Global Motion Research Articles

An Open-Source Low-Cost Mobile Robot System With an RGB-D Camera and Efficient Real-Time Navigation Algorithm

Currently, mobile robots are developing rapidly and are finding numerous applications in the industry. However, several problems remain related to their practical use, such as the need for expensive hardware and high power consumption levels. In this study, we build a low-cost indoor mobile robot platform that does not include a LiDAR or a GPU. Then, we design an autonomous navigation architecture that guarantees real-time performance on our platform with an RGB-D camera and a low-end off-the-shelf single board computer. The overall system includes SLAM, global path planning, ground segmentation, and motion planning. The proposed ground segmentation approach extracts a traversability map from raw depth images for the safe driving of low-body mobile robots. We apply both rule-based and learning-based navigation policies using the traversability map. Running sensor data processing and other autonomous driving components simultaneously, our navigation policies perform rapidly at a refresh rate of 18 Hz for control command, whereas other systems have slower refresh rates. Our methods show better performances than current state-of-the-art navigation approaches within limited computation resources as shown in 3D simulation tests. In addition, we demonstrate the applicability of our mobile robot system through successful autonomous driving in an indoor environment.

Decision rules for determining terrestrial movement and the consequences for filtering high-resolution global positioning system tracks: a case study using the African lion (Panthera leo).

The combined use of global positioning system (GPS) technology and motion sensors within the discipline of movement ecology has increased over recent years. This is particularly the case for instrumented wildlife, with many studies now opting to record parameters at high (infra-second) sampling frequencies. However, the detail with which GPS loggers can elucidate fine-scale movement depends on the precision and accuracy of fixes, with accuracy being affected by signal reception. We hypothesized that animal behaviour was the main factor affecting fix inaccuracy, with inherent GPS positional noise (jitter) being most apparent during GPS fixes for non-moving locations, thereby producing disproportionate error during rest periods. A movement-verified filtering (MVF) protocol was constructed to compare GPS-derived speed data with dynamic body acceleration, to provide a computationally quick method for identifying genuine travelling movement. This method was tested on 11 free-ranging lions (Panthera leo) fitted with collar-mounted GPS units and tri-axial motion sensors recording at 1 and 40 Hz, respectively. The findings support the hypothesis and show that distance moved estimates were, on average, overestimated by greater than 80% prior to GPS screening. We present the conceptual and mathematical protocols for screening fix inaccuracy within high-resolution GPS datasets and demonstrate the importance that MVF has for avoiding inaccurate and biased estimates of movement.

Supplemental Material for Local Motion Pooling Is Continuous, Global Motion Perception Is Discrete

Supplemental Material for Local Motion Pooling Is Continuous, Global Motion Perception Is Discrete

Video-Based Vibration Measurement for Large Structure: A Spatiotemporal Disturbance-Adaptive Morphological Component Analysis

Recently, phase-based motion estimation method is able to extract the full-field vibration of large structure from video, which has attracted widely attention. However, it suffers from diverse disturbances in the realistic measurement, such as periodic texture pattern from the surface and shake caused by unstable tripod. To address this issue, a spatiotemporal disturbance-adaptive morphological component analysis (DAMCA) is proposed in this paper. This method focuses on separating texture component from structure component in each video frame, and separating shake component from vibration component in the global motion signal extracted from video. Firstly, it constructs a spatiotemporal model to remove the disturbances respectively from the space domain and time domain of the video. Subsequently, it incorporates morphological component analysis (MCA) into this model, aiming to obtain the optimal separation results in the space domain and time domain by finding the sparsest representations of different components. Finally, to adapt to various texture surfaces, MCA is developed in the space domain by exploiting the low rank structure of the texture’s sparse representation. Similarly, to adapt to various shake, MCA is also developed in the time domain. Simulated and actual test demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method. Spatiotemporal DAMCA has valuable potential to acquire video-based vibration measurement for large structure with the disturbances involving texture surface and tripod shake.

AreTomo: An integrated software package for automated marker-free, motion-corrected cryo-electron tomographic alignment and reconstruction

AreTomo, an abbreviation for Alignment and Reconstruction for Electron Tomography, is a GPU accelerated software package that fully automates motion-corrected marker-free tomographic alignment and reconstruction in a single package. By correcting in-plane rotation, translation, and importantly, the local motion resulting from beam-induced motion from tilt to tilt, AreTomo can produce tomograms with sufficient accuracy to be directly used for subtomogram averaging. Another major application is the on-the-fly reconstruction of tomograms in parallel with tilt series collection to provide users with real-time feedback of sample quality allowing users to make any necessary adjustments of collection parameters. Here, the multiple alignment algorithms implemented in AreTomo are described and the local motions measured on a typical tilt series are analyzed. The residual local motion after correction for global motion was found in the range of ± 80 Å, indicating that the accurate correction of local motion is critical for high-resolution cryo-electron tomography (cryoET).

Supplemental Material for The False Aperture Problem: Global Motion Perception Without Integration of Local Motion Signals

Supplemental Material for The False Aperture Problem: Global Motion Perception Without Integration of Local Motion Signals

Radiological Changes in Adjacent and Index Levels after Cervical Disc Arthroplasty.

PurposeThe purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate radiological and clinical outcomes in patients undergoing cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) for cervical degenerative disc disease. The results may assist in surgical decision-making and enable more effective and safer implementation of cervical arthroplasty.Materials and MethodsA total of 125 patients who were treated with CDA between 2006 and 2019 were assessed. Radiological measurements and clinical outcomes included the visual analogue scale (VAS), the Neck Disability Index (NDI), and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) myelopathy score assessment preoperatively and at ≥2 years of follow-up.ResultsThe mean follow-up period was 38 months (range, 25–114 months). Radiographic data demonstrated mobility at both the index and adjacent levels, with no signs of hypermobility at an adjacent level. There was a non-significant loss of cervical global motion and range of motion (ROM) of the functional spinal unit at the operated level, as well as the upper and lower adjacent disc levels, compared to preoperative status. The cervical global and segmental angle significantly increased. Postoperative neck VAS, NDI, and JOA scores showed meaningful improvements after one- and two-level CDA. We experienced a 29.60% incidence of heterotrophic ossification and a 3.20% reoperation rate due to cervical instability, implant subsidence, or osteolysis.ConclusionCDA is an effective surgical technique for optimizing clinical outcomes and radiological results. In particular, the preservation of cervical ROM with an artificial prosthesis at adjacent and index levels and improvement in cervical global alignment could reduce revision rates due to adjacent segment degeneration.

Perception of Dynamic Point Light Facial Expression

Abstract This study uses point light displays both to investigate the roles of global and local motion analyses in the perception of dynamic facial expressions and to measure the information threshold for reliable recognition of emotions. We videotaped the faces of actors wearing black makeup with white dots while they dynamically produced each of 6 basic Darwin/Ekman emotional expressions. The number of point lights was varied to systematically manipulate amount of information available. For all but one of the expressions, discriminability (d′) increased approximately linearly with number of point lights, with most remaining largely discriminable with as few as only 6 point lights. This finding supports reliance on global motion patterns produced by facial muscles. However, discriminability for the happy expression was notably higher and largely unaffected by number of point lights and thus appears to rely on characteristic local motion, probably the unique upward curvature of the mouth. The findings indicate that recognition of facial expression is not a unitary process and that different expressions may be conveyed by different perceptual information, but in general, basic facial emotional expressions typically remain largely discriminable with as few as 6 dynamic point lights.

