Academic literature on the topic 'Object representation model (ORM)'

The important issue of mechanical assemblies has been a subject of intense research over the past several years. Most electromechanical products are assemblies of several components, for various technical as well as economic reasons. This paper provides an object-oriented definition of an assembly model called the Open Assembly Model (OAM) and defines an extension to the NIST Core Product Model (NIST-CPM). The assembly model represents the function, form, and behavior of the assembly and defines both a system level conceptual model and associated hierarchical relationships. The model provides a way for tolerance representation and propagation, kinematics representation, and engineering analysis at the system level. The assembly model is open so as to enable plug-and-play with various applications, such as analysis (FEM, tolerance, assembly), process planning, and virtual assembly (using VR techniques). With the advent of the Internet more and more products are designed and manufactured globally in a distributed and collaborative environment. The class structure defined in OAM can be used by designers to collaborate in such an environment. The proposed model includes both assembly as a concept and assembly as a data structure. For the latter it uses STEP. The OAM together with CPM can be used to capture the assembly evolution from the conceptual to the detailed design stages. It is expected that the proposed OAM will enhance the assembly information content in the STEP standard. A case study example is discussed to explain the Usecase analysis of the assembly model.

The paper presents Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM) and Ontology UML Profile that enables using Model Driven Architecture (MDA) standards in ontological engineering. Other similar metamodels are based on ontology representation languages, such as RDF(S), DAML+OIL, etc. However, none of these other solutions uses the recent W3C effort-The Web Ontology Language (OWL). In our approach, we firstly define the ODM and Ontology UML Profile place in the context of the MDA four-layer architecture and identify the main OWL concepts. Then, we define ODM using Meta-Object Facility (MOF). The relations between similar MOF and OWL concepts are discussed in order to show their differences (e.g. MOF or UML Class and OWL Class). The proposed ODM is used as a starting point for defining Ontology UML profile that enables using the well-known UML notation in ontological engineering more extensively.

Modern complex systems include products and services that comprise many interconnected pieces of integrated hardware and software, which are expected to serve humans interacting with them. As technology advances, expectations of a smooth, flawless system operation grow. Model-based systems engineering, an approach based on conceptual models, copes with this challenge. Models help construct formal system representations, visualize them, understand the design, simulate the system, and discover design flaws early on. Modeling tools can benefit tremendously from querying capabilities that enable gaining deep insights into system aspects that direct model observations do not reveal. Querying mechanisms can unveil and explain cause-and-effect phenomena, identify central components, and estimate impacts or risks associated with changes. Being connected networks of system elements, models can be effectively represented as graphs, to which queries are applied. Capitalizing on established graph-theoretic algorithms to solve a large variety of problems can elevate the modeling experience to new levels. To utilize this rich set of capabilities, one must convert the model into a graph and store it in a graph database with no significant loss of information. Applying the appropriate algorithms and translating the query response back to the original intelligible and meaningful diagrammatic and textual model representation is most valuable. We present and demonstrate a querying approach of converting Object-Process Methodology (OPM) ISO 19450 models into graphs, storing them in a Neo4J graph database, and performing queries that answer complex questions on various system aspects, providing key insights into the modeled system or phenomenon and helping to improve the system design.

Based on the consideration and analysis of different approaches to obtaining data for constructing a digital elevation model and types of three-dimensional surface representation, the choice of the most optimum technique for construction and visualization of three- dimensional model of the volcano-sedimentary cover of the Streltsovskaya caldera in Eastern Transbaikalia has been substantiated. The creation of such model determines the need for detection, identification and monitoring of processes, phenomena and factors of natural and anthropogenic origin at uranium deposits of the same named ore field, which are developed by underground way in difficult mining and geological conditions. To solve this problem, modeling of the daylight surface relief and the basement roof has been carried out on the basis on remote sensing data, geophysical studies, cartographic materials vectorization and processing results. The space between the constructed surfaces due to the algorithm for creating closed framework of surfaces has been transformed into a new object representing three-dimensional volumetric model of the caldera volcano-sedimentary cover. The received results allow creating a predictive model of the tectonic and dynamic state of the Streltsovky ore field rock massifs for the deposits development and mine workings design.

Object-Role Modeling (ORM) is an approach for modeling and querying information at the conceptual level, and for transforming ORM models and queries to or from other representations. Unlike attribute-based approaches such as Entity-Relationship (ER) modeling and class modeling within the Unified Modeling Language (UML), ORM is fact-oriented, where all facts and rules are modeled in terms of natural sentences easily understood and validated by nontechnical business users. ORM’s modeling procedure facilitates validation by verbalization and population with concrete examples. ORM’s graphical notation is far more expressive than that of ER diagrams or UML class diagrams, and its attribute-free nature makes it more stable and adaptable to changing business requirements. This article explains the fundamentals of ORM, illustrates some of its advantages as a data modeling approach, and outlines some recent research to extend ORM, with special attention to mappings to deductive databases.

Impervious surface area (ISA) is an important representation of urban area. It is very popular to extract ISA by using linear spectral mixture analysis (LSMA). However, there are still some defects in this method: underestimated in areas with a large amount of ISA. Hence, we designed a threshold hierarchical method (THM) to test this underestimation and understand which scale is the best to mixture. The capacity of the THM and the optimal threshold in the impervious surface extraction are the focus in this work. In THM model, the medium-resolution image (Landsat 8 OLI) and the high-resolution image (Gaofen-2, GF-2) were used, the LSMA and the object-oriented method (OOM) were applied for the area with a larger amount of impervious surfaces, which was extracted from the Landsat 8 OLI image after finishing the LSMA procedure by a threshold of the ISA abundance data, the GF-2 image was employed to extract the ISA by OOM. The results show that the THM had the capacity to achieve higher ISA extraction accuracy and ameliorate the ISA underestimate problem.

Abstract A solution to the problem of a hydrogenic atom in a homogeneous dielectric medium with a concentric spherical cavity using the oscillator representation method (ORM) is presented. The results obtained by the ORM are compared with a known exact analytic solution. The energy levels of the hydrogenic atom in a spherical cavity exhibit a shallow-deep instability as a function of the cavity radius. The sharpness of the transition depends on the value of the dielectric constant of the medium. The results of the ORM agree well with the results obtained by the analytic solution when the shallow-deep transition is not too sharp (i.e., when the dielectric constant is not too large) for all values of the cavity radius. The ORM results in the zeroth order approximation diverge significantly in the region of the shallow-deep transition (i.e., for the values of the radius where the shallow-deep transition occurs) when the dielectric constant is high and as a result the transition is sharp. Even for the sharp transition, the ORM results again agree very well with the analytic results at least for the ground state when a commonly used approximation in the ORM is removed. The ORM methodology for the cavity model presented in this article can potentially be used for two-electron systems in a quantum dot.

Defining complex system dynamics (SD) models in complex organizational settings is hard. This is so because the numbers of variables to consider are many and the question of causation is complicated to untangle. Second, SD models are ambiguous and hard to conceptualize. In this paper, we explore the use of a domain modeling method object-role modeling (ORM) in the process of developing SD models. We do so, because domain modeling methods help to identify relationships among entities within the scope of the problem domain and provide a structural view of the domain. The addition of a domain modeling method to the process of developing SD models is to improve SD model conceptualization, enable transformation and reuse of information plus underpin SD with a domain modeling method that allows creation of database. To realize this, we come up with a procedure in our overall research which we refer to as grounded system dynamics (GSD) a combination of ORM and SD. To reason about the combination of SD with a domain modeling method (ORM), we identify and evaluate relationships between their constructs. Basing on the identified relations, ORM to stock and flow diagram (SFD) steps are defined and applied to a real-life case study national medical stores (NMS) situated in Uganda. On completion, we draw conclusions.

Pergeseran paradigma pengembangan Perangkat Lunak yang berskala enterprise. Permasalahan antara lingkungan Berorientasi Objek (OOP) dengan lingkungan RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) yang sering disebut dengan istilah impedance mismatch (Ketidak-sesuaian pendekatan OOP dan RDBMS). Penelitian ini bertujuan menerapkan konsep Object Relational Mapping (ORM) yang berfungsi menjembatani ketidaksesuaian dan memetakkan database relasional ke model objek, melakukan pengumpulan data tumbuhan (Pohon, Kayu, Tanaman Obat dan Bambu). Metode pengembangan menggunakan konsep design pattern Model-View-Controller (MVC) berbasis Framework. Metode penamaan dan taksonomi tumbuhan mengacu pada International Association for Plant Taxonomy. Penelitian ini telah menghasilkan sebuah produk perangkat lunak Sistem Informasi Keanekaragaman Hayati Borneo, telah tersimpan data dalam database sistem 1482 jenis pohon, 233 jenis tumbuhan hutan obat, 86 jenis kayu dan 80 jenis bambu. Relevansi penelitian ini sebagai bentuk sinergitas penelitian yang mengacu pada Pola Ilmiah Pokok (PIP) Universitas Mulawarman sebagai Center of Excellence for Tropical Studies.

The World Wide Web is a rich source of information and continues to expand in size and complexity. Mainly because the data on the web is lack of rigid and uniform data models or schemas, how to effectively and efficiently manage web data and retrieve information is becoming a challenge problem. Discovering web page communities, which capture the features of the web and web-based data to find intrinsic relationships among the data, is one of the effective ways to solve this problem. A web page community is a set of web pages that has its own logical and semantic structures. In this work, we concentrate on the web data in web page format and exploit hyperlink information to discover (construct) web page communities. Three main web page communities are studied in this work: the first one is consisted of hub and authority pages, the second one is composed of relevant web pages with respect to a given page (URL), and the last one is the community with hierarchical cluster structures. For analysing hyperlinks, we establish a mathematical framework, especially the matrix-based framework, to model hyperlinks. Within this mathematical framework, hyperlink analysis is placed on a solid mathematic base and the results are reliable. For the web page community that is consisted of hub and authority pages, we focus on eliminating noise pages from the concerned page source to obtain another good quality page source, and in turn improve the quality of web page communities. We propose an innovative noise page elimination algorithm based on the hyperlink matrix model and mathematic operations, especially the singular value decomposition (SVD) of matrix. The proposed algorithm exploits hyperlink information among the web pages, reveals page relationships at a deeper level, and numerically defines thresholds for noise page elimination. The experiment results show the effectiveness and feasibility of the algorithm. This algorithm could also be used solely for web-based data management systems to filter unnecessary web pages and reduce the management cost. In order to construct a web page community that is consisted of relevant pages with respect to a given page (URL), we propose two hyperlink based relevant page finding algorithms. The first algorithm comes from the extended co-citation analysis of web pages. It is intuitive and easy to be implemented. The second one takes advantage of linear algebra theories to reveal deeper relationships among the web pages and identify relevant pages more precisely and effectively. The corresponding page source construction for these two algorithms can prevent the results from being affected by malicious hyperlinks on the web. The experiment results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithms. The research results could be used to enhance web search by caching the relevant pages for certain searched pages. For the purpose of clustering web pages to construct a community with its hierarchical cluster structures, we propose an innovative web page similarity measurement that incorporates hyperlink transitivity and page importance (weight).Based on this similarity measurement, two types of hierarchical web page clustering algorithms are proposed. The first one is the improvement of the conventional K-mean algorithms. It is effective in improving page clustering, but is sensitive to the predefined similarity thresholds for clustering. Another type is the matrix-based hierarchical algorithm. Two algorithms of this type are proposed in this work. One takes cluster-overlapping into consideration, another one does not. The matrix-based algorithms do not require predefined similarity thresholds for clustering, are independent of the order in which the pages are presented, and produce stable clustering results. The matrix-based algorithms exploit intrinsic relationships among web pages within a uniform matrix framework, avoid much influence of human interference in the clustering procedure, and are easy to be implemented for applications. The experiments show the effectiveness of the new similarity measurement and the proposed algorithms in web page clustering improvement. For applying above mathematical algorithms better in practice, we generalize the web page discovering as a special case of information retrieval and present a visualization system prototype, as well as technical details on visualization algorithm design, to support information retrieval based on linear algebra. The visualization algorithms could be smoothly applied to web applications. XML is a new standard for data representation and exchange on the Internet. In order to extend our research to cover this important web data, we propose an object representation model (ORM) for XML data. A set of transformation rules and algorithms are established to transform XML data (DTD and XML documents with DTD or without DTD) into this model. This model capsulizes elements of XML data and data manipulation methods. DTD-Tree is also defined to describe the logical structure of DTD. It also can be used as an application program interface (API) for processing DTD, such as transforming a DTD document into the ORM. With this data model, semantic meanings of the tags (elements) in XML data can be used for further research in XML data management and information retrieval, such as community construction for XML data.

Model View Controller (MVC) software architecture is widely spread and commonly used in application’s development. Therefore generation of data layer for the database model is able to reduce cost and time. After research on current Object Relational Mapping (ORM) tools, it was discovered that there are generating tools like Data Access Object (DAO) and Hibernate, however their usage causes problems like inefficiency and slow performance due to many connections with database and set up time. Most of these tools are trying to solve specific problems rather than generating a data layer which is an important component and the bottom layer of database centred applications. The proposed solution to the problem is an engineering approach where we have designed a tool named Generated Intelligent Data Layer (GIDL). GIDL tool generates small models which create the main data layer of the system according to the Database Model. The goal of this tool is to enable and allow software developers to work only with object without deep knowledge in SQL. The problem of transaction and commit is solved by the tool. Also filter objects are constructed for filtering the database. GIDL tool reduced the number of connections and also have a cache where to store object lists and modify them. The tool is compared under the same environment with Hibernate and showed a better performance in terms of time evaluations for the same functions. GIDL tool is beneficial for software developers, because it generates the entire data layer.

People with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) have a particular difficulty in forming and maintaining close relationships. The Relational Affective Model (Mizen, 2014) proposes that intimate relationships activate claustro-agoraphobic anxieties as the person alternately seeks and flees emotional closeness. The therapeutic relationship is a specialised kind of intimate relationship in which claustro-agoraphobic anxieties are likely to be activated in a process which psychoanalysis understands as transference. The understanding and working through of this transference is the mutative factor proposed in psychodynamic therapies. This study explored participants' mental representation of the internal psychic space of the other. Ten people with a diagnosis of BPD were asked to describe themselves and significant others, including their therapist in order to understand more about (1) their mental representations of the internal space of the other; (2) their relationship with their therapist with reference to internal space. and (3) the implications for the Relational Affective Model and clinical understanding of BPD. Using a mixed qualitative methodology four broad but distinct ways of describing internal space states emerged: positive, negative, nondescript and merged, which I have termed Alpha, Omega, Non-Alpha and Merged. Case study analyses for the four participants who provided interviews at the beginning and end of their treatment were conducted to attempt to highlight any changes in the internal space states identified. A thematic analysis of therapist descriptions indicated participants were positively engaged with their therapist. Negative internal space (Omega) descriptions of self and mother did not transfer to the relationship with the therapist in the early stages of therapy. The implications for the Relational Affective Model are considered.

This project examines how the quality of a code generator used in an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) framework can be improved in terms of maintainability, testability and reusability by changing the design from a top-down perspective to a bottom up. The resulting generator is tested in a case study to verify that the new design is more cohesive and less coupled than an existing code generator.

This work describes important periods of making application on editing 3D scene. It concerns a program which makes possible visualization of objects and simulation graphic scene. The introduction of this document is dedicated to theorical analysis, which is oriented on objects presentation in computer graphic with detailed orientation on Boundary Representation. The following chapter is about transformations and manipulators. Design part introduces basic problems and apprises with exercise solutions on general level. In the part of the implementation, we find detailed description of actual solution for particular phase of proposal. It states description of advanced camera system and transformation of objects by the help of graphic manipulators. The next chapter discuss implement effects, modifications and solution for graphical user interface.

Die Stixel-Welt ist eine neuartige und vielseitig einsetzbare Zwischenrepräsentation zur effizienten Beschreibung dreidimensionaler Szenen. Heutige stereobasierte Sehsysteme ermöglichen die Bestimmung einer Tiefenmessung für nahezu jeden Bildpunkt in Echtzeit. Das erlaubt zum einen die Anwendung neuer leistungsfähiger Algorithmen, doch gleichzeitig steigt die zu verarbeitende Datenmenge und der dadurch notwendig werdende Aufwand massiv an. Gerade im Hinblick auf die limitierte Rechenleistung jener Systeme, wie sie in der videobasierten Fahrerassistenz zum Einsatz kommen, ist dies eine große Herausforderung. Um dieses Problem zu lösen, bietet die Stixel-Welt eine generische Abstraktion der Rohdaten des Sensors. Jeder Stixel repräsentiert individuell einen Teil eines Objektes im Raum und segmentiert so die Umgebung in Freiraum und Objekte. Die Arbeit stellt die notwendigen Verfahren vor, um die Stixel-Welt mittels dynamischer Programmierung in einem einzigen globalen Optimierungsschritt in Echtzeit zu extrahieren. Dieser Prozess wird durch eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Annahmen über unsere von Menschenhand geschaffene Umgebung gestützt. Darauf aufbauend wird ein Kalmanfilter-basiertes Verfahren zur präzisen Bewegungsschätzung anderer Objekte vorgestellt. Die Arbeit stellt umfangreiche Bewertungen der zu erwartenden Leistungsfähigkeit aller vorgestellten Verfahren an. Dafür kommen sowohl vergleichende Ansätze als auch diverse Referenzsensoren, wie beispielsweise LIDAR, RADAR oder hochpräzise Inertialmesssysteme, zur Anwendung. Die Stixel-Welt ist eine extrem kompakte Abstraktion der dreidimensionalen Umgebung und bietet gleichzeitig einfachsten Zugriff auf alle essentiellen Informationen der Szene. Infolge dieser Arbeit war es möglich, die Effizienz vieler auf der Stixel-Welt aufbauender Algorithmen deutlich zu verbessern.
The Stixel World is a novel and versatile medium-level representation to efficiently bridge the gap between pixel-based processing and high-level vision. Modern stereo matching schemes allow to obtain a depth measurement for almost every pixel of an image in real-time, thus allowing the application of new and powerful algorithms. However, it also results in a large amount of measurement data that has to be processed and evaluated. With respect to vision-based driver assistance, these algorithms are executed on highly integrated low-power processing units that leave no room for algorithms with an intense calculation effort. At the same time, the growing number of independently executed vision tasks asks for new concepts to manage the resulting system complexity. These challenges are tackled by introducing a pre-processing step to extract all required information in advance. Each Stixel approximates a part of an object along with its distance and height. The Stixel World is computed in a single unified optimization scheme. Strong use is made of physically motivated a priori knowledge about our man-made three-dimensional environment. Relying on dynamic programming guarantees to extract the globally optimal segmentation for the entire scenario. Kalman filtering techniques are used to precisely estimate the motion state of all tracked objects. Particular emphasis is put on a thorough performance evaluation. Different comparative strategies are followed which include LIDAR, RADAR, and IMU reference sensors, manually created ground truth data, and real-world tests. Altogether, the Stixel World is ideally suited to serve as the basic building block for today''s increasingly complex vision systems. It is an extremely compact abstraction of the actual world giving access to the most essential information about the current scenario. Thanks to this thesis, the efficiency of subsequently executed vision algorithms and applications has improved significantly.

