Thesis (M.Eng.). / Written for the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/13). Includes bibliographical references.

The development of sensor-based technologies has opened up avenues for a dialogue between the body and digital spaces, uncovering new possibilities for cross-disciplinary projects and engagements that demand new methods compatible with the ethos of embodied practices, which, in turn, require new approaches and tools. This research seeks to address this need by examining the quantifiability and visual properties of embodied emotion through a multi-layered study of human movement and gesture. It is an elaboration of scientific and artistic research methods, intended to answer the following principal question and related sub-questions: How can emotions, expressed via whole-body movement be visually documented and archived as a reference framework to stimulate the use and studies of expressive gesture in digital environments? As a consequence the following sub-questions become relevant for this research: The first, ontological in its nature; what is expressed emotion? And the second, methodological; how can bodily expressed emotions be visualised and quantified? To answer these questions, the research is divided into three parts. Drawing on phenomenological interpretative inquiry and heuristic methodology, whole-body emotive expressions are documented and analysed from multiple perspectives: body, expressiveness, time, space volume and their correlations. The first part contains information related to video data collection and the database design. The second part describes silhouette extractions of whole body emotive expressions and an online survey where the visual perception of visual data is measured. The third part of the research contains visual and quantitative data analysis providing the basis for visualisation of the four archetypal emotions: anger, fear, joy and sadness and their relationships. In this process, a multi-method approach was adopted combining both qualitative and quantitative methods adopted from sociology and cognitive science. The contextual review, where virtual embodiment and interactivity are explored build on the aesthetics of performance within new technology, highlighting the adaptability of the methods used in performance art to the field of game design. The results of this research and contribution to knowledge reside within both the ontological and methodological approaches used within this study. The ontological resides within the development of two reference frameworks: a correlation table defined as the Periodic Table of Movements (PTM) and a PTM database. The PTM database is a synthesis of embodied emotion data derived from multiple visual representations such as colour, shape, space, volume, time and intensity, whereas the relationship between expressions is visualised in the PTM correlation table. Within the context of an educational framework, the database also provides visual concepts of emotion as epistemic objects for analysis and experimentation. It is a starting point for future cross-disciplinary studies and research on emotions in the context of embodiment and digital technology. The novel methodology of this research contributes to a number of fields with new methods and models of enquiry, grounded within a hermeneutical interpretation driven by artistic development. This exploration opens up a holistic approach to future studies and research grounded in a multimodal attitude to knowledge acquisition.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:18:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila de Lima.pdf: 2357425 bytes, checksum: fcb59c62f790262928936d7c0dd4e82b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-09 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study was designed in order to test the effects of different interval schedules of reinforcement in the induction of the behavior of peanuts consumption in humans during a game in the computer. Six adults aged between 20 and 42 years served as subjects. They were submitted to 30 minute sessions. There was 15 minutes in a waiting room where 120 grams of salted peanuts was available as well as some sort of magazines. The peanuts was weighed before and after this situation in order to compare the consumption in the waiting room with that could occur in the sessions with the presence of the food stimulus in the experimental room. The last 15 minutes of the session were spent in a game in the computer with a software that consists of a game that discharges points according to the schedule of reinforcement in force. Participants were randomly assigned to VI, FI and DRL schedules, all with 60 seconds of duration. Each participant was submitted to three or four shaping sessions. After the shaping sessions, they were submitted to at least three sessions under the schedule he was assigned to and at lest three sessions with the presence of the food stimulus in the experimental room. After that each participant was submitted to at least more three sessions in another schedule, different of the first one and to at least more three sessions in this new schedule with the presence of the food stimulus. Two of the five participants submitted to the VI 60 presented the response of eating the peanuts as well as one of the four participants exposed to FI 60 and two of the three participants exposed to DRL. The intra-sessions and inter-sessions measures did not demonstrate systematically produced differences. Nevertheless, when these measures are investigated together they point to a little tendency of the DRL schedule to produce a consumption greater than that presented in the situation without the presence of the schedule. In addition, several other responses of self-handling, manipulation of objects and movement occurred in a greater or lesser number for all participants, as an effect of the different interval schedules of reinforcement that was used in the study. Again there was no systematically differences found between the different schedules used / O presente estudo foi desenvolvido com o intuito de testar o efeito de diferentes esquemas de intervalo de liberação de reforços na indução do comportamento de consumir amendoim em humanos, durante um jogo no computador. Seis participantes adultos, com idade entre 20 e 42 anos foram submetidos a sessões de 30 minutos, sendo 15 minutos numa sala de espera em que 120 gramas de amendoim ficavam disponíveis em um pote de louça, além de algumas revistas de variedades. O amendoim era pesado antes e depois desse tempo para que o consumo na situação de espera pudesse ser comparado àquele que viesse a ocorrer durante as sessões em que o estímulo alimentar estivesse presente na sala experimental. Durante os outros 15 minutos de sessão, os participantes eram submetidos a um jogo no computador, em que foi utilizado um software que consiste em um jogo que libera pontos de acordo com o esquema de reforçamento em vigor. Aos participantes foram atribuídos aleatoriamente os esquemas de FI, VI e DRL, todos com duração de 60 segundos. Cada participante foi submetido a três ou quatro sessões de modelagem antes da exposição ao esquema que lhe foi atribuído. Após as sessões de modelagem, cada participante foi submetido a pelo menos três sessões sob um dos esquemas , seguidas de pelo menos três sessões com o estímulo alimentar presente na sala experimental. Depois disso, cada participante foi submetido a um esquema diferente do primeiro pelo menos por mais três sessões sem o estímulo alimentar, e outras três com a presença desse estímulo. Dois dos cinco participantes submetidos a VI 60 apresentaram a resposta de comer o amendoim, além de um dos quatro participantes expostos ao FI 60 e dois dos três participantes expostos ao DRL. As medidas intra-sessões e inter-sessões não demonstram diferenças produzidas sistematicamente. Tomadas em conjunto, no entanto, há uma pequena tendência do esquema de DRL produzir maior consumo do que o observado em situação sem esquema. Além disso, várias outras respostas de auto-manipulação, manipulação de objetos e movimentação ocorreram em maior ou menor número para todos os participantes, como efeitos dos diferentes esquemas de intervalo utilizados. Mais uma vez, não foram encontradas diferenças sistemáticas entre os diversos esquemas

This diploma thesis deals with conict economic situations based on game theory. In the beginning, basic models of conict situations and current popular software tools are dened not only for the general support of student education or for science, but also for solving economic problems in game theory. Based on this analysis, the conicting situation of two competing rms is being solved. Gradually, work goes deeper into areas of delay dierential equations that better show the behavior of two players on the market. Subsequently, these delayed dierential equations are projected into the Cournot model, for which a critical value is identied that switches the stability of two rms on the market due to the delayed realization of their outputs.