RoBétArmé Project: Human-robot collaborative construction system for shotcrete digitization and automation through advanced perception, cognition, mobility and additive manufacturing skills.

The importance of construction automation has grown worldwide, aiming to deliver new machineries for the automation of roads, tunnels, bridges, buildings and earth-work construction. This need is mainly driven by (i) the shortage and rising costs of skilled workers, (ii) the tremendous increased needs for new infrastructures to serve the daily activities and (iii) the immense demand for maintenance of ageing infrastructure. Shotcrete (sprayed concrete) is increasingly becoming popular technology among contractors and builders, as its application is extremely economical and flexible as the growth in construction repairs in developed countries demand excessive automation of concrete placement.

A Mobile Food Record For Integrated Dietary Assessment.

This paper presents an integrated dietary assessment system based on food image analysis that uses mobile devices or smartphones. We describe two components of our integrated system: a mobile application and an image-based food nutrient database that is connected to the mobile application. An easy-to-use mobile application user interface is described that was designed based on user preferences as well as the requirements of the image analysis methods.

Reported Energy Intake Accuracy Compared to Doubly Labeled Water and Usability of the Mobile Food Record among Community Dwelling Adults.

The mobile Food Record (mFR) is an image-based dietary assessment method for mobile devices. The study primary aim was to test the accuracy of the mFR by comparing reported energy intake (rEI) to total energy expenditure (TEE) using the doubly labeled water (DLW) method. Usability of the mFR was assessed by questionnaires before and after the study.

Multiple hypotheses image segmentation and classification with application to dietary assessment.

We propose a method for dietary assessment to automatically identify and locate food in a variety of images captured during controlled and natural eating events. Two concepts are combined to achieve this: a set of segmented objects can be partitioned into perceptually similar object classes based on global and local features; and perceptually similar object classes can be used to assess the accuracy of image segmentation. These ideas are implemented by generating multiple segmentations of an image to select stable segmentations based on the classifier's confidence score assigned to each segmented image region.

Characteristics of the Colombian armed conflict and the mental health of civilians living in active conflict zones.

Background: Despite the fact that the Colombian armed conflict has continued for almost five decades there is still very little information on how it affects the mental health of civilians. Although it is well established in post-conflict populations that experience of organised violence has a negative impact on mental health, little research has been done on those living in active conflict zones. Médecins Sans Frontières provides mental health services in areas of active conflict in Colombia and using data from these services we aimed to establish which characteristics of the conflict are most associated with specific symptoms of mental ill health.

Novel technologies for assessing dietary intake: evaluating the usability of a mobile telephone food record among adults and adolescents.

Background: The development of a mobile telephone food record has the potential to ameliorate much of the burden associated with current methods of dietary assessment. When using the mobile telephone food record, respondents capture an image of their foods and beverages before and after eating. Methods of image analysis and volume estimation allow for automatic identification and volume estimation of foods.

Segmentation Assisted Food Classification for Dietary Assessment.

Accurate methods and tools to assess food and nutrient intake are essential for the association between diet and health. Preliminary studies have indicated that the use of a mobile device with a built-in camera to obtain images of the food consumed may provide a less burdensome and more accurate method for dietary assessment. We are developing methods to identify food items using a single image acquired from the mobile device.

Multilevel Segmentation for Food Classification in Dietary Assessment.

Given a dataset of images, we seek to automatically identify and locate perceptually similar objects. We combine two ideas to achieve this: a set of segmented objects can be partitioned into perceptually similar object classes based on global and local features; and perceptually similar object classes can be used to assess the accuracy of image segmentation. These ideas are implemented by generating multiple segmentations of each image and then learning the object class by combining different segmentations to generate optimal segmentation.

FOOD TEXTURE DESCRIPTORS BASED ON FRACTAL AND LOCAL GRADIENT INFORMATION.

This work is motivated by the desire to use image analysis methods to identify and characterize images of food items to aid in dietary assessment. This paper introduces three texture descriptors for texture classification that can be used to classify images of food. Two are based on the multifractal analysis, namely, entropy-based categorization and fractal dimension estimation (EFD), and a Gabor-based image decomposition and fractal dimension estimation (GFD).

INTEGRATED DATABASE SYSTEM FOR MOBILE DIETARY ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS.

Of the 10 leading causes of death in the US, 6 are related to diet. Unfortunately, methods for real-time assessment and proactive health management of diet do not currently exist. There are only minimally successful tools for historical analysis of diet and food consumption available.

COMBINING GLOBAL AND LOCAL FEATURES FOR FOOD IDENTIFICATION IN DIETARY ASSESSMENT.

Many chronic diseases, such as heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity, can be related to diet. Hence, the need to accurately measure diet becomes imperative. We are developing methods to use image analysis tools for the identification and quantification of food consumed at a meal.

Development of a Mobile User Interface for Image-based Dietary Assessment.

In this paper, we present a mobile user interface for image-based dietary assessment. The mobile user interface provides a front end to a client-server image recognition and portion estimation software. In the client-server configuration, the user interactively records a series of food images using a built-in camera on the mobile device.

The Use of Mobile Devices in Aiding Dietary Assessment and Evaluation.

There is a growing concern about chronic diseases and other health problems related to diet including obesity and cancer. The need to accurately measure diet (what foods a person consumes) becomes imperative. Dietary intake provides valuable insights for mounting intervention programs for prevention of chronic diseases.

Evidence-based development of a mobile telephone food record.

Mobile telephones with an integrated camera can provide a unique mechanism for collecting dietary information that reduces burden on record-keepers. Objectives for this study were to test whether participant's proficiency with the mobile telephone food record improved after training and repeated use and to measure changes in perceptions regarding use of the mobile telephone food record after training and repeated use. Seventy-eight adolescents (26 males, 52 females) ages 11 to 18 years were recruited to use the mobile telephone food record for one or two meals.

AN IMAGE ANALYSIS SYSTEM FOR DIETARY ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION.

There is a growing concern about chronic diseases and other health problems related to diet including obesity and cancer. Dietary intake provides valuable insights for mounting intervention programs for prevention of chronic diseases. Measuring accurate dietary intake is considered to be an open research problem in the nutrition and health fields.

Personal Dietary Assessment Using Mobile Devices.

Dietary intake provides valuable insights for mounting intervention programs for prevention of disease. With growing concern for adolescent obesity, the need to accurately measure diet becomes imperative. Assessment among adolescents is problematic as this group has irregular eating patterns and have less enthusiasm for recording food intake.