Notes on Whip-Poor-Wills and Owls

On Animating Whip-type Motions

This paper presents algorithmic methods to generate progressive, whip-type motions, characteristic of experienced humans in high speed athletic activities like throwing and striking. In deriving these methods, we deduce boundary conditions for dynamic quantities by analyzing the motion of a two-link system. A control algorithm based on cascading gains is introduced and is shown to be e cient wh...

Last wills and testaments in a large sample of suicide notes: implications for testamentary capacity.

BACKGROUND The leaving of a will prior to death by suicide is a relatively unexplored area. AIMS To determine the frequency and details of will content in suicide notes. METHOD Coroner records for 1565 deaths by suicide in Toronto (2003-2009) were reviewed for (a) will content and (b) the presence of depression, psychotic illness, dementia and intoxication prior to death. RESULTS In total...

Reading, writing, and the whip.

Dispensing with Wills' Act Formalities for Substantively Valid Wills

On Electric Owls

Robots are moving from factories to people's homes taking on the roles of artificial pets, tutors and companions. If we are to have emotionally engaging robots, we must understand how we can design robots that people feel empathy towards. In this work, I explore one design criteria for such robots: implicit life stories or the ability for a robot to experience the world we share, be transformed...