Selection of optimized features for fusion of palm print and finger knuckle‐based person authentication

The impact of digital technology in biometrics is much more efficient at interpreting data than humans, which results in completely replacement of manual identification procedures in forensic science. Because the single modality‐based biometric frameworks limit performance in terms of accuracy and anti‐spoofing capabilities due to the presence of low quality data, therefore, information fusion of more than one biometric characteristic in pursuit of high recognition results can be beneficial. In this article, we present a multimodal biometric system based on information fusion of palm print and finger knuckle traits, which are least associated to any criminal investigation as evidence yet. The proposed multimodal biometric system might be useful to identify the suspects in case of physical beating or kidnapping and establish supportive scientific evidences, when no fingerprint or face information is present in photographs. The first step in our work is data preprocessing, in which region of interest of palm and finger knuckle images have been extracted. To minimize nonuniform illumination effects, we first normalize the detected circular palm or finger knuckle and then apply line ordinal pattern (LOP)‐based encoding scheme for texture enrichment. The nondecimated quaternion wavelet provides denser feature representation at multiple scales and orientations when extracted over proposed LOP encoding and increases the discrimination power of line and ridge features. To best of our knowledge, this first attempt is a combination of backtracking search algorithm and 2D²LDA has been employed to select the dominant palm and knuckle features for classification. The classifiers output for two modalities are combined at unsupervised rank level fusion rule through Borda count method, which shows an increase in performance in terms of recognition and verification, that is, 100% (correct recognition rate), 0.26% (equal error rate), 3.52 (discriminative index), and 1,262 m (speed).     

Design of an Ultra-Compact and Highly-Sensitive Temperature Sensor Using Photonic Crystal Based Single Micro-Ring Resonator and Cascaded Micro-Ring Resonator

Silicon - In the present report, a photonic crystal based micro-ring resonator (MRR) structure is proposed which is very compact in size and has very fast response and is employed for temperature...     

A class of discontinuous dynamical systems IV. A laboratory air-water system

An air-water experimental system consisting of two inlets and one outlet is constructed and characterised. It reaches the state of sliding mode, or equivalently, two phase slug flow. The linear hydraulic model proposed in the literature is adequate to describe it. Experimental data are used to tune this model. The resistance to the flow of air through the outlet valve during the two phase flow is much larger than that when air alone flows out. At the operating range, the resistance to water flow is not affected by the presence of air.     

Electrostatic capillary collector for in-situ spectroscopic analysis of aerosols

Identification of particulate matter is important in assessing an individual’s exposure to potentially harmful particles, such as aeroallergens, toxins, and emissions from combustion sources, which can contribute to cardio-pulmonary diseases. Efficient collection of aerosols is essential for aerosol exposure studies such as analysis of chemical and biological components. We present the design and evaluation of a capillary collector that collects PM_2.5 onto the outer surface of a capillary for in-situ spectroscopic analysis. The capillary collector uses a needle-to-ring corona generator to charge particles; the electric field between a cylinder and a wire inserted into the bore of a capillary is used to collect the charged particles. Corona and repelling voltages are optimized for maximum collection of ambient PM_2.5 particles and fluorescent polystyrene latex microspheres in the PM_2.5 size range, on the capillary. The capillary collection efficiency of ambient PM_2.5 at 3 slpm operating flow rate and optimal operating voltages is 63%. Fluorescence spectroscopy is used to quantify the collection of polystyrene latex microspheres. The fluorescence-based capillary collection efficiency is in close agreement with the capillary collection efficiency of ambient PM_2.5. The collection and analysis methodology can be used to develop a compact, low-cost sensor for in-situ spectroscopic analysis of aerosols to determine their chemical composition for source apportionment.

Copyright © 2019 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Mutual spectral residual approach for multifocus image fusion

Multifocus image fusion is the process of obtaining a single image from multiple partially focused images such that the newly formed image consists of the well-defined information extracted from each source image. This paper proposes the use of saliency of the source images based on Mutual Spectral Residual. Spectral Residual brings out the unique/salient features of an image in frequency domain. The idea of proposed mutual spectral residual is to emphasize the relative unique features of a source image with respect to the other source images. The relative unique features are utilized to form saliency maps for each source image. These saliency maps can clearly indicate the focused and defocused parts of an image. Based on the saliency maps obtained, the image fusion takes place in spatial domain. Visual inspection and quantitative evaluation of the fused images obtained by the proposed method, using different evaluation metrics, demonstrate its effectiveness over several existing image fusion methods.     

An Improved Multifactor User Authentication Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used to collect and transmitted the data in various applications from normal to those which requires significant security...     

Identifying factors causing cost overrun of the construction projects in India

Delay and cost overrun are common phenomena in projects worldwide. However, these are especially severe in developing countries. In India as per MOSPI report, 235 projects out of 410 were severely affected cost overrun due to certain factors. A short questionnaire was conducted with 15 prominent factors responsible for cost overrun and forwarded to 190 constructional professionals across India. Total 85 responses were received and it was analyzed using various statistical tools such as analysis of variance (ANOVA) and factor analysis tool using SPSS. In this study, top three factors affecting cost overruns were identified such as price escalation of raw material, delay in planned activity and lack of co-ordination between construction parties which could be significantly responsible for cost overnun of construction project in India. Factor analysis method was also carried out to group the factors into three components of overall questionnaire. These components, such as client control component, project management component, and contractor control component, would be useful to the various parties involved in the construction activities. This paper also provides suggestive frameworks which have been framed after discussing with large number of construction professionals or expert.     

Persistent ocean monitoring with underwater gliders: Adapting sampling resolution

Ocean processes are dynamic and complex and occur on multiple spatial and temporal scales. To obtain a synoptic view of such processes, ocean scientists collect data over long time periods. Historically, measurements were continually provided by fixed sensors, e.g., moorings, or gathered from ships. Recently, an increase in the utilization of autonomous underwater vehicles has enabled a more dynamic data acquisition approach. However, we still do not utilize the full capabilities of these vehicles. Here we present algorithms that produce persistent monitoring missions for underwater vehicles by balancing path following accuracy and sampling resolution for a given region of interest, which addresses a pressing need among ocean scientists to efficiently and effectively collect high‐value data. More specifically, this paper proposes a path planning algorithm and a speed control algorithm for underwater gliders, which together give informative trajectories for the glider to persistently monitor a patch of ocean. We optimize a cost function that blends two competing factors: maximize the information value along the path while minimizing deviation from the planned path due to ocean currents. Speed is controlled along the planned path by adjusting the pitch angle of the underwater glider, so that higher resolution samples are collected in areas of higher information value. The resulting paths are closed circuits that can be repeatedly traversed to collect long‐term ocean data in dynamic environments. The algorithms were tested during sea trials on an underwater glider operating off the coast of southern California, as well as in Monterey Bay, California. The experimental results show improvements in both data resolution and path reliability compared to previously executed sampling paths used in the respective regions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A new robust reference watermarking scheme based on DWT-SVD

This paper presents a new semi-blind reference watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform(DWT) and singular value decomposition(SVD) for copyright protection and authenticity. We are using a gray scale logo image as watermark instead of randomly generated Gaussian noise type watermark. For watermark embedding, the original image is transformed into wavelet domain and a reference sub-image is formed using directive contrast and wavelet coefficients. We embed watermark into reference image by modifying the singular values of reference image using the singular values of the watermark. A reliable watermark extraction scheme is developed for the extraction of watermark from distorted image. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is able to withstand a variety of attacks. We show that the proposed scheme also stands with the ambiguity attack also.