Showing papers in "J3ea in 2004"

Contested Nature: Promoting International Biodiversity with Social Justice in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract: Contested Nature: Promoting International Biodiversity with Social Justice in the Twenty-First Century STEVEN BRECHIN, PETER WILSHUSEN, CRYSTAL FORTWANGLER, AND PATRICK WEST (EDITORS) STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF NEW YORK, ALBANY, 2003 321 PP. $59.50 HARDCOVER, $19.95 PAPERBACK In 1991 West and Brechin published Resident People and National Parks in the hope it would "stimulate and mobilize a more deeply felt concern, a conversion of thinking from blind ecological imperative to more honest recognition of painful moral dilemma, and a sincere desire to rectify the injustice of the past." Contested Nature is a fitting successor to this book, addressing these same issues in a more comprehensive and systematic fashion with four theoretical chapters and case studies from around the world. It touches upon diverse aspects of current conservation dilemmas including exclusion and eviction, the institutional difficulties of complex conservation organizations, private conservation areas, ecotourism, the reification of communities, community level conflicts, deforestation, bio-prospecting and more. As its title suggests, the works in the volume are geared towards identifying the shortcomings of international conservation, while seeking to influence policy and practice in ways that promote biodiversity with social justice. A chapter on complex organizations and governance regimes suggests specific strategies for achieving this vision. Contested Nature is an authoritative statement of the current position of writings on social science and conservation and 1 strongly recommend it to researchers, practitioners and students. Written in an accessible and engaging style it is full of new ideas and accounts of the latest practices and problems that will form a valuable compendium for people wrestling with these problems, if Resident People and National Parks was a 'bible' for some activists (to quote a consultant working with the IUCN) then perhaps they now have an old and new testament. But, with apologies to its authors, I wish to use the opportunity of this review to make some wider reflections on the field as a whole. Contested Nature, as the current state of the art, prompts a number of ideas as to where we can go from here. The first concerns engagement. 1 fear that the ideas presented in ContestedNaturewill not influence the policy and practice of international conservation as much as it ought to. In part this is because it does not engage with natural science literature. With less than 3% of its citations in serious scientific journals it characterizes the field by preaching an engagement with conservation scientists it does not itself practice.1 This lack of integration works in other ways. The editors' major contributions which came out in Society and Natural Resources in 2002 have no citations on the Web of Science, which means they have not yet been noted by natural scientists. That sort of material is too good not to come out in natural science journals. The second concerns analysis. The book clearly argues that devolution is a necessary but insufficient step for locally rooted conservation. So now we need to ask for whom does devolution 'work' and what does it achieve? Indeed perhaps the real question here is how does democracy work/operate at different scales? Democratization is generally thought to be a good thing, but the practice of democracy is remarkably varied, it covers a plethora of forms of government. We require, in our writings about conservation and society, a greater awareness of the variety of forms democracy can take, and is expected to take, in the societies in which it is being encouraged. …

Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place

Abstract: Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place THOMAS POWER ISLAND PRESS, WASHINGTON, DC, 1996 295 PP. $35.00 HARDCOVER While this book is firmly based in the rhetoric of academic economics, Powers local economies and popular folklore makes it an excellent text for economic anthropology. Specifically he focuses on the ways in which folklore expresses local economic decision making wisdom with regards to environmental resources. These issues are brought to life through descriptive ethnography of the diversity of political and economic interests in American extractive industries. But this work is not merely descriptive. Power advocates the demystification of two competing modes of thought in local economic behavior. One is the ideological bias of academic economic science that assumes absolute truth. The other is the uncritical bias of naive folk economics that mistrusts expertise external to local communities. This demystification is motivated by his objective of helping local people better understand how they make their decisions so that local economic policies are neither misled nor distorted. Three basic assumptions inform his arguments in the body of the book: 1) popular folk economies that assume natural resource extraction industries are critical to economic development are incomplete and misleading; 2) contrary to popular belief people seek high-quality residential environments over economic opportunities; and 3) business development follows labor, not vice versa. Environmental economic issues (i.e., agriculture, ranching, fishing, mining, and logging) are primarily rural in context, where folk wisdom persists in political and economic decision-making. These extractive activities are centers of economic and environmental conflicts. Power argues that it may be more productive to view these conflicts from the perspective of scientific vs. folk economics rather than as political interest group conflicts. This new perspective, I think, is his main contribution to economic anthropology and environmental scholarship. According to Power, the various interests representing extractive industries and environmental protection are often deadlocked. He proposes a different framework for engaging in civil discourse to examine local realities. Scientific economics can be employed to demystify the significance of the role of extractive industries at local levels. In most cases, argues Power, that role is not as significant as many locals assume. Scientific economics can also identity the significance of protected landscapes on local economies. In most cases protected areas and ecotourism contribute much more to economic vitality than is locally believed. Power argues that it is peoples commitment to local environments that influences local economic agendas. Therefore, environmental protection is not only central to economic decision making, but the most central resources in the local economic base. …

Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty

Abstract: Material Culture and Sacred Landscape: The Anthropology of the Siberian Khanty PETER JORDAN ALTAMIRA PRESS, WALNUT CREEK, CA, 2003 308 PP. $80 HARDCOVER, $29.95 PAPERBACK It seems safe to assume that I am not the only archaeologist who experiences something akin to a pang of longing when I have occasion to pick up an older ethnography. Many of the ethnographers of the early and middle twentieth century devoted almost as much attention to the material culture and environment of the people they studied as the people themselves. For all their shortcomings, these early ethnographies presented a richness of detail that is too often missing in contemporary works of cultural andiropology: settlement maps, illustrations of house patterns, accounts of subsistence techniques, and descriptions of everyday material objects. I was thus perhaps predisposed to have a favorable opinion of Jordan's book and its close attention to Khanty material culture. But this is not a work of vulgar materialism, nor is it a return to the simple descriptive style of many past ethnographies. His primary concern is describing how the Khanty material culture, including landscapes, is 'enculturated' (i.e., given symbolic meaning) through physical transformation or incorporation into the symbolism of social practices. Jordan draws from a number of theoretical strands in an effort to find a middle ground between cultural materialist ("socioecological") and interpretive ("semiotic") approaches to hunter-gatherer studies. By his own admission, however, the middle ground he proposes leans heavily toward interpretive theories of material culture, which he sees as a corrective to the materialist approaches that have traditionally dominated this field (p. 22). While the terms he uses may be unfamiliar to some readers, his theoretical discussion is clear (free of much of the jargon inherent in the primary works) and even-handed (pointing out some of the limitations and criticisms of these approaches). Jordan contextualizes his edmographic material in broad temporal and spatial scales, placing the Khanty in a macro-regional, longue duree historical context. This history is phrased in the language and perspective of world systems dieory, while extending discussion and credence to its many critiques. While readers anxious to get into the details of the ethnography may wonder why this wasn't incorporated into his earlier theoretical discussion, as an archaeologist I appreciated the inclusion of an extended historical context. World systems theory is appropriate for understanding this history, given that the Khanty paid fur in tribute to the Tatar Khans during the medieval period, were later incorporated into fur tax systems of the Russian and Soviet empires, and today occupy a landscape valued for its mineral resources. Having dispensed with the historical context, Jordan turns to the heart of the ethnography. In addition to material from a 10-month field study of communities on one tributary of the River Ob', he makes good use of other scholarly works and edinohistoric data. …

Who is an Environmentalist? The Polysemy of Environmentalist Terms and Correlated Environmental Actions

Abstract: Conducting and interpreting an interview is more problematic when informants use a word that has multiple meanings and interpretations. In this case, the problematic word, "environmentalist," labeled several socially-defined identities that were central to the study. The analysis is based on interviews with 156 members of 20 diverse environmental groups (and two comparison groups) in the Eastern United States, including their views on environmentalists, their history with the movement, their self-identification as an environmentalist, and their environmental actions. From these data, principles of classification and naming are used to distinguish the multiple meanings of the identity "environmentalist." We found that informants use the term to describe four distinct types of people: 1) those who say they care about the environment but take no public actions; 2) those who act to preserve local habitat often through private actions (also called "conservationists"); 3) those who act in the civic or political realm, by writing to representatives or attending hearings (also called "activists"); and 4) those who act via demonstrations, civil disobedience, or "direct action" such as blocking logging operations (also called "radicals"). These differing meanings are sometimes used strategically by participants to position themselves, or opponents, within the environmental movement. The polysemy of the word environmentalist renders it a poor choice for questions in surveys and interviews unless disambiguating paraphrases are added. Additionally, crosstabulation shows that named environmental identities are indicators of behavior-self-defined environmentalists also reported significantly more environmental actions. Words or paraphrases that distinguish among the multiple meanings of "environmentalist" further improve these identity terms as predictors of behavior. Introduction This paper examines how members of environmental groups and, to a lesser degree, the public define and use the word "environmentalist," and how such definitions of self relate to individual environmental actions. Although the meaning of "environmentalist" varies across individuals, and shifts as the same individual uses it on different occasions, we will show that these variations follow regular patterns. Decoding these semantic shifts can improve our understanding of identities within the environmental movement, better relate identity to behavior, and increase validity when using the term1 in survey or interview questions. In the beginning of what is now considered the American environmental movement, the term "environmentalist" was not used. Early thinkers, such as Thoreau, Emerson, Muir and Leopold wrote of nature or wilderness rather than the environment. By the late 1800s, the movement split into "conservationists" versus "preservationists." The conservationists, led by Gifford Pinchoc (cf. Miller 2004) sought to manage forests and other natural resources so as to efficiendy extract them for human use. In opposition, the preservationists, led by John Muir, worked to set natural resources aside, guarding them from human use and interference (for a first clear statement, see Muir 1898). The modern term "environmentalist" did not become widespread until the 1960s. In that decade, environmentalism evolved from an upper class attempt to save land for recreation to a movement to decrease pollution and other systemic stresses (Silveira 2001). The shift was partly based on scientists' popular writing (e.g., Carson 1962) and the resulting movement now cuts across class and race lines (Mohai 2003). The term "environmentalist," said to have been used in the 1960s to denote "people who were concerned about the physical environment, the pollution of our air and water," (Wiley 1998) is the term most widely used for those in the movement today, and is the primary subject of our analysis. Webster's New World Dictionary lists two definitions for the word "environmentalist. …

Une nouvelle métaheuristique pour l'optimisation difficile : la méthode des essaims particulaires

Abstract: Nous presentons d'abord dans cet article le cadre general des metaheuristiques, qui sont apparues au debut des annees 1980 avec une ambition commune : resoudre au mieux les problemes dits d'optimisation difficile. Nous essayons de cerner le domaine de l'optimisation difficile, tant pour les problemes discrets que pour les problemes a variables continues. Puis nous degageons quelques caracteristiques communes a nombre de metaheuristiques, et nous passons en revue les principales extensions de ces methodes. Nous presentons ensuite une metaheuristique apparue dernierement : la methode d'optimisation par essaim particulaire (OEP). L'OEP est une technique encore peu connue en France, fondee sur la notion de cooperation entre des agents (les particules) qui peuvent etre vus comme des “ animaux ” aux capacites assez limitees (peu de memoire et de facultes de raisonnement). L'echange d'information entre eux fait que, globalement, ils arrivent neanmoins a resoudre des problemes difficiles, comme c'est le cas, par exemple, chez les abeilles vivant en essaim (exploitation de sources de nourriture, construction de rayons, etc.). Apres une presentation succincte des origines, l'article propose une description informelle de l'OEP, puis en degage les principales caracteristiques. Simple a comprendre, a programmer et a utiliser, l'OEP se revele particulierement efficace pour les problemes d'optimisation non lineaire, a variables continues, entieres ou mixtes. L'article se termine par un resume des exposes presentes lors du premier seminaire francophone sur le sujet (OEP'2003, Paris, octobre 2003).

