Facing the competing demands for wider field of view and higher spatial resolution, computer vision will evolve toward greater use of foveal sensors and frequent camera movements. Integration of visual information across movements becomes a fundamental problem. We show that integration is possible using a biologically-inspired representation we call the visual-motor calibration map. The map is a memory-based model of the relationship between camera movements and corresponding pixel locations before and after any movement. The map constitutes a self-calibration that can compensate for non-uniform sampling, lens distortion, mechanical misalignments, and arbitrary pixel reordering. Integration takes place entirely in a retinotopic frame, using a short-term, predictive visual memory.

We propose a two-stage learning method which implements occluded visual scene analysis into a generative model, a type of hierarchical neural network with bi-directional synaptic connections. Here, top-down connections simulate forward optics to generate predictions for sensory driven low-level representation, whereas bottom-up connections function to send the prediction error, the difference between the sensory based and the predicted low-level representation, to higher areas. The prediction error is then used to update the high-level representation to obtain better agreement with the visual scene. Although the actual forward optics is highly nonlinear and the accuracy of simulated forward optics is crucial for these types of models, the majority of previous studies have only investigated linear and simplified cases of forward optics. Here we take occluded vision as an example of nonlinear forward optics, where an object in front completely masks out the object behind. We propose a two-staged learning method inspired by the staged development of infant visual capacity. In the primary learning stage, a minimal set of object basis is acquired within a linear generative model using the conventional unsupervised learning scheme. In the secondary learning stage, an auxiliary multi-layer neural network is trained to acquire nonlinear forward optics by supervised learning. The important point is that the high-level representation of the linear generative model serves as the input and the sensory driven low-level representation provides the desired output. Numerical simulations show that occluded visual scene analysis can indeed be implemented by the proposed method. Furthermore, considering the format of input to the multi-layer network and analysis of hidden-layer units leads to the prediction that whole object representation of partially occluded objects, together with complex intermediate representation as a consequence of nonlinear transformation from non-occluded to occluded representation may exist in the low-level visual system of the brain. PMID:21094592

Capturing the scene gist is account for rapid and accurate scene classification in human visual system. This paper presents a biologically inspired task oriented gist model (BT-Gist) that attempts to emulate two important attributes of biological gist: holistic scene centered spatial layout representation and task oriented resolution determination. For the first attribute, we enrich the model of Oliva and Torralba by refining the low-level features in several biological plausible ways, extending the spatial layout to multiple resolution and followed by perceptually meaningful manifold analysis for a set of multi-resolution biologically inspired intrinsic manifold spatial layouts (BMSLs). Since the optimal resolution that best represents the spatial layout varies from task to task, we embod...

Human can be distinguished by different limb movements and unique ground reaction force. Cumulative foot pressure image is a 2-D cumulative ground reaction force during one gait cycle. Although it contains pressure spatial distribution information and pressure temporal distribution information, it suffers from several problems including different shoes and noise, when putting it into practice as a new biometric for pedestrian identification. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical translation-invariant representation for cumulative foot pressure images, inspired by the success of Convolutional deep belief network for digital classification. Key contribution in our approach is discriminative hierarchical sparse coding scheme which helps to learn useful discriminative high-level visual features. Based on the feature representation of cumulative foot pressure images, we develop a pedestrian recognition system which is invariant to three different shoes and slight local shape change. Experiments are conducted on...

Abstract Vector fields are a common concept for the representation of many different kinds of flow phenomena in science and engineering. Methods based on vector field topology are known for their convenience for visualizing and analysing steady flows, but a counterpart for unsteady flows is still missing. However, a lot of good and relevant work aiming at such a solution is available. We give an overview of previous research leading towards topology-based and topology-inspired visualization of unsteady flow, pointing out the different approaches and methodologies involved as well as their relation to each other, taking classical (i.e. steady) vector field topology as our starting point. Particularly, we focus on Lagrangian methods, space-time domain approaches, local methods and stochastic...

In this paper, we propose a general framework for graph matching which is suitable for different problems of pattern recognition. The pattern representation we assume is at the same time highly structured, like for classic syntactic and structural approaches, and of subsymbolic nature with real-valued features, like for connectionist and statistic approaches. We show that random walk based models, inspired by Google's PageRank, give rise to a spectral theory that nicely enhances the graph topological features at node level. As a straightforward consequence, we derive a polynomial algorithm for the classic graph isomorphism problem, under the restriction of dealing with Markovian spectrally distinguishable graphs (MSD), a class of graphs that does not seem to be easily reducible to others proposed in the literature. The experimental results that we found on different test-beds of the TC-15 graph database show that the defined MSD class "almost always" covers the database, and that the proposed algorithm is significantly more efficient than top scoring VF algorithm on the same data. Most interestingly, the proposed approach is very well-suited for dealing with partial and approximate graph matching problems, derived for instance from image retrieval tasks. We consider the objects of the COIL-100 visual collection and provide a graph-based representation, whose node's labels contain appropriate visual features. We show that the adoption of classic bipartite graph matching algorithms offers a straightforward generalization of the algorithm given for graph isomorphism and, finally, we report very promising experimental results on the COIL-100 visual collection. PMID:16013757

Analysis of data without labels is commonly subject to scrutiny by unsupervised machine learning techniques. Such techniques provide more meaningful representations, useful for better understanding of a problem at hand, than by looking only at the data itself. Although abundant expert knowledge exists in many areas where unlabelled data is examined, such knowledge is rarely incorporated into automatic analysis. Incorporation of expert knowledge is frequently a matter of combining multiple data sources from disparate hypothetical spaces. In cases where such spaces belong to different data types, this task becomes even more challenging. In this paper we present a novel immune-inspired method that enables the fusion of such disparate types of data for a specific set of problems. We show that our method provides a better visual understanding of one hypothetical space with the help of data from another hypothetical space. We believe that our model has implications for the field of exploratory data analysis and kno...

We have previously developed a neurodynamical model of motion segregation in cortical visual area V1 and MT of the dorsal stream. The model explains how motion ambiguities caused by the motion aperture problem can be solved for coherently moving objects of arbitrary size by means of cortical mechanisms. The major bottleneck in the development of a reliable biologically inspired technical system with real-time motion analysis capabilities based on this neural model is the amount of memory necessary for the representation of neural activation in velocity space. We propose a sparse coding framework for neural motion activity patterns and suggest a means by which initial activities are detected efficiently. We realize neural mechanisms such as shunting inhibition and feedback modulation in the sparse framework to implement an efficient algorithmic version of our neural model of cortical motion segregation. We demonstrate that the algorithm behaves similarly to the original neural model and is able to extract image motion from real world image sequences. Our investigation transfers a neuroscience model of cortical motion computation to achieve technologically demanding constraints such as real-time performance and hardware implementation. In addition, the proposed biologically inspired algorithm provides a tool for modeling investigations to achieve acceptable simulation time. PMID:17170478

The aim of this paper is to show how we can handle the Recognising Textual Entailment (RTE) task by using Description Logics (DLs). To do this, we propose a representation of natural language semantics in DLs inspired by existing representations in first-order logic. But our most significant contrib...

...senior SBA officials on the following criteria: Inspirational nature of the message for potential small business owners; Creativity and uniqueness of video concept; use of SBA programs and/or services; and audio and visual quality of the video....

Various papers on human vision, visual processing, and digital display are presented. The general topics considered include: physics and psychophysics of displayed information; visual performance and image quality; vision-based algorithms for image processing; visual sampling, compression, and representation; texture, pattern, and motion; color perception, coding, and representation. Some individual topics discussed are: respective fields and visual representations; psychophysical rating of image compression techniques; new paradigm for testing human and machine motion perception; motion perception model with interactions between spatial frequency channels; application of visual psychophysics to the design of video systems for use in space; unified model for human color perception and visual adaptation.

Tactical behavior of UGVs, which is needed for successful autonomous off-road driving, can be in many cases achieved by covering most possible driving situations with a set of rules and switching into a "drive-me-away" semi-autonomous mode when no such rule exists. However, the unpredictable and rapidly changing nature of combat situations requires more intelligent tactical behavior that must be based on predictive situation awareness with ongoing scene understanding and fast autonomous decision making. The implementation of image understanding and active vision is possible in the form of biologically inspired Network-Symbolic models, which combine the power of Computational Intelligence with graph and diagrammatic representation of knowledge. A Network-Symbolic system converts image information into an "understandable" Network-Symbolic format, which is similar to relational knowledge models. The traditional linear bottom-up "segmentation-grouping-learning-recognition" approach cannot provide a reliable separation of an object from its background/clutter, while human vision unambiguously solves this problem. An Image/Video Analysis that is based on Network-Symbolic approach is a combination of recursive hierarchical bottom-up and top-down processes. Logic of visual scenes can be captured in the Network-Symbolic models and used for the reliable disambiguation of visual information, including object detection and identification. Such a system can better interpret images/video for situation awareness, target recognition, navigation and actions and seamlessly integrates into 4D/RCS architecture.

Visual representations are an important and integral part of understanding and developing new scientific concepts – both in the laboratory and when engaging a public audience. Images often serve as the primary evidence supporting the claims of the scientific publication (Goodsell & Johnson, 2007). Fifty years ago Kendrew and Geis aimed for the best possible visual representation of myoglobin. Geis later emphasised: “We can only say 'it's something like that' – and only create a visual metaphor" (Paterlini, 2008). This chapter takes you through a series of visual representations made within a broad range of scientific areas, visual approaches and imaging technologies. It explores the way we look at scientific data, why some representations are better than others, and what you can do to achieve clarity, accuracy and aesthetic appearance in a visual representation that will represent your scientific data in the best possible way.

The aim of this paper is to show how we can handle the Recognising Textual Entailment (RTE) task by using Description Logics (DLs). To do this, we propose a representation of natural language semantics in DLs inspired by existing representations in first-order logic. But our most significant contribution is the definition of two novel inference tasks: A-Box saturation and subgraph detection which are crucial for our approach to RTE.

An attractive concept/mind map that illustrates various human strategies for responding to climate change. It was developed by a psychologist and not by an educator or scientist but can be used to inspire discussion and artistic representations of the human dimension to climate and energy issues.

Given $\\Gamma$ a finite subgroup of $\\mathbf{SL}_3\\mathbb{C}$, we determine how an arbitrary finite dimensional irreducible representation of $\\mathbf{SL}_3\\mathbb{C}$ decomposes under the action of $\\Gamma$. To the subgroup $\\Gamma$ we attach a generalized Cartan matrix $C_\\Gamma$. Then, inspired b...

SummaryA fundamental task of visual perception is to group visual features-sometimes spatially separated and partially occluded-into coherent, unified representations of objects. Perceptual grouping can vastly simplify the description of a visual scene and is critical for our visual system to understand the three-dimensional visual world. Numerous neurophysiological and brain imaging studies have demonstrated that neural mechanisms of perceptual grouping are characterized by the enhancement of neural responses throughout the visual processing hierarchy, from lower visual areas processing grouped features to higher visual areas representing objects and shapes from grouping [1-3]. In a series of psychophysical adaptation experiments, we made the counterintuitive observation that perceptual g...

We use AdS/CFT inspired methods to study the Lorentz group SO(1,d+1) Racah coefficients for type I representations. For such representations the Racah coefficient can be represented as an integral of a product of 6 bulk-to-bulk propagators over 4 copies of the hyperbolic space H_{d+1}. To compute the integrals we represent the bulk-to-bulk propagators in terms of bulk-to-boundary ones. The bulk integrals can be computed explicitly, and the boundary integrations are carried out by introducing Feynman parameters. The final result is an integral representation of the Racah coefficient given by 4 Barnes-Mellin type integrals.

This paper presents a novel approach to incorporate spatial information in the bag-of-visual-words model for category level and scene classi?cation. In the traditional bag-of-visual-words model, feature vectors are histograms of visual words. This representation is appearance based and does not cont...

Although few studies have systematically investigated the relationship between visual mental imagery and visual working memory, work on the effects of passive visual interference has generally demonstrated a dissociation between the two functions. In four experiments, we investigated a possible commonality between the two functions: We asked whether both rely on depictive representations. Participants judged the visual properties of letters using visual mental images or pictures of unfamiliar letters stored in short-term memory. Participants performed both tasks with two different types of interference: sequences of unstructured visual masks (consisting of randomly changing white and black dots) or sequences of structured visual masks (consisting of fragments of letters). The structured vi...

In this paper, inspired by the idea of overlapping rectangular region coding of binary images, we extend the SDS design, which is based on overlapping representation from binary images to gray images based on the non-symmetry and anti-packing model (NAM). A novel gray image representation is proposed by using the overlapping rectangular NAM (RNAM) and the extended Gouraud shading approach, which is called ORNAM representation. Also, we present an ORNAM representation algorithm of gray images. The encoding and the decoding of the proposed algorithm can be performed in O(n logn) time and O(n) time, respectively, where n denotes the number of pixels in a gray image. The wrong decoding problem of the hybrid matrix R for the overlapping RNAM representation of gray images is solved by using the ...

Space time cube representation is an information visualization technique where spatiotemporal data points are mapped into a cube. Fast and correct analysis of such information is important in for instance geospatial and social visualization applications. Information visualization researchers have previously argued that space time cube representation is beneficial in revealing complex spatiotemporal patterns in a dataset to users. The argument is based on the fact that both time and spatial information are displayed simultaneously to users, an effect difficult to achieve in other representations. However, to our knowledge the actual usefulness of space time cube representation in conveying complex spatiotemporal patterns to users has not been empirically validated. To fill this gap we report on a between-subjects experiment comparing novice users error rates and response times when answering a set of questions using either space time cube or a baseline 2D representation. For some simple questions the error rat...

canonical visual representation leads to pattern constancy in the pattern domain of higher level ... temporal depth but sparse in locational diversity. ..... of vision- based automation in aviation safety applications, specifically smart imaging ...

This thesis project was carried out at Volvo Car Corporation. It is based on an EU project called Locust in which a bio-inspired visual sensor system (the Locust sensor system) for automotive collision avoidance was developed. The Locust sensor system is designed to emulate the collision avoidance f...

Designing three-dimensional models using a tool like Google SketchUp is an attractive and inspiring activity fostering spatial thinking and visual creativity. The basic functions of SketchUp are easy to learn (low threshold). But more demanding design projects require computational thinking. This paper discusses some informatics concepts 3D-desigers need to know to be able to use SketchUp efficiently.

A method for spatializing text content for enhanced visual browsing and analysis. The invention is applied to large text document corpora such as digital libraries, regulations and procedures, archived reports, and the like. The text content from these sources may be transformed to a spatial representation that preserves informational characteristics from the documents. The three-dimensional representation may then be visually browsed and analyzed in ways that avoid language processing and that reduce the analysts' effort.

My paper investigates the meeting of theatre and photography in ‘theatre photography’. Recognizing that both art forms can determine theoretical and philosophical views on representation and self-representation, I aim to compare their visual strategies and the way they construct point of view. In th...

The representation and visualization scheme for heterogeneous CAD models are two key issues in heterogeneous object modeling, and are especially important to interactive heterogeneous CAD systems. In this paper, a hierarchical representation based on the Heterogeneous Feature Tree (HFT) structure is...

EVE is a high-level visualization library using ROOT's data-processing, GUI and OpenGL interfaces. It is designed as a framework for object management offering hierarchical data organization, object interaction and visualization via GUI and OpenGL representations. Automatic creation of 2D projected views is also supported. On the other hand, it can serve as an event visualization toolkit satisfying most HEP requirements: visualization of geometry, simulated and reconstructed data such as hits, clusters, tracks and calorimeter information. Special classes are available for visualization of raw-data. Object-interaction layer allows for easy selection and highlighting of objects and their derived representations (projections) across several views (3D, Rho-Z, R-Phi). Object-specific tooltips are provided in both GUI and GL views. The visual-configuration layer of EVE is built around a data-base of template objects that can be applied to specific instances of visualization objects to ensure consistent object prese...

In this report, we describe a visualization model based on the mathematics of fiber bundles. In a companion report (SAND 88-8972), we introduced the visualization management system (ViMS), a new approach to the development of software for visualization in scientific computing (ViSC). A visualization management system implements a visualization model which specifies the class of geometric objects, the graphic representations of the objects and the operations provided by the system. In the model described here, the geometric objects are sections of fiber bundles. We give a brief, intuitive description of the mathematics of fiber bundles, emphasizing aspects relevant to our visualization model. We describe three important classes of operations on fiber bundles. We develop a flexible scheme for constructing graphic representations of fiber bundles and a simple but useful visualization taxonomy. 7 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab.

Abstract Steven Shankman discusses the genesis of a remarkable and singular work, influenced by calligraphy and traditional Chinese art, which today forms part of national French collections (Centre Georges Pompidou and the Muse d-art moderne, Paris). Hidden during the Second World War by a friend who introduced her to traditional Chinese art, Colette Brunschwig was seduced by the practice of calligraphy, the -interiority- of painting liberated from the notion of representation, and by -le vide la source de l-inspiration-, in the words of Marinette Bruno. The work of Emmanuel Levinas, particularly his theory that the truth of testimony is not the truth of representation, guides Shankman-s thinking throughout the article.

In this study, modulation spectral features (MSFs) are proposed for the automatic recognition of human affective information from speech. The features are extracted from an auditory-inspired long-term spectro-temporal representation. Obtained using an auditory filterbank and a modulation filterbank for speech analysis, the representation captures both acoustic frequency and temporal modulation frequency components, thereby conveying information that is important for human speech perception but missing from conventional short-term spectral features. On an experiment assessing classification of discrete emotion categories, the MSFs show promising performance in comparison with features that are based on mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and perceptual linear prediction coefficients, two co...

The authors examine how materiality emerges from complex chains of mediation in creative software use. The primarily theoretical argument is inspired and illustrated by interviews with two composers of electronic music. The authors argue that computer mediated activity should not primarily be understood in terms of simple mediation, but rather as chains of complex mediation in which the dominant form of representation is metonymy rather than metaphor.

We show how an interactive graph visualization method based on maximal modularity clustering can be used to explore a large epidemic network. The visual representation is used to display statistical tests results that expose the relations between the propagation of HIV in a sexual contact network and the sexual orientation of the patients.

In four studies, we investigated how the human sensory system acts on representations of sensory information. By making use of an anisotropy in orientational sensitivity (the oblique effect), we investigated how the human visual system determines object orientation. We showed that the visual s...

Following circumscribed retinal damage, extensive reorganization of topographically organized visual cortical areas has been demonstrated in several species of mammals (including humans). Although reorganization is often studied over extended time scales, neural response properties change within seconds of retinal deafferentation. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these short-term effects is essential for developing a complete picture of representational plasticity. One approach to the study of short-term plasticity has been to use an artificial scotoma, a stimulus-induced analog of a retinal scotoma, as a model. Here, we use event-related potentials in an artificial scotoma paradigm to examine 2 aspects of short-term plasticity in the human visual system. First, we investigated the changes within visual representations temporarily deprived of patterned visual input by probing the inner boundaries of an artificial scotoma. We found an enhanced early sensory P1, consistent with a reduction in inhibition (disinhibition), a proposed mechanism of short-term visual plasticity. Second, we investigated mechanisms through which representations of surrounding space invade a visually deprived area by probing the outer boundaries of an artificial scotoma. In this case, a later visual component, the N1, was enhanced, suggesting that feedback may provide a source of unmasked, or invading, activity to visually deprived representations. PMID:22235030

A fundamental task of visual perception is to group visual features - sometimes spatially separated and partially occluded - into coherent, unified representations of objects. Perceptual grouping can vastly simplify the description of a visual scene and is critical for our visual system to understand the three-dimensional visual world. Numerous neurophysiological and brain imaging studies have demonstrated that neural mechanisms of perceptual grouping are characterized by the enhancement of neural responses throughout the visual processing hierarchy, from lower visual areas processing grouped features to higher visual areas representing objects and shapes from grouping. In a series of psychophysical adaptation experiments, we made the counterintuitive observation that perceptual grouping amplified the shape aftereffect but meanwhile, reduced the tilt aftereffect and the threshold elevation aftereffect (TEAE). Furthermore, the modulation of perceptual grouping on the TEAE showed a partial interocular transfer. This finding suggests a 2-fold effect of perceptual grouping - enhancing the high-level shape representation and attenuating the low-level feature representation even at a monocular level. We propose that this effect is a functional manifestation of a predictive coding scheme and reflects an efficient code of visual information across lower and higher visual cortical areas. PMID:22578417

There is growing research interest in the challenges and opportunities learners face in representing scientific understandings, processes and reasoning. These challenges include integrating verbal, visual and mathematical modes in science discourse to make strong conceptual links between representations and classroom experiences. Our paper reports on a project that aimed to identify practical and theoretical issues entailed in a representation-intensive approach to guiding students? conceptual learning in science. We focus here on a teacher developing students? understanding of the formation of ions and molecules. We argue that the representations produced by students in this process met the criteria for representational competence proposed by diSessa (Cognition and Instruction, 22, 293?33...

Scientific knowledge is constructed and communicated through a range of forms in addition to verbal language. Maps, graphs, charts, diagrams, formulae, models, and drawings are just some of the ways in which science concepts can be represented. Representational competence---an aspect of visual literacy that focuses on the ability to interpret, transform, and produce visual representations---is a key component of science literacy and an essential part of science reading and writing. To date, however, most research has examined learning from representations rather than learning with representations. This dissertation consisted of three distinct projects that were related by a common focus on learning from visual representations as an important aspect of scientific literacy. The first project was the development of an exploratory framework that is proposed for use in investigations of students constructing and interpreting multimedia texts. The exploratory framework, which integrates cognition, metacognition, semiotics, and systemic functional linguistics, could eventually result in a model that might be used to guide classroom practice, leading to improved visual literacy, better comprehension of science concepts, and enhanced science literacy because it emphasizes distinct aspects of learning with representations that can be addressed though explicit instruction. The second project was a metasynthesis of the research that was previously conducted as part of the Explicit Literacy Instruction Embedded in Middle School Science project (Pacific CRYSTAL, http://www.educ.uvic.ca/pacificcrystal). Five overarching themes emerged from this case-to-case synthesis: the engaging and effective nature of multimedia genres, opportunities for differentiated instruction using multimodal strategies, opportunities for assessment, an emphasis on visual representations, and the robustness of some multimodal literacy strategies across content areas. The third project was a mixed-methods verification study that was conducted to refine and validate the theoretical framework. This study examined middle school students' representational competence and focused on students' creation of visual representations such as labelled diagrams, a form of representation commonly found in science information texts and textbooks. An analysis of the 31 Grade 6 participants' representations and semistructured interviews revealed five themes, each of which supports one or more dimensions of the exploratory framework: participants' use of color, participants' choice of representation (form and function), participants' method of planning for representing, participants' knowledge of conventions, and participants' selection of information to represent. Together, the results of these three projects highlight the need for further research on learning with rather than learning from representations.

The representation of the visual field in the newborn rabbit's visual cortex appears on about the 10th day after the animal's birth coinciding with the time of its eye opening. Initially the visual response is obtained from a small anterolateral segment of the visual area of the cortex representing a few degrees of the extreme nasal vision of the animal. Even at this early stage, the visually responsive area of the rabbit's cortex seems to organize into V1 and V2 with the binocular response confined to V1 only. By the 15th day after the animal's birth, the visually responsive area in the newborn rabbit extends medially and posteriorly over the cortex, representing more of the animal's temporal and superior visual fields. By this time the binocular response is established over a narrow zone of the animal's visual cortex, representing a few degrees of the nasal visual field, on either side of the boundary between V1 and V2. Between the 16th and 17th day after the rabbit's birth, the cortical representation of the animal's visual field extends medially to the margin of the fissura sagittalis lateralis and caudally to the posterior pole of the hemisphere. In this visually responsive area of the cortex, the band-shaped visual field of the newborn rabbit is asymmetrically represented. PMID:679049

In this paper, a visualization model based on the mathematics of fiber bundles is described. A brief, intuitive description of the mathematics of fiber bundles is given, introducing the concepts using typical application examples and emphasizing aspects relevant to our visualization model. Three important classes of operations on fiber bundles are described. A flexible scheme is developed for constructing graphic representations of fiber bundles and a simple but useful visualization taxonomy.

This paper presents the development of a novel visual speech recognition (VSR) system based on a new representation that extends the standard viseme concept (that is referred in this paper to as Visual Speech Unit (VSU)) and Hidden Markov Models (HMM). Visemes have been regarded as the smallest visual speech elements in the visual domain and they have been widely applied to model the visual speech, but it is worth noting that they are problematic when applied to the continuous visual speech recognition. To circumvent the problems associated with standard visemes, we propose a new visual speech representation that includes not only the data associated with the articulation of the visemes but also the transitory information between consecutive visemes. To fully evaluate the appropriateness of the proposed visual speech representation, in this paper an extensive set of experiments have been conducted to analyse the performance of the visual speech units when compared with that offered by the standard MPEG-4 visemes. The experimental results indicate that the developed VSR application achieved up to 90% correct recognition when the system has been applied to the identification of 60 classes of VSUs, while the recognition rate for the standard set of MPEG-4 visemes was only in the range 62-72%.   

Visual graph representations are increasingly used to represent, display, and explore scenarios and the structure of organizations. The graph representations of scenarios are readily understood, and commercial software is available to create and manage these representations. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to explore whether these graph representations support quantitative assessments of the underlying scenarios. The underlying structure of the scenarios is the information that is being targeted in the experiment and the extent to which the scenarios are similar in content. An experiment was designed that incorporated both the contents of the scenarios and analysts’ graph representations of the scenarios. The scenarios’ content was represented graphically by analysts, and both the structure and the semantics of the graph representation were attempted to be used to understand the content. The structure information was not found to be discriminating for the content of the scenarios in this experiment; but, the semantic information was discriminating.

Davis (Data Viewing System) is a general-purpose data viewer designed for the simultaneous display of a large number of dynamic data sets. Davis was inspired by the need to explore computational models of the cerebral cortex. These systems are distinguished by complex dynamic elements interconnected in irregular patterns. Neuroscientists study the detailed behavior of individual elements and how these elements interact to achieve cortical function. This paper describes Davis and its use in cortical visualization. Davis is written in Java and can be run from a browser or as a standalone application. Users must provide an XML description of their data, which Davis uses for its menus, browsing and visualization. Davis visualizations can be applied to any collection of space-time data sets, and the Davis infrastructure allows visualizations to be added easily. Davis handles the synchronization of different visualizations and encapsulates different threading policies.

Whilst the Writing culture critique since the mid-1980s has led to a number of experiments with ethnographic writing, the visual side has been neglected. Thus this article argues that by looking at the work of Oppitz, Downey, and Lockhart, which has not been considered in the canon of visual and general anthropology, anthropologists can develop new strategies of visual representation and research in regard to (1) conceptualizing closeness to and distance from the ethnographic subject, (2) the multiple positioning of the participant observer, and (3) developing new formal possibilities of visual representation. In doing so, anthropologists can start to address the unfulfilled potential of visual experimentation inherent in the Writing culture critique. This article then discusses three exam...

This article deals with the generation of auditory-inspired spectro-temporal features aimed at audio coding. To do so, we first generate sparse audio representations we call spikegrams, using projections on gammatone/gammachirp kernels that generate neural spikes. Unlike Fourier-based representations, these representations are powerful at identifying auditory events, such as onsets, offsets, transients, and harmonic structures. We show that the introduction of adaptiveness in the selection of gammachirp kernels enhances the compression rate compared to the case where the kernels are non-adaptive. We also integrate a masking model that helps reduce bitrate without loss of perceptible audio quality. We finally propose a method to extract frequent audio objects (patterns) in the aforementione...

