Animated virtual agents to cue user attention: comparison of static and dynamic deictic cues on gaze and touch responses

This paper describes an experiment developed to study the performance of virtual agent animated cues within digital interfaces. Increasingly, agents are used in virtual environments as part of the branding process and to guide user interaction. However, the level of agent detail required to establish and enhance efficient allocation of attention remains unclear. Although complex agent motion is now possible, it is costly to implement and so should only be routinely implemented if a clear benefit can be shown. Pevious methods of assessing the effect of gaze-cueing as a solution to scene complexity have relied principally on two-dimensional static scenes and manual peripheral inputs. Two experiments were run to address the question of agent cues on human-computer interfaces. Both experiments measured the efficiency of agent cues analyzing participant responses either by gaze or by touch respectively. In the first experiment, an eye-movement recorder was used to directly assess the immediate overt allocation of attention by capturing the participant’s eyefixations following presentation of a cueing stimulus. We found that a fully animated agent could speed up user interaction with the interface. When user attention was directed using a fully animated agent cue, users responded 35% faster when compared with stepped 2-image agent cues, and 42% faster when compared with a static 1-image cue. The second experiment recorded participant responses on a touch screen using same agent cues. Analysis of touch inputs confirmed the results of gaze-experiment, where fully animated agent made shortest time response with a slight decrease on the time difference comparisons. Responses to fully animated agent were 17% and 20% faster when compared with 2-image and 1-image cue severally. These results inform techniques aimed at engaging users’ attention in complex scenes such as computer games and digital transactions within public or social interaction contexts by demonstrating the benefits of dynamic gaze and head cueing directly on the users’ eye movements and touch responses

A comprehensive fractal approach in determination of the effective thermal conductivity of gas diffusion layers in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

The challenges in the fuel cell industry is to produce the efficient thermal and water management for accurate determination of the effectiveness thermal conductivity of gas diffusion layers (GDL) used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC‟s). This is one of the factors affecting the durability of a fuel cell and need to get a solution to minimize costs and optimize the use of electrodes and cells. The main objectives of this research focus on the capability of the fractal approach for estimation the effectiveness of thermal conductivity of gas diffusion layer. Moreover, on this research also to propose modified fractal equations in determination of the effective thermal conductivity of GDL in PEMFCs based on previous study. Other objectives in this study are demonstrated the thermal conductivity of GDL treated with PTFE contents by using through-plane thermal conductivity experiment method. The through-plane measurement (experiment method) has been used in estimating through-plane thermal conductivity of the GDL. Thermal resistance for GDL also has been investigated under compression pressure 0.1 MPa until 1.0 MPa. In fractal equation, the determination of tortuous and pore fractal dimension can be done by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) method. Determination of effectiveness thermal conductivity using of fractal equation with slightly modified. In findings, it was found that fractal equation have been modified and measured on the GDL parameter characteristics. It was shown that the value of the effectiveness thermal conductivity of the sample using fractal approach is in good agreement with the experimental value. Finally, all the effective thermal conductivity measured by experimental and fractal approach have been determined with the variant temperature and compression pressure to show the validation result between of this two methods

Navigating large-scale virtual environments: what differences occur between helmet-mounted and desk-top displays?

Participants used a helmet-mounted display (HMD) and a desk-top (monitor) display to learn the layouts of two large-scale virtual environments (VEs) through repeated, direct navigational experience. Both VEs were ‘‘virtual buildings’’ containing more than seventy rooms. Participants using the HMD navigated the buildings significantly more quickly and developed a significantly more accurate sense of relative straight-line distance. There was no significant difference between the two types of display in terms of the distance that participants traveled or the mean accuracy of their direction estimates. Behavioral analyses showed that participants took advantage of the natural, head-tracked interface provided by the HMD in ways that included ‘‘looking around’’more often while traveling through the VEs, and spending less time stationary in the VEs while choosing a direction in which to travel

Forward hadron production in ultraperipheral proton-heavy-ion collisions at the LHC and RHIC

We discuss hadron production in the forward rapidity region in ultraperipheral proton-lead collisions at the LHC and proton-gold collisions at RHIC. Our discussion is based on the Monte Carlo simulations of the interactions of virtual photons emitted by a fast moving nucleus with a proton beam. We simulate the virtual photon flux with the STARLIGHT event generator and then particle production with the SOPHIA, DPMJET, and PYTHIA event generators. We show the rapidity distributions of charged and neutral particles, and the momentum distributions of neutral pions and neutrons at forward rapidities. According to the Monte Carlo simulations, we find large cross sections of ultraperipheral collisions for particle production especially in the very forward region, leading to substantial background contributions to investigations of collective nuclear effects and spin physics. Finally we can distinguish between proton-nucleus inelastic interactions and ultraperipheral collisions with additional requirements of either of the charged particles at midrapidity and a certain level of activities at negative forward rapidity.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tabl

