The new OpenCV C++ interface has made the process of image loading and display much easier. If you are a bit familiar with MATLAB then it is even more easier for you. Because in many cases, the MATLAB function names are directly used in OpenCV.
A snippet in OpenCV for some useful mathematical operations. It mostly focuses on the old opencv style matrix to new opencv style matrix conversion (and vice-versa) and some elementary mathematical operations. It also includes a trivial matrix display function. I’ll give a more robust matrix display function in future. Continue reading
This tutorial guides you through the process of installing OpenCV 2.3.1 in windows using Visual Studio 10. OpenCV changes its installation process from version to version and sometimes make it too confusing to work properly. In this tutorial I’ll try to mention as much details as possible in the installation process of OpenCV. Continue reading
I have attended several sessions of the conference, Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII) 2011 and an associated workshop named Machine Learning and Affective Computing (MLAC). It was held from 9th to 12th of Oct. It was a great experience to attend a conference directly related to my working area. Several important points in current research trends came up in the sessions which worth some thoughtful discussions. Continue reading
Merabet, L. B. & Pascual-Leone A. Neural Reorganization Following Sensory Loss: The Opportunity of Change, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol 11, pp 44-52, 2009
It is apparent from a long growing mass of evidences that the part of a brain responsible for processing information from a particular sensory channel gets recruited for other activities after loss of that particular channel. This phenomenon is referred to as “neuroplastic” behavior of brain. When it contributes to the improvement of other sensory channels, it is called “crossmodal neuroplasticity”. This paper refers to a considerable amount of reported evidences on crossmodal neuroplasticity following sensory deprivation and came to some conclusions based on those observations. Continue reading
Amir Amedi 1,2, William Stern 1, Joan A. Camprodon 1, Felix Bermpohl 1,3, Lotfi Merabet 1, Stephen Rotman 1, Christopher Hemond 1, Peter Meijer 4 and Alvaro Pascual-Leone
This paper reports some functional characteristics of a part of brain known as the lateral-occipital tactile-visual (LOtv) area. Traditionally, this part is known to be activated when a person observes the shape of an object through vision or touch. In this paper, it is claimed that this part of brain is responsible for analyzing shape of an object regardless of the modality of the incoming signal. This assertion has been made based on an experiment where the authors analyzed the functional characteristics of the LOtv area in response to sensory substitution soundscape. Continue reading
[Few weeks back I watched a DVD borrowing from Netflix named "The Secrets of Mind". It is an interesting documentary delving into the deep of human mind, nature and consciousness. It features some work of famous neuroscientist Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran. This post is mainly a summary of that documentary in my own language]
After the Iraq war, veterans who lost there limbs, sometimes felt unnatural sensations in their lost limbs. How would you explain such phenomenon? For a long time, it was considered as a hoax. Neuroscientists could not accept this as a true sensation because for every sensation there should have some neurons carrying small electric signals to the brain. In the case of phantom limb, this is not possible. Then what? Continue reading
I did not check with OpenCV for a few months. Today I noticed that a new version of OpenCV is released. This wonderful vision library is getting better and better in every release. Last time, I felt poorly about the documentation on OpenCV. I found most of its documents are just the comments provided during writing the codes which somebody has extracted using tools like Doxygen etc. Now in 2.3, the documentation page has been changed thoroughly. It has been divided into three major parts: API reference, User Guide and Tutorials. The tutorials part is open for anybody to contribute on a specific topic. I am hoping to write something here soon.
Which one do you think is better? To buy a fish to a hungry person? Or to make him know how to catch a fish? I believe in the second one. I believe unconditioned charity makes people lazy, greedy and inactive (thoughtless). On the other hand, people need some opportunity to flourish. The money granted as a micro-credit is not for living a half-fed month. Rather, this is an opportunity to flourish and grow and to put yourself in a position where you’ll not go unfed anymore in your lifetime.
Just imagine the money you’ve spent in your village. What will happen if few people just use it to live their lazy life? It will not only be considered as a very small amount of money but also it will be contributed to STOP the natural activity (and thoughts) that were supposed to come from those people if they would not get the money. However, if this would be used to start a little capital needed to start a small business, chances are there that one day the business would grow and grow and ignite the activity of more and more people and pull more people out of poverty (and give them opportunity to think).
I believe people really don’t need the rice prepared for them. They have every potential to earn the rice — what they need is just to get acquainted that they have the potential. That is the job what Grameen Bank does. That is why I believe in Micro-credit. I am very proud that the person who gave this concept is from the same country that I am from.
As a student of the University of Memphis I was always bothered by the fact that the graduate school does not give any latex template. Not only that, they always assume everybody will use Microsoft Word. All the instructions in the thesis/dissertation preparation and submission process are written with the assumption of Word usage. It looks very pathetic to me. Continue reading