Effects of visual and linguistic anthropomorphic cues on social perception,self-awareness,and information disclosure in a health website

Acknowledging the lack of studies examining both visual and linguistic anthropomorphic cues and the underlying mechanisms of their effects, we investigated how the different modalities of anthropomorphic cues in a health website influenced information disclosure. In a 2 (visual cues: human vs. non-human image) × 2 (linguistic cues: conversational vs. impersonal language) × 2 (question type: less vs. more sensitive questions) between-subjects experiment (N = 254), participants registered with a mock-up health website. We assessed a behavioral outcome of not disclosing personal information and psychological outcomes of social perception and self-awareness as potential mediators. Results revealed distinctive effects of the two modalities of the anthropomorphic cues. Anthropomorphic images, on one hand, increased public and private self-awareness, and public self-awareness in turn led to less information disclosure. Anthropomorphic language, on the other hand, heightened social perception and promoted information disclosure, but social perception did not predict the disclosure. These results indicate unique underlying mechanisms of the effects of anthropomorphism: priming effect of visual cues, and communicative effects of linguistic cues.     

A lightweight autonomous MAV for indoor search and rescue

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have great potentials to be applied for indoor search and rescue missions. In this paper, we propose a modular lightweight design of an autonomous MAV with integrated hardware and software. The MAV is equipped with the 2D laser scanner, camera, mission computer and flight controller, running all the computation onboard in real time. The onboard perception system includes a laser‐based SLAM module and a custom‐designed visual detection module. A dual Kalman filter design provides robust state estimation by multiple sensor fusion. Specifically, the fusion module provides robust altitude measurement in the circumstance of surface changing. In addition, indoor‐outdoor transition is explicitly handled by the fusion module. In order to efficiently navigate through obstacles and adapt to multiple tasks, a task tree‐based mission planning method is seamlessly integrated with path planning and control modules. The MAV is capable of searching and rescuing victims from unknown indoor environments effectively. It was validated by our award‐winning performance at the 2017 International Micro Air Vehicle Competition (IMAV 2017), held in Toulouse, France. The performance video is available on https://youtu.be/8H19ppS_VXM .     

Can child-pedestrians’ hazard perception skills be enhanced?

ObjectiveTraffic collisions yield a substantial rate of morbidity and injury among child-pedestrians. We explored the formation of an innovative hazard perception training intervention – Child-pedestrians Anticipate and Act Hazard Perception Training (CA²HPT). Training was based upon enhancing participants’ ability to anticipate potential hazards by exposing them to an array of traffic scenes viewed from different angles.MethodTwenty-four 7–9-year-olds have participated. Trainees underwent a 40-min intervention of observing typical residential traffic scenarios in a simulated dome projection environment while engaging in a hazard detection task. Trainees were encouraged to note differences between the scenarios presented to them from separate angles (a pedestrian's point-of-view and a higher perspective angle). Next, trainees and control group members were required to perform crossing decision tasks.ResultsTrainees were found to be more aware of potential hazards related to restricted field of view relative to control.ConclusionsChild pedestrians are responsive to training and actively detecting materialized hazards may enrich child-pedestrians’ ability to cross roads.     

The role of occlusion in the perception of depth, lightness, and opacity.

A theory is presented that explains how the visual system infers the lightness, opacity, and depth of surfaces from stereoscopic images. It is shown that the polarity and magnitude of image contrast play distinct roles in surface perception, which can be captured by 2 principles of perceptual inference. First, a contrast depth asymmetry principle articulates how the visual system computes the ordinal depth and lightness relationships from the polarity of local, binocularly matched image contrast. Second, a global transmittance anchoring principle expresses how variations in contrast magnitudes are used to infer the presence of transparent surfaces. It is argued that these principles provide a unified explanation of how the visual system computes the 3-D surface structure of opaque and transparent surfaces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experience, Context, and the Visual Perception of Human Movement.

Why are human observers particularly sensitive to human movement? Seven experiments examined the roles of visual experience and motor processes in human movement perception by comparing visual sensitivities to point-light displays of familiar, unusual, and impossible gaits across gait-speed and identity discrimination tasks. In both tasks, visual sensitivity to physically possible gaits was superior to visual sensitivity to physically impossible gaits, supporting perception-action coupling theories of human movement perception. Visual experience influenced walker-identity perception but not gait-speed discrimination. Thus, both motor experience and visual experience define visual sensitivity to human movement. An ecological perspective can be used to define the conditions necessary for experience-dependent sensitivity to human movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Configurational and nonconfigurational interactions between odorants in binary mixtures.

