To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Ground segmentation.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ground segmentation'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 49 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Ground segmentation.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Vyas, Aseem. "Medical Image Segmentation by Transferring Ground Truth Segmentation." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/32431.
Full textAbstract:
The segmentation of medical images is a difficult task due to the inhomogeneous intensity variations that occurs during digital image acquisition, the complicated shape of the object, and the medical expert’s lack of semantic knowledge. Automated segmentation algorithms work well for some medical images, but no algorithm has been general enough to work for all medical images. In practice, most of the time the segmentation results are corrected by the experts before the actual use.
In this work, we are motivated to determine how to make use of manually segmented data in automatic segmentation. The key idea is to transfer the ground truth segmentation from the database of train images to a given test image. The ground truth segmentation of MR images is done by experts.
The process includes a hierarchical image decomposition approach that performs the shape matching of test images at several levels, starting with the image as a whole (i.e. level 0) and then going through a pyramid decomposition (i.e. level 1, level 2, etc.) with the database of the train images and the given test image. The goal of pyramid decomposition is to find the section of the training image that best matches a section of the test image of a different level. After that, a re-composition approach is taken to place the best matched sections of the training image to the original test image space. Finally, the ground truth segmentation is transferred from the best training images to their corresponding location in the test image.
We have tested our method on a hip joint MR image database and the experiment shows successful results on level 0, level 1 and level 2 re-compositions. Results improve with deeper level decompositions, which supports our hypotheses.
2
Nordlund, Peter. "Figure-ground segmentation using multiple cues." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Tekniska högsk, 1998. http://www.lib.kth.se/abs98/nord0615.pdf.
Full text
3
Todorovic, Sinisa. "Statistical modeling and segmentation of sky/ground images." [Gainesville, Fla.] : University of Florida, 2002. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/UFE0000616.
Full text
4
Rodolpho, Beatriz Leão. "Ground truth determination for segmentation of tomographic volumes using interpolation." Master's thesis, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/10832.
Full textAbstract:
Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em
Engenharia BiomédicaOptical projection tomographic microscopy allows for a 3D analysis of individual cells, making it possible to study its morphology. The 3D imagining technique used in this thesis uses white light excitation to image stained cells, and is referred to as single-cell optical computed tomography (cell CT). Studies have shown that morphological characteristics of the cell and its nucleus are deterministic in cancer diagnoses. For a more complete and accurate analysis of these characteristics, a fully-automated analysis of the single-cell 3D tomographic images can be done. The first step is segmenting the image into the different cell components. To assess how accurate the segmentation is, there is a need to determine ground truth of the automated segmentation. This dissertation intends to expose a method of obtaining ground truth for 3D segmentation of single cells. This was achieved by developing a software in CSharp. The software allows the user to input a visual segmentation of each 2D slice of a 3D volume by using a pen to trace the visually identified boundary of a cell component on a tablet. With this information, the software creates a segmentation of a 3D tomographic image that is a result of human visual segmentation. To increase the speed of this process, interpolation algorithms can be used. Since it is very time consuming to draw on every slice the user can skip slices. Interpolation algorithms are used to interpolate on the skipped slices. Five different interpolation algorithms were written: Linear Interpolation, Gaussian splat, Marching Cubes, Unorganized Points, and Delaunay Triangulation. To evaluate the performance of each interpolation algorithm the following evaluation metrics were used: Jaccard Similarity, Dice Coefficient, Specificity and Sensitivity.After evaluating each interpolation method we concluded that linear interpolation was the most accurate interpolation method, producing the best segmented volume for a faster ground truth determination method.
5
Brown, Ryan Charles. "IRIS: Intelligent Roadway Image Segmentation." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/49105.
Full textAbstract:
The problem of roadway navigation and obstacle avoidance for unmanned ground vehicles has typically needed very expensive sensing to operate properly. To reduce the cost of sensing, it is proposed that an algorithm be developed that uses a single visual camera to image the roadway, determine where the lane of travel is in the image, and segment that lane. The algorithm would need to be as accurate as current lane finding algorithms as well as faster than a standard k- means segmentation across the entire image.
This algorithm, named IRIS, was developed and tested on several sets of roadway images. The algorithm was tested for its accuracy and speed, and was found to be better than 86% accurate across all data sets for an optimal choice of algorithm parameters. IRIS was also found to be faster than a k-means segmentation across the entire image. IRIS was found to be adequate for fulfilling the design goals for the algorithm. IRIS is a feasible system for lane identification and segmentation, but it is not currently a viable system. More work to increase the speed of the algorithm and the accuracy of lane detection and to extend the inherent lane model to more complex road types is needed. IRIS represents a significant step forward in the single camera roadway perception field.Master of Science
6
Claudio, Pedro. "Automated Visual Database Creation for a Ground Vehicle Simulator." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2006. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/2638.
Full textAbstract:
This research focuses on extracting road models from stereo video sequences taken from a moving vehicle. The proposed method combines color histogram based segmentation, active contours (snakes) and morphological processing to extract road boundary coordinates for conversion into Matlab or Multigen OpenFlight compatible polygonal representations. Color segmentation uses an initial truth frame to develop a color probability density function (PDF) of the road versus the terrain. Subsequent frames are segmented using a Maximum Apostiori Probability (MAP) criteria and the resulting templates are used to update the PDFs. Color segmentation worked well where there was minimal shadowing and occlusion by other cars. A snake algorithm was used to find the road edges which were converted to 3D coordinates using stereo disparity and vehicle position information. The resulting 3D road models were accurate to within 1 meter.Ph.D.
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Engineering and Computer Science
Computer Engineering
7
Kumar, Prashant. "Online 3D Reconstruction and Ground Segmentation using Drone based Long Baseline Stereo Vision System." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/98009.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents online 3D reconstruction and ground segmentation using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based stereo vision. For this purpose, a long baseline stereo vision system has been designed and built. Application of this system is to work as part of an air and ground based multi-robot autonomous terrain surveying project at Unmanned Systems Lab (USL), Virginia Tech, to act as a first responder robotic system in disaster situations. Areas covered by this thesis are design of long baseline stereo vision system, study of stereo vision raw output, techniques to filter out outliers from raw stereo vision output, a 3D reconstruction method and a study to improve running time by controlling the density of point clouds. Presented work makes use of filtering methods and implementations in Point Cloud Library (PCL) and feature matching on graphics processing unit (GPU) using OpenCV with CUDA. Besides 3D reconstruction, the challenge in the project was speed and several steps and ideas are presented to achieve it. Presented 3D reconstruction algorithm uses feature matching in 2D images, converts keypoints to 3D using disparity images, estimates rigid body transformation between matched 3D keypoints and fits point clouds. To correct and control orientation and localization errors, it fits re-projected UAV positions on GPS recorded UAV positions using iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm as the correction step. A new but computationally intensive process of use of superpixel clustering and plane fitting to increase resolution of disparity images to sub-pixel resolution is also presented. Results section provides accuracy of 3D reconstruction results. The presented process is able to generate application acceptable semi-dense 3D reconstruction and ground segmentation at 8-12 frames per second (fps). In 3D reconstruction of an area of size 25 x 40 m2, with UAV flight altitude of 23 m, average obstacle localization error and average obstacle size/dimension error is found to be of 17 cm and 3 cm, respectively.MS
8
Brandin, Martin, and Roger Hamrén. "Classification of Ground Objects Using Laser Radar Data." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Electrical Engineering, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-1572.
Full textAbstract:
Accurate 3D models of natural environments are important for many modelling and simulation applications, for both civilian and military purposes. When building 3D models from high resolution data acquired by an airborne laser scanner it is de-sirable to separate and classify the data to be able to process it further. For example, to build a polygon model of a building the samples belonging to the building must be found.
In this thesis we have developed, implemented (in IDL and ENVI), and evaluated algorithms for classification of buildings, vegetation, power lines, posts, and roads. The data is gridded and interpolated and a ground surface is estimated before the classification. For the building classification an object based approach was used unlike most classification algorithms which are pixel based. The building classifica-tion has been tested and compared with two existing classification algorithms.
The developed algorithm classified 99.6 % of the building pixels correctly, while the two other algorithms classified 92.2 % respective 80.5 % of the pixels correctly. The algorithms developed for the other classes were tested with thefollowing result (correctly classified pixels): vegetation, 98.8 %; power lines, 98.2 %; posts, 42.3 %; roads, 96.2 %.
9
Turner, Russell Sean School of Biological Earth & Environmental Science UNSW. "An airborne Lidar canopy segmentation approach for estimating above-ground biomass in coastal eucalypt forests." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science, 2006. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/27362.
Full textAbstract:
There is growing interest in airborne lidar for forest carbon accounting and precision forestry purposes. Airborne lidar systems offer a cost-effective, versatile, operationally flexible and robust sampling tool for forest managers. The objective of this study was to develop and test lidar canopy surface enhancement and segmentation processes for estimating dominant above-ground biomass (DAB) in a harvested eucalypt forest on the Central Coast of New South Wales (Australia). The Crown Infill, Trim and Smooth (CITS) process, incorporating a series of filters, algorithms, and selective multi-stage smoothing, was used to enhance lidar canopy surfaces prior to segmentation. Canopy segmentation was achieved using a vertical crown template approach termed the Spatially and Morphologically Isolated Crest (SMIC) process. SMIC delineates dominant tree crowns by detecting elevated crown crests within a 3D lidar canopy surface. Consolidated crown units constitute the basic sampling, analysis and reporting units for wall-to-wall forest inventory. The performance, sensitivity and limitations of these procedures were evaluated using a combination of simulated forest models and actual lidar forest data. Automated crown polygons were used as a sampling template to extract dominant tree height values which were converted to DAB estimates via height-to-biomass relationships derived from field survey and on-site destructive sampling. Results were compared with field based tree height and biomass estimates. Compared against a manually derived crown map from a 2ha field plot, canopy segmentation results revealed a producer???s accuracy of 76% and overall accuracy of 67%. Results indicated a trend toward greater crown splitting (fragmentation) as trees increase in age, height, stem diameter and crown size. Extracted dominant tree height values were highly correlated with ground survey height estimates (r2 0.95 for precision survey and r2 0.69 for standard survey). There was also no significant difference between SMIC and manual crown height estimates. SMIC units overestimated ground-based DAB by 5%; this increased to 36% with the inclusion of segmentation errors. However, SMIC estimation of total plot above-ground biomass (AGB) was within 9% of the ground-based estimate. Results are encouraging considering the mixed-species, multi-aged composition of the forest, and the combined effects of SMIC segmentation and lidar height errors.
