Engineering Commons^™

Are We Day-Dreaming Our Way To The Future?, John O'Connor

Presentations

This paper explores the transformative impact of technology on society, drawing on Marshall McLuhan’s insights. It scrutinizes the consequences of profit-driven technological progress, particularly in VR, brain-computer interfaces, and AI hallucinations. Critiquing the dominance of industry leaders in AI safety discussions, the paper advocates a balanced, inclusive approach.

Philosophical perspectives on AI and VR prompt questions about their impact on human experience. The paper proposes an educational shift to cultivate human attributes alongside technological skills. Examining AI hallucinations and gaming glitches, it raises concerns about the potential blurring of reality and virtuality.

Connecting technological advancements with environmental challenges, the paper …

How Online Discourse Networks Fields Of Practice: The Discursive Negotiation Of Autonomy On Art Organisation About Pages, Tommie Soro

Articles

This article examines how the online discourse of art organisations forges relationships between the artworld and the fields of politics and economy. Combining elements of Pierre Bourdieu’s field analysis and Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, the article analyses an elite art magazine, e-flux, and an elite art museum, IMMA, and the activities of discourses, genres, and utterances on their about pages. Its results suggest that the about pages of these organisations forge links between the artworld and the fields of politics and economy by mobilising discourse in these fields and by incorporating discourse practices from these fields. The ideological tension …

The North Sky And The Otherworld: Journeys Of The Dead In The Neolithic Considered, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

The majority of Irish passage tombs (c. 230) predominantly date to the Middle Neolithic (c. 3600–3000 BC). A small number of summit cairns may also contain passage tombs because of their round form, proximity and intervisibility. The island’s passage tombs and related cairns share distinguishing characteristics – elevated siting, visibility and long-range views of distant horizons in varying directions of the compass. This chapter presents the findings of the first scenic analysis of the horizon and views at these sites recorded at an island scale. The method uses measured orientations of horizon sectors related to observed variation in horizon range. …

Mapping The Light Fantastic At Newgrange, Frank Prendergast, Clare Tuffy, John Lalor, Claire Breen, Sinéad Gargan

Articles

THE WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTY of Brú na Bóinne attracts thousands of visitors from Ireland and around the globe, many drawn by the remarkable winter solstice phenomenon, when the rising sun’s rays illuminate the burial chamber. During 2020 it became clear that public health measures to combat the global pandemic were going to preclude visitor access to the chamber of the Great Mound of Newgrange, including during the annual winter solstice celebrations. When the government agencies OPW and NMS discussed how to manage Newgrange and the solstice during the restrictions, Clare Tuffy, Manager of Visitor Services at Brú na Bóinne, suggested …

Examining A Hate Speech Corpus For Hate Speech Detection And Popularity Prediction, Filip Klubicka, Raquel Fernandez

Other resources

As research on hate speech becomes more and more relevant every day, most of it is still focused on hate speech detection. By attempting to replicate a hate speech detection experiment performed on an existing Twitter corpus annotated for hate speech, we highlight some issues that arise from doing research in the field of hate speech, which is essentially still in its infancy. We take a critical look at the training corpus in order to understand its biases, while also using it to venture beyond hate speech detection and investigate whether it can be used to shed light on other …

Is It Worth It? Budget-Related Evaluation Metrics For Model Selection, Filip Klubicka, Giancarlo Salton, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

Projects that set out to create a linguistic resource often do so by using a machine learning model that pre-annotates or filters the content that goes through to a human annotator, before going into the final version of the resource. However, available budgets are often limited, and the amount of data that is available exceeds the amount of annotation that can be done. Thus, in order to optimize the benefit from the invested human work, we argue that the decision on which predictive model one should employ depends not only on generalized evaluation metrics, such as accuracy and F-score, but …

Adapt At Semeval-2018 Task 9: Skip-Gram Word Embeddings For Unsupervised Hypernym Discovery In Specialised Corpora, Alfredo Maldonado, Filip Klubicka

Other resources

This paper describes a simple but competitive unsupervised system for hypernym discovery. The system uses skip-gram word embeddings with negative sampling, trained on specialised corpora. Candidate hypernyms for an input word are predicted based on cosine similar- ity scores. Two sets of word embedding mod- els were trained separately on two specialised corpora: a medical corpus and a music indus- try corpus. Our system scored highest in the medical domain among the competing unsu- pervised systems but performed poorly on the music industry domain. Our approach does not depend on any external data other than raw specialised corpora.

