Perception of own and robot engagement in human–robot interactions and their dependence on robotics knowledge

Communication between socially assistive robots and humans might be facilitated by intuitively understandable mechanisms. To investigate the effects of some key nonverbal gestures on a human’s own engagement and robot engagement experienced by humans, participants read a series of instructions to a robot that responded with nods, blinks, changes in gaze direction, or a combination of these. Unbeknown to the participants, the robot had no form of speech processing or gesture recognition, but simply measured speech volume levels, responding with gestures whenever a lull in sound was detected. As measured by visual analogue scales, engagement of participants was not differentially affected by the different responses of the robot. However, their perception of the robot’s engagement in the task, its likability and its understanding of the instructions depended on the gesture presented, with nodding being the most effective response. Participants who self-reported greater robotics knowledge reported higher overall engagement and greater success at developing a relationship with the robot. However, self-reported robotics knowledge did not differentially affect the impact of robot gestures. This suggests that greater familiarity with robotics may help to maximise positive experiences for humans involved in human–robot interactions without affecting the impact of the type of signal sent by the robot.     

面向在线社区用户的群体推荐算法研究

结合现有两种主要群体推荐算法的优势, 建立新的算法框架, 并引入差异度因素对模型进行优化。另外, 考虑到在线社区用户的特点, 定义互动度指标来描述群体成员间的互动程度, 通过分析其与推荐精度之间的关系, 探讨互动度对群体推荐的影响。选取豆瓣网数据进行实验, 并与传统方法进行比较, 结果表明, 融入差异度的算法具有更好的推荐效果, 且有效的互动机制能够保证较高的推荐精度。     

Lowland rice response to potassium fertilization and its effect on N and P uptake

Not much is known about the response of lowland rice to K fertilization under Brazilian conditions. A field experiment was conducted during four consecutive years to determine the response of three lowland rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars to K fertilization on a Low Humic Gley soil. In the first two years, K was broadcast at rates of 0, 42, 84, 126, and 168 kg K ha^–1. In the last two years K rates were reduced to 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 kg K ha^–1 and applied in a band. Potassium significantly (P < 0.01) increased grain yields but the response varied from cultivar to cultivar and year to year. Yield responses to K fertilization were superimposed on a general trend of increasing grain yields across the four growing seasons. Mean grain yields increased 14.3% with broadcast application of K in the first two years and 10.4% with banded application of K in the last two years when compared to the control treatments. Extractable soil K increased with K application rate and decreased with soil depth. Potassium was rapidly removed from the soil and yearly broadcast or banded application of K can be expected to result in a significant increase in grain yield of lowland rice in these soils.     

Exploring the Interactions of Storylines from Informative News Events

Today＇s news readers can be easily overwhelmed by the numerous news articles online. To cope with information overload, online news media publishes timelines for continuously developing news topics. However, the timeline summary does not show the relationship of storylines, and is not intuitive for readers to comprehend the development of a complex news topic. In this paper, we study a novel problem of exploring the interactions of storylines in a news topic. An interaction of two storylines is signified by informative news events that play a key role in both storylines. Storyline interactions can indicate key phases of a news topic, and reveal the latent connections among various aspects of the story. We address the coherence between news articles which is not considered in traditional similarity-based methods, and discover salient storyline interactions to form a clear, global picture of the news topic. User preference can be naturally integrated into our method to generate query-specific results. Comprehensive experiments on ten news topics show the effectiveness of our method over alternative approaches.     

The comparative effect of a mixed urea,ammonium nitrate,ammonium sulphate granular formulation on the efficiency of N recovery by perennial ryegrass

The¹⁵N isotope was used to study the mode of action of individual nitrogen sources in a 30% urea:30% ammonium nitrate: 10% ammonium sulphate:30% filler (w/w) granular fertilizer for perennial ryegrass in a greenhouse pot experiment. The fertilizer consisted of two types of granules, one containing 80% urea and 20% filler and the second containing 48% ammonium nitrate (AN), 16% ammonium sulphate (AS) and 36% filler. In addition the effect of dolomite compared with silica as the filler was investigated on nitrogen recovery from the 30:30:10:30 formulation.Dolomite adversely affected the recovery of nitrate N from the system and evidence suggested that MgCO₃ was the active component. Granules containing dolomite resulted in a lower dry-matter yield than those containing silica, however the difference was not significant as nitrate contributed only 20% of the N in the formulation. AN gave the greatest DM yield and urea the lowest with AS being intermediate. The¹⁵N budget in shoots, roots and soil indicated that only 65% of the N from urea was recovered at the end of the experiment compared with 86% for AN and 91% for AS. The dry-matter yield of the 30:30:10:30 formulation using silica as the filler was intermediate between urea and AN; however, the apparent N recovery was significantly higher than expected from the sum of the individual components. The use of¹⁵N labelling indicated that using separate granules for ammonium N and urea the recovery of urea was improved by 11% in the triple N mixture when both AN and AS were present in the second granule compared to the recovery on its own. The enhanced recovery of urea appeared to be a function of AN and AS acting together as neither source in double combination with urea had any effect on urea N recovery.Urea enhanced the recovery of nitrate N by 10% but decreased the recovery of AS by 6% (in the 30:30:10:30 formulation) in comparison with the single sources on their own. The results indicate that interactions can occur between N sources even when they are physically separated by being in different granules.     

