2006 — 2009 |
Yoshimi, Jeff Matlock, Teenie Shadish, William Heit, Evan (co-PI) [⬀] Chouinard, Michelle |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Conference On the Future of Cognitive Science, 2007 @ University of California - Merced
The interdisciplinary study of mind, brain, and thought --- Cognitive Science --- is about fifty years old. The field is thriving, producing insight into the mechanisms of thought by integrating observation, experimentation, computational modeling, and theory from a variety of traditional disciplines. But the place of Cognitive Science in education and the workforce is unclear, as students and professionals are driven towards ever more specialization and ever more grounding in technical disciplines. What are the prospects for Cognitive Science on the eve of its fiftieth birthday? What are the current, dominant theories and methods? How can Cognitive Science inform the design of human technologies and tools? How should education and training in Cognitive Science evolve to meet the needs of the 21st century workforce?
The National Science Foundation will sponsor a conference to take stock of the current state of Cognitive Science, and to look to its future in the academic and industry settings. Cognitive scientists from universities, government agencies, and a variety of companies and organizations from across the US will participate. Participants will be chosen to cover the gamut of cognitive science expertise, including experimentalists, modelers, computer scientists, language theorists, ethnographers, and educators. The conference will be held at UC Merced, a new research university with plans to develop a world-class Cognitive Science department.
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2007 — 2010 |
Matlock, Teenie Newsam, Shawn (co-PI) [⬀] Kallmann, Marcelo |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of Equipment to Establish a Cognitive Sensorium and Visualization Facility At Uc Merced @ University of California - Merced
Proposal #: CNS 07-23281 PI(s): Kallmann, Marcelo Matlock, Teenie; Newsam, Shawn Institution: University of California - Merced Merced, CA 95343-5001 Title: MRI/Acq.: A Cognitive Sensorium and Visualization Facility at UC-Merced
Project Proposed:
This project, acquiring equipment to build a cognitive sensorium and visualization facility, integrates real-time eye tracking and motion capture devices with a large high-resolution display. Aiming to lead to advances in human cognition, perception and action, image processing, intelligent systems, and human-computer interaction, the infrastructure enables interdisciplinary research on novel computational models of visual parsing, categorization, cognition, and as well as research for motor planning and execution. Aiming to achieve novel computational models for implementing humanlike intelligent systems, the project supports research in understanding visual processing in humans during task execution. The instrumentation is composed of three modules: A . High-resolution immersive screen where virtual scenarios can be simulated for sensing human performances, . Head-mounted eye tracker system for accurately tracking the navigation of the user's visual attention point, and . Full-body occlusion-free inertial motion-capture equipment for capturing the motions of the user during performances. Understanding human-like intelligence is key for the development of seamless and fully integrated attentive user interfaces, affective collaborative work, and many human-computer interaction (HCI) applications needed in the future. Connected to a software architecture dedicated to the motion control and graphical simulation of human-like virtual agents already under development, the equipment supports interdisciplinary research activities such as: . Analyzing the visual parsing of features in images, . Analyzing the interactions between gaze and gestures for describing features and procedures, and . Developing new vision-based motor control algorithms for the coordination of locomotion and reaching during grasping tasks.
Broader Impacts: The infrastructure greatly benefits the newest campus of the UC system. The institution services an underrepresented population where the students are usually first generation college students. The facility provides valuable programming and lab skills that contribute to success in high tech jobs and graduate schools. It also improves instruction and development of courses and enables research for many application domains, including training, delivery of instruction, ergonomics, entertainment, HCI, and education.
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2008 — 2011 |
Noelle, David Matlock, Teenie Newsam, Shawn (co-PI) [⬀] Kallmann, Marcelo Carpin, Stefano [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Acquisition of Robotic Hardware For Humanoid Research in Cognitive Science and Engineering @ University of California - Merced
This award establishes a humanoid robotics facility at the University of California, Merced to be used by cognitive scientists and engineers to investigate (1) how embodiment constrains models of human cognition, (2) how people naturally interact with humanoid robots, and (3) how the design of robotic control systems can best address the cognitive issues surrounding human-robot interaction. The centerpieces of this facility will be a fully mobile humanoid robot and a humanoid torso equipped with two human-like dexterous arms and a vision system mounted on a fully actuated head. Though much work on humanoid robots has focused on solving fundamental engineering problems associated with robust operation in real world environments, the proposed facility will support research that uses the robot as an instrument to test hypotheses of human cognition or that augments robotic capabilities in a manner sensitive to the cognitive limitations of human-robot coordination. As a scientific instrument, a humanoid robot can be used to present precise, controlled motions and patterns of interaction to human experimental participants, offering new methods for probing human responding in interactive contexts. The embodied perceptual and motor capabilities of such a robot also make it a challenging testbed for computational models of human cognitive processes. Developing cognitive systems that appropriately support human-robot interaction will reify and test our understanding of embodied perception, humanoid motor coordination, and cooperative interaction.
