Functional and Physical Object Characteristics and Object Recognition in Improvisation

Improvisation is a task which requires the problem solver to identify a situation, its constraints, and the capabilities of available objects. Since problem solvers rarely have specific information about the properties of the objects they see, they must somehow attribute "properties" to objects based on their experiences. In this paper, the relationship between the physical properties of an object, its functional representation, and its use in problem solving will be explored. A representation construct called a property attribute is used to represent functional properties attributed to an object in the context of successful functional application. Attributes can be used in problem-solving contexts to aid in object recognition. An overview of the Functional Ontology for Naive Mechanics (FONM) representation model and theoretical examples illustrating the application of attributes to object recognition and problem solving are presented.