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Expert Systems Special Issue on

IWINAC 2011: 4th Int. Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation

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Special Issue on "INTELLIGENT MONITORING FOR PEOPLE ASSISTANCE AND SAFETY"

The Expert Systems special issue on Intelligent Monitoring for People Assistance and Safety related to “IWINAC 2011: 4th Int. Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation” will contain the best revised papers dealing with different issues concerning people assistance and safety through intelligent monitoring and activity interpretation. This special issue covers all aspects of third-generation or advanced monitoring systems.

From a historical point of view, it is acknowledged that the evolution of monitoring systems has gone through three generations. In the first generation (1960–1980), closed-circuit television (CCTV) analog systems were used, which consisted of several cameras connected to a series of monitors. These systems do not process information and require a human operator to be permanently concentrated on analyzing the situations observed on the monitors. However, in the second generation (1990–2000), the advances attained in digital video communication (e.g. digital compression, bandwidth reduction and robust transmission) are used to increase the efficiency of monitoring systems. CCTV systems are used together with computer vision technology to automatically process images, in order to detect alarm events proactively while recording. These semiautomatic systems require a robust tracking and detection algorithm to analyze their behavior. Although these systems represent a clear improvement regarding first generation systems, since they reduce the dependency on human operators to detect anomalous situations, the algorithms and techniques used are still not mature enough and can trigger a high number of false alarms. The data processing is carried out by a centralized system. Finally, in the third generation (2000-today), a series of heterogeneous sensors (e.g. fixed cameras, pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, audio sensors and RFID tags (radio-frequency identification) geographically distributed along the observed scenario are used. From the image processing point of view, these systems are based on distributing the processing capabilities and using embedded signal processing devices to gain from the advantages of the scalability and robustness of the distributed systems. The main problems that need to be solved in these systems are integrating data obtained from different sensors, establishing a correspondence of the signals in time and space and coordinating and distributing the processing task and video communication.

Papers dealing with any step of advanced monitoring systems, such as acquisition, segmentation, tracking, event handling, activity interpretation and decision making, are welcome. Works that describe knowledge-based models, algorithms and architectures for applications of advanced monitoring are invited in this Special Issue.

Important Dates (2012):

 

Submision of manuscripts:

Invited contributions should be around 10 journal pages long (approximately 5000 words, plus a reasonable number of Figures/Tables).

All articles should be submitted in the journal style, following the instructions in http://www.wiley.com/bw/submit.asp?ref=0266-4720.
To submit a manuscript, login to Expert Systems - Manuscript Central site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/exsy. The title should begin with the prefix [IWINAC 2011 Special Issue].

Review Process:

The Guest Editors will first evaluate all manuscripts. Those manuscripts that meet the minimum criteria are passed on for peer review by two external experts. The method of review in this special issue will employ single blind review, where the referee remains anonymous throughout the process. The Guest Editors board is responsible for the final decision to accept or to reject the article, based on the recommendations of the reviewers.

Guest Editors:

- Rafael Martínez Tomás, Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
- Antonio Fernández-Caballero, Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha

Related Link:

IWINAC 2011: 4th Int. Work-Conference on the Interplay between Natural and Artificial Computation