The doctoral thesis deals with the study of quantitative aspects of shape attribute ssuitable for numerical characterization, i.e., shape descriptors, as well as the theory of uncertainty, particularly the theory of fuzzy sets, and their application in imageprocessing. The original contributions and results of the thesis can be naturally divided into two groups, in accordance with the approaches used to obtain them. The first group of contributions relates to introducing new shape descriptors (of hexagonality and fuzzy squareness) and associated measures that evaluate to what extent the shape considered satisfies these properties. The introduced measures are naturally defined, theoretically well-founded, and satisfy most of the desirable properties expected to be satisfied by each well-defined shape measure. To mention some of them: they both range through (0,1] and achieve the largest possible value 1 if and only if the shape considered is a hexagon, respectively a fuzzy square; there is no non-zero area shape with the measured hexagonality or fuzzy squareness equal to 0; both introduced measures are invariant to similarity transformations; and provide results that are consistent with the theoretically proven results, as well as human perception and expectation. Numerous experiments on synthetic and real examples are shown aimed to illustrate theoretically proven considerations and to provide clearer insight into the behaviour of the introduced shape measures. Their advantages and applicability are illustrated in various tasks of recognizing and classifying objects images of several well-known and most frequently used image datasets. Besides, the doctoral thesis contains research related to the application of the theory of uncertainty, in the narrower sense fuzzy set theory, in the different tasks of image processing and shape analysis. We distinguish between the tasks relating to the extraction of shape features, and those relating to performance improvement of different image processing and image analysis techniques. Regarding the first group of tasks, we deal with the application of fuzzy set theory in the tasks of introducing new fuzzy shape-based descriptor, named fuzzy squareness, and measuring how much fuzzy square is given fuzzy shape. In the second group of tasks, we deal withthe study of improving the performance of estimates of both the Euclidean distancetransform in three dimensions (3D EDT) and the centroid distance signature of shape in two dimensions. Performance improvement is particularly reflected in terms of achieved accuracy and precision, increased invariance to geometrical transformations (e.g., rotation and translation), and robustness in the presence of noise and uncertainty resulting from the imperfection of devices or imaging conditions. The latter also refers to the second group of the original contributions and results of the thesis. It is motivated by the fact that the shape analysis traditionally assumes that the objects appearing in the image are previously uniquely and crisply extracted from the image. This is usually achieved in the process of sharp (i.e., binary) segmentation of the original image where a decision on the membership of point to an imaged object is made in a sharp manner. Nevertheless, due to the imperfections of imaging conditions or devices, the presence of noise, and various types of imprecision (e.g., lack of precise object boundary or clear boundaries between the objects, errors in computation, lack of information, etc.), different levels of uncertainty and vagueness in the process of making a decision regarding the membership of image point may potentially occur. This is particularly noticeable in the case of discretization (i.e., sampling) of continuous image domain when a single image element, related to corresponding image sample point, iscovered by multiple objects in an image. In this respect, it is clear that this type of segmentation can potentially lead to a wrong decision on the membership of image points, and consequently irreversible information loss about the imaged objects. Thisstems from the fact that image segmentation performed in this way does not permit that the image point may be a member to a particular imaged object to some degree, further leading to the potential risk that points partially contained in the object beforesegmentation will not be assigned to the object after segmentation. However, if instead of binary segmentation, it is performed segmentation where a decision about the membership of image point is made in a gradual rather than crisp manner, enabling that point may be a member to an object to some extent, then making a sharp decision on the membership can be avoided at this early analysis step. This further leads that potentially a large amount of object information can be preserved after segmentation and used in the following analysis steps. In this regard, we are interested in one specific type of fuzzy segmentation, named coverage image segmentation, resulting in fuzzy digital image representation where membership value assigned to each image element is proportional to its relative coverage by a continuous object present in the original image. In this thesis, we deal with the study of coverage digitization model providing coverage digital image representation and present how significant improvements in estimating 3D EDT, as well as the centroid distance signature of continuous shape, can be achieved, if the coverageinformation available in this type of image representation is appropriately considered.
Докторска дисертација се бави проучавањем квантитативних аспеката атрибутаоблика погодних за нумеричку карактеризацију, то јест дескриптора облика, као итеоријом неодређености, посебно теоријом фази скупова, и њиховом применом у обради слике. Оригинални доприноси и резултати тезе могу се природно поделити у две групе, у складу са приступом и методологијом која је коришћена за њихово добијање. Прва група доприноса односи се на увођење нових дескриптора облика (шестоугаоности и фази квадратности) као и одговарајућих мера које нумерички оцењују у ком обиму разматрани облик задовољава разматрана својства. Уведене мере су природно дефинисане, теоријски добро засноване и задовољавају већину пожељних својстава које свака добро дефинисана мера облика треба да задовољава. Поменимо неке од њих: обе мере узимају вредности из интервала (0,1] и достижу највећу могућу вредност 1 ако и само ако је облик који се посматра шестоугао, односно фази квадрат; не постоји облик не-нула површине чија је измерена шестоугаоност, односно фази квадратност једнака 0; обе уведене мере су инваријантне у односу на трансформације сличности; и дају резултате који су у складу са теоријски доказаним резултатима, као и људском перцепцијом и очекивањима. Бројни експерименти на синтетичким и реалним примерима приказани су у циљу илустровања теоријски доказаних разматрања и пружања јаснијег увида у понашање уведених мера. Њихова предност и корисност илустровани су у различитим задацима препознавања и класификације слика објеката неколико познатих и најчешће коришћених база слика. Поред тога, докторска теза садржи истраживања везана за примену теорије неодређености, у ужем смислу теорије фази скупова, у различитим задацима обраде слике и анализе облика. Разликујемо задатке који се односе на издвајање карактеристика облика ионе који се односе на побољшање перформанси различитих техника обраде ианализе слике. Што се тиче прве групе задатака, бавимо се применом теорије фази скупова у задацима дефинисања новог дескриптора фази облика, назван фази квадратност, и мерења колико је фази квадратан посматрани фази облик. У другој групи задатака бавимо се истраживањем побољшања перформанси оцене трансформације слике еуклидским растојањима у три димензије (3Д ЕДТ), као и сигнатуре непрекидног облика у две димензије засноване на растојању одцентроида облика. Ово последње се посебно огледа у постигнутој тачности ипрецизности оцене, повећаној инваријантности у односу на ротацију и транслацију објекта, као и робустности у присуству шума и неодређености које су последица несавршености уређаја или услова снимања. Последњи резултати се такође односе и на другу групу оригиналних доприноса тезе који су мотивисани чињеницом да анализа облика традиционално претпоставља да су објекти на слици претходно једнозначно и јасно издвојени из слике. Такво издвајање објеката се обично постиже у процесу јасне (то јест бинарне) сегментације оригиналне слике где се одлука о припадности тачке објекту на слици доноси на једнозначан и недвосмислени начин. Међутим, услед несавршености услова или уређаја за снимање, присуства шума и различитих врста непрецизности (на пример непостојање прецизне границе објекта или јасних граница између самих објеката, грешке у рачунању, недостатка информација, итд.), могу се појавити различити нивои несигурности и неодређености у процесу доношења одлуке у вези са припадношћу тачке слике. Ово је посебно видљиво у случају дискретизације (то јест узорковања) непрекидног домена слике кадаелемент слике, придружен одговарајућој тачки узорка домена, може битиделимично покривен са више објеката на слици. У том смислу, имамо да ова врста сегментације може потенцијално довести до погрешне одлуке о припадности тачака слике, а самим тим и неповратног губитка информација о објектима који се на слици налазе. То произлази из чињенице да сегментација слике изведена на овај начин не дозвољава да тачка слике може делимично у одређеном обиму бити члан посматраног објекта на слици, што даље води потенцијалном ризику да тачке делимично садржане у објекту пре сегментације неће бити придружене објекту након сегментације. Међутим, ако се уместо бинарне сегментације изврши сегментација слике где се одлука о припадности тачке слике објекту доноси на начин који омогућава да тачка може делимично бити члан објекта у неком обиму, тада се доношење бинарне одлуке о чланство тачке објекту на слици може избећи у овом раном кораку анализе. То даље резултира да се потенцијално велика количина информација о објектима присутним на слици може сачувати након сегментације, и користити у следећим корацима анализе. С тим у вези, од посебног интереса за нас јесте специјална врста фази сегментације слике, сегментација заснована на покривености елемената слике, која као резултат обезбеђује фази дигиталну репрезентацију слике где је вредност чланства додељена сваком елементу пропорционална његовој релативној покривености непрекидним објектом на оригиналној слици. У овој тези бавимо се истраживањем модела дигитализације покривености који пружа овакву врсту репрезентацију слике и представљамо како се могу постићи значајна побољшања у оцени 3Д ЕДТ, као и сигнатуре непрекидног облика засноване на растојању од центроида, ако су информације о покривеностидоступне у овој репрезентацији слике разматране на одговарајући начин.
Doktorska disertacija se bavi proučavanjem kvantitativnih aspekata atributaoblika pogodnih za numeričku karakterizaciju, to jest deskriptora oblika, kao iteorijom neodređenosti, posebno teorijom fazi skupova, i njihovom primenom u obradi slike. Originalni doprinosi i rezultati teze mogu se prirodno podeliti u dve grupe, u skladu sa pristupom i metodologijom koja je korišćena za njihovo dobijanje. Prva grupa doprinosa odnosi se na uvođenje novih deskriptora oblika (šestougaonosti i fazi kvadratnosti) kao i odgovarajućih mera koje numerički ocenjuju u kom obimu razmatrani oblik zadovoljava razmatrana svojstva. Uvedene mere su prirodno definisane, teorijski dobro zasnovane i zadovoljavaju većinu poželjnih svojstava koje svaka dobro definisana mera oblika treba da zadovoljava. Pomenimo neke od njih: obe mere uzimaju vrednosti iz intervala (0,1] i dostižu najveću moguću vrednost 1 ako i samo ako je oblik koji se posmatra šestougao, odnosno fazi kvadrat; ne postoji oblik ne-nula površine čija je izmerena šestougaonost, odnosno fazi kvadratnost jednaka 0; obe uvedene mere su invarijantne u odnosu na transformacije sličnosti; i daju rezultate koji su u skladu sa teorijski dokazanim rezultatima, kao i ljudskom percepcijom i očekivanjima. Brojni eksperimenti na sintetičkim i realnim primerima prikazani su u cilju ilustrovanja teorijski dokazanih razmatranja i pružanja jasnijeg uvida u ponašanje uvedenih mera. NJihova prednost i korisnost ilustrovani su u različitim zadacima prepoznavanja i klasifikacije slika objekata nekoliko poznatih i najčešće korišćenih baza slika. Pored toga, doktorska teza sadrži istraživanja vezana za primenu teorije neodređenosti, u užem smislu teorije fazi skupova, u različitim zadacima obrade slike i analize oblika. Razlikujemo zadatke koji se odnose na izdvajanje karakteristika oblika ione koji se odnose na poboljšanje performansi različitih tehnika obrade ianalize slike. Što se tiče prve grupe zadataka, bavimo se primenom teorije fazi skupova u zadacima definisanja novog deskriptora fazi oblika, nazvan fazi kvadratnost, i merenja koliko je fazi kvadratan posmatrani fazi oblik. U drugoj grupi zadataka bavimo se istraživanjem poboljšanja performansi ocene transformacije slike euklidskim rastojanjima u tri dimenzije (3D EDT), kao i signature neprekidnog oblika u dve dimenzije zasnovane na rastojanju odcentroida oblika. Ovo poslednje se posebno ogleda u postignutoj tačnosti ipreciznosti ocene, povećanoj invarijantnosti u odnosu na rotaciju i translaciju objekta, kao i robustnosti u prisustvu šuma i neodređenosti koje su posledica nesavršenosti uređaja ili uslova snimanja. Poslednji rezultati se takođe odnose i na drugu grupu originalnih doprinosa teze koji su motivisani činjenicom da analiza oblika tradicionalno pretpostavlja da su objekti na slici prethodno jednoznačno i jasno izdvojeni iz slike. Takvo izdvajanje objekata se obično postiže u procesu jasne (to jest binarne) segmentacije originalne slike gde se odluka o pripadnosti tačke objektu na slici donosi na jednoznačan i nedvosmisleni način. Međutim, usled nesavršenosti uslova ili uređaja za snimanje, prisustva šuma i različitih vrsta nepreciznosti (na primer nepostojanje precizne granice objekta ili jasnih granica između samih objekata, greške u računanju, nedostatka informacija, itd.), mogu se pojaviti različiti nivoi nesigurnosti i neodređenosti u procesu donošenja odluke u vezi sa pripadnošću tačke slike. Ovo je posebno vidljivo u slučaju diskretizacije (to jest uzorkovanja) neprekidnog domena slike kadaelement slike, pridružen odgovarajućoj tački uzorka domena, može bitidelimično pokriven sa više objekata na slici. U tom smislu, imamo da ova vrsta segmentacije može potencijalno dovesti do pogrešne odluke o pripadnosti tačaka slike, a samim tim i nepovratnog gubitka informacija o objektima koji se na slici nalaze. To proizlazi iz činjenice da segmentacija slike izvedena na ovaj način ne dozvoljava da tačka slike može delimično u određenom obimu biti član posmatranog objekta na slici, što dalje vodi potencijalnom riziku da tačke delimično sadržane u objektu pre segmentacije neće biti pridružene objektu nakon segmentacije. Međutim, ako se umesto binarne segmentacije izvrši segmentacija slike gde se odluka o pripadnosti tačke slike objektu donosi na način koji omogućava da tačka može delimično biti član objekta u nekom obimu, tada se donošenje binarne odluke o članstvo tačke objektu na slici može izbeći u ovom ranom koraku analize. To dalje rezultira da se potencijalno velika količina informacija o objektima prisutnim na slici može sačuvati nakon segmentacije, i koristiti u sledećim koracima analize. S tim u vezi, od posebnog interesa za nas jeste specijalna vrsta fazi segmentacije slike, segmentacija zasnovana na pokrivenosti elemenata slike, koja kao rezultat obezbeđuje fazi digitalnu reprezentaciju slike gde je vrednost članstva dodeljena svakom elementu proporcionalna njegovoj relativnoj pokrivenosti neprekidnim objektom na originalnoj slici. U ovoj tezi bavimo se istraživanjem modela digitalizacije pokrivenosti koji pruža ovakvu vrstu reprezentaciju slike i predstavljamo kako se mogu postići značajna poboljšanja u oceni 3D EDT, kao i signature neprekidnog oblika zasnovane na rastojanju od centroida, ako su informacije o pokrivenostidostupne u ovoj reprezentaciji slike razmatrane na odgovarajući način.

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia de Informática
Today, most software applications require mechanisms to store information persistently. For decades, Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs) have been the most common technology to provide efficient and reliable persistence. Due to the object-relational paradigm mismatch, object oriented applications that store data in relational databases have to deal with Object Relational Mapping (ORM) problems. Since the emerging of new ORM frameworks, there has been an attempt to lure developers for a radical paradigm shift. However, they still often have troubles finding the best persistence mechanism for their applications, especially when they have to bear with legacy database systems. The aim of this dissertation is to discuss the persistence problem on object oriented applications and find the best solutions. The main focus lies on the ORM limitations, patterns, technologies and alternatives. The project supporting this dissertation was implemented at Cachapuz under the Project Global Weighting Solutions (GWS). Essentially, the objectives of GWS were centred on finding the optimal persistence layer for CazFramework, mostly providing database interoperability with close-to-Structured Query Language (SQL) querying. Therefore, this work provides analyses on ORM patterns, frameworks, alternatives to ORM like Object-Oriented Database Management Systems (OODBMSs). It also describes the implementation of CazDataProvider, a .NET library tool providing database interoperability and dynamic query features. In the end, there is a performance comparison of all the technologies debated in this dissertation. The result of this dissertation provides guidance for adopting the best persistence technology or implement the most suitable ORM architectures.
Hoje, a maioria dos aplicações requerem mecanismos para armazenar informação persistentemente. Durante décadas, as RDBMSs têm sido a tecnologia mais comum para fornecer persistência eficiente e confiável. Devido à incompatibilidade dos paradigmas objetos-relacional, as aplicações orientadas a objetos que armazenam dados em bases de dados relacionais têm de lidar com os problemas do ORM. Desde o surgimento de novas frameworks ORM, houve uma tentativa de atrair programadores para uma mudança radical de paradigmas. No entanto, eles ainda têm muitas vezes dificuldade em encontrar o melhor mecanismo de persistência para as suas aplicações, especialmente quando eles têm de lidar com bases de dados legadss. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir o problema de persistência em aplicações orientadas a objetos e encontrar as melhores soluções. O foco principal está nas limitações, padrões e tecnologias do ORM bem como suas alternativas. O projeto de apoio a esta dissertação foi implementado na Cachapuz no âmbito do Projeto GWS. Essencialmente, os objetivos do GWS foram centrados em encontrar a camada de persistência ideal para a CazFramework, principalmente fornecendo interoperabilidade de base de dados e consultas em SQL. Portanto, este trabalho fornece análises sobre padrões, frameworks e alternativas ao ORM como OODBMS. Além disso descreve a implementação do CazDataProvider, uma biblioteca .NET que fornece interoperabilidade de bases de dados e consultas dinâmicas. No final, há uma comparação de desempenho de todas as tecnologias discutidas nesta dissertação. O resultado deste trabalho fornece orientação para adotar a melhor tecnologia de persistência ou implementar as arquiteturas ORM mais adequadas.

Scrivere di Islam. Raccontare la diaspora (Writing About Islam. Narrating a Diaspora) is a meditation on our multireligious, multicultural, and multilingual reality. It is the result of a personal and collaborative exploration of the necessity to rethink national culture and identity in a more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist way. The central part of this volume – both symbolically and physically – includes Shirin Ramzanali Fazel’s reflections on the discrimination of Muslims, and especially Muslim women, in Italy and the UK. Looking at school textbooks, newspapers, TV programs, and sharing her own personal experience, this section invites us to change the way Muslim immigrants are narrated in scholarly research and news reports. Most importantly, this section urges us to consider minorities not just as ‘topics’ of cultural analysis, but as audiences and cultural agents. Following Shirin’s invitation to question prevailing modes of representations of immigrants, the volume continues with a dialogue between the co-authors and discusses how collaboration can be a way to avoid reproducing a ‘colonial model’ of knowledge production, in which the white male scholar takes as object of analysis the work of an African female writer. The last chapter also asserts that immigration literature cannot be approached with the same expectations and questions readers would have when reading ‘canonised’ texts. A new critical terminology is needed in order to understand the innovative linguistic choices and narrative forms that immigrant writers have invented in order to describe a reality that has lacked representation or which has frequently been misrepresented, especially in the discourse around the contemporary Muslim diaspora.

Poussin’s Women: Sex and Gender in the Artist’s Works examines the paintings and drawings of the well-known seventeenth-century French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) from a gender studies perspective, focusing on a critical analysis of his representations of women. The book’s thematic chapters investigate Poussin’s women in their roles as predators, as lustful or the objects of lust, as lovers, killers, victims, heroines, or models of virtue. Poussin’s paintings reflect issues of gender within his social situation as he consciously or unconsciously articulated its conflicts and assumptions. A gender studies approach brings to light new critical insights that illuminate how the artist represented women, both positively and negatively, within the framework in his seventeenth-century culture. This book covers the artist’s works from Classical mythology, Roman history, Tasso, and the Bible. It serves as a good overview of Poussin as an artist, discussing the latest research and including new interpretations of his major works.

The introduction outlines the art of the object in medieval Islam and introduces several of the book’s key concepts. It aligns architecture and the plastic arts, and shows how points of commonality between these “arts of the third dimension” are drawn allusively in the medieval Islamic context, relying not on direct morphological likeness but on indirect models of representation. It also discusses the implications of miniaturization and draws distinctions between the allusive artworks under discussion and representational objects like architectural maquettes or votive models. The introduction tackles head-on the unique issues of medieval Islamic portable artworks: the mobility of the objects and the problems this raises for traditional taxonomies, the role of the art market in the formation of the extant corpus, and the reductive effects of museum display and photographic reproduction on objects that were originally designed to be held and moved in the hands.

Several concepts used in the area of consciousness and cognition are discussed. There are five distinguished types of creature consciousness. An organism may be said to be conscious is it can sense and perceive its environment and has the capacity to respond appropriately. A second sense of creature consciousness requires not merely the capacity to sense or perceive, but the current active use of those capacities. Another notion of creature consciousness requires that organisms be not only aware but also self-aware. Self-awareness comes in degrees and varies along multiple dimensions. The conscious creatures might be defined as those that have an experiential life. Organisms are sometimes said to be conscious of various items or objects. Consciousness in this sense is understood as an intentional relation between the organism and some object or item of which it is aware. The conscious states might be regarded as those that have phenomenal properties or phenomenal character. The representationalist theories claim that conscious states have no mental properties other than their representational properties. Higher-order theories analyze consciousness as a form of self-awareness. Higher-order theories come in several forms. Some treat the requisite higher-order states as perception-like, and thus the process of generating such states is a kind of inner perception or perhaps introspection. The intermediate level representation model focuses on the contents of conscious experience.

This chapter evaluates the case for treating concepts as causal models, the view that people conceive of a categories as consisting of not only features but also the causal relations that link those features. In particular, it reviews the role of causal models in category-based induction. Category-based induction consists of drawing inferences about either objects or categories; in the latter case one generalizes a feature to a category (and thus its members). How causal knowledge influences how categories are formed in the first place—causal-based category discovery—is also examined. Whereas the causal model approach provides a generally compelling account of a large variety of inductive inferences, certain key discrepancies between the theory and empirical findings are highlighted. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the new sorts of representations, tasks, and tests that should be applied to the causal model approach to concepts.

Probability theory forms a natural framework for explaining the impressive success of people at solving many difficult inductive problems, such as learning words and categories, inferring the relevant features of objects, and identifying functional relationships. Probabilistic models of cognition use Bayes’s rule to identify probable structures or representations that could have generated a set of observations, whether the observations are sensory input or the output of other psychological processes. In this chapter we address an important question that arises within this framework: How do people infer representations that are complex enough to faithfully encode the world but not so complex that they “overfit” noise in the data? We discuss nonparametric Bayesian models as a potential answer to this question. To do so, first we present the mathematical background necessary to understand nonparametric Bayesian models. We then delve into nonparametric Bayesian models for three types of hidden structure: clusters, features, and functions. Finally, we conclude with a summary and discussion of open questions for future research.