There is growing research interest in the challenges and opportunities learners face in representing scientific understandings, processes and reasoning. These challenges include integrating verbal, visual and mathematical modes in science discourse to make strong conceptual links between representations and classroom experiences. Our paper reports on a project that aimed to identify practical and theoretical issues entailed in a representation-intensive approach to guiding students' conceptual learning in science. We focus here on a teacher developing students' understanding of the formation of ions and molecules. We argue that the representations produced by students in this process met the criteria for representational competence proposed by diSessa ("Cognition and Instruction," 22, 293-331, 2004) and Kozma & Russell (2005). The students understood that an effective representation needed to show relevant information, focus on pertinent points, be self-sufficient in its claims about the topic and provide coherent links between different parts of the representation. The final activity showed that their representations reached Kozma & Russell's (2005) highest level of competence, where the students were able to use specific features of their representations to critique their suitability for explaining bonding and were able to show how their representation linked to the periodic table as a representation. We conclude by considering the implications of these findings.

Bird song, long since an inspiration for artists, writers and poets also poses challenges for scientists interested in dissecting the mechanisms underlying the neural, motor, learning and behavioral systems behind the beak and brain, as a way to recreate and synthesize it. We use a combination of quantitative visualization experiments with physical models and computational theories to understand the simplest aspects of these complex musical boxes, focusing on using the controllable elastohydrodynamic interactions to mimic aural gestures and simple songs.

This publication aims to inspire and challenge to: 1) transform energy technology to architectural potentials, 2) introduce visions about daylight's potential into the energy debate, and 3) develop new strategies for interdisciplinary collaboration. In addition to converting solar energy to electricity transparent solar cells can be integrated into glass facades and thereby regulate indoor climate and daylight intake. Furthermore solar cells can contribute new visual dimensions. (BA)

Jim Thomas, a visionary scientist and inspirational leader, died on 6 August 2010 in Richland, Washington. His impact on the fields of computer graphics, user interface software, and visualization was extraordinary, his ability to personally change people’s lives even more so. He is remembered for his enthusiasm, his mentorship, his generosity, and, most of all, his laughter. This collection of remembrances images him through the eyes of his many friends.

The representation modification hypothesis of perceptual learning attributes the practice-induced improvements in sensitivity and/or discriminability to changes in the early visual areas. We used motion aftereffects (MAE) to probe the representations of motion direction. In two experiments, four practice sessions on a fine direction-discrimination task caused large stimulus-specific improvements in d' but no significant stimulus-specific changes in either static or dynamic MAE duration at posttest relative to a pretest. Power analysis indicated that the data were approximately 100 times more likely given the hypothesis of no MAE change than the hypothesis of a 10% relative change. In light of converging evidence in the MAE literature, this suggests that little or no change occurred in the cortical representations of visual motion up to and including area MT. The task specificity of the learning effect challenges the representation modification hypothesis and supports an alternative-selective reweighting. PMID:21856327

The primary role of the thyroid gland is to help regulation of the body's metabolism. The correct diagnosis of thyroid dysfunctions is very important and early diagnosis is the key factor in its successful treatment. In this article, we used four different kinds of classifiers, namely Bayesian, k-NN, k-Means and 2-D SOM to classify the thyroid gland data set. The robustness of classifiers with regard to sampling variations is examined using a cross validation method and the performance of classifiers in medical diagnostic is visualized by using cobweb representation. The cobweb representation is the original contribution of this work to visualize the classifiers performance when the data have more than two classes. This representation is a newly used method to visualize the classifiers per...

Dysnomia is typically assessed during neuropsychological evaluation through visual confrontation naming. Responsive naming to description, however, has been shown to have a more distributed representation in both fMRI and cortical stimulation studies. While naming deficits are common in dementia, the relative sensitivity of visual confrontation versus auditory responsive naming has not been directly investigated. The current study compared visual confrontation naming and auditory responsive naming in a dementia sample of mixed etiologies to examine patterns of performance across these naming tasks. A total of 50 patients with dementia of various etiologies were administered visual confrontation naming and auditory responsive naming tasks using stimuli that were matched in overall word freq...

What does it mean to have a visual representation of a mathematical object, concept, or process? What visualization strategies support growth in mathematical thinking, reasoning, generalization, and knowledge? Is mathematical seeing culture-free? And how can information drawn from studies in blind subjects help us understand the significance of a multimodal approach to learning mathematics? "Toward a Visually-Oriented School Mathematics Curriculum" explores a unified theory of visualization in school mathematical learning via the notion of progressive modeling. Based on the author's

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' use of visual imagery and its relationship to spatial visualization ability while solving mathematical word problems. Students with learning disabilities (LD), average achievers, and gifted students in sixth grade (N = 66) participated in this study. Students were assessed on measures of mathematical problem solving, visual imagery representation, and spatial visualization ability. The results indicated that gifted students performed better on both spatial visualization measures than students with LD and average-achieving students. Use of visual images was positively correlated with higher mathematical word-problem-solving performance. Furthermore, the use of schematic imagery was significantly and positively correlated with higher performance on each spatial visualization measure; conversely, it was negatively correlated with the use of pictorial images. PMID:17165617

How did the rat-control program, launched by the Government of Alberta in 1950, become associated with the identity and heritage of the province? The authors answer this question by undertaking close visual analyses of the anti-rat posters and pamphlets that were distributed by the government throughout the 1950s. Using a visual methodology inspired by semiotics, they argue that the early rat-control program ambitiously promoted Alberta as a unified, clean province that was both distinct from its prairie neighbours and for the most part populated with vigilant, hardworking citizens eager to remove unwanted intruders. PMID:22145175

Recent studies have demonstrated that retinotopic cortex maintains information about visual stimuli during retention intervals. However, the process by which transient stimulus-evoked sensory responses are transformed into enduring memory representations is unknown. Here, using fMRI and short-term visual memory tasks optimized for univariate and multivariate analysis approaches, we report differential involvement of human retinotopic areas during memory encoding of the low-level visual feature orientation. All visual areas show weaker responses when memory encoding processes are interrupted, possibly due to effects in orientation-sensitive primary visual cortex (V1) propagating across extrastriate areas. Furthermore, intermediate areas in both dorsal (V3a/b) and ventral (LO1/2) streams are significantly more active during memory encoding compared with non-memory (active and passive) processing of the same stimulus material. These effects in intermediate visual cortex are also observed during memory encoding of a different stimulus feature (spatial frequency), suggesting that these areas are involved in encoding processes on a higher level of representation. Using pattern-classification techniques to probe the representational content in visual cortex during delay periods, we further demonstrate that simply initiating memory encoding is not sufficient to produce long-lasting memory traces. Rather, active maintenance appears to underlie the observed memory-specific patterns of information in retinotopic cortex. PMID:22776452

This paper presents a novel appearance-based technique for topological robot localization and place recognition. A vocabulary of visual words is formed automatically, representing local features that frequently occur in the set of training images. Using the vocabulary, a spatial pyramid representation is built for each image by repeatedly subdividing it and computing histograms of visual words at increasingly fine resolutions. An information maximization technique is then applied to build a hierarchical classifier for each class by learning informative features. While top-level features in the hierarchy are selected from the coarsest resolution of the representation, capturing the holistic statistical properties of the images, child features are selected from finer resolutions, encoding mo...

Orienting attention to the to-be-tested representations can enhance representations and protect them from interference. Previous studies have found that this effect on feature and bound representations was comparable despite their difference in stability. This may have occurred because participants were tested in a block design, which is susceptible to participants' effective top-down control on the cued representations based on the predictability of the design. In this study, we investigated how the foreknowledge of when and what to expect would affect visual representations in a change-detection task. Cue onset time was either early or late; changes included either features or feature bindings. When predictability was maximized via a block design (Experiments 1, 5, and 6), early cues equ...

Representational Momentum refers to observers' distortion of recognition memory for pictures that imply motion because of an automatic mental process which extrapolates along the implied trajectory of the picture. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that activity in the magnocellular visual pathway is necessary for representational momentum to occur. It has been proposed that individuals with dyslexia have a magnocellular deficit, so it was hypothesised that these individuals would show reduced or absent representational momentum. In this study, 30 adults with dyslexia and 30 age-matched controls were compared on two tasks, one linear and one rotation, which had previously elicited the representational momentum effect. Analysis indicated significant differences in the performance of the two groups, with the dyslexia group having a reduced susceptibility to representational momentum in both linear and rotational directions. The findings highlight that deficits in temporal spatial processing may contribute to the perceptual profile of dyslexia. PMID:17688144

Formalism based on GA is an alternative to distributed representation models developed so far --- Smolensky's tensor product, Holographic Reduced Representations (HRR) and Binary Spatter Code (BSC). Convolutions are replaced by geometric products, interpretable in terms of geometry which seems to be the most natural language for visualization of higher concepts. This paper recalls the main ideas behind the GA model and investigates recognition test results using both inner product and a clipped version of matrix representation. The influence of accidental blade equality on recognition is also studied. Finally, the efficiency of the GA model is compared to that of previously developed models.

The configuration of mental representation of space plays a major role in successful navigational activities. Therefore, navigational assistance for pedestrians who are blind should help them to better configure their mental representation of the environment. In this paper, we propose and exploit a computational model for the mental representation of urban areas as an aid to orientation and navigation for visually impaired pedestrians. Our model uses image schemata to capture the spatial semantics and configural elements of urban space necessary for this purpose. These image schemata are schematic structures that are continually requested by individuals in their perception, bodily movement and interaction with surrounding objects. Our proposed model also incorporates a hierarchical structu...

It has been proposed that spatial relations are encoded either categorically, such that the relative positions of objects are defined in prepositional terms; or in terms of visual coordinates, such that the precise distances between objects are represented. In humans, it has been assumed that a left hemisphere neural network subserves categorical representations, and that coordinate representations are right lateralised. However, evidence in support of this distinction has been garnered exclusively from tasks that involved static, two-dimensional (2D) arrays. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify neural circuits underlying categorical and coordinate representations during active spatial navigation. Activity in the categorical condition was significantly greater i...

Display advertising has been a significant source of revenue for publishers and ad networks in online advertising ecosystem. One of the main goals in display advertising is to maximize user response rate for advertising campaigns, such as click through rates (CTR) or conversion rates. Although in the online advertising industry we believe that the visual appearance of ads (creatives) matters for propensity of user response, there is no published work so far to address this topic via a systematic data-driven approach. In this paper we quantitatively study the relationship between the visual appearance and performance of creatives using large scale data in the world's largest display ads exchange system, RightMedia. We designed a set of 43 visual features, some of which are novel and some are inspired by related work. We extracted these features from real creatives served on RightMedia. We also designed and conducted a series of experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of visual features for CTR prediction, ra...

The 3-D GammaModeler{trademark} system was used to survey a portion of the facility and provide 3-D visual and radiation representation of contaminated equipment located within the facility. The 3-D GammaModeler{trademark} system software was used to deconvolve extended sources into a series of point sources, locate the positions of these sources in space and calculate the 30 cm. dose rates for each of these sources. Localization of the sources in three dimensions provides information on source locations interior to the visual objects and provides a better estimate of the source intensities. The three dimensional representation of the objects can be made transparent in order to visualize sources located within the objects. Positional knowledge of all the sources can be used to calculate a map of the radiation in the canyon. The use of 3-D visual and gamma ray information supports improved planning decision-making, and aids in communications with regulators and stakeholders.

There is an almost unquestioned consensus in the virtual worlds’ research communities that an avatar is the representation of a user and player in front of the screen and that the relationship between the two predominantly is about identity and self-construal. Richard Bartle’s (2004) influential work and his claim that “it is all about identity” has been widely adopted. In many studies this conception has been explored and substantial contributions have been made (Downs 2010, Filiciak 2003, Fox & Bailenson 2009, Jin & Park 2009, Wang & Chang 2004, and Yee 2006). In this paper, I will, however, question the consensus to suggest that we nuance and broaden our understanding of the relationships of avatars with their owners. The question that I will set out to answer is: In what ways do actors make sense of their choice and design of avatars? The empirical basis for addressing this question is found in iterative video interviews with actors while they act in their chosen virtual worlds and with their avatars. The video interviews have been conducted in situ together with actors on the locations of their usual play and practice – be it at home or at their work place. The methodological approach of the in situ video interviews is summarized by the notion of “following the actors,” even if it is also recognized that the optic of the researcher is different from that of the engaged actor, who is seen as the expert of his or her engagement and agency. Over time, when located beside the actors while they act and engage, gradually, the conception of an avatar as the representation of the actor has become questionable. During the interviews, discussing with the actors their relationship with the chosen avatars, increasingly the transformative aspects of the relationship has influenced the theoretical understanding explicated by this paper, and it has blurred the boundaries of a seemingly unified phenomenon with bounded contours. Hence, a phenomenon in flux has emerged and become ever more visible during the in situ studies. The paper therefore suggests that we nuance our analysis and explicate the multiple and emergent constructions as well as the stabilizing interpretations of the relationships between actor and avatar. Semiotics (Nöth 2009, Peirce 1994) and actor-network theory (Latour 1998, 2005, Law 2004, Star 1995) are some of the theoretical references that will assist and enable such analysis. Moreover, this paper will discuss how the methodological approach inspired by visual ethnography (Grimshaw 2001, Pink 2001, 2006) and the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of avatars have mutually constructed and conceptualized the multiplicity of a transformative phenomenon. Following the methodological reflections and the theoretical and empirical analysis, the paper concludes that the relationships of actors and avatars 1) continuously oscillate and change as they 2) translate and transform the actors and their agency when enacted and performed. It is suggested that the understanding of avatars as interpretants and mediators in companionate relations will help us interpret and understand avatars as transformative phenomena in flux with blurred boundaries and not only as a bounded representation of actors in relations of projection, identification, self-construal, and identity-making.

This document contains 59 selected papers from the 1996 International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) conference. Topics include: learning to think visually; information design via the Internet; a program for inner-city at-risk children; dubbing versus subtitling television programs; connecting advertisements and classroom reading through visual literacy; tools for humanizing visual symbols; a review of a video on advertising and obsession with thinness; hypermedia and the fundamentals of electronic literacy; elementary students' perceptions of visuals on the World Wide Web; stereotypes in film; teachers' perceptions of instructional design; visual learning activities; tri-coding of information; diversity in Cyborg images; concept mapping; the meaning of color in trademarks; visual literacy in elementary education; visual learning via computer-based simulations; adapting a paper-and-pencil test to the computer; representational strategies in a documentary about racial relations; studying scientific data through an aesthetic point of view; the role of the media in African American self-hatred; the need for visual literacy in higher education; imagery and synectics for modeling poetry writing; virtual courses; visual icons in myth; the development and demise of 8 millimeter film loops; women's history in visual and audiovisual education; student-developed visual productions; a cartographic interpretation of visual literacy; enabling learners through technology; a graphics systems approach in industry; the philosophy of representation; student nurses' perceptions of hospital staff modelling behaviors; deconstructing visual images of indigenous people; children's spatial visual thinking in a hypermedia environment; creating critical thinkers; perception in physics; using graphics for integrated planning; revisioning in storytelling; a local history preservation project; visual learning in biology; imagery, concept formation and creativity; visual themes in gravestones; visual design principles in World Wide Web construction; digital camera editing; digital cinema principles and techniques for multimedia development; culture reflected in tombstones; challenges for hypermedia designers; visual literacy in Web Page creation; the potential of dynamic computer presentations; technology mass media, society and gender; obstructive interactive television designs; gender equity online; a study of intertextuality in television programming; children's understanding of visuals in television interviews; children's attention in television viewing; instructional design process models; and international use of the electronic presentation. (AEF)

The paper gives an overview on the role of the image in the human knowledge process. The mental representation in the visual communication is presented in detailed The Icon is studied and classified for the informatic applications. Emphasis is placed on ENEA activities to realized access interface to Data Bases. These are aimed at the Information Dissemination and Technological Transfer. The research level and the future perspective of the visual interface in the communication field are analyzed.

Currently, we lack consensus regarding the organization along the anterior border of dorsomedial V2 in primates. Previous studies suggest that this region could be either the dorsomedial area, characterized by both an upper and a lower visual field representation, or the dorsal aspect of area V3, which only contains a lower visual field representation. We examined these proposals by using optical imaging of intrinsic signals to investigate this region in the prosimian galago (Otolemur garnettii). Galagos represent the prosimian radiation of surviving primates; cortical areas that bear strong resemblances across members of primates provide a strong argument for their early origin and conserved existence. Based on our mapping of horizontal and vertical meridian representations, visuotopy, and orientation preference, we find a clear lower field representation anterior to dorsal V2 but no evidence of any upper field representation. We also show statistical differences in orientation preference patches between V2 and V3. We additionally supplement our imaging results with electrode array data that reveal differences in the average spatial frequency preference, average temporal frequency preference, and sizes of the receptive fields between V1, V2, and V3. The lack of upper visual field representation along with the differences between the neighboring visual areas clearly distinguish the region anterior to dorsal V2 from earlier visual areas and argue against a DM that lies along the dorsomedial border of V2. We submit that the region of the cortex in question is the dorsal aspect of V3, thus strengthening the possibility that V3 is conserved among primates. J. Comp. Neurol., 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:22628051

Undeniably, the imminent activity of LHC and the quest for the nature of physics beyond the standard model have raised renewed interest in the conformal and quasi-conformal behaviour of gauge field theories with matter content. Theoretically driven questions seem to now acquire a strong experimental appeal and might guide us towards a more realistic string theory to field theory connection, originally inspired by the AdS/CFT conjecture. In this brief report, we discuss the state of the art of our search for the conformal window in the SU(3) colour-gauge theory with fermions in the fundamental representation.

Objective measurement of dysarthric speech intelligibility can assist clinicians in the diagnosis of speech disorder severity as well as in the evaluation of dysarthria treatments. In this paper, several objective measures are proposed and tested as correlates of subjective intelligibility. More specifically, the kurtosis of the linear prediction residual is proposed as a measure of vocal source excitation oddity. Additionally, temporal perturbations resultant from imprecise articulation and atypical speech rates are characterized by short- and long-term temporal dynamics measures, which in turn, are based on log-energy dynamics and on an auditory-inspired modulation spectral signal representation, respectively. Motivated by recent insights in the communication disorders literature, a comp...

Inspired by a recently observed asymmetry in the transmission of circularly polarized light through a metamaterial, we present a non-Hermitian PT -symmetric quantum model to describe the interaction of the light fields in two resonant cavities coupled via a 2D-chiral mirror. We compute the time evolution of the light fields in this model, find two sets of operators compatible with the Hamiltonian in a delocalized representation, discover the energies of the system and show that the transmission probability predicted by the model is indeed asymmetric.

A fast and stable numerical algorithm for solving the symmetric eigenvalue problem is presented. The technique deviates fundamentally from the traditional Krylov subspace iteration based techniques (Arnoldi and Lanczos algorithms) or other Davidson-Jacobi techniques and takes its inspiration from the contour integration and density-matrix representation in quantum mechanics. It will be shown that this algorithm—named FEAST—exhibits high efficiency, robustness, accuracy, and scalability on parallel architectures. Examples from electronic structure calculations of carbon nanotubes are presented, and numerical performances and capabilities are discussed.

Summary: Molecular networks are often studied in diverse cellular or experimental contexts, with highly context-specific details. Modelling introduces further choices as to levels of mathematical description. The resulting possibilities are difficult to explore rapidly, hampering the integration of modelling and experiment. We have developed Proteus, a web-based, context-specific tool for building compartmentalized, ordinary differential equation (ODE) models. It is inspired by the idea of a molecular `toolkit' for Ca2+ signalling. Toolkits in Proteus are context-independent representations of biological systems as sets of components, which may correspond to mechanisms of differing levels of complexity. Users pick and choose components from a toolkit and, for each component, pick and choos...

Abstract in portuguese Apesar de intensamente pesquisados nos últimos trinta anos, os processos cognitivos relacionados à atenção visual humana ainda apresentam várias lacunas e instigam investigações sobre os mecanismos de seleção e integração da informação relevante contida no ambiente. Basicamente, os esforços para a compreensão desta arquitetura cognitiva estão centrados em dois grandes modelos teóricos sobre a atenção visual: um baseado na localização espacial ocupada (more) pelos objetos no campo visual e outro baseado nas características do objeto a ser atendido. A revisão realizada neste artigo busca sistematizar algumas contribuições experimentais importantes a respeito desses modelos bem como evidenciar algumas particularidades da natureza dos processos envolvidos na mobilização da atenção visual humana. Abstract in english The study of visual attention has become an important topic in cognitive psychology research in the last 30 years. However, many questions about the nature of attention are not well understood. The efforts to understand this cognitive architecture are centered in two great theoretical models on the visual attention: the first model supports that visual attention is allocated on visual space (location-based visual attention) while a second model supports that attention cou (more) ld select the objects representations per se (object-based visual attention). In this review, we pooled important researches about these two seminal models and some questions concerning the human visual attention were examined.

This study investigated the modes of representations generated by kindergarteners and first graders while solving standard and problematic problems in mathematics. Furthermore, it examined the influence of pupils' visual representations on the breach of the didactical contract rules in problem solving. The sample of the study consisted of 38 kindergarteners (age 5-6) and 34 first graders (age 6-7). Two standard problems (addition and subtraction) and two problematic problems were given to the participants. The majority of kindergarteners used a variety of spontaneous visual representations in order to solve both types of problems. In contrast, first graders mainly used symbolic representations corresponding to the numbers involved in the text of the problems. Results also suggested that the visual representations prevented kindergarteners from obeying the didactical contract rules. In fact, many kindergarteners were inclined to draw descriptive pictures about the meaning of the problems, without persevering in giving a symbolic answer in the standard problems or providing a stereotyped solution for the problematic problems. First graders, however, gave a routine solution, that is, a symbolic answer to the two problematic problems, complying with the didactical contract rule that every problem given to them has an answer. (Contains 4 tables and 11 figures.)

The present study aims to investigate the effects of a design experiment developed for third-grade students in the field of mathematics word problems. The main focus of the program was developing students' knowledge about word problem solving strategies with an emphasis on the role of visual representations in mathematical modeling. The experiment involved five experimental and six control classes ("N" = 106 and 138, respectively) of third-grade students. The experiment comprised 20 lessons with 73 word problems, providing a systematic overview of the basic word problem types. Teachers of the experimental classes received a booklet containing lesson plans and overhead transparencies with different types of visual representations attached to the word problems. Students themselves were invited to make drawings for each task, and group work and teacher-led discussion shaped their beliefs about the role of visual representations in word problem solving. The effect sizes of the experiment were calculated from the results of two tests: an arithmetic skill and a word problem test, and the unbiased estimates for Cohen's "d" proved to be 0.20 and 0.62. There were significant changes also in experimental group students' beliefs about mathematics. The experiment pointed to the possibility, feasibility, and importance of learning about visual representations in mathematical word problem solving as early as in grade 3 (around age 9-10).

Face aftereffects are proving to be an effective means of examining the properties of face-specific processes in the human visual system. We examined the role of gender in the neural representation of faces using a contrast-based adaptation method. If faces of different genders share the same repres...

XML is becoming the standard representation format for metadata. Metadata for multimedia documents, as for instance MPEG-7, require approximate match search functionalities to be supported in addition to exact match search. As an example, consider image search performed by using MPEG-7 visual descri...

Laboratory experiments and computer models for studying the mass transfer process of removing CO2 from air using water or dilute NaOH solution as absorbent are presented. Models tie experiment to theory and give a visual representation of concentration profiles and also illustrate the two-film theory and the relative importance of various resistances to mass transfer with and without reaction.

Image representations have gained wide acceptance in displaying data collected during optical, ultrasonic, radiographic, and thermographic inspections. Applying imaging techniques to eddy current testing is explored in this article. The authors show that flaw interpretation and characterization are made considerably simpler when images are used to visualize the impedance changes in eddy current probes.

Streamline representation of major fiber tract systems along with high-resolution anatomical data provides a reliable orientation for the neurosurgeon. For intraoperative visualization of these data either on navigation screens near the surgical field or directly in the surgical field applying heads...

In this work we present a method to jointly separate active audio and visual structures on a given mixture. Blind Audiovisual Source Separation is achieved exploiting the coherence between a video signal and a one-microphone audio track. The efficient representation of audio and video sequences a...

In two experiments, electric brain waves of 14 subjects were recorded under several different conditions to study the invariance of brain-wave representations of simple patches of colors and simple visual shapes and their names, the words blue, circle, etc. As in our earlier work, the analysis consi...

In this book Camelia Elias introduces key terms in feminist, queer, and postcolonial/diaspora film. Taking her point of departure in the question, "what do you want from me?" she detours through Lacanian theory of the gaze and reframes questions of subjectivity and representation in an entertaining entanglement of visual with textual poetics in film.

Viewgraphs on DataHub knowledge based assistance for science visualization and analysis using large distributed databases. Topics covered include: DataHub functional architecture; data representation; logical access methods; preliminary software architecture; LinkWinds; data knowledge issues; expert systems; and data management.

The thesis describes steps taken towards using graphic representation and visual modelling support for the knowledge acquisition process in knowledge-based systems – a process commonly regarded as difficult. The performance of the systems depends on the quality of the embedded knowledge, which ma...

An effective technique for applying visual tracking algorithms to omni- directional image sequences is presented. The method is based on a spherical image representation which allows taking into account the distortions and nonlinear resolution of omnidirectional images. Experimental results show tha...

This paper presents a new approach for object categorization involving the following aspects of cognitive vision: learning, recognition and knowledge representation.A major element of our approach is a visual concept ontology composed of several types of concepts (spatial concepts and relations, col...

This chapter focuses on a joint project, Digital Egypt for Universities, between CASA and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Taking copyrighted images, we assemble an online resource on Egyptian archaeology, which offers a wide range of audio-visual representations of this ancient culture an...

A scattered volumetric dataset is regarded as a sampled version of a scalar field defined ona three dimensional domain, whose graph is a hypersurface embedded in a four dimensional space. We propose a multiresolution model for the representation and visualization of such data that is based on a deco...

The efficient construction of simplified models is a central problem in the field of visualization. We combine topological and geometric methods to construct a multi-resolution data structure for functions over two-dimensional domains. Starting with the Morse-Smale complex we build a hierarchy by progressively canceling critical points in pairs. The data structure supports mesh traversal operations similar to traditional multi-resolution representations.

Although there are some real world applications where the use of variable length representation (VLR) in Evolutionary Algorithm is natural and suitable, an academic framework is lacking for such representations. In this work we propose a family of tunable fitness landscapes based on VLR of genotypes. The fitness landscapes we propose possess a tunable degree of both neutrality and epistasis; they are inspired, on the one hand by the Royal Road fitness landscapes, and the other hand by the NK fitness landscapes. So these landscapes offer a scale of continuity from Royal Road functions, with neutrality and no epistasis, to landscapes with a large amount of epistasis and no redundancy. To gain insight into these fitness landscapes, we first use standard tools such as adaptive walks and correlation length. Second, we evaluate the performances of evolutionary algorithms on these landscapes for various values of the neutral and the epistatic parameters; the results allow us to correlate the performances with the ex...

We present in this paper our work regarding simulating a type of P system known as a spiking neural P system (SNP system) using graphics processing units (GPUs). GPUs, because of their architectural optimization for parallel computations, are well-suited for highly parallelizable problems. Due to the advent of general purpose GPU computing in recent years, GPUs are not limited to graphics and video processing alone, but include computationally intensive scientific and mathematical applications as well. Moreover P systems, including SNP systems, are inherently and maximally parallel computing models whose inspirations are taken from the functioning and dynamics of a living cell. In particular, SNP systems try to give a modest but formal representation of a special type of cell known as the neuron and their interactions with one another. The nature of SNP systems allowed their representation as matrices, which is a crucial step in simulating them on highly parallel devices such as GPUs. The highly parallel natu...

