Philips Maps Out a New Direction - Case Analysis Essay Example for Free

Philips Maps Out a New Direction Case Analysis EssayPhilips, the electronics manufacturer, has developed a plan to increase profits, shareholder value, and market positioning by 2010. The first step in the process is CEO Gerard Kleisterlee. Upon taking the top position, Kleisterlee was able to affect an immediate 4% establish in share prices by simply announcing the marketing make over plan. He believes that a focus on innovating and branding will be the identify to the plans success.The strategies that Kleisterlee is employing are consolidating six operational units into three, acquiring similar or enhancing technology companies, and entering into uphill markets. The six existing units will liquify into three divisions, Consumer Lifestyle, Philips Healthcare, and Philips Lighting. Each division will be run by a CEO recruited from within the other existing Philips operating units. The rationale for the consolidations is to fork up on logistical and back-office costs, and to increase revenues by 5-6% for each unit.Philips will also acquire existing technology companies that deal with a specific technology, most promising incorporating those acquisitions into one of the three divisions. Philips is also penetrating emerging consumer markets like China to build brand recognition and create a dedicated market base. strategic Issues Problems and Opportunities Philips has some issue to overcome, particularly elevate or brand recognition, and stagnate earnings and profits. As stated the name Philips is associated with laxatives and tools.The parent company Royal Philips Electronics produces a wide range of products from light bulbs, to electric shavers, home medical devices, and semiconductors. Even though stock prices rose quickly when Kleisterlee took over, sales and earnings have not increased signifi crappertly. Kleisterlees goal of increasing pre-tax margins by 10% will require an increase in sales along with the decrease in operating expenses which is the goal of consolidating operating units. According to the case study, Philips has no debt on their balance sheet.This financial position is a great investment opportunity. As noted, it makes cash on hand(predicate) for acquisitions of other technology companies whose operations can provide immediate revenue growth to Philips bottom line. Second, it allows Philips to invest marketing dollars into the newly created divisions and into emerging markets creating the sought after(prenominal) name and brand recognition. Analysis and Evaluation Philips as a whole has enhanced its rankings in important areas as brand rankings, brand value, and innovations.Consolidated and passing targeted operating divisions allow Philips to focus on marketing three different product lines in the same market. Philips has an opportunity to saturate any one or all of three unique markets. Operating as individual units allows each division to operate as an independent company with independent marketing strategies. However, by building on the parent companys brand name, Royal Philips Electronics, each division can enhance their market positions by taking on the repute that has been developed.The challenge for Phillips, and the continuing opportunity, is to try maintain a virtually debt free balance sheet. This will help not only in acquiring exiting technology companies, but will allow Philips to invest in technology companies in the emerging markets that they want to target. As is pointed out, in China, local technology firms can reclaim a certain market share. However, Philips can invest in the local technology market buying technology specific firms, and adding their market reputation to a local manufacturing partner.Conclusion Royal Philips Electronics, simply known as Philips, is developing into a global marketer of different but related products. The differentiate to Philips success so far is to consolidate operations, acquire existing technologies, remain debt free, and pen etrate emerging markets. The key to Philips continuing success is to invest in emerging markets as a way of enhancing the market positioning of each operating unit while drawing on and maintaining the parent company brand and name reputation.

Wild Animals As Pets Essay Example for Free

Wild Animals As Pets EssayHow galore(postnominal) of you commence ever said you wanted a pet monkey when you were at the zoo last time? Or imagined how great it would be to have a tiger sleep at the pes of your bed instead of just a dog? That all sounds wonderful at first but how many people do you know that have ever had an exotic pet and not regretted it immediately? Its not really as great as you think. According to the Human Society of the United States in one of their recent surveys, 90% of exotic pets die within the first year and 90% of the remainder die in the second year. That means that unless 1% lives past the age of two. Every year wild animals seriously hurt or kill people, usually their owners or family members. Big cats have killed many children and even grown men, not to mention the dogs people think their cougar will be friends with, they never survive. Monkeys are always the pet people deficiency they could have. However, they can never be trained, tamed, or basically domesticated like people think. Take Louie for example, a Black-capped capuchin born in August 2004. He was bought by a family in Chicago when he was just a baby. Within months he had bitten their daughter several times severely, but when he finally bit a child outside the family, his life was in danger. Louies owner found herself in court fighting against the parents of the child who demanded that his head be send off for rabies testing.

Case Marriot and Flinder Valves Essay Example for Free

Case Marriot and Flinder Valves Essay1. Why is Marriotts CFO proposing the Project Chariot?To improve the financial carrying out of the firm, by re-structuring the company in two separating activities to distinguish those that require a large fixed assets (Real estates ownership) and those with relative low amount of assets (Management services and others).By dividing in this way, the large amount of debt bequeath go with the real estates ownership called Host Marriott Corp. (HMC), whereas the rest of activities testament go to Marriott International (MII). Doing so, the value of the 2 firms combined will exceed this years book value, according to expectations (see appendix 1).2. Is the proposed restructuring consistent with focusings responsibilities?It is, as it clearly separate the activities and focus on management services rather than owning the hotels. Furthermore, it improves the cash flows from the existing structure (see appendix 1), this melioration will allow HMC to meet its debt responsibilities ( a total cash flow project of $771 million in 1992 versus $478 million in 1991.The DCF in HMC assuming a worst case scenario will exceed current value of the firms assets $5,218 million versus $4,600 million, which indicates that the firm will improve as its assets will appreciate.3. The case describes two conceptions of managers fiduciary duty (page 9). Which do you favor the shareholder conception or the corporate conception? Does your stance make a difference in this case?We agree upon favoring the shareholder conception, as this provides an improvement on cash flows, as this condition is met, other financial gaps can be covered, plus it revalues the total firm based upon the expected cash flows.In this particular case, by having this improvement on cash flow, debt responsibilities can be covered inside HMC or by using the line of credit guaranteed by MII.On regards of the bondholders, the option is to join on the return as bonds will reduce t he grade to junk bonds, for the calculation on DCF we assume a return of 10.81 assuming the highest risk for bonds. This action will compensate bondholders for the action.4. Should Mr. Marriott recommend the proposed restructuring to the board?Yes, as it increase the value of the combined firms, focus activities per company and provides better cash flows.

Comparison The Lovely Bones and The Liars Club

Comparison The Lovely B sensations and The Liars ClubIn this term paper I will analyze ii books that I concretely liked The lovely bones and The liars fraternity. I headstrong to write rough them, because I believe that both stories are genuinely similar and actually well written. I alike call up that the authors of these books are admirable wo custody who confine struggled with carriage, society and family. For this reason, I consider important to compare the two books. I will start to write about the lovely bones. At the beginning, I did non want to finish construe the book, because it is a hard reputation that talks about the raping of a little girl. Therefore, I felt so angry and frustrating. But then I understood that I had to continue look ating the book if I treasured to know the meaning of it.The point of view of the lovely bones is root person and it is narrated by Susie salmon, the girl that was horribly plundered and murdered by her neighbor. The entire story is about the grief that the Salmon family is experimenting after Susies finish. However, there was a member of the family who suffered the most Susies preceptor, Jack Salmon. This man love her daughter so much that when he knew that she was killed, look became a hell for him. As a result, his marriage was truly affected and his married woman cheated on him. I found a reiterate that explains the relationship between Susie and her get down in the mouthHis own father had taught him how to build ships in bottles. They were something my mother, sister, and fellow couldnt care less about. It was something I adored. The hideaway was full of them. He would call me in whenever he was ready (Sebold, Alice p, 45)Unlike her siblings, Susie enjoyed her fathers hobby. This man loved to build ships in bottles, because his father taught him how to do them. So, he dual-lane this hobby with their children, precisely the except one who liked and care about it was Susie because she h ad a very strong relationship with her father. Therefore, when she passed away his father Jack valued to die.On the other hand, Mary Karr in her book The liars confederation showed that her relationship with her father was very special and unique. For example, she mentioned that he used to be a very lovely father with her and her sister and that even though he was many years in the war, when he came back home he always wanted to spend time with his family. However, Marys father did non have a sizeable relationship with the rest of the family, because his mother in law did not like him and as a result, his marriage was falling apart. This quote explains the situation he was livingMother threatened divorce a lot of times, and Daddys response to it was usually a kind of patient eye-rolling. He never spoke of divorce as a n option. If I asked him worried questions about a particularly dread(a) fight, hed just say I shouldnt talk bad about my mother, as if even suggesting they might split up insulted her somehow (Karr, Mary pa, 35)As we sack see, Marys father did not want to get divorce maybe because he wanted to be with her two children. Moreover, he said to Mary that even though he had conflicts with his wife, she had to love her mother no matter what. I think this man showed that he was a good conserve and a good father since he always asked Mary to respect her mother. This case is very similar to the conflict that Susies parents had in the book The lovely bones. As we know, when Susie died, all the family struggled with the fact that she was not longer with them. Each of them faced Susies death differently. The father, for example, was obsessed to find the killer, the sister Lindsay did not want to talk about it, the brother was very innocent to look that her sister had passed away and the mother decided to cheat on her husband to relieve the pain. I said before that Susies father and Marys were similar because both men were married with women whot, fro m my point of view, did not care about their children. Marys mother cared only about herself. She just wanted to have fun and get another husband that is why she went on a trip with his Latin-Ameri offer boyfriend and left her children. Susies mother did the same thing when she decided to move to another state in order to be alone and bundle with her daughters death.THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIBLINGSI believe that in the two books that I decided to compare, the relationship between siblings is one of the most important root words. In this part of my term paper, I will compare Susies relationship with her brother and sister and Mary Karr relationship with her sister Lecia.Susie Salmon had one brother called Buckley and one sister called Lindsay. The tree of them were very closed and cared very much about each other. There is a quote in the book The lovely bones where Susie says that once she saved her brothers life.a three-year-old Buckley had swallowed it. Buckley was choking, his body bucking, and I carried him with Nate trailing into the garage, where my fathers precious Mustang sat. I put Buckley in the back and grabbed and grabbed the keys from the loose terra-cotta pots where my father hid them. I sped all the way to the hospital. if the hadnt been there, the doctor later told my mother you would have lost your little boy (Sebold, Alice p, 93,94)As the quote explains, Susie saved her brother because she loved him very much. She also had the courage to do it since many people would not dare to do what Susie did. Susie loved Buckley so much that she did not think about anything scarcely to safe her little brother. Later in the book, this strong connection is demonstrated when in one of the chapters, Buckley said to his dad that Susie touched his case and that he felt that Susie was seeing them from heaven.Susie also got along well with her sister Lindsay. Both girls enjoyed being together, not only because they were sisters but also because they were th e same age. As a result, when Lindsay knew that her sister was dead, she did not want to talk about this tragic event to anybody. For me, it is very run acrossable the way that Lindsay felt. Some people like her deal with death by being quite and reserved. Some others share their feelings in order to release their pain. But what really cares is to remember the people who we love.Now, the author of The liars club also had a good relationship with her sister Lecia. These two girls suffered a lot not only because they had many problems in their home, but also because they have an alcoholic mother and a hysterical high-flownmother. I found a quote that explains their relationshipLecia and I both behaved like savages at any opportunity. When she was only twelve, Lecia could beat the dogshit out of any neighbor boy up to the age of fifteen. For my part, I can remember standing behind the drainage deck in our yard cussing Carol Sharp for bloodying my nose (Karr, Mary pa, 40)In this quot e, Mary Karr explains that she used to play pranks with her sister and that thought she had problems in home, she tried to pull up stakes them by playing with Lecia. From my point of view, it is very difficult to live you life normally when you know that your family is hurting each other. For this reason, I admired Mary Karr very much, because she tried to forget all her problems. Unfortunately, when you are a child, all these family conflicts affect you and the only thing that you can do about it is to move on with your life just as Mary Karr did. On the other hand, I also believe that she was conscious about her family problems, but she could not do anything about it. I can not imagine what it feels like to live with a family that is full of traumas and that does not care about you. For example, Mary Karrs grand mother was a sour woman who did not love their grand children and who lived in the past. That is why Mary Karr did not suffer when her grand mother passed away. Instead, she felt relieved and free.Susie Salmon also had a special grand mother, but unlike Marys she was a good person who loved their grand children very much. This woman was an alcoholic but she took cared of their grand children while her daughter Abigail decided to move to another state. These two women were so different, but as any human beings being they have many flaws. Now, in the next pages of my paper I will talk about the role of the mothers in the two books The lovely bones and The liars clubTHE ROLE OF A arrive IN A FAMILYIt is well known that a mother represents many important things in a family. She is the one who takes care of her children, because she has a protective disposition that a father does not have. For this reason, it is unbelievable for me to understand why Susies mother abandoned their children in order to forget her dead daughter. I can understand that it is very painful to lose your daughter, but by abandoning your other children you are not going to reso lve anything. Now, I also comprehend that as human beings we need to have our space, because is our right. But when you have a family like Susies mother you also have to think about them.Another thing that also move me was that Susies mother cheated on her husband. Even now I can not understand what she did that. There is a very good quote that explains Abigails attitude fit in to Susies point of viewLen kissed her forehead hard and closed his eyes. She took his hand and placed it on her breast. She whispered in his ear. I knew what was happening. Her rage, her loss, her despair. The whole life lost go down out in an arc on that roof, clogging up her being. She needed Len to drive the dead daughter out (Sebold, Alice p, 152)This woman desired to forget her daughters death by cheating on her husband. She thought that her pain was going to disappear if she transferred all his sorrow in another person, but I think that is not the correct way to resolve our problems. She could have g one to a therapist or talking to her husband about Susies death. Infidelity is something that I can not comprehend.Unfortunately, Abigails infidelity did not bring Susie back. Instead, this deception caused Abigail more pain and more remorse to her life. At the end of the book, we know that Abigail returned with her family because Jack had a heart attack, but we never knew if she stayed again with them or if she decided to be brave enough in order to tell her husband that she had cheated on him with Len Fenerman.In the book The liars club Mary Karr explained that her mother was always worried about herself, just exactly like Susies mother. You might think that I am judging these women very hard, but I just can not understand why they behaved that way with their children. I mean, when you decide to have children is because you know that you have to take care of them, besides there are some mothers that do the opposite thing.Mary Karrs mother for example, tried to be a good mother, b ut I feel that she had a very hard background that did not allow her to live her life peacefully. Even Mary Karr recognized that when she finished her book, it was very hard for her mother to read it. At the same time, Mary said that she was very supportive when the book was done. Another thing that it was hard to assimilate for Mary and her sister Lecia was to live with their stepfather Hector. He constantly had arguments with Marys mother and they did not have a good relationship. There is a quote that explains this situationOther nights were occupied with Mother and Hector fighting. The litany of his innate low-lifedness got seared into skull during this time. Hector was a pussy, was her main gripe. Also, he lacked gainful employment, which meant Mother accused him of sponging off her all the time.As this quote explains, Marys stepfather did not support his wife economically. Therefore, Marys mother argued with him and had many conflicts. Plus, he was an alcoholic who was worrie d more about drinking than about taking care of his wife, his house and his stepdaughters. When I think about the problems that Mary had to deal with, I really felt sorry for her. She was only a child when her parents got divorce and when he had to accept a new father figure. I can see Marys life like a quest. During her childhood, she lived so many bad things that make her stronger, but at the same time make her more vulnerable.In order to conclude this term paper in the next to pages, I will talk about the most difficult paper in both books raping. The reason why I decided to write about it at the end, was because I want to reflect about how raping can alter your life.TWO GIRLS WHO LOST THEIR INNOCENCEThe books that I decided to compare in this term paper talk about a very hard topic raping. In the lovely bones, the main character Susie Salmon was horribly raped and killed by her neighbor Mr. Harvey. This story is fiction, but the author of it was raped in real life. For that re ason, she wrote this book.As we know, Susie Salmon was a fourteen year old girl who had a normal life and who wanted to fell in love for the first time. Unfortunately, all of her dreams were destroyed by a disgusting and despicable man named Mr. Harvey. He took away Susies innocence when he raped her. After this, he decided to kill her so she could not accuse him of anything. But Susie was not dead in a one hundred percent, because her spirit went to heaven. She see her family and her killer from there. She saw all the pain that Mr. Harvey had caused after he killed her. But she also saw that her family got over her death and moved on. Here is a quote in which Susie explains her rapingMr. Harvey made me lie still underneath him and listen to the beating of his heart and the beating of mine. How mine skipped like a rabbit, and how thudded, a hammer against cloth. We lay there with our bodies touching, and, as I shook, a powerful knowledge took hold. He had done this thing to me and I had lived. (Sebold, Alice p, 14)The only thing that I can say about this quote is that I can not imagine what this girl felt in that moment. For me, it is very difficult to understand how these criminals can exist. I mean, this man took advantage of a child who was not big or strong enough to defend herself. Killing a person is horrible, but killing a kid who is scant(p) and innocent is the most despicable act in the world. From my point of view, Mr. Harvey was a scum of the earth who did not deserve to be alive, because she also killed other children. every last(predicate) of them were girls that had a life, dreams and hopes for the future. But this killer ruined their lives and left sorrow in their families.Finally, in the book The Liars club Mary Karr narrates that she was raped, when she was a little girl. This event changed her life and her perspective about the world. The quote saysHe pulled me off my shorts and underwear and threw them in the corner in a ball, over where I knew there could be spiders. He pushed down his pants and put my hand on his thing, which was unlike any of the boys joke about hot dogs and garden hoses. It was hard as timber and felt big around and felt big around as my arm. He wrapped both my hands around it, and showed me how to slide them up and down (Karr, Mary p, 66)When I read this fragment of the book, I really felt so angry and frustrated. I can to imagine the desperation that Mary Karr experimented. She as Alice Sebold experienced how it felt to be raped and humiliated by a man. But at the same time this horrible experience made them successful and brave. So, my conclusion for this term paper is the following every person forms his character based on his personal experiences. As a consequence, in life we can follow two paths the one that is related with hate, vengeance and sadness and the one that is connected with love, success and hopes. I believe that the authors of the books that I compared followed the second pa th, because they decided to fix their emotional wounds in order to move on. That is a lesson that all human beings should learn.Nobody said that life is easy. Nobody said that life is pink color. However, divinity fudge made us strong to achieve any objective that we have. He made us intelligent to understand that life is something that is full of bad and good moments. For this reason, these two authors, Alice Sebold and Mary Karr succeed when they decided to tell their stories to the world. They had a lot of pain in their lives, but they also decided to cure their traumas to move on and have a good life.

