Vision-Based Apple Classification for Smart Manufacturing.

Smart manufacturing enables an efficient manufacturing process by optimizing production and product transaction. The optimization is performed through data analytics that requires reliable and informative data as input. Therefore, in this paper, an accurate data capture approach based on a vision sensor is proposed. Three image recognition methods are studied to determine the best vision-based classification technique, namely Bag of Words (BOW), Spatial Pyramid Matching (SPM) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The vision-based classifiers categorize the apple as defective and non-defective that can be used for automatic inspection, sorting and further analytics. A total of 550 apple images are collected to test the classifiers. The images consist of 275 non-defective and 275 defective apples. The defective category includes various types of defect and severity. The vision-based classifiers are trained and evaluated according to the K-fold cross-validation. The performances of the classifiers from 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold, 5-fold and 10-fold are compared. From the evaluation, SPM with SVM classifier attained 98.15% classification accuracy for 10-fold and outperformed the others. In terms of computational time, CNN with SVM classifier is the fastest. However, minimal time difference is observed between the computational time of CNN and SPM, which were separated by only 0.05 s.

A medical image enhancement based on generalized class of fractional partial differential equations.

BACKGROUND: The interest in using fractional calculus operators has grown in the field of image processing. Image enhancement is one of image processing tools that aims to improve the details of an image. The enhancement of medical images is a challenging task due to the unforeseeable variation in the quality of the captured images. METHODS: In this study, we present a mathematical model based on the class of fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs). The class is formulated by the proportional-Caputo hybrid operator (PCHO). Moreover, some properties of the geometric functions in the unit disk are applied to determine the upper bound solutions for this class of FPDEs. The upper bound solution is indicated in the relations of the general hypergeometric functions. The main advantage of FPDE lies in its capability to enhance the low contrast intensities through the proposed fractional enhanced operator. RESULTS: The proposed image enhancement algorithm is tested against brain and lungs computed tomography (CT) scans datasets of different qualities to show that it is robust and can withstand dramatic variations in quality. The quantitative results of Brisque, Piqe, SSEQ, and SAMGVG were 40.93%, 41.13%, 66.09%, and 31.04%, respectively for brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images and 39.07, 41.33, 30.97, and 159.24 respectively for the CT lungs images. The comparative results show that the proposed image enhancement model achieves the best image quality assessments. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this model significantly improves the details of the given datasets, and could potentially help the medical staff during the diagnosis process.

CUPSEED - A combined use of prediction syntax elements to embed data in SHVC video.

With the rapid advancement in digital technologies, video rises to become one of the most effective communication tools that continues to gain popularity and importance. As a result, various proposals are put forward to manage videos, and one of them is data embedding. Essentially, data embedding inserts data into the video to serve a specific purpose, including proof of ownership via watermark, covert communication in steganography, and authentication via fragile watermark. However, most conventional methods embed data by using only one type of syntax element defined in the video coding standard, which may suffer from large bit rate overhead, quality degradation, or low payload. Therefore, this work aims to explore the combined use of multiple prediction syntax elements in SHVC for the purpose of data embedding. Specifically, the intra prediction mode, motion vector predictor, motion vector difference, merge mode and coding block structure are collectively manipulated to embed data. The experimental results demonstrate that, in comparison to the conventional single-venue data embedding methods, the combined use of prediction syntax elements can achieve higher payload while preserving the perceptual quality with minimal bit rate variation. In the best case scenario, a total of 556.1 kbps is embedded into the video sequence PartyScene with a drop of 0.15 dB in PSNR while experiencing a bit rate overhead of 7.4% when all prediction syntax elements are utilized altogether. A recommendation is then put forward to choose specific types of syntax element for data embedding based on the characteristics of the video.