Objective: The goal of this research was to explore how the design of clothing, specifically the design of the suit, can create height illusions. Background: Taller people enjoy many advantages, such as increased income and perceived attractiveness. These advantages motivate people to try to appear taller than they actually are, and clothing experts provide advice on how to accomplish this. However, there is little empirical evidence to validate the illusory effects clothing might have on overall height perception. The few studies that have explored illusions of body size created by clothing design have been limited in two important ways – the test stimuli have included unnatural body shapes and have failed to include naturalistic context (i.e., surrounding depth and size cues available in real scenes). Method: In the first phase, participants (nonexperts in clothing design) provided suggestions for how to appear taller by changing clothes. In the second phase, participants 1) viewed photographs of a variety of targets wearing suit designs that are commonly believed to manipulate viewers’ perceptions of height, 2) rated the targets on traits associated with height such as income and attractiveness, and 3) estimated the heights of these individuals. This study focused on the potential effects of suit color, specifically overall lightness (light vs. dark) and monochromaticity (monochromatic vs. lightness blocking). The effects of these designs were tested with and without contextual information by presenting targets within a natural streetscape or on a white background. Results: In the first phase, we found that nonexperts provided similar suggestions as experts in clothing design, including those pertaining to monochromaticity and lightness. In the second phase, we found that estimates were more accurate with more contextual information, and that clothing can impact height estimations, where monochromatic outfits yielded taller height estimates, although other outfit comparisons did not have effects. Outfits overall did not impact ratings such as income and attractiveness, although estimated height did correlate with these same social attributes. In an exploration of the impact of contextual and target-specific cues other than clothing on height estimations, we found that height perception was potentially dependent on a variety of factors such as the target's race, location (indoors vs. outdoors), stance, and the presence of nearby people. Scientific merit: This study increased our understanding of the conditions under which illusions of size in simple geometric stimuli generalize to the manipulation of size perception in real-world scenes. Broader impact: A better understanding of biases in height perception is relevant to domains in which such estimates are used to identify individuals (e.g., criminal justice) as well as domains in which visual characteristics of individuals are associated with errors in judgments of performance-based merit. (e.g., personnel selection and promotion).

Entre autobiographie et fiction, le terme " autofiction ", inventé par Serge Doubrovsky, est un " genre " qui s'est surtout épanoui à la fin du XIXe siècle avec " la transposition en fiction des fragments d'une expérience " (Hubier), devenue de plus en plus populaire au fil du temps. La recherche entreprise dans cette thèse porte sur la forme contemporaine de ce mélange entre autobiographie et fiction que l'on trouve chez Paul Auster. Le corpus principal est composé de ses romans dits de la " maturité ", publiés entre 1991 et 2008 : Leviathan, The Book of Illusions, Oracle Night, The Brooklyn Follies, Travels in the Scriptorium et Man in the Dark. C'est ainsi la question de l'évolution de l'autofiction mais également de la métafiction chez cet auteur qui est examinée dans cette thèse. Divisé en trois parties, ce travail porte dans un premier temps sur les repères spatiotemporels dans les romans de Paul Auster avant de se concentrer sur les éléments métafictionnels présents dans les romans du corpus. Dans la première partie, une distinction est faite entre deux espaces : l'espace intérieur et l'espace extérieur et la façon dont ces deux espaces cohabitent. Dans une deuxième partie, la thèse s'intéresse aux repères temporels, qu'ils soient d'ordre mémoriel ou en rapport direct avec la structure du récit. La thèse examine le rôle que jouent certains repères empruntés à l'Histoire contemporaine dans l'histoire personnelle des personnages, en observant qu'ils occupent une place toujours plus importante au fur et à mesure que l'oeuvre austérienne progresse, en particulier à partir des attentats du onze septembre. Enfin, c'est la mise en scène de l'écriture chez Paul Auster et la façon dont elle alimente l'autofiction en mettant l'accent sur l'identité d'écrivain de notre auteur qui est traitée : l'emploi du langage, l'évolution des supports d'écriture chez les personnages, la description de la méthodologie du travail de l'écrivain mais également l'intratextualité qui met en avant le lien entre tous ses romans.

