Search Results (95)

UAV aerial cinematography has become increasingly important in film production, surveying, and smart-city applications due to its efficiency and creative potential. However, existing UAV filming workflows still rely heavily on manual operation and professional piloting skills, resulting in complex mission design, limited planning autonomy, and inconsistent visual quality. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a unified aesthetics-aware trajectory planning framework for multi-region-of-interest (multi-ROI) UAV aerial cinematography that automatically generates safe, efficient, and visually coherent flight paths from user-specified ROIs. The proposed framework consists of three main components. First, for each ROI, candidate viewpoints are sampled using a spiral trajectory, and a learning-based aesthetic evaluation network is applied to select visually optimal viewpoints for local trajectory generation. Second, transition trajectories between ROIs are generated using a Goal-biased Bidirectional Rapidly exploring Random Tree Star (Goal-biased BiRRT*) planner and evaluated through a multi-objective cost function to determine the most suitable transition paths. Third, the global connection of multiple ROIs is formulated as a Set Traveling Salesman Problem (STSP) to obtain an efficient visiting sequence. By integrating learning-based aesthetic evaluation with hierarchical trajectory planning and coordinated multi-ROI route organization, the proposed framework jointly considers flight feasibility, planning efficiency, visual composition quality, and trajectory continuity within a unified planning pipeline. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method generates more visually appealing and coherent aerial trajectories than traditional manual or rule-based approaches, while significantly reducing operational complexity. The proposed system provides an effective solution for autonomous UAV aerial cinematography with improved global consistency, aesthetic performance, and practical planning capability in complex environments. Full article

Old-vine vineyards often contain dozens of grapevine varieties intermingled and irregularly distributed, making plant-level varietal identification slow and expensive when based on ampelography or molecular approaches. This paper proposes a field-oriented computer-vision pipeline for Vitis vinifera variety identification using images with a natural background from the historic “Vinha Maria Teresa” parcel (Quinta do Crasto, Portugal). A single-class YOLO11 detector is trained to localize the vine leaf and generate standardized crops, and a YOLO11 classifier is then fine-tuned on leaf regions of interest (ROIs) for eight selected varieties in the Douro UNESCO region. We annotated 2015 vineyard images for classification and supplemented detection training with 2648 additional leaf images; detectors (YOLO11n/s/m) were benchmarked under four augmentation regimes and evaluated on a fixed 48-image subset, including runtime on CPU and GPU. The best detector reached mAP@50–95 of 0.918 on the benchmark, while YOLO11n achieved ∼27 FPS on CPU for fast cropping. On a 303-image test set, the best classifier (YOLO11s with mixed augmentations) achieved 94.06% Top-1 accuracy, 93.92% macro-F1, and 100% Top-5 accuracy with remaining errors concentrated among morphologically similar varieties. To assess deployment-oriented performance, classifiers trained under three input settings (manual crops, detector-generated crops, and full images) were evaluated on a held-out 48-image benchmark subset; removing the detection step reduced Top-1 accuracy from 75.00% to 68.75%, while the gap between manual and automatic crops was only 2.44 pp on successfully detected images with detection failures (14.6%) representing the primary operational bottleneck. Repeated retraining of the best manual-crop YOLO11s configuration across multiple random seeds showed stable performance with low variability in Top-1 accuracy and macro-F1. Under identical training conditions, ResNet50 and EfficientNet-B0 provided competitive baselines, but YOLO11s remained the strongest overall model on the held-out field benchmark. These results indicate that lightweight leaf detection plus crop-based classification can support scalable varietal identification in old vineyards under realistic acquisition conditions. Full article

