This dissertation explores the emergence of the linguistic use of pointing as first- and non-first-person pronoun in Greek Sign Language. Despite the similarity in form between the pointing gesture and pronominal pointing signs, children acquiring sign language pass through the same stages and acquire personal pronouns at about the same age as children acquiring spoken language. According to Petitto (1984, 1987, 1994), the transition to pronominal pointing in American Sign Language is characterised by: (a) a period of discontinuity in which children avoid using pointing directed towards persons, and (b) the occurrence of reversal errors before the acquisition of first and second-person pronouns. The present study offers additional evidence on the acquisition of personal pronouns through the investigation of: (a) the manner and the age at which pronominal pointing signs are acquired by a child exposed to Greek Sign Language, (b) the use of other signs for reference to persons and self, and (c) the existence of reversal errors in the child’s early use of pointing. Data consist of video-recorded spontaneous interaction between a deaf boy and his family every fortnight from the age of 12 to 36 months. Thirty hours of the child’s communicative behaviour have been transcribed and all sequences that included pointing were analysed in terms of reference and function. This study confirms that language modality plays a restricted role in language acquisition. The time and the frequency of occurrence of pronominal pointing signs correspond to the general developmental pattern observed in the acquisition of ASL. However, there are also important differences: (a) common nouns and proper names are used for reference to others before the acquisition of pronominal pointing, but to a limited extent (b) the existence of only one erroneous pointing sign indicates that the deaf child, from the beginning, uses pronominal signs correctly, and (c) there is no evidence of discontinuity in the transition from the early communicative pointing gesture to pronominal pointing signs. / <p>För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se</p>

abstract: Space systems such as communication satellites, earth observation satellites and telescope require accurate pointing to observe fixed targets over prolonged time. These systems typically use reaction wheels to slew the spacecraft and gimballing systems containing motors to achieve precise pointing. Motor based actuators have limited life as they contain moving parts that require lubrication in space. Alternate methods have utilized piezoelectric actuators. This paper presents Shape memory alloys (SMA) actuators for control of a deployable antenna placed on a satellite. The SMAs are operated as a series of distributed linear actuators. These distributed linear actuators are not prone to single point failures and although each individual actuator is imprecise due to hysteresis and temperature variation, the system as a whole achieves reliable results. The SMAs can be programmed to perform a series of periodic motion and operate as a mechanical guidance system that is not prone to damage from radiation or space weather. Efforts are focused on developing a system that can achieve 1 degree pointing accuracy at first, with an ultimate goal of achieving a few arc seconds accuracy. Bench top model of the actuator system has been developed and working towards testing the system under vacuum. A demonstration flight of the technology is planned aboard a CubeSat. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Mechanical Engineering 2016

Many types of multi-display environments (MDEs) are emerging that allow users to better interact with computers. In these environments, being able to move visual objects (such as window icons or the cursor) from one display to another is a fundamental activity. This dissertation focuses on understanding how human performance of cross-display actions is affected by the design of cross-display object movement interaction techniques. Three main aspects of cross-display actions are studied: how displays are referred to by the system and the users, how spatial actions are planned, and how actions are executed. Each of these three aspects is analyzed through laboratory experiments that provide empirical evidence on how different characteristics of interaction techniques affect performance. The results further our understanding of cross-display interaction and can be used by designers of new MDEs to create more efficient multi-display interfaces.

This paper analyzes the geometric and disturbance aspects of utilizing the International Space Station for remote sensing of earth targets. The proposed instrument is SHORE (Station High-Sensitivity Ocean Research Experiment), a multi-band optical spectrometer with 15 m pixel resolution. The analysis investigates the contribution of the error effects to the quality of data collected by the instrument. The analysis begins with the discussion of the coordinate systems involved and then conversion from the target coordinate system to the instrument coordinate system. Next the geometry of remote observations from the Space Station is investigated including the effects of the instrument location in Space Station and the effects of the line of sight to the target. The disturbance and error environment on Space Station is discussed covering factors contributing to drift and jitter, accuracy of pointing data and target and instrument accuracies. Finally, there is a brief discussion of image processing to address any post error correction options.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / A digital antenna control system has been designed and installed on a pedestal that was formerly used to drive a VHF array and that has now been replaced with an 11 meter S-Band parabolic reflector. In this Paper, the former analog tracking system will be described, showing all the drawbacks that made it unusable for S-Band. Subsequently, the development and implementation of the digital S-Band tracking system, using Labview, C++ & digital control theory will be discussed. Finally, there will be a comparison between the digital and analog system, too.

The demand for performance and resources that is placed on the system is dictated by the application alone in non-interactive environments, and by a combination of application and user interactions in interactive environments. Understanding user interaction can provide valuable information about which resources will be needed ahead of time. This leads to performance optimizations such as better resource allocations for applications that can utilize a given resource more productively, and transitioning devices to a more appropriate energy performance state before the demand arrives. The challenge is to provide a performance/energy schedule that best matches the task at hand, since keeping the device in one performance level is not energy efficient due to the continually changing demand placed on the device. This dissertation addresses the challenge of designing energy efficient systems by examining the role of user interaction in energy consumption and in providing an energy-performance schedule that adequately accommodates user demand. It is shown that system performance can be tailored to a user's pattern of interaction and it's energy-performance schedule optimized.First, a detailed design of context capture systems in Linux's X-Window System is presented with an evaluation of the associated storage and computation overheads. Due to the overall low complexity of the application window representations, the overheads of computing interaction identifiers and storing a secondary representation of the application interface within the context capture system are likewise low. Additionally, a Microsoft Windows-based context capture system leveraging the Active Accessibility framework is discussed and applied to improving the navigation of cascading pull-down menus.Secondly, this dissertation addresses the application of interaction capture in energy and delay management of Wireless Network Interface Controllers/Cards (WNICs) and hard drives. The Interaction Aware Prediction (IAP) system for WNICs is evaluated showing that the available power modes can be effectively managed to provide energy efficiency while maintaining performance. Similarly, the Interaction Aware Spin-up Prediction (IASP) uses interaction awareness to reduce or eliminate the interactive delays associated with aggressive hard disk energy management.

Four studies describe the pointing performance of individuals with fine motor skills impairments. First, we describe the pointing performance of two individuals with Parkinsons disease via a sub-movement analysis and compare them with similar results found in the literature from young children and older able-bodied adults. The analysis suggests the need of an individual assessment of pointing difficulties and the personalization of the methods of assistance and motivates sub-sequent studies. Two experiments followed where we tested PointAssist, software that assists in pointing tasks by detecting difficulty through a sub-movement analysis and triggering help, with adjustments proposed to personalize the assistance provided. A within-subjects study with sixteen individuals with fine motor skills impairments resulted in statistically significant effects on accuracy using Friedman's test with (χχ/sup>(1) = 6.4, p = .011) in favor of personalized PointAssist. A five week longitudinal study with three participants with Cerebral Palsy and other fine motor skills impairments shows the long term effects of PointAssist. The longitudinal study logged real-world use of pointing devices validating the results for real-world interactions. PointAssist had statistically significant effect of reduced sub-movement length and speed with p < .00001 and p < .0002 respectively for one of the participants. These results suggest better motor control near a target and statistically significant results on the sub-movement duration confirmed this. Finally, we designed, developed and tested a new assistive technology for individuals with severe motor skills impairments that we call the Reverse Funnel. Three participants, two with Cerebral Palsy and one with an undisclosed disability, participated and positive early results are presented as well as future developments of the newly developed strategy.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Large displays are everywhere, and have been shown to provide higher productivity gain and user satisfaction compared to traditional desktop monitors. The computer mouse remains the most common input tool for users to interact with these larger displays. Much effort has been made on making this interaction more natural and more intuitive for the user. The use of computer vision for this purpose has been well researched as it provides freedom and mobility to the user and allows them to interact at a distance. Interaction that relies on monocular computer vision, however, has not been well researched, particularly when used for depth information recovery. This thesis aims to investigate the feasibility of using monocular computer vision to allow bare-hand interaction with large display systems from a distance. By taking into account the location of the user and the interaction area available, a dynamic virtual touchscreen can be estimated between the display and the user. In the process, theories and techniques that make interaction with computer display as easy as pointing to real world objects is explored. Studies were conducted to investigate the way human point at objects naturally with their hand and to examine the inadequacy in existing pointing systems. Models that underpin the pointing strategy used in many of the previous interactive systems were formalized. A proof-of-concept prototype is built and evaluated from various user studies. Results from this thesis suggested that it is possible to allow natural user interaction with large displays using low-cost monocular computer vision. Furthermore, models developed and lessons learnt in this research can assist designers to develop more accurate and natural interactive systems that make use of human’s natural pointing behaviours.

A satellite in orbit about a planet needs some means of attitude control in order to, for instance, get as much sun into its solar-panels as possible. It is easy to understand that, for example, a spy satellite has to point at a certain direction without the slightest trembling to get a photo of a certain point on the earth. This type of mission must not exceed an error in attitude of more then about 1/3600 degrees. But, since high accuracy equals high cost, it is also easy to understand why a research satellite measuring solar particles (or radiation) in space does not need high accuracy at all. A research vessel of this sort can probably do with less accuracy then 1 degree. The first part of this report tries to explain some major aspects of satellite space-flight. It continues to focus on the market for small satellites, i.e. satellites weighing less than 500 kg. The second part of this final thesis work deals with the development of a program that simulates the movement of a satellite about a large celestial body. The program, called AOSP, consists of user-definable packages. Sensors and estimation filters are used to predict the satellites current position, velocity, attitude and angular velocity. The purpose of the program, which is written in MATLAB, is to easily determine the pointing accuracy of a satellite when using different sensors and actuators.

Researchers who study pointing facilitation have identified the ability to identify--during motion--the likely target of a user's pointing gesture, as a necessary precursor to pointing facilitation in modern computer interfaces. To address this need, we develop and analyze how an understanding of the underlying characteristics of motion can enhance our ability to predict the target or endpoint of a goal-directed movement in graphical user interfaces. Using established laws of motion and an analysis of users' kinematic profiles, we demonstrate that the initial 90% of motion is primarly balistic and submovements are limited to the last 10% of gesture movement. Through experimentation, we demonstrate that target constraint and the intended use of a target has either a minimal effect on the motion profile or affects the last 10% of motion. Therefore, we demonstrate that any technique that models the intial 90% of gesture motion will not be affected by target constraint or intended use. Given, these results, we develop a technique to model the initial ballistic motion to predict user endpoint by adopting principles from the minimum jerk principle. Based on this principle, we derive an equation to model the initial ballistic phase of movement in order to predict movement distance and direction. We demonstrate through experimentation that we can successfully model pointing motion to identify a region of likely targets on the computer display. Next, we characterize the effects of target size and target distance on prediction accuracy. We demonstrate that there exists a linear relationship between prediction accuracy and target distance and that this relationship can be leveraged to create a probabilistic model for each target on the computer display. We then demonstrate how these probabilities could be used to enable pointing facilitation in modern computer interfaces. Finally, we demonstrate that the results from our evaluation of our technique are supported by the current motor control literature. In addition, we show that our technique provides optimal accuracy for any optimal accuracy when prediction of motion endpoint is performed using only the ballistic components of motion and before 90% of motion distance.