Digital Commons Network^™

A Family Of Hierarchical Encoding Techniques For Image And Video Communications, Samah A. Senbel

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

As the demand for image and video transmission and interactive multimedia applications continues to grow, scalable image and video compression that has robust behavior over unreliable channels are of increasing interest. These desktop applications require scalability as a main feature due to its heterogeneous nature, since participants in an interactive multimedia application have different needs and processing power. Also, the encoding and decoding algorithm complexity must be low due to the practical considerations of low-cost low-power receiver terminals. This requires image and video encoding techniques that jointly considers compression, scalability, robustness, and simplicity.

In this dissertation, we present a family …

Dynamic And Interactive 3d Simulation Over The World Wide Web, Rajesh Vennam

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The thesis presents the development of a new and novel three-dimensional simulation tool over the WWW using Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). VRML is a 3D analog to HTML and serves as a simple, multiplatform language for publishing 3D Web pages. In general, most people use VRML for developing three-dimensional models or worlds that provide little or no interaction for the users. This tool combines interaction and dynamic object creation. A thorough study of VRML is done to explore the features of VRML that could be combined to develop methodologies for creation of dynamic and interactive 3D objects over the …

Existence Theorems For Scheduling To Meet Two Objectives, April M. Rasala

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

We will look at the existence of schedules which are simultaneously near-optimal for two criteria. First, we will present some techniques for proving existence theorems, in a very general setting, for bicriterion scheduling problems. We will then use these techniques to prove existence theorems for a large class of problems. We will consider the relationship between objective functions based on completion time, flow time, lateness and the number of on-time jobs. We will also present negative results first for the problem of simultaneously minimizing the maximum flow time and average weighted flow time and second for minimizing the maximum flow …

Zero-Parity Stabbing Information, Joseph O'Rourke, Irena Pashchenko

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Everett et al. [EHN96, EHN97] introduced several varieties of stabbing information for the lines determined by pairs of vertices of a simple polygon P, and established their relationships to vertex visibility and other combinatorial data. In the same spirit, we define the “zero-parity (ZP) stabbing information” to be a natural weakening of their “weak stabbing information,” retaining only the distinction among {zero, odd, even > 0} in the number of polygon edges stabbed. Whereas the weak stabbing information’s relation to visibility remains an open problem, we completely settle the analogous questions for zero parity information, with three results: (1) ZP information …

Analysis Of N-Tier Architecture Applied To Distributed-Database Systems, Alexandre G. Valente

Theses and Dissertations

N-tier architecture has been more commonly used as a methodology for developing large database applications. This work evaluates the use of this architecture instead of the classical Client/Server architecture in developing corporate applications based on distributed databases. The comparison between architectures is performed using applications that execute transactions similar to those defined in the Transaction Process Council Type C benchmark (TPC-C). The environment used for development and testing was the AFIT Bimodal Cluster (ABC); a heterogeneous cluster of PCs, running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 OS. The comparative experimental analysis demonstrated that the N-tier architecture allows more efficient bandwidth utilization between …

Computers, Art And Smart Rooms: A Smart Picture Frame That Senses The Weather And Genetically Evolves Images, Marisa E. Kolodny

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

By using sensors to sense the environment and genetic programming to evolve images, this thesis explores two methods for developing smart pictures that can be integrated with a living space. The system presented senses the weather and indoor conditions, displays current weather and forecast information retrieved from the web, and displays genetically evolved images. Sensing the weather not only provides the user with information they might find useful, but also allows the computer to gain a better understanding of the user which in turn allows the computer to respond more accurately. Genetic programming allows the computer to better respond to …

A Two Dimensional Crystalline Atomic Unit Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot, Marsette Arthur Vona Iii

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Self-reconfigurable robots are designed so that they can change their external shape without human intervention. One general way to achieve such functionality is to build a robot composed of multiple, identical unit modules. If the modules are designed so that they can be assembled into rigid structures, and so that individual units within such structures can be relocated within and about the structure, then self-reconfiguration is possible. We propose the Crystalline Atomic unit modular self-reconfigurable robot, where each unit is called an Atom. In two dimensions, an Atom is square. Connectors at the faces of each Atom support structure formation …

An Application Of Word Sense Disambiguation To Information Retrieval, Jason M. Whaley

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

The problems of word sense disambiguation and document indexing for information retrieval have been extensively studied. It has been observed that indexing using disambiguated meanings, rather than word stems, should improve information retrieval results. We present a new corpus-based algorithm for performing word sense disambiguation. The algorithm does not need to train on many senses of each word; it uses instead the probability that certain concepts will occur together. That algorithm is then used to index several corpa of documents. Our indexing algorithm does not generally outperform the traditional stem-based tf.idf model.

