392,787 research outputs found
Ambiguity and Communication
The ambiguity of a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) N for input size n
is the maximal number of accepting computations of N for an input of size n.
For all k, r 2 N we construct languages Lr,k which can be recognized by NFA's
with size k poly(r) and ambiguity O(nk), but Lr,k has only NFA's with
exponential size, if ambiguity o(nk) is required. In particular, a hierarchy
for polynomial ambiguity is obtained, solving a long standing open problem
(Ravikumar and Ibarra, 1989, Leung, 1998)
Making Space for Stories: Ambiguity in the Design of Personal Communication Systems
Pervasive personal communication technologies offer the potential for
important social benefits for individual users, but also the potential for
significant social difficulties and costs. In research on face-to-face social
interaction, ambiguity is often identified as an important resource for
resolving social difficulties. In this paper, we discuss two design cases of
personal communication systems, one based on fieldwork of a commercial system
and another based on an unrealized design concept. The cases illustrate how
user behavior concerning a particular social difficulty, unexplained
unresponsiveness, can be influenced by technological issues that result in
interactional ambiguity. The cases also highlight the need to balance the
utility of ambiguity against the utility of usability and communicative
clarity.Comment: 10 page
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Ambiguity is a double-edged sword: similarity references in communication
Designers often explain new concepts and new ideas by reference to existing designs. This is parsimonious, as it only requires a pointer to the referent and a description of the modifications. Such descriptions can be extremely powerful, expressing the entire context of a design or a process in a few words. However similarity assertions are inherently ambiguous, because they depend not only on the chosen description but also on the intention behind the similarity comparison. In this paper we attempt to analyse the effect that the ambiguity of similarity references has on communication and idea generation in design. The reinterpretation of a similarity assertion can be extremely creative, where ambiguity allows for new interpretations of a problem. At the same time, it can make accurate communication extremely difficult because every assertion can be interpreted differently unless the context is fully shared
Differential phase shift keyed communication system
A communication system using differential phase-shift-keying (DPSK) transmits and receives binary data without requiring timing or phase reference signals. The system encodes and modulates the data at the transmitter, and decodes and demodulates the data at the receiver, without ambiguity as to the data content
Taxonomy for Humans or Computers? Cognitive Pragmatics for Big Data
Criticism of big data has focused on showing that more is not necessarily better, in the sense that data may lose their value when taken out of context and aggregated together. The next step is to incorporate an awareness of pitfalls for aggregation into the design of data infrastructure and institutions. A common strategy minimizes aggregation errors by increasing the precision of our conventions for identifying and classifying data. As a counterpoint, we argue that there are pragmatic trade-offs between precision and ambiguity that are key to designing effective solutions for generating big data about biodiversity. We focus on the importance of theory-dependence as a source of ambiguity in taxonomic nomenclature and hence a persistent challenge for implementing a single, long-term solution to storing and accessing meaningful sets of biological specimens. We argue that ambiguity does have a positive role to play in scientific progress as a tool for efficiently symbolizing multiple aspects of taxa and mediating between conflicting hypotheses about their nature. Pursuing a deeper understanding of the trade-offs and synthesis of precision and ambiguity as virtues of scientific language and communication systems then offers a productive next step for realizing sound, big biodiversity data services
On the origin of ambiguity in efficient communication
This article studies the emergence of ambiguity in communication through the
concept of logical irreversibility and within the framework of Shannon's
information theory. This leads us to a precise and general expression of the
intuition behind Zipf's vocabulary balance in terms of a symmetry equation
between the complexities of the coding and the decoding processes that imposes
an unavoidable amount of logical uncertainty in natural communication.
Accordingly, the emergence of irreversible computations is required if the
complexities of the coding and the decoding processes are balanced in a
symmetric scenario, which means that the emergence of ambiguous codes is a
necessary condition for natural communication to succeed.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure
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The Mystique of Central Bank Speak
Despite the recent trend toward greater transparency of monetary policy, in many respects mystique still prevails in central bank speak. This paper shows that the resulting perception of ambiguity could be desirable. Under the plausible assumption of imperfect common knowledge about the degree of central bank transparency, economic outcomes are affected by both the actual and perceived degree of transparency. It is shown that actual transparency is beneficial, while it may be useful to create the perception of opacity. The optimal communication strategy for the central bank is to provide clarity about the inflation target and to communicate information about the output target and supply shocks with perceived ambiguity. In this respect, the central bank benefits from sustaining transparency misperceptions, which helps to explain the mystique of central bank speak
Interstellar Communication: The Case for Spread Spectrum
Spread spectrum, widely employed in modern digital wireless terrestrial radio
systems, chooses a signal with a noise-like character and much higher bandwidth
than necessary. This paper advocates spread spectrum modulation for
interstellar communication, motivated by robust immunity to radio-frequency
interference (RFI) of technological origin in the vicinity of the receiver
while preserving full detection sensitivity in the presence of natural sources
of noise. Receiver design for noise immunity alone provides no basis for
choosing a signal with any specific character, therefore failing to reduce
ambiguity. By adding RFI to noise immunity as a design objective, the
conjunction of choice of signal (by the transmitter) together with optimum
detection for noise immunity (in the receiver) leads through simple
probabilistic argument to the conclusion that the signal should possess the
statistical properties of a burst of white noise, and also have a large
time-bandwidth product. Thus spread spectrum also provides an implicit
coordination between transmitter and receiver by reducing the ambiguity as to
the signal character. This strategy requires the receiver to guess the specific
noise-like signal, and it is contended that this is feasible if an appropriate
pseudorandom signal is generated algorithmically. For example, conceptually
simple algorithms like the binary expansion of common irrational numbers like
Pi are shown to be suitable. Due to its deliberately wider bandwidth, spread
spectrum is more susceptible to dispersion and distortion in propagation
through the interstellar medium, desirably reducing ambiguity in parameters
like bandwidth and carrier frequency. This suggests a promising new direction
in interstellar communication using spread spectrum modulation techniques
Communication-Cognition ‘Butterfly’ (Geometrical Model of Verbal Communication in Case of Ambiguity)
The present paper deals with the traditional semantic triangle from the perspective of successful / unsuccessful
communication in case of linguistic ambiguity and examines the limitations of the triangle in description of
communication-cognition process. It is maintained that the semantic triangle merely explains the relationship between
sign, concept and referent and describes how the received linguistic signs are decoded but fails to demonstrate the
process of communication which is the main function of human language. An attempt is made to model and
demonstrate communication-cognition process in case of linguistic ambiguity geometrically. Thus, instead of the
semantic triangle, the author suggests a new geometrical shape dubbed “communication-cognition „butterfly” which
includes both the source and recipient of linguistic signs and is tested by means of English linguistic humor based on
ambiguity
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