Existing layered manufacturing systems fabricate parts using a constant build layer thickness. Hence, operators must compromise between rapid production with large surface inaccuracies, and slow production with high precision, by choosing between thick and thin build layers, respectively. Adaptive layered manufacturing methods alleviate this decision by automatically adjusting the build layer thickness to accommodate surface geometry, thereby potentially enabling part fabrication in significantly less time. Unfortunately, conventional adaptive layered manufacturing techniques are often unable to realize this potential when transitioning from the laboratory to an industrial setting. The problem is that they apply the variable build layer thickness uniformly across each horizontal build plane, applying the same build layer thickness to all parts and part features across that plane even though they have different build layer thickness needs. When this happens, the advantage of using adaptive build layer thicknesses is lost. This thesis demonstrates how to minimize fabrication times when implementing adaptive layered manufacturing. Specifically, it presents a new method in which each part or individual part feature is assigned a distinct, independent build layer thickness according to its particular surface geometry. Additionally, this thesis presents a calibration procedure for the Fused Deposition Modeler (FDM) rapid prototyping system that enables accurate, adaptively sliced parts to be physically realizable. Experimental software has been developed and sample parts have been fabricated to demonstrate both aspects of this work. / Master of Science

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre des modèles de contours actifs. Il s'agit de méthodes dynamiquesappliquées à la segmentation d'image, en image fixe et vidéo. L'image est représentée par desdescripteurs régions et/ou contours. La segmentation est traitée comme un problème deminimisationd'une fonctionnelle. La recherche du minimum se fait via la propagation d'un contour actif dit basérégions. L'efficacité de ces méthodes réside surtout dans leur robustesse et leur rapidité. L'objectifde cette thèse est triple : le développement (i) d'une représentation paramétrique de courbes respectantcertaines contraintes de régularités, (ii) les conditions nécessaires à une évolution stable de cescourbes et (iii) la réduction des coûts calcul afin de proposer une méthode adaptée aux applicationsnécessitant une réponse en temps réel.Nous nous intéressons principalement aux contraintes de rigidité autorisant une plus granderobustesse vis-à-vis du bruit. Concernant l'évolution des contours actifs, nous étudions les problèmesd'application de la force de propagation, de la gestion de la topologie et des conditionsde convergence. Nous avons fait le choix des courbes splines cubiques. Cette famille de courbesoffre d'intéressantes propriétés de régularité, autorise le calcul exact des grandeurs différentiellesqui interviennent dans la fonctionnelle et réduit considérablement le volume de données à traiter.En outre, nous avons étendu le modèle classique des splines d'interpolation à un modèle de splinesd'approximation, dites smoothing splines. Ce dernier met en balance la contrainte de régularité etl'erreur d'interpolation sur les points d'échantillonnage du contour. Cette flexibilité permet ainsi deprivilégier la précision ou la robustesse.L'implémentation de ces modèles de splines a prouvé son efficacité dans diverses applicationsde segmentation.

