Toward a computational theory for motion understanding: The expert animators model

Artificial intelligence researchers claim to understand some aspect of human intelligence when their model is able to emulate it. In the context of computer graphics, the ability to go from motion representation to convincing animation should accordingly be treated not simply as a trick for computer graphics programmers but as important epistemological and methodological goal. In this paper we investigate a unifying model for animating a group of articulated bodies such as humans and robots in a three-dimensional environment. The proposed model is considered in the framework of knowledge representation and processing, with special reference to motion knowledge. The model is meant to help setting the basis for a computational theory for motion understanding applied to articulated bodies

Eine Annäherung an den Avantgardismus? Amateur-animation und das Ringen mit der Technik

The chapter examines the status of animation within the emerging British amateur cine movement of the interwar decades, and introduces a case study of the work of the British animator, Alan Cleave

e-Governance: Supporting pragmatic direct deliberative action through online communities of interest

Authors often report on the limited success of e-Government initiatives in developing nations. Top down, national strategies are developed to target improved government services, but maintain hierarchical, citizen-state conceptions of governance through representative democracy. An alternative conception, direct deliberative democracy, frames the potential role of the internet in governance differently. Web based platforms might support locally animated deliberations, which target pragmatic outcomes, while the resulting social networks afford collective learning through connections across traditional boundaries. This paper presents an investigation of direct deliberative governance as it occurs in online 'communities of interest', and is based on research with such a community in southern Africa. We investigate contributions to the online governance process and develop an action typology distinguishing between degrees of 'agency freedom'. Network analytic techniques are then used to understand how acts of varying degree are expressed in terms of the structure of a social network. The aim, more broadly, is to understand how the environment shapes acts of direct deliberative governance, and, in turn, how the acts shape the evolution and effectiveness of the community. The preliminary results suggest design considerations for online governance communities, and highlight their role to not only provide deliberative space, but to mediate social network connections

Artist-Centered Technical Direction and Tool Development

This paper details the design and development process for two technical projects, both of which were developed for use in Autodesk Maya to enhance the workflow processes of 3D character animation. The first project is focused on advanced character rigging using mathematical concepts and Maya nodes, while the second project is focused on plugin development in python 2.7, making full use of the PySide2 library which binds to the Qt5 user-interface framework

Efficient Resource Management Mechanism for 802.16 Wireless Networks Based on Weighted Fair Queuing

Wireless Networking continues on its path of being one of the most commonly used means of communication. The evolution of this technology has taken place through the design of various protocols. Some common wireless protocols are the WLAN, 802.16 or WiMAX, and the emerging 802.20, which specializes in high speed vehicular networks, taking the concept from 802.16 to higher levels of performance. As with any large network, congestion becomes an important issue. Congestion gains importance as more hosts join a wireless network. In most cases, congestion is caused by the lack of an efficient mechanism to deal with exponential increases in host devices. This can effectively lead to very huge bottlenecks in the network causing slow sluggish performance, which may eventually reduce the speed of the network. With continuous advancement being the trend in this technology, the proposal of an efficient scheme for wireless resource allocation is an important solution to the problem of congestion. The primary area of focus will be the emerging standard for wireless networks, the 802.16 or “WiMAX”. This project, attempts to propose a mechanism for an effective resource management mechanism between subscriber stations and the corresponding base station

Substitutive bodies and constructed actors: a practice-based investigation of animation as performance

The fundamental conceptualisation of what animation actually is has been changing in the face of material change to production and distribution methods since the introduction of digital technology. This re-conceptualisation has been contributed to by increasing artistic and academic interest in the field, such as the emergence of Animation Studies, a relatively new branch of academic enquiry that is establishing itself as a discipline. This research (documentation of live events and thesis) examines animation in the context of performance, rather than in terms of technology or material process. Its scope is neither to cover all possible types of animation nor to put forward a new ‘catch-all’ definition of animation, but rather to examine the site of performance in character animation and to propose animation as a form of performance. In elaborating this argument, each chapter is structured around the framing device of animation as a message that is encoded and produced, delivered and played back, then received and decoded. The PhD includes a portfolio of projects undertaken as part of the research process on which the text critically reflects. Due to their site-specific approach, these live events are documented through video and still images. The work represents an intertwining, interdisciplinary, post-animation praxis where theory and practice inform one another and test relationships between animation and performance to problematise a binary opposition between that which is live as opposed to that which is animated. It is contextualised by a review of historical practice and interviews with key contemporary practitioners whose work combines animation with an intermedial mixture of interaction design, fine art, dance and theatre