10
Christie, Gordon A. "Collaborative Unmanned Air and Ground Vehicle Perception for Scene Understanding, Planning and GPS-denied Localization." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83807.
Full textAbstract:
Autonomous robot missions in unknown environments are challenging. In many cases, the systems involved are unable to use a priori information about the scene (e.g. road maps). This is especially true in disaster response scenarios, where existing maps are now out of date. Areas without GPS are another concern, especially when the involved systems are tasked with navigating a path planned by a remote base station. Scene understanding via robots' perception data (e.g. images) can greatly assist in overcoming these challenges. This dissertation makes three contributions that help overcome these challenges, where there is a focus on the application of autonomously searching for radiation sources with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) in unknown and unstructured environments. The three main contributions of this dissertation are: (1) An approach to overcome the challenges associated with simultaneously trying to understand 2D and 3D information about the environment. (2) Algorithms and experiments involving scene understanding for real-world autonomous search tasks. The experiments involve a UAV and a UGV searching for potentially hazardous sources of radiation is an unknown environment. (3) An approach to the registration of a UGV in areas without GPS using 2D image data and 3D data, where localization is performed in an overhead map generated from imagery captured in the air.Ph. D.
11
Ghattas, Andrew Emile. "Medical imaging segmentation assessment via Bayesian approaches to fusion, accuracy and variability estimation with application to head and neck cancer." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5759.
Full textAbstract:
With the advancement of technology, medical imaging has become a fast growing area of research. Some imaging questions require little physician analysis, such as diagnosing a broken bone, using a 2-D X-ray image. More complicated questions, using 3-D scans, such as computerized tomography (CT), can be much more difficult to answer. For example, estimating tumor growth to evaluate malignancy; which informs whether intervention is necessary. This requires careful delineation of different structures in the image. For example, what is the tumor versus what is normal tissue; this is referred to as segmentation. Currently, the gold standard of segmentation is for a radiologist to manually trace structure edges in the 3-D image, however, this can be extremely time consuming. Additionally, manual segmentation results can differ drastically between and even within radiologists. A more reproducible, less variable, and more time efficient segmentation approach would drastically improve medical treatment. This potential, as well as the continued increase in computing power, has led to computationally intensive semiautomated segmentation algorithms. Segmentation algorithms' widespread use is limited due to difficulty in validating their performance. Fusion models, such as STAPLE, have been proposed as a way to combine multiple segmentations into a consensus ground truth; this allows for evaluation of both manual and semiautomated segmentation in relation to the consensus ground truth. Once a consensus ground truth is obtained, a multitude of approaches have been proposed for evaluating different aspects of segmentation performance; segmentation accuracy, between- and within -reader variability.
The focus of this dissertation is threefold. First, a simulation based tool is introduced to allow for the validation of fusion models. The simulation properties closely follow a real dataset, in order to ensure that they mimic reality. Second, a statistical hierarchical Bayesian fusion model is proposed, in order to estimate a consensus ground truth within a robust statistical framework. The model is validated using the simulation tool and compared to other fusion models, including STAPLE. Additionally, the model is applied to real datasets and the consensus ground truth estimates are compared across different fusion models. Third, a statistical hierarchical Bayesian performance model is proposed in order to estimate segmentation method specific accuracy, between- and within -reader variability. An extensive simulation study is performed to validate the model’s parameter estimation and coverage properties. Additionally, the model is fit to a real data source and performance estimates are summarized.
12
Pakyurek, Muhammet. "A Comparative Evaluation Of Foreground / Background Segmentation Algorithms." Master's thesis, METU, 2012. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614666/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF FOREGROUND / BACKGROUND SEGMENTATION ALGORITHMS
Pakyurek, Muhammet
M.Sc., Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Gözde Bozdagi Akar September 2012, 77 pages Foreground Background segmentation is a process which separates the stationary objects from the moving objects on the scene. It plays significant role in computer vision applications. In this study, several background foreground segmentation algorithms are analyzed by changing their critical parameters individually to see the sensitivity of the algorithms to some difficulties in background segmentation applications. These difficulties are illumination level, view angles of camera, noise level, and range of the objects. This study is mainly comprised of two parts. In the first part, some well-known algorithms based on pixel difference, probability, and codebook are explained and implemented by providing implementation details. The second part includes the evaluation of the performances of the algorithms which is based on the comparison v between the foreground background regions indicated by the algorithms and ground truth. Therefore, some metrics including precision, recall and f-measures are defined at first. Then, the data set videos having different scenarios are run for each algorithm to compare the performances. Finally, the performances of each algorithm along with optimal values of their parameters are given based on f measure.
13
van, Aardt Jan Andreas Nicholaas. "An Object-Oriented Approach to Forest Volume and Aboveground Biomass Modeling using Small-Footprint Lidar Data for Segmentation, Estimation, and Classification." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/11238.
Full textAbstract:
This study assessed the utility of an object-oriented approach to deciduous and coniferous forest volume and above ground biomass estimation, based solely on small-footprint, multiple return lidar data. The study area is located in Appomattox Buckingham State Forest in the Piedmont physiographic province of Virginia, U.S.A, at 78°41’ W, 37°25’ N. Vegetation is composed of various coniferous, deciduous, and mixed forest stands. The eCognition segmentation algorithm was used to derive objects from a lidar-based canopy height model (CHM). New segment selection criteria, based on between- and within-segment CHM variance, and average field plot size, were developed. Horizontal point samples were used to measure in-field volume and biomass, for 2-class (deciduous-coniferous) and 3-class (deciduous-coniferous-mixed) forest schemes. Per-segment lidar distributional parameters, e.g., mean, range, and percentiles, were extracted from the lidar data and used as input to volume and biomass regression analysis. Discriminant classification was performed using lidar point height and CHM distributions. There was no evident difference between the two-class and three-class approaches, based on similar adjusted R2 values. Two-class forest definition was preferred due to its simplicity. Two-class adjusted R2 and root mean square error (RMSE) values for deciduous volume (0.59; 51.15 m3/ha) and biomass (0.58; 37.41 Mg/ha) were improvements over those found in another plot-based study for the same study area. Although coniferous RMSE values for volume (38.03 m3/ha) and biomass (17.15 Mg/ha) were comparable to published results, adjusted R2 values (0.66 and 0.59) were lower. This was attributed to more variability and a narrower range (6.94 - 350.93 m3/ha) in measured values. Classification accuracy for discriminant classification based on lidar point height distributions (89.2%) was a significant improvement over CHM-based classification (79%). A lack of modeling and classification differences between average segment sizes was attributed to the hierarchical nature of the segmentation algorithm. However, segment-based modeling was distinctly better than modeling based on existing forest stands, with values of 0.42 and 62.36 m3/ha (volume) and 0.46 and 41.18 Mg/ha (biomass) for adjusted R2 and RMSE, respectively. Modeling results and classification accuracies indicated that an object-oriented approach, based solely on lidar data, has potential for full-scale forest inventory applications.Ph. D.
14
Landgård, Jonas. "Segmentering och klassificering av LiDAR-data." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Electrical Engineering, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-5555.
Full textAbstract:
With numerous applications in both military and civilian life, the demand for accurate 3D models of real world environments increases rapidly. Using an airborne laser scanner for the raw data acquisition and robust methods for data processing, the researchers at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) in Linköping hope to fully automate the modeling process.
The work of this thesis has mainly been focused on three areas: ground estimation, image segmentation and classification. Procedures have in each of these areas been developed, leading to a new algorithm for ground estimation, a number of segmentation methods as well as a full comparison of various decision values for an object based classification. The ground estimation algorithm developed has yielded good results compared to the method based on active contours previously elaborated at FOI. The computational effort needed by the new method has been greatly reduced compared to the former, as performance, particularly in urban areas, has been improved. The segmentation methods introduced have shown promising results in separating different types of objects. A new set of decision values and descriptors for the object based classifier has been suggested, which, according to tests, prove to be more efficient than the set p reviously used.
Med många tillämpningar både inom det civila och militära, ökar efterfrågan på noggranna och korrekta omvärldesmodeller snabbt. Forskare på FOI, Totalförsvarets Forskningsinstitut, arbetar med att fullt ut kunna automatisera den process som genererar dessa tredimensionella modeller av verkliga miljöer. En luftburen laserradar används för datainsamlingen och robusta metoder är under ständig utveckling för den efterföljande databehandlingen.
Arbetet som presenteras i denna rapport kan delas in i tre huvudområden: skattning av markyta, segmentering av data samt klassificering. Metoder inom varje område har utvecklats vilket lett fram till en ny algoritm för markestimering, en rad metoder för segmentering samt en noggrann jämförelse av olika beslutsvärden för en objektbaserad klassificering. Markskattningsalgoritmen har visat sig vara effektiv i jämförelse med en metod baserad på aktiva konturer som sedan tidigare utvecklats på FOI. Beräkningsbördan för den nya metoden är endast en bråkdel av den förra, samtidigt som prestandan, särskilt i urbana miljöer, har kunnat förbättras.
De segmenteringsmetoder som introducerats har visat på lovande resultat vad gäller möjligheten att särskilja olika typer av objekt. Slutligen har en ny uppsättning deskriptorer och beslutsvärden till den objektbaserade klassificeraren föreslagits. Den har enligt de tester som presenteras i rapporten visats sig vara mer effektiv än den uppsättning som använts fram till idag.
15
Habermann, Danilo. "Localização topológica e identificação de obstáculos por meio de sensor laser 3D (LIDAR) para aplicação em navegação de veículos autônomos terrestres." Universidade de São Paulo, 2016. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/55/55134/tde-05012017-144708/.
