The demand and interest in serving Computer Vision applications at the Edge, where Edge Devices generate vast quantities of data, clashes with the reality that many Devices are largely unable to process their data in real time. While computational offloading, not to the Cloud but to nearby Edge Nodes, offers convenient acceleration for these applications, such systems are not without their constraints. As Edge networks may be unreliable or wireless, offloading quality is sensitive to communication bottlenecks. Unlike seemingly unlimited Cloud resources, an Edge Node, serving multiple clients, may incur delays due to resource contention. This project describes relevant Computer Vision workloads and how an effective offloading framework must adapt to the constraints that impact the Quality of Service yet have not been effectively nor properly addressed by previous literature. We design an offloading controller, based on closed-loop control theory, that enables Devices to maximize their throughput by appropriately offloading under variable conditions. This approach ensures a Device can utilize the maximum available offloading bandwidth. Finally, we constructed a realistic testbed and conducted measurements to demonstrate the superiority of our offloading controller over previous techniques. / Master of Science / Devices like security cameras and some Internet of Things gadgets produce valuable real-time video for AI applications. A field within AI research called Computer Vision aims to use this visual data to compute a variety of useful workloads in a way that mimics the human visual system. However, many workloads, such as classifying objects displayed in a video, have large computational demands, especially when we want to keep up with the frame rate of a real-time video. Unfortunately, these devices, called Edge Devices because they are located far from Cloud datacenters at the edge of the network, are notoriously weak for Computer Vision algorithms, and, if running on a battery, will drain it quickly. In order to keep up, we can offload the computation of these algorithms to nearby servers, but we need to keep in mind that the bandwidth of the network might be variable and that too many clients connected to a single server will overload it. A slow network or an overloaded server will incur delays which slow processing throughput. This project describes relevant Computer Vision workloads and how an effective offloading framework that effectively adapts to these constraints has not yet been addressed by previous literature. We designed an offloading controller that measures feedback from the system and adapts how a Device offloads computation, in order to achieve the best possible throughput despite variable conditions. Finally, we constructed a realistic testbed and conducted measurements to demonstrate the superiority of our offloading controller over previous techniques.

This research performs an experimental study of a trailing edge blowing system that can adapt to variations in flow parameters and reduce the unsteady stator-rotor interaction at all engine operating conditions. The fan rotor of a 1/14 scale turbofan propulsion simulator is subjected to spatially periodic, circumferential inlet flow distortions. The distortions are generated by four struts that support a centerbody in the inlet mounted onto the simulator. To reduce the unsteady effects of the strut wakes on the rotor blades, the wake is re-energized by injecting mass from the trailing edge of the strut. Each strut is provided with discrete blowing holes that open out through the strut trailing edge. Each blowing hole is connected to a MEMS based microvalve, which controls the blowing rate of the hole. The microvalve is actuated by a signal voltage, generated by a PID controller that accepts free stream and wake axial flow velocities as inputs and minimizes their difference. To quantify the effectiveness of trailing edge blowing the far-field noise is measured in an anechoic chamber. The experiments are performed for two simulator test speeds, 29,500 rpm and 40,000 rpm, with and without trailing edge blowing. The maximum reduction recorded at 29,500 rpm is 8.2 dB, and at 40,000 rpm is 7.3 dB. Reductions of 2.9 dB and greater are observed at the first five harmonics of the blade passing frequency. The sound power level at the blade passing frequency, calculated from measured far-field directivity, is reduced by 4.4 dB at 29,500 rpm and by 2.9 dB at 40,000 rpm. The feasibility and advantage of active control is demonstrated by the ability of the system to respond to a step change in the inlet flow velocity, and achieve optimum wake filling in approximately 8 seconds. / Master of Science

Yes / Edge detection is widely believed to be an important early stage in human visual processing. However, there have been relatively few attempts to map human edge detection filters. In this study, observers had to locate a randomly placed step edge in brown noise (the integral of white noise) with a 1/𝑓2 power spectrum. Their responses were modelled by assuming the probability the observer chose an edge location depended on the response of their own edge detection filter to that location. The observer’s edge detection filter was then estimated by maximum likelihood methods. The filters obtained were odd-symmetric and similar to a derivative of Gaussian, with a peak-to-trough width of 0.1–0.15 degrees. These filters are compared with previous estimates of edge detectors in humans, and with neurophysiological receptive fields and theoretical edge detectors.

