The aim of the diploma thesis was to observe the capability of imitation in orofacial area of three days old infants and analyze if the capability relates to quality of psychomotor development, thus whether it relates with a global motor model. This paper is a pilot study comprising seventeen infants. Each of them was supposed to attend four visits during the first six months of their life. It included visits in the first few days, between the fourth and the sixth week, the third month and the sixth month of their life. The psychomotor development was examined and within the first visit there was established communication with the child by means of eye contact and imitation. Each child's attempt at imitation and response was recorded. This thesis can serve as a basis for further research dealing with this topic that includes the imitation skill of mirror neurons related to psychomotor development.

Online conversations via video have nowadays partially replaced face to face contact, and there are some challenges that occur in video conversations, e.g., time delay and the placement of the camera which leads to eliminating the possibility for direct eye contact, and time delay. There are experiences that these conditions disturb the social connection with the other, which does not mainly affect problem solving effectiveness, but something relational seems to alter. This study investigated if eye-movement can used to measure social connectedness during video conversation. In order to study this, two custom made units (“NUNAs”) with robotized cameras were built, which e.g. allow for unprocessed eye contact. A feasibility pilot was conducted, which data this report is based on. The experimental conditions were 1, available eye contact, 2, skewed visuality and 3, time delayed signal. The participants (n = 12) took part pairwise, they were familiar with online conversation and did not self report autism spectrum disorder. They were instructed to talk naturally and unprobed through video using the NUNA’s for 30-50 minutes, and the three conditions were changing every 4 minutes. Eye movement behavior within the three conditions was compared, such as the duration of the visit in the eyes area. None of the results showed a significant difference. Factors that might lead to these results, such as limited sample size, are discussed. Eye movement in relational processes may be needed to be studied on a dyadic level, and not on individual. / Onlinekonversationer via video har numera delvis ersatt kommunikation ansikte mot ansikte. Det finns dock vissa utmaningar som uppstår vid videosamtal, exempelvis placeringen av kameran som leder till ett omöjliggörande av ögonkontakt, och tidsfördröjning. Det finns erfarenheter av att dessa förhållanden stör känslan av samhörighet till den andre, vilket inte påverkar problemlösningens effektivitet nämnvärt, istället är det de relationella aspekterna som förändras. Denna studie undersökte om ögonrörelser kan användas för att mäta social anknytning under videokonversation. För att studera detta byggdes två specialtillverkade enheter (”NUNA”) med robotiserade kameror, som t.ex. tillåter obearbetad ögonkontakt. En pilotstudie genomfördes och data ifrån studien har legat till grund för denna rapport. Experimentförhållandena var 1, tillgänglig ögonkontakt, 2, skev visualitet och 3, fördröjd signal. Deltagarna (n = 12) deltog parvis, de var bekanta med onlinekonversationer och rapporterade själva att de inte var inom autism spekrat. De instruerades att prata naturligt genom video med hjälp av NUNA i 30-50 minuter, och de tre förhållandena ändrades var 4:e minut. Ögonrörelsebeteenden inom de tre tillstånden jämfördes, såsom längden på besöket i ögonområdet. Inget av resultaten visade någon signifikant skillnad. Faktorer som kan leda till dessa resultat, såsom begränsad urvalsstorlek samt att ögonrörelser i relationella processer kan behöva studeras på dyadisk nivå, och inte på individnivå, diskuteras.

