Phase correlation

Phase correlation is an approach to estimate the relative translative offset between two similar images (digital image correlation) or other data sets. It is commonly used in image registration and relies on a frequency-domain representation of the data, usually calculated by fast Fourier transforms. The term is applied particularly to a subset of cross-correlation techniques that isolate the phase information from the Fourier-space representation of the cross-correlogram. == Example == The following image demonstrates the usage of phase correlation to determine relative translative movement between two images corrupted by independent Gaussian noise. The image was translated by (20,23) pixels. Accordingly, one can clearly see a peak in the phase-correlation representation at approximately (20,23). == Method == Given two input images g a {\displaystyle \ g_{a}} and g b {\displaystyle \ g_{b}} : Apply a window function (e.g., a Hamming window) on both images to reduce edge effects (this may be optional depending on the image characteristics). Then, calculate the discrete 2D Fourier transform of both images. G a = F { g a } , G b = F { g b } {\displaystyle \ \mathbf {G} _{a}={\mathcal {F}}\{g_{a}\},\;\mathbf {G} _{b}={\mathcal {F}}\{g_{b}\}} Calculate the cross-power spectrum by taking the complex conjugate of the second result, multiplying the Fourier transforms together elementwise, and normalizing this product elementwise. R = G a ∘ G b ∗ | G a ∘ G b ∗ | {\displaystyle \ R={\frac {\mathbf {G} _{a}\circ \mathbf {G} _{b}^{}}{|\mathbf {G} _{a}\circ \mathbf {G} _{b}^{}|}}} Where ∘ {\displaystyle \circ } is the Hadamard product (entry-wise product) and the absolute values are taken entry-wise as well. Written out entry-wise for element index ( j , k ) {\displaystyle (j,k)} : R j k = G a , j k ⋅ G b , j k ∗ | G a , j k ⋅ G b , j k ∗ | {\displaystyle \ R_{jk}={\frac {G_{a,jk}\cdot G_{b,jk}^{}}{|G_{a,jk}\cdot G_{b,jk}^{}|}}} Obtain the normalized cross-correlation by applying the inverse Fourier transform. r = F − 1 { R } {\displaystyle \ r={\mathcal {F}}^{-1}\{R\}} Determine the location of the peak in r {\displaystyle \ r} . ( Δ x , Δ y ) = arg ⁡ max ( x , y ) { r } {\displaystyle \ (\Delta x,\Delta y)=\arg \max _{(x,y)}\{r\}} === Subpixel registration === Commonly, interpolation methods are used to estimate the peak location in the cross-correlogram to non-integer values, despite the fact that the data are discrete, and this procedure is often termed 'subpixel registration'. A large variety of subpixel interpolation methods are given in the technical literature. Common peak interpolation methods such as parabolic interpolation have been used, and the OpenCV computer vision package uses a centroid-based method, though these generally have inferior accuracy compared to more sophisticated methods. Because the Fourier representation of the data has already been computed, it is especially convenient to use the Fourier shift theorem with real-valued (sub-integer) shifts for this purpose, which essentially interpolates using the sinusoidal basis functions of the Fourier transform. An especially popular FT-based estimator is given by Foroosh et al. In this method, the subpixel peak location is approximated by a simple formula involving peak pixel value and the values of its nearest neighbors, where r ( 0 , 0 ) {\displaystyle r_{(0,0)}} is the peak value and r ( 1 , 0 ) {\displaystyle r_{(1,0)}} is the nearest neighbor in the x direction (assuming, as in most approaches, that the integer shift has already been found and the comparand images differ only by a subpixel shift). Δ x = r ( 1 , 0 ) r ( 1 , 0 ) ± r ( 0 , 0 ) {\displaystyle \ \Delta x={\frac {r_{(1,0)}}{r_{(1,0)}\pm r_{(0,0)}}}} The Foroosh et al. method is quite fast compared to most methods, though it is not always the most accurate. Some methods shift the peak in Fourier space and apply non-linear optimization to maximize the correlogram peak, but these tend to be very slow since they must apply an inverse Fourier transform or its equivalent in the objective function. It is also possible to infer the peak location from phase characteristics in Fourier space without the inverse transformation, as noted by Stone. These methods usually use a linear least squares (LLS) fit of the phase angles to a planar model. The long latency of the phase angle computation in these methods is a disadvantage, but the speed can sometimes be comparable to the Foroosh et al. method depending on the image size. They often compare favorably in speed to the multiple iterations of extremely slow objective functions in iterative non-linear methods. Since all subpixel shift computation methods are fundamentally interpolative, the performance of a particular method depends on how well the underlying data conform to the assumptions in the interpolator. This fact also may limit the usefulness of high numerical accuracy in an algorithm, since the uncertainty due to interpolation method choice may be larger than any numerical or approximation error in the particular method. Subpixel methods are also particularly sensitive to noise in the images, and the utility of a particular algorithm is distinguished not only by its speed and accuracy but its resilience to the particular types of noise in the application. == Rationale == The