Reconstruction of Outdoor Sculptures from Silhouettes under Approximate Circular Motion of an Uncalibrated Hand-Held Camera

This paper presents a novel technique for reconstructing an outdoor sculpture from an uncalibrated image sequence acquired around it using a hand-held camera. The technique introduced here uses only the silhouettes of the sculpture for both motion estimation and model reconstruction, and no corner detection nor matching is necessary. This is very important as most sculptures are composed of smooth textureless surfaces, and hence their silhouettes are very often the only information available from their images. Besides, as opposed to previous works, the proposed technique does not require the camera motion to be perfectly circular (e.g., turntable sequence). It employs an image rectification step before the motion estimation step to obtain a rough estimate of the camera motion which is only approximately circular. A refinement process is then applied to obtain the true general motion of the camera. This allows the technique to handle large outdoor sculptures which cannot be rotated on a turntable, making it much more practical and flexible.

Design consideration of a circular type magnetic flux pump device

As a variation of the thermally actuated flux pump and the linear type magnetic flux pump (LTMFP), the circular type magnetic flux pump (CTMFP) device is proposed to magnetize a circular shape type-II superconducting thin film and bulk. The basic concept is the same as the thermally actuated flux pump: a circularly symmetric traveling magnetic field is generated below a circular shape superconductor to increase its trapping field. However, this traveling field is created by the three phase windings instead of heating gadolinium block. Apart from the LTMFP, the three phase windings are wound concentrically instead of linearly. The speed of the traveling field is controlled by the AC frequency and the magnitude of the field is controlled by the magnitudes of AC currents. In addition, a coil with DC current is wound around the three phase windings to provide a background field. The concept design is presented in this paper. The magnetic waveforms are analysed numerically by the COMSOL 3.5a software. The impedances of the three phase windings are calculated and a corresponding circuit design is presented. This rig can be used as an advanced tool to study the flux pump behavior of a circular shape superconductor. © 2002-2011 IEEE.

Continuous Diffraction Patterns from Circular Arrays of Carbon Nanotubes

We report the remarkable diffraction effects produced from circular patterned arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Highly ordered circular arrays of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (with inter-nanotube spacings of 633 nm) display optical dispersion effects similar to compact discs. These arrays display remarkable diffraction patterns in the far field which are spatially continuous. High quality diffraction patterns were obtained experimentally which are in excellent agreement with the theoretical calculations. The achieved continuous diffraction patterns pave the way towards the utilization of engineered carbon nanotube arrays in applications like three dimensional holograms.

The investigation of sweeping speed on the magnetization of a 2 inches diameter YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin film with the circular-type magnetic flux pump

A circular-type magnetic flux pump (CTMFP) device was built to study the flux dynamics on a 2-inch-diameter YBCO thin film. This CTMFP is composed of two CTMFP coils, with each CTMFP coil containing concentric three-phase windings and a dc winding. We connected the three-phase windings to the output of a commercial inverter. By changing the output frequency of the inverter, the sweeping speed of the circular-shaped travelling magnetic wave can be changed. The connection of the phase coils follows the forward consequence, so that the circular-shaped travelling magnetic wave travels inward to the center. The output frequency f was changed from f = 0.01 to 1000.0 Hz. The YBCO sample was sandwiched between the two CTMFP coils to experience the circular-shaped travelling magnetic wave. It was found that the increase of the flux density in the center of the film is independent of the sweeping frequency. In high frequency f = 1000.0Hz, even if the waveform had changed a lot, the increment is still the same as in low frequencies. © 2012 IEEE.

Design, fabrication, and characterization of circular Dammann gratings based on grayscale lithography.

We describe the design, fabrication, and experimental demonstration of a circular Dammann grating element generating a point-spread function of two concentric rings with equal intensity. The element was fabricated using grayscale lithography, providing a smooth and accurate phase profile. As a result, we obtained high diffraction efficiency and good uniformity between the two rings.

Fibre optic monitoring of a deep circular excavation

This paper describes part of the monitoring undertaken at Abbey Mills shaft F, one of the main shafts of Thames Water's Lee tunnel project in London, UK. This shaft, with an external diameter of 30 m and 73 m deep, is one of the largest ever constructed in the UK and consequently penetrates layered and challenging ground conditions (Terrace Gravel, London Clay, Lambeth Group, Thanet Sand Formation, Chalk Formation). Three out of the twenty 1-2 m thick and 84 m deep diaphragm wall panels were equipped with fibre optic instrumentation. Bending and circumferential hoop strains were measured using Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry and analysis technologies. These measurements showed that the overall radial movement of the wall was very small. Prior to excavation during a dewatering trial, the shaft may have experienced three-dimensional deformation due to differential water pressures. During excavation, the measured hoop and bending strains of the wall in the chalk exceeded the predictions. This appears to be related to the verticality tolerances of the diaphragm wall and lower circumferential hoop stiffness of the diaphragm walls at deep depths. The findings from this case study provide valuable information for future deep shafts in London. © ICE Publishing: All rights reserved.