Action and experience

The project examines the relationship between perception and action, and is divided into two parts. The first establishes a detailed philosophical critique of recent sensorimotor or enactive approaches to perception, targeting in particular the work of Alva Noë. In the second part I defend what may be called an 'action-space' account, according to which conscious experience is constituted by an agent's representing his surroundings in such a way as to enable a certain suite of actions. The enactive approach, I argue, misconstrues the relationship between perception and action and fails in its aim to provide an explanation of consciousness. It faces difficulties, too, when it comes to illusion, hallucination and non-visual perception. The action-space model, by contrast, drawing upon work by Andy Clark, Daniel Dennett and Philip Pettit, has the resources to provide a reductive, functionalist account of phenomenal consciousness; an account that locates consciousness where we want it - in the service of fluid world-engagement by embodied, active perceivers. Thus the perception/action interface is taken to be less direct than on the sensorimotor interpretation, but is nonetheless deep and important. The approach I endorse, furthermore, is consistent with and informed by empirical results from the cognitive sciences, including work on embodied, situated cognition and dual-streams analyses of visual processing

Theory based design and evaluation of multimedia presentation interfaces

Multimedia (MM) Applications currently suffer from an ad hoc development process. This places the usability and effectiveness of many MM products in doubt. This thesis develops a theoretically motivated design method and tools to address these problems. The thesis is based on an analysis of the cognitive processes of attending to and comprehending an MM presentation. A design method is then developed based on these cognitive processes. The method addressesth e problem of selecting media to presenting information requirements,h ow to design the media to effectively deliver the desired content, how to combine verbal and visual media successfully, and how to direct the user's attention to particular part of the presentation. A number of studies are then presented which provide validation for the method's claims. These include eye tracking to analyse the user's reading / viewing sequence, and tests of expert and novice recall of MM and conventional text / speech presentations. A set of re-authoring studies show that application of guidelines improves retention of the content. The method is supported by a design advisor authoring tool. The tool applies the guidelines using a combination of a critiquer and expert system. The tool demonstrates that the guidelines are tractable for implementation, and provides a novel approach to providing authoring advice. Both the method and the tool are also validated in case studies with novice users. These demonstrate that the method and tool are both usable and effective

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography, with indexes, issue 31

This bibliography lists 505 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis

Aesthetic Pleasure from Visual Quotes and its Influence on Individuals' Motivation to Exercise

It is well-known that physical activity has many benefits for health and well-being. However, one in four adults worldwide does not engage in enough physical activity. On the other hand, nowadays, many people look for physical exercise motivation online on image-sharing social media platforms, where it is relatively common to find encouraging text messages embedded in visual presentations (as visual quotes). Considering that perceived beauty can influence our perception of an artifact, this research project explored whether and how aesthetic pleasure affects people's perception of motivational text messages and the textual content's motivating capability on people's exercise motivation. The influence of several aesthetic pleasure levels (ugly, neutral, and beautiful) was explored in textual content with different characteristics (e.g., positive-framed, self-liberating messages, low-perceived competence, high-perceived competence). Several experiments revealed that high levels of aesthetic pleasure does not necessarily lead individuals to perceive a textual message as more positive. Similarly, low levels of aesthetic pleasure did not affect textual content perception. Indeed, ultimately, the influence of aesthetic pleasure seemed dependent on the textual content's own characteristics. Some experiments focused on the immediate effect of aesthetic pleasure, while others focused on aesthetic pleasure in the mid-term (over four weeks). In none of the scenarios did aesthetic pleasure influence intrinsic motivation, which has been found to be linked to individuals’ enjoyment of and likelihood of engagement with exercise over the long-term, or influence the extrinsic motivation (the identified behavior regulation), related to the initial adoption of physical exercise. Nonetheless, it was found that visual presentations perceived as aesthetically appealing help to instill a positive feeling regarding the textual content. Possibilities for future research are suggested on the basis of Cognitive Evaluation Theory, a sub-theory of Self-Determination Theory).É de conhecimento geral que fazer exercício físico traz vários benefícios para a saúde e bem-estar. Contudo, um em quatro adultos em todo o mundo não faz exercício físico suficiente. Por outro lado, hoje em dia, muitas pessoas procuram motivação para fazer exercício físico na internet nas redes sociais, onde facilmente se podem encontrar mensagens de texto motivacionais embutidas em apresentações visuais (designadas visual quotes). Tendo em conta que a perceção de prazer estético pode influenciar a nossa perceção sobre um determinado artefacto ou pessoa. Este projeto de investigação explorou se e como o prazer estético pode afetar a perceção de mensagens motivacionais e a capacidade motivadora do conteúdo textual na motivação das pessoas para fazer exercício físico.Foram explorados a influência de diversos níveis de prazer estético (feio, neutro, belo) em conteúdo textual com diferentes características (por exemplo, positive-framed, self-liberating, perceção de baixa-competência, perceção de alta-competência). Vários estudos (experiments) revelaram que níveis de perceção de prazer estético altos não levam necessariamente a que as pessoas percecionem as mensagens de texto como mais positivas. De forma similar, níveis de perceção de prazer estético baixos não afetaram a perceção do conteúdo textual. Em último caso, a influência da perceção de prazer estético pareceu dependente das próprias características do conteúdo textual. Alguns dos estudos focaram-se no efeito imediato da perceção de prazer estético enquanto outros focarem-se no efeito a curto prazo (até quatro semanas). Em nenhum dos cenários, a perceção de prazer estético influenciou a motivação intrínseca para fazer exercício físico dos participantes, que está associada à prática de fazer exercício físico a longo-prazo; Ou influenciou a motivação extrínseca identified behavior regulation, que está associada à adoção inicial de hábitos de exercício físico. Não obstante, verificou-se que as apresentações visuais das visual quotes percecionadas como esteticamente apelativas ajudam a incutir um “sentimento” positivo relativo ao conteúdo textual. Por último, são sugeridas possibilidades para futura investigação tendo como base a teoria Cognitive Evalution (uma sub-teoria da teoria da Auto-determinação)

Detecting cow behaviours associated with parturition using computer vision

Monitoring of dairy cows and their calf during parturition is essential in determining if there are any associated problems for mother and offspring. This is a critical period in the productive life of the mother and offspring. A difficult and assisted calving can impact on the subsequent milk production, health and fertility of a cow, and its potential survival. Furthermore, an alert to the need for any assistance would enhance animal and stockperson wellbeing. Manual monitoring of animal behaviour from images has been used for decades, but is very labour intensive. Recent technological advances in the field of Computer Vision based on the technique of Deep Learning have emerged, which now makes automated monitoring of surveillance video feeds feasible. The benefits of using image analysis compared to other monitoring systems is that image analysis relies upon neither transponder attachments, nor invasive tools and may provide more information at a relatively low cost. Image analysis can also detect and track the calf, which is not possible using other monitoring methods. Using cameras to monitor animals is commonly used, however, automated detection of behaviours is new especially for livestock. Using the latest state-of-the-art techniques in Computer Vision, and in particular the ground-breaking technique of Deep Learning, this thesis develops a vision-based model to detect the progress of parturition in dairy cows. A large-scale dataset of cow behaviour annotations was created, which included over 46 individual cow calvings and is approximately 690 hours of video footage with over 2.5k of video clips, each between 3-10 seconds. The model was trained on seven different behaviours, which included standing, walking, shuffle, lying, eating, drinking, and contractions while lying. The developed network correctly classified the seven behaviours with an accuracy of between 80 to 95%. The accuracy in predicting contractions while lying down was 83%, which in itself can be an early warning calving alert, as all cows start contractions one to two hours before giving birth. The performance of the model developed was also comparable to methods for human action classification using the Kinetics dataset

Technology 2001: The Second National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 1

Papers from the technical sessions of the Technology 2001 Conference and Exposition are presented. The technical sessions featured discussions of advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, computer graphics and simulation, communications, data and information management, electronics, electro-optics, environmental technology, life sciences, materials science, medical advances, robotics, software engineering, and test and measurement

Acta kinesiologiae Universitatis Tartuensis. 6

http://www.ester.ee/record=b1227224*es

Seventh Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1993), volume 1

This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications and Research Symposium (SOAR) Symposium hosted by NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) on August 3-5, 1993, and held at JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. SOAR included NASA and USAF programmatic overview, plenary session, panel discussions, panel sessions, and exhibits. It invited technical papers in support of U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Energy, NASA, and USAF programs in the following areas: robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life support, and space maintenance and servicing. SOAR was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. More than 100 technical papers, 17 exhibits, a plenary session, several panel discussions, and several keynote speeches were included in SOAR '93

The 1990 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence

The papers presented at the 1990 Goddard Conference on Space Applications of Artificial Intelligence are given. The purpose of this annual conference is to provide a forum in which current research and development directed at space applications of artificial intelligence can be presented and discussed. The proceedings fall into the following areas: Planning and Scheduling, Fault Monitoring/Diagnosis, Image Processing and Machine Vision, Robotics/Intelligent Control, Development Methodologies, Information Management, and Knowledge Acquisition