Variational optical flow computation in real time.

This paper investigates the usefulness of bidirectional multigrid methods for variational optical flow computations. Although these numerical schemes are among the fastest methods for solving equation systems, they are rarely applied in the field of computer vision. We demonstrate how to employ those numerical methods for the treatment of variational optical flow formulations and show that the efficiency of this approach even allows for real-time performance on standard PCs. As a representative for variational optic flow methods, we consider the recently introduced combined local-global method. It can be considered as a noise-robust generalization of the Horn and Schunck technique. We present a decoupled, as well as a coupled, version of the classical Gauss-Seidel solver, and we develop several multgrid implementations based on a discretization coarse grid approximation. In contrast, with standard bidirectional multigrid algorithms, we take advantage of intergrid transfer operators that allow for nondyadic grid hierarchies. As a consequence, no restrictions concerning the image size or the number of traversed levels have to be imposed. In the experimental section, we juxtapose the developed multigrid schemes and demonstrate their superior performance when compared to unidirectional multgrid methods and nonhierachical solvers. For the well-known 316 x 252 Yosemite sequence, we succeeded in computing the complete set of dense flow fields in three quarters of a second on a 3.06-GHz Pentium4 PC. This corresponds to a frame rate of 18 flow fields per second which outperforms the widely-used Gauss-Seidel method by almost three orders of magnitude.     

Charge Photogeneration in Few‐Layer MoS2

The 2D semiconductor MoS₂ in its mono‐ and few‐layer form is expected to have a significant exciton binding energy of several 100 meV, suggesting excitons as the primary photoexcited species. Nevertheless, even single layers show a strong photovoltaic effect and work as the active material in high sensitivity photodetectors, thus indicating efficient charge carrier photogeneration. Here, modulation spectroscopy in the sub‐ps and ms time scales is used to study the photoexcitation dynamics in few‐layer MoS₂. The results suggest that the primary photoexcitations are excitons that efficiently dissociate into charges with a characteristic time of 700 fs. Based on these findings, simple suggestions for the design of efficient MoS₂ photovoltaic and photodetector devices are made.     

ZnPd/ZnO Aerogels as Potential Catalytic Materials

Many different aerogel materials are known to be accessible via the controlled destabilization of the respective nanoparticle suspensions. Especially for applications in heterogeneous catalysis such materials with high specific surface areas are highly desirable. Here, a facile method to obtain a mixed ZnPd/ZnO aerogel via a reductive treatment of a preformed Pd/ZnO aerogel is presented. Different morphologies of the Pd/ZnO aerogels could be achieved by controlling the destabilization of the ZnO sol. All aerogels show a high CO₂ selectivity of up to 96% and a very good activity in methanol steam reforming that delivers hydrogen, which is one of the most important fuels for future energy concepts. The method presented is promising for different transition metal/metal oxide systems and hence opens a path to a huge variety of materials.     

Adaptive Call Admission Control for QoS/Revenue Optimization in CDMA Cellular Networks

In this paper, we show how online management of both quality of service (QoS) and provider revenue can be performed in CDMA cellular networks by adaptive control of system parameters to changing traffic conditions. The key contribution is the introduction of a novel call admission control and bandwidth degradation scheme for real-time traffic as well as the development of a Markov model for the admission controller. This Markov model incorporates important features of 3G cellular networks, such as CDMA intra- and inter-cell interference, different call priorities and soft handover. From the results of the Markov model the threshold for maximal call degradation is periodically adjusted according to the currently measured traffic in the radio access network. As a consequence, QoS and revenue measures can be optimized with respect to a predefined goal. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed QoS/revenue management approach, we present quantitative results for the Markov model and a comprehensive simulation study considering a half-day window of a daily usage pattern.     

Monitoring the Channel Formation in Organic Field‐Effect Transistors via Photoinduced Charge Transfer

Conducting channel formation in organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) is considered to happen in the organic semiconductor layer very close to the interface with the gate dielectric. In the gradual channel approximation, the local density of accumulated charge carriers varies as a result of applied gate bias, with the majority of the charge carriers being localized in the first few semiconductor monolayers close to the dielectric interface. In this report, a new concept is employed which enables the accumulation of charge carriers in the channel by photoinduced charge transfer. An OFET employing C₆₀ as a semiconductor and divinyltetramethyldisiloxane‐bis(benzocyclobutene) as the gate dielectric is modified by a very thin noncontinuous layer of zinc‐phthalocyanine (ZnPc) at the semiconductor/dielectric interface. With this device geometry, it is possible to excite the phthalocyanine selectively and photogenerate charges directly at the semiconductor/dielectric interface via photoinduced electron transfer from ZnPc onto C₆₀. Thus the formation of a gate induced and a photoinduced channel in the same device can be correlated.     

