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At least 253 records · Page 14

Electroacoustical imaging technique for encoding incoherent radiance fields as Gabor elementary signals

A technique is presented for directly encoding incoherent radiance fields as Gabor elementary signals. This technique uses an electro-acoustic sensor to modulate the electronic charges induced by the incident radiance field with the electric fields generated by Gaussian modulated sinusoidal acoustic waves. The resultant signal carries the amplitude and phase information required for localizing spatial frequencies of the radiance field. These localized spatial frequency representations provide a link between the either geometric or Fourier transform representations currently used in computer vision and pattern recognition.

Fales, C. L.

PIFEX: An advanced programmable pipelined-image processor

PIFEX is a pipelined-image processor being built in the JPL Robotics Lab. It will operate on digitized raster-scanned images (at 60 frames per second for images up to about 300 by 400 and at lesser rates for larger images), performing a variety of operations simultaneously under program control. It thus is a powerful, flexible tool for image processing and low-level computer vision. It also has applications in other two-dimensional problems such as route planning for obstacle avoidance and the numerical solution of two-dimensional partial differential equations (although its low numerical precision limits its use in the latter field). The concept and design of PIFEX are described herein, and some examples of its use are given.

Gennery, D. B.

International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, Third Thematic Conference: Remote Sensing for Exploration Geology, Colorado Springs, CO, April 16-19, 1984, Proceedings. Volumes 1 & 2

A photogeologic and remote sensing model of porphyry type mineral sytems is considered along with a Landsat application to development of a tectonic model for hydrocarbon exploration of Devonian shales in west-central Virginia, remote sensing and the funnel philosophy, Landsat-based tectonic and metallogenic synthesis of the southwest United States, and an evolving paradigm for computer vision. Attention is given to the neotectonics of the Tibetan plateau deduced from Landsat MSS image interpretation, remote sensing in northern Arizona, the use of an airborne laser system for vegetation inventories and geobotanical prospecting, an evaluation of Thematic Mapper data for hydrocarbon exploration in low-relief basins, and an evaluation of the information content of high spectral resolution imagery. Other topics explored are related to a major source of new radar data for exploration research, the accuracy of geologic maps produced from Landsat data, and an approach for the geometric rectification of radar imagery.

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Visual monitoring of autonomous life sciences experimentation

The goal of this research project is the development of a computer vision system to monitor and control life sciences experimentation on board space stations. The vision system is organized as a multiprocessor system with distributed processes selectively analyzing hierarchical imagery in order to monitor and control the appropriate instrumentation.

Blank, G. E.

Orbital navigation, docking and obstacle avoidance as a form of three dimensional model-based image understanding

Range imagery from a laser scanner can be used to provide sufficient information for docking and obstacle avoidance procedures to be performed automatically. Three dimensional model-based computer vision algorithms in development can perform these tasks even with targets which may not be cooperative (that is, objects without special targets or markers to provide unambiguous location points). Roll, pitch and yaw of the vehicle can be taken into account as image scanning takes place, so that these can be corrected when the image is converted from egocentric to world coordinates. Other attributes of the sensor, such as the registered reflectence and texture channels, provide additional data sources for algorithm robustness. Temporal fusion of sensor immages can take place in the work coordinate domain, allowing for the building of complex maps in three dimensional space.

Beyer, J.

Orbital navigation, docking and obstacle avoidance as a form of three dimensional model-based image understanding

Range imagery from a laser scanner can be used to provide sufficient information for docking and obstacle avoidance procedures to be performed automatically. Three dimensional model-based computer vision algorithms in development can perform these tasks even with targets which may not be cooperative (that is, objects without special targets or markers to provide unambiguous points). Role, pitch, and yaw of a vehicle can be taken into account as image scanning takes place, so that these can be correlated when the image is converted from egocentric to world coordinated. Other attributes of the sensor, such as the registered reflectance and texture channels, provide additional data sources for algorithm robustness.

Beyer, J.

