321 research outputs found
Virtual library:a technical implementation for a virtual reality library interface
Abstract. Libraries, as traditional information storages, serve an important role in providing free access to civilizationâs knowledge to the public. In the advent of the information society, conventional means of knowledge seeking slowly become obsolete. As technologies advance, libraries shall discover how available inventions could be utilized in enhancing library services and raising public awareness.
The offer to discover Virtual Library project was given to the author by the Center for Ubiquitous Computing in the University of Oulu, with the idea originating from Oulu City Library. The goal of the project was to implement an interactive application that would provide a unique experience for library users and show off capabilities of modern virtual technologies. The requirements for it were elicited and refined in a series of participatory design workshops held in Oulu City Library, and as a result, the content of initial web prototype was utilized in the creation of standalone virtual reality application on Unreal Engine 4. The application works with Oculus Rift headset and Oculus Touch motion controllers and lets the user explore the virtual model of Oulu City Library premises as well as some fictional places, added for diverse experience, and experience several activities.
Virtual Library was evaluated in a series of testing sessions held in the Oulu City Library with a total of 12 participants, which were primarily the libraryâs staff members. Overall, the application was positively acclaimed, providing an interesting and unusual library experience, and presenting capabilities of modern virtual reality technologies.Virtuaalikirjasto : tekninen kuvaus virtuaalitodellisuutta hyödyntĂ€vĂ€lle kirjastopalvelulle. TiivistelmĂ€. Kirjastoilla on perinteisesti tĂ€rkeĂ€ rooli tiedon vĂ€littĂ€jinĂ€ ja tallentajina. Kirjastojen tulee myös mahdollistaa pÀÀsy tiedon ÀÀreen. SiirryttĂ€essĂ€ lĂ€hemmĂ€ksi tietoyhteiskuntaa, perinteiset tavat kĂ€sitellĂ€ ja havainnoida tietoa ovat jÀÀmĂ€ssĂ€ historiaan. Myös kirjastot kehittyvĂ€t ja oppivat kuinka uusia teknologioita on mahdollista hyödyntÀÀ tiedon vĂ€littĂ€misessĂ€ yhteisöille.
Virtuaalikirjasto-projekti lÀhti Oulun kaupungin kirjaston pyynnöstÀ Oulun yliopiston Jokapaikan tietotekniikan tutkimusryhmÀlle. Projektin pÀÀmÀÀrÀnÀ oli toteuttaa interaktiivinen sovellus, joka tarjoaisi kirjaston asiakkaille elÀmyksellistÀ sisÀltöÀ samalla havainnollistaen virtuaalitodellisuuden ja siihen liittyvien teknologioiden mahdollisuuksia. Sovelluksen toteutusta hiottiin Oulun kaupunginkirjastossa sarjalla osallistavan suunnittelun mukaisia työpajoja. Virtuaalitodellisuussovellus toteutettiin Unreal Engine 4 -pelimoottorilla. Se toimii Oculus Rift -virtuaalilaseilla ja Oculus Touch -ohjaimilla. Sovelluksessa on mahdollista kulkea vapaasti virtuaalisessa Oulun kaupunginkirjastossa, sekÀ tilaan liitetyissÀ mielikuvituksellisemmissa maailmoissa.