Acompanha: Praxinoscópio e zootrópio: brinquedos ópticos na relação arte-ciência / O desenvolvimento científico foi responsável por consolidar o início da ciência moderna. A presente pesquisa procurou problematizar a necessidade de aproximar Arte e Ciência reelaborando os aparelhos ópticos Zootrópio e Praxinoscópio, desenvolvendo, assim, o conhecimento artístico e o cientifico por meio de uma atividade lúdica e interdisciplinar entre Arte e Física. Para tanto foi fundamental o princípio da percepção visual e o da ilusão óptica, utilizando-se da movimentação de quadros estáticos (frame by frame). A reconstrução destes instrumentos ancorou-se nas oficinas de um Projeto de Extensão intitulado “Técnicas de Representação da Imagem: Do Renascimento à Fotografia”, dividida em duas oficinas especificas “Zootrópio: uma arte vista entre frestas luminosas” e “Praxinoscópio: o reflexo fragmentado da animação”. Os dados obtidos na pesquisa foram analisados em suas modalidades qualitativa e descritiva, tendo como fonte direta as informações mais próximas do ambiente escolar natural. Na fundamentação da pesquisa destacaram-se alguns teóricos, que abordaram fenômenos físicos presentes na vida cotidiana, como Perelman, Arnheim, Crary, Santaella, Fogliano e Lucena envolvendo as diferentes análises sobre a percepção visual e sua influência para cada observador na identificação de diferentes objetos. A narração histórica e cronológica dos primeiros inventos ópticos foram baseados em Briggs e Burgue, abordando as questões que envolvem a imagem enquanto forma de comunicação, especialmente com o advento da fotografia. A pesquisa finaliza-se com os resultados das oficinas e as observações dos alunos do curso de Licenciatura em Ciências Naturais, da Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR) - campus Ponta Grossa. / Scientific development was responsible for consolidating the beginning of modern science. The present research sought to problematize the need to approach Art and Science by reworking the optical devices Zootrope and Praxinoscope, thus developing artistic and scientific knowledge through a playful and interdisciplinary activity between Art and Physics. For this, the principle of visual perception and optical illusion was fundamental, using frameby-frame motion. The reconstruction of these instruments was anchored in the workshops of an Extension Project entitled "Techniques of Image Representation: From the Renaissance to Photography", divided into two specific workshops "Zootrope: an art seen between luminous cracks" and "Praxinoscope: the fragmented reflection of animation ". The data obtained in the research were analyzed in their qualitative and descriptive modalities, having as direct source the information closest to the natural school environment. Some of the theorists focused on physical phenomena present in everyday life, such as Perelman, Arnheim, Crary, Santaella, Fogliano and Lucena, involving the different analyzes on visual perception and their influence for each observer in the identification of different objects. The historical and chronological narration of early optical inventions were based on Briggs and Burgue, addressing issues involving the image as a form of communication, especially with the advent of photography. The research is finished with the results of the workshops and the observations of the students of the undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences, of the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR) - Ponta Grossa campus.

Le XIXe siècle a les caractéristiques d’un grand siècle, parce qu’il hérite des engagements idéologiques et sociaux des philosophes des Lumières, mais aussi des promesses suscitées par la Révolution de 1789 qui ouvre une ère de mutations intellectuelles et d’évolutions sociales. Au-delà des tensions sociales et politiques exprimées par une littérature dont l’engagement consiste à faire évoluer le personnage, notamment le héros de jeunesse, encore attaché à des rêves dans une société où tout est et reste à reconstruire, il importe de répondre à une préoccupation fondamentale : comment s’affirmer, se construire un destin lorsqu’on ne s’éprouve soi-même que comme une énigme, une préoccupation existentielle et un malaise ? Le roman d’apprentissage du XIXe siècle nous met en présence de destins en devenir, d’ambitions et de potentialités en quête de réalisation, ce qui lui confère ses qualités esthétiques / The XIXe world has features of a wide world, because it inherits ideological social philosophers lights pawning ; but therefore given rise to promises by the Revolution of 1789 who opens an era of intellectual mutations and of social evolutions beyond social political expressed tensions by a literature of which the pawning consist to make to evolve the personage, notably the youthful hero, still fond to dream in a society where everything is and remains to reconstruct, it imports to answer to a fundamental preoccupation : how to assert oneself, to build a destiny when one himself does not test myself that as an enigma, an existential preoccupation and an indisposition ? The tutorial novel of the century puts us in presence of destinies in development, of ambitions and of potentialities after fulfillment, what gives confers him all his aesthetic qualities

This dissertation examines the problems of human error in civil aviation. Its aim is, first and foremost, to evaluate types, origins and frequency of particular mistakes in piloting technique of aeroplanes. The dissertation comprises a study of the commonest human errors as presented by the examples of European airlines. The conclusion of the dissertation details proposals of method and approach on eliminating human error and thus increasing air travel safety.

Unlike their European predecessors in the experimentation with hallucinogens and aesthetics who undertook it as an exotic tradition brought from afar, many Latin American and North American authors turned to visionary practices and substances (cannabis, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca, among others) as a main element of their own cultural heritage and territory. Though commonly restricted to the specific category of "psychedelia," the narratives in this corpus from the 20th century only acquire their true depth once included within a much vaster realm, that of visionary traditions, mostly originated in non-Western sources --with exceptions among divinators, witches and sorcerers in Europe -- both in the Old World of the Orient and Africa, but particularly in the New World, in America. Problematically blurring use and exchange value, the 20th century seized these substances as sources of forbidden pleasures which alienated laborers, while their prohibition generated immense fortunes that destabilized democracies throughout the continent, motivated violence, and funded mafias, guerrillas and paramilitary groups. Yet, visionary plants and practices spread with a transcultural power that even today allows for the survival of ethnic groups and traditional knowledge long hidden, while also feeding urban consumptions that generate innumerable subcultures, time and again misunderstood as a sign of decadence. In this dissertation these "underworld" practices are also manifestations of something prior and parallel to the birth of a culture of mass consumers: they mark an encounter between Indigenous, Afro, rural and mestizo influences in the voices of authors who contributed to culture from the margins of very hierarchical and racist societies, and assumed a leading role in their intellectual debate, capturing its mixtures, dark humor, conflicts and transculturations via writing and films. Initially marginalized in the low worlds of taverns, destitute neighborhoods, crime, prisons and prostitution venues, hallucination and hallucinogens--simultaneously a colonial anathema and a sacred pre-Columbian ritual of transcendence--survive and thrive, passing on to the urban minorities of artists and thinkers I will examine in this dissertation, now even including synthetics like Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD). Late Avant-gardes between the 1950s and 1990s--beatniks, counterculture, yippies and Chicanos in the US, the Onda generation and the "jipitecas'' in Mexico, and the "nadaístas'' and the Cali group in Colombia--partially rescued this knowledge, but, above all, its consumptions, preserving some of them as an original heritage within their metaphysics, politics and aesthetics, and as a core part of many of their ideological and secular inquiries. Banned and misconstrued by the viceregal, republican, national and transnational elites, both in the colonial past, and in the contemporary moment of an hemispheric circuit -- within the geopolitics of Nixon‘s War on Drugs -- visionary and hallucinogenic uses continue shaping much of the cultural panorama of America today. The variety of films and texts observed in this project gives a measure of the true heterogeneity of Latin American and US authors of the 20th century: In their works we reconnect a fracture that divides not only two, but many worlds, while it makes possible, for once, to conceive the simultaneous reality of them all.

Background. Visualizations are used in games to help players find and complete objectives, such as shooting all enemies or finding the hidden treasure. Different methods to do this involve outlines of various colors as well as markers floating above targets. To the best of the author’s knowledge, no research regarding how these outlines affect player performance exists. Objectives. The objective for this thesis is to find out how an outline around a target in a First Person Shooter game affects the accuracy and the shooting speed for the player. Methods. In order to collect the data a small game was developed where players completed two levels, where one had targets with outlines while the targets on the other level did not. The metrics for the experiment include time to shoot and distance from the center of the target to where the shot lands. Time to shoot is also used to get the time to re-shoot, if the previous shot missed the target. Results. The data collected during the experiment show that having an outline around a target lowers the time needed for players to shoot at it, both when it first shows up but also if the first shot missed and the player must shoot again. Having an outline also lowers the accuracy, with more misses and a longer distance from the point where a shot landed to the center of the targets. The results are statistically significant. Conclusions. Having outlines might help players find targets faster, at the cost of accuracy. However, more research is needed regarding the different aspects of the outline. / Bakgrund. Visualiseringar används i spel för att hjälpa spelare att hitta och slutföra objekt, så som att skjuta alla fiender eller hitta den gömda skatten. Olika metoder för att göra detta är bland annat outlines, en aura runt ett objekt, i olika färger och markörer som flyter ovanför mål. Dock så har det inte hittats någon forskning om hur dessa outlines påverkar spelarnas prestation. Syfte. Målet med denna tes är att ta reda på hur en outline runt ett mål i ett spel av genren First Person Shooter påverkar träffsäkerheten och skjuthastigheten för spelaren. Metod. För att samla ihop datan som behövdes utvecklades ett litet spel där spelare spelade två nivåer, där en hade outlines och den andra inte hade det. För att kunna jämföra resultatet används tiden till skott samt avståndet mellan målets mittpunkt och positionen där ett skott landade. Tiden till skott används även för att få tidenför att skjuta igen, om det förra skottet missade måltavlan. Resultat. Datan som samlades in under experimentet visar att om det finns en outline runt en måltavla minskade tiden som en spelare behövde för att skjuta, både när målet först dök upp och om första skottet missade och spelaren behövde skjuta igen. Att ha en outline minskade även träffsäkerheten hos spelarna, med fler missade skott och en längre sträcka från punkten där skottet träffade till mitten av målet. Datan är statistiskt signifikant. Slutsatser. Att ha outlines hjälper spelare att skjuta snabbare, till kostnad av en lägre träffsäkerhet. Dock behövs mer forskning gällande de olika aspekterna av outlines.

No description available.

Visions of Couture is a project that explores the relationship between high fashion and technology. The aim of this work was to incorporate interactivity in a context, namely fashion, that has always been a pioneer in research and innovation but where interactive artefacts have so far had quite a marginal role. After collecting insights through literature review and interviews, the project focused on creating a system for fashion showrooms that would permit users and clients to interact with holographic projections of the models through gestures. This system allows for a slower and more attentive interaction, in contrast with the frenzy of the fashion show, letting the users linger on the looks they are interested in and possibly overcoming the space and time limitations that fashion showrooms usually have. The result of this project is a system composed of a holographic projection mesh and a wearable bracelet to recognise gestures. The bracelet contains an Arduino Nano 33 BLE that has been trained through Machine Learning to recognise the selected gestures and communicates with Processing to play the right videos. The project suggests a way to use holography as a mean for a shared and embodied mixed reality experience and a path for designing comfortable gesture interactions that are intuitive and coherent with the context. Crucial to this project were the concepts of embodiment, corporality, shared mixed reality and intuitive gestures.

No description available.