Shape from Shading, Occlusion and Texture are three important sources of depth information. We review and summarize work done on these modules.

Any generic computer vision algorithm must be able to copewith the variations in appearance of objects due to differentillumination conditions. While these variations in the shadingof a surface may seem a nuisance, they in fact containinformation about the world. This thesis tries to provide anunderstanding what information can be extracted from theshading in a single image and how to achieve this. One of thechallenges lies in finding accurate models for the wide varietyof conditions that can occur. Frequency space representations are powerful tools foranalyzing shading theoretically. Surfaces act as low-passfilters on the illumination making the reflected lightband-limited. Hence, it can be represented by a finite numberof components in the Fourier domain, despite having arbitraryillumination. This thesis derives a basis for shading byrepresenting the illumination in spherical harmonics and theBRDF in a basis for isotropic reflectance. By analyzing thecontributing variance of this basis it is shown how to createfinite dimensional representations for any surface withisotropic reflectance. The finite representation is used to analytically derive aprincipal component analysis (PCA) basis of the set of imagesdue to the variations in the illumination and BRDF. The PCA isperformed model-based so that the variations in the images aredescribed by the variations in the illumination and the BRDF.This has a number of advantages. The PCA can be performed overa wide variety of conditions, more than would be practicallypossible if the images were captured or rendered. Also, thereis an explicit mapping between the principal components and theillumination and BRDF so that the PCA basis can be used as aphysical model. By combining a database of captured illumination and adatabase of captured BRDFs a general basis for shading iscreated. This basis is used to investigate materialclassification from a single image with known geometry butarbitrary unknown illumination. An image is classified byestimating the coecients in this basis and comparing them to adatabase. Experiments on synthetic data show that materialclassification from reflectance properties is hard. There aremis-classifications and the materials seem to cluster intogroups. The materials are grouped using a greedy algorithm.Experiments on real images show promising results. Keywords:computer vision, shading, illumination,reflectance, image irradiance, frequency space representations,spherical harmonics, analytic PCA, model-based PCA, materialclassification, illumination estimation

Technology replaces newer technology with improved efficiency. Solar technology is going to draw out a new life to make a green change in the terms of energy. As a result energy from the sunlight is being changed into electric energy by using solar cell. But still its efficiency could not be able to make a sense as a depending energy technology. In order to look up the solution, solar technology is changing rapidly to get maximum output. To take up this new challenge solar technology is trying to change its building component that are used to make solar cell, for example solar cell material, bypass diode system, blocking diode system etc.   Now-a-days, solar energy system is designed as a hybrid system that can make electricity and hot water at the same time. In the hybrid solar system, photovoltaic and solar thermal systems are integrated at the same system and as a result heat and electricity are produced simultaneously at the same area. Solar cells are attached with both top and the bottom side of the module and the collectors are set up inside the module. By using collector inside the module, rejected heat from the solar cell is absorbed by the water that flows through the collectors. But a problem arises at the midday or after midday because the reflector of this system cannot reflect sunlight properly on the bottom side of the module. That’s why shading is occurred on the bottom side which reduce the total electrical output of this system.   To work out this shading problem, a bypass diode is connected in parallel with the group of solar cells. Schottky diodes are being used as bypass diodes inside in the most of the solar cells. Schottky diode forward voltage drop is almost 0.45 Volt which is an important cause of reducing the output power as well as the efficiency of this hybrid system. To solve this problem, new lossless diode is attached inside the hybrid solar system instead of schottky diode which can work with a very low forward voltage drop roughly 50mV at 10amp.   To make a comparison between the performance of PVT system with the schottky diode and the new lossless diode, many data has been collected from the outdoor test. After getting the output result, it is clear that the output power and efficiency is going to be changed for using the new lossless diode. For using the lossless diode, the efficiency of the bottom side of the module was increased by 0.31 %.

