A correlation between the surface density of foreground galaxies tracing the Large Scale Structure and the position of distant galaxies and quasars is expected from the magnification bias effect (Canizares 1981). We show that this foreground–background correlation function wfb can be used as a straightforward and almost model-free method to measure the cosmological ratio Ω/b. For samples with a...

Abstract Galaxy clusters induce a distinct dipole pattern in the cosmic microwave back-ground (CMB) through effect of gravitational lensing. Extracting this lensing signal will enable us to constrain cluster masses, even for high redshift ( z ≳ 1) that are expected be detected by future CMB surveys. However, cluster-correlated foreground signals, like kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (k...

We introduce an approach for realtime segmentation of a scene into foreground objects, background, and object shadows superimposed on the background. To segment foreground objects, we use an adaptive thresholding method, which is able to deal with rapid changes of the overall brightness. The segmented image usually includes shadows cast by the objects onto the background. Our approach is able t...

The Wavelength-Oriented Microwave Background Analysis Team (WOMBAT) is constructing microwave maps which will be more realistic than previous simulations. Our foreground models represent a considerable improvement: where spatial templates are available for a given foreground, we predict the flux and spectral index of that component at each place on the sky and estimate uncertainties. We will pr...

A slowly moving foreground with an orthogonally moving background can induce self-motion perception in the same direction as the foreground motion (inverted vection; [Vision Research 40 (2000) 2915]). In the present study, we investigate the effect of sustained gaze deviation on inverted vection. We hypothesized that gaze deviation affects eye-movement information registered in the perceptual s...

In this paper we present a novel foreground segmentation system that combines color and depth sensors information to perform a more complete Bayesian segmentation between foreground and background classes. The system shows a combination of spatial-color and spatial-depth region-based models for the foreground as well as color and depth pixel-wise models for the background in a Logarithmic Opini...

Teleconference participants often multitask: they work on a text-based ‘foreground’ task whilst listening in the ‘background’ for an item of interest to appear. Audio material should therefore be presented in a manner that has the smallest possible impact on the foreground task without affecting topic detection. Here, we ask whether dichotic or spatialised audio presentation of a meeting is les...

As part of an architectural modeling project, this paper investigates the problem of understanding and manipulating images of buildings. Our primary motivation is to automatically detect and seamlessly remove unwanted foreground elements from urban scenes. Without explicit handling, these objects will appear pasted as artifacts on the model. Recovering the building facade in a video sequence is...