Este trabalho apresenta um sistema de auxilio à navegação autônoma para veículos terrestres com foco em ambientes estruturados em um cenário agrícola. É gerada a estimativa das posições dos obstáculos baseado na fusão das detecções provenientes do processamento dos dados de duas câmeras, uma estéreo e outra térmica. Foram desenvolvidos três módulos de detecção de obstáculos. O primeiro módulo utiliza imagens monoculares da câmera estéreo para detectar novidades no ambiente através da comparação do estado atual com o estado anterior. O segundo módulo utiliza a técnica Stixel para delimitar os obstáculos acima do plano do chão. Por fim, o terceiro módulo utiliza as imagens térmicas para encontrar assinaturas que evidenciem a presença de obstáculo. Os módulos de detecção são fundidos utilizando a Teoria de Dempster-Shafer que fornece a estimativa da presença de obstáculos no ambiente. Os experimentos foram executados em ambiente agrícola real. Foi executada a validação do sistema em cenários bem iluminados, com terreno irregular e com obstáculos diversos. O sistema apresentou um desempenho satisfatório tendo em vista a utilização de uma abordagem baseada em apenas três módulos de detecção com metodologias que não tem por objetivo priorizar a confirmação de obstáculos, mas sim a busca de novos obstáculos. Nesta dissertação são apresentados os principais componentes de um sistema de detecção de obstáculos e as etapas necessárias para a sua concepção, assim como resultados de experimentos com o uso de um veículo real. / This work presents a support system to the autonomous navigation for ground vehicles with focus on structured environments in an agricultural scenario. The estimated obstacle positions are generated based on the fusion of the detections from the processing of data from two cameras, one stereo and other thermal. Three modules obstacle detection have been developed. The first module uses monocular images of the stereo camera to detect novelties in the environment by comparing the current state with the previous state. The second module uses Stixel technique to delimit the obstacles above the ground plane. Finally, the third module uses thermal images to find signatures that reveal the presence of obstacle. The detection modules are fused using the Dempster-Shafer theory that provides an estimate of the presence of obstacles in the environment. The experiments were executed in real agricultural environment. System validation was performed in well-lit scenarios, with uneven terrain and different obstacles. The system showed satisfactory performance considering the use of an approach based on only three detection modules with methods that do not prioritize obstacle confirmation, but the search for new ones. This dissertation presents the main components of an obstacle detection system and the necessary steps for its design as well as results of experiments with the use of a real vehicle.

Species distributions reflect the suite of resources and range of environmental conditions required by a species. Distributions of many species change seasonally, however, in response to changes in resource availability and environmental conditions, many of which are projected to shift in response to climate change. We sought to identify environmental and anthropogenic factors associated with seasonal changes in the distribution of vertebrates that inhabit the Madrean Archipelago in southern Arizona, which is important for identifying mechanisms through which climate change may affect these species. From July 2012 to February 2015 (966 days), we used remote cameras to survey 200 sites across 16 mountain ranges for a total of 69,434 trap days and used dynamic occupancy models to determine how landscape features, vegetation composition, and anthropogenic factors influenced the distributions and seasonal rates of local colonization and extinction of 13 vertebrates. For these 13 species, we recorded 37,888 detections, with gray foxes, skunks, and squirrels detected most frequently. Bobcats, cottontails, gray foxes, skunks, squirrels, javelina, puma, and coatimundis were all detected across the entire range of elevations surveyed, from 935 to 2395 m. Black bears and wild turkeys were never detected below 1270 m, Sonoran opossums never detected above 1980 m, and coyotes and ringtails never detected above 2020 m. Composition and structure of vegetation in the understory, midstory, and overstory influenced initial occupancy of several species, including skunks, coatimundis, Sonoran opossums, and cottontails. Season, either directly or as an interaction with the estimated amount of solar radiation reaching a site, influenced local extinction rates of all 13 target species and local colonization rates of 9 of 13 species. Elevation influenced local colonization rates of black bears and coatimundis positively, and coyotes, Sonoran opossums, and cottontails negatively, and local extinction rates of skunks negatively and coyotes and black bears positively. These patterns indicate that the distributions of many species in this region change seasonally, likely as a mechanism to meet dietary, behavioral, or physiological needs in response to shifts in environmental conditions and resource availability. Therefore, species that depend on seasonal resources may be at higher risk of distributional shifts or range contractions if the distribution and phenology of these resources change in response to changes in climate.

