Abstract: In this paper, a design of H.263 based wireless video
transceiver is presented for wireless camera system. It uses standard
WIFI transceiver and the covering area is up to 100m. Furthermore the
standard H.263 video encoding technique is used for video
compression since wireless video transmitter is unable to transmit high
capacity raw data in real time and the implemented system is capable
of streaming at speed of less than 1Mbps using NTSC 720x480 video.
Abstract: In the recent years, a fundamental revolution in the Mobile Phone technology from just being able to provide voice and short message services to becoming the most essential part of our lives by connecting to network and various app stores for downloading software apps of almost every activity related to our life from finding location to banking from getting news updates to downloading HD videos and so on. This progress in Smart Phone industry has modernized and transformed our way of living into a trouble-free world. The smart phone has become our personal computers with the addition of significant features such as multi core processors, multi-tasking, large storage space, bluetooth, WiFi, including large screen and cameras. With this evolution, the rise in the security threats have also been amplified. In Literature, different threats related to smart phones have been highlighted and various precautions and solutions have been proposed to keep the smart phone safe which carries all the private data of a user. In this paper, a survey has been carried out to find out the most secure and the most unsecure smart phone operating system among the most popular smart phones in use today.
Abstract: Younger and younger children are now using a smartphone, a device which has become ‘a must have’ and the life of children would be almost ‘unthinkable’ without one. Devices are becoming lighter and lighter but offering an array of options and applications as well as the unavoidable access to the Internet, without which it would be almost unusable. Numerous features such as taking of photographs, listening to music, information search on the Internet, access to social networks, usage of some of the chatting and messaging services, are only some of the numerous features offered by ‘smart’ devices. They have replaced the alarm clock, home phone, camera, tablet and other devices. Their use and possession have become a part of the everyday image of young people. Apart from the positive aspects, the use of smartphones has also some downsides. For instance, free time was usually spent in nature, playing, doing sports or other activities enabling children an adequate psychophysiological growth and development. The greater usage of smartphones during classes to check statuses on social networks, message your friends, play online games, are just some of the possible negative aspects of their application. Considering that the age of the population using smartphones is decreasing and that smartphones are no longer ‘foreign’ to children of pre-school age (smartphones are used at home or in coffee shops or shopping centers while waiting for their parents, playing video games often inappropriate to their age), particular attention must be paid to a very sensitive group, the teenagers who almost never separate from their ‘pets’. This paper is divided into two sections, theoretical and empirical ones. The theoretical section gives an overview of the pros and cons of the usage of smartphones, while the empirical section presents the results of a research conducted in three elementary schools regarding the usage of smartphones and, specifically, their usage during classes, during breaks and to search information on the Internet, check status updates and 'likes’ on the Facebook social network.
Abstract: In this paper we presented a new method for tracking
flying targets in color video sequences based on contour and kernel.
The aim of this work is to overcome the problem of losing target in
changing light, large displacement, changing speed, and occlusion.
The proposed method is made in three steps, estimate the target
location by particle filter, segmentation target region using neural
network and find the exact contours by greedy snake algorithm. In
the proposed method we have used both region and contour
information to create target candidate model and this model is
dynamically updated during tracking. To avoid the accumulation of
errors when updating, target region given to a perceptron neural
network to separate the target from background. Then its output used
for exact calculation of size and center of the target. Also it is used as
the initial contour for the greedy snake algorithm to find the exact
target's edge. The proposed algorithm has been tested on a database
which contains a lot of challenges such as high speed and agility of
aircrafts, background clutter, occlusions, camera movement, and so
on. The experimental results show that the use of neural network
increases the accuracy of tracking and segmentation.
Abstract: Human skin detection recognized as the primary step in most of the applications such as face detection, illicit image filtering, hand recognition and video surveillance. The performance of any skin detection applications greatly relies on the two components: feature extraction and classification method. Skin color is the most vital information used for skin detection purpose. However, color feature alone sometimes could not handle images with having same color distribution with skin color. A color feature of pixel-based does not eliminate the skin-like color due to the intensity of skin and skin-like color fall under the same distribution. Hence, the statistical color analysis will be exploited such mean and standard deviation as an additional feature to increase the reliability of skin detector. In this paper, we studied the effectiveness of statistical color feature for human skin detection. Furthermore, the paper analyzed the integrated color and texture using eight classifiers with three color spaces of RGB, YCbCr, and HSV. The experimental results show that the integrating statistical feature using Random Forest classifier achieved a significant performance with an F1-score 0.969.
