Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Anuj Srivastava, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Statistics. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 22, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xiv, 123 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Theses (M.S.)--Marshall University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains ix, 99 pages. Bibliography: p. 97-99.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1920. / "From the Psychological laboratory of Cornell University." "Reprinted from the American journal of psychology, July, 1921, vol. XXXII."

No description available.

Automatic face recognition has long been studied because it has a wide potential for application. Several systems have been developed to identify faces from small face populations via detailed face feature analysis, or by using neural nets, or through model based approaches. This study has aimed to provide satisfactory recognition within large populations of human faces and has concentrated on improving feature definition and extraction to establish an extended feature set to lead to a fully structured recognition system based on a single frontal view. An overall review on the development and the techniques of automatic face recognition is included, and performances of earlier systems are discussed. A novel profile description has been achieved from a frontal view of a face and is represented by a Walsh power spectrum which was selected from seven different descriptions due to its ability to distinguish the differences between profiles of different faces. A further feature has concerned the face contour which is extracted by iterative curve fitting and described by normalized Fourier descriptors. To accompany an extended set of geometric measurements, the eye region feature is described statistically by eye-centred moments. Hair texture has also been studied for the purpose of segmenting it from other parts of the face and to investigate the possibility of using it as a set of feature. These new features combine to form an extended feature vector to describe a face. The algorithms for feature extraction have been implemented on face images from different subjects and multiple views from the same person but without the face normal to the camera or without constant illumination. Features have been assessed in consequence on each feature set separately and on the composite feature vector. The results have continued to emphasize that though each description can be used to recognise a face there is a clear need for an extended feature set to cope with the requirements of recognizing faces within large populations.

En contexte de changement global, les questions d’adaptation et de pérennisation des systèmes de production sont un enjeu agricole majeur. En Argentine, le 5ème producteur mondial de vins, les conditions thermiques et hydriques sont déjà proches des limites de la culture de la vigne. En tant que culture pérenne, son adaptation à court et moyen termes doit être pensée, dès à présent. La pérennisation de cette culture passe par une adaptation des pratiques culturales. L’objectif de cette thèse visait à proposer des outils de détection et de gestion des pratiques culturales des vignobles à partir d’imagessatellitaires optiques et radar. Une analyse préalable des évolutions du climat et de sa variabilité intrarégionale a mis en évidence les principales menaces et opportunités au regard du changement climatique. A l’échelle locale, le travail sur un grand nombre de parcelles aux caractéristiques hétérogènes a approfondi les connaissances sur l’interaction signal cible en fonction des pratiques culturales. Des cartographies de l’orientation des rangées de vignes, des surfaces protégées par des filets anti-grêles et des modes d’irrigation ont été réalisées afin de dresser un état des lieux du système viticole actuel. Ensuite, l’évaluation du potentiel des données satellitaires pour le suivi de la croissance de la vigne et de ses besoins en eau ont apporté des résultats prometteurs pour le développement d’outils d’aide à la décision pour les viticulteurs. / In the climate change context, the adaptation and sustainability of agricultural systems is a major challenge. In Argentina, the 5th worldwide wine producing country, the thermal and hydrical conditions are already extreme for grapevine production. This perennial crop sustainability depends on the adaptation of cultural practices. The objective of the thesis was to develop tools for helping in cultural pratices management using optical and SAR remote sensing images. First, an analysis of climate evolution and its inner regional variability hilighted the main threats and opportunities in the climate change context. At the local scale, working on a high number of heterogeneous vineyards improved the knowledge about signal and target interaction depending on cultural practices. Maps of row orientation, areas protected by anti-hail nets and irrigation systems were produced for an inventory of the actual viticultural system conditions. Then, the potential of remote sensing data for grapevine growth monitoring and irrigation requirements was evaluated and led to promising preliminary results for developping irrigation monitoring tools destinated to grapevine producers

