This dissertation explored the perceived association between scenario planning and the development of leadership capability and capacity. Furthermore, this study explored sophisticated virtual environments seeking instances of adult learning and the conduciveness of these environments for innovative developmental activities to build leadership capability and capacity. Data sources included 1) fifty semi-structured interviews with five expert-practitioners purposively selected for their experience in both scenario planning and leadership development, 2) descriptive process and outcome data from scenario planning programs in university business schools, and 3) fifteen published scenario planning reports, 4) observations of the scenario planning process, and 5) a survey of forty-five individuals who participated in the study of sophisticated virtual environments. The first stream of inquiry that investigated the perceived association between scenario planning and the development of leadership capability and capacity revealed the development of a synthesis model integrated from three informing theoretical frameworks. The model was used for subsequent data collection, analysis, and organization. Each data source supported and further described the associative relationship between scenario planning and the development of leadership capability and capacity; leading to increased confidence in the synthesis model. This study is unique because it links scenario planning explicitly through empirical evidence with the development of leadership capability and capacity. Findings from the second stream of inquiry into sophisticated virtual environments included formal and informal learning in the 3D virtual world of Second Life (SL). Respondents in the study completed forty-five open-ended surveys and follow-up interviews that revealed six enablers of adult learning in SL: 1) a variety of educational topics for life-long learning; 2) opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration; 3) collaboration across geographical boundaries; 4) immersive environment creates social; 5) health and emotional benefits; and, 6) cost savings over face-to-face experiences. Four barriers included: glitches in technology reduced effectiveness, addictiveness of SL, learning curve for "newbies" and funding issues for small businesses and nonprofits. Also, sophisticated technologies are creating media-rich environments found to be integrative spaces conducive for developmental activities in the field of human resource development (HRD). Scenario planning and leadership development were found to be reasonable developmental activities suited to these digital spaces. Virtual human resource development (VHRD) was identified as a new area of inquiry for HRD.

Os surdos possuem a capacidade de utilizar a língua oral para se comunicar limitada e por isso tem como língua materna as línguas gestuais. Isso dificulta a utilização, de maneira satisfatória, dos serviços básicos, bem como a inserção na sociedade ouvinte, que é composta pela maioria da população. Devido ao fato desta língua ser gestual, é viável afirmar que se pode simular seus sinais através de animação de humanos virtuais, sem perder a percepção correta do significado do mesmo (que palavra o sinal representa). O presente trabalho descreve uma técnica de animação aplicada em LIBRAS. A idéia principal é, baseado na descrição da animação de um determinado sinal, executar seu movimento de forma mais, ou menos ampla para que se consiga aproveitar o espaço disponível para a gesticulação, sem entretanto perder o significado do sinal. A animação computacional de um sinal deve o mais próximo possível do real, ou seja, seu significado deve ser facilmente entendido e sua execução deve ser natural (suave e contínua). Para isso os sinais devem ser definidos de acordo com as limitações de movimentação das articulações humanas, bem como ao campo de visão do receptor. Além disso alguns parâmetros devem ser analisados e definidos: velocidade do movimento, tempo e amplitude dos sinais. Outro aspecto importante a ser tratado é o espaço que é disponível para a execução do sinal: dependendo do espaço, o sinal deve ser animado de forma a se adequar a ele. A implementação da técnica resultou em um sistema de animação para LIBRAS composto por três módulos: • um modelador do humano virtual, de forma que as articulações e DOFs deste sejam anatomicamente coerentes com a realidade; • um gerador de gestos, o qual é responsável pela transformação dos parâmetros como velocidade, tempo de execução do gesto, configuração das juntas, em um arquivo que descreve a animação da pose. Cabe ressaltar que as palavras em LIBRAS são conhecidas como sinais. Já um sinal é composto por um ou vários gestos e estes são compostos por poses; • um animador, o qual é responsável por gerar a animação de um sinal previamente criado, adequando (se necessário) a amplitude deste sinal ao espaço disponível para a execução do mesmo. O sistema criado foi submetido a testes para que a técnica fosse validada. O que se buscou com os testes foi verificar se os sinais gerados eram passíveis de entendimento, ou seja, se a animação gerada representava determinada palavra. Todos os aspectos acima mencionados são apresentados e analisados em detalhes. / Deaf people have a limited capacity of using oral language to communicate. Because of this, they use gestural languages as their native language. This makes it especially difficult for them to make use of basic services in a satisfactory way and to properly integrate the hearing world, to which the majority of the population belongs. Due to the fact that this language is only gestural, it is possible to say that the signs it comprises of can be simulated with the animation of virtual humans without losing the correct perception of their inherent meanings (what words they represent). This work describes a technique of animation for LIBRAS. The main idea is to take the movement of a sign from a description of its animation and execute it in a more or less wide manner in order to better use the available space for gesticulation without losing the meaning. The computer animation of a sign must be as close to the real gesture as possible. Its meaning must be easily understood and its execution must be natural (smooth and continuous). For that, the signs must be defined in accordance with the movement limitations imposed by the human joints, and the field of view of the receiver. Besides that, some relevant parameters must be analyzed and defined: speed of the movement, time and amplitude of the signs. Another important aspect to be addressed is the space that is available for the execution of the sign: depending on the area, the sign must be animated in a manner that makes it properly fit in it. The implementation of the technique resulted in a animation system for LIBRAS, that consists of three modules: • a virtual human modeler, so that the joints and DOFs are anatomically consistent with reality; • a gesture generator, which is responsible for the processing of parameters such as speed, time of execution of the gesture, joint configuration, in a file that describes the animation of the pose. It is worth emphasizing that the words in LIBRAS are known as signs. Already a sign is composed of one or more gestures and they are composed of poses; • an animator, which is responsible for generating the animation of a previously created sign, fitting (if necessary) the sign amplitude to the space available for its animation. The generated system has been submitted for tests in order to validate the technique. The goal of the tests was to check whether the generated signs were understandable - if the generated animation represented a certain word. All aspects above are presented and analyzed in detail.

Os surdos possuem a capacidade de utilizar a língua oral para se comunicar limitada e por isso tem como língua materna as línguas gestuais. Isso dificulta a utilização, de maneira satisfatória, dos serviços básicos, bem como a inserção na sociedade ouvinte, que é composta pela maioria da população. Devido ao fato desta língua ser gestual, é viável afirmar que se pode simular seus sinais através de animação de humanos virtuais, sem perder a percepção correta do significado do mesmo (que palavra o sinal representa). O presente trabalho descreve uma técnica de animação aplicada em LIBRAS. A idéia principal é, baseado na descrição da animação de um determinado sinal, executar seu movimento de forma mais, ou menos ampla para que se consiga aproveitar o espaço disponível para a gesticulação, sem entretanto perder o significado do sinal. A animação computacional de um sinal deve o mais próximo possível do real, ou seja, seu significado deve ser facilmente entendido e sua execução deve ser natural (suave e contínua). Para isso os sinais devem ser definidos de acordo com as limitações de movimentação das articulações humanas, bem como ao campo de visão do receptor. Além disso alguns parâmetros devem ser analisados e definidos: velocidade do movimento, tempo e amplitude dos sinais. Outro aspecto importante a ser tratado é o espaço que é disponível para a execução do sinal: dependendo do espaço, o sinal deve ser animado de forma a se adequar a ele. A implementação da técnica resultou em um sistema de animação para LIBRAS composto por três módulos: • um modelador do humano virtual, de forma que as articulações e DOFs deste sejam anatomicamente coerentes com a realidade; • um gerador de gestos, o qual é responsável pela transformação dos parâmetros como velocidade, tempo de execução do gesto, configuração das juntas, em um arquivo que descreve a animação da pose. Cabe ressaltar que as palavras em LIBRAS são conhecidas como sinais. Já um sinal é composto por um ou vários gestos e estes são compostos por poses; • um animador, o qual é responsável por gerar a animação de um sinal previamente criado, adequando (se necessário) a amplitude deste sinal ao espaço disponível para a execução do mesmo. O sistema criado foi submetido a testes para que a técnica fosse validada. O que se buscou com os testes foi verificar se os sinais gerados eram passíveis de entendimento, ou seja, se a animação gerada representava determinada palavra. Todos os aspectos acima mencionados são apresentados e analisados em detalhes. / Deaf people have a limited capacity of using oral language to communicate. Because of this, they use gestural languages as their native language. This makes it especially difficult for them to make use of basic services in a satisfactory way and to properly integrate the hearing world, to which the majority of the population belongs. Due to the fact that this language is only gestural, it is possible to say that the signs it comprises of can be simulated with the animation of virtual humans without losing the correct perception of their inherent meanings (what words they represent). This work describes a technique of animation for LIBRAS. The main idea is to take the movement of a sign from a description of its animation and execute it in a more or less wide manner in order to better use the available space for gesticulation without losing the meaning. The computer animation of a sign must be as close to the real gesture as possible. Its meaning must be easily understood and its execution must be natural (smooth and continuous). For that, the signs must be defined in accordance with the movement limitations imposed by the human joints, and the field of view of the receiver. Besides that, some relevant parameters must be analyzed and defined: speed of the movement, time and amplitude of the signs. Another important aspect to be addressed is the space that is available for the execution of the sign: depending on the area, the sign must be animated in a manner that makes it properly fit in it. The implementation of the technique resulted in a animation system for LIBRAS, that consists of three modules: • a virtual human modeler, so that the joints and DOFs are anatomically consistent with reality; • a gesture generator, which is responsible for the processing of parameters such as speed, time of execution of the gesture, joint configuration, in a file that describes the animation of the pose. It is worth emphasizing that the words in LIBRAS are known as signs. Already a sign is composed of one or more gestures and they are composed of poses; • an animator, which is responsible for generating the animation of a previously created sign, fitting (if necessary) the sign amplitude to the space available for its animation. The generated system has been submitted for tests in order to validate the technique. The goal of the tests was to check whether the generated signs were understandable - if the generated animation represented a certain word. All aspects above are presented and analyzed in detail.

