Since 2019, most ad exchanges and sell-side platforms (SSPs), in the online advertising industry, shifted from second to first price auctions. Due to the fundamental difference between these auctions, demand-side platforms (DSPs) have had to update their bidding strategies to avoid bidding unnecessarily high and hence overpaying. Bid shading was proposed to adjust the bid price intended for second-price auctions, in order to balance cost and winning probability in a first-price auction setup. In this study, we introduce a novel deep distribution network for optimal bidding in both open (non-censored) and closed (censored) online first-price auctions. Offline and online A/B testing results show that our algorithm outperforms previous state-of-art algorithms in terms of both surplus and effective cost per action (eCPX) metrics. Furthermore, the algorithm is optimized in run-time and has been deployed into VerizonMedia DSP as production algorithm, serving hundreds of billions of bid requests per day. Online A/B test shows that advertiser's ROI are improved by +2.4%, +2.4%, and +8.6% for impression based (CPM), click based (CPC), and conversion based (CPA) campaigns respectively.

In this paper, we describe the participation in a MOOC which was arranged by and for teachers in Sweden. The MOOC was organized as a community rather than a course, which meant that there was a skeletal structure to facilitate community engagement but no set learning goals or tasks that had to be done by the participants. This loose structure enables participants to attend to the MOOC in different ways. Based on answers to surveys, four ways of participation are mapped out in this article. The structure of the MOOC was based on connectivist notions of knowledge building and the central principals of autonomy, diversity, openness and interactivity. How connectivist thinking can be related to the participation in the MOOC is explored and tensions between the two are discussed. The importance of dialogue in order to develop connections for learning is an aspect which is regarded as important in this article. As professional development for teachers, the MOOC has both advantages and disadvantages. The openness of the MOOC is considered an advantage by some participants, but an obstacle by others. The openness means a flexibility of when and to what extent to participate, but it also creates an uncertainty of what is expected and how to participate.

In this paper, we describe a collaboration project between a municipality and a university in Sweden where the aim has been to integrate ICT in classrooms through an open process of collaboration at different levels. Teachers, process managers from the municipality and researchers from the university have met regularly over a two-year period of time in Collaborative Development Groups (CDG). In these groups the participants have discussed and worked progressively with issues generated when implementing new technology in educational practices. The collaboration was designed as an open process over an extended period of time in order to enable a reflexive process between participants at different levels. Some salient aspects of how the collaboration has contributed to school development in general are accounted for in this paper. Furthermore, how the collaboration has aided in developing the use of ICT in classroom practices is explicated. One conclusion that can be drawn is that new competences have evolved from the work in the CDGs and the extended dialogue on how to use technology pedagogically. The teachers pedagogical knowledge has during the process been merged with their technological knowledge as well as the content knowledge of the subjects they teach (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). For researchers and teachers to work together under a longer period of time has enabled the development of a reflective pedagogical use of ICT.

We describe a method of generating and utilizing visual landmarks that is well suited for SLAM applications. The landmarks created are highly distinctive and reliably detected, virtually eliminating the data association problem present in other landmark schemes. Upon subsequent detections of a landmark, a 3-D pose can be estimated. The scheme requires a single camera.

This paper presents the Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (vSLAMTM) algorithm, a novel algorithm for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The algorithm is vision-and odometry-based, and enables low-cost navigation in cluttered and populated environments. No initial map is required, and it satisfactorily handles dynamic changes in the environment, for example, lighting changes, moving objects and/or people. Typically, vSLAM recovers quickly from dramatic disturbances, such as “kidnapping”.

This paper presents a system for automatic reconstruction of 3D structure using two unsynchronized cameras. Three images are acquired sequentially from the left, right, and again from the left camera. A virtual image from the left camera synchronized with the right image is created by interpolating matching points of interest (SIFT features) in the two left images. Both geometric and probabilistic criteria are used to select the correct set of matching features amongst the three views. In an indoor environment, the method typically results in 3D structure with approximately 200 feature points, with a median 3D accuracy of 1.6 cm when the average depth is 3 m and the robot has moved 1-2 cm between each image acquisition.

Service robotics products are becoming a reality. This paper describes three core technologies that enable the next generation of service robots. They are low-cost, make use of low-cost hardware, and prepare for a short time-to-market for product development. The first technology is an object recognition system, which can be used by the robot to interact with the environment The second technology is a vision-based navigation system (vSLAM/spl trade/), which simultaneously can build a map and localize the robot in the map. Finally, the third technology is a flexible and rich software platform (ERSP/spl trade/) that assists developers in rapid design and prototyping of robotics applications.