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Robust and effortless spatial orientation critically relies on “automatic and obligatory spatial updating”, a largely automatized and reflex-like process that transforms our mental egocentric representation of the immediate surroundings during ego-motions. A rapid pointing paradigm was used to assess automatic/obligatory spatial updating after visually displayed upright rotations with or without concomitant physical rotations using a motion platform. Visual stimuli displaying a natural, subject-known scene proved sufficient for enabling automatic and obligatory spatial updating, irrespective of concurrent physical motions. This challenges the prevailing notion that visual cues alone are insufficient for enabling such spatial updating of rotations, and that vestibular/proprioceptive cues are both required and sufficient. Displaying optic flow devoid of landmarks during the motion and pointing phase was insufficient for enabling automatic spatial updating, but could not be entirely ignored either. Interestingly, additional physical motion cues hardly improved performance, and were insufficient for affording automatic spatial updating. The results are discussed in the context of the mental transformation hypothesis and the sensorimotor interference hypothesis, which associates difficulties in imagined perspective switches to interference between the sensorimotor and cognitive (to-be-imagined) perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present the spatial logistics task (SLOT) platform for investigating multimodal communication between 2 human participants. Presented are the SLOT communication task and the software and hardware that has been developed to run SLOT experiments and record the participants' multimodal behavior. SLOT offers a high level of flexibility in varying the context of the communication and is particularly useful in studies of the relationship between pen gestures and speech. We illustrate the use of the SLOT platform by discussing the results of some early experiments. The first is an experiment on negotiation with a one-way mirror between the participants, and the second is an exploratory study of automatic recognition of spontaneous pen gestures. The results of these studies demonstrate the usefulness of the SLOT platform for conducting multimodal communication research in both human-human and human-computer interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract. Agile manufacturing relies heavily on the quality of information that organizations have and on their ability lo organize and reuse it. Constant inflow of information and knowledge is the fuel of agile manufacturing. In the process of forming virtual enterprises, these new organizations have to be equipped with information systems that integrate their present legacy technology and improve upon it. To support the quick formation of virtual organizations, one must have the ability to develop such systems quickly. Over the past few years we have evolved, through collaborative projects with industry, an approach composed of methods and an information infrastructure called n-dim that improves the ability, of becoming agile manufacturers of information systems, by responding quickly to information needs of new and evolving organizations. Following an analysis of the requirements of information systems for agile design, we discuss this approach; describe some of the infrastructure features; and present several examples of simple applications that illustrate them. We summarize by discussing the advantages and limitations of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]