Blickpunktabhängige Computergraphik

Contemporary digital displays feature multi-million pixels at ever-increasing refresh rates. Reality, on the other hand, provides us with a view of the world that is continuous in space and time. The discrepancy between viewing the physical world and its sampled depiction on digital displays gives rise to perceptual quality degradations. By measuring or estimating where we look, gaze-contingent algorithms aim at exploiting the way we visually perceive to remedy visible artifacts. This dissertation presents a variety of novel gaze-contingent algorithms and respective perceptual studies. Chapter 4 and 5 present methods to boost perceived visual quality of conventional video footage when viewed on commodity monitors or projectors. In Chapter 6 a novel head-mounted display with real-time gaze tracking is described. The device enables a large variety of applications in the context of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Using the gaze-tracking VR headset, a novel gaze-contingent render method is described in Chapter 7. The gaze-aware approach greatly reduces computational efforts for shading virtual worlds. The described methods and studies show that gaze-contingent algorithms are able to improve the quality of displayed images and videos or reduce the computational effort for image generation, while display quality perceived by the user does not change.Moderne digitale Bildschirme ermöglichen immer höhere Auflösungen bei ebenfalls steigenden Bildwiederholraten. Die Realität hingegen ist in Raum und Zeit kontinuierlich. Diese Grundverschiedenheit führt beim Betrachter zu perzeptuellen Unterschieden. Die Verfolgung der Aug-Blickrichtung ermöglicht blickpunktabhängige Darstellungsmethoden, die sichtbare Artefakte verhindern können. Diese Dissertation trägt zu vier Bereichen blickpunktabhängiger und wahrnehmungstreuer Darstellungsmethoden bei. Die Verfahren in Kapitel 4 und 5 haben zum Ziel, die wahrgenommene visuelle Qualität von Videos für den Betrachter zu erhöhen, wobei die Videos auf gewöhnlicher Ausgabehardware wie z.B. einem Fernseher oder Projektor dargestellt werden. Kapitel 6 beschreibt die Entwicklung eines neuartigen Head-mounted Displays mit Unterstützung zur Erfassung der Blickrichtung in Echtzeit. Die Kombination der Funktionen ermöglicht eine Reihe interessanter Anwendungen in Bezug auf Virtuelle Realität (VR) und Erweiterte Realität (AR). Das vierte und abschließende Verfahren in Kapitel 7 dieser Dissertation beschreibt einen neuen Algorithmus, der das entwickelte Eye-Tracking Head-mounted Display zum blickpunktabhängigen Rendern nutzt. Die Qualität des Shadings wird hierbei auf Basis eines Wahrnehmungsmodells für jeden Bildpixel in Echtzeit analysiert und angepasst. Das Verfahren hat das Potenzial den Berechnungsaufwand für das Shading einer virtuellen Szene auf ein Bruchteil zu reduzieren. Die in dieser Dissertation beschriebenen Verfahren und Untersuchungen zeigen, dass blickpunktabhängige Algorithmen die Darstellungsqualität von Bildern und Videos wirksam verbessern können, beziehungsweise sich bei gleichbleibender Bildqualität der Berechnungsaufwand des bildgebenden Verfahrens erheblich verringern lässt

Investigating Simulation-Based Pattern Recognition Training For Behavior Cue Detection

The U.S. military uses pattern recognition training to observe anomalies in human behavior. An examination of the pattern recognition training literature for Warfighters reveals a gap in training to discern patterns of human behavior in live environments. Additionally, the current state of warfare is evolving and requires operations to change. As a result, pattern recognition training must accommodate new practices to improve performance. A technique used to improve memory for identifying patterns in the environment is Kim\u27s game. Kim\u27s game establishes patterns to identify inanimate objects, of which information retains in memory for later recall. The paper discusses the fundamental principles of Kim\u27s game applied to virtual Simulation-Based Training. The virtual version of Kim\u27s game contains customized scenarios for training behavior cue analysis. Virtual agents display kinesic cues that exhibit aggressive (i.e., slap hands and clench fist) and nervous behaviors including wring hands and check six. This research takes a novel approach by animating the kinesics cues in the virtual version of Kim\u27s game for pattern recognition training. Detection accuracy, response time, and false positive detection serve as the performance data for analysis. Additional survey data collected include engagement, flow, and simulator sickness. All collected data was compared to a control condition to examine its effectiveness of behavior cue detection. A series of one-way between subjects design ANOVA\u27s were conducted to examine the differences between Kim\u27s game and control on post-test performance. Although, the results from this experiment showed no significance in post-test performance, the percent change in post-test performance provide further insight into the results of the Kim\u27s game and control strategies. Specifically, participants in the control condition performed better than the Kim\u27s game group on detection accuracy and response time. However, the Kim\u27s game group outperformed the control group on false positive detection. Further, this experiment explored the differences in Engagement, Flow, and Simulator Sickness after the practice scenario between Kim\u27s game group and the control group. The results found no significant difference in Engagement, partial significance for Flow, and significant difference for Simulator Sickness between the Kim\u27s game and control group after the practice scenario. Next, a series of Spearman\u27s rank correlations were conducted to assess the relationships between Engagement, Flow, Simulator Sickness, and post-test performance, as well as examine the relationship between working memory and training performance; resulting in meaningful correlations to explain the relationships and identifying new concepts to explain unrelated variables. Finally, the role of Engagement, Flow, and Simulator Sickness as a predictor of post-test performance was examined using a series of multiple linear regressions. The results highlighted Simulator Sickness as a significant predictor of post-test performance. Overall, the results from this experiment proposes to expand the body of pattern recognition training literature by identifying strategies that enhance behavior cue detection training. Furthermore, it provides recommendations to training and education communities for improving behavior cue analysis.

