System and methods for obstacle mapping and navigation
||System and methods for obstacle mapping and navigation
||Mostofi, et al.
||April 29, 2014
|Attorney Or Agent:
||Valauskas Corder LLC
||701/300; 340/552; 342/191; 342/463; 700/248; 700/258
|Field Of Search:
||;701/300; ;342/27; ;342/191; ;342/451; ;342/463; ;340/552; ;340/553; ;340/554; ;340/555; ;340/556; ;340/557; ;700/248; ;700/258
||G01S 13/34; G05D 1/02; G09B 29/00
|U.S Patent Documents:
|Foreign Patent Documents:
||05226920; 07271434; 09233564; 2005236799
||Mostofi, Yasamin et al., "Compressive Cooperative Sensing and Mapping in Mobile Networks," Paper ThCO3.5, 2009 American Control Conference(ACC), St. Louis, MO, Jun. 10-12, 2009, pp. 3397-3404. cited by examiner.
Lux, P.W. et al., "Range imaging for autonomous navigation of robotic land vehicles", Signal Processing, vol. 22 Issue 3, Mar. 1991, pp. 299-311. cited by examiner.
JPO machine translation of JP 05-226920 (original JP document published Sep. 3, 1993). cited by examiner.
Mostofi, Decentralized Communication-Aware Motion Planning in Mobile Networks: An Information-Gain Approach, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, May 23, 2009, p. 233-256, vol. 56, Iss. 1-2, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Hingham, Massachusetts.cited by applicant.
Mostofi, et al., Compressed Mapping of Communication Signal Strength, Military Communications Conference Nov. 2008, p. 1-7, San Diego, CA. cited by applicant.
Candes, et al., An Introduction to Compressive Sampling, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Mar. 2008, p. 21-30, vol. 25, Iss. 2. cited by applicant.
||A system and methods for building a map non-invasively (i.e. mapping of occluded and non-occluded obstacles) based on a small number of wireless channel measurements. Approaches for building an obstacle map are based on coordinated space, random space and frequency sampling, such that the sparse representation of the map in space, wavelet or spatial variations, are exploited in order to build the map with minimal sensing.
1. A method of mapping an obstacle within an environment, comprising the steps of: transmitting wirelessly a plurality of signals from a first robot to a second robot at randomlychosen distances and angles relative to an origin, wherein the first robot and the second robot each include an adaptive directional narrow-beam antenna and do not attempt to have a specific coordinated pattern of movement; receiving the plurality ofsignals by the second robot to obtain received signals, wherein portions of the received signals are attenuated by one or more properties of the obstacle; measuring by the second robot the plurality of received signals to obtain wireless measurements; and constructing a binary map of pixel values by the second robot from the wireless measurements, wherein the one or more properties of the obstacle is represented by a non-zero pixel value and the absence of the one or more properties of the obstacle isrepresented by a zero pixel value, the binary map of pixel values representing a map of the environment including the obstacle.
2. The method of mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 1, wherein the wireless measurements include at least one of path loss, shadowing, and multipath fading.
3. The method of mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 1, wherein the one or more properties of the obstacle is the location of the obstacle.
4. The method of mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 1, wherein the non-zero pixel value comprises the wireless decay rate of the received signals within the object.
5. The method of mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first robot and the second robot further comprises: a removable electromechanical fixture including a servo motor control mechanism,wherein the removable electromechanical fixture holds the adaptive directional narrow-beam antenna and the servo motor control mechanism rotates the adaptive directional narrow-beam antenna such that it can point at any desired direction.
6. The method of mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 1, wherein the wireless measurements are space samples.
7. A system for mapping an obstacle within an environment, comprising: at least two robot devices, wherein each robot device comprises: a wireless card; an adaptive directional narrow-beam antenna configured to transmit and to receive wirelesssignals; a removable electromechanical fixture including a servo motor control mechanism, wherein the removable electromechanical fixture holds the adaptive directional narrow-beam antenna and the servo motor control mechanism rotates the adaptivedirectional narrow-beam antenna such that it can point at any desired direction; a processor, wherein the processor is configured to perform the following steps: gathering a plurality of wireless measurements based on the wireless signals at randomlychosen distances and angles relative to an origin while the robot devices do not attempt to have a specific coordinated pattern of movement to obtain gathered wireless measurements, the gathered wireless measurements being random wireless measurements; reconstructing the environment based on the random wireless measurements; and creating an obstacle map.
8. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the random wireless measurements are space responses in the space domain.
9. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the reconstructing step considers sparsity in one or more selected from the group comprising of: space domain, sparsity domain, and space total variationdomain.
10. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the reconstructing step utilizes one or more methods selected from the group comprising of: basis pursuit, matching pursuit, and total variation.
11. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the obstacle map is a 2D slice of a 3D obstacle.
12. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the reconstructing step further comprises the step of applying a threshold to the random wireless measurements.
13. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 12, wherein the threshold value is 10 dB.
14. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the obstacle map is a binary map of pixel values.
15. The system for mapping an obstacle within an environment according to claim 7, wherein the wireless measurements comprise the wireless decay rate of the wireless signal within the object.
||FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to mapping environments including obstacles positioned within those environments. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and methods for determining the position of obstacles within an environmentwithout sensing the obstacles directly.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Obstacle mapping is crucial to the robust operation of robotic networks. Specifically, obstacle mapping relates to determining the location of an object within an environment. In existing approaches, only the obstacles that are directlyvisible to the robot can be mapped. In other words, occluded obstacles cannot be mapped. Currently, frameworks for mapping of occluded obstacles are lacking.
Autonomous vehicles are widely used and include a variety of unmanned ground vehicles, underwater vehicles, and aerospace vehicles, such as robots and unmanned aerial vehicles ("UAVs"). Autonomous vehicles make decisions and respond tosituations completely without human intervention. There are major limitations to the overall performance, accuracy, and robustness of navigation and control of an autonomous vehicle. In order to perform navigation properly, an autonomous vehicle mustbe able to sense its location, steer toward a desired destination, and avoid obstacles.
Various modalities have been used to provide navigation of autonomous vehicles. These include use of the Global Positioning System ("GPS"), inertial measurements from sensors, and image measurements from cameras. Smaller UAVs are beingdeveloped for reconnaissance and surveillance that can be carried and deployed in the field by an individual or a small group. Such UAVs include micro air vehicles ("MAVs") and organic air vehicles ("OAVs"), which can be remotely controlled. Such airvehicles can be designed for operation in a battlefield by troops, and provide small combat teams and individual soldiers with the capability to detect enemy forces concealed in forests or hills, around buildings in urban areas, or in places where thereis no direct line-of-sight. Some of these air vehicles can perch and stare, and essentially become sentinels for maneuvering troops.
In order to avoid obstacles during navigation, autonomous vehicles such as UAVs need obstacle mapping. Typical vehicle sensors currently used (e.g., scanning laser detection and ranging ("LADAR") can not map occluded obstacles. An importantissue key to the robust operation of a mobile robotic network is the accurate mapping of the obstacles. Accurate mapping of obstacles is challenging in that the high volume of information presented by the environment makes it prohibitive to sense allareas. Typically, mobile robotic networks only map areas that are directly sensed such as through use of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping ("SLAM"). SLAM approaches mainly focus on reducing the uncertainty in the sensed obstacles by using a Kalmanfilter. Similarly, approaches based on generating an occupancy map also address sensing uncertainty. Another set of approaches are based on the Next Best View ("NBV") approach. In NBV approaches, the aim is to move to the positions that are "good" forsensing, by guiding the mobile unit to the perceived next safest area or area with the most visibility based on the current map. However, areas that are not sensed directly are not mapped in NBV.
When using conventional detection units to generate a map of an environment, the map plots where the obstacles are and where there are no obstacles in the environment. However, conventional detection units cannot access every location of theenvironment as obstacles frequently block one or more paths of the detection units. Furthermore, obstacles can be dynamic resulting in obstacles which were previously un-obscured, being partially or completely obscured. Thus, there is a need for asee-through based mapping of obstacles. The present invention satisfies this need.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention maps static or dynamic objects (otherwise referred to herein as "obstacles") in an environment. The invention determines the position of an object--occluded or non-occluded--within an environment without sensing the objectdirectly. More specifically, the invention facilitates "see-through" capabilities such that occluded objects can now be mapped (for instance, before entering a room or a building). The invention uses compressive sampling (otherwise known as compressedsensing, compressive sensing or sparse sensing) to estimate signals.
More specifically, the invention relates to cooperative noninvasive object mapping (i.e. with "see-through" capability) through the generation of a spatial map of the obstacles. Obstacle information is extracted from a wireless transmission, byonly making a small number of measurements. This is accomplished by using non-uniform sampling theory and limiting multipath fading.
Nodes map obstacles using very few position measurements and using only wireless transceivers. The term "node" refers to a device that may either be mobile or stationary. In one embodiment, the node is a robot device within a mobile ad hocnetwork ("MANET"). Each node--otherwise referred to herein as a robot device--that is mobile is free to move independently in any direction, and change its links to other nodes frequently.
The invention is advantageous in a variety of applications both robotic and non-robotic such as, emergency response, search and rescue missions, battlefield operations and other hazardous or non-hazardous applications, where an assessment of anarea is needed before entering. For example, the invention may be used in military sensing applications such as identifying improvised explosive devices ("IEDs"). Other applications related to the invention include surveillance, security, smart homes,smart factories, and environmental monitoring. For example, the invention facilitates the mapping of environments such as floor plans and large areas. Furthermore, objects inside the environment may be mapped in terms of location and materialproperties. The invention saves the mapping time and energy of any robotic operation considerably.
