GIF Images Research Articles

OBSERVATION OF AN OCCULTATION OF THE UCAC4 488-082551 STAR BY ASTEROID (76228) 2000 EH 75 ON 31 MAY 2022

Observations of an occultation of the UCAC4 488-082551 star by asteroid (76228) 2000 EH 75 were carried out on 31 May 2022 at Kryzhanivka observation station of Odesa I. I. Mechnykov National University (the observatory code A85). A set of instruments, which included a Schmidt telescope (the primary mirror diameter D = 271.25 mm; the corrector plate diameter D k = 223.9 mm; the focal length F = 440 mm), a GPS receiver and Videoscan-415-2001 CCD camera, was used to perform observations. The observing conditions were as follows: clear sky, the star’s altitude 49 0 south, the Moon was below the local horizon. The target star from the UCAC4 catalogue (Zacharias et al. 2013) has the following photometric parameters: m B = 14.008; m V = 12.720; m r = 12.284; m i = 11.813. The diameter of the star has not been determined. Asteroid (76228) is a Main Belt asteroid with an orbital period of 4.17178 years. It has an absolute magnitude of 14.93, the visible geometric albedo of 0.123±0.013 and diameter of 5.00±0.23 km (Masiero et al. 2011). The time of occultation predicted using ephemerides was 23:52:44±4 sec. The maximum duration of the occultation was 0.4 sec, provided that the observing site was located at the centre of the occultation track (strip). A drop in the star’s brightness observed during occultation was about 8 m . The occultation event was recorded as a sequence of GIF images with the exposure time of 0.5 sec per frame. The system clock of the computer used for the occultation recording was controlled with a GPS receiver in a fashion similar to that described in the paper by Karbovsky et al. (2017). The data processing yielded an estimate of the occultation duration of 0.46±0.04 sec. The uncertainty of the occultation start time within exposure results in the total estimate of accuracy in timing the maximum phase of occultation 23:52:44.06±0.10 sec. The chord length across the asteroid estimated by timing the occultation is L = 9.2±0.8. This chord length is close to the estimates of the asteroid diameter reported in the paper by Masiero et al. (2011).

From oppressiveness to stress: A development of Stress Reduction Theory in the context of contemporary high-density city

Due to intense urbanization in the last decade, high-density city has become a major type of human habitat globally. In those cities, oppressiveness has been recognized as a dominating environmental perception. Stress Reduction Theory is a leading theory that explains the relationship between environmental exposure and mental stress. However, the theory missed that perceived oppressiveness may substantially explain impacts of environmental exposure on mental stress in the context of high-density city. This study aimed to address that significant theoretical deficiency. A new pathways model was proposed to investigate whether and to what extent environmental exposure impacts mental stress through perceived oppressiveness.To test this pathways model, we conducted an online photo-based experiment with Hong Kong city residents. Firstly, we used a grid method to randomly choose 90 street spots in the city area. We created one GIF image by integrating nine Google Street photos to cover the full 360° viewshed for each spot. The percentage of all streetscape elements for each GIF image was measured. Then, 1396 participants were randomly assigned to view three of 90 GIF images. After viewing each image, participants reported perceived oppressiveness, perceived environmental quality, and acute mental stress responses. Lastly, participants reported their socioeconomic, demographic, and other background information.We identified three pathways linking streetscapes to mental stress response. After controlling for covariates, perceived oppressiveness was the major mediator to link streetscapes and mental stress, explaining 50.2% of relationship. Tree canopy and sky had the greatest association with lower level of stress through perceived oppressiveness, while vehicles and billboards had the greatest association with higher level of stress through perceived oppressiveness.This new pathways model confirms the major role of perceived oppressiveness in interpreting the impact of urban streetscapes on mental stress in the high-density cities. The results suggest an update of Stress Reduction Theory is feasible and necessary.

SlimMe, a Chatbot With Artificial Empathy for Personal Weight Management: System Design and Finding.

As the obesity rate continues to increase persistently, there is an urgent need to develop an effective weight loss management strategy. Nowadays, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive technologies coupled with the rapid spread of messaging platforms and mobile technology with easier access to internet technology offers professional dietitians an opportunity to provide extensive monitoring support to their clients through a chatbot with artificial empathy. This study aimed to design a chatbot with artificial empathic motivational support for weight loss called “SlimMe” and investigate how people react to a diet bot. The SlimMe infrastructure was built using Dialogflow as the natural language processing (NLP) platform and LINE mobile messenger as the messaging platform. We proposed a text-based emotion analysis to simulate artificial empathy responses to recognize the user's emotion. A preliminary evaluation was performed to investigate the early-stage user experience after a 7-day simulation trial. The result revealed that having an artificially empathic diet bot for weight loss management is a fun and exciting experience. The use of emoticons, stickers, and GIF images makes the chatbot response more interactive. Moreover, the motivational support and persuasive messaging features enable the bot to express more empathic and engaging responses to the user. In total, there were 1,007 bot responses from 892 user input messages. Of these, 67.38% (601/1,007) of the chatbot-generated responses were accurate to a relevant user request, 21.19% (189/1,007) inaccurate responses to a relevant request, and 10.31% (92/1,007) accurate responses to an irrelevant request. Only 1.12% (10/1,007) of the chatbot does not answer. We present the design of an artificially empathic diet bot as a friendly assistant to help users estimate their calorie intake and calories burned in a more interactive and engaging way. To our knowledge, this is the first chatbot designed with artificial empathy features, and it looks very promising in promoting long-term weight management. More user interactions and further data training and validation enhancement will improve the bot's in-built knowledge base and emotional intelligence base.

Steganographic Methods for Embedding and Detecting Hidden Messages Using GIF Images as Container Files

Over the past few decades, the development of new methods of storing, transferring, analyzing, and reproducing data has become increasingly important, considering the widespread development of information technologies and multimedia means. These methods also include means of ensuring the reliability, security, safety, and confidentiality of information when it is transmitted through various communication channels. Today, the fulfillment of the necessary data confidentiality requirements is developing in the direction of cryptography and steganography.
 The article discusses a method of ensuring data confidentiality by means of Digital Steganography, using GIF images as container files. The features of this method are considered, the main steps of the algorithm are described, and the resulting file is analyzed. The second part of the article studies a method that estimates the probability of hiding information in the blocks of a container file. This method utilizes Pearson’s goodness-of-fit test. A number of test tests of the algorithm have been carried out to check the efficiency of this method. As a result, a computer program has been created using the Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 Community programming environment and the C# programming language (.NET Framework).

GIF IMAGE HARDWARE COMPRESSORS

Increasing requirements for data transfer and storage is one of the crucial questions now. There are several ways of high-speed data transmission, but they meet limited requirements applied to their narrowly focused specific target. The data compression approach gives the solution to the problems of high-speed transfer and low-volume data storage. This paper is devoted to the compression of GIF images, using a modified LZW algorithm with a tree-based dictionary. It has led to a decrease in lookup time and an increase in the speed of data compression, and in turn, allows developing the method of constructing a hardware compression accelerator during the future research.

GIFMarking: The robust watermarking for animated GIF based deep learning

Animated GIF has become a key communication tool in contemporary social platforms thanks to highly compatible with affective performance, and it is gradually adopted in commercial applications. Therefore, the copyright protection of the animated GIF requires more attention. Digital watermarking is an effective method to embed invisible data into a digital medium that can identify the creator or authorized users. However, few works have been devoted to robust watermarking for the animated GIF. One of the main challenges is that the animated image also contains time frame dimension information compare with still images. This paper proposes a robust blind watermarking framework based 3D convolutional neural networks for the animated GIF image, which achieves watermark image embedding and extraction for the animated GIF. Also, noise simulation is developed in frame-level to ensure robustness for the attack of the temporal dimension in this framework. Furthermore, the invisibility of the watermarked animated image is optimized by adversarial learning. Experimental results provide the effectiveness of the proposed framework and show advantages over existing works.

