published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Rating scales are commonly used to study voice quality. The purpose of this study was to examine inter-rater reliability/agreement of graduate student clinicians with differing levels of experience in rating voice perception. The Consensus Auditory Perception Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) was used to asses 1.) overall severity, 2.) roughness, 3.) breathiness, 4.) strain, 5.) pitch and 6.) loudness from a sample of pediatric voices. Twenty-four graduate clinicians who had completed a graduate level course in voice disorders participated in the study. Twelve of the participants were randomly selected to complete a perceptual training course prior to the evaluation session. Voice samples included 10 disordered and 2 normal voices from a population of children age 3-10 years old. The 12 voice samples were randomly repeated 3 times. Results of analysis of variance indicated that the groups significantly differed in their severity rating of the perceptual indices, suggesting that training affected the participants' judgment of severity. Additionally, variability was reduced as a function of training. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient's revealed a moderate to strong relationship for all of the perceptual indices suggesting that regardless of training participants have an implicit understanding of normal versus disordered voice samples.

Two-dimensional geometric textures are the geometric analogues of raster (pixel-based) textures and consist of planar distributions of discrete shapes with an inherent structure. These textures have many potential applications in art, computer graphics, and cartography. Synthesizing large textures by hand is generally a tedious task. In raster-based synthesis, many algorithms have been developed to limit the amount of manual effort required. These algorithms take in a small example as a reference and produce larger similar textures using a wide range of approaches. Recently, an increasing number of example-based geometric synthesis algorithms have been proposed. I refer to them in this dissertation as Geometric Texture Synthesis (GTS) algorithms. Analogous to their raster-based counterparts, GTS algorithms synthesize arrangements that ought to be judged by human viewers as “similar” to the example inputs. However, an absence of conventional evaluation procedures in current attempts demands an inquiry into the visual significance of synthesized results. In this dissertation, I present an investigation into GTS and report on my findings from three projects. I start by offering initial steps towards grounding texture synthesis techniques more firmly with our understanding of visual perception through two psychophysical studies. My observations throughout these studies result in important visual cues used by people when generating and/or comparing similarity of geometric arrangements as well a set of strategies adopted by participants when generating arrangements. Based on one of the generation strategies devised in these studies I develop a new geometric synthesis algorithm that uses a tile-based approach to generate arrangements. Textures synthesized by this algorithm are comparable to the state of the art in GTS and provide an additional reference in subsequent evaluations. To conduct effective evaluations of GTS, I start by collecting a set of representative examples, use them to acquire arrangements from multiple sources, and then gather them into a dataset that acts as a standard for the GTS research community. I then utilize this dataset in a second set of psychophysical studies that define an effective methodology for comparing current and future geometric synthesis algorithms.

Two-dimensional geometric textures are the geometric analogues of raster (pixel-based) textures and consist of planar distributions of discrete shapes with an inherent structure. These textures have many potential applications in art, computer graphics, and cartography. Synthesizing large textures by hand is generally a tedious task. In raster-based synthesis, many algorithms have been developed to limit the amount of manual effort required. These algorithms take in a small example as a reference and produce larger similar textures using a wide range of approaches. Recently, an increasing number of example-based geometric synthesis algorithms have been proposed. I refer to them in this dissertation as Geometric Texture Synthesis (GTS) algorithms. Analogous to their raster-based counterparts, GTS algorithms synthesize arrangements that ought to be judged by human viewers as “similar” to the example inputs. However, an absence of conventional evaluation procedures in current attempts demands an inquiry into the visual significance of synthesized results. In this dissertation, I present an investigation into GTS and report on my findings from three projects. I start by offering initial steps towards grounding texture synthesis techniques more firmly with our understanding of visual perception through two psychophysical studies. My observations throughout these studies result in important visual cues used by people when generating and/or comparing similarity of geometric arrangements as well a set of strategies adopted by participants when generating arrangements. Based on one of the generation strategies devised in these studies I develop a new geometric synthesis algorithm that uses a tile-based approach to generate arrangements. Textures synthesized by this algorithm are comparable to the state of the art in GTS and provide an additional reference in subsequent evaluations. To conduct effective evaluations of GTS, I start by collecting a set of representative examples, use them to acquire arrangements from multiple sources, and then gather them into a dataset that acts as a standard for the GTS research community. I then utilize this dataset in a second set of psychophysical studies that define an effective methodology for comparing current and future geometric synthesis algorithms.

Automobildesigner sind Gestaltungsexperten. Sie haben unter anderem die Aufgabe, die Identität und damit die Werte einer Marke in Formen zu übersetzen, welche eine Vielzahl von Kunden ansprechen (Giannini & Monti 2003; Karjalainen 2002). Dieser Übersetzungsprozess wird durch das Wissen um die ästhetischen Bedürfnisse der Konsumenten unterstützt, da die Qualität einer Designlösung auch davon beeinflusst ist, inwieweit Kundenbedürfnisse und damit das Designproblem richtig erfasst wurden (Ulrich 2006). Die Definition der Gestaltungsaufgabe kann durch eine erfolgreiche DesignerNutzer-Interaktion und den Aufbau eines gemeinsamen Kontextwissens unterstützt werden (Lee et al. 2009). Hier entsteht jedoch eine Kommunikationslücke: Während des Gestaltungsprozesses findet zwischen Designern und Kunden häufig kein direkter Austausch statt (Zeisel 2006). [... aus dem Text]

Background. The heads-up display (HUD) is a useful tool for displaying information to the player in a game, but the HUD is not a part of the game world. This could take away from the desired experience of the game and block important parts of the main action screen. To counteract this the HUD mostly occupies the edges of the screen and avoids drawing the player’s attention away from the main action scene except when it has important information for the player. Only having the HUD visible when it has important information to the player could remove the distraction of the HUD while keeping all the benefits of having one. Objectives. By using eye tracking to complement the HUD, the HUD can be invisible when the player does not use it, and change how the information is presented depending on where the player is looking. By creating a first-person shooter (FPS) game with a HUD complemented by eye tracking, then comparing it to how a normal HUD differed in terms of visibility and clutter, using a survey. Methods. The game was created using the Tobii Unity SDK and modifying the FPS demo scene. To create the gaze sensitive HUD three scripts were created to produce the finished result. Giving the HUD the ability to make all HUD elements invisible and able to appear after passing a specific value or when the element has new information, the HUD also has the ability to present information close to the player’s gaze point in the of notifications. The game was then presented to the participants in the form of two videos one using the normal HUD and one using the gaze sensitive HUD. After watching the partisans answered a survey related to the videos. Results. The gaze-based HUD was generally on par with the normal HUD. The most noticeable significant difference being that the normal HUDs ammunition counter and health bar was proffered over a less visible one. Conclusions. From the results gathered having a gaze-based HUD does not make it harder to notify the player of important information and dos not make the HUD less cluttered, compared to a normal HUD, but there is a difference between them.

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