Multimedia and Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Multimedia and Design - Essay Example In this "Multimedia and design" essay, the author describes points of view and thoughts about this issue of three different authors. Norman (2004) in his book â€Å"Emotional Design† has given knowledge about the Psychology behind the design whether people think it bad or good. Norman in his book referred to three levels of processing such as visceral level, behavioral level, and reflective level. He justifies that how emotions impact their decisions and design. Visceral design of goods concerns the appearance of things. Materials, sounds, texts and smell are all features, which determine the relationship of consumers with objects. People attract the goods because these look good. Focus in the â€Å"Emotional design† is given to move the thinking from practical to products and services, which are enjoyable and give pleasure and fun to consumers. When Norman speaks on the design, he makes efforts to relate the users’ perception about the performance of objects and does not concern the visual sense of objects. It is also justified that Norman looked on the both sides of the story. Dichotomy approaches of objective and subjective are also focused in the Norman’s work. Norman’ book also concerns the emotional designs. Norman already wrote three books, which support to understand the authors feelings expressed in the current book. The work of the Norman is motivating and influencing in the field of design of objects. However, several shortcomings are also displayed which impact the quality of work. Young ideas are also problematic in reference to the theoretical framework of Norman. For example, Norman defined the positive and negative impacts, which were produced at the visceral level. In the later sections, he contradicted the definition about visceral level and added it two other levels such as behavioral and reflective. Three levels about design of objects demonstrate the overlapping from his discussion and render the precise of categorization in suspect. Instead of the flaws in the â€Å"Emotional Design† a vivid canvas is created that integrates the emotional facets into the field that is dominated by the technical concerns. Both subjective and objective approaches are illustrated through the examples. Innovation arise from the changing business needs and does not involve the emotions. For example, advent of colour TV was the demand and emotional needs of the users in the market 2. THE PHILOSOPHER'S TOOL KIT II (Wittkower) In the book of Wittkower (2008) the most p art concerns the iPod and philosophy as an icon of ePoch. People differed mainly in concepts and theories on philosophy. Main theme of philosophy concerns the personal reflection and respond based on the experience. Core philosophy is thinking of human ability that enables people to invent, understand and respond to the questions. Association between philosophies is increasing in the context of academic learning. The close association between computer engineering and computer science also shapes popular culture. The culture of iPod emerged since 2001. Needs and demand of the people on the design of everything is also revealed. Therefore, this world is also designed in a way that very designed thing can be touched, felt and tasted. Not all the new innovative things are developed at once, but according to requirements and demands. Philosophy refreshes our minds for new things and concepts, and uncertainty about philosophy is most vital considered. Now a day the

True Cost of Mega-Retailers Essay Example for Free

True Cost of Mega-Retailers Essay The phenomenon of big box economics brings with several ethical concerns that taint its most favorable effect, that of bringing lower-priced goods to the American market. Whether manufacturers who produce these goods keep their factories on United States soil or abroad, many of the persons who work within them suffer under conditions that no American would be required to endure. On American soil, such workers (who are likely to be illegal immigrants) are often paid at the lowest rates possible, and along with this comes the lack of accompanying benefits, such as health or accident insurance (Mitchell, 36). Many manufacturers are often drawn to foreign soil because minimum wages are much lower in some countries, making the costs of production fall to a level that increases their profit margins significantly. Despite the fact that higher profit margins lead to greater overall taxes paid to the government, these practices do impact negatively on the American economy. One way in which this negative impact is felt is through the removal of jobs from the American arena into other countries. Many of these factories employ thousands of workers, and each of them represents one unemployed American that would otherwise be contributing to the overall national income (GDP) of the country. This negatively affects the unemployment rate within the country, and therefore counteracts the aforementioned positive benefits in the area of taxes by making it necessary for the government to pay out unemployment benefits. The employment of low-paid immigrants or the outsourcing of jobs also forces Americans to settle for lower wages, as any refusal to accept these would simply induce manufacturers to apply to the overabundance of these foreigners. This leads to a lower standard of living for Americans. One researcher has also shown that big-box retailers whose low-cost commodities put local retailers out of business also hurt the local banks, which traditionally have strong relationships with the small retailers (Mitchell, 42). In America’s banking crisis today, such retailers are likely to continue exacerbating the economic problem, making it that much more difficult for the economy to recover from recession. Reference Mitchell, S.. Big-box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America’s Independent Businesses. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006

Behaviour Modification and Cognitive Processes of Learning

Behaviour Modification and Cognitive Processes of Learning Pillay Sheryl Amanda Ballen I will be discussing some important procedures which enable learning. Each and every human being learns any kind of behavior during their life span. There is no human being on earth who does not undergo the process of learning. There are various learning methods through which we obtain beliefs, approaches and skills (Skinner, 1971, cited in Ryckman,2013, p. 361) Here we shall discuss the principles of learning and their uses in daily life. I would like to also demonstrate how behavior modification compares with cognitive processes of learning. Learning What we mean when we say the word â€Å"learning†, we normally mean â€Å"thinking using the brain†. These concepts of learning are the central perspective in the Cognitive Learning Theory (CLT). Mental processes can be explained, as they are predisposed by both internal and external factors, which gradually bring about learning. Cognitive Learning Theory suggests that the different procedures regarding learning can be described by examining the mental processes first. It suggests that with actual cognitive processes, learning is simpler and new material can be placed in the memory for a long time. However, ineffective cognitive processes affect learning complications which can be seen in a person. Social Cognitive Theory (SLT) There are three variables in social cognitive theory, which are interconnected with each other, for learning to happen, which consist of: Personal factors Environmental factors Behavior factors An individual’s environmental interaction, beliefs, ideas and mental skills are influenced by outside factors such as a caring or uncaring parent, disturbing or healthy environment or a very hot or humid climate. The mental process in a person is affected by his behavior, and environmental interaction, which can also alter the way he thinks. One’s behavior can disturb and change the environment in which he or she lives in. Basic concepts of social learning are: Observational Learning Is a form of learning from other people, by means of observing their behavior in an effective way in order to gain knowledge and change behavior. Reproduction Is the method wherein there is a goal to successfully escalate the repeating of a behavior by means of changing the environment to a safer and more comfortable on , within reachable proximate, and to encourage him to remember the new information and behavior learned and to exercise them. Self-efficacy Is the way a person uses the newly learnt knowledge or behavior which he has learnt. Emotional coping is a good coping devices used against demanding environments and negative personal appearances can lead to operational learning, especially in adults Self – regulatory capability is the capability to regulator the behavior even within a negative environment. Classical and operant conditioning are two vital perceptions significant to behavioral psychology. While both result in learning, the procedure is quite different. To understand how each of these behavior modification methods can be used, it is also important to understand how classic conditioning and operant conditioning differ from one another. Classic Conditioning Was developed by the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov, classic conditioning is the first type of learning wherein an organism responds to an environmental stimulus. Pavlov (1927) observed that in classic conditioning, the stimulus (S) triggers the response (R) of an organism. Within the exposure of the organism to the stimulus, reflex(Hermans et.al., 2006, cited in Weiten, 2014, p. 232). The unconditioned stimulus (US) is the stimulus which leads to an observable response without training. The unconditioned response (UR) is the response brought about by the unconditioned stimulus. It is an automatic and normal behavior. The conditioned stimulus (CR) is a stimulus that is original and has no meaning to the subject. Through learning it is paired with the unconditioned stimulus (US) and brings about the conditioned response. The conditioned response (CR) is the behavior caused by the condition stimulus in response to the (CS). It is usually anticipation of the (US). General Observation My brother was in matric and my little sister was two years old when I observed my brother’s behavior. He would often get very frustrated with my little sister when he tried to study (US) in order for him to study he use to give her a chocolate (UR) and she would smile and leave him to study. The chocolate is a positive reinforcement. Now six months later he has completed his matric and when she goes into his room she expects chocolate (CR). Now that my brother do not give her chocolate, when she goes into his room she begins to cry, and mom would get angry at my brother for making her cry. Mom do not realize that my brother has created a (CR) in my little sister behavior, since mom does not allow her to eat chocolate. Operant Conditioning known as Instrumental Conditioning: Was established by B.F.Skinner . However Skinner was also greatly influenced by the works of Ivan Pavlov on the conditioning reflux. (Skinner, 1970, cited in Ryckman, 2013, p. 360). Operant conditioning tries to contradict the belief that internal thoughts and mere inspirations which brings about learning in a behavior. Skinner thought that only exterior causes of behavior must be considered (Skinner, 1953, p. 65)) The term â€Å"operant† was used by Skinner in order to give us a good suggestion of his theory and how he used it: (Skinner, 1953, cited in Ryckman, 2013, p. 365). Reinforcement: Is a procedure of increasing the frequency rate of a behavior by means of awarding a stimulus soon after the demonstration of the behavior. The event that strengthens the probability of the behavior to be recurring is called a reinforcer. According to Skinner, reinforcement can take two forms, which are called positive and negative reinforcement (Skinner, 1953, cited in Ryckman, 2013, p. 367). Positive Reinforcement: When my mom wanted me to do the dishes, she would say to me â€Å"if you do the dishes for me, for the week than I will take you out shopping on Saturday†. Naturally we would spend the day shopping and she would spoil me, but eventually without her asking me to do the dishes for her. I realized that she was tired after work and the least I could do was help her with the dishes. Negative reinforcement occurs when a reply is reinforced because it is followed by the elimination of an unfriendly stimulus. Example cleaning the house to get rid of the mess or wearing a safety belt whist driving to prevent an annoying sound (Skinner, 1953, cited in Ryckman, 2013, p. 367). Negative Reinforcement: I hated the fact that I needed to drive with my safety belt on, and I found that the annoying noise of the seatbelt would not stop until I buckled up which is an aversive stimulus since it encourage me to fasten my seat belt. Until I fasten the seatbelt, the annoying sound persisted I could not get rid of the aversive stimuli. Now days when I get into the car, the first thing I do is put my safety belt on. In both positive and negative reinforcement, behavior is increased, however negative reinforcement plays a key role in both escaping learning and avoidance learning (Skinner, 1953, cited in Ryckman, 2013, p. 367). In escape learning, a being obtain a response that decrease or ends some aversive stimulation example: my little sister wearing her shoes before going outside to play, this leads to: Avoidance learning in which an entity obtains a response that stops some aversive stimulation from happening example putting on shoes before you get an ammonia. Avoidance learning is a good way to see how classical conditioning and operant conditioning work together to regulate behavior. An example, shoes my sister needs to put on before she goes outside and play might become a classical conditioning (CS) that elicits a fear of wearing shoes in her. However the response of putting on her shoes is an operant behavior. This response is strengthened through negative reinforcement, because it reduces the person’s fear of getting sick. Thus in avoidance learning a fear response is acquired through classical conditioning and an avoidance response is maintained by operant conditioning. Punishment Is a process whereby a stimulus is used after the presentation of behavior and cause the decline in the possibility of the behavior to reoccur. In contrast to reinforcement there are also consequences that decrease a being’s leaning to make a specific response. Positive punishment: Is the accumulation of something which affects the decrease in repeating the behavior that was displayed? Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs when a favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs (Skinner, 1953, cited inRyckman, 2013, p. 368). When I was younger my sister and I slept in the same room and we often fought with each other about who slept on the top of the double bunk. Until my father got angry one day and sent us both to the naughty corner for two whole hours, and whilst sitting alone it decreased our behavior and we never fought again with each other about sleeping arrangements. Negative Punishment: Decreases the behavior from occurring, it is removing pleasant stimulus when someone is not doing the appropriate behavior. Eating food was one of my difficulties, since I rather looked forward to the deserts during super time, so I use to waste my food. Dad took away my spending and said I needed to learn to appreciate and feel what poor kids are going through. He even took me to the orphanage and I felt so bad, now I know not to waste food since there are so many kids out there who do not have food. My view on wasting food has changed. OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING Is based on the work of Albert Bandura (1977). Bandura and his associates were able to exhibit through a variation of experimentations that the request of concerns was not necessary for learning to take place. Instead learning could happen through the simple procedure of observing someone else’s actions or behavior. This effort provided the basis for Bandura’s future work in social cognition ( Ohman Mineka, 2001, cited in Weiten, 2014, p. 252). Bandura expressed his findings in a four step design which includes a cognitive and an operant view of learning. Attention- to learn observation, you must pay attention to another person’s behavior and its environment. Retention- you may not have times to observe response for a long time. Hence the individual remembers what was noticed and must store a mental image of what he has witnessed in his memory. Reproduction- the action that the individual produces that is a replica of what was noticed. Motivation your motivation depends on whether you encounter the situation in which you believe that the response is likely to pay off for you (Weiten, 2013, p. 252). My eldest brother (fifteen years old) use to skip school and smoke cigarettes. Whilst my younger brother who was (twelve years old) at the time observed what he was doing. When my younger brother turned (fourteen) he stated smoking cigarettes too. Thereafter he started modelling my eldest brother’s behavior and he too started skipping school. Now both of them are addicted to smoking. I often hear both my brother’s saying that smoking is not good, yet they keep smoking. And when their friends come over, they smoke even worst. I cannot fully understand the need for their smoking. However I do know that it is not good for their health, it clogs their lungs and some people also dies of lung cancer, besides I hate the bad odor in there breathe. My eldest brother was a good athlete at college but these days he complains that he cannot run like he used to, because he suffers of short breath and he coughs a lot to. I constantly tell him to quit smoking and he would stop for a day or two, and he would become very frustrated and annoying to be around. Eventually I would say to him â€Å"you know, you should rather smoke because you are so annoying, your attitude really stinks† And he would say you know I cannot function without cigarettes it feels like my nerves are finished, I cannot even concentrate, I am trying to leave this addiction but it is not easy. Behavior Modification Is a therapeutic technique created by Skinner, a psychologist who is the â€Å"Father of Behaviorism.† Skinner established a theory of operant conditioning, whereby he states that all behavior is ruled by reinforcing and punishing stimuli. Behavior modification practices a planned approach that rewards wanted behavior and â€Å"punishes† unwanted behavior. This technique is used in therapy and is used in psychological settings. Behavior modification is now known as Applied behavior analysis (ABA) which is more logical (Kransner, 1970, cited in Ryckman, 2013, p. 375). How Behavior Modification is applied: Psychologists use behavior modification to treat disorders such as attention deficit disorder, autism etc. The basics of behavior modification are used to increase the desired behaviors in any specific person, regardless of functional level (Tanaka- Matsumi et al., 2002 cited in Corey2014, p. 254). For example, a person wants to quit smoking cigarettes; he may use behavioral methods to help attain those goals. Another example is, an individual who sees a shark and swims for his life, and he is not swimming fast because he is â€Å"scared.† Instead, he is swimming fast because he saw what happened to other’s who did not swim and who was eaten by the shark. The impulse to swim fast is a result of those that swam and did not live. In addition, the particular feeling of being â€Å"scared† is measured as a flight reflex, not a feeling. The heart races and adrenaline rises as the nervous system responds to the situation at hand. Hence, anything a person does can be directed to behavior modification. Reinforcement and Punishment The idea of reinforcement and punishment is often used in different ways, in behavior modification than in everyday linguistic. Whatever increases a behavior is a reflected reinforcement and whatever decreases the behavior is punishment. The complex part is that both reinforcement and punishment can have either a positive or negative outcome. Positive refers to whatever is added to the situation and negative is whatever is taken away from the situation (Watson Tharp, 1997, cited in Weiten, 2014, p. 260). Positive Reinforcement: When I was in school my mom would give me a huge hug and when I got really good marks she would reward me with presents for passing. Negative Reinforcement: My brother often did not do well at school, and he did not get any praises from my parents, instead my parents were disappointment and would often ground him. This is a negative reinforcement, because although he was not an academic student I feel my parents would still praise him and motivated him in whatever field he is good at. Punishment: Often my brother had to do the gardening for the duration of the school term in order for his grades to go up. This was dad’s way of punishing him positively. Mom use to take away his play station and his bicycle until his grades picked up. This was mom’s way of punishing him negatively (Weiten, 2014, p. 260). Behavior Modification in Everyday Life: According to Lazaras (1989) behavior modification may seem complicated, but in fact it is actually quite simple. If an individual is reinforced every single time he or she does something good, sooner or later the reinforcement will lose its power. When using this technique with general people, one should reinforce the desired outcome, with a consistency. Then as they start to respond, change your schedule of reinforcement to every third time, and they will do what you want. After a while, change it again to every fifth time until they do it automatically (Lazaras 1989 cited in Corey, 2014). Mom wanted dad to open the car door for her. When they went out shopping she carried all the bags and when she got to the car, dad noticed that her hands were filled and he opened the door for her. Once he opened the door, she looked at him in the eye and told him what an amazing person he is. After several times of her encouraging him to open the door, eventually he started opening the car door for her regularly. And once she noticed that he was opening the door for her she did not compliment him every time. However once in a while she would complement him. Conclusion Both cognitive processes and behavior modification has been used with good outcomes to help people with a wide variety of problems. These approaches makes use of tangible, involvements, because of the way problems are recognized .The major methods are logical and straightforward. References Corey, G. (2014). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (SA ed.). USA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning, Inc. Ryckman,R. M. (2013). Theories of Personality (10th, ed.). USA: International Edition, Cengage Learning. Corey, G. (1986).Theory and practice of group counselling and psychotherapy(3rd ed.). Monterey, CA Brooks/Cole. Weiten, W. (2014). Psychology Themes and Variations (SA. Ed.). Las Vegas, USA: Cengage Learning.

Hard times :: essays research papers

Hard Time To be young is to be mischievous. There has probably never been a time in history when young people did not occasionally steal, damage property, runaway from home or school, assault other people, or act disrespectful to adults. Within the past three decades, judicial decisions, legislative amendments, and administrative changes have transformed the juvenile court from a nominally rehabilitative social welfare agency into a scaled-down-class criminal court for young people. Webster’s Dictionary describes juvenile delinquency as juvenile conduct â€Å"characterized by antisocial behavior that is beyond parental control and therefore subject to legal action.† (Grinney 14) Delinquent behavior in teens existed way back in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This definition shows that 19th- century American society had determined it was suitable to take legal action against intolerable youthful behavior. What the definition does not disclose is that thoughts about what that legal action should be were changing quickly. By 1900, 36 states had separate restraining facilities for juvenile offenders. In the beginning, these facilities were built for a dual purpose. They were developed as a way to take away difficult children from society while keeping them away from adult prisoners who were likely to persuade them even more negatively. The courts also hoped that such facilities would help children find the formation and the ethical guidance they needed to improve there ways. However, these institutions were actually better than prisons. Moreover, youngsters were often immediately taken to them-without an official trial-by the courts, the police, their parents, or their guardians. When these types of facilities were not accessible, children were sent to adult jails and prisons for every kind of offence, from common disruptiveness to assault with a lethal weapon. In 1870, Boston began having separate hearings for offenders under age 16, and New York City soon followed. In 1899, Illinois became the first state to create a juvenile court system. Other states rapidly did the same. Supporters of the juvenile court system did not want young people to associate with adult criminals in institutions. One of the major goals of the juvenile court system was to keep young offenders out of institutions. This system promoted the term juvenile delinquent in order to differentiate between an adult criminal and a mischievous child who may of may not be guilty of criminal behavior. According to James S. Coleman, the juvenile court system introduced a totally new purpose. Its purpose was to revitalize the child rather than to discipline him or her.

A Modified 2-D Logarithmic Search Technique for Video Coding

A Modified 2-D Logarithmic Search Technique for Video Coding With Reduced Search Points Tahmina Akhtar† , Rahima Akter† , Chhalma Sultana Chhaya † , Ashfaqur Rahman †¡ †  Military Institute of Science and Technology/Dept of CSE, Dhaka, Bangladesh, †¡ Central Queensland University/Centre for Intelligent and Networked Systems, QLD, Australia [email  protected] com, [email  protected] com, [email  protected] com, a. [email  protected] edu. au Abstract Video coding is a process for representing video sequences in a compact manner.A significant step in video coding is searching for similar segments in previous frames and use only the difference information for reconstruction thus reducing space requirement. Different search techniques including Full search and 2-D logarithmic search etc. are used in the current literature. Full search restricts its application because of its computational load. 2D logarithmic search is computationally less expensive a lthough there are some spaces for improvement. In this paper we propose a new search technique by modifying the 2-D logarithmic search that requires less search points with insignificant loss in visual quality.Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. Keywords: video coding, 2-D logarithmic search. i. INTRODUCTION Video is a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion. A video is created by capturing a numbers of still images in a short time interval. When these still images are displayed very quickly, it represents the motion of the object in the images. Video represent the huge amount of data. In order to transfer video data from one place to another efficiently it is required to compress the size of video data.One way to compress the size of video data is video coding [ [1] ] [ [2] ]. The principal goal in the design of a video-coding system is to reduce the transmission rate subject to some picture quality constraint. In transmissio n side, the first frame (normally called the reference frame) is transmitted as it is and the remaining frames are sent as a function of the reference frame. The frame to be sent is divided into a number of blocks and the best match for the block is looked for in the search window of the reference frame. This processing is called the search technique in video coding literature.There exist a number of video coding techniques including MPEG-1/2/4 [ [2] ] [ [7] ], H. 26X [ [8] ] etc. uses search techniques like Full search [ [1] ], 2-D logarithmic search [ [3] ], Coarse-Fine-Three-Step search [ [4] ], Conjugate Direction search [ [5] ], and Pyramid search [ [6] ]. Each of these search techniques has merits and demerits in their favor. Full search finds the best match for a block as it searches all the candidate positions in the search window. Full search however is computationally expensive and renders difficulty for real time implementation.Some variants exist that applies some heuris tics to reduce the candidate search points and reduce the computational complexity although compromising the image quality a bit. 2-D logarithmic search is one such search technique that reduces the search points to a subset of the search window (to be detailed in literature review) and finds the near-optimal best match with reduced computational complexity. Although computationally inexpensive it contains some redundancy in the search space. We aim to reduce this redundancy and aim to find a modified 2-D logarithmic search technique with even reduced computational load.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique reduces the number of search points and thus reduces search time with insignificant sacrifice of image quality. The paper is organized as follows. In Section II we elaborate some related works. In Section III we present our proposed search approach. Some experimental results to demonstrate the effective of the proposed approach is presented in Section IV. F inally Section V concludes the paper. II. Related works In this section we present full search technique and the logarithmic search technique.In both cases the frame to be coded is divided into a number of non-overlapping equal size blocks of size p? q. The best match is looked for in a search window of size (2d+1)? (2d+1) in the reference frame . Fig 1: Block matching process in video coding that uses search techniques. * A. Full Search In Full search [ [1] ] finds the best match by inspecting all the (2d+1)? (2d+1) candidate positions within the search window. Full search procedure is brute force in nature. The advantage of Full Search is that it delivers good accuracy in searching for the best match.The disadvantage is that it involves a large amount of computation. * B. 2-D Logarithmic Search Jain and Jain [ [3] ] developed a 2-D logarithmic search technique that successively reduces the search area, thus reducing the computational burden. The first step computes the similarity for five points in the search window. These five points are as follows: the central point of the search window and the four points surrounding it, with each being a midpoint between the central point and one of the four boundaries of the window. Among these five points, the one corresponding to the minimum dissimilarity is picked as the winner.In the next step, surrounding this winner, another set of five points are selected in a similar fashion to that in the first step, with the distances between the five points remaining unchanged. The exception takes place when either a central point of a set of five points or a boundary point of the search window gives a minimum dissimilarity. In these circumstances, the distances between the five points need to be reduced. The procedure continues until the final step, in which a set of candidate points are located in a 3Ãâ€"3 2-D grid.The steps in a 2-D logarithmic search technique are presented in Fig 2. Fig 2: The 2-D logarithmic search tec hnique. The circle numbered n is searched at the n-th step. The arrows indicate the points selected as the center of the search for the next pass. The 2-D logarithmic search hits a maximum of 18 points and a minimum of 13 search points. The advantage of this technique is that it successively reduces the search area, thus reducing the computational burden. One of the disadvantages is that some points are searched more than once thus leave some space for improvement.Moreover, it follows a greedy approach by selecting the minimum dissimilar point at each step thus posing a threat to follow a local minimum trend. Considering these facts we propose to modify the 2-D logarithmic search to overcome the local minimum problem and also eliminate the redundant computing as described in the following section. iii. proposed search technique We mainly modified the 2-D logarithmic search technique to eliminate the redundancy and local minimum problem associated with it. The search technique is ela borated next under the light of 2-D logarithmic search technique.Our proposed search technique starts with the five points in the search window where the one is at the center and other four surrounds center point (Fig 3(a)). Unlike 2-D logarithmic search, our proposed technique selects two points min1 and min2 (Fig 3(b)) that has dissimilarity scores lower than the other three points. We then select a point as the center of search for the next pass that lies on the line in between min1 and min2. This selection reduces the local minimum effect as it simply does not follow the minimum point.Moreover, the five points selected in the next pass does not match with any of the previous points thus eliminates the redundancy that exists in 2-D logarithmic search. Centered at the point selected at the next pass the search continues (Fig 3(d)-Fig 3(f)). The steps of the search are portrayed in Fig 3. Following are some of the merits of our proposed technique: * Successively reduces the search area with no point searched twice * Maximum search points are 12 and minimum search points are 5 – an improvement over 2-D logarithmic search. iv. Results and DiscussionWe have conducted a comparative analysis of Full Search, 2-D logarithmic Search and our proposed search technique as presented next. All the experiments were conducted on MPEG sequences using MATLAB. We used sequences like garden, Akiyo, Table Tennis, Car, and coastguard. Full search, 2-D logarithmic search and our proposed technique applied in these standard MPEG file and we computed the ASNR (Average Signal to Noise Ratio) and Computational load (i. e. number of search points). The results on different sequences are presented next. Akiyo Sequence: Each frame of the Akiyo sequence is of 352? 88 pixels, recorded at 25 frames per second and there are a total of 398 video frames. Fig 4 shows the reconstructed 20th frame of Akiyo sequence coded using Full search, 2D-logarithmic search and proposed search techniqu e. In this video only face portion is moving. Search point comparison for these three search techniques is presented in Fig 5 and ASNR is reported in Fig 6. ASNR achieved using the proposed search technique is almost equal 2D logarithmic search but at reduced number of search points (Fig 5). Number of search points remains almost similar over the different frames.ASNR value shown in Table 1. (a)| (b)| (c)| (d)| (e)| (f)| Fig 3: The different steps of our proposed 2-D logarithmic search technique. (a) five points of search window, (b) the direction of the search in between the direction offered by the two points min1 and min2. (c) Search at step 2, (d) min1 and min2 at step 2, (e) Search points at step 3, and (f) Search ends at the blue point. (a)| (b)| (c)| Fig 4: Reconstructed 20th frame of the Akiyo sequence using (a) Full search, (b) 2-D logarithmic search, and (c) Our proposed search technique.Fig 5: Comparison of # of search points for Akiyo sequence. Fig 6: Comparison of ASNR for Akiyo sequence. Table 1: ASNR value of different search for Akiyo sequence Frame No| Full Search| 2D logarithmic Search| Proposed Search| 1st| 25. 86188| 25. 55678| 25. 46245375| 5th| 24. 84504| 23. 77938883| 23. 57562323| 10th| 24. 37532| 23. 01043038| 22. 67351877| 15th| 24. 38495| 22. 98908004| 22. 