The study of rigid body rocking is applicable to a wide variety of structural and non-structural elements. The current applications range from bridge pier and shallow footing design to hospital and industrial equipment, even art preservation. Despite the increasing number of theoretical and simulation studies of rocking motion, few experimental studies exist. Of those that have been published, most are focused on a constrained version of the complete problem introducing modifications to the physical problem with the purpose of eliminating either sliding, uplift or the three dimensional response of the body. However, all of these phenomena may affect the response of an unrestrained rocking body. Furthermore, the majority of the experimental studies that have been published have used methods that are ill-suited to comprehensive three dimensional experimental analysis of the problem. The intent of this work is two-fold. First, to present a computer vision method that allows for the experimental measurement of the rigid body translation and rotation time histories in three dimensions. Experimental results obtained with this method will be presented to demonstrate that it obtains greater than 97% accuracy when compared against National Institute of Standards and Technology traceable displacement sensors. The experimental results highlight important phenomena predicted in some state-of-the-art models for 3D rocking behavior. Second, to present experimental evidence of the importance of characterizing the support medium as deformable instead of the commonly assumed rigid model. It will be shown in this work that this assumption of a rigid support may in some cases lead to non-conservative analysis that is unable to predict rocking motion and, in some cases, even failure.

A number of conducting gesture analysis and performance systems have been developed over the years. However, most of the previous projects either primarily concentrated on tracking tempo and amplitude indicating gestures, or implemented individual mapping techniques for expressive gestures that varied from research to research. There is a clear need for a uniform process that could be applied toward analysis of both indicative and expressive gestures. The proposed system provides a set of tools that contain extensive functionality for identification, classification and performance with conducting gestures. Gesture recognition procedure is designed on the basis of Hidden Markov Model (HMM) process. A set of HMM tools are developed for Max/MSP software. Training and recognition procedures are applied toward both right-hand beat- and amplitude-indicative gestures, and left-hand expressive gestures. Continuous recognition of right-hand gestures is incorporated into a real-time gesture analysis and performance system in Eyesweb and Max/MSP/Jitter environments.

No description available.

Bibliography: p. 165-184. / xvi, 184 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This thesis explores the issue of copying natural vision processes with regard to providing sensing information in real-time to the lowest control levels of an autonomous vehicle. It is argued that the interpretation of sensory data should result in a level of perception which is tailored to the requirements of the control system. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 1996?

No description available.

Electrical stimulation of the retina affected by photoreceptor loss (e.g., cases of retinitis pigmentosa) elicits the perception of luminous spots (so-called phosphenes) in the visual field. This phenomenon, attributed to the relatively high survival rates of neurons comprising the retina's inner layer, serves as the cornerstone of efforts to provide a microelectronic retinal prosthesis -- a device analogous to the cochlear implant. This thesis concerns phosphenes -- their elicitation and modulation, and, in turn, image analysis for use in a prosthesis. This thesis begins with a comparative review of visual modelling of electrical epiretinal stimulation and analogous acoustic modelling of electrical cochlear stimulation. The latter models involve coloured noise played to normal listeners so as to investigate speech processing and electrode design for use in cochlear implants. Subsequently, four experiments (three psychophysical and one numerical), and two statistical analyses, are presented. Intrinsic signal optical imaging in cerebral cortex is canvassed appendically. The first experiment describes a visual tracking task administered to 20 normal observers afforded simulated prosthetic vision. Fixation, saccade, and smooth pursuit, and the effect of practice, were assessed. Further, an image analysis scheme is demonstrated that, compared to existing approaches, assisted fixation and pursuit (but not saccade) accuracy (35.8% and 6.8%, respectively), and required less phosphene array scanning. Subsequently, (numerical) information-theoretic reasoning is provided for the scheme's superiority. This reasoning was then employed to further optimise the scheme (resulting in a filter comprising overlapping Gaussian kernels), and may be readily extended to arbitrary arrangements of many phosphenes. A face recognition study, wherein stimuli comprised either size- or intensity-modulated phosphenes, is then presented. The study involved unpracticed observers (n=85), and showed no 'size' --versus--'intensity' effect. Overall, a 400-phosphene (100-phosphene) image afforded subjects 89.0% (64.0%) correct recognition (two-interval forced-choice paradigm) when five seconds' scanning was allowed. Performance fell (64.5%) when the 400-phosphene image was stabilised on the retina and presented briefly. Scanning was similar in 400- and 100-phosphene tasks. The final chapter presents the statistical effects of sampling and rendering jitter on the phosphene image. These results may generalise to low-resolution imaging systems involving loosely packed pixels.

Electrical stimulation of the retina affected by photoreceptor loss (e.g., cases of retinitis pigmentosa) elicits the perception of luminous spots (so-called phosphenes) in the visual field. This phenomenon, attributed to the relatively high survival rates of neurons comprising the retina's inner layer, serves as the cornerstone of efforts to provide a microelectronic retinal prosthesis -- a device analogous to the cochlear implant. This thesis concerns phosphenes -- their elicitation and modulation, and, in turn, image analysis for use in a prosthesis. This thesis begins with a comparative review of visual modelling of electrical epiretinal stimulation and analogous acoustic modelling of electrical cochlear stimulation. The latter models involve coloured noise played to normal listeners so as to investigate speech processing and electrode design for use in cochlear implants. Subsequently, four experiments (three psychophysical and one numerical), and two statistical analyses, are presented. Intrinsic signal optical imaging in cerebral cortex is canvassed appendically. The first experiment describes a visual tracking task administered to 20 normal observers afforded simulated prosthetic vision. Fixation, saccade, and smooth pursuit, and the effect of practice, were assessed. Further, an image analysis scheme is demonstrated that, compared to existing approaches, assisted fixation and pursuit (but not saccade) accuracy (35.8% and 6.8%, respectively), and required less phosphene array scanning. Subsequently, (numerical) information-theoretic reasoning is provided for the scheme's superiority. This reasoning was then employed to further optimise the scheme (resulting in a filter comprising overlapping Gaussian kernels), and may be readily extended to arbitrary arrangements of many phosphenes. A face recognition study, wherein stimuli comprised either size- or intensity-modulated phosphenes, is then presented. The study involved unpracticed observers (n=85), and showed no 'size' --versus--'intensity' effect. Overall, a 400-phosphene (100-phosphene) image afforded subjects 89.0% (64.0%) correct recognition (two-interval forced-choice paradigm) when five seconds' scanning was allowed. Performance fell (64.5%) when the 400-phosphene image was stabilised on the retina and presented briefly. Scanning was similar in 400- and 100-phosphene tasks. The final chapter presents the statistical effects of sampling and rendering jitter on the phosphene image. These results may generalise to low-resolution imaging systems involving loosely packed pixels.