<p>Future warfare concerns information superiority, i.e. supplying decisionmakers with better information than their opponents. Their decisions will be based on information from various sensors such as radars, UAVs, satellites, or any other object that can supply the decision makers with information. A system like this will make use of a huge amount of data, and the decisionmakers may not be able to handle all information that will be presented to them. Because of this, they might make decisions that are not optimal for the task.</p><p>To enhance tha capability in decision making, the national defence college will create an avatar which will be located in a 3D presentation device, called the Visioscope (tm). If the computer system detects that a person might have made an erroneous decision, the avatar will act and point out the error, i.e. there will be a dialog between the decision makers and the avatar. One important factor when humans communicate with each other is mutual eye gaze. If mutual eye gaze can occur between the users and the avatar, and if the avatar can behave like a human, the communication process will be improved and the users will make less errors.</p><p>This literature study aims to generate some ideas about how existing technology supports mutual eye gaze between the avatar and the users in the ROLF 2010 environment. The study partly concerns how a computer system can control an avatar so that it behaves like a human.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 37 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-33).

This dissertation project bridges the interdisciplinary fields of rhetoric and composition and tourism studies to examine both the reliance on and rejection of the patriarchal tourist "gaze" in digital travel stories composed by Western travelers. By using a combination of autoethnography and feminist rhetorical analysis, I begin by tracing contemporary conversations in tourism studies in order to contextualize this study within a more nuanced understanding of modern tourism, and then, I deconstruct John Urry's theory of the patriarchal tourist "gaze" in order to posit a theory of a feminist travel perspective, one informed by a postmodern approach to feminism I call "reciprocal feminism." From there, I analyze three rhetorical topoi from which many travelers compose their stories—food, bodies, and landscapes—from a feminist rhetorical perspective in order to advocate that the misinformed image of the "tourist," an outdated rhetorical construct, must be delinked from colonialism and reclaimed and reimagined in order to more effectively represent the diverse voices and subject positions of modern traveling subjects, subjects who are more often than not composed of multiple identities, languages, heritages, and cultures. I then turn to more practical applications of this theory, considering the ways in which travelers, teachers, and students might employ this approach to tourism both in the classroom and in their communities. By tracing the composing practices of contemporary Western tourists online and considering the opportunities presented by an approach to feminist travel, this project contributes to ongoing discussions of the ethics and politics of international travel and tourism, raises questions about representation, and hopes to support more ethical ways of being and interacting with and among Others in personal and academic contexts.

