prof. dr hab. inż. Bożena Kostek
Employment
- Head of Research Laboratory at Laboratorium Akustyki Fonicznej
- Professor at Laboratorium Akustyki Fonicznej
Publications
Filters
total: 384
Catalog Publications
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Study of preference for surround microphone techniques, used in the recording of choir and instrumental ensemble
PublicationThe aim of this paper is to describe the process of choosing the best surround microphone technique for recording of choir with an instrumental ensemble. First, examples of multichannel microphone techniques including those used in the recording are described. Then, the assumptions and details of music recording in Radio Gdansk Studio are provided as well as the process of mixing of the multichannel recording. The extensive subjective...
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Frequently updated noise threat maps created with use of supercomputing grid
PublicationAn innovative supercomputing grid services devoted to noise threat evaluation were presented. The services described in this paper concern two issues, first is related to the noise mapping, while the second one focuses on assessment of the noise dose and its influence on the human hearing system. The discussed services were developed within the PL-Grid Plus Infrastructure which accumulates Polish academic supercomputer centers....
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Algoritmically improved microwave radar monitors breathing more acurrate than sensorized belt
PublicationThis paper describes a novel way to measure, process, analyze, and compare respiratory signals acquired by two types of devices: a wearable sensorized belt and a microwave radar-based sensor. Both devices provide breathing rate readouts. First, the background research is presented. Then, the underlying principles and working parameters of the microwave radar-based sensor, a contactless device for monitoring breathing, are described....
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Online Sound Restoration for Digital Library Applications
PublicationA system for sound restoration was conceived and engineered having the following features: no special sound restoration software is needed to perform audio restoration by the user, the process of restoration employs automatic reduction of noise, wow and impulse distortions performed in the online mode, no skills in digital signal processing from the user are needed. The principles of the created system and its features as well...
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EVALUATION OF SOUND QUALITY FEATURES ON ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE EFFECTS – A CASE STUDY APPLIED TO ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE
PublicationThe paper shows a study on the relationship between noise measures and sound quality (SQ) features that are related to annoyance caused by the traffic noise. First, a methodology to perform analyses related to the traffic noise annoyance is described including references to parameters of the assessment of road noise sources. Next, the measurement setup, location and results are presented along with the derived sound quality features....
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Adaptive Personal Tuning of Sound in Mobile Computers
PublicationAn integrated methodology for enhancing audio quality in mobile computers is presented. The key features are adaptation of the characteristics of their acoustic track to changing acoustic conditions of the environment and to users’ individual preferences. Signal processing algorithms are introduced that concern: linearization of frequency response, dialogue intelligibility enhancement, and dynamics processing tuned up to the users’...
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Analysis and generation of emotionally-charged animated gesticulation
PublicationPrzygotowano animacje komputerowe, przedstawiające gestykulację nacechowaną emocjonalnie. Wykorzystano metodę animacji z klatkami kluczowymi. Zaproponowano zestaw parametrów opisujących ruch, które sprawdzono pod kątem przydatności w klasyfikacji treści emocjonalnych w animacji. Wykorzystano metody analizy zbiorów przybliżonych. Przedstawiono możliwość wykorzystania wyników w generowaniu animacji o pożądanych cechach emocjonalnych....
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Mining Knowledge of Respiratory Rate Quantification and Abnormal Pattern Prediction
PublicationThe described application of granular computing is motivated because cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a major killer globally. There is increasing evidence that abnormal respiratory patterns might contribute to the development and progression of CVD. Consequently, a method that would support a physician in respiratory pattern evaluation should be developed. Group decision-making, tri-way reasoning, and rough set–based analysis...
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Analyzing the Effectiveness of the Brain–Computer Interface for Task Discerning Based on Machine Learning
PublicationThe aim of the study is to compare electroencephalographic (EEG) signal feature extraction methods in the context of the effectiveness of the classification of brain activities. For classification, electroencephalographic signals were obtained using an EEG device from 17 subjects in three mental states (relaxation, excitation, and solving logical task). Blind source separation employing independent component analysis (ICA) was...
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Improving listeners' experience for movie playback through enhancing dialogue clarity in soundtracks
PublicationThis paper presents a method for improving users' quality of experience through processing of movie soundtracks. The dialogue clarity enhancement algorithms were introduced for detecting dialogue in movie soundtrack mixes and then for amplifying the dialogue components. The front channel signals (left, right, center) are analyzed in the frequency domain. The selected partials in the center channel signal, which yield high disparity...
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Analysis of impact of lossy audio compression on the robustness of watermark embedded in the DWT domain for non-blind copyright protection
PublicationA methodology of non-blind watermarking of the audio content is proposed. The outline of audio copyright problem and motivation for practical applications are discussed. The algorithmic theory pertaining watermarking techniques is briefly introduced. The system architecture together with employed workflows for embedding and extracting the watermarks are described. The implemented approach is described and obtained results are reported....
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Listening to Live Music: Life beyond Music Recommendation Systems
PublicationThis paper presents first a short review on music recommendation systems based on social collaborative filtering. A dictionary of terms related to music recommendation systems, such as music information retrieval (MIR), Query-by-Example (QBE), Query-by-Category (QBC), music content, music annotating, music tagging, bridging the semantic gap in music domain, etc. is introduced. Bases of music recommender systems are shortly presented,...
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Tinnitus Therapy Based on High-Frequency Linearization Principles - Preliminary Results
PublicationThe aim of this work is to present problems related to tinnitus symptoms, its pathogenesis, hypotheses on tinnitus causes, and therapy treatment to reduce or mask the phantom noise. In addition, the hypothesis on the existence of parasitic quantization that accompanies hearing loss has been recalled. Moreover, the paper describes a study carried out by the Authors with the application of high-frequency dither having specially formed...
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Virtual Whiteboard: A gesture-controlled pen-free tool emulating school whiteboard
PublicationIn the paper the so-called Virtual Whiteboard is presented which may be an alternative solution for modern electronic whiteboards based on electronic pens and sensors. The presented tool enables the user to write, draw and handle whiteboard contents using his/her hands only. An additional equipment such as infrared diodes, infrared cameras or cyber gloves is not needed. The user's interaction with the Virtual Whiteboard computer...
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A study on of music features derived from audio recordings examples – a quantitative analysis
PublicationThe paper presents a comparative study of music features derived from audio recordings, i.e. the same music pieces but representing different music genres, excerpts performed by different musicians, and songs performed by a musician, whose style evolved over time. Firstly, the origin and the background of the division of music genres were shortly presented. Then, several objective parameters of an audio signal were recalled that...
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Visual Data Encryption for Privacy Enhancement in Surveillance Systems
PublicationIn this paper a methodology for employing reversible visual encryption of data is proposed. The developed algorithms are focused on privacy enhancement in distributed surveillance architectures. First, motivation of the study performed and a short review of preexisting methods of privacy enhancement are presented. The algorithmic background, system architecture along with a solution for anonymization of sensitive regions of interest...
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Human-computer interaction approach applied to the multimedia system of polysensory integration
PublicationIn the paper an approach of utilizing an interaction between the human and computer in a therapy of dyslexia and other sensory disorders is presented. Bakker's neuropsychological concept of dyslexia along with therapy methods are reviewed in the context of the Multimedia System of Polysensory Integration, proposed at the Multimedia Systems Department of Gdansk Univ. of Technology. The system is presented along with the training...
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Comparative analysis of spectral and cepstral feature extraction techniques for phoneme modelling
PublicationPhoneme parameter extraction framework based on spectral and cepstral parameters is proposed. Using this framework, the phoneme signal is divided into frames and Hamming window is used. The performances are evaluated for recognition of Lithuanian vowel and semivowel phonemes. Different feature sets without noise as well as at different level of noise are considered. Two classical machine learning methods (Naive Bayes and Support...
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Building Knowledge for the Purpose of Lip Speech Identification
PublicationConsecutive stages of building knowledge for automatic lip speech identification are shown in this study. The main objective is to prepare audio-visual material for phonetic analysis and transcription. First, approximately 260 sentences of natural English were prepared taking into account the frequencies of occurrence of all English phonemes. Five native speakers from different countries read the selected sentences in front of...
