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Browsing Staff publications (SoE) by Type "Conference paper"
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Item Open Access A 3D extension to cortex like mechanisms for 3D object class recognition(2012-06-21T00:00:00Z) Flitton, Greg T.; Breckon, Toby P.; Megherbi, NajlaWe introduce a novel 3D extension to the hierarchical visual cortex model used for prior work in 2D object recognition. Prior work on the use of the visual cortex standard model for the explicit task of object class recognition has solely concentrated on 2D imagery. In this paper we discuss the explicit 3D extension of each layer in this visual cortex model hierarchy for use in object recognition in 3D volumetric imagery. We apply this extended methodology to the automatic detection of a class of threat items in Computed Tomography (CT) security baggage imagery. The CT imagery suffers from poor resolution and a large number of artefacts generated through the presence of metallic objects. In our examination of recognition performance we make a comparison to a codebook approach derived from a 3D SIFT descriptor and demonstrate that the visual cortex method out-performs in this imagery. Recognition rates in excess of 95% with minimal false positive rates are demonstrated in the detection of a range of threat itemsItem Open Access 3D planar velocity measurements, using Mach-Zehnder interferometric-filter-based planar Doppler velocimetry (MZI-PDV) and imaging fibre bundles(2008-12-31T00:00:00Z) Lu, Z. H.; Charrett, Thomas O. H.; Ford, Helen D.; Tatam, Ralph P.; David, Sampson; Stephen, Collins; Kyunghwan, Oh; Ryozo, YamauchiThree component planar flow-field measurements are made using imaging fibre bundles to port different views of the measurement plane, defined by a laser light sheet, to a single imaging head. The Doppler frequency shifts of light scattered by particles entrained in the flow are transduced to intensity variations using a Mach-Zehnder interferometric filter. The free spectral range of the filter can be selected by adjusting the optical path difference of the interferometer. This allows the velocity measurement range, sensitivity and resolution to be varied. Any laser wavelength may be used. A phase locking system has been designed to stabilise the interferometric filter.Item Open Access Adaptive object placement for augmented reality use in driver assistance systems(2011-11-17T00:00:00Z) Bordes, Lucie; Breckon, Toby P.; Katramados, Ioannis; Kheyrollahi, AlirezaWe present an approach for adaptive object placement for Augmented Reality (AR) use in driver assistance systems. Combined vanishing point and road surface detection enable the real-time adaptive emplacement of AR objects within a drivers' natural field of view for on-road information display. This work combines both automotive vision and multimedia production aspects of real-time visual engineering.Item Open Access Adaptive vibration condition monitoring technology for local tooth damage in gearboxes.(Learned and Professional Society Publishers, 2005-08-01T00:00:00Z) Gelman, Leonid; Zimroz, R; Birkel, J; Leigh-Firbank, H; Simms, Daniel M.; Waterland, B; Whitehurst, GAn adaptive approach was applied for local tooth damage diagnostics in gearboxes. The expediency of adaptation was proved experimentally for the new diagnostic feature, the sum of normalized sideband amplitudes. The positive correlation between mesh amplitudes and their sideband amplitudes was found experimentally for the first time. Novel adaptive vibration condition monitoring technology for local tooth damage in gearboxes was developed and experimentally validated. The experimental results showed an increase in effectiveness of the diagnostics when the adaptive technology was used.Item Open Access Air traffic control safety indicators: what is achievable?(European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, 2006-10) Brooker, PeterEuropean Air Traffic Control is extremely safe. The drawback to this safety record is that it is very difficult to estimate what the ‘underlying’ accident rate for mid-air collisions is now, or to detect any changes over time. The aim is to see if it possible to construct simple ATC safety indicators that correlate with this underlying accident rate. A perfect indicator would be simple to comprehend and capable of being calculated by a checklist process. An important concept is that of ‘system control’: the ability to determine the outcome against reasonably foreseen changes and variations of system parameters. A promising indicator is ‘Incident Not Resolved by ATC’, INRA, incidents in which the ground ATC defences have been ‘used up’. The key question is: if someone says he or she knows how to make a good estimate of the underlying accident rate, then how could this claim be tested? If it correlates very well with INRA, then what would be the argument for saying that it is a better indicator?Item Open Access Air traffic management innovation and UK business opportunity(2008-01-16) Brooker, PeterATM (Air Traffic Management) and the associated UK business opportunities are huge topics, so the presentation sketches key issues. It includes lessons from the past, some ideas about the future, and case studies. The ATM system is big and