method is based on the Fourier shift theorem. Let the two images g a {\displaystyle \ g_{a}} and g b {\displaystyle \ g_{b}} be circularly-shifted versions of each other: g b ( x , y ) = d e f g a ( ( x − Δ x ) mod M , ( y − Δ y ) mod N ) {\displaystyle \ g_{b}(x,y)\ {\stackrel {\mathrm {def} }{=}}\ g_{a}((x-\Delta x){\bmod {M}},(y-\Delta y){\bmod {N}})} (where the images are M × N {\displaystyle \ M\times N} in size). Then, the discrete Fourier transforms of the images will be shifted relatively in phase: G b ( u , v ) = G a ( u , v ) e − 2 π i ( u Δ x M + v Δ y N ) {\displaystyle \mathbf {G} _{b}(u,v)=\mathbf {G} _{a}(u,v)e^{-2\pi i({\frac {u\Delta x}{M}}+{\frac {v\Delta y}{N}})}} One can then calculate the normalized cross-power spectrum to factor out the phase difference: R ( u , v ) = G a G b ∗ | G a G b ∗ | = G a G a ∗ e 2 π i ( u Δ x M + v Δ y N ) | G a G a ∗ e 2 π i ( u Δ x M + v Δ y N ) | = G a G a ∗ e 2 π i ( u Δ x M + v Δ y N ) | G a G a ∗ | = e 2 π i ( u Δ x M + v Δ y N ) {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}R(u,v)&={\frac {\mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{b}^{}}{|\mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{b}^{}|}}\\&={\frac {\mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{a}^{}e^{2\pi i({\frac {u\Delta x}{M}}+{\frac {v\Delta y}{N}})}}{|\mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{a}^{}e^{2\pi i({\frac {u\Delta x}{M}}+{\frac {v\Delta y}{N}})}|}}\\&={\frac {\mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{a}^{}e^{2\pi i({\frac {u\Delta x}{M}}+{\frac {v\Delta y}{N}})}}{|\mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{a}^{}|}}\\&=e^{2\pi i({\frac {u\Delta x}{M}}+{\frac {v\Delta y}{N}})}\end{aligned}}} since the magnitude of an imaginary exponential always is one, and the phase of G a G a ∗ {\displaystyle \ \mathbf {G} _{a}\mathbf {G} _{a}^{}} always is zero. The inverse Fourier transform of a complex exponential is a Dirac delta function, i.e. a single peak: r ( x , y ) = δ ( x + Δ x , y + Δ y ) {\displaystyle \ r(x,y)=\delta (x+\Delta x,y+\Delta y)} This result could have been obtained by calculating the cross correlation directly. The advantage of this method is that the discrete Fourier transform and its inverse can be performed using the fast Fourier transform, which is much faster than correlation for large images. === Benefits === Unlike many spatial-domain algorithms, the phase correlation method is resilient to noise, occlusions, and other defects typical of medical or satellite images. The method can be extended to determine rotation and scaling differences between two images by first converting the images to log-polar coordinates. Due to properties of the Fourier transform, the rotation and scaling parameters can be determined in a manner invariant to translation. === Limitations === In practice, it is more likely that g b {\displaystyle \ g_{b}} will be a simple linear shift of g a {\displaystyle \ g_{a}} , rather than a circular shift as required by the explanation above. In such cases, r {\displaystyle \ r} will not be a simple delta function, which will reduce the performance of the method. In such cases, a window function (such as a Gaussian or Tukey window) should be employed during the Fourier transform to reduce edge effects, or the images should be zero padded so that the edge effects can be ignored. If the images consist of a flat background, with all detail situated away from the edges, then a linear shift will be equivalent to a circular shift, and the above derivation will hold exactly. The peak can be sharpened by using edge or vector correlation. For periodic images (such as a chessboard or picket fence), phase correlation may yield ambiguous results with several peaks in the resulting output. == Applications == Phase correlation is the preferred m

Aphelion (software)

The Aphelion Imaging Software Suite is a software suite that includes three base products - Aphelion Lab, Aphelion Dev, and Aphelion SDK for addressing image processing and image analysis applications. The suite also includes a set of extension programs to implement specific vertical applications that benefit from imaging techniques. The Aphelion software products can be used to prototype and deploy applications, or can be integrated, in whole or in part, into a user's system as processing and visualization libraries whose components are available as both DLLs or .Net components. == History and evolution == The development of Aphelion started in 1995 as a joint project of a French company, ADCIS S.A., and an American company, Amerinex Applied Imaging, Inc. (AAI) Aphelion's image processing and analysis functions were made from operators available from the KBVision software developed and sold by Amerinex's predecessor, Amerinex Artificial Intelligence Inc. In the 1990s, the XLim software library was developed at the Center of Mathematical Morphology of Mines ParisTech, and both companies carried out its development tasks. The first version of Aphelion was completed and released in April 1996. Successive versions were released before the first official stable release in December 1996 at the Photonics East conference in Boston and the Solutions Vision show in Paris in January 1997, where at the latter it competed with Stemmer Imaging's CVB imaging toolbox. In 1998, version 2.3 