The invention provides "see-through" capability in that an environment may be mapped before entering the environment. The invention may also be used as a complement to current mapping approaches such as Simultaneous Localization And Mapping("SLAM"). SLAM records information obtained from an observation and compares it to a known set of observations. Complementing SLAM with the invention provides "see-through capability" to existing approaches. As another example, the invention may beused to detect people inside buildings and particular rooms. This may be advantageous in order to detect people trapped in hazardous scenarios such as earthquake. The invention may also be used to detect underground facilities such as tunnels orillegal structures.
The invention presents a comprehensive foundation for obstacle mapping, based on a small number of wireless measurements. More specifically, three approaches based on coordinated space, random space and frequency sampling are presented. Devices within the ad hoc network utilize the sparse representation of the map in space, wavelet or spatial variations, in order to reconstruct the map cooperatively, based on minimal measurements, and more importantly in a non-invasive manner.
The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive, and the scope of the invention is not limited to the foregoing description. Those of skill in the art will recognize changes, substitutionsand other modifications that will nonetheless come within the scope of the invention and range of the claims.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in conjunction with the appended drawing provided to illustrate and not to the limit the invention, where like designations denote like elements, and in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates an obstacle map using coordinated wireless measurements according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates an obstacle map using random wireless measurements according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 illustrates the elements of compressive cooperative obstacle mapping according to the present invention;
FIG. 4 illustrates the performance of different sparsity/reconstruction techniques according to the present invention;
FIG. 5 illustrates a node or robot device according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 illustrates the performance of coordinated space sampling in constructing obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 illustrates the performance of coordinated space sampling with an applied threshold value in constructing obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 illustrates the performance of frequency sampling in constructing obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 9 illustrates the performance of coordinated space sampling and random space sampling in constructing obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Compressive sampling (otherwise known as compressed sensing, compressive sensing or sparse sensing) asserts that certain signals can be acquired from far fewer samples or measurements than traditional methods. More specifically, compressivesampling is based on the fact that real-world signals typically have a sparse representation in a certain transformed domain. Compressive sampling relies on sparsity and incoherence. Sparsity pertains to the signals of interest and incoherence pertainsto the sensing modality.
In an overview of compressive sampling, consider the case where a vector x.epsilon..sup.N is to be recovered. For two-dimensional ("2D") signals, vector x can represent the columns of the matrix of interest stacked up to form a vector. Theincomplete linear measurement of vector x obtained by the robot devices, wherein K<<N, is represented by .gamma..epsilon..sup.K. Thus, .gamma.=.PHI.r where .PHI. is the observation matrix. Clearly solving for x based on the observation set.gamma. is an ill-posed problem as the system is severely under-determined (K<<N).
However, supposing that x has a sparse representation in another domain, it can be represented as a linear combination of a small set of vectors x=.GAMMA.X where .GAMMA. is an invertible matrix and X is S-sparse, i.e., |supp(X)|=SN wheresupp(X) refers to the set of indices of the non-zero elements of X and || denotes its cardinality--the measure of the "number of elements of the set". Therefore, the number of non-zero elements in X is considerably smaller than N. Therefore,.gamma.=.PSI.X where .PSI.=.PHI..times..GAMMA.. If S.ltoreq.K and the positions of the non-zero coefficients of X are known, this problem could be solved using traditional techniques such as leas-squares. However, the structure of X is unknown exceptfor the fact that it is sparse. The problem may be solved using compressive sensing.
If K.gtoreq.2S and under specific conditions, the desired X is the solution to the optimization problem min .parallel.X.parallel..sub.0 such that y=.PSI.X, where .parallel.X.parallel..sub.0=|supp(X)| represents the zero norm of vector X. Only2.times.S measurements are needed to recover X and therefore x fully. However, the requirement to solve a non-convex combinatorial problem is not practical. The l.sub.1 relaxation min .parallel.X.parallel..sub.1 subject to .gamma.=.PSI.X is considered. Assuming that X is S-sparse, the l.sub.1 relaxation can exactly recover X from measurement .gamma. if matrix .PSI. satisfies the Restricted Isometry Condition ("RIC") for
Matrix .PSI. satisfies the RIC with parameters (Z,.epsilon.) for .epsilon..epsilon.(0,1) if (1-.epsilon.).parallel.c.parallel..sub.2.ltoreq..parallel..PSI.c.parallel- ..sub.2.ltoreq.(1+.epsilon.).parallel.c.parallel..sub.2 for all Z-sparsevectors c. The RIC condition is mathematically related to the uncertainty principle of harmonic analysis, yet it has a simple intuitive interpretation in that it aims at making every set of Z columns of the matrix .PSI. as orthogonal as possible. Whileit is not possible to define all the classes of matrices .PSI. that satisfy RIC, it is shown that random partial Fourier matrices as well as random Gaussian of Bernoulli matrices satisfy RIC with the probability 1-O(N.sup.-M) ifK.gtoreq.B.sub.MS.times.log.sup.O(l)N where B.sub.M is a constant, M is an accuracy parameter, and O() is Big-O notation used to describe the limiting behavior of the function. Therefore, the number of required measurements could be considerably lessthan N.
While the recovery of sparse signals is important, real signals may rarely be sparse. Most signals, however, are compressible in that most of signal's energy is in very few coefficients. In practice, the observation vector .gamma. is alsocorrupted by noise. The l.sub.1 relaxation and the corresponding required RIC condition can be easily extended to the case of noisy observations with compressible signals.
The compressive sensing algorithms can reconstruct the signal, and specifically the mapping framework of the invention, based on three reconstruction approaches: basis pursuit, matching pursuit, and total variation minimization. The compressivesensing algorithms that reconstruct the signal based on l.sub.1 optimization are referred to as basis pursuit. Sparse Reconstruction by Separable Approximation ("SPARSA") is an example of a relatively new solver, based on l.sub.1 relaxation, which iscomputationally efficient and effective. Matching pursuit is a reconstruction using successive interference cancellation. Matching pursuit includes both Orthogonal Matching Pursuit ("OMP") and Regularized Orthogonal Matching Pursuit ("ROMP"). OMPiteratively multiplies a measurement vector to recover the strongest component and then subtracts is effect before continuing. ROMP recovers a set of indices at the same time at every step versus only one at a time thereby resulting in a fasterrecovery. Reconstruction using total variation minimization uses the sparsity in the gradient.
Mobile nodes build a map of obstacles non-invasively. Although the following is discussed in reference to mobile nodes or mobile robot devices, it is contemplated that the nodes or robots may be stationary.
The invention is discussed in reference to building a 2D map of obstacles, although a 3D map is also contemplated. In instances where the invention is applied to real 3D obstacles, a horizontal 2D cut is constructed as described more fullybelow. According to the invention, a wireless transmission is expressed as a function of obstacle information.
FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention. More specifically, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate a sample 2D obstacle map wherein a number of robot devices want to map the space before enteringit. The term "obstacle map" refers to a 2D or 3D map of an environment, where zero values denote locations where there are no obstacles and non-zero values denote obstacle locations. Each non-zero value may be the decay rate of the wireless signalwithin the object at that location. A binary obstacle map may be represented by g.sub.n(u,v) at position (u,v) for u,v.epsilon. Specifically,
FIG. 1 is directed to an obstacle map using coordinated wireless measurements. As shown in FIG. 1, a first node 102 is a transmitter that communicates with a second node 106, which is a receiver. The nodes 102, 106 move outside the environment100. In this embodiment, the nodes are mobile. Specifically, the first node 102 travels along path 104 and the second node 106 travels along path 108. The communication between nodes contains implicit information of the obstacles 101 along thecommunication paths 110a, 110b. The communication path 110a corresponds to distance t and angle .theta.. The communication path 110a is at a distance t from the origin and is perpendicular to the line 112 that is at angle .theta. with the x-axis 114. Projection 116, specifically P(.theta.,t), represents the received signal power in the transmission along the communication path 110a that corresponds to distance t and angle .theta. and the received signal power in the transmission along thecommunication path 110b that corresponds to movement of the first and second nodes 102, 106. The three main dynamics of path loss, shadowing, and multipath fading to characterize the received signal power may be represented byP(.theta.,t)=P.sub.s(.theta.,t)w(.theta.,t). The contribution of distance-dependent path loss and shadowing is represented by:
.function..theta..beta..times..times..function..theta..alpha. .times..times..times..times..function..theta..times..function..theta. .times..times..times..times..times..times. ##EQU00003##
For the path loss term, P.sub.T represents the transmitted power, d(.theta.,t) represents the distance between the first node 102 and second node 106 across the communication path 110a, .alpha. represents the degradation exponent, and .beta. represents a constant that is a function of system parameters. For the shadowing (or shadow fading) term, r.sub.i represents the distance traveled across the i.sup.th object along the (.theta.,t) communication path 110a, and .eta..sub.i<0 is thedecay rate of the wireless signal within the i.sup.th object 101. Furthermore, the summation is over the objects 101 across the communication path 110a. As can be seen, shadowing characterizes wireless signal attenuation as it goes through theobstacles 101 along the communication path 110a and therefore contains information about the objects 101 along the communication path 110a. A positive random variable with unit average, which models the impact of multipath fading is represented by.omega.(.theta.,t). Thus, ln P(.theta.,t) may be modeled as follows:
.times..times..function..theta..times..times. .times..times..times..times..times..times..beta..alpha..times..times..tim- es..times..function..theta. .times..times..times..times..ltoreq..times..function..theta..times..funct- ion..theta. .times..times..times..times..times..times..times..times..times..times..ti- mes..times..ltoreq..times..theta. .times..times. ##EQU00004## where .beta..sub.dB=ln .beta. and .omega..sub.dB=ln .omega.(.theta.,t). Then,
.function..theta..times..DELTA..times..times..times..times..function..the- ta..times..times..beta..alpha..times..times..times..times..function..theta- ..times..times..function..theta..times..function..theta. .times..times..times..times..times..theta. .times..times. ##EQU00005## Path loss and shadowing represent the signal degradation due to the distance travelled along communication paths and obstacles 101 respectively and .omega..sub.dB(.theta.,t)represents the impact of multipath fading. By using an integration over the line that corresponds to .theta. and t, the expression becomes
.function..theta..intg..intg..times..times..theta..times..function..times- .d.times.d.function..theta. ##EQU00006## where
.function..function..times..times..function. ##EQU00007## with g.sub.n(u,v) representing the binary map of the obstacles 101 and .eta.(u,v) denoting the decay rate of the signal inside the object 101 at position (u,v). The true map of theobstacles 101 including wireless decay rate information is represented by g(u,v). As can be seen, h(.theta.,t), obtained through wireless measurements contains implicit information on the obstacle map. It is contemplated that the path loss component
.beta..alpha..times..times..times..times..function..theta. .times..times..times..times..ltoreq. ##EQU00008## can be estimated by using a few Line Of Sign ("LOS") transmissions in the same environment. Therefore, its impact can be removed andthe second node 106, or receiving robot device, can calculate h(.theta.,t).
FIG. 2 is directed to an obstacle map using random wireless measurements. As shown in FIG. 2, first node 152 is a transmitter that communicates with a second node 154, which is a receiver. Furthermore, a third node 162 communicates with afourth node 164. Each node 152, 154, 162, 164 are positioned outside the environment 150. In this embodiment, the nodes are stationary. The communication between nodes contains implicit information of the obstacles 151 along the communication paths156, 166. The communication path 156 corresponds to distance t1 and angle .theta.1. The communication path 156 is at a distance t1 from the origin and is perpendicular to the line 172 that is at angle .theta.1 with the x-axis 174. The communicationpath 166 corresponds to distance t2 and angle .theta.2. The communication path 166 is at a distance t2 from the origin and is perpendicular to the line 176 that is at angle .theta.2 with the x-axis 174.
FIG. 2 illustrates pairs of robot devices making wireless measurements. In this case, it is not assumed that the robot devices are attempting to have a specific pattern such that .theta. and t can be chosen randomly. Thus, for a given .theta. and t pair, a wireless transmission and reception is made. Letting .gamma..sub.s,r denote a vector that contains all the acquired random wireless measurements, then the following is obtained: .gamma..sub.s,r=.PSI..sub.s,rV.sub.g.sub.s, where.PSI..sub.s,r represents random space sampling and V.sub.g.sub.s represents total variation sparsity--sparsity of the spatial variations for reconstruction. The random sampling matrix .PSI..sub.s,r is similar to Matrix .PSI..sub.s,c, except that it hasno specific pattern. The obstacle map may be similarly solved using total variation sparsity. The random space sampling approach is, in particular, useful for scenarios in which the robot devices cannot make coordinated measurements, due toenvironmental constraints.
The invention may extract the obstacle map in different ways from a small number of wireless measurements, as described more fully below. The multipath fading term presents a considerable challenge in extracting the map. However, a properdesign and control of transmit/receive ("TX/RX") antennas reduces the impact of multipath fading, making mapping based on wireless transmissions feasible.
The present invention is robust to noise and multipath fading, even with a small number of wireless measurements. The invention may be implements using different possibilities in terms of sampling, sparsity domain, and reconstruction technique. FIG. 3 illustrates the components of compressive cooperative obstacle mapping according to the present invention. The components of compressive cooperative obstacle mapping include sampling 302, sparsity 304, and reconstruction 306. Sampling 302includes frequency, coordinated space and random space. Sparsity 304 includes space, wavelet and space total variation. Reconstruction methods 306 include basis pursuit, matching pursuit, and total variation. It should be noted that not all thecombinations of FIG. 3 result in a proper problem formulation as discussed more fully herein.
In one embodiment, frequency sampling uses coordinated wireless measurements. Obstacle mapping may utilize the sparsity in wavelet and total variations while impacting non-ideal frequency sampling. Turning to FIG. 1, pairs of robot devicesmake coordinated wireless measurements. Two robot devices move parallel to line 112 outside the environment 100 in a coordinated fashion, such that a number of wireless channel measurements are formed at different ts By changing t at a specific .theta.,a projection 116 is formed P(.theta.,t) for a set of ts, i.e., a set of ray integrals.
The 2D Fourier transform of g is represented by G.sub.f (.theta..sub.f,f) expressed in the polar coordinates, where .theta..sub.f is the angle from the x-axis and f is the distance from the origin. H.sub.t(.theta.,f) denotes the 1D Fouriertransform of h(.theta.,t) with respect to t: H.sub.t(.theta.,f)=.intg.h(.theta.,t)e.sup.-j2.pi.ftdt. The Fourier Slice Theorem allows the frequency response of the 2D obstacle map to be sampled, using a projection based on gathering coordinated wirelessmeasurements.
By making a number of measurements at different ts for a given .theta., the Fourier Slice Theorem allows measure of the samples of the Fourier transform of the map at angle .theta.. The Fourier transform of the obstacle map can be sampled atdifferent angles by changing .theta.. The problem may then be posed in a compressive sampling framework. By measuring the received signal power across a number of rays, the robot devices can indirectly sample the Fourier transformation of the obstaclemap. Then the sparsity in the space, space total variation, or wavelet domain may be used for reconstruction, as explained more fully below.
Reconstruction using the sparsity in space or total variation is examined, along with reconstruction using the sparsity in the wavelet domain and the impact of non-ideal frequency sampling.
With reconstruction using the sparsity in space or total variation, the vector representation of the discrete version of G.sub.f (2D Fourier transform of the obstacle map) is denoted by V.sub.G.sub.f, where the columns are stacked up to form avector. The very few samples of G.sub.f acquired by through wireless channel measurements are represented by .gamma..sub.j, across a number of coordinated rays, and applying the Fourier Slice Theorem results in
.PHI..times..times..times..times..times..GAMMA..times..PSI..times. ##EQU00009## Fourier sampling and space or total variation sparsity, where .PHI..sub.pt is a point sampling matrix:
.A-inverted..times..times..ltoreq..ltoreq..E-backward..times..times..ltor- eq..ltoreq. ##EQU00010## such that
.PHI..function. ##EQU00011## and
.A-inverted..times..times..ltoreq..ltoreq..A-inverted..times..noteq.'.lto- req.'.ltoreq..times..times..times..times..PHI..function.>.PHI..function- .' ##EQU00012## with K and N denoting the sizes of .gamma..sub.j and V.sub.G.sub.j,respectively.
Matrix .PHI..sub.pt represents a matrix with only one 1 in every row. If there are redundant measurements, there may be more than one 1 in every column. Otherwise, there will be at most one 1 in every column. With the discrete obstacle maprepresented by g.sub.s, then
##EQU00013## denotes the vector representation of g.sub.s and .GAMMA..sub.f is the Fourier transform matrix. When applied to a vector that is formed by stacking the columns of a 2D map, it results in the vector representation of the 2D Fouriertransform of the map such that
.PSI..times..DELTA..times..PHI..times..GAMMA. ##EQU00014## These matrices meet the RIC condition and it can be easily confirmed that the coherence between point sampling and compression basis is 1, which is the lowest possibility. The equation
.PHI..times..times. ##EQU00015## ##EQU00015.2## .GAMMA..times..PSI..times. ##EQU00015.3## can then be solved through compressive sensing approaches such as basis pursuit or matching pursuit, by using the sparsity in the space domain. Alternatively, the sparsity in the total variation of V.sub.g, can be considered.
An obstacle map is also considerably sparse in the wavelet domain such that reconstruction may use this sparsity in the wavelet domain. With G.sub.w representing the 2D wavelet transform matrix of the discrete obstacle map g.sub.s, then
.PHI..times..times. ##EQU00016## ##EQU00016.2## .GAMMA..times..PSI..times. ##EQU00016.3## Fourier sampling and wavelet sparsity, where
.GAMMA..GAMMA..times. ##EQU00017## W represents a 2D wavelet matrix such that when applied to a vector that is formed by stacking the columns of a 2D map, it results in the vector representation of the 2D wavelet transform of the map resultingin
Sampling in the frequency domain using the Fourier Slice Theorem is applicable in the case where the signals are continuous. For the case of a sampled signal in obstacle mapping), the Fourier Slice Theorem becomes an approximation. The qualityof the approximation depends on the resolution of the sampled 2D signal and projections. The term "non-ideal frequency sampling" is used to differentiate the realistic case from the case where the frequency samples are ideally available through theFourier Slice Theorem. With g(.theta.,t), G.sub.f(.theta.,f), h(.theta.,t), and H.sub.t(.theta.,f) representing the continuous signals, expressed in polar coordinates, as discussed above, h.sub.s(.theta.,t) represents samples of h(.theta.,t) acquiredthrough wireless measurements at step intervals of
.DELTA..function..theta..times..function..theta..times..times..DELTA..tim- es..delta..function..times..times..DELTA. ##EQU00019## where .delta.(.) is the impulse fraction.
The Fourier transformation of this sampled signal is represented by H.sub.t(.theta.,f) such that
.function..theta..times..function..theta..times..times..DELTA..times.e.ti- mes..times..times..pi..times..times..times..times..DELTA..DELTA..times..ti- mes..function..theta..DELTA. ##EQU00020## To prevent aliasing,
.DELTA..ltoreq..times..times..OMEGA..theta. ##EQU00021## where .OMEGA..sub.f,.theta. is the bandwidth of the corresponding continuous function at that angle (h(.theta.,t)). Similarly, g.sub.s denotes the sampled version of g using a 2Dimpulse train. Thus,
.function..times..times..function..times..times..DELTA..times..times..DEL- TA..times.e.pi..times..times..times..times..DELTA..times..times..pi..times- ..times..times..times..DELTA..times..times..DELTA..times..times..times..fu-nction..DELTA..DELTA..times..times..function. ##EQU00022## is the Fourier transformation of g.sub.s, expressed in the Cartesian coordinates and
.function..times..times..DELTA..times..times..DELTA. ##EQU00023## is the original map calculated at the inphase and quadrature components of n.DELTA. and m.DELTA. respectively. In order to prevent aliasing,
.DELTA..ltoreq..times..times..OMEGA. ##EQU00024## where .OMEGA. represents the bandwidth of the continuous 2D obstacle map.
Wireless measurements will result in measuring
.function..theta. ##EQU00025## Then, that is related to the 2D Fourier of the sampled 2D map through approximation, using the Fourier Slice Theorem:
.function..theta..apprxeq..function..theta. ##EQU00026## for samples of
.di-elect cons..times..times..DELTA..times..times..DELTA. ##EQU00027## Since the map (and any projection) is space-limited, it cannot be bandlimited and as such, there will always be aliasing. Therefore, the smaller .DELTA. is, the better thequality the approximation. The impact of non-ideal frequency sampling on mapping quality is now discussed.
As discussed above, the frequency response of the obstacle map may be collected using coordinated wireless measurements. Alternatively, the coordinated measurements can be used for direct space sampling and reconstruction. With .gamma..sub.s,cdenoting a vector that contains the acquired coordinated samples of h(.theta.,t), then .gamma..sub.s,c=.PSI..sub.s,cV.sub.g.sub.s coordinated space sampling and total variation sparsity, where Matrix .PSI..sub.s,c is a zero-one matrix. In each row of.PSI..sub.s,c, the non-zero elements correspond to the obstacle map pixels that the corresponding ray visited, with each non-zero value indicating the distance travelled in the corresponding pixel. This matrix may not have good RIC properties, which canresult in a poor performance if sparsity in the space domain is used (same is the case for the formulation in the wavelet domain). As such, a better way of solving for the obstacle map is by using the sparsity in total variation.
Again, an obstacle map is typically considerably sparse in both space and wavelet domains. Furthermore, its spatial variations, measured by its total variation, are also considerably sparse. Efficient obstacle mapping results from utilizingthe sparsity in spatial variations.
In one embodiment, the obstacle map is sampled in the frequency domain (ideal sampling) using coordinate wireless measurements and the Fourier Slice Projection Theorem. In the case of frequency sampling when using the sparsity in the spacedomain, SPARSA is a very efficient reconstruction technique as compared to OMP, and ROMP approaches. FIG. 4 illustrates the performance of different sparsity/reconstruction techniques according to the present invention.
