Origin of the surface metallization in single-domain K/Si(100)2x1

The electronic structure and the metallization onset of single-domain K/Si(100)2x1 have been investigated with angle-resolved polarization-sensitive ultraviolet photoemission. The electronic states producing the surface metallization have been studied for increasing K coverages up to room-temperature saturation. As K coverage increases, the interface undergoes a transition at a critical coverage, from a low-coverage semiconducting phase, to a saturation-coverage metallic phase. Two different surface states (F-1 and F-2) have been detected in the vicinity of the Fermi level. These two states are sequentially filled along the metallization process. The coverage dependence of both F-1 and F-2, and their symmetry properties indicate that the metallization is due to the filling of an initially empty surface band (appearance of F-2) We relate F-1 to the completion of K chains in the single-domain surface. The changes detected in K 3p line shape correlate well with the modifications of the valence band, and support that the surface remains semiconducting up to the filling of F-2

The effect of transparency on recognition of overlapping objects

Are overlapping objects easier to recognize when the objects are transparent or opaque? It is important to know whether the transparency of X-ray images of luggage contributes to the difficulty in searching those images for targets. Transparency provides extra information about objects that would normally be occluded but creates potentially ambiguous depth relations at the region of overlap. Two experiments investigated the threshold durations at which adult participants could accurately name pairs of overlapping objects that were opaque or transparent. In Experiment 1, the transparent displays included monocular cues to relative depth. Recognition of the back object was possible at shorter durations for transparent displays than for opaque displays. In Experiment 2, the transparent displays had no monocular depth cues. There was no difference in the duration at which the back object was recognized across transparent and opaque displays. The results of the two experiments suggest that transparent displays, even though less familiar than opaque displays, do not make object recognition more difficult, and possibly show a benefit. These findings call into question the importance of edge junctions in object recognitio

Sketching-out virtual humans: From 2d storyboarding to immediate 3d character animation

Virtual beings are playing a remarkable role in today’s public entertainment, while ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. In this paper, we present a fast and intuitive storyboarding interface, which enables users to sketch-out 3D virtual humans, 2D/3D animations, and character intercommunication. We devised an intuitive “stick figurefleshing-outskin mapping” graphical animation pipeline, which realises the whole process of key framing, 3D pose reconstruction, virtual human modelling, motion path/timing control, and the final animation synthesis by almost pure 2D sketching. A “creative model-based method” is developed, which emulates a human perception process, to generate the 3D human bodies of variational sizes, shapes, and fat distributions. Meanwhile, our current system also supports the sketch-based crowd animation and the storyboarding of the 3D multiple character intercommunication. This system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes