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Richelle Teeling-Smith

Publications and source records attributed to Richelle Teeling-Smith.

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Methods to Simplify Object Tracking in Video Data

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in analyzing the motion of objects in video data as a way for students to connect the concepts of physics to something tangible like a video recording of an experiment. A variety of software exists for students to look at individual frames and click on the object to infer the x,y position. Some of these tools include a capability to automatically identify the position of the object in the frame. But it is not unusual, especially when inexperienced users are recording the video and configuring the program, for these algorithms to struggle to "lock on" to the moving object. In this paper, we both include some general advice to help object tracking algorithms locate an object and we provide our own algorithms that are simpler and potentially more effective than the sophisticated image processing algorithms that are currently being used. These algorithms focus not on a "template image" of the moving object but instead distinguish between the object and the background by analyzing only the colors of individual pixels. These algorithms are built into a free and open source program called the STEMcoding Object Tracker (http://go.osu.edu/objecttracker) which works in the browser (without any downloads) and is compatible with a variety of operating systems including chromebooks.

physics.ed-ph

Computational Thinking in Introductory Physics

Computational Thinking (CT) is still a relatively new term in the lexicon of learning objectives and science standards. There is not yet widespread agreement on the precise definition or implementation of CT, and efforts to assess CT are still maturing, even as more states adopt K-12 computer science standards. In this article we will try to summarize what CT means for a typical introductory (i.e. high school or early college) physics class. This will include a discussion of the ways that instructors may already be incorporating elements of CT in their classes without knowing it. Our intention in writing this article is to provide a helpful, concise and readable introduction to this topic for physics instructors. We also put forward some ideas for what the future of CT in introductory physics may look like.

physics.ed-ph

Spatially resolved detection of complex ferromagnetic dynamics using optically detected NV spins

We demonstrate optical detection of a broad spectrum of ferromagnetic excitations using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in an ensemble of nanodiamonds. Our recently developed approach exploits a straightforward CW detection scheme using readily available diamond detectors, making it easily implementable. The NV center is a local detector, giving the technique spatial resolution, which here is defined by our laser spot, but in principle can be extended far into the nanoscale. Among the excitations we observe are propagating dipolar and dipolar-exchange spinwaves, as well as dynamics associated with the multi-domain state of the ferromagnet at low fields. These results offer an approach, distinct from commonly used ODMR techniques, for spatially resolved spectroscopic study of magnetization dynamics at the nanoscale.

cond-mat.mes-hall