The evaluation of a novel haptic machining VR-based process planning system using an original process planning usability method

This thesis provides an original piece of work and contribution to knowledge by creating a new process planning system; Haptic Aided Process Planning (HAPP). This system is based on the combination of haptics and virtual reality (VR). HAPP creates a simulative machining environment where Process plans are automatically generated from the real time logging of a user’s interaction. Further, through the application of a novel usability test methodology, a deeper study of how this approach compares to conventional process planning was undertaken. An abductive research approach was selected and an iterative and incremental development methodology chosen. Three development cycles were undertaken with evaluation studies carried out at the end of each. Each study, the pre-pilot, pilot and industrial, identified progressive refinements to both the usability of HAPP and the usability evaluation method itself. HAPP provided process planners with an environment similar to which they are already familiar. Visual images were used to represent tools and material whilst a haptic interface enabled their movement and positioning by an operator in a manner comparable to their native setting. In this way an intuitive interface was developed that allowed users to plan the machining of parts consisting of features that can be machined on a pillar drill, 21/2D axis milling machine or centre lathe. The planning activities included single or multiple set ups, fixturing and sequencing of cutting operations. The logged information was parsed and output to a process plan including route sheets, operation sheets, tool lists and costing information, in a human readable format. The system evaluation revealed that HAPP, from an expert planners perspective is perceived to be 70% more satisfying to use, 66% more efficient in completing process plans, primarily due to the reduced cognitive load, is more effective producing a higher quality output of information and is 20% more learnable than a traditional process planning approach

Virtual Heritage

Virtual heritage has been explained as virtual reality applied to cultural heritage, but this definition only scratches the surface of the fascinating applications, tools and challenges of this fast-changing interdisciplinary field. This book provides an accessible but concise edited coverage of the main topics, tools and issues in virtual heritage. Leading international scholars have provided chapters to explain current issues in accuracy and precision; challenges in adopting advanced animation techniques; shows how archaeological learning can be developed in Minecraft; they propose mixed reality is conceptual rather than just technical; they explore how useful Linked Open Data can be for art history; explain how accessible photogrammetry can be but also ethical and practical issues for applying at scale; provide insight into how to provide interaction in museums involving the wider public; and describe issues in evaluating virtual heritage projects not often addressed even in scholarly papers. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in museum studies, digital archaeology, heritage studies, architectural history and modelling, virtual environments

Impact of Imaging and Distance Perception in VR Immersive Visual Experience

Virtual reality (VR) headsets have evolved to include unprecedented viewing quality. Meanwhile, they have become lightweight, wireless, and low-cost, which has opened to new applications and a much wider audience. VR headsets can now provide users with greater understanding of events and accuracy of observation, making decision-making faster and more effective. However, the spread of immersive technologies has shown a slow take-up, with the adoption of virtual reality limited to a few applications, typically related to entertainment. This reluctance appears to be due to the often-necessary change of operating paradigm and some scepticism towards the "VR advantage". The need therefore arises to evaluate the contribution that a VR system can make to user performance, for example to monitoring and decision-making. This will help system designers understand when immersive technologies can be proposed to replace or complement standard display systems such as a desktop monitor. In parallel to the VR headsets evolution there has been that of 360 cameras, which are now capable to instantly acquire photographs and videos in stereoscopic 3D (S3D) modality, with very high resolutions. 360° images are innately suited to VR headsets, where the captured view can be observed and explored through the natural rotation of the head. Acquired views can even be experienced and navigated from the inside as they are captured. The combination of omnidirectional images and VR headsets has opened to a new way of creating immersive visual representations. We call it: photo-based VR. This represents a new methodology that combines traditional model-based rendering with high-quality omnidirectional texture-mapping. Photo-based VR is particularly suitable for applications related to remote visits and realistic scene reconstruction, useful for monitoring and surveillance systems, control panels and operator training. The presented PhD study investigates the potential of photo-based VR representations. It starts by evaluating the role of immersion and user’s performance in today's graphical visual experience, to then use it as a reference to develop and evaluate new photo-based VR solutions. With the current literature on photo-based VR experience and associated user performance being very limited, this study builds new knowledge from the proposed assessments. We conduct five user studies on a few representative applications examining how visual representations can be affected by system factors (camera and display related) and how it can influence human factors (such as realism, presence, and emotions). Particular attention is paid to realistic depth perception, to support which we develop target solutions for photo-based VR. They are intended to provide users with a correct perception of space dimension and objects size. We call it: true-dimensional visualization. The presented work contributes to unexplored fields including photo-based VR and true-dimensional visualization, offering immersive system designers a thorough comprehension of the benefits, potential, and type of applications in which these new methods can make the difference. This thesis manuscript and its findings have been partly presented in scientific publications. In particular, five conference papers on Springer and the IEEE symposia, [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], and one journal article in an IEEE periodical [6], have been published

