Application of 3D human pose estimation for motion capture and character animation

Abstract. Interest in motion capture (mocap) technology is growing every day, and the number of possible applications is multiplying. But such systems are very expensive and are not affordable for personal use. Based on that, this thesis presents the framework that can produce mocap data from regular RGB video and then use it to animate a 3D character according to the movement of the person in the original video. To extract the mocap data from the input video, one of the three 3D pose estimation (PE) methods that are available within the scope of the project is used to determine where the joints of the person in each video frame are located in the 3D space. The 3D positions of the joints are used as mocap data and are imported to Blender which contains a simple 3D character. The data is assigned to the corresponding joints of the character to animate it. To test how the created animation will be working in a different environment, it was imported to the Unity game engine and applied to the native 3D character. The evaluation of the produced animations from Blender and Unity showed that even though the quality of the animation might be not perfect, the test subjects found this approach to animation promising. In addition, during the evaluation, a few issues were discovered and considered for future framework development

A Lacanian and post-Althusserian approach to homophobia and its resolution

Bibliography: pages 266-280.This thesis is a theoretical analysis. It attempts to address the problem of how to conceive the process by which, in certain cultures, a particular social phenomenon, the stigmatisation of homosexuality, has powerful negative effects at the level of individual emotions. Individuals' abhorrence of their own homosexual desires, as well as individuals' abhorrence of the homosexuality of others, are considered. The answer provided is held to apply to both men and women. The problem is also addressed, within the same parameters, of how change from abhorrence to acceptance of homosexuality is to be conceived with respect to the relation between social and individual phenomena. In order to develop an answer to these questions, relevant aspects of appropriate theoretical frameworks are described and an integration of them developed. These frameworks are: Lacanian psychoanalysis, which provides an account of the individual subject's relation to the social; and a post-structuralist view of ideology, which analyzes the specific contributions made by the social phenomenon of ideology to the way the individual makes sense of the world. A particular aspect of ideology as understood in this view is emphasised and developed. This is the importance ideology is understood to give to the concepts "natural" and "unnatural". The ideological role of these concepts is then argued to provide a link, for the present purposes, between the psychoanalytic theory of the subject and the relevant theory of ideology. In this way a synthesis of the two theoretical areas, suitable for the present aims, is developed. This synthesis is then applied to the problem outlined above of making sense of homophobia (the abhorrence of homosexuality), and to the problem outlined above of making sense of the resolution of homophobia (the change to acceptance of homosexuality). The homophobic individual is argued to be best conceived of as trapped in a complex set of contradictions resulting from the collusion of unconscious strivings with the ideologically emphasised idea of what is natural. The resolution of homophobia is argued to be best conceived of as a resolution of the above-mentioned set of contradictions through modifications of the role given by ideology to the concepts of what is natural and unnatural. This conceptualisation of the synthesis of aspects of Lacanian psychoanalysis and aspects of a theory of ideology is then suggested to have a variety of further applications of the type developed here

The socio-cultural sustainability of animal farming : an inquiry into social perceptions of dairy farming in the Netherlands and Norway

De afgelopen 50 jaar is de veehouderij in schaalgrootte toegenomen en geïntensiveerd. Tegelijkertijd zijn Westerse samenlevingen meer verstedelijkt en hebben minder mensen familieleden in de landbouw. Als gevolg daarvan hebben weinig burgers kennis van of directe ervaring met de landbouw. Duurzame ontwikkeling is een omstreden concept en wordt in veel gebieden bediscussieerd en op verschillende manieren gedefinieerd. Deze studie richt zich op burgerpercepties van de veehouderij om inzicht te krijgen in de sociaal-culturele aspecten van een duurzame veehouderij