Cette thèse porte sur certains aspects symboliques-numériques du problème des paires invariantes pour les polynômes de matrices. Les paires invariantes généralisent la définition de valeur propre / vecteur propre et correspondent à la notion de sous-espaces invariants pour le cas nonlinéaire. Elles trouvent leurs applications dans le calcul numérique de plusieurs valeurs propres d’un polynôme de matrices; elles présentent aussi un intérêt dans le contexte des systèmes différentiels. En utilisant une approche basée sur les intégrales de contour, nous déterminons des expressions du nombre de conditionnement et de l’erreur rétrograde pour le problème du calcul des paires invariantes. Ensuite, nous adaptons la méthode des moments de Sakurai-Sugiura au calcul des paires invariantes et nous étudions le comportement de la version scalaire et par blocs de la méthode en présence de valeurs propres multiples. Le résultats obtenus à l’aide des approches directes peuvent éventuellement être améliorés numériquement grâce à une méthode itérative: nous proposons ici une comparaison de deux variantes de la méthode de Newton appliquée aux paires invariantes. Le problème des solvants de matrices est très proche de celui des paires invariants. Le résultats présentés ci-dessus sont donc appliqués au cas des solvants pour obtenir des expressions du nombre de conditionnement et de l’erreur, et un algorithme de calcul basé sur la méthode des moments. De plus, nous étudions le lien entre le problème des solvants et la transformation des polynômes de matrices en forme triangulaire. / In this thesis, we study some symbolic-numeric aspects of the invariant pair problem for matrix polynomials. Invariant pairs extend the notion of eigenvalue-eigenvector pairs, providing a counterpart of invariant subspaces for the nonlinear case. They have applications in the numeric computation of several eigenvalues of a matrix polynomial; they also present an interest in the context of differential systems. Here, a contour integral formulation is applied to compute condition numbers and backward errors for invariant pairs. We then adapt the Sakurai-Sugiura moment method to the computation of invariant pairs, including some classes of problems that have multiple eigenvalues, and we analyze the behavior of the scalar and block versions of the method in presence of different multiplicity patterns. Results obtained via direct approaches may need to be refined numerically using an iterative method: here we study and compare two variants of Newton’s method applied to the invariant pair problem. The matrix solvent problem is closely related to invariant pairs. Therefore, we specialize our results on invariant pairs to the case of matrix solvents, thus obtaining formulations for the condition number and backward errors, and a moment-based computational approach. Furthermore, we investigate the relation between the matrix solvent problem and the triangularization of matrix polynomials.

L’objectif de ces travaux de thèse est la conception et le développement d’un système de caractérisation tridimensionnelle de pièces forgées de grande dimension portées à haute température. Les travaux se basent sur de nombreuses thématiques telles que l’acquisition tridimensionnelle, l’extraction, la segmentation et le recalage de primitives 3D. Nous présentons tout d’abord les limites des systèmes de caractérisation de pièces forgées cités dans la littérature. Dans la deuxième partie, nous présentons la réalisation du système de caractérisation de pièces forgées, constitué de deux scanners temps de vol (TOF). Nous présentons également le simulateur de numérisation par scanner TOF qui nous permet de nous affranchir des contraintes industrielles (temps, difficulté de manœuvres) pour positionner les deux scanners. La troisième partie est consacrée à l’extraction des primitives 3D. Nous avons traité deux types de primitives : viroles et sphères avec deux approches différentes : méthode supervisée et méthode automatique. La première approche basée sur une méthode de croissance de région et de contour actif, permet d’extraire des formes extrudées complexes. Des problèmes d’ergonomie du système nous ont conduits à développer une deuxième approche, basée sur l’image de Gauss et l’extraction d’ellipse, qui permet l’extraction automatique de formes cylindriques ovales ou circulaires. Nous présentons également quatre méthodes d’extraction automatique de sphères basées sur des approches heuristiques : RANSAC (RANdom SAmple Consensus), algorithme génétique et algorithme génétique par niche. Dans la quatrième partie, nous étudions les différentes approches de recalage de données 3D traitées : le calibrage basé sur les cibles artificielles et le recalage fin basé sur l’algorithme ICP. Pour conclure, nous présentons la réalisation d’un système complet de caractérisation tridimensionnelle de pièces forgées de grande dimension. Ensuite, nous comparons les performances et les limites de ce système avec les systèmes de caractérisation cités dans la littérature. / The main objective of this Phd project is to conceive a machine vision system for hot cylindrical metallic shells diameters measurement during forging process. The manuscript is structured by developing in the first chapter the state of the art and the limits of hot metallic shells measurement systems suggested in literature. Our implemented system which is based on two conventional Time Of Flight (TOF) laser scanners has been described in the same chapter along, chapter two, with presentation of its respective numerical simulator. Simulation series have been done using the digitizing simulator and were aimed to determine the optimal positions of the two scanners without any industrial constraints (time, difficulty of operations). The third part of the manuscript copes with 3D primitives extraction. Two major types of approaches have been studied according to the primitive’s form (cylinders or spheres) to be extracted: supervised method and automatic method. The first approach, based on a growing region method and active contour, enables to extract complex extruded forms; while problems of ergonomics have been solved using automatic methods that have been carried out along the programme research. The proposed methods consist in automatically extracting: oval or circular cylindrical forms, using Gauss map associated with ellipse extraction techniques : spherical forms, using heuristic approaches such as RANdom SAmple Consensus RANSAC, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Niche Genetic Algorithm (NGA). Two varieties of 3D data registration approach have been presented and discussed in chapter 4: the registration based on the artificial targets and the fine registration based on algorithm ICP. A complete system for three-dimensional characterization of hot cylindrical metallic shells during forging process has been implemented and then compared with existing systems in order to identify its performances and limits in conclusion.

An innate desire of many vision researchers IS to unravel the mystery of human visual perception Such an endeavor, even ~f it were not wholly successful, is expected to yield byproducts of considerable significance to industrial applications Based on the current understanding of the neurophysiological and computational processes in the human bran, it is believed that visual perception can be decomposed into distinct modules, of which feature / contour extraction and recognition / classification of the features corresponding to the objects play an important role. A remarkable characteristic of human visual expertise is its invariance to rotation shift, and scaling of objects in a scene Researchers concur on the relevance of imitating as many properties as we have knowledge of, of the human vision system, in order to devise simple solutions to the problems in computational vision. The inference IS that this can be more efficiently achieved by invoking neural architectures with specific characteristics (similar to those of the modules in the human brain), and conforming to rules of an appropriate mathematical baas As a first step towards the development of such a framework, we make explicit (1) the nature of the images to be analyzed, (11) the features to be extracted, (111) the relationship among features, contours, and shape, and (iv) the exact nature of the problems To this end, we formulate explicitly the problems considered in this thesis as follows Problem 1 Given an Image localize and extract the boundary (contours) of the object of Interest in lt Problem 2 Recognize the shape of the object characterized by that contour employing a suitable coder-recognizer such that ~t IS unaffected by rotation scaling and translation of the objects Problem 3 Gwen a stereo-pair of Images (1) extract the salient contours from the Images, (ii)establish correspondence between the points in them and (111) estimate the depth associated with the points We present a few algorithm as practical solutions to the above problems. The main contributions of the thesis are: • A new algorithm for extraction of contours from images: and • A novel method for invariantly coding shapes as pulses to facilitate their recognition. The first contribution refers to a new active contour model, which is a neural network designed to extract the nearest salient contour in a given image by deforming itself to match the boundary of the object. The novelty of the model consists in the exploitation of the principles of spatial isomorphism and self organization in order to create flexible contours characterizing shapes in images. It turns out that the theoretical basis for the proposed model can be traced to the extensive literature on: • Gestalt perception in which the principles of psycho-physical isomorphism plays a role; and • Early processing in the human visual system derived from neuro-anatomical and neuro-physiological properties. The initially chosen contour is made to undergo deformation by a locally co-operative, globally competitive scheme, in order to enable it to cling to the nearest salient contour in the test image. We illustrate the utility and versatility of the model by applying to the problems of boundary extraction, stereo vision, and bio-medical image analysis (including digital libraries). The second contribution of the thesis is relevant to the design and development of a machine vision system in which the required contours are first to be extracted from a given set of images. Then follows the stage of recognizing the shape of the object characterized by that contour. It should, however, be noted that the latter problem is to be resolved in such a way that the system is unaffected by translation, relation, and scaling of images of objects under consideration. To this end, we develop some novel schemes: • A pulse-coding scheme for an invariant representation of shapes; and • A neural architecture for recognizing the encoded shapes. The first (pulse-encoding) scheme is motivated by the versatility of the human visual system, and utilizes the properties of complex logarithmic mapping (CLM) which transforms rotation and scaling (in its domain) to shifts (in its range). In order to handle this shift, the encoder converts the CLM output to a sequence of pulses These pulses are then fed to a novel multi-layered neural recognizer which (1) invokes template matching with a distinctly implemented architecture, and (11) achieves robustness (to noise and shape deformation) by virtue of its overlapping strategy for code classification The proposed encoder-recognizer system (a) is hardware implementable by a high-speed electronic switching circuit, and (b) can add new patterns on-line to the existing ones Examples are given to illustrate the proposed schemes. The them is organized as follows: Chapter 2 deals with the problem of extraction of salient contours from a given gray level image, using a neural network-based active contour model It explains the need for the use of active contour models, along with a brief survey of the existing models, followed by two possible psycho-physiological theories to support the proposed model After presenting the essential characteristics of the model, the advantages and applications of the proposed approach are demonstrated by some experimental results. Chapter 3 is concerned with the problem of coding shapes and recognizing them To this end, we describe a pulse coder for generating pulses invariant to rotation, scaling and shift The code thus generated IS then fed to a recognizer which classifies shapes based on the pulse code fed to it The recognizer can also add new shapes to its 'knowledge-base' on-line. The recognizer's properties are then discussed, thereby bringing out its advantages with respect to various related architectures found in the literature. Experimental results are then presented to Illustrate some prominent characteristics of the approach. Chapter 4 concludes the thesis, summarizing the overall contribution of the thesis, and describing possible future directions

