1,948 research outputs found

    NASA JSC neural network survey results

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    A survey of Artificial Neural Systems in support of NASA's (Johnson Space Center) Automatic Perception for Mission Planning and Flight Control Research Program was conducted. Several of the world's leading researchers contributed papers containing their most recent results on artificial neural systems. These papers were broken into categories and descriptive accounts of the results make up a large part of this report. Also included is material on sources of information on artificial neural systems such as books, technical reports, software tools, etc

    Cognition and the Web

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    Empirical research related to the Web has typically focused on its impact to social relationships and wider society; however, the cognitive impact of the Web is also an increasing focus of scientific interest and research attention. In this paper, I attempt to provide an overview of what I see as the important issues in the debate regarding the relationship between human cognition and the Web. I argue that the Web is potentially poised to transform our cognitive and epistemic profiles, but that in order to understand the nature of this influence we need to countenance a position that factors in the available scientific evidence, the changing nature of our interaction with the Web, and the possibility that many of our everyday cognitive achievements rely on complex webs of social and technological scaffolding. I review the literature relating to the cognitive effects of current Web technology, and I attempt to anticipate the cognitive impact of next-generation technologies, such as Web-based augmented reality systems and the transition to data-centric modes of information representation. I suggest that additional work is required to more fully understand the cognitive impact of both current and future Web technologies, and I identify some of the issues for future scientific work in this area. Given that recent scientific effort around the Web has coalesced into a new scientific discipline, namely that of Web Science, I suggest that many of the issues related to cognition and the Web could form part of the emerging Web Science research agenda

    Videoscapes: Exploring Unstructured Video Collections

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    Designing a training tool for imaging mental models

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    The training process can be conceptualized as the student acquiring an evolutionary sequence of classification-problem solving mental models. For example a physician learns (1) classification systems for patient symptoms, diagnostic procedures, diseases, and therapeutic interventions and (2) interrelationships among these classifications (e.g., how to use diagnostic procedures to collect data about a patient's symptoms in order to identify the disease so that therapeutic measures can be taken. This project developed functional specifications for a computer-based tool, Mental Link, that allows the evaluative imaging of such mental models. The fundamental design approach underlying this representational medium is traversal of virtual cognition space. Typically intangible cognitive entities and links among them are visible as a three-dimensional web that represents a knowledge structure. The tool has a high degree of flexibility and customizability to allow extension to other types of uses, such a front-end to an intelligent tutoring system, knowledge base, hypermedia system, or semantic network

    Ono: an open platform for social robotics

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    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

    Optical and optoelectronic fiber devices

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    Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-119).The ability to integrate materials with disparate electrical, thermal, and optical properties into a single fiber structure enabled the realization of fiber devices with diverse and complex functionalities. Amongst those, demonstrated first in our work, are the surface-emitting fiber laser, the hollow-core fiber amplifier, the thermally self-monitored high-power transmission fiber device, and the photo-detecting fiber-web based imaging system. This work presents the design, analysis, and characterization of those devices. It opens with a study of the transmission properties of the multimode hollow-core, photonic bandgap fiber constructed of a periodic multilayer cladding. A defect is then introduced into one of the cladding layers and the interaction between core and defect modes is investigated. The second chapter addresses the experimental problem encountered in many multimode waveguide applications: how to extract, and to some extent to control, the modal content of the field at the output of a waveguide. We developed a non-interferometric approach to achieve mode decomposition based on a modified phase retrieval algorithm that can yield the complete vectorial eigenmode content of any general waveguiding structure and demonstrated its validity experimentally. In the third chapter an active material is introduced into the hollow-core to form a surface-emitting fiber laser. A unique azimuthally anisotropic optical wave front results from the interplay between the cylindrical resonator, the anisotropic gain medium, and the linearly polarized axial pump. We show that the direction and polarization of the wave front are directly controlled by the pump polarization.(cont.) In the last two chapters, a new type of fiber is presented, constructed of semiconducting, insulating, and conducting materials, which enables the integration of semiconductor devices into the fiber structure. In the first we demonstrate a fiber comprised of an optical transmission element designed for the transport of high power radiation and multiple thermal-detecting elements encompassing the hollow core for distributed temperature monitoring and real-time failure detection. In the second, we demonstrate optical imaging using large-area, three-dimensional optical-detector arrays, built from one-dimensional photodetecting optoelectronic fibers. Lensless imaging of an object is achieved using a phase retrieval algorithm.by Ofer Shapira.Ph.D

    Internet visual media processing: A survey with graphics and vision applications

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    In recent years, the computer graphics and computer vision communities have devoted significant attention to research based on Internet visual media resources. The huge number of images and videos continually being uploaded by millions of people have stimulated a variety of visual media creation and editing applications, while also posing serious challenges of retrieval, organization, and utilization. This article surveys recent research as regards processing of large collections of images and video, including work on analysis, manipulation, and synthesis. It discusses the problems involved, and suggests possible future directions in this emerging research area
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