Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students.
Displaying 31 - 40 of 199
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- Creators: Norton, Kay
- Creators: Turaga, Pavan
Description
The focus of this in-depth study is to look at the gestation, performance history, and reception of Giacomo Puccini's evening of three one-act operas called Il Trittico and differentiate the particular components, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi to analyze them for their individual stylistic elements of Italian Opera. These were the styles of verismo, pathos and sentimentality, and opera buffa. As substantiated by written criticism, the audience and the critics did not fully comprehend the hidden meaning behind the individual works of Il Trittico. Puccini, enigmatically, had chosen to present one last glimpse of outmoded Italian operatic traditions. In order to evaluate Il Trittico's importance in the history of Italian opera, this study will first review the musically changing landscape in Italy during the early to mid-nineteenth century, then the second part of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth-century when German, French, and eventually Russian music were starting to influence audience taste. Puccini who, over the course of his compositional life, absorbed and incorporated these different styles realized that long held Italian operatic tradition had reached a fork in the road. One path would ensure Italian composers a place in this new order and the other a stagnant dead end.
Even though Puccini's triptych garnered primarily negative reviews, the basis for this negativity was the perception that Il Trittico had broken with the historically traditional Italian musical styles. Though the present study acknowledges that break to a degree, it will also present a historically based rationale for the deviation, one left largely unnoticed by Puccini's critics. In the end, this author plans to realize their symbolic importance as a farewell to three uniquely Italian styles and a departure point for a new operatic tradition. Looking forward to the centenary of the work, this author seeks to illuminate how Puccini reached the pinnacle of firmly rooted genres of Italian opera. Ultimately this might help to unravel the enigma of Il Trittico while it continues to secure its rightful place as one of the masterpieces of the Puccini canon.
Even though Puccini's triptych garnered primarily negative reviews, the basis for this negativity was the perception that Il Trittico had broken with the historically traditional Italian musical styles. Though the present study acknowledges that break to a degree, it will also present a historically based rationale for the deviation, one left largely unnoticed by Puccini's critics. In the end, this author plans to realize their symbolic importance as a farewell to three uniquely Italian styles and a departure point for a new operatic tradition. Looking forward to the centenary of the work, this author seeks to illuminate how Puccini reached the pinnacle of firmly rooted genres of Italian opera. Ultimately this might help to unravel the enigma of Il Trittico while it continues to secure its rightful place as one of the masterpieces of the Puccini canon.
ContributorsScovasso, Stephen (Author) / Oldani, Robert W. (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
As the application of interactive media systems expands to address broader problems in health, education and creative practice, they fall within a higher dimensional space for which it is inherently more complex to design. In response to this need an emerging area of interactive system design, referred to as experiential media systems, applies hybrid knowledge synthesized across multiple disciplines to address challenges relevant to daily experience. Interactive neurorehabilitation (INR) aims to enhance functional movement therapy by integrating detailed motion capture with interactive feedback in a manner that facilitates engagement and sensorimotor learning for those who have suffered neurologic injury. While INR shows great promise to advance the current state of therapies, a cohesive media design methodology for INR is missing due to the present lack of substantial evidence within the field. Using an experiential media based approach to draw knowledge from external disciplines, this dissertation proposes a compositional framework for authoring visual media for INR systems across contexts and applications within upper extremity stroke rehabilitation. The compositional framework is applied across systems for supervised training, unsupervised training, and assisted reflection, which reflect the collective work of the Adaptive Mixed Reality Rehabilitation (AMRR) Team at Arizona State University, of which the author is a member. Formal structures and a methodology for applying them are described in detail for the visual media environments designed by the author. Data collected from studies conducted by the AMRR team to evaluate these systems in both supervised and unsupervised training contexts is also discussed in terms of the extent to which the application of the compositional framework is supported and which aspects require further investigation. The potential broader implications of the proposed compositional framework and methodology are the dissemination of interdisciplinary information to accelerate the informed development of INR applications and to demonstrate the potential benefit of generalizing integrative approaches, merging arts and science based knowledge, for other complex problems related to embodied learning.
