Multi-sensor classification of tennis strokes

In this work, we investigate tennis stroke recognition using a single inertial measuring unit attached to a player’s forearm during a competitive match. This paper evaluates the best approach for stroke detection using either accelerometers, gyroscopes or magnetometers, which are embedded into the inertial measuring unit. This work concludes what is the optimal training data set for stroke classification and proves that classifiers can perform well when tested on players who were not used to train the classifier. This work provides a significant step forward for our overall goal, which is to develop next generation sports coaching tools using both inertial and visual sensors in an instrumented indoor sporting environment.

Ambient Noise in the Kitimat Fjord System

Sound is an important medium for communication and marine organisms have evolved to capitalize on the efficiency with which sound energy travels through water. Anthropogenic and natural sound sources contribute to ocean ambient noise, which can interfere with the use of this sensory modality by marine animals. Anthropogenic noise sources have been increasing steadily over recent decades largely due to coastal population growth, increased global transportation, and offshore industrialization. Understanding the potential impacts of anthropogenic noise requires the establishment of ambient acoustic baselines from which to measure change. Establishing baselines, especially in quiet areas still largely unaffected by anthropogenic stressors, is particularly crucial in the face of the expansion of offshore industries, increasing coastal population and growing reliance on the ocean for global transportation. Global demand for liquid natural gas (LNG), catalyzed primarily by a growing Asian market, is expected to increase significantly in the next 20 years. The geographic position of British Columbia relative to these markets, a growing supply of LNG and new technology for extraction and shipping situate British Columbia as a strong competitor in the lucrative market. The LNG industry could have many adverse impacts on these territories and ecosystems. The Kitimat Fjord System is slated for the development of these LNG export facilities increasing shipping traffic for the port and thus increasing ambient noise in the fjord system. The purpose of this study is to 1) quantify the existing sound levels in the area surrounding Gil Island and 2) identify potential source mechanisms in order to provide a baseline study of the acoustic environment in the Kitimat Fjord system prior to potential increases from LNG shipping.

Human respiration rate estimation using ultra-wideband distributed cognitive radar system

It has been shown that remote monitoring of pulmonary activity can be achieved using ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, which shows promise in home healthcare, rescue, and security applications. In this paper, we first present a multi-ray propagation model for UWB signal, which is traveling through the human thorax and is reflected on the air/dry-skin/fat/muscle interfaces. A geometry-based statistical channel model is then developed for simulating the reception of UWB signals in the indoor propagation environment. This model enables replication of time-varying multipath profiles due to the displacement of a human chest. Subsequently, a UWB distributed cognitive radar system (UWB-DCRS) is developed for the robust detection of chest cavity motion and the accurate estimation of respiration rate. The analytical framework can serve as a basis in the planning and evaluation of future measurement programs. We also provide a case study on how the antenna beamwidth affects the estimation of respiration rate based on the proposed propagation models and system architecture

RFID based Efficient Lighting Control

The Kyoto Protocol and the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive put an onus on governments
and organisations to lower carbon footprint in order to contribute towards reducing global warming. A key
parameter to be considered in buildings towards energy and cost savings is its indoor lighting that has a major
impact on overall energy usage and Carbon Dioxide emissions. Lighting control in buildings using Passive
Infrared sensors is a reliable and well established approach; however, the use of only Passive Infrared does not
offer much savings towards reducing carbon, energy, and cost. Accurate occupancy monitoring information can
greatly affect a building’s lighting control strategy towards a greener usage. This paper presents an approach for
data fusion of Passive Infrared sensors and passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based occupancy
monitoring. The idea is to have efficient, need-based, and reliable control of lighting towards a green indoor
environment, all while considering visual comfort of occupants. The proposed approach provides an estimated
13% electrical energy savings in one open-plan office of a University building in one working day. Practical
implementation of RFID gateways provide real-world occupancy profiling data to be fused with Passive
Infrared sensing towards analysis and improvement of building lighting usage and control.

Experimentally increased noise levels change spatial and singing behaviour

The reasons why animal populations decline in response to anthropogenic noise are still poorly understood. To understand how populations are affected by noise, we must understand how individuals are affected by noise. By modifying the acoustic environment experimentally, we studied the potential relationship between noise levels and both spatial and singing behaviour in the European robin (Erithacus rubecula). We found that with increasing noise levels, males were more likely to move away from the noise source and changed their singing behaviour. Our results provide the first experimental evidence in a free ranging species, that not merely the presence of noise causes changes in behaviour and distribution, but that the level of noise pollution plays a crucial role as well. Our results have important implications for estimating the impact of infrastructure which differs in the level of noise produced. Thus, governmental planning bodies should not only consider the physical effect on the landscape when assessing the impact of new infrastructure, but also the noise levels emitted, which may reduce the loss of suitable habitats available for animals. © 2012 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Empirical performance of RSSI-based Monte Carlo localisation for active RFID patient tracking systems

The range of potential applications for indoor and campus based personnel localisation has led researchers to create a wide spectrum of different algorithmic approaches and systems. However, the majority of the proposed systems overlook the unique radio environment presented by the human body leading to systematic errors and inaccuracies when deployed in this context. In this paper RSSI-based Monte Carlo Localisation was implemented using commercial 868 MHz off the shelf hardware and empirical data was gathered across a relatively large number of scenarios within a single indoor office environment. This data showed that the body shadowing effect caused by the human body introduced path skew into location estimates. It was also shown that, by using two body-worn nodes in concert, the effect of body shadowing can be mitigated by averaging the estimated position of the two nodes worn on either side of the body. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.