A major disadvantage of shooting on green screen with CGI is that the director cannot see or interact with the virtual elements in the scene and thus get a realistic view of how the end result will look like, and also not being able to make changes as necessary by moving objects and actors around during the shooting session. This disadvantage can be mitigated by the use of previsualization where the director is given a rough take of what the final cut will look like by combining the filmed material with the virtual environment in real-time. This master’s thesis work aims to come up with solutions for improving the film studio Stiller Studios’s previsualization system. This involves a review and integration of game engines for previsualization in a motion control green screen studio, a camera calibration process with blur detection and automatic selection of images as well as research into camera tracking and depth compositing.

We present a miniature camera lens design method that uses a freeform surface based on the pedal curve to the ellipse in polynomial form. Two designs are presented and their benefits of optical performance and tolerance sensitivity are compared to designs with conventional aspheric surfaces. We also reverse a freeform design using even aspherical surfaces to show that the optimization solution of a freeform design cannot be reproduced by even aspherical surfaces.

Despite the impressive advancements in people detection and tracking, safety is still a key barrier to the deployment of autonomous vehicles in urban environments [1]. For example, in non-autonomous technology, there is an implicit communication between the people crossing the street and the driver to make sure they have communicated their intent to the driver. Therefore, it is crucial for the autonomous car to infer the future intent of the pedestrian quickly. We believe that human body orientation with respect to the camera can help the intelligent unit of the car to anticipate the future movement of the pedestrians. To further improve the safety of pedestrians, it is important to recognize whether they are distracted, carrying a baby, or pushing a shopping cart. Therefore, estimating the fine- grained 3D pose, i.e. (x,y,z)-coordinates of the body joints provides additional information for decision-making units of driverless cars. In this dissertation, we have proposed a deep learning-based solution to classify the categorized body orientation in still images. We have also proposed an efficient framework based on our body orientation classification scheme to estimate human 3D pose in monocular RGB images. Furthermore, we have utilized the dynamics of human motion to infer the body orientation in image sequences. To achieve this, we employ a recurrent neural network model to estimate continuous body orientation from the trajectories of body joints in the image plane. The proposed body orientation and 3D pose estimation framework are tested on the largest 3D pose estimation benchmark, Human3.6m (both in still images and video), and we have proved the efficacy of our approach by benchmarking it against the state-of-the-art approaches. Another critical feature of self-driving car is to avoid an obstacle. In the current prototypes the car either stops or changes its lane even if it causes other traffic disruptions. However, there are situations when it is preferable to collide with the object, for example a foam box, rather than take an action that could result in a much more serious accident than collision with the object. In this dissertation, for the first time, we have presented a novel method to discriminate between physical properties of these types of objects such as bounciness, elasticity, etc. based on their motion characteristics . The proposed algorithm is tested on synthetic data, and, as a proof of concept, its effectiveness on a limited set of real-world data is demonstrated.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à définir de nouvelles méthodes cliniques d’investigation permettant de juger de l’impact de l’avance en âge sur la motricité. En particulier, cette thèse se focalise sur deux principales perturbations possibles lors de l’avance en âge : la chute et l’altération de la marche.Ces deux perturbations motrices restent encore mal connues et leur analyse en clinique pose de véritables défis technologiques et scientifiques. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons des méthodes originales de détection qui peuvent être utilisées dans la vie courante ou en clinique, avec un minimum de contraintes techniques.Dans une première partie, nous abordons le problème de la détection de la chute à domicile, qui a été largement traité dans les années précédentes. En particulier, nous proposons une approche permettant d’exploiter le volume du sujet, reconstruit à partir de plusieurs caméras calibrées. Ces méthodes sont généralement très sensibles aux occultationsqui interviennent inévitablement dans le domicile et nous proposons donc une approche originale beaucoup plus robuste à ces occultations. L’efficacité et le fonctionnement en temps réel ont été validés sur plus d’une vingtaine de vidéos de chutes et de leurres, avec des résultats approchant les 100% de sensibilité et de spécificité en utilisant 4 caméras ou plus.Dans une deuxième partie, nous allons un peu plus loin dans l’exploitation des volumes reconstruits d’une personne, lors d’une tâche motrice particulière : la marche sur tapis roulant, dans un cadre de diagnostic clinique. Dans cette partie, nous analysons plus particulièrement la qualité de la marche. Pour cela nous développons le concept d’utilisation de caméras de profondeur pour la quantification de l’asymétrie spatiale au cours du mouvement des membres inférieurs pendant la marche. Après avoir détecté chaque pas dans le temps, cette méthode réalise une comparaison de surfaces de chaque jambe avec sa correspondante symétrique du pas opposé. La validation effectuée sur une cohorte de 20 sujets montre la viabilité de la démarche / This thesis is concerned with defining new clinical investigation method to assess the impact of ageing on motricity. In particular, this thesis focuses on two main possible disturbance during ageing : the fall and walk impairment. This two motricity disturbances still remain unclear and their clinical analysis presents real scientist and technological challenges. In this thesis, we propose novel measuring methods usable in everyday life or in the walking clinic, with a minimum of technical constraints.In the first part, we address the problem of fall detection at home, which was widely discussed in previous years. In particular, we propose an approach to exploit the subject’s volume, reconstructed from multiple calibrated cameras. These methods are generally very sensitive to occlusions that inevitably occur in the home and we therefore propose an original approach much more robust to these occultations. The efficiency and realtime operation has been validated on more than two dozen videos of falls and lures, with results approaching 100 % sensitivity and specificity with at least four or more cameras.In the second part, we go a little further in the exploitation of reconstructed volumes of a person at a particular motor task : the treadmill, in a clinical diagnostic. In this section we analyze more specifically the quality of walking. For this we develop the concept of using depth camera for the quantification of the spatial and temporal asymmetry of lower limb movement during walking. After detecting each step in time, this method makes a comparison of surfaces of each leg with its corresponding symmetric leg in the opposite step. The validation performed on a cohort of 20 subjects showed the viability of the approach.