of Aphelion for Windows 98 was released, and its user base was growing in both France and the United States. Version 3.0, totally rewritten to take advantage of Microsoft's then-recent ActiveX technology, was officially released in 2000. It also became available as a « Developer » version, for rapid prototyping of applications using its intuitive GUI and the macro recording capability, and a « Core » version, including the full library as a set of ActiveX components to be used by software developers, integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM). As AAI turned its focus to security, in 2001, ADCIS took the lead on developing Aphelion. AAI focused on millimeter wave scanners for concealed weapon detection at airports, and eventually merged with Millimetrics to become Millivision. In 2004, ADCIS specified version 4.0 of Aphelion. The set of image processing/analysis functions was rewritten one more time to be compatible with the .NET technology and the emergence of 64 bit architecture PCs. In addition, the GUI was redesigned to address two usage types: a semi-automatic use where the user is guided through the different steps of functions, and a fully automatic use where the expert user can quickly invoke imaging functions. Its first release was presented at the IPOT exhibition in Birmingham, UK the same year. During the Vision Show in Paris in October 2008, the new Aphelion Lab product was launched for users that are not specialists in image processing. It is easier to use, and only includes fewer image processing functions. It was then included in the Aphelion Image Processing Suite, consisting of Aphelion Dev (replacing Aphelion Developer), Aphelion Lab, Aphelion SDK (replacing Aphelion Core), and a set of extensions. Nowadays, ADCIS is still working on the suite, and updated versions with new extensions and functionalities continually become available from the websites of both companies. In 2015, support was added for very large images and scan microscope images (virtual slides compound into a very large JPEG 2000 image) for high throughput imaging, and new specific extensions were also added. In late 2015, ADCIS announced Aphelion's port for tablets and smartphones, for vertical applications. The name "Aphelion" comes from the astronomical term of the same name, meaning the point on a planet rotating around the Sun where it lies farthest from it, applying the term in a metaphorical sense. Unix was the operating system used on scientific workstations in the 1990s, such as on the workstations manufactured by market leader Sun Microsystems, which Windows suite Aphelion was quite removed from. == Description == Aphelion is a software suite to be used for image processing and image analysis. It supports 2D and 3D, monochrome, color, and multi-band images. It is developed by ADCIS, a French software house located in Saint-Contest, Calvados, Normandy. Aphelion is widely used in the scientific/industry community to solve basic and complex imaging applications. First, the imaging application is quickly developed from the Graphical User Interface, involving a set of functions that can be automatically recorded into a macro command. The macro languages available in Aphelion (i.e. BasicScript, Python, and C#) help to process batch of images, and prompt the user if needed for specific parameters that are applied to the imaging functions. All Aphelion image processing functions are written in C++, and the Aphelion user interface is written in C#. C++ functions can be called from the C# language thanks the use of dedicated wrappers. The main principle of image processing is to automatically process pixels of a digital image, then extract one or more objects of interest (i.e. cells in the field of biology, inclusions in the field of material science) and compute one or more measurements on those objects to quantify the image and generate a verdict (good image, image with defects, cancerous cells). In other words, starting from an image, pixels are processed by a set of successive functions or operators until only measurements are computed and used as the input of a 3rd party system or a classification software that will classify objects of interest that have been extracted during the imaging process. An acquisition system such as a digital camera, a video camera, an optical or electron microscope, a medical scanner, or a smartphone can be used to capture images. The set of values or pixels can be processed as a 1D image (1D signal), a 2D image (array of pixel values corresponding to a monochrome or color image), or a 3D image displayed using volume rendering (array of voxels in the 3D space) or displaying surfaces by using 3D rendering. A 2D color image is made of 3 value pixels (typically Red, Green, and Blue information or another color space), and a 3D image is made of monochrome, color (indexed color are often used), multispectral, or hyperspectral data. When dealing with videos, an additional band is added corresponding to temporal information. The Aphelion Software Suite includes three base products, and a set of optional extensions for specific applications: Aphelion Lab: Entry-level package for non-experts in image processing. It helps to quickly segment an image in a semi-automatic or manual ways, and compute a set of measurements computed on objects of