Development of a dynamic virtual reality model of the inner ear sensory system as a learning and demonstrating tool

In order to keep track of the position and motion of our body in space, nature has given us a fascinating and very ingenious organ, the inner ear. Each inner ear includes five biological sensors - three angular and two linear accelerometers - which provide the body with the ability to sense angular and linear motion of the head with respect to inertial space. The aim of this paper is to present a dynamic virtual reality model of these sensors. This model, implemented in Matlab/Simulink, simulates the rotary chair testing which is one of the tests carried out during a diagnosis of the vestibular system. High-quality 3D-animations linked to the Simulink model are created using the export of CAD models into Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) files. This virtual environment shows not only the test but also the state of each sensor (excited or inhibited) in real time. Virtual reality is used as a tool of integrated learning of the dynamic behavior of the inner ear using ergonomic paradigm of user interactivity (zoom, rotation, mouse interaction,…). It can be used as a learning and demonstrating tool either in the medicine field - to understand the behavior of the sensors during any kind of motion - or in the aeronautical field to relate the inner ear functioning to some sensory illusions

Evaluation of optimisation techniques for multiscopic rendering

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science by ResearchThis project evaluates different performance optimisation techniques applied to stereoscopic and multiscopic rendering for interactive applications. The artefact features a robust plug-in package for the Unity game engine. The thesis provides background information for the performance optimisations, outlines all the findings, evaluates the optimisations and provides suggestions for future work. Scrum development methodology is used to develop the artefact and quantitative research methodology is used to evaluate the findings by measuring performance. This project concludes that the use of each performance optimisation has specific use case scenarios in which performance benefits. Foveated rendering provides greatest performance increase for both stereoscopic and multiscopic rendering but is also more computationally intensive as it requires an eye tracking solution. Dynamic resolution is very beneficial when overall frame rate smoothness is needed and frame drops are present. Depth optimisation is beneficial for vast open environments but can lead to decreased performance if used inappropriately

Hierarchical Event Descriptors (HED): Semi-Structured Tagging for Real-World Events in Large-Scale EEG.

Real-world brain imaging by EEG requires accurate annotation of complex subject-environment interactions in event-rich tasks and paradigms. This paper describes the evolution of the Hierarchical Event Descriptor (HED) system for systematically describing both laboratory and real-world events. HED version 2, first described here, provides the semantic capability of describing a variety of subject and environmental states. HED descriptions can include stimulus presentation events on screen or in virtual worlds, experimental or spontaneous events occurring in the real world environment, and events experienced via one or multiple sensory modalities. Furthermore, HED 2 can distinguish between the mere presence of an object and its actual (or putative) perception by a subject. Although the HED framework has implicit ontological and linked data representations, the user-interface for HED annotation is more intuitive than traditional ontological annotation. We believe that hiding the formal representations allows for a more user-friendly interface, making consistent, detailed tagging of experimental, and real-world events possible for research users. HED is extensible while retaining the advantages of having an enforced common core vocabulary. We have developed a collection of tools to support HED tag assignment and validation; these are available at hedtags.org. A plug-in for EEGLAB (sccn.ucsd.edu/eeglab), CTAGGER, is also available to speed the process of tagging existing studies

Intrusiveness, Trust and Argumentation: Using Automated Negotiation to Inhibit the Transmission of Disruptive Information

The question of how to promote the growth and diffusion of information has been extensively addressed by a wide research community. A common assumption underpinning most studies is that the information to be transmitted is useful and of high quality. In this paper, we endorse a complementary perspective. We investigate how the growth and diffusion of high quality information can be managed and maximized by preventing, dampening and minimizing the diffusion of low quality, unwanted information. To this end, we focus on the conflict between pervasive computing environments and the joint activities undertaken in parallel local social contexts. When technologies for distributed activities (e.g. mobile technology) develop, both artifacts and services that enable people to participate in non-local contexts are likely to intrude on local situations. As a mechanism for minimizing the intrusion of the technology, we develop a computational model of argumentation-based negotiation among autonomous agents. A key component in the model is played by trust: what arguments are used and how they are evaluated depend on how trustworthy the agents judge one another. To gain an insight into the implications of the model, we conduct a number of virtual experiments. Results enable us to explore how intrusiveness is affected by trust, the negotiation network and the agents' abilities of conducting argumentation