Body shadowing mitigation using differentiated LOS/NLOS channel models for RSSI-based Monte Carlo personnel localization

Research into localization has produced a wealth of algorithms and techniques to estimate the location of wireless network nodes, however the majority of these schemes do not explicitly account for non-line of sight conditions. Disregarding this common situation reduces their accuracy and their potential for exploitation in real world applications. This is a particular problem for personnel tracking where the user's body itself will inherently cause time-varying blocking according to their movements. Using empirical data, this paper demonstrates that, by accounting for non-line of sight conditions and using received signal strength based Monte Carlo localization, meter scale accuracy can be achieved for a wrist-worn personnel tracking tag in a 120 m indoor office environment. © 2012 IEEE.

Between Tradition and Modernity: Determining Spatial Systems of Privacy in the Domestic Architecture of Contemporary Iraq

The notion of privacy represents a central criterion for both indoor and outdoor social spaces in most traditional Arab settlements. This paper investigates privacy and everyday life as determinants of the physical properties of the built and urban fabric and will study their impact on traditional settlements and architecture of the home in the contemporary Iraqi city. It illustrates the relationship between socio-cultural aspects of public/private realms using the notion of the social sphere as an investigative tool of the concept of social space in Iraqi houses and local communities (Mahalla). This paper reports that in spite of the impact of other factors in articulating built forms, privacy embodies the primary role under the effects of Islamic rules, principles and culture. The crucial problem is the underestimation of traditional inherited values through opening social spaces to the outside that giving unlimited accesses to the indoor social environment creating many problems with regard to privacy and communal social integration.

Les conditions d'une musicalité du sonore : étude comparative sur le statut musical du bruit en musique et au cinéma

La création cinématographique de l’étudiante qui accompagne ce mémoire sous la forme d’un DVD est disponible à la Médiathèque de la Bibliothèque des lettres et sciences humaines sous le titre : Qui va droit son chemin.(http://atrium.umontreal.ca/notice/UM-ALEPH002343834)

Ontogénèse et spécificité de la voix humaine

La voix est un stimulus auditif omniprésent dans notre environnement sonore. Elle permet non seulement la parole, mais serait aussi l’équivalent d’un visage auditif transmettant notamment des informations identitaires et affectives importantes. Notre capacité à discriminer et reconnaître des voix est socialement et biologiquement importante et elle figure parmi les fonctions les plus importantes du système auditif humain. La présente thèse s’intéressait à l’ontogénèse et à la spécificité de la réponse corticale à la voix humaine et avait pour but trois objectifs : (1) mettre sur pied un protocole électrophysiologique permettant de mesurer objectivement le traitement de la familiarité de la voix chez le sujet adulte; (2) déterminer si ce même protocole pouvait aussi objectiver chez le nouveau-né de 24 heures un traitement préférentiel d’une voix familière, notamment la voix de la mère; et (3) mettre à l’épreuve la robustesse d’une mesure électrophysiologique, notamment la Fronto-Temporal Positivity to Voices, s’intéressant à la discrimination pré-attentionnelle entre des stimuli vocaux et non-vocaux. Les résultats découlant des trois études expérimentales qui composent cette thèse ont permis (1) d’identifier des composantes électrophysiologiques (Mismatch Negativity et P3a) sensibles au traitement de la familiarité d’une voix; (2) de mettre en lumière un patron d’activation corticale singulier à la voix de la mère chez le nouveau-né, fournissant le premier indice neurophysiologique de l’acquisition du langage, processus particulièrement lié à l’interaction mère-enfant; et (3) de confirmer l’aspect pré-attentionnel de la distinction entre une voix et un stimulus non-vocal tout en accentuant la sélectivité et la sensibilité de la réponse corticale réservée au traitement de la voix.