A Mars rover for the 1990's

Some technical issues concerning a Mars rover launched in the 1990s are discussed. Two particular modes of controlling the traveling of the vehicle are described. In one mode, most of the control is from earth, by human operators viewing stereo pictures sent from the rover and designating short routes to follow. In the other mode, computer vision is used in order to make the rover more autonomous, but reliability is aided by the use of orbital imagery and approximate long routes sent from earth. In the latter case, it is concluded that average travel rates of around 10 km/day are feasible.

Wilcox, Brian H.

Advanced feature extraction in remote sensing using artificial intelligence and geographic information systems

Traditional computer-assisted image-analysis techniques in remote sensing lag well behind human abilities in terms of both speed and accuracy. A fundamental limitation of computer-assisted techniques is their inability to assimilate a variety of different data types leading to an interpretation in a manner similar to human image interpretation. Expert systems and computer-vision techniques are proposed as a potential solution to these limitations. Some aspects of human expertise in image analysis may be codified into expert systems. Image understanding and symbolic reasoning provide a means of assimilating spatial information and spatial reasoning into the analysis procedure. Knowledge-based image-analysis systems incorporate many of these concepts and have been implemented for some well defined problem domains. Geographic information systems represent an excellent environment for this type of analysis, providing both analytic tools and contextual information to the analysis procedure.

Estes, John E.

The intensity dependent spread model and color constancy

Odetics is investigating the use of the intensity dependent spread (IDS) model for determining color constancy. Object segmentation is performed effortlessly by the human visual systems, but creating computer vision that takes an image as input and performs object identification on the basis of color has some difficulties. The unknown aspects of the light illuminating a scene in space or anywhere can seriously interfere with the use of color for object identification. The color of an image depends not only on the physical characteristics of the object, but also on the wavelength composition of the incident illumination. IDS processing provides the extraction of edges and of reflectance changes across edges, independent of variations in scene illumination. IDS depends solely on the ratio of the reflectances on the two sides of the edge. Researchers are in the process of using IDS to recover the reflectance image.

Kurrasch, Ellie

Mars Rover imaging systems and directional filtering

Computer literature searches were carried out at Duke University and NASA Langley Research Center. The purpose is to enhance personal knowledge based on the technical problems of pattern recognition and image understanding which must be solved for the Mars Rover and Sample Return Mission. Intensive study effort of a large collection of relevant literature resulted in a compilation of all important documents in one place. Furthermore, the documents are being classified into: Mars Rover; computer vision (theory); imaging systems; pattern recognition methodologies; and other smart techniques (AI, neural networks, fuzzy logic, etc).

Wang, Paul P.

Data compression in digitized lines

The problem of data compression is very important in digital photogrammetry, computer assisted cartography, and GIS/LIS. In addition, it is also applicable in many other fields such as computer vision, image processing, pattern recognition, and artificial intelligence. Consequently, there are many algorithms available to solve this problem but none of them are considered to be satisfactory. In this paper, a new method of finding critical points in a digitized curve is explained. This technique, based on the normalized symmetric scattered matrix, is good for both critical points detection and data compression. In addition, the critical points detected by this algorithm are compared with those by zero-crossings.

Thapa, Khagendra

Image understanding and the man-machine interface II; Proceedings of the Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 17, 18, 1989

Image understanding concepts and models, image understanding systems and applications, advanced digital processors and software tools, and advanced man-machine interfaces are among the topics discussed. Particular papers are presented on such topics as neural networks for computer vision, object-based segmentation and color recognition in multispectral images, the application of image algebra to image measurement and feature extraction, and the integration of modeling and graphics to create an infrared signal processing test bed.

Barrett, Eamon B.

Image recovery from edge primitives

A method for extracting edge primitives from Mach-band patterns is presented together with a method for recovering image representations of features outlined by the edge boundaries. The accuracy, stability, and resolution of these representations are assessed. Since these representations are most commonly used in characterizing targets, this method of low-level processing offers new opportunities for computer vision and high data-compressing coding. Two bandpass filters are considered, the spatially invariant Laplacian of Gaussian filter and spatially variant intensity-dependent spatial (IDS) summation. It is shown that the recovery from the IDS bandpass data is particularly advantageous in applications for which robustness to local and temporal variations in illumination is important. It is concluded that the edge primitives extracted from bandpassed images can be an efficient way to store, transmit, and represent images.