Full textAbstract:
O emprego de veículos terrestres autônomos tem se tornado cada vez mais comum nos últimos anos em aplicações civis e militares. Eles podem ser úteis para as pessoas com necessidades especiais e para reduzir os acidentes de trânsito e o número de baixas em combate. Esta tese aborda o problema da classificação de obstáculos e da localização do veículo em relação a um mapa topológico, sem fazer uso de GPS e de mapas digitais detalhados. Um sensor laser 3D é usado para coletar dados do ambiente. O sistema de classificação de obstáculos extrai as features da nuvem de pontos e usam-nas para alimentar um classificador que separa os dados em quatro classes: veículos, pessoas, construções, troncos de árvores e postes. Durante a extração de features, um método original para transformar uma nuvem 3D em um grid 2D é proposto, o que ajuda a reduzir o tempo de processamento. As interseções de vias de áreas urbanas são detectadas e usadas como landmarks em um mapa topológico. O sistema consegue obter a localização do veículo, utilizando os pontos de referência, e identifica as mudanças de direção do veículo quando este passa pelos cruzamentos. Os experimentos demonstraram que o sistema foi capaz de classificar corretamente os obstáculos e localizar-se sem o uso de sinais de GPS.The employment of autonomous ground vehicles, both in civilian and military applications, has become increasingly common over the past few years. Those vehicles can be helpful for disabled people and also to reduce traffic accidents. In this thesis, approaches to the problem of obstacles classification and the localization of the vehicle in relation to a topologic map are presented. GPS devices and previous digital maps are not employed. A 3D laser sensor is used to collect data from the environment. The obstacle classification system extracts features from point clouds and uses them to feed a classifier which separates data into four classes: vehicle, people, building and light poles/ trees. During the feature extraction, an original method to transform 3D to 2D data is proposed, which helps to reduce the processing time. Crossing roads are detected and used as landmarks in a topological map. The vehicle performs self-localization using the landmarks and identifying direction changes through the crossing roads. Experiments demonstrated that system was able to correctly classify obstacles and to localize itself without using GPS signals.
16
Olsén, Christina. "Towards Automatic Image Analysis for Computerised Mammography." Doctoral thesis, Umeå University, Computing Science, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-1657.
Full textAbstract:
Mammographic screening is an effective way to detect breast cancer. Early detection of breast cancer depends to a high degree on the adequacy of the mammogram from which the diagnosis is made. Today, most of the analysis of the mammogram is performed by radiologists. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems have been proposed as an aid to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the screening procedure by automatically indicating abnormalities in the mammograms. However, in order for a CAD system to be stable and efficient, the input images need to be adequate. Criteria for adequacy include: high resolution, low image noise and high image contrast. Additionally, the breast needs to be adequately positioned and compressed to properly visualise the entire breast and especially the glandular tissue.
This thesis addresses questions regarding the automatic determination of mammogram adequacy with the focus on breast positioning and segmentation evaluation. The goal and, thus, the major technical challenge is to develop algorithms that support fully automatic quality checks. The relevant quality criteria are discussed in Chapter 2. The aim of this discussion is to compile a comprehensive list of necessary criteria that a system for automatic assessment of mammographic adequacy must satisfy. Chapter 3 gives an overview of research performed in computer-aided analysis of mammograms. It also provides basic knowledge about image analysis involved in the research area of computerized mammography in general, and in the papers of this thesis, in particular. In contrast, Chapter 4 describes basic knowledge about segmentation evaluation, which is a highly important component in image analysis. Papers I–IV propose algorithms for measuring the quality of a mammogram according to certain criteria and addresses problems related to them. A method for automatic analysis of the shape of the pectoralis muscle is presented in Paper I. Paper II proposes a fully automatic method for extracting the breast border. A geometric assumption used by radiologists is that the nipple is located at the point on the breast border being furthest away from the pectoralis muscle. This assumption is investigated in Paper III, and a method for automatically restricting the search area is proposed. There has been an increasing need to develop an automated segmentation algorithm for extracting the glandular tissue, where the majority of breast cancer occur. In Paper IV, a novel approach for solving this problem in a robust and accurate way is proposed. Paper V discusses the challenges involved in evaluating the quality of segmentation algorithms based on ground truths provided by an expert panel. A method to relate ground truths provided by several experts to each other in order to establish levels of agreement is proposed. Furthermore, this work is used to develop an algorithm that combines an ensemble of markings into one surrogate ground truth.
17
Radhakrishnan, Aswathnarayan. "A Study on Applying Learning Techniques to Remote Sensing Data." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1586901481703797.
Full text
18
Santos, Gilberto Antônio Marcon dos. "Novas abordagens para segmentação de nuvens de pontos aplicadas à robótica autônoma e reconstrução 3D." Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2016. http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/5953.
Full textAbstract:
Submitted by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-08-18T11:09:56Z
No. of bitstreams: 2
Dissertação - Gilberto Antônio Marcon dos Santos - 2016.pdf: 15378242 bytes, checksum: d10f5df08686b55ad63c406e648a2b8e (MD5)
license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-08-18T11:12:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Gilberto Antônio Marcon dos Santos - 2016.pdf: 15378242 bytes, checksum: d10f5df08686b55ad63c406e648a2b8e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T11:12:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Gilberto Antônio Marcon dos Santos - 2016.pdf: 15378242 bytes, checksum: d10f5df08686b55ad63c406e648a2b8e (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-12
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES
Depth sensing methods yield point clouds that represent neighboring surfaces. Interpreting and extracting information from point clouds is an established field, full of yet unsolved challenges. Classic image processing algorithms are not applicable or must be adapted because the organized structure of 2D images is not available. This work presents three contribution to the field of point cloud processing and segmentation. These contributions are the results of investigations carried out at the Laboratory for Education and Innovation in Automation – LEIA, aiming to advance the knowledges related to applying spacial sensing to autonomous robotics. The first contribution consists of a new algorithm, based on evolutionary methods, for extracting planes from point clouds. Based on the method proposed by Bazargani, Mateus e Loja (2015), this contribution consists of adopting evolutionary strategies in place of genetic algorithms making the process less sensitive to user-defined parameters. The second contribution is a method for segmenting ground and obstacles from point clouds for autonomous navigation, that utilizes the proposed plane extraction algorithm. The use of a quadtree for adaptive area segmentation allows for classifying points with high accuracy efficiently and with a time performance compatible with low cost embedded devices. The third contribution is a variant of the proposed segmentation method that is more noise tolerant and robust by incorporating a neural classifier. The use of a neural classifier in place of simple thresholding makes the process less sensitive to point cloud noise and faults, making it specially interesting for processing point clouds obtained from real time stereo reconstruction methods. A through sensitivity, accuracy, and efficiency analysis is presented for each algorithm. The dihedral angle metric (angle between the detected plane and the reference polygons that share at least one point) proposed by Bazargani, Mateus e Loja (2015) is used to quantify the plane detection method accuracy. The ratio between the correctly classified points and the total number of points is utilized as an accuracy metric for the ground segmentation methods. Additionally, computing costs and execution times are considered and compared to the main state-of-the-art methods.
Métodos de sensoriamento de profundidade produzem nuvens de pontos que representam as superfícies vizinhas. Interpretar e extrair informações de nuvens de pontos é um campo estabelecido e repleto de desafios ainda não superados. Algoritmos de processamento de imagens clássicos não se aplicam ou têm de ser adaptados porque a estrutura organizada que se poderia supor em imagens bidimensionais não se faz presente. Este trabalho apresenta três contribuições ao campo de processamento e segmentação de nuvens de pontos. Tais contribuições são resultados da investigação realizada no Laboratório para Educação e Inovação em Automação – LEIA, com o fim de avançar os conhecimentos relacionados a aplicações de sensoriamento espacial para robótica autônoma. A primeira contribuição consiste de um novo algoritmo para extração de planos de nuvens de pontos, que se baseia em métodos evolutivos. Partindo do método proposto por Bazargani, Mateus e Loja (2015), esta contribuição consiste em utilizar estratégias evolucionárias no lugar de algoritmos genéticos, de forma a tornar o processo menos sensível aos parâmetros definidos pelo usuário. A segunda contribuição é um método para segmentação de piso e obstáculos em nuvens de pontos para navegação autônoma, que utiliza o algoritmo de extração de planos proposto. O uso de uma árvore quaternária para segmentação adaptativa de área permite classificar os pontos com elevada taxa de acerto de forma eficiente e com desempenho compatível com dispositivos embarcados de baixo custo. A terceira contribuição é uma variação do método de segmentação proposto que se faz mais robusta e tolerante a ruído através da agregação de um classificador neural. O uso do classificador neural no lugar da limiarização simples torna o processo menos sensível a ruídos e falhas nas nuvens de pontos, o tornando especialmente interessante para o processamento de nuvens de pontos obtidas por métodos de reconstrução estéreo de tempo real. Uma completa análise de sensibilidade, acurácia e eficiência é apresentada para cada algoritmo. A métrica de ângulo diedral (ângulo entre os planos detectados e os polígonos de referência que compartilham ao menos um ponto em comum) proposta por Bazargani, Mateus e Loja (2015) é utilizada para quantificar a acurácia do método de detecção de planos. A razão entre os pontos corretamente classificados e o número total de pontos é utilizada como métrica de acurácia para os métodos de segmentação de piso. Também são considerados os custos computacionais e o tempo de execução, comparados aos principais métodos estado-da-arte.
19
Wei, Yujie. "Future orientation, chronological age and product attribute preference." unrestricted, 2007. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-05182007-134104/.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007.Title from title page. Kenneth Bernhardt, committee chair; Detmar Straub, Naveen Donthu, Pam Ellen, committee members. Electronic text (176 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 8, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-176).
20
Karlsson, Daniel, and Daniel Darnfors. "Towards a new paradigm in market segmentation : A case study of how corporate identity and image are influenced by market segmentation." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Ekonomihögskolan, ELNU, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-19272.
Full textAbstract:
Abstract The purpose of this report was to study if market segmentation could influence the corporate identity and indirectly the image of a company. The relevance of this purpose was due to a lack of development of the market segmentation theory in a long period of time. There are many authors in this area of research, but not much of a consensus between them. This report therefore delves deeper into one of these market segmentation theories in order to verify the multi-segmentation theory. During the process of investigation the management of four music festivals were interviewed to see how they use their market segmentation. Several interviews were done with one or more individuals of the organizations. The findings are two-folded. The use of multi-segmentation was proven through the interviews with the festivals. All four festivals used several different market segmentation variables, all focusing greater understanding of the values and personalities of their target group. The most interesting finding is that from the greater understanding of their customers, the festivals have been able to identify an identity with their target group. Their respective corporate identities have then been build around their target group identities in order to reflect the customers values and believes. This concept of a target group identity may have great impacts on the customers’ perception of the corporate identity and image.
21
David, Maryrose. "Från villaägare till bostadsrättsinnehavare." Thesis, KTH, Fastigheter och byggande, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-172119.
