This thesis is concerned with the problem of situational awareness in autonomous vehicles. In this context, situational awareness refers to the ability of an autonomous vehicle to perceive the road layout ahead, interpret the implied semantics and gain an awareness of its surrounding - thus reading the road ahead. Autonomous vehicles require a high level of situational awareness in order to operate safely and efficiently in real-world dynamic environments. A system is therefore needed that is able to model the expected road layout in terms of semantics, both under normal and roadwork conditions. This thesis takes a three-pronged approach to this problem: Firstly, we consider reading the road surface. This is formulated in terms of probabilistic road marking classification and interpretation. We then derive the road boundaries using only a 2D laser and algorithms based on geometric priors from Highway Traffic Engineering principles. Secondly, we consider reading the road scene. Here, we formulate a roadwork scene recognition framework based on opponent colour vision in humans. Finally, we provide a data representation for situational awareness that unifies reading the road surface and reading the road scene. This thesis therefore frames situational awareness in autonomous vehicles in terms of both static and dynamic road semantics - and detailed formulations and algorithms are discussed. We test our algorithms on several benchmarking datasets collected using our autonomous vehicle on both rural and urban roads. The results illustrate that our road boundary estimation, road marking classification, and roadwork scene recognition frameworks allow autonomous vehicles to truly and meaningfully read the semantics of the road ahead, thus gaining a valuable sense of situational awareness even at challenging layouts, roadwork sites, and along unknown roadways.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Lester C. Loschky / While watching a film, the viewer begins to construct mental representations of it, which are called events. During the opening scene of a film, the viewer is presented with two distinct pieces of information that can be used to construct the event, namely the setting and an action by the main character. But, which of these two constructs are first cognitively represented by the viewer? Experiment 1 examined the time-course of basic level action categorization with superordinate and basic level scene categorization using masking. The results indicated that categorization occurred in a course-to-fine manner, inconsistent with Rosch et al.’s (1976) basic level theory. Interestingly, basic level action categorization performance did not reach ceiling when it was processed for a 367 ms SOA, suggesting that additional scene information and processing time were required. Thus, Experiment 2 examined scene and action categorization performance over multiple fixations, and the scene information that was fixated for each categorization task. Both superordinate and basic level scene categorization required only a single fixation to reach ceiling performance, inconsistent with basic level primacy, whereas basic level action categorization took two to three fixations, and led to more object fixations than in either scene categorization task. Eye movements showed evidence of a person bias across all three categorization tasks. Additionally, the categorization task did produce differences in the scene information that was fixated (Yarbus, 1967). However, could basic level theory still be correct when subjects are given a different task? When the same scene images were named, basic level action terms were used more often than basic level scene category terms, while superordinate level action terms were used relatively less often, and superordinate level scene category terms were hardly ever used. This shows that linguistic categorization (naming) is sensitive to informative, middle-level categories, whereas early perceptual categorization makes use of coarse high level distinctions. Additionally, the early perceptual advantage for scene categorization over basic level action categorization suggests that the scene category is the first construct that is used to represent events in scene images, and maybe even events in visual narratives like film.

<p>The purpose behind this thesis is to develop a software (SceneServer) that can generate data such as images and vertex lists from computer models. These models are placed in a virtual environment and they can be controlled either from a graphical user interface (GUI) or from a MATLAB client. Data can be retrieved and processed in MATLAB. By creating a connection between MATLAB and a 3D environment, computer vision algorithms can be designed and tested swiftly, thus giving the developer a powerful platform. SceneServer allows the user to manipulate, in detail, the models and scenes to be rendered. </p><p>MATLAB communicates with the SceneServer application through a Java library, which is connected to an interface in SceneServer. The graphics are visualised using Open Scene Graph (OSG) that in turn uses OpenGL. OSG is an open source cross-platform scene graph library for visualisation of real-time graphics. OpenGL is a software interface for creating advanced computer graphics in 2D and 3D.</p>