Emergence of the London Millennium Bridge instability without synchronisation

The pedestrian-induced instability of the London Millennium Bridge is a widely used example of Kuramoto synchronisation. Yet, reviewing observational, experimental, and modelling evidence, we argue that increased coherence of pedestrians’ foot placement is a consequence of, not a cause of the instability. Instead, uncorrelated pedestrians produce positive feedback, through negative damping on average, that can initiate significant lateral bridge vibration over a wide range of natural frequencies. We present a simple general formula that quantifies this effect, and illustrate it through simulation of three mathematical models, including one with strong propensity for synchronisation. Despite subtle effects of gait strategies in determining precise instability thresholds, our results show that average negative damping is always the trigger. More broadly, we describe an alternative to Kuramoto theory for emergence of coherent oscillations in nature; collective contributions from incoherent agents need not cancel, but can provide positive feedback on average, leading to global limit-cycle motion.

Parabolic Detection Algorithm of Tennis Serve Based on Video Image Analysis Technology

At present, the existing algorithm for detecting the parabola of tennis serves neglects the pre-estimation of the global motion information of tennis balls, which leads to great error and low recognition rate. Therefore, a new algorithm for detecting the parabola of tennis service based on video image analysis is proposed. The global motion information is estimated in advance, and the motion feature of the target is extracted. A tennis appearance model is established by sparse representation, and the data of high-resolution tennis flight appearance model are processed by data fusion technology to track the parabolic trajectory. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of the serve mechanics, according to the nonlinear transformation of the parabolic trajectory state vector, the parabolic trajectory starting point is determined, the parabolic trajectory is obtained, and the detection algorithm of the parabolic service is designed. Experimental results show that compared with the other two algorithms, the algorithm designed in this paper can recognize the trajectory of the parabola at different stages, and the detection accuracy of the parabola is higher in the three-dimensional space of the tennis service.

Dorsal and Ventral Stream Function in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder.

Dorsal stream cortical networks underpin a cluster of visuomotor, visuospatial, and visual attention functions. Sensitivity to global coherence of motion and static form is considered a signature of visual cortical processing in the dorsal stream (motion) relative to the ventral stream (form). Poorer sensitivity to global motion compared to global static form has been found across a diverse range of neurodevelopmental disorders, suggesting a “dorsal stream vulnerability.” However, previous studies of global coherence sensitivity in Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have shown conflicting findings. We examined two groups totalling 102 children with DCD (age 5–12 years), using the “Ball in the Grass” psychophysical test to compare sensitivity to global motion and global static form. Motor impairment was measured using the Movement-ABC (M-ABC). Global coherence sensitivity was compared with a typically developing control group (N = 69) in the same age range. Children with DCD showed impaired sensitivity to global motion (p = 0.002), but not global form (p = 0.695), compared to controls. Within the DCD group, motor impairment showed a significant linear relationship with global form sensitivity (p < 0.001). There was also a significant quadratic relationship between motor impairment and global motion sensitivity (p = 0.046), where poorer global motion sensitivity was only apparent with greater motor impairment. We suggest that two distinct visually related components, associated with global form and global motion sensitivity, contribute to DCD differentially over the range of severity of the disorder. Possible neural circuitry underlying these relationships is discussed.

Paradoxical spinopelvic motion: does global balance influence spinopelvic motion in total hip arthroplasty?

