An application of fractal image-set coding in facial recognition

Faces are complex patterns that often differ in only subtle ways. Face recognition algorithms have difficulty in coping with differences in lighting, cameras, pose, expression, etc. We propose a novel approach for facial recognition based on a new feature extraction method called fractal image-set encoding. This feature extraction method is a specialized fractal image coding technique that makes fractal codes more suitable for object and face recognition. A fractal code of a gray-scale image can be divided in two parts – geometrical parameters and luminance parameters. We show that fractal codes for an image are not unique and that we can change the set of fractal parameters without significant change in the quality of the reconstructed image. Fractal image-set coding keeps geometrical parameters the same for all images in the database. Differences between images are captured in the non-geometrical or luminance parameters – which are faster to compute. Results on a subset of the XM2VTS database are presented.

Creative urban regions : harnessing urban technologies to support knowledge city initiatives

In the rapidly growing knowledge economy, the talent and creativity of those around us will be increasingly decisive in shaping economic opportunity. Creativity can be described as the ability to produce new and original ideas and things. In other words, it is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain or transforms an existing domain into a new one. From an economic perspective, creativity can be considered as the generation of new ideas that is the major source of innovation and new economic activities. As urban regions have become the localities of key knowledge precincts and knowledge clusters across the globe, the link between a range of new technologies and the development of ‘creative urban regions’ (CURs) has come to the fore. In this sense, creativity has become a buzz concept in knowledge-economy research and policy circles. It has spawned ‘creative milieus,’ ‘creative industries,’ ‘creative cities,’ ‘creative class,’ and ‘creative capital.’ Hence, creativity has become a key concept on the agenda of city managers, development agents, and planners as they search for new forms of urban and economic development. CURs provide vast opportunities for knowledge production and spillover, which lead to the formation of knowledge cities. Urban information and communication technology (ICT) developments support the transformation of cities into knowledge cities. This book, which is a companion volume to Knowledge-Based Urban Development: Planning and Applications in the Information Era (also published by IGI Global) focuses on some of these developments. The Forward and Afterword are written by senior respected academic researchers Robert Stimson of the University of Queensland, Australia, and Zorica Nedovic-Budic of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. The book is divided into four sections, each one dealing with selected aspects of information and communication technologies and creative urban regions.

Regioregular poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) helical self-organization on carbon nanotubes

Mixtures of Regioregular Poly(3-hexyl-thiophene) (rrP3HT) and multi wall carbon nanotubes have been investigated by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy in Ultra High Vacuum. Carbon nanotubes covered by rrP3HT have been imaged and analyzed, providing a clear evidence that this polymer self assembles on the nanotube surface following geometrical constraints and adapting its equilibrium chain-to-chain distance. Largely spaced covered nanotubes have been analyzed to investigate the role played by nanotube chirality in the polymer wrapping, evidencing strong rrP3HT interactions along well defined directions.

The role of extreme sports in lifestyle enhancement and wellness

Alternative sports are fast becoming the physical activity of choice. Participation rates are even outstripping more traditional activities such as golf. At their most extreme there is no second chance, the most likely outcome of a mismanaged error or accident is death. At this level participants enjoy activities such as B.A.S.E. (Buildings, Antennae, Space, Earth) jumping, big wave surfing, waterfall kayaking, extreme skiing, rope-free climbing and extreme mountaineering. Probably the most common explanation for participation in extreme sports is the notion that participation is just a matter of some people‟s need to take unnecessary risks. This study reports on findings that indicate a more positive experience. A phenomenological method was used via unstructured interviews with 15 extreme sports participants (ages 30 – 72 years) and other firsthand accounts. Extreme sport participants directly related their experience to personal transformations that spill over to life in general. Athletes report feelings of deep psychological wellbeing and meaningfulness. The extreme sport experience enables a participant to break through personal barriers and develop an understanding of their own resourcefulness and emotional, cognitive, physical and spiritual capabilities. Furthermore such a breakthrough also seems to trigger a change in personal philosophy or view on life. The extreme sport experience transforms a participant though not in terms of working towards an external (social or cultural) perception of identity or towards some constructed perception of an ideal self, but by touching something within.

Wear mechanisms and scale effects in two-body abrasion

The ‘particle size effect’ and its manifestation in abrasion still attracts considerable debate as to its origins and the ranking of its likely causes. Experiments have been conducted to study the important contribution that the formation of wear debris can have on the progression of wear. The experiments consist of unlubricated (dry) pin-on-disk tests with silicon carbide coated paper of varying particle size, with different pin material, diameter and loads. It has been observed that the influence of debris formation on wear rate is more pronounced for fine abrasives and soft-wearing materials. Consequently, it is proposed that the particle size effect can be explained in terms of geometrical scaling and the evolution of third-body effects with diminishing particle diameter.

