scholarly journals Using Human Objects for Illumination Estimation and Shadow Generation in Outdoor Environments

Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1266
Author(s):  
Sung-Ju Han ◽  
Jun-Sup Shin ◽  
Kyungnyun Kim ◽  
Sang-Yoon Lee ◽  
Hyunki Hong
Keyword(s):  
Ground Plane ◽  
Gaussian Mixture ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Virtual Object ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Disparity Map ◽  
Illumination Estimation ◽  
Human Object ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Relationship Of

In computer graphics and augmented reality applications, the illumination information in an outdoor environment enables us to generate a realistic shadow for a virtual object. This paper presents a method by which to estimate the illumination information using a human object in a scene. A Gaussian mixture model, in which the mixtures of Gaussian distributions are symmetrical, is employed to learn the background. The human object is then segmented from the input images and the disparity map obtained by a stereo camera. The ground plane in the scene, which is important for estimating the location of the human object on the ground, is then detected using the v-disparity map. The altitude and the azimuth value of the sun are computed from the geometric relationship of three scene elements: the ground, human object, and human-shadow region. The experimental results showed that the proposed method can estimate the sun information accurately and generate a shadow in the scene for a virtual object.

The Green Building Environment of the Gymnasium

2018 ◽  
Vol 878 ◽  
pp. 202-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Qian ◽  
Li Yang
Keyword(s):  
Natural Ventilation ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Green Building ◽  
Residential Area ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Area Planning

The natural ventilation of residential areas has placed more and more emphasis on residential area planning, according to the relationship between natural ventilation environments and the layout of architecture, we can reduce the energy consumption and the adverse effect of wind outdoors, improve the living environment and quality of life, making harmony between human and the nature. In this paper, we use Air-Pak to simulate the wind environment of residential areas. Through analyzing and simulating the air field which forms when the wind blows around the residential buildings by Air-Pak, we explain the advantage of the combination of computer simulation software and residential area planning. And we give some advice to the layout of the outdoor environment early in the residential planning area by the simulation of outdoor environments of buildings.

scholarly journals IUE Observations of the Chromospheric Activity-Age Relation in Young Solar-Type Stars

1983 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 161-164
Author(s):  
Theodore Simon ◽  
Ann Merchant Boesgaard
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Flare Activity ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Late Type ◽  
Cool Star ◽  
Opportune Time ◽  
Solar Type ◽  
Age Relation ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The difficulties of measuring magnetic fields in late-type stars other than the sun are well known, as one is reminded by other contributions to these Proceedings. This Symposium nevertheless comes at a very opportune time, as we are now at the point where we can begin to explore the relationship of stellar magnetism to flare activity and quiescent cool star chromospheres, transition regions (TRs), and coronae.

scholarly journals A Study of Visual Descriptors for Outdoor Navigation Using Google Street View Images

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Fernández ◽  
L. Payá ◽  
O. Reinoso ◽  
L. M. Jiménez ◽  
M. Ballesta
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Navigation ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Localization Algorithm ◽  
Google Street View ◽  
Street View ◽  
Visual Descriptors ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Panoramic Images

A comparative analysis between several methods to describe outdoor panoramic images is presented. The main objective consists in studying the performance of these methods in the localization process of a mobile robot (vehicle) in an outdoor environment, when a visual map that contains images acquired from different positions of the environment is available. With this aim, we make use of the database provided by Google Street View, which contains spherical panoramic images captured in urban environments and their GPS position. The main benefit of using these images resides in the fact that it permits testing any novel localization algorithm in countless outdoor environments anywhere in the world and under realistic capture conditions. The main contribution of this work consists in performing a comparative evaluation of different methods to describe images to solve the localization problem in an outdoor dense map using only visual information. We have tested our algorithms using several sets of panoramic images captured in different outdoor environments. The results obtained in the work can be useful to select an appropriate description method for visual navigation tasks in outdoor environments using the Google Street View database and taking into consideration both the accuracy in localization and the computational efficiency of the algorithm.

scholarly journals Professionals’ experiences of using an improvement programme: applying quality improvement work in preschool contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e000933
Author(s):  
Sofia Kjellström ◽  
Ann-Christine Andersson ◽  
Tobias Samuelsson
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Public Health Intervention ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Improvement Interventions ◽  
Improvement Programme ◽  
Physical Changes ◽  
Breakthrough Series Collaborative ◽  
Quality Tools ◽  
Breakthrough Series

BackgroundImprovement work can be used in preschools to enrich outdoor environment for children’s better health. Effective improvement work can facilitate the necessary changes, but little is known about professionals’ experiences of participation in improvement interventions. The aim was to evaluate how preschool staff experience quality improvement work, using the Breakthrough Series Collaborative improvement programme, to enhance outdoor environments.MethodsAn improvement intervention using a breakthrough collaborative was performed at 9 preschools in Sweden and examined with a longitudinal mixed method design. Staff completed questionnaires on 4 occasions (n=45 participants) and interviews took place after the intervention (n=16 participants).ResultsThe intervention was successful in the sense that the staff were content with the learning seminars, and they had triggered physical changes in the outdoor environment. They integrated the quality improvement work with their ordinary work and increasingly involved the children. The staff tested improvement tools but did not find them entirely appropriate for their work, because they preferred existing methods for reflection.ConclusionsThe challenges in quality improvement work seem to be similar across contexts. Using the Breakthrough Series Collaborative in a public health intervention is promising but needs to be integrated with preunderstandings, current reflections and quality tools and models.