Visual representations play a critical role in the communication of science concepts for scientists and students alike. However, recent research suggests that novice students experience difficulty extracting relevant information from representations. This study examined students' interpretations of visual representations of DNA replication. Each of the four steps of DNA replication included in the instructional presentation was represented as a text slide, a simple 2D graphic, and a rich 3D graphic. Participants were middle grade girls (n = 21) attending a summer math and science program. Students' eye movements were measured as they viewed the representations. Participants were interviewed following instruction to assess their perceived salient features. Eye tracking fixation counts indicated that the same features (look zones) in the corresponding 2D and 3D graphics had different salience. The interviews revealed that students used different characteristics such as color, shape, and complexity to make sense of the graphics. The results of this study have implications for the design of instructional representations. Since many students have difficulty distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant information, cueing and directing student attention through the instructional representation could allow cognitive resources to be directed to the most relevant material.

Methods and systems for automated decision support in analyzing operation data from a complex network. Embodiments of the present invention utilize these algorithms and techniques not only to characterize the past and present condition of a complex network, but also to predict future conditions to help operators anticipate deteriorating and/or problem situations. In particular, embodiments of the present invention characterize network conditions from operation data using a state estimator. Contingency scenarios can then be generated based on those network conditions. For at least a portion of all of the contingency scenarios, risk indices are determined that describe the potential impact of each of those scenarios. Contingency scenarios with risk indices are presented visually as graphical representations in the context of a visual representation of the complex network. Analysis of the historical risk indices based on the graphical representations can then provide trends that allow for prediction of future network conditions.

Abstract Currently, we lack consensus regarding the organization along the anterior border of dorsomedial V2 in primates. Previous studies suggest that this region could be either the dorsomedial area, characterized by both an upper and a lower visual field representation, or the dorsal aspect of area V3, which only contains a lower visual field representation. We examined these proposals by using optical imaging of intrinsic signals to investigate this region in the prosimian galago (Otolemur garnettii). Galagos represent the prosimian radiation of surviving primates; cortical areas that bear strong resemblances across members of primates provide a strong argument for their early origin and conserved existence. Based on our mapping of horizontal and vertical meridian representations, visu...

Summary Crowding is the breakdown in object recognition that occurs in cluttered visual environments [1-4] and the fundamental limit on peripheral vision, affecting identification within many visual modalities [5-9] and across large spatial regions [10]. Though frequently characterized as a disruptive process through which object representations are suppressed [11, 12] or lost altogether [13-15], we demonstrate that crowding systematically changes the appearance of objects. In particular, target patches of visual noise that are surrounded ("crowded") by oriented Gabor flankers become perceptually oriented, matching the flankers. This was established with a change-detection paradigm: under crowded conditions, target changes from noise to Gabor went unnoticed when the Gabor orientation match...

The force fields used in molecular computational biology are not mathematically defined in such a way that their mathematical representation would facilitate the straightforward application of volume visualization techniques. To visualize energy, it is necessary to define a spatial mapping for these fields. Equipped with such a mapping, we can generate volume renderings of the internal energy states in a molecule. We describe our force field, the spatial mapping that we used for energy, and the visualizations that we produced from this mapping. We provide images and animations that offer insight into the computational behavior of the energy optimization algorithms that we employ.

Insects perform highly complicated navigational tasks even though their visual system is relatively simple. The main idea of work in this area is to study the visual system of insects and to incorporate algorithms used by them in electronic circuits to produce low power, computationally simple, highly efficient, robust devices capable of accurate motion detection and velocity estimation. The Reichardt correlator model is one of the earliest and the most prominent biologically inspired models of motion detection developed by Hassentein and Reichardt in 1956. In an attempt to get accurate estimates of yaw velocity using an elaborated Reichardt correlator, we have investigated the effect of pattern noise (deviation of the correlator output resulting from the structure of the visual scene) on the correlator response. We have tested different sampling methods here and it is found that a circular sampled array of elementary motion detectors (EMDs) reduces pattern noise effectively compared to an array of rectangular or randomly selected EMDs for measuring rotational motion.

Drawing on cartography, urban design and visual data modelling, we consider how people navigate, or fail to navigate, the mental, physical and social spaces of knowledge communities. Cartographically inspired critical thinking offers opportunities to re-examine the assumptions and formal maps of post-secondary institutions, visualizing complexities such as knowledge circulation and ownership, and knowledge seekers' regulated or unregulated traffic. We explore the contrast between the formal view given by typical institutional maps, and the uncovered view shown by maps of collective student activity generated by our prototype visualization tools. We suggest that a critical stance and consultative approaches to institutional mapping might foster collective reflection, empowerment, inquiry and engagement in academic development. (Contains 6 figures.)

Background: Cognitive-style is a psychological dimension that represents consistencies in how an individual acquires and processes information. It is conceivable that some people are better in processing words, and other people are better in processing images. This basic idea has inspired theories of visual and verbal cognitive-styles. Recently it was shown that a specific pattern of cortex activity distinguishes these two cognitive-styles. Methods: Nine young right-handed healthy adults completed computerized verbal categorization test during fMRI. The test includes three types of conditions: 'MIX': in which each stimulus included 4 word items. one of the four words is functional extraordinary and another one is visual extraordinary. In two other conditions ('FUNCTIONAL' and 'VISUAL') wit...

Most scene segmentation and categorization architectures for the extraction of features in images and patches make exhaustive use of 2D convolution operations for template matching, template search, and denoising. Convolutional Neural Networks (ConvNets) are one example of such architectures that can implement general-purpose bio-inspired vision systems. In standard digital computers 2D convolutions are usually expensive in terms of resource consumption and impose severe limitations for efficient real-time applications. Nevertheless, neuro-cortex inspired solutions, like dedicated Frame-Based or Frame-Free Spiking ConvNet Convolution Processors, are advancing real-time visual processing. These two approaches share the neural inspiration, but each of them solves the problem in different ways. Frame-Based ConvNets process frame by frame video information in a very robust and fast way that requires to use and share the available hardware resources (such as: multipliers, adders). Hardware resources are fixed- and time-multiplexed by fetching data in and out. Thus memory bandwidth and size is important for good performance. On the other hand, spike-based convolution processors are a frame-free alternative that is able to perform convolution of a spike-based source of visual information with very low latency, which makes ideal for very high-speed applications. However, hardware resources need to be available all the time and cannot be time-multiplexed. Thus, hardware should be modular, reconfigurable, and expansible. Hardware implementations in both VLSI custom integrated circuits (digital and analog) and FPGA have been already used to demonstrate the performance of these systems. In this paper we present a comparison study of these two neuro-inspired solutions. A brief description of both systems is presented and also discussions about their differences, pros and cons. PMID:11483297

How can cognitive load in visual displays of computer simulations be optimized? Middle-school chemistry students (N = 257) learned with a simulation of the ideal gas law. Visual complexity was manipulated by separating the display of the simulations in two screens (low complexity) or presenting all information on one screen (high complexity). The mode of visual representation in the simulation was manipulated by presenting important information in symbolic form only (symbolic representations) or by adding iconic information to the display (iconic + symbolic representations), locating the sliders controlling the simulation separated from the simulation or integrating them, and graphing either only the most recent simulation result or showing all results taken. Separated screen displays and the use of optimized visual displays each promoted comprehension and transfer, especially for low prior-knowledge learners. An expertise reversal effect was found for learners' prior general science knowledge. Results indicate that intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load in visual displays can be manipulated and that learners' prior knowledge moderates the effectiveness of these load manipulations.

Flavor (Formal Language for Audio-Visual Object Representation) has been created as a language for describing coded multimedia bitstreams in a formal way so that the code for reading and writing bitstreams can be automatically generated. It is an extension of C++ and Java, in which the typing system incorporates bitstream representation semantics. This allows describing in a single place both the in-memory representation of data as well as their bitstream-level (compressed) representation. Flavor also comes with a translator that automatically generates standard C++ or Java code from the Flavor source code so that direct access to compressed multimedia information by application developers can be achieved with essentially zero programming. Flavor has gone through many enhancements and this paper fully describes the latest version of the language and the translator. The software has been made into an open source project as of Version 4.1, and the latest downloadable Flavor package is available at http://flavor...

Abstract We used opposing figural aftereffects to investigate whether there are at least partially separable representations of upright and inverted faces in patients who missed early visual experience because of bilateral congenital cataracts (mean age at test 19.5-years). Visually normal adults and 10-year-olds were tested for comparison. Adults showed the expected opposing aftereffects for upright and inverted faces. Ten-year-olds showed an adultlike aftereffect for upright faces but, unlike the adult group, no aftereffect for inverted faces. Patients failed to show an aftereffect for either upright or inverted faces. Overall, the results suggest that early visual input is necessary for the later development of (at least partially) separable representations of upright and inverted faces...

The influence of prior knowledge and cognitive development on the effectiveness of iconic representations in science visualizations was examined. Middle and high school students (N?=?186) were given narrated visualizations of two chemistry topics: Kinetic Molecular Theory (Day 1) and Ideal Gas Laws (Day 2). For half of the visualizations, iconic representations of key information were added. Results indicated a main effect of prior knowledge on learning in Day 1. In Day 2, a three-way interaction was found between prior knowledge, age group and icons: icons were effective for all middle school students and for high school students with low prior knowledge, but were not effective for high school students with high prior knowledge. These findings indicate that the expertise reversal effect c...

Due to an abnormal projection of the temporal retina the albinotic primary visual cortex receives substantial input from the ipsilateral visual field. To test whether representation abnormalities are also evident in higher tier visual, and in motor and somatosensory cortices, brain activity was measured with fMRI in 14 subjects with albinism performing a visuo-motor task. During central fixation, a blue or red target embedded in a distractor array was presented for 250ms in the left or right visual hemifield. After a delay, the subjects were prompted to indicate with left or right thumb button presses the target presence in the upper or lower hemifield. The fMRI responses were evaluated for different regions of interest concerned with visual, motor and somatosensory processing and compared...

With the ubiquitous characteristic of the Internet, today many online social environments are provided to connect people. Various social relationships are thus created, connected, and migrated from our real lives to the Internet environment from different social groups. Many social communities and relationships are also quickly constructed and connected via instant personal messengers, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and a great variety of online social services. Since social network visualizations can structure the complex relationships between different groups of individuals or organizations, they are helpful to analyze the social activities and relationships of actors, particularly over a large number of nodes. Therefore, many studies and visualization tools have been investigated to present social networks with graph representations. In this chapter, we will first review the background of social network analysis and visualization methods, and then introduce various novel visualization applications for social networks. Finally, the challenges and the future development of visualizing online social networks are discussed.

Visual representations are central to expert scientific thinking. Meanwhile, novices tend toward narrative conceptions of scientific phenomena. Until recently, however, relationships between visual design, narrative thinking, and their impacts on learning science have only been theoretically pursued. This dissertation first synthesizes different disciplinary perspectives, then offers a mixed-methods investigation into interpretations of scientific representations. Finally, it considers design issues associated with narrative and visual imagery, and explores the possibilities of a pedagogical notation to scaffold the understanding of a standard scientific notation. Throughout, I distinguish two categories of visual media by their relation to narrative: Narrative visual media, which convey content via narrative structure, and Conceptual visual media, which convey states of relationships among objects. Given the role of narrative in framing conceptions of scientific phenomena and perceptions of its representations, I suggest that novices are especially prone to construe both kinds of media in narrative terms. To illustrate, I first describe how novices make meaning of the science conveyed in narrative visual media. Vignettes of an undergraduate student's interpretation of a cartoon about natural selection; and of four 13-year olds' readings of a comic book about human papillomavirus infection, together demonstrate conditions under which designed visual narrative elements facilitate or hinder understanding. I next consider the interpretation of conceptual visual media with an example of an expert notation from evolutionary biology, the cladogram. By combining clinical interview methods with experimental design, I show how undergraduate students' narrative theories of evolution frame perceptions of the diagram (Study 1); I demonstrate the flexibility of symbolic meaning, both with the content assumed (Study 2A), and with alternate manners of presenting the diagram (Study 2B); finally, I show the effects of content assumptions on the diagrams students invent of phylogenetic data (Study 3A), and how first inventing a diagram influences later interpretations of the standard notation (Study 3B). Lastly, I describe the prototype design and pilot test of an interactive diagram to scaffold biology students' understanding of this expert scientific notation. Insights from this dissertation inform the design of more pedagogically useful representations that might support students' developing fluency with expert scientific representations.

This research investigates the development of symbolic or representational play in two species of the genus "Pan", bonobos ("Pan paniscus") and chimpanzees ("Pan troglodytes"). The participants varied not only by species, but also as to whether they had become proficient in communicating with humans via a set of arbitrary visual symbols, called lexigrams. Using a developmental sequence of representational play based on McCune, we found every level that children manifest to be constructed by "Pan." The most robust and regular ontogenetic sequence for both bonobos and chimpanzee was not McCune's five-level progression, but a three-step ontogenetic sequence: Level 1 (no representation, no pretense) precedes Levels 2-4 (representation but no pretense), which in turn precedes Level 5 (includes pretense as well as representation). A linguistic system for interspecies communication was necessary for Level 5 representational play and "true" pretense. Human scaffolding produced developmental progress within sequences for all the apes, except the bonobo who lacked a system of interspecies communication. This evidence suggests that the potential for representational play and its social stimulation were present in the common ancestor of bonobos, chimpanzees and humans five million years ago.

There is an almost unquestioned consensus in the virtual worlds’ research communities that an avatar is the representation of a user and player in front of the screen and that the relationship between the two predominantly is about identity and self-construal. Richard Bartle’s (2004) influential work and his claim that “it is all about identity” (Ibid: 161) has been widely adopted. In many studies this conception has been explored and substantial contributions have been made (Downs 2010, Filiciak 2003, Fox & Bailenson 2009, Jin & Park 2009, Wang & Chang 2004, and Yee 2006). In this paper, I will, however, question the consensus and conception to suggest that we nuance and broaden our understanding of the relationships of avatars with their owners. The question that I will set out to answer is: In what ways do actors make sense of their choice and design of avatars? The empirical basis for addressing this question is found in iterative video interviews with actors while they act in their chosen virtual worlds and with their avatars. The video interviews have been conducted in situ together with actors on the locations of their usual play and practice – be it at home or at their work place. Over time, when located beside the actors while they act and engage, gradually the conception of an avatar as the representation of an actor has become questionable. The methodological approach of the in situ video interviews is summarized by the notion of “following the actors,” even if it is also recognized that the optic of the researcher is different from that of the engaged actor, who is seen as the expert of his or her engagement and agency. During the interviews, as a researcher sitting beside the actors discussing their relationship with the chosen avatars, increasingly the performative aspects of the relationship has influenced the theoretical understanding explicated by this paper, and it has blurred the boundaries of a seemingly unified phenomenon with bound contours. Thus, a performative phenomenon in flux has emerged and become ever more visible during the in situ studies. Hence, the paper suggests that we nuance our analysis and explicate the multiple and emergent constructions as well as the stabilizing interpretations of the relationships between actor and avatar. Semiotics (Bakhtin 1981, 1993, Nöth 2009, Peirce 1994), and actor-network theory (Latour 1998, 2005, Law 2004) are some of the theoretical references that will assist and enable such analysis. Thus, this paper will discuss how the methodological approach inspired by visual ethnography (Grimshaw 2001, Pink 2001, 2006) and the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of avatars have mutually constructed and contributed an understanding that emphasizes the multiplicity of the performative phenomenon. Following the methodological reflections and the theoretical analysis, the paper concludes that the relationships of actors and avatars 1) continuously oscillate and change, and they 2) translate and transform the actors and their agencies when enacted and performed. It is suggested that the understanding of avatars as mediators in relations of companionship will help us interpret and understand avatars as a performative phenomenon in flux and with blurred boundaries.

In recent years, one of the advances of the World Wide Web is social media and one of the fastest growing aspects of social media is the blogosphere. Blogs make content creation easy and are highly accessible through web pages and syndication. With their growing influence, a need has arisen to be able to monitor the opinions and insight revealed within their content. In this paper we describe a technical approach for analyzing the content of blog data using a visual analytic tool, IN-SPIRE, developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. We highlight the capabilities of this tool that are particularly useful for information gathering from blog data.

Engaging with the quilts of Gee's Bend offers a rich opportunity for students in grades four through eight to develop appreciation for pattern, rhythm, and innovation while learning about history, entrepreneurship, and political activism. By easily accessing print, film, and Internet resources teachers can include these vibrant quilts and quiltmakers in the art classroom for study. This Instructional Resource draws inspiration from several of the Gee's Bend quilts and encourages close examination and thoughtful visual and verbal responses by students. Two interdisciplinary engagements building on students' experiences viewing the quilts and learning about the historical and contemporary context of Gee's Bend are presented in this article. (Contains 7 figures and 3 endnotes.)

In this project we developed a suite of progressive visualization algorithms and a data-streaming infrastructure that enable interactive exploration of scientific datasets of unprecedented size. The methodology aims to globally optimize the data flow in a pipeline of processing modules. Each module reads a multi-resolution representation of the input while producing a multi-resolution representation of the output. The use of multi-resolution representations provides the necessary flexibility to trade speed for accuracy in the visualization process. Maximum coherency and minimum delay in the data-flow is achieved by extensive use of progressive algorithms that continuously map local geometric updates of the input stream into immediate updates of the output stream. We implemented a prototype software infrastructure that demonstrated the flexibility and scalability of this approach by allowing large data visualization on single desktop computers, on PC clusters, and on heterogeneous computing resources distributed over a wide area network. When processing terabytes of scientific data, we have achieved an effective increase in visualization performance of several orders of magnitude in two major settings: (i) interactive visualization on desktop workstations of large datasets that cannot be stored locally; (ii) real-time monitoring of a large scientific simulation with negligible impact on the computing resources available. The ViSUS streaming infrastructure enabled the real-time execution and visualization of the two LLNL simulation codes (Miranda and Raptor) run at Supercomputing 2004 on Blue Gene/L at its presentation as the fastest supercomputer in the world. In addition to SC04, we have run live demonstrations at the IEEE VIS conference and at invited talks at the DOE MICS office, DOE computer graphics forum, UC Riverside, and the University of Maryland. In all cases we have shown the capability to stream and visualize interactively data stored remotely at the San Diego Supercomputing Center or monitor in real-time simulation codes executed on a cluster of PC's at LLNL.

Geovisualization is an important means to understand the geographic features and phenomena. Urban space, especially buildings, keeps changing with social development. However, traditional 2D visualization can only represent the plane geometric description, which is unable to support 3D dynamic visualization. Only with 3D dynamic visualization can the buildings' spatial morphology be exhibited temporally, including buildings' creation, expansion, removing, etc. But these buildings' changes are impossible to be studied in traditional 2D and 3D static visualization systems. As a result, it becomes urgent to find an effective solution to implement 3D spatial-temporal visualization of buildings. Inspired by 2D spatial-temporal visualization methods, like snapshot and event-based spatio-temporal data model(ESTDM), we propose a new data model called Spatio-Temporal Page Model(STPM) and implement 3D spatial-temporal visualization in Google SketchUp based on STPM. This paper studies 3D visualization of real estate focusing on its spatio-temporal characteristics. First of all, 3D models are built for every temporal scenario by the Google SketchUp. And every Geo-object is identified by a unique and permanent ObjectID, the linkage of Geo-objects between different time spots. Then, each temporal scenario is represented as page. After having the page series, finally, it is possible to display its spatial-temporal changes and create an animation. Underlying this solution, we have built a prototype system on part of real estate data. It is proven that users are able to understand clearly the real estate's changes from our prototype system. Consequently, we believe our method for 3D spatial-temporal visualization definitely has many merits.

Visual perceptual learning (PL) and perceptual expertise (PE) traditionally lead to different training effects and recruit different brain areas, but reasons for these differences are largely unknown. Here, we tested how the learning history influences visual object representations. Two groups were trained with tasks typically used in PL or PE studies, with the same novel objects, training duration and parafoveal stimulus presentation. We observed qualitatively different changes in the cortical representations of these objects following PL and PE training, replicating typical training effects in each field. These effects were also modulated by testing tasks, suggesting that experience interacts with attentional set and that the choice of testing tasks critically determines the pattern of training effects one can observe after a short-term visual training. Experience appears sufficient to account for prior differences in the neural locus of learning between PL and PE. The nature of the experience with an object's category can determine its representation in the visual system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). PMID:22468668

Place-modulated activity among neurons in the hippocampal formation presents a means to organize contextual information in the service of memory formation and recall. One particular spatial representation, that of grid cells, has been observed in the entorhinal cortex (EC) of rats and bats, but has yet to be described in single units in primates. Here we examined spatial representations in the EC of head-fixed monkeys performing a free-viewing visual memory task. Individual neurons were identified in the primate EC that emitted action potentials when the monkey fixated multiple discrete locations in the visual field in each of many sequentially presented complex images. These firing fields possessed spatial periodicity similar to a triangular tiling with a corresponding well-defined hexagonal structure in the spatial autocorrelation. Further, these neurons showed theta-band oscillatory activity and changing spatial scale as a function of distance from the rhinal sulcus, which is consistent with previous findings in rodents. These spatial representations may provide a framework to anchor the encoding of stimulus content in a complex visual scene. Together, our results provide a direct demonstration of grid cells in the primate and suggest that EC neurons encode space during visual exploration, even without locomotion. PMID:23103863

In this paper, we propose a hierarchical architecture for representing scenes, covering 2D and 3D aspects of visual scenes as well as the semantic relations between the different aspects. We argue that labeled graphs are a suitable representational framework for this representation and demonstrate its potential by two applications. As a first application, we localize lane structures by the semantic descriptors and their relations in a Bayesian framework. As the second application, which is in the context of vision based grasping, we show how the semantic relations can be associated to actions that allow for grasping without using any object knowledge.

A fantasy-theme analysis of the editors' letters in "Southern Living" magazine shows an editorial vision of valuing the past and showcasing unique regional qualities. In addition, a content analysis of the visual representation of race in the magazine's formative years and recent past validates that inhabitants of the region were portrayed overwhelming as white and middle-class, even as affluence among nonwhites has changed. This analysis provides an example of how media products create and proliferate a specific representation of a place and its people. Suggestions for using mass media messages in the classroom to apply geography knowledge and research, as well as media literacy skills, are included. (Contains 6 notes.)

A procedure and software to implement the procedure have been devised to enable conversion from a tree representation to a graph representation of the requirements governing the development and design of an engineering system. The need for this procedure and software and for other requirements-management tools arises as follows: In systems-engineering circles, it is well known that requirements- management capability improves the likelihood of success in the team-based development of complex systems involving multiple technological disciplines. It is especially desirable to be able to visualize (in order to identify and manage) requirements early in the system- design process, when errors can be corrected most easily and inexpensively.

This article, drawing on Aristotle's concept of techne, develops a framework for exploring rhetoric in the process of scientific inquiry. The Aristotelian “causes” specifically highlight the technical procedures through which scientists carry out their work and the visual representations they deploy to generate meaningful accounts, “bring forth” new findings, and contribute to the existing field of knowledge. The author argues that a techne-based framework makes it possible to maintain a focus on rhetoric as a productive art while broadening the object of rhetorical analysis to include practices and modes of representation that contribute to knowledge production in the physical sciences.

Dysnomia is typically assessed during neuropsychological evaluation through visual confrontation naming. Responsive naming to description, however, has been shown to have a more distributed representation in both fMRI and cortical stimulation studies. While naming deficits are common in dementia, the relative sensitivity of visual confrontation versus auditory responsive naming has not been directly investigated. The current study compared visual confrontation naming and auditory responsive naming in a dementia sample of mixed etiologies to examine patterns of performance across these naming tasks. A total of 50 patients with dementia of various etiologies were administered visual confrontation naming and auditory responsive naming tasks using stimuli that were matched in overall word frequency. Patients performed significantly worse on auditory responsive naming than visual confrontation naming. Additionally, patients with mixed Alzheimer's disease/vascular dementia performed more poorly on auditory responsive naming than did patients with probable Alzheimer's disease, although no group differences were seen on the visual confrontation naming task. Auditory responsive naming correlated with a larger number of neuropsychological tests of executive function than did visual confrontation naming. Auditory responsive naming appears to be more sensitive to effects of increased of lesion burden compared to visual confrontation naming. We believe that this reflects more widespread topographical distribution of auditory naming sites within the temporal lobe, but may also reflect the contributions of working memory and cognitive flexibility to performance. PMID:19626564

Mirror-symmetrical reaching movements (i.e., antipointing) produce a visual-field-specific pattern of endpoint bias consistent with a perceptual representation of visual space (Heath et al. in Exp Brain Res 192:275???286, 2009a; J Mot Behav 41:383???392 2009b). The goal of the present investigation was to examine the concurrent behavioural and event-related brain potentials (ERP) of pro- and antipointing to determine whether endpoint bias in the latter task is related to a remapping of the environmental parameters of a target (i.e., vector inversion hypothesis) or a shift of visual attention from a veridical to a cognitively represented target location (i.e., reallocation of attention hypothesis). As expected, results for antipointing???but not propointing???yielded a visual-field-specific...

Visualizations of space, time, and agents (or objects) are ubiquitous in science, business, and everyday life, from weather maps to scheduling meetings. Effective communications, including visual ones, emerge from use in the field, but no conventional visualization form has yet emerged for this confluence of information. The real-world spiral of production, comprehension, and use that fine-tunes communications can be accelerated in the laboratory. Here, we do so in search of effective visualizations of space, time, and agents. Users' production, preference, and performance aligned to favor matrix representations with time as rows or columns and space and agents as entries. Overall, performance and preference were greater for matrices with discrete dots representing cell entries than for matrices with lines, but lines connecting cells may provide an advantage when evaluating temporal sequence. Both the diagram type and the technique have broader applications. PMID:21082213

Considering large, complex and multi-dimensional marine field data, the general representation and analysis methods based on 2D GIS can not meet the requirements of Ocean Research. For multi-dimensional marine sampling data of sea water properties (ARGO sampling data, ship measured data, etc.), three dimensional interpolation and visual analysis methods can be used to reveal the distribution of sea water properties (such as temperature and salinity), and it is an effective way to detect regional anomaly of marine phenomenon. In order to handle three dimensional sampling data of sea water properties, this paper developed a three dimensional volume visualization analysis GIS component with OpenGL and C++. Three visualization analysis methods are designed and presented, including three-dimensional volume visualization, three dimensional slicing and cutting analysis and three-dimensional contour surface analysis. Example test is conducted, and the test result shows the proposed methods can be effectively used for ocean data analysis.

A component framework for building and operating visual interfaces for context-aware services in ubiquitous computing environments is presented. By using a compound-document technology, it provides physical entities, places, stationary or mobile computing devices, and services with visual components as multimedia representations to enable them to be annotated and controlled them. It can automatically assemble visual components into a visual interface for monitoring and managing context-aware services according to the spatial-containment relationships between their targets in the physical world by using underlying location-sensing systems. End-users can manually deploy and customize context-aware services through user-friendly GUI-based manipulations for editing documents. This paper presents the design for this framework and describes its implementation and practical applications in user/location-aware assistant systems in two museums.   

This study examined whether inspecting and constructing different part-task-specific visualizations differentially affects learning. To this end, a complex business-economics problem was structured into three phase-related part-tasks: (1) determining core concepts, (2) proposing multiple solutions, and (3) coming to a single solution. Each phase was foreseen with a part-task-specific representational tool facilitating visualization of the domain-content (i.e., a conceptual, causal and simulation tool respectively for the subsequent phases). Whereas all teams of learners (N = 17) were scripted to carry out the part-tasks in the predefined order, teams were instructed to (1) inspect expert visualizations (n = 8) or (2) construct their own domain-specific visualizations (n = 9). Results indic...

