Monday, January 30, 2012

Multi-Image Fusion

Multi-Image Fusion





Overview:

We are all used to taking a single photograph of a scene. However, the photographer’s intent is often to capture more than what can be seen in a single photograph. By combining hundreds or even thousands of images we can create images that are much better than a single photograph. Computation to fuse the image set run either in the cloud or on a single machine can result in enhanced images and experiences of the scene. One can combine images to produce an image with a large field of view (e.g., a panorama) or a composite image that takes the best parts of the images (e.g., a photomontage).  One challenge is in creating large scale panoramas, where the capture and stitching times can be long. In addition, when using consumer-level point-and-shoots and camera phones, artifacts such as motion blur show up. Another challenge is combining large images set from photos or videos to produce an results that uses the bests parts of the images to create and enhanced photograph. In this demo, we will present several new technologies that advance the state-of-the-art in these areas and create improved user experiences. We will demonstrate the following technologies:

Next Generation ICE
Description:
Microsoft Image Composite Editor, or ICE for short, is an application that creates panoramic images from a set of overlapping source images.  It's a free download, available from the Microsoft Research web site.  Version 1.3 of ICE contains three exciting new features.  The first is tight integration with Photosynth.  ICE users are now able to directly upload their panoramas to the Photosynth web service, allowing panoramas to be shared on the web in their full native resolution.  ICE users will be able to leverage all Photosynth features including geo-registration with bing maps, community comments, and tagging.
The second feature is the ability to very quickly create a preview of a panorama from hundreds of images.  This capability is a marked improvement over other panoramic stitching applications.  By leveraging the thumbnail cache in Windows Vista/7, ICE can now provide a near instantaneous preview of even the largest stitching projects.  The figure below shows a 300-image panorama preview generated in 3 seconds.
Finally, the ICE engine has been revamped to take advantage of multiple processor cores.  The key stitching algorithms in ICE have been parallelized and are now able to leverage modern multi-core PCs to greatly accelerate the stitching process.  We will discuss the new parallel implementations of these core algorithms.
Version 1.3 of ICE is now available for download.
Example:

ICE Structured Panoramas



Stitching of Panoramas from Video
Description:
Traditionally panoramas are assembled from still shots using an application such as ICE. For this process to be be successful, a user needs to carefully take photos so that there is enough overlap, the images are sharp, etc. This can be a time consuming and difficult process. Video stitching enables creating panoramas from a video clip. It takes much less time to capture a scene with video. There is no need to pay attention to the exact path and layout. Our algorithm will analyze a clip, automatically detect if there is a panorama and stitch the result using frames it selects to create the result.
Example:




Generating Sharp Panoramas from Blurry Videos
Description:
While a consumer can generate a panorama from a video using video stitching method, the frames in the video, particularly with consumer-level cameras, tend to be rather blurry due to the camera panning motion. In this demo, we will show how we can generate a sharper-looking panorama from a set of motion-blurred video frames. Our technique is based on joint global motion estimation and multi-frame deblurring. It also automatically computes the duty cycle of the video (i.e., percentage of time between frames that is actually exposure time). We will be showing example videos, panoramas that are stitched directly from the frames, and deblurred panoramas after processing. More details.
Example:
Here's a sequence of video frames (only the first and last frames shown here):
...
If we just stitch these frames, we get the following result:

Using our technique, we can sharpen all the source frames simultaneously, resulting in a sharper panorama:


Description:
Often we face the situation of trying hard to capture photographs at the perfect moment, only to realize later that we opened the camera shutter either too early or too soon.
One way of to ensure that important moments are not missed is to record events with a video camera. One can conservatively "keep the camera rolling" to capture before after and during an event of importance. In fact, for certain events video is the only way to record the moment, as the motion could be a key aspect of that moment. Unfortunately, there are still many challenges with video. Videos tend to be lower resolution and noisier than stills and the display and sharing of videos is still much more challenging than with images.
In this work, we consider the problem of creating a single high-quality still image from a video sequence. The snapshots we produce have higher resolutions, lower noise levels and less blur than the original video frames. In addition, the snapshots preserve salient and interesting objects in the video and uses the best aspects of the video.
Example:


Description:
Photographing distant objects is challenging for a number of reasons. Even on a clear day, atmospheric haze often represents the majority of light received by a camera. Unfortunately, dehazing alone cannot create a clean image. The combination of shot noise and quantization noise is exacerbated when the contrast is expanded after haze removal. Dust on the sensor that may be unnoticeable in the original images creates serious artifacts. Multiple images can be averaged to overcome the noise, but the combination of long lenses and small camera motion as well as time varying atmospheric refraction results in large global and local shifts of the images on the sensor.
An iconic example of a distant object is Mount Rainier, when viewed from Seattle, 90 kilometers away. This work demonstrates a methodology to pull out a clean image from a series of images. Rigid and non-rigid alignment steps brings individual pixels into alignment. A novel local weighted averaging method based on ideas from “lucky imaging” minimizes blur, resampling and alignment errors, as well as effects of sensor dust, to maintain the sharpness of the original pixel grid. Finally dehazing and contrast expansion results in a sharp clean image. More details.
Example:


Multi-Image Dehazing of Mount Rainier: Given multiple input images, a sequence of rigid and non-rigid alignment and per-pixel weighted averaging, minimizes blur, resampling, and alignment errors. Dehazing and contrast expansion then results in a sharp clean image. 

Friday, January 27, 2012

Is Mobile Number capable of changing the Destiny?

Mobile phones have become an integral part of our fast-paced lives, with constant tiffs with bosses and spouses over the phone, to even spreading cheerful news of an engagement, marriage or a new born; your cell carries a particular Numeric Vibration. in this light can your mobile number help you in enhancing personally and professionally? 


‘Each Number from 1 to 9 is assigned to the 9 planets governing our Zodiac {Navgrahas}. While every Number {or planet} has its own beauty, there are certain Numbers which are more worldly or opportune. And they are 1 {Sun, leadership}, 3 {Jupiter, wealth}, 5 {Mercury, speed, knowledge} & 6 {Venus, love, harmony, progress}. 

“There are however different octaves to each No; while 42 may be very fortunate, 51 means assassination! Mohandas K Gandhi & Benazir Bhutto always had their names spelling a tragic elimination! 

To know what your cell Number means, add up all the 10 digits to bring it on a two digit compound Number. 

Certain Numbers have significant meanings, which can influence your lives in ways which can be from good to bad or even ugly! 

Number 19, 37, 46, 64 or 73: 1, Sun, can help in improving relationships with the opposite sex, can be fortunate in gaining recognition {like millions of people worship the Sun}, finance & authority. 

Best Suited for: Those born on dates such as the 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th, 2nd, 11th, 20th, 29th, 4th, 13th, 22nd, 31st and 7th, 16th and 25th in any month. It is also recommended for all Leo’s. 

Number 28 or 55: Though # 1, it is like a wheel of fortune or a Russian roulette; the ball may fall on odd or even, white or black. Inconsistent! 

Number 29, 38, 47, 56 or 65: 2, Moon can make you spiritual, dreamy, romantic but lazy; can cause you to depend on others to push you to make the most of your abilities. It can also cause mood swings or depression. 

Number 30, 39, 48, 57 or 66: 3, Jupiter can make you mentally superior over others, so dominating. Compounded, it gives us 12, which may make one sacrifice for others {remember 12 Apostles besides Lord Jesus}. 

Number 31, 40, 49, 58 or 67: 4, Uranus lends unconventional, original ideas, but those who differ may consider you eccentric. Hence, it can cause misrepresentation of your true self which can be a handicap! 

Number 23, 32, 41, 50 or 59: 5 or Mercury lends communication skills, which is so important for a cell phone! The flip side is that it can make you flirty & mischievous as Mercury makes you bored of routine! 

Best Suited for: Those born on dates such as the 5th, 14thor 23rd in any month. Also recommended for all Gemini’s and Virgos. 

Number 24, 33, 42 or 60: Venus, # 6 denotes peace, luxury and progress; very potent, though it can also make you a little extravagant & over-indulgent with the good things of life! 

But then don’t we deserve this much? Best Suited for: Those born on dates such as the 3rd, 12th, 21st, 30th, 6th, 15th, 24th, 9th, 18th and 27th in any month. It is also recommended for all Taureans and Librans. 

Number 51: Sudden advancement can make you a leader, but there is always a threat of assassination; {Benazir Bhutto, Mohandas K Gandhi} watch out if in politics or armed forces. 

Number 25, 34, 43, 52, 61 0r 70: 7, Neptune can cause mood swings due to restlessness, though creativity & unconventionality are the plus points. Spiritually it can give you a high, but mind it, we are not living on mountain-tops! 

Number 26, 35, 44, 53, 62 or 71: 8, Saturn has the ability to give, but after strife, labor and struggle; not a worldly mix. Proportionate to what you deserve, it can take you on top or bring you down! 

Number 27, 36, 45, 54, and 63 or 72: 9, Mars is fiery, denoting energy, can make one impulsive, rash & stubborn. Good for construction, engineering, sports field and armed forces though. 

Best Suited for: Those born on dates such as the 3rd, 12th, 21st, 30th, 6th, 15th, 24th, 9th, 18th and 27th in any month. It is also recommended for all Arians and Scorpions. 