Alter-Gartenberg, Rachel

Evaluation of an elastic curve technique for finding the auroral oval from satellite images automatically

An automated algorithm for finding the inner boundary based on recently proposed computer vision technique is described. The algorithm is analogous to solving the equations of motion for an elastic curve, where the forces are provided by the image. The resulting equilibrium position of the elastic curve provides an automated method for finding the shape and location of the inner boundary of the auroral oval. Two methods for the evaluation of the automated algorithm, both based on the comparisons with manual measurements, are developed. The first method compares the areas within the automated and the manual boundaries. The second method measures the overlap between the interiors of the two boundaries. The expected variation between two sets of manual measurements is used to set an upper bound to the allowed discrepancy between the automated results and a single set of manual measurements. The algorithm, when tested with 71 satellite images, is found to perform best for those images without overlap between the aurora and the dayside hemisphere.

Samadani, Ramin

The flight telerobotic servicer and technology transfer

The Flight Telerobotic Servicer (FTS) project at the Goddard Space Flight Center is developing an advanced telerobotic system to assist in and reduce crew extravehicular activity (EVA) for Space Station Freedom (SSF). The FTS will provide a telerobotic capability in the early phases of the SSF program and will be employed for assembly, maintenance, and inspection applications. The current state of space technology and the general nature of the FTS tasks dictate that the FTS be designed with sophisticated teleoperational capabilities for its internal primary operating mode. However, technologies such as advanced computer vision and autonomous planning techniques would greatly enhance the FTS capabilities to perform autonomously in less structured work environments. Another objective of the FTS program is to accelerate technology transfer from research to U.S. industry.

Andary, James F.

Image wavelet decomposition and applications

The general problem of computer vision has been investigated for more that 20 years and is still one of the most challenging fields in artificial intelligence. Indeed, taking a look at the human visual system can give us an idea of the complexity of any solution to the problem of visual recognition. This general task can be decomposed into a whole hierarchy of problems ranging from pixel processing to high level segmentation and complex objects recognition. Contrasting an image at different representations provides useful information such as edges. An example of low level signal and image processing using the theory of wavelets is introduced which provides the basis for multiresolution representation. Like the human brain, we use a multiorientation process which detects features independently in different orientation sectors. So, images of the same orientation but of different resolutions are contrasted to gather information about an image. An interesting image representation using energy zero crossings is developed. This representation is shown to be experimentally complete and leads to some higher level applications such as edge and corner finding, which in turn provides two basic steps to image segmentation. The possibilities of feedback between different levels of processing are also discussed.

Treil, N.

A graph theoretic approach to scene matching

The ability to match two scenes is a fundamental requirement in a variety of computer vision tasks. A graph theoretic approach to inexact scene matching is presented which is useful in dealing with problems due to imperfect image segmentation. A scene is described by a set of graphs, with nodes representing objects and arcs representing relationships between objects. Each node has a set of values representing the relations between pairs of objects, such as angle, adjacency, or distance. With this method of scene representation, the task in scene matching is to match two sets of graphs. Because of segmentation errors, variations in camera angle, illumination, and other conditions, an exact match between the sets of observed and stored graphs is usually not possible. In the developed approach, the problem is represented as an association graph, in which each node represents a possible mapping of an observed region to a stored object, and each arc represents the compatibility of two mappings. Nodes and arcs have weights indicating the merit or a region-object mapping and the degree of compatibility between two mappings. A match between the two graphs corresponds to a clique, or fully connected subgraph, in the association graph. The task is to find the clique that represents the best match. Fuzzy relaxation is used to update the node weights using the contextual information contained in the arcs and neighboring nodes. This simplifies the evaluation of cliques. A method of handling oversegmentation and undersegmentation problems is also presented. The approach is tested with a set of realistic images which exhibit many types of sementation errors.

Ranganath, Heggere S.