Background/Objectives: We developed and validated a multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) framework combining deep learning segmentation with radiomics to predict local recurrence in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods: This retrospective two-center study included 1074 NPC patients treated between 2015 and 2019. Center 1 cases were split 8:2 into training and internal test sets, while Center 2 served for external validation. A multimodal Swin UNet model automatically segmented tumors from pretreatment T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and contrast-enhanced T1 (CET1) images. Radiomics features were extracted from expert-reviewed regions of interest, selected, and modeled using extreme gradient boosting for recurrence prediction. Results: The multimodal segmentation model maintained consistent but moderate Dice similarity coefficients (0.737, 0.666, and 0.726 for T1WI, T2WI, and CET1 in external validation). These values reflect the moderate overlap typical for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, given its highly infiltrative growth and ill-defined boundaries along complex anatomic interfaces. For local recurrence prediction, single-modality models reached external AUCs between 0.754 and 0.781. Importantly, the multimodal fusion model demonstrated numerical improvement over single modalities in the external validation set (e.g., vs. T1WI, p = 0.141), achieving an AUC of 0.910, accuracy of 0.908, sensitivity of 0.805, specificity of 0.946, and F1-score of 0.825. Conclusions: The multimodal MRI radiomics model, developed alongside a deep learning segmentation module, demonstrated favorable multicenter performance for evaluating NPC recurrence risk. The primary prognostic analysis was based on expert-reviewed regions of interest; a supplementary analysis using fully automatic segmentation masks yielded comparable, non-significantly different performance across all cohorts (Training AUC: 0.887; Internal Test AUC: 0.892; External Validation AUC: 0.885 vs. 0.910, p = 0.145), supporting the feasibility of future end-to-end deployment. Fusing multimodal features yielded numerical improvements over single-sequence models in external validation, providing a basis for post-treatment surveillance planning. Full article

Background/Objectives: Brain tumors are among the most severe neurological disorders, and their variability in size, morphology, and anatomical location complicates early and accurate diagnosis. Although magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most reliable non-invasive modality for tumor detection, manual interpretation remains time-consuming, subjective, and susceptible to human error. This study aims to develop an optimization-driven hybrid machine learning framework for accurate and computationally efficient automatic brain tumor classification. Methods: The dataset includes 834 MRI images (583-training, 123-validation, 128-independent test). Because YOLOv11 detects tumor and non-tumor regions separately, the sample size doubled during region-based analysis, and all subsequent stages were conducted at the regions of interest (ROI) level. On the independent test set, YOLOv11 achieved 98.87% mAP@50, 98.54% precision, and 98.21% recall. The proposed framework combines automated tumor localization with image standardization using Gaussian noise reduction and bilinear interpolation. From the processed MR images, 39 entropy-based features were extracted. To enhance diagnostic performance and eliminate redundant information, the superb fairy-wren optimization algorithm (SFOA) was applied for feature selection and compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO), Harris hawk optimization (HHO), and puma optimization (PO). Final classification was primarily performed using k-nearest neighbors (kNN), while support vector machines (SVM) were used for comparative evaluation. Results: SFOA reduced the feature dimensionality from 39 to 5 features while achieving 99.20% classification accuracy on the independent test set. In comparison, PSO selected 10 features, HHO selected 6 features and PO selected 10 features, all achieving 98.45% accuracy. The best performance obtained with SVM was 98.45% accuracy (HHO-SVM), which remained lower than the 99.20% achieved by the proposed SFOA-kNN model. Conclusions: The results indicate that combining entropy-based feature extraction with SFOA-driven feature selection and kNN classification significantly enhances diagnostic accuracy while reducing computational complexity, highlighting the strong potential of the proposed framework for integration into computer-aided diagnosis systems to support clinical decision-making. Full article

Radiographically visible carotid artery calcifications are typically seen at the level of the C3–C4 cervical vertebrae and can be detected on panoramic dental radiographs. Their early identification is clinically relevant, as they represent a potential marker for increased risk of stroke. In this context, the present study proposes a deep learning method for automatic identification of carotid atheromas using MobileNetV2. From a publicly available dataset, 378 region-of-interest (ROI) images (640 × 320) were prepared and split into train/val/test = 264/57/57 with class counts train 157/107, val 34/23, test 34/23 (negatives/positives). Images underwent standardized preprocessing and on-the-fly augmentation; training used a two-stage scheme (backbone frozen “head” training followed by partial fine-tuning of the top layers), class-weighting, dropout = 0.3, batch normalization (BN) head, early stopping, and partial unfreezing (~70% of the backbone). The decision threshold was selected on validation by Youden’s J. On the independent test set, the model achieved an accuracy (ACC) of 94.7%, sensitivity (SEN) of 95,7%, specificity (SPE) of 0.941, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 0.963, and area under the precision–recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.968. Using a sensitivity-targeted threshold (SEN ≈ 0.80), the model yielded ACC = 91.2%, SEN = 82.6%, and SPE = 97.1%. These results support panoramic radiographs as an opportunistic screening modality for systemic vascular risk and highlight the potential of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted methods to enable earlier identification within preventive healthcare. Full article

Automated detection of impact craters is essential for planetary surface studies, yet it remains a challenging task due to variable morphology, degraded rims, complex geological settings, and inconsistent illumination conditions. This study presents a novel crater detection methodology designed for large-scale analysis of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide-Angle Camera (WAC) imagery. The framework integrates several key components: automatic region-of-interest (ROI) selection to constrain the search space, Canny edge detection to enhance crater rims while suppressing background noise, and a modified Hough transform that efficiently localizes elliptical features by restricting votes to edge points validated through local fitting. Candidate ellipses are then refined through a two-stage adjustment, beginning with L1-norm fitting to suppress the influence of outliers and fragmented edges, followed by least-squares optimization to improve geometric accuracy and stability. The methodology was tested on four representative Wide-Angle Camera (WAC) sites selected to cover a range of crater sizes (between ~1 km and 50 km), shapes, and geological contexts. The results showed detection rates between 82% and 91% of manually identified craters, with an overall mean of 87%. Covariance analysis confirmed significant reductions in parameter uncertainties after refinement, with standard deviations for center coordinates, shape parameters, and orientation consistently decreasing from the L1 to the L2 stage. These findings highlight the effectiveness and computational efficiency of the proposed approach, providing a reliable tool for automated crater detection, lunar morphology studies, and future applications to other planetary datasets. Full article

To address the time-consuming, labor-intensive, and inefficient nature of existing contact-based measurements of sow backfat thickness (BFT), in this study, a method to estimate BFT from depth images using deep learning and image processing is proposed. Measurements of BFT and hip depth images were collected from 254 Jinfen White sows. Following preprocessing, including depth-value filtering and colorization, a modified YOLOv8n-ShuffleNetV2 detector was trained and deployed to predict regions of interest in the buttock images. Depth values were then extracted from these regions and converted into distance estimates. Then, 11 external morphological pixel-based parameters were extracted, including hip area, hip-circumference length, and the area of the fitted ellipse. A random sample of 203 sows was selected for training and testing, and the relationship between BFT and the external morphological parameters was analyzed in 152, with the rest being used for testing. The results show significant positive correlations between BFT and several hip morphological parameters, with Pearson correlation coefficients exceeding 0.90 for both hip and fitted ellipse area. Principal component analysis was applied to the selected hip features to extract area and length related factors as inputs to a machine learning model. An elastic net regression model was employed to estimate BFT. The model’s generalization capability was evaluated using 51 sows not involved in training and testing. The model achieved an R² = 0.8617, MSE = 4.3626 mm², and MAE = 1.6456 mm. Finally, a BFT estimation system for Jinfen White pigs was developed using PyQt5 and Python, which enables automatic preprocessing of sow hip images and real-time estimation of BFT. Together, these results address the cumbersome and inefficient traditional manual collection of sow BFT data and support precision management in sow breeding farms. Full article

Recent advances in forward-looking sonar (FLS) have enabled the acquisition of high-resolution acoustic images. However, the accuracy of image-based rotation estimation remains limited owing to speckle noise, perceptual ambiguity, and shadows. In recent years, object-based path reconstruction has become increasingly important for underwater inspection tasks, and in such scenarios, reliably estimating rotation from static seabed objects is essential for ensuring the robustness of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) missions. Accordingly, we present a rotation estimation method that adaptively extracts a region of interest (ROI) and applies the Radon transform. The proposed approach automatically selects sonar image regions containing objects and emphasizes high projection values in the resulting sinogram. By computing the shift between the high projection values of two sinograms, the method achieves robust rotation estimation even under low contrast and severe speckle noise. Experimental results demonstrate that our method consistently achieves lower estimation errors than existing approaches, particularly in scenarios involving static seabed objects. These findings highlight its practical value for object-based path reconstruction, high-precision mapping, and other underwater navigation tasks. Full article

