Demonstrating strength and agility on virtual and real humanoids has been an important goal in computer graphics and robotics. However, developing physics- based controllers for various agile motor skills requires a tremendous amount of prior knowledge and manual labor due to complex mechanisms of the motor skills. The focus of the dissertation is to develop a set of computational tools to expedite the design process of physics-based controllers that can execute a variety of agile motor skills on virtual and real humanoids. Instead of designing directly controllers real humanoids, this dissertation takes an approach that develops appropriate theories and models in virtual simulation and systematically transfers the solutions to hardware systems. The algorithms and frameworks in this dissertation span various topics from spe- cific physics-based controllers to general learning frameworks. We first present an online algorithm for controlling falling and landing motions of virtual characters. The proposed algorithm is effective and efficient enough to generate falling motions for a wide range of arbitrary initial conditions in real-time. Next, we present a robust falling strategy for real humanoids that can manage a wide range of perturbations by planning the optimal contact sequences. We then introduce an iterative learning framework to easily design various agile motions, which is inspired by human learn- ing techniques. The proposed framework is followed by novel algorithms to efficiently optimize control parameters for the target tasks, especially when they have many constraints or parameterized goals. Finally, we introduce an iterative approach for exporting simulation-optimized control policies to hardware of robots to reduce the number of hardware experiments, that accompany expensive costs and labors.

Det här är ett arbete om hur framförallt kvinnliga spelkaraktärers gångstilar påverkar spelares uppfattning av dem. Arbetet inleds med att ta upp tidigare studier där det kommit fram att betraktare uppfattar feminin och maskulin gång på olika sätt. Syftet med det här arbetet är att undersöka hur detta fungerar när det handlar om animerade karaktärer. Artefakten består av 3 olika gånganimationer applicerade på samma karaktär. Gångstilarna ser ut på tre olika sätt, en är typiskt maskulin, en är neutralt feminin och en är sexualiserat feminin. Respondenterna fick titta på animationerna och sedan gradera olika känslotillstånd på dem. Resultatet visar att den maskulina gången uppfattas som starkare, gladare, mer avslappnad och minst attraktiv av de tre. Den sexualiserat feminina uppfattas som svagast, mest nervös och mest attraktiv.  Resultaten visar att det i spel bör vara möjligt att välja olika gånganimationer för sina karaktärer i karaktärsskapandet, eftersom det påverkar uppfattningen av den så pass mycket.

Tankar kring mitt nuvarande och mina två tidigare animerade filmprojekt. Referenser, inspiration, tillvägagångssätt etc. / Manus till den animerade kortfilmen Min Börda.

The Best PhD Thesis in the Faculties of Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine and Science (University of Hong Kong), Li Ka Shing Prize,2007-2008 / published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

e-Learning is an effective medium for delivering knowledge and skills. In spite of improvements in electronic delivery technologies, e-Learning is still a long way away from offering anything close to efficient and effective learning environments. To improve e-Learning experiences, much literature supports simulation based e-Learning. This thesis begins identifying various types of simulation models and their features that induce experiential learning. We focus on designing and constructing an easy-to-use Discrete Event Simulation (DES) tool for building engaging and informative interactive DES models that allow learners to control the models’ parameters and visualizations through runtime interactions. DES has long been used to support analysis and design of complex systems but its potential to enhance learning has not yet been fully utilized. We first present an application framework and its resulting classes for better structuring DES models. However, importing relevant classes, establishing relationships between their objects and representing lifecycles of various types of active objects in a language that does not support concurrency demand a significant cognitive workload. To improve this situation, we utilize two design patterns to ease model structuring and logic representation (both in time and space) through a drag and drop component approach. The patterns are the Delegation Event Model, used for linking between components and delegating tasks of executing and updating active objects’ lifecycles, and the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern, used for connecting the components to their graphical instrumentations and GUIs. Components implementing both design patterns support the process-oriented approach, can easily be tailored to store model states and visualizations, and can be extended to design higher level models through hierarchical simulation development. Evaluating this approach with both teachers and learners using ActionScript as an implementation language in the Flash environment shows that the resulting components not only help model designers with few programming skills to construct DES models, but they also allow learners to conduct various experiments through interactive GUIs and observe the impact of changes to model behaviour through a range of engaging visualizations. Such interactions can motivate learners and make their learning an enjoyable experience.

In this thesis, I present novel strategies for controlling objects with high degrees of freedom for the purpose of robotic control and computer animation, including articulated objects such as human bodies or robots and deformable objects such as ropes and cloth. Such control is required for common daily movements such as folding arms, tying ropes, wrapping objects and putting on clothes. Although there is demand in computer graphics and animation for generating such scenes, little work has targeted these problems. The difficulty of solving such problems are due to the following two factors: (1) The complexity of the planning algorithms: The computational costs of the methods that are currently available increase exponentially with respect to the degrees of freedom of the objects and therefore they cannot be applied for full human body structures, ropes and clothes . (2) Lack of abstract descriptors for complex tasks. Models for quantitatively describing the progress of tasks such as wrapping and knotting are absent for animation generation. In this work, we employ the concept of a task-centric manifold to quantitatively describe complex tasks, and incorporate a bi-mapping scheme to bridge this manifold and the configuration space of the controlled objects, called an object-centric manifold. The control problem is solved by first projecting the controlled object onto the task-centric manifold, then getting the next ideal state of the scenario by local planning, and finally projecting the state back to the object-centric manifold to get the desirable state of the controlled object. Using this scheme, complex movements that previously required global path planning can be synthesised by local path planning. Under this framework, we show the applications in various fields. An interpolation algorithm for arbitrary postures of human character is first proposed. Second, a control scheme is suggested in generating Furoshiki wraps with different styles. Finally, new models and planning methods are given for quantitatively control for wrapping/ unwrapping and dressing/undressing problems.