Virtuaalikirjasto-sovellus evaluoitiin Oulun kaupunginkirjastossa sarjalla kÀyttÀjÀtestejÀ. TestikÀyttÀjiÀ oli kaikkiaan 12 ja he olivat pÀÀosin kirjaston työntekijöitÀ. Sovelluksen vastaanotto oli positiivinen. KÀyttÀjÀt totesivat sen havainnollistavan kÀytettÀvissÀ olevan tekniikan mahdollisuuksia samalla tarjoten mielenkiintoisen ja epÀtavallisen kirjastokokemuksen
Internet-of-Things (IoT) shortest path algorithms and communication case studies for maintaining connectivity in harsh environements
Research on the shortest path in networks to maintain connectivity in the Internet of Things (IoT) remains an important issue for determining minimal routes, especially in terms of time and distance, between two devices at distinct points (i.e., nodes) of the network. Many constraints exist for IoT smart devices for transmitting a large amount of information and data, such as limited resources, energy, and time consumption, as well as the potential for overwhelmed communication traffic. Several algorithms were designed and implemented to address these problems that can be simulated and considered as information message passing. The search space is often modeled by a graph, where each node corresponds to a location of a smart device, and the edges represent the paths or links that carry messages, while the absence of a path between two nodes designates a communication breakdown or obstacle. Existing pathfinding algorithms are incorporated in applications, such as Google Maps, rescue people, video games, online packet routing, and rescue applications used in harsh environments. For these latter scenarios, the infrastructure for various technologies of communication becomes vulnerable and dysfunctional, so maintaining connectivity and finding the shortest path becomes a priority. Our goal is to remedy this problem by taking advantage of modernized peer-to-peer wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi Direct, which can be improved through autonomous wireless technology kits like Lopy 4 of Pycom, and through two alternatives of moving devices (nodes) or service drones. This paper investigates several shortest path algorithms and identifies three case studies to maintain connectivity in harsh environments
Crowd simulation and visualization
Large-scale simulation and visualization are essential topics in areas as different as sociology, physics, urbanism, training, entertainment among others.
This kind of systems requires a vast computational power and memory resources commonly available in High Performance Computing HPC platforms. Currently, the most potent clusters have heterogeneous architectures with hundreds of thousands and even millions of cores. The industry trends inferred that exascale clusters would have thousands of millions.
The technical challenges for simulation and visualization process in the exascale era are intertwined with difficulties in other areas of research, including storage, communication, programming models and hardware. For this reason, it is necessary prototyping, testing, and deployment a variety of approaches to address the technical challenges identified and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed solution.
The focus of this research is interactive large-scale crowd simulation and visualization. To exploit to the maximum the capacity of the current HPC infrastructure and be prepared to take advantage of the next generation. The project develops a new approach to scale crowd simulation and visualization on heterogeneous computing cluster using a task-based technique. Its main characteristic is hardware agnostic. It abstracts the difficulties that imply the use of heterogeneous architectures like memory management, scheduling, communications, and synchronization â facilitating development, maintenance, and scalability.
With the goal of flexibility and take advantage of computing resources as best as possible, the project explores different configurations to connect the simulation with the visualization engine. This kind of system has an essential use in emergencies. Therefore, urban scenes were implemented as realistic as possible; in this way, users will be ready to face real events.
Path planning for large-scale crowds is a challenge to solve, due to the inherent dynamism in the scenes and vast search space. A new path-finding algorithm was developed. It has a hierarchical approach which offers different advantages: it divides the search space reducing the problem complexity, it can obtain a partial path instead of wait for the complete one, which allows a character to start moving and compute the rest asynchronously. It can reprocess only a part if necessary with different levels of abstraction.
A case study is presented for a crowd simulation in urban scenarios. Geolocated data are used, they were produced by mobile devices to predict individual and crowd behavior and detect abnormal situations in the presence of specific events. It was also address the challenge of combining all these individualâs location with a 3D rendering of the urban environment. The data processing and simulation approach are computationally expensive and time-critical, it relies thus on a hybrid Cloud-HPC architecture to produce an efficient solution.
Within the project, new models of behavior based on data analytics were developed. It was developed the infrastructure to be able to consult various data sources such as social networks, government agencies or transport companies such as Uber. Every time there is more geolocation data available and better computation resources which allow performing analysis of greater depth, this lays the foundations to improve the simulation models of current crowds.
