754 research outputs found
hpDJ: An automated DJ with floorshow feedback
No full textMany radio stations and nightclubs employ Disk-Jockeys (DJs) to provide a continuous uninterrupted stream or “mix” of dance music, built from a sequence of individual song-tracks. In the last decade, commercial pre-recorded compilation CDs of DJ mixes have become a growth market. DJs exercise skill in deciding an appropriate sequence of tracks and in mixing 'seamlessly' from one track to the next. Online access to large-scale archives of digitized music via automated music information retrieval systems offers users the possibility of discovering many songs they like, but the majority of consumers are unlikely to want to learn the DJ skills of sequencing and mixing. This paper describes hpDJ, an automatic method by which compilations of dance-music can be sequenced and seamlessly mixed by computer, with minimal user involvement. The user may specify a selection of tracks, and may give a qualitative indication of the type of mix required. The resultant mix can be presented as a continuous single digital audio file, whether for burning to CD, or for play-out from a personal playback device such as an iPod, or for play-out to rooms full of dancers in a nightclub. Results from an early version of this system have been tested on an audience of patrons in a London nightclub, with very favourable results. Subsequent to that experiment, we designed technologies which allow the hpDJ system to monitor the responses of crowds of dancers/listeners, so that hpDJ can dynamically react to those responses from the crowd. The initial intention was that hpDJ would monitor the crowd’s reaction to the song-track currently being played, and use that response to guide its selection of subsequent song-tracks tracks in the mix. In that version, it’s assumed that all the song-tracks existed in some archive or library of pre-recorded files. However, once reliable crowd-monitoring technology is available, it becomes possible to use the crowd-response data to dynamically “remix” existing song-tracks (i.e, alter the track in some way, tailoring it to the response of the crowd) and even to dynamically “compose” new song-tracks suited to that crowd. Thus, the music played by hpDJ to any particular crowd of listeners on any particular night becomes a direct function of that particular crowd’s particular responses on that particular night. On a different night, the same crowd of people might react in a different way, leading hpDJ to create different music. Thus, the music composed and played by hpDJ could be viewed as an “emergent” property of the dynamic interaction between the computer system and the crowd, and the crowd could then be viewed as having collectively collaborated on composing the music that was played on that night. This en masse collective composition raises some interesting legal issues regarding the ownership of the composition (i.e.: who, exactly, is the author of the work?), but revenue-generating businesses can nevertheless plausibly be built from such technologies
Letter from Cliff [Uyeda] to Michi Weglyn, July 20, 1987
No full textA letter from "Cliff" [Clifford I. Uyeda] to Michi Weglyn criticizing the 1987 book "They Call Me Moses Masaoka" by Mike Masaoka and Bill Hosokawa. The author of the letter also describes internal conflict on the national board of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).These materials are from box 73 and 74 of the Frank Chin Papers. The Frank Chin Papers contain personal and professional correspondence between Frank Chin and Michi Weglyn relating to particular projects on which either author was working as well as files related to the Day of Remembrance Tribute to Michi Weglyn
Writing for fun: Interview with Peter Corris, author of the Cliff Hardy detective novels
No full textAustralian author Peter Corris (1942–) talks about his transformation from anxious academic to lighthearted writer of detective novels, especially the Cliff Hardy series. He reveals the real-life models he used in creating Cliff Hardy, the authors he took as role models, and where he gets ideas for the plots and settings
Cliff Retreat Induced by Series of Storms at Miȩdzyzdroje (Poland)
No full textIn Miȩdzyzdroje, a coastal town in Poland, significant cliff retreat has been observed in recent times. It used to be considered mainly a response to storm events with particularly high water levels and wave energy. However, morphology of cliff coasts is shaped not only by the most extreme storm surges or by a number of accompanying processes such as precipitation. Much wider effects are now being linked to the occurrence of series of subsequent storms. This research uses a set of five terrestrial LiDAR surveys carried out between November 2016 and April 2017 to determine short-term cliff erosion associated with two major storm surges and several smaller storms. The surveys covered the whole cliff profile as well as the topography of the adjacent beach. Results indicate a considerable reduction in beach levels as a first important effect. Frequency of the storm events prevented the beach from recovering between the surges, allowing the waves to directly attack the cliff base. Consequently, the cliff foot line retreated up to 4.7 m. This resulted in an erosion volume exceeding 25.000 m within 5 sections of the coastal cliff analysed, which are 500 m long in total. This work demonstrates that the development of the coastline is not only directly linked with the rate of erosion at given storm parameters. More importantly, the frequency of extreme events has to be considered.Hydraulic Structures and Flood Ris
