Advances in Intelligent Single/Multiple Sensing Systems and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Over the preceding decade, intelligent sensing systems based on single or multiple sensors have demonstrated rapid progress. One of the most typical examples of such a system is Microsoft Kinect (or recently, a similar system named Intel RealSense), which integrates an RGB camera, multi-array microphone, and depth sensor to precisely capture three-dimensional body motions and hand gestures and even recognize faces and voices. The sensor enables users to control the game console by using gesture-based or spoken commands, rather than by holding a game controller. Kinect has also been involved with other applications, such as smart homes and home automation. In smart homes, as an example considering electrical energy management with home automation, Kinect can be incorporated with an ARM^®-based embedded system as a central home controller and can be used to implement remote automated and optimized electrical appliance control with the past trends of using electrical energy via multi-sensor data fusion. Another typical example of an intelligent multi-sensor system is an advanced driver assistance system named “Delphi RACam”, which integrates an RGB camera and a 76-GHz radar to accurately detect pedestrians and track lanes to prevent collisions.

The term “intelligent sensing system” indicates that the system not only senses ordinary inputs (light, heat, sound, etc.) but is also able to analyze the input and take appropriate action. Such intelligent sensing enables unlimited technological potential for the future world. In addition to multi-sensor systems, intelligent single-sensor systems have also achieved tremendous progress. For example, with recent achievements in artificial intelligence (AI) and signal processing, the “Omron smart camera” demonstrates excellent industrial inspection ability by using a single RGB camera, and “BMW night vision” demonstrates excellent nighttime road obstacle recognition ability using a thermal imaging camera.

Under different circumstances, each sensor has different strengths and weaknesses. Regarding the intelligent sensing systems, whether signal processing techniques can be employed to minimize the weaknesses and enhance the strengths of a single sensor or even fuse multiple sensors for greater sensing ability warrants investigation. With Kinect as an example in the case of a pure background with sufficient luminance, an RGB image sensed by the camera is likely sufficiently clear for gesture recognition. However, if the user is in a dark room, the image is likely to be too dim for gesture recognition. In such circumstances, fusing information from the depth sensor is a solution. In addition, some image enhancement techniques, such as high dynamic range (HDR), tone mapping and equalization, can stretch the contrast and preserve the details in highlights/shadows of an image to enhance recognition ability. Such image enhancement or denoising techniques are also included in our Special Issue because they are key components of an intelligent vision sensing system.

This Special Issue investigates novel methodologies and applications related to intelligent systems with single (or multiple) sensor(s). Both reviews and original research articles are welcome. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include (but are not limited to):

• Intelligent single (or multiple) sensing systems
• Applications involved with Kinect/RealSense interaction
• Novel RGB-D sensing systems
• Intelligent sensing system
• Smart/intelligent vision sensors
• IoT-oriented intelligent multi-sensing in smart homes
• Intelligent sensing applications in smart cities/smart campuses/smart factories
• Image enhancement, e.g. high dynamic range (HDR) and tone mapping
• Advanced signal and image processing
• Applications in intelligent thermal/Radar/Lidar/depth sensing
• Multi-sensor (or multi-modal) data fusion
• AI and machine learning in intelligent sensing
• Novel methodologies for analyzing sensor data
• New application scenarios for intelligent sensing
• Multi-sensory data applications

Assoc. Prof. Yung-Yao Chen
Assoc. Prof. Kai-Lung Hua
Prof. Wen-Huang Cheng
Assist. Prof. Yu-Hsiu Lin
Guest Editors

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