Використання GIF-анімації в умовах змішаного навчання англійської мови у ЗВО

Introduction . The need to move to blended or distance learning has caused many challenges for educators recently. They have been searching for new forms and methods of educational work in the context of blended or distance learning, which enable them to keep the attention of students, enhance their motivation to learn a foreign language, brighten up the course of the lesson, avoid monotony, cause student response to the material studied at the emotional level. In this context, such interactive technologies, elements and tools that ensure the actualization of the emotional component of learning in the educational process in general and in the process of learning foreign languages in particular become more and more relevant. The purpose of the paper is to generalize and systematize the ways of using GIF-animation in teaching English in a blended learning environment. The use of GIF-animation in this context is considered as one of the ways to update the emotional component of learning and introduce modern elements of gamification in teaching English. To achieve this goal, the following research methods are used: analysis of scientific and methodological literature, generalization and synthesis. Results . The approaches of scientists to the use of information and computer technologies, mobile applications, and Internet platforms for creating games or game elements in the process of teaching foreign languages are analyzed. The need to involve the emotional component in the process of learning a foreign language in blended or distance format is shown. The ways and methods of using GIF-animation in the context of blended learning of the English language are summarized, systematized and divided into seven groups. These include: the use of GIF-animation during the presentation of educational material; the use of GIF-animation in online communication with students; the use of GIFs as a basis for exercises or tasks with “emotional” vocabulary; using GIF - images as an independent learning object in the lesson; using GIF - animations for writing assignments; creating GIF-animations by students; the use of GIF-books (on a certain lexical or grammatical topic or in a game format as an element of gamification). The content of each group of methods is revealed, examples of ways of their application are given, resources for searching and selecting GIF images are presented, and their functionality is described. Originality . The scientific originality of the research results is based on the fact that the use of GIF-animation has not been considered as a tool of teaching English in the context of in blended or distance learning format yet. Despite GIF-animation is a good example of modern, live English and a common part of youth online communication, it has not received sufficient coverage in methodology of teaching foreign languages. Conclusion . The research has shown that the use of GIF-animation in the process of in teaching English in a blended learning environment can contribute to the possibility to make the process of learning a foreign language more modern, diverse and emotionally coloured. Using GIF - animation is a way to add emotions, modern game elements and humour to classes, and make students use the language they learn.

Enhance the LZW Compression Ratio Through the Use of Image Preprocessing Techniques for Gray Scale Images

Compression ratios of encoding algorithms degrade due to signal distortion, additive noise, and hacker manipulation. Large file size costs too much disk space, difficult to analyze, and high bandwidth to transmit over the internet. In this case, compression is mandatory. LZW is a general dictionary-based lossless compression algorithm. It is fast, simple, and efficient when it includes lots of repetitive data or monochrome images. Images with little data repetition and too much-blurred signal, the compression ratio of the LZW algorithm downgraded. Besides this, the execution time of the LZW compression algorithm increases dramatically. To preprocess and analyze the image information the researcher uses LZW encoding algorithm, bit plane slicing technique, Adaptive Median Filter, and MATLAB image processing toolbox. The MATLAB public grayscale image, salt & pepper, Gaussian locavore blurred, and Bayern pattern image data sets are used. Those images dataset is used to test the normal LZW encoding algorithm and the proposed encoding algorithm compression ratio step by step. The noised dataset, the filtered datasets, and bit plane dataset images are processed and recorded quality and compression ratio parameters. The enhanced encoding algorithm average compression ratio is better by far from the normal LZW encoding algorithm by 160%. Not only has the compression ratio, but demising also improved the algorithms execution time. And the image quality metrics measurement of mean square error, peak signal to noise ratio, and structural similarity index measurement are 0, 99, and 1 respectively. This implies the enhanced encoding algorithm could decompress fully without scarifying image quality. The LZW encoding algorithm developmental environment specifies to select tiff and gif image formats. In addition, the LZW encoding algorithm functions are not available in the MATLAB image processing toolbox. The researcher challenged to write a MATLAB script for each personal function. Still, there is room to extend the compression ratio of the LZW encoding algorithm using the image masking technique.

Steganography in animated emoji using self-reference

Animated emoji is a kind of GIF image, which is widely used in online social networks (OSN) for its efficiency in transmitting vivid and personalized information. Aiming at realizing covert communication in animated emoji, this paper proposes an improved steganography framework in animated emoji. We propose a self-reference algorithm to improve the steganography security. Meanwhile, the relations between adjacent frames of the cover GIF image are considered to further improve the distortion function. After that we embed the secret message into the GIF image using the popular framework of Syndrome Trellis Coding (STC). Experimental results show that the proposed method can provide better security performances than state-of-the-art works.

Obscuration of Chat using Steganography and AES on GIF image format

Obscuration of Chat using Steganography and AES on GIF image format

Enhancement of Capacity, Detectability and Distortion of BMP, GIF and JPEG images with Distributed Steganography

The advance of Big Data and Internet growth has driven the need for more abundant storage to hold and share data. People are sending more messages to one another and paying attention to the aspects of privacy and security as opposed to previous decades. One of the types of files that are widely shared and instantaneous available over the web are images. They can become available as soon as a shot is taken and keep this closely related to the owner; it is not easy. It has been proposed here to use Steganography to embed information of the author, image description, license of usage and any other secrete information related to it. Thinking of this, an analysis of the best file types, considering capacity, detectability, and distortion was necessary to determine the best solution to tackle current algorithm weaknesses. The performance of BMP, GIF, and JPEG initialises the process of addressing current weaknesses of Steganographic algorithms. The main weaknesses are capacity, detectability and distortion to secure copyright images. Distributed Steganography technique also plays a crucial part in this experiment. It enhances all the file formats analysed. It provided better capacity and less detectability and distortion, especially with BMP. BMP has found to be the better image file format. The unique combination of Distributed Steganography and the use of the best file format approach to address the weaknesses of previous algorithms, especially increasing the capacity. It will undoubtedly be beneficial for the day to day user, social media creators and artists looking to protect their work with copyright.