An important consideration in energy efficient building design is the management of solar gain, as it is the largest and most variable gain in a building. The design of buildings with highly glazed facades, as well as decreased energy transfer rates through better insulated and tighter envelopes are causing interior spaces to become highly sensitive to solar gain. Shading devices such as operable slat-type louver blinds are very effective in controlling solar gain, yet their impact on peak cooing loads and annual energy consumption is poorly understood. With the ever-increasing role of building energy simulation tools in the design of energy efficient buildings, there is a clear need to model windows with shading devices to assess their impact on building performance. Recent efforts at the University of Waterloo’s Advanced Glazing Systems Laboratory (AGSL) in window shading research have produced a set of flexible shading models. These models were developed with emphasis on generality and computational efficiency, ideally suited for integration into building simulation. The objective of the current research is to develop a complex fenestration facility within a general purpose integrated building simulation software tool, ESP-r, using the AGSL shading models. The strategy for implementation of the AGSL shading models is the addition of a new multi-layer construction within ESP-r, the Complex Fenestration Construction (CFC). The CFC is based on the standard ESP-r multi-layer nodal structure and finite control volume numerical model, with additional measures for coping with the complexities that arise in the solar, convective and radiant exchanges between glazing/shading layers, the interior zone and exterior surroundings. The CFC algorithms process the solar, convective and radiant properties of the glazing/shading system at each time-step, making it possible to add control (e.g., changing the slat angle of a slat-type blind) at the time-step level. Thermal resistances of sealed cavities between glazing/shading layers are calculated at each time-step for various fill gases and mixtures. In addition to modeling glazing/shading layer combinations, the CFC type also provides an alternate method of modeling unshaded windows without relying on third party software to supply the solar optics and cavity resistances. To build confidence in the CFC code implementation, two comparison studies were carried out to compare the CFC type against other models. The first study compared the CFC models for unshaded windows with the standard ESP-r transparent multi-layer construction (TMC) models. The second study compared the CFC slat-type blind models with EnergyPlus 2.0. Good agreement was seen in the simulation results in both studies. The successful implementation of the Complex Fenestration Construction within ESP-r has been demonstrated in the current research. In order for ESP-r users to fully exploit the capabilities of the CFC framework, it is recommended that the current models be extended to include a facility for dynamic shading control as well as the treatment of other types of shading layers. The coupling of daylighting models with the CFC type would provide a useful tool for modeling luminance control in combination with shading control strategies. With these enhancements, it is anticipated that the CFC implementation will be of significant value to practitioners.

An important consideration in energy efficient building design is the management of solar gain, as it is the largest and most variable gain in a building. The design of buildings with highly glazed facades, as well as decreased energy transfer rates through better insulated and tighter envelopes are causing interior spaces to become highly sensitive to solar gain. Shading devices such as operable slat-type louver blinds are very effective in controlling solar gain, yet their impact on peak cooing loads and annual energy consumption is poorly understood. With the ever-increasing role of building energy simulation tools in the design of energy efficient buildings, there is a clear need to model windows with shading devices to assess their impact on building performance. Recent efforts at the University of Waterloo’s Advanced Glazing Systems Laboratory (AGSL) in window shading research have produced a set of flexible shading models. These models were developed with emphasis on generality and computational efficiency, ideally suited for integration into building simulation. The objective of the current research is to develop a complex fenestration facility within a general purpose integrated building simulation software tool, ESP-r, using the AGSL shading models. The strategy for implementation of the AGSL shading models is the addition of a new multi-layer construction within ESP-r, the Complex Fenestration Construction (CFC). The CFC is based on the standard ESP-r multi-layer nodal structure and finite control volume numerical model, with additional measures for coping with the complexities that arise in the solar, convective and radiant exchanges between glazing/shading layers, the interior zone and exterior surroundings. The CFC algorithms process the solar, convective and radiant properties of the glazing/shading system at each time-step, making it possible to add control (e.g., changing the slat angle of a slat-type blind) at the time-step level. Thermal resistances of sealed cavities between glazing/shading layers are calculated at each time-step for various fill gases and mixtures. In addition to modeling glazing/shading layer combinations, the CFC type also provides an alternate method of modeling unshaded windows without relying on third party software to supply the solar optics and cavity resistances. To build confidence in the CFC code implementation, two comparison studies were carried out to compare the CFC type against other models. The first study compared the CFC models for unshaded windows with the standard ESP-r transparent multi-layer construction (TMC) models. The second study compared the CFC slat-type blind models with EnergyPlus 2.0. Good agreement was seen in the simulation results in both studies. The successful implementation of the Complex Fenestration Construction within ESP-r has been demonstrated in the current research. In order for ESP-r users to fully exploit the capabilities of the CFC framework, it is recommended that the current models be extended to include a facility for dynamic shading control as well as the treatment of other types of shading layers. The coupling of daylighting models with the CFC type would provide a useful tool for modeling luminance control in combination with shading control strategies. With these enhancements, it is anticipated that the CFC implementation will be of significant value to practitioners.

