Temporal Stream Logic: Synthesis beyond the Bools

Reactive systems that operate in environments with complex data, such as mobile apps or embedded controllers with many sensors, are difficult to synthesize. Synthesis tools usually fail for such systems because the state space resulting from the discretization of the data is too large. We introduce TSL, a new temporal logic that separates control and data. We provide a CEGAR-based synthesis approach for the construction of implementations that are guaranteed to satisfy a TSL specification for all possible instantiations of the data processing functions. TSL provides an attractive trade-off for synthesis. On the one hand, synthesis from TSL, unlike synthesis from standard temporal logics, is undecidable in general. On the other hand, however, synthesis from TSL is scalable, because it is independent of the complexity of the handled data. Among other benchmarks, we have successfully synthesized a music player Android app and a controller for an autonomous vehicle in the Open Race Car Simulator (TORCS.

Evaluation of live human-computer music-making: Quantitative and qualitative approaches

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, [VOL 67,ISS 11(2009)] DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2009.05.00

3D virtual worlds as environments for literacy learning

Background: Although much has been written about the ways in which new technology might transform educational practice, particularly in the area of literacy learning, there is relatively little empirical work that explores the possibilities and problems - or even what such a transformation might look like in the classroom. 3D virtual worlds offer a range of opportunities for children to use digital literacies in school, and suggest one way in which we might explore changing literacy practices in a playful, yet meaningful context. Purpose: This paper identifies some of the key issues that emerged in designing and implementing virtual world work in a small number of primary schools in the UK. It examines the tensions between different discourses about literacy and literacy learning and shows how these were played out by teachers and pupils in classroom settings.Sources of evidence: Case study data are used as a basis for exploring and illustrating key aspects of design and implementation. The case study material includes views from a number of perspectives including classroom observations, chatlogs, in-world avatar interviews with teachers and also pupils, as well as the author’s field notes of the planning process with accompanying minutes and meeting documents.Main argument: From a Foucauldian perspective, the article suggests that social control of pedagogical practice through the regulation of curriculum time, the normalisation of teaching routines and the regimes of individual assessment restricts teachers’ and pupils’ conceptions of what constitutes literacy. The counternarrative, found in recent work in new litearcies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) provides an attractive alternative, but a movement in this direction requires a fundamental shift of emphasis and a re-conceptualisation of what counts as learning.Conclusions: This work on 3D virtual worlds questions the notion of how transformative practice can be achieved with the use of new technologies. It suggests that changes in teacher preparation, continuing professional development as well as wider educational reform may be needed

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Technological Delivery Methods of Community Safety Messages

Community safety messages are designed to help educate the public. This project, sponsored by the Australasian Fire Authorities Council was designed to help improve safety message delivery to young people, age 15 to 29, by making use of the newest technologies available. The team used interviews, focus groups, and a survey to gather information about communication technology and safety messages. The findings and the background research enabled the formation of recommendations regarding the future technological delivery methods that will be most effective for the delivery of fire safety messages

