Transfer of conceptualisation patterns in bilinguals: the construal of motion events in Turkish and German

We test Slobin's (2003) Thinking-for-Speaking hypothesis on data from different groups of Turkish-German bilinguals, those living in Germany and those who have returned to Germany.

An eye for an eye: robust motion segmentation by applying the latest in human vision research

Automatically extracting interesting objects from videos is a very challenging task and is applicable to many research areas such robotics, medical imaging, content based indexing and visual surveillance. Automated visual surveillance is a major research area in computational vision and a commonly applied technique in an attempt to extract objects of interest is that of motion segmentation. Motion segmentation relies on the temporal changes that occur in video sequences to detect objects, but as a technique it presents many challenges that researchers have yet to surmount. Changes in real-time video sequences not only include interesting objects, environmental conditions such as wind, cloud cover, rain and snow may be present, in addition to rapid lighting changes, poor footage quality, moving shadows and reflections. The list provides only a sample of the challenges present. This thesis explores the use of motion segmentation as part of a computational vision system and provides solutions for a practical, generic approach with robust performance, using current neuro-biological, physiological and psychological research in primate vision as inspiration.

Gravity well visibility in haptic interfaces for motion-impaired

Haptic computer interfaces provide users with feedback through the sense of touch, thereby allowing users to feel a graphical user interface. Force feedback gravity wells, i.e. attractive basins that can pull the cursor toward a target, are one type of haptic effect that have been shown to provide improvements in "point and click" tasks. For motion-impaired users, gravity wells could improve times by as much as 50%. It has been reported that the presentation of information to multiple sensory modalities, e.g. haptics and vision, can provide performance benefits. However, previous studies investigating the use of force feedback gravity wells have generally not provided visual representations of the haptic effect. Where force fields extend beyond clickable targets, the addition of visual cues may affect performance. This paper investigates how the performance of motion-impaired computer users is affected by having visual representations of force feedback gravity wells presented on-screen. Results indicate that the visual representation does not affect times and errors in a "point and click" task involving multiple targets.

Modeling image motion in airborne Three-Line-Array (TLA) push-broom cameras

This paper presents an image motion model for airborne three-line-array (TLA) push-broom cameras. Both aircraft velocity and attitude instability are taken into account in modeling image motion. Effects of aircraft pitch, roll, and yaw on image motion are analyzed based on geometric relations in designated coordinate systems. The image motion is mathematically modeled by image motion velocity multiplied by exposure time. Quantitative analysis to image motion velocity is then conducted in simulation experiments. The results have shown that image motion caused by aircraft velocity is space invariant while image motion caused by aircraft attitude instability is more complicated. Pitch,roll and yaw all contribute to image motion to different extents. Pitch dominates the along-track image motion and both roll and yaw greatly contribute to the cross-track image motion. These results provide a valuable base for image motion compensation to ensure high accuracy imagery in aerial photogrammetry.

Motion planning of autonomous vehicles in a non-autonomous vehicle environment without speed lanes

Planning is one of the key problems for autonomous vehicles operating in road scenarios. Present planning algorithms operate with the assumption that traffic is organised in predefined speed lanes, which makes it impossible to allow autonomous vehicles in countries with unorganised traffic. Unorganised traffic is though capable of higher traffic bandwidths when constituting vehicles vary in their speed capabilities and sizes. Diverse vehicles in an unorganised exhibit unique driving behaviours which are analysed in this paper by a simulation study. The aim of the work reported here is to create a planning algorithm for mixed traffic consisting of both autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles without any inter-vehicle communication. The awareness (e.g. vision) of every vehicle is restricted to nearby vehicles only and a straight infinite road is assumed for decision making regarding navigation in the presence of multiple vehicles. Exhibited behaviours include obstacle avoidance, overtaking, giving way for vehicles to overtake from behind, vehicle following, adjusting the lateral lane position and so on. A conflict of plans is a major issue which will almost certainly arise in the absence of inter-vehicle communication. Hence each vehicle needs to continuously track other vehicles and rectify plans whenever a collision seems likely. Further it is observed here that driver aggression plays a vital role in overall traffic dynamics, hence this has also been factored in accordingly. This work is hence a step forward towards achieving autonomous vehicles in unorganised traffic, while similar effort would be required for planning problems such as intersections, mergers, diversions and other modules like localisation.

Eye candy for the blind: re-introducing Lyotard's Acinema into discourses on excess, motion and spectacle in contemporary Hollywood

Jean-François Lyotard's 1973 essay ‘Acinema’ is explicitly concerned with the cinematic medium, but has received scant critical attention. Lyotard's acinema conceives of an experimental, excessive form of film-making that uses stillness and movement to shift away from the orderly process of meaning-making within mainstream cinema. What motivates this present paper is a striking link between Lyotard's writing and contemporary Hollywood production; both are concerned with a sense of excess, especially within moments of motion. Using Charlie's Angels (McG, 2000) as a case study – a film that has been critically dismissed as ‘eye candy for the blind’ – my methodology brings together two different discourses, high culture theory and mainstream film-making, to test out and propose the value of Lyotard's ideas for the study of contemporary film. Combining close textual analysis and engagement with key scholarship on film spectacle, I reflexively engage with the process of film analysis and re-direct attention to a neglected essay by a major theorist, in order to stimulate further engagement with his work.

Mechanism for synchronized motion between two humans in mutual tapping experiments: Transition from alternative mode to synchronization mode

We performed mutual tapping experiments between two humans to investigate the conditions required for synchronized motion. A transition from an alternative mode to a synchronization mode was discovered under the same conditions when a subject changed from a reactive mode to an anticipation mode in single tapping experiments. Experimental results suggest that the cycle time for each tapping motion is tuned by a proportional control that is based on synchronization errors and cycle time errors. As the tapping frequency increases, the mathematical model based on the feedback control in the sensory-motor closed loop predicts a discrete mode transition as the gain factors of the proportional control decease. The conditions of the synchronization were shown as a consequence of the coupled dynamics based on the subsequent feedback loop in the sensory-motor system.

Motion of the dayside polar cap boundary during substorm cycles: II. Generation of poleward-moving events and polar cap patches by pulses in the magnetopause reconnection rate

Using data from the EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter) VHF and CUTLASS (Co-operative UK Twin- Located Auroral Sounding System) HF radars, we study the formation of ionospheric polar cap patches and their relationship to the magnetopause reconnection pulses identified in the companion paper by Lockwood et al. (2005). It is shown that the poleward-moving, high-concentration plasma patches observed in the ionosphere by EISCAT on 23 November 1999, as reported by Davies et al. (2002), were often associated with corresponding reconnection rate pulses. However, not all such pulses generated a patch and only within a limited MLT range (11:00–12:00 MLT) did a patch result from a reconnection pulse. Three proposed mechanisms for the production of patches, and of the concentration minima that separate them, are analysed and evaluated: (1) concentration enhancement within the patches by cusp/cleft precipitation; (2) plasma depletion in the minima between the patches by fast plasma flows; and (3) intermittent injection of photoionisation-enhanced plasma into the polar cap. We devise a test to distinguish between the effects of these mechanisms. Some of the events repeat too frequently to apply the test. Others have sufficiently long repeat periods and mechanism (3) is shown to be the only explanation of three of the longer-lived patches seen on this day. However, effect (2) also appears to contribute to some events. We conclude that plasma concentration gradients on the edges of the larger patches arise mainly from local time variations in the subauroral plasma, via the mechanism proposed by Lockwood et al. (2000).

Motion of the dayside polar cap boundary during substorm cycles: I. Observations of pulses in the magnetopause reconnection rate

Using data from the EISCAT (European Incoherent Scatter) VHF radar and DMSP (Defense Meteorological Satellite Program) spacecraft passes, we study the motion of the dayside open-closed field line boundary during two substorm cycles. The satellite data show that the motions of ion and electron temperature boundaries in EISCAT data, as reported by Moen et al. (2004), are not localised around the radar; rather, they reflect motions of the open-closed field line boundary at all MLT throughout the dayside auroral ionosphere. The boundary is shown to erode equatorward when the IMF points southward, consistent with the effect of magnetopause reconnection. During the substorm expansion and recovery phases, the dayside boundary returns poleward, whether the IMF points northward or southward. However, the poleward retreat was much faster during the substorm for which the IMF had returned to northward than for the substorm for which the IMF remained southward – even though the former substorm is much the weaker of the two. These poleward retreats are consistent with the destruction of open flux at the tail current sheet. Application of a new analysis of the peak ion energies at the equatorward edge of the cleft/cusp/mantle dispersion seen by the DMSP satellites identifies the dayside reconnection merging gap to extend in MLT from about 9.5 to 15.5 h for most of the interval. Analysis of the boundary motion, and of the convection velocities seen near the boundary by EISCAT, allows calculation of the reconnection rate (mapped down to the ionosphere) from the flow component normal to the boundary in its own rest frame. This reconnection rate is not, in general, significantly different from zero before 06:45 UT (MLT<9.5 h) – indicating that the X line footprint expands over the EISCAT field-of-view to earlier MLT only occasionally and briefly. Between 06:45 UT and 12:45UT (9.5inuously observed by EISCAT, confirming the (large) MLT extent of the reconnection footprint deduced from the DMSP passes. As well as direct control by the IMF on longer timescales, the derived reconnection rate variation shows considerable pulsing on timescales of 2–20 min during periods of steady southward IMF.