interest that have been extracted during the segmentation process. A set of wizards guides the user from image acquisition to report generation. Aphelion Dev: Full imaging environment including over 450 functions to develop and deploy an application that involves image processing and analysis. It also includes a set of macro-command languages to automate any application to be invoked from the user interface. It also helps to run the imaging algorithm on more than one image that are stored on disk, available on the network, or captured by an acquisition device. Aphelion libraries for image processing and visualization are provided in Aphelion Dev as DLLs and .Net components. Aphelion SDK: A set of libraries to develop a stand-alone application with a custom interface based on the Aphelion libraries. This software development kit including display, processing and analysis functions that can be used by software developers and OEMs. It is provided as DLLs and .Net components. The stand-alone application is typically developed in C# on one computer, and then deployed on multiple PCs and systems. A set of optional extensions can be added to the « Aphelion Dev » product, depending on the application. An evaluation version of Aphelion can be run on a PC for 30 days. A permanent version of Aphelion is available based on a perpetual license. Upgrades are available through a maintenance agreement based on a yearly fee. Technical support is provided by the engineers who are developing the product. The goal of image processing is usually to extract object(s) of interest in an image, and then to classify them based on some characteristics such as shape, density, position, etc. Using Aphelion, this goal is achieved by performing the following tasks: Load an image from disk or acquire an image using an acquisition device. Enhance the image removing noise or modifying its contrast. Segment the image extracting objects of interest to be measured and analyzed. Typically, for simple applications, a threshold is performed to generate a binary image. Then, morphological operators are applied to clean the image and only keep obj

SERVQUAL

SERVQUAL is a research tool that measures customer perception of service quality by comparing what customers expect from a service to their assessment of the service actually delivered. The instrument was developed in the United States in the mid-1980s by researchers A. Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry, and is designed for use in after-service evaluation processes. It assesses service quality across five dimensions: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness. SERVQUAL has been applied in sectors including healthcare, banking, education, and libraries. == Overview == The SERVQUAL questionnaire consists of matched pairs of items, 22 expectation items and 22 perception items, organized into five dimensions that correspond to the consumer's mental framework for evaluating service quality. Each item is part of a pair: one question asks what excellent organizations in a given industry should offer (expectation), and the other asks how the specific organization being evaluated performs (perception). == The model of service quality == The model of service quality, referred to as the gaps model, was developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry during a systematic research program conducted in the 1980s. The model identifies five gaps that may cause customers to experience poor service quality. In this framework, gap 5 is the service quality gap, which represents the difference between customer expectations and their perceptions of the service. This is the only gap that can be directly measured, and the SERVQUAL instrument was designed specifically to capture it. Gaps 1 through 4 have diagnostic value and point to probable causes of service failures. == Development of the instrument == Development of the model of service quality began in 1983 and, after iterative refinements, led to the publication of the SERVQUAL instrument in 1988. The research team conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups in four service sectors: retail banking, credit card services, securities brokerage, and product repair and maintenance. The questionnaire was tested across multiple samples to verify its reliability, validity, and factor structure. == Adaptations and variants == SERVQUAL has been adapted for specific industries and contexts. Well‑known derivatives include: LibQUAL+ – a library service quality survey developed by the Association of Research Libraries. EDUQUAL – an instrument tailored for the evaluation of service quality in educational institutions. HEALTHQUAL – adapted for measuring patient perceptions of healthcare service quality. ARTSQUAL – used to evaluate visitor perceptions of quality in museums and performing arts venues. == Criticisms == Researchers have raised several concerns about SERVQUAL. Critics argue that the instrument's definition of expectations is ambiguous and that it does not adequately account for the dynamic nature of customer expectations over time. Other scholars question whether the five‑dimension structure is universally applicable across all service contexts, and whether a generic instrument can capture the unique attributes of specific industries without modification.