The Implementation Of Dassf Otcl Apis, Hongxia Quan

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

As an extension of Tcl, Otcl provides basic functionality for object-oriented programming in scripting language Tcl. We implemented the Otcl APIs for DaSSF (a parallel simulator software written in C++ at Dartmouth College) using Tclcl software package written in University of California at Berkeley. This document discussed the issues involved in the implementation, especially the communications between C++ objects and Otcl objects required by DaSSF and the naming problems.

Ismis: A Military Transportation Decision-Support Framework, Stephen Goodman, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper discusses the challenges that the Information Revolution poses to transportation planning, execution and training in the US military services. Attention is drawn to the opportunities provided by global connectivity and the manner in which these opportunities can be applied to advantage in an integrated, collaborative, decision-support framework. The characteristics of military deployment operations are discussed in respect to system requirements such as parallel activities, internal representation of information (rather than data), intelligent assistance, and the integration of planning, execution and training functions.

The Integrated Strategic Mobility Interface System (ISMIS) is described as a framework that is designed to …

A Multilevel Secure Workflow Management System, Myong H. Kang, Judith N. Froscher, Amit P. Sheth, Krzysztof J. Kochut, John A. Miller

Kno.e.sis Publications

The Department of Defense (DoD) needs multilevel secure (MLS) workflow management systems to enable globally distributed users and applications to cooperate across classification levels to achieve mission critical goals. An MLS workflow management system that allows a user to program multilevel mission logic, to securely coordinate widely distributed tasks, and to monitor the progress of the workflow across classification levels is required. In this paper, we present a roadmap for implementing MLS workflows and focus on a workflow builder that is a graphical design tool for specifying such workflows.

Parallel Dassf Discrete-Event Simulation Without Shared Memory, James D. Chalfant

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

The Dartmouth implementation of the Scalable Simulation Framework (DaSSF) is a discrete-event simulator used primarily in the simulation of networks. It achieves high performance through parallel processing. DaSSF 1.22 requires shared memory between all processors in order to operate. This limits the number of processors available and the hardware platforms that can exploit parallelism. We are interested in extending parallel DaSSF operation to architectures without shared memory. We explore the requirements of this by implementing parallel DaSSF using MPI as the sole form of interaction between processors. The approaches used to achieve this can be abstracted and applied to the …

Two Algorithms For Performing Multidimensional, Multiprocessor, Out-Of-Core Ffts, Lauren M. Baptist

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

We show two algorithms for computing multidimensional Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) on a multiprocessor system with distributed memory when problem sizes are so large that the data do not fit in the memory of the entire system. Instead, data reside on a parallel disk system and are brought into memory in sections. We use the Parallel Disk Model for implementation and analysis. The first method is a straightforward out-of-core variant of a well-known method for in-core, multidimensional FFTs. It performs 1-dimensional FFT computations on each dimension in turn. This method is easy to generalize to any number of dimensions, and …

Improved Computer Detection And Mapping Of Cerebral Oxygenation, David H. Kung

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

Near-infrared (NIR) optical image reconstruction that incorporates blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging has the potential to improve both quantifiable measurement of oxygenation and the spatial resolution involved in such mapping. My thesis continues some preliminary work in this area through development of an analytic diffusion parameter estimation algorithm for use with a NIR imaging array and development of a finite element mesh utility to read a priori BOLD images and tag them with property elements for NIR image resolution improvement.

Investigating Measures For Pairwise Document Similarity, Jeffrey D. Isaacs

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

The need for a more effective similarity measure is growing as a result of the astonishing amount of information being placed online. Most existing similarity measures are defined by empirically derived formulas and cannot easily be extended to new applications. We present a pairwise document similarity measure based on Information Theory, and present corpus dependent and independent applications of this measure. When ranked with existing similarity measures over TREC FBIS data, our corpus dependent information theoretic similarity measure ranked first.

Considerations For An Effective Telecommunications-Use Policy, Michael E. Whitman, Anthony M. Townsend, Robert J. Aalberts

Faculty Articles

Recent changes in federal telecommunications legislation have underscored the importance of an up-to-date and effective telecommunications-use policy in business organizations. With the proliferation of the Internet, intranets, and email as commonplace business tools, the potential for misuse and subsequent liability has become an increasing concern. Even though the recent Supreme Court decision struck down the obscenity provisions of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), it left intact legislation that effectively mandates development of a sound telecommunications-use policy. In addition to potential liability for systems misuse, organizations have also had to address issues of individual employee privacy within the new systems.

