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Introduction: Paper folding and punched hole tests are used to measure spatial abilities in humans. These abilities are relevant since they are associated with success in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). This study addresses the challenge of teaching spatial reasoning skills using an educational videogame, the Paper Folding Reasoning Game. Methods: The Paper Folding Reasoning Game is an interactive game which presents activities intended to help users train and understand how to fold a paper to get a specific shape (Part I) and the consequence of punching a hole on a folded paper (Part II). This educational videogame can automatically generate paper-folding-and-punched-hole questions with varying degrees of difficulty depending on the number of folds and holes made, thus producing additional levels for training due to its embedded reasoning mechanisms (Part III). Results: This manuscript presents the results of analyzing the gameplay data gathered by the Paper Folding Reasoning Game in its three parts. For Parts I and II, the data provided by 225 anonymous unique players are analyzed. For Part III (Mastermode), the data obtained from 894 gameplays by 311 anonymous unique players are analyzed. In our analysis, we found out a significant difference in performance regarding the players who trained (i.e., played Parts I and II) before playing the Mastermode (Part III) vs. the group of players who did not train. We also found a significant difference in players' performance who used the visual help (i.e., re-watch the animated sequence of paper folds) vs. the group of players who did not use it, confirming the effectiveness of the Paper Folding Reasoning Game to train paper-folding-and-punched-hole reasoning skills. Statistically significant gender differences in performance were also found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant range of ongoing challenges in artificial intelligence (AI) dealing with reasoning, planning, learning, perception and cognition, among others. In this scenario, many-valued logics emerge as one of the topics in many of the solutions to some of those AI problems. This special issue presents a brief introduction to the relation between logics and AI and collects recent research works on logic-based approaches in AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a logical Style painting classifier based on evaluated Horn clauses, qualitative colour descriptors and Explanations (⁠|$\ell $| -SHE). Three versions of |$\ell $| -SHE are defined, using rational Pavelka logic (RPL), and expansions of Gödel logic and product logic with rational constants: RPL, |$G(\mathbb{Q})$| and |$\sqcap (\mathbb{Q})$|⁠ , respectively. We introduce a fuzzy representation of the more representative colour traits for the Baroque, the Impressionism and the Post-Impressionism art styles. The |$\ell $| -SHE algorithm has been implemented in Swi-Prolog and tested on 90 paintings of the QArt-Dataset and on 247 paintings of the Paintings-91-PIB dataset. The percentages of accuracy obtained in the QArt-Dataset for each |$\ell $| -SHE version are 73.3% (RPL), 65.6% (⁠|$G(\mathbb{Q})$|⁠) and 68.9% (⁠|$\sqcap (\mathbb{Q})$|⁠). Regarding the Paintings-91-PIB dataset, the percentages of accuracy obtained for each |$\ell $| -SHE version are 60.2% (RPL), 48.2% (⁠|$G(\mathbb{Q})$|⁠) and 57.0% (|$\sqcap (\mathbb{Q})$|⁠). Our logic definition for the Baroque style has obtained the highest accuracy in both datasets, for all the |$\ell $| -SHE versions (the lowest Baroque case gets 85.6 |$\%$| of accuracy). An important feature of the classifier is that it provides reasons regarding why a painting belongs to a certain style. The classifier also provides reasons about why outliers of one art style may belong to another art style, giving a second classification option depending on its membership degrees to these styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sketch map represents an individual's perception of a specific location. However, the information in sketch maps is often distorted and incomplete. Nevertheless, the main roads of a given location often exhibit considerable similarities between the sketch maps and metric maps. In this work, a shape-based approach was outlined to align roads in the sketch maps and metric maps. Specifically, the shapes of main roads were compared and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in three levels pertaining to an individual road, composite road, and road scene. An experiment was performed in which for eight out of nine maps sketched by our participants, accurate road maps could be obtained automatically taking as input the sketch and the metric map. The experimental results indicate that accurate matches can be obtained when the proposed road alignment approach Shape-based Spatial-Query-by-Sketch (SSQbS) is applied to incomplete or distorted roads present in sketch maps and even to roads with an inconsistent spatial relationship with the roads in the metric maps. Moreover, highly similar matches can be obtained for sketches involving fewer roads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In geography, invariant aspects of sketches are essential to study because they reflect the human perception of real‐world places. A person's perception of a place can be expressed in sketches. In this article, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed the characteristics of single objects and characteristics among objects in sketches and the real world to find reliable invariants that can be used to establish references/correspondences between sketch and world in a matching process. These characteristics include category, shape, name, and relative size of each object. Moreover, quantity and spatial relationships—such as topological, ordering, and location relationships—among all objects are also analyzed to assess consistency between sketched and actual places. The approach presented in this study extracts the reliable invariants for query‐by‐sketch and prioritizes their relevance for a sketch‐map matching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem-solving, creativity and spatial reasoning are high level abilities of cognitive systems with high potential for synergies. However, they have been treated separately by different fields. This special issue presents research work on these topics, aiming to observe their interrelations in order to create theoretical approaches, methodologies and computational tools to advance work on creativity and spatial problem-solving in cognitive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In human-machine communication situations, perceptual and conceptual deviations can appear. The challenge of categorising colours is tackled in this paper. Colour perception is very subjective. Colours may be perceived differently depending on a person's eye anatomy and a person's sense of sight which adapts to the surroundings and perceives different brightness of hues depending on the context. Distinguishing more/less quantity of hues depends also on the level of expertise but also on the cultural and social environment. Colours naming involves conceptual alignment with human cognition, meaning and human understanding for referring to an object and even for discriminating among objects. Studies in cross-cultural linguistics say that humans determined prototypical colours as the centre of colour categories. Hence, a cognitive colour model should distinguish/indicate when a colour coordinate is close/far to the centre of its category. And these centres of categories should be adaptable and customisable depending on the society. A fuzzy colour model based on HSL colour space and radial basis functions is presented in this paper. Logics have been defined to combine this fuzzy-colour model with a Probabilistic Reference And GRounding mechanism (PRAGR) in order to obtain the most discriminative colour descriptor for an object depending on the context. Two case studies related with human cognition are presented. Then further tests are carried out on a dataset where the first and second most discriminative colour is computed for each object in each scene. Finally, a survey is conducted to find out the cognitive adequacy of the obtained discriminative colour names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans solve spatial and abstract problems more easily if these can be visualized and/or physically manipulated. We analyze the domain of geometric problem solving from a cognitive perspective and identify several levels of domain abstraction that interact in the problem solving process. We discuss the roles of physical manifestations of spatial configurations, their manipulation, and their perception for understanding problem solving processes. We propose an extension of the classical problem solving repertoire of constructive geometry to approach certain problems more directly than under the compass-and-straightedge paradigm. Specifically, we introduce strings and pins as helpful metaphors for a generalization of the constructive geometry approach. We present classical problems from spatial problem solving to illustrate the 'strings and pins' paradigm. Three case studies are discussed: strings-and-pins solutions to (i) the ellipse construction problem; (ii) the shortest path problem; and (iii) the angle trisection problem. Comparisons to formal solutions are drawn. Differences and similarities between the compass-and-straightedge paradigm and the strings-and-pins paradigm are analyzed. Features and limitations of constructive and depictive geometry as well as implications for computational approaches are discussed. The strings-and-pins domain is shown to be more general and less restrictive than the compass-and-straightedge domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial presents advances on Human-centred Ambient Intelligence applications which take into account cognitive issues when modelling users (i.e. stress, attention disorders), and learn users' activities/preferences and adapt to them (i.e. at home, driving a car). These papers also show AmI applications in health and education, which make them even more valuable for the general society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, qualitative descriptors of images (QIDL+), 3D scenes (QSn3D) and movements (QMD) are proposed to be applied to ambient intelligent systems for: (i) improving human-computer interaction and (ii) enhancing their reasoning capabilities. These qualitative descriptors align with human perception and are used to produce narratives. Moreover, logic descriptions are obtained in first order logic and Prolog syntax, which enables straightforward reasoning capabilities. Finally, some use case tests carried out at Cartesium - the intelligent building at Spatial Cognition centre, at the University of Bremen - are provided to show the flexibility and applicability of these qualitative descriptors. The results provided are discussed in terms of usability, logic framework used and integration of descriptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowd-sourcing, especially in form of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) significantly changed the way geographic data is collected and the products that are generated from them. In VGI projects, contributors' heterogeneity fosters rich data sources, however with problematic quality. In this paper, we tackle data quality from a classification perspective. Particularly in VGI, data classification presents some challenges: In some cases, the classification of entities depends on individual conceptualization about the environment. Whereas in other cases, a geographic feature itself might have ambiguous characteristics. These problems lead to inconsistent and inappropriate classifications. To face these challenges, we propose a guided classification approach. The approach employs data mining algorithms to develop a classifier, through investigating the geographic characteristics of target feature classes. The developed classifier acts to distinguish between related classes like forest, meadow and park. Then, the classifier could be used to guide the contributors during the classification process. The findings of an empirical study illustrate that the developed classifier correctly predict some classes. However, it still has a limited accuracy with other related classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach for scene understanding based on qualitative descriptors, domain knowledge and logics is proposed in this paper. Qualitative descriptors, qualitative models of shape, colour, topology and location are used for describing any object in the scene. Two kinds of domain knowledge are provided: (i) categorizations of objects according to their qualitative descriptors, and (ii) semantics for describing the affordances, mobility and other functional properties of target objects. First order logics are obtained for reasoning and scene understanding. Tests were carried out at the Interact@Cartesium scenario and promising results were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach for a query-by-sketch system on qualitative shape information for image retrieval in databases is proposed and evaluated. The use of qualitative methods for shape description allows the gathering of semantic information from the sketches. The qualitative description and recognition of sketches are evaluated in order to verify that it is possible to use the proposed qualitative method for the development of a learning application for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A computational approach for comparing qualitative shape descriptions (QSDs) of objects within digital images is presented. First, the dissimilarity of qualitative features of shape is measured: (i) intuitively using conceptual neighborhood diagrams; and (ii) mathematically using interval distances. Then, a similarity measure between QSDs is defined and tested using images of different categories of the MPEG-7-CE-Shape-1 library, images of tiles used to build mosaics, and a collection of Clipart images. The results obtained show the effectiveness of the similarity measure defined, which is invariant to translations, rotations and scaling, and which implicitly manages deformation of shape parts and incompleteness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An approach to distance sensor data integration that obtains a robust interpretation of the robot environment is presented in this paper. This approach consists in obtaining patterns of fuzzy distance zones from sensor readings; comparing these patterns in order to detect non-working sensors; and integrating the patterns obtained by each kind of sensor in order to obtain a final pattern that detects obstacles of any sort. A dissimilarity measure between fuzzy sets has been defined and applied to this approach. Moreover, an algorithm to classify orientation reference systems (built by corners detected in the robot world) as open or closed is also presented. The final pattern of fuzzy distances, resulting from the integration process, is used to extract the important reference systems when a glass wall is included in the robot environment. Finally, our approach has been tested in an ActivMedia Pioneer 2 dx mobile robot using the Player/Stage as the control interface and promising results have been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our approach describes any digital image qualitatively by detecting regions/objects inside it and describing their visual characteristics (shape and colour) and their spatial characteristics (orientation and topology) by means of qualitative models. The description obtained is translated into a description logic (DL) based ontology, which gives a formal and explicit meaning to the qualitative tags representing the visual features of the objects in the image and the spatial relations between them. For any image, our approach obtains a set of individuals that are classified using a DL reasoner according to the descriptions of our ontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This thesis is focused on reducing the gap between the acquisition of low-level information by robot sensors and the need of obtaining high-level information for enhancing human-machine communication and for applying logical reasoning processes. To this end, approaches for qualitative and semantic image description and qualitative distance sensor interpretation were developed. Experimentation was carried out on different robotic platforms showing useful applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]