BackgroundRecent research has proposed a classification of spinopelvic stiffness according to pelvic spatial orientation for risk stratification in patients who undergo total hip arthroplasty (THA). However, the influence of global alignment was not investigated, and this study evaluated the effect of global balance (sagittal vertical axis [SVA]) on spinopelvic motion.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective review of consecutive primary THA patients. We measured SVA, spinopelvic parameters (pelvic tilt [PT], pelvic incidence, and sacral slope), thoracic kyphosis (TK), lumbar lordosis (LL), proximal femur angle (PFA), and cup version using functional radiographs of patients in the standing and upright sitting positions. Linear regression was performed to identify parameters related to global trunk alignment change (∆SVA). Spinopelvic stiffness was defined as PT position change < 10°, and a subset of patients with PT change < 0° was categorized into a paradoxical spinopelvic motion group.ResultsOne hundred twenty-four patients were analyzed (mean age: 65 years, 61% female). In univariate regression analysis, ∆TK, ∆LL, and ∆PFA were correlated to ∆SVA. In multivariate regression analysis, ΔLL (p < 0.001) and ΔPFA (p < 0.001) were found to be correlated to ΔSVA (ΔSVA = − 11.97 + 0.05ΔTK – 0.23ΔLL – 0.17ΔPFA; adjusted R2 = 0.558). Spinopelvic stiffness was observed in 40 patients (32%), including five (4%) with paradoxical motion (∆PT = − 3° ± 1°, p < 0.001) with characteristics of balanced standing global trunk alignment (standing SVA = − 1.0 ± 5.1 cm), similar stiffness of the lumbosacral spine (∆LL = − 7° ± 5°), higher hip motion (∆PFA = − 78° ± 6°, p = 0.017), and higher anterior trunk shift (∆SVA = 6.2 ± 2.0 cm, p = 0.003) from standing to sitting as compared to the stiffness group. Two of these five patients experienced dislocation events after THA.ConclusionsThe lumbosacral and hip motions were the major contributors to global alignment postural change. Paradoxical motion is a rare but dangerous clinical condition in THA that might be related to a disproportionally large trunk shift in the stiff lumbosacral spine causing excessive hip motion. In paradoxical motion, diminishing functional acetabular clearance during position change might pose the prosthesis at higher risk of impingement and instability than spinopelvic stiffness.

No effect of spatial attention on the processing of a motion ensemble: Evidence from Posner cueing.

The formation of ensemble codes is an efficient means through which the visual system represents vast arrays of information. This has led to the claim that ensemble representations are formed with minimal reliance on attentional resources. However, evidence is mixed regarding the effects of attention on ensemble processing, and researchers do not always make it clear how attention is being manipulated by their paradigm of choice. In this study, we examined the effects of Posner cueing - a well-established method of manipulating spatial attention - on the processing of a global motion stimulus, a naturalistic ensemble that requires the pooling of local motion signals. In Experiment 1, using a centrally presented, predictive attentional cue, we found no effect of spatial attention on global motion performance: Accuracy in invalid trials, where attention was misdirected by the cue, did not differ from accuracy in valid trials, where attention was directed to the location of the motion stimulus. In Experiment 2, we maximized the potential for our paradigm to reveal any attentional effects on global motion processing by using a threshold-based measure of performance; however, despite this change, there was again no evidence of an attentional effect on performance. Together, our results show that the processing of a global motion stimulus is unaffected when spatial attention is misdirected, and speak to the efficiency with which such ensemble stimuli are processed.

Visual Motion and Decision-Making in Dyslexia: Reduced Accumulation of Sensory Evidence and Related Neural Dynamics.

Children with and without dyslexia differ in their behavioral responses to visual information, particularly when required to pool dynamic signals over space and time. Importantly, multiple processes contribute to behavioral responses. Here we investigated which processing stages are affected in children with dyslexia when performing visual motion processing tasks, by combining two methods that are sensitive to the dynamic processes leading to responses. We used a diffusion model which decomposes response time and accuracy into distinct cognitive constructs, and high-density EEG. Fifty children with dyslexia (24 male) and 50 typically developing children (28 male) 6-14 years of age judged the direction of motion as quickly and accurately as possible in two global motion tasks (motion coherence and direction integration), which varied in their requirements for noise exclusion. Following our preregistered analyses, we fitted hierarchical Bayesian diffusion models to the data, blinded to group membership. Unblinding revealed reduced evidence accumulation in children with dyslexia compared with typical children for both tasks. Additionally, we identified a response-locked EEG component which was maximal over centro-parietal electrodes which indicated a neural correlate of reduced drift rate in dyslexia in the motion coherence task, thereby linking brain and behavior. We suggest that children with dyslexia tend to be slower to extract sensory evidence from global motion displays, regardless of whether noise exclusion is required, thus furthering our understanding of atypical perceptual decision-making processes in dyslexia.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Reduced sensitivity to visual information has been reported in dyslexia, with a lively debate about whether these differences causally contribute to reading difficulties. In this large preregistered study with a blind modeling approach, we combine state-of-the art methods in both computational modeling and EEG analysis to pinpoint the stages of processing that are atypical in children with dyslexia in two visual motion tasks that vary in their requirement for noise exclusion. We find reduced evidence accumulation in children with dyslexia across both tasks, and identify a neural marker, allowing us to link brain and behavior. We show that children with dyslexia exhibit general difficulties with extracting sensory evidence from global motion displays, not just in tasks that require noise exclusion.

