Constructing a concept of number

Numbers are concepts whose content, structure, and organization are influenced by the material forms used to represent and manipulate them. Indeed, as argued here, it is the inclusion of multiple forms (distributed objects, fingers, single- and two-dimensional forms like pebbles and abaci, and written notations) that is the mechanism of numerical elaboration. Further, variety in employed forms explains at least part of the synchronic and diachronic variability that exists between and within cultural number systems. Material forms also impart characteristics like linearity that may persist in the form of knowledge and behaviors, ultimately yielding numerical concepts that are irreducible to and functionally independent of any particular form. Material devices used to represent and manipulate numbers also interact with language in ways that reinforce or contrast different aspects of numerical cognition. Not only does this interaction potentially explain some of the unique aspects of numerical language, it suggests that the two are complementary but ultimately distinct means of accessing numerical intuitions and insights. The potential inclusion of materiality in contemporary research in numerical cognition is advocated, both for its explanatory power, as well as its influence on psychological, behavioral, and linguistic aspects of numerical cognition

Updating the “abstract–concrete” distinction in Ancient Near Eastern numbers

The characterization of early token-based accounting using a concrete concept of number, later numerical notations an abstract one, has become well entrenched in the literature. After reviewing its history and assumptions, this article challenges the abstract–concrete distinction, presenting an alternative view of change in Ancient Near Eastern number concepts, wherein numbers are abstract from their inception and materially bound when most elaborated. The alternative draws on the chronological sequence of material counting technologies used in the Ancient Near East—fingers, tallies, tokens, and numerical notations—as reconstructed through archaeological and textual evidence and as interpreted through Material Engagement Theory, an extended-mind framework in which materiality plays an active role (Malafouris 2013)

A Genetic-Programming-Based Approach for the Learning of Compact Fuzzy Rule-Based Classification Systems

In the design of an interpretable fuzzy rule-based classification system (FRBCS) the precision as much as the simplicity of the extracted knowledge must be considered as objectives. In any inductive learning algorithm, when we deal with problems with a large number of features, the exponential growth of the fuzzy rule search space makes the learning process more difficult. Moreover it leads to an FRBCS with a rule base with a high cardinality. In this paper, we propose a genetic-programming-based method for the learning of an FRBCS, where disjunctive normal form (DNF) rules compete and cooperate among themselves in order to obtain an understandable and compact set of fuzzy rules, which presents a good classification performance with high dimensionality problems. This proposal uses a token competition mechanism to maintain the diversity of the population. The good results obtained with several classification problems support our proposal.Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology TIN-2005-08386-C05-03 and TIN-2005-08386-C05-0

A Robotic Writing Framework-Learning Human Aesthetic Preferences via Human-Machine Interactions

Intelligent robots are required to fully understand human intentions and operations in order to support or collaborate with humans to complete complicated tasks, which is typically implemented by employing human-machine interaction techniques. This paper proposes a new robotic learning framework to perform numeral writing tasks by investigating human-machine interactions with human preferences. In particular, the framework implements a trajectory generative module using a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based method and develops a human preference feedback system to enable the robot to learn human preferences. In addition, a convolutional neural network, acting as a discriminative network, classifies numeral images to support the development of the basic numeral writing ability, and another convolutional neural network, acting as a human preference network, learns a human user’s aesthetic preference by taking the feedback on two written numerical images during the training process. The experimental results show that the written numerals based on the preferences of ten users were different from those of the training data set and that the writing models with the preferences from different users generate numerals in different styles, as evidenced by the Fréchet inception distance (FID) scores. The FID scores of the proposed framework with a preference network were noticeably greater than those of the framework without a preference network. This phenomenon indicates that the human-machine interactions effectively guided the robotic system to learn different writing styles. These results prove that the proposed approach is able to enable the calligraphy robot to successfully write numerals in accordance with the preferences of a human user

Selecting Significant Features for Authorship Invarianceness in Writer Identification

Handwriting is individualistic. The uniqueness of shape and style of handwriting can be used to identify the significant features in authenticating the author of writing. Acquiring these significant features leads to an important research in Writer Identification domain where to find the unique features of individual which also known as Individuality of Handwriting. It relates to invarianceness of authorship where invarianceness between features for intraclass (same writer) is lower than inter-class (different writer). This paper discusses and reports the exploration of significant features for invarianceness of authorship from global shape features by using feature selection technique. The promising results show that the proposed method is worth to receive further exploration in identifying the handwritten authorship

Advances in Character Recognition

This book presents advances in character recognition, and it consists of 12 chapters that cover wide range of topics on different aspects of character recognition. Hopefully, this book will serve as a reference source for academic research, for professionals working in the character recognition field and for all interested in the subject