Understanding expressive action

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.Also available online at the MIT Theses Online homepage Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-120).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.We strain our eyes, cramp our necks, and destroy our hands trying to interact with computer on their terms. At the extreme, we strap on devices and weigh ourselves down with cables trying to re-create a sense of place inside the machine, while cutting ourselves off from the world and people around us. The alternative is to make the real environment responsive to our actions. It is not enough for environments to respond simply to the presence of people or objects: they must also be aware of the subtleties of changing situations. If all the spaces we inhabit are to be responsive, they must not require encumbering devices to be worn and they must be adaptive to changes in the environment and changes of context. This dissertation examines a body of sophisticated perceptual mechanisms developed in response to these needs as well as a selection of human-computer interface sketches designed to push the technology forward and explore the possibilities of this novel interface idiom. Specifically, the formulation of a fully recursive framework for computer vision called DYNA that improves performance of human motion tracking will be examined in depth. The improvement in tracking performance is accomplished with the combination of a three-dimensional, physics-based model of the human body with modifications to the pixel classification algorithms that enable them to take advantage of this high-level knowledge. The result is a novel vision framework that has no completely bottom-up processes, and is therefore significantly faster and more stable than other approaches.by Christopher R. Wren.Ph.D

Black gold : A history of the role of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria, 1850-70

Reconstructs the history of Aboriginal people and gold mining in Victoria from 1850-1870.Doctor of Philosoph

Preventive computing technology for successful aging

A pervasive societal and personal concern is how we can maintain or improve our quality of life as we age. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the current state of technology as it is (or can be) used in everyday life to support healthy and happy older adults by maintaining physical fitness, cognitive health, and emotional fulfillment. In addressing this problem, much focus has been placed on assistive technology, replacing or compensating for functionality that has declined or been lost, or creating a “safe zone.” Our focus is on technology that is not assistive in this sense, but rather supportive in expanding capabilities to remain independent in their current environment. If older adults can retain their capabilities, the need for a myriad of assistive technologies would be postponed. Therefore, the alternative perspective we offer is more preventive and proactive

Dynamical models and machine learning for supervised segmentation

This thesis is concerned with the problem of how to outline regions of interest in medical images, when the boundaries are weak or ambiguous and the region shapes are irregular. The focus on machine learning and interactivity leads to a common theme of the need to balance conflicting requirements. First, any machine learning method must strike a balance between how much it can learn and how well it generalises. Second, interactive methods must balance minimal user demand with maximal user control. To address the problem of weak boundaries,methods of supervised texture classification are investigated that do not use explicit texture features. These methods enable prior knowledge about the image to benefit any segmentation framework. A chosen dynamic contour model, based on probabilistic boundary tracking, combines these image priors with efficient modes of interaction. We show the benefits of the texture classifiers over intensity and gradient-based image models, in both classification and boundary extraction. To address the problem of irregular region shape, we devise a new type of statistical shape model (SSM) that does not use explicit boundary features or assume high-level similarity between region shapes. First, the models are used for shape discrimination, to constrain any segmentation framework by way of regularisation. Second, the SSMs are used for shape generation, allowing probabilistic segmentation frameworks to draw shapes from a prior distribution. The generative models also include novel methods to constrain shape generation according to information from both the image and user interactions. The shape models are first evaluated in terms of discrimination capability, and shown to out-perform other shape descriptors. Experiments also show that the shape models can benefit a standard type of segmentation algorithm by providing shape regularisers. We finally show how to exploit the shape models in supervised segmentation frameworks, and evaluate their benefits in user trials

The Insiders’ Experience of an Undergraduate Level Ethnographic Fieldwork Training Program in India

Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However, undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India as a research area still remained unexplored. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore the proceedings of undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India. This article uses the authors’ own recollections regarding an undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training program carried out by a college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. All four authors along with their 21 fellow students have participated as trainees in this fieldwork training program. Through a qualitative analysis of these recapitulated events involving the acts of “preparation before the field trip,” “doing fieldwork” right up to “writing of field reports,” the study stresses one of the less emphasized and methodologically significant issues of education and the socialization process the trainee fieldworkers pass through while doing fieldwork. This article illuminates how the real-time field exposure guides naïve students to realize the utility of different research tools, techniques, methods, and some of the true requirements of an ethnographic fieldwork

Novelty

Discusses the artist\u27s desire to find the larger issues existent beneath easily disposable objects of pop culture, such as cheap toys, trinkets, and tabloids

Conversational collection of grandparents' stories

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-81).The act of sharing stories, which often characterizes the interactions between grandparents and grandchildren, exerts a profound influence on both the child listener and the grandparent teller. Unfortunately, opportunities for such sharing are rare for the many extended families who are geographically separated, and the stories go untold. Simple methods such as tape recorders or memory books can be difficult to work with, as they do not provide the powerful feedback that an active and interested listener can give. Computer-based systems have the potential to model this feedback, but in order to be effective at evoking stories, the interface must move away from keyboard and monitor and must be grounded in an understanding of conversation. This work argues that an effective story-eliciting system for grandparents must be based on a model of conversational behavior, must provide a comfortable and story-evoking environment, and that the ideal interface is an autonomous animated character. I present GrandChair, a system which can elicit, record, index, and play back grandparents' stories within an interaction model based on face-to-face conversation, and couched in an environment designed to be comfortable and story-evoking. Tellers sit in a comfortable rocking chair and tell stories with the assistance of a conversational agent on a screen, who takes the form of a child, to help them tailor their stories to a child audience, and prompts them with stories, questions, and video clips from their previous interactions.by Jennifer Smith.S.M