Unleashing the Potentials of Immersive Augmented Reality for Software Engineering

In immersive augmented reality (IAR), users can wear a head-mounted display to see computer-generated images superimposed to their view of the world. IAR was shown to be beneficial across several domains, e.g., automotive, medicine, gaming and engineering, with positive impacts on, e.g., collaboration and communication. We think that IAR bears a great potential for software engineering but, as of yet, this research area has been neglected. In this vision paper, we elicit potentials and obstacles for the use of IAR in software engineering. We identify possible areas that can be supported with IAR technology by relating commonly discussed IAR improvements to typical software engineering tasks. We further demonstrate how innovative use of IAR technology may fundamentally improve typical activities of a software engineer through a comprehensive series of usage scenarios outlining practical application. Finally, we reflect on current limitations of IAR technology based on our scenarios and sketch research activities necessary to make our vision a reality. We consider this paper to be relevant to academia and industry alike in guiding the steps to innovative research and applications for IAR in software engineering

Entropy in Image Analysis II

Image analysis is a fundamental task for any application where extracting information from images is required. The analysis requires highly sophisticated numerical and analytical methods, particularly for those applications in medicine, security, and other fields where the results of the processing consist of data of vital importance. This fact is evident from all the articles composing the Special Issue "Entropy in Image Analysis II", in which the authors used widely tested methods to verify their results. In the process of reading the present volume, the reader will appreciate the richness of their methods and applications, in particular for medical imaging and image security, and a remarkable cross-fertilization among the proposed research areas

The role of public space in post-war reconstruction: the case of the redevelopment of Beirut city centre, Lebanon

This research emerges from the author's observations and from concerns shared by many local and international architects, urban designers and planners about policies and strategies adopted to reconstruct the city centre of Beirut following the Lebanese civil war (1975- 1990). Post -war reconstruction needs to be seen as a process that carefully restores and preserves the urban fabric as well as culture and heritage, and it should not be perceived as continuation of war by different means.A major postulate of this thesis is that post -war reconstruction is not just a physical phenomenon and needs to follow a holistic perspective that fulfils people's needs, perceptions and values. In other words, it is the unification of four attributes: the physical, socio- cultural, perceptual and functional attributes. Public space imbued with these attributes, in which they have interrelated relationships perceived through the transactional perspective to be a holistic phenomenon. Space can be used to guide the ongoing process of post -war reconstruction, as well as the natural evolution and transformation of the environment. The research assumes that shared identity, cultural continuity and collective memory can be achieved through the transaction of people in the space. To fulfil the thesis objectives, theories and principles on public space are reviewed and examined. A contextual review of the war and post -war period of the city centre of Beirut uncovers major concerns regarding its reconstruction policies and strategies.Public opinion and preferences are elicited using an open -ended questionnaire. Cognitive mapping is also used to examine the collective memory of people about the city centre and its spaces. A comparative spatial analysis is also employed to identify changes in accessibility and integration levels between the pre and post -war spaces.The consequence of the research outcome confirms that public space, through the transaction of people, provides the principles, qualities and meanings that respond to the authentic cultural forces and shared values of people, and the civic character of the city, which existed before the war and can still be seen shaping life today.The thesis, however, follows a logical progression of four interrelated parts. These are:PART ONE includes two chapters. Chapter One reviews a wide spectrum of literature on urban design principles. Chapter Two introduces attributes of public space.PART TWO comprises two chapters. Chapter Three focuses on reviewing the historical evolution of the old settlement of Beirut and its spaces, while Chapter Four outlines the implications caused by the civil war and its post -war reconstruction.PART THREE introduces the empirical work of the research in three chapters. Chapter Five reviews and analyses the questionnaire survey responses and results of 37 respondents. Chapter Six analyses the cognitive maps of the respondents using Lynch's five elements of The Image of the City. Chapter Seven presents the spatial analysis of the city centre of Beirut using space syntax (visibility graph analysis technique).PART FOUR is the concluding chapter. Chapter Eight examines the research findings and restates the thesis approach by proposing a framework for implementation and outlining its major characteristics

Spatial Transformations

This book examines a variety of subjective spatial experiences and knowledge production practices in order to shed new light on the specifics of contemporary socio-spatial change, driven as it is by inter alia, digitalization, transnationalization and migration. Considering the ways in which emerging spatial phenomena are conditioned by an increasing interconnectedness, this book asks how spaces are changing as a result of mediatization, increased mobility, globalization and social dislocation. With attention to questions surrounding the negotiation and (visual) communication of space, it explores the arrangements, spatialities and materialities that underpin the processes of spatial refiguration by which these changes come about. Bringing together the work of leading scholars from across diverse range disciplines to address questions of socio-spatial transformation, this volume will appeal to sociologists and geographers, as well as scholars and practitioners of urban planning and architecture

Performing the digital: performativity and performance studies in digital cultures

How is performativity shaped by digital technologies - and how do performative practices reflect and alter techno-social formations? "Performing the Digital" explores, maps and theorizes the conditions and effects of performativity in digital cultures. Bringing together scholars from performance studies, media theory, sociology and organization studies as well as practitioners of performance, the contributions engage with the implications of digital media and its networked infrastructures for modulations of affect and the body, for performing cities, protest, organization and markets, and for the performativity of critique. With contributions by Marie-Luise Angerer, Timon Beyes, Scott deLahunta and Florian Jenett, Margarete Jahrmann, Susan Kozel, Ann-Christina Lange, Oliver Leistert, Martina Leeker, Jon McKenzie, Sigrid Merx, Melanie Mohren and Bernhard Herbordt, Imanuel Schipper and Jens Schröter

Digital Disruption in Teaching and Testing

This book provides a significant contribution to the increasing conversation concerning the place of big data in education. Offering a multidisciplinary approach with a diversity of perspectives from international scholars and industry experts, chapter authors engage in both research- and industry-informed discussions and analyses on the place of big data in education, particularly as it pertains to large-scale and ongoing assessment practices moving into the digital space. This volume offers an innovative, practical, and international view of the future of current opportunities and challenges in education and the place of assessment in this context

Agency

"There is agency in all we do: thinking, doing, or making. We invent a tune, play, or use it to celebrate an occasion. Or we make a conceptual leap and ask more abstract questions about the conditions for agency. They include autonomy and self-appraisal, each contested by arguments immersing us in circumstances we don’t control. But can it be true we that have no personal responsibility for all we think and do? Agency: Moral Identity and Free Will proposes that deliberation, choice, and free will emerged within the evolutionary history of animals with a physical advantage: organisms having cell walls or exoskeletons had an internal space within which to protect themselves from external threats or encounters. This defense was both structural and active: such organisms could ignore intrusions or inhibit risky behavior. Their capacities evolved with time: inhibition became the power to deliberate and choose the manner of one’s responses. Hence the ability of humans and some other animals to determine their reactions to problematic situations or to information that alters values and choices. This is free will as a material power, not as the conclusion to a conceptual argument. Having it makes us morally responsible for much we do. It prefigures moral identity. Closely argued but plainly written, Agency: Moral Identity and Free Will speaks for autonomy and responsibility when both are eclipsed by ideas that embed us in history or tradition. Our sense of moral choice and freedom is accurate. We are not altogether the creatures of our circumstances.

Discrete Automation - Eyes of the City

Observing people’s presence in physical space and deciphering their behaviors have always been critical actions to designers, planners and anyone else who has an interest in exploring how cities work. It was 1961 when Jane Jacobs, in her seminal book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”, coined a famous expression to convey this idea. According to Jacobs, “the natural proprietors” of a certain part of the metropolis – the people who live, work or spend a substantial amount of time there – become the “eyes on the street.” Their collective, distributed, decentralized gaze becomes the prerequisite to establishing “a marvelous order for maintaining the safety of the streets and the freedom of the city.” Almost half a century later, we find ourselves at the inception of a new chapter in the relationship between the city and digital technologies, which calls for a reexamination of the old “eyes on the street” idea. In the next few years, thanks to the most recent advances in Artificial Intelligence, deep learning and imaging, we are about to reach an unprecedented scenario, the most radical development in the evolution of the Internet-of-Things: architectural space is acquiring the full ability to “see.” Imagine that any room, street or shop in our city can recognize you, and autonomously respond to your presence. With Jacobs’s “eyes on the street,” it was people who looked at other people or the city and interpreted its mechanisms. In this new scenario, buildings and streets similarly acquire the ability to observe and react as urban life unfolds in front of them. After the “eyes on the street,” we are now entering the era of the “Eyes of the City.” What happens, then, to people and the urban landscape when the sensor-imbued city is able to gaze back? What we are currently facing is an “utopia or oblivion” crossroads, to say it with the words of one of the most notable thinkers of the past century, Richard Buckminster Fuller. We believe that one of the fundamental duties of architects and designers today is to grapple with this momentous shift, and engage people in the process. “Eyes of the City” aims to experiment with these emerging scenarios to better comprehend them, deconstructing the potential uses of new technologies in order to make them accessible to everyone and inspire people to form an opinion. Using critical design as a tool, the exhibition seeks to create experiences that will encourage people to get involved in defining the ways in which new technologies will shape their cities in years to come. For this reason, it recognizes in Shenzhen’s Futian high-speed railway station its natural home – a place where to reach a broad, diverse audience of intentional visitors and accidental passersby, and a space where, just like in most other liminal transportation hubs, the impact of an “Eyes of the City” scenario is likely going to be felt the most