A Comparison of Steganography in the GIF Image using LSB and Spread Spectrum Method

A Comparison of Steganography in the GIF Image using LSB and Spread Spectrum Method

The electronic course «English week 2018-2019» for arranging extra-mural language activities of prospective ship engineers

This article dwells on applying Learning Management System “MOODLE” tools and gamification approach to organising extra-mural language activities within the course “English Week 2018-2019” designed for prospective ship engineers. The suggested e-course intends to arrange individual and group work of ship engineering cadets of Maritime College of Kherson State Maritime Academy. The gamification techniques used by the authors include the following ones: avatars, leader boards, progression loops, elements of e-course design (arrows, gif images), points, badges (electronic images), games. Avatars increase cadets’ attention and play an important role in activating their participation in the e-learning activities. Leader boards help create competitive environment in the suggested e-course. Progression loops visualise learning targets for the course users. Arrows and animated images diversify design elements of the course in order to involve cadets emotionally into the learning process. Cadets can gain different points by completing various tasks. The announcements about the “English Week” games are listed in the e-course “Page” activity. The tasks of the course “English Language for Specific Purposes” are described for every day of the week. The marks obtained for the activities are automatically displayed in the e-journal. Badges represent the electronic images displayed for the best completion of the English language week tasks. They are displayed at the user’s page. Cadets strive to get all possible badges, get in the top five of the leader boards, achieve the highest points because gamification elements are considered as a measure of success in their elearning. Some course participants struggle to get awards simply because of their prestige. It was proved that the designed e-course enhanced learners’ motivation to study English, contributed greatly to attracting students to do language activities of different types, positively affected cadets’ overall learning progress.

An Improved Image Restoration Technique for GIF Images

Image restoration is used to emphasize and sharpen image features for display and analysis. Image restoration is the process of applying these techniques to facilitate the development of a solution to a computer imaging problem. Image restoration is an important issue in high level image processing which deals with recovering of an original and sharp image using a degradation and restoration model. During image acquisition process degradation occurs. Image restoration is used to estimate the original image from the degraded data. Aim of this research work is to provide a concise overview of most useful restoration models. Using the proposed approach the features of the neighboring pixels are calculated and on basis of these features image is restored. In this research work we use canny edge detection technique to find edges and use probability recovery method to find distortion in each pixel. Using thresholding value restore the distorted pixels and filter restored image. In the end performance evaluation of proposed method is performed based on various parameters like MSE, PSNR, contrast, and coefficient of correlation.

A Fragile Watermarking Scheme for Authentication of GIF Images

A Fragile Watermarking Scheme for Authentication of GIF Images

M1 - Cerebroviz: An R Package For Anatomical Visualization of Spatiotemporal Brain Data

Background Spatiotemporal transcriptomic profiling has provided insight to the patterning of gene expression throughout the human brain from early fetal development to adulthood. When combined with the prior knowledge about a disease’s age at onset and region-specificity, these expression profiles have provided the necessary context to both strengthen putative gene-disease associations and infer new associations. While a wealth of spatiotemporal expression data exists, there are currently no tools available to programmatically visualize this data within the anatomical context of the brain, thus limiting the intuitive interpretation of many of these findings. Methods We present cerebroViz, an R package to map spatiotemporal brain data to scalable vector graphic diagrams of the human brain. Our tool allows rapid generation of publication-quality figures that highlight spatiotemporal trends in the input data, all while striking a balance between usability and customization. cerebroViz is generalizable across datasets and currently supports visualization of thirty brain regions found in datasets such as BrainSpan, GTEx, and RoadMap Epigenomics. Results CerebroViz is capable of producing publication-quality SVG diagrams of the human brain. These diagrams may be used in publications, posters, and presentations. Multiple diagrams can be generated in a time series for creating movies or gif images with other tools to loop across time points, thus creating a dynamic visual representation of the expression profile. cerebroViz creates diagrams for a variety of uses. Our tool can also be used to highlight key similarities and differences between expression profiles of any two genes, time points, isoforms, replicates, or any quantifiable brain data at a regional resolution. For example, while common use of cerebroViz pertains to transcriptomic data, it may also be used to visualize methylation or histone modification levels in different brain regions. Discussion Our tool provides programmatic visualization of spatiotemporal brain data. Visualizing this data within the anatomical context of the brain allows enhanced interpretability of spatiotemporal data such as gene expression profiles.