Northern Lacandon Maya Medicinal Plant Use in the Communities of Lacanja Chan Sayab and Nahá Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract: The Lacandon Maya are rainforest farmers who inhabit the tropical jungles of southern Mexico and Guatemala. They number approximately 700 individuals and practice a traditional system of agriculture that incorporates introduced plants and the native flora of their environment. In this essay, we discuss a largely neglected aspect of Lacandon ethnomedicine. Our results include 47 medicinal plants used by the several Northern Lacandon living in the communities of Naha' and Lacanja Chan Sayab. The plants are cultivated in three zones (house gardens, milpas, and secondary milpas) and wild plants are collected from the jungle. This method of healing exists amid numerous alternatives and intense pressure to use Western medicine. Nevertheless, many Lacandon Maya continue to practice healing with cultivated and wild plants. In this context, Lacandon ethnomedicine represents a dynamic aspect of their culture and serves to challenge an academic model that regularly essentializes their society and predicts their imminent destruction. Introduction Maya Indians of Central America have been the focus of considerable scholarly attention for more than one hundred years. Researchers have studied myriad issues involving Maya archaeology, ancient life-ways, colonial history, and contemporary society. In the 1930s the anthropologist Ralph Roys wrote the seminal work on colonial Maya ethnobotany and ethnomedicine, which sparked interest in contemporary Maya folk medicine. Since the 1970s numerous Maya groups became the focus of ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal research (Alcorn 1984; Berlin et al. 1974; Breedlove and Laughlin 2000; Orellana 1987). Lacandon Maya medicinal plant use, however, was never a focus of these studies and until recently little information existed on Lacandon ethnomedicine. The Lacandon Maya are a small indigenous group that inhabit the jungles of southeastern Chiapas, Mexico. Although their exact origins remain a mystery, the ancestors of today's people were found in the area in the lare seventeenth century and early eighteenth century (Kashanipour 2003:67-80). Because of their continued presence in the region, the Lacandon gained exclusive land rights to valuable jungle territory in 1972 (Kashanipour 2003: MSISO; Nations 1979:110). Throughout much of the twentieth century, the basis of the Lacandon economy was subsistence agriculture. Most Lacandon practiced a non-Christian religion that required frequent offerings to a pandieon of deities in order to maintain the natural environment (McGee 1990:60-74, 2002:125-152). Since the 1970s many of the Lacandon diversified their economy and abandoned the old religion. Commercialization and tourism have become important aspects of the Lacandon economy and many people today practice a mixture of subsistence farming, commercial mono-cropping, and craft production (McGee 2002:71-124). This essay builds on introductory research presented in McGee (2002) and presents a formal discussion of medicinal plant use among Northern Lacandon living in the communities of Lacanja Chan Sayab and Naha'. Our purpose is twofold. First, we document an indigenous system of folk healing and add to the growing canon of research on indigenous curing methods. Healing among other Maya groups, such as those in Yucatan and in the Guatemalan Highlands, involves highly trained practitioners. Lacandon healing, however, centers on self-healing. Identifying 47 medicinal plants used by groups of Northern Lacandon in two communities, we also provide information on what parts of the plants are used for therapeutic purposes and how treatments are prepared. Second, this work counters a common trend in Lacandon studies to portray their society as decayed and eroding. Imbedded in this position is the belief that a few key features, such as religion, dress, and agriculture, define Lacandon society. When changes occurred to these areas, outsiders frequendy lamented the end of Lacandon society. …