scholarly journals Walls talk: Microbial biogeography of homes spanning urbanization

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. e1501061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean F. Ruiz-Calderon ◽  
Humberto Cavallin ◽  
Se Jin Song ◽  
Atila Novoselac ◽  
Luis R. Pericchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Architectural Design ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Human Immune System ◽  
Developmental Exposure ◽  
Immune Development ◽  
Indoor Space ◽  
Microbial Biogeography ◽  
Microbiome Diversity ◽  
Outdoor Environments

Westernization has propelled changes in urbanization and architecture, altering our exposure to the outdoor environment from that experienced during most of human evolution. These changes might affect the developmental exposure of infants to bacteria, immune development, and human microbiome diversity. Contemporary urban humans spend most of their time indoors, and little is known about the microbes associated with different designs of the built environment and their interaction with the human immune system. This study addresses the associations between architectural design and the microbial biogeography of households across a gradient of urbanization in South America. Urbanization was associated with households’ increased isolation from outdoor environments, with additional indoor space isolation by walls. Microbes from house walls and floors segregate by location, and urban indoor walls contain human bacterial markers of space use. Urbanized spaces uniquely increase the content of human-associated microbes—which could increase transmission of potential pathogens—and decrease exposure to the environmental microbes with which humans have coevolved.

Research on Outdoor Environments and Activity Behavior of Senior Citizens with Dementia - A Study in Taipei City

2017 ◽  
Vol 865 ◽  
pp. 605-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Ying Tsai ◽  
Ting Yueh Chen
Keyword(s):  
Senior Citizens ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Age In Place ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Environmental Stimulation ◽  
Activity Types ◽  
Cognitive Activities ◽  
Severity Of Dementia ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Depth Interviews

In 2015, Alzheimer's Disease International reported that there are over 47.5 million cases of dementia worldwide. In Taiwan, the number of individuals with dementia has reached 244 thousand. Access to suitable outdoor environments can improve the physical, mental, and spiritual health of senior citizens, which in-turn reduces the burden faced by caregivers as well as expenditures related social resources. This study used GPS data and in-depth interviews to examine the effect of exposure to an outdoor environment on 12 senior citizens with mild, moderate, or severe dementia in Taipei. The conclusions of this study were as follows: (1) Outdoor environments should be designed in accordance with the principles of distinctiveness, safety, environmental stimulation, accessibility, comfort, familiarity, and social support. (2) As the severity of dementia increased, the number of activity types that patients could engage in was reduced. In addition, only subjects with mild dementia participated in cognitive activities. (3) Dementia does not equal disability. Based on these findings, we recommend that outdoor environment facilities should be provide to senior citizens depending on the severity of their dementia. Besides that, adequate public facilities should be establish within 800 m of all communities to allow senior citizens to age in place, provide caregivers with some respite, and to achieve the goal of dementia-friendly communities.

scholarly journals Statistical Study of Nine Months Distribution of Solar Flares

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Zety Sharizat Hamidi ◽  
N.N.M. Shariff ◽  
C. Monstein
Keyword(s):  
Solar Flares ◽  
Solar Radio ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Department ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Radio Flux ◽  
Solar Radio Flux ◽  
Field Lines ◽  
Relationship Of

Solar flare is one of the solar activities that take place in the outermost layer of the corona. Solar flares can heat the material to several million degrees in just a few minutes and at the same time they release the numerous amount of energy. It is believed that a change of magnetic field lines potentially creates the solar flares. The objectives of the study are to identify and compare the types of solar flares (in X-Ray) region and to improve understanding of solar flares. Data are taken from the NOAA website, from the United States Department of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center (SPWC). Solar radio flux readings were merged together with the three classes and a total of nine graphs were plotted. In illustrating the relationship of solar radio flux and solar flares, it can be explained by studying the range values of flux corresponding to flares values. From this case study, it was found that the minimum value of solar radio flux in order for the flares to occur is equivalent 68 x 10-22Wm-2Hz-1. Thus, whenever the values of solar radio flux are high, there should be a higher number of flares produced by the sun. The overall range of solar radio flux recorded in this study ranging from 68 x 10-22 Wm-2Hz-1 to 96 x 10-22 Wm-2Hz-1. Observing and collecting data from the Sun and develop our very own new prediction methods will leads the accuracy of the prediction of the behavior of the Sun more precisely.

scholarly journals Micrometeorological modeling and water consumption of tabasco pepper cultivated under greenhouse conditions