Abstract: Access to advanced medical services has been one of the medical challenges faced by our present society especially in distant geographical locations which may be inaccessible. Then the need for telemedicine arises through which live videos of a doctor can be streamed to a patient located anywhere in the world at any time. Patients’ medical records contain very sensitive information which should not be made accessible to unauthorized people in order to protect privacy, integrity and confidentiality. This research work focuses on a more robust security measure which is biometric (fingerprint) as a form of access control to data of patients by the medical specialist/practitioner.
Abstract: This paper is a qualitative research report. A group of
students form a public university in a small town in Colombia
participated in this study which aimed at describing to what extend
the use of social ads, published on the internet, helped to develop
their critical thinking skills. Students’ productions, field notes, video
recordings and direct observation were the instruments and
techniques used by the researches in order to gather the data which
was analyzed under the principles of grounded theory and
triangulation. The implementation of social ads into the classroom
evidenced a noticeable improvement in students’ ability to interpret
and argue social issues, as well as, their self-improvement in oral and
written production in English, as a foreign language.
Abstract: In this study, the potential benefits of playing action
video game among congenitally deaf and dumb subjects is reported in
terms of EEG ratio indices. The frontal and occipital lobes are
associated with development of motor skills, cognition, and visual
information processing and color recognition. The sixteen hours of
First-Person shooter action video game play resulted in the increase
of the ratios β/(α+θ) and β/θ in frontal and occipital lobes. This can
be attributed to the enhancement of certain aspect of cognition among
deaf and dumb subjects.
Abstract: In the deep south of Thailand, checkpoints for people
verification are necessary for the security management of risk zones,
such as official buildings in the conflict area. In this paper, we
propose an automatic checkpoint system that verifies persons using
information from ID cards and facial features. The methods for a
person’s information abstraction and verification are introduced
based on useful information such as ID number and name, extracted
from official cards, and facial images from videos. The proposed
system shows promising results and has a real impact on the local
society.
Abstract: Background modeling and subtraction in video
analysis has been widely used as an effective method for moving
objects detection in many computer vision applications. Recently, a
large number of approaches have been developed to tackle different
types of challenges in this field. However, the dynamic background
and illumination variations are the most frequently occurred problems
in the practical situation. This paper presents a favorable two-layer
model based on codebook algorithm incorporated with local binary
pattern (LBP) texture measure, targeted for handling dynamic
background and illumination variation problems. More specifically,
the first layer is designed by block-based codebook combining with
LBP histogram and mean value of each RGB color channel. Because
of the invariance of the LBP features with respect to monotonic
gray-scale changes, this layer can produce block wise detection results
with considerable tolerance of illumination variations. The pixel-based
codebook is employed to reinforce the precision from the output of the
first layer which is to eliminate false positives further. As a result, the
proposed approach can greatly promote the accuracy under the
circumstances of dynamic background and illumination changes.
Experimental results on several popular background subtraction
datasets demonstrate very competitive performance compared to
previous models.
Abstract: Since the advances in digital imaging technologies have led to
development of high quality digital devices, there are a lot of illegal copies
of copyrighted video content on the Internet. Also, unauthorized editing is
occurred frequently. Thus, we propose an editing prevention technique for
high-quality (HQ) video that can prevent these illegally edited copies from
spreading out. The proposed technique is applied spatial and temporal gradient
methods to improve the fidelity and detection performance. Also, the scheme
duplicates the embedding signal temporally to alleviate the signal reduction
caused by geometric and signal-processing distortions. Experimental results
show that the proposed scheme achieves better performance than previously
proposed schemes and it has high fidelity. The proposed scheme can be used
in unauthorized access prevention method of visual communication or traitor
tracking applications which need fast detection process to prevent illegally
edited video content from spreading out.
Abstract: The aim of the study is to describe and analyze design
of mobile teaching for students collaborative learning in distance
higher education with a focus on mobile technologies as online
webinars (web-based seminars or conferencing) by using laptops,
smart phones, or tablets. These multimedia tools can provide face-toface
interactions, recorded flipped classroom videos and parallel chat
communications. The data collection consists of interviews with 22
students and observations of online face-to-face webinars, as well
two surveys. Theoretically, the study joins the research tradition of
Computer Supported Collaborative learning, CSCL, as well as
Computer Self-Efficacy, CSE concerned with individuals’ media and
information literacy. Important conclusions from the study
demonstrated mobile interactions increased student centered
learning. As the students were appreciating the working methods,
they became more engaged and motivated. The mobile technology
using among student also contributes to increased flexibility between
space and place, as well as media and information literacy.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation
details of a complete unmanned aerial system (UAS) based
on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, focusing on
safety, security, search and rescue scenarios in GPS-denied
environments. In particular, The aerial platform is capable
of semi-autonomously navigating through extremely low-light,
GPS-denied indoor environments based on onboard sensors only,
including a downward-facing optical flow camera. Besides, an
additional low-cost payload camera system is developed to stream
both infra-red video and visible light video to a ground station in
real-time, for the purpose of detecting sign of life and hidden humans.
