The Origins of Recycled Films

At the beginning of cinema, in his early twentieth-century research the Soviet director and film theorist Sergei Eisenstein developed his theory of associative montage “1+1=3.” Nowadays, new methods have been added to this theory. These variables include the creative re-use of allusions to film history. In contemporary cinema, when a new archive film uses sequences from cinema heritage, it quotes from the past and can activate visually and content-wise complex cultural memories. In these films, the successive placement of two sequences, beyond their association, creates new associative meaning, thus, it calls forth metacinematic associations. This additional meaning is the imprint of cinematic heritage. Final Cut by György Pálfi and Péter Lichter’s works make use of the archives of cinematic heritage through a reinterpreted film language, attempting to create independent, innovative works of art. They use the same starting point, based on a directorial concept, but the two attempts resulted in completely different motion pictures. Due to the approach at the basis of their conception, these films illustrate both the linear, i.e., the archetypal narrative film representation and the nonlinear narration. However, these films are not only defined by the scenes they are compiled of, but also bear the particularities of the original motion pictures, referring to and going far beyond the individual characteristics of the scenes themselves. Despite being linear narrative films, the cinematic rhetoric of neither motion picture is continuous but associative - they bring into play layers of film culture. Overall, Eisenstein’s formula can be extended in the following way: 1 afs (archive film sequence) + 1 afs (archive film sequence) = 3 mca (metacinematic associations).

Keys for Action: An Efficient Keyframe-Based Approach for 3D Action Recognition Using a Deep Neural Network

In this paper, we propose a novel and efficient framework for 3D action recognition using a deep learning architecture. First, we develop a 3D normalized pose space that consists of only 3D normalized poses, which are generated by discarding translation and orientation information. From these poses, we extract joint features and employ them further in a Deep Neural Network (DNN) in order to learn the action model. The architecture of our DNN consists of two hidden layers with the sigmoid activation function and an output layer with the softmax function. Furthermore, we propose a keyframe extraction methodology through which, from a motion sequence of 3D frames, we efficiently extract the keyframes that contribute substantially to the performance of the action. In this way, we eliminate redundant frames and reduce the length of the motion. More precisely, we ultimately summarize the motion sequence, while preserving the original motion semantics. We only consider the remaining essential informative frames in the process of action recognition, and the proposed pipeline is sufficiently fast and robust as a result. Finally, we evaluate our proposed framework intensively on publicly available benchmark Motion Capture (MoCap) datasets, namely HDM05 and CMU. From our experiments, we reveal that our proposed scheme significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches.

Numerical Model Study of Multiple Dendrite Motion Behavior in Melt Based on LBM-CA Method

In this paper, a new method is proposed to solve the solute field of moving grains, and a Cellular automaton (CA)-Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM)-Semi rebound format(Ladd) coupling model which can accurately simulate the motion behavior of multiple dendrites is established. The growth process of microstructure in the solidification process of Al-4.7% Cu alloy ingot was calculated by Cellular automaton (CA) method, the momentum, heat, and mass transfer processes were calculated by Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), and the melt-dendrite sharp interface interaction was treated by Ladd method. The reliability of the model is verified, and then the growth and movement of single dendrite and multiple dendrites under the action of gravity field are simulated. The simulation results show that the growth and movement mode of multiple dendrites are quite different from that of single dendrite, which is shown in two aspects: (1) the original motion state of dendrites is changed by the combination of flow field, which slows down the falling speed of dendrites to a certain extent; (2) the fusion of solute field between dendrites changed the original growth mode of boundary dendrites and increased their rotation speed.

Animated Performance

A study was carried out to determine the effect of the amplitude of performer movement on judgments of performance quality. The movements of eight live solo performances were captured (two each for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello). For each original recording, three stick figure animations were created: one with augmented performance motion, one with the original motion, and one with diminished motion. The three animations were combined into single dynamic videos that allowed participants to continuously adjust the range of motion in the animation via a slider—from diminished through original to augmented motion. Participants were instructed to adjust the overall amount of performance motion to create the best musical performance. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants elected to significantly augment the motions of the performers.

“Lookin’ Back on the Track, Gonna Do It My Way”

The study of pre-existing music confirms the poetics and politics of these films come together in the very contemporary notion that everything, notably art and identity, is a re-representation. If the songs featured on the original motion picture soundtracks have unquestionably played an important role in constructing the Tarantino brand as an emblem of cool retro, their functions in the films have always been varied and complex: reinforcing and establishing structural and thematic relationships (notably regarding character relations), endowing specific scenes with a certain tone or emotional ambience, and also highly contributing, on a metafictional level, to the political subtexts by way of intertextuality.

Motion Key frame Extraction Based on Grey Wolf Optimization Algorithm

In order to extract the key frames more effectively, we propose a key frame extraction method for human motion sequences based on Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm. The fitness function is defined with the minimum reconstruction error and the optimal compression rate. The social hierarchy of grey wolves and hunting strategy are simulated to search key frames. Experimental results show that the proposed method can not only maintain the consistency of key frames between similar human motion sequences, but also effectively compress and summarize the original motion data. Under the same compression ratio, the reconstruction error is the minimum.

Conceptual and Functional Design of a Robotics Chamfering Tool for Wooden Beams

The paper presents the conceptual and functional design of a novel machine used to create chamfers on wooden beams and called RCT. The authors show, in this paper, the technical problem and the technical specifications used to design a machine to solve the problem. The novelty of the patented invention is based on its originality and usefulness. All claims of the invention are underlined by the novelty and innovation. In this paper, the steps performed to design the proposed machine are discussed in details. The chamfering process is performed using disc saws and the machine is moved on the wooden beam using rubber wheels. This machine uses four disk saws to create chamfers on wooden beams. The particularity of this machine is the possibility to use two or four disk saws for chamfering two or four edges. The market’s needs allow us to design a novel machine with original motion and manufacturing process giving a big impact to creativity and innovation in design for manufacturing.

Perceiving Animacy From Deformation and Translation

In a cartoon, we often receive an animacy impression from a dynamic nonanimate object, such as a sponge or a flour sack, which does not have an animal-like shape. We hypothesize that the animacy impression of a nonanimal object could stem from dynamic patterns that are possibly fundamental for biological motion perception. Here we show that observers recognize the animacy of human jump actions from the combination of deformation and translation. We extracted vertical motion vectors from the uppermost and lowermost points in point-light jumper stimuli and assigned the vectors to a uniform rectangle. The participants’ task was to rate the animacy and jump impressions for the rectangle. Results showed that both animacy and jump impressions for the rectangle movements were comparable to those for the original point-light movements. The impressions decreased for stimuli having a deformation or translation component alone, which was extracted from the original motion vectors. By mathematically simulating deformation and translation in a human jump, we also found that the temporal relation between deformation and translation plays a critical role in the determination of jump impressions but only has a moderate effect for animacy impressions. On the basis of the results, we discuss how cartoon techniques take advantage of the properties of biological motion perception.