Deep Learning Development Environment in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive visualization and intuitive interaction. We leverage VR to enable any biomedical professional to deploy a deep learning (DL) model for image classification. While DL models can be powerful tools for data analysis, they are also challenging to understand and develop. To make deep learning more accessible and intuitive, we have built a virtual reality-based DL development environment. Within our environment, the user can move tangible objects to construct a neural network only using their hands. Our software automatically translates these configurations into a trainable model and then reports its resulting accuracy on a test dataset in real-time. Furthermore, we have enriched the virtual objects with visualizations of the model's components such that users can achieve insight about the DL models that they are developing. With this approach, we bridge the gap between professionals in different fields of expertise while offering a novel perspective for model analysis and data interaction. We further suggest that techniques of development and visualization in deep learning can benefit by integrating virtual reality

Distributed Flow Scheduling in an Unknown Environment

Flow scheduling tends to be one of the oldest and most stubborn problems in networking. It becomes more crucial in the next generation network, due to fast changing link states and tremendous cost to explore the global structure. In such situation, distributed algorithms often dominate. In this paper, we design a distributed virtual game to solve the flow scheduling problem and then generalize it to situations of unknown environment, where online learning schemes are utilized. In the virtual game, we use incentives to stimulate selfish users to reach a Nash Equilibrium Point which is valid based on the analysis of the `Price of Anarchy'. In the unknown-environment generalization, our ultimate goal is the minimization of cost in the long run. In order to achieve balance between exploration of routing cost and exploitation based on limited information, we model this problem based on Multi-armed Bandit Scenario and combined newly proposed DSEE with the virtual game design. Armed with these powerful tools, we find a totally distributed algorithm to ensure the logarithmic growing of regret with time, which is optimum in classic Multi-armed Bandit Problem. Theoretical proof and simulation results both affirm this claim. To our knowledge, this is the first research to combine multi-armed bandit with distributed flow scheduling.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, conferenc

Design of A Virtual Laboratory for Automation Control

In the past, only students who studied on campus were able to access laboratory equipment in traditional lab courses; distance learning students, enrolled in online courses, were at a disadvantage for they could learn basic lab experiment principles but could never experience hands-on learning. Modeling and simulation can be a powerful tool for generating virtual laboratories for distance learning students. This thesis describes the design and development of a virtual laboratory for automation control using mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic components for an automation and control course at Old Dominion University. This virtual laboratory application was implemented for two platforms — Windows personal computers and Android smartphones. The virtual lab serves as pre-lab session for on-campus students and a virtual lab tool for distance-learning students to gain some “hands-on” lab experience. Utilizing the virtual learning environment as a supplement to engineering-based laboratories is also beneficial for students to prepare for the physical experiment and obtain a “hands-on,” practical lab experience without the hazards present in the physical lab. Such a methodology can also be applied to experiments in different fields such chemistry, etc

User Acceptance of Virtual Learning Environments: A Case Study from Three Northern European Universities

Virtual learning environments have in recent years become an important tool in higher education, in distance learning as well as on campus. This study analyzes factors influencing acceptance of virtual learning environments among academic staff and students in blended learning environments. Two research questions guided the study: (1) How do organizational and individual factors influence the acceptance of virtual learning environments among academic staff and students? (2) What are the implications for practice in order to create good prerequisites for acceptance of virtual learning environments? The study was performed as a comparative, explanatory case study at three universities providing master education of public health in Sweden, Norway and Lithuania. The findings of the case study showed that the contextual factor of culture was powerful in influencing acceptance of virtual learning environments, positively as well as negatively. High degrees of performance expectancy, results demonstrability and social influence affected acceptance of virtual learning environments positively. The degree of social influence was hypothesized to be transferred by the contextual factor of culture. The organizational culture of universities, ex-pressed as shared values of what is good quality teaching and learning, were found to partly oppose values inherent in the virtual learning environment. Implications for practice are put forward, emphasizing culture as an important factor to consider in the implementation of virtual learning environments

Exploitation of Novel Multiplayer Gesture-based Interaction and Virtual Puppetry for Digital Storytelling to Develop Children’s Narrative Skills

In recent years, digital storytelling has demonstrated powerful pedagogical functions by improving creativity, collaboration and intimacy among young children. Saturated with digital media technologies in their daily lives, the young generation demands natural interactive learning environments which offer multimodalities of feedback and meaningful immersive learning experiences. Virtual puppetry assisted storytelling system for young children, which utilises depth motion sensing technology and gesture control as the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) method, has been proved to provide natural interactive learning experience for single player. In this paper, we designed and developed a novel system that allows multiple players to narrate, and most importantly, to interact with other characters and interactive virtual items in the virtual environment. We have conducted one user experiment with four young children for pedagogical evaluation and another user experiment with five postgraduate students for system evaluation. Our user study shows this novel digital storytelling system has great potential to stimulate learning abilities of young children through collaboration tasks

