662 research outputs found

    Classifying Indian Classical Dances By Motion Posture Patterns

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    Dance is a classic form of human motion which is usually performed as a reaction of expression to music. The Indian classical dances, for instance, require multiple complicated movements that relates to body motion postures and hand gestures with high similarities. Past studies showed interests using various methods to classify dances. The most common method used is the Hidden Markov Models (HMM), apart from using the correlation matrix method and hierarchical cluster analysis. Nevertheless, less effort has been placed in analysing the Indian dance by using the data mining approach. Therefore, the objectives in this work are to (i) distinguish different types of Indian classical dances, (ii) classify the type of dance based on motion posture patterns and (iii) determine the effects of attributes on the classification accuracy. This study involves five types of Indian classical dances (Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Manipuri and Odissi) motion postures. The data mining approaches were used to classify the motion posture patterns by type of dances. A total of 15 dance videos were collected from the public available domain for body joints tracking processes using the Kinovea software. Data mining analysis was performed in three stages: data pre�processing, data classification and knowledge discovery using the WEKA software. RandomForest algorithm returned the highest classification accuracy (99.2616%). On attribute configuration, y-coordinates of left wrist (LW(y)) was identified as the most significant attribute to differentiate the Indian classical dance classes

    Analysis of movement quality in full-body physical activities

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    Full-body human movement is characterized by fine-grain expressive qualities that humans are easily capable of exhibiting and recognizing in others' movement. In sports (e.g., martial arts) and performing arts (e.g., dance), the same sequence of movements can be performed in a wide range of ways characterized by different qualities, often in terms of subtle (spatial and temporal) perturbations of the movement. Even a non-expert observer can distinguish between a top-level and average performance by a dancer or martial artist. The difference is not in the performed movements-the same in both cases-but in the \u201cquality\u201d of their performance. In this article, we present a computational framework aimed at an automated approximate measure of movement quality in full-body physical activities. Starting from motion capture data, the framework computes low-level (e.g., a limb velocity) and high-level (e.g., synchronization between different limbs) movement features. Then, this vector of features is integrated to compute a value aimed at providing a quantitative assessment of movement quality approximating the evaluation that an external expert observer would give of the same sequence of movements. Next, a system representing a concrete implementation of the framework is proposed. Karate is adopted as a testbed. We selected two different katas (i.e., detailed choreographies of movements in karate) characterized by different overall attitudes and expressions (aggressiveness, meditation), and we asked seven athletes, having various levels of experience and age, to perform them. Motion capture data were collected from the performances and were analyzed with the system. The results of the automated analysis were compared with the scores given by 14 karate experts who rated the same performances. Results show that the movement-quality scores computed by the system and the ratings given by the human observers are highly correlated (Pearson's correlations r = 0.84, p = 0.001 and r = 0.75, p = 0.005)

    Kein Stolz und keine Bosheit mehr: „Die roten Schuhe“ und die zeitgenössischen Bilderbücher

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    Despite young Karen’s dreadful demise in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Red Shoes”, which casts it as a rather “inappropriate” story for contemporary child audiences, the influence of “The Red Shoes” persists in contemporary picturebooks for young readers. This essay considers both explicit adaptations of “The Red Shoes” as well as texts that borrow the imagery of Andersen’s fraught tale for their stories about girlhood and ballet. Specifically, I consider the ideological implications of reproducing Andersen’s story and imagery, as well as the degree to which revision must occur to get outside of the problems – about gender especially.Iako zastrašujuća sudbina mlade Karen u „Crvenim cipelicama“ Hansa Christiana Andersena priču čini prilično „neprikladnom“ za suvremenu dječju publiku, utjecaj spomenute bajke i dalje je zamjetan u suvremenim slikovnicama za mlade čitatelje. U ovome se radu istražuju izravne adaptacije „Crvenih cipelica“, kao i tekstovi koji u vlastite priče o djevojaštvu i baletu upliću teme i motive iz Andersenove bremenite bajke. Konkretno, u radu se razmatraju ideološke implikacije reprodukcija Andersenove priče i predodžaba te stupnjevi revizija nužnih za stvaranje odmaka od određenih, napose rodnih, problema izvornika.Obwohl es den Anschein hat, dass das schreckliche Schicksal der jungen Karen aus Andersens Märchen „Die roten Schuhe“ die Geschichte fürs zeitgenössische Kinderpublikum „ungeeignet“ macht, ist der Einfluss dieses Märchens auf zeitgenössische Bilderbücher für junge Leser und Leserinnen dennoch spürbar. Im Beitrag werden sowohl unmittelbare Adaptionen des Märchens als auch Texte untersucht, in denen nach den Themen und Motiven aus Andersens grauenvollem Märchen gegriffen wird, um darin das eigene Erzählen über Mädchenzeit und Ballett zu entwerfen. Insofern werden hier die ideologischen Implikationen der Reproduktion von Vorstellungen aus Andersens Geschichte sowie der Grad der zu unternehmenden Umarbeitung erforscht, um von bestimmten (insbesondere geschlechtsspezifischen) in der ursprünglichen Vorlage enthaltenen Problemen auf Distanz zu gehen

