Web-based database for facial expression analysis

ABSTRACT * In the last decade, the research topic of automatic analysis of facial expressions has become a central topic in machine vision research. Nonetheless, there is a glaring lack of a comprehensive, readily accessible reference set of face images that could be used as a basis for benchmarks for efforts in the field. This lack of easily accessible, suitable, common testing resource forms the major impediment to comparing and extending the issues concerned with automatic facial expression analysis. In this paper, we discuss a number of issues that make the problem of creating a benchmark facial expression database difficult. We then present the MMI Facial Expression Database, which includes more than 1500 samples of both static images and image sequences of faces in frontal and in profile view displaying various expressions of emotion, single and multiple facial muscle activation. It has been built as a web-based direct-manipulation application, allowing easy access and easy search of the available images. This database represents the most comprehensive reference set of images for studies on facial expression analysis to date. 1

Architecture and Implementation of Reporting Means in Adaptive Dynamically Extended Information Systems

This article describes architecture and implementation of subsystem intended for working with queries and reports in adaptive dynamically extended information systems able to dynamically extending. The main features of developed approach are application universality, user orientation and opportunity to integrate with external information systems. Software implementation is based on multilevel metadata approach

Model Driven Management of Complex Systems: Implementing the Macroscope\u27s vision

Several years ago, first generation model driven engineering (MDE) tools focused on generating code from high-level platform-independent abstract descriptions. Since then, the target scope of MDE has much broadened and now addresses for example testing, verification, measurement, tool interoperability, software evolution, and many more hard issues in software engineering. In this paper we study the applicability of MDE to another difficult problem: the management of complex systems. We show how the basic properties of MDE may be of significant help in this context and we characterize and extend MDE by the concept of a "megamodel", i.e. a model which elements may themselves be models. We sketch the basic characteristics of a tool for handling megamodels and we apply it to the example of the Eclipse.org ecosystem, chosen here as a representative illustration of a complex system. The paper finally discusses how the proposed original approach and tools may impact the construction and maintenance of computer based complex systems

Neuron Depot: keeping your colleagues in sync by combining modern cloud storage services, the local file system, and simple web applications

Neuroscience today deals with a "data deluge" derived from the availability of high-throughput sensors of brain structure and brain activity, and increased computational resources for detailed simulations with complex output. We report here (1) a novel approach to data sharing between collaborating scientists that brings together file system tools and cloud technologies, (2) a service implementing this approach, called NeuronDepot, and (3) an example application of the service to a complex use case in the neurosciences. The main drivers for our approach are to facilitate collaborations with a transparent, automated data flow that shields scientists from having to learn new tools or data structuring paradigms. Using NeuronDepot is simple: one-time data assignment from the originator and cloud based syncing thus making experimental and modeling data available across the collaboration with minimum overhead. Since data sharing is cloud based, our approach opens up the possibility of using new software developments and hardware scalabitliy which are associated with elastic cloud computing. We provide an implementation that relies on existing synchronization services and is usable from all devices via a reactive web interface. We are motivating our solution by solving the practical problems of the GinJang project, a collaboration of three universities across eight time zones with a complex workflow encompassing data from electrophysiological recordings, imaging, morphological reconstructions, and simulations