La technique d’inpainting (retouche d’images) est considérée comme l’une des solutions efficaces pour la restauration d'images dégradées et, même la vidéo ou les contenus 3D stéréoscopiques. Il s’agit d’un outil essentiel pour la restauration et la conservation des objets archéologiques. En effet, lors de fouilles de sites historiques, de nombreux objets de valeur tels que des statues, des bâtiments, des peintures murales, etc., sont découverts et récupérés. Malheureusement, la plupart d’entre eux se retrouvent endommagés ou fracturés. Dans l’optique d’apprendre de ces objets, les techniques numériques sont utilisées pour les restaurer en utilisant des connaissances a priori fournies par les archéologues et les artistes. Cela permet de reconstruire, préserver et maintenir ces oeuvres artistiques de grande valeur. En effet, les progrès des technologies et des systèmes d’acquisition d’images ont permis la transition des méthodes traditionnelles de retouche manuelle vers des techniques numériques, ouvrant un nouveau domaine de recherche appelé inpainting d’images.Dans cette thèse, notre travail visait à analyser et examiner les méthodes de la littérature des techniques d’inpainting d’images qui se décomposent en trois groupes. Les avantages et les inconvénients de chaque approche sont analysés finement en utilisant des critères objectifs et subjectifs. Sur la base de cette étude, une nouvelle approche d’inpainting d’images est proposée et confrontée à la littérature. Elle offre de bonnes performances en termes de qualité de rendu et d’efficacité calculatoire. Une autre contribution réside dans la proposition d’une nouvelle métrique de qualité dédiée à l’évaluation des techniques d’inpainting. Au regard de l’état de l’art dans le domaine, les images ayant subi des retouches par inpainting sont très souvent évaluées subjectivement ou au moyen de quelques mesures objectives loin d’être adaptées aux particularités de cette technique. La métrique proposée offre à la fois de bonnes performances et une adaptabilité au domaine. La dernière contribution de ce travail est un problème moins étudié et lié à la détection d’inpainting. Ceci est motivé par les efforts importants de recherche sur la thématique ainsi que le développement rapide de la technologie. La conséquence est que la qualité des retouches par inpainting est devenue plus réaliste et sophistiquée que jamais. Les régions retouchées sont alors difficiles à détecter par les utilisateurs, même les experts. Ainsi, ces images pourraient être utilisées à différentes fins, légales comme illégales. Malgré l’importance du sujet, très peu de travaux l’ont adressés à cause de sa complexité. C’est sur cette base qu’une nouvelle approche pour la détection d’inpainting est proposée dans cette thèse, en exploitant les connaissances acquises lors des étapes précédentes. Enfin, la performance des solutions proposées est soigneusement évaluée à travers plusieurs expérimentations, et ce au regard du jugement humain ainsi qu’en comparaison avec les méthodes existantes. / Image inpainting technique has emerged as one of the efficient solutions for restoring degraded images and even video and 3D visual contents. It is essential for restoration and conservation of archeological objects. Indeed, during the excavation of historic sites, many valuable artifacts such as statues, buildings, wall paintings, etc., have been unearthed and recovered. Unfortunately, most of them have been damaged or fractured in ancient times. With the aim to learn from these objects, digital techniques are used to restore them using some a priori knowledge provided by archeologists and artists. This helps to reconstruct, preserve and maintain these valuable artistic works. Recently, advances of computer technology and image acquisition systems made possible the transition from traditional manual retouching methods to digital techniques. It has opened up a very new and interesting research field within image processing, namely digital image inpainting.In this thesis, our work aims at analyzing and reviewing the state-of-the-art methods for image inpainting. Three groups of inpainting methods are identified. The advantages and drawbacks of each approach are analyzed using objective and subjective criteria. Based on this review, a new approach of image inpainting is introduced and compared to literature. The proposed method provides good performance in terms of quality and computation efficiency. Another contribution lies in the proposal of a new quality metric dedicated to image inpainting. To the best of our knowledge the inpainted images are very often evaluated subjectively or by means of some objective metrics far from being adapted to the peculiarities of image inpainting criteria. The last contribution of this work is a less investigated problem related to inpainting detection. This is motivated by the fact that, due to extensive research and rapid growth of technology, the output quality of inpainting algorithms became more than ever realistic and sophisticated. The inpainted regions are hard to detect by viewers, even for experts. As a result, these inpainted images could be used for different purposes, including digital tampering. Therefore, the last topic of the work is devoted to inpainting detection, also seen as an inverse problem of inpainting. Although, many papers have been introduced for forgery detection, there is almost no study about image inpainting forgery. Accordingly, a novel approach for inpainting detection is introduced based on the knowledge gathered in the previous steps of the thesis. Finally, the performance of proposed solutions is carefully evaluated with regards to human judgment as well as in comparison with the existing methods though a series of experimental studies.

