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With technological developments, the resolution of the display systems is increasing, causing image data to increase. Several technologies are aiding in optimizing these data during transmission and storage while maintaining quality. Still, the internal data transmission for accessing the memory sub‐system during reading and writing cycles consumes significant power while requiring large memory for storage, which is inefficient, especially for portable displays. Hence, this work investigates the feasibility of reducing data through approximation for images in different formats and resolutions for human and computer vision based applications. Different image quality assessment metrics are utilized for performance evaluations with optimum image quality assessment selection according to application requirements. In addition, the feasibility analysis is conducted for three different applications as examples of computer vision. The experimental analysis highlights theoretical and industrial importance by showing that image data can be reduced from 25.0% to 62.5%, while satisfying requirements for HVS‐based and computer vision‐based applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rain removal is very important for many applications in computer vision, and it is a challenging problem due to its ill‐posed nature, especially for single‐image deraining. In order to remove rain streaks more thoroughly, as well as to retain more details, a progressive dilation dense residual fusion network is proposed. The entire network is designed in a cascade manner with multiple fusion blocks. The fusion block consists of a dilation dense residual block (DDRB) and a dense residual feature fusion block (DRFFB), where DDRB is created for feature extraction and DRFFB is mainly designed for feature fusion operation. Meanwhile, detail compensation memory mechanism (DCMM) is leveraged between each of two cascade modules to retain more background details. Compared with previous state‐of‐the‐art methods, extensive experiments show that the proposed method can achieve better results, in terms of rain streaks removal and background details preservation. Furthermore, the authors' network also shows its superiority for image noise removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A visual prosthesis is an auxiliary device for patients with blinding diseases that cannot be treated with conventional surgery or drugs. It converts captured images into corresponding electrical stimulation patterns, according to which phosphenes are generated through the action of internal electrodes on the visual pathway to form visual perception. However, due to some restrictions such as the few implantable electrodes that the biological tissue can accommodate, the induced perception is far from ideal. Therefore, an important issue in visual prosthesis research is how to detect and present useful information in low‐resolution prosthetic vision to improve the visual function of the wearer. In recent years, with the development and broad application of computer vision methods, researchers have investigated the possibility of their utilization in visual prostheses by simulating prosthetic visual percepts. Through the optimization of visual perception by image processing, the efficiency of visual prosthesis devices can be further improved to better meet the needs of prosthesis wearers. In this article, recent works on prosthetic vision centering on implementing computer vision methods are reviewed. Differences, strengths, and weaknesses of the mentioned methods are discussed. The development directions of optimizing prosthetic vision and improving methods of visual perception are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To present a new automated image recognition software for the measurement of tear meniscus height (TMH) and investigate its correlation and efficacy compared with an open‐source software (NIH ImageJ) and manual evaluation. Methods: A total of 520 slit lamp photographs, among which 276 were in ×16 magnification and 244 were ×40 magnified, captured from 138 eyes of 69 healthy subjects were assessed for TMH by the new automated Tear Meniscus Identification Software (TMIS), ImageJ and human graders. Images processing of TMIS included filtration, recognition and measurement of slit lamp photographs under certain algorithm, which output two measurement patterns, TMISMax and TMISMean. TMH measured by ImageJ software, considered as the reference value, was conducted by a masked observer while four masked ophthalmologists performed the manual evaluation. Results: In both magnifications, TMH measured by TMISMean showed similar values with ImageJ while manual evaluation demonstrated underestimated results, and a strong correlation was detected between TMIS and ImageJ. In ×16 magnified photographs, manually obtained TMH revealed a higher correlation with ImageJ, whereas a notably stronger correlation of TMIS with ImageJ was observed in ×40 photographs. Correspondingly, the accuracy for both TMISMax and TMISMean appeared to be lower than most doctors in ×16 slit lamp images, in contrast to a better precision of TMISMean in ×40 ones. Conclusion: The new software displayed high accuracy and efficacy in ×40 magnification and TMISMean pattern, suggesting the possibility of this automated TMH measurement platform to be a valid tool in dry eye screening and follow‐up practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel example-based stippling technique that employs a simple and intuitive concept to convert a color image into a pointillism painting. Our method relies on analyzing and imitating the color distributions of Seurat's paintings to obtain a statistical color model. Then, this model can be easily combined with the modified multi-class blue noise sampling to stylize an input image with characteristics of color composition in Seurat's paintings. The blue noise property of the output image also ensures that the color points are randomly located but remain spatially uniform. In our experiments, the multivariate goodness-of-fit tests were adopted to quantitatively analyze the results of the proposed and previous methods, further confirming that the color composition of our results are more similar to Seurat's painting style than that of previous approaches. Additionally, we also conducted a user study participated by artists to qualitatively evaluate the synthesized images of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a method for automatically generating continuous line illustrations, drawings consisting of a single line, from a given input image. Our approach begins by inferring a graph from a set of edges extracted from the image in question and obtaining a path that traverses through all edges of the said graph. The resulting path is then subjected to a series of post-processing operations to transform it into a continuous line drawing. Moreover, our approach allows us to manipulate the amount of detail portrayed in our line illustrations, which is particularly useful for simplifying the overall illustration while still retaining its most significant features. We also present several experimental results to demonstrate that our approach can automatically synthesize continuous line illustrations comparable to those of some contemporary artists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an interface for 3D object manipulation in which standard transformation tools are replaced with transient 3D widgets invoked by sketching context-dependent strokes. The widgets are automatically aligned to axes and planes determined by the user's stroke. Sketched pivot-points further expand the interaction vocabulary. Using gestural commands, these basic elements can be assembled into dynamic, user-constructed 3D transformation systems. We supplement precise widget interaction with techniques for coarse object positioning and snapping. Our approach, which is implemented within a broader sketch-based modeling system, also integrates an underlying “widget history” to enable the fluid transfer of widgets between objects. An evaluation indicates that users familiar with 3D manipulation concepts can be taught how to efficiently use our system in under an hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]