Computer Engineering Commons^™

Developing A Workflow To Integrate Tree Inventory Data Into Urban Energy Models, Farzad Hashemi, Breanna L. Marmur, Ulrike Passe, Janette R. Thompson

Farzad Hashemi

Building energy simulation is of considerable interest and benefit for architects, engineers, and urban planners. Only recently has it become possible to develop integrated energy models for clusters of buildings in urban areas. Simulating energy consumption of the built environment on a relatively large scale (e.g., such as a neighborhood) will be necessary to obtain more reliable results, since building energy parameters are influenced by characteristics of the nearby environment. Therefore, the construction of a 3-D model of urban built areas with detail of the near-building environment should enhance simulation approaches and provide more accurate results. This paper describes the …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Spring 2018, Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

No abstract provided.

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Fall 2017, Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

No abstract provided.

Direction Of Slip Detection For A Biomimetic Tactile Sensor, Erik Engeberg, Morteza Vatani, Jae-Won Choi

Dr. Jae-Won Choi

A biomimetic tactile sensor (BTS) is developed from strips of electrically conductive carbon nanotubes (CNTs) mixed in a polymer matrix that is embedded within a flexible polyurethane shell. The mechanical compliance of the BTS is similar to the human fingertip. Experiments are performed which show that the BTS can be used to detect slip and the direction that slip occurs by examining the relative timing among force signals from adjacent strips of CNTs and the frequency content of the force signals. The BTS can also detect forces applied at distinct points on the surface of the BTS.

Diversified Users' Satisfaction With Advanced Mobile Phone Features, Chen Ling, Wonil Hwang, Gavriel Salvendy

Dr. Chen Ling

Mobile phones are widely used all over the world, and with their increasing number of value-added features, they are becoming far more than a mere mobile voice communication device. Rather, they provide a powerful platform for accessing information universally. This paper reports a study which scrutinized users’ preference levels with five new mobile phone design features facilitating universal information access through mobile phones: camera, colour screen, voice-activated dialing, Internet browsing, and wireless connectivity (e.g. Bluetooth, infrared, etc.). The survey study involved college students and investigated the degree to which each of the above features impacts the users’ overall satisfaction and …

Validating Information Complexity Questionnaires Using Travel Web Sites, Chen Ling, Miguel Lopez, Jing Xing

Dr. Chen Ling

With the prevalent use of visual interfaces and the increasing demand to display more information, information complexity becomes a major concern for designers. Complex interfaces affect the system effectiveness, efficiency, and even safety. Researchers at the Federal Aviation Administration have developed two sets of psychometric questionnaires to evaluate information complexity of air traffic control displays. This study adapted the questionnaires for commercial visual interfaces and validated them with directed and exploratory tasks on three travel websites. The results confirmed that both complexity questionnaires have satisfactory reliability, validity, and sensitivity. But questionnaire B demonstrated higher sensitivity than Questionnaire A.

A Comparison Between Single And Dual Monitor Productivity And The Effects Of Window Management Styles On Performance, Alex Stegman, Chen Ling, Randa Shehab

Dr. Chen Ling

Several research studies have been published on user opinion and productivity of using dual monitor systems. These studies found that users typically enjoy using multiple monitors, but none found a strong increase in performance and productivity. Other researchers have focused on improving multiple monitor usability, but often without any statistical framework. This study compared single and dual monitor productivity measures: task time, cursor movement, and number of window switches. Additionally, window management styles (WMS) were studied in order to help designers understand user behavior better. WMS were broken into two categories, toggler and resizer, and then compared to the WMS …

Effect Of Aircraft Datablock Complexity And Exposure Time On Performance Of Change Detection Task, Chen Ling, Lesheng Hua

Dr. Chen Ling

Air traffic controllers constantly perform tasks of monitoring traffic situation and searching for conflict between aircrafts. One requirement for these tasks is being able to detect any changes in the aircraft status presented by aircraft datablock. In this study, we investigated the effects of aircraft datablock complexity and exposure time on the change detection task performance. Two types of datablock, six field datablock (6F-DB) and nine field datablock (9F-DB), were artificially designed. Ten participants learned the change detection taskwith aircraft datablocks for four days. Our results showed that datablock complexity and exposure time in the change detection task had direct …

Effect Of Glance Duration On Perceived Complexity And Segmentation Of User Interfaces, Yifei Dong, Chen Ling, Lesheng Hua

