Creating Three-Sixty Objects for Marist Archives Using Open Source JQuery Reel

[Excerpt] In this article I will look into some of the recent 3D digitization projects and highlight numerous technological and financial challenges that would be familiar to many small and medium sized archives. I will further propose jQuery Reel, an open source three-sixty player as a viable alternative to 3D modeling and discuss the workflow we employed at Marist Archives

Substitutional reality:using the physical environment to design virtual reality experiences

Experiencing Virtual Reality in domestic and other uncontrolled settings is challenging due to the presence of physical objects and furniture that are not usually defined in the Virtual Environment. To address this challenge, we explore the concept of Substitutional Reality in the context of Virtual Reality: a class of Virtual Environments where every physical object surrounding a user is paired, with some degree of discrepancy, to a virtual counterpart. We present a model of potential substitutions and validate it in two user studies. In the first study we investigated factors that affect participants' suspension of disbelief and ease of use. We systematically altered the virtual representation of a physical object and recorded responses from 20 participants. The second study investigated users' levels of engagement as the physical proxy for a virtual object varied. From the results, we derive a set of guidelines for the design of future Substitutional Reality experiences

Learning Chemistry by Playing

Chemistry belongs to the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathemat ics), which are often labelled as hard subjects of matter. This idea is a starting point to demotivate children even before they learn the subject at school. In addition, school subjects are increasingly extensive and common teaching strategies are becoming less captivating. On the other hand, nowadays children have a strong relationship with technology, particularly with mobile games, which are a good way to pass the time with small e↵ort while providing an enjoyable experience. The evolution of technology also allows us to take advantage of certain tools such as augmented reality, which has presented great potential in the educational field and in the creation of motivation. Another important subject that is directly related to chemistry is climate change. Tak ing into account that children are the generation of the future, it is relevant that they are aware of Climate Change causes and the impacts that those changes have and will have in our planet, as well as the solutions and measures to be implemented, so that the e↵ects won’t be aggravated. Hence, we created an educational mobile game targeting 9 to 12-year-old children to explore its utilization in the transmission of chemistry knowledge, as well as in the creation of motivation and in sensitization regarding climate change subjects. The game contains a unique storyline, and it is based on augmented reality technologies and tangi ble interfaces, that enrich the learning experience. According to our findings, the game provided a pleasant experience to the users, who significantly improved their knowledge regarding basic chemistry concepts addressed in the game. In addition, the game promoted a more positive attitude regarding the chemistry field and awareness regarding the climate change problematic.A química pertence às áreas STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), que são frequentemente rotuladas como difíceis. Esta ideia é um ponto de partida para criar desmotivação por parte das crianças mesmo antes destas aprenderem a matéria na escola. Para além disso, as matérias escolares são cada vez mais extensas e as estratégias comuns de ensino estão a tornar-se cada vez menos cativantes. Por outro lado, hoje em dia as crianças têm uma forte ligação com a tecnologia, em particular com os jogos de telemóvel, que são uma boa maneira de passar o tempo com pouco esforço e ao mesmo tempo providenciam uma experiência agradável. A evolução da tecnologia permite-nos também tirar partido de ferramentas como a realidade aumentada, que tem apresentado um grande potencial na área da educação e na criação de motivação. Outro assunto de grande importância diretamente relacionado com a química são as alterações climáticas. Tendo em conta que as crianças são a geração do futuro, é importante que estas estejam a par das causas e impactos que estas alterações têm e terão no nosso planeta, e ainda das soluções e medidas a serem implementadas, de forma a não agravar os seus efeitos. Como tal, foi criado um jogo educacional para dispositivos móveis destinado a crianças dos 9 aos 12 anos, pretendendo explorar a sua utilização na transmissão de conhecimentos de química, bem como na criação de motivação e na sensibilização relativamente às alterações climáticas. O jogo contém uma história única, e é baseado em tecnologias de realidade aumentada e interfaces tangíveis, de forma a enriquecer a experiência de aprendizagem. De acordo com nossas descobertas, o jogo proporcionou uma experiência agradável aos participantes do estudo, que melhoraram significativamente o seu conhecimento em relação a conceitos básicos de química abordados no jogo. Para além disso, o jogo promoveu uma atitude mais positiva relativamente ao tema da química e uma conscientização relativamente à problemática das mudanças climáticas

A semi-automatic 2D/3D annotation framework for the geometric analysis of heritage artefacts

International audienceDocumentation and monitoring of heritage objects involve many actors on multidisciplinary aspects. The progress made over the years in the field of digital technologies has enabled many tools for analysis, management and dissemination of information gathered around an object. These tools must allow users to semantically describe the object while allowing them to grasp its morphological complexity and the heterogeneity of the available analysis supports. This article introduces an approach for the semantic annotation of heritage objects by using the bijective relationship that can be established between a 3D representation of an object and the set of oriented images towards it, while maintaining a continuum of information between all phases of observation and description, from acquisition to visualization of semantically enriched representations. The main idea is to offer a versatile environment to help extraction of relevant information from images using geometric descriptors and semi-automatic point cloud processing methods

