We present an inexpensive and simple data acquisition platform based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) designed to acquire and characterize fast digital or analog electrical signals in real time for processing on a generic personal computer. While the instrument was designed for electrical outputs of single-photon detectors and is suited for high photon-counting rates, it can also be us...

Processing data as they arrive has recently gained momentum to mine continuous, high-volume and unbounded sequence of data streams. Due to the heterogeneity and the multi-modality of this data, RDF is widely used to provide a unified metadata layer in streaming context. In response to this ever-increasing demand, a number of systems and languages were produced, aiming at RDF stream processing (...

The majority of our waking hours are spent engaging in social interactions. Some of these interactions occur at the level of long-term strategic planning while others take place at faster time scales, such as in conversations or card games. The ability to perceive subtle gestural, postural, and facial cues, in addition to verbal language, in real-time is a critical component of social interacti...

A set of software development tools for building real-time control systems on a simple robotics platform is described in the paper. The tools are being used in a real-time systems course as a basis for student projects. The development platform is a low-cost PC running GNU/Linux, and the target system is LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, thus keeping the cost of the laboratory low. Real-time control softwar...

AIM This article reports the development of a multiarray microchip with real-time imaging capability to apply mechanical strains onto monolayered cell cultures. MATERIALS & METHODS Cells were cultured on an 8-µm thick membrane that was positioned in the microscope focal plane throughout the stretching process. Each stretching unit was assembled from three elastomeric layers and a glass covers...

Laboratory information systems fulfill many of the requirements for individual result management within a public health laboratory. However, access to the systems by data users, timely data extraction, integration, and data analysis are difficult tasks. These difficulties are further complicated by often having multiple laboratory results for specific analytes or related analytes per specimen t...

Digital film processing is characterized by a resolution of at least 2 K (2048×1536 pixels per frame at 30 bit/pixel and 24 pictures/s, data rate of 2.2 Gbit/s); higher resolutions of 4 K (8.8 Gbit/s) and even 8 K (35.2 Gbit/s) are on their way. Real-time processing at this data rate is beyond the scope of today’s standard and DSP processors, and ASICs are not economically viable due to the sma...

This paper presents a multiprocessor implementation of a segmentation algorithm for video streams. The segmentation procedure is part of an augmented-reality telepresence prototype. It has been implemented on a multiprocessor computer, equipped with specialized hardware for real-time graphics and video processing. The goal of this paper is to assess our experience in implementing an image proce...

We present a low-cost sensor buoy designed for unattended dissolved oxygen measurement in aquatic environment. We describe the buoy’s architectural design and three experiments that we carried out to demonstrate its viability: a laboratory test in a water tank with controlled oxygen level, a lake deployment and an extensive electric power consumption test. Our experiments indicate the viability...

With the increasing complexity of the emerging embedded real-time systems, traditional design approaches can not provide sufficient support for the development of these systems anymore. They especially lack the ability to trace and analyse real-time system properties. In this paper, we investigate the design difficulties for embedded real-time systems and propose several principles for coping w...