Integrating Multiple Sketch Recognition Methods to Improve Accuracy and Speed

Sketch recognition is the computer understanding of hand drawn diagrams. Recognizing sketches instantaneously is necessary to build beautiful interfaces with real time feedback. There are various techniques to quickly recognize sketches into ten or twenty classes. However for much larger datasets of sketches from a large number of classes, these existing techniques can take an extended period of time to accurately classify an incoming sketch and require significant computational overhead. Thus, to make classification of large datasets feasible, we propose using multiple stages of recognition. In the initial stage, gesture-based feature values are calculated and the trained model is used to classify the incoming sketch. Sketches with an accuracy less than a threshold value, go through a second stage of geometric recognition techniques. In the second geometric stage, the sketch is segmented, and sent to shape-specific recognizers. The sketches are matched against predefined shape descriptions, and confidence values are calculated. The system outputs a list of classes that the sketch could be classified as, along with the accuracy, and precision for each sketch. This process both significantly reduces the time taken to classify such huge datasets of sketches, and increases both the accuracy and precision of the recognition

Integrating Multiple Sketch Recognition Methods to Improve Accuracy and Speed

Sketch recognition is the computer understanding of hand drawn diagrams. Recognizing sketches instantaneously is necessary to build beautiful interfaces with real time feedback. There are various techniques to quickly recognize sketches into ten or twenty classes. However for much larger datasets of sketches from a large number of classes, these existing techniques can take an extended period of time to accurately classify an incoming sketch and require significant computational overhead. Thus, to make classification of large datasets feasible, we propose using multiple stages of recognition. In the initial stage, gesture-based feature values are calculated and the trained model is used to classify the incoming sketch. Sketches with an accuracy less than a threshold value, go through a second stage of geometric recognition techniques. In the second geometric stage, the sketch is segmented, and sent to shape-specific recognizers. The sketches are matched against predefined shape descriptions, and confidence values are calculated. The system outputs a list of classes that the sketch could be classified as, along with the accuracy, and precision for each sketch. This process both significantly reduces the time taken to classify such huge datasets of sketches, and increases both the accuracy and precision of the recognition

Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences for January to June 2011 - November 11, 2010

If you attend the same conferences each year, you don’t need to scan this list. This list is your opportunity to “push the envelope” by trying something new. There are hundreds of professional development events that may give you a different perspective or help you learn a new skill. Rather than attend the same event you always do, scan this list and investigate conferences, symposiums, or workshops you have never attended. The list below covers selected events focused primarily on the use of technology in educational settings and on teaching, learning, and educational administration. Only listings until June 2011 are complete as dates, locations, or URLs are not available for a number of events held after June 2011. A Word 2003 format is used to enable people who do not have access to Word 2007 or higher version and those with limited or high-cost Internet access to find a conference that is congruent with their interests or obtain conference proceedings. (If you are seeking a more interactive listing, refer to online conference sites.) Consider using the “Find” tool under Microsoft Word’s “Edit” tab or similar tab in OpenOffice to locate the name of a particular conference, association, city, or country. If you enter the country “United Kingdom” in the “Find” tool, all conferences that occur in the United Kingdom will be highlighted. Then, “cut and paste” a list of suitable events for yourself and your colleagues. Please note that events, dates, titles, and locations may change; thus, CHECK the specific conference website. Note also that some events will be cancelled at a later date. All Internet addresses were verified at the time of publication. No liability is assumed for any errors that may have been introduced inadvertently during the assembly of this conference list. If possible, please do not remove the contact information when you re-distribute the list as that is how I receive updates and corrections. If you publish the list on the web, please note its source

A Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) Approach to Human Development and Evolution. The Echo of the Universe.

In the present work we demonstrate that the current Child-Computer Interaction paradigm is not potentiating human development to its fullest – it is associated with several physical and mental health problems and appears not to be maximizing children’s cognitive performance and cognitive development. In order to potentiate children’s physical and mental health (including cognitive performance and cognitive development) we have developed a new approach to human development and evolution. This approach proposes a particular synergy between the developing human body, computing machines and natural environments. It emphasizes that children should be encouraged to interact with challenging physical environments offering multiple possibilities for sensory stimulation and increasing physical and mental stress to the organism. We created and tested a new set of computing devices in order to operationalize our approach – Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) devices: “Albert” and “Cratus”. In two initial studies we were able to observe that the main goal of our approach is being achieved. We observed that, interaction with the Biosymtic device “Albert”, in a natural environment, managed to trigger a different neurophysiological response (increases in sustained attention levels) and tended to optimize episodic memory performance in children, compared to interaction with a sedentary screen-based computing device, in an artificially controlled environment (indoors) - thus a promising solution to promote cognitive performance/development; and that interaction with the Biosymtic device “Cratus”, in a natural environment, instilled vigorous physical activity levels in children - thus a promising solution to promote physical and mental health

