Does modality make a difference? A comparative study of mobile augmented reality for education and training

Includes bibliographical references.2022 Fall.As augmented reality (AR) technologies progress they have begun to impact the field of education and training. Many prior studies have explored the potential benefits and challenges to integrating emerging technologies into educational practices. Both internal and external factors may impact the overall adoption of the technology, however there are key benefits identified for the schema building process, which is important for knowledge acquisition. This study aims to elaborate and expand upon prior studies to explore the question does mobile augmented reality provide for stronger knowledge retention compared to other training and education modalities? To address this question this study takes a comparative experimental approach by exposing participants to one of three training modalities (AR, paper manual, or online video) and evaluating their knowledge retention and other educational outcomes

MRnews: Design Explorations into Accessibility and News

Creating accessible technology and content is generally seen as beneficial for all users. This is particularly important when the content has a significant societal impact, such as news stories. To find new and innovative ways to engage users, digital news outlets are faced with challenges related to accessibility. In the case of Mixed Reality (MR) technology, the increasing interest emphasizes the need for the technology to be inclusive and accessible. The embodied nature and affordances of MR technology enable users to manipulate virtual objects using real-world knowledge and in real-time and enable them to utilize a wide range of skills when interacting with such systems. In turn, leveraging these affordances can enhance the accessibility of the task at hand. Contributions to developing accessibility guidelines have been made, and the use of MR applications to enhance accessibility is on the rise. However, these contributions are most prominent in education and not for leisurely use. This research project investigates the affordances of MR and of the Augmented Reality (AR) Head Mounted Display (HMD), HoloLens 2 (HL2) in particular, and how these can be leveraged to enhance accessibility when reading digital news. This is a Research through Design (RtD) project carried out in participation with users by conducting design activities and user evaluations. The RtD-process is supported by prototypes developed through an iterative process. MRnews is an application built for Microsoft’s AR HMD, the HL2. The implemented design showcases how news content creators and developers can leverage the affordances of MR technology to achieve accessibility in news stories. The results point toward direct manipulation of virtual content utilizing the spatial nature of MR technology and the use of sensory cues to keep the user oriented and focused impact accessibility.Masteroppgave i medie- og interaksjonsdesignMIX350MASV-MI

The dawn of the human-machine era: a forecast of new and emerging language technologies

New language technologies are coming, thanks to the huge and competing private investment fuelling rapid progress; we can either understand and foresee their effects, or be taken by surprise and spend our time trying to catch up. This report scketches out some transformative new technologies that are likely to fundamentally change our use of language. Some of these may feel unrealistically futuristic or far-fetched, but a central purpose of this report - and the wider LITHME network - is to illustrate that these are mostly just the logical development and maturation of technologies currently in prototype. But will everyone benefit from all these shiny new gadgets? Throughout this report we emphasise a range of groups who will be disadvantaged and issues of inequality. Important issues of security and privacy will accompany new language technologies. A further caution is to re-emphasise the current limitations of AI. Looking ahead, we see many intriguing opportunities and new capabilities, but a range of other uncertainties and inequalities. New devices will enable new ways to talk, to translate, to remember, and to learn. But advances in technology will reproduce existing inequalities among those who cannot afford these devices, among the world's smaller languages, and especially for sign language. Debates over privacy and security will flare and crackle with every new immersive gadget. We will move together into this curious new world with a mix of excitement and apprehension - reacting, debating, sharing and disagreeing as we always do. Plug in, as the human-machine era dawn

Individuality and the collective in AI agents: Explorations of shared consciousness and digital homunculi in the metaverse for cultural heritage

The confluence of extended reality (XR) technologies, including augmented and virtual reality, with large language models (LLM) marks a significant advancement in the field of digital humanities, opening uncharted avenues for the representation of cultural heritage within the burgeoning metaverse. This paper undertakes an examination of the potentialities and intricacies of such a convergence, focusing particularly on the creation of digital homunculi or changelings. These virtual beings, remarkable for their sentience and individuality, are also part of a collective consciousness, a notion explored through a thematic comparison in science fiction with the Borg and the Changelings in the Star Trek universe. Such a comparison offers a metaphorical framework for discussing complex phenomena such as shared consciousness and individuality, illuminating their bearing on perceptions of self and awareness. Further, the paper considers the ethical implications of these concepts, including potential loss of individuality and the challenges inherent to accurate representation of historical figures and cultures. The latter necessitates collaboration with cultural experts, underscoring the intersectionality of technological innovation and cultural sensitivity. Ultimately, this chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of integrating large language models with immersive technologies and situates these developments within a nuanced cultural and ethical discourse. By offering a comprehensive overview and proposing clear recommendations, the paper lays the groundwork for future research and development in the application of these technologies within the unique context of cultural heritage representation in the metaverse

