This thesis presents different solutions for enhancing a prototype for a 3D video conferencing system, and investigates their advantages and disadvantages. The setup of the system consists of two cameras and a autostereoscopic display hence eliminating the need to use any eyewear. The autostereoscopic display shows seven successive stereo pairs, therefore the 3D content needs ideally to be eight images captured from different views. The system uses a simple algorithm that shifts each image horizontally with a specific value for each view. The second part of the work is to perform a subjective testing for the system. The ITU-T standards P.1301 were used as a reference for the test. The system was compared to 2D traditional conferencing systems and the improvements presented in this work were also included in the test to evaluate the reality of depth perception in the image.

“Influence of physical activity on III–IV form students` self-image in personal wholeness context” Key words Physical activity, forms of physical activity, subjective evaluation of appearance, subjective evaluation of health. Topicality of the theme Nowadays development of students` physical activity as well as development of students` self- knowledge tendencies are under major consideration. Development process is orientated towards students, their expansion of physical abilities, their needs and interests, where parents, teachers, social life changes and means of such reflection have visible influence. The urgency of work is related to a problem which has not been analysed enough, it is the influence of physical activity to the self-image (subjective evaluation of self-appearance and health, selection of forms of physical activity) of III–IV form students formers. Cultural significance for students` development and health was analysed by A. Zaborskis (1993), A. Zaborskis and other authors (1996), I. J. Zuozienė (1998). Positive aspect of sport for development child`s personality was explained by J. Kralikauskas (1993), A. V. Matulionis (2002). Problem How physical activity affects III–IV form students` self-image in personal wholeness context? The aim of research To establish students` (III–IV forms) physical activity influence for appearance and health subjective evaluation and forms of physical activity preferences. The goals of research 1.To establish influence of... [to full text]

Today’s 3D imaging techniques offer significant benefits over conventional 2D imaging techniques. The presence of natural depth information in the scene affords the observer an overall improved sense of reality and naturalness. A variety of systems attempting to reach this goal have been designed by many independent research groups, such as stereoscopic and auto-stereoscopic systems. Though the images displayed by such systems tend to cause eye strain, fatigue and headaches after prolonged viewing as users are required to focus on the screen plane/accommodation to converge their eyes to a point in space in a different plane/convergence. Holoscopy is a 3D technology that targets overcoming the above limitations of current 3D technology and was recently developed at Brunel University. This work is part W4.1 of the 3D VIVANT project that is funded by the EU under the ICT program and coordinated by Dr. Aman Aggoun at Brunel University, West London, UK. The objective of the work described in this thesis is to develop estimation and segmentation techniques that are capable of estimating precise 3D depth, and are applicable for holoscopic 3D imaging system. Particular emphasis is given to the task of automatic techniques i.e. favours algorithms with broad generalisation abilities, as no constraints are placed on the setting. Algorithms that provide invariance to most appearance based variation of objects in the scene (e.g. viewpoint changes, deformable objects, presence of noise and changes in lighting). Moreover, have the ability to estimate depth information from both types of holoscopic 3D images i.e. Unidirectional and Omni-directional which gives horizontal parallax and full parallax (vertical and horizontal), respectively. The main aim of this research is to develop 3D depth estimation and 3D image segmentation techniques with great precision. In particular, emphasis on automation of thresholding techniques and cues identifications for development of robust algorithms. A method for depth-through-disparity feature analysis has been built based on the existing correlation between the pixels at a one micro-lens pitch which has been exploited to extract the viewpoint images (VPIs). The corresponding displacement among the VPIs has been exploited to estimate the depth information map via setting and extracting reliable sets of local features. ii Feature-based-point and feature-based-edge are two novel automatic thresholding techniques for detecting and extracting features that have been used in this approach. These techniques offer a solution to the problem of setting and extracting reliable features automatically to improve the performance of the depth estimation related to the generalizations, speed and quality. Due to the resolution limitation of the extracted VPIs, obtaining an accurate 3D depth map is challenging. Therefore, sub-pixel shift and integration is a novel interpolation technique that has been used in this approach to generate super-resolution VPIs. By shift and integration of a set of up-sampled low resolution VPIs, the new information contained in each viewpoint is exploited to obtain a super resolution VPI. This produces a high resolution perspective VPI with wide Field Of View (FOV). This means that the holoscopic 3D image system can be converted into a multi-view 3D image pixel format. Both depth accuracy and a fast execution time have been achieved that improved the 3D depth map. For a 3D object to be recognized the related foreground regions and depth information map needs to be identified. Two novel unsupervised segmentation methods that generate interactive depth maps from single viewpoint segmentation were developed. Both techniques offer new improvements over the existing methods due to their simple use and being fully automatic; therefore, producing the 3D depth interactive map without human interaction. The final contribution is a performance evaluation, to provide an equitable measurement for the extent of the success of the proposed techniques for foreground object segmentation, 3D depth interactive map creation and the generation of 2D super-resolution viewpoint techniques. The no-reference image quality assessment metrics and their correlation with the human perception of quality are used with the help of human participants in a subjective manner.

Housing Situation of Young People in the Czech Republic Abstract The thesis contributes to a discussion of a social stratification and inequalities in society. The aim of the work is to review a housing situation of Czech households, with the emphasis on the age of the head of household, from several complementary perspectives. Housing conditions of young households are described by the concept of the financial and physical affordability of housing on the basis of objective data about their income situation and the cost and quality of housing. Therefore, we can identify households that have limited access to adequate housing e.g. because of their social background or current social position in the society. The paper also examines the subjective opinions of respondents on the quality and the financial burden of housing. To achieve these objectives, data from the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) of the Czech Statistical Office are analyzed for the years 2005-2011. The analysis also contains the regional perspective, which is used to compare the housing affordability for households living in the different areas of the Czech Republic. Also for this reason results of the thesis could be useful as a basis for housing policy makers. Keywords: young households, housing affordability, housing...

Background: In recent years, research in the field of Augmented Reality (AR) in cultural heritage has been rapidly expanding, due to the advancement of technology and availability of cheaper “off the shelf” hardware. It is, amongst other things, being used as a means to increase availability and regain the public’s interest in cultural heritage.Objectives: This study compares marker-based and marker-less AR in perceived usability and perceived performance through a user study. Methods: With the use of the software Unity3D and Vuforia, two AR applications were implemented. Both applications display a model of an 18th-century Swedish warship, based on a wooden ship model, each using one of the two AR methods. The digital model was remade in Autodesk Maya, to suit the needs of an AR application used on mobile devices. The applications were evaluated in a user study with 14 participants. Each participant was asked to perform a simple task of walking around the displayed ship and then answering a questionnaire on usability. This process was done for both applications, followed by a post-experiment questionnaire on perceived performance where the two methods were compared. Results: The result of the study showed that both applications were perceived as usable and well performing. The result of the usability questionnaire showed that the applications were considered usable, with an average of 90.5 points for marker-based AR and 86.8 points for marker-less AR on a 0-100 point scale. Regarding performance, the marker-based method was perceived as better performing. Conclusions: The participants felt that with just a few instructions, the applications were easy to use, even though 50% of them had no previous experience in using AR, that it could enhance a museum exhibition. Possible further development of the app would be to complete the ship-model by adding more details that are currently missing.

Disertaciniame darbe nagrinėjama depresija sergančių asmenų savijauta ir subjektyvus gyvenimo vertinimas stacionarinio gydymo laikotarpiu, šių reiškinių sąsaja bei pokyčiai gydymo metu. Siekiama atskleisti subjektyvaus asmens savo ligos ir sveikatos vertinimo svarbą prognozuojant sveikimo nuo depresijos rezultatus. Darbe siekiama detaliai išanalizuoti depresija sergančių asmenų savijautos struktūrą, taip pat patikrinti prielaidą, kad subjektyvus gyvenimo vertinimas gali būti laikomas psichikos sveikatos išteklių rodikliu. Teorinėms darbo prielaidoms patikrinti gydymo pradžioje ir pabaigoje buvo ištirti 195 depresija sergantys asmenys besigydantys psichiatrijos stacionare, naudojant klausimyną depresijos pokyčiams vertinti (Pranckevičienė, Goštautas, 2007), Pasaulinės sveikatos organizacijos gyvenimo kokybės klausimyną (PSOGK – Trumpas) ir kitas papildomas metodikas. Statistinė rezultatų analizė atskleidė, kad depresija sergančių asmenų savijauta yra daugiakomponentė ir psichologinių bei somatinių savijautos komponentų išskyrimas yra naudingas analizuojant depresija sergančių asmenų sveikimą stacionarinio gydymo laikotarpiu. Subjektyvus gyvenimo vertinimas neprognozuoja gydymo rezultatų, tačiau yra tinkamas subjektyvus visuminės sveikatos matas, nes gerai parodo funkcines ir kognityvines depresijos pasekmes, t.y. pasikeitusį suvokimą. Tyrimas iliustruoja psichologinės pagalbos svarbą stacionarinio depresijos gydymo laikotarpiu. / The study analyses patients’ subjective complaints and subjective evaluation of life, and seeks to evaluate changes and relationships of these phenomena during inpatient treatment of depression, stressing the importance of subjective experience in understanding the burden of the illness, resources for recovery and treatment outcomes. The study seeks to analyze the structure of depressed patients’ subjective complaints, as well as to evaluate the utility of the subjective evaluation of life for treatment outcome evaluation. 195 depressed inpatients were assessed at the beginning of the treatment and at the time of discharge, using measures of subjective depressive complaints (Pranckevičienė, Goštautas, 2007), subjective quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref) and other clinical and social-demographic data. The results of the study show that additional attention to psychological and somatic components of patients’ subjective complaints is useful and compliments the analysis of depressed inpatients’ recovery process. The subjective evaluation of life should be interpreted as a more generic measure of consequences of depression, but not as a measure of depressed inpatient’s recovery resources. The results validate the need of psychological interventions during inpatient treatment.

