Digital Commons Network^™

How Much You Watch, How Much You Pay, Yongdong Wu, Hwee Hwa Pang, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents a pay-video scheme that manages video stream, key stream and payment stream efficiently. In our scheme, the owner segments a video into fragments and encrypts them with independent keys. The keys are generated with a novel concept called as hash interval, where each hash interval discloses a range of numbers without disclosing any information on numbers outside of the range. The video fragments are then broadcast on one or more channels. A buyer can purchase the keys to decrypt any fragments and, within each fragment, any desired quality level. The accompanying payment protocol is integrated with the …

Image Watermarking, Steganography, And Morphological Processing, Yi-Ta Wu

Dissertations

With the fast development of computer technology, research in the fields of multimedia security, image processing, and robot vision have recently become popular. Image watermarking, steganogrphic system, morphological processing and shortest path planning are important subjects among them. In this dissertation, the fundamental techniques are reviewed first followed by the presentation of novel algorithms and theorems for these three subjects.

The research on multimedia security consists of two parts, image watermarking and steganographic system. In image watermarking, several algorithms are developed to achieve different goals as shown below. In order to embed more watermarks and to minimize distortion of watermarked …

Visual Debugging Of Object-Oriented Systems With The Unified Modeling Language, Wendell E. Fox

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) is developing a Joint Battlespace Infosphere, linking a large number of data sources and user applications. Debugging and analysis tools are required to aid in this process. Debugging of large object-oriented systems is a difficult cognitive process that requires understanding of both the overall and detailed behavior of the application. In addition, many such applications linked through a distributed system add to this complexity. Standard debuggers do not utilize visualization techniques, focusing mainly on information extracted directly from the source code. To overcome this deficiency, this research designs and implements a methodology that enables developers …

Virtual Teams Combining Mobile Devices With Web-Based Communication On Group Decision Making, Hyo-Joo Han

Dissertations

Organizations have moved from a face-to-face team environment to a virtual team environment using communication technology during the last decade. More and more workers use asynchronous tools (including email, discussion groups, information sharing tools, and group calendaring systems), and synchronous tools, such as instant messaging and web-based chatting features, to coordinate and share information with people within and outside of organizations. This empirical study on how virtual teams work, integrating mobile devices with web-based group communication for decision-making tasks, examines which technologies and communication modes are the best for distributed group teamwork, and, mainly, what are the predictive characteristics making …

Traditional Chinese Medical Clinic System, Chaomei Liu

Theses Digitization Project

The Chinese Medical Clinic System is designed to help acupuncturists and assistants record and store information. This system can maintain and schedule appointments and view patient diagnoses effectively. The system will be implemented on a desktop PC connected to the internet to facilitate the acupuncturists record of information.

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Animated Instructional Software For Mechanics Of Materials, Timothy A. Philpot, Richard H. Hall

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

During the past three years, the Basic Engineering Department at the University of Missouri--Rolla has been developing a second-generation suite of instructional software called MecMovies for the mechanics of materials course. In the Fall 2003 semester, MecMovies was integrated into assignments throughout the entire semester for one of the six UMR mechanics of materials sections. This paper presents a comparison of student performance in the experimental section with student performance in five control sections along with discussion of student qualitative ratings and comments.

Content-Aware Authentication Of Motion Jpeg2000 Stream In Lossy Networks, Yongdong Wu, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Stream authentication schemes (SAS) aim to achieve effective authentication of multicast streams over lossy networks. Almost all the existing SASs is designed for stream data integrity protection only. In this paper, we argue that content integrity protection is more important than data integrity to human users. We present a content-aware SAS in motion JPEG2000 streaming. In our scheme, a chunk of JPEG2000 codestreams is encapsulated into a block of packets using multiple description coding (MDC). Our MDC exploits the inherent structure of motion JPEG2000 codestreams and is used to preserve the semanteme/content of the stream over lossy networks. To achieve …

Just-In-Time Browsing For Digitized Microfilm And Other Similar Image Collections, William A. Barrett, Douglas J. Kennard

Faculty Publications

This paper describes “Just-In-Time Browsing” (JITB), a method for image browsing (at modem-like speed) in which image data is transmitted and presented to the user progressively, in prioritized order, based on image content and user interaction. Spatial resolution and grayscale or color fidelity is increased first for the portions of the image that are immediately of most interest to the user. JITB is specifically geared toward digitized microfilm and other similar document image collections, although it can also be used for other types of images. A series of common browsing tasks performed by multiple users demonstrates that JITB compares favorably …

Adaptive Live Video Streaming By Priority Drop, Jie Huang, Charles Krasic, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper we explore the use of Priority-progress streaming (PPS) for video surveillance applications. PPS is an adaptive streaming technique for the delivery of continuous media over variable bit-rate channels. It is based on the simple idea of reordering media components within a time window into priority order before transmission. The main concern when using PPS for live video streaming is the time delay introduced by reordering. In this paper we describe how PPS can be extended to support live streaming and show that the delay inherent in the approach can be tuned to satisfy a wide range of …

Rate-Based End-To-End Congestion Control Of Multimedia Traffic In Packet Switched Networks, Mingsheng Peng, S. R. Subramanya, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes an explicit rate-based end-to-end congestion control mechanism to alleviate congestion of multimedia traffic in packet switched networks such as the Internet. The congestion is controlled by adjusting the transmission rates of the sources in response to the feedback information from destination such as the buffer occupancy, packet arrival rate and service rate at the outgoing link, so that a desired quality of service (QoS) can be met. The QoS is defined in terms of packet loss ratio, transmission delay, power, and network utilization. Comparison studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme over New-Reno TCP (a variant …

Digital Image Similarity For Geo-Spatial Knowledge Management, James Carswell

Conference papers

The amount and availability of high-quality geo-spatial image data, such as digital satellite and aerial photographs, is increasing dramatically. Task-based management of such visual information and associated knowledge is a central concern for organisations that rely on digital imagery. We are developing geo-spatial knowledge management techniques that employ case-based reasoning as the core methodology. In order to provide effective retrieval of task-based experiences that center around geo-spatial imagery, we need to forward novel similarity metrics for directly comparing the image components of experience cases. Based on work in geo-spatial image database retrieval, we are building an effective similarity metric for …

Testing Homogeneous Spreadsheet Grids With The “What You See Is What You Test” Methodology, Margaret Burnett, Andrei Sheretov, Gregg Rothermel

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Although there has been recent research into ways to design environments that enable end users to create their own programs, little attention has been given to helping these end users systematically test their programs. To help address this need in spreadsheet systems - the most widely used type of end-user programming language - we previously introduced a visual approach to systematically testing individual cells in spreadsheet systems. However, the previous approach did not scale well in the presence of largely homogeneous grids, which introduce problems somewhat analogous to the array-testing problems of imperative programs. In this paper, we present two …

Self-Similarity In Network Traffic, Francisco Chinchilla

Honors Theses

It is critical to properly understand the nature of network traffic in order to effectively design models describing network behavior. These models are usually used to simulate network traffic, which in turn are used to construct congestion control techniques, perform capacity planning studies, and/or evaluate the behavior of new protocols. Using the wrong models could lead to potentially serious problems such as delayed packet transmissions or an increase in packet drop rates.

