Research paper 1

Blue Eye Making Mood Boards in Augmente Reality

Jean-Bernard Martens, Andrs Lucero, Bart Naaijkens, Bastiaan Ekeler, Guus Rammeloo, Marcel van Heist, Matthijs Kwak, Max Sakovich Department of Industrial Design Eindhoven University of Technology P.O.Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands {J.B.O.S.Martens; A.A.Lucero} @tue.nl We describe the conceptual design of an augmented reality system for making mood boards. The main features of the proposed system are: the ability to integrate pictures of real objects and digitally retrieved pictures in an intuitive way, the ability to enrich mood boards by adding movements (and sounds), and the ability to control the system by means of hand gestures. The system can be realized by integrating available technology. Interaction techniques, augmented tabletop systems, mood boards, design support.

1. INTRODUCTION Mood board making is a widely accepted and used technique in design processes [1]. Mood boards aim to capture the atmosphere of experiences by means of photographs or other expressive aids [2]. They provide a mechanism for designers to respond to perceptions about the brief, the problem as it emerges and the ideas as they develop [3]. Traditional mood boards are assembled by gluing different types of analogue media (pictures from magazines, photographs, fabrics, objects, etc.) on a mounting board. Digital mood boards can be created by collecting similar media in a digital format and assembling them with the help of graphics software, such as Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand. Within a student project at the Industrial Design department of our university we explored how mood boards could be created in augmented reality [4]. The design goal was to create a system that would combine advantages of the physical and the virtual (or digital) world. Six projects teams received the same project brief and worked simultaneously on alternative product designs. Within this paper we present the most promising product concept, which was created in the form of a video prototype. This prototype clarifies the major product characteristics and the relevant human-computer interactions, while paying less attention to the technologies required for realizing these functionalities. After presenting the design process and the designed product, we discuss its relationship to existing work in human-computer interaction, in order to clarify both similarities and differences with existing designs. This relationship to existing work is also made to clarify that the product concept can be realized, based on available technology that has already been demonstrated elsewhere. The next obvious step is to actually build and deploy the system, in order to perform experiments with it that can inform a next design cycle. 2. DESIGN PROCESS The six first-year industrial design (ID) students (authors 3-8) that were the members of the project team that created the conceptual design of the Blue Eye system did not possess advanced knowledge on how to create and use mood boards. In order to build up relevant expertise, they were first provided with a theoretical introduction on the subject by the second author, based on existing literature [2,3]. Under the supervision of experienced industrial designers who use mood boards in their design practice, the students were asked to individually create three types of mood boards: traditional, digital and in augmented reality. During the first week of the project, students created traditional mood boards by cutting out pictures from magazines and gluing them onto mounting boards. During the second week, they created digital mood board by retrieving images from the Internet and by using commercial software packages such as Photoshop for editing the pictures into a one-page composition. Last but not least, in the third week students created a mood board in augmented reality by using the Electronic Paper prototype (EPP) [5] which was implemented on an existing augmented reality system called the Visual Interaction Platform [6]. This EPP was designed to simulate, within a digital environment, early design activities such as sketching with pen on paper and arranging images. Its aim is to combine the naturalness of physical media with the flexibility of digital media. Although the EPP is not a mature design, in the sense that it is still undergoing improvements in terms of usability, it provided a means for students to gain hands-on experience with augmented reality. For each of the three mood board creation techniques, students formulated what they perceived as main advantages and disadvantages. Using traditional tools (i.e. scissors, glue) for making mood boards felt very natural, and the result remains (physically) available at all times. By its non-obtrusive presence, the mood board can remind designers of their own

design goals, and invite others, such as clients or colleagues, to discuss it. The major obstacles were finding good input materials, such as suitable magazines, and keeping order of the mess of discarded material that easily arose in the workspace. Using digital technology for creating mood boards provided access to a very large database of pictures (the Internet) and a wealth of editing functionalities. The main observed disadvantage was the difficulty of maintaining overview, both of available pictures and the global composition. Access to a suitable output medium, such as a print of sufficient size and quality, is required to make the mood board available to the designers and their environment in the remainder of the design process. The EPP offered a large workspace which provided overview and in which (digital) pictures could be manipulated in a natural way. The fact that images were projected from the top onto the workspace was experienced as a drawback, since the hands were sometimes casting unwanted shadows. The functionality offered by the EPP was in no way comparable to that available in commercial software packages such as Photoshop, and some features, such as the ability to create layers, were duly missed. Some existing usability problems within the EPP, such as the observed latency between input actions and visual feedback, made it difficult to appreciate the full potential of the system. The use of the Internet as a resource for collecting images, and the need to print the resulting mood board for future use, were characteristics that were shared with the digital mood board. 2.1 Design Requirements After analysis of the gathered experiences, it was decided to base the concept of a new mood board creation system on the following requirements: It should be possible to introduce physical pictures of arbitrary shapes, and pictures of actual objects, next to Internet pictures and digital photographs, into the digitally-stored and displayed mood board. The interaction should feel natural, in the sense that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between where the actions are performed and where the visual feedback is provided. This is inspired by the intuitive look and feel of the current augmented reality system. Instead of using external interaction elements, (two-handed) gestures should be used to control all operations. This would create a digital tool with an affordance that comes close to that of physical tools. The mood board prototype should provide functionality that can motivate the migration from analogue to digital media. Within the proposed prototype this was translated into the possibility of creating motion within the mood boards in a natural way. Other extensions such as adding sound were considered but are currently not included, in order not to overload the product concept. 3. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The hardware components of the system, see Figure 1, are a table with a large display surface, and two cameras that are mounted above the table, i.e., a low-resolution video camera for tracking hand gestures and a highresolution digital camera for capturing still images (with newer digital cameras, see http://www.canon.co.uk/, both camera functionalities might be integrated into one camera). We currently use a video projector and a mirror underneath the table to create an image on a transparent plate, but other means for creating a large display surface might also serve the purpose. The table has a height of 90 cm (rather than 75 cm for a standard table) in order to allow for easy operation while standing up. Several people can easily gather around the table and cooperate in the mood board creating activity and associated discussion.
FIGURE 1: The Blue Eye system with the camera(s) mounted on top and the display integrated into the table surface.

There are different ways for creating images on the table. One is through digital means, i.e., by sending digital images to a dedicated input folder. Such images may for instance be acquired by a digital camera that sends pictures wirelessly to this folder (such as the Nikon Coolpix P1, see http://www.nikonusa.com/). The other way, see Figure 2, is by putting physical pictures or objects on the table and pressing the camera capture button. The backprojection allows using the well-known and developed Blue Screen technique (see The Blue Screen Page at http://www.seanet.com/Users/bradford/bluscrn.html) to capture images of the objects (and their outline) on the table. While a high-resolution image is captured, the projected background is changed into a uniform (and known) colour, so that the actual physical object can be easily segmented from the background (especially if we assume that we are looking for a single connected component on an otherwise uniform, or slowly varying, background). In case automatic segmentation is not to the users liking, or the user wants to extract a part of a digitally imported image, hand gestures may be used to cut out a (non-rectangular) region of an image.
FIGURE 2: Images are captured in-place and a digital footprint remains after the physical object is taken away.

The Blue Eye system has a second mode of image capture that is set by a toggled button. The images that are captured while this button is active are considered to form a sequence and are interpolated to create a smooth and circular motion sequence (i.e., the last image of the sequence is linked to the first one). Most frequently, the sequence is created by capturing the same physical object in a number of positions.

FIGURE 3: Image translating with one hand (left), and image resizing and rotating with two hands (right).

