IAMICH 2014 Abstracts

Full Papers
Full Papers
Paper Nr: 1
Title:

On Enhancing Blended-Learning Scenarios through Fuzzy Logic-based Modeling of Users’ LMS Quality of Interaction - The Rare & Contemporary Dance Paradigms
Authors:

Sofia B. Dias, Leontios J. Hadjileontiadis and José A. Diniz
Abstract: The combination of the process of pedagogical planning within the Blended (b-)learning environment with the users’ quality of interaction (QoI) with the Learning Management System (LMS), serving as an effective feedback, is explored here. The required QoI (both for teachers and students) is estimated by adopting a fuzzy logic-based modeling approach, namely FuzzyQoI, applied to LMS Moodle data from two academic teaching of dance disciplines, including rare and contemporary dances, respectively. The latter are used as paradigms that comply with the educational scenarios of the i-Treasures project (www.i-treasures.eu), which refers to the intangible cultural heritage. Based on documental analysis, the pedagogical design strategies per semester were transcribed to concept maps and the dynamically (per week) estimated QoIs were presented as feedback to the teachers at the end of the first semester, so they could reflect and update their pedagogical planning, anticipating more enhanced QoI at the second one. The results presented here show the beneficial role of QoI to shift the educational scenarios and strategies towards a more dynamic design, yet taking into consideration the inherent tendencies and attitudes of the users’ interaction within the b-learning context.
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Paper Nr: 2
Title:

Capturing the Intangible - An Introduction to the I-Treasures Project
Authors:

Kosmas Dimitropoulos, Sotiris Manitsaris, Filareti Tsalakanidou, Spiros Nikolopoulos, Bruce Denby, Samer Al Kork, Lise Crevier-Buchman, Claire Pillot-Loiseau, Martine Adda-Decker, Stephane Dupont, Joelle Tilmanne, Michela Ott, Marilena Alivizatou, Erdal Yilmaz, Leontios Hadjileontiadis, Vassilios Charisis, Olivier Deroo, Athanasios Manitsaris, Ioannis Kompatsiaris and Nikos Grammalidis
Abstract: Cultural expression is not limited to architecture, monuments or collections of artifacts. It also includes fragile intangible live expressions, which involve knowledge and skills such as music, dance, singing, theatre, human skills and craftsmanship. These manifestations of human intelligence and creativeness constitute our Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), a basic factor of local cultural identity and a guaranty for sustainable development. In this paper, we briefly introduce the i-Treasures research project, which aims at developing an open and extendable platform to provide access to ICH resources, enable knowledge exchange and contribute to the transmission of rare know-how. The project goes beyond digitization of cultural content; it creates new knowledge that has never been analysed or studied before through novel methodologies for the analysis and modelling of ICH based on multisensory technology. High-level semantics are extracted enabling researchers to identify possible implicit or hidden correlations between different ICH expressions or interpretation styles and study the evolution of a specific ICH. Four different ICH cases are studied: traditional songs, dance interactions, pottery and contemporary music composition Combining conventional learning procedures and sensorimotor learning through an interactive 3D environment, i-Treasures breaks new ground in education and knowledge transfer of ICH.
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Paper Nr: 3
Title:

A Participatory Approach to Define User Requirements of a Platform for Intangible Cultural Heritage Education
Authors:

Francesca Pozzi, Alessandra Antonaci, Francesca Maria Dagnino, Michela Ott and Mauro Tavella
Abstract: In the last years the protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage has become a key issue of European cultural policy and this applies not only to tangible artefacts (monuments, sites, etc.), but also to intangible cultural expressions (singing, dancing, etc.). The i-Treasures project focuses on some Intangible Cultural Heritages (ICH) and investigates whether and to what extent new technology can play a role in the preservation and dissemination of these expressions. To this aim, the project will develop a system, based on cutting edge technology and sensors, that digitally captures the performances of living human treasures, analyses the digital information to semantically index the performances and their constituting elements, and builds an educational platform on top of the semantically indexed content. The main purpose of this paper is to describe how the user requirements of this system were defined. The requirements definition process was based on a participatory approach, where ICH experts, performers and users were actively involved through surveys and interviews, and extensively collaborated in the complex tasks of identifying specificities of rare traditional know-how, discovering existing teaching and learning practices and finally identifying the most cutting edge technologies able to support innovative teaching and learning approaches to ICH.
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Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Dance Analysis using Multiple Kinect Sensors
Authors:

Alexandros Kitsikidis, Kosmas Dimitropoulos, Stella Douka and Nikos Grammalidis
Abstract: In this paper we present a method for body motion analysis in dance using multiple Kinect sensors. The proposed method applies fusion to combine the skeletal tracking data of multiple sensors in order to solve occlusion and self-occlusion tracking problems and increase the robustness of skeletal tracking. The fused skeletal data is split into five different body parts (torso, left hand, right hand, left leg and right leg), which are then transformed to allow view invariant posture recognition. For each part, a posture vocabulary is generated by performing k-means clustering on a large set of unlabeled postures. Finally, body part postures are combined into body posture sequences and Hidden Conditional Random Fields (HCRF) classifier is used to recognize motion patterns (e.g. dance figures). For the evaluation of the proposed method, Tsamiko dancers are captured using multiple Kinect sensors and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the high recognition accuracy of the proposed method.
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Paper Nr: 5
Title:

Multi-entity Bayesian Networks for Treasuring the Intangible Cultural Heritage
Authors:

Giannis Chantas, Spiros Nikolopoulos and Ioannis Kompatsiaris
Abstract: In this paper, we propose the use of Multi-entity Bayesian networks (MEBNs) for modeling the knowledge and analyzing the content pertaining to the domain of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). MEBNs provide a rigorous knowledge representation framework in conjunction with reasoning and probabilistic inference capabilities. There are mainly two reasons motivating the use of MEBNs in the domain of ICH. The first is that MEBNs extend first-order logic with the ability to model uncertainty. The second reason is the capability of MEBN to adapt to specific situations by providing custom, situation specific Bayesian networks. Finally, we use an example to demonstrate the potential efficiency of MEBNs in the domain of ICH.
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Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Exploration of a Stylistic Motion Space Through Realtime Synthesis
Authors:

Jöelle Tilmanne, Nicolas d'Alessandro, Maria Astrinaki and Thierry Ravet
Abstract: We present a first implementation of a framework for the exploration of stylistic variations in intangible heritage, recorded through motion capture techniques. Our approach is based on a statistical modelling of the phenomenon, which is then presented to the user through a reactive stylistic synthesis, visualised in real-time on a virtual character. This approach enables an interactive exploration of the stylistic space. In this paper, a first implementation of the framework is presented with a proof-of-concept application enabling the intuitive and interactive stylistic exploration of an expressive gait space.
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