"La narraci6n literaria es la evocaci6n de las nostalgias. " ("Literary narration is the evocation of nostalgia. ") G. G. Marquez, interview in Puerta del Sol, VII, 4, 1996. A Personal Prehistory In 1972 I started cooperating with members of the Biodynamics Research Unit at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which was under the direction of Earl H. Wood. At that time, their ambitious (and eventually realized) dream was to build the Dynamic Spatial Reconstructor (DSR), a device capable of collecting data regarding the attenuation of X-rays through the human body fast enough for stop-action imaging the full extent of the beating heart inside the thorax. Such a device can be applied to study the dynamic processes of cardiopulmonary physiology, in a manner similar to the application of an ordinary cr (computerized tomography) scanner to observing stationary anatomy. The standard method of displaying the information produced by a cr scanner consists of showing two-dimensional images, corresponding to maps of the X-ray attenuation coefficient in slices through the body. (Since different tissue types attenuate X-rays differently, such maps provide a good visualization of what is in the body in those slices; bone - which attenuates X-rays a lot - appears white, air appears black, tumors typically appear less dark than the surrounding healthy tissue, etc. ) However, it seemed to me that this display mode would not be appropriate for the DSR.

Data Preprocessing for Data Mining addresses one of the most important issues within the well-known Knowledge Discovery from Data process. Data directly taken from the source will likely have inconsistencies, errors or most importantly, it is not ready to be considered for a data mining process. Furthermore, the increasing amount of data in recent science, industry and business applications, calls to the requirement of more complex tools to analyze it. Thanks to data preprocessing, it is possible to convert the impossible into possible, adapting the data to fulfill the input demands of each data mining algorithm. Data preprocessing includes the data reduction techniques, which aim at reducing the complexity of the data, detecting or removing irrelevant and noisy elements from the data. This book is intended to review the tasks that fill the gap between the data acquisition from the source and the data mining process. A comprehensive look from a practical point of view, including basic concepts and surveying the techniques proposed in the specialized literature, is given.Each chapter is a stand-alone guide to a particular data preprocessing topic, from basic concepts and detailed descriptions of classical algorithms, to an incursion of an exhaustive catalog of recent developments. The in-depth technical descriptions make this book suitable for technical professionals, researchers, senior undergraduate and graduate students in data science, computer science and engineering.

Ultra-High Field Neuro MRI is a comprehensive reference and educational resource on the current state of neuroimaging at ultra-high field (UHF), with an emphasis on 7T. Sections cover the MR physics aspects of UHF, including the technical challenges and practical solutions that have enabled the rapid growth of 7T MRI. Individual chapters are dedicated to the different techniques that most strongly benefit from UHF, as well as chapters with a focus on different application areas in anatomical, functional and metabolic imaging. Finally, several chapters highlight the neurological and psychiatric applications for which 7T has shown benefits. The book is aimed at scientists who develop MR technologies and support clinical and neuroscience research, as well as users who want to benefit from UHF neuro MR techniques in their work. It also provides a comprehensive introduction to the field.

DSP Integrated Circuits establishes the essential interface between theory of digital signal processing algorithms and their implementation in full-custom CMOS technology. With an emphasis on techniques for co-design of DSP algorithms and hardware in order to achieve high performance in terms of throughput, low power consumption, and design effort, this book provides the professional engineer, researcher, and student with a firm foundation in the theoretical as well as the practical aspects of designing high performance DSP integrated circuits.
Centered around three design case studies, DSP Integrated Circuits thoroughly details a high-performance FFT processor, a 2-D Discrete Cosine Transform for HDTV, and a wave digital filter for interpolation of the sampling frequency. The case studies cover the essential parts of the design process in a top-down manner, from specification of algorithm design and optimization, scheduling of operations, synthesis of optimal architectures, realization of processing elements, to the floor-planning of the integrated circuit.
* Details the theory and design of digital filters - particularly wave digital filters, multi-rate digital filters, fast Fourier transforms (FFT's), and discrete cosine transforms (DCT's)
* Follows three complete "real-world" case studies throughout the book
* Provides complete coverage of finite word length effects in DSP algorithms
* In-depth survey of the computational properties of DSP algorithms and their mapping to optimal architectures
* Outlines DSP architectures and parallel, bit-serial, and distributed arithmetic
* Presents the design process in a top-down manner and incorporates numerous problemsand solutions

Expand your creative ability by mastering the software tools. "DVD Authoring with Adobe Encore DVD" covers the toolset in a manner that demonstrates real-world application. The downloadable resources with source material walks you through the process. You will learn how to avoid common pitfalls and learn about the entire DVD authoring workflow.