The study analyses patients’ subjective complaints and subjective evaluation of life, and seeks to evaluate changes and relationships of these phenomena during inpatient treatment of depression, stressing the importance of subjective experience in understanding the burden of the illness, resources for recovery and treatment outcomes. The study seeks to analyze the structure of depressed patients’ subjective complaints, as well as to evaluate the utility of the subjective evaluation of life for treatment outcome evaluation. 195 depressed inpatients were assessed at the beginning of the treatment and at the time of discharge, using measures of subjective depressive complaints (Pranckevičienė, Goštautas, 2007), subjective quality of life (WHOQOL-Bref) and other clinical and social-demographic data. The results of the study show that additional attention to psychological and somatic components of patients’ subjective complaints is useful and compliments the analysis of depressed inpatients’ recovery process. The subjective evaluation of life should be interpreted as a more generic measure of consequences of depression, but not as a measure of depressed inpatient’s recovery resources. The results validate the need of psychological interventions during inpatient treatment. / Disertaciniame darbe nagrinėjama depresija sergančių asmenų savijauta ir subjektyvus gyvenimo vertinimas stacionarinio gydymo laikotarpiu, šių reiškinių sąsaja bei pokyčiai gydymo metu. Siekiama atskleisti subjektyvaus asmens savo ligos ir sveikatos vertinimo svarbą prognozuojant sveikimo nuo depresijos rezultatus. Darbe siekiama detaliai išanalizuoti depresija sergančių asmenų savijautos struktūrą, taip pat patikrinti prielaidą, kad subjektyvus gyvenimo vertinimas gali būti laikomas psichikos sveikatos išteklių rodikliu. Teorinėms darbo prielaidoms patikrinti gydymo pradžioje ir pabaigoje buvo ištirti 195 depresija sergantys asmenys besigydantys psichiatrijos stacionare, naudojant klausimyną depresijos pokyčiams vertinti (Pranckevičienė, Goštautas, 2007), Pasaulinės sveikatos organizacijos gyvenimo kokybės klausimyną (PSOGK – Trumpas) ir kitas papildomas metodikas. Statistinė rezultatų analizė atskleidė, kad depresija sergančių asmenų savijauta yra daugiakomponentė ir psichologinių bei somatinių savijautos komponentų išskyrimas yra naudingas analizuojant depresija sergančių asmenų sveikimą stacionarinio gydymo laikotarpiu. Subjektyvus gyvenimo vertinimas neprognozuoja gydymo rezultatų, tačiau yra tinkamas subjektyvus visuminės sveikatos matas, nes gerai parodo funkcines ir kognityvines depresijos pasekmes, t.y. pasikeitusį suvokimą. Tyrimas iliustruoja psichologinės pagalbos svarbą stacionarinio depresijos gydymo laikotarpiu.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(エネルギー科学) / 甲第23289号 / エネ博第414号 / 新制||エネ||80(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院エネルギー科学研究科エネルギー社会・環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 下田 宏, 教授 手塚 哲央, 教授 椹木 哲夫 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Energy Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Social Validity is a concept used in behavioral intervention research. It focuses on whether the goals of treatment, the intervention techniques used, and the outcomes achieved are acceptable, relevant, and useful to the individual in treatment. The Social Validity Manual, 2e, provides background on the development of social validity, an overview of current research in social validity, and guidelines for expanding the practice of social validation. The book offers detailed information on scales and methods for measuring social validity across the goals, procedures, and effects of treatments utilized in various fields. The second edition incorporates advances in research findings and offers two new chapters on the use of social validity in the health sciences and how social validity plays an important role in increasing cultural awareness.

Background. In computer graphics, it can be a time-consuming process to render photorealistic images. This rendering process, called “physically based rendering” uses complex algorithms to calculate the behavior of light. Fortunately, most renderers offer the possibility to alter the render-settings, allowing for a decrease in render time, but this usually comes at the cost of a lower quality image. Objectives. This study aims to identify what setting has the highest impact on the rendering process in the V-Ray renderer. It also examines if a perceived difference can be seen when reducing this setting. Methods. To achieve this, an experiment was done where 22 participants would indicate their preference for rendered images. The images were rendered in V-Ray with different settings, which affected their respective render time differently. Additionally, an objective image metric was used to analyze the images and try to form a correlation with the subjective results. Results. The results show that the anti-aliasing setting had the highest impact on render time as well as user preference. It was found that participants preferred images with at least 25% to 50% anti-aliasing depending on the scene. The objective results also coincided well enough with the subjective results that it could be used as a faster analytical tool to measure the quality of a computer-generated image. Prior knowledge of rendering was also taken into account but did not give conclusive results about user preferences. Conclusions. From the results it can be concluded that anti-aliasing is the most important setting for achieving good subjective image quality in V-Ray. Additionally, the use of an objective image assessment tool can drastically speed up the process for targeting a specific visual quality goal.