complicated, so innovation has to combat system inertia. Two complementary ‘New ATM paradigms’, SESAR and NextGen, aim to break out of the limits inherent in the current ATM system. To innovate successfully in ATM, be part of the planned future that actually gets developed, and/or create/fill a need that is not yet in the plans.Item Open Access Airborne mapping of complex obstacles using 2D Splinegon(2008-06-04T00:00:00Z) Lazarus, Samuel B.; Shanmugavel, Madhavan; Tsourdos, Antonios; Zbikowski, Rafal; White, Brian A.This paper describes a recently proposed algorithm in mapping the unknown obstacle in a stationary environment where the obstacles are represented as curved in nature. The focus is to achieve a guaranteed performance of sensor based navigation and mapping. The guaranteed performance is quantified by explicit bounds of the position estimate of an autonomous aerial vehicle using an extended Kalman filter and to track the obstacle so as to extract the map of the obstacle. This Dubins path planning algorithm is used to provide a flyable and safe path to the vehicle to fly from one location to another. This description takes into account the fact that the vehicle is made to fly around the obstacle and hence will map the shape of the obstacle using the 2D-Splinegon technique. This splinegon technique, the most efficient and a robust way to estimate the boundary of a curved nature obstacles, can provide mathematically provable performance guarantees that are achievable in practice.Item Open Access Airlines within airlines: an analysis of US network airline responses to low cost carriers.(Elsevier, 2005-09) Morrell, PeterThe establishment of Low Cost Carrier offshoots by network carriers has three possible objectives: to spin off profitable businesses; to see off low cost competition in key markets; and to establish a test-bed for adapting low cost business processes to their mainline operations. It is argued that US network carrier offshoots have failed on all three counts. The significant cost differences between network and Low Cost Carriers are identified, and it is shown that network carriers have made little inroads into closing this gap, whether or not they set up Low Cost Carrier offshoots. Some reasons for the failure of the offshoots are proposed by examining operating differences: mixed fleets, keeping interlining and two class cabins and the lack of progress on reducing labour costs. Labour Union restrictions and the lack of separation from the main airline were crucial.Item Open Access ANASE: Lessons from 'Unreliable Findings'(2008) Brooker, PeterIn late 2007, the ANASE (Attitudes to Noise from Aviation Sources in England) report was published. It claimed that people are increasingly annoyed by aircraft noise, and it estimated how much they would be willing to pay to get rid of it. But its quantitative ‘findings were rejected as unreliable by the Department for Transport’ (BBC website). The project’s managers were warned in its early stages that the work would fail to deliver good value for money and not meet accepted technical/statistical standards. How and why did it fail? What were the methodological and project management failings? What are the lessons for acoustics professionals?Item Open Access Approaches to accident investigation by investigators from different cultures(2009-09-09T00:00:00Z) Li, Wen-Chin; Young, Hong-Tsu; Wang, Thomas; Harris, DonCultural characteristics play a significant part in aviation (Helmreich & Merritt, 1998). The collective nature of Chinese society is consistent with broad, contextual view of the world and their belief that events are highly complex and determined by many factors. On the other side, the individualistic nature of Western society seems consistent with the focus on particular objects in isolation from their context and with Westerners’ belief that they can know the rules governing objects and therefore can control the objects’ behavior (Nisbett, 2003). Westerners have a strong interest in categorization, which helps them to know what rules to apply to the objects, and formal logic plays a role in problem solving. Chinese attend to objects in their broad context. The world seems more complex to Chinese than to Westerners, and understanding events always requires consideration of many factors that operate in relation to one another in no simple way. From the I-Ching (ancient Chinese philosophical book), ‘for misery, happiness is leaning against it; for happiness, misery is hiding in it. Who knows whether it is misery or happiness? There is no certainty. The righteous suddenly becomes the vicious; the good suddenly becomes the bad’. Chinese is less concerned with finding the truth than with finding the harmony way to live in the world. As the result, Chinese failure to develop science can be attributed in part to lack of curiosity to the true, but the absence of a concept of nature would have blocked the development of science in any case.Item Open Access Breaking the chain: An empirical analysis of accident causal factors by human factors analysis and classification system(2006-09-14T00:00:00Z) Li, Wen-Chin; Harris, DonThis research analyzed 523 accidents in the R.O.C. Air Force between 1978 and 2002 using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework described by Wiegmann & Shappell (2003). This study provides an understanding, based upon empirical evidence, of how actions and decisions at higher levels in the organization to result in operational errors and accidents. Suggestions are made about intervention strategies focusing on the categories at higher levels of HFACS. Specific targets for remedial safety actions should be aimed in the areas that share the strongest and greatest number of significant associations with ‘Organizational Influences’ (for example, ‘organizational process’, ‘inadequate supervision’ and ‘Crew Resource Management’). The greatest gains in safety benefit could be achieved by targeting these areas. Furthermore, this study also demonstrates that the HFACS framework is a useful tool for guiding accident investigations and for targeting potentially cost-effective remedial safety actions for breaking the chain of accidents.Item Open Access Capability Readiness for Product-Service Systems(2009-09) Tetlay, Abideen; John, PhilipThis article discusses the relationship between “Capability”and „Product-Service Systems‟(PSS) and the need for the assessment of „Capability Readiness‟(CR) for PSS. It is suggested that this assessment is essential to determine whether or not the elements of capability for PSS are in place and maintained for the successful delivery of a sustainable PSS.Item Open Access Characterising the level of crashworthiness for impacts on hard ground and water surfaces for a metallic helicopter under floor structure: What lessons can be learned?(2008-05-07T00:00:00Z) Hughes, KevinHelicopters are seen by the petroleum industry as the only viable way of transportation between on and offshore platforms. At present, there exists no certification requirement to ensure a high level of survivability in the event of a water impact. Within the literature, there exists a body of information related to the post crash analysis of accident data, which supports the finding that a conventional metallic under floor design performs poorly during a water impact, in relation to the transmission of water pressure and the absorption of energy. In order to characterise this behaviour, this paper concerns the crashworthiness of helicopters to two extremes in loading, namely hard ground and water surfaces, for an impact speed of 8ms-1, for a simple box-beam construction common to metallic helicopters. The experimental findings were used to validate finite element simulations, with a view for assessing the level of crashworthiness currently offered, together with identifying potential design improvements. To improve the level of crashworthiness, careful redesign of frames, joints and skin is required, together with developing a passive next generation floor that can cater for both hard surface and water impacts, by being able to degrade its localised strength, depending upon the type of surface encountered.Item Open Access Clarifying the concepts of system maturity, system readiness and capability readiness through case studies(Published and used by CSER 2010 with permission., 2010-03) Tetlay, Abideen; John, PhilipThis paper clarifies the key concepts of System Maturity, System Readiness and Capability Readiness and refines their definitions. The authors have achieved this by analysing three high-profile defence projects as case studies. The following military based systems were chosen: Chinook Helicopter; Apache Helicopter; and the Type 45 Anti-Air Warfare Destroyer.Item Open Access Coherent fibre bundles in full-field swept-source OCT(2009-02-20T00:00:00Z) Ford, Helen D.; Tatam, Ralph P.; Fujimoto, J. G.; Izatt, J. A.; Tuchin, V. V.Endoscopic OCT probes deliver light to the measurement region via a single optical fibre mounted in a probe head. The output beam is focused onto the sample, providing a single point measurement. The beam is translated, using mechanical scanning at the probe tip, to address a line or area of sampling points and produce an image. We are investigating a swept-source OCT system incorporating coherent fibre bundles, to allow many measurement points to be addressed, within an area of the sample, without the need for mechanical motion within the endoscope probe. Scanning components are still present at the input of our system, but are no longer required within the flexible ndoscope section. This allows a small-diameter, electrically passive probe to be engineered using off-the-shelf scanning components. A common-path probe design is proposed, in which the bundle is external to the OCT interferometer. This eliminates contrast variations caused by non-controllable differences in the state of polarisation between fibres. Imaging bundle fibres are typically few-moded, which can lead to ghost features and reduced SNR in OCT images, but the common-path configuration also removes cross-mode interference problems, and reduces dispersion artefacts. OCT images of a microscope cover-slip and a sample of spring onion, acquired using the swept-source, bundle-based OCT system are presented. Features peculiar to the inclusion of the fibre bundle are discussed, and directions for future development of the system are outlined.Item Open Access Combined shearography and speckle pattern photography for single-access multi- component surface strain