Landscapes of Affective Interaction: Young Children's Enactive Engagement with Body Metaphors

Empirical research into embodied meaning making suggests specific sensorimotor experiences can support children’s understanding of abstract science ideas. This view is aligned with enactive and grounded cognition perspectives, both centred in the view that our ability to conceptualise emerges from our experiences of interaction with our environment. While much of this research has focused on understanding action and action processes in individual children or children in pairs, less attention has been paid to affective dimensions of young children’s group interaction, and how this relates to meaning making with body metaphors. Indeed, Gallagher describes how no action exists in a vacuum, but rather revolves around a complex web of affective-pragmatic features comprising a ‘Landscape of Interaction’ (2020, p.42). This research project addresses gaps in research in understanding young children’s affective engagement from an enactivist cognition perspective. It takes a Design-Based Research approach with an iterative design orientation to examine young children’s interaction with multisensory body-based metaphors through an embodied participation framework. A series of empirical studies with young children, aged 2-7 years, comprising of experiential workshops, build iteratively upon each other. A novel theoretically informed method, Affective Imagination in Motion, is developed involving several purpose-built multisensory body metaphors prompts to enable access to dimensions of young children’s affective engagement. This research makes theoretical and methodological contributions. It extends the theoretical notion of ‘affect’ from enactive and grounded cognition perspectives through identifying key interactive processes in young children’s engagement with multisensory action metaphors. In addition, the novel method offers a contribution as a way of ‘looking’ at affect within a group situation from affective-pragmatic and social embodiment perspectives. Finally, the research contributes to embodied learning design frameworks offering a guideline for designers wishing to inform their work from enactive cognition perspective

Digital Youth with Disabilities

An examination of media and technology use by school-aged youth with disabilities, with an emphasis on media use at home.Most research on media use by young people with disabilities focuses on the therapeutic and rehabilitative uses of technology; less attention has been paid to their day-to-day encounters with media and technology—the mundane, sometimes pleasurable and sometimes frustrating experiences of “hanging out, messing around, and geeking out.” In this report, Meryl Alper attempts to repair this omission, examining how school-aged children with disabilities use media for social and recreational purposes, with a focus on media use at home. In doing so, she reframes common assumptions about the relationship between young people with disabilities and technology, and she points to areas for further study into the role of new media in the lives of these young people, their parents, and their caregivers.Alper considers the notion of “screen time” and its inapplicability in certain cases—when, for example, an iPad is a child's primary mode of communication. She looks at how young people with various disabilities use media to socialize with caregivers, siblings, and friends, looking more closely at the stereotype of the socially isolated young person with disabilities. And she examines issues encountered by parents in selecting, purchasing, and managing media for youth with such specific disabilities as ADHD and autism. She considers not only children's individual preferences and needs but also external factors, including the limits of existing platforms, content, and age standards

Designing with Children: Reflections on Effective Involvement of Children in the Interaction Design Process

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PerSketchTivity: Recognition System and Progressive Learning Analysis

PerSketchTivity is a sketch-based tutoring system for design sketching that allows students to hone their skills in design sketching and self-regulated learning through real-time feedback. Students learn design-sketching fundamentals through drawing exercises of reference shapes starting from basic to complex shapes in all dimensions and subsequently receive real-time feedback assessing their performance. PerSketchTivity consists of a recognition system that evaluates the correctness of a student's sketch and provides real-time feedback, evaluating the sketch based on error (accuracy), smoothness, and speed. The focus of this thesis is to evaluate the performance of the system in terms of the recognition accuracy (does the system correctly understand what the student intended to draw) as well as the educational impact on the sketching abilities of the students practicing with this system. Each student's increase in sketching ability is measured in terms of the accuracy, smoothness, and the speed at which the strokes. Data analysis comparing the early to late sketches showed a statistically significant increase in sketching ability