The use of simulations and their visualization allows to observe and organize the crowds in real time. The analysis before, during and after daily mass events can reduce the risks and associated logistics costs.La simulaciĂłn y visualizaciĂłn a gran escala son temas esenciales en ĂĄreas tan diferentes como la sociologĂa, la fĂsica, el urbanismo, la capacitaciĂłn, el entretenimiento, entre otros. Este tipo de sistemas requiere una gran capacidad de cĂłmputo y recursos de memoria comĂșnmente disponibles en las plataformas de computo de alto rendimiento. Actualmente, los equipos mĂĄs potentes tienen arquitecturas heterogĂ©neas con cientos de miles e incluso millones de nĂșcleos. Las tendencias de la industria infieren que los equipos en la era exascale tendran miles de millones. Los desafĂos tĂ©cnicos en el proceso de simulaciĂłn y visualizaciĂłn en la era exascale se entrelazan con dificultades en otras ĂĄreas de investigaciĂłn, incluidos almacenamiento, comunicaciĂłn, modelos de programaciĂłn y hardware. Por esta razĂłn, es necesario crear prototipos, probar y desplegar una variedad de enfoques para abordar los desafĂos tĂ©cnicos identificados y evaluar las ventajas y desventajas de cada soluciĂłn propuesta. El foco de esta investigaciĂłn es la visualizaciĂłn y simulaciĂłn interactiva de multitudes a gran escala. Aprovechar al mĂĄximo la capacidad de la infraestructura actual y estar preparado para aprovechar la prĂłxima generaciĂłn. El proyecto desarrolla un nuevo enfoque para escalar la simulaciĂłn y visualizaciĂłn de multitudes en un clĂșster de computo heterogĂ©neo utilizando una tĂ©cnica basada en tareas. Su principal caracterĂstica es que es hardware agnĂłstico. Abstrae las dificultades que implican el uso de arquitecturas heterogĂ©neas como la administraciĂłn de memoria, las comunicaciones y la sincronizaciĂłn, lo que facilita el desarrollo, el mantenimiento y la escalabilidad. Con el objetivo de flexibilizar y aprovechar los recursos informĂĄticos lo mejor posible, el proyecto explora diferentes configuraciones para conectar la simulaciĂłn con el motor de visualizaciĂłn. Este tipo de sistemas tienen un uso esencial en emergencias. Por lo tanto, se implementaron escenas urbanas lo mĂĄs realistas posible, de esta manera los usuarios estarĂĄn listos para enfrentar eventos reales. La planificaciĂłn de caminos para multitudes a gran escala es un desafĂo a resolver, debido al dinamismo inherente en las escenas y el vasto espacio de bĂșsqueda. Se desarrollĂł un nuevo algoritmo de bĂșsqueda de caminos. Tiene un enfoque jerĂĄrquico que ofrece diferentes ventajas: divide el espacio de bĂșsqueda reduciendo la complejidad del problema, puede obtener una ruta parcial en lugar de esperar a la completa, lo que permite que un personaje comience a moverse y calcule el resto de forma asĂncrona, puede reprocesar solo una parte si es necesario con diferentes niveles de abstracciĂłn. Se presenta un caso de estudio para una simulaciĂłn de multitud en escenarios urbanos. Se utilizan datos geolocalizados producidos por dispositivos mĂłviles para predecir el comportamiento individual y pĂșblico y detectar situaciones anormales en presencia de eventos especĂficos. TambiĂ©n se aborda el desafĂo de combinar la ubicaciĂłn de todos estos individuos con una representaciĂłn 3D del entorno urbano. Dentro del proyecto, se desarrollaron nuevos modelos de comportamiento basados ¿¿en el anĂĄlisis de datos. Se creo la infraestructura para poder consultar varias fuentes de datos como redes sociales, agencias gubernamentales o empresas de transporte como Uber. Cada vez hay mĂĄs datos de geolocalizaciĂłn disponibles y mejores recursos de cĂłmputo que permiten realizar un anĂĄlisis de mayor profundidad, esto sienta las bases para mejorar los modelos de simulaciĂłn de las multitudes actuales. El uso de simulaciones y su visualizaciĂłn permite observar y organizar las multitudes en tiempo real. El anĂĄlisis antes, durante y despuĂ©s de eventos multitudinarios diarios puede reducir los riesgos y los costos logĂsticos asociadosPostprint (published version
Serious Games in Cultural Heritage
Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented
Developing serious games for cultural heritage: a state-of-the-art review
Although the widespread use of gaming for leisure purposes has been well documented, the use of games to support cultural heritage purposes, such as historical teaching and learning, or for enhancing museum visits, has been less well considered. The state-of-the-art in serious game technology is identical to that of the state-of-the-art in entertainment games technology. As a result, the field of serious heritage games concerns itself with recent advances in computer games, real-time computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, the main strengths of serious gaming applications may be generalised as being in the areas of communication, visual expression of information, collaboration mechanisms, interactivity and entertainment. In this report, we will focus on the state-of-the-art with respect to the theories, methods and technologies used in serious heritage games. We provide an overview of existing literature of relevance to the domain, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the described methods and point out unsolved problems and challenges. In addition, several case studies illustrating the application of methods and technologies used in cultural heritage are presented
Scalable Schedule-Aware Bundle Routing
This thesis introduces approaches providing scalable delay-/disruption-tolerant routing capabilities in scheduled space topologies. The solution is developed for the requirements derived from use cases built according to predictions for future space topology, like the future Mars communications architecture report from the interagency operations advisory group. A novel routing algorithm is depicted to provide optimized networking performance that discards the scalability issues inherent to state-of-the-art approaches. This thesis also proposes a new recommendation to render volume management concerns generic and easily exchangeable, including a new simple management technique increasing volume awareness accuracy while being adaptable to more particular use cases. Additionally, this thesis introduces a more robust and scalable approach for internetworking between subnetworks to increase the throughput, reduce delays, and ease configuration thanks to its high flexibility.:1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Problem statement
1.3 Objectives
1.4 Outline
2 Requirements
2.1 Use cases
2.2 Requirements
2.2.1 Requirement analysis
2.2.2 Requirements relative to the routing algorithm
2.2.3 Requirements relative to the volume management
2.2.4 Requirements relative to interregional routing
3 Fundamentals
3.1 Delay-/disruption-tolerant networking
3.1.1 Architecture
3.1.2 Opportunistic and deterministic DTNs
3.1.3 DTN routing
3.1.4 Contact plans
3.1.5 Volume management
3.1.6 Regions
3.2 Contact graph routing
3.2.1 A non-replication routing scheme
3.2.2 Route construction
3.2.3 Route selection
3.2.4 Enhancements and main features
3.3 Graph theory and DTN routing
3.3.1 Mapping with DTN objects
3.3.2 Shortest path algorithm
3.3.3 Edge and vertex contraction
3.4 Algorithmic determinism and predictability
4 Preliminary analysis
4.1 Node and contact graphs
4.2 Scenario
4.3 Route construction in ION-CGR
4.4 Alternative route search
4.4.1 Yenâs algorithm scalability
4.4.2 Blocking issues with Yen
4.4.3 Limiting contact approaches
4.5 CGR-multicast and shortest-path tree search
4.6 Volume management
4.6.1 Volume obstruction
4.6.2 Contact sink
4.6.3 Ghost queue
4.6.4 Data rate variations
4.7 Hierarchical interregional routing
4.8 Other potential issues
5 State-of-the-art and related work
5.1 Taxonomy
5.2 Opportunistic and probabilistic approaches
5.2.1 Flooding approaches
5.2.2 PROPHET
5.2.3 MaxProp
5.2.4 Issues
5.3 Deterministic approaches
5.3.1 Movement-aware routing over interplanetary networks
5.3.2 Delay-tolerant link state routing
5.3.3 DTN routing for quasi-deterministic networks
5.3.4 Issues
5.4 CGR variants and enhancements
5.4.1 CGR alternative routing table computation
5.4.2 CGR-multicast
5.4.3 CGR extensions
5.4.4 RUCoP and CGR-hop
5.4.5 Issues
5.5 Interregional routing
5.5.1 Border gateway protocol
5.5.2 Hierarchical interregional routing
5.5.3 Issues
5.6 Further approaches
5.6.1 Machine learning approaches
5.6.2 Tropical geometry
6 Scalable schedule-aware bundle routing
6.1 Overview
6.2 Shortest-path tree routing for space networks
6.2.1 Structure
6.2.2 Tree construction
6.2.3 Tree management
6.2.4 Tree caching
6.3 Contact segmentation
6.3.1 Volume management interface
6.3.2 Simple volume manager
6.3.3 Enhanced volume manager
6.4 Contact passageways
6.4.1 Regional border deïŹnition
6.4.2 Virtual nodes
6.4.3 PathïŹnding and administration
7 Evaluation
7.1 Methodology
7.1.1 Simulation tools
7.1.2 Simulator extensions
7.1.3 Algorithms and scenarios
7.2 OïŹine analysis
7.3 Eliminatory processing pressures
7.4 Networking performance
7.4.1 Intraregional unicast routing tests
7.4.2 Intraregional multicast tests
7.4.3 Interregional routing tests
7.4.4 Behavior with congestion
7.5 Requirement fulïŹllment
8 Summary and Outlook
8.1 Conclusion
8.2 Future works
8.2.1 Next development steps
8.2.2 Contact graph routin
AI and IoT Meet Mobile Machines
Infrastructure construction is society's cornerstone and economics' catalyst. Therefore, improving mobile machinery's efficiency and reducing their cost of use have enormous economic benefits in the vast and growing construction market. In this thesis, I envision a novel concept smart working site to increase productivity through fleet management from multiple aspects and with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)
AI and IoT Meet Mobile Machines: Towards a Smart Working Site
Infrastructure construction is society's cornerstone and economics' catalyst. Therefore, improving mobile machinery's efficiency and reducing their cost of use have enormous economic benefits in the vast and growing construction market. In this thesis, I envision a novel concept smart working site to increase productivity through fleet management from multiple aspects and with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT)
Enhancing trustability in MMOGs environments
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs; e.g., World of Warcraft), virtual worlds
(VW; e.g., Second Life), social networks (e.g., Facebook) strongly demand for more
autonomic, security, and trust mechanisms in a way similar to humans do in the real
life world. As known, this is a difficult matter because trusting in humans and organizations
depends on the perception and experience of each individual, which is difficult to
quantify or measure. In fact, these societal environments lack trust mechanisms similar
to those involved in humans-to-human interactions. Besides, interactions mediated
by compute devices are constantly evolving, requiring trust mechanisms that keep the
pace with the developments and assess risk situations.
In VW/MMOGs, it is widely recognized that users develop trust relationships from their
in-world interactions with others. However, these trust relationships end up not being
represented in the data structures (or databases) of such virtual worlds, though they
sometimes appear associated to reputation and recommendation systems. In addition,
as far as we know, the user is not provided with a personal trust tool to sustain his/her
decision making while he/she interacts with other users in the virtual or game world.
In order to solve this problem, as well as those mentioned above, we propose herein a
formal representation of these personal trust relationships, which are based on avataravatar
interactions. The leading idea is to provide each avatar-impersonated player
with a personal trust tool that follows a distributed trust model, i.e., the trust data is
distributed over the societal network of a given VW/MMOG.
Representing, manipulating, and inferring trust from the user/player point of view certainly
is a grand challenge. When someone meets an unknown individual, the question
is âCan I trust him/her or not?â. It is clear that this requires the user to have access to
a representation of trust about others, but, unless we are using an open source VW/MMOG,
it is difficult ânot to say unfeasibleâ to get access to such data. Even, in an open
source system, a number of users may refuse to pass information about its friends, acquaintances,
or others. Putting together its own data and gathered data obtained from
others, the avatar-impersonated player should be able to come across a trust result
about its current trustee. For the trust assessment method used in this thesis, we use
subjective logic operators and graph search algorithms to undertake such trust inference
about the trustee. The proposed trust inference system has been validated using
a number of OpenSimulator (opensimulator.org) scenarios, which showed an accuracy
increase in evaluating trustability of avatars.
