29,136 research outputs found
Mixed reality participants in smart meeting rooms and smart home enviroments
Humanâcomputer interaction requires modeling of the user. A user profile typically contains preferences, interests, characteristics, and interaction behavior. However, in its multimodal interaction with a smart environment the user displays characteristics that show how the user, not necessarily consciously, verbally and nonverbally provides the smart environment with useful input and feedback. Especially in ambient intelligence environments we encounter situations where the environment supports interaction between the environment, smart objects (e.g., mobile robots, smart furniture) and human participants in the environment. Therefore it is useful for the profile to contain a physical representation of the user obtained by multi-modal capturing techniques. We discuss the modeling and simulation of interacting participants in a virtual meeting room, we discuss how remote meeting participants can take part in meeting activities and they have some observations on translating research results to smart home environments
Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments
The field of shared virtual environments, which also
encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a
system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model
Enabling scalability by partitioning virtual environments using frontier sets
We present a class of partitioning scheme that we have called frontier sets. Frontier sets build on the notion of a potentially visible set (PVS). In a PVS, a world is subdivided into cells and for each cell all the other cells that can be seen are computed. In contrast, a frontier set considers pairs of cells, A and B. For each pair, it lists two sets of cells (two frontiers), FAB and FBA. By definition, from no cell in FAB is any cell in FBA visible and vice versa.
Our initial use of frontier sets has been to enable scalability in distributed networking. This is possible because, for example, if at time t0 Player1 is in cell A and Player2 is in cell B, as long as they stay in their respective frontiers, they do not need to send update information to each other.
In this paper we describe two strategies for building frontier sets. Both strategies are dynamic and compute frontiers only as necessary at runtime. The first is distance-based frontiers. This strategy requires precomputation of an enhanced potentially visible set. The second is greedy frontiers. This strategy is more expensive to compute at runtime, however it leads to larger and thus more efficient frontiers.
Network simulations using code based on the Quake II engine show that frontiers have significant promise and may allow a new class of scalable peer-to-peer game infrastructures to emerge
A Taxonomy of Data Grids for Distributed Data Sharing, Management and Processing
Data Grids have been adopted as the platform for scientific communities that
need to share, access, transport, process and manage large data collections
distributed worldwide. They combine high-end computing technologies with
high-performance networking and wide-area storage management techniques. In
this paper, we discuss the key concepts behind Data Grids and compare them with
other data sharing and distribution paradigms such as content delivery
networks, peer-to-peer networks and distributed databases. We then provide
comprehensive taxonomies that cover various aspects of architecture, data
transportation, data replication and resource allocation and scheduling.
Finally, we map the proposed taxonomy to various Data Grid systems not only to
validate the taxonomy but also to identify areas for future exploration.
Through this taxonomy, we aim to categorise existing systems to better
understand their goals and their methodology. This would help evaluate their
applicability for solving similar problems. This taxonomy also provides a "gap
analysis" of this area through which researchers can potentially identify new
issues for investigation. Finally, we hope that the proposed taxonomy and
mapping also helps to provide an easy way for new practitioners to understand
this complex area of research.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures, Technical Repor
A collaborative platform for integrating and optimising Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis requests
A Virtual Integration Platform (VIP) is described which provides support for the integration of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis tools into an environment that supports the use of these tools in a distributed collaborative manner. The VIP has evolved through previous EU research conducted within the VRShips-ROPAX 2000 (VRShips) project and the current version discussed here was developed predominantly within the VIRTUE project but also within the SAFEDOR project. The VIP is described with respect to the support it provides to designers and analysts in coordinating and optimising CFD analysis requests. Two case studies are provided that illustrate the application of the VIP within HSVA: the use of a panel code for the evaluation of geometry variations in order to improve propeller efficiency; and, the use of a dedicated maritime RANS code (FreSCo) to improve the wake distribution for the VIRTUE tanker. A discussion is included detailing the background, application and results from the use of the VIP within these two case studies as well as how the platform was of benefit during the development and a consideration of how it can benefit HSVA in the future
CATS: linearizability and partition tolerance in scalable and self-organizing key-value stores
Distributed key-value stores provide scalable, fault-tolerant, and self-organizing
storage services, but fall short of guaranteeing linearizable consistency
in partially synchronous, lossy, partitionable, and dynamic networks, when data
is distributed and replicated automatically by the principle of consistent hashing.
This paper introduces consistent quorums as a solution for achieving atomic
consistency. We present the design and implementation of CATS, a distributed
key-value store which uses consistent quorums to guarantee linearizability and partition tolerance in such adverse and dynamic network conditions. CATS is
scalable, elastic, and self-organizing; key properties for modern cloud storage
middleware. Our system shows that consistency can be achieved with practical
performance and modest throughput overhead (5%) for read-intensive workloads
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