The proposed facility is also intended to support interdisciplinary research at the boundary between cognitive science and engineering. Emerging cognitive research on human-robot interaction has the potential to transform robotics research and result in practical innovations in the design of humanoid robot control systems. These additional engineering contributions will be extremely valuable, as robots will be equipped with physical and cognitive abilities that are appropriate for human environments, and with communication and coordination skills that are appropriate for human-robot collaboration. Indeed, robotic assistants have already demonstrated potential in numerous application areas, including physical therapy, care for the elderly and disabled, collaborative work, and astronaut support during space exploration. Though recent technological innovations have allowed for the development of reliable and affordable robotic mechanisms that mimic human bodies, many questions related to the intelligent control of these bodies remain. By supporting the exploration of models of human cognition within a robotic framework, and by generally applying insights from cognitive science to the problems of embodied perception and motor control, practical progress is expected in domains such as locomotion in cluttered environments, spatial awareness and spatial reasoning, dexterous object manipulation, task-oriented attention and perception, imitation and learning, life long adaptation, and multi-modal social interaction and coordination with humans, including the use of natural gestures.
This facility will advance the development of integrated research and teaching programs at UC Merced, a new campus located in an economically challenged region with low educational levels. The availability of this equipment will grant students access to unique training opportunities in Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, Motion Planning, Computer Graphics, Computer Animation, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Robot Algorithms, and Humanoid Robotics.
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2009 — 2013 |
Matlock, Teenie Kallmann, Marcelo |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Hcc: Small: Rui: Parameterization and Collection of Demonstrative Gestures For Interactive Virtual Humans @ University of California - Merced
The research goal of this project is to develop new techniques for producing realistic and parameterized humanlike gestures based on motion data acquired from real performances. This work proposes novel computational models and interactive interfaces, and focuses on whole-body demonstrative gestures for interactive training and assistance applications with autonomous virtual humans.
Although gesture modeling has made substantial advances in recent years, less attention has been given to parameterized demonstrative gestures which can be modified to refer to arbitrary locations in the environment. This particular class of gestures is critical for a number of applications. Typical examples of such gestures include pointing to and demonstrating how to operate particular devices or objects. To ensure the system's effectiveness, this project includes cognitive studies for guiding the development of the computational gesture model. To ensure the achievement of realistic results, motion capture data obtained from real performers executing gestures for demonstration tasks within real scenarios will be employed. The proposed framework will also account for gestures captured interactively from a low-cost wearable set of motion sensors, enabling the interactive customization of gestures needed for programming interactive virtual human demonstrators for a broad range of applications.
This project will significantly advance research on gesture modeling with two key contributions: (1) a novel computational model which integrates blending of realistic full-body gestures from motion capture with motion modification techniques for achieving precise arbitrary placement of the hands at the gesture stroke time, and (2) a new user interface for gesture modeling based on direct demonstrations which will truly enable a seamless human-centered user interface for programming autonomous characters. The approach constitutes a substantial step toward achieving autonomous virtual assistants which can meaningfully and effectively demonstrate tasks and procedures. The interactive interface component of this project has the transformative potential to enable gesture programming to become accessible to the non-specialized user, and therefore to enable virtual humans to become widely employed as a powerful communication medium.
This project has the potential to impact the basic and broad research problem of modeling human movement and cognition, which is a central topic in information technology. This project will in addition benefit other researchers by producing a unique type of demonstrative gestures database which will be made available from a public project webpage. It will also provide unique educational opportunities for students and contribute to interdisciplinary educational programs based on new courses being developed or improved around the topics of the research.
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2010 — 2014 |
Kello, Christopher Spivey, Michael (co-PI) [⬀] Matlock, Teenie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Levy Distributions in Foraging Games, Scene Perception, and Semantic Memory @ University of California - Merced
All mobile organisms spend much of their lives searching for something, be it food, water, shelter, or others of their kind. Searching uses perception, memory, cognition, and action. It can occur over vast landscapes and periods of time, as in whale migration behaviors. It can occur in under a second on the basis of fleeting bits of sensory evidence, as in frogs searching their visual fields for flies. And it occurs on all scales in between, across organisms but also across different behaviors of a given organism. Human search is especially diverse in this regard because human searches range from subatomic to human to cosmic scales of exploration.
With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Christopher Kello is leading a team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, in the study of human search behaviors in three very different but complementary domains: Foraging over large virtual spaces, visual searches over scenes and movies, and memory searches over words and concepts. The generality and evolutionary importance of search suggests that search functions may share common principles across scales and domains. Evidence for this conjecture has been found in "Levy distributions" that describe the frequencies with which segments of different lengths occur in search paths. These frequencies are observed to obey a common scaling law across a wide range of different search behaviors but current evidence is not sufficient to determine the meaning of this law.
