167 research outputs found

    Design and Implementation of an Interactive Animatronic System for Guest Response Analysis

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    In theme park based entertainment applications, there is a need for interactive, autonomous animatronic systems to create engaging and compelling experiences for the guests. The animatronic figures must identify the guests and recognize their status in dynamic interactions for enhanced acceptance and effectiveness as socially interactive agents, in the general framework of human-robot interactions. The design and implementation of an interactive, autonomous animatronic system in form of a tabletop dragon and the comparisons of guest responses in its passive and interactive modes are presented in this work. The dragon capabilities include a four degrees-of-freedom head, moving wings, tail, jaw, blinking eyes and sound effects. Human identification, using a depth camera (Carmine from PrimeSense), an open-source middleware (NITE from OpenNI), Java-based Processing and an Arduino microcontroller, has been implemented into the system in order to track a guest or guests, within the field of view of the camera. The details of design and construction of the dragon model, algorithm development for interactive autonomous behavior using a vision system, the experimental setup and implementation results under different conditions are presented. Guest experiences with the dragon operating in passive and interactive configurations have been compared both quantitatively and qualitatively through surveys and observations, for different age groups, from elementary school children to college students. Statistical significance of the survey results are presented along with a discussion on the scope of further work

    A Benchmark and Evaluation of Non-Rigid Structure from Motion

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    Non-Rigid structure from motion (NRSfM), is a long standing and central problem in computer vision, allowing us to obtain 3D information from multiple images when the scene is dynamic. A main issue regarding the further development of this important computer vision topic, is the lack of high quality data sets. We here address this issue by presenting of data set compiled for this purpose, which is made publicly available, and considerably larger than previous state of the art. To validate the applicability of this data set, and provide and investigation into the state of the art of NRSfM, including potential directions forward, we here present a benchmark and a scrupulous evaluation using this data set. This benchmark evaluates 16 different methods with available code, which we argue reasonably spans the state of the art in NRSfM. We also hope, that the presented and public data set and evaluation, will provide benchmark tools for further development in this field

    Physical Science learning opportunities at Natural History Dioramas

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    Traditional view of science museums is that they present a static image of science, a fixed body. Visitors to museums come with pre-existing knowledge and frequently interpret that which they see but particular through using their Owen understanding referring to the labels and other interpretative means not only through the information provided by get museums. Such understanding is based on everyday beliefs. Listening to visitors in natural history museums reveals that few comments are made about science in action but focus on identifying the specimens and commenting on the attributes of the animals. However, physical science is much in evident in these animals although not focused on by natural histoiry museums. I report here the effects of a hands on workshop provided for two 11 year old boys and separately to 8 year old primary children at natural history museums in the south of England. The specimens are displayed don an authentic context in natural history dioramas. The two dioramas focused upon was one of an African Savannah scene with a water hole and at the edge of a forest and a compilation exhibit of primates on rocks and trees. The children were asked to view the main diorama and point out any science that they could recognise. They participated in hands on workshop focusing on forces, balance and stability. The leaners returned to the dioramas and were asked to again any science concepts they could see illustrated by the animal. After the cue provided by the hands on workshop they recognised a number of physical science concepts illustrated by the position in which the animals had been posed. Science in school for them had not been taught in a context

    Use of Live and Robotic Assistance Animals for Psychological and Cognitive Health in Military Populations

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    This literature review addresses the use of live and robotic animal-assisted therapy for psychological and cognitive health in military populations. More specifically, this literature review aims to address the benefits and limitations of the use of live animal-assisted therapy, complementary and alternative techniques (i.e., Combat and Emotional Stress Control Dogs and social robots) for military personnel, and possible attitudinal barriers regarding active duty and veteran soldiers, while utilizing literature conducted with the civilian population to augment. A systematic review of peer-reviewed quantitative and qualitative publications and book chapters was utilized to accomplish this. Results of the literature review indicated that animal-assisted therapy and the use of complementary and alternative techniques has been found to not only improve psychological and cognitive health of military personnel but can also positively impact the individual’s interpersonal functioning and quality of life. General limitations of the literature review included limited empirical studies, a reliance on qualitative information, small sample sizes, lack of standardization, and lack of detailed demographic information. General clinical implications included the lengthy process to obtain an animal, the cost, adverse effects on the individual, stress to the animal, and proper utilization of the intervention. Recommendations for future research include the completion of more empirical studies for animal-assisted therapy and complementary and alternative techniques with military personnel with a focus on the specific impact the intervention has, exploring the theory regarding the mechanisms of how animal-assisted therapy works, and the creation of a succinct policy for the use of animal-assisted therapy on military instillations

