Abstract: Provided is a system and method for heating an item in a microwave oven. The method includes capturing, with at least one electromagnetic field sensor, at least one electromagnetic field measurement of a microwave chamber, each electromagnetic field measurement of the at least one electromagnetic field measurement corresponding to a region in the microwave chamber, generating an electromagnetic field map of the microwave chamber based on the at least one electromagnetic field measurement, capturing, with at least one sensor, a plurality of thermal measurements of the item being heated in the microwave chamber, each thermal measurement of the plurality of thermal measurements corresponding to a region on the item, and controlling at least one of a position of the item and the electromagnetic field while the item is being heated in the microwave chamber based on the electromagnetic field map and the plurality of thermal measurements.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus for the imaging of brain electrical activity from electromagnetic measurements, using deep learning neural networks where a simulation process is designed to model realistic brain activation and electromagnetic signals to train generalizable neural networks and a residual convolutional neural network and/or a recurrent neural network is trained using the simulated data, capable of estimating source distributions from electromagnetic measurements, and their temporal dynamics over time, for pathological signals in diseased brains, such as interictal activity and ictal signals, and physiological brain signals such as evoked brain responses and spontaneous brain activity.

Abstract: A method includes acquiring with a scanning device a scan frame including a point cloud comprising a first plurality of points and describing a spatial characteristic of an environment, attributing each of the first plurality of points with a spatial confidence metric, discarding a portion of the first plurality of points when the spatial confidence metric of at least one of the first plurality of points is below a predefined threshold value and directing a user of the scanning device to acquire a second point cloud approximately coincident with the discarded portion of the first plurality of points.

Abstract: A near-field probe (and associated method) compatible with near-infrared electromagnetic radiation and high temperature applications above 300° C. (or 500° C. in some applications) includes an optical waveguide and a photonic thermal emitting structure comprising a near-field thermally emissive material coupled to or part of the optical waveguide. The photonic thermal emitting structure is structured and configured to emit near-field energy responsive to at least one environmental parameter of interest, and the near-field probe is structured and configured to enable extraction of the near-field energy to a far-field by coupling the near-field energy into one or more guided modes of the optical waveguide.

Abstract: A method for the efficient management of a fleet of electric vehicles in a target area couples vehicle dynamics and battery dynamics modeling with environmental factors to accurately incorporate the impact that the environment has on the range of the battery into the placement of the chargers by simulating trips of fleets of electric vehicles. The vehicles can be of various types, for example, motorcycles, cars, trucks or aircraft, and will each have their battery state of charge monitored as they traverse a simulated trip through the target area.

Abstract: A system and method of controlling a constellation of nanosatellites colocates processing resources with sensors in each satellite. Latencies in data transmission are addressed by organizing the constellation of satellites into computational pipelines. An orbital edge computing module simulates system design for mission design, planning and analysis in addition to supporting online autonomy.

Abstract: An accessory optic is described which enables a non-immersed, long working distance microscope objective to be used as a higher-power immersion objective. This is particularly useful for biological imaging of specimens in an index-matching clarification medium. The accessory approach is the opposite of conventional unitized immersion objective design and presents several advantages over conventional design. The front lens element of the accessory may be selected to have precisely the refractive index of the specimen immersion medium and the accessory may be designed for use with immersion media that are incompatible with conventional immersion objectives. A dual accessory enables two such modified objectives to be optimized for light-sheet microscopy.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a system providing a mixed reality combination system that pairs augmented reality technology and an inertial measurement unit sensor with 3D printed objects such that user motions tracked by the inertial measurement unit as the user interacts with the 3D printed object is reflected in a virtual environment display of dynamic 3D imagery and augmented reality imagery.

Abstract: A method of generating virtual sensor data of a virtual single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) lidar sensor includes generating a two-dimensional (2D) lidar array having a plurality of cells. The method further includes interpolating image data from a virtual camera with the 2D lidar array to define auxiliary image data, generating a virtual ambient image based on a red-channel (R-channel) data of the auxiliary image data, identifying a plurality of virtual echoes of the virtual SPAD lidar sensor based on the R-channel data and a defined photon threshold, defining a virtual point cloud indicative of virtual photon measurements of the virtual SPAD lidar sensor based on the plurality of virtual echoes, and outputting data indicative of the virtual ambient image, the virtual photon measurements, the virtual point cloud, or a combination thereof, as the virtual sensor data of the virtual SPAD lidar sensor.

