Browsing by Department "Visualization"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Career: Advancing Interaction Paradigms in Mobile Augmented Reality Using Eye Tracking
Visualization; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/429; National Science Foundation
In this project the PI will develop the science needed to enhance mobile augmented reality applications with (a) eye tracking and (b) gaze direction. Mobile augmented reality uses a hand-held device to provide a see-through view of the physical world in which an image of the physical world is superimposed with information about the things in that view. It is as if you held a piece of glass up to the world, and text appeared on that piece of glass labeling the things you see through the glass. This project will investigate how mobile eye tracking, which monitors where a person is looking while on the go, can be used to determine what objects in a visual scene a person is interested in, and thus might like to have annotated in their augmented reality view. This project will investigate how to make these scene annotations appear and disappear in a manner that is neither distracting nor obtrusive by conducting experiments that measure a person's ability to accomplish visual tasks while presented with text annotations in different sizes, transparency levels, and distances from the point-of-gaze (the point where a person is looking). The project will develop algorithms to automatically manage the density and placement of these labels to best support human tasks while avoiding the creation of distracting "visual clutter". The project will also develop the science that is needed to direct a person's gaze in the physical world by means of new visualization techniques for use in mobile augmented reality systems. In this case, it is as if the piece of glass through which you are viewing the world periodically changed slightly to unobtrusively motivate you to look more closely at different, specific, task-relevant parts of the scene. This aspect of the project will be conducted in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Broader Impacts: The project will advance discovery of visualization techniques to permit mobile applications to enhance the viewing of the physical world, while promoting the teaching and learning of science in multiple contexts. Collaborating with the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the project will develop a freely-downloadable iPhone application that will enhance museum-goers' learning in the arts, and provide a proof-of-concept of how the techniques developed in this project could be used in other contexts. The project pursues a number of specific new opportunities in science education, including the development of (a) project-related curriculum for a science-based summer camp for junior high school students at Texas A&M University, (b) new University-level courses on the programming for augmented reality and the human performance aspects of lighting and cinematography, and (c) conference tutorials on experimental design, eye tracking, and perception in computer graphics.
CHS: Small: Connecting Across Distances: Remote Tactile Communication
Visualization; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/490; National Science Foundation
This project will expand the methodologies and applications for computer-based haptics, by investigating how remote tactile communication, functioning in partnership with other contextual channels like speech, may facilitate supportive discourse for at-risk individuals. The research enhances infrastructure for research and education by building a testbed to study a heretofore unexplored mode of computer-assisted perception between people. It will advance science while promoting teaching, training, and learning by providing unique cross-disciplinary educational and learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Potentially, this new technology will facilitate greater partnership and emotional interaction among people, over long distances. This will help people understand the meaning of the other person's communications, maintain valued relationships, and enhance each other's well-being. It could usher in a new dimension in telecommunications that has significant economic potential. A hardware and software testbed will be developed to study this sub-space of human-computer interaction, including tactile modalities and parameters (e.g., compression, pattern, and onset dynamics) and the timing between a tactile stimulus and the accompanying contextualizing channel. Input and output devices will be developed through iterative design, and evaluated by means of: (1) usability and characterization studies; (2) in-laboratory affective communication studies including a one-way controlled study to assess affect conveyance and a dyadic communication study for the range of communication dynamics supported; (3) in vivo extended communication studies. One connection to general communication theory is the hypothesis that tactile interaction conveys affect immediately without interposing any explicitly coded symbolic message. More generally, this research will take an interdisciplinary approach that draws from and contributes to each participating discipline. Broad dissemination will enhance scientific and technological understanding through publication of results and insights in the journals and conferences of the various fields represented in the project. All software developed will be shared in open source form.
Convergence HTF: From Making to Micro-Manufacture: Reimagining Work Beyond Mass Production
Visualization; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/490; National Science Foundation
Intelligent, interactive, and highly networked machines --with which people increasingly share their autonomy and agency--are a growing part of the landscape, particularly in regard to work. As automation today moves from the factory floor to knowledge and service occupations, insight and action are needed to reap the benefits in increased productivity and increased job opportunities, and to mitigate social costs. The workshop supported by this award will promote the convergence of multiple fields of inquiry from Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Design, Economics, the Social Sciences, Industrial Engineering and Education to define key challenges and research imperatives of the nexus of humans, technology, and work. Convergence is the deep integration of knowledge, theories, methods, and data from multiple fields to form new and expanded frameworks for addressing scientific and societal challenges and opportunities. This convergence workshop addresses the future of work at the human-technology frontier. The specific focus of this workshop is to foster a discussion about the re-conceptualization of wealth creation in economically distressed areas by enabling the production of high quality manufactured goods at scales of hundreds and thousands in many distributed locations, but in an effective and sustainable manner. This approach, called "Micro-Manufacture," is grounded in technological advances that facilitate customized production of artifacts (e.g., 3D printing, the Internet; mobile devices, etc.). The workshop aims at initiating a discussion about the feasibility of the micro-manufacturing model. The workshop will also explore the interplay between Maker-based innovation and the engineering processes of Micro-Manufacture. To initiate the Micro-Manufacturing discussion, the perspectives of multiple science, technology, educational and societal interests need to be included. In particular, it is expected that research questions emanating from the workshop will require the deep integration of more than one discipline, from supply chain modeling and product design, to economics, sociology and education, to name only a few. The expected outcomes of the workshop will include the formation of a community of researchers with ideas that cross-cut fields to address Micro-Manufacture; an understanding of how the multiple related research areas interact and the research that is needed to enable Micro-Manufacture; and a publication in the form of a collected volume to inform the research community and broader society of the need, possibility, and challenges relating to Micro-Manufacture. The broader impacts accrue mainly from its potential to address society's pressing need for new configurations of work that may bring employment to a broader range of workers.