Summing up, our proposal aims thus to introduce a trust theory for virtual worlds, its
trust assessment metrics (e.g., subjective logic) and trust discovery methods (e.g.,
graph search methods), on an individual basis, rather than based on usual centralized
reputation systems. In particular, and unlike other trust discovery methods, our methods
run at interactive rates.MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games, como por exemplo, World of Warcraft),
mundos virtuais (VW, como por exemplo, o Second Life) e redes sociais (como por exemplo,
Facebook) necessitam de mecanismos de confiança mais autónomos, capazes de
assegurar a segurança e a confiança de uma forma semelhante à que os seres humanos
utilizam na vida real. Como se sabe, esta nĂŁo Ă© uma questĂŁo fĂĄcil. Porque confiar em
seres humanos e ou organizaçÔes depende da percepção e da experiĂȘncia de cada indivĂduo,
o que Ă© difĂcil de quantificar ou medir Ă partida. Na verdade, esses ambientes
sociais carecem dos mecanismos de confiança presentes em interacçÔes humanas presenciais.
Além disso, as interacçÔes mediadas por dispositivos computacionais estão em
constante evolução, necessitando de mecanismos de confiança adequados ao ritmo da
evolução para avaliar situaçÔes de risco.
Em VW/MMOGs, é amplamente reconhecido que os utilizadores desenvolvem relaçÔes
de confiança a partir das suas interacçÔes no mundo com outros. No entanto, essas relaçÔes
de confiança acabam por não ser representadas nas estruturas de dados (ou bases
de dados) do VW/MMOG especĂfico, embora Ă s vezes apareçam associados Ă reputação
e a sistemas de reputação. Além disso, tanto quanto sabemos, ao utilizador não lhe
é facultado nenhum mecanismo que suporte uma ferramenta de confiança individual
para sustentar o seu processo de tomada de decisĂŁo, enquanto ele interage com outros
utilizadores no mundo virtual ou jogo. A fim de resolver este problema, bem como
os mencionados acima, propomos nesta tese uma representação formal para essas relaçÔes
de confiança pessoal, baseada em interacçÔes avatar-avatar. A ideia principal
é fornecer a cada jogador representado por um avatar uma ferramenta de confiança
pessoal que segue um modelo de confiança distribuĂda, ou seja, os dados de confiança
sĂŁo distribuĂdos atravĂ©s da rede social de um determinado VW/MMOG.
Representar, manipular e inferir a confiança do ponto de utilizador/jogador, é certamente
um grande desafio. Quando alguĂ©m encontra um indivĂduo desconhecido, a
pergunta Ă© âPosso confiar ou nĂŁo nele?â. Ă claro que isto requer que o utilizador tenha
acesso a uma representação de confiança sobre os outros, mas, a menos que possamos
usar uma plataforma VW/MMOG de cĂłdigo aberto, Ă© difĂcil â para nĂŁo dizer impossĂvel
â obter acesso aos dados gerados pelos utilizadores. Mesmo em sistemas de cĂłdigo
aberto, um nĂșmero de utilizadores pode recusar partilhar informaçÔes sobre seus amigos,
conhecidos, ou sobre outros. Ao juntar seus prĂłprios dados com os dados obtidos de
outros, o utilizador/jogador representado por um avatar deve ser capaz de produzir uma
avaliação de confiança sobre o utilizador/jogador com o qual se encontra a interagir.
Relativamente ao método de avaliação de confiança empregue nesta tese, utilizamos
lógica subjectiva para a representação da confiança, e também operadores lógicos da
lĂłgica subjectiva juntamente com algoritmos de procura em grafos para empreender
o processo de inferĂȘncia da confiança relativamente a outro utilizador. O sistema de
inferĂȘncia de confiança proposto foi validado atravĂ©s de um nĂșmero de cenĂĄrios Open-Simulator (opensimulator.org), que mostrou um aumento na precisĂŁo na avaliação da
confiança de avatares.
Resumindo, a nossa proposta visa, assim, introduzir uma teoria de confiança para mundos
virtuais, conjuntamente com métricas de avaliação de confiança (por exemplo, a
lógica subjectiva) e em métodos de procura de caminhos de confiança (com por exemplo,
através de métodos de pesquisa em grafos), partindo de uma base individual, em
vez de se basear em sistemas habituais de reputação centralizados. Em particular, e ao
contrårio de outros métodos de determinação do grau de confiança, os nossos métodos
sĂŁo executados em tempo real
- âŠ