Enhancing collaborative learning in an augmented reality supported environment

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Adoption of the network gaming paradigm for technology mediated learning in education

Evolution of ICT and, moreover, gaming contents and technologies, let researchers and practitioners to test and employ new digital learning tools based on interaction. Academies spent a huge effort on this topic: there is a vast literature about applications and serious games playable on interactive spaces/floors, touch screens and other interactive environments, trying to define impact of such instruments in learning. While the positive impact of gaming in learning is widely demonstrated and proofed, there still is a variety of unresolved questions. At the Sound and Music Computing laboratories at DEI, UNIPD, research focused on the potential catalysing role that enactive learning, through full-body movement, could have in a learning process. Experiments were produced to investigate this topic: after the experiences coming from “Stanza Logomotoria” and “Harmonic Walk”, also the experience with the “Good or Bad?” game followed this research path. When dealing with discouraging results, the author and his colleagues noticed some flaws in the research approach, that are commonly spread among this research community: the generally short exposure of the test subjects to the game, whose experiences are biased by the “novelty effect” and the poor attention given to the quality of the game experience itself, that results widely far from minimal actual commercial videogame standards. In other words, classic academic approach to serious games treats them as “isolated cases”: tracked experiences are limited in terms of dissemination, access (when can be accessed just in a particular place, with the obvious necessity of sharing the instruments with other people) and time. This fact is very limiting in terms of applications’ exploitation (game’s intrinsic ability to generate a solid long-term engagement on the users/players is wasted). The present study aims at addressing the reported issues by proposing a new educative experience, that exploits serious games and try to break this kind of “isolation”, by creating a proper gaming context designed to catalyse its potential. The idea is to import mechanisms and practices that are a de facto standard in commercial videogames market (e. g. the successful cases of Playstation Network, Xbox Live and Steam Community): author’s goal will be to provide a solution to catalyse players’ experience and stimulate a virtuous competition, in order to fully exploit serious games, through achievement systems and a multiplatform approach. In addition, the proposed paradigm will equip teachers with tools to track users’ performances, collect statistics and actively join ad administer students’ communities. Validation upon students-gamers and teachers’ opinions showed an appreciation for the proposed technologies, with some additional requirements and suggestions for model improvement and refinement. These results stimulated the development of a concrete prototype, which is actually under construction (the PONG project)

Interacting with virtual reconstructions in museums: The etruscanning project

Starting from our experience in this domain, we discuss some fundamental concepts about the potentialities of the virtual reconstructions of cultural sites inside museums, with a specific focus on the communication needs, the design, the combination of media, the interaction interfaces, and the embodiment. We conceive a virtual reconstruction as a digital ecosystem, whose main peculiarities are (1) 3D reconstruction, (2) inclusivity, and (3) interactivity. A virtual reconstruction, in a wide sense, should integrate different levels of visualization, both realistic and symbolic; 3D models; metadata; storytelling; behaviors; and tools of visualization and interaction, in order to "reconstruct" and communicate a cultural context, an ecosystem where all the information is integrated. Despite the great advancements of the last years in the digitization process, computer graphics techniques, and archiving strategies, a basic limit of most of virtual museums is that they do not fire up the attention and the involvement of the public: they lack stimulating activities for visitors, narratives metaphors, and emotional impact. The interaction interfaces are not always simple to understand and to control in a few minutes, and they can generate a sense of frustration that causes users to abandon the application after a short and superficial approach. No gap should exist between knowledge and communication. But how can we translate the complexity of the knowledge in appealing to users and into simple applications that fit with the public's need? This article focuses on some communication rules and criteria that are often considered of minor importance by the researchers working in the field of digital cultural heritage but that are really essential to cultural transmission, especially inside museums. We believe that a stronger collaboration between research institutions and museums and among different disciplines would be recommended. Given this premise, we present the Etruscanning EU project, developed in 2011- 2013, focused on the virtual reconstruction of two important Etruscan tombs of the Orientalizing period: the Regolini-Galassi tomb in Cerveteri and the tomb n.5 of Monte Michele in Veii. © 2014 ACM