The virtual playground: an educational virtual reality environment for evaluating interactivity and conceptual learning

The research presented in this paper aims at investigating user interaction in immersive virtual learning environments (VLEs), focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on conceptual learning. The goal has been to examine if the learning of young users improves through interacting in (i.e. exploring, reacting to, and acting upon) an immersive virtual environment (VE) compared to non interactive or non-immersive environments. Empirical work was carried out with more than 55 primary school students between the ages of 8 and 12, in different between-group experiments: an exploratory study, a pilot study, and a large-scale experiment. The latter was conducted in a virtual environment designed to simulate a playground. In this ‘Virtual Playground’, each participant was asked to complete a set of tasks designed to address arithmetical ‘fractions’ problems. Three different conditions, two experimental virtual reality (VR) conditions and a non-VR condition, that varied the levels of activity and interactivity, were designed to evaluate how children accomplish the various tasks. Pre-tests, post-tests, interviews, video, audio, and log files were collected for each participant, and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. This paper presents a selection of case studies extracted from the qualitative analysis, which illustrate the variety of approaches taken by children in the VEs in response to visual cues and system feedback. Results suggest that the fully interactive VE aided children in problem solving but did not provide as strong evidence of conceptual change as expected; rather, it was the passive VR environment, where activity was guided by a virtual robot, that seemed to support student reflection and recall, leading to indications of conceptual change

Tangible user interfaces : past, present and future directions

In the last two decades, Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) have emerged as a new interface type that interlinks the digital and physical worlds. Drawing upon users' knowledge and skills of interaction with the real non-digital world, TUIs show a potential to enhance the way in which people interact with and leverage digital information. However, TUI research is still in its infancy and extensive research is required in or- der to fully understand the implications of tangible user interfaces, to develop technologies that further bridge the digital and the physical, and to guide TUI design with empirical knowledge. This paper examines the existing body of work on Tangible User In- terfaces. We start by sketching the history of tangible user interfaces, examining the intellectual origins of this field. We then present TUIs in a broader context, survey application domains, and review frame- works and taxonomies. We also discuss conceptual foundations of TUIs including perspectives from cognitive sciences, phycology, and philoso- phy. Methods and technologies for designing, building, and evaluating TUIs are also addressed. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limita- tions of TUIs and chart directions for future research

The Universe from Scratch

A fascinating and deep question about nature is what one would see if one could probe space and time at smaller and smaller distances. Already the 19th-century founders of modern geometry contemplated the possibility that a piece of empty space that looks completely smooth and structureless to the naked eye might have an intricate microstructure at a much smaller scale. Our vastly increased understanding of the physical world acquired during the 20th century has made this a certainty. The laws of quantum theory tell us that looking at spacetime at ever smaller scales requires ever larger energies, and, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, this will alter spacetime itself: it will acquire structure in the form of "curvature". What we still lack is a definitive Theory of Quantum Gravity to give us a detailed and quantitative description of the highly curved and quantum-fluctuating geometry of spacetime at this so-called Planck scale. - This article outlines a particular approach to constructing such a theory, that of Causal Dynamical Triangulations, and its achievements so far in deriving from first principles why spacetime is what it is, from the tiniest realms of the quantum to the large-scale structure of the universe.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures; review paper commissioned by Contemporary Physics and aimed at a wider physics audience; minor beautifications, coincides with journal versio

Agent Street: An Environment for Exploring Agent-Based Models in Second Life

Urban models can be seen on a continuum between iconic and symbolic. Generally speaking, iconic models are physical versions of the real world at some scaled down representation, while symbolic models represent the system in terms of the way they function replacing the physical or material system by some logical and/or mathematical formulae. Traditionally iconic and symbolic models were distinct classes of model but due to the rise of digital computing the distinction between the two is becoming blurred, with symbolic models being embedded into iconic models. However, such models tend to be single user. This paper demonstrates how 3D symbolic models in the form of agent-based simulations can be embedded into iconic models using the multi-user virtual world of Second Life. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates Second Life\'s potential for social science simulation. To demonstrate this, we first introduce Second Life and provide two exemplar models; Conway\'s Game of Life, and Schelling\'s Segregation Model which highlight how symbolic models can be viewed in an iconic environment. We then present a simple pedestrian evacuation model which merges the iconic and symbolic together and extends the model to directly incorporate avatars and agents in the same environment illustrating how \'real\' participants can influence simulation outcomes. Such examples demonstrate the potential for creating highly visual, immersive, interactive agent-based models for social scientists in multi-user real time virtual worlds. The paper concludes with some final comments on problems with representing models in current virtual worlds and future avenues of research.Agent-Based Modelling, Pedestrian Evacuation, Segregation, Virtual Worlds, Second Life

New technologies for urban designers: the VENUE project

In this report, we first outline the basic idea of VENUE. This involves developing digital tools froma foundation of geographic information systems (GIS) software which we then apply to urbandesign, a subject area and profession which has little tradition in using such tools. Our project wasto develop two types of tool, namely functional analysis based on embedding models of movementin local environments into GIS based on ideas from the field of space syntax; and secondlyfashioning these ideas in a wider digital context in which the entire range of GIS technologies werebrought to bear at the local scale. By local scale, we mean the representation of urban environmentsfrom about 1: 500 to around 1: 2500

Analysis of Flood Patterns in Adams County, Pennsylvania Utilizing Drone Technology and Computer Simulations

Drone imagery and photogrammetry models of the Gettysburg College campus and the terrain at Boyer Nurseries and Orchards were utilized to study flood patterns in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Gettysburg College has lower-sloped land and moderately built infrastructure while Boyer Orchards has drastically sloped land with many patches of abundant vegetation. The two locations were selected due to the fact that they have starkly different surface features, while the bedrock geology of the areas are very similar. The terrain of the models was isolated before a 3D carver and 3D printer were used to construct physical models to further analyze potential water flow and speed through virtual, modeled flood simulations. The models were used to compare real world rainfall data and flood events in the investigated areas from the months of June to August in 2018. I hypothesized that the Gettysburg College campus would experience more severe flooding that would take longer to subside in comparison to Boyer Orchards due to the steeper slope of the orchards’ terrain. The research revealed that Boyer Orchards experienced more extreme flooding and rainfall than Gettysburg College but was able to neutralize the effects due to plentiful vegetation and physio-graphic differences. Modeled flood simulations demonstrated less rainfall in comparison to actual rainfall values: there were differences of 0.78 cm and 1.32 cm between the actual and simulated rainfall amounts for Gettysburg and the Boyer Orchards area, respectively

A discrete history of the Lorentzian path integral

In these lecture notes, I describe the motivation behind a recent formulation of a non-perturbative gravitational path integral for Lorentzian (instead of the usual Euclidean) space-times, and give a pedagogical introduction to its main features. At the regularized, discrete level this approach solves the problems of (i) having a well-defined Wick rotation, (ii) possessing a coordinate-invariant cutoff, and (iii) leading to_convergent_ sums over geometries. Although little is known as yet about the existence and nature of an underlying continuum theory of quantum gravity in four dimensions, there are already a number of beautiful results in d=2 and d=3 where continuum limits have been found. They include an explicit example of the inequivalence of the Euclidean and Lorentzian path integrals, a non-perturbative mechanism for the cancellation of the conformal factor, and the discovery that causality can act as an effective regulator of quantum geometry.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, typos corrected, some comments and references adde