Abstract This thesis presents an effective optical method for measuring liquid sorption into paper. From the two tested methods, based on a streak-camera and optical coherence tomography (OCT), the last-mentioned proved very promising for investigating dynamical paper-liquid interactions as spatially and temporally dependent processes. The streak-camera measurements were performed to explore the relationship between paper properties and light migration in dry and refractive index matched paper in general. Based on streak-camera measurements, a novel procedure for determining the average refractive index of cellulose fibre tissue was also presented here. In addition, the streak camera method lent itself to paper porosity determination. Results of the performed OCT measurements proved that liquids cannot penetrate into paper before filling the pores and pits of the paper surface. As a liquid penetrated into paper, the border between the wetted and dry area could be investigated in the depth direction. The liquid penetration velocity seemed to be slower at the beginning and end of the process. Liquid absorption into paper fibres could be investigated concurrently. For the first time, the location and moment of structural changes in paper could be determined during wetting, and the effect of three different coexistent subprocesses related to paper wetting could be detected. OCT only fell short of detecting the effect of liquid migration along fibres. Despite the limitations of the utilized method (resolution, probing depth and depth scanning rate), the obtained OCT measurement results are very promising for the development of an effective paper wetting measurement device for industrial applications. Even if this thesis focused on paper wetting, it is reasonable to assert that the presented ideas and obtained results have more general value in terms of explaining liquid penetration into porous structures and offer an alternative method of evaluating that process.

Master of Science / Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources / Adam A. Ahlers / The Flint Hills ecoregion in Kansas, USA, represents the largest remaining tract of native tallgrass prairie in North America. Anthropogenic landscape change (e.g., urbanization, agricultural production) is affecting native biodiversity in this threatened ecosystem. Our understanding of how landscape change affects spatial distributions of carnivores (i.e., species included in the Order ‘Carnivora’) in this ecosystem is limited. I investigated the influence of landscape structure and composition on site occupancy dynamics of 3 native carnivores (coyote [Canis latrans]; bobcat [Lynx rufus]; and striped skunk [Mephitis mephitis]) and 1 nonnative carnivore (domestic cat, [Felis catus]) across an urbanization gradient in the Flint Hills during 2016-2017. I also examined how the relative influence of various landscape factors affected native carnivore species richness and diversity. I positioned 74 camera traps across 8 urban-rural transects in the 2 largest cities in the Flint Hills (Manhattan, pop. > 55,000; Junction City, pop. > 31,000) to assess presence/absence of carnivores. Cameras were activated for 28 days in each of 3 seasons (Summer 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017) and I used multisession occupancy models and an information-theoretic approach to assess the importance of various landscape factors on carnivore site occupancy dynamics. Based on previous research in other ecosystems, I expected a negative relationship between both coyote and bobcat occurrence with increasing urban development but a positive relationship for domestic cat and skunk occurrence with increasing urban landcover. I also predicted grassland landcover to positively influence site occupancy for all carnivores except domestic cats. I expected that coyotes, the apex predator in this ecoregion, may limit domestic cat distributions through intraguild competition. Thus, I predicted a negative relationship between site occupancy of domestic cats and coyote occupancy probabilities. Because urban development results in habitat loss and fragmentation, I expected native species richness and diversity to decline with increased urban development. Coyotes had lower occupancy and colonization rates in areas with increased urban landcover. Bobcat occupancy was insensitive to urban landcover and colonization rates were greater in grassland landcover and row-crop agriculture fields. Site occupancy of bobcats was highly influence by forested areas and greater edge densities. Contrary to my hypothesis, striped skunk occupancy and colonization rates were negatively related to urban landcover. As expected, domestic cats were more likely to occur in and colonize sites with increased urban development and less likely to occur at sites with high coyote occupancy probabilities. Native carnivore species diversity and richness were negatively related to urban landcover. Occupancy dynamics of carnivores were shown to be influenced by landscape structure and composition as well as intraguild interactions. My results show urban landcover has a strong influence on the spatial distributions of carnivores in the northern extent of the Flint Hills.

Much like a photograph, a casts creates a replica of its referent, thereby immobilising the subject in time. While the subject continues in time and hence ages and inevitably dies the replica does not. With this basic notion of fixing a subject, I have built an argument to contextualise my sculptures, which are made using casts of elderly people. In this discussion I have looked at my works through the ideas of different theorists. The main theorist I have cited is Roland Barthes, specifically with regards to his notion of the photograph as discussed in his book Camera Lucida. I have also referenced three particular artists: Rachel Whiteread, Diane Arbus and Churchill Madikida, as I have found each of their works relate to my work in various ways, creating a different reading from each viewpoint.

The purpose of this study is to provide historical information, analytical material, and to discuss performance problems and teaching techniques relative to the Concertino da Camera by Jacques Ibert. A number of articles have been written concerning the premiere date and the necessity for the saxophonist to perform certain passages in the extreme high register of the instrument. The known arguments will be presented and discussed. The main purpose of this study is to examine and offer solutions to challenging performance situations which both teachers and performers encounter during study of the Concertino. A Technical Problems List was constructed and possible solutions are discussed based upon a survey of professional saxophonists and the performing experience of the researcher. The survey results have proved invaluable and many references are made to the practice methods of the survey respondents. The Concertino da Camera was selected for this study because of its musical value, frequency of performance, level of difficulty and appropriateness for educational use. In a survey conducted in 1973 by Cecil Gold, 120 professional saxophonists were requested to list examples of repertoire which they have students perform. The Concertino was listed as the fourth most frequently chosen work at the undergraduate level and the first choice at the graduate level, and is recognized as one of the most musically rewarding works in the solo literature for the saxophone. Two texts by Teal and books by Farkas and Gold served as primary reference material as the researcher identified and offered solutions to performance challenges during construction of the performance analysis. Two books, by Pottle and Stauffer, which discuss the intonation problems of wind instruments, were also helpful. In tracing the history of the Concertino, the researcher found books by Hemke and Rousseau, and articles by Rascher to be helpful. The Concertino da Camera, written in 1935, is representative of the most prolific period of Ibert's artistic production. In Chapter 1, this period and the history of the Concertino are examines. A discussion of the formal structure followed by a description of the music will be given in Chapter 2. Problems of technique, intonation, tonal matching, articulation, rhythm, range and special fingerings will be detailed in Chapter 3. The writer feels that the Concertino da Camera is an outstanding composition which is deserving of reputable performances. It is hoped that the results of the research will benefit the educator and performer of this challenging composition.