LUCIA: An open source 3D expressive avatar for multimodal h.m.i.

LUCIA is an MPEG-4 facial animation system developed at ISTC-CNR . It works on standard Facial Animation Parameters and speaks with the Italian version of FESTIVAL TTS. To achieve an emotive/expressive talking head LUCIA was build from real human data physically extracted by ELITE optotracking movement analyzer. LUCIA can copy a real human by reproducing the movements of passive markers positioned on his face and recorded by the ELITE device or can be driven by an emotional XML tagged input text, thus realizing a true audio/visual emotive/expressive synthesis. Synchronization between visual and audio data is very important in order to create the correct WAV and FAP files needed for the animation. LUCIA\u27s voice is based on the ISTC Italian version of FESTIVAL-MBROLA packages, modified by means of an appropriate APML/VSML tagged language. LUCIA is available in two dif-ferent versions: an open source framework and the "work in progress" WebGL

A FACIAL ANIMATION FRAMEWORK WITH EMOTIVE/EXPRESSIVE CAPABILITIES

LUCIA is an MPEG-4 facial animation system developed at ISTC-CNR.. It works on standard Facial Animation Parameters and speaks with the Italian version of FESTIVAL TTS. To achieve an emotive/expressive talking head LUCIA was build from real human data physically extracted by ELITE optotracking movement analyzer. LUCIA can copy a real human by reproducing the movements of passive markers positioned on his face and recorded by the ELITE device or can be driven by an emotional XML tagged input text, thus realizing a true audio/visual emotive/expressive synthesis. Synchronization between visual and audio data is very important in order to create the correct WAV and FAP files needed for the animation. LUCIA\u27s voice is based on the ISTC Italian version of FESTIVAL-MBROLA packages, modified by means of an appropriate APML/VSML tagged language. LUCIA is available in two different versions: an open source framework and the "work in progress" WebG

Contextualising Critical Design: Towards a Taxonomy of Critical Practice in Product Design

This study focuses on critical design practice. The research challenges the colloquial understanding of ‘critical design.’ It problematises, defines and reassesses the concept of ‘critical design’ situating it among other forms of critical design practice. The research reviews the field of activity from a historical perspective. It reviews contemporary activity in contexts of design research and the gallery system to establish domain authorities and theoretical perspectives that inform critical design practice. The research draws from a body of literature relating to design theory and critical design practice to identify several important themes by which to discuss the practice. The research employs a hermeneutic methodology and engages expert ‘critical’ designers through a series of conversational interviews. The interviews are analysed using code to theory methods of inductive qualitative analysis and subjected to hermeneutic analysis that draws on the extensive contextual review. Salient concepts found in the discourse are extracted, theorised and organised to create taxonomy of critical design practice. In the taxonomy, the field of critical design practice is categorised by three types of practice: Associative Design, Speculative Design and Critical Design. These three practices are differentiated by topics addressed in each and further differentiated by the type of Satire, Narrative and Object Rationality used in each practice. The original contribution of this research is a Taxonomy of critical practice in product design, which consists of a written and visual dimension. The taxonomy acts as a discursive tool to chart design activity and it illustrates the diversity in critical design practice beyond the colloquial understanding of ‘critical design’. The taxonomy presents three distinct types of critical design practice; it outlines the design methods used to establish the critical move through design and identifies the contexts where critical design is practiced. It can be used to compare projects, chart designers’ activity over time, illustrate trajectories of practice and identify themes in practice. The taxonomy provides theoretical apparatus to analyse the field. Such analysis contributes towards a discussion on critical design within design studies

How do things become strategic? ‘Strategifying’ corporate social responsibility

How do things become ‘strategic’? Despite the development of strategy-as-practice studies and the recognized institutional importance of strategy as a social practice, little is known about how strategy boundaries change within organizations. This article focuses on this gap by conceptualizing ‘strategifying’ – or making something strategic – as a type of institutional work that builds on the institution of strategy to change the boundaries of what is regarded as strategy within organizations. We empirically investigate how corporate social responsibility has been turned into strategy at a UK electricity company, EnergyCorp. Our findings reveal the practices that constitute three types of strategifying work – cognitive coupling, relational coupling and material coupling – and show how, together and over time, these types of work changed the boundaries of strategy so that corporate social responsibility became included in EnergyCorp’s official strategy, became explicitly attended to by strategists and corporate executives and became inscribed within strategy devices. By disambiguating the notions of strategifying and strategizing, our study introduces new perspectives for analysing the institutional implications of the practice of strategy

