Learning Two-Person Interaction Models for Responsive Synthetic Humanoids

Imitation learning is a promising approach for generating life-like behaviors of virtual humans and humanoid robots. So far, however, imitation learning has been mostly restricted to single agent settings where observed motions are adapted to new environment conditions but not to the dynamic behavior of interaction partners. In this paper, we introduce a new imitation learning approach that is based on the simultaneous motion capture of two human interaction partners. From the observed interactions, low-dimensional motion models are extracted and a mapping between these motion models is learned. This interaction model allows the real-time generation of agent behaviors that are responsive to the body movements of an interaction partner. The interaction model can be applied both to the animation of virtual characters as well as to the behavior generation for humanoid robots.

Multifunktionalitaet rekurrenter neuronaler Netze - Synthese und Analyse nichtlinearer Kontrolle autonomer Roboter

Huelse, Martin, Multifunktionalitaet rekurrenter neuronaler Netze - Synthese und Analyse nichtlinearer Kontrolle autonomer Roboter, DISKI 306, AKA GmbH, Germany, January 2007, ISBN: 978-3-89838-306-6, 216 pp.

Automatic classification of scientific records using the German Subject Heading Authority File (SWD)

The following paper deals with an automatic text classification method which does not require training documents. For this method the German Subject Heading Authority File (SWD), provided by the linked data service of the German National Library is used. Recently the SWD was enriched with notations of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). In consequence it became possible to utilize the subject headings as textual representations for the notations of the DDC. Basically, we we derive the classification of a text from the classification of the words in the text given by the thesaurus. The method was tested by classifying 3826 OAI-Records from 7 different repositories. Mean reciprocal rank and recall were chosen as evaluation measure. Direct comparison to a machine learning method has shown that this method is definitely competitive. Thus we can conclude that the enriched version of the SWD provides high quality information with a broad coverage for classification of German scientific articles.

Wenn Roboter uns kuscheln und pflegen

Podium Robotik in der Pflege Leitung: Susanne Brauer, PhD, Paulus-Akademie Zürich Gäste Prof. Dr. Heidrun Becker, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Departement Gesundheit Prof. Dr. Susanne Boshammer, Universität Osnabrück, Philosophie Margrit Lüscher, Geschäftsleiterin, Alterszentrum Bruggwiesen Prof. Dr. Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello, Universität Bern, Psychologie Martin Rüfenacht, Manager Healthcare bei CISCO

Was wenn Roboter uns pflegen?

Der Pflegenotstand ist ein viel diskutiertes Thema in der Schweiz. Mehr und mehr ist dabei auch die Rede von pflegenden Robotern. Sie können bei der praktischen Pflege und Versorgung entlasten und werden auch therapeutisch eingesetzt, zum Beispiel bei demenzerkrankten Menschen. Was bedeutet der Einsatz von Robotern? Was verspricht die Technik und wo stösst diese an psychologische und ethische Grenzen? CareInfo hat bei Prof. Dr. Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello von der Universität Bern nachgefragt.