3D Hair sketching for real-time dynamic & key frame animations

Physically based simulation of human hair is a well studied and well known problem. But the “pure” physically based representation of hair (and other animation elements) is not the only concern of the animators, who want to “control” the creation and animation phases of the content. This paper describes a sketch-based tool, with which a user can both create hair models with different styling parameters and produce animations of these created hair models using physically and key frame-based techniques. The model creation and animation production tasks are all performed with direct manipulation techniques in real-time.     

CFAR processing with switching exponential smoothers for nonhomogeneous environments

Conventional constant false alarm rate (CFAR) methods use a fixed number of cells to estimate the background variance. For homogeneous environments, it is desirable to increase the number of cells, at the cost of increased computation and memory requirements, in order to improve the estimation performance. For nonhomogeneous environments, it is desirable to use less number of cells in order to reduce the number of false alarms around the clutter edges. In this work, we present a solution with two exponential smoothers (first order IIR filters) having different time-constants to leverage the conflicting requirements of homogeneous and nonhomogeneous environments. The system is designed to use the filter having the large time-constant in homogeneous environments and to promptly switch to the filter having the small time constant once a clutter edge is encountered. The main advantages of proposed Switching IIR CFAR method are computational simplicity, small memory requirement (in comparison to windowing based methods) and its good performance in homogeneous environments (due to the large time-constant smoother) and rapid adaptation to clutter edges (due to the small time-constant smoother).     

Enhanced user performance in an image gallery application with a mobile autostereoscopic touch display

In this study, we explored how stereoscopic depth affects performance and user experience in a mobile device with an autostereoscopic touch display. Participants conducted a visual search task with an image gallery application on three layouts with different depth ranges. The task completion times were recorded, and the participants were asked to rate their experiences. The results revealed that the image search times were facilitated by a mild depth effect and that too great a depth slowed search times and decreased user-experience ratings.     

A color-based face tracking algorithm for enhancing interaction with mobile devices

A color-based face tracking algorithm is proposed to be used as a human-computer interaction tool on mobile devices. The solution provides a natural means of interaction enabling a motion parallax effect in applications. The algorithm considers the characteristics of mobile use-constrained computational resources and varying environmental conditions. The solution is based on color comparisons and works on images gathered from the front camera of a device. In addition to color comparisons, the coherency of the facial pixels is considered in the algorithm. Several applications are also demonstrated in this work, which use the face position to determine the viewpoint in a virtual scene, or for browsing large images. The accuracy of the system is tested under different environmental conditions such as lighting and background, and the performance of the system is measured in different types of mobile devices. According to these measurements the system allows for accurate (7% RMS error) face tracking in real time (20–100 fps).     

Comparison of the effects of different retention appliances on the oxidant–antioxidant system

The aim was to compare oxidative stress (OS) levels with different types of retention appliance. Thirty orthodontic patients were divided into three groups: Group 1 (Essix retainer), Group 2 (lingual retainer with stainless steel retainer wire), and Group 3 (lingual retainer with fiber-reinforced material). OS was assessed in the subjects’ saliva. Saliva samples were taken from the patients at T₀ (before using the retention appliance), T₁ (first month of retention), and T₂ (third month of retention). The specimens were investigated to detect changes in total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), and oxidative stress index (OSI). TAS values in Group 2 were significantly higher than in Group 3. TOS values in Group 3 were significantly lower than in the other groups. TOS values in Group 2 were lower than in Group 1. OSI values of Group 1 were higher than those in Group 2 or 3. There was no statistically significant difference among the time periods. The type of retention appliance affected OS values. A fiber-reinforced material may have a lower OSI. OS or products can affect some systemic disease; therefore, the selection of the retainer will be important on these patients.     

A Review of Dehydration of Various Industrial Sludges

Wastewater characteristics and sludge generation potential of point source categories are reviewed critically. Novel industry-specific sludge dewatering/drying solutions necessary to establish a sustainable model are examined through a detailed literature survey. Knowledge of sludge properties is one of the most critical issues needed to design dewatering/drying equipment. This study focuses on industrial wastewater/sludge characterization. In addition, a comprehensive review of current drying models and technologies is also presented. A summary of the results derived from a novel thin-film-based photonic sludge dewatering/drying study is outlined as an alternative approach for industrial sludge control. Sludge was dried in a tubular quartz reactor (TQR), the inner surface of which was coated with a TiO₂ thin film. The TQR was irradiated with UV A, UV B, and UV C lamps. The consumed and generated energy fluxes through endergonic and exergonic reactions driven by photolysis and photocatalysis were investigated. In addition, the variations in sludge dewatering/drying characteristics were also examined and compared with conventional methods to evaluate the energy requirements.     

Asymptotic throughput analysis of multicast transmission schemes

This paper demonstrates the use of extreme value theory in the asymptotic throughput analysis of wireless multicast and unicast for large number of users. Exact analysis of these schemes involves finding the probability distributions of maxima or minima of signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Jointly considering random user distribution and Rayleigh fading, exact distributions of these extreme values become complex and lack insights. On the other hand, asymptotic expressions obtained by using extreme value theory are quite accurate even for moderate number of users and they give insights about the performances without using simulations. The results of this analysis can be used in designing cellular unicast and multicast systems.