This work examines the effectiveness of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for investigating seasonally variable glaciological parameters, in particular its ability to discriminate glacier surface facies in order to estimate glacier mass balance. A multitemporal C-band SAR dataset of Nordenskiold Land, Spitsbergen, acquired by the ERS-1 satellite, is used for the analysis, which focuses on mountain glaciers rather than ice sheets. Validating field measurements of ice and snowpack parameters were obtained contemporaneously with two SAR images, prior to and during the ablation season. A general model for the annual backscatter cycle from a sub-polar glacier is derived from SAR data of three glacierised areas. This model reveals two seasonal reversals in the relative magnitude of backscatter from the ice and wet-snow facies, principally through a 10 dB change in the latter; these reversals mark the start and end of the ablation season. It is shown that a combination of winter and summer SAR imagery is necessary to estimate the equilibriumline altitude of a sub-polar glacier. Topographic distortion is the major limiting factor regarding the utilisation of SAR data for studying mountainous glaciers. Existing theoretical models of radar backscatter from snow and ice are validated for three scenarios: glacier ice, dry snow overlying glacier ice, and wet snow, using the in situ measurements. In addition, temporal variations of ice and snowpack parameters observed during the field campaigns are used to predict short-term seasonal changes in backscatter, and to corroborate the model of annual backscatter. ERS-1 SAR data are compared to NIR Landsat TM data in separate analyses of data information content and temporal resolution; the optical data are found to be better for both facies discrimination and obtaining synoptic glaciological information in mountainous regions. However, the Spitsbergen cloud cover is such that useful TM data may not necessarily be acquired in a given year; consequently SAR is the better sensor for obtaining guaranteed synoptic mass balance data for use in climate change studies, or for studying short-term events like glacier surges. These conclusions are shown to apply to the entire European Arctic sector except East Greenland, where the two sensors have similar temporal resolutions. Data from both sensors were integrated to provide an estimation of the synoptic mass balance of Nordenskiold Land for 1991/92; the results, which indicate an overall slightly negative mass balance, demonstrate that elevation is the principal factor governing glacier net mass balance in the region.

Includes bibliographical references. / Three problems are addressed in this dissertation. They are intracranial volume extraction, noise suppression and automated segmentation of X-Ray Computerized Tomography (CT) images. The segmentation scheme is based on a Seeded Region Growing algorithm. The intracranial volume extraction is based on image symmetry and the noise suppression filter is based on the Gaussian nature of the tissue distribution. Both are essential in achieving good segmentation results. Simulated phantoms and real medical images were used in testing and development of the algorithms. The testing was done over a wide range of noise values, object sizes and mean object grey levels. All the methods were first implemented in two- and then three-dimensions. The 3-D implementation also included an investigation into volume formation and the advantages of 3-D processing. The results of the intracranial extraction showed that 9% of the data in the relevant grey level range consisted of unwanted scalp (The scalp is spatially not part of the intracranial volume, but has the same grey level values). This justified the extraction the intracranial volume for further processing. For phantom objects greater than 741.51mm³ (voxel resolution 0.48mm x 0.48mm x 2mm) and having a mean grey level distance of 10 from any other object, a maximum segmentation volume error of 15% was achieved.

La connaissance détaillée et le suivi de la végétation urbaine représentent un enjeu important, tant pour les scientifiques qui étudient les relations paysage-écosystème, que pour les gestionnaires qui sont chargés de l'entretien et de la gestion de la végétation. Le principal objectif de cette thèse est d'évaluer l'intérêt des images à THRS pour cartographier la végétation en ville. Plus précisément, elle vise à évaluer le potentiel des images THRS sur trois composantes : la résolution spatiale, la résolution spectrale et l'altimétrie. Pour cela, nous avons traité plusieurs types de données optiques THRS acquises sur la Ville de Rennes et le Site des Prairies Saint-Martin : des images 2D multispectrales et superspectrales, des images multispectrales 2,5D et des données 3D acquises par un LiDAR bi-spectral. Dans un premier temps, nous avons évalué l'intérêt d'utiliser des images THRS 2D multispectrales pour identifier et caractériser la végétation et des images THRS super spectrales afin d'identifier les espèces végétales. Dans un second temps, nous avons évalué l'apport de données multispectrales THRS 2,5D et 3D pour cartographier les formes de végétation en milieu urbain en utilisant des variables spectrales, contextuelles et de hauteur. Dans un troisième temps, avons cherché à évaluer l'impact, de l'intégration des informations sur la végétation dérivées de données de télédétection THRS dans deux modèles environnementaux, un permettant d'étudier la relation paysage-biodiversité, l'autre la relation paysage- îlot de chaleur urbain / Abstract: Detailed knowledge and monitoring of urban vegetation is an important issue, both for scientists studying landscape-ecosystems relationships, and for the managers who are in charge of the vegetation management. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the interest of THRS images to map urban vegetation. More specifically, it aims to evaluate the potential of THRS images on three components: spatial resolution, spectral resolution and altimetry. For this purpose, we processed several types of THRS optical data acquired on the City of Rennes and the Prairies Saint-Martin Site: multispectral and superspectral 2D images, 2.5D multispectral images and 3D data acquired with a bi-spectral LiDAR. Firstly, we assessed the interest of using 2D multispectral THRS images to identify and characterize vegetation and superspectral THRS images to discriminate plant species. Secondly, we assessed the contribution of THRS 2.5D and 3D multispectral data to map vegetation patterns in urban areas using spectral, contextual and height variables. Thirdly, we sought to evaluate the impact, of the integration of vegetation information derived from THRS remote sensing data into two environmental models, one to study the landscape-biodiversity relationship, the other to analyze the landscape- urban cool island relationship.