The core cognitive ability to perceive and synthesize ‘shapes’ underlies all our basic interactions with the world, be it shaping one’s fingers to grasp a ball or shaping one’s body while imitating a dance. In this article, we describe our attempts to understand this multifaceted problem by creating a primitive shape perception/synthesis system for the baby humanoid iCub. We specifically deal w...

We give an overview of Tutte’s paper, “How to draw a graph”, that contains: (i) a proof that every simple 3-connected planar graph admits a straight-line embedding in the plane such that each face boundary is a convex polygon, (ii) an elegant algorithm for finding such an embedding, (iii) an algorithm for testing planarity, and (iv) a proof of Kuratowski’s theorem.

The Diamedica non-rebreathing valve has been developed for use in draw-over anaesthesia and can be positioned at the common gas outlet. Its performance was evaluated against the Laerdal, Ruben and Ambu valves under laboratory conditions. Valve resistance during inspiration and expiration was simulated over a range of constant flow conditions. During flows ranging from 5 to 45 l.min(-1) , the Di...

An apprenticeship metaphor is described for programming by example, graphically, which enables untrained end users to add composite operations to a drawing program using constructive methods traditionally employed in drafting. To combat the extraneous activity that plagues naturally-produced traces, interaction is used to constrain induction by suppressing, or at least controlling, variability ...

Fanorona is the national board game of Madagascar. The game’s complexity is approximately the same as that of checkers. In this article we present a search-based approach for weakly solving this game. It is a well-chosen combination of Proof-Number search and endgame databases. Retrograde analysis is used to generate the endgame databases in which every position with 7 or fewer pieces on the bo...