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The advancement of new energy vehicles has led to more demanding standards for detecting defects in cylindrical coated lithium batteries. The current research lacks robustness and has low performance. This paper seeks to provide real-time defect identification in cylindrical coated lithium batteries and improve the object detection method of the YOLOv5s model. This paper presents an MGSEC3 module with multi-scale feature extraction and integration of the SENet network in the YOLOv5 Backbone network. This module aims to reduce computational burden and enhance feature extraction efficiency as much as possible. At the same time, the CARAFE operator is utilized to enhance the up-sampling operator in order to reduce the loss of feature information. In addition, enhancements to the loss function enhance both the detection performance and convergence speed. The enhanced YOLOv5s model achieved an average detection rate of 82.4% on the custom cylindrical coated lithium battery dataset, 2.3% higher than the original YOLOv5s. This paper significantly enhances the precision and efficiency of flaw identification in cylindrical coated lithium batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in computer image recognition have significantly impacted many industries, including healthcare, security and autonomous systems. This paper aims to explore the potential of improving image algorithms to enhance computer image recognition. Specifically, we will focus on regression methods as a means to improve the accuracy and efficiency of identifying images. In this study, we will analyze various regression techniques and their applications in computer image recognition, as well as the resulting performance improvements through detailed examples and data analysis. This paper deals with the problems related to visual image processing in outdoor unstructured environment. Finally, the heterogeneous patterns are converted into the same pattern, and the heterogeneous patterns are extracted from the fusion features of data modes. The simulation results show that the perception ability and recognition ability of outdoor image recognition in complex environment are improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pixel‐level labeling of regions of interest in an image is a key step in building a labeled training dataset for supervised deep learning networks of images. However, traditional manual labeling of cancerous regions in digital pathological images by doctors is time‐consuming and inefficient. To address this issue, this paper proposes an automatic labeling method for whole slide images, which combines clustering and edge detection techniques. The proposed method utilizes the multi‐level feature fusion model and the Long‐Short Term Memory network to discriminate the cancerous nature of the whole slide images, thereby improving the classification accuracy of the whole slide images. Subsequently, the automatic labeling of cancerous regions is achieved by integrating a density‐based clustering algorithm and an edge point extraction algorithm, both based on the discriminated results of the cancerous properties of whole slide images. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which offers an efficient and accurate solution to the challenging task of cancerous region labeling in digital pathological images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In foggy days, the color saturation and contrast of the image are reduced due to factors such as scattering and refraction of light. Aiming at the problems of fog residue and loss of detailed features after processed by the existing dehazing methods, a defogging model network APSA-DehazeNet (Adaptive Pyramid Split Attention-DehazeNet) based on split convolution is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the adaptive multi-scale feature fusion module is used to extract the features of the foggy image, capture the features of different scales, then perform weighted fusion and obtain the shallow features of the image. Secondly, the deep features of the image are further obtained by the split convolutional network (PSANet) based on attention mechanism, and a more thorough dehazing effect is obtained. Finally, to effectively solve the problem of detail loss caused by a single loss, a joint loss function of perceived loss and structural similarity loss is proposed. Compared with other algorithms, experimental results demonstrate that the PSNR and SSIM indexes on the synthetic fog map dataset are improved by an average of 4.7dB and 7.4%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since light propagation in water bodies is subject to absorption and scattering effects, underwater images using only conventional intensity cameras will suffer from low brightness, blurred images, and loss of details. In this paper, a deep fusion network is applied to underwater polarization images; that is, the underwater polarization images are fused with intensity images using the deep learning method. To construct a training dataset, we establish an experimental setup to obtain underwater polarization images and perform appropriate transformations to expand the dataset. Next, an end-to-end learning framework based on unsupervised learning and guided by an attention mechanism is constructed for fusing polarization and light intensity images. The loss function and weight parameters are elaborated. The produced dataset is used to train the network under different loss weight parameters, and the fused images are evaluated based on different image evaluation metrics. The results show that the fused underwater images are more detailed. Compared with light intensity images, the information entropy and standard deviation of the proposed method increase by 24.48% and 139%. The image processing results are better than other fusion-based methods. In addition, the improved U-net network structure is used to extract features for image segmentation. The results show that the target segmentation based on the proposed method is feasible under turbid water. The proposed method does not require manual adjustment of weight parameters, has faster operation speed, and has strong robustness and self-adaptability, which is important for research in vision fields, such as ocean detection and underwater target recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Registration between remote sensing images has been a research focus in the field of remote sensing image processing. Most of the existing image registration algorithms applied to feature point matching are derived from image feature extraction methods, such as scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), speed-up robust features (SURF) and Siamese neural network. Such methods encounter difficulties in achieving accurate image registration where there is a large bias in the image features or no significant feature points. Aiming to solve this problem, this paper proposes an algorithm for multi-source image registration based on geographical location information (GLI). By calculating the geographic location information that corresponds to the pixel in the image, the ideal projected pixel position of the corresponding image is obtained using spatial coordinate transformation. Additionally, the corresponding relationship between the two images is calculated by combining multiple sets of registration points. The simulation experiment illustrates that, under selected common simulation parameters, the average value of the relative registration-point error between the two images is 12.64 pixels, and the registration accuracy of the corresponding ground registration point is higher than 6.5 m. In the registration experiment involving remote sensing images from different sources, the average registration pixel error of this algorithm is 20.92 pixels, and the registration error of the image center is 21.24 pixels. In comparison, the image center registration error given by the convolutional neural network (CNN) is 142.35 pixels after the registration error is manually eliminated. For the registration of homologous and featureless remote sensing images, the SIFT algorithm can only offer one set of registration points for the correct region, and the neural