The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Code offloading on real-time multimedia systems: a framework for handling code mobility and code offloading in a QoS aware environment

Actualmente, os smartphones e outros dispositivos móveis têm vindo a ser dotados com cada vez maior poder computacional, sendo capazes de executar um vasto conjunto de aplicações desde simples programas de para tirar notas até sofisticados programas de navegação. Porém, mesmo com a evolução do seu hardware, os actuais dispositivos móveis ainda não possuem as mesmas capacidades que os computadores de mesa ou portáteis. Uma possível solução para este problema é distribuir a aplicação, executando partes dela no dispositivo local e o resto em outros dispositivos ligados à rede. Adicionalmente, alguns tipos de aplicações como aplicações multimédia, jogos electrónicos ou aplicações de ambiente imersivos possuem requisitos em termos de Qualidade de Serviço, particularmente de tempo real. Ao longo desta tese é proposto um sistema de execução de código remota para sistemas distribuídos com restrições de tempo-real. A arquitectura proposta adapta-se a sistemas que necessitem de executar periodicamente e em paralelo mesmo conjunto de funções com garantias de tempo real, mesmo desconhecendo os tempos de execução das referidas funções. A plataforma proposta foi desenvolvida para sistemas móveis capazes de executar o Sistema Operativo Android.Smartphones and other mobile devices are becoming more powerful and are capable of executing several applications in a concurrent manner. Although the hardware capabilities of mobile devices are increasing in an unprecedented way, they still do not possess the same features and resources of a common desktop or laptop PC. A potential solution for this limitation might be to distribute an application by running some of its parts locally while running the remaining parts on other devices. Additionally, there are several types of applications in domains such as multimedia, gaming or immersive environments that require soft real-time constraints which have to be guaranteed. In this work we are targeting highly dynamic distributed systems with Quality of Service (QoS) constraints, where the traditional models of computation are not sufficient to handle the users’ or applications’ requests. Therefore, new models of computation are needed to overcome the above limitations in order to satisfy the applications’ or users’ requirements. Code offloading techniques allied with resource management seem very promising as each node may use neighbour nodes to request for help in order to perform demanding computations that cannot be done locally. In this demanding context, a full-fledged framework was developed with the objective of integrating code offloading techniques on top of a middleware framework that provides QoS and real-time guarantees to the applications. This paper describes the implementation of the above-mentioned framework in the Android platform as well as a proof-of-concept application to demonstrate the most important concepts of code offloading, QoS and real-time scheduling

Service architecting and dynamic composition in pervasive smart ecosystems for the Internet of things based on sensor network technology

Why pervasive awareness and Ambient Intelligence are perceived by a great part of the academia and industry as a massive revolution in the short-term? In our best knowledge, a cornerstone of this thought is based on the fact that the ultimate nature of the smart environment paradigm is not in the technology itself, but on a people-centered approach. Perhaps, is in this apparently simple conception where precisely lies the boldness of this promising vision, which has been consolidated in recent years with the emerging proliferation of mobile, personal, portable, wearable and sensory computing: to reach everyone and everywhere. On the one hand, it touches our daily lives in a close manner, minimizing the required attention from the users, anticipating to their needs with the main intention of redefining our idea of Quality of Experience. On the other hand, this new wave impacts everywhere at both global and personal scales allowing expanded connectivity between devices and smart objects, in a dynamic and ubiquitous manner, as a natural extension of the physical world around us. According to the above, this doctoral dissertation focuses on contributing to the integration of software and networking engineering advances in the field of pervasive smart spaces and environment using sensor networks. This is founded on the convergence of some information technology and computer science paradigms, such as service and agent orientation, semantic technologies and knowledge management in the framework of pervasive computing and the Internet of Things. To this end, the nSOM (nano Service-Oriented Middleware) and nSOL (nano Semantics-Oriented Language) approaches are presented. Firstly, the nSOM proposal defines a service-oriented platform for the implementation, deployment and exposure of agent-based in-network services to the Internet cloud on heterogeneous sensor devices. Secondly, the nSOL solution enables an abstraction for supporting ubiquitous service composition based on semantic knowledge management. The integration of both contributions leads to the formal modelling and practical development of adaptive virtual sensor services for pervasive Ambient Intelligence ecosystems. This work includes also the related performance characterization of the resulting prototype according to several metrics such as code size, volatile memory footprint, CPU overhead, service time delay and battery lifetime. Main foundations and outcomes presented in this essay are contextualized in the following European Research Projects: μSWN (FP6 code: IST-034642), DiYSE (ITEA2 code: 08005) and LifeWear (ITEA2 code: 09026). --------------------¿Por qué la sensibilidad ubicua y la inteligencia ambiental son percibidas por una gran parte de las comunidades académica e industrial como una revolución masiva en el corto plazo? En nuestra opinión, una piedra angular de este pensamiento es el hecho de que la naturaleza última del paradigma de entornos inteligentes no reside en la tecnología en sí misma, sino en una aproximación centrada en las personas. Y es quizá en esta aparente simple concepción donde se halla precisamente el atrevimiento de esta prometedora visión, consolidada en los últimos años con la emergente proliferación de la computación móvil, personal, portable, llevable y sensorial: llegar a todos y a todas partes. Por un lado, esta alcanza nuestras vidas de una manera cercana, minimizando la atención requerida por los usuarios, anticipándose a sus necesidades con el objetivo de redefinir nuestra idea de calidad de experiencia. Por otro lado, esta impacta en todas partes tanto a escala global como personal, con una conectividad expandida entre dispositivos y objetos inteligentes, de un modo ubicuo y dinámico, como una extensión natural del mundo que nos rodea. Conforme a lo anterior, esta tesis doctoral se centra en contribuir en la integración de los avances de ingeniería de redes y software en el ámbito de los espacios y entornos inteligentes ubicuos basados en redes de sensores. Esto se fundamenta en la convergencia de diversos paradigmas de las tecnologías de la información y ciencia de la computación, tales como orientación a servicios y agentes, tecnologías semánticas y de gestión del conocimiento en el contento de la computación ubicua en la Internet de las Cosas. Para este fin, se presentan las aproximaciones nSOM (nano Service-Oriented Middleware) y nSOL (nano Semantics-Oriented Language). En primer lugar, nSOM define una plataforma orientada a servicios para la implementación, despliegue y exposición a la nube de servicios basados en agentes e implementados en red sobre dispositivos heterogéneos de sensores. En segundo lugar, nSOL habilita una abstracción para proporcionar composición ubicua de servicios basada en gestión semántica del conocimiento. La integración de ambas contribuciones conduce a un modelado formal y de implementación práctica de servicios de sensor virtual adaptativos para ecosistemas de inteligencia ambiental. Este trabajo incluye la caracterización del rendimiento del prototipo resultante, basándonos para ello en métricas tales como tamaño de código, tamaño de memoria volátil, sobrecarga de procesamiento, retardo en tiempo de servicio y autonomía de baterías. Los principales fundamentos y resultados discutidos en este ensayo están contextualizados en los siguientes Proyectos de Investigación Europeos: μSWN (FP6 código: IST-034642), DiYSE (ITEA2 código: 08005) y LifeWear (ITEA2 código: 09026).Presidente: Juan Ramón Velasco Pérez; Vocal: Juan Carlos Dueñas; Secretario: Mario Muñoz Organer

