Penn State researchers have developed software agents which can help human teams to react more accurately and quickly in time-stressed situations than human teams acting alone. According to this news release, the software was tested in a military command-and-control simulation. "When time pressures were normal, the human teams functioned well, sharing information and making correct decisions about the potential threat." But when the pressure increased, the human teams made errors who would have cost lives in real situations. The decisions taken by agent-supported human teams were much better. Now, it remains to be seen if this software can be used in other stressful situations, such as for emergency management operations. Read more...
Here is a description of the simulation experiment.
In the simulation, team members had to protect an airbase and supply route which were under attack by enemy aircraft. The scenarios were configured with different patterns of attack and at different tempos. The situation was complicated because team members had to determine at first if the aircraft were neutral or hostile. Furthermore, two team members were dependent on the third whose role was to gather information and communicate it to them.
"When the teams don't know if the incoming aircraft is the enemy, the defense team can't attack, and the supply team takes action to avoid the incoming threat which causes a delay in delivery," said Shuang Sun[, one of the researchers.] "These decisions lower the performance of the whole team."
When the information gatherer was supported by the researchers' R-CAST software system, the information was gathered and shared more quickly. As a result, the human-agent teams were better able to defend themselves from enemy attack and deliver supplies without delay, Sun said.
The illustration below shows the structure of the two teams used for testing, with human teams on the left, and agent-supported human teams on the right (Credit: Penn State).
And the diagram below shows how these different teams were able to destroy enemies when stress increased (Credit: Penn State).
It seems pretty obvious that software agents helped humans to better react in this stressful situation.
The researchers, Xiaocong Fan, Shuang Sun, John Yen, and Michael McNeese, have presented the results of their experiments at the Fourth International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, which was held in Amsterdam on July 25-29, 2005 (AAMAS 2005).
Here is a link to their full paper named "Extending the Recognition-Primed Decision Model to Support Human-Agent Collaboration" (PDF format, 8 pages, 413 KB). Here are some selected excerpts from the introduction.
The aim of this research is to support human decision making teams using cognitive agents empowered by a collaborative Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model. In this paper, we ¯rst describe an RPD-enabled agent architecture (R-CAST), in which we have implemented an internal mechanism of decision-making adaptation based on collaborative expectancy monitoring, and an information exchange mechanism driven by relevant cue analysis.
We have evaluated R-CAST agents in a real-time simulation environment, feeding teams with frequent decision-making tasks under different tempo situations. While the result conforms to psychological findings that human team members are extremely sensitive to their workload in high-tempo situations, it clearly indicates that human teams, when supported by R-CAST agents, can perform better in the sense that they can maintain team performance at acceptable levels in high time pressure situations.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
New Software Brings Lip-Reading to Cell Phones
After talking several times here about technologies designed to help blind people, it's time to look at one which will benefit deaf people.
With this technology, they will be able to use cell phones, but not in the streets. They'll need a PC -- soon a PDA -- and for the time being, to be in Israel.
Reuters unveils the story.
Israel's largest mobile phone operator Cellcom and Israeli start-up Speechview (Your Link to the Hearing World) launched on Tuesday a worldwide patented software that will allow the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate through mobile phones.
The product, LipCcell, is a software installed in the user's computer and connected with a cable to a cell phone. When the deaf user gets a call, the software translates the voice on the other side of the line into a three dimensional animated face on the computer, whose lips move in real time synch with the voice allowing the receiver to lip read.
The software can be used initially only with a computer or laptop, said SpeechView chief executive Tzvika Nayman, though future developments will allow the software to be installed on personal digital assistants.
With this technology, they will be able to use cell phones, but not in the streets. They'll need a PC -- soon a PDA -- and for the time being, to be in Israel.
Reuters unveils the story.
Israel's largest mobile phone operator Cellcom and Israeli start-up Speechview (Your Link to the Hearing World) launched on Tuesday a worldwide patented software that will allow the deaf and hard of hearing to communicate through mobile phones.
The product, LipCcell, is a software installed in the user's computer and connected with a cable to a cell phone. When the deaf user gets a call, the software translates the voice on the other side of the line into a three dimensional animated face on the computer, whose lips move in real time synch with the voice allowing the receiver to lip read.
The software can be used initially only with a computer or laptop, said SpeechView chief executive Tzvika Nayman, though future developments will allow the software to be installed on personal digital assistants.
CSI IN A BOX
If you're not familiar with U.S. TV, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) is a weekly CBS show which gathers about 20 million viewers and which routinely speaks about forensic facial reconstruction. Reconstructing human faces from skulls found by the police is nothing new, and it has already being done with computers. But this was a long process. Now, a Canadian startup company, HumanCore has developed a new human anatomy software to do the job in about 30 minutes. This software has already attracted the attention of law enforcement forces in the U.S. and in Canada. But it also can be used by mechanical engineers to design new products or even by the clothing industry. Read more for an interview with one of the co-founders of HumanCore as well as pictures and additional details about this innovative software.
HumanCore is basically a technology to simulate the assembly of human bones, muscles, cartilages and skin in software using parametric CAD technology. There are many applications for this technology, but the first release focuses on automated cranio-facial reconstruction.
If you're not familiar with U.S. TV, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) is a weekly CBS show which gathers about 20 million viewers and which routinely speaks about forensic facial reconstruction. Reconstructing human faces from skulls found by the police is nothing new, and it has already being done with computers. But this was a long process. Now, a Canadian startup company, HumanCore has developed a new human anatomy software to do the job in about 30 minutes. This software has already attracted the attention of law enforcement forces in the U.S. and in Canada. But it also can be used by mechanical engineers to design new products or even by the clothing industry. Read more for an interview with one of the co-founders of HumanCore as well as pictures and additional details about this innovative software.
HumanCore is basically a technology to simulate the assembly of human bones, muscles, cartilages and skin in software using parametric CAD technology. There are many applications for this technology, but the first release focuses on automated cranio-facial reconstruction.
Here is how it works.
As seen in a CSI episode (Who Are You), the current method used in forensics is to create a clay reconstruction on top of the skull to identify. It usually takes from 3 days to several months, depending on the skills of the artists and amounts of details. The following photo is an example of this approach (Credit: Jean N. Prudent, HumanCore, as well as all the other pictures below).
With HumanCore, you just have to scan the geometry of the skull and load this into the program.
Then, you must reorient the skull and apply "fit markers" which are points on the skull that allow the software to recognize the main morphological features. Without these, there is no way for the software to know where are the eye sockets or the nose cavity for example. At this stage, some regions can be "painted" red to define them as "undefined". This allows the software to reconstruct damaged skulls with missing regions, which is a common occurrence in murder cases.
In the next step, you just launch the automated reconstruction process. What the software does is try to deform its internal bone representation to fit the scanned skull's geometry. The process is made possible by the presence of the fit markers.
Finally, you must input the vital stats (age, gender, ancestry and level of fitness) and select the appropriate "standard average tissue depth table" for the reconstruction. The vital stats are usually provided by an experienced physical anthropologist since it is impossible for the software to determine this on its own. The tables define the depth of soft tissue between the skull and the skin. The software includes standard tables that have been compiled for several population groups all over the world (Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc.).
Jean Prudent, the author of the software, told me that the whole process lasted less than 30 minutes, which obviously, would speed forensics research. I've asked him what he thought about the market.
Cranio-facial reconstruction is a niche market, but its physical anthropology foundations, just like mathematics and physics have applications in many other fields including paleo-anthropology, gross anatomy, kinanthropology and of course ergonomics. We're currently working on a SolidWorks plug-in implementation, which will allow designers of implants and anaplastologists to test their designs before.
This software will be sold for US $1,495. This might be pocket money for a large city police department, but if the company wants to enter other market segments, such as the fashion industry, which uses many freelance graphic designers, will the price be too high? Here is Prudents' answer.
You are right: this is not tool for artists. This is a scientific software and as such, it was priced to be affordable to current users of Mathematica and MathCAD ($1,200 to $1,700) as well as users of SolidWorks ($3,000-$4,000). Students enrolled in legitimate university programs benefit from the same deep discount available for Mathematica, which makes it affordable to them too. Initial feedback tells me that the pricing is correct in that context. The individuals from the fashion industry who contacted us were interested in the scientific aspects of human variations (linking population surveys to production planning) -- they were not designers or artists."
With its parametric musculo-skeleton engine integrated with a 2D/3D graphics editor, this software also can be used for many other CAD projects, such as designing wheelchairs or portable consumer electronics.
Below is an illustration showing the parametric musculo-skeleton engine.
For more information about this software, which should be available soon, please read the HumanCore brochure from which the last image was extracted (PDF format, 2 pages, 10.6 MB).