Design and Development of a Real-Time Bio-Sensing System Assessing Student Mental Workload and Engagement

Ο εντοπισμός του επακριβούς επιπέδου προσήλωσης και εμπλοκής των μαθητών με το περιεχόμενο διδασκαλίας στην τάξη είναι ένας από τους πιο μεγαλεπήβολους στόχους των ερευνητών της εκπαιδευτικής και επιστημονικής κοινότητας. (Lang, 1995, Grossberg, 1987). Σχετικές διεπιστημονικές ερευνητικές προσπάθειες προσαύξησης ενδιαφέροντος και εντοπισμού της αποτελεσματικότητας των διδακτικών πρακτικών βασίζονται σε τυπικές μελέτες από τον χώρο της ψυχολογίας, της παιδαγωγικής, της παιδοψυχολογίας και της ψυχοφυσιολογίας. Νέες τεχνολογίες έχουν εισάγει διαγνωστικές συσκευές δανεισμένες από τον χώρο της ιατρικής με σκοπό να εκμεταλλευτούν τις δυνατότητες μετρήσεων βιολογικών σημάτων τα οποία αποτελούν επιβεβαιωμένες εκφράσεις ψυχοφυσιολογικών καταστάσεων οι οποίες μπορούν να μεταφραστούν σε εκδηλώσεις διέγερσης και διάθεσης. Οι ιατρικές συσκευές απαιτούν εργαστηριακό περιβάλλον λόγω των αναγκών χρήσης ηλεκτροδίων, κινητικών περιορισμών, συγχρονισμού και ομοιομορφίας των στοιχείων που προκύπτουν και γι’ αυτό τον λόγο δεν μπόρεσαν ποτέ να αποδόσουν μια προσιτή λύση εφαρμόσιμη ευρύτερα σε εκπαιδευτικό περιβάλλον. Στην παρούσα μελέτη, αναλύονται οι επιδόσεις μιας ειδικά κατασκευασμένης ηλεκτρονικής συσκευής, σχεδιασμένης ώστε να εξεταστούν οι δυνατότητες να εξαχθούν δείκτες ψυχοσωματικών εκφράσεων του χρήστη, με την δυνατότητα να χρησιμοποιείται εύχρηστα στην τάξη χωρίς ηλεκτρόδια και επηρεασμούς από προσαρτήσεις. Το ολοκληρωμένο σύστημα μέτρησης και αποτύπωσης συμπερασμάτων είναι βασισμένο σε μοντελοποίηση συμπεριφορών αλλαγής του καρδιακού παλμού και της ειδικής διηλεκτρικής αγωγιμότητας του δέρματος σε πραγματικό χρόνο. Η συσκευή χρησιμοποιεί οπτικούς και διηλεκτρικούς αισθητήρες επαφής και έχει μελετηθεί σε αντιπαραβολή με διαβαθμισμένα περιβάλλοντα προκλητών καταστάσεων νοητικής φόρτισης. Σειρές πειραματικών διαδικασιών εφαρμοσμένες σε διαβαθμισμένα σενάρια πρόκλησης ψυχοσωματικών διεγέρσεων έχουν ολοκληρωθεί για επικύρωση, μελέτη επιδόσεων και λειτουργία του συστήματος ακόμη και σε σύγκριση με εμπορικό προϊόν. Πειραματικά αποτελέσματα δείχνουν αξιόλογους συσχετισμούς του μοντέλου και των επιδόσεων του συστήματος με τις αναμενόμενες αποκρίσεις με ενθαρρυντικά ποσοστά ακρίβειας.Facing the challenge of improving adaptive interaction in educational technologies scientists and educators have turned their focal point in diverse areas ranging from educational, teaching and behavioural psychology to cognitive, affective and perceptual neuroscience. The introduction of digital technologies and interactive media tools in education has shown improved learning efficiency, much higher memory activation and assimilation than verbal teaching, notably due to enhancing motivation achieved by employing approaches attracting student’s attention. Excelling aspects of audio visual presentation proved highly valuable particularly in classes with multi ethnic groups of students, as for example consistency between definitions and objects which were verbally and visually defined, eliminating possible misconceptions caused by mishearing or misinterpretation by the learner. Taking it all one step further as to how an educational system could be even more efficient, a new element would be needed revealing a credible judgment of learning scores and effectiveness of the learning process instantaneously as for example inner levels of activation and satisfaction. In fact, this could be made possible using existing technologies if subconscious neurophysiological responses of a learner could be ascertained and inferred to psycho-somatic