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

Arquitectura de un Juego en 2D para Android y IOS Usando Cocos2DX

This paper we present the architecture and tools used in the development a 2D game that works on both Android and IOS. To do this we use the Cocos2DX, this tool allows to development 2D game with portability and power required to run on these two mobile environments used. It is important to note that the article also shows how modeled and implemented in Cocos 2DX a game, called 2D Labyrinth, this serves to illustrate how Cocos2DX handles all processing OpenGL graphics and thus no problems when running submitted in various mobile devices. And finally, we show the game operation using the proposed architecture and tools.El presente artículo muestra la arquitectura y las herramientas usadas en el desarrollo de un juego 2D que funciona tanto en Android y IOS. Para ello se usa la herramienta Cocos2DX la cual permite el desarrollo de juegos 2D que tienen la portabilidad y potencia necesaria para ejecutarse en estos dos ambientes móviles. Es importante anotar que el artículo también muestra cómo se modeló e implementó un juego, llamado Laberinto 2D, en Cocos 2DX, esto sirve para ilustrar cómo Cocos2DX se ocupa de todo el procesamiento de gráficos OpenGL y de esta forma no se presenten inconvenientes al ejecutarse en diversos dispositivos móviles. Al final se muestra el funcionamiento del juego aplicando la arquitectura y las herramientas propuestas

Perceptual model for adaptive local shading and refresh rate

When the rendering budget is limited by power or time, it is necessary to find the combination of rendering parameters, such as resolution and refresh rate, that could deliver the best quality. Variable-rate shading (VRS), introduced in the last generations of GPUs, enables fine control of the rendering quality, in which each 16×16 image tile can be rendered with a different ratio of shader executions. We take advantage of this capability and propose a new method for adaptive control of local shading and refresh rate. The method analyzes texture content, on-screen velocities, luminance, and effective resolution and suggests the refresh rate and a VRS state map that maximizes the quality of animated content under a limited budget. The method is based on the new content-adaptive metric of judder, aliasing, and blur, which is derived from the psychophysical models of contrast sensitivity. To calibrate and validate the metric, we gather data from literature and also collect new measurements of motion quality under variable shading rates, different velocities of motion, texture content, and display capabilities, such as refresh rate, persistence, and angular resolution. The proposed metric and adaptive shading method is implemented as a game engine plugin. Our experimental validation shows a substantial increase in preference of our method over rendering with a fixed resolution and refresh rate, and an existing motion-adaptive techniqu

Neural Radiance Fields: Past, Present, and Future

The various aspects like modeling and interpreting 3D environments and surroundings have enticed humans to progress their research in 3D Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, and Machine Learning. An attempt made by Mildenhall et al in their paper about NeRFs (Neural Radiance Fields) led to a boom in Computer Graphics, Robotics, Computer Vision, and the possible scope of High-Resolution Low Storage Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality-based 3D models have gained traction from res with more than 1000 preprints related to NeRFs published. This paper serves as a bridge for people starting to study these fields by building on the basics of Mathematics, Geometry, Computer Vision, and Computer Graphics to the difficulties encountered in Implicit Representations at the intersection of all these disciplines. This survey provides the history of rendering, Implicit Learning, and NeRFs, the progression of research on NeRFs, and the potential applications and implications of NeRFs in today's world. In doing so, this survey categorizes all the NeRF-related research in terms of the datasets used, objective functions, applications solved, and evaluation criteria for these applications.Comment: 413 pages, 9 figures, 277 citation

Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Distributed Mobile Cloud Gaming System

Pilvipelaamisella tarkoitetaan pelien etäpelaamista kevyillä päätelaitteilla. Pelit suoritetaan pilvipalvelimilla ja videokuva lähetetään päätelaitteisiin verkon yli. Tämän ansiosta laitteita, joiden suorituskyky ei normaalisti riittäisi pelin suorittamiseen voidaan käyttää pelien pelaamiseen. Pilvipelaaminen on erittäin herkkä verkkoviiveille ja aikaisempi tutkimus on osoittanut nykyisen pilvi-infrastruktuurin riittämättömäksi kaikkein vaativimmille peleille. Tässä työssä esitetään hajautettu pilvipelaamisen malli keskittyen erityisesti cloudlettien eli pienten käyttäjän lähellä olevien pilvien käyttöön verkon laidoilla. Työtä varten luotiin cloudlet-mallia hyödyntävä prototyyppi etäpelaamista varten ja mitattiin käyttäjän kokema viive eri mobiiliverkoissa ja pilvipalveli- men sijainneissa. Mittaukset osoittivat, että cloudlettien avulla voidaan myös kaikkein vaativimpia pelejä suorittaa etänä verkon yli. Työssä mitattiin myös mobiililaitteiden virrankulutus pilvipelaamisen aikana. Erityisesti keskityttiin tutkimaan voisiko mobiililaitteen virrankulutusta vähentää käyttämällä ulkoista näyttöä pelaamiseen. Virtamittaukset osoittivat, että Wi-fi-verkkoon kytkettynä ja ulkoista näyttöä käyttäen voidaan pilvipelaamisen virrankulutusta vähentää huomattavasti mobiiliilaitteilla.Cloud gaming where the games are rendered on distant cloud servers and streamed to thin clients is currently gaining ground. It enables relatively weak computational devices such as mobile phones to be used to play games that normally couldn’t be run on the devices. Cloud gaming is very susceptible to latency though and previous research has shown that the current distant cloud infrastructure is not adequate especially for the most demanding games. This thesis proposes a more distributed cloud gaming infrastructure focus- ing on the use of cloudlets on the network edges. An open-source Cloudlet Remote Gaming Platform prototype is built using the cloudlet model and the response delay in different mobile networks and cloud server locations is measured. The study concludes that the use of cloudlets on network edges could benefit the QoE for the users especially when playing the most demanding fast-paced games. The power consumption of the mobile device in cloud gaming is also measured using different networks showing that by switching to Wi-Fi connection and by using external displays and game controllers the power consumption of the mobile device could be decreased on top of improving the QoE for the user

Videos in Context for Telecommunication and Spatial Browsing

The research presented in this thesis explores the use of videos embedded in panoramic imagery to transmit spatial and temporal information describing remote environments and their dynamics. Virtual environments (VEs) through which users can explore remote locations are rapidly emerging as a popular medium of presence and remote collaboration. However, capturing visual representation of locations to be used in VEs is usually a tedious process that requires either manual modelling of environments or the employment of specific hardware. Capturing environment dynamics is not straightforward either, and it is usually performed through specific tracking hardware. Similarly, browsing large unstructured video-collections with available tools is difficult, as the abundance of spatial and temporal information makes them hard to comprehend. At the same time, on a spectrum between 3D VEs and 2D images, panoramas lie in between, as they offer the same 2D images accessibility while preserving 3D virtual environments surrounding representation. For this reason, panoramas are an attractive basis for videoconferencing and browsing tools as they can relate several videos temporally and spatially. This research explores methods to acquire, fuse, render and stream data coming from heterogeneous cameras, with the help of panoramic imagery. Three distinct but interrelated questions are addressed. First, the thesis considers how spatially localised video can be used to increase the spatial information transmitted during video mediated communication, and if this improves quality of communication. Second, the research asks whether videos in panoramic context can be used to convey spatial and temporal information of a remote place and the dynamics within, and if this improves users' performance in tasks that require spatio-temporal thinking. Finally, the thesis considers whether there is an impact of display type on reasoning about events within videos in panoramic context. These research questions were investigated over three experiments, covering scenarios common to computer-supported cooperative work and video browsing. To support the investigation, two distinct video+context systems were developed. The first telecommunication experiment compared our videos in context interface with fully-panoramic video and conventional webcam video conferencing in an object placement scenario. The second experiment investigated the impact of videos in panoramic context on quality of spatio-temporal thinking during localization tasks. To support the experiment, a novel interface to video-collection in panoramic context was developed and compared with common video-browsing tools. The final experimental study investigated the impact of display type on reasoning about events. The study explored three adaptations of our video-collection interface to three display types. The overall conclusion is that videos in panoramic context offer a valid solution to spatio-temporal exploration of remote locations. Our approach presents a richer visual representation in terms of space and time than standard tools, showing that providing panoramic contexts to video collections makes spatio-temporal tasks easier. To this end, videos in context are suitable alternative to more difficult, and often expensive solutions. These findings are beneficial to many applications, including teleconferencing, virtual tourism and remote assistance

