scholarly journals Aid for the Blind to Facilitate the Learning Process of the Local Environment by the Use of Tactile Map

Author(s):  
Rajko Mahkovic
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaogang Yan ◽  
Steven Mills ◽  
Alistair Knott

Humans initially learn about objects through the sense of touch, in a process called “haptic exploration.” In this paper, we present a neural network model of this learning process. The model implements two key assumptions. The first is that haptic exploration can be thought of as a type of navigation, where the exploring hand plays the role of an autonomous agent, and the explored object is this agent's “local environment.” In this scheme, the agent's movements are registered in the coordinate system of the hand, through slip sensors on the palm and fingers. Our second assumption is that the learning process rests heavily on a simple model of sequence learning, where frequently-encountered sequences of hand movements are encoded declaratively, as “chunks.” The geometry of the object being explored places constraints on possible movement sequences: our proposal is that representations of possible, or frequently-attested sequences implicitly encode the shape of the explored object, along with its haptic affordances. We evaluate our model in two ways. We assess how much information about the hand's actual location is conveyed by its internal representations of movement sequences. We also assess how effective the model's representations are in a reinforcement learning task, where the agent must learn how to reach a given location on an explored object. Both metrics validate the basic claims of the model. We also show that the model learns better if objects are asymmetrical, or contain tactile landmarks, or if the navigating hand is articulated, which further constrains the movement sequences supported by the explored object.


Author(s):  
Chester J. Calbick ◽  
Richard E. Hartman

Quantitative studies of the phenomenon associated with reactions induced by the electron beam between specimens and gases present in the electron microscope require precise knowledge and control of the local environment experienced by the portion of the specimen in the electron beam. Because of outgassing phenomena, the environment at the irradiated portion of the specimen is very different from that in any place where gas pressures and compositions can be measured. We have found that differential pumping of the specimen chamber by a 4" Orb-Ion pump, following roughing by a zeolite sorption pump, can produce a specimen-chamber pressure 100- to 1000-fold less than that in the region below the objective lens.


Author(s):  
M.J. Hennessy ◽  
E. Kwok

Much progress in nuclear magnetic resonance microscope has been made in the last few years as a result of improved instrumentation and techniques being made available through basic research in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies for medicine. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was first observed in the hydrogen nucleus in water by Bloch, Purcell and Pound over 40 years ago. Today, in medicine, virtually all commercial MRI scans are made of water bound in tissue. This is also true for NMR microscopy, which has focussed mainly on biological applications. The reason water is the favored molecule for NMR is because water is,the most abundant molecule in biology. It is also the most NMR sensitive having the largest nuclear magnetic moment and having reasonable room temperature relaxation times (from 10 ms to 3 sec). The contrast seen in magnetic resonance images is due mostly to distribution of water relaxation times in sample which are extremely sensitive to the local environment.


Author(s):  
D W McComb ◽  
R S Payne ◽  
P L Hansen ◽  
R Brydson

Electron energy-loss near-edge structure (ELNES) is an effective probe of the local geometrical and electronic environment around particular atomic species in the solid state. Energy-loss spectra from several silicate minerals were mostly acquired using a VG HB501 STEM fitted with a parallel detector. Typically a collection angle of ≈8mrad was used, and an energy resolution of ≈0.5eV was achieved.Other authors have indicated that the ELNES of the Si L2,3-edge in α-quartz is dominated by the local environment of the silicon atom i.e. the SiO4 tetrahedron. On this basis, and from results on other minerals, the concept of a coordination fingerprint for certain atoms in minerals has been proposed. The concept is useful in some cases, illustrated here using results from a study of the Al2SiO5 polymorphs (Fig.l). The Al L2,3-edge of kyanite, which contains only 6-coordinate Al, is easily distinguished from andalusite (5- & 6-coordinate Al) and sillimanite (4- & 6-coordinate Al). At the Al K-edge even the latter two samples exhibit differences; with careful processing, the fingerprint for 4-, 5- and 6-coordinate aluminium may be obtained.


Author(s):  
Pandiya Pandiya Pandiya ◽  
Nurul Hamida Hamida

This study aims to determine the extent to which the teaching staff in the Semarang State Polytechnic Accounting Department applies a style of speech; i.e. either oratory, deliberative, consultative, relaxed, or intimate. The data collection is done by questionnaire and class observation. The population of this study consists of teaching staff at the Semarang State Polytechnic Accounting Department. The data is more qualitative, which is more in the form of a description of the characteristics of the respondents and not much related to the numbers. Sampling technique is done by population, namely all teaching staff of Semarang State Polytechnic Accounting Department. Data analysis is carried out by a Likert Scale of 5. The results indicate that Consultative Speech is the style most widely applied by the Teaching Staff of the Semarang State Polytechnic Accounting Department, while the oratoric speaking style is the least practiced style. Extemporan presentation method is the most widely applied method in the activities of the Teaching and Learning Process in the Semarang State Polytechnic Accounting Department, while the impromptu method is the least applied method. The most widely used body language is a smile, while eye flicker is the least applied body language. The distance between the Teaching Staff and Students in the Teaching and Learning Process activities that are most widely applied are groups (125-350 cm), while the least applied distance is intimate (50 cm). The results of this study support the previous research that the use of Body Language greatly affects the success of the Teaching and Learning process.


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