Multiple Objects Tracking Via Collaborative Background Subtraction Computer Science Essay

Multiple Objects Tracking Via Collaborative Background Subtraction computing machine Science EssayMultiple Objects Tracking Via Collaborative Background Subtraction. Object introduce musical arrangement is a group of integrated modern technology functional together to secure certain of purpose like monitoring, tracking mournful heading lens such as fomite. The main purpose of the disapprove tracking is to achieve monitoring purpose such surveillance in restricted area, providing in entropy formattingion about contemptible fomite located at road to Intelligent affair System and traffic monitoring. This project discusses the development of the mark tracking system and the idea of this system is based on fancy system getable on current market. For this object tracking system, user push aside monitor and track moving object such as vehicle where the vision system been placed. computer software system system product MATLAB is use to program algorithmic rule like dete cting and tracking moving object where the vision system is placed and pomp moving object count on for user.TABLE OF CONTENTSPage TITLEDECLARATION iABSTRACT iiABSTRAK iiiTABLE OF CONTENTS iv sway OF TABLES viiLIST OF FIGURE viiiLIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ixLIST OF TABLESTable No. Description PageTable 4.1 add up of tercet experiment conduct previously. 17LIST OF FIGURESPage insert 2.1 Example of Median Filtering, value of current pixel go forth replaced using new median value 5 fig 2.2 Normal presentation of a straight line 7 class 3.1 Relationship between webcam, MATLAB and GUI 11 render 3.2 F crushed of work for vehicle tracking system 12Figure 4.1 Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 work out 14Figure 4.2 discover stopd for YCbCr cede comment space 15Figure 4.3 Image captured for grayscale relapse color space 16Figure 4.4 Image captured for grayscale return color space 17Figure 5.1 Example of pitch differencing 23Figure 5.2 Memory of cache been flush 24Figure 5.3 GUI window layout s end off 25Figure 6.1 Display ikon when there is no moving object 28Figure 6.2 Moving curtain cause by wind 28Figure 6.3 Moving stand fan motion. Frame demonstrate up from up to bottom and left to right. 31LIST OF ABBREVIATIONSCCD Charge-couple DeviceFPS Frames per SecondGUI Graphical User InterfaceID Identification NumberUSB Universal nonparallel BusVGA Video Graphics ArrayCHAPTER 1INTRODUCTIONOverviewObject tracking system is defined as a substantial condemnation vision system which is capable to commit desired surveillance task without human supervision (Nguyen, K. et al., 2002). Besides that, object tracking system is able to detect object which is moving in street such as vehicles or pedestrian without human assistance. Furthermore, an object tracking system may as well as send list of vehicle which is moving in desire area to assist info collection for Intelligent Transportation System (R. Reulke et al., 2002). This tracking system may as well have the abilities to r esist with environmental changes such as shadow of surrounding figure of speeching or rase slow moving vehicles. Therefore, a quick reception for vision fields such as real time street monitoring system which are able to perform moving object sensing. In this project, the main purpose is to design an object detection mechanism for an object tracking system, from connecting a vision system to a computer. The target is to build an applicable object tracking system.Object tracking system tail distinguish between static ambit and moving objects by itself and able to display and tracking moving objects if any moving objects detected. Hence, it allow us to monitor a heavy load street which having high volume of usage. Furthermore, it discharge contribute data collection if those areas contain Intelligent Traffic System which washstand reduce time of waiting for vehicle located at traffic begin.Since year 2000, mint candy of fast response time or accurate object detection algorit hm had been release such as circumstance implication, mean shift, Kalmen filter, Markov Chain three-card monte Carlo, Kernel Density and others.Object Tracking System consists of cardinal major systems which are vision system and moving object detection and tracking software system. The vision system is responsible to export characterization stream captured and send to tracking system. Meanwhile, the tracking system is to let user monitor and been inform if moving object detected. In this project, object tracking system provide be design and developed to ensure it is capable to detect and tracking moving object such as vehicles moving in street. Due to this, it could not effectively detect fast moving object, surrounding light enduringness is too low or shadow of building. As a result, the detection algorithm should fast enough to process each frame coming from vision system and can able to encounter problem stated before such as shadow surrounding and slow replying time by tracking system.Problem controversyThe current real time object tracking systems developed usually cannot eliminate having slow respond during tracking object which go forth frontier the hardihood of object tracking. Hence, the algorithm that able to having less computation time is necessary to be developed. Background subtraction at the initial detection will stay fresh computation time for faster response to detect an object in real time. To fetch more accurate tracking result, a more skillful detection and tracking algorithm will be carried out. It is believe to track the moving object using this algorithm will taking less time and providing more accurate result.ObjectiveThe aim of this project is to detect multiple moving objects through real time vision system. This projects aim can be realized by accomplishing the following sub-objectives.To study and identify practical parameters to track a moving object.To implement backdrop subtraction for real time detection purpose .To enhance the developed algorithm for continuous tracking purpose.To ascertain and enhance performance of develop background subtraction based tracking system.1.4 Scope of flexThe main scope of this project is to build an object tracking system capable of detect and track moving object. The object tracking system includes a vision system and an envision processing system. The jut processing system will able to detect moving objects and tracking it continuously.MATLAB control m-file will be acts as core of the object tracking system, it will be use as detect and track moving vehicle in video run by vision system. The vehicle tracking system will display in GUI window.Vision system will be use as a supplier to supply tracking system that video capture in desire area. This system should be footling enough so that it can be easily come in up or take away.Organization of the ReportThis report