Presence 2005: the eighth annual international workshop on presence, 21-23 September, 2005 University College London (Conference proceedings)

OVERVIEW (taken from the CALL FOR PAPERS) Academics and practitioners with an interest in the concept of (tele)presence are invited to submit their work for presentation at PRESENCE 2005 at University College London in London, England, September 21-23, 2005. The eighth in a series of highly successful international workshops, PRESENCE 2005 will provide an open discussion forum to share ideas regarding concepts and theories, measurement techniques, technology, and applications related to presence, the psychological state or subjective perception in which a person fails to accurately and completely acknowledge the role of technology in an experience, including the sense of 'being there' experienced by users of advanced media such as virtual reality. The concept of presence in virtual environments has been around for at least 15 years, and the earlier idea of telepresence at least since Minsky's seminal paper in 1980. Recently there has been a burst of funded research activity in this area for the first time with the European FET Presence Research initiative. What do we really know about presence and its determinants? How can presence be successfully delivered with today's technology? This conference invites papers that are based on empirical results from studies of presence and related issues and/or which contribute to the technology for the delivery of presence. Papers that make substantial advances in theoretical understanding of presence are also welcome. The interest is not solely in virtual environments but in mixed reality environments. Submissions will be reviewed more rigorously than in previous conferences. High quality papers are therefore sought which make substantial contributions to the field. Approximately 20 papers will be selected for two successive special issues for the journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. PRESENCE 2005 takes place in London and is hosted by University College London. The conference is organized by ISPR, the International Society for Presence Research and is supported by the European Commission's FET Presence Research Initiative through the Presencia and IST OMNIPRES projects and by University College London

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 385)

This bibliography lists 536 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System 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

The making of smart cities : borders, security and value in New Town Kolkata and Cape Town

The making of smart cities transforms not only infrastructures and practices but also the techniques of urban government and security, and economic processes. This thesis draws on analysis conducted in two research sites: Cape Town, in South Africa and New Town Rajarhat, a satellite township on the outskirts of Kolkata, to present three key arguments. Firstly, and as opposed to mainstream narratives that describe smart cities as seamlessly connected environments, this thesis suggests that urban digitalisation is linked to bordering processes. Whereas critical literature has comprehensively discussed the political implications and risks associated with smart city projects, such as corporatisation and technocratic governance, the specific relations between digital infrastructures and borders, within the urban space, have not yet been discussed. Secondly, this thesis argues that smart cities are inherently security projects, insofar as the deployment of a computing infrastructure of sensing initiates a preemptive apparatus. In security systems, such as the Emergency Policing and Incident Command (EPIC) program in Cape Town, or the Xpresso software for social media monitoring in New Town, algorithms are continuously modelling and acting upon future scenarios; from traffic jams to wildfires, from crime hotspots to citizens’ moods. My third argument is that the computing apparatus of security also serves as an infrastructure of value extraction. Recently, there has been much theorising and debate about security platforms’ economic operations, but the situated modalities in which they extract value from the urban environment remain to be examined. Overall, this thesis points to the socio-spatial, governmental and economic relations that computing infrastructures are generating, or reconfiguring, in the urban environment. These relations articulate distinct processes, including the hierarchisation and control of the urban space, preemptive policies and extractive strategies. Critically analysing these processes allows the registration of the political implications of smart city projects

Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends and Applications

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue entitled “Multi-Robot Systems: Challenges, Trends, and Applications” that was published in Applied Sciences. This Special Issue collected seventeen high-quality papers that discuss the main challenges of multi-robot systems, present the trends to address these issues, and report various relevant applications. Some of the topics addressed by these papers are robot swarms, mission planning, robot teaming, machine learning, immersive technologies, search and rescue, and social robotics