Animation From Instructions

We believe that computer animation in the form of narrated animated simulations can provide an engaging, effective and flexible medium for instructing agents in the performance of tasks. However, we argue that the only way to achieve the kind of flexibility needed to instruct agents of varying capabilities to perform tasks with varying demands in work places of varying layout is to drive both animation and narration from a common representation that embodies the same conceptualization of tasks and actions as Natural Language itself. To this end, we are exploring the use of Natural Language instructions to drive animated simulations. In this paper, we discuss the relationship between instructions and behavior that underlie our work and the overall structure of our system. We then describe in some what more detail three aspects of the system - the representation used by the Simulator, the operation of the Simulator and the Motion Generators used in the system

Management and display of four-dimensional environmental data sets using McIDAS

Over the past four years, great strides have been made in the areas of data management and display of 4-D meteorological data sets. A survey was conducted of available and planned 4-D meteorological data sources. The data types were evaluated for their impact on the data management and display system. The requirements were analyzed for data base management generated by the 4-D data display system. The suitability of the existing data base management procedures and file structure were evaluated in light of the new requirements. Where needed, new data base management tools and file procedures were designed and implemented. The quality of the basic 4-D data sets was assured. The interpolation and extrapolation techniques of the 4-D data were investigated. The 4-D data from various sources were combined to make a uniform and consistent data set for display purposes. Data display software was designed to create abstract line graphic 3-D displays. Realistic shaded 3-D displays were created. Animation routines for these displays were developed in order to produce a dynamic 4-D presentation. A prototype dynamic color stereo workstation was implemented. A computer functional design specification was produced based on interactive studies and user feedback

Procedural-Reasoning Architecture for Applied Behavior Analysis-based Instructions

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability affecting as many as 1 in every 88 children. While there is no known cure for ASD, there are known behavioral and developmental interventions, based on demonstrated efficacy, that have become the predominant treatments for improving social, adaptive, and behavioral functions in children. Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)-based early childhood interventions are evidence based, efficacious therapies for autism that are widely recognized as effective approaches to remediation of the symptoms of ASD. They are, however, labor intensive and consequently often inaccessible at the recommended levels. Recent advancements in socially assistive robotics and applications of virtual intelligent agents have shown that children with ASD accept intelligent agents as effective and often preferred substitutes for human therapists. This research is nascent and highly experimental with no unifying, interdisciplinary, and integral approach to development of intelligent agents based therapies, especially not in the area of behavioral interventions. Motivated by the absence of the unifying framework, we developed a conceptual procedural-reasoning agent architecture (PRA-ABA) that, we propose, could serve as a foundation for ABA-based assistive technologies involving virtual, mixed or embodied agents, including robots. This architecture and related research presented in this disser- tation encompass two main areas: (a) knowledge representation and computational model of the behavioral aspects of ABA as applicable to autism intervention practices, and (b) abstract architecture for multi-modal, agent-mediated implementation of these practices

Monitoring SOA Applications with SOOM Tools: A Competitive Analysis

Background: Monitoring systems decouple monitoring functionality from application and infrastructure layers and provide a set of tools that can invoke operations on the application to be monitored. Objectives: Our monitoring system is a powerful yet agile solution that is able to online observe and manipulate SOA (Service-oriented Architecture) applications. The basic monitoring functionality is implemented via lightweight components inserted into SOA frameworks thereby keeping the monitoring impact minimal. Methods/Approach: Our solution is software that hides the complexity of SOA applications being monitored via an architecture where its designated components deal with specific SOA aspects such as distribution and communication. Results: We implement an application-level and end-to-end monitoring with the end user experience in focus. Our tools are connected to a single monitoring system which provides consistent operations, resolves concurrent requests, and abstracts away the underlying mechanisms that cater for the SOA paradigm. Conclusions: Due to its flexible architecture and design our monitoring tools are capable of monitoring SOA application in Cloud environments without significant modifications. In comparisons with related systems we proved that our agile approaches are the areas where our monitoring system excels

A Data Model for Exploration of Temporal Virtual Reality Geographic Information Systems

Geographic information systems deal with the exploration, analysis, and presentation of geo-referenced data. Virtual reality is a type of human-computer interface that comes close to the way people perceive information in the real world. Thus, virtual reality environments become the natural paradigm for extending and enhancing the presentational and exploratory capability of GIs applications in both the spatial and temporal domains. The main motivation of this thesis is the lack of a framework that properly supports the exploration of geographic information in a multi-dimensional and multi-sensorial environment (i.e., temporal virtual reality geographic information systems). This thesis introduces a model for virtual exploration of animations. Virtual exploration of animations is a framework composed of abstract data types and a user interface that allow non-expert users to control, manipulate, analyze, and present objects\u27 behaviors in a virtual-reality environment. In the model for virtual exploration of animations, the manipulation of the dynamic environment is accomplished through a set of operations performed over abstractions that represent temporal characteristics of actions. An important feature of the model is that the temporal information is treated as first-class entities and not as a mere attribute of action\u27s representations. Therefore, entities of the temporal model have their own built-in functionality and are able to represent complex temporal structures. In an environment designed for the manipulation of the temporal characteristics of actions, the knowledge of relationships among objects\u27 behaviors plays a significant role in the model. This information comes from the knowledge base of the application domain and is represented in the model through constraints among entities of the temporal model. Such constraints vary from simply relating the end points of two intervals to a complex mechanism that takes into account all relations between sequences of intervals of cyclic behaviors. The fact that the exploration of the information takes place in a virtual reality environment imposes new requirements on the animation model. This thesis introduces a new classification of objects in a VR environment and describes the associated semantics of each element in the taxonomy. These semantics are used to direct the way an object interacts with an observer and with other objects in the environment

AN EXAMINATION OF THE IMPACT OF COMPUTER-BASED ANIMATIONS AND VISUALIZATION SEQUENCE ON LEARNERS' UNDERSTANDING OF HADLEY CELLS IN ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION

Research examining animation use for student learning has been conducted in the last two decades across a multitude of instructional environments and content areas. The extensive construction and implementation of animations in learning resulted from the availability of powerful computing systems and the perceived advantages the novel medium offered to deliver dynamic representations of complex systems beyond the human perceptual scale. Animations replaced or supplemented text and static diagrams of system functioning and were predicted to significantly improve learners' conceptual understanding of target systems. However, subsequent research has not consistently discovered affordances to understanding, and in some cases, has actually shown that animation use is detrimental to system understanding especially for content area novices (Lowe 2004; Mayer et al. 2005). This study sought to determine whether animation inclusion in an authentic learning context improved student understanding for an introductory earth science concept, Hadley Cell circulation. In addition, the study sought to determine whether the timing of animation examination improved conceptual understanding. A quasi-experimental pretest posttest design administered in an undergraduate science lecture and laboratory course compared four different learning conditions: text and static diagrams with no animation use, animation use prior to the examination of text and static diagrams, animation use following the examination of text and static diagrams, and animation use during the examination of text and static diagrams. Additionally, procedural data for a sample of three students in each condition were recorded and analyzed through the lens of self regulated learning (SRL) behaviors. The aim was to determine whether qualitative differences existed between cognitive processes employed. Results indicated that animation use did not improve understanding across all conditions. However learners able to employ animations while reading and examining the static diagrams and to a lesser extent, after reading the system description, showed evidence of higher levels of system understanding on posttest assessments. Procedural data found few differences between groups with one exception---learners given access to animations during the learning episode chose to examine and coordinate the representations more frequently. These results indicated a new finding from the use of animation, a sequence effect to improve understanding of Hadley Cells in atmospheric circulation

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications