Generating the Sparse Point Cloud of a Civil Infrastructure Scene Using a Single Video Camera under Practical Constraints

Automating the model generation process of infrastructure can substantially reduce the modeling time and cost. This paper presents a method to generate a sparse point cloud of an infrastructure scene using a single video camera under practical constraints. It is the first step towards establishing an automatic framework for object-oriented as-built modeling. Motion blur and key frame selection criteria are considered. Structure from motion and bundle adjustment are explored. The method is demonstrated in a case study where the scene of a reinforced concrete bridge is videotaped, reconstructed, and metrically validated. The result indicates the applicability, efficiency, and accuracy of the proposed method.

Evidence-informed development of engineering practical work: Effecting change through staff and student engagement

This paper discusses innovations in curriculum development in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge as a participant in the Teaching for Learning Network (TFLN), a teaching and learning development initiative funded by the Cambridge-MIT Institute a pedagogic collaboration and brokerage network. A year-long research and development project investigated the practical experiences through which students traditionally explore engineering disciplines, apply and extend the knowledge gained in lectures and other settings, and begin to develop their professional expertise. The research project evaluated current practice in these sessions and developed an evidence-base to identify requirements for new activities, student support and staff development. The evidence collected included a novel student 'practice-value' survey highlighting effective practice and areas of concern, classroom observation of practicals, semi-structured interviews with staff, a student focus group and informal discussions with staff. Analysis of the data identified three potentially 'high-leverage' strategies for improvement: development of a more integrated teaching framework, within which practical work could be contextualised in relation to other learning; a more transparent and integrated conceptual framework where theory and practice were more closely linked; development of practical work more reflective of the complex problems facing professional engineers. This paper sets out key elements of the evidence collected and the changes that have been informed by this evidence and analysis, leading to the creation of a suite of integrated practical sessions carefully linked to other course elements and reinforcing central concepts in engineering, accompanied by a training and support programme for teaching staff.

Enhancing and developing the practical optimisation capabilities and intelligence of automatic design software

In the modern engineering design cycle the use of computational tools becomes a neces- sity. The complexity of the engineering systems under consideration for design increases dramatically as the demands for advanced and innovative design concepts and engineering products is expanding. At the same time the advancements in the available technology in terms of computational resources and power, as well as the intelligence of the design software, accommodate these demands and make them a viable approach towards the chal- lenge of real-world engineering problems. This class of design optimisation problems is by nature multi-disciplinary. In the present work we establish enhanced optimisation capabil- ities within the Nimrod/O tool for massively distributed execution of computational tasks through cluster and computational grid resources, and develop the potential to combine and benefit from all the possible available technological advancements, both software and hardware. We develop the interface between a Free Form Deformation geometry manage- ment in-house code with the 2D airfoil aerodynamic efficiency evaluation tool XFoil, and the well established multi-objective heuristic optimisation algorithm NSGA-II. A simple airfoil design problem has been defined to demonstrate the functionality of the design sys- tem, but also to accommodate a framework for future developments and testing with other state-of-the-art optimisation algorithms such as the Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) and the Multi-Objective Tabu Search (MOTS) techniques. Ultimately, heav- ily computationally expensive industrial design cases can be realised within the presented framework that could not be investigated before. © 2012 by the authors. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Enhancing and developing the practical optimisation capabilities and intelligence of automatic design software

In the modern engineering design cycle the use of computational tools becomes a necessity. The complexity of the engineering systems under consideration for design increases dramatically as the demands for advanced and innovative design concepts and engineering products is expanding. At the same time the advancements in the available technology in terms of computational resources and power, as well as the intelligence of the design software, accommodate these demands and make them a viable approach towards the challenge of real-world engineering problems. This class of design optimisation problems is by nature multi-disciplinary. In the present work we establish enhanced optimisation capabilities within the Nimrod/O tool for massively distributed execution of computational tasks through cluster and computational grid resources, and develop the potential to combine and benefit from all the possible available technological advancements, both software and hardware. We develop the interface between a Free Form Deformation geometry management in-house code with the 2D airfoil aerodynamic efficiency evaluation tool XFoil, and the well established multi-objective heuristic optimisation algorithm NSGA-II. A simple airfoil design problem has been defined to demonstrate the functionality of the design system, but also to accommodate a framework for future developments and testing with other state-of-the-art optimisation algorithms such as the Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) and the Multi-Objective Tabu Search (MOTS) techniques. Ultimately, heavily computationally expensive industrial design cases can be realised within the presented framework that could not be investigated before. ©2012 AIAA.

A practical system for modelling body shapes from single view measurements

This paper describes an interactive system for quickly modelling 3D body shapes from a single image. It provides the user with a convenient way to obtain their 3D body shapes so as to try on virtual garments online. For the ease of use, we first introduce a novel interface for users to conveniently extract anthropometric measurements from a single photo, while using readily available scene cues for automatic image rectification. Then, we propose a unified probabilistic framework using Gaussian processes, which predict the body parameters from input measurements while correcting the aspect ratio ambiguity resulting from photo rectification. Extensive experiments and user studies have supported the efficacy of our system. This system is now being exploited commercially online1. © 2011. The copyright of this document resides with its authors.

Plenary talk - Applied HTS research and practical applications in Europe

The development of long-length, high current density Bi2Sr 2CaCu2Ox wires and (RE)Ba2Cu 3Oy coated conductors has now advanced such that superconducting magnets for energy applications and high field applications are progressing rapidly. Europe, along with China, Korea the US and Japan is an important player in the development and exploitation of High Temperature Superconductors in practical applications. © 2013 IEEE.

A practical package technique for FBG-based temperature independent sensor

A practical package technique for temperature independent Fiber Bragg grating sensor is proposed. A uniform strength cantilever with two FBG attached on the upper and lower surfaces was utilized as the key element. By detecting two wavelengths differential output, the applied force can be obtained and temperature effects can be eliminated. Experiment results show the sensor has linear response and output signal uctuates less than 12pm as temperature changes from -10 degrees C to 50 degrees C. The maximum thermal error is less than 0.3% of the full measurement range.

Practical Evaluation of Security against Generalized Interpolation Attack

Interpolation attack was presented by Jakobsen and Knudsen at FSE'97. Interpolation attack is effective against ciphers that have a certain algebraic structure like the PURE cipher which is a prototype cipher, but it is difficult to apply the attack to real-world ciphers. This difficulty is due to the difficulty of deriving a low degree polynomial relation between ciphertexts and plaintexts. In other words, it is difficult to evaluate the security against interpolation attack. This paper generalizes the interpolation attack. The generalization makes easier to evaluate the security against interpolation attack. We call the generalized interpolation attack linear sum attack. We present an algorithm that evaluates the security of byte-oriented ciphers against linear sum attack. Moreover, we show the relationship between linear sum attack and higher order differential attack. In addition, we show the security of CRYPTON, E2, and RIJNDAEL against linear sum attack using the algorithm.

practical type checking of functions defined on context-free languages

A type checking method for the functional language LFC is presented. A distinct feature of LFC is that it uses Context-Free (CF) languages as data types to represent compound data structures. This makes LFC a dynamically typed language. To improve efficiency, a practical type checking method is presented, which consists of both static and dynamic type checking. Although the inclusion relation of CF.languages is not decidable,a special subset of the relation is decidable, i.e., the sentential form relation, which can be statically checked.Moreover, most of the expressions in actual LFC programs appear to satisfy this relation according to the statistic data of experiments. So, despite that the static type checking is not complete, it undertakes most of the type checking task. Consequently the run-time efficiency is effectively improved. Another feature of the type checking is that it converts the expressions with implicit structures to structured representation. Structure reconstruction technique is presented.

Analysis of the practical force accuracy of electromagnet-based nanoindenters

Two important factors that influence the force accuracy of the electromagnet-based nano-indenters but have not yet attracted much attention are analyzed, and a more reasonable way to estimate the force accuracy is presented in this paper. MTS Nano Indenter (R), with the characteristics of a coil suspended in a uniform magnetic field by two sets of springs acting as an actuator and force measuring unit, is used as an example. One of the two factors is the uniformity of the magnetic field. The other is the stiffness of the supporting spring. Consequently, the practical force accuracy varies considerably from test to test because it firmly depends on the working position of the coil and the displacement stroke. A reasonable estimated accuracy value is of the order of 10 degrees mu N for typical indentation tests with a 10(2) nm indentation depth or a 10 degrees mN test force. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Concise synthesis of novel practical sulfamide-amine alcohols for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes

Novel sulfamide-amine alcohol ligands were designed using a grafting strategy and synthesized from readily available starting materials via a simple, efficient method. The key features of these ligands for the asymmetric addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes included stability, enhanced effectiveness without using Ti((OPr)-Pr-i)(4), suitability for a variety of aldehydes, the ability to operate at room temperature, and selectability to afford either absolute configuration products with enantiomeric excess up to >99%.