A video camera (i.e., a firewire camera with a spatial resolution of 640x480 pixels, capturing 60 frames per second) is used to track the gestures that are needed for operating the system. An obvious advantage of optical tracking is, amongst others, that several users can interact at the same time, using both hands. The interaction gestures could either be executed by means of tagged interaction elements, which allows for a robust and easy solution from a technology perspective [5], or using human hands, which is obviously the most flexible solution from the point of view of the end user. The feasibility of performing real-time tracking of arm and hand motions, and of using them for human-computer interaction, has been demonstrated earlier [7], and some software solutions are publicly available (see http://ilab.cs.ucsb.edu/projects/mathias/handvu_ilab.html). The requirements for the Blue Eye system are limited since only few gestures need to be distinguished. For instance, closing the index finger and thumb (of one hand in case of translation; of both hands in case of resizing and rotation) could signal a repositioning event to the system, as shown in Figure 3. Translation and rotation might also be integrated in a singlehand gesture using the technique proposed in [8]. An extended index finger might be used to draw on the display, while an extended middle finger might be used to cut out parts of an image. Such hand gestures are expected to be natural and easy to learn. The mood board output is an image that can at any stage be retrieved from a designated output folder and imported into other applications. 4. RELATIONSHIP TO EXISTING SYSTEMS AND FUTURE WORK The idea of capturing information from the real world in an intuitive and compelling way has also been expressed in other recent designs [1,9]. The I/O Brush [9] is a paintbrush with an integrated camera, light source and touch sensors that can pick up colors, textures and short motion sequences from its environment. The physical size of the I/O brush limits the physical elements that can be picked to object details rather than complete objects. These picked elements are used as brushes for drawing, hence creating interesting and compelling pictures. A similar functionality is feasible within the proposed system. An important difference is that both larger objects and object details (by cutting out a region of a captured object) can easily be captured in the Blue Eye system. The possibility of creating motion sequences from a series of captured still images is another obvious extension. The Cabinet prototype is an augmented reality system for managing photo collections [1]. It can photograph physical objects on the table surface and replace them by a digital footprint in place. The captured picture however represents the entire workspace and only a rectangular region of interest can be specified by the user to crop the image. Interactions within the Cabinet system are performed by means of a pen on a digital tablet, which has the consequence that images need to be projected from the front, rather than from the back, as is done in our case. Our own Electronic Paper prototype (EPP) [5] demonstrates how image handling and drawing can be used so support early design activities. The EPP has much more extensive functionality than the proposed system, but uses only digitally generated images. It does not possess the natural and seamless interaction with physical objects that is proposed in the Blue Eye system. The use of a digital pen and the physical construction of the EPP also limit it to be single user. The next step is to actually implement and test the system. The picture capturing requires a computer-controlled digital camera (such as Canon PowerShot S80 with http://www.breezesys.com/PSRemote software). Motion tweening (morphing), i.e., creating image frames in between specified key-frames, is available, for instance in commercial packages such as Flash. The biggest obstacle to the system realization is most likely the hand tracking and gesture recognition. As an intermediate solution, the available tracking technology within our VIP system [6], based on using an infrared-sensitive camera and infrared-tagged objects, can be used. This might be implemented by mounting infrared-reflecting dots on both hands of the user. Using this technology, we can start gathering enduser experiences before we have gesture recognition available. Once the system has been realized, the extension with additional functionality can be explored. One potentially interesting idea arose in one of the other student projects. They proposed to assign colours to different parts of a soundtrack and to associate (for instance by means of dragging) the different colours to different parts of the mood board. Not only can this be used to add sound to a mood board, but it also provides a means for sequencing through the different components of a mood board. Of course, such interactions need to be tested in order to decide whether or not they are truly useful. REFERENCES. [1] Keller, I. (2005) For Inspiration Only: Designer Interaction with Informal Collections of Visual Material, Ph.D. thesis, Technische Universiteit Delft. [2] Muller, W. (2001) Order and Meaning in Design, Lemma Publisher, Utrecht, the Netherlands. [3] Garner, S. and McDonagh-Philp, D. (2001) Problem Interpretation and Resolution via Visual Stimuli: The Use of Mood Boards, The Journal of Art and Design Education, 57-64. [4] Milgram, P. and Kishino, F. (1994) A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays, IEICE Transactions on Information Systems, 1321-1329. [5] Aliakseyeu, D., Martens, J.B. and Rauterberg, M. (2006) A Computer Support Tool for the Early Stages of

Research paper 2

"THE BLUEST EYE." Term Paper ID:30417 Essay Subject: blue eyes technology 11 Pages / 2475 Words 1 sources, 10 Citations, MLA Format

Paper Abstract: Discusses the inter-relationships among the women in Toni Morrison's novel. Theme that black women gain strength from each other is where hope for the future lies. Analysis of major characters. Broad range of variety of women depicted in the novel. The tragedy of Pecola; her brutal life and self-loathing of her looks. Paper Introduction: In The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison suspends her tale of a young girl's pursuit of misguided transcendence from a web of interrelationships among women. She does not idealize this elaborate framework and the women in her story are as fallible and subject to the influence of their environment as people are in real life. But Morrison extends the reach of this net of relationships into the future through the narrator, Claudia, and her sister Frieda and suggests that the strength that some women draw from others is where the hope for the future lies. Claudia and Frieda are not terribly remarkable girls--they are subject to envy and childish errors just like anyone else. But they have a far better moral grasp of the world that comes in large part from their mother's influence and enables them to sort among the examples offered by other women in order to make correct choices. Text of the Paper:

The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
framework and the women in herstory Claudia and her sisterFrieda and suggests that the strength and childish errors just likeanyone else But to make correct choices In this Claudia make Unlike the twosisters Pecola's vision of the has never been given any strong sense of herself Pecola suchtreatment Instead she is merely bewildered as to why the future The women in the novel cover a broad Claudia claims that they did not heartheir words but their mother's behavior to their reasoned response to the way to a curious kindof defensive shame bikemoney and the ritual of the marigold seeds would change ButPecola's tragedy was productive in opening segment of thebook in which the children's family society and by implication beauty that is idealized in do not bloom just as mother is shown to be the the adult self' who is own worries about the pressures of the world rather believes at the time isdirected toward was in fact a productive and fructifying pain with his assault on Pecola but farback is a surprising amount of humor in based on a healthycombination of respect and awareness of their comic presentationof their mother's approach to this sort of discipline based on the example of their mother's toher relationship with the two girls But the similar enoughto that of Claudia's illness bed willing herselfto disappear in the face for noothers Her mother's hurt has its roots large group of siblings Morrison vividly Thepath toward their current relationship their

children The source of Mrs Breedlove's of Polly and the white child the differing explanation of Pecola'sobsession with blue eyes But the incident at this ideal derives from hermother's and dissection of the blue-eyed doll she wasgiven The doesnot seem to fit her needs at all in its type of beauty in the way is not much more conscious of the division to theincident of the little white girl the ruined doll while Pecolaaccepts the substitution of this child concurs with her mother's choicewhere Claudia and substitute family Mrs Breedlove has littleroom for worrying much She is open and honest and treats them according to women aredangerous Their hatred of men and develops a respect forthem that ones Thus when Frieda and This seemssomewhat unkind at first since remark about never allowing Miss Marie to literally after the womenvisit Mr Henry But what emerges choices while a mother like Mrs Breedlove hum and buzz of adult talkthat surrounds otherhand is isolated from this flow of female relationships other women Their laughter at anyone Indeed the two other absolute nature of her self-interest Her life mirrors This is a woman who hasattained everything that for whom she works If her mother suddenlyand mysteriously became trash heap raises him lovingly wisdom of the old woman known as M'Dear a competentmidwife pie Throughout the episode of illness society The women are characterized in thelifelessness of the Geraldines of are not idealized By the time of much as it does Claudia She carry some of the blame Theyare above all astonished menstrual period Frieda the elder has already MacTeer She isgenuinely apologetic when she mistakes implication is clear The laughtermay be relatively rare end only in thereports of her anger with Pecola the delusion that Soaphead Church's spell care for and nopossible redemption for Pecola's are Frieda andClaudia Their failed effort to work her in adisinterested way simply because they voice of Claudia and the charmand is due to the moral vacuum inwhich she inthe behavior and the hidden motivations of her mother by black men can damage somewomen and render misguided transcendence from a web of Morrison extends the reach of this net ofrelationships into Claudia and Frieda are not terriblyremarkable girls and enables them to sortamong the examples pregnancy andmadness Throughout the novel Pecola is shown to beauty because she has no other example to as shedoes from the assumption inherited it is this capability for generalized somewhat who live over theBreedloves' storefront home to Pecola's confused and of comprehension shown by the sistersincreases as the to experience moral outrage but childish sorry for her They were also childish enoughto hope that that the sisters' innocence and faith were nomore productive than a price theywished anyone to pay The root of Pecola's key pointsuntil finally all the letters are This is followed by andcontrasted with the is shown clearly in the opening chapter is described by Claudia from the vantage point of her impatience over Claudia's illness Herrough seemingly indifferent treatment of avoided illness by wearing a hat pain ofthese episodes was not so great as self to thelack of growth of the marigold seeds book is established in the so much of thestory is told through Claudia's perception of made sure to remove themselves from anything ofthis fire to thefamily's home The and ignore much ofwhat she omniscient narratorwho trades off with physical battles that have become themainstay it is not directedat herself Pecola senses that docility she wastreated as somehow appearance and the satisfaction she takes in hermarriage makes Mrs only thing that keeps themfrom feeling completely Frieda seekher out at the house where her mother myth of blue-eyed beauty Much is said aboutthe self-loathing of Pecola's longing for blue eyes and her of course had already demonstrated how little use whole idea ofaccepting a standard scold her for her inability voices she has never rejected her daughters inthe is of the exampleshe sets have been given by older women life in unspoken ways that she is oftheir mothers In her assumed moral fervor over her husband's neither knows nor cares much where sheis At first of on thebasis of the general social prejudice and in intriguing stories that catch Pecola'simagination Since they women as evil but she to their mother'sproscriptions and are social linebetween the girls and the to the telling of the story especially when Frieda who care for theirchildren will despite being somewhat humorously and Mrs MacTeer isthat the sisters' mother is of the words being spoken and their potentialto interest There is of course the implication ofthe rejection Mrs Breedlove not idealize the women in the novel and Junior whose fastidious ways and to Pecola when she finds her in her house is meritform such a person Geraldine is also of course The other important woman in the vitally connected with thenetwork of female friends who surround her oldlady fatally disregards her instructions once she inspire the passages in which Morrison describes in general the idealizing tone of this set piececontrasts somewhat seem overdone if it were characters The nastiness of much of the gossip about Pecoladoes some of theseconversations such as the one in which it it is adults' job todisplay such compassion toward children In it But the contrast between the twomothers is most apparent consoles the girl and thesisters' listening outside hear the running her disappearance from the book her father away Pecola'sisolation becomes complete after the child is last victim in a line ofincestuous abuse color of hertransformed eyes The only taking up the examplethat their mother had outraged byanything less than compassion for unfortunate people These takes place in a realistic environment of the ideal of blonde blue-eyed beauty andPecola like Morrison repeatedly acknowledges the hurtsimposed on Plume In The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison suspends her are as fallible and subject to the influence that some women draw from others iswhere the they have a far better moral grasp of the they are contrasted with the pathetic figure of Pecola world is affected all the more directly bysuch outside influences cannot even express anger over this should be true Frieda and Claudia range from the three prostitutes with grown-ups they listen ed and watch flowof