Traditionally, packet arrivals were assumed to follow a Poisson arrival process. Although Poisson processes have several properties that make them easy to work with, they do not accurately …

Scale And Orientation-Invariant Scene Similarity Metrics For Image Queries, James Carswell

Articles

In this paper we extend our previous work on shape-based queries to support queries on configurations of image objects. Here we consider spatial reasoning, especially directional and metric object relationships. Existing models for spatial reasoning tend to rely on pre-identified cardinal directions and minimal scale variations, assumption that cannot be considered as given in our image applications, where orientations and scale may vary substantially, and are often unknown. Accordingly, we have developed the method of varying baselines to identify similarities in direction and distance relations. Our method allows us to evaluate directional similarities without a priori knowledge of cardinal directions, …

Visual Iconic Object-Oriented Programming To Advance Computer Science Education And Novice Programming, Nancy Silva Martinez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Learning how to program a computer is difficult for most people. Computer programming is a cognitively challenging, time consuming, labor intensive, and frustrating endeavor. Years of formal study and training are required to learn a programming language's world of algorithms and data structures. Instructions are coded in advance before the computer demonstrates the desired behavior. Seeing all the programming steps and instruction code is complicated. There exists a tremendous gap between the representations the human brain uses when thinking about a problem and the representations used in programming a computer. Often people are much better at dealing with specific, concrete …

A Scene Similarity Metric For Matching Configurations Of Image Objects, James Carswell

Articles

This paper proposes a novel solution to querying image databases by matching raster features to imagery completely in the raster/spatial domain using the shape of single features together with their spatial relations as the matching primitives. The core feature-based matching module combines a revised least-squares matching algorithm, to accomplish the matching process on binary images, with a unique implementation of a feature library that organizes and links query objects with their images in the database, thus enabling fast and efficient real-time retrieval of relevant imagery. The purpose is to extend this previous work of ours, which matches on the shape …

Motion Tracking Of Human Mouth By Generalized Deformable Models, Syin Chan, Chong-Wah Ngo, Kok F. Lai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose and evaluate four trackers for tracking the shape, motion and deformation of a human mouth in video sequences. The trackers are suitable for use in very low bitrate video coding systems. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Qos Scalability For Streamed Media Delivery, Charles Krasic, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Applications with real-rate progress requirements, such as mediastreaming systems, are difficult to deploy in shared heterogenous environments such as the Internet. On the Internet, mediastreaming systems must be capable of trading off resource requirements against the quality of the media streams they deliver, in order to match wide-ranging dynamic variations in bandwidth between servers and clients. Since quality requirements tend to be user- and task-specific, mechanisms for capturing quality of service requirements and mapping them to appropriate resource-level adaptation policies are required. In this paper, we describe a general approach for automatically mapping user-level quality of service specifications onto resource …

Sketch-Based Image Queries In Topographic Databases, James Carswell

Articles

In this paper we present the development of a system prototype for sketch-based queries for the content-based retrieval of digital images from topographic databases. We discuss our overall strategy and associated algorithmic and implementation aspects, and present associated database design issues. The query tools devised in this research are employing user-provided sketches of the shape and spatial configuration of the object(s) which should appear in the images to be retrieved. Our matching tool is inspired by least-squares matching (lsm), and represents an extension of lsm to function with a variety of raster representations. Our strategy makes use of a hierarchical …

On The Geometries Of Conic Section Representation Of Noisy Object Boundaries, Qiuming Zhu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This paper studies some geometrical properties of conic sections and the utilization of these properties for the generation of conic section representations of object boundaries in digital images. Several geometrical features of the conic sections, such as the chord, the characteristic point, the guiding triangles, and their appearances under the tessellation and noise corruption of the digital images are discussed. The study leads to a noniterative algorithm that takes advantage of these features in the process of formulating the conic section parameters and generating the approximations of object boundaries from the given sequences of edge pixels in the images. The …

Customizable And Ontology-Enhanced Medical Information Retrieval Interfaces, Gondy Leroy, K.M. Tolle, Hsinchun Chen

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This paper describes the development and testing of the Medical Concept Mapper as an aid to providing synonyms and semantically related concepts to improve searching. All terms are related to the userquery and fit into the query context. The system is unique because its five components combine humancreated and computer-generated elements. The Arizona Noun Phraser extracts phrases from natural language user queries. WordNet and the UMLS Metathesaurus provide synonyms. The Arizona Concept Space generates conceptually related terms. Semantic relationships between queries and concepts are established using the UMLS Semantic Net. Two user studies conducted to evaluate the system are described.

