• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.16 no.11
• /
• pp.2453-2458
• /
• 2012

In this paper, we propose an adaptive thresholding method to binarize two-dimensional barcode images. Adaptive thresholding methods that minimize light effects convert an original image into a binary image. The methods are applied to document image binarization. The methods, however, have problems of determining box size used in adaptive thresholding. thus, they inappropriate to use in recognition of two-dimensional barcode images. To overcome the problem, we analysis the problem and propose a new adaptive threshold method using the integral image. To show the effectiveness of our method, we compared our method with the well-known existing methods in terms of visual quality and processing time. The experimental result indicates that the proposed method is superior to the existing method.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.679-686
• /
• 2014

Recently, users can get countless images and videos by network. So, the compression technology of image and video is researched more and more. However, the situation which is the interested range of the image is occurred. For instance, since the region of face is more important than background, the image compression technology bases on the region of interest (ROI) is necessary, in the ATM environment. In this research, given the human visual system, which are not sensitive to illumination variations at very dark and light regions of image, we calculate the standard deviation of block and use this value to define the ROI. In encoding process, the relatively high quality can be obtained at the ROI and the relatively low quality can be obtained at the non ROI. In proposed scheme, the feature which is the encoding process according to subjectively image quality can be demonstrated. Finally, this proposed scheme is applied to JPEG standard. The experimental results demonstrate that proposed scheme can achieve better image quality at the high compression ratio.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.71-77
• /
• 2007

Until now, many researches on laser-arc hybrid welding processes have been conducted mainly for high power CW laser and high direct current arc to weld the thick steel plates for shipbuilding. Recently, however the usage of thin steel plates, which tend to be deformed easily by thermal energy, is been increasing because of demand of light structure such as car body in the automobile industry. Accordingly, heat sources having relatively low heat input such as pulsed laser, dip-transfer DC GMA and pulsed GMA seem to be applied more increasingly and the study about those heat sources is needed more intensively. Any heat source mentioned above can not stand alone without weld defects at a relatively high welding speed for increasing the welding productivity. This is main reason to apply the hybrid welding process which uses pulsed laser and low-heat-input GMA heat sources simultaneously to weld the thin steel plate. In this study, parameters of pulsed laser and dip-transfer DC GMA welding are studied firstly through preliminary experiments, and then analyzed in the viewpoint of their physical phenomena. Before conducting the hybrid welding, a pulse control technique is developed based on the parallel port communication and Visual C++ 6.0. Owing to development of this technique, interactions of laser and arc pulses can be controlled consistently. Using the pulse control technique, the hybrid welding is conducted and then its interactive welding phenomenon is analyzed.

• Journal of Science of Art and Design
• /
• v.5
• /
• pp.87-129
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this thesis is to propose a new concept of design of the 21st century, on the basis of the study on the general signification of the structures and the signs of industrial product design, by examining the difference between modern and post-modern design, which is expected to lead the users to different design practice and interpretation of it. The starting point of this study is the different styles and patterns of 'Gestalt' in the post-modern design of the late 20th century from modern design - the factor of determination in industrial product design. That is to say, unlike functional and rational styles of modern product design, the late 20th century is based upon the pluralism characterized by complexity, synthetic and decorativeness. So far, most of the previous studies on design seem to have excluded visual aspects and usability, focused only on effective communication of design phenomena. These partial studies on design, blinded by phenomenal aspects, have resulted in failure to discover a principle of fundamental system. However, design varies according to the times; and the transformation of design is reflected in Design Pragnanz to constitute a new text of design. Therefore, it can be argued that Design Pragnanz serves as an essential factor under influence of the significance of text. In this thesis, therefore, I delve into analysis of the 20th century product design, in the light of Gestalt theory and Design Pragnanz, which have been functioning as the principle of the past design. For this study, I attempted to discover the fundamental elements in modern and post-modern designs, and to examine the formal