Illustrative visualization is a term for visualization techniques inspired by traditional technical and medical illustration. These techniques are based on knowledge of the human perception and provide effective visual abstraction to make the visualizations more understandable. Within volume rendering these expressive visualizations can be achieved using non-photorealistic rendering that combines different levels of abstraction to convey the most important information to the viewer. In this thesis I will look at illustrative techniques and show how these can be used to visualize anatomical structures in a medical volume data. The result of the thesis is a prototype of an anatomy education application, that makes use of illustrative techniques to have a focus+context visualization with feature enhancement, tone shading and labels describing the anatomical structures. This results in an expressive visualization and interactive exploration of the human anatomy.

Cette thèse porte sur l’analyse et la génération de mouvements expressifs pour des personnages humains virtuels. Sur la base de résultats d’état de l’art issus de trois domaines de recherche différents (la perception des émotions et du mouvement biologique, la reconnaissance automatique des émotions et l’animation de personnages), une représentation en faible dimension des mouvements a été proposée. Cette représentation est constituée de trajectoires spatio- temporelles des extrémités des chaînes articulées (tête, mains et pieds) et du pelvis. Nous avons soutenu que cette représentation est à la fois appropriée et suffisante pour caractériser le contenu expressif du mouvement humain et pour contrôler la génération de mouvements corporels expressifs. Pour étayer ces affirmations, cette thèse propose : i.) Une nouvelle base de données de mouvements capturés. Cette base de données a été inspirée par la théorie du théâtre physique et contient des exemples de différentes catégories de mouvements (à savoir des mouvements périodiques, des mouvements fonctionnels, des mouvements spontanés et des séquences de mouvements théâtraux), produit avec des états émotionnels distincts (joie, tristesse, détente, stress et neutre) et interprétés par plusieurs acteurs. ii.) Une étude perceptuelle et une approche basée classification automatique conçus pour évaluer qualitativement et quantitativement la quantité d’information liée aux émotions encore véhiculée et codée dans la représentation proposée. Nous avons observé que, bien que de légères différences dans la performance aient été trouvées par rapport à la situation dans laquelle le corps entier a été utilisé, notre représentation conserve la plupart des qualités de mouvements liées à l’expression de l’affect et d’émotions. iii.) Un système de synthèse de mouvement capable : (a) de reconstruire des mouvements du corps entier à partir de la représentation à faible dimension proposée, (b) de produire de nouvelles trajectoires extrémités expressives (incluant la trajectoire du pelvis). Une évaluation quantitative et qualitative des mouvements du corps entier générés montre que ces mouvements sont aussi expressifs que les mouvements enregistrés à partir d’acteurs humains. / This thesis addresses the analysis and generation of expressive movements for virtual human characters. Based on previous results from three different research areas (perception of emotions and biological motion, automatic recognition of affect and computer character animation), a low-dimensional motion representation is proposed. This representation consists of the spatio-temporal trajectories of end-effectors (i.e., head, hands and feet) and pelvis. We have argued that this representation is both suitable and sufficient for characterizing the underlying expressive content in human motion and for controlling the generation of expressive whole-body movements. In order to prove these claims, this thesis proposes: i.) A new motion capture database inspired by physical theater theory. This database contains examples from different motion classes (i.e., periodic movements, functional behaviors, spontaneous motions, and theater-inspired motion sequences) and distinct emotional states (happiness, sadness, relaxedness, stress and neutral) performed by several actors. ii.) A user study and automatic classification framework de- signed to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the amount of emotion-related information conveyed and encoded in the proposed representation. We have observed that although slight differences in performance were found with respect to the cases in which the entire body was used, our proposed representation preserves most of the motion cues salient to the expression of affect and emotions. iii.) A simple motion synthesis system able to capable of: a) reconstructing whole-body movements from the proposed low-dimensional representation, and b) producing novel end- effector (and pelvis) expressive trajectories. A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the generated whole body motions shows that these motions are as expressive as the movements recorded from human actors

