Evaluating approximations generated by the GNG3D method for mesh simplification

In this paper we present different error measurements with the aim to evaluate the quality of the approximations generated by the GNG3D method for mesh simplification. The first phase of this method consists on the execution of the GNG3D algorithm, described in the paper. The primary goal of this phase is to obtain a simplified set of vertices representing the best approximation of the original 3D object. In the reconstruction phase we use the information provided by the optimization algorithm to reconstruct the faces thus obtaining the optimized mesh. The implementation of three error functions, named Eavg, Emax, Esur, permitts us to control the error of the simplified model, as it is shown in the examples studied.

Computational cost of GNG3D algorithm for mesh simplification

In this paper we present a study of the computational cost of the GNG3D algorithm for mesh optimization. This algorithm has been implemented taking as a basis a new method which is based on neural networks and consists on two differentiated phases: an optimization phase and a reconstruction phase. The optimization phase is developed applying an optimization algorithm based on the Growing Neural Gas model, which constitutes an unsupervised incremental clustering algorithm. The primary goal of this phase is to obtain a simplified set of vertices representing the best approximation of the original 3D object. In the reconstruction phase we use the information provided by the optimization algorithm to reconstruct the faces thus obtaining the optimized mesh. The computational cost of both phases is calculated, showing some examples.

Design of online practical lessons in colorimetry

Applied colorimetry is an important module in the program of the elective subject "Colour Science: industrial applications”. This course is taught in the Optics and Optometry Degree and it has been used as a testing for the application of new teaching and assessment techniques consistent with the new European Higher Education Area. In particular, the main objective was to reduce the attendance to lessons and encourage the individual and collective work of students. The reason for this approach is based on the idea that students are able to work at their own learning pace. Within this dynamic work, we propose online lab practice based on Excel templates that our research group has developed ad-hoc for different aspects of colorimetry, such as conversion to different colour spaces, calculation of perceptual descriptors (hue, saturation, lightness), calculation of colour differences, colour matching dyes, etc. The practice presented in this paper is focused on the learning of colour differences. The session is based on a specific Excel template to compute the colour differences and to plot different graphs with these colour differences defined at different colour spaces: CIE ΔE, CIE ΔE94 and the CIELAB colour space. This template is implemented on a website what works by addressing the student work at a proper and organized way. The aim was to unify all the student work from a website, therefore the student is able to learn in an autonomous and sequential way and in his own pace. To achieve this purpose, all the tools, links and documents are collected for each different proposed activity to achieve guided specific objectives. In the context of educational innovation, this type of website is normally called WebQuest. The design of a WebQuest is established according to the criteria of usability and simplicity. There are great advantages of using WebQuests versus the toolbox “Campus Virtual” available in the University of Alicante. The Campus Virtual is an unfriendly environment for this specific purpose as the activities are organized in different sectors depending on whether the activity is a discussion, an activity, a self-assessment or the download of materials. With this separation, it is more difficult that the student follows an organized sequence. However, our WebQuest provides a more intuitive graphical environment, and besides, all the tasks and resources needed to complete them are grouped and organized according to a linear sequence. In this way, the student guided learning is optimized. Furthermore, with this simplification, the student focuses on learning and not to waste resources. Finally, this tool has a wide set of potential applications: online courses of colorimetry applied for postgraduate students, Open Course Ware, etc.

A neural network algorithm to simplify 2D meshes

In this paper we propose a neural network model to simplify and 2D meshes. This model is based on the Growing Neural Gas model and is able to simplify any mesh with different topologies and sizes. A triangulation process is included with the objective to reconstruct the mesh. This model is applied to some problems related to urban networks.

Tratamiento de textos para mejorar la comprensión lectora en alumnos con deficiencias auditivas

Proyecto emergente centrado en el tratamiento de textos educativos en castellano con la finalidad de reducir las barreras lingüísticas que dificultan la comprensión lectora a personas con deficiencias auditivas, o incluso a personas aprendiendo una lengua distinta a su lengua materna. Se describe la metodología aplicada para resolver los distintos problemas relacionados con el objetivo a conseguir, la hipótesis de trabajo y las tareas y los objetivos parciales alcanzados.

Ni bueno, ni bonito, ni barato. El problema de la simplificación de la naturaleza

Modern society has lost its natural connection with the environment. Present agriculture methods and city planning around the world support this fact. Humanity has always simplified nature in order to control it but, far from this, we have contributed to enhance current environmental issues as air and water pollution, soil fertility loss, species extinction and climate change. Therefore, it may be reasonable to change our point of view of nature. By assuming that we are an inseparable part of nature and vice versa, we may achieve a true conservation of the richness of our planet. We must synthesise nature because every living being is a part of a bigger whole. We need to live the complexity of life. Nowadays, we have reached a turning point after which we must decide either changing our ways or sacrificing our future. Hopefully, a slight impulse is sometimes enough to change the course of History.

Proyecto FIRST (Flexible Interactive Reading Support Tool): desarrollo de una herramienta para ayudar a personas con autismo mediante la simplificación de textos

El Trastorno de Espectro Autista (TEA) es un trastorno que impide el correcto desarrollo de funciones cognitivas, habilidades sociales y comunicativas en las personas. Un porcentaje significativo de personas con autismo presentan además dificultades en la comprensión lectora. El proyecto europeo FIRST está orientado a desarrollar una herramienta multilingüe llamada Open Book que utiliza Tecnologías del Lenguaje Humano para identificar obstáculos que dificultan la comprensión lectora de un documento. La herramienta ayuda a cuidadores y personas con autismo transformando documentos escritos a un formato más sencillo mediante la eliminación de dichos obstáculos identificados en el texto. En este artículo se presenta el proyecto FIRST así como la herramienta desarrollada Open Book.

A novel concept-level approach for ultra-concise opinion summarization

The Web 2.0 has resulted in a shift as to how users consume and interact with the information, and has introduced a wide range of new textual genres, such as reviews or microblogs, through which users communicate, exchange, and share opinions. The exploitation of all this user-generated content is of great value both for users and companies, in order to assist them in their decision-making processes. Given this context, the analysis and development of automatic methods that can help manage online information in a quicker manner are needed. Therefore, this article proposes and evaluates a novel concept-level approach for ultra-concise opinion abstractive summarization. Our approach is characterized by the integration of syntactic sentence simplification, sentence regeneration and internal concept representation into the summarization process, thus being able to generate abstractive summaries, which is one the most challenging issues for this task. In order to be able to analyze different settings for our approach, the use of the sentence regeneration module was made optional, leading to two different versions of the system (one with sentence regeneration and one without). For testing them, a corpus of 400 English texts, gathered from reviews and tweets belonging to two different domains, was used. Although both versions were shown to be reliable methods for generating this type of summaries, the results obtained indicate that the version without sentence regeneration yielded to better results, improving the results of a number of state-of-the-art systems by 9%, whereas the version with sentence regeneration proved to be more robust to noisy data.