network cannot achieve accurate registration results. The registration accuracy of the presented algorithm is 7.2 pixels, corresponding to a ground registration accuracy of 4.32 m and achieving more accurate registration between featureless images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of computer performance, deep learning is playing a vital role on hardware platforms. Indoor scene segmentation is a challenging deep learning task because indoor objects tend to obscure each other, and the dense layout increases the difficulty of segmentation. Still, current networks pursue accuracy improvement, sacrifice speed, and augment memory resource usage. To solve this problem, achieve a compromise between accuracy, speed, and model size. This paper proposes Multichannel Fusion Network (MFNet) for indoor scene segmentation, which mainly consists of Dense Residual Module(DRM) and Multi-scale Feature Extraction Module(MFEM). MFEM uses depthwise separable convolution to cut the number of parameters, matches different sizes of convolution kernels and dilation rates to achieve optimal receptive field; DRM fuses feature maps at several levels of resolution to optimize segmentation details. Experimental results on the NYU V2 dataset show that the proposed method achieves very competitive results compared with other advanced algorithms, with a segmentation speed of 38.47 fps, nearly twice that of Deeplab v3+, but only 1/5 of the number of parameters of Deeplab v3 +. Its segmentation results were close to those of advanced segmentation networks, making it beneficial for the real-time processing of images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to satisfy the requirement of precise pin-point landing mission in Mars exploration, this paper proposes an innovative visual navigation algorithm based on feature lines extraction and matching to estimate the attitude and position of the lander during descent phase. Currently, common navigation landmarks are feature points and craters. But, the number of feature points extracted from landing image is so large that the image process is complex and time-consuming, and they do not usually have absolute coordinate information to absolute navigation. Meanwhile, crater is matched difficultly. Hence, ridges, fissures and other surface textures similar to lines are most common visual features of Mars and can be used as navigation landmarks for visual absolute and relative navigation. Firstly, that feature lines matching based on the EDLine algorithm remains invariant to scaling, rotation, and illumination, etc. provides the basis for visual navigation by using feature line. Secondly, feature lines selected as navigation landmarks can be used to absolute navigation and relative navigation respectively, which can implement integrated navigation. In this paper, a novel integrated visual navigation has been designed to finish the precise pin-point landing and overcome the accumulated errors of relative navigation and the limited application range of absolute navigation. Experimental simulation results show that the integrated navigation algorithm solves the limitation of single navigation mode and improves the effectiveness and stability of the algorithm. • A navigation algorithm using feature line for pinpoint landing is proposed. • The lander's absolute and relative pose are estimated during descent phase. • Integrated navigation overcomes the limitation of single navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many video and image processing applications, the frames are partitioned into blocks, which are extracted and processed sequentially. In this paper, we propose a fast algorithm for calculation of features of overlapping image blocks. We assume the features are projections of the block on separable 2D basis functions (usually orthogonal polynomials) where we benefit from the symmetry with respect to spatial variables. The main idea is based on a construction of auxiliary matrices that virtually extends the original image and makes it possible to avoid a time-consuming computation in loops. These matrices can be pre-calculated, stored and used repeatedly since they are independent of the image itself. We validated experimentally that the speed up of the proposed method compared with traditional approaches approximately reaches up to 20 times depending on the block parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelet transform using Haar filter is a fast process for decomposing an image into low and high frequency sub-bands, which is an important step in multi-focus image fusion. This transformation alone is usually not sufficient to produce satisfying fused images, and therefore additional tools like focused region decision map and feature extraction are needed to enhance the fusion quality. In this paper, we propose a multi-focus image fusion algorithm that is suitable for efficient hardware implementation. The algorithm speed is significantly improved by utilizing Haar wavelet and computationally simple fusion rules. To further improve the circuit power and delay, we limit the logic operations to additions, subtractions, and multiplications only. Experiments on different benchmarks demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can reduce the fusion time by up to 99.97% compared with the state-of-the-art competing methods without compromising the fusion quality. In addition, the hardware implementation of the proposed algorithm reduces the circuit area and delay by 79.5% and 92.5%, respectively, when compared to the most competitive algorithm in this paper while maintaining similar fusion quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Optimized incremental bit-quads count in component trees. • The intuition of incremental bit-quad count in component trees correctness. • A Fast method to compute area, perimeter and Euler Number in grayscale images. • A Fast algorithm to compute continuous perimeter approximation in grayscale images. • Software applications were rewritten using attributes computed by bit-quads. Component tree is a full image representation which encodes all connected components from upper (resp. lower) level sets of a given image through the inclusion relation. Information from this representation can be used in many image processing and computational vision applications, e.g. connected filtering, image segmentation, feature extraction, among others. In general, each node of a component tree represents a connected component of a level set and stores attributes which describes features of this connected component. This paper presents a review of a previously published method to compute attributes such as area, perimeter, and number of Euler by incrementally counting patterns while traversing nodes of a component tree. This method foundation is further detailed in this paper by presenting a novel theoretical background and algorithm correctness intuition. We also present a novel approach for this algorithm showing improvements for run-time execution and precision analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A small target detection algorithm based on feature interaction and guided learning. • A feature guided alignment module is designed to obtain more effective features. • Gaussian distribution sample allocation strategy is introduced to obtain better samples. • Feature interaction and decoupling detection enhance the detection task capability. • A new regression loss function is used to optimize the localization ability to a certain extent. At present, for the diverse target sizes, different angles, and complex environment in aerial images, how to detect small objects effectively in aerial images is still a challenge task. In order to further improve the detection accuracy and reduce the missing rate, in this paper, we proposes a small target detection algorithm based on feature interaction and guided learning. Firstly, the feature guided alignment module is designed to deal with the problem of information loss and overlap. Secondly, the misallocation of small object samples is optimized by introducing gaussian sample allocation strategy. Then the interactive parallel detection header is designed to solve the detection task conflict problem. Finally, the new regression loss function