90 research outputs found
A multi-resolution approach for adapting close character interaction
Synthesizing close interactions such as dancing and fighting between characters is a challenging problem in computer animation. While encouraging results are presented in [Ho et al. 2010], the high computation cost makes the method unsuitable for interactive motion editing and synthesis. In this paper, we propose an efficient multiresolution approach in the temporal domain for editing and adapting close character interactions based on the Interaction Mesh framework. In particular, we divide the original large spacetime optimization problem into multiple smaller problems such that the user can observe the adapted motion while playing-back the movements during run-time. Our approach is highly parallelizable, and achieves high performance by making use of multi-core architectures. The method can be applied to a wide range of applications including motion editing systems for animators and motion retargeting systems for humanoid robots
Interoperable subject retrieval in a distributed multi-scheme environment : new developments in the HILT project
The HILT (HIgh-Level Thesaurus) project (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/), based primarily at the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR) (http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk/) at Strathclyde University in Glasgow is entering its fourth stage following the completion of Phases I (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/index1.html) and II (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/index2.html) and the Machine to Machine (M2M) Feasibility Study (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/hiltm2mfs/). HILT is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the United Kingdom (UK) to examine an issue of global significance - facilitating interoperability of subject descriptions in a distributed, cross-service retrieval environment where different services use different subject and classification schemes to describe content, making cross-searching by subject difficult. HILT Phase I determined that there was a community consensus in the UK in favour of using inter-scheme mapping to achieve interoperability between services using different schemes, an approach followed by several recent projects (Heery et al, 2001; Koch et al, 2001; MACS, 2005; Saeed and Chaudhury 2002). HILT Phase II chose a spine-based approach to mapping and chose the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) as the central scheme to which all other schemes would be mapped. It also built an illustrative pilot mapping service, based on an adaptation of the Wordmap (http://www.wordmap.com/) terminology-handling software and made a range of recommendations on issues requiring further research and ongoing development requirements
Interaction-based Human Activity Comparison
Traditional methods for motion comparison consider features from individual characters. However, the semantic meaning of many human activities is usually defined by the interaction between them, such as a high-five interaction of two characters. There is little success in adapting interaction-based features in activity comparison, as they either do not have a fixed topology or are in high dimensional. In this paper, we propose a unified framework for activity comparison from the interaction point of view. Our new metric evaluates the similarity of interaction by adapting the Earth Mover’s Distance onto a customized geometric mesh structure that represents spatial-temporal interactions. This allows us to compare different classes of interactions and discover their intrinsic semantic similarity. We created five interaction databases of different natures, covering both two characters (synthetic and real-people) and character-object interactions, which are open for public uses. We demonstrate how the proposed metric aligns well with the semantic meaning of the interaction. We also apply the metric in interaction retrieval and show how it outperforms existing ones. The proposed method can be used for unsupervised activity detection in monitoring systems and activity retrieval in smart animation systems
Culturally responsive classrooms through art integration
Integrating arts into teaching and learning can result in more engaging classrooms for students of all backgrounds. Addressing content through drawing, painting, music, drama, sculpture, and manipulatives results in motivating lessons that reach diverse learners by means of multiple pathways. Benefits of incorporating the arts include not only academic achievement (Ruppert, 2006; Rabkin & Redmond, 2006), but also increased cultural understandings, better self-esteem, and a healthier cultural identity (Purnell, et al., 2007; Graham, 2009). Sample lessons with detailed explanations from an elementary classroom are highlighted to demonstrate how forms of linguistic and nonlinguistic artistic expression benefit all children in their development
Renormalization of the Optical Response of Semiconductors by Electron-Phonon Interaction
In the past five years enormous progress has been made in the ab initio
calculations of the optical response of electrons in semiconductors. The
calculations include the Coulomb interaction between the excited electron and
the hole left behind, as well as local field effects. However, they are
performed under the assumption that the atoms occupy fixed equilibrium
positions and do not include effects of the interaction of the lattice
vibrations with the electronic states (electron-phonon interaction). This
interaction shifts and broadens the energies at which structure in the optical
spectra is observed, the corresponding shifts being of the order of the
accuracy claimed for the ab initio calculations. These shifts and broadenings
can be calculated with various degrees of reliability using a number of
semiempirical and ab initio techniques, but no full calculations of the optical
spectra including electron-phonon interaction are available to date.
This article discusses experimental and theoretical aspects of the
renormalization of optical response functions by electron-phonon interaction,
including both temperature and isotopic mass effects. Some of the theoretical
techniques used can also be applied to analyze the renormalization of other
response functions, such as the phonon spectral functions, the lattice
parameters, and the elastic constants.Comment: Latex 2.09, 28 pages, 13 Figs., 2 Tables, submitted to Phys. Stat.
Sol.
Memory Clustering Using Persistent Homology for Multimodality- and Discontinuity-Sensitive Learning of Optimal Control Warm-Starts
Shooting methods are an efficient approach to solving nonlinear optimal
control problems. As they use local optimization, they exhibit favorable
convergence when initialized with a good warm-start but may not converge at all
if provided with a poor initial guess. Recent work has focused on providing an
initial guess from a learned model trained on samples generated during an
offline exploration of the problem space. However, in practice the solutions
contain discontinuities introduced by system dynamics or the environment.
Additionally, in many cases multiple equally suitable, i.e., multi-modal,
solutions exist to solve a problem. Classic learning approaches smooth across
the boundary of these discontinuities and thus generalize poorly. In this work,
we apply tools from algebraic topology to extract information on the underlying
structure of the solution space. In particular, we introduce a method based on
persistent homology to automatically cluster the dataset of precomputed
solutions to obtain different candidate initial guesses. We then train a
Mixture-of-Experts within each cluster to predict state and control
trajectories to warm-start the optimal control solver and provide a comparison
with modality-agnostic learning. We demonstrate our method on a cart-pole toy
problem and a quadrotor avoiding obstacles, and show that clustering samples
based on inherent structure improves the warm-start quality.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, accepted as a regular paper in IEEE
Transactions on Robotics (T-RO). Supplementary video:
https://youtu.be/lUULTWCFxY8 Code:
https://github.com/wxmerkt/topological_memory_clustering The first two
authors contributed equall
Solution of the Skyrme HF+BCS equation on a 3D mesh. II. A new version of the Ev8 code
We describe a new version of the EV8 code that solves the nuclear
Skyrme-Hartree-Fock+BCS problem using a 3-dimensional cartesian mesh. Several
new features have been implemented with respect to the earlier version
published in 2005. In particular, the numerical accuracy has been improved for
a given mesh size by (i) implementing a new solver to determine the Coulomb
potential for protons (ii) implementing a more precise method to calculate the
derivatives on a mesh that had already been implemented earlier in our
beyond-mean-field codes. The code has been made very flexible to enable the use
of a large variety of Skyrme energy density functionals that have been
introduced in the last years. Finally, the treatment of the constraints that
can be introduced in the mean-field equations has been improved. The code Ev8
is today the tool of choice to study the variation of the energy of a nucleus
from its ground state to very elongated or triaxial deformations with a
well-controlled accuracy.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure
The thermodynamic properties of solid mercury at temperature intervals of from 0 deg K to melting point at normal pressure
Thermodynamic properties and physical constants of solid mercury at temperature intervals from zero degrees K to melting point at normal pressur
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