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Machine learning applied to acoustic-based road traffic monitoring
PublicationThe motivation behind this study lies in adapting acoustic noise monitoring systems for road traffic monitoring for driver’s safety. Such a system should recognize a vehicle type and weather-related pavement conditions based on the audio level measurement. The study presents the effectiveness of the selected machine learning algorithms in acoustic-based road traffic monitoring. Bases of the operation of the acoustic road traffic...
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Investigating Feature Spaces for Isolated Word Recognition
PublicationThe study addresses the issues related to the appropriateness of a two-dimensional representation of speech signal for speech recognition tasks based on deep learning techniques. The approach combines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and time-frequency signal representation converted to the investigated feature spaces. In particular, waveforms and fractal dimension features of the signal were chosen for the time domain, and...
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Improving Objective Speech Quality Indicators in Noise Conditions
PublicationThis work aims at modifying speech signal samples and test them with objective speech quality indicators after mixing the original signals with noise or with an interfering signal. Modifications that are applied to the signal are related to the Lombard speech characteristics, i.e., pitch shifting, utterance duration changes, vocal tract scaling, manipulation of formants. A set of words and sentences in Polish, recorded in silence,...
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New method for personalization of avatar animation
PublicationThe paper presents a method for creating a personalized animation of avatar utilizing fuzzy inference. First the user designs a prototype version of animation, with keyframes only for important poses, roughly describing the action. Then animation is enriched with new motion phases calculated by the fuzzy inference system using descriptors given by the user. Various degrees of motion fluency and naturalness are possible to achieve....
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Expert media approach to hearing aids fitting
PublicationW artykule zaprezentowano problematykę dopasowania protez słuchu. Przedstawiono system ekspercki, który pozwala na znalezienie charakterystyk aparatu słuchowego adekwatnego do uszkodzenia słuchu. System został oparty o metodę zbiorów przybliżonych i logikę rozmytą.
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A Novel Method for Intelligibility Assessment of Nonlinearly Processed Speech in Spaces Characterized by Long Reverberation Times
PublicationObjective assessment of speech intelligibility is a complex task that requires taking into account a number of factors such as different perception of each speech sub-bands by the human hearing sense or different physical properties of each frequency band of a speech signal. Currently, the state-of-the-art method used for assessing the quality of speech transmission is the speech transmission index (STI). It is a standardized way...
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Objectivization of phonological evaluation of speech elements by means of audio parametrization
PublicationThis study addresses two issues related to both machine- and subjective-based speech evaluation by investigating five phonological phenomena related to allophone production. Its aim is to use objective parametrization and phonological classification of the recorded allophones. These allophones were selected as specifically difficult for Polish speakers of English: aspiration, final obstruent devoicing, dark lateral /l/, velar nasal...
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Modeling and Designing Acoustical Conditions of the Interior – Case Study
PublicationThe primary aim of this research study was to model acoustic conditions of the Courtyard of the Gdańsk University of Technology Main Building, and then to design a sound reinforcement system for this interior. First, results of measurements of the parameters of the acoustic field are presented. Then, the comparison between measured and predicted values using the ODEON program is shown. Collected data indicate a long reverberation...
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Loudness Scaling Test Based on Categorical Perception
PublicationThe main goal of this research study is focused on creating a method for loudness scaling based on categorical perception. Its main features, such as: way of testing, calibration procedure for securing reliable results, employing natural test stimuli, etc., are described in the paper and assessed against a procedure that uses 1/2-octave bands of noise (LGOB) for the loudness growth estimation. The Mann-Whitney U-test is employed...
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Rediscovering Automatic Detection of Stuttering and Its Subclasses through Machine Learning—The Impact of Changing Deep Model Architecture and Amount of Data in the Training Set
PublicationThis work deals with automatically detecting stuttering and its subclasses. An effective classification of stuttering along with its subclasses could find wide application in determining the severity of stuttering by speech therapists, preliminary patient diagnosis, and enabling communication with the previously mentioned voice assistants. The first part of this work provides an overview of examples of classical and deep learning...
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How Machine Learning Contributes to Solve Acoustical Problems
PublicationMachine learning is the process of learning functional relationships between measured signals (called percepts in the artificial intelligence literature) and some output of interest. In some cases, we wish to learn very specific relationships from signals such as identifying the language of a speaker (e.g. Zissman, 1996) which has direct applications such as in call center routing or performing a music information retrieval task...