Signal Injection With Perceptual Criteria, T. Engi̇n Tuncer

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, a novel method for increasing the coding performance and information transmission capacity is presented. This method is mainly based on perceptual modelling of input signal such as speech or audio. Presented approach may be seen as an alternative to transforms which dynamically change analysis window for better energy compaction. A perceptual model is established in order to obtain a global masking threshold in frequency below which sounds become inaudible. Certain criteria are developed for identifying the signal injection bands. A new multiband filter design method which is a generalization of windowing method is used to separate the …

Vector Geometry And Applications To Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics, Rory Morrison

Theses : Honours

The mathematics behind algorithms involved in generating three-dimensional images on a computer has stemmed from the analysis of the processes of sight and vision. These processes have been modeled to provide methods of visualising three-dimensional data sets. The applications of such visualisations are varied. This project will study some of the mathematics that IS used in three-dimensional graphics applications

Softlab: A Virtual Laboratory Framework For Computational Science, A. C. Catlin, M. G. Gaitatzes, Elias N. Houstis, Z. Ma, S. Markus, Nien-Hwa Wang, S. Weerawarana

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

An Efficient Algorithm For Direct Computation Of Adjacent Block Coefficients In The Transformed Domain, Chaman Sabharwal, Brian Quandt

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The current research in many areas of image processing involves operations performed in the compressed domain [Smith and Rowe 1993, Chang 93]. Compressed domain may be DCT, Wavelet, JPEG or MPEG etc. The algorithms for .these transformations may be used for information filtering such as feature extraction and edge detection. The image transformations such as compositing, occluding, and scaling may also be performed in the compressed domain. It is desirable to perform these operations on compressed data directly because the smaller size of data involves less computational complexity. The computation in the compressed domain eliminates the overhead of decoding the …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 12, Number 8, October 1996, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

A ten page newsletter created by the Wright State University College of Engineering and Computer Science that addresses the current affairs of the college.

Scene Change Detection For Video Database Management Systems-A Survey, Haitao Jiang, Abdelsalam (Sumi) Helal, Ahmed K. Elmagarmid, Anupam Joshi

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

A Declarative Approach To Understanding Program Behavior Through Program Visualization, Aggie Yee-Chun Sun, Bruce M. Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

A method is proposed to analyze the behavior of sequential algorithms. Most current methodologies are in the form of semantic analysis, domain decomposition or fixed point approximation. These tools, though useful in design, verification and testing, are not general enough to characterize the behavior at run-time without the aid of a correct set of specifications. In addition, a thorough understanding of the program and of the mathematical notations are necessary to use these tools effectively. The methodology described in this thesis is a general purpose tool which addresses and alleviates the problem of having to be an applications expert by …

Wheels: An Automated Program Analysis Tool, Aggie Sun, Bruce Mcmillin

Computer Science Technical Reports

The understanding of program behavior is becoming vitally more important now that software is becoming an integral part of industry and everyday life. However, even the best documented code is often not sufficient enough to completely and correctly relay the actual program behavior. The problem lies beyond being familiar with the programming language and is hidden in the complex mathematics which govern the program's behavior. This behavior is not easily detected and varies from one program to the next. We propose a method for describing program behavior using two general properties of iterative programs: feasibility and progress. This method can …

Visual Presentation Of Software Specifications And Designs, Gruia-Catalin Roman, Delbert Hart, Charles Calkins

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Formal methods hold the promise for high dependability in the design of critical software. However, software engineers who employ formal methods need to communicate their design decisions to users, customers, managers, and collegues who may not be in a position to acquire a full understanding of the formal notation being used. Visualizations derived from formal specifications and designs must be able to convey the required information precisely and reliably without the use of formal notation. This paper discusses a design methodology which attempts to integrate a design methodology based upon specification and program refinement with a state-of-the-art approach to rapid …