Promoting the adoption of gaming technology in occupational therapy practice

The prevalence of regular video game use among populations of all ages, genders, geographic locations, and life experiences has grown exponentially in recent years (Entertainment Software Association, 2021). Gaming provides many players with an opportunity to engage in an immersive, engaging, and enjoyable activity that has the power to positively impact many facets of quality of life and well-being (Jones, 2021; Britnell & Goldberg, 2002). Despite monumental strides made in the gaming industry to ensure gaming controllers and software settings are accessible for players with disabilities, many players still face barriers to video game access following the onset of injury, illness, or an existing condition. The relationship between the occupational therapy profession and the prevalence of video game technologies is multifaceted. First, occupational therapists are tasked with adapting tasks or environments to facilitate access and independence in activities that a particular client finds meaningful. Additionally, occupational therapists ground the nature of their work in creating evaluation methods and intervention approaches that leverage a client’s established meaningful occupations in producing functional outcomes through therapeutic exercise and activity (AJOT, 2020). Given the large and growing population of clients who consider gaming a meaningful occupation, this project asserts that occupational therapists have the following responsibilities related to adequately serving the needs of their current and future clients: 1. Acquiring knowledge needed to successfully adapt gaming hardware and gameplay tasks through assistive technologies to facilitate access and independence in gameplay for leisure or social participation purposes 2. Acquiring knowledge needed to successfully embed game-based activities within occupational therapy interventions to ensure treatment sessions remain occupation based, meaningful, and engaging to applicable client populations. Despite these factors, gaming knowledge and adoption among occupational therapists remains relatively low due to a variety of factors discussed in further detail throughout this paper (Hills et al., 2016; Jones, 2021; Levac et al., 2017; Thomson et al., 2016). This project assessed the current body of evidence-based literature related to the therapeutic implications of gaming, the nature of current barriers contributing to low technology adoption rates, and established approaches deemed effective in mitigating these barriers in detail. This large body of data and evidence was used to create the Gaming and Occupational therapy Adoption Training Program (G.O.A.T.). This program leverages a multidimensional approach in providing a comprehensive intervention program for occupational therapists that ultimately seeks to increase the adoption of gaming technologies within the occupational therapy profession

Access beyond geographic accessibility: understanding opportunities to human needs in a physical-virtual world

Access to basic human needs, such as food and healthcare, is conceptually understood to be comprised of multiple spatial and aspatial dimensions. However, research in this area has traditionally been explored with spatial accessibility measures that almost exclusively focus on just two dimensions. Namely, the availability of resources, services, and facilities, and the accessibility or ease to which locations of these opportunities can be reached with existing land-use and transport systems under temporal constraints and considering individual characteristics of people. These calculated measures are insufficient in holistically capturing available opportunities as they ignore other components, such as the emergence of virtual space to carry out activities and interactions enabled by modern information and communication technologies (ICT). Human dynamics today exist in a hybrid physical-virtual space, and recent research has highlighted the importance of understanding ICT, individual behavior, local context, social relations, and human perceptions in identifying opportunities available to people. However, there lacks a holistic approach that relates these different aspects to access research. This dissertation addresses this gap by proposing a new conceptual framework for the geography of access for various kinds of human needs, using food access as a case study to illustrate how the proposed framework can be applied to address critical societal issues. An interactive multispace geographic information system (GIS) web application is developed to better understand and visualize individual potential food access based on the conceptual framework. This dissertation contributes to the body of research with a proposed conceptual framework of access in a hybrid physical-virtual world, integration of various big and small data sources to reveal information relating to the access of people, and novel development of a multi-space GIS to analyze and visualize access to opportunities

Unlocking the Potential of ChatGPT: A Comprehensive Exploration of its Applications, Advantages, Limitations, and Future Directions in Natural Language Processing

Large language models have revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence and have been used in various applications. Among these models, ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer) has been developed by OpenAI, it stands out as a powerful tool that has been widely adopted. ChatGPT has been successfully applied in numerous areas, including chatbots, content generation, language translation, personalized recommendations, and even medical diagnosis and treatment. Its success in these applications can be attributed to its ability to generate human-like responses, understand natural language, and adapt to different contexts. Its versatility and accuracy make it a powerful tool for natural language processing (NLP). However, there are also limitations to ChatGPT, such as its tendency to produce biased responses and its potential to perpetuate harmful language patterns. This article provides a comprehensive overview of ChatGPT, its applications, advantages, and limitations. Additionally, the paper emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations when using this robust tool in real-world scenarios. Finally, This paper contributes to ongoing discussions surrounding artificial intelligence and its impact on vision and NLP domains by providing insights into prompt engineering techniques

A Systematic Review of Extended Reality (XR) for Understanding and Augmenting Vision Loss

Over the past decade, extended reality (XR) has emerged as an assistive technology not only to augment residual vision of people losing their sight but also to study the rudimentary vision restored to blind people by a visual neuroprosthesis. To make the best use of these emerging technologies, it is valuable and timely to understand the state of this research and identify any shortcomings that are present. Here we present a systematic literature review of 227 publications from 106 different venues assessing the potential of XR technology to further visual accessibility. In contrast to other reviews, we sample studies from multiple scientific disciplines, focus on augmentation of a person's residual vision, and require studies to feature a quantitative evaluation with appropriate end users. We summarize prominent findings from different XR research areas, show how the landscape has changed over the last decade, and identify scientific gaps in the literature. Specifically, we highlight the need for real-world validation, the broadening of end-user participation, and a more nuanced understanding of the suitability and usability of different XR-based accessibility aids. By broadening end-user participation to early stages of the design process and shifting the focus from behavioral performance to qualitative assessments of usability, future research has the potential to develop XR technologies that may not only allow for studying vision loss, but also enable novel visual accessibility aids with the potential to impact the lives of millions of people living with vision loss