Dr. Chen Ling

Computer users who handle complex tasks like air traffic control (ATC) need to quickly detect updated information from multiple displays of graphical user interface. The objectives of this study are to investigate how much computer users can segment GUI display into distinctive objects within very short glances and whether human perceives complexity differently after different durations of exposure. Subjects in this empirical study were presented with 20 screenshots of web pages and software interfaces for different short durations (100ms, 500ms, 1000ms) and were asked to recall the visual objects and rate the complexity of the images. The results indicate that …

Users' Attitude And Strategies In Information Management With Multiple Computers, Guangfeng Song, Chen Ling

Dr. Chen Ling

This article reports the result of a survey study on how users utilize multiple computers in personal information management tasks. Two hundred ninety-five experienced computer users answered questions regarding the selective use of computers in three usage scenarios in managing multiple types of information: files, bookmarks, and e-mails. Results showed that users pursue simple computing environment by simplifying multiple computer configurations, avoiding distribution of information among multiple computers, and avoiding conceptual distinction of multiple computers. Selective use of a computer was based on the characteristics of the computers and the tasks to be performed. Information retrieval was still primarily done …

Physical Intelligent Sensors, Pavan Bandhil, Sanjeevi Chitikeshi, Ajay Mahajan, Fernando Figueroa

Dr. Ajay Mahajan

This paper proposes the development of intelligent sensors as part of an integrated systems approach, i.e. one treats the sensors as a complete system with its own sensing hardware (the traditional sensor), A/D converters, processing and storage capabilities, software drivers, self-assessment algorithms, communication protocols and evolutionary methodologies that allow them to get better with time. Under a project being undertaken at the NASA s Stennis Space Center, an integrated framework is being developed for the intelligent monitoring of smart elements. These smart elements can be sensors, actuators or other devices. The immediate application is the monitoring of the rocket test …

A Novel Method To Create Intelligent Sensors With Learning Capabilities, Ajay Mahajan, Fernando Figueroa

Dr. Ajay Mahajan

A formal theory for the development of a generic model of an autonomous sensor is proposed and implemented. An autonomous sensor not only interprets the acquired data in accordance with an embedded expert system knowledge base, but is also capable of using this data to modify and enhance this knowledge base. Hence, the system is capable of learning and thereby improving its performance over time. The main objective of the model is to combine the capabilities of the physical sensor and an expert operator monitoring the sensor in real-time. The system has been successfully tested using various simulated data sets …

Development Of A Novel Handheld Device For Active Compensation Of Physiological Tremor, Abhijit Saxena

Abhijit Saxena

In microsurgery, the human hand imposes certain limitations in accurately positioning the tip of a device such as scalpel. Any errors in the motion of the hand make microsurgical procedures difficult and involuntary motions such as hand tremors can make some procedures significantly difficult to perform. This is particularly true in the case of vitreoretinal microsurgery. The most familiar source of involuntary motion is physiological tremor. Real-time compensation of tremor is, therefore, necessary to assist surgeons to precisely position and manipulate the tool-tip to accurately perform a microsurgery. In this thesis, a novel handheld device (AID) is described for compensation …

Sugarmap: Location-Less Coverage For Micro-Aerial Sensing Swarms, Aveek Purohit, Zheng Sun, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

No abstract provided.

Haptography: Capturing And Recreating The Rich Feel Of Real Surfaces, Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Joseph Romano, William Mcmahan

William McMahan

Haptic interfaces, which allow a user to touch virtual and remote environments through a hand-held tool, have opened up exciting new possibilities for applications such as computer-aided design and robot-assisted surgery. Unfortunately, the haptic renderings produced by these systems seldom feel like authentic re-creations of the richly varied surfaces one encounters in the real world. We have thus envisioned the new approach of haptography, or haptic photography, in which an individual quickly records a physical interaction with a real surface and then recreates that experience for a user at a different time and/or place. This paper presents an overview of …

Robust Course-Boundary Extraction Algorithms For Autonomous Vehicles, Chris Roman, Charles Reinholtz

Christopher N. Roman

Practical autonomous robotic vehicles require dependable methods for accurately identifying course or roadway boundaries. The authors have developed a method to reliably extract the boundary line using simple dynamic thresholding, noise filtering, and blob removal. This article describes their efforts to apply this procedure in developing an autonomous vehicle.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles As Tools For Deep-Submergence Archaeology, Christopher N. Roman, Ian Roderick Mather

