Individual differences in external-ear transfer functions of cats

Knowledge of the direction-dependent filter characteristics of the external ears is useful for the study of spatial hearing in experimental animals. The present study examined individual differences in the directional components of external-ear transfer functions (directional transfer functions, DTFs) among 24 anesthetized cats. Ears were fixed in a frontal position. Inter-cat differences in DTFs were quantified across a mid-frequency range from 8 to 16 kHz and across 30 locations in the horizontal plane and vertical midline. Across cats, DTFs showed similar direction dependence, but tended to differ in regard to the center frequencies of spectral features, such as spectral peaks and notches. Certain mid-frequency notches, for instance, varied in frequency across cats by nearly a factor of 2. Scaling of DTFs in frequency could reduce the overall differences between pairs of cats. Scale factors that minimized inter-cat differences ranged as high as 1.57 and correlated moderately with cats' body weights. Nevertheless, appreciable individual differences remained after frequency scaling. Inter-cat differences in DTFs were substantially larger than differences that resulted from variability in positioning the ears. The results suggest some guidelines regarding the conditions under which it is acceptable to apply DTF measurements from one cat to another.     

The acoustical cues to sound location in the rat: measurements of directional transfer functions

The acoustical cues for sound location are generated by spatial- and frequency-dependent filtering of propagating sound waves by the head and external ears. Although rats have been a common model system for anatomy, physiology, and psychophysics of localization, there have been few studies of the acoustical cues available to rats. Here, directional transfer functions (DTFs), the directional components of the head-related transfer functions, were measured in six adult rats. The cues to location were computed from the DTFs. In the frontal hemisphere, spectral notches were present for frequencies from approximately 16 to 30 kHz; in general, the frequency corresponding to the notch increased with increases in source elevation and in azimuth toward the ipsilateral ear. The maximum high-frequency envelope-based interaural time differences (ITDs) were 130 mus, whereas low-frequency (<3.5 kHz) fine-structure ITDs were 160 mus; both types of ITDs were larger than predicted from spherical head models. Interaural level differences (ILDs) strongly depended on location and frequency. Maximum ILDs were <10 dB for frequencies <8 kHz and were as large as 20-40 dB for frequencies >20 kHz. Removal of the pinna eliminated the spectral notches, reduced the acoustic gain and ILDs, altered the acoustical axis, and reduced the ITDs.     

The auditory periphery of the ferret. I: Directional response properties and the pattern of interaural level differences

The transformations of sound by the auditory periphery of the ferret have been investigated using an impulse response technique for a large number of sound locations surrounding the animal. Individual frequencies were extracted from the detailed spectral transformation functions (STFs) obtained for each stimulus location and, using sophisticated spatial interpolation routines, were used to calculate the directional response of the periphery at that frequency. The strength of the directional response was directly related to the analysis frequency. Furthermore, as the analysis frequency was increased to 20 kHz, the orientation of the directional response increased in elevation from the horizon (E0 degrees) to about E30 degrees, while the azimuthal location remained fairly constant at 30 degrees to 40 degrees from the midline. For analysis frequencies above 20 kHz, the response became increasingly directional toward the ipsilateral interaural axis. The interaural level differences (ILDs) were also calculated for all animals studied. ILDs increased from around 5 to 25 dB over the range of frequencies from 3-24 kHz. The two-dimensional patterns of iso-ILD contours were roughly concentric and centered on the interaural axis for frequencies below 16 kHz. For higher frequencies, there was a tendency for the ILD contours to be centered on more anterior and inferior locations. The increased directionality of the auditory periphery with increasing analysis frequency, together with the presence of sharp nulls in the response at high analysis frequencies, is consistent with a diffractive effect produced by the aperture of the pinna. However, this simple model does not predict the directional responses over the low to middle frequency range.     

The bat head-related transfer function reveals binaural cues for sound localization in azimuth and elevation

Directional properties of the sound transformation at the ear of four intact echolocating bats, Eptesicus fuscus, were investigated via measurements of the head-related transfer function (HRTF). Contributions of external ear structures to directional features of the transfer functions were examined by remeasuring the HRTF in the absence of the pinna and tragus. The investigation mainly focused on the interactions between the spatial and the spectral features in the bat HRTF. The pinna provides gain and shapes these features over a large frequency band (20-90 kHz), and the tragus contributes gain and directionality at the high frequencies (60 to 90 kHz). Analysis of the spatial and spectral characteristics of the bat HRTF reveals that both interaural level differences (ILD) and monaural spectral features are subject to changes in sound source azimuth and elevation. Consequently, localization cues for horizontal and vertical components of the sound source location interact. Availability of multiple cues about sound source azimuth and elevation should enhance information to support reliable sound localization. These findings stress the importance of the acoustic information received at the two ears for sound localization of sonar target position in both azimuth and elevation.     

有限离散剪切波域的红外可见光图像融合

针对目前图像融合过程中的不足之处,结合有限离散剪切波具有高的方向敏感性和抛物尺度化特性,提出了一种有限离散剪切波变换下的图像融合算法。首先对严格配准的多传感器图像进行有限离散剪切波变换,得到低频子带系数和不同尺度不同方向的高频子带系数;然后对低频子带系数采用全局特征值和像素点之间的差异性与区域空间频率匹配度相结合的融合算法,高频方向子带系数采用方向权重对比度与相对区域平均梯度和相对区域方差相结合的方案;最后通过有限离散剪切波逆变换得到融合图像。实验结果表明,与其他的融合算法相比较,本文算法不但有良好的主观视觉效果,而且3幅图像的客观评价指标分别平均提高了0.9%、3.8%、3.1%,2.6%、3.8%、2.9%和1.5%、125%、59%,充分说明了本文融合算法的优越性。     

Individual differences in directional bands in median plane localization

Blauert and other researchers demonstrated that the direction of a sound image for a narrow-band noise is perceived according to the center frequency of the stimuli. Blauert referred to the frequency band by which the direction of sound image is determined as the directional band. However, it has not yet been clarified if individual differences exist in the directional bands. It is also unestablished whether the directional band changes according to the bandwidth of the stimuli. In this study, 1/3 and 1/6 octave band noises were presented from the front, above and behind the subject in the median plane, and the responses to the stimuli were analyzed individually. The results show that (1) individual differences in directional bands exist; (2) there is no remarkable difference between directional bands for 1/3 and 1/6 octave band noises; (3) for some subjects, a directional band occurs in the direction in which they could not localize wide-band noise.     

Direction-dependent spectral properties of cat external ear: new data and cross-species comparisons

Free-field to eardrum transfer functions were measured in anesthetized cats inside an anechoic chamber. Direction-dependent transformations were determined by measurement of sound-pressure levels using a small probe tube microphone surgically implanted in a ventral position near the tympanic membrane. Loudspeaker and probe microphone characteristics were eliminated by subtraction of the signal recorded in the free field with no animal present. Complexities of the transfer function, which include the presence of prominent spectral notches in the 8- to 18-kHz frequency region, are due primarily to the acoustical properties of the pinna. Differential amplification of frequency components within the broadband stimulus occurs as a function of source direction. Spectral features vary systematically with changes in both elevation (EL) and azimuth (AZ). The contrast between a notch and its shoulders is enhanced in the interaural spectral records. Spectral data from single source locations and spatial data for single frequencies at many locations are presented and comparisons with other species are drawn. It is suggested that spectral features in the 8- to 18-kHz region provide some of the necessary spectral information for sound localization and that the contrast in spectral energy between the frequencies at the notch and its shoulders is a potential directional cue.     

大尺寸工件视觉测量中的图像拼接方法

为提高大尺寸工件机器视觉测量精度,提出一种基于坐标变换的图像拼接方法,并给出该坐标变换方法的解算模型及求解方法,分析了局部测量误差、重叠区域公共点个数等对坐标变换精度的影响,得到了最佳拼接条件,并通过实验对其进行了验证。实验结果表明,该方法简单易行、结果可靠,对存在平移、旋转以及尺度缩放的图像都具有良好的效果,能有效地解决采用机器视觉进行大尺寸工件精确测量时的坐标归一化问题。     