Considering frequency sampling and reconstruction using the sparsity in the wavelet domain 404a, 404b, the sparsity in the wavelet domain 404a, 404b is noticeably higher than the space domain 402a, 402b. Performance of SPARSA reconstructionimproves drastically when considering sparsity in the wavelet domain 404b as compared to sparsity in the space domain 402b.
Another approach used with frequency sampling relates to sparsity in the spatial variations for reconstruction 406. This approach results in a further performance improvement over using SPARSA in the space and wavelet domains. However, theSPARSA wavelet sparsity approach 404b outperforms the SPARSA space sparsity approach 402b and total variation approach 406 (using a TVAL-based solver) at considerably high sample rates (see FIG. 4). As such, frequency sampling and reconstruction basedon spatial variations is viable for compressive obstacle mapping.
Now the performance of different sampling techniques such as Fourier, coordinated-space, and random-space approaches is considered. For the coordinated space case, the x-axis can be thought of as being similar to the frequency sampling casesuch that coordinated measurements along a number of angles are collected. The total number of coordinated transmissions/receptions along these angles then results in an equivalent percentage of the overall map size in pixels (the quoted sampling rate). Then, for the random space case, the same number of transmissions/receptions is randomly gathered. This number can also be thought of as an equivalent number of frequency samples for comparison.
The coordinated approach outperforms the random one considerably for the range of demonstrated sampling rates. However, at extremely low sampling rates (for instance one angle only), the random approach outperforms the coordinated approach. This makes sense as the coordinated approach makes measurements at only a few .theta.s, but extensively and at different is for each .theta. (see FIG. 1). As such, for an extremely low sampling rate, it only measures the obstacle map at a very smallnumber of angles. The random approach, on the other hand, samples the map from possibly different views even at a considerably small sampling rate. If the sampling rate is not extremely small, however, the coordinated approach outperforms the randomapproach considerably. In terms of computational complexity, the coordinated space case has a noticeably lower complexity than the random space case.
If the frequency samples can be selected perfectly, the performance is considerably better than the space approaches. Now the impact of non-ideal frequency sampling when dealing with real data is discussed, which reveals that the performance ofthe frequency sampling case becomes comparable to the coordinated space approach for real data.
According to one embodiment of the invention, robot devices perform wireless channel measurements to build a map of an environment without physically being present within the environment. The capability of building a map of an environmentwithout having to enter the environment is valuable to a number of applications such as emergency response, surveillance, security, military, and environmental monitoring. Additionally, building a map of an environment without having to enter theenvironment may be useful to locate objects inside the environment as well as determine their material properties. Furthermore, the invention may be used to complement current mapping approaches such as SLAM.
The advent of robotic systems facilitates the design of an automated cooperative mapping system and allows for collecting wireless measurements with flexibility, reconfigurability, and a high spatial resolution. There are two key enablingfactors that contribute to the success of cooperative compressive obstacle mapping: 1) use of robot devices, which enable automated positioning for collecting wireless measurements and 2) use of adaptive directional narrow-beam antennas. Adaptivedirectional narrow-beam antennas facilitate limiting the impact of multipath fading. Furthermore, the invention considers a shadowing component that carries information on the obstacles. Multipath fading appears as additional noise and can ruin mappingquality--especially as the size of the environment that needs to be mapped (and as a result the distance between the transmitting and receiving robots) increases.
As shown in FIG. 5, a node or robot device 500 is equipped with adaptive directional antenna 504. An adaptive directional narrow-beam antenna 504 with narrow-beam width for cooperative obstacle mapping is used to limit the impact of multipathfading. In one embodiment, the directional antenna 504 may be a GD24-15 2.4 GHz parabolic grid antenna that includes a 15 dBi gain with a 21.degree. horizontal and 17.degree. vertical beamwidth and is suitable for IEEE 802.11b/g applications.
Each robot device 500 includes a removable electromechanical fixture 506 that holds the directional antenna 504. The fixture 506 includes a servo motor control mechanism 507 in order to intelligently rotate the directional antenna 504 such thatit can point at any desired direction. Rotating the angle of the antenna 504 by the servo motor control mechanism 507 is not necessary for the frequency sampling or coordinated space sampling approaches. Since the beamwidth of the antenna 504 if fixed,the electromechanical fixture 506 facilitates rotation of the antenna 504 such that it may point in any direction. The electromechanical fixture 506 including servo motor control mechanism 507 is controlled by processor 508. It is contemplated that theprocessor 508 may be a micro-controller.
In one embodiment, the robot device 500 is a Pioneer P3-AT mobile robot, however any robot device is contemplated that is reliable for indoor, outdoor and rough-terrain projects. It is contemplated that each robot device 500 may be furtherequipped with a wireless card for connecting all robot devices within a computer network. The antenna 504 of each robot device 500 is connected to a processor 508 through the fixture 506. The antenna 504 and fixture 506 including control mechanism 507are in communication with a memory 510, although it is contemplated that the antenna 504 may be in direct communication with the memory 510 without the need for a processor 508.
The robot device 500 includes instructions, such as a software program that is part of the processor 508 or stored in memory 510 that controls localization and obstacle avoidance of the robot device 500.
The processor 508 receives and may further record information--either in the processor 508 itself or in memory 510--communicated between at two robot devices 500. Information may include wireless measurements including transmissions/receptions,location, or position of the robots devices 500. The robot devices 500 may communicate their positions in order to align their antennas 504 towards each other. Alternatively, feedback from the received communication signal strength can also be used bythe robot devices 500 for adaptive alignment. The information communicated between two or more robot devices 500 is used in order to map the obstacle.
FIG. 6 illustrates the performance of coordinated space sampling in constructing obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, obstacle maps are created for a T-shape obstacle 602, a column obstacle604, and a blocked column obstacle 606. Horizontal cuts of these obstacles are shown as well as the reconstructions of the obstacles based on only wireless channel measurements. Although horizontal cuts of the obstacles are considered, it iscontemplated that the invention is equally applicable to vertical cuts or cuts of the obstacle in any plane.
FIG. 6 illustrates the mapping quality as a function of the number of utilized angles, i.e., 2 angles, 4 angles, 6 angles, 8 angles, and 12 angles. In this embodiment, all the reconstructions are based on coordinated space sampling--two robotdevices that move along a number of angles in parallel (see FIG. 1). Since, coordinated space or frequency sampling and TV sparsity provides the best overall performance and computational complexity for most cases, coordinated space sampling, sparsityin the spatial variations (total variation) and TVAL for reconstruction are used.
For each total number of utilized angles, uniformly-distributed angles are chosen. For instance, the first case of four total angles means that the robot devices make coordinated wireless measurements by moving along four pairs of parallellines. These lines have the angles of 0.degree., 90.degree., 45.degree. and 135.degree. with respect to the x-axis of FIG. 1. As seen in FIG. 6, performance improves considerably with the more coordinated measurements made at a low sampling rate.
FIG. 7 illustrates the performance of coordinated space sampling with an applied threshold value in constructing obstacle maps according to one embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, obstacle maps are created for a T-shape obstacle702, a column obstacle 704, and a blocked column obstacle 706. In one embodiment, a threshold value of 10 dB is considered, however any threshold value is contemplated. Using a maximum threshold value of 10 dB, any value below the maximum thresholdvalue is zeroed to avoid scenarios where reconstructed pixels with very small values get magnified by some printers or monitors with certain gamma settings.
Turning from the coordinated space sampling approach to the frequency sampling approach, the frequency approach outperforms any space approach considerably if the frequency samples can be chosen perfectly. However, there is a loss ofperformance due to the fact that the Fourier Slice Theorem, while fully holding for continuous functions or proper sampling of bandlimited signals, becomes an approximation when sampling space-limited signals. The quality of this approximation dependson the sampling resolution and the frequency response of the originally created map. FIG. 8 illustrates the performance of frequency sampling in constructing obstacle maps for a T-shape obstacle 802 and a blocked column obstacle 806 according to oneembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, the reconstruction quality is almost the same as that of FIG. 6. Even though the frequency approach has a higher computational complexity, it results in a reconstruction very similar to thecoordinated space approach.
If the number of gathered samples is extremely low (as compared to the complexity of the obstacle), then the random space approach typically outperforms the coordinated approach. Specifically, the coordinated approach only measures theobstacles from limited angles at very low sampling rates, while the random approach samples the map from possibly different views. FIG. 9 illustrates the performance of coordinated space sampling and random space sampling in constructing obstacle mapsfor a T-shape obstacle 902 according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown by FIG. 9, for the case of random sampling, the obstacle is still visible, albeit noisy, whereas with coordinated measurements, the obstacle is not simplyobservable at this low rate. However, once the number of given samples is increased beyond one angle, the coordinated approach outperforms the random approach. It should, however, be noted that the computational complexity of the random approach istypically higher (both in terms of gathering and processing of the data) since it requires antenna rotation. Therefore, it is contemplated that the coordinated approach should primarily be used and the random approach should be reserved for extremelylow sampling rates (such as one angle only) or for cases where the robot devices cannot physically make coordinated measurements, due to environmental constraints.
The coordinated-space sampling and frequency sampling approaches are two promising techniques for obstacle mapping in a real environment (from a performance standpoint). Furthermore, sparsity in total variation or wavelet can be utilized forreconstruction with minimal sensing. The random sampling case (possibly combined with the coordinated space sampling) can then be utilized in scenarios where there are environmental navigation constraints or when only an extremely low number ofmeasurements can be gathered. The random space approach may be reserved for situations where proper coordinated measurements cannot be physically made. However, the quality of this approximation depends on the sampling resolution and the frequencyresponse of the original obstacle map.
While the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that many changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention. Each of these embodiments andvariants thereof is contemplated as falling with the scope of the claimed invention, as set forth in the following claims.
* * * * *


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Bordelaise Professional Lame or Grignette
Slashing patterns in your dough needs a lame or grignette. Ordinary kitchen knives tend to drag across the dough or tear. Start using a grignette, as used by baking professionals across the world. BakeryBits is the UK distributor for Mure & Peyrot bakery knives: the number 1 in the market.

domain: food


text:
South Eastern Health Trust must rebuild public confidence - Hazzard
Sinn Féin MLA Chris Hazzard was speaking after a public board meeting of the South Eastern Trust in Downpatrick on Wednesday afternoon.
The South Down MLA welcomed the opportunity to address the Board Meeting, but says “more must be done to repair serious damage to public confidence in the ability of the South Eastern Health Trust to future-proof our local hospital" in Downpatrick.
Mr Hazzard said:
“Today we have heard strong appeals yet again from public representatives calling on the Trust to reverse its recent decision to close beds at the Downe - closures that will in reality spell the end for Coronary Care at the Downe.
“The local South Down community have been very clear, it is wholly inequitable that the Downe should have to face a 20% reduction in beds while the Ulster Hospital escapes yet again. We reject entirely this unrepentant centralisation of services to Belfast.
Mr Hazzard added:
“I do however welcome the Trust’s remarks that we need to work together in building a local health service that meets the increasing needs of the South Down community.
"I am heartened that they have now welcomed Sinn Féin's suggestion that we work towards establishing a people’s forum where we can build a partnership between the people of South Down and the decision makers.
“In light of this I would call on the South Eastern Trust to immediately put on hold any plans to close beds at the Downe and lets enter a dialogue on the best way forward.”

