Helping the Blind to Get through COVID-19: Social Distancing Assistant Using Real-Time Semantic Segmentation on RGB-D Video

The current COVID-19 pandemic is having a major impact on our daily lives. Social distancing is one of the measures that has been implemented with the aim of slowing the spread of the disease, but it is difficult for blind people to comply with this. In this paper, we present a system that helps blind people to maintain physical distance to other persons using a combination of RGB and depth cameras. We use a real-time semantic segmentation algorithm on the RGB camera to detect where persons are and use the depth camera to assess the distance to them; then, we provide audio feedback through bone-conducting headphones if a person is closer than 1.5 m. Our system warns the user only if persons are nearby but does not react to non-person objects such as walls, trees or doors; thus, it is not intrusive, and it is possible to use it in combination with other assistive devices. We have tested our prototype system on one blind and four blindfolded persons, and found that the system is precise, easy to use, and amounts to low cognitive load

Toward hyper-realistic and interactive social VR experiences in live TV scenarios

© 2022 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Social Virtual Reality (VR) allows multiple distributed users getting together in shared virtual environments to socially interact and/or collaborate. This article explores the applicability and potential of Social VR in the broadcast sector, focusing on a live TV show use case. For such a purpose, a novel and lightweight Social VR platform is introduced. The platform provides three key outstanding features compared to state-of-the-art solutions. First, it allows a real-time integration of remote users in shared virtual environments, using realistic volumetric representations and affordable capturing systems, thus not relying on the use of synthetic avatars. Second, it supports a seamless and rich integration of heterogeneous media formats, including 3D scenarios, dynamic volumetric representation of users and (live/stored) stereoscopic 2D and 180º/360º videos. Third, it enables low-latency interaction between the volumetric users and a video-based presenter (Chroma keying), and a dynamic control of the media playout to adapt to the session’s evolution. The production process of an immersive TV show to be able to evaluate the experience is also described. On the one hand, the results from objective tests show the satisfactory performance of the platform. On the other hand, the promising results from user tests support the potential impact of the presented platform, opening up new opportunities in the broadcast sector, among others.This work has been partially funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, under agreement nº 762111 (VRTogether project), and partially by ACCIÓ, under agreement COMRDI18-1-0008 (ViVIM project). Work by Mario Montagud has been additionally funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities with a Juan de la Cierva – Incorporación grant (reference IJCI-2017-34611). The authors would also like to thank the EU H2020 VRTogether project consortium for their relevant and valuable contributions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

English as a foreign language in early childhood through the implementation of art crafts with recycled materials

La enseñanza de la educación ambiental en el mundo ha jugado un papel muy importante cuyo fin ha sido promover el cuidado y la protección de nuestros recursos naturales. En el presente proyecto de aula, participan niños cuyas edades oscilan entre los cuatro y cinco años lo que facilita la creación de conciencia ambiental con su impacto esperado a presente y a futuro sobre la importancia de la reutilización de elementos reciclables. Por lo tanto, se presentará los resultados encontrados durante su implementación, dirigida a la población de primera infancia a niños y niñas, con el propósito de crear un ambiente de aprendizaje lúdico-dinámico para dicha población, a través de un aprendizaje basado en proyectos: en este caso basado en reciclaje. Dicho lo anterior, en éste proyecto se dará a conocer las estrategias y actividades que se realizaron para el aprendizaje del inglés con el uso de materiales reutilizables, con la finalidad de aprender y desarrollar habilidades en dicho idioma en la población anteriormente mencionada, con el objetivo de crear manualidades sencillas donde los participantes aprenden haciendo, experimentando, creando y así mismo consiguiendo interés y disposición para aprender el vocabulario en inglés, y lograr crear conciencia en los mismos sobre el cuidado del medio ambiente e indirectamente el desarrollo de un segundo idioma

ARTiVIS Arts, real-time video and interactivity for sustainability

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Media DigitaisPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/42555/2007

Event-driven visual attention for the humanoid robot iCub.

Fast reaction to sudden and potentially interesting stimuli is a crucial feature for safe and reliable interaction with the environment. Here we present a biologically inspired attention system developed for the humanoid robot iCub. It is based on input from unconventional event-driven vision sensors and an efficient computational method. The resulting system shows low-latency and fast determination of the location of the focus of attention. The performance is benchmarked against an instance of the state of the art in robotics artificial attention system used in robotics. Results show that the proposed system is two orders of magnitude faster that the benchmark in selecting a new stimulus to attend

An Institute to promote the learning of aerial photography, which will promote the academic tourism in Portugal, help in the formation of destination image and promote sustainable tourism in Portugal.

This business plan is focused on promoting sustainable academic tourism and destination image of Portugal. Pixair Institute acts as a medium for achieving this by attracting international students, promoting student mobility and providing the students in Portugal the opportunity to, learn UAV pilot skills, aerial photography and enhance their career opportunities, maintaining sustainability by keeping the guiding principles required for economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability. Pixair focuses on providing attractive training services, with the cutting-edge equipment and expert staff, at a reasonable cost and flexible learning hours in the most attractive city of Portugal, Lisbon. The aim of Pixair is to combine the concept of achieving academic tourism by encouraging student mobility, and create destination image of Portugal, with aerial photography services through UAV, and promote Lisbon as a competitive destination for providing aerial photography and UAV pilot skills, compared to other institutes around the world. The plan focuses on analyzing the needs of Portugal, in terms of social, economic and environmental aspects and designing its structure and objectives required. Focusing on using an approach required for planning business model, such as Business Model Canvas determining the external market and internal environment by conducting questionnaires, competitor analysis and using it efficiently to plan effective strategies required for implementing the plan. Lastly designing a work plan and milestones required as a benchmark for analyzing the business financial projections for the next 5 years to determine the profitability and feasibility of Pixair. Pixair received a good response from students, photographers, and businesses for providing this opportunity in Portugal by promoting academic and sustainable tourism in Portugal by encouraging and promoting this new niche-segment of tourism in Portugal