The objective of this dissertation research is to identify sounds that grab a listener's attention. These sounds that draw a person's attention are sounds that are considered salient. The focus here will be on investigating the role of saliency in the auditory attentional process. In order to identify these salient sounds, we have developed a computational auditory saliency model inspired by our understanding of the human auditory system and auditory perception. By identifying salient sounds we can obtain a better understanding of how sounds are processed by the auditory system, and in particular, the key features contributing to sound salience. Additionally, studying the salience of different auditory stimuli can lead to improvements in the performance of current computational models in several different areas, by making use of the information obtained about what stands out perceptually to observers in a particular scene. Auditory saliency also helps to rapidly sort the information present in a complex auditory scene. Since our resources are finite, not all information can be processed equally. We must, therefore, be able to quickly determine the importance of different objects in a scene. Additionally, an immediate response or decision may be required. In order to respond, the observer needs to know the key elements of the scene. The issue of saliency is closely related to many different areas, including scene analysis. The thesis provides a comprehensive look at auditory saliency. It explores the advantages and limitations of using auditory saliency models through different experiments and presents a general computational auditory saliency model that can be used for various applications.

The purpose behind this thesis is to develop a software (SceneServer) that can generate data such as images and vertex lists from computer models. These models are placed in a virtual environment and they can be controlled either from a graphical user interface (GUI) or from a MATLAB client. Data can be retrieved and processed in MATLAB. By creating a connection between MATLAB and a 3D environment, computer vision algorithms can be designed and tested swiftly, thus giving the developer a powerful platform. SceneServer allows the user to manipulate, in detail, the models and scenes to be rendered. MATLAB communicates with the SceneServer application through a Java library, which is connected to an interface in SceneServer. The graphics are visualised using Open Scene Graph (OSG) that in turn uses OpenGL. OSG is an open source cross-platform scene graph library for visualisation of real-time graphics. OpenGL is a software interface for creating advanced computer graphics in 2D and 3D.

Crime Scene Investigation is without a doubt one of the most important step in criminal proceeding, which allows us to gain a complete picture over events, that really happened. To helps us attain this knowledge, there are certain reflections of perpetrators actions in form of physical evidence, that needs to be found and professionally secured. The task of crime scene investigation team of the relevant department of the Police of the Czech Republic, which intervenes on the scene, is to examine the scene and to provide all the evidence that could help clarify the case. Procedure on the crime scene requires a perfect organization by the head of the crime scene investigation team, which puts high demands on expertise and practical experience of the lead investigator. This procedure is one of the most difficult in the entire criminal proceedings, because even small neglect od duties can have a fatal consequence. This thesis compiles a specific legal texts, that are designated to the students of the law faculties, and for the students of the Police academy of Czech republic, and also knowledge attain from practical guides and guidelines directly for the police officers in Czech republic and tries to create a set of law sources, that will not only compare them, but it will also include authors opinions....

Depuis de nombreuses années, des formats de fichier standardisés ont été conçus pour écrire, lire et échanger des descriptions de scènes 3D. Ces descriptions sont principalement faites pour des contenus visuels; les options accessibles pour les compositions audio des scènes virtuelles sont, dans les meilleurs des cas, pauvres et dans les pires, manquantes. C’est pourquoi nous proposons d’inclure une description sonore riche dans le COLLADA qui est un format standard pour d’échange d’assets numériques. La plupart des langages de description qui incluent une description sonore factorisent les éléments communs aux informations visuelles et sonores. Ces deux aspects sont par exemple décrits dans le même système de coordonnées. Cependant, dès lors qu’une description dynamique ou que des données externes sont requises, toutes les liaisons doivent être faites de manière programmée. Dans cette thèse, nous tentons de résoudre ce problème et nous proposons de donner plus de puissance créative aux sound designers même lorsque les scènes sont dynamiques ou basées sur de la synthèse procédurale. Cette solution est basée sur le schéma COLLADA dans lequel nous avons ajouté la description sonore, des capacités de scripting et des extensions externes. L’utilisation de ce langage COLLADA ainsi augmenté est illustrée à travers la création d’un paysage sonore urbain. / Standardized file formats has been conceived since many years to write, read, and exchange 3D scene descriptions. These descriptions are mainly for visual contents whereas options given for audio compositions of virtual scenes are either lacking or poor. Therefore, we propose to include a rich sound description in the COLLADA, which is a standard format for exchanging digital assets. Most scene description languages with a sound description factorize common elements needed by the graphical and auditory information. Both aspects are, for example, described with the same coordinate system. However, as soon as a dynamic description or external data are required, all the glue must be done by a programming approach. In this thesis, we address this problem and propose to give more creative power in the hands of sound designers even when the scene is dynamic or based on procedural synthesizers. This solution is based on the COLLADA schema in which we add the sound support, scripting capabilities and external extensions. The use of the augmented COLLADA language is illustrated through the creation of dynamic urban soundscape.