Full textAbstract:
Den stora efterfrågan på bostäder som idag råder i Stockholm är något många känner till. Ofta talas det om en bostadsbubbla och att kvadratmeterpriset i regionen fortsätter att öka. Trots detta har flyttbenägenheten i Sverige minskat sedan år 2007 medan en större majoritet av länderna i Europa har fått en ökad flyttintensitet i samband med konjunkturuppgången. En välfungerande flyttrörlighet har en bra påverkan på ett lands välfärd och utveckling, i och med det är det angeläget att försöka förstå vad det är som får svenskarna att flytta från deras nuvarande bostad. En genomsnittlig svensk flyttar som mest i åldern 20-35 år, därefter minskar flyttfrekvensen fram till pensionsåldern. Då en stor andel pensionärer bor i villa, är det viktigt att förstå vad det är som får dem att flytta. Genom att öka flyttfrekvensen i villaområden gynnas landet både ur ett ekonomiskt- samt samhällsperspektiv då detta ger upphov till nybildade familjer att flytta in vilket leder till att landet får en bättre flyttrörlighet. Syftet med arbetet är att få en ökad förståelse för hur invånare i Täby resonerar kring flytt. De Täby-bor som varit aktuella för studien är födda före 1970 och skall bo, eller tidigare bott, i villa. Utifrån en enkätundersökning skall studieutföraren komma underfund med vilka preferenser och krav dessa människor har för att flytta från villa till bostadsrätt. Studiens ändamål är att byggbranschen samt statliga aktörer i framiden skall bemötta de behov som villaägare kräver för att känna tillräcklig trygghet till att flytta. Resultat av studiens enkätundersökning pekar mot att stora signifikanta skillnader mellan gruppen villaägare och boende i bostadsrätt råder för faktorn kostnadseffekt. Detta innebär att de kostnader som tillkommer vid flytt är en avgörande faktor för villaägare till flytt. Åsikten om att flyttkostnaderna upplevs som höga avtar kraftigt när villaägarna väl flyttat. En potentiell push-faktor som aktörer på bostadsmarknaden kan utnyttja är att hjälpa villaägarna med flytten. Denna tjänst skulle kunna finansieras genom att ingå i försäljningspriset och därmed skulle flyttbenägenheten hos den önskade kundkretsen främjas.The large demand for residences, which today prevails in Stockholm, is something many people know of. Often there is talk of a housing bubble and the price per square meter in the region continues to increase. Despite this, the migratory propensity in Sweden decreased since 2007, while a large majority of countries in Europe have had an increased tendency for their inhabitants to move and is associated with the economic recovery. A well-functioning moving tendency has a great impact on a country's prosperity and development, and it is urgent to try to understand what it is that gets the Swedes to move from their current homes. An average Swedish moves that most during the age 20-35 years, and then the frequency decreases until retirement. Since a large proportion of pensioners are house owners, it is important to understand what it is that makes them move. An increasing of the frequency of relocation is preferred for the country, both from an economics- and social perspective as this gives opportunities for new families to move. This results that the country gets a better moving tendency. The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of how people in Täby reason about moving. The people living in Täby that have been picked to participate in this study was born before 1970 and lives, or previously lived, in a villa. Based on a survey, the executor of this study will figure out what the house owners’ preferences and requirements are to move from houses to condominium. This study's purpose is for the government and industrials firm in the construction business to meet the house owners’ conditions and needs to make them feel secure enough to move. The result of this study’s survey suggests that there are major significant differences between the group of homeowners and residents of the condominium in the factor moving expenses. This means that the moving costs is a key factor for homeowners to move. The house owners who haven’t moved yet considers the moving costs to be a lot higher than those who moved and now lives in condominium. A potential push factor that can be constructed by the industrial firms in the construction business is helping the homeowners with the move. This service could be financed by being part of the sales price and this would increase the moving tendency in the circle of clients they want to reach out to.
22
Rohé, Marc-Michel. "Représentation réduite de la segmentation et du suivi des images cardiaques pour l’analyse longitudinale de groupe." Thesis, Université Côte d'Azur (ComUE), 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017AZUR4051/document.
Full textAbstract:
Cette thèse présente des méthodes d’imagerie pour l’analyse du mouvement cardiaque afin de permettre des statistiques groupées, un diagnostic automatique et une étude longitudinale. Ceci est réalisé en combinant des méthodes d’apprentissage et de modélisation statistique. En premier lieu, une méthode automatique de segmentation du myocarde est définie. Pour ce faire, nous développons une méthode de recalage très rapide basée sur des réseaux neuronaux convolutifs qui sont entrainés à apprendre le recalage cardiaque inter-sujet. Ensuite, nous intégrons cette méthode de recalage dans une pipeline de segmentation multi-atlas. Ensuite, nous améliorons des méthodes de suivi du mouvement cardiaque afin de définir des représentations à faible dimension. Deux méthodes différentes sont développées, l’une s’appuyant sur des sous-espaces barycentriques construits sur des frames de référence de la séquence et une autre basée sur une représentation d’ordre réduit du mouvement avec des transformations polyaffine. Enfin, nous appliquons la représentation précédemment définie au problème du diagnostic et de l’analyse longitudinale. Nous montrons que ces représentations en- codent des caractéristiques pertinentes permettant le diagnostic des patients atteint d’infarct et de Tétralogie de Fallot ainsi que l’analyse de l’évolution dans le temps du mouvement cardiaque des patients atteints de cardiomyopathies ou d’obésité. Ces trois axes forment un cadre pour l’étude du mouvement cardiaque de bout en bout de l’acquisition des images médicales jusqu’à leur analyse automatique afin d’améliorer la prise de décision clinique grâce à un traitement personnalisé assisté par ordinateurThis thesis presents image-based methods for the analysis of cardiac motion to enable group-wise statistics, automatic diagnosis and longitudinal study. This is achieved by combining advanced medical image processing with machine learning methods and statistical modelling. The first axis of this work is to define an automatic method for the segmentation of the myocardium. We develop a very-fast registration method based on convolutional neural networks that is trained to learn inter-subject heart registration. Then, we embed this registration method into a multi-atlas segmentation pipeline. The second axis of this work is focused on the improvement of cardiac motion tracking methods in order to define relevant low-dimensional representations. Two different methods are developed, one relying on Barycentric Subspaces built on ref- erences frames of the sequence, and another based on a reduced order representation of the motion from polyaffine transformations. Finally, in the last axis, we apply the previously defined representation to the problem of diagnosis and longitudinal analysis. We show that these representations encode relevant features allowing the diagnosis of infarcted patients and Tetralogy of Fallot versus controls and the analysis of the evolution through time of the cardiac motion of patients with either cardiomyopathies or obesity. These three axes form an end to end framework for the study of cardiac motion starting from the acquisition of the medical images to their automatic analysis. Such a framework could be used for diagonis and therapy planning in order to improve the clinical decision making with a more personalised computer-aided medicine
23
Verron, Christophe. "Les formateurs en travail social : une professionnalisation impossible." Thesis, Brest, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013BRES0024/document.
Full textAbstract:
La présente thèse étudie le processus de professionnalisation, pour l’heure inabouti, d’un groupe, les formateurs en travail social, qui n’est pas vraiment parvenu à s’adapter aux mutations de son environnement.Sur la base d’une vaste enquête nationale croisant étude des archives, investigations quantitative et qualitative, nous avons repéré les évolutions du métier, ses atermoiements, les difficultés rencontrées par ces professionnels.Nés dans les années 1920, en parallèle de l’invention du travail social, les formateurs, pour la quasi totalité issus des terrains professionnels, sont devenus rapidement incontournables dans toutes les écoles missionnés pour préparer des hommes et des femmes à exercer, qui le métier d’éducateur, qui celui d’assistantes de service social, etc. Pour autant, l’extension massive et rapide du secteur social a généré l’arrivée, au sein de ces centres de formation, d’acteurs issus d’autres horizons tels que le champ de la formation professionnelle et celui de l’université. Ces nouveaux venus vont interroger les compétences des professionnels déjà dans la place, qui ont construit leur légitimité sur leur expérience, refusant le passage par la qualification et l’obtention d’un titre de formateur. Subissant de plein fouet les logiques de rationalisation managériale et budgétaire, les formateurs ont pu en mesurer les conséquences : évolutions des pratiques professionnelles, dérégulation du cadre d’exercice, identités professionnelles mises à mal. Cependant, l’absence de collectif tangible en capacité de défendre les intérêts de ses membres renforce les stratégies individuelles et les identités liées à son lieu d’emploi. L’étude de ce groupe professionnel en proie même à un processus de déprofessionnalisation s’inscrit dans une dynamique plus globale qui touche les formateurs des métiers de la relation.Le cadre théorique et disciplinaire de cette thèse est principalement celui de la sociologie des groupes professionnels, mais il emprunte aussi à la sociologie des identités et aux sciences de l’éducation et de la formationIn considering the situation of social work trainers, this thesis studies the process by which a group that has not managed to adapt to changes in its environment has become professionalized. On the basis of a wide-ranging national survey using quantitative and qualitative approaches and involving examination of archive material, we have identified the movements to which these professionals have been subjected. Born during the 1920s, at the time when social work was in its infancy, trainers whose experience was acquired in the field became key figures in training colleges. The speed and scale of the social sector's expansion caused an influx of people with professional qualifications or university degrees. These newcomers began to question the competence of those professionals whose claim to legitimacy was founded in their experience and who refused to go through official qualification channels to obtain trainer status. The trainers suffered the full force of the priority accorded to managerial and budgetary rationalization and its consequences: evolution of professional practice, deregulation of their practice framework, disrepute brought to their professional identity. The absence of any substantial representative body capable of defending its members' interests has reinforced individual strategies and identities defined by the place of work.The study of this professional group and the process of deprofessionalization it is undergoing is relevant to a wider movement affecting trainers in relational professions in general. The theoretical and disciplinary framework of this thesis is principally that of the sociology of professional groups, but reference is also made to the sociology of identity as well as to education and training sciences
24
De, Jager Nedia. "The living standards measure as a market segmentation tool for selected retailers / by Nedia de Jager." Thesis, North-West University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/692.
Full textAbstract:
Businesses have realised that they cannot appeal to all consumers in the
marketplace. Consumers are too numerous, geographically wide-spread, and
too varied in their needs and buying practices. Furthermore, the business&
themselves vary widely in their abilities to serve different segments of the
market. Businesses consequently conduct market segmentation to identify the
parts of the market that it can best serve and most profitably. Therefore, the
goal of this study was to determine the actual target markets of selected retailers
by means of the Living Standards Measure (LSM) tool, and to recommend
improved marketing strategies based on the Media Groups Measure (MGM) tool.
The objectives of the study were to describe market segmentation by
emphasising its importance and discussing the market segmentation process.
Further objectives include explaining the application of the LSM- and MGM-tools
in identifying target markets and selecting media to reach these target markets,
and to conduct an empirical investigation on the application of the LSM tool for
the selected retailers.
