deep|think: A Second Life environment for part-time research students at a distance

This paper reports on the design of a Second Life campus for a new innovative post-graduate research programme at the Open University, UK, a world leader in supported distance higher education. The programme, launched in October 2009, is a part- time Master of Philosophy (MPhil) to be delivered at a distance, supported by a blend of synchronous and asynchronous Internet technologies. This paper briefly discusses the pedagogical thinking behind the Second Life campus, and the way the implementation was designed to meet the pedagogy. The paper also reports on the outcome of an early evaluation we have conducted

Cloud for Gaming

Cloud for Gaming refers to the use of cloud computing technologies to build large-scale gaming infrastructures, with the goal of improving scalability and responsiveness, improve the user's experience and enable new business models.Comment: Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games. Newton Lee (Editor). Springer International Publishing, 2015, ISBN 978-3-319-08234-

Designing an online part-time Master of Philosophy with Problem Oriented Engineering

The paper reports on the application of Problem Oriented Engineering (POE) to the design of a highly innovative post-graduate research programme for the Open University, UK, a world leader in supported distance higher education. The new programme, to be launched in October 2009, is a part-time Master of Philosophy (MPhil) to be delivered entirely at a distance, supported by a blend of synchronous, asynchronous and immersive internet and web technologies. POE is a framework for engineering design under development at the Open University. After a brief description of the project and the task at hand, the paper discusses the overall engineering approach taken, key aspects of product design, the mapping between requirements and technology, and the development of one key technological component

Towards the improvement of self-service systems via emotional virtual agents

Affective computing and emotional agents have been found to have a positive effect on human-computer interactions. In order to develop an acceptable emotional agent for use in a self-service interaction, two stages of research were identified and carried out; the first to determine which facial expressions are present in such an interaction and the second to determine which emotional agent behaviours are perceived as appropriate during a problematic self-service shopping task. In the first stage, facial expressions associated with negative affect were found to occur during self-service shopping interactions, indicating that facial expression detection is suitable for detecting negative affective states during self-service interactions. In the second stage, user perceptions of the emotional facial expressions displayed by an emotional agent during a problematic self-service interaction were gathered. Overall, the expression of disgust was found to be perceived as inappropriate while emotionally neutral behaviour was perceived as appropriate, however gender differences suggested that females perceived surprise as inappropriate. Results suggest that agents should change their behaviour and appearance based on user characteristics such as gender

Віртуальні спільноти в Інтернеті

1. Margherita Pagani. Encyclopedia of Multimedia Technology and Networking, Second Edition (3 Volumes): – I-LAB Centre for Research on the Digital Economy, Bocconi University, Italy, 2008. – 1167 p. 2. Пелещишин А.М. Аналіз існуючих типів віртуальних спільнот у мережі Інтернет та побудова моделі віртуальної спільноти на основі веб-форуму / А.М.Пелещишин, Р.Б.Кравець, Ю.О.Сєров // Вісник Національного університету "Львівська політехніка". – 2011. – № 699: Інформаційні системи та мережі. – С. 212–221. 3. Роль інтернет-мережевих спільнот у становленні інформаційного суспільства в Україні [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу до ресурсу: http://veche.kiev.ua/journal/1827/.Показана актуальність вивчення віртуальних спільнот в мережі Інтернет, їх типологія та моделі використання. Проведений аналіз різних віртуальних спільнот.Науковий керівник – Бобарчук О.А., к.т.н, доцент кафедри КММ

Visualization of Accessible Multimedia Content in Web Pages

Multimedia content still presented on the web sites. The visualization of multimedia content by the users with disabilities, those that usually use screen readers, is extremely difficult. With the onset of the audio sequence of multimedia presentation it is difficult for users with visual impairs to listen the audio component of presentation and the audio version of the screen readers too, because the two audio streams cannot be controlled using only one volume control. Therefore, because of the difficulties to control the available audio streams and because of the difficulties to access the control buttons by people with disabilities, the multimedia content is often inaccessible for users with visual problems. More than this, the use of dynamic users’ interfaces is a critical problem because the screen-readers cannot detect the dynamics in content changes. The current paper presents some solutions for multimedia content production and distribution in distributed multimedia web presentations.Accessible multimedia content, Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange

Generating Multimedia Components for M-Learning

The paper proposes a solution to generate template based multimedia components for instruction and learning available both for computer based applications and for mobile devices. The field of research is situated at the intersection of computer science, mobile tools and e-learning and is generically named mobile learning or M-learning. The research goal is to provide access to computer based training resources from any location and to adapt the training content to the specific features of mobile devices, communication environment, users' preferences and users' knowledge. To become important tools in education field, the technical solutions proposed will follow to use the potential of mobile devices.M-learning, mobile devices, MPEG-21 standard, multimedia databases

Generating citizen trust in e-government using a trust verification agent: A research note

Generating Citizen Trust in e-Government using a Trust Verification AgentThis is an eGISE network paper. It is motivated by a concern about the extent to which trust issues inhibit a citizen’s take-up of online public sector services or engagement with public decision and policy making. A citizen’s decision to use online systems is influenced by their willingness to trust the environment and agency involved. This project addresses one aspect of individual “trust” decisions by providing support for citizens trying to evaluate the implications of the security infrastructure provided by the agency. Based on studies of the way both groups (citizens and agencies) express their concerns and concepts in the security area, the project will develop a software tool – a trust verification agent (TVA) - that can take an agency’s security statements (or security audit) and infer how effectively this meets the security concerns of a particular citizen. This will enable citizens to state their concerns and obtain an evaluation of the agency’s provision in appropriate “citizen friendly” language. Further, by employing rule-based expert systems techniques the TVA will also be able to explain its evaluation.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK (grant GR/T27020/01