Making in The Colonias: Motivating STEM Participation through a Making as Micro-Manufacturing Model
Visualization; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/490; National Science Foundation
As part of an overall strategy to enhance learning within maker contexts in formal and informal environments, the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) and Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) programs partnered to support innovative models in Making poised to catalyze new approaches in STEM learning and innovation. Employing a novel design and development approach, this Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) will test the feasibility of integrating Making concepts with real world micro-manufacturing engineering principles within the context of intense, multi-year team apprenticeship experiences for high school students. The apprenticeship model is particularly novel, as current Making research and experiences predominately take place in afterschool and summer programs for up to 25 youth. The proposed apprenticeships will require a two year commitment by a small cohort of Texas high school students, which will provide an opportunity to examine the feasibility and impact of the effort longitudinally. The cohort will learn to think critically, solve problems, and work together as a Making Production Team (MPT) in a customized makerspace in their high school, constructing engineering-based science kits for implementation in a local elementary school. Not only will the students enhance their content knowledge while developing design and development skills but the students will also receive stipends which will address two very practical needs for the targeted high need population - employment and workforce development. Few, if any, efforts currently serve the targeted population through the contextualization of Making within a supply chain management and micro-manufacturing framework that extends the Making experience by integrating the student designed products into elementary classrooms. As such, this project will contribute to essentially unexplored areas of Making research and development. Six high school students from high poverty, underserved Texas communities along the Texas-Mexico border (colonias) will be selected for the Making Production Team (MPT). In Years 1 and 2, the students will meet regularly during the academic school year and over the summer with Texas A & M University undergraduates, graduate students, and the project team to learn key aspects of Making and manufacturing (i.e., ideation, prototyping, design, acquisition, personnel, and production) through hands-on making activities and direct instruction. Concurrently, a research study will be conducted to explore: (a) the actualization of the model in an underserved community, (b) the effectiveness of problem-based learning to train students in the model, and (c) STEM knowledge and self-concept. Data will be collected from multiple sources. An adapted version of the Academic Self-Description Questionnaire will be administered to the students to assess their STEM technical knowledge and skills as well as their self-concept in relation to STEM domains. Remote and in person interviews will be conducted with the students to track the evolution of the primary dependent variables, STEM learning and self-concept, over time. Program facilitators and partners will be interviewed to examine the feasibility of the making experience within the given context and for the targeted students. Finally, the students' diary reflections, products, and video recordings of their work sessions will also be examined. Time-series quantitative tests and in-depth qualitative methods will be used to analyze the data.
Strategies: Making the Maker: A Pathway to STEM for Elementary School Students
Visualization; TAMU; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14641/490; National Science Foundation
Building on the highly energized national Maker's Movement involving government offices, schools, and businesses now sweeping the country, this project will explore ways to engage more children in the effort and become motivated and interested in STEM. The project will target 200 children at grades 3-5 to involve them in the "Maker's mindset" from an early age. The goal is for children to develop strong self-identities in STEM areas through their involvement in arts, crafts, and narrative storytelling. For three years, Latino and African American children will participate in a STEM-inspired intervention based on principles of the Making Movement from a constructivist perspective in a project-based learning environment. Students will learn basic concepts in electricity, circuitry, Ohm's Law, 3D printing, electronic load balancing, LEDs, resistances, transistors, and diodes as well as age-appropriate knowledge and skills in geometry that is intended to foster self-identity with a Maker mindset. Research shows that engaging children early on in these types of activities builds strong affiliations with the larger STEM community, creates a sense of belonging in that community, and helps prepare children to easily assimilate within the rapidly changing technological world. To ensure that the Making activities are not an end unto themselves, teachers will participate in ongoing professional development activities to learn how to integrate Making activities into the existing science curriculum for the longer term. This iteratively designed study stems from prior NSF support and is structured around four threads aimed at: (a) conceptualizing the Maker's movement in terms of early childhood development; (b) instilling a Maker's mindset in children; (c) influencing children's identity about STEM; and (d) benefiting society through contributions to the future STEM workforce. Research questions structured around these threads will guide the project team's work with 100 children in five cohorts over three years who will participate in the Maker's intervention to observe the effects on children's self-identity with STEM. The project team will use a mixed-methods design to allow comparisons across three grades each year. A control group of 100 children at the same grades will be used for comparison purposes. The expected outcome is that over time, children will begin to see themselves as active partakers of and contributors to STEM fields and what STEM careers might offer.