Phase synchrony facilitates binding and segmentation of natural images in a coupled neural oscillator network

Synchronization has been suggested as a mechanism of binding distributed feature representations facilitating segmentation of visual stimuli. Here we investigate this concept based on unsupervised learning using natural visual stimuli. We simulate dual-variable neural oscillators with separate activation and phase variables. The binding of a set of neurons is coded by synchronized phase variables. The network of tangential synchronizing connections learned from the induced activations exhibits small-world properties and allows binding even over larger distances. We evaluate the resulting dynamic phase maps using segmentation masks labeled by human experts. Our simulation results show a continuously increasing phase synchrony between neurons within the labeled segmentation masks. The evaluation of the network dynamics shows that the synchrony between network nodes establishes a relational coding of the natural image inputs. This demonstrates that the concept of binding by synchrony is applicable in the context of unsupervised learning using natural visual stimuli

Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Context-Sensitive Binding by the Laminar Circuits of V1 and V2: A Unified Model of Perceptual Grouping, Attention, and Orientation Contrast

A detailed neural model is presented of how the laminar circuits of visual cortical areas V1 and V2 implement context-sensitive binding processes such as perceptual grouping and attention. The model proposes how specific laminar circuits allow the responses of visual cortical neurons to be determined not only by the stimuli within their classical receptive fields, but also to be strongly influenced by stimuli in the extra-classical surround. This context-sensitive visual processing can greatly enhance the analysis of visual scenes, especially those containing targets that are low contrast, partially occluded, or crowded by distractors. We show how interactions of feedforward, feedback and horizontal circuitry can implement several types of contextual processing simultaneously, using shared laminar circuits. In particular, we present computer simulations which suggest how top-down attention and preattentive perceptual grouping, two processes that are fundamental for visual binding, can interact, with attentional enhancement selectively propagating along groupings of both real and illusory contours, thereby showing how attention can selectively enhance object representations. These simulations also illustrate how attention may have a stronger facilitatory effect on low contrast than on high contrast stimuli, and how pop-out from orientation contrast may occur. The specific functional roles which the model proposes for the cortical layers allow several testable neurophysiological predictions to be made. The results presented here simulate only the boundary grouping system of adult cortical architecture. However we also discuss how this model contributes to a larger neural theory of vision which suggests how intracortical and intercortical feedback help to stabilize development and learning within these cortical circuits. Although feedback plays a key role, fast feedforward processing is possible in response to unambiguous information. Model circuits are capable of synchronizing quickly, but context-sensitive persistence of previous events can influence how synchrony develops. Although these results focus on how the interblob cortical processing stream controls boundary grouping and attention, related modeling of the blob cortical processing stream suggests how visible surfaces are formed, and modeling of the motion stream suggests how transient responses to scenic changes can control long-range apparent motion and also attract spatial attention.Defense Advanced Research Projects agency and the Office of Naval Research (N00014-95-1-0409); National Science Foundation (IRI 94-01659, IRI 97-20333); ONR (N00014-92-J-1309, N00014-95-1-0657

The LAB@FUTURE Project - Moving Towards the Future of E-Learning

This paper presents Lab@Future, an advanced e-learning platform that uses novel Information and Communication Technologies to support and expand laboratory teaching practices. For this purpose, Lab@Future uses real and computer-generated objects that are interfaced using mechatronic systems, augmented reality, mobile technologies and 3D multi user environments. The main aim is to develop and demonstrate technological support for practical experiments in the following focused subjects namely: Fluid Dynamics - Science subject in Germany, Geometry - Mathematics subject in Austria, History and Environmental Awareness – Arts and Humanities subjects in Greece and Slovenia. In order to pedagogically enhance the design and functional aspects of this e-learning technology, we are investigating the dialogical operationalisation of learning theories so as to leverage our understanding of teaching and learning practices in the targeted context of deployment

Fault detection in operating helicopter drive train components based on support vector data description

The objective of the paper is to develop a vibration-based automated procedure dealing with early detection of mechanical degradation of helicopter drive train components using Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) data. An anomaly-detection method devoted to the quantification of the degree of deviation of the mechanical state of a component from its nominal condition is developed. This method is based on an Anomaly Score (AS) formed by a combination of a set of statistical features correlated with specific damages, also known as Condition Indicators (CI), thus the operational variability is implicitly included in the model through the CI correlation. The problem of fault detection is then recast as a one-class classification problem in the space spanned by a set of CI, with the aim of a global differentiation between normal and anomalous observations, respectively related to healthy and supposedly faulty components. In this paper, a procedure based on an efficient one-class classification method that does not require any assumption on the data distribution, is used. The core of such an approach is the Support Vector Data Description (SVDD), that allows an efficient data description without the need of a significant amount of statistical data. Several analyses have been carried out in order to validate the proposed procedure, using flight vibration data collected from a H135, formerly known as EC135, servicing helicopter, for which micro-pitting damage on a gear was detected by HUMS and assessed through visual inspection. The capability of the proposed approach of providing better trade-off between false alarm rates and missed detection rates with respect to individual CI and to the AS obtained assuming jointly-Gaussian-distributed CI has been also analysed

