This thesis describes an investigation into the suitability of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor (APS) devices for scientific imaging applications. CMOS APS offer a number of advantages over the established charge-coupled device (CCD) technology, primarily in the areas of low power consumption, high-speed parallel readout and random (X-Y) addressing, increased system integration and improved radiation hardness. The investigation used a range of newly designed Test Structures in conjunction with a range of custom developed test equipment to characterise device performance. Initial experimental work highlighted the significant non-linearity in the charge conversion gain (responsivity) and found the read noise to be limited by the kTC component due to resetting of the pixel capacitance. The major experimental study investigated the contribution to dark signal due to hot-carrier injection effects from the in-pixel transistors during read-out and highlighted the importance of the contribution at low signal levels. The quantum efficiency (QE) and cross-talk were also investigated and found to be limited by the pixel fill factor and shallow depletion depth of the photodiode. The work has highlighted the need to design devices to explore the effects of individual components rather than stand-alone imaging devices and indicated further developments are required for APS technology to compete with the CCD for high-end scientific imaging applications. The main areas requiring development are in achieving backside illuminated, deep depletion devices with low dark signal and low noise sampling techniques.

Nesta dissertação está proposta uma metodologia para fins de detecção de mudanças do uso do solo em imagens multitemporais de sensoriamento remoto. Em lugar de classificar os pixels de imagens que cobrem uma cena, em duas classes exaustivas e mutuamente excludentes (mudança, não-mudança), propõe-se adotar uma abordagem do tipo fuzzy, na qual são estimados os graus de pertinência às classes mudança e não-mudança. Com este objetivo adota-se aqui uma abordagem em nível de sub-pixel na estimação dos graus de pertinência para cada pixel. Esta abordagem se mostra mais adequada para fins de modelagem do que ocorre em cenas naturais, onde as alterações que acontecem ao longo de um período de tempo tendem a apresentar uma variação contínua em lugar de discreta. Em uma segunda etapa, os graus de pertinência estimados recebem um ajustamento adicional por meio da introdução de informações de contexto espacial. A metodologia proposta foi testada por meio de três experimentos, um empregando uma imagem sintética e dois utilizando imagens reais. A partir da análise quantitativa dos resultados e comparação com estudos semelhantes, comprova-se a adequação da metodologia proposta. / In this dissertation it is proposed a new methodology to land use change detection in remote sensing multitemporal image data. Rather than applying a rigid labeling of the pixels in the image data into two classes (change, no-change), we propose estimating the degrees of membership to classes change and no-change in a fuzzy-like fashion. To this end, a sub-pixel approach is implemented to detect the degree of change in every pixel. This methodology aims at modeling natural scenes in a more realistic way, since changes in natural scenes tend to occur in a continuum rather than in a sharp distinctive way. In a second step, the estimated values for the degrees of membership are further refined by means of spatial context information. Three experiments were performed to test the proposed methodology, one employing synthetic data and two using real image data. From the quantitative analysis of the results and from similar studies we can prove the adequacy of the proposed methodology.

När vi som lärare och blivande speciallärare ser att den beprövade erfarenheten inte räcker för att alla elever ska nå en snabb och säker ordavkodning behöver vi kunskap baserat på vetenskaplig grund för att kunna ge elever i läs- och skrivsvårigheter rätt stöd och hjälp vilket är en utmaning för lärare och forskare. Då tidigare forskning har visat att ett auditivt vitt brus har en påverkan på koncentrationen för elever med ADHD, skulle det också, med tanke på komorbiditeten mellan läs- och skrivsvårigheter och uppmärksamhets- och koncentrationssvårigheter kunna ha en liknande effekt på läsning för elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter och/eller dyslexi.    Syftet med studien är att undersöka om ett vitt auditivt brus och ett visuellt pixel-brus har någon påverkan på elevers ordavkodning, läsförståelse och arbetsminne och om det kan användas som ett pedagogiskt redskap/assisterande verktyg i undervisningen för elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter i årskurs 4 – 6. I denna studie används tester i ordavkodning och läsförståelse med och utan auditivt vitt brus i hörlurar, samt för arbetsminnet med och utan visuellt pixel-brus på skärm för att få ett mätbart resultat. För att få förståelse av deltagarnas egna upplevelser av brusen och dess eventuella användbarhet har även intervjuer om brusen använts.   Resultatet visar att både det auditivavita bruset och det visuella pixel-bruset har en positiv påverkan på elever i fonologiska svårigheter, både vid ordavkodning och när den fonologiska förmågan prövas. Då studiens resultat bland annat visar att bruset påverkar avkodningen mest skulle det kunna betyda att elever i lässvårigheter kan öka sin läsförmåga genom att tillföra auditivt vitt brus eller visuellt pixel-brus. Den grupp av elever som enligt resultatet verkar bli allra mest hjälpta av de båda brusen är den som uppvisar svårigheter med både ordavkodning, uppmärksamhet och koncentration. Dock får elever med enbart svårigheter med ordavkodningen också positiv effekt vilket tyder på att brusen kan ha en användbarhet, främst inom det specialpedagogiska området.