Purpose Early detection of abnormal visual acuity (VA) is crucial in the identification and management of ocular and visual abnormalities in infants. Currently, the Teller Acuity Cards (TACs) are considered the gold standard for clinical testing and are effective in obtaining a quick estimate of an infant’s VA, but they have certain drawbacks. They rely on a subjective assessment of the baby’s looking behavior. Despite this, TACs have been found to have good validity and repeatability. The current study investigates a new method to objectively assess visual acuity in infants, which is uses a video gaze tracker (GT) and computer-generated stimuli, developed in the lab of M. Eizenman at the University of Toronto. The purpose was to validate this method in adults and infants against current clinical VA tests. Visual scanning patterns were measured by the GT system that requires minimal subject cooperation in adult and infant populations. The targets were judged as seen when the relative fixation time on the grating exceeded a pre-determined threshold, as compared to the fixation time on the luminance-matched background. Methods Experiment 1: In 15 uncorrected myopic adults, binocular grating VA was measured. The targets were square-wave gratings of spatial frequency ranging from 2.3 to 37 cpd presented randomly in one of four positions on the screen. There were 6 objective protocols (in which VA was judged by fixations). The subjects were naïve, as the only instruction given to the participants was to look towards the screen. The experimenter, who presented the gratings also acted as an observer by making judgments of seen/not seen responses using the objective information provided by the software. Objective GT VA was compared with VA measured with subjective responses using the same stimuli and with Teller Acuity Cards (TACs). Experiment 2: Binocular grating VA for horizontal gratings was measured in 20 typically-developing infants aged 3 to 12 months. Spatial frequency ranged from 0.32 to 42 cpd and VA was measured on two visits with both the GT and TACs. A staircase protocol was used to obtain the VA threshold in the GT. The experimenter controlled the staircase method and an observer used the objective information of visual fixations using the software to judge if the grating was seen or not. Video cartoons were shown between stimulus presentations to keep the infant’s attention towards the screen. VA was also measured with the TACs held in the vertical orientation, so that the gratings were horizontal, similar to the GT method. A TAC stage was specially designed with a vertical slot in which the cards could be presented. The observer was masked regarding the participant’s age and the starting spatial frequency. The study co-ordinator determined the choice of the start card which was randomized between participants so as to give an equal number of participants with each start card. The same start card was used for the second session of each infant. The threshold was defined as the highest spatial frequency for which the infant gave a clear, correct look and an unclear/inconsistent look for the next higher level. The observer, who was masked regarding the absolute spatial frequency, increased or decreased the spatial frequency until this threshold was determined. Results Experiment 1: The mean age of participants in the adult study was 28.47±7.93 yrs and their mean uncorrected logMAR acuity was 0.9±0.2. There was no obvious difference among the mean acuities obtained by 6 objective GT protocols, the subjective GT protocol and the TACs. The GT showed agreement of 93% and 100 % within half an octave compared with the subjective protocol and TACs (horizontal gratings) respectively. There was 100% agreement within 1 octave of the objective GT with both the subjective protocol and the TACs (horizontal gratings). The objective gaze tracker VA showed significant correlation with uncorrected refractive error (r =0.87, p < 0.001). Experiment 2: The mean age of participants was 7.9±2.5 months. In both visits, the testability of the TACs was 100% across all infants. GT had 100% testability on the first visit and 95% testability on the second visit. The mean TAC acuity over two visits for all the infants was 0.7±0.23 log cycles per degree, while the mean log GT acuity over two visits was 0.86±0.30. Infant GT VA acuity estimates were within 1 octave of the TACs 90% and 79% of the time for the first and second visit respectively, while GT VA estimates were within half octave of the TACs 63.2% and 47% of the time for the first and second visit respectively. Eighty-seven percent of the GT VAs and 72.5% of TACs were within one octave of the mean age norms, although on average the GT gave better acuities than the TACs. There was an increase in GT VA with increasing age (r=0.80, p<0.005 for the first visit and r=0.77, p<0.005 for the second visit). Both the TACs and the GT had repeatability of 89.5% within 1 octave between visits and 84.2% and 79% within half octave between visits respectively. Conclusions In adults, the gaze tracker gave VA thresholds which were equivalent to the TACs and were not significantly different from subjectively determined grating VA. The agreement of the GT with TACs in infants and with norms in the infant literature established good validity for the GT. Finally, the significant correlation with age confirmed the validity of the measurements of the gaze tracker. The repeatability of the gaze tracker was similar to that of the TACs, demonstrating the quality usefulness of the test. These results demonstrate the potential for an automated test of infant visual acuity, which could be a powerful and useful tool for visual acuity assessment in infants and other population groups who cannot respond verbally. The staircase protocol established in the study could be fully automated in an objective version of the test. The raw data of eye movements obtained in this study such as the pattern of first fixations, time taken for first fixations, time spent fixing the stimulus, typical stimulus duration and time between presentations could be used to develop algorithms for fully automated testing of VA in infants.