First Nations Perspectives on the Grasslands of the Interior of British Columbia

Abstract: Although the First Nations Elders from the interior of southern British Columbia, Canada, recall times when grass was “belly-high to a horse,” today they worry about the deteriorated state of the grasslands. Using ethnographic and historical research methods, this paper documents recognized First Nations experts’ historical memory of the grasslands. Based on the ethnographic accounts, this paper also attempts to reconstruct the effects of colonization on the grassland ecology and First Nations culture. Secondary sources such as early settlers’ accounts and current grassland ecology research are used to augment the testimony of the experts. Two eras are described: 1) Pre-contact era (the three hundred years prior to contact); and 2) Post-contact era (1846-present). The horse, elk, and sharptailed grouse were common on the pre-contact grasslands. Overgrazing of the grasslands occurred soon after the miners and gentlemen ranchers brought in their horses and cattle. Sagebrush increased proportionately to the decrease in grasses. The First Nations culture changed from gathering sustenance off the grasslands to servicing the needs of the new settlers, and then to marginalization by industrial agriculture. A key argument of the paper is that when First Nations’ access to water was diverted by settlers and the wetlands were drained, cultivated, and polluted (both culturally and ecologically), First Nations’ access to the grassland was restricted. The paper concludes by defining grassland restoration from a social and ecological perspective and proposes that water be a key focus of the restoration process.

The Hot and the Cold: Ills of Humans and Maize in Native Mexico

Abstract: The Hot and the Cold: Ills of Humans and Maize in Native Mexico J. M. CHEVALIER AND A. SANCHEZ BAIN UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS, TORONTO, 2002 344 PP. $65.00 HARDCOVER In The Hot and the Cold the authors enter an ongoing debate regarding the "humoral system" in Latin American ethnomedical systems championed by Foster (e.g., 1994) and Lopez Austin (e.g., 1980 and 1986) respectively. The central thesis of this work is that George Foster's theory of the humoral origin of the Latin American hot/cold system is incorrect. In addition, they argue that the basic hot/cold system should be modified to include a heliotropic model. This shirting focus plagues die book and weakens dhe authors' argument throughout. Chevalier and Sanchez Bain, following Lopez Austin, take the position that the hot/cold system in Latin America is of pre-Columbian origin, not a Spanish colonial artifact. The claims against the Spanish humoral source are threefold. First, the authors argue, the humoral system has no "humors." Because there is no reference to blood, phlegm and the biles, nor to air, earth, wind and fire, the system must not be humoral. They then argue that, furthermore, there is no wet/dry continuum to consider alongside the hot/cold and that this is of prime importance. Fosters (1994) position is that the system has been reduced over cime via transmission from colonizers to colonized and from individual to individual. Chevalier and Sanchez Bain categorically do not accept this possibility and suggest that the acceptance of this position is racist because it denies New Worlders the ability to perform abstract and complex thought. Instead, they assume that the humoral system would have been transferred carefully from specialist to specialist. In Fosters model, the system was transferred from the Spanish to the general population, with the specialists holding on to their traditional system, while the secular masses picked up a bit here and there. Second, the authors contest Foster's argument that the medical system is empirically based. They claim that if the humoral categories of medicinals and illnesses are learned, the system can not be empirical. Thus, they argue, Foster is wrong. It seems chat the authors' faulty logic misses the point-while one may label diarrhea, for example, as a "cold" illness, this has no effect on the empirical observation that a particular plant cures it. Furthermore, they ignore the work of Matthews (1983) who demonstrates how inconsistent che ethnomedical system is, which allows it to conform to disjunctures between empirical observations and theories. This suggests that the system is a recent adoption as a theoretical framework to explain observed results. Third, it is suggested by Chevalier and Sanchez Bain that according to Foster's model, there is one perfect and rarely attained thermal value for health and chat any activity is risky "to the point chac a stable health condition becomes painfully rare (Foster 3335)" (p. 17). In fact, on the pages cited here from Foster's work, he discusses how hot and cold insults to body equilibrium usually do not precipitate illness unless they are extreme. I will further discuss this issue below. One of the goals of this book consists of developing a "heliotropic," as opposed to the basic humoral, model of health. By heliotropic the authors refer to a cyclical model that not only varies in the course of the day, as the term suggests, but also over the lifetime of the entity in question. Here lies the book's strong point. Rich edinographic data is explored in the realms of health and illness, agricultural beliefs and practices, and mythology. Health and agricultural practice are shown to be interrelated in very direct ways while the inclusion of multiple versions of the corn myth adds to the ethnographic documentation and helps support facets of the heliotropic model. Also included are a series of related graphic models that are informative, easy to understand, and distill the text quite nicely. …

Conceptualizing Nature: The Politics behind Allocating and Utilizing Native Forest Resources in New Zealand

Abstract: This paper explores the political ecological basis behind events in New Zealand's sustainable harvesting regime of native forest species on public land. The case study centers on the mandate of the 1999 newly elected Labour-led government to stop all native forest harvesting on Crown-owned land along the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Ethnographic research was conducted from May to July of 2001. This study examined how different members of a given institution or community often have disparate views on logging practices and natural resource conservation while simultaneously exhibiting consensus regarding certain logging and conservation practices. A historical background traces the trajectory of New Zealand's forestry sector and the relationships between conservationists and logging communities. This is followed by a discussion on the key institutions involved in the Labour-led government decision for the cessation of native forest harvesting and what their primary sentiments were regarding the government mandate. Ultimately, this study illustrates how the appropriate utilization of natural resources shift over time and that the struggles over the 'proper' use of resources are politically and historically constructed. These struggles, of course, are pertinent in any context where human-environment interactions occur, regardless of conventional notions on 'developed' and 'undeveloped.' Introduction The New Zealand government signed the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, obligating them to develop national policies to conserve and sustainably use the nations biodiversity. However, the exact meaning of the Convention on Biological Diversity and more importantly what is considered an appropriate form of sustainable development has different meanings for different people within New Zealand (e.g., Steinberg 1992). This is particularly evident when examining native forest harvesting on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Here the debate occurred primarily between four main groups: Timberlands West Coast Ltd. (a state-owned logging company); Coast Action Network (a West Coast movement designed to support access to native timbers and ensure continued logging contracts between Timberlands and West Coast loggers); and Native Forest Action and the Royal Forest and Bird Society (both conservation movements that sought to end native forest harvesting). Other groups such as the Buller Conservation Group and Rural Action New Zealand as well as various sustainahle development and forestry researchers were also active in the native forest debate; however, the majority of respondents interviewed during the research were members of or affiliated with the four groups first noced. The central disagreement between the groups was whether Timberlands West Coast Ltd. (along with allied logging partners or contracted laborers along the West Coast) plans tor sustainable harvesting of native timbers via helicopter removal should be implemented or continued on Crown-owned land, i.e., public lands. Timberland Proponents argued that sustainable native forest harvesting could be achieved through Timberlands West Coast Ltd. and by doing so New Zealand would escape a mindset of pristine/ spoilt and dissolve the nature-culture dichotomy chat has plagued other nations (see Cronon 1995; Neumann 1995; Peet and Watts 1996; Williams 1980). Conservationists maintained that given what little lowland rainforest remains in New Zealand, implementing a harvesting scheme, which may do untold ecological damage, is too risky. A primary goal of this research was to determine that, despite seemingly disparate orientations, respondents in each group would exhibit agreement on certain conservation and forestry themes (Biihrs 1993; Hoifman and Ventresca 2002; Lewicki et al. 2003; Mercer 1995; O'Leary and Bingham 2003; Rainbow 1993). This would establish that intergroup connections and similarities exist, supplying a common ground for the groups to mediate future disagreements over environmental and natural resource usage. …

Artus : Animation Réaliste par Tatouage audiovisuel à l'Usage des Sourds

Abstract: Le projet Artus a pour objectif d’inserer dans les emissions televisees classiques une information imperceptible permettant d’animer a la reception un clone de synthese. Ce clone 3D communique avec des telespectateurs sourds grâce a un code manuel appele Langage Parle Complete (LPC) venant en appoint de la lecture labiale. Dans le cadre de ce projet, les mouvements du clone sont directement inseres en utilisant des techniques de tatouage. De telles techniques permettent l’insertion d’une information indelebile et imperceptible. Ce projet traite de problemes scienti£ques multiples comme la conversion de texte en LPC, le codage des mouvements du clone, le tatouage haute-capacite ou encore l’animation 3D du clone. Artus est compose de 7 partenaires dont 4 laboratoires universitaires, une chaine audiovisuelle et 2 partenaires industriels.

Magnétisme microscopique à l'échelle des domaines magnétiques dans les matériaux ferromagnétiques doux

Abstract: La visualisation des domaines magnetiques de Weiss constitue un outil d'analyse interessant et utile, aussi bien du point de la comprehension des phenomenes de base, que du point de la caracterisation des materiaux fonctionnels. Elle permet, dans les materiaux cristallins, de verifier si les textures de GOSS sont bien dans le plan de laminage des toles fer-silicium. Dans les alliages amorphes, elle apporte une aide a l'analyse de l'efficacite des traitements thermiques (relaxation des contraintes internes, induction d'une anisotropie magnetique) ; par ailleurs, la mobilite des parois et la largeur des domaines apportent des informations sur la permeabilite et les pertes electromagnetiques. Un dispositif base sur l'effet Kerr magneto-optique longitudinal est decrit dans cet article. Un certain nombre de structures en domaines dans differents materiaux ferromagnetiques sont presentees. Grâce a differentes sequences video numeriques originales, nous montrons ce qu'est l'hysterese magnetique a l'echelle des domaines.

Système visuo-tactile d'aide à la mobilité indépendante des déficients visuels dans des environnements 3D non -coopérants

Abstract: Système visuo-tactile d'aide à la mobilité indépendante des déficients visuels dans des environnements 3D non-coopérants Résumé − La navigation et la mobilité sont considérées comme les problèmes les plus importants chez les personnes souffrant d'une déficience visuelle. Cet article présente brièvement le projet de « Lunettes Intelligentes », une aide aux déplacements indépendants et en sécurité de déficients visuels. Ce projet, en cours de développement au Laboratoire de Robotique de Paris (LRP) et au CEA/LIST, vise à concevoir et à réaliser un système qui fournirait aux utilisateurs (les aveugles, les mal-voyants et les personnes âgées) une information sur la disposition spatiale des obstacles localisés dans leur environnement immédiat. Le prototype se compose d'un système de vision stéréoscopique et d'une surface à stimulation tactile ; le système de vision construit la carte des obstacles (statiques et dynamiques) qui sera affichée sur la surface à stimulation tactile balayée par l'utilisateur. Le concept fondamental de cette recherche – le concept d'une nouvelle interface homme-machine visuo-tactile re-programmable – peut être facilement transposé à d'autres applications où la perception visuelle est limitée, voire absente mais essentielle pour exécuter une tâche, comme la robotique mobile, la robotique médicale, les environnements virtuels, les jeux...

Récupération de porteuse dans les systèmes de transmissions analogiques et numériques

Abstract: Nous presentons une maquette didactique permettant l'etude d'une boucle a verrouillage de phase ainsi qu'une boucle de Costas utilisees dans les systemes de transmissions numeriques. Apres une presentation succincte de deux types de modulations numeriques ASK (Amplitude Shift Keying) et PSK (Phase Shift Keying), nous abordons le probleme de la demodulation synchrone a partir de considerations sur la stabilite d'une PLL (Phase Lock Loop). Nous appliquons alors les resultats de cette etude a l'utilisation d'une boucle de Costas pour la demodulation d'un signal PSK-2. Enfin nous donnons tous les elements necessaires a la realisation d'une maquette avec quelques resultats ainsi que le contenu du TP associe.

Aide au paramétrage d'implant cochléaire par algorithme évolutionnaire

Abstract: l'utilisation d'algorithmes evolutionnaires et sur l'expertise LE REGLAGE D'UN IC medicale ayant pour but de regler automatiquement les parametres determinants des implants cochleaires (IC). Ce L'objectif des reglages est d'optimiser l'information travail de recherche est realise en collaboration avec le delivree par l'implant par rapport aux capacites fabricant d'implants cochleaires MXM. Un Personal Data electrophysiologiques des voies auditives du patient [4]. Il Assistant (PDA) est mis a disposition du patient pour qu'il s'agit de privilegier les elements pertinents contenus dans puisse proceder de facon autonome au reglage de son la parole, de maniere a permettre une meilleure implant, dans l'environnement sonore qu’il souhaite et qu'il est souvent difficile de recreer dans la salle de consultation reconnaissance de celle-ci. Une cinquantaine de

