Understanding and designing for control in camera operation

Kameraleute nutzen traditionell gezielt Hilfsmittel um kontrollierte Kamerabewegungen zu ermöglichen. Der technische Fortschritt hat hierbei unlängst zum Entstehen neuer Werkzeugen wie Gimbals, Drohnen oder Robotern beigetragen. Dabei wurden durch eine Kombination von Motorisierung, Computer-Vision und Machine-Learning auch neue Interaktionstechniken eingeführt. Neben dem etablierten achsenbasierten Stil wurde nun auch ein inhaltsbasierter Interaktionsstil ermöglicht. Einerseits vereinfachte dieser die Arbeit, andererseits aber folgten dieser (Teil-)Automatisierung auch unerwünschte Nebeneffekte. Grundsätzlich wollen sich Kameraleute während der Kamerabewegung kontinuierlich in Kontrolle und am Ende als Autoren der Aufnahmen fühlen. Während Automatisierung hierbei Experten unterstützen und Anfänger befähigen kann, führt sie unweigerlich auch zu einem gewissen Verlust an gewünschter Kontrolle. Wenn wir Kamerabewegung mit neuen Werkzeugen unterstützen wollen, stellt sich uns daher die Frage: Wie sollten wir diese Werkzeuge gestalten damit sie, trotz fortschreitender Automatisierung ein Gefühl von Kontrolle vermitteln? In der Vergangenheit wurde Kamerakontrolle bereits eingehend erforscht, allerdings vermehrt im virtuellen Raum. Die Anwendung inhaltsbasierter Kontrolle im physikalischen Raum trifft jedoch auf weniger erforschte domänenspezifische Herausforderungen welche gleichzeitig auch neue Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten eröffnen. Um dabei auf Nutzerbedürfnisse einzugehen, müssen sich Schnittstellen zum Beispiel an diese Einschränkungen anpassen können und ein Zusammenspiel mit bestehenden Praktiken erlauben. Bisherige Forschung fokussierte sich oftmals auf ein technisches Verständnis von Kamerafahrten, was sich auch in der Schnittstellengestaltung niederschlug. Im Gegensatz dazu trägt diese Arbeit zu einem besseren Verständnis der Motive und Praktiken von Kameraleuten bei und bildet eine Grundlage zur Forschung und Gestaltung von Nutzerschnittstellen. Diese Arbeit präsentiert dazu konkret drei Beiträge: Zuerst beschreiben wir ethnographische Studien über Experten und deren Praktiken. Sie zeigen vor allem die Herausforderungen von Automatisierung bei Kreativaufgaben auf (Assistenz vs. Kontrollgefühl). Zweitens, stellen wir ein Prototyping-Toolkit vor, dass für den Einsatz im Feld geeignet ist. Das Toolkit stellt Software für eine Replikation quelloffen bereit und erleichtert somit die Exploration von Designprototypen. Um Fragen zu deren Gestaltung besser beantworten zu können, stellen wir ebenfalls ein Evaluations-Framework vor, das vor allem Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bestimmt. Darin erweitern wir etablierte Ansätze um eine neurowissenschaftliche Methodik, um Daten explizit wie implizit erheben zu können. Drittens, präsentieren wir Designs und deren Evaluation aufbauend auf unserem Toolkit und Framework. Die Alternativen untersuchen Kontrolle bei verschiedenen Automatisierungsgraden und inhaltsbasierten Interaktionen. Auftretende Verdeckung durch graphische Elemente, wurde dabei durch visuelle Reduzierung und Mid-Air Gesten kompensiert. Unsere Studien implizieren hohe Grade an Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bei unseren Ansätzen, die zudem kreatives Arbeiten und bestehende Praktiken unterstützen.Cinematographers often use supportive tools to craft desired camera moves. Recent technological advances added new tools to the palette such as gimbals, drones or robots. The combination of motor-driven actuation, computer vision and machine learning in such systems also rendered new interaction techniques possible. In particular, a content-based interaction style was introduced in addition to the established axis-based style. On the one hand, content-based cocreation between humans and automated systems made it easier to reach high level goals. On the other hand however, the increased use of automation also introduced negative side effects. Creatives usually want to feel in control during executing the camera motion and in the end as the authors of the recorded shots. While automation can assist experts or enable novices, it unfortunately also takes away desired control from operators. Thus, if we want to support cinematographers with new tools and interaction techniques the following question arises: How should we design interfaces for camera motion control that, despite being increasingly automated, provide cinematographers with an experience of control? Camera control has been studied for decades, especially in virtual environments. Applying content-based interaction to physical environments opens up new design opportunities but also faces, less researched, domain-specific challenges. To suit the needs of cinematographers, designs need to be crafted with care. In particular, they must adapt to constraints of recordings on location. This makes an interplay with established practices essential. Previous work has mainly focused on a technology-centered understanding of camera travel which consequently influenced the design of camera control systems. In contrast, this thesis, contributes to the understanding of the motives of cinematographers, how they operate on set and provides a user-centered foundation informing cinematography specific research and design. The contribution of this thesis is threefold: First, we present ethnographic studies on expert users and their shooting practices on location. These studies highlight the challenges of introducing automation to a creative task (assistance vs feeling in control). Second, we report on a domain specific prototyping toolkit for in-situ deployment. The toolkit provides open source software for low cost replication enabling the exploration of design alternatives. To better inform design decisions, we further introduce an evaluation framework for estimating the resulting quality and sense of control. By extending established methodologies with a recent neuroscientific technique, it provides data on explicit as well as implicit levels and is designed to be applicable to other domains of HCI. Third, we present evaluations of designs based on our toolkit and framework. We explored a dynamic interplay of manual control with various degrees of automation. Further, we examined different content-based interaction styles. Here, occlusion due to graphical elements was found and addressed by exploring visual reduction strategies and mid-air gestures. Our studies demonstrate that high degrees of quality and sense of control are achievable with our tools that also support creativity and established practices

Understanding and designing for control in camera operation

Kameraleute nutzen traditionell gezielt Hilfsmittel um kontrollierte Kamerabewegungen zu ermöglichen. Der technische Fortschritt hat hierbei unlängst zum Entstehen neuer Werkzeugen wie Gimbals, Drohnen oder Robotern beigetragen. Dabei wurden durch eine Kombination von Motorisierung, Computer-Vision und Machine-Learning auch neue Interaktionstechniken eingeführt. Neben dem etablierten achsenbasierten Stil wurde nun auch ein inhaltsbasierter Interaktionsstil ermöglicht. Einerseits vereinfachte dieser die Arbeit, andererseits aber folgten dieser (Teil-)Automatisierung auch unerwünschte Nebeneffekte. Grundsätzlich wollen sich Kameraleute während der Kamerabewegung kontinuierlich in Kontrolle und am Ende als Autoren der Aufnahmen fühlen. Während Automatisierung hierbei Experten unterstützen und Anfänger befähigen kann, führt sie unweigerlich auch zu einem gewissen Verlust an gewünschter Kontrolle. Wenn wir Kamerabewegung mit neuen Werkzeugen unterstützen wollen, stellt sich uns daher die Frage: Wie sollten wir diese Werkzeuge gestalten damit sie, trotz fortschreitender Automatisierung ein Gefühl von Kontrolle vermitteln? In der Vergangenheit wurde Kamerakontrolle bereits eingehend erforscht, allerdings vermehrt im virtuellen Raum. Die Anwendung inhaltsbasierter Kontrolle im physikalischen Raum trifft jedoch auf weniger erforschte domänenspezifische Herausforderungen welche gleichzeitig auch neue Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten eröffnen. Um dabei auf Nutzerbedürfnisse einzugehen, müssen sich Schnittstellen zum Beispiel an diese Einschränkungen anpassen können und ein Zusammenspiel mit bestehenden Praktiken erlauben. Bisherige Forschung fokussierte sich oftmals auf ein technisches Verständnis von Kamerafahrten, was sich auch in der Schnittstellengestaltung niederschlug. Im Gegensatz dazu trägt diese Arbeit zu einem besseren Verständnis der Motive und Praktiken von Kameraleuten bei und bildet eine Grundlage zur Forschung und Gestaltung von Nutzerschnittstellen. Diese Arbeit präsentiert dazu konkret drei Beiträge: Zuerst beschreiben wir ethnographische Studien über Experten und deren Praktiken. Sie zeigen vor allem die Herausforderungen von Automatisierung bei Kreativaufgaben auf (Assistenz vs. Kontrollgefühl). Zweitens, stellen wir ein Prototyping-Toolkit vor, dass für den Einsatz im Feld geeignet ist. Das Toolkit stellt Software für eine Replikation quelloffen bereit und erleichtert somit die Exploration von Designprototypen. Um Fragen zu deren Gestaltung besser beantworten zu können, stellen wir ebenfalls ein Evaluations-Framework vor, das vor allem Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bestimmt. Darin erweitern wir etablierte Ansätze um eine neurowissenschaftliche Methodik, um Daten explizit wie implizit erheben zu können. Drittens, präsentieren wir Designs und deren Evaluation aufbauend auf unserem Toolkit und Framework. Die Alternativen untersuchen Kontrolle bei verschiedenen Automatisierungsgraden und inhaltsbasierten Interaktionen. Auftretende Verdeckung durch graphische Elemente, wurde dabei durch visuelle Reduzierung und Mid-Air Gesten kompensiert. Unsere Studien implizieren hohe Grade an Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bei unseren Ansätzen, die zudem kreatives Arbeiten und bestehende Praktiken unterstützen.Cinematographers often use supportive tools to craft desired camera moves. Recent technological advances added new tools to the palette such as gimbals, drones or robots. The combination of motor-driven actuation, computer vision and machine learning in such systems also rendered new interaction techniques possible. In particular, a content-based interaction style was introduced in addition to the established axis-based style. On the one hand, content-based cocreation between humans and automated systems made it easier to reach high level goals. On the other hand however, the increased use of automation also introduced negative side effects. Creatives usually want to feel in control during executing the camera motion and in the end as the authors of the recorded shots. While automation can assist experts or enable novices, it unfortunately also takes away desired control from operators. Thus, if we want to support cinematographers with new tools and interaction techniques the following question arises: How should we design interfaces for camera motion control that, despite being increasingly automated, provide cinematographers with an experience of control? Camera control has been studied for decades, especially in virtual environments. Applying content-based interaction to physical environments opens up new design opportunities but also faces, less researched, domain-specific challenges. To suit the needs of cinematographers, designs need to be crafted with care. In particular, they must adapt to constraints of recordings on location. This makes an interplay with established practices essential. Previous work has mainly focused on a technology-centered understanding of camera travel which consequently influenced the design of camera control systems. In contrast, this thesis, contributes to the understanding of the motives of cinematographers, how they operate on set and provides a user-centered foundation informing cinematography specific research and design. The contribution of this thesis is threefold: First, we present ethnographic studies on expert users and their shooting practices on location. These studies highlight the challenges of introducing automation to a creative task (assistance vs feeling in control). Second, we report on a domain specific prototyping toolkit for in-situ deployment. The toolkit provides open source software for low cost replication enabling the exploration of design alternatives. To better inform design decisions, we further introduce an evaluation framework for estimating the resulting quality and sense of control. By extending established methodologies with a recent neuroscientific technique, it provides data on explicit as well as implicit levels and is designed to be applicable to other domains of HCI. Third, we present evaluations of designs based on our toolkit and framework. We explored a dynamic interplay of manual control with various degrees of automation. Further, we examined different content-based interaction styles. Here, occlusion due to graphical elements was found and addressed by exploring visual reduction strategies and mid-air gestures. Our studies demonstrate that high degrees of quality and sense of control are achievable with our tools that also support creativity and established practices

Between Stillness and Motion

New technological media such as film, photography and computers have altered the way we perceive possible relations between stillness and motion in the visual arts. Traditionally, cinema theory saw cinema and especially the 'illusion of motion' as part of the ideological swindle of the basic cinematic apparatus. This collection of essays by acclaimed international scholars including Tom Gunning, Thomas Elsaesser, Mark B.N. Hansen, George Baker, Ina Blom and Christa Blümlinger, starts out from a different premise to analyse stillness and motion as part of a larger ecology of images and media. They argue that the strategic uses of stillness and motion in art and entertainment since the 1850s illuminate and renegotiate urgent issues within both aesthetics, film, art and media history on the one hand, and, on the other, new perspectives on affects, memories and the contemporary patterns of communication and image circulation

Algorithmic assessment of cardiac viability using magnetic resonance imaging

MRI is a non-invasive imaging method which produces high resolution images of human tissues from inside the human body. Due to its outstanding ability, it is quickly becoming a major tool for medical and clinical studies, including high profile areas such as neurology, oncology, cardiology and etc. MRI technology developed relatively slowly compared to other methods such as x-ray. A decade ago, it took more than 5 minutes to construct an MR image. However more recently, with several significant inventions such as echo planar imaging and steady state free procession techniques, the acquisition time of MRI has significantly reduced. At present, it is possible to capture dozens of MR images in a second. Those techniques are generally called ultra-fast MRI. The fast MR acquisition techniques enable us to extend our studies to the moving tissues such as the myocardium. Using the ultra-fast MRI, multiple images can be acquired during a cardiac cycle allowing the construction of cardiac cinematographic MR images. Cardiac motion can therefore be revealed. Abnormal cardiac motion is often related to cardiac diseases such as ischaemic myocardium and myocardial infarction. With advanced MRI techniques, cardiac diseases can be more specifically defined. For example, the late contrast enhanced MRI highlights acute myocardial infarction. The first-pass perfusion MRI suggests the existence of ischaemic myocardium. At the present time the majority of the analysis of MR images can be performed either qualitatively or quantitatively. The qualitative assessment is an eye-ball assessment of the images on a MRI workstation, which is subjective and inaccurate. The quantitative assessment of MR image relies on the computer technologies of both hardware and software. In recent years, the demands for the quantitative assessment of MR images have increased sharply. Many so-called computer aided diagnosis systems were developed to process data either more accurately or more efficiently. In this study, we developed an algorithmic method to analyse the late contrast enhanced MR images, revealing the so-called hibernating myocardium. The algorithm is based on an efficient and robust image registration algorithm. Using the image registration algorithm, we are able to integrate the static late contrast enhanced MR image with its corresponding cardiac cinematography MR images, and so constructing cardiac CINE late enhanced MR images. Our algorithm was tested on 20 subjects. In each of the subject, the mean left ventricle diastolic volume and systolic volume was measured by planimetry from both the original CINE images and the constructed late enhanced CINE images. The results are: left ventricle diastolic volume (original / constructed) = 206 / 215 ml, p = 0.35. Left ventricle systolic