So next time when you need to change your sim card, plan your Khull-jaa-sim-sim Cell-estically! 

Sorry to all No 8's as the story did not suggest their lucky Cell No's. Those born on 8th, 17th or 26th in any month could opt for a total of 19, 23, 24, 32, 33, 37, 42, 46, 50 or 60. 

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Wireless VoIP Gateway

WellGate 3512 Wireless VoIP Gateway + QoS 
  • All-in-One design, to save the equipment
    purchasing cost.
  • Build-in Wi-Fi AP, Wi-Fi Client, IP
    Gateway, and VoIP, dedicated for
    Enterprise, SOHO, Home user.
  • Support both WDS and Universal
    Repeater, easy to connect the different
    wireless network together.
  • Security protect by Firewall and Denial of
    Service.
  • Voice packet (FXS) with higher priority
    than LAN ports.

  • Wireless ISP, easy set to connect to various ISP's
    wireless network.
  • Support diverse networking connection of ADSL
    Modem, Cable Modem, and Leased line.
  • Multiple VPN protocol pass-through, to integrate with
    existed VPN network.
  • Flexible Dial Plan for VoIP, PSTN, and Wireless call.
 
Introduction
WellGate 3512 is a Wi-Fi VoIP Gateway, which combined
2-port FXS, 1-port PSTN, 1 WAN / 4 LAN IP Gateway, and
802.11 b/g WLAN together. It support SIPv2 (RFC3261)
protocol and with abundant telephony features. The PSTN
interface support power failure to switch to PSTN call
automatically and specific dial to PSTN call manually. Wireless
LAN with both Access Point and Client mode, with
automatically site scan and access control by MAC address.
Support WDS and Universal Repeater to connect different
wireless network together. The Wireless ISP feature support
to connect to ISP's wireless network directly.
 
Application
WiFi Office IP-PBX (AN_b001)
  • Support Hand-Over phone call over WDS Repeater.
  • Wi-Fi Phone talk to other phone
  • Moving from one repeater to another, without voice talking disconnection.
  • SIP-PBX 6200S/6200GS (for Middle Enterprise and multi-branch)
  • ePBX-100A(for Small Enterprise)
  • Bundle with WG-2608/35xx FXS gateway to use existed analog phone.
  • WG-38xx FXO gateway for call convert to PSTN
 
WiFi VoIP office APP (AN_b002)
  • WG-3512 support both WiFi AP and client (802.11b/g)
  • 2FXS port for analog phone connect, PSTN port for power failure or internet
    disconnect back up
  • Roaming VoIP call WiFi Phone (WP-508)
  • WiFi connection with NB or WiFi dongle
  • Bandwidth management for voice with 1st priority (LAN port)
  • Build-in router, support static and dynamic routing
  • Flexible QoS solution, 802.1Q VLAN-tag, DSCP, and ToS
 
Triple Play service for Home Gateway (AN_b003)
The Triple Play service is growing up based on IP wide bandwidth to deploy to
House/Home service by Fiber to the Building ( FTTB ) and WiMax or Fiber to the Home.
WellGate 3512 provides Triple service feature for 2 lines voice, 1-WAN/4-LAN broadband
router and IPTV 8 Mbps steamline Video entertainment service. It is suitable for home or
small office to provide triple play or data and voice service with RJ-45 or Wi-Fi service
with desired voice high priority.
  • Triple Play Services: Voice, Data and Video Entertainment ( IPTV )
  • ISP use VLAN Tag to route Triple Play services
  • Voice has highest Priority than IPTV. Can configure priority at LAN ports.
  • Dual Mode - WiFi 802.11 b/g Access Point, Client and Repeater

VoIP From Your Mobile Phone


7 Ways to VoIP From Your Mobile Phone

While the emergence of VoIP, or voice-over-Internet protocol, technology has already helped push down the cost of making a phone call, now it’s starting to have a deflationary impact on the world of mobile, where call charges remain stubbornly high.
In the meantime, the ongoing adoption of 3G broadband and the inclusion of Wi-Fi in many high-end phones is drawing a growing amount of attention to mobile VoIP services. Indeed, research firm Disruptive Analysis predicts that the number of VoIP-over-3G users will top 250 million by the end of 2012 — from virtually zero in 2007.
We at GigaOM are constantly tinkering with these mobile services, so we’ve put together a list of seven mobile VoIP apps that we think you’ll find handy.
Skype Options
Skype MobileServiceSkype Mobile
Platform/Network: Java-based application that works on 50 popular phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung. Can be used on numerous cellular data networks.
Cost: Free
Features: Chatting (including with a group), presence settings (offline, online, do not disturb), and Skype-to-Skype calls (including SkypeIn).
Our Opinion: If your phone is supported, Skype Mobile is a great way to add Skype chatting and calls to it. Though it would be nice if the Skype application weren’t written in Java, as these applications are often sluggish and unstable.
SkypephoneService3 Skypephone
Platform/Network: Uses a specialized handset. Currently available in the UK, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Australia, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden.
Cost: The phone costs £49.99 (about $98) and can be used on a pre-paid basis. Calls cost nothing if they’re made from Skype.
Features: Free Skype-to-Skype mobile calls and the ability to conduct Skype IM conversations, all without touching your computer.
Our Opinion: The 3 Skypephone is best suited for those who need a few monthly mobile minutes and wish to talk/IM to their Skype friends along the way. The pre-paid feature makes it an attractive and inexpensive option for Skype chatters in the geographies it serves.
iSkoot logoServiceiSkoot
Platform/Network: Mobile handsets such as BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and Palm OS models. Also works on GSM networks.
Cost: Modest to expensive, based on usage. Because iSkoot is a hybrid VoIP/GSM service, it uses SMS and mobile minutes when making and receiving calls or Skype IM messages.
Features: SkypeIn and Skype-to-Skype calls, Skype IM messages.
Our Opinion: iSkoot is a good option for keeping in touch with your Skype contacts. However, I would look at other software applications that just use data to send Skype SMS and Skype voice traffic.
Mobile VoIP Players
Truphone logoServiceTruphone
Platform/NetworkNokia handsets
Cost: Incoming free calls while on the Truphone network, low per-minute rates while on a GSM network. Outgoing calls are billed at very low per minute rates.
Features: Truphone offers free calls, SMS and voice mail while logged into the Truphone network via Wi-Fi. Otherwise, Truphone forwards calls to your mobile handset and you pay a low per-minute charge.
Our Opinion: With its smart forwarding options, Truphone is particularly useful for international travelers. Whether you’re on Wi-Fi or just your normal GSM network, you can be reached via your Truphone number no matter where you are (charges apply in certain cases, see their site for details). For times when Wi-Fi is not available, Truphone just released Truphone Anywhere, which utilizes local gateways for outgoing calls at low per-minute charges. I have trialed the service by forwarding calls from my Truphone number to my cell phone and the call quality was fantastic; voices were indistinguishable from any other cell phone call. A Truphone-to-Truphone VoIP call yielded even higher voice quality.
FringServiceFring
Platform/Network: Nokia/Symbian handsets, Widows Mobile, iPhone (pre-release beta)
Cost: Free
Features: Allows you to make VoIP calls on any SIP network, Skype or to other Fring users. Additionally, Fring is a multi-protocol IM client that will allow you to chat with your buddies on Skype, MSN, ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, AIM and Yahoo.
Our Opinion: I have used Fring to make SIP and Skype voice calls, and over EDGE the call is choppy and hard to understand. However, Wi-Fi provides enough bandwidth to make Fring calls clear and understandable. I wouldn’t say the quality is fantastic, but it is very comparable to a normal cell phone call.
logoServiceTalkonaut 
Platform/Network: Available for Java-based phones, Symbian and Windows Mobile
Cost: Free
Features: Talkonaut offers free VoIP and IM chatting. For instant messaging, the application supports Google Talk, ICQ, AIM, and Yahoo. Talkonaut can also use SIP for VoIP calling.
Our Opinion: Talkonaut is a Russian offering and is still very new. The application was quite unstable on my Nokia N82 handset. With iffy performance and a very rusty user interface, I would recommend looking at other applications for this functionality, namely Fring.
NimbuzzServiceNimbuzz
Platform/Network: Java program, Symbian; an iPhone version is coming soon.
Cost: Free
Features: Allows you to engage in IM conversations and conduct VoIP calls, as well as to share media such as photos and video. Nimbuzz also allows for client-to-client calls and has widgets enabling calls to originate from Facebok and MySpace. Compatible with Skype, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook and Jabber IM networks.
Our Opinion: The Symbian application is very responsive and easy to use. A VoIP call originating from my Facebook page to Nimbuzz over a Wi-Fi connection sounded good — just as good as any call over a GSM network.
Gizmo5ServiceGizmo5 (formerly Gizmo Project)
Platform/Network: Nokia Symbian handsets, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia Tablets
Cost: Free for VoIP calls, low per-minute charge to call landlines and to SMS to mobiles.
Features: Gizmo5 allows you to conduct voice calls to other Gizmo5 users and grants IM conversations with friends on Gizmo5, MSN, AIM, Yahoo and Jabber.
Our Opinion: Gizmo5 is a great competitor to Skype, just not as established or well-known. They have wisely developed their client software for many platforms including numerous mobile phones, and on both Mac and PC. VoIP call quality is stellar when calling between clients, as well as to landline/mobile phones.