Augmented reality in sport scenarios using cameras mounted on a tripod

[ES] In this paper we address the problem of inserting virtual content in a video sequence. The method we propose uses just image information. We perform primitive tracking, camera calibration, real and virtual camera synchronisation and finally rendering to insert the virtual content in the real video sequence. To simplify the calibration step we assume that cameras are mounted on a tripod (which is a common situation in practise). The primitive tracking procedure, which uses lines and circles as primitives, is performed by means of a CART (Classification and Regression Tree). Finally, the virtual and real camera synchronisation and rendering is performed using functions of OpenGL (Open Graphic Library). We have applied the method proposed to sport event scenarios, specifically, soccer matches. In order to illustrate its performance, it has been applied to real HD (High Definition) video sequences. The quality of the proposed method is validated by inserting virtual elements in such HD video sequence.

A cognitive approach to Berber-Tamazight sociocultural reality : the bioconceptual organization of Izri poetics by Tarifit-speaking Riffian women

Programa de doctorado: Nuevas perspectivas cognitivas en los estudios de lengua, litaretura y traducción.

Optical Design for Automatic Identification and Portable Systems

This thesis proposes design methods and test tools, for optical systems, which may be used in an industrial environment, where not only precision and reliability but also ease of use is important. The approach to the problem has been conceived to be as general as possible, although in the present work, the design of a portable device for automatic identification applications has been studied, because this doctorate has been funded by Datalogic Scanning Group s.r.l., a world-class producer of barcode readers. The main functional components of the complete device are: electro-optical imaging, illumination and pattern generator systems. For what concerns the electro-optical imaging system, a characterization tool and an analysis one has been developed to check if the desired performance of the system has been achieved. Moreover, two design tools for optimizing the imaging system have been implemented. The first optimizes just the core of the system, the optical part, improving its performance ignoring all other contributions and generating a good starting point for the optimization of the whole complex system. The second tool optimizes the system taking into account its behavior with a model as near as possible to reality including optics, electronics and detection. For what concerns the illumination and the pattern generator systems, two tools have been implemented. The first allows the design of free-form lenses described by an arbitrary analytical function exited by an incoherent source and is able to provide custom illumination conditions for all kind of applications. The second tool consists of a new method to design Diffractive Optical Elements excited by a coherent source for large pattern angles using the Iterative Fourier Transform Algorithm. Validation of the design tools has been obtained, whenever possible, comparing the performance of the designed systems with those of fabricated prototypes. In other cases simulations have been used.

Interactive simulation of flexible parts

Computer simulations play an ever growing role for the development of automotive products. Assembly simulation, as well as many other processes, are used systematically even before the first physical prototype of a vehicle is built in order to check whether particular components can be assembled easily or whether another part is in the way. Usually, this kind of simulation is limited to rigid bodies. However, a vehicle contains a multitude of flexible parts of various types: cables, hoses, carpets, seat surfaces, insulations, weatherstrips... Since most of the problems using these simulations concern one-dimensional components and since an intuitive tool for cable routing is still needed, we have chosen to concentrate on this category, which includes cables, hoses and wiring harnesses. In this thesis, we present a system for simulating one dimensional flexible parts such as cables or hoses. The modeling of bending and torsion follows the Cosserat model. For this purpose we use a generalized spring-mass system and describe its configuration by a carefully chosen set of coordinates. Gravity and contact forces as well as the forces responsible for length conservation are expressed in Cartesian coordinates. But bending and torsion effects can be dealt with more effectively by using quaternions to represent the orientation of the segments joining two neighboring mass points. This augmented system allows an easy formulation of all interactions with the best appropriate coordinate type and yields a strongly banded Hessian matrix. An energy minimizing process accounts for a solution exempt from the oscillations that are typical of spring-mass systems. The use of integral forces, similar to an integral controller, allows to enforce exactly the constraints. The whole system is numerically stable and can be solved at interactive frame rates. It is integrated in the DaimlerChrysler in-house Virtual Reality Software veo for use in applications such as cable routing and assembly simulation and has been well received by users. Parts of this work have been published at the ACM Solid and Physical Modeling Conference 2006 and have been selected for the special issue of the Computer-Aided-Design Journal to the conference.

Leopoli-Cencelle beyond virtual reality Documentazione, interpretazione e comprensione di una città medievale

La città medievale di Leopoli-Cencelle (fondata da Papa Leone IV nell‘854 d.C. non lontano da Civitavecchia) è stata oggetto di studio e di periodiche campagne di scavo a partire dal 1994. Le stratigrafie investigate con metodi tradizionali, hanno portato alla luce le numerose trasformazioni che la città ha subìto nel corso della sua esistenza in vita. Case, torri, botteghe e strati di vissuto, sono stati interpretati sin dall’inizio dello scavo basandosi sulla documentazione tradizionale e bi-dimensionale, legata al dato cartaceo e al disegno. Il presente lavoro intende re-interpretare i dati di scavo con l’ausilio delle tecnologie digitali. Per il progetto sono stati utilizzati un laser scanner, tecniche di Computer Vision e modellazione 3D. I tre metodi sono stati combinati in modo da poter visualizzare tridimensionalmente gli edifici abitativi scavati, con la possibilità di sovrapporre semplici modelli 3D che permettano di formulare ipotesi differenti sulla forma e sull’uso degli spazi. Modellare spazio e tempo offrendo varie possibilità di scelta, permette di combinare i dati reali tridimensionali, acquisiti con un laser scanner, con semplici modelli filologici in 3D e offre l’opportunità di valutare diverse possibili interpretazioni delle caratteristiche dell’edificio in base agli spazi, ai materiali, alle tecniche costruttive. Lo scopo del progetto è andare oltre la Realtà Virtuale, con la possibilità di analizzare i resti e di re-interpretare la funzione di un edificio, sia in fase di scavo che a scavo concluso. Dal punto di vista della ricerca, la possibilità di visualizzare le ipotesi sul campo favorisce una comprensione più profonda del contesto archeologico. Un secondo obiettivo è la comunicazione a un pubblico di “non-archeologi”. Si vuole offrire a normali visitatori la possibilità di comprendere e sperimentare il processo interpretativo, fornendo loro qualcosa in più rispetto a una sola ipotesi definitiva.

Progettazione e sviluppo di applicazioni di augmented reality interattive

Nel 2011, circa 5 milioni di persone usavano regolarmente applicativi mobi-le basati su qualche forma di realtà aumentata. Secondo alcune previsioni entro il 2020 servizi che sfruttano questa tecnologia avranno una base di utenti che rasenta un settimo della popolazione mondiale, rendendo di fatto la realtà aumentata l’ottavo mezzo di comunicazione di massa dopo la stampa, l’audio registrato, il cinema, la radio, la televisione, internet ed infine i servizi multimediali mobile. La tesi si propone di illustrare le caratteristiche di questa tecnologia distinguendo varie tecniche e strumenti a disposizione degli sviluppatori per costruire l’esperienza di augmented reality. Entrando nel merito dello sviluppo software si analizza una architettura di riferimento proposta per sistemi di realtà aumentata e pattern per lo sviluppo dei diversi componenti. Infine vengono confrontati gli SDK oggi più diffusi cercando di evidenziarne caratteristiche comuni e peculiarità.

"The best me I can be" : Körper, Neoliberalismus und Authentizität in Makeover-Formaten des Reality-TV

Die vorliegende kulturwissenschaftlich ausgerichtete Arbeit befasst sich mit der Konstruktion und Inszenierung von Realität, insbesondere im Verhältnis zu Körperdiskursen und Körperpraktiken in Makeover-Sendungen sowie mit deren komplexen politischen und kulturellen Implikationen. Die leitenden Fragen der vorliegenden Arbeit sind: Wie wird der Körper in den ausgewählten Formaten dargestellt? Wie wird er erzählt und mit welchen (Film-)Techniken in Szene gesetzt? Welche expliziten und impliziten Körperbilder liegen den Darstellungen zu Grunde? Welche kulturellen und politischen Normen werden über den Körper konstruiert? Welche Rolle spielt diese Konstruktion des Körpers für die Darstellung von „Realität“ in den entsprechenden Formaten? Was ist der größere gesellschaftliche Zusammenhang dieser Darstellung? rnTrotz der Vielzahl und Komplexität der Darstellungsweisen des Körpers soll anhand verschiedener repräsentativ ausgewählter Reality-TV-Formate eine Annäherung an die heterogene kulturelle sowie politische Tragweite derselben geleistet werden. Hierzu werden insbesondere Formate bevorzugt, die explizit die Transformation des Körpers thematisieren. Dies kann durch kosmetische, d.h. nicht-operative Veränderungen (Kleidung, Make-up, Frisur), Fitness und Ernährung bis hin zu medizinischen Eingriffen wie etwa plastischer Chirurgie erfolgen.rnAls erstes wird der Untersuchungsgegenstand genauer eingegrenzt, wobei sich zeigt, dass sich exakte Grenzziehungen aufgrund des schwer greifbaren Reality-TV-Genres und der transmedialen Eigenschaft des Makeover-Fensehtextes als Herausforderung erweisen. Danach werden die kulturwissenschaftlichen Annahmen, die dieser Arbeit zugrunde liegen, ausgeführt. Darüber hinaus wird das revolutionäre Forschungsfeld der Fat Studies eruiert und auch der körpertheoretische Zugang erläutert. Abschließend wird näher auf den filmnarratologischen Zugang, der den Analysen als theoretische, aber auch methodische Grundlage dient, eingegangen. Zudem wird behandelt wie der Körper in den behandelten Makeover-Formaten zunächst erzählbar gemacht und erzählt wird. Die Körper der Teilnehmer werden zunächst in einen ökonomischen Diskurs der Maße und Zahlen überführt, um im weiteren Verlauf die „Transformation“ auch diskursiv dramatisieren zu können. Die über die Ökonomisierung vorbereitete, zumeist als märchenhaft dargestellte, Verwandlung der Teilnehmer, kulminiert immer in der Gegenüberstellung des „Vorher“-Bildes und des „Nachher“-Bildes. Diese Ökonomisierung ist allerdings nur die narrative Grundlage einer viel umfassenderen, in den Sendungen meist implizit vermittelten Selbstregierungstechnologie, der „Gouvernementalität“, die kontrovers im Hinblick auf Vertreter einer Affekttheorie, die die Vermittlung der besagten Gouvernementalität in Zweifel ziehen, diskutiert wird. Die Kernthese der vorliegenden Arbeit, die den Körper als entscheidendes, die „Realität“ der Makeover-Formate affirmierendes Element versteht, ist ferner eng mit dem Begriff der „Authentizität“ verknüpft. „Authentische“ Effekte sind oft das selbsterklärte Ziel der Einsätze des Körpers im Reality-TV und äußern sich in unterschiedlichen Erzähltechniken wie den autobiografischen Elementen der Formate. Die bereits im Genre des Reality-TV angelegte Selbstreflexivität sowohl auf Inhalts- als auch auf Produktionsseite wird abschließend kontextualisiert und bewertet. Letztendlich stellt sich die Frage, welche kulturellen Widerstände und Spielarten trotz der sehr dogmatisch wirkenden Inhalte der Makeover-Serien erhalten bleiben.

L'utilizzo del metodo Bootstrap nella statistica inferenziale

In questo lavoro viene introdotto il metodo Bootstrap, sviluppato a partire dal 1979 da Bradley Efron. Il Bootstrap è una tecnica statistica di ricampionamento basata su calcoli informatici, e quindi definita anche computer-intensive. In particolare vengono analizzati i vantaggi e gli svantaggi di tale metodo tramite esempi con set di dati reali implementati tramite il software statistico R. Tali analisi vertono su due tra i principali utilizzi del Bootstrap, la stima puntuale e la costruzione di intervalli di confidenza, basati entrambi sulla possibilità di approssimare la distribuzione campionaria di un qualsiasi stimatore, a prescindere dalla complessità di calcolo.

Geometric facial comparisons in speed-check photographs

In many cases, it is not possible to call the motorists to account for their considerable excess in speeding, because they deny being the driver on the speed-check photograph. An anthropological comparison of facial features using a photo-to-photo comparison can be very difficult depending on the quality of the photographs. One difficulty of that analysis method is that the comparison photographs of the presumed driver are taken with a different camera or camera lens and from a different angle than for the speed-check photo. To take a comparison photograph with exactly the same camera setup is almost impossible. Therefore, only an imprecise comparison of the individual facial features is possible. The geometry and position of each facial feature, for example the distances between the eyes or the positions of the ears, etc., cannot be taken into consideration. We applied a new method using 3D laser scanning, optical surface digitalization, and photogrammetric calculation of the speed-check photo, which enables a geometric comparison. Thus, the influence of the focal length and the distortion of the objective lens are eliminated and the precise position and the viewing direction of the speed-check camera are calculated. Even in cases of low-quality images or when the face of the driver is partly hidden, good results are delivered using this method. This new method, Geometric Comparison, is evaluated and validated in a prepared study which is described in this article.

Dopaminergic modulation of rapid reality adaptation in thinking

Dopamine has long held a prominent role in the interpretation of schizophrenia and other psychoses. Clinical studies on confabulation and disorientation, disorders marked by a confusion of reality in thinking, indicated that the ability to keep thinking in phase with reality depends on a process suppressing the interference of upcoming memories that do not refer to ongoing reality. A host of animal studies and a recent clinical study suggested that this suppression might correspond to the phasic inhibition of dopaminergic neurons in response to the absence of expected outcomes. In this study, we tested healthy subjects with a difficult version of a memory paradigm on which confabulating patients had failed. Subjects participated in three test sessions, in which they received in double-blind, randomized fashion L-dopa, risperidone, or placebo. We found that l-dopa, in comparison with risperidone, impaired performance in a highly specific way, which corresponded to the pattern of patients with reality confusion. Specifically, they had an increase of false positive responses, while overall memory performance and reaction times were unaffected. We conclude that dopaminergic transmission influences the ability to rapidly adapt thinking to ongoing reality.