Conversation

 'Conversation' was part of Melbourne Urban Screens Festival at Federation Square from 3 - 5 Oct. 2008 and Rotterdam International Film Festival (38th : 2009 : Rotterdam, The Netherlands) from 21 Jan. - 1 Feb. 2009. Both events curated by Mirjam Struppek

Library learning spaces in the digital age

Students describe the Library as being central to their learning, offering focus and inspiration, enabling access to information and technologies, and collaboration with peers. Deakin University Library’s building redevelopment program has been integral to the Library’s re-imagined value proposition for students learning in the digital age. The introduction of new generation library and learning spaces strengthens the University’s offer to students for a brilliant education where you are and where you want to go through premium cloud and located learning experiences that are personal, engaging and relevant.

The Library’s building projects are distinctive in terms of location and the built environment, as well as the characteristics of the university campus communities. Each progressive project has brought new aspirations and challenges. Through joint research with Deakin University’s School of Architecture and Built Environment, the Library has developed a quality framework for planning and assessing library and learning spaces.

This paper will discuss the research findings to date on the quality framework and the need to continually review and assess indicators of quality in a highly dynamic digital environment. The Library’s experiences in introducing high-end multimedia provide some insights into planning for and delivering enduring value.

The next steps in exploring the question of how library spaces assist students in achieving their learning goals are introduced.

Towards a digital representation of physical phenomena to assess comfort in future environments

This paper presents the concept and a test implementation of a digital representation of the physical world designed to assess comfort quality in
future environments. An integrated set of physical phenomena is modeled three-dimensionally to investigate the dynamic behavior of design objects
holistically.

The formulation supports the integration of computational simulation in the performance-based design process. It employs the principles of
geometrical and physical selfcontainedness to avoid that complex geometrical and physical circumstances have to be specified at design time. The concepts of congeneric cells and congeneric conjunctions are
introduced to simulate various physical phenomena simultaneously with a uniformly structured set of equations.

The concept, the prototype implementation and selected test cases are presented. Although it was not possible to implement all features and model parts completely, the research and the discussion of its achievements make valuable contributions towards more effective integration of computational simulation in the performance-based design process.

Dynamic biometrics fusion at feature level for video-based human recognition

This paper proposes a novel human recognition method in video, which combines human face and gait traits
using a dynamic multi-modal biometrics fusion scheme. The Fisherface approach is adopted to extract face
features, while for gait features, Locality Preserving Projection (LPP) is used to achieve low-dimensional
manifold embedding of the temporal silhouette data derived from image sequences. Face and gait features are
fused dynamically at feature level based on a distance-driven fusion method. Encouraging experimental results
are achieved on the video sequences containing 20 people, which show that dynamically fused features produce
a more discriminating power than any individual biometric as well as integrated features built on common static
fusion schemes.

Robust correctness testing for digital forensic tools

In previous work, the authors presented a theoretical lower bound on the required number of testing runs for performance testing of digital forensic tools. We also demonstrated a practical method of testing showing how to tolerate both measurement and random errors in order to achieve results close to this bound. In this paper, we extend the previous work to the situation of correctness testing. The contribution of this methodology enables the tester to achieve correctness testing results of high quality from a manageable number of observations and in a dynamic but controllable way. This is of particular interest to forensic testers who do not have access to sophisticated equipment and who can allocate only a small amount of time to testing.

Robust performance testing for digital forensic tools

In previous work, the authors presented a theoretical lower bound on the required number of testing runs for performance testing of digital forensic tools. However, experimental errors are inevitable in laboratory settings, occurring as measurement errors or as random errors and can result in practical situations where the number of testing runs is far from the theoretical bound. This paper adapts our former work to tolerate such errors in the testing results. The contribution of our new methodology enables the tester to achieve performance testing results of high quality from a manageable number of observations and in a dynamic but controllable way. This is of particular interest to forensic testers who do not have access to sophisticated equipment and who can allocate only a small amount of time to testing.

New insights into the dynamic and metadynamic recrystallization of austenite

The present work provides a summary of the recent findings obtained from the experimental investigation of the grain structure, crystallographic texture and dislocation substructure evolution in an austenitic Ni-30%Fe model alloy during dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and post-dynamic annealing. It has been found that the DRX texture characteristics become increasingly dominated by the low Taylor factor grains during DRX development, which presumably results from the preferred nucleation and lower consumption rates of these grains. The substructure of DRX grains is “random” in character and displays complex, hierarchical subgrain/cell arrangements characterized by accumulation of misorientations across significant distances. The stored energy within DRX grains appears to be principally consistent with the corresponding Taylor factor values. The changes observed within the fully dynamically recrystallized microstructure during postdynamic annealing have provided a basis to suggest a novel mechanism of metadynamic softening for the current experimental conditions. It is proposed that the initial softening stage involves rapid growth of the dynamically formed nuclei and migration of the mobile boundaries. The subboundaries within DRX grains progressively disintegrate through dislocation climb and dislocation annihilation, which ultimately leads to the formation of dislocation-free grains, and the grain boundary migration gradually becomes slower. As a result, the DRX texture largely remains preserved throughout the annealing process.

Geo-social journalism: reorienting the study of small commercial newspapers in a digital environment

This paper begins by problematizing the use of “community” to define and theorize small commercial media outlets that have geography as their primary characteristic—particularly hyper local and small traditional newspapers connected to larger media organizations in digital space. We then extend the concept of “geo-social news” to outline “geo-social journalism” as a specific form of news work currently grouped under the “community media” umbrella. Geo-social is a concept for exploring how small commercial newspapers change as media technologies evolve. It offers a framework for understanding how these news outlets and audiences connect via the notion of “sense of place”. It can also be used as a lens for theorizing their role in social flows and movements and as nodes in the global media network. The practice of “geo-social journalism”, meanwhile, has two dimensions. Firstly, journalists must engage with the land (environment/agriculture/industry), populations, histories and cultures of the places they report news. Secondly, it involves connections and understandings of the shifting constellations of global and national systems, issues and relationships of the digital era. Finally, this paper argues that by its very nature, “geo-social journalism” eschews theoretical universalizing and instead demands fine-grained analyses of the specific dynamic of each “geo-social” publication, its setting and the practices which shape it and it in turn shapes.

'Just dance' with digital literacy

In a rapidly changing higher education environment, Deakin University’s promise is to offer “brilliant education where the students are ‐ and where they want to go”. Targets set for learning, teaching and research, have significant implications across the University. Collaboration at all levels of the organization is core to achieving goals that deliver value to the student community.

The Library is charged with delivering one of the University's eight graduate learning outcomes, Digital Literacy, with initiatives required to build staff capability and contribute to student learning. Deakin University defines Digital Literacy as using technologies to find, use and disseminate information.

This paper provides an analysis of a case study in which liaison librarians collaborated with science academics to develop innovative digital literacy activities and assessment tasks for undergraduate units related to ‘Judging Reliability and Accuracy of Information’.

The case study reveals that engaging students in meaningful learning activities and assessment tasks creates dynamic and powerful learning experiences for first and second year students. In addition, the leadership that the liaison librarians demonstrate in activities that capitalise on problem based learning, elements of gaming, peer assessment, and new ways of communicating has prompted open conversations and collaborations with academics about further opportunities.

The future of the past: digital media in Holocaust museums

This essay critically examines the implications of digital media for the remembrance of the Holocaust in contemporary museum spaces, a development that has seen fundamental shifts in thinking around agency, education and entertainment. Expanding existing discussions of this issue into the Australian context, the essay takes as its central case study the design and integration of interactive StoryPod screen media in Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre. Addressing both the limitations and potentialities of interactive digital technologies for facilitating visitor-viewers’ engagement with survivor stories, the analysis highlights that digital media can be used to complement and enhance – rather than replace – traditional artefact and photographic displays, and will play an integral role in the Holocaust museums of the future.

Seduction and demise in East Berlin: Digital prototype for an immersive opera

‘Seduction and Demise in East Berlin – a digital prototype for an immersive opera’ is a reflective case study of how digital technologies can be successfully applied to facilitate dynamic mediated partnerships and collaborations resulting in cutting-edge industry standard outcomes in the fields of design, performance and digital media. The ongoing use of online interaction throughout the development of the prototype facilitated a grammar of participation, collaboration and output between third year tertiary design students from Deakin University and independent Opera Company the Beggars Opera Co-Operative (BegOpCoOp), resulting in the achievement of positive professional outcomes for both project partners. Through this process, students at Deakin University Visual Communication Design department developed a normative working model that enabled a swift engagement with and response to the creative and strategic challenges that come with applying contemporary design practice in a current industry context. BegOpCop, as the industry partner, were able to use the digital collaborative process as a springboard to interrogate and innovate their own practice as producers of contemporary operatic repertoire and to develop exciting new digital and design-savvy creative collateral with which to seek further production partners, taking them to the next professional level as a growing arts organisation.

Kinect with ROS, interact with oculus: towards dynamic user interfaces for robotic teleoperation

Teleoperation remains an important aspect for robotic systems especially when deployed in unstructured environments. While a range of research strives for robots that are completely autonomous, many robotic applications still require some level of human-in-The-loop control. In any situation where teleoperation is required an effective User Interface (UI) remains a key component within the systems design. Current advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) software and hardware such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google Cardboard combined with greater transparency to robotic systems afforded by middleware such as the Robot Operating System (ROS) provides an opportunity to rapidly improve traditional teleoperation interfaces. This paper uses a System of System (SoS) approach to present the concept of a Virtual Reality Dynamic User Interface (VRDUI) for the teleoperation of heterogeneous robots. Different geometric virtual workspaces are discussed and a cylindrical workspace aligned with interactive displays is presented as a virtual control room. A presentation mode within the proposed VRDUI is also detailed, this shows how point cloud information obtained from the Microsoft Kinect can be incorporated within the proposed virtual workspace. This point cloud data is successfully processed into an OctoMap utilizing the octree data structure to create a voxelized representation of the 3D scanned environment. The resulting OctoMap is then displayed to an operator as a 3D point cloud using the Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display (HMD).

Implementation of dual stack technique for reducing leakage and dynamic power

This paper deals with proposal of a new dual stack approach for reducing both leakage and dynamic powers. The development of digital integrated circuits is challenged by higher power consumption. Thecombination of higher clock speeds, greater functional integration, and smaller process geometries has contributed to significant growth in power density. Scaling improves transistor density and functionality ona chip. Scaling helps to increase speed and frequency of operation and hence higher performance. As voltages scale downward with the geometries threshold voltages must also decrease to gain the performance advantages of the new technology but leakage current increases exponentially. Today leakage power has become anincreasingly important issue in processor hardware and software design. It can be used in various applications like digital VLSI clocking system, buffers, registers, microprocessors etc. The leakage power increases astechnology is scaled down. In this paper, we propose a new dual stack approach for reducing both leakage and dynamic powers. Moreover, the novel dual stack approach shows the least speed power product whencompared to the existing methods. All well known approach is “Sleep” in this method we reduce leakage power. The proposed Dual Stack approach we reduce more power leakage. Dual Stack approach uses theadvantage of using the two extra pull-up and two extra pull-down transistors in sleep mode either in OFF state or in ON state. Since the Dual Stack portion can be made common to all logic circuitry, less number of transistors is needed to apply a certain logic circuit.The dual stack approach shows the least speed power product among all methods. The Dual Stack technique provides new ways to designers who require ultra-low leakage power consumption with much less speedpower product.