Efficient random saliency map detection

Most image retargeting algorithms rely heavily on valid saliency map detection to proceed. However, the inefficiency of high quality saliency map detection severely restricts the application of these image retargeting methods. In this paper, we propose a random algorithm for efficient context-aware saliency map detection. Our method is a multiple level saliency map detection algorithm that integrates multiple level coarse saliency maps into the resulting saliency map and selectively updates unreliable regio...     

Binding Virtual Environments to Toolkit Capabilities

There are many toolkits and development environments that aid the process of constructing virtual environment applications. Many of these development environments encourage customising a virtual environment's design while rapid prototyping within the confines of a toolkit's capabilities. Thus the choice of the technology and its associated support has been made independent of the end-use requirements of the final system. This can bias a virtual environment's design by implementation based constraints. We propose that an alternative approach is the consideration of virtual environment requirements in the context of an inspectable design model, to identify the requirements that a toolkit will need to support. In the context of an example, we present a selection of design requirements that we consider important for virtual environment design in general. We explore how these requirements might be mapped to different capabilities using Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) as a concrete example of a platform technology.     

A Novel Approach Makes Higher Order Wavelets Really Efficient for Radiosity

Since wavelets were introduced in the radiosity algorithm ⁵, surprisingly little research has been devoted to higher order wavelets and their use in radiosity algorithms. A previous study ¹³ has shown that wavelet radiosity, and especially higher order wavelet radiosity was not bringing significant improvements over hierarchical radiosity and was having a very important extra memory cost, thus prohibiting any effective computation. In this paper, we present a new implementation of wavelets in the radiosity algorithm, that is substantially different from previous implementations in several key areas (refinement oracle, link storage, resolution algorithm). We show that, with this implementation, higher order wavelets are actually bringing an improvement over standard hierarchical radiosity and lower order wavelets.     

Interpolatory √3-Subdivision

We present a new interpolatory subdivision scheme for triangle meshes. Instead of splitting each edge and performing a 1-to-4 split for every triangle we compute a new vertex for every triangle and retriangulate the old and the new vertices. Using this refinement operator the number of triangles only triples in each step. New vertices are computed with a Butterfly like scheme. In order to obtain overall smooth surfaces special rules are necessary in the neighborhood of extraordinary vertices. The scheme is suitable for adaptive refinement by using an easy forward strategy. No temporary triangles are produced here which allows simpler data structures and makes the scheme easy to implement.     

面向广电节目的虚拟人手语合成显示平台研究

基于中国手语合成技术的虚拟人手语视频显示平台技术是一个全新的课题.为了满足广电新闻节目对手势运动流畅性要求,实现了一种上下文相关的手势运动平滑算法,该方法能够充分利用前后两帧的差异来实现手势运动的平滑过渡,其视觉感观效果较传统插值算法更加平滑自然;同时提出了一种基于统计和规则相结合的手势运动重定向算法,在统计方法的基础上针对不同骨架大小以及运动特性进行规则约束,使得标准模型手势运动数据应用到新模型上而不失其准确性;最后,通过扩展基本手语词表达形式并基于alpha融合技术实现了面向广电新闻节目的虚拟人手语合成显示平台并取得很好的结果.     

Motion retargeting and evaluation for VR-based training of free motions

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as one of the important and effective tools for education and training. Most VR-based training systems are situation based, where the trainees are trained for discrete decision making in special situations presented by the VR environments. In contrast, this paper discusses the application of VR to a different class of training, for learning free motion, often required in sports and the arts. We propose a VR-based motion-training framework that contains an intuitive motion-guiding interface, posture-oriented motion retargeting, and an evaluation and advice scheme for corrective feedback. Applications of the proposed framework to simple fencing training and a dance imitation game are demonstrated.     

一种新的手势运动数据重定向方法

提出了一种新的重新定向手势运动数据的方法.它把通过运动捕获设备捕获的手势数据重新定向到具有不同大小和比例的虚拟人模型上,从而生成与原运动含义相同且真实自然的动画.首先通过手势特征分析在人体上选择关键敏感点和次关键敏感点,然后利用提出的基于空间相对位置的方法确定重定向后敏感点的位置,最后采用改进的逆运动学方法实现了手势运动的重定向.实验表明,提出的方法使得中国手语合成系统的可懂度提高30%以上.     

图像适应算法中非冗余显著图的计算

近些年为了将大尺寸数字图像的内容自适应地显示在手机、PDA（掌上电脑）等屏幕较小的显示终端上以得到更好的显示效果,图像适应得到了很大的关注。现有的大量方法使用了不同的重要度映射来得到最优的图像缩放结果。图像适应算法就是为了去除图像中的不重要信息,为此提出在图像适应方法中使用非冗余显著图的计算来分析不重要信息的位置。首先,引入了图像分解,提出图像高梯度区域的冗余信息。然后,提出纹理梯度的概念,并进一步针对细节信息建立了纹理冗余度分析机制。纹理梯度非常适合卡通图像分析,从而将现有图像适应方法推广到非真实图像。大量实验结果显示,本文方法并不受图像适应算子的影响,该方法对具有复杂背景和包含多目标物体等的图像适应问题都比较鲁棒。     

Emerging Immunotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Several immune checkpoint molecules and immune targets in leukemic cells have been investigated. Recent studies have suggested the potential clinical benefits of immuno-oncology (IO) therapy against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially targeting CD33, CD123, and CLL-1, as well as immune checkpoint inhibitors (e.g., anti-PD (programmed cell death)-1 and anti-CTLA4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4) antibodies) with or without conventional chemotherapy. Early-phase clinical trials of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T or natural killer (NK) cells for relapsed/refractory AML showed complete remission (CR) or marked reduction of marrow blasts in a few enrolled patients. Bi-/tri-specific antibodies (e.g., bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) and dual-affinity retargeting (DART)) exhibited 11–67% CR rates with 13–78% risk of cytokine-releasing syndrome (CRS). Conventional chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-1/anti-CTLA4 antibody for relapsed/refractory AML showed 10–36% CR rates with 7–24 month-long median survival. The current advantages of IO therapy in the field of AML are summarized herein. However, although cancer vaccination should be included in the concept of IO therapy, it is not mentioned in this review because of the paucity of relevant evidence.     

Facial animation retargeting and control based on a human appearance space

Expressive facial animations are essential to enhance the realism and the credibility of virtual characters. Parameter‐based animation methods offer a precise control over facial configurations while performance‐based animation benefits from the naturalness of captured human motion. In this paper, we propose an animation system that gathers the advantages of both approaches. By analyzing a database of facial motion, we create the human appearance space. The appearance space provides a coherent and continuous parameterization of human facial movements, while encapsulating the coherence of real facial deformations. We present a method to optimally construct an analogous appearance face for a synthetic character. The link between both appearance spaces makes it possible to retarget facial animation on a synthetic face from a video source. Moreover, the topological characteristics of the appearance space allow us to detect the principal variation patterns of a face and automatically reorganize them on a low‐dimensional control space. The control space acts as an interactive user‐interface to manipulate the facial expressions of any synthetic face. This interface makes it simple and intuitive to generate still facial configurations for keyframe animation, as well as complete temporal sequences of facial movements. The resulting animations combine the flexibility of a parameter‐based system and the realism of real human motion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.