The goal of this thesis is to build an interactive tool for analyzing the quality of a digital image and predicting the scale at which it may be published. Since edges are present almost everywhere in most digital images, we use a mathematical edge model as the basis of analysis. In particular, we are interested in the luminance and chromaticity behavior at edge boundaries. We use this model to develop PhETA — Photograph Edge Transition Analyzer — an interactive tool that allows novice users to view and understand the results gained from this analysis in a clear and simple manner. / Master of Science

Vertex-distinguishing edge-colorings (vdec colorings) are a restriction of proper edge-colorings. These special colorings require that the sets of edge colors incident to every vertex be distinct. This is a relatively new field of study. We present a survey of known results concerning vdec colorings. We also define a new matrix which may be used to study vdec colorings, and examine its properties. We find several bounds on the eigenvalues of this matrix, as well as results concerning its determinant, and other properties. We finish by examining related topics and open problems.

Mainly used for decorative purpose in the textile industry, lace is a type of lightweight, openwork fabric. The process of lace manufacturing is complex but much of it has been highly automated with the advancement of modern technology. One exception is the lace cutting operation which is used to cut the wide lace webs (as wide as 3.8 m) knitted from automatic knitting machines into individual lace breadths. Currently, lace cutting IS carried out by skilled operators or a low speed mechanical cutting system, leading to high cost and increased product lead times. Therefore the lace cutting operation has become a bottleneck of the whole process oflace manufacturing and its automation is highly desired. Based on the combination of machine vision and laser cutting technology, two automatic lace cutting systems have been developed in Loughborough University, which have fully demonstrated the feasibility of replacing the slow and expensive traditional lace cutting methods. However, the edge quality of the lace cut by these systems is not satisfactory enough to meet the requirements of demanding lace markets. In this thesis, based on the investigation of the effect of handling tension on lace cutting edge quality and the microstructure of lace, a strategic lace cutting solution has been presented. The cutting strategy is aimed at tensioning and exposing the loop thread by strategically tensioning and cutting individual threads. The loop thread is considered critical to cutting lace with a high quality finish. To automatically implement the cutting strategy, a machine vision system has been developed. An automatic lace transport and tensioning rig has been designed and manufactured. The long term aim of this rig is to be able to transport and tension lace continuously for lace cutting and apply localised tension on individual threads with the vision system providing feedback for tension control. The work in this thesis has been limited to manual adjustment of the rig to prove the initial ideas for this concept. An integrated vision guided, pulsed laser cutting system for lace cutting has been developed, based on which two types of representative lace have been cut. According to the assessment results of using a combination of user trials, microscopic and newly developed measurement techniques, the lace cut by this newly developed system has shown significant improvement in cutting edge quality, when compared to the lace cut by the previous laser cutting systems.

The convergence of mobile computing and cloud computing enables new mobile applications that are both resource-intensive and interactive. For these applications, end-to-end network bandwidth and latency matter greatly when cloud resources are used to augment the computational power and battery life of a mobile device. This dissertation designs and implements a new architectural element called a cloudlet, that arises from the convergence of mobile computing and cloud computing. Cloudlets represent the middle tier of a 3-tier hierarchy, mobile device — cloudlet—cloud, to achieve the right balance between cloud consolidation and network responsiveness. We first present quantitative evidence that shows cloud location can affect the performance of mobile applications and cloud consolidation. We then describe an architectural solution using cloudlets that are a seamless extension of todays cloud computing infrastructure. Finally, we define minimal functionalities that cloudlets must offer above/beyond standard cloud computing, and address corresponding technical challenges.