Human communication is inherently multimodal. The information conveyed through body language, facial expression, gaze, intonation, speaking style etc. are all important components of everyday communication. An issue within computer science concerns how to provide multimodal agent based systems. Those are systems that interact with users through several channels. These systems can include Virtual Humans. A Virtual Human might for example be a complete creature, i.e. a creature with a whole body including head, arms, legs etc. but it might also be a creature with only a head, a Talking Head. The aim of the Virtual Human Markup Language (VHML) is to control Virtual Humans regarding speech, facial animation, facial gestures and body animation. These parts have previously been implemented and investigated separately, but VHML aims to combine them. In this thesis VHML is verified, validated and evaluated in order to reach that aim and thus VHML is made more solid, homogenous and complete. Further, a Virtual Human has to communicate with the user and even though VHML supports a number of other ways of communication, an important communication channel is speech. The Virtual Human has to be able to interact with the user, therefore a dialogue between the user and the Virtual Human has to be created. These dialogues tend to expand tremendously, hence the Dialogue Management Tool (DMT) was developed. Having a toolmakes it easier for programmers to create and maintain dialogues for the interaction. Finally, in order to demonstrate the work done in this thesis a Talking Head application, The Mystery at West Bay Hospital, has been developed and evaluated. This has shown the usefulness of the DMT when creating dialogues. The work that has been accomplished within this project has contributed to simplify the development of Talking Head applications.

<p>Human communication is inherently multimodal. The information conveyed through body language, facial expression, gaze, intonation, speaking style etc. are all important components of everyday communication. An issue within computer science concerns how to provide multimodal agent based systems. Those are systems that interact with users through several channels. These systems can include Virtual Humans. A Virtual Human might for example be a complete creature, i.e. a creature with a whole body including head, arms, legs etc. but it might also be a creature with only a head, a Talking Head. The aim of the Virtual Human Markup Language (VHML) is to control Virtual Humans regarding speech, facial animation, facial gestures and body animation. These parts have previously been implemented and investigated separately, but VHML aims to combine them. In this thesis VHML is verified, validated and evaluated in order to reach that aim and thus VHML is made more solid, homogenous and complete. Further, a Virtual Human has to communicate with the user and even though VHML supports a number of other ways of communication, an important communication channel is speech. The Virtual Human has to be able to interact with the user, therefore a dialogue between the user and the Virtual Human has to be created. These dialogues tend to expand tremendously, hence the Dialogue Management Tool (DMT) was developed. Having a toolmakes it easier for programmers to create and maintain dialogues for the interaction. Finally, in order to demonstrate the work done in this thesis a Talking Head application, The Mystery at West Bay Hospital, has been developed and evaluated. This has shown the usefulness of the DMT when creating dialogues. The work that has been accomplished within this project has contributed to simplify the development of Talking Head applications.</p>

Les enfants atteints de paralysie cérébrale présentent souvent des troubles de la locomotion. La chirurgie orthopédique vise à améliorer la marche de ces enfants. La perspective de ce travail est de simuler ces effets.Dans ce sens, un modèle anthropométrique 3D représentant un humain, avec des pieds articulés, est développé. La marche est simulée avec une technique d’optimisation LQP, sous contraintes. Les simulations sont réalisées dans le simulateur dynamique multi-corps XDE.Trois types de contact pied-sol sont implémentés. La marche humaine non pathologique est générée avec les déroulements de pieds standards. Des données issues de la capture du mouvement sont utilisées afin d’améliorer les allures de marche générées. Des vitesses de marche et des longueurs de pas supérieures à celles généralement obtenues avec des robots humanoïdes marchant avec des pieds plats sont atteintes. Ces valeurs, ainsi que la cinématique du plan sagittal, sont proches de celles rencontrées chez l’humain. Les deux autres contacts pied-sol développés concernent la marche sur la pointe des pieds et pieds plats avec déroulement du talon. Différentes longueurs de pas et vitesses de marche sont atteintes pour ces deux types de contact. L’effet virtuel de la modification des limites articulaires est testé sur les marches non pathologiques et sur la pointe des pieds. Le système de simulation développé permet de générer des allures de marche en tenant compte de ces modifications. Dans certains cas, les marches générées reproduisent certaines caractéristiques des marches des enfants atteints de paralysie