Learning in a Technology Enhanced World

Specht, M. (2009). Learning in a Technology Enhanced World: Context in Ubiquitous Learning Support. Inaugural Address. September, 11, 2009, Heerlen, The Netherlands: Open University of the Netherlands.In the following sections I will first outline what the current developments and trends in technology for the next five to ten years are and what their potential for enhancing learning is. OUN Second, I will describe how these developments and innovations already today influence the way we communicate, live, and learn. How the generation gap between digital natives and digital immigrants is leading to different perceptions of digital media and their use for learning and teaching. Third, I will outline some research on context and learning. I will describe examples of what I mean when I talk about context and I will give an overview of the usage of context in education and the key effects we can expect from contextualising technology enhancements for learning. What are the variables and design parameters we have to consider when we design contextualized learning in a technology enhanced world? In the fourth part I will introduce the model of ambient information channels that is a structuring metaphor for contextual learning technology. Last, I will highlight some key questions for a future research agenda in the field of contextual learning support and describe some research we are currently working on at the Centre of Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC) here at the Open University of the Netherlands

Information scraps: how and why information eludes our personal information management tools

In this paper we describe information scraps -- a class of personal information whose content is scribbled on Post-it notes, scrawled on corners of random sheets of paper, buried inside the bodies of e-mail messages sent to ourselves, or typed haphazardly into text files. Information scraps hold our great ideas, sketches, notes, reminders, driving directions, and even our poetry. We define information scraps to be the body of personal information that is held outside of its natural or We have much still to learn about these loose forms of information capture. Why are they so often held outside of our traditional PIM locations and instead on Post-its or in text files? Why must we sometimes go around our traditional PIM applications to hold on to our scraps, such as by e-mailing ourselves? What are information scraps' role in the larger space of personal information management, and what do they uniquely offer that we find so appealing? If these unorganized bits truly indicate the failure of our PIM tools, how might we begin to build better tools? We have pursued these questions by undertaking a study of 27 knowledge workers. In our findings we describe information scraps from several angles: their content, their location, and the factors that lead to their use, which we identify as ease of capture, flexibility of content and organization, and avilability at the time of need. We also consider the personal emotive responses around scrap management. We present a set of design considerations that we have derived from the analysis of our study results. We present our work on an application platform, jourknow, to test some of these design and usability findings

Interplayable surface: an exploration on augmented GUI that co-exists with physical environments

The main goal of this experiment-driven thesis is to envision and design an interactive GUI1(graphic user interface) that coexists with physical surfaces. Based on an understanding of user behavioral patterns for getting access to information in these types of situations, experimentations and prototypes are implemented and tested with participants. In particular, to observe the user behavioral pattern for augmented GUI within certain environments and circumstances, this thesis presents several types of participatory experimentations with physical GUIs. The experiment participants were encouraged to participate in re-creates and reorganizes physical GUI, relating to their own situational specificity or informational tendencies they have. Based on extracted insights from research and experiments, in the last phase, I propose two thesis models about how interactive GUI applies to a physical environment: simulation mock-ups for user scenarios of augmented GUI and interactive GUI surface combined with projection mapping. Related to people’s behavioral patterns on augmented GUI, the thesis models will show several types of information structures and interactions. Also, in framing the overall data structure and wireframe for the thesis product model, informative affordance corresponding with users’ situational specificity2 is considered as a crucial direction point, actualized on an artifact in a perceptible way. Through experimentally prototyping a thesis model, consequently, I would like to expand the speculative usability interactive GUI will feature in the near future

In Situ Mutation for Active Things in the IoT Context

Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved This paper discusses mutation as a new way for making things, in the context of Internet-of-Things (IoT), active instead of being passive as reported in the ICT literature. IoT is gaining momentum among ICT practitioners who see a lot of benefits in using things to support users have access to and control over their surroundings. However, things are still confined into the limited role of data suppliers. The approach proposed in this paper advocates for 2 types of mutation, active and passive, along with a set of policies that either back or deny mutation based on specific “stopovers” referred to as permission, prohibition, dispensation, and obligation. A testbed and a set of experiments demonstrating the technical feasibility of the mutation approach, are also presented in the paper. The testbed uses NodeMCU firmware and Lua script interpreter