Human Position Detection Based on Depth Camera Image Information in Mechanical Safety

The devices used for human position detection in mechanical safety mainly include safety light curtain, safety laser scanner, safety pad, and vision system. However, these devices may be bypassed when used, and human or equipment cannot be distinguished. To solve this problem, a depth camera is proposed as a human position detection device in mechanical safety. The process of human position detection based on depth camera image information is given; it mainly includes image information acquisition, human presence detection, and distance measurement. Meanwhile, a human position detection method based on Intel RealSense depth camera and MobileNet-SSD algorithm is proposed and applied to robot safety protection. The result shows that the image information collected by the depth camera can detect the human position in real time, which can replace the existing mechanical safety human position detection device. At the same time, the depth camera can detect only human but not mobile devices and realize the separation and early warning of people and mobile devices.

Dynamics of Information Acquisition: Does Investment in Information Technology Matter?

The purpose of the study is to develop a theoretical model to ascertain if the IT investment in the banking sector is capable of generating a new equilibrium with increased efficiency. The empirical strategy is to seek an indirect test for Jordanian banking sector by looking at the time profile of banking profits as a temporal function of IT investment. The study enquires if the banking sector, as an iterative process of credit allocation and information acquisition through IT investment, lead to a stable equilibrium? Does IT investment ensure stable market shares for Jordanian banks in the long run? The study finds that investment in IT has led the banking system in Jordan away from an efficient equilibrium. We also find that the banks in Jordan directly interact with each other, although they may have collusive arrangements with some of their rivals, this means the banking market is not fragmented.

Social Network Relationships between Biomass Industry Stakeholders in the Agricultural Waste Power Generation Industry—A Case of Northern Jiangsu, China

This study aimed to explore the impact of the interaction between stakeholders in the sustainable development of the biomass industry and to reveal network issues relating to material flow and information flow under the current biomass energy development model. This study focused on the agriculture and forestry waste power generation industry. Taking the biomass industry in Nanjing, Suqian, and Yancheng as examples, the study selected six stakeholder groups involved in the industry and conducted field investigations by using semi-open interviews and questionnaires. The research mainly applied social network analysis methods, combined with UCINET software, to draw a network diagram of the stakeholder relationships and to quantitatively analyze stakeholder centrality and overall network density. The results revealed that (1) the biomass enterprises had the highest centrality in the overall network, which played a vital role in the construction of the overall network; (2) the farmers were positioned at the outer fringes of the industrial social network and their information acquisition capabilities and degree of control over the network were the lowest; and (3) the overall network density was low, which showed that the connections between stakeholders were not close enough to support the circulation of material and information in the overall network.

Retrieval of DTM under Complex Forest Stand Based on Spaceborne LiDAR Fusion Photon Correction

The new generation of satellite-borne laser radar Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) data has been successfully used for ground information acquisition. However, when dealing with complex terrain and dense vegetation cover, the accuracy of the extracted understory Digital Terrain Model (DTM) is limited. Therefore, this paper proposes a photon correction data processing method based on ICESat-2 to improve the DTM inversion accuracy in complex terrain and high forest coverage areas. The correction value is first extracted based on the ALOS PALSAR DEM reference data to correct the cross-track photon data of ICESat-2. The slope filter threshold is then selected from the reference data, and the extracted possible ground photons are slope filtered to obtain accurate ground photons. Finally, the impacts of cross-track photon and slope filtering on fine ground extraction from the ICESat-2 data are discussed. The results show that the proposed photon correction and slope filtering algorithms help to improve the extraction accuracy of forest DTM in complex terrain areas. Compared with the forest DTM extracted without the photon correction and slope filtering methods, the MAE (Mean Absolute Error) and RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) are reduced by 51.90~57.82% and 49.37~53.55%, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that photon correction can improve the terrain inversion ability of ICESat-2, while providing a novel method for ground extraction based on ICESat-2 data. It provides a theoretical basis for the accurate inversion of canopy parameters for ICESat-2.

Van der Waals two-color infrared photodetector

With the increasing demand for multispectral information acquisition, infrared multispectral imaging technology that is inexpensive and can be miniaturized and integrated into other devices has received extensive attention. However, the widespread usage of such photodetectors is still limited by the high cost of epitaxial semiconductors and complex cryogenic cooling systems. Here, we demonstrate a noncooled two-color infrared photodetector that can provide temporal-spatial coexisting spectral blackbody detection at both near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths. This photodetector consists of vertically stacked back-to-back diode structures. The two-color signals can be effectively separated to achieve ultralow crosstalk of ~0.05% by controlling the built-in electric field depending on the intermediate layer, which acts as an electron-collecting layer and hole-blocking barrier. The impressive performance of the two-color photodetector is verified by the specific detectivity (D*) of 6.4 × 109 cm Hz1/2 W−1 at 3.5 μm and room temperature, as well as the promising NIR/MWIR two-color infrared imaging and absolute temperature detection.

Effects of social value orientation (SVO) and decision mode on controlled information acquisition—A Mouselab perspective

Insights into the processes underlying observed decisions are crucial for a comprehensive understanding of behavior. We investigate how individual social value orientation (SVO) relates to controlled information acquisition and how this relationship may be governed by intuitive versus reflective decision modes. We measure controlled information acquisition with the process tracing tool Mouselab and demonstrate its potential for advancing research on social decision-making. In two experiments, participants worked on two consecutive SVO tasks, in which they allocated points between themselves and others. Information regarding the available distributions of points had to be actively acquired by moving the mouse cursor over corresponding boxes on the screen. We observed a stable relationship between SVO and controlled information acquisition in both experiments: less selfish participants acquired more information and made more other-oriented acquisitions, and this relationship showed up in both an intuitive and a reflective decision mode. However, participants in a reflective decision mode acquired more information, their acquisitions were more strongly other-oriented, and their decisions were more prosocial compared to participants in an intuitive mode. Taken together, our results advance research on SVO by showing that non-selfish individuals invest considerable time and effort to gauge the consequences of their decisions for others, which might underlie the pervasive effects of SVO on many socially relevant behaviors. Moreover, we demonstrate how intuitive versus reflective decision modes can alter controlled information acquisition. Finally, our results illustrate that Mouselab is a simple-to-use and versatile tool for tracing cognitive processes underlying social psychological phenomena.