11365059
Vertex-transformation streams
Recent trends in parallel computer architecture strongly suggest the need to improve the arithmetic intensity (the compute to bandwidth ratio) for greater performance in time-critical applications, such as interactive 3D graphics. At the same time, advances in stream programming abstraction for graphics processors (GPUs) have enabled us to use parallel algorithm design methods for GPU programming. Inspired by these developments, this paper explores the interactions between multiple data streams to improve arithmetic intensity and address the input geometry bandwidth bottleneck for interactive 3D graphics applications. We introduce the idea of creating vertex and transformation streams that represent large point datasets via their interaction. We discuss how to factor such point datasets into a set of source vertices and transformation streams by identifying the most common translations amongst vertices. We accomplish this by identifying peaks in the cross-power spectrum of the dataset in the Fourier domain. We validate our approach by integrating it with a view-dependent point rendering system and show significant improvements in input geometry bandwidth requirements as well as rendering frame rates.
2960775
Mesh saliency
Research over the last decade has built a solid mathematical foundation for representation and analysis of 3D meshes in graphics and geometric modeling. Much of this work however does not explicitly incorporate models of low-level human visual attention. In this paper we introduce the idea of mesh saliency as a measure of regional importance for graphics meshes. Our notion of saliency is inspired by low-level human visual system cues. We define mesh saliency in a scale-dependent manner using a center-surround operator on Gaussian-weighted mean curvatures. We observe that such a definition of mesh saliency is able to capture what most would classify as visually interesting regions on a mesh. The human-perception-inspired importance measure computed by our mesh saliency operator results in more visually pleasing results in processing and viewing of 3D meshes. compared to using a purely geometric measure of shape. such as curvature. We discuss how mesh saliency can be incorporated in graphics applications such as mesh simplification and viewpoint selection and present examples that show visually appealing results from using mesh saliency.
9335901
Performance upgrade for large object bases using disk arrays
The authors propose the use of multiple disks to increase the bandwidth of disk I/O so as to alleviate the I/O bottleneck problem existed in OODB applications. However, a major difficulty in using multiple disks for the support of OODBs is that an object may reference or be referenced by other objects through associations. This requires that the search of objects be sequential through the association links, which is sometimes referred to as the navigational search of objects in an object base. This restriction limits the concurrency in object retrieval and invalidates the use of multiple disks. Techniques such as clustering/indexing of objects do not help to resolve this problem. By using a two-phase query processing strategy previously proposed by them, objects of interest can be accessed in parallel from multiple disk. The aim of the paper is to design a probability-based evaluation model to estimate the performance of using multiple disks and to compare it with a single disk system. The result shows that the scheme is viable and a significant improvement is achieved while multiple disks are used.
53236153
The design and evaluation of a mobile sensor/actuator network for autonomous animal control
8220070
Facial Expression Analysis Using Nonlinear Decomposable Generative Models
We present a new framework to represent and analyze dynamic facial motions using a decomposable generative model. In this paper, we consider facial expressions which lie on a one dimensional closed manifold, i.e., start from some configuration and coming back to the same configuration, while there are other sources of variability such as different classes of expression, and different people, etc., all of which are needed to be parameterized. The learned model supports tasks such as facial expression recognition, person identification, and synthesis. We aim to learn a generative model that can generate different dynamic facial appearances for different people and for different expressions. Given a single image or a sequence of images, we can use the model to solve for the temporal embedding, expression type and person identification parameters. As a result we can directly infer intensity of facial expression, expression type, and person identity from the visual input. The model can successfully be used to recognize expressions performed by different people never seen during training. We show experiment results for applying the framework for simultaneous face and facial expression recognition. 
 
Sub-categories: 1.1 Novel algorithms, 1.6 Others: modeling facial expression.
9253270
Query Optimization in Multidatabase Systems Considering Schema Conflicts
In a multidatabase system, the participating databases are autonomous. The schemas of these databases may be different in various ways, while the same information is represented. A global query issued against the global database needs to be translated to a proper form before it can be executed in a local database. Since data requested by a query (or a part of a query) is sometimes available in multiple sites, the site (database) that processes the query with the least cost is the desired query processing site. The authors study the effect of differences in schemas on the cost of query processing in a multidatabase environment. They first classify schema conflicts to different types. For each type of conflict, they show how much more or less complex a translated query can become in comparison with the originally user-issued global query. Based on this observation, they propose an analytical method that considers the conflicts between local databases and finds the database(s) that renders the least execution cost in processing a global query. This research introduces a new level of query optimization (termed the schema-level optimization) in multidatabase environments. The results provide a new dimension of enhancement for the capability of a query optimizer in multidatabase systems.
205046494
Run-time support For parallel functional programming on shared-memory multiprocessors
Abstract The use of functional languages for parallel computing has been proposed for many years. Many functional languages were developed along with the design of new architectures such as data flow and reduction machines. In this article, we present a general model of a run-time system for a parallel functional language called SISAL, to be executed on shared-memory multiprocessors. The implementation of this run-time system is examined on two radically different architectures: a 32-way (symmetrical) VAX Research Multiprocessor M31 and a 4-way Cray X-MP system. To properly evaluate the effectiveness of SISAL on shared-memory multiprocessors, we suggest further research explore an interactive visual control mechanism that dynamically shows run-time behavior.