En pågående utveckling sker inom konstruktionsbranschen där maskiner går från att styras manuellt av en mänsklig förare till styras autonomt, d.v.s. utan mänsklig förare. Detta arbete har varit i samarbete med Volvo CE och deras nya autonoma hjullastare. Då maskinen kommer operera i en miljö kring människor, så krävs en hög säkerhet för att eliminera olyckor. Syftet med arbetet har varit att utveckla ett system för öka säkerheten och förtroendet för människorna i närheten av den autonoma maskinen. Systemet byggs på visuell kommunikation för att uppnå en tillit mellan parterna. Arbetet har baserats på en iterativ process där prototypande, testande och analysering har varit i focus för att uppnå ett lyckat resultat. Genom skapande av modeller med olika funktioner så har en större förståelse kring hur visuell kommunikation mellan människa och maskin kan skapas för att bygga upp en tillit sinsemellan. Detta resulterade i ett koncept som bygger på en kommunikation via ögon från maskinen. Ögonkontakt har visats sig vara en viktig faktor för människor för att skapa ett förtroende för någon eller något i obekväma och utsatta situationer. Maskinen förmedlar olika uttryck genom att ändra färg och form på ögonen för att uppmärksamma och informera människor som rör sig i närheten av maskinen. Genom att anpassa färg och form på ögon kan information uppfattas på olika sätt. Med denna typ av kommunikation kan ett förtroende för maskinen skapas och på så sätt höjs säkerhet och tillit. / Ongoing development is happening within the construction industry. Machines are transformed from being operated by humans to being autonomous. This project has been a collaboration with Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE), and their new autonomous wheel loader. The autonomous machine is supposed to operate in the same environment as people. Therefore, a developed safety system is required to eliminate accidents. The purpose has been developing a system to increase the safety for the workers and to encourage trust for the autonomous machine. The system is based on visual communication to achieve trust between the machine and the people around it. An iterative process, with a focus on testing, prototyping, and analysing, has been used to accomplish a successful result. Better understanding has been developed on how to design a human-machine-interface to encourage trust by creating models with a variety of functions. The iterative process resulted in a concept that communicates through eyes. Eye-contact is an essential factor for creating trust in unfamiliar and exposed situations. The solution mediating different expressions by changing the colour and shape of the eyes to create awareness and to inform people moving around in the same environment. Specific information can be mediated in various situations by adopting the colour and shape of the eyes. Trust can be encouraged for the autonomous machine using this way of communicating.

Ögonkontakt-sensorer skapar möjligheten att tolka användarens uppmärksamhet, vilketkan användas av system på en mängd olika vis. Dessa inkluderar att skapa nya möjligheterför människa-dator-interaktion och mäta mönster i uppmärksamhet hos individer.I den här uppsatsen gör vi ett försök till att konstruera en ögonkontakt-sensor med hjälpav en Raspberry Pi, med målet att göra den praktisk i verkliga scenarion. För att fastställaatt den är praktisk satte vi upp ett antal kriterier baserat på tidigare användning avögonkontakt-sensorer. För att möta dessa kriterier valde vi att använda en maskininlärningsmetodför att träna en klassificerare med bilder för att lära systemet att upptäcka omen användare har ögonkontakt eller ej. Vårt mål var att undersöka hur god prestanda vikunde uppnå gällande precision, hastighet och avstånd. Efter att ha testat kombinationerav fyra olika metoder för feature extraction kunde vi fastslå att den bästa övergripandeprecisionen uppnåddes genom att använda LDA-komprimering på pixeldatan från varjebild, medan PCA-komprimering var bäst när input-bilderna liknande de från träningen.När vi undersökte systemets hastighet fann vi att nedskalning av bilder hade en stor effektpå hastigheten, men detta sänkte också både precision och maximalt avstånd. Vi lyckadesminska den negativa effekten som en minskad skala hos en bild hade på precisionen, mendet maximala avståndet som sensorn fungerade på var fortfarande relativ till skalan och iförlängningen hastigheten. / Eye contact detection sensors have the possibility of inferring user attention, which can beutilized by a system in a multitude of different ways, including supporting human-computerinteraction and measuring human attention patterns. In this thesis we attempt to builda versatile eye contact sensor using a Raspberry Pi that is suited for real world practicalusage. In order to ensure practicality, we constructed a set of criteria for the system basedon previous implementations. To meet these criteria, we opted to use an appearance-basedmachine learning method where we train a classifier with training images in order to inferif users look at the camera or not. Our aim was to investigate how well we could detecteye contacts on the Raspberry Pi in terms of accuracy, speed and range. After extensivetesting on combinations of four different feature extraction methods, we found that LinearDiscriminant Analysis compression of pixel data provided the best overall accuracy, butPrincipal Component Analysis compression performed the best when tested on imagesfrom the same dataset as the training data. When investigating the speed of the system,we found that down-scaling input images had a huge effect on the speed, but also loweredthe accuracy and range. While we managed to mitigate the effects the scale had on theaccuracy, the range of the system is still relative to the scale of input images and byextension speed.

