Sing to your computer to find music
An Australian computer scientist says that the next generation of search engines will be able to retrieve music for you when you sing a song to your computer. She said that ‘in the next three or four years it should be on the computer of everyone who is a music fanatic.’ There are still problems to solve, such as the diversity of music genres and ‘the effect interference from things such as sound quality and environmental noise have on the ability of the program to detect notes.’ And she knows what she’s talking about: she’s also an accomplished musician who is publishing her second album. read story
Towards an Embedded Visuo-Inertial Smart Sensor
In the neurological system of primates, changes in posture are detected by the central nervous system through a vestibular process. This process, located in the inner ear, coordinates several system outputs to maintain stable balance, visual gaze, and autonomic control in response to changes in posture. Consequently the vestibular data is merged to other sensing data like touch, vision, …. The visuo-inertial merging is crucial for several tasks like navigation, depth estimation, stabilization. This paper proposes a “primate-inspired” sensing hardware, based on a CMOS imaging and an artificial vestibular system. The whole sensor can be considered like a smart embedded sensor where one of the most original aspects of this approach is the use of a System On Chip implemented in a FPGA to manage the whole system. The sensing device is designed around a 4 million pixels CMOS imager and the artificial vestibular set is composed of three linear accelerometers and three gyroscopes. With its structure, the system provides a high degree of versatility and allows the implementation of parallel image and inertial processing algorithms. In order to illustrate the proposed approach, depth estimation with Kalman filtering implementation is carried out.
Sing to your computer to find music
An Australian computer scientist says that the next generation of search engines will be able to retrieve music for you when you sing a song to your computer. She said that ‘in the next three or four years it should be on the computer of everyone who is a music fanatic.’ There are still problems to solve, such as the diversity of music genres and ‘the effect interference from things such as sound quality and environmental noise have on the ability of the program to detect notes.’ And she knows what she’s talking about: she’s also an accomplished musician who is publishing her second album. read story
Pseudo-admittance Bilateral Telemanipulation with Guidance Virtual Fixtures
Pseudo-admittance is introduced as a novel bilateral telemanipulation system that is designed to mimic proportional-velocity admittance control on systems where the master is an impedance-type robot. The controller generalizes to systems with slave robots of the impedance or admittance type. Pseudo-admittance uses a proxy with admittance dynamics combined with direct force feedback from the slave, resulting in unique properties that mimic admittance control and exhibit tremor attenuation and quasi-static transparency. Pseudo-admittance control has potential benefits for tasks that require better-than-human levels of precision, as well as with systems that are typically run under rate control. The controller can also be modified to include virtual fixtures that provide guidance during task execution, while leaving ultimate control of the system with the operator. Guidance virtual fixtures could be used as macros that increase both speed and precision on structured tasks that require direct human control. The properties of the system are verified through simulations and experiments.
Real-time Hybrid Tracking using Edge and Texture Information
This paper proposes a real-time, robust and effective tracking framework for visual servoing applications. The algorithm is based on the fusion of visual cues and on the estimation of a transformation (either a homography or a 3D pose). The parameters of this transformation are estimated using a non-linear minimization of a unique criterion that integrates information both on the texture and the edges of the tracked object. The proposed tracker is more robust and performs well in conditions where methods based on a single cue fail. The framework has been tested for 2D object motion estimation and pose computation. The method presented in this paper has been validated on several video sequences as well as in visual servoing experiments considering various objects. Results show the method to be robust to occlusions or textured backgrounds and suitable for visual servoing applications.
Adaptive Dynamic Walking of a Quadruped Robot on Natural Ground Based on Biological Concepts
The paper reports on a project to make a quadruped robot walk with medium forward speed on irregular terrain in an outdoor environment using a neural system model. The necessary conditions for stable dynamic walking on irregular terrain in general are proposed, and the neural system is designed by comparing biological concepts with those necessary conditions described in physical terms. A PD-controller is used at joints to construct a virtual spring—damper system as the visco-elasticity model of a muscle. The neural system model consists of a CPG (central pattern generator), responses and reflexes. A response directly and quickly modulates the CPG phase, and a reflex directly generates joint torque. The state of the virtual spring—damper system is switched, based on the CPG phase. In order to make a self-contained quadruped (called Tekken2) walk on natural ground, several new reflexes and responses are developed in addition to those developed in previous studies. A flexor reflex prevents a leg from stumbling on small bumps and pebbles. A sideways stepping reflex stabilizes rolling motion on a sideways inclined slope. A corrective stepping reflex/response prevents the robot from falling down in the case of loss of ground contact. A crossed flexor reflex helps a swinging leg keep enough clearance between the toe and the ground. The effectiveness of the proposed neural system model control and especially the newly developed reflexes and responses are validated by indoor and outdoor experiments using Tekken2. A CPG receives sensory feedback as a result of motions induced by reflexes, and changes the period of its own active phase. Since a CPG has the ability of mutual entrainment with pitching motion of legs and rolling motion of the body in addition, the consistency between motion of a leg temporally modified by a reflex and motions of the other legs is maintained autonomously. It is shown that CPGs can be the center of sensorimotor coordination, and that the neural system model simply defining the relationships between CPGs, sensory input, reflexes and mechanical system works very well even in complicated tasks such as adaptive dynamic walking on unstructured natural ground.
Polymer opal films are not for rings
British and German researchers have developed a new type of flexible plastic film. These ‘polymer opal films‘ can change colors under certain conditions. For example, they could easily help you to see if some kind of perishable food items are not good anymore because the packaging would change color. They also could be used to detect fake money or in other defense and aerospace applications. But read more…
Simultaneous Motion and Structure Estimation by Fusion of Inertial and Vision Data
For mobile robotics, head gear in augmented reality (AR) applications or computer vision, it is essential to continuously estimate the egomotion and the structure of the environment. This paper presents the system developed in the SmartTracking project, which simultaneously integrates visual and inertial sensors in a combined estimation scheme. The sparse structure estimation is based on the detection of corner features in the environment. From a single known starting position, the system can move into an unknown environment. The vision and inertial data are fused, and the performance of both Unscented Kalman filter and Extended Kalman filter are compared for this task. The filters are designed to handle asynchronous input from visual and inertial sensors, which typically operate at different and possibly varying rates. Additionally, a bank of Extended Kalman filters, one per corner feature, is used to estimate the position and the quality of structure points and to include them into the structure estimation process. The system is demonstrated on a mobile robot executing known motions, such that the estimation of the egomotion in an unknown environment can be compared to ground truth.
Polymer opal films are not for rings
British and German researchers have developed a new type of flexible plastic film. These ‘polymer opal films‘ can change colors under certain conditions. For example, they could easily help you to see if some kind of perishable food items are not good anymore because the packaging would change color. They also could be used to detect fake money or in other defense and aerospace applications. But read more…