Stationary Vehicle Counting at Checkout Point

These days spending off time to work on vehicle detection project - my task is to recognize a standing vehicle at checkout for a local customer in RWP.

Significant material is available for recognizing moving vehicles using optical flow, frame differences and GMM techniques etc. For static vehicles, people suggested fix video background to perform subtraction techniques. I tried but didn't get accuracy due to variations in camera capture conditions specially illumination.

Eventually after sepeding some time, Speeded-Up Robust Features algorithm with significant points worked better than others to detect a stationary vehicle based on measuring average object size, appearance duration and movement patterns.

See this detection video: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnZugs0jUgZhg2e7eU-lEmePK6Hl

Couple of challenges are yet to solve. Though It detects non-overlapping vehicles almost 96% correctly. Need to solve overlapping vehicles very close to each other appear to camera as single object, then bikes as non-target objects are decteed as false positive. 

See challenges video: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnZugs0jUgZhg2i2I8NOnD23igsL

Thumbs up :)

Stationary Vehicle Counting at Checkout Point

These days spending off time to work on vehicle detection project - my task is to recognize a standing vehicle at checkout for a local customer in RWP.

Significant material is available for recognizing moving vehicles using optical flow, frame differences and GMM techniques etc. For static vehicles, people suggested fix video background to perform subtraction techniques. I tried but didn't get accuracy due to variations in camera capture conditions specially illumination.

Eventually after sepeding some time, Speeded-Up Robust Features algorithm with significant points worked better than others to detect a stationary vehicle based on measuring average object size, appearance duration and movement patterns.

See this detection video: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnZugs0jUgZhg2e7eU-lEmePK6Hl

Couple of challenges are yet to solve. Though It detects non-overlapping vehicles almost 96% correctly. Need to solve overlapping vehicles very close to each other appear to camera as single object, then bikes as non-target objects are decteed as false positive. 

See challenges video: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnZugs0jUgZhg2i2I8NOnD23igsL

Thumbs up :)

Triple Your Productivity

Link: http://mdi.com.pk/training/triple-your-productivity/

There are literally hundreds of ways to improve your productivity. But if you are looking for a quantum difference where you can virtually triple your productivity, then it is necessary to use a 3-step approach. Using all 3 steps and using these simultaneously is what can produce the remarkable difference.

First of all, it is useful to remember that productivity is not about doing more work although this is sometimes necessary.
Productivity is about getting better outcomes in a shorter period of time.
Here are the 3 steps necessary to really get on a different productivity trajectory:

Step 1 – One hour for the most important task
Every day, identify the one task that just has to be done before the day ends. Start working on this and do not worry about anything else that is not an emergency. At the end of the day, if you haven’t done anything else, you have at least finished the most important task for that day.
Of course, the trick is to know what is that one task that has to be completed. Only you know that. The good news however is that once you have gotten over this one task, there is a surge in energy and focus as you decide that you might as well stay ahead of the curve on that day.

Step 2 – Avoid one distraction type every day
For many people these days, this is stuff like email, Whatsapp messages, text messages, phone calls, etc. Identify one distraction type – perhaps this is email – and on that day, treat email very differently compared to usual. You might not check your email for 2 hours at a stretch in the office – or reply to email only during certain hours. Whatever strategy you choose, it must reinforce your ability to complete Step 1 above.

Step 3 – Get away from your desk for a while
Go for a walk or just go to another room in the office to chat with a colleague for a few minutes (but do not distract them for too long!). Just distance yourself away from your computer and your smart phone. It feels good to be un-wired once in a while.

9 Key Soft Skills To Work On

Link: http://mdi.com.pk/training/9-key-soft-skills/#more-2234

When you think about self-development or development of a team in terms of soft skills, there are 9 key soft skills that one can consider to be essential and that are usually missing from many executives. These soft skills are spread across 3 categories – professionalism, critical thinking and followership…

Category a – Professionalism
1. Self-assessment – being self-aware and able to candidly assess one’s own strengths and weaknesses as well as one’s performance against desired standards.
2. Personal responsibility – the ability to focus on what one can control directly – e.g. personal behavior – and managing the response to factors outside one’s own control.
3. Positive attitude – maintaining and conveying a positive and enthusiastic outlook in interaction with others. This is particularly important in situations where there is complexity, uncertainty and difficulty.
4. People skills – ability to interact and communicate effectively with individuals and groups and a key part of this is presenting, listening and empathy.

Category b – Critical thinking
5. Learning – having a curious mind, questioning assumptions and constantly striving to acquire new information to build one’s knowledge and skills.
6. Problem-solving and decision-making  – ability to consult, identify and consider multiple options to choose the course of action that can lead to problem resolution and an effective outcome.

Category c – Followership
Everyone knows and talks about leadership but how many people know what followership is?
7. Adaptability – knowing the importance of molding oneself to better align with the needs of the organization rather than expecting the organization to change to suit the individual.
8. Teamwork – ability to work well in groups and teams and knowing how to balance self-interest with team interest. This also implies being able work with shared goals and celebrating the success of others.
9. Service orientation – calibrating around what you have to offer rather than what you expect or want from others. This implies genuine concern and respect for the needs of others whether they are customers or colleagues.