structure of product design, the users' aesthetic preference and its semantics, from the integrative viewpoint. Also, with reference to history and theory of design my emphasis is more on fundamental visual phenomena than on structural analysis or process of visualization in product design, in order to examine the formal properties of modern and post-modern designs. Firstly, In Chapter 1, 'Issues and Background of the Study', I investigated the Gestalt theory and Design Pragnanz, on the premise of formal distinction between modern and post-modern designs. These theories are founded upon the discussion on visual perception of Gestalt in Germany in 1910's, in pursuit of the principle of perception centered around visual perception of human beings. In Chapter 2, I dealt with functionalism of modern design, as an advance preparation for the further study on the product design of the late 20th century. First of all, in Chapter 2-1, I examined the tendency of modern design focused on functionalism, which can be exemplified by the famous statement 'Form follows function'. Excluding all unessential elements in design - for example, decoration, this tendency has attained the position of the international style based on the spirit of Bauhause - universality and regularity - in search of geometric order, standardization and rationalization. In Chapter 2-2, I investigated the anthropological viewpoint that modern design started representing culture in a symbolic way including overall aspects of the society - politics, economics and ethics, and its criticism on functionalist design that aesthetic value is missing in exchange of excessive simplicity in style. Moreover, I examined the pluralist phenomena in post-modern design such as kitsch, eclecticism, reactionism, hi-tech and digital design, breaking away from functionalist purism of modern design. In Chapter 3, I analyzed Gestalt Pragnanz in design in a practical way, against the background of design trends. To begin with, I selected mass product design among those for the 20th century products as a target of analysis, highlighting representative styles in each category of the products. For this analysis, I adopted the theory of J. M Lehnhardt, who gradated in percentage the aesthetic and semantic levels of Pragnantz in design expression, and that of J. K. Grutter, who expressed it in a formula of M = O : C. I also employed eight units of dichotomies, according to the G. D. Birkhoff's aesthetic criteria, for the purpose of scientific classification of the degree of order and complexity in design; and I analyzed phenomenal aspects of design form represented in each unit. For Chapter 4, I executed a questionnaire about semiological phenomena of Design Pragnanz with 28 units of antonymous adjectives, based upon the research in the previous chapter. Then, I analyzed the process of signification of Design Pragnanz, founded on this research. Furthermore, the interpretation of the analysis served as an explanation to preference, through systematic analysis of Gestalt and Design Pragnanz in product design of the late 20th century. In Chapter 5, I determined the position of Design Pragnanz by integrating the analyses of Gestalt and Pragnanz in modern and post-modern designs In this process, 1 revealed the difference of each Design Pragnanz in formal respect, in order to suggest a vision of the future as a result, which will provide systemic and structural stimulation to current design.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.30-31
• /
• 2009

Early detection of schedule delay in field construction activities is vital to project management. It provides the opportunity to initiate remedial actions and increases the chance of controlling such overruns or minimizing their impacts. This entails project managers to design, implement, and maintain a systematic approach for progress monitoring to promptly identify, process and communicate discrepancies between actual and as-planned performances as early as possible. Despite importance, systematic implementation of progress monitoring is challenging: (1) Current progress monitoring is time-consuming as it needs extensive as-planned and as-built data collection; (2) The excessive amount of work required to be performed may cause human-errors and reduce the quality of manually collected data and since only an approximate visual inspection is usually performed, makes the collected data subjective; (3) Existing methods of progress monitoring are also non-systematic and may also create a time-lag between the time progress is reported and the time progress is actually accomplished; (4) Progress reports are visually complex, and do not reflect spatial aspects of construction; and (5) Current reporting methods increase the time required to describe and explain progress in coordination meetings and in turn could delay the decision making process. In summary, with current methods, it may be not be easy to understand the progress situation clearly and quickly. To overcome such inefficiencies, this research focuses on exploring application of unsorted daily progress photograph logs - available on any construction site - as well as IFC-based 4D models for progress monitoring. Our approach is based on computing, from the images themselves, the photographer's locations and orientations, along