A market segmentation strategy concentrates the business' marketing efforts on
consumers who have a similar interest in the business' values. Therefore,
market segmentation enables the business to identify consumer needs more
accurately. The aforementioned assists the business in creating a basis for
developing products to satisfy consumer needs. The basis is developed by the
identification of the attributes that are of value to consumers.
Market segmentation furthermore assists in the development of an effective
marketing mix, tailored to the business' strategy and objectives. A proper
marketing mix can determine the promotional appeal, media choices, and the
prices consumers are willing to pay.
The LSM and MGM are only two of the variety of segmentation tools that can be
used to segment a heterogeneous market. The LSM is a relatively new and
unknown instrument - in comparison with other segmentation tools - and was
specifically developed for the South African market. It is furthermore a
multivariate segmentation tool, consisting of 29 household variables, which
excludes discriminators such as race and income. The MGM-tool is used to
obtain media consumption information on market segments. Its primary function
is to assist businesses in selecting media that are most effective in reaching their
target markets.
The most important conclusions of this study are that the current target markets
of Shoprite Checkers and Pick 'n Pay in Potchefstroom differs from their actual
target markets. Gender and age do not differentiate shoppers significantly, and
although race and income are not included as differentiators in the LSM index,
these two variables correlate strongly with the various LSM-groups.
Some of the most important recommendations include:
The headquarters of both retailers should consider developing
differentiated marketing strategies for stores in different locations.
Shoprite Checkers and Pick 'n Pay (in Potchefstroom) should both target
SU-LSM groups 6 to 10.
Both retailers should adapt their marketing efforts in order to provide for
the local market in Potchefstroom.
The recommendations will enable the retailers to enhance their business and
marketing efforts, and accordingly satisfy the needs of their customers.Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.
25
Seiller, Pauline. "La recomposition d’une aristocratie ouvrière : Enquête ethnographique aux chantiers navals de Saint-Nazaire." Thesis, Paris 5, 2012. http://www.theses.fr/2012PA05H033.
Full textAbstract:
A partir d’une enquête ethnographique menée durant cinq ans aux chantiers navals deSaint-Nazaire, cette recherche met en évidence l’hétérogénéité du monde ouvriercontemporain et analyse plus spécifiquement la condition des ouvriers qui constituent laminorité stable sur ce site industriel : les ouvriers Chantiers, recrutés directement parl’entreprise donneuse d’ordres.La thèse présente en premier lieu les qualités qui font de ces ouvriers une aristocratieouvrière au sein d’un monde ouvrier caractérisé par son éclatement. Insérés dansl’emploi stable, dans une entreprise qui leur confère des gratifications matérielles etsymboliques, aux côtés de figures ouvrières plus précaires (intérimaires, ouvriers soustraitants,ouvriers immigrés), les ouvriers Chantiers constituent une fraction ouvrière« stable et honorable ». Ils conservent également certains traits traditionnels du mondeouvrier qui montrent qu’ils ne sont que partiellement affectés par les mutations encours. La thèse étudie ensuite les effets des transformations industrielles sur ces ouvriersstables. Les évolutions du travail ouvrier, les segmentations internes au groupeprofessionnel et les processus de mise en concurrence des salariés participent à larecomposition de cette aristocratie ouvrière. De plus, les modes de gestion de la maind’oeuvre,basés sur le recours massif à la sous-traitance (nationale et étrangère),contribuent à nourrir le sentiment de déstabilisation des ouvriers Chantiers. La présencedes ouvriers sous-traitants est effectivement perçue comme une « menace » et rendtangible le risque de précarisation du « noyau stable »This research shows the heterogenity of the contemporary blue collars group. Based ona five years ethnographic research in the Saint-Nazaire shipbuilding industry, it analysesthe working condition of the most integrated and “steady” workers, directly hired by theshipbuilding. The thesis explains why these workers can be seen as an “aristocratic” partof the working class. They benefit from an industry that gives them higher material andsymbolical gratifications than the other workers (subcontracter workers, immigrantworkers, etc.). They are not totally impacted by the current transformations observed inthe industry. Indeed, they show some traditional features of the working class culture.But the thesis explores the consequences of the transformations in the management. Themassive presence of local and foreign subcontractors’ workers intensifies theuncertainty for the future felt by the most steady workers
26
Harant, Vladimír. "Marketingová strategie pre podnik Ing. Augustín Dobiš AD SPECTRUM." Master's thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta podnikatelská, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-222443.
Full textAbstract:
Diploma theses represents project of marketing a communication strategy of manufacturing company. This work includes situation analysis of present situation including evaluation of weaknesses and streghts of the company, opportunities and threaths and on the basis of this analysis particular marketing and communication strategy, budget and timing has been designed.
27
Tapper, Elin, and Kristina Hansson. "Vad gillar idrottspubliken? : En kvalitativ studie om hur svenska elitidrottsföreningar kan engagera olika delar av idrottspublik på sociala medier." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-28002.
Full textAbstract:
This study aims to give answers to what type of content, published by professional sport organizations on social media, can engage Swedish sport fans. The definition of "engagement" is based on subjective motives and can be expressed in various forms. Thereby the reason to study whether it was possible to group fans who were of similar character, to understand if they were engaged by the same content on social media. We used segmentation as a strategy to group sport fans with the same level of engagement toward sport organizations. The respondents we got were interesting and brought light to a relative new area of research, which was the goal of this study. The research shows that preferred content is similar in every segment group. Research also indicates that there is no correlation between level of engagement and preferred content on social media. The preferred content is most based on individual preferences and characteristics. However, the study reveals that using segmentation as a strategy can be efficient to group sport fans with similar character, to give a sport organization a brief - but useful - insight in what type of content each segment can feel emotional (and physical) engaged by. This can further lead to higher levels of engagement but is left out for future research attempts. This study can be well suited in the development of the Swedish sport industry looking at the current and future impact of the world’s digitalization.Denna studie berör svenska elitidrottsföreningars marknadsföringsarbete på sociala medier. Studien ämnar ge förslag på vad för typ av innehåll som elitidrottsföreningarna kan publicera för att engagera sin idrottspublik och därmed uppnå eller fortsätta vara lönsamma. Ett engagemang är svårt att definiera och kan ta många uttryck. Därav fann vi det intressant att studera huruvida olika delar av en idrottspublik kan känna ett engagemang på skilda sätt, för att således ge en förståelse om innehållet behöver anpassas därefter. För att studera vad för typ av innehåll som genererar ett engagemang på sociala medier valde vi att med hjälp av segmentering dela in respondenter i potentiella målgrupper. Segmenteringen utgjordes av 14 respondenter och empirisk data samlades in via intervjuer. Samtliga målgrupper kom att indikera på lönsamhet och kan sägas engageras av liknande innehåll. Men hur personer föredrar att budskapet framställs - såväl som hur man reagerar på det som engagerar - kan variera beroende på vilka individuella karaktärsdrag personer besitter. Dock kan segmentering vara ett effektivt verktyg för att få fram målgrupper bestående av personer som har liknande karaktärsdrag, för att få riktlinjer i utformandet av innehåll på sociala medier som kan tänkas engagera respektive målgrupp. Denna studie kan användas i den svenska idrottssektorns arbete för att utveckla sitt arbete med sociala medier, då digitaliseringen av vårt samhälle verkar vara här för att stanna.
28
Rundová, Jana. "Analýza marketingové činnosti Rakouské národní turistické centrály "Oesterreich Werbung"." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-75018.
Full textAbstract:
This diploma thesis deals with an analysis of the marketing activities of the company "Österreich Werbung". This company is mainly concerned with marketing communication, whose single elements it uses to promote campaigns of their Austrian partners or its own brand "Holiday in Austria". The analysis is preceded by an analytical and methodological section, which provides important theoretical starting points for the evaluation of the analysis and for recommendations for the future. In the second section the single elements of communication mix with regard to the target group are analysed by means of examples of concrete campaigns in 2010. Due to the analysis carried out, the communication mix of the company is evaluated and recommendations are proposed to optimise the mix.
29
QUINSON, François. "QUITTER LA CLASSE : La mobilité professionnelle en cours de carrière des enseignants du premier degré, épreuve cruciale individuelle et analyseur du groupe professionnel." Phd thesis, Université Lumière - Lyon II, 2004. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00007848.
Full textAbstract:
Étudier les évolutions de carrière en général et les bifurcations en particulier, quoi de plus banal, finalement, pour qui s'intéresse à un groupe professionnel ? Cela constitue simplement un angle d'attaque permettant d'examiner les phénomènes de socialisation professionnelle selon un axe d'analyse mieux spécifié. Et pourtant, appliquer cette démarche à l'enseignement du premier degré va à l'encontre d'évidences sociales solidement ancrées. Cela permet et exige de mettre à distance la conception traditionnelle du métier d'instituteur qui le présente comme une vocation marquée par l'oblation et "l'amour des enfants". Rompant avec cette perception d'un métier à part, l'analyse des processus de mobilité professionnelle amène à considérer l'institutorat comme un métier parmi d'autres. Chercher à comprendre pourquoi on quitte un métier en cours de carrière conduit à réinterroger les raisons pour lesquelles on le choisit, et celles qui font que l'on s'y maintient. L'analyse des modalités de départ depuis un groupe professionnel permet de reconsidérer sa position relative parmi d'autres professions, ainsi que les compétences et les ressources professionnelles de ses membres. Les traits structurants des parcours de mobilité sont donc fortement liés aux caractéristiques sociohistoriques du groupe professionnel d'origine. Mais les trajectoires objectives de mobilité professionnelle doivent être confrontées au sens que les acteurs sociaux leur attribuent, et, sans céder au subjectivisme, il est loisible de considérer la mobilité professionnelle en cours de carrière des enseignants du premier degré comme l'aventure personnelle de mobilité à l'épreuve du social.
30
Birk, Matthias Maximilian. "Investigating consumer-brand relationships." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/16080.
