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Electrical impedance measurement and imaging are techniques that are widely used in a range of applications. Electro‐conductive knitted structure is a major new development in wearable computing. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a preliminary investigation of applying electrical impedance analysis to predict the behavior of electro‐conductive knitted structure. This can potentially pave the way for a low‐cost solution for pressure mapping imaging.

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has been used as a mapping technique for deformation imaging in conductive knitted fabric. EIT is an imaging system used to generate a map of electrical conductivity. Pressure and deformation mapping scanner is being developed based on electrical conductivity imaging of the conductive area generated in a fabric. The results are presented using these new sensors with various deformations.

Experimental results show the feasibility of qualitative deformation imaging. In particular, it is promising that multiple deformations can be mapped using the proposed technique. The paper also demonstrates preliminary results regarding quantitative pressure and deformation mapping using EIT technique.

The results presented in the paper are laboratory‐based experiments for proof of principle and will be evaluated in specific application areas in future.

The paper shows, for the first time, detection of multiple pressure points as well as quantifying the pressure map using the new imaging sensor. The sensor proposed here can be used for robotic touch sensing application, as well as some biomechanical observations.

Building information modelling (BIM) is a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of a building. Its use offers a range of benefits in terms of achieving the efficient design, construction, operation and maintenance of buildings. Applying BIM at the outset of a new build project should be relatively easy. However, it is often problematic to apply BIM techniques to an existing building, for example, as part of a refurbishment project or as a tool supporting the facilities management strategy, because of inadequacies in the previous management of the dataset that characterises the facility in question. These inadequacies may include information on as built geometry and materials of construction. By the application of automated retrospective data gathering for use in BIM, such problems should be largely overcome and significant benefits in terms of efficiency gains and cost savings should be achieved.

Laser scanning can be used to collect geometrical and spatial information in the form of a 3D point cloud, and this technique is already used. However, as a point cloud representation does not contain any semantic information or geometrical context, such point cloud data must refer to external sources of data, such as building specification and construction materials, to be in used in BIM.

Hyperspectral imaging techniques can be applied to provide both spectral and spatial information of scenes as a set of high-resolution images. Integrating of a 3D point cloud into hyperspectral images would enable accurate identification and classification of surface materials and would also convert the 3D representation to BIM.

This integrated approach has been applied in other areas, for example, in crop management. The transfer of this approach to facilities management and construction would improve the efficiency and automation of the data transition from building pathology to BIM. In this study, the technological feasibility and advantages of the integration of laser scanning and hyperspectral imaging (the latter not having previously been used in the construction context in its own right) is discussed, and an example of the use of a new integration technique is presented, applied for the first time in the context of buildings.

The reliable transcranial imaging of brain inner structures for diagnostic purposes is deemed crucial owing to the decisive importance and contribution of the brain in human life. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential application of medical ultrasounds to transcranial imaging using advanced techniques, such as the total focussing method.

Initially, the fundamental details of the total focussing method are presented, while the skull properties, such as the increased acoustic velocity and scattering, are thoroughly examined. Although, these skull characteristics constitute the main drawback of typical transcranial ultrasonic propagation algorithms, they are exploited to focus the acoustic waves towards the brain. To this goal, a virtual source is designed, considering the wave refraction, to efficiently correct the reconstructed brain image. Finally, the verification of the novel method is conducted through numerical simulations of various realistic setups.

The theoretically designed virtual source resembles a focussed sensor; therefore, the directivity increment, owing to the propagation through the skull, is confirmed. Moreover, numerical simulations of real-world scenarios indicate that the typical artifacts of the conventional total focussing method are fully overcome because of the increased directivity of the proposed technique, while the reconstructed image is efficiently corrected when the proposed virtual source is used.

A new systematic methodology along with the design of a flexible virtual source is developed in this paper for the reliable and precise transcranial ultrasonic image reconstruction of the brain. Despite the slight degradation owing to the skull scattering, the combined application of the total focussing method and the featured virtual source can successfully detect arbitrary anomalies in the brain that cannot be spotted by conventional techniques.

The aim of the research project which resulted in this work is to achieve a cost‐effective approach for instantaneous hyperspectral imaging.

This paper presents a simulation study and an experimental evaluation of a novel imaging spectroscopy technique, where multi‐channel image data are acquired instantaneously and transformed into spectra by using a statistical modelling approach. A digital colour camera equipped with an additional colour filter array was used to acquire an instantaneous single image that was demosaicked to generate a multi‐channel image. A statistical transformation approach was employed to convert this image into a hyperspectral one.

The feasibility of this method was investigated through extensive simulation and experimental tasks where promising results were obtained.

The small size of the initially acquired single instantaneous image makes this approach useful for applications where video‐rate hyperspectral imaging is required.