Enhancing digital road map with lane details extracted from large-scale stereo aerial imagery using object-oriented image analysis

Precise, up-to-date and increasingly detailed road maps are crucial for various advanced road applications, such as lane-level vehicle navigation, and advanced driver assistant systems. With the very high resolution (VHR) imagery from digital airborne sources, it will greatly facilitate the data acquisition, data collection and updates if the road details can be automatically extracted from the aerial images. In this paper, we proposed an effective approach to detect road lane information from aerial images with employment of the object-oriented image analysis method. Our proposed algorithm starts with constructing the DSM and true orthophotos from the stereo images. The road lane details are detected using an object-oriented rule based image classification approach. Due to the affection of other objects with similar spectral and geometrical attributes, the extracted road lanes are filtered with the road surface obtained by a progressive two-class decision classifier. The generated road network is evaluated using the datasets provided by Queensland department of Main Roads. The evaluation shows completeness values that range between 76% and 98% and correctness values that range between 82% and 97%.

On the affinity of Chuaria–Tawuia complex : a multidisciplinary study

In this study, biometric and structural engineering tool have been used to examine a possible relationship within Chuaria–Tawuia complex and micro-FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analyses to understand the biological affinity of Chuaria circularis Walcott, collected from the Mesoproterozoic Suket Shales of the Vindhyan Supergroup and the Neoproterozoic Halkal Shales of the Bhima Group of peninsular India. Biometric analyses of well preserved carbonized specimens show wide variation in morphology and uni-modal distribution. We believe and demonstrate to a reasonable extent that C. circularis most likely was a part of Tawuia-like cylindrical body of algal origin. Specimens with notch/cleft and overlapping preservation, mostly recorded in the size range of 3–5 mm, are of special interest. Five different models proposed earlier on the life cycle of C. circularis are discussed. A new model, termed as ‘Hybrid model’ based on present multidisciplinary study assessing cylindrical and spherical shapes suggesting variable cell wall strength and algal affinity is proposed. This model discusses and demonstrates varied geometrical morphologies assumed by Chuaria and Tawuia, and also shows the inter-relationship of Chuaria–Tawuia complex. Structural engineering tool (thin walled pressure vessel theory) was applied to investigate the implications of possible geometrical shapes (sphere and cylinder), membrane (cell wall) stresses and ambient pressure environment on morphologically similar C. circularis and Tawuia. The results suggest that membrane stresses developed on the structures similar to Chuaria–Tawuia complex were directly proportional to radius and inversely proportional to the thickness in both cases. In case of hollow cylindrical structure, the membrane stresses in circumferential direction (hoop stress) are twice of the longitudinal direction indicating that rupture or fragmentation in the body of Tawuia would have occurred due to hoop stress. It appears that notches and discontinuities seen in some of the specimens of Chuaria may be related to rupture suggesting their possible location in 3D Chuaria. The micro-FTIR spectra of C. circularis are characterized by both aliphatic and aromatic absorption bands. The aliphaticity is indicated by prominent alkyl group bands between 2800–3000 and 1300–1500 cm−1. The prominent absorption signals at 700–900 cm−1 (peaking at 875 and 860 cm−1) are due to aromatic CH out of plane deformation. A narrow, strong band is centred at 1540 cm−1 which could be COOH band. The presence of strong aliphatic bands in FTIR spectra suggests that the biogeopolymer of C. circularis is of aliphatic nature. The wall chemistry indicates the presence of ‘algaenan’—a biopolymer of algae.

The absence of form

what was silent will speak, what is closed will open and will take on a voice Paul Virilio The fundamental problem in dealing with the digital is that we are forced to contend with a fundamental deconstruction of form. A deconstruction that renders our content and practice into a single state that can be openly and easily manipulated, reimagined and mashed together in rapid time to create completely unique artefacts and potentially unwranglable jumbles of data. Once our work is essentially broken down into this series of number sequences, (or bytes), our sound, images, movies and documents – our memory files - we are left with nothing but choice….and this is the key concern. This absence of form transforms our work into new collections and poses unique challenges for the artist seeking opportunities to exploit the potential of digital deconstruction. It is through this struggle with the absent form that we are able to thoroughly explore the latent potential of content, exploit modern abstractions of time and devise approaches within our practice that actively deal with the digital as an essential matter of course.