cérébrale.Des limites et des perspectives de l’approche développé dans ce travail sont discutés. / Children with cerebral palsy generally develop gait impairments. Orthopaedic surgery aims to improve the gait and the function of those children by specific procedures. The perspective of this work is to simulate their effects. In order to do that, an anthropomorphic 3D human model with an articulated foot is developed. A task-oriented Linear Quadratic Programming is used to dynamically simulate walking through constrained optimization. The motion is simulated in the multibody dynamics XDE framework. Three different patterns of foot contacts with the ground are implemented. Asymptomatic human walking is first generated with all the normal foot rockers. Experimental data from motion capture systems is used to improve the generated gait patterns. Greater walking speeds and step lengths than usually obtained with flat feet humanoid robots are simulated. They are close to those of healthy human walking, as well as sagittal kinematics. Dynamical data stay within the magnitudes encountered in human walking. Toe walking and flat feet walking with heel off motion, currently observed in children with cerebral palsy, are the two other developed patterns. Different steps lengths and walking speeds are possible for these two types of motion. The virtual effect of modifying joint limits constraints is tested on different asymptomatic or toe walking simulations. The developed simulation system is able to deal with these changes and to produce walking motions. In some cases, the generated gait patterns reproduce features of cerebral palsy children's walking. Limits and perspectives of this dynamic simulation approach are extensively discussed.

Studiens syfte var att bidra med kunskap om hur lärande processer påverkas av den snabbt ökande digitala transformationen som sker inom arbetslivet. Inom den digitala transformationen så har fokus varit att utforska de olika digitala kanaler och verktyg som erbjuds för kompetenshöjande aktiviteter.De frågeställningar som studien fokuserade på handlade om den digitala kompetensen, användandet av digitala verktyg och kanaler för kompetenshöjande aktiviteter, förändrade lärande processer i och med digitaliseringen samt vilka drivkrafter och motivationer som styr arbetsplatslärandet. Studien genomfördes utifrån en kvalitativ hermeneutisk metod med halvstrukturerade intervjuer och det var 12 personer som deltog i studien. Sammanfattningsvis visade resultaten att det har skett en förändringi lärande processerna då de digitala medierna används i större omfattningar. Samtidigt framkom det också insikter att deltagarna mest föredragna lärstil eventuellt inte används vid digitala utbildningsinsatser. Utifrån de resultat som framkom så visade det även att det inte är den digitala kompetensen som hindrar medarbetare från att ta del av det digitala utbudet av de kompetenshöjande aktiviteter som erbjuds. De hinder som upplevs är att det inte finns tillgänglig tid för lärande, relevant kompetensutveckling som stödjer professionen och tid för både individuell reflektion samt tid för reflektion tillsammans med kollegor som kan ge både nya perspektiv och synvinklar.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T13:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 30 / Nenhuma / Este trabalho apresenta um modelo de percepção de dados não visíveis (por exemplo, olfativas e auditivas) para humanos virtuais baseado em informações puramente geométricas existentes em ambientes virtuais. Esta proposta procurou contextualizar vários tópicos de pesquisa no que diz respeito a agentes autônomos em ambientes virtuais e suas capacidades de percepção. Procurou-se, através da área da visão sintética, encontrar métodos que pudessem ser generalizados para que outros sentidos pudessem ser simulados. O objetivo principal deste modelo é possibilitar que o agente possa identificar diferentes ocorrências de eventos dentro de um ambiente virtual, no que diz respeito às informações não necessariamente visuais, como por exemplo, a presença de cheiros ou barulhos. Para o modelo, foram buscados métodos que proporcionem um bom desempenho computacional e que sejam facilmente generalizados e implementados de maneira a prover métodos de percepção a multidões de humanos virtuais / This work presents a perception data model which deals with not visible information (such as hearing and smelling). This model is based on geometric information that exists in the virtual environment. This proposal also identifies several research topics related to autonomous agents in virtual environments and their perception abilities. Investigations in synthetic vision area allows to find methods that could be generalized in order to be used for other sensors. Therefore, the main objective of this model is to allow to the agents the possibility of identifying different events, into a virtual environment, not necessarily visual data. For instance, the presence of smell and noise. In addition, we propose methods which aims to provide a good computational performance and which can be generalized and implemented in a way that they can provide the perception methods to virtual human beings.