ContributorsLehrer, Nicole (Author) / Rikakis, Thanassis (Committee member) / Olson, Loren (Committee member) / Wolf, Steven L. (Committee member) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Students afflicted with music performance anxiety (MPA) can greatly benefit from guidance and mentorship from a music teacher with whom they have established trust, however there exists a knowledge gap between the development and manifestations of MPA, and how it can be overcome in order to prepare the student for success as a performer. It is my purpose with this guide to inform musicians, including students and teachers, about MPA, common coping methods, and outside resources where pedagogues, students, and even professionals can find further guidance. This document is designed to aid music students and teachers in their individual research on the topic. The first section provides necessary background information on MPA and concepts of gender, identity, and personality. A discussion of the results of an experimental protocol that surveyed double reed musicians about their experiences with performance anxiety comprises the second section. An annotated bibliography, listing other resources including self-help books, personal accounts, and scientific studies, is contained in the final section of this guide. Because of the relative absence of research done on the correlation between MPA and specific identity traits including personality, self-image, and gender, it was necessary to incorporate more generalized sources relating to the topic. The annotations offer a more comprehensive approach to understanding and overcoming MPA. This work is not meant to be all-inclusive; rather, its purpose is to act as a basic guide.
ContributorsMacKenzie, Kate, D.M.A (Author) / Micklich, Albie (Thesis advisor) / Schuring, Martin (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In the sport of competitive water skiing, the skill of a human boat driver can affect athletic performance. Driver influence is not necessarily inhibitive to skiers, however, it reduces the fairness and credibility of the sport overall. In response to the stated problem, this thesis proposes a vision-based real-time control system designed specifically for tournament waterski boats. The challenges addressed in this thesis include: one, the segmentation of floating objects in frame sequences captured by a moving camera, two, the identification of segmented objects which fit a predefined model, and three, the accurate and fast estimation of camera position and orientation from coplanar point correspondences. This thesis discusses current ideas and proposes new methods for the three challenges mentioned. In the end, a working prototype is produced.
ContributorsWalker, Collin (Author) / Li, Baoxin (Thesis advisor) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Claveau, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
As a promising solution to the problem of acquiring and storing large amounts of image and video data, spatial-multiplexing camera architectures have received lot of attention in the recent past. Such architectures have the attractive feature of combining a two-step process of acquisition and compression of pixel measurements in a conventional camera, into a single step. A popular variant is the single-pixel camera that obtains measurements of the scene using a pseudo-random measurement matrix. Advances in compressive sensing (CS) theory in the past decade have supplied the tools that, in theory, allow near-perfect reconstruction of an image from these measurements even for sub-Nyquist sampling rates. However, current state-of-the-art reconstruction algorithms suffer from two drawbacks -- They are (1) computationally very expensive and (2) incapable of yielding high fidelity reconstructions for high compression ratios. In computer vision, the final goal is usually to perform an inference task using the images acquired and not signal recovery. With this motivation, this thesis considers the possibility of inference directly from compressed measurements, thereby obviating the need to use expensive reconstruction algorithms. It is often the case that non-linear features are used for inference tasks in computer vision. However, currently, it is unclear how to extract such features from compressed measurements. Instead, using the theoretical basis provided by the Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma, discriminative features using smashed correlation filters are derived and it is shown that it is indeed possible to perform reconstruction-free inference at high compression ratios with only a marginal loss in accuracy. As a specific inference problem in computer vision, face recognition is considered, mainly beyond the visible spectrum such as in the short wave infra-red region (SWIR), where sensors are expensive.
ContributorsLohit, Suhas Anand (Author) / Turaga, Pavan (Thesis advisor) / Spanias, Andreas (Committee member) / Li, Baoxin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The thrill of a live performance can enhance endorphin, serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline levels in the body. This mixture of heightened chemical levels is a result of "performance adrenaline." This phenomenon can positively and/or negatively affect a performing singer. A singer's body is her instrument, and therefore, any bodily change can alter the singing voice. The uptake of these chemicals can especially influence a central aspect of singing: breath. "Performance adrenaline" can induce shallow or clavicular breathing, alter phonation, and affect vibrato. To optimize the positive effects and counteract the negative, diaphragmatic breathing, yoga, and beta-blockers are explored as viable management tools. When managed properly, the boost offered by "performance adrenaline" can aid the singer in performing and singing. After a review of medical and psychological studies that reveal the physiological and emotional effects of endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline, this paper will explore the biological changes specific to vocalists and methods to optimize these effects in performance.