volume (original / constructed) = 129 / 123 ml, p = 0.33. With our algorithm, the cardiac motion and the myocardial infarction can therefore be studied simultaneously to locate the hibernating myocardium which moves abnormally. The accurate location of the hibernating myocardium is important because it could turn into the irreversible myocardial infarction. On the other hand, with proper medical treatment or cardiac surgery, the hibernating myocardium could be revitalised. The experimental results show there are no significant differences between the artificial cine late contrast enhanced MR images and the original cinematography MR images in left ventricle diastolic volume, left ventricle systolic volume. The method therefore appears promising as an improved cardiac viability assessment tool. In addition, we extended the method to a semi-automatic cardiac contour definition algorithm, which has produced a satisfactory result in contour definition for cardiac cinematography MR images from 34 subjects including 20 healthy volunteers and 14 patients. Although it is a semi-automatic method, the diagnosis time could be significantly reduced compared to the manual method. The algorithm was preliminarily tested on 10 first-pass perfusion MR sequences and 10 aortic MR sequences. The experimental results were satisfactory. Although, minor manual correction is required on some occasions, we believe our method could be clinically useful for the study of cardiac cinematography MR images, first-pass perfusion MR images and aortic MR images

High-Tech Trash

High-Tech Trash: Glitch, Noise, and Aesthetic Failure maps an archaeology of failure in a culture seemingly ill-equipped to deal with it. To better understand failure, Kane argues, we must abstract from our subjective, personal disappointments and see them as meaningful symbols of a broader human struggle. By connecting twenty-first century digital aesthetics to critical issues in the history of high-tech, the book elucidates what it means to be an error-prone, fallible human in an age of hyper technology; to fail again and again without recourse to anything but repetition

High-Tech Trash

High-Tech Trash analyzes creative strategies in glitch, noise, and error to chart the development of an aesthetic paradigm rooted in failure. Carolyn L. Kane explores how technologically influenced creative practices, primarily from the second half of the twentieth and first quarter of the twenty-first centuries, critically offset a broader culture of pervasive risk and discontent. In so doing, she questions how we continue onward, striving to do better and acquire more, despite inevitable disappointment. High-Tech Trash speaks to a paradox in contemporary society in which failure is disavowed yet necessary for technological innovation.  “Leonard Cohen sang ‘There’s a crack in everything…that’s how the light gets in.’ Here, Carolyn Kane teaches us how to see that light, one crack at a time.” FRED TURNER, author of The Democratic Surround: Multimedia and American Liberalism from World War II to the Psychedelic Sixties  “Kane profiles art practices and media discourses that exploit and celebrate, rather than filter or suppress, all kinds of errors and noises. A welcome intervention in a number of discursive fields.” PETER KRAPP, author of Noise Channels: Glitch and Error in Digital Culture  “An original work of scholarship that addresses some of the most pervasive phenomena and foundational questions in the contemporary media environment.” ROBERT HARIMAN, coauthor of The Public Image: Photography and Civic Spectatorship  CAROLYN L. KANE is Associate Professor of Communication at Ryerson University and author of Chromatic Algorithms: Synthetic Color, Computer Art, and Aesthetics after Code

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania