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Visual Odometry (VO) and SLAM are fundamental components for spatial perception in mobile robots. Despite enormous progress in the field, current VO/SLAM systems are limited by their sensors' capability. Event cameras are novel visual sensors that offer advantages to overcome the limitations of standard cameras, enabling robots to expand their operating range to challenging scenarios, such as high-speed motion and high dynamic range illumination. We propose a novel event-based stereo VO system by combining two ideas: a correspondence-free mapping module that estimates depth by maximizing ray density fusion and a tracking module that estimates camera poses by maximizing edge-map alignment. We evaluate the system comprehensively on five real-world datasets, spanning a variety of camera types (manufacturers and spatial resolutions) and scenarios (driving, flying drone, hand-held, egocentric, etc). The quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate that our method outperforms the state of the art in majority of the test sequences by a margin, e.g., trajectory error reduction of 45% on RPG dataset, 61% on DSEC dataset, and 21% on TUM-VIE dataset. To benefit the community and foster research on event-based perception systems, we release the source code and results: https://github.com/tub-rip/ES-PTAM, Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, https://github.com/tub-rip/ES-PTAM

In this investigation, the distribution of the ratio of two independently distributed xgamma (Sen et al. 2016) random variables X and Y , with different parameters, is proposed and studied. The related distributional properties such as, moments, entropy measures, are investigated. We have also shown a unique characterization of the proposed distribution based on truncated incomplete moments.

Researchers in natural science need reliable methods for quantifying animal behavior. Recently, numerous computer vision methods emerged to automate the process. However, observing wild species at remote locations remains a challenging task due to difficult lighting conditions and constraints on power supply and data storage. Event cameras offer unique advantages for battery-dependent remote monitoring due to their low power consumption and high dynamic range capabilities. We use this novel sensor to quantify a behavior in Chinstrap penguins called ecstatic display. We formulate the problem as a temporal action detection task, determining the start and end times of the behavior. For this purpose, we recorded a colony of breeding penguins in Antarctica for several weeks and labeled event data on 16 nests. The developed method consists of a generator of candidate time intervals (proposals) and a classifier of the actions within them. The experiments show that the event cameras' natural response to motion is effective for continuous behavior monitoring and detection, reaching a mean average precision (mAP) of 58% (which increases to 63% in good weather conditions). The results also demonstrate the robustness against various lighting conditions contained in the challenging dataset. The low-power capabilities of the event camera allow it to record significantly longer than with a conventional camera. This work pioneers the use of event cameras for remote wildlife observation, opening new interdisciplinary opportunities. https://tub-rip.github.io/eventpenguins/, Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 12 tables, Project page: https://tub-rip.github.io/eventpenguins/

We examine the quasi normal modes of Ellis-Bronnikov wormholes embedded in a warped five dimensional braneworld background and compare with it's four dimensional counterpart. These scalar quasi normal frequencies are obtained using the WKB formula, Prony method and the direct integration method. The signature of the warped extra dimension shows up as two distinct quasi normal ringing era, characterised by two distinct dominant quasi normal modes. Features of the latter region are similar to that observed earlier for massive scalar field in black hole background. We also discuss the how steepness of the neck of the wormhole effects the quasi normal frequencies., Comment: One figure added, references updated, discussion improved, accepted for publication in PRD

Event cameras are bio-inspired sensors that mimic the human retina by responding to brightness changes in the scene. They generate asynchronous spike-based outputs at microsecond resolution, providing advantages over traditional cameras like high dynamic range, low motion blur and power efficiency. Most event-based stereo methods attempt to exploit the high temporal resolution of the camera and the simultaneity of events across cameras to establish matches and estimate depth. By contrast, this work investigates how to estimate depth from stereo event cameras without explicit data association by fusing back-projected ray densities, and demonstrates its effectiveness on head-mounted camera data, which is recorded in an egocentric fashion. Code and video are available at https://github.com/tub-rip/dvs_mcemvs, Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, project page: https://github.com/tub-rip/dvs_mcemvs

Event cameras are bio-inspired sensors that offer advantages over traditional cameras. They operate asynchronously, sampling the scene at microsecond resolution and producing a stream of brightness changes. This unconventional output has sparked novel computer vision methods to unlock the camera's potential. Here, the problem of event-based stereo 3D reconstruction for SLAM is considered. Most event-based stereo methods attempt to exploit the high temporal resolution of the camera and the simultaneity of events across cameras to establish matches and estimate depth. By contrast, this work investigates how to estimate depth without explicit data association by fusing Disparity Space Images (DSIs) originated in efficient monocular methods. Fusion theory is developed and applied to design multi-camera 3D reconstruction algorithms that produce state-of-the-art results, as confirmed by comparisons with four baseline methods and tests on a variety of available datasets., Comment: 20 pages, 19 figures, 9 tables

We study the timelike geodesic congruences in the generalized Ellis-Bronnikov spacetime (4D-GEB) and in recently proposed 5D model where a 4D-GEB is embedded in a warped geometry (5D-WGEB) and conduct a comparative study. Analytical expressions of ESR variables (for 4D geometries) are found which reveal the role of the wormhole parameter. In more general 4D and 5D scenarios geodesic equation, geodesic deviation equation and Raychaudhury equations are solved numerically. The evolution of cross-sectional area of the congruences of timelike geodesics (orthogonal to the geodesic flow lines) projected on 2D-surfaces yield an interesting perspective and shows the effects of the wormhole parameter and growing/decaying warp factors. Presence of warping factor triggers rotation or accretion even in the absence of initial congruence rotation. Presence of rotation in the congruence is also found to be playing a crucial role which we discuss in detail., Comment: 19+5 preprint pages, 11 figures; references added, version accepted in EPJ Plus

We study the particle trajectories in the recently proposed five dimensional warped (generalized) Ellis-Bronnikov spacetime (5D-WGEB) (which does not require exotic matter) as well as it's four dimensional counterpart (4D-GEB) in detail and conduct a comparative study. Analytical approach provides conditions which determines three types of trajectories (trapped, returning and crossing) for both 4D and 5D spacetimes. Notably in 5D geometry existence of trapped trajectories become highly sensitive to the initial conditions. We have solved the timelike geodesic equations numerically and presented the trajectories graphically along with corresponding geodesic potentials. We thus distinguished the roles of the so-called wormhole parameter and the warping factor regarding their effects on the trajectories and embedding as such. Interestingly, the 5D-WGEB model shows the localization of massive particles around the location of the brane for growing warp factor and runaway trajectories for decaying warp factor., Comment: 20+5 preprint pages, 11 figures; references added, version accepted in EPJC

Ellis-Bronnikov (EB) wormholes require violation of null energy conditions at the `throat'. This problem was cured by a simple modification of the `shape function', which introduces a new parameter $m\ge 2$ ($m=2$ corresponds to the EB model). This leads to a generalised (GEB) version. In this work, we consider a model where the GEB wormhole geometry is embedded in a five dimensional warped background. We studied the status of all the energy conditions in detail for both EB and GEB embedding. We present our results analytically (wherever possible) and graphically. Remarkably, the presence of decaying warp factor leads to satisfaction of weak energy conditions even for the EB geometry, while the status of all the other energy conditions are improved compared to the four dimensional scenario. Besides inventing a new way to avoid the presence of exotic matter, in order to form a wormhole passage, our work reveals yet another advantage of having a warped extra dimension., Comment: 19+6 preprint pages