Full textAbstract:
Die vorliegende Dissertation behandelt in fünf wissenschaftlichen Artikeln Grundfragen aus dem Themenfeld der Konsumenten-Marken Beziehung. Artikel 1 befasst sich mit der Fragestellung, was Konsumenten dazu führt, eine Marke in Betracht zu ziehen. Artikel 2 untersucht den Zusammenhang von Kundenzufriedenheit und Loyalität. Artikel 3 analysiert Konsumentenreaktionen auf Beziehungsverstöße und die Rolle von Beziehungsnormen. Artikel 4 untersucht den Einfluss negativer Informationen auf die Stärke der Markeneinstellung von Konsumenten. Im abschließenden 5. Artikel werden schließlich Kommunikationsstrategien für den Fall negativer Markenvorfälle entwickelt.This dissertation consists of five articles concerned with different aspects of consumer-brand relationships. Article 1 looks at what makes consumers consider a brand in the first place, the precondition for a brand to establish a relationship with a consumer. Article 2 deals with sustaining consumer-relationships and the role of satisfaction in retaining customers. Article 3 looks at whether consumers stay with the brand in the case of a relationship problem, actively work to sustain the relationship or silently let it deteriorate. It shows that relationship norms constitute an important factor in how consumers react to such negative incidents in a relationship. Article 4 investigates the effect of negative brand information on consumers’ attitudes and article 5 develops communication strategies for companies to employ when negative brand incidents occur.
31
Brun-Hurtado, Elisabeth. "Tous commerciaux ? : les salariés de l'agence dans les transformations de la banque des années 1990-2000." Phd thesis, Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II, 2005. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00009040.
Full textAbstract:
La thèse interroge le discours des directions véhiculant l'idée selon laquelle tous les salariés des agences bancaires sont désormais des commerciaux, voire des conseillers. Elle cherche à saisir le rapport au travail et l'activité de travail des salariés de ces unités et, par là, interroge la dynamique des différenciations en cours dans le salariat bancaire. Elle montre la porosité croissante des frontières du groupe des salariés des agences par rapport aux salariés d'autres entreprises de services commerciaux, tout en mettant en avant les spécificités qui demeurent. Ce parallèle avec l'activité commerciale résulte de la mise en œuvre, au début des années 90, de pratiques de segmentation de la clientèle, induisant une différenciation des fonctions. La gestion des ressources humaines, l'élargissement des produits commercialisés ainsi que la transformation des méthodes de travail finissent de parfaire ce rapprochement. Un nouvel acteur central apparaît avec les privatisations décidées par les différents gouvernements : l'actionnaire. Il induit de plus en plus les changements de politiques commerciales mises en œuvre par les établissements et les modifications récurrentes de l'organisation des structures. Il est alors possible de parler d'organisation en mouvement, dans la continuité des travaux de Norbert Alter, les configurations organisationnelles étant modifiées en moyenne tous les deux ans. Ces transformations ne sont pas sans conséquences sur les salariés considérés qui doivent notamment développer des compétences d'adaptation. La question de départ qui a motivé ce travail peut se résumer comme suit : quelle est l'évolution de la gestion et de l'organisation du travail des salariés de l'agence bancaire depuis le début des années 90 ? Il s'est agit de comprendre comment une activité, jusque là relativement stable et routinière, fondée sur la gestion des risques et l'instauration d'une relation de confiance réciproque entre salariés et clients, a évolué pour se transformer en une activité de prestation de services de plus en plus diversifiés et payants. La problématique centrale interroge les conséquences concrètes de l'intrusion des logiques marchandes dans la gestion des ressources humaines et l'organisation du travail des agences, ainsi que les répercussions sur les représentations professionnelles et le type de relations que les salariés instaurent avec les clients. La thèse s'inscrit au croisement de plusieurs filiations théoriques. Elle s'inspire d'un courant de la sociologie des groupes professionnels à la française insérant les dynamiques des professions dans le cadre des transformations historiques et structurelles du secteur d'activité. Elle est aussi largement ouverte aux courants de la sociologie du travail et des organisations. Elle accorde également un intérêt spécifique à la gestion des ressources humaines pour étudier les transformations de l'organisation du travail. La méthodologie utilisée compare les régulations globales d'un secteur d'activité et les régulations locales concernant les salariés de deux agences. Elle a mobilisé des analyses secondaires de données concernant le secteur et une entreprise surnommée la CLASS, une longue observation participante à la DRH de cette banque et la réalisation d'entretiens en agence, mais également auprès des syndicats, des membres de la direction, et d'autres acteurs extérieurs à la CLASS. Dans l'entreprise considérée, le discours et les pratiques de la direction sont confrontés à la perception qu'en ont les salariés. L'auteur montre comment le processus de segmentation des clientèles redéfinit la nature du travail, des carrières et finalement des modèles « d'identification » des salariés. Ces derniers sont amenés à se situer entre trois pôles en tension : la rhétorique managériale du « conseiller », que s'approprient surtout les salariés en contact avec les clientèles haut de gamme ; la prégnance des objectifs commerciaux en matière de « placement » ; le maintien de tâches administratives en partie invisibles aux yeux de l'encadrement supérieur. La recherche permet donc une réponse en deux temps à la question posée par son titre. Si l'on observe bien une montée des exigences commerciales en direction de l'ensemble des salariés des agences bancaires, le terme de "commerciaux" ne convient pas pour désigner ces salariés. Il existe en effet une différenciation du salariat basée sur des identifications professionnelles mouvantes.
32
Aitova, Diana, and Jennifer Tuulasvirta. "Svenska researrangörers marknad och konkurrensstrategier innan pandemin samt deras planer för tiden efter pandemin : - En kvalitativ studie över pandemins påverkan på turistbranschen och researrangörernas strategiska arbete." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Turismvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-46335.
Full textAbstract:
Problem: In this study, tour operators' perceptions of market changes linked to the pandemic have been investigated. Based on their perceptions, the most effective competition strategies have been described both before and after the pandemic. Aim: The study's intention was to gain an understanding of how Swedish tour operators experience changes in the tourism industry linked to Covid-19 and what competition strategies the companies use before and plan to use after the pandemic. Method: The study uses a qualitative research strategy with an inductive approach and grounded theory as a method. The collected data material has been analyzed mainly by in-depth interviews which were then transcribed and coded from Glaser’s point of view, containing open, selective, and theoretical phase. This resulted in two core categories that expressed the study's main problems: competition strategies and the tourism industry and competition in Sweden. Conclusion: The study results have shown that the most effective competition strategies according to Swedish tour operators are customer orientation, vertical integration, and digitalization. Regarding perceptions of market changes, respondents believe that there have been no major changes in the tour operator market, but the pandemic has affected the tourism industry and competition in general, where market demand and competition between other industries have changed. In addition, the competition strategies used by companies before the pandemic were effective and provide competitive advantages, which results in that these strategies will be largely unchanged after the pandemic.Problemställning: I denna studie har researrangörernas uppfattningar om marknadsförändringar kopplade till pandemin undersökts. Baserat på deras uppfattningar har de mest effektiva konkurrensstrategierna beskrivits både före och efter pandemin. Syfte: Studiens avsikt var att få förståelse över hur svenska researrangörer upplever förändringar i turistbranschen kopplade till Covid-19 samt vilka konkurrensstrategier företagen använder sig av innan och planerar att använda efter pandemin. Metod: I studien används en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med induktiv ansats samt grundad teori som metod. Det insamlade datamaterial har analyserats främst med hjälp av djupintervjuer som sedan transkriberades och kodades utifrån Glasers syn, innehållande den öppna, selektiva och teoretiska fasen. Detta resulterade i två kärnkategorier som uttryckte studiens huvudproblematiken: konkurrensstrategier och turistbranschen och konkurrensen i Sverige. Slutsats: Studien resultat har visat att de mest effektiva konkurrensstrategierna enligt svenska researrangörer är kundorientering, vertikal integration och digitalisering. När det gäller uppfattningar om marknadsförändringar anser respondenterna att det inte har skett några större förändringar på researrangörsmarknaden, men pandemin har påverkat turistindustrin och konkurrensen i allmänhet, där marknadens efterfrågan och konkurrens mellan andra industrier har förändrats. Dessutom ansågs de konkurrensstrategier som företag använde före pandemin vara effektiva och ge konkurrensfördelar, vilket resulterar i att dessa strategier kommer i stort sett att vara oförändrade efter pandemin.
33
Madi, Atman. "Géologie de la partie nord de l'ophiolite d'Oman : pétrologie et géochimie de la séquence plutonique du massif de Fizh." Phd thesis, Grenoble 1, 1995. http://www.theses.fr/1995GRE10061.
Full textAbstract:
La séquence plutonique du massif de Fizh (partie nord de l'ophiolite d'Oman) offre une complexité crustale, liée à une diversité des corps magmatiques et du système filonien. La cartographie détaillée montre une succession d'événements magmatiques dont les séries principales sont formées de gabbros lités, des wehrlites et pyroxénites, des gabbronorites. Le magmatisme gabbroïque est généré dans une grande chambre magmatique axiale, alors que le magmatisme wehrlitique est dit hors-axe ; ceci est conditionné par la segmentation axiale de la paléodorsale. L'asymétrie ainsi observée dans la séquence crustale est marquée par la distribution et l'abondance des corps ultrabasiques. Les variations longitudinales dans les séquences stratigraphiques montrent des discontinuités au sein de la paléodorsale dans ce massif. Les granitoïdes sous forme de filons ou de stocks, attestent une succession d'événements magmatiques et les modalités de l'accrétion. En effet, les plagiogranites sont liés à la cristallisation fractionnée des gabbros, au cours de l'épisode d'accrétion normale. Les granodiorites et les diorites quartziques sont rattachées spatialement aux ultrabasites et formées par cristallisation fractionnée pendant la phase d'écaillage intra-océanique. Les granites et les leucogranites sont tardifs et à cachet collisionnel. Ils sont issus de la fusion partielle de la semelle métamorphique et liés à l'épisode obductif chaud. Les gisements de chromite sont variés et sont localisés dans le manteau et à la limite manteau-croûte. Les concentrations de chromite dans les ultrabasites sont importantes et présentent un effet sur le comportement des éléments du groupe du platine. Les sulfures magmatiques (pentlandite et chalcopyrite) précipitent dans les wehrlites et les pyroxénites en même temps que le plagioclase. Le comportement des PGE dans les chromitites montre qu'elles sont moins différenciées que celles des autres massifs ophiolitiques. Les PPGE et particulièrement le Pd précipitent dans les ultrabasites en même temps que les sulfures d'origine magmatique
34
Yin, Zhaozheng Collins Robert. "Persistent object tracking by figure-ground segmentation." 2009. http://etda.libraries.psu.edu/theses/approved/WorldWideIndex/ETD-4270/index.html.