Nesta dissertação está proposta uma metodologia para fins de detecção de mudanças do uso do solo em imagens multitemporais de sensoriamento remoto. Em lugar de classificar os pixels de imagens que cobrem uma cena, em duas classes exaustivas e mutuamente excludentes (mudança, não-mudança), propõe-se adotar uma abordagem do tipo fuzzy, na qual são estimados os graus de pertinência às classes mudança e não-mudança. Com este objetivo adota-se aqui uma abordagem em nível de sub-pixel na estimação dos graus de pertinência para cada pixel. Esta abordagem se mostra mais adequada para fins de modelagem do que ocorre em cenas naturais, onde as alterações que acontecem ao longo de um período de tempo tendem a apresentar uma variação contínua em lugar de discreta. Em uma segunda etapa, os graus de pertinência estimados recebem um ajustamento adicional por meio da introdução de informações de contexto espacial. A metodologia proposta foi testada por meio de três experimentos, um empregando uma imagem sintética e dois utilizando imagens reais. A partir da análise quantitativa dos resultados e comparação com estudos semelhantes, comprova-se a adequação da metodologia proposta. / In this dissertation it is proposed a new methodology to land use change detection in remote sensing multitemporal image data. Rather than applying a rigid labeling of the pixels in the image data into two classes (change, no-change), we propose estimating the degrees of membership to classes change and no-change in a fuzzy-like fashion. To this end, a sub-pixel approach is implemented to detect the degree of change in every pixel. This methodology aims at modeling natural scenes in a more realistic way, since changes in natural scenes tend to occur in a continuum rather than in a sharp distinctive way. In a second step, the estimated values for the degrees of membership are further refined by means of spatial context information. Three experiments were performed to test the proposed methodology, one employing synthetic data and two using real image data. From the quantitative analysis of the results and from similar studies we can prove the adequacy of the proposed methodology.

abstract: High speed image sensors are used as a diagnostic tool to analyze high speed processes for industrial, automotive, defense and biomedical application. The high fame rate of these sensors, capture a series of images that enables the viewer to understand and analyze the high speed phenomena. However, the pixel readout circuits designed for these sensors with a high frame rate (100fps to 1 Mfps) have a very low fill factor which are less than 58%. For high speed operation, the exposure time is less and (or) the light intensity incident on the image sensor is less. This makes it difficult for the sensor to detect faint light signals and gives a lower limit on the signal levels being detected by the sensor. Moreover, the leakage paths in the pixel readout circuit also sets a limit on the signal level being detected. Therefore, the fill factor of the pixel should be maximized and the leakage currents in the readout circuits should be minimized. This thesis work presents the design of the pixel readout circuit suitable for high speed and low light imaging application. The circuit is an improvement to the 6T pixel readout architecture. The designed readout circuit minimizes the leakage currents in the circuit and detects light producing a signal level of 350µV at the cathode of the photodiode. A novel layout technique is used for the pixel, which improves the fill factor of the pixel to 64.625%. The read out circuit designed is an integral part of high speed image sensor, which is fabricated using a 0.18 µm CMOS technology with the die size of 3.1mm x 3.4 mm, the pixel size of 20µm x 20 µm, number of pixel of 96 x 96 and four 10-bit pipelined ADC’s. The image sensor achieves a high frame rate of 10508 fps and readout speed of 96 M pixels / sec. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2016

The digitalization leads to that many physical solutions are replaced by digital once. Especially in the surveillance and security business have humans been replaced by cameras which are monitored from a remote location. As the power of the computers has increased, live video can be analyzed to inform the controller about anomalies which a human eye could have missed. SAAB – Air Traffic Management has a digital solution to provide Air Traffic Service which is called Remote Tower. This project will come up with a recommendation on how SAAB can dynamically render overlay based on live video, which marks the runways and taxiways on the airfield.

