Efficient Algorithms for Image Template and Dictionary Matching

Given a large text image and a small template image, the Template Matching Problem is that of finding every location within the text which looks like the pattern. This problem, which has received attention for low-level image processing, has been formalized by defining a distance metric between arrays of pixels and finding all subarrays of the large image which are within some threshold distance of the template. These so-called metric methods tends to be too slow for many applications, since evaluating the distance function can take too much time. We present a method for quickly eliminating most positions of the text from consideration as possible matches. The remaining candidate positions are then evaluated one by one against the template for a match. We are still guaranteed to find all matching positions, and our method gives significant speed-ups. Finally, we consider the problem of matching a dictionary of templates against a text. We present methods which are much faster than matching the templates individually against the input image.     

基于G2的实时生产调度系统研究

该文以实时专家系统工具G2作为生产调度的平台 ,通过对G2中的知识表达、知识库管理以及实时推理等关键问题的探讨 ,以某钢厂炼钢车间调度为例 ,建立调度的复合知识模型 ,最终开发一个调度的原型系统 ,并给出仿真结果     

Maximum Likelihood Sound Source Localization and Beamforming for Directional Microphone Arrays in Distributed Meetings

In distributed meeting applications, microphone arrays have been widely used to capture superior speech sound and perform speaker localization through sound source localization (SSL) and beamforming. This paper presents a unified maximum likelihood framework of these two techniques, and demonstrates how such a framework can be adapted to create efficient SSL and beamforming algorithms for reverberant rooms and unknown directional patterns of microphones. The proposed method is closely related to steered response power-based algorithms, which are known to work extremely well in real-world environments. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on challenging synthetic and real-world datasets, including over six hours of recorded meetings.     

NearFar: A computer program for nearside-farside decomposition of heavy-ion elastic scattering amplitude

The NearFar program is a package for carrying out an interactive nearside-farside decomposition of heavy-ion elastic scattering amplitude. The program is implemented in Java to perform numerical operations on the nearside and farside angular distributions. It contains a graphical display interface for the numerical results. A test run has been applied to the elastic scattering at Elab=1503 MeV.

Program summary

Title of program: NearFarCatalogue identifier: ADYP_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADYP_v1_0Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: noneComputers: designed for any machine capable of running Java, developed on PC-Pentium-4Operating systems under which the program has been tested: Microsoft Windows XP (Home Edition)Program language used: JavaNumber of bits in a word: 64Memory required to execute with typical data: case dependentNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 3484Number of bytes distributed program, including test data, etc.: 142 051Distribution format: tar.gzOther software required: A Java runtime interpreter, or the Java Development Kit, version 5.0Nature of physical problem: Interactive nearside-farside decomposition of heavy-ion elastic scattering amplitude.Method of solution: The user must supply a external data file or PPSM parameters which calculates theoretical values of the quantities to be decomposed.Typical running time: Problem dependent. In a test run, it is about 35 s on a 2.40 GHz Intel P4-processor machine.     

H-BSP: A Hierarchical BSP Computation Model

This paper presents a new parallel computing model, called H-BSP, which adds a hierarchical concept to the BSP(Bulk Synchronous Parallel) computing model. An H-BSP program consists of a number of BSP groups which are dynamically created at run time and executed in a hierarchical fashion. H-BSP allows algorithm designers to develop more efficient algorithms by utilizing processor locality in the program. Based on the distributed memory model, H-BSP provides a group-based programming paradigm and supports Divide & Conquer algorithms efficiently. This paper describes the structure of the H-BSP model, complexity analysis and some examples of H-BSP algorithm. Also presented is the performance characteristics of H-BSP algorithms based on the simulation analysis. Simulation results show that H-BSP takes advantages of processor locality and performs well in low bandwidth networks or in a constant-valence architecture such as 2-dimensional mesh. It is also proved that H-BSP can predict algorithm performance better than BSP, due to its locality-preserving nature.     

