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Swarm Intelligence : Introduction and Applications
The laws that govern the collective behavior of social insects, flocks of birds, or fish schools continue to mesmerize researchers. While individuals are rather unsophisticated, in cooperation they can solve complex tasks, a prime example being the ability of ant colonies to find shortest paths between their nests and food sources. Task-solving results from self-organization, which often evolves from simple means of communication, either directly or indirectly via changing the environment, the latter referred to as stigmergy. Scientists have applied these principles in new approaches, for example to optimization and the control of robots. Characteristics of the resulting systems include robustness and flexibility. This field of research is now referred to as swarm intelligence.
Sediment Dynamics and Pollutant Mobility in Rivers : An Interdisciplinary Approach
In the ten chapters of this book, a broad set of practical process knowledge is p- sented, comprising simulation techniques, laboratory and in-situ studies on the int- action between biological, chemical and hydrodynamic factors as well as models, for solving combined quality and quantity problems of riverine sediments. The und- lying research on various types of particulate matter, risk analyses and problem - lutions will also contribute to the implementation of the Soil Strategy and – in p- ticular – Marine Strategy Directive in Europe.
Real-Time Vision for Human-Computer Interaction
Presents a series of peer-reviewed survey articles written by international leading experts in computer vision, pattern recognition and Human-Computer Interaction. It is the first published text capturing the latest research in this rapidly advancing field with exclusive focus on real-time algorithms and practical applications in numerous industries, including computer games and medical and automotive systems. It is also an excellent starting point for further research in these areas. Contributions to this volume address specific topics such as: Real-Time Algorithms: from Signal Processing to Computer Vision / Recognition of Isolated Fingerspelling Gestures Using Depth Edges / Appearance-Based Real-Time Understanding of Gestures Using Projected Euler Angles / Flocks of Features for Tracking Articulated Objects / Static Hand Posture Recognition Based on Okapi-Chamfer Matching / Visual Modeling of Dynamic Gestures Using 3D Appearance and Motion Features / Head and Facial Animation Tracking Using Appearance-Adaptive Models and Particle Filters / A Real-Time Vision Interface Based on Gaze Detection – Eyekeys / Map Building From Human-Computer Interactions / Real-Time Inference of Complex Mental States from Facial Expressions and Head Gestures / Epipolar Constrained User Pushbutton Selection in Projected Interfaces / Vision-Based HCI Applications / The Office of the Past / MPEG-4 Face and Body Animation Coding Applied to HCI / Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction.
Cooperative Control : A Post-Workshop Vol., 2003 Block Island Workshop on Cooperative Control
This carefully edited book presents how natural groupings such as fish schools, bird flocks, deer herds etc. coordinate themselves and move so flawlessly, often without an apparent leader or any form of centralized control. It shows how the underlying principles of cooperative control may be used for groups of mobile autonomous agents to help enable a large group of autonomous robotic vehicles in the air, on land or sea or underwater, to collectively accomplish useful tasks such as distributed, adaptive scientific data gathering, search and rescue, or reconnaissance.
