the CMB. This framework is unique in its direct use of information from the achieved performance of current Stage 2--3 CMB experiments to robustly forecast the science reach of upcoming CMB-polarization endeavors. The methodology allows for rapid iteration over experimental configurations and offers a flexible way to optimize the design of future experiments given a desired scientific goal. To form a closed-loop process, we couple this semi-analytic tool with map-based validation studies, which allow for the injection of additional complexity and verification of our forecasts with several independent analysis methods. We document multiple rounds of forecasts for CMB-S4 using this process and the resulting establishment of the current reference design of the primordial gravitational-wave component of the Stage-4 experiment, optimized to achieve our science goals of detecting primordial gravitational waves for $r > 0.003$ at greater than $5\sigma$, or, in the absence of a detection, of reaching an upper limit of $r < 0.001$ at $95\%$ CL.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables, submitted to ApJ. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1907.0447

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex underlies our complex cognitive capabilities, yet little is known about the specific genetic loci that influence human cortical structure. To identify genetic variants that affect cortical structure, we conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis of brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 51,665 individuals. We analyzed the surface area and average thickness of the whole cortex and 34 regions with known functional specializations. We identified 199 significant loci and found significant enrichment for loci influencing total surface area within regulatory elements that are active during prenatal cortical development, supporting the radial unit hypothesis. Loci that affect regional surface area cluster near genes in Wnt signaling pathways, which influence progenitor expansion and areal identity. Variation in cortical structure is genetically correlated with cognitive function, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, depression, neuroticism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder