Contrast, contours and the confusion effect in dazzle camouflage

‘Motion dazzle camouflage’ is the name for the putative effects of highly conspicuous, often repetitive or complex, patterns on parameters important in prey capture, such as the perception of speed, direction and identity. Research into motion dazzle camouflage is increasing our understanding of the interactions between visual tracking, the confusion effect and defensive coloration. However, there is a paucity of research into the effects of contrast on motion dazzle camouflage: is maximal contrast a prerequisite for effectiveness? If not, this has important implications for our recognition of the phenotype and understanding of the function and mechanisms of potential motion dazzle camouflage patterns. Here we tested human participants' ability to track one moving target among many identical distractors with surface patterns designed to test the influence of these factors. In line with previous evidence, we found that targets with stripes parallel to the object direction of motion were hardest to track. However, reduction in contrast did not significantly influence this result. This finding may bring into question the utility of current definitions of motion dazzle camouflage, and means that some animal patterns, such as aposematic or mimetic stripes, may have previously unrecognized multiple functions

Biomechanics (Chapter 9)

Biomechanics is a discipline. A discipline deals with understanding, predicting, and explaining phenomena within a content domain, and biomechanics is the study of the human body in motion. Kinesiology, the parent discipline of biomechanics, is a science that investigates movement. Biomechanical research in human development focuses on evaluating essential movement patterns across the human life span. Biomechanical analysis is specifically important in quantifying the developmental motor skills and movement patterns such as walking, kicking, jumping, throwing, and catching. Biomechanical research also involves studying the movement patterns of injured and disabled people. Forensic biomechanists are invited to analyze evidence, clarify some of the most important issues, and facilitate the decisions of the jury. Motion recording devices use optical lenses to capture body motion and provide permanent recorded images of movement that can be evaluated with more precision than perception with the naked eye alone

Gesture Recognition: A Survey of Gesture Recognition Techniques using Neural Networks

Understanding human motions can be posed as a pattern recognition problem In order to convey visual messages to a receiver a human expresses motion patterns Loosely called gestures these patterns are variable but distinct and have an associated meaning The Pattern recognition by any computer or machine can be implemented via various methods such as Hidden Harkov Models Linear Programming and Neural Networks Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages which will be studied separately later on This paper reviews why using ANNs in particular is better suited for analyzing human motions pattern

Analyzing metrics to understand human mobility phenomena: challenges and solutions

Defining basic metrics that analyze human motion is important for urban planning and population mobility forecasting. These metrics are applied to understand extensive human mobility data generated from multiple sources. This means that our understanding of the basic metrics governing human motion is conditioned by integrating different data sources available. To the best of our knowledge, this article is a comprehensive study of the characteristics and metrics of human mobility patterns. Initially, it focuses on understanding common metrics in human mobility research. Then, it compares metrics such as resilience, displacement, interval and duration in different data types such as Wi-Fi, Call Detail Records (CDRs), Global Positioning System (GPS) and Social Media collected from two individuals. Comparing the results, a variation in movement patterns in both individuals is found in our study. Finally, we uncover a few interesting phenomena that lay a solid foundation for future research.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. It has also been supported by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through project UIDB/04728/2020

Motion Based Event Recognition Using HMM

Motion is an important cue for video understanding and is widely used in many semantic video analyses. We present a new motion representation scheme in which motion in a video is represented by the responses of frames to a set of motion filters. Each of these filters is designed to be most responsive to a type of dominant motion. Then we employ hidden Markov models (HMMs) to characterize the motion patterns based on these features and thus classify basketball video into 16 events. The evaluation by human satisfaction rate to classification result is 75%, demonstrating effectiveness of the proposed approach to recognizing semantic events in video

Relativism in the linguistic representation and cognitive conceptualisation of motion events across verb-framed and satellite-framed languages

The present doctoral thesis addresses the issue of the relation in human cognition between language and thinking, and, more specifically, it aims to investigate by scientific means the potential for a language-particular influence on cognitive activity and putative reflexes, i.e. the linguistic relativity question (cf. Whorf 1956, Lucy 1992a).To this end, the present thesis offers a detailed exploration of linguistic relativity and of its potential scope of validity - at least in theoretical terms. It further situates its study within modern cognitive science, whose epistemological approach to the study of the mind is multi- disciplinary, bringing the fields of psychology, linguistics and philosophy together for the enhanced pursuit of an understanding of human cognition. Having established a conducive framework for the study of linguistic relativity within cognitive science and linguistics, the thesis offers to focus on a specific experiential domain of human life, and on its variable encoding in different languages to seek specific language influences over the conceptualisation of that domain. The chosen domain consists of MOTION - a pervasive domain in humans' daily lives and daily needs of expression. This domain is particularly interesting to relativistic studies as its conceptual components are lexicalised via differing means across the world's languages. Existing typologies for motion encoding (e.g. Talmy 1985) have established at least two main possible patterns, also known as verb- and satellite-framing, and as exemplified by the French and English languages respectively. The essential difference between the two language types consists of their grammatical encoding of the core element of motion, namely PATH - either in a verb or in a verbal satellite ― and of their selective encoding of peripheral elements, such as MANNER of displacement - with this element being optional in French grammar, and obligatory in English. The thesis offers empirical linguistic data to confirm - and also challenge - the fixedness of the patterns identified by e.g. Talmy. A thorough discussion of the linguistic framing of motion is presented, together with experiments bearing on the cognitive reality of motion conceptualisation - independently of language. This thesis thus contributes to an understanding of motion both in language and in cognition. Finally, it offers experimental work bearing on the relativity question, i.e. exploring whether linguistic patterns for motion encoding exert a decisive influence on the non-linguistic conceptualisation of motion, resulting in the two language communities differing in their cognitive appreciation of otherwise similar motion events. The final results offer evidence in favour of differing conceptualisations, that is, in support of linguistic relativity

Making the invisible visible: New perspectives on the intersection of human-environment interactions of clinical teams in intensive care

Understanding human behaviour is essential to the successful adoption of new technologies, and for the promotion of safer care. This requires capturing the detail of clinical workflows to inform the design of new human–technology interactions. We are interested particularly in the possibilities for touchless technologies that can decipher human speech, gesture and motion and allow for interactions that are free of contact. Here, we employ a new approach by installing a single 360° camera into a clinical environment to analyse touch patterns and human–environment interactions across a clinical team to recommend design considerations for new technologies with the potential to reduce avoidable touch

Visual Perception of Biomechanical Characteristics of Walking, Jumping, and Landing

Visual perception of biological systems is one important aspect which has been considered by researchers in understanding human motion. The term «biological motion» was used by Johansson (1971, 1973) to distinguish human movement patterns from the motion of rigid inanimate objects previously utilized in visual motion perception. The emphasis, however, has been on the need for distinguishing three types of motion to describe perceived kinematic relations: the relative motion of elements to each other in the configuration, the common motion of the whole configuration relative to the observer, and the absolute motion of each element in dynamic display [Cutting and Proffitt (1982)]. Based on data collected using a video-recorder, reflective tape and high powered light for producingpoint-light displays, Cutting and Proffitt (1982) concluded that relative motion is automatically minimized by the visual system. Moreover, Johansson (1971, 1973) showed that all movement pattern of walking and running can be visually identified by observers without seeing the total picture. Using a similar technique, observers were able to visually recognize gender and friends by their walking patterns (Cutting and Kozlowzki, 1977; Cutting, 1978), ones' own identity (Beardsworth and Buckner, 1981), the weight of lifted objects (Runeson and Frykholm, 1983), and to the extent that evaluation of technical skill execution was sucessfully judged (Scully, 1986). Based on the principle that relative motion is automatically minimized by the visual system, Johansson (1973), concluded that previous learning of motion patterns do not determine the perception of walking. An important factor, however, is a highly mechanical, automatic type of visual data treatment. In addition, Runeson and Frykholm (1981) stated that the dynamic variable of the event (weight of the box), is well specified in the kinematic pattern and hence the visual system is efficient in picking up such information. Identifying cues by visual information may not be sufficient, however, to distinguish discrete skills (ie., jumping and landing) and/or continuous skills (ie., walking), especially, if the direction of the movement is reversed and if the total picture is seen as an absolute motion which includes the relative and common motion (Cutting and Proffitt, 1982). Therefore, this study was conducted to test the hypotheses that experience and familiarity are important factors in visual perception of kinematic patterns and that kinetics cannot be determined effectively by observation of kinematics. The purpose of this study is to determine: (1) the ability to visually perceive differences between a continuous skill (walking forward vs. backwards): (2) a discrete skill (jumping vs. landing); (3) the actual kinetic differences in the movement; and (4) whether individuals can distinguish between movement patterns, despite the kinetic differences, while the true pattern is reversed