includes seven chapters, each chapter is properly divided and plan. Vision system and ob ject tracking system will be discussed in each chapter.Chapter 2 discussed about review of object tracking and detecting method available nowadays.Chapter 3 explains about flow of work deal for this tracking system, parameter require during tracking system is running, infix and output yellion and concept how to build this tracking system using vision system available in market.Chapter 4 explains hardware and software setup before this tracking system was start to run. This is to ensure vision system will supply appropriate video require for tracking system and MATLAB will provide suitable arrangement such as memory to process the video supply by vision system.Chapter 5 discuss about algorithm using in this project that is background subtraction using frame unlikeness. In this chapter, an M-file will be hiting and including function requires establishing the tracking system. The tracking system should able running using hardware and software setup preparing at previous chapter together with this M-file.Chapter 6 bespeak image output and result obtain during this tracking system is running. Firstly it will show successful background subtraction and sancti tho it will show distortion of surrounding such as shadow of object.Chapter 7 will summarizes and concludes the report by stating the limitations of the project as well as the future work of the project.CHAPTER 2review of object tracking and detecting method2.1 OverviewIn this chapter, review of existing method to detect and track object will be discussed. Algorithm that suitable for detect and tracking also will be studied. Several algorithms will be review by scholarly person.2.2 Median FilterMedian Filter, use to reduce small noise in an image is a commonly utilise technique (Al-amri, S.S et al., 2010). According re look for by Boyle, small noise normally appears very distinct and its having quite different value in grayscale within its populate pixel values. By changing its gray value to the m edian of neighboring pixel value, the noise can be eliminating using this technique. victimisation example in Figure 2.1, the value of neighboring pixels are 115, 119, 120,123, 124,125,126,127 and 150. By calculating median value using these neighbor pixels, we can obtain median value is 124. replace pixels in centre using median value will eliminate the noise.Figure 2.1 Example of Median Filtering, value of current pixel will be replaced using new median valueIn order to obtain more accurate median value, we should increasing number of neighbor which involve in median value calculating. This technique will become more and more intricate when dealing with bigger image. Besides that, computation cost and time require is relatively high because it rents to sort all value in neighbor.2.3 Canny Edge DetectorCanny introduce a well-known technique using perimeter detection (Neoh, H.S et al., 2005). This method requires few steps to track an object.Remove small noise using smooth a ima ge cardinal gradient images are generated on both vertical and horizontal direction using ane of the gradient operators based on previous image.Result denoted as Gx (m,n) and Gy(m,n) where m and n are pixel coordinate.Calculate edge magnitude and direction images from previous two images.Edge magnitude, M (m,n) =Edge direction,Threshold the edge magnitude image M (m, n). Set pixel to zero if their value below a predefined brink.Reduce edge breadth by non-maxima operation on MT (m, n) the non-zero pixels in MT (m, n) are set to zero if their value are not greater than their neighbors along the direction indicate by.Result is threshold using two identical thresholds T1 and T2 where T1Edge with a magnitude less than T1 will be removed and those greater than T2 are detect as real edge.Edges with magnitude between T1 and T2 also detected as edges if they connect to an edge pixel.2.4 Hough TransformThis technique detects object whose shape can be parameterized in a Hough parameter space (Gurbuz, A.C. et al., 2008).These objects include polynomials, straight line, circle and etc. The peaks detected in Hough parameter space is used to describe the object space.An example, line component can be described using a parametric notionWhere r is length of a normal from origin to this line and is orientation of r with respect to x-axis.Figure 2.2 Normal presentation of a straight lineUsing this normal presentation, we can transform the academic degrees on the line to curve in a Hough parameter space whose coordinates represent the normal length and orientation. Points which are on the line generate curves intersecting at a common point (r, ).2.5 CamShiftCamShift or Continuosly Adaptive Mean Shift track objects based their color. This technique was developed and detects an object using centre and size of the object in a given image (Ganoun, A. et al., 2006).Step of tracking an object is as followsSet the size of search window. initialise location of searching window.Locat ion of centroid within search window based on the 0th and first moment been computed.Search window is centered at the centroid.Step three and step for is repeated until it has move for length lee then a preset threshold.In order to use this technique, an identical color of object must be use. Hence, one object with complex color is not suitable for this technique.2.6 Kalman FilterThis algorithm is a state estimation based on feedback control mechanism (Donald, J.S. et al., 1998). This filter will predict the process state and then obtains feedback from the measurement.Equation for Kalman filter is divided to two groupsTime update equation.Measurement update equationsTime update equation is used to predict current state and computer error covariance. Output of these equations is a state of prediction for next time step. In the other hands, the measurement update equations consist a new measurement into their prior prediction. Output of this is an improved estimation compared to ot her estimation.However, Kalman Filter cannot detect fast moving object such as moving vehicle in higher(prenominal)way, this is because changes in speed, acceleration can be dramatic during two back-to-back frames.The Kalman filter is not fast enough to respond to constant and sudden changes of system rate. Hence, it is not suitable for detection purpose which require less computation time.2.7 Markov Chain Monte CarloMarkov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is a class of algorithm for sampling from probability distributions based on constructing a Markov Chain that has desired distribution as its equilibrium distribution.In order to construct a Markov chain Monte Carlo, it must contain three main stages (Jia, Y.Q. et al., 2009)Model Construction.Image is first pre-processed to retrieve its edge features. Models of roads and vehicle also been defined according for this method.Bayesian formulation.Since