How social distance shapes human–robot interaction

This paper investigates how social distance can serve as a lens through which we can understand human–robot relationships and develop guidelines for robot design. In two studies, we examine the effects of distance based on physical proximity (proxemic distance), organizational status (power distance), and task structure (task distance) on people׳s experiences with and perceptions of a humanlike robot. In Study 1, participants (n=32) played a card-matching game with a humanlike robot. We manipulated the power distance (supervisor vs. subordinate) and proxemic distance (close vs. distant) between participants and the robot. Participants who interacted with the supervisor robot reported a more positive user experience when the robot was close than when the robot was distant, while interactions with the subordinate robot resulted in a more positive experience when the robot was distant than when the robot was close. In Study 2, participants (n=32) played the game in two different task distances (cooperation vs. competition) and proxemic distances (close vs. distant). Participants who cooperated with the robot reported a more positive experience when the robot was distant than when it was close. In contrast, competing with the robot resulted in a more positive experience when it was close than when the robot was distant. The findings from the two studies highlight the importance of consistency between the status and proxemic behaviors of the robot and of task interdependency in fostering cooperation between the robot and its users. This work also demonstrates how social distance may guide efforts toward a better understanding of human–robot interaction and the development of effective design guidelines.     

Response of generalist and specialist insects to qualitative allelochemical variation

We examined the effects of a set of four biosynthetically related iridoid glycosides, aucubin, catalpol, loganin, and asperuloside, on larvae of a generalist,Lymantria dispar (Lymantriidae), the gypsy moth, and an adapted specialist, the buckeye,Junonia coenia (Nymphalidae). In general,L. dispar grew and survived significantly less well on artificial diets containing iridoid glycoside, compared to a control diet without iridoid glycosides. In choice tests, previous exposure to a diet containing iridoid glycosides caused larvae subsequently to prefer iridoid glycoside-containing diets even though they were detrimental to growth and survival. In contrast,J coenia larvae grew and survived better on diets with aucubin and catalpol, the two iridoid glycosides found in the host plantPlantago lanceolata (Plantaginaceae), than on diets with no iridoid glycoside or with loganin and asperuloside. The results of choice tests of diets with and without iridoid glycosides and between diets with different iridoid glycosides reflected these differences as well. These results are discussed in terms of (1) differences between generalists and specialists in their response to qualitative variation in plant allelochemical content, (2) the induction of feeding preferences, and (3) the evolution of qualitative allelochemical variation as a plant defense.     

基于Flash 3D的在线虚拟漫游系统设计与实现

对目前虚拟漫游系统的瓶颈进行分析,提出并实现了一个基于Flash 3D的、优化了的在线虚拟旅游系统。系统对三维场景文件包括模型文件、材质文件及其构建步骤进行优化,并在实现了对多种媒体元素支持的基础上,设计了独创的热点系统,实现对三维场景按需进行加载和展示,以及游客在场景中的互动漫游。系统测试结果表明,该设计方案优化效果显著,系统性能得到了极大的提升。     

视线交互中两类扫视运动的人机工效评估研究

Fitts法则是人机交互领域预测人机工效的一个有效模型,在许多交互方式中都得到了验证,是传统人机工效研究的理论基础。然而在视线交互中,由于眼动肌肉神经控制机制与肢体运动不同,Fitts法则并不适用。近两年的相关研究提出了一个新的专门针对视线点击任务的难度指数IDeye,它比经典的Fitts指数更能准确预测视线交互的工效。然而,在新模型的有效性验证实验中并没有考虑两种典型的扫视运动(向心和离心运动)的差异。为此,在前期研究的基础上设计组织实验,验证了视线交互中离心和向心这两种眼球运动所带来的人机工效和稳定性的差异,并证实新的IDeye模型仍然能有效预测单纯的离心或向心扫视条件下的人机工效,是对视线交互工效研究的重要补充。     

Web交互模型的形式化验证研究

Web交互模型的形式化验证是对Web事件属性进行校验的十分可信的方法。通过一系列的系统模型建立、系统行为分析以及对于模型中关心属性的相关验证,能够让交互模型在设计阶段就能使形式化模型暴露出其所存在的缺陷,而不至于让缺陷保留到编码阶段或者更后面才能被真正地暴露出来,这样使系统模型的生存能力更加强大,同时避免了因后期缺陷暴露而出现的大代价修复。通过对Web系统的交互应用服务的过程模型化的体系进行研究,通过模型本身具有的属性进行相关正确性的校验,主要通过使用数学推理实现系统逻辑上的服务交互进程,从而进行过程的推演,并对系统服务的正确性进行过程的形式化验证,从而使系统服务模块的属性正确性可以通过逻辑上的演进来发现服务问题的存在,而不再是系统通过编码实现后才发现。对Web交互模型的形式化验证是基于IMWSC模型语义形成的IMWSC模型的验证机制。