is designed to enhance the localization ability of the target. The experimental results on the Tinyperson dataset and Visdrone dataset show that this model can improve the detection accuracy and reduce the missing rate of small targets effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging medical imaging applications in healthcare, the number and volume of medical images is growing dramatically. Information needs of users in such circumstances, either for clinical or research activities, make the role of powerful medical image search engines more significant. In this paper, a text-based multi-dimensional medical image indexing technique is proposed in which correlation of the features-usages (according to the user's queries) is considered to provide an off-the content indexing while taking users' interestingness into account. Assuming that each medical image has some extracted features (e.g., based on the DICOM standard), correlations of the features are discovered by performing data mining techniques (i.e., quantitative association pattern discovery), on the history of users' queries as a data set. Then, based on the pairwise correlation of the features of medical images (a.k.a. Affinity), set of the all features is fragmented into subsets (using method like the vertical fragmentation of the tables in distribution of relational DBs). After that, each of these subsets of the features turn into a hierarchy of the features (by applying a hierarchical clustering algorithm on that subset), subsequently all of these distinct hierarchies together make a multi-dimensional structure of the features of medical images, which is in fact the proposed text-based (feature-based) multi-dimensional index structure. Constructing and using such text-based multi-dimensional index structure via its specific required operations, medical image retrieval process would be improved in the underlying medical image search engine. Generally, an indexing technique is to provide a logical representation of documents in order to optimize the retrieval process. The proposed indexing technique is designed such that can improve retrieval of medical images in a medical image search engine in terms of its effectiveness and efficiency. Considering correlation of the features of the image would semantically improve precision (effectiveness) of the retrieval process, while traversing them through the hierarchy in one dimension would try to optimize (i.e., minimize) the resources to have a better efficiency. The proposed text-based multi-dimensional indexing technique is implemented using the open source search engine Lucene, and compared with the built-in indexing technique available in the Lucene search engine, and also with the Terrier platform (available for the benchmarking of information retrieval systems) and other the most related indexing techniques. Evaluation results of memory usage and time complexity analysis, beside the experimental evaluations efficiency and effectiveness measures show that the proposed multi-dimensional indexing technique significantly improves both efficiency and effectiveness for a medical image search engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a Hilbert stereo reconstruction algorithm based on depth feature and stereo matching to solve the problem of occlusive region matching errors, namely, the Hilbert stereo network. The traditional stereo network pays more attention to disparity itself, leading to the inaccuracy of disparity estimation. Our design network studies the effective disparity matching and refinement through reconstruction representation of Hilbert's disparity coefficient. Since the Hilbert coefficient is not affected by the occlusion and texture in the image, stereo disparity matching can conducted effectively. Our network includes three sub-modules, namely, depth feature representation, Hilbert cost volume fusion, and Hilbert refinement reconstruction. Separately, texture features of different depth levels of the image were extracted through Hilbert filtering operation. Next, stereoscopic disparity fusion was performed, and then Hilbert designed to refine the difference regression stereo matching solution was used. Based on the end-to-end design, the structure is refined by combining the depth feature extraction module and Hilbert coefficient disparity. Finally, the Hilbert stereo matching algorithm achieves excellent performance on standard big data set and is compared with other advanced stereo networks. Experiments show that our network has high accuracy and high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speed Up Robust Feature Algorithm (SURF) has been a very useful technique in the advancement of image feature algorithm. The strategy offers an extremely decent agreement between the runtime and accuracy, especially at object borders and fine structures. It has a wide scope of applications in remote sensing like getting computerized surface models from UAV and satellite images. In this paper, SURF algorithm has been discussed in details to enhance the capability of the system for image feature extraction technique to detect and obtain the maximum feature points from aerial imagery. The algorithms are developed depending upon such phenomena in which a maximum result can be obtained in very less time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human pose estimation refers to the estimation of the location of body parts and how they are connected in an image. Human pose estimation from monocular images has wide applications (e.g., image indexing). Several surveys on human pose estimation can be found in the literature, but they focus on a certain category; for example, model-based approaches or human motion analysis, etc. As far as we know, an overall review of this problem domain has yet to be provided. Furthermore, recent advancements based on deep learning have brought novel algorithms for this problem. In this paper, a comprehensive survey of human pose estimation from monocular images is carried out including milestone works and recent advancements. Based on one standard pipeline for the solution of computer vision problems, this survey splits the problem into several modules: feature extraction and description, human body models, and modeling methods. Problem modeling methods are approached based on two means of categorization in this survey. One way to categorize includes top-down and bottom-up methods, and another way includes generative and discriminative methods. Considering the fact that one direct application of human pose estimation is to provide initialization for automatic video surveillance, there are additional sections for motion-related methods in all modules: motion features, motion models, and motion-based methods. Finally, the paper also collects 26 publicly available data sets for validation and provides error measurement methods that are frequently used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel non-rigid registration method for medical images is proposed by introducing the image field into Demons algorithm. • Introduce the orientation field for registration and make use of the directional information. • There is no extraction of feature points and manual intervention in the proposed method. • Experiments on BrainWeb and FIRE databases show the effectiveness of the proposed registration method for medical images. In medical imaging application, non-rigid registration is an important step that requires both accuracy and efficiency to align the deformed query image with the reference image. For non-rigid registration, Demons is generally used as an effective algorithm. However, since the computational model of Demons uses only the gradient information, the directional information of the image has not been fully utilized. In this paper, we proposed a novel non-rigid registration method for processing medical images by introducing the image field to the Demons algorithm. As direction information is very important for spatial transformation in registration and the image fields contain the direction of the image, by combing image fields with the traditional model based registration algorithm, we introduce the orientation field directly to the model for estimating the distortion, and thus make a better use of