vehicle detection and segmentation problem is casted as Bayesian problem of finding a MAP solution, a identical formulations been defined. Prior probability and like hood of vehicles proposal are defined from which the form of the posterior probability is derived to evaluate different proposals.Detect a vehicle using MCMC.Construct a Markov chain to sample the proposal in the parameter space. Monte Carlo method with simulated annealing been used to search for the put and other related parameters that fixed actual vehicles most.2.8 Background SubtractionIn background subtraction, two image been captured in same location will be compared. Assume first image did not contain any moving object (empty background) and next image contain one moving object. Minus the second image with first image will contain moving object only since background of image been subtracted (Fukushima, H. et al., 1991).The image is read as array format in the image processing, which each pixels is represented by matrix coordinates (x,y). The extravagance at position (x,y) is define by I (x,y).(4.1 )From Equation 4.1 Where lc, Ib, Is are the contributions from the spotlight objects and background objects respectively. In the image for the subtraction, the brightness is written as(4.2)The position adjustment between the two images is easily carried out by using the sidle up objects. In order to obtain the foreground object, the first image is subtracted from the second one which contains the foreground object as show in Equation 4.2.CHAPTER 3CONCEPTUAL DESIGN3.1 IntroductionMethod of how to detect and track object will discuss in this chapter. The vision system will capture video in a desire area and send that video to MATLAB for processing. The MATLAB will process data coming from vision system and performing tracking action.Figure below show the mechanism for vision system and MATLAB. The vision system includes webcam which can connect to a computer using USB. The MATLAB will get data from vision system and processing the data. After that, A GUI window will show moving obje ct if moving object exist capture by vision system.WebcamMATLABGUIFigure 3.1 Relationship between webcam, MATLAB and GUIMATLAB been chosen as platform for detecting and tracking referable to it contain healthy toolbox which can use to synchronize with webcam and can produce a simple detect and track vehicle tracking program. Besides that, it also can produce a GUI window which is requiring for the tracking system.3.2 Flow Chart of WorkIn this section, flow of work requires detecting and tracking moving object will be further discussed. Frame differencing will be using to subtract the background and obtain the masking of moving object. In order to obtain more accurate result, a more accurate algorithm will be use to track moving object.Input Video Frame from television cameraPre-processingStore the current frame as backgroundSubtract the next frame with background imageSave into memoryUpdate current frame as backgroundDisplay moving object and track it continuously.Figure 3.2 Flow of work for object tracking system3.3 DiscussionIn this chapter, limn and prototype of tracking system been discussed. In order to achieve this objective, the tracking system will be build based on conceptual design discussed previously.In the following chapter, pre-processing will be elaborated and method to connect webcam with MATLAB will be show. Preparation configuration also will discuss in details.CHAPTER 4Hardware and Software Setup4.1 OverviewHardware and software setup is defined as a preparation before a simulation is set up in either hardware (tools or instrument) or software (simulation program, programming language) by designer. A setup describes a system will be perfectly connecting between hardware and software to achieve certain mission. Engineer use a tools or instrument that either ready in market or design it according to their requirement. In other way, software such as scientific program also available in market, all that railroad engineer need to do is fully utilize the program by design an efficient flow which can achieve their expectation. Engineer can develop a surveillance system and by using a mathematical modeling to analyze and obtain object which is moving from view of camera.In this chapter, hardware and software setup is carried out for the design of a street monitoring system. It includes the connecting webcam to MATLAB which will let MATLAB ready to get real time video recording from webcam, M-file cryptograph which contain algorithm to extract background which is static from object (vehicles or pedestrians) which is moving. Lastly, is to show image which is moving after process of background subtraction been kill in form of GUI.4.2 Tools and SoftwareIn this section, tools and software using along this project will be describe in details of how they contribute in this project. Tools using in this project is a webcam which can connect to computer via USB 2.0 connection, it can either capture a static picture or even recordi ng a video which can be treat as real time recording device. Software using in this project is MATLAB R2009a. In MATLAB R2009a, toolbox which will be use to develop this street surveillance system is Image learnedness Toolbox and Image Processing Toolbox. Image Acquisition Toolbox will be use to establish a real time recording from webcam and delivered to MATLAB. In other hands, Image Processing Toolbox will be use to process continuous frames capture which is stored in MATLAB and show moving object which is process by using background subtraction.4.2.1 WebcamIn this project, student will use Webcam which is product of Logitech with model Logitech Quick Cam Pro 4000.Figure 4.1 Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 ImageSource Logitech Software Support (2010)Logitech Quick Cam Pro is a webcam that able to capture video in 640 x 480 resolutions and able to snapshot a picture with 1280 x 960 resolutions. Besides that, it also contains a build in microphone which able to record sounds around that webcam been located and activated. Video capture from this webcam is using advance VGA CCD sensor and up to 30 fps. (Logitech, 2004)In order to canvas different video remark format, student tried several video stimulus format available for this vision system such as YCbCr, grayscale and RGB. These three return color space been chosen due to vision system using at here, Logitech Quick Cam Pro 4000 only support these three return color space.Three experiments will be performing to choose the suitable return color space from YCbCr, grayscale and RGB. In each experiment, three cases will be using to test different light intensity towards an object (battery) that is low, normal and high.For low light intensity, surrounding of image captured should be dark enough. Normal light intensity test will be performing at inner space with medium light intensity and camera should not point toward a direction with strong light source such as sun or spotlight. In the last case, camera will be cap ture image in direction towards strong light source such as torchlight.These experiments will be tested using webcam connect to MATLAB and executing command codes. Summarize of three experiment will be included in Table 4.1.Experiment 1 Using YCbCr as video input format and display as figure.After webcam is connecting to MATLAB, code as below will be executing to perform the test.vid = videoinput(winvideo,1)set(vid,ReturnedColorSpace,YCbCr)preview(vid)From Figure 4.2(a), image obtained almost in dark due to low intensity of light surrounding object. Image can be seeing using human eyes in clear view for Figure 4.2(b). For last case, object still can consider as clear although white spot cause by strong light source located at upside of Figure 4.2(c).(a) (b) (c)Figure 4.2 Image captured for YCbCr return color space(a) Low light intensity (b) Normal light intensity (c) High light intensityFrom this experiment, this return color space is potential to be used in this project. It does no t lose color property and only having small changes of color during in high light intensity situation.Experiment 2 Using grayscale as video input format and display as figure.To perform this experiment, previous video object should delete from MATLAB workspace and executing following code.vid = videoinput(winvideo,1)set(vid,ReturnedColorSpace,YCbCr)preview(vid)From both Figure 4.3(b) and Figure 4.3(c), we can see that color property of object only left color, that is black and white. Furthermore, Figure 4.3(c) does not have problem of overexpose. Same as previous, object hard to see in Figure 4.3(a).(a) (b) (c)Figure 4.3 Image captured for grayscale return color space(a) Low light intensity (b) Normal light intensity (c) High light intensityAlthough performance in discourse high light intensity is better, this return color will not consider at this moment since color property of decrease that will limit the improvement of algorithm that may need color property.Experiment 3 Using RG B as video input format and display as figure. (Default returned color space in MATLAB)Since default setting for this webcam is RGB, after delete video object built in previous experiment, a new video input is create and preview directly. No return color space should be set.vid = videoinput(winvideo,1)preview(vid)It is not possible to capture image in dark environment at Figure 4.4(a). Figure 4.4(b) can represent each color of object with details. Furthermore, this return color space did not show problem of overexpose, as in Figure 4.4(c).(a) (b) (c)Figure 4.4 Image captured for grayscale return color space(a) Low light intensity (b) Normal light intensity (c) High light intensityFrom this experiment, it is clear to show that this return color is most suitable for this project among three return color space. It does not lose color property and still can encounter overexpose problem.Table 4.1 Summarize of three experiments conduct previously.PropertyYCbCrGrayscaleRGBAble to detect o bject in low light intensityNoNoNoColor ReturnedMulti colorBlack and whiteMulti colorAble to encounter overexposePartiallyNoYesFrom Table 4.1, we can conclude RGB is the most suitable since from human visual view, grayscale return color space will lose its color characteristic since it will threshold the figure into black and white, we will unable to further recognize an object exist in frame of view due its unique characteristic such as color. YCbCr can be defined as a way to encode RGB information, thus using RGB will keep original characteristic remain unchanged. Using RGB, we still can develop other usage of it.Since return color space using is RGB, which is default in toolbox. We can ignore the set return color space in MATLAB coding during deduction the video input object.Initially, an object will be created to get input from webcam using following MATLAB command, obj = videoinput(winvideo,1) where 1 is ID number of camera input. After this MATLAB command is execute, an objec t named as obj will be store in workspace of MATLAB.In order to let the video input object continuously acquire the data, student has to instruct MATLAB by command as followingtriggerconfig(obj, manual)set(obj, Tag, appTitle, FramesAcquiredFcnCount, 1, TimealrFcn, locFrameCallback, TimerPeriod, 0.01)4.2.2 MATLAB M-fileInitially, we have to associate object (video input object) with figure in GUI of MATLAB, if it is already existed, we will use it or else create a new one.ud = get(obj, UserData)if isempty(ud) isstruct(ud) isfield(ud, figureHandles) ishandle(ud.figureHandles.hFigure)appdata.figureHandles = ud.figureHandlesfigure(appdata.figureHandles.hFigure)elseappdata.figureHandles = localCreateFigure(obj, appTitle)endAn empty array with unset dimension and value will be used to store what the video input object needs in terms of application data.appdata.background = obj.UserData = appdataFunction named as imaqmotion which contain MATLAB command will be compile together and compi le to ensure no error detect. In order to execute this function, user can create a video input object and executed it by named of function follow by name of video input object in bracket.4.2.3 Error Catching in M-fileTo balk MATLAB contain an existing video input object is running, a stop instruction will be included in M-fie.stop(obj)This is to ensure that only one new desire video input object will be use to perform the monitoring process. Besides that, MATLAB will show a monition if frame import from webcam takes too long returning. This warning can be skipped by usingwarning off imaqpeekdatatooManyFramesRequestedMATLAB will stop responding and quit improperly if error that unpredicted occur during the process. Thus, we have catch the error and only pop out a warning message to indicate user that error been occur and MATLAB can stop the execution of function gracefully.catcherror(MATLABimaqmotionerror, sprintf(IMAQMOTION is unable to run properly.n%s, lasterr))end4.3 Discussion In this chapter, student demonstrates how a MATLAB connect with webcam and import real time recording to MATLAB. Follow by preparing an environment where declared video input object will be store in workspace of MATLAB, where this object can be use to start the core of project, subtract object from static background. Steps mention before is to ensure user can executed several step in one simple instruction which is store in MATLAB M-file. In the next chapter, student will show how two consecutive frames being compare and spot which is not belong to previous frame (declare as background of frame) in same location of matrices will be show in MATLAB GUI.CHAPTER 5BACKGROUND SUBTRACTION USING FRAME DIFFERENCE5.1 OverviewTo achieve objective of this project, detect object which is moving from the view of vision system, we need develop a monitoring system which able to