domain: news


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Quidco cashback website review – is it real or fake?
This article is written from several years of personal experience and just over £5,500 of cashback rewards earned since joining the site in 2016. Personally, I love a bargain and I’m a major advocate of anything that helps us consumers to get the very best deals on our purchases.
There are several main cashback websites in the UK and the biggest of all of them are Quidco.com and Topcashback.co.uk. Consumers like me have been regularly using cashback websites for around 10 years, and these sites have been around in the UK for over 15 years.
In this article, I’ll share some personal insights of my own experiences of using Quidco and some background to explain how it all works. The big question that everyone asks is “do these websites work or are they fake and potentially risky?”.
QUICK SUMMARY – Quidco cashback review – deal or no deal?
Millions of British consumers subscribe and regularly use cashback wesbites, such as Quidco.com and Topcashback.co.uk. These sites help us to earn £1,000’s in cashback rewards for our regular and one-off purchases.
- What is Quidco and how did it start? We’ll look at the background of the Quidco.com website and how it came about, to where it is today as one of the biggest cashback sites in the UK.
- Is Quidco real or is it a scam? The top concerns with any of these casahback websites are what happens to my data and personal information, especially bank or financial information.
- Are there any hidden fees or charges for using Quidco? Often, cashback websites like Quidco will charge a monthly or annual fee to be a ‘member’ and to benefit from the cashback rates that it offers.
- Who owns Quidco.com? It wasn’t particularly well publicised, even to us long-standing Quidco members, the site was acquired by MoneySuperMarket Group in October 2021.
Quidco history and background
Quidco was the first ever cashback website and was founded by Paul and Jennifer Nikkel in Sheffield in May 2005. The concept for the site came from an idea they had whilst studying at the University of Sheffield and looking for ways for students to save money with their online shopping.
The first official offices were opened in London in 2007 and since opening they have shown incredibly rapid growth in members and employees. By 2013 it was suggested that the site had over 3.5 million members with more than 100 employees in the business. The site then grew to a reported 7 million members in November 2018, more than double in 5 years.
Quidco put in a proposal to merge with Topcashback.co.uk in 2018, which was then formally withdrawn in March 2019 following an investigation by the Competition Watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The website is now 100 percent owned by the MoneySupermarket Group as it was acquired in a full in October 2021.
What is Quidco?
Quidco is currently the UK’s second largest cashback website, with more than 10 million active users and 5,000 merchants. The average user on Quidco will make around 11 transactions per year through the site.
The website is an affiliate network that uses its buying power from over 10 million active users to arrange cashback deals with its merchants. Quidco sellers then pay an amount of cashback which can be a percentage of the purchase price or a pre-set payment, to the buyer within several months.
How does Quidco work?
In reality, Quidco and all other cashback websites are just affiliate networks that use their buying power from millions of users to negotiate better deals for consumers. Cashback websites originated from Quidco which was the very first of its kind in the UK back in 2005.
When you subscribe to Quidco, you get instant access to a list of over 5,000 merchants offering cashback deals worth £1,000s potentially. The amount of cashback that you earn depends on the retailer % and the size of the purchase that you’re making.
Unfortunately, in my experience the current Quidco deals aren’t as good as some of the older cashback rewards and the partners have changed significantly over the years. My personal favourites on Quidco are travel cashback rewards for hotels, car hire and airport parking, which all tend to be pretty consistent.
Is Quidco owned by MoneySupermarket?
Like me, you may be surprised to learn that MoneySupermarket Group acquired 100 a per cent ownership of Quidco for £101million in October 2021. The deal did not appear in the press and was not publicised at the time, for obvious reasons from MoneySupermarket‘s perspective.
Quidco was latest of a number of major acquisitions of trusted consumer brands by the financial giants, MoneySupermarket.com. Maple Syrup Media Ltd. (t/a Quidco) had reported a revenue of £59.2million in the year ending July 2021, and a pre-tax profit of £7.6million.
It’s hardly surprising that MoneySupermarket Group would want to acquire Quidco to continue to expand its growing suite of consumer brands.
How does Quidco make money?
Simple, every time that you purchase something through Quidco.com you are generating revenue for the cashback website itself. This model is fairly standard in all cashback websites and affiliate websites who use their buying power to generate revenue.
Of the amount that we as users earn, Quidco will have a standard payment or percentage that that earn from each of its merchants. This is written in to the standard merchant agreement that a seller would sign up to when they join to feature deals on the site.
They also have a ‘Premium’ membership which I am also on, which offers higher levels of rewards and bonuses that costs £1 of the cashback you earn each month.
Does Quidco charge fees?
No, Basic members don’t pay any fees to use Quidco.com and they have access to the same 5,000+ retailers as Premium members. As a basic member you can use the site for free to get cashback on your purchases from the affiliate network.
Premium members don’t actually physically pay a fee for using Quidco.com, but there is a monthly charge of £1 which is retained from your monthly cashback earnings. If you don’t earn any cashback within a month then you don’t pay £1, it’s only for the months where you are active and earning cashback.
Is Quidco safe to use?
One of the main concerns with using cashback websites like Quidco, is the information that you are required to share. We’re all suspicious about anything where we need to share personal data and information, especially when it might seem too good to be true.
Quidco is now owned by MoneySupermarket Group which might help to reassure some users. The website itself is an ‘Appointed Representative’ of MoneySupermarket.com Financial Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 303190).
What information do I need to share with Quidco?
When you ‘Sign up’ to Quidco.com, you will need to set up an account which requires you to provide the following details:
- Email address
- Set password
- Bank details or PayPal account (to withdraw cashback)
This is all that you need to set up a ‘basic’ user account and then you would be able to start to earn cashback for purchases.
Other information that you can add to improve your experience with Quidco:
- Car insurance renewal
- Home insurance renewal
- Mobile phone contract renewal
You can then opt-in to newsletters and emails to receive offers or cashback deals from the Quidco affiliate network. Your information will be used to provide you with deals and basically to sell to you.
How long does it take to get my Quidco cashback?
Over the years, this has gradually taken longer and longer to receive your cashback payments to your account. Some retailers or merchants take several months to pay your cashback payments to your account, or do they? We’ll never truly know when the payments are actually received by Quidco and how long it takes them to release it to you.
Often you’ll get a notification by email that your cashback has been paid, which can be as little as several weeks, or as much as months later. There are some justifications for this however, for example if you’ve earned cashback for a holiday then you’d need to wait until after your holiday and you’re out of any refund period.
How can I withdraw my money from Quidco?
It’s actually quite simple to withdraw your cashback bonus from Quidco once you’ve had the payment to your account. There are three options for withdrawing cashback, including:
- Pay your cashback directly to your nominated bank account
- Transfer the funds to your PayPal account
- Exchange the cashback for vouchers (see selected retailers) and get a voucher bonus
You can add and update your payment methods in your Quidco account and there is a standard 48 hour holding period to carry out security checks.
Is Quidco cashback free money?
No, you need to spend money to earn cashback and essentially the money that you earn is paid back to Quidco by the merchant from the purchase amount. Each payment will go through a standard set of checks by the retailer and Quidco to make sure that the purchase has completed and you are out of any refund period.
Note: This means that you can’t earn money and then return the goods to get a refund.
Is Quidco worth it?
It’s up to you but I personally like using Quidco because it’s pretty simple to use and the only issue is remembering to check for deals before you buy something online. Searching for merchants and retailers is pretty simple to do by using the Search facility in the top of the website.
Or you can search for potential deals by searching for a specific item or a type of retailer in the search function.
What are the best cashback deals on Quidco?
You can use Quidco for all sorts of online purchase and you can also use the Quidco Compare for Car Insurance, Home Insurance, and Energy deals. My personal favourites on Quidco are:
- Hotels (e.g. Expedia, Last Minute, Hotels.com etc.)
- Home and DIY (e.g. Screwfix, Wickes, Tool Station etc.)
- Car hire
- Retailers (e.g. Nike, Adidas, Quiksilver etc.)
My top 5 Quidco cashback retailers in the past 12 months are:
- Holiday Extras (airport parking)
- Expedia (hotels)
- Holiday Autos (car hire)
- Sports Direct
As with any cashback website, you’ve got to remember to check it first of all and then you’ve got to know what you’re looking for.
Is cashback guaranteed with Quidco?
No, I’ve had it quite a few times where cashback has been declined or unpaid for absolutely no reason whatsoever. You should be very careful about making purchases with any cashback website and I’d avoid making purchases just because of the cashback.
Example of declined cashback with Quidco
If you’ve got a cheaper deal elsewhere without the cashback then I’d definitely recommend using that deal rather than risk the Quidco cashback route. There is an appeal process for Quidco if your cashback is declined, but I’m not convinced about this from personal experience.
Warning: You shouldn’t make purchases specifically because they’re on Quidco and it’s better to just use cashback sites as an extra bonus rather than specific reason for making a purchase.
How do I make a claim on Quidco?
If you use Quidco then you’ll be used to seeing ‘Declined’ on your list of cashback activity in your account. There are often good reasons for a cashback payment being declined or refused, such as:
- Purchase was returned to retailer
- Cancellation (e.g. hotel booking)
If you’ve received a refund from the retailer or merchant then you’re not going to be able to claim cashback on your purchase, pretty obvious. There are a quite a few occasions when my cashback payments have been declined and I don’t understand why.
Warning: Your cashback payments are not guaranteed so be very careful when making specific purchases via Quidco or any other cashback website.
You can submit a claim if you feel that you have been refused or declined a cashback payment unfairly. Apparently, Quidco then reach out to the retailer and then try to work out why your payment was refused or to try to get your payment authorised.
There are three main ways to submit a claim:
- Raise a cashback claim via Quidco (Create a claim)
- Visit Quidco chat on Quidco.com
- Via the Quidco app
Do Quidco claims work?
In my fairly limited experience, Quidco claims rarely result in the payment being recovered and paid to you. Having submitted a number of claims over the years that I’ve been using Quidco, I can only remember one or two successful claims.
Does the Quidco app work?
The Quidco app is currently on version 8.0.4 and is rated 4.8 from over 107K reviews on Apple’s App Store. Having had fairly limited experience of using the app (personally I prefer the desktop version and shopping on desktop) I can say that it is clear and pretty easy to use.
App chart: 104th (shopping chart)
Developer: Maple Syrup Media
App size: 73.2MB
The app gives you access to all of the retailers and merchants on the app network and will divert you to the retailer website (not their app) when you select the cashback.
What’s better Quidco or Topcashback?
It’s difficult to say which is better out of Quidco or Topcashback, simply because there are thousands of retailers and deals on each site. If you compare the two cashback sites directly to each other then there isn’t much to split them apart.
Topcashback is suggested to be the number 1 cashback website in the UK currently, so if you compare the services you’ll see that both sites have comparison tables for each other. You should take all this with a pinch of salt and obviously one is always going to say that it’s better than the other.
Firstly, the comparison tables on Quidco have not been updated since November 2019 which means the figures aren’t recent.
Basic account features
|Up to 160%
|Up to 165%
|Up to £30
|Split payouts function
Premium and Plus paid account features
|Up to 160%
|Up to 165%
|Up to £12
|Up to £5
Personally I prefer to use Quidco, but that’s just from personal experience and my own personal preferences. I would honestly say that it’s extremely difficult to separate the two services based on the value of the bonuses and the website experience.