This thesis describes the development of a compiler for OpenGLES 2.0 programs for a novel GPU. This work is a part of a larger project to develop a low-power GPU for embedded systems. Our compiler has been developed in the LLVM compiler infrastructure. The present thesis focuses on three areas of the compiler: 1) making corrections and improvements to an existing graphics shading language parser, 2) augmenting LLVM¡¦s bit-code format to support the new information from the shading language, and 3) modifying LLVM¡¦s backend to support this augmented bit-code. Much of this work is related to supporting the matrix and vector primitive data types found in OpenGL¡¦s GLSL shading language. In conjunction with several other theses, as listed in the text, this work achieves a working basic compiler for GLSL code on our new GPU. Continuing work by future researchers is necessary to make the compiler more robust and optimized.

<p>Any generic computer vision algorithm must be able to copewith the variations in appearance of objects due to differentillumination conditions. While these variations in the shadingof a surface may seem a nuisance, they in fact containinformation about the world. This thesis tries to provide anunderstanding what information can be extracted from theshading in a single image and how to achieve this. One of thechallenges lies in finding accurate models for the wide varietyof conditions that can occur.</p><p>Frequency space representations are powerful tools foranalyzing shading theoretically. Surfaces act as low-passfilters on the illumination making the reflected lightband-limited. Hence, it can be represented by a finite numberof components in the Fourier domain, despite having arbitraryillumination. This thesis derives a basis for shading byrepresenting the illumination in spherical harmonics and theBRDF in a basis for isotropic reflectance. By analyzing thecontributing variance of this basis it is shown how to createfinite dimensional representations for any surface withisotropic reflectance.</p><p>The finite representation is used to analytically derive aprincipal component analysis (PCA) basis of the set of imagesdue to the variations in the illumination and BRDF. The PCA isperformed model-based so that the variations in the images aredescribed by the variations in the illumination and the BRDF.This has a number of advantages. The PCA can be performed overa wide variety of conditions, more than would be practicallypossible if the images were captured or rendered. Also, thereis an explicit mapping between the principal components and theillumination and BRDF so that the PCA basis can be used as aphysical model.</p><p>By combining a database of captured illumination and adatabase of captured BRDFs a general basis for shading iscreated. This basis is used to investigate materialclassification from a single image with known geometry butarbitrary unknown illumination. An image is classified byestimating the coecients in this basis and comparing them to adatabase. Experiments on synthetic data show that materialclassification from reflectance properties is hard. There aremis-classifications and the materials seem to cluster intogroups. The materials are grouped using a greedy algorithm.Experiments on real images show promising results.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>computer vision, shading, illumination,reflectance, image irradiance, frequency space representations,spherical harmonics, analytic PCA, model-based PCA, materialclassification, illumination estimation</p>