A helical biosonar scanning pattern in the Chinese noctule, Nyctalus plancyi

Directivity and sound diffraction of the pinna of the Chinese Noctule (Nyctalus plancyi) have been studied numerically. The pinna was found capable of generating a periodic helical scanning pattern over frequency, if the tragus and the thickened lower ledge of the pinna rim were in an appropriate position. During the helical scan, a directivity pattern with a strong mainlobe alternated with a pattern dominated by a conical sleeve of sidelobes. This alternation was present, even when an unfavorable arrangement of the pinna disrupted the overall helical scanning pattern. In the fully formed helical scan, the orientation of main and sidelobes for different frequencies revealed a spatial ordering which extends volume coverage. Five different pinna parts have been removed from the digital pinna-shape representations in turn to assess their influence on the directivity. Of these parts, the tragus stem and the thickened lower ledge of the pinna rim were found to have the largest overall impact. The anatomical prominence of these structures was hence in agreement with their acoustic functionality. In the near-field, tragus stem and lower ledge were seen to act primarily through large shifts in the wavefield phase in both directions.     

Rotation- and size-invariant object identification system using the liquid crystal on silicon device

We propose a shape discrimination technique using the optical matched spatial filter, which gives an identical result against randomly scattered objects of the same shape but different rotation and scale change. The main idea in this study is to apply optical coordinate transformation, which transforms rotation and scale change including a linear shift into translation, not to the objects themselves but to their Fourier spectra. Thus, rotation and scale change as well as the linear shift can be processed with the same optical matched spatial filter. In addition, we built a two-wavelength system for simultaneous processing of the optical matched spatial filter and optical coordinate transformation. In this system, both Fourier transform and the coordinate transformation were implemented merely by displaying computer-generated holograms (CGH) on the liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) devices, resulting in a compact lensless system.     

Application of the RBF meshless method to the solution of the radiative transport equation

In this paper, we introduce a radial basis function collocation method for computing solutions to the time-dependent radiative transfer equation. For these computations, we use finite differences to discretize the time coordinate, a discrete ordinate method to discretize the directional variable, and an expansion in radial basis functions to approximate the spatial dependence of the solution. The main advantages of the RBF method are that it does not require any mesh or grid, achieves spectral accuracy in multi-dimensions for arbitrary node layouts, and it is extremely simple to implement.     

Sound-diffracting flap in the ear of a bat generates spatial information

Sound diffraction by the mammalian ear generates source-direction information. We have obtained an immediate quantification of this information from numerical predictions. We demonstrate the power of our approach by showing that a small flap in a bat's pinna generates useful information over a large set of directions in a central band of frequencies: presence of the flap more than doubled the solid angle with direction information above a given threshold. From the workings of the employed information measure, the Cramér-Rao lower bound, we can explain how physical shape is linked to sensory information via a strong sidelobe with frequency-dependent orientation in the directivity pattern. This method could be applied to any other mammal species with pinnae to quantify the relative importance of pinna structures' contributions to directional information and to facilitate interspecific comparisons of pinna directivity patterns.     

A hybrid spectral/DG method for solving the phase-averaged ocean wave equation: Algorithm and validation

We develop a new high-order hybrid discretization of the phased-averaged (action balance) equation to simulate ocean waves. We employ discontinuous Galerkin (DG) discretization on an unstructured grid in geophysical space and Fourier-collocation along the directional and frequency coordinates. The original action balance equation is modified to facilitate absorbing boundary conditions along the frequency direction; this modification enforces periodicity at the frequency boundaries so that the fast convergence of Fourier-collocation holds. In addition, a mapping along the directional coordinate is introduced to cluster the collocation points around steep directional spectra. Time-discretization is accomplished by the TVD Runge–Kutta scheme. The overall convergence of the scheme is exponential (spectral). We successfully verified and validated the method against several analytical solutions, observational data, and experimental results.     

Modeling of the acoustic pressure fields and the distribution of the cavitation phenomena in a dual frequency sonic processor

An attempt has been made to model the acoustic pressure field and the spatial distribution of the cavitation phenomena in a dual frequency sonic processor. A methodology has been presented with numerical simulations to optimize the conditions of the dual frequency acoustic field. The simulations presented in this work reveal that with manipulation of the parameters (viz., frequency ratio and the pressure amplitude ratio of the two acoustic waves and the phase difference between the two waves) of the dual frequency acoustic field it is possible to control the mode (stable or transient) and spatial distribution of the cavitation events in the sonic processor. It has been shown that two major shortcomings of the sonic reactor, viz., directional sensitivity of the cavitation events and erosion of the sonicator surface can be overcome by application of a dual frequency acoustic field.     

