Oksana Arnold

Therapy Plan Generation as Program Synthesis

There has been developed and implemented an algorithm for the automatic synthesis of therapy plans for complex dynamic systems. This algorithm is the core of some control synthesis module which is embedded in a larger knowledge-based system for control, diagnosis and therapy. There are several applications.

Aliens on the Bus: A family of pervasive games

There is an interesting category of digital games particularly challenging consumer electronics: pervasive games. On the one hand, pervasive games appear extremely promising for purposes such as learning and for encouraging players to engage in healthy outdoor activities. They widen the horizon of games content by direct access to reality. On the other hand, a larger number of pervasive games failed badly bearing abundant evidence for the need of better understanding the essentials of pervasive games and of the experience in playing them. The authors have developed not only a single pervasive game concept, but a whole family of concepts quite suitable for systematically challenging consumer electronics aiming at a wide spectrum of effects ranging from amusement to game-based learning.

A modal temporal logic and its models underlying variants of planning algorithms

The focus of the paper is on the introduction of some modal temporal logic and its application to knowledge processing under the particularly difficult circumstances of disturbed complex dynamic processes. The development of this logic has been driven by the overall approach to knowledge-based process supervision and control. Within this comprehensive approach, therapy control is playing a crucial role. The therapy control concept comprises the generation of therapy or repair plans, plan execution and constraint monitoring and includes plan revision. The incompleteness and vagueness of available information about an accidentally disturbed process requires a particularly tailored logical approach. The basic concepts are introduced and exploited for developing a collection of planning algorithms properly exceeding previous approaches.

Media Multiplicity at Your Fingertips: Direct Manipulation Based on Webbles

Webble Technology is the most recent form of Intelligent Pad. Webbles are objects in a browser window that allow for direct manipulation by drag and drop. One may pick up any Webble and move it over any other one for operational combination. The new Webble is plugged into the previous one and data between them flow through predefined slots. Human users may reconfigure the slot connections of Webbles as necessary. The technology is ready to deal with a great multiplicity of media ranging from text, audio, pictures and video through building blocks of interactive laboratories to highly abstract objects such as decision trees and partial recursive functions. This makes Webbles particularly appropriate for e-learning. The paper aims at an intense workshop discussion of the reach of the technology putting emphasis on the didactic potential of directly manipulating a manifold of digital media types.

Inductive program synthesis for therapy plan generation

Planning is investigated in an area where classical STRIPS-like approaches usually fail. The application domain is therapy (i.e. repair) for complex dynamic processes. The peculiarities of this domain are discussed in some detail for convincingly developing the characteristics of the inductive planning approach presented. Plans are intended to be run for process therapy. Thus, plans are programs. Because of the unavoidable vagueness and uncertainty of information about complex dynamic processes in the case of disturbance, therapy plan generation turns out to be inductive program synthesis. There is developed a graph-theoretically based approach to inductive therapy plan generation. This approach is investigated from the inductive inference perspective. Particular emphasis is put on consistent and incremental learning of therapy plans. Basic application scenarios are developed and compared to each other. The inductive inference approach is invoked to develop and investigate a couple of planning algorithms. The core versions of these algorithms are successfully implemented in Lisp and Prolog.

Exploratory Game Play to Support Language Learning: Dinner Talk

In response to the contemporary influx of refugees to Europe, the authors’ team has developed and implemented a digital game concept to support language learning of any written language. Fast progress in small steps is required and small and flexible software tools are necessary. The core implementation is available on the web and runs on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, on conventional desktop PCs and on special purpose devices such as interactive learning tables. This core implementation allows for a very flexible and fast exchange or modification of contents to fit to varying needs. This paper puts emphasis on the potential of the approach beyond the needs of refugees. Educators may apply it to regular courses in school, in higher education, in vocational training, and in further education.

Patterns - The key to game amusement studies

Studies of digital games bridge the gap from game design and technology to the impact of play, thus, being highly interdisciplinary by nature. The scientific discourse is difficult. Pattern is a key term used with largely varying semantics in mind and, even worse, sometimes without any precise meaning. Patterns are general and somehow abstract phenomena that do not show directly, but occur implicitly by means of their instances. Within knowledge processing in studies of game play and its impact, it is decisive to observe instances and to deduce patterns. By its very nature, this is learning from incomplete information. To avoid speculative guesses, studies of learning necessarily need to be based on precise concepts of what to learn and how to learn. The present paper investigates lucid concepts of patterns and their instances, addresses the crucial problem of learning patterns, and illustrates the deployment of a sound theory in practical studies.

An interactive concierge for independent living

Real estates and housing associations have to incorporate modern mobile and internet technologies in their service offerings to stay attractive for clients. While doing so, they must take into account the special needs of their target audience. The elderly is an increasing target group which refuses modern consumer electronics with overwhelming features. Therefore, easy-to-use interaction models based on natural language processing are essential. With IBMs Watson a new area for deep answering systems and semantic understanding of utterances arises. Our paper investigates the Watson approach, combines the used techniques with other artificial intelligence methods and develops an interactive concierge service.

Hierarchies of pervasive games by storyboarding

Pervasive games form a problematic digital games category. On the one hand, they appear extremely promising for purposes such as learning and for encouraging players to engage in healthy outdoor activities. They widen the horizon of game contents by direct access to reality. On the other hand, a larger number of pervasive games failed badly bearing abundant evidence for the need of better understanding the essentials of pervasive games and of the experiences in playing pervasively. Hierarchies of pervasive games reveal strengths and weaknesses of those games and allow for partially ordering pervasive games. Storyboarding is an appropriate technology for the representation of several essentials characterizing experiences of game play. ALIENS ON THE BUS is some novel pervasive game to illuminate the reach of the storyboarding approach to games classification.

Technologies, implementations and applications for the Kleistian development of thoughts in speech

Innovations in the fields of consumer electronics and media technologies are pervading the daily life and invading the private home. There emerge novel communication opportunities. Educational processes such as university studies, for illustration, are unconventionally expanded towards a casual home office. Web browsers and networking technologies provide access to serious content and direct manipulation technologies allow for some transformation of conventional studies into edutainment. Among the novel features is the opportunity for the learner to casually deal with learning content and to informally present his own work to friends and relatives at home in this way supporting the gradual development of thought in speech, as Kleist put it. Consumer electronics and media technology have set the stage for Kleistian learning demonstrated technically and didactically.