Quantitative Fine-Grained Human Evaluation Of Machine Translation Systems: A Case Study On English To Croatian, Filip Klubicka, Antonio Toral, Victor Manuel Sanchez-Cartagena

Articles

This paper presents a quantitative fine-grained manual evaluation approach to comparing the performance of different machine translation (MT) systems. We build upon the well-established Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM) error taxonomy and implement a novel method that assesses whether the differences in performance for MQM error types between different MT systems are statistically significant. We conduct a case study for English-to- Croatian, a language direction that involves translating into a morphologically rich language, for which we compare three MT systems belonging to different paradigms: pure phrase-based, factored phrase-based and neural. First, we design an MQM-compliant error taxonomy tailored to the relevant …

Design And Planned Obsolescence. Theories And Approaches For Designing Enabling Technologies, Matteo Zallio, Damon Berry

Articles

We are currently living in a decade where smart objects and Internet of Things (IoT)-based devices are becoming part of daily life in different contexts. This research seeks to investigate and verify, by using a formal literature review methodology, the most visible aspects of technological development, within the Industry 4.0 and IoT scenario, in relation to the theories of the so called “Planned Obsolescence”.

This study covers a defined number of works on Design theories and practices on how to face the issue of built-in obsolescence of devices in the era of the Connected Devices. The majority of the works …

Iot Based Recipes For Enabling Senior Citizens: Stakeholders Views On How Integration Of Iot And Web Services Can Enhance Well-Being And Inclusion Of Older People, Matteo Zallio, Damon Berry, John Mcgrory

Conference papers

The main body of research clearly highlights the world’s population is rapidly expanding. When this fact is combined with the increase in life longevity due to medical and social advances it alters the demographic balance in relation to age. Hence, the number of people aged 65 and over is constantly increasing. The potential of Smart Technologies and IoT-based devices to improve health has increased rapidly in the last few years and users are now in a position to contribute to the development of the interaction process and need to be properly trained on benefits of using new technologies. IFTTT (If …

Key Inference From Irish Traditional Music Scores And Recordings, Pierre Beauguitte, Bryan Duggan, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

The aim of this paper is to present techniques and results for identifying the key of Irish traditional music melodies, or tunes. Several corpora are used, consisting of both symbolic and audio representations. Monophonic and heterophonic recordings are present in the audio datasets. Some particularities of Irish traditional music are discussed, notably its modal nature. New key-profiles are defined, that are better suited to Irish music.

Adaptive Environments For Enabling Senior Citizens: An Holistic Assessment Tool For Housing Design And Iot-Based Technologies, Matteo Zallio, Damon Berry, Niccolò Casiddu

Conference papers

The population of older adults will continuously increase over the coming decades. As they get older, people will require assistance and regular monitoring, with higher costs for welfare system and families. Two vital aspects of a healthy lifestyle, are domestic autonomy and maintenance of relationships within the neighborhood. This leads to an interesting research issue: “Could houses and appliances have the potential to improve autonomy and quality of life of citizens? Which methods and tools could enhance wellbeing and healthy conditions? The house has the potential to be a safe, adaptive environment, integrated with technologies for life support. This work …

Merging Creative Design And Cad Learning Activities In A Product Design Programme, Pearl O'Rourke, Colm O'Kane, Leslie Smith, Michael Ring

Conference Papers

Traditional learning and teaching methods for creativity differ from those used in a scientific context. Although the creative process can benefit from a certain level of prescription and structural constraint - with time allocated to research, problem definition, conceptualisation and idea development - flexibility and fluidity are necessary for creative innovation. In contrast, the more linear and rigid pedagogies associated with science and engineering education facilitate efficient learning of subjects such as those based on software packages, manufacturing and materials theory or mechanics. This paper describes the development of a project which aims to establish constructive links between the learning …

Judging Emotion From Low-Pass Filtered Naturalistic Emotional Speech, John Snel, Charlie Cullen

Conference papers

In speech, low frequency regions play a significant role in paralinguistic communication such as the conveyance of emotion or mood. The extent to which lower frequencies signify or contribute to affective speech is still an area for investigation. To investigate paralinguistic cues, and remove interference from linguistic cues, researchers can low-pass filter the speech signal on the assumption that certain acoustic cues characterizing affect are still discernible. Low-pass filtering is a practical technique to investigate paralinguistic phenomena, and is used here to investigate the inference of naturalistic emotional speech. This paper investigates how listeners perceive the level of Activation, and …

Obtaining Speech Assets For Judgement Analysis On Low-Pass Filtered Emotional Speech, John Snel, Charlie Cullen

Conference papers

Investigating the emotional content in speech from acoustic characteristics requires separating the semantic con- tent from the acoustic channel. For natural emotional speech, a widely used method to separate the two channels is the use of cue masking. Our objective is to investigate the use of cue masking in non-acted emotional speech by analyzing the extent to which filtering impacts the perception of emotional content of the modified speech material. However, obtaining a corpus of emotional speech can be quite difficult whereby verifying the emotional content is an issue thoroughly discussed. Currently, speech research is showing a tendency toward constructing …

An Intriguing Monument, Muiris O'Sullivan, Frank Prendergast, Geraldine Stout

Articles

No abstract provided.

Forty Years Of Movie Hacking: Considering The Potential Implications Of The Popular Media Representation Of Computer Hackers From 1968 To 2008, Damian Gordon

Articles

Increasingly movies are being produced which feature plots that incorporate elements of computer security and hacking, and cumulatively these movies are creating a public perception as to the nature of computer security. This research examines movies that feature hackers (and hacking) to identify if any common themes emerge from these movies in their representation of these issues. To achieve this, first a corpus of hacking movies is created, and then using a qualitative data analysis technique, guidelines are developed which distinguish those movies that actually have the potential to create a perception with the general public. The resultant dataset is …

Some Rather Mechanical Reflections On Symmetry: In Art, Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Etc., Jim Mcgovern

Articles

This Inaugural Lecture consists of some of my rather mechanical, being an engineer, reflections on symmetry in diverse areas such as art, science, engineering, mathematics, etc. I explain what symmetry is to me, giving examples with lots of images and mentioning or at least barely referencing art, science, architecture, engineering, heritage, cosmology, bicycles, flight, invention, ingenuity, history, wallpaper, mathematics, typography, structures, regular shapes, coordinate systems, spacetime, thermodynamics and suchlike.

Metrology And Proportion In The Ecclesiastical Architecture Of Medieval Ireland, Avril Behan, Rachel Moss

Conference Papers

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent to which detailed empirical analysis of the metrology and proportional systems used in the design of Irish ecclesiastical architecture can be analysed to provide historical information not otherwise available. Focussing on a relatively limited sample of window tracery designs as a case study, it will first set out to establish what, if any, systems were in use, and then what light these might shed on the background, training and work practices of the masons, and, by association, the patrons responsible for employing them.

