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This paper is part II of an overview of the work of the Pattern and Image Processing group of the Leuven University, presenting some of the industrial applications.

The Pattern Recognition and Image Processing group of the Leuven University is engaged in medical as well as in industrial projects. This paper is Part I of an overview of some of the industrial applications.

Recognition of plane objects can be achieved by calculating the area and first and second moments of the object. In the work described a hardwired videoprocessor linked to a 16‐bit microprocessor enables the recognition to be achieved within 30 milliseconds.

Rzeszów University of Technology has undertaken the task of designing and providing of equipment to a flying laboratory. This paper presents basic design principles of the Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) which employs measuring signals from the Fiber Optic Gyros (FOG), accelerometers and electronic compass module. A microcomputer follows the algorithm of complementary filtration for of calculating the Euler angles for the aircraft attitude (pitch, roll and heading), angular rates, and linear accelerations. The correction systems that minimize error of the steady‐state measuring have been employed. The results of computer simulations, lab tests and selected flight tests have also been presented. The Inertial Reference Unit μIRU‐1 was tested in flight on board of the general aviation aircraft PZL‐110 “Koliber”. It has been confirmed that metrological properties of the system are appropriate for the purposes of teaching process. Currently, a modified version of the unit is being prepared. The new IRU is planned as a main reference unit for integrated flight control system of general aviation aircraft.

The purpose of this research is to provide the necessarily and resourceful information regarding range sensors to select the best fit sensor for robust autonomous navigation. Autonomous navigation is an emerging segment in the field of mobile robot in which the mobile robot navigates in the environment with high level of autonomy by lacking human interactions. Sensor-based perception is a prevailing aspect in the autonomous navigation of mobile robot along with localization and path planning. Various range sensors are used to get the efficient perception of the environment, but selecting the best-fit sensor to solve the navigation problem is still a vital assignment.

Autonomous navigation relies on the sensory information of various sensors, and each sensor relies on various operational parameters/characteristic for the reliable functioning. A simple strategy shown in this proposed study to select the best-fit sensor based on various parameters such as environment, 2 D/3D navigation, accuracy, speed, environmental conditions, etc. for the reliable autonomous navigation of a mobile robot.

This paper provides a comparative analysis for the diverse range sensors used in mobile robotics with respect to various aspects such as accuracy, computational load, 2D/3D navigation, environmental conditions, etc. to opt the best-fit sensors for achieving robust navigation of autonomous mobile robot.

This paper provides a straightforward platform for the researchers to select the best range sensor for the diverse robotics application.

Consumers increasingly depend on the internet as the information source to make their hospitality decisions, which highlights the need for more research in online recommendation. Due to the globalization, culture and its effects on marketing become an increasingly important subject to investigate. Therefore, this paper aims to offer a cross-cultural investigation of consumers’ different trustworthiness and credibility perceptions when facing online recommendations from different information resources.

This research uses the source-credibility theory to examine consumers’ responses to online recommendations from two sources. Participants were recruited from two equivalent marketing panels in each culture. A 2 (online recommendation source: in-group vs out-group) by 2 (culture: American vs Chinese) between-subjects quasi-experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that culture moderates consumer responses to the two types of online sources. Chinese consumers, due to their more collectivist nature, exhibit higher levels of purchase intent when the recommendation originates from an in-group rather than from an out-group. Such differences are not observed among the more individualist American consumers. Furthermore, trustworthiness plays an important role in influencing Chinese consumers’ perception of recommendation credibility and the consequent purchase intent.

This research provides guidelines to hospitality practitioners when developing their social networking sites and online marketing strategies across different cultures.

The current study conducts an in-depth investigation of cultural differences in consumers’ perceptions of and reactions to online recommendations from other customers with various social distances.

In urban planning, peri-urban areas are often addressed with an urban-centric view on development, disregarding the multifunctional and dynamic opportunities that these spaces offer. As a consequence, we argue that land use functions such as agriculture do not reach their full potential, despite the increasing enthusiasm for peri-urban and urban agriculture. This chapter has a twofold structure: first it explores the opportunities and challenges for agriculture in peri-urban areas; and second, it studies success factors for envisioning processes promoting peri-urban agriculture in urban policy and planning.

Through action research, we gather and compare data from two envisioning processes in the Flemish cities of Ghent and Kortrijk. Both processes were initiated by the local authorities, with the purpose of developing a spatial vision for agriculture in peri-urban areas.

Results show that in both contexts, pressure on farmland is a key issue. In addition, we highlight that multifunctionality is rather complex, both in practice and from a governance perspective, but nevertheless promising as a territorial concept in envisioning processes. Regarding the envisioning process itself, the analysis shows that clarity and consensus on the objectives of the process, delineation of the study area, policy support, clear leadership, and inserting sound and reliable data into the process are important success factors.

This chapter provides insight into the visions, plans and strategies needed to embrace the potential of agriculture in peri-urban areas, through the exploration and valuation of participatory envisioning processes. Future research is needed to explore the implementation phases of envisioning processes in urban planning.

The 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing were the first sporting mega-event held in a country that limits access to popular Western social networks. Since both domestic and international audiences were crucial for the organizers, the purpose of this study was to identify similarities and differences in content published and engagement generated on the event’s official social media accounts in the months preceding the Olympics.

For 1,200 consecutive original posts published on Facebook, Sina Weibo and Twitter, we coded the time of publication, motivation targeted by the message according to Raney’s typology of motivations for sport spectatorship, multimedia additions and number of likes/reactions, comments and shares.

All accounts were dominated by posts targeting cognitive motivations. The Weibo profile was much more active and followed. There, 71.5% of content conveyed learning, while the most engaging content provided entertainment. Content on Western networks was more varied but virtually duplicated across networks. The most engaging posts targeted euphoric stress, escape and aesthetic pleasure. Comparable content elicited different engagement on Chinese and Western social media. Graphics and video were the most engaging features on all networks; polls were the least engaging.

Agenda-setting effects of social media content differ across cultures and are co-created by user comments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first cross-cultural comparison of pre-event social media promotion by non-Western sporting mega-event hosts. Organizers diversified content strategies to cater to different audiences and pursue different policy goals. We proved cultural differences in content preference and engagement and showed the relevance of Raney’s typology of sport spectatorship for social media.

Investors around the world are eager to buy shares of newly‐privatized state firms. This behavior is understandable in light of the evidence that many governments underprice initial public offerings. This paper looks at Eastern Europe's first public offerings of privatized state firms (in Poland) and finds evidence of significant underpricing. We also find that the level of underpricing was masked by special discounts and the redemption, at par, of discounted government bonds. Using conservative assumptions we conclude that underpricing was almost 30%, three times the level reflected by recorded stock prices. Our study of the new Polish stock market indicates the need for caution when using data from developing capital markets. Prices, returns, trends and market capitalization rates in Poland were affected by unique, local financial practices.

This study aims to address the following research questions: Do the two types of service firms (individual or aggregator) have similar competitiveness on online search ads? How should the two types of service firms select optimal branded keywords to improve search performance? In addition, how do consumers’ search queries influence the service search performance of the two types of service firms?

In this study, the authors conduct an empirical analysis by building a two-stage choice modeling on the process of search engine ranking and consumer click-through decisions. The authors estimate the parameter coefficients and test the hypotheses using maximum likelihood estimation in the logistic regression model.

The empirical findings suggest that consumer response rates are highly dependent upon three aspects (service types, branded keyword strategy and consumer search query). First, the authors found that service aggregators receive greater consumer responses than individual service providers. Second, depending upon the various branded keyword strategies (e.g. generic vs branded, “within-type” vs “cross-type”) implemented by service aggregators or individual firms, the expected consumer responses could be quite different. Finally, customer’s search query, being either generic or branded, also has direct effect and interactive effect with service type on how consumers would response to the sponsored ads in the service search process.

The limitation of the research is twofold. First, conversion rate is not considered in the model estimation due to the nature of the data set. Second, the discussion about the keywords selection strategies is focusing on the hospitality industry. Future research shall further validate the generalizability into other industries.

First, given this competitive advantage, service aggregators should take an aggressive approach to adopting paid search strategy in acquiring new users and enhance its brand salience in the service ecosystem. Second, when considering other competitor’s brand names to include, if a firm is a service provider (e.g. hotel), a strategy that can help it receive higher consumer response would be to use “within-type” rather than “cross-type” branded keyword strategy. If a firm is a service aggregator, a better branded keyword strategy would be to use “across-type” instead of “within-type” approach. In addition, given that consumer’s brand awareness can influence the effectiveness of branded keyword strategy, online service search should target consumers in earlier stages of a decision journey.

The authors believe their theoretical framework can provide actionable solutions to service firms to ease customer’s search process, increase customer’s stickiness using search engines and add value to the customer relationships with all services entities within the digital ecosystem.

This study is the first to expand online search marketing into granule examinations (main and interactive effects of three key factors) in the service search domain. First, the authors differentiate service firms into two categories – online travel aggregators and individual hotels in the model. Second, the authors introduce two sets of new classifications of branded keywords for online service search research (i.e. own versus other brand and “cross-type” versus “within-type” branded keywords). Third, this study integrates service consumers’ search word specificity into the conceptual framework which is often missing in previous online search research.