justin

Today I read a paper titled “A fast no-rejection algorithm for the Category Game”

The abstract is:
The Category Game is a multi-agent model that accounts for the emergence of shared categorization patterns in a population of interacting individuals

In the framework of the model, linguistic categories appear as long lived consensus states that are constantly reshaped and re-negotiated by the communicating individuals

It is therefore crucial to investigate the long time behavior to gain a clear understanding of the dynamics

However, it turns out that the evolution of the emerging category system is so slow, already for small populations, that such an analysis has remained so far impossible

Here, we introduce a fast no-rejection algorithm for the Category Game that disentangles the physical simulation time from the CPU time, thus opening the way for thorough analysis of the model

We verify that the new algorithm is equivalent to the old one in terms of the emerging phenomenology and we quantify the CPU performances of the two algorithms, pointing out the neat advantages offered by the no-rejection one

This technical advance has already opened the way to new investigations of the model, thus helping to shed light on the fundamental issue of categorization

Today I read a paper titled “Rich-club connectivity dominates assortativity and transitivity of complex networks”

The abstract is:
Rich-club, assortativity and clustering coefficients are frequently-used measures to estimate topological properties of complex networks

Here we find that the connectivity among a very small portion of the richest nodes can dominate the assortativity and clustering coefficients of a large network, which reveals that the rich-club connectivity is leveraged throughout the network

Our study suggests that more attention should be payed to the organization pattern of rich nodes, for the structure of a complex system as a whole is determined by the associations between the most influential individuals

Moreover, by manipulating the connectivity pattern in a very small rich-club, it is sufficient to produce a network with desired assortativity or transitivity

Conversely, our findings offer a simple explanation for the observed assortativity and transitivity in many real world networks — such biases can be explained by the connectivities among the richest nodes

Today I read a paper titled “Idea Inheritance, Originality, and Collective Innovation”

The abstract is:
In order to create new products, inventors search and combine previous ideas

Few studies have examined the characteristics of search that lead to new products; most have focused on patent citations, which are often retrospective and may not reflect the usefulness of inventions

Through the analysis of collaborations in an online virtual community, the impact of originality on popularity and practicality is tested

These tests in turn are based on a method for measuring the distance between 3D shapes

In sum, this paper presents a new method for gauging innovation, and suggests ways of further understanding the role technology plays in encouraging creativity

From an organization perspective, this work provides insights into the creative process, and in particular the open innovation process, in which thousands of individuals together evolve designs, without belonging to the same corporate structure, without claiming IP rights, without exchanging money

Today I read a paper titled “A Proposal To Support Wellbeing in People With Borderline Personality Disorder: Applying Reminiscent Theory in a Mobile App”

The abstract is:
In this paper the research draws upon reminiscence therapy, which is used in treating dementia, as an applied theory to promote well being in people who experience low moods

The application proposed here aims to promote wellbeing for people suffering from mood disorders and dementia but could potentially be used to enhance wellbeing for many types of users

Use of the application is anticipated to improve mood in a group of users where severe emotional problems are prevalent

The research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a reminiscence based application in promoting well being in people specifically with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)

The long term objective of this research is to establish the effectiveness of reminiscence theory on user groups aside from dementia, particularly other mental illnesses

The research advocates involving end users within the design process both to inform and evaluate the development of a mobile and tablet application

Today I read a paper titled “Memristor-based mono-stable oscillator”

The abstract is:
In this letter, a reactance-less mono-stable oscillator is introduced for the first time using memristors

By replacing bulky inductors and capacitors with memristors, the novel mono-stable oscillator can be an area-efficient solution for on-chip fully integrated systems

The proposed circuit is described, mathematically analysed and verified by circuit simulations

Today I read a paper titled “RT-SLAM: A Generic and Real-Time Visual SLAM Implementation”

The abstract is:
This article presents a new open-source C++ implementation to solve the SLAM problem, which is focused on genericity, versatility and high execution speed

It is based on an original object oriented architecture, that allows the combination of numerous sensors and landmark types, and the integration of various approaches proposed in the literature

The system capacities are illustrated by the presentation of an inertial/vision SLAM approach, for which several improvements over existing methods have been introduced, and that copes with very high dynamic motions

Results with a hand-held camera are presented

Today I read a paper titled “Texture feature extraction in the spatial-frequency domain for content-based image retrieval”

The abstract is:
The advent of large scale multimedia databases has led to great challenges in content-based image retrieval (CBIR)

Even though CBIR is considered an emerging field of research, however it constitutes a strong background for new methodologies and systems implementations

Therefore, many research contributions are focusing on techniques enabling higher image retrieval accuracy while preserving low level of computational complexity

Image retrieval based on texture features is receiving special attention because of the omnipresence of this visual feature in most real-world images

This paper highlights the state-of-the-art and current progress relevant to texture-based image retrieval and spatial-frequency image representations

In particular, it gives an overview of statistical methodologies and techniques employed for texture feature extraction using most popular spatial-frequency image transforms, namely discrete wavelets, Gabor wavelets, dual-tree complex wavelet and contourlets

Indications are also given about used similarity measurement functions and most important achieved results

Today I read a paper titled “State-of-the Art Motion Estimation in the Context of 3D TV”

The abstract is:
Progress in image sensors and computation power has fueled studies to improve acquisition, processing, and analysis of 3D streams along with 3D scenes/objects reconstruction

