SIFT has been proven to be the most robust local invariant feature descriptor. SIFT is designed mainly for gray images. However, color provides valuable information in object description and matching tasks. Many objects can be misclassified if their color contents are ignored. This paper addresses this problem and proposes a novel colored local invariant feature descriptor. Instead of using the gray space to represent the input image, the proposed approach builds the SIFT descriptors in a color invariant space. The built Colored SIFT (CSIFT) is more robust than the conventional SIFT with respect to color and photometrical variations. The evaluation results support the potential of the proposed approach.

Solar radiation prediction is an important process in ensuring optimal exploitation of solar energy power. Numerous models have been applied to this problem, such as numerical weather prediction models and artificial intelligence models. However, well-designed hybridization approaches that combine numerical models with artificial intelligence models to yield a more powerful model can provide a significant improvement in prediction accuracy. In this paper, novel hybrid machine learning approaches that exploit auxiliary numerical data are proposed. The proposed hybrid methods invoke different machine learning paradigms, including feature selection, classification, and regression. Additionally, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are used in the proposed hybrid models. Feature selection is used for feature space dimension reduction to reduce the large number of recorded parameters that affect estimation and prediction processes. The rough set theory is applied for attribute reduction and the dependency degree is used as a fitness function. The effect of the attribute reduction process is investigated using thirty different classification and prediction models in addition to the proposed hybrid model. Then, different machine learning models are constructed based on classification and regression techniques to predict solar radiation. Moreover, other hybrid prediction models are formulated to use the output of the numerical model of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) as learning elements in order to improve the prediction accuracy. The proposed methodologies are evaluated using a data set that is collected from different regions in Saudi Arabia. The feature-reduction has achieved higher classification rates up to 8.5% for the best classifiers and up to 15% for other classifiers, for the different data collection regions. Additionally, in the regression, it achieved improvements of average root mean square error up to $5.6\%$ and in mean absolute error values up to 8.3%. The hybrid models could reduce the root mean square errors by 70.2% and 4.3% than the numerical and machine learning models, respectively, when these models are applied to some dataset. For some reduced feature data, the hybrid models could reduce the root mean square errors by 47.3% and 14.4% than the numerical and machine learning models, respectively.

High-quality image reconstruction is essential for many electrical capacitance tomography (CT) applications. Raw capacitance measurements are used in the literature to generate low-resolution images. However, such low-resolution images are not sufficient for proper functionality of most systems. In this paper, we propose a novel adversarial resolution enhancement (ARE-ECT) model to reconstruct high-resolution images of inner distributions based on low-quality initial images, which are generated from the capacitance measurements. The proposed model uses a UNet as the generator of a conditional generative adversarial network (CGAN). The generator’s input is set to the low-resolution image rather than the typical random input signal. Additionally, the CGAN is conditioned by the input low-resolution image itself. For evaluation purposes, a massive ECT dataset of 320 K synthetic image–measurement pairs was created. This dataset is used for training, validating, and testing the proposed model. New flow patterns, which are not exposed to the model during the training phase, are used to evaluate the feasibility and generalization ability of the ARE-ECT model. The superiority of ARE-ECT, in the efficient generation of more accurate ECT images than traditional and other deep learning-based image reconstruction algorithms, is proved by the evaluation results. The ARE-ECT model achieved an average image correlation coefficient of more than $98.8\%$ and an average relative image error about $0.1\%$.

Managing large-scale gatherings, such as global festivals, sporting events, and religious congregations, presents substantial challenges in ensuring crowd safety and control. Innovative frameworks are essential to address these complexities effectively. The Integrated Intelligent Crowd Control and Management (IICCM) framework combines cutting-edge technologies, including Computer Vision (CV), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), to enhance participant safety and optimize crowd management. CV enables precise real time identification and tracking, AI analyzes crowd behavior to anticipate risks, and IoT gathers environmental data to improve crowd flow, alleviate congestion, and provide timely assistance. Additionally, the framework facilitates emergency evacuation planning by modeling crowd dynamics and identifying safe, efficient escape routes. Although suitable for diverse events, the Hajj pilgrimage—a uniquely large and dynamic annual gathering—provides a rigorous test case for the IICCM framework. Managing millions of participants from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds highlights the system’s adaptability and robustness. By effectively addressing Hajj specific challenges, the IICCM framework demonstrates its scalability and applicability to other large-scale events. This research offers valuable insights for decision-makers seeking to implement advanced crowd management technologies.

We propose a novel method for adaptive K-means clustering. The proposed method overcomes the problems of the traditional K-means algorithm. Specifically, the proposed method does not require prior knowledge of the number of clusters. Additionally, the initial identification of the cluster elements has no negative impact on the final generated clusters. Inspired by cell cloning in microorganism cultures, each added data sample causes the existing cluster ‘colonies’ to evaluate, with the other clusters, various merging or splitting actions in order for reaching the optimum cluster set. The proposed algorithm is adequate for clustering data in isolated or overlapped compact spherical clusters. Experimental results support the effectiveness of this clustering algorithm.