with a sparse 3D geometric representation of the as-built scene using daily progress photographs and superimposition of the reconstructed scene over the as-planned 4D model. Within such an environment, progress photographs are registered in the virtual as-planned environment, allowing a large unstructured collection of daily construction images to be interactively explored. In addition, sparse reconstructed scenes superimposed over 4D models allow site images to be geo-registered with the as-planned components and consequently, a location-based image processing technique to be implemented and progress data to be extracted automatically. The result of progress comparison study between as-planned and as-built performances can subsequently be visualized in the D4AR - 4D Augmented Reality - environment using a traffic light metaphor. In such an environment, project participants would be able to: 1) use the 4D as-planned model as a baseline for progress monitoring, compare it to daily construction photographs and study workspace logistics; 2) interactively and remotely explore registered construction photographs in a 3D environment; 3) analyze registered images and quantify as-built progress; 4) measure discrepancies between as-planned and as-built performances; and 5) visually represent progress discrepancies through superimposition of 4D as-planned models over progress photographs, make control decisions and effectively communicate those with project participants. We present our preliminary results on two ongoing construction projects and discuss implementation, perceived benefits and future potential enhancement of this new technology in construction, in all fronts of automatic data collection, processing and communication.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.19-45
• /
• 2008

This study is to empirically examine the primary dimensions of visual merchandising (VMD) of internet shopping mall, namely store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues, to be a attractive virtual store to the shoppers. The authors reviewed the literature related to the major components of VMD from the perspective of the AIDA model, which has been mainly applied to the offline store settings. The major purposes of the study are as follows; first, tries to derive the variables related with the components of visual merchandising through reviewing the existing literatures, establish the hypotheses, and test it empirically. Second, examines the relationships between the components of VMD and the attitude toward the VMD, however, putting more emphasis on finding out the component structure of the VMD. VMD needs to be examined with the perspective that an online shopping mall is a virtual self-service or clerkless store, which could reduce the number of employees, help the shoppers search, evaluate and purchase for themselves, and to be explored in terms of the in-store persuasion processes of customers. This study reviewed the literatures related to store design, merchandise, and merchandising cues which might be relevant to the store, product, and promotion respectively. VMD is a total communication tool, and AIDA model could explain the in-store consumer behavior of online shopping. Store design has to do with triggering a consumer attention to the online mall, merchandise with a product related interest, and merchandising cues with promotions such as recommendation and links that induce the desire to pruchase. These three steps might be seen as the processes for purchase actions. The theoretical rationale for the relationship between VMD and AIDA could be found in Tyagi(2005) that the three steps of consumer-oriented merchandising are a store, a product assortment, and placement, in Omar(1999) that three types of interior display are a architectural design display, commodity display, and point-of-sales(POS) display, and in Davies and Ward(2005) that the retail store interior image is related to an atmosphere, merchandise, and in-store promotion. Lee et al(2000) suggested as the web merchandising components a merchandising cues, a shopping metaphor which is an assistant tool for search, a store design, a layout(web design), and a product assortment. The store design which includes differentiation, simplicity and navigation is supposed to be related to the attention to the virtual store. Second, the merchandise dimensions comprising product assortments, visual information and product reputation have to do with the interest in the product offerings. Finally, the merchandising cues that refer to merchandiser(MD)'s recommendation of products and providing the hyperlinks to relevant goods for the shopper is concerned with attempt to induce the desire to purchase. The questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data about the consumers who would shop at internet shopping malls frequently. To select the subject malls, the mall ranking data announced by a mall rating agency was used to differentiate the most popular and least popular five mall each. The subjects was instructed to answer the questions after navigating the designated mall for five minutes. The 300 questionnaire was distributed to the consumers, 166 samples were used in the final analysis. The empirical testing focused on identifying and confirming the dimensionality of VMD and its