Nesta dissertação está proposta uma metodologia para fins de detecção de mudanças do uso do solo em imagens multitemporais de sensoriamento remoto. Em lugar de classificar os pixels de imagens que cobrem uma cena, em duas classes exaustivas e mutuamente excludentes (mudança, não-mudança), propõe-se adotar uma abordagem do tipo fuzzy, na qual são estimados os graus de pertinência às classes mudança e não-mudança. Com este objetivo adota-se aqui uma abordagem em nível de sub-pixel na estimação dos graus de pertinência para cada pixel. Esta abordagem se mostra mais adequada para fins de modelagem do que ocorre em cenas naturais, onde as alterações que acontecem ao longo de um período de tempo tendem a apresentar uma variação contínua em lugar de discreta. Em uma segunda etapa, os graus de pertinência estimados recebem um ajustamento adicional por meio da introdução de informações de contexto espacial. A metodologia proposta foi testada por meio de três experimentos, um empregando uma imagem sintética e dois utilizando imagens reais. A partir da análise quantitativa dos resultados e comparação com estudos semelhantes, comprova-se a adequação da metodologia proposta. / In this dissertation it is proposed a new methodology to land use change detection in remote sensing multitemporal image data. Rather than applying a rigid labeling of the pixels in the image data into two classes (change, no-change), we propose estimating the degrees of membership to classes change and no-change in a fuzzy-like fashion. To this end, a sub-pixel approach is implemented to detect the degree of change in every pixel. This methodology aims at modeling natural scenes in a more realistic way, since changes in natural scenes tend to occur in a continuum rather than in a sharp distinctive way. In a second step, the estimated values for the degrees of membership are further refined by means of spatial context information. Three experiments were performed to test the proposed methodology, one employing synthetic data and two using real image data. From the quantitative analysis of the results and from similar studies we can prove the adequacy of the proposed methodology.

Submitted by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2016-02-05T13:07:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Petrina Kimura.pdf: 6170367 bytes, checksum: efa4d4fa978c23e41b25ae1b997e5e53 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2016-02-05T13:08:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Petrina Kimura.pdf: 6170367 bytes, checksum: efa4d4fa978c23e41b25ae1b997e5e53 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2016-02-05T13:08:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Petrina Kimura.pdf: 6170367 bytes, checksum: efa4d4fa978c23e41b25ae1b997e5e53 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-05T13:08:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Petrina Kimura.pdf: 6170367 bytes, checksum: efa4d4fa978c23e41b25ae1b997e5e53 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-02 / FAPEAM - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas / Advances in multimedia technology led to a large increase in the number of images digital, in consequence, also grew? ä need for m? ethods and more ef fective cient and to store and retrieve this count? udo multimedia ?? edia. Most m? Proposed ethods alcan in literature? Çam high n ?? íveis of and insufficiency and effi c? CFIA (the top 70% accuracy) however most of them perform experiments using small images bases (less 10,000 images), previously classi fied in good ned categories, thus facilitating search task and consequently increasing ní ?? ble accuracy of the evaluated descriptors. On the other hand, when these m? Ethods are evaluated in large paste? Heterogeneous tions, Ni vel ?? accuracy? and relatively low. Thinking about this problem, this dissertation? Tion proposes the descriptor Location Color Pixel Classi cation (LCPC), an m? Ethod based on local analysis to search from large pictures basis. The proposed approach extracts character ?? color ísticas, classifi ing the pixels as border or inside using the same classi scheme is? tion of m? ethod Border / Interior Pixel Classication (BIC), by? are a simple partitioning scheme, but too much and cient and effi cient to incorporate spatial information about the contents? Udo visual image. Experiments were conducted using three bases of images, including one with more than 100,000 images collected from the Web. The results show that the proposed approach? And much higher when compared with other visual descriptors presented previously in literature, with gains in average accuracy of 51% till is 105% / Os avanços em tecnologia multimídia ocasionou um grande crescimento da quantidade de imagens digitais, em consequência disso, cresceu também a necessidade de métodos mais eficazes e eficientes para armazenar e recuperar esse conteúdo multimídia. A maioria dos métodos propostos na literatura alcançam altos níveis de eficiência e eficácia (a cima de 70% de precisão), entretanto grande parte delas executam experimentos usando bases de imagens pequenas (menos de 10.000 imagens), previamente classificadas em categorias bem de nidas, facilitando assim a tarefa de busca e, consequentemente aumentando os níveis de precisão dos descritores avaliados. Por outro lado, quando esses métodos são avaliados em grandes coleções heterogêneas, o nível de precisão e relativamente baixo. Pensando nesse problema, esta dissertação propõe o descritor Local Color Pixel Classication (LCPC), um método baseado em análise local para busca em grandes bases de imagens. A abordagem proposta extrai características de cor, classificando os pixels como borda ou interior, usando o mesmo esquema de classificação do método Border/Interior Pixel Classication (BIC), através de um esquema de particionamento simples, mas muito eficiente e eficaz para incorporar informações espaciais sobre o conteúdo visual da imagem. Experimentos foram conduzidos usando três bases de imagens, incluindo uma com mais de 100.000 imagens coletadas da Web. Os resultados obtidos mostram que a abordagem proposta e bastante superior quando comparado com outros descritores visuais previamente apresentados na literatura, com ganhos em precisão média de 51% até 105%