5831958| 20th| 24. 4424| 22. 90227928| 22. 56886825| 25th| 24. 44956| 23. 03416597| 22. 51615637| Car Sequence: Each frame of the Car sequence is of 320? 240 pixels and ecorded at 25 frames per second and there are a total of 398 video frames. The reconstructed 20th frame of Car sequence using the three search techniques is presented in Fig 7. In this video sequence the car moves but background is still. Here each repeated two times. Average no of search point is almost 10. 46 for repeated frames and 11. 50 for new frames. Here number of search points vary significantly compared to Akiyo sequence. Overall the proposed technique has reduced search points (Fig 8) although the ASNR is bit low (Fig 9). ASNR value of some frames shown in Table 2. a)| (b)| (c)| Fig 7: Reconstructed 20th frame of the Car sequence using (a) Full search, (b) 2-D logarithmic search, and (c) Our proposed search technique. Fig 8: Comparison of # of search points for Car sequence. Fig 9: Comparison of ASNR for Car sequence. Table 2: ASNR value of different search for Car sequence Frame No| Full Search| 2D logarithmic Search| Proposed Search| 1st| 27. 13312| 26. 5682| 26. 08265| 5th| 26. 68718| 25. 75123| 25. 16904| 10th| 26. 10589| 25. 12647| 24. 27394| 15th| 26. 31185| 25. 16266| 24. 54981| 20th| 26. 28613| 25. 1915| 24. 61234| 25th| 25. 86261| 25. 02255| 24. 12599| Garden Sequence: Each frame of the Garden sequence is of 352? 240 pixels and recorded at 30 frames per second and there are a total of 59 video frames. Fig 10 represents the reconstructed 20th frame of this sequence coded using the three search techniques. In this video the motion is due to camera movement. Fig 11 and Fig 12 reveals that the new search technique reduces the number of search points with minor loss in ASNR. ASNR value of some frames shown in Table 3. Here Average no of search point for each frames required almost same.In frame 20th average no of search point is 11. 6053 and ASNR is 18. 22931. (a)| (b)| (c)| Fig 10: Reconstructed 20th frame of the Garden sequence using (a) Full search, (b) 2-D logarithmic search, and (c) Our proposed search technique. Fig 11: Comparison of # of search points for Garden sequence. Fig 12: Comparison of ASNR for Garden sequence. Table 3: ASNR value of different search for Garden sequence Frame No| Full Search| 2Dlogarithmic Search| Proposed Search| 1st| 24. 27663| 24. 27663| 23. 5971| 5th| 21. 6078| 21. 6078| 20. 49847| 0th| 20. 71779| 20. 71779| 19. 34323| 15th| 19. 9641| 19. 9641| 18. 69269| 20th| 19. 6754| 19. 6754| 18. 22931| 25th| 19. 39791| 19. 39791| 18. 05226| Coastguard Sequence: Each frame of the Coastguard sequence is of 320? 240 pixels and recorde d at 25 frames per second and there are a total of 378 video frames. Here the boat and the camera are moving. Fig 13 represents a reconstructed frame of this sequence coded using the three search techniques. Fig 14 represents the search point required by the three techniques. Our proposed technique shows periodic nature in terms of search points.This is due to the repetitive nature of motion in the video. Fig 15 represents a comparison of ASNR obtained using different techniques. Table 4 shown ASNR of some frames. (a)| (b)| (c)| Fig 13: Reconstructed frame of the Coastguard sequence using (a) Full search, (b) 2-D logarithmic search, and (c) Our proposed search technique. Fig 14: Comparison of # of search points for Coastguard seq. Fig 15: Comparison of ASNR for Coastguard sequence. Table 4: ASNR value of different search for Coastguard seq. Frame No| Full Search| 2D logarithmic Search| Proposed Search| 1st| 24. 8771| 24. 33338| 23. 61801| 5th| 24. 31753| 23. 35416| 22. 54516| 10th| 23. 90367| 23. 03317| 22. 07546| 15th| 24. 36529| 23. 44171| 22. 66604| 20th| 24. 38658| 23. 26823| 22. 50994| 25th| 24. 54524| 23. 91583| 22. 91885| Table tennis Sequence: Each frame of the Table tennis sequence is of 352? 240 pixels and recorded at 30 frames per second and there are a total of 9 video frames. Here ball is moving fast. The reconstructed frames, number of search points, and ASNR of the three search techniques are presented in Fie 16, Fig 17, and Fig 18. Some ASNR of Table tennis sequence shown in table 5. a)| (b)| (c)| Fig 16: Reconstructed frame of the Table tennis sequence using (a) Full search, (b) 2-D logarithmic search, and (c) Our proposed search technique. Fig 17: Comparison of # of search points for Table tennis sequence. Overall the result of ASNR for Full Search is best in all cases but number of search point is so high. The result of ASNR for 2-D logarithmic and our proposed search is almost same but the number of search point of our proposed search is sm aller than the 2-D logarithmic search and thus an improvement over the existing technique.Fig 18: Comparison of ASNR for Table tennis sequence. Table 5: ASNR value of different search for Table tennis seq Frame No| Full Search| 2D logarithmicSearch| ProposedSearch| 1st| 25. 2698| 24. 56416| 23. 90544| 3rd| 23. 60795| 22. 69326| 21. 81273| 5th| 23. 43996| 22. 35007| 21. 29301| 7th| 23. 71878| 22. 71607| 21. 58383| v. Conclusion In this paper we have presented a new search technique for video coding that is a modification of the existing 2-D logarithmic search. The proposed technique reduces the search time of 2-D logarithmic search by reducing the redundant search points.Although ASNR is sacrificed to some extent it had insignificant visual impact as observed from the experimental results. References [1] Shi and H. Sun, â€Å"Image and Video Compression for Multimedia Engineering†, Fundamentals, Algorithms and Standards, 2nd Edition. [2] P. N. Tudor, â€Å"MPEG-2 Video Compre ssion†, IEEE J Langham Thomson Prize, Electronics and Communication Engineering journal, December 1995. [3] J. R. Jain and A. K. Jain, â€Å"Displacement Measurement and Its Application in Interframe Image Coding†, IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. com-29, no. 12, December 1981. [4] T. Koga, K. Linuma, A. Hirano, Y. Iijima, and T.Ishiguro, â€Å"Motion-compensated interframe coding for video conferencing,† Proc. NTC’81, G5. 3. 1-G5. 3. 5, New Orleans, LA, Dec. 1981. [5] R. Srinivasan and K. R. Rao, â€Å"Predictive coding based on efficient motion estimation,† Proc. of ICC, 521-526, May 1984. [6] D. Tzovaras, M. G. Strintzis, and H. Sahinolou, â€Å"Evaluation of multiresolution block matching techniques for motion and disparity estimation,† Signal Process. Image Commun. , 6, 56-67, 1994. [7] MPEG-4, http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/MPEG-4, last accessed in December 2008. [8] H. 264, http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/H. 264, last accessed in December 2008. *

Life Alone

â€Å"No one is ever born into Life alone. Everyone has shared the bond of family, at least at birth, and for many people it is a bond that will follow them throughout life†. For many people it is the most important bond of all†. I chose this topic because I thought that it would be cool to take a look at my life story. At first, I thought that this project would be easy but when I thought that I had finished but I had to start it over because it was too short and I didn't have enough information on the topic. Before I did this project I knew that my parents were born in Poland but I didn't know specifically where they were born in Poland. Another thing that I learned, was that a family can be defined in many ways, but the common definition of family is love and being with one another. Lastly, I learned that people want others to rely on, talk to if they need help, do things with, share love, and be part of. The story of my search was very easy because every time I tired to search something on the web then it gave me the answers right away. Also, the story of my search was very easy because for example when I wanted to draw a Polish flag on my tri-fold board or get an image of the national animal or flower, then I just had to search it up on the web and it appeared right away. During the course of this project, I learned that my mom was born in Dabrowa-Tarnowska, Poland and my dad was born in Tarnobrzeg, Poland. Furthermore, while I was doing my project, I learned that Poland has a lot of traditions like, the Marzanna-Burning, the Wet Monday that happens after Easter, the Christmas-Straw under the tablecloth, and many more.

psychosynthesis Essays

psychosynthesis Essays psychosynthesis Essay psychosynthesis Essay Psychosynthesis When one thinks of therapy one for the most part automatically thinks that therapy deals with emotional problems that a person is trying to over come. However, there is another aspect of an individuals personality that also can be worked on during therapy, this aspect being the spiritual part of an individual. This type of therapy is known as psychosynthesis. In psychosynthesis, the goal or focus is for the individual to achieve synthesis, a coming together, of the different parts of an individual. Once a person has achieved a more cohesive self that person can then function in a way that s more life affirming and authentic (Kelder, 1993). The way that a person is able to achieve this more cohesive self is by taking into consideration that part of an individuals personality that deals with spirituality, which was mentioned earlier. This spiritual side ofa person or as some describes it as the higher, deeper, or transpersonal self is seen as a source of wisdom, inspiration, unconditional love, and the will to meaning in our lives (Kelder, 1993). The primary use of psychosynthesis is in the field of psychotherapy but because it is a technique that an be universally applied to many fields it now has found its way into education, management, organizational development, and politics. (Kelder, 1993). Psychosynthesis counseling is for short term, six-session to help people who have problems such as panic attacks, aggression, psychosomatic symptoms, phobias, eating disorders and depression. Psychosynthesis counselors also practice in crisis intermediate homes for drug offenders and delinquent adolescents. Whitmore, 2004, p. 157). Roberto Assagioli initiated psychosynthesis around 1910. Assagioli was an Italian sychiatrist as well was a member of the psychoanalytic group formed by Karl Jung in 1910. In his doctoral thesis he explored the possibilities of using analytical insight to understand human potential, inspiration and motivation. This human development approach is founded on the basic premise that we participate in an orderl y universe structured to facilitate the evolution of consciousness. An outcome is that each persons life has purpose and meaning within this wider context and that it is possible for the individual to discover this. The individual seeks to discover what onnects the to others and the world around them by exploring existential issues and experience of that world and focusing on the interpersonal relationship the individual has within that world (Loewenthal House, 2010, p. 117). In order to achieve this sense of clarity one must embrace change. Change is not achievable without self-knowledge. One must have the will to bring about transformation. The use of self- knowledge or will is the capacity for choice or the ability to direct the self. The therapist besides helping the individual fgure out what presently is holding hem back also ultimately has to help the individual figure out the fundamental relationship between them and the world around them (Loewenthal House, 2010, p. 116). The therapist does this through questioning, and through questioning the therapist is trying to reach the deeper meaning of what the individual is feeling or experiencing. Everything contains an element of the individuals psyche that is trying to come out and connect to the wider whole of the individual. By taping into the inner psyche the individual will experience the pain of the original wounding but this ime around there is tolerance and a greater sense that this aspect connects deep to who the individual is. While going through this process the relationship of therapist and individual deepens and there is mutual understanding and awareness, which will be explained in the first stage of psychosynthesis. Going back to the foundation of psychosynthesis, which is helping an individual become whole, this is done by bringing the unconscious to the conscious. A therapist has to bring forward the survival personalities, as well as the defense mechanisms, which will be explained during the stages of psychosynthesis. Once these are brought to the conscious the individual can change their behavior, attitude and be more accepting of them. The journey of psychosynthesis has been divided into four stages. (1) Thorough knowledge of ones personality, (2) control of the various elements of the personality, (3) realization of ones true Self- the discovery or creation of a unifying center, and (4) psychosynthesis, the formation or reconstruction of the personality around the new center (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 96). Even though these stages are presented in chronological order it does not imply that these stages happen in that order, the tages can happen out of order, it is Just that one stage is in t he foreground while the others are in the background. There is no set amount of time a person will remain in a particular stage so it can be a couple of minutes. A person is never fully done with a stage, regardless of how much growth a person goes through they never outgrow that these stages are not provided for the person going through therapy instead these stages are provided for the therapist, so the therapist does not lose grasp of the foundation of psychosynthesis which is providing empathy (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 96-97). Stage zero or the survival stages deals with experiences where we have felt trauma, neglect, rejection, and denial. That individual will experience primal wounding, which will be suppressed or repressed within the unconscious while creating survival strategies or survival personalities to avoid the pain that comes from those experiences, sometimes these survival personalities are created in our childhood. Those survival strategies, which later on we come to identify as who we are yet the true self remains buried. During this stage we feel some type of balance between comfort and security (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 8). Stage one is the stage known as Exploration; the importance of this stage is the establishing of a rapport between therapist and client (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 107). It is from this rapport that exploration will emerge on its own. The task of the therapist is to bring clarity to the conflicts and dilemmas we struggle with on a constant biases. These conflicts and dilemmas stem from our sub consciousness that the therapist has to bring into harmonious integration around a unifying center. The therapist is there to provide a true link, a point of connection between the personal man and his higher self. Because the therapist gives that spiritual empathy the person is able to start to separate from that survival mode and focus on what the real issue is. The therapist does not know where the client will take the session, they only know that they must be supportive and show empathy, the focus is the person not the theory (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 111). Stage two or the emergence of l the person is able to freely exercise the functions of consciousness and will. During this stage the individual can express via aspects of the personality rather than being unconsciously controlled by hem (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 15). Also in this stage the person can take more of an active role in their growth and partake in self-reflection. The persons reactions both emotional as well as cognitively are en expression of who l am and less of a reaction based on survival skills (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 1 16). Stage three is known as contact with self. During this stage the individual starts to try to find mea ning and purpose. Some can confuse this as exploration but these questions deal with the person is searching for self a more conscious self-realization (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 121). Psychosynthesis focuses on relationships, the relationship between therapist and client, the relationship with others but most importantly the relationship the individual has with themselves. During this stage the person will have more encounters with the authentic unifying centers. These unifying centers can be from human beings real and fictional, to inner symbols and outer environments, to formless intuitions and hunches, to religious and spiritual practices, to the arts and sciences, to animals and the natural world (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 122). The importance of mediation during the psychosynthesis process is key to this stage. By partaking in meditation the person is able to connect to these unifying centers that will allow the person to go beyond set patters and see new ideas and insight (Whitmore, 2004, p. 141). By focusing on one topic the mind can go deep and examine the different levels of meaning in a more subjective way to find intuitive enhances the effect of that image on the unconscious, and may assist in resolving inner conflicts and in transforming negative tendencies into positive ones (Whitmore, 2004, p. 142). The last step in psychosynthesis is when the person responds to self (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 3). Now that the client has a therapist who continuously shows them empathy, deepens their connection to unifying centers and starts to guide themselves they could start to respond to self in their lives by aligning themselves more to their nature and values. The person now makes choices to what seems true and right to them (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 133). The choices that are being made start a c onversation or a response between the person and a higher source. It is important to remember that everyone is on the search of self-realization we seek to find good (Firman Gila, 2010, p. 3). Counseling Journey that never ends, there is no point where the work is completed and the person will forever be happy. In psychosynthesis it is emphasized that self- realization is a process rather than an end-result. There will always potential, a next step for the client to achieve a higher sense of self-realization. Through counseling the individual builds her resources and learns how to work towards self-realization by making themselves more whole (Whitmore, 2004, p. 1 57). Firman, J. , Gila, A. (2010). Psychotherapy of love : Psychosynthesis in practice. Albany, NY, USA: State University of New York Press. Retrieved from http:// site. ebrary. com/lib/liu/docDetail. action? doclD=10574134 Kelder, D. (1993). What is psychosynthesis?. Retrieved from http://two. not2. org/psychosynthesis/ps2. htm Loewenthal, D. , House, R. (2010). Critically engaging cbt. Berkshire, GBR: Open University Press. Retrieved from http://site. ebrary. com/lib/liu/docDetail. action? doclD=10413325 Whitmore, D. (2004). Psychosynthesis counseling in action. (3rd ed. ). London, GBR: SAGE Publications Inc. (US). Retrieved from http://site. ebrary. com/lib/