Effect of representation size and visual ambiguity on RatSLAM system performance

RatSLAM is a vision-based SLAM system based on extended models of the rodent hippocampus. RatSLAM creates environment representations that can be processed by the experience mapping algorithm to produce maps suitable for goal recall. The experience mapping algorithm also allows RatSLAM to map environments many times larger than could be achieved with a one to one correspondence between the map and environment, by reusing the RatSLAM maps to represent multiple sections of the environment. This paper describes experiments investigating the effects of the environment-representation size ratio and visual ambiguity on mapping and goal navigation performance. The experiments demonstrate that system performance is weakly dependent on either parameter in isolation, but strongly dependent on their joint values.

Navigating technological contexts and experience design in music education

For some time we have jokingly referred to our network jamming research with jam2jam as ‘Switched on Orff’ (Brown, Sorensen and Dillon 2002; Dillon 2003; Dillon 2006; Dillon 2006; Brown and Dillon 2007). The connection with electronic music and Wendy Carlos’ classic work ‘Switched on Bach’ was obvious; we were using electronic music in schools and with children. The deeper connection with Orff however was about recognising that electronic music and instruments could have cultural values and knowledge embedded in their design and practice in same way as what has come to be known as the Orff method (Orff and Keetman 1958-66). However whilst the Orff method focuses upon Western art music perceptual framework electronic instruments have the potential to have more fluid musical environments and even to move to interdisciplinary study by including visual media. Whilst the Orff method focused on making sense of Western art music through experience electronic environments potentially can make sense of the world of multi media that pervades our lives.

Emergent task-specific object semantics through distributed experience networks

Autonomous development of sensorimotor coordination enables a robot to adapt and change its action choices to interact with the world throughout its lifetime. The Experience Network is a structure that rapidly learns coordination between visual and haptic inputs and motor action. This paper presents methods which handle the high dimensionality of the network state-space which occurs due to the simultaneous detection of multiple sensory features. The methods provide no significant increase in the complexity of the underlying representations and also allow emergent, task-specific, semantic information to inform action selection. Experimental results show rapid learning in a real robot, beginning with no sensorimotor mappings, to a mobile robot capable of wall avoidance and target acquisition.

Women's perceptions of their healthcare experience when they choose not to breastfeed

Research Question How do women who choose not to breastfeed perceive their healthcare experience? Method This qualitative research study used a phenomenographic approach to explore the healthcare experience of women who do not breastfeed. Seven women were interviewed about their healthcare experience relating to their choice of feeding, approximately four weeks after giving birth. Six conceptions were identified and an outcome space was developed to demonstrate the relationships and meaning of the conceptions in a visual format. Findings There were five unmet needs identified by the participants during this study. These needs included equity, self sufficiency, support, education and the need not to feel pressured. Conclusion Women in this study who chose not to breastfeed identified important areas where they felt that their needs were not met. In keeping with the Code of Ethics for Nurses and Midwives, the identified needs of women who do not breastfeed must be addressed in a caring, compassionate and just manner. The care and education of women who formula feed should be of the highest standard possible, even if the choice not to breastfeed is not the preferred choice of healthcare professionals.

Objectifying early-number : a visual nomenclature to express mathematical domain knowledge

To address issues of divisive ideologies in the Mathematics Education community and to subsequently advance educational practice, an alternative theoretical framework and operational model is proposed which represents a consilience of constructivist learning theories whilst acknowledging the objective but improvable nature of domain knowledge. Based upon Popper’s three-world model of knowledge, the proposed theory supports the differentiation and explicit modelling of both shared domain knowledge and idiosyncratic personal understanding using a visual nomenclature. The visual nomenclature embodies Piaget’s notion of reflective abstraction and so may support an individual’s experience-based transformation of personal understanding with regards to shared domain knowledge. Using the operational model and visual nomenclature, seminal literature regarding early-number counting and addition was analysed and described. Exemplars of the resultant visual artefacts demonstrate the proposed theory’s viability as a tool with which to characterise the reflective abstraction-based organisation of a domain’s shared knowledge. Utilising such a description of knowledge, future research needs to consider the refinement of the operational model and visual nomenclature to include the analysis, description and scaffolded transformation of personal understanding. A detailed model of knowledge and understanding may then underpin the future development of educational software tools such as computer-mediated teaching and learning environments.