In contrast with trichromatic image sensors, imaging spectroscopy can capture the properties of the materials in a scene. This implies that scene analysis using imaging spectroscopy has the capacity to robustly encode material signatures, infer object composition and recover photometric parameters.

This landmark text/reference presents a detailed analysis of spectral imaging, describing how it can be used in elegant and efficient ways for the purposes of material identification, object recognition and scene understanding. The opportunities and challenges of combining spatial and spectral information are explored in depth, as are a wide range of applications from surveillance and computational photography, to biosecurity and resource exploration.

Topics and features: discusses spectral image acquisition by hyperspectral cameras, and the process of spectral image formation; examines models of surface reflectance, the recovery of photometric invariants, and the estimation of the illuminant power spectrum from spectral imagery; describes spectrum representations for the interpolation of reflectance and radiance values, and the classification of spectra; reviews the use of imaging spectroscopy for material identification; explores the recovery of reflection geometry from image reflectance; investigates spectro-polarimetric imagery, and the recovery of object shape and material properties using polarimetric images captured from a single view.

An essential resource for researchers and graduate students of computer vision and pattern recognition, this comprehensive introduction to imaging spectroscopy for scene analysis will also be of great use to practitioners interested in shape analysis employing polarimetric imaging, and material recognition and classification using hyperspectral or multispectral data.

This book lays out all the latest research in the area of multimedia data hiding. The book introduces multimedia signal processing and information hiding techniques. It includes multimedia representation, digital watermarking fundamentals and requirements of watermarking. It moves on to cover the recent advances in multimedia signal processing, before presenting information hiding techniques including steganography, secret sharing and watermarking. The final part of this book includes practical applications of intelligent multimedia signal processing and data hiding systems.

Advanced Video-Based Surveillance Systems presents second generation surveillance systems that automatically process large sets of signals for performance monitoring tasks. Included is coverage of different architecture designs, customization of surveillance architecture for end-users, advances in the processing of imaging sequences, security systems, sensors, and remote monitoring projects. Examples are provided of surveillance applications in highway traffic control, subway stations, wireless communications, and other areas. This work will be of interest to researchers in image processing, computer vision, digital signal processing, and telecommunications.

Information technology is the enabling foundation for all of human activity at the beginning of the 21st century, and advances in this area are crucial to all of us. These advances are taking place all over the world and can only be followed and perceived when researchers from all over the world assemble, and exchange their ideas in conferences such as the one presented in this proceedings volume regarding the 26th International Symposium on Computer and Information Systems, held at the Royal Society in London on 26th to 28th September 2011. Computer and Information Sciences II contains novel advances in the state of the art covering applied research in electrical and computer engineering and computer science, across the broad area of information technology. It provides access to the main innovative activities in research across the world, and points to the results obtained recently by some of the most active teams in both Europe and Asia.

This is the second volume in a trilogy on modern Signal Processing. The three books provide a concise exposition of signal processing topics, and a guide to support individual practical exploration based on MATLAB programs. This second book focuses on recent developments in response to the demands of new digital technologies. It is divided into two parts: the first part includes four chapters on the decomposition and recovery of signals, with special emphasis on images. In turn, the second part includes three chapters and addresses important data-based actions, such as adaptive filtering, experimental modeling, and classification.

This book presents an overview of the state of the art in video coding technology. Specifically, it introduces the tools of the AVS2 standard, describing how AVS2 can help to achieve a significant improvement in coding efficiency for future video networks and applications by incorporating smarter coding tools such as scene video coding. Features: introduces the basic concepts in video coding, and presents a short history of video coding technology and standards; reviews the coding framework, main coding tools, and syntax structure of AVS2; describes the key technologies used in the AVS2 standard, including prediction coding, transform coding, entropy coding, and loop-filters; examines efficient tools for scene video coding and surveillance video, and the details of a promising intelligent video coding system; discusses optimization technologies in video coding systems; provides a review of image, video, and 3D content quality assessment algorithms; surveys the hot research topics in video compression.

