Visualizing Robot Intent for Object Handovers with Augmented Reality

Humans are very skillful in communicating their intent for when and where a handover would occur. On the other hand, even the state-of-the-art robotic implementations for handovers display a general lack of communication skills. We propose visualizing the internal state and intent of robots for Human-to-Robot Handovers using Augmented Reality. Specifically, we visualize 3D models of the object and the robotic gripper to communicate the robot's estimation of where the object is and the pose that the robot intends to grasp the object. We conduct a user study with 16 participants, in which each participant handed over a cube-shaped object to the robot 12 times. Results show that visualizing robot intent using augmented reality substantially improves the subjective experience of the users for handovers and decreases the time to transfer the object. Results also indicate that the benefits of augmented reality are still present even when the robot makes errors in localizing the object.Comment: 6 pages, 4 Figures, 2 Table

Gene-edited meat: Disentangling consumers’ attitudes and potential purchase behaviour

Novel gene-editing (GE) technologies provide promising opportunities to increase livestock productivity and to tackle several global livestock production sustainability and food security challenges. However, these technologies, as with previous genetic modification technologies in food production, are very likely to generate social controversy and opposition toward their use in the meat industry. Here, we explored public attitudes and consumption predisposition toward gene-edited meat products and their potential added benefits to livestock farming. Our results show that societal perception currently comes as a package, where the use of gene-editing technology acts as an extrinsic cue of meat products quality, and is used to make a range of inferences about all quality facets at once. Although consumers with anti-GE attitudinal positions generally were not sensitive to price discounts or added benefits, added benefits increased the consumption predisposition of most moderate and pro-GE consumers, where benefits related to animal welfare had larger effects than those relating to the environment or human health issues.Publishe

Numbas as an engagement tool for first-year Business Studies students

In this paper we report on the implementation of e-assessment in mathematics with a large cohort of Business Studies students in their first year at Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland. The assessment tool used was Numbas, a freely available e-assessment tool for mathematics developed at Newcastle University. The main motivation in introducing Numbas for this course was to increase attendance and engagement at tutorials but also to make regular assessments with feedback a practical possibility for large groups. In this paper we discuss the effect the introduction of Numbas had on student engagement, in particular on student participation, attendance, and on the student experience

Digitization and Exogenesis

Within the field of genetic criticism, Raymonde Debray Genette coined the terms ‘en- dogenesis’ and ‘exogenesis’ to denote respectively the writing of drafts and the interaction with external source texts during the writing process. The proposed panel focuses on the ways in which exogenesis and its relationship with endogenesis can be given shape in a digital infrastructure. The case studies are the works, reading notes and personal libraries of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett

Reconsidering domestication from a process archaeology perspective

Process philosophy offers a metaphysical foundation for domestication studies. This grounding is especially important given the European colonialist origin of ‘domestication’ as a term and 19th century cultural project. We explore the potential of process archaeology for deep-time investigation of domestication relationships, drawing attention to the variable pace of domestication as an ongoing process within and across taxa; the nature of domestication ‘syndromes’ and ‘pathways’ as general hypotheses about process; the importance of cooperation as well as competition among humans and other organisms; the significance of non-human agency; and the ubiquity of hybrid communities that resist the simple wild/domestic dichotomy

EPOS Seismology services and their users

The construction of seismological community services for the European Plate Observing System Research Infrastructure (EPOS) is by now well under way. A significant number of services are already operational, largely based on those existing at established institutions or collaborations like ORFEUS, EMSC, AHEAD and EFEHR, and more are being added to be ready for internal validation by late 2017. In this presentation we focus on a number of issues related to the interaction of the community of users with the services provided by the seismological part of the EPOS research infrastructure. How users interact with a service (and how satisfied they are with this interaction) is viewed as one important component of the validation of a service within EPOS, and certainly is key to the uptake of a service and from that also it’s attributed value. Within EPOS Seismology, the following aspects of user interaction have already surfaced: a) User identification (and potential tracking) versus ease-of-access and openness Requesting users to identify themselves when accessing a service provides various advantages to providers and users (e.g. quantifying & qualifying the service use, customization of services and interfaces, handling access rights and quotas), but may impact the ease of access and also shy away users who don’t wish to be identified for whatever reason. b) Service availability versus cost There is a clear and prominent connection between the availability of a service, both regarding uptime and capacity, and its operational cost (IT systems and personnel), and it is often not clear where to draw the line (and based on which considerations). In connection to that, how to best utilize third-party IT infrastructures (either commercial or public), and what the long-term cost implications of that might be, is equally open. c) Licensing and attribution The issue of intellectual property and associated licensing policies for data, products and services is only recently gaining more attention in the community. Whether at all, and if yes then how to license, is still diversely discussed, while on national level more and more legislative requirements create boundary conditions that need to be respected. Attribution (of service use and of data/product origin) is only one related aspect, but of high importance the scientific world. In EPOS Seismology we attempt to find common approaches to address the above issues, also closely co-ordinated to the developments across the other EPOS domains. In this presentation we discuss the current strategies, potential solutions identified, and remaining open questions.H2020 Project EPOS-IP, Cordis Project ID 676564PublishedVienna, Austria4T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismica4IT. Banche dat

A Preference for a Sexual Signal Keeps Females Safe

Predation is generally thought to constrain sexual selection by female choice and limit the evolution of conspicuous sexual signals. Under high predation risk, females usually become less choosy, because they reduce their exposure to their predators by reducing the extent of their mate searching. However, predation need not weaken sexual selection if, under high predation risk, females exhibit stronger preferences for males that use conspicuous signals that help females avoid their predators. We tested this prediction in the fiddler crab Uca terpsichores by increasing females' perceived predation risk from crab-eating birds and measuring the attractiveness of a courtship signal that females use to find mates. The sexual signal is an arching mound of sand that males build at the openings of their burrows to which they attract females for mating. We found that the greater the risk, the more attractive were males with those structures. The benefits of mate preferences for sexual signals are usually thought to be linked to males' reproductive contributions to females or their young. Our study provides the first evidence that a female preference for a sexual signal can yield direct survival benefits by keeping females safe as they search for mates