Images Of Individual Objects Research Articles

Learning and navigating digitally rendered haptic spatial layouts

Learning spatial layouts and navigating through them rely not simply on sight but rather on multisensory processes, including touch. Digital haptics based on ultrasounds are effective for creating and manipulating mental images of individual objects in sighted and visually impaired participants. Here, we tested if this extends to scenes and navigation within them. Using only tactile stimuli conveyed via ultrasonic feedback on a digital touchscreen (i.e., a digital interactive map), 25 sighted, blindfolded participants first learned the basic layout of an apartment based on digital haptics only and then one of two trajectories through it. While still blindfolded, participants successfully reconstructed the haptically learned 2D spaces and navigated these spaces. Digital haptics were thus an effective means to learn and translate, on the one hand, 2D images into 3D reconstructions of layouts and, on the other hand, navigate actions within real spaces. Digital haptics based on ultrasounds represent an alternative learning tool for complex scenes as well as for successful navigation in previously unfamiliar layouts, which can likely be further applied in the rehabilitation of spatial functions and mitigation of visual impairments.

DISCRETE TEXTILE ORNAMENT: GENESIS, FEATURES OF CONSTRUCTION AND MODERN IMAGINATIVE POSSIBILITIES

The article considers the main properties and features of a discrete textile ornament, which appeared in the process of its improvement over time. Briefly, on separate examples, the methods of obtaining it, the principles of compositional construction are outlined. Special attention is paid to the forms and content of the ornamental motif as a fundamental element of emotional impact on a person. The text of the article notes the methods of quoting discrete ornaments of the past in the environmental culture of the XXI century, gives examples of the use of high technologies in obtaining the motifs of techno-ornament, reveals the peculiarities of the impact of clip thinking on youth textiles. The interrelation of interest in a discrete ornament with an increase in the influence of advertising stereotypes and the ability of young people to react to information both in the form of short texts and in the form of images of individual objects is determined.

Methods and techniques for finding creative solutions

The purpose of the article is to identify and systematize the methods and techniques used by artists, designers, architects and representatives of other creative professions in the process of performing creative tasks. The research methodology is to use analytical. Interdisciplinary and systematic approaches, allowed to analyze and to systematize the literature on the research topic, comprehensively study the factual material, classify and systematize the data. To achieve the goal of the study used methods of observation, comparative analysis, synthesis, systematization, classification, theoretical generalization. Scientific novelty: the results of previous researches devoted to revealing of receptions and methods of the decision of creative problems are generalized. Certain approaches, methods and techniques of creative solutions are systematized by classifying them into three groups: 1. approaches, methods and techniques that are used mainly in the process of finding general design solutions; 2. approaches, methods and techniques that are used mainly in the process of forming and searching for artistic images of individual objects, plots or complexes; 3. approaches, methods and techniques used in the process of finding general design solutions, and in the process of formation and development of artistic images of individual objects, plots or complexes. Conclusions. There are certain types of approaches, methods and techniques that can be used only by certain types of project activities. But most of the identified approaches, methods and techniques of finding creative solutions can be used in architecture, and in various types of design, and in other areas of project activities. In the process of research of such methods and techniques, their systematization was carried out by classifying them into three groups: the first group includes approaches, methods and techniques that can be used mainly in the process of finding common design solutions; the second group includes those that are mainly used in the search for artistic images and the formation of individual objects; to the third group – those that can be used in solving general design issues, and in the process of forming and searching for artistic images of individual objects or their complexes. At the same time, some methods and techniques commonly used to find general design solutions under certain conditions may be involved in the search for individual artistic images, and vice versa, what potentially allowing to lead to completely unexpected solutions. This study covers only a small number of known approaches, methods and techniques, in order to systematize them in principle. Using the proposed classification, it is possible to develop a clear system that would cover most of the available approaches, techniques, methods (ideally – all), which are used in some types of project work, and the general system of all available techniques and methods. Further research will be devoted to the implementation of these tasks, as well as the search and analysis of not yet known to the scientific and practical society approaches, techniques and methods developed in various fields of activity and by individual specialists. Such a clear system should expand the knowledge and skills of designers, make their creative search more conscious and effective, which should ultimately raise the quality of design decisions. Keywords: design, design theory, architecture theory, methods of finding creative solutions, techniques of finding creative solutions, methodology of design.

