Code, space and everyday life

In this paper we examine the role of code (software) in the spatial formation of collective life. Taking the view that human life and coded technology are folded into one another, we theorise space as ontogenesis. Space, we posit, is constantly being bought into being through a process of transduction – the constant making anew of a domain in reiterative and transformative practices - as an incomplete solution to a relational problem. The relational problem we examine is the ongoing encounter between individuals and environment where the solution, to a greater or lesser extent, is code. Code, we posit, is diversely embedded in collectives as coded objects, coded infrastructure, coded processes and coded assemblages. These objects, infrastructure, processes and assemblages possess technicity, that is, unfolding or evolutive power to make things happen; the ability to mediate, supplement, augment, monitor, regulate, operate, facilitate, produce collective life. We contend that when the technicity of code is operationalised it transduces one of three forms of hybrid spatial formations: code/space, coded space and backgrounded coded space. These formations are contingent, relational, extensible and scaleless, often stretched out across networks of greater or shorter length. We demonstrate the coded transduction of space through three vignettes – each a day in the life of three people living in London, UK, tracing the technical mediation of their interactions, transactions and mobilities. We then discuss how code becomes the relational solution to five different classes of problems – domestic living, travelling, working, communicating, and consuming

Language and Automata Theory and Applications

International audienc

Smart vest for respiratory rate monitoring of COPD patients based on non-contact capacitive sensing

In this paper, a first approach to the design of a portable device for non-contact monitoring of respiratory rate by capacitive sensing is presented. The sensing system is integrated into a smart vest for an untethered, low-cost and comfortable breathing monitoring of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients during the rest period between respiratory rehabilitation exercises at home. To provide an extensible solution to the remote monitoring using this sensor and other devices, the design and preliminary development of an e-Health platform based on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) paradigm is also presented. In order to validate the proposed solution, two quasi-experimental studies have been developed, comparing the estimations with respect to the golden standard. In a first study with healthy subjects, the mean value of the respiratory rate error, the standard deviation of the error and the correlation coefficient were 0.01 breaths per minute (bpm), 0.97 bpm and 0.995 (p < 0.00001), respectively. In a second study with COPD patients, the values were -0.14 bpm, 0.28 bpm and 0.9988 (p < 0.0000001), respectively. The results for the rest period show the technical and functional feasibility of the prototype and serve as a preliminary validation of the device for respiratory rate monitoring of patients with COPD.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PI15/00306Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación DTS15/00195Junta de Andalucía PI-0010-2013Junta de Andalucía PI-0041-2014Junta de Andalucía PIN-0394-201

Bio-Inspired Computer Vision: Towards a Synergistic Approach of Artificial and Biological Vision

To appear in CVIUStudies in biological vision have always been a great source of inspiration for design of computer vision algorithms. In the past, several successful methods were designed with varying degrees of correspondence with biological vision studies, ranging from purely functional inspiration to methods that utilise models that were primarily developed for explaining biological observations. Even though it seems well recognised that computational models of biological vision can help in design of computer vision algorithms, it is a non-trivial exercise for a computer vision researcher to mine relevant information from biological vision literature as very few studies in biology are organised at a task level. In this paper we aim to bridge this gap by providing a computer vision task centric presentation of models primarily originating in biological vision studies. Not only do we revisit some of the main features of biological vision and discuss the foundations of existing computational studies modelling biological vision, but also we consider three classical computer vision tasks from a biological perspective: image sensing, segmentation and optical flow. Using this task-centric approach, we discuss well-known biological functional principles and compare them with approaches taken by computer vision. Based on this comparative analysis of computer and biological vision, we present some recent models in biological vision and highlight a few models that we think are promising for future investigations in computer vision. To this extent, this paper provides new insights and a starting point for investigators interested in the design of biology-based computer vision algorithms and pave a way for much needed interaction between the two communities leading to the development of synergistic models of artificial and biological vision

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 388)

This bibliography lists 132 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance

An Organizational Account of Biological Functions

International audienceIn this paper, we develop an organizational account that defines biological functions as causal relations subject to closure in living systems, interpreted as the most typical example of organizationally closed and differentiated self-maintaining systems. We argue that this account adequately grounds the teleological and normative dimensions of functions in the current organization of a system, insofar as it provides an explanation for the existence of the function bearer and, at the same time, identifies in a non-arbitrary way the norms that functions are supposed to obey. Accordingly, we suggest that the organizational account combines the etiological and dispositional perspectives in an integrated theoretical framework

Theoretical Considerations in the Adaptation of Animal Communication Systems

Using concepts drawn from semiotic, the general theory of signs, and from the mathematical theory of communication, a theoretical framework is developed within which the problems relating to communication system adaptation may be defined and models of such adaptation constructed. The relationship between the semiotical notions of qualisign and legisign is used to define a concept of tolerance space that permits the statistical concept of equivocation to take on physical dimensions in the analysis of natural communication systems. For each of three central properties of the communication system (entropy, equivocation and semantic-pragmatic relations) the components of the system that determine the property are identified and the ways in which these components might adapt to environmental changes are discussed