RealSense

RealSense is an American technology company that develops depth cameras and computer-vision systems used in robotics, access control, industrial automation and healthcare. The company’s stereoscopic 3D cameras and software are marketed as a perception platform for “physical AI”, particularly for humanoid robots and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). RealSense was incubated for more than a decade inside Intel’s perceptual computing and depth-sensing group before being spun out as an independent company in July 2025 with a US$50 million Series A round backed by a semiconductor-focused private equity firm and strategic investors including Intel Capital and the MediaTek Innovation Fund. Following the spin-out, RealSense announced a strategic collaboration with Nvidia to integrate its AI depth cameras with the Nvidia Jetson Thor robotics platform, the Isaac Sim simulation environment and the Holoscan Sensor Bridge for low-latency sensor fusion. In November 2025, Swiss access-solutions provider dormakaba acquired a minority stake in RealSense and formed a partnership to develop AI-powered biometric access-control and security systems for data centres, airports and other critical infrastructure. == History == === Origins in Intel Perceptual Computing === Intel began developing depth-sensing and perceptual-computing technologies in the early 2010s under the Perceptual Computing brand, with research spanning gesture control, facial recognition and eye-tracking systems. The work led to a series of 3D cameras and developer challenge programmes intended to stimulate software ecosystems for natural-user interfaces. In 2014 Intel rebranded the effort as Intel RealSense, positioning the technology as a family of depth cameras and vision processors for PCs, mobile devices and embedded systems. Early devices such as the F200 and R200 were integrated into laptops and tablets from OEMs including Asus, HP, Dell, Lenovo and Acer, and were also sold as standalone webcams by partners such as Razer and Creative. === Refocus on robotics and near-closure === By the late 2010s Intel had steered RealSense away from mainstream PC peripherals toward robotics, industrial and embedded applications, adding stereo and lidar-based depth cameras to the portfolio. In August 2021, trade publication CRN reported that Intel planned to wind down the RealSense business as part of a broader restructuring, raising questions about the future of the product line. Despite that announcement, Intel continued to invest in new custom silicon for depth cameras, and RealSense remained widely used in mobile robots and automation projects. === Spin-out as RealSense Inc. (2025) === On 11 July 2025, Intel completed the spin-out of its RealSense 3D-camera business into a new privately held company, RealSense Inc., and the new entity announced a US$50 million Series A funding round. The round was led by a semiconductor-focused private equity investor with participation from Intel Capital, MediaTek Innovation Fund and other strategics. Independent coverage described RealSense as serving more than 3,000 active customers and supplying depth cameras to a large share of global AMR and humanoid robot platforms. The company stated that it would continue to support the existing Intel RealSense product roadmap while accelerating development of AI-enabled cameras and perception software. === Strategic partnerships and investments === In October 2025 RealSense and Nvidia announced a strategic collaboration centered on integrating RealSense AI depth cameras with Nvidia’s Jetson Thor robotics compute modules, the Isaac Sim simulation environment and the Holoscan Sensor Bridge for multi-sensor streaming. The collaboration is positioned as enabling “physical AI” workloads such as whole-body humanoid control, real-time mapping and safety-critical human–robot interaction. On 19 November 2025, dormakaba announced that it had acquired a minority stake in RealSense and entered into a partnership to co-develop intelligent access-control solutions, including biometric gates for airports and enterprise facilities. The partnership aims to combine RealSense’s depth and facial-authentication technology with dormakaba’s installed base of sensors, doors and turnstiles. == Products == === Depth-camera families === RealSense’s products are sold as modular components (depth modules, vision processors and complete cameras) and as integrated systems with on-device AI. The company continues to offer and support the Intel RealSense D400 family of active-stereo depth cameras (including the D415, D435 and D455), which are widely used in robotics and automation. These devices combine a RealSense Vision Processor from the D4 family with dual infrared imagers and, on some models, an RGB camera. Earlier generations of Intel RealSense cameras, including the F200, R200, SR300 