The Federal circuit in Bilski : the machine-or-transformation test

In a much anticipated judgment, the Federal Circuit has sought to clarify the standards applicable in determining whether a claimed method constitutes patent-eligible subject matter. In Bilski, the Federal Circuit identified a test to determine whether a patentee has made claims that pre-empt the use of a fundamental principle or an abstract idea or whether those claims cover only a particular application of a fundamental principle or abstract idea. It held that the sole test for determining subject matter eligibility for a claimed process under § 101 is that: (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing. The court termed this the “machine-or-transformation test.” In so doing it overruled its earlier State Street decision to the extent that it deemed its “useful, tangible and concrete result” test as inadequate to determine whether an alleged invention recites patent-eligible subject matter.

Representation and learning of visual information for pose recognition

Recovering position from sensor information is an important problem in mobile robotics, known as localisation. Localisation requires a map or some other description of the environment to provide the robot with a context to interpret sensor data. The mobile robot system under discussion is using an artificial neural representation of position. Building a geometrical map of the environment with a single camera and artificial neural networks is difficult. Instead it would be simpler to learn position as a function of the visual input. Usually when learning images, an intermediate representation is employed. An appropriate starting point for biologically plausible image representation is the complex cells of the visual cortex, which have invariance properties that appear useful for localisation. The effectiveness for localisation of two different complex cell models are evaluated. Finally the ability of a simple neural network with single shot learning to recognise these representations and localise a robot is examined.

Effect of section geometry on the lateral distortional buckling of LiteSteel beams

The LiteSteel Beam (LSB) is a new hollow flange section developed by OneSteel Australian Tube Mills using their patented dual electric resistance welding and automated continuous roll-forming technologies. It has a unique geometry consisting of torsionally rigid rectangular hollow flanges and a relatively slender web. It has found increasing popularity in residential, industrial and commercial buildings as flexural members. The LSB is considerably lighter than traditional hot-rolled steel beams and provides both structural and construction efficiencies. However, the LSB flexural members are subjected to a relatively new lateral distortional buckling mode, which reduces their member moment capacities. Unlike the commonly observed lateral torsional buckling of steel beams, the lateral distortional buckling of LSBs is characterised by simultaneous lateral defection, twist and cross sectional change due to web distortion. The current design rules in AS/NZS 4600 (SA, 2005) for flexural members subject to lateral distortional buckling were found to be conservative by about 8% in the inelastic buckling region. Therefore, a new design rule was developed for LSBs subject to lateral distortional buckling based on finite element analyses of LSBs. The effect of section geometry was then considered and several geometrical parameters were used to develop an advanced set of design rules. This paper presents the details of the finite element analyses and the design curve development for hollow flange sections subject to lateral distortional buckling.

Scale-dependent fracture mode in Cu-Ni laminate composites

Fracture behavior of Cu-Ni laminate composites has been investigated by tensile testing. It was found that as the individual layer thickness decreases from 100 to 20nm, the resultant fracture angle of the Cu-Ni laminate changes from 72 degrees to 50 degrees. Cross-sectional observations reveal that the fracture of the Ni layers transforms from opening to shear mode as the layer thickness decreases while that of the Cu layers keeps shear mode. Competition mechanisms were proposed to understand the variation in fracture mode of the metallic laminate composites associated with length scale.

The strength and failure of silica optical fibers

The mechanical strength and failure behavior of conventional and microstructured silica optical fibers was investigated using a tensile test and fracture mechanics and numerical analyses. The effect of polymer coating on failure behavior was also studied. The results indicate that all these fibers fail in a brittle manner and failure normally starts from fiber surfaces. The failure loads observed in coated fibers are higher than those in bare fibers. The introduction of air holes reduces fiber strength and their geometrical arrangements have a remarkable effect on stress distribution in the longitudinal direction. These results are potentially useful for the design, fabrication and evaluation of optical fibers for a wide range of applications.

A simple and systematic approach to assigning Denavit-Hartenberg Parameters

This paper presents a simple and intuitive approach to determining the kinematic parameters of a serial-link robot in Denavit– Hartenberg (DH) notation. Once a manipulator’s kinematics is parameterized in this form, a large body of standard algorithms and code implementations for kinematics, dynamics, motion planning, and simulation are available. The proposed method has two parts. The first is the “walk through,” a simple procedure that creates a string of elementary translations and rotations, from the user-defined base coordinate to the end-effector. The second step is an algebraic procedure to manipulate this string into a form that can be factorized as link transforms, which can be represented in standard or modified DH notation. The method allows for an arbitrary base and end-effector coordinate system as well as an arbitrary zero joint angle pose. The algebraic procedure is amenable to computer algebra manipulation and a Java program is available as supplementary downloadable material.