Visual learning is a topic for didactic studies in all levels of educaion, brought about by an increasing use of digital meida- digital media give rise to discussions of how learning expereienes come about from various media ressources that generate new learning situations. new situations call for new tools and new theoretical approaches with which to understand them. the article argues that the current phase of social practices and technological development makes it difficult to disitnguish between experience with digital media and mediated experiences, because of the use of renegotiation og both possibilites of technology and the nature of the content it facilitates. the discussion comes in three parts: 1. the alteration of visual representations in contemporary teaching and learning brought about by digital interfaces, 2. the functions af visual experience in learning processes brought about by the nature of diverse digital artefacts, 3. the learning potentials in using mobils devices for integrating thebody in visual perception processes.

Space weather is a relatively new discipline which is generally unknown to the wider public, despite its increasing importance to all of our daily lives. Outreach activities can help in promoting the concept of space weather. In particular the visual beauty and excitement of the aurora make these lights a wonderful inspirational hook. A century ago Norwegian experimental physicist Kristian Birkeland, one of the founding fathers of modern space science, demonstrated with his Terrella experiment the formation of the aurora. Recently a modernised version of the Terrella has been designed. This Planeterrella experiment is very flexible, allowing the visualization of many phenomena occurring in our space environment. Although the Planeterrella was originally designed to be small to be demonstrated locally by a scientist, the Planeterrella has proved to be a very successful public outreach experiment. We believe that its success is due to two main factors (i) the Planeterrella is not patented and the plans are give...

Wind turbines (WT) are socially controversial because of their visual and acoustic impacts. Today, visual impact is studied through photomontages and virtual environments while acoustic impact is rather evaluated through technical studies. This paper aims to study the landscape of WT in situ using an immersive path-based method in which the observer is directly interacting with the environment. In order to evaluate the assets of such a method, first a non-immersive survey based on interviews is performed. Then, the immersive study, the "commented country walks" inspired from an urban space description method, combines pedestrian's perception and motion in order to characterize and contextualize impacts. The study of two different paths - corresponding to the immediate and the intermediate ...

Abstract Postmodernists view all reality as representation and visual spectacle. This essay challenges this claim through film analysis of third world cinema and by tracing the tension between photography and history to the earlier debate of modernity in Siegfried Kracauer's work. The essay goes on to show the possibility of historically grounded visual images. By looking at the Chinese novelist Wang Anyi's photo narratives, the essay argues for a photographical image capable of fostering a sense of history deeply rooted in everyday life, communal practice, and social reality. Instead of being the inauthentic mirror of consumer culture, the photographical image is integral to historical imagination, narratives of everyday practice, and cultural memory.

Memory for objects helps us to determine how we can most effectively and appropriately interact with them. This suggests a tightly coupled interplay between action and background knowledge. Three experiments demonstrate that grasping circumference can be affected by the size of a visual stimulus (Experiment 1), whether that stimulus appears to be graspable (Experiment 2), and the presence of a label that renders that object ungraspable (Experiment 3). The results are taken to inform theories on conceptual representation and the functional distinction that has been drawn between the visual systems for perception and action. (Contains 5 figures.)

ABSTRACT Efficient goal-directed behavior in a crowded world is crucially mediated by visual selective attention (VSA), which regulates deployment of cognitive resources toward selected, behaviorally relevant visual objects. Acting as a filter on perceptual representations, VSA allows preferential processing of relevant objects and concurrently inhibits traces of irrelevant items, thus preventing harmful distraction. Recent evidence showed that monetary rewards for performance on VSA tasks strongly affect immediately subsequent deployment of attention; a typical aftereffect of VSA (negative priming) was found only following highly rewarded selections. Here we report a much more striking demonstration that the controlled delivery of monetary rewards also affects attentional processing sever...

Facial interactions are prominent behaviors in primates. Primate facial signaling, which includes the expression of emotions, mimicking of facial movements, and gaze interactions, is visually dominated. Correspondingly, in primate brains an elaborate network of face processing areas exists within visual cortex. But other mammals also communicate through facial interactions using additional sensory modalities. In rodents, multisensory facial interactions are involved in aggressive behaviors and social transmission of food preferences. The eusocial naked mole-rat, whose face is dominated by prominent incisors, uses facial aggression to enforce reproductive suppression. In burrow-living mammals like the naked mole-rat in particular, and in rodents in general, somatosensory face representation...

In this research, the impact of visual experience on the capacity to use egocentric (body-centered) and allocentric (object-centered) representations in combination with categorical (invariant non-metric) and coordinate (variable metric) spatial relations was examined. Participants memorized through haptic (congenitally blind, adventitiously blind, and blindfolded) and haptic + visual (sighted) exploration triads of 3D objects and then they were asked to judge: ?which object was closest/farthest to you?? (egocentric-coordinate); ?which object was on your left/right?? (egocentric-categorical); ?which object was closest/farthest to a target object (e.g., cone)?? (allocentric-coordinate); ?which object was on the left/right of the target object (e.g., cone)?? (allocentric-categorical). The re...

Usually the offspring-parent fitness correlation is used to visualize and analyze some caracteristics of fitness landscapes such as evolvability. In this paper, we introduce a more general representation of this correlation, the Fitness Cloud (FC). We use the bottleneck metaphor to emphasise fitness levels in landscape that cause local search process to slow down. For a local search heuristic such as hill-climbing or simulated annealing, FC allows to visualize bottleneck and neutrality of landscapes. To confirm the relevance of the FC representation we show where the bottlenecks are in the well-know NK fitness landscape and also how to use neutrality information from the FC to combine some neutral operator with local search heuristic.

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of multimodal information on learning performance and judgment of learning (JOL). Experiment 1 examined the effects of representation type (word-only versus word-plus-picture) and presentation channel (visual-only versus visual-plus-auditory) on recall and immediate-JOL in fixed-rate learning conditions. Experiment 2 examined the effects of representation type (word-only versus word-plus-picture) and presentation media (computer versus paper) on recall and delayed-JOL in self-paced learning conditions. The results showed that recall performance was better in word-only conditions than in word-plus-picture conditions in Experiment 1, and better in computer conditions than in paper conditions in Experiment 2. Multimodal information had no influence on magnitude of people's judgment. Participants were overconfident in all conditions, but more overconfident in computer conditions than in paper conditions. (Contains 2 tables.)

We describe a system for autonomous learning of visual object representations and their grasp affordances on a robot-vision system. It segments objects by grasping and moving 3D scene features, and creates probabilistic visual representations for object detection, recognition and pose estimation, which are then augmented by continuous characterizations of grasp affordances generated through biased, random exploration. Thus, based on a careful balance of generic prior knowledge encoded in (1) the embodiment of the system, (2) a vision system extracting structurally rich information from stereo image sequences as well as (3) a number of built-in behavioral modules on the one hand, and autonomous exploration on the other hand, the system is able to generate object and grasping knowledge through interaction with its environment.

Currently very little is known about the process by which pathologists arrive at a diagnosis on a case. This process is an integration of the pathologist's slide exploration strategy, perceptual information gathering and cognitive decision making. We have developed a methodology to statically represent the pathologists' dynamic visual search of digital slides by creating a representation of visual sampling called 'search maps'. In these maps slide exploration is divided into three parts, according to the magnification range used. In other words, areas explored at low magnification (4x-10x) and high magnification (>10x-20x) are represented separately. Moreover, representation using the 'search maps' allows for quantitative analysis and pairwise comparison of slide exploration strategy. In this paper we have compared the search maps of experienced pathologists and those of Pathology residents. Our goal was to understand how search differs between the experts and the trainees.

We propose a novel approach for the automatic representation of pictures achieving a more effective organization of personal photo albums. Images are analyzed and described in multiple representation spaces, namely, faces, background, and time of capture. Faces are automatically detected, rectified, and represented, projecting the face itself in a common low-dimensional eigenspace. Backgrounds are represented with low-level visual features based on an RGB histogram and Gabor filter bank. Faces, time, and background information of each image in the collection is automatically organized using a mean-shift clustering technique. Given the particular domain of personal photo libraries, where most of the pictures contain faces of a relatively small number of different individuals, clusters tend to be semantically significant besides containing visually similar data. We report experimental results based on a data set of about 1000 images where automatic detection and rectification of faces lead to approximately 400 faces. Significance of clustering has been evaluated, and results are very encouraging.

In this paper we introduce a Bayes-Maximum Entropy formalism for multi-sensor data fusion, and present an application of this methodology to the fusion of ultrasound and visual sensor data as acquired by a mobile robot. In our approach the principle of maximum entropy is applied to the construction of priors and likelihoods from the data. Distances between ultrasound and visual points of interest in a dual representation are used to define Gibbs likelihood distributions. Both one- and two-dimensional likelihoods are presented, and cast into a form which makes explicit their dependence upon the mean. The Bayesian posterior distributions are used to test a null hypothesis, and Maximum Entropy Maps used for navigation are updated using the resulting information from the dual representation. 14 refs., 9 figs.

We address the problem of visual classification with multiple features and/or multiple instances. Motivated by the recent success of multitask joint covariate selection, we formulate this problem as a multitask joint sparse representation model to combine the strength of multiple features and/or instances for recognition. A joint sparsity-inducing norm is utilized to enforce class-level joint sparsity patterns among the multiple representation vectors. The proposed model can be efficiently optimized by a proximal gradient method. Furthermore, we extend our method to the setup where features are described in kernel matrices. We then investigate into two applications of our method to visual classification: 1) fusing multiple kernel features for object categorization and 2) robust face recognition in video with an ensemble of query images. Extensive experiments on challenging real-world data sets demonstrate that the proposed method is competitive to the state-of-the-art methods in respective applications. PMID:22736645

The article discusses the role of diagrams in mathematical reasoning based on a case study in analysis.   In the presented example certain combinatorial expressions were first found by using diagrams. In the published proofs the pictures are replaced by reasoning about permutation groups. This paper argues that, even though the diagrams are not present in the papers, they still play a role in the formulation of the proofs. It is shown that they play a role in concept formation as well as representations of proofs. In addition we note that `visualizaton' is used in different ways. In the first sense visualization denotes our inner mental pictures, which enables us to see that a certain fact holds, whereas in the other sense, `visualization' denotes a diagram or representation of something.

The manifold-ranking algorithm has been successfully adopted in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) in recent years. However, while the global low-level features are widely utilized in current systems, region-based features have received little attention. In this paper, a novel attention-driven transductive framework based on a hierarchical graph representation is proposed for region-based image retrieval (RBIR). This approach can be characterized by two key properties: (1) Since the issue about region significance is the key problem in region-based retrieval, a visual attention model is chosen here to measure the regions' significance. (2) A hierarchical graph representation which combines region-level with image-level similarities is utilized for the manifold-ranking method. A novel propagation energy function is defined which takes both low-level visual features and regional significance into consideration. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach shows the satisfactory retrieval performance compared to the global-based and the block-based manifold-ranking methods.   

We present a model for the self-organized formation of place cells, head-direction cells, and spatial-view cells in the hippocampal formation based on unsupervised learning on quasi-natural visual stimuli. The model comprises a hierarchy of Slow Feature Analysis (SFA) nodes, which were recently shown to reproduce many properties of complex cells in the early visual system []. The system extracts a distributed grid-like representation of position and orientation, which is transcoded into a localized place-field, head-direction, or view representation, by sparse coding. The type of cells that develops depends solely on the relevant input statistics, i.e., the movement pattern of the simulated animal. The numerical simulations are complemented by a mathematical analysis that allows us to accurately predict the output of the top SFA layer. PMID:17784780

Recent studies have revealed that somatosensory processing relies on a class of implicit body representations showing large distortions of size and shape. The relation between these representations and the conscious body image remains unclear. Dissociations have been reported in the clinical literature on eating disorders between different body image measures, with larger and more consistent distortions found with depictive measures, in which participants compare their body to a visual depiction of a body, than metric measures, in which participants compare their body to some non-body standard. Here, we compared implicit body representations underlying position sense to the body image measured with both depictive and metric methods. The body image was measured using both a depictive method...

Presents David Melcher, the 2011 winner of the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. "For his elegant and groundbreaking work on one of the most important problems in perceptual psychology, the transfer of perceptual representations across eye movements. David Melcher's innovative experiments used perceptual aftereffects to show how remapping of visual locations underlies the creation of the percept of a clear and stable world. His work on the accumulation of memory contributed importantly to the understanding of natural perceptual representations and their neural underpinnings. His elegant reviews of transsaccadic perception communicated to a broad audience the remarkable capacity of the brain to create seamless perceptual representations despite the disruptions produced by eye movements." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved). PMID:22082390

Spatial cognition is the ability to reason about geometric relationships in the real (or a metaphorical) world based on one or more internal representations of those relationships. The study of spatial cognition is concerned with the representation of spatial knowledge, and our ability to manipulate these representations to solve spatial problems. Spatial cognition is utilized most critically when direct perceptual cues are absent or impoverished. Examples are provided of how human spatial cognitive abilities impact on three areas of space station operator performance: orientation, path planning, and data base management. A videotape provides demonstrations of relevant phenomena (e.g., the importance of orientation for recognition of complex, configural forms). The presentation is represented by abstract and overhead visuals only.

Peripersonal space (PPS) representation depends on the activity of a fronto-parietal network including the premotor cortex (PMc) and the posterior parietal cortex (PPc). PPS representation has a direct effect on the motor system: a stimulus activating the PPS around the hand modulates the excitability of hand representation in the primary motor cortex. However, to date, direct information about the involvement of the PMc-PPc network in the motor mapping of sensory events occurring within PPS is lacking. To address this issue, we used a 'perturb-and-measure' paradigm based on the combination of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) techniques. Cathodal tDCS was applied to transiently suppress neural activity in PMc, PPc and primary visual...

This paper describes a security platform as a complex system of holonic communities, that are hierarchically organized, but self-reconfigurable when some of them are detached or cannot otherwise operate. Furthermore, every possible subset of holons may work autonomously, while maintaining self-conscience of its own mission, action lines and goals. Each holonic unit, either elementary or composite, retains some capabilities for sensing (perception), transmissive apparatus (communication), computational processes (elaboration), authentication/authorization (information security), support for data exchange (visualization & interaction), actuators (mission), ambient representation (geometric reasoning), knowledge representation (logic reasoning), situation representation and forecasting (simulation), intelligent feedback (command & control). The higher the organizational level of the holonic unit, the more complex and sophisticated each of its characteristic features.

We develop an Easy Java Simulation (EJS) model for students to experience the physics of idealized one-dimensional collision carts. The physics model is described and simulated by both continuous dynamics and discrete transition during collision. In designing the simulations, we discuss briefly three pedagogical considerations namely (1) a consistent simulation world view with a pen and paper representation, (2) a data table, scientific graphs and symbolic mathematical representations for ease of data collection and multiple representational visualizations and (3) a game for simple concept testing that can further support learning. We also suggest using a physical world setup augmented by simulation by highlighting three advantages of real collision carts equipment such as a tacit 3D experience, random errors in measurement and the conceptual significance of conservation of momentum applied to just before and after collision. General feedback from the students has been relatively positive, and we hope teachers will find the simulation useful in their own classes.

For a long time biologists have used visual representations of biochemical networks to gain a quick overview of important structural properties. Recently SBGN, the Systems Biology Graphical Notation, has been developed to standardise the way in which such graphical maps are drawn in order to facilitate the exchange of information. Its qualitative Process Diagrams (SBGN-PD) are based on an implicit Process Flow Abstraction (PFA) that can also be used to construct quantitative representations, which can be used for automated analyses of the system. Here we explicitly describe the PFA that underpins SBGN-PD and define attributes for SBGN-PD glyphs that make it possible to capture the quantitative details of a biochemical reaction network. We implemented SBGNtext2BioPEPA, a tool that demonstrates how such quantitative details can be used to automatically generate working Bio-PEPA code from a textual representation of SBGN-PD that we developed. Bio-PEPA is a process algebra that was designed for implementing quant...

The GR Embedding program displays a representation of the curvature of space near a massive object. It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive. Double clicking the gr_embedding.jar file will run the program if Java is installed. GR Embedding is part of a suite of Open Source Physics programs that model aspects of General Relativity. Other programs provide additional visualizations. They can be found by searching ComPADRE for Open Source Physics, OSP, or General Relativity.

Figures and tables are a means of presenting high-density information in a pleasing manner. Editors who exercise their visual thinking can improve dense, uninviting reports by suggesting meaningful illustrations for an author's approval. Illustrations can clarify descriptive passages or even replace them. Editors are urged to sketch what they think is needed. Examples of selecting information for graphic representation are given and the appropriateness of a photograph, illustration, graph, or logic diagram is discussed.

Flow field variables are visualized using color representations described on surfaces that are interpolated from computational grids and transformed to digital images. Techniques for displaying two and three dimensional flow field solutions are addressed. The transformations and the use of an interactive graphics program for CFD flow field solutions, called PLOT3D, which runs on the color graphics IRIS workstation are described. An overview of the IRIS workstation is also described.

In this study we will introduce a topological approach termed as discontinuity-geometry for both analysis and visualization of the dynamics of periodically-forced impact oscillators. After a brief outline of the methodology and the general representation of trajectories with impacts the framework will be used to analyse grazing bifurcations. In particular it will be used to geometrically explain why there is sometimes a saddle-node bifurcation present in the vicinity of grazing bifurcations and why it is sometimes absent.

Satellite positioning is managed according to a mission plan (MP) which provides, on a minute accuracy basis, a chronological list of events and associated actions to be performed. This tool, called MM2, is designed under the Windows environment. Excel is used to provide the MP itself. A Visual Basic process then translates it into a graphic symbolic representation called flight plan (FP). During operations, MM2 is also used to log the actual event dates and/or dated OPS Manager live comments.

The frequency response of log-Gabor function matches well the frequency response of primate visual neurons. In this letter, motion-salient regions are extracted based on the 2D log-Gabor wavelet transform of the spatio-temporal form of actions. A supervised classification technique is then used to classify the actions. The proposed method is robust to the irregular segmentation of actors. Moreover, the 2D log-Gabor wavelet permits more compact representation of actions than the recent neurobiological models using Gabor wavelet.   

In the examination of the inner nose and the paranasal sinuses, magnetic resonance imaging impresses by its excellent representation of anatomical structures, due above all to the multiplanar orientation of slices, the good possibility to differentiate soft tissue structures, and the accurate visualization of lymph nodes and vessels without contrast medium. Osseous lesions can be better assessed by computed tomography, however, magnetic resonance imaging can indirectly demonstrate bone destructions, too. (orig.).

This paper addresses the problem of generating communicatively adequate extended responses in the absence of specific knowledge concerning the intentions of the questioner. The authors formulate and justify a heuristic for the selection of optional deep case slots not contained in the question as candidates for the additional information contained in an extended response. It is shown that, in a visually present domain of discourse, case role filling for the construction of an extended response can be regarded as a side effect of the visual search necessary to answer a question containing a locomotion verb. The paper describes the various representation constructions used in the German language dialog system HAM-ANS for dealing with the semantics of locomotion verbs and illustrates their use in generating extended responses. In particular, it outlines the structure of the geometrical scene description, the representation of events in a logic-oriented semantic representation language, the case-frame lexicon and the representation of the referential semantics based on the flavor system. The emphasis is on a detailed presentation of the application of object-oriented programming methods for coping with the semantics of locomotion verbs. The process of generating an extended response is illustrated by an extensively annotated trace. 13 references.

A new approach to machine-based visual perception of monocular images is presented and demonstrated. The approach employs a recursive procedure to generate a series of ''reconstructed'' versions of the raw video image. The procedure is designed to imitate certain perceptual organization functions of the human visual system. Recognition of object categories is attempted at each step by comparing the newly generated regions to stored object categories. These generated regions may have relatively few edges or region pixels in common with any of the regions in the raw video image. Category retrieval is carried out using a software-based content-addressing scheme which provides access to complete object representations in memory using incomplete portions of the representation. The category representation scheme is sufficiently general to allow a variety of poorly correlated images of specific category examples to be represented and recognized by a single general category representation. These properties are illustrated using a group of distorted, defective and idealized images of ascii A's and handguns. 7 refs., 10 figs.

Forces are experienced in actions on objects. The mechanoreceptor system is stimulated by proximal forces in interactions with objects, and experiences of force occur in a context of information yielded by other sensory modalities, principally vision. These experiences are registered and stored as episodic traces in the brain. These stored representations are involved in generating visual impressions of forces and causality in object motion and interactions. Kinematic information provided by vision is matched to kinematic features of stored representations, and the information about forces and causality in those representations then forms part of the perceptual interpretation. I apply this account to the perception of interactions between objects and to motions of objects that do not have perceived external causes, in which motion tends to be perceptually interpreted as biological or internally caused. I also apply it to internal simulations of events involving mental imagery, such as mental rotation, trajectory extrapolation and judgment, visual memory for the location of moving objects, and the learning of perceptual judgments and motor skills. Simulations support more accurate judgments when they represent the underlying dynamics of the event simulated. Mechanoreception gives us whatever limited ability we have to perceive interactions and object motions in terms of forces and resistances; it supports our practical interventions on objects by enabling us to generate simulations that are guided by inferences about forces and resistances, and it helps us learn novel, visually based judgments about object behavior. (Contains 13 footnotes.)

Every individual channels information differently based on their preference of the sensory modality or representational system (visual auditory or kinesthetic) we tend to favor most (our primary representational system (PRS)). Therefore, some of us access and store our information primarily visually first, some auditorily, and others kinesthetically (through feel and touch); which in turn establishes our information processing patterns and strategies and external to internal (and subsequently vice versa) experiential language representation. Because of the different ways we channel our information, each of us will respond differently to a task--the way we gather and process the external information (input), our response time (process), and the outcome (behavior). Traditional human models of decision making and response time focus on perception, cognitive and motor systems stimulated and influenced by the three sensory modalities, visual, auditory and kinesthetic. For us, these are the building blocks to knowing how someone is thinking. Being aware of what is taking place and how to ask questions is essential in assessing performance toward reducing human errors. Existing models give predications based on time values or response times for a particular event, and may be summed and averaged for a generalization of behavior(s). However, by our not establishing a basic understanding of the foundation of how the behavior was predicated through a decision making strategy process, predicative models are overall inefficient in their analysis of the means by which behavior was generated. What is seen is the end result.

There is a growing recognition with the visual analytics community that interaction and inquiry are inextricable. It is through the interactive manipulation of a visual interface – the analytic discourse – that knowledge is constructed, tested, refined, and shared. This paper reflects on the interaction challenges raised in the original visual analytics research and development agenda and further explores the relationship between interaction and cognition. It identifies recent exemplars of visual analytics research that have made substantive progress toward the goals of a true science of interaction, which must include theories and testable premises about the most appropriate mechanisms for human-information interaction. Six areas for further work are highlighted as those among the highest priorities for the next five years of visual analytics research: ubiquitous, embodied interaction; capturing user intentionality; knowledge-based interfaces; principles of design and perception; collaboration; and interoperability. Ultimately, the goal of a science of interaction is to support the visual analytics community through the recognition and implementation of best practices in the representation of and interaction with visual displays.

This research was conducted in order to examine the influence of manifest strabismus and stereoscopic vision on non-verbal abilities of visually impaired children aged between 7 and 15. The sample included 55 visually impaired children from the 1st to the 6th grade of elementary schools for visually impaired children in Belgrade. RANDOT stereotest and polaroid glasses were used for the examination of stereoscopic vision, while Cover test and Hirschberg's pupils reflex test were used for the evaluation of strabismus. In the area of non-verbal abilities was evaluated visual discrimination, visuomotor integration, constructive praxia, visual memory, strategy formation, non-verbal reasoning and the representational dimension of drawings. Subtests of ACADIA test of developmental abilities were used for the evaluation of non-verbal abilities (Atkinson et al., 1972). Statistically significant relations between strabismus and constructive praxia (p=0.009), visual memory (p=0.037), strategy formation (0.040) and the quality of drawings were determined by the results analysis. According to our findings, children with divergent strabismus achieve the best results. Children with stereoscopic vision generally achieve better results in all the examined areas of non-verbal abilities, and statistically significant relations were determined in the areas of visuomotor coordination (0.002), constructive praxia (0.026) and non-verbal reasoning (0.015), which are directly connected to visuospatial abilities. Children with convergent strabismus achieve significantly lower results in the areas of constructive praxia, visual memory, strategy formation and representational dimension of drawings, and children with the lack of stereoscopic vision--in the areas of visuomotor integration, constructive praxia and non-verbal reasoning. PMID:21536409

Abstract in portuguese Três tarefas intervenientes (verbal, visual e aritmética), realizadas durante estudo de uma cena, foram utilizadas com o objetivo de explicitar a natureza da representação memorizada das distâncias entre os objetos da cena. O efeito delas sobre a representação das distâncias foi estimado por expoentes da função potência baseados em julgamentos da distância relembrada entre pares de objetos e reprodução em desenho da disposição espacial dos objetos da cena. (more) Os resultados mostram que expoentes obtidos não diferem da unidade. Por outro lado, os estimados pelas coordenadas x e y com base nos desenhos são menores. Tanto os expoentes obtidos nos julgamentos de magnitude de distância aos pares como aqueles a partir do eixo y do desenho foram afetados pela realização da tarefa aritmética durante o tempo de estudo, mas não pela realização da tarefa visual. Estes resultados sugerem que componentes visuais e espaciais contribuem com pesos diferenciados para a qualidade da representação. Abstract in english Three intervening tasks (verbal, visual and arithmetical) performed by participants during the study of a scene were used to explicit the nature of the memorized representations of the distances between scene objects. The effect of the intervening task on the distances representation was determined through the exponent of the power function estimated from the judgments of distances based on estimation and the distances between objects in scene. The results showed that the (more) exponents obtained by magnitude estimation do not differ from unit. On the contrary, the exponents obtained on the basis of the x and y coordinates of the drawing have lower values. The exponents obtained with judgments of magnitude and from the y axe of the drawing were affected by the arithmetical task performed during the study time, but not by visual one. These results suggest that visual and spatial components contribute with differentiated weights for the representation quality.

Being able to access educational or training resources or programmes anytime and anywhere is one of the challenges that e-learning and now m-learning seek to address, with the aim of maintaining the highest possible level of professional skills. Although hardware and software solutions are now firmly established, instructional design issues are still far from resolved. In this respect, the concept of instrumental conflict, which was inspired by activity theory and by the instrumental genesis concept, explains the obstacles to learning in situations where technical systems are involved. When they are combined, disciplinary objects such as certain educational or training content, pedagogical objects like certain scenarios and formalisms for representation, and technical objects such as softw...

A simulation model for the spread and control of lesions in the brain is constructed using a planar network (graph) representation for the Central Nervous System (CNS). The model is inspired by the lesion structures observed in the case of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease of the CNS. The initial lesion site is at the center of a unit square and spreads outwards based on the success rate in damaging edges (axons) of the network. The damaged edges send out alarm signals which, at appropriate intensity levels, generate programmed cell death. Depending on the extent and timing of the programmed cell death, the lesion may get controlled or aggravated akin to the control of wild fires by burning of peripheral vegetation. The parameter phase space of the model shows smooth transition from uncontrolled situation to controlled situation. The simulations show that the model is capable of generating a wide variety of lesion growth and arrest scenarios.

Imagine a "machine" where there is no pre-commitment to any particular representational scheme: the desired behaviour is distributed and roughly specified simultaneously among many parts, but there is minimal specification of the mechanism required to generate that behaviour, i.e. the global behaviour evolves from the many relations of multiple simple behaviours. A machine that lives to and from/with Synergy. An artificial super-organism that avoids specific constraints and emerges within multiple low-level implicit bio-inspired mechanisms. KEYWORDS: Complex Science, ArtSBots Project, Swarm Intelligence, Stigmergy, UnManned Art, Symbiotic Art, Swarm Paintings, Robot Paintings, Non-Human Art, Painting Emergence and Cooperation, Art and Complexity, ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show.