measurement(International Society for Optical Engineering; 1999, 2003-12-31T00:00:00Z) Groves, Roger M.; James, Stephen W.; Tatam, Ralph P.; Fu, S.; Shen, Gongxin X.; Cha, Soyoung S.; Chiang, F. P.; Mercer, Carolyn R.Full surface strain measurement requires the determination of two out-of-plane and four in-plane displacement gradient components of the surface strain tensor. Shearography is a full-field speckle interferometry technique with a sensitivity predominately to the out-of-plane displacement gradient. Speckle pattern photography has the sensitivity to the in-plane displacement, and taking the derivative yields the in-plane displacement gradient. In this paper the two techniques are combined to yield a single-access multi-component surface strain measurement using shearography to measure the out-of-plane components and speckle pattern photography to measure the in-plane components. Results are presented of a multi-component surface strain measurement.Item Open Access Complexity and cost effectiveness measures for systems design(2002-04-01T00:00:00Z) Guenov, Marin D.This paper proposes two measures intended to aid high level decision makers in comparing alternatives during pre-competitive studies or during the architectural design process of composite systems. The first measure is a complexity estimate and is based on Boltzmann’s entropy concept. It measures the distribution of functional couplings in the system’s decomposition. The second measure is intended to estimate the costs and benefits of a functional coupling related to system’s perfoItem Open Access Computational design process modelling(2006-12-01T00:00:00Z) Guenov, Marin D.; Libish; Tang, Dunbing; Lockett, Helen L.In the conceptual design phase, relatively simple equations and functions (or compiled code) are used to describe the aircraft and to perform trade-off studies. The latter require an optimal execution sequence in order to reduce computational cost and design time, respectively. The focus of this paper is the dynamic derivation of the optimal computational plan for each study so that the designer could focus on designing the aircraft rather than managing the process flow. Two methodologies, the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) and the Incidence Matrix are used for the computational process modeling. The incidence matrix describes the relationship between variables and equations/models. The DSM has been used to express the dependency relationships between the models and also, after manipulation, to produce the solution process. The designer specifies the independent (known) variables first. Then the variable flow is modeled using the Incidence Matrix Method (IMM). It determines how data flows through the models, and also identifies any strongly connected components (SCCs). The second step is to rearrange all equations/models hierarchically in order to reduce the feedback loops in each of the identified SCCs. This is achieved by the application of a genetic-based algorithm. Subsequently all SCCs and noncoupled models are assembled into a macro model which forms a global DSM. The global DSM is further rearranged to obtain an upper triangular matrix which defines the final model execution sequence. A simple aircraft sizing example is presented to illustrate the proposed method and algorithm. Advantages of the method include improved efficiency and the ability to deal with both algebraic and numerical models as well as with multiple outputs per model.Item Open Access Conceptual Framework for Assessing and Measuring System Maturity, System Readiness and Capability Readiness(INCOSE EuSEC 2010 with permission, 2010) Tetlay, AbideenThis study summarises the issues with the notions of "maturity" and "readiness" within the context of the System Development and overall Lifecycle and provides formal definitions for these terms. It explains why a Framework is required to assess and measure Maturity and Readiness and how the conceptual Framework was devised, including a process for applying the Framework for the assessment and measurement of System Maturity, System Readiness and Capability Readiness.Item Open Access Correlating histology and spectroscopy to differentiate pathologies of the colon(2012-09-25) Carey, Duane; Shepherd, Neil; Kendall, Catherine; Stone, Nick; Breckon, Toby P.; Lloyd, Gavin Rhys; Xianghua, XieThe techniques and procedures associated with histology are, in most cases, suitable for the diagnosis of colonic carcinomas. However, in cases such as epithelial misplacement the morphology of a stained tissue sample is homologous to that of cancer. This can lead to patients being misdiagnosed and undergoing unnecessary surgery. To prevent this surgery we suggest that the epithelium of tissue samples be examined using infrared (IR) spectroscopy. In this study, IR maps of tissue sections were registered to standard histology images so that epithelial specific spectra could be collected. The differences between these spectra were explored by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). This paper provides a novel protocol detailing how histology specific spectra can be collected. The potential usefulness of these spectra is demonstrated through the separation of epithelial misplacement cases and colonic carcinomas within PCA space.