The study explores the role of eye contact in promoting effective learning in natural science in the secondary school using eye-tracking technology. A theoretical framework constituting the theories of Vygotsky, Piaget and Bandura inform the study. In the empirical inquiry in this study a purposefully selected group of eleven Grade 9-learners of mixed ability were eye-tracked by means of the Tobii 60 X-2 eye-tracker during individual viewings of a video-recording of a natural science lesson taught by the educator using a PowerPoint presentation. The Tobii 60 X-2 eyetracker establishes how a learner pays attention to information presented through educator narration, visuals and texts during teaching and learning. The findings indicate that, as the learners’ areas of interest, their highest total fixation duration was firstly on the PowerPoint presentation, and secondly on the educator. Under-performing natural science learners showed shorter and less dense fixation in both areas of interest. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

The study explores the role of eye contact in promoting effective learning in natural science in the secondary school using eye-tracking technology. A theoretical framework constituting the theories of Vygotsky, Piaget and Bandura inform the study. In the empirical inquiry in this study a purposefully selected group of eleven Grade 9-learners of mixed ability were eye-tracked by means of the Tobii 60 X-2 eye-tracker during individual viewings of a video-recording of a natural science lesson taught by the educator using a PowerPoint presentation. The Tobii 60 X-2 eyetracker establishes how a learner pays attention to information presented through educator narration, visuals and texts during teaching and learning. The findings indicate that, as the learners’ areas of interest, their highest total fixation duration was firstly on the PowerPoint presentation, and secondly on the educator. Under-performing natural science learners showed shorter and less dense fixation in both areas of interest. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

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Das Problem des fehlenden Augenkontaktes vermindert den Eindruck einer natürlichen Kommunikationssituation bei Videokonferenzen. Während eine Person auf den Bildschirm blickt, wird sie von Kameras aufgenommen, die sich normalerweise direkt daneben befinden. Mit dem Aufkommen von massiv paralleler Computer Hardware und ganz speziell den sehr leistungsstarken Spielegrafikkarten ist es möglich geworden, viele Eingabeansichten für eine Echtzeit 3D Rekonstruktion zu verarbeiten. Eine größere Anzahl von Eingabeansichten mildert Verdeckungsprobleme ab und führt zu vollständigeren 3D Daten. In dieser Arbeit werden neue Algorithmen vorgeschlagen, welche eine hochqualitative Echtzeit 3D Rekonstruktion, die kontinuierliche Anpassung der photometrischen Kameraparameter und die benutzerunabhängige Schätzung der Augenkontaktkameras ermöglichen. Die Echtzeit 3D Analyse besteht aus zwei komplementären Ansätzen. Einerseits gibt es einen Algorithmus, der auf der Verarbeitung geometrischer Formen basiert und auf der anderen Seite steht eine patchbasierte Technik, die 3D Hypothesen durch das Vergleichen von Bildtexturen evaluiert. Zur Vorbereitung für die Bildsynthese ist es notwendig, Texturen von verschiedenen Ansichten anzugleichen. Hierfür wird die Anwendung eines neuen Algorithmus zur kontinuierlichen photometrischen Justierung der Kameraparameter vorgeschlagen. Die photometrische Anpassung wird iterativ, im Wechsel mit einer 3D Registrierung der entsprechenden Ansichten, ausgeführt. So ist die Qualität der photometrischen Parameter direkt mit jener der Ergebnisse der 3D Analyse verbunden und vice versa. Eine weitere wichtige Voraussetzung für eine korrekte Synthese der Augenkontaktansicht ist die Schätzung einer passenden virtuellen Augenkontaktkamera. Hierfür wird die Augenkontaktkamera kontinuierlich an die Augenposition der Benutzer angeglichen. Auf diese Weise wird eine virtuelle Kommunikationsumgebung geschaffen, die eine natürlichere Kommunikation ermöglicht. / A major problem, that decreases the naturalness of conversations via video communication, is missing eye contact. While a person is looking on the display, she or he is recorded from cameras that are usually attached next to the display frame. With the advent of massively parallel computer hardware and in particular very powerful consumer graphics cards, it became possible to simultaneously process multiple input views for real-time 3D reconstruction. Here, a greater amount of input views mitigate occlusion problems and lead to a more complete set of 3D data that is available for view synthesis. In this thesis, novel algorithms are proposed that enable for high quality real-time 3D reconstruction, the on-line alignment of photometric camera parameters, and the automatic and user independent estimation of the eye contact cameras. The real-time 3D analysis consist of two complementary approaches. On the one hand, a shape based algorithm and on the other hand, a patch based technique that evaluates 3D hypotheses via comparison of image textures. Preparative to rendering, texture from multiple views needs to be aligned. For this purpose, a novel algorithm for photometric on-line adjustment of the camera parameters is proposed. The photometric adjustment is carried out iteratively in alternation with a 3D registration of the respective views. In this way, the quality of photometric parameters is directly linked to the 3D analysis results and vice versa. Based on the textured 3D data, the eye contact view is rendered. An important prerequisite for this task is the estimation of a suitable virtual eye contact camera. In this thesis, a novel approach is formulated that enables for an automatic adaptation to arbitrary new users. Therefor, the eye contact camera is dynamically adapted to the current eye positions of the users. In this way, a virtual communication environment is created that allows for a more natural conversation.

