Brain–computer interfaces and dualism: a problem of brain,mind, and body

The brain–computer interface (BCI) has made remarkable progress in the bridging the divide between the brain and the external environment to assist persons with severe disabilities caused by brain impairments. There is also continuing philosophical interest in BCIs which emerges from thoughtful reflection on computers, machines, and artificial intelligence. This article seeks to apply BCI perspectives to examine, challenge, and work towards a possible resolution to a persistent problem in the mind–body relationship, namely dualism. The original humanitarian goals of BCIs and the technological inventiveness result in BCIs being surprisingly useful. We begin from the neurologically impaired person, the problems encountered, and some pioneering responses from computers and machines. Secondly, the interface of mind and brain is explored via two points of clarification: direct and indirect BCIs, and the nature of thoughts. Thirdly, dualism is beset by mind–body interaction difficulties and is further questioned by the phenomena of intentions, interactions, and technology. Fourthly, animal minds and robots are explored in BCI settings again with relevance for dualism. After a brief look at other BCIs, we conclude by outlining a future BCI philosophy of brain and mind, which might appear ominous and could be possible.     

An integer program and a hybrid genetic algorithm for the university timetabling problem

The university timetabling problem (UTP) has been studied by numerous research groups for decades. In addition to addressing hard and soft constraints, we extend the UTP by considering consecutiveness and periodicity constraints of multi-session lectures, which are common in many eastern Asian universities. Because schedulers can decide the consecutiveness and periodicity constraints for the multi-session lectures within a limited ratio, we consider these novel decision variables in our model. We develop a mixed integer linear program for the UTP. For the analysis, we convert the UTP into the three-dimensional container packing problem (3DCPP) and create a hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA), which has been shown to be efficient in solving the 3DCPP. We also develop a tabu search algorithm based on the existing UTP literature and compare the findings with that of our HGA. The results show that our HGA obtains a better solution than the tabu search algorithm in a reasonable amount of time.     

Incidental Exposure,Selective Exposure,and Political Information Sharing: Integrating Online Exposure Patterns and Expression on Social Media

Political information sharing in social media offers citizens opportunities to engage with news and express their political views, but how do different patterns of online political information exposure, including both incidental and selective exposure, affect sharing? Using two‐wave panel survey data collected in the United States, we examine the relationship between incidental and selective exposure and their consequent links to political information sharing, across different levels of strength of political party affiliation. Our results demonstrate that incidental exposure to counter‐attitudinal information drives stronger partisans to more actively seek out like‐minded political content, which subsequently encourages political information sharing on social media. The results highlight the need to consider both types of political information exposure when modeling citizens' political behavior online.     

A frame‐based EM‐simulation for design of LC oscillator with MoM capacitor banks

This article presents a simulation method for the design of a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO). Electromagnetic (EM) simulations are essential and inevitable for modern LC oscillator design. Although EM‐simulators provide high accuracy, the EM‐simulation time is very long when metal‐oxide‐metal (MoM) capacitors are present. The proposed frame‐based EM‐simulation can significantly reduce the EM‐simulation time even in the presence of MoM capacitors without influencing the accuracy. To verify the proposed method, a DCO was fabricated using a 55‐nm CMOS process. Measurements of the DCO are in good agreement with the frame‐based post‐layout simulation results. In addition, the DCO has good performances with a low power consumption of approximately 0.68 mW.     

Image structure rebuilding technique using fractal dimension on the best match patch searching

Since most images were built with regular textures and structures, the exemplar-based inpainting technique has become a brand-new solution for renovating degraded images by searching a match patch. This characteristic has also been named as the local self-similarity. Nevertheless, traditional exemplar-based methods try to find the best match patch in the whole image with only one direction; thus, often leading to a non-ideal repairing result. In this article, we propose a novel patch matching technique to rebuild the structure and texture of image, in which the surrounding information of the patch is fully concerned. Aside from determining a more precise filling priority by the sparsity of the image structure, we have applied the difference of fractal dimension to enhance the similarity between the source patch and the target patch. Experimental results have demonstrated the superiority of the proposed technique over related works in the renovating accuracy.     

Enhanced image similarity analysis system in digital pathology

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In digital pathology, image similarity algorithms are used to find cancer in tissue cells from medical images. However, it is very difficult to apply image...     

An efficient reversible data hiding with reduplicated exploiting modification direction using image interpolation and edge detection

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Data hiding is a technique that embeds a cluster of secret messages into the original image. The image with secret messages can be distributed on the Internet...     

A review of audio guides in the era of smart tourism

The tourism industry is intimately related to the development of technology. Currently, technology-integrated “smart tourism” provides convenience and interactivity, and offers personalized services to tourists. However, the use of the technology-mediated audio guides among tourists in cultural heritage sites is not as active as expected. The underutilization of the audio guides in palaces is confirmed by a survey at Gyeongbok-gung palace, and the underlying reasons are examined by interviewing visitors to Chateau de Versailles. This paper analyzes the low usage of audio guides as a case-study, utilizing Cohen’s basic concepts of tour guides, Dann’s tourist motivation theory and the museum ecology of Bell. Consequently, this paper confirms the multifunctional complexity of audio guides, and suggests improvement of them in functionality (user-friendliness, usability, interactivity and social functions) for program developers, and the strategic use of ICT in promotion of palaces as smart tourism destination in cultural heritage management.     

Team THOR's Entry in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals 2015

This paper describes Team THOR's approach to human‐in‐the‐loop disaster response robotics for the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals. Under the duress of unpredictable networking and terrain, fluid operator interactions and dynamic disturbance rejection become major concerns for effective teleoperation. We present a humanoid robot designed to effectively traverse a disaster environment while allowing for a wide range of manipulation abilities. To complement the robot hardware, a hierarchical software foundation implements network strategies that provide real‐time feedback to an operator under restricted bandwidth using layered user interfaces. Our strategy for humanoid locomotion includes a backward‐facing knee configuration paired with specialized toe and heel lifting strategies that allow the robot to traverse difficult surfaces while rejecting external perturbations. With an upper body planner that encodes operator preferences, predictable motion plans are executed in unforeseen circumstances. These plans are critical for manipulation in unknown environments. Our approach was validated during the DRC Finals competition, where Team THOR scored three points in 18 min of operation time, and the results are presented along with an analysis of each task.