‘The real represents to my perception the things that we cannot possibly not know, sooner or later, in one way or another,’ wrote Henry James in 1907. This description, riven with double negatives, hesitation, and uncertainty, encapsulates the epistemological difficulties of realism, for underlying its narrative and descriptive apparatus as an aesthetic mode lies a philosophical quandary. What grounds the ‘real’ of the realist novel? What kind of perception is required to validate the experience of reality? How does the realist novel represent the difficulty of knowing? What comes to the fore in James’s account, as in so many, is how the forms of realism are constituted by a relation to unknowing, absence and ineffability. Realism, Form, and Representation in the Edwardian Novel recovers a neglected literary history centred on the intricate relationship between fictional representation and philosophical commitment. It asks how—or if—we can conceptualize realist novels when the objects of their representational intentions are realities that might exist beyond what is empirically verifiable by sense data or analytically verifiable by logic, and are thus irreducible to conceptual schemes or linguistic practices—a formulation Charlotte Jones refers to as ‘synthetic realism’. In new readings of Edwardian novels (including Conrad’s Nostromo and The Secret Agent, Wells’s Tono-Bungay, and Ford’s The Good Soldier), Jones revises and reconsiders key elements of realist novel theory—metaphor and metonymy; character interiority; the insignificant detail; omniscient narration and free indirect discourse; causal linearity—to uncover the representational strategies by which realist writers grapple with the recalcitrance of reality as a referential anchor, and seek to give form to the force, opacity, and uncertain scope of realities that may lie beyond the material. In restoring a metaphysical dimension to the realist novel’s imaginary, Realism, Form, and Representation in the Edwardian Novel offers a new conceptualisation of realism both within early twentieth-century literary culture and as a transhistorical mode of representation.

This chapter introduces the broad outlines of Malebranche’s treatment of perception. Although much changes over the course of Malebranche’s career, the background ontology of sensation remains constant. Pace recent commentators, the chapter argues that Malebranche is not an adverbialist about sensation. Instead, Malebranche follows out the logical implications of Descartes’s substance/mode ontology. As he sees it, sensations can only be modes of minds, with the seemingly unfortunate result that the mind sensing green really is green. What is more to the point, Descartes’s ontology of sensation deprives them of any role in representation or intentionality. The objects of our sensings are blank effects, mere states of the soul that cannot direct the mind to the world of extension.

The eighteenth century is often seen as a time when disability became increasingly marginalized in visual culture. However, a glimpse beyond the classical tastes of “high” art reveals not a disappearance but a flourishing of representations of physical and sensory difference. Eighteenth-century popular art and satirical prints examined the disabled body not just as a symbol of misfortune or target for medical intervention, but also as a source of pleasure or an object of satire that conveyed wider messages about the times. A rich and varied range of pictorial representations of disability in the long eighteenth century (ca. 1680–ca. 1830) contributed to social, cultural, and medical understandings of bodily difference in English culture. People with disabilities played important roles as artists, models, and critics in an era before modern “disability arts.”

This chapter endorses Lucy Allais’s attribution of a non-conceptualist view to Kant and her methodology of appealing to contemporary cognitive science. In particular, it agrees with Allais that intuition should be understood as the result of cognitive processing (rather than as brutely given). But the chapter argues that Allais’s choice of ‘binding’ as an empirical model (for the generation of intuition) is not apt, proposing instead that the processing that generates intuition should be taken to implement empirically-identified ‘principles of object perception’. It is argued that representation conforming to these principles need not qualify as conceptual by Kant’s standards.

Learning how to execute complex tasks involving multiple objects in a 3D world is challenging when there is no ground-truth information about the objects or any demonstration to learn from. When an agent only receives a signal from task-completion, this makes it challenging to learn the object-representations which support learning the correct object-interactions needed to complete the task. In this work, we formulate learning an attentive object dynamics model as a classification problem, using random object-images to define incorrect labels for our object-dynamics model. We show empirically that this enables object-representation learning that captures an object's category (is it a toaster?), its properties (is it on?), and object-relations (is something inside of it?). With this, our core learner (a relational RL agent) receives the dense training signal it needs to rapidly learn object-interaction tasks. We demonstrate results in the 3D AI2Thor simulated kitchen environment with a range of challenging food preparation tasks. We compare our method's performance to several related approaches and against the performance of an oracle: an agent that is supplied with ground-truth information about objects in the scene. We find that our agent achieves performance closest to the oracle in terms of both learning speed and maximum success rate.

Abstract Solid models are static entities, often defined by boundary representation models as sets of enclosing surfaces. Constructive Solid Geometry and feature-based computer-aided design environments create procedural descriptions of 3D objects in forms of history or CSG trees. These representations are temporally fixed, i.e., they describe the state of an object at a point in time. This paper describes a method to represent and capture temporal evolution of solid models — what we call model process history. We define process history to be all states of a model — the search space of design process. This paper presents a representational formalism we call model process graphs (MPGs). We use MPGs to integrate a model’s description with a model of temporal changes that occur during the design process. We believe that MPG representations can have valuable application for many design and manufacturing problems. The paper describes our preliminary results to use MPGs to (1) create a record of design process; (2) store process-based design rationale; (3) represent in-process shapes for machined artifacts. We anticipate that similar structures will find application in other design and manufacturing problems where important process knowledge is embodied by temporal changes occurring in model evolution.

Virtual assembly systems have become popular in recent years due to its ability to simulate natural interaction between parts and ease of manipulation by the user. One of the most relevant technologies used in virtual assembly systems are haptic devices that provide force feedback and allow simulating real word conditions, such as weight, inertia, texture and collisions. Physics simulation engines (PSE) are another important tool used to simulate a realistic behavior in virtual assembly systems by enabling the effect of gravity and collision response of the virtual objects, resulting in a real world behavior. However, the use of haptic systems together with physics simulation engines is costly in terms of computing resources. This cost is mainly associated to collision detection between virtual objects, and increases when the shapes represented within the PSE are more complex, resulting in a poor performance of the virtual assembly system, making very difficult to simulate the assembly of complex parts or use several parts in the assembly. The present work shows a new algorithm to simulate complex objects, by using a different representation of the same object according with its dynamic state during the assembly process. The results show that the use of mixed model representation reduce the computing time when assembling objects, thus improving the performance of the virtual assembly system and finally allowing a better comfort and performance of the user during the assembly process. The system HAMS (Haptic Assembly and Manufacturing System) was used for the experimental validation, also the simulation of four assembly tasks that simulate real assembly objects, has been conducted.

This paper introduces an approach for modeling and representation of geometric tolerances on any 3D solid model using the Objected Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm. The modeling scheme is supported by a comprehensive validation engine, which certifies the tolerance type against the 3D geometry context both syntactically and semantically. The major objective of this work is to develop a methodology for interfacing tolerance modeling with boundary representation (B-Rep) based 3D solid model geometry. We will demonstrate that the OOP paradigm is very efficient and flexible for tolerance model representation, which is required within the interactive design process. Six categories of tolerance classes have been developed for size, form, orientation, position, runout and profile, which extend a general tolerance class through inheritance. An instance of the general tolerance class will be initialized when picking a feature or a group of features to tolerance, depending upon feature(s’) characteristics and attributes. To apply a tolerance object the system obtains the 3D geometric data from the solid model using the feature extraction paradigm. When the required tolerance type is selected for modeling, an instance from the specified tolerance type class will be initialized through inheritance from the general feature tolerance class and gathers the necessary information / tolerance data. An intelligent validation engine that supports the modeler is introduced. The engine validates any selected tolerancing activity in two stages. First, it ensures that the selected feature or group of features is suitable for the selected tolerance type. Second, it ensures that the data specified does not lead to over/under-dimensioning. The paper also discusses a prototype system implemented to test the modeler and the validation engine. The results have been very encouraging while testing the system on a number of engineering models.

