Re-Presenting Text in a Website for Visually Impaired Users using Braille Line

As new web technologies emerging and being adopted in the design of a website, web accessibility has become a major issue especially for people with disabilities .Limitation of assistive technology to render webpage has also been contributing factor for poor web accessibility by the visually impaired users. This issue has caused visually impaired users loss semantic information of webpage besides creating frustration situation of web browsing. In this paper, factors that cause web browsing frustration to the visually impaired users and types of tactile effects that can be implemented in the Braille Line device to render the semantic information of webpage are explored. The main objectives of this project is to build a website reader and program a Braille Line 20 cell device for web browsing focusing on presenting non visual text elements such as font attributes and text hierarchy that can be critical to meaning of the text. Tactile technology have been chosen to be adopted in the Braille Line as the touch is the most active sense of visually-impaired people to acquire knowledge .From the prototype to be build, a sample group of visually impaired users will be taken to test and evaluate the website and the device in terms of technology as well as its effectiveness. The results and recommendations were shared by the end of the project as a key milestone for future renditions of the project

Re-Presenting Text in a Website for Visually Impaired Users using Braille Line

As new web technologies emerging and being adopted in the design of a website, web accessibility has become a major issue especially for people with disabilities .Limitation of assistive technology to render webpage has also been contributing factor for poor web accessibility by the visually impaired users. This issue has caused visually impaired users loss semantic information of webpage besides creating frustration situation of web browsing. In this paper, factors that cause web browsing frustration to the visually impaired users and types of tactile effects that can be implemented in the Braille Line device to render the semantic information of webpage are explored. The main objectives of this project is to build a website reader and program a Braille Line 20 cell device for web browsing focusing on presenting non visual text elements such as font attributes and text hierarchy that can be critical to meaning of the text. Tactile technology have been chosen to be adopted in the Braille Line as the touch is the most active sense of visually-impaired people to acquire knowledge .From the prototype to be build, a sample group of visually impaired users will be taken to test and evaluate the website and the device in terms of technology as well as its effectiveness. The results and recommendations were shared by the end of the project as a key milestone for future renditions of the project

Haptic interface based on tactile sensors for assistive devices

Tesis leída el 14 de febrero de 2018.Los países desarrollados deben hacer frente al creciente envejecimiento de su población. Un proceso de envejecimiento adecuado requiere capacidad funcional en las actividades del día a día. Así, las tecnologías de asistencia deben lidiar con uno de los principales problemas asociados con la edad: el deterioro de la movilidad. Los bastones y los andadores son prescritos para personas con movilidad reducida, pero aún con capacidad de andar. Sin embargo, hay un considerable número de personas en la tercera edad que necesitan otro tipo de ayuda. En este sentido, las sillas de ruedas eléctricas suponen un medio para el aumento de la participación y de la actividad de sus usuarios. Normalmente, estas sillas se conducen mediante un joystick alojado al final de uno de los reposabrazos. No obstante, este dispositivo no es adecuado para todo tipo de usuarios. Algunos de ellos lo encuentran difícil de usar y, para otros, su manejo no es posible y necesitan de la asistencia de otra persona (aquellos que padecen ciertas enfermedades del sistema nervioso, lesiones en la médula espinal, discapacidad mental, etc.). De esta manera, hay casos en que se requiere la ayuda de un cuidador que desplace la silla. Empujar una silla de ruedas de forma habitual produce distintos tipos de lesiones, por lo que es interesante que los asistentes o cuidadores también se beneficien de las ventajas de las sillas de ruedas eléctricas. En este caso, la solución más común consiste en otro joystick situado en la parte trasera de la silla. Como se ha apuntado anteriormente, este no es un dispositivo cómodo e intuitivo para muchos usuarios. Con respecto a la investigación, con frecuencia los dispositivos de asistencia propuestos basan su interfaz con el asistente en sensores de fuerza. Estos componentes son caros y suponen por tanto una barrera de cara a que el dispositivo llegue al mercado

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Processo e desconstrução: estruturas recursivas entre cozinha e design