Propagation of a short electromagnetic pulse in a linear medium with frequency and spatial dispersion: Direct integration of the Maxwell equations by the finite difference method

The specific features of the propagation of a short (on the order of ten oscillations) electromagnetic pulse in an isotropic linear medium with frequency and spatial dispersion, which were established via integration of a system of Maxwell equations by the finite-difference time-domain method using an auxiliary differential equation, are discussed. The variation of the direction of the electric field-strength vector oscillations that occurs in an optically active medium upon propagation of a linearly polarized ultrashort pulse incident on it is shown to be significantly different from the rotation of the polarization plane (proportional to the propagation coordinate) in the case of the incidence of a long pulse.     

振幅补偿匹配滤波中的旋转和尺度变化效应

本文研究了振幅补偿匹配滤波的旋转效应和尺度变化效应.计算机模拟的结果表明,这种滤波法对输入信号的旋转变化和尺度缩放变化,相对于传统的匹配滤波法及仅相位滤波法要敏感得多.文中还给出了这三和滤波下的相关峰值与旋转角度及尺度因子的关系曲线.     

360 degree realistic 3D image display and image processing from real objects

A 360-degree realistic 3D image display system based on direct light scanning method, so-called Holo-Table has been introduced in this paper. High-density directional continuous 3D motion images can be displayed easily with only one spatial light modulator. Using the holographic screen as the beam deflector, 360-degree full horizontal viewing angle was achieved. As an accompany part of the system, CMOS camera based image acquisition platform was built to feed the display engine, which can take a full 360-degree continuous imaging of the sample at the center. Customized image processing techniques such as scaling, rotation, format transformation were also developed and embedded into the system control software platform. In the end several samples were imaged to demonstrate the capability of our system.     

Discrete spherical means of directional derivatives and Veronese maps

We describe and study geometric properties of discrete circular and spherical means of directional derivatives of functions, as well as discrete approximations of higher order differential operators. For an arbitrary dimension, we present a general construction for obtaining discrete spherical means of directional derivatives. The construction is based on using Minkowski’s existence theorem and Veronese maps. Approximating the directional derivatives by appropriate finite differences allows one to obtain finite difference operators with good rotation invariance properties. In particular, we use discrete circular and spherical means to derive discrete approximations of various linear and nonlinear first- and second-order differential operators, including discrete Laplacians. A practical potential of our approach is demonstrated by considering applications to nonlinear filtering of digital images and surface curvature estimation.     

低空频模板实现微光变图像的激光直写方法

提出一种采用低空频模板实现微光变图像(micro-optical variable device)的激光直写方法。低空频模版由6×6个不同取向线条状单元图形构成，单元图形由空间光调制器输入，经精缩投影光学系统缩微，在光刻胶面上逐单元曝光。控制单元图形的结构取向能够实现各种复杂设计和特性的微光变图像。在低频光栅模板的基础上，给出了定向散斑结构输入模板的设计方法，它可进一步改进图像的非彩色效果。采用自行研制的SVG-LDW04型激光直写系统制作了微光变图像，其结构特征线度为4μm～100μm。该方法无需机械旋转机构，为实现微光变图像提供了一种便捷有效的手段。     

The contribution of two ears to the perception of vertical angle in sagittal planes

Because the input signals to the left and right ears are not identical, it is important to clarify the role of these signals in the perception of the vertical angle of a sound source at any position in the upper hemisphere. To obtain basic findings on upper hemisphere localization, this paper investigates the contribution of each pinna to the perception of vertical angle. Tests measured localization of the vertical angle in five planes parallel to the median plane. In the localization tests, the pinna cavities of one or both ears were occluded. Results showed that pinna cavities of both the near and far ears play a role in determining the perceived vertical angle of a sound source in any plane, including the median plane. As a sound source shifts laterally away from the median plane, the contribution of the near ear increases and, conversely, that of the far ear decreases. For saggital planes at azimuths greater than 60 degrees from midline, the far ear no longer contributes measurably to the determination of vertical angle.