Crowdsourcing Swarm Manipulation Experiments: A Massive Online User Study with Large Swarms of Simple Robots

Micro- and nanorobotics have the potential to revolutionize many applications including targeted material delivery, assembly, and surgery. The same properties that promise breakthrough solutions---small size and large populations---present unique challenges to generating controlled motion. We want to use large swarms of robots to perform manipulation tasks; unfortunately, human-swarm interaction studies as conducted today are limited in sample size, are difficult to reproduce, and are prone to hardware failures. We present an alternative. This paper examines the perils, pitfalls, and possibilities we discovered by launching SwarmControl.net, an online game where players steer swarms of up to 500 robots to complete manipulation challenges. We record statistics from thousands of players, and use the game to explore aspects of large-population robot control. We present the game framework as a new, open-source tool for large-scale user experiments. Our results have potential applications in human control of micro- and nanorobots, supply insight for automatic controllers, and provide a template for large online robotic research experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures, to appear at 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2014

Online advertising: analysis of privacy threats and protection approaches

Online advertising, the pillar of the “free” content on the Web, has revolutionized the marketing business in recent years by creating a myriad of new opportunities for advertisers to reach potential customers. The current advertising model builds upon an intricate infrastructure composed of a variety of intermediary entities and technologies whose main aim is to deliver personalized ads. For this purpose, a wealth of user data is collected, aggregated, processed and traded behind the scenes at an unprecedented rate. Despite the enormous value of online advertising, however, the intrusiveness and ubiquity of these practices prompt serious privacy concerns. This article surveys the online advertising infrastructure and its supporting technologies, and presents a thorough overview of the underlying privacy risks and the solutions that may mitigate them. We first analyze the threats and potential privacy attackers in this scenario of online advertising. In particular, we examine the main components of the advertising infrastructure in terms of tracking capabilities, data collection, aggregation level and privacy risk, and overview the tracking and data-sharing technologies employed by these components. Then, we conduct a comprehensive survey of the most relevant privacy mechanisms, and classify and compare them on the basis of their privacy guarantees and impact on the Web.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Undercurrents – A Computer-Based Gameplay Tool to Support Tabletop Roleplaying

This paper introduces Undercurrents, a computer-based gameplay tool for providing additional communication and media streams during tabletop roleplaying sessions. Based upon a client-server architecture, the system is intended to unobtrusively support secret communication, timing of audio and visual presentations to game events, and real-time documentation of the game session. Potential end users have been involved in the development and the paper provides details on the full design process

A Review of Platforms for the Development of Agent Systems

Agent-based computing is an active field of research with the goal of building autonomous software of hardware entities. This task is often facilitated by the use of dedicated, specialized frameworks. For almost thirty years, many such agent platforms have been developed. Meanwhile, some of them have been abandoned, others continue their development and new platforms are released. This paper presents a up-to-date review of the existing agent platforms and also a historical perspective of this domain. It aims to serve as a reference point for people interested in developing agent systems. This work details the main characteristics of the included agent platforms, together with links to specific projects where they have been used. It distinguishes between the active platforms and those no longer under development or with unclear status. It also classifies the agent platforms as general purpose ones, free or commercial, and specialized ones, which can be used for particular types of applications.Comment: 40 pages, 2 figures, 9 tables, 83 reference

Collaborative Augmented Reality

Over the past number of years augmented reality (AR) has become an increasingly pervasive as a consumer level technology. The principal drivers of its recent development has been the evolution of mobile and handheld devices, in conjunction with algorithms and techniques from fields such as 3D computer vision. Various commercial platforms and SDKs are now available that allow developers to quickly develop mobile AR apps requiring minimal understanding of the underlying technology. Much of the focus to date, both in the research and commercial environment, has been on single user AR applications. Just as collaborative mobile applications have a demonstrated role in the increasing popularity of mobile devices, and we believe collaborative AR systems present a compelling use-case for AR technology. The aim of this thesis is the development a mobile collaborative augmented reality framework. We identify the elements required in the design and implementation stages of collaborative AR applications. Our solution enables developers to easily create multi-user mobile AR applications in which the users can cooperatively interact with the real environment in real time. It increases the sense of collaborative spatial interaction without requiring complex infrastructure. Assuming the given low level communication and AR libraries have modular structures, the proposed approach is also modular and flexible enough to adapt to their requirements without requiring any major changes

Collaborative Augmented Reality

Over the past number of years augmented reality (AR) has become an increasingly pervasive as a consumer level technology. The principal drivers of its recent development has been the evolution of mobile and handheld devices, in conjunction with algorithms and techniques from fields such as 3D computer vision. Various commercial platforms and SDKs are now available that allow developers to quickly develop mobile AR apps requiring minimal understanding of the underlying technology. Much of the focus to date, both in the research and commercial environment, has been on single user AR applications. Just as collaborative mobile applications have a demonstrated role in the increasing popularity of mobile devices, and we believe collaborative AR systems present a compelling use-case for AR technology. The aim of this thesis is the development a mobile collaborative augmented reality framework. We identify the elements required in the design and implementation stages of collaborative AR applications. Our solution enables developers to easily create multi-user mobile AR applications in which the users can cooperatively interact with the real environment in real time. It increases the sense of collaborative spatial interaction without requiring complex infrastructure. Assuming the given low level communication and AR libraries have modular structures, the proposed approach is also modular and flexible enough to adapt to their requirements without requiring any major changes

RAGE Architecture for Reusable Serious Gaming Technology Components

For seizing the potential of serious games, the RAGE project - funded by the Horizon-2020 Programme of the European Commission - will make available an interoperable set of advanced technology components (software assets) that support game studios at serious game development. This paper describes the overall software architecture and design conditions that are needed for the easy integration and reuse of such software assets in existing game platforms. Based on the component-based software engineering paradigm the RAGE architecture takes into account the portability of assets to different operating systems, different programming languages and different game engines. It avoids dependencies on external software frameworks and minimizes code that may hinder integration with game engine code. Furthermore it relies on a limited set of standard software patterns and well-established coding practices. The RAGE architecture has been successfully validated by implementing and testing basic software assets in four major programming languages (C#, C++, Java and Typescript/JavaScript, respectively). A demonstrator implementation of asset integration with an existing game engine was created and validated. The presented RAGE architecture paves the way for large scale development and application of cross-engine reusable software assets for enhancing the quality and diversity of serious gaming.This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains

ProsocialLearn: D2.3 - 1st system requirements and architecture

This document present the first version of the ProsocialLearn architecture covering the principle definition, the requirement collection, the “business”, “information system”, “technology” architecture as defined in the TOGAF methodology