Education and training programs for expatriate and Saudi nurses at KKESH

The purpose of this second article in a series of "Ophthalmic nursing in Saudi Arabia: A western expatriate's perspective" is to acquaint readers with the education and training programs for the expatriate nursing staff and Saudi nurses at the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (KKESH) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.     

Expanding the application of facial ceramic veneers

"Full veneers," restorations similar in depth to ceramic veneers but extending over the lingual or occlusal surface as well as the facial surface, are a conservative option to conventional crowns. They have been used successfully at the UCLA Center for Esthetic Dentistry for three years. Indications, technique and a patient study are presented.     

Perthes' disease treated by prolonged recumbency and femoral head containment: a long-term appraisal

The results of a long-term review of 102 hips in eighty-seven patients with Perthes' disease are described, the mean follow-up interval being seventeen years. All had been treated by an extremely rigorous conservative regime in which the patients were kept in hospital for an average period of twenty-six months, during which time they were confined to bed with the legs in wide abduction, first in traction and later in "broomstick" plasters to ensure "containment" of the femoral head. The patients were assessed by the joint clincial and radiological method described by Ratliff (1956). The results were very satisfactory, with only 2 per cent poor results and 10 per cent fair. The remaining 88 per cent were good. The radiological results at the end of treatment have also been compared with control series described by Catterall (1972) and with the osteotomy series of Lloyd-Roberts, Catterall and Salamon (1976). From this it appears that the described regime offers no benefit compared with the natural history in Catterall's Groups I and II, and in Group III the results were only marginally better than those following osteotomy. In Group IV cases, however, where the femoral head was totally involved, the benefit was important, and since these are the cases which carry the worst natural prognosis it is suggested that the use of the method described in such instances must be seriously considered in spite of its social disadvantages. The theoretical implications of the findings are considered, and it is concluded that the benefits of the method cannot be ascribed wholly to the application of the "containment" principle.     

Getting closer and experiencing together: Antecedents and consequences of psychological distance in social media-enhanced real-time streaming video

Social media services such as YouTube and Flickr have become online necessities for millions of users worldwide. Social media are online services that enable users to share contents, opinions, and perspectives that support communication with other users. Social media places an emphasis on the shared experience between users, which we call co-experience. However, the online characteristics of social media increase psychological distance between users, which, in turn, results in a decrease in the quality of co-experience. Hence, as the goal of this study, we theoretically modeled and empirically verified the antecedents and user experience-based consequences of psychological distance in a social media-enhanced real-time streaming video service. In order to reduce psychological distance, we introduced two system elements: inhabited space (the degree of being situated in context and in a meaningful place) and isomorph effects (the degree of preserving the structure of a user’s actions). We constructed a social media-enhanced real-time streaming video service prototype and conducted a field experiment with actual social media users. The prototype, which streamed a live baseball game, enabled users to simultaneously view the game from remote locations and to interact with each other through cheering tools. The results indicate that inhabited space and isomorph effects reduce psychological distance between users, and this, in turn, enhances co-experience. This paper ends with theoretical as well as practical implications of the study.     

Automatic Real-Time Video Matting Using Time-of-Flight Camera and Multichannel Poisson Equations

This paper presents an automatic real-time video matting system. The proposed system consists of two novel components. In order to automatically generate trimaps for live videos, we advocate a Time-of-Flight (TOF) camera-based approach to video bilayer segmentation. Our algorithm combines color and depth cues in a probabilistic fusion framework. The scene depth information returned by the TOF camera is less sensitive to environment changes, which makes our method robust to illumination variation, dynamic background and camera motion. For the second step, we perform alpha matting based on the segmentation result. Our matting algorithm uses a set of novel Poisson equations that are derived for handling multichannel color vectors, as well as the depth information captured. Real-time processing speed is achieved through optimizing the algorithm for parallel processing on graphics hardware. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our matting system on an extensive set of experimental results.