The effects of user assistance systems on user perception and behavior

The rapid development of information technology (IT) is changing how people approach and interact with IT systems (Maedche et al. 2016). IT systems can increasingly support people in performing ever more complex tasks (Vtyurina and Fourney 2018). However, people's cognitive abilities have not evolved as quickly as technology (Maedche et al. 2016). Thus, different external factors (e.g., complexity or uncertainty) and internal conditions (e.g., cognitive load or stress) reduce decision quality (Acciarini et al. 2021; Caputo 2013; Hilbert 2012). User-assistance systems (UASs) can help to compensate for human weaknesses and cope with new challenges. UASs aim to improve the user's cognition and capabilities, benefiting individuals, organizations, and society. To achieve this goal, UASs collect, prepare, aggregate, analyze information, and communicate results according to user preferences (Maedche et al. 2019). This support can relieve users and improve the quality of decision-making. Using UASs offers many benefits but requires successful interaction between the user and the UAS. However, this interaction introduces social and technical challenges, such as loss of control or reduced explainability, which can affect user trust and willingness to use the UAS (Maedche et al. 2019). To realize the benefits, UASs must be developed based on an understanding and incorporation of users' needs. Users and UASs are part of a socio-technical system to complete a specific task (Maedche et al. 2019). To create a benefit from the interaction, it is necessary to understand the interaction within the socio-technical system, i.e., the interaction between the user, UAS, and task, and to align the different components. For this reason, this dissertation aims to extend the existing knowledge on UAS design by better understanding the effects and mechanisms during the interaction between UASs and users in different application contexts. Therefore, theory and findings from different disciplines are combined and new theoretical knowledge is derived. In addition, data is collected and analyzed to validate the new theoretical knowledge empirically. The findings can be used to reduce adaptation barriers and realize a positive outcome. Overall this dissertation addresses the four classes of UASs presented by Maedche et al. (2016): basic UASs, interactive UASs, intelligent UASs, and anticipating UASs. First, this dissertation contributes to understanding how users interact with basic UASs. Basic UASs do not process contextual information and interact little with the user (Maedche et al. 2016). This behavior makes basic UASs suitable for application contexts, such as social media, where little interaction is desired. Social media is primarily used for entertainment and focuses on content consumption (Moravec et al. 2018). As a result, social media has become an essential source of news but also a target for fake news, with negative consequences for individuals and society (Clarke et al. 2021; Laato et al. 2020). Thus, this thesis presents two approaches to how basic UASs can be used to reduce the negative influence of fake news. Firstly, basic UASs can provide interventions by warning users of questionable content and providing verified information but the order in which the intervention elements are displayed influences the fake news perception. The intervention elements should be displayed after the fake news story to achieve an efficient intervention. Secondly, basic UASs can provide social norms to motivate users to report fake news and thereby stop the spread of fake news. However, social norms should be used carefully, as they can backfire and reduce the willingness to report fake news. Second, this dissertation contributes to understanding how users interact with interactive UASs. Interactive UASs incorporate limited information from the application context but focus on close interaction with the user to achieve a specific goal or behavior (Maedche et al. 2016). Typical goals include more physical activity, a healthier diet, and less tobacco and alcohol consumption to prevent disease and premature death (World Health Organization 2020). To increase goal achievement, previous researchers often utilize digital human representations (DHRs) such as avatars and embodied agents to form a socio-technical relationship between the user and the interactive UAS (Kim and Sundar 2012a; Pfeuffer et al. 2019). However, understanding how the design features of an interactive UAS affect the interaction with the user is crucial, as each design feature has a distinct impact on the user's perception. Based on existing knowledge, this thesis highlights the most widely used design features and analyzes their effects on behavior. The findings reveal important implications for future interactive UAS design. Third, this dissertation contributes to understanding how users interact with intelligent UASs. Intelligent UASs prioritize processing user and contextual information to adapt to the user's needs rather than focusing on an intensive interaction with the user (Maedche et al. 2016). Thus, intelligent UASs with emotional intelligence can provide people with task-oriented and emotional support, making them ideal for situations where interpersonal relationships are neglected, such as crowd working. Crowd workers frequently work independently without any significant interactions with other people (Jäger et al. 2019). In crowd work environments, traditional leader-employee relationships are usually not established, which can have a negative impact on employee motivation and performance (Cavazotte et al. 2012). Thus, this thesis examines the impact of an intelligent UAS with leadership and emotional capabilities on employee performance and enjoyment. The leadership capabilities of the intelligent UAS lead to an increase in enjoyment but a decrease in performance. The emotional capabilities of the intelligent UAS reduce the stimulating effect of leadership characteristics. Fourth, this dissertation contributes to understanding how users interact with anticipating UASs. Anticipating UASs are intelligent and interactive, providing users with task-related and emotional stimuli (Maedche et al. 2016). They also have advanced communication interfaces and can adapt to current situations and predict future events (Knote et al. 2018). Because of these advanced capabilities anticipating UASs enable collaborative work settings and often use anthropomorphic design cues to make the interaction more intuitive and comfortable (André et al. 2019). However, these anthropomorphic design cues can also raise expectations too high, leading to disappointment and rejection if they are not met (Bartneck et al. 2009; Mori 1970). To create a successful collaborative relationship between anticipating UASs and users, it is important to understand the impact of anthropomorphic design cues on the interaction and decision-making processes. This dissertation presents a theoretical model that explains the interaction between anthropomorphic anticipating UASs and users and an experimental procedure for empirical evaluation. The experiment design lays the groundwork for empirically testing the theoretical model in future research. To sum up, this dissertation contributes to information systems knowledge by improving understanding of the interaction between UASs and users in different application contexts. It develops new theoretical knowledge based on previous research and empirically evaluates user behavior to explain and predict it. In addition, this dissertation generates new knowledge by prototypically developing UASs and provides new insights for different classes of UASs. These insights can be used by researchers and practitioners to design more user-centric UASs and realize their potential benefits