Approche inductive d'un problème de régulation concret (Apprendre par l'action)

Abstract: De nombreuses raisons incitent desormais le monde enseignant a revoir ses methodes de travail. Afin d'illustrer l'emploi des methodes actives d'apprentissage, l'article decrit un module de developpement de competences specifiques dans le champ des sciences physiques. Basee sur l'assemblage et la decouverte inductive d'un dispositif de regulation de temperature, la methode privilegie l'implication personnelle de l'etudiant a toutes les etapes. Les etudiants realisent, testent et maitrisent personnellement tous les dispositifs constituants de l'experience, avant de les assembler en un systeme dont ils decouvrent empiriquement le comportement. L'enseignant les aide ensuite a bâtir leur propre modele mathematique de ce comportement. Seules l'observation et la confrontation a la realite permettent de valider ou non le modele : l'etudiant prend alors conscience de la distance entre sa representation et la realite. Le resultat est une pedagogie exigeante pour l'etudiant comme pour l'enseignant, mais aussi un plus dans la formation initiale de l'ingenieur. Mots-cles : pedagogie active, education nouvelle, apprentissage par problemes, apprentissage par l'action, reactivite, sciences physiques, regulation thermique.

Instrumentation virtuelle et moteur asynchrone en vitesse variable

Abstract: Dans cet article, nous presentons les aspects pedagogiques et techniques d'un banc de mesure base sur micro-ordinateur et utilise en travaux pratiques de genie electrique. Cette instrumentation est utilisable pour de nombreuses applications. Nous nous interesserons ici d'abord a un redresseur en pont mixte triphase. Puis nous appliquerons ce dispositif de mesure a un entrainement a vitesse variable constitue par une machine asynchrone a cage alimentee par un variateur de vitesse industriel. Nous montrerons alors que ce type d'instrumentation peut apporter des fonctionnalites que les appareils de mesure traditionnels ne peuvent pas offrir.

Perte de vision centrale : aide optique et électronique portée sur la tête

Abstract: Cet article decrit les premiers essais d’un systeme d’aide visuelle optique et electronique porte sur la tete et destine a des personnes presentant une perte severe de la vision centrale, due principalement a la degenerescence maculaire liee a l’âge. Les principales caracteristiques de cette pathologie, ses consequences fonctionnelles et les situations de handicap resultantes sont presentees. Le systeme d’aide visuelle ainsi que les premiers essais par des personnes atteintes sont detailles et discutes.

Description d'architectures en XML en vue de l'utilisation dans un système d'aide au déplacement des aveugles

Abstract: Yacine Bellik est Mâıtre de conférences en Informatique à l’Université d’Orsay Paris XI et prépare actuellement son habilitation à diriger des recherches. Il mène ses activités de recherche au sein du laboratoire LIMSI-CNRS, où il est responsable du thème “Interaction Multimodale”. Ses travaux de recherche portent sur l’étude de la multimodalité en entrée et en sortie et sur ses applications dans le domaine du handicap visuel.

Mise en oeuvre de l'outil SynDex pour la conception et l'implantation de systèmes sur plate-forme hétérogène

Abstract: Cet article presente l'outil de conception SynDEx, utilise pour l'implantation d'applications de telecommunications sur des plateformes materielles utilisant des processeurs de signaux (Digital Signal Processor) et processeurs materiels (Field Programmable Gate Array). L'outil SynDEx repose sur la methodologie A dequation A lgorithme A rchitecture, AAA ou A 3 developpee a l'INRIA. Elle permet, a partir d'un graphe decrivant les algorithmes et d'un graphe representant l'architecture cible, d'exprimer tout le parallelisme potentiel dans l'execution des differentes fonctions et de trouver une implantation optimale des algorithmes sur une architecture heterogene. L'article a pour objectif de familiariser les etudiants avec les notions de conception dites de Co-Design et de presenter les potentialites de cet outil. Le premier paragraphe de l'article situe le contexte de l'etude. La methode A 3 est ensuite presentee. L'outil SynDEx est aborde au travers du projet etudiant.