[Disclaimer: I have absolutely no ties with this company and I haven't personally used this software. So please try it before opening your checkbook.]
Sources: Roland Piquepaille, January 4, 2006; and HumanCore web site
HumanCore is basically a technology to simulate the assembly of human bones, muscles, cartilages and skin in software using parametric CAD technology. There are many applications for this technology, but the first release focuses on automated cranio-facial reconstruction.
If you're not familiar with U.S. TV, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) is a weekly CBS show which gathers about 20 million viewers and which routinely speaks about forensic facial reconstruction. Reconstructing human faces from skulls found by the police is nothing new, and it has already being done with computers. But this was a long process. Now, a Canadian startup company, HumanCore has developed a new human anatomy software to do the job in about 30 minutes. This software has already attracted the attention of law enforcement forces in the U.S. and in Canada. But it also can be used by mechanical engineers to design new products or even by the clothing industry. Read more for an interview with one of the co-founders of HumanCore as well as pictures and additional details about this innovative software.
HumanCore is basically a technology to simulate the assembly of human bones, muscles, cartilages and skin in software using parametric CAD technology. There are many applications for this technology, but the first release focuses on automated cranio-facial reconstruction.
Here is how it works.
As seen in a CSI episode (Who Are You), the current method used in forensics is to create a clay reconstruction on top of the skull to identify. It usually takes from 3 days to several months, depending on the skills of the artists and amounts of details. The following photo is an example of this approach (Credit: Jean N. Prudent, HumanCore, as well as all the other pictures below).
With HumanCore, you just have to scan the geometry of the skull and load this into the program.
Then, you must reorient the skull and apply "fit markers" which are points on the skull that allow the software to recognize the main morphological features. Without these, there is no way for the software to know where are the eye sockets or the nose cavity for example. At this stage, some regions can be "painted" red to define them as "undefined". This allows the software to reconstruct damaged skulls with missing regions, which is a common occurrence in murder cases.
In the next step, you just launch the automated reconstruction process. What the software does is try to deform its internal bone representation to fit the scanned skull's geometry. The process is made possible by the presence of the fit markers.
Finally, you must input the vital stats (age, gender, ancestry and level of fitness) and select the appropriate "standard average tissue depth table" for the reconstruction. The vital stats are usually provided by an experienced physical anthropologist since it is impossible for the software to determine this on its own. The tables define the depth of soft tissue between the skull and the skin. The software includes standard tables that have been compiled for several population groups all over the world (Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc.).
Jean Prudent, the author of the software, told me that the whole process lasted less than 30 minutes, which obviously, would speed forensics research. I've asked him what he thought about the market.
Cranio-facial reconstruction is a niche market, but its physical anthropology foundations, just like mathematics and physics have applications in many other fields including paleo-anthropology, gross anatomy, kinanthropology and of course ergonomics. We're currently working on a SolidWorks plug-in implementation, which will allow designers of implants and anaplastologists to test their designs before.
This software will be sold for US $1,495. This might be pocket money for a large city police department, but if the company wants to enter other market segments, such as the fashion industry, which uses many freelance graphic designers, will the price be too high? Here is Prudents' answer.
You are right: this is not tool for artists. This is a scientific software and as such, it was priced to be affordable to current users of Mathematica and MathCAD ($1,200 to $1,700) as well as users of SolidWorks ($3,000-$4,000). Students enrolled in legitimate university programs benefit from the same deep discount available for Mathematica, which makes it affordable to them too. Initial feedback tells me that the pricing is correct in that context. The individuals from the fashion industry who contacted us were interested in the scientific aspects of human variations (linking population surveys to production planning) -- they were not designers or artists."
With its parametric musculo-skeleton engine integrated with a 2D/3D graphics editor, this software also can be used for many other CAD projects, such as designing wheelchairs or portable consumer electronics.
Below is an illustration showing the parametric musculo-skeleton engine.
For more information about this software, which should be available soon, please read the HumanCore brochure from which the last image was extracted (PDF format, 2 pages, 10.6 MB).
[Disclaimer: I have absolutely no ties with this company and I haven't personally used this software. So please try it before opening your checkbook.]
Sources: Roland Piquepaille, January 4, 2006; and HumanCore web site
INTEL
Actually, the real title of this Peter Lewis's article for Fortune is "Intel Outside." By this, he means that Intel has grand plans for expansion in wireless territory.