    Industry 4.0 in the Theme Park Sector: Design of a RealTime Monitoring System for Queue Management

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    The theme park industry is a consolidated sector where different industrial technologies and management procedures are present. However, the Industry 4.0 paradigm aims at disrupting how industrial processes are conceived. In this thesis, we perform a thorough investigation of key relevant features of theme parks and how industry 4.0 could be applied within the theme park sector. Our methodology is as follows. First, we analyse the technology used in the most innovative attractions. Afterwards, we focus on the most recurrent problem within the sector: queue management at attractions. As part of the solution, a system is designed to allow real-time monitoring of waiting times through an IoT infrastructure. Radio Fre- quency Identification and Bluetooth Low Energy are the chosen technologies for people counting. They allow users to be located in the park in addition to counting. This system gives precise waiting times estimates, and park managers can obtain precious data about user behaviour and preferences. Finally, we develop a proof of concept to test the designed solution and detail the benefits of applying industry 4.0 to the theme park sector.Máster en Industria Conectada 4.

    Robô de entretenimento para apanhar bolas em voo

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    Mestrado em Engenharia de Automação IndustrialA Interação Humano-Robô (IHR) surge hoje como uma parte importante e desafiadora da robótica, requerendo tecnologia sofisticada e lidando com importantes aspectos de segurança. Em consonância com isso, a IHR pode ser usado para testar e avaliar tecnologias robóticas avançadas. A tarefa de apanhar uma bola em voo por um sistema robótico pode ser utilizada para avaliação sistemática de sistemas de visão e braços robóticos, quer individualmente quer de forma integrada. A realização deste jogo entre um humano e um robô é um exemplo de uma forma de interação segura que não envolva contato físico. O objetivo principal desta tese está centrado no estudo de um cenário para a realização da tarefa de apanhar um bola em voo usando tecnologia comercial. Na prossecução deste objectivo, são abordados três problemas principais: (1) o desenvolvimento de um sistema de visão para a detecção e seguimento da bola usando um sensor Kinect, (2) a aplicação de algoritmos capazes de fornecerem uma estimativa precisa da trajetória da bola em voo, e (3) o controlo do braço robótico que permita a intercepção da bola. O desenvolvimento da arquitectura software é suportado pelo Robot Operating System (ROS) baseado numa plataforma open-source de arquitetura distribuída. Foram realizados vários testes experimentais para validar as soluções propostas e avaliar o desempenho do sistema em diferentes situações. O teste de viabilidade do trabalho proposto foi realizado com base na simulação do sistema completo tilizando dados pré-gravados do sensor Kinect.Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is now an important and challenging part of robotics as it requires high accuracy and sophisticated technology, along with safety as the first and fore-most aspect. In line with this, HRI can be used for testing and evaluating advanced robotic technologies. Ball catching by a robotic system is one such task that can be used for systematic evaluation of vision and robotic systems, either individually or in an integrated manner. Playing ball catching between a human and a robot is an example of such a form of safe interaction not involving physical contact. The main goal of this thesis is focused towards the study of a possible scenario for ball catching task by a robotic manipulator using off-the-shelf technologies. In the pursuit of that objective, three main problems are addressed: (1) to develop a vision system for ball detection and tracking using a Kinect sensor, (2) to provide trajectory estimation of the flying ball, and (3) to control the robotic arm for interception of the flying ball. The complete software development is supported by Robot Operating System (ROS) with open-source platform and distributed architecture. Several experimental tests are conducted to validate the proposed solutions and to evaluate the system’s performance in different situations. Simulation of integrated system for ball catching task is also implemented using pre-recorded data-sets from Kinect sensor for feasibility test of proposed work

    Hand gesture recognition with jointly calibrated Leap Motion and depth sensor

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    Novel 3D acquisition devices like depth cameras and the Leap Motion have recently reached the market. Depth cameras allow to obtain a complete 3D description of the framed scene while the Leap Motion sensor is a device explicitly targeted for hand gesture recognition and provides only a limited set of relevant points. This paper shows how to jointly exploit the two types of sensors for accurate gesture recognition. An ad-hoc solution for the joint calibration of the two devices is firstly presented. Then a set of novel feature descriptors is introduced both for the Leap Motion and for depth data. Various schemes based on the distances of the hand samples from the centroid, on the curvature of the hand contour and on the convex hull of the hand shape are employed and the use of Leap Motion data to aid feature extraction is also considered. The proposed feature sets are fed to two different classifiers, one based on multi-class SVMs and one exploiting Random Forests. Different feature selection algorithms have also been tested in order to reduce the complexity of the approach. Experimental results show that a very high accuracy can be obtained from the proposed method. The current implementation is also able to run in real-time
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