The need of video compression in the modern age of visual communication cannot be over-emphasized. This monograph will provide useful information to the postgraduate students and researchers who wish to work in the domain of VLSI design for video processing applications. In this book, one can find an in-depth discussion of several motion estimation algorithms and their VLSI implementation as conceived and developed by the authors. It records an account of research done involving fast three step search, successive elimination, one-bit transformation and its effective combination with diamond search and dynamic pixel truncation techniques. Two appendices provide a number of instances of proof of concept through Matlab and Verilog program segments. In this aspect, the book can be considered as first of its kind. The architectures have been developed with an eye to their applicability in everyday low-power handheld appliances including video camcorders and smartphones.

The book describes recent research results in the areas of modelling, creation, management and presentation of interactive 3D multimedia content. The book describes the current state of the art in the field and identifies the most important research and design issues. Consecutive chapters address these issues. These are: database modelling of 3D content, security in 3D environments, describing interactivity of content, searching content, visualization of search results, modelling mixed reality content, and efficient creation of interactive 3D content. Each chapter is illustrated with example applications based on the proposed approach. The final chapter discusses some important ethical issues related to the widespread use of virtual environments in everyday life. The book provides ready to use solutions for many important problems related to the creation of interactive 3D multimedia applications and will be a primary reading for researchers and developers working in this domain.

This book lies at the interface of machine learning - a subfield of computer science that develops algorithms for challenging tasks such as shape or image recognition, where traditional algorithms fail - and photonics - the physical science of light, which underlies many of the optical communications technologies used in our information society. It provides a thorough introduction to reservoir computing and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Recently, photonic implementations of reservoir computing (a machine learning algorithm based on artificial neural networks) have made a breakthrough in optical computing possible. In this book, the author pushes the performance of these systems significantly beyond what was achieved before. By interfacing a photonic reservoir computer with a high-speed electronic device (an FPGA), the author successfully interacts with the reservoir computer in real time, allowing him to considerably expand its capabilities and range of possible applications. Furthermore, the author draws on his expertise in machine learning and FPGA programming to make progress on a very different problem, namely the real-time image analysis of optical coherence tomography for atherosclerotic arteries.

Color perception plays an important role in object recognition and scene understanding both for humans and intelligent vision systems. Recent advances in digital color imaging and computer hardware technology have led to an explosion in the use of color images in a variety of applications including medical imaging, content-based image retrieval, biometrics, watermarking, digital inpainting, remote sensing, visual quality inspection, among many others. As a result, automated processing and analysis of color images has become an active area of research, to which the large number of publications of the past two decades bears witness. The multivariate nature of color image data presents new challenges for researchers and practitioners as the numerous methods developed for single channel images are often not directly applicable to multichannel ones. The goal of this volume is to summarize the state-of-the-art in the early stages of the color image processing pipeline."

Modern-day radar problems can't be solved by conventional radar technology -- but they can be solved with the ground-breaking signal processing and analysis methods presented in this unique, expertly authored book. Illustrated with nearly 400 figures and including over 70 equations.

This is the second volume of Morgan Kaufmann's "GPU Computing Gems," offering an all-new set of insights, ideas, and practical "hands-on" skills from researchers and developers worldwide. Each chapter gives you a window into the work being performed across a variety of application domains, and the opportunity to witness the impact of parallel GPU computing on the efficiency of scientific research.

"GPU Computing Gems: Jade Edition" showcases the latest research solutions with GPGPU and CUDA, including: Improving memory access patterns for cellular automata using CUDALarge-scale gas turbine simulations on GPU clustersIdentifying and mitigating credit risk using large-scale economic capital simulationsGPU-powered MATLAB acceleration with JacketBiologically-inspired machine visionAn efficient CUDA algorithm for the maximum network flow problem"30 more chapters" of innovative GPU computing ideas, written to be accessible to researchers from any industry

"GPU Computing Gems: Jade Edition" contains 100% new material covering a variety of application domains: algorithms and data structures, engineering, interactive physics for games, computational finance, and programming tools.
This second volume of "GPU Computing Gems "offers 100% new material of interest across industry, including finance, medicine, imaging, engineering, gaming, environmental science, green computing, and more Covers new tools and frameworks for productive GPU computing application development and offers immediate benefit to researchers developing improved programming environments for GPUsEven more hands-on, proven techniques demonstrating how general purpose GPU computing is changing scientific research Distills the best practices of the community of CUDA programmers; each chapter provides insights and ideas as well as 'hands on' skills applicable to a variety of fields

This book describes the development of a new low-cost medium wavelength IR (MWIR) monolithic imager technology for high-speed uncooled industrial applications. It takes the baton on the latest technological advances in the field of vapor phase deposition (VPD) PbSe-based MWIR detection accomplished by the industrial partner NIT S.L., adding fundamental knowledge on the investigation of novel VLSI analog and mixed-signal design techniques at circuit and system levels for the development of the readout integrated device attached to the detector. In order to fulfill the operational requirements of VPD PbSe, this work proposes null inter-pixel crosstalk vision sensor architectures based on a digital-only focal plane array (FPA) of configurable pixel sensors. Each digital pixel sensor (DPS) cell is equipped with fast communication modules, self-biasing, offset cancellation, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and fixed pattern noise (FPN) correction. In-pixel power consumption is minimized by the use of comprehensive MOSFET subthreshold operation.

The book puts special stress on the contemporary techniques for reasoning-based image processing and analysis: learning based image representation and advanced video coding; intelligent image processing and analysis in medical vision systems; similarity learning models for image reconstruction; visual perception for mobile robot motion control, simulation of human brain activity in the analysis of video sequences; shape-based invariant features extraction; essential of paraconsistent neural networks, creativity and intelligent representation in computational systems. The book comprises 14 chapters. Each chapter is a small monograph, representing resent investigations of authors in the area. The topics of the chapters cover wide scientific and application areas and complement each-other very well. The chapters' content is based on fundamental theoretical presentations, followed by experimental results and comparison with similar techniques. The size of the chapters is well-ballanced which permits a thorough presentation of the investigated problems. The authors are from universities and R&D institutions all over the world; some of the chapters are prepared by international teams. The book will be of use for university and PhD students, researchers and software developers working in the area of digital image and video processing and analysis.

A common complaint heard in today's business office is, There is paper everywhere but I cannot find the document that I'm looking for It is estimated that 90 percent of all data and information currently being processed and distributed within offices and between organizations resides on paper. Finding the physical space to store this paper can be a key problem. To overcome this problem and others, there is a need for a dramatic new approach to information processing found in business. Such an approach is found in this unique and useful volume.

Essentially, image processing systems in business use today's computer technology to solve paper processing and storage problems. Their main means of processing is performed electronically, that is, documents are captured initially on an electronic medium and forwarded to other users in the same mode. In this manner, their essential means of communicating with users is in an electronic format versus a paper one. Also, image processing systems in business are much more flexible in meeting changing user needs, especially when the data is stored on optical disk.

This thesis demonstrates techniques that provide faster and more accurate solutions to a variety of problems in machine learning and signal processing. The author proposes a "greedy" algorithm, deriving sparse solutions with guarantees of optimality. The use of this algorithm removes many of the inaccuracies that occurred with the use of previous models.

This book gives a concise introduction to both image and video processing, providing a balanced coverage between theory, applications and standards. It gives an introduction to both 2-D and 3-D signal processing theory, supported by an introduction to random processes and some essential results from information theory, providing the necessary foundation for a full understanding of the image and video processing concepts that follow. A significant new feature is the explanation of practical network coding methods for image and video transmission. There is also coverage of new approaches such as: super-resolution methods, non-local processing, and directional transforms.

This book also has on-line support that contains many short MATLAB programs that complement examples and exercises on multidimensional signal, image, and video processing. There are numerous short video clips showing applications in video processing and coding, plus a copy of the vidview video player for playing .yuv video files on a Windows PC and an illustration of the effect of packet loss on H.264/AVC coded bitstreams.

New to this edition:

New appendices on random processes, information theory

New coverage of image analysis - edge detection, linking, clustering, and segmentation

Expanded coverage on image sensing and perception, including color spaces.

Now summarizes the new MPEG coding standards: scalable video coding (SVC) and multiview video coding (MVC), in addition to coverage of H.264/AVC.

Updated video processing material including new example on scalable video coding and more material on object- and region-based video coding.

More on video coding for networks including practical network coding (PNC), highlighting the significant advantages of PNC for both video downloading and streaming.

New coverage of super-resolution methods for image and video.
Only R&D level tutorial that gives an integrated treatment of image and video processing - topics that are interconnected.
New chapters on introductory random processes, information theory, and image enhancement and analysis
Coverage and discussion of the latest standards in video coding: H.264/AVC and the new scalable video standard (SVC)

This work offers a practical, non-theoretical introduction to the principles, application and benefits of multi-sensor technology in smart weapon development, surveillance systems, and an increasing variety of non-military applications. It also provides an overview of MMW (Millimeter-Wave) and IR (infrared) sensor constraints, design principles, system alternatives and targeting applications.

A 3D user interface (3DUI) is an interface in which the user performs tasks in three dimensions. For example, interactions using hand/body gestures, interaction using a motion controller (e.g. Sony PlayStation Move), interaction with virtual reality devices using tracked motion controllers, etc. All these technologies which let a user interact in three dimensions are called 3D user interface technologies. These 3D user interfaces have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. This book presents state of the art research on exploring 3D user interface technologies for improving video games. It also presents a review of research work done in this area and describes experiments focused on usage of stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and hand gesture-based control in gaming scenarios. These experiments are systematic studies in gaming environments and are aimed at understanding the effect of the underlined 3D interface technology on the gaming experience of a user. Based on these experiments, several design guidelines are presented which can aid game designers in designing better immersive games.

Multimedia systems and content-based image retrieval are very important areas of research in computer technology. Numerous research works are being done in these fields at present. These two areas are changing our life-styles because they together cover creation, maintenance, accessing and retrieval of video, audio, image, textual and graphic data. But still several important issues in these areas remain unresolved and further research works are needed to be done for better techniques and applications. Multimedia Systems and Content-Based Image Retrieval addresses these unresolved issues and highlights current research.

..".the perfect companion to "Programming Massively Parallel Processors" by Hwu & Kirk." -Nicolas Pinto, Research Scientist at Harvard & MIT, NVIDIA Fellow 2009-2010

Graphics processing units (GPUs) can do much more than render graphics. Scientists and researchers increasingly look to GPUs to improve the efficiency and performance of computationally-intensive experiments across a range of disciplines.

"GPU Computing Gems: Emerald Edition" brings their techniques to you, showcasing GPU-based solutions including: Black hole simulations with CUDAGPU-accelerated computation and interactive display of molecular orbitalsTemporal data mining for neuroscienceGPU -based parallelization for fast circuit optimizationFast graph cuts for computer visionReal-time stereo on GPGPU using progressive multi-resolution adaptive windowsGPU image demosaicingTomographic image reconstruction from unordered lines with CUDAMedical image processing using GPU -accelerated ITK image filters"41 more chapters" of innovative GPU computing ideas, written to be accessible to researchers from any domain

"GPU Computing Gems: Emerald Edition" is the first volume in Morgan Kaufmann's Applications of GPU Computing Series, offering the latest insights and research in computer vision, electronic design automation, emerging data-intensive applications, life sciences, medical imaging, ray tracing and rendering, scientific simulation, signal and audio processing, statistical modeling, and video / image processing.
Covers the breadth of industry from scientific simulation and electronic design automation to audio / video processing, medical imaging, computer vision, and moreMany examples leverage NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture, the most widely-adopted massively parallel programming solutionOffers insights and ideas as well as practical "hands-on" skills you can immediately put to use

This book provides a general overview of multiple instance learning (MIL), defining the framework and covering the central paradigms. The authors discuss the most important algorithms for MIL such as classification, regression and clustering. With a focus on classification, a taxonomy is set and the most relevant proposals are specified. Efficient algorithms are developed to discover relevant information when working with uncertainty. Key representative applications are included. This book carries out a study of the key related fields of distance metrics and alternative hypothesis. Chapters examine new and developing aspects of MIL such as data reduction for multi-instance problems and imbalanced MIL data. Class imbalance for multi-instance problems is defined at the bag level, a type of representation that utilizes ambiguity due to the fact that bag labels are available, but the labels of the individual instances are not defined. Additionally, multiple instance multiple label learning is explored. This learning framework introduces flexibility and ambiguity in the object representation providing a natural formulation for representing complicated objects. Thus, an object is represented by a bag of instances and is allowed to have associated multiple class labels simultaneously. This book is suitable for developers and engineers working to apply MIL techniques to solve a variety of real-world problems. It is also useful for researchers or students seeking a thorough overview of MIL literature, methods, and tools.

"Computer and Information Sciences" is a unique and comprehensive review of advanced technology and research in the field of Information Technology. It provides an up to date snapshot of research in Europe and the Far East (Hong Kong, Japan and China) in the most active areas of information technology, including Computer Vision, Data Engineering, Web Engineering, Internet Technologies, Bio-Informatics and System Performance Evaluation Methodologies.

This volume contains the proceedings from two closely related workshops: Computational Diffusion MRI (CDMRI 13) and Mathematical Methods from Brain Connectivity (MMBC 13), held under the auspices of the 16th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, which took place in Nagoya, Japan, September 2013.

Inside, readers will find contributions ranging from mathematical foundations and novel methods for the validation of inferring large-scale connectivity from neuroimaging data to the statistical analysis of the data, accelerated methods for data acquisition, and the most recent developments on mathematical diffusion modeling.

This volume offers a valuable starting point for anyone interested in learning computational diffusion MRI and mathematical methods for brain connectivity as well as offers new perspectives and insights on current research challenges for those currently in the field. It will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in computer science, MR physics, and applied mathematics.