This …

Fast Out-Of-Core Sorting On Parallel Disk Systems, Matthew D. Pearson

Dartmouth College Undergraduate Theses

This paper discusses our implementation of Rajasekaran's (l,m)-mergesort algorithm (LMM) for sorting on parallel disks. LMM is asymptotically optimal for large problems and has the additional advantage of a low constant in its I/O complexity. Our implementation is written in C using the ViC* I/O API for parallel disk systems. We compare the performance of LMM to that of the C library function qsort on a DEC Alpha server. qsort makes a good benchmark because it is fast and performs comparatively well under demand paging. Since qsort fails when the swap disk fills up, we can only compare these algorithms …

Wright State University College Of Engineering And Computer Science Bits And Pcs Newsletter, Volume 15, Number 6, June 1999, College Of Engineering And Computer Science, Wright State University

BITs and PCs Newsletter

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

An Environment For The Facilitation Of Robotic Programming, Artem Lifschitz

Computer Science Technical Reports

I have developed, tested, and evaluated a robot programming environment organized as a library of flexible data structures to facilitate the creation of robotics programs. Abstractions are the basis of all of the achievements of Computer Science, and if it were possible to create a truly flexible, generic abstraction for the programming of robots -- the science of robotics could advance at a faster pace. For this reason, I have attempted to implement the abstraction of low-level commands, and the assembling of them into hierarchies of higher-level actions. My libraries provide mechanisms for the manipulation and queuing of actions, as …

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 …

Cobol Reengineering Using The Parameter Based Object Identification (Pboi) Methodology, Sonia De Jesus Rodrigues

Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on how to reengineer Cobol legacy systems into object oriented systems using Sward's Parameter Based Object Identification (PBOI) methodology. The method is based on relating categories of imperative subprograms to classes written in object oriented language based on how parameters are handled and shared among them. The input language of PBOI is a canonical form called the generic imperative model (GIM), which is an abstract syntax tree (AST) representation of a simple imperative programming language. The output is another AST, the generic object model (GOM), a generic object oriented language. Conventional languages must be translated into the …

Evolution Of Recurrent Cascade Correlation Networks With Ditributed Collaborative Species, Ghada Nasr Aly

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Routing And Caching Mechanisms For Mobile Ip Networks, Baher Ali Esmat

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Auditing Capability On Top Of The Java Virtual Machine (Jvm), Margo Fouad Fawzi Hanna

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Visual Constraint Programming Environment For Configuration Problems, Rania A/Hamid El Sayed

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

(Almost) Optimal Parallel Block Access For Range Queries, Mikhail J. Atallah, Sunil Prabhakar

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Parallel Digital Signal Processing On A Network Of Personal Computers Case Study: Space-Time Adaptive Processing, Fernando Silva

Theses and Dissertations

Network based parallel computing using personal computers is currently a popular choice for concurrent scientific computing. This work evaluates the capabilities and the performance of the AFIT Bimodal Cluster (ABC); a heterogeneous cluster of PCs connected by switched fast Ethernet and using MPICH 1.1 for interprocess communication for parallel digital signal processing using Space Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) as the case study. The MITRE RT_STAP Benchmark version 1.1 is ported and executed on the ABC, as well as on a cluster of six Sun SPARC workstations connected by a Myrinet network (the AFIT NOW), and on a IBM SP for …

Camera Break Detection By Partitioning Of 2d Spatio-Temporal Images In Mpeg Domain, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we propose a new approach to detect camera cuts and wipes. The approach projects a video into two images representing the spatio-temporal continuity of a video life. Visually, these images are composed by regions of different patterns, each region represents the temporal location of a shot. The shape of a region boundary inherently classifies cut and wipe, and most importantly, marks the start and end of a wipe sequence. We hence formulate algorithms to locate the color and texture discontinuities occurring at the boundaries of image regions.

The Effectiveness Of Expert Support Technology For Decision Making: Individuals Versus Small Groups, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Jiye Mao, Izak Benbasat

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Expert support systems (ESSs) are increasingly used in organizations to support individuals and groups in decision making. Although ESSs have been shown to enhance the decision-making capabilities of individuals, their benefits in supporting group decision making are less clear. To the best of our knowledge, no empirical research has evaluated the effectiveness of the technology in the group setting or compared its usefulness for supporting individual versus group decision making. The results of this research show that ESSs benefit decision making of both individuals and groups and novices are able to gain more from ESSs than experts. The findings also …