Today, we capture and store images in a way that has never been possible. However, huge numbers of degraded and blurred images are captured unintentionally or by mistake. In this paper, we propose a geometrical hypothesis stating that blurring occurs by shifting or scaling the depth of field (DOF). The validity of the hypothesis is proved by an independent method based on depth estimation from a single image. The image depth is modeled regarding its edges to extract amplitude comparison ratios between the generated blurred images and the sharp/blurred images. Blurred images are generated by a stepwise variation in the standard deviation of the Gaussian filter estimate in the improved model. This process acts as virtual image recording used to mimic the recording of several image instances. A historical documentation database is used to validate the hypothesis and classify sharp images from blurred ones and different blur types. The experimental results show that distinguishing unintentionally blurred images from non-blurred ones by a comparison of their depth of field is applicable.

The study of the evolution process of our visual system indicates the existence of variational spatial arrangement; from densely hexagonal in the fovea to a sparse circular structure in the peripheral retina. Today’s sensor spatial arrangement is inspired by our visual system. However, we have not come further than rigid rectangular and, on a minor scale, hexagonal sensor arrangements. Even in this situation, there is a need for directly assessing differences between the rectangular and hexagonal sensor arrangements, i.e., without the conversion of one arrangement to another. In this paper, we propose a method to create a common space for addressing any spatial arrangements and assessing the differences among them, e.g., between the rectangular and hexagonal. Such a space is created by implementing a continuous extension of discrete Weyl Group orbit function transform which extends a discrete arrangement to a continuous one. The implementation of the space is demonstrated by comparing two types of generated hexagonal images from each rectangular image with two different methods of the half-pixel shifting method and virtual hexagonal method. In the experiment, a group of ten texture images were generated with variational curviness content using ten different Perlin noise patterns, adding to an initial 2D Gaussian distribution pattern image. Then, the common space was obtained from each of the discrete images to assess the differences between the original rectangular image and its corresponding hexagonal image. The results show that the space facilitates a usage friendly tool to address an arrangement and assess the changes between different spatial arrangements by which, in the experiment, the hexagonal images show richer intensity variation, nonlinear behavior, and larger dynamic range in comparison to the rectangular images.

The aim of this paper is to investigate performance in a collaborative human–robot interaction on a shared serious game task. Furthermore, the effect of elicited emotions and perceived social behavior categories on players’ performance will be investigated. The participants collaboratively played a turn-taking version of the Tower of Hanoi serious game, together with the human and robot collaborators. The elicited emotions were analyzed in regards to the arousal and valence variables, computed from the Geneva Emotion Wheel questionnaire. Moreover, the perceived social behavior categories were obtained from analyzing and grouping replies to the Interactive Experiences and Trust and Respect questionnaires. It was found that the results did not show a statistically significant difference in participants’ performance between the human or robot collaborators. Moreover, all of the collaborators elicited similar emotions, where the human collaborator was perceived as more credible and socially present than the robot one. It is suggested that using robot collaborators might be as efficient as using human ones, in the context of serious game collaborative tasks.

The arrangement and form of the image sensor have a fundamental effect on any further image processing operation and image visualization. In this paper, we present a software-based method to change the arrangement and form of pixel sensors that generate hexagonal pixel forms on a hexagonal grid. We evaluate four different image sensor forms and structures, including the proposed method. A set of 23 pairs of images; randomly chosen, from a database of 280 pairs of images are used in the evaluation. Each pair of images have the same semantic meaning and general appearance, the major difference between them being the sharp transitions in their contours. The curviness variation is estimated by effect of the first and second order gradient operations, Hessian matrix and critical points detection on the generated images; having different grid structures, different pixel forms and virtual increased of fill factor as three major properties of sensor characteristics. The results show that the grid structure and pixel form are the first and second most important properties. Several dissimilarity parameters are presented for curviness quantification in which using extremum point showed to achieve distinctive results. The results also show that the hexagonal image is the best image type for distinguishing the contours in the images. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Our vision system has a combination of different sensor arrangements from hexagonal to elliptical ones. Inspired from this variation in type of arrangements we propose a general framework by which it becomes feasible to create virtual deformable sensor arrangements. In the framework for a certain sensor arrangement a configuration of three optional variables are used which includes the structure of arrangement, the pixel form and the gap factor. We show that the histogram of gradient orientations of a certain sensor arrangement has a specific distribution (called ANCHOR) which is obtained by using at least two generated images of the configuration. The results showed that ANCHORs change their patterns by the change of arrangement structure. In this relation pixel size changes have 10-fold more impact on ANCHORs than gap factor changes. A set of 23 images; randomly chosen from a database of 1805 images, are used in the evaluation where each image generates twenty-five different images based on the sensor configuration. The robustness of ANCHORs properties is verified by computing ANCHORs for totally 575 images with different sensor configurations. We believe by using the framework and ANCHOR it becomes feasible to plan a sensor arrangement in the relation to a specific application and its requirements where the sensor arrangement can be planed even as combination of different ANCHORs. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Achieving a high fill factor is a bottleneck problem for capturing high-quality images. There are hardware and software solutions to overcome this problem. In the solutions, the fill factor is known. However, this is an industrial secrecy by most image sensor manufacturers due to its direct effect on the assessment of the sensor quality. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the fill factor of a camera sensor from an arbitrary single image. The virtual response function of the imaging process and sensor irradiance are estimated from the generation of virtual images. Then the global intensity values of the virtual images are obtained, which are the result of fusing the virtual images into a single, high dynamic range radiance map. A non-linear function is inferred from the original and global intensity values of the virtual images. The fill factor is estimated by the conditional minimum of the inferred function. The method is verified using images of two datasets. The results show that our method estimates the fill factor correctly with significant stability and accuracy from one single arbitrary image according to the low standard deviation of the estimated fill factors from each of images and for each camera.

The quality assessment of a high dynamic image is a challenging task. The few available no reference image quality methods for high dynamic range images are generally in evaluation stage. The most available image quality assessment methods are designed to assess low dynamic range images. In the paper, we show the assessment of high dynamic range images which are generated by utilizing a virtually flexible fill factor on the sensor images. We present a new method in the assessment process and evaluate the amount of improvement of the generated high dynamic images in comparison to original ones. The results show that the generated images not only have more number of tonal levels in comparison to original ones but also the dynamic range of images have significantly increased due to the measurable improvement values.

The current camera has made a huge progress in the sensor resolution and the low-luminance performance. However, we are still far from having an optimal camera as powerful as our eye is. The study of the evolution process of our visual system indicates attention to two major issues: the form and the density of the sensor. High contrast and optimal sampling properties of our visual spatial arrangement are related directly to the densely hexagonal form. In this paper, we propose a novel software-based method to create images on a compact dense hexagonal grid, derived from a simulated square sensor array by a virtual increase of the fill factor and a half a pixel shifting. After that, the orbit functions are proposed for a hexagonal image processing. The results show it is possible to achieve image processing operations in the orbit domain and the generated hexagonal images are superior, in detection of curvature edges, to the square images. We believe that the orbit domain image processing has a great potential to be the standard processing for hexagonal images.

Depth perception is one of important abilities of the human visual system to perceive the three dimensional world. Shadow technique that offers different depth information from different viewing points, known as Da Vinci stereopsis, has been used in classical paintings. In this paper, we report a method towards measuring the relative depth information stimulated by Da Vinci stereopsis in a classical painting. We set up a positioning array of cameras for capturing images from the portrait using a high resolution camera, where the changes of shadow areas are measured by featuring the effects as point and line changes. The result shows that 3D effects of the classical painting are not only a perceptual phenomenon but they are also physically tangible and can be measured. We confirm validity of the method by its implementation even on a typical single image and comparison of results between the single image and the portrait.

As one of important outcomes of the past decades of researches on sensor arrays for digital cameras, the manufacturers of sensor array technology have responded to the necessity and importance of obtaining an optimal fill factor, which has great impact on collection of incident photons on the sensor, with hardware solution e.g. by introducing microlenses. However it is still impossible to make a fill factor of 100% due to the physical limitations in practical development and manufacturing of digital camera. This has been a bottle neck problem for improving dynamic range and tonal levels for digital cameras e.g. CCD cameras. In this paper we propose a software method to not only widen the recordable dynamic range of a captured image by a CCD camera but also extend its tonal levels. In the method we estimate the fill factor and by a resampling process a virtual fill factor of 100% is achieved where a CCD image is rearranged to a new grid of virtual subpixels. A statistical framework including local learning model and Bayesian inference is used for estimating new sub-pixel intensity values. The highest probability of sub-pixels intensity values in each resampled pixel area is used to estimate the pixel intensity values of the new image. The results show that in comparison to the methods of histogram equalization and image contrast enhancement, which are generally used for improving the displayable dynamic range on only one image, the tonal levels and dynamic range of the image is extended and widen significantly and respectively.