Christchurch New Zealand cliff hike
No full textFor this 8-minute documentary, the author lugged a video camera and gave a running commentary of a hike from the Scarborough area of Christchurch, New Zealand up a cliff with great scenic beauty. Not long afterward the author saw on TV in Japan that the cliff with all its vegetation and bird nests had crashed into the ocean during a major Christchurch earthquake
Alice and Cliff Donahue
No full textPhotograph - Friends of Alice B. and William Clifford Donahue, Athabasca, Alberta. Seated, left to right: Cliff Donahue, Joe Mikkelsen, Beryl Mikkelsen, and Marge Logan. Standing, left to right: Don Logan, Alice B. Donahue, Aaron Jones, Lorene Jones, and Beatrice Par
Evidencing the "robot phase transition" in experimental human-algorithmic markets
No full textJohnson, Zhao, Hunsader, Meng, Ravindar, Carran, and Tivnan (2012) recently suggested the existence of a phase transition in the dynamics of financial markets in which there is free interaction between human traders and algorithmic trading systems ("robots"). Above a particular time-threshold, humans and robots trade with one another; below the threshold all transactions are robot-to-robot. We refer to this abrupt system transition as the "robot phase transition". Here, we conduct controlled experiments where human traders interact with 'robot' trading agents in minimal models of electronic financial markets to see if correlates of the two regimes suggested by Johnson et al. (2012) occur in such laboratory conditions. Our results indicate that when trading robots act on a super-human timescale, the market starts to fragment, with statistically lower human-robot interactions than we would expect from a fully mixed market. We tentatively conclude that this is the first empirical evidence for the robot phase transition occurring under controlled experimental conditions
Beach development, sediment budget and coastal erosion at Holderness.
No full textComplex relationships exist among offshore conditions, beach
sediment transport and morphology, and till cliff erosion. Modelled
and measured sediment transport rates established for the Holderness
coast are similar to those on comparable coasts elsewhere. The
direction of sediment drift depends on wave approach, and determining
sediment transport rates, cliff composition and cliff retreat
rates allows a sediment budget to be prepared. The beach response
predicted by the sediment budget was confirmed by field observations,
with budget surpluses and deficits coinciding with full and depleted
beach profiles respectively. The area of deficit in the north of the
study area was associated with the reduced sheltering effect of
Flamborough Head on sediment drift.
At most profiles, especially those with a sediment deficit, high
energy waves may remove the sand veneer completely, leaving the
till platform exposed. These bare till patches which elsewhere have
been called ords and have been regarded as unique, were thought, in
the present study,to represent a normal beach response to limited
sediment supply and prevailing offshore conditions.
Beach evolution was also modelled formally, the range of beach
profiles exhibited on the Holderness coast being grouped into a
number of distinct types, and evolution among them described and
predicted by a first-order Markov model. This can be refined to
provide different models for "winter" and "summer". Different modal
types occur at different locations, and certain types of transitions
between classes can be associated with particular ranges of wave
conditions.
Beach Development, Sediment Budget and Coastal Erosion at Holderness
Susan J. Mason.
Till cliff retreat at Holderness is extremely variable, both
spatially and temporally, being influenced by beach level, energy
conditions, cliff moisture content and the actions of man.
The sediment transport rates, cliff retreat data, sediment
budget and beach behaviour model are all essential elements of a
research programme currently being undertaken to find a cheap
method of protecting this coast
Obsidian Cliff, a Mountain of Black Glass, Yellowstone National Park
No full textObsidian Cliff, a Mountain of Black Glass, Yellowstone National Par
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