Art Exists Because the Viewer Exists: How François Morellet's Tri-ple X Neonly Influences Postural Control and Subjective Aesthetic Appreciation

We studied the effects of viewing François Morellet's Triple X Neonly (2012) on postural control and subjective appreciation. Triple X consists of 6 neon tubes arranged in a corner into a triple X pattern. Twenty-one participants were asked to view it with only one eye open (monocularly) and with both eyes open (binocularly). Their average forward-backward (anteroposterior) body sway root mean square (rms) velocity was significantly greater viewing it monocularly than binocularly. There were also large differences between subjects during monocular viewing for three of the six measured postural parameters (rms side-to-side (mediolateral) velocity, rms side-to-side displace-ment, and rms normalized area of the movement of the locus of centre of gravity). The participants showed very diverse subjective reactions to the artwork, yet their comments mainly concerned its apparent movement and depth. We conclude that binocular viewing allows the viewer more easily to appreciate the proximity of the central X, thus requiring less energy to keep the body stable. This study confirms the artist's success in involving viewers actively in their aesthetic experience: through their eye and body movements, the work engages them to actively contribute to the work itself.

A Driver’s Visual Attention Prediction Using Optical Flow

Motion in videos refers to the pattern of the apparent movement of objects, surfaces, and edges over image sequences caused by the relative movement between a camera and a scene. Motion, as well as scene appearance, are essential features to estimate a driver’s visual attention allocation in computer vision. However, the fact that motion can be a crucial factor in a driver’s attention estimation has not been thoroughly studied in the literature, although driver’s attention prediction models focusing on scene appearance have been well studied. Therefore, in this work, we investigate the usefulness of motion information in estimating a driver’s visual attention. To analyze the effectiveness of motion information, we develop a deep neural network framework that provides attention locations and attention levels using optical flow maps, which represent the movements of contents in videos. We validate the performance of the proposed motion-based prediction model by comparing it to the performance of the current state-of-art prediction models using RGB frames. The experimental results for a real-world dataset confirm our hypothesis that motion plays a role in prediction accuracy improvement, and there is a margin for accuracy improvement by using motion features.

Keeping up with the cool stars: one TESS year in the life of AB Doradus

The long-term, high precision photometry delivered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) enables us to gain new insight into known and hitherto well-studied stars. In this paper, we present the result of our TESS study of the photospheric activity of the rapid rotator AB Doradus. Due to its favorable position near the southern ecliptic pole, the TESS satellite recorded almost 600 rotations of AB Doradus with high cadence, allowing us to study starspots and flares on this ultra-active star. The observed peak-to-peak variation of the rotational modulations reaches almost 11%, and we find that the starspots on AB Doradus show highly preferred longitudinal positions. Using spot modeling, we measured the positions of the active regions on AB Doradus and we find that preferred spot configurations should include large regions extending from low to high stellar latitudes. We interpret the apparent movement of spots as the result of both differential rotation and spot evolution and argue that the typical spot lifetimes should range between 10 and 20 days. We further find a connection between the flare occurrence on AB Doradus and the visibility of the active regions on its surface, and we finally recalculated the star’s rotation period using different methods and we compared it with previous determinations.

The Influence of Weather Conditions on the Optimal Setting of Photovoltaic Thermal Hybrid Solar Collectors—A Case Study

The potential absorption of solar energy in photovoltaic thermal (PVT) hybrid solar collectors at different tilt angles was compared in the present study. The optimal tilt angles were tested in three variants: during 1 day, 1 year and a period of 30 years. Simulations were performed based on actual weather data for 30 years, including average hourly total radiation, insolation and air temperature. The apparent movement of the Sun across the sky, solar radiation properties, and the electrical and thermal efficiency of a PVT collector were also taken into account in the simulation model. The optimal orientation of the absorber surface was determined by solving an optimization task. The results of the study indicate that in the long-term perspective, the collector’s performance is maximized when the absorber is positioned toward the south at an elevation angle of 34.1°.

The noun-verb distinction in Catalan Sign Language

This paper investigates the morpho-phonological differences between the members of related noun-verb pairs in Catalan Sign Language. Like parallel investigations in other sign languages, our experimental work provides evidence that the major differentiating factors between related nouns and verbs materialize in the movement component of signs and non-manual markers, thus providing empirical support to the hypothesis that most noun-verb pairs have different morpho-phonological properties. We distinguish different types of movements, which we categorize into four regular morphological subgroups. We also take into account a fifth group that shows no apparent movement distinction. Concerning non-manual markers, we provide empirical evidence that nouns are mostly produced simultaneously with mouthing, in contrast to verbs, which in a smaller proportion are produced mainly with mouth gestures. Crucially, the fifth group presents the largest ratio of mouthing for nouns and even for verbs. We address these findings within an exo-skeletal theoretical syntactic approach (Borer 2005a,b, 2013, 2014).

The intensity order illusion: temporal order of different vibrotactile intensity causes systematic localization errors

Haptic illusions serve as important tools for studying neurocognitive processing of touch and can be utilized in practical contexts. We report a new spatiotemporal haptic illusion that involves mislocalization when the order of vibrotactile intensity is manipulated. We tested two types of motors mounted in a 4 × 4 array in the lower thoracic region. We created apparent movement with two successive vibrotactile stimulations of varying distance (40, 20, or 0 mm) and direction (up, down, or same) while changing the temporal order of stimulation intensity (strong-weak vs. weak-strong). Participants judged the perceived direction of movement in a 2-alternative forced-choice task. The results suggest that varying the temporal order of vibrotactile stimuli with different intensity leads to systematic localization errors: when a strong-intensity stimulus was followed by a weak-intensity stimulus, the probability that participants perceived a downward movement increased, and vice versa. The illusion is so strong that the order of the strength of stimulation determined perception even when the actual presentation movement was the opposite. We then verified this “intensity order illusion” using an open response format where observers judged the orientation of an imaginary line drawn between two sequential tactor activations. The intensity order illusion reveals a strong bias in vibrotactile perception that has strong implications for the design of haptic information systems. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We report a new illusion involving mislocalization of stimulation when the order of vibrotactile intensity is manipulated. When a strong-intensity stimulus follows a weak-intensity stimulus, the probability that participants perceive an upward movement increases, and vice versa. The illusion is so strong that the order of the strength of stimulation determined perception even when the actual presentation movement was the opposite. This illusion is important for the design of vibrotactile stimulation displays.