The thesis deals with image classifiers and their implementation using FPGA technology. There are discussed weak and strong classifiers in the work. As an example of strong classifiers, the AdaBoost algorithm is described. In the case of weak classifiers, basic types of feature classifiers are shown, including Haar and Gabor wavelets. The rest of work is primarily focused on LBP, LRP and LR classifiers, which are well suitable for efficient implementation in FPGAs. With these classifiers is designed pseudo-parallel architecture. Process of classifications is divided on software and hardware parts. The thesis deals with hardware part of classifications. The designed classifier is very fast and produces results of classification every clock cycle.

Táto práca popisuje niekoľko vybraných algoritmov, ktoré boli primárne vyvinuté pre CPU procesory, avšak vzhľadom k vysokému dopytu po ich vylepšeniach sme sa rozhodli ich využiť v prospech GPGPU (procesorov grafického adaptéra). Modifikácia týchto algoritmov bola zároveň cieľom nášho výskumu, ktorý  bol prevedený pomocou CUDA rozhrania. Práca je členená podľa troch skupín algoritmov, ktorým sme sa venovali: detekcia objektov v reálnom čase, spektrálna analýza obrazu a detekcia čiar v reálnom čase. Pre výskum detekcie objektov v reálnom čase sme zvolili použitie LRD a LRP funkcií.  Výskum spektrálnej analýzy obrazu bol prevedný pomocou PCA a NTF algoritmov. Pre potreby skúmania detekcie čiar v reálnom čase sme používali dva rôzne spôsoby modifikovanej akumulačnej schémy Houghovej transformácie. Pred samotnou časťou práce venujúcej sa konkrétnym algoritmom a predmetu skúmania, je v úvodných kapitolách, hneď po kapitole ozrejmujúcej dôvody skúmania vybranej problematiky, stručný prehľad architektúry GPU a GPGPU. Záverečné kapitoly sú zamerané na konkretizovanie vlastného prínosu autora, jeho zameranie, dosiahnuté výsledky a zvolený prístup k ich dosiahnutiu. Súčasťou výsledkov je niekoľko vyvinutých produktov.

Die Studie hat zum Ziel, im Rahmen des Äußerungsproduktionsmodells die Annahme thinking for speaking (Slobin, 1996) experimentell zu überprüfen. Ansatzpunkt ist der Unterschied in der Stellung der Markierung einer Entscheidungsfrage zwischen drei Sprachen. Während der Fragemodus im Deutschen/Polnischen vor dem Frageinhalt markiert wird, geschieht die Modusmarkierung im Chinesischen nach dem Inhalt. Um die entsprechende Satzstruktur aufzubauen, sollte der Fragemodus beim syntaktischen Kodierungsprozess (speaking) im Deutschen/Polnischen vor, im Chinesischen nach dem Inhalt verarbeitet werden. Unter Zugrundelegung der inkrementellen Äußerungsproduktion gehen wir davon aus, dass die Verarbeitungsreihenfolge beim vorangehenden Konzeptualisierungsprozess (thinking) mit der syntaktischen Kodierungsabfolge übereinstimmt: Der Fragemodus wird im Deutschen/ Polnischen vor, im Chinesischen hingegen nach dem Inhalt konzeptualisiert. Um den zeitlichen Ablauf der zwei Konzeptualisierungsprozess zu ermitteln, bedienten wir uns des lateralisierten Bereitschaftspotenzials (lateralized readiness potential, LRP) im binären Wahlreaktions-Go/Nogo-Paradigma. Im Versuch reagierten deutsche, chinesische und polnische Muttersprachler auf dargebotene Bilder mit Tastendrücken und Sprechen. Zu beobachten war das Auftreten eines LRP bei Nogo, das signalisierte, in welcher Reihenfolge sich die Handwahl und die Nogo-Entscheidung realisierten Ein Nogo-LRP trat bei allen drei Sprechergruppen auf. Zudem wurde festgestellt, dass die Nogo-Entscheidung, die erwartungsgemäß mit der sprachlichen Verarbeitung des Fragemodus verbunden wurde, bei den drei Sprechergruppen ungefähr zeitgleich getroffen wurde. Die Befunde legen nahe, dass der Fragemodus in den drei Sprachen zeitlich nicht unterschiedlich, sondern einheitlich geplant wurde. Die Schlussfolgerung wird im Rahmen von thinking for speaking sowie dem Äußerungsproduktionsmodell diskutiert. / Languages differ in the marking of the sentence mood of a polar interrogative (yes/no question). For instance, the interrogative mood is marked at the beginning of the surface structure in Polish, whereas the marker appears at the end in Chinese. In order to generate the corresponding sentence frame, the syntactic specification of the interrogative mood is early in Polish and late in Chinese. In this respect, German belongs to an interesting intermediate class. The yes/no-question is expressed by a shift of the finite verb from its final position in the underlying structure into the utterance initial position, a move affecting, hence, both the sentence final and the sentence initial constituents. The present study aimed to investigate whether during generation of the semantic structure of a polar interrogative, i.e. the processing preceding the grammatical formulation, the interrogative mood is encoded according to its position in the syntactic structure at distinctive time points in Chinese, German, and Polish. In a two-choice go/nogo experimental design, native speakers of the three languages responded to pictures by pressing buttons and producing utterances in their native language while their brain potentials were recorded. The emergence and latency of lateralized readiness potentials (LRP) in nogo conditions, in which speakers asked a yes/no question, should indicate the time point of processing the interrogative mood. The results revealed that Chinese, German, and Polish native speakers did not differ from each other in the electrophysiological indicator. The findings suggest that the semantic encoding of the interrogative mood is temporally consistent across languages despite its disparate syntactic specification. The consistent encoding may be ascribed to economic processing of interrogative moods at various sentential positions of the syntactic structures in languages or, more generally, to the overarching status of sentence mood in the semantic structure.

Dans cette thèse, des particules de polymère fonctionnalisées en surface avec des groupes poly (éthylène glycol) (PEG) ont été synthétisées pour favoriser leur interaction avec les dérivés cellulosique via liaisons hydrogène intermoléculaires. Deux voies de synthèse ont été proposées pour obtenir ses composites cellulose/latex.La première voie est basée sur l'auto-assemblage induit par polymérisation (PISA) pour former des nanoparticules fonctionnalisées avant leur adsorption sur un substrat cellulosique. La PISA tire profit de la formation de copolymères blocs amphiphiles dans l'eau en combinant la polymérisation en émulsion avec les techniques de polymérisation radicalaire contrôlées (RDRP). Ces dernières sont utilisées pour synthétiser des polymères hydrophiles agissant à la fois comme précurseur pour la polymerization en émulsion d'un monomère hydrophobe, et comme stabilisant des particules de latex obtenues. Deux techniques de RDRP ont été étudiées : les polymérisations RAFT et SET-LRP. Des polymères hydrophiles à base de PEG de faible masse molaire ont été synthétisés en utilisant ses deux techniques qui sont ensuite utilisés pour la polymérisation d'un bloc hydrophobe dans l'eau. Le transfert de l'agent de contrôle au site de la polymérisation était difficile en utilisant la SET-LRP en émulsion, conduisant à la formation de larges particules. En utilisant la RAFT en émulsion, des particules nanométriques ont été obtenues, avec un changement morphologique observé en fonction de la taille du segment hydrophobe, puis adsorbées sur des nanofibrilles de cellulose (CNF).La seconde voie utilise la polymérisation en émulsion classique réalisée en présence de nanocristaux de cellulose (CNC) conduisant à une stabilisation Pickering des particules de polymère. L'interaction cellulose/particule est assurée grâce à l'ajout d’un comonomère à type PEG. Une organisation a été visualisé dans laquelle plusieurs particules de polymère recouvrent chaque CNC / In this thesis, polymer particles surface-functionalized with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) groups were synthesized to promote their interaction with cellulose derivatives via intermolecular hydrogen bond. Two synthetic routes were proposed to obtain such cellulose/latex composites.The first route was based on the polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) to form functionalized polymer nanoparticles prior to adsorption onto cellulosic substrate. PISA takes advantage of the formation of amphiphilic block copolymers in water by combining emulsion polymerization with reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) techniques. The latter were used to synthesize well-controlled hydrophilic polymer chains, acting as both precursor for the emulsion polymerization of a hydrophobic monomer, and stabilizer of the final latex particles. Two RDRP techniques were investigated: reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT), and single electron transfer-living radical polymerization (SET-LRP). Low molar mass PEG-based hydrophilic polymers have been synthesized using both techniques, used for the polymerization of a hydrophobic block in water. The transfer of controlling agent at the locus of the polymerization was challenging for SET-LRP in emulsion conditions leading to surfactant-free large particles. Nanometric latex particles were obtained via RAFT-mediated emulsion polymerization, with morphology change from sphere to fibers observed depending on the size of the hydrophobic segment, which were then able to be adsorbed onto cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs).The second route used conventional emulsion polymerization performed directly in presence of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) leading to Pickering-type stabilization of the polymer particles. Cellulose/particle interaction was provided thanks to the addition of PEG-based comonomer. Original organization emerged where CNCs were covered by several polymer particles

A wide literature of predominantly behavioural experiments that use Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC) have suggested that visual action information such as object affordance yields rapid and concurrent activation of visual and motor brain areas, but has rarely provided direct evidence for this proposition. This thesis examines some of the key claims from the affordance literature by applying electrophysiological measures to well established SRC procedures to determine the verities of the behavioural claims of rapid and automatic visuomotor activation evoked by viewing affording objects. The temporal sensitivity offered by the Lateralised Readiness Potential and by visual evoked potentials P1 and N1 made ideal candidates to assess the behavioural claims of rapid visuomotor activation by seen objects by examining the timecourse of neural activation elicited by viewing affording objects under various conditions. The experimental work in this thesis broadly confirms the claims of the behavioural literature however it also found a series of novel results that are not predicted by the behavioural literature due to limitations in reaction time measures. For example, while different classes of affordance have been shown to exert the same behavioural facilitation, electrophysiological measures reveal very different patterns of cortical activation for grip-type and lateralised affordances. These novel findings question the applicability of the label ‘visuomotor’ to grip-type affordance processing and suggest considerable revision to models of affordance. This thesis also offers a series of novel and surprising insights into the ability to dissociate afforded motor activity from behavioural output, into the relationship between affordance and early visual evoked potentials, and into affordance in the absence of the intention to act. Overall, this thesis provides detailed suggestions for considerable changes to current models of the neural activity underpinning object affordance.