This book presents cutting-edge research on various ways to bridge the semantic gap in image and video analysis. The respective chapters address different stages of image processing, revealing that the first step is a future extraction, the second is a segmentation process, the third is object recognition, and the fourth and last involve the semantic interpretation of the image. The semantic gap is a challenging area of research, and describes the difference between low-level features extracted from the image and the high-level semantic meanings that people can derive from the image. The result greatly depends on lower level vision techniques, such as feature selection, segmentation, object recognition, and so on. The use of deep models has freed humans from manually selecting and extracting the set of features. Deep learning does this automatically, developing more abstract features at the successive levels. The book offers a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, students and professors in Computer Engineering, Computer Science and related fields whose work involves images, video analysis, image interpretation and so on.

Technology has brought about the age of convenience, but at a hefty cost. As a result of a growing production demand on a global scale, adhesive bonding operations also generate a huge amount of hazardous waste. Adhesive bonding, an integral step in manufacturing across several sectors, is one of many culprits of the unprecedented overproduction and environmental burden of municipal, industrial, and hazardous waste. If a cleaner, greener bonding process is formulated, hazardous waste production can be reined in and the world can be safer. Using Lasers as Safe Alternatives for Adhesive Bonding: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a pivotal reference source that analyzes the new conditions for laser processing in the context of adhesive bonding. The book includes the results of experimental research, giving grounds to believe that laser technology has a future in the preparation of products for bonding. From this research, the book presents conclusions for eliminating poisonous chemicals, a threat to humans and the environment, and the burden of liquid and solid waste. It further outlines limitations and requirements imposed on people, such as the need to use personal protective equipment, to establish specific work procedures to ensure the safety of working with lasers, with a view to the future implementation of laser technology in manufacturing facilities. Featuring coverage of a wide range of topics including static strength, surface preparation, and beam impact, this book is ideally designed for engineers, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

This book presents recent research on the hybridization of intelligent methods, which refers to combining methods to solve complex problems. It discusses hybrid approaches covering different areas of intelligent methods and technologies, such as neural networks, swarm intelligence, machine learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning, agent-based approaches, knowledge-based system and image processing. The book includes extended and revised versions of invited papers presented at the 6th International Workshop on Combinations of Intelligent Methods and Applications (CIMA 2016), held in The Hague, Holland, in August 2016. The book is intended for researchers and practitioners from academia and industry interested in using hybrid methods for solving complex problems.

This book computes the first- and second-order derivative matrices of skew ray and optical path length, while also providing an important mathematical tool for automatic optical design. This book consists of three parts. Part One reviews the basic theories of skew-ray tracing, paraxial optics and primary aberrations - essential reading that lays the foundation for the modeling work presented in the rest of this book. Part Two derives the Jacobian matrices of a ray and its optical path length. Although this issue is also addressed in other publications, they generally fail to consider all of the variables of a non-axially symmetrical system. The modeling work thus provides a more robust framework for the analysis and design of non-axially symmetrical systems such as prisms and head-up displays. Lastly, Part Three proposes a computational scheme for deriving the Hessian matrices of a ray and its optical path length, offering an effective means of determining an appropriate search direction when tuning the system variables in the system design process.

This book presents design methods and considerations for digitally-assisted wideband millimeter-wave transmitters. It addresses comprehensively both RF design and digital implementation simultaneously, in order to design energy- and cost-efficient high-performance transmitters for mm-wave high-speed communications. It covers the complete design flow, from link budget assessment to the transistor-level design of different RF front-end blocks, such as mixers and power amplifiers, presenting different alternatives and discussing the existing trade-offs. The authors also analyze the effect of the imperfections of these blocks in the overall performance, while describing techniques to correct and compensate for them digitally. Well-known techniques are revisited, and some new ones are described, giving examples of their applications and proving them in real integrated circuits.

This book addresses the nature of sound, focusing on the characteristics of sound waves in the context of time structures. This time domain approach provides an informative and intuitively understandable description of various acoustic topics such as sound waves travelling in an acoustic tube or in other media where spectral or modal analysis can be intensively performed. Starting from the introductory topic of sinusoidal waves, it discusses the formal relationship between the time and frequency domains, summarizing the fundamental notions of Fourier or z-transformations and linear systems theory, along with interesting examples from acoustical research. The books novel approach is of interest to research engineers and scientists In particular, the expressions concerning waveforms including the impulse responses are important for audio engineers who are familiar with digital signal analysis. Every chapter includes simple exercises designed to be solved without the need for a computer. Thus they help reconfirm the fundamental ideas and notions present in every chapter. The book is self-contained and concise, and requires only basic knowledge of acoustics and signal processing, making it valuable as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate university courses.

Resonator Designs for High Brightness Solid-State Lasers; G. Cerullo et al. Defining and Measuring Laser Beam Quality; A.E. Siegman. Model-Locked Solid-State Lasers; A.I. Ferguson, G.P.A. Malcolm. High Power Rod, Slab, and Tube Lasers; U. Wittrock. Solid-State Laser Materials; G. Huber. Quantum Confined Semiconductor Lasers; R. Cingolani. Diode Pumped Solid-State Lasers; R.L. Byer. Generation of Visible Light with Diode Pumped Solid-State Lasers; K.J. Boller, et al. High Power Diode Lasers; C. Hanke. Efficient Narrowband Optical Parametric Oscillators of Beta-Barium-Borate and Lithium-Triborate; A. Fix, et al. Travelling Wave Parametric Generation of Highly Coherent Femtosecond Pulses Tunable from 750 to 3000 nm; G.P. Banfi, et al. Frequency Conversion of PS-Pulses; R. Beigang, A. Nebel. Quasi-Three-Level Lasers; T.Y. Fan. Er, Tm, Ho; P. Minguzzi, et al. 9 additional articles. Index.

This book provides information regarding spectrum sharing between wireless systems, motivated by emerging new technologies. Readers will benefit from information about how to conduct research on the interference mitigation between IMT-Advanced and FSS. The author presents a deterministic analysis for interference to noise ratio (I/N), adjacent channel interference ratio (ACIR), field strength, and path loss propagation, in order to determine the separation distances in the co-channel interference (CCI) and adjacent channel Interference (ACI) scenarios. An analytical model is discussed, for the shielding mitigation technique based on the deterministic analysis of the propagation model. The shielding technique has been developed based on test bed measurements for evaluating the attenuation of the proposed materials. Matlab (TM) and Transfinite Visualyse Pro (TM) have been used as simulation tools for the verification of the obtained results, whereas the IMT-Advanced parameters have been represented by Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) 802.16e.

This thesis reports on sparsity-based multipath exploitation methods for through-the-wall radar imaging. Multipath creates ambiguities in the measurements provoking unwanted ghost targets in the image. This book describes sparse reconstruction methods that are not only suppressing the ghost targets, but using multipath to one's advantage. With adopting the compressive sensing principle, fewer measurements are required for image reconstruction as compared to conventional techniques. The book describes the development of a comprehensive signal model and some associated reconstruction methods that can deal with many relevant scenarios, such as clutter from building structures, secondary reflections from interior walls, as well as stationary and moving targets, in urban radar imaging. The described methods are evaluated here using simulated as well as measured data from semi-controlled laboratory experiments.

This clearly written thesis discusses the development of a highly innovative single-photon source that uses active optical switching, known as multiplexing, to increase the probability of delivering photons into a single mode. Improving single-photon sources is critical in advancing the state of the art in photonic quantum technologies for information processing and communications.

This book introduces new methods to analyze vertex-varying graph signals. In many real-world scenarios, the data sensing domain is not a regular grid, but a more complex network that consists of sensing points (vertices) and edges (relating the sensing points). Furthermore, sensing geometry or signal properties define the relation among sensed signal points. Even for the data sensed in the well-defined time or space domain, the introduction of new relationships among the sensing points may produce new insights in the analysis and result in more advanced data processing techniques. The data domain, in these cases and discussed in this book, is defined by a graph. Graphs exploit the fundamental relations among the data points. Processing of signals whose sensing domains are defined by graphs resulted in graph data processing as an emerging field in signal processing. Although signal processing techniques for the analysis of time-varying signals are well established, the corresponding graph signal processing equivalent approaches are still in their infancy. This book presents novel approaches to analyze vertex-varying graph signals. The vertex-frequency analysis methods use the Laplacian or adjacency matrix to establish connections between vertex and spectral (frequency) domain in order to analyze local signal behavior where edge connections are used for graph signal localization. The book applies combined concepts from time-frequency and wavelet analyses of classical signal processing to the analysis of graph signals. Covering analytical tools for vertex-varying applications, this book is of interest to researchers and practitioners in engineering, science, neuroscience, genome processing, just to name a few. It is also a valuable resource for postgraduate students and researchers looking to expand their knowledge of the vertex-frequency analysis theory and its applications. The book consists of 15 chapters contributed by 41 leading researches in the field.

Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics, Volume 200, the latest release in a series that merges two long-running serials, Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics and Advances in Optical and Electron Microscopy features extended articles on the physics of electron devices (especially semiconductor devices), particle optics at high and low energies, microlithography, image science, digital image processing, electromagnetic wave propagation, electron microscopy, and computing methods. Topics in this latest release include Past and Present Attempts to Attain the Resolution Limit of the Transmission Electron Microscope, Phase Plates for Transmission Electron Microscopy, and X-Ray Lasers in Biology: Structure and Dynamics.

Mathematical morphology (MM) is a theory for the analysis of spatial structures. It is called morphology since it aims at analyzing the shape and form of objects, and it is mathematical in the sense that the analysis is based on set theory, topology, lattice algebra, random functions, and so on. MM is not only a "theory", but also a powerful image analysis "technique". The purpose of the present book is to provide the image analysis community with a snapshot of current theoretical and applied developments of MM. The book consists of 45 contributions classified by subject. It demonstrates a range of topics suited to the morphological approach.

This book explores different aspects of LA-ICP-MS (laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry). It presents a large array of new analytical protocols for elemental or isotope analysis. LA-ICP-MS is a powerful tool that combines a sampling device able to remove very small quantities of material without leaving visible damage at the surface of an object. Furthermore, it functions as a sensitive analytical instrument that measures, within a few seconds, a wide range of isotopes in inorganic samples. Determining the elemental or the isotopic composition of ancient material is essential to address questions related to ancient technology or provenance and therefore aids archaeologists in reconstructing exchange networks for goods, people and ideas. Recent improvements of LA-ICP-MS have opened new avenues of research that are explored in this volume.

This book gathers the main recent results on positive trigonometric polynomials within a unitary framework. The book has two parts: theory and applications. The theory of sum-of-squares trigonometric polynomials is presented unitarily based on the concept of Gram matrix (extended to Gram pair or Gram set). The applications part is organized as a collection of related problems that use systematically the theoretical results.

Hardware Based Packet Classification for High Speed Internet Routers presents the most recent developments in hardware based packet classification algorithms and architectures. This book describes five methods which reduce the space that classifiers occupy within TCAMs; TCAM Razor, All-Match Redundancy Removal, Bit Weaving, Sequential Decomposition, and Topological Transformations. These methods demonstrate that in most cases a substantial reduction of space is achieved. Case studies and examples are provided throughout this book. About this book: * Presents the only book in the market that exclusively covers hardware based packet classification algorithms and architectures. * Describes five methods which reduce the space that classifiers occupy within TCAMs: TCAM Razor, All-Match Redundancy Removal, Bit Weaving, Sequential Decomposition, and Topological Transformations. * Provides case studies and examples throughout. Hardware Based Packet Classification for High Speed Internet Routers is designed for professionals and researchers who work within the related field of router design. Advanced-level students concentrating on computer science and electrical engineering will also find this book valuable as a text or reference book.

This book reports on an outstanding thesis that has significantly advanced the state-of-the-art in the automated analysis and classification of speech and music. It defines several standard acoustic parameter sets and describes their implementation in a novel, open-source, audio analysis framework called openSMILE, which has been accepted and intensively used worldwide. The book offers extensive descriptions of key methods for the automatic classification of speech and music signals in real-life conditions and reports on the evaluation of the framework developed and the acoustic parameter sets that were selected. It is not only intended as a manual for openSMILE users, but also and primarily as a guide and source of inspiration for students and scientists involved in the design of speech and music analysis methods that can robustly handle real-life conditions.

This book presents multibiometric watermarking techniques for security of biometric data. This book also covers transform domain multibiometric watermarking techniques and their advantages and limitations. The authors have developed novel watermarking techniques with a combination of Compressive Sensing (CS) theory for the security of biometric data at the system database of the biometric system. The authors show how these techniques offer higher robustness, authenticity, better imperceptibility, increased payload capacity, and secure biometric watermarks. They show how to use the CS theory for the security of biometric watermarks before embedding into the host biometric data. The suggested methods may find potential applications in the security of biometric data at various banking applications, access control of laboratories, nuclear power stations, military base, and airports.

This book provides the first critical edition of Ibn al-Haytham's On the Shape of the Eclipse with English translation and commentary, which records the first scientific analysis of the camera obscura. On the Shape of the Eclipse includes pioneering research on the conditions of formation of the image, in a time deemed to be committed to aniconism. It also provides an early attempt to merge the two branches of Ancient optics-the theory of light and theory of vision. What perhaps most strongly characterizes this treatise is the close interaction of a geometric analysis of light and experimental reasoning. Ibn al-Haytham conducted his experiments in a systematic way by varying all that could be changed: the shape and size of the aperture, the focal length of the camera obscura, the distance and shape of the celestial bodies. This way, he achieved a thorough understanding. This work represents a decisive step in both the history of optics and the application of the experimental method that was just as efficient in medieval Islam as today.

This is a practical source on recent developments in coherent and nonlinear lightwave communications. The book systematically presents up-to-date explanations of all the relevant physical principles and recent research in this emerging area. Providing an unparallelled engineering-level treatment (with 700 equations), this reference also describes the progression of coherent and nonlinear technology from yesterday's experimental field to today's practical applications tool. This work is intended as a tool for research telecommunication engineers, applications engineers working with broadband telecom systems and networks, and postgraduate students.

As the need for geographical data rapidly expands in the 21st century, so too do applications of small-format aerial photography for a wide range of scientific, commercial and governmental purposes. Small-format Aerial Photography (SFAP) presents basic and advanced principles and techniques with an emphasis on digital cameras. Unmanned platforms are described in considerable detail, including kites, helium and hot-air blimps, model airplanes, and paragliders. Several case studies, primarily drawn from the geosciences, are presented to demonstrate how SFAP is actually used in various applications. Many of these integrate SFAP with ground-based investigations as well as conventional large-format aerial photography, satellite imagery, and other kinds of geographic information.