Multi‐camera video synopsis of a geographic scene based on optimal virtual viewpoint

AbstractVideo synopsis offers the possibility to compress long‐term video objects into a short‐term playback. This is beneficial for the quick retrieval and expression of numerous video objects in a virtual geographic environment. However, existing methods do not consider the spatiotemporal relationships among video objects in different cameras. To overcome this problem, we propose optimal virtual viewpoint‐based multi‐camera video synopsis, which involves: locating the camera position and the field of view; constructing a video image observability model to enumerate the observable camera combinations; constructing an evaluation model to optimally select the observable combinations and obtain the virtual viewpoint group; and setting the parameters of the video object display to obtain a multi‐camera video synopsis of a geographic scene. Experimental results showed that our method achieved the rapid display of global motion across cameras with numerous video objects, and always outperformed separate camera‐based video synopsis expression.

Meniscus Oscillations Driven by Flow Focusing Lead to Bubble Pinch-Off and Entrainment in a Piezoacoustic Inkjet Nozzle

The stability of high-end piezoacoustic drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printing is sometimes compromised by the entrainment of an air bubble inside the ink channel. Here, bubble pinch-off from an oscillating meniscus is studied in an optically transparent DOD printhead as a function of the driving waveform. We show that bubble pinch-off follows from low-amplitude high-frequency meniscus oscillations on top of the global high-amplitude low-frequency meniscus motion that drives droplet formation. In a certain window of control parameters, phase inversion between the low- and high-frequency components leads to the enclosure of an air cavity and bubble pinch-off. Although phenomenologically similar, bubble pinch-off is not a result of capillary-wave interaction such as observed in drop impact on a liquid pool. Instead, we reveal geometrical-flow focusing as the mechanism through which, at first, an outward jet is formed on the retracted concave meniscus. The subsequent high-frequency velocity oscillation acts on the now toroidal-shaped meniscus and it accelerates the toroidal ring outward, resulting in the formation of an air cavity that can pinch off. Through incompressible boundary-integral simulations, we reveal that bubble pinch-off requires an unbalance between the capillary and inertial time scales and that it does not require acoustics. The critical control parameters for pinch-off are the pulse timing and amplitude. To cure the bubble entrainment problem, the threshold for bubble pinch-off can be increased by suppressing the high-frequency driving through appropriate waveform design. The present work therefore aids the improvement of the stability of inkjet printers through a physical understanding of meniscus instabilities.

Clinical Assessment of Visual Motion Perception in Children With Brain Damage: A Comparison With Base Rates and Control Sample

