Abstract: The present research investigates the effect of symmetry on the perception of happiness and boredom in design products. Three experiments were carried out in order to verify the degree of the visual expressive value on different models of bookcases, wall clocks, and chairs. 60 participants directly indicated the degree of happiness and boredom using 7-point rating scales. The findings show that the participants acknowledged a different value of expressive quality in the different product models. Results show also that symmetry is not a significant constraint for an emotional design project.
Abstract: Deaf and hearing-impaired students face many obstacles throughout their education, especially with learning applied sciences such as computer programming. In addition, there is no clear signs in the Arabic Sign Language that can be used to identify programming logic terminologies such as while, for, case, switch etc. However, hearing disabilities should not be a barrier for studying purpose nowadays, especially with the rapid growth in educational technology. In this paper, we develop an Avatar based system to teach computer programming to deaf and hearing-impaired students using Arabic Signed language with new signs vocabulary that is been developed for computer programming education. The system is tested on a number of high school students and results showed the importance of visualization in increasing the comprehension or understanding of concepts for deaf students through the avatar.
Abstract: Since the early ages, the Hindu temples have been interpreted through various Vedic philosophies. These temples are visited by pilgrims which demonstrate the rituals and religious belief of communities, reflecting a variety of actions and behaviors. Darsana— a direct seeing, is a part of the pilgrimage activity. During the process of Darsana, a devotee is prepared for entry in the temple to realize the cognizing Truth culminating in visualizing the idol of God, placed at the Garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum). For this, the pilgrim must pass through a sequential arrangement of spaces. During the process of progress, the pilgrims visualize the spaces differently from various points of views. The viewpoints create a variety of spatial patterns in the minds of pilgrims coherent to the Hindu philosophies. The space organization and its order are perceived by various techniques of spatial analysis. A temple, as examples of Kalinga stylistic variations, has been chosen for the study. This paper intends to demonstrate some visual patterns generated during the process of Darsana (visibility) and its accessibility by Point Isovist Studies and Visibility Graph Analysis from the entrance (Simha Dwara) to The Sanctum sanctorum (Garbhagriha).
Abstract: In the context of the development process of two assistive navigation mobile apps for blind and visually impaired people (BVI) an extensive qualitative analysis of the requirements of potential users has been conducted. The analysis was based on interviews with BVIs and aimed to elicit not only their needs with respect to autonomous navigation but also their preferences on specific features of the apps under development. The elicited requirements were structured into four main categories, namely, requirements concerning the capabilities, functionality and usability of the apps, as well as compatibility requirements with respect to other apps and services. The main categories were then further divided into nine sub-categories. This classification, along with its content, aims to become a useful tool for the researcher or the developer who is involved in the development of digital services for BVI.
Abstract: Protorhus longifolia is known as a medicinal plant that has been used traditionally to treat various ailments such as hemiplegic paralysis, blood clotting related diseases, diarrhoea, heartburn, etc. The study reports a High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) fingerprint profile of Protorhus longifolia methanolic extract and its qualitative analysis of gallic acid, rutin, and quercetin. HPTLC analysis was achieved using CAMAG HPTLC system equipped with CAMAG automatic TLC sampler 4, CAMAG Automatic Developing Chamber 2 (ADC2), CAMAG visualizer 2, CAMAG Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) scanner and visionCATS CAMAG HPTLC software. Mobile phase comprising toluene, ethyl acetate, formic acid (21:15:3) was used for qualitative analysis of gallic acid and revealed eight peaks while the mobile phase containing ethyl acetate, water, glacial acetic acid, formic acid (100:26:11:11) for qualitative analysis of rutin and quercetin revealed six peaks. HPTLC sillica gel 60 F254 glass plates (10 × 10) were used as the stationary phase. Gallic acid was detected at the Rf = 0.35; while rutin and quercetin were not evident in the extract. Further studies will be performed to quantify gallic acid in Protorhus longifolia leaves and also identify other biomarkers.
Abstract: Human pose estimation and tracking are to accurately identify and locate the positions of human joints in the video. It is a computer vision task which is of great significance for human motion recognition, behavior understanding and scene analysis. There has been remarkable progress on human pose estimation in recent years. However, more researches are needed for human pose tracking especially for online tracking. In this paper, a framework, called PoseSRPN, is proposed for online single-person pose estimation and tracking. We use Siamese network attaching a pose estimation branch to incorporate Single-person Pose Tracking (SPT) and Visual Object Tracking (VOT) into one framework. The pose estimation branch has a simple network structure that replaces the complex upsampling and convolution network structure with deconvolution. By augmenting the loss of fully convolutional Siamese network with the pose estimation task, pose estimation and tracking can be trained in one stage. Once trained, PoseSRPN only relies on a single bounding box initialization and producing human joints location. The experimental results show that while maintaining the good accuracy of pose estimation on COCO and PoseTrack datasets, the proposed method achieves a speed of 59 frame/s, which is superior to other pose tracking frameworks.
Abstract: The principal objective of this study is the evaluation of the seismic performance of reinforced concrete frame structures, taking into account of the behavior laws, reflecting the real behavior of materials, using CASTEM2000 software. A finite element model used is based in modified Takeda model with Timoshenko elements for columns and beams. This model is validated on a Vecchio experimental reinforced concrete (RC) frame model. Then, a study focused on the behavior of a RC frame with three-level and three-story in order to visualize the positioning the plastic hinge (plastic rotation), determined from the curvature distribution along the elements. The results obtained show that the beams of the 1st and 2nd level developed a very large plastic rotations, or these rotations exceed the values corresponding to CP (Collapse prevention with cp qCP = 0.02 rad), against those developed at the 3rd level, are between IO and LS (Immediate occupancy and life Safety with qIO = 0.005 rad and rad qLS = 0.01 respectively), so the beams of first and second levels submit a very significant damage.
Abstract: Almost all of the domestic refrigerators operate on the principle of the vapor compression refrigeration cycle and removal of heat from the refrigerator cabinets is done via one of the two methods: natural convection or forced convection. In this study, airflow and temperature distributions inside a 375L no-frost type larder cabinet, in which cooling is provided by forced convection, are evaluated both experimentally and numerically. Airflow rate, compressor capacity and temperature distribution in the cooling chamber are known to be some of the most important factors that affect the cooling performance and energy consumption of a refrigerator. The objective of this study is to evaluate the original temperature distribution in the larder cabinet, and investigate for better temperature distribution solutions throughout the refrigerator domain via system optimizations that could provide uniform temperature distribution. The flow visualization and airflow velocity measurements inside the original refrigerator are performed via Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (SPIV). In addition, airflow and temperature distributions are investigated numerically with Ansys Fluent. In order to study the heat transfer inside the aforementioned refrigerator, forced convection theories covering the following cases are applied: closed rectangular cavity representing heat transfer inside the refrigerating compartment. The cavity volume has been represented with finite volume elements and is solved computationally with appropriate momentum and energy equations (Navier-Stokes equations). The 3D model is analyzed as transient, with k-ε turbulence model and SIMPLE pressure-velocity coupling for turbulent flow situation. The results obtained with the 3D numerical simulations are in quite good agreement with the experimental airflow measurements using the SPIV technique. After Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis of the baseline case, the effects of three parameters: compressor capacity, fan rotational speed and type of shelf (glass or wire) are studied on the energy consumption; pull down time, temperature distributions in the cabinet. For each case, energy consumption based on experimental results is calculated. After the analysis, the main effective parameters for temperature distribution inside a cabin and energy consumption based on CFD simulation are determined and simulation results are supplied for Design of Experiments (DOE) as input data for optimization. The best configuration with minimum energy consumption that provides minimum temperature difference between the shelves inside the cabinet is determined.
Abstract: A decline in visual sensitivity at arbitrary points on the retina can be measured using a precise perimetry apparatus along with a fundus camera. However, the retinal layer associated with this decline cannot be identified accurately with current medical technology. To investigate cryptogenic diseases, such as macular dystrophy, acute zonal occult outer retinopathy (AZOOR), and multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS), we evaluated an electroretinogram (ERG) function that allows moving the center of the multifocal hexagonal stimulus array to a chosen position. Macular dystrophy is a generalized term used for a variety of functional disorders of the macula lutea, and the ERG shows a diminution of the b-wave in these disorders. AZOOR causes an acute functional disorder to an outer layer of the retina, and the ERG shows a-wave and b-wave amplitude reduction as well as delayed 30 Hz flicker responses. MEWDS causes acute visual loss and the ERG shows a decrease in a-wave amplitude. We combined an electroretinographic optical system and a perimetric optical system into an experimental apparatus that has the same optical system as that of a fundus camera. We also deployed an EO-50231 Edmund infrared camera, a 45-degree cold mirror, a lens with a 25-mm focal length, a halogen lamp, and an 8-inch monitor. Then, we also employed a differential amplifier with gain 10, a 50 Hz notch filter, a high-pass filter with a 21.2 Hz cut-off frequency, and two non-inverting amplifiers with gains 1001 and 11. In addition, we used a USB-6216 National Instruments I/O device, a NE-113A Nihon Kohden plate electrode, a SCB-68A shielded connector block, and LabVIEW 2017 software for data retrieval. The software was used to generate the multifocal hexagonal stimulus array on the computer monitor with C++Builder 10.2 and to move the center of the array toward the left and right and up and down. Cone and bright flash ERG results were observed using the moving ERG function. The a-wave, b-wave, c-wave, and the photopic negative response were identified with cone ERG. The moving ERG function allowed the identification of the retinal layer causing visual alterations.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach for easy creation and
classification of institutional risk profiles supporting endangerment
analysis of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the
employment of data mining techniques to support set up of the most
important risk factors. Subsequently, risk profiles employ risk factors
classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation
experts with a semi-automatic estimation of endangerment group
for file format risk profiles. Our goal is to make use of an expert
knowledge base, accuired through a digital preservation survey
in order to detect preservation risks for a particular institution.
Another contribution is support for visualisation of risk factors for
a requried dimension for analysis. Using the naive Bayes method,
the decision support system recommends to an expert the matching
risk profile group for the previously selected institutional risk profile.
The proposed methods improve the visibility of risk factor values
and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented
approach is designed to facilitate decision making for the preservation
of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert
knowledge and values of file format risk profiles. To facilitate
decision-making, the aggregated information about the risk factors
is presented as a multidimensional vector. The goal is to visualise
particular dimensions of this vector for analysis by an expert and
to define its profile group. The sample risk profile calculation and
the visualisation of some risk factor dimensions is presented in the
evaluation section.
Abstract: Visual search and identification of immunohistochemically stained tissue of meningioma was performed manually in pathologic laboratories to detect and diagnose the cancers type of meningioma. This task is very tedious and time-consuming. Moreover, because of cell's complex nature, it still remains a challenging task to segment cells from its background and analyze them automatically. In this paper, we develop and test a computerized scheme that can automatically identify cells in microscopic images of meningioma and classify them into positive (proliferative) and negative (normal) cells. Dataset including 150 images are used to test the scheme. The scheme uses Fuzzy C-means algorithm as a color clustering method based on perceptually uniform hue, saturation, value (HSV) color space. Since the cells are distinguishable by the human eye, the accuracy and stability of the algorithm are quantitatively compared through application to a wide variety of real images.
Abstract: In this paper, a method is provided for content-based image retrieval. Content-based image retrieval system searches query an image based on its visual content in an image database to retrieve similar images. In this paper, with the aim of simulating the human visual system sensitivity to image's edges and color features, the concept of color difference histogram (CDH) is used. CDH includes the perceptually color difference between two neighboring pixels with regard to colors and edge orientations. Since the HSV color space is close to the human visual system, the CDH is calculated in this color space. In addition, to improve the color features, the color histogram in HSV color space is also used as a feature. Among the extracted features, efficient features are selected using entropy and correlation criteria. The final features extract the content of images most efficiently. The proposed method has been evaluated on three standard databases Corel 5k, Corel 10k and UKBench. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the proposed image retrieval method is significantly improved compared to the recently developed methods.
Abstract: Visual culture is the expression of the norms and social behavior of a society in visual images. A reflection simply shows you how you look when you stand before a mirror, a clear water or stream. The mirror does not alter, improve or distort your original appearance, neither does it show you a caricature of what stands before it, this is the case with visual images created by a tribe or society. The ‘uli’ is hand drawn body design done on Igbo women and speaks of a culture of body adornment which is a practice that is appreciated by that tribe. The use of pattern of the gliding python snake ‘ije eke’ or ‘ijeagwo’ for wall painting speaks of the Igbo culture as one that appreciates wall paintings based on these patterns. Modern life came and brought a lot of change to the Igbo-speaking people of Nigeria. Change cloaked in the garment of Westernization has influenced the culture of the Igbos. This has resulted in a problem which is a break in the cultural practice that has also affected art produced by the Igbos. Before the colonial masters arrived and changed the established culture practiced by the Igbos, visual images were created that retained the culture of this people. To bring this point to limelight, this paper has adopted a historical method. A large number of works produced during pre and post-colonial era which range from sculptural pieces, paintings and other artifacts, just to mention a few, were studied carefully and it was discovered that the visual images hold the culture or aspects of the culture of the Igbos in their renditions and can rightly serve as a mirror of the Igbo visual culture.
Abstract: Geometric modeling plays an important role in the
constructions and manufacturing of curve, surface and solid
modeling. Their algorithms are critically important not only in
the automobile, ship and aircraft manufacturing business, but are
also absolutely necessary in a wide variety of modern applications,
e.g., robotics, optimization, computer vision, data analytics and
visualization. The calculation and display of geometric objects
can be accomplished by these six techniques: Polynomial basis,
Recursive, Iterative, Coefficient matrix, Polar form approach and
Pyramidal algorithms. In this research, the coefficient matrix (simply
called monomial form approach) will be used to model polynomial
rectangular patches, i.e., Said-Ball, Wang-Ball, DP, Dejdumrong and
NB1 surfaces. Some examples of the monomial forms for these
surface modeling are illustrated in many aspects, e.g., construction,
derivatives, model transformation, degree elevation and degress
reduction.
Abstract: Tracking sports players is a widely challenging
scenario, specially in single-feed videos recorded in tight courts,
where cluttering and occlusions cannot be avoided. This paper
presents an analysis of several geometric and semantic visual features
to detect and track basketball players. An ablation study is carried
out and then used to remark that a robust tracker can be built with
Deep Learning features, without the need of extracting contextual
ones, such as proximity or color similarity, nor applying camera
stabilization techniques. The presented tracker consists of: (1) a
detection step, which uses a pretrained deep learning model to
estimate the players pose, followed by (2) a tracking step, which
leverages pose and semantic information from the output of a
convolutional layer in a VGG network. Its performance is analyzed
in terms of MOTA over a basketball dataset with more than 10k
instances.
Abstract: The road network in the north of Lebanon is a prime example of the lack of pavement design and execution in Lebanon. These roads show major distresses and hence, should be tested and evaluated. The aim of this research is to investigate and determine the deficiencies in road surface design in Lebanon, and to propose an environmentally friendly asphalt mix design. This paper consists of several parts: (i) evaluating pavement performance and structural behavior, (ii) identifying the distresses using visual examination followed by laboratory tests, (iii) deciding the optimal solution where rehabilitation or reconstruction is required and finally, (iv) identifying a sustainable method, which uses recycled material in the proposed mix. The asphalt formula contains Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in the base course layer and in the asphalt layer. Visual inspection of the roads in Tripoli shows that these roads face a high level of distress severity. Consequently, the pavement should be reconstructed rather than simply rehabilitated. Coring was done to determine the pavement layer thickness. The results were compared to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) design methodology and showed that the existing asphalt thickness is lower than the required asphalt thickness. Prior to the pavement reconstruction, the road materials were tested according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specification to identify whether the materials are suitable. Accordingly, the ASTM tests that were performed on the base course are Sieve analysis, Atterberg limits, modified proctor, Los Angeles, and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests. Results show a CBR value higher than 70%. Hence, these aggregates could be used as a base course layer. The asphalt layer was also tested and the results of the Marshall flow and stability tests meet the ASTM specifications. In the last section, an environmentally friendly mix was proposed. An optimal RAP percentage of 30%, which produced a well graded base course and asphalt mix, was determined through a series of trials.
Abstract: Later life loneliness is a social issue that is increasing alongside an upward global population trend. As a society, one way that we have responded to this social challenge is through developing non-pharmacological interventions such as befriending services, activity clubs, meet-ups, etc. Through a systematic literature review, this paper suggests that currently there is an underrepresentation of radical innovation, and underutilization of digital technologies in developing loneliness interventions for older adults. This paper examines intervention studies that were published in English language, within peer reviewed journals between January 2005 and December 2014 across 4 electronic databases. In addition to academic databases, interventions found in grey literature in the form of websites, blogs, and Twitter were also included in the overall review. This approach yielded 129 interventions that were included in the study. A systematic approach allowed the minimization of any bias dictating the selection of interventions to study. A coding strategy based on a pattern analysis approach was devised to be able to compare and contrast the loneliness interventions. Firstly, interventions were categorized on the basis of their objective to identify whether they were preventative, supportive, or remedial in nature. Secondly, depending on their scope, they were categorized as one-to-one, community-based, or group based. It was also ascertained whether interventions represented an improvement, an incremental innovation, a major advance or a radical departure, in comparison to the most basic form of a loneliness intervention. Finally, interventions were also assessed on the basis of the extent to which they utilized digital technologies. Individual visualizations representing the four levels of coding were created for each intervention, followed by an aggregated visual to facilitate analysis. To keep the inquiry within scope and to present a coherent view of the findings, the analysis was primarily concerned the level of innovation, and the use of digital technologies. This analysis highlights a weak but positive correlation between the level of innovation and the use of digital technologies in designing and deploying loneliness interventions, and also emphasizes how certain existing interventions could be tweaked to enable their migration from representing incremental innovation to radical innovation for example. This analysis also points out the value of including grey literature, especially from Twitter, in systematic literature reviews to get a contemporary view of latest work in the area under investigation.
Abstract: In the 21st century, the disciplinary boundaries of past centuries that we often create through mainstream art historical classification, techniques and sources may have been eroded by visual culture, which seems to provide a more inclusive umbrella for the new ways artists go about the creative process and its resultant commodities. Over the past four decades, artists in Africa have resorted to new materials, techniques and themes which have affected our ways of research on these artists and their art. Frontline artists such as El Anatsui, Yinka Shonibare, Erasmus Onyishi are demonstrating that any material is just suitable for artistic expression. Most of times, these materials come with their own techniques/effects and visual syntax: a combination of materials compounds techniques, formal aesthetic indexes, halo effects, and iconography. This tends to challenge the categories and we lean on to view, think and talk about them. This renders our main stream art historical research methods inadequate, thus suggesting new discursive concepts, terms and theories. This paper proposed the Africanist eclectic methods derived from the dual framework of Masquerade Theory and What Comes Behind Six is More Than Seven. This paper shares thoughts/research on art historical methods, terminological re-alignments on classification/source data, presentational format and interpretation arising from the emergent trends in our subject. The outcome provides useful tools to mediate new thoughts and experiences in recent African art and visual culture.
Abstract: Measuring semantic similarity between texts is calculating semantic relatedness between texts using various techniques. Our web application (Measuring Relatedness of Concepts-MRC) allows user to input two text corpuses and get semantic similarity percentage between both using WordNet. Our application goes through five stages for the computation of semantic relatedness. Those stages are: Preprocessing (extracts keywords from content), Feature Extraction (classification of words into Parts-of-Speech), Synonyms Extraction (retrieves synonyms against each keyword), Measuring Similarity (using keywords and synonyms, similarity is measured) and Visualization (graphical representation of similarity measure). Hence the user can measure similarity on basis of features as well. The end result is a percentage score and the word(s) which form the basis of similarity between both texts with use of different tools on same platform. In future work we look forward for a Web as a live corpus application that provides a simpler and user friendly tool to compare documents and extract useful information.
Abstract: Measuring semantic similarity between texts is calculating semantic relatedness between texts using various techniques. Our web application (Measuring Relatedness of Concepts-MRC) allows user to input two text corpuses and get semantic similarity percentage between both using WordNet. Our application goes through five stages for the computation of semantic relatedness. Those stages are: Preprocessing (extracts keywords from content), Feature Extraction (classification of words into Parts-of-Speech), Synonyms Extraction (retrieves synonyms against each keyword), Measuring Similarity (using keywords and synonyms, similarity is measured) and Visualization (graphical representation of similarity measure). Hence the user can measure similarity on basis of features as well. The end result is a percentage score and the word(s) which form the basis of similarity between both texts with use of different tools on same platform. In future work we look forward for a Web as a live corpus application that provides a simpler and user friendly tool to compare documents and extract useful information.