Humans must regularly locate task-relevant objects when interacting with the world around them. Previous research has identified different types of information that the visual system can use to help locate objects in real-world scenes, including low-level image features and scene context. However, previous research using object arrays suggest that there may be another type of information that can guide real-world search: target knowledge. When a participant knows what a target looks like they generate and store a visual representation, or template, of it. This template then facilitates the search process. A complete understanding of real-world search needs to identify how a target template guides search through scenes. Three experiments in Chapter 2 confirmed that a target template facilitates realworld search. By using an eye-tracker target knowledge was found to facilitate both scanning and verification behaviours during search, but not the search initiation process. Within the scanning epoch a target template facilitated gaze directing and shortened fixation durations. These results suggest that target knowledge affects both the activation map, which selects which regions of the scene to fixate, and the evaluation process that compares a fixated object to the internal representation of the target. With the exact behaviours that a target template facilitates now identified, Chapter 3 investigated the role that target colour played in template-guided search. Colour is one of the more interesting target features as it has been shown to be preferred by the visual system over other features when guiding search through object arrays. Two real-world search experiments in Chapter 3 found that colour information had its strongest effect on the gaze directing process, suggesting that the visual system relies heavily on colour information when searching for target-similar regions in the scene percept. Although colour was found to facilitate the evaluation process too, both when rejecting a fixated object as a distracter and accepting it as the target, this behaviour was found to be influenced comparatively less. This suggests that the two main search behaviours – gaze directing and region evaluation – rely on different sets of template features. The gaze directing process relies heavily on colour information, but knowledge of other target features will further facilitate the evaluation process. Chapter 4 investigated how target knowledge combined with other types of information to guide search. This is particularly relevant in real-world search where several sources of guidance information are simultaneously available. A single experiment investigated how target knowledge and scene context combined to facilitate search. Both information types were found to facilitate scanning and verification behaviours. During the scanning epoch both facilitated the eye guidance and object evaluation processes. When both information sources were available to the visual system simultaneously, each search behaviour was facilitated additively. This suggests that the visual system processes target template and scene context information independently. Collectively, the results indicate not only the manner in which a target template facilitates real-world search but also updates our understanding of real-world search and the visual system. These results can help increase the accuracy of future realworld search models by specifying the manner in which our visual system utilises target template information, which target features are predominantly relied upon and how target knowledge combines with other types of guidance information.

This diploma thesis is devoted to the investigation methodology of murders. The main emphasis is given to the procedure of the police authority within the investigation of murders. Since this topic is very extensive and the methodology comprises of the great amount of activities, I dedicate this diploma thesis only to the selected areas thereof. The first chapter describes the specification of the crimes against life, in particular legal regulation and related aspects. I focused on the legal regulation in Czech law with respect to a crime of murder, homicide and murder of a new born by its mother. Only marginal attention is given to a crime of negligent manslaughter and a crime of assisting with suicide. The second chapter comprises of the statistics of the committed murders. I analyse the statistics of the numbers of murders committed within the European Union, the Czech Republic and the Ústí region. Another part of the thesis is theoretically orientated. I concentrate on the criminalistics characteristic of a murder and the fundamental aspects thereof - the mode of committing a crime, the personality of a murderer, the personality of a victim and a criminal motive. The following chapter forms the crucial part the diploma thesis in which I analyse typical investigation situations, in particular in...

in English The topic of the thesis is the " The Methodology of Investigation of Murders (selected issues)". The topic is too broad for the limited capacity of the dissertation. While writing the thesis, after the necessary theoretical introduction (which contains the definition of crimes against life, medical definition of death, etc.), I focused only on the initial stage of the investigation of the crime of murder. I specifically focused on the discovery of the body, on securing the crime scene, on autopsy and on the demarcation of investigative versions. Next stage of the investigation is only briefly summarized in the ninth chapter. The thesis is divided into ten chapters. The first chapter explains basic terms, especially murder, murder of a newborn baby by its mother and other crimes against life, such as manslaughter, negligent homicide and assistance to suicide. This chapter also includes medical definition of death, and a brief description of the post-mortem changes. The second chapter consists of brief statistics on the number of murders in the Czech Republic between the periods 2000 to 2012. It contains two graphs; the first graph shows the evolution of the total number of murders each year and their solving. The second graph divides murders according to the specific motives. The third...