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

Synthesizing stream control

For the management of reactive systems, controllers must coordinate time, data streams, and data transformations, all joint by the high level perspective of their control flow. This control flow is required to drive the system correctly and continuously, which turns the development into a challenge. The process is error-prone, time consuming, unintuitive, and costly. An attractive alternative is to synthesize the system instead, where the developer only needs to specify the desired behavior. The synthesis engine then automatically takes care of all the technical details. However, while current algorithms for the synthesis of reactive systems are well-suited to handle control, they fail on complex data transformations due to the complexity of the comparably large data space. Thus, to overcome the challenge of explicitly handling the data we must separate data and control. We introduce Temporal Stream Logic (TSL), a logic which exclusively argues about the control of the controller, while treating data and functional transformations as interchangeable black-boxes. In TSL it is possible to specify control flow properties independently of the complexity of the handled data. Furthermore, with TSL at hand a synthesis engine can check for realizability, even without a concrete implementation of the data transformations. We present a modular development framework that first uses synthesis to identify the high level control flow of a program. If successful, the created control flow then is extended with concrete data transformations in order to be compiled into a final executable. Our results also show that the current synthesis approaches cannot replace existing manual development work flows immediately. During the development of a reactive system, the developer still may use incomplete or faulty specifications at first, that need the be refined after a subsequent inspection. In the worst case, constraints are contradictory or miss important assumptions, which leads to unrealizable specifications. In both scenarios, the developer needs additional feedback from the synthesis engine to debug errors for finally improving the system specification. To this end, we explore two further possible improvements. On the one hand, we consider output sensitive synthesis metrics, which allow to synthesize simple and well structured solutions that help the developer to understand and verify the underlying behavior quickly. On the other hand, we consider the extension of delay, whose requirement is a frequent reason for unrealizability. With both methods at hand, we resolve the aforementioned problems and therefore help the developer in the development phase with the effective creation of a safe and correct reactive system.Um reaktive Systeme zu regeln müssen Steuergeräte Zeit, Datenströme und Datentransformationen koordinieren, die durch den übergeordneten Kontrollfluss zusammengefasst werden. Die Aufgabe des Kontrollflusses ist es das System korrekt und dauerhaft zu betreiben. Die Entwicklung solcher Systeme wird dadurch zu einer Herausforderung, denn der Prozess ist fehleranfällig, zeitraubend, unintuitiv und kostspielig. Eine attraktive Alternative ist es stattdessen das System zu synthetisieren, wobei der Entwickler nur das gewünschte Verhalten des Systems festlegt. Der Syntheseapparat kümmert sich dann automatisch um alle technischen Details. Während aktuelle Algorithmen für die Synthese von reaktiven Systemen erfolgreich mit dem Kontrollanteil umgehen können, versagen sie jedoch, sobald komplexe Datentransformationen hinzukommen, aufgrund der Komplexität des vergleichsweise großen Datenraums. Daten und Kontrolle müssen demnach getrennt behandelt werden, um auch große Datenräumen effizient handhaben zu können. Wir präsentieren Temporal Stream Logic (TSL), eine Logik die ausschließlich die Kontrolle einer Steuerung betrachtet, wohingegen Daten und funktionale Datentransformationen als austauschbare Blackboxen gehandhabt werden. In TSL ist es möglich Kontrollflusseigenschaften unabhängig von der Komplexität der zugrunde liegenden Daten zu beschreiben. Des Weiteren kann ein auf TSL beruhender Syntheseapparat die Realisierbarkeit einer Spezifikation prüfen, selbst ohne die konkreten Implementierungen der Datentransformationen zu kennen. Wir präsentieren ein modulares Grundgerüst für die Entwicklung. Es verwendet zunächst den Syntheseapparat um den übergeordneten Kontrollfluss zu erzeugen. Ist dies erfolgreich, so wird der resultierende Kontrollfluss um die konkreten Implementierungen der Datentransformationen erweitert und anschließend zu einer ausführbare Anwendung kompiliert. Wir zeigen auch auf, dass bisherige Syntheseverfahren bereits existierende manuelle Entwicklungsprozesse noch nicht instantan ersetzen können. Im Verlauf der Entwicklung ist es auch weiterhin möglich, dass der Entwickler zunächst unvollständige oder fehlerhafte Spezifikationen erstellt, welche dann erst nach genauerer Betrachtung des synthetisierten Systems weiter verbessert werden können. Im schlimmsten Fall sind Anforderungen inkonsistent oder wichtige Annahmen über das Verhalten fehlen, was zu unrealisierbaren Spezifikationen führt. In beiden Fällen benötigt der Entwickler zusätzliche Rückmeldungen vom Syntheseapparat, um Fehler zu identifizieren und die Spezifikation schlussendlich zu verbessern. In diesem Zusammenhang untersuchen wir zwei mögliche Erweiterungen. Zum einen betrachten wir ausgabeabhängige Metriken, die es dem Entwickler erlauben einfache und wohlstrukturierte Lösungen zu synthetisieren die verständlich sind und deren Verhalten einfach zu verifizieren ist. Zum anderen betrachten wir die Erweiterung um Verzögerungen, welche eine der Hauptursachen für Unrealisierbarkeit darstellen. Mit beiden Methoden beheben wir die jeweils zuvor genannten Probleme und helfen damit dem Entwickler während der Entwicklungsphase auch wirklich das reaktive System zu kreieren, dass er sich auch tatsächlich vorstellt