Christopher N. Roman

Marine archaeology beyond the capabilities of scuba divers is a technologically enabled field. The tool suite includes ship-based systems such as towed side-scan sonars and remotely operated vehicles, and more recently free-swimming autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Each of these platforms has various imaging and mapping capabilities appropriate for specific scales and tasks. Broadly speaking, AUVs are becoming effective tools for locating, identifying, and surveying archaeological sites. This paper discusses the role of AUVs in this suite of tools, outlines some specific design criteria necessary to maximize their utility in the field, and presents directions for future developments. Results are presented …

Development Of A New Lagrangian Float For Studying Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Alex Schwithal, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents an overview and initial testing results for a shallow water Lagrangian float designed to operate in coastal settings. The presented effort addresses the two main characteristics of the shallow coastal environment that preclude the direct of use of many successfully deep water floats, namely the higher variation of water densities near the coast compared with the open ocean and the highly varied bathymetry. Our idea is to develop a high capacity dynamic auto-ballasting system that is able to compensate for the expected seawater density variation over a broad range of water temperatures and salinities while using measurements …

Development Of A New Lagrangian Float For Studying Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Alex Schwithal, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents an overview and initial testing results for a shallow water Lagrangian float designed to operate in coastal settings. The presented effort addresses the two main characteristics of the shallow coastal environment that preclude the direct of use of many successfully deep water floats, namely the higher variation of water densities near the coast compared with the open ocean and the highly varied bathymetry. Our idea is to develop a high capacity dynamic auto-ballasting system that is able to compensate for the expected seawater density variation over a broad range of water temperatures and salinities while using measurements …

Deep Sea Underwater Robotic Exploration In The Ice-Covered Arctic Ocean With Auvs, Clayton Kunz, Chris Murphy, Richard Camilli, Hanumant Singh, John Bailey, Ryan M. Eustice, Chris Roman, Michael Jakuba, Claire Willis, Taichi Sato, Ko-Ichi Nakamura, Robert A. Sohn

Christopher N. Roman

The Arctic seafloor remains one of the last unexplored areas on Earth. Exploration of this unique environment using standard remotely operated oceanographic tools has been obstructed by the dense Arctic ice cover. In the summer of 2007 the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE) was conducted with the express intention of understanding aspects of the marine biology, chemistry and geology associated with hydrothermal venting on the section of the mid-ocean ridge known as the Gakkel Ridge. Unlike previous research expeditions to the Arctic the focus was on high resolution imaging and sampling of the deep seafloor. To accomplish our goals we …

Application Of Structured Light Imaging For High Resolution Mapping Of Underwater Archaeological Sites, Chris Roman, Gabrielle Inglis, James Rutter

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents results from recent work using structured light laser profile imaging to create high resolution bathymetric maps of underwater archaeological sites. Documenting the texture and structure of submerged sites is a difficult task and many applicable acoustic and photographic mapping techniques have recently emerged. This effort was completed to evaluate laser profile imaging in comparison to stereo imaging and high frequency multibeam mapping. A ROV mounted camera and inclined 532 nm sheet laser were used to create profiles of the bottom that were then merged into maps using platform navigation data. These initial results show very promising resolution …

Concept Tests For A New Wire Flying Vehicle Designed To Achieve High Horizontal Resolution Profiling In Deep Water, Chris Roman, Dave Hebert

Christopher N. Roman

Efficiently profiling the water column to achieve both high vertical and horizontal resolution from a moving vessel in deep water is difficult. Current solutions, such as CTD tow-yos, moving vessel profilers, and undulating tow bodies, are limited by ship speed or water depth. As a consequence, it is difficult to obtain oceanographic sections with sufficient resolution to identify many relevant scales over the deeper sections of the water column. This paper presents a new concept for a profiling vehicle that slides up and down a towed wire in a controlled manner using the lift created by wing foils. The wings …

The 2005 Chios Ancient Shipwreck Survey: New Methods For Underwater Archaeology, Brendan P. Foley, Katerina Dellaporta, Dimitris Sakellariou, Brian S. Bingham, Richard Camilli, Ryan M. Eustice, Dionysis Evagelistis, Vicki Lynn Ferrini, Kostas Katsaros, Dimitris Kourkoumelis, Aggelos Mallios, Paraskevi Micha, David A. Mindell, Christopher Roman, Hanumant Singh, David S. Switzer, Theotokis Theodoulou

Christopher N. Roman

In 2005 a Greek and American interdisciplinary team investigated two ship wrecks off the coast of Chios dating to the 4th-century B.C. and the 2nd/lst century. The project pioneered archaeological methods of precision acoustic, digital image, and chemical survey using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and in-situ sensors, increasing the speed of data acquisition while decreasing costs. The AUV recorded data revealing the physical dimensions, age, cargo, and preservation of the wrecks. The earlier wreck contained more than 350 amphoras, predominantly of Chian type, while the Hellenistic wreck contained about 40 Dressel 1C amphoras. Molecular biological analysis of two amphoras …

1891 Eruption Of Foerstner Volcano (Pantelleria, Sicily): Insights Into The Vent Structure Of Basaltic Balloon Eruptions, J. Kelly, S. Carey, K. Croff-Bell, C. Roman, M. Rosi, M. Marani, M. Pistolesi, E. Baker

Christopher N. Roman

AGU session number V21A-2750.

A Pipeline For Structured Light Bathymetric Mapping, Gabrielle Inglis, Clara Smart, J. Vaughn, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper details a methodology for using structured light laser imaging to create high resolution bathymetric maps of the sea floor. The system includes a pair of stereo cameras and an inclined 532nm sheet laser mounted to a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). While a structured light system generally requires a single camera, a stereo vision set up is used here for in-situ calibration of the laser system geometry by triangulating points on the laser line. This allows for quick calibration at the survey site and does not require precise jigs or a controlled environment. A batch procedure to extract the …

The Optimal Control Of A Flexible Hull Robotic Undersea Vehicle Propelled By An Oscillating Foil, David Barrett, Mark Grosenbaugh, Michael Triantafyllou

David Barrett

Determining the optimal swimming motion for a flexible hull robotic undersea vehicle propelled by an oscillating foil is an acutely complex problem involving the vehicle's body kinematics and the hydrodynamics of the surrounding water. The overall intractability of the hydrodynamics of a flexible body precludes a purely analytical solution. The immense size of the experimental variable space prevents a purely empirical one. In order to overcome both difficulties, we have developed a self-optimizing motion controller based on a genetic algorithm. This controller effectively uses evolutionary principles to exponentially optimize swimming performance.

Precis: A Usercentric Word-Length Optimization Tool, Mark Chang, Scott Hauck

Mark L. Chang

Translating an algorithm designed for a general-purpose processor into an algorithm optimized for custom logic requires extensive knowledge of the algorithm and the target hardware. Precis lets designers analyze the precision requirements of algorithms specified in Matlab. The design time tool combines simulation, user input, and program analysis to help designers focus their manual precision optimization efforts.

Polaris: Getting Accurate Indoor Orientations For Mobile Devices Using Ubiquitous Visual Patterns On Ceilings, Zheng Sun

Zheng Sun

Ubiquitous computing applications commonly use digital compass sensors to obtain orientation of a device relative to the magnetic north of the earth. However, these compass readings are always prone to significant errors in indoor environments due to presence of metallic objects in close proximity. Such errors can adversely affect the performance and quality of user experience of the applications utilizing digital compass sensors.

In this paper, we propose Polaris, a novel approach to provide reliable orientation information for mobile devices in indoor environments. Polaris achieves this by aggregating pictures of the ceiling of an indoor environment and applies computer vision …

New Frontiers In Ocean Exploration: The 2010 And 2011 E/V Nautilus Field Seasons, K. Bell, R. Ballard, D. Coleman, C. Roman, M. Brennan

Christopher N. Roman

The Exploration Vessel NAUTILUS is creating a focus of international leadership for the development and integration of leading-edge technologies, educational programs, field operations, and public outreach programs for ocean exploration, in partnership with NOAA, National Geographic Society, Office of Naval Research, Sea Research Foundation and other sponsors. To do so, the program uses a complement of deep submergence vehicle systems and telepresence technologies to engage scientists, educators and the public, both at sea and ashore, allowing them to become integral members of the on-board exploration team. Two four-month field seasons were undertaken aboard NAUTILUS (2010-2011) to the Black, Aegean and …

An Air-Sea Flux Experiment For 2030, P. Cornillon, D. Farmer, C. Roman, I. Ginis, S. Grilli

Christopher N. Roman

In January 2011 the University of Rhode Island held a two day retreat for faculty and research scientists interested in where the field is going over the next 20 years. The retreat began with presentations detailing the current status and anticipated advances in genetics, nanotechnology, numerical modeling and robotics. Participants then outlined scientific problems that they expect will exist in 2030. This was followed by breakout sessions in which participants discussed experiments, based on anticipated technological advances, that might be undertaken in the 2030 time frame to address some of the identified problems. In this presentation we outline one of …