The role of motion compensation/motion estimation (MCME) in 3D TV from end-to-end user is investigated in this chapter

Motion vectors (MVs) are closely related to the concept of disparities, and they can help improving dynamic scene acquisition, content creation, 2D to 3D conversion, compression coding, decompression/decoding, scene rendering, error concealment, virtual/augmented reality handling, intelligent content retrieval, and displaying

Although there are different 3D shape extraction methods, this chapter focuses mostly on shape-from-motion (SfM) techniques due to their relevance to 3D TV

SfM extraction can restore 3D shape information from a single camera data

Today I read a paper titled “One-Chip Solution to Intelligent Robot Control: Implementing Hexapod Subsumption Architecture Using a Contemporary Microprocessor”

The abstract is:
This paper introduces a six-legged autonomous robot managed by a single controller and a software core modeled on subsumption architecture

We begin by discussing the features and capabilities of IsoPod, a new processor for robotics which has enabled a streamlined implementation of our project

We argue that this processor offers a unique set of hardware and software features, making it a practical development platform for robotics in general and for subsumption-based control architectures in particular

Next, we summarize original ideas on subsumption architecture implementation for a six-legged robot, as presented by its inventor Rodney Brooks in 1980s

A comparison is then made to a more recent example of a hexapod control architecture based on subsumption

The merits of both systems are analyzed and a new subsumption architecture layout is formulated as a response

We conclude with some remarks regarding the development of this project as a hint at new potentials for intelligent robot design, opened by a recent development in embedded controller market

Today I read a paper titled “Optimal Multi-Robot Path Planning with Temporal Logic Constraints”

The abstract is:
In this paper we present a method for automatically planning optimal paths for a group of robots that satisfy a common high level mission specification

Each robot’s motion in the environment is modeled as a weighted transition system

The mission is given as a Linear Temporal Logic formula

In addition, an optimizing proposition must repeatedly be satisfied

The goal is to minimize the maximum time between satisfying instances of the optimizing proposition

Our method is guaranteed to compute an optimal set of robot paths

We utilize a timed automaton representation in order to capture the relative position of the robots in the environment

We then obtain a bisimulation of this timed automaton as a finite transition system that captures the joint behavior of the robots and apply our earlier algorithm for the single robot case to optimize the group motion

We present a simulation of a persistent monitoring task in a road network environment

Today I read a paper titled “Improving Web Page Readability by Plain Language”

The abstract is:
In today’s world anybody who wants to access any information the first choice is to use the web because it is the only source to provide easy and instant access to information

However web readers face many hurdles from web which includes load of web pages, text size, finding related information, spelling and grammar etc

However understanding of web pages written in English language creates great problems for non native readers who have basic knowledge of English

In this paper, we propose a plain language for a local language (Urdu) using English alphabets for web pages in Pakistan

For this purpose we developed two websites, one with a normal English fonts and other in a local language text scheme using English alphabets

We also conducted a questionnaire from 40 different users with a different level of English language fluency in Pakistan to gain the evidence of the practicality of our approach

The result shows that the proposed plain language text scheme using English alphabets improved the reading comprehension for non native English speakers in Pakistan

Today I read a paper titled “The Role of Vertex Consistency in Sampling-based Algorithms for Optimal Motion Planning”

The abstract is:
Motion planning problems have been studied by both the robotics and the controls research communities for a long time, and many algorithms have been developed for their solution

Among them, incremental sampling-based motion planning algorithms, such as the Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRTs), and the Probabilistic Road Maps (PRMs) have become very popular recently, owing to their implementation simplicity and their advantages in handling high-dimensional problems

Although these algorithms work very well in practice, the quality of the computed solution is often not good, i.e., the solution can be far from the optimal one

A recent variation of RRT, namely the RRT* algorithm, bypasses this drawback of the traditional RRT algorithm, by ensuring asymptotic optimality as the number of samples tends to infinity

Nonetheless, the convergence rate to the optimal solution may still be slow

This paper presents a new incremental sampling-based motion planning algorithm based on Rapidly-exploring Random Graphs (RRG), denoted RRT# (RRT “sharp”) which also guarantees asymptotic optimality but, in addition, it also ensures that the constructed spanning tree of the geometric graph is consistent after each iteration

In consistent trees, the vertices which have the potential to be part of the optimal solution have the minimum cost-come-value

This implies that the best possible solution is readily computed if there are some vertices in the current graph that are already in the goal region

Numerical results compare with the RRT* algorithm

Today I read a paper titled “Visual Tracking with Similarity Matching Ratio”

The abstract is:
This paper presents a novel approach to visual tracking: Similarity Matching Ratio (SMR)

The traditional approach of tracking is minimizing some measures of the difference between the template and a patch from the frame

This approach is vulnerable to outliers and drastic appearance changes and an extensive study is focusing on making the approach more tolerant to them

However, this often results in longer, corrective algo- rithms which do not solve the original problem

This paper proposes a novel approach to the definition of the tracking problems, SMR, which turns the differences into a probability measure

Only pixel differences below a threshold count towards deciding the match, the rest are ignored

This approach makes the SMR tracker robust to outliers and points that dramaticaly change appearance

The SMR tracker is tested on challenging video sequences and achieved state-of-the-art performance