the direction information of images and simplify the deformation model. Different performance measures are used to evaluate the qualitative measures of the proposed scheme. Experiments on brain images and fundus images show the improvement of the proposed algorithm compared to the other existing state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition and classification for wire bonding joint are important to quality assurance in semiconductor device manufacturing. In this paper, a precision recognition and classification system for bonding joint of ultrasonic heavy aluminum wire based on image feature and support vector machine (SVM) is presented. This system consists of feature extraction from images and classification model. In feature extraction, image processing algorithms including Canny edge extraction, histogram equalization, and image morphology closed operation are utilized to extract and locate a joint contour in a complicated background image. In the classification model, the principal component analysis (PCA) is employed to visualize, reconstruct, and reduce the images data dimension for less computation time. The SVM-based model is chosen as the classifier to identify and recognize joint types. The Gauss-radial basis function (RBF) kernel function is adopted in SVM, and its optimal parameters are determined by cross-validation. In the experiment, 588 bonding images are used to implement in this recognition and classification system. The results prove that the classification accuracy for wire bonding joint based on image feature, PCA, and SVM can achieve to 97.3%, and the computation time can be reduced significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mismatch removal is a key step in many computer vision problems that involve point matching. The existing methods for checking geometric consistency mainly focus on similarity or affine transformations. In this paper, we propose a novel mismatch removal method that can cope with the projective transformation between two corresponding point sets. Our approach is based on the augmented homogeneous coordinates matrix constructed from the coordinates of anchor matches, whose degeneracy can indicate the correctness of anchor matches. The set of anchor matches is initially all the matches and is iteratively updated by calculating the difference between the estimated matched points, which can be easily computed in a closed form, and the actually matched points and removing those with large differences. Experimental results on synthetic 2D point matching data sets and real image matching data sets verify that our method achieves the highest $F$ -score among all the methods under similarity, affine, and projective transformations with noises and outliers. Our method can also achieve faster speed than all other iterative methods. Those non-iterative methods with slight advantage in speed are not competitive in accuracy when compared with ours. We also show that the set of anchor matches is stable through the iteration and the computation time grows very slowly with respect to the number of matched points. When applied to mismatch removal in partial-duplicate image search, our method achieves the best retrieval precision, and its computing time is also highly competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A MRF-based inpainting algorithm for maintaining structure coherence is proposed. • Selecting proper offsets for energy function determines the inpainting results. • Appropriate direction structure feature is helpful to improve the inpainting performance and efficiency. Abstract Image inpainting provides a means for restoration of an image with some damaged portions and has been widely applied to many fields. However, many existing inpainting methods still suffer the difficulties of effectively and efficiently maintaining structure coherence. To tackle the problems, this paper proposes a direction structure distribution analysis strategy for Markov Random Field (MRF) -based image inpainting algorithms. In the strategy, the desired direction structures (DDS) are selected and applied to guide the inpainting process. Given a degraded image, four kinds of direction edge information are extracted by super-wavelet transform, canny and dilation operators. Then local direction edge gradient magnitude is applied for direction structure distribution analysis and DDS are selected according to gradient variance. Afterwards, offsets of similar patches are calculated and only a few dominated offsets are chosen as candidate offsets. Finally, graph-cut optimization technology is utilized to solve energy function. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves generally better performance than nine state-of-the-art methods in terms of the abilities of maintaining structure coherence and the computational cost on inpainting different kinds of degraded images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As a new authentication method developed years ago, vein recognition technology features the unique advantage of bioassay.Objective: This paper studies the specific procedure for the extraction of hand back vein characteristics.Methods: There are different positions used in the collecting process, so that a suitable intravenous regional orientation method is put forward, allowing the positioning area to be the same for all hand positions. In addition, to eliminate the pseudo vein area, the valley regional shape extraction operator can be improved and combined with multiple segmentation algorithms. The images should be segmented step by step, making the vein texture to appear clear and accurate. Lastly, the segmented images should be filtered, eroded, and refined. This process helps to filter the most of the pseudo vein information.Results: Finally, a clear vein skeleton diagram is obtained, demonstrating the effectiveness of the algorithm.Conclusion: This paper presents a hand back vein region location method. This makes it possible to rotate and correct the image by working out the inclination degree of contour at the side of hand back. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with other applications in computer vision, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have underperformed on pedestrian detection. A breakthrough was made very recently using sophisticated deep CNN (DCNN) models, with a number of handcrafted features or explicit occlusion handling mechanism. In this paper, we show that by reusing the convolutional feature maps of a DCNN model as image features to train an ensemble of boosted decision models, we are able to achieve the best reported accuracy without using specially designed learning algorithms. We empirically identify and disclose important implementation details. We also show that pixel labeling may be simply combined with a detector to boost the detection performance. By adding complementary handcrafted features such as optical flow, the DCNN-based detector can be further improved. We advance the state-of-the-art results by lowering the log-average miss rate from 11.7% to 8.9% on the Caltech data set and from 11.2% to 8.6% on the Inria data set. We also achieve a comparable result to state-of-the-art approaches on the KITTI data set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image reconstruction from discrete electrical responses pose a number of computational and mathematical challenges. Application of smoothness constrained regularized inversion from limited measurements may fail to detect resistivity anomalies and sharp interfaces separated by hydro stratigraphic units. Under favourable conditions, compressed sensing (CS) can be thought of an alternative to reconstruct the image features by finding sparse solutions to highly underdetermined linear systems. This paper deals with the development of a CS assisted, 3-D resistivity inversion algorithm for use with hydrogeologists and groundwater scientists. CS based l 1 -regularized least square algorithm was applied to solve the resistivity inversion problem. Sparseness in the model update vector is introduced through block oriented discrete cosine transformation, with recovery of the signal achieved through convex optimization. The equivalent quadratic program was solved using primal-dual interior point