Scalar fields are used to represent physical quantities measured over a domain of interest. Study of symmetric or repeating patterns in scalar fields is important in scientific data analysis because it gives deep insights into the properties of the underlying phenomenon. This thesis proposes three methods to detect symmetry in scalar fields. The first method models symmetry detection as a subtree matching problem in the contour tree, which is a topological graph abstraction of the scalar field. The contour tree induces a hierarchical segmentation of features at different scales and hence this method can detect symmetry at different scales. The second method identifies symmetry by comparing distances between extrema from each symmetric region. The distance is computed robustly using a topological abstraction called the extremum graph. Hence, this method can detect symmetry even in the presence of significant noise. The above methods compare pairs of regions to identify symmetry instead of grouping the entire set of symmetric regions as a cluster. This motivates the third method which uses a clustering analysis for symmetry detection. In this method, the contours of a scalar field are mapped to points in a high-dimensional descriptor space such that points corresponding to similar contours lie in close proximity to each other. Symmetry is identified by clustering the points in the descriptor space. We show through experiments on real world data sets that these methods are robust in the presence of noise and can detect symmetry under different types of transformations. Extraction of symmetry information helps users in visualization and data analysis. We design novel applications that use symmetry information to enhance visualization of scalar field data and to facilitate their exploration.

L'objectif de cette thèse est de proposer et d'étudier une méthode de segmentation qui soit adaptée à l'imagerie échographique ultrasonore (US) et qui tienne compte de certaines contraintes rencontrées en milieu clinique. De ce fait, cette méthode se doit d'être robuste au bruit de speckle et à l'atténuation des ondes US dans le milieu, mais aussi rapide et ne nécessiter que peu, voire aucun paramètre à régler par l'opérateur. Dans ce cadre, les solutions fondées sur des contours actifs fondés sur la Minimisation de la Complexité Stochastique ont été étudiées. L'impact de différentes modélisations du speckle sur les résultats de ces techniques de segmentation a été caractérisé. Il a été montré qu'il est important de prendre en compte les variations de l'intensité moyenne du speckle induites par l'atténuation dans chaque région de l'image, à la fois pour la segmentation et pour l'analyse des propriétés du speckle. De plus, une stratégie hiérarchique de segmentation a été développée. Celle-ci permet notamment d'accroître la qualité des segmentations et de diminuer les temps de calcul.Les algorithmes de segmentation considérés étaient initialement conçus pour des formes polygonales peu adaptées à celles rencontrées dans le cadre d'applications médicales. Nous avons donc développé un nouveau modèle de contour fondé sur la théorie de l'information qui permet toujours une mise en oeuvre rapide des algorithmes et ne dépend d'aucun paramètre à régler par l'utilisateur. Testé sur des images synthétiques et réelles de fantômes échographiques, ce nouveau modèle permet de mieux décrire les formes régulières et arrondies des objets rencontrés en imagerie échographique. / The purpose of this PhD thesis is to propose and study a segmentation method adapted to echographic ultrasound imaging that could be clinically operational (i.e. fast and parameter-free) and robust to both the speckle noise and the attenuation of the ultrasonic signal in the medium. The solutions we studied rely on statistical active contour methods that are based on the Minimization of the Stochastic Complexity (MSC). The impact on the segmentation results of several speckle noise models that still lead to fast segmentation algorithms has been characterized. A key feature of these models, that appears to be crucial for both the segmentation and the speckle characterization, is the ability to take into account the spatial variation of the average intensity induced by the attenuation of the signal in the medium. In addition, we proposed a hierarchical optimization strategy that improves segmentation results and decreases the computation time.Finally, a novel contour model that is adapted to smooth boundaries that are met in medical imaging is also proposed for the considered MSC segmentation algorithms. The construction of this contour model relies on Information Theory concepts. It still allows one to get low computation times and does not contain any tuning parameter. Evaluations performed on synthetic images and real echographic phantom images indicate that this contour model provides better segmentation results for smooth inclusions that usually compose the echographic images.