Merging the Real and the Virtual: An Exploration of Interaction Methods to Blend Realities

We investigate, build, and design interaction methods to merge the real with the virtual. An initial investigation looks at spatial augmented reality (SAR) and its effects on pointing with a real mobile phone. A study reveals a set of trade-offs between the raycast, viewport, and direct pointing techniques. To further investigate the manipulation of virtual content within a SAR environment, we design an interaction technique that utilizes the distance that a user holds mobile phone away from their body. Our technique enables pushing virtual content from a mobile phone to an external SAR environment, interact with that content, rotate-scale-translate it, and pull the content back into the mobile phone. This is all done in a way that ensures seamless transitions between the real environment of the mobile phone and the virtual SAR environment. To investigate the issues that occur when the physical environment is hidden by a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) HMD, we design and investigate a system that merges a realtime 3D reconstruction of the real world with a virtual environment. This allows users to freely move, manipulate, observe, and communicate with people and objects situated in their physical reality without losing their sense of immersion or presence inside a virtual world. A study with VR users demonstrates the affordances provided by the system and how it can be used to enhance current VR experiences. We then move to AR, to investigate the limitations of optical see-through HMDs and the problem of communicating the internal state of the virtual world with unaugmented users. To address these issues and enable new ways to visualize, manipulate, and share virtual content, we propose a system that combines a wearable SAR projector. Demonstrations showcase ways to utilize the projected and head-mounted displays together, such as expanding field of view, distributing content across depth surfaces, and enabling bystander collaboration. We then turn to videogames to investigate how spectatorship of these virtual environments can be enhanced through expanded video rendering techniques. We extract and combine additional data to form a cumulative 3D representation of the live game environment for spectators, which enables each spectator to individually control a personal view into the stream while in VR. A study shows that users prefer spectating in VR when compared with a comparable desktop rendering

Power-Performance Modeling and Adaptive Management of Heterogeneous Mobile Platforms​

abstract: Nearly 60% of the world population uses a mobile phone, which is typically powered by a system-on-chip (SoC). While the mobile platform capabilities range widely, responsiveness, long battery life and reliability are common design concerns that are crucial to remain competitive. Consequently, state-of-the-art mobile platforms have become highly heterogeneous by combining a powerful SoC with numerous other resources, including display, memory, power management IC, battery and wireless modems. Furthermore, the SoC itself is a heterogeneous resource that integrates many processing elements, such as CPU cores, GPU, video, image, and audio processors. Therefore, CPU cores do not dominate the platform power consumption under many application scenarios. Competitive performance requires higher operating frequency, and leads to larger power consumption. In turn, power consumption increases the junction and skin temperatures, which have adverse effects on the device reliability and user experience. As a result, allocating the power budget among the major platform resources and temperature control have become fundamental consideration for mobile platforms. Dynamic thermal and power management algorithms address this problem by putting a subset of the processing elements or shared resources to sleep states, or throttling their frequencies. However, an adhoc approach could easily cripple the performance, if it slows down the performance-critical processing element. Furthermore, mobile platforms run a wide range of applications with time varying workload characteristics, unlike early generations, which supported only limited functionality. As a result, there is a need for adaptive power and performance management approaches that consider the platform as a whole, rather than focusing on a subset. Towards this need, our specific contributions include (a) a framework to dynamically select the Pareto-optimal frequency and active cores for the heterogeneous CPUs, such as ARM big.Little architecture, (b) a dynamic power budgeting approach for allocating optimal power consumption to the CPU and GPU using performance sensitivity models for each PE, (c) an adaptive GPU frame time sensitivity prediction model to aid power management algorithms, and (d) an online learning algorithm that constructs adaptive run-time models for non-stationary workloads.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality (AR) is a natural development from virtual reality (VR), which was developed several decades earlier. AR complements VR in many ways. Due to the advantages of the user being able to see both the real and virtual objects simultaneously, AR is far more intuitive, but it's not completely detached from human factors and other restrictions. AR doesn't consume as much time and effort in the applications because it's not required to construct the entire virtual scene and the environment. In this book, several new and emerging application areas of AR are presented and divided into three sections. The first section contains applications in outdoor and mobile AR, such as construction, restoration, security and surveillance. The second section deals with AR in medical, biological, and human bodies. The third and final section contains a number of new and useful applications in daily living and learning