No description available.

The Internet and other advances in technology have dramatically affected cartography in recent decades and yet these new capabilities have not been adequately evaluated for effectiveness. Are dynamic maps more effective than traditional static paper maps in allowing users to visualize spatio-temporal patterns? How important is a higher level of interactivity in visualizing data? Which format is preferred? To examine these questions, human subject tests were conducted to evaluate different levels of interactivity as represented by 1) a static paper map series; 2) an animated map with 'VCR'-type controls; and 3) a toggle map featuring an interactive temporal legend. Results indicate that while the level of interactivity did not affect accuracy of answers to questions regarding spatio-temporal patterns, the total amount of time in which these questions were answered lessened as the level of interactivity increased. Overall, test subjects were more enthusiastic towards the tools featuring greater interactivity.

Orientador: Arnaldo Cortina / Banca: Jean Cristtus Portela / Banca: Elizabeth Harkot-de-La-Taille / Resumo: Devido ao amplo interesse dos estudos da linguagem pelo texto sincrético e midiático, seus mecanismos de produção de sentido e uma metodologia de análise desse tipo de texto, este trabalho dedica-se a aprofundar a discussão do assunto. Como corpus, selecionam-se os filmes de animação dos estúdios da Walt Disney, uma vez que esses textos possuem grande popularidade e circulam com intensidade no meio social, figurando como discursos que, naturalmente, refletem muito características caras à vida cultural do mundo de hoje e das últimas décadas. Unem-se, assim, um assunto precioso à semiótica discursiva - o texto sincrético - e um assunto de interesse peculiar aos estudos do discurso em geral - o estilo no meio social. Como recorte no corpus, são escolhidos apenas quatro filmes, que obtiveram maior destaque dentre a produção dos estúdios. Três deles, A pequena sereia, A bela e a fera e Aladim, lançados, respectivamente, em 1989, 1991 e 1992, fazem parte de uma geração de títulos musicais da era conhecida como renascença Disney. O quarto filme, Frozen: uma aventura congelante, de 2013, parece retomar o estilo musical e conquistar o público em larga escala, pondo a companhia em evidência novamente. Como tópicos teóricos do trabalho, ao lado de questões da imanência do sentido e de articulações internas da expressão e do conteúdo, há também questões relativas à enunciação como uma totalidade concisa de enunciados, no tocante à ligação existente entre os títulos selecionados. Dessa fo... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Given the wide interest addressed to the study of syncretic texts and media in general by Linguistics and other language fields that discuss how those texts signify and how to systematize their inner mechanisms, we have decided to mature that debate in the present work. Our corpus is composed by animated films by Walt Disney due their popularity and the intensity with which they relate to society and, therefore, can present many characteristics of nowadays and previous decades culture. Thus, we present both a precious subject to discursive semiotics - syncretic text - and another one common to all discourse theories - style and society. We selected four famous titles from the Studios. Three of them - The little mermaid, Beauty and the beast and Aladdin, released, respectively, in 1989, 1991 and 1992, belong to the musical generation known as Disney Renascence. The fourth film, Frozen, 2013, seems to reclaim the musical style and conquer positively the public, putting Disney on the spotlight once more. Besides meaning's immanent aspects that come the way, the main challenge is to deal with questions relating to enunciation as a totality of enunciates, establishing the relation among them. Hence, the only way is to go through authorship subject, searching for a definition for the Disney enunciative style, with its own discursive and textual isotopies that round the musical issue. At last, we can define a strongly American Disney style, closely linked to the American Dream ideology, that mobilizes its formants by a general structure of amplification and attenuation in the Subject's sensibility and material retention / Mestre

Bräckta tårar” är en animerad kortfilm som behandlar ett av Östersjöns miljöproblem, döda bottnar. Det är ett projekt som visar vad som händer i havet och hur det påverkar livet under ytan. Med filmen vill jag på ett illustrativt sätt berätta och beskriva den situation Östersjön befinner sig i. Genom att följa ett friskt hav, som förstörs alltmer på grund av övergödningens påverkan, hoppas jag att fler får kunskap om vad som händer i vårt hav och på så sätt prioriterar ett bättre skydd mot våra ovärderliga naturresurser. / Brackish tears" is an animated short film about the Baltic Sea’s dying sea beds. The film describes the process by which this environmental crisis occurs, focused upon the “Dead Zones” and the sea life that used to flourish there. Following a fresh and healthy sea as it is thoroughly destroyed by chemical pollutants from agriculture run-off, I intend to exhibit the vitality of sea life and the quickness by which it is gone. My hope is that through knowledge, our priorities can move towards better protection of our invaluable and irreplaceable natural resources.