Proposta de integração de dispositivos no aprimoramento da interação em ambientes virtuais

Due to the increasing development of innovative and low-cost devices for games, a recent research initiative to explore this technology on Natural User Interface (NUI) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications has been identified. Thus, this work presents an approach to combine two input devices (Microsoft Kinect and Razer Hydra) to enhance the interaction feedback within virtual environments. Microsoft Kinect offers non-wearable tracking with a wide range application in different fields of research. The controller Razer Hydra, on the other hand, is a relatively new sensor which hasn’t had its full capabilities explored yet. The main characteristics related to NUI design were described to comprehend the state-of-art of interaction techniques and related works. A hybrid system composed by a full-body tracking device – Microsoft Kinect – and a hand-held six degrees-of-freedom motion controllers – Razer Hydra – was developed as a proof of concept to evaluate this approach and analyzes its challenges and possible further applications. Results have shown that the proposed integration endorses the hypotheses of interaction improvement.Dissertação (Mestrado)Diante do emergente desenvolvimento de dispositivos inovadores e de baixo custo para jogos, uma recente iniciativa de pesquisa para explorar essa tecnologia de Interface Natural do Usuário (INU) e Realidade Virtual (RV) foi identificada. Nesse contexto, esse trabalho apresenta uma proposta de integração de dois periféricos de entrada natural (Microsoft Kinect e Razer Hydra) com o intuito de melhorar o retorno da interação em ambientes virtuais. O Kinect é um dispositivo não-vestível que oferece rastreamento de corpo livre para uma grande área de aplicações em diversos campos do conhecimento. O controle Hydra, por sua vez, é um sensor relativamente novo, o qual ainda não teve suas inúmeras capacidades suficientemente exploradas. As principais características relacionadas ao design de Interação Natural foram descritas de forma a prover a compreensão e acesso ao estado da arte dessa linha de pesquisa. Um sistema híbrido, composto por um dispositivo de rastreamento do corpo inteiro e por um controle que permite seis graus de liberdade de movimento, foi desenvolvido como prova de conceito a fim de avaliar a proposta e analisar os desafios e possíveis aplicações futuras. Os resultados mostraram que a estratégia de integração endossa a hipótese de ganho de qualidade de interação

CLIMB-COVID: continuous integration supporting decentralised sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance.

Funder: Wellcome TrustIn response to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the UK, the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium was formed to rapidly sequence SARS-CoV-2 genomes as part of a national-scale genomic surveillance strategy. The network consists of universities, academic institutes, regional sequencing centres and the four UK Public Health Agencies. We describe the development and deployment of CLIMB-COVID, an encompassing digital infrastructure to address the challenge of collecting and integrating both genomic sequencing data and sample-associated metadata produced across the COG-UK network

AMADEOS SysML Profile for SoS Conceptual Modeling

International audienc

HAVoC, a bioinformatic pipeline for reference-based consensus assembly and lineage assignment for SARS-CoV-2 sequences.

Background SARS-CoV-2 related research has increased in importance worldwide since December 2019. Several new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged globally, of which the most notable and concerning currently are the UK variant B.1.1.7, the South African variant B1.351 and the Brazilian variant P.1. Detecting and monitoring novel variants is essential in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. While there are several tools for assembling virus genomes and performing lineage analyses to investigate SARS-CoV-2, each is limited to performing singular or a few functions separately. Results Due to the lack of publicly available pipelines, which could perform fast reference-based assemblies on raw SARS-CoV-2 sequences in addition to identifying lineages to detect variants of concern, we have developed an open source bioinformatic pipeline called HAVoC (Helsinki university Analyzer for Variants of Concern). HAVoC can reference assemble raw sequence reads and assign the corresponding lineages to SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Conclusions HAVoC is a pipeline utilizing several bioinformatic tools to perform multiple necessary analyses for investigating genetic variance among SARS-CoV-2 samples. The pipeline is particularly useful for those who need a more accessible and fast tool to detect and monitor the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern during local outbreaks. HAVoC is currently being used in Finland for monitoring the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants. HAVoC user manual and source code are available at and , respectively.Peer reviewe

Wildland Urban Interface: mapping and wildfire risk assessment

The Rural Urban Interfaces (RUI), are those areas in which vegetation and houses are in contact or intermingled. Vegetation constitutes the prerequisite for wildfire propagation and, given the high number of values exposed to risk, it is in RUI that the worst consequences of wildfires are recorded and that a wildfire risk assessment is particularly important. The present thesis is divided into two parts: - In the first one RUI are mapped and classified, and a characterization of the relation RUI – fire regime is performed. The study uses three operational definition of RUI and shows how the RUI area largely depends on the adopted definition. Although the maps obtained using various methodologies differs in identifying portions of the territory as RUI, all methodologies consistently recognise that inside RUI the ignition density is higher and the burned areas are smaller than elsewhere. A case study of diachronic mapping shows the utility of RUI mapping and classification for describing the evolution of RUI phenomenon. - In the second part the maps resulting from the development and application of three models for wildfire risk assessment in RUI are presented. In particular, aside an application of a classical overlay mapping methodology taking into account the principal risk factors, we develop and apply other two methodologies: a Multicriteria approach with Analytic Hierarchy Process and a Multisimulation approach using wildfire simulators for quantifying house exposure

Proceedings of Designing Self-care for Everyday Life. Workshop in conjunction with NordiCHI 2014, 27th October.

Managing chronic conditions can be challenging. People in such conditions, and the people around them, have to, for example: deal with symptoms, adapt to the resulting disability, manage emotions, and change habits to keep the condition under control. Self-care technologies have the potential to support self-care, however they often disregard the complexity of the settings in which they are used and fail to become integrated in everyday life.The present collection of papers forms the Proceedings of the Workshop “Designing Selfcare for Everyday Life” conducted last October 27th, 2014 in Helsinki, where 14 participants from 7 different countries spent the day discussing how to design self-care technologies that are in harmony with people’s everyday life. During the morning, discussions were driven by poster presentations focused on the participants’ work. In the afternoon, we engaged in aparticipatory design exercise focused on the self-care of Parkinson’s disease. Our discussions were driven by the experience of two people living with Parkinson’s that participated in our workshop. At the end of the exercise, each group presented the different insights, concepts and problems that each patient experiences in their everyday life with the disease. Last, we all engaged in a broader discussion with a mapping exercise of issues and challenges in relation to self-care.The contributions featured in the proceedings have been peer-reviewed by the members of the Workshop Program Committee and selected on the basis of their quality, alignment with the workshop theme, and the extent (and diversity) of their backgrounds in design. They express points of view of researchers from both Academia and Industry and provide relevant insights in the design and development use of technologies for self-care.We want to thank all the participants and co-authors for contributing to the Workshop. We are particularly grateful to the two patients, members of the Finnish Parkinson’s Association, who accepted to participate in the workshop and enabled researchers to get aperspective on the challenges of their lives. We also want to thank all the Programme Committee members for all their work during the reviewing process as well as the organisers of NordiCHI 2014 for providing useful facilities