Driving while drowsy is a major cause behind road accidents, and exposes the driver to a much higher crash risk compared to driving while alert. Therefore, the use of assistive systems that monitor a driver’s level of vigilance and alert the fatigue driver can be significant in the prevention of accidents. This thesis introduces three different methods towards the detection of drivers’ drowsiness based on yawning measurement. All three approaches involve several steps, including the real time detection of the driver’s face, mouth and yawning. The last approach, which is the most accurate, is based on the Viola-Jones theory for face and mouth detection and the back projection theory for measuring both the rate and the amount of changes in the mouth for yawning detection. Test results demonstrate that the proposed system can efficiently measure the aforementioned parameters and detect the yawning state as a sign of a driver’s drowsiness.

Visual acuity is reduced when optotypes are viewed in the presence of surrounding contours. This reduction in acuity is known as the crowding effect and is thought to be caused by a varying combination of contour interaction, gaze instability and attention. Traditional studies have used single optotypes surrounded by flanking bars to investigate crowding. Such targets may not realistically replicate the crowding effect inherent in clinical vision charts. The aim of this thesis was to systematically investigate the effect of crowding on visual thresholds in subjects with normal vision and in subjects with amblyopia, using specially designed charts. In the 1st and 2nd experiment, contour interaction was assessed using a high (80 %) and low contrast (5.8%) Sheridan Gardiner repeat letter (SGRL) chart in subjects with normal vision. The effect of contour interaction was investigated by varying the inter-letter separation in the SGRL chart. Significant contour interaction was obtained at the abutting condition for both the contrast conditions. In the 3rd experiment the same protocol was repeated but in amblyopes. Significant contour interaction was obtained at 0.2 letter separation and the abutting condition for both the contrast conditions. The effect of contour interaction appears to be less for low contrast than for high contrast letters in normal, non-amblyopic and amblyopic eyes. Finally, in the 4th experiment a Sheridan Gardiner Complex Interaction (SGCI) chart that requires imposed gaze fixations was constructed to measure visual acuity in normal’s and amblyopes. The effect of any gaze instability on crowding was investigated by comparing SGRL thresholds to SGCI thresholds. The SGCI thresholds were higher than the SGRL thresholds at all the separations measured, suggesting an important effect of gaze instability on crowding. In conclusion, this research has shown that gaze instability is an important component of the crowding effect for letter chart acuity measurements. Visual acuity especially when screening for amblyopia should be measured using a whole optotype chart that requires optotype to optotype fixation.

The thesis concerns the function of different intonation tunes in British English yes/no questions. The theoretical part of the work explores the phenomenon of language intonation and describes the commonly listed default contours of English yes/no questions. The practical part analyses authentic samples of British speakers' conversations and compares the function of intonation patterns in yes/no questions with the theoretical assumptions.