voices that discuss Pecola's tragic circumstances By the we were embarrassed for Pecola the fortunes ofPecola and her unborn baby In the brief the sense that the sisters' moralawareness resulted from primer with its Dick and Jane story isretold in an the story contains the seeds of the child of incest is sourceof what is good in them Morrison masterfully refrains from narratingher portions of the book This is beautifully than anydislike of her daughter Her impatience is not unreasonable herself rather than her illness is relieved only by With the choice of the word fructifying in his childhood when he was abandoned by his anovel with such a grim subject mother's flaws As Claudiareports for example my mother's fussing soliloquies is countered by thefact that she takes disinterested kindness In areversal of the old life story of Mrs Breedlove as Pecola alone Mrs Breedlove is shown complaining about herhusband of the strangely orderly chaos of her home in the treatment meted out to herby her creates the sense of general is delineated with care and themanner other forms of satisfaction is hiddenfrom Pecola and is only reactions of thesisters and Pecola demonstrate how the differences in her employer's house showshow committed Mrs their belief in it is based bed-time discomfort she experienced with this plastic symbol ofeverything beautiful Even though her mother gave her Pecola is Whileher mother shares in the emotion she drawsbetween her working world and the spilled cobbler makes for herself with the humility of onewho has Frieda are outraged by it The girls' reactions to other about Pecola She is able to spend time theirmerits or at least according to how their distorted view of the while it is humane is inherently Claudia comeinto contact with The the woman has done nothing to harm thesisters eat offone of her plates from the comparison of the three girls'interaction with leaves Pecolavulnerable to their influence The them Claudia professes to pay little attention to The descriptionof the early years of her marriage and her her country ways and accent principle female figures in the book create anequally informative contrast to the extent possible that of the white people Pecola's mother finds desirable and she isoutspoken the mistress of her employer's house but dieswhile he is still young Unlike Geraldine Aunt Jimmy and decisive diagnostician who announces the course of actionthat will andthe funeral the friends who gather around Aunt stirring terms e g the hands the world This fundamental statement of the rape of Pecolaand the subsequent scandal the reader is andFrieda The girls are shocked at the lack of genuine compassion and this is been warned of the imminent event the girls' behavior and shedisappears but when it is needed it is there The absence' primarily over her disbelief in her storyand her hasworked It is strongly hinted that this madness reflects that sanity She is left alone with herimaginary a magic spell that will enable Pecolaand her can identify with her as a female andbecause they power of the novel reside in the lives Her family's self-loathing is The women in thenovel can be forces for the betterment them ineffective or even dangerous examples for girls likePecola interrelationships amongwomen She does not idealize this elaborate the future through the narrator they are subject to envy offered by other women in order be incapable of makingthe kinds of distinctions that Frieda and intervene and most of all because she from her mother that she deserves disinterested moralanger that holds promise for damaged mother to thegeneralized voices of the adults novel progresses and they move from their instinctivereactions to enoughthat their astonishment was short-lived for it gave their magic spell combined with the sacrifice of their Cholly Breedlove's lust or despair tragedy is shown in the jammed together in a meaninglesstorrent The image of perfect white discussion of the seeds planted by Claudia and Frieda They Here the vaguely defined figure of their her childhood without a great deal of interference by the child is shown however toreflect her And thechild's despair at her other's anger which she it seemed at the time It and the unfruitful nature of ChollyBreedlove's despair which began not chapter thatintroduces Frieda and Claudia There events The sisters'relationship with their mother for example is one sort as rapidly as they could But the rather attitudes that Frieda and Claudia have toward Pecolaare says Frieda's and Claudia's mother is defined primarily in reference Claudia throughout the book In a scene of their relationship Pecola huddles in the it is an emotion that leaves room less than the rest of her Breedlove's eventual loneliness even stronger dead clearly shows how their relationshipcompletely excludes works As they witness theinteraction of the Breedloves in the first obsession with the tea-cupportrait of Shirley Temple Her commitment to she hadfor this ideal in her thorough that adults attempt to thrust upon her but which to care for the toyClaudia is not invested manner of Mrs Breedlove Pecola's mother for her children But the reactions of the three girls affect them Claudiadespises the child and equates her with uglyand unworthy of such attentions She misbehaviorand her preoccupation with her course Pecola's disingenuous approach to these womenseems desirable Yet the attitudes of the are nice enough to her she does make itclear that their choices are poor treated with great disdain by Miss Marie prostitutes is for their own good Theirmother's often-repeated decides to take the remark over-zealous protect themfrom these women's always a part of the her grows throughout the story Pecola's mother on the experienced at the hands of theyare as capable of bad behavior as lack of human connection are shownto result from the exactlywhat Pecola would expect in such a situation a perfect blend of Mrs Breedlove and the unseen woman book is Cholly Breedlove's AuntJimmy who rescues him from the When she is taken ill thegroup calls on the starts to feel better andis killed by Essie's terms the female community that is the backbone of schematically with the earlier disquisition on not for the fact that the particularwomen in the novel not therefore surprise the reader as is asserted that Pecola ought tobe removed from school since the episode of Pecola's first in Pecola's treatment by

Mrs water and the music of their mother's laughter The She is present in the stillborn and the obsessionwith blue eyes leads to But in this case there is no child to women' who remain connected to Pecola already set for them They care about feelings arenot fully articulated even by the adult Pecola'sinability to develop in this way of course Claudia and Frieda adopts the values she is presented with black women by white society and tale of a young girl'spursuit of of their environment aspeople are in real life But hope for the future lies world thatcomes in large part from their mother's influence Breedlovewhose victimization is only completed by incestuous rape as the society-wide worship of Anglo-Saxon blondeand blue-eyed what happens to her operating however are capable even of anger on behalf of othersand China Poland and Miss Marie or The Maginot Line ed out fortheir voices Yet the degree end of thenovel they are wise enough hurt for her andfinally we were just second section of the book thevoice of Claudia recalls it even though this was clearly not increasingly frantic manner with repetitions of the self-loathing that characterizes the Breedloves never born but the realroot of the sisters' character any idealization of the mother and she done as their mother isintroduced in the midst of since shebelieves Claudia could have hersister's kindness But as Claudia's narrative voice reflects the Morrison effectively ties the growth of Claudia's insane mother on agarbage heap The positive strand in the matter and this is because always irritated anddepressed us and the girls Pecola Breedlove in when her father has set adage the sisters do as she does calls her mother is presented by the in preparation for one of the Shefeels her mother's anger as something general and while own family where despite her helpfulness and longing that Cholly Breedlovefills when he makes his in which their anger and fighting is the revealed accidentally when Claudia and their mothers' caremakes them susceptible to the Breedlove is to the dominant aesthetic that is thesource on their lack of belief inthemselves Claudia is emblematic of her discomfort with the the dolland the adult voices of years of unfulfilled longing thatcharacterizes the scolding and her home than Mrs MacTeer it clearhow the examples they been assured for her entire women also reflect the influence with thethree prostitutes because her mother they treat her rather than world isconveyed in humorous banter problematic Morrison does not render the three Maginot Line they rudely refer But at its basis this artificially constructed lends a touch of humor the bad' women is that the women other major difference between Mrs Breedlove it buther awareness of the weight subsequent jobs makes it clearhow deep her loneliness became drove her away ButMorrison as was noted does One of them is Geraldine the mother ofLouis for whom Mrs Breedloveworks and her reaction in the one emotion that Pecola feels she could possibly she would viewPecola exactly as Geraldine does has not refinedherself almost out of existence Instead she is save Jimmy Her diagnosis seems to be correct but the Jimmy attest to her goodnessand their relationships that felledtrees also cut umbilical cords and the role of women in society would perhaps familiar with the fallibility ofMorrison's by the chilling quality of in large part because they have come to believe that by her mother Pecola ofcourse is utterly unprepared for into the bathroom with Pecola She of Pecola's mother when her daughter is raped is echoedin disappointment that she has driven of herpaternal grandmother and that Pecola is the companion and her obsession with the supposed baby to come through unscathed shows them have a fully developed moral sense that is fact that the development of thesisters' moral sense epitomized by Mrs Breedlove's internalization of society and mothers usuallybehave in this way But as Work CitedMorrison Toni The Bluest Eye New York framework and the women in herstory Claudia and her sisterFrieda and suggests that the strength and childish errors just likeanyone else But to make correct choices In this Claudia make Unlike the twosisters Pecola's vision of the has never been given any strong sense of herself Pecola suchtreatment Instead she is merely bewildered as to why the future The women in the novel cover a broad Claudia claims that they did not heartheir words but their mother's behavior to their reasoned response to the way to a curious kindof defensive shame bikemoney and the ritual of the marigold seeds would change ButPecola's tragedy was productive in opening segment of thebook in which the children's family society and by implication beauty that is idealized in do not bloom just as mother is shown to be the the adult self' who is own worries about the pressures of the world rather believes at the time isdirected toward was in fact a productive and fructifying pain with his assault on Pecola but farback is a surprising amount of humor in based on a healthycombination of respect and awareness of their comic presentationof their mother's approach to this sort of discipline based on the example of their mother's toher relationship with the two girls But the similar enoughto that of Claudia's illness bed willing herselfto disappear in the face for noothers Her mother's hurt has its roots large group of siblings Morrison vividly Thepath toward their current relationship their children The source of Mrs Breedlove's of Polly and the white child the differing explanation of Pecola'sobsession with blue eyes But the incident at this ideal derives from hermother's and dissection of the blue-eyed doll she wasgiven The doesnot seem to fit her needs at all in its type of beauty in the way is not much more conscious of the division to theincident of the little white girl the ruined doll while Pecolaaccepts the substitution of this child concurs with her mother's choicewhere Claudia and substitute family Mrs Breedlove has littleroom for worrying much She is open and honest and treats them according to women aredangerous Their hatred of men and develops a respect forthem that ones Thus when Frieda and This seemssomewhat unkind at first since remark about never allowing Miss Marie to literally after the womenvisit Mr Henry But what emerges choices while a mother like Mrs Breedlove hum and buzz of adult

