Russell Beale

Handbook of Neural Computation

From the Publisher: A hands-on guide to the design and implementation of neural networks -- A comprehensive source of reference for all neural network users, designers and implementers -- Provides an information pathway between scientists and engineers in different disciplines who apply neural networks to generically similar problems -- Offers access to timely information in a rapidly changing field -- World Wide Web access to the complete handbook available free to electronic edition subscribers In recent years, neural computation has developed from a specialized research discipline into a broadly based and dynamic activity with applications in an astonishing variety of fields. Many scientists, engineers and other practitioners are now using neural networks to tackle problems that are either intractable or unrealistically time consuming to solve through traditional computational strategies. The inaugural volume in the Computational Intelligence Library provides speeedy dissemination of new ideas to a broad spectrum of neural network users, designers and implementers. Devoted to network fundamentals, models, algorithms and applications, the work is intended to become the standard reference resource for the neural network community. As the field expands and develops, leading researchers will report on an analyze promising new approaches. In this way, the Handbook will become an evolving compendium on the state of the art of neural computation. Available in loose-leaf print form as well as in an electronic edition that combines both CD-ROM and on-line (World Wide Web) access to its contents, the Handbook of Neural Computation is available on a subscription basis, with regularly publishedsupplements keeping readers abreast of late-breaking developments and new advances in this rapidly developing field.

Affective interaction: How emotional agents affect users

Embodied agents have received large amounts of interest in recent years. They are often equipped with the ability to express emotion, but without understanding the impact this can have on the user. Given the amount of research studies that are utilising agent technology with affective capabilities, now is an important time to review the influence of synthetic agent emotion on user attitudes, perceptions and behaviour. We therefore present a structured overview of the research into emotional simulation in agents, providing a summary of the main studies, re-formulating appropriate results in terms of the emotional effects demonstrated, and an in-depth analysis illustrating the similarities and inconsistencies between different experiments across a variety of different domains. We highlight important lessons, future areas for research, and provide a set of guidelines for conducting further research.

Supporting pervasive learning environments: adaptability and context awareness in mobile learning

In the mobile learning context, it is helpful to consider context awareness and adaptivity as two sides of the same coin. The purpose of the adaptivity and context awareness is to better support a variety of learners, given that they may have very different skills and motivations to learn in varying contexts. The recent research on adaptivity and context awareness has turned towards supporting pervasive environments and this is coupled with the increasing trend in seeing learning environments from an informal learning perspective. In this paper are presented experiences of developing an adaptive and context aware mobile learning system, with examples of other systems underlining the development towards supporting pervasive learning environments. We then consider approaches for the future development of systems supporting pervasive learning environments.

Supporting serendipity: Using ambient intelligence to augment user exploration for data mining and web browsing

Serendipity is the making of fortunate discoveries by accident, and is one of the cornerstones of scientific progress. In todays world of digital data and media, there is now a vast quantity of material that we could potentially encounter, and so there is an increased opportunity of being able to discover interesting things. However, the availability of material does not imply that we will be able to actually find it; the sheer quantity of data mitigates against us being able to discover the interesting nuggets. This paper explores approaches we have taken to support users in their search for interesting and relevant information. The primary concept is the principle that it is more useful to augment user skills in information foraging than it is to try and replace them. We have taken a variety of artificial intelligence, statistical, and visualisation techniques, and combined them with careful design approaches to provide supportive systems that monitor user actions, garner additional information from their surrounding environment and use this enhanced understanding to offer supplemental information that aids the user in their interaction with the system. We present two different systems that have been designed and developed according to these principles. The first system is a data mining system that allows interactive exploration of the data, allowing the user to pose different questions and understand information at different levels of detail. The second supports information foraging of a different sort, aiming to augment users browsing habits in order to help them surf the internet more effectively. Both use ambient intelligence techniques to provide a richer context for the interaction and to help guide it in more effective ways: both have the user as the focal point of the interaction, in control of an iterative exploratory process, working in indirect collaboration with the artificial intelligence components. Each of these systems contains some important concepts of their own: the data mining system has a symbolic genetic algorithm which can be tuned in novel ways to aid knowledge discovery, and which reports results in a user-comprehensible format. The visualisation system supports high-dimensional data, dynamically organised in a three-dimensional space and grouped by similarity. The notions of similarity are further discussed in the internet browsing system, in which an approach to measuring similarity between web pages and a users interests is presented. We present details of both systems and evaluate their effectiveness.

Case study. Narcissus: visualising information

It is becoming increasingly important that support is provided for users who are dealing with complex information spaces. The need is driven by the growing number of domains where there is a requirement for users to understand, navigate and manipulate large sets of computer based data; by the increasing size and complexity of this information and by the pressures to use this information efficiently. The paradigmatic example is the World Wide Web, but other domains include software systems, information systems and concurrent engineering. One approach to providing this support is to provide sophisticated visualisation tools which lead the users to form an intuitive understanding of the structure and behaviour of their domain and which provide mechanisms which allow them to manipulate objects within their system. The paper describes such a tool and a number of visualisation techniques that it implements.

Mobile Context Aware Systems: The Intelligence to Support Tasks and Effectively Utilise Resources

The complex usage of mobile devices coupled with their limited resources in terms of display and processing suggests that being able to understand the context of the user would be beneficial. In this paper we present a model that describes context as a dynamic process with historic dependencies. We also describe software architecture to support this model, and evaluate its effectiveness in a mobile learning scenario. Preliminary results from our evaluation suggest important issues for consideration in the continuing development of context aware systems and interfaces, including the need for appropriate representation of contextual data to the user, and maintaining a balance between effective support and intrusion.

A technical review of mobile computational devices

Mobile technology is changing so fast, with new products being introduced daily, that any review of specific devices will rapidly be so out of date as to be unhelpful. Thus, this review focuses on general classes of device, with examples of manufacturers and machines for illustration only. There is a major convergence of technology in progress, which some view as leading towards single devices with multiple functions such as mobile phone, multimedia computer and digital camera. Others predict a host of mobile activities (e.g. digital imaging, video, location sensing) and many different devices offering subsets of these. Whatever the outcome, the trend is towards a greater variety of technologies. New mobile phones are capable of video calls, multimedia and video messaging, and loading and running programs such as interactive games or teaching packages. Some handheld computers have built-in high speed wireless connection to the Internet either through Wireless LAN or GPRS phone link, or both. New pen tablet computers come with full Windows operating systems and wireless LAN connection and so can function like laptop computers as well as notetaking devices. Over the coming decade the convergence will continue, to embrace mobile Internet gaming, remote monitoring (e.g. of household appliances or laboratory experiments), and mobile interactive television. Currently, mobile computational devices can be divided into six general categories, in rough order of computational power: wrist-worn devices, mobile phones, handheld computers and PDAs, web pads, pen tablet computers and laptops.

Psychological responses to simulated displays of mismatched emotional expressions

Embodied agents are often designed with the ability to simulate human emotion. This paper investigates the psychological impact of simulated emotional expressions on computer users with a particular emphasis on how mismatched facial and audio expressions are perceived (e.g. a happy face with a concerned voice). In a within-subjects repeated measures experiment (N=68), mismatched animations were perceived as more engaging, warm, concerned and happy when a happy or warm face was in the animation (as opposed to a neutral or concerned face) and when a happy or warm voice was in the animation (as opposed to a neutral or concerned voice). The results appear to follow cognitive dissonance theory as subjects attempted to make mismatched expressions consistent on both the visual and audio dimensions of animations, resulting in confused perceptions of the emotional expressions. Design implications for affective embodied agents are discussed and future research areas identified.

The Role of Affect and Emotion in HCI

Affect and emotion play an important role in our everyday lives: they are present whatever we do, wherever we are, wherever we go, without us being aware of them for much of the time. When it comes to interaction, be it with humans, technology, or humans via technology, we suddenly become more aware of emotion, either by seeing the others emotional expression, or by not getting an emotional response while anticipating it. Given this, it seems only sensible to commit to affect and emotion in human-computer interaction, to investigate the underlying principles, to study the role they play, to develop methods to quantify them, and to finally build applications that make use of them. In this introductory chapter we discuss and give short accounts on present developments in the field, covering theoretical issues, user experience and design aspects, sensing issues, and report on some affective applications that have been developed.

Using Context Awareness to Enhance Visitor Engagement in a Gallery Space

Context-awareness can greatly enhance the usability of mobile devices by making it possible for users to continue with other activities without having to pay too much attention to the device. At the same time context-aware applications can provide timely support for user activities by responding to changes in the user’s state and acting accordingly. We describe our work on developing a generic context awareness architecture that is being deployed in a gallery space to enhance learner engagement with the gallery exhibits. Our system makes use of contextual information to determine what content should be displayed on the device. Users can also navigate this content by explicitly changing their context in the dimensions of physical location and dwell time. Visitors have the opportunity to physically interact with the abstract information layer that is overlaid on the gallery space. The system also actively encourages movement in the gallery by identifying links between paintings. We describe our architecture, implementation, and the design challenges faced in deploying this system within a gallery.