Symmetry between the intentionality of minds and machines? The biological plausibility of Dennett’s account

One of the most influential arguments against the claim that computers can think is that while our intentionality is intrinsic, that of computers is derived: it is parasitic on the intentionality of the programmer who designed the computer-program. Daniel Dennett chose a surprising strategy for arguing against this asymmetry: instead of denying that the intentionality of computers is derived, he endeavours to argue that human intentionality is derived too. I intend to examine that biological plausibility of Dennett’s suggestion and show that Dennett’s argument for the claim that human intentionality is derived because it was designed by natural selection is based on the misunderstanding of how natural selection works.     

HCI and Society: Towards a Typology of Universal Design Principles

The task of this article is to focus on aspects of design from a theoretical perspective that works out a general framework of techno-social design that is grounded in the notion of the participatory, cooperative, sustainable information society. The approach is normative in that it is based on the judgment that not just any information society is needed, but one that has specific qualities that this article tries to identify. Methodologically, the article works out a conceptual framework that synthesizes general social theory and human–computer interaction. Design is seen as a social process that shapes society and techno-social systems. First, a model of society that is based on the dialectical interaction of economic, political, and cultural subsystems is introduced. Then, the notion of the the participatory, cooperative, sustainable information society is introduced. This theoretical definition is then used for classifying design principles of techno-social information systems from a social theory perspective.     

一种前馈广义预测控制算法的研究及其仿真

研究了原油常压蒸馏塔的前馈广义预测控制算法 (GPC) ,克服了可测扰动对系统的作用。建立了以进料温度为可测扰动的常压塔常一线温度控制的CARIMA模型 ,实现了前馈GPC算法的仿真 ,验证了该算法对具有可测扰动的过程系统具有良好的控制作用 ,使系统具有良好的鲁棒性。     

The accuracy comparison of multisensor covariance intersection fuser and three weighting fusers

For multisensor systems with exactly known local filtering error variances and cross-covariances, a covariance intersection (CI) fusion steady-state Kalman filter without cross-covariances is presented. It is rigorously proved that it has consistency, and its accuracy is higher than that of each local Kalman filter and is lower than that of the optimal Kalman fuser with matrix weights. Under the unbiased linear minimum variance (ULMV) criterion, it is proved that the accuracy of the fuser with matrix weights is higher than that of the fuser with scalar weights, and the accuracy of the fuser with diagonal matrix weights is in between both of them, and the accuracies of all three weighting fusers and the CI fuser are lower than that of centralized Kalman fuser, and are higher than that of each local Kalman filter. The geometric interpretations of the above accuracy relations are given based on the covariance ellipsoids. A Monte-Carlo simulation example for tracking system verifies correctiveness of the proposed theoretical accuracy relations, and shows that the actual accuracy of the CI Kalman fuser is close to that of the optimal Kalman fuser, so that it has higher accuracy and good performance. When the actual local filtering error variances and cross-covariances are unknown, if the local filtering estimates are consistent, then the corresponding robust CI fuser is also consistent, and its robust accuracy is higher than that of each local filter.     

Knowledge Management in Societies of Intelligent Adaptive Agents

A model is developed of the emergence of the knowledge level in asociety of agents where agents model and manage other agents as resources,and manage the learning of other agents to develop such resources. It isargued that any persistent system that actively creates the conditions forits persistence is appropriately modeled in terms of the rationalteleological models that Newell defines as characterizing the knowledgelevel. The need to distribute tasks in agent societies motivates suchmodeling, and it is shown that if there is a rich order relationship ofdifficulty on tasks that is reasonably independent of agents then it isefficient to model agents competencies in terms of their possessingknowledge. It is shown that a simple training strategy of keeping an agent'sperformance constant by allocating tasks of increasing difficulty as anagent adapts optimizes the rate of learning and linearizes the otherwisesigmoidal learning curves. It is suggested that this provides a basis forassigning a granularity to knowledge that enables learning processes to bemanaged simply and efficiently.     

二维熵取小法和模糊熵相结合的图像分割方法

基于二维熵的分割方法是常用的阈值分割技术,其基本假设是对象区域和背景区域占据了二维直方图的绝大部分区域,即假设对象区域和背景区域的概率和近似为1.Brink提出了通过将对象区域的熵和背景区域的熵先取小然后再取大的方法来获得阈值,该方法存在的不足是忽略了边界区域的信息对分割结果的影响,鉴于此,提出了一种结合二维熵和模糊熵的图像分割方法,先采用Brink提出的二维熵法对图像进行初步分割,再采用模糊熵作后续处理以弥补忽略边界信息带来的问题.实验结果表明,对于含噪图像,该方法的分割效果是比较理想的.     