The total cost of the complete system is estimated to be $1150,
and the effectiveness of the system has been tested and validated
in practical scenarios.
Abstract: The traditional rhythms of the West African country
of Guinea have played a centuries-long role in defining the different
people groups that make up the country. Throughout their history,
before and since colonization by the French, the different ethnicities
have used their traditional music as a distinct part of their historical
identities. That is starting to change. Guinea is an impoverished
nation created in the early twentieth-century with little regard for the
history and cultures of the people who were included. The traditional
rhythms of the different people groups and their heritages have
remained. Fifteen individual traditional Guinean rhythms were
chosen to represent popular rhythms from the four geographical
regions of Guinea. Each rhythm was traced back to its native village
and video recorded on-site by as many different local performing
groups as could be located. The cyclical patterns rhythms were
transcribed via a circular, spatial design and then copied into a box
notation system where sounds happening at the same time could be
studied. These rhythms were analyzed for their consistency-overperformance
in a Fundamental Rhythm Pattern analysis so rhythms
could be compared for how they are changing through different
performances. The analysis showed that the traditional rhythm
performances of the Middle and Forest Guinea regions were the most
cohesive and showed the least evidence of change between
performances. The role of music in each of these regions is both
limited and focused. The Coastal and High Guinea regions have
much in common historically through their ethnic history and
modern-day trade connections, but the rhythm performances seem to
be less consistent and demonstrate more changes in how they are
performed today. In each of these regions the role and usage of music
is much freer and wide-spread. In spite of advances being made as a
country, different ethnic groups still frequently only respond and
participate (dance and sing) to the music of their native ethnicity.
There is some evidence that this self-imposed musical barrier is
beginning to change and evolve, partially through the development of
better roads, more access to electricity and technology, the nationwide
Ebola health crisis, and a growing self-identification as a
unified nation.
Abstract: This paper integrates Octagon and Square Search
pattern (OCTSS) motion estimation algorithm into H.264/AVC
(Advanced Video Coding) video codec in Adaptive Group of Pictures
(AGOP) mode. AGOP structure is computed based on scene change
in the video sequence. Octagon and square search pattern block-based
motion estimation method is implemented in inter-prediction process
of H.264/AVC. Both these methods reduce bit rate and computational
complexity while maintaining the quality of the video sequence
respectively. Experiments are conducted for different types of video
sequence. The results substantially proved that the bit rate,
computation time and PSNR gain achieved by the proposed method
is better than the existing H.264/AVC with fixed GOP and AGOP.
With a marginal gain in quality of 0.28dB and average gain in bitrate
of 132.87kbps, the proposed method reduces the average computation
time by 27.31 minutes when compared to the existing state-of-art
H.264/AVC video codec.
Abstract: One of the most important challenging factors in
medical images is nominated as noise. Image denoising refers to the
improvement of a digital medical image that has been infected by
Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The digital medical image
or video can be affected by different types of noises. They are
impulse noise, Poisson noise and AWGN. Computed tomography
(CT) images are subjects to low quality due to the noise. Quality of
CT images is dependent on absorbed dose to patients directly in such
a way that increase in absorbed radiation, consequently absorbed
dose to patients (ADP), enhances the CT images quality. In this
manner, noise reduction techniques on purpose of images quality
enhancement exposing no excess radiation to patients is one the
challenging problems for CT images processing. In this work, noise
reduction in CT images was performed using two different
directional 2 dimensional (2D) transformations; i.e., Curvelet and
Contourlet and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) thresholding
methods of BayesShrink and AdaptShrink, compared to each other
and we proposed a new threshold in wavelet domain for not only
noise reduction but also edge retaining, consequently the proposed
method retains the modified coefficients significantly that result good
visual quality. Data evaluations were accomplished by using two
criterions; namely, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and Structure
similarity (Ssim).
Abstract: The possibility of application the dietary fibers in
production of crackers was observed in this work, as well as their
influence on rheological and textural properties on the dough for
crackers and influence on sensory properties of obtained crackers.