conditions as they occur. A system including bio-sensing, data analysis and processing in real time able to provide quantified markers of psychosomatic states of a learner would help enormously in next generations of educational practice. Incorporating data of student engagement and active involvement could help to deduce the interest of a learner, which is known to improve sensitisation in implicit, incidental and also in classical learning. Experimental settings used in previous studies attempting to incorporate physiological responses and interpretations into responsive educational settings have faced major obstacles. Operational issues caused by the requirements of the devices used for the acquisition of physiological signals such as electrodes and movement restrictions have reduced the progress of such settings to laboratory environments. In such settings as described above, the effects of wiring harnesses and sensory components produced an additional psychological burden on the participants. Consequently, the need to approach the physiological data acquisition from a new angle with seamless and unnoticeable operation is apparent. The challenge to design, develop and validate a system that being minimally obstructive and literally unnoticed by the user would uncover combined subconscious expressions of a learner was the primary objective of this research. Physiological data of Heart Rate and Skin Trans-Conductance (Electro-dermal Response) elected as vitally important and highly appropriate to produce the input of data required to evaluate a behavioural concept model. The behavioural assessment model entailed vector classifiers producing directional interpretations of measurements. Directional information (Gradient response) has been derived by comparison of measurements to previously measured values in real time. Assessing the effectiveness and accuracy of the adopted model to deduce attention and engagement of a learner in real time formed the second major objective. For this purpose, a series of relevant experimental methodologies have been employed. Data produced using formal personality assessments have also been investigated in conjunction with those derived from physiological responses in order to identify personality related particularities. The final part of this work has been supplemented by propositions and suggestions with regards to various applications of the system in accomplishment of the initial aims

Virtual Heritage

Virtual heritage has been explained as virtual reality applied to cultural heritage, but this definition only scratches the surface of the fascinating applications, tools and challenges of this fast-changing interdisciplinary field. This book provides an accessible but concise edited coverage of the main topics, tools and issues in virtual heritage. Leading international scholars have provided chapters to explain current issues in accuracy and precision; challenges in adopting advanced animation techniques; shows how archaeological learning can be developed in Minecraft; they propose mixed reality is conceptual rather than just technical; they explore how useful Linked Open Data can be for art history; explain how accessible photogrammetry can be but also ethical and practical issues for applying at scale; provide insight into how to provide interaction in museums involving the wider public; and describe issues in evaluating virtual heritage projects not often addressed even in scholarly papers. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars in museum studies, digital archaeology, heritage studies, architectural history and modelling, virtual environments