and the L515 lidar camera, remain in use in niche and legacy applications but are no longer the focus of the independent company’s roadmap. === D555 PoE depth camera === The first new hardware platform announced after the spin-out was the RealSense Depth Camera D555, a ruggedised stereo-depth device aimed at industrial and robotics deployments. The D555 uses the longer-range D450 optical module with a global shutter and integrates RealSense’s Vision SoC V5, a new generation of vision processor optimised for neural-network inference and depth computation. Key features highlighted in technical coverage include: Power over Ethernet (PoE), allowing power and data to be delivered over a single cable and supporting both RJ45 and ruggedised M12 connections; an IP-rated enclosure designed for harsh indoor and outdoor environments; a built-in inertial measurement unit (IMU) to support simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and motion tracking; native support for ROS 2 and integration with the open-source RealSense SDK. According to independent reporting, the D555 is used in AI-enabled embedded-vision applications in mobile robots and fixed industrial systems, and was among the first RealSense products to be tightly integrated with Nvidia’s Jetson Thor and Holoscan platforms for low-latency sensor fusion. === Software and SDK === RealSense cameras are supported by a cross-platform, open-source software stack historically branded as Intel RealSense SDK 2.0. The SDK provides device drivers, depth and point-cloud processing, tracking and calibration tools, and bindings for languages such as C++, Python and C#. The independent company has continued to maintain and extend the SDK for new hardware, including D555 and other Vision SoC V5-based devices, and publishes reference integrations for ROS 2 and industrial-automation frameworks. === Biometrics and access-control products === In addition to general-purpose depth cameras, RealSense offers facial-authentication hardware and software, commonly referred to as RealSense ID, for biometric access control and identity verification. These products combine an active depth sensor with a dedicated neural-network pipeline running on embedded processors, aimed at applications such as secure doors, turnstiles and kiosks. Use-case material published by partners describes deployments of RealSense-based biometric readers in school lunch programmes, agricultural biosecurity checkpoints and enterprise facilities. The dormakaba partnership announced in 2025 extends this portfolio to integrated biometric gates and sensor-equipped doors in airports and data centres. == Applications == === Robotics and automation === RealSense depth cameras are used in autonomous mobile robots, humanoid robots, drones and industrial automation systems for tasks such as obstacle avoidance, navigation and manipulation. Reuters reported in 2025 that RealSense cameras were embedded in around 60 percent of the world’s AMRs and humanoid robots, citing customers including Unitree Robotics and ANYbotics. Developers and integrators use RealSense systems with platforms such as Nvidia Jetson, ROS and proprietary motion-planning stacks. === Biometrics and security === RealSense technology is also applied in biometric access control and surveillance, where depth and infrared imaging are used to improve anti-spoofing performance for facial recognition. The dormakaba investment and collaboration is aimed at integrating these capabilities into boarding gates, staff entrances and secure facilities, with RealSense providing perception hardware and algorithms and dormakaba providing access-control infrastructure and global distribution. == Reception == Early coverage of Intel RealSense for consumer PCs noted that the technology’s impact would depend on the availability of compelling software and use cases for depth-sensing cameras. Later reporting on the spin-out has characterised the new company as part of a broader wave of investment in robotics and physical AI, with some analysts suggesting that RealSense’s installed base and patent portfolio give it an advantage as dep

OntoCAPE

OntoCAPE is a large-scale ontology for the domain of Computer-Aided Process Engineering (CAPE). It can be downloaded free of charge via the OntoCAPE Homepage. OntoCAPE is partitioned into 62 sub-ontologies, which can be used individually or as an integrated suite. The sub-ontologies are organized across different abstraction layers, which separate general knowledge from knowledge about particular domains and applications. The upper layers have the character of an upper ontology, covering general topics such as mereotopology, systems theory, quantities and units. The lower layers conceptualize the domain of chemical process engineering, covering domain-specific topics such as materials, chemical reactions, or unit operations.

