Real world activity summary for senior home monitoring

It is a common knowledge that the daily activities of senior people tell a lot about their health condition. Thus, we believe that analysing their activities at home will improve the health care. Toward this goal, we propose a senior home activity summary system. There are two challenging problems in such a real world application. First, the amount of data for different activity categories is extremely unbalanced, which severely degrades the classifying performance. Second, senior’s activities are usually accompanied by nurse’s walking. It is impractical to predefine and label all the possible activities of all the potential visitors. Consequently, we propose a technique called subspace Naive-Bayesian Mutual Information Maximization (sNBMIM). It divides the feature space into a number of subspaces and allows the kernel and normalization parameters to vary between different subspaces. Moreover, we propose a novel feature filtering technique to reduce or eliminate the effects of the interest points that belong to other people. To evaluate the proposed activity summary system, we have collected a Senior home Activity Recognition dataset (UESTC-SAR), and performed activity recognition for eight categories. The experimental results show that the proposed system provides quite accurate activity summaries for a real world application scenario.     

Real world anti-virus product reviews and evaluations — Part 2

This article discusses frequently encountered errors in the evaluation process relative to anti-virus software selection by examining some of the methods commonly used by corporate and governmental personnel working in the area of Management Information Systems (MIS). In addition to discussing inherent problems, we will suggest alternative methodologies for evaluation. We will examine commercial certification processes, as well as the Information Technology Security Evaluation and Certification (ITSEC) approach, as possible models for anti-virus product evaluation and certification. Finally, we will discuss ways in which the information which is currently available may be used to help select anti-virus software which is both functional and cost efficient.     

Real world representation of a road network for route planning in GIS

This paper addresses a methodology to properly represent a road network in the geographic information system (GIS) for network analysis. Over the years, the real world has become too complex to model properly within a given information system, such as GIS. Ideally, when the real world is represented as accurately as possible, a GIS can answer a question in its virtual world that coincides with the exact answer in the real world. However, existing methods related to impedance modeling for each segment of a road network in a route planning analysis that includes only a distance or time variable do not give proper results. Hence, this study investigates how a road network can represent the real world in a GIS and offer route planning tools. To address this, first, additional realistic variables are taken into account. These include weather, sight-seeing information, road type, and so on. Second, to combine these variables, an impedance model (IM) using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) method is proposed. Finally, all of the models are implemented and verified with a sensitivity analysis. The models were successfully implemented in this work. All of the paths of the route planning analysis were successfully matched with the drivers’ paths that would normally be chosen in reality. It is anticipated that the use of other techniques such as analytical network process (ANP) in addition to AHP would be useful to overcome the aforementioned problem.     

面向船载远程会议的麦克风阵列高精度DOA估计

随着船舶智能化水平提高,船载远程会议系统对提高应急处理能力、推进船岸一体化网络建设有重要意义,麦克风阵列是保证远程会议系统语音效果和支持多模态交互的重要语音前端。但船舶舱室狭小尺寸一方面导致只能采用小尺寸麦阵,另一方面小舱室导致的强混响以及嘈杂舱室噪声也使传统麦克风阵列算法性能严重下降。考虑船舶舱室复杂环境下小尺寸麦阵DOA估计场景,提出了一种轻量级Mask-DOA估计神经网络模型。该方法在DOA估计神经网络引入Mask算法降低噪声和混响的干扰,并提取增强后的GCC-PHAT作为网络特征,从而在小尺寸麦阵上实现高精度DOA估计。仿真和实验结果表明,所提出的Mask-DOA模型面对复杂的船舶舱室环境更鲁棒,泛化能力更强。     

Design and implementation of a teleconferencing system using improved HEVC coding

Teleconferencing has become an indispensable element in any business system, because it offers the opportunity for collaborators to participate in a virtual group while remaining in divergent regions. Teleconferencing also increases productivity, minimizes travel expenses and saves travel time. This paper presents a reliable Teleconference system that utilizes an improved high-efficiency video codec (HEVC) H.265 technology with congestion control. The improvement is based on CU size decision and entropy coding, which provides an adequate approach to enhance the real-time video/IP technology in terms of improved video quality and increased compression ratio compared to the previous codec (H.264) and original HEVC.     

动态环境下基于改进人工势场的机器人实时路径规划仿真研究

提出了一种基于改进人工势场法进行动态环境的路径规划的方法。通过梯度逼近进行运动目标的搜索,解决了在实时路径规划中因环境的运动信息难以准确获取而造成的路径规划无法完成的问题。仿真结果验证了方法的有效性,能够较好的解决动态环境下特别是存在随机运动物体情况下移动机器人的路径规划问题。     

Real world disassembly modeling and sequencing problem: Optimization by Algorithm of Self-Guided Ants (ASGA)

Decrease in product life along with the advent of stringent regulations and environmental consciousness have led to increased concern for methodological product recovery through disassembly operations. This research proposes a fuzzy disassembly optimization model (FDOM) and is aimed at determining the optimal disassembly sequence as well as the optimal depth of disassembly to maximize the net revenue at the end-of-life (EOL) disposal of the product in the real world situations. In order to account for the uncertainty inherent in quality of the returned products, fuzzy control theory is incorporated in the problem environment for modeling the expected value of the recovered modules. Considering the computational complexity of the problem at hand, an innovative approach of Algorithm of Self-Guided Ants (ASGAs) is proposed for the same. The performance of the proposed methodology is benchmarked against a set of test instances that were generated using design of experiment techniques and analysis of variance is performed to determine the impact of various factors on the objective. The robustness of proposed algorithm is authenticated against Ant Colony Optimization and Genetic Algorithm over which it always demonstrated better results thereby proving its superiority on the concerned problem.     

Computer networks and the interactive use of geologic data—Recent experiments in teleconferencing

This presentation addresses the concept of the use of national and international computer networks for the exchange and coordination of geological information. It reviews the experience of the designers and users of teleconferencing systems operating on ARPANET, on a USGS computer, and on the network of Tymshare, Inc. Usage patterns based on nearly 5000 sessions with two systems named FORUM and PLANET are examined in detail, and their relevance to geological problems is analyzed.The use of the PLANET system in connection with the 1975 COGEODATA/UNESCO conferences in London and Paris represents the first instance when computer conferencing has been used to prepare, manage, and follow up a major scientific meeting. These conferences also are the first instances when scientists from nine countries have been able to work jointly through a direct computer link.     

Smart world: a better world

With the advancement of technologies, our world is becoming a smart world. In this paper, we share our vision of a smart world, demonstrate different application scenarios and introduce the emerging techniques. We envision that in a smart world, we will become more connected, safe, productive and efficient. To enable a smart world, many advanced techniques such as advanced network, ubiquitous sensing and collaborative computation have been developed. More specifically, they include heterogeneous advanced wireless networks, intelligent transportation, accurate indoor localisation, wireless sensor network, unobtrusive human behaviour sensing and mobile cloud computing. Compared with the previous work, the proposed techniques are faster, more accurate and non-invasive. We firmly believe that by exploiting those techniques, the smart world will be a better world.     

Real reality

In its most basic form, computer graphics technology renders an image of the world from a model. Having refined techniques from vector graphics, computer graphics now includes improved methods to render realistic and informative visual images of models representing microcosms of interest. Computational technology includes mechanisms to compress, communicate and combine text, audio, graphics and video to provide a unified multimedia document. Users can now decide if they want to read a story, watch a video or combine information from multiple sources to create a personalized digital experience. So what future faces computer graphics and multimedia? Can we take the technology to still another level of reality? Let's assume we can expand the scope of computer graphics to produce and render a world model for information or entertainment that surpasses the visual, also representing sound, touch, smell and taste. Although seemingly far out now, I believe computer graphics and multimedia will combine and expand to make such a technology-real reality-possible. Virtual reality (VR) foreshadows this development. I believe real reality, or what may more accurately be called remote reality, lies just around the corner. Real reality will revolutionize our society in many ways. Unlike VR, real reality systems will let users experience and interact digitally with real environments using all the human senses. However, real reality experiences will remain free of time and space constraints. You will be able to experience a remote environment digitally at your convenience wherever you are     

Real world applications of a fuzzy decision model based on relationships between goals for finance services and sequencing for the assembly of cars

Real world applications of a decision model of relationships between goals based on fuzzy relations are presented. In contrast to other approaches the relationships between decision goals or criteria for each decision situation are represented and calculated explicitly. The application fields are decision making for financial services and optimization of production sequences in car manufacturing.     

Light on! Real world evaluation of a P300-based brain-computer interface (BCI) for environment control in a smart home

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems aim to enable interaction with other people and the environment without muscular activation by the exploitation of changes in brain signals due to the execution of cognitive tasks. In this context, the visual P300 potential appears suited to control smart homes through BCI spellers. The aim of this work is to evaluate whether the widely used character-speller is more sustainable than an icon-based one, designed to operate smart home environment or to communicate moods and needs. Nine subjects with neurodegenerative diseases and no BCI experience used both speller types in a real smart home environment. User experience during BCI tasks was evaluated recording concurrent physiological signals. Usability was assessed for each speller type immediately after use. Classification accuracy was lower for the icon-speller, which was also more attention demanding. However, in subjective evaluations, the effect of a real feedback partially counterbalanced the difficulty in BCI use. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Since inclusive BCIs require to consider interface sustainability, we evaluated different ergonomic aspects of the interaction of disabled users with a character-speller (goal: word spelling) and an icon-speller (goal: operating a real smart home). We found the first one as more sustainable in terms of accuracy and cognitive effort.     

The Camino Real

Teaching a computer science course to a group of Peruvian engineers provides valuable insights into the development of computing technology in Latin America.     

Visualizing the real world

What is visualization of the real world? In our view, it means visualizing the environments around us, at scales we're accustomed to, sensing what we would normally sense. Unlike others in the field of visualization, we don't aim to provide X-ray vision, heat or airflow models, or small-scale measurements (such as the inspection of parts to the nearest micron or determination of molecular structures by x-ray crystallography). And neither do we aim for larger-than-life views, such as those presented by geographic information systems of our world or the models of worlds beyond provided by astrophysicists. Instead, we focus on what humans currently sense, at scales that we navigate daily, to record and share experiences