distinguish moving object and static background. This can be done using writing an algorithm using different language such as C programming, Open CV or MATLAB.In this chapter, background subtraction using frame difference will be implementing along this project to subtract the background. Background subtraction is a general method where as frame difference is a subset of background subtraction which compare the current frame with previous frame and any pixel not belongs to previous frame is consider as moving object. This method been chosen due to its simple operation and can reduce time require to process those frames import from vision system. Frame use as background will be store as array with constant array which contain information of pixel. This array will use as reference, in another, as a background of image which will be compared with next frame capture by vision system in variable of array. After two frames are being compared by using differencing method, object which consider as moving should be show in a window. Due to simple subtraction method, delay in video processing can be reduced.Thos e functions contain above ability will be include in M-file. Those instructions will be include in different function so that it can be executed according to flow of project. These include localFrameCallback (a function to update image display by video input object), localUpdateFig (function that update GUI window using latest data), localCreateFigure (function that create and initialize figure), localCreateBar (function that create and initialize bar display).5.2 Initialize and Creating a Background ImageThis section is basically disc

Influenza Causes People to Stay Home :: Journalism Media Studies Health Medical Essays

Influenza Causes People to Stay HomeYesterday the influenza record was broken as the highest number of cases in New York city alone was 5589 in a single day The numbers are stupefying and many people are looking at taking more precautions at pr stock-stillting the disease to spread to them and loved ones. People everywhere are wonder if enough is being done to prevent influenza from spreading. The board of health has passed a sanitary computer code which includes the following sections Section 89 of the sanitary code requires isolation and quarantine of persons infected with infectious disease. Section 98 of the sanitary code provides that no person in the city of New York, without a get therefore issued by the Board of Health, carry, move, or caused to be carried, or moved in any matter whatsoever in any public derriere or street any person infected with infectious disease, nor shall any person remove or cause to be removed in the City of New York any such person from any b uilding or vessel, without a permit therefore, issued by the Board of Health. Section 100 of the Sanitary commandment provides that no person shall by any exposure of any individual sick with an infectious disease or by any negligent feat connected therewith, or by a needless exposure of himself cause, contribute to, or promote the spread of disease to any such person. However even with these strict sanitary codes people are taking further measures. Many parents that I interviewed reported that they were even avoiding sending their children to school because of fear of catching influenza. dump Smith of Manhattan stated, Why would I want to put my children at such a risk? I would rather sacrifice a small depute of their education for their protection and even lives. Schools are however making serious efforts at preventing the spread of disease amongst students. Dr. William L Ettinger who is the Superintendent of Schools, sent a letter of instructions for all school officials on how to deal with influenza in the schools. Some of these instructions state that proper and adequate ventilation of classrooms must be maintained and that pupils be required to hold their pocket handkerchiefs in front of their mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing. Another rule given amongst the long list is that each instructor be instructed to inspect her class of pupils carefully each day and to refer to the school doctor or nurse any child showing keen cold, congestion of the eyes with watery secretion from the nose, acute sneezing or coughing.

Racial Differences Essay -- Racism Personal Narrative Papers

Racial Differences CHINK Yeah..thats rightlook at us with those chinky eyes Go back to where you belong Those words will eer ring in my ears. I was standing in line for lunch while verbaliseing to a friend while a couple of boys, one-fourth and fifth graders, were making fun of the only Asian girl in the school, me, a lonely kindergartener. I will never forget that moment when I realized that I was different. Growing up in a predominantly white community, I had never thought of the issue of race as a child. My neighbor and I were best friends, and I never thought of myself as different. She had blonde hair I had stark. She had blue eyes I had dark brown. We love to play with the same things, thus we were friends. It was that simple. But on that day in elementary school, my world came apart, and I will never forget it. I was different, and I didnt know why. After those boys said that to me, I just stared in shock and got my lunch. I acted as though they had said nonhin g, and I was probably fortunate, considering the horrible things tender boys can do. But when I went home, I cried. Why were people making fun of me? I didnt even understand what chink meant. It was only the motion they make by stretching their eyes that made me understand. I hadnt realized that I was different from everyone else. At home I spoke Chinese and watched some Chinese movies, but I did not think that made me different. I was still a person, a human being. Did it matter that I spoke Chinese and had black hair and dark brown eyes? Apparently to some people it did matter. Every day I went to school with white children and went home to a Chinese family. For other people this was a line, a distinction that set me apart ... ...h group keep an eye ons the stereotype that society has imposed on them, and instead of celebrating individuality they celebrate the sameness of race. support amongst white people I was initi on the wholey teased because of my race, but I was more often liked and accepted for who I am. Living amongst Chinese people, I was initially accepted because of my race,but not liked for who I am. I am an American-born Chinese. These two sides make me. Without either one, I am not complete. When I walk down the street, I can never hide the fact that I am Chinese. I cannot change my Asian features. When I talk to people and voice my opinion, I am American. Yet I do not fit completely into both sides. I am different and idealistic to be so. Race does not define me I define myself. I hope for the time when we stop focusing on race and can all embrace our differences and celebrate them.