6,016 research outputs found
The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions
The Metaverse offers a second world beyond reality, where boundaries are
non-existent, and possibilities are endless through engagement and immersive
experiences using the virtual reality (VR) technology. Many disciplines can
benefit from the advancement of the Metaverse when accurately developed,
including the fields of technology, gaming, education, art, and culture.
Nevertheless, developing the Metaverse environment to its full potential is an
ambiguous task that needs proper guidance and directions. Existing surveys on
the Metaverse focus only on a specific aspect and discipline of the Metaverse
and lack a holistic view of the entire process. To this end, a more holistic,
multi-disciplinary, in-depth, and academic and industry-oriented review is
required to provide a thorough study of the Metaverse development pipeline. To
address these issues, we present in this survey a novel multi-layered pipeline
ecosystem composed of (1) the Metaverse computing, networking, communications
and hardware infrastructure, (2) environment digitization, and (3) user
interactions. For every layer, we discuss the components that detail the steps
of its development. Also, for each of these components, we examine the impact
of a set of enabling technologies and empowering domains (e.g., Artificial
Intelligence, Security & Privacy, Blockchain, Business, Ethics, and Social) on
its advancement. In addition, we explain the importance of these technologies
to support decentralization, interoperability, user experiences, interactions,
and monetization. Our presented study highlights the existing challenges for
each component, followed by research directions and potential solutions. To the
best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive and allows users,
scholars, and entrepreneurs to get an in-depth understanding of the Metaverse
ecosystem to find their opportunities and potentials for contribution
Educating Sub-Saharan Africa:Assessing Mobile Application Use in a Higher Learning Engineering Programme
In the institution where I teach, insufficient laboratory equipment for engineering education pushed students to learn via mobile phones or devices. Using mobile technologies to learn and practice is not the issue, but the more important question lies in finding out where and how they use mobile tools for learning. Through the lens of Kearney et al.’s (2012) pedagogical model, using authenticity, personalisation, and collaboration as constructs, this case study adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate the mobile learning activities of students and find out their experiences of what works and what does not work. Four questions are borne out of the over-arching research question, ‘How do students studying at a University in Nigeria perceive mobile learning in electrical and electronic engineering education?’ The first three questions are answered from qualitative, interview data analysed using thematic analysis. The fourth question investigates their collaborations on two mobile social networks using social network and message analysis. The study found how students’ mobile learning relates to the real-world practice of engineering and explained ways of adapting and overcoming the mobile tools’ limitations, and the nature of the collaborations that the students adopted, naturally, when they learn in mobile social networks. It found that mobile engineering learning can be possibly located in an offline mobile zone. It also demonstrates that investigating the effectiveness of mobile learning in the mobile social environment is possible by examining users’ interactions. The study shows how mobile learning personalisation that leads to impactful engineering learning can be achieved. The study shows how to manage most interface and technical challenges associated with mobile engineering learning and provides a new guide for educators on where and how mobile learning can be harnessed. And it revealed how engineering education can be successfully implemented through mobile tools
The Future of Work and Digital Skills
The theme for the events was "The Future of Work and Digital Skills". The 4IR caused a
hollowing out of middle-income jobs (Frey & Osborne, 2017) but COVID-19 exposed the digital gap as survival depended mainly on digital infrastructure and connectivity. Almost overnight, organizations that had not invested in a digital strategy suddenly realized the need for such a strategy and the associated digital skills. The effects have been profound for those who struggled to adapt, while those who stepped up have reaped quite the reward.Therefore, there are no longer certainties about what the world will look like in a few years from now. However, there are certain ways to anticipate the changes that are occurring and plan on how to continually adapt to an increasingly changing world. Certain jobs will soon be lost and will not come back; other new jobs will however be created. Using data science and other predictive sciences, it is possible to anticipate, to the extent possible, the rate at which certain jobs will be replaced and new jobs created in different industries. Accordingly, the collocated events sought to bring together government, international organizations, academia, industry, organized labour and civil society to deliberate on how these changes are occurring in South Africa, how fast they are occurring and what needs to change in order to prepare society for the changes.Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
British High Commission (BHC)School of Computin
Distributed game
Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaThe demand for online games has risen over the years, expanding multiplayer support for new and different game
genres. Among them are Massively Multiplayer Online games, one of the most popular and successful game
types in the industry. Nowadays, this industry is thriving, evolving alongside technological advancements and
producing billions in revenue, making it an economic importance. However, as the complexity of these games
grows, so do the challenges they face when constructing them.
This dissertation aims to implement a distributed game, through a proof of concept or an existing game, using a
distributed architecture to acquire knowledge in the construction of such complex systems and the effort involved
in dealing with consistency, maintaining communication infrastructure, and managing data in a distributed way.
It is also intended that this project implements multiple mechanisms capable of autonomously helping manage
and maintain the correct state of the system.
To evaluate the proposed solution, a detailed analysis is carried out with performance benchmark analysis,
stress testing, followed by an examination of its security, scalability, and distribution’s resilience.
Overall, the present research work allowed for a greater understanding of the technologies and approaches
used in constructing a gaming system, establishing a new set of development opportunities to be further investi gated upon the constructed solution.A procura por jogos online aumentou ao longo dos anos, expandindo o suporte multiplayer para novos e diferentes géneros. Entre estes estão os jogos Massively Multiplayer Online, um dos tipos de jogos mais populares e bem-sucedidos na indústria. Atualmente, esta indústria está a prosperar, evoluindo com os avanços tecnológicos e gerando milhares de milhões em receita, tornando-se uma importância económica. Porém, à medida que a complexidade destes jogos aumenta, também aumenta os problemas encontrados durante a sua construção. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo implementar um jogo distribuÃdo, através de uma prova de conceito ou um jogo existente, usando uma arquitetura distribuÃda a fim de adquirir conhecimento na construção destes sistemas complexos e o esforço envolvido em lidar com consistência, manter a infraestrutura de comunicação e gerir dados de maneira distribuÃda. Para isto, é pretendido que este projeto também implemente vários mecanismos capazes de, forma autônoma, ajudar a gerir e manter o correto estado do sistema.
Para avaliar o solução proposta, uma análise detalhada é realizada sobre o desempenho, segurança, escalabilidade e resiliência da distribuição do sistema.
De forma geral, o presente trabalho de pesquisa permitiu uma maior compreensão das tecnologias e abordagens utilizadas na construção de um sistema de jogos, estabelecendo um novo conjunto de oportunidades de
desenvolvimento a serem investigadas sobre a solução construÃda
Recent trends in non-invasive neural recording based brain-to-brain synchrony analysis on multidisciplinary human interactions for understanding brain dynamics: a systematic review
The study of brain-to-brain synchrony has a burgeoning application in the brain-computer interface (BCI) research, offering valuable insights into the neural underpinnings of interacting human brains using numerous neural recording technologies. The area allows exploring the commonality of brain dynamics by evaluating the neural synchronization among a group of people performing a specified task. The growing number of publications on brain-to-brain synchrony inspired the authors to conduct a systematic review using the PRISMA protocol so that future researchers can get a comprehensive understanding of the paradigms, methodologies, translational algorithms, and challenges in the area of brain-to-brain synchrony research. This review has gone through a systematic search with a specified search string and selected some articles based on pre-specified eligibility criteria. The findings from the review revealed that most of the articles have followed the social psychology paradigm, while 36% of the selected studies have an application in cognitive neuroscience. The most applied approach to determine neural connectivity is a coherence measure utilizing phase-locking value (PLV) in the EEG studies, followed by wavelet transform coherence (WTC) in all of the fNIRS studies. While most of the experiments have control experiments as a part of their setup, a small number implemented algorithmic control, and only one study had interventional or a stimulus-induced control experiment to limit spurious synchronization. Hence, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this systematic review solely contributes to critically evaluating the scopes and technological advances of brain-to-brain synchrony to allow this discipline to produce more effective research outcomes in the remote future
AIUCD 2022 - Proceedings
L’undicesima edizione del Convegno Nazionale dell’AIUCD-Associazione di Informatica Umanistica ha per titolo Culture digitali. Intersezioni: filosofia, arti, media. Nel titolo è presente, in maniera esplicita, la richiesta di una riflessione, metodologica e teorica, sull’interrelazione tra tecnologie digitali, scienze dell’informazione, discipline filosofiche, mondo delle arti e cultural studies
Auggie: Encouraging Effortful Communication through Handcrafted Digital Experiences
Digital communication is often brisk and automated. From auto-completed
messages to "likes," research has shown that such lightweight interactions can
affect perceptions of authenticity and closeness. On the other hand, effort in
relationships can forge emotional bonds by conveying a sense of caring and is
essential in building and maintaining relationships. To explore effortful
communication, we designed and evaluated Auggie, an iOS app that encourages
partners to create digitally handcrafted Augmented Reality (AR) experiences for
each other. Auggie is centered around crafting a 3D character with photos,
animated movements, drawings, and audio for someone else. We conducted a
two-week-long field study with 30 participants (15 pairs), who used Auggie with
their partners remotely. Our qualitative findings show that Auggie participants
engaged in meaningful effort through the handcrafting process, and felt closer
to their partners, although the tool may not be appropriate in all situations.
We discuss design implications and future directions for systems that encourage
effortful communication.Comment: To appear at the 25th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported
Cooperative Work And Social Computing (CSCW '22). 25 page
Maximising the Circularity and Sustainability: An End-of-Life Tyre Recycling Outlets Selection Model
Modelling Group Dynamics with SYMLOG and Snowdrift for Intelligent Classroom Environment
The aim of this thesis is to provide assistance to human teachers focusing on supporting group work within a classroom environment. This is achieved by incorporating theories from Psychology and Game Theory in order to provide a better method of modelling and predicting group interactions. This research proposes a framework that extends the pre-existing Intelligent Tutorial System (ITS) beyond the individual and into one that encompasses one
or more groups of learners within a learning space. This framework transforms a traditional school classroom into a group interface as part of the communication module of an ITS and enhances the role of a human teacher. This is achieved by automating class management tasks and providing an immersive learning experience. Moreover, the proposed framework monitors
emotional well-being and feeds back, to the teacher, emotional profiles of individuals and groups. This new ITS system is named Intelligent Classroom Tutoring System (ICTS). 6 experiments were conducted to support the ICTS. 2 experiments were set up to compare experimental frameworks for SYMLOG allowing the researchers to test a new mod-SYMLOG which was found to be
an effective tool for modelling groups interactions. 1 experiment was centred around a longitudinal study of group work, and the final 3 composing of both AI and human studies, examining applying a new mod-Snowdift game to produce a predictive mechanism for group interaction
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