An integrated dynamic whole life costing analysis for air distribution systems

Air distribution systems are one of the major electrical energy consumers in air-conditioned commercial buildings which maintain comfortable indoor thermal environment and air quality by supplying specified amounts of treated air into different zones. The sizes of air distribution lines affect energy efficiency of the distribution systems. Equal friction and static regain are two well-known approaches for sizing the air distribution lines. Concerns to life cycle cost of the air distribution systems, T and IPS methods have been developed. Hitherto, all these methods are based on static design conditions. Therefore, dynamic performance of the system has not been yet addressed; whereas, the air distribution systems are mostly performed in dynamic rather than static conditions. Besides, none of the existing methods consider any aspects of thermal comfort and environmental impacts. This study attempts to investigate the existing methods for sizing of the air distribution systems and proposes a dynamic approach for size optimisation of the air distribution lines by taking into account optimisation criteria such as economic aspects, environmental impacts and technical performance. These criteria have been respectively addressed through whole life costing analysis, life cycle assessment and deviation from set-point temperature of different zones. Integration of these criteria into the TRNSYS software produces a novel dynamic optimisation approach for duct sizing. Due to the integration of different criteria into a well- known performance evaluation software, this approach could be easily adopted by designers in busy nature of design. Comparison of this integrated approach with the existing methods reveals that under the defined criteria, system performance is improved up to 15% compared to the existing methods. This approach is interpreted as a significant step forward reaching to the net zero emission building in future.

Intake fraction of nonreactive motor vehicle exhaust in HongKong

The intake fraction (iF) of nonreactive constituents of exhaust from mobile vehicles in the urban area of HongKong is investigated using available monitoring data for carbon monoxide (CO) as a tracer of opportunity. Correcting for regional transport of carbon monoxide into HongKong, the annual-average iF for nonreactive motor vehicle emissions within the city is estimated to be around 270 per million. This estimated iF is much higher than values previously reported for vehicle emissions in US urban areas, Helsinki and Beijing, and somewhat lower than those reported for a densely populated street canyon in downtown Manhattan, New York City, or for emissions into indoor environments. The reported differences in intakefractions in various cities mainly result from the differences in local population densities. Our analysis highlights the importance of accounting for the influence of upwind transport of pollutants when using ambient data to estimate iF for an urban area. For vehicleexhaust in HongKong, it is found that the in/near vehicle microenvironment contributes similarly to the indoor home environment when accounting for the overall iF for children and adults. Keywords Intakefraction; Vehicle emission; Regional pollutant transport; Carbon monoxide; Exposure

Radiation properties of coil-coated steel in building envelope surfaces and the influence on building thermal performance

Recent studies have shown that the optical properties of building exterior surfaces are important in terms of energy use and thermal comfort. While the majority of the studies are related to exterior surfaces, the radiation properties of interior surfaces are less thoroughly investigated. Development in the coil-coating industries has now made it possible to allocate different optical properties for both exterior and interior surfaces of steel-clad buildings. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of surface radiation properties with the focus on the thermal emittance of the interior surfaces, the modeling approaches and their consequences in the context of the building energy performance and indoor thermal environment. The study consists of both numerical and experimental investigations. The experimental investigations include parallel field measurements on three similar test cabins with different interior and exterior surface radiation properties in Borlänge, Sweden, and two ice rink arenas with normal and low emissive ceiling in Luleå, Sweden. The numerical methods include comparative simulations by the use of dynamic heat flux models, Building Energy Simulation (BES), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and a coupled model for BES and CFD. Several parametric studies and thermal performance analyses were carried out in combination with the different numerical methods. The parallel field measurements on the test cabins include the air, surface and radiation temperatures and energy use during passive and active (heating and cooling) measurements. Both measurement and comparative simulation results indicate an improvement in the indoor thermal environment when the interior surfaces have low emittance. In the ice rink arenas, surface and radiation temperature measurements indicate a considerable reduction in the ceiling-to-ice radiation by the use of low emittance surfaces, in agreement with a ceiling-toice radiation model using schematic dynamic heat flux calculations. The measurements in the test cabins indicate that the use of low emittance surfaces can increase the vertical indoor air temperature gradients depending on the time of day and outdoor conditions. This is in agreement with the transient CFD simulations having the boundary condition assigned on the exterior surfaces. The sensitivity analyses have been performed under different outdoor conditions and surface thermal radiation properties. The spatially resolved simulations indicate an increase in the air and surface temperature gradients by the use of low emittance coatings. This can allow for lower air temperature at the occupied zone during the summer. The combined effect of interior and exterior reflective coatings in terms of energy use has been investigated by the use of building energy simulation for different climates and internal heat loads. The results indicate possible energy savings by the smart choice of optical properties on interior and exterior surfaces of the building. Overall, it is concluded that the interior reflective coatings can contribute to building energy savings and improvement of the indoor thermal environment. This can be numerically investigated by the choice of appropriate models with respect to the level of detail and computational load. This thesis includes comparative simulations at different levels of detail.

Entre ouvires: a paisagem sonora da Igreja Batista em Jardim Utinga em foco

Pós-graduação em Música - IA

Desenvolvimento de uma metodologia para elaboração de modelos de predição dos níveis de ruído do campo acústico de usinas hidrelétricas

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Mecânica - FEIS