Full text
35
Huang, Zhi-Wei, and 黃至偉. "Unsupervised Figure-ground Segmentation Using Object Proposals and Saliency Detection." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55pq94.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立清華大學
資訊工程學系所
105
In recent years, figure-ground segmentation has been a popular research topic in a number of different types of image segmentation methods. The goal of the figure-ground segmentation is to divide an image into two regions, which are foreground and background. There are many methods which have been proposed for solving figure-ground segmentation problems, but these methods are usually supervised approaches. In other words, the procedures of those methods need some interactions of users. It makes those methods unfavorable. Also, there are some disadvantages in traditional unsupervised image segmentation methods. In this thesis, we propose an unsupervised figure-ground segmentation method based on an object proposal generation algorithm to generate a small number of regions in an image, such that each object is well-represented by at least one region. Then, we combine the saliency map which measures the saliency likelihood of the image, color information, and gradient information to construct an objective function for the situation that only single foreground object exists in an image. Otherwise, the objective function is combined with an overlap constraint to handle the situation that multiple foreground objects appear in an image. Then we use a simple and efficient optimization method to get the initial object-wise segmentation results, and then refine the results by using pixel-wise graph cut. Comparing to other unsupervised figure-ground segmentation approaches, our method in MSRA-1000 database can get good experimental results.
36
Hsueh, Lie Yun, and 薛烈昀. "Unsupervised Figure-ground Segmentation using Saliency Detection and Boundary Detection." Thesis, 2015. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89052677146002854971.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立清華大學
資訊工程學系
103
Image segmentation is an essential and challenging problem in computer vision and image processing. Figure-ground segmentation is one of image segmentation that separate image into two labels, which are foreground and background. It can be used in object detection or many other applications. Recently, a lot of methods have been proposed for solving figure-ground segmentation problems. However, most of them are supervised approaches. In other words, the procedures of those methods need some interactions of users. It makes those methods unfavorable. Also, there are some disadvantage in traditional unsupervised image segmentation methods. We proposed an unsupervised figure-ground approach. It uses the saliency detection method to indicate the position of the foreground, and use the boundary detection method to obtain a suitable threshold for image segmentation automatically. According to our experiment results, our method does not need user interaction and performs well compared with the previous saliency-based segmentation method for segmentation of iCoseg dataset and MSRA-1000 dataset.
37
Tsai, Nian-Ying, and 蔡念穎. "A Machine Learning Figure-ground Segmentation Method Based on Cooperative Game." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/21273851277203500688.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立清華大學
資訊工程學系
101
Image segmentation is an important and challenging task in image processing, and it is widely discussed in recent years. The main goal of figure-ground image segmentation is to separate foreground objects from their background. But, it is not a simple task to defining the foreground object sections from background in an image. Before, figure-ground segmentation has been addressed successfully by interactive segmentation works. However, it is not an ideal method in accuracy and convenience. Unlike previous methods, in this paper, we present a novel method for figure-ground segmentation with machine learning Mechanism (SVM classifier) to separate the foreground objects from background. Furthermore, in order to improve the accuracy of figure-ground segmentation, we also use a cooperative game theory which proposed by Lloyd Shapley to estimate the weight of image features in the training step. In this game, each image feature represents a rational player, and the weight of image features represents the contribution of each player. According to our experiment result, our approach obtains very competitive results on Oxford Flowers 17 and Caltech-UCSD Birds-200 data sets in comparison with other state-of-the-art techniques.
38
Hsiao, Yu-Min, and 蕭宇民. "Unsupervised Figure-ground Segmentation using Edge Detection and Game-theoretical Graph-cut Approach." Thesis, 2014. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/03265679308342221441.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立清華大學
資訊工程學系
103
Image segmentation is an essential and challenging problem in computer vision and image processing. It categorized into two categories, multi-label segmentation and figure-ground segmentation. The goal of figure-ground segmentation is to separate the object from background. It can be used in object detection or many other applications. Recently, a lot of methods have been proposed for solving figure-ground segmentation problems. However, most of them are supervised approaches. In other words, the procedures of those methods need some interactions of users. It makes those methods unfavorable. For example, Graph-Cut needs user to select a part of foreground and background to be foreground seeds and background seeds. A graph and min-cut theory are used to separate the foreground from the image. Different from traditional Graph-Cut approaches, we proposed an unsupervised figure-ground approach. It uses an edge-based method to grab required information for Graph-Cut. Then, we use game-theoretical Graph-Cut to divide the image to foreground and background. According to our experiment results, our method does not need user interaction and performs well compared with the previous Graph-Cut method.
39
Rose, Spencer. "An evaluation of deep learning semantic segmentation for land cover classification of oblique ground-based photography." Thesis, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/12156.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents a case study on the application of deep learning methods for the dense prediction of land cover types in oblique ground-based photography. While deep learning approaches are widely used in land cover classification of remote-sensing data (i.e., aerial and satellite orthoimagery) for change detection analysis, dense classification of oblique landscape imagery used in repeat photography remains undeveloped. A performance evaluation was carried out to test two state-of the-art architectures, U-net and Deeplabv3+, as well as a fully-connected conditional random fields model used to boost segmentation accuracy. The evaluation focuses on the use of a novel threshold-based data augmentation technique, and three multi-loss functions selected to mitigate class imbalance and input noise. The dataset used for this study was sampled from the Mountain Legacy Project (MLP) collection, comprised of high-resolution historic (grayscale) survey photographs of Canada’s Western mountains captured from the 1880s through the 1950s and their corresponding modern (colour) repeat images. Land cover segmentations manually created by MLP researchers were used as ground truth labels. Experimental results showed top overall F1 scores of 0.841 for historic models, and 0.909 for repeat models. Data augmentation showed modest improvements to overall accuracy (+3.0% historic / +1.0% repeat), but much larger gains for under-represented classes.Graduate
40
Weng, Chien-Chen, and 翁建宸. "The Ground-Truth Annotation System for Segmentation and Data Association in Laser-based Moving Object Tracking." Thesis, 2012. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/98758799608820192155.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣大學
資訊工程學研究所
100
Scene understanding is one of the most important foundations for a mobile robot to operate in human-habited environments. As the real environments are typically dynamic, moving object tracking becomes an inescapable problem. While the tracking algorithm becomes more and more elaborate, however, its performance in real world still can not be guaranteed. The major reason is that so far we do not have enough real data with ground-truth to evaluate and analysis the state of the art tracking algorithms . In this thesis, we explore the laser-based moving object tracking problem and propose an annotation system that allows the user to annotate the ground-truth of segmentation and data association with 2D laser measurements. As the annotating task is difficult and tedious, the system is designed to achieve higher accuracy and reduce the task loading in the annotation process. To prove the usefulness of our system, real data sequences are collected and annotated by multiple users in our experiments. The results shows that the annotation performance varies but the system keeps helpful across different users. In particular, the V-measure reaches to 0.995 bits and the false positive rate and the false negative rate are reduced to 0.341% and 1.239%. At last, the ground-truth data is also generated by validating the annotated data carefully and repeatedly.
41
Hoang, Thai Duy. "Fourier and Variational Based Approaches for Fingerprint Segmentation." Doctoral thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-1735-0000-0022-5FEF-2.
Full text
42
Wu, Xianghai. "Human-Inspired Robot Task Teaching and Learning." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/4828.
Full textAbstract:
Current methods of robot task teaching and learning have several limitations: highly-trained personnel are usually required to teach robots specific tasks; service-robot systems are limited in learning different types of tasks utilizing the same system; and the teacher’s expertise in the task is not well exploited. A human-inspired robot-task teaching and learning method is developed in this research with the aim of allowing general users to teach different object-manipulation tasks to a service robot, which will be able to adapt its learned tasks to new task setups.
The proposed method was developed to be interactive and intuitive to the user. In a closed loop with the robot, the user can intuitively teach the tasks, track the learning states of the robot, direct the robot attention to perceive task-related key state changes, and give timely feedback when the robot is practicing the task, while the robot can reveal its learning progress and refine its knowledge based on the user’s feedback.
The human-inspired method consists of six teaching and learning stages: 1) checking and teaching the needed background knowledge of the robot; 2) introduction of the overall task to be taught to the robot: the hierarchical task structure, and the involved objects and robot hand actions; 3) teaching the task step by step, and directing the robot to perceive important state changes; 4) demonstration of the task in whole, and offering vocal subtask-segmentation cues in subtask transitions; 5) robot learning of the taught task using a flexible vote-based algorithm to segment the demonstrated task trajectories, a probabilistic optimization process to assign obtained task trajectory episodes (segments) to the introduced subtasks, and generalization of the taught task trajectories in different reference frames; and 6) robot practicing of the learned task and refinement of its task knowledge according to the teacher’s timely feedback, where the adaptation of the learned task to new task setups is achieved by blending the task trajectories generated from pertinent frames.
An agent-based architecture was designed and developed to implement this robot-task teaching and learning method. This system has an interactive human-robot teaching interface subsystem, which is composed of: a) a three-camera stereo vision system to track user hand motion; b) a stereo-camera vision system mounted on the robot end-effector to allow the robot to explore its workspace and identify objects of interest; and c) a speech recognition and text-to-speech system, utilized for the main human-robot interaction.
A user study involving ten human subjects was performed using two tasks to evaluate the system based on time spent by the subjects on each teaching stage, efficiency measures of the robot’s understanding of users’ vocal requests, responses, and feedback, and their subjective evaluations. Another set of experiments was done to analyze the ability of the robot to adapt its previously learned tasks to new task setups using measures such as object, target and robot starting-point poses; alignments of objects on targets; and actual robot grasp and release poses relative to the related objects and targets. The results indicate that the system enabled the subjects to naturally and effectively teach the tasks to the robot and give timely feedback on the robot’s practice performance. The robot was able to learn the tasks as expected and adapt its learned tasks to new task setups. The robot properly refined its task knowledge based on the teacher’s feedback and successfully applied the refined task knowledge in subsequent task practices. The robot was able to adapt its learned tasks to new task setups that were considerably different from those in the demonstration. The alignments of objects on the target were quite close to those taught, and the executed grasping and releasing poses of the robot relative to objects and targets were almost identical to the taught poses. The robot-task learning ability was affected by limitations of the vision-based human-robot teleoperation interface used in hand-to-hand teaching and the robot’s capacity to sense its workspace. Future work will investigate robot learning of a variety of different tasks and the use of more robot in-built primitive skills.
43
Wu, Jia-Bao, and 吳家寶. "Automatic segmentation of different functional groups of lower extremity muscle on MRI : Combination of mathematical morphology and anatomy knowledge methods." Thesis, 2010. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/06002016220192743442.
Full textAbstract:
碩士中原大學
電機工程研究所
98
Segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images has numerous clinical applications: Being an auxiliary tool in diagnosis and treatment, making epidemiological statistics easier to carry on, being an important step in data analysis of all kinds of medical researches. However, most of the segmentation has been done manually or at most semi-automatically. The process is time- and energy-consuming and difficult to be standardized. Automatic segmentation algorithms of MR images for some of the body parts, such as the brain, have been developed with success. The muscular tissue is a major component of the human body, however, to our knowledge, no similar studies had been done on automatic muscle segmentation on MR images. The goal of this study is to develop an automatic segmentation scheme to correctly assign different functional muscle groups on MR images of the human lower extremities. We speculated that the results could be used in increasing muscle-tissue-related researches, such as the monitoring of muscle volume change over the time for the victims of muscular dystrophy diseases and investigation of the use and the performance of different muscles in athletes of various sport types. The grouping and the surrounding anatomic structures are quite different for muscles located at different body parts. For convenience and to support another research of our labs, we chose to target at lower extremities, muscles from pelvis to ankle, as the object of the study. Since the MR signals for all muscles are more or less similar, instead of singling out an individual muscle, our study focused on automatic classification of functional muscle groups. In the thesis, the lower extremities were first divided into several longitudinal anatomic segments based on the principles of proximity and anatomic similarity. Since the MR signals are quite different among bones, fascia, fat, and muscles, subcutaneous fat, ilium of the pelvis, femur, tibia, fibula, meniscus, and the muscular fascia are available as boundaries. Equipped by this knowledge, we applied mathematical morphological operations such as erosion, dilation, open, and close, and other image processing techniques such as regional growing and filling to designate muscle areas on an MR image as one of the eight muscle functional groups. The results of the automatic segmentation were then compared against the classification manually made by a physical therapist. We found that the average total absolute error (relative error) ± the standard deviation of our automatic segmentation is 1736.5 (13.5%) ± 1071.8 ml, with 490.2 (14.0%) ± 371.8 ml of the knee extensors as the largest absolute error and 41.3 (7.7%) ± 11.6 ml of the ankle flexors as the smallest. On the other hand, the largest relative error is hip flexors’ 242.8 (24.4%) ± 140.2 ml and the smallest the ankle extensors’ 153.1 (6.7%) ± 94.3 ml. The study presents that the combined mathematical morphology and human anatomy knowledge approach successfully divided muscles of lower extremity MR images into meaningful functional groups without human intervention. In the future, the accuracy of this method could be further improved by more sophisticated revision such as MR-atlas registration. Applications on other body parts and tissues such as abdominal visceral fat are under investigation. We expect the results of this and related studies to be helpful in body-composition-related researches and perhaps also in clinical diagnosis and treatment.
44
Tenente, Maria Margarida Claro. "Growth strategy for gliss Portugal in the retail hair treatment market and the importance of focus groups in marketing research." Master's thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/20637.
Full textAbstract:
CEMSGliss has been facing some market share downturns in the Portuguese hair treatment market. This decline is partially explained by the socio-economic conditions of the country, increasing competition efforts and lack of brand knowledge by the Portuguese consumers. To overcome this problem, Gliss must focus on retaining and developing its current customer base and gaining new customers from other brands, specifically from brand switching consumers. To target these consumers, Gliss needs to expand its relevancy, develop superiority points and improve brand knowledge, through actions in the marketing mix, specifically product, price placement, and specially promotion.
45
Fonseca, Tiago Filipe Correia Lourenço. "How can premium automotive brands maintain their status, while sharing technology with their respective auto groups? - the case of Audi and the Volkswagen automotive group." Master's thesis, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/123391.
Full textAbstract:
Automotive groups with large portfolios face growing branding challenges in the premium market. Currently, premium brands need to pursue digital innovation to maintain their status, but technology by itself does not lead to a higher positioning: other attributes like comfort, safety, material quality, and design are still valued. Based on the study of Audi and the Volkswagen Automotive Group, this Work Project demonstrates that autonomous driving, integrated smartphone connectivity, and media consumption applications are likely to increasingly act as differentiators in the future. Also, the identity of premium brands needs to remain strong to justify the consumers’ personal brand preferences.
46
Masimov, Vahid. "The Turkish market: creating a customerdatabase for potential market development; a need for the Socem Molding Group." Master's thesis, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/2643.
Full textAbstract:
The Portuguese mold industry is one of the most important industries for the economical and
social development of the central region. The Socem Group contributes for its value through
the production and exportation of molds and services related.
This report is based on an internship made at Socem ED, one of the firms of Socem Group. It
attempts to fulfill a specific requirement of Socem; to potential their sales for the Turkish
market. The aim is to:
a) Understand the Turkish market: culturally, politically, socially, and economically;
b) Research mold industry in Turkey, and understand the impact of the automotive and
home appliances, and plastics industries in the Turkey economy;
c) Make market segmentation and create a customer database;
d) According to marketing strategy and segmentation, contact with the potential
customers and try to do business with the molding, the automotive, home appliances
and plastics companies in Turkey.
It is worth to note that during the last 10 years Turkey’s mold industry has improving sharply.
The current research provided a creation of a customer database that potential the commercial
relationships between the two countries, i.e. Portugal e Turkey, specifically for the mold
industry. Secondary data source from 2010 to 2016, to build up the database, was used.
47
Hamel-Roy, Laurence. "«Je dois mettre dans ma tête que c’est pour rendre service» : engagements et contraintes de l’emploi des préposées au soutien à domicile embauchées par le Chèque emploi-service." Thèse, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/20362.
Full text
48
Oliveira, Vasco Neffe da Costa. "Development of a market study for the portuguese swimwear brand Guadalupissima." Master's thesis, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/35412.
Full textAbstract:
Guadalupissima is a Portuguese swimwear brand in its second year of operations. This paper aimed to provide three main insights for Guadalupissima: a better view of the Portuguese swimwear market and its consumers; insights into how Guadalupissima should invest its resources in social media marketing; and to discover what Guadalupissima’s potential customers are looking for in their swimwear. A survey was conducted to achieve these insights. The survey received 90 responses and through the use of descriptive statistics and hypotheses testing, significant conclusions were made based on the sample used. The study found that: consumer gender does not significantly affect yearly spending on swimwear; time spent on social media does not significantly affect how often consumers purchase through integrated social media marketplaces; and respondents preferred to see swimwear products displayed under a more professional lens. In-depth research into the Portuguese swimwear market was undertaken in order to provide a useful competitor analysis for Guadalupissima to consult as well as an evaluation of Guadalupissima’s accessible market in its next year of operations. Final recommendations were made for Guadalupissima to consider when formulating its business and marketing strategy within the context of the literature presented at the start of the paper.A Guadalupissima é uma marca portuguesa de biquínis a iniciar o seu segundo ano de operações. A presente tese teve como objetivo apresentar três pontos principais: aumentar o conhecimento do mercado de biquínis e fatos de banho Português; perceber em que elementos a Guadalupissima deve focar a sua estratégia de marketing em redes sociais; e descobrir que elementos procuram os potenciais consumidores da marca para os seus fatos de banho. Foi realizado um inquérito para obter estas informações. 90 respostas foram analisadas utilizando estatística descritiva e testes de hipóteses de maneira a chegar a conclusões relevantes. O estudo concluiu que: o sexo do consumidor não afeta a quantidade de dinheiro gasto em fatos de banho; o tempo gasto em redes sociais não afeta significativamente o comportamento do consumidor em relação a compras online através de mercados integrados em redes sociais; e 66% dos consumidores que responderam ao inquérito preferem ver produtos exibidos num caráter mais profissional. Foi realizado também um estudo de mercado aprofundado, com um foco nas principais empresas que virão a competir com a Guadalupissima, e também foi calculado o valor do mercado a que a Guadalupissima poderá ter acesso no seu próximo ano de operações. Recomendações finais foram feitas para a consideração da Guadalupissima nas suas estratégias de gestão e de marketing com base na literatura exposta no início da presente tese.
49
Silva, Miguel Duarte Vieira da. "Du Arte online platform : local art for a global market." Master's thesis, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/26936.
Full textAbstract:
The goal of this dissertation is to analyse the competitive landscape and the customer segments of the online art market, to enable Du Arte (an online marketplace of artworks) to pursue a successful market entry and achieve profitability in the long-run. For this, it addresses five research questions on Du Arte: identifying the main competitors, the competitive forces that pressure the most, the customer segments more willing to use the platform, the customer segment that is most attractive, and the required investment and break-even timeline. The competitive analysis part explained how the market is today, assessed which segments of the market might constitute an opportunity, established a course of action for a market entry, and analysed Du Arte (SWOT analysis) and its competitors through a strategic groups map and Porter’s five forces, thus determining the main competitors and the most pressuring competitive forces. The customer analysis part identified which customer segments are more willing to use the platform and which variables (behaviour-based and user-based) are more relevant in explaining it, through a regression analysis using the data collected from the survey; identified the willingness to pay for an artwork of each customer segment; and identified the most attractive customer segment through an attractiveness analysis based on the size, growth, margin and competition dimensions of each segment. The financial analysis part explained the profitability and required investment of Du Arte in the first five years, and the break-even point according to an optimistic or conservative scenario.O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o cenário competitivo e os segmentos de clientes do mercado online de arte, para garantir que a Du Arte (mercado online de obras de arte) seja bem-sucedida na entrada no mercado e seja rentável no longo prazo. Para tal, aborda cinco questões sobre a Du Arte: identificar os principais concorrentes, as forças competitivas que mais pressionam, os segmentos de cliente mais dispostos a usar a plataforma, o segmento de cliente mais atrativo, e o investimento necessário e ponto de break-even. A parte da análise do cenário competitivo explicou como o mercado funciona hoje, avaliou que segmentos do mercado podem constituir uma oportunidade, estabeleceu um curso de ação para uma entrada no mercado, e analisou a Du Arte (análise SWOT) e a concorrência, através de mapa de grupos estratégicos e as cinco forças de Porter, determinando os principais concorrentes e as forças competitivas que mais pressão fazem. A parte da análise de cliente identificou os segmentos de cliente mais dispostos a usar a plataforma e quais as variáveis que melhor o explicam, através de regressões com os dados do questionário; identificou o quanto cada segmento de cliente está disposto a pagar por uma obra; e identificou o segmento de cliente mais atrativo através de uma análise de atratividade baseada no tamanho, crescimento, margem e concorrência. A parte de análise financeira explicou a rentabilidade e o investimento necessário para os primeiros cinco anos e o ponto de break-even para um cenário otimista ou conservador.