This text explains how advances in wavelet analysis provide new means for multiresolution analysis and describes its wide array of powerful tools. The book covers such topics as: the variations of the windowed Fourier transform; constructions of special waveforms suitable for specific tasks; the use of redundant representations in reconstruction and enhancement; applications of efficient numerical compression as a tool for fast numerical analysis; and approximation properties of various waveforms in different contexts.

Video monitoring has become a vital aspect within the global society as it helps prevent crime, promote safety, and track daily activities such as traffic. As technology in the area continues to improve, it is necessary to evaluate how video is being processed to improve the quality of images. Applied Video Processing in Surveillance and Monitoring Systems investigates emergent techniques in video and image processing by evaluating such topics as segmentation, noise elimination, encryption, and classification. Featuring real-time applications, empirical research, and vital frameworks within the field, this publication is a critical reference source for researchers, professionals, engineers, academicians, advanced-level students, and technology developers.

This book is a collection of research papers selected for presentation at the International Conference on Smart Computational Methods in Continuum Mechanics 2021, organized by Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and the Institute for Computer Aided Design of Russian Academy of Sciences. The work is presented in two volumes. The primary objective of the book is to report the state-of-the-art on smart computational paradigms in continuum mechanics and explore the use of artificial intelligence paradigms such as neural nets and machine learning for improving the performance of the designed engineering systems. The book includes up-to-date smart computational methods which are used to solve problems in continuum mechanics, engineering, seismic prospecting, non-destructive testing, and so on. The main features of the book are the research papers on the application of novel smart methods including neural nets and machine learning, computational algorithms, smart software systems, and high-performance computer systems for solving complex engineering problems. The case studies pertaining to the real-world applications in the above fields are included. The book presents a collection of best research papers in English language from some of the world leaders in the field of smart system modelling and design of engineering systems.

This book brings together concepts and approaches from the fields of photogrammetry and computer vision. In particular, it examines techniques relating to quantitative image analysis, such as orientation, camera modelling, system calibration, self-calibration and error handling. The chapters have been contributed by experts in the relevant fields, and there are examples from automated inspection systems and other real-world cases. The book provides study material for students, researchers, developers and practitioners.

Mathematical Methods for Signal and Image Analysis and Representation presents the mathematical methodology for generic image analysis tasks. In the context of this book an image may be any m-dimensional empirical signal living on an n-dimensional smooth manifold (typically, but not necessarily, a subset of spacetime). The existing literature on image methodology is rather scattered and often limited to either a deterministic or a statistical point of view. In contrast, this book brings together these seemingly different points of view in order to stress their conceptual relations and formal analogies. Furthermore, it does not focus on specific applications, although some are detailed for the sake of illustration, but on the methodological frameworks on which such applications are built, making it an ideal companion for those seeking a rigorous methodological basis for specific algorithms as well as for those interested in the fundamental methodology per se. Covering many topics at the forefront of current research, including anisotropic diffusion filtering of tensor fields, this book will be of particular interest to graduate and postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of computer vision, medical imaging and visual perception.

This book publishes a collection of original scientific research articles that address the state-of-art in using partial differential equations for image and signal processing. Coverage includes: level set methods for image segmentation and construction, denoising techniques, digital image inpainting, image dejittering, image registration, and fast numerical algorithms for solving these problems.

This book carries forward recent work on visual patterns and structures in digital images and introduces a near set-based a topology of digital images. Visual patterns arise naturally in digital images viewed as sets of non-abstract points endowed with some form of proximity (nearness) relation. Proximity relations make it possible to construct uniform topologies on the sets of points that constitute a digital image. In keeping with an interest in gaining an understanding of digital images themselves as a rich source of patterns, this book introduces the basics of digital images from a computer vision perspective. In parallel with a computer vision perspective on digital images, this book also introduces the basics of proximity spaces. Not only the traditional view of spatial proximity relations but also the more recent descriptive proximity relations are considered. The beauty of the descriptive proximity approach is that it is possible to discover visual set patterns among sets that are non-overlapping and non-adjacent spatially. By combining the spatial proximity and descriptive proximity approaches, the search for salient visual patterns in digital images is enriched, deepened and broadened. A generous provision of Matlab and Mathematica scripts are used in this book to lay bare the fabric and essential features of digital images for those who are interested in finding visual patterns in images. The combination of computer vision techniques and topological methods lead to a deep understanding of images.