Robotic process automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation that is based on software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) agents. RPA should not be confused with artificial intelligence as it is based on automation technology following a predefined workflow. It is sometimes referred to as software robotics (not to be confused with robot software). In traditional workflow automation tools, a software developer produces a list of actions to automate a task and interface to the back end system using internal application programming interfaces (APIs) or dedicated scripting language. In contrast, RPA systems develop the action list by watching the user perform that task in the application's graphical user interface (GUI) and then perform the automation by repeating those tasks directly in the GUI. This can lower the barrier to the use of automation in products that might not otherwise feature APIs for this purpose. RPA tools have strong technical similarities to graphical user interface testing tools. These tools also automate interactions with the GUI, and often do so by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. RPA tools differ from such systems in that they allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance, receiving email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a bookkeeping system. == Historic evolution == As a form of automation, the concept has been around for a long time in the form of screen scraping, so long that to early PC users the reminder of it often blurs with the idea of malware infection. Yet compared to screen scraping, RPA is much more extensible, consisting of API integration into other enterprise applications, connectors into ITSM systems, terminal services and even some types of AI (e.g. machine learning) services such as image recognition. It is considered to be a significant technological evolution in the sense that new software platforms are emerging which are sufficiently mature, resilient, scalable and reliable to make this approach viable for use in large enterprises (who would otherwise be reluctant due to perceived risks to quality and reputation). == Use == The hosting of RPA services also aligns with the metaphor of a software robot, with each robotic instance having its own virtual workstation, much like a human worker. The robot uses keyboard and mouse controls to take actions and execute automations. Normally, all of these actions take place in a virtual environment and not on screen; the robot does not need a physical screen to operate, rather it interprets the screen display electronically. The scalability of modern solutions based on architectures such as these owes much to the advent of virtualization technology, without which the scalability of large deployments would be limited by the available capacity to manage physical hardware and by the associated costs. The implementation of RPA in business enterprises has shown dramatic cost savings when compared to traditional non-RPA solutions. === RPA actual use === Banking and finance process automation Mortgage and lending processes Customer care automation eCommerce merchandising operations Social media marketing Optical character recognition applications Data extraction process Fixed automation process Manual and repetitive tasks automation Voice recognition and digital dictation software linked to join up business processes for straight through processing without manual intervention Specialised remote infrastructure management software featuring automated investigation and resolution of problems, using robots for the first line IT support Chatbots used by internet retailers and service providers to service customer requests for information. Also used by companies to service employee requests for information from internal databases Presentation layer automation software, increasingly used by business process outsourcers to displace human labour Interactive voice response (IVR) systems incorporating intelligent interaction with callers == Impact on employment == According to Harvard Business Review, most operations groups adopting RPA have promised their employees that automation would not result in layoffs. Instead, workers have been redeployed to do more interesting work. One academic study highlighted that knowledge workers did not feel threatened by automation: they embraced it and viewed the robots as team-mates. The same study highlighted that, rather than resulting in a lower "headcount", the technology was deployed in such a way as to achieve more work and greater productivity with the same number of people. Conversely, however, some analysts proffer that RPA represents a threat to the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. The thesis behind this notion is that RPA will enable enterprises to "repatriate" processes from offshore locations into local data centers, with the benefit of this new technology. The effect, if true, will be to create high-value jobs for skilled process designers in onshore locations (and within the associated supply chain of IT hardware, data center management, etc.) but to decrease the available opportunity to low-skilled workers offshore. On the other hand, this discussion appears to be healthy ground for debate as another academic study was at pains to counter the so-called "myth" that RPA will bring back many jobs from offshore. === Impact on society === Academic studies project that RPA, among other technological trends, is expected to drive a new wave of productivity and efficiency gains in the global labour market. Although not directly attributable to RPA alone, Oxford University conjectures that up to 35% of all jobs might be automated by 2035. There are geographic implications to the trend in robotic automation. In the example above where an offshored process is "repatriated" under the control of the client organization (or even displaced by a business process outsourcer) from an offshore location to a data centre, the impact will be a deficit in economic activity to the offshore location and an economic benefit to the originating economy. On this basis, developed economies – with skills and technological infrastructure to develop and support a robotic automation capability – can be expected to achieve a net benefit from the trend. In a TEDx talk hosted by University College London (UCL), entrepreneur David Moss explains that digital labour in the form of RPA is likely to revolutionize the cost model of the services industry by driving the price of products and services down, while simultaneously improving the quality of outcomes and creating increased opportunity for the personalization of services. In a separate TEDx in 2019 talk, Japanese business executive, and former CIO of Barclays bank, Koichi Hasegawa noted that digital robots can be a positive effect on society if we start using a robot with empathy to help every person. He provides a case study of the Japanese insurance companies – Sompo Japan and Aioi – both of whom introduced bots to speed up the process of insurance pay-outs in past massive disaster incidents. Meanwhile, Professor