Harmonically Combined Contour Icons For Concurrent Auditory Display, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper considers the harmonic combination of basic melodic shapes known as contour icons in concurrent auditory displays. Existing work in the field (such as that concerning earcons) has considered the combination of patterns designed using low level cognitive features, and so effective streaming is difficult. This work investigates means by which musical patterns with high level cognitive features (such as contour) representing data values can be rendered concurrently, so that multiple data sets can be effectively conveyed using an auditory display. The detection and comprehension of harmonically combined contour icons was tested in comparison to those combined uniquely (non …

Musical Pattern Design Using Contour Icons, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper considers the use of Contour Icons in the design and implementation of musical patterns, for the purposes of detection and recognition. Research work had endeavoured to deliver musical patterns that were both distinct and memorable, and to this end a set of basic melodic shapes were introduced using a Sonification application called TrioSon that had been designed for the purpose. Existing work in the field (such as that concerning Earcon design) has considered the mechanisms by which patterns may be made distinctive, but it is argued that separate consideration must be given to the method of making such …

Onset And Ornament Detection And Music Transcription For Monophonic Traditional Irish Music, Aileen Kelleher

Masters

To date, much has been... This abstract will be longer in due course!

Information Delivery On Mobile Devices Using Contour Icon Sonification, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

This paper examines the use of musical patterns to convey information, specifically in the context of mobile devices. Existing mechanisms (such as the popularity of the Morse code SMS alert) suggest that the use of musical patterns on mobile devices can be a very efficient and powerful method of data delivery. Unique musical patterns based on templates known as Contour Icons are used to represent specific data variables, with the output rendering of these patterns being referred to as a Sonification of that data. Contour Icon patterns mimic basic shapes and structures, thus providing listeners with a means of categorising …

Trioson: A Graphical User Interface For Pattern Sonification, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

The TrioSon software allows users to map musical patterns to input data variables via a graphical user interface (GUI). The application is a Java routine designed to take input files of standard Comma Separated Values (CSV) format and output Standard Midi Files (SMF) using the internal Java Sound API. TrioSon renders output Sonifications from input data files for up to 3 user-defined parameters, allocated as bass, chord and melody instruments for the purposes of arrangement. In this manner each parameter concerned is distinguished by its individual instrumental timbre, with the option of rendering any combination of 1 to 3 parameters …

Information Delivery On Mobile Devices Using Boolean Sonification Patterns, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

Sonification is the means by which non-speech audio can be used to convey information. Existing work has produced methods for delivering information in a wide range of fields, and recent work has considered the huge potential of mobile devices for Sonification. Boolean Sonification is a method of defining two related musical patterns as boolean conditions (true/false, yes/no etc.), such that one is considered contrary to the other by the listener. The final pattern set ideally comprises of two musical events that are closely enough related as to be considered a group, yet distinct enough to be perceived as separate entities. …

Analysis Of Data Sets Using Trio Sonification, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

Recent advances in technology have suggested that sound and audio play a far greater part in our daily working lives than ever before. Mobile phone ring tones are now based upon polyphonic music sequences that allow relatively complex audio to be generated from a handset by way of conveying information (i.e. a call or message is incoming). This real world example of sonification suggests that far more could be made of sonification techniques for analysis- particularly in the business environment. One advantage of sonification is its relatively hands free nature in that once a sequence is being played it does …

Orchestration Within The Sonification Of Basic Data Sets, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

The use of sonification as a means of representing and analysing data has become a growing field of research in recent years and as such has become a far more accepted means of working with data. Existing work carried out as part of this research has focused primarily on the sonification of DNA/RNA sequences and their subsequent protein structures for the purposes of analysis. This sonification work raised many questions as regards the need for sequences to be set to music in a standard manner so that different strands could be analysed by comparison, and hence the orchestration and instrumentation …

Rhythmic Parsing Of Sonified Dna And Rna Sequences, Charlie Cullen, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

Sonification allows existing mathematical data to be used as the model for audio output, notably that the audio produced is related to or representative of that data in some way. Existing work in the field has been largely focused on the aesthetic tailoring of the output audio for compositional benefit rather than as a framework for audio representation and analysis. It is the goal of this research to apply existing techniques for pitch substitution to an analytical method that seeks to define and represent patterns within existing data sets (primarily DNA and RNA sequences). It is often the case that …