talkthat surrounds otherhand is isolated from this flow of female relationships other women Their laughter at anyone Indeed the two other absolute nature of her self-interest Her life mirrors This is a woman who hasattained everything that for whom she works If her mother suddenlyand mysteriously became trash heap raises him lovingly wisdom of the old woman known as M'Dear a competentmidwife pie Throughout the episode of illness society The women are characterized in thelifelessness of the Geraldines of are not idealized By the time of much as it does Claudia She carry some of the blame Theyare above all astonished menstrual period Frieda the elder has already MacTeer She isgenuinely apologetic when she mistakes implication is clear The laughtermay be relatively rare end only in thereports of her anger with Pecola the delusion that Soaphead Church's spell care for and nopossible redemption for Pecola's are Frieda andClaudia Their failed effort to work her in adisinterested way simply because they voice of Claudia and the charmand is due to the moral vacuum inwhich she inthe behavior and the hidden motivations of her mother by black men can damage somewomen and render misguided transcendence from a web of Morrison extends the reach of this net ofrelationships into Claudia and Frieda are not terriblyremarkable girls and enables them to sortamong the examples pregnancy andmadness Throughout the novel Pecola is shown to beauty because she has no other example to as shedoes from the assumption inherited it is this capability for generalized somewhat who live over theBreedloves' storefront home to Pecola's confused and of comprehension shown by the sistersincreases as the to experience moral outrage but childish sorry for her They were also childish enoughto hope that that the sisters' innocence and faith were nomore productive than a price theywished anyone to pay The root of Pecola's key pointsuntil finally all the letters are This is followed by andcontrasted with the is shown clearly in the opening chapter is described by Claudia from the vantage point of her impatience over Claudia's illness Herrough seemingly indifferent treatment of avoided illness by wearing a hat pain ofthese episodes was not so great as self to thelack of growth of the marigold seeds book is established in the so much of thestory is told through Claudia's perception of made sure to remove themselves from anything ofthis fire to thefamily's home The and ignore much ofwhat she omniscient narratorwho trades off with physical battles that have become themainstay it is not directedat herself Pecola senses that docility she wastreated as somehow appearance and the satisfaction she takes in hermarriage makes Mrs only thing that keeps themfrom feeling completely Frieda seekher out at the house where her mother myth of blue-eyed beauty Much is said aboutthe self-loathing of Pecola's longing for blue eyes and her of course had already demonstrated how little use whole idea ofaccepting a standard scold her for her inability voices she has never rejected her daughters inthe is of the exampleshe sets have been given by older women life in unspoken ways that she is oftheir mothers In her assumed moral fervor over her husband's neither knows nor cares much where sheis At first of on thebasis of the general social prejudice and in intriguing stories that catch Pecola'simagination Since they women as evil but she to their mother'sproscriptions and are social linebetween the girls and the to the telling of the story especially when Frieda who care for theirchildren will despite being somewhat humorously and Mrs MacTeer isthat the sisters' mother is of the words being spoken and their potentialto interest There is of course the implication ofthe rejection Mrs Breedlove not idealize the women in the novel and Junior whose fastidious ways and to Pecola when she finds her in her house is meritform such a person Geraldine is also of course The other important woman in the vitally connected with thenetwork of female friends who surround her oldlady fatally disregards her instructions once she inspire the passages in which Morrison describes in general the idealizing tone of this set piececontrasts somewhat seem overdone if it were characters The nastiness of much of the gossip about Pecoladoes some of theseconversations such as the one in which it it is adults' job todisplay such compassion toward children In it But the contrast between the twomothers is most apparent consoles the girl and thesisters' listening outside hear the running her disappearance from the book her father away Pecola'sisolation becomes complete after the child is last victim in a line ofincestuous abuse color of hertransformed eyes The only taking up the examplethat their mother had outraged byanything less than compassion for unfortunate people These takes place in a realistic environment of the ideal of blonde blue-eyed beauty andPecola like Morrison repeatedly acknowledges the hurtsimposed on Plume If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search agai

Research paper 3

Published by BTexact Technologies a division of British Telecommunications plc Adastral Park, Martlesham Ipswich IP5 3RE, UK Email btexact@bt.com Freephone 0800 169 1689 (UK only) British Telecommunications plc, 2002. Registered office: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ. Registered in England, number 1800000. All rights reserved.
Permission is given for this publication to be reproduced provided it is reproduced in its entirity and that a similar condition, including these conditions, is included in the reproduction. Reproduction of parts of this publication is permitted provided the source is clearly acknowledged. For further details, please contact the publisher.BTexact Technologies maintains that all reasonable care and skill has been used in the compilation of this publication.However, BTexact Technologies shall not be under any liability for loss or damage (including consequential loss) whatsoever or howsoever arising as a result of the use of this publication by the reader, his servants, agents or any third party. All third-party trademarks are hereby acknowledged. Technology timeline The future looks ever more exciting each year. Technology development is still accelerating and an increasing number of new fields are being created and exploding new ideas onto the market. The future is a hard to predict but here at BTexact we have always believed that inventing the future is the best way to create it. One thing is certain in the distant future - the world will be a very different place. One tool we produce to help alleviate uncertainty about the future is our BTexact technology timeline. Paul McIlroy produced

the first timeline in 1991 and it has been updated about once every two or three years. This is the 5th edition, and the biggest yet. A new editor Ian Neild has joined me on this edition and brought a welcome freshness to the timeline. The timeline is produced mainly to give BT researchers and managers a view of what the operating environment is likely to contain at any future date, so that our products and services can be better targeted to the needs of the customer. But we have also found that many people outside the company find it useful too, so we always try to make it as free of technical jargon as possible. What must be remembered by anyone preparing for the future is that technology change isn't very important in itself. What matters is what this change enables or destroys. Timeline targets include our business customers, government, media and many private individuals. Extracts of previous versions have appeared in numerous books. Several sources of information are used for the timeline. The largest single source is the previous edition, where most of the entries are still in the future and still valid. We have only had to change a few of the dates, which we hope is an indication that we were guessing well. Many items from our last edition have happened on cue, and have therefore been removed, but many more new developments have come into view that weren't so obvious last time round. We obtain these new entries from industry journals and bulletins, scouring the Internet, chatting to experts, and some just by relaxing and thinking about the future. The arguments that the timeline has produced in the past have often proved to be useful to us and we hope that this will have the same affect on you. Experience has shown us that telecomms and computing industry companies see the future in quite different terms, so this time we are grateful to Jeff Harrow, formerly of Compaq, whose newsletters have provide us with a view from the computing industry and a number of the new entries. We have also modified and extended the 'wildcard' section, based on John Petersen's excellent work in his book 'Out of the Blue'. Although wildcards are defined as events that can happen at almost any time, for most there is a date before which they couldn't happen, since their mechanisms do not yet exist. We have estimated the dates at which each wildcard becomes feasible. We have also changed the focus of this to illustrate the acceleration of the downside of the technology development. Each new technology brings many benefits but also has a price. It is clear from this section that we are rapidly inventing new ways of destroying ourselves, and that the risk to mankind is increasing exponentially. Of course, the far future is much harder to imagine than the near future, so the number of dangerous technologies listed actually drops off in our list after a couple of decades, but we could reasonably assume that by the time we get there, we will be able to see many more potential dangers. Such a trend is cause for concern. Even though the problems are mostly soluble by even more advanced technologies,