Due to the fact that construction, maintenance and operation of buildings consume almost 50% of the energy today, architects play a major role in the reduction of energy consumption. The building’s envelope (façades and roof) can have a significant and measurable impact. With regard to overheating and the potential lost of internal heat, transparent parts of the building envelope have a large effect on the building’s energy consumption. Modern, transparent façade systems can fulfill contemporary demands, such as energy conservation, energy production or the degree of visual contact, of sustainable buildings in order to reduce internal heating, cooling, and electrical loads. An analysis of existing shading devices and façade design leads to a comparative analysis of conventional shading devices like horizontal and vertical blinds as well as eggcrate and honeycomb shading structures in a hot-humid climate like Austin, Texas. This study helped evaluating strengths and weaknesses of each device resulting in an optimization process of conventional shading devices. Ultimately, an optimized shading structure has been developed. This project aimed to develop an advanced transparent façade system for a south-oriented commercial façade in Austin, Texas, which fulfills high standards with regard to low energy use, by limiting cooling loads and demands for artificial lighting while avoiding glare and heat losses during the cold season. The optimization has been achieved in providing full shading for a specified period of time throughout the year while providing maximized solar exposure. The shading structure consists out of an array of fixed shading components varying in size and proportion to fulfill criteria like specific views, transparency and aesthetics. The shading structure has been compared to conventional shading devices and analyzed with regard to the reduction of annual solar radiation. The improvement in design and energy consumption contributes to the variety of shading structures for building skins. It is anticipated that the solutions will help to widen the options for aesthetically pleasing, high-performance façades for commercial buildings.

I en tid med allt mer påtagliga miljöhot, ökande CO2-utsläpp och stigande efterfrågan på el är det viktigt att utvecklingen av billig och effektiv förnyelsebar energi fortsätter runt om i världen för att kunna konkurrera mot billigare, icke förnyelsebara, energikällor. Ett steg i detta är att utveckla och effektivisera solkraft till den nivån att länder och företag väljer att investera i solkraft. Mer konkret kan det ske igenom utveckling av nya, mer effektiva, solcellsmoduler. I denna studie ska en ny typ av solcellsmodul, SmartPlus – utvecklat av Innotech Solar, jämföras mot deras standardmodul EcoPlus för att undersöka om den nya modulen kan bidra till högre andel solkraftsgenererad el i Sverige och där med minska CO2-utsläppen. Den nya solcellsmodulen är framtagen för att bättre kunna hantera och ta tillvara på solinstrålningen om en del av modulen utsätts för skugga, därför kommer studien simulera de båda moduler i en solpark där det sker intern skuggning mellan modulraderna. Skuggning av solcellsmoduler leder idag till stora förluster i elproduktionen på grund av nuvarande modellers konstruktion och syftet med studien är att undersöka om den nya solcellsmodulen är effektivare än den standardmodul som används för tillfället. Målet med studien är att skapa och verifiera en simuleringsmodell och simulera en solpark i Sverige där resultatets variation baseras på radavståndet mellan modulraderna och om modulerna är vertikal eller horisontellt placerade för att åstadkomma en variation av skuggning. Den solpark som ger högst elproduktion är en solpark med SmartPlus-moduler horisontell modulplacering, men då tillgången på markyta ofta en begränsande faktor bör vertikal modulplacering alltid föredras. Resultatet visar dock att i valet av modul till en solpark är inte valet mellan SmartPlus och EcoPlus den viktigaste faktorn. Även om SmartPlus genomgående har en högre elproduktion på årsbasis är skillnaden marginell till EcoPlus, däremot har faktorer som radavstånd och modulplacering en större inverkan på elproduktionen och effektiviteten i solparken. / In an era of significant environmental threats, increasing carbondioxide emissions and rising electricity demand, it is important that the development of cheap and efficient renewable energy continues around the world to compete against cheaper, non-renewable, energy sources. To do this, the development of solar power have to continute so that countries and companies choose to invest solar power insteed of non-renewable energy. More specifically, it can be done through the development of new, more efficient, solar  cells modules. In this study, a new sort of solar cell module, SmartPlus - developed by Innotech Solar, is compared to their standard module EcoPlus to investigate whether the new module may contribute to the higher proportion of solar-generated electricity in Sweden and there by reducing carbondioxide emissions. The new photovoltaic module is designed to take better advantage of the solar radiation when a portion of the module is exposed to shade, therefore will this study simulating the two modules in a solar panel plant where there is internal shading between the rows. Shading of photovoltaic modules currently leads to substantial losses in electricity generation because of the modules design and the purpose of the study is to investigate whether the new photovoltaic module are more efficient than the standard solar module that currently is in use. The aim of the study is to create and verify a simulation model and simulate a solar park in Sweden where the results variation depends on the spacing between the rows in the solar panel plant and if the modules are vertically or horizontally positioned to provide a variety of shading. The solar park that provides maximum power generation is a solar park with SmartPlus modules with horizontal position, but since the availability of land is often a limiting factor the vertical position should always be preferred. The result shows that when choosing module to a solar the choice between SmartPlus and EcoPlus is not the most important factor. Even though SmartPlus consistently has a higher electricity production on an annual basis, the difference is marginal to EcoPlus, however, factors such as row spacing and module placement have a far greater impact on electricity generation and efficiency of the solar panel plant.

Os sistemas de controle solar auxiliam no controle da radiação solar incidente no envoltório, e, de acordo com a NBR 15220-3, é recomendável seu uso para a zona bioclimática 3, na cidade de Porto Alegre. Assim, com a ação de retrofitting, é possível utilizar os sistemas de controle solar como modo de adaptar o envoltório das edificações ao clima local e aos padrões de consumo atuais. Dessa forma, o retrofitting do envoltório pode contribuir com a redução do consumo energético e a dependência de sistemas de refrigeração e aquecimento mecânico. Logo, o objetivo da dissertação é qualificar e quantificar energeticamente os sistemas de controle solar com vistas à redução do consumo energético nos ambientes construídos. Um estudo de caso foi realizado na cidade de Porto Alegre, onde um edifício foi selecionado perante um conjunto de edificações existentes. Com o auxílio de um método expedito de cálculo energético, foi realizada a avaliação energética do envoltório da edificação atual e do seu retrofitting proposto. A edificação passou de nível energético E para nível A, comprovando o êxito do estudo de retrofitting aplicado. A pesquisa concluiu que, alinhado com o encontrado na revisão da literatura, as edificações com grandes aberturas orientadas para oeste são um equívoco de projeto no clima de Porto Alegre e que as ações de retrofitting são uma alternativa de adaptação ao clima local, tornando os edifícios eficientes energeticamente. / Shading systems help to control the incident solar radiation on the envelope, and, according to NBR 15220-3, its use is recommended for the bioclimatic zone 3, in the city of Porto Alegre. Hence, with retrofitting, it is possible to use shading systems as a way of adapting the building envelope to the local climate and current consumption patterns. Thus, the retrofitting of the envelope can contribute to the reduction of the energy consumption and of the dependence on systems of refrigeration and mechanical heating. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation is to qualify and quantify the energy of shading systems in order to reduce energy consumption in built environments. Thus, a case study was conducted in the city of Porto Alegre, where a building was selected from a set of existing buildings. We performed an energetic evaluation of current envelope of buildings and its proposed retrofitting by using a facilitated method for energy calculation. The buildings moved from energy level E to level A, proving the success of the study on the applied retrofitting. We conclude that, as also shown in literature review; buildings with large openings oriented to the west in Porto Alegre are a design misconception due to the city’s climate. Thus, retrofitting actions are alternative ways to adapt to the local climate so that buildings are energy efficient.