Application of an automatic cloud tracking technique to Meteosat water vapor and infrared observations

Science.gov (United States)

Endlich, R. M.; Wolf, D. E.

1980-01-01

The automatic cloud tracking system was applied to METEOSAT 6.7 micrometers water vapor measurements to learn whether the system can track the motions of water vapor patterns. Data for the midlatitudes, subtropics, and tropics were selected from a sequence of METEOSAT pictures for 25 April 1978. Trackable features in the water vapor patterns were identified using a clustering technique and the features were tracked by two different methods. In flat (low contrast) water vapor fields, the automatic motion computations were not reliable, but in areas where the water vapor fields contained small scale structure (such as in the vicinity of active weather phenomena) the computations were successful. Cloud motions were computed using METEOSAT infrared observations (including tropical convective systems and midlatitude jet stream cirrus).

Computationally Efficient Automatic Coast Mode Target Tracking Based on Occlusion Awareness in Infrared Images.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sohyun; Jang, Gwang-Il; Kim, Sungho; Kim, Junmo

2018-03-27

This paper proposes the automatic coast mode tracking of centroid trackers for infrared images to overcome the target occlusion status. The centroid tracking method, using only the brightness information of an image, is still widely used in infrared imaging tracking systems because it is difficult to extract meaningful features from infrared images. However, centroid trackers are likely to lose the track because they are highly vulnerable to screened status by the clutter or background. Coast mode, one of the tracking modes, maintains the servo slew rate with the tracking rate right before the loss of track. The proposed automatic coast mode tracking method makes decisions regarding entering coast mode by the prediction of target occlusion and tries to re-lock the target and resume the tracking after blind time. This algorithm comprises three steps. The first step is the prediction process of the occlusion by checking both matters which have target-likelihood brightness and which may screen the target despite different brightness. The second step is the process making inertial tracking commands to the servo. The last step is the process of re-locking a target based on the target modeling of histogram ratio. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is addressed by presenting experimental results based on computer simulation with various test imagery sequences compared to published tracking algorithms. The proposed algorithm is tested under a real environment with a naval electro-optical tracking system (EOTS) and airborne EO/IR system.

Computationally Efficient Automatic Coast Mode Target Tracking Based on Occlusion Awareness in Infrared Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sohyun Kim

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes the automatic coast mode tracking of centroid trackers for infrared images to overcome the target occlusion status. The centroid tracking method, using only the brightness information of an image, is still widely used in infrared imaging tracking systems because it is difficult to extract meaningful features from infrared images. However, centroid trackers are likely to lose the track because they are highly vulnerable to screened status by the clutter or background. Coast mode, one of the tracking modes, maintains the servo slew rate with the tracking rate right before the loss of track. The proposed automatic coast mode tracking method makes decisions regarding entering coast mode by the prediction of target occlusion and tries to re-lock the target and resume the tracking after blind time. This algorithm comprises three steps. The first step is the prediction process of the occlusion by checking both matters which have target-likelihood brightness and which may screen the target despite different brightness. The second step is the process making inertial tracking commands to the servo. The last step is the process of re-locking a target based on the target modeling of histogram ratio. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is addressed by presenting experimental results based on computer simulation with various test imagery sequences compared to published tracking algorithms. The proposed algorithm is tested under a real environment with a naval electro-optical tracking system (EOTS and airborne EO/IR system.

Workflow-centred evaluation of an automatic lesion tracking software for chemotherapy monitoring by CT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moltz, Jan Hendrik; Peitgen, Heinz-Otto [Fraunhofer MEVIS - Institute for Medical Image Computing, Bremen (Germany); D' Anastasi, Melvin [University Hospital Munich-Grosshadern, Department of Clinical Radiology, Muenchen (Germany); Kiessling, Andreas [University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Marburg (Germany); Pinto dos Santos, Daniel [University Hospital Mainz, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Mainz (Germany); Schuelke, Christoph [University Hospital Muenster, Institute of Clinical Radiology, Muenster (Germany)

2012-12-15

In chemotherapy monitoring, an estimation of the change in tumour size is an important criterion for the assessment of treatment success. This requires a comparison between corresponding lesions in the baseline and follow-up computed tomography (CT) examinations. We evaluate the clinical benefits of an automatic lesion tracking tool that identifies the target lesions in the follow-up CT study and pre-computes the lesion volumes. Four radiologists performed volumetric follow-up examinations for 52 patients with and without lesion tracking. In total, 139 lung nodules, liver metastases and lymph nodes were given as target lesions. We measured reading time, inter-reader variability in lesion identification and volume measurements, and the amount of manual adjustments of the segmentation results. With lesion tracking, target lesion assessment time decreased by 38 % or 22 s per lesion. Relative volume difference between readers was reduced from 0.171 to 0.1. Segmentation quality was comparable with and without lesion tracking. Our automatic lesion tracking tool can make interpretation of follow-up CT examinations quicker and provide results that are less reader-dependent. (orig.)

Automatic neutron dosimetry system based on fluorescent nuclear track detector technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akselrod, M.S.; Fomenko, V.V.; Bartz, J.A.; Haslett, T.L.

2014-01-01

For the first time, the authors are describing an automatic fluorescent nuclear track detector (FNTD) reader for neutron dosimetry. FNTD is a luminescent integrating type of detector made of aluminium oxide crystals that does not require electronics or batteries during irradiation. Non-destructive optical readout of the detector is performed using a confocal laser scanning fluorescence imaging with near-diffraction limited resolution. The fully automatic table-top reader allows one to load up to 216 detectors on a tray, read their engraved IDs using a CCD camera and optical character recognition, scan and process simultaneously two types of images in fluorescent and reflected laser light contrast to eliminate false-positive tracks related to surface and volume crystal imperfections. The FNTD dosimetry system allows one to measure neutron doses from 0.1 mSv to 20 Sv and covers neutron energies from thermal to 20 MeV. The reader is characterised by a robust, compact optical design, fast data processing electronics and user-friendly software. The first table-top automatic FNTD neutron dosimetry system was successfully tested for LLD, linearity and ability to measure neutrons in mixed neutron-photon fields satisfying US and ISO standards. This new neutron dosimetry system provides advantages over other technologies including environmental stability of the detector material, wide range of detectable neutron energies and doses, detector re-readability and re-usability and all-optical readout. A new adaptive image processing algorithm reliably removes false-positive tracks associated with surface and bulk crystal imperfections. (authors)

Automatic detection of suspicious behavior of pickpockets with track-based features in a shopping mall

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouma, H.; Baan, J.; Burghouts, G.J.; Eendebak, P.T.; Huis, J.R. van; Dijk, J.; Rest, J.H.C. van

2014-01-01

Proactive detection of incidents is required to decrease the cost of security incidents. This paper focusses on the automatic early detection of suspicious behavior of pickpockets with track-based features in a crowded shopping mall. Our method consists of several steps: pedestrian tracking, feature

Automatic Bolus Tracking Versus Fixed Time-Delay Technique in Biphasic Multidetector Computed Tomography of the Abdomen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adibi, Atoosa; Shahbazi, Ali

2014-01-01

Bolus tracking can individualize time delay for the start of scans in spiral computed tomography (CT). We compared automatic bolus tracking method with fixed time-delay technique in biphasic contrast enhancement during multidetector CT of abdomen. Adult patients referred for spiral CT of the abdomen were randomized into two groups; in group 1, the arterial and portal phases of spiral scans were started 25 s and 55 s after the start of contrast material administration; in group 2, using the automatic bolus tracking software, repetitive monitoring scans were performed within the lumen of the descending aorta as the region of interest with the threshold of starting the diagnostic scans as 60 HU. The contrast enhancement of the aorta, liver, and spleen were compared between the groups. Forty-eight patients (23 males, 25 females, mean age=56.4±13.5 years) were included. The contrast enhancement of the aorta, liver, and spleen at the arterial phase was similar between the two groups (P>0.05). Regarding the portal phase, the aorta and spleen were more enhanced in the bolus-tracking group (P<0.001). The bolus tracking provided more homogeneous contrast enhancement among different patients than the fixed time-delay technique in the liver at portal phase, but not at the arterial phase. The automatic bolus-tracking method, results in higher contrast enhancement of the aorta and spleen at the portal phase, but has no effect on liver enhancement. However, bolus tracking is associated with reduced variability for liver enhancement among different patients

Automatic segmentation of coronary angiograms based on fuzzy inferring and probabilistic tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shoujun Zhou

2010-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Segmentation of the coronary angiogram is important in computer-assisted artery motion analysis or reconstruction of 3D vascular structures from a single-plan or biplane angiographic system. Developing fully automated and accurate vessel segmentation algorithms is highly challenging, especially when extracting vascular structures with large variations in image intensities and noise, as well as with variable cross-sections or vascular lesions. Methods This paper presents a novel tracking method for automatic segmentation of the coronary artery tree in X-ray angiographic images, based on probabilistic vessel tracking and fuzzy structure pattern inferring. The method is composed of two main steps: preprocessing and tracking. In preprocessing, multiscale Gabor filtering and Hessian matrix analysis were used to enhance and extract vessel features from the original angiographic image, leading to a vessel feature map as well as a vessel direction map. In tracking, a seed point was first automatically detected by analyzing the vessel feature map. Subsequently, two operators [e.g., a probabilistic tracking operator (PTO and a vessel structure pattern detector (SPD] worked together based on the detected seed point to extract vessel segments or branches one at a time. The local structure pattern was inferred by a multi-feature based fuzzy inferring function employed in the SPD. The identified structure pattern, such as crossing or bifurcation, was used to control the tracking process, for example, to keep tracking the current segment or start tracking a new one, depending on the detected pattern. Results By appropriate integration of these advanced preprocessing and tracking steps, our tracking algorithm is able to extract both vessel axis lines and edge points, as well as measure the arterial diameters in various complicated cases. For example, it can walk across gaps along the longitudinal vessel direction, manage varying vessel

Computationally Efficient DOA Tracking Algorithm in Monostatic MIMO Radar with Automatic Association

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huaxin Yu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We consider the problem of tracking the direction of arrivals (DOA of multiple moving targets in monostatic multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO radar. A low-complexity DOA tracking algorithm in monostatic MIMO radar is proposed. The proposed algorithm obtains DOA estimation via the difference between previous and current covariance matrix of the reduced-dimension transformation signal, and it reduces the computational complexity and realizes automatic association in DOA tracking. Error analysis and Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB of DOA tracking are derived in the paper. The proposed algorithm not only can be regarded as an extension of array-signal-processing DOA tracking algorithm in (Zhang et al. (2008, but also is an improved version of the DOA tracking algorithm in (Zhang et al. (2008. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has better DOA tracking performance than the DOA tracking algorithm in (Zhang et al. (2008. The simulation results demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Our work provides the technical support for the practical application of MIMO radar.

Automatic respiration tracking for radiotherapy using optical 3D camera

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Tuotuo; Geng, Jason; Li, Shidong

2013-03-01

Rapid optical three-dimensional (O3D) imaging systems provide accurate digitized 3D surface data in real-time, with no patient contact nor radiation. The accurate 3D surface images offer crucial information in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) treatments for accurate patient repositioning and respiration management. However, applications of O3D imaging techniques to image-guided radiotherapy have been clinically challenged by body deformation, pathological and anatomical variations among individual patients, extremely high dimensionality of the 3D surface data, and irregular respiration motion. In existing clinical radiation therapy (RT) procedures target displacements are caused by (1) inter-fractional anatomy changes due to weight, swell, food/water intake; (2) intra-fractional variations from anatomy changes within any treatment session due to voluntary/involuntary physiologic processes (e.g. respiration, muscle relaxation); (3) patient setup misalignment in daily reposition due to user errors; and (4) changes of marker or positioning device, etc. Presently, viable solution is lacking for in-vivo tracking of target motion and anatomy changes during the beam-on time without exposing patient with additional ionized radiation or high magnet field. Current O3D-guided radiotherapy systems relay on selected points or areas in the 3D surface to track surface motion. The configuration of the marks or areas may change with time that makes it inconsistent in quantifying and interpreting the respiration patterns. To meet the challenge of performing real-time respiration tracking using O3D imaging technology in IGRT, we propose a new approach to automatic respiration motion analysis based on linear dimensionality reduction technique based on PCA (principle component analysis). Optical 3D image sequence is decomposed with principle component analysis into a limited number of independent (orthogonal) motion patterns (a low dimension eigen-space span by eigen-vectors). New

Automatic methods of the processing of data from track detectors on the basis of the PAVICOM facility

Science.gov (United States)

Aleksandrov, A. B.; Goncharova, L. A.; Davydov, D. A.; Publichenko, P. A.; Roganova, T. M.; Polukhina, N. G.; Feinberg, E. L.

2007-02-01

New automatic methods essentially simplify and increase the rate of the processing of data from track detectors. This provides a possibility of processing large data arrays and considerably improves their statistical significance. This fact predetermines the development of new experiments which plan to use large-volume targets, large-area emulsion, and solid-state track detectors [1]. In this regard, the problem of training qualified physicists who are capable of operating modern automatic equipment is very important. Annually, about ten Moscow students master the new methods, working at the Lebedev Physical Institute at the PAVICOM facility [2 4]. Most students specializing in high-energy physics are only given an idea of archaic manual methods of the processing of data from track detectors. In 2005, on the basis of the PAVICOM facility and the physicstraining course of Moscow State University, a new training work was prepared. This work is devoted to the determination of the energy of neutrons passing through a nuclear emulsion. It provides the possibility of acquiring basic practical skills of the processing of data from track detectors using automatic equipment and can be included in the educational process of students of any physical faculty. Those who have mastered the methods of automatic data processing in a simple and pictorial example of track detectors will be able to apply their knowledge in various fields of science and technique. Formulation of training works for pregraduate and graduate students is a new additional aspect of application of the PAVICOM facility described earlier in [4].

Real-time automatic fiducial marker tracking in low contrast cine-MV images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Wei-Yang; Lin, Shu-Fang; Yang, Sheng-Chang; Liou, Shu-Cheng; Nath, Ravinder; Liu Wu

2013-01-01

Purpose: To develop a real-time automatic method for tracking implanted radiographic markers in low-contrast cine-MV patient images used in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). Methods: Intrafraction motion tracking using radiotherapy beam-line MV images have gained some attention recently in IGRT because no additional imaging dose is introduced. However, MV images have much lower contrast than kV images, therefore a robust and automatic algorithm for marker detection in MV images is a prerequisite. Previous marker detection methods are all based on template matching or its derivatives. Template matching needs to match object shape that changes significantly for different implantation and projection angle. While these methods require a large number of templates to cover various situations, they are often forced to use a smaller number of templates to reduce the computation load because their methods all require exhaustive search in the region of interest. The authors solve this problem by synergetic use of modern but well-tested computer vision and artificial intelligence techniques; specifically the authors detect implanted markers utilizing discriminant analysis for initialization and use mean-shift feature space analysis for sequential tracking. This novel approach avoids exhaustive search by exploiting the temporal correlation between consecutive frames and makes it possible to perform more sophisticated detection at the beginning to improve the accuracy, followed by ultrafast sequential tracking after the initialization. The method was evaluated and validated using 1149 cine-MV images from two prostate IGRT patients and compared with manual marker detection results from six researchers. The average of the manual detection results is considered as the ground truth for comparisons. Results: The average root-mean-square errors of our real-time automatic tracking method from the ground truth are 1.9 and 2.1 pixels for the two patients (0.26 mm/pixel). The

Real-time automatic fiducial marker tracking in low contrast cine-MV images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lin, Wei-Yang; Lin, Shu-Fang; Yang, Sheng-Chang; Liou, Shu-Cheng; Nath, Ravinder; Liu Wu [Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, 62102 (China); Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510-3220 (United States)

2013-01-15

Purpose: To develop a real-time automatic method for tracking implanted radiographic markers in low-contrast cine-MV patient images used in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). Methods: Intrafraction motion tracking using radiotherapy beam-line MV images have gained some attention recently in IGRT because no additional imaging dose is introduced. However, MV images have much lower contrast than kV images, therefore a robust and automatic algorithm for marker detection in MV images is a prerequisite. Previous marker detection methods are all based on template matching or its derivatives. Template matching needs to match object shape that changes significantly for different implantation and projection angle. While these methods require a large number of templates to cover various situations, they are often forced to use a smaller number of templates to reduce the computation load because their methods all require exhaustive search in the region of interest. The authors solve this problem by synergetic use of modern but well-tested computer vision and artificial intelligence techniques; specifically the authors detect implanted markers utilizing discriminant analysis for initialization and use mean-shift feature space analysis for sequential tracking. This novel approach avoids exhaustive search by exploiting the temporal correlation between consecutive frames and makes it possible to perform more sophisticated detection at the beginning to improve the accuracy, followed by ultrafast sequential tracking after the initialization. The method was evaluated and validated using 1149 cine-MV images from two prostate IGRT patients and compared with manual marker detection results from six researchers. The average of the manual detection results is considered as the ground truth for comparisons. Results: The average root-mean-square errors of our real-time automatic tracking method from the ground truth are 1.9 and 2.1 pixels for the two patients (0.26 mm/pixel). The

Automatic tracking of red blood cells in micro channels using OpenCV

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Vânia; Rodrigues, Pedro J.; Pereira, Ana I.; Lima, Rui

2013-10-01

The present study aims to developan automatic method able to track red blood cells (RBCs) trajectories flowing through a microchannel using the Open Source Computer Vision (OpenCV). The developed method is based on optical flux calculation assisted by the maximization of the template-matching product. The experimental results show a good functional performance of this method.

High-Speed Automatic Microscopy for Real Time Tracks Reconstruction in Nuclear Emulsion

Science.gov (United States)

D'Ambrosio, N.

2006-06-01

The Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA) experiment will use a massive nuclear emulsion detector to search for /spl nu//sub /spl mu///spl rarr//spl nu//sub /spl tau// oscillation by identifying /spl tau/ leptons through the direct detection of their decay topology. The feasibility of experiments using a large mass emulsion detector is linked to the impressive progress under way in the development of automatic emulsion analysis. A new generation of scanning systems requires the development of fast automatic microscopes for emulsion scanning and image analysis to reconstruct tracks of elementary particles. The paper presents the European Scanning System (ESS) developed in the framework of OPERA collaboration.

Recognition and automatic tracking of weld line in fringe welding by autonomous mobile robot with visual sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suga, Yasuo; Saito, Keishin; Ishii, Hideaki.

1994-01-01

An autonomous mobile robot with visual sensor and four driving axes for welding of pipe and fringe was constructed. The robot can move along a pipe, and detect the weld line to be welded by visual sensor. Moreover, in order to perform welding automatically, the tip of welding torch can track the weld line of the joint by rotating the robot head. In the case of welding of pipe and fringe, the robot can detect the contact angle between the two base metals to be welded, and the torch angle changes according to the contact angle. As the result of tracking test by the robot system, it was made clear that the recognition of geometry of the joint by the laser lighting method and automatic tracking of weld line were possible. The average tracking error was ±0.3 mm approximately and the torch angle could be always kept at the optimum angle. (author)

All-automatic swimmer tracking system based on an optimized scaled composite JTC technique

Science.gov (United States)

Benarab, D.; Napoléon, T.; Alfalou, A.; Verney, A.; Hellard, P.

2016-04-01

In this paper, an all-automatic optimized JTC based swimmer tracking system is proposed and evaluated on real video database outcome from national and international swimming competitions (French National Championship, Limoges 2015, FINA World Championships, Barcelona 2013 and Kazan 2015). First, we proposed to calibrate the swimming pool using the DLT algorithm (Direct Linear Transformation). DLT calculates the homography matrix given a sufficient set of correspondence points between pixels and metric coordinates: i.e. DLT takes into account the dimensions of the swimming pool and the type of the swim. Once the swimming pool is calibrated, we extract the lane. Then we apply a motion detection approach to detect globally the swimmer in this lane. Next, we apply our optimized Scaled Composite JTC which consists of creating an adapted input plane that contains the predicted region and the head reference image. This latter is generated using a composite filter of fin images chosen from the database. The dimension of this reference will be scaled according to the ratio between the head's dimension and the width of the swimming lane. Finally, applying the proposed approach improves the performances of our previous tracking method by adding a detection module in order to achieve an all-automatic swimmer tracking system.

A parabolic solar cooker with automatic two axes sun tracking system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Al-Soud, Mohammed S.; Akayleh, Ali; Hrayshat, Eyad S. [Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tafila Technical University, P.O. Box 66, Tafila 66110 (Jordan); Abdallah, Essam [Mechanical Engineering Department, FET, AL-Balqa Applied University, Amman (Jordan); Abdallah, Salah [Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Applied Science University (Jordan)

2010-02-15

A parabolic solar cooker with automatic two axes sun tracking system was designed, constructed, operated and tested to overcome the need for frequent tracking and standing in the sun, facing all concentrating solar cookers with manual tracking, and a programmable logic controller was used to control the motion of the solar cooker. The results of the continuous test - performed for three days from 8:30 h to 16:30 h in the year 2008 - showed that the water temperature inside the cooker's tube reached 90 C in typical summer days, when the maximum registered ambient temperature was 36 C. It was also noticed that the water temperature increases when the ambient temperature gets higher or when the solar intensity is abundant. This is in favor of utilizing this cooker in many developing countries, which are characterized by high solar insulations and high temperatures. Besides cooking, the proposed cooker could be utilized for warming food, drinks as well as to pasteurize water or milk. (author)

Automatic detection of suspicious behavior of pickpockets with track-based features in a shopping mall

OpenAIRE

Bouma, H.; Baan, J.; Burghouts, G.J.; Eendebak, P.T.; Huis, J.R. van; Dijk, J.; Rest, J.H.C. van

2014-01-01

Proactive detection of incidents is required to decrease the cost of security incidents. This paper focusses on the automatic early detection of suspicious behavior of pickpockets with track-based features in a crowded shopping mall. Our method consists of several steps: pedestrian tracking, feature computation and pickpocket recognition. This is challenging because the environment is crowded, people move freely through areas which cannot be covered by a single camera, because the actual snat...

Automatic camera tracking for remote manipulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoughton, R.S.; Martin, H.L.; Bentz, R.R.

1984-07-01

The problem of automatic camera tracking of mobile objects is addressed with specific reference to remote manipulators and using either fixed or mobile cameras. The technique uses a kinematic approach employing 4 x 4 coordinate transformation matrices to solve for the needed camera PAN and TILT angles. No vision feedback systems are used, as the required input data are obtained entirely from position sensors from the manipulator and the camera-positioning system. All hardware requirements are generally satisfied by currently available remote manipulator systems with a supervisory computer. The system discussed here implements linear plus on/off (bang-bang) closed-loop control with a +-2-deg deadband. The deadband area is desirable to avoid operator seasickness caused by continuous camera movement. Programming considerations for camera control, including operator interface options, are discussed. The example problem presented is based on an actual implementation using a PDP 11/34 computer, a TeleOperator Systems SM-229 manipulator, and an Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) camera-positioning system. 3 references, 6 figures, 2 tables

Automatic camera tracking for remote manipulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoughton, R.S.; Martin, H.L.; Bentz, R.R.

1984-04-01

The problem of automatic camera tracking of mobile objects is addressed with specific reference to remote manipulators and using either fixed or mobile cameras. The technique uses a kinematic approach employing 4 x 4 coordinate transformation matrices to solve for the needed camera PAN and TILT angles. No vision feedback systems are used, as the required input data are obtained entirely from position sensors from the manipulator and the camera-positioning system. All hardware requirements are generally satisfied by currently available remote manipulator systems with a supervisory computer. The system discussed here implements linear plus on/off (bang-bang) closed-loop control with a +-2 0 deadband. The deadband area is desirable to avoid operator seasickness caused by continuous camera movement. Programming considerations for camera control, including operator interface options, are discussed. The example problem presented is based on an actual implementation using a PDP 11/34 computer, a TeleOperator Systems SM-229 manipulator, and an Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) camera-positioning system. 3 references, 6 figures, 2 tables

Automatically detect and track infrared small targets with kernel Fukunaga-Koontz transform and Kalman prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ruiming; Liu, Erqi; Yang, Jie; Zeng, Yong; Wang, Fanglin; Cao, Yuan

2007-11-01

Fukunaga-Koontz transform (FKT), stemming from principal component analysis (PCA), is used in many pattern recognition and image-processing fields. It cannot capture the higher-order statistical property of natural images, so its detection performance is not satisfying. PCA has been extended into kernel PCA in order to capture the higher-order statistics. However, thus far there have been no researchers who have definitely proposed kernel FKT (KFKT) and researched its detection performance. For accurately detecting potential small targets from infrared images, we first extend FKT into KFKT to capture the higher-order statistical properties of images. Then a framework based on Kalman prediction and KFKT, which can automatically detect and track small targets, is developed. Results of experiments show that KFKT outperforms FKT and the proposed framework is competent to automatically detect and track infrared point targets.

Automatic radar target recognition of objects falling on railway tracks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mroué, A; Heddebaut, M; Elbahhar, F; Rivenq, A; Rouvaen, J-M

2012-01-01

This paper presents an automatic radar target recognition procedure based on complex resonances using the signals provided by ultra-wideband radar. This procedure is dedicated to detection and identification of objects lying on railway tracks. For an efficient complex resonance extraction, a comparison between several pole extraction methods is illustrated. Therefore, preprocessing methods are presented aiming to remove most of the erroneous poles interfering with the discrimination scheme. Once physical poles are determined, a specific discrimination technique is introduced based on the Euclidean distances. Both simulation and experimental results are depicted showing an efficient discrimination of different targets including guided transport passengers

Study of the behavior of automatic track detectors for radon determination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moreno C, A.

1997-01-01

Both the alpha decay and the alpha and beta emitting radon daughters, may affect the living cells. In this thesis, experiments have been performed to study the response of environmental radon using different alpha particle detectors. A study was performed both in the laboratory and in the field of two kinds of detectors: a) Passive solid state nuclear track detectors, LR 115 type II, capable to integrate the alpha particles in a given period of time and, b) an automatic active detector, Clipperton, that continuously accumulate the alpha counting from radon decay. LR-115 track detectors were exposed in the laboratory to alpha particles from a radioactive source and a controlled radon atmosphere. The detectors were also exposed to electrons from an electron accelerator. The number of alpha tracks in the detectors were evaluated with two kinds of spark counters. The response of the track detectors as a function of the number of alpha tracks showed a reproducibility of 92%, and the effect of electron doses showed that the bulk etching velocity varied as a function of the electron dose. Additionally some changes were introduced in an SSNTD exchanger, exposed to the radon chamber in order to reduce the background in the non exposed positions. A conversion factor of 0.016 tracks/cm 2 . 10h per Bq/m 3 was obtained. The response of the two spark counters was similar. Field soil radon determinations were performed with track detectors during 11 months and with the active detector during 5 months with exposures each month and each hour respectively. When calculated for the same time periods exposure the response of both systems was similar. However differences were quite striking in the patterns of short and long term exposure periods since short term fluctuations are explicitly shown with the active detector while integrated within the passive one. (Author)

A Robust Vision-based Runway Detection and Tracking Algorithm for Automatic UAV Landing

KAUST Repository

Abu Jbara, Khaled F.

2015-05-01

This work presents a novel real-time algorithm for runway detection and tracking applied to the automatic takeoff and landing of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The algorithm is based on a combination of segmentation based region competition and the minimization of a specific energy function to detect and identify the runway edges from streaming video data. The resulting video-based runway position estimates are updated using a Kalman Filter, which can integrate other sensory information such as position and attitude angle estimates to allow a more robust tracking of the runway under turbulence. We illustrate the performance of the proposed lane detection and tracking scheme on various experimental UAV flights conducted by the Saudi Aerospace Research Center. Results show an accurate tracking of the runway edges during the landing phase under various lighting conditions. Also, it suggests that such positional estimates would greatly improve the positional accuracy of the UAV during takeoff and landing phases. The robustness of the proposed algorithm is further validated using Hardware in the Loop simulations with diverse takeoff and landing videos generated using a commercial flight simulator.

AROMA-AIRWICK: a CHLOE/CDC-3600 system for the automatic identification of spark images and their association into tracks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, R.K.

The AROMA-AIRWICK System for CHLOE, an automatic film scanning equipment built at Argonne by Donald Hodges, and the CDC-3600 computer is a system for the automatic identification of spark images and their association into tracks. AROMA-AIRWICK has been an outgrowth of the generally recognized need for the automatic processing of high energy physics data and the fact that the Argonne National Laboratory has been a center of serious spark chamber development in recent years

Development and experimental evaluation of an automatic marker registration system for tracking of augmented reality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yan, Wei-da; Yang Shou-feng; Ishii, Hirotake; Shimoda, Hiroshi; Izumi, Masanori

2010-01-01

In order to apply augmented reality in plant maintenance activities it is necessary to use real-time high accuracy tracking technology. One of the most efficient tracking methods is using paper-based markers and computing the relative position and orientation between a vision sensor (camera) and the markers through image processing and geometry calculations. In this method, the 3D-position of each marker is needed before tracking, but it is inefficient to measure all the markers manually. In this study, an automatic marker registration system was developed so as to measure the 3D-position of each marker automatically. The system is composed of a camera, a laser rangefinder and a motion base, which is used to control the pose of the laser rangefinder. A computer, connected to them, is used for controlling the system and for data transport. The results of the experimental evaluations show that the measurement takes about 21 seconds per marker and that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the position measurements is 3.5 mm. The feasibility evaluation of the system was conducted in Fugen nuclear plant. The results show that the system can largely reduce the preparatory workload of an AR application in a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). (author)

Automatic detection of recoil-proton tracks and background rejection criteria in liquid scintillator-micro-capillary-array fast neutron spectrometer

Science.gov (United States)

Mor, Ilan; Vartsky, David; Dangendorf, Volker; Tittelmeier, Kai.; Weierganz, Mathias; Goldberg, Mark Benjamin; Bar, Doron; Brandis, Michal

2018-06-01

We describe an analysis procedure for automatic unambiguous detection of fast-neutron-induced recoil proton tracks in a micro-capillary array filled with organic liquid scintillator. The detector is viewed by an intensified CCD camera. This imaging neutron detector possesses the capability to perform high position-resolution (few tens of μm), energy-dispersive transmission-imaging using ns-pulsed beams. However, when operated with CW or DC beams, it also features medium-quality spectroscopic capabilities for incident neutrons in the energy range 2-20 MeV. In addition to the recoil proton events which display a continuous extended track structure, the raw images exhibit complex ion-tracks from nuclear interactions of fast-neutrons in the scintillator, capillaries quartz-matrix and CCD. Moreover, as expected, one also observes a multitude of isolated scintillation spots of varying intensity (henceforth denoted "blobs") that originate from several different sources, such as: fragmented proton tracks, gamma-rays, heavy-ion reactions as well as events and noise that occur in the image-intensifier and CCD. In order to identify the continuous-track recoil proton events and distinguish them from all these background events, a rapid, computerized and automatic track-recognition-procedure was developed. Based on an appropriately weighted analysis of track parameters such as: length, width, area and overall light intensity, the method is capable of distinguishing a single continuous-track recoil proton from typically surrounding several thousands of background events that are found in each CCD frame.

Development of a CCD based system called DIGITRACK for automatic track counting and evaluation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Molnar, J.; Somogyi, G.; Szilagyi, S.; Sepsy, K. (Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia, Debrecen. Atommag Kutato Intezete)

1984-01-01

We have developed, to the best of our knowledge, the first automatic track analysis system (DIGITRACK) in which the video signals are processed by a new type of video-receiver called charge-coupled device (CCD). The photosensitive semi-conductor device is a 2.5 cm long line imager of type Fairchild CCD 121HC which converts one row of the picture seen through a low magnification microscope into 1728 binary signals by a thresholding logic. The picture elements are analysed by a microcomputer equipped with two INTEL 8080 microprocessors and interfaced to a PDP-11/40 computer. The microcomputer also controls the motion of the stage of microscope. For pattern recognition and analysis a software procedure is developed which is able to differentiate between overlapping tracks and to determine the number, surface opening and x-y coordinates of the tracks occurring in a given detector area. The distribution of track densities and spot areas on the detector surface can be visualized on a graphic display. The DIGITRACK system has been tested for analysis of alpha-tracks registered in CR-39 and LR-115 detectors.

Nearly automatic motion capture system for tracking octopus arm movements in 3D space.

Science.gov (United States)

Zelman, Ido; Galun, Meirav; Akselrod-Ballin, Ayelet; Yekutieli, Yoram; Hochner, Binyamin; Flash, Tamar

2009-08-30

Tracking animal movements in 3D space is an essential part of many biomechanical studies. The most popular technique for human motion capture uses markers placed on the skin which are tracked by a dedicated system. However, this technique may be inadequate for tracking animal movements, especially when it is impossible to attach markers to the animal's body either because of its size or shape or because of the environment in which the animal performs its movements. Attaching markers to an animal's body may also alter its behavior. Here we present a nearly automatic markerless motion capture system that overcomes these problems and successfully tracks octopus arm movements in 3D space. The system is based on three successive tracking and processing stages. The first stage uses a recently presented segmentation algorithm to detect the movement in a pair of video sequences recorded by two calibrated cameras. In the second stage, the results of the first stage are processed to produce 2D skeletal representations of the moving arm. Finally, the 2D skeletons are used to reconstruct the octopus arm movement as a sequence of 3D curves varying in time. Motion tracking, segmentation and reconstruction are especially difficult problems in the case of octopus arm movements because of the deformable, non-rigid structure of the octopus arm and the underwater environment in which it moves. Our successful results suggest that the motion-tracking system presented here may be used for tracking other elongated objects.

Tracking errors in a prototype real-time tumour tracking system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharp, Gregory C; Jiang, Steve B; Shimizu, Shinichi; Shirato, Hiroki

2004-01-01

In motion-compensated radiation therapy, radio-opaque markers can be implanted in or near a tumour and tracked in real-time using fluoroscopic imaging. Tracking these implanted markers gives highly accurate position information, except when tracking fails due to poor or ambiguous imaging conditions. This study investigates methods for automatic detection of tracking errors, and assesses the frequency and impact of tracking errors on treatments using the prototype real-time tumour tracking system. We investigated four indicators for automatic detection of tracking errors, and found that the distance between corresponding rays was most effective. We also found that tracking errors cause a loss of gating efficiency of between 7.6 and 10.2%. The incidence of treatment beam delivery during tracking errors was estimated at between 0.8% and 1.25%

Automatic track following system to study double strangeness nuclei in nuclear emulsion exposed to the observable limit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Myint Kyaw Soe, E-mail: npkyaw1@gmail.com; Goto, Ryosuke; Mishina, Akihiro; Nakanisi, Yoshiaki; Nakashima, Daisuke; Yoshida, Junya; Nakazawa, Kazuma

2017-03-11

An automatic track following system has been successfully developed to follow tracks in nuclear emulsion sheets exposed with beam up to the limit to be observed for the first time. The track followed rate of the system is 99.5% with the assistance of the new techniques. The working speed for a track is less than 1 min through one thick emulsion sheet, whereas it is 15 times faster than that of semiautomatic system with human. The system working for 24 h is applied for the E07 experiment at J-PARC and makes it possible to detect ~10{sup 2} nuclei with double strangeness (S=−2 nuclei) within one year. Regarding analyses to identify nuclear species of S=−2 nuclei, the system shows quite decent job for significant steps such as following tracks emitted to spherical directions from S=−2 nuclei, measurement of lengths of followed tracks, and so on.

Automatic tracking of the intersection of a laser and electron beam

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turko, B.T.; Fuzesy, R.Z.; Pripstein, D.A.; Kowitt, M.; Chamberlain, O.; Shapiro, G.; Hughes, E.

1990-05-01

For the Compton Polarimeter experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator the crossing point of a laser beam and an electron beam must be kept accurate and stable. An electronic system is described for the automatic tracking and correcting of the beam crossing. A remote CCD camera, relatively insensitive to electromagnetic disturbance, records small displacements of the pulsed laser beam. Video signals are analyzed at a remote station, the amount of drift from a selected reference point determined and the appropriate correction commands sent to the motorized mirror deflecting the laser beam. A description of the system, its performance and the test results are presented. 2 refs., 4 figs

Combining Stereo SECCHI COR2 and HI1 Images for Automatic CME Front Edge Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Kirnosov, Vladimir; Chang, Lin-Ching; Pulkkinen, Antti

2016-01-01

COR2 coronagraph images are the most commonly used data for coronal mass ejection (CME) analysis among the various types of data provided by the STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) SECCHI (Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) suite of instruments. The field of view (FOV) in COR2 images covers 215 solar radii (Rs) that allow for tracking the front edge of a CME in its initial stage to forecast the lead-time of a CME and its chances of reaching the Earth. However, estimating the lead-time of a CME using COR2 images gives a larger lead-time, which may be associated with greater uncertainty. To reduce this uncertainty, CME front edge tracking should be continued beyond the FOV of COR2 images. Therefore, heliospheric imager (HI1) data that covers 1590 Rs FOV must be included. In this paper, we propose a novel automatic method that takes both COR2 and HI1 images into account and combine the results to track the front edges of a CME continuously. The method consists of two modules: pre-processing and tracking. The pre-processing module produces a set of segmented images, which contain the signature of a CME, for both COR2 and HI1 separately. In addition, the HI1 images are resized and padded, so that the center of the Sun is the central coordinate of the resized HI1 images. The resulting COR2 andHI1 image set is then fed into the tracking module to estimate the position angle (PA) and track the front edge of a CME. The detected front edge is then used to produce a height-time profile that is used to estimate the speed of a CME. The method was validated using 15 CME events observed in the period from January 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for CME front edge tracking in both COR2 and HI1 images. Using this method, the CME front edge can now be tracked automatically and continuously in a much larger range, i.e., from 2 to 90 Rs, for the first time. These improvement scan greatly

On detection and automatic tracking of butt weld line in thin wall pipe welding by a mobile robot with visual sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suga, Yasuo; Ishii, Hideaki; Muto, Akifumi

1992-01-01

An automatic pipe welding mobile robot system with visual sensor was constructed. The robot can move along a pipe, and detect the weld line to be welded by visual sensor. Moreover, in order to make an automatic welding, the welding torch can track the butt weld line of the pipes at a constant speed by rotating the robot head. Main results obtained are summarized as follows: 1) Using a proper lighting fixed in front of the CCD camera, the butt weld line of thin wall pipes can be recongnized stably. In this case, the root gap should be approximately 0.5 mm. 2) In order to detect the weld line stably during moving along the pipe, a brightness distribution measured by the CCD camera should be subjected to smoothing and differentiating and then the weld line is judged by the maximum and minimum values of the differentials. 3) By means of the basic robot system with a visual sensor controlled by a personal computer, the detection and in-process automatic tracking of a weld line are possible. The average tracking error was approximately 0.2 mm and maximum error 0.5 mm and the welding speed was held at a constant value with error of about 0.1 cm/min. (author)

Automatic weld torch guidance control system

Science.gov (United States)

Smaith, H. E.; Wall, W. A.; Burns, M. R., Jr.

1982-01-01

A highly reliable, fully digital, closed circuit television optical, type automatic weld seam tracking control system was developed. This automatic tracking equipment is used to reduce weld tooling costs and increase overall automatic welding reliability. The system utilizes a charge injection device digital camera which as 60,512 inidividual pixels as the light sensing elements. Through conventional scanning means, each pixel in the focal plane is sequentially scanned, the light level signal digitized, and an 8-bit word transmitted to scratch pad memory. From memory, the microprocessor performs an analysis of the digital signal and computes the tracking error. Lastly, the corrective signal is transmitted to a cross seam actuator digital drive motor controller to complete the closed loop, feedback, tracking system. This weld seam tracking control system is capable of a tracking accuracy of + or - 0.2 mm, or better. As configured, the system is applicable to square butt, V-groove, and lap joint weldments.

Automatic detection of suspicious behavior of pickpockets with track-based features in a shopping mall

Science.gov (United States)

Bouma, Henri; Baan, Jan; Burghouts, Gertjan J.; Eendebak, Pieter T.; van Huis, Jasper R.; Dijk, Judith; van Rest, Jeroen H. C.

2014-10-01

Proactive detection of incidents is required to decrease the cost of security incidents. This paper focusses on the automatic early detection of suspicious behavior of pickpockets with track-based features in a crowded shopping mall. Our method consists of several steps: pedestrian tracking, feature computation and pickpocket recognition. This is challenging because the environment is crowded, people move freely through areas which cannot be covered by a single camera, because the actual snatch is a subtle action, and because collaboration is complex social behavior. We carried out an experiment with more than 20 validated pickpocket incidents. We used a top-down approach to translate expert knowledge in features and rules, and a bottom-up approach to learn discriminating patterns with a classifier. The classifier was used to separate the pickpockets from normal passers-by who are shopping in the mall. We performed a cross validation to train and evaluate our system. In this paper, we describe our method, identify the most valuable features, and analyze the results that were obtained in the experiment. We estimate the quality of these features and the performance of automatic detection of (collaborating) pickpockets. The results show that many of the pickpockets can be detected at a low false alarm rate.

Device for positioning and generation of an element of track model and slice of the MELAS automatic equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kryutchenko, E.V.; Fedotov, V.S.

1979-01-01

The structure and organization of the device for positioning and generation of element of track model and slice of the MELAS automatic equipment which is developed for measuring films from big bubble chambers, is described. Main features of the device are studied and characteristics are given as well

Ultrasound assessment of fascial connectivity in the lower limb during maximal cervical flexion: technical aspects and practical application of automatic tracking

OpenAIRE

Cruz-Montecinos, Carlos; Cerda, Mauricio; Sanzana-Cuche, Rodolfo; Mart?n-Mart?n, Jaime; Cuesta-Vargas, Antonio

2016-01-01

Background The fascia provides and transmits forces for connective tissues, thereby regulating human posture and movement. One way to assess the myofascial interaction is a fascia ultrasound recording. Ultrasound can follow fascial displacement either manually or automatically through two-dimensional (2D) method. One possible method is the iterated Lucas-Kanade Pyramid (LKP) algorithm, which is based on automatic pixel tracking during passive movements in 2D fascial displacement assessments. ...

Evaluation of an image-based tracking workflow with Kalman filtering for automatic image plane alignment in interventional MRI.

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann, M; Cuvillon, L; Breton, E; de Matheli, M

2013-01-01

Recently, a workflow for magnetic resonance (MR) image plane alignment based on tracking in real-time MR images was introduced. The workflow is based on a tracking device composed of 2 resonant micro-coils and a passive marker, and allows for tracking of the passive marker in clinical real-time images and automatic (re-)initialization using the microcoils. As the Kalman filter has proven its benefit as an estimator and predictor, it is well suited for use in tracking applications. In this paper, a Kalman filter is integrated in the previously developed workflow in order to predict position and orientation of the tracking device. Measurement noise covariances of the Kalman filter are dynamically changed in order to take into account that, according to the image plane orientation, only a subset of the 3D pose components is available. The improved tracking performance of the Kalman extended workflow could be quantified in simulation results. Also, a first experiment in the MRI scanner was performed but without quantitative results yet.

A photodiode based on PbS nanocrystallites for FYTRONIX solar panel automatic tracking controller

Science.gov (United States)

Wageh, S.; Farooq, W. A.; Tataroğlu, A.; Dere, A.; Al-Sehemi, Abdullah G.; Al-Ghamdi, Ahmed A.; Yakuphanoglu, F.

2017-12-01

The structural, optical and photoelectrical properties of the fabricated Al/PbS/p-Si/Al photodiode based on PbS nanocrystallites were investigated. The PbS nanocrystallites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-VIS-NIR, Infrared and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD diffraction peaks show that the prepared PbS nanostructure is in high crystalline state. Various electrical parameters of the prepared photodiode were analyzed from the electrical characteristics based on I-V and C-V-G. The photodiode has a high rectification ratio of 5.85×104 at dark and ±4 V. Moreover, The photocurrent results indicate a strong photovoltaic behavior. The frequency dependence of capacitance and conductance characteristics was attributed to depletion region behavior of the photodiode. The diode was used to control solar panel power automatic tracking controller in dual axis. The fabricated photodiode works as a photosensor to control Solar tracking systems.

Design of automatic tracking system for electron beam welding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

He Chengdan; Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Lanzhou; Li Heqi; Li Chunxu; Ying Lei; Luo Yan

2004-01-01

The design and experimental process of an automatic tracking system applied to local vacuum electron beam welding are dealt with in this paper. When the annular parts of an exactitude apparatus were welded, the centre of rotation of the electron gun and the centre of the annular weld are usually not superposed because of the machining error, workpiece's setting error and so on. In this teaching process, a little bundle of electron beam is used to scan the weld groove, the amount of the secondary electrons reflected from the workpiece is different when the electron beam scans the both sides and the centre of the weld groove. The difference can indicate the position of the weld and then a computer will record the deviation between the electron beam spot and the centre of the weld groove. The computer will analyze the data and put the data into the storage software. During the welding process, the computer will modify the position of the electron gun based on the deviation to make the electron beam spot centered on the annular weld groove. (authors)

Automatic visual tracking and social behaviour analysis with multiple mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luca Giancardo

Full Text Available Social interactions are made of complex behavioural actions that might be found in all mammalians, including humans and rodents. Recently, mouse models are increasingly being used in preclinical research to understand the biological basis of social-related pathologies or abnormalities. However, reliable and flexible automatic systems able to precisely quantify social behavioural interactions of multiple mice are still missing. Here, we present a system built on two components. A module able to accurately track the position of multiple interacting mice from videos, regardless of their fur colour or light settings, and a module that automatically characterise social and non-social behaviours. The behavioural analysis is obtained by deriving a new set of specialised spatio-temporal features from the tracker output. These features are further employed by a learning-by-example classifier, which predicts for each frame and for each mouse in the cage one of the behaviours learnt from the examples given by the experimenters. The system is validated on an extensive set of experimental trials involving multiple mice in an open arena. In a first evaluation we compare the classifier output with the independent evaluation of two human graders, obtaining comparable results. Then, we show the applicability of our technique to multiple mice settings, using up to four interacting mice. The system is also compared with a solution recently proposed in the literature that, similarly to us, addresses the problem with a learning-by-examples approach. Finally, we further validated our automatic system to differentiate between C57B/6J (a commonly used reference inbred strain and BTBR T+tf/J (a mouse model for autism spectrum disorders. Overall, these data demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of this new machine learning system in the detection of social and non-social behaviours in multiple (>2 interacting mice, and its versatility to deal with different

A comparative study of automatic image segmentation algorithms for target tracking in MR‐IGRT

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yuan; Kawrakow, Iwan; Olsen, Jeff; Parikh, Parag J.; Noel, Camille; Wooten, Omar; Du, Dongsu; Mutic, Sasa

2016-01-01

On‐board magnetic resonance (MR) image guidance during radiation therapy offers the potential for more accurate treatment delivery. To utilize the real‐time image information, a crucial prerequisite is the ability to successfully segment and track regions of interest (ROI). The purpose of this work is to evaluate the performance of different segmentation algorithms using motion images (4 frames per second) acquired using a MR image‐guided radiotherapy (MR‐IGRT) system. Manual contours of the kidney, bladder, duodenum, and a liver tumor by an experienced radiation oncologist were used as the ground truth for performance evaluation. Besides the manual segmentation, images were automatically segmented using thresholding, fuzzy k‐means (FKM), k‐harmonic means (KHM), and reaction‐diffusion level set evolution (RD‐LSE) algorithms, as well as the tissue tracking algorithm provided by the ViewRay treatment planning and delivery system (VR‐TPDS). The performance of the five algorithms was evaluated quantitatively by comparing with the manual segmentation using the Dice coefficient and target registration error (TRE) measured as the distance between the centroid of the manual ROI and the centroid of the automatically segmented ROI. All methods were able to successfully segment the bladder and the kidney, but only FKM, KHM, and VR‐TPDS were able to segment the liver tumor and the duodenum. The performance of the thresholding, FKM, KHM, and RD‐LSE algorithms degraded as the local image contrast decreased, whereas the performance of the VP‐TPDS method was nearly independent of local image contrast due to the reference registration algorithm. For segmenting high‐contrast images (i.e., kidney), the thresholding method provided the best speed (<1 ms) with a satisfying accuracy (Dice=0.95). When the image contrast was low, the VR‐TPDS method had the best automatic contour. Results suggest an image quality determination procedure before segmentation and

A comparative study of automatic image segmentation algorithms for target tracking in MR-IGRT.

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yuan; Kawrakow, Iwan; Olsen, Jeff; Parikh, Parag J; Noel, Camille; Wooten, Omar; Du, Dongsu; Mutic, Sasa; Hu, Yanle

2016-03-01

On-board magnetic resonance (MR) image guidance during radiation therapy offers the potential for more accurate treatment delivery. To utilize the real-time image information, a crucial prerequisite is the ability to successfully segment and track regions of interest (ROI). The purpose of this work is to evaluate the performance of different segmentation algorithms using motion images (4 frames per second) acquired using a MR image-guided radiotherapy (MR-IGRT) system. Manual contours of the kidney, bladder, duodenum, and a liver tumor by an experienced radiation oncologist were used as the ground truth for performance evaluation. Besides the manual segmentation, images were automatically segmented using thresholding, fuzzy k-means (FKM), k-harmonic means (KHM), and reaction-diffusion level set evolution (RD-LSE) algorithms, as well as the tissue tracking algorithm provided by the ViewRay treatment planning and delivery system (VR-TPDS). The performance of the five algorithms was evaluated quantitatively by comparing with the manual segmentation using the Dice coefficient and target registration error (TRE) measured as the distance between the centroid of the manual ROI and the centroid of the automatically segmented ROI. All methods were able to successfully segment the bladder and the kidney, but only FKM, KHM, and VR-TPDS were able to segment the liver tumor and the duodenum. The performance of the thresholding, FKM, KHM, and RD-LSE algorithms degraded as the local image contrast decreased, whereas the performance of the VP-TPDS method was nearly independent of local image contrast due to the reference registration algorithm. For segmenting high-contrast images (i.e., kidney), the thresholding method provided the best speed (<1 ms) with a satisfying accuracy (Dice=0.95). When the image contrast was low, the VR-TPDS method had the best automatic contour. Results suggest an image quality determination procedure before segmentation and a combination of different

Ultrasound assessment of fascial connectivity in the lower limb during maximal cervical flexion: technical aspects and practical application of automatic tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Cruz-Montecinos, Carlos; Cerda, Mauricio; Sanzana-Cuche, Rodolfo; Martín-Martín, Jaime; Cuesta-Vargas, Antonio

2016-01-01

The fascia provides and transmits forces for connective tissues, thereby regulating human posture and movement. One way to assess the myofascial interaction is a fascia ultrasound recording. Ultrasound can follow fascial displacement either manually or automatically through two-dimensional (2D) method. One possible method is the iterated Lucas-Kanade Pyramid (LKP) algorithm, which is based on automatic pixel tracking during passive movements in 2D fascial displacement assessments. Until now, the accumulated error over time has not been considered, even though it could be crucial for detecting fascial displacement in low amplitude movements. The aim of this study was to assess displacement of the medial gastrocnemius fascia during cervical spine flexion in a kyphotic posture with the knees extended and ankles at 90°. The ultrasound transducer was placed on the extreme dominant belly of the medial gastrocnemius. Displacement was calculated from nine automatically selected tracking points. To determine cervical flexion, an established 2D marker protocol was implemented. Offline pressure sensors were used to synchronize the 2D kinematic data from cervical flexion and deep fascia displacement of the medial gastrocnemius. Fifteen participants performed the cervical flexion task. The basal tracking error was 0.0211 mm. In 66 % of the subjects, a proximal fascial tissue displacement of the fascia above the basal error (0.076 mm ± 0.006 mm) was measured. Fascia displacement onset during cervical spine flexion was detected over 70 % of the cycle; however, only when detected for more than 80 % of the cycle was displacement considered statistically significant as compared to the first 10 % of the cycle (ANOVA, p < 0.05). By using an automated tracking method, the present analyses suggest statistically significant displacement of deep fascia. Further studies are needed to corroborate and fully understand the mechanisms associated with these results.

Hybrid three-dimensional and support vector machine approach for automatic vehicle tracking and classification using a single camera

Science.gov (United States)

Kachach, Redouane; Cañas, José María

2016-05-01

Using video in traffic monitoring is one of the most active research domains in the computer vision community. TrafficMonitor, a system that employs a hybrid approach for automatic vehicle tracking and classification on highways using a simple stationary calibrated camera, is presented. The proposed system consists of three modules: vehicle detection, vehicle tracking, and vehicle classification. Moving vehicles are detected by an enhanced Gaussian mixture model background estimation algorithm. The design includes a technique to resolve the occlusion problem by using a combination of two-dimensional proximity tracking algorithm and the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi feature tracking algorithm. The last module classifies the shapes identified into five vehicle categories: motorcycle, car, van, bus, and truck by using three-dimensional templates and an algorithm based on histogram of oriented gradients and the support vector machine classifier. Several experiments have been performed using both real and simulated traffic in order to validate the system. The experiments were conducted on GRAM-RTM dataset and a proper real video dataset which is made publicly available as part of this work.

Application of an automatic yarn dismantler to track changes in cotton fiber properties during full scale processing of cotton into carded yarn

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Fassihi, A

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Changes in Upland cotton fiber properties from lint to carded yarn, during full scale processing, were tracked, using a newly developed automatic yarn dismantler for dismantling short staple ring-spun yarns. Opening and cleaning increased fiber neps...

SU-D-BRD-05: Online Framework for Plan Tracking and Automatic Checks in Radiation Therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zaks, D; Fletcher, R; Salamon, S; Kim, G; Ning, T; Cornell, M; Pawlicki, T; Cervino, L [UCSD Medical Center, La Jolla, CA (United States)

2015-06-15

Purpose: To develop an online framework that tracks a patient’s plan from initial simulation to treatment and that helps automate elements of the physics plan checks usually performed in the record and verify (RV) system and treatment planning system. Methods: We have developed PlanTracker, an online plan tracking system that automatically imports new patients tasks and follows it through treatment planning, physics checks, therapy check, and chart rounds. A survey was designed to collect information about the amount of time spent by medical physicists in non-physics related tasks. We then assessed these non-physics tasks for automation. Using these surveys, we directed our PlanTracker software development towards the automation of intra-plan physics review. We then conducted a systematic evaluation of PlanTracker’s accuracy by generating test plans in the RV system software designed to mimic real plans, in order to test its efficacy in catching errors both real and theoretical. Results: PlanTracker has proven to be an effective improvement to the clinical workflow in a radiotherapy clinic. We present data indicating that roughly 1/3 of the physics plan check can be automated, and the workflow optimized, and show the functionality of PlanTracker. When the full system is in clinical use we will present data on improvement of time use in comparison to survey data prior to PlanTracker implementation. Conclusion: We have developed a framework for plan tracking and automatic checks in radiation therapy. We anticipate using PlanTracker as a basis for further development in clinical/research software. We hope that by eliminating the most simple and time consuming checks, medical physicists may be able to spend their time on plan quality and other physics tasks rather than in arithmetic and logic checks. We see this development as part of a broader initiative to advance the clinical/research informatics infrastructure surrounding the radiotherapy clinic. This research

SU-D-BRD-05: Online Framework for Plan Tracking and Automatic Checks in Radiation Therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaks, D; Fletcher, R; Salamon, S; Kim, G; Ning, T; Cornell, M; Pawlicki, T; Cervino, L

2015-01-01

Purpose: To develop an online framework that tracks a patient’s plan from initial simulation to treatment and that helps automate elements of the physics plan checks usually performed in the record and verify (RV) system and treatment planning system. Methods: We have developed PlanTracker, an online plan tracking system that automatically imports new patients tasks and follows it through treatment planning, physics checks, therapy check, and chart rounds. A survey was designed to collect information about the amount of time spent by medical physicists in non-physics related tasks. We then assessed these non-physics tasks for automation. Using these surveys, we directed our PlanTracker software development towards the automation of intra-plan physics review. We then conducted a systematic evaluation of PlanTracker’s accuracy by generating test plans in the RV system software designed to mimic real plans, in order to test its efficacy in catching errors both real and theoretical. Results: PlanTracker has proven to be an effective improvement to the clinical workflow in a radiotherapy clinic. We present data indicating that roughly 1/3 of the physics plan check can be automated, and the workflow optimized, and show the functionality of PlanTracker. When the full system is in clinical use we will present data on improvement of time use in comparison to survey data prior to PlanTracker implementation. Conclusion: We have developed a framework for plan tracking and automatic checks in radiation therapy. We anticipate using PlanTracker as a basis for further development in clinical/research software. We hope that by eliminating the most simple and time consuming checks, medical physicists may be able to spend their time on plan quality and other physics tasks rather than in arithmetic and logic checks. We see this development as part of a broader initiative to advance the clinical/research informatics infrastructure surrounding the radiotherapy clinic. This research

Automatic programming of grinding robot restoration of contours

OpenAIRE

Are Willersrud; Fred Godtliebsen; Trygve Thomessen

1995-01-01

A new programming method has been developed for grinding robots. Instead of using the conventional jog-and-teach method, the workpiece contour is automatically tracked by the robot. During the tracking, the robot position is stored in the robot control system every 8th millisecond. After filtering and reducing this contour data, a robot program is automatically generated.

