392 research outputs found
Grid Analysis of Radiological Data
IGI-Global Medical Information Science Discoveries Research Award 2009International audienceGrid technologies and infrastructures can contribute to harnessing the full power of computer-aided image analysis into clinical research and practice. Given the volume of data, the sensitivity of medical information, and the joint complexity of medical datasets and computations expected in clinical practice, the challenge is to fill the gap between the grid middleware and the requirements of clinical applications. This chapter reports on the goals, achievements and lessons learned from the AGIR (Grid Analysis of Radiological Data) project. AGIR addresses this challenge through a combined approach. On one hand, leveraging the grid middleware through core grid medical services (data management, responsiveness, compression, and workflows) targets the requirements of medical data processing applications. On the other hand, grid-enabling a panel of applications ranging from algorithmic research to clinical use cases both exploits and drives the development of the services
Quantitative analysis of streaming protocols for enabling Internet of Things (IoT) audio hardware
Given that traditional music production techniques often incorporate analog audio hardware, the Internet of Things (IoT) presents a unique opportunity to maintain past production workflows. For example, it is possible to enable remote digital connectivity to rare, expensive and bespoke audio systems, as well as unique spaces for use as echo chambers. In the presented research, quantitative testing is conducted to verify the performance of audio streaming platforms. Results show that using a high-speed internet connection, it is possible to stream lossless audio with low distortion, no dropouts and around 30 ms round-trip latency. Therefore, with future integration of audio streaming and IoT control protocols, a new paradigm for remote analog hardware processing in music production could be enabled
The Notion of Presence in a Telematic Cross-Disciplinary Program for Music, Communication and Technology
open access bookThis chapter examines how students in a two-campus, cross-disciplinary program in Music, Communication and Technology (MCT) experience the sense of presence of peer students and teachers, some physically co-localized while others are present via an audiovisual communications system. The chapter starts by briefly delineating the MCT program, the audiovisual communications system and the learning space built around it, named the Portal, and the research project SALTO which frames the current study. We then review research literature on presence relevant to this particular context and use this as a basis for the design of an online survey using a combination of Likert items and free text response. Our main findings, based on responses from the 16 students who participated in the survey, are that the mediating technologies of the Portal affect the experience of presence negatively, but that formal learning scenarios are less affected than informal scenarios that require social interaction
A Presence- and Performance-Driven Framework to Investigate Interactive Networked Music Learning Scenarios
Cooperative music making in networked environments has been subject of extensive research, scientific and artistic. Networked music performance (NMP) is attracting renewed interest thanks to the growing availability of effective technology and tools for computer-based communications, especially in the area of distance and blended learning applications. We propose a conceptual framework for NMP research and design in the context of classical chamber music practice and learning: presence-related constructs and objective quality metrics are used to problematize and systematize the many factors affecting the experience of studying and practicing music in a networked environment. To this end, a preliminary NMP experiment on the effect of latency on chamber music duos experience and quality of the performance is introduced. The degree of involvement, perceived coherence, and immersion of the NMP environment are here combined with measures on the networked performance, including tempo trends and misalignments from the shared score. Early results on the impact of temporal factors on NMP musical interaction are outlined, and their methodological implications for the design of pedagogical applications are discussed
Indexing, browsing and searching of digital video
Video is a communications medium that normally brings together moving pictures with a synchronised audio track into a discrete piece or pieces of information. The size of a “piece ” of video can variously be referred to as a frame, a shot, a scene, a clip, a programme or an episode, and these are distinguished by their lengths and by their composition. We shall return to the definition of each of these in section 4 this chapter. In modern society, video is ver
Highly efficient low-level feature extraction for video representation and retrieval.
PhDWitnessing the omnipresence of digital video media, the research community has
raised the question of its meaningful use and management. Stored in immense
multimedia databases, digital videos need to be retrieved and structured in an
intelligent way, relying on the content and the rich semantics involved. Current
Content Based Video Indexing and Retrieval systems face the problem of the semantic
gap between the simplicity of the available visual features and the richness of user
semantics.
This work focuses on the issues of efficiency and scalability in video indexing and
retrieval to facilitate a video representation model capable of semantic annotation. A
highly efficient algorithm for temporal analysis and key-frame extraction is developed.
It is based on the prediction information extracted directly from the compressed domain
features and the robust scalable analysis in the temporal domain. Furthermore,
a hierarchical quantisation of the colour features in the descriptor space is presented.
Derived from the extracted set of low-level features, a video representation model that
enables semantic annotation and contextual genre classification is designed.
Results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the temporal analysis algorithm
that runs in real time maintaining the high precision and recall of the detection task.
Adaptive key-frame extraction and summarisation achieve a good overview of the
visual content, while the colour quantisation algorithm efficiently creates hierarchical
set of descriptors. Finally, the video representation model, supported by the genre
classification algorithm, achieves excellent results in an automatic annotation system by
linking the video clips with a limited lexicon of related keywords
Designing instruments towards networked music practices
It is commonly noted in New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) research that
few of these make it to the mainstream and are adopted by the general public. Some
research in Sound and Music Computing (SMC) suggests that the lack of humanistic
research guiding technological development may be one of the causes. Many new
technologies are invented, however without real aim else than for technical
innovation, great products however emphasize the user-friendliness, user involvement
in the design process or User-Centred Design (UCD), that seek to guarantee that
innovation address real, existing needs among users. Such an approach includes not
only traditionally quantifiable usability goals, but also qualitative, psychological,
philosophical and musical such. The latter approach has come to be called experience
design, while the former is referred to as interaction design. Although the Human
Computer Interaction (HCI) community in general has recognized the significance of
qualitative needs and experience design, NIME has been slower to adopt this new
paradigm. This thesis therefore attempts to investigate its relevance in NIME, and
specifically Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) for music applications
by devising a prototype for group music action based on needs defined from pianists
engaging in piano duets, one of the more common forms of group creation seen in the
western musical tradition. These needs, some which are socio-emotional in nature, are
addressed through our prototype although in the context of computers and global
networks by allowing for composers from all over the world to submit music to a
group concert on a Yamaha Disklavier in location in Porto, Portugal. Although this
prototype is not a new gestural controller per se, and therefore not a traditional NIME,
but rather a platform that interfaces groups of composers with a remote audience, the
aim of this research is on investigating how contextual parameters like venue, audience, joint concert and technologies impact the overall user experience of such a
system. The results of this research has been important not only in understanding the
processes, services, events or environments in which NIME’s operate, but also
understanding reciprocity, creativity, experience design in Networked Music
practices.É de conhecimento generalizado que na área de investigação em novos interfaces para
expressão musical (NIME - New Interfaces for Musical Expression), poucos dos
resultantes dispositivos acabam por ser popularizados e adoptados pelo grande
público. Algum do trabalho em computação sonora e musical (SMC- Sound and
Music Computing) sugere que uma das causas para esta dificuldade, reside
numalacuna ao nível da investigação dos comportamentos humanos como linha
orientadora para os desenvolvimentos tecnológicos. Muitos dos desenvolvimentos
tecnológicos são conduzidos sem um real objectivo, para além da inovação
tecnológica, resultando em excelentes produtos, mas sem qualquer enfâse na
usabilidade humana ou envolvimento do utilizador no processo de Design (UCDUser
Centered Design), no sentido de garantir que a inovação atende a necessidades
reais dos utilizadores finais. Esta estratégia implica, não só objectivos quantitativos
tradicionais de usabilidade, mas também princípios qualitativos, fisiológicos,
psicológicos e musicológicos. Esta ultima abordagem é atualmente reconhecida como
Design de Experiência (Experience Design) enquanto a abordagem tradicional é
vulgarmente reconhecida apenas como Design de Interação (Interaction Design).
Apesar de na área Interação Homem-Computador (HCI – Human Computer
Interaction) as necessidades qualitativas no design de experiência ser amplamente
reconhecido em termos do seu significado e aplicabilidade, a comunidade NIME tem
sido mais lenta em adoptar este novo paradigma. Neste sentido, esta Tese procura
investigar a relevância em NIME, especificamente nu subtópico do trabalho
cooperativo suportado por Computadores (CSCW – Computer Supported Cooperative
Work), para aplicações musicais, através do desenvolvimento de um protótipo de um
sistema que suporta ações musicais coletivas, baseado nas necessidades especificas de Pianistas em duetos de Piano, uma das formas mais comuns de criação musical em
grupo popularizada na tradição musical ocidental. Estes requisitos, alguns sócioemocionais
na sua natureza, são atendidos através do protótipo, neste caso aplicado ao
contexto informático e da rede de comunicações global, permitindo a compositores de
todo o mundo submeterem a sua música para um concerto de piano em grupo num
piano acústico Yamaha Disklavier, localizado fisicamente na cidade do Porto,
Portugal. Este protótipo não introduz um novo controlador em si mesmo, e
consequentemente não está alinhado com as típicas propostas de NIME. Trata-se sim,
de uma nova plataforma de interface em grupo para compositores com uma audiência
remota, enquadrado com objectivos de experimentação e investigação sobre o
impacto de diversos parâmetros, tais como o espaço performativo, as audiências,
concertos colaborativos e tecnologias em termos do sistema global. O resultado deste
processo de investigação foi relevante, não só para compreender os processos,
serviços, eventos ou ambiente em que os NIME podem operar, mas também para
melhor perceber a reciprocidade, criatividade e design de experiencia nas práticas
musicais em rede
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