An approach to hand biometrics in mobile devices

This paper focuses on hand biometrics applied to images acquired from a mobile device. The system offers the possibility of identifying individuals based on features extracted from hand pictures obtained with a low-quality camera embedded on a mobile device. Furthermore, the acquisitions have been carried out regardless illumination control, orientation, distance to camera, and similar aspects. In addition, the whole system has been tested with an owned database. Finally, the results obtained (6.0% ± 0.2) and the algorithm structure are both promising in relation to a posterior mobile implementation

Hybrid Contribution of JPEG200 Video Files for Professional Production Centers Reliability and Non-Reliability Transmission File Based in Image Quality Needed

ATM, SDH or satellite have been used in the last century as the contribution network of Broadcasters. However the attractive price of IP networks is changing the infrastructure of these networks in the last decade. Nowadays, IP networks are widely used, but their characteristics do not offer the level of performance required to carry high quality video under certain circumstances. Data transmission is always subject to errors on line. In the case of streaming, correction is attempted at destination, while on transfer of files, retransmissions of information are conducted and a reliable copy of the file is obtained. In the latter case, reception time is penalized because of the low priority this type of traffic on the networks usually has. While in streaming, image quality is adapted to line speed, and line errors result in a decrease of quality at destination, in the file copy the difference between coding speed vs line speed and errors in transmission are reflected in an increase of transmission time. The way news or audiovisual programs are transferred from a remote office to the production centre depends on the time window and the type of line available; in many cases, it must be done in real time (streaming), with the resulting image degradation. The main purpose of this work is the workflow optimization and the image quality maximization, for that reason a transmission model for multimedia files adapted to JPEG2000, is described based on the combination of advantages of file transmission and those of streaming transmission, putting aside the disadvantages that these models have. The method is based on two patents and consists of the safe transfer of the headers and data considered to be vital for reproduction. Aside, the rest of the data is sent by streaming, being able to carry out recuperation operations and error concealment. Using this model, image quality is maximized according to the time window. In this paper, we will first give a briefest overview of the broadcasters requirements and the solutions with IP networks. We will then focus on a different solution for video file transfer. We will take the example of a broadcast center with mobile units (unidirectional video link) and regional headends (bidirectional link), and we will also present a video file transfer file method that satisfies the broadcaster requirements.

Energy Management and Optimization for Video Decoders based on Functional-oriented Reconfiguration

In recent years, the increasing sophistication of embedded multimedia systems and wireless communication technologies has promoted a widespread utilization of video streaming applications. It has been reported in 2013 that youngsters, aged between 13 and 24, spend around 16.7 hours a week watching online video through social media, business websites, and video streaming sites. Video applications have already been blended into people daily life. Traditionally, video streaming research has focused on performance improvement, namely throughput increase and response time reduction. However, most mobile devices are battery-powered, a technology that grows at a much slower pace than either multimedia or hardware developments. Since battery developments cannot satisfy expanding power demand of mobile devices, research interests on video applications technology has attracted more attention to achieve energy-efficient designs. How to efficiently use the limited battery energy budget becomes a major research challenge. In addition, next generation video standards impel to diversification and personalization. Therefore, it is desirable to have mechanisms to implement energy optimizations with greater flexibility and scalability. In this context, the main goal of this dissertation is to find an energy management and optimization mechanism to reduce the energy consumption of video decoders based on the idea of functional-oriented reconfiguration. System battery life is prolonged as the result of a trade-off between energy consumption and video quality. Functional-oriented reconfiguration takes advantage of the similarities among standards to build video decoders reconnecting existing functional units. If a feedback channel from the decoder to the encoder is available, the former can signal the latter changes in either the encoding parameters or the encoding algorithms for energy-saving adaption. The proposed energy optimization and management mechanism is carried out at the decoder end. This mechanism consists of an energy-aware manager, implemented as an additional block of the reconfiguration engine, an energy estimator, integrated into the decoder, and, if available, a feedback channel connected to the encoder end. The energy-aware manager checks the battery level, selects the new decoder description and signals to build a new decoder to the reconfiguration engine. It is worth noting that the analysis of the energy consumption is fundamental for the success of the energy management and optimization mechanism. In this thesis, an energy estimation method driven by platform event monitoring is proposed. In addition, an event filter is suggested to automate the selection of the most appropriate events that affect the energy consumption. At last, a detailed study on the influence of the training data on the model accuracy is presented. The modeling methodology of the energy estimator has been evaluated on different underlying platforms, single-core and multi-core, with different characteristics of workload. All the results show a good accuracy and low on-line computation overhead. The required modifications on the reconfiguration engine to implement the energy-aware manager have been assessed under different scenarios. The results indicate a possibility to lengthen the battery lifetime of the system in two different use-cases.

Innovations in the video game industry: changing global markets

The paper examines the video game industry in the perspective of being the paradigm of innovation in digital media and content. In particular, it analyses the response to two main factors that have impacted this industry over the last decade. First, it tracks the evolution of its global market and its emerging geography with the rise of Asia. Second, within this global landscape the paper explores how the changes derived from mobile and on-line gaming enabled major transformations of this industry. From here, some conclusions on the lessons from the evolution of this sector for the whole media and content industries are presented.

Depth filtering for auto-stereoscopic mobile devices

In this work we address a scenario where 3D content is transmitted to a mobile terminal with 3D display capabilities. We consider the use of 2D plus depth format to represent the 3D content and focus on the generation of synthetic views in the terminal. We evaluate different types of smoothing filters that are applied to depth maps with the aim of reducing the disoccluded regions. The evaluation takes into account the reduction of holes in the synthetic view as well as the presence of geometrical distortion caused by the smoothing operation. The selected filter has been included within an implemented module for the VideoLan Client (VLC) software in order to render 3D content from the 2D plus depth data format.

Multisensor data fusion for accurate modelling of mobile objects

In the last decade, multi-sensor data fusion has become a broadly demanded discipline to achieve advanced solutions that can be applied in many real world situations, either civil or military. In Defence,accurate detection of all target objects is fundamental to maintaining situational awareness, to locating threats in the battlefield and to identifying and protecting strategically own forces. Civil applications, such as traffic monitoring, have similar requirements in terms of object detection and reliable identification of incidents in order to ensure safety of road users. Thanks to the appropriate data fusion technique, we can give these systems the power to exploit automatically all relevant information from multiple sources to face for instance mission needs or assess daily supervision operations. This paper focuses on its application to active vehicle monitoring in a particular area of high density traffic, and how it is redirecting the research activities being carried out in the computer vision, signal processing and machine learning fields for improving the effectiveness of detection and tracking in ground surveillance scenarios in general. Specifically, our system proposes fusion of data at a feature level which is extracted from a video camera and a laser scanner. In addition, a stochastic-based tracking which introduces some particle filters into the model to deal with uncertainty due to occlusions and improve the previous detection output is presented in this paper. It has been shown that this computer vision tracker contributes to detect objects even under poor visual information. Finally, in the same way that humans are able to analyze both temporal and spatial relations among items in the scene to associate them a meaning, once the targets objects have been correctly detected and tracked, it is desired that machines can provide a trustworthy description of what is happening in the scene under surveillance. Accomplishing so ambitious task requires a machine learning-based hierarchic architecture able to extract and analyse behaviours at different abstraction levels. A real experimental testbed has been implemented for the evaluation of the proposed modular system. Such scenario is a closed circuit where real traffic situations can be simulated. First results have shown the strength of the proposed system.