The COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS) rover may be useful for validating satellite-based estimates of near-surface soil moisture, but the accuracy with which the rover can measure 0to 5-cm soil moisture has not been previously determined. Our objectives were to calibrate and validate a COSMOS rover for mapping 0to 5-cm soil moisture at spatial scales suitable for evaluating sat...

We address the problem of recognizing 3D rigid freeform objects using dense range data when the objects can be imaged from arbitrary viewpoints and the objects vary in shape and complexity. We propose a multi-level matching strategy that employs shape spectral analysis and features derived from the COSMOS representations of free-form objects for fast and efficient recognition. We demonstrate th...

With the prolific growth in usage of smartphones across the spectrum of people in the society it becomes mandatory to handle and configure these devices effectively to achieve optimum results from it. This paper proposes a context sensitive model termed COSMOS (COntext Sensitive MOdel for Smartphones) for configuring the smartphones using multifactor analysis with the help of decision trees. Th...

20 M A X P L A N C K R E S E A R C H 1 / 2 0 0 9 Nature shuns perfect symmetry. If it didn’t, the universe would contain no matter – only radiation. For half a century now, physicists have been searching for the reason behind this minor yet, for humans, essential departure from perfection. Three Nobel Prizes have already been awarded for partial successes, the last one in 2008. At the MAX PLANC...

Abstract I briefly discuss some attempts to construct a consistent modification to General Relativity (GR) that might explain the observed late-time acceleration of the universe and provide an alternative to dark energy. I mention the issues facing extensions to GR, illustrate these with two specific examples, and discuss the resulting observational and theoretical obstacles. This article compr...