The accurate calibration of radiochromic films is critical for high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy dosimetry. Conventional workflows frequently rely on manually determined regions of interest (ROIs), which might increase operator variability. In this investigation, Gafchromic EBT3 films were irradiated under clinical settings at nominal doses of 0–10 Gy and evaluated using a MATLAB (R2024b)-based tool that allows for both manual and automated ROI selection. The calibration curves were modeled with a second-order polynomial and rational model, and performance was assessed using statistical measures. The study found that the rational model fits better than the polynomial model. Additionally, the automatic ROI approach outperformed the manual method in both models, resulting in higher calibration accuracy and reproducibility (R² = 0.999, RMSE = 0.118 Gy, MAE = 0.103 Gy vs. R² = 0.986, RMSE = 0.448 Gy, MAE = 0.388 Gy). Although manual ROI occasionally produced greater dose–response slopes at higher doses, it was more susceptible to operator bias and film non-uniformity. In contrast, automatic ROI reduced variability by consistently picking homogeneous sections, resulting in steady curve fitting across the entire dose range. Furthermore, a companion module transformed calibrated films into 2D false-color maps and 3D dosage surfaces, allowing for visual assessment of dose uniformity, detection of scanner-related aberrations, and quantitative verification for quality assurance. These findings demonstrate that automated ROI selection provides a more stable and reproducible foundation for film calibration in HDR brachytherapy, minimizing operator dependency while facilitating routine clinical quality assurance. Full article

Background Chronic low-back pain (LBP) is the largest contributor to disability worldwide, yet many assessments still reduce a complex, spatially distributed condition to a single 0–10 score. Body-map drawings capture location and extent of pain, but manual digitization is too slow and inconsistent for large studies or real-time telehealth. Methods Paper pain drawings from 332 adults in the multicenter COMEBACK study (four University of California sites, March 2021–June 2023) were scanned to PDFs. A Python pipeline automatically (i) rasterized PDF pages with pdf2image v1.17.0; (ii) resized each scan and delineated anterior/posterior regions of interest; (iii) registered patient silhouettes to a canonical high-resolution template using ORB key-points, Brute-Force Hamming matching, RANSAC inlier selection, and 3 × 3 projective homography implemented in OpenCV; (iv) removed template outlines via adaptive Gaussian thresholding, Canny edge detection, and 3 × 3 dilation, leaving only patient-drawn strokes; (v) produced binary masks for pain, numbness, and pins-and-needles, then stacked these across subjects to create pixel-frequency matrices; and (vi) normalized matrices with min–max scaling and rendered heat maps. RGB composites assigned distinct channels to each sensation, enabling intuitive visualization of overlapping symptom distributions and for future data analyses. Results Cohort-level maps replicated classic low-back pain hotspots over lumbar paraspinals, gluteal fold, and posterior thighs, while exposing less-recognized clusters along the lateral hip and lower abdomen. Neuropathic-leaning drawings displayed broader leg involvement than purely nociceptive patterns. Conclusions Our automated workflow converts pen-on-paper pain drawings into machine-readable digitized images and heat maps at the population scale, laying practical groundwork for spatially informed, precision management of chronic LBP. Full article

This study tackles the challenge of automatically estimating age from pelvis radiographs. Furthermore, we aim to develop a methodology for applying artificial intelligence to classify or regress medical imagery data. Our dataset comprises 684 pelvis X-ray images of patients, each accompanied by annotations and masks for various regions of interest (e.g., the femur shaft). Radiomic features, e.g., the co-occurrence matrix, were computed to characterize the image content. We assessed statistical analysis, machine learning, and deep learning methods for their effectiveness in this task. Correlation analysis indicated that using certain features in specific regions of interest is promising for accurate age estimation. Machine learning models demonstrated that when using uncorrelated features, the optimal mean absolute error (MAE) for age estimation is 5.20, whereas when employing convolutional networks on the texture feature maps yields the best result of 9.56. Automatically selecting radiomic features for machine learning models achieves a MAE of 7.99, whereas utilizing well-known convolutional architectures on the original image results in a system efficacy of 7.96. The use of artificial intelligence in medical data analysis produces comparable outcomes; however, when dealing with a large number of descriptors, selecting the most optimal ones through statistical analysis enables the identification of the best solution quickly. Full article

