Interactive geodesic structures for attracting wider audience to marine concerns

Recent surveys indicate that there is a greater emotional disconnect between the European population and Europe’s aquatic environments [1]. Although a wider audience recognizes anthropogenic issues (i.e. litter pollution, overfishing, noise pollution, etc) where most people can feel connected to nature, however, they do not exhibit pro-environmental behaviors towards them. Interactive environ ments, which depict marine concerns, remain passive and informative, i.e. not being able to engage with the audience, failing to provide a long-term positive effect. This thesis explores the usage of geodesic structures in depicting marine concerns, exploring possible interactive environments among them in effort to increase the awareness of marine concerns. Dissertation performs five geodesic dome iterations and validations. In first, it studies the role of the open and porous geodesic structure, resembled as four marine species (seabird, sea turtle, dolphin and whale). In second, it enhances the first with the covers, studying more immersive experiences. Third setup contributed to the scaling-down of the geodesic dome marine species. Fourth setup showcased its deployment in wider public spaces. Fifth setup streamlined further the structures, so they can be used at diverse public spots. Two additional Augmented Reality modalites were used, with the former with interaction with the sea turtle and the latter, interacting with the whale.Pesquisas recentes indicam que há uma maior desconexão emocional entre a pop ulação europeia e os ambientes aquáticos da Europa. Embora um público mais amplo reconheça questões antropogênicas (ou seja, poluição maritima, pesca pre datória, poluição sonora, etc.), onde a maioria das pessoas pode se sentir conec tada à natureza, no entanto, eles não exibem comportamentos pró-ambientais em relação a eles. Os ambientes interativos, que retratam preocupações mar inhas, permanecem passivos e informativos, ou seja, não conseguem envolver o público, deixando de proporcionar um efeito positivo a longo prazo. Esta tese explora o uso de estruturas geodésicas na representação de preocupações mar inhas, explorando possíveis ambientes interativos entre elas em um esforço para aumentar a conscientização sobre preocupações marinhas. A dissertação real iza cinco iterações e validações de Domes geodésicas. Na primeira, é estudado o papel da estrutura geodésica aberta e porosa, semelhante às quatro espécies marinhas (ave marinha, tartaruga marinha, golfinho e baleia). Na segunda, po tencializa a primeira com as coberturas, estudando experiências mais imersivas. A terceira configuração contribuiu para a redução de espécies marinhas na cúpula geodésica. Na quarta configuração foi implantada em espaços públicos mais amp los. A quinta configuração simplificou ainda mais as estruturas para que possam ser usadas em vários locais públicos. Foram utilizadas duas modalidades adi cionais de Realidade Aumentada, a primeira com interação com a tartaruga marinha e a segunda com interação com a baleia

Disaster Tales as Communication Tool for Increasing Risk Resilience

Agencies in charge of flood management use disaster reports (DRs) as the preferred source of information on past flooding events. A systematic survey of DRs prepared by Italian agencies suggests that DRs could be widely enhanced in view of targeting more effective communication to citizens, reinforcing the communication pillar in civil protection planning and management, and improving the resilience of the population to extreme events. Without loss of the rigor and details required for all the usual technical uses of DRs, we suggest recompiling them in the form of “disaster tales” (DTs), as tools that offer wider knowledge of the events to improve people’s preparedness and self-protection behavior. Recent major flooding events have demonstrated the communication potential that videos and pictures taken by citizens have for risk perception and disaster preparedness. By watching and listening to what has happened the communication recipient can better understand the feelings of the people experiencing an emergency. The structure of the improved reports, we suggest, will finally integrate data, graphs, and maps with interactive tools and be able to present handier multimedia views of the events. Application to three case studies of flooding in Italy illustrates how to concretely implement the suggested disaster reports to create more readily accessible disaster tales

Interactive Experience Design: Integrated and Tangible Storytelling with Maritime Museum Artefacts

Museums play the role of intermediary between cultural heritage and visitors, and are often described as places and environments for education and enjoyment. The European Union also encourages innovative uses of museums to support education through the cultural heritage resources. However, the importance of visitors’ active role in museums as places for education and entertainment, on the one hand, and the growing and indispensable presence of technology in the cultural heritage domain, on the other hand, provided the initial ideas to develop the research. This thesis, presents the study and design for an interactive storytelling installation for a maritime museum. The installation is designed to integrate different museum artefacts into the storytelling system to enrich the visitors experience through tangible storytelling. The project was conducted in collaboration with another PhD student, Luca Ciotoli. His contribution was mainly focused on the narrative and storytelling features of the research, while my contribution was focused on the interaction- and technology-related features, including the design and implementation of the prototype. The research is deployed using a four-phase iterative approach. The first phase of the research, Study, deals with literature review and different studies to identify the requirements. The second phase, Design, determines the broad outlines of the project i.e., an interactive storytelling installation. The design phase includes interaction and museum experience design. We investigated different design approaches, e.g., interaction and museum experience design, to develop a conceptual design. The third phase, prototype, allows us to determine how to fulfill the tasks and meet the requirements that are established for the research. Prototyping involves content creation, storyboarding, integrating augmented artefacts into the storytelling system. Th final phase, test, refers to the evaluations that are conducted during the aforementioned phases e.g., formative and the final usability testing with users. The outcome of the research confirms previous results in the literature about how digital narratives can be enriched with the tangible dimension, moreover it shows how this dimension can enable to communicate stories and knowledge of the past that are complex, such as the art of navigating in the past, by integrating tangible objects that play different roles in the storytelling process