Vid prematur födsel finns en ökad risk för kognitiva svårigheter och utmaningar i språkutvecklingen. Tidigare forskning har framhållit vikten av att erbjuda interventioner med fokus på språkutvecklingen redan i tidig ålder för att stödja barns utveckling. En intervention som syftar till att utveckla barns språkutveckling är interaktiv högläsning. Syftet med denna pilotstudie var att utvärdera om en 4-veckors intervention med interaktiv högläsning kunde förbättra kommunikationsfärdigheterna hos små barn födda prematurt. För att undersöka detta filmades och analyserades två föräldra-barn-par i en single-subject design med fyra baslinjetillfällen och nio interventionstillfällen. Resultaten från studien antyder att interventionen kan ha en positiv påverkan på kommunikationsfärdigheterna hos små barn födda prematurt. Ytterligare forskning för att fördjupa förståelsen för metoden och dess tillämpning erfordras. / At preterm birth, there is an increased risk of cognitive difficulties and challenges in language development. Previous research on preterm infants has emphasized the importance of providing interventions focusing on language development at an early age to support children's development. Interactive reading is a method aimed at fostering children's language skills. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate whether a four-week intervention with interactive reading could improve the communication skills of preterm infants. To investigate this, two parent-child pairs were videotaped and analyzed using a single-subject design with four baseline sessions and nine intervention sessions. New instructions/techniques were provided to the parents during the intervention sessions. The results of this pilot study suggest that the intervention may have a positive impact on the communication skills of prematurely born children. Further research to deepen the understanding of the method and its application is warranted.

During face-to-face meetings, humans use multimodal information, including verbal information, visual information, body language, facial expressions, and other non-verbal gestures. In contrast, during computer-mediated-communication (CMC), humans rely either on mono-modal information such as text-only, voice-only, or video-only or on bi-modal information by using audiovisual modalities such as video teleconferencing. Psychologically, the difference between the two lies in the level of the subjective experience of presence, where people perceive a reduced feeling of presence in the case of CMC. Despite the current advancements in CMC, it is still far from face-to-face communication, especially in terms of the experience of presence. This thesis aims to introduce new concepts, theories, and technologies for presence design where the core is actions for creating presence. Thus, the contribution of the thesis can be divided into a technical contribution and a knowledge contribution. Technically, this thesis details novel technologies for improving presence experience during mediated communication (video teleconferencing). The proposed technologies include action robots (including a telepresence mechatronic robot (TEBoT) and a face robot), embodied control techniques (head orientation modeling and virtual reality headset based collaboration), and face reconstruction/retrieval algorithms. The introduced technologies enable action possibilities and embodied interactions that improve the presence experience between the distantly located participants. The novel setups were put into real experimental scenarios, and the well-known social, spatial, and gaze related problems were analyzed. The developed technologies and the results of the experiments led to the knowledge contribution of this thesis. In terms of knowledge contribution, this thesis presents a more general theoretical conceptual framework for mediated communication technologies. This conceptual framework can guide telepresence researchers toward the development of appropriate technologies for mediated communication applications. Furthermore, this thesis also presents a novel strong concept – presence through actions - that brings in philosophical understandings for developing presence- related technologies. The strong concept - presence through actions is an intermediate-level knowledge that proposes a new way of creating and developing future 'presence artifacts'. Presence- through actions is an action-oriented phenomenological approach to presence that differs from traditional immersive presence approaches that are based (implicitly) on rationalist, internalist views.