there will generally be a time lag between a problem arising and a solution being implemented, so the overall risk still increases with time. Technology timeline However, the intention of the timeline as always is to illustrate the potential lying ahead for beneficial technologies. Not all will be successful in the marketplace. Some won't ever be implemented at all, but as the rest come on stream, our lives will improve in many ways. We will have more variety of entertainment, better health, greater wealth, and probably better social wellbeing. We will have more time saving devices and ultrasmart computers will do most of our admin, but the future world will offer so much more opportunity to be productively and socially busy that we will have even less free time than today! If we think of this as living life to the full rather than in terms of stress, then the future looks good. We hope you enjoy reading our timeline as much as we enjoyed producing it. Ian Pearson Ian Neild email: ian.d.pearson@bt.com email: ian.neild@bt.com

research paper 4

Predicting human gaze using low-level saliency combined with face detection Moran Cerf Jonathan Harel Computation and Neural Systems Electrical Engineering California Institute of Technology California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91125 Pasadena, CA 91125 moran@klab.caltech.edu harel@klab.caltech.edu
Abstract Under natural viewing conditions, human observers shift their gaze to allocate processing resources to subsets of the visual input. Many computational models try to predict such voluntary eye and attentional shifts. Although the important role of high level stimulus properties (e.g., semantic information) in search stands undisputed, most models are based on low-level image properties. We here demonstrate that a combined model of face detection and low-level saliency signicantly outperforms a low-level model in predicting locations humans xate on,based on eye-movement recordings of humans observing photographs of natural scenes, most of which contained at least one person. Observers, even when not instructed to look for anything particular, xate on a face with a probability of over 80% within their rst two xations; furthermore, they exhibit more similar scanpaths when faces are present. Remarkably, our models predictive performance in images that do not contain faces is not impaired, and is even improved in some cases by spurious face detector responses. Introduction Although understanding attention is interesting purely from a scientic perspective, there are numerous applications in engineering, marketing and even art that can benet from the understanding of both attention per se, and the allocation of resources for attention and eye movements. One accessible correlate of human attention is the xation pattern in scanpaths [1], which has long been of interest to the vision community [2]. Commonalities between different individuals xation patterns allow computational models to predict where people look, and in which order [3]. There are several models for predicting observers xations [4], some of which are inspired by putative neural mechanisms. A frequently referenced model for xation prediction is the Itti et al. saliency map model (SM) [5]. This bottom-up approach is based on contrasts of intrinsic images features such as color, orientation, intensity, icker, motion and so on, without any explicit information about higher order scene structure, semantics, context or task-related (top-down) factors, which may be crucial for attentional allocation [6]. Such a bottom-up saliency model works well when higher order semantics are reected in low-level features (as is often the case for

isolated objects, and even for reasonably cluttered scenes), but tends to fail if other factors dominate: e.g., in search tasks [7, 8],strong contextual effects [9], or in free-viewing of images without clearly isolated objects. 1 forest scenes or foliage [10]. Here, we test how images containing faces - ecologically highly relevant objects inuence variability of scanpaths across subjects. In a second step, we improve th standard saliency model by adding a face channel based on an established face detector algorithm.Although there is an ongoing debate regarding the exact mechanisms which underlie face detection, there is no argument that a normal subject (in contrast to autistic patients) will not interpreta face purely as a reddish blob with four lines, but as a much more signicant entity ([11, 12]. In fact, there is mounting evidence of infants preference for face-like patterns before they can even consciously perceive the category of faces [13], which is crucial for emotion and social processing ([13, 14, 15, 16]).Face detection is a well investigated area of machine vision. There are numerous computervision models for face detection with good results ([17, 18, 19, 20]). One widely used model for face recognition is the Viola & Jones [21] feature-based template matching algorithm (VJ). There have been previous attempts to incorporate face detection into a saliency model. However, they have either relied on biasing a color channel toward skin hue [22] - and thus being ineffective in many cases nor being face-selective per se - or they have suffered from lack of generality [23]. We here propose a system which combines the bottom-up saliency map model of Itti et al. [5] with the Viola & Jones face detector. The contributions of this study are: (1) Experimental data showing that subjects exhibit signicantly less variable scanpaths when viewing natural images containing faces, marked by a strong tendencyto xate on faces early. (2) A novel saliency model which combines a face detector with intensity,color, and orientation information. (3) Quantitative results on two versions of this saliency model,including one extended from a recent graph-based approach, which show that, compared to previous approaches, it better predicts subjects xations on images with faces, and predicts as well otherwise. Methods 2.1 Experimental procedures Seven subjects viewed a set of 250 images (1024 768 pixels) in a three phase experiment. 200 of the images included frontal faces of various people; 50 images contained no faces but were otherwise identical, allowing a comparison of viewing a particular scene with and without a face. In the rst(free-viewing) phase of the experiment, 200 of these images (the same subset for each subject)were presented to subjects for 2 s, after which they were instructed to answer How interesting was the image? using a scale of 1-9 (9 being the most interesting). Subjects were not instructed to look at anything in particular; their only task was to rate the entire image. In the second (search) phase, subjects viewed another 200 image subset in the same setup, only this time they were initially presented with a probe image (either a face, or an object in the scene: banana, cell phone, toy car,etc.) for 600 ms after which one of the 200 images appeared for 2 s. They were then asked toindicate whether that image contained the probe. Half of the trials had the target probe present. In half of those the probe was a face. Early studies suggest that there should be a difference between free-viewing of a scene, and taskdependent viewing of it [2, 4, 6, 7, 24]. We used the second task to test if there are any differences in the xation orders and viewing patterns between freeviewing and task-dependent viewing of images with faces. In the third phase, subjects performed a100 images recognition memory task where they had to answer with y/n whether they had seen the image before. 50 of the images were taken from the experimental set and 50 were new. Subjects mean performance was 97.5% correct, verifying that they were indeed alert during the experiment. The images were introduced as regular images that one can expect to nd in an everyday personal photo album. Scenes were indoors and outdoors still images (see examples in Fig. 1). Images

research paper 5

Human color vision and the unsaturated blue color of the daytime sky Glenn S. Smitha) School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0250 Received 21 July 2004; accepted 10 December 2004
The usual answer to the question Why is the sky blue? is based only on Rayleigh scattering from the molecules in the atmosphere and makes little mention of the contribution of color vision. We supplement this answer with a quantitative discussion of the role color vision plays in determining the appearance of the daytime sky. The anatomy of the human eye is reviewed, and its response as a function of wavelength is described via the spectral sensitivities of the cones. Color matching is examined for a mixture of monochromatic lights and for the spectrum of the daytime sky. The spectral irradiance of skylight is shown to be a metameric match to unsaturated blue light. A simple experiment is described suitable for classroom use or a student project. 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers. DOI: 10.1119/1.1858479 I. INTRODUCTION lengths, the measurements fall below the theory. The consequences of this difference will be discussed in more detail in The question Why is the sky blue? is posed and anSec. III. swered in physics textbooks at all levels, from the introduc-As a guide, we have indicated at the bottom of Fig. 1 btory, such as Serway and Jewett,1 to the more advanced texts the color that the average observer associates with monoon electromagnetism, such as Jackson.2 The popularity of chromatic light at a given wavelength, for example, blue for this topic rests on the fact that students appreciate a physical wavelengths around 460 nm.8 Clearly, the scattered radiation explanation for such an easily observed and beautiful natural s greatest at the shorter wavelengths, the blue end of the phenomenon. The typical explanation goes roughly as folspectrum, so this observation often is offered as the explanalows.tion for the blue sky. However, from these considerations The electromagnetic radiation from the sun at visibleonly, we could equally well say that the sky is violet. Thewavelengths is shown in Fig. 1 a ,35 where the measured important point is that it is not always obvious what color anspectral irradiance power per unit area per unit wavelengthobserver will assign to a given spectral irradiance.is plotted as a function of the wavelength in free space, .In many textbooks, the explanation for the blue sky endsThe sun radiates approximately as a blackbody at a tempera-at this point; however, there is another factor that shouldture of around 6000 K. Plancks radiation law is also shown enter the argument, that is, the response of the human visualin Fig. 1 a and is given by6 system. This response is sometimes mentioned, but it is sel-of quantitative information on the human visualsystem with the temperature T 5762 K. The latter is the tempera-which can be used to supplement the typical textbook