Look Before You Leap into ERP Implementation: An Object-Oriented Approach to Business Process Modeling

Procedural due diligence is critical for effective adoption and use of enterprise systems. Such procedural review needs to be holistic, capturing both the mechanistic aspects of process workflows as well as the human behavioral influences. Traditional methodologies offer little guidance on how to capture the human dimension of business processes. This article draws upon the Object Oriented (OO) concepts to propose and validate an approach that simultaneously models the content of the process flows and the human behavioral context. The two companies that served as test sites greatly benefited from using this process modeling approach. The analysis results gave these companies—that were on the verge of full-scale Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) implementation—reason to pause and reevaluate their current state of affairs

Why do I lose time playing? Game features reported by players as being more satisfying

This dissertation had the objetive to relate elements from cognitive psychology with game design. For this purpose, it was discussed some features that constitutes a game, game design in order to create a good playing experience for players, presented persuasion strategies and thus how rewards given to players may keep them interested in the game and influence their behavior. To conclude, a list has been created with elements that were discussed and identified as being relevant in creating a good game experience. Besides, data collected from an online form done with players, with a total of 182 answers, was analysed for the sake of testing some hypotheses and concluding that challenge difficulty, player choices and playing with friends are important features.Este trabalho teve como objetivo tentar encontrar elementos da psicologia cognitiva e os associar com design de jogos. Para isso foi demonstrado o que são jogos, seu game design para criação de uma boa experiência de jogo aos jogadores, demonstração de elementos de persuasão e então como as recompensas fornecidas aos jogadores podem mantê-los interessados no jogo e influenciar seu comportamento. Por fim, foi criada uma tabela com elementos que foram discutidos e identificados como importantes para possibilitar uma boa experiência de jogo. Além disso, dados coletados de um questionário online, realizado com jogadores e obtidas 182 respostas, foram analisados afim de testar algumas hipóteses e concluímos que dificuldade do desafio, escolhas e jogar com amigos são fatores importantes

Similarity or Difference as a Basis for Justice: Must Animals Be Like Humans to Be Legally Protected from Humans?

Justice may not require that animals be exactly the same as humans or that they have rights exactly coterminous with the rights of humans, but justice would require that animals receive protection in ways that match up with those similarities they share with humans that are characteristics considered essential to the understanding of what it means to be human. Stated generally, the argument is that if animals are similar to humans as to capacities and characteristics of humans that define humans, then animals should receive protections equivalent to the protections of humans because a just society treats like entities alike

Student Access and Success: Issues and Interventions in South African Universities

Low rates of access and success in post-secondary education are arguably the single biggest challenge facing South Africa's public education system. The sustem is failing to meet the educational needs of young people, a growing economy, and a rapidly changing society. Black students, particularly those from poor backgrounds are deeply affected. Senior managers, 30 in all, at 18 of the country's 23 public universities were interviewed to understand issues such as primary academic interventions designed to support and improve student success. The authors conclude that no single intervention is likely to shift student performance and success. The answer, however, will require "understanding the holistic needs of students." The authors also feel it is crucial that the imporatnce of teaching and learning - as well as research- be understood

The reconciliation of fraternal twins: Integrating the psychological and sociological approaches to ‘micro’ corporate social responsibility

Aguinis and Glavas’ (2012) call for a deeper understanding of the microfoundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has spurred a growing number of empirical micro-CSR studies. Micro-CSR scholars share the common goal of developing a clear picture of the microfoundations of CSR—a holistic theoretical and empirical understanding of how individual actions and interactions drive CSR-related activity—but pursue this objective from a variety of angles. Our research suggests that although many scholars work under the same ‘micro-CSR’ banner, they approach their goal from a wide range of disciplines, use different methodologies, and study different phenomena. In this critical essay, we show that most micro-CSR research can be classified in one of two distinct sub-fields: ‘psychological micro-CSR’ and ‘sociological micro-CSR’. We compare the differences between these orientations (including their distinct empirical approaches, and contributions of both fields of micro-CSR) and explore possible opportunities for cross-fertilization between the psychological and sociological approaches. Finally, we suggest ways in which micro-CSR scholars could exploit the complementarities and eliminate the blind spots common to the two dominant micro-CSR approaches