New version of img(Rummager)

List of Changes

Laboratory
1.New version of the Spatial Color Layout Descriptor
2.New (Final) version of the BTDH descriptor
3.New Fyzzy Linking System (HSV-8 bin linking histogram)

img Retrieval
4. New (Final) version of BTDH. This descriptor is now more compact - You have to re index your images.
5. New version of SpCD. This descriptor combines color and spatial color distribution information. The descriptors of this type can be used for image retrieval by using hand-drawn sketch queries, since this  descriptor captures the layout information of color feature.
6. Design Custom Search Method Bug (X23227) Fixed
7. EHD bug Fixed (Thanks to Mattia Broilo :) )

Extras
8. img(Paint.Anaktisi) uses the latest version of SpCD
9. img(Finder) uses the latest version of SpCD

http://savvash.blogspot.com/2008/06/imgrummager-in-now-available-for.html

Bill Gates: Project Natal coming to PC’s too

Last month at E3, everyone was talking about "Project Natal", the code name for Microsoft's controller-less camera technology for the Xbox 360 game console. When asked if the technology could come to the PC as well, Microsoft execs wouldn't commit saying only that they were just talking about the Xbox 360's uses during E3.
Well, no less than Microsoft founder Bill Gates has blown Project Natal's Xbox 360 exclusivity. News.com reports that Gates has confirmed that they are bringing the gesture-based technology to Windows as well. Gates is quoted as saying, "Both the Xbox guys and the Windows guys latched onto that and now even since they latched onto it the idea of how it can be used in the office is getting much more concrete, and is pretty exciting."
Office use, Bill? We are betting that when Project Natal tech does come to Windows we will see some PC game apps as well.

http://news.bigdownload.com/2009/07/15/bill-gates-project-natal-tech-coming-to-the-pc-too/

Sony Venture Animates Human Face in Picture

An infinite number of facial expressions can be created from a single picture. Its eyes rotate and lips move. It smiles and cries. A familiar face gazes and talks at you in unfamiliar ways.

An image processing technology with such capabilities is drawing attention as a promotional tool on the Internet in Japan. MotionPortrait Inc, a subsidiary of leading Internet provider So-net Entertainment Corp, developed the technology.

Since established in July 2007, the company provided the technology to more than 30 companies, including cosmetic firm Shiseido Co Ltd and shaver company Schick Japan KK, as a sales promotion tool. Also, it has been used in various kinds of software for home game consoles. The technology, which deals with human faces, one of the most familiar objects to us, is now making consumers interested and have a sense of affinity.

The image processing technology is a brainchild of Sony Corp's Kihara Laboratory, which was closed in 2006. It was established by Nobutoshi Kihara, the company's former senior managing director who developed the first tape recorder and household video tape recorder in Japan.

The laboratory is also famous for developing technologies for PlayStation 2, Sony's home game console. Its image processing and computer graphics technologies are about to blossom again with Internet technologies.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20090602/171114/

Apple preps iPhone face recognition

Article From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/09/more_july_apple_patents/

The US Patent and Trademark Office published 33 new Apple patent applications on Thursday, bringing the total filed in July to 55 - and we're not even a third of the way through the month.

Today's cluster of creativity ranged from flexible cabling to scrolling lyrics, but the bulk of the filings described new powers for the ubiquitous iPhone and its little brother, the iPod touch - especially when the 'Pod is equipped with a camera, which it seems destined to be.

Two of the filings are directly camera-related. One focuses on object identification and the other on face recognition. The former is targeted specifically for handhelds, while the latter's reach extends both into your pocket and out to the entire universe of consumer electronics.

The object-identification filing describes a system in which a handheld's camera captures an image of an object either in visual light or infrared, then compares that image with information stored over a network. The network then asks the you what information about that object you'd like to download, then provides it.

The filing also describes the system using an RFID reader rather than a camera, but the detect-compare-download sequence remains the same.

Apple uses a museum visit to illustrate the utility of this technology: You could simply point your iPhone at a work of art and quickly be presented with info about its artist, genre, provenance, and the availability of T-shirts featuring that work in the museum store - which another of Thursday's filings, on online shopping, could help you buy.

Tapping into a handheld's GPS and digital compass could also enable the system to provide location-based resources - the filing suggests a "RESTAURANT mode" to help you find east in Vegas - and to support the captioned landscapes provided by augmented reality that are getting so much press lately.

Claude Monet at his most minimalist, captured and ID-ed by your iPhone

Finally, the filing includes a way for you to capture a log of all the identified objects, complete with downloaded multimedia content for creating a record of your peregrinations. Look for such a media-rich slideshow to appear in some student's "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" school assignment.

The face-recognition filing describes two different system: one that merely checks for a face - any face - and a second that matches what it sees with a database of whom it knows.

The system that doesn't care who you are is merely looking to see if anyone's using it - and if someone is, it won't time out, as would an iPhone, or fire up a screensaver, as would a PC. The system that knows you by your dashing good looks would also be aware of your privileges level, and allow access to its services based on that level.

Apple, as usual in its patent applications, isn't shy about the scope of this technology. It list 37 different devices that could incorporate it, from personal communications devices to vehicle operating systems to automatic teller machines. Then just in case it forgot anything, adds "any like computing device capable of interfacing with a person."

That should just about cover it.

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Article From “The Official Google Blog”
It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Comparing the Scientific Impact of Conference and Journal Publications in Computer Science

Rahm, E.
Comparing the Scientific Impact of Conference and Journal Publications in Computer Science
Proc. Academic Publishing in Europe (APE08) 2008

The impact of scientific publications is often estimated by the number of citations they receive, i.e. how frequently  they  are  referenced  by  other  publications.  Since  publications  have  associated  authors, originating institutions and publication venues (e.g. journals, conference proceedings) citations have also been used  to  compare  their  scientific  impact. For  instance, one commonly considered  indicator of  the quality of a journal is its impact factor [AM00]. The impact factors are published yearly by Thomson ISI in the Journal Citation Report (JCR) by counting the citations from articles of thousands of journals.  However, research results in computer science are often published in high-quality conferences which are not  covered  by  the  JCR  citation  databases  [MV07]. Other  commercial  citation  data  sources  such  as Elsevier Scopus also  focus on  journals  and contain comparatively  few conference publications. Hence these  data  sources  cover  only  a  fraction  of  quality  scientific  publications  in  computer  science. Furthermore,  they miss many  citations  even  for  journal  articles  since  all  references  to  them  are  not captured  which  originate  from  conference  papers  or  other  papers  not  included  in  the  publication database.

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