Real-time FPGA-based implementation of the AKAZE algorithm with nonlinear scale space generation using image partitioning.

The first step in a scale invariant image matching system is scale space generation. Nonlinear scale space generation algorithms such as AKAZE, reduce noise and distortion in different scales while retaining the borders and key-points of the image. An FPGA-based hardware architecture for AKAZE nonlinear scale space generation is proposed to speed up this algorithm for real-time applications. The three contributions of this work are (1) mapping the two passes of the AKAZE algorithm onto a hardware architecture that realizes parallel processing of multiple sections, (2) multi-scale line buffers which can be used for different scales, and (3) a time-sharing mechanism in the memory management unit to process multiple sections of the image in parallel. We propose a time-sharing mechanism for memory management to prevent artifacts as a result of separating the process of image partitioning. We also use approximations in the algorithm to make hardware implementation more efficient while maintaining the repeatability of the detection. A frame rate of 304 frames per second for a 1280 × 768 image resolution is achieved which is favorably faster in comparison with other work.

A Novel Hardware-Software Co-Design and Implementation of the HOG Algorithm.

The histogram of oriented gradients is a commonly used feature extraction algorithm in many applications. Hardware acceleration can boost the speed of this algorithm due to its large number of computations. We propose a hardware-software co-design of the histogram of oriented gradients and the subsequent support vector machine classifier, which can be used to process data from digital image sensors. Our main focus is to minimize the resource usage of the algorithm while maintaining its accuracy and speed. This design and implementation make four contributions. First, we allocate the computationally expensive steps of the algorithm, including gradient calculation, magnitude computation, bin assignment, normalization and classification, to hardware, and the less complex windowing step to software. Second, we introduce a logarithm-based bin assignment. Third, we use parallel computation and a time-sharing protocol to create a histogram in order to achieve the processing of one pixel per clock cycle after the initialization (setup time) of the pipeline, and produce valid results at each clock cycle afterwards. Finally, we use a simplified block normalization logic to reduce hardware resource usage while maintaining accuracy. Our design attains a frame rate of 115 frames per second on a Xilinx® Kintex® Ultrascale™ FPGA while using less hardware resources, and only losing accuracy marginally, in comparison with other existing work.

Detecting Misleading Information on COVID-19.

This article addresses the problem of detecting misleading information related to COVID-19. We propose a misleading-information detection model that relies on the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the United Nations as sources of information, as well as epidemiological material collected from a range of fact-checking websites. Obtaining data from reliable sources should assure their validity. We use this collected ground-truth data to build a detection system that uses machine learning to identify misleading information. Ten machine learning algorithms, with seven feature extraction techniques, are used to construct a voting ensemble machine learning classifier. We perform 5-fold cross-validation to check the validity of the collected data and report the evaluation of twelve performance metrics. The evaluation results indicate the quality and validity of the collected ground-truth data and their effectiveness in constructing models to detect misleading information.

Smart home technology for telemedicine and emergency management.

With the ageing population, mobility is an important issue and it deters the elderlies to visit health clinics on a regular basis. Individuals with disabilities also face the same obstacles for their out-of-home medical visits. In addition, people living in remote areas often do not get the needed health care attention unless they are willing to spend the time, effort and cost to travel. Advances in information and telecommunication technologies have made telemedicine possible. Using the latest sensor technologies, a person's vital data can be collected in a smart home environment. The bio-information can then be transferred wirelessly or via the Internet to medical databases and the healthcare professionals. Using the appropriate sensing apparatus at a smart home setting, patients, elderlies and people with disabilities can have their health signals and information examined on a real-time and archival basis. Recovery process can be charted on a regular basis. Remote emergency alerts can be intercepted and responded quickly. Health deterioration can be monitored closely enabling corrective actions. Medical practitioners can therefore provide the necessary health-related services to more people. This paper surveys and compiles the state-of-the-art smart home technologies and telemedicine systems.