Automatic programming of grinding robot restoration of contours

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Are Willersrud

1995-07-01

Full Text Available A new programming method has been developed for grinding robots. Instead of using the conventional jog-and-teach method, the workpiece contour is automatically tracked by the robot. During the tracking, the robot position is stored in the robot control system every 8th millisecond. After filtering and reducing this contour data, a robot program is automatically generated.

Integrating different tracking systems in football: multiple camera semi-automatic system, local position measurement and GPS technologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Buchheit, Martin; Allen, Adam; Poon, Tsz Kit; Modonutti, Mattia; Gregson, Warren; Di Salvo, Valter

2014-12-01

Abstract During the past decade substantial development of computer-aided tracking technology has occurred. Therefore, we aimed to provide calibration equations to allow the interchangeability of different tracking technologies used in soccer. Eighty-two highly trained soccer players (U14-U17) were monitored during training and one match. Player activity was collected simultaneously with a semi-automatic multiple-camera (Prozone), local position measurement (LPM) technology (Inmotio) and two global positioning systems (GPSports and VX). Data were analysed with respect to three different field dimensions (small, systems were compared, and calibration equations (linear regression models) between each system were calculated for each field dimension. Most metrics differed between the 4 systems with the magnitude of the differences dependant on both pitch size and the variable of interest. Trivial-to-small between-system differences in total distance were noted. However, high-intensity running distance (>14.4 km · h -1 ) was slightly-to-moderately greater when tracked with Prozone, and accelerations, small-to-very largely greater with LPM. For most of the equations, the typical error of the estimate was of a moderate magnitude. Interchangeability of the different tracking systems is possible with the provided equations, but care is required given their moderate typical error of the estimate.

Body-Part Tracking of Infants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Mikkel Damgaard; Herskind, Anna; Nielsen, Jens Bo

2014-01-01

Motion tracking is a widely used technique to analyze and measure adult human movement. However, these methods cannot be transferred directly to motion tracking of infants due to the big differences in the underlying human model. However, motion tracking of infants can be used for automatic...

Development of an optimal automatic control law and filter algorithm for steep glideslope capture and glideslope tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Halyo, N.

1976-01-01

A digital automatic control law to capture a steep glideslope and track the glideslope to a specified altitude is developed for the longitudinal/vertical dynamics of a CTOL aircraft using modern estimation and control techniques. The control law uses a constant gain Kalman filter to process guidance information from the microwave landing system, and acceleration from body mounted accelerometer data. The filter outputs navigation data and wind velocity estimates which are used in controlling the aircraft. Results from a digital simulation of the aircraft dynamics and the control law are presented for various wind conditions.

Particle discrimination by an automatic scanner for nuclear emulsion plates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinecke, W.; Fischer, B.E.

1976-01-01

An automatic scanner for nuclear emulsion plates has been improved by adding particle discrimination. By determination of the mean luminosity of tracks in darkfield illumination in addition to the track length a clear discrimination has been obtained, at least for lighter particles. The scanning speed of the original automatic scanner has not been reduced. The scanner works up to 200 times faster than a human scanner. Besides the particle discrimination the determination of the mean track luminosity led to a lower perturbation sensitivity with respect to a high background of accidentally developed silvergrains, scratches in emulsion etc. The reproducibility of the results obtained by the automatic scanner is better than 5%. (Auth.)

Development of automatic pre-tracking system for fillet weld based on laser trigonometry

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Xiaoqin; Yu, Fusheng

2005-01-01

In this paper, an automatic fillet weld pre-tracking system for welding the work piece of lorry back boards with several bend in haul automobile is developed basing on laser trigonometry. The optical measuring head based on laser-PSD trigonometry is used as position sensor. It is placed in front of the traveling direction of welding wire to get the distances from welding wire to the two side boards of the welding lines, upper board and bottom board of the fillet weld respectively. A chip of AT89S52 is used as the micro controller in this system. The AC servomotors, ball-screws and straight guide rails constitute the sliding table to take welding wire move. The laser-PSD sensors pass through the vertical board, upper board and bottom board of the fillet weld when welding wire moves and then get the distance. The laser-PSD sensors output the analog signals. After A/D conversion, the digital signal is input into AT89S52 and calculated. Then the information of the position and lateral deviation of the welding wire when welding a certain position are gotten to control welding wires. So the weld pre-tracking for welding the work piece with long distance and large bend in haul automobile is realized. The position information is input into EEPROM to be saved for short time after handled by AT89S52. The information is as the welding position information as well as the speed adjusting data of the welding wire when it welds the several bend of the work piece. The practice indicates that this system has high pre-tracking precision, good anti-disturb ability, excellent reliability, easy operating ability and good adaptability to the field of production.

NucliTrack: an integrated nuclei tracking application.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Sam; Barr, Alexis R; Glen, Robert; Bakal, Chris

2017-10-15

Live imaging studies give unparalleled insight into dynamic single cell behaviours and fate decisions. However, the challenge of reliably tracking single cells over long periods of time limits both the throughput and ease with which such studies can be performed. Here, we present NucliTrack, a cross platform solution for automatically segmenting, tracking and extracting features from fluorescently labelled nuclei. NucliTrack performs similarly to other state-of-the-art cell tracking algorithms, but NucliTrack's interactive, graphical interface makes it significantly more user friendly. NucliTrack is available as a free, cross platform application and open source Python package. Installation details and documentation are at: http://nuclitrack.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ A video guide can be viewed online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6e0D9F-qSU Source code is available through Github: https://github.com/samocooper/nuclitrack. A Matlab toolbox is also available at: https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/61479-samocooper-nuclitrack-matlab. sam@socooper.com. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Automatic methods for long-term tracking and the detection and decoding of communication dances in honeybees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando eWario

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The honeybee waggle dance communication system is an intriguing example of abstract animal communication and has been investigated thoroughly throughout the last seven decades. Typically, observables such as durations or angles are extracted manually directly from the observation hive or from video recordings to quantify dance properties, particularly to determine where bees have foraged. In recent years, biology has profited from automation, improving measurement precision, removing human bias, and accelerating data collection. As a further step, we have developed technologies to track all individuals of a honeybee colony and detect and decode communication dances automatically. In strong contrast to conventional approaches that focus on a small subset of the hive life, whether this regards time, space, or animal identity, our more inclusive system will help the understanding of the dance comprehensively in its spatial, temporal, and social context. In this contribution, we present full specifications of the recording setup and the software for automatic recognition and decoding of tags and dances, and we discuss potential research directions that may benefit from automation. Lastly, to exemplify the power of the methodology, we show experimental data and respective analyses for a continuous, experimental recording of nine weeks duration.

Second sound tracking system

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jihee; Ihas, Gary G.; Ekdahl, Dan

2017-10-01

It is common that a physical system resonates at a particular frequency, whose frequency depends on physical parameters which may change in time. Often, one would like to automatically track this signal as the frequency changes, measuring, for example, its amplitude. In scientific research, one would also like to utilize the standard methods, such as lock-in amplifiers, to improve the signal to noise ratio. We present a complete He ii second sound system that uses positive feedback to generate a sinusoidal signal of constant amplitude via automatic gain control. This signal is used to produce temperature/entropy waves (second sound) in superfluid helium-4 (He ii). A lock-in amplifier limits the oscillation to a desirable frequency and demodulates the received sound signal. Using this tracking system, a second sound signal probed turbulent decay in He ii. We present results showing that the tracking system is more reliable than those of a conventional fixed frequency method; there is less correlation with temperature (frequency) fluctuation when the tracking system is used.

Automatic video surveillance of outdoor scenes using track before detect

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Morten; Sørensen, Helge Bjarup Dissing; Birkemark, Christian M.

2005-01-01

This paper concerns automatic video surveillance of outdoor scenes using a single camera. The first step in automatic interpretation of the video stream is activity detection based on background subtraction. Usually, this process will generate a large number of false alarms in outdoor scenes due...

Automatic Thermal Infrared Panoramic Imaging Sensor

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Gutin, Mikhail; Tsui, Eddy K; Gutin, Olga; Wang, Xu-Ming; Gutin, Alexey

2006-01-01

.... Automatic detection, location, and tracking of targets outside protected area ensures maximum protection and at the same time reduces the workload on personnel, increases reliability and confidence...

Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boulyga, S.F.; Boulyga, E.G.; Lomonosova, E.M.; Zhuk, I.V

1999-06-01

An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclear tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recognition program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensuring a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on automatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being comparable with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the range of up to 2{center_dot}10{sup 5} tracks/cm{sup 2}. The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements.

Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boulyga, S.F.; Boulyga, E.G.; Lomonosova, E.M.; Zhuk, I.V.

1999-01-01

An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclear tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recognition program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensuring a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on automatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being comparable with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the range of up to 2·10 5 tracks/cm 2 . The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements

Automation system for optical counting of nuclear tracks

CERN Document Server

Boulyga, S F; Lomonosova, E M; Zhuk, I V

1999-01-01

An automation system consisting of the microscope, video camera and Pentium PC with frame recorder was created. The system provides counting of nuclear tracks on the SSNTD surface with a resolution of 752 x 582 points, determination of the surface area and main axis of the track. The pattern recognition program was developed for operation in Windows 3.1 (or higher) ensuring a convenient interface with the user. In a comparison of the results on automatic track counting with the more accurate hand mode it was shown that the program enables the tracks to be detected even on images with a rather high noise level. It ensures a high accuracy of track counting being comparable with the accuracy of manual counting for densities of tracks in the range of up to 2 centre dot 10 sup 5 tracks/cm sup 2. The automatic system was applied in the experimental investigation of uranium and transuranium elements.

Automatic spark counting of alpha-tracks in plastic foils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Somogyi, G.; Medveczky, L.; Hunyadi, I.; Nyako, B.

1976-01-01

The possibility of alpha-track counting by jumping spark counter in cellulose acetate and polycarbonate nuclear track detectors was studied. A theoretical treatment is presented which predicts the optimum residual thickness of the etched foils in which completely through-etched tracks (i.e. holes) can be obtained for alpha-particles of various energies and angles of incidence. In agreement with the theoretical prediction it is shown that a successful spark counting of alpha-tracks can be performed even in polycarbonate foils. Some counting characteristics, such as counting efficiency vs particle energy at various etched foil thicknesses, surface spark density produced by electric breakdowns in unexposed foils vs foil thickness, etc. have been determined. Special attention was given to the spark counting of alpha-tracks entering thin detectors at right angle. The applicability of the spark counting technique is demonstrated in angular distribution measurements of the 27 Al(p,α 0 ) 24 Mg nuclear reaction at Ep = 1899 keV resonance energy. For this study 15 μm thick Makrofol-G foils and a jumping spark counter of improved construction were used. (orig.) [de

A practical approach to tramway track condition monitoring: vertical track defects detection and identification using time-frequency processing technique

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bocz Péter

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an automatic method for detecting vertical track irregularities on tramway operation using acceleration measurements on trams. For monitoring of tramway tracks, an unconventional measurement setup is developed, which records the data of 3-axes wireless accelerometers mounted on wheel discs. Accelerations are processed to obtain the vertical track irregularities to determine whether the track needs to be repaired. The automatic detection algorithm is based on time–frequency distribution analysis and determines the defect locations. Admissible limits (thresholds are given for detecting moderate and severe defects using statistical analysis. The method was validated on frequented tram lines in Budapest and accurately detected severe defects with a hit rate of 100%, with no false alarms. The methodology is also sensitive to moderate and small rail surface defects at the low operational speed.

Tracking control mechanisms for positioning automatic CRD exchanger

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koizumi, Akira; Takada, Satoshi.

1984-01-01

Purpose: To enable completely automatic positioning for the automatic CRD (control rod drives) exchanger, as well as shorten the time for the exchanging operation and save the operator's labour. Constitution: Images of a target attached to the lower flange face of CRD are picked up by a fiber scope mounted to a mounting head. The images are converted through I.T.V. into electrical signals, passed through a cable and then sent to a pattern recognition mechanism. The position for the images of the target is calculated and the calculated position is sent to a drive control section, where the position for the images of the target is compared with a reference position for the images (exactly aligned position) and the moving amount of the mounting head is calculated to move the driving section and thereby complete the positioning. (Kawakami, Y.)

An automatic evaluation system for NTA film neutron dosimeters

CERN Document Server

Müller, R

1999-01-01

At CERN, neutron personal monitoring for over 4000 collaborators is performed with Kodak NTA films, which have been shown to be the most suitable neutron dosimeter in the radiation environment around high-energy accelerators. To overcome the lengthy and strenuous manual scanning process with an optical microscope, an automatic analysis system has been developed. We report on the successful automatic scanning of NTA films irradiated with sup 2 sup 3 sup 8 Pu-Be source neutrons, which results in densely ionised recoil tracks, as well as on the extension of the method to higher energy neutrons causing sparse and fragmentary tracks. The application of the method in routine personal monitoring is discussed. $9 overcome the lengthy and strenuous manual scanning process with an optical microscope, an automatic analysis system has been developed. We report on the successful automatic scanning of NTA films irradiated with /sup 238/Pu-Be source $9 discussed. (10 refs).

A benchmark for comparison of cell tracking algorithms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Maška (Martin); V. Ulman (Vladimír); K. Svoboda; P. Matula (Pavel); P. Matula (Petr); C. Ederra (Cristina); A. Urbiola (Ainhoa); T. España (Tomás); R. Venkatesan (Rajkumar); D.M.W. Balak (Deepak); P. Karas (Pavel); T. Bolcková (Tereza); M. Štreitová (Markéta); C. Carthel (Craig); S. Coraluppi (Stefano); N. Harder (Nathalie); K. Rohr (Karl); K.E.G. Magnusson (Klas E.); J. Jaldén (Joakim); H.M. Blau (Helen); O.M. Dzyubachyk (Oleh); P. Křížek (Pavel); G.M. Hagen (Guy); D. Pastor-Escuredo (David); D. Jimenez-Carretero (Daniel); M.J. Ledesma-Carbayo (Maria); A. Muñoz-Barrutia (Arrate); E. Meijering (Erik); M. Kozubek (Michal); C. Ortiz-De-Solorzano (Carlos)

2014-01-01

textabstractMotivation: Automatic tracking of cells in multidimensional time-lapse fluorescence microscopy is an important task in many biomedical applications. A novel framework for objective evaluation of cell tracking algorithms has been established under the auspices of the IEEE International

Determination of ocular torsion by means of automatic pattern recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, E.L.; Bos, J.E.; Nacken, P.F.M.; Graaf, B. de

1996-01-01

A new, automatic method for determination of human ocular torsion (OT) was devel-oped based on the tracking of iris patterns in digitized video images. Instead of quanti-fying OT by means of cross-correlation of circular iris samples, a procedure commonly applied, this new method automatically

Determination of ocular torsion by means of automatic pattern recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groen, Eric; Bos, Jelte E.; Nacken, Peter F M; De Graaf, Bernd

A new, automatic method for determination of human ocular torsion (OT) was developed based on the tracking of iris patterns in digitized video images. Instead of quantifying OT by means of cross-correlation of circular iris samples, a procedure commonly applied, this new method automatically selects

Speckle tracking in a phantom and feature-based tracking in liver in the presence of respiratory motion using 4D ultrasound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, Emma J; Miller, Naomi R; Bamber, Jeffrey C; Symonds-Tayler, J Richard N; Evans, Philip M

2010-01-01

We have evaluated a 4D ultrasound-based motion tracking system developed for tracking of abdominal organs during therapy. Tracking accuracy and precision were determined using a tissue-mimicking phantom, by comparing tracked motion with known 3D sinusoidal motion. The feasibility of tracking 3D liver motion in vivo was evaluated by acquiring 4D ultrasound data from four healthy volunteers. For two of these volunteers, data were also acquired whilst simultaneously measuring breath flow using a spirometer. Hepatic blood vessels, tracked off-line using manual tracking, were used as a reference to assess, in vivo, two types of automated tracking algorithm: incremental (from one volume to the next) and non-incremental (from the first volume to each subsequent volume). For phantom-based experiments, accuracy and precision (RMS error and SD) were found to be 0.78 mm and 0.54 mm, respectively. For in vivo measurements, mean absolute distance and standard deviation of the difference between automatically and manually tracked displacements were less than 1.7 mm and 1 mm respectively in all directions (left-right, anterior-posterior and superior-inferior). In vivo non-incremental tracking gave the best agreement. In both phantom and in vivo experiments, tracking performance was poorest for the elevational component of 3D motion. Good agreement between automatically and manually tracked displacements indicates that 4D ultrasound-based motion tracking has potential for image guidance applications in therapy.

Automatic detection of the macula in retinal fundus images using seeded mode tracking approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Damon W K; Liu, Jiang; Tan, Ngan-Meng; Yin, Fengshou; Cheng, Xiangang; Cheng, Ching-Yu; Cheung, Gemmy C M; Wong, Tien Yin

2012-01-01

The macula is the part of the eye responsible for central high acuity vision. Detection of the macula is an important task in retinal image processing as a landmark for subsequent disease assessment, such as for age-related macula degeneration. In this paper, we have presented an approach to automatically determine the macula centre in retinal fundus images. First contextual information on the image is combined with a statistical model to obtain an approximate macula region of interest localization. Subsequently, we propose the use of a seeded mode tracking technique to locate the macula centre. The proposed approach is tested on a large dataset composed of 482 normal images and 162 glaucoma images from the ORIGA database and an additional 96 AMD images. The results show a ROI detection of 97.5%, and 90.5% correct detection of the macula within 1/3DD from a manual reference, which outperforms other current methods. The results are promising for the use of the proposed approach to locate the macula for the detection of macula diseases from retinal images.

Tracking of Individuals in Very Long Video Sequences

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fihl, Preben; Corlin, Rasmus; Park, Sangho

2006-01-01

In this paper we present an approach for automatically detecting and tracking humans in very long video sequences. The detection is based on background subtraction using a multi-mode Codeword method. We enhance this method both in terms of representation and in terms of automatically updating...

Development of nuclear track detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Somogyi, Gyoergy

1985-01-01

The birth and development of two decades of a new nuclear detection method is briefly summarized by one of the first inventors. The main steps of the development and broadening application of nuclear solid state track detectors are described underlying the contribution and main results of the research group of ATOMKI, Hungary (i.e. the finding of the proper plastic materials for track detectors, the discovery of correlations between the track diameter and the particle energy, the increasing of energy resolution, explanation of the track developing process, elaboration of new electrochemical track analyzing methods and automatic track analyzers). Recently, this detecting technique has grown to the phase of the industrial mass production and broad application in radiogeochemistry, mining, radioecology, personal monitoring in nuclear power plants, etc. (D.Gy.)

Usage of aids monitoring in automatic braking systems of modern cars

OpenAIRE

Dembitskyi V.; Mazylyuk P.; Sitovskyi O.

2016-01-01

Increased safety can be carried out at the expense the installation on vehicles of automatic braking systems, that monitor the traffic situation and the actions of the driver. In this paper considered the advantages and disadvantages of automatic braking systems, were analyzed modern tracking tools that are used in automatic braking systems. Based on the statistical data on accidents, are set the main dangers, that the automatic braking system will be reduced. In order to ensure the acc...

Object Detection and Tracking-Based Camera Calibration for Normalized Human Height Estimation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaehoon Jung

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a normalized human height estimation algorithm using an uncalibrated camera. To estimate the normalized human height, the proposed algorithm detects a moving object and performs tracking-based automatic camera calibration. The proposed method consists of three steps: (i moving human detection and tracking, (ii automatic camera calibration, and (iii human height estimation and error correction. The proposed method automatically calibrates camera by detecting moving humans and estimates the human height using error correction. The proposed method can be applied to object-based video surveillance systems and digital forensic.

Real-Time FPGA-Based Object Tracker with Automatic Pan-Tilt Features for Smart Video Surveillance Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanjay Singh

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The design of smart video surveillance systems is an active research field among the computer vision community because of their ability to perform automatic scene analysis by selecting and tracking the objects of interest. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of an FPGA-based standalone working prototype system for real-time tracking of an object of interest in live video streams for such systems. In addition to real-time tracking of the object of interest, the implemented system is also capable of providing purposive automatic camera movement (pan-tilt in the direction determined by movement of the tracked object. The complete system, including camera interface, DDR2 external memory interface controller, designed object tracking VLSI architecture, camera movement controller and display interface, has been implemented on the Xilinx ML510 (Virtex-5 FX130T FPGA Board. Our proposed, designed and implemented system robustly tracks the target object present in the scene in real time for standard PAL (720 × 576 resolution color video and automatically controls camera movement in the direction determined by the movement of the tracked object.

An automatic, stagnation point based algorithm for the delineation of Wellhead Protection Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Tosco, Tiziana; Sethi, Rajandrea; di Molfetta, Antonio

2008-07-01

Time-related capture areas are usually delineated using the backward particle tracking method, releasing circles of equally spaced particles around each well. In this way, an accurate delineation often requires both a very high number of particles and a manual capture zone encirclement. The aim of this work was to propose an Automatic Protection Area (APA) delineation algorithm, which can be coupled with any model of flow and particle tracking. The computational time is here reduced, thanks to the use of a limited number of nonequally spaced particles. The particle starting positions are determined coupling forward particle tracking from the stagnation point, and backward particle tracking from the pumping well. The pathlines are postprocessed for a completely automatic delineation of closed perimeters of time-related capture zones. The APA algorithm was tested for a two-dimensional geometry, in homogeneous and nonhomogeneous aquifers, steady state flow conditions, single and multiple wells. Results show that the APA algorithm is robust and able to automatically and accurately reconstruct protection areas with a very small number of particles, also in complex scenarios.

Usage of aids monitoring in automatic braking systems of modern cars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dembitskyi V.

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Increased safety can be carried out at the expense the installation on vehicles of automatic braking systems, that monitor the traffic situation and the actions of the driver. In this paper considered the advantages and disadvantages of automatic braking systems, were analyzed modern tracking tools that are used in automatic braking systems. Based on the statistical data on accidents, are set the main dangers, that the automatic braking system will be reduced. In order to ensure the accuracy of information conducted research for determination of optimal combination of different sensors that provide an adequate perception of road conditions. The tracking system should be equipped with a combination of sensors, which in the case of detection of an obstacle or dangers of signal is transmitted to the information processing system and decision making. Information from the monitoring system should include data for the identification of the object, its condition, the speed.

The "Smart Dining Table": Automatic Behavioral Tracking of a Meal with a Multi-Touch-Computer.

Science.gov (United States)

Manton, Sean; Magerowski, Greta; Patriarca, Laura; Alonso-Alonso, Miguel

2016-01-01

Studying how humans eat in the context of a meal is important to understanding basic mechanisms of food intake regulation and can help develop new interventions for the promotion of healthy eating and prevention of obesity and eating disorders. While there are a number of methodologies available for behavioral evaluation of a meal, there is a need for new tools that can simplify data collection through automatic and online analysis. Also, there are currently no methods that leverage technology to add a dimension of interactivity to the meal table. In this study, we examined the feasibility of a new technology for automatic detection and classification of bites during a laboratory meal. We used a SUR40 multi-touch tabletop computer, powered by an infrared camera behind the screen. Tags were attached to three plates, allowing their positions to be tracked, and the saturation (a measure of the infrared intensity) in the surrounding region was measured. A Kinect camera was used to record the meals for manual verification and provide gesture detection for when the bites were taken. Bite detections triggered classification of the source plate by the SUR40 based on saturation flux in the preceding time window. Five healthy subjects (aged 20-40 years, one female) were tested, providing a total sample of 320 bites. Sensitivity, defined as the number of correctly detected bites out of the number of actual bites, was 67.5%. Classification accuracy, defined as the number of correctly classified bites out of those detected, was 82.4%. Due to the poor sensitivity, a second experiment was designed using a single plate and a Myo armband containing a nine-axis accelerometer as an alternative method for bite detection. The same subjects were tested (sample: 195 bites). Using a simple threshold on the pitch reading of the magnetometer, the Myo data achieved 86.1% sensitivity vs. 60.5% with the Kinect. Further, the precision of positive predictive value was 72.1% for the Myo vs. 42

Automatic tracking of implanted fiducial markers in cone beam CT projection images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marchant, T. E.; Skalski, A.; Matuszewski, B. J.

2012-01-01

Purpose: This paper describes a novel method for simultaneous intrafraction tracking of multiple fiducial markers. Although the proposed method is generic and can be adopted for a number of applications including fluoroscopy based patient position monitoring and gated radiotherapy, the tracking results presented in this paper are specific to tracking fiducial markers in a sequence of cone beam CT projection images. Methods: The proposed method is accurate and robust thanks to utilizing the mean shift and random sampling principles, respectively. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated with qualitative and quantitative methods, using data from two pancreatic and one prostate cancer patients and a moving phantom. The ground truth, for quantitative evaluation, was calculated based on manual tracking preformed by three observers. Results: The average dispersion of marker position error calculated from the tracking results for pancreas data (six markers tracked over 640 frames, 3840 marker identifications) was 0.25 mm (at iscoenter), compared with an average dispersion for the manual ground truth estimated at 0.22 mm. For prostate data (three markers tracked over 366 frames, 1098 marker identifications), the average error was 0.34 mm. The estimated tracking error in the pancreas data was < 1 mm (2 pixels) in 97.6% of cases where nearby image clutter was detected and in 100.0% of cases with no nearby image clutter. Conclusions: The proposed method has accuracy comparable to that of manual tracking and, in combination with the proposed batch postprocessing, superior robustness. Marker tracking in cone beam CT (CBCT) projections is useful for a variety of purposes, such as providing data for assessment of intrafraction motion, target tracking during rotational treatment delivery, motion correction of CBCT, and phase sorting for 4D CBCT.

Endoscopic vision-based tracking of multiple surgical instruments during robot-assisted surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryu, Jiwon; Choi, Jaesoon; Kim, Hee Chan

2013-01-01

Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery is effective for operations in limited space. Enhancing safety based on automatic tracking of surgical instrument position to prevent inadvertent harmful events such as tissue perforation or instrument collisions could be a meaningful augmentation to current robotic surgical systems. A vision-based instrument tracking scheme as a core algorithm to implement such functions was developed in this study. An automatic tracking scheme is proposed as a chain of computer vision techniques, including classification of metallic properties using k-means clustering and instrument movement tracking using similarity measures, Euclidean distance calculations, and a Kalman filter algorithm. The implemented system showed satisfactory performance in tests using actual robot-assisted surgery videos. Trajectory comparisons of automatically detected data and ground truth data obtained by manually locating the center of mass of each instrument were used to quantitatively validate the system. Instruments and collisions could be well tracked through the proposed methods. The developed collision warning system could provide valuable information to clinicians for safer procedures. © 2012, Copyright the Authors. Artificial Organs © 2012, International Center for Artificial Organs and Transplantation and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Interactive navigation and bronchial tube tracking in virtual bronchoscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Heng, P A; Fung, P F; Wong, T T; Siu, Y H; Sun, H

1999-01-01

An interactive virtual environment for simulation of bronchoscopy is developed. Medical doctor can safely plan their surgical bronchoscopy using the virtual environment without any invasive diagnosis which may risk the patient's health. The 3D pen input device of the system allows the doctor to navigate and visualize the bronchial tree of the patient naturally and interactively. To navigate the patient's bronchial tree, a vessel tracking process is required. While manual tracking is tedious and labor-intensive, fully automatic tracking may not be reliable. We propose a semi-automatic tracking technique called Intelligent Path Tracker which provides automation and enough user control during the vessel tracking. To support an interactive frame rate, we also introduce a new volume rendering acceleration technique, named as IsoRegion Leaping. The volume rendering is further accelerated by distributed rendering on a TCP/IP-based network of low-cost PCs. With these approaches, a 256 x 256 x 256 volume data of human lung, can be navigated and visualized at a frame rate of over 10 Hz in our virtual bronchoscopy system.

Opportune acquisition and tracking time for the fast-moving targets in a ground-based telescope

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Juan; Wang, Jianli; Chen, Tao

2004-10-01

Acquisition is defined as identification for a fixed target in the related field of sight (FOS), while tracking means the sway of the telescope's axis of sight (AOS). The automatic acquisition and tracking is a process in which the operating way of the telescope should be switched from guiding to automatic tracking. There are some kinds of method to improve the acquisition and tracking ability for fast moving targets: to extend the acquisition and tracking FOS with memory and storage information of the sensor system; the multimode control to improve the dynamic property of the servo system; to choose an opportune time for acquisition and tracking; to select the control regulator parameter in every working states. If the processor of the CCD sensor can temporarily remember and save the information of the target before it moves out of the FOS, correspondingly, the FOS may be extended. The data forecast technology is used to store the target information. The automatic interception experiments are carried out to verify the control strategy.

Emergency Brake for Tracked Vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Green, G. L.; Hooper, S. L.

1986-01-01

Caliper brake automatically stops tracked vehicle as vehicle nears end of travel. Bar on vehicle, traveling to right, dislodges block between brake pads. Pads then press against bar, slowing vehicle by friction. Emergencybraking system suitable for elevators, amusement rides and machine tools.

Automatic fault extraction using a modified ant-colony algorithm

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, Junsheng; Sun, Sam Zandong

2013-01-01

The basis of automatic fault extraction is seismic attributes, such as the coherence cube which is always used to identify a fault by the minimum value. The biggest challenge in automatic fault extraction is noise, including that of seismic data. However, a fault has a better spatial continuity in certain direction, which makes it quite different from noise. Considering this characteristic, a modified ant-colony algorithm is introduced into automatic fault identification and tracking, where the gradient direction and direction consistency are used as constraints. Numerical model test results show that this method is feasible and effective in automatic fault extraction and noise suppression. The application of field data further illustrates its validity and superiority. (paper)

Development of automatic laser welding system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohwaki, Katsura

2002-01-01

Laser are a new production tool for high speed and low distortion welding and applications to automatic welding lines are increasing. IHI has long experience of laser processing for the preservation of nuclear power plants, welding of airplane engines and so on. Moreover, YAG laser oscillators and various kinds of hardware have been developed for laser welding and automation. Combining these welding technologies and laser hardware technologies produce the automatic laser welding system. In this paper, the component technologies are described, including combined optics intended to improve welding stability, laser oscillators, monitoring system, seam tracking system and so on. (author)

Automatic food decisions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mueller Loose, Simone

Consumers' food decisions are to a large extent shaped by automatic processes, which are either internally directed through learned habits and routines or externally influenced by context factors and visual information triggers. Innovative research methods such as eye tracking, choice experiments...... and food diaries allow us to better understand the impact of unconscious processes on consumers' food choices. Simone Mueller Loose will provide an overview of recent research insights into the effects of habit and context on consumers' food choices....

Device for glass detector tracks processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhukov, A.V.; Mikheev, V.P.; Pis'mennyj, G.V.; Pribytov, V.I.; Rozov, B.S.

1974-01-01

The authors describe a semi-automatic installation for measuring angular distribution of tracks from nuclear fission fragments. The measurements were performed on glass detectors represented by a cylinder surface section with central angle 110-120 deg, height 20 mm and radius 45 mm. The tracks were in the form of lunes, 10/25 mm deep. Treatment of one detector lasted 10-15 min. The installation affords the possibility of finding the angular distribution of tracks by counting them in zones, whose sizes may vary from 1 to 90 deg. Data output was performed on a digitizer [ru

Automatic Estimation of Movement Statistics of People

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ægidiussen Jensen, Thomas; Rasmussen, Henrik Anker; Moeslund, Thomas B.

2012-01-01

Automatic analysis of how people move about in a particular environment has a number of potential applications. However, no system has so far been able to do detection and tracking robustly. Instead, trajectories are often broken into tracklets. The key idea behind this paper is based around...

Automatic identification in mining

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Puckett, D; Patrick, C [Mine Computers and Electronics Inc., Morehead, KY (United States)

1998-06-01

The feasibility of monitoring the locations and vital statistics of equipment and personnel in surface and underground mining operations has increased with advancements in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. This paper addresses the use of RFID technology, which is relatively new to the mining industry, to track surface equipment in mine pits, loading points and processing facilities. Specific applications are discussed, including both simplified and complex truck tracking systems and an automatic pit ticket system. This paper concludes with a discussion of the future possibilities of using RFID technology in mining including monitoring heart and respiration rates, body temperatures and exertion levels; monitoring repetitious movements for the study of work habits; and logging air quality via personnel sensors. 10 refs., 5 figs.

Graph-based geometric-iconic guide-wire tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Honnorat, Nicolas; Vaillant, Régis; Paragios, Nikos

2011-01-01

In this paper we introduce a novel hybrid graph-based approach for Guide-wire tracking. The image support is captured by steerable filters and improved through tensor voting. Then, a graphical model is considered that represents guide-wire extraction/tracking through a B-spline control-point model. Points with strong geometric interest (landmarks) are automatically determined and anchored to such a representation. Tracking is then performed through discrete MRFs that optimize the spatio-temporal positions of the control points while establishing landmark temporal correspondences. Promising results demonstrate the potentials of our method.

Track segment synthesis method for NTA film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumazawa, Shigeru

1980-03-01

A method is presented for synthesizing track segments extracted from a gray-level digital picture of NTA film in automatic counting system. In order to detect each track in an arbitrary direction, even if it has some gaps, as a set of the track segments, the method links extracted segments along the track, in succession, to the linked track segments, according to whether each extracted segment bears a similarity of direction to the track or not and whether it is connected with the linked track segments or not. In the case of a large digital picture, the method is applied to each subpicture, which is a strip of the picture, and then concatenates subsets of track segments linked at each subpicture as a set of track segments belonging to a track. The method was applied to detecting tracks in various directions over the eight 364 x 40-pixel subpictures with the gray scale of 127/pixel (picture element) of the microphotograph of NTA film. It was proved to be able to synthesize track segments correctly for every track in the picture. (author)

Interactive and automated systems for nuclear track measurements with applications to fast neutron dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberts, J.H.; Gold, R.; McNeece, J.P.; Preston, C.C.; Ruddy, F.H.

1983-12-01

Interactive and automatic track measuring systems have been developed primarily for fast neutron dosimetry in and around reactors. The interactive system is used for proton recoil measurements in nuclear research emulsions and the automatic systems for counting fission fragment tracks in Muscovite mica. The status of these systems, along with illustrative applications, are presented, particularly with regard to their relationship to neutron personnel dosimetry. 16 references, 12 figures

Robust multiple cue fusion-based high-speed and nonrigid object tracking algorithm for short track speed skating

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Chenguang; Cheng, Heng-Da; Zhang, Yingtao; Wang, Yuxuan; Xian, Min

2016-01-01

This paper presents a methodology for tracking multiple skaters in short track speed skating competitions. Nonrigid skaters move at high speed with severe occlusions happening frequently among them. The camera is panned quickly in order to capture the skaters in a large and dynamic scene. To automatically track the skaters and precisely output their trajectories becomes a challenging task in object tracking. We employ the global rink information to compensate camera motion and obtain the global spatial information of skaters, utilize random forest to fuse multiple cues and predict the blob of each skater, and finally apply a silhouette- and edge-based template-matching and blob-evolving method to labelling pixels to a skater. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are verified through thorough experiments.

Tracking of nuclear shipments with automatic vehicle location systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colhoun, C.J.K.

1989-01-01

A complete Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL) consists of three main elements: (1) the location sensor in the vehicle, this device constantly determines the coordinates of the vehicles position; (2) the radio link between vehicle and central base; (3) the data processing and display in the central base. For all three elements there are several solutions. The optimal combination of the different techniques depends on the requirements of the special application

Guitarist Fingertip Tracking by Integrating a Bayesian Classifier into Particle Filters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chutisant Kerdvibulvech

2008-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a vision-based method for tracking guitar fingerings made by guitar players. We present it as a new framework for tracking colored finger markers by integrating a Bayesian classifier into particle filters. This adds the useful abilities of automatic track initialization and recovery from tracking failures in a dynamic background. Furthermore, by using the online adaptation of color probabilities, this method is able to cope with illumination changes. Augmented Reality Tag (ARTag is then utilized to calculate the projection matrix as an online process which allows the guitar to be moved while being played. Representative experimental results are also included. The method presented can be used to develop the application of human-computer interaction (HCI to guitar playing by recognizing the chord being played by a guitarist in virtual spaces. The aforementioned application would assist guitar learners by allowing them to automatically identify if they are using the correct chords required by the musical piece.

Intelligent Materials Tracking System for Construction Projects Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narimah Kasim

2015-05-01

Full Text Available An essential factor adversely affecting the performance of construction projects is the improper handling of materials during site activities. In addition, paper-based reports are mostly used to record and exchange information related to the material components within the supply chain, which is problematic and inefficient. Generally, technologies (such as wireless systems and RFID are not being adequately used to overcome human errors and are not well integrated with project management systems to make tracking and management of materials easier and faster. Findings from a literature review and surveys showed that there is a lack of positive examples of such tools having been used effectively. Therefore, this research focused on the development of a materials tracking system that integrates RFID-based materials management with resources modelling to improve on-site materials tracking. Rapid prototyping was used to develop the system and testing of the system was carried out to examine the functionality and working appropriately. The proposed system is intended to promote the employment of RFID for automatic materials tracking with integration of resource modelling (Microsoft (R Office Project in the project management system in order to establish which of the tagged components are required resources for certain project tasks. In conclusion, the system provides an automatic and easy tracking method for managing materials during materials delivery and inventory management processes in construction projects.

Quasiinvariant Automatic Control Digital Systems of Inertia Objects

OpenAIRE

Lvov, Volodymyr; Andrieiev, Anatoliy

2010-01-01

The two-connected automatic control digital system (ACDS) and system of ACDS with combined control are examined. The two-connected and combined system of ACDS with work in the mode of tracking and stabilizing are analyzed. The discrete transfer function of two-connected and combined systems are obtained.

Design, construction and operation of spherical solar cooker with automatic sun tracking system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abu-Malouh, Riyad; Abdallah, Salah; Muslih, Iyad M.

2011-01-01

In this work, the effect of two axes tracking on a solar cooking system was studied. A dish was built to concentrate solar radiation on a pan that is fixed at the focus of the dish. The dish tracks the sun using a two axes sun tracking system. This system was built and tested. Experimental results obtained show that the temperature inside the pan reached more than 93 o C in a day where the maximum ambient temperature was 32 o C. This temperature is suitable for cooking purposes and this was achieved by using the two axes sun tracking system.

Risk evaluation on the basis of pressure rate measured by automatic pressure tracking adiabatic calorimeter.

Science.gov (United States)

Iwata, Yusaku; Koseki, Hiroshi

2008-11-15

An automatic pressure tracking adiabatic calorimeter (APTAC) had been employed to obtain the thermokinetic and the vapor pressure data during runaway reactions. The APTAC is an adiabatic calorimeter with a large-scale sample mass and low thermal inertia, and is an extremely useful tool for assessing thermal hazards of reactive chemicals. The data obtained by the APTAC are important information for the design of the safe industrial process. The thermodynamics parameters and the gas production were discussed on the basis of the experimental data of various concentrations and weights of di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP)/toluene solution for the purpose of investigating the properties of the APTAC data. The thermal decomposition of DTBP was studied on the basis of the temperature data and the pressure data obtained by the APTAC. The activation energy and the frequency factor of DTBP are nearly constant and the same as the literature values in the concentrations between 20 and 60 wt.%. The pressure rise due to gas production is important data for designing the relief vent of a reactor. The time history of the gas production was investigated with various weights and concentrations. The total gas production index, which had the vapor pressure correction, was 1.0 in the decomposition of DTBP.

Risk evaluation on the basis of pressure rate measured by automatic pressure tracking adiabatic calorimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwata, Yusaku; Koseki, Hiroshi

2008-01-01

An automatic pressure tracking adiabatic calorimeter (APTAC) had been employed to obtain the thermokinetic and the vapor pressure data during runaway reactions. The APTAC is an adiabatic calorimeter with a large-scale sample mass and low thermal inertia, and is an extremely useful tool for assessing thermal hazards of reactive chemicals. The data obtained by the APTAC are important information for the design of the safe industrial process. The thermodynamics parameters and the gas production were discussed on the basis of the experimental data of various concentrations and weights of di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP)/toluene solution for the purpose of investigating the properties of the APTAC data. The thermal decomposition of DTBP was studied on the basis of the temperature data and the pressure data obtained by the APTAC. The activation energy and the frequency factor of DTBP are nearly constant and the same as the literature values in the concentrations between 20 and 60 wt.%. The pressure rise due to gas production is important data for designing the relief vent of a reactor. The time history of the gas production was investigated with various weights and concentrations. The total gas production index, which had the vapor pressure correction, was 1.0 in the decomposition of DTBP

Automatic bone detection and soft tissue aware ultrasound-CT registration for computer-aided orthopedic surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Wein, Wolfgang; Karamalis, Athanasios; Baumgartner, Adrian; Navab, Nassir

2015-06-01

The transfer of preoperative CT data into the tracking system coordinates within an operating room is of high interest for computer-aided orthopedic surgery. In this work, we introduce a solution for intra-operative ultrasound-CT registration of bones. We have developed methods for fully automatic real-time bone detection in ultrasound images and global automatic registration to CT. The bone detection algorithm uses a novel bone-specific feature descriptor and was thoroughly evaluated on both in-vivo and ex-vivo data. A global optimization strategy aligns the bone surface, followed by a soft tissue aware intensity-based registration to provide higher local registration accuracy. We evaluated the system on femur, tibia and fibula anatomy in a cadaver study with human legs, where magnetically tracked bone markers were implanted to yield ground truth information. An overall median system error of 3.7 mm was achieved on 11 datasets. Global and fully automatic registration of bones aquired with ultrasound to CT is feasible, with bone detection and tracking operating in real time for immediate feedback to the surgeon.

Data-driven automatic parking constrained control for four-wheeled mobile vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenxu Yan

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In this article, a novel data-driven constrained control scheme is proposed for automatic parking systems. The design of the proposed scheme only depends on the steering angle and the orientation angle of the car, and it does not involve any model information of the car. Therefore, the proposed scheme-based automatic parking system is applicable to different kinds of cars. In order to further reduce the desired trajectory coordinate tracking errors, a coordinates compensation algorithm is also proposed. In the design procedure of the controller, a novel dynamic anti-windup compensator is used to deal with the change magnitude and rate saturations of automatic parking control input. It is theoretically proven that all the signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded based on Lyapunov stability analysis method. Finally, a simulation comparison among the proposed scheme with coordinates compensation and Proportion Integration Differentiation (PID control algorithm is given. It is shown that the proposed scheme with coordinates compensation has smaller tracking errors and more rapid responses than PID scheme.

An enhanced model for automatically extracting topic phrase from ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The key benefit foreseen from this automatic document classification is not only related to search engines, but also to many other fields like, document organization, text filtering and semantic index managing. Key words: Keyphrase extraction, machine learning, search engine snippet, document classification, topic tracking ...

Automatic Prostate Tracking and Motion Assessment in Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy With an Electronic Portal Imaging Device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azcona, Juan Diego; Li, Ruijiang; Mok, Edward; Hancock, Steven; Xing, Lei

2013-01-01

Purpose: To assess the prostate intrafraction motion in volumetric modulated arc therapy treatments using cine megavoltage (MV) images acquired with an electronic portal imaging device (EPID). Methods and Materials: Ten prostate cancer patients were treated with volumetric modulated arc therapy using a Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator equipped with an EPID for acquiring cine MV images during treatment. Cine MV images acquisition was scheduled for single or multiple treatment fractions (between 1 and 8). A novel automatic fiducial detection algorithm that can handle irregular multileaf collimator apertures, field edges, fast leaf and gantry movement, and MV image noise and artifacts in patient anatomy was used. All sets of images (approximately 25,000 images in total) were analyzed to measure the positioning accuracy of implanted fiducial markers and assess the prostate movement. Results: Prostate motion can vary greatly in magnitude among different patients. Different motion patterns were identified, showing its unpredictability. The mean displacement and standard deviation of the intrafraction motion was generally less than 2.0 ± 2.0 mm in each of the spatial directions. In certain patients, however, the percentage of the treatment time in which the prostate is displaced more than 5 mm from its planned position in at least 1 spatial direction was 10% or more. The maximum prostate displacement observed was 13.3 mm. Conclusion: Prostate tracking and motion assessment was performed with MV imaging and an EPID. The amount of prostate motion observed suggests that patients will benefit from its real-time monitoring. Megavoltage imaging can provide the basis for real-time prostate tracking using conventional linear accelerators

A Statistical Approach to Continuous Self-Calibrating Eye Gaze Tracking for Head-Mounted Virtual Reality Systems

OpenAIRE

Tripathi, Subarna; Guenter, Brian

2016-01-01

We present a novel, automatic eye gaze tracking scheme inspired by smooth pursuit eye motion while playing mobile games or watching virtual reality contents. Our algorithm continuously calibrates an eye tracking system for a head mounted display. This eliminates the need for an explicit calibration step and automatically compensates for small movements of the headset with respect to the head. The algorithm finds correspondences between corneal motion and screen space motion, and uses these to...

Novel approach to automatically classify rat social behavior using a video tracking system.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Suzanne M; Pinter, Ilona J; Pothuizen, Helen H J; de Heer, Raymond C; van der Harst, Johanneke E; Spruijt, Berry M

2016-08-01

In the past, studies in behavioral neuroscience and drug development have relied on simple and quick readout parameters of animal behavior to assess treatment efficacy or to understand underlying brain mechanisms. The predominant use of classical behavioral tests has been repeatedly criticized during the last decades because of their poor reproducibility, poor translational value and the limited explanatory power in functional terms. We present a new method to monitor social behavior of rats using automated video tracking. The velocity of moving and the distance between two rats were plotted in frequency distributions. In addition, behavior was manually annotated and related to the automatically obtained parameters for a validated interpretation. Inter-individual distance in combination with velocity of movement provided specific behavioral classes, such as moving with high velocity when "in contact" or "in proximity". Human observations showed that these classes coincide with following (chasing) behavior. In addition, when animals are "in contact", but at low velocity, behaviors such as allogrooming and social investigation were observed. Also, low dose treatment with morphine and short isolation increased the time animals spent in contact or in proximity at high velocity. Current methods that involve the investigation of social rat behavior are mostly limited to short and relatively simple manual observations. A new and automated method for analyzing social behavior in a social interaction test is presented here and shows to be sensitive to drug treatment and housing conditions known to influence social behavior in rats. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automatically tracking neurons in a moving and deforming brain.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffrey P Nguyen

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Advances in optical neuroimaging techniques now allow neural activity to be recorded with cellular resolution in awake and behaving animals. Brain motion in these recordings pose a unique challenge. The location of individual neurons must be tracked in 3D over time to accurately extract single neuron activity traces. Recordings from small invertebrates like C. elegans are especially challenging because they undergo very large brain motion and deformation during animal movement. Here we present an automated computer vision pipeline to reliably track populations of neurons with single neuron resolution in the brain of a freely moving C. elegans undergoing large motion and deformation. 3D volumetric fluorescent images of the animal's brain are straightened, aligned and registered, and the locations of neurons in the images are found via segmentation. Each neuron is then assigned an identity using a new time-independent machine-learning approach we call Neuron Registration Vector Encoding. In this approach, non-rigid point-set registration is used to match each segmented neuron in each volume with a set of reference volumes taken from throughout the recording. The way each neuron matches with the references defines a feature vector which is clustered to assign an identity to each neuron in each volume. Finally, thin-plate spline interpolation is used to correct errors in segmentation and check consistency of assigned identities. The Neuron Registration Vector Encoding approach proposed here is uniquely well suited for tracking neurons in brains undergoing large deformations. When applied to whole-brain calcium imaging recordings in freely moving C. elegans, this analysis pipeline located 156 neurons for the duration of an 8 minute recording and consistently found more neurons more quickly than manual or semi-automated approaches.

Combining Space-Based and In-Situ Measurements to Track Flooding in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Chien, Steve; Doubleday, Joshua; Mclaren, David; Tran, Daniel; Tanpipat, Veerachai; Chitradon, Royal; Boonya-aaroonnet, Surajate; Thanapakpawin, Porranee; Khunboa, Chatchai; Leelapatra, Watis;

Automatic tracking of cells for video microscopy in patch clamp experiments.

Science.gov (United States)

Peixoto, Helton M; Munguba, Hermany; Cruz, Rossana M S; Guerreiro, Ana M G; Leao, Richardson N

2014-06-20

Visualisation of neurons labeled with fluorescent proteins or compounds generally require exposure to intense light for a relatively long period of time, often leading to bleaching of the fluorescent probe and photodamage of the tissue. Here we created a technique to drastically shorten light exposure and improve the targeting of fluorescent labeled cells that is specially useful for patch-clamp recordings. We applied image tracking and mask overlay to reduce the time of fluorescence exposure and minimise mistakes when identifying neurons. Neurons are first identified according to visual criteria (e.g. fluorescence protein expression, shape, viability etc.) and a transmission microscopy image Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) or Dodt contrast containing the cell used as a reference for the tracking algorithm. A fluorescence image can also be acquired later to be used as a mask (that can be overlaid on the target during live transmission video). As patch-clamp experiments require translating the microscope stage, we used pattern matching to track reference neurons in order to move the fluorescence mask to match the new position of the objective in relation to the sample. For the image processing we used the Open Source Computer Vision (OpenCV) library, including the Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) for tracking cells. The dataset of images (n = 720) was analyzed under normal conditions of acquisition and with influence of noise (defocusing and brightness). We validated the method in dissociated neuronal cultures and fresh brain slices expressing Enhanced Yellow Fluorescent Protein (eYFP) or Tandem Dimer Tomato (tdTomato) proteins, which considerably decreased the exposure to fluorescence excitation, thereby minimising photodamage. We also show that the neuron tracking can be used in differential interference contrast or Dodt contrast microscopy. The techniques of digital image processing used in this work are an important addition to the set of microscopy

Computer-aided target tracking in motion analysis studies

Science.gov (United States)

Burdick, Dominic C.; Marcuse, M. L.; Mislan, J. D.

1990-08-01

Motion analysis studies require the precise tracking of reference objects in sequential scenes. In a typical situation, events of interest are captured at high frame rates using special cameras, and selected objects or targets are tracked on a frame by frame basis to provide necessary data for motion reconstruction. Tracking is usually done using manual methods which are slow and prone to error. A computer based image analysis system has been developed that performs tracking automatically. The objective of this work was to eliminate the bottleneck due to manual methods in high volume tracking applications such as the analysis of crash test films for the automotive industry. The system has proven to be successful in tracking standard fiducial targets and other objects in crash test scenes. Over 95 percent of target positions which could be located using manual methods can be tracked by the system, with a significant improvement in throughput over manual methods. Future work will focus on the tracking of clusters of targets and on tracking deformable objects such as airbags.

A Benchmark and Simulator for UAV Tracking

KAUST Repository

Mueller, Matthias; Smith, Neil; Ghanem, Bernard

2016-01-01

In this paper, we propose a new aerial video dataset and benchmark for low altitude UAV target tracking, as well as, a photorealistic UAV simulator that can be coupled with tracking methods. Our benchmark provides the first evaluation of many state-of-the-art and popular trackers on 123 new and fully annotated HD video sequences captured from a low-altitude aerial perspective. Among the compared trackers, we determine which ones are the most suitable for UAV tracking both in terms of tracking accuracy and run-time. The simulator can be used to evaluate tracking algorithms in real-time scenarios before they are deployed on a UAV “in the field”, as well as, generate synthetic but photo-realistic tracking datasets with automatic ground truth annotations to easily extend existing real-world datasets. Both the benchmark and simulator are made publicly available to the vision community on our website to further research in the area of object tracking from UAVs. (https://ivul.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/pub-benchmark-simulator-uav.aspx.). © Springer International Publishing AG 2016.

A Benchmark and Simulator for UAV Tracking

KAUST Repository

Mueller, Matthias

2016-09-16

In this paper, we propose a new aerial video dataset and benchmark for low altitude UAV target tracking, as well as, a photorealistic UAV simulator that can be coupled with tracking methods. Our benchmark provides the first evaluation of many state-of-the-art and popular trackers on 123 new and fully annotated HD video sequences captured from a low-altitude aerial perspective. Among the compared trackers, we determine which ones are the most suitable for UAV tracking both in terms of tracking accuracy and run-time. The simulator can be used to evaluate tracking algorithms in real-time scenarios before they are deployed on a UAV “in the field”, as well as, generate synthetic but photo-realistic tracking datasets with automatic ground truth annotations to easily extend existing real-world datasets. Both the benchmark and simulator are made publicly available to the vision community on our website to further research in the area of object tracking from UAVs. (https://ivul.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/pub-benchmark-simulator-uav.aspx.). © Springer International Publishing AG 2016.

MULTIPLE HUMAN TRACKING IN COMPLEX SITUATION BY DATA ASSIMILATION WITH PEDESTRIAN BEHAVIOR MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Nakanishi

2012-07-01

Full Text Available A new method of multiple human tracking is proposed. The key concept is that to assume a tracking process as a data assimilation process. Despite the importance of understanding pedestrian behavior in public space with regard to achieving more sophisticated space design and flow control, automatic human tracking in complex situation is still challenging when people move close to each other or are occluded by others. For this difficulty, we stochastically combine existing tracking method by image processing with simulation models of walking behavior. We describe a system in a form of general state space model and define the components of the model according to the review on related works. Then we apply the proposed method to the data acquired at the ticket gate of the railway station. We show the high performance of the method, as well as compare the result with other model to present the advantage of integrating the behavior model to the tracking method. We also show the method's ability to acquire passenger flow information such as ticket gate choice and OD data automatically from the tracking result.

Design and Implementation of PLC-Based Automatic Sun tracking System for Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Jinping

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A sun-tracking system for parabolic trough solar concentrators (PTCs is a control system used to orient the concentrator toward the sun always, so that the maximum energy can be collected. The work presented here is a design and development of PLC based sun tracking control system for PTC. Sun tracking control system consists of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC and a single axis hydraulic drives tracking control system. Hydraulic drives and the necessary tracking angle algorithm have been designed and developed to perform the technical tasks. A PLC unit was employed to control and monitor the mechanical movement of the PTC and to collect and store data related to the tracking angle of PTC. It is found that the tracking error of the system is less than 0.6°. Field experience shows that tracking algorithm act stable and reliable and suit for PTCs.

Data-driven automatic parking constrained control for four-wheeled mobile vehicles

OpenAIRE

Wenxu Yan; Jing Deng; Dezhi Xu

2016-01-01

In this article, a novel data-driven constrained control scheme is proposed for automatic parking systems. The design of the proposed scheme only depends on the steering angle and the orientation angle of the car, and it does not involve any model information of the car. Therefore, the proposed scheme-based automatic parking system is applicable to different kinds of cars. In order to further reduce the desired trajectory coordinate tracking errors, a coordinates compensation algorithm is als...

A Robust Vision-based Runway Detection and Tracking Algorithm for Automatic UAV Landing

KAUST Repository

Abu Jbara, Khaled F.

