No abstract

This paper presents a computer-aided tool for automatically generating Labanotation scores from motion capture data named GenLaban. GenLaban can be implemented with a low-cost equipment but an efficient method that allows users converting body motions to scores. The key components of GenLaban are the analysis of body motions, the quantization of body postures and the determination of body parts carrying the body weight. All the processes are under supervision of a Labanotation expert to ensure the notation meaning correctly as the use for the dance composition. The experiments showed that for dancers, dance instructors and choreographers, GenLaban is a potential tool for notating dance movements into Labanotation scores enabling them to be accurately interpreted. At present the system can handle a subset of Labanotation covering many of the fundamental movements. However, Labanotation is rich in symbols and new symbols are continually being introduced and will be incorporated in the GenLaban tool as time permits.

No abstract

We have been developing a paradigm that we call learning-from-observation for a robot to automatically acquire a robot program to conduct a series of operations, or for a robot to understand what to do, through observing humans performing the same operations. Since a simple mimicking method to repeat exact joint angles or exact end-effector trajectories does not work well because of the kinematic and dynamic differences between a human and a robot, the proposed method employs intermediate symbolic representations, tasks, for conceptually representing what-to-do through observation. These tasks are subsequently mapped to appropriate robot operations depending on the robot hardware. In the present work, task models for upper-body operations of humanoid robots are presented, which are designed on the basis of Labanotation. Given a series of human operations, we first analyze the upper-body motions and extract certain fixed poses from key frames. These key poses are translated into tasks represented by Labanotation symbols. Then, a robot performs the operations corresponding to those task models. Because tasks based on Labanotation are independent of robot hardware, different robots can share the same observation module, and only different task-mapping modules specific to robot hardware are required. The system was implemented and demonstrated that three different robots can automatically mimic human upper-body operations with a satisfactory level of resemblance.

The effects of so‐called antistress music tapes on reduction of mental stress were examined using Cox and Mackay's SACL, Japanese edition (J‐SACL). Fifty‐two subjects were exposed to experimentally induced stressful situations and the J‐SACL was administered before and after this stress exposure. The results indicated that: (1) music tapes in general could reduce both the stress and arousal factors of the J‐SACL; (2) however, differential effects in stress reduction of antistress music tapes were not demonstrated; (3) stress‐reducing effects were more prominent in stress than in arousal factors.