RTS-MAC: A Relative Time Synchronization MAC Protocol for Low Duty Cycle Body Sensor Networks

Emerging applications in the medical field require body sensor networks to communicate in real-time in a very energy-efficient way. An example is the Artificial Accommodation System??a set of two small active medical implants aiming at restoring accommodation of the human eye??in which sensor data have to be exchanged continuously between both eyes. To achieve energy efficiency, it is essential to operate the radios with a very low duty cycle. Therefore, idle listening and general protocol overhead must be reduced as much as possible. In this paper, we present a relative time synchronization medium access control protocol (RTS-MAC), which keeps relative time synchronization between two or more sensor nodes in a very energy-efficient manner: RTS-MAC makes use of the periodic broadcast of regular data messages and exploits the inter-arrival times to predict future arrivals within tight boundaries. Thereby, no overhead is generated for synchronization purposes, and still, idle listening is reduced to a minimum, which solely depends on the short-term accuracy of the underlying clock systems. We implemented the proposed protocol using off-the-shelf components and employed the internal low-accuracy oscillators of the microcontrollers as clock sources. Thereby, we achieved very low duty cycles close to an ideal minimum. Further, our results indicate that through omitting external crystals in favor of a minimally larger battery, the battery life of a sensor node can be prolonged.     

A two-stage capacitive-feedback differencing amplifier for temporal contrast IR sensors

This article presents a small-area, ultra low-power, low-mismatch differencing transient amplifier for ROIC pixels of micro-bolometer based temporal contrast IR sensors. The two-stage capacitive-feedback amplifier works in the sub-threshold domain, has a voltage gain of 46 dB, a 3 dB bandwidth of about 10 kHz and consumes 85 nW of static power. The amplifier circuit has been fabricated in a 0.35 μm standard CMOS process and consumes less than 2000 μm² of silicon area, enabling a square pixel size of 50 × 50 μm for the IR sensor array.     

Organic Phenolic Configurationally Locked Polyene Single Crystals for Electro‐optic and Terahertz Wave Applications

We investigate a configurationally locked polyene (CLP) crystal 2‐(3‐(4‐hydroxystyryl)‐5,5‐dimethylcyclohex‐2‐enylidene)malononitrile (OH1) containing a phenolic electron donor, which also acts as a hydrogen bond donor. The OH1 crystals with orthorhombic space group Pna2₁ (point group mm2) exhibit large second‐order nonlinear optical figures of merit, high thermal stability and very favorable crystal growth characteristics. Higher solubility in methanol and a larger temperature difference between the melting temperature and the decomposition temperature of OH1 compared to analogous CLP crystals, are of advantage for solution and melt crystal growth, respectively. Acentric bulk OH1 crystals of large sizes with side lengths of up to 1 cm with excellent optical quality have been successfully grown from methanol solution. The microscopic and macroscopic nonlinearities of the OH1 crystals are investigated theoretically and experimentally. The OH1 crystals exhibit a large macroscopic nonlinearity with four times larger powder second harmonic generation efficiency than that of analogous CLP crystals containing dimethylamino electron donor. A very high potential of OH1 crystals for broadband THz wave emitters in the full frequency range of 0.1–3 THz by optical rectification of 160 fs pulses has been demonstrated.     

Controlling Chiral Spin States of a Triangular‐Lattice Magnet by Cooling in a Magnetic Field

Magnetic materials with a non‐collinear and non‐coplanar arrangement of magnetic moments hosting a nonzero scalar spin‐chirality exhibit unique magnetic and spin‐dependent electronic transport properties. The spin chirality often occurs in materials where competing exchange interactions lead to geometrical frustrations between magnetic moments and to a strong coupling between the crystal lattice and the magnetic structure. These characteristics are particularly strong in Mn‐based antiperovskites where the interactions and chirality can be tuned by substitutional modifications of the crystalline lattice. This study presents evidence for the formation of two unequal chiral spin states in magnetically ordered Mn_3.338Ni_0.651N antiperovskite based on density functional theory calculations and supported by magnetization measurements after cooling in a magnetic field. The existence of two scalar spin‐chiralities of opposite sign and different magnitude is demonstrated by a vertical shift of the magnetic‐field dependent magnetization and Hall effect at low fields and from an asymmetrical magnetoresistivity when the applied magnetic field is oriented parallel or antiparallel to the direction of the cooling field. This opens up the possibility of manipulating the spin chirality for potential use in the emerging field of chiral spintronics.