An Introduction to 3D User Interface Design

3D user interface design is a critical component of any virtual environment (VE) application. In this paper, we present a broad overview of three-dimensional (3D) interaction and user interfaces. We discuss the effect of common VE hardware devices on user interaction, as well as interaction techniques for generic 3D tasks and the use of traditional two-dimensional interaction styles in 3D environments. We divide most user interaction tasks into three categories: navigation, selection/manipulation, and system control. Throughout the paper, our focus is on presenting not only the available techniques, but also practical guidelines for 3D interaction design and widely held myths. Finally, we briefly discuss two approaches to 3D interaction design, and some example applications with complex 3D interaction requirements. We also present an annotated online bibliography as a reference companion to this article

Exploring expressive augmented reality: The fing AR puppet system for social pretend play

We present “FingAR Puppet”, an Augmented Reality (AR) system enhancing social pretend play by young children. Un-like goal-oriented AR systems that augment reality with in-formative instructions, FingAR Puppet helps children asso-ciate expressive interpretations with immediate reality. Em-pirical results show that FingAR Puppet promotes reasoning about emotional states, communication and divergent think-ing during social pretend play for children 4-6 years old. We suggest that this study opens an interesting space for future AR systems to support complex cognitive and social devel-opment in early childhood. We also identify broader implica-tions from using theories of cognitive development to guide the design of tangible and augmented interactions

Password

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The open-access edition of this text was made possible by a Philip Leverhulme Prize from The Leverhulme Trust. Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Where does a password end and an identity begin? A person might be more than his chosen ten-character combination, but does a bank know that? Or an email provider? What’s an ‘identity theft’ in the digital age if not the unauthorized use of a password? In untangling the histories, cultural contexts and philosophies of the password, Martin Paul Eve explores how ‘what we know’ became ‘who we are’, revealing how the modern notion of identity has been shaped by the password. Ranging from ancient Rome and the ‘watchwords’ of military encampments, through the three-factor authentication systems of Harry Potter and up to the biometric scanner in the iPhone, Password makes a timely and important contribution to our understanding of the words, phrases and special characters that determine our belonging and, often, our being. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic

New directions in the rhizome of children\u27s literature and children\u27s culture: a case study in transmedia storytelling

This thesis examines the changing idea of what constitutes a “text” in twenty-first century children’s literature and children’s culture. Beginning with John Newbery’s A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744), through the Golden Age of Children’s Literature—that of the 1860s to 1900—and as a result of the shift to a children’s culture in the 1950s onward, my project interrogates the historical rhizome of children’s literature and children’s culture. The historical rhizome, which serves as the framework for this thesis, indicates the emergence of a fourth branch in the rhizome in our current epistemic mutation to the digitized text. Using J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series as a case study, this thesis illuminates the ways Rowling’s texts can be used as a model to follow in the historical rhizome due to her twenty-first century awareness of audience and text

Magic as technological Utopia? Unpacking issues of interactivity and infrastructuring in the Potterverse

Magic in the Harry Potter universe operates through a complex system of objects, mechanisms and rules. Magic underpins people’s individual agency and the technological development of magical artefacts (such as wands, charmed broomsticks and remembralls) and systems (such as owl post and the Floo network), while Muggle technology and its achievements are often ignored or despised. Several authors have examined the workings of technology in the Potterverse and how it contrasts with real-world technology. Unsurprisingly, these magical forms of interaction have also inspired the field of interaction design, with the mechanisms of channelling and controlling magic often seen as a “technological utopia” where interaction is natural, intuitive, fun and embedded into familiar and tangible objects. This chapter examines the relationship between everyday interactions with digital technologies and the depiction of technology (both magical and non-magical) in the Potterverse through the lens of human-centred computing concepts such as seamfulness and infrastructure. This focus differs from that of previous studies because it analyses the magical infrastructure in the Potterverse as a sociotechnical system where tools, resources and people are all part of a complex ecology of interaction that includes breakdowns and failures. The contrast between the hopeful view of magical technologies as technomyths and the reality of imperfect and “messy” infrastructure is also discussed in light of recent developments in the field of Ubiquitous Computing

Magic as technological Utopia? Unpacking issues of interactivity and infrastructuring in the Potterverse

Magic in the Harry Potter universe operates through a complex system of objects, mechanisms and rules. Magic underpins people’s individual agency and the technological development of magical artefacts (such as wands, charmed broomsticks and remembralls) and systems (such as owl post and the Floo network), while Muggle technology and its achievements are often ignored or despised. Several authors have examined the workings of technology in the Potterverse and how it contrasts with real-world technology. Unsurprisingly, these magical forms of interaction have also inspired the field of interaction design, with the mechanisms of channelling and controlling magic often seen as a “technological utopia” where interaction is natural, intuitive, fun and embedded into familiar and tangible objects. This chapter examines the relationship between everyday interactions with digital technologies and the depiction of technology (both magical and non-magical) in the Potterverse through the lens of human-centred computing concepts such as seamfulness and infrastructure. This focus differs from that of previous studies because it analyses the magical infrastructure in the Potterverse as a sociotechnical system where tools, resources and people are all part of a complex ecology of interaction that includes breakdowns and failures. The contrast between the hopeful view of magical technologies as technomyths and the reality of imperfect and “messy” infrastructure is also discussed in light of recent developments in the field of Ubiquitous Computing