    Similarity, Retrieval, and Classification of Motion Capture Data

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    Three-dimensional motion capture data is a digital representation of the complex spatio-temporal structure of human motion. Mocap data is widely used for the synthesis of realistic computer-generated characters in data-driven computer animation and also plays an important role in motion analysis tasks such as activity recognition. Both for efficiency and cost reasons, methods for the reuse of large collections of motion clips are gaining in importance in the field of computer animation. Here, an active field of research is the application of morphing and blending techniques for the creation of new, realistic motions from prerecorded motion clips. This requires the identification and extraction of logically related motions scattered within some data set. Such content-based retrieval of motion capture data, which is a central topic of this thesis, constitutes a difficult problem due to possible spatio-temporal deformations between logically related motions. Recent approaches to motion retrieval apply techniques such as dynamic time warping, which, however, are not applicable to large data sets due to their quadratic space and time complexity. In our approach, we introduce various kinds of relational features describing boolean geometric relations between specified body points and show how these features induce a temporal segmentation of motion capture data streams. By incorporating spatio-temporal invariance into the relational features and induced segments, we are able to adopt indexing methods allowing for flexible and efficient content-based retrieval in large motion capture databases. As a further application of relational motion features, a new method for fully automatic motion classification and retrieval is presented. We introduce the concept of motion templates (MTs), by which the spatio-temporal characteristics of an entire motion class can be learned from training data, yielding an explicit, compact matrix representation. The resulting class MT has a direct, semantic interpretation, and it can be manually edited, mixed, combined with other MTs, extended, and restricted. Furthermore, a class MT exhibits the characteristic as well as the variational aspects of the underlying motion class at a semantically high level. Classification is then performed by comparing a set of precomputed class MTs with unknown motion data and labeling matching portions with the respective motion class label. Here, the crucial point is that the variational (hence uncharacteristic) motion aspects encoded in the class MT are automatically masked out in the comparison, which can be thought of as locally adaptive feature selection

    A practice-inspired mindset for researching the psychophysiological and medical health effects of recreational dance (dance pport)

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    “Dance” has been associated with many psychophysiological and medical health effects. However, varying definitions of what constitute “dance” have led to a rather heterogenous body of evidence about such potential effects, leaving the picture piecemeal at best. It remains unclear what exact parameters may be driving positive effects. We believe that this heterogeneity of evidence is partly due to a lack of a clear definition of dance for such empirical purposes. A differentiation is needed between (a) the effects on the individual when the activity of “dancing” is enjoyed as a dancer within different dance domains (e.g., professional/”high-art” type of dance, erotic dance, religious dance, club dancing, Dance Movement Therapy (DMT), and what is commonly known as hobby, recreational or social dance), and (b) the effects on the individual within these different domains, as a dancer of the different dance styles (solo dance, partnering dance, group dance; and all the different styles within these). Another separate category of dance engagement is, not as a dancer, but as a spectator of all of the above. “Watching dance” as part of an audience has its own set of psychophysiological and neurocognitive effects on the individual, and depends on the context where dance is witnessed. With the help of dance professionals, we first outline some different dance domains and dance styles, and outline aspects that differentiate them, and that may, therefore, cause differential empirical findings when compared regardless (e.g., amount of interpersonal contact, physical exertion, context, cognitive demand, type of movements, complexity of technique and ratio of choreography/improvisation). Then, we outline commonalities between all dance styles. We identify six basic components that are part of any dance practice, as part of a continuum, and review and discuss available research for each of them concerning the possible health and wellbeing effects of each of these components, and how they may relate to the psychophysiological and health effects that are reported for “dancing”: (1) rhythm and music, (2) sociality, (3) technique and fitness, (4) connection and connectedness (self-intimation), (5) flow and mindfulness, (6) aesthetic emotions and imagination. Future research efforts might take into account the important differences between types of dance activities, as well as the six components, for a more targeted assessment of how “dancing” affects the human body

