Browsing by Author "Sievert, Scott"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Gesture: A Cyberphysical system to interpret American Sign Language
    (2015) Sievert, Scott;
    Language obstacles can often exist when hearing impaired individuals interact with others who are not well-versed in sign language. We propose and develop a system that utilizes commercially available, wireless armbands that are capable of detecting acceleration, orien- tation and electromyography (muscle activity) data. Our interpretation system is designed to translate gestures in a \word-by-word" manner by assuming that each sign language sign corresponds to a unique English word, which eliminates inter-word dependence and makes this a classi cation problem. Using convolutional neural networks as our interpretation al- gorithm, we achieve high classi cation accuracy of roughly 90% for a dictionary of 7 words as well as a \null" word.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Particle segregation and flow in slurries: dependence on the interstitial fluid viscosity and angular velocity
    (2011-08-11) Sievert, Scott
    A granular binary mixture of particles differing in size in a rotating drum will tend to segregate. The mechanism by which this happens occurs in the ‘flowing layer’ of the drum. As the particles flow through the flowing layer, the smaller particles are more likely to fall through holes created by the moving particles, so they segregate towards the bottom of the flow. Thus, the larger particles are more likely to be pushed to the top of the flowing layer. When the particles ‘freeze,’ or come out of the flowing layer, the particles on the bottom of the flowing layer segregate towards the middle of the drum, and the particles on the top to the outside of the drum. Because the flowing layer is curved, the particles at the bottom of the layer freeze sooner (closer to the center) than the particles at the top. This is called radial segregation forms a ‘half-moon’ pattern. When the drum is filled to about half full (51– 61% full [1]) something more interesting happens. The segregation pattern first forms the half-moon pattern, then forms stripes. These stripes form because small differences in volume fraction lead to different flowing layer velocities, and therefore, to stripes [3]. By the geometric argument proposed by Hill et. al, the stripe width is proportional to the depth of the flowing layer. It is known that a higher viscosity does increase the depth of the flowing layer [2], although this seems to be empirically observed. In this project, the effects of the viscosity interstitial fluid were investigated and speed of the drum rotation on the wavelength and width of the stripes were investigated. This has important applications in industry and chemical engineering.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Scaling a flag-like piezoelectric wind energy scheme
    (2012-02-03) Sievert, Scott
    Schemes for harvesting energy from flag-like piezoelectric elements have been reported, both in water and wind. In this study, we briefly explore different geometries for scaling a wind based scheme to include four flag-like elements. We explore with flag thickness, flag length, and attachment device. In our scheme, we use a sheet of overhead transparency as the main element. To the main element, we attach a piezoelectric sheet with an adhesive sheet. To each side of the piezoelectric element, we use conducting tape to attach the leads. Each element was attached with a flexible, duct-tape joint. The figure below shows the setup.