Willcocks, author of the LSE paper cited above, speaks of increased job satisfaction and intellectual stimulation, characterising the technology as having the ability to "take the robot out of the human", a reference to the notion that robots will take over the mundane and repetitive portions of people's daily workload, leaving them to be used in more interpersonal roles or to concentrate on the remaining, more meaningful, portions of their day. It was also found in a 2021 study observing the effects of robotization in Europe that, the gender pay gap increased at a rate of .18% for every 1% increase in robotization of a given industry. == Unassisted RPA == Unassisted RPA, or RPAAI, is the next generation of RPA related technologies. Technological advancements around artificial intelligence allow a process to be run on a computer without needing input from a user. == Hyperautomation == Hyperautomation is the application of advanced technologies like RPA, artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML) and process mining to augment workers and automate processes in ways that are significantly more impactful than traditional automation capabilities. Hyperautomation is the combination of technologies that allow faster application authorship (like low-code and no-code) with automation technologies that coordinate different worker types (i.e. human and artificial) for intelligent and strategic workflow optimization. Gartner's report notes that this trend was kicked off with robotic process automation (RPA). The report notes that, "RPA alone is not hyperautomation. Hyperautomation requires a combination of tools to help support replicating pieces of where the human is involved in a task." == Outsourcing == Back office clerical processes outsourced by large organisations

Procedural reasoning system

In artificial intelligence, a procedural reasoning system (PRS) is a framework for constructing real-time reasoning systems that can perform complex tasks in dynamic environments. It is based on the notion of a rational agent or intelligent agent using the belief–desire–intention software model. A user application is predominately defined, and provided to a PRS system is a set of knowledge areas. Each knowledge area is a piece of procedural knowledge that specifies how to do something, e.g., how to navigate down a corridor, or how to plan a path (in contrast with robotic architectures where the programmer just provides a model of what the states of the world are and how the agent's primitive actions affect them). Such a program, together with a PRS interpreter, is used to control the agent. The interpreter is responsible for maintaining beliefs about the world state, choosing which goals to attempt to achieve next, and choosing which knowledge area to apply in the current situation. How exactly these operations are performed might depend on domain-specific meta-level knowledge areas. Unlike traditional AI planning systems that generate a complete plan at the beginning, and replan if unexpected things happen, PRS interleaves planning and doing actions in the world. At any point, the system might only have a partially specified plan for the future. PRS is based on the BDI or belief–desire–intention framework for intelligent agents. Beliefs consist of what the agent believes to be true about the current state of the world, desires consist of the agent's goals, and intentions consist of the agent's current plans for achieving those goals. Furthermore, each of these three components is typically explicitly represented somewhere within the memory of the PRS agent at runtime, which is in contrast to purely reactive systems, such as the subsumption architecture. == History == The PRS concept was developed by the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI International during the 1980s, by many workers including Michael Georgeff, Amy L. Lansky, and François Félix Ingrand. Their framework was responsible for exploiting and popularizing the BDI model in software for control of an intelligent agent. The seminal application of the framework was a fault detection system for the reaction control system of the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery. Development on this PRS continued at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute through to the late 1990s, which led to the development of a C++ implementation and extension called dMARS. == Architecture == The system architecture of SRI's PRS includes the following components: Database for beliefs about the world, represented using first order predicate calculus. Goals to be realized by the system as conditions over an interval of time on internal and external state descriptions (desires). Knowledge areas (KAs) or plans that define sequences of low-level actions toward achieving a goal in specific situations. Intentions that include those KAs that have been selected for current and eventual execution. Interpreter or inference mechanism that manages the system. == Features == SRI's PRS was developed for embedded application in dynamic and real-time environments. As such it specifically addressed the limitations of other contemporary control and reasoning architectures like expert systems and the blackboard system. The following define the general requirements for the development of their PRS: asynchronous event handling guaranteed reaction and response types procedural representation of knowledge handling of multiple problems reactive and goal-directed behavior focus of attention reflective reasoning capabilities continuous embedded operation handling of incomplete or inaccurate data handling of transients modeling delayed feedback operator control == Applications == The seminal application of SRI's PRS was a monitoring and fault detection system for the reaction control system (RCS) on the NASA space shuttle. The RCS provides propulsive forces from a collection of jet thrusters and controls altitude of the space shuttle. A PRS-based fault diagnostic system was developed and tested using a simulator. It included over 100 KAs and over 25 meta level KAs. RCS specific KAs were written by space shuttle mission controllers. It was implemented on the Symbolics 3600 Series LISP machine and used multiple communicating instances of PRS. The system maintained over 1000 facts about the RCS, over 650 facts for the forward RCS alone and half of which are updated continuously during the mission. A version of the PRS was used to monitor the reaction control system on the Space Shuttle Discovery. PRS was tested on Shakey the robot including navigational and simulated jet malfunction scenarios based on the space shuttle. Later applications included a network management monitor called the Interactive Real-time Telecommunications Network Management System (IRTNMS) for Telecom Australia. == Extensions == The following list the major implementations and extensions of the PRS architecture. UM-PRS OpenPRS (formerly C-PRS and Propice) AgentSpeak Distributed multi-agent reasoning system (dMARS) GORITE JAM JACK Intelligent Agents SRI Procedural Agent Realization Kit (SPARK) PRS-CL