一种基于调色板冗余颜色索引匹配的混合进制信息隐藏算法

本文提出了一种基于GIF图像的信息隐藏算法。该算法先根据各颜色索引在图像数据中的频次，将颜色索引分为有效颜色索引与冗余颜色索引；其次根据调色板颜色索引之间的色差，先对调色板中有效颜色索引分组，得到相似颜色索引子集，再将调色板中的冗余颜色索引以一定的规则分配到各相近颜色索引子集中。隐写时，先对秘密文件进行分组及混合多进制转换，继而采取分组混合多进制的方式嵌入到图像数据中。实验表明，相比现有方法，该算法不但提高了隐写容量，且由于嵌入信息时需要的载体像素点更少，在安全性上反而有了巨大的提升。 This paper presents an information hiding algorithm based on GIF image. Firstly, the algorithm divides the color index into the effective color index and the redundant color index according to the frequency of each color index in the image data. Secondly, on the basis of the color difference between the palette color index, the effective color indexes are divided into several groups to get the similar color index subsets. Finally, the redundant color index in the palette will be assigned to each similar color index subset according to certain rules. When embedding information, the secret file is grouped and converted into M-ary code stream, and then the code stream data is embedded into the image data by the method of grouping and Mixed M-ary. The experimental results show that compared with the existing methods, the proposed algorithm not only improves the steganographic capacity, but also has a great improvement in security because of the fewer carrier pixels needed to embed the information.

Voicing of animated GIF by data hiding

GIF animations are silent image sequences widely used on the web thanks to their wide support and portability. In this work, we propose an original technique based on data hiding, to add sound tracks in GIF animations. Data hiding is usually used to embed security codes in a host medium to prevent from illegal copying or to protect copyrights (watermarking) or to send secret messages to a dedicated receiver (steganography). We propose to use host GIF images as a transmission channel to convey hidden sound bits with lowest perceptual image distortion and without altering the wide portability of the GIF format, by means of data hiding. The inserted bits are neither secret nor intended for security issues. They are intended to be played by an audio player synchronously with the GIF player to add sound to the GIF animation. The embedding process is a low complexity, luminance based steganography algorithm, that slightly modifies the pixels colors of the GIF images to insert the sound bits. The extraction of the inserted audio is completely blind: the audio is directly extracted from the pixels of each cover image. The proposed GIF voicing was tested with different GIF sequences (cartoons and real scenes) and no audio degradation was reported while a slight, most imperceptible, color modification was noticed in case of an important amount of inserted data. The cover images have undergone objective quality criteria and informal subjective evaluation and has proved to be of good quality.

WhatShouldWeCallMe? Self-Branding, Individuality and Belonging in Youthful Femininities on Tumblr

WhatShouldWeCallMe? Self-Branding, Individuality and Belonging in Youthful Femininities on Tumblr

Watermarking algorithm based on ptychographical imaging

We propose a method for watermarking algorithm using ptychographical imaging. The proposed method uses four probes and one fake probe for illumination, orderly. And five weighted double phase-encoded hidden images are added to a host image that is referred to as the transmitted image. Specifically, the amplitude of the transmitted image contains encoded and attenuated watermark image. And the phase of the transmitted image is the host image due to the application of the fake probe. We develop an analytical presentation for the experimental principle using mathematical derivation of the fake probe and ptychographical imaging. We test analytically the distortion of the transmitted image that is due to noise jamming and the effect of the occlusion of the pixels of the transmitted image. Moreover, we discuss the impact of the probe number and probe overlap rate on system robustness, respectively. Results of computer simulations are presented. First, the amplitude and phase of the watermark image are extracted well. Second, the contradiction between watermark imperceptible and watermark extraction quality can be resolved. Third, the simulations illustrate the system ability to extract the watermark image under distortions and the robustness of the transmitted image against removal trials. Furthermore, the robustness of the system is improved, as the number or overlap rate of the probe increases. In the end, the proposed method is applied to GIF images.