From the triangulation kitchen, design and process this study searches evidence for bridging process between the fields of kitchen and design following Buchanan’s theory of rethinking placements over categories by way of signs, things, actions and thoughts. Kitchen and design are thus understood as liberal arts disciplines seeking to privilege a placement-based approach to projectual practice. Deconstruction was instrumental for exploring and testing the presence of recursive structures —elements carrying the essential information that generates similar patterns visible on different fields— intersecting the two fields, aiming to prove if and whence kitchen may contribute to expand the knowledge of design. Pallasmaa’s conception of an architecture of the senses, for whom the role of the body is understood as the locus of perception, thought and consciousness, helped explore and convoke the space of kitchen visited by artists and designers throughout recent history, as a means to establish relations between theories, processes, and projectual methodologies in kitchen and design. The reading of the space finds its translation through diverse processes applied by these creators leading to an understanding of a kitchen milieu: process as context. The empirical work with the research sample practices allowed for a discourse within, between and beyond individual samples to reveal the dialogical abilities of the applied processes. From the interpretation of the empirical work it is suggested that kitchen multiplies design (k x d). It implies that the context of kitchen multiplies the space of the discipline of design, becoming, in Buchanan’s term, a “quasi-subject matter of design thinking”. If so, kitchen as other placements may offer, or are open to receive and edify, an expanded view of the discipline of design. Considering findings of the three main typologies (education, research, process) it suggests transversality and integrates fundamental knowledge dimensions as the capability for negotiation between different actors/disciplines. This is made visible through the practices that comprise the research sample, namely curiosity, context, scale, desire, care. This study recommends further research into the transformative potential and imaginary of the kitchen/canteen in liberal arts education.A partir da triangulação cozinha, design e processo, este estudo investiga a evidência para o processo de ligação entre as áreas de cozinha e de design, de acordo com a teoria de Buchanan de repensar mais os posicionamentos que as categorias mediante sinais, coisas, ações e pensamentos. Assim, cozinha e design são entendidos como disciplinas das artes liberais, procurando privilegiar uma abordagem baseada no posicionamento em relação à prática projectual. A desconstrução foi fundamental para explorar e testar a presença de estruturas recursivas —elementos que comportam a informação essencial que gera padrões semelhantes em áreas diferentes— entrecruzando as duas áreas, visando provar se e a partir de onde a cozinha pode contribuir para expandir o conhecimento sobre o design. A concepção de Pallasmaa de uma arquitetura dos sentidos, para quem o papel do corpo é entendido como o locus da percepção, do pensamento e da consciência, ajudou a explorar e a convocar o espaço da cozinha, visitado por artistas e designers ao longo da história recente, como um meio de estabelecer relações entre teorias, processos e metodologias projectuais na cozinha e no design. A leitura do espaço encontra a sua tradução através de diversos processos aplicados por estes criadores, levando a um entendimento de um milieu de cozinha: o processo como contexto. O trabalho empírico com as práticas da amostra de investigação permitiu um discurso dentro, entre e para além das amostras individuais para revelar as capacidades dialógicas dos processos aplicados. A partir da interpretação do trabalho empírico, sugere-se que a cozinha multiplica o design (k x d). Isto implica que o contexto da cozinha multiplica o espaço da disciplina de design, tornando-se, na terminologia de Buchanan, uma “matéria de quase-sujeito de design thinking”. Se assim for, a cozinha, tal como outros posicionamentos, pode oferecer ou estar aberta a receber e a edificar uma visão alargada da disciplina de design. Considerando os resultados das três principais tipologias (educação, investigação, processo), sugere transversalidade e integra dimensões de conhecimento fundamentais como a capacidade de negociação entre diferentes actores/disciplinas. Isto torna-se visível através das práticas que incluem amostra de investigação, nomeadamente curiosidade, contexto, escala, desejo, cuidado. Este estudo recomenda desenvolver investigação sobre o potencial e o imaginário transformadores da cozinha/cantina na educação das artes liberais.Programa Doutoral em Desig

Intelligence artificielle et robotique bio-inspirée : modélisation de fonctions d'apprentissage par réseaux de neurones à impulsions