ContributorsPaige, Belinda Roseann (Author) / FitzPatrick, Carole (Thesis advisor) / Dreyfoos, Dale (Committee member) / Norton, Kay (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
"Recontextualizing Music for Social Change" proposes alternative ways through which the traditional setup of a vocal recital may be transformed into a multidisciplinary performance with a specific social purpose. This task might be achieved by the conscious use and merging of elements such as innovation, ritualistic significance of music, and hopes for social change.
Rather than exclusively analyzing the nature of these three elements, this document seeks to exemplify the artistic use of these tools through the description of two doctoral recitals. These performances focus on the portrayal of two specific social issues concerning gender identity: the femme fatale, and sexual identity.
The first performance, "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale: The Voice behind a Stereotype," reflects on the negative connotations of the French femme fatale stereotype. This dangerous image has been perpetuated through popular and mass media since the nineteenth century. The femme fatale has achieved an iconic status thanks to her appealing, damaging, unrealistic, and hypersexualized traits. Nevertheless, this male-constructed stereotype was actually conceived as a parody of female emancipation. "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale" seeks to create awareness of this image through a staged approach of Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite, feminist poetry and prose, and euphonium music.
The second performance, "Un-Labelling Love: A Scientific Study of Romantic Attachment in Four Seasons," analyses the biological nature of love. According to this perspective, "Un-Labelling Love" transforms a vocal recital into a scientific lecture. This lecture examines four developmental stages of romantic love through the performance of art songs and the inclusion of a narrator, who describes the biological and psychological changes experienced by two research subjects--the performers--during these love stages. Through a plot-twist at the end of the performance, "Un-Labelling Love" also questions the patriarchal assumption that heterosexual kinship represents, by default, the unmarked category of adult pair-bonding. In summary, and based on scientific facts, this vocal performance seeks to encourage social assimilation of non-heterosexual kinship systems.
Rather than exclusively analyzing the nature of these three elements, this document seeks to exemplify the artistic use of these tools through the description of two doctoral recitals. These performances focus on the portrayal of two specific social issues concerning gender identity: the femme fatale, and sexual identity.
The first performance, "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale: The Voice behind a Stereotype," reflects on the negative connotations of the French femme fatale stereotype. This dangerous image has been perpetuated through popular and mass media since the nineteenth century. The femme fatale has achieved an iconic status thanks to her appealing, damaging, unrealistic, and hypersexualized traits. Nevertheless, this male-constructed stereotype was actually conceived as a parody of female emancipation. "Defatalizing the Femme Fatale" seeks to create awareness of this image through a staged approach of Shostakovich's Michelangelo Suite, feminist poetry and prose, and euphonium music.
The second performance, "Un-Labelling Love: A Scientific Study of Romantic Attachment in Four Seasons," analyses the biological nature of love. According to this perspective, "Un-Labelling Love" transforms a vocal recital into a scientific lecture. This lecture examines four developmental stages of romantic love through the performance of art songs and the inclusion of a narrator, who describes the biological and psychological changes experienced by two research subjects--the performers--during these love stages. Through a plot-twist at the end of the performance, "Un-Labelling Love" also questions the patriarchal assumption that heterosexual kinship represents, by default, the unmarked category of adult pair-bonding. In summary, and based on scientific facts, this vocal performance seeks to encourage social assimilation of non-heterosexual kinship systems.
ContributorsVázquez Morillas, Mario (Author) / Norton, Kay (Thesis advisor) / Reber, William F. (Thesis advisor) / Kopta, Anne (Committee member) / Bowditch, Rachel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Fisheye cameras are special cameras that have a much larger field of view compared to
conventional cameras. The large field of view comes at a price of non-linear distortions
introduced near the boundaries of the images captured by such cameras. Despite this
drawback, they are being used increasingly in many applications of computer vision,
robotics, reconnaissance, astrophotography, surveillance and automotive applications.
