An Open and Social Spaced Repetition System for Language Learning

In the last decades big improvements have been done in the field of computer aided learning, based on improvements done in computer science and computer systems. Although the field has been always a bit lagged, without using the latest solutions, it has constantly gone forward taking profit of the innovations as they show up. As long as the train of the computer science does not stop (and it won’t at least in the near future) the systems that take profit of those improvements will not either, because we humans will always need to study; Sometimes for pleasure and some other many times out of need. Not all the attempts in the field of computer aided learning have been in the same direction. Most of them address one or some few of the problems that show while studying and don’t take into account solutions proposed for some other problems. The reasons for this can be varied. Sometimes the solutions simply are not compatible. Some other times, because the project is an investigation it’s interesting to isolate the problem. And, in commercial products, licenses and patents often prevent the new projects to use previous work. The world moved forward and this is an attempt to use some of the options offered by technology, mixing some old ideas with new ones.

Open Media Classes at Coventry University: Final Evaluation Report 2015

This report offers a reflection on findings from a one year evaluation study into the distributed open media classes at Coventry University The study team comprised Lou McGill and Tim Gray of Lou McGill Consultancy Ltd. This report is augmented by an open wiki (bit.ly/1KqL4nH) which includes more detail about the approaches used during the study and findings are also presented as a series of web pages (comc.loumcgill.co.uk). We would like to thank the Department of Media in the School of Art and Design for their input, openness and patience during the study.

Sustainability of Open Access Services - Phases 1 & 2

Although some services that support Open Access have developed a sustainable business model, many started as projects and continue to run on recurrent project funding or goodwill. If these are critical components of the evolving scholarly communication system the foundation of Open Access is vulnerable. Knowledge Exchange has commissioned this study as part of a larger programme of work to look at the issue of sustaining key services into the long term. This report focuses on phases one and two of the programme. Phase one was a scoping exercise, carried out mainly through a literature review and an extensive stakeholder interview exercise, to describe the services that are currently available or would be valuable in the future. It also investigated what roles stakeholders could play in this future scenario. Phase two was a stakeholder consultation and engagement exercise. The aim was to engage stakeholders with the work programme so that they could contribute their views, get involved with the work and have a voice in the thinking about future scenarios. The key services are presented for three future scenarios: ‘Gold’ Open Access, fully ‘Green’ Open Access and Green’ Open Access supplementing subscription access as ‘Gold’ OA grows. Three strategic areas are identified as having particular potential for future work. These are embedding business development expertise into service development; consideration of how to move money around the system to enable Open Access to be achieved optimally; and governance and coordination of the infrastructural foundation of Open Access. The report concludes with seven recommendations, both high-level and practical, for further work around these strategic areas.

SUSTAINABILITY OF OPEN ACCESS SERVICES: Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources

The report ‘Sustainability of Open Access Services - Phase 3: The Collective Provision of Open Access Resources’ discusses the economic and institutional issues faced by those sustaining free infrastructure services. It also identifies strategies to coordinate the collective provision of infrastructure services. These considerations are valuable input for the phases 4 and 5 of the project ‘Sustainability of Open Access Services’. This body of work will lead to practical recommendations for funders and project planners to consider when initiating an infrastructure service. The report was written by Raym Crow and funded by SPARC. Several key messages from the report are of interest. Providing infrastructure services as a public good imposes specific requirements on the design of the sustainability model. The challenge is to get enough institutions to reveal their demand for the service and support this. Arguments for an institution to support can be altruism or reciprocity or there being sufficient benefit to the institution for supporting a service. Institutions can also work together on a service through collective action (collecting voluntary contributions) and cross subsidies (funding collected by offering exclusive benefits to contributors).