subdimensions using a structural equation modeling method. The confirmatory factor analysis for the endogeneous and exogeneous variables was carried out in four parts. The second-order factor analysis was done for a store design, a merchandise, and a merchandising cues, and first-order confirmatory factor analysis for the attitude toward the VMD. The model test results shows that the chi-square value of structural equation is 144.39(d.f 49), significant at 0.01 level which means the proposed model was rejected. But, judging from the ratio of chi-square value vs. degree of freedom, the ratio was 2.94 which smaller than an acceptable level of 3.0, RMR is 0.087 which is higher than a generally acceptable level of 0.08. GFI and AGFI is turned out to be 0.90 and 0.84 respectively. Both NFI and NNFI is 0.94, and CFI 0.95. The major test results are as follows; first, the second-order factor analysis and structural equational modeling reveals that the differentiation, simplicity and ease of identifying current status of the transaction are confirmed to be subdimensions of store design and to be a significant predictors of the dependent variable. This result implies that when designing an online shopping mall, it is necessary to differentiate visually from other malls to improve the effectiveness of the communications of store design. That is, the differentiated store design raise the contrast stimulus to sensory organs to promote the memory of the store and to have a favorable attitude toward the VMD of a store. The results that navigation which means the easiness of identifying current status of shopping affects the attitude to VMD could be interpreted that the navigating processes via the hyperlinks which is characteristics of an internet shopping is a complex and cognitive process and shoppers are likely to lack the sense of overall structure of the store. Consequently, shoppers are likely to be alost amid shopping not knowing where to go. The orientation tool enhance the accessibility of information to raise the perceptive power about the store environment.(Titus & Everett 1995) Second, the primary dimension of merchandise and its subdimensions was confirmed to be unidimensional respectively, have a construct validity, and nomological validity which the VMD dimensions supposed to have a positive correlation with the dependent variable. The subdimensions of product assortment, brand fame and information provision proved to have a positive effect on the attitude toward the VMD. It could be interpreted that the more plentiful the product and brand assortment of the mall is, the more likely the shoppers to favor it. Brand fame and information provision as well affect the VMD attitude, which means that the more famous the brand, the more likely the shoppers would trust and feel familiar with the mall, and the plentifully and visually presented information could have the shopper have a favorable attitude toward the store VMD. Third, it turned out to be that merchandising cue of product recommendation and hyperlinks affect the VMD attitude. This could be interpreted that recommended products could reduce the uncertainty related with the purchase decision, and the hyperlinks to relevant products would help the shopper save the cognitive effort exerted into the information search and gathering, which could lead to a favorable attitude to the VMD. This study tried to sheds some new light on the VMD of online store by reviewing the variables mentioned to be relevant with offline VMD in the existing literatures, and tried to link the VMD components from the perspective of AIDA model. The effect size of the VMD dimensions on the attitude was in the order of the merchandise, the store design and the merchandising cues.It is said that an internet has an unlimited place for display, however, the virtual store is not unlimited since the consumer has a limited amount of cognitive ability to process the external information and internal memory. Particularly, the shoppers are likely to face some difficulties in decision making on account of too many alternative and information overloads. Therefore, the internet shopping mall manager should take into consideration the cost of information search on the part of the consumer, to establish the optimal product placements and search routes. An efficient store composition would be possible by reducing the psychological burdens and cognitive efforts exerted to information search and alternatives evaluation. The store image is in most part determined by the product category and its brand it deals in. The results of this study support this proposition that the merchandise is most important to the VMD attitude than other components, the manager is required to take a strategic approach to VMD. The internet users are getting more accustomed and more knowledgeable about the internet media and more likely to accept the internet as a shopping channel as the period of time during which they use the internet to shop become longer. The web merchandiser should be aware that the product introduction using a moving pictures and a bulletin board become more important in order to present the interactive product information visually and communicate with customers more actively, therefore leading to making the quantity and quality of product information more rich.