678679
Sympathetic interfaces: using a plush toy to direct synthetic characters
We introduce the concept of a sympathetic inter$ace forcontrolling an animated synthetic character in a 3D virtualenvironment. A plush doll embedded with wireless sensors is used tomanipulate the virtual character in an iconic and intentionalmanner. The interface extends from the novel physical input devicethrough interpretation of sensor data to the behavioral brain ofthe virtual character. We discuss the design of the interface andfocus on its latest instantiation in the Swamped! exhibit atSIGGRAPH 98. We also present what we learned from hundreds ofcasual users, who ranged from young children to adults.
7264850
Physically interactive story environments
Most interactive stories, such as hypertext narratives and interactive movies achieve an interactive "feel" by allowing the user to choose among multiple story paths. In this paper we discuss physically interactive environments with narrative structure in which the ability to choose among multiple story lines is replaced with having users, first, interact with the story characters in small, local "windows" of the narrative and, second, actively engage their bodies in movement, In particular, we found that compelling interactive narrative story systems can be perceived as highly responsive, engaging, and interactive even when the overall story has a single-path structure, in what we call a "less-choice, more-responsiveness" approach to the design of story-based interactive environments. We have also observed that unencumbering, rich sensor technology can facilitate user immersion in the experience as the story progresses--users can act as they typically would without worrying about manipulating a computer interface. To support these arguments, the paper describes the physical setup, the interactive story, the technology, and the user experience of four projects developed at the MIT Media Laboratory: KidsRoom, It/I, Personal Aerobics Trainer, and Swamped!
13079001
Dynamic programming for parsing and estimation of stochastic unification-based grammars
Stochastic unification-based grammars (SUBGs) define exponential distributions over the parses generated by a unification-based grammar (UBG). Existing algorithms for parsing and estimation require the enumeration of all of the parses of a string in order to determine the most likely one, or in order to calculate the statistics needed to estimate a grammar from a training corpus. This paper describes a graph-based dynamic programming algorithm for calculating these statistics from the packed UBG parse representations of Maxwell and Kaplan (1995) which does not require enumerating all parses. Like many graphical algorithms, the dynamic programming algorithm's complexity is worst-case exponential, but is often polynomial. The key observation is that by using Maxwell and Kaplan packed representations, the required statistics can be rewritten as either the max or the sum of a product of functions. This is exactly the kind of problem which can be solved by dynamic programming over graphical models.
5228396
Finite-state Approximation of Constraint-based Grammars using Left-corner Grammar Transforms
This paper describes how to construct a finite-state machine (FSM) approximating a 'unification-based' grammar using a left-corner grammar transform. The approximation is presented as a series of grammar transforms, and is exact for left-linear and right-linear CFGs, and for trees up to a user-specified depth of center-embedding.
29097804
Spatial decision support system for home-delivered services
Abstract. We present a spatial decision support system for the non-profit sector, designed to assist planning in the area of home-delivered services such as meals on wheels. Using data collected from existing programs, current and forecasted demographic data, and a set of algorithmic tools, we provide a system for evaluating current meals on wheels facilities, and for making incremental facility location decisions that satisfy coverage and equity requirements.
3073773
A Discovery Procedure For Certain Phonological Rules
Acquisition of phonological systems can be insightfully studied in terms of discovery procedures. This paper describes a discovery procedure, implemented in Lisp, capable of determining a set of ordered phonological rules, which may be in opaque contexts, from a set of surface forms arranged in paradigms.
1780562
Word sense disambiguation with pictures
We introduce using images for word sense disambiguation, either alone, or in conjunction with traditional text based methods. The approach is based on a recently developed method for automatically annotating images by using a statistical model for the joint probability for image regions and words. The model itself is learned from a data base of images with associated text. To use the model for word sense disambiguation, we constrain the predicted words to be possible senses for the word under consideration. When word prediction is constrained to a narrow set of choices (such as possible senses), it can be quite reliable. We report on experiments using the resulting sense probabilities as is, as well as augmenting a state of the art text based word sense disambiguation algorithm. In order to evaluate our approach, we developed a new corpus, ImCor, which consists of a substantive portion of the Corel image data set associated with disambiguated text drawn from the SemCor corpus. Our experiments using this corpus suggest that visual information can be very useful in disambiguating word senses. It also illustrates that associated non-textual information such as image data can help ground language meaning.