For the first time, a simplified prototype of this novel imaging spectroscopy technique was built and evaluated experimentally. And the results were compared with those of a more ideal simulation study. Recommendations for how to improve the prototype were also suggested as a result of the comparison between the simulation and the prototype evaluation results.

Describes a non‐contact optical sensing technology called C3D that is based on speckle texture projection photogrammetry. C3D has been applied to capturing all‐round 3D models of the human body of high dimensional accuracy and photorealistic appearance. The essential strengths and limitation of the C3D approach are presented and the basic principles of this stereo‐imaging approach are outlined, from image capture and basic 3D model construction to multi‐view capture and all‐round 3D model integration. A number of law enforcement, medical and commercial applications are described briefly including prisoner 3D face models, maxillofacial and orofacial cleft assessment, breast imaging and foot scanning. Ongoing research in real‐time capture and processing, and model construction from naturally illuminated image sources is also outlined.

Outlines a project undertaken by the Defence Research Agency [DRA] to produce a “gas cloud imaging” system based on optical transform image modulation [OTIM]. Describes the military origins of the OTIM technology and the OTIM Remote Gas Detection Technique, including the temporal coherence measurement used in the gas detector. Lists the capabilities and key features of OTIM and explains that the exploitation of the technology for civil applications has been targeted at industrial plant safety and environmental monitoring. Concludes with an outline project plan for developing the OTIM gas cloud‐imaging system.

Political science is often derided for being a “soft” science, one unable to generate hard predictions about political behavior, or without the ability to test its hypotheses, unlike physics, biology, or, among the social sciences, economics. Standards of hypothesis testing, data collection, and testing were unfairly seen to be lacking in comparison with the hard sciences. Accordingly, political scientists often had to struggle to have the knowledge produced about political behavior taken seriously. It would not be too remiss to identify an inferiority complex among political scientists, when they discussed the pantheon of scientific disciplines and their low position in it.

To accommodate increasing levels of device integration at the chip level, circuit line densities in electronic packages are continually increasing. Greater circuit line density, in turn, necessitates a corresponding increase in package‐to‐board interconnection density, with I/O counts expected to reach over 600 by 1995. In conjunction with the upward trend in I/O counts are a complementary upward trend in clock speed and an opposing downward trend in package sizes driven by the need to provide more functionality in less space, particularly in notebooks and PCMCIA cards. To satisfy the requirements of increased I/O counts and clock speed, and reduced package sizes, various package‐to‐board interconnection technologies are being developed, such as flip chip attach (FCA) using C4 joints. However, FCA interconnections have a disadvantage of being very difficult, if not impossible, to visually inspect. Though automatic test equipment (ATE) can determine whether the package is functional, it cannot determine the quality and reliability of FCA interconnections. Of the possible inspection techniques available to assess the quality of FCA interconnections — differential laser thermal analysis, acoustic microscopy and cross‐sectional X‐ray radiography — only cross‐sectional X‐ray radiography is capable of accurate, automated inspection of production volumes. This paper will first examine the requirements for inspecting FCA joints and will then describe the various inspection alternatives, outlining their advantages and disadvantages. Having described the potential advantage of one particular cross‐sectional X‐ray technique, digital tomosynthesis, the paper will conclude with some cross‐sectional images of FCA and SMT joints taken by a digital tomosynthesis system being developed for the inspection of FCA joints.

This paper aims to demonstrate the principle and practical applications of hyperspectral object detection, carry out the problem we now face and the possible solution. Also some challenges in this field are discussed.

First, the paper summarized the current research status of the hyperspectral techniques. Then, the paper demonstrated the development of underwater hyperspectral techniques from three major aspects, which are UHI preprocess, unmixing and applications. Finally, the paper presents a conclusion of applications of hyperspectral imaging and future research directions.

Various methods and scenarios for underwater object detection with hyperspectral imaging are compared, which include preprocessing, unmixing and classification. A summary is made to demonstrate the application scope and results of different methods, which may play an important role in the application of underwater hyperspectral object detection in the future.

This paper introduced several methods of hyperspectral image process, give out the conclusion of the advantages and disadvantages of each method, then demonstrated the challenges we face and the possible way to deal with them.

To review the concept of digital imaging for PCB manufacturing, with a specific focus on ink‐jet printing technologies.

This paper has been written to provide a review of digital imaging in the PCB industry. The application of ink‐jet printing in PCB manufacturing and the basic technology behind ink‐jet printing is described.

Ink‐jet printing in PCB manufacturing is a new technology, whose benefits and liabilities are still being determined. Although the concept of digital imaging fits a need in the industry for better control over registration, there are still many issues to be addressed for the technology to become widely adopted.

The value of the paper lies in educating the industry in the concepts of ink‐jet printing and the potential benefits it can deliver towards yield improvement and reduced costs in an ever‐more demanding and price sensitive market.