With mentorship from three faculty members in Cognitive and Information Sciences, undergraduate and graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow will collaborate on experiments and computational models in each of the three domains of interest, in a unique and highly interdisciplinary education and research experience.
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2012 — 2014 |
Kello, Christopher Matlock, Teenie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Workshop and Summer School On Dynamics of Language and Music @ University of California - Merced
Lay abstract - Workshop and Summer School on Dynamics of Language and Music
Language and music are unique to human intelligence, some would argue, in that both kinds of behavior go well beyond even the most sophisticated communicative systems and songs found in other species. Part of what appears unique to human language and music is the complexity with which perceptually discrete elements, such as syllables and chords, are organized into hierarchically structured sequences of symbols. Also, both language and music play foundational roles in social systems and cultures that are essential to the intelligence of humans as a species. However, while language and music can both be viewed as systems of communication, researchers debate whether they are supported by a common set of brain and behavioral processes.
With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Kello and Dr. Matlock at the University of California, Merced will help organize a workshop and summer school on dynamics of language and music. The intellectual motivation for this meeting is that language and music share patterns in how their hierarchical structures are expressed in the timing and sequencing of neural and behavioral activities. The meeting will bring together humanists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists with a range of relevant backgrounds to share knowledge about dynamical patterns in language and music. An overarching goal is to build capacity in research at the intersection of these fields, where state-of-the-art experimental, analytical, and modeling techniques can be brought to bear on deep questions about the similarities and differences between language and music as two pinnacles of human intellect. Students will be trained in these techniques as applied to dynamical theories and hypotheses, and a schedule of speakers and artistic performances will be designed to stimulate and enhance summer school activities.
Students and researchers at UC Merced will partner with students and researchers at UC San Diego, and with the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center located there. As an NSF Science of Learning Center, TDLC supports researchers with expertise and interest in temporal dynamics, and the acquisition and learning of languages and musical skills is central to the mission of the Center. The expertise at UC San Diego complements the expertise at UC Merced, and together with a diverse set of student applicants and invited worldwide experts, the meeting is anticipated to provoke new ideas and provide opportunities for new interdisciplinary collaborations.
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2013 — 2017 |
Matlock, Teenie Kallmann, Marcelo |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Ii-En: Acquisition of Sensors and Displays For Research On Motion Synthesis and Rehabilitation @ University of California - Merced
Real-time motion-capture and interactive 3D computer-generated environments are rapidly emerging as an integrated and powerful human-computer interaction context with the ability to revolutionize applications in many areas. Recent advances in sensor and display technologies can now be seen in both low-cost consumer-oriented and in high-end industrial-oriented human-centered computer systems. This proposal aims to support and enhance research and educational activities in new research and application areas by strengthening and expanding the available research infrastructure at the University of California - Merced, specifically by enhancing an existing visualization and motion capture facility with the acquisition of (a) a high-end data glove, (b) an occlusion-free motion capture suit, and (c) portable interactive displays integrated with Kinect sensors. The proposed equipment enhancement will allow the development of new research projects on the following topics: (a) gesture synthesis models with coordinated hand-arm motions, (b) remote virtual collaborative sessions for upper body motion rehabilitation assessment and remote therapy delivery, (c) automated progress monitoring of hand motor rehabilitation in respect to given motion protocols, and (d) human-like full-body motion planning in tight spaces for training applications. The projects will target interactive training and therapy applications that can benefit from new human-computer interfaces that are situated in virtual environments.
Intellectual Merit
An interdisciplinary team from computer science and cognitive science will explore novel human-centered computing research with a focus on the channels of communication that are used in parallel during physical training and therapy. The proposed portable and occlusion-free high-end motion sensing equipment will allow the development of human-like motion models for synthesis of gestures as well as full-body task-oriented motions. These models will enable, during immersive remote interactions, the discovery of new interaction paradigms, which will involve autonomously synthesized human-like motions and human motions that will be captured and streamed back to the system. A gesture analysis tool will be developed to provide algorithmic infrastructure to automatically analyze and extract the components of the gestures. The infrastructure will permit rehabilitation and therapy to be evaluated in actual practice. The scientific and practical research projects will advance the effectiveness of virtual humans in diverse educational, training, and therapeutic applications, and will help make such 3D computer-generated environments more accessible to the common user.
Broader Impact
The infrastructure will support research projects that relate to motion rehabilitation, which has the potential to benefit the many Americans who are in need of physical therapy such as for ailments in the back, neck, and shoulders. The research will advance an understanding of a principled approach for using virtual humans for a broad range of practical training and therapy applications. The instrumentation and research will provide unique learning opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The research outcomes will be disseminated broadly in cognitive science, computer science, and rehabilitation therapy publications. The infrastructure and research will be demonstrated to local high school and community college students to motivate interest in science and engineering.
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