Extracting associations and meanings of objects depicted in artworks through bi-modal deep networks

We present a novel bi-modal system based on deep networks to address the problem of learning associations and simple meanings of objects depicted in "authored" images, such as ne art paintings and drawings. Our overall system processes both the images and associated texts in order to learn associations between images of individual objects, their identities and the abstract meanings they signify. Unlike past deep net that describe depicted objects and infer predicates, our system identies meaning-bearing objects ("signifiers") and their associations ("signifieds") as well as basic overall meanings for target artworks. Our system had precision of 48% and recall of 78% with an F1 metric of 0.6 on a curated set of Dutch vanitas paintings, a genre celebrated for its concentration on conveying a meaning of great import at the time of their execution. We developed and tested our system on ne art paintings but our general methods can be applied to other authored images.

Development of optical depth-sensing technology with a mechanical control lens and diffuser.

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, depth-sensing technology that enables a shallow depth of field was developed by adding a diffuser to the rear end of a mechanical control lens that can capture 2D images. The sensor in the optical depth-sensing system obtains the function curve between the motor step and the focus distance through calibration and imports the measured values into the control program's database. The optical depth-sensing system scans the visible range of an interval, and the Laplacian equation can be applied to confirm whether the interval was in focus by judging the sharpness of the contour of the objects captured in the interval and to define the outline of the objects. Then, the depth information can be obtained by calculating the focus distance based on the motor step during scanning. Finally, the focus images of individual objects are used to calculate the image contours in the depth direction. The focus images of each object are combined to reconstruct a 2.5D model within the sensing range. The optical depth-sensing system is not affected by sunlight or the material of the measured object. Furthermore, the system can be used to obtain color images by using a modified lens. The optical path is simple and does not require complex calculations. Therefore, the proposed system is not easily affected by the environment and exhibits high resolution and calculation speed.

Robust Multi-Object Detection Based on Data Augmentation with Realistic Image Synthesis for Point-of-Sale Automation

As an alternative to bar-code scanning, we are developing a real-time retail product detector for point-of-sale automation. The major challenge associated with image based object detection arise from occlusion and the presence of other objects in close proximity. For robust product detection under such conditions, it is crucial to train the detector on a rich set of images with varying degrees of occlusion and proximity between the products, which fairly represents a wide range of customer tendencies of placing products together. However, generating a fairly large database of such images traditionally requires a large amount of human effort. On the other hand, acquiring individual object images with their corresponding masks is a relatively easy task. We propose an realistic image synthesis approach which uses individual object images and their corresponding masks to create training images with desired properties (occlusion and congestion among the products). We train our product detector over images thus generated and achieve a consistent performance improvement across different types of test data. With the proposed approach, detector achieves an improvement of 46.2% (from 0.67 to 0.98) and 40% (from 0.60 to 0.84) over precision and recall respectively, compared to using a basic training dataset containing one product per image.

Association between Social Anxiety and Visual Mental Imagery of Neutral Scenes: The Moderating Role of Effortful Control.

According to cognitive theories, verbal processing attenuates emotional processing, whereas visual imagery enhances emotional processing and contributes to the maintenance of social anxiety. Individuals with social anxiety report negative mental images in social situations. However, the general ability of visual mental imagery of neutral scenes in individuals with social anxiety is still unclear. The present study investigated the general ability of non-emotional mental imagery (vividness, preferences for imagery vs. verbal processing, and object or spatial imagery) and the moderating role of effortful control in attenuating social anxiety. The participants (N = 231) completed five questionnaires. The results showed that social anxiety was not necessarily associated with all aspects of mental imagery. As suggested by theories, social anxiety was not associated with a preference for verbal processing. However, social anxiety was positively correlated with the visual imagery scale, especially the object imagery scale, which concerns the ability to construct pictorial images of individual objects. Further, it was negatively correlated with the spatial imagery scale, which concerns the ability to process information about spatial relations between objects. Although object imagery and spatial imagery positively and negatively predicted the degree of social anxiety, respectively, these effects were attenuated when socially anxious individuals had high effortful control. Specifically, in individuals with high effortful control, both object and spatial imagery were not associated with social anxiety. Socially anxious individuals might prefer to construct pictorial images of individual objects in natural scenes through object imagery. However, even in individuals who exhibit these features of mental imagery, effortful control could inhibit the increase in social anxiety.

