This Brief introduces engineers to the main principles in ethics, research design, statistics, and publishing of human subject research. In recent years, engineering has become strongly connected to disciplines such as biology, medicine, and psychology. Often, engineers (and engineering students) are expected to perform human subject research. Typical human subject research topics conducted by engineers include human-computer interaction (e.g., evaluating the usability of software), exoske...

This textbook, apart from introducing the basic aspects of applied mathematics, focuses on recent topics such as information data manipulation, information coding, data approximation, data dimensionality reduction, data compression, time-frequency and time scale bases, image manipulation, and image noise removal. The methods treated in more detail include spectral representation and “frequency” of the data, providing valuable information for, e.g. data compression and noise removal. Furthe...

Human computer interaction (HCI) plays a vital role in bridging the 'Digital Divide', bringing people closer to consumer electronics control in the 'lounge'. Keyboards and mouse or remotes do alienate old and new generations alike from control interfaces. Hand Gesture Recognition systems bring hope of connecting people with machines in a natural way. This will lead to consumers being able to use their hands naturally to communicate with any electronic equipment in their 'lounge.' This mono...

The first Cambridge Workshop on Universal Access and Assistive Technology (CWUAAT) was held at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in March 2002. It was inspired by the earlier, highly successful Cambridge Workshops on Rehabilitation Robotics organised by the late Robin Jackson. Robin was the founder of Rehabilitation Research at Cambridge which now continues in the Engineering Design Centre within the Department of Engineering, led by John Clarkson and Simeon Keates, and in the Rainbow Group within ...

Artificial neural networks are used to model systems that receive inputs and produce outputs. The relationships between the inputs and outputs and the representation parameters are critical issues in the design of related engineering systems, and sensitivity analysis concerns methods for analyzing these relationships. Perturbations of neural networks are caused by machine imprecision, and they can be simulated by embedding disturbances in the original inputs or connection weights, allowing...

This Springer Brief examines the combination of computer vision techniques and machine learning algorithms necessary for humanoid robots to develop “true consciousness.” It illustrates the critical first step towards reaching “deep learning,” long considered the holy grail for machine learning scientists worldwide. Using the example of the iCub, a humanoid robot which learns to solve 3D mazes, the book explores the challenges to create a robot that can perceive its own surroundings. Rather...

Man is the best thing in the World. Nature does nothing uselessly. Aristotle There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more. John Burroughs The basic purpose of development is to enlarge people’s choices. The objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. Mahbub ul Hag F...

This comprehensive text/reference examines in depth the synergy between multimedia content analysis, personalization, and next-generation networking. The book demonstrates how this integration can result in robust, personalized services that provide users with an improved multimedia-centric quality of experience. Each chapter offers a practical step-by-step walkthrough for a variety of concepts, components and technologies relating to the development of applications and services. Topics an...

Multi-finger Haptic Interaction presents a panorama of technologies and methods for multi-finger haptic interaction, together with an analysis of the benefits and implications of adding multiple-fingers to haptic applications.Research topics covered include:design and control of advanced haptic devices;multi-contact point simulation algorithms;interaction techniques and implications in human perception when interacting with multiple finger...

The four volume set LNCS 9947, LNCS 9948, LNCS 9949, and LNCS 9950 constitues the proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Neural Information Processing, ICONIP 2016, held in Kyoto, Japan, in October 2016. The 296 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 431 submissions. The 4 volumes are organized in topical sections on deep and reinforcement learning; big data analysis; neural data analysis; robotics and control; bio-inspired/energy efficient information...

This, the 29th issue of the Transactions on Computational Science journal, is comprised of seven full papers focusing on the area of secure communication. Topics covered include weak radio signals, efficient circuits, multiple antenna sensing techniques, modes of inter-computer communication and fault types, geometric meshes, and big data processing in distributed environments.

This monograph presents a simple and efficient two-relay control algorithm for generation of self-excited oscillations of a desired amplitude and frequency in dynamic systems. Developed by the authors, the two-relay controller consists of two relays switched by the feedback received from a linear or nonlinear system, and represents a new approach to the self-generation of periodic motions in underactuated mechanical systems.The first part of the book explains the design procedures ...