    Experience-dependent reshaping of body processing: from perception to clinical implications

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    Starting from the moment we come into the world, we are compelled to pay large attention to the body and its representation, which can be considered as a set of cognitive structures that have the function of tracing and coding our state (de Vignemont, 2010). However, we cannot consider body aside from its image, which can determine the way we emotionally perceive ourselves and other people as well as the way we experience the world. With a brief look to the body, we can identify a persons’ identity, thus catching distinctive elements such as her age or gender; further, by means of body posture and movements we can understand the affective state of others and appropriately shape our social interaction and communication. Several socially significant cues can be detected and provided through the body, but this thesis principally aims to increase the knowledge about how we perceive gender from bodily features and shape. Specifically, I report on a series of behavioral studies designed to investigate the influence of the visual experience on the detection of gender dimension, considering the contribution of brain networks which may also have a role in the development of mental disorders related to body misperception (i.e. Eating Disorders; ED). In the first chapter, I provide evidence for the interdependence of morphologic and dynamic cues in shaping gender judgment. By manipulating various characteristics of virtual-human body stimuli, the experiment I carried out demonstrates the association between stillness and femininity rating, addressing the evolutionary meaning of sexual selection and the influence of cultural norms (D’Argenio et al., 2020). In the second chapter, I present a study that seeks to define the relative role of parvo- and magnocellular visual streams in the identification of both morphologic and dynamic cues of the body. For these experiments, I used the differential tuning of the two streams to low- (LSF) and high-spatial frequencies (HSF) and I tested how the processing of body gender and postures is affected by filtering images to keep only the LSF or HSF (D’Argenio et al., submitted). The third chapter is dedicated to a series of experiments aimed at understanding how gender perception can be biased by the previous exposure to specific body models. I utilized a visual adaptation paradigm to investigate the mechanisms that drives the observers’ perception to a masculinity or femininity judgement (D’Argenio et al., 2021) and manipulates the spatial frequency content of the bodies in order to account for the contribution of parvo- and magnocellular system in in this process. In conclusion, in the last two chapters, I briefly report the preliminary results emerging from two visual adaptation studies. The first one, which is described in the fourth chapter, explored the role of cortical connections in body gender adaptation by means of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), with the aim to investigate neural correlates of dysfunctional body perception. The second represents the intent to explain, at least partially, body misperception disorders by applying adaptation paradigms to ED clinical population. Results were discussed in the fifth chapter.Starting from the moment we come into the world, we are compelled to pay large attention to the body and its representation, which can be considered as a set of cognitive structures that have the function of tracing and coding our state (de Vignemont, 2010). However, we cannot consider body aside from its image, which can determine the way we emotionally perceive ourselves and other people as well as the way we experience the world. With a brief look to the body, we can identify a persons’ identity, thus catching distinctive elements such as her age or gender; further, by means of body posture and movements we can understand the affective state of others and appropriately shape our social interaction and communication. Several socially significant cues can be detected and provided through the body, but this thesis principally aims to increase the knowledge about how we perceive gender from bodily features and shape. Specifically, I report on a series of behavioral studies designed to investigate the influence of the visual experience on the detection of gender dimension, considering the contribution of brain networks which may also have a role in the development of mental disorders related to body misperception (i.e. Eating Disorders; ED). In the first chapter, I provide evidence for the interdependence of morphologic and dynamic cues in shaping gender judgment. By manipulating various characteristics of virtual-human body stimuli, the experiment I carried out demonstrates the association between stillness and femininity rating, addressing the evolutionary meaning of sexual selection and the influence of cultural norms (D’Argenio et al., 2020). In the second chapter, I present a study that seeks to define the relative role of parvo- and magnocellular visual streams in the identification of both morphologic and dynamic cues of the body. For these experiments, I used the differential tuning of the two streams to low- (LSF) and high-spatial frequencies (HSF) and I tested how the processing of body gender and postures is affected by filtering images to keep only the LSF or HSF (D’Argenio et al., submitted). The third chapter is dedicated to a series of experiments aimed at understanding how gender perception can be biased by the previous exposure to specific body models. I utilized a visual adaptation paradigm to investigate the mechanisms that drives the observers’ perception to a masculinity or femininity judgement (D’Argenio et al., 2021) and manipulates the spatial frequency content of the bodies in order to account for the contribution of parvo- and magnocellular system in in this process. In conclusion, in the last two chapters, I briefly report the preliminary results emerging from two visual adaptation studies. The first one, which is described in the fourth chapter, explored the role of cortical connections in body gender adaptation by means of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), with the aim to investigate neural correlates of dysfunctional body perception. The second represents the intent to explain, at least partially, body misperception disorders by applying adaptation paradigms to ED clinical population. Results were discussed in the fifth chapter