The images captured from such cameras can be corrected for their distortion if the
cameras are calibrated and the distortion function is determined. Calibration also allows
fisheye cameras to be used in tasks involving metric scene measurement, metric
scene reconstruction and other simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms.
This thesis presents a calibration toolbox (FisheyeCDC Toolbox) that implements a collection of some of the most widely used techniques for calibration of fisheye cameras under one package. This enables an inexperienced user to calibrate his/her own camera without the need for a theoretical understanding about computer vision and camera calibration. This thesis also explores some of the applications of calibration such as distortion correction and 3D reconstruction.
conventional cameras. The large field of view comes at a price of non-linear distortions
introduced near the boundaries of the images captured by such cameras. Despite this
drawback, they are being used increasingly in many applications of computer vision,
robotics, reconnaissance, astrophotography, surveillance and automotive applications.
The images captured from such cameras can be corrected for their distortion if the
cameras are calibrated and the distortion function is determined. Calibration also allows
fisheye cameras to be used in tasks involving metric scene measurement, metric
scene reconstruction and other simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms.
This thesis presents a calibration toolbox (FisheyeCDC Toolbox) that implements a collection of some of the most widely used techniques for calibration of fisheye cameras under one package. This enables an inexperienced user to calibrate his/her own camera without the need for a theoretical understanding about computer vision and camera calibration. This thesis also explores some of the applications of calibration such as distortion correction and 3D reconstruction.
ContributorsKashyap Takmul Purushothama Raju, Vinay (Author) / Karam, Lina (Thesis advisor) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The ability to identify unoccupied resources in the radio spectrum is a key capability for opportunistic users in a cognitive radio environment. This paper draws upon and extends geometrically based ideas in statistical signal processing to develop estimators for the rank and the occupied subspace in a multi-user environment from multiple temporal samples of the signal received at a single antenna. These estimators enable identification of resources, such as the orthogonal complement of the occupied subspace, that may be exploitable by an opportunistic user. This concept is supported by simulations showing the estimation of the number of users in a simple CDMA system using a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimate for the rank. It was found that with suitable parameters, such as high SNR, sufficient number of time epochs and codes of appropriate length, the number of users could be correctly estimated using the MAP estimator even when the noise variance is unknown. Additionally, the process of identifying the maximum likelihood estimate of the orthogonal projector onto the unoccupied subspace is discussed.
ContributorsBeaudet, Kaitlyn (Author) / Cochran, Douglas (Thesis advisor) / Turaga, Pavan (Committee member) / Berisha, Visar (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In this thesis we consider the problem of facial expression recognition (FER) from video sequences. Our method is based on subspace representations and Grassmann manifold based learning. We use Local Binary Pattern (LBP) at the frame level for representing the facial features. Next we develop a model to represent the video sequence in a lower dimensional expression subspace and also as a linear dynamical system using Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) model. As these subspaces lie on Grassmann space, we use Grassmann manifold based learning techniques such as kernel Fisher Discriminant Analysis with Grassmann kernels for classification. We consider six expressions namely, Angry (AN), Disgust (Di), Fear (Fe), Happy (Ha), Sadness (Sa) and Surprise (Su) for classification. We perform experiments on extended Cohn-Kanade (CK+) facial expression database to evaluate the expression recognition performance. Our method demonstrates good expression recognition performance outperforming other state of the art FER algorithms. We achieve an average recognition accuracy of 97.41% using a method based on expression subspace, kernel-FDA and Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifier. By using a simpler classifier, 1-Nearest Neighbor (1-NN) along with kernel-FDA, we achieve a recognition accuracy of 97.09%. We find that to process a group of 19 frames in a video sequence, LBP feature extraction requires majority of computation time (97 %) which is about 1.662 seconds on the Intel Core i3, dual core platform. However when only 3 frames (onset, middle and peak) of a video sequence are used, the computational complexity is reduced by about 83.75 % to 260 milliseconds at the expense of drop in the recognition accuracy to 92.88 %.
ContributorsYellamraju, Anirudh (Author) / Chakrabarti, Chaitali (Thesis advisor) / Turaga, Pavan (Thesis advisor) / Karam, Lina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014