domain: finance


They contain around half the calories of regular wines at under 60 calories a glass. Read more
At a time of year when many people are revitalising their own health and fitness regimes, Petmania are encouraging pet parents to take note of their dog’s and cat’s wellbeing and weight. Read more
A Meath man can smile with confidence again after having 27 of his decayed teeth - which had rotted because of an addiction to fizzy drinks - surgically removed by a concerned dentist last week, writes Louise Walsh. Read more
This story is sure to send you into the weekend smiling. Read more
A South African woman has managed to play on trick on her husband nearly 5 years after she passed away.
Working in social media or gaming is becoming a more common career aspiration for 21st century youngsters in the UK, a survey has found. Read more


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Divorce is tough on everyone especially the children involved, who often experience depression and anxiety. It is important to stay engaged with your children and talk openly and honestly about their feelings. Depression can lead to other behavioral problems and even suicide if left untreated.
I found a great article on WebMD that talks about depression and how research has shown that exercise helps children and adults cope: http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/exercise-depression . The article goes on to describe how exercise can improve self-esteem by releasing chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins trigger a positive and energizing feeling in the body and it reflects in their outlook on life.
When I was a kid I had so many fun memories of playing outside with my sisters and friends. We would ride bikes, play kickball or tag and run along the river bank tossing stones for hours. My mom could hardly get us to come home and eat dinner because we never wanted the fun to end. Life was easy. At the end of the day we were tired and always slept good. We didn’t have time to feel down.
I know that times have changed since I was a child. Many children are being raised in single parent homes. Families that have two parents in the home have parents that are working full-time jobs (sometimes more than one each) just to make ends meet. Bullying and peer pressure is more common than ever. Many extended families are separated by long distances. Kids have a lot of pressure on them and are often faced with adult problems. Between the pressure, televisions with thousands of stations, video games, mobile phones, etc…it is no wonder that kids prefer to stay inside to play games rather than going outside to play.
How do we get our kids to be more active? Let’s get back to nature. Better yet, let’s get our kids outside for some rough-and-tumble playing and fun. Let’s get the laughter going and see if your kids don’t have a happier outlook on their lives. I also recommend some play time for you too! How about a game of tag, kickball, soccer, catch or just some good old-fashioned hide and seek? What were your favorite games as a child? Teach your child to enjoy it too!
Share your family’s story with us at service@MyTurnYourTurn.com! We want to know how you keep your family active.
Thank you for following us,
Visit us on our official website at www.MyTurnYourTurn.com. My Turn Your Turn is a co-parenting website designed to help organize families and improve communication between co-parents sharing children due to divorce or separation. Specializing in co-parenting tools and shared parenting resources including an online custody calendar, online divorce journal, child support tracker and more for blended families, single parents and high conflict divorce cases.

domain: sociology


- An LLC wants to build two out-of-scale towers at West 145th St and Lenox Avenue in Harlem, rising 363 feet above this low-rise neighborhood.
– A whopping 866–939 new residential units, including only 217–282 so-called “affordable” units. The majority of these will be speculative luxury condos and out-of-reach for current neighborhood residents!
– Will demolish almost a full block and destroy the current small businesses including the Timbuktu Islamic Center, restaurants, a 99-cent store and a laundromat. Permits for demolition were issued in January 2021 to Steve Neuman, owner of the real estate firm Coltown Properties. The developers say “further assessment of this concern is not warranted.” Say what??
- Al Sharpton, who is worth about $2 Million, will get a new headquarters for his National Action Network and a Civil Rights Museum.
– Bruce Teitelbaum, owner of One45 LLC, stands to gain 100s of 1000s of $$$.
– Upper class people, since the majority of apartments in both towers will be market-rate.
– International investors. Between 2014 and 2017 the number of vacant, unavailable apartments rose from 182,571 to 247,977 in NYC, many are “investment” placeholders held by the global super rich.
Everyone else! Neighborhood residents who can’t afford luxury apartments. Low and middle-income Black residents and Black-owned businesses who will be priced out of the community with increasing rents. The developer is asking the city to upzone this site to C4-6, a General Commercial Zoning District, turning it into a regional commercial center, such as Flushing in Queens and destroying the rich Black culture of the neighborhood. In NYC after an upzoning, the bulk of new housing is always for the luxury market, exasperating the NYC housing crisis.
The Department of City Planning (DCP) in NYC is narrowly focused on zoning as their main planning tool (a far cry from actual community-based planning). A spot-zoning (upzoning a single parcel for more height and density than that which is legally permitted), which is what ONE45 is asking for, increases the height of buildings and almost always results in displacement of the community and the construction of luxury buildings and upscale businesses. Upzonings are inherently racist and classist tools of white supremacy to ethnically cleanse Black and Brown communities and destroy, in this case, the Black culture of Harlem.
AMI & MIH
Area Median Income (AMI) is calculated each year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 2021 AMI for the New York City region is $107,400 for a three-person family. This # is used to determine “affordable” housing income requirements, rather than the average household income in Harlem, $49,095. Big Difference.
Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) is a DeBlasio-led zoning change made in 2016 that said developers are required to include “affordable” housing in new construction or when a rezoning occurs, usually only about 20%, while the remaining 80% are market-rate, many “luxury condominiums”. This scheme has been a huge land grab for big real estate while only creating just 2,065 MIH “affordable apartments” since 2016.
Download our flyer below and print and put them in your building and distribute to your friends and neighbors!
Resources and Sources
– Angotti T and Morse S (ed) (2017) Zoned Out! Race, Displacement, and City Planning in New York City. New York: Terreform
– One45Draft Scope of Work for Preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement CEQR No.: 21DCP167M (April 9, 2021)
– Stein, Samuel (2021) Assessing de Blasio’s Housing Legacy. NewYork: Community Service Society
– Kober, Eric (January 2020) De Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing Program: What Is Wrong, and How It Can Be Made Right. New York: Manhattan Institute


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This volunteer event featured families all across Norwalk: the young, the old, and everything in between. This annual event is perfect for any volunteers looking to give back the community. In order to raise money for the Norwalk High School band, parents set up concessions stands, facepainting booths, traffic regulators, and more! They also hosted a can and bottled drive the same day.
Consider joining the fun next year and don't forget to stop by and enjoy all that the Norwalk Guard and Percussion has to offer!


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The bake time with the G3 is in production use about 3-4 mins. I didn't time every pizza, i tried, because it was to much hassle. I just preheated the oven and then put the oven on full power when in use.
Most of the time baking was pretty hectic because of all the friends hanging around the kitchen who wanted to chat or help out, but instead they were standing in the way of me trying to streamlining production
Since the baking time is short and the avaible space is not large enough to roll out 20 pizza on forehand.. i had to 'juggle' a lot. So some pizza's stayed in longer than others when i was trying to prepare the next pizza. But nothing black came out and i did not see any crust coming back
Sometimes i could hear the mozeralla steaming away and by hearing that sound i knew it was just about to be ready. The problem is that i can't see the pizza when it is inside and opening the lid makes a lot of the heat go away. And that is not good for baking the toppings which essentially makes the baking time longer and is the thing to watch out for with this oven.
So i've gotten a real feel for the oven now and i think i can make 1 pizza in around 2 minutes. It all depends on the preheating. The heat should be hot enough to bake it, but not to burn it. Which can happen fast if it heated up on full temprature for a while with the lid closed.
I've orded an infrared thermometer a while back which should be delivered any moment... I hope that helps a bit.
About the dough, i had about 1kg left of dough, made with the normal flour.
It rised for about 2 days in the fridge and i made a very tastefull fociacio with it. Baked in about 20 mins on 200 degrees. I am amazed about the flavor. It tasted much better then the plate pizza.
I am not sure how long the plate pizza baked in the oven or at what temprature. It could be 250-280 celsius.
The normal oven is just a normal electric ATAG build-in oven 90 cm. I can set the heat from two directions.
I am sure to keep on using the G3 pizza and not the ATAG oven.
And maybe i am going to try the Kettle Pizza.
Ow.. And i can now make the pizza's by hand.
Hand toss them and everything
Yes, unfortanely i am still infatuated by the pizza making
I was even daydreaming about starting a real wood oven pizzeria. I even think there could very well be a market for it.
The place i live in, there are none. Only Amsterdam there a lot, which is like 100km away. But that is also only recenty, i've read that only 2 years ago there were 2 pizzaria's and there are now 16 in Amsterdam.
So it must be generating some money, but i have a well-paid job in IT and a family with 2 young childeren, so i am not really reading to dive in that adventure with absolutely no experience as a restaurant-entrepeneur or anything remotely similair.


