31,874 research outputs found
Ono: an open platform for social robotics
In recent times, the focal point of research in robotics has shifted from industrial ro- bots toward robots that interact with humans in an intuitive and safe manner. This evolution has resulted in the subfield of social robotics, which pertains to robots that function in a human environment and that can communicate with humans in an int- uitive way, e.g. with facial expressions. Social robots have the potential to impact many different aspects of our lives, but one particularly promising application is the use of robots in therapy, such as the treatment of children with autism. Unfortunately, many of the existing social robots are neither suited for practical use in therapy nor for large scale studies, mainly because they are expensive, one-of-a-kind robots that are hard to modify to suit a specific need. We created Ono, a social robotics platform, to tackle these issues. Ono is composed entirely from off-the-shelf components and cheap materials, and can be built at a local FabLab at the fraction of the cost of other robots. Ono is also entirely open source and the modular design further encourages modification and reuse of parts of the platform
Semantic Technologies for Manuscript Descriptions — Concepts and Visions
The contribution at hand relates recent developments in the area of the World Wide
Web to codicological research. In the last number of years, an informational extension
of the internet has been discussed and extensively researched: the Semantic Web. It
has already been applied in many areas, including digital information processing of
cultural heritage data. The Semantic Web facilitates the organisation and linking of
data across websites, according to a given semantic structure. Software can then process
this structural and semantic information to extract further knowledge. In the area
of codicological research, many institutions are making efforts to improve the online
availability of handwritten codices. If these resources could also employ Semantic
Web techniques, considerable research potential could be unleashed. However, data
acquisition from less structured data sources will be problematic. In particular, data
stemming from unstructured sources needs to be made accessible to SemanticWeb tools
through information extraction techniques. In the area of museum research, the CIDOC
Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) has been widely examined and is being adopted
successfully. The CRM translates well to Semantic Web research, and its concentration
on contextualization of objects could support approaches in codicological research.
Further concepts for the creation and management of bibliographic coherences and
structured vocabularies related to the CRM will be considered in this chapter. Finally, a
user scenario showing all processing steps in their context will be elaborated on
Digital Image Access & Retrieval
The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio
TOBE: Tangible Out-of-Body Experience
We propose a toolkit for creating Tangible Out-of-Body Experiences: exposing
the inner states of users using physiological signals such as heart rate or
brain activity. Tobe can take the form of a tangible avatar displaying live
physiological readings to reflect on ourselves and others. Such a toolkit could
be used by researchers and designers to create a multitude of potential
tangible applications, including (but not limited to) educational tools about
Science Technologies Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and cognitive science,
medical applications or entertainment and social experiences with one or
several users or Tobes involved. Through a co-design approach, we investigated
how everyday people picture their physiology and we validated the acceptability
of Tobe in a scientific museum. We also give a practical example where two
users relax together, with insights on how Tobe helped them to synchronize
their signals and share a moment
Serious Games in Cultural Heritage
Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented
Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review
Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented
Collaborative trails in e-learning environments
This deliverable focuses on collaboration within groups of learners, and hence collaborative trails. We begin by reviewing the theoretical background to collaborative learning and looking at the kinds of support that computers can give to groups of learners working collaboratively, and then look more deeply at some of the issues in designing environments to support collaborative learning trails and at tools and techniques, including collaborative filtering, that can be used for analysing collaborative trails. We then review the state-of-the-art in supporting collaborative learning in three different areas – experimental academic systems, systems using mobile technology (which are also generally academic), and commercially available systems. The final part of the deliverable presents three scenarios that show where technology that supports groups working collaboratively and producing collaborative trails may be heading in the near future
Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century
Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission
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