Visual approaches to knowledge organization and contextual exploration

This thesis explores possible visual approaches for the representation of semantic structures, such as zz-structures. Some holistic visual representations of complex domains have been investigated through the proposal of new views - the so-called zz-views - that allow both to make visible the interconnections between elements and to support a contextual and multilevel exploration of knowledge. The potential of this approach has been examined in the context of two case studies that have led to the creation of two Web applications. The \ufb01rst domain of study regarded the visual representation, analysis and management of scienti\ufb01c bibliographies. In this context, we modeled a Web application, we called VisualBib, to support researchers in building, re\ufb01ning, analyzing and sharing bibliographies. We adopted a multi-faceted approach integrating features that are typical of three di\ufb00erent classes of tools: bibliography visual analysis systems, bibliographic citation indexes and personal research assistants. The evaluation studies carried out on a \ufb01rst prototype highlighted the positive impact of our visual model and encouraged us to improve it and develop further visual analysis features we incorporated in the version 3.0 of the application. The second case study concerned the modeling and development of a multimedia catalog of Web and mobile applications. The objective was to provide an overview of a significant number of tools that can help teachers in the implementation of active learning approaches supported by technology and in the design of Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs). We analyzed and documented 281 applications, preparing for each of them a detailed multilingual card and a video-presentation, organizing all the material in an original purpose-based taxonomy, visually represented through a browsable holistic view. The catalog, we called AppInventory, provides contextual exploration mechanisms based on zz-structures, collects user contributions and evaluations about the apps and o\ufb00ers visual analysis tools for the comparison of the applications data and user evaluations. The results of two user studies carried out on groups of teachers and students shown a very positive impact of our proposal in term of graphical layout, semantic structure, navigation mechanisms and usability, also in comparison with two similar catalogs

Do student perceptions of teaching predict the development of representational competence and biological knowledge?

Dealing with representations is a crucial skill for students and such representational competence is essential for learning science. This study analysed the relationship between representational competence and content knowledge, student perceptions of teaching practices concerning the use of different representations, and their impact on students’ outcome over a teaching unit. Participants were 931 students in 51 secondary school classes. Representational competence and content knowledge were interactively related. Representational aspects were only moderately included in teaching and students did not develop rich representational competence although content knowledge increased significantly. Multilevel regression showed that student perceptions of interpreting and constructing visual-graphical representations and active social construction of knowledge predicted students’ outcome at class level, whereas the individually perceived amount of terms and use of symbolic representations influenced the students’ achievement at individual level. Methodological and practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the development of representational competence in classrooms

Digital Image Access & Retrieval

The 33th Annual Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in March of 1996, addressed the theme of "Digital Image Access & Retrieval." The papers from this conference cover a wide range of topics concerning digital imaging technology for visual resource collections. Papers covered three general areas: (1) systems, planning, and implementation; (2) automatic and semi-automatic indexing; and (3) preservation with the bulk of the conference focusing on indexing and retrieval.published or submitted for publicatio

Confounds and Consequences in Geotagged Twitter Data

Twitter is often used in quantitative studies that identify geographically-preferred topics, writing styles, and entities. These studies rely on either GPS coordinates attached to individual messages, or on the user-supplied location field in each profile. In this paper, we compare these data acquisition techniques and quantify the biases that they introduce; we also measure their effects on linguistic analysis and text-based geolocation. GPS-tagging and self-reported locations yield measurably different corpora, and these linguistic differences are partially attributable to differences in dataset composition by age and gender. Using a latent variable model to induce age and gender, we show how these demographic variables interact with geography to affect language use. We also show that the accuracy of text-based geolocation varies with population demographics, giving the best results for men above the age of 40.Comment: final version for EMNLP 201

Object-oriented querying of existing relational databases

In this paper, we present algorithms which allow an object-oriented querying of existing relational databases. Our goal is to provide an improved query interface for relational systems with better query facilities than SQL. This seems to be very important since, in real world applications, relational systems are most commonly used and their dominance will remain in the near future. To overcome the drawbacks of relational systems, especially the poor query facilities of SQL, we propose a schema transformation and a query translation algorithm. The schema transformation algorithm uses additional semantic information to enhance the relational schema and transform it into a corresponding object-oriented schema. If the additional semantic information can be deducted from an underlying entity-relationship design schema, the schema transformation may be done fully automatically. To query the created object-oriented schema, we use the Structured Object Query Language (SOQL) which provides declarative query facilities on objects. SOQL queries using the created object-oriented schema are much shorter, easier to write and understand and more intuitive than corresponding S Q L queries leading to an enhanced usability and an improved querying of the database. The query translation algorithm automatically translates SOQL queries into equivalent SQL queries for the original relational schema