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Drinking a cup or two of green tea is one for me. I enjoy the taste of organic loose leaf "Everyday Green Tea". I ordered it bulk from the Imperial Tea Company and purchase it from there shop at Ferry Plaza Market in San Francisco.
The list of health benefits are many; Here are just seven!
It may prevent skin damage and wrinkling. EGCG appears to be 200 times more powerful than vitamin E at destroying skin-damaging free radicals. Source Care2
It contains a potent antioxidant Read more...
Natural Tea ~Home Remedy tea for when you feel fatigued, have a belly ache or just want better balance.
1 ¾ cup filtered water
1 Kukicha Twig Tea bag
½ Umeboshi plum or ½ teaspoon umeboshi plum paste
1 tablespoon Kuzu
2 drops good quality Tamari
Bring the water to a boil in a small stainless steel pot. Turn off the heat and add the tea bag to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bag. Put the umeboshi in the pot and stir until dissolved. Place the kuzu into a drinking cup and mix with Read more...
The holidays can play havoc with well laid dietary resolutions. Fortunately, Umeboshi Plums from Japan is our best friend against a host of haunting upsets!
When picked in salt and purple shiso leaves, it becomes umeboshi. Ume has an amazing ability to balance and brace the system.
It has extensive documentation (some ancient, some recent) showing its effectiveness in cleanly evacuating radioactive strontium 90 from the body, in relieving coughs and nausea, reducing fevers, as an astringent, Read more...


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UberVice's Summer Dance Mix
Going out tonight? Pregame with your friends to this mix to get you pumped. Uploaded 1 year ago -
Featuring tracks by Rusko, Avicii & Sebastien Drums , Lady Gaga, LMFAO, Diddy-Dirty Money and more
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domain: hobby


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Even if you’re not an interior designer, you’ll want to play with the new ColorLogicTM tool launched by the Robert Allen Design Group. As designers of fine fabrics for interior spaces for 75 years, Robert Allen aimed to create a tool that would scan their extensive catalog of fabrics, trims and colors to produce results that were “spot on” and maintained “perfect tonal coordination.”
Their new ColorLogicTM tool does just that. It allows you to choose a color palette by selecting up to 5 colors, and, based on your selections, the color tool will provide you with a large selection of Robert Allen’s fabrics and trims that are in your color palette.
What sold me is that you can upload a photo. Let’s say you have a specific image that you’re using as color inspiration, such as the noble peacock on the left there, you can upload your image, and the color search tool will scan it and suggest a color palette. Now, that is neat.
Robert Allen Design Group CEO Philip H. Kowalczyk explains their approach:
At Robert Allen,our design focus is always color, and our business focus is always serving our designer clientele. The Color Search tool will increase the ability of the designer to get to the specific colors they are looking for. It shows them that not only do we have an unparalleled range of color, but we have the color and pattern they want.
The ColorLogicTM tool is great for those looking for Robert Allen fabrics or those who want to get some inspiration from searching their extensive collections.

domain: design


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Trapping moles on the moss land of West Lancashire for the vegetable growers. Now this is a bit more time consuming than doing grass fields. The carrot beds are made up of very fine, loose soil which looks like black flour, which quickly turns into thick porridge after heavy rain, but it soon drains provided the dykes surrounding the fields are low. My quad bike track just fits with one lot of wheels in the tram lines and the other pair up on top of the carrot beds between rows 2 and 3 of the carrot seedlings.
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domain: agronomy


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Nandha Durairaj is an Indian film actor, who primarily works in Tamil films. He made his debut in Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002) and later appeared in acclaimed films.Nanda Nanditha film’s soundtrack, composed by Emil Mohammed, released in 2011 Free Listen & Download High Quality ORIGINAL CD-Rip 320kbps Nanda Nanditha Songs Music.Bhajare Nanda Gopala Hare Song is from. Bhajare Nanda Gopala Hare Song Lyrics | Dwaraka Telugu Movie. Bajare Nanda Gopala Hare Song Lyrics Pdf Download,.Download latest free mp3 songs,song,punjabi mp3, kannada mp3, telugu mp3 songs, Tamil mp3 songs,Malayalam mp3 songs,Hindi mp3 songs,mp3 songs,bgm,scores,new mp3 song.Kathanayagan is a 2017 Tamil movie directed by. Download mp3 songs of Goutham Nanda, It is a 2017 Telugu Action film directed by Sampath Nandi.Audio.
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domain: artistic


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PRCIS: NOTCH signaling is significantly upregulated in the lens capsules of eyes with pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXF) but not in those with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXG) when compared with healthy controls.
PURPOSE: NOTCH signaling has neuroprotective functions and altered NOTCH signaling is associated with neurodegenerative diseases with protein aggregation such as Alzheimer disease. As PXG is also a protein aggregate disease associated with neural degeneration, NOTCH molecular expression was explored in the lens capsules of patients with PXF, PXG, primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), and healthy controls.
METHODS: Anterior lens capsules were collected from 106 patients (27 PXF, 24 PXG, 22 POAG, and 33 controls) undergoing cataract surgery. Gene expression profiling for NOTCH pathway molecules (ligands, receptors, and downstream target genes) was performed on the tissue using a quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The results were confirmed by protein analysis using dot-blot or immunostaining techniques.
RESULTS: There was no difference in the demographic characteristics between the groups. There was an increase in NOTCH4 receptor expression (>14-fold) in the PXF group as compared with the controls. Similarly, the Delta-like 3 and Delta-like 4 ligands were significantly elevated in the PXF group compared with controls (P<0.05). Downstream targets HES3, HES5, and HEY1 expression were significantly elevated (P<0.005) in PXF lens capsules, confirming a higher activity of NOTCH signaling in this cohort. Immunostaining also corroborated the gene expression profile.
CONCLUSION: The finding that NOTCH signaling is significantly upregulated in the lens capsule of eyes with PXF and not in PXG or POAG patients suggests a possible protective role in the development of glaucoma.
|Number of pages||9|
|Journal||Journal of Glaucoma|
|Publication status||Published - 1 Mar 2022|

domain: medical


2 the scientific conquest of new mexico: local legacies of the manhattan project 1942-2015 by lucie anne genay ba, english and american studies, université de savoie, 2008 ma, european and american civilizations, université de savoie, 2010 dissertation. They recall their work on the manhattan project, the first atomic bomb test, and the ethics of using the bomb against japan stu borman c&en washington the discovery was the subject of wahl's phd thesis - probably one of the most significant theses in the history of the world, says seaborg it also was one of the. J robert oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb, was the director of the manhattan project, which built the us's first atomic bomb. The thesis, in short, is that the manhattan project officials deliberately misconstrued their own history to avoid the general public thinking that the atomic bomb had effects similar to the reviled and banned gas warfare of world war i if true, that would be rather remarkable: while it is clear that the manhattan. I've been reading a lot about los alamos, the manhattan project and the trinity test, the 70th anniversary of which was july 16 as he recounted in his personal notes (which i obtained through a foia request for my undergrad history thesis), at the very first instant of the nuclear age, conant, momentarily.
Senior thesis approval sheet this honor's thesis entitted an analysis of success and failure: the manhattan project and german nuclear research during the third reich written by jon tate self and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for completion of the carl goodson honors. Abstract (maximum 200 words) this thesis examines the roles of the us army in america's nuclear undertakings since 1942, when the army took responsibility for managing the manhattan project, the army has made many important contributions to america's nuclear endeavors its earliest nuclear. This thesis is a history of the political activity of manhattan project physicists before the bombing of hiroshima it is a case-study of how physicists function in political worlds, a pre-history of the scientists' postwar movement, and an examination of a critical period when physicists redefined their relation to society and their. Manhattan project - thesis: the research for the first atomic bomb was done in the united states, by a group of the best scientists this research was given the name of "the manhattan project" on monday july 16th, 1945, a countdown for the detonation of the first atomic bomb took place near los alamos , new.
Essay on manhattan project - thesis: the research for the first atomic bomb was done in the united states, by a group of the best scientists this research was given the name of "the manhattan project" on monday july 16th, 1945, a countdown for the detonation of the first atomic bomb took place near los. Operation trinity and manhattan project | world war ii database in the historical journal isis, two historians of science said only of wilcox's work that his thesis stood on the flimsiest and most unconvincing of grounds, and surmised that the hidden agenda of such conspiracy theories was to furnish a new exculpation for.
The manhattan project to build an atomic bomb was one of the us government's biggest secrets at the same time that's the question robert lavender, who ran the manhattan project patent effort, had to answer before congress wellerstein thinks they will merit just a page or two in his thesis. The manhattan project was the secret name for the united states project prior to world war ii in order to design and build a nuclear weapon. To the graduate council: i am submitting herewith a thesis written by john david prince entitled atomic childhood: an analysis of the impact of the manhattan project on the children of oak ridge, tennessee i have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that.