Several studies carried out in boreal forests have found significant edge effects in Scots pine although, none of them in southern Sweden. The aim of this study was to investigate edge effects in adjacent Scots pine stands and its influence on tree growth and field vegetation composition. This was carried out in 10 selected forest edges in southeastern Sweden. Results showed reduced number of stems, height, diameter and basal area growth among young trees in particular within 2 m from the forest edge. In the older stands number of stems, diameter and basal area growth increased within the first 2 m from the edge. Field vegetation inventory showed differences in composition in the adjacent stands. In the older stands lichens, lingonberry and blueberry were more frequent, while heather and grasses showed a higher appearance in young stands.

Le Cloud offre le calcul, stockage etréseau en tant que services. Pour réduire le coûtde cette offre, les opérateurs ont tendance à s’appuyer sur des infrastructures centralisées et gigantesques. Cependant, cette configuration entrave la satisfaction des exigences de latence et de bande passante des applications de nouvelle génération. L'Edge cherche à relever ce défi en s'appuyant sur des ressources massivement distribuées. Afin de satisfaire les attentes des opérateurs et des utilisateurs du Edge, des services de gestion ayant des capacités similaires à celles qui ont permis le succès du Cloud doivent être conçus. Dans cette thèse, nous nous concentrons sur le service de supervision. Nous proposons un canevas logiciel pour la mise en place d’un service holistique. Ce canevas permet de déterminer une architecture de déploiement pair-à-pair pour les fonctions d'observation, de traitement et d'exposition des mesures. Il vérifie que cette architecture satisfait les exigences fonctionnelles et de qualité de service des utilisateurs. Ces derniers peuvent être exprimés à l'aide d'un langage de description offert par le canevas. Le canevas offre également un langage de description pour unifier la description de l'infrastructure Edge. L’architecture de déploiement est déterminée avec l’objectif de minimiser l'empreinte de calcul et réseau du service de supervision. Pour cela, les fonctions de supervision sont mutualisées entre les différents utilisateurs. Les tests que nous avons faits ont montré la capacité de notre proposition à réduire l'empreinte de supervision avec un gain qui atteint -28% pour le calcul et -24% pour leréseau. / Cloud offers compute, storage and network as services. To reduce the offer cost, the operators tend to rely on centralized and massive infrastructures. However, such a configuration hinders the satisfaction of the latency and bandwidth requirements of new generation applications. The Edge aims to rise this challenge by relying on massively distributed resources. To satisfy the operators and the users of Edge, management services similar to the ones that made the success of Cloud should be designed. In this thesis, we focus on the monitoring service. We design a framework to establish a holistic monitoring service. This framework determines a peer-to-peer deployment architecture for the observation, processing, and exposition of measurements. It verifies that this architecture satisfies the functional and quality of service constraints of the users. For this purpose, it relies on a description of users requirement sand a description of the Edge infrastructure.The expression of these two elements can be unified with two languages offered by the Framework. The deployment architecture is determined with the aim of minimizing the compute and network footprint of the monitoring service. For this purpose, the functions are mutualized as much as possible among the different users. The tests we did showed the relevance of our proposal for reducing monitoring footprint with a gain of -28% for the compute and -24% for the network.

Boundary value problems on manifolds with conical singularities or edges contain potential operators as well as trace and Green operators which play a similar role as the corresponding operators in (pseudo-differential) boundary value problems on a smooth manifold. There is then a specific asymptotic behaviour of these operators close to the singularities. We characterise potential operators in terms of actions of cone or edge pseudo-differential operators (in the neighbouring space) on densities supported by sbmanifolds which also have conical or edge singularities. As a byproduct we show the continuity of such potentials as continuous perators between cone or edge Sobolev spaces and subspaces with asymptotics.