method. Applicability of the proposed algorithm was demonstrated using synthetic and field examples drawn from hydrogeology. The proposed algorithm has outperformed the conventional (smoothness constrained) least square method in recovering the model parameters with much fewer data, yet preserving the sharp resistivity fronts separated by geologic layers. Resistivity anomalies represented by discrete homogeneous blocks embedded in contrasting geologic layers were better imaged using the proposed algorithm. In comparison to conventional algorithm, CS has resulted in an efficient (an increase in R 2 from 0.62 to 0.78; a decrease in RMSE from 125.14 Ω-m to 72.46 Ω-m), reliable, and fast converging (run time decreased by about 25%) solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a neural network-based method to generate multiple images with different exposures from a single input low dynamic range (LDR) image for improved high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. The proposed algorithm consists of three steps: 1) 2-D histogram estimation; 2) neural network-based LDR images estimation; and 3) generation of an optimal set of differently exposed images. The proposed method first generates image features by estimating a patched-based 2-D histogram. The extracted features are used in an input layer of the neural network, which plays a role to select an optimal set of LDR images. A set of LDR images is generated using a curvature-based contrast enhancement method. Experimental results show that the proposed method can generate an optimal set of LDR images using neural network and provide improved HDR images. In addition, the proposed method can be implemented as a preprocessing step in most existing HDR frameworks. The proposed HDR approach is considered as a single-input method that gives almost the same performance to multiple image-based HDR method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Horizontal auger boring (HAB) is a widely used trenchless technology for the high-accuracy installation of gravity or pressure pipelines on line and grade. Differing from other pipeline installations, HAB requires a more precise and automated guidance system for use in a practical project. This paper proposes an economic and enhanced automated optical guidance system, based on optimization research of light-emitting diode (LED) light target and five automated image processing bore-path deviation algorithms. An LED target was optimized for many qualities, including light color, filter plate color, luminous intensity, and LED layout. The image preprocessing algorithm, feature extraction algorithm, angle measurement algorithm, deflection detection algorithm, and auto-focus algorithm, compiled in MATLAB, are used to automate image processing for deflection computing and judging. After multiple indoor experiments, this guidance system is applied in a project of hot water pipeline installation, with accuracy controlled within 2 mm in 48-m distance, providing accurate line and grade controls and verifying the feasibility and reliability of the guidance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local feature detectors are widely used in many photogrammetry and remote sensing applications. The quantity and distribution of the local features play a critical role in the quality of the image matching process, particularly for multi-sensor high resolution remote sensing image registration. However, conventional local feature detectors cannot extract desirable matched features either in terms of the number of correct matches or the spatial and scale distribution in multi-sensor remote sensing images. To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel method for uniform and robust local feature extraction for remote sensing images, which is based on a novel competency criterion and scale and location distribution constraints. The proposed method, called uniform competency (UC) local feature extraction, can be easily applied to any local feature detector for various kinds of applications. The proposed competency criterion is based on a weighted ranking process using three quality measures, including robustness, spatial saliency and scale parameters, which is performed in a multi-layer gridding schema. For evaluation, five state-of-the-art local feature detector approaches, namely, scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), speeded up robust features (SURF), scale-invariant feature operator (SFOP), maximally stable extremal region (MSER) and hessian-affine, are used. The proposed UC-based feature extraction algorithms were successfully applied to match various synthetic and real satellite image pairs, and the results demonstrate its capability to increase matching performance and to improve the spatial distribution. The code to carry out the UC feature extraction is available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317956777_UC-Feature_Extraction . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moving object detection is about foreground and background separation based on motion detection. Detecting moving objects from similarly colored background (known as camouflage problem) has been a long-standing open question in this field. Discriminative modeling (DM), which focuses on enhancing the performance to distinguish foreground from background with discriminative features and well-designed classifiers, has been widely used for moving object detection. However, DM may tend to fail when encountering the camouflage problem, as the class separability in camouflaged areas is generally poor. In this paper, we propose a new strategy, camouflage modeling (CM), to identify camouflaged foreground pixels. In view of the fact that camouflage involves both foreground and background, we need to model both the background and the foreground, and compare them in a well-designed way in camouflage detection. Specifically, we develop a global model for the background, and an integration of global and local models for the foreground, respectively. Based on both background and foreground models, we introduce a factor to measure the degree of camouflage, and further identify truly camouflaged areas. In view of the fact that a moving object is usually composed of both camouflaged and noncamouflaged areas, CM and DM are fused in a Bayesian framework to perform complete object detection. Experiments are conducted on testing sequences to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The current paper presents a robust image salient region extraction and matching algorithm based on the maximally stable extremal regions in the difference of Gaussian scale space (DoGSS-MSERs) combined with scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm and the maximally stable extremal regions (MSERs) algorithm. First, the difference of Gaussian scale space (DoGSS) is constructed using image scale-space theory. The maximally stable extremal regions are then calculated and the stable component is extracted with blur-invariant and scale-invariant property using the stable method in the DoGSS. Finally, the regions are described with a novel region descriptor, thereby achieving matching. The experiments show that the feature regions extracted in the current paper inherit the good properties of SIFT and MSERs (scale-invariant and affine-invariant) and are more stable and more accurate for matching. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Enhancing mineral image especially making mineral image details clear is very useful for mineral analysis. To effectively enhance mineral image, an algorithm based on the toggle contrast operator and top-hat based contrast operator is proposed in this paper. Sequentially combining the toggle contrast operator and top-hat based contrast operator could be used to identify image features especially the image details. So, appropriately exacting the identified image features by the sequentially combined toggle and top-hat based contrast operator is important for mineral image enhancement, which is analyzed firstly in this paper. After that, the multi-scale extension of feature extraction is given and used to construct the final features for mineral image enhancement. By importing the final extracted image features into the original mineral image through contrast enlargement, the original mineral image is well enhanced and the mineral image details are very clear. Experimental results on different types of mineral images verified the effective performance of the proposed algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A novel descriptor based on MFCS-LBP (Multi-resolution Fusion Center-Symmetric Local Binary Patterns) which introduces the contribution of sample’s neighbors is proposed in this paper. First, the contribution of the sample’s neighbors to the center point is considered and the Contribution Weighting Center-Symmetric Local Binary Pattern (CWCS-LBP) descriptor is constructed. Then, in view of the stability of the feature regions under different resolution, a Multi-resolution Fusion Center-Symmetric Local Binary Pattern(MFCS-LBP) descriptor is presented by combining the CWCS-LBP descriptor and the CS-LBP descriptor based on the multi-resolution fusion strategy. Compared with the similar algorithms，the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can not only greatly reduce the description time but also improve the description performances in the presence of scale change, image rotation, viewpoint change and image blur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional correction approaches are unsuitable for effectively correcting remote sensing images acquired in the seriously oblique condition which has severe distortions and resolution disparity. Considering that the extraction of control points (CPs) and the parameter estimation of the correction model play important roles in correction accuracy, this paper introduces an effective correction method for large angle (LA) images. Firstly, a new CP extraction algorithm is proposed based on multi-view simulation (MVS) to ensure the effective matching of CP pairs between the reference image and the LA image. Then, a new piecewise correction algorithm is advanced with the optimized CPs, where a concept of distribution measurement (DM) is introduced to quantify the CPs distribution. The whole image is partitioned into contiguous subparts which are corrected by different correction formulae to guarantee the accuracy of each subpart. The extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly outperforms conventional approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most important tasks in cytogenetics is chromosome analysis, with which cytogeneticists can diagnose whether there are structural or numerical chromosome aberrations. In this paper, a feasible way to deal with computer-aided pairing of metaphase chromosomes is presented. From pretreating images to pairing chromosomes, feature extraction and pairing methods are described in detail. As an important feature, density profiles are extracted from banding patterns and smoothed by both median and mean filters. In these cases, density profiles are adjusted by the method proposed in this paper. Gradient profiling, a new feature attained by transforming the density profile along with the length and centromeric index, is used in our chromosome pairing procedure. Chromosomes are divided into 23 pairs by comparing their similarity, which is numeralized as the cosine value of gradient profiles. Compared with density profiling, gradient profiling improves matching accuracy by 12.73%. Furthermore, classification accuracy of chromosomes in male and female cells is 91.3% and 100% respectively. Experimental results indicate that the proposed gradient profiling method can serve for chromosomes pairing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we study the problem of feature extraction for pattern classification applications. RELIEF is considered as one of the best-performed algorithms for assessing the quality of features for pattern classification. Its extension, local feature extraction (LFE), was proposed recently and was shown to outperform RELIEF. In this paper, we extend LFE to the nonlinear case, and develop a new algorithm called kernel LFE (KLFE). Compared with other feature extraction algorithms, KLFE enjoys nice properties such as low computational complexity, and high probability of identifying relevant features; this is because KLFE is a nonlinear wrapper feature extraction method and consists of solving a simple convex optimization problem. The experimental results have shown the superiority of KLFE over the existing algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Human hand shape features extraction from image frame sequences is one of the key steps in human hand 2D/3D tracking system and human hand shape recognition system. In order to satisfy the need of human hand tracking in real time, a fast and accurate method for acquirement of edge features from human hand images without consideration of hand over face is put forward in this paper. The proposed approach is composed of two steps, the coarse location phase (CLP) and the refined location phase (RLP) from coarseness to refinement. In the phase of CLP, the hand contour is approximately described by a polygon with concave and convex, an approach to obtaining hand shape polygon using locating points and locating lines is meticulously discussed. Then, a coarse location (CL) algorithm for extraction of interested hand shape features, such as contour, fingertips, roots of fingers, joints and the intersection of knuckle on different fingers, is proposed. In the phase of RLP, a multi-scale approach is introduced into our study to refine the features obtained by the CL algorithm. By means of defining the response strength of different types of features, a refined location (RL) algorithm is proposed. The major contribution of this paper is that the novel detection operators for features of hand images are presented in the above two steps, which have been successfully applied to our 3D hand shape tracking system and 2D hand shape recognition system. A number of comparative studies with real images and online videos demonstrate that the proposed method can extract the three defined human hand image features with high accuracy and high speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Data smoothing and feature enhancement are two important precursors to many higher-level computer vision applications such as image segmentation and scene understanding. Total variation (TV) flow algorithms are a distinct subcategory of diffusion-based filtering techniques that have been widely applied to reduce the level of noise in the image but not at the expense of poor feature preservation. In this paper we address a number of numerical aspects associated with the TV flow and in particular we are interested to redefine the TV flow regularization in order to reduce the effect of oscillations and improve the convergence of the implementations in the discrete domain. TV flow algorithms are implemented using iterative schemes and one difficult problem is the selection of appropriate criteria to identify the optimal number of iterations. In this paper we show that the application of a time-ageing procedure leads to an elegant formulation were the TV flow algorithms converge naturally to the optimal solution. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm (referred in this paper to as time-controlled (TC)-TV flow), a large number of experiments on various types of natural images were conducted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Lines provide important information in images, and line detection is crucial in many applications. However, most of the existing algorithms focus only on the extraction of line positions, ignoring line thickness. This paper presents a novel wide line detector using an isotropic nonlinear filter. Unlike most existing edge and line detectors which use directional derivatives, our proposed wide line detector applies a nonlinear filter to extract a line completely without any derivative. The detector is based on the isotropic responses via circular masks. A general scheme for the analysis of the robustness of the proposed wide line detector is introduced and the dynamic selection of parameters is developed. In addition, this paper investigates the relationship between the size of circular masks and the width of detected lines. A sequence of tests has been conducted on a variety of image samples and our experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Zernike moments which are superior to geometric moments because of their special properties of image reconstruction and immunity to noise, suffer from several discretization errors. These errors lead to poor quality of reconstructed image and wide variations in the numerical values of the moments. The predominant factor, as observed in this paper, is due to the discrete integer implementation of the steps involved in moment calculation. It is shown in this paper that by modifying the algorithms to include discrete float implementation, the quality of the reconstructed image improves significantly and the first-order moment becomes zero. Low-order Zernike moments have been found to be stable under linear transformations while the high-order moments have large variations. The large variations in high-order moments, however, do not greatly affect the quality of the reconstructed image, implying that they should be ignored when numerical values of moments are used as features. The 11 functions based on geometric moments have also been found to be stable under linear transformations and thus these can be used as features. Pixel level analysis of the images has been carried out to strengthen the results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent advances in image classification mostly rely on the use of powerful local features combined with an adapted image representation. Although Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) features learned from ImageNet were shown to be generic and very efficient, they still lack of flexibility to take into account variations in the spatial layout of visual elements. In this paper, we investigate the use of structural representations on top of pretrained CNN features to improve image classification. Images are represented as strings of CNN features. Similarities between such representations are computed using two new edit distance variants adapted to the image classification domain. Our algorithms have been implemented and tested on several challenging datasets, 15Scenes, Caltech101, Pascal VOC 2007 and MIT indoor. The results show that our idea of using structural string representations and distances clearly improves the classification performance over standard approaches based on CNN and SVM with linear kernel, as well as other recognized methods of the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose an efficient general-purpose no-reference (NR) video quality assessment (VQA) framework that is based on 3D shearlet transform and convolutional neural network (CNN). Taking video blocks as input, simple and efficient primary spatiotemporal features are extracted by 3D shearlet transform, which are capable of capturing natural scene statistics properties. Then, CNN and logistic regression are concatenated to exaggerate the discriminative parts of the primary features and predict a perceptual quality score. The resulting algorithm, which we name shearlet- and CNN-based NR VQA (SACONVA), is tested on well-known VQA databases of Laboratory for Image & Video Engineering, Image & Video Processing Laboratory, and CSIQ. The testing results have demonstrated that SACONVA performs well in predicting video quality and is competitive with current state-of-the-art full-reference VQA methods and general-purpose NR-VQA algorithms. Besides, SACONVA is extended to classify different video distortion types in these three databases and achieves excellent classification accuracy. In addition, we also demonstrate that SACONVA can be directly applied in real applications such as blind video denoising. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose an efficient blind image quality assessment (BIQA) algorithm, which is characterized by a new feature fusion scheme and a k -nearest-neighbor (KNN)-based quality prediction model. Our goal is to predict the perceptual quality of an image without any prior information of its reference image and distortion type. Since the reference image is inaccessible in many applications, the BIQA is quite desirable in this context. In our method, a new feature fusion scheme is first introduced by combining an image’s statistical information from multiple domains (i.e., discrete cosine transform, wavelet, and spatial domains) and multiple color channels (i.e., Y, Cb, and Cr). Then, the predicted image quality is generated from a nonparametric model, which is referred to as the label transfer (LT). Based on the assumption that similar images share similar perceptual qualities, we implement the LT with an image retrieval procedure, where a query image’s KNNs are searched for from some annotated images. The weighted average of the KNN labels (e.g., difference mean opinion score or mean opinion score) is used as the predicted quality score. The proposed method is straightforward and computationally appealing. Experimental results on three publicly available databases (i.e., LIVE II, TID2008, and CSIQ) show that the proposed method is highly consistent with human perception and outperforms many representative BIQA metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a novel approach to automatic 3D facial landmarking using 2D Gabor wavelets. Our algorithm considers the face to be a surface and uses map projections to derive 2D features from raw data. Extracted features include texture, relief map, and transformations thereof. We extend an established 2D landmarking method for simultaneous evaluation of these data. The method is validated by performing landmarking experiments on two data sets using 21 landmarks and compared with an active shape model implementation. On average, landmarking error for our method was 1.9 mm, whereas the active shape model resulted in an average landmarking error of 2.3 mm. A second study investigating facial shape heritability in related individuals concludes that automatic landmarking is on par with manual landmarking for some landmarks. Our algorithm can be trained in 30 min to automatically landmark 3D facial data sets of any size, and allows for fast and robust landmarking of 3D faces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for power line identification and extraction from high resolution remote sensing images. Theoretically, it is difficult to detect power lines in satellite images due to some characteristics, such as sub-pixel, weak target, discrete and the complicated background. To our knowledge, the problem of extraction of the power lines from satellite images is faced for the first time. An improved Radon transform, Cluster Radon Transform (CRT), was developed to extract linear feature from satellite image. Compared with conventional Radon transform, CRT can efficiently avoid false alarm. After that, a set of rules of power lines was abstracted to distinguish power lines from other linear feature, such as roads. The experimental results show that CRT not only has strong anti-noise capability to random noise, but also has strong anti-noise capability to system noise caused by non- linear feature. Furthermore, CRT also has the strong capability to detect short segment in an image. Finally, synthetic images and true images were used to verify the new approach. The achievement has potential to be applicable not only to the power line extraction, but also to other weak linear target detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image details provide important image information for image analysis. So, it would be very useful to well enhance image while effectively maintaining image details. To achieve this purpose, a detail maintained image enhancement algorithm based on the extracted image features by using morphological alternating filters is proposed in this paper. First, feature extraction based on two types of alternating filters and the threshold constrained strategy is given and discussed. The extracted image features contain the useful image details, which is very useful for the detail maintained image enhancement. Second, the multi-scale extension of the procedure of feature extraction is proposed to extract the multi-scale image features. Third, the final extracted bright and dark image features are calculated based on the extracted multi-scale features. Finally, the final