Three different dietary fibers, oat, potato and pea fibers, replaced
10% of wheat flour. Long fermentation process and baking test
method were used for crackers production. The changes of dough for
crackers were observed by rheological methods of determination the
viscoelastic dough properties and by textural measurements. Sensory
quality of obtained crackers was described using quantity descriptive
method (QDA) by trained members of descriptive panel. Additional
analysis of crackers surface was performed by videometer. Based on
rheological determination, viscoelastic properties of dough for
crackers were reduced by application of dietary fibers. Manipulation
of dough with 10% of potato fiber was disabled, thus the recipe
modification included increase in water content at 35%. Dough
compliance to constant stress for samples with dietary fibers
decreased, due to more rigid and stiffer dough consistency compared
to control sample. Also, hardness of dough for these samples
increased and dough extensibility decreased. Sensory properties of
final products, crackers, were reduced compared to control sample.
Application of dietary fibers affected mostly hardness, structure and
crispness of the crackers. Observed crackers were low marked for
flavor and taste, due to influence of fibers specific aroma. The sample
with 10% of potato fibers and increased water content was the most
adaptable to applied stresses and to production process. Also this
sample was close to control sample without dietary fibers by
evaluation of sensory properties and by results of videometer method.
Abstract: Most of the existing video streaming protocols
provide video services without considering security aspects in
decentralized mobile ad-hoc networks. The security policies adapted
to the currently existing non-streaming protocols, do not comply with
the live video streaming protocols resulting in considerable
vulnerability, high bandwidth consumption and unreliability which
cause severe security threats, low bandwidth and error prone
transmission respectively in video streaming applications. Therefore
a synergized methodology is required to reduce vulnerability and
bandwidth consumption, and enhance reliability in the video
streaming applications in MANET. To ensure the security measures
with reduced bandwidth consumption and improve reliability of the
video streaming applications, a Secure Low-bandwidth Video
Streaming through Reliable Multipath Propagation (SLVRMP)
protocol architecture has been proposed by incorporating the two
algorithms namely Secure Low-bandwidth Video Streaming
Algorithm and Reliable Secure Multipath Propagation Algorithm
using Layered Video Coding in non-overlapping zone routing
network topology. The performances of the proposed system are
compared to those of the other existing secure multipath protocols
Sec-MR, SPREAD using NS 2.34 and the simulation results show
that the performances of the proposed system get considerably
improved.
Abstract: Live video streaming is one of the most widely used
service among end users, yet it is a big challenge for the network
operators in terms of quality. The only way to provide excellent
Quality of Experience (QoE) to the end users is continuous
monitoring of live video streaming. For this purpose, there are several
objective algorithms available that monitor the quality of the video in
a live stream. Subjective tests play a very important role in fine
tuning the results of objective algorithms. As human perception is
considered to be the most reliable source for assessing the quality of a
video stream subjective tests are conducted in order to develop more
reliable objective algorithms. Temporal impairments in a live video
stream can have a negative impact on the end users. In this paper we
have conducted subjective evaluation tests on a set of video
sequences containing temporal impairment known as frame freezing.
Frame Freezing is considered as a transmission error as well as a
hardware error which can result in loss of video frames on the
reception side of a transmission system. In our subjective tests, we
have performed tests on videos that contain a single freezing event
and also for videos that contain multiple freezing events. We have
recorded our subjective test results for all the videos in order to give a
comparison on the available No Reference (NR) objective
algorithms. Finally, we have shown the performance of no reference
algorithms used for objective evaluation of videos and suggested the
algorithm that works better. The outcome of this study shows the
importance of QoE and its effect on human perception. The results
for the subjective evaluation can serve the purpose for validating
objective algorithms.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a four-step ortho-rectification
procedure for real-time geo-referencing of video data from a low-cost
UAV equipped with a multi-sensor system. The basic procedures for
the real-time ortho-rectification are: (1) decompilation of the video
stream into individual frames; (2) establishing the interior camera
orientation parameters; (3) determining the relative orientation
parameters for each video frame with respect to each other; (4)
finding the absolute orientation parameters, using a self-calibration
bundle and adjustment with the aid of a mathematical model. Each
ortho-rectified video frame is then mosaicked together to produce a
mosaic image of the test area, which is then merged with a well
referenced existing digital map for the purpose of geo-referencing
and aerial surveillance. A test field located in Abuja, Nigeria was
used to evaluate our method. Video and telemetry data were collected
for about fifteen minutes, and they were processed using the four-step
ortho-rectification procedure. The results demonstrated that the
geometric measurement of the control field from ortho-images is
more accurate when compared with those from original perspective
images when used to pin point the exact location of targets on the
video imagery acquired by the UAV. The 2-D planimetric accuracy
when compared with the 6 control points measured by a GPS receiver
is between 3 to 5 metres.