2015-01-01

and attitude angle estimates to allow a more robust tracking of the runway under turbulence. We illustrate the performance of the proposed lane detection and tracking scheme on various experimental UAV flights conducted by the Saudi Aerospace Research Center

Object Occlusion Detection Using Automatic Camera Calibration for a Wide-Area Video Surveillance System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaehoon Jung

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an object occlusion detection algorithm using object depth information that is estimated by automatic camera calibration. The object occlusion problem is a major factor to degrade the performance of object tracking and recognition. To detect an object occlusion, the proposed algorithm consists of three steps: (i automatic camera calibration using both moving objects and a background structure; (ii object depth estimation; and (iii detection of occluded regions. The proposed algorithm estimates the depth of the object without extra sensors but with a generic red, green and blue (RGB camera. As a result, the proposed algorithm can be applied to improve the performance of object tracking and object recognition algorithms for video surveillance systems.

Well-Being Tracking via Smartphone-Measured Activity and Sleep: Cohort Study.

Science.gov (United States)

DeMasi, Orianna; Feygin, Sidney; Dembo, Aluma; Aguilera, Adrian; Recht, Benjamin

2017-10-05

Automatically tracking mental well-being could facilitate personalization of treatments for mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder. Smartphones present a novel and ubiquitous opportunity to track individuals' behavior and may be useful for inferring and automatically monitoring mental well-being. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which activity and sleep tracking with a smartphone can be used for monitoring individuals' mental well-being. A cohort of 106 individuals was recruited to install an app on their smartphone that would track their well-being with daily surveys and track their behavior with activity inferences from their phone's accelerometer data. Of the participants recruited, 53 had sufficient data to infer activity and sleep measures. For this subset of individuals, we related measures of activity and sleep to the individuals' well-being and used these measures to predict their well-being. We found that smartphone-measured approximations for daily physical activity were positively correlated with both mood (P=.004) and perceived energy level (PSleep duration was positively correlated with mood (P=.02) but not energy. Our measure for sleep disturbance was not found to be significantly related to either mood or energy, which could imply too much noise in the measurement. Models predicting the well-being measures from the activity and sleep measures were found to be significantly better than naive baselines (Psleep inferred from smartphone activity were strongly related to and somewhat predictive of participants' well-being. Whereas the improvement over naive models was modest, it reaffirms the importance of considering physical activity and sleep for predicting mood and for making automatic mood monitoring a reality. ©Orianna DeMasi, Sidney Feygin, Aluma Dembo, Adrian Aguilera, Benjamin Recht. Originally published in JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 05.10.2017.

Computer-aided method for recognition of proton track in nuclear emulsion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruan Jinlu; Li Hongyun; Song Jiwen; Zhang Jianfu; Chen Liang; Zhang Zhongbing; Liu Jinliang

2014-01-01

In order to overcome the shortcomings of the manual method for proton-recoil track recognition in nuclear emulsions, a computer-aided track recognition method was studied. In this method, image sequences captured by a microscope system were processed through image convolution with composite filters, binarization by multi thresholds, track grains clustering and redundant grains removing to recognize the track grains in the image sequences. Then the proton-recoil tracks were reconstructed from the recognized track grains through track reconstruction. The proton-recoil tracks in the nuclear emulsion irradiated by the neutron beam at energy of 14.9 MeV were recognized by the computer-aided method. The results show that proton-recoil tracks reconstructed by this method consist well with those reconstructed by the manual method. This compute-raided track recognition method lays an important technical foundation of developments of a proton-recoil track automatic recognition system and applications of nuclear emulsions in pulsed neutron spectrum measurement. (authors)

daptive Filter Used as a Dynamic Compensator in Automatic Gauge Control of Strip Rolling Processes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. ROMAN

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with a control structure of the strip thickness in a rolling mill of quarto type (AGC – Automatic Gauge Control. It performs two functions: the compensation of errors induced by unideal dynamics of the tracking systems lead by AGC system and the control adaptation to the change of dynamic properties of the tracking systems. The compensation of dynamical errors is achieved through inverse models of the tracking system, implemented as adaptive filters.

A Supporting Platform for Semi-Automatic Hyoid Bone Tracking and Parameter Extraction from Videofluoroscopic Images for the Diagnosis of Dysphagia Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jun Chang; Nam, Kyoung Won; Jang, Dong Pyo; Paik, Nam Jong; Ryu, Ju Seok; Kim, In Young

2017-04-01

Conventional kinematic analysis of videofluoroscopic (VF) swallowing image, most popular for dysphagia diagnosis, requires time-consuming and repetitive manual extraction of diagnostic information from multiple images representing one swallowing period, which results in a heavy work load for clinicians and excessive hospital visits for patients to receive counseling and prescriptions. In this study, a software platform was developed that can assist in the VF diagnosis of dysphagia by automatically extracting a two-dimensional moving trajectory of the hyoid bone as well as 11 temporal and kinematic parameters. Fifty VF swallowing videos containing both non-mandible-overlapped and mandible-overlapped cases from eight patients with dysphagia of various etiologies and 19 videos from ten healthy controls were utilized for performance verification. Percent errors of hyoid bone tracking were 1.7 ± 2.1% for non-overlapped images and 4.2 ± 4.8% for overlapped images. Correlation coefficients between manually extracted and automatically extracted moving trajectories of the hyoid bone were 0.986 ± 0.017 (X-axis) and 0.992 ± 0.006 (Y-axis) for non-overlapped images, and 0.988 ± 0.009 (X-axis) and 0.991 ± 0.006 (Y-axis) for overlapped images. Based on the experimental results, we believe that the proposed platform has the potential to improve the satisfaction of both clinicians and patients with dysphagia.

Experimental design and methodology for a new Moessbauer scan experiment: absorption line tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Veiga, A.; Pasquevich, G. A.; Zelis, P. Mendoza; Sanchez, F. H.; Fernandez van Raap, M. B.; Martinez, N.

2009-01-01

A new experimental setup and methodology that allows the automatic tracking of a Moessbauer absorption line as its energy position varies during the experiment is introduced. As a test the sixth spectral line of FeSn 2 was tracked while temperature was varied between room temperature and a value slightly above its Neel temperature.

Automatically Proving Termination and Memory Safety for Programs with Pointer Arithmetic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ströder, Thomas; Giesl, Jürgen; Brockschmidt, Marc

2017-01-01

While automated verification of imperative programs has been studied intensively, proving termination of programs with explicit pointer arithmetic fully automatically was still an open problem. To close this gap, we introduce a novel abstract domain that can track allocated memory in detail. We use...

Solar tracking control tower; Steuerungstechnik folgt der Sonne

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Leu, Andreas [Jetter AG, Ludwigsburg (Germany). Bereich technisches Marketing und Seminare

2010-11-15

The ''Gemue-Dome'' building at Waldzimmern is a unique industrial building. The research, development and innovation center has a rotary control tower equipped with solar cells which automatically tracks the sun. This automation task was a challenge for the control and power supply sections. (orig.)

AUTOMATIC FAST VIDEO OBJECT DETECTION AND TRACKING ON VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Arunachalam

2012-08-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the advance techniques for object detection and tracking in video. Most visual surveillance systems start with motion detection. Motion detection methods attempt to locate connected regions of pixels that represent the moving objects within the scene; different approaches include frame-to-frame difference, background subtraction and motion analysis. The motion detection can be achieved by Principle Component Analysis (PCA and then separate an objects from background using background subtraction. The detected object can be segmented. Segmentation consists of two schemes: one for spatial segmentation and the other for temporal segmentation. Tracking approach can be done in each frame of detected Object. Pixel label problem can be alleviated by the MAP (Maximum a Posteriori technique.

Measurement of Radon concentration in groundwater by technique of nuclear track detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trinh Van Giap; Nguyen Manh Hung; Dang Duc Nhan

2000-01-01

A method for measuring radon concentration in groundwater using nuclear track detector LR-115 stripping is reported. The radon-monitoring device in groundwater is a small box with two pieces of nuclear track detector and all these materials is placed in a plastic bag made by polyethylene. It is very suitable to measure radon concentration in groundwater well in long term. Alpha tracks produced by radon and it daughter on nuclear track detector is counted automatically by spark counting method. The paper also presents some results of radon concentration in some groundwater well and mineral water sources. (author)

Programmable spark counter of tracks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Denisov, A.E.; Nikolaev, V.A.; Vorobjev, I.B.

2005-01-01

For the purpose, a new set-the programmable all-automatic spark counter AIST-4-has been developed and manufactured. Compared to our previous automated spark counter ISTRA, which was operated by the integrated fixed program, the new set is operated completely by a personal computer. The mechanism for pressing and pulling the aluminized foil is put into action by a step motor operated by a microcontroller. The step motor turns an axle. The axle has two eccentrics. One of them moves a pressing plate up and down. The second eccentric moves the aluminized foil by steps of ∼15mm after the end of each pulse counting. One turnover of the axle corresponds to one pulse count cycle. The step motor, the high-voltage block and the pulse count block are operated by the microcontroller PIC 16C84 (Microstar). The set can be operated either manually by keys on the front panel or by a PC using dialogue windows for radon or neutron measurements (for counting of alpha or fission fragment tracks). A number of algorithms are developed: the general procedures, the automatic stopping of the pulse counting, the calibration curve, determination of the count characteristics and elimination of the short circuit in a track

Design Of Single-Axis And Dual-Axis Solar Tracking Systems Protected Against High Wind Speeds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mai Salaheldin Elsherbiny

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Solar energy is rapidly gaining ground as an important mean of expanding renewable energy use. Solar tracking is employed in order to maximize collected solar radiation by a photovoltaic panel. In this paper we present a prototype for Automatic solar tracker that is designed using Arduino UNO with Wind sensor to Cease Wind effect on panels if wind speed exceeds certain threshold. The Proposed solar tracker tracks the location of the sun anywhere in any time by calculating the position of the sun. For producing the maximum amount of solar energy a solar panel must always be perpendicular to the source of light. Because the sun motion plane varies daily and during the day it moves from east to west one needs two axis tracking to follow the suns position. Maximum possible power is collected when two axis tracking is done. However two axis tracking is relatively costly and complex. A compromise between maximum power collection and system simplicity is obtained by single axis tracking where the plane North south axis is fixed while the east west motion is accomplished. This work deals with the design of both single and two axis tracking systems. Automatic trackers is also compared to Fixed one in terms of Energy generated Efficiency Cost and System reliability.

Robust Object Tracking Using Valid Fragments Selection.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Jin; Li, Bo; Tian, Peng; Luo, Gang

Local features are widely used in visual tracking to improve robustness in cases of partial occlusion, deformation and rotation. This paper proposes a local fragment-based object tracking algorithm. Unlike many existing fragment-based algorithms that allocate the weights to each fragment, this method firstly defines discrimination and uniqueness for local fragment, and builds an automatic pre-selection of useful fragments for tracking. Then, a Harris-SIFT filter is used to choose the current valid fragments, excluding occluded or highly deformed fragments. Based on those valid fragments, fragment-based color histogram provides a structured and effective description for the object. Finally, the object is tracked using a valid fragment template combining the displacement constraint and similarity of each valid fragment. The object template is updated by fusing feature similarity and valid fragments, which is scale-adaptive and robust to partial occlusion. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is accurate and robust in challenging scenarios.

The development of an automatic scanning method for CR-39 neutron dosimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tawara, Hiroko; Miyajima, Mitsuhiro; Sasaki, Shin-ichi; Hozumi, Ken-ichi

1989-01-01

A method of measuring low level neutron dose has been developed with CR-39 track detectors using an automatic scanning system. It is composed of the optical microscope with a video camera, an image processor and a personal computer. The focus point of the microscope and the X-Y stage are controlled from the computer. The minimum detectable neutron dose is estimated at 4.6 mrem in the uniform field of neutron with equivalent energy spectrum to Am-Be source from the results of automatic measurements. (author)

Principal-vector-directed fringe-tracking technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Zhihui; Guo, Hongwei

2014-11-01

Fringe tracking is one of the most straightforward techniques for analyzing a single fringe pattern. This work presents a principal-vector-directed fringe-tracking technique. It uses Gaussian derivatives for estimating fringe gradients and uses hysteresis thresholding for segmenting singular points, thus improving the principal component analysis method. Using it allows us to estimate the principal vectors of fringes from a pattern with high noise. The fringe-tracking procedure is directed by these principal vectors, so that erroneous results induced by noise and other error-inducing factors are avoided. At the same time, the singular point regions of the fringe pattern are identified automatically. Using them allows us to determine paths through which the "seed" point for each fringe skeleton is easy to find, thus alleviating the computational burden in processing the fringe pattern. The results of a numerical simulation and experiment demonstrate this method to be valid.

Tracking fuzzy borders using geodesic curves with application to liver segmentation on planning CT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan, Yading; Chao, Ming; Sheu, Ren-Dih; Rosenzweig, Kenneth; Lo, Yeh-Chi

2015-01-01

Purpose: This work aims to develop a robust and efficient method to track the fuzzy borders between liver and the abutted organs where automatic liver segmentation usually suffers, and to investigate its applications in automatic liver segmentation on noncontrast-enhanced planning computed tomography (CT) images. Methods: In order to track the fuzzy liver–chestwall and liver–heart borders where oversegmentation is often found, a starting point and an ending point were first identified on the coronal view images; the fuzzy border was then determined as a geodesic curve constructed by minimizing the gradient-weighted path length between these two points near the fuzzy border. The minimization of path length was numerically solved by fast-marching method. The resultant fuzzy borders were incorporated into the authors’ automatic segmentation scheme, in which the liver was initially estimated by a patient-specific adaptive thresholding and then refined by a geodesic active contour model. By using planning CT images of 15 liver patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy, the liver contours extracted by the proposed computerized scheme were compared with those manually delineated by a radiation oncologist. Results: The proposed automatic liver segmentation method yielded an average Dice similarity coefficient of 0.930 ± 0.015, whereas it was 0.912 ± 0.020 if the fuzzy border tracking was not used. The application of fuzzy border tracking was found to significantly improve the segmentation performance. The mean liver volume obtained by the proposed method was 1727 cm 3 , whereas it was 1719 cm 3 for manual-outlined volumes. The computer-generated liver volumes achieved excellent agreement with manual-outlined volumes with correlation coefficient of 0.98. Conclusions: The proposed method was shown to provide accurate segmentation for liver in the planning CT images where contrast agent is not applied. The authors’ results also clearly demonstrated

Robot-assisted automatic ultrasound calibration.

Science.gov (United States)

Aalamifar, Fereshteh; Cheng, Alexis; Kim, Younsu; Hu, Xiao; Zhang, Haichong K; Guo, Xiaoyu; Boctor, Emad M

2016-10-01

Ultrasound (US) calibration is the process of determining the unknown transformation from a coordinate frame such as the robot's tooltip to the US image frame and is a necessary task for any robotic or tracked US system. US calibration requires submillimeter-range accuracy for most applications, but it is a time-consuming and repetitive task. We provide a new framework for automatic US calibration with robot assistance and without the need for temporal calibration. US calibration based on active echo (AE) phantom was previously proposed, and its superiority over conventional cross-wire phantom-based calibration was shown. In this work, we use AE to guide the robotic arm motion through the process of data collection; we combine the capability of the AE point to localize itself in the frame of the US image with the automatic motion of the robotic arm to provide a framework for calibrating the arm to the US image automatically. We demonstrated the efficacy of the automated method compared to the manual method through experiments. To highlight the necessity of frequent ultrasound calibration, it is demonstrated that the calibration precision changed from 1.67 to 3.20 mm if the data collection is not repeated after a dismounting/mounting of the probe holder. In a large data set experiment, similar reconstruction precision of automatic and manual data collection was observed, while the time was reduced by 58 %. In addition, we compared ten automatic calibrations with ten manual ones, each performed in 15 min, and showed that all the automatic ones could converge in the case of setting the initial matrix as identity, while this was not achieved by manual data sets. Given the same initial matrix, the repeatability of the automatic was [0.46, 0.34, 0.80, 0.47] versus [0.42, 0.51, 0.98, 1.15] mm in the manual case for the US image four corners. The submillimeter accuracy requirement of US calibration makes frequent data collections unavoidable. We proposed an automated

Arterial tree tracking from anatomical landmarks in magnetic resonance angiography scans

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neil, Alison; Beveridge, Erin; Houston, Graeme; McCormick, Lynne; Poole, Ian

2014-03-01

This paper reports on arterial tree tracking in fourteen Contrast Enhanced MRA volumetric scans, given the positions of a predefined set of vascular landmarks, by using the A* algorithm to find the optimal path for each vessel based on voxel intensity and a learnt vascular probability atlas. The algorithm is intended for use in conjunction with an automatic landmark detection step, to enable fully automatic arterial tree tracking. The scan is filtered to give two further images using the top-hat transform with 4mm and 8mm cubic structuring elements. Vessels are then tracked independently on the scan in which the vessel of interest is best enhanced, as determined from knowledge of typical vessel diameter and surrounding structures. A vascular probability atlas modelling expected vessel location and orientation is constructed by non-rigidly registering the training scans to the test scan using a 3D thin plate spline to match landmark correspondences, and employing kernel density estimation with the ground truth center line points to form a probability density distribution. Threshold estimation by histogram analysis is used to segment background from vessel intensities. The A* algorithm is run using a linear cost function constructed from the threshold and the vascular atlas prior. Tracking results are presented for all major arteries excluding those in the upper limbs. An improvement was observed when tracking was informed by contextual information, with particular benefit for peripheral vessels.

Multi-modal imaging, model-based tracking, and mixed reality visualisation for orthopaedic surgery

Science.gov (United States)

Fuerst, Bernhard; Tateno, Keisuke; Johnson, Alex; Fotouhi, Javad; Osgood, Greg; Tombari, Federico; Navab, Nassir

2017-01-01

Orthopaedic surgeons are still following the decades old workflow of using dozens of two-dimensional fluoroscopic images to drill through complex 3D structures, e.g. pelvis. This Letter presents a mixed reality support system, which incorporates multi-modal data fusion and model-based surgical tool tracking for creating a mixed reality environment supporting screw placement in orthopaedic surgery. A red–green–blue–depth camera is rigidly attached to a mobile C-arm and is calibrated to the cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging space via iterative closest point algorithm. This allows real-time automatic fusion of reconstructed surface and/or 3D point clouds and synthetic fluoroscopic images obtained through CBCT imaging. An adapted 3D model-based tracking algorithm with automatic tool segmentation allows for tracking of the surgical tools occluded by hand. This proposed interactive 3D mixed reality environment provides an intuitive understanding of the surgical site and supports surgeons in quickly localising the entry point and orienting the surgical tool during screw placement. The authors validate the augmentation by measuring target registration error and also evaluate the tracking accuracy in the presence of partial occlusion. PMID:29184659

Maximum Power Tracking by VSAS approach for Wind Turbine, Renewable Energy Sources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nacer Kouider Msirdi

2015-08-01

Full Text Available This paper gives a review of the most efficient algorithms designed to track the maximum power point (MPP for catching the maximum wind power by a variable speed wind turbine (VSWT. We then design a new maximum power point tracking (MPPT algorithm using the Variable Structure Automatic Systems approach (VSAS. The proposed approachleads efficient algorithms as shown in this paper by the analysis and simulations.

Adaptive Colour Feature Identification in Image for Object Tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Su

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Identification and tracking of a moving object using computer vision techniques is important in robotic surveillance. In this paper, an adaptive colour filtering method is introduced for identifying and tracking a moving object appearing in image sequences. This filter is capable of automatically identifying the most salient colour feature of the moving object in the image and using this for a robot to track the object. The method enables the selected colour feature to adapt to surrounding condition when it is changed. A method of determining the region of interest of the moving target is also developed for the adaptive colour filter to extract colour information. Experimental results show that by using a camera mounted on a robot, the proposed methods can perform robustly in tracking a randomly moving object using adaptively selected colour features in a crowded environment.

On the spatial errors and resolution of near tracks when parallel tracing by their images on photographs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ehrglis, K.Eh.

1980-01-01

Errors in the determination of spatial reference point (SRP) coordinates being reconstructed on the basis of photograph reference points are considered. The width of paths of probable track positions on photographs and the length of intersection zones of these paths with hampering track images are estimated. Conditions for a stable automatic tracing of closely traversing in space tracks are determined. The conclusion is made that of 5-6 SRP are accumulated the method of spatial tracing when shifting local scanning centres on photographs with a corresponding speed permits to trace automatically closely traversing tracks in the middle zone of the Merabel chamber when the angle between them is approximately 1 deg and the distance in space - 3-7 mm. It is emphasized that, when forecasting 8-10 SRP, the spatial or angle track resolution improves 1.5 times more due to the diminution of forecasting errors and corresponding narrowing of sensitivity paths. The described method will be especially effective when processing photographs taken in bubble chambers of a new generation at particle energies being tens-hundreds GeV [ru

Terminal area automatic navigation, guidance and control research using the Microwave Landing System (MLS). Part 5: Design and development of a Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System (DIALS) for steep final approach using modern control techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Halyo, N.

1983-01-01

The design and development of a 3-D Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System (DIALS) for the Terminal Configured Vehicle (TCV) Research Aircraft, a B-737-100 is described. The system was designed using sampled data Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LOG) methods, resulting in a direct digital design with a modern control structure which consists of a Kalman filter followed by a control gain matrix, all operating at 10 Hz. DIALS uses Microwave Landing System (MLS) position, body-mounted accelerometers, as well as on-board sensors usually available on commercial aircraft, but does not use inertial platforms. The phases of the final approach considered are the localizer and glideslope capture which may be performed simultaneously, localizer and steep glideslope track or hold, crab/decrab and flare to touchdown. DIALS captures, tracks and flares from steep glideslopes ranging from 2.5 deg to 5.5 deg, selected prior to glideslope capture. Digital Integrated Automatic Landing System is the first modern control design automatic landing system successfully flight tested. The results of an initial nonlinear simulation are presented here.

TRACK The New Beam Dynamics Code

CERN Document Server

Mustapha, Brahim; Ostroumov, Peter; Schnirman-Lessner, Eliane

2005-01-01

The new ray-tracing code TRACK was developed* to fulfill the special requirements of the RIA accelerator systems. The RIA lattice includes an ECR ion source, a LEBT containing a MHB and a RFQ followed by three SC linac sections separated by two stripping stations with appropriate magnetic transport systems. No available beam dynamics code meet all the necessary requirements for an end-to-end simulation of the RIA driver linac. The latest version of TRACK was used for end-to-end simulations of the RIA driver including errors and beam loss analysis.** In addition to the standard capabilities, the code includes the following new features: i) multiple charge states ii) realistic stripper model; ii) static and dynamic errors iii) automatic steering to correct for misalignments iv) detailed beam-loss analysis; v) parallel computing to perform large scale simulations. Although primarily developed for simulations of the RIA machine, TRACK is a general beam dynamics code. Currently it is being used for the design and ...

Tracking a Subset of Skeleton Joints: An Effective Approach towards Complex Human Activity Recognition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Latif Anjum

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We present a robust algorithm for complex human activity recognition for natural human-robot interaction. The algorithm is based on tracking the position of selected joints in human skeleton. For any given activity, only a few skeleton joints are involved in performing the activity, so a subset of joints contributing the most towards the activity is selected. Our approach of tracking a subset of skeleton joints (instead of tracking the whole skeleton is computationally efficient and provides better recognition accuracy. We have developed both manual and automatic approaches for the selection of these joints. The position of the selected joints is tracked for the duration of the activity and is used to construct feature vectors for each activity. Once the feature vectors have been constructed, we use a Support Vector Machines (SVM multiclass classifier for training and testing the algorithm. The algorithm has been tested on a purposely built dataset of depth videos recorded using Kinect camera. The dataset consists of 250 videos of 10 different activities being performed by different users. Experimental results show classification accuracy of 83% when tracking all skeleton joints, 95% when using manual selection of subset joints, and 89% when using automatic selection of subset joints.

A semi-automatic annotation tool for cooking video

Science.gov (United States)

Bianco, Simone; Ciocca, Gianluigi; Napoletano, Paolo; Schettini, Raimondo; Margherita, Roberto; Marini, Gianluca; Gianforme, Giorgio; Pantaleo, Giuseppe

2013-03-01

In order to create a cooking assistant application to guide the users in the preparation of the dishes relevant to their profile diets and food preferences, it is necessary to accurately annotate the video recipes, identifying and tracking the foods of the cook. These videos present particular annotation challenges such as frequent occlusions, food appearance changes, etc. Manually annotate the videos is a time-consuming, tedious and error-prone task. Fully automatic tools that integrate computer vision algorithms to extract and identify the elements of interest are not error free, and false positive and false negative detections need to be corrected in a post-processing stage. We present an interactive, semi-automatic tool for the annotation of cooking videos that integrates computer vision techniques under the supervision of the user. The annotation accuracy is increased with respect to completely automatic tools and the human effort is reduced with respect to completely manual ones. The performance and usability of the proposed tool are evaluated on the basis of the time and effort required to annotate the same video sequences.

Adaptive learning compressive tracking based on Markov location prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xingyu; Fu, Dongmei; Yang, Tao; Shi, Yanan

2017-03-01

Object tracking is an interdisciplinary research topic in image processing, pattern recognition, and computer vision which has theoretical and practical application value in video surveillance, virtual reality, and automatic navigation. Compressive tracking (CT) has many advantages, such as efficiency and accuracy. However, when there are object occlusion, abrupt motion and blur, similar objects, and scale changing, the CT has the problem of tracking drift. We propose the Markov object location prediction to get the initial position of the object. Then CT is used to locate the object accurately, and the classifier parameter adaptive updating strategy is given based on the confidence map. At the same time according to the object location, extract the scale features, which is able to deal with object scale variations effectively. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better tracking accuracy and robustness than current advanced algorithms and achieves real-time performance.

The design and manufacture of the automatic distance position-fixing system in 60Co γ-ray calibrator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qian Defeng; Guo Pingwen; Jiang Shan; Zhang Lei; Yang Lijun; Xiong Chuansheng; Liu Deheng; Chen Weijie; He Biao; Wang Wei

1999-01-01

The author introduces the design principle and technical index of the automatic position-fixing system. This system consists of the PC computer control, loading vehicle and track. The authors used Pentium PC and Intel 8089 as an intelligent card to drive the stepping motor and to power the vehicle by rack, so as to realize the function of the automatic position control, demonstration and output online. The fixed position of the track vehicle has a basic point. In used scope (it is 0.5-6.2 m distant from 60 Co source), the maximum deviation of the fixed position point is 0.5 mm , and the deviation of the fixed position point which is 1 m distant from 60 Co source is 0.05%

Assisting doctors on assessing movements in infants using motion tracking

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Mikkel; Herskind, Anna; Nielsen, Jens Bo

2015-01-01

In this work, we consider the possibilities of having an automatic computer-based system for tracking the movements of infants. An existing motion tracking system is used to process recorded video sequences containing both color and spatial information of the infant's body pose and movements....... The system uses these sequences of data to estimate the underlying skeleton of the infant and parametrize the movements. Post-processing of these parameters can yield objective measurements of an infant's movement patterns. This could e.g. be quantification of (a)symmetry and recognition of certain gestures/actions...

Automatic Rail Extraction and Celarance Check with a Point Cloud Captured by Mls in a Railway

Science.gov (United States)

Niina, Y.; Honma, R.; Honma, Y.; Kondo, K.; Tsuji, K.; Hiramatsu, T.; Oketani, E.

2018-05-01

Recently, MLS (Mobile Laser Scanning) has been successfully used in a road maintenance. In this paper, we present the application of MLS for the inspection of clearance along railway tracks of West Japan Railway Company. Point clouds around the track are captured by MLS mounted on a bogie and rail position can be determined by matching the shape of the ideal rail head with respect to the point cloud by ICP algorithm. A clearance check is executed automatically with virtual clearance model laid along the extracted rail. As a result of evaluation, the accuracy of extracting rail positions is less than 3 mm. With respect to the automatic clearance check, the objects inside the clearance and the ones related to a contact line is successfully detected by visual confirmation.

Managing Returnable Containers Logistics - A Case Study Part II - Improving Visibility through Using Automatic Identification Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gretchen Meiser

2011-05-01

Full Text Available This case study is the result of a project conducted on behalf of a company that uses its own returnable containers to transport purchased parts from suppliers. The objective of this project was to develop a proposal to enable the company to more effectively track and manage its returnable containers. The research activities in support of this project included (1 the analysis and documentation of the physical flow and the information flow associated with the containers and (2 the investigation of new technologies to improve the automatic identification and tracking of containers. This paper explains the automatic identification technologies and important criteria for selection. A companion paper details the flow of information and containers within the logistics chain, and it identifies areas for improving the management of the containers.

Use of Image Pro Plus for counting of α particles tracks in CR-39

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miranda, Marcia Valeria F.E. Sa; Crispim, Verginia Reis

2011-01-01

This paper measured the radon radiations present in NORM samples, through the diffusion chambers which contained a nuclear track detector (CR-39). For automatic counting of those tracks the computer program Image Pro plus was used. This paper reports the application of Image Pro plus for counting the nuclear tracks, coming from the radon radiation present in NORM samples. As the radiation rate of 222 Rn if proportional to the number of these tracks, the methodology allowed to compare the levels of contamination of the analysed samples. Also, tables and graphics are presented with counting results referring to the stage of validation of Image Pro plus

Automatic tracking of dynamical evolutions of oceanic mesoscale eddies with satellite observation data

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Liang; Li, Qiu-Yang

2017-04-01

The oceanic mesoscale eddies play a major role in ocean climate system. To analyse spatiotemporal dynamics of oceanic mesoscale eddies, the Genealogical Evolution Model (GEM) based on satellite data is developed, which is an efficient logical model used to track dynamic evolution of mesoscale eddies in the ocean. It can distinguish different dynamic processes (e.g., merging and splitting) within a dynamic evolution pattern, which is difficult to accomplish using other tracking methods. To this end, a mononuclear eddy detection method was firstly developed with simple segmentation strategies, e.g. watershed algorithm. The algorithm is very fast by searching the steepest descent path. Second, the GEM uses a two-dimensional similarity vector (i.e. a pair of ratios of overlap area between two eddies to the area of each eddy) rather than a scalar to measure the similarity between eddies, which effectively solves the ''missing eddy" problem (temporarily lost eddy in tracking). Third, for tracking when an eddy splits, GEM uses both "parent" (the original eddy) and "child" (eddy split from parent) and the dynamic processes are described as birth and death of different generations. Additionally, a new look-ahead approach with selection rules effectively simplifies computation and recording. All of the computational steps are linear and do not include iteration. Given the pixel number of the target region L, the maximum number of eddies M, the number N of look-ahead time steps, and the total number of time steps T, the total computer time is O (LM(N+1)T). The tracking of each eddy is very smooth because we require that the snapshots of each eddy on adjacent days overlap one another. Although eddy splitting or merging is ubiquitous in the ocean, they have different geographic distribution in the Northern Pacific Ocean. Both the merging and splitting rates of the eddies are high, especially at the western boundary, in currents and in "eddy deserts". GEM is useful not only for

Stair Climbing Control for 4-DOF Tracked Vehicle Based on Internal Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daisuke Endo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In search-and-rescue missions, multi-degrees-of-freedom (DOF tracked robots that are equipped with subtracks are commonly used. These types of robots have superior locomotion performance on rough terrain. However, in teleoperated missions, the performance of tracked robots depends largely on the operators’ ability to control every subtrack appropriately. Therefore, an autonomous traversal function can significantly help in the teleoperation of such robots. In this paper, we propose a planning and control method for 4-DOF tracked robots climbing up/down known stairs automatically based on internal sensors. Experimental results obtained using mockup stairs verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

A high precision video-electronic measuring system for use with solid state track detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schott, J.U.; Schopper, E.; Staudte, R.

1976-01-01

A video-electronic image analyzing system Quantimet 720 has been modified to meet the requirements of the measurement of tracks of nuclear particles in solid state track detectors with resulting improvement of precision, speed, and the elimination of subjective influences. A microscope equipped with an automatic XY stage projects the image onto the cathode of a vidicon-amplifier. Within the TV-picture generated, characterized by the coordinate XY in the specimen, we determine coordinates xy of events by setting cross lines on the screen which correspond to a digital accuracy of 0.1 μm at the position of the object. Automatic movement in Z-direction can be performed by stepping motor and measured electronically, or continously by setting electric voltage on a piezostrictive support of the objective. (orig.) [de

An integrated model-driven method for in-treatment upper airway motion tracking using cine MRI in head and neck radiation therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Hua; Chen, Hsin-Chen; Dolly, Steven; Li, Harold; Fischer-Valuck, Benjamin; Victoria, James; Dempsey, James; Ruan, Su; Anastasio, Mark; Mazur, Thomas; Gach, Michael; Kashani, Rojano; Green, Olga; Rodriguez, Vivian; Gay, Hiram; Thorstad, Wade; Mutic, Sasa

2016-08-01

For the first time, MRI-guided radiation therapy systems can acquire cine images to dynamically monitor in-treatment internal organ motion. However, the complex head and neck (H&N) structures and low-contrast/resolution of on-board cine MRI images make automatic motion tracking a very challenging task. In this study, the authors proposed an integrated model-driven method to automatically track the in-treatment motion of the H&N upper airway, a complex and highly deformable region wherein internal motion often occurs in an either voluntary or involuntary manner, from cine MRI images for the analysis of H&N motion patterns. Considering the complex H&N structures and ensuring automatic and robust upper airway motion tracking, the authors firstly built a set of linked statistical shapes (including face, face-jaw, and face-jaw-palate) using principal component analysis from clinically approved contours delineated on a set of training data. The linked statistical shapes integrate explicit landmarks and implicit shape representation. Then, a hierarchical model-fitting algorithm was developed to align the linked shapes on the first image frame of a to-be-tracked cine sequence and to localize the upper airway region. Finally, a multifeature level set contour propagation scheme was performed to identify the upper airway shape change, frame-by-frame, on the entire image sequence. The multifeature fitting energy, including the information of intensity variations, edge saliency, curve geometry, and temporal shape continuity, was minimized to capture the details of moving airway boundaries. Sagittal cine MR image sequences acquired from three H&N cancer patients were utilized to demonstrate the performance of the proposed motion tracking method. The tracking accuracy was validated by comparing the results to the average of two manual delineations in 50 randomly selected cine image frames from each patient. The resulting average dice similarity coefficient (93.28%  ±  1

A novel validation algorithm allows for automated cell tracking and the extraction of biologically meaningful parameters.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel H Rapoport

Full Text Available Automated microscopy is currently the only method to non-invasively and label-free observe complex multi-cellular processes, such as cell migration, cell cycle, and cell differentiation. Extracting biological information from a time-series of micrographs requires each cell to be recognized and followed through sequential microscopic snapshots. Although recent attempts to automatize this process resulted in ever improving cell detection rates, manual identification of identical cells is still the most reliable technique. However, its tedious and subjective nature prevented tracking from becoming a standardized tool for the investigation of cell cultures. Here, we present a novel method to accomplish automated cell tracking with a reliability comparable to manual tracking. Previously, automated cell tracking could not rival the reliability of manual tracking because, in contrast to the human way of solving this task, none of the algorithms had an independent quality control mechanism; they missed validation. Thus, instead of trying to improve the cell detection or tracking rates, we proceeded from the idea to automatically inspect the tracking results and accept only those of high trustworthiness, while rejecting all other results. This validation algorithm works independently of the quality of cell detection and tracking through a systematic search for tracking errors. It is based only on very general assumptions about the spatiotemporal contiguity of cell paths. While traditional tracking often aims to yield genealogic information about single cells, the natural outcome of a validated cell tracking algorithm turns out to be a set of complete, but often unconnected cell paths, i.e. records of cells from mitosis to mitosis. This is a consequence of the fact that the validation algorithm takes complete paths as the unit of rejection/acceptance. The resulting set of complete paths can be used to automatically extract important biological parameters

High-speed particle tracking in nuclear emulsion by last-generation automatic microscopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Armenise, N.; De Serio, M.; Ieva, M.; Muciaccia, M.T.; Pastore, A.; Simone, S.; Damet, J.; Kreslo, I.; Savvinov, N.; Waelchli, T.; Consiglio, L.; Cozzi, M.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Esposito, L.S.; Giacomelli, G.; Giorgini, M.; Mandrioli, G.; Patrizii, L.; Sioli, M.; Sirri, G.; Arrabito, L.; Laktineh, I.; Royole-Degieux, P.; Buontempo, S.; D'Ambrosio, N.; De Lellis, G.; De Rosa, G.; Di Capua, F.; Coppola, D.; Formisano, F.; Marotta, A.; Migliozzi, P.; Pistillo, C.; Scotto Lavina, L.; Sorrentino, G.; Strolin, P.; Tioukov, V.; Juget, F.; Hauger, M.; Rosa, G.; Barbuto, E.; Bozza, C.; Grella, G.; Romano, G.; Sirignano, C.

2005-01-01

The technique of nuclear emulsions for high-energy physics experiments is being revived, thanks to the remarkable progress in measurement automation achieved in the past years. The present paper describes the features and performances of the European Scanning System, a last-generation automatic microscope working at a scanning speed of 20cm 2 /h. The system has been developed in the framework of the OPERA experiment, designed to unambigously detect ν μ ->ν τ oscillations in nuclear emulsions

IMPROVING THE STABILITY OF TONAL TRACK CIRCUITS UNDER FLUCTUATIONS OF BALLAST RESISTANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. V. Honcharov

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose.The purpose of investigation is the development of method for improving the stability of tonal track circuits that takes into account the actual insulation resistance (ballast resistance of rail line.Methodology. To achieve the research purpose it was proposed to automatically determine the insulation resistance of rail line, and depending on this value to adjust the output voltage of track generator. Ballast resistance is determined by the value of input resistance the rail line, which at high frequencies practically is equal to the wave impedance. To implement the proposed method it is necessary to connect to the track circuit additional high-frequency generators, high-frequency filters, unit for finding the ballast resistance and adjusting the output voltage of track generator. Findings. As a result of research it was found that at low values (less than 2 Ohms*km the change of ballast resistance causes significant change of voltage at the track receiver input, which may cause malfunction of the track circuit. Increasing the length of rail line leads to the reducing of its input resistance, raising the measuring frequency causes increasing the input resistance. In both cases, the input resistance tends to the value of the wave impedance. The measuring frequency should be chosen taking into account the length of rail line and the upper limit of ballast resistance, the value 5 Ohms*km can be taken as that limit. At higher values of ballast resistance its changes insignificantly influence the input voltage of track receiver. In this case, the adaptive adjustment of voltage at the track generator output is not performed. Originality. The method for measuring the insulation resistance of rail line has been improved that allows one to determine the ballast resistance automatically. The dependence between measuring frequency, length of rail line and ballast resistance have been determined. Practical value. The proposed method allows one to

Automatic Tracking Of Remote Sensing Precipitation Data Using Genetic Algorithm Image Registration Based Automatic Morphing: September 1999 Storm Floyd Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, L.; Vongsaard, J.; El-Ghazawi, T.; Weinman, J.; Yang, R.; Kafatos, M.

U Due to the poor temporal sampling by satellites, data gaps exist in satellite derived time series of precipitation. This poses a challenge for assimilating rain- fall data into forecast models. To yield a continuous time series, the classic image processing technique of digital image morphing has been used. However, the digital morphing technique was applied manually and that is time consuming. In order to avoid human intervention in the process, an automatic procedure for image morphing is needed for real-time operations. For this purpose, Genetic Algorithm Based Image Registration Automatic Morphing (GRAM) model was developed and tested in this paper. Specifically, automatic morphing technique was integrated with Genetic Algo- rithm and Feature Based Image Metamorphosis technique to fill in data gaps between satellite coverage. The technique was tested using NOWRAD data which are gener- ated from the network of NEXRAD radars. Time series of NOWRAD data from storm Floyd that occurred at the US eastern region on September 16, 1999 for 00:00, 01:00, 02:00,03:00, and 04:00am were used. The GRAM technique was applied to data col- lected at 00:00 and 04:00am. These images were also manually morphed. Images at 01:00, 02:00 and 03:00am were interpolated from the GRAM and manual morphing and compared with the original NOWRAD rainrates. The results show that the GRAM technique outperforms manual morphing. The correlation coefficients between the im- ages generated using manual morphing are 0.905, 0.900, and 0.905 for the images at 01:00, 02:00,and 03:00 am, while the corresponding correlation coefficients are 0.946, 0.911, and 0.913, respectively, based on the GRAM technique. Index terms ­ Remote Sensing, Image Registration, Hydrology, Genetic Algorithm, Morphing, NEXRAD

Automatic annotation of head velocity and acceleration in Anvil

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jongejan, Bart

2012-01-01

We describe an automatic face tracker plugin for the ANVIL annotation tool. The face tracker produces data for velocity and for acceleration in two dimensions. We compare the annotations generated by the face tracking algorithm with independently made manual annotations for head movements....... The annotations are a useful supplement to manual annotations and may help human annotators to quickly and reliably determine onset of head movements and to suggest which kind of head movement is taking place....

Visual feedback navigation for cable tracking by autonomous underwater vehicles; Jiritsugata kaichu robot no gazo shori ni motozuku cable jido tsuiju

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Takai, M.; Ura, T. [The University of Tokyo, Tokyo (Japan). Institute of Industrial Science; Balasuriya, B.; Lam, W. [The University of Tokyo, Tokyo (Japan); Kuroda, Y. [Meiji Univ., Tokyo (Japan)

1997-08-01

A vision processing unit was introduced into autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) to judge the visual situation and to construct an environmental observation platform that can collect wide-range and high-precision measurement data. The cable optionally installed at the bottom of the sea was recognized by vision processing to propose automatic tracking technique. An estimator that compensates for the hough conversion or time delay and a PSA controller that is used as a target value set mechanism or lower-level controller were introduced as the factor technology required for automatic tracking. The feature of the automatic tracking is that a general-purpose platform which can observe the prescribed range environmentally in high precision and density can be constructed because the observation range required by the observer can be prescribed near the sea-bottom surface using a cable. The verification result off Omi Hachiman at Lake Biwa showed that AUV can be used for the high-precision environmental survey in the range prescribed near the sea-bottom surface using a cable. 8 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.

A Coupled Hidden Markov Random Field Model for Simultaneous Face Clustering and Tracking in Videos

KAUST Repository

Wu, Baoyuan

2016-10-25

Face clustering and face tracking are two areas of active research in automatic facial video processing. They, however, have long been studied separately, despite the inherent link between them. In this paper, we propose to perform simultaneous face clustering and face tracking from real world videos. The motivation for the proposed research is that face clustering and face tracking can provide useful information and constraints to each other, thus can bootstrap and improve the performances of each other. To this end, we introduce a Coupled Hidden Markov Random Field (CHMRF) to simultaneously model face clustering, face tracking, and their interactions. We provide an effective algorithm based on constrained clustering and optimal tracking for the joint optimization of cluster labels and face tracking. We demonstrate significant improvements over state-of-the-art results in face clustering and tracking on several videos.

Automatic scoring of the severity of psoriasis scaling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gomez, David Delgado; Ersbøll, Bjarne Kjær; Carstensen, Jens Michael

2004-01-01

In this work, a combined statistical and image analysis method to automatically evaluate the severity of scaling in psoriasis lesions is proposed. The method separates the different regions of the disease in the image and scores the degree of scaling based on the properties of these areas. The pr...... with scores made by doctors. This and the fact that the obtained measures are continuous indicate the proposed method is a suitable tool to evaluate the lesion and to track the evolution of dermatological diseases....

A microprocessor based picture analysis system for automatic track measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinrich, W.; Trakowski, W.; Beer, J.; Schucht, R.

1982-01-01

In the last few years picture analysis became a powerful technique for measurements of nuclear tracks in plastic detectors. For this purpose rather expensive commercial systems are available. Two inexpensive microprocessor based systems with different resolution were developed. The video pictures of particles seen through a microscope are digitized in real time and the picture analysis is done by software. The microscopes are equipped with stages driven by stepping motors, which are controlled by separate microprocessors. A PDP 11/03 supervises the operation of all microprocessors and stores the measured data on its mass storage devices. (author)

An Automatic Assembling System for Sealing Rings Based on Machine Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingyu Gao

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In order to grab and place the sealing rings of battery lid quickly and accurately, an automatic assembling system for sealing rings based on machine vision is developed in this paper. The whole system is composed of the light sources, cameras, industrial control units, and a 4-degree-of-freedom industrial robot. Specifically, the sealing rings are recognized and located automatically with the machine vision module. Then industrial robot is controlled for grabbing the sealing rings dynamically under the joint work of multiple control units and visual feedback. Furthermore, the coordinates of the fast-moving battery lid are tracked by the machine vision module. Finally the sealing rings are placed on the sealing ports of battery lid accurately and automatically. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can grab the sealing rings and place them on the sealing port of the fast-moving battery lid successfully. More importantly, the proposed system can improve the efficiency of the battery production line obviously.

Automatic localization of the da Vinci surgical instrument tips in 3-D transrectal ultrasound.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohareri, Omid; Ramezani, Mahdi; Adebar, Troy K; Abolmaesumi, Purang; Salcudean, Septimiu E

2013-09-01

Robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP) using the da Vinci surgical system is the current state-of-the-art treatment option for clinically confined prostate cancer. Given the limited field of view of the surgical site in RALRP, several groups have proposed the integration of transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) imaging in the surgical workflow to assist with accurate resection of the prostate and the sparing of the neurovascular bundles (NVBs). We previously introduced a robotic TRUS manipulator and a method for automatically tracking da Vinci surgical instruments with the TRUS imaging plane, in order to facilitate the integration of intraoperative TRUS in RALRP. Rapid and automatic registration of the kinematic frames of the da Vinci surgical system and the robotic TRUS probe manipulator is a critical component of the instrument tracking system. In this paper, we propose a fully automatic registration technique based on automatic 3-D TRUS localization of robot instrument tips pressed against the air-tissue boundary anterior to the prostate. The detection approach uses a multiscale filtering technique to identify and localize surgical instrument tips in the TRUS volume, and could also be used to detect other surface fiducials in 3-D ultrasound. Experiments have been performed using a tissue phantom and two ex vivo tissue samples to show the feasibility of the proposed methods. Also, an initial in vivo evaluation of the system has been carried out on a live anaesthetized dog with a da Vinci Si surgical system and a target registration error (defined as the root mean square distance of corresponding points after registration) of 2.68 mm has been achieved. Results show this method's accuracy and consistency for automatic registration of TRUS images to the da Vinci surgical system.

Automated positioning dual-axis solar tracking system with precision elevation and azimuth angle control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sidek, M.H.M.; Azis, N.; Hasan, W.Z.W.; Ab Kadir, M.Z.A.; Shafie, S.; Radzi, M.A.M.

2017-01-01

This paper presents a study on an automated positioning open-loop dual-axis solar tracking system. The solar tracker was designed and fabricated using standard cylindrical aluminium hollow and Polyuthrene (PE). The control system of the solar tracker was governed by Micro Controller Unit (MCU) with auxiliary devices which includes encoder and Global Positioning System (GPS). The sun path trajectory algorithm utilizing the astronomical equation and GPS information was also embedded in the system. The power generation performance of the dual-axis solar tracking system was compared with the fixed-tilted Photovoltaic (PV) system. It is found that the solar tracker is able to position itself automatically based on sun path trajectory algorithm with an accuracy of ±0.5°. The embedded Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) positioning system improves the tracking of elevation and azimuth angles with minimum energy consumption. It is reveals that the proposed solar tracker is able generate 26.9% and 12.8% higher power than fixed-tilted PV system on a clear and heavy overcast conditions respectively. Overall, the open-loop dual-axis solar tracker can be deployed automatically at any location on the earth with minimal configurations and is suitable for mobile solar tracking system. - Highlights: • Self-positioning dual-axis solar tracking system. • Precise control of elevation and azimuth angle. • Sun path trajectory based on astronomical equation and GPS. • Can achieve up to 26.9% higher power than fixed-tilted PV system under clear weather condition.

Automated tracking for advanced satellite laser ranging systems

Science.gov (United States)

McGarry, Jan F.; Degnan, John J.; Titterton, Paul J., Sr.; Sweeney, Harold E.; Conklin, Brion P.; Dunn, Peter J.

1996-06-01

NASA's Satellite Laser Ranging Network was originally developed during the 1970's to track satellites carrying corner cube reflectors. Today eight NASA systems, achieving millimeter ranging precision, are part of a global network of more than 40 stations that track 17 international satellites. To meet the tracking demands of a steadily growing satellite constellation within existing resources, NASA is embarking on a major automation program. While manpower on the current systems will be reduced to a single operator, the fully automated SLR2000 system is being designed to operate for months without human intervention. Because SLR2000 must be eyesafe and operate in daylight, tracking is often performed in a low probability of detection and high noise environment. The goal is to automatically select the satellite, setup the tracking and ranging hardware, verify acquisition, and close the tracking loop to optimize data yield. TO accomplish the autotracking tasks, we are investigating (1) improved satellite force models, (2) more frequent updates of orbital ephemerides, (3) lunar laser ranging data processing techniques to distinguish satellite returns from noise, and (4) angular detection and search techniques to acquire the satellite. A Monte Carlo simulator has been developed to allow optimization of the autotracking algorithms by modeling the relevant system errors and then checking performance against system truth. A combination of simulator and preliminary field results will be presented.

Automated target recognition and tracking using an optical pattern recognition neural network

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Tien-Hsin

1991-01-01

The on-going development of an automatic target recognition and tracking system at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is presented. This system is an optical pattern recognition neural network (OPRNN) that is an integration of an innovative optical parallel processor and a feature extraction based neural net training algorithm. The parallel optical processor provides high speed and vast parallelism as well as full shift invariance. The neural network algorithm enables simultaneous discrimination of multiple noisy targets in spite of their scales, rotations, perspectives, and various deformations. This fully developed OPRNN system can be effectively utilized for the automated spacecraft recognition and tracking that will lead to success in the Automated Rendezvous and Capture (AR&C) of the unmanned Cargo Transfer Vehicle (CTV). One of the most powerful optical parallel processors for automatic target recognition is the multichannel correlator. With the inherent advantages of parallel processing capability and shift invariance, multiple objects can be simultaneously recognized and tracked using this multichannel correlator. This target tracking capability can be greatly enhanced by utilizing a powerful feature extraction based neural network training algorithm such as the neocognitron. The OPRNN, currently under investigation at JPL, is constructed with an optical multichannel correlator where holographic filters have been prepared using the neocognitron training algorithm. The computation speed of the neocognitron-type OPRNN is up to 10(exp 14) analog connections/sec that enabling the OPRNN to outperform its state-of-the-art electronics counterpart by at least two orders of magnitude.

Automatic speech signal segmentation based on the innovation adaptive filter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Makowski Ryszard

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Speech segmentation is an essential stage in designing automatic speech recognition systems and one can find several algorithms proposed in the literature. It is a difficult problem, as speech is immensely variable. The aim of the authors’ studies was to design an algorithm that could be employed at the stage of automatic speech recognition. This would make it possible to avoid some problems related to speech signal parametrization. Posing the problem in such a way requires the algorithm to be capable of working in real time. The only such algorithm was proposed by Tyagi et al., (2006, and it is a modified version of Brandt’s algorithm. The article presents a new algorithm for unsupervised automatic speech signal segmentation. It performs segmentation without access to information about the phonetic content of the utterances, relying exclusively on second-order statistics of a speech signal. The starting point for the proposed method is time-varying Schur coefficients of an innovation adaptive filter. The Schur algorithm is known to be fast, precise, stable and capable of rapidly tracking changes in second order signal statistics. A transfer from one phoneme to another in the speech signal always indicates a change in signal statistics caused by vocal track changes. In order to allow for the properties of human hearing, detection of inter-phoneme boundaries is performed based on statistics defined on the mel spectrum determined from the reflection coefficients. The paper presents the structure of the algorithm, defines its properties, lists parameter values, describes detection efficiency results, and compares them with those for another algorithm. The obtained segmentation results, are satisfactory.

An integrated model-driven method for in-treatment upper airway motion tracking using cine MRI in head and neck radiation therapy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Hua, E-mail: huli@radonc.wustl.edu; Chen, Hsin-Chen; Dolly, Steven; Li, Harold; Fischer-Valuck, Benjamin; Mazur, Thomas; Gach, Michael; Kashani, Rojano; Green, Olga; Rodriguez, Vivian; Gay, Hiram; Thorstad, Wade; Mutic, Sasa [Department of Radiation Oncology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110 (United States); Victoria, James; Dempsey, James [ViewRay Incorporated, Inc., Oakwood Village, Ohio 44146 (United States); Ruan, Su [Laboratoire LITIS (EA 4108), Equipe Quantif, University of Rouen, Rouen 76183 (France); Anastasio, Mark [Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110 (United States)

2016-08-15

Purpose: For the first time, MRI-guided radiation therapy systems can acquire cine images to dynamically monitor in-treatment internal organ motion. However, the complex head and neck (H&N) structures and low-contrast/resolution of on-board cine MRI images make automatic motion tracking a very challenging task. In this study, the authors proposed an integrated model-driven method to automatically track the in-treatment motion of the H&N upper airway, a complex and highly deformable region wherein internal motion often occurs in an either voluntary or involuntary manner, from cine MRI images for the analysis of H&N motion patterns. Methods: Considering the complex H&N structures and ensuring automatic and robust upper airway motion tracking, the authors firstly built a set of linked statistical shapes (including face, face-jaw, and face-jaw-palate) using principal component analysis from clinically approved contours delineated on a set of training data. The linked statistical shapes integrate explicit landmarks and implicit shape representation. Then, a hierarchical model-fitting algorithm was developed to align the linked shapes on the first image frame of a to-be-tracked cine sequence and to localize the upper airway region. Finally, a multifeature level set contour propagation scheme was performed to identify the upper airway shape change, frame-by-frame, on the entire image sequence. The multifeature fitting energy, including the information of intensity variations, edge saliency, curve geometry, and temporal shape continuity, was minimized to capture the details of moving airway boundaries. Sagittal cine MR image sequences acquired from three H&N cancer patients were utilized to demonstrate the performance of the proposed motion tracking method. Results: The tracking accuracy was validated by comparing the results to the average of two manual delineations in 50 randomly selected cine image frames from each patient. The resulting average dice similarity

An integrated model-driven method for in-treatment upper airway motion tracking using cine MRI in head and neck radiation therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Hua; Chen, Hsin-Chen; Dolly, Steven; Li, Harold; Fischer-Valuck, Benjamin; Mazur, Thomas; Gach, Michael; Kashani, Rojano; Green, Olga; Rodriguez, Vivian; Gay, Hiram; Thorstad, Wade; Mutic, Sasa; Victoria, James; Dempsey, James; Ruan, Su; Anastasio, Mark

2016-01-01

Purpose: For the first time, MRI-guided radiation therapy systems can acquire cine images to dynamically monitor in-treatment internal organ motion. However, the complex head and neck (H&N) structures and low-contrast/resolution of on-board cine MRI images make automatic motion tracking a very challenging task. In this study, the authors proposed an integrated model-driven method to automatically track the in-treatment motion of the H&N upper airway, a complex and highly deformable region wherein internal motion often occurs in an either voluntary or involuntary manner, from cine MRI images for the analysis of H&N motion patterns. Methods: Considering the complex H&N structures and ensuring automatic and robust upper airway motion tracking, the authors firstly built a set of linked statistical shapes (including face, face-jaw, and face-jaw-palate) using principal component analysis from clinically approved contours delineated on a set of training data. The linked statistical shapes integrate explicit landmarks and implicit shape representation. Then, a hierarchical model-fitting algorithm was developed to align the linked shapes on the first image frame of a to-be-tracked cine sequence and to localize the upper airway region. Finally, a multifeature level set contour propagation scheme was performed to identify the upper airway shape change, frame-by-frame, on the entire image sequence. The multifeature fitting energy, including the information of intensity variations, edge saliency, curve geometry, and temporal shape continuity, was minimized to capture the details of moving airway boundaries. Sagittal cine MR image sequences acquired from three H&N cancer patients were utilized to demonstrate the performance of the proposed motion tracking method. Results: The tracking accuracy was validated by comparing the results to the average of two manual delineations in 50 randomly selected cine image frames from each patient. The resulting average dice similarity

Magnetic Resonance Imaging–Guided versus Surrogate-Based Motion Tracking in Liver Radiation Therapy: A Prospective Comparative Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paganelli, Chiara, E-mail: chiara.paganelli@polimi.it [Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano (Italy); Seregni, Matteo; Fattori, Giovanni [Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano (Italy); Summers, Paul [Division of Radiology, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milano (Italy); Bellomi, Massimo [Division of Radiology, Istituto Europeo di Oncologia, Milano (Italy); Department of Health Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano (Italy); Baroni, Guido; Riboldi, Marco [Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milano (Italy); Bioengineering Unit, CNAO Foundation, Pavia (Italy)

2015-03-15

Purpose: This study applied automatic feature detection on cine–magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) liver images in order to provide a prospective comparison between MRI-guided and surrogate-based tracking methods for motion-compensated liver radiation therapy. Methods and Materials: In a population of 30 subjects (5 volunteers plus 25 patients), 2 oblique sagittal slices were acquired across the liver at high temporal resolution. An algorithm based on scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) was used to extract and track multiple features throughout the image sequence. The position of abdominal markers was also measured directly from the image series, and the internal motion of each feature was quantified through multiparametric analysis. Surrogate-based tumor tracking with a state-of-the-art external/internal correlation model was simulated. The geometrical tracking error was measured, and its correlation with external motion parameters was also investigated. Finally, the potential gain in tracking accuracy relying on MRI guidance was quantified as a function of the maximum allowed tracking error. Results: An average of 45 features was extracted for each subject across the whole liver. The multi-parametric motion analysis reported relevant inter- and intrasubject variability, highlighting the value of patient-specific and spatially-distributed measurements. Surrogate-based tracking errors (relative to the motion amplitude) were were in the range 7% to 23% (1.02-3.57mm) and were significantly influenced by external motion parameters. The gain of MRI guidance compared to surrogate-based motion tracking was larger than 30% in 50% of the subjects when considering a 1.5-mm tracking error tolerance. Conclusions: Automatic feature detection applied to cine-MRI allows detailed liver motion description to be obtained. Such information was used to quantify the performance of surrogate-based tracking methods and to provide a prospective comparison with respect to MRI

Real-time multiple objects tracking on Raspberry-Pi-based smart embedded camera

Science.gov (United States)

Dziri, Aziz; Duranton, Marc; Chapuis, Roland

2016-07-01

Multiple-object tracking constitutes a major step in several computer vision applications, such as surveillance, advanced driver assistance systems, and automatic traffic monitoring. Because of the number of cameras used to cover a large area, these applications are constrained by the cost of each node, the power consumption, the robustness of the tracking, the processing time, and the ease of deployment of the system. To meet these challenges, the use of low-power and low-cost embedded vision platforms to achieve reliable tracking becomes essential in networks of cameras. We propose a tracking pipeline that is designed for fixed smart cameras and which can handle occlusions between objects. We show that the proposed pipeline reaches real-time processing on a low-cost embedded smart camera composed of a Raspberry-Pi board and a RaspiCam camera. The tracking quality and the processing speed obtained with the proposed pipeline are evaluated on publicly available datasets and compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

Convolutional Deep Belief Networks for Single-Cell/Object Tracking in Computational Biology and Computer Vision

OpenAIRE

Zhong, Bineng; Pan, Shengnan; Zhang, Hongbo; Wang, Tian; Du, Jixiang; Chen, Duansheng; Cao, Liujuan

2016-01-01

In this paper, we propose deep architecture to dynamically learn the most discriminative features from data for both single-cell and object tracking in computational biology and computer vision. Firstly, the discriminative features are automatically learned via a convolutional deep belief network (CDBN). Secondly, we design a simple yet effective method to transfer features learned from CDBNs on the source tasks for generic purpose to the object tracking tasks using only limited amount of tra...