"Centrino Inside" is the catch phrase that you'll hear ad nauseam starting later this month. What the heck is a Centrino? It's a major departure from earlier mobile microprocessor designs and the centerpiece of Intel's plan to promote -- and dominate -- computing in wireless network environments.
Centrino, Intel says, is the first step toward a future when all computing devices communicate and all communications devices compute.
Lewis found that "Centrino" is an anagram for "no cretin," "rent icon," and "not nicer" and looks if these anagrams make sense. Let's check the first one, "no cretin".
Although it operates at lower clock speeds than current Intel Pentium-4 Mobile chips, the main Centrino processor is far from computationally challenged. It's a new low-power, high-performance processor called the Pentium-M.
That's only part of the story. The Centrino package comprises three main parts: Besides the Pentium-M, it includes a wireless radio chip for communicating securely with the growing number of 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless network hot spots, and a supporting chipset that Intel says will help improve the battery life and graphics performance of mobile devices.
And here are Intel's wireless plans.
Intel says Centrino notebooks can roam seamlessly among thousands of "Centrino-certified" hot spots in airports, hotels, and other public places. Intel plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this year -- and devote 2,500 employees -- to test hot spots and third-party components, making sure that Centrino-based devices work flawlessly.
"Centrino Inside" is the catch phrase that you'll hear ad nauseam starting later this month. What the heck is a Centrino? It's a major departure from earlier mobile microprocessor designs and the centerpiece of Intel's plan to promote -- and dominate -- computing in wireless network environments.
Centrino, Intel says, is the first step toward a future when all computing devices communicate and all communications devices compute.
Lewis found that "Centrino" is an anagram for "no cretin," "rent icon," and "not nicer" and looks if these anagrams make sense. Let's check the first one, "no cretin".
Although it operates at lower clock speeds than current Intel Pentium-4 Mobile chips, the main Centrino processor is far from computationally challenged. It's a new low-power, high-performance processor called the Pentium-M.
That's only part of the story. The Centrino package comprises three main parts: Besides the Pentium-M, it includes a wireless radio chip for communicating securely with the growing number of 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless network hot spots, and a supporting chipset that Intel says will help improve the battery life and graphics performance of mobile devices.
And here are Intel's wireless plans.
Intel says Centrino notebooks can roam seamlessly among thousands of "Centrino-certified" hot spots in airports, hotels, and other public places. Intel plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this year -- and devote 2,500 employees -- to test hot spots and third-party components, making sure that Centrino-based devices work flawlessly.
SAP AFS
Everyone knows SAP, its history and its functionality. But I think an understanding of SAP AFS is not as common, so I'd like to give you a brief introduction.
[[SAP AFS]] is the SAP solution focused on the Apparel and Footwear Industry (AFS stands for Apparel and Footwear Solutions). In the standard categorization of SAP’s industry specific solutions, AFS is categorized under “Consumable Productsâ€.
SAP AFS is built on the SAP Core with valuable extra functionality to support the specific needs of the apparel and footwear industry. Among these are the ability to handle sizes (grids), ability to categorize products based on their common features (like country importing the goods, quality grade of the product) and the ability to handle seasonality.
Handling materials in sizes is a special requirement in the apparel and footwear industry. This is achieved with AFS Grid functionality. AFS grids are three dimensional in nature. In other words, there can be three variables maintained in the grid value. For example, if the user wants to separate products by labeled size (Small – S), side seam length (23â€) and the collar size (16â€) this can be achieved using AFS grids. All three variables will be maintained independently. Once these three variables are put together it will make a unique combination. The Grid value in the above example will look like “S-23-16â€. This reduces the data volume greatly and reduces the complexities.
Categories are used in AFS extensively to categorize products which posses the same characteristics. For example, the same product can be graded as Quality-A and Quality-B after the quality checks. These products will have different market values and customer demand patterns. This can be replicated in SAP AFS easily using categories. The requirement and the supply will be handled based on the category allocation.
Seasonality is probably the most important aspect of the apparel and footwear trade. The same product can change its characteristics based on the season. For example, the color or some label details might change with the season. This is where AFS seasonality comes in to play. Seasonality is especially prominent in the SD (Sales and Distribution) module. But seasonality affects the full supply chain. Seasonal settings can be maintained in AFS in combination with Size and Category. This is of great use in effectively maintaining and managing the large volumes of data specific to the industry.
[[SAP AFS]] is the SAP solution focused on the Apparel and Footwear Industry (AFS stands for Apparel and Footwear Solutions). In the standard categorization of SAP’s industry specific solutions, AFS is categorized under “Consumable Productsâ€.
