Eye-tracking comparison of two road atlases

The usage of road atlases is experiencing a decline due to the rise in popularity of modern GPS navigational systems. However, road atlases are still utilised by some individuals, both in combination with mobile navigation and separately when navigating during the trip. Therefore, road atlases continue to be published. They are regularly updated, and they do gradually change, such as when the map symbology changes or when the creation of maps takes new technological possibilities into account. The changes in map symbology are the main essence of the presented paper. Based on the assumption presented by an expert (head of the largest cartographic publishing house in the Czech Republic) during an expert discussion that the 20-year-old road atlas is easier to read and that the required information was more quickly accessible in the old atlas than in the new atlas, a scientific experiment was designed and performed. Within the comparison of the "old" and "new" atlases, three hypotheses were established: (1) Accuracy of responses will be higher for the "old" atlas, (2) Time for task completion will be lower for the "old" atlas, and (3) Orientation in the maps from the "old" atlas will be easier. The eye-tracking testing performed did not confirm the first hypothesis, but the statistics confirmed the second and third hypotheses. The reasons for the different results for the "old" and "new" atlases were sometimes obvious (change in the graphic variables of a particular map symbol). Still, other times the causes were not completely clear. All of the experimental results were provided to the publishing house for further use in practice.

Orientation cues and mechanisms used during avian navigation: A review

The navigational systems of different animal species are by a wide margin less notable as compared to birds. Humans have been interested in how migratory birds discover their way more than thousands of miles for quite a long time. This review summarizes the cues and compass mechanisms applied in orientation and navigation by non-migrants, diurnal and nocturnal migrants. The magnetic compass, landmarks, olfactory, and memory of spatial cues en route were utilized in homing and migration. The equivalent is valid for the sun compass despite the fact that its job during migration might be undeniably less significant than commonly presumed. Stellar compass and celestial rotation, as a result of their nighttime accessibility, appear to influence the direction of nighttime migrants during the course of migration. The celestial cues go through notable changes because of the latitude shift during bird migration. Sunset cues alter their location with seasons and latitudes. The recognizable stars lose height and lastly vanish underneath the horizon, whereas new stars show up. These new ones must be calibrated. As celestial rotation not imparting a reference, it is not unexpected that the magnetic compass turns into the main cue that controls the directional importance of stars and sunset cues. Field studies have revealed that, in certain species, a considerable extent of individuals get back to similar breeding, overwintering, and stopover areas in progressive years. This review proposes that migratory birds have advanced uncommon cognitive capacities that empower them to achieve these accomplishments.

The narrative origins of language

Central to this chapter is the idea that the investigation of the origin of language is strictly tied to the analysis of the traits that distinguish human communication from that of animals. A cognitive approach to the study of the origin of language is employed. The proposal is that the analysis of the traits that distinguish human communication from that of animals must be guided by an investigation of the processing devices that allowed our ancestral relatives to manage the transition from animal communication to language. The argument put forward is that the distinguishing feature of language is how it supports the ability to tell stories; and that the cognitive devices responsible for the transition from animal communication to language (space and time navigational systems, plus mindreading) are the same cognitive devices dedicated to discursive level processing in human communication. Given that the issue of the origins of language is closely related to the analysis of the differences between the way in which humans and non-human animals communicate, the first issue to be addressed regards the question of what is specific about language as a system of communication.

Cyber Risk Propagation and Optimal Selection of Cybersecurity Controls for Complex Cyberphysical Systems

The increasingly witnessed integration of information technology with operational technology leads to the formation of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) that intertwine physical and cyber components and connect to each other to form systems-of-systems. This interconnection enables the offering of functionality beyond the combined offering of each individual component, but at the same time increases the cyber risk of the overall system, as such risk propagates between and aggregates at component systems. The complexity of the resulting systems-of-systems in many cases leads to difficulty in analyzing cyber risk. Additionally, the selection of cybersecurity controls that will effectively and efficiently treat the cyber risk is commonly performed manually, or at best with limited automated decision support. In this work, we propose a method for analyzing risk propagation and aggregation in complex CPSs utilizing the results of risk assessments of their individual constituents. Additionally, we propose a method employing evolutionary programming for automating the selection of an optimal set of cybersecurity controls out of a list of available controls, that will minimize the residual risk and the cost associated with the implementation of these measures. We illustrate the workings of the proposed methods by applying them to the navigational systems of two variants of the Cyber-Enabled Ship (C-ES), namely the autonomous ship and the remotely controlled ship. The results are sets of cybersecurity controls applied to those components of the overall system that have been identified in previous studies as the most vulnerable ones; such controls minimize the residual risk, while also minimizing the cost of implementation.

Implementation of optimal automatic steering of atomic clock timescale

The problem of physical implementation of atomic timescales maximally adjusted to the national timescale UTC(SU) for working and secondary standards is considered. Results of analysis of stationary process of hydrogen maser timescale automatic steering to UTC(SU) using common view technique based on the signals of global navigational systems are presented. Calculation of Kalman filter and linear quadratic regulator parameters is described. Theoretical and experimental estimations of automatic steering quality characteristics are compared and discussed. The results obtained can be used to improve the accuracy of timescales on working and secondary standards.

Selected Issues and Constraints of Image Matching in Terrain-Aided Navigation: A Comparative Study

The sensitivity of global navigation satellite systems to disruptions precludes their use in conditions of armed conflict with an opponent possessing comparable technical capabilities. In military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) the aim is to obtain navigational data to determine the location and correction of flight routes by means of other types of navigational systems. To correct the position of an UAV relative to a given trajectory, the systems that associate reference terrain maps with image information can be used. Over the last dozen or so years, new, effective algorithms for matching digital images have been developed. The results of their performance effectiveness are based on images that are fragments taken from source files, and therefore their qualitatively identical counterparts exist in the reference images. However, the differences between the reference image stored in the memory of navigation system and the image recorded by the sensor can be significant. In this paper modern methods of image registration and matching to UAV position refinement are compared, and adaptation of available methods to the operating conditions of the UAV navigation system is discussed.

On the issue of the accuracy and errors of the framelles neuronavigation (overview)

The implementation of the navigational systems in the neurosurgical practice has led to the revision of generally accepted surgical approaches to the neurosurgical pathology, allowing to minimize the interoperative impact on brain tissues and to execute the pre-operative planning of the skin incision and the craniotomy, to determine the optimal trajectory of approaching the brain pathology, preserving the radicality of interventions. However, the use of this technology dictates the observation of many technical nuances in the preoperative and intraoperative periods in order to exclude potential errors at the stage of the registration of a patient and at the early stages of the surgery. Despite this, the brain shift caused by a number of physical, surgical and biological factors is the major error source of navigational systems that neurosurgeons face during the operation which can affect further stages of the operation. The present article contains the overview of the scientific research, the authors of which have tried to explain and give a quantitative assessment of the present phenomenon during all the stages of the operation.

Model of the inertial and optical navigation system of the unmanned aerial vehicle

In article approaches to creation of the complex inertial and optical navigation system of the short-range tactical unmanned aerial vehicle are considered. Algorithms constant and periodic (in intermediate points of a route) are offered correction of the platformless onboard inertial navigation system. At integration of information on parameters of the movement of the unmanned aerial vehicle (received from the considered systems) the invariant loosely coupled scheme of data processing on the basis of the expanded filter of Kallman was used that allowed to lower significantly a systematic component of an error of the platformless inertial navigation system. Advantages of the complex inertial and optical navigation system when ensuring flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle in an area of coverage of means of radio-electronic fight of the opponent are shown. The results of modeling confirming a possibility of ensuring precision characteristics of the inertial and optical navigation system in the absence of signals of satellite radio navigational systems are presented.

Environmental Artists

One hundred twenty-five million years ago, the earth exploded with color with the rapid evolution of flowering plants. The explosion coincided with the rapid increase of species of bees. The bees and flowering plants were locked in a dialectical dance of coevolution, each becoming adapted to the other. The flowers evolved to exploit the feeding habits of bees, and bees evolved to rob the flowers of their precious loads of pollen and nectar. Bees became social and developed communication and navigational systems to better exploit their environment. They continue to transform our world through their effects on the agricultural landscapes and the food we eat. But today the honey bee is threatened. Populations are declining, a consequence of commercial beekeeping and agricultural practices.

GuideMe

The interest for indoor navigational systems is expanding daily with concerns among visually impaired people who cannot navigate safely indoors. The main goal of such systems is the localization and direction of the individual who has a wearable device that provides voice commands to navigate indoor buildings. This paper aims to present the design and the implementation of the GuideMe project. The GuideMe project's goal is the design, implementation, and evaluation of a navigation system focused on people who face troubles in indoor moving utilizing a wearable device. Specifically, the focus group is people suffering from visual impairment. The person carrying the wearable device takes guidelines about the location from indoor ultrawide band (UWB) anchors. The commands provided are about indoor direction through voice commands, assisting him to avoid obstacles in his route. The authors present the architecture and the details of the various modules, which consist of the proposed indoor navigation system, and some initial evaluations of the proposed system yielding promising results.