Michael Nölle

Statistical Rail Surface Classification Based on 2D and 2 1 / 2 D Image Analysis

We present an approach to high-resolution rail surface analysis combining 2D image texture classification and 21/2D analysis of surface disruptions. Detailed analysis of images of rail surfaces is used to observe the condition of rails and, as a precaution, to avoid rail breaks and further damage. Single rails are observed by a color line scan camera at high resolution of approximately 0.2 millimeters and under special illumination in order to enable 21/2D image analysis. Gabor filter banks are used for 2D texture description and classes are modeled by Gaussian mixtures. A Bayesian classifier, which also incorporates background knowledge, is used to differentiate between surface texture classes. Classes which can be related to surface disruptions are derived from the analysis of the anti-correlation properties between two color channels. Images are illuminated by two light sources mounted at different position and operating at different wavelengths. Results for data gathered in the Vienna metro system are presented.

RESPONSE TO "VULNERABILITY OF 'A NOVEL PROTOCOL-AUTHENTICATION ALGORITHM RULING OUT A MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACK IN QUANTUM CRYPTOGRAPHY' "

In this work, we respond to a comment by A. Abidin and J.-A. Larsson on our previous paper, Int. J. Quant. Inf.3 (2005) 225.

Automatic Coin Classification and Identification

We investigate object recognition and classification in a setting with a large number of classes as well as recognition and identification of individual objects of high similarity. Real-world data sets were obtained for the classification and identification tasks. The considered classification task is the discrimination of modern coins into several hundreds of different classes. Identification is investigated for hand-made ancient coins. Intra-class variance due to wear and abrasion vs. small inter-class variance makes the classification of modern coins challenging. For ancient coins the intra-class variance makes the identification task possible, as the appearance of individual hand-struck coins is unique. Figure 1 shows sample images for the considered collections of coins.

Representation of Cyclic Colour Spaces within Quantum Space

Data of circular nature occurs frequently in several areas of science. In this paper we deal with data of this type, namely the HSI colour space. We show how one may embed this space into a quantum state space where distance measures exists that take the circular nature of the given data into account. This might hint that the quantum state space is useful not only for the problem at hand but may be used apart from quantum mechanics and quantum computations to solve classical problems as well.

Quantum information algorithms – new solutions for known problems

SummaryThe use of quantum information theory and the understanding of the information it conveys seems to be one of the most challenging and rapidly developing research areas at present. In this article we concentrate on the implications quantum information theory might have on rather classical problems that are rephrased and embedded into a quantum space. Especially, the area of signal and image processing seems to be well suited for this approach. We give an example of mapping colour spaces into the quantum space and show that the resulting quantum systems are highly beneficial when dealing with this kind of data.ZusammenfassungDie Quanteninformationstheorie ist ein herausforderndes und sich sehr rasch entwickelndes Forschungsgebiet. In diesem Artikel diskutieren die Autoren einige Implikationen, die die Ergebnisse dieser Forschung auf klassische Problemstellungen haben können, sofern diese in den Quantenraum eingebettet werden. Derartige Einbettungen scheinen insbesondere im Bereich der Signal- und Bildverarbeitung besonders vorteilhaft. Beispielhaft wird dies an der Einbettung von Farbräumen in den Quantenraum gezeigt. Die daraus resultierenden Quantensysteme ermöglichen einen besonders einfachen Umgang mit den gegebenen Farbdaten.