Aim: In this study, we examined (1) the presence of abnormally low scores (below 10th percentile) in various visual motion perception aspects in children with brain damage, while controlling for their cognitive developmental delay; (2) whether the risk is increased in comparison with the observation and expectation in a healthy control group and healthy population.Methods: Performance levels of 46 children with indications of brain damage (Mage = 7y4m, SD = 2y4m) on three visual motion perception aspects (global motion, motion speed, motion-defined form) were evaluated. We used developmental age as entry of a preliminary reference table to classify the patient’s performance levels. Then we compared the percentages of abnormally low scores with percentages expected in the healthy population using estimated base rates and the observed percentages in the control sample (n = 119).Results: When using developmental age as reference level, the percentage of low scores on at least one of the three tasks was significantly higher than expected in the healthy population [19/46, 41% (95%CI: 28–56%), p = 0.03]. In 15/19 (79% [95%CI: 61–97%] patients only one aspect of motion perception was affected. Four patients performed abnormally low on two out of three tasks, which is also higher than expected (4/46, 8.7%, 95%CI: 2.4–20.8% vs. 2.1%; z = 2.61, p < 0.01). The observed percentages in the patient group were also higher than found in the control group.Interpretation: There is some evidence that children with early brain damage have an increased risk of isolated and combined motion perception problems, independent of their performance IQ.

Dynamic Interplay between Reward and Voluntary Attention Determines Stimulus Processing in Visual Cortex.

Reward enhances stimulus processing in the visual cortex, but the mechanisms through which this effect occurs remain unclear. Reward prospect can both increase the deployment of voluntary attention and increase the salience of previously neutral stimuli. In this study, we orthogonally manipulated reward and voluntary attention while human participants performed a global motion detection task. We recorded steady-state visual evoked potentials to simultaneously measure the processing of attended and unattended stimuli linked to different reward probabilities, as they compete for attentional resources. The processing of the high rewarded feature was enhanced independently of voluntary attention, but this gain diminished once rewards were no longer available. Neither the voluntary attention nor the salience account alone can fully explain these results. Instead, we propose how these two accounts can be integrated to allow for the flexible balance between reward-driven increase in salience and voluntary attention.

Key Frame Extraction of Surveillance Video Based on Fractional Fourier Transform

With the vigorous development of national infrastructure construction and public information construction, video surveillance systems have gradually penetrated various fields. The current key frame extraction technology has inadequate target details and inaccurate judgment of local actions. Addressing this problem, a key frame extraction method based on fractional Fourier transform is proposed. This method obtained the phase spectra information of different orders by performing fractional Fourier transform on the surveillance video frames. Next, the method designed an adaptive algorithm based on the golden section point to select the transformation order. Then, the phase spectrum information of two adjacent frames was used to characterize the changes in the global and local motion states of the target. The final step was to extract key frames based on this. Experimental results show that, compared with the previous methods, the key frames extracted by the method proposed in this paper can correctly capture the changes in the global and local motion states of the target.

High phi as a probe of global motion processing

In 2013 Wexler and his colleagues demonstrated a visually remarkable phenomenon they called high phi. When a rotating motion pattern (the inducer) is abruptly replaced by a non-coherent motion, an illusory jump is perceived. The illusory jump is characterized by its large amplitude, its brevity, and its direction which depends on the inducer duration (short inducer durations leading to jumps in the same direction as the inducer, while longer durations leading to jumps in the opposite direction). Here, across a series of experiments, we investigated the potential relationship of this effect with 3D global motion (optic flow) processing. We first established that the high-phi effect works with random dots (smooth textures were used in the original demonstration), and that it works with radial motion, a different form of global motion or optic flow. Next, we investigated the global nature of the phenomenon. In a first series of experiments, we established that the high-phi effect is maintained when only a small part of the stimulus underwent inducing motion (2 opposite sectors out of 16). In a second series, by removing a sector of the inducing stimulus and using a probe to test for a high-phi effect in the empty region we established that the effect occurs in the empty, unstimulated region. These results demonstrated the global nature of the high-phi effect. However, in a final experiment we demonstrated that when inducing motion is spatially distributed, the threshold inducer duration at which the effect switches from a positive to a negative jump shifts to longer durations indicating that the perceived jump direction depends on the motion duration in a locality. These results suggested that the high-phi effect is not due to global motion processing but rather it results from earlier, local effects that lead to global effects.