Abstract Feature extraction techniques are presented for the generation of casting core patterns from a boundary representation (B-Rep) solid model. Techniques are presented which would allow for automatic extraction of three classes of core features (internal voids, single and multi-surface holes, and boundary perturbations). The task of extracting casting cores from solid models involves recognizing a collection of entities (i.e. slots, bosses, undercut surfaces, local and global concavities, etc.) from the set of lower level entities (i.e. the B-Rep structure). To this end, a combination of solid modeling B-Rep and graph structures and their associated methods will be used for casting core development. Appropriate local features are identified and extracted from the original object, and are grouped into one or more new object(s) (termed a core-object). If the core-object is multiply connected (i.e. composed of multiple objects), it is graph separated into global feature objects. Each of these global feature objects represents a core in the final pattern. Lastly, the geometry of the original part is augmented to add core prints where core geometries were extracted. The core print, as currently developed, combines the extracted core geometry and its convex hull.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the main issues for product information exchange through the Open Assembly Model (OAM). The OAM model provides a base level product model that is open, simple, generic, expandable, independent of any vendor software and product development process, and capable of engineering context that is shared throughout the product lifecycle. Two of the main issues in the OAM model are the representation of geometric information of the artifacts (and assembly features) and maintenance of the consistency of the product information among relevant classes based on geometry information. This paper considers the geometry information at three levels: 1) basic geometric information of artifact with position and orientation information, 2) assembly features and their interrelations, and 3) detailed geometric information of all features in the artifact. In addition to geometric information, other relations/associations between the classes in the Unified Modeling Language (UML) based OAM model are maintained by constraints written in Object Constraint Language (OCL). This information structure in the UML and OCL is then mapped into the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for easy information exchange. XML is commonly used and supported by many softwares. Therefore, integration of XML with UML will provide an excellent tool for internet based collaboration.

Zero-shot object detection (ZSD) has received considerable attention from the community of computer vision in recent years. It aims to simultaneously locate and categorize previously unseen objects during inference. One crucial problem of ZSD is how to accurately predict the label of each object proposal, i.e. categorizing object proposals, when conducting ZSD for unseen categories. Previous ZSD models generally relied on learning an embedding from visual space to semantic space or learning a joint embedding between semantic description and visual representation. As the features in the learned semantic space or the joint projected space tend to suffer from the hubness problem, namely the feature vectors are likely embedded to an area of incorrect labels, and thus it will lead to lower detection precision. In this paper, instead, we propose to learn a deep embedding from the semantic space to the visual space, which enables to well alleviate the hubness problem, because, compared with semantic space or joint embedding space, the distribution in visual space has smaller variance. After learning a deep embedding model, we perform $k$ nearest neighbor search in the visual space of unseen categories to determine the category of each semantic description. Extensive experiments on two public datasets show that our approach significantly outperforms the existing methods.

The product representation for storing design information presented in this paper is based on a dynamic object-oriented data model. This model stores design data as they are generated during design in a computable format, as well as supports case-based reasoning and sharing of data among all design teams. This model represents each entity in the product as a generic container that encompasses its form, function, behavior, taxonomy, composition and relationships. Different features can be added dynamically, i.e. during run time, to the container as needed. The model integrates multiple views of various design teams, supports dynamic design evolution and exploration, and is extensible. Finally, the model is computable because it provides means of establishing quantitative and qualitative relationships between model parameters and entities. Any subsequent change of related model parameters or entities will cause an automatic controlled propagation of changes to take place in dependent parameters and entities.

While learning based depth estimation from images/videos has achieved substantial progress, there still exist intrinsic limitations. Supervised methods are limited by a small amount of ground truth or labeled data and unsupervised methods for monocular videos are mostly based on the static scene assumption, not performing well on real world scenarios with the presence of dynamic objects. In this paper, we propose a new learning based method consisting of DepthNet, PoseNet and Region Deformer Networks (RDN) to estimate depth from unconstrained monocular videos without ground truth supervision. The core contribution lies in RDN for proper handling of rigid and non-rigid motions of various objects such as rigidly moving cars and deformable humans. In particular, a deformation based motion representation is proposed to model individual object motion on 2D images. This representation enables our method to be applicable to diverse unconstrained monocular videos. Our method can not only achieve the state-of-the-art results on standard benchmarks KITTI and Cityscapes, but also show promising results on a crowded pedestrian tracking dataset, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the deformation based motion representation. Code and trained models are available at https://github.com/haofeixu/rdn4depth.

Abstract For the efficient manipulation of information in support of design and manufacturing one would need to access large active databases. In this context, it is envisioned that 3-D object models must be easily retrieved for modification, or for simply reviewing related information. This paper addresses the development of a classification system for the efficient retrieval of 3-D object CAD models. For the design of a new object the user would access the database to locate the most similar object model and, if worthwhile, modify it to attain a model for the new object under consideration. The proposed classification procedure comprises three main stages: First, 3-D geometrical data, sufficient for classification, is determined and extracted from a selected model of the object, and a primary representation domain is determined. Contours, were selected as the basic descriptive units. Based on this selection, relationships defined by descriptor elements were established between (a) two solid contours; (b) a solid and a hollow contour; and, (c) two hollow contours. In order to facilitate the use of the descriptor elements, a simple alpha-numeric coding system was developed. In the second stage, the description of the object is mapped from the geometrical domain into a numerical-factor domain, where each contour is represented by a numerical value. In the final stage, a code is generated based on the factor-domain representation in the form of a Fourier signature. Classification is then carried out according to the similarity of the generated Fourier signatures.

Recent advances in visual sensing technology have gained much attention in the field of bridge inspection and management. Coupled with advanced robotic systems, state-of-the-art visual sensors can be used to obtain accurate documentation of bridges without the need for any special equipment or traffic closure. The captured visual sensor data can be post-processed to gather meaningful information for the bridge structures and hence to support bridge inspection and management. However, state-of-the-practice data postprocessing approaches require substantial manual operations, which can be time-consuming and expensive. The main objective of this study is to develop methods and algorithms to automate the post-processing of the visual sensor data towards the extraction of three main categories of information: 1) object information such as object identity, shapes, and spatial relationships - a novel heuristic-based method is proposed to automate the detection and recognition of main structural elements of steel girder bridges in both terrestrial and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based laser scanning data. Domain knowledge on the geometric and topological constraints of the structural elements is modeled and utilized as heuristics to guide the search as well as to reject erroneous detection results. 2) structural damage information, such as damage locations and quantities - to support the assessment of damage associated with small deformations, an advanced crack assessment method is proposed to enable automated detection and quantification of concrete cracks in critical structural elements based on UAV-based visual sensor data. In terms of damage associated with large deformations, based on the surface normal-based method proposed in Guldur et al. (2014), a new algorithm is developed to enhance the robustness of damage assessment for structural elements with curved surfaces. 3) three-dimensional volumetric models - the object information extracted from the laser scanning data is exploited to create a complete geometric representation for each structural element. In addition, mesh generation algorithms are developed to automatically convert the geometric representations into conformal all-hexahedron finite element meshes, which can be finally assembled to create a finite element model of the entire bridge. To validate the effectiveness of the developed methods and algorithms, several field data collections have been conducted to collect both the visual sensor data and the physical measurements from experimental specimens and in-service bridges. The data were collected using both terrestrial laser scanners combined with images, and laser scanners and cameras mounted to unmanned aerial vehicles.