extracted bright and dark image features are imported into the original images through contrast adjustment, which achieves the detail maintained image enhancement. Experimental results on different types of images verified the effective performance of the proposed algorithm for image enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new video inpainting method which applies to both static or free-moving camera videos. The method can be used for object removal, error concealment, and background reconstruction applications. To limit the computational time, a frame is inpainted by considering a small number of neighboring pictures which are grouped into a group of pictures (GoP). More specifically, to inpaint a frame, the method starts by aligning all the frames of the GoP. This is achieved by a region-based homography computation method which allows us to strengthen the spatial consistency of aligned frames. Then, from the stack of aligned frames, an energy function based on both spatial and temporal coherency terms is globally minimized. This energy function is efficient enough to provide high quality results even when the number of pictures in the GoP is rather small, e.g. 20 neighboring frames. This drastically reduces the algorithm complexity and makes the approach well suited for near real-time video editing applications as well as for loss concealment applications. Experiments with several challenging video sequences show that the proposed method provides visually pleasing results for object removal, error concealment, and background reconstruction context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Detecting the linear features in an image is a key technology for different applications. In this paper, a simple and effective algorithm based on the hit-or-miss transform is proposed. To detect linear features with different directions, multi-structuring elements corresponding to different directions are constructed. To detect linear features with different widths, a multi-scale extension of the constructed multi-structuring elements is used. Then, the grey-level hit-or-miss transform that utilizes the constructed multi-scales of multi-structuring elements could effectively extract all of the possible linear features without thresholding. Therefore, after refining the extracted linear feature regions using three simple steps, the final linear features could be effectively detected. Experimental results on different images from different applications show that the proposed algorithm performs well for detecting linear features with different widths, different grey distributions and noises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved image magnification algorithm for gray and color images is presented in this paper to meet the challenge of preserving high-frequency components of an image, including both image edges and texture structures. In the proposed algorithm, a new edge detection method that uses the well-known Otsu automatic optimum thresholding is proposed to distinguish strong edge pixels. The parameters of the original directional cubic convolution interpolation algorithm, which were selected based on training, were eliminated. As a result, our algorithm achieves more accurate edge detection, better interpolation results, and less computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the improved algorithm can reconstruct the magnified image, preserve edges and textures simultaneously, and reduce common interpolation artifacts. Furthermore, it generates higher visual quality of the magnified images and achieves higher peak signal-to-noise ratio, structural similarity, and feature similarity compared with other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing correct correspondences between two faces with different viewpoints has played an important role in 3D face reconstruction and other computer-vision applications. Usually, face images are considered to lack sufficient distinctive features to establish a large number of correspondences on uncalibrated images. In this paper, we investigate pore-scale facial features, which are formed from pores, fine wrinkles, and hair. These features have many characteristics that make them suitable for matching facial images under different variations. Using both biological observation and computer-vision consideration, a new framework is devised for pore-scale facial-feature extraction and matching. The matching difficulty under various skin appearances of different subjects and imaging distortion is also analyzed. For further improving the matching performance and tackling distortions such as varying illuminations and unfocused blurring, a pore-to-pore correspondences dataset is established for training a more distinctive and compact descriptor. Experiments are conducted on a face database containing 105 subjects, and the results prove that the pore-scale features are highly distinctive; face images with a minimum resolution of 600×700 (0.4 mega) pixels contain sufficient details to perform a reliable matching in different poses. Generally, our algorithm can establish between 500 and 2000 correct correspondences on a pair of uncalibrated face images of the same person. Furthermore, the proposed methods can be applied to face recognition, 3D reconstruction, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel approach for medical x-ray image classification using fuzzification of Contourlet-based Center Symmetric Local Binary Patterns (CCS-LBPs). The proposed classification method consists of three stages. In the first stage, local features are obtained by partitioning each image into 25 overlapping sub-images, computing the 2-level contourlet transform of each subimage and extracting CS-LBPs from each resulting subband. In the second stage, fuzzy logic using reduced CCS-LBPs is employed to determine the degree of membership of subimages to each class. Finally, in order to assign images to their respective classes, we utilize membership values as the input of classifiers such as support vector machine (SVM) and k-nearest neighbor (K-NN). This work makes a major contribution to improve the performance of these classifiers. We conducted experiments on a subset of IRMA dataset to evaluate the effectiveness of our classification scheme. Experimental results reveal that the proposed scheme not only achieves a very good performance but also learns well even with a small number of training images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) images are often severely degraded by amplified mottle noise and streak artifacts. These artifacts are often hard to suppress without introducing tissue blurring effects. In this paper, we propose to process LDCT images using a novel image-domain algorithm called “artifact suppressed dictionary learning (ASDL).” In this ASDL method, orientation and scale information on artifacts is exploited to train artifact atoms, which are then combined with tissue feature atoms to build three discriminative dictionaries. The streak artifacts are cancelled via a discriminative sparse representation operation based on these dictionaries. Then, a general dictionary learning processing is applied to further reduce the noise and residual artifacts. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations on a large set of abdominal and mediastinum CT images are carried out and the results show that the proposed method can be efficiently applied in most current CT systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new image completion method based on high-accuracy semantic matching. Existing image completion approaches mainly focus on simple filling, ignoring creativity and accuracy in semantic matching. Our method can complete missing regions with more creative and semantically matching images as well as create a more seamless and consistent completed image. We use global and local features to search matching images for the target image. We then complete the missing region using Poisson blending and blending optimization. Results of experiments on challenging image databases show that the images are greatly improved. Thus, these results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm over existing image completion approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]