    Choreographing and Reinventing Chinese Diasporic Identities - An East-West Collaboration

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    In demonstrating Eastern- and Western-based Chinese diasporic dances as equally critical and question-provoking in Chinese identity reconstructions, this research compares choreographic implications in the Hong Kong-Taiwan and Toronto-Vancouver dance milieus of recent decades (1990s 2010s). An auto-ethnographic study of Yuri Ngs (Hong Kong) and Lin Hwai-mins (Taiwan) works versus my own (Toronto) and Wen Wei Wangs (Vancouver), it probes identities choreographed in place-constituted third spaces between Chinese selves and Euro-American Others. I suggest that these identities perpetrate hybrid movements and aesthetics of geo-cultural-political distinctness from the Chinese ancestral land ones manifesting ultimate glocalization intersecting global political economies and local cultural-creative experiences. Echoing the diasporic habitats cultural and socio-historical specificities, they are constantly (re) appropriated and reinvented via translation, interpretation, negotiation, and integration of East-West cultural-artistic and socio-political ingredients. The event unfolds such identities placial uniqueness that indicates the same Chinese roots yet divergent diasporic routes. In reviewing Ngs balletic and contemporary photo-choreographic productions of post-British colonial Hong Kong-ness alongside Lins repertories of Chinese traditional, Taiwan indigenous, American modern and Other artistic impacts noting Taiwanese-ness, the study unearths cultural roots as the core source of Chinese identity rebuilding from East Asian displacements. It traces an ingrained third space between Chinese historic-social values, Western cultural elements, and Other performing artistries of Hong Kong and Taiwanese belongings. Juxtaposing my Chinese traditional-based and transcultural Toronto dance projects with Wangs Vancouver balletic-contemporary fusions of Chinese iconicity, Chinese-Canadian identities marked by a hyphenated (third/in-between) space are associated as varying North American self-generated routes of social and artistic possibilities in a Canadian mosaic-cosmopolitical setting the persistent state of Canadian becoming. My conclusion resolves the examined choreographic cases as continually developed through third-space instigated East-West cultural-political crossings plus interpenetrative local creativities and global receptivity. Of gains or losses, struggles or rebirths, the cases of placial-temporal significations elicit multiple questions on Chinese diasporic cultural infusions, social sustenance, artistic integrity, and identity representations amid East-West negotiations my experiential reflection on the dance role and potency in the reimagining and remaking of Chinese diasporic identities

    Aesthetically Relevant Image Captioning

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    Image aesthetic quality assessment (AQA) aims to assign numerical aesthetic ratings to images whilst image aesthetic captioning (IAC) aims to generate textual descriptions of the aesthetic aspects of images. In this paper, we study image AQA and IAC together and present a new IAC method termed Aesthetically Relevant Image Captioning (ARIC). Based on the observation that most textual comments of an image are about objects and their interactions rather than aspects of aesthetics, we first introduce the concept of Aesthetic Relevance Score (ARS) of a sentence and have developed a model to automatically label a sentence with its ARS. We then use the ARS to design the ARIC model which includes an ARS weighted IAC loss function and an ARS based diverse aesthetic caption selector (DACS). We present extensive experimental results to show the soundness of the ARS concept and the effectiveness of the ARIC model by demonstrating that texts with higher ARS's can predict the aesthetic ratings more accurately and that the new ARIC model can generate more accurate, aesthetically more relevant and more diverse image captions. Furthermore, a large new research database containing 510K images with over 5 million comments and 350K aesthetic scores, and code for implementing ARIC are available at https://github.com/PengZai/ARIC.Comment: Aceepted by AAAI2023. Code and results available at https://github.com/PengZai/ARI
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