无形是形 形(型)——空间创造的途径

自从有建筑以来,就有关于空间的话题。建筑本来是朴素具体的东西,是与日常生活密切相关的事物。对空间的认知亦是如此,本文以单纯直接的命题,揭示空间的本义和认识创造的途径。即:空间就是形(型)。实体是型,虚体亦是型。有形是形,无形亦是形。空间的特征就是形态的特征,空间的表情就是形态的表情。空间的色彩就是形态的色彩,矛盾的空间就是矛盾的形(型)。空间构成就是形的构成,空间质感就是形态的质感。     

多数据流上的联机方差分析研究

多数据流上的联机方差分析是一个有意义的研究问题。针对以元组为单位流入的具有相同属性集的多支单数据流组成的多数据流,提出了分别对每支单数据流进行蓄水池抽样,构造一一对应于各单数据流的若干个多快照窗口,即两者之间是双射关系,可以将多快照窗口串行置于主存中,将元组包含的属性与多快照窗口中的各个快照窗口一一对应,且使得同一快照窗口中的各基本窗口与取自其对应的单数据流的属性值样本一一对应,然后对这些相互独立的样本进行方差分析。按顺序串行处理各个多快照窗口中的数据,就可以用串行化的方法来实现并行的多数据流上的联机方差分析。理论分析与实验表明,该方法是合理的和有效的。     

Task scenarios and thought

The position that scenarios are low fidelity task simulations and can be understood from a broadly defined, performance based perspective of task analysis is one that is defended. It is argued that scenarios used for engineering purposes are impoverished in comparison with the sort of properties enjoyed by good stories and that the metaphor of scenarios as stories is one of limited utility. A general psychological theory that thought can be described as envisioned scenarios is espoused and that this will be generally useful to non-psychologists and facilitate the understanding of the limitations of scenarios as used for the purposes of scenario-based design.     

面向客户需求ERP产品可重构开发模型研究

目前ERP系统在开发中主要存在两个问题:一是ERP产品在开发的过程中存在大量的重复工作,系统的开发周期比较长;二是ERP产品的刚性太强,系统的柔性差,适应性不强。针对上述问题,文章提出了客户需求驱动,可重构ERP软件开发模型,阐述了基于客户需求分析的动态企业建模、可重构ERP软件开发的主要技术和系统构建方法。     

Periodic sampling: maximising the sampling period

The process of periodic sampling is investigated for a class of nonlinear systems. The objective is to achieve the longest sampling period that is compatible with a specified error bound. It is shown that there are robust optimal controllers that achieve this objective. It is also shown that the performance of such optimal controllers can be approximated by bang-bang controllers – controllers that are relatively easy to design and implement.     

轿车排气管挂钩刚度优化分析

针对某轿车在试车场进行耐久性试验时出现挂钩处开裂的问题,建立考虑动力总成的排气系统振动分析模型;通过频率响应分析发现挂钩开裂处的约束反力稍大,局部刚度偏低;通过结构优化使挂钩刚度得到加强.对2种优化方案的对比表明优化后的挂钩能减小排气系统传递到车身地板的振动,提高排气系统的疲劳寿命.     

On representation of source reliability through weights on rules

Rule-based expert systems often require their users assess the state of an event and then “report” to the system that state. the system then uses that report of the event as the basis of inference, that is, the hypothesis. the problem is that the report is just that, a report. the report is not necessarily the same as the underlying event that occurred. the relationship between the report and the underlying event is referred to as the reliability of the report or the credibility of the report. This article integrates the difference between the report and the underlying event into the weights of two different uncertainty representation schemes used in expert systems. In each case the impact of that reliability is explored. For example, it is found that the model without reliability is equivalent to the model with reliability, in the case of complete reliability. Further, in some cases the weights are monotonic functions of reliability. Accounting for reliability is found to have a substantial impact on the value of the weights. Further, one approach is seen as influenced less by a lack of reliability than another approach.     

Homomorphism preservation on quasi-wide classes

A class of structures is said to have the homomorphism preservation property just in case every first-order formula that is preserved by homomorphisms on this class is equivalent to an existential-positive formula. It is known by a result of Rossman that the class of finite structures has this property and by previous work of Atserias et al. that various of its subclasses do. We extend the latter results by introducing the notion of a quasi-wide class and showing that any quasi-wide class that is closed under taking substructures and disjoint unions has the homomorphism preservation property. We show, in particular, that classes of structures of bounded expansion and classes that locally exclude minors are quasi-wide. We also construct an example of a class of finite structures which is closed under substructures and disjoint unions but does not admit the homomorphism preservation property.     