It is a great challenge to develop a computer game. Today many games are developed in large game studios where lots of skilled people are working together. Everyone has to know what the final game should look like. Game designers are responsible for how the game should feel and look like. This also means that they decide if a programmer has to develop new techniques or not. Sometimes the game designers require lots of new techniques to be developed. Such a new technique may be rendering particle systems with a lot of particles in it. This is where this report will focus. To render particle systems it is necessary to know about the limitations there are in both hardware and software. Until today particle systems have been updated and calculated using the Central Processing Unit of the computer. With Microsoft Direct3D 10 there are new ways to render particles using Geometry Shaders. Geometry Shaders runs on the graphics card. This thesis focuses on testing rendering performance between using Geometry Shaders and not using Geometry Shaders. A questionnaire was sent to Swedish game developers to get more information about relevant topics for investigation. A general answer was that Geometry Shaders always increase particle rendering performance. This thesis investigates if and when the statement is true or not. The hypothesis was obtained from the answers to the questionnaire. Two test applications were used to investigate if the hypothesis was true or false. One test application has particle calculations on the CPU of the computer. The other test application has particle calculations on the GPU of the graphics card. Six different tests were done and the Geometry Shader approach went out to be the fastest in five of the tests. Since not all tests were faster than the CPU approach the hypothesis is not always true.

La thèse se place dans le contexte du programme de physique prévu auprès du collisionneur Beijing Electron Positron Collider II, pour lequel l'expérience BESIII (Beijing Electron Spectrometer III) doit subir une jouvence. Mon travail concerne l'amélioration des performances de la trajectométrie centrale de l'expérience, en explorant une nouvelle approche utilisant les capteurs à pixels CMOS (CPS) en remplacement partiel de la chambre à dérive actuelle. Il est validé, qu'un pixel de 39.0X50.8 µm2 permet d'atteindre une résolution spatiale ~10 µm. Cette confirmation ouvre la voie pour le développement d'échelle de grande longueur. Un logiciel générique proposant une stratégie d'optimisation pour un trajectomètre pixellisé a été mis au point et appliqué au cas particulier du BESIII. Il a permis de montrer qu'une configuration à trois couches optimise la résolution sur les trajectoire alors qu'une option incluant une couche double-face atteint une efficacité de reconstruction supérieure. / The thesis addresses the upcoming particle physics program foreseen at the Beijing Electron Positron Collider II, for which the Beijing Electron Spectrometer III (BESIII) is being upgraded. The work presented focused on the upgrade of the central tracker of the experiment by exploring the possibilities offered by a new approach using CMOS Pixel Sensors (CPS) instead of the present gas drift chamber. The performance of CPS with a larger pixel (39.0X50.8 µm2) and a lower power consumption has been validated, which will help to develop long ladders. A general strategy and software to optimise the design of a barrel pixelated tracker has also been developed, and its application on the BESIII silicon tracker indicates that the layout of three evenly placed single-sided layers is favoured by BESIII physics for the best momentum resolution, with an option using one double-sided ladder to achieve a higher tracking efficiency.