Image technology is a continually evolving field with various applications such as image processing and analysis, biometrics, pattern recognition, object tracking, remote sensing, medicine diagnoses and multimedia. Significant progress has been made in the level of interest in image morphology, neural networks, full color image processing, image data compression, image recognition, and knowledge -based image analysis systems.
Computer graphics has been mainly driven by engineering design processes and has established itself as a dominating methodology in computer aided design (CAD). Subsequently, computer graphics has found applications in information visualization, computer art, digital entertainment, user interfaces, visual programming, scientific visualization, education and training. Traditionally, the image technology and the computer graphics technology have subsumed slightly different goals. In computer graphics, computers are used to create pictures, animations and simulations. The image technology, on the other hand, consists of techniques and methodologies that modify or interpret existing pictures.
Integrated Image and Graphics Technologies attempts to enhance the access points to both introductory and advanced material in this area, and to facilitate the reader with a comprehensive reference for the study of integrated technologies, systems of image and graphics conveniently and effectively. This edited volume will provide a collection of fifteen contributed chapters by experts, containing tutorial articles and new material describing in a unified way, the basic concepts, theories, characteristic features of the technology and the integration of image and graphics technologies, with recent developments and significant applications.
Integrated Image and Graphics Technologies is designed for a professional audience composed of researchers and practitioners in industry. This book is also suitable as a secondary text for graduate-level students in computer science and engineering.

Praise for the Series:
"This book will be a useful reference to control engineers and researchers. The papers contained cover well the recent advances in the field of modern control theory."
--IEEE Group Correspondence
"This book will help all those researchers who valiantly try to keep abreast of what is new in the theory and practice of optimal control."
--Control

In this book, three main notions will be used in the editors search of improvements in various areas of computer graphics: Artificial Intelligence, Viewpoint Complexity and Human Intelligence. Several Artificial Intelligence techniques are used in presented intelligent scene modelers, mainly declarative ones. Among them, the mostly used techniques are Expert systems, Constraint Satisfaction Problem resolution and Machine-learning. The notion of viewpoint complexity, that is complexity of a scene seen from a given viewpoint, will be used in improvement proposals for a lot of computer graphics problems like scene understanding, virtual world exploration, image-based modeling and rendering, ray tracing and radiosity. Very often, viewpoint complexity is used in conjunction with Artificial Intelligence techniques like Heuristic search and Problem resolution. The notions of artificial Intelligence and Viewpoint Complexity may help to automatically resolve a big number of computer graphics problems. However, there are special situations where is required to find a particular solution for each situation. In such a case, human intelligence has to replace, or to be combined with, artificial intelligence. Such cases, and proposed solutions are also presented in this book.

Principles of Visual Information Retrieval introduces the basic concepts and techniques in VIR and develops a foundation that can be used for further research and study.Divided into 2 parts, the first part describes the fundamental principles. A chapter is devoted to each of the main features of VIR, such as colour, texture and shape-based search. There is coverage of search techniques for time-based image sequences or videos, and an overview of how to combine all the basic features described and integrate context into the search process.The second part looks at advanced topics such as multimedia query, specification, visual learning and semantics, and offers state-of-the-art coverage that is not available in any other book on the market.This book will be essential reading for researchers in VIR, and for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students on courses such as Multimedia Information Retrieval, Multimedia Databases, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

This indispensable text introduces the foundations of three-dimensional computer vision and describes recent contributions to the field. Fully revised and updated, this much-anticipated new edition reviews a range of triangulation-based methods, including linear and bundle adjustment based approaches to scene reconstruction and camera calibration, stereo vision, point cloud segmentation, and pose estimation of rigid, articulated, and flexible objects. Also covered are intensity-based techniques that evaluate the pixel grey values in the image to infer three-dimensional scene structure, and point spread function based approaches that exploit the effect of the optical system. The text shows how methods which integrate these concepts are able to increase reconstruction accuracy and robustness, describing applications in industrial quality inspection and metrology, human-robot interaction, and remote sensing.

Covers advances in the field of computer techniques and algorithms in digital signal processing.