There exist many methods for facial recognition, such as eigenface, templates, artificial neural networks, etc., based on the given facial sample data (patterns). When an input facial image (target) involve simple geometrical transformations and illumination, the performance of these methods are not very satisfactory. In this thesis, following Li et al., we propose a new face recognition system, which can eliminate translation, rotation, scaling, and prospective transformations of facial images automatically, and can also eliminate illumination. According to facial features, we use this method to find the best transformation and the closet illumination, and then to eliminate them for identification by the best matching between a target and the patterns. Finally, we use the least squares method to recognize the target. This method is validated by numerical examples.

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This qualitative study employing ethnomethodology investigated whether previously employed African women between 50-59 years, termed near-old, turned to learning as a coping strategy after losing their jobs. Reflexive discussions, termed ‘herstories,’ were analysed. Whether the women experienced true crisis as a result of cessation from work, how they made meaning as they aged and to what extent retirement was a catalyst for learning formed the central lines of probing. The findings revealed that the near-old women did not consider the transition to old age a crisis. Crises in their experiences were more permanent and emotionally devastating. Meaning schemes and perspectives were transformed as they encountered unbearable work situations. Critical reflection on the situation led to action resulting in them exiting formal employment. There was strong evidence of self-directed and life-long learning. The women sought out new knowledge and skills in order to cope in the competitive work of consultancy. Instances of positive adult development attested to Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning and Brookfield’s reflective thinking. The study highlighted the need to use adult education strategies in order to promote critical reflection and to ‘conscientise’ older people about their deeply embedded beliefs that are often entrenched by their socialisation.

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This research explored the complexity of language teacher identity from a holistic perspective involving two features: the integration of teachers’ personal and professional experiences, and the application of conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit thought processes. The study examined four ESL teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations about the influences of their important personal, educational, and professional experiences on the development of their teacher identity. It also investigated the overall impact of an autobiographical reflective process combined with a guided visualization activity on the re-construction of participants’ perceptions of teacher identity. The interdisciplinary theoretical orientation was grounded in theories and concepts from psychology and educational research, e.g., Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955, 1963), the complementary nature of reason and intuition, and the concept of “perspective transformation” (Mezirow, 1978, 2000). The methodology was heuristic research (Moustakas, 1990, 1994) and methods included reflexive autobiographical journaling, guided visualization, and in-depth interviews. The results confirm that teacher identity is deeply embedded in one’s personal biography. Participants’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations nurtured in the family environment strongly influenced their school experiences, career choice, instructional practice, teaching philosophy, and teacher identity. The use of the guided visualization technique, integrated with rational reflection, considerably enhanced the depth and breadth of participants’ self-understanding and personal/professional growth, which is an important methodological contribution of the study for teacher development. The results strongly suggest that it is essential to explore teachers’ personal life experiences in order to gain a holistic understanding of the dominant influences on the development of teacher identity. The study presents a model for designing a longitudinal professional development program offered in a series of workshops to raise teachers’ awareness of the implicit influences on teacher identity and instructional practice through the application of both conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit methods to access their beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations of their life experiences.

This research explored the complexity of language teacher identity from a holistic perspective involving two features: the integration of teachers’ personal and professional experiences, and the application of conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit thought processes. The study examined four ESL teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations about the influences of their important personal, educational, and professional experiences on the development of their teacher identity. It also investigated the overall impact of an autobiographical reflective process combined with a guided visualization activity on the re-construction of participants’ perceptions of teacher identity. The interdisciplinary theoretical orientation was grounded in theories and concepts from psychology and educational research, e.g., Personal Construct Theory (Kelly, 1955, 1963), the complementary nature of reason and intuition, and the concept of “perspective transformation” (Mezirow, 1978, 2000). The methodology was heuristic research (Moustakas, 1990, 1994) and methods included reflexive autobiographical journaling, guided visualization, and in-depth interviews. The results confirm that teacher identity is deeply embedded in one’s personal biography. Participants’ beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations nurtured in the family environment strongly influenced their school experiences, career choice, instructional practice, teaching philosophy, and teacher identity. The use of the guided visualization technique, integrated with rational reflection, considerably enhanced the depth and breadth of participants’ self-understanding and personal/professional growth, which is an important methodological contribution of the study for teacher development. The results strongly suggest that it is essential to explore teachers’ personal life experiences in order to gain a holistic understanding of the dominant influences on the development of teacher identity. The study presents a model for designing a longitudinal professional development program offered in a series of workshops to raise teachers’ awareness of the implicit influences on teacher identity and instructional practice through the application of both conscious/rational and intuitive/tacit methods to access their beliefs, perceptions, and interpretations of their life experiences.

This paper deals step by step with process of stitching images taken by perspective camera rotated by its optical center into the panoramic image. There are described keypoint searching algorhytms, possibilities of calculating homography matrix and methods of eliminating unwanted seams between source images in final panoramic image. A part of this paper is also standalone application in which are implemented some algorhytms described in the work.

The diploma thesis is focused on the topic of transformative learning in connection with adult experiential learning. The goal of the thesis is to identify transformative effects in the interpretation of participants' experiences which are caused by experiential learning courses. The concept of transformative learning is mainly examined by foreign authors who look at the concept from different perspectives. This thesis deals with a qualitative survey which is based on the reflection of the common framework of transformative learning, including its various concepts and topic of adult experiential learning. Respondents of the survey are nine employees in management positions who have completed a long-term development program focused on management skills. The development of semi-structured interview with respondents was aimed at identifying a shift in "knowing" and changes in thinking, perception and action throughout life. The analysis of qualitative data brings concrete implications in the interpretation of experience in work and personal life. Key words transformative learning, Jack Mezirow, perspective transformation, disorienting dilemma, critical reflection, dialogue, experiential education, Kolb's learning cycle, experience

As the top sport in the world without any doubt, soccer has a wide influence on human society. Since the beginning of modern soccer, soccer tactics have been developed for a long time. Clearly, it requires data for soccer analysis, which includes not only the match results between each team but also performance of players on the pitch. Playmaker.ai, where this degree project has been carried out, is a company that provides soccer analysis services. The major purpose of this project is to create a system that can generate player position by analyzing video data without bird-view information. Besides player position generation, some progress has been made in expected goal calculation and implemented some data preprocessing tools. In this project, the goal is accomplished in following steps: 1. Detect players from camera view images by using YOLO (You Only Look Once) network. 2. Use Strong-Sort method to track the position of players and ball in a long video. 3. Assign the teams to different detected object, methods including K-means are used in this step. 4. Generate bird view position by using perspective transformation method The result shows that all the machine model successfully converged and achieve good performance in practical usage, despite that there are still existing limitations and problems. By using this system, a 2-D map with player position on this map can be generated. And the data preprocessing tools can also be used for the company. Admittedly, because of several limitation in practical development, there are problems and disadvantage of the system. This system could be considered as a prototype of a complete method for solving multiple issues in soccer data analysis based on machine learning and computer vision. The future developers can iterate this project for further improvement. / Som den bästa sporten i världen utan tvekan har fotboll ett stort inflytande på det mänskliga samhället. Sedan starten av modern fotboll har fotbollstaktik utvecklats under lång tid. Det kräver helt klart data för fotbollsanalys, som inte bara inkluderar matchresultaten mellan varje lag utan även spelarnas prestation på planen. Playmaker.ai, där jag gjorde det här examensarbetet, är ett företag som tillhandahåller fotbollsanalystjänster. Huvudsyftet med detta projekt är att skapa ett system som kan generera spelarposition genom att analysera videodata utan fågelvyinformation. Förutom spelarpositionsgenerering, gjorde jag också vissa framsteg i xG-beräkning och implementerade några verktyg för förbearbetning av data. I det här projektet uppnådde jag målet i följande steg: 1.Upptäck spelare från kameravisningsbilder genom att använda YOLOv5-nätverket. 2. Använd Strong-Sort-metoden för att spåra spelares och bollens position i en lång video. 3. Tilldela teamen till olika upptäckta objekt, metoder inklusive Kmeans används i detta steg. 4. Generera fågelvyposition genom att använda perspektivomvandlings-metoden. Resultatet visar att alla maskinmodeller framgångsrikt konvergerade och uppnår bra prestanda i praktisk användning, trots att det fortfarande finns begränsningar och problem. Genom att använda detta system kan vi framgångsrikt generera en 2D-karta med spelarposition på denna karta. Och verktygen för dataförbehandling kan också användas för företaget. Visserligen, på grund av flera begränsningar i praktisk utveckling, finns det problem och nackdelar med systemet. Detta system skulle kunna betraktas som en prototyp av en komplett metod för att lösa flera problem inom fotbollsdataanalys baserad på maskininlärning och datorseende. Den framtida utvecklaren kan upprepa detta projekt för att göra framsteg.