Cette thèse a comme objectif de permettre une avancée originale dans le domaine de l'informatique cognitive, plus précisément en robotique bio-inspirée. L'hypothèse défendue est qu'il est possible d'intégrer différentes fonctions d'apprentissage, élaborées et incarnées pour des robots virtuels et physiques, à un même paradigme de réseaux de neurones à impulsions agissant comme cerveaux-contrôleurs. La conception de règles d'apprentissage et la validation de l'hypothèse de recherche reposent sur la simulation de mécanismes cellulaires à base de plasticité synaptique et sur la reproduction de comportements adaptatifs des robots. Cette thèse par articles cible trois types d'apprentissage de complexité incrémentale : l'habituation comme forme d'apprentissage non associatif et les conditionnements classiques et opérants comme formes d'apprentissage associatif. L'analyse détaillée, de la synapse au comportement, et validée par des études expérimentales provenant d'invertébrés tels que le ver nématode Caenorhabditis elegans. Pour chacune de ces règles, un algorithme novateur a été proposé, conduisant à la publication d'un article scientifique. Ces règles d'apprentissage ont été modélisées en développant certains paramètres temporels et des circuits neuronaux précis. Incidemment, la granularité du temps des réseaux de neurones à impulsions (RNAI) est établie au niveau du simple potentiel d'action plutôt qu'au niveau du taux moyen de décharge par unité de temps, comme c'est le cas pour les réseaux de neurones artificiels traditionnels. Cette propriété des RNAI s'est avérée être un atout suffisant pour préférer leur utilisation pour des robots évoluant dans le monde réel. L'élaboration du modèle computationnel d'apprentissage pour des robots a requis de tester d'abord les hypothèses sur des simulations virtuelles. Puisqu'aucun simulateur n'avait les capacités suffisantes pour tester notre hypothèse, soit d'intégrer des RNAI, des structures de robots, et des interfaces pour l'exportation des RNAI vers des plateformes physiques et des environnements virtuels 3D suffisamment complexes, il a été nécessaire de développer, en parallèle de la thèse, un logiciel novateur (SIMCOG), permettant une étude analytique par le suivi dynamique des variables, des synapses de RNAI jusqu'aux comportements d'un ou plusieurs robots virtuels ou physiques. Finalement, outre l'intégration de plusieurs fonctions différentes d'apprentissage dans des RNAI, une autre des conclusions de ce travail suggère que des robots virtuels et physiques peuvent apprendre et s'adapter au niveau comportemental, de façon similaire aux agents naturels. Ces observations comportementales sont basées sur la simulation de mécanismes de plasticité synaptique modulés par des variables temporelles relatives aux stimuli physiques et aux activités cellulaires neuronales.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Intelligence artificielle, Cognition, Simulateur, Robotique bio-inspirée, Réseaux de neurones artificiels à impulsions, Apprentissage, Habituation, Conditionnement classique, Conditionnement opérant, Plasticité synaptiqu

Prenatal psychic experience: a psychoanalytic systematic exploration of the emotional life of the fetus

The purpose of this dissertation was to provide a systematic and comprehensive review of the psychoanalytic literature as it pertains to prenatal psychic experience. The emotional life of the fetus has become an increasingly important topic in psychoanalysis, particularly within object relations theory and theoretical and clinical exploration of primitive mental states. Contemporary psychoanalysts, following the ideas of Freud, Bion, Ploye, Mancia, Grotstein, and Paul have begun to gather research from the fields of infant mental health, developmental psychology, and medicine, among others, to show that not only does the newborn infant have an inherent capacity to communicate with the mothering one but that these capacities may have taken form during the prenatal stage of development. While psychoanalytic theory in the area of prenatal psychic experience has been sparse, to date there have been no attempts to identify and synthesize the literature that exists in disparate areas of psychoanalysis. This dissertation aimed to systematically review the psychoanalytic literature in this area of study and to integrate existing theories and ideas through the use of Grounded Theory methods to provide a context for further inquiry and recommendations for possible clinical application

In-corporeal Diagrams: Drawing from Dance to Architecture

This thesis examines drawing’s potential to revive the role of the body in architectural practices, by unveiling forces and processes that compose our bodies and intertwine with the corporeality of architecture. It establishes drawing as a form of dance and notation capable of inscribing the kinesthetic vitality of the live body into architecture. It looks at Frank Gehry’s sketches as dynamic tracings of embodied gestures that mediate body and landscape, interior and exterior. The sketches are addressed as the residue of forces generating potential bodies of space, as well as formative diagrams that operate as a prehension of the coming into being of building. Drawing’s heuristic role is substantiated by pedagogical and epistemological theories of dance, drawing and architecture education, which situate the affective/haptic kinesthetic body at the center of all in-corporeal experience, perception and conception. The thesis concludes by advancing potential heuristic approaches to embodied drawing in architecture education that could inform processes of conceptualization and enrich the act of sketching as a vital interface between body and architecture