Enhanced tracking and recognition of moving objects by reasoning about spatio-temporal continuity.

A framework for the logical and statistical analysis and annotation of dynamic scenes containing occlusion and other uncertainties is presented. This framework consists of three elements; an object tracker module, an object recognition/classification module and a logical consistency, ambiguity and error reasoning engine. The principle behind the object tracker and object recognition modules is to reduce error by increasing ambiguity (by merging objects in close proximity and presenting multiple hypotheses). The reasoning engine deals with error, ambiguity and occlusion in a unified framework to produce a hypothesis that satisfies fundamental constraints on the spatio-temporal continuity of objects. Our algorithm finds a globally consistent model of an extended video sequence that is maximally supported by a voting function based on the output of a statistical classifier. The system results in an annotation that is significantly more accurate than what would be obtained by frame-by-frame evaluation of the classifier output. The framework has been implemented and applied successfully to the analysis of team sports with a single camera. Key words: Visua

Effect of Compression Ratio and Manifold Pressure on Ethanol Utilizationin Gasoline/Ethanol Engines

The model developed previously for evaluating the impact of direct ethanol injection on the avoidance of knock in spark ignition engines is used to evaluate the trends of changes in compression ratio and variation in the inlet pressure. The ethanol fraction requirements through the engine map is calculated using detailed chemical kinetics model, and a vehicle simulation is used to determine the required ethanol for multiple driving cycles. The operation of spark ignition engines is severely constrained by the occurrence of knock, the uncontrolled ignition of a fraction of the air fuel mixture during in the cylinder [1]. The effect limits the maximum compression ratio and inlet manifold pressure in the cylinder. The knock limit prevents design of an engine that uses the features that hav

Alcohol Fueled Heavy Duty Vehicles Using Clean, High Efficiency Engines

Work sponsored by the John and Jane Bradley gift to the MIT Energy Initiative. Non-petroleum based liquid fuels are essential for reducing oil dependence and greenhouse gas generation. Increased substitution of alcohol fuel for petroleum based fuels could be achieved by 1) use in high efficiency spark ignition engines that are employed for heavy duty as well as light duty operation and 2) use of methanol as well as ethanol. Methanol is the liquid fuel that is most efficiently produced from thermo-chemical gasification of coal, natural gas, waste or biomass. Ethanol can also be produced by this process but at lower efficiency and higher cost. Coal derived methanol is in limited initial use as a transportation fuel in China. Methanol could potentially be produced from natural gas at an economically competitive fuel costs, and with essentially the same greenhouse gas impact as gasoline. Waste derived methanol could also be an affordable low carbon fuel. In this paper we describe modeling studies of alcohol fuel operation in highly turbocharged direct injection spark ignition engines operated at high compression ratio. The studies suggest that these engines could be a