Mixed reality participants in smart meeting rooms and smart home enviroments

Human–computer 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

Réalité Augmentée et Environnement Collaboratif : Un Tour d'Horizon

National audienceLa Réalité Augmentée (RA) est généralement définie comme une branche dérivée de la Réalité Virtuelle. D'une façon plus générale, le concept de réalité augmentée regroupe une approche multidisciplinaire visant un mélange entre réel et virtuel. La forte potentialité induite par cette connexion promet un cadre adéquat pour l'interaction 3D ou les applications collaboratives. On présente dans cet article un tour d'horizon des principaux travaux menés à ce jour dans le cadre de l'image et de la RA et plus particulièrement le cadre collaboratif

A cognitive model of user interaction as a guideline for designing novel interfaces

Adaptive systems behavior based on user models appear promising, mostly for complex environments such as mixed reality environments (MRE). An MRE comprises a virtual representation of the reality as well as physical objects augmented with virtual features. These objects are coupled with the virtual representation so that they can reflect its changes in real time. The proper design of an MRE and the user models that it implies are crucial for its success, but unfortunately, there are no guidelines for the design of these environments. In this paper we present a methodology for designing user models for MRE as well as for the augmentation of physical everyday objects. The user model describes users’ knowledge in two levels of abstraction: objects manipulation (syntax) and its meaning assigned by a community of practice (semantics).1st International Workshop on Advanced Software Engineering: Expanding the Frontiers of Software Technology - Session 2: Software ModelingRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Tourists as Mobile Gamers: Gamification for Tourism Marketing

Gaming as a cutting-edge concept has recently been used by some innovative tourism sectors as a marketing tool and as a method of deeper engagement with visitors. This research aims to explore the gamification trend and its potential for experience development and tourism marketing. Using a focus group, this paper discusses gaming and tourism, and explores what drives tourists to play games. The results suggest tourists’ game playing motivation is multidimensional. Players tend to start with purposive information seeking, then move on to an intrinsic stimulation. Socialization is also an important dimension. The research demonstrates several implications for tourism marketing

DIVE on the internet

This dissertation reports research and development of a platform for Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs). It has particularly focused on two major challenges: supporting the rapid development of scalable applications and easing their deployment on the Internet. This work employs a research method based on prototyping and refinement and promotes the use of this method for application development. A number of the solutions herein are in line with other CVE systems. One of the strengths of this work consists in a global approach to the issues raised by CVEs and the recognition that such complex problems are best tackled using a multi-disciplinary approach that understands both user and system requirements. CVE application deployment is aided by an overlay network that is able to complement any IP multicast infrastructure in place. Apart from complementing a weakly deployed worldwide multicast, this infrastructure provides for a certain degree of introspection, remote controlling and visualisation. As such, it forms an important aid in assessing the scalability of running applications. This scalability is further facilitated by specialised object distribution algorithms and an open framework for the implementation of novel partitioning techniques. CVE application development is eased by a scripting language, which enables rapid development and favours experimentation. This scripting language interfaces many aspects of the system and enables the prototyping of distribution-related components as well as user interfaces. It is the key construct of a distributed environment to which components, written in different languages, connect and onto which they operate in a network abstracted manner. The solutions proposed are exemplified and strengthened by three collaborative applications. The Dive room system is a virtual environment modelled after the room metaphor and supporting asynchronous and synchronous cooperative work. WebPath is a companion application to a Web browser that seeks to make the current history of page visits more visible and usable. Finally, the London travel demonstrator supports travellers by providing an environment where they can explore the city, utilise group collaboration facilities, rehearse particular journeys and access tourist information data

A cognitive model of user interaction as a guideline for designing novel interfaces

Adaptive systems behavior based on user models appear promising, mostly for complex environments such as mixed reality environments (MRE). An MRE comprises a virtual representation of the reality as well as physical objects augmented with virtual features. These objects are coupled with the virtual representation so that they can reflect its changes in real time. The proper design of an MRE and the user models that it implies are crucial for its success, but unfortunately, there are no guidelines for the design of these environments. In this paper we present a methodology for designing user models for MRE as well as for the augmentation of physical everyday objects. The user model describes users’ knowledge in two levels of abstraction: objects manipulation (syntax) and its meaning assigned by a community of practice (semantics).1st International Workshop on Advanced Software Engineering: Expanding the Frontiers of Software Technology - Session 2: Software ModelingRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Software Chroma Keying in an Immersive Virtual Environment

This paper presents a very fast software chroma keying algorithm, requiring at most five integer operations per pixel. An improvement of more than 300% in performance over HLS based algorithms was achieved. The algorithm has been developed for use in an immersive virtual environment, which is also described here

An Information-Theoretic Framework for Consistency Maintenance in Distributed Interactive Applications

Distributed Interactive Applications (DIAs) enable geographically dispersed users to interact with each other in a virtual environment. A key factor to the success of a DIA is the maintenance of a consistent view of the shared virtual world for all the participants. However, maintaining consistent states in DIAs is difficult under real networks. State changes communicated by messages over such networks suffer latency leading to inconsistency across the application. Predictive Contract Mechanisms (PCMs) combat this problem through reducing the number of messages transmitted in return for perceptually tolerable inconsistency. This thesis examines the operation of PCMs using concepts and methods derived from information theory. This information theory perspective results in a novel information model of PCMs that quantifies and analyzes the efficiency of such methods in communicating the reduced state information, and a new adaptive multiple-model-based framework for improving consistency in DIAs. The first part of this thesis introduces information measurements of user behavior in DIAs and formalizes the information model for PCM operation. In presenting the information model, the statistical dependence in the entity state, which makes using extrapolation models to predict future user behavior possible, is evaluated. The efficiency of a PCM to exploit such predictability to reduce the amount of network resources required to maintain consistency is also investigated. It is demonstrated that from the information theory perspective, PCMs can be interpreted as a form of information reduction and compression. The second part of this thesis proposes an Information-Based Dynamic Extrapolation Model for dynamically selecting between extrapolation algorithms based on information evaluation and inferred network conditions. This model adapts PCM configurations to both user behavior and network conditions, and makes the most information-efficient use of the available network resources. In doing so, it improves PCM performance and consistency in DIAs

Inertial Motion Tracking for Inserting Humans into a Networked Synthetic Environment

Inertial/Magnetic tracking is based on the use of sensors containing three orthogonally mounted angular rate sensors, three orthogonal linear accelerometers and three orthogonal magnetometers to determine independently the orientation of each link of an articulated rigid body. Inertial/magnetic orientation tracking could be applied to a broad range of problems which require real-time tracking of an articulated structure without being continuously dependent upon an artificially generated source. This research focuses on the goal of developing and demonstrating wireless full body tracking using MARG sensor modules.U.S. Army Research OfficeW911NF-04-1-030