Markov random field based automatic image alignment for electron tomography.

Science.gov (United States)

Amat, Fernando; Moussavi, Farshid; Comolli, Luis R; Elidan, Gal; Downing, Kenneth H; Horowitz, Mark

2008-03-01

We present a method for automatic full-precision alignment of the images in a tomographic tilt series. Full-precision automatic alignment of cryo electron microscopy images has remained a difficult challenge to date, due to the limited electron dose and low image contrast. These facts lead to poor signal to noise ratio (SNR) in the images, which causes automatic feature trackers to generate errors, even with high contrast gold particles as fiducial features. To enable fully automatic alignment for full-precision reconstructions, we frame the problem probabilistically as finding the most likely particle tracks given a set of noisy images, using contextual information to make the solution more robust to the noise in each image. To solve this maximum likelihood problem, we use Markov Random Fields (MRF) to establish the correspondence of features in alignment and robust optimization for projection model estimation. The resulting algorithm, called Robust Alignment and Projection Estimation for Tomographic Reconstruction, or RAPTOR, has not needed any manual intervention for the difficult datasets we have tried, and has provided sub-pixel alignment that is as good as the manual approach by an expert user. We are able to automatically map complete and partial marker trajectories and thus obtain highly accurate image alignment. Our method has been applied to challenging cryo electron tomographic datasets with low SNR from intact bacterial cells, as well as several plastic section and X-ray datasets.

Fine grained nuclear emulsion for higher resolution tracking detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naka, T., E-mail: naka@flab.phys.nagoya-u.ac.jp [Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Asada, T.; Katsuragawa, T.; Hakamata, K.; Yoshimoto, M.; Kuwabara, K.; Nakamura, M.; Sato, O.; Nakano, T. [Graduated School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Tawara, Y. [Division of Energy Science, EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); De Lellis, G. [INFN Sezione di Napoli, Napoli (Italy); Sirignano, C. [INFN Sezione di Padova, Padova (Italy); D' Ambrossio, N. [INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (L' Aquila) (Italy)

2013-08-01

Fine grained nuclear emulsion with several 10 nm silver halide crystals can detect submicron tracks. This detector is expected to be worked as dark matter detector with directional sensitive. Now, nuclear emulsion became possible to be produced at Nagoya University, and extreme fine grained nuclear emulsion with 20 nm diameter was produced. Using this emulsion and new reading out technique with expansion technique, for optical selection and X-ray microscopy, recoiled tracks induced by dark matter can be detected automatically. Then, readout efficiency is larger than 80% at 120 nm, and angular resolution for final confirmation with X-ray microscopy is 20°. In addition, we started to construct the R and D underground facility in Gran Sasso.

Automatic Mechanisms for Social Attention Are Culturally Penetrable.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, Adam S; Sasaki, Joni Y; German, Tamsin C; Kim, Heejung S

2017-01-01

Are mechanisms for social attention influenced by culture? Evidence that social attention is triggered automatically by bottom-up gaze cues and is uninfluenced by top-down verbal instructions may suggest it operates in the same way everywhere. Yet considerations from evolutionary and cultural psychology suggest that specific aspects of one's cultural background may have consequence for the way mechanisms for social attention develop and operate. In more interdependent cultures, the scope of social attention may be broader, focusing on more individuals and relations between those individuals. We administered a multi-gaze cueing task requiring participants to fixate a foreground face flanked by background faces and measured shifts in attention using eye tracking. For European Americans, gaze cueing did not depend on the direction of background gaze cues, suggesting foreground gaze alone drives automatic attention shifting; for East Asians, cueing patterns differed depending on whether the foreground cue matched or mismatched background cues, suggesting foreground and background gaze information were integrated. These results demonstrate that cultural background influences the social attention system by shifting it into a narrow or broad mode of operation and, importantly, provides evidence challenging the assumption that mechanisms underlying automatic social attention are necessarily rigid and impenetrable to culture. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Adaptive DFT-Based Interferometer Fringe Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Edward; Pedretti, Ettore; Bregman, Jesse; Mah, Robert W.; Traub, Wesley A.

2005-12-01

An automatic interferometer fringe tracking system has been developed, implemented, and tested at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) Observatory at Mount Hopkins, Arizona. The system can minimize the optical path differences (OPDs) for all three baselines of the Michelson stellar interferometer at IOTA. Based on sliding window discrete Fourier-transform (DFT) calculations that were optimized for computational efficiency and robustness to atmospheric disturbances, the algorithm has also been tested extensively on offline data. Implemented in ANSI C on the 266 MHz PowerPC processor running the VxWorks real-time operating system, the algorithm runs in approximately [InlineEquation not available: see fulltext.] milliseconds per scan (including all three interferograms), using the science camera and piezo scanners to measure and correct the OPDs. The adaptive DFT-based tracking algorithm should be applicable to other systems where there is a need to detect or track a signal with an approximately constant-frequency carrier pulse. One example of such an application might be to the field of thin-film measurement by ellipsometry, using a broadband light source and a Fourier-transform spectrometer to detect the resulting fringe patterns.

Adaptive DFT-Based Interferometer Fringe Tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wesley A. Traub

2005-09-01

Full Text Available An automatic interferometer fringe tracking system has been developed, implemented, and tested at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA Observatory at Mount Hopkins, Arizona. The system can minimize the optical path differences (OPDs for all three baselines of the Michelson stellar interferometer at IOTA. Based on sliding window discrete Fourier-transform (DFT calculations that were optimized for computational efficiency and robustness to atmospheric disturbances, the algorithm has also been tested extensively on offline data. Implemented in ANSI C on the 266 MHz PowerPC processor running the VxWorks real-time operating system, the algorithm runs in approximately 2.0 milliseconds per scan (including all three interferograms, using the science camera and piezo scanners to measure and correct the OPDs. The adaptive DFT-based tracking algorithm should be applicable to other systems where there is a need to detect or track a signal with an approximately constant-frequency carrier pulse. One example of such an application might be to the field of thin-film measurement by ellipsometry, using a broadband light source and a Fourier-transform spectrometer to detect the resulting fringe patterns.

Automatic Association of Chats and Video Tracks for Activity Learning and Recognition in Aerial Video Surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riad I. Hammoud

2014-10-01

Full Text Available We describe two advanced video analysis techniques, including video-indexed by voice annotations (VIVA and multi-media indexing and explorer (MINER. VIVA utilizes analyst call-outs (ACOs in the form of chat messages (voice-to-text to associate labels with video target tracks, to designate spatial-temporal activity boundaries and to augment video tracking in challenging scenarios. Challenging scenarios include low-resolution sensors, moving targets and target trajectories obscured by natural and man-made clutter. MINER includes: (1 a fusion of graphical track and text data using probabilistic methods; (2 an activity pattern learning framework to support querying an index of activities of interest (AOIs and targets of interest (TOIs by movement type and geolocation; and (3 a user interface to support streaming multi-intelligence data processing. We also present an activity pattern learning framework that uses the multi-source associated data as training to index a large archive of full-motion videos (FMV. VIVA and MINER examples are demonstrated for wide aerial/overhead imagery over common data sets affording an improvement in tracking from video data alone, leading to 84% detection with modest misdetection/false alarm results due to the complexity of the scenario. The novel use of ACOs and chat Sensors 2014, 14 19844 messages in video tracking paves the way for user interaction, correction and preparation of situation awareness reports.

Automatic association of chats and video tracks for activity learning and recognition in aerial video surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hammoud, Riad I; Sahin, Cem S; Blasch, Erik P; Rhodes, Bradley J; Wang, Tao

2014-10-22

We describe two advanced video analysis techniques, including video-indexed by voice annotations (VIVA) and multi-media indexing and explorer (MINER). VIVA utilizes analyst call-outs (ACOs) in the form of chat messages (voice-to-text) to associate labels with video target tracks, to designate spatial-temporal activity boundaries and to augment video tracking in challenging scenarios. Challenging scenarios include low-resolution sensors, moving targets and target trajectories obscured by natural and man-made clutter. MINER includes: (1) a fusion of graphical track and text data using probabilistic methods; (2) an activity pattern learning framework to support querying an index of activities of interest (AOIs) and targets of interest (TOIs) by movement type and geolocation; and (3) a user interface to support streaming multi-intelligence data processing. We also present an activity pattern learning framework that uses the multi-source associated data as training to index a large archive of full-motion videos (FMV). VIVA and MINER examples are demonstrated for wide aerial/overhead imagery over common data sets affording an improvement in tracking from video data alone, leading to 84% detection with modest misdetection/false alarm results due to the complexity of the scenario. The novel use of ACOs and chat Sensors 2014, 14 19844 messages in video tracking paves the way for user interaction, correction and preparation of situation awareness reports.

A Coupled Hidden Markov Random Field Model for Simultaneous Face Clustering and Tracking in Videos

KAUST Repository

Wu, Baoyuan; Hu, Bao-Gang; Ji, Qiang

2016-01-01

Face clustering and face tracking are two areas of active research in automatic facial video processing. They, however, have long been studied separately, despite the inherent link between them. In this paper, we propose to perform simultaneous face

Stability control for high speed tracked unmanned vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Pape, Olivier; Morillon, Joel G.; Houbloup, Philippe; Leveque, Stephane; Fialaire, Cecile; Gauthier, Thierry; Ropars, Patrice

2005-05-01

The French Military Robotic Study Program (introduced in Aerosense 2003), sponsored by the French Defense Procurement Agency and managed by Thales as the prime contractor, focuses on about 15 robotic themes which can provide an immediate "operational add-on value". The paper details the "automatic speed adjustment" behavior (named SYR4), developed by Giat Industries Company, which main goal is to secure the teleoperated mobility of high speed tracked vehicles on rough grounds; more precisely, the validated low level behavior continuously adjusts the vehicle speed taking into account the teleperator wish AND the maximum speed that the vehicle can manage safely according to the commanded radius of curvature. The algorithm is based on a realistic physical model of the ground-tracks relation, taking into account many vehicle and ground parameters (such as ground adherence and dynamic specificities of tracked vehicles). It also deals with the teleoperator-machine interface, providing a balanced strategy between both extreme behaviors: a) maximum speed reduction before initiating the commanded curve; b) executing the minimum possible radius without decreasing the commanded speed. The paper presents the results got from the military acceptance tests performed on tracked SYRANO vehicle (French Operational Demonstrator).

太阳能抽水泵的自动追光控制系统研究%The Automatic Tracking Control System about Pumps by Solar Energy

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

蔺金元; 剡文杰

2012-01-01

在西部偏远的农村,阳光充足,太阳能要比电能更容易获得,农业用水可以采用太阳能抽水泵。介绍了一种自动追光控制系统,可以用它来辅助抽水泵的太阳能供电系统,控制步进电机去带动太阳能电池板自动旋转,使电池板能够保持在太阳能转换效率最高的位置,能够使太阳能抽水泵更加充分利用太阳能资源。%In the western countryside,solar energy is sufficient,solar energy is obtained more easily than power.Agricultural water can use solar water pumps.An automatic tracking system which can automatically tracksolar is introduced in this paper.The system is used for pumps that have solar power supply systems,then the battery plate which is driven by the stepper motor can rotate according to the value of absorption power.Thus,the battery plate can be always in the position which is available to absorb maximum power.The solar energy water pump can use solar energy more fully by this system.

Experimental Investigations of a Precision Sensor for an Automatic Weapons Stabilizer System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor Korobiichuk

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the results of experimental investigations of a precision sensor for an automatic weapons stabilizer system. It also describes the experimental equipment used and the structure of the developed sensor. A weapons stabilizer is designed for automatic guidance of an armament unit in the horizontal and vertical planes when firing at ground and air targets that are quickly maneuvering, and at lower speeds when firing anti-tank missiles, as well as the bypass of construction elements by the armament unit, and the automatic tracking of moving targets when interacting with a fire control system. The results of experimental investigations have shown that the error of the precision sensor developed on the basis of a piezoelectric element is 6 × 10−10 m/s2 under quasi-static conditions, and ~10−5 m/s2 for mobile use. This paper defines metrological and calibration properties of the developed sensor.

Auto-counting of high density overlapping tracks and neutron spectrum measurement using CR-39 detectors and in-house image analysis program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paul, Sabyasachi; Tripathy, S.P.; Sahoo, G.S.; Joshi, D.S.; Bandyopadhyay, T.

2014-01-01

An effort is made in this work to overcome the difficulty of counting highly dense and overlapping tracks in solid polymeric track detectors (SPTD) such as CR-39. A program is developed to automatically count the track density which is found to be faster and more precise compared to other commonly used image analysing software. The results obtained by the present methodology are compared with those obtained using other software. (author)

An automatic analyzer of solid state nuclear track detectors using an optic RAM as image sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Staderini, E.M.; Castellano, A.

1986-01-01

An optic RAM is a conventional digital random access read/write dynamic memory device featuring a quartz windowed package and memory cells regularly ordered on the chip. Such a device is used as an image sensor because each cell retains data stored in it for a time depending on the intensity of the light incident on the cell itself. The authors have developed a system which uses an optic RAM to acquire and digitize images from electrochemically etched CR39 solid state nuclear track detectors (SSNTD) in the track count rate up to 5000 cm -2 . On the digital image so obtained, a microprocessor, with appropriate software, performs image analysis, filtering, tracks counting and evaluation. (orig.)

Real Time 3D Facial Movement Tracking Using a Monocular Camera

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanchao Dong

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The paper proposes a robust framework for 3D facial movement tracking in real time using a monocular camera. It is designed to estimate the 3D face pose and local facial animation such as eyelid movement and mouth movement. The framework firstly utilizes the Discriminative Shape Regression method to locate the facial feature points on the 2D image and fuses the 2D data with a 3D face model using Extended Kalman Filter to yield 3D facial movement information. An alternating optimizing strategy is adopted to fit to different persons automatically. Experiments show that the proposed framework could track the 3D facial movement across various poses and illumination conditions. Given the real face scale the framework could track the eyelid with an error of 1 mm and mouth with an error of 2 mm. The tracking result is reliable for expression analysis or mental state inference.

Automation of peak-tracking analysis of stepwise perturbed NMR spectra

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banelli, Tommaso; Vuano, Marco [Università di Udine, Dipartimento di Area Medica (Italy); Fogolari, Federico [INBB (Italy); Fusiello, Andrea [Università di Udine, Dipartimento Politecnico di Ingegneria e Architettura (Italy); Esposito, Gennaro [INBB (Italy); Corazza, Alessandra, E-mail: alessandra.corazza@uniud.it [Università di Udine, Dipartimento di Area Medica (Italy)

2017-02-15

We describe a new algorithmic approach able to automatically pick and track the NMR resonances of a large number of 2D NMR spectra acquired during a stepwise variation of a physical parameter. The method has been named Trace in Track (TinT), referring to the idea that a gaussian decomposition traces peaks within the tracks recognised through 3D mathematical morphology. It is capable of determining the evolution of the chemical shifts, intensity and linewidths of each tracked peak.The performances obtained in term of track reconstruction and correct assignment on realistic synthetic spectra were high above 90% when a noise level similar to that of experimental data were considered. TinT was applied successfully to several protein systems during a temperature ramp in isotope exchange experiments. A comparison with a state-of-the-art algorithm showed promising results for great numbers of spectra and low signal to noise ratios, when the graduality of the perturbation is appropriate. TinT can be applied to different kinds of high throughput chemical shift mapping experiments, with quasi-continuous variations, in which a quantitative automated recognition is crucial.

Data-Base Software For Tracking Technological Developments

Science.gov (United States)

Aliberti, James A.; Wright, Simon; Monteith, Steve K.

1996-01-01

Technology Tracking System (TechTracS) computer program developed for use in storing and retrieving information on technology and related patent information developed under auspices of NASA Headquarters and NASA's field centers. Contents of data base include multiple scanned still images and quick-time movies as well as text. TechTracS includes word-processing, report-editing, chart-and-graph-editing, and search-editing subprograms. Extensive keyword searching capabilities enable rapid location of technologies, innovators, and companies. System performs routine functions automatically and serves multiple users.

Application of solid state track detector to neutron dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsuruta, Takao

1979-01-01

Though solid state track detectors (SSTD) are radiation measuring instrument for heavy charged particles by itself, it can be used as radiation measuring instrument for neutrons, if nuclear reactions such as (n, f) or (n, α) reaction are utilized. Since the means was found, which permits to observe the tracks of heavy charged particles in a solid with an optical microscope by chemically etching the tracks to enlarge them to etch pits, various types of detectors have been developed for the purpose of measuring neutron dose. The paper is described on the materials and construction of the SSTDs for neutron dosimetry, and the sensitivity is explained with mathematical equations. The features of neutron dosimetry with SSTDs are as follows: They are compact, and scarcely disturb neutron field, thus delicate dose distribution can be known; integration measurement is possible regardless of dose rate values because of integrating type detectors; it is not influenced by β-ray or γ-ray except the case when there is high energy radiation such as causing photonuclear reactions or high dose such as degrading solids, it has pretty high sensitivity; track fading is negligible during the normal measuring time around room temperature; and the etching images of tracks are relatively clear, and various automatic counting systems can be employed. (Wakatsuki, Y.)

A Wide Lock-Range Referenceless CDR with Automatic Frequency Acquisition

OpenAIRE

Seon-Kyoo Lee; Young-Sang Kim; Hong-June Park; Jae-Yoon Sim

2011-01-01

A wide lock-range referenceless CDR circuit is proposed with an automatic tracking of data rate. For efficient frequency acquisition, a DLL-based loop is used with a simple phase/frequency detector to extract 1-bit period of input data stream. The CDR, implemented in a 65 nm CMOS, shows a lock range of 650 Mb/s-to-8 Gb/s and BER of less than 10-12 at 8 Gb/s with low power consumption.

A Wide Lock-Range Referenceless CDR with Automatic Frequency Acquisition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seon-Kyoo Lee

2011-01-01

Full Text Available A wide lock-range referenceless CDR circuit is proposed with an automatic tracking of data rate. For efficient frequency acquisition, a DLL-based loop is used with a simple phase/frequency detector to extract 1-bit period of input data stream. The CDR, implemented in a 65 nm CMOS, shows a lock range of 650 Mb/s-to-8 Gb/s and BER of less than 10-12 at 8 Gb/s with low power consumption.

A line feature-based camera tracking method applicable to nuclear power plant environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yan, Weida; Ishii, Hirotake; Shimoda, Hiroshi; Izumi, Masanori

2014-01-01

Augmented reality, which can support the maintenance and decommissioning work of an NPP to improve efficiency and reduce human error, is expected to be practically used in an NPP. AR has indispensable tracking technology that estimates the 3D position and orientation of users in real time, but because of the complication of the NPP environment, it is difficult for its practial use in the large space of an NPP. This study attempt to develop a tracking method for the practial use in an NPP. Marker tracking is a legacy tracking method, but the preparation work necessary for that method is onerous. Therefore, this study developed and evaluated a natural feature-based camera tracking method that demands less preparation and which is applicable in an NPP environment. This method registers natural features as landmarks. When tracking, the natural features existing in the NPP environment can be registered automatically as landmarks. It is therefore possible to expand the tracking area to cover a wide environment in theory. The evaluation result shows that the proposed tracking method has the possibility to support field work of some kinds in an NPP environment. It is possible to reduce the preparation work necessary for the marker tracking method. (author)

Automatic Train Operation Using Autonomic Prediction of Train Runs

Science.gov (United States)

Asuka, Masashi; Kataoka, Kenji; Komaya, Kiyotoshi; Nishida, Syogo

In this paper, we present an automatic train control method adaptable to disturbed train traffic conditions. The proposed method presumes transmission of detected time of a home track clearance to trains approaching to the station by employing equipment of Digital ATC (Automatic Train Control). Using the information, each train controls its acceleration by the method that consists of two approaches. First, by setting a designated restricted speed, the train controls its running time to arrive at the next station in accordance with predicted delay. Second, the train predicts the time at which it will reach the current braking pattern generated by Digital ATC, along with the time when the braking pattern transits ahead. By comparing them, the train correctly chooses the coasting drive mode in advance to avoid deceleration due to the current braking pattern. We evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed method regarding driving conditions, energy consumption and reduction of delays by simulation.

Nonlinear Synchronization for Automatic Learning of 3D Pose Variability in Human Motion Sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mozerov M

2010-01-01

Full Text Available A dense matching algorithm that solves the problem of synchronizing prerecorded human motion sequences, which show different speeds and accelerations, is proposed. The approach is based on minimization of MRF energy and solves the problem by using Dynamic Programming. Additionally, an optimal sequence is automatically selected from the input dataset to be a time-scale pattern for all other sequences. The paper utilizes an action specific model which automatically learns the variability of 3D human postures observed in a set of training sequences. The model is trained using the public CMU motion capture dataset for the walking action, and a mean walking performance is automatically learnt. Additionally, statistics about the observed variability of the postures and motion direction are also computed at each time step. The synchronized motion sequences are used to learn a model of human motion for action recognition and full-body tracking purposes.

Optimized swimmer tracking system based on a novel multi-related-targets approach

Science.gov (United States)

Benarab, D.; Napoléon, T.; Alfalou, A.; Verney, A.; Hellard, P.

2017-02-01

Robust tracking is a crucial step in automatic swimmer evaluation from video sequences. We designed a robust swimmer tracking system using a new multi-related-targets approach. The main idea is to consider the swimmer as a bloc of connected subtargets that advance at the same speed. If one of the subtargets is partially or totally occluded, it can be localized by knowing the position of the others. In this paper, we first introduce the two-dimensional direct linear transformation technique that we used to calibrate the videos. Then, we present the classical tracking approach based on dynamic fusion. Next, we highlight the main contribution of our work, which is the multi-related-targets tracking approach. This approach, the classical head-only approach and the ground truth are then compared, through testing on a database of high-level swimmers in training, national and international competitions (French National Championships, Limoges 2015, and World Championships, Kazan 2015). Tracking percentage and the accuracy of the instantaneous speed are evaluated and the findings show that our new appraoach is significantly more accurate than the classical approach.

The computer system of automatical microscope analysis of mines' individual dosimeters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zorawski, A.; Hawrynski, M.; Kluszczynski, D.

1988-01-01

The Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) carriers on routine investigations on miners' individual exposure to radon and its alpha radioactive daughters in Polish mines [1]. Evaluation of miners' exposure is based on automatic analysis of track detectors by computer SYSTEM RADON. The IOM used detectors of size 2x3 cm cut from Kodak LT115 or LR115 dosimetry foil. The scheme of the system is presented in Fig.1 whereas Table 1 includes specification of its elements

Automated cell tracking and analysis in phase-contrast videos (iTrack4U): development of Java software based on combined mean-shift processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordelières, Fabrice P; Petit, Valérie; Kumasaka, Mayuko; Debeir, Olivier; Letort, Véronique; Gallagher, Stuart J; Larue, Lionel

2013-01-01

Cell migration is a key biological process with a role in both physiological and pathological conditions. Locomotion of cells during embryonic development is essential for their correct positioning in the organism; immune cells have to migrate and circulate in response to injury. Failure of cells to migrate or an inappropriate acquisition of migratory capacities can result in severe defects such as altered pigmentation, skull and limb abnormalities during development, and defective wound repair, immunosuppression or tumor dissemination. The ability to accurately analyze and quantify cell migration is important for our understanding of development, homeostasis and disease. In vitro cell tracking experiments, using primary or established cell cultures, are often used to study migration as cells can quickly and easily be genetically or chemically manipulated. Images of the cells are acquired at regular time intervals over several hours using microscopes equipped with CCD camera. The locations (x,y,t) of each cell on the recorded sequence of frames then need to be tracked. Manual computer-assisted tracking is the traditional method for analyzing the migratory behavior of cells. However, this processing is extremely tedious and time-consuming. Most existing tracking algorithms require experience in programming languages that are unfamiliar to most biologists. We therefore developed an automated cell tracking program, written in Java, which uses a mean-shift algorithm and ImageJ as a library. iTrack4U is a user-friendly software. Compared to manual tracking, it saves considerable amount of time to generate and analyze the variables characterizing cell migration, since they are automatically computed with iTrack4U. Another major interest of iTrack4U is the standardization and the lack of inter-experimenter differences. Finally, iTrack4U is adapted for phase contrast and fluorescent cells.

Automated cell tracking and analysis in phase-contrast videos (iTrack4U: development of Java software based on combined mean-shift processes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fabrice P Cordelières

Full Text Available Cell migration is a key biological process with a role in both physiological and pathological conditions. Locomotion of cells during embryonic development is essential for their correct positioning in the organism; immune cells have to migrate and circulate in response to injury. Failure of cells to migrate or an inappropriate acquisition of migratory capacities can result in severe defects such as altered pigmentation, skull and limb abnormalities during development, and defective wound repair, immunosuppression or tumor dissemination. The ability to accurately analyze and quantify cell migration is important for our understanding of development, homeostasis and disease. In vitro cell tracking experiments, using primary or established cell cultures, are often used to study migration as cells can quickly and easily be genetically or chemically manipulated. Images of the cells are acquired at regular time intervals over several hours using microscopes equipped with CCD camera. The locations (x,y,t of each cell on the recorded sequence of frames then need to be tracked. Manual computer-assisted tracking is the traditional method for analyzing the migratory behavior of cells. However, this processing is extremely tedious and time-consuming. Most existing tracking algorithms require experience in programming languages that are unfamiliar to most biologists. We therefore developed an automated cell tracking program, written in Java, which uses a mean-shift algorithm and ImageJ as a library. iTrack4U is a user-friendly software. Compared to manual tracking, it saves considerable amount of time to generate and analyze the variables characterizing cell migration, since they are automatically computed with iTrack4U. Another major interest of iTrack4U is the standardization and the lack of inter-experimenter differences. Finally, iTrack4U is adapted for phase contrast and fluorescent cells.

Tracking Positioning Algorithm for Direction of Arrival Based on Direction Lock Loop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiu-Zhi Cheng

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In order to solve the problem of poor real-time performance, low accuracy and high computational complexity in the traditional process of locating and tracking of Direction of Arrival (DOA of moving targets, this paper proposes a DOA algorithm based on the Direction Lock Loop (DILL which adopts Lock Loop structure to realize the estimation and location of DOA and can adjust the direction automatically along with the changes of a signal’s angular variation to track the position of the signal. Meanwhile, to reduce the influence of nonlinearity and noise on its performance, the UKF filter is designed for eliminating interference of the estimated target signal to improve accuracy of the signal tracking and stability of the system. Simulation results prove that the algorithm can not only get a high resolution DOA estimate signal, but can also locate and track multiple mobile targets effectively with enhanced accuracy, efficiency and stability.

Single and Multiple Object Tracking Using a Multi-Feature Joint Sparse Representation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Weiming; Li, Wei; Zhang, Xiaoqin; Maybank, Stephen

2015-04-01

In this paper, we propose a tracking algorithm based on a multi-feature joint sparse representation. The templates for the sparse representation can include pixel values, textures, and edges. In the multi-feature joint optimization, noise or occlusion is dealt with using a set of trivial templates. A sparse weight constraint is introduced to dynamically select the relevant templates from the full set of templates. A variance ratio measure is adopted to adaptively adjust the weights of different features. The multi-feature template set is updated adaptively. We further propose an algorithm for tracking multi-objects with occlusion handling based on the multi-feature joint sparse reconstruction. The observation model based on sparse reconstruction automatically focuses on the visible parts of an occluded object by using the information in the trivial templates. The multi-object tracking is simplified into a joint Bayesian inference. The experimental results show the superiority of our algorithm over several state-of-the-art tracking algorithms.

Image-guided automatic triggering of a fractional CO2 laser in aesthetic procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilczyński, Sławomir; Koprowski, Robert; Wiernek, Barbara K; Błońska-Fajfrowska, Barbara

2016-09-01

Laser procedures in dermatology and aesthetic medicine are associated with the need for manual laser triggering. This leads to pulse overlapping and side effects. Automatic laser triggering based on image analysis can provide a secure fit to each successive doses of radiation. A fractional CO2 laser was used in the study. 500 images of the human skin of healthy subjects were acquired. Automatic triggering was initiated by an application together with a camera which tracks and analyses the skin in visible light. The tracking algorithm uses the methods of image analysis to overlap images. After locating the characteristic points in analysed adjacent areas, the correspondence of graphs is found. The point coordinates derived from the images are the vertices of graphs with respect to which isomorphism is sought. When the correspondence of graphs is found, it is possible to overlap the neighbouring parts of the image. The proposed method of laser triggering owing to the automatic image fitting method allows for 100% repeatability. To meet this requirement, there must be at least 13 graph vertices obtained from the image. For this number of vertices, the time of analysis of a single image is less than 0.5s. The proposed method, applied in practice, may help reduce the number of side effects during dermatological laser procedures resulting from laser pulse overlapping. In addition, it reduces treatment time and enables to propose new techniques of treatment through controlled, precise laser pulse overlapping. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Visual Object Tracking VOT2016 Challenge Results

KAUST Repository

Kristan, Matej

2016-11-02

The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2016 aims at comparing short-term single-object visual trackers that do not apply pre-learned models of object appearance. Results of 70 trackers are presented, with a large number of trackers being published at major computer vision conferences and journals in the recent years. The number of tested state-of-the-art trackers makes the VOT 2016 the largest and most challenging benchmark on short-term tracking to date. For each participating tracker, a short description is provided in the Appendix. The VOT2016 goes beyond its predecessors by (i) introducing a new semi-automatic ground truth bounding box annotation methodology and (ii) extending the evaluation system with the no-reset experiment. The dataset, the evaluation kit as well as the results are publicly available at the challenge website (http://votchallenge.net).

The Visual Object Tracking VOT2016 Challenge Results

KAUST Repository

Kristan, Matej; Leonardis, Aleš; Matas, Jiři; Felsberg, Michael; Pflugfelder, Roman; Čehovin, Luka; Vojí r̃, Tomá š; Hä ger, Gustav; Lukežič, Alan; Ferná ndez, Gustavo; Gupta, Abhinav; Petrosino, Alfredo; Memarmoghadam, Alireza; Garcia-Martin, Alvaro; Solí s Montero, André s; Vedaldi, Andrea; Robinson, Andreas; Ma, Andy J.; Varfolomieiev, Anton; Alatan, Aydin; Erdem, Aykut; Ghanem, Bernard; Liu, Bin; Han, Bohyung; Martinez, Brais; Chang, Chang-Ming; Xu, Changsheng; Sun, Chong; Kim, Daijin; Chen, Dapeng; Du, Dawei; Mishra, Deepak; Yeung, Dit-Yan; Gundogdu, Erhan; Erdem, Erkut; Khan, Fahad; Porikli, Fatih; Zhao, Fei; Bunyak, Filiz; Battistone, Francesco; Zhu, Gao; Roffo, Giorgio; Subrahmanyam, Gorthi R. K. Sai; Bastos, Guilherme; Seetharaman, Guna; Medeiros, Henry; Li, Hongdong; Qi, Honggang; Bischof, Horst; Possegger, Horst; Lu, Huchuan; Lee, Hyemin; Nam, Hyeonseob; Chang, Hyung Jin; Drummond, Isabela; Valmadre, Jack; Jeong, Jae-chan; Cho, Jae-il; Lee, Jae-Yeong; Zhu, Jianke; Feng, Jiayi; Gao, Jin; Choi, Jin Young; Xiao, Jingjing; Kim, Ji-Wan; Jeong, Jiyeoup; Henriques, Joã o F.; Lang, Jochen; Choi, Jongwon; Martinez, Jose M.; Xing, Junliang; Gao, Junyu; Palaniappan, Kannappan; Lebeda, Karel; Gao, Ke; Mikolajczyk, Krystian; Qin, Lei; Wang, Lijun; Wen, Longyin; Bertinetto, Luca; Rapuru, Madan Kumar; Poostchi, Mahdieh; Maresca, Mario; Danelljan, Martin; Mueller, Matthias; Zhang, Mengdan; Arens, Michael; Valstar, Michel; Tang, Ming; Baek, Mooyeol; Khan, Muhammad Haris; Wang, Naiyan; Fan, Nana; Al-Shakarji, Noor; Miksik, Ondrej; Akin, Osman; Moallem, Payman; Senna, Pedro; Torr, Philip H. S.; Yuen, Pong C.; Huang, Qingming; Martin-Nieto, Rafael; Pelapur, Rengarajan; Bowden, Richard; Laganiè re, Robert; Stolkin, Rustam; Walsh, Ryan; Krah, Sebastian B.; Li, Shengkun; Zhang, Shengping; Yao, Shizeng; Hadfield, Simon; Melzi, Simone; Lyu, Siwei; Li, Siyi; Becker, Stefan; Golodetz, Stuart; Kakanuru, Sumithra; Choi, Sunglok; Hu, Tao; Mauthner, Thomas; Zhang, Tianzhu; Pridmore, Tony; Santopietro, Vincenzo; Hu, Weiming; Li, Wenbo; Hü bner, Wolfgang; Lan, Xiangyuan; Wang, Xiaomeng; Li, Xin; Li, Yang; Demiris, Yiannis; Wang, Yifan; Qi, Yuankai; Yuan, Zejian; Cai, Zexiong; Xu, Zhan; He, Zhenyu; Chi, Zhizhen

2016-01-01

The Visual Object Tracking challenge VOT2016 aims at comparing short-term single-object visual trackers that do not apply pre-learned models of object appearance. Results of 70 trackers are presented, with a large number of trackers being published at major computer vision conferences and journals in the recent years. The number of tested state-of-the-art trackers makes the VOT 2016 the largest and most challenging benchmark on short-term tracking to date. For each participating tracker, a short description is provided in the Appendix. The VOT2016 goes beyond its predecessors by (i) introducing a new semi-automatic ground truth bounding box annotation methodology and (ii) extending the evaluation system with the no-reset experiment. The dataset, the evaluation kit as well as the results are publicly available at the challenge website (http://votchallenge.net).

Air-cooled Photovoltaic Blinds with Automatic Sun Tracking System%空冷型自动追光百叶帘式光伏窗的应用研究

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

陈海飞; 蔡宝瑞; 郭晶晶; 王超伟; 陈孚江; 杨洁

2017-01-01

This paper summarizes the domestic and foreign photovoltaic in architectural form, and designs a new type of air - cooled photovoltaic blind with automatic sun tracking system to solve the problems of low solar radiation receiving capacity of conventional photovoltaic windows and the problems of architectural lighting and ventilation. It replaces the traditional Venetian blinds with the thin-film solar photovoltaic sheets and put in the hollow double window to adjust the amount of indoor lighting and get electric energy revenues. This system is able to track the sun 's rays by the photosensitive element, and photovoltaic shutter angle adjustment will bring in disturbed flow formation, thereby accelerating the air cooling heat dissipation and improving the photoelectric conversion efficiency. In addition, photovoltaic windows have four basic working modes: internal circulation heating mode in winter, outer circulation cooling mode in summer, fully enclosed mode and full lighting mode, which enable transfer heat between the indoor and outdoor environment. The first two models automatically track the sun by the light sensor, and the signal will be processed by the intelligent processor to drive the motor to control the tilt angle of the photovoltaic louver components, so that the sun directly irradiate to the photovoltaic louvre components, which fully accept the light and improve power production. Therefore, the system not only obtain the maximum radiation through the automatic tracking of sunshine, but also ensure the temperature of the photovoltaic cell not too high through the winter and summer internal and external cooling cycle mode, which improve the power generation efficiency of the photovoltaic window. In addition, the summer cycle and the winter cycle can not only have a cooling effect on the PV cell itself, but also greatly reduce the indoor load to achieve the effect of building energy efficiency. Three kinds of photovoltaic windows with different

Track-based event recognition in a realistic crowded environment

Science.gov (United States)

van Huis, Jasper R.; Bouma, Henri; Baan, Jan; Burghouts, Gertjan J.; Eendebak, Pieter T.; den Hollander, Richard J. M.; Dijk, Judith; van Rest, Jeroen H.

2014-10-01

Automatic detection of abnormal behavior in CCTV cameras is important to improve the security in crowded environments, such as shopping malls, airports and railway stations. This behavior can be characterized at different time scales, e.g., by small-scale subtle and obvious actions or by large-scale walking patterns and interactions between people. For example, pickpocketing can be recognized by the actual snatch (small scale), when he follows the victim, or when he interacts with an accomplice before and after the incident (longer time scale). This paper focusses on event recognition by detecting large-scale track-based patterns. Our event recognition method consists of several steps: pedestrian detection, object tracking, track-based feature computation and rule-based event classification. In the experiment, we focused on single track actions (walk, run, loiter, stop, turn) and track interactions (pass, meet, merge, split). The experiment includes a controlled setup, where 10 actors perform these actions. The method is also applied to all tracks that are generated in a crowded shopping mall in a selected time frame. The results show that most of the actions can be detected reliably (on average 90%) at a low false positive rate (1.1%), and that the interactions obtain lower detection rates (70% at 0.3% FP). This method may become one of the components that assists operators to find threatening behavior and enrich the selection of videos that are to be observed.

Investigation of tracking systems properties in CAVE-type virtual reality systems

Science.gov (United States)

Szymaniak, Magda; Mazikowski, Adam; Meironke, Michał

2017-08-01

In recent years, many scientific and industrial centers in the world developed a virtual reality systems or laboratories. One of the most advanced solutions are Immersive 3D Visualization Lab (I3DVL), a CAVE-type (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) laboratory. It contains two CAVE-type installations: six-screen installation arranged in a form of a cube, and four-screen installation, a simplified version of the previous one. The user feeling of "immersion" and interaction with virtual world depend on many factors, in particular on the accuracy of the tracking system of the user. In this paper properties of the tracking systems applied in I3DVL was investigated. For analysis two parameters were selected: the accuracy of the tracking system and the range of detection of markers by the tracking system in space of the CAVE. Measurements of system accuracy were performed for six-screen installation, equipped with four tracking cameras for three axes: X, Y, Z. Rotation around the Y axis was also analyzed. Measured tracking system shows good linear and rotating accuracy. The biggest issue was the range of the monitoring of markers inside the CAVE. It turned out, that the tracking system lose sight of the markers in the corners of the installation. For comparison, for a simplified version of CAVE (four-screen installation), equipped with eight tracking cameras, this problem was not occur. Obtained results will allow for improvement of cave quality.

Accurately tracking single-cell movement trajectories in microfluidic cell sorting devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Jenny; Frohberg, Nicholas J; Zhou, Enlu; Sulchek, Todd; Qiu, Peng

2018-01-01

Microfluidics are routinely used to study cellular properties, including the efficient quantification of single-cell biomechanics and label-free cell sorting based on the biomechanical properties, such as elasticity, viscosity, stiffness, and adhesion. Both quantification and sorting applications require optimal design of the microfluidic devices and mathematical modeling of the interactions between cells, fluid, and the channel of the device. As a first step toward building such a mathematical model, we collected video recordings of cells moving through a ridged microfluidic channel designed to compress and redirect cells according to cell biomechanics. We developed an efficient algorithm that automatically and accurately tracked the cell trajectories in the recordings. We tested the algorithm on recordings of cells with different stiffness, and showed the correlation between cell stiffness and the tracked trajectories. Moreover, the tracking algorithm successfully picked up subtle differences of cell motion when passing through consecutive ridges. The algorithm for accurately tracking cell trajectories paves the way for future efforts of modeling the flow, forces, and dynamics of cell properties in microfluidics applications.

Accurately tracking single-cell movement trajectories in microfluidic cell sorting devices.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jenny Jeong

Full Text Available Microfluidics are routinely used to study cellular properties, including the efficient quantification of single-cell biomechanics and label-free cell sorting based on the biomechanical properties, such as elasticity, viscosity, stiffness, and adhesion. Both quantification and sorting applications require optimal design of the microfluidic devices and mathematical modeling of the interactions between cells, fluid, and the channel of the device. As a first step toward building such a mathematical model, we collected video recordings of cells moving through a ridged microfluidic channel designed to compress and redirect cells according to cell biomechanics. We developed an efficient algorithm that automatically and accurately tracked the cell trajectories in the recordings. We tested the algorithm on recordings of cells with different stiffness, and showed the correlation between cell stiffness and the tracked trajectories. Moreover, the tracking algorithm successfully picked up subtle differences of cell motion when passing through consecutive ridges. The algorithm for accurately tracking cell trajectories paves the way for future efforts of modeling the flow, forces, and dynamics of cell properties in microfluidics applications.

Automatic Imitation

Science.gov (United States)

Heyes, Cecilia

2011-01-01

"Automatic imitation" is a type of stimulus-response compatibility effect in which the topographical features of task-irrelevant action stimuli facilitate similar, and interfere with dissimilar, responses. This article reviews behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research on automatic imitation, asking in what sense it is "automatic"…

Maritime over the Horizon Sensor Integration: High Frequency Surface-Wave-Radar and Automatic Identification System Data Integration Algorithm.

Science.gov (United States)

Nikolic, Dejan; Stojkovic, Nikola; Lekic, Nikola

2018-04-09

To obtain the complete operational picture of the maritime situation in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which lies over the horizon (OTH) requires the integration of data obtained from various sensors. These sensors include: high frequency surface-wave-radar (HFSWR), satellite automatic identification system (SAIS) and land automatic identification system (LAIS). The algorithm proposed in this paper utilizes radar tracks obtained from the network of HFSWRs, which are already processed by a multi-target tracking algorithm and associates SAIS and LAIS data to the corresponding radar tracks, thus forming an integrated data pair. During the integration process, all HFSWR targets in the vicinity of AIS data are evaluated and the one which has the highest matching factor is used for data association. On the other hand, if there is multiple AIS data in the vicinity of a single HFSWR track, the algorithm still makes only one data pair which consists of AIS and HFSWR data with the highest mutual matching factor. During the design and testing, special attention is given to the latency of AIS data, which could be very high in the EEZs of developing countries. The algorithm is designed, implemented and tested in a real working environment. The testing environment is located in the Gulf of Guinea and includes a network of HFSWRs consisting of two HFSWRs, several coastal sites with LAIS receivers and SAIS data provided by provider of SAIS data.

Overview of the INEX 2008 Book Track

Science.gov (United States)

Kazai, Gabriella; Doucet, Antoine; Landoni, Monica

This paper provides an overview of the INEX 2008 Book Track. Now in its second year, the track aimed at broadening its scope by investigating topics of interest in the fields of information retrieval, human computer interaction, digital libraries, and eBooks. The main topics of investigation were defined around challenges for supporting users in reading, searching, and navigating the full texts of digitized books. Based on these themes, four tasks were defined: 1) The Book Retrieval task aimed at comparing traditional and book-specific retrieval approaches, 2) the Page in Context task aimed at evaluating the value of focused retrieval approaches for searching books, 3) the Structure Extraction task aimed to test automatic techniques for deriving structure from OCR and layout information, and 4) the Active Reading task aimed to explore suitable user interfaces for eBooks enabling reading, annotation, review, and summary across multiple books. We report on the setup and results of each of these tasks.

Strabismus Recognition Using Eye-Tracking Data and Convolutional Neural Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zenghai Chen

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Strabismus is one of the most common vision diseases that would cause amblyopia and even permanent vision loss. Timely diagnosis is crucial for well treating strabismus. In contrast to manual diagnosis, automatic recognition can significantly reduce labor cost and increase diagnosis efficiency. In this paper, we propose to recognize strabismus using eye-tracking data and convolutional neural networks. In particular, an eye tracker is first exploited to record a subject’s eye movements. A gaze deviation (GaDe image is then proposed to characterize the subject’s eye-tracking data according to the accuracies of gaze points. The GaDe image is fed to a convolutional neural network (CNN that has been trained on a large image database called ImageNet. The outputs of the full connection layers of the CNN are used as the GaDe image’s features for strabismus recognition. A dataset containing eye-tracking data of both strabismic subjects and normal subjects is established for experiments. Experimental results demonstrate that the natural image features can be well transferred to represent eye-tracking data, and strabismus can be effectively recognized by our proposed method.

Homography-based multiple-camera person-tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Turk, Matthew R.

2009-01-01

Multiple video cameras are cheaply installed overlooking an area of interest. While computerized single-camera tracking is well-developed, multiple-camera tracking is a relatively new problem. The main multi-camera problem is to give the same tracking label to all projections of a real-world target. This is called the consistent labelling problem. Khan and Shah (2003) introduced a method to use field of view lines to perform multiple-camera tracking. The method creates inter-camera meta-target associations when objects enter at the scene edges. They also said that a plane-induced homography could be used for tracking, but this method was not well described. Their homography-based system would not work if targets use only one side of a camera to enter the scene. This paper overcomes this limitation and fully describes a practical homography-based tracker. A new method to find the feet feature is introduced. The method works especially well if the camera is tilted, when using the bottom centre of the target's bounding-box would produce inaccurate results. The new method is more accurate than the bounding-box method even when the camera is not tilted. Next, a method is presented that uses a series of corresponding point pairs "dropped" by oblivious, live human targets to find a plane-induced homography. The point pairs are created by tracking the feet locations of moving targets that were associated using the field of view line method. Finally, a homography-based multiple-camera tracking algorithm is introduced. Rules governing when to create the homography are specified. The algorithm ensures that homography-based tracking only starts after a non-degenerate homography is found. The method works when not all four field of view lines are discoverable; only one line needs to be found to use the algorithm. To initialize the system, the operator must specify pairs of overlapping cameras. Aside from that, the algorithm is fully automatic and uses the natural movement of

Automatic limb identification and sleeping parameters assessment for pressure ulcer prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Baran Pouyan, Maziyar; Birjandtalab, Javad; Nourani, Mehrdad; Matthew Pompeo, M D

2016-08-01

Pressure ulcers (PUs) are common among vulnerable patients such as elderly, bedridden and diabetic. PUs are very painful for patients and costly for hospitals and nursing homes. Assessment of sleeping parameters on at-risk limbs is critical for ulcer prevention. An effective assessment depends on automatic identification and tracking of at-risk limbs. An accurate limb identification can be used to analyze the pressure distribution and assess risk for each limb. In this paper, we propose a graph-based clustering approach to extract the body limbs from the pressure data collected by a commercial pressure map system. A robust signature-based technique is employed to automatically label each limb. Finally, an assessment technique is applied to evaluate the experienced stress by each limb over time. The experimental results indicate high performance and more than 94% average accuracy of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Markerless human motion tracking using hierarchical multi-swarm cooperative particle swarm optimization.

Science.gov (United States)

Saini, Sanjay; Zakaria, Nordin; Rambli, Dayang Rohaya Awang; Sulaiman, Suziah

2015-01-01

The high-dimensional search space involved in markerless full-body articulated human motion tracking from multiple-views video sequences has led to a number of solutions based on metaheuristics, the most recent form of which is Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). However, the classical PSO suffers from premature convergence and it is trapped easily into local optima, significantly affecting the tracking accuracy. To overcome these drawbacks, we have developed a method for the problem based on Hierarchical Multi-Swarm Cooperative Particle Swarm Optimization (H-MCPSO). The tracking problem is formulated as a non-linear 34-dimensional function optimization problem where the fitness function quantifies the difference between the observed image and a projection of the model configuration. Both the silhouette and edge likelihoods are used in the fitness function. Experiments using Brown and HumanEva-II dataset demonstrated that H-MCPSO performance is better than two leading alternative approaches-Annealed Particle Filter (APF) and Hierarchical Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO). Further, the proposed tracking method is capable of automatic initialization and self-recovery from temporary tracking failures. Comprehensive experimental results are presented to support the claims.

Cloud Detours: A Non-intrusive Approach for Automatic Software Adaptation to the Cloud

OpenAIRE

Maia , Paulo; Vasconcelos , Michel; Mendonça , Nabor ,

2015-01-01

Part 1: Research Track; International audience; A major challenge facing cloud migration is the need to change a legacy (on-premise) application’s source code so that it can better benefit from the inherit cloud computing characteristics, such as resource elasticity and high scalability. When performed manually, those changes are error-prone and may require a great effort from application developers. This paper presents a novel approach to support organizations in automatically adapting their...

Automatic Detection and Positioning of Ground Control Points Using TerraSAR-X Multiaspect Acquisitions

Science.gov (United States)

Montazeri, Sina; Gisinger, Christoph; Eineder, Michael; Zhu, Xiao xiang

2018-05-01

Geodetic stereo Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is capable of absolute three-dimensional localization of natural Persistent Scatterer (PS)s which allows for Ground Control Point (GCP) generation using only SAR data. The prerequisite for the method to achieve high precision results is the correct detection of common scatterers in SAR images acquired from different viewing geometries. In this contribution, we describe three strategies for automatic detection of identical targets in SAR images of urban areas taken from different orbit tracks. Moreover, a complete work-flow for automatic generation of large number of GCPs using SAR data is presented and its applicability is shown by exploiting TerraSAR-X (TS-X) high resolution spotlight images over the city of Oulu, Finland and a test site in Berlin, Germany.

STAR reconstruction improvements for tracking with the heavy flavor tracker

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, Jason C.; Lauret, Jérôme; Perevotchikov, Victor; Smirnov, Dmitri; Van Buren, Gene

2017-10-01

The reconstruction and identification of charmed hadron decays provides an important tool for the study of heavy quark behavior in the Quark Gluon Plasma. Such measurements require high resolution to topologically identify decay daughters at vertices displaced demands on track reconstruction software. To enable these measurements at RHIC, the STAR experiment has designed and employed the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT). It is composed of silicon-based tracking detectors, providing four layers of high-precision position measurements which are used in combination with hits from the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to reconstruct track candidates. The STAR integrated tracking software (Sti) has delivered a decade of world-class physics. It was designed to leverage the discrete azimuthal symmetry of the detector and its simple radial ordering of components, permitting a flat representation of the detector geometry in terms of concentric cylinders and planes, and an approximate track propagation code. These design choices reflected a careful balancing of competing priorities, trading precision for speed in track reconstruction. To simplify the task of integrating new detectors, tools were developed to automatically generate the Sti geometry model, tying both reconstruction and simulation to the single source AgML geometry model. The increased precision and complexity of the HFT detector required a careful reassessment of this single geometry path and implementation choices. In this paper we will discuss the test suite and regression tools developed to improve reconstruction with the HFT, our lessons learned in tracking with high precision detectors and the tradeoffs between precision, speed and ease of use which were required.

Evaluation of a video-based head motion tracking system for dedicated brain PET

Science.gov (United States)

Anishchenko, S.; Beylin, D.; Stepanov, P.; Stepanov, A.; Weinberg, I. N.; Schaeffer, S.; Zavarzin, V.; Shaposhnikov, D.; Smith, M. F.

2015-03-01

Unintentional head motion during Positron Emission Tomography (PET) data acquisition can degrade PET image quality and lead to artifacts. Poor patient compliance, head tremor, and coughing are examples of movement sources. Head motion due to patient non-compliance can be an issue with the rise of amyloid brain PET in dementia patients. To preserve PET image resolution and quantitative accuracy, head motion can be tracked and corrected in the image reconstruction algorithm. While fiducial markers can be used, a contactless approach is preferable. A video-based head motion tracking system for a dedicated portable brain PET scanner was developed. Four wide-angle cameras organized in two stereo pairs are used for capturing video of the patient's head during the PET data acquisition. Facial points are automatically tracked and used to determine the six degree of freedom head pose as a function of time. The presented work evaluated the newly designed tracking system using a head phantom and a moving American College of Radiology (ACR) phantom. The mean video-tracking error was 0.99±0.90 mm relative to the magnetic tracking device used as ground truth. Qualitative evaluation with the ACR phantom shows the advantage of the motion tracking application. The developed system is able to perform tracking with accuracy close to millimeter and can help to preserve resolution of brain PET images in presence of movements.

Automated track recognition and event reconstruction in nuclear emulsion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deines-Jones, P.; Aranas, A.; Cherry, M.L.; Dugas, J.; Kudzia, D.; Nilsen, B.S.; Sengupta, K.; Waddington, C.J.; Wefel, J.P.; Wilczynska, B.; Wilczynski, H.; Wosiek, B.

1997-01-01

The major advantages of nuclear emulsion for detecting charged particles are its submicron position resolution and sensitivity to minimum ionizing particles. These must be balanced, however, against the difficult manual microscope measurement by skilled observers required for the analysis. We have developed an automated system to acquire and analyze the microscope images from emulsion chambers. Each emulsion plate is analyzed independently, allowing coincidence techniques to be used in order to reject background and estimate error rates. The system has been used to analyze a sample of high-multiplicity Pb-Pb interactions (charged particle multiplicities ∝ 1100) produced by the 158 GeV/c per nucleon 208 Pb beam at CERN. Automatically measured events agree with our best manual measurements on 97% of all the tracks. We describe the image analysis and track reconstruction techniques, and discuss the measurement and reconstruction uncertainties. (orig.)