The algebra of entanglement and the geometry of composition

String diagrams turn algebraic equations into topological moves that have recurring shapes, involving the sliding of one diagram past another. We individuate, at the root of this fact, the dual nature of polygraphs as presentations of higher algebraic theories, and as combinatorial descriptions of "directed spaces". Operations of polygraphs modelled on operations of topological spaces are used as the foundation of a compositional universal algebra, where sliding moves arise from tensor products of polygraphs. We reconstruct several higher algebraic theories in this framework. In this regard, the standard formalism of polygraphs has some technical problems. We propose a notion of regular polygraph, barring cell boundaries that are not homeomorphic to a disk of the appropriate dimension. We define a category of non-degenerate shapes, and show how to calculate their tensor products. Then, we introduce a notion of weak unit to recover weakly degenerate boundaries in low dimensions, and prove that the existence of weak units is equivalent to a representability property. We then turn to applications of diagrammatic algebra to quantum theory. We re-evaluate the category of Hilbert spaces from the perspective of categorical universal algebra, which leads to a bicategorical refinement. Then, we focus on the axiomatics of fragments of quantum theory, and present the ZW calculus, the first complete diagrammatic axiomatisation of the theory of qubits. The ZW calculus has several advantages over ZX calculi, including a computationally meaningful normal form, and a fragment whose diagrams can be read as setups of fermionic oscillators. Moreover, its generators reflect an operational classification of entangled states of 3 qubits. We conclude with generalisations of the ZW calculus to higher-dimensional systems, including the definition of a universal set of generators in each dimension.Comment: v2: changes to end of Chapter 3. v1: 214 pages, many figures; University of Oxford doctoral thesi

Ologs: a categorical framework for knowledge representation

In this paper we introduce the olog, or ontology log, a category-theoretic model for knowledge representation (KR). Grounded in formal mathematics, ologs can be rigorously formulated and cross-compared in ways that other KR models (such as semantic networks) cannot. An olog is similar to a relational database schema; in fact an olog can serve as a data repository if desired. Unlike database schemas, which are generally difficult to create or modify, ologs are designed to be user-friendly enough that authoring or reconfiguring an olog is a matter of course rather than a difficult chore. It is hoped that learning to author ologs is much simpler than learning a database definition language, despite their similarity. We describe ologs carefully and illustrate with many examples. As an application we show that any primitive recursive function can be described by an olog. We also show that ologs can be aligned or connected together into a larger network using functors. The various methods of information flow and institutions can then be used to integrate local and global world-views. We finish by providing several different avenues for future research.Comment: 38 page

Locally Responsive Public Open Space Design: Special Reference to Beijing, China

Foreign design ideas and the impact of globalization have long played a strong role in creating and reshaping local urban forms in the past few decades in China. This is especially evident in public open spaces in many Chinese cities due to rapid economic development. Recent urban projects in Beijing specifically have shown limited responsiveness to local context and needs of users. This is due to a political focus on financial returns, and has resulted in the proliferation of homogeneous ‘anywhere places’. Therefore, the aim of this research is to develop a conceptual framework and methodology for defining principles for locally responsive public open spaces in Beijing. The conceptual framework developed for this study is based on a review of key literature from both global and local sources, to define locally responsive public open spaces in the context of Beijing. Furthermore, the methodology establishes the relationship between traditional philosophies and contemporary thinking, and integrates urban morphology and other methods into the process. Eleven areas were visited and three neighbourhoods were chosen to study local perceptions of public open spaces across historical, early modern and contemporary scenarios. 90 residents and key decision makers were involved for identifying the needs and interests of various urban actors that make them possible to explore relevant topics through case study and different stages of developments in the city. By employing an Inquiry by Design approach, the proposals were developed and tested with key decision makers in order to formulate final recommendations. The research findings define the intrinsic meanings of public open space in the specific case of Beijing. They provide a set of recommendations to achieve local responsive public open spaces at different morphological layers and types of open spaces. Finally, they establish new conceptualisations of local responsiveness and methodologies based on the unique Chinese context. Therefore, the main contributions to the knowledge are the conceptual framework for exploration of locally responsive public open space design, and a methodology for investigating the qualities and levels of local responsiveness in these spaces. Both of which are potentially transferable to other Chinese cities that seek guidance on addressing issues in similar urban forms