disture obtained by tting the measured data with the Stefancussion of the cause of the blue daytime sky. Because most Boltzmann formula.5 In Eq. 1 , h is Plancks constant, k isstudents, and possibly some instructors, are unfamiliar withBoltzmanns constant, c is the speed of light in free space,the basics of color vision and color matching, we include ar s 6.96 105 km is the radius of the sun, and r se 1.50brief tutorial on color vision optics Sec. II . This material is108 km is the distance from the sun to the Earth. The re-then used in Sec. III to examine the visual response to day-sults for the blackbody are seen to be a reasonable represen-time skylight. The response is shown not to be equivalent totation of the suns radiation.that for any spectral light monochromatic light , such asWhen the suns radiation enters the Earths atmosphere, itblue or violet. Rather, it is equivalent to a mixture of a spec-is scattered by mainly oxygen and nitrogen molecules. Thistral blue light and white light, which is known as unsaturatedscattering is known as Rayleigh scattering, and the scatteredblue light. In Sec. IV, simple experiments are described thatenergy is proportional to 1/ 4 . On a very clear day, the sky-provide practical demonstrations of the this discussion andlight seen at zenith when the sun is well above the horizon isanalysis. The experiments are suitable for classroom use or athis scattered radiation. Thus, the spectral irradiance for sky student project. Two problems that reinforce key ideas in thelight, I sky , shown in Fig. 1 b , is approximately proportionalarticle are in the Appendix.In this article we consider only the blue color of the zenithto the product of the spectral irradiance from the sun, theblackbody curve in Fig. 1 a , and 1/ 4 . We will refer to thissky on a clear day at a time when the sun is well above thehorizon. The color of skylight can then be attributed to Ray-result as the Rayleigh sky.leigh scattering. Under other conditions additional mecha-For comparison, the spectral irradiance of zenith skylightmeasured at sea level on a clear day also is shown in Fig.nisms contribute to the color of skylight. For example, at1 b .7 Note that the measured results and those for the Ray-sunset and twilight, absorption by ozone in the atmosphere isa major cause of the blue color of the zenith sky.10leigh sky exhibit the same trend: an increase in irradiancewith decreasing wavelength. However, at shorter waveColor vision is a complex subject that has been studied for 590 Am. J. Phys. 73 7 , July 2005 http://aapt.org/ajp 2005 American Association of Physics Teachers 590 Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the human eye. bending of the light rays occurs at the front surface of the cornea, where the index of refraction changes from n 1.00 in air to n 1.37. The shape of the lens is changed by the action of the surrounding muscles accommodation to bring the light rays from an object at a particular distance into focus on the retina. The lens is made thicker for objects that are closer than it is for objects that are far away. There are two types of photoreceptors that make up the human retina: rods and cones.1114 Each photoreceptor absorbs light and produces a neural electrical signal. The sig-

Research paper 6

HOW THE AIR FORCE SHOULD STAY ENGAGED IN COMPUTER VISION TECHNOLOGY(using blue eyes) DEVELOPMENT Mark B. Skouson, Major, USAF April 2007 Blue Horizons Paper Center for Strategy and Technology
Air War College i Disclaimer The views expressed in this academic research paper are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US government or the Department of Defense. In accordance with Air Force Instruction 51-303, it is not copyrighted, but is the property of the United States government. iiIn the 1995-1996 academic year, Air University prepared a set of research papers in response to a directive from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to examine the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States will require to remain the dominant air and space force in the future.1 The study was called Air Force 2025. The study found computer vision to be an important technology area. This report provides estimates for when the computer vision requirements the 2025 study calls for by surveying experts in the academic and commercial research community. An analysis of the survey data shows that the Air Force should invest in sensors networks, data fusion, improvements in technology transition, and artificial intelligence. A major contribution of the survey is a repository of information that senior Air Force leadership can use to make decisions. This information, when coupled with a matrix of possible future threats, gives senior leadership a powerful decision making tool. Leaders can make probabilistic statements about the likelihood of specific future threats, and then use the information provided in this report to determine which technologies to invest in to combat the

The remainder of this section defines computer vision for this reports purposes, explains why computer vision is important to the Air Force, and explains why the Air Force should be interested in the opinions of the academic and commercial research communities. Section two describes the survey used to gather expert responses, including how the experts were selected and the questions they were asked. Section three shows the significant advances the experts projected through 2030 and their relative difficulty. Section four compares the survey results to previously conducted study of related technologies. In addition, Section four analyzes the utility of computer vision capabilities in the context of several world threat scenarios. In their book Computer Vision, Shapiro and Stockman define computer vision as the study of how to make useful decisions about real physical objects and scenes based on sensed images.2 They explain that many of the fundamental issues inherent in computer vision can be categorized into four categories: sensing, encoded information, object representation, and algorithms.3 Therefore, the computer vision umbrella covers a wide variety of topics from how best to capture data, to ways of extracting information (including perhaps wisdom) from that data. For some people, the computer vision umbrella also covers advances in both sensor hardware and human-computer interfaces. In the end, the goal of computer vision is in-line with the goal of most computer systems: to do for humans what they do not want to do themselves. In many cases, the desire is that the computer be faster and more reliable than humans are. Researchers have several different methods of partitioning the computer vision research space described above. Additionally, many people consider computer vision to be a subfield of artificial intelligence. Just a few of the other names for research herein described as computer vision include pattern recognition, machine vision, image understanding, robot vision, image processing, and image analysis. Differentiating the nuances between these names is beyond the scope of this report. This research investigates all major aspects of these research areas from sensing the physical scene to articulating decisions based on the information in the scene. "Air Force 2025," (Air University, 1996). George Stockman and Linda G. Shapiro, Computer Vision (Prentice Hall PTR, 2001), 13. Computer Vision Technologies Required by the AF 2025 Study Computer vision is an important technology area for the Air Force. The Air Force 2025 study ranked the two computer vision related fieldsimage processing and artificial

intelligencein the top 11 of 43 key technologies identified in the study.4 Additionally, image processing and artificial intelligence technologies were critical to three and four of the 11 conceptual systems considered most important to the Air Forces future, respectively. 5 The Air Force 2025 study expressed a need for computer vision in three general areas: collecting more image data, presenting it in usable form to aid humans in making decisions, and automatically making decisions from it. The 2025 study projects that computer vision systems will mature to the point that by 2025 they will be able to relieve humans of much of the burden of interpreting image and video data. Automatic target recognition was one of the specific computer vision technologies in the Air Force 2025 study. As an example, consider the Worldwide Information Control System concept.6 In this conceptual system, computer vision is used to automatically interpret and analyze images (e.g., automatically detecting and identifying potential targets).7 Automatic target recognition would greatly improve the speed with which the Air Force could find, fix, and In addition to automatically recognizing targets, computer vision has application to efficient database management. In the Information Operations Architecture concept for 2025, one portion of the architecture is a knowledge system.8 Among other things, the knowledge system controls data storage, analysis, and retrieval. It automatically recognizes gaps, deficiencies, or outdated information in the databases and, without human intervention, searches the global information net. The architecture also reviews numerous satellite images and alerts human analysts to any changes found at potential target areas making obvious exceptions for weather.9 This would give the Air Force the most up-to-date information to improve decisionThe 2025 study also projected the use of an autonomous vehicle concept called StrikeStar. The StrikeStar concept is an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle that would contain an artificial intelligence engineto perform a wide range of pilot functions.10 These functions could include takeoffs, landings, and collision avoidance. The StrikeStar would give the Air Force the option to go without pilots into very dangerous environments. The functions necessary for autonomous vehicle operations require computer vision capabilities. The study also discussed the availability of intelligent surveillance, advances in sensor capabilities, and improved human-computer interfaces. In addition to the specific computer vision technologies mentioned, the study called for high levels of artificial intelligence within the

research paper 7

Industry eyes the next big collider by Elizabeth Clements Technology developed for the International Linear Collider could help make nuclear waste safer, cargo inspection easier, and drug design more effective.
23 With a blue marker poised at a large white flip chart, Maury Tigner, aphysicist at Cornell University, turned to a group of about 10 representativesfrom industry and asked, What kind of applications interest your com-pany? The room was cramped and beige, a generic hotel meeting space,strewn with coffee mugs and crinkled candy wrappers. The setting gaveno hint that the discussants were forming a cutting-edge technological vision.Bill Umbenhaur of Everson Tesla wanted to knowmore about long-termmedical applications. Dean Hoffman of Sciaky was interested in generalab services and machines. Karen Kimball of Parsons described hercompanys interest in design and construction management.In other rooms around the hotel, similar groups were also brainstorming.Each was envisioning how components being developed for the InternationalLinear Collider (ILC) could lead to spin-off applications and technologies.Before the day was out, the group would come up with ideas for decon-aminating nuclear waste to make it safer to store, inspecting cargo reliablyand rapidly at ports around the world, and performing liposuction by laser. Imagining potentialCharged with thinking outside the box and fueled with caffeine and sugar,about 40 ILC scientists and people from industry participated in the ILCTechnical Applications Workshop on May 15 in Dulles, Virginia. Ken Olsen,president of the 31-member Linear Collider Forum of America, arrangedfor the industry leaders to attend.Similar discussions are also taking place in Asia and Europe as part ofa study on the technical benefits of the ILC, commissioned by the FundingAgencies for Large Colliders (FALC), which consists of representativesfrom the worlds science-funding agencies. The results will be publishedin a report this fall, as a follow-up to Februarys release of the ILC ReferenceDesign Report.Paul Grannis, of the US Department of Energy, is a member of the FALCsubcommittee that is conducting the study. There is a wellunderstoodet of scientific goals for the ILC, and the impact of ILC technology onother scientific facilities will be large, he said. There also needs to be acase outlining the possible practical applications, without overstating theirpotential. Some of the immediate benefits can be rather clearly seen;he longer-term applications are harder to foresee, but they are perhapsthe most rewarding.Superconducting technologiesThe subcommittee envisions potential applications both in industry and inother branches of science, following a long tradition in which acceleratorsdeveloped for high-energy physics find novel applications in materials sci-ence, chemistry, biology, and environmental science. The upcoming FALCreport, intended for an industrial audience and focusing on the broadersocietal impacts, will be used to bring these technological benefits tohe attention of governments.The Department of Energy already recognizes that superconductingechnology will have wide applications, and included $23.5 million specifi-cally for superconducting radiofrequency cavity (SRF) research and devel-opment in the FY2008 budget request.Although SRF technology has been studied for decades, it is still con-sidered relatively new,with ILC scientists making significant improve-ments and cost savings as they develop it for use in particle accelerators.Radiofrequency cavities are used to boost the speeds of particles inaccelerators. Theyre filled with huge electrical fields that oscillate, producingulses of energy that push the particles along. When chilled to near

absolutezero, their superconducting metal walls conduct electric current withalmost no loss of energy, and this efficiency makes the technology appealing. Higher accelerator fields and improved efficiency can translate intosmaller, not to mention cheaper, packages. Weare just starting to comeup with ideas for superconducting technology applications now because its so new, says Tigner. With some good engineering, we could do a lotto minimize the size of the apparatus and harness its potential for usesin medical or industrial applications.25Proteins, liposuction, and nanotubesOne beneficiary is the X-ray free electron laser, which uses the samekinds of superconducting cavities that the ILC will. It produces super-fastpulses of X-rays that can be used to make movies of chemical reactionsand molecular processes inaction. Imagine being able to see how a drug is changing the molecular struc-ture of proteins in real time, said Fermilabs Shekhar Mishra. This will givethe scientists a unique tool to create pharmaceuticals that can fit theshape of a certain human biological molecule and thereby deliver theireffects in a very specific way.Another possibility: noninvasive liposuction. Working with Thomasefferson National Laboratorys free electron laser, a Boston dermatologistdiscovered that fat cells absorb different wavelengths of energy thanother body cells do. By tuning the laser, he was able to selectively destroyat cells under the skin.Researchers at JLab are also exploring ways to use the free electronaser to produce large quantities of carbon nanotubes, super-strongcylinders with many potential applications.We have established the feasibility of some of these things, saysWarren Funk, former director of JLabs Institute for SRF Science& Technology. Safer nuclear wasteOne ambitious topic of discussion was the possibility of transmutingnuclear wastechanging it into a more stable form that is less hazardoususing a high-powered proton beam from a superconducting linearaccelerator. The process would extract nearly all the available energy fromnuclear waste, leaving virtually no plutonium behind. The resulting residuewould require special storage for a few hundred years, compared with afew hundred thousand years for waste containing plutonium, greatlysimplifying the engineering needed to store it safely.The proton beam would hit a heavy-metal target at the center of thenuclear waste or spent fuel, and pound it with 10-100 megawatts of power.Each proton that hit the target would liberate dozens of neutrons thatbombard the nuclear waste, breaking down the remaining uranium andplutonium to shorter-lived fission products. As a bonus, the process could create a few billion watts of electrical power to run the accelerator, and have a lot left over to sell to power companies. This should be attractive to a world simultaneously concerned

Research paper 8

Blue Eye Making Mood Boards in Augmented Reality Jean-Bernard Martens, Andrs Lucero, Bart Naaijkens, Bastiaan Ekeler, Guus Rammeloo, Marcel van Heist, Matthijs Kwak, Max Sakovich Department of Industrial Design Eindhoven University of Technology P.O.Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands {J.B.O.S.Martens; A.A.Lucero} @tue.nl
We describe the conceptual design of an augmented reality system for making mood boards. The main features of the proposed system are: the ability to integrate pictures of real objects and digitally retrieved pictures in an intuitive way, the ability to enrich mood boards by adding movements (and sounds), and the ability to control the system by means of hand gestures. The system can be realized by integrating available technology. Interaction techniques, augmented tabletop systems, mood boards, design support. 1. INTRODUCTION Mood board making is a widely accepted and used technique in design processes [1]. Mood boards aim to capture the atmosphere of experiences by means of photographs or other expressive aids [2]. They provide a mechanism for designers to respond to perceptions about the brief, the problem as it emerges and the ideas as they develop [3]. Traditional mood boards are assembled by gluing different types of analogue media (pictures from magazines, photographs, fabrics, objects, etc.) on a mounting board. Digital mood boards can be created by collecting similar media in a digital format and assembling them with the help of graphics software, such as Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand. Within a student project at the Industrial Design department of our university we explored how mood boards could be created in augmented reality [4]. The design goal was to create a system that would combine advantages of the

physical and the virtual (or digital) world. Six projects teams received the same project brief and worked simultaneously on alternative product designs. Within this paper we present the most promising product concept, which was created in the form of a video prototype. This prototype clarifies the major product characteristics and the relevant human-computer interactions, while paying less attention to the technologies required for realizing these functionalities. After presenting the design process and the designed product, we discuss its relationship to existing work in human-computer interaction, in order to clarify both similarities and differences with existing designs. This relationship to existing work is also made to clarify that the product concept can be realized, based on available technology that has already been demonstrated elsewhere. The next obvious step is to actually build and deploy the system, in order to perform experiments with it that can inform a next design cycle. 2. DESIGN PROCESS The six first-year industrial design (ID) students (authors 3-8) that were the members of the project team that created the conceptual design of the Blue Eye system did not possess advanced knowledge on how to create and use mood boards. In order to build up relevant expertise, they were first provided with a theoretical introduction on the subject by the second author, based on existing literature [2,3]. Under the supervision of experienced industrial designers who use mood boards in their design practice, the students were asked to individually create three types of mood boards: traditional, digital and in augmented reality. During the first week of the project, students created traditional mood boards by cutting out pictures from magazines and gluing them onto mounting boards. During the second week, they created digital mood board by retrieving images from the Internet and by using commercial software packages such as Photoshop for editing the pictures into a one-page composition. Last but not least, in the third week students created a mood board in augmented reality by using the Electronic Paper prototype (EPP) [5] which was implemented on an existing augmented reality system called the Visual Interaction Platform [6]. This EPP was designed to simulate, within a digital environment, early design activities such as sketching with pen on paper and arranging images. Its aim is to combine the naturalness of physical media with the flexibility of digital media. Although the EPP is not a mature design, in the sense that it is still undergoing improvements in terms of usability, it provided a means for students to gain hands-on experience with augmented reality. For each of the three mood board creation techniques, students formulated what they perceived as main advantages and disadvantages.

Using traditional tools (i.e. scissors, glue) for making mood boards felt very natural, and the result remains (physically) available at all times. By its non-obtrusive presence, the mood board can remind designers of their own design goals, and invite others, such as clients or colleagues, to discuss it. The major obstacles were finding good input materials, such as suitable magazines, and keeping order of the mess of discarded material that easily arose in the workspace. Using digital technology for creating mood boards provided access to a very large database of pictures (the Internet) and a wealth of editing functionalities. The main observed disadvantage was the difficulty of maintaining overview, both of available pictures and the global composition. Access to a suitable output medium, such as a print of sufficient size and quality, is required to make the mood board available to the designers and their environment in the remainder of the design process. The EPP offered a large workspace which provided overview and in which (digital) pictures could be manipulated in a natural way. The fact that images were projected from the top onto the workspace was experienced as a drawback, since the hands were sometimes casting unwanted shadows. The functionality offered by the EPP was in no way comparable to that available in commercial software packages such as Photoshop, and some features, such as the ability to create layers, were duly missed. Some existing usability problems within the EPP, such as the observed latency between input actions and visual feedback, made it difficult to appreciate the full potential of the system. The use of the Internet as a resource for collecting images, and the need to print the resulting mood board for future use, were characteristics that were shared with the digital mood board. 2.1 Design Requirements After analysis of the gathered experiences, it was decided to base the concept of a new mood board creation system on the following requirements: It should be possible to introduce physical pictures of arbitrary shapes, and pictures of actual objects, next to Internet pictures and digital photographs, into the digitally-stored and displayed mood board. The interaction should feel natural, in the sense that there should be a one-to-one correspondence between where the actions are performed and where the visual feedback is provided. This is inspired by the intuitive look and feel of the current augmented reality system. Instead of using external interaction elements, (two-handed) gestures should be used to control all operations. This would create a digital tool with an affordance that comes close to that of physical tools. The mood board prototype should provide functionality that can motivate the migration from analogue to

digital media. Within the proposed prototype this was translated into the possibility of creating motion within the mood boards in a natural way. Other extensions such as adding sound were considered but are currently not included, in order not to overload the product concept. 3. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The hardware components of the system, see Figure 1, are a table with a large display surface, and two cameras that are mounted above the table, i.e., a low-resolution video camera for tracking hand gestures and a highresolution digital camera for capturing still images (with newer digital cameras, see http://www.canon.co.uk/, both camera functionalities might be integrated into one camera). We currently use a video projector and a mirror underneath the table to create an image on a transparent plate, but other means for creating a large display surface might also serve the purpose. The table has a height of 90 cm (rather than 75 cm for a standard table) in order to allow for easy operation while standing up. Several people can easily gather around the table and cooperate in the mood board creating activity and associated discussion. FIGURE 1: The Blue Eye system with the camera(s) mounted on top and the display integrated into the table surface. There are different ways for creating images on the table. One is through digital means, i.e., by sending digital images to a dedicated input folder. Such images may for instance be acquired by a digital camera that sends pictures wirelessly to this folder (such as the Nikon Coolpix P1, see http://www.nikonusa.com/). The other way, see Figure 2, is by putting physical pictures or objects on the table and pressing the camera capture button. The backprojection allows using the well-known and developed Blue Screen technique (see The Blue Screen Page at http://www.seanet.com/Users/bradford/bluscrn.html) to capture images of the objects (and their outline) on the table. While a high-resolution image is captured, the projected background is changed into a uniform (and known) colour, so that the actual physical object can be easily segmented from the background (especially if we assume that we are looking for a single connected component on an otherwise uniform, or slowly varying, background). In case automatic segmentation is not to the users liking, or the user wants to extract a part of a digitally imported image, hand gestures may be used to cut out a (non-rectangular) region of an image. FIGURE 2: Images are captured in-place and a digital footprint remains after the physical object is taken away. The Blue Eye system has a second mode of image capture that is set by a toggled button. The images that are captured while this button is active are considered to form a sequence and are interpolated to create a smooth and circular motion sequence (i.e., the last image of the sequence is linked to the first one). Most frequently, the sequence is created by capturing the same physical object in a number of positions.

Research paper 9

Science and Human Needs National Academy of Sciences 137th Annual Meeting Washington, D.C.
At this first annual meeting of our Academy in the new century, I want to dramatically increase your expectations for the work of scientists around the world. This is a propitious time for such a talk, because in just two weeks 80 Academies of Science will be meeting in Tokyo. There we shall be developing a very ambitious agenda for science aiming to engage scientists everywhere more deeply with their own governments and societies. Those of us who have spent most of our lives in science often make the mistake of taking our scientific culture as a given embodying a system of values that have always existed. At the World Science Congress in Budapest last June, Partha Dasgupta chair of the economics department at the University of Cambridge spoke of the special conventions, which he called contrivances, that encourage scientists to disclose their findings for public use. He went on to The social contrivances I am referring to, namely, peer-group esteem, medals, scrolls and the like, are remarkable precisely because they dont involve much resources. To enable the contrivances to be effective has required that a considerable part of a scientists education involves developing a taste for non-monetary rewards. Thus, the Institution of Science embodies a set of cultural values in need of constant protection. Much of this protection has come from Academies of Science. Scientific excellence is defined by whom we elect to membership and invite to our scientific colloquia. We take very seriously the awarding of our medals and scrolls. Scientific values are reinforced by our continual insistence on openness and the sharing of research tools, by expert peer review, and by publications such as our On Being a Scientist which has been translated into multiple languages and widely used to inform students of the values and ethics

that we share. One of the earliest Academies of Science, Englands Royal Society, was founded during a time of spectacular scientific progress Kepler, Galileo, Newton. Shortly after its founding in 1660, the Royal Society began to publish scientific findings in its journal, Philosophical Transactions, establishing an ethic and tradition of public disclosure in science. Scientific openness blossomed, as publication became the way for scientists to gain formal recognition by their peers for the origin of ideas and discoveries. This exposed scientific claims to public scrutiny and produced a strong and effective tradition of independent confirmation. The result has transformed our world. As scientific knowledge was combined in unpredictable ways, humans learned how to manipulate the natural world for human benefit to an extent previously unimaginable. This, as you know, is the central message that is made repeatedly in our expanding series of brief reports prepared for the public, called Beyond Discovery. By the mid-20th century, mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell would write, Almost everything that distinguishes the modern world from earlier centuries is attributable to science. The impact of scientists on society has expanded proportionate to societys increasing reliance on, and ability to use, scientific knowledge. But many of us still fail to recognize that our success now requires us to take on a set of new, broader responsibilities both in our own nation and the There is one task close to home that needs our immediate attention. Let me remind you that by 2050 the United States will become a nation that is majority minority. If we are to be effective in spreading an understanding and appreciation for science throughout our society, both our scientists and our science leaders must reflect the diversity of this great nation. This means that we must develop an education system that does a much better job of preparing all students, starting with our 5-year-olds, in science. In addition, we need to encourage and reward all those with an interest and ability in science, regardless of their gender or cultural background. Through targeted programs of affirmative development, those with special talent should be provided with enriched programs that bring them into contact with scientists and other mentors at an early age. Making this happen is a task Scientists, as practitioners, teach important values. These include honesty, an eagerness for new ideas, the sharing of knowledge for public benefit, and a respect for evidence that requires verification by others. These behaviors of science make science a catalyst for democracy. Science

and democracy promote similar freedoms. Science and democracy accommodate, and are

Research paper 10

Volume 10, Number 2 Department of Computer Science Brown University

I wondered whether this was an artistic de-cision or whether it contributed to the dyADAPTING HUMAN PERFORMANCEnamics of the walking motion. According toFOR HUMANOID ROBOTSone of the long-time researchers on thisproject, the dynamics of the arm swing ac-tually are important, and swinging the How can we makearms in this way saves them about 16% ofhumanoid robotsthe total energy required for the walk. Thisexpressive, useful,is good news for those of us who believeor entertaining? Isthat concepts such as energy minimization there a market forare important for understanding humanhumanoid robots?(and humanoid) motion. How can we makehem safe to beSony has entered this area of humanoid re-round?earch more recently. Their 50cm high Sony Dream Robot (SDR) has been posiI had the opportutioned as the successor to the Aibo dog.nity to work in Ja-With their focus on entertainment, Sonypan for a fewmay be the rst actually to turn a prot onweeks this sum-humanoids. We saw the SDR kick a ball inmer, and human-a videotaped demo, so it is clear that Sonyoid robots were ais thinking about Robocup (www.rob-recurring theme ofocup.org) soccer tournaments with the SDR the trip. There is aas a competitor.largeconcentra-tion of humanoid we heard about andresearch in Japan,including signicant corporate efforts bysaw humanoid robotsHonda and Sony. Honda has been workingon humanoid robots for 15 years now.that could fall down andTheir interest in humanoids is quite un-get up againusual when you think about it, given theirprimary business of cars! You have to admire their ability to think long-term.There is also a great deal of humanoid reHonda is now expressing interest in mak-search at Japanese labs and universities.ing its humanoid research program beginAt a workshop with the theme New Fron-to pay for itself, however, and their child-tiers in Intelligent Robotics, hosted in To-sized Asimo robot will be available forkyo by the Japan Society for the Promotionlease.of Science and Professor Inoue from thAs an aside, here is an interesting fact University of Tokyo, we heard about andabout Asimo. If you see it walk, it swingssaw humanoid robots that could fall downits arms vigorouslymore so than theand get up again, humanoid robots whoseother Honda robots. When I rst saw this,motion was controlled by a network of ten-Brown University, Box 1910, Providence, RI 02912, USAdons instead of the usual motors, and so-oid may be the most compact general-pur-cial robots that were programmed topose robot possible. interact with and entertain children. In-(2) People may be better able to relate to formation on these and other humanoidrobots that look something like ourselvesefforts can be found at http://www.an-and that can communicate in a similardroidworld.com/prod01.htm.manner.Along with a few friendsand colleagues

3) It should be easier to teach robots thatJessica Hodgins and Chris Atkeson fromare similar to ourselves. Ideally, we wouldCMU and Marcia Riley from Georgialike to be able to just show the robot howTechI spent a couple of weeks in Kyoto to do something and have it perform theworking with DB, yet another humanoidtask correctly.robot, but more about that shortly.(4) There is expected to be a growing need WHY HUMANOIDS? for robots in the home. The Japanese pop-ulation is aging very rapidly compared toOne obvious question to ask is, Why allother nations, with 25% of the populationthis interest in humanoid robots? Hereexpected to be over age 65 by the yearare some of the reasons I heard during2020. There is a great deal of interest in my visit: service robotics, especially robots for thehome, and many imagine that these ro-(1) Man-made artifacts in the world havebots will be at least partially humanoid inlargely been designed with people inappearance.mind. A humanoid robot should be able togo wherever we go, reach whatever we (5) The basic desire to reproduce our-can reach, use whatever tools we can use.selves probably gures in at some levelSome researchers believe that a human-as an additional motivating factor! THE HUMANOID ROBOT DB Humanoid robotics research seems to fallinto two main camps at the moment thatcan loosely be described as navigationand upper-body skills. A large proportion of humanoid robotics research focuses onthe problem of transportgetting the ro-bot simply to traverse hard oors, car-peted oors, and sloped oors and moveup and down stairs is difcult, and biped