Review of Open Access Policy Dependencies

Knowledge Exchange analysed the extent to which OA policies are dependent on a number of non-commercial, compliance-enabling services used by researchers and institutions. This work offers clear evidence to policy makers on the importance of a number of non-commercial services to the successful implementation of OA policies. It also shows that many of these services are at risk and warrant further support in financial and/or governance terms. The summary report (available here) includes an analysis of a wide range of OA services and policies currently in use and presents: • an analysis of the common elements found in the current OA policies adopted by research funders and institutions • a set of case studies that illustrate the direct or indirect dependency of OA policies on key services • the views of stakeholders on the key services that enable compliance with OA policies • use cases, presented in accessible formats and language for a non-technical audience • a set of priorities for action if OA policies are to be successfully implemented

Diseño, fabricación y montaje de un robot de cinemática paralela de dos grados de libertad

[ES]Este Trabajo consiste en diseñar un robot de cinemática paralela de dos grados de libertad partiendo de unos requisitos mínimos necesarios que habrán de verificarse. A continuación, se fabricará siguiendo dicho diseño para finalmente montarlo sobre unas guías lineales constituyendo así una máquina de cinemática paralela, objetivo final conjunto de este Trabajo añadido al mencionado control de las guías. Resulta de especial interés su particular arquitectura, aspecto clave cuando se pretende un sistema preciso y reducir las vibraciones.

SCARA motako robot industrialaren simulazio birtuala eta interakzioa

[EU]Gradu amaierako lan honetan, Industria Ingenieritza graduan zehar emandako zenbait irakasgaietan landutako kontzeptuak oinarri bezala hartuta SCARA robot industrialaren analisia egin da. Lau askatasun gradu dituzten robot hauek oso erabiliak dira industrian beraien lan ziklo azkar, karga handiak jasateko kapazitate, errepikortasun eta aplikazio ugariengatik. Proiektua, bi zati nagusitan banandu da: SCARA motako robot baten analisi zinematikoa, robotaren irudikapena eta ibilbideen sorkuntza Matlab programa erabiliz. Adept Cobra e-Vario 600, SCARA motako prototipo errealarekin interakzioa. Proiektuan zehar garatuko diren edukien egitura ondorengoa izango da: Lehenik eta behin, proiektuko lehen atalean proiektua kokatuta dagoen testuinguruaren azalpena emango da, baita ere testuinguru horrek gaur egun, sail desberdinetan, duen garrantzia. Proiektuko bigarren atalean, lana egiterakoan proposatu diren helburuak eta proiektuak eskaintzen dituen onurak adieraziko dira. Bestetik, proiektuko hirugarren atalean, gaiaren egoeran, SCARA robotera heldu arte robotek historian zehar izan duten garapena eta hauen sailkapen desberdinak azalduko dira. Laugarren atalean, metodologian, proiektu honetan garatuko diren bi zati nagusien deskribapen zehatza emango da. Azkenik, proiektuko azken atalean, lana burutzeko bete behar izan diren ataza bakoitzaren deskribapena eta iraupena, aurrekontua, arriskuen analisia eta proiektu honetatik atera ditugun ondorioak ematen dira.

Análisis cinemático del robot antropomórfico IRB120 de ABB

[ES]En el siguiente Trabajo Fin de Grado se va a exponer el análisis cinemático y desarrollo de un modelo virtual para la implementación de las ecuaciones cinemáticas del robot IRB120 de ABB llevados a cabo durante el curso 2013/2014. Comenzando por un estudio del Estado del Arte de la robótica industrial, se plantean seguidamente las ecuaciones de localización del robot en función de las variables de entrada mediante el método matricial. Estas ecuaciones son implementadas en un modelo de MatLab para usarlas en la resolución del problema de posición directo e inverso, y son también usadas en herramientas de creación de trayectorias. Además, sus derivadas se utilizan en el cálculo de velocidades del elemento terminal. Por último, se muestra la creación del prototipo 3D del robot, así como un interfaz gráfico de control del robot para el usuario, y los trabajos de validación llevados a cabo de los mencionados modelos virtuales sobre el robot real.

Diseño e implementación software de un robot humanoide.

[ES]Este documento tiene la intención de presentar un Trabajo de Fin de Grado (TFG). Este proyecto consiste en una serie de herramientas que permitan el diseño, implementación y desarrollo del software de control de un robot humanoide. El proyecto se centra en la mejora de la efectividad, robustez, rendimiento y fiabilidad del software. Los cambios propuestos introducen mejoras sobre el robot comercial robo nova. En concreto la capacidad de ser modular, permitiendo de esta forma el uso total o parcial de las soluciones escogidas, ahorrando tiempo y dinero en futuros desarrollos de esta plataforma

Desarrollo de una herramienta analítica para resolución del problema directo e inverso de un robot serie de 6 grados de libertad.

[ES]En el presente trabajo de fin de grado se expondrá el análisis cinemático de un robot IRB120 de ABB y el desarrollo de una herramienta grafica para su visualización. Comenzando por un estudio del estado del arte de la robótica industrial. El análisis cinemático es plantear las ecuaciones del robot y la resolución del problema directo e inverso mediante el software Matlab. Por último, la herramienta grafica muestra el movimiento del robot y los sistemas de referencia en la trayectoria introducida por el usuario.

Opengazer: open-source gaze tracker for ordinary webcams

Opengazer is an open source application that uses an ordinary webcam to estimate head pose, facial gestures, or the direction of your gaze. This information can then be passed to other applications. For example, used in conjunction with Dasher, opengazer allows you to write with your eyes. Opengazer aims to be a low-cost software alternative to commercial hardware-based eye trackers. The first version of Opengazer was developed by Piotr Zieliński, supported by Samsung and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Research and development for Opengazer has been continued by Emli-Mari Nel, and was supported until 2012 by the European Commission in the context of the AEGIS project, and also by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

Automated 3D Vision Tracking for Project Control Support

On-site tracking in open construction sites is often difficult because of the large amounts of items that are present and need to be tracked. Additionally, the amounts of occlusions/obstructions present create a highly complex tracking environment. Existing tracking methods are based mainly on Radio Frequency technologies, including Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Bluetooth and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi, Ultra-Wideband, etc). These methods require considerable amounts of pre-processing time since they need to manually deploy tags and keep record of the items they are placed on. In construction sites with numerous entities, tags installation, maintenance and decommissioning become an issue since it increases the cost and time needed to implement these tracking methods. This paper presents a novel method for open site tracking with construction cameras based on machine vision. According to this method, video feed is collected from on site video cameras, and the user selects the entity he wishes to track. The entity is tracked in each video using 2D vision tracking. Epipolar geometry is then used to calculate the depth of the marked area to provide the 3D location of the entity. This method addresses the limitations of radio frequency methods by being unobtrusive and using inexpensive, and easy to deploy equipment. The method has been implemented in a C++ prototype and preliminary results indicate its effectiveness

A dragline-forming mobile robot inspired by spiders.

Mobility of wheeled or legged machines can be significantly increased if they are able to move from a solid surface into a three-dimensional space. Although that may be achieved by addition of flying mechanisms, the payload fraction will be the limiting factor in such hybrid mobile machines for many applications. Inspired by spiders producing draglines to assist locomotion, the paper proposes an alternative mobile technology where a robot achieves locomotion from a solid surface into a free space. The technology resembles the dragline production pathway in spiders to a technically feasible degree and enables robots to move with thermoplastic spinning of draglines. As an implementation, a mobile robot has been prototyped with thermoplastic adhesives as source material of the draglines. Experimental results show that a dragline diameter range of 1.17-5.27 mm was achievable by the 185 g mobile robot in descending locomotion from the solid surface of a hanging structure with a power consumption of 4.8 W and an average speed of 5.13 cm min(-1). With an open-loop controller consisting of sequences of discrete events, the robot has demonstrated repeatable dragline formation with a relative deviation within -4% and a length close to the metre scale.

An ontology for a Robot Scientist

Soldatova, L., Clare, A., Sparkes, A. and King, R. D. (2006) An ontology for a robot scientist. Bioinformatics 2006 22: 464-471