SAP AFS is built on the SAP Core with valuable extra functionality to support the specific needs of the apparel and footwear industry. Among these are the ability to handle sizes (grids), ability to categorize products based on their common features (like country importing the goods, quality grade of the product) and the ability to handle seasonality.
Handling materials in sizes is a special requirement in the apparel and footwear industry. This is achieved with AFS Grid functionality. AFS grids are three dimensional in nature. In other words, there can be three variables maintained in the grid value. For example, if the user wants to separate products by labeled size (Small – S), side seam length (23â€) and the collar size (16â€) this can be achieved using AFS grids. All three variables will be maintained independently. Once these three variables are put together it will make a unique combination. The Grid value in the above example will look like “S-23-16â€. This reduces the data volume greatly and reduces the complexities.
Categories are used in AFS extensively to categorize products which posses the same characteristics. For example, the same product can be graded as Quality-A and Quality-B after the quality checks. These products will have different market values and customer demand patterns. This can be replicated in SAP AFS easily using categories. The requirement and the supply will be handled based on the category allocation.
Seasonality is probably the most important aspect of the apparel and footwear trade. The same product can change its characteristics based on the season. For example, the color or some label details might change with the season. This is where AFS seasonality comes in to play. Seasonality is especially prominent in the SD (Sales and Distribution) module. But seasonality affects the full supply chain. Seasonal settings can be maintained in AFS in combination with Size and Category. This is of great use in effectively maintaining and managing the large volumes of data specific to the industry.
SAP
(1) Short for Session Announcement Protocol, an announcement protocol used to communicate the relevant session setup information to prospective participants during multicast sessions. SAPs typically use the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP).
(2) Short for Service Advertising Protocol, a NetWare protocol used to identify the services and addresses of servers attached to the network. The responses are used to update a table in the router known as the Server Information Table.
(3) Short for Secondary Audio Program, an NTSC audio channel used for auxiliary transmission, such as foreign language broadcasting or teletext.
(4) Short for SAP America, Inc., Lester, PA, the U.S. branch of the German software company, SAP AG. The name SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. SAP's R/3 integrated suite of applications and its ABAP/4 Development Workbench became popular starting around 1993.
(2) Short for Service Advertising Protocol, a NetWare protocol used to identify the services and addresses of servers attached to the network. The responses are used to update a table in the router known as the Server Information Table.
(3) Short for Secondary Audio Program, an NTSC audio channel used for auxiliary transmission, such as foreign language broadcasting or teletext.
(4) Short for SAP America, Inc., Lester, PA, the U.S. branch of the German software company, SAP AG. The name SAP stands for Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing. SAP's R/3 integrated suite of applications and its ABAP/4 Development Workbench became popular starting around 1993.
WHAT IS ERP ALL ABOUT
Some of the features of Open Source ERP are as follows:
Cutting down the costs
This is the first and foremost advantage of ERP. Companies really find it taxing to pay the additional cess whenever a renewal is made to existing license system. Since they invest a large amount in the initial stage they find difficulty in paying again and again. All these have been completely done away with by the intervention of open source ERP. All that the company has to do is to download the software and make use of it.
However this issue has drawn lot of controversies recently. Some companies feel that open source is not promising enough to meet the application deliverables. The others find it convenient to make the necessary payments for the service rendered. This debate continues endlessly in one end while in the other end the fact remains that erp open source has made it possible for S.M.E.'s to enter the market owing to the cheap cost.
Companies don't prefer to go for open source applications due to cost alone. They choose it if and only they are convinced that it will help them keeping their IT infrastructure and requirements in mind.
Cutting down the costs
This is the first and foremost advantage of ERP. Companies really find it taxing to pay the additional cess whenever a renewal is made to existing license system. Since they invest a large amount in the initial stage they find difficulty in paying again and again. All these have been completely done away with by the intervention of open source ERP. All that the company has to do is to download the software and make use of it.
However this issue has drawn lot of controversies recently. Some companies feel that open source is not promising enough to meet the application deliverables. The others find it convenient to make the necessary payments for the service rendered. This debate continues endlessly in one end while in the other end the fact remains that erp open source has made it possible for S.M.E.'s to enter the market owing to the cheap cost.
Companies don't prefer to go for open source applications due to cost alone. They choose it if and only they are convinced that it will help them keeping their IT infrastructure and requirements in mind.
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