Controlling the order of moves in voting by veto. II. Algorithms for constructing an optimal order of moves

The study of issues concerning collective decision-making in complex systems using voting by veto is continued. A dedicated player is assumed to exist in the collective that forms the order of voting (order of moves) for the other participants. The problem of searching for the control strategy for the order of moves that ensures the win of alternative 1 that is preferable for the dedicated player is studied for the previously unstudied cases when such an order of moves exists. In particular, an algorithm for constructing such an order is proposed for the case when there is another participant for which alternative 1 is higher than the fourth from the end and when there is a group of participants that are relatively well-disposed to alternative 1 (more precisely, this alternative is higher than the third from the end for them). It is shown that the preference order of the alternatives that are better than alternative 1 is of no importance for the problem under consideration. It is proved that the conditions for the participants’ preferences that are sufficient for the existence of the desired order of moves (they were obtained in the first part of this paper) are unimprovable.     

Tongue-Movement Communication and Control Concept for Hands-Free Human–Machine Interfaces

A new communication and control concept using tongue movements is introduced to generate, detect, and classify signals that can be used in novel hands-free human-machine interface applications such as communicating with a computer and controlling devices. The signals that are caused by tongue movements are the changes in the airflow pressure that occur in the ear canal. The goal is to demonstrate that the ear pressure signals that are acquired using a microphone that is inserted into the ear canal, due to specific tongue movements, are distinct and that the signals can be detected and classified very accurately. The strategy that is developed for demonstrating the concept includes energy-based signal detection and segmentation to extract ear pressure signals due to tongue movements, signal normalization to decrease the trial-to-trial variations in the signals, and pairwise cross-correlation signal averaging to obtain accurate estimates from ensembles of pressure signals. A new decision fusion classification algorithm is formulated to assign the pressure signals to their respective tongue-movement classes. The complete strategy of signal detection and segmentation, estimation, and classification is tested on four tongue movements of eight subjects. Through extensive experiments, it is demonstrated that the ear pressure signals due to the tongue movements are distinct and that the four pressure signals can be classified with an accuracy of more than 97% averaged across the eight subjects using the decision fusion classification algorithm. Thus, it is concluded that, through the unique concept that is introduced in this paper, human-computer interfaces that use tongue movements can be designed for hands-free communication and control applications.     

Unsupervised segmentation with dynamical units.

In this paper, we present a novel network to separate mixtures of inputs that have been previously learned. A significant capability of the network is that it segments the components of each input object that most contribute to its classification. The network consists of amplitude-phase units that can synchronize their dynamics, so that separation is determined by the amplitude of units in an output layer, and segmentation by phase similarity between input and output layer units. Learning is unsupervised and based on a Hebbian update, and the architecture is very simple. Moreover, efficient segmentation can be achieved even when there is considerable superposition of the inputs. The network dynamics are derived from an objective function that rewards sparse coding in the generalized amplitude-phase variables. We argue that this objective function can provide a possible formal interpretation of the binding problem and that the implementation of the network architecture and dynamics is biologically plausible.     

Lower order generalized aggregated model and suboptimal control

A method for reducing the order of a linear time-invariant dynamic system is presented. It is shown that it is possible to retain the predominant eigenvalues (or any other set of eigenvalues) of the exact system in the lower order model that possesses the property that its state is an aggregation of the state variables of the original system. Also it is shown that the output of the reduced order model can be constrained to contain all the modes of the exact output and to be close to the actual output of the original system within a specified tolerance. The performance of the original system is investigated for an optimal output regulator problem, when it is controlled on the assumption that its behavior is governed by that of the lower order model. Relations are obtained for the performance degradation that results with the above suboptimal control policy. Numerical examples show that the suboptimal control can be used in practice to lessen the computational complexity required for the higher order optimal control. The stability of the suboptimal control is not guaranteed; however, it is reasonable to expect it to be asymptotically stable when the order of reduction is not excessively high, because the outputs of the exact and lower order models are tolerably close.     

嵌入式系统功能安全的三个问题的讨论

功能安全已经是现代工业产品基本的要求,本文讨论三个有关的问题:第一是汽车的功能安全要求可能高于飞机,这对开展该工作的战略重视程度有影响;第二是两种先进的CPU芯片如何满足功能安全的要求,并通过分析指出它们的局限;第三是指出功能安全分析中确定什么是安全状态是关键,只有抓住了它,才能分清什么是安全失效,什么是危险失效,也才能判断安全失效概率以及随之而定的安全完整性等级是否达到。