Abstract: Provided is a system, method, and computer program product for tracking a needle. The method includes determining a visibility of the needle being inserted into a subject in an image of a sequence of images, in response to determining that the visibility satisfies a visibility threshold, detecting a location of the needle based on at least one first algorithm and a detected curvature of the needle, in response to determining that the visibility does not satisfy the visibility threshold, detecting the location of the needle being inserted based on at least one second algorithm, and tracking the location of the needle in the sequence of images based on locations detected with the at least one first algorithm and the at least one second algorithm.

Abstract: Provided is a system, method, and computer program product for determining a needle injection site. The method includes segmenting, with at least one computing device, an image of a sequence of images into at least one object based on a machine-learning model configured to estimate its uncertainty for each segmentation, generating, with the at least one computing device, a 3D model of the at least one object, and determining, with the at least one computing device, an insertion location of the at least one object based at least partially on an output of the machine-learning model.

Abstract: A hierarchical deep-learning object detection framework provides a method for identifying objects of interest in high-resolution, high pixel count images, wherein the objects of interest comprise a relatively a small pixel count when compared to the overall image. The method uses first deep-learning model to analyze the high pixel count images, in whole or as a patchwork, at a lower resolution to identify objects, and a second deep-learning model to analyze the objects at a higher resolution to classify the objects.

Abstract: The invention proposes a method of training a convolutional neural network in which, at each convolutional layer, weights for one seed convolutional filter per layer are updated during each training iteration. All other convolutional filters are polynomial transformations of the seed filter, or, alternatively, all response maps are polynomial transformations of the response map generated by the seed filter.

Abstract: In an example, a method may include obtaining, from a data source, first data including multiple frames each including a human face. The method may include automatically detecting, in each of the multiple frames, one or more facial landmarks and one or more action units (AUs) associated with the human face. The method may also include automatically generating one or more semantic masks based at least on the one or more facial landmarks, the one or more semantic masks individually corresponding to the human face. The method may further include obtaining a facial hyperspace using at least the first data, the one or more AUs, and the semantic masks. The method may also include generating a synthetic image of the human face using a first frame of the multiple frames and one or more AU intensities individually associated with the one or more AUs.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are training strategies for query-based object detectors, referred to herein as Query Recollection (QR). In one variation or QR, dense query recollection, every intermediate query is collected and independently forwarded to every downstream stage. In a second variation or QR, selective query recollection, intermediate queries are collected from the two nearest previous stages and forwarded to the next downstream stage. This eliminates the phenomena wherein intermediate stages of the decoder produce more accurate results than later stages of the decoder.

Abstract: A wearable device has a plurality of sensors surrounding a user's arm or wrist and provides depth information about the user's environment. Each sensor in the plurality of sensors has a field-of-view that may include the user's arm, torso, and surrounding environment. A controller receives data from the plurality of sensors and merges the data to create a composite image or depth point cloud. The device utilizes low-resolution sensors, with the composite image having a greater resolution and field-of-view than any individual sensor. The device is worn on the user's arm or wrist and can be used for static or continuous hand pose estimation, whole-arm pose estimation, and object detection, among other applications.

Abstract: A method to dynamically and adaptively sample the depths of a scene using the principle of triangulation light curtains is described. The approach directly detects the presence or absence of obstacles (or scene points) at specified 3D lines in a scene by sampling the scene. The scene can be sampled sparsely, non-uniformly, or densely at specified regions. The depth sampling can be varied in real-time, enabling quick object discovery or detailed exploration of areas of interest. Once an object is discovered in the scene, adaptive light curtains comprising dense sampling of a region of the scene containing the object, can be used to better define the position, shape and size of the discovered object.

Abstract: Disclosed here are various techniques for improving the testing and training of datasets comprising sequences of skeletal representations performing various actions. The dataset can be denoised by applying various techniques to determine noisy frames within each sequence and eliminating the sequences from the dataset when the number of noisy frames in the sequence is too large. In addition, the dataset may be augmented by various data augmentation techniques to manipulate the skeletal representations, after denoising.

Abstract: A bipedal walking robot uses a quasi-passive control scheme and a simplified mechanical design. The walking robot has a pair of legs connected to a body through a passive hip joint, which is offset from a center of gravity of the walking robot. A nonconcentric, curved foot is attached at to each leg by a prismatic joint. Extension and retraction of the prismatic joint initiates the walking sequence of the robot, with each foot retracted during the swing phase and extended during the stance phase. Directional changes are controlled by changing a phase offset in the actuation of each foot.

Abstract: The present disclosure is generally related to separators for use in lithium metal batteries, and associated systems and products. Certain embodiments are related to separators that form or are repaired when an electrode is held at a voltage. In some embodiments, an electrochemical cell may comprise an electrolyte that comprises a precursor for the separator.