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Sérgio Weine Paulino Chaves ◽  
Rubens Duarte Coelho ◽  
Jéfferson De Oliveira Costa ◽  
Sergio André Tapparo
Keyword(s):  
Water Consumption ◽  
Crop Coefficient ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Production Cycle ◽  
Class A ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Irrigated Crops ◽  
Total Crop ◽  
The University

Micrometeorological variables of tabasco pepper cultivated under greenhouse and drip irrigated conditions have not been presented to date in literature, especially the water consumption of these plants, in terms of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and crop coefficient (Kc). The determination of these variables is extremely important for the application of the correct amount of water to irrigated crops in these environments because PM FAO (56) standard methodology was idealized for outdoor environments. The objective of this work was to develop models of estimation of micrometeorological variables in greenhouse conditions and to determine the water demand, in terms of evapotranspiration (ET) and Kc, of the pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.), cv. Tabasco McIlhenny, drip irrigated using drainage lysimeters. The research was carried out in an experimental area located at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Piracicaba, SP, Brazil. The following micrometeorological variables were monitored: air temperature, air relative humidity (digital thermohygrometer) and evaporation (mini-pan) (EMT). Drainage lysimeters were used to obtain the ETc and the reference evapotranspiration (ETo) was estimated outside the greenhouse by the Penman Monteith (EToPM), Hargreaves and Samani (EToHS) methods and the class “A” pan method (ECA). It was concluded that the total value of mini-pan evaporation (EMT) inside the greenhouse was practically equal to EToPM, 5% lower than EToHS and 31% higher than ECA in the outdoor environment. ET values ranged from 0.28 to 2.42 mm day-1 and total crop ET was 446.43 mm. The Kc values for the first pepper production cycle were: 0.17 in the initial phase, 0.76 in the flowering and fruiting phase and 0.39 in the harvest phase, for the second production cycle, the value of Kc was 0.50 at the harvest phase.

scholarly journals A Seamless Navigation System and Applications for Autonomous Vehicles Using a Tightly Coupled GNSS/UWB/INS/Map Integration Scheme

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Changqiang Wang ◽  
Aigong Xu ◽  
Xin Sui ◽  
Yushi Hao ◽  
Zhengxu Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Precision ◽  
Navigation System ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Precision Positioning ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Seamless Positioning ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor Environments ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor

Seamless positioning systems for complex environments have been a popular focus of research on positioning safety for autonomous vehicles (AVs). In particular, the seamless high-precision positioning of AVs indoors and outdoors still poses considerable challenges and requires continuous, reliable, and high-precision positioning information to guarantee the safety of driving. To obtain effective positioning information, multiconstellation global navigation satellite system (multi-GNSS) real-time kinematics (RTK) and an inertial navigation system (INS) have been widely integrated into AVs. However, integrated multi-GNSS and INS applications cannot provide effective and seamless positioning results for AVs in indoor and outdoor environments due to limited satellite availability, multipath effects, frequent signal blockages, and the lack of GNSS signals indoors. In this contribution, multi-GNSS-tightly coupled (TC) RTK/INS technology is developed to solve the positioning problem for a challenging urban outdoor environment. In addition, ultrawideband (UWB)/INS technology is developed to provide accurate and continuous positioning results in indoor environments, and INS and map information are used to identify and eliminate UWB non-line-of-sight (NLOS) errors. Finally, an improved adaptive robust extended Kalman filter (AREKF) algorithm based on a TC integrated single-frequency multi-GNSS-TC RTK/UWB/INS/map system is studied to provide continuous, reliable, high-precision positioning information to AVs in indoor and outdoor environments. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is capable of seamlessly guaranteeing the positioning accuracy of AVs in complex indoor and outdoor environments involving many measurement outliers and environmental interference effects.

scholarly journals Robust Landmark Estimation and Unscented Particle Sampling for SLAM in Dynamic Outdoor Environment

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Sakai ◽  
◽  
Teppei Saitoh ◽  
Yoji Kuroda
Keyword(s):  
Data Management ◽  
Feature Detection ◽  
Data Association ◽  
Position Estimation ◽  
Outdoor Environment ◽  
Unscented Transformation ◽  
Particle Sampling ◽  
Localization And Mapping ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Stable Feature

In this paper, we propose a set of techniques for accurate and practical Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) in dynamic outdoor environments. The techniques are categorized into Landmark estimation and Unscented particle sampling. Landmark estimation features stable feature detection and data management for estimating landmarks accurately, robustly, and at a low-calculation cost. The stable feature detection removes dynamic objects and sensor noise with scan subtraction, detects feature points sparsely and evenly, and sets data association parameters with landmark density. The data management calculates landmark existence probability and spurious landmarks are removed, utilizes landmark exclusivity for data association, and predicts importance weights using the observation range. Unscented particle sampling is based on Unscented Transformation for accurate SLAM. Simulation results of SLAM using our landmark estimation and experimental results of our SLAM in dynamic outdoor environments are presented and discussed. The results show that our landmark estimation decrease SLAM calculation time and maximum position error by 80% compared to conventional landmark estimation, and position estimation of SLAM with Unscented particle sampling ismore accurate than FastSLAM2.0 in dynamic outdoor environments.

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