Studies on odor mixture perception suggest that although odor components can often be identified in mixtures, mixtures can also give rise to novel perceptual qualities that are not present in the components. Using an olfactory habituation task, the authors evaluated how the perceptual similarity between components in a mixture affects the perceptual quality of the mixture itself. Rats perceived binary mixtures composed of similar components as different from their 2 components, whereas binary mixtures composed of dissimilar components were perceived as very similar to their components. Results show that for both types of mixtures, pretraining to Component A reduces subsequent learning about Component B in rats trained in the presence of A. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Healing the psyche through music, myth, and ritual.

According to Carl Jung, a person's symptoms occur as a result of the psyche's creative attempt to self-regulate. These symptoms are viewed as the symbol-making function of the psyche. Music therapy as a therapeutic tool is also viewed as having a symbol-making function in that the physical act of making music involves conceptualizing one's symptoms into sounds. The sound serves as a musical symbol of the symptom. The myth of Orpheus is offered as an example of how early man amplified the creative potential contained in music to heal from life's woes. The Orphic archetype illustrates that music serves as a medium for healing and as an expression of Self. That psyche can be healed by music is a reminder of the connection between music therapy and the myth of Orpheus. In using the therapeutic tool of music one can transcend, through the symbol making process inherent in music therapy, the tension of opposites that are created at the crossroads of disease and wellness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

CPM自滤波非稳腔YAG激光器研究

把由非谐振环和凸面全反射镜构成的自滤波非稳腔应用于撞脉冲锁模Ｎｄ：ＹＡＧ激光器，改善了光束的空间质量和输出稳定性，获得发散角为２倍衍射极限，能量５０ｍＪ，脉宽１０ｐｓ的锁模脉冲，并与未加滤波小孔的ＣＰＭ非稳腔的输出性能进行实验比较。，     

Nonlinear adaptive algorithms for equalisation in mobile satellite communications

This paper considers the equalisation problem in Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) modulated signals which have been distorted by the passage through a transmission channel. The channel is modelled as a Rician fading channel to simulate the behaviour of the transmission channel in the mobile satellite context. The equalisation is treated as the generalisation of the channel behaviour, and some algorithms with the structure of an artificial neural network using the Multilayer Perceptron, Volterra Series and Radial Basis Function are described. Results for the BER performance of typical transversal equalisers, with Square-Root Kalman adaptation algorithm, and algorithms with artificial neural network structure are also reported and evaluated. Improved performance is exhibited by the artificial neural network approaches.     

The Logarithmic Image Processing Model: Connections with Human Brightness Perception and Contrast Estimators

The logarithmic image processing (LIP) model is amathematical framework based on abstract linear mathematicswhich provides a set of specific algebraic and functionaloperations that can be applied to the processing of intensityimages valued in a bounded range. The LIP model has been provedto be physically justified in the setting of transmitted lightand to be consistent with several laws and characteristics ofthe human visual system. Successful application examples havealso been reported in several image processing areas, e.g.,image enhancement, image restoration, three-dimensional imagereconstruction, edge detection and image segmentation.The aim of this article is to show that the LIP model is atractable mathematical framework for image processing which isconsistent with several laws and characteristics of humanbrightness perception. This is a survey article in the sensethat it presents (almost) previously published results in arevised, refined and self-contained form. First, an introductionto the LIP model is exposed. Emphasis will be especially placedon the initial motivation and goal, and on the scope of themodel. Then, an introductory summary of mathematicalfundamentals of the LIP model is detailed. Next, the articleaims at surveying the connections of the LIP model with severallaws and characteristics of human brightness perception, namelythe brightness scale inversion, saturation characteristic, Weber'sand Fechner's laws, and the psychophysical contrast notion. Finally,it is shown that the LIP model is a powerful and tractable framework for handling the contrast notion. This is done througha survey of several LIP-model-based contrast estimators associated with special subparts (point, pair of points,boundary, region) of intensity images, that are justified bothfrom a physical and mathematical point of view.