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Assessment of the Effectiveness of a Short-term Hearing Aid Use in Patients with Different Degrees of Hearing Loss
PublicationThe study presents evaluating the effectiveness of the hearing aid fitting process in the short-term use (7 days). The evaluation method consists of a survey based on the APHAB (Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit) questionnaire. Additional criteria such as a degree of hearing loss, number of hours and days of hearing aid use as well as the user’s experience were also taken into consideration. The outcomes of the benefit...
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Comparison of Lithuanian and Polish Consonant Phonemes Based on Acoustic Analysis – Preliminary Results
PublicationThe goal of this research is to find a set of acoustic parameters that are related to differences between Polish and Lithuanian language consonants. In order to identify these differences, an acoustic analysis is performed, and the phoneme sounds are described as the vectors of acoustic parameters. Parameters known from the speech domain as well as those from the music information retrieval area are employed. These parameters are...
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An Attempt to Create Speech Synthesis Model That Retains Lombard Effect Characteristics
PublicationThe speech with the Lombard effect has been extensively studied in the context of speech recognition or speech enhancement. However, few studies have investigated the Lombard effect in the context of speech synthesis. The aim of this paper is to create a mathematical model that allows for retaining the Lombard effect. These models could be used as a basis of a formant speech synthesizer. The proposed models are based on dividing...
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Personalized avatar animation for virtual reality
PublicationThe paper presents a method for creating a personalized animation of avatar for virtual reality application such as multiplayer on-line games. Animation is stored in a simplified version, containing only keyframes for important avatar poses. This version defines key movements, i.e. roughly describes the avatar's action. Animation is enriched by the user with new motion phases utilizing fuzzy descriptors.Various degrees of motion...
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Musical Instrument Separation Applied to Music Genre Classification . Separacja instrumentów muzycznych w zastosowaniu do rozpoznawania gatunków muzycznych
PublicationThis paper outlines first issues related to music genre classification and a short description of algorithms used for musical instrument separation. Also, the paper presents proposed optimization of the feature vectors used for music genre recognition. Then, the ability of decision algorithms to properly recognize music genres is discussed based on two databases. In addition, results are cited for another database with regard to...
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Creating a Remote Choir Performance Recording Based on an Ambisonic Approach
PublicationThe aim of this paper is three-fold. First, the basics of binaural and ambisonic techniques are briefly presented. Then, details related to audio-visual recordings of a remote performance of the Academic Choir of the Gdańsk University of Technology are shown. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, artists had a choice, namely, to stay at home and not perform or stay at home and perform. In fact, staying at home brought in the possibility...
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A Study in Experimental Methods of Human-Computer Communication for Patients After Severe Brain Injuries
PublicationExperimental research in the domain of multimedia technology applied to medical practice is discussed, employing a prototype of integrated multimodal system to assist diagnosis and polysensory stimulation of patients after severe brain injury. The system being developed includes among others: eye gaze tracker, and EEG monitoring of non-communicating patients after severe brain injuries. The proposed solutions are used for collecting...
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Analysis of allophones based on audio signal recordings and parameterization
PublicationThe aim of this study is to develop an allophonic description of English plosive consonants based on recordings of 600 specially selected words. Allophonic variations addressed in the study may have two sources: positional and contextual. The former one depends on the syllabic or prosodic position in which a particular phoneme occurs. Contextual allophony is conditioned by the local phonetic environment. Co-articulation overlapping...
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Low-Level Music Feature Vectors Embedded as Watermarks
PublicationIn this paper a method consisting in embedding low-level music feature vectors as watermarks into a musical signal is proposed. First, a review of some recent watermarking techniques and the main goals of development of digital watermarking research are provided. Then, a short overview of parameterization employed in the area of Music Information Retrieval is given. A methodology of non-blind watermarking applied to music-content...
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Detecting Lombard Speech Using Deep Learning Approach
PublicationRobust Lombard speech-in-noise detecting is challenging. This study proposes a strategy to detect Lombard speech using a machine learning approach for applications such as public address systems that work in near real time. The paper starts with the background concerning the Lombard effect. Then, assumptions of the work performed for Lombard speech detection are outlined. The framework proposed combines convolutional neural networks...
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Automatic music signal mixing system based on one-dimensional Wave-U-Net autoencoders
PublicationThe purpose of this paper is to show a music mixing system that is capable of automatically mixing separate raw recordings with good quality regardless of the music genre. This work recalls selected methods for automatic audio mixing first. Then, a novel deep model based on one-dimensional Wave-U-Net autoencoders is proposed for automatic music mixing. The model is trained on a custom-prepared database. Mixes created using the...
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Predicting emotion from color present in images and video excerpts by machine learning
PublicationThis work aims at predicting emotion based on the colors present in images and video excerpts using a machine-learning approach. The purpose of this paper is threefold: (a) to develop a machine-learning algorithm that classifies emotions based on the color present in an image, (b) to select the best-performing algorithm from the first phase and apply it to film excerpt emotion analysis based on colors, (c) to design an online survey...
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Method for Clustering of Brain Activity Data Derived from EEG Signals
PublicationA method for assessing separability of EEG signals associated with three classes of brain activity is proposed. The EEG signals are acquired from 23 subjects, gathered from a headset consisting of 14 electrodes. Data are processed by applying Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) for the signal analysis and an autoencoder neural network for the brain activity separation. Processing involves 74 wavelets from 3 DWT families: Coiflets,...
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Evaluation of the separation algorithm performance employing ANNs
PublicationCelem niniejszego rozdziału jest przedstawienie metodyki separacji dźwięków muzycznych bez informacji a priori o dźwiękach zawartych w muzycznym miksie. W pracy pokazano, że prawidłowo wytrenowana sztuczna sieć neuronowa (SNN)jest w stanie w sposób automatyczny poprawnie sklasyfikować dźwięki zawarte w zmiksowanym sygnale. Skuteczność klasyfikacji SNN jest porównywalna z oceną subiektywną ekspertów.
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Enhancement of computer character animation utilizing fuzzy rules
PublicationRozdział przedstawia nową metodę przetwarzania komputerowych animacji postaci. Wykorzystuje ona wnioskowanie rozmyte, oparte na regułach i funkcjach przynależności uzyskanych w procesie analizy wyników testów subiektywnej oceny jakości animacji. W trakcie przetwarzania do animacji automatycznie dodawane są nowe fazy ruchu, co skutkuje poprawą jakości wizualnej oraz zmianą płynności i stylizacji ruchu w sposób zamierzony. W referacie...
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Waveguide model of the hearing aid earmold system
PublicationBackground The earmold system of the Behind-The-Ear hearing aid is an acoustic system that modifies the spectrum of the propagated sound waves. Improper selection of the earmold system may result in deterioration of sound quality and speech intelligibility. Computer modeling methods may be useful in the process of hearing aid fitting, allowing physician to examine various earmold system configurations and choose the optimum one...
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Waveguide model of the hearing aid earmold system
PublicationBackground The earmold system of the Behind-The-Ear hearing aid is an acoustic system that modifies the spectrum of the propagated sound waves. Improper selection of the earmold system may result in deterioration of sound quality and speech intelligibility. Computer modeling methods may be useful in the process of hearing aid fitting, allowing physician to examine various earmold system configurations and choose the optimum one...
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Retrospecting Polish Audio Engineering Society Membership on 20th Anniversary of the Polish Section of the Audio Engineering Society
PublicationIn this article some key events concerning founding Polish Section of the Audio Engineering Society were presented. In addition, the history covering International Symposia on Sound Engineering and Mastering was outlined. Also, papers contained in this issue were shortly reviewed.
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Measurements and visualization of sound field distribution around organ pipe
PublicationMeasurements and visualization of acoustic field around an organ pipe are presented. Sound intensity technique was applied for this purpose. Measurements were performed in free field. The organ pipe was activated with a constant air flow, produced by an external compressor, aimed at obtaining long-term steady state responses of generated acoustic signal. Sound energy distribution was measured in a defined fixed grid of points...
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Multimedia polysensory integration training system dedicated to children with educational difficulties
PublicationThis paper aims at presenting a multimedia system providing polysensory train- ing for pupils with educational difficulties. The particularly interesting aspect of the system lies in the sonic interaction with image projection in which sounds generated lead to stim- ulation of a particular part of the human brain. The system architecture, video processing methods, therapeutic exercises and guidelines for children’s interaction...
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