Short-run lats rate movements: impact of foreign currency shocks via trade and financial markets

This paper investigates the short-run dynamic impact of foreign currency shocks on the deviations of Latvian lats vis-à-vis US dollar market spot rate from the parity set via lats' peg to SDR for the period from 1994 to 2000. The analysis is based on the standard theoretical model of dynamic cost adjustment, from which empirical models of the autoregressive distributed-lags form are derived. Reduction of several versions of such general models leads to a number of parsimonious and data congruent models. Our main findings from the modelling experiment are: Cross-currency shocks produce extensive impact on the net rate of lats, especially those shocks from the neighbouring transition economies, such as Estonia and Lithuania; These shocks may not be original, and may well act as transmission ports of other foreign currency shocks; The Russian crisis of August 1998 has exerted massive devaluation pressure on lats; The shocks are found to be transmittable via either trade and financial linkages, with the financial channel being the most contagious; Model configurations are found, however, neither unique nor definitely invariant, suggesting that it might be necessary to maintain several models in practice to fulfil different purposes in policy analyses and economic forecasting

Initial-boundary value problems for the defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation in the semiclassical limit

Initial-boundary value problems for integrable nonlinear partial differential equations have become tractable in recent years due to the development of so-called unified transform techniques. The main obstruction to applying these methods in practice is that calculation of the spectral transforms of the initial and boundary data requires knowledge of too many boundary conditions, more than are required make the problem well-posed. The elimination of the unknown boundary values is frequently addressed in the spectral domain via the so-called global relation, and types of boundary conditions for which the global relation can be solved are called \emph{linearizable}. For the defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation, the global relation is only known to be explicitly solvable in rather restrictive situations, namely homogeneous boundary conditions of Dirichlet, Neumann, and Robin (mixed) type. General nonhomogeneous boundary conditions are not known to be linearizable. In this paper, we propose an explicit approximation for the nonlinear Dirichlet-to-Neumann map supplied by the defocusing nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and use it to provide approximate solutions of general nonhomogeneous boundary value problems for this equation posed as an initial-boundary value problem on the half-line. Our method sidesteps entirely the solution of the global relation. The accuracy of our method is proven in the semiclassical limit, and we provide explicit asymptotics for the solution in the interior of the quarter-plane space-time domain.Comment: 56 pages, 13 figures. To appear in Stud. Appl. Mat

A smart vision sensor for detecting risk factors of a toddler's fall in a home environment

This paper presents a smart vision sensor for detecting risk factors of a toddler's fall in an indoor home environment assisting parents' supervision to prevent fall injuries. We identified the risk factors by analyzing real fall injury stories and referring to a related organization's suggestions to prevent falls. In order to detect the risk factors using computer vision, two major image processing methods, clutter detection and toddler tracking, were studied with using only one commercial web-camera. For practical purposes, there is no need for a toddler to wear any sensors or markers. The algorithms for detection have been developed, implemented and tested

Vision-based toddler tracking at home

This paper presents a vision-based toddler tracking system for detecting risk factors of a toddler's fall within the home environment. The risk factors have environmental and behavioral aspects and the research in this paper focuses on the behavioral aspects. Apart from common image processing tasks such as background subtraction, the vision-based toddler tracking involves human classification, acquisition of motion and position information, and handling of regional merges and splits. The human classification is based on dynamic motion vectors of the human body. The center of mass of each contour is detected and connected with the closest center of mass in the next frame to obtain position, speed, and directional information. This tracking system is further enhanced by dealing with regional merges and splits due to multiple object occlusions. In order to identify the merges and splits, two directional detections of closest region centers are conducted between every two successive frames. Merges and splits of a single object due to errors in the background subtraction are also handled. The tracking algorithms have been developed, implemented and tested

The significance of information visualisation based on the symbolic semantics of Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF)

Peking Opera as a branch of Chinese traditional cultures and arts has a very distinct colourful facial make-up for all actors in the stage performance. Such make-up is stylised in typical cultural elements which all combined together to form the painted faces to describe and symbolise the background and characteristic of specific roles. The Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF) was taken as an example to study the information visualisation and transmission, to see how information and meanings can be effectively expressed through the colourful visual elements. In order to identify the state-of-the-art in the related Culture Inspired Design as one of the design principles, the literature resources including illustrations of POPF were investigated, and also the semantic features and elements of other similar forms of modern design which has close connection with multiple aspects of social life. The study has proved that the visual elements of POPF played the most effective role in the information transmittion. Future application of this culture resource may include product design, interaction design, system design and service design around the world

Universal attraction force-inspired freeform surface modeling for 3D sketching

This paper presents a novel freeform surface modeling method to construct a freeform surface from 3D sketch. The approach is inspired by Newton’s universal attraction force law to construct a surface model from rough boundary curves and unorganized interior characteristic curves which may cross the boundary curves or not. Based on these unorganized curves, an initial surface can be obtained for conceptual design and it can be improved later in a commercial package. The approach has been tested with examples and it is capable of dealing with unorganized design curves for surface modeling

Sketch-based virtual human modelling and animation

Animated virtual humans created by skilled artists play a remarkable role in today’s public entertainment. However, ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. We developed a new method and a novel sketching interface, which enable anyone who can draw to “sketch-out” 3D virtual humans and animation. We devised a “Stick FigureFleshing-outSkin Mapping” graphical pipeline, which decomposes the complexity of figure drawing and considerably boosts the modelling and animation efficiency. We developed a gesture-based method for 3D pose reconstruction from 2D stick figure drawings. We investigated a “Creative Model-based Method”, which performs a human perception process to transfer users’ 2D freehand sketches into 3D human bodies of various body sizes, shapes and fat distributions. Our current system supports character animation in various forms including articulated figure animation, 3D mesh model animation, and 2D contour/NPR animation with personalised drawing styles. Moreover, this interface also supports sketch-based crowd animation and 2D storyboarding of 3D multiple character interactions. A preliminary user study was conducted to support the overall system design. Our system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes

A simple construction method for sequentially tidying up 2D online freehand sketches

This paper presents a novel constructive approach to sequentially tidying up 2D online freehand sketches for further 3D interpretation in a conceptual design system. Upon receiving a sketch stroke, the system first identifies it as a 2D primitive and then automatically infers its 2D geometric constraints related to previous 2D geometry (if any). Based on recognized 2D constraints, the identified geometry will be modified accordingly to meet its constraints. The modification is realized in one or two sequent geometric constructions in consistence with its degrees of freedom. This method can produce 2D configurations without iterative procedures to solve constraint equations. It is simple and easy to use for a real-time application. Several examples are tested and discussed

Sketching-out virtual humans: From 2d storyboarding to immediate 3d character animation

Virtual beings are playing a remarkable role in today’s public entertainment, while ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. In this paper, we present a fast and intuitive storyboarding interface, which enables users to sketch-out 3D virtual humans, 2D/3D animations, and character intercommunication. We devised an intuitive “stick figurefleshing-outskin mapping” graphical animation pipeline, which realises the whole process of key framing, 3D pose reconstruction, virtual human modelling, motion path/timing control, and the final animation synthesis by almost pure 2D sketching. A “creative model-based method” is developed, which emulates a human perception process, to generate the 3D human bodies of variational sizes, shapes, and fat distributions. Meanwhile, our current system also supports the sketch-based crowd animation and the storyboarding of the 3D multiple character intercommunication. This system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes