<p>The largest project at the AICG lab at Linköping University, Cognitive models for virtual characters, focuses on creating an agent architecture for intelligent, virtual characters. The goal is to create an agent that acts naturally and gives a realistic user experience. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and implement an appropriate learning model that fits the existing agent architecture using an agile project methodology. The model developed can be seen as an online unsupervised reinforcement learning model that enhances experiences through reward. The model is based on Maes model where new effects are created depending on whether the agent is fulfilling its goals or not.</p><p>The model we have developed is based on constant monitoring of the system. If an action is chosen it is saved in a short-term memory. The memory is constantly updated with current information about the environment and the agent’s state. These memories will be evaluated on the basis of user defined classes that define what all values must satisfy to be successful. If the last memory in the list is considered to be evaluated it will be saved in a long-term memory. This long-term memory works all the time as a basis for how theagent’s network is structured. The long term memory is filtered based on where the agent is, how it feels and its current state.</p><p>Our model is evaluated in a series of tests where the agent's ability to adapt and how repetitive the agent is, is tested.</p><p>In reality, an agent with learning will get a dynamic network based on input from the user, but after a short period it may look completely different, depending on the amount of situations experienced by the agent and where it has been. An agent will have one network structure in the vicinity of food at location x and a completely different structure at anenemy at location y. If the agent enters a new situation where past experience does notfavor the agent, it will explore all possible actions it can take and thus creating newexperiences.</p><p>A comparison with an implementation without classification and learning indicates that the user needs to create fewer classes than it otherwise needs to create effects to cover all possible combinations. <img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?K_%7Bs%7D+K_%7Bb%7D" /><img src="http://www.diva-portal.org/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi?K" />K_S+K_B classes creates effects for S*B state/behavior combinations, where K_S and K_B is the number of state classes and behavior classes and S and B is the number of states and behaviors in the network.</p> / Cognitive models for virtual characters

<p>The research presented in this thesis investigates the design challenges associated with the development and use of mobile applications and tools for supporting collaboration in educational activities. These technologies provide new opportunities to promote and enhance collaboration by engaging learners in a variety of activities across different places and contexts. A basic challenge is to identify how to design and deploy mobile tools and services that could be used to support collaboration in different kinds of settings. There is a need to investigate how to design collaborative learning processes and to support flexible educational activities that take advantage of mobility. The main research question that I focus on is the identification of factors that influence the design of mobile collaborative learning.</p><p>The theoretical foundations that guide my work rely on the concepts behind computer supported collaborative learning and design-based research. These ideas are presented at the beginning of this thesis and provide the basis for developing an initial framework for understanding mobile collaboration. The empirical results from three different projects conducted as part of my efforts at the Center for Learning and Knowledge Technologies at Växjö University are presented and analyzed. These results are based on a collection of papers that have been published in two refereed international conference proceedings, a journal paper, and a book chapter. The educational activities and technological support have been developed in accordance with a grounded theoretical framework. The thesis ends by discussing those factors, which have been identified as having a significant influence when it comes to the design and support of mobile collaborative learning.</p><p>The findings presented in this thesis indicate that mobility changes the contexts of learning and modes of collaboration, requiring different design approaches than those used in traditional system development to support teaching and learning. The major conclusion of these efforts is that the learners’ creations, actions, sharing of experiences and reflections are key factors to consider when designing mobile collaborative activities in learning. The results additionally point to the benefit of directly involving the learners in the design process by connecting them to the iterative cycles of interaction design and research.</p>

<p>The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), like many other data intensive organizations, is having difficulties making full use of the vast amounts of data that it collects. This MSc thesis identifies areas within the organization where concepts from the academic fields of information visualization and visual analytics can be applied to address this issue.Software solutions are designed and implemented in two areas with the purpose of evaluating the approach and to demonstrate to potential users, developers and managers what can be achieved using this method. A number of presentation methods are proposed for the ECX website, which previously contained no graphing functionality for market data, to make it easier for users to find trends, patterns and outliers in prices and trade volumes of commodieties traded at the exchange. A software application is also developed to support the ECX market surveillance team by drastically improving its capabilities of investigating complex trader relationships.Finally, as ECX lacked previous experiences with visualization, one software developer was trained in computer graphics and involved in the work, to enable continued maintenance and future development of new visualization solutions within the organization.</p>

This dissertation presents research in the development and use of a multi-modal visual and haptic virtual model in higher education. The model, named Chemical Force Feedback (CFF), represents molecular recognition through the example of protein-ligand docking, and enables students to simultaneously see and feel representations of the protein and ligand molecules and their force interactions. The research efforts have been divided between educational research aspects and development of haptic feedback techniques. The CFF model was evaluated in situ through multiple data-collections in a university course on molecular interactions. To isolate possible influences of haptics on learning, half of the students ran CFF with haptics, and the others used the equipment with force feedback disabled. Pre- and post-tests showed a significant learning gain for all students. A particular influence of haptics was found on students reasoning, discovered through an open-ended written probe where students' responses contained elaborate descriptions of the molecular recognition process. Students' interactions with the system were analyzed using customized information visualization tools. Analysis revealed differences between the groups, for example, in their use of visual representations on offer, and in how they moved the ligand molecule. Differences in representational and interactive behaviours showed relationships with aspects of the learning outcomes. The CFF model was improved in an iterative evaluation and development process. A focus was placed on force model design, where one significant challenge was in conveying information from data with large force differences, ranging from very weak interactions to extreme forces generated when atoms collide. Therefore, a History Dependent Transfer Function (HDTF) was designed which adapts the translation of forces derived from the data to output forces according to the properties of the recently derived forces. Evaluation revealed that the HDTF improves the ability to haptically detect features in volumetric data with large force ranges. To further enable force models with high fidelity, an investigation was conducted to determine the perceptual Just Noticeable Difference (JND) in force for detection of interfaces between features in volumetric data. Results showed that JNDs vary depending on the magnitude of the forces in the volume and depending on where in the workspace the data is presented.

<p>The distance between home and work has increased in recent decades. By the development of infrastructure and public transport, jobs farther from home have become more accessible and this development has in turn increased commuting. Commuting travellers often pass over administrative boundaries which often serve as borders for public transport pricing. Also the market control prices. Research shows that travel times and costs significantly affect commuting choice. Many people have an upper limit of 60 minutes commuting distance between home and work. How commuting costs affect the individual's choice of commuting will vary depending on the individual's income and housing costs. The aim of our study was to see how public transport costs and travel times may vary geographically. GIS, Geographic Information System was used to make a network analysis which showed time distances and travel costs on maps. We also examined whether there was a link between towns accessibility by public transport and housing market which we did with help of correlation and regression analysis. In order to answer our questions we started from a study area consisting of Uppsala County with its surrounding commuting area. The maps showed how accessibility to larger towns varies among the smaller towns. The access is often best between bigger towns while there is less accessibility between smaller towns. The distance to bus stops or railway station also has a significant effect on how long the total travel time will be. Urban areas with access to rail services had the best opportunities to reach larger cities and that give also better access to labour market. From our study of the Uppsala County with a monocentric structure, we could indicate a link between accessibility to the bigger cities and housing prices in the surrounding towns. The higher commuting costs and longer travel time to the central place the lower the housing prices. A similar study of Stockholm which has a polycentric structure showed that the relationship between accessibility and house prices not are applicable to all regions. Here we can conclude that housing markets depends on many other factors than access to rapid public transport. House prices can depend on things like closeness to nature and water.</p> / <p>Avståndet mellan bostad och arbete har ökat under de senaste decennierna. Utvecklingen av infrastruktur och kollektivtrafik har lett till att arbetsplatser längre från hemmet har blivit mer tillgängliga och denna utveckling har i sin tur bidragit till en ökad arbetspendling i samhället. Pendlingsresenärer passerar ofta över administrativa gränser och dessa gränser styr ofta över kollektivtrafikens prissättning men även efterfrågan kan styra priset. Forskning visar att restider och kostnader i hög grad påverkar pendlingsvalet. Många människor föredrar ett pendlingsavstånd, mellan hem och arbete på högst 60 minuter. Hur pendlingskostnader påverkar individens val till pendling varierar bland annat beroende på individens inkomst och boendekostnader.</p><p>Syftet med vår studie var att se hur kollektivtrafikens kostnader och restider kan variera geografiskt. GIS, Geografiska Informationssystem, användes vid utförandet av en nätverks- och kostnadsanalys vilket visade tidsmässigt avstånd och kostnad på kartor. Vi undersökte också om det fanns ett samband mellan orters tillgänglighet med kollektivtrafik och bostadsmarknaden genom att utföra korrelations- och regressionsanalyser. För att svara på våra frågeställningar utgick vi från ett undersökningsområde bestående av Uppsala län med pendlingsomland.</p><p>Kartbilderna visade tydligt hur tillgängligheten till större städer varierar mellan olika orter och att tillgängligheten ofta är bäst mellan större tätorter medan det är sämre tillgänglighet mellan mindre tätorter. Avståndet till hållplatser har också betydande påverkan på hur lång den totala restiden blir. Tätorter med tillgång till järnvägstrafik hade det bästa möjligheterna att nå större tätorter och därmed blir arbetsmarknaden större för dessa orter. Från vår studie över Uppsala län som kan anses ha monocentrisk struktur kunde vi även tyda ett samband mellan tätorters tillgänglighet till centralorten och orternas bostadspriser. Ju högre pendlingskostnad och längre restid till centralorten desto lägre var orternas bostadspriser. En likadan studie över Stockholm som har en mer polycentrisk struktur visade dock att detta samband mellan tillgänglighet och bostadspriser inte gäller för alla regioner. Här kan vi dra den slutsatsen att bostadsmarknaden styrs av många andra faktorer än tillgång till snabb kollektivtrafik och att vissa områdens bostadspriser mer styrs av exempelvis närhet till natur och vatten.</p>