Exploitation of multiplayer interaction and development of virtual puppetry storytelling using gesture control and stereoscopic devices

With the rapid development of human-computer interaction technologies, the new media generation demands novel learning experiences with natural interaction and immersive experience. Considering that digital storytelling is a powerful pedagogical tool for young children, in this paper, we design an immersive storytelling environment that allows multiple players to use naturally interactive hand gestures to manipulate virtual puppetry for assisting narration. A set of multimodal interaction techniques is presented for a hybrid user interface that integrates existing 3D visualization and interaction devices including head-mounted displays and depth motion sensor. In this system, the young players could intuitively use hand gestures to manipulate virtual puppets to perform a story and interact with props in a virtual stereoscopic environment. We have conducted a user experiment with four young children for pedagogical evaluation, as well as system acceptability and interactivity evaluation by postgraduate students. The results show that our framework has great potential to stimulate learning abilities of young children through collaboration tasks. The stereoscopic head-mounted display outperformed the traditional monoscopic display in a comparison between the two

COLLABORATIVE AND SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN A VIRTUAL CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT: A POTENTIAL SOLUTION FOR OUR YEARS?

In the current society, where the information flow has a big impact on the learner, and the learning methods differ from student to student, it is important to understand a virtual campus and its benefits. Nobody can doubt the impact of the new technologies on the educational system. In this new reality, universities must learn to work and collaborate with other universities or groups of interest in order to prepare learners to meet the requirements of the 21st century.  The solution can be a virtual campus that offers powerful tools, access to content and services, personal learning environment, enabling the student to acquire information and learn new skills. This article offers on overview of a virtual campus and the prototype of learner that is suitable for it. The accent falls on two of the skills that a learner must have: self directed learning and of course collaborative learning. The first concept refers to the learner’s capabilities to be responsible of his decisions regarding the learning process and to take the initiative while the second one is based on the fact that a virtual campus is built on collaborative processes that engage stakeholders to interact and learn from each other

Virtual environment as aids in persuading user in learning process

With the advent of computing technologies, a plethora of computer applications were developed to solve simple to complex human and organization problems. Computer applications cover variety of fields and have been known to be powerful tools in changing person‘s attitudes, behaviours, feelings and actions. This paper investigates the use of virtual environment technology as aids in persuading users in learning process. It explains the concept of persuasive and virtual environment technologies and the integration of both technologies in persuading learners to learn. It elaborates on the design of persuasion and explains the benefits of integrating persuasive and virtual environment technologies in the learning process. Finally, it gives an overview of a proposed approach in utilizing virtual environment as aids in persuasive design for learning

Agile in Wonderland: Implementing a Virtual World Workshop Activity

For immersive 3D environments to be useful for specialist teaching, their programming facilities must be powerful enough to enable educators to create flexible learning tools. In this paper we describe the creation of a virtual environment designed to be used to host a workshop activity based on agile software development. Following an initial assessment of some available virtual world tools, the Java-based ‘Project Wonderland’ was used to create a proof of concept for running the workshop. We discuss the features that were implemented and a number of significant issues encountered during the process. In the light of our experiences, we assess the utility of Project Wonderland as a tool for creating an immersive workshop activity and describe the future work that would be needed to enable a robust and useable environment to be developed

Design and Assessment of an Experimental SDN-Enabled Private Cloud using Openstack

Nowadays, educational and research institutions, especially universities, have considered their focus on cloud computing rather than using conventional prospects to take the most benefits of the services offered to support current trends in teaching and learning strategies. To build these networks in a cost effective way, open source cloud computing platforms are used. One of the powerful tools is Openstack, which allows users to create virtual networks and manage virtual machines within distributed learning environments. In this article, we describe our project on designing and evaluating a private cloud within a university environment using Openstack. To this end, we conduct a survey to measure the students’ attitude towards the use of private clouds in which students and experts serve as samples. We design a virtual lab consisting of a number of virtual machines operated by a selected sample. We evaluate the proposed solution by adopting Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) methodology. The results obtained from this study show that the students’ acceptance in using the private cloud in performing their tasks is encouraging albeit their anxiety on security issues and their lack of experience