This paper presents an approach to automatic building extraction from large-scale aerial images. It is based on the integration of multiple information, knowledge and appropriate methods, and hierarchically consists of three major parts: building detection, building segment extraction, 3D feature matching and building modelling. Buildings are detected by segmenting DSMs using grey-scale mathema...

This paper presents a technical and economic analysis of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) applications for commercial buildings in Shanghai and Beijing China. The analysis assumes that the array area is 105 m (equivalent to 6.3 kWp for amorphous silicon thin film technology and 10.0 kWp for polycrystalline technology). Rooftop and curtain wall applications are considered. BIPV is analyze...

This special issue grows out of a collaborative project between IFIC and Edge Hill University (UK) that led to six webinars delivered by international experts on integrated care. 1 The papers are reflection pieces by those who delivered the webinars providing a unique summary of accumulated expertise in some of the most important themes in the integrated care field. This special issue also offe...

Middle-sized robot soccer competition provides an excellent opportunity for distributed robotic systems. In particular, a team of dog-sized robot players must perform real-time visual recognition, navigate in a dynamic field, track moving objects, collaborate with teammates, and hit a FIFA size-4 ball in the correct direction. All these tasks demand integrated robots that are autonomous (on-boa...

Robot soccer competition provides an excellent opportunity for robotics research. In particular, robot players in a soccer game must perform real-time visual recognition, navigate in a dynamic field, track moving objects, collaborate with teammates, and hit the ball in the correct direction. All these tasks demand robots that are autonomous (sensing, thinking, and acting as independent creature...

This paper describes a model for studying collaborative knowledge building (CKB) as a group activity. We integrate the model described by Stahl (2000a) with an analysis based on the principles of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), using the analysis of a self reflective case study to guide the description. The concept of the CKB activity system is developed, and the role of contradicti...

The paper is concerned with a partially integrated environment which supports the main types of teaching and learning activities and provides a high-level adaptivity to the learner due to the proposed architecture of the environment, including an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). In the current educational practice three types of computer means can be distinguished, which are most often used i...

he integrated design process (IDP) is crucial in producing a green building. For purposes of this discussion, integrated design is defined as a process by which all of the design variables that affect one another are considered together and resolved in an optimal fashion. It could also be called holistic design in that it looks at the entire building as a whole, and emphasis is on integrating t...