This thesis is an empirical and theoretical investigation into the changing trends in place marketing as it relates to urban tourism, particularly in the city of Toronto. It begins by exploring broader discourses to do with capitalism and creativity and their impacts on city space and people’s interactions with it and within it. These perspectives are then situated in the Toronto context, a city that currently embraces the notion of the Creative City, as promulgated by Richard Florida, which encourages the branding of the city for the purpose of stimulated economic growth and in which tourism plays an increasing role. Thirdly, it examines the theoretical implications of the prominent belief that tourism and place marketing are imperative for Toronto’s economic well-being. Official efforts at place marketing and place branding construct what John Urry terms the tourist gaze, and frame the city in particular ways to particular people. Fourthly, this thesis gives an empirical account of how the gaze comes to bear on the physical city space in terms of infrastructure and financing projects in the interest of creating a Tourist City. The penultimate chapter brings to light how the rise of new media has allowed for the greater possibility to puncture the traditionally linear narrative of the city with new voices, thus fracturing the monolithic gaze in some instances. The thesis concludes by questioning the implications of new media on the existing systems of city management and promotion, recognizing the ambivalence of new media and its potential to both challenge and reproduce current discourse. / Thesis (Master, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-29 16:22:22.467

The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of a new computerized method of assessing balance and gaze control under a broad range of physical and visual conditions in people with vestibular hypofunction. Test retest reliability for balance performance as measured by COP excursion was good in all conditions with ICCs ranging from .64 to .90 in the AP and ML directions. Closed loop visual tracking as measured by COD had high reliability on the sponge and treadmill (ICC=.71-.75) as compared to open loop tracking (ICC=.325-.463) which was poor. Convergent validity showed poor correlation between clinical tests and the electronic balance and gaze assessments. Construct validity demonstrated that as physical and visual loads increased, balance performance decreased significantly on the sponge as measured by an increase in COP excursion and visual tracking performance decreased significantly on the treadmill as measured by a decrease in COD.

The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of a new computerized method of assessing balance and gaze control under a broad range of physical and visual conditions in people with vestibular hypofunction. Test retest reliability for balance performance as measured by COP excursion was good in all conditions with ICCs ranging from .64 to .90 in the AP and ML directions. Closed loop visual tracking as measured by COD had high reliability on the sponge and treadmill (ICC=.71-.75) as compared to open loop tracking (ICC=.325-.463) which was poor. Convergent validity showed poor correlation between clinical tests and the electronic balance and gaze assessments. Construct validity demonstrated that as physical and visual loads increased, balance performance decreased significantly on the sponge as measured by an increase in COP excursion and visual tracking performance decreased significantly on the treadmill as measured by a decrease in COD.

The present study used eye-tracking to investigate whether a model’s gaze direction influences the way observers look at the entire body of the model and how this interacts with the observer and the model’s gender. Participants viewed individual male and female computer agents during both a free-viewing task and a rating task to evaluate the attractiveness of each character. The results indicated that both male and female participants primarily gazed at the models’ faces. Participants also spent more time scanning the face when rating the attractiveness of each model. Observers tended to scan faces with a direct gaze longer than faces with an averted gaze for both the free-viewing and attractiveness rating tasks. Lastly, participants evaluated models with a direct gaze as more attractive than models with an averted gaze. As these results occurred for pictures of computer agents, and not actual people, this suggests that direct gaze, and faces in general, are powerful for engaging attention. In summary, both task requirements and gaze direction modified face viewing preference.

Transgender representations generally distance the transgender characters from the audience as objects of ridicule, fear, and sympathy. This distancing is accomplished through the use of specific narrative conventions and visual codes. In this dissertation, I analyze representations of transgender individuals in popular film comedies, thrillers, and independent dramas. Through a textual analysis of 24 films, I argue that the narrative conventions and visual codes of the films work to prevent identification or connection between the transgender characters and the audience. The purpose of this distancing is to privilege the heteronormative identities of the characters over their transgender identities. This dissertation is grounded in a cultural studies approach to representation as constitutive and constraining and a positional approach to gender that views gender identity as a position taken in a specific social context. Contributions are made to the fields of communication, film studies, and gender studies through the methodological approach to textual analysis of categories of films over individual case studies and the idea that individuals can be positioned in identities they do not actively claim for themselves. This dissertation also makes a significant contribution to conceptions of the gaze through the development of three transgender gazes that focus on the ways the characters are visually constructed rather than the viewpoints taken by audience members. In the end, transgender representations work to support heteronormativity by constructing the transgender characters in specific ways to prevent audience members from developing deeper connections with them.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Psychology)--Vanderbilt University, May 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.