The design and development of a solar tracking unit

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, I. W.; Miller, J. B.

1984-01-01

The solar tracking unit was developed to support the Laser Heterodyne Spectrometer (LHS) airborne instrument, but has application to a general class of airborne solar occultation research instruments. The unit consists of a mirror mounted on two gimbals, one of which is hollow. The mirror reflects a 7.6 cm (3.0 in.) diameter beam of sunlight through the hollow gimbal into the research instrument optical axis. A portion of the reflected sunlight is directed into a tracking telescope which uses a four quadrant silicon detector to produce the servo error signals. The colinearity of the tracker output beam and the research instrument optical axis is maintained to better than + or - 1 arc-minute. The unit is microcomputer controlled and is capable of stand alone operation, including automatic Sun acquisition or operation under the control of the research instrument.

Adaptive DIT-Based Fringe Tracking and Prediction at IOTA

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Edward; Pedretti, Ettore; Bregman, Jesse; Mah, Robert W.; Traub, Wesley A.

2004-01-01

An automatic fringe tracking system has been developed and implemented at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA). In testing during May 2002, the system successfully minimized the optical path differences (OPDs) for all three baselines at IOTA. Based on sliding window discrete Fourier transform (DFT) calculations that were optimized for computational efficiency and robustness to atmospheric disturbances, the algorithm has also been tested extensively on off-line data. Implemented in ANSI C on the 266 MHZ PowerPC processor running the VxWorks real-time operating system, the algorithm runs in approximately 2.0 milliseconds per scan (including all three interferograms), using the science camera and piezo scanners to measure and correct the OPDs. Preliminary analysis on an extension of this algorithm indicates a potential for predictive tracking, although at present, real-time implementation of this extension would require significantly more computational capacity.

Phantom study and accuracy evaluation of an image-to-world registration approach used with electro-magnetic tracking system for neurosurgery

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Senhu; Sarment, David

2015-12-01

Minimally invasive neurosurgery needs intraoperative imaging updates and high efficient image guide system to facilitate the procedure. An automatic image guided system utilized with a compact and mobile intraoperative CT imager was introduced in this work. A tracking frame that can be easily attached onto the commercially available skull clamp was designed. With known geometry of fiducial and tracking sensor arranged on this rigid frame that was fabricated through high precision 3D printing, not only was an accurate, fully automatic registration method developed in a simple and less-costly approach, but also it helped in estimating the errors from fiducial localization in image space through image processing, and in patient space through the calibration of tracking frame. Our phantom study shows the fiducial registration error as 0.348+/-0.028mm, comparing the manual registration error as 1.976+/-0.778mm. The system in this study provided a robust and accurate image-to-patient registration without interruption of routine surgical workflow and any user interactions involved through the neurosurgery.

Evaluation of an Automatic Seam Tracking/Adaptive Control Welding System for Shipyard Applications, 1983-1984 (Phase 1)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Fichtelberg, Neil D

1985-01-01

.... Significant improvements were made in bead shape and size, and in the automatic selection of the type of bead required and the parameters to use as a function of the prevailing groove geometry...

Motion Tracking of Infants in Risk of Cerebral Palsy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Mikkel Damgaard

Every year 2-3 out of 1000 infants are born with cerebral cerebral palsy. Among others, the disorder often affects motor, cognitive and perceptual skills. The disorder is usually detected when the infants are old enough the crawl and walk, i.e. when the infant is 1-2 years old. However, studies...... show that the infant’s movements are affected already in the first year of life and methods exist for assessing the movements. The methods often require observation of the movements and qualitative evaluation of these. A more objective measure is desired in order to be able to diagnose cerebral palsy...... for automatic assessment of infant movement. This includes a preliminary study on automatic classification of movements related to cerebral palsy. The contributions included in this thesis can be divided into two groups. The first two contributions consider the analysis in order to estimate and track the body...

A Portable Ultrasonic Nondestructive Inspection System for Metal Matrix Composite Track Shoes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mi Bao; Zhao Xiaoliang; Qian Tao; Stevenson, Mark; Kwan, Chiman; Owens, Steven E.; Royer, Roger L. Jr.; Tittmann, Bernhard R.; Raju, Basavaraju B.

2007-01-01

Cast aluminum track shoes reinforced with metal matrix composite (MMC) inserts at heavy loading areas such as center splines and sprocket windows are light in weight, and can resist high temperature and wear. Various defects such as disbonds at the insert-substrate interface, cracks and porosity in the MMC layer, etc. can be introduced during the manufacturing process and/or in service. This paper presents a portable ultrasonic system to automatically inspect tank track shoes for disbond. Ultrasonic pulse/echo inspection has shown good reliability for disbond detection. A prototype sensor array fixture has been designed and fabricated to prove the feasibility. Good agreements between the sensor fixture results and ultrasonic C-scan images were obtained

IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM, TRACKING AND SUPPORT FOR VESSELS ON RIVERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

SAMOILESCU Gheorghe

2015-05-01

Full Text Available According to the program COMPRIS (Consortium Operational Management Platform River Information Services, AIS (Automatic Identification System, RIS (River Information Services have compiled a reference model based on the perspective of navigation on the river with related information services. This paper presents a tracking and monitoring surveillance system necessary for assistance of each ship sailing in an area of interest. It shows the operating principle of the composition and role of each equipment. Transferring data to traffic monitoring authority is part of this work.

Tracker: Image-Processing and Object-Tracking System Developed

Science.gov (United States)

Klimek, Robert B.; Wright, Theodore W.

1999-01-01

Tracker is an object-tracking and image-processing program designed and developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center to help with the analysis of images generated by microgravity combustion and fluid physics experiments. Experiments are often recorded on film or videotape for analysis later. Tracker automates the process of examining each frame of the recorded experiment, performing image-processing operations to bring out the desired detail, and recording the positions of the objects of interest. It can load sequences of images from disk files or acquire images (via a frame grabber) from film transports, videotape, laser disks, or a live camera. Tracker controls the image source to automatically advance to the next frame. It can employ a large array of image-processing operations to enhance the detail of the acquired images and can analyze an arbitrarily large number of objects simultaneously. Several different tracking algorithms are available, including conventional threshold and correlation-based techniques, and more esoteric procedures such as "snake" tracking and automated recognition of character data in the image. The Tracker software was written to be operated by researchers, thus every attempt was made to make the software as user friendly and self-explanatory as possible. Tracker is used by most of the microgravity combustion and fluid physics experiments performed by Lewis, and by visiting researchers. This includes experiments performed on the space shuttles, Mir, sounding rockets, zero-g research airplanes, drop towers, and ground-based laboratories. This software automates the analysis of the flame or liquid s physical parameters such as position, velocity, acceleration, size, shape, intensity characteristics, color, and centroid, as well as a number of other measurements. It can perform these operations on multiple objects simultaneously. Another key feature of Tracker is that it performs optical character recognition (OCR). This feature is useful in

Automatic segmentation of liver structure in CT images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bae, K.T.; Giger, M.L.; Chen, C.; Kahn, C.E. Jr.

1993-01-01

The segmentation and three-dimensional representation of the liver from a computed tomography (CT) scan is an important step in many medical applications, such as in the surgical planning for a living-donor liver transplant and in the automatic detection and documentation of pathological states. A method is being developed to automatically extract liver structure from abdominal CT scans using a priori information about liver morphology and digital image-processing techniques. Segmentation is performed sequentially image-by-image (slice-by-slice), starting with a reference image in which the liver occupies almost the entire right half of the abdomen cross section. Image processing techniques include gray-level thresholding, Gaussian smoothing, and eight-point connectivity tracking. For each case, the shape, size, and pixel density distribution of the liver are recorded for each CT image and used in the processing of other CT images. Extracted boundaries of the liver are smoothed using mathematical morphology techniques and B-splines. Computer-determined boundaries were compared with those drawn by a radiologist. The boundary descriptions from the two methods were in agreement, and the calculated areas were within 10%

Automatic lip reading by using multimodal visual features

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Shohei; Ohya, Jun

2013-12-01

Since long time ago, speech recognition has been researched, though it does not work well in noisy places such as in the car or in the train. In addition, people with hearing-impaired or difficulties in hearing cannot receive benefits from speech recognition. To recognize the speech automatically, visual information is also important. People understand speeches from not only audio information, but also visual information such as temporal changes in the lip shape. A vision based speech recognition method could work well in noisy places, and could be useful also for people with hearing disabilities. In this paper, we propose an automatic lip-reading method for recognizing the speech by using multimodal visual information without using any audio information such as speech recognition. First, the ASM (Active Shape Model) is used to track and detect the face and lip in a video sequence. Second, the shape, optical flow and spatial frequencies of the lip features are extracted from the lip detected by ASM. Next, the extracted multimodal features are ordered chronologically so that Support Vector Machine is performed in order to learn and classify the spoken words. Experiments for classifying several words show promising results of this proposed method.

Development of a digital guidance and control law for steep approach automatic landings using modern control techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Halyo, N.

1979-01-01

The development of a digital automatic control law for a small jet transport to perform a steep final approach in automatic landings is reported along with the development of a steady-state Kalman filter used to provide smooth estimates to the control law. The control law performs the functions of localizer and glides capture, localizer and glideslope track, decrab, and place. The control law uses the microwave landing system position data, and aircraft body-mounted accelerators, attitude and attitude rate information. The results obtained from a digital simulation of the aircraft dynamics, wind conditions, and sensor noises using the control law and filter developed are described.

Object Tracking Using Adaptive Covariance Descriptor and Clustering-Based Model Updating for Visual Surveillance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lei Qin

2014-05-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel approach for tracking an arbitrary object in video sequences for visual surveillance. The first contribution of this work is an automatic feature extraction method that is able to extract compact discriminative features from a feature pool before computing the region covariance descriptor. As the feature extraction method is adaptive to a specific object of interest, we refer to the region covariance descriptor computed using the extracted features as the adaptive covariance descriptor. The second contribution is to propose a weakly supervised method for updating the object appearance model during tracking. The method performs a mean-shift clustering procedure among the tracking result samples accumulated during a period of time and selects a group of reliable samples for updating the object appearance model. As such, the object appearance model is kept up-to-date and is prevented from contamination even in case of tracking mistakes. We conducted comparing experiments on real-world video sequences, which confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. The tracking system that integrates the adaptive covariance descriptor and the clustering-based model updating method accomplished stable object tracking on challenging video sequences.

Design and implementation of microcontroller-based automatic sequence counting and switching system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua ABOLARINWA

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Technological advancement and its influence on human being have been on the increase in recent time. Major areas of such influence, include monitoring and control activities. In order to keep track of human movement in and out of a particular building, there is the need for an automatic counting system. Therefore, in this paper, we present the design and implementation of a microcontroller-based automatic sequence counting and switching system. This system was designed and developed to save cost, time, energy, and to achieve seamless control in the event of switching on or off of electrical appliances within a building. Top-down modular design approach was used in conjunction with the versatility of microcontroller. The system is able to monitor, sequentially count the number of entry and exit of people through an entrance, afterwards, automatically control any electrical device connected to it. From various tests and measurements obtained, there are comparative benefits derived from the deployment of this system in terms of simplicity and accuracy over similar system that is not microcontroller-based. Therefore, this system can be deployed at commercial quantity with wide range of applications in homes, offices and other public places.

Fast regional readout CMOS Image Sensor for dynamic MLC tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Zin, H.; Harris, E.; Osmond, J.; Evans, P.

2014-03-01

Advanced radiotherapy techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) require verification of the complex beam delivery including tracking of multileaf collimators (MLC) and monitoring the dose rate. This work explores the feasibility of a prototype Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor Image Sensor (CIS) for tracking these complex treatments by utilising fast, region of interest (ROI) read out functionality. An automatic edge tracking algorithm was used to locate the MLC leaves edges moving at various speeds (from a moving triangle field shape) and imaged with various sensor frame rates. The CIS demonstrates successful edge detection of the dynamic MLC motion within accuracy of 1.0 mm. This demonstrates the feasibility of the sensor to verify treatment delivery involving dynamic MLC up to ~400 frames per second (equivalent to the linac pulse rate), which is superior to any current techniques such as using electronic portal imaging devices (EPID). CIS provides the basis to an essential real-time verification tool, useful in accessing accurate delivery of complex high energy radiation to the tumour and ultimately to achieve better cure rates for cancer patients.

Mapping of transuranic elements in soil by nuclear track methodology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Espinosa, G.

2001-01-01

An alternative method is presented to map the distribution of transuranic elements, which is characterized by its simplicity in both implementation and instrumentation. The method is based on the interaction of alpha particles in polymeric materials and the formation of tracks, which become visible after chemical etching. Nuclear track detectors are placed on the soil in order to evaluate the distribution of the radioactive material and its relative intensity for transuranic contaminants. CR-39 polycarbonate was used as a nuclear track detector in this study. Chemical etching was done with a 6.25M KOH solution in a closed system for 16 hours. The readings were performed in an automatic system using digital image analysis. The results show the distribution of the contaminants and their location, identifying the zones with large intensities. This method is attractive for use in areas contaminated with alpha particles, and specially transuranic elements, because it involves in situ measurements, generates very low amounts of radioactive waste, and the detectors are easily handled. (author)

Fast regional readout CMOS image sensor for dynamic MLC tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zin, H; Harris, E; Osmond, J; Evans, P

2014-01-01

Advanced radiotherapy techniques such as volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) require verification of the complex beam delivery including tracking of multileaf collimators (MLC) and monitoring the dose rate. This work explores the feasibility of a prototype Complementary metal-oxide semiconductor Image Sensor (CIS) for tracking these complex treatments by utilising fast, region of interest (ROI) read out functionality. An automatic edge tracking algorithm was used to locate the MLC leaves edges moving at various speeds (from a moving triangle field shape) and imaged with various sensor frame rates. The CIS demonstrates successful edge detection of the dynamic MLC motion within accuracy of 1.0 mm. This demonstrates the feasibility of the sensor to verify treatment delivery involving dynamic MLC up to ∼400 frames per second (equivalent to the linac pulse rate), which is superior to any current techniques such as using electronic portal imaging devices (EPID). CIS provides the basis to an essential real-time verification tool, useful in accessing accurate delivery of complex high energy radiation to the tumour and ultimately to achieve better cure rates for cancer patients.

Multimodal Translation System Using Texture-Mapped Lip-Sync Images for Video Mail and Automatic Dubbing Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Morishima, Shigeo; Nakamura, Satoshi

2004-12-01

We introduce a multimodal English-to-Japanese and Japanese-to-English translation system that also translates the speaker's speech motion by synchronizing it to the translated speech. This system also introduces both a face synthesis technique that can generate any viseme lip shape and a face tracking technique that can estimate the original position and rotation of a speaker's face in an image sequence. To retain the speaker's facial expression, we substitute only the speech organ's image with the synthesized one, which is made by a 3D wire-frame model that is adaptable to any speaker. Our approach provides translated image synthesis with an extremely small database. The tracking motion of the face from a video image is performed by template matching. In this system, the translation and rotation of the face are detected by using a 3D personal face model whose texture is captured from a video frame. We also propose a method to customize the personal face model by using our GUI tool. By combining these techniques and the translated voice synthesis technique, an automatic multimodal translation can be achieved that is suitable for video mail or automatic dubbing systems into other languages.

A new apparatus for track-analysis in nuclear track emulsion based on a CCD-camera device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ganssauge, E.

1993-01-01

A CCD camera-based, image-analyzing system for automatic evaluation of nuclear track emulsion chambers is presented. The stage of a normal microscope moves using three remote controlled stepping motors with a step size of 0.25 μm. A CCD-camera is mounted on tope of the microscope in order to register the nuclear emulsion. The camera has a resolution capable of differentiating single emulsion-grains (0.6 μm). The camera picture is transformed from analogue to digital signals and stored by a frame grabber. Some background-picture elements can be eliminated by applying cuts on grey levels. The central computer processes the picture, correlates the single picture points, the coordinates and the grey-levels, such that in the end one has a unique assignment of each picture point to an address on the hard disk for a given plate. After repetition of this procedure for several plates by means of an appropriate software (for instance our vertex program [1]). the coordinates of the points are combined to tracks, and a variety of distributions like pseudorapidity-distributions can be calculated and presented on the terminal. (author)

Design and implementation of a general and automatic test platform base on NI PXI system

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Long

2018-05-01

Aiming at some difficulties of test equipment such as the short product life, poor generality and high development cost, a general and automatic test platform base on NI PXI system is designed in this paper, which is able to meet most test requirements of circuit boards. The test platform is devided into 5 layers, every layer is introduced in detail except for the "Equipment Under Test" layer. An output board of a track-side equipment, which is an important part of high speed train control system, is taken as an example to make the functional circuit test by the test platform. The results show that the test platform is easy to realize add-on functions development, automatic test, wide compatibility and strong generality.

The ship-borne infrared searching and tracking system based on the inertial platform

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yan; Zhang, Haibo

2011-08-01

As a result of the radar system got interferenced or in the state of half silent ,it can cause the guided precision drop badly In the modern electronic warfare, therefore it can lead to the equipment depended on electronic guidance cannot strike the incoming goals exactly. It will need to rely on optoelectronic devices to make up for its shortcomings, but when interference is in the process of radar leading ,especially the electro-optical equipment is influenced by the roll, pitch and yaw rotation ,it can affect the target appear outside of the field of optoelectronic devices for a long time, so the infrared optoelectronic equipment can not exert the superiority, and also it cannot get across weapon-control system "reverse bring" missile against incoming goals. So the conventional ship-borne infrared system unable to track the target of incoming quickly , the ability of optoelectronic rivalry declines heavily.Here we provide a brand new controlling algorithm for the semi-automatic searching and infrared tracking based on inertial navigation platform. Now it is applying well in our XX infrared optoelectronic searching and tracking system. The algorithm is mainly divided into two steps: The artificial mode turns into auto-searching when the deviation of guide exceeds the current scene under the course of leading for radar.When the threshold value of the image picked-up is satisfied by the contrast of the target in the searching scene, the speed computed by using the CA model Least Square Method feeds back to the speed loop. And then combine the infrared information to accomplish the closed-loop control of the infrared optoelectronic system tracking. The algorithm is verified via experiment. Target capturing distance is 22.3 kilometers on the great lead deviation by using the algorithm. But without using the algorithm the capturing distance declines 12 kilometers. The algorithm advances the ability of infrared optoelectronic rivalry and declines the target capturing

Automatic trajectory measurement of large numbers of crowded objects

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Hui; Liu, Ye; Chen, Yan Qiu

2013-06-01

Complex motion patterns of natural systems, such as fish schools, bird flocks, and cell groups, have attracted great attention from scientists for years. Trajectory measurement of individuals is vital for quantitative and high-throughput study of their collective behaviors. However, such data are rare mainly due to the challenges of detection and tracking of large numbers of objects with similar visual features and frequent occlusions. We present an automatic and effective framework to measure trajectories of large numbers of crowded oval-shaped objects, such as fish and cells. We first use a novel dual ellipse locator to detect the coarse position of each individual and then propose a variance minimization active contour method to obtain the optimal segmentation results. For tracking, cost matrix of assignment between consecutive frames is trainable via a random forest classifier with many spatial, texture, and shape features. The optimal trajectories are found for the whole image sequence by solving two linear assignment problems. We evaluate the proposed method on many challenging data sets.

Development and clinical evaluation of automatic fiducial detection for tumor tracking in cine megavoltage images during volumetric modulated arc therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azcona, Juan Diego; Li Ruijiang; Mok, Edward; Hancock, Steven; Xing Lei

2013-01-01

accuracy during treatment. Results: The algorithm was able to accurately localize the fiducial position on MV images with success rates of more than 90% per case. The percentage of images in which each fiducial was localized in the studied cases varied between 23% and 65%, with at least one fiducial having been localized between 40% and 95% of the images. This depended mainly on the modulation of the plan and fiducial blockage. The prostate movement in the presented cases varied between 0.8 and 3.5 mm (mean values). The maximum displacement detected among all patients was of 5.7 mm. Conclusions: An algorithm for automatic detection of fiducial markers in cine MV images has been developed and tested with five clinical cases. Despite the challenges posed by complex beam aperture shapes, fiducial localization close to the field edge, partial occlusion of fiducials, fast leaf and gantry movement, and inherently low MV image quality, good localization results were achieved in patient images. This work provides a technique for enabling real-time accurate fiducial detection and tumor tracking during VMAT treatments without the use of extra imaging dose.

The semantic category-based grouping in the Multiple Identity Tracking task.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Liuqing; Zhang, Xuemin; Li, Zhen; Liu, Jingyao

2018-01-01

In the Multiple Identity Tracking (MIT) task, categorical distinctions between targets and distractors have been found to facilitate tracking (Wei, Zhang, Lyu, & Li in Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 589, 2016). The purpose of this study was to further investigate the reasons for the facilitation effect, through six experiments. The results of Experiments 1-3 excluded the potential explanations of visual distinctiveness, attentional distribution strategy, and a working memory mechanism, respectively. When objects' visual information was preserved and categorical information was removed, the facilitation effect disappeared, suggesting that the visual distinctiveness between targets and distractors was not the main reason for the facilitation effect. Moreover, the facilitation effect was not the result of strategically shifting the attentional distribution, because the targets received more attention than the distractors in all conditions. Additionally, the facilitation effect did not come about because the identities of targets were encoded and stored in visual working memory to assist in the recovery from tracking errors; when working memory was disturbed by the object identities changing during tracking, the facilitation effect still existed. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that observers grouped targets together and segregated them from distractors on the basis of their categorical information. By doing this, observers could largely avoid distractor interference with tracking and improve tracking performance. Finally, Experiment 6 indicated that category-based grouping is not an automatic, but a goal-directed and effortful, strategy. In summary, the present findings show that a semantic category-based target-grouping mechanism exists in the MIT task, which is likely to be the major reason for the tracking facilitation effect.

Boosting Active Contours for Weld Pool Visual Tracking in Automatic Arc Welding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Jinchao; Fan, Zhun; Olsen, Søren Ingvor

2015-01-01

Detecting the shape of the non-rigid molten metal during welding, so-called weld pool visual sensing, is one of the central tasks for automating arc welding processes. It is challenging due to the strong interference of the high-intensity arc light and spatters as well as the lack of robust...... approaches to detect and represent the shape of the nonrigid weld pool. We propose a solution using active contours including an prior for the weld pool boundary composition. Also, we apply Adaboost to select a small set of features that captures the relevant information. The proposed method is applied...... to weld pool tracking and the presented results verified its feasibility....

Android App Based Vehicle Tracking Using GPS And GSM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica Saini

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Global Positioning System GPS is used in numerous applications in todays world. A real time vehicle tracking system using the GPS technology is proposed in this paper. The project Android App based Vehicle Tracking Using GSM AND GPRS mainly focuses in tracking the location of the vehicle on which the device has been installed. It will then send the data in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates through SMS on the users mobile where the coordinates will be plotted in the Android app automatically. Initially the GPS installed in the device takes input from the satellite and stores it in the microcontrollers buffer. In order to track the vehicle the mobile user has to call on the SIM number that is registered in the GSM module of the device. Once the call is received the device authenticates the calling number. If authenticated the location of the vehicle is sent to the registered mobile number in the form of SMS. After sending the message the GSM is deactivated and the GPS is activated again. The coordinates of the location received in the SMS can be viewed on the android app. The hardware part described in the paper comprises of GPRS GSM module LCD to view the coordinates ATMega Microcontroller MAX 232 Arduino RS232 and relay.

STUDY OF TRANSMISSION LINES EFFECT ON THE SYSTEM OPERATIONON OF CONTINUOUS AUTOMATIC CAB SIGNALLING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. O. Hololobova

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To conduct an effect research of the electromagnetic field of high-voltage transmission lines (HVTL (750 kV, 50 Hz on the track circuits and continuous automatic cab signalling (CACS with a signal current of 50 Hz in the areas of convergence and intersection with the transmission lines and to propose possible methods to improve noise immunity of CACS. Methodology. The measurements were performed both by means of car-laboratory and directly on rail lines. During the study the electric field strength in the range of industrial frequency directly under the transmission lines and at the distance from it to the railway lines was measured, as well as the time dependence of CACS codes with signal current frequency of 50 Hz directly under the transmission lines and at a distance from it in the absence of the train and its passing. Findings. The root causes analysis of CACS faults and failures was carried out. The effect of the electromagnetic field of high-voltage transmission lines (750 kV, 50 Hz on the track circuit and CACS with signal current of 50 Hz in the areas of convergence and intersection with the transmission line was investigated. Possible methods to improve noise immunity of CACS were considered. Originality. The effect research of transmission lines (750 kV on the operation of the automatic cab signalling on spans Prishib-Burchatsk and Privolnoye-Yelizarovo, Pridneprovsk railway in places of oblique railroads crossing and transmission lines (750 kV, 50 Hz was conducted. Electric field strength in the range of industrial frequency directly under the transmission lines and at a distance from it to the railway line, as well as the time dependences of ALSN codes with signal current frequency of 50 Hz directly under the transmission lines and at a distance from it in the absence of the train and as its passing were measured. It was found that CACS codes in track circuits under transmission lines are strongly distorted, as strength

Automated Real-Time Needle-Guide Tracking for Fast 3-T MR-guided Transrectal Prostate Biopsy: A Feasibility Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zamecnik, P.; Schouten, M.G.; Krafft, A.J.; Maier, F.; Schlemmer, H.-P.; Barentsz, J.O.; Bock, M. de; Futterer, J.J.

2014-01-01

Purpose To assess the feasibility of automatic needle-guide tracking by using a real-time phase-only cross correlation (POCC) algorithm-based sequence for transrectal 3-T in-bore magnetic resonance (MR)-guided prostate biopsies. Materials and Methods This study was approved by the ethics review

Neural-network classifiers for automatic real-world aerial image recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Greenberg, Shlomo; Guterman, Hugo

1996-08-01

We describe the application of the multilayer perceptron (MLP) network and a version of the adaptive resonance theory version 2-A (ART 2-A) network to the problem of automatic aerial image recognition (AAIR). The classification of aerial images, independent of their positions and orientations, is required for automatic tracking and target recognition. Invariance is achieved by the use of different invariant feature spaces in combination with supervised and unsupervised neural networks. The performance of neural-network-based classifiers in conjunction with several types of invariant AAIR global features, such as the Fourier-transform space, Zernike moments, central moments, and polar transforms, are examined. The advantages of this approach are discussed. The performance of the MLP network is compared with that of a classical correlator. The MLP neural-network correlator outperformed the binary phase-only filter (BPOF) correlator. It was found that the ART 2-A distinguished itself with its speed and its low number of required training vectors. However, only the MLP classifier was able to deal with a combination of shift and rotation geometric distortions.

Atrioventricular junction (AVJ) motion tracking: a software tool with ITK/VTK/Qt.

Science.gov (United States)

Pengdong Xiao; Shuang Leng; Xiaodan Zhao; Hua Zou; Ru San Tan; Wong, Philip; Liang Zhong

2016-08-01

The quantitative measurement of the Atrioventricular Junction (AVJ) motion is an important index for ventricular functions of one cardiac cycle including systole and diastole. In this paper, a software tool that can conduct AVJ motion tracking from cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) images is presented by using Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit (ITK), The Visualization Toolkit (VTK) and Qt. The software tool is written in C++ by using Visual Studio Community 2013 integrated development environment (IDE) containing both an editor and a Microsoft complier. The software package has been successfully implemented. From the software engineering practice, it is concluded that ITK, VTK, and Qt are very handy software systems to implement automatic image analysis functions for CMR images such as quantitative measure of motion by visual tracking.

Counting radon tracks in Makrofol detectors with the 'image reduction and analysis facility' (IRAF) software package

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hernandez, F.; Gonzalez-Manrique, S.; Karlsson, L.; Hernandez-Armas, J.; Aparicio, A.

2007-01-01

Makrofol detectors are commonly used for long-term radon ( 222 Rn) measurements in houses, schools and workplaces. The use of this type of passive detectors for the determination of radon concentrations requires the counting of the nuclear tracks produced by alpha particles on the detecting material. The 'image reduction and analysis facility' (IRAF) software package is a piece of software commonly used in astronomical applications. It allows detailed counting and mapping of sky sections where stars are grouped very closely, even forming clusters. In order to count the nuclear tracks in our Makrofol radon detectors, we have developed an inter-disciplinary application that takes advantage of the similitude that exist between counting stars in a dark sky and tracks in a track-etch detector. Thus, a low cost semi-automatic system has been set up in our laboratory which utilises a commercially available desktop scanner and the IRAF software package. A detailed description of the proposed semi-automatic method and its performance, in comparison to ocular counting, is described in detail here. In addition, the calibration factor for this procedure, 2.97+/-0.07kBqm -3 htrack -1 cm 2 , has been calculated based on the results obtained from exposing 46 detectors to certified radon concentrations. Furthermore, the results of a preliminary radon survey carried out in 62 schools in Tenerife island (Spain), using Makrofol detectors, counted with the mentioned procedure, are briefly presented. The results reported here indicate that the developed procedure permits a fast, accurate and unbiased determination of the radon tracks in a large number of detectors. The measurements carried out in the schools showed that the radon concentrations in at least 12 schools were above 200Bqm -3 and, in two of them, above 400Bqm -3 . Further studies should be performed at those schools following the European Union recommendations about radon concentrations in buildings

Automatic differentiation bibliography

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Corliss, G.F. [comp.

1992-07-01

This is a bibliography of work related to automatic differentiation. Automatic differentiation is a technique for the fast, accurate propagation of derivative values using the chain rule. It is neither symbolic nor numeric. Automatic differentiation is a fundamental tool for scientific computation, with applications in optimization, nonlinear equations, nonlinear least squares approximation, stiff ordinary differential equation, partial differential equations, continuation methods, and sensitivity analysis. This report is an updated version of the bibliography which originally appeared in Automatic Differentiation of Algorithms: Theory, Implementation, and Application.

Immediate IPTV channel leave by explicit user tracking in PON

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Peng; Yoshiuchi, Hideya; Yoshizawa, Satoshi

2007-11-01

In this paper, we propose a novel IPTV channel leave mechanism for Passive Optical Network (PON). By explicit user tracking and automatic differentiation of IGMP v2 and v3 users, the proposed mechanism can realize immediate channel leave in both Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Unit (ONU) while avoiding removing the channel which still has users. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can significantly save the bandwidth consumption during "channel surf" by users, compared to the standard IGMP timeout mechanism.

A low-cost test-bed for real-time landmark tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Csaszar, Ambrus; Hanan, Jay C.; Moreels, Pierre; Assad, Christopher

2007-04-01

A low-cost vehicle test-bed system was developed to iteratively test, refine and demonstrate navigation algorithms before attempting to transfer the algorithms to more advanced rover prototypes. The platform used here was a modified radio controlled (RC) car. A microcontroller board and onboard laptop computer allow for either autonomous or remote operation via a computer workstation. The sensors onboard the vehicle represent the types currently used on NASA-JPL rover prototypes. For dead-reckoning navigation, optical wheel encoders, a single axis gyroscope, and 2-axis accelerometer were used. An ultrasound ranger is available to calculate distance as a substitute for the stereo vision systems presently used on rovers. The prototype also carries a small laptop computer with a USB camera and wireless transmitter to send real time video to an off-board computer. A real-time user interface was implemented that combines an automatic image feature selector, tracking parameter controls, streaming video viewer, and user generated or autonomous driving commands. Using the test-bed, real-time landmark tracking was demonstrated by autonomously driving the vehicle through the JPL Mars yard. The algorithms tracked rocks as waypoints. This generated coordinates calculating relative motion and visually servoing to science targets. A limitation for the current system is serial computing-each additional landmark is tracked in order-but since each landmark is tracked independently, if transferred to appropriate parallel hardware, adding targets would not significantly diminish system speed.

Development of Intelligent Fuzzy Controller for a Two-Axis Solar Tracking System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cong-Hui Huang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes the development of a two-axis sun tracking solar energy system using fuzzy logic as intelligent quality policy. To achieve maximum efficiency for solar panels, it is necessary to follow the sun’s path in the sky. Therefore, the architecture for the two-axis sun tracking solar energy system uses software to control the hardware. The hardware comprises (i solar cells; (ii lead-acid batteries; (iii a gear box; (iv a stepping motor; and (v a light detection circuit, while the software comprises (i a detection system; (ii a fuzzy tracking controller; and (iii a database system. A fuzzy logic controller is designed as the software architecture of the system to decide the timing for tracking the sun. The nearest position that results in receiving direct sunlight is obtained from the database. Our system is fully automatic in a changing environment and takes into account meteorological changes and the effects of the external environment arising from a malfunction. This approach reduces the number of starting motors and results in smaller energy loss in cloudy, cloud mask, or unstable weather conditions.

An automatic tuning method of a fuzzy logic controller for nuclear reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramaswamy, P.; Lee, K.Y.; Edwards, R.M.

1993-01-01

The design and evaluation by simulation of an automatically tuned fuzzy logic controller is presented. Typically, fuzzy logic controllers are designed based on an expert's knowledge of the process. However, this approach has its limitations in the fact that the controller is hard to optimize or tune to get the desired control action. A method to automate the tuning process using a simplified Kalman filter approach is presented for the fuzzy logic controller to track a suitable reference trajectory. Here, for purposes of illustration an optimal controller's response is used as a reference trajectory to determine automatically the rules for the fuzzy logic controller. To demonstrate the robustness of this design approach, a nonlinear six-delayed neutron group plant is controlled using a fuzzy logic controller that utilizes estimated reactor temperatures from a one-delayed neutron group observer. The fuzzy logic controller displayed good stability and performance robustness characteristics for a wide range of operation

Convolutional Deep Belief Networks for Single-Cell/Object Tracking in Computational Biology and Computer Vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Bineng; Pan, Shengnan; Zhang, Hongbo; Wang, Tian; Du, Jixiang; Chen, Duansheng; Cao, Liujuan

2016-01-01

In this paper, we propose deep architecture to dynamically learn the most discriminative features from data for both single-cell and object tracking in computational biology and computer vision. Firstly, the discriminative features are automatically learned via a convolutional deep belief network (CDBN). Secondly, we design a simple yet effective method to transfer features learned from CDBNs on the source tasks for generic purpose to the object tracking tasks using only limited amount of training data. Finally, to alleviate the tracker drifting problem caused by model updating, we jointly consider three different types of positive samples. Extensive experiments validate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Track reconstruction in the emulsion-lead target of the OPERA experiment using the ESS microscope

Science.gov (United States)

Arrabito, L.; Bozza, C.; Buontempo, S.; Consiglio, L.; Cozzi, M.; D'Ambrosio, N.; DeLellis, G.; DeSerio, M.; Di Capua, F.; Di Ferdinando, D.; Di Marco, N.; Ereditato, A.; Esposito, L. S.; Fini, R. A.; Giacomelli, G.; Giorgini, M.; Grella, G.; Ieva, M.; Janicsko Csathy, J.; Juget, F.; Kreslo, I.; Laktineh, I.; Manai, K.; Mandrioli, G.; Marotta, A.; Migliozzi, P.; Monacelli, P.; Moser, U.; Muciaccia, M. T.; Pastore, A.; Patrizii, L.; Petukhov, Y.; Pistillo, C.; Pozzato, M.; Romano, G.; Rosa, G.; Russo, A.; Savvinov, N.; Schembri, A.; Scotto Lavina, L.; Simone, S.; Sioli, M.; Sirignano, C.; Sirri, G.; Strolin, P.; Tioukov, V.; Waelchli, T.

2007-05-01

The OPERA experiment, designed to conclusively prove the existence of νμ→ντ oscillations in the atmospheric sector, makes use of a massive lead-nuclear emulsion target to observe the appearance of ντ's in the CNGS νμ beam. The location and analysis of the neutrino interactions in quasi real-time required the development of fast computer-controlled microscopes able to reconstruct particle tracks with sub-micron precision and high efficiency at a speed of ~20 cm2/h. This paper describes the performance in particle track reconstruction of the European Scanning System, a novel automatic microscope for the measurement of emulsion films developed for OPERA.

Track reconstruction in the emulsion-lead target of the OPERA experiment using the ESS microscope

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arrabito, L; Bozza, C; Buontempo, S

2007-01-01

The OPERA experiment, designed to conclusively prove the existence of ν μ →ν τ oscillations in the atmospheric sector, makes use of a massive lead-nuclear emulsion target to observe the appearance of ν τ 's in the CNGS ν μ beam. The location and analysis of the neutrino interactions in quasi real-time required the development of fast computer-controlled microscopes able to reconstruct particle tracks with sub-micron precision and high efficiency at a speed of ∼20 cm 2 /h. This paper describes the performance in particle track reconstruction of the European Scanning System, a novel automatic microscope for the measurement of emulsion films developed for OPERA

Tracking the global footprint of fisheries

Science.gov (United States)

Kroodsma, David A.; Mayorga, Juan; Hochberg, Timothy; Miller, Nathan A.; Boerder, Kristina; Ferretti, Francesco; Wilson, Alex; Bergman, Bjorn; White, Timothy D.; Block, Barbara A.; Woods, Paul; Sullivan, Brian; Costello, Christopher; Worm, Boris

2018-02-01

Although fishing is one of the most widespread activities by which humans harvest natural resources, its global footprint is poorly understood and has never been directly quantified. We processed 22 billion automatic identification system messages and tracked >70,000 industrial fishing vessels from 2012 to 2016, creating a global dynamic footprint of fishing effort with spatial and temporal resolution two to three orders of magnitude higher than for previous data sets. Our data show that industrial fishing occurs in >55% of ocean area and has a spatial extent more than four times that of agriculture. We find that global patterns of fishing have surprisingly low sensitivity to short-term economic and environmental variation and a strong response to cultural and political events such as holidays and closures.

Vision-Based Leader Vehicle Trajectory Tracking for Multiple Agricultural Vehicles.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Linhuan; Ahamed, Tofael; Zhang, Yan; Gao, Pengbo; Takigawa, Tomohiro

2016-04-22

The aim of this study was to design a navigation system composed of a human-controlled leader vehicle and a follower vehicle. The follower vehicle automatically tracks the leader vehicle. With such a system, a human driver can control two vehicles efficiently in agricultural operations. The tracking system was developed for the leader and the follower vehicle, and control of the follower was performed using a camera vision system. A stable and accurate monocular vision-based sensing system was designed, consisting of a camera and rectangular markers. Noise in the data acquisition was reduced by using the least-squares method. A feedback control algorithm was used to allow the follower vehicle to track the trajectory of the leader vehicle. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was introduced to maintain the required distance between the leader and the follower vehicle. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the sensing and tracking performances of the leader-follower system while the leader vehicle was driven at an average speed of 0.3 m/s. In the case of linear trajectory tracking, the RMS errors were 6.5 cm, 8.9 cm and 16.4 cm for straight, turning and zigzag paths, respectively. Again, for parallel trajectory tracking, the root mean square (RMS) errors were found to be 7.1 cm, 14.6 cm and 14.0 cm for straight, turning and zigzag paths, respectively. The navigation performances indicated that the autonomous follower vehicle was able to follow the leader vehicle, and the tracking accuracy was found to be satisfactory. Therefore, the developed leader-follower system can be implemented for the harvesting of grains, using a combine as the leader and an unloader as the autonomous follower vehicle.

Field Robotics in Sports: Automatic Generation of guidance Lines for Automatic Grass Cutting, Striping and Pitch Marking of Football Playing Fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ole Green

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Progress is constantly being made and new applications are constantly coming out in the area of field robotics. In this paper, a promising application of field robotics in football playing fields is introduced. An algorithmic approach for generating the way points required for the guidance of a GPS-based field robotic through a football playing field to automatically carry out periodical tasks such as cutting the grass field, pitch and line marking illustrations and lawn striping is represented. The manual operation of these tasks requires very skilful personnel able to work for long hours with very high concentration for the football yard to be compatible with standards of Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA. In the other side, a GPS-based guided vehicle or robot with three implements; grass mower, lawn stripping roller and track marking illustrator is capable of working 24 h a day, in most weather and in harsh soil conditions without loss of quality. The proposed approach for the automatic operation of football playing fields requires no or very limited human intervention and therefore it saves numerous working hours and free a worker to focus on other tasks. An economic feasibility study showed that the proposed method is economically superimposing the current manual practices.

Automatic segmentation of cell nuclei from confocal laser scanning microscopy images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelemen, A.; Reist, H.W.

1997-01-01

A newly developed experimental method combines the possibility of irradiating more than a thousand cells simultaneous with an efficient colony-forming ability and with the capability of localizing a particle track through a cell nucleus together with the assessment of the energy transfer by digital superposition of the image containing the track with that of the cells. To assess the amount of energy deposition by particles traversing the cell nucleus the intersection lengths of the particle tracks have to be known. Intersection lengths can be obtained by determining the 3D surface contours of the irradiated cell nuclei. Confocal laser scanning microscopy using specific DNA fluorescent dye offers a possible way for the determination of the 3D shape of individual nuclei. Unfortunately, such experiments cannot be performed on living cells. One solution to this problem can be provided by building a statistical model of the shape of the nuclei of the exposed cells. In order to build such a statistical model, a large number of cell nuclei have to be identified and segmented from confocal laser scanning microscopy images. The present paper describes a method to perform this 3D segmentation in an automatic manner in order to create a solid basis for the statistical model. (author) 2 figs., 4 refs

Effects of maneuver dynamics on drag polars of the X-29A forward-swept-wing aircraft with automatic wing camber control

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, John W.; Moulton, Bryan J.

1988-01-01

The camber control loop of the X-29A FSW aircraft was designed to furnish the optimum L/D for trimmed, stabilized flight. A marked difference was noted between automatic wing camber control loop behavior in dynamic maneuvers and in stabilized flight conditions, which in turn affected subsonic aerodynamic performance. The degree of drag level increase was a direct function of maneuver rate. Attention is given to the aircraft flight drag polar effects of maneuver dynamics in light of wing camber control loop schedule. The effect of changing camber scheduling to better track the optimum automatic camber control L/D schedule is discussed.

Automated identification and tracking of polar-cap plasma patches at solar minimum

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Burston

2014-03-01

Full Text Available A method of automatically identifying and tracking polar-cap plasma patches, utilising data inversion and feature-tracking methods, is presented. A well-established and widely used 4-D ionospheric imaging algorithm, the Multi-Instrument Data Assimilation System (MIDAS, inverts slant total electron content (TEC data from ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS receivers to produce images of the free electron distribution in the polar-cap ionosphere. These are integrated to form vertical TEC maps. A flexible feature-tracking algorithm, TRACK, previously used extensively in meteorological storm-tracking studies is used to identify and track maxima in the resulting 2-D data fields. Various criteria are used to discriminate between genuine patches and "false-positive" maxima such as the continuously moving day-side maximum, which results from the Earth's rotation rather than plasma motion. Results for a 12-month period at solar minimum, when extensive validation data are available, are presented. The method identifies 71 separate structures consistent with patch motion during this time. The limitations of solar minimum and the consequent small number of patches make climatological inferences difficult, but the feasibility of the method for patches larger than approximately 500 km in scale is demonstrated and a larger study incorporating other parts of the solar cycle is warranted. Possible further optimisation of discrimination criteria, particularly regarding the definition of a patch in terms of its plasma concentration enhancement over the surrounding background, may improve results.

Multimodal Translation System Using Texture-Mapped Lip-Sync Images for Video Mail and Automatic Dubbing Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nakamura Satoshi

2004-01-01

Full Text Available We introduce a multimodal English-to-Japanese and Japanese-to-English translation system that also translates the speaker's speech motion by synchronizing it to the translated speech. This system also introduces both a face synthesis technique that can generate any viseme lip shape and a face tracking technique that can estimate the original position and rotation of a speaker's face in an image sequence. To retain the speaker's facial expression, we substitute only the speech organ's image with the synthesized one, which is made by a 3D wire-frame model that is adaptable to any speaker. Our approach provides translated image synthesis with an extremely small database. The tracking motion of the face from a video image is performed by template matching. In this system, the translation and rotation of the face are detected by using a 3D personal face model whose texture is captured from a video frame. We also propose a method to customize the personal face model by using our GUI tool. By combining these techniques and the translated voice synthesis technique, an automatic multimodal translation can be achieved that is suitable for video mail or automatic dubbing systems into other languages.

Automatic tumour volume delineation in respiratory-gated PET images

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gubbi, Jayavardhana; Palaniswami, Marimuthu; Kanakatte, Aparna; Mani, Nallasamy; Kron, Tomas; Binns, David; Srinivasan, Bala

2011-01-01

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a state-of-the-art functional imaging technique used in the accurate detection of cancer. The main problem with the tumours present in the lungs is that they are non-stationary during each respiratory cycle. Tumours in the lungs can get displaced up to 2.5 cm during respiration. Accurate detection of the tumour enables avoiding the addition of extra margin around the tumour that is usually used during radiotherapy treatment planning. This paper presents a novel method to detect and track tumour in respiratory-gated PET images. The approach followed to achieve this task is to automatically delineate the tumour from the first frame using support vector machines. The resulting volume and position information from the first frame is used in tracking its motion in the subsequent frames with the help of level set (LS) deformable model. An excellent accuracy of 97% is obtained using wavelets and support vector machines. The volume calculated as a result of the machine learning (ML) stage is used as a constraint for deformable models and the tumour is tracked in the remaining seven phases of the respiratory cycle. As a result, the complete information about tumour movement during each respiratory cycle is available in relatively short time. The combination of the LS and ML approach accurately delineated the tumour volume from all frames, thereby providing a scope of using PET images towards planning an accurate and effective radiotherapy treatment for lung cancer.

Enhanced way of securing automated teller machine to track the misusers using secure monitor tracking analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Sadhasivam, Jayakumar; Alamelu, M.; Radhika, R.; Ramya, S.; Dharani, K.; Jayavel, Senthil

2017-11-01

Now a days the people's attraction towards Automated Teller Machine(ATM) has been increasing even in rural areas. As of now the security provided by all the bank is ATM pin number. Hackers know the way to easily identify the pin number and withdraw money if they haven stolen the ATM card. Also, the Automated Teller Machine is broken and the money is stolen. To overcome these disadvantages, we propose an approach “Automated Secure Tracking System” to secure and tracking the changes in ATM. In this approach, while creating the bank account, the bank should scan the iris known (a part or movement of our eye) and fingerprint of the customer. The scanning can be done with the position of the eye movements and fingerprints identified with the shortest measurements. When the card is swiped then ATM should request the pin, scan the iris and recognize the fingerprint and then allow the customer to withdraw money. If somebody tries to break the ATM an alert message is given to the nearby police station and the ATM shutter is automatically closed. This helps in avoiding the hackers who withdraw money by stealing the ATM card and also helps the government in identifying the criminals easily.

Developmental Dyscalculia and Automatic Magnitudes Processing: Investigating Interference Effects between Area and Perimeter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hili Eidlin-Levy

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The relationship between numbers and other magnitudes has been extensively investigated in the scientific literature. Here, the objectives were to examine whether two continuous magnitudes, area and perimeter, are automatically processed and whether adults with developmental dyscalculia (DD are deficient in their ability to automatically process one or both of these magnitudes. Fifty-seven students (30 with DD and 27 with typical development performed a novel Stroop-like task requiring estimation of one aspect (area or perimeter while ignoring the other. In order to track possible changes in automaticity due to practice, we measured performance after initial and continuous exposure to stimuli. Similar to previous findings, current results show a significant group × congruency interaction, evident beyond exposure level or magnitude type. That is, the DD group systematically showed larger Stroop effects. However, analysis of each exposure period showed that during initial exposure to stimuli the DD group showed larger Stroop effects in the perimeter and not in the area task. In contrast, during continuous exposure to stimuli no triple interaction was evident. It is concluded that both magnitudes are automatically processed. Nevertheless, individuals with DD are deficient in inhibiting irrelevant magnitude information in general and, specifically, struggle to inhibit salient area information after initial exposure to a perimeter comparison task. Accordingly, the findings support the assumption that DD involves a deficiency in multiple cognitive components, which include domain-specific and domain-general cognitive functions.

Developmental Dyscalculia and Automatic Magnitudes Processing: Investigating Interference Effects between Area and Perimeter.

Science.gov (United States)

Eidlin-Levy, Hili; Rubinsten, Orly

2017-01-01

The relationship between numbers and other magnitudes has been extensively investigated in the scientific literature. Here, the objectives were to examine whether two continuous magnitudes, area and perimeter, are automatically processed and whether adults with developmental dyscalculia (DD) are deficient in their ability to automatically process one or both of these magnitudes. Fifty-seven students (30 with DD and 27 with typical development) performed a novel Stroop-like task requiring estimation of one aspect (area or perimeter) while ignoring the other. In order to track possible changes in automaticity due to practice, we measured performance after initial and continuous exposure to stimuli. Similar to previous findings, current results show a significant group × congruency interaction, evident beyond exposure level or magnitude type. That is, the DD group systematically showed larger Stroop effects. However, analysis of each exposure period showed that during initial exposure to stimuli the DD group showed larger Stroop effects in the perimeter and not in the area task. In contrast, during continuous exposure to stimuli no triple interaction was evident. It is concluded that both magnitudes are automatically processed. Nevertheless, individuals with DD are deficient in inhibiting irrelevant magnitude information in general and, specifically, struggle to inhibit salient area information after initial exposure to a perimeter comparison task. Accordingly, the findings support the assumption that DD involves a deficiency in multiple cognitive components, which include domain-specific and domain-general cognitive functions.

Automatic segmentation of coronary arteries from computed tomography angiography data cloud using optimal thresholding

Science.gov (United States)

Ansari, Muhammad Ahsan; Zai, Sammer; Moon, Young Shik

2017-01-01

Manual analysis of the bulk data generated by computed tomography angiography (CTA) is time consuming, and interpretation of such data requires previous knowledge and expertise of the radiologist. Therefore, an automatic method that can isolate the coronary arteries from a given CTA dataset is required. We present an automatic yet effective segmentation method to delineate the coronary arteries from a three-dimensional CTA data cloud. Instead of a region growing process, which is usually time consuming and prone to leakages, the method is based on the optimal thresholding, which is applied globally on the Hessian-based vesselness measure in a localized way (slice by slice) to track the coronaries carefully to their distal ends. Moreover, to make the process automatic, we detect the aorta using the Hough transform technique. The proposed segmentation method is independent of the starting point to initiate its process and is fast in the sense that coronary arteries are obtained without any preprocessing or postprocessing steps. We used 12 real clinical datasets to show the efficiency and accuracy of the presented method. Experimental results reveal that the proposed method achieves 95% average accuracy.

Square tracking sensor for autonomous helicopter hover stabilization

Science.gov (United States)

Oertel, Carl-Henrik

1995-06-01

Sensors for synthetic vision are needed to extend the mission profiles of helicopters. A special task for various applications is the autonomous position hold of a helicopter above a ground fixed or moving target. As a proof of concept for a general synthetic vision solution a restricted machine vision system, which is capable of locating and tracking a special target, was developed by the Institute of Flight Mechanics of Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (i.e., German Aerospace Research Establishment). This sensor, which is specialized to detect and track a square, was integrated in the fly-by-wire helicopter ATTHeS (i.e., Advanced Technology Testing Helicopter System). An existing model following controller for the forward flight condition was adapted for the hover and low speed requirements of the flight vehicle. The special target, a black square with a length of one meter, was mounted on top of a car. Flight tests demonstrated the automatic stabilization of the helicopter above the moving car by synthetic vision.

Extraction of airway trees using multiple hypothesis tracking and template matching

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raghavendra, Selvan; Petersen, Jens; Pedersen, Jesper Johannes Holst

2016-01-01

used in constructing a multiple hypothesis tree, which is then traversed to reach decisions. The proposed modifications remove the need for local thresholding of hypotheses as decisions are made entirely based on statistical comparisons involving the hypothesis tree. The results show improvements......Knowledge of airway tree morphology has important clinical applications in diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We present an automatic tree extraction method based on multiple hypothesis tracking and template matching for this purpose and evaluate its performance on chest CT images...

BioCreative V track 4: a shared task for the extraction of causal network information using the Biological Expression Language.

Science.gov (United States)

Rinaldi, Fabio; Ellendorff, Tilia Renate; Madan, Sumit; Clematide, Simon; van der Lek, Adrian; Mevissen, Theo; Fluck, Juliane

2016-01-01

Automatic extraction of biological network information is one of the most desired and most complex tasks in biological and medical text mining. Track 4 at BioCreative V attempts to approach this complexity using fragments of large-scale manually curated biological networks, represented in Biological Expression Language (BEL), as training and test data. BEL is an advanced knowledge representation format which has been designed to be both human readable and machine processable. The specific goal of track 4 was to evaluate text mining systems capable of automatically constructing BEL statements from given evidence text, and of retrieving evidence text for given BEL statements. Given the complexity of the task, we designed an evaluation methodology which gives credit to partially correct statements. We identified various levels of information expressed by BEL statements, such as entities, functions, relations, and introduced an evaluation framework which rewards systems capable of delivering useful BEL fragments at each of these levels. The aim of this evaluation method is to help identify the characteristics of the systems which, if combined, would be most useful for achieving the overall goal of automatically constructing causal biological networks from text. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

Automatic Fiscal Stabilizers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narcis Eduard Mitu

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Policies or institutions (built into an economic system that automatically tend to dampen economic cycle fluctuations in income, employment, etc., without direct government intervention. For example, in boom times, progressive income tax automatically reduces money supply as incomes and spendings rise. Similarly, in recessionary times, payment of unemployment benefits injects more money in the system and stimulates demand. Also called automatic stabilizers or built-in stabilizers.

3D Visual Tracking of an Articulated Robot in Precision Automated Tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

Alzarok, Hamza; Fletcher, Simon; Longstaff, Andrew P

2017-01-07

The most compelling requirements for visual tracking systems are a high detection accuracy and an adequate processing speed. However, the combination between the two requirements in real world applications is very challenging due to the fact that more accurate tracking tasks often require longer processing times, while quicker responses for the tracking system are more prone to errors, therefore a trade-off between accuracy and speed, and vice versa is required. This paper aims to achieve the two requirements together by implementing an accurate and time efficient tracking system. In this paper, an eye-to-hand visual system that has the ability to automatically track a moving target is introduced. An enhanced Circular Hough Transform (CHT) is employed for estimating the trajectory of a spherical target in three dimensions, the colour feature of the target was carefully selected by using a new colour selection process, the process relies on the use of a colour segmentation method (Delta E) with the CHT algorithm for finding the proper colour of the tracked target, the target was attached to the six degree of freedom (DOF) robot end-effector that performs a pick-and-place task. A cooperation of two Eye-to Hand cameras with their image Averaging filters are used for obtaining clear and steady images. This paper also examines a new technique for generating and controlling the observation search window in order to increase the computational speed of the tracking system, the techniques is named Controllable Region of interest based on Circular Hough Transform (CRCHT). Moreover, a new mathematical formula is introduced for updating the depth information of the vision system during the object tracking process. For more reliable and accurate tracking, a simplex optimization technique was employed for the calculation of the parameters for camera to robotic transformation matrix. The results obtained show the applicability of the proposed approach to track the moving robot

A Two-Dimensional Solar Tracking Stationary Guidance Method Based on Feature-Based Time Series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keke Zhang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The amount of satellite energy acquired has a direct impact on operational capacities of the satellite. As for practical high functional density microsatellites, solar tracking guidance design of solar panels plays an extremely important role. Targeted at stationary tracking problems incurred in a new system that utilizes panels mounted in the two-dimensional turntable to acquire energies to the greatest extent, a two-dimensional solar tracking stationary guidance method based on feature-based time series was proposed under the constraint of limited satellite attitude coupling control capability. By analyzing solar vector variation characteristics within an orbit period and solar vector changes within the whole life cycle, such a method could be adopted to establish a two-dimensional solar tracking guidance model based on the feature-based time series to realize automatic switching of feature-based time series and stationary guidance under the circumstance of different β angles and the maximum angular velocity control, which was applicable to near-earth orbits of all orbital inclination. It was employed to design a two-dimensional solar tracking stationary guidance system, and a mathematical simulation for guidance performance was carried out in diverse conditions under the background of in-orbit application. The simulation results show that the solar tracking accuracy of two-dimensional stationary guidance reaches 10∘ and below under the integrated constraints, which meet engineering application requirements.

Cloud Detection from Satellite Imagery: A Comparison of Expert-Generated and Automatically-Generated Decision Trees

Science.gov (United States)

Shiffman, Smadar

2004-01-01

Automated cloud detection and tracking is an important step in assessing global climate change via remote sensing. Cloud masks, which indicate whether individual pixels depict clouds, are included in many of the data products that are based on data acquired on- board earth satellites. Many cloud-mask algorithms have the form of decision trees, which employ sequential tests that scientists designed based on empirical astrophysics studies and astrophysics simulations. Limitations of existing cloud masks restrict our ability to accurately track changes in cloud patterns over time. In this study we explored the potential benefits of automatically-learned decision trees for detecting clouds from images acquired using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument on board the NOAA-14 weather satellite of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We constructed three decision trees for a sample of 8km-daily AVHRR data from 2000 using a decision-tree learning procedure provided within MATLAB(R), and compared the accuracy of the decision trees to the accuracy of the cloud mask. We used ground observations collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Clouds and the Earth s Radiant Energy Systems S COOL project as the gold standard. For the sample data, the accuracy of automatically learned decision trees was greater than the accuracy of the cloud masks included in the AVHRR data product.

Investigation of Nuclear Fragmentation in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions Using Plastic - Nuclear - Track Detectors

CERN Multimedia

2002-01-01

In this experiment CR39 plastic nuclear track detectors will be used which are sensitive to detect relativistic nuclear fragments with charges Z@$>$5. They will be analyzed using an automatic track measuring system which was developed at the University of Siegen.\\\\ \\\\ This allows to measure large quantities of tracks in these passive detectors and to perform high statistics experiments. We intend to measure cross sections for the production of nuclear fragments from heavy ion beams at the SPS. \\\\ \\\\ The energy independence of the cross sections predicted by the idea of limiting fragmentation will be tested at high energies. In exposures with different targets we plan to analyze the factorization of the fragmentation cross sections into a target depending factor and a factor depending on the beam particle and the fragment. The cross sections for one proton remov Coulomb dissociation. \\\\ \\\\ We plan to investigate Coulomb dissociation for different targets and different energies. Fragment and projectile charges ...

Real-Time Motion Tracking for Mobile Augmented/Virtual Reality Using Adaptive Visual-Inertial Fusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Wei; Zheng, Lianyu; Deng, Huanjun; Zhang, Hongbo

2017-05-05

In mobile augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), real-time 6-Degree of Freedom (DoF) motion tracking is essential for the registration between virtual scenes and the real world. However, due to the limited computational capacity of mobile terminals today, the latency between consecutive arriving poses would damage the user experience in mobile AR/VR. Thus, a visual-inertial based real-time motion tracking for mobile AR/VR is proposed in this paper. By means of high frequency and passive outputs from the inertial sensor, the real-time performance of arriving poses for mobile AR/VR is achieved. In addition, to alleviate the jitter phenomenon during the visual-inertial fusion, an adaptive filter framework is established to cope with different motion situations automatically, enabling the real-time 6-DoF motion tracking by balancing the jitter and latency. Besides, the robustness of the traditional visual-only based motion tracking is enhanced, giving rise to a better mobile AR/VR performance when motion blur is encountered. Finally, experiments are carried out to demonstrate the proposed method, and the results show that this work is capable of providing a smooth and robust 6-DoF motion tracking for mobile AR/VR in real-time.

Cooperative multisensor system for real-time face detection and tracking in uncontrolled conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Marchesotti, Luca; Piva, Stefano; Turolla, Andrea; Minetti, Deborah; Regazzoni, Carlo S.

2005-03-01

The presented work describes an innovative architecture for multi-sensor distributed video surveillance applications. The aim of the system is to track moving objects in outdoor environments with a cooperative strategy exploiting two video cameras. The system also exhibits the capacity of focusing its attention on the faces of detected pedestrians collecting snapshot frames of face images, by segmenting and tracking them over time at different resolution. The system is designed to employ two video cameras in a cooperative client/server structure: the first camera monitors the entire area of interest and detects the moving objects using change detection techniques. The detected objects are tracked over time and their position is indicated on a map representing the monitored area. The objects" coordinates are sent to the server sensor in order to point its zooming optics towards the moving object. The second camera tracks the objects at high resolution. As well as the client camera, this sensor is calibrated and the position of the object detected on the image plane reference system is translated in its coordinates referred to the same area map. In the map common reference system, data fusion techniques are applied to achieve a more precise and robust estimation of the objects" track and to perform face detection and tracking. The work novelties and strength reside in the cooperative multi-sensor approach, in the high resolution long distance tracking and in the automatic collection of biometric data such as a person face clip for recognition purposes.

Shape tracking with occlusions via coarse-to-fine region-based sobolev descent

KAUST Repository

Yang, Yanchao

2015-05-01

We present a method to track the shape of an object from video. The method uses a joint shape and appearance model of the object, which is propagated to match shape and radiance in subsequent frames, determining object shape. Self-occlusions and dis-occlusions of the object from camera and object motion pose difficulties to joint shape and appearance models in tracking. They are unable to adapt to new shape and appearance information, leading to inaccurate shape detection. In this work, we model self-occlusions and dis-occlusions in a joint shape and appearance tracking framework. Self-occlusions and the warp to propagate the model are coupled, thus we formulate a joint optimization problem. We derive a coarse-to-fine optimization method, advantageous in tracking, that initially perturbs the model by coarse perturbations before transitioning to finer-scale perturbations seamlessly. This coarse-to-fine behavior is automatically induced by gradient descent on a novel infinite-dimensional Riemannian manifold that we introduce. The manifold consists of planar parameterized regions, and the metric that we introduce is a novel Sobolev metric. Experiments on video exhibiting occlusions/dis-occlusions, complex radiance and background show that occlusion/dis-occlusion modeling leads to superior shape accuracy. © 2014 IEEE.

Automated assessment and tracking of human body thermal variations using unsupervised clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Yousefi, Bardia; Fleuret, Julien; Zhang, Hai; Maldague, Xavier P V; Watt, Raymond; Klein, Matthieu

2016-12-01

The presented approach addresses a review of the overheating that occurs during radiological examinations, such as magnetic resonance imaging, and a series of thermal experiments to determine a thermally suitable fabric material that should be used for radiological gowns. Moreover, an automatic system for detecting and tracking of the thermal fluctuation is presented. It applies hue-saturated-value-based kernelled k-means clustering, which initializes and controls the points that lie on the region-of-interest (ROI) boundary. Afterward, a particle filter tracks the targeted ROI during the video sequence independently of previous locations of overheating spots. The proposed approach was tested during experiments and under conditions very similar to those used during real radiology exams. Six subjects have voluntarily participated in these experiments. To simulate the hot spots occurring during radiology, a controllable heat source was utilized near the subject's body. The results indicate promising accuracy for the proposed approach to track hot spots. Some approximations were used regarding the transmittance of the atmosphere, and emissivity of the fabric could be neglected because of the independence of the proposed approach for these parameters. The approach can track the heating spots continuously and correctly, even for moving subjects, and provides considerable robustness against motion artifact, which occurs during most medical radiology procedures.

Advances in image compression and automatic target recognition; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Mar. 30, 31, 1989

Science.gov (United States)

Tescher, Andrew G. (Editor)

1989-01-01

Various papers on image compression and automatic target recognition are presented. Individual topics addressed include: target cluster detection in cluttered SAR imagery, model-based target recognition using laser radar imagery, Smart Sensor front-end processor for feature extraction of images, object attitude estimation and tracking from a single video sensor, symmetry detection in human vision, analysis of high resolution aerial images for object detection, obscured object recognition for an ATR application, neural networks for adaptive shape tracking, statistical mechanics and pattern recognition, detection of cylinders in aerial range images, moving object tracking using local windows, new transform method for image data compression, quad-tree product vector quantization of images, predictive trellis encoding of imagery, reduced generalized chain code for contour description, compact architecture for a real-time vision system, use of human visibility functions in segmentation coding, color texture analysis and synthesis using Gibbs random fields.

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system based automatic generation control

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hosseini, S.H.; Etemadi, A.H. [Department of Electrical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran (Iran)

2008-07-15

Fixed gain controllers for automatic generation control are designed at nominal operating conditions and fail to provide best control performance over a wide range of operating conditions. So, to keep system performance near its optimum, it is desirable to track the operating conditions and use updated parameters to compute control gains. A control scheme based on artificial neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), which is trained by the results of off-line studies obtained using particle swarm optimization, is proposed in this paper to optimize and update control gains in real-time according to load variations. Also, frequency relaxation is implemented using ANFIS. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated via simulations. Compliance of the proposed method with NERC control performance standard is verified. (author)

SELFADJUSTING AUTOMATIC CONTROL OF SOWING UNIT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Yu. Izmaylov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The selfadjusting automatic control of sowing unit and differentiated introduction of mineral fertilizers doses according to agrochemical indicators of the soil (precision agriculture are used wider nowadays. It was defined that the main requirement to the differentiated seeding and fertilizing is an accuracy and duration of transition from one norm to another. Established that at a speed of unit of 10 km/h object moves for 0.5 s about on 1.5 m and more. Thus in this device the radio channel originated differentiated correction is updated in 10 s, and in the RTK mode - 0.5-2 s that breaks the accuracy of introduction of seeds and fertilizers. The block schematic diagram of system of automatic control of technological process of seeding and mineral fertilizing with use of navigation means of machine-tractor aggregates orientation in the field and technical means for realization of technology of precision agriculture at sowing and fertilizers application due to electronic maps of soil fertility and navigation satellite systems was worked out. It was noted that for regulation of a fertilizing dose it is necessary to complete the unit with the electric drive, and for error reduction use navigation GLONASS, GPS, Galileo receivers. To tracking of four leading navigation systems GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/Compass receiver with 32 canals developed by domestic-owned firm «KB NAVIS» was suggested. It was established that the automated device created by All-Russia Research Institute of Mechanization for Agriculture information based on NAVSTAR and GLONASS/GPS system successfully operates seeding and make possible the differentiate fertilizing.

An ice-motion tracking system at the Alaska SAR facility

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, Ronald; Curlander, John C.; Pang, Shirley S.; Mcconnell, Ross

1990-01-01

An operational system for extracting ice-motion information from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery is being developed as part of the Alaska SAR Facility. This geophysical processing system (GPS) will derive ice-motion information by automated analysis of image sequences acquired by radars on the European ERS-1, Japanese ERS-1, and Canadian RADARSAT remote sensing satellites. The algorithm consists of a novel combination of feature-based and area-based techniques for the tracking of ice floes that undergo translation and rotation between imaging passes. The system performs automatic selection of the image pairs for input to the matching routines using an ice-motion estimator. It is designed to have a daily throughput of ten image pairs. A description is given of the GPS system, including an overview of the ice-motion-tracking algorithm, the system architecture, and the ice-motion products that will be available for distribution to geophysical data users.

An algorithm to track laboratory zebrafish shoals.

Science.gov (United States)

Feijó, Gregory de Oliveira; Sangalli, Vicenzo Abichequer; da Silva, Isaac Newton Lima; Pinho, Márcio Sarroglia

2018-05-01

In this paper, a semi-automatic multi-object tracking method to track a group of unmarked zebrafish is proposed. This method can handle partial occlusion cases, maintaining the correct identity of each individual. For every object, we extracted a set of geometric features to be used in the two main stages of the algorithm. The first stage selected the best candidate, based both on the blobs identified in the image and the estimate generated by a Kalman Filter instance. In the second stage, if the same candidate-blob is selected by two or more instances, a blob-partitioning algorithm takes place in order to split this blob and reestablish the instances' identities. If the algorithm cannot determine the identity of a blob, a manual intervention is required. This procedure was compared against a manual labeled ground truth on four video sequences with different numbers of fish and spatial resolution. The performance of the proposed method is then compared against two well-known zebrafish tracking methods found in the literature: one that treats occlusion scenarios and one that only track fish that are not in occlusion. Based on the data set used, the proposed method outperforms the first method in correctly separating fish in occlusion, increasing its efficiency by at least 8.15% of the cases. As for the second, the proposed method's overall performance outperformed the second in some of the tested videos, especially those with lower image quality, because the second method requires high-spatial resolution images, which is not a requirement for the proposed method. Yet, the proposed method was able to separate fish involved in occlusion and correctly assign its identity in up to 87.85% of the cases, without accounting for user intervention. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic Thresholding for Frame-Repositioning Using External Tracking in PET Brain Imaging

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Oline Vinter; Keller, Sune; Sibomana, Merence

2010-01-01

Motion correction (MC) in positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging become of higher importance with increasing scanner resolution. Several motion correction methods have been suggested and so far the Polaris Vicra tracking system has been the preferred one for motion registration. We...... present an automated algorithm for dividing PET acquisitions into subframes based on the registered head motion to correct for intra-frame motion with the frame repositioning MC method. The method is tested on real patient data (five 11C-SB studies and five 11C-PIB studies) and compared with an image...... based registration method (AIR). Quantitative evaluation was done using a correlation measure. The study shows that MC improves the correlation of the PET images and that AIR performed slightly better than the Polaris Vicra. We found significant intra-frame motion of 1-5 mm in 9 frames...

A model predictive speed tracking control approach for autonomous ground vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Min; Chen, Huiyan; Xiong, Guangming

2017-03-01

This paper presents a novel speed tracking control approach based on a model predictive control (MPC) framework for autonomous ground vehicles. A switching algorithm without calibration is proposed to determine the drive or brake control. Combined with a simple inverse longitudinal vehicle model and adaptive regulation of MPC, this algorithm can make use of the engine brake torque for various driving conditions and avoid high frequency oscillations automatically. A simplified quadratic program (QP) solving algorithm is used to reduce the computational time, and the approach has been applied in a 16-bit microcontroller. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated via simulations and vehicle tests, which were carried out in a range of speed-profile tracking tasks. With a well-designed system structure, high-precision speed control is achieved. The system can robustly model uncertainty and external disturbances, and yields a faster response with less overshoot than a PI controller.

Myocardium tracking via matching distributions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben Ayed, Ismail; Li, Shuo; Ross, Ian; Islam, Ali

2009-01-01

The goal of this study is to investigate automatic myocardium tracking in cardiac Magnetic Resonance (MR) sequences using global distribution matching via level-set curve evolution. Rather than relying on the pixelwise information as in existing approaches, distribution matching compares intensity distributions, and consequently, is well-suited to the myocardium tracking problem. Starting from a manual segmentation of the first frame, two curves are evolved in order to recover the endocardium (inner myocardium boundary) and the epicardium (outer myocardium boundary) in all the frames. For each curve, the evolution equation is sought following the maximization of a functional containing two terms: (1) a distribution matching term measuring the similarity between the non-parametric intensity distributions sampled from inside and outside the curve to the model distributions of the corresponding regions estimated from the previous frame; (2) a gradient term for smoothing the curve and biasing it toward high gradient of intensity. The Bhattacharyya coefficient is used as a similarity measure between distributions. The functional maximization is obtained by the Euler-Lagrange ascent equation of curve evolution, and efficiently implemented via level-set. The performance of the proposed distribution matching was quantitatively evaluated by comparisons with independent manual segmentations approved by an experienced cardiologist. The method was applied to ten 2D mid-cavity MR sequences corresponding to ten different subjects. Although neither shape prior knowledge nor curve coupling were used, quantitative evaluation demonstrated that the results were consistent with manual segmentations. The proposed method compares well with existing methods. The algorithm also yields a satisfying reproducibility. Distribution matching leads to a myocardium tracking which is more flexible and applicable than existing methods because the algorithm uses only the current data, i.e., does not

AR.Drone: security threat analysis and exemplary attack to track persons

Science.gov (United States)

Samland, Fred; Fruth, Jana; Hildebrandt, Mario; Hoppe, Tobias; Dittmann, Jana

2012-01-01

In this article we illustrate an approach of a security threat analysis of the quadrocopter AR.Drone, a toy for augmented reality (AR) games. The technical properties of the drone can be misused for attacks, which may relate security and/or privacy aspects. Our aim is to sensitize for the possibility of misuses and the motivation for an implementation of improved security mechanisms of the quadrocopter. We focus primarily on obvious security vulnerabilities (e.g. communication over unencrypted WLAN, usage of UDP, live video streaming via unencrypted WLAN to the control device) of this quadrocopter. We could practically verify in three exemplary scenarios that this can be misused by unauthorized persons for several attacks: high-jacking of the drone, eavesdropping of the AR.Drones unprotected video streams, and the tracking of persons. Amongst other aspects, our current research focuses on the realization of the attack of tracking persons and objects with the drone. Besides the realization of attacks, we want to evaluate the potential of this particular drone for a "safe-landing" function, as well as potential security enhancements. Additionally, in future we plan to investigate an automatic tracking of persons or objects without the need of human interactions.

Active contour-based visual tracking by integrating colors, shapes, and motions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Weiming; Zhou, Xue; Li, Wei; Luo, Wenhan; Zhang, Xiaoqin; Maybank, Stephen

2013-05-01

In this paper, we present a framework for active contour-based visual tracking using level sets. The main components of our framework include contour-based tracking initialization, color-based contour evolution, adaptive shape-based contour evolution for non-periodic motions, dynamic shape-based contour evolution for periodic motions, and the handling of abrupt motions. For the initialization of contour-based tracking, we develop an optical flow-based algorithm for automatically initializing contours at the first frame. For the color-based contour evolution, Markov random field theory is used to measure correlations between values of neighboring pixels for posterior probability estimation. For adaptive shape-based contour evolution, the global shape information and the local color information are combined to hierarchically evolve the contour, and a flexible shape updating model is constructed. For the dynamic shape-based contour evolution, a shape mode transition matrix is learnt to characterize the temporal correlations of object shapes. For the handling of abrupt motions, particle swarm optimization is adopted to capture the global motion which is applied to the contour in the current frame to produce an initial contour in the next frame.

Development of Automated Tracking System with Active Cameras for Figure Skating

Science.gov (United States)

Haraguchi, Tomohiko; Taki, Tsuyoshi; Hasegawa, Junichi

This paper presents a system based on the control of PTZ cameras for automated real-time tracking of individual figure skaters moving on an ice rink. In the video images of figure skating, irregular trajectories, various postures, rapid movements, and various costume colors are included. Therefore, it is difficult to determine some features useful for image tracking. On the other hand, an ice rink has a limited area and uniform high intensity, and skating is always performed on ice. In the proposed system, an ice rink region is first extracted from a video image by the region growing method, and then, a skater region is extracted using the rink shape information. In the camera control process, each camera is automatically panned and/or tilted so that the skater region is as close to the center of the image as possible; further, the camera is zoomed to maintain the skater image at an appropriate scale. The results of experiments performed for 10 training scenes show that the skater extraction rate is approximately 98%. Thus, it was concluded that tracking with camera control was successful for almost all the cases considered in the study.

Effect of track etch rate on geometric track characteristics for polymeric track detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdel-Naby, A.A.; El-Akkad, F.A.

2001-01-01

Analysis of the variable track etch rate on geometric track characteristic for polymeric track detectors has been applied to the case of LR-155 II SSNTD. Spectrometric characteristics of low energy alpha particles response by the polymeric detector have been obtained. The track etching kinematics theory of development of minor diameter of the etched tracks has been applied. The calculations show that, for this type of detector, the energy dependence of the minor track diameter d is linear for small-etched removal layer h. The energy resolution gets better for higher etched removal layer

Global Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT of a Photovoltaic Module Array Constructed through Improved Teaching-Learning-Based Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuei-Hsiang Chao

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The present study proposes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT method in which improved teaching-learning-based optimization (I-TLBO is applied to perform global MPPT of photovoltaic (PV module arrays under dissimilar shading situations to ensure the maximum power output of the module arrays. The proposed I-TLBO enables the automatic adjustment of teaching factors according to the self-learning ability of students. Incorporating smart-tracking and self-study strategies can effectively improve the tracking response speed and steady-state tracking performance. To evaluate the feasibility of the proposed I-TLBO, a HIP-2717 PV module array from Sanyo Electric was employed to compose various arrays with different serial and parallel configurations. The arrays were operated under different shading conditions to test the MPPT with double, triple, or quadruple peaks of power-voltage characteristic curves. Boost converters were employed with TMS320F2808 digital signal processors to test the proposed MPPT method. Empirical results confirm that the proposed method exhibits more favorable dynamic and static-state response tracking performance compared with that of conventional TLBO.

Tracking frequency laser distance gauge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phillips, J.D.; Reasenberg, R.D.

2005-01-01

Advanced astronomical missions with greatly enhanced resolution and physics missions of unprecedented accuracy will require laser distance gauges of substantially improved performance. We describe a laser gauge, based on Pound-Drever-Hall locking, in which the optical frequency is adjusted to maintain an interferometer's null condition. This technique has been demonstrated with pm performance. Automatic fringe hopping allows it to track arbitrary distance changes. The instrument is intrinsically free of the nm-scale cyclic bias present in traditional (heterodyne) high-precision laser gauges. The output is a radio frequency, readily measured to sufficient accuracy. The laser gauge has operated in a resonant cavity, which improves precision, can suppress the effects of misalignments, and makes possible precise automatic alignment. The measurement of absolute distance requires little or no additional hardware, and has also been demonstrated. The proof-of-concept version, based on a stabilized HeNe laser and operating on a 0.5 m path, has achieved 10 pm precision with 0.1 s integration time, and 0.1 mm absolute distance accuracy. This version has also followed substantial distance changes as fast as 16 mm/s. We show that, if the precision in optical frequency is a fixed fraction of the linewidth, both incremental and absolute distance precision are independent of the distance measured. We discuss systematic error sources, and present plans for a new version of the gauge based on semiconductor lasers and fiber-coupled components

The implementation of an automated tracking algorithm for the track detection of migratory anticyclones affecting the Mediterranean

Science.gov (United States)

Hatzaki, Maria; Flocas, Elena A.; Simmonds, Ian; Kouroutzoglou, John; Keay, Kevin; Rudeva, Irina

2013-04-01

Migratory cyclones and anticyclones mainly account for the short-term weather variations in extra-tropical regions. By contrast to cyclones that have drawn major scientific attention due to their direct link to active weather and precipitation, climatological studies on anticyclones are limited, even though they also are associated with extreme weather phenomena and play an important role in global and regional climate. This is especially true for the Mediterranean, a region particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the little research which has been done is essentially confined to the manual analysis of synoptic charts. For the construction of a comprehensive climatology of migratory anticyclonic systems in the Mediterranean using an objective methodology, the Melbourne University automatic tracking algorithm is applied, based to the ERA-Interim reanalysis mean sea level pressure database. The algorithm's reliability in accurately capturing the weather patterns and synoptic climatology of the transient activity has been widely proven. This algorithm has been extensively applied for cyclone studies worldwide and it has been also successfully applied for the Mediterranean, though its use for anticyclone tracking is limited to the Southern Hemisphere. In this study the performance of the tracking algorithm under different data resolutions and different choices of parameter settings in the scheme is examined. Our focus is on the appropriate modification of the algorithm in order to efficiently capture the individual characteristics of the anticyclonic tracks in the Mediterranean, a closed basin with complex topography. We show that the number of the detected anticyclonic centers and the resulting tracks largely depend upon the data resolution and the search radius. We also find that different scale anticyclones and secondary centers that lie within larger anticyclone structures can be adequately represented; this is important, since the extensions of major

Automated night/day standoff detection, tracking, and identification of personnel for installation protection

Science.gov (United States)

Lemoff, Brian E.; Martin, Robert B.; Sluch, Mikhail; Kafka, Kristopher M.; McCormick, William; Ice, Robert

2013-06-01

The capability to positively and covertly identify people at a safe distance, 24-hours per day, could provide a valuable advantage in protecting installations, both domestically and in an asymmetric warfare environment. This capability would enable installation security officers to identify known bad actors from a safe distance, even if they are approaching under cover of darkness. We will describe an active-SWIR imaging system being developed to automatically detect, track, and identify people at long range using computer face recognition. The system illuminates the target with an eye-safe and invisible SWIR laser beam, to provide consistent high-resolution imagery night and day. SWIR facial imagery produced by the system is matched against a watch-list of mug shots using computer face recognition algorithms. The current system relies on an operator to point the camera and to review and interpret the face recognition results. Automation software is being developed that will allow the system to be cued to a location by an external system, automatically detect a person, track the person as they move, zoom in on the face, select good facial images, and process the face recognition results, producing alarms and sharing data with other systems when people are detected and identified. Progress on the automation of this system will be presented along with experimental night-time face recognition results at distance.

Effect of contrast media iodine concentration on bolus tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishihara, Toshihiro; Hayashi, Takayuki; Nakaya, Yoshihiro; Naoi, Kuniji; Ikeno, Naoya; Kobayashi, Tatsushi; Satake, Mitsuo

2006-01-01

Computer-assisted bolus tracking has been confirmed to be a useful technique in computed tomography (CT) imaging and allows images to be captured with automated timing. The inflow of the contrast medium is monitored, and when the contrast medium reaches a predetermined level, CT image capture starts automatically. However, it has been shown that the preset threshold value of contrast medium is affected by its iodine concentration, which causes variations in image capture times. Greater speed in current multislice CT imaging requires that medical technicians pay more attention to setting the timing of image capture during venous examinations by taking into account the iodine concentration in contrast media. (author)

An automated method for the evaluation of the pointing accuracy of Sun-tracking devices

Science.gov (United States)

Baumgartner, Dietmar J.; Pötzi, Werner; Freislich, Heinrich; Strutzmann, Heinz; Veronig, Astrid M.; Rieder, Harald E.

2017-03-01

The accuracy of solar radiation measurements, for direct (DIR) and diffuse (DIF) radiation, depends significantly on the precision of the operational Sun-tracking device. Thus, rigid targets for instrument performance and operation have been specified for international monitoring networks, e.g., the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) operating under the auspices of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP). Sun-tracking devices that fulfill these accuracy requirements are available from various instrument manufacturers; however, none of the commercially available systems comprise an automatic accuracy control system allowing platform operators to independently validate the pointing accuracy of Sun-tracking sensors during operation. Here we present KSO-STREAMS (KSO-SunTRackEr Accuracy Monitoring System), a fully automated, system-independent, and cost-effective system for evaluating the pointing accuracy of Sun-tracking devices. We detail the monitoring system setup, its design and specifications, and the results from its application to the Sun-tracking system operated at the Kanzelhöhe Observatory (KSO) Austrian radiation monitoring network (ARAD) site. The results from an evaluation campaign from March to June 2015 show that the tracking accuracy of the device operated at KSO lies within BSRN specifications (i.e., 0.1° tracking accuracy) for the vast majority of observations (99.8 %). The evaluation of manufacturer-specified active-tracking accuracies (0.02°), during periods with direct solar radiation exceeding 300 W m-2, shows that these are satisfied in 72.9 % of observations. Tracking accuracies are highest during clear-sky conditions and on days where prevailing clear-sky conditions are interrupted by frontal movement; in these cases, we obtain the complete fulfillment of BSRN requirements and 76.4 % of observations within manufacturer-specified active-tracking accuracies. Limitations to tracking surveillance arise during overcast conditions and

The Origins of Belief Representation: Monkeys Fail to Automatically Represent Others’ Beliefs

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Alia; Santos, Laurie R.

2014-01-01

Young infants’ successful performance on false belief tasks has led several researchers to argue that there may be a core knowledge system for representing the beliefs of other agents, emerging early in human development and constraining automatic belief processing into adulthood. One way to investigate this purported core belief representation system is to examine whether non-human primates share such a system. Although non-human primates have historically performed poorly on false belief tasks that require executive function capacities, little work has explored how primates perform on more automatic measures of belief processing. To get at this issue, we modified Kovács et al. (2010)’s test of automatic belief representation to examine whether one non-human primate species—the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta)—is automatically influenced by another agent’s beliefs when tracking an object’s location. Monkeys saw an event in which a human agent watched an apple move back and forth between two boxes and an outcome in which one box was revealed to be empty. By occluding segments of the apple’s movement from either the monkey or the agent, we manipulated both the monkeys’ belief (true or false) and agent’s belief (true or false) about the final location of the apple. We found that monkeys looked longer at events that violated their own beliefs than at events that were consistent with their beliefs. In contrast to human infants, however, monkeys’ expectations were not influenced by another agent’s beliefs, suggesting that belief representation may be an aspect of core knowledge unique to humans. PMID:24374209

Finding weak points automatically

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Archinger, P.; Wassenberg, M.

1999-01-01

Operators of nuclear power stations have to carry out material tests at selected components by regular intervalls. Therefore a full automaticated test, which achieves a clearly higher reproducibility, compared to part automaticated variations, would provide a solution. In addition the full automaticated test reduces the dose of radiation for the test person. (orig.) [de

Software of the BESM-6 computer for automatic image processing from liquid-hydrogen bubble chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grebenikov, E.A.; Kiosa, M.N.; Kobzarev, K.K.; Kuznetsova, N.A.; Mironov, S.V.; Nasonova, L.P.

1978-01-01

A set of programs, which is used in ''road guidance'' mode on the BESM-6 computer to process picture information taken in liquid hydrogen bubble chambers is discussed. This mode allows the system to process data from an automatic scanner (AS) taking into account the results of manual scanning. The system hardware includes: an automatic scanner, an M-6000 mini-controller and a BESM-6 computer. Software is functionally divided into the following units: computation of event mask parameters and generation . of data files controlling the AS; front-end processing of data coming from the AS; filtering of track data; simulation of AS operation and gauging of the AS reference system. To speed up the overall performance, programs which receive and decode data, coming from the AS via the M-6000 controller and the data link to the BESM-6 computer, are written in machine language

Development of the fission fragment track registration technique for the determination of the uranium contamination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanaka, E.M.

1979-01-01

The Fission Fragment Track Registration Technique is developed to measure the uranium concentration about microgram of uranium per litre of liquid samples. The drying method of drops on the detector (Makrofol KG) and a special sampling procedure to avoid the cumbersome high density of tracks formation at the edge of the deposition surface as a 'ring' is adopted. The samples are irradiated by neutrons produced by the IEA-R1 Reactor (thermal neutron flux about 10 12 neutrons/cm 2 .s) inducing the uranium fission. The tracks registered by the fission fragments in the detector are chemically enlarged and counted by an automatic couting system. By this method the uranium concentrations ranging from 0,9 to 7,6 microgram of uranium per litre, can be determined with precisions between 2,7% the greater and 23% to the lower concentration. The uranium concentration measurements in human hair and urine are made showing that this method is very useful to control and detect eventual uranium contamination [pt

The automatic component of habit in health behavior: habit as cue-contingent automaticity.

Science.gov (United States)

Orbell, Sheina; Verplanken, Bas

2010-07-01

Habit might be usefully characterized as a form of automaticity that involves the association of a cue and a response. Three studies examined habitual automaticity in regard to different aspects of the cue-response relationship characteristic of unhealthy and healthy habits. In each study, habitual automaticity was assessed by the Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI). In Study 1 SRHI scores correlated with attentional bias to smoking cues in a Stroop task. Study 2 examined the ability of a habit cue to elicit an unwanted habit response. In a prospective field study, habitual automaticity in relation to smoking when drinking alcohol in a licensed public house (pub) predicted the likelihood of cigarette-related action slips 2 months later after smoking in pubs had become illegal. In Study 3 experimental group participants formed an implementation intention to floss in response to a specified situational cue. Habitual automaticity of dental flossing was rapidly enhanced compared to controls. The studies provided three different demonstrations of the importance of cues in the automatic operation of habits. Habitual automaticity assessed by the SRHI captured aspects of a habit that go beyond mere frequency or consistency of the behavior. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Latent tracks in polymeric etched track detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamauchi, Tomoya

2013-01-01

Track registration properties in polymeric track detectors, including Poly(allyl diglycol carbonate), Bispenol A polycarbonate, Poly(ethylen terephtarate), and Polyimide, have been investigated by means of Fourie transform Infararede FT-IR spectrometry. Chemical criterion on the track formation threshold has been proposes, in stead of the conventional physical track registration models. (author)

Quality of Slab Track Construction - Track Alignment Design and Track Geometry

Science.gov (United States)

Šestáková, Janka

2015-05-01

The slab track superstructure design (without ballast) is a perspective construction especially for building tunnels and bridges in the modernized sections of railway tracks in Slovakia. Monitoring of the structure described in this article is focused on the transition areas between standard structure with ballast and slab track construction.

KOLAM: a cross-platform architecture for scalable visualization and tracking in wide-area imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Joshua; Haridas, Anoop; Seetharaman, Guna; Rao, Raghuveer M.; Palaniappan, Kannappan

2013-05-01

KOLAM is an open, cross-platform, interoperable, scalable and extensible framework supporting a novel multi- scale spatiotemporal dual-cache data structure for big data visualization and visual analytics. This paper focuses on the use of KOLAM for target tracking in high-resolution, high throughput wide format video also known as wide-area motion imagery (WAMI). It was originally developed for the interactive visualization of extremely large geospatial imagery of high spatial and spectral resolution. KOLAM is platform, operating system and (graphics) hardware independent, and supports embedded datasets scalable from hundreds of gigabytes to feasibly petabytes in size on clusters, workstations, desktops and mobile computers. In addition to rapid roam, zoom and hyper- jump spatial operations, a large number of simultaneously viewable embedded pyramid layers (also referred to as multiscale or sparse imagery), interactive colormap and histogram enhancement, spherical projection and terrain maps are supported. The KOLAM software architecture was extended to support airborne wide-area motion imagery by organizing spatiotemporal tiles in very large format video frames using a temporal cache of tiled pyramid cached data structures. The current version supports WAMI animation, fast intelligent inspection, trajectory visualization and target tracking (digital tagging); the latter by interfacing with external automatic tracking software. One of the critical needs for working with WAMI is a supervised tracking and visualization tool that allows analysts to digitally tag multiple targets, quickly review and correct tracking results and apply geospatial visual analytic tools on the generated trajectories. One-click manual tracking combined with multiple automated tracking algorithms are available to assist the analyst and increase human effectiveness.

Elevated intracranial pressure and reversible eye-tracking changes detected while viewing a film clip.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolecki, Radek; Dammavalam, Vikalpa; Bin Zahid, Abdullah; Hubbard, Molly; Choudhry, Osamah; Reyes, Marleen; Han, ByoungJun; Wang, Tom; Papas, Paraskevi Vivian; Adem, Aylin; North, Emily; Gilbertson, David T; Kondziolka, Douglas; Huang, Jason H; Huang, Paul P; Samadani, Uzma

2018-03-01

OBJECTIVE The precise threshold differentiating normal and elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) is variable among individuals. In the context of several pathophysiological conditions, elevated ICP leads to abnormalities in global cerebral functioning and impacts the function of cranial nerves (CNs), either or both of which may contribute to ocular dysmotility. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of elevated ICP on eye-tracking performed while patients were watching a short film clip. METHODS Awake patients requiring placement of an ICP monitor for clinical purposes underwent eye tracking while watching a 220-second continuously playing video moving around the perimeter of a viewing monitor. Pupil position was recorded at 500 Hz and metrics associated with each eye individually and both eyes together were calculated. Linear regression with generalized estimating equations was performed to test the association of eye-tracking metrics with changes in ICP. RESULTS Eye tracking was performed at ICP levels ranging from -3 to 30 mm Hg in 23 patients (12 women, 11 men, mean age 46.8 years) on 55 separate occasions. Eye-tracking measures correlating with CN function linearly decreased with increasing ICP (p short film clip. These results suggest that eye tracking may be used as a noninvasive, automatable means to quantitate the physiological impact of elevated ICP, which has clinical application for assessment of shunt malfunction, pseudotumor cerebri, concussion, and prevention of second-impact syndrome.

Real-time gaze estimation via pupil center tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cazzato Dario

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Automatic gaze estimation not based on commercial and expensive eye tracking hardware solutions can enable several applications in the fields of human computer interaction (HCI and human behavior analysis. It is therefore not surprising that several related techniques and methods have been investigated in recent years. However, very few camera-based systems proposed in the literature are both real-time and robust. In this work, we propose a real-time user-calibration-free gaze estimation system that does not need person-dependent calibration, can deal with illumination changes and head pose variations, and can work with a wide range of distances from the camera. Our solution is based on a 3-D appearance-based method that processes the images from a built-in laptop camera. Real-time performance is obtained by combining head pose information with geometrical eye features to train a machine learning algorithm. Our method has been validated on a data set of images of users in natural environments, and shows promising results. The possibility of a real-time implementation, combined with the good quality of gaze tracking, make this system suitable for various HCI applications.

3D Visual Tracking of an Articulated Robot in Precision Automated Tasks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamza Alzarok

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The most compelling requirements for visual tracking systems are a high detection accuracy and an adequate processing speed. However, the combination between the two requirements in real world applications is very challenging due to the fact that more accurate tracking tasks often require longer processing times, while quicker responses for the tracking system are more prone to errors, therefore a trade-off between accuracy and speed, and vice versa is required. This paper aims to achieve the two requirements together by implementing an accurate and time efficient tracking system. In this paper, an eye-to-hand visual system that has the ability to automatically track a moving target is introduced. An enhanced Circular Hough Transform (CHT is employed for estimating the trajectory of a spherical target in three dimensions, the colour feature of the target was carefully selected by using a new colour selection process, the process relies on the use of a colour segmentation method (Delta E with the CHT algorithm for finding the proper colour of the tracked target, the target was attached to the six degree of freedom (DOF robot end-effector that performs a pick-and-place task. A cooperation of two Eye-to Hand cameras with their image Averaging filters are used for obtaining clear and steady images. This paper also examines a new technique for generating and controlling the observation search window in order to increase the computational speed of the tracking system, the techniques is named Controllable Region of interest based on Circular Hough Transform (CRCHT. Moreover, a new mathematical formula is introduced for updating the depth information of the vision system during the object tracking process. For more reliable and accurate tracking, a simplex optimization technique was employed for the calculation of the parameters for camera to robotic transformation matrix. The results obtained show the applicability of the proposed approach to track the

Microprocessor controlled system for automatic and semi-automatic syntheses of radiopharmaceuticals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruth, T.J.; Adam, M.J.; Morris, D.; Jivan, S.

1986-01-01

A computer based system has been constructed to control the automatic synthesis of 2-deoxy-2-( 18 F)fluoro-D-glucose and is also being used in the development of an automatic synthesis of L-6-( 18 F)fluorodopa. (author)

Subsea Cable Tracking by Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with Magnetic Sensing Guidance.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiang, Xianbo; Yu, Caoyang; Niu, Zemin; Zhang, Qin

2016-08-20

The changes of the seabed environment caused by a natural disaster or human activities dramatically affect the life span of the subsea buried cable. It is essential to track the cable route in order to inspect the condition of the buried cable and protect its surviving seabed environment. The magnetic sensor is instrumental in guiding the remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) to track and inspect the buried cable underseas. In this paper, a novel framework integrating the underwater cable localization method with the magnetic guidance and control algorithm is proposed, in order to enable the automatic cable tracking by a three-degrees-of-freedom (3-DOF) under-actuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) without human beings in the loop. The work relies on the passive magnetic sensing method to localize the subsea cable by using two tri-axial magnetometers, and a new analytic formulation is presented to compute the heading deviation, horizontal offset and buried depth of the cable. With the magnetic localization, the cable tracking and inspection mission is elaborately constructed as a straight-line path following control problem in the horizontal plane. A dedicated magnetic line-of-sight (LOS) guidance is built based on the relative geometric relationship between the vehicle and the cable, and the feedback linearizing technique is adopted to design a simplified cable tracking controller considering the side-slip effects, such that the under-actuated vehicle is able to move towards the subsea cable and then inspect its buried environment, which further guides the environmental protection of the cable by setting prohibited fishing/anchoring zones and increasing the buried depth. Finally, numerical simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed magnetic guidance and control algorithm on the envisioned subsea cable tracking and the potential protection of the seabed environment along the cable route.

Automatic Camera Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Burelli, Paolo; Preuss, Mike

2014-01-01

Automatically generating computer animations is a challenging and complex problem with applications in games and film production. In this paper, we investigate howto translate a shot list for a virtual scene into a series of virtual camera configurations — i.e automatically controlling the virtual...

A Hybrid Model Based on Wavelet Decomposition-Reconstruction in Track Irregularity State Forecasting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaolong Jia

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Wavelet is able to adapt to the requirements of time-frequency signal analysis automatically and can focus on any details of the signal and then decompose the function into the representation of a series of simple basis functions. It is of theoretical and practical significance. Therefore, this paper does subdivision on track irregularity time series based on the idea of wavelet decomposition-reconstruction and tries to find the best fitting forecast model of detail signal and approximate signal obtained through track irregularity time series wavelet decomposition, respectively. On this ideology, piecewise gray-ARMA recursive based on wavelet decomposition and reconstruction (PG-ARMARWDR and piecewise ANN-ARMA recursive based on wavelet decomposition and reconstruction (PANN-ARMARWDR models are proposed. Comparison and analysis of two models have shown that both these models can achieve higher accuracy.

Use of Image Pro Plus for counting of {alpha} particles tracks in CR-39; Uso do Image Pro Plus para contagem de tracos de particulas {alpha} em CR-39

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miranda, Marcia Valeria F.E. Sa [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear; Centro Regional de Ciencias Nucleares (CRCN-NE/CNEN-PE), Recife, PE (Brazil); Crispim, Verginia Reis [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear; Gomes, Rogerio dos S.; Gomes, Joana D' Arc R. Lopes, E-mail: mvaleria@cnen.gov.b, E-mail: verginia@con.ufrj.b, E-mail: rogeriog@cnen.gov.b, E-mail: jlopes@cnen.gov.b [Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

2011-10-26

This paper measured the radon radiations present in NORM samples, through the diffusion chambers which contained a nuclear track detector (CR-39). For automatic counting of those tracks the computer program Image Pro plus was used. This paper reports the application of Image Pro plus for counting the nuclear tracks, coming from the radon radiation present in NORM samples. As the radiation rate of {sup 222}Rn if proportional to the number of these tracks, the methodology allowed to compare the levels of contamination of the analysed samples. Also, tables and graphics are presented with counting results referring to the stage of validation of Image Pro plus

Patients with schizophrenia do not preserve automatic grouping when mentally re-grouping figures: shedding light on an ignored difficulty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne eGiersch

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Looking at a pair of objects is easy when automatic grouping mechanisms bind these objects together, but visual exploration can also be more flexible. It is possible to mentally ‘re-group’ two objects that are not only separate but belong to different pairs of objects. ‘Re-grouping’ is in conflict with automatic grouping, since it entails a separation of each item from the set it belongs to. This ability appears to be impaired in patients with schizophrenia. Here we check if this impairment is selective, which would suggest a dissociation between grouping and ‘re-grouping’, or if it impacts on usual, automatic grouping, which would call for a better understanding of the interactions between automatic grouping and ‘re-grouping’. Sixteen outpatients with schizophrenia and healthy controls had to identify two identical and contiguous target figures within a display of circles and squares alternating around a fixation point. Eye-tracking was used to check central fixation. The target pair could be located in the same or separate hemifields. Identical figures were grouped by a connector (grouped automatically or not (to be re-grouped. Attention modulation of automatic grouping was tested by manipulating the proportion of connected and unconnected targets, thus prompting subjects to focalize on either connected or unconnected pairs. Both groups were sensitive to automatic grouping in most conditions, but patients were unusually slowed down for connected targets while focalizing on unconnected pairs. In addition, this unusual effect occurred only when target were presented within the same hemifield. Patients and controls differed on this asymmetry between within- and across-hemifield presentation, suggesting that patients with schizophrenia do not re-group figures in the same way as controls do. We discuss possible implications on how ‘re-grouping’ ties in with ongoing, automatic perception in healthy volunteers.

Motor automaticity in Parkinson’s disease

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Tao; Hallett, Mark; Chan, Piu

2017-01-01

Bradykinesia is the most important feature contributing to motor difficulties in Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the pathophysiology underlying bradykinesia is not fully understood. One important aspect is that PD patients have difficulty in performing learned motor skills automatically, but this problem has been generally overlooked. Here we review motor automaticity associated motor deficits in PD, such as reduced arm swing, decreased stride length, freezing of gait, micrographia and reduced facial expression. Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed some neural mechanisms underlying impaired motor automaticity in PD, including less efficient neural coding of movement, failure to shift automated motor skills to the sensorimotor striatum, instability of the automatic mode within the striatum, and use of attentional control and/or compensatory efforts to execute movements usually performed automatically in healthy people. PD patients lose previously acquired automatic skills due to their impaired sensorimotor striatum, and have difficulty in acquiring new automatic skills or restoring lost motor skills. More investigations on the pathophysiology of motor automaticity, the effect of L-dopa or surgical treatments on automaticity, and the potential role of using measures of automaticity in early diagnosis of PD would be valuable. PMID:26102020

Perspective of the applications of automatic identification technologies in the Serbian Army

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Velibor V. Jovanović

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Without modern information systems, supply-chain management is almost impossible. Automatic identification technologies provide automated data processing, which contributes to improving the conditions and support decision making. Automatic identification technology media, notably BARCODE and RFID technology, are used as carriers of labels with high quality data and adequate description of material means, for providing a crucial visibility of inventory levels through the supply chain. With these media and the use of an adequate information system, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia will be able to establish a system of codification and, in accordance with the NATO codification system, to successfully implement a unique codification, classification and determination of storage numbers for all tools, components and spare parts for their unequivocal identification. In the perspective, this will help end users to perform everyday tasks without compromising the material integrity of security data. It will also help command structures to have reliable information for decision making to ensure optimal management. Products and services that pass the codification procedure will have the opportunity to be offered in the largest market of armament and military equipment. This paper gives a comparative analysis of two automatic identification technologies - BARCODE, the most common one, and RFID, the most advanced one - with an emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of their use in tracking inventory through the supply chain. Their possible application in the Serbian Army is discussed in general.

Automatic evaluation of vessel diameter variation from 2D X-ray angiography.

Science.gov (United States)

M'hiri, Faten; Duong, Luc; Desrosiers, Christian; Dahdah, Nagib; Miró, Joaquim; Cheriet, Mohamed

2017-11-01

Early detection of blood vessel pathologies can be made through the evaluation of functional and structural abnormalities in the arteries, including the arterial distensibility measure. We propose a feasibility study on computing arterial distensibility automatically from monoplane 2D X-ray sequences for both small arteries (such as coronary arteries) and larger arteries (such as the aorta). To compute the distensibility measure, three steps were developed: First, the segment of an artery is extracted using our graph-based segmentation method. Then, the same segment is tracked in the moving sequence using our spatio-temporal segmentation method: the Temporal Vessel Walker. Finally, the diameter of the artery is measured automatically at each frame of the sequence based on the segmentation results. The method was evaluated using one simulated sequence and 4 patients' angiograms depicting the coronary arteries and three depicting the ascending aorta. Results of the simulated sequence achieved a Dice index of 98%, with a mean squared error in diameter measurement of [Formula: see text] mm. Results obtained from patients' X-ray sequences are consistent with manual assessment of the diameter by experts. The proposed method measures changes in diameter of a specific segment of a blood vessel during the cardiac sequence, automatically based on monoplane 2D X-ray sequence. Such information might become a key to help physicians in the detection of variations of arterial stiffness associated with early stages of various vasculopathies.

Tracking tumor boundary in MV-EPID images without implanted markers: A feasibility study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Xiaoyong; Homma, Noriyasu; Ichiji, Kei; Takai, Yoshihiro; Yoshizawa, Makoto

2015-01-01

Purpose: To develop a markerless tracking algorithm to track the tumor boundary in megavoltage (MV)-electronic portal imaging device (EPID) images for image-guided radiation therapy. Methods: A level set method (LSM)-based algorithm is developed to track tumor boundary in EPID image sequences. Given an EPID image sequence, an initial curve is manually specified in the first frame. Driven by a region-scalable energy fitting function, the initial curve automatically evolves toward the tumor boundary and stops on the desired boundary while the energy function reaches its minimum. For the subsequent frames, the tracking algorithm updates the initial curve by using the tracking result in the previous frame and reuses the LSM to detect the tumor boundary in the subsequent frame so that the tracking processing can be continued without user intervention. The tracking algorithm is tested on three image datasets, including a 4-D phantom EPID image sequence, four digitally deformable phantom image sequences with different noise levels, and four clinical EPID image sequences acquired in lung cancer treatment. The tracking accuracy is evaluated based on two metrics: centroid localization error (CLE) and volume overlap index (VOI) between the tracking result and the ground truth. Results: For the 4-D phantom image sequence, the CLE is 0.23 ± 0.20 mm, and VOI is 95.6% ± 0.2%. For the digital phantom image sequences, the total CLE and VOI are 0.11 ± 0.08 mm and 96.7% ± 0.7%, respectively. In addition, for the clinical EPID image sequences, the proposed algorithm achieves 0.32 ± 0.77 mm in the CLE and 72.1% ± 5.5% in the VOI. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the authors’ proposed method both in tumor localization and boundary tracking in EPID images. In addition, compared with two existing tracking algorithms, the proposed method achieves a higher accuracy in tumor localization. Conclusions: In this paper, the authors presented a feasibility study of tracking

SU-G-BRA-10: Marker Free Lung Tumor Motion Tracking by An Active Contour Model On Cone Beam CT Projections for Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy of Lung Cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chao, M; Yuan, Y; Lo, Y; Wei, J

2016-01-01

Purpose: To develop a novel strategy to extract the lung tumor motion from cone beam CT (CBCT) projections by an active contour model with interpolated respiration learned from diaphragm motion. Methods: Tumor tracking on CBCT projections was accomplished with the templates derived from planning CT (pCT). There are three major steps in the proposed algorithm: 1) The pCT was modified to form two CT sets: a tumor removed pCT and a tumor only pCT, the respective digitally reconstructed radiographs DRRtr and DRRto following the same geometry of the CBCT projections were generated correspondingly. 2) The DRRtr was rigidly registered with the CBCT projections on the frame-by-frame basis. Difference images between CBCT projections and the registered DRRtr were generated where the tumor visibility was appreciably enhanced. 3) An active contour method was applied to track the tumor motion on the tumor enhanced projections with DRRto as templates to initialize the tumor tracking while the respiratory motion was compensated for by interpolating the diaphragm motion estimated by our novel constrained linear regression approach. CBCT and pCT from five patients undergoing stereotactic body radiotherapy were included in addition to scans from a Quasar phantom programmed with known motion. Manual tumor tracking was performed on CBCT projections and was compared to the automatic tracking to evaluate the algorithm accuracy. Results: The phantom study showed that the error between the automatic tracking and the ground truth was within 0.2mm. For the patients the discrepancy between the calculation and the manual tracking was between 1.4 and 2.2 mm depending on the location and shape of the lung tumor. Similar patterns were observed in the frequency domain. Conclusion: The new algorithm demonstrated the feasibility to track the lung tumor from noisy CBCT projections, providing a potential solution to better motion management for lung radiation therapy.

SU-G-BRA-10: Marker Free Lung Tumor Motion Tracking by An Active Contour Model On Cone Beam CT Projections for Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy of Lung Cancer

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chao, M; Yuan, Y; Lo, Y [The Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY (United States); Wei, J [City College of New York, New York, NY (United States)

2016-06-15

Purpose: To develop a novel strategy to extract the lung tumor motion from cone beam CT (CBCT) projections by an active contour model with interpolated respiration learned from diaphragm motion. Methods: Tumor tracking on CBCT projections was accomplished with the templates derived from planning CT (pCT). There are three major steps in the proposed algorithm: 1) The pCT was modified to form two CT sets: a tumor removed pCT and a tumor only pCT, the respective digitally reconstructed radiographs DRRtr and DRRto following the same geometry of the CBCT projections were generated correspondingly. 2) The DRRtr was rigidly registered with the CBCT projections on the frame-by-frame basis. Difference images between CBCT projections and the registered DRRtr were generated where the tumor visibility was appreciably enhanced. 3) An active contour method was applied to track the tumor motion on the tumor enhanced projections with DRRto as templates to initialize the tumor tracking while the respiratory motion was compensated for by interpolating the diaphragm motion estimated by our novel constrained linear regression approach. CBCT and pCT from five patients undergoing stereotactic body radiotherapy were included in addition to scans from a Quasar phantom programmed with known motion. Manual tumor tracking was performed on CBCT projections and was compared to the automatic tracking to evaluate the algorithm accuracy. Results: The phantom study showed that the error between the automatic tracking and the ground truth was within 0.2mm. For the patients the discrepancy between the calculation and the manual tracking was between 1.4 and 2.2 mm depending on the location and shape of the lung tumor. Similar patterns were observed in the frequency domain. Conclusion: The new algorithm demonstrated the feasibility to track the lung tumor from noisy CBCT projections, providing a potential solution to better motion management for lung radiation therapy.

SKYWARD: the next generation airborne infrared search and track

Science.gov (United States)

Fortunato, L.; Colombi, G.; Ondini, A.; Quaranta, C.; Giunti, C.; Sozzi, B.; Balzarotti, G.

2016-05-01

Infrared Search and Track systems are an essential element of the modern and future combat aircrafts. Passive automatic search, detection and tracking functions, are key points for silent operations or jammed tactical scenarios. SKYWARD represents the latest evolution of IRST technology in which high quality electro-optical components, advanced algorithms, efficient hardware and software solutions are harmonically integrated to provide high-end affordable performances. Additionally, the reduction of critical opto-mechanical elements optimises weight and volume and increases the overall reliability. Multiple operative modes dedicated to different situations are available; many options can be selected among multiple or single target tracking, for surveillance or engagement, and imaging, for landing or navigation aid, assuring the maximum system flexibility. The high quality 2D-IR sensor is exploited by multiple parallel processing chains, based on linear and non-linear techniques, to extract the possible targets from background, in different conditions, with false alarm rate control. A widely tested track processor manages a large amount of candidate targets simultaneously and allows discriminating real targets from noise whilst operating with low target to background contrasts. The capability of providing reliable passive range estimation is an additional qualifying element of the system. Particular care has been dedicated to the detector non-uniformities, a possible limiting factor for distant targets detection, as well as to the design of the electro-optics for a harsh airborne environment. The system can be configured for LWIR or MWIR waveband according to the customer operational requirements. An embedded data recorder saves all the necessary images and data for mission debriefing, particularly useful during inflight system integration and tuning.

Effect of cross-correlation on track-to-track fusion

Science.gov (United States)

Saha, Rajat K.

1994-07-01

Since the advent of target tracking systems employing a diverse mixture of sensors, there has been increasing recognition by air defense system planners and other military system analysts of the need to integrate these tracks so that a clear air picture can be obtained in a command center. A popular methodology to achieve this goal is to perform track-to-track fusion, which performs track-to-track association as well as kinematic state vector fusion. This paper seeks to answer analytically the extent of improvement achievable by means of kinetic state vector fusion when the tracks are obtained from dissimilar sensors (e.g., Radar/ESM/IRST/IFF). It is well known that evaluation of the performance of state vector fusion algorithms at steady state must take into account the effects of cross-correlation between eligible tracks introduced by the input noise which, unfortunately, is often neglected because of added computational complexity. In this paper, an expression for the steady-state cross-covariance matrix for a 2D state vector track-to-track fusion is obtained. This matrix is shown to be a function of the parameters of the Kalman filters associated with the candidate tracks being fused. Conditions for positive definiteness of the cross-covariance matrix have been derived and the effect of positive definiteness on performance of track-to-track fusion is also discussed.

Automatic mining of symptom severity from psychiatric evaluation notes.

Science.gov (United States)

Karystianis, George; Nevado, Alejo J; Kim, Chi-Hun; Dehghan, Azad; Keane, John A; Nenadic, Goran

2018-03-01

As electronic mental health records become more widely available, several approaches have been suggested to automatically extract information from free-text narrative aiming to support epidemiological research and clinical decision-making. In this paper, we explore extraction of explicit mentions of symptom severity from initial psychiatric evaluation records. We use the data provided by the 2016 CEGS N-GRID NLP shared task Track 2, which contains 541 records manually annotated for symptom severity according to the Research Domain Criteria. We designed and implemented 3 automatic methods: a knowledge-driven approach relying on local lexicalized rules based on common syntactic patterns in text suggesting positive valence symptoms; a machine learning method using a neural network; and a hybrid approach combining the first 2 methods with a neural network. The results on an unseen evaluation set of 216 psychiatric evaluation records showed a performance of 80.1% for the rule-based method, 73.3% for the machine-learning approach, and 72.0% for the hybrid one. Although more work is needed to improve the accuracy, the results are encouraging and indicate that automated text mining methods can be used to classify mental health symptom severity from free text psychiatric notes to support epidemiological and clinical research. © 2017 The Authors International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A Clonal Selection Algorithm for Minimizing Distance Travel and Back Tracking of Automatic Guided Vehicles in Flexible Manufacturing System

Science.gov (United States)

Chawla, Viveak Kumar; Chanda, Arindam Kumar; Angra, Surjit

2018-03-01

The flexible manufacturing system (FMS) constitute of several programmable production work centers, material handling systems (MHSs), assembly stations and automatic storage and retrieval systems. In FMS, the automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) play a vital role in material handling operations and enhance the performance of the FMS in its overall operations. To achieve low makespan and high throughput yield in the FMS operations, it is highly imperative to integrate the production work centers schedules with the AGVs schedules. The Production schedule for work centers is generated by application of the Giffler and Thompson algorithm under four kind of priority hybrid dispatching rules. Then the clonal selection algorithm (CSA) is applied for the simultaneous scheduling to reduce backtracking as well as distance travel of AGVs within the FMS facility. The proposed procedure is computationally tested on the benchmark FMS configuration from the literature and findings from the investigations clearly indicates that the CSA yields best results in comparison of other applied methods from the literature.

Comparing Automatic CME Detections in Multiple LASCO and SECCHI Catalogs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hess, Phillip [NRC Research Associate, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC (United States); Colaninno, Robin C., E-mail: phillip.hess.ctr@nrl.navy.mil, E-mail: robin.colaninno@nrl.navy.mil [U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC (United States)

2017-02-10

With the creation of numerous automatic detection algorithms, a number of different catalogs of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) spanning the entirety of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory ( SOHO ) Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) mission have been created. Some of these catalogs have been further expanded for use on data from the Solar Terrestrial Earth Observatory ( STEREO ) Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) as well. We compare the results from different automatic detection catalogs (Solar Eruption Event Detection System (SEEDS), Computer Aided CME Tracking (CACTus), and Coronal Image Processing (CORIMP)) to ensure the consistency of detections in each. Over the entire span of the LASCO catalogs, the automatic catalogs are well correlated with one another, to a level greater than 0.88. Focusing on just periods of higher activity, these correlations remain above 0.7. We establish the difficulty in comparing detections over the course of LASCO observations due to the change in the instrument image cadence in 2010. Without adjusting catalogs for the cadence, CME detection rates show a large spike in cycle 24, despite a notable drop in other indices of solar activity. The output from SEEDS, using a consistent image cadence, shows that the CME rate has not significantly changed relative to sunspot number in cycle 24. These data, and mass calculations from CORIMP, lead us to conclude that any apparent increase in CME rate is a result of the change in cadence. We study detection characteristics of CMEs, discussing potential physical changes in events between cycles 23 and 24. We establish that, for detected CMEs, physical parameters can also be sensitive to the cadence.

GPS tracking data of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls breeding at the southern North Sea coast.

Science.gov (United States)

Stienen, Eric W M; Desmet, Peter; Aelterman, Bart; Courtens, Wouter; Feys, Simon; Vanermen, Nicolas; Verstraete, Hilbran; de Walle, Marc Van; Deneudt, Klaas; Hernandez, Francisco; Houthoofdt, Robin; Vanhoorne, Bart; Bouten, Willem; Buijs, Roland-Jan; Kavelaars, Marwa M; Müller, Wendt; Herman, David; Matheve, Hans; Sotillo, Alejandro; Lens, Luc

2016-01-01

In this data paper, Bird tracking - GPS tracking of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls breeding at the southern North Sea coast is described, a species occurrence dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). The dataset (version 5.5) contains close to 2.5 million occurrences, recorded by 101 GPS trackers mounted on 75 Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 26 Herring Gulls breeding at the Belgian and Dutch coast. The trackers were developed by the University of Amsterdam Bird Tracking System (UvA-BiTS, http://www.uva-bits.nl). These automatically record and transmit bird movements, which allows us and others to study their habitat use and migration behaviour in great detail. Our bird tracking network is operational since 2013. It is funded for LifeWatch by the Hercules Foundation and maintained in collaboration with UvA-BiTS and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). The recorded data are periodically released in bulk as open data (http://dataset.inbo.be/bird-tracking-gull-occurrences), and are also accessible through CartoDB and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Automatic Photoelectric Telescope Service

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Genet, R.M.; Boyd, L.J.; Kissell, K.E.; Crawford, D.L.; Hall, D.S.; BDM Corp., McLean, VA; Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, AZ; Dyer Observatory, Nashville, TN)

1987-01-01

Automatic observatories have the potential of gathering sizable amounts of high-quality astronomical data at low cost. The Automatic Photoelectric Telescope Service (APT Service) has realized this potential and is routinely making photometric observations of a large number of variable stars. However, without observers to provide on-site monitoring, it was necessary to incorporate special quality checks into the operation of the APT Service at its multiple automatic telescope installation on Mount Hopkins. 18 references

Automatic imitation: A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cracco, Emiel; Bardi, Lara; Desmet, Charlotte; Genschow, Oliver; Rigoni, Davide; De Coster, Lize; Radkova, Ina; Deschrijver, Eliane; Brass, Marcel

2018-05-01

Automatic imitation is the finding that movement execution is facilitated by compatible and impeded by incompatible observed movements. In the past 15 years, automatic imitation has been studied to understand the relation between perception and action in social interaction. Although research on this topic started in cognitive science, interest quickly spread to related disciplines such as social psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience. However, important theoretical questions have remained unanswered. Therefore, in the present meta-analysis, we evaluated seven key questions on automatic imitation. The results, based on 161 studies containing 226 experiments, revealed an overall effect size of g z = 0.95, 95% CI [0.88, 1.02]. Moderator analyses identified automatic imitation as a flexible, largely automatic process that is driven by movement and effector compatibility, but is also influenced by spatial compatibility. Automatic imitation was found to be stronger for forced choice tasks than for simple response tasks, for human agents than for nonhuman agents, and for goalless actions than for goal-directed actions. However, it was not modulated by more subtle factors such as animacy beliefs, motion profiles, or visual perspective. Finally, there was no evidence for a relation between automatic imitation and either empathy or autism. Among other things, these findings point toward actor-imitator similarity as a crucial modulator of automatic imitation and challenge the view that imitative tendencies are an indicator of social functioning. The current meta-analysis has important theoretical implications and sheds light on longstanding controversies in the literature on automatic imitation and related domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Quality of Slab Track Construction – Track Alignment Design and Track Geometry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Šestáková Janka

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The slab track superstructure design (without ballast is a perspective construction especially for building tunnels and bridges in the modernized sections of railway tracks in Slovakia. Monitoring of the structure described in this article is focused on the transition areas between standard structure with ballast and slab track construction.

Counting radon tracks in Makrofol detectors with the 'image reduction and analysis facility' (IRAF) software package

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hernandez, F. [Laboratorio de Fisica Medica y Radioactividad Ambiental, Departamento de Medicina Fisica y Farmacologia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)]. E-mail: fimerall@ull.es; Gonzalez-Manrique, S. [Laboratorio de Fisica Medica y Radioactividad Ambiental, Departamento de Medicina Fisica y Farmacologia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Karlsson, L. [Laboratorio de Fisica Medica y Radioactividad Ambiental, Departamento de Medicina Fisica y Farmacologia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Hernandez-Armas, J. [Laboratorio de Fisica Medica y Radioactividad Ambiental, Departamento de Medicina Fisica y Farmacologia, Universidad de La Laguna, 38320 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Aparicio, A. [Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna. Avenida. Astrofisico Francisco Sanchez s/n, 38071 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)

2007-03-15

Makrofol detectors are commonly used for long-term radon ({sup 222}Rn) measurements in houses, schools and workplaces. The use of this type of passive detectors for the determination of radon concentrations requires the counting of the nuclear tracks produced by alpha particles on the detecting material. The 'image reduction and analysis facility' (IRAF) software package is a piece of software commonly used in astronomical applications. It allows detailed counting and mapping of sky sections where stars are grouped very closely, even forming clusters. In order to count the nuclear tracks in our Makrofol radon detectors, we have developed an inter-disciplinary application that takes advantage of the similitude that exist between counting stars in a dark sky and tracks in a track-etch detector. Thus, a low cost semi-automatic system has been set up in our laboratory which utilises a commercially available desktop scanner and the IRAF software package. A detailed description of the proposed semi-automatic method and its performance, in comparison to ocular counting, is described in detail here. In addition, the calibration factor for this procedure, 2.97+/-0.07kBqm{sup -3}htrack{sup -1}cm{sup 2}, has been calculated based on the results obtained from exposing 46 detectors to certified radon concentrations. Furthermore, the results of a preliminary radon survey carried out in 62 schools in Tenerife island (Spain), using Makrofol detectors, counted with the mentioned procedure, are briefly presented. The results reported here indicate that the developed procedure permits a fast, accurate and unbiased determination of the radon tracks in a large number of detectors. The measurements carried out in the schools showed that the radon concentrations in at least 12 schools were above 200Bqm{sup -3} and, in two of them, above 400Bqm{sup -3}. Further studies should be performed at those schools following the European Union recommendations about radon concentrations in

Millimeter wave radar system on a rotating platform for combined search and track functionality with SAR imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Aulenbacher, Uwe; Rech, Klaus; Sedlmeier, Johannes; Pratisto, Hans; Wellig, Peter

2014-10-01

Ground based millimeter wave radar sensors offer the potential for a weather-independent automatic ground surveillance at day and night, e.g. for camp protection applications. The basic principle and the experimental verification of a radar system concept is described, which by means of an extreme off-axis positioning of the antenna(s) combines azimuthal mechanical beam steering with the formation of a circular-arc shaped synthetic aperture (SA). In automatic ground surveillance the function of search and detection of moving ground targets is performed by means of the conventional mechanical scan mode. The rotated antenna structure designed as a small array with two or more RX antenna elements with simultaneous receiver chains allows to instantaneous track multiple moving targets (monopulse principle). The simultaneously operated SAR mode yields areal images of the distribution of stationary scatterers. For ground surveillance application this SAR mode is best suited for identifying possible threats by means of change detection. The feasibility of this concept was tested by means of an experimental radar system comprising of a 94 GHz (W band) FM-CW module with 1 GHz bandwidth and two RX antennas with parallel receiver channels, placed off-axis at a rotating platform. SAR mode and search/track mode were tested during an outdoor measurement campaign. The scenery of two persons walking along a road and partially through forest served as test for the capability to track multiple moving targets. For SAR mode verification an image of the area composed of roads, grassland, woodland and several man-made objects was reconstructed from the measured data.

Registration of clinical volumes to beams-eye-view images for real-time tracking

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bryant, Jonathan H.; Rottmann, Joerg; Lewis, John H.; Mishra, Pankaj; Berbeco, Ross I., E-mail: rberbeco@lroc.harvard.edu [Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115 (United States); Keall, Paul J. [Radiation Physics Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006 (Australia)

2014-12-15

Purpose: The authors combine the registration of 2D beam’s eye view (BEV) images and 3D planning computed tomography (CT) images, with relative, markerless tumor tracking to provide automatic absolute tracking of physician defined volumes such as the gross tumor volume (GTV). Methods: During treatment of lung SBRT cases, BEV images were continuously acquired with an electronic portal imaging device (EPID) operating in cine mode. For absolute registration of physician-defined volumes, an intensity based 2D/3D registration to the planning CT was performed using the end-of-exhale (EoE) phase of the four dimensional computed tomography (4DCT). The volume was converted from Hounsfield units into electron density by a calibration curve and digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) were generated for each beam geometry. Using normalized cross correlation between the DRR and an EoE BEV image, the best in-plane rigid transformation was found. The transformation was applied to physician-defined contours in the planning CT, mapping them into the EPID image domain. A robust multiregion method of relative markerless lung tumor tracking quantified deviations from the EoE position. Results: The success of 2D/3D registration was demonstrated at the EoE breathing phase. By registering at this phase and then employing a separate technique for relative tracking, the authors are able to successfully track target volumes in the BEV images throughout the entire treatment delivery. Conclusions: Through the combination of EPID/4DCT registration and relative tracking, a necessary step toward the clinical implementation of BEV tracking has been completed. The knowledge of tumor volumes relative to the treatment field is important for future applications like real-time motion management, adaptive radiotherapy, and delivered dose calculations.

Optimization Controller for Mechatronic Sun Tracking System to Improve Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustafa Engin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available An embedded system that contains hardware and software was developed for two-axis solar tracking system to improve photovoltaic panel utilization. The hardware section of the embedded system consists of a 32-bit ARM core microcontroller, motor driver circuits, a motion control unit, pyranometer, GPS receiver, and an anemometer. The real-time control algorithm enables the solar tracker to operate automatically without external control as a stand-alone system, combining the advantages of the open-loop and the closed-loop control methods. The pyranometer is employed to continuously send radiation data to the controller if the measured radiation is above the lower radiation limit the photovoltaic panel can generate power, guaranteeing the solar tracking process to be highly efficient. The anemometer is utilized in the system to ensure that the solar tracking procedure halts under high wind speed conditions to protect the entire system. Latitude, longitude, altitude, date, and real-time clock data are provided by GPS receiver. The algorithm calculates solar time using astronomical equations with GPS data and converts it to pulse-width modulated motor control signal. The overall objective of this study is to develop a control algorithm that improves performance and reliability of the two-axis solar tracker, focusing on optimization of the controller board, drive hardware, and software.

Switching sliding mode force tracking control of piezoelectric-hydraulic pump-based friction element actuation systems for automotive transmissions

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Gi-Woo; Wang, K. W.

2009-08-01

In this study, a nonlinear sliding-mode controller is designed for force tracking of a piezoelectric-hydraulic pump (PHP)-based actuation system, which is developed to replace the current electro-hydraulic actuation systems for automatic transmission (AT) friction elements, such as band brakes or clutches. By utilizing the PHP, one can eliminate the various hydraulic components (oil pump, regulating valve and control valve) in current ATs and achieve a simpler configuration with more efficient operation. With the derived governing equation of motion of the PHP-based actuation system integrated with the friction element (band brake), a switching control law is synthesized based on the sliding-mode theory. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control law, its force tracking performance for the engagement of a friction element during an AT 1\\to 2 up-shift is examined experimentally. It is shown that one can successfully track the desired force trajectory for AT shift control with small tracking error. This study demonstrates the potential of the PHP as a new controllable actuation system for AT friction elements.

Switching sliding mode force tracking control of piezoelectric-hydraulic pump-based friction element actuation systems for automotive transmissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Gi-Woo; Wang, K W

2009-01-01

In this study, a nonlinear sliding-mode controller is designed for force tracking of a piezoelectric-hydraulic pump (PHP)-based actuation system, which is developed to replace the current electro-hydraulic actuation systems for automatic transmission (AT) friction elements, such as band brakes or clutches. By utilizing the PHP, one can eliminate the various hydraulic components (oil pump, regulating valve and control valve) in current ATs and achieve a simpler configuration with more efficient operation. With the derived governing equation of motion of the PHP-based actuation system integrated with the friction element (band brake), a switching control law is synthesized based on the sliding-mode theory. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control law, its force tracking performance for the engagement of a friction element during an AT 1→2 up-shift is examined experimentally. It is shown that one can successfully track the desired force trajectory for AT shift control with small tracking error. This study demonstrates the potential of the PHP as a new controllable actuation system for AT friction elements

Automatic indexing, compiling and classification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andreewsky, Alexandre; Fluhr, Christian.

1975-06-01

A review of the principles of automatic indexing, is followed by a comparison and summing-up of work by the authors and by a Soviet staff from the Moscou INFORM-ELECTRO Institute. The mathematical and linguistic problems of the automatic building of thesaurus and automatic classification are examined [fr

Motor Habits in Visuo-manual Tracking: Manifestation of an Unconscious Short-Term Motor Memory?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Hufschmidt

1990-01-01

Full Text Available Normal subjects were tested in short, repetitive trials of a tracking task, with an identical shape of target movement being used throughout one session. Analysis of the net error curves (pursuit minus target movement revealed that subjects regularly exhibit a remoteness effect: neighbouring trials were more similar than distant ones. The effect is demonstrated to be stronger in the absence of visual cues, and was found to be absent in a patient with complete loss of proprioception when he was performing without visual feedback as well. The results are discussed in terms of a short term memory store contributing to unconscious movement habits in tracking. This may represent part of the motor learning process working together with conscious visuo-motor control mechanisms. Its function is probably related to the acquisition of automatic movements.

Vehicle tracking for an evasive manoeuvres assistant using low-cost ultrasonic sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiménez, Felipe; Naranjo, José E; Gómez, Oscar; Anaya, José J

2014-11-28

Many driver assistance systems require knowledge of the vehicle environment. As these systems are increasing in complexity and performance, this knowledge of the environment needs to be more complete and reliable, so sensor fusion combining long, medium and short range sensors is now being used. This paper analyzes the feasibility of using ultrasonic sensors for low cost vehicle-positioning and tracking in the lane adjacent to the host vehicle in order to identify free areas around the vehicle and provide information to an automatic avoidance collision system that can perform autonomous braking and lane change manoeuvres. A laser scanner is used for the early detection of obstacles in the direction of travel while two ultrasonic sensors monitor the blind spot of the host vehicle. The results of tests on a test track demonstrate the ability of these sensors to accurately determine the kinematic variables of the obstacles encountered, despite a clear limitation in range.

Vehicle Tracking for an Evasive Manoeuvres Assistant Using Low-Cost Ultrasonic Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Felipe Jiménez

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Many driver assistance systems require knowledge of the vehicle environment. As these systems are increasing in complexity and performance, this knowledge of the environment needs to be more complete and reliable, so sensor fusion combining long, medium and short range sensors is now being used. This paper analyzes the feasibility of using ultrasonic sensors for low cost vehicle-positioning and tracking in the lane adjacent to the host vehicle in order to identify free areas around the vehicle and provide information to an automatic avoidance collision system that can perform autonomous braking and lane change manoeuvres. A laser scanner is used for the early detection of obstacles in the direction of travel while two ultrasonic sensors monitor the blind spot of the host vehicle. The results of tests on a test track demonstrate the ability of these sensors to accurately determine the kinematic variables of the obstacles encountered, despite a clear limitation in range.

Visual tracking for multi-modality computer-assisted image guidance

Science.gov (United States)

Basafa, Ehsan; Foroughi, Pezhman; Hossbach, Martin; Bhanushali, Jasmine; Stolka, Philipp

2017-03-01

With optical cameras, many interventional navigation tasks previously relying on EM, optical, or mechanical guidance can be performed robustly, quickly, and conveniently. We developed a family of novel guidance systems based on wide-spectrum cameras and vision algorithms for real-time tracking of interventional instruments and multi-modality markers. These navigation systems support the localization of anatomical targets, support placement of imaging probe and instruments, and provide fusion imaging. The unique architecture - low-cost, miniature, in-hand stereo vision cameras fitted directly to imaging probes - allows for an intuitive workflow that fits a wide variety of specialties such as anesthesiology, interventional radiology, interventional oncology, emergency medicine, urology, and others, many of which see increasing pressure to utilize medical imaging and especially ultrasound, but have yet to develop the requisite skills for reliable success. We developed a modular system, consisting of hardware (the Optical Head containing the mini cameras) and software (components for visual instrument tracking with or without specialized visual features, fully automated marker segmentation from a variety of 3D imaging modalities, visual observation of meshes of widely separated markers, instant automatic registration, and target tracking and guidance on real-time multi-modality fusion views). From these components, we implemented a family of distinct clinical and pre-clinical systems (for combinations of ultrasound, CT, CBCT, and MRI), most of which have international regulatory clearance for clinical use. We present technical and clinical results on phantoms, ex- and in-vivo animals, and patients.

Robust perception algorithms for road and track autonomous following

Science.gov (United States)

Marion, Vincent; Lecointe, Olivier; Lewandowski, Cecile; Morillon, Joel G.; Aufrere, Romuald; Marcotegui, Beatrix; Chapuis, Roland; Beucher, Serge

2004-09-01

The French Military Robotic Study Program (introduced in Aerosense 2003), sponsored by the French Defense Procurement Agency and managed by Thales Airborne Systems as the prime contractor, focuses on about 15 robotic themes, which can provide an immediate "operational add-on value." The paper details the "road and track following" theme (named AUT2), which main purpose was to develop a vision based sub-system to automatically detect roadsides of an extended range of roads and tracks suitable to military missions. To achieve the goal, efforts focused on three main areas: (1) Improvement of images quality at algorithms inputs, thanks to the selection of adapted video cameras, and the development of a THALES patented algorithm: it removes in real time most of the disturbing shadows in images taken in natural environments, enhances contrast and lowers reflection effect due to films of water. (2) Selection and improvement of two complementary algorithms (one is segment oriented, the other region based) (3) Development of a fusion process between both algorithms, which feeds in real time a road model with the best available data. Each previous step has been developed so that the global perception process is reliable and safe: as an example, the process continuously evaluates itself and outputs confidence criteria qualifying roadside detection. The paper presents the processes in details, and the results got from passed military acceptance tests, which trigger the next step: autonomous track following (named AUT3).

Configuration management and automatic control of an augmentor wing aircraft with vectored thrust

Science.gov (United States)

Cicolani, L. S.; Sridhar, B.; Meyer, G.

1979-01-01

An advanced structure for automatic flight control logic for powered-lift aircraft operating in terminal areas is under investigation at Ames Research Center. This structure is based on acceleration control; acceleration commands are constructed as the sum of acceleration on the reference trajectory and a corrective feedback acceleration to regulate path tracking errors. The central element of the structure, termed a Trimmap, uses a model of the aircraft aerodynamic and engine forces to calculate the control settings required to generate the acceleration commands. This report describes the design criteria for the Trimmap and derives a Trimmap for Ames experimental augmentor wing jet STOL research aircraft.

Sequential fission process observed in the reaction (16.7 MeV/u) 238U + nat.Au using mica as dielectric track detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shahzad, Muhammad Ikram; Qureshi, Imtinan Elahi; Manzoor, Shahid; Khan, Hameed Ahmed

1999-01-01

The evidence of sequential fission has been found in the heavy-ion reaction (16.7 MeV/u) 238 U + nat. Au, using muscovite mica as Dielectric Track Detector (DTD) placed in a 2π-geometry configuration. The reaction products originating from the interactions of 238 U ions with the atoms of gold were registered in the detector in the form of tracks and identified for performing a detailed kinematical analysis. For this purpose the spherical polar coordinates of the correlated tracks of the multipronged events have been analyzed on an event-by-event basis. Automatic, semi-automatic and manual measuring methods have been employed to collect and manipulate the track data. The known characteristics of binary and ternary events observed in the reaction have been used for the calibration of the detectors. The computed masses, Q-values and relative velocities of the reaction products determined in this analysis are compared with theoretical predictions based on sequential fission process. Agreement within one standard deviation with respect to the experimental values has been found for the majority of analyzed events. Therefore, it is concluded that three particles in the exit channel of the reaction are produced in two successive steps. In the first step of the reaction, two intermediate nuclei are formed as a result of an inelastic collision between projectile and target atoms while in the second step the fission of one of the intermediate nuclei of the previous step takes place. Furthermore no proximity effects have been observed

Nanoscale measurements of proton tracks using fluorescent nuclear track detectors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sawakuchi, Gabriel O., E-mail: gsawakuchi@mdanderson.org; Sahoo, Narayan [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030 and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Ferreira, Felisberto A. [Department of Nuclear Physics, University of Sao Paulo, SP 05508-090 (Brazil); McFadden, Conor H. [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030 (United States); Hallacy, Timothy M. [Biophysics Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States); Granville, Dal A. [Department of Medical Physics, The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8L6 (Canada); Akselrod, Mark S. [Crystal Growth Division, Landauer, Inc., Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074 (United States)

2016-05-15

Purpose: The authors describe a method in which fluorescence nuclear track detectors (FNTDs), novel track detectors with nanoscale spatial resolution, are used to determine the linear energy transfer (LET) of individual proton tracks from proton therapy beams by allowing visualization and 3D reconstruction of such tracks. Methods: FNTDs were exposed to proton therapy beams with nominal energies ranging from 100 to 250 MeV. Proton track images were then recorded by confocal microscopy of the FNTDs. Proton tracks in the FNTD images were fit by using a Gaussian function to extract fluorescence amplitudes. Histograms of fluorescence amplitudes were then compared with LET spectra. Results: The authors successfully used FNTDs to register individual proton tracks from high-energy proton therapy beams, allowing reconstruction of 3D images of proton tracks along with delta rays. The track amplitudes from FNTDs could be used to parameterize LET spectra, allowing the LET of individual proton tracks from therapeutic proton beams to be determined. Conclusions: FNTDs can be used to directly visualize proton tracks and their delta rays at the nanoscale level. Because the track intensities in the FNTDs correlate with LET, they could be used further to measure LET of individual proton tracks. This method may be useful for measuring nanoscale radiation quantities and for measuring the LET of individual proton tracks in radiation biology experiments.

Toward automating Hammersmith pulled-to-sit examination of infants using feature point based video object tracking.

Science.gov (United States)

Dogra, Debi P; Majumdar, Arun K; Sural, Shamik; Mukherjee, Jayanta; Mukherjee, Suchandra; Singh, Arun

2012-01-01

Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE) is a set of tests used for grading neurological development of infants on a scale of 0 to 3. These tests help in assessing neurophysiological development of babies, especially preterm infants who are born before (the fetus reaches) the gestational age of 36 weeks. Such tests are often conducted in the follow-up clinics of hospitals for grading infants with suspected disabilities. Assessment based on HINE depends on the expertise of the physicians involved in conducting the examinations. It has been noted that some of these tests, especially pulled-to-sit and lateral tilting, are difficult to assess solely based on visual observation. For example, during the pulled-to-sit examination, the examiner needs to observe the relative movement of the head with respect to torso while pulling the infant by holding wrists. The examiner may find it difficult to follow the head movement from the coronal view. Video object tracking based automatic or semi-automatic analysis can be helpful in this case. In this paper, we present a video based method to automate the analysis of pulled-to-sit examination. In this context, a dynamic programming and node pruning based efficient video object tracking algorithm has been proposed. Pulled-to-sit event detection is handled by the proposed tracking algorithm that uses a 2-D geometric model of the scene. The algorithm has been tested with normal as well as marker based videos of the examination recorded at the neuro-development clinic of the SSKM Hospital, Kolkata, India. It is found that the proposed algorithm is capable of estimating the pulled-to-sit score with sensitivity (80%-92%) and specificity (89%-96%).

Second-order sliding mode controller with model reference adaptation for automatic train operation

Science.gov (United States)

Ganesan, M.; Ezhilarasi, D.; Benni, Jijo

2017-11-01

In this paper, a new approach to model reference based adaptive second-order sliding mode control together with adaptive state feedback is presented to control the longitudinal dynamic motion of a high speed train for automatic train operation with the objective of minimal jerk travel by the passengers. The nonlinear dynamic model for the longitudinal motion of the train comprises of a locomotive and coach subsystems is constructed using multiple point-mass model by considering the forces acting on the vehicle. An adaptation scheme using Lyapunov criterion is derived to tune the controller gains by considering a linear, stable reference model that ensures the stability of the system in closed loop. The effectiveness of the controller tracking performance is tested under uncertain passenger load, coupler-draft gear parameters, propulsion resistance coefficients variations and environmental disturbances due to side wind and wet rail conditions. The results demonstrate improved tracking performance of the proposed control scheme with a least jerk under maximum parameter uncertainties when compared to constant gain second-order sliding mode control.

Application of an automatic yarn dismantler to track changes in cotton fibre properties during processing on a miniature spinning line

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Fassihi, A

2014-11-01

Full Text Available . The results obtained on different Upland cottons have clearly demonstrated the practical value of the yarn dismantler in enabling yarns to be automatically dismantled into their constituent fibres, which can then be tested by instrument, such as the AFIS...

Speaker diarization and speech recognition in the semi-automatization of audio description: An exploratory study on future possibilities?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor Delgado

2015-06-01

This article presents an overview of the technological components used in the process of audio description, and suggests a new scenario in which speech recognition, machine translation, and text-to-speech, with the corresponding human revision, could be used to increase audio description provision. The article focuses on a process in which both speaker diarization and speech recognition are used in order to obtain a semi-automatic transcription of the audio description track. The technical process is presented and experimental results are summarized.

Automatic sets and Delone sets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barbe, A; Haeseler, F von

2004-01-01

Automatic sets D part of Z m are characterized by having a finite number of decimations. They are equivalently generated by fixed points of certain substitution systems, or by certain finite automata. As examples, two-dimensional versions of the Thue-Morse, Baum-Sweet, Rudin-Shapiro and paperfolding sequences are presented. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for an automatic set D part of Z m to be a Delone set in R m . The result is then extended to automatic sets that are defined as fixed points of certain substitutions. The morphology of automatic sets is discussed by means of examples

A new user-assisted segmentation and tracking technique for an object-based video editing system

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Hong Y.; Hong, Sung-Hoon; Lee, Mike M.; Choi, Jae-Gark

2004-03-01

This paper presents a semi-automatic segmentation method which can be used to generate video object plane (VOP) for object based coding scheme and multimedia authoring environment. Semi-automatic segmentation can be considered as a user-assisted segmentation technique. A user can initially mark objects of interest around the object boundaries and then the user-guided and selected objects are continuously separated from the unselected areas through time evolution in the image sequences. The proposed segmentation method consists of two processing steps: partially manual intra-frame segmentation and fully automatic inter-frame segmentation. The intra-frame segmentation incorporates user-assistance to define the meaningful complete visual object of interest to be segmentation and decides precise object boundary. The inter-frame segmentation involves boundary and region tracking to obtain temporal coherence of moving object based on the object boundary information of previous frame. The proposed method shows stable efficient results that could be suitable for many digital video applications such as multimedia contents authoring, content based coding and indexing. Based on these results, we have developed objects based video editing system with several convenient editing functions.

SCATS: SRB Cost Accounting and Tracking System handbook

Science.gov (United States)

Zorv, R. B.; Stewart, R. D.; Coley, G.; Higginbotham, M.

1978-01-01

The Solid Rocket Booster Cost Accounting and Tracking System (SCATS) which is an automatic data processing system designed to keep a running account of the number, description, and estimated cost of Level 2, 3, and 4 changes is described. Although designed specifically for the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster Program, the ADP system can be used for any other program that has a similar structure for recording, reporting, and summing numbers and costs of changes. The program stores the alpha-numeric designators for changes, government estimated costs, proposed costs, and negotiated value in a MIRADS (Marshall Information Retrieval and Display System) format which permits rapid access, manipulation, and reporting of current change status. Output reports listing all changes, totals of each level, and totals of all levels, can be derived for any calendar interval period.

High-order space charge effects using automatic differentiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reusch, Michael F.; Bruhwiler, David L.

1997-01-01

The Northrop Grumman Topkark code has been upgraded to Fortran 90, making use of operator overloading, so the same code can be used to either track an array of particles or construct a Taylor map representation of the accelerator lattice. We review beam optics and beam dynamics simulations conducted with TOPKARK in the past and we present a new method for modeling space charge forces to high-order with automatic differentiation. This method generates an accurate, high-order, 6-D Taylor map of the phase space variable trajectories for a bunched, high-current beam. The spatial distribution is modeled as the product of a Taylor Series times a Gaussian. The variables in the argument of the Gaussian are normalized to the respective second moments of the distribution. This form allows for accurate representation of a wide range of realistic distributions, including any asymmetries, and allows for rapid calculation of the space charge fields with free space boundary conditions. An example problem is presented to illustrate our approach

Automatic Recognition of Object Names in Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Bonnin, C.; Lesteven, S.; Derriere, S.; Oberto, A.

2008-08-01

SIMBAD is a database of astronomical objects that provides (among other things) their bibliographic references in a large number of journals. Currently, these references have to be entered manually by librarians who read each paper. To cope with the increasing number of papers, CDS develops a tool to assist the librarians in their work, taking advantage of the Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects, which keeps track of object acronyms and of their origin. The program searches for object names directly in PDF documents by comparing the words with all the formats stored in the Dictionary of Nomenclature. It also searches for variable star names based on constellation names and for a large list of usual names such as Aldebaran or the Crab. Object names found in the documents often correspond to several astronomical objects. The system retrieves all possible matches, displays them with their object type given by SIMBAD, and lets the librarian make the final choice. The bibliographic reference can then be automatically added to the object identifiers in the database. Besides, the systematic usage of the Dictionary of Nomenclature, which is updated manually, permitted to automatically check it and to detect errors and inconsistencies. Last but not least, the program collects some additional information such as the position of the object names in the document (in the title, subtitle, abstract, table, figure caption...) and their number of occurrences. In the future, this will permit to calculate the 'weight' of an object in a reference and to provide SIMBAD users with an important new information, which will help them to find the most relevant papers in the object reference list.

Large angle tracking and high discriminating tracking in nuclear emulsion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuo, Tomokazu; Shibuya, Hiroshi; Ogawa, Satoru; Fukuda, Tsutomu; Mikado, Shoji

2015-01-01

Nuclear emulsion is a high resolution and re-analyzable detector. Conventional “Track Selector” which have angle acceptance |tan θ|<0.6 are widely used to find tracks in emulsion. We made a new track selector “Fine Track Selector” (FTS) which has large angle acceptance and high discriminating ability. The FTS reduces fake tracks using new algorithms, navigation etc. FTS also keeps finding efficiency of tracks around 90% in an angle range of |tan θ| < 3.5. FTS was applied to the τ candidate in OPERA and no additional tracks found. FTS will be useful to our new J-PARC emulsion experiment.

Dust Storm Feature Identification and Tracking from 4D Simulation Data

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, M.; Yang, C. P.

2016-12-01

Dust storms cause significant damage to health, property and the environment worldwide every year. To help mitigate the damage, dust forecasting models simulate and predict upcoming dust events, providing valuable information to scientists, decision makers, and the public. Normally, the model simulations are conducted in four-dimensions (i.e., latitude, longitude, elevation and time) and represent three-dimensional (3D), spatial heterogeneous features of the storm and its evolution over space and time. This research investigates and proposes an automatic multi-threshold, region-growing based identification algorithm to identify critical dust storm features, and track the evolution process of dust storm events through space and time. In addition, a spatiotemporal data model is proposed, which can support the characterization and representation of dust storm events and their dynamic patterns. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations for the algorithm are conducted to test the sensitivity, and capability of identify and track dust storm events. This study has the potential to assist a better early warning system for decision-makers and the public, thus making hazard mitigation plans more effective.

Influence of tracks densities in solid state nuclear track detectors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guedes O, S.; Hadler N.; Lunes, P.; Saenz T, C.

1996-01-01

When Solid State Nuclear Track Detectors (SSNTD) is employed to measure nuclear tracks produced mainly by fission fragments and alpha particles, it is considered that the tracks observation work is performed under an efficiency, ε 0 , which is independent of the track density (number of tracks/area unit). There are not published results or experimental data supporting such an assumption. In this work the dependence of ε 0 with track density is studied basing on experimental data. To perform this, pieces of CR-39 cut from a sole 'mother sheet' were coupled to thin uranium films for different exposition times and the resulting ratios between track density and exposition time were compared. Our results indicate that ε 0 is constant for track densities between 10 3 and 10 5 cm -2 . At our etching conditions track overlapping makes impossible the counting for densities around 1.7 x 10 5 cm -2 . For track densities less than 10 3 cm -2 , ε 0 , was not observed to be constant. (authors). 4 refs., 2 figs

4-D single particle tracking of synthetic and proteinaceous microspheres reveals preferential movement of nuclear particles along chromatin - poor tracks.

Science.gov (United States)

Bacher, Christian P; Reichenzeller, Michaela; Athale, Chaitanya; Herrmann, Harald; Eils, Roland

2004-11-23

The dynamics of nuclear organization, nuclear bodies and RNPs in particular has been the focus of many studies. To understand their function, knowledge of their spatial nuclear position and temporal translocation is essential. Typically, such studies generate a wealth of data that require novel methods in image analysis and computational tools to quantitatively track particle movement on the background of moving cells and shape changing nuclei. We developed a novel 4-D image processing platform (TIKAL) for the work with laser scanning and wide field microscopes. TIKAL provides a registration software for correcting global movements and local deformations of cells as well as 2-D and 3-D tracking software. With this new tool, we studied the dynamics of two different types of nuclear particles, namely nuclear bodies made from GFP-NLS-vimentin and microinjected 0.1 mum - wide polystyrene beads, by live cell time-lapse microscopy combined with single particle tracking and mobility analysis. We now provide a tool for the automatic 3-D analysis of particle movement in parallel with the acquisition of chromatin density data. Kinetic analysis revealed 4 modes of movement: confined obstructed, normal diffusion and directed motion. Particle tracking on the background of stained chromatin revealed that particle movement is directly related to local reorganization of chromatin. Further a direct comparison of particle movement in the nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm exhibited an entirely different kinetic behaviour of vimentin particles in both compartments. The kinetics of nuclear particles were slightly affected by depletion of ATP and significantly disturbed by disruption of actin and microtubule networks. Moreover, the hydration state of the nucleus had a strong impact on the mobility of nuclear bodies since both normal diffusion and directed motion were entirely abolished when cells were challenged with 0.6 M sorbitol. This effect correlated with the compaction of chromatin

Automatisms: bridging clinical neurology with criminal law.

Science.gov (United States)

Rolnick, Joshua; Parvizi, Josef

2011-03-01

The law, like neurology, grapples with the relationship between disease states and behavior. Sometimes, the two disciplines share the same terminology, such as automatism. In law, the "automatism defense" is a claim that action was involuntary or performed while unconscious. Someone charged with a serious crime can acknowledge committing the act and yet may go free if, relying on the expert testimony of clinicians, the court determines that the act of crime was committed in a state of automatism. In this review, we explore the relationship between the use of automatism in the legal and clinical literature. We close by addressing several issues raised by the automatism defense: semantic ambiguity surrounding the term automatism, the presence or absence of consciousness during automatisms, and the methodological obstacles that have hindered the study of cognition during automatisms. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The relationship between fission track length and track density in apatite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laslett, G.M.; Gleadow, A.J.W.; Duddy, I.R.

1984-01-01

Fission track dating is based upon an age equation derived from a random line segment model for fission tracks. This equation contains the implicit assumption of a proportional relationship between the true mean length of fission tracks and their track density in an isotropic medium. Previous experimental investigation of this relationship for both spontaneous and induced tracks in apatite during progressive annealment model in an obvious fashion. Corrected equations relating track length and density for apatite, an anisotropic mineral, show that the proportionality in this case is between track density and a length factor which is a generalization of the mean track length combining the actual length and crystallographic orientation of the track. This relationship has been experimentally confirmed for induced tracks in Durango apatite, taking into account bias in sampling of the track lengths, and the effect of the bulk etching velocity. (author)

Symplectic Tracking of Multi-Isotopic Heavy-Ion Beams in SixTrack

CERN Document Server

Hermes, Pascal; De Maria, Riccardo

2016-01-01

The software SixTrack provides symplectic proton tracking over a large number of turns. The code is used for the tracking of beam halo particles and the simulation of their interaction with the collimators to study the efficiency of the LHC collimation system. Tracking simulations for heavy-ion beams require taking into account the mass to charge ratio of each particle because heavy ions can be subject to fragmentation at their passage through the collimators. In this paper we present the derivation of a Hamiltonian for multi-isotopic heavy-ion beams and symplectic tracking maps derived from it. The resulting tracking maps were implemented in the tracking software SixTrack. With this modification, SixTrack can be used to natively track heavy-ion beams of multiple isotopes through a magnetic accelerator lattice.

Measurement of left ventricular torsion using block-matching-based speckle tracking for two-dimensional echocardiography

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Feng-Rong; Wang, Xiao-Jing; Wu, Qiang; Yao, Gui-Hua; Zhang, Yun

2013-01-01

Left ventricular (LV) torsion is a sensitive and global index of LV systolic and diastolic function, but how to noninvasively measure it is challenging. Two-dimensional echocardiography and the block-matching based speckle tracking method were used to measure LV torsion. Main advantages of the proposed method over the previous ones are summarized as follows: (1) The method is automatic, except for manually selecting some endocardium points on the end-diastolic frame in initialization step. (2) The diamond search strategy is applied, with a spatial smoothness constraint introduced into the sum of absolute differences matching criterion; and the reference frame during the search is determined adaptively. (3) The method is capable of removing abnormal measurement data automatically. The proposed method was validated against that using Doppler tissue imaging and some preliminary clinical experimental studies were presented to illustrate clinical values of the proposed method.

An image based system to automatically and objectivelly score the degreeof redness and scaling in psoriasi lesions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gomez, David Delgado; Ersbøll, Bjarne Kjær; Carstensen, Jens Michael

2004-01-01

In this work, a combined statistical and image analysis method to automatically evaluate the severity of scaling in psoriasis lesions is proposed. The method separates the different regions of the disease in the image and scores the degree of scaling based on the properties of these areas. The pr...... that the obtained scores are highly correlated with scores made by doctors. This and the fact that the obtained measures are continuous indicate the proposed method is a suitable tool to evaluate the lesion and to track the evolution of dermatological diseases....

PolarTrack: Optical Outside-In Device Tracking that Exploits Display Polarization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rädle, Roman; Jetter, Hans-Christian; Fischer, Jonathan

2018-01-01

PolarTrack is a novel camera-based approach to detecting and tracking mobile devices inside the capture volume. In PolarTrack, a polarization filter continuously rotates in front of an off-the-shelf color camera, which causes the displays of observed devices to periodically blink in the camera feed....... The periodic blinking results from the physical characteristics of current displays, which shine polarized light either through an LC overlay to produce images or through a polarizer to reduce light reflections on OLED displays. PolarTrack runs a simple detection algorithm on the camera feed to segment...... displays and track their locations and orientations, which makes PolarTrack particularly suitable as a tracking system for cross-device interaction with mobile devices. Our evaluation of PolarTrack's tracking quality and comparison with state-of-the-art camera-based multi-device tracking showed a better...

Speaker diarization and speech recognition in the semi-automatization of audio description: An exploratory study on future possibilities?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Héctor Delgado

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This article presents an overview of the technological components used in the process of audio description, and suggests a new scenario in which speech recognition, machine translation, and text-to-speech, with the corresponding human revision, could be used to increase audio description provision. The article focuses on a process in which both speaker diarization and speech recognition are used in order to obtain a semi-automatic transcription of the audio description track. The technical process is presented and experimental results are summarized.

Automatic control of the NMB level in general anaesthesia with a switching total system mass control strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Teixeira, Miguel; Mendonça, Teresa; Rocha, Paula; Rabiço, Rui

2014-12-01

This paper presents a model based switching control strategy to drive the neuromuscular blockade (NMB) level of patients undergoing general anesthesia to a predefined reference. A single-input single-output Wiener system with only two parameters is used to model the effect of two different muscle relaxants, atracurium and rocuronium, and a switching controller is designed based on a bank of total system mass control laws. Each of such laws is tuned for an individual model from a bank chosen to represent the behavior of the whole population. The control law to be applied at each instant corresponds to the model whose NMB response is closer to the patient's response. Moreover a scheme to improve the reference tracking quality based on the analysis of the patient's response, as well as, a comparison between the switching strategy and the Extended Kalman Kilter (EKF) technique are presented. The results are illustrated by means of several simulations, where switching shows to provide good results, both in theory and in practice, with a desirable reference tracking. The reference tracking improvement technique is able to produce a better reference tracking. Also, this technique showed a better performance than the (EKF). Based on these results, the switching control strategy with a bank of total system mass control laws proved to be robust enough to be used as an automatic control system for the NMB level.

Sequential fission process observed in the reaction (16.7 MeV/u) {sup 238}U + {sup nat.}Au using mica as dielectric track detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shahzad, Muhammad Ikram; Qureshi, Imtinan Elahi; Manzoor, Shahid; Khan, Hameed Ahmed

1999-01-04

The evidence of sequential fission has been found in the heavy-ion reaction (16.7 MeV/u) {sup 238}U + {sup nat.}Au, using muscovite mica as Dielectric Track Detector (DTD) placed in a 2{pi}-geometry configuration. The reaction products originating from the interactions of {sup 238}U ions with the atoms of gold were registered in the detector in the form of tracks and identified for performing a detailed kinematical analysis. For this purpose the spherical polar coordinates of the correlated tracks of the multipronged events have been analyzed on an event-by-event basis. Automatic, semi-automatic and manual measuring methods have been employed to collect and manipulate the track data. The known characteristics of binary and ternary events observed in the reaction have been used for the calibration of the detectors. The computed masses, Q-values and relative velocities of the reaction products determined in this analysis are compared with theoretical predictions based on sequential fission process. Agreement within one standard deviation with respect to the experimental values has been found for the majority of analyzed events. Therefore, it is concluded that three particles in the exit channel of the reaction are produced in two successive steps. In the first step of the reaction, two intermediate nuclei are formed as a result of an inelastic collision between projectile and target atoms while in the second step the fission of one of the intermediate nuclei of the previous step takes place. Furthermore no proximity effects have been observed.

Imaging inflammatory acne: lesion detection and tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Cula, Gabriela O.; Bargo, Paulo R.; Kollias, Nikiforos

2010-02-01

It is known that effectiveness of acne treatment increases when the lesions are detected earlier, before they could progress into mature wound-like lesions, which lead to scarring and discoloration. However, little is known about the evolution of acne from early signs until after the lesion heals. In this work we computationally characterize the evolution of inflammatory acne lesions, based on analyzing cross-polarized images that document acne-prone facial skin over time. Taking skin images over time, and being able to follow skin features in these images present serious challenges, due to change in the appearance of skin, difficulty in repositioning the subject, involuntary movement such as breathing. A computational technique for automatic detection of lesions by separating the background normal skin from the acne lesions, based on fitting Gaussian distributions to the intensity histograms, is presented. In order to track and quantify the evolution of lesions, in terms of the degree of progress or regress, we designed a study to capture facial skin images from an acne-prone young individual, followed over the course of 3 different time points. Based on the behavior of the lesions between two consecutive time points, the automatically detected lesions are classified in four categories: new lesions, resolved lesions (i.e. lesions that disappear completely), lesions that are progressing, and lesions that are regressing (i.e. lesions in the process of healing). The classification our methods achieve correlates well with visual inspection of a trained human grader.

Auto-Calibration Methods of Kinematic Parameters and Magnetometer Offset for the Localization of a Tracked Mobile Robot

OpenAIRE

Luciano Cantelli; Samuel Ligama; Giovanni Muscato; Davide Spina

2016-01-01

This paper describes an automatic calibration procedure adopted to improve the localization of an outdoor mobile robot. The proposed algorithm estimates, by using an extended Kalman filter, the main kinematic parameters of the vehicles, such as the wheel radii and the wheelbase as well as the magnetometer offset. Several trials have been performed to validate the proposed strategy on a tracked electrical mobile robot. The mobile robot is aimed to be adopted as a tool to help humanitarian demi...

Development of a digital automatic control law for steep glideslope capture and flare

Science.gov (United States)

Halyo, N.

1977-01-01

A longitudinal digital guidance and control law for steep glideslopes using MLS (Microwave Landing System) data is developed for CTOL aircraft using modern estimation and control techniques. The control law covers the final approach phases of glideslope capture, glideslope tracking, and flare to touchdown for automatic landings under adverse weather conditions. The control law uses a constant gain Kalman filter to process MLS and body-mounted accelerometer data to form estimates of flight path errors and wind velocities including wind shear. The flight path error estimates and wind estimates are used for feedback in generating control surface commands. Results of a digital simulation of the aircraft dynamics and the guidance and control law are presented for various wind conditions.

Truck circuits diagnosis for railway lines equipped with an automatic block signalling system

Science.gov (United States)

Spunei, E.; Piroi, I.; Muscai, C.; Răduca, E.; Piroi, F.

2018-01-01

This work presents a diagnosis method for detecting track circuits failures on a railway traffic line equipped with an Automatic Block Signalling installation. The diagnosis method uses the installation’s electrical schemas, based on which a series of diagnosis charts have been created. Further, the diagnosis charts were used to develop a software package, CDCBla, which substantially contributes to reducing the diagnosis time and human error during failure remedies. The proposed method can also be used as a training package for the maintenance staff. Since the diagnosis method here does not need signal or measurement inputs, using it does not necessitate additional IT knowledge and can be deployed on a mobile computing device (tablet, smart phone).

Linear feature detection algorithm for astronomical surveys - II. Defocusing effects on meteor tracks

Science.gov (United States)

Bektešević, Dino; Vinković, Dejan; Rasmussen, Andrew; Ivezić, Željko

2018-03-01

Given the current limited knowledge of meteor plasma micro-physics and its interaction with the surrounding atmosphere and ionosphere, meteors are a highly interesting observational target for high-resolution wide-field astronomical surveys. Such surveys are capable of resolving the physical size of meteor plasma heads, but they produce large volumes of images that need to be automatically inspected for possible existence of long linear features produced by meteors. Here, we show how big aperture sky survey telescopes detect meteors as defocused tracks with a central brightness depression. We derive an analytic expression for a defocused point source meteor track and use it to calculate brightness profiles of meteors modelled as uniform brightness discs. We apply our modelling to meteor images as seen by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope telescopes. The expression is validated by Monte Carlo ray-tracing simulations of photons travelling through the atmosphere and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope telescope optics. We show that estimates of the meteor distance and size can be extracted from the measured full width at half-maximum and the strength of the central dip in the observed brightness profile. However, this extraction becomes difficult when the defocused meteor track is distorted by the atmospheric seeing or contaminated by a long-lasting glowing meteor trail. The full width at half-maximum of satellite tracks is distinctly narrower than meteor values, which enables removal of a possible confusion between satellites and meteors.

Additivity of Feature-based and Symmetry-based Grouping Effects in Multiple Object Tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chundi eWang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Multiple object tracking (MOT is an attentional process wherein people track several moving targets among several distractors. Symmetry, an important indicator of regularity, is a general spatial pattern observed in natural and artificial scenes. According to the laws of perceptual organization proposed by Gestalt psychologists, regularity is a principle of perceptual grouping, such as similarity and closure. A great deal of research reported that feature-based similarity grouping (e.g., grouping based on color, size, or shape among targets in MOT tasks can improve tracking performance. However, no additive feature-based grouping effects have been reported where the tracking objects had two or more features. Additive effect refers to a greater grouping effect produced by grouping based on multiple cues instead of one cue. Can spatial symmetry produce a similar grouping effect similar to that of feature similarity in MOT tasks? Are the grouping effects based on symmetry and feature similarity additive? This study includes four experiments to address these questions. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated the automatic symmetry-based grouping effects. More importantly, an additive grouping effect of symmetry and feature similarity was observed in Experiments 3 and 4. Our findings indicate that symmetry can produce an enhanced grouping effect in MOT and facilitate the grouping effect based on color or shape similarity. The where and what pathways might have played an important role in the additive grouping effect.

Changed processing of visual sexual stimuli under GnRH-therapy – a single case study in pedophilia using eye tracking and fMRI

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Antiandrogen therapy (ADT) has been used for 30 years to treat pedophilic patients. The aim of the treatment is a reduction in sexual drive and, in consequence, a reduced risk of recidivism. Yet the therapeutic success of antiandrogens is uncertain especially regarding recidivism. Meta-analyses and reviews report only moderate and often mutually inconsistent effects. Case presentation Based on the case of a 47 year old exclusively pedophilic forensic inpatient, we examined the effectiveness of a new eye tracking method and a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-design in regard to the evaluation of ADT in pedophiles. We analyzed the potential of these methods in exploring the impact of ADT on automatic and controlled attentional processes in pedophiles. Eye tracking and fMRI measures were conducted before the initial ADT as well as four months after the onset of ADT. The patient simultaneously viewed an image of a child and an image of an adult while eye movements were measured. During the fMRI-measure the same stimuli were presented subliminally. Eye movements demonstrated that controlled attentional processes change under ADT, whereas automatic processes remained mostly unchanged. We assume that these results reflect either the increased ability of the patient to control his eye movements while viewing prepubertal stimuli or his better ability to manipulate his answer in a socially desirable manner. Unchanged automatic attentional processes could reflect the stable pedophilic preference of the patient. Using fMRI, the subliminal presentation of sexually relevant stimuli led to changed activation patterns under the influence of ADT in occipital and parietal brain regions, the hippocampus, and also in the orbitofrontal cortex. We suggest that even at an unconscious level ADT can lead to changed processing of sexually relevant stimuli, reflecting changes of cognitive and perceptive automatic processes. Conclusion We are convinced that our

Automatic tracking of laparoscopic instruments for autonomous control of a cameraman robot.

Science.gov (United States)

Khoiy, Keyvan Amini; Mirbagheri, Alireza; Farahmand, Farzam

2016-01-01

An automated instrument tracking procedure was designed and developed for autonomous control of a cameraman robot during laparoscopic surgery. The procedure was based on an innovative marker-free segmentation algorithm for detecting the tip of the surgical instruments in laparoscopic images. A compound measure of Saturation and Value components of HSV color space was incorporated that was enhanced further using the Hue component and some essential characteristics of the instrument segment, e.g., crossing the image boundaries. The procedure was then integrated into the controlling system of the RoboLens cameraman robot, within a triple-thread parallel processing scheme, such that the tip is always kept at the center of the image. Assessment of the performance of the system on prerecorded real surgery movies revealed an accuracy rate of 97% for high quality images and about 80% for those suffering from poor lighting and/or blood, water and smoke noises. A reasonably satisfying performance was also observed when employing the system for autonomous control of the robot in a laparoscopic surgery phantom, with a mean time delay of 200ms. It was concluded that with further developments, the proposed procedure can provide a practical solution for autonomous control of cameraman robots during laparoscopic surgery operations.

4-D single particle tracking of synthetic and proteinaceous microspheres reveals preferential movement of nuclear particles along chromatin – poor tracks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Athale Chaitanya

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The dynamics of nuclear organization, nuclear bodies and RNPs in particular has been the focus of many studies. To understand their function, knowledge of their spatial nuclear position and temporal translocation is essential. Typically, such studies generate a wealth of data that require novel methods in image analysis and computational tools to quantitatively track particle movement on the background of moving cells and shape changing nuclei. Results We developed a novel 4-D image processing platform (TIKAL for the work with laser scanning and wide field microscopes. TIKAL provides a registration software for correcting global movements and local deformations of cells as well as 2-D and 3-D tracking software. With this new tool, we studied the dynamics of two different types of nuclear particles, namely nuclear bodies made from GFP-NLS-vimentin and microinjected 0.1 μm – wide polystyrene beads, by live cell time-lapse microscopy combined with single particle tracking and mobility analysis. We now provide a tool for the automatic 3-D analysis of particle movement in parallel with the acquisition of chromatin density data. Conclusions Kinetic analysis revealed 4 modes of movement: confined obstructed, normal diffusion and directed motion. Particle tracking on the background of stained chromatin revealed that particle movement is directly related to local reorganization of chromatin. Further a direct comparison of particle movement in the nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm exhibited an entirely different kinetic behaviour of vimentin particles in both compartments. The kinetics of nuclear particles were slightly affected by depletion of ATP and significantly disturbed by disruption of actin and microtubule networks. Moreover, the hydration state of the nucleus had a strong impact on the mobility of nuclear bodies since both normal diffusion and directed motion were entirely abolished when cells were challenged with 0.6 M

4-D single particle tracking of synthetic and proteinaceous microspheres reveals preferential movement of nuclear particles along chromatin – poor tracks

Science.gov (United States)

Bacher, Christian P; Reichenzeller, Michaela; Athale, Chaitanya; Herrmann, Harald; Eils, Roland

2004-01-01

Background The dynamics of nuclear organization, nuclear bodies and RNPs in particular has been the focus of many studies. To understand their function, knowledge of their spatial nuclear position and temporal translocation is essential. Typically, such studies generate a wealth of data that require novel methods in image analysis and computational tools to quantitatively track particle movement on the background of moving cells and shape changing nuclei. Results We developed a novel 4-D image processing platform (TIKAL) for the work with laser scanning and wide field microscopes. TIKAL provides a registration software for correcting global movements and local deformations of cells as well as 2-D and 3-D tracking software. With this new tool, we studied the dynamics of two different types of nuclear particles, namely nuclear bodies made from GFP-NLS-vimentin and microinjected 0.1 μm – wide polystyrene beads, by live cell time-lapse microscopy combined with single particle tracking and mobility analysis. We now provide a tool for the automatic 3-D analysis of particle movement in parallel with the acquisition of chromatin density data. Conclusions Kinetic analysis revealed 4 modes of movement: confined obstructed, normal diffusion and directed motion. Particle tracking on the background of stained chromatin revealed that particle movement is directly related to local reorganization of chromatin. Further a direct comparison of particle movement in the nucleoplasm and the cytoplasm exhibited an entirely different kinetic behaviour of vimentin particles in both compartments. The kinetics of nuclear particles were slightly affected by depletion of ATP and significantly disturbed by disruption of actin and microtubule networks. Moreover, the hydration state of the nucleus had a strong impact on the mobility of nuclear bodies since both normal diffusion and directed motion were entirely abolished when cells were challenged with 0.6 M sorbitol. This effect correlated

Neural Bases of Automaticity

Science.gov (United States)

Servant, Mathieu; Cassey, Peter; Woodman, Geoffrey F.; Logan, Gordon D.

2018-01-01

Automaticity allows us to perform tasks in a fast, efficient, and effortless manner after sufficient practice. Theories of automaticity propose that across practice processing transitions from being controlled by working memory to being controlled by long-term memory retrieval. Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies have sought to test this…

SU-E-J-112: The Impact of Cine EPID Image Acquisition Frame Rate On Markerless Soft-Tissue Tracking

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yip, S; Rottmann, J; Berbeco, R [Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Boston, MA (United States)

2014-06-01

Purpose: Although reduction of the cine EPID acquisition frame rate through multiple frame averaging may reduce hardware memory burden and decrease image noise, it can hinder the continuity of soft-tissue motion leading to poor auto-tracking results. The impact of motion blurring and image noise on the tracking performance was investigated. Methods: Phantom and patient images were acquired at a frame rate of 12.87Hz on an AS1000 portal imager. Low frame rate images were obtained by continuous frame averaging. A previously validated tracking algorithm was employed for auto-tracking. The difference between the programmed and auto-tracked positions of a Las Vegas phantom moving in the superior-inferior direction defined the tracking error (δ). Motion blurring was assessed by measuring the area change of the circle with the greatest depth. Additionally, lung tumors on 1747 frames acquired at eleven field angles from four radiotherapy patients are manually and automatically tracked with varying frame averaging. δ was defined by the position difference of the two tracking methods. Image noise was defined as the standard deviation of the background intensity. Motion blurring and image noise were correlated with δ using Pearson correlation coefficient (R). Results: For both phantom and patient studies, the auto-tracking errors increased at frame rates lower than 4.29Hz. Above 4.29Hz, changes in errors were negligible with δ<1.60mm. Motion blurring and image noise were observed to increase and decrease with frame averaging, respectively. Motion blurring and tracking errors were significantly correlated for the phantom (R=0.94) and patient studies (R=0.72). Moderate to poor correlation was found between image noise and tracking error with R -0.58 and -0.19 for both studies, respectively. Conclusion: An image acquisition frame rate of at least 4.29Hz is recommended for cine EPID tracking. Motion blurring in images with frame rates below 4.39Hz can substantially reduce the

SU-E-J-112: The Impact of Cine EPID Image Acquisition Frame Rate On Markerless Soft-Tissue Tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yip, S; Rottmann, J; Berbeco, R

2014-01-01

Purpose: Although reduction of the cine EPID acquisition frame rate through multiple frame averaging may reduce hardware memory burden and decrease image noise, it can hinder the continuity of soft-tissue motion leading to poor auto-tracking results. The impact of motion blurring and image noise on the tracking performance was investigated. Methods: Phantom and patient images were acquired at a frame rate of 12.87Hz on an AS1000 portal imager. Low frame rate images were obtained by continuous frame averaging. A previously validated tracking algorithm was employed for auto-tracking. The difference between the programmed and auto-tracked positions of a Las Vegas phantom moving in the superior-inferior direction defined the tracking error (δ). Motion blurring was assessed by measuring the area change of the circle with the greatest depth. Additionally, lung tumors on 1747 frames acquired at eleven field angles from four radiotherapy patients are manually and automatically tracked with varying frame averaging. δ was defined by the position difference of the two tracking methods. Image noise was defined as the standard deviation of the background intensity. Motion blurring and image noise were correlated with δ using Pearson correlation coefficient (R). Results: For both phantom and patient studies, the auto-tracking errors increased at frame rates lower than 4.29Hz. Above 4.29Hz, changes in errors were negligible with δ<1.60mm. Motion blurring and image noise were observed to increase and decrease with frame averaging, respectively. Motion blurring and tracking errors were significantly correlated for the phantom (R=0.94) and patient studies (R=0.72). Moderate to poor correlation was found between image noise and tracking error with R -0.58 and -0.19 for both studies, respectively. Conclusion: An image acquisition frame rate of at least 4.29Hz is recommended for cine EPID tracking. Motion blurring in images with frame rates below 4.39Hz can substantially reduce the

Automated recognition and tracking of aerosol threat plumes with an IR camera pod

Science.gov (United States)

Fauth, Ryan; Powell, Christopher; Gruber, Thomas; Clapp, Dan

2012-06-01

Protection of fixed sites from chemical, biological, or radiological aerosol plume attacks depends on early warning so that there is time to take mitigating actions. Early warning requires continuous, autonomous, and rapid coverage of large surrounding areas; however, this must be done at an affordable cost. Once a potential threat plume is detected though, a different type of sensor (e.g., a more expensive, slower sensor) may be cued for identification purposes, but the problem is to quickly identify all of the potential threats around the fixed site of interest. To address this problem of low cost, persistent, wide area surveillance, an IR camera pod and multi-image stitching and processing algorithms have been developed for automatic recognition and tracking of aerosol plumes. A rugged, modular, static pod design, which accommodates as many as four micro-bolometer IR cameras for 45deg to 180deg of azimuth coverage, is presented. Various OpenCV1 based image-processing algorithms, including stitching of multiple adjacent FOVs, recognition of aerosol plume objects, and the tracking of aerosol plumes, are presented using process block diagrams and sample field test results, including chemical and biological simulant plumes. Methods for dealing with the background removal, brightness equalization between images, and focus quality for optimal plume tracking are also discussed.

Storm Identification, Tracking and Forecasting Using High-Resolution Images of Short-Range X-Band Radar

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sajid Shah

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Rain nowcasting is an essential part of weather monitoring. It plays a vital role in human life, ranging from advanced warning systems to scheduling open air events and tourism. A nowcasting system can be divided into three fundamental steps, i.e., storm identification, tracking and nowcasting. The main contribution of this work is to propose procedures for each step of the rain nowcasting tool and to objectively evaluate the performances of every step, focusing on two-dimension data collected from short-range X-band radars installed in different parts of Italy. This work presents the solution of previously unsolved problems in storm identification: first, the selection of suitable thresholds for storm identification; second, the isolation of false merger (loosely-connected storms; and third, the identification of a high reflectivity sub-storm within a large storm. The storm tracking step of the existing tools, such as TITANand SCIT, use only up to two storm attributes, i.e., center of mass and area. It is possible to use more attributes for tracking. Furthermore, the contribution of each attribute in storm tracking is yet to be investigated. This paper presents a novel procedure called SALdEdA (structure, amplitude, location, eccentricity difference and areal difference for storm tracking. This work also presents the contribution of each component of SALdEdA in storm tracking. The second order exponential smoothing strategy is used for storm nowcasting, where the growth and decay of each variable of interest is considered to be linear. We evaluated the major steps of our method. The adopted techniques for automatic threshold calculation are assessed with a 97% goodness. False merger and sub-storms within a cluster of storms are successfully handled. Furthermore, the storm tracking procedure produced good results with an accuracy of 99.34% for convective events and 100% for stratiform events.

An automatic system to study sperm motility and energetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Linda Z; Nascimento, Jaclyn M; Chandsawangbhuwana, Charlie; Botvinick, Elliot L; Berns, Michael W

2008-08-01

An integrated robotic laser and microscope system has been developed to automatically analyze individual sperm motility and energetics. The custom-designed optical system directs near-infrared laser light into an inverted microscope to create a single-point 3-D gradient laser trap at the focal spot of the microscope objective. A two-level computer structure is described that quantifies the sperm motility (in terms of swimming speed and swimming force) and energetics (measuring mid-piece membrane potential) using real-time tracking (done by the upper-level system) and fluorescent ratio imaging (done by the lower-level system). The communication between these two systems is achieved by a gigabit network. The custom-built image processing algorithm identifies the sperm swimming trajectory in real-time using phase contrast images, and then subsequently traps the sperm by automatically moving the microscope stage to relocate the sperm to the laser trap focal plane. Once the sperm is stably trapped (determined by the algorithm), the algorithm can also gradually reduce the laser power by rotating the polarizer in the laser path to measure the trapping power at which the sperm is capable of escaping the trap. To monitor the membrane potential of the mitochondria located in a sperm's mid-piece, the sperm is treated with a ratiometrically-encoded fluorescent probe. The proposed algorithm can relocate the sperm to the center of the ratio imaging camera and the average ratio value can be measured in real-time. The three parameters, sperm escape power, sperm swimming speed and ratio values of the mid-piece membrane potential of individual sperm can be compared with respect to time. This two-level automatic system to study individual sperm motility and energetics has not only increased experimental throughput by an order of magnitude but also has allowed us to monitor sperm energetics prior to and after exposure to the laser trap. This system should have application in both the

Automatic Segmenting Structures in MRI's Based on Texture Analysis and Fuzzy Logic

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Mandeep; Rattan, Munish; Singh, Pushpinder

2017-12-01

The purpose of this paper is to present the variational method for geometric contours which helps the level set function remain close to the sign distance function, therefor it remove the need of expensive re-initialization procedure and thus, level set method is applied on magnetic resonance images (MRI) to track the irregularities in them as medical imaging plays a substantial part in the treatment, therapy and diagnosis of various organs, tumors and various abnormalities. It favors the patient with more speedy and decisive disease controlling with lesser side effects. The geometrical shape, the tumor's size and tissue's abnormal growth can be calculated by the segmentation of that particular image. It is still a great challenge for the researchers to tackle with an automatic segmentation in the medical imaging. Based on the texture analysis, different images are processed by optimization of level set segmentation. Traditionally, optimization was manual for every image where each parameter is selected one after another. By applying fuzzy logic, the segmentation of image is correlated based on texture features, to make it automatic and more effective. There is no initialization of parameters and it works like an intelligent system. It segments the different MRI images without tuning the level set parameters and give optimized results for all MRI's.

Low-cost asset tracking using location-aware camera phones

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, David; Tsai, Sam; Kim, Kyu-Han; Hsu, Cheng-Hsin; Singh, Jatinder Pal; Girod, Bernd

2010-08-01

Maintaining an accurate and up-to-date inventory of one's assets is a labor-intensive, tedious, and costly operation. To ease this difficult but important task, we design and implement a mobile asset tracking system for automatically generating an inventory by snapping photos of the assets with a smartphone. Since smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, construction and deployment of our inventory management solution is simple and costeffective. Automatic asset recognition is achieved by first segmenting individual assets out of the query photo and then performing bag-of-visual-features (BoVF) image matching on the segmented regions. The smartphone's sensor readings, such as digital compass and accelerometer measurements, can be used to determine the location of each asset, and this location information is stored in the inventory for each recognized asset. As a special case study, we demonstrate a mobile book tracking system, where users snap photos of books stacked on bookshelves to generate a location-aware book inventory. It is shown that segmenting the book spines is very important for accurate feature-based image matching into a database of book spines. Segmentation also provides the exact orientation of each book spine, so more discriminative upright local features can be employed for improved recognition. This system's mobile client has been implemented for smartphones running the Symbian or Android operating systems. The client enables a user to snap a picture of a bookshelf and to subsequently view the recognized spines in the smartphone's viewfinder. Two different pose estimates, one from BoVF geometric matching and the other from segmentation boundaries, are both utilized to accurately draw the boundary of each spine in the viewfinder for easy visualization. The BoVF representation also allows matching each photo of a bookshelf rack against a photo of the entire bookshelf, and the resulting feature matches are used in conjunction with the smartphone

Combining user logging with eye tracking for interactive and dynamic applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Ooms, Kristien; Coltekin, Arzu; De Maeyer, Philippe; Dupont, Lien; Fabrikant, Sara; Incoul, Annelies; Kuhn, Matthias; Slabbinck, Hendrik; Vansteenkiste, Pieter; Van der Haegen, Lise

2015-12-01

User evaluations of interactive and dynamic applications face various challenges related to the active nature of these displays. For example, users can often zoom and pan on digital products, and these interactions cause changes in the extent and/or level of detail of the stimulus. Therefore, in eye tracking studies, when a user's gaze is at a particular screen position (gaze position) over a period of time, the information contained in this particular position may have changed. Such digital activities are commonplace in modern life, yet it has been difficult to automatically compare the changing information at the viewed position, especially across many participants. Existing solutions typically involve tedious and time-consuming manual work. In this article, we propose a methodology that can overcome this problem. By combining eye tracking with user logging (mouse and keyboard actions) with cartographic products, we are able to accurately reference screen coordinates to geographic coordinates. This referencing approach allows researchers to know which geographic object (location or attribute) corresponds to the gaze coordinates at all times. We tested the proposed approach through two case studies, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the applied methodology. Furthermore, the applicability of the proposed approach is discussed with respect to other fields of research that use eye tracking-namely, marketing, sports and movement sciences, and experimental psychology. From these case studies and discussions, we conclude that combining eye tracking and user-logging data is an essential step forward in efficiently studying user behavior with interactive and static stimuli in multiple research fields.

Brand and automaticity

OpenAIRE

Liu, J.

2008-01-01

A presumption of most consumer research is that consumers endeavor to maximize the utility of their choices and are in complete control of their purchasing and consumption behavior. However, everyday life experience suggests that many of our choices are not all that reasoned or conscious. Indeed, automaticity, one facet of behavior, is indispensable to complete the portrait of consumers. Despite its importance, little attention is paid to how the automatic side of behavior can be captured and...

Automatic Program Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Automatic Program Development is a tribute to Robert Paige (1947-1999), our accomplished and respected colleague, and moreover our good friend, whose untimely passing was a loss to our academic and research community. We have collected the revised, updated versions of the papers published in his...... honor in the Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation Journal in the years 2003 and 2005. Among them there are two papers by Bob: (i) a retrospective view of his research lines, and (ii) a proposal for future studies in the area of the automatic program derivation. The book also includes some papers...... by members of the IFIP Working Group 2.1 of which Bob was an active member. All papers are related to some of the research interests of Bob and, in particular, to the transformational development of programs and their algorithmic derivation from formal specifications. Automatic Program Development offers...

Track reconstruction at the ILC: the ILD tracking software

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gaede, Frank; Aplin, Steven; Rosemann, Christoph; Voutsinas, Georgios; Glattauer, Robin

2014-01-01

One of the key requirements for Higgs physics at the International Linear Collider ILC is excellent track reconstruction with very good momentum and impact parameter resolution. ILD is one of the two detector concepts at the ILC. Its central tracking system comprises of an outer Si-tracker, a highly granular TPC, an intermediate silicon tracker and a pixel vertex detector, and it is complemented by silicon tracking disks in the forward direction. Large hit densities from beam induced coherent electron-positron pairs at the ILC pose an additional challenge to the pattern recognition algorithms. We present the recently developed new ILD tracking software, the pattern recognition algorithms that are using clustering techniques, Cellular Automatons and Kalman filter based track extrapolation. The performance of the ILD tracking system is evaluated using a detailed simulation including dead material, gaps and imperfections.

Development of advanced automatic operation system for nuclear ship. 1. Perfect automatic normal operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakazawa, Toshio; Yabuuti, Noriaki; Takahashi, Hiroki; Shimazaki, Junya

1999-02-01

Development of operation support system such as automatic operating system and anomaly diagnosis systems of nuclear reactor is very important in practical nuclear ship because of a limited number of operators and severe conditions in which receiving support from others in a case of accident is very difficult. The goal of development of the operation support systems is to realize the perfect automatic control system in a series of normal operation from the reactor start-up to the shutdown. The automatic control system for the normal operation has been developed based on operating experiences of the first Japanese nuclear ship 'Mutsu'. Automation technique was verified by 'Mutsu' plant data at manual operation. Fully automatic control of start-up and shutdown operations was achieved by setting the desired value of operation and the limiting value of parameter fluctuation, and by making the operation program of the principal equipment such as the main coolant pump and the heaters. This report presents the automatic operation system developed for the start-up and the shutdown of reactor and the verification of the system using the Nuclear Ship Engineering Simulator System. (author)

Analysis system of submicron particle tracks in the fine-grained nuclear emulsion by a combination of hard x-ray and optical microscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naka, T.; Asada, T.; Yoshimoto, M.; Katsuragawa, T.; Tawara, Y.; Umemoto, A.; Suzuki, Y.; Terada, Y.; Takeuchi, A.; Uesugi, K.; Kimura, M.

2015-01-01

Analyses of nuclear emulsion detectors that can detect and identify charged particles or radiation as tracks have typically utilized optical microscope systems because the targets have lengths from several μm to more than 1000 μm. For recent new nuclear emulsion detectors that can detect tracks of submicron length or less, the current readout systems are insufficient due to their poor resolution. In this study, we developed a new system and method using an optical microscope system for rough candidate selection and the hard X-ray microscope system at SPring-8 for high-precision analysis with a resolution of better than 70 nm resolution. Furthermore, we demonstrated the analysis of submicron-length tracks with a matching efficiency of more than 99% and position accuracy of better than 5 μm. This system is now running semi-automatically

14 CFR 23.1329 - Automatic pilot system.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Automatic pilot system. 23.1329 Section 23...: Installation § 23.1329 Automatic pilot system. If an automatic pilot system is installed, it must meet the following: (a) Each system must be designed so that the automatic pilot can— (1) Be quickly and positively...

46 CFR 52.01-10 - Automatic controls.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Automatic controls. 52.01-10 Section 52.01-10 Shipping... Requirements § 52.01-10 Automatic controls. (a) Each main boiler must meet the special requirements for automatic safety controls in § 62.35-20(a)(1) of this chapter. (b) Each automatically controlled auxiliary...

Minimal hardware Bluetooth tracking for long-term at-home elder supervision.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Damian; McLoone, Sean; Farrell, Ronan

2010-01-01

The ability to automatically detect the location of an elder within their own home is a significant enabler of remote elder supervision and interaction applications. This location information is typically generated via a myriad of sensors throughout the home environment. Even with high sensor redundancy, there are still situations where traditional elder monitoring systems are unable to resolve the location of the elder. This work develops a minimal infrastructure radio-frequency localisation system for long-term elder location tracking. An RFID room-labelling technique is employed and with it, the localisation system developed in this work is shown to exhibit superior performance to more traditional localisation systems in realistic long-term deployments.

The front-end electronics for the 1.8-kchannel SiPM tracking plane in the NEW detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodríguez, J.; Lorca, D.; Monrabal, F.; Toledo, J.; Esteve, R.

2015-01-01

NEW is the first phase of NEXT-100 experiment, an experiment aimed at searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay. NEXT technology combines an excellent energy resolution with tracking capabilities thanks to a combination of optical sensors, PMTs for the energy measurement and SiPMs for topology reconstruction. Those two tools result in one of the highest background rejection potentials in the field. This work describes the tracking plane that will be constructed for the NEW detector which consists of close to 1800 sensors with a 1-cm pitch arranged in twenty-eight 64-SiPM boards. Then it focuses in the development of the electronics needed to read the 1800 channels with a front-end board that includes per-channel differential transimpedance input amplifier, gated integrator, automatic offset voltage compensation and 12-bit ADC. Finally, a description of how the FPGA buffers data, carries out zero suppression and sends data to the DAQ interface using CERN RD-51 SRS's DTCC link specification complements the description of the electronics of the NEW detector tracking plane

Automatic welding and cladding in heavy fabrication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altamer, A. de

1980-01-01

A description is given of the automatic welding processes used by an Italian fabricator of pressure vessels for petrochemical and nuclear plant. The automatic submerged arc welding, submerged arc strip cladding, pulsed TIG, hot wire TIG and MIG welding processes have proved satisfactory in terms of process reliability, metal deposition rate, and cost effectiveness for low alloy and carbon steels. An example shows sequences required during automatic butt welding, including heat treatments. Factors which govern satisfactory automatic welding include automatic anti-drift rotator device, electrode guidance and bead programming system, the capability of single and dual head operation, flux recovery and slag removal systems, operator environment and controls, maintaining continuity of welding and automatic reverse side grinding. Automatic welding is used for: joining vessel sections; joining tubes to tubeplate; cladding of vessel rings and tubes, dished ends and extruded nozzles; nozzle to shell and butt welds, including narrow gap welding. (author)

An Automatic Multi-Target Independent Analysis Framework for Non-Planar Infrared-Visible Registration.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xinglong; Xu, Tingfa; Zhang, Jizhou; Zhao, Zishu; Li, Yuankun

2017-07-26

In this paper, we propose a novel automatic multi-target registration framework for non-planar infrared-visible videos. Previous approaches usually analyzed multiple targets together and then estimated a global homography for the whole scene, however, these cannot achieve precise multi-target registration when the scenes are non-planar. Our framework is devoted to solving the problem using feature matching and multi-target tracking. The key idea is to analyze and register each target independently. We present a fast and robust feature matching strategy, where only the features on the corresponding foreground pairs are matched. Besides, new reservoirs based on the Gaussian criterion are created for all targets, and a multi-target tracking method is adopted to determine the relationships between the reservoirs and foreground blobs. With the matches in the corresponding reservoir, the homography of each target is computed according to its moving state. We tested our framework on both public near-planar and non-planar datasets. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms the state-of-the-art global registration method and the manual global registration matrix in all tested datasets.

Auto-Calibration Methods of Kinematic Parameters and Magnetometer Offset for the Localization of a Tracked Mobile Robot

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciano Cantelli

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an automatic calibration procedure adopted to improve the localization of an outdoor mobile robot. The proposed algorithm estimates, by using an extended Kalman filter, the main kinematic parameters of the vehicles, such as the wheel radii and the wheelbase as well as the magnetometer offset. Several trials have been performed to validate the proposed strategy on a tracked electrical mobile robot. The mobile robot is aimed to be adopted as a tool to help humanitarian demining operations.

Tool for Automated Retrieval of Generic Event Tracks (TARGET)

Science.gov (United States)

Clune, Thomas; Freeman, Shawn; Cruz, Carlos; Burns, Robert; Kuo, Kwo-Sen; Kouatchou, Jules

2013-01-01

Methods have been developed to identify and track tornado-producing mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) automatically over the continental United States, in order to facilitate systematic studies of these powerful and often destructive events. Several data sources were combined to ensure event identification accuracy. Records of watches and warnings issued by National Weather Service (NWS), and tornado locations and tracks from the Tornado History Project (THP) were used to locate MCSs in high-resolution precipitation observations and GOES infrared (11-micron) Rapid Scan Operation (RSO) imagery. Thresholds are then applied to the latter two data sets to define MCS events and track their developments. MCSs produce a broad range of severe convective weather events that are significantly affecting the living conditions of the populations exposed to them. Understanding how MCSs grow and develop could help scientists improve their weather prediction models, and also provide tools to decision-makers whose goals are to protect populations and their property. Associating storm cells across frames of remotely sensed images poses a difficult problem because storms evolve, split, and merge. Any storm-tracking method should include the following processes: storm identification, storm tracking, and quantification of storm intensity and activity. The spatiotemporal coordinates of the tracks will enable researchers to obtain other coincident observations to conduct more thorough studies of these events. In addition to their tracked locations, their areal extents, precipitation intensities, and accumulations all as functions of their evolutions in time were also obtained and recorded for these events. All parameters so derived can be catalogued into a moving object database (MODB) for custom queries. The purpose of this software is to provide a generalized, cross-platform, pluggable tool for identifying events within a set of scientific data based upon specified criteria with the

Automatic differentiation of functions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Douglas, S.R.

1990-06-01

Automatic differentiation is a method of computing derivatives of functions to any order in any number of variables. The functions must be expressible as combinations of elementary functions. When evaluated at specific numerical points, the derivatives have no truncation error and are automatically found. The method is illustrated by simple examples. Source code in FORTRAN is provided

Nonlinear automatic landing control of unmanned aerial vehicles on moving platforms via a 3D laser radar

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hervas, Jaime Rubio; Tang, Hui [School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798 (Singapore); Reyhanoglu, Mahmut [Physical Sciences Department, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL 32114 (United States)

2014-12-10

This paper presents a motion tracking and control system for automatically landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on an oscillating platform using Laser Radar (LADAR) observations. The system itself is assumed to be mounted on a ship deck. A full nonlinear mathematical model is first introduced for the UAV. The ship motion is characterized by a Fourier transform based method which includes a realistic characterization of the sea waves. LADAR observation models are introduced and an algorithm to process those observations for yielding the relative state between the vessel and the UAV is presented, from which the UAV's state relative to an inertial frame can be obtained and used for feedback purposes. A sliding mode control algorithm is derived for tracking a landing trajectory defined by a set of desired waypoints. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed to account for process and observation noises in the design of a state estimator. The effectiveness of the control algorithm is illustrated through a simulation example.

Nonlinear automatic landing control of unmanned aerial vehicles on moving platforms via a 3D laser radar

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hervas, Jaime Rubio; Tang, Hui; Reyhanoglu, Mahmut

2014-01-01

This paper presents a motion tracking and control system for automatically landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) on an oscillating platform using Laser Radar (LADAR) observations. The system itself is assumed to be mounted on a ship deck. A full nonlinear mathematical model is first introduced for the UAV. The ship motion is characterized by a Fourier transform based method which includes a realistic characterization of the sea waves. LADAR observation models are introduced and an algorithm to process those observations for yielding the relative state between the vessel and the UAV is presented, from which the UAV's state relative to an inertial frame can be obtained and used for feedback purposes. A sliding mode control algorithm is derived for tracking a landing trajectory defined by a set of desired waypoints. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) is proposed to account for process and observation noises in the design of a state estimator. The effectiveness of the control algorithm is illustrated through a simulation example

Solar Powered Automatic Shrimp Feeding System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dindo T. Ani

2015-12-01

Full Text Available - Automatic system has brought many revolutions in the existing technologies. One among the technologies, which has greater developments, is the solar powered automatic shrimp feeding system. For instance, the solar power which is a renewable energy can be an alternative solution to energy crisis and basically reducing man power by using it in an automatic manner. The researchers believe an automatic shrimp feeding system may help solve problems on manual feeding operations. The project study aimed to design and develop a solar powered automatic shrimp feeding system. It specifically sought to prepare the design specifications of the project, to determine the methods of fabrication and assembly, and to test the response time of the automatic shrimp feeding system. The researchers designed and developed an automatic system which utilizes a 10 hour timer to be set in intervals preferred by the user and will undergo a continuous process. The magnetic contactor acts as a switch connected to the 10 hour timer which controls the activation or termination of electrical loads and powered by means of a solar panel outputting electrical power, and a rechargeable battery in electrical communication with the solar panel for storing the power. By undergoing through series of testing, the components of the modified system were proven functional and were operating within the desired output. It was recommended that the timer to be used should be tested to avoid malfunction and achieve the fully automatic system and that the system may be improved to handle changes in scope of the project.

Emulsion droplet interactions: a front-tracking treatment

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, Lachlan; Juric, Damir; Chergui, Jalel; Shin, Seungwon; Craster, Richard V.; Matar, Omar K.

2017-11-01

Emulsion coalescence influences a multitude of industrial applications including solvent extraction, oil recovery and the manufacture of fast-moving consumer goods. Droplet interaction models are vital for the design and scale-up of processing systems, however predictive modelling at the droplet-scale remains a research challenge. This study simulates industrially relevant moderate-inertia collisions for which a high degree of droplet deformation occurs. A hybrid front-tracking/level-set approach is used to automatically account for interface merging without the need for `bookkeeping' of interface connectivity. The model is implemented in Code BLUE using a parallel multi-grid solver, allowing both film and droplet-scale dynamics to be resolved efficiently. Droplet interaction simulations are validated using experimental sequences from the literature in the presence and absence of background turbulence. The framework is readily extensible for modelling the influence of surfactants and non-Newtonian fluids on droplet interaction processes. EPSRC, UK, MEMPHIS program Grant (EP/K003976/1), RAEng Research Chair (OKM), PETRONAS.

Benchmarking pediatric cranial CT protocols using a dose tracking software system: a multicenter study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bondt, Timo de; Parizel, Paul M. [Antwerp University Hospital and University of Antwerp, Department of Radiology, Antwerp (Belgium); Mulkens, Tom [H. Hart Hospital, Department of Radiology, Lier (Belgium); Zanca, Federica [GE Healthcare, DoseWatch, Buc (France); KU Leuven, Imaging and Pathology Department, Leuven (Belgium); Pyfferoen, Lotte; Casselman, Jan W. [AZ St. Jan Brugge-Oostende AV Hospital, Department of Radiology, Brugge (Belgium)

2017-02-15

To benchmark regional standard practice for paediatric cranial CT-procedures in terms of radiation dose and acquisition parameters. Paediatric cranial CT-data were retrospectively collected during a 1-year period, in 3 different hospitals of the same country. A dose tracking system was used to automatically gather information. Dose (CTDI and DLP), scan length, amount of retakes and demographic data were stratified by age and clinical indication; appropriate use of child-specific protocols was assessed. In total, 296 paediatric cranial CT-procedures were collected. Although the median dose of each hospital was below national and international diagnostic reference level (DRL) for all age categories, statistically significant (p-value < 0.001) dose differences among hospitals were observed. The hospital with lowest dose levels showed smallest dose variability and used age-stratified protocols for standardizing paediatric head exams. Erroneous selection of adult protocols for children still occurred, mostly in the oldest age-group. Even though all hospitals complied with national and international DRLs, dose tracking and benchmarking showed that further dose optimization and standardization is possible by using age-stratified protocols for paediatric cranial CT. Moreover, having a dose tracking system revealed that adult protocols are still applied for paediatric CT, a practice that must be avoided. (orig.)

Automatic text summarization

CERN Document Server

Torres Moreno, Juan Manuel

2014-01-01

This new textbook examines the motivations and the different algorithms for automatic document summarization (ADS). We performed a recent state of the art. The book shows the main problems of ADS, difficulties and the solutions provided by the community. It presents recent advances in ADS, as well as current applications and trends. The approaches are statistical, linguistic and symbolic. Several exemples are included in order to clarify the theoretical concepts.  The books currently available in the area of Automatic Document Summarization are not recent. Powerful algorithms have been develop

Automatic Ultrasound Scanning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Moshavegh, Ramin

on the user adjustments on the scanner interface to optimize the scan settings. This explains the huge interest in the subject of this PhD project entitled “AUTOMATIC ULTRASOUND SCANNING”. The key goals of the project have been to develop automated techniques to minimize the unnecessary settings...... on the scanners, and to improve the computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) in ultrasound by introducing new quantitative measures. Thus, four major issues concerning automation of the medical ultrasound are addressed in this PhD project. They touch upon gain adjustments in ultrasound, automatic synthetic aperture image...

High-order space charge effects using automatic differentiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reusch, M.F.; Bruhwiler, D.L.; Computer Accelerator Physics Conference Williamsburg, Virginia 1996)

1997-01-01

The Northrop Grumman Topkark code has been upgraded to Fortran 90, making use of operator overloading, so the same code can be used to either track an array of particles or construct a Taylor map representation of the accelerator lattice. We review beam optics and beam dynamics simulations conducted with TOPKARK in the past and we present a new method for modeling space charge forces to high-order with automatic differentiation. This method generates an accurate, high-order, 6-D Taylor map of the phase space variable trajectories for a bunched, high-current beam. The spatial distribution is modeled as the product of a Taylor Series times a Gaussian. The variables in the argument of the Gaussian are normalized to the respective second moments of the distribution. This form allows for accurate representation of a wide range of realistic distributions, including any asymmetries, and allows for rapid calculation of the space charge fields with free space boundary conditions. An example problem is presented to illustrate our approach. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

Design, Construction and Effectiveness Analysis of Hybrid Automatic Solar Tracking System for Amorphous and Crystalline Solar Cells

OpenAIRE

Bhupendra Gupta

2013-01-01

- This paper concerns the design and construction of a Hybrid solar tracking system. The constructed device was implemented by integrating it with Amorphous & Crystalline Solar Panel, three dimensional freedom mechanism and microcontroller. The amount of power available from a photovoltaic panel is determined by three parameters, the type of solar tracker, materials of solar panel and the intensity of the sunlight. The objective of this paper is to present analysis on the use of two differ...

A simplified Track Assembler I/O for the Muon Trigger Track Finder

CERN Document Server

Dallavalle, Gaetano-Marco; Genchev, Vladimir; Grandi, Claudio; Neumeister, Norbert; Porth, Paul; Rohringer, Herbert

1998-01-01

One of the architectural concerns in the present design of the Muon Trigger Track Finder ( MTTF) is the large number of inputs to the Track Assembler ( TA). In the TA block, input track segment pairs from many Extrapolation Units ( EU) are associated into tracks. The relative contribution of these inputs to the assembled tracks is studied with simulated track patterns for low and high pt muons over the entire eta, phi acceptance of the CMS barrel. A pruning of the EUs is proposed which does not alter the performance of the Track Finder and minimizes the interconnections between azimuthal wedges.

User's and reference guide to the INEL RML/analytical radiochemistry sample tracking database version 1.00

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Femec, D.A.

1995-09-01

This report discusses the sample tracking database in use at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) by the Radiation Measurements Laboratory (RML) and Analytical Radiochemistry. The database was designed in-house to meet the specific needs of the RML and Analytical Radiochemistry. The report consists of two parts, a user's guide and a reference guide. The user's guide presents some of the fundamentals needed by anyone who will be using the database via its user interface. The reference guide describes the design of both the database and the user interface. Briefly mentioned in the reference guide are the code-generating tools, CREATE-SCHEMA and BUILD-SCREEN, written to automatically generate code for the database and its user interface. The appendices contain the input files used by the these tools to create code for the sample tracking database. The output files generated by these tools are also included in the appendices

30 CFR 77.314 - Automatic temperature control instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Automatic temperature control instruments. 77... UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Thermal Dryers § 77.314 Automatic temperature control instruments. (a) Automatic temperature control instruments for thermal dryer system shall be of the recording type. (b) Automatic...

Automatic control systems engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shin, Yun Gi

2004-01-01

This book gives descriptions of automatic control for electrical electronics, which indicates history of automatic control, Laplace transform, block diagram and signal flow diagram, electrometer, linearization of system, space of situation, state space analysis of electric system, sensor, hydro controlling system, stability, time response of linear dynamic system, conception of root locus, procedure to draw root locus, frequency response, and design of control system.

Solar tracking system

Science.gov (United States)

Okandan, Murat; Nielson, Gregory N.

2016-07-12

Solar tracking systems, as well as methods of using such solar tracking systems, are disclosed. More particularly, embodiments of the solar tracking systems include lateral supports horizontally positioned between uprights to support photovoltaic modules. The lateral supports may be raised and lowered along the uprights or translated to cause the photovoltaic modules to track the moving sun.

Automated personnel-assets-consumables-drug tracking in ambulance services for more effective and efficient medical emergency interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Utku, Semih; Özcanhan, Mehmet Hilal; Unluturk, Mehmet Suleyman

2016-04-01

Patient delivery time is no longer considered as the only critical factor, in ambulatory services. Presently, five clinical performance indicators are used to decide patient satisfaction. Unfortunately, the emergency ambulance services in rapidly growing metropolitan areas do not meet current satisfaction expectations; because of human errors in the management of the objects onboard the ambulances. But, human involvement in the information management of emergency interventions can be reduced by electronic tracking of personnel, assets, consumables and drugs (PACD) carried in the ambulances. Electronic tracking needs the support of automation software, which should be integrated to the overall hospital information system. Our work presents a complete solution based on a centralized database supported by radio frequency identification (RFID) and bluetooth low energy (BLE) identification and tracking technologies. Each object in an ambulance is identified and tracked by the best suited technology. The automated identification and tracking reduces manual paper documentation and frees the personnel to better focus on medical activities. The presence and amounts of the PACD are automatically monitored, warning about their depletion, non-presence or maintenance dates. The computerized two way hospital-ambulance communication link provides information sharing and instantaneous feedback for better and faster diagnosis decisions. A fully implemented system is presented, with detailed hardware and software descriptions. The benefits and the clinical outcomes of the proposed system are discussed, which lead to improved personnel efficiency and more effective interventions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Studies on the characteristics of nuclear track spark counting for neutron monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawai, H.; Koga, T.; Morishima, H.; Niwa, T.; Nishiwaki, Y.

1979-01-01

The fission-track counting method using polycarbonate foil is known to be very effective for neutron monitoring. The detection system consists of a track detector foil placed in contact with a thin layer of fissile material. When the unit is irradiated with neutrons, fission fragments from the fissile material produce tracks in the foil. The foil is then etched chemically to enlarge the tracks to etch-pits, which are counted by an automatic spark counting method suggested by Cross and Tommasino. Spark counting characteristics of the above system using polycarbonate detector foils of different thicknesses and aluminized polyester sheets having different thicknesses of the aluminium which serves as an electrode, and etch-pit sizes in relation to spark counting have been studied. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. A growth in etch-pit sizes was observed for etching times of 10 to 50 minutes with Makrofol KG (10 μm thick) and Panlite foils (18 μm thick). As the etching time increased, the number of etch-pits which appeared as round pits increased and the number which appeared rod-like decreased; 2. Round etch-pits seemed to be easily spark-punched; 3. Major and minor diameters of etch-pits produced by fission fragments from the uranium fissile target were larger than those from the thorium target; 4. As the thickness of the Makrofol KG foil increased, the minor diameters of the etch-pits appeared to become smaller and major diameters larger; 5. The foils that appeared to be best suited for routine use were 10 μm thick Makrofol KG or 6 μm thick Lumirror foils. (author)

PER Estimation of AIS in Inland Rivers based on Three Dimensional Ray Tracking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Ma

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The Automatic Identification System (AIS is an important maritime safety device, which is populous in inland rivers. Compared with that in open sea, the Package Error Rate (PER of AIS in inland river has increased sharply due to its complex environment. With the help of hardware in loop simulation, it is possible to make statistical calculation on the PER under a given field strength and describe the data by quadratic rational fraction. Meanwhile, in the three dimensional software environments, the signal field strength is able to be calculated by the ray tracking method, which exhausts all the possible propagation paths, including direct way, reflection, diffractions, and the other medium attenuation matters. Beyond that, in the model, the propagation geography information in inland rivers is required to be simplified in some way, or the computation of the ray tracking is too hard to get. The paper set the Changjiang Wuhan channel as the field testing region, and all the deviations are less than 5% in sunny weather, which proves the method accurate and effective.

Development of advanced automatic control system for nuclear ship. 2. Perfect automatic operation after reactor scram events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yabuuchi, Noriaki; Nakazawa, Toshio; Takahashi, Hiroki; Shimazaki, Junya; Hoshi, Tsutao

1997-11-01

An automatic operation system has been developed for the purpose of realizing a perfect automatic plant operation after reactor scram events. The goal of the automatic operation after a reactor scram event is to bring the reactor hot stand-by condition automatically. The basic functions of this system are as follows; to monitor actions of the equipments of safety actions after a reactor scram, to control necessary control equipments to bring a reactor to a hot stand-by condition automatically, and to energize a decay heat removal system. The performance evaluation on this system was carried out by comparing the results using to Nuclear Ship Engineering Simulation System (NESSY) and the those measured in the scram test of the nuclear ship 'Mutsu'. As the result, it was showed that this system had the sufficient performance to bring a reactor to a hot syand-by condition quickly and safety. (author)

Development of advanced automatic control system for nuclear ship. 2. Perfect automatic operation after reactor scram events

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yabuuchi, Noriaki; Nakazawa, Toshio; Takahashi, Hiroki; Shimazaki, Junya; Hoshi, Tsutao [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

1997-11-01

An automatic operation system has been developed for the purpose of realizing a perfect automatic plant operation after reactor scram events. The goal of the automatic operation after a reactor scram event is to bring the reactor hot stand-by condition automatically. The basic functions of this system are as follows; to monitor actions of the equipments of safety actions after a reactor scram, to control necessary control equipments to bring a reactor to a hot stand-by condition automatically, and to energize a decay heat removal system. The performance evaluation on this system was carried out by comparing the results using to Nuclear Ship Engineering Simulation System (NESSY) and the those measured in the scram test of the nuclear ship `Mutsu`. As the result, it was showed that this system had the sufficient performance to bring a reactor to a hot syand-by condition quickly and safety. (author)

Automatic scanning and measuring using POLLY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fields, T.

1993-01-01

The HPD and PEPR automatic measuring systems, which have been described by B. Powell and I. Pless at this conference, were developed in the 1960's to be used for what would now be called open-quotes batch processing.close quotes That is, an entire reel of bubble chamber film containing interesting events whose tracks had been rough-digitized would be processed in an extended run by a dedicated computer/precision digitizer hardware system, with no human intervention. Then, at a later time, events for which the precision measurement did not appear to be successful would be handled with some type of open-quotes fixupclose quotes station or process. By contrast, the POLLY system included from the start, not only a computer and a precision CRT measuring device, but also a human operator who could have convenient two-way interactions with the computer and could also view the picture directly. Inclusion of a human as a key part of the system had some important beneficial effects, as has been described in the original papers. In this note the author summarizes those effects, and also points out connections between the POLLY system philosophy and subsequent developments in both high energy physics data analysis and computing systems

Frequency tracking and variable bandwidth for line noise filtering without a reference.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, John W; Collinger, Jennifer L; Degenhart, Alan D; Siewiorek, Daniel P; Smailagic, Asim; Wang, Wei

2011-01-01

This paper presents a method for filtering line noise using an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) technique. This method effectively eliminates the sinusoidal contamination while achieving a narrower bandwidth than typical notch filters and without relying on the availability of a noise reference signal as ANC methods normally do. A sinusoidal reference is instead digitally generated and the filter efficiently tracks the power line frequency, which drifts around a known value. The filter's learning rate is also automatically adjusted to achieve faster and more accurate convergence and to control the filter's bandwidth. In this paper the focus of the discussion and the data will be electrocorticographic (ECoG) neural signals, but the presented technique is applicable to other recordings.

Automatic exchange unit for control rod drive device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nasu, Seiji; Sasaki, Masayoshi.

1982-01-01

Purpose: To enable automatic reoperation and continuation without external power interruption remedy device at the time of recovering the interrupted power soruce during automatic positioning operation. Constitution: In case of an automatic exchange unit for a control rod drive device of the control type for setting the deviation between the positioning target position and the present position of the device to zero, the position data of the drive device of the positioning target value of the device is automatically read, and an interlock of operation inhibit is applied to a control system until the data reading is completed and automatic operation start or restart conditions are sequentially confirmed. After the confirmation, the interlock is released to start the automatic operation or reoperation. Accordingly, the automatic operation can be safely restarted and continued. (Yoshihara, H.)

Compact 3D Camera for Shake-the-Box Particle Tracking

Science.gov (United States)

Hesseling, Christina; Michaelis, Dirk; Schneiders, Jan

2017-11-01

Time-resolved 3D-particle tracking usually requires the time-consuming optical setup and calibration of 3 to 4 cameras. Here, a compact four-camera housing has been developed. The performance of the system using Shake-the-Box processing (Schanz et al. 2016) is characterized. It is shown that the stereo-base is large enough for sensible 3D velocity measurements. Results from successful experiments in water flows using LED illumination are presented. For large-scale wind tunnel measurements, an even more compact version of the system is mounted on a robotic arm. Once calibrated for a specific measurement volume, the necessity for recalibration is eliminated even when the system moves around. Co-axial illumination is provided through an optical fiber in the middle of the housing, illuminating the full measurement volume from one viewing direction. Helium-filled soap bubbles are used to ensure sufficient particle image intensity. This way, the measurement probe can be moved around complex 3D-objects. By automatic scanning and stitching of recorded particle tracks, the detailed time-averaged flow field of a full volume of cubic meters in size is recorded and processed. Results from an experiment at TU-Delft of the flow field around a cyclist are shown.

Automatic generation of a subject-specific model for accurate markerless motion capture and biomechanical applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Corazza, Stefano; Gambaretto, Emiliano; Mündermann, Lars; Andriacchi, Thomas P

2010-04-01

A novel approach for the automatic generation of a subject-specific model consisting of morphological and joint location information is described. The aim is to address the need for efficient and accurate model generation for markerless motion capture (MMC) and biomechanical studies. The algorithm applied and expanded on previous work on human shapes space by embedding location information for ten joint centers in a subject-specific free-form surface. The optimal locations of joint centers in the 3-D mesh were learned through linear regression over a set of nine subjects whose joint centers were known. The model was shown to be sufficiently accurate for both kinematic (joint centers) and morphological (shape of the body) information to allow accurate tracking with MMC systems. The automatic model generation algorithm was applied to 3-D meshes of different quality and resolution such as laser scans and visual hulls. The complete method was tested using nine subjects of different gender, body mass index (BMI), age, and ethnicity. Experimental training error and cross-validation errors were 19 and 25 mm, respectively, on average over the joints of the ten subjects analyzed in the study.

Position automatic determination technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1985-10-01

This book tells of method of position determination and characteristic, control method of position determination and point of design, point of sensor choice for position detector, position determination of digital control system, application of clutch break in high frequency position determination, automation technique of position determination, position determination by electromagnetic clutch and break, air cylinder, cam and solenoid, stop position control of automatic guide vehicle, stacker crane and automatic transfer control.

Integrating High-Resolution Taskable Imagery into a Sensorweb for Automatic Space-Based Monitoring of Flooding in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Chien, Steve; Mclaren, David; Doubleday, Joshua; Tran, Daniel; Tanpipat, Veerachai; Chitradon, Royol; Boonya-aroonnet, Surajate; Thanapakpawin, Porranee; Mandl, Daniel

2012-01-01

Several space-based assets (Terra, Aqua, Earth Observing One) have been integrated into a sensorweb to monitor flooding in Thailand. In this approach, the Moderate Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) data from Terra and Aqua is used to perform broad-scale monitoring to track flooding at the regional level (250m/pixel) and EO-1 is autonomously tasked in response to alerts to acquire higher resolution (30m/pixel) Advanced Land Imager (ALI) data. This data is then automatically processed to derive products such as surface water extent and volumetric water estimates. These products are then automatically pushed to organizations in Thailand for use in damage estimation, relief efforts, and damage mitigation. More recently, this sensorweb structure has been used to request imagery, access imagery, and process high-resolution (several m to 30m), targetable asset imagery from commercial assets including Worldview-2, Ikonos, Radarsat-2, Landsat-7, and Geo-Eye-1. We describe the overall sensorweb framework as well as new workflows and products made possible via these extensions.

A neurocomputational model of automatic sequence production.

Science.gov (United States)

Helie, Sebastien; Roeder, Jessica L; Vucovich, Lauren; Rünger, Dennis; Ashby, F Gregory

2015-07-01

Most behaviors unfold in time and include a sequence of submovements or cognitive activities. In addition, most behaviors are automatic and repeated daily throughout life. Yet, relatively little is known about the neurobiology of automatic sequence production. Past research suggests a gradual transfer from the associative striatum to the sensorimotor striatum, but a number of more recent studies challenge this role of the BG in automatic sequence production. In this article, we propose a new neurocomputational model of automatic sequence production in which the main role of the BG is to train cortical-cortical connections within the premotor areas that are responsible for automatic sequence production. The new model is used to simulate four different data sets from human and nonhuman animals, including (1) behavioral data (e.g., RTs), (2) electrophysiology data (e.g., single-neuron recordings), (3) macrostructure data (e.g., TMS), and (4) neurological circuit data (e.g., inactivation studies). We conclude with a comparison of the new model with existing models of automatic sequence production and discuss a possible new role for the BG in automaticity and its implication for Parkinson's disease.

A computer program TRACK_P for studying proton tracks in PADC detectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Nikezic

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A computer program for studying proton tracks in solid state nuclear track detectors was developed and described in this paper. The program was written in Fortran 90, with an additional tool for visualizing the track appearance as seen under the optical microscope in the transmission mode, which was written in the Python programming language. Measurable track parameters were determined and displayed in the application window and written in a data file. Three-dimensional representation of tracks was enabled. Examples of calculated tracks were also given in the present paper.

Persistent Aerial Tracking

KAUST Repository

Mueller, Matthias

2016-04-13

In this thesis, we propose a new aerial video dataset and benchmark for low altitude UAV target tracking, as well as, a photo-realistic UAV simulator that can be coupled with tracking methods. Our benchmark provides the rst evaluation of many state of-the-art and popular trackers on 123 new and fully annotated HD video sequences captured from a low-altitude aerial perspective. Among the compared trackers, we determine which ones are the most suitable for UAV tracking both in terms of tracking accuracy and run-time. We also present a simulator that can be used to evaluate tracking algorithms in real-time scenarios before they are deployed on a UAV "in the field", as well as, generate synthetic but photo-realistic tracking datasets with free ground truth annotations to easily extend existing real-world datasets. Both the benchmark and simulator will be made publicly available to the vision community to further research in the area of object tracking from UAVs. Additionally, we propose a persistent, robust and autonomous object tracking system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) called Persistent Aerial Tracking (PAT). A computer vision and control strategy is applied to a diverse set of moving objects (e.g. humans, animals, cars, boats, etc.) integrating multiple UAVs with a stabilized RGB camera. A novel strategy is employed to successfully track objects over a long period, by \\'handing over the camera\\' from one UAV to another. We integrate the complete system into an off-the-shelf UAV, and obtain promising results showing the robustness of our solution in real-world aerial scenarios.

Automatic ultrasound image enhancement for 2D semi-automatic breast-lesion segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Kongkuo; Hall, Christopher S.

2014-03-01

Breast cancer is the fastest growing cancer, accounting for 29%, of new cases in 2012, and second leading cause of cancer death among women in the United States and worldwide. Ultrasound (US) has been used as an indispensable tool for breast cancer detection/diagnosis and treatment. In computer-aided assistance, lesion segmentation is a preliminary but vital step, but the task is quite challenging in US images, due to imaging artifacts that complicate detection and measurement of the suspect lesions. The lesions usually present with poor boundary features and vary significantly in size, shape, and intensity distribution between cases. Automatic methods are highly application dependent while manual tracing methods are extremely time consuming and have a great deal of intra- and inter- observer variability. Semi-automatic approaches are designed to counterbalance the advantage and drawbacks of the automatic and manual methods. However, considerable user interaction might be necessary to ensure reasonable segmentation for a wide range of lesions. This work proposes an automatic enhancement approach to improve the boundary searching ability of the live wire method to reduce necessary user interaction while keeping the segmentation performance. Based on the results of segmentation of 50 2D breast lesions in US images, less user interaction is required to achieve desired accuracy, i.e. < 80%, when auto-enhancement is applied for live-wire segmentation.

The ‘Continuing Misfortune’ of Automatism in Early Surrealism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tessel M. Bauduin

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In the 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism surrealist leader André Breton (1896-1966 defined Surrealism as ‘psychic automatism in its pure state,’ positioning ‘psychic automatism’ as both a concept and a technique. This definition followed upon an intense period of experimentation with various forms of automatism among the proto-surrealist group; predominantly automatic writing, but also induced dream states. This article explores how surrealist ‘psychic automatism’ functioned as a mechanism for communication, or the expression of thought as directly as possible through the unconscious, in the first two decades of Surrealism. It touches upon automatic writing, hysteria as an automatic bodily performance of the unconscious, dreaming and the experimentation with induced dream states, and automatic drawing and other visual arts-techniques that could be executed more or less automatically as well. For all that the surrealists reinvented automatism for their own poetic, artistic and revolutionary aims, the automatic techniques were primarily drawn from contemporary Spiritualism, psychical research and experimentation with mediums, and the article teases out the connections to mediumistic automatism. It is demonstrated how the surrealists effectively and successfully divested automatism of all things spiritual. It furthermore becomes clear that despite various mishaps, automatism in many forms was a very successful creative technique within Surrealism.

Programmable automatic alpha--beta air sample counter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howell, W.P.

1978-01-01

A programmable automatic alpha-beta air sample counter was developed for routine sample counting by operational health physics personnel. The system is composed of an automatic sample changer utilizing a large silicon diode detector, an electronic counting system with energy analysis capability, an automatic data acquisition controller, an interface module, and a teletypewriter with paper tape punch and paper tape reader. The system is operated through the teletypewriter keyboard and the paper tape reader, which are used to instruct the automatic data acquisition controller. Paper tape programs are provided for background counting, Chi 2 test, and sample counting. Output data are printed by the teletypewriter on standard continuous roll or multifold paper. Data are automatically corrected for background and counter efficiency

A hybrid approach to automatic de-identification of psychiatric notes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hee-Jin; Wu, Yonghui; Zhang, Yaoyun; Xu, Jun; Xu, Hua; Roberts, Kirk

2017-11-01

De-identification, or identifying and removing protected health information (PHI) from clinical data, is a critical step in making clinical data available for clinical applications and research. This paper presents a natural language processing system for automatic de-identification of psychiatric notes, which was designed to participate in the 2016 CEGS N-GRID shared task Track 1. The system has a hybrid structure that combines machine leaning techniques and rule-based approaches. The rule-based components exploit the structure of the psychiatric notes as well as characteristic surface patterns of PHI mentions. The machine learning components utilize supervised learning with rich features. In addition, the system performance was boosted with integration of additional data to the training set through domain adaptation. The hybrid system showed overall micro-averaged F-score 90.74 on the test set, second-best among all the participants of the CEGS N-GRID task. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Kalman Filter Track Fits and Track Breakpoint Analysis

CERN Document Server

Astier, Pierre; Cousins, R D; Letessier-Selvon, A A; Popov, B A; Vinogradova, T G; Astier, Pierre; Cardini, Alessandro; Cousins, Robert D.; Letessier-Selvon, Antoine; Popov, Boris A.; Vinogradova, Tatiana

2000-01-01

We give an overview of track fitting using the Kalman filter method in the NOMAD detector at CERN, and emphasize how the wealth of by-product information can be used to analyze track breakpoints (discontinuities in track parameters caused by scattering, decay, etc.). After reviewing how this information has been previously exploited by others, we describe extensions which add power to breakpoint detection and characterization. We show how complete fits to the entire track, with breakpoint parameters added, can be easily obtained from the information from unbroken fits. Tests inspired by the Fisher F-test can then be used to judge breakpoints. Signed quantities (such as change in momentum at the breakpoint) can supplement unsigned quantities such as the various chisquares. We illustrate the method with electrons from real data, and with Monte Carlo simulations of pion decays.

Analysis of an interaction experiment of 12GeV/c of antiprotons in hydrogen in the big European bubble chamber (B.E.B.C.). Study of the problems concerning the efficiency of the frame automatic measurement apparatus (C.R.T.) of this chamber