Abstract: Intravascular ultrasound images represent a unique tool to analyze the morphology of arteries and vessels (plaques, restenosis, etc). The poor quality of these images makes unsupervised segmentation based on traditional segmentation algorithms (such as edge or ridge/valley detection) fail to achieve the expected results. In this paper we present a probabilistic flexible template to separate different regions in the image. In particular, we use elliptic templates to model and detect the shape of the vessel inner wall in IVUS images. We present the results of successful segmentation obtained from patients undergoing stent treatment. A physician team has validated these results.

Abstract: Cardiac vessel displacement is a main artifact in IVUS sequences. It hinders visualization of the main structures in an appropriate orientation and alignment and affects extracting vessel measurements. In this paper, we present a novel approach for image sequence alignment based on spectral analysis, which removes rigid dynamics, preserving at the same time the vessel geometry. First, we suppress the translation by taking, for each frame, the center of mass of the image as origin of coordinates. In polar coordinates with such point as origin, the rotation appears as a horizontal displacement. The translation induces a phase shift in the Fourier coefficients of two consecutive polar images. We estimate the phase by adjusting a regression plane to the phases of the principal frequencies. Experiments show that the presented strategy suppress cardiac motion regardless of the acquisition device. 1.

Abstract: En los últimos años, se ha introducido ámpliamente el uso de los sistemas CAD en dominios relacionados con la arquitectura. Dichos sistemas CAD son muy útiles para el arquitecto en el diseño de planos de plantas de edificios. Sin embargo, la utilización eficiente de un CAD requiere un tiempo de aprendizaje, en especial, en la etapa de creación y edición del diseño. Además, una vez familiarizado con un CAD, el arquitecto debe adaptarse a la simbología que éste le permite que, en algunos casos puede ser poco flexible.Con esta motivación, se propone una técnica alternativa de entrada de documentos en sistemas CAD. Dicha técnica se basa en el diseño del plano sobre papel mediante un dibujo lineal hecho a mano alzada a modo de boceto e introducido mediante scanner. Una vez interpretado este dibujo inicial e introducido en el CAD, el arquitecto sólo deber hacer sobre éste los retoques finales del documento.El sistema de entrada propuesto se compone de dos módulos principales: En primer lugar, la extracción de características (puntos característicos, rectas y arcos) de la imagen obtenida mediante scanner. En dicho módulo se aplican principalmente técnicas de procesamiento de imágenes obteniendo como resultado una representaci¢n del dibujo de entrada basada en grafos de atributos. El objetivo del segundo módulo es el de encontrar y reconocer las entidades integrantes del documento (puertas, mesas, etc.) en base a una biblioteca de símbolos definida en el sistema CAD. La implementación de dicho módulo se basa en técnicas de isomorfismo de grafos.El sistema propone una alternativa que permita, mediante el diseño a mano alzada, la introducción de la informaci¢n m s significativa del plano de forma rápida, sencilla y estandarizada por parte del usuario.

Abstract: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an educational strategy to improve student’s learning capability that, in recent years, has had a progressive acceptance in undergraduate studies. This methodology is based on solving a problem or project in a student working group. In this way, PBL focuses on learning the necessary tools to correctly find a solution to given problems. Since the learning initiative is transferred to the student, the PBL method promotes students own abilities. This allows a better assessment of the true workload that carries out the student in the subject. It follows that the methodology conforms to the guidelines of the Bologna document, which quantifies the student workload in a subject by means of the European credit transfer system (ECTS). PBL is currently applied in undergraduate studies needing strong practical training such as medicine, nursing or law sciences. Although this is also the case in engineering studies, amazingly, few experiences have been reported. In this paper we propose to use PBL in the educational organization of the Computer Graphics subjects in the Computer Science degree. Our PBL project focuses in the development of a C++ graphical environment based on the OpenGL libraries for visualization and handling of different graphical objects. The starting point is a basic skeleton that already includes lighting functions, perspective projection with mouse interaction to change the point of view and three predefined objects. Students have to complete this skeleton by adding their own functions to solve the project. A total number of 10 projects have been proposed and successfully solved. The exercises range from human face rendering to articulated objects, such as robot arms or puppets. In the present paper we extensively report the statement and educational objectives for two of the projects: solar system visualization and a chess game. We report our earlier educational experience based on the standard classroom theoretical, problem and practice sessions and the reasons that motivated searching for other learning methods. We have mainly chosen PBL because it improves the student learning initiative. We have applied the PBL educational model since the beginning of the second semester. The student’s feedback increases in his interest for the subject. We present a comparative study of the teachers’ and students’ workload between PBL and the classic teaching approach, which suggests that the workload increase in PBL is not as high as it seems.