Drawing Disruptions: Representing Automated Distortions of Multi-Perspectival Form

SIFT descriptors exist within the lineage of flattened architectural representation but pose new disciplinary ambiguities for architecture given their subscription to particular algorithmic subroutines that unflatten images for the purpose of producing a singular image of the environment. A selection of contemporary architectural projects is used to identify different modes of flatness in architectural representation that SIFTs both subscribe to and complicate given the disruptions they induce within the objects they image. Particular attention is given to the algorithmic components within SIFTs that track, agitate, and exploit differences between multiple images of individual objects. A small architectural project is subjected to SIFTs in an effort to experiment with their otherwise hidden aesthetics of disruption.

Ultrasonic Image Registration for Multi-Frequency Analysis

This paper describes ultrasonic image registration for multi-frequency analysis. The goal of our research is the portable and real time brain diagnosis under the thick-skull. The choice of ultrasonic frequency is a trade-off between spatial image resolution and imaging depth. This study shows the usability of data synthesis by employing two different frequency ultrasounds. In the first part of this study, using Fast Fourier Transform, we conclude that the synthesized image was produced from two ultrasonic images of individual objects. The purpose of the second approach of the data synthesis is to investigate three methods of ultrasonic imaging. This approach is particular interest for the design of further study intending to visualize any defects by ultrasonic methods. As the results, the synthesized image with Wavelet transform has higher efficiency than the other synthesized ones for the bone and the sulcus. In summary, this study indicates that the ultrasonic synthesized image is useful to visualize the imitated brain area. This observation is encouraging for further studies of evaluating brain for patients.

Categorical, Yet Graded - Single-Image Activation Profiles of Human Category-Selective Cortical Regions

Human inferior temporal cortex contains category-selective visual regions, including the fusiform face area (FFA) and the parahippocampal place area (PPA). These regions are defined by their greater category-average activation to the preferred category (faces and places, respectively) relative to nonpreferred categories. The approach of investigating category-average activation has left unclear to what extent category selectivity holds for individual object images. Here we investigate single-image activation profiles to address (1) whether each image from the preferred category elicits greater activation than any image outside the preferred category (categorical ranking), (2) whether there are activation differences within and outside the preferred category (gradedness), and (3) whether the activation profile falls off continuously across the category boundary or exhibits a discontinuity at the boundary (category step). We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the activation elicited in the FFA and PPA by each of 96 object images from a wide range of categories, including faces and places, but also humans and animals, and natural and manmade objects. Results suggest that responses in FFA and PPA exhibit almost perfect categorical ranking, are graded within and outside the preferred category, and exhibit a category step. The gradedness within the preferred category was more pronounced in FFA; the category step was more pronounced in PPA. These findings support the idea that these regions have category-specific functions, but are also consistent with a distributed object representation emphasizing categories while still distinguishing individual images.

Development of a Japanese Version of the Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (J-OSIQ)

The Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (OSIQ) is a measure of individual differences in visual imagery preferences. In the present study, we attempted to develop a Japanese version of the OSIQ (J-OSIQ). On the basis of principal components analysis, we obtained two factors in the questionnaire. An object imagery scale (15 items) assesses preferences for representing colorful, pictorial, high-resolution images of individual objects or scenes. A spatial imagery scale (15 items) assesses preferences for representing schematic images of objects and spatial locations of objects. The reliabilities of these factors were similar to those of the original version. Additionally, we showed that the object imagery scale was selectively correlated with object imagery measures, whereas the spatial imagery scale was selectively correlated with spatial imagery tests. These results demonstrate that the J-OSIQ is useful for measuring preferences for object and spatial imagery in Japanese.

Object and spatial imagery: distinctions between members of different professions

In the current research, we took a new approach to examining individual differences in mental imagery that relied on a key distinction regarding visual imagery, namely the distinction between object and spatial imagery, and further examined the ecological validity of this distinction. Object imagers consistently prefer to construct colorful, pictorial, high-resolution images of individual objects and scenes, and spatial imagers prefer to use imagery to schematically represent spatial relations among objects and can efficiently perform complex spatial transformations. To examine the ecological validity of the object versus spatial imager distinction, we examined the object and spatial imagery preferences and skills of groups of professionals.

Massive Protoplanetary Disks in the Trapezium Region

We determine the disk mass distribution around 336 stars in the young (~1 Myr) Orion Nebula cluster by imaging a 25 × 25 region in 3 mm continuum emission with the Owens Valley Millimeter Array. For this sample of 336 stars, we observe 3 mm emission above the 3 σ noise level toward 10 sources, six of which have also been detected optically in silhouette against the bright nebular background. In addition, we detect 20 objects in 3 mm continuum emission that do not correspond to known near-IR cluster members. Comparisons of our measured fluxes with longer wavelength observations enable rough separation of dust emission from thermal free-free emission, and we find substantial dust emission toward most objects. For the sample of 10 objects detected at both 3 mm and near-IR wavelengths, eight exhibit substantial dust emission. Excluding the two high-mass stars (θ1 Ori A and the BN object) and assuming a gas-to-dust ratio of 100, we estimate circumstellar masses ranging from 0.13 to 0.39 M☉. For the cluster members not detected at 3 mm, images of individual objects are stacked to constrain the mean 3 mm flux of the ensemble. The average flux is detected at the 3 σ confidence level and implies an average disk mass of 0.005 M☉, comparable to the minimum-mass solar nebula. The percentage of stars in Orion surrounded by disks more massive than ~0.1 M☉ is consistent with the disk mass distribution in Taurus, and we argue that massive disks in Orion do not appear to be truncated through close encounters with high-mass stars. Comparison of the average disk mass and number of massive dusty structures in Orion with similar surveys of the NGC 2024 and IC 348 clusters is used to constrain the evolutionary timescales of massive circumstellar disks in clustered environments.

Peripheral electrosensory imaging by weakly electric fish

Different species have developed different solutions to the problem of constructing a representation of the environment from sensory images projected onto sensory surfaces. Comprehension of how these images are formed is an essential first step in understanding the representation of external reality by a given sensory system. Modeling of the electrical sensory images of objects began with the discovery of electroreception and continues to provide general insights into the mechanisms of imaging. Progress in electric image research has made it possible to establish the physical basis of electric imaging, as well as methods to accurately predict the electric images of objects alone and as a part of a natural electric scene. In this review, we show the following. (1) The internal low resistance of the fish's body shapes the image in two different ways: by funneling the current generated by the electric organ to the sensory surface, it increases the fields rostrally, thus enhancing the perturbation produced by nearby objects; and by increasing the projected image. (2) The electric fish's self-generated currents are modified by capacitive objects in a distinctive manner. These modulations can be detected by different receptor types, yielding the possibility of "electric color." (3) The effects of different objects in a scene interact with each other, generating an image that is different from the simple addition of the images of individual objects, thus causing strong contextual effects.

Object-spatial imagery: a new self-report imagery questionnaire

SUMMARY A new instrument, the Object-Spatial Imagery Questionnaire (OSIQ), was designed to assess individual differences in visual imagery preferences and experiences. The OSIQ consists of two scales: an object imagery scale that assesses preferences for representing and processing colourful, pictorial, and high-resolution images of individual objects and a spatial imagery scale that assesses preferences for representing and processing schematic images, spatial relations amongst objects, and spatial transformations. Across a series of studies, the object imagery scale was significantly correlated with the performance on object imagery tasks; the spatial imagery scale was significantly correlated with the performance on spatial imagery tasks; but neither correlated with measures of intelligence. Additionally, compared to visual artists and humanities professionals, scientists reported higher spatial imagery ratings; however, compared to scientists and humanities professionals, visual artists reported higher object imagery ratings. Thus, the results from the studies supported the predictive, discriminant, and ecological validity of the OSIQ. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An image model based on occluding object images and maximum entropy

This paper introduces a statistical image model based on occlusion and maximum entropy. The statistical model combines a fundamental property of image formation, occlusion, with both object-image shape and nonuniform object-image intensity. The model is a composition of individual object-images that have random positions, shapes, and intensities, and that occlude both background and one another. We derive the autocorrelation and second-order probability density functions of this model and give several examples.

Multiple image integration: a new method in electron microscopy.

An optical 'flicker' method is described for the precise azimuthal and translational co-registration of many noisy but identical molecular images. Starting with a real micrograph of known biological objects showing no visible detail below 4 nm, a lattice of images of individual objects was synthesized by computer and translationally filtered, using real experimental data throughout. Detail was recovered conforming with known structural features of the object down to about 1.5 nm, and rotational analysis showed that the registration accuracy of the lattice elements was better than 0.5 nm on the object. Application to the straightening of real two-dimensional lattices with long-range distortion is discussed.