Smart sensing systems for in-home health status and emotional well-being monitoring during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted the mobility of the population. The experts propose several solutions in order to decrease the number of patients infected with this new virus by treating and monitoring them within the comfort of their own home. A new direction for the research has been identified including healthcare smart sensing systems which can provide medical diagnoses, surveillance, and treatment partially or totally remotely. The field of wearable, smart sensing solutions is becoming nowadays a widely accepted solution characterized also by the increased level of acceptance with regard to home health status monitoring. Pervasive computing and wearable solutions are frequently a topic included in current projects and are expected in new future developments, particularly in the pandemic context which forces people to remain mostly at home. As part of wearable devices the design of textiles, computer science, and smart materials are the three major development directions. The latest developments associated with the monitoring of health status and emotional well-being are presented and discussed in this chapter.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Augmented Tourist Information Poster Projects in an English Language Learning Class

This paper documents the process of a group of English language learners working on a projectbasedtourism course to create enhanced information posters for tourists with augmented reality (AR);an emerging and disruptive form of interactive technology used across a variety of applications andindustries. The paper first provides a definition of AR, before exploring AR’s applications to tourismresources and language learning contexts. The paper then describes the classroom procedure ofcreating augmented tourist information posters, before reflecting on the outcomes of the posterprojects

Finger tracking and hand recognition technologies in virtual reality maritime safety training applications

The competitiveness and development of the maritime sector together with the continuous effort on increasing operations performance while reducing operations costs, drives the needs for on-board effective and qualitative training safety related issues. Virtual reality (VR) has been considered by classification societies and training organizations as a technology that can significantly improve seafarer's performance and competence with the adaptation of maritime applications developed for design simulation and gaming. This paper presents the evolution of the MarSEVR (Maritime Safety Education with VR) technology as a new concept and technology by integrating finger tracking and hand recognition technologies that increase immersiveness and user engagement within the MarISOT technology, a Green Ocean innovation composed of VR safety applications. The paper approaches this integration by addressing game design, pedagogic and cognitive neuroscience principles and challenges on the use of hand recognition and finger tracking in the MarSEVR learning episodes

The Effectiveness of Augmented Reality for Astronauts on Lunar Missions: An Analog Study

The uses of augmented reality and head-up displays are becoming more prominent in industries such as aviation, automotive, and medicine. An augmented reality device such as the Microsoft HoloLens can project holograms onto the user’s natural field of view to assist with completion of a variety of tasks. Unfortunately, only a little research and development has begun in the space sector for astronauts using these head-up displays. Future lunar missions could incorporate augmented reality for astronauts to ease task load and improve accuracy. This study evaluated the usability, subjective workload, and task performance of 22 participants using the Microsoft HoloLens to complete tasks that are analogous to those completed by astronauts on a lunar mission, including navigation, rock sample collection, and maintenance tasks. Results from the usability survey, NASA-TLX, and usability interview suggested that augmented reality could support astronaut missions by means of reduced workload and task errors. Usability data information collected from the participants sought to improve on the user interface and confirmed the aforementioned results. The researcher concluded that further research must be conducted to test the development of augmented reality interfaces along with the usability aspect by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronauts

Augmented Reality Applied to the Diagnostics and Fruition of Cultural Heritage

The term “Augmented Reality” (AR) is used to define integrated hardware and software technologies, designed to mix video footage taken by a camera with three-dimensional virtual objects. The result is a mix between real reality and virtual reality. Many applications of this technology are beingdeveloped for use in the field of cultural heritage and are being introduced for use in specialized contexts such as in certain phases of the diagnostic process or fruition. The basic algorithmic approach for augmented reality, starts from a video stream analysis that incorporates a real scene. Within the same scene are scattered a set of known geometric images called“markers”. When the software module in charge of the video flow analysis identifies a marker within the scene, it tries to position it in relation to a reference system integral with the chamber which performs the video shoot, and then replaces it in real time, overlapping with a 3D model achieved through a virtual modeling software. The aim of this article is to evaluate the state of the art augmented reality and then examine several experiments involving its application to cultural heritage