This thesis analyses how users' mouse behaviour during a video stall gets influenced by the type of video, either branched or linear, and by the presence of a playback bar. An experiment was conducted with thirty-two participants divided into six groups. Each group was watching a different combination of four videos with stalls, the first two videos belonging to the same type of video and either with or without a playback bar, and the last two videos changed in one of the two aspects. With mouse-tracking, these aspects were studied through the variables of mouse activity, average speed, average distance between the cursor and the playback bar, and the total distance moved on the screen. The participants also filled in questionnaires about their mouse behaviour, after watching each video, and their answers were later analysed through a thematic analysis. The results showed no significant differences between the groups in any of the main dependent variables. In general, within all groups, the participants moved the mouse very scarcely, indicating that the results about mouse movement should be interpreted carefully. During videos with a playback bar, mouse movements appeared to be concentrated to the stalls, focusing the movements to the bottom of the screen where the playback bar is located. Mouse behaviour during videos without a playback bar was more evenly divided between the different parts of the video and of the screen, or the user were not moving the mouse at all. Watching branched or linear videos influenced the mouse behaviour in such a way that branched videos seemed to engage the user to interact with the video player more than the linear videos. However, no difference was noticed between these conditions for active users during stalls when a playback bar was present. The thematic analysis gave clear indications that the playback bar was an important component for understanding a stall. Based on these findings, conclusions are drawn that a stall is a situation of watching videos during which mouse behaviour may be less affected by the type of video, and more influenced by the access to a playback bar. The playback bar was shown to be a source of information about the system and the situation.

Kontextmedvetenhet kan användas i turistguide applikationer för att bidra användare med information och tjänster. Majoriteten av turistguide applikationer utvecklas vanligtvis för utbildnings eller historiska ändamål. Den här studien presenterar en konceptvalidering av den opublicerade ljuvandrings applikationen "SoundTracker", i syfte att förbättra den. Den nya "SoundTracker" prototypen inriktar sig inte på utbildnings eller historiska ändamål, utan den är inriktad på inspelning, uppspelning, och delning av personliga ljudvandringar med vänner och familj. Konceptvalideringen är begränsad av de definierade forskningsfrågorna i den här uppsatsen. Det handlar i korta drag om en förbättring av noggranheten på de inlästa GPS koordinaterna från en användares position, för att förse användaren med en trevlig användarupplevelse. Dessutom är grafiska användargränssnittet av den originala prototypen förbättrat, och testat genom webb enkäter. Vad gäller delnings funktionaliteten, en test applikation är skapad för att hitta essentiella aspekter som behöver tas hänsyn till i den nya "SoundTracker" prototypen när en användare vill dela ett ljudspår med vänner och familj. Test applikationen testas baserat på samlade svar genom en semi strukturerad interview på människor i åldersgruppen 20-30 år.De erhållna resultaten indikerar på att genom användning av Kalman filter, förbättras noggrannheten på användarens position, vilket resulterar i en ljudvandring med mindre avvikelser jämfört med en GPS-sensor. Vad gäller det förbättrade grafiska användargränssnittet, det var enklare för användarna att förstå den förbättrade prototypen såväl som navigera igenom den, än fallet med den originala prototypen. Användarna finner det även intressant när en delningsfunktion implementeras med designen som diskuteras i det här arbetet. / Context-awareness can be used in tour guide applications in order to provide users with information and services. The majority of tour guide applications are usually developed for educational or historical review purposes. This paper presents a proof-of-concept of the unpublished audio tour guide application, “SoundTracker”, with the aim of improving it. The new “SoundTracker” prototype does not aim for educational or historical review purposes, instead it is aimed for recording, listening and sharing personal audio tour guides with friends and family. The proof-of-concept is limited by the defined research questions found in this paper. In summary, the accuracy of the read-in GPS coordinates of a user’s position is enhanced with Kalman filter, to give an enjoyable user experience. Additionally, the graphical user interface of the original prototype is improved and tested through web-surveys. As for the sharing functionality, a test application is created in order to find what necessary aspects need to be considered in the new "SoundTracker" prototype when a user wants to share a sound-walk with friends and family. The test application is tested based on responses obtained through a semi-structured interview from people in the age of 20-30 years.The obtained results indicate that, with use of Kalman filter, the location accuracy of the user is enhanced, which results in a sound-walk with less deviations compared to location accuracy of only GPS-sensor. Regarding the improved graphical user interface, users found the new "SoundTracker" prototype easier to understand, as well as to navigate through it, than the case in the original prototype. Users also find it interesting when a sharing function is implemented with the design that is discussed in this work.

Среди имеющихся аналогов Discord-ботов в первой части работы доказывается и разбирается актуальность создания музыкального Discord-бота, и, вместе с тем, требования реализации его серверной части. Далее описывается выбранная методология разработки и поясняется выбор стека технологий, а именно фреймворк, база данных, необходимость и приложение для контейнеризации проекта. В третьей части приводится принцип работы основных частей функционала бота: взаимодействие с API, реализация плеера и способ воспроизведения музыки. В конце описывается способ тестирования серверной части бота и делаются выводы. Данная работа опубликована на конференции ИНТЕР в секции «Искусственный интеллект и программная инженерия» (2023 г.). / Among the available analogues of Discord bots, the first part of the work proves and examines the relevance of creating a music Discord bot, and, at the same time, the requirements for implementing its server part. The following describes the selected development methodology and explains the choice of technology stack, namely the framework, database, need and application for containerizing the project. The third part describes the operating principle of the main parts of the bot's functionality: interaction with the API, implementation of the player and the method of playing music. At the end, a method for testing the server side of the bot is described and conclusions are drawn. This work was published at the INTER conference in the section “Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering” (2023).

Text in English / India’s film production industry, referred to commonly as Bollywood, and the film production industry of America, referred to as Hollywood, have created a large number of musical films since sound was introduced into motion pictures. Both create fictional stories—illusions, if you will—through the use of prerecorded sound and playback technology coupled with lip-synching interpolated onto filmed images. While studies exist that treat the music of both production centres, there is very little research that compares both, and very little research on playback singers. Playback singers in both Bollywood and Hollywood may or may not be the actors who are seen on the screen; however, people in the Bollywood system—its directors, producers, creators, as well as the journalists who write about it—are very open about this practice, and playback singing is a highly respected career. Conversely, in the Hollywood system, playback singing that is done by an individual other than the on-screen actor remains uncredited or under-credited, and those who do the work are just hired workers; they are not respected as artists in the same way that their Bollywood counterparts are. I believe this difference has a cultural basis, shaped by variation in the way that illusion and reality are expressed by film production staff and interpreted by audiences in the two cultures. Through primary and secondary research, this project seeks to discover the differences and to understand how cultural implications of illusion and reality affect the playback singers in both film centres. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / D. Litt et Phil. (Musicology)

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / An important capability that many modern 3D interactive training simulations lack is an After Action Review System (AARS) that helps both the trainer and trainee to conduct an After Action Review (AAR). Although AAR is not a new idea in the 3D simulation field, it is not widely used in training simulations. In real life training, AAR has been proven as one of the most important phases of the training procedure, sometimes taking the form of debriefing, or in other cases, by conducting a deeper analysis and discussion of the facts. In order to conduct an AAR, a well-designed system (AARS) must exist to keep track of the conditions and the actions during an exercise, so they can be available for review later. This thesis translates the idea of AAR for real training situations to the 3D interactive simulation domain and also develops an After Action Review System (AARS) using XML technology for capture, analysis, and interactive playback of an entire simulation training session. Users can change the point of view to any desired position and direction, something that is impossible in video streaming playbacks. / Lieutenant, Hellenic Navy

A research report presented to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters Degree in Arts, February 2013 / Mapiko is a dance that is practiced in northern Mozambique. This dance is usually associated with the rites of passage from youth to adulthood. Over time Mapiko has undergone several mutations according to the social, cultural and economic changes in the community. The adaptation described in this paper came out of many years of theatrical practice and research into the traditional values of Mozambique. The aim was o produce a theatre experience which has cultural elements that could be recognized by Mozambicans and which would link them to modern, contemporary and perhaps post-modern theatre techniques. the resulting play made use of elements of Mapiko dance, playback theatre and the text "We killed Mangy-Dog" written by Luis Bernardo Honwana. [Abbreviated Abstract. Open document to view full version]

<p>The progression of technical development has yielded practicable camera systems for the acquisition of so called depth maps, images with depth information. </p><p>Images and movies with depth information open the door for new types of applications in the area of computer graphics and vision. That implies that they will need to be processed in all increasing volumes.</p><p>Increased depth image processing puts forth the demand for a standardized data format for the exchange of image data with depth information, both still and animated. Software to convert acquired depth data to such videoformats is highly necessary. </p><p>This diploma thesis sheds light on many of the issues that come with this new task group. It spans from data acquisition over readily available software for the data encoding to possible future applications. </p><p>Further, a software architecture fulfilling all of the mentioned demands is presented. </p><p>The encoder is comprised of a collection of UNIX programs that generate MPEG Z/Alpha, an MPEG2 based video format. MPEG Z/Alpha contains beside MPEG2's standard data streams one extra data stream to store image depth information (and transparency). </p><p>The decoder suite, called TexMPEG, is a C library for the in-memory decompression of MPEG Z/Alpha. Much effort has been put into video decoder parallelization, and TexMPEG is now capable of decoding multiple video streams, not only in parallel internally, but also with inherent frame synchronization between parallely decoded MPEG videos.</p>

Text in English / India’s film production industry, referred to commonly as Bollywood, and the film production industry of America, referred to as Hollywood, have created a large number of musical films since sound was introduced into motion pictures. Both create fictional stories—illusions, if you will—through the use of prerecorded sound and playback technology coupled with lip-synching interpolated onto filmed images. While studies exist that treat the music of both production centres, there is very little research that compares both, and very little research on playback singers. Playback singers in both Bollywood and Hollywood may or may not be the actors who are seen on the screen; however, people in the Bollywood system—its directors, producers, creators, as well as the journalists who write about it—are very open about this practice, and playback singing is a highly respected career. Conversely, in the Hollywood system, playback singing that is done by an individual other than the on-screen actor remains uncredited or under-credited, and those who do the work are just hired workers; they are not respected as artists in the same way that their Bollywood counterparts are. I believe this difference has a cultural basis, shaped by variation in the way that illusion and reality are expressed by film production staff and interpreted by audiences in the two cultures. Through primary and secondary research, this project seeks to discover the differences and to understand how cultural implications of illusion and reality affect the playback singers in both film centres. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Litt et Phil. (Musicology)

[pt] Em apresentações hipermídia, umas das principais tarefas coordenadas pelo orquestrador da apresentação é a sincronização entre os diversos objetos componentes, que pode ser obtida através do ajuste elástico do tempo de exibição dos objetos. Esta técnica pode ser aplicada em tempo de compilação, de forma a manter os relacionamentos de sincronização especificados pelo autor, ou em tempo de apresentação, para prevenir qualquer descasamento temporal causado pelos ambientes de transmissão e de execução. Este trabalho descreve um conjunto de mecanismos para executar o ajuste elástico em fluxos MPEG-2 de Vídeo e de Sistemas, propondo algoritmos para a realização da compressão e expansão do tempo de exibição, do controle da ocupação do buffer do decodificador, da sincronização intermídia e da reconstrução do relógio de referência. Visando seu emprego em tempo de execução, todo o processo de ajuste é realizado diretamente no fluxo MPEG, sem qualquer transcodificação. / [en] In hypermedia presentations, one of the main tasks provided by the orchestrator is the synchronization of all presentation objects, which may be achieved by elastic time adjustment of period of exhibition of the objects, or simply timescale adaptation. This technique can be applied at compilation time, in order to keep track of synchronism relationships specified by authors, or at presentation time, to prevent any temporal mismatch caused by transmission or execution environments. This work presents a set of mechanisms to carry out timescale adaptation in MPEG-2 Systems and Video streams, proposing algorithms to perform compression and expansion of exhibition period, also called playback dilation, rate control, inter-media synchronization and clock reconstruction. In order to be performed at execution time, timescale operations are realized directly in compressed MPEG-2 streams, requiring no transcodification.

The progression of technical development has yielded practicable camera systems for the acquisition of so called depth maps, images with depth information. Images and movies with depth information open the door for new types of applications in the area of computer graphics and vision. That implies that they will need to be processed in all increasing volumes. Increased depth image processing puts forth the demand for a standardized data format for the exchange of image data with depth information, both still and animated. Software to convert acquired depth data to such videoformats is highly necessary. This diploma thesis sheds light on many of the issues that come with this new task group. It spans from data acquisition over readily available software for the data encoding to possible future applications. Further, a software architecture fulfilling all of the mentioned demands is presented. The encoder is comprised of a collection of UNIX programs that generate MPEG Z/Alpha, an MPEG2 based video format. MPEG Z/Alpha contains beside MPEG2's standard data streams one extra data stream to store image depth information (and transparency). The decoder suite, called TexMPEG, is a C library for the in-memory decompression of MPEG Z/Alpha. Much effort has been put into video decoder parallelization, and TexMPEG is now capable of decoding multiple video streams, not only in parallel internally, but also with inherent frame synchronization between parallely decoded MPEG videos.