This paper proposes an automated system integrating infrared thermography (IRT) and computer vision for air leak detection and localization in end-of-line (EOL) testing stations. This system consists of (1) a leak tester for detection and quantification of leaks, (2) an infrared camera for real-time thermal image acquisition; and (3) an algorithm for automatic leak localization. The python-based algorithm acquires thermal frames from the camera’s streaming video, identifies potential leak regions by selecting a region of interest, mitigates environmental interferences via image processing, and pinpoints leaks by employing pixel intensity thresholding. A closed circuit with an embedded leak system simulated relevant leakage scenarios, varying leak apertures (ranging from 0.25 to 3 mm), and camera–leak system distances (0.2 and 1 m). Results confirmed that (1) the leak tester effectively detected and quantified leaks, with larger apertures generating higher leak rates; (2) the IRT performance was highly dependent on leak aperture and camera–leak system distance, confirming that shorter distances improve localization accuracy; and (3) the algorithm localized all leaks in both lab and industrial environments, regardless of the camera–leak system distance, mostly achieving accuracies higher than 0.7. Overall, the combined system demonstrated great potential for long-term implementation in EOL leakage stations in the manufacturing sector, offering an effective and cost-effective alternative for manual inspections. Full article

Background: Radiomic features have been extensively used with machine learning and other Artificial Intelligence methods in medical imaging problems. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has been spreading worldwide since 2020, has motivated scientists to develop automatic COVID-19 recognition systems, to enhance the clinical routine in overcrowded hospitals. Purpose: To develop an automated system of recognizing COVID-19 and Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) using radiomic features extracted from whole lung chest Computed Tomography (CT) images. Radiomic feature extraction from whole lung CTs simplifies the image segmentation for the malignancy region of interest (ROI). Methods: In this work, we used radiomic features extracted from CT images representing whole lungs to train various machine learning models that are capable of identifying COVID-19 images, CAP images and healthy cases. The CT images were derived from an open access data set, called COVID-CT-MD, containing 76 Normal cases, 169 COVID-19 cases and 60 CAP cases. Results: Four two-class models and one three-class model were developed: Normal–COVID, COVID–CAP, Normal–CAP, Normal–Disease and Normal–COVID–CAP. Different algorithms and data augmentation were used to train each model 20 times on a different data set split, and, finally, the model with the best average performance was selected for each case. The performance metrics of Accuracy, Sensitivity and Specificity were used to assess the performance of the different systems. Since COVID-19 and CAP share similar characteristics, it is challenging to develop a model that can distinguish these diseases. Result: The results were promising for the models finally selected for each case. The accuracy for the independent test set was 83.11% in the Normal–COVID case, 88.77% in the COVID–CAP case, 93.97% in the Normal–CAP case and 94.13% in the Normal–Disease case, when referring to two-class cases, while, in the three-class case, the accuracy was 78.55%. Conclusion: The results obtained suggest that radiomic features extracted from whole lung CT images can be successfully used to distinguish COVID-19 from other pneumonias and normal lung cases. Full article

Brain tumors are among the most common malignant tumors of the central nervous system, with high mortality and recurrence rates. Radiomics extracts quantitative features from medical images, converting them into predictive biomarkers for tumor diagnosis, prognosis, and survival analysis. Despite the invasiveness and heterogeneity of brain tumors, even with timely treatment, the overall survival time or survival probability is not necessarily favorable. Therefore, accurate prediction of brain tumor grade and survival outcomes is important for personalized treatment. In this study, we propose a radiomic model for the non-invasive prediction of brain tumor grade and patient survival outcomes. We used four magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences from 159 patients with glioma. Four classifiers were employed based on whether feature selection was applied. The features were derived from regions of interest identified and corrected either manually or automatically. The extreme gradient boosting (XGB) model with 3860 radiomic features achieved the highest classification performance, with an AUC of 98.20%, in distinguishing LGG from GBM images using manually corrected labels. Similarly, the Random Forest (RF) model exhibits the best discrimination between short-term and long-term survival groups with a p-value < 0.0003, a hazard ratio (HR) value of 3.24, and a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.63–4.43 based on the ICC features. The experimental findings demonstrate strong classification accuracy and effectively predict survival outcomes in glioma patients. Full article

We introduce a weakly supervised segmentation approach that leverages class activation maps and the Segment Anything Model to generate high-quality masks using only classification data. A pre-trained classifier produces class activation maps that, once thresholded, yield bounding boxes encapsulating the regions of interest. These boxes prompt the SAM to generate detailed segmentation masks, which are then refined by selecting the best overlap with automatically generated masks from the foundational model using the intersection over union metric. In a polyp segmentation case study, our approach outperforms existing zero-shot and weakly supervised methods, achieving a mean intersection over union of 0.63. This method offers an efficient and general solution for image segmentation tasks where segmentation data are scarce. Full article