SEAI: Social Emotional Artificial Intelligence Based on Damasio's Theory of Mind

A socially intelligent robot must be capable to extract meaningful information in real-time from the social environment and react accordingly with coherent human-like behaviour. Moreover, it should be able to internalise this information, to reason on it at a higher abstract level, build its own opinions independently and then automatically bias the decision-making according to its unique experience. In the last decades, neuroscience research highlighted the link between the evolution of such complex behaviour and the evolution of a certain level of consciousness, which cannot leave out of a body that feels emotions as discriminants and prompters. In order to develop cognitive systems for social robotics with greater human-likeliness, we used an "understanding by building" approach to model and implement a well-known theory of mind in the form of an artificial intelligence, and we tested it on a sophisticated robotic platform. The name of the presented system is SEAI (Social Emotional Artificial Intelligence), a cognitive system specifically conceived for social and emotional robots. It is designed as a bio-inspired, highly modular, hybrid system with emotion modelling and high-level reasoning capabilities. It follows the deliberative/reactive paradigm where a knowledge-based expert system is aimed at dealing with the high-level symbolic reasoning, while a more conventional reactive paradigm is deputed to the low-level processing and control. The SEAI system is also enriched by a model which simulate the Damasio's theory of consciousness and the theory of Somatic Markers. After a review of similar bio-inspired cognitive systems, we present the scientific foundations and their computational formalisation at the basis of the SEAI framework. Then, a deeper technical description of the architecture is disclosed underlining the numerous parallelisms with the human cognitive system. Finally, the influence of artificial emotions and feelings, and their link with the robot's beliefs and decisions have been tested in a physical humanoid involved in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)

The Animator: The 26th Society for Animation Studies Annual Conference Toronto June 16 to 19, 2014

The 2014 Society for Animation Studies conference hosted by Sheridan College was from June 16 - 19, 2014. As Animation Studies continues to develop as a discipline, the dialogue that has opened up between more traditional academic research into the field and what we might call ‘industry-facing’ or applied research has become more important. The critical study of animation from within higher education institutions like Sheridan represents one of the many areas in which the industry can grow. Every SAS conference has its own distinct tone and flavour because we are truly international in our membership and we devolve conference organization annually to the host institution. This means that this year’s conference is strongly allied to Sheridan’s industry focus – not least with Corus warmly welcoming conference goers to their HQ for parts of the conference. SAS provides such a welcoming environment for new members, and a terrific forum to discuss animation from a multitude of perspectives. It is within this fertile and nurturing atmosphere that we decided to focus our conference on the animation artist. As a tribute to all artists whose efforts fuel our work, and in the spirit of the centenary of celebrated National Film Board of Canada animator, Norman McLaren, the 2014 SAS Conference is named “The Animator”. Keynote speakers included Scott Dyer, Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning and Chief Technology Officer, Corus Entertainment Charile Bonifacio, Animator, Arc Productions Ltd, Canada Professor Paul Wells, Director of the Animation Academy Loughborough University, UK Michael Fukushima, Executive Producer of NFB’s English Animation Studio National Film Board of Canada Panel Discussions McLaren Legacy Panel: The Centenary Year - Nichola Dobson, Terence Dobson, Kaj Pindal Stop Motion, From Local Community Members - Chris Walsh, Bret Long, Nora Keely, Mark Mayerson Conference Twitter account: @AnimatorSAS2014https://source.sheridancollege.ca/conferences_anim/1000/thumbnail.jp