16993485
The reconstruction of binary patterns from their projections
Given the horizontal and vertical projections of a finite binary pattern <italic>f</italic>, can we reconstruct the original pattern <italic>f</italic>? In this paper we give a characterization of patterns that are reconstructable from their projections. Three algorithms are developed to reconstruct both unambiguous and ambiguous patterns. It is shown that an unambiguous pattern can be perfectly reconstructed in time <italic>m</italic> × <italic>n</italic> and that a pattern similar to an ambiguous pattern can also be constructed in time <italic>m</italic> × <italic>n</italic>, where <italic>m</italic>, <italic>n</italic> are the dimensions of the pattern frame.
6609571
Efficient Techniques for Feature-Based Image/Video Access and Manipulation
Efficient, effective methods for indexing, searching, and retrieving images and videos from large archives are critical techniques required in visual information systems (VIS) applications. Users need a more powerful method for searching images than just traditional text-based query (e.g., keywords). Manual creation of keywords is too time-consuming for many practical applications. Subjective descriptions based on users’ input will be neither consistent nor complete. Also, the vocabulary used in describing visual contents is usually domain specific.
39945679
Iconic Language Design for People with Significant Speech and Multiple Impairments
34016873
Parsing 2D Languages by a Pictorial GLR Parser
35519508
Extending Visual Languages for Multimedia
Visual languages, which let users customize iconic sentences, can be extended to accommodate multimedia objects, letting users access media dynamically. Teleaction objects, or multimedia objects with knowledge structures, can be designed using visual languages to automatically respond to events and perform tasks like "find related books" in a virtual library.
17298481
Iconic language design for people with significant speech and multiple impairments
We present an approach of iconic language design for people with significant speech and multiple impairments (SSMI), based upon the theory of Icon Algebra and the theory of Conceptual Dependency (CD) to derive the meaning of iconic sentences. An interactive design environment based upon this methodology is described.
33123897
Assessing users' product-specific knowledge for personalization in electronic commerce
While many electronic commerce (EC) companies are adopting one-to-one marketing approaches using various personalization technologies to make their products and services unique for the purpose of attracting and retaining customers and improving their completion edges in the EC ecosystem, which, nevertheless, has low entrance barriers for new players to join and further intensify the competition, none or few of them consider a fundamental issue-the user's product-specific knowledge. Our research proposed to add this new domain of the customer's knowledge on appropriate target products into the personalization process as a part of the overall EC strategy for businesses. In this paper, we present our initial design for assessing the user's product-specific knowledge using the proposed innovative method for detecting it directly in a non-intrusive way without asking users to answer or fill out any types of questionnaires. Our method is based on customer's on-line navigation behaviors by analyzing their navigation patterns through pre-trained artificial neural networks. An empirical study designed for a case of EC store selling digital cameras was conducted in our research to prove the concept, and a good preliminary result was derived from the study. For the purpose of comparing the performances between the conventional approach of using questionnaire and the proposed innovative approach of navigation pattern mining, a questionnaire based approach for evaluating the user's product-specific knowledge was designed and incorporated into our knowledge level assessment system (KLAS). Our study result shows that although the pure questionnaire-based KLAS is intrusive and may not be accepted by some users, for those users willing to complete the questionnaire, the proposed navigation pattern approach can be combined with the questionnaire-based approach to create a hybrid KLAS which has a significantly improved accuracy rate in detecting the customer's product knowledge level.
7967901
The effect of machine availability on the worst-case performance of LPT
We consider the makespan minimization parallel machine scheduling problem where each machine may be unavailable for a known time interval. For this problem, we investigate how the worst-case behavior of the longest processing time first algorithm (LPT) is affected by the availability of machines. In particular, for given m machines, we analyze the cases where arbitrary number, λ, ranging from one to m - 1, machines are unavailable simultaneously. Then, we show that the makespan of the schedule generated by LPT is never more than the tight worst-case bound of 1 + ½ ⌊m/(m - λ)⌋ times the optimum makespan.
27879646
Location-Based Services for Tourism Industry: An Empirical Study
To cope with the fact of high competitiveness in tourism industry, some travel agencies are adopting the strategy of providing relatively more abundant and higher quality services to their clients. Since prior research has found that lack of information is one of the main barriers for people to travel, provide location-based information to people visiting and staying at a new location should be useful and valuable. This research attempts to find out travelers’ attitude toward location-based service (LBS). “What factors will affect the travelers’ willingness to adopt this new service” is what we tried to find out in this research. Our findings shows that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and security & privacy are associated with travelers’ attitude toward using LBS, but location information, context awareness, and device functions are not. Our findings can be referenced by tourism industry for the purpose of the design and development of successful business applications to catch the revolutionary opportunity and benefit of LBS.
15655721
The Worst-case Analysis of the MULTIFIT Algorithm for Scheduling Nonsimultaneous Parallel Machines
Abstract In this paper we consider the nonsimultaneous multiprocessor scheduling problem, or NMSP for short. The NMSP is a makespan minimization scheduling problem which involves the nonpreemptive assignment of independent jobs on m parallel machines with different starting times. It is well known that the longest processing time (LPT) algorithm and the modified LPT(MLPT) algorithm yield schedules with makespans bounded by 3 2 − 1 2m and 4/3 times the optimum makespan, respectively. In this paper, we show that the best known worst-case performance bound, 4/3 of the MLPT, is tight by constructing a worst-case example. Then, we employ the bin-packing heuristic algorithm called the MULTIFIT to solve the NMSP and show that the makespan of the schedule generated by the MULTIFIT algorithm is bounded by 9/7+2−k times the optimum makespan, where k is the selected number of the major iterations in the MULTIFIT. This worst-case bound of the MULTIFIT algorithm is, so far, the best bound for the NMSP and the tightness of the bound is still an open question.
28693312
A new architecture for motion-compensated image coding
Abstract In motion-compensated image coding (MCIC), the block matching algorithm requires a very complex computational procedure. To overcome this problem, several fast search procedures have been proposed. However, the resultant errors for these procedures may be too large unless small displacement is assumed. In order to reduce the computational complexity and preserve the quality of the original image, a new architecture for MCIC without the small displacement assumption is proposed in this paper. Based on a so-called characteristic mapping, certain important features of the block will be extracted and matched in the space of features. Hence, the procedure of matching any two blocks is very much simplified and the time required is drastically reduced. Moreover, the simulation results indicate that its performance is superior to those fast search procedures based on the error between the reconstructed image and the original one. This property will result in low bit rates for transmitting the error frame.