A virtual environment to simulate the experience of psychosis

Psychosis is a mental disorder that affects 1-2% of the population at some point in their lives. One of the main causes of psychosis is the mental illness schizophrenia. Sufferers of this illness often have terrifying symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and thought disorder. This project aims to develop a virtual environment to simulate the experience of psychosis, focusing on re-creating auditory and visual hallucinations. A model of a psychiatric ward was created and the psychosis simulation software was written to re-create the auditory and visual hallucinations of one particular patient. The patient was very impressed with the simulation, and commented that it effectively re-created the same emotions that she experienced on a day-to-day basis during her psychotic episodes. It is hoped that this work will result in a useful educational tool about schizophrenia, leading to improved training of clinicians, and fostering improved understanding and empathy toward sufferers of schizophrenia in the community, ultimately improving the quality of life and chances of recovery of patients.

Making sense of mental illness as a full human experience : Perspective of illness and recovery held by people with a mental illness living in the community.

Recovery is a highly contextualized concept amid divergent interpretations and unique experiences. There is substantial current interest in building evidence about recovery from mental illness in order to inform best practice founded in the ways people find to live productive and meaningful lives. This paper presents some accounts related to recovery and illness expressed by eight people through a Participatory Action Research project. The research facilitated entry to the subjective experiences of living in the community as an artist with a mental illness. The people in the research shared an integrated understanding of illness, recovery and identity. Their understanding provided insight into mental illness as an inseparable aspect of who they were. Further, specific issue was raised of recovery as a clinical term with a requirement to meet distinct conventions of recovery. This paper emphasizes that being ill and being well, for the person with a mental illness, is a dynamic and complex development not easily explained or transformed into uniform process or outcomes. Attempts to establish an integral or consensual approach to recovery has, to date, disregarded mental illness as a full human experience. This paper argues that broader frameworks for thinking and responding to the dynamic processes of mental illness and recovery are needed and require acknowledgment of competing and contradictory ideas.

Does experience with one type of two-wheeler affect behaviours and attitudes to other types?

Failure to give way by motor vehicles is a factor in many collisions with both powered and unpowered two wheelers (TWs). Motor vehicle drivers often report that they did not see the TW, but research has shown that motor vehicle drivers who have experience riding a motorcycle are less likely to fail to detect motorcycles. The research reported here examines whether this phenomenon extends to detection of bicycles and whether car drivers who have experience with one mode of TW show improved detection of the other mode. A driving simulator study was conducted in an Australian urban setting which incorporated some of the most common car-TW crash scenarios. Participants with car-only, car plus motorcycle, car plus bicycle, and car plus bicycle plus motorcycle experience operated a car simulator. Their interactions with both types of TWs were measured in terms of visual detection, lateral distance and speed when approaching and passing. The effects of different levels of colour and lighting of the TWs on driver responses were also examined. The attitudes of participants towards TWs were measured in a questionnaire.

Ambivalent realities : postcolonial experiences in contemporary visual arts practice

This practice-led research project investigates how new postcolonial conditions require new methods of critique to fully engage with the nuances of real world, 'lived' experiences. Framed by key aspects of postcolonial theory, this project examines contemporary artists' contributions to investigations of identity, race, ethnicity, otherness and diaspora, as well as questions of locality, nationality, and transnationality. Approaching these issues through the lens of my own experience as an artist and subject, it results in a body of creative work and a written exegesis that creatively and critically examine the complexities, ambiguities and ambivalences of the contemporary postcolonial condition.

Enhancing learning in large undergraduate classes using custom made audio-visual cases

This is an exploratory study into the effective use of embedding custom made audiovisual case studies (AVCS) in enhancing the student’s learning experience. This paper describes a project that used AVCS for a large divergent cohort of undergraduate students, enrolled in an International Business course. The study makes a number of key contributions to advancing learning and teaching within the discipline. AVCS provide first hand reporting of the case material, where the students have the ability to improve their understanding from both verbal and nonverbal cues. The paper demonstrates how AVCS can be embedded in a student-centred teaching approach to capture the students’ interest and to enhance a deep approach to learning by providing real-world authentic experience.

Orientation dependence of spatial memory acquired from auditory experience

The present study investigated whether memory for a room-sized spatial layout learned through auditory localization of sounds exhibits orientation dependence similar to that observed for spatial memory acquired from stationary viewing of the environment. Participants learned spatial layouts by viewing objects or localizing sounds and then performed judgments of relative direction among remembered locations. The results showed that direction judgments following auditory learning were performed most accurately at a particular orientation in the same way as were those following visual learning, indicating that auditorily encoded spatial memory is orientation dependent. In combination with previous findings that spatial memories derived from haptic and proprioceptive experiences are also orientation dependent, the present finding suggests that orientation dependence is a general functional property of human spatial memory independent of learning modality.

Visual and proprioceptive representations in spatial memory

It has been shown that spatial information can be acquired from both visual and nonvisual modalities. The present study explored how spatial information from vision and proprioception was represented in memory, investigating orientation dependence of spatial memories acquired through visual and proprioceptive spatial learning. Experiment 1 examined whether visual learning alone and proprioceptive learning alone yielded orientation-dependent spatial memory. Results showed that spatial memories from both types of learning were orientation dependent. Experiment 2 explored how different orientations of the same environment were represented when they were learned visually and proprioceptively. Results showed that both visually and proprioceptively learned orientations were represented in spatial memory, suggesting that participants established two different reference systems based on each type of learning experience and interpreted the environment in terms of these two reference systems. The results provide some initial clues to how different modalities make unique contributions to spatial representations.

Bombs Away: visual thinking and students’ engagement in design studios contexts

In design studio, sketching or visual thinking is part of processes that assist students to achieve final design solutions. At QUT’s First and Third Year industrial design studio classes we engage in a variety of teaching pedagogies from which we identify ‘Concept Bombs’ as an instrumental in the development of students’ visual thinking and reflective design process, and also as a vehicle to foster positive student engagement. Our ‘formula’: Concept Bombs are 20 minute design tasks focusing on rapid development of initial concept designs and free-hand sketching. Our experience and surveys tell us that students value intensive studio activities especially when combined with timely assessment and feedback. While conventional longer-duration design projects are essential for allowing students to engage with the full depth and complexity of the design process, short and intensive design activities introduce variety to the learning experience and enhance student engagement. This paper presents a comparative analysis of First and Third Year students’ Concept Bomb sketches to describe the types of design knowledge embedded in them, a discussion of limitations and opportunities of this pedagogical technique, as well as considerations for future development of studio based tasks of this kind as design pedagogies in the midst of current university education trends.

Mark form experience

Weblog of participatory arts Community interactive art project with Cerebral Palsy League. Regional Arts Development grant, Queensland Government. Awarded June 2012. This project has involved exploring and visualising participants’ movements through their drawings and co-designing an interactive, visualisation artwork based on these gestures and images.

Art museums and the global tourist: Experience centres in experience-scapes

In the experience economy, the role of art museums has evolved so as to cater to global cultural tourists. These institutions were traditionally dedicated to didactic functions, and served cognoscenti with elite cultural tastes that were aligned with the avant-garde’s autonomous stance towards mass culture. In a post-avant-garde era however museums have focused on appealing to a broad clientele that often has little or no knowledge of historical or contemporary art. Many of these tourists want art to provide entertaining and novel experiences, rather than receiving pedagogical ‘training’. In response, art museums are turning into ‘experience venues’ and are being informed by ideas associated with new museology, as well as business approaches like Customer Experience Management. This has led to the provision of populist entertainment modes, such as blockbuster exhibitions, participatory art events, jazz nights, and wine tasting, and reveals that such museums recognize that today’s cultural tourist is part of an increasingly diverse and populous demographic, which shares many languages and value systems. As art museums have shifted attention to global tourists, they have come to play a greater role in gentrification projects and cultural precincts. The art museum now seems ideally suited to tourist-centric environments that offer a variety of immersive sensory experiences and combine museums (often designed by star-architects), international hotels, restaurants, high-end shopping zones, and other leisure forums. These include sites such as Port Maravilha urban waterfront development in Rio de Janiero, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, and the Chateau La Coste winery and hotel complex in Provence. It can be argued that in a global experience economy, art museums have become experience centres in experience-scapes. This paper will examine the nature of the tourist experience in relation to the new art museum, and the latter’s increasingly important role in attracting tourists to urban and regional cultural precincts.