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The development of new-generation micro-manufacturing technologies and systems has revolutionised the way products are designed and manufactured today with a s- nificant impact in a number of key industrial sectors. Micro-manufacturing techno- gies are often described as disruptive, enabling and interdisciplinary leading to the creation of whole new classes of products that were previously not feasible to ma- facture. While key processes for volume manufacture of micro-parts such as mach- ing and moulding are becoming mature technologies, micro-assembly remains a key challenge for the cost-effective manufacture of complex micro-products. The ability to manufacture customizable micro-products that can be delivered in variable volumes within relatively short timescales is very much dependent on the level of development of the micro-assembly processes, positioning, alignment and measurement techniques, gripping and feeding approaches and devices. Micro-assembly has developed rapidly over the last few years and all the pred- tions are that it will remain a critical technology for high-value products in a number of key sectors such as healthcare, communications, defence and aerospace. The key challenge is to match the significant technological developments with a new gene- tion of micro-products that will establish firmly micro-assembly as a mature manuf- turing process. th The book includes the set of papers presented at the 5 International Precision - sembly Seminar IPAS 2010 held in Chamonix, France from the 14th to the 17th February 2010.

A principal aim of computer graphics is to generate images that look as real as photographs. Realistic computer graphics imagery has however proven to be quite challenging to produce, since the appearance of materials arises from complicated physical processes that are difficult to analytically model and simulate, and image-based modeling of real material samples is often impractical due to the high-dimensional space of appearance data that needs to be acquired.

This book presents a general framework based on the inherent coherency in the appearance data of materials to make image-based appearance modeling more tractable. We observe that this coherence manifests itself as low-dimensional structure in the appearance data, and by identifying this structure we can take advantage of it to simplify the major processes in the appearance modeling pipeline. This framework consists of two key components, namely the coherence structure and the accompanying reconstruction method to fully recover the low-dimensional appearance data from sparse measurements. Our investigation of appearance coherency has led to three major forms of low-dimensional coherence structure and three types of coherency-based reconstruction upon which our framework is built.

This coherence-based approach can be comprehensively applied to all the major elements of image-based appearance modeling, from data acquisition of real material samples to user-assisted modeling from a photograph, from synthesis of volumes to editing of material properties, and from efficient rendering algorithms to physical fabrication of objects. In this book we present several techniques built on this coherency framework to handle various appearance modeling tasks both for surface reflections and subsurface scattering, the two primary physical components that generate material appearance. We believe that coherency-based appearance modeling will make it easier and more feasible for practitioners to bring computer graphics imagery to life.

This book is aimed towards readers with an interest in computer graphics. In particular, researchers, practitioners and students will benefit from this book by learning about the underlying coherence in appearance structure and how it can be utilized to improve appearance modeling. The specific techniques presented in our manuscript can be of value to anyone who wishes to elevate the realism of their computer graphics imagery. For understanding this book, an elementary background in computer graphics is assumed, such as from an introductory college course or from practical experience with computer graphics.

The book written by Dr. Radu B. Rusu presents a detailed description of 3D Semantic Mapping in the context of mobile robot manipulation. As autonomous robotic platforms get more sophisticated manipulation capabilities, they also need more expressive and comprehensive environment models that include the objects present in the world, together with their position, form, and other semantic aspects, as well as interpretations of these objects with respect to the robot tasks.

The book proposes novel 3D feature representations called Point Feature Histograms (PFH), as well as a frameworks for the acquisition and processing of Semantic 3D Object Maps with contributions to robust registration, fast segmentation into regions, and reliable object detection, categorization, and reconstruction. These contributions have been fully implemented and empirically evaluated on different robotic systems, and have been the original kernel to the widely successful open-source project the Point Cloud Library (PCL) -- see http: //pointclouds.org.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of the latest trends/advances in subjective and objective quality evaluation for traditional visual signals, such as 2D images and video, as well as the most recent challenges for the field of multimedia quality assessment and processing, such as mobile video and social media. Readers will learn how to ensure the highest storage/delivery/ transmission quality of visual content (including image, video, graphics, animation, etc.) from the server to the consumer, under resource constraints, such as computation, bandwidth, storage space, battery life, etc.

This reference provides an in-depth discussion of the theory and application of lapped transforms (LTs). It explains how LTs can lead to a better complexity/performance trade-off than other transforms or filter bands used in signal processing. The text addresses the increased use LTs, especially with HDTV and how they may become the standard for high-quality audio coding.

This text covers state-of-the-art color image and video enhancement techniques. The book examines the multivariate nature of color image/video data as it pertains to contrast enhancement, color correction (equalization, harmonization, normalization, balancing, constancy, etc.), noise removal and smoothing. This book also discusses color and contrast enhancement in vision sensors and applications of image and video enhancement.