Motion is an important cue for the human visual system. The computer vision driven research in motion has gradually progressed over the past thirty years from the study of motion of rigid objects like boxes to more flexible objects like the human body. The developments in cameras, computers and memory have contributed in part to this maturing of computer vision. Systems that are able to detect ...

Clapping is a little-studied human activity that may be viewed either as a form of communicative group behavior (applause) or as an individual sound-generating activity involving two "articulators"--the hands. The latter aspect was explored in this pilot study by means of acoustical analyses and perceptual experiments. Principal components analysis of 20 subjects' average clap spectra yielded s...

This paper investigates a puzzling feature of social conventions: the fact that they are both arbitrary and normative. We examine how this tension is addressed in sociological accounts of conventional phenomena. Traditional approaches tend to generate either synchronic accounts that fail to consider the arbitrariness of conventions, or diachronic accounts that miss central aspects of their norm...

This paper describes the application of the Activity Theory framework to the analysis of work practices in an organisation, to inform the design of a computer system for supporting collaborative learning in the workplace. A study involving the analysis of an organisation and using Engeström's expanded triangle model of human activity [5] is described. A methodology developed during the study fo...

Understanding the historical dynamics of forest communities is a critical element for accurate prediction of their response to future change. Here, we examine evergreen rainforest distribution in the Sunda Shelf region at the last glacial maximum (LGM), using a spatially explicit model incorporating geographic, paleoclimatic, and geologic evidence. Results indicate that at the LGM, Sundaland ra...

Recent work suggests that the environment experienced in early life can alter life histories in wild populations, but our understanding of the processes involved remains limited. Since anthropogenic environmental change is currently having a major impact on wild populations, this raises the possibility that life histories may be influenced by human activities that alter environmental conditions...

Building with a Memory is an experiential media system for capturing and representing dynamic human activity in a distributed workplace. Participants can perform purposefully, incidentally and unknowingly with the system, with individual and collective actions represented through a variety of ambient feedback mechanisms. Two iterations of the system are presented and observations and recommenda...

Recognizing human activities in their daily living enables the development and widely usage of human-centric applications, such as health monitoring, assisted living, etc. Traditional activity recognition methods often rely on physical sensors (camera, accelerometer, gyroscope, etc.) to continuously collect sensor readings, and utilize pattern recognition algorithms to identify user's activitie...

We introduce a model of adaptive temporal networks whose evolution is regulated by an interplay between node activity and dynamic exchange of information through links. We study the model by using a master equation approach. Starting from a homogeneous initial configuration, we show that temporal and structural heterogeneities, characteristic of real-world networks, spontaneously emerge. This t...

A substantial part of the entertainment industry is devoted to the visualization of human activity. Frequently, these activities involve many people interacting. Examples include reality shows, dance, music and theatrical performances but most prominently sports events, especially team sports such as ice hockey, basketball and football. Today’s experience of these live sports events is primaril...