Ubiquitous Technology for Lifelong Learners

Nowadays, most people change their career throughout their lives, many times independently on what they learned during their formal education period. Therefore, the necessity to continually keep our skills sharp and up-to-date becomes increasingly important in a rapidly changing job market. The European Commission stressed the importance of lifelong learning as a key challenge for the knowledge society to adapt to the pace in which digital technology is transforming every aspect of people’s lives. Later on, the Commission published a reference framework comprising eight competences to flexibly adapt to a rapidly changing and highly interconnected world. In this thesis, we aim at supporting learners to understand the way they can better learn in-context using technology, therefore we focus on two specific competences, namely, learning to learn and digital competence

New platform for intelligent context-based distributed information fusion

Tesis por compendio de publicaciones[ES]Durante las últimas décadas, las redes de sensores se han vuelto cada vez más importantes y hoy en día están presentes en prácticamente todos los sectores de nuestra sociedad. Su gran capacidad para adquirir datos y actuar sobre el entorno, puede facilitar la construcción de sistemas sensibles al contexto, que permitan un análisis detallado y flexible de los procesos que ocurren y los servicios que se pueden proporcionar a los usuarios. Esta tesis doctoral se presenta en el formato de “Compendio de Artículos”, de tal forma que las principales características de la arquitectura multi-agente distribuida propuesta para facilitar la interconexión de redes de sensores se presentan en tres artículos bien diferenciados. Se ha planteado una arquitectura modular y ligera para dispositivos limitados computacionalmente, diseñando un mecanismo de comunicación flexible que permite la interacción entre diferentes agentes embebidos, desplegados en dispositivos de tamaño reducido. Se propone un nuevo modelo de agente embebido, como mecanismo de extensión para la plataforma PANGEA. Además, se diseña un nuevo modelo de organización virtual de agentes especializada en la fusión de información. De esta forma, los agentes inteligentes tienen en cuenta las características de las organizaciones existentes en el entorno a la hora de proporcionar servicios. El modelo de fusión de información presenta una arquitectura claramente diferenciada en 4 niveles, siendo capaz de obtener la información proporcionada por las redes de sensores (capas inferiores) para ser integrada con organizaciones virtuales de agentes (capas superiores). El filtrado de señales, minería de datos, sistemas de razonamiento basados en casos y otras técnicas de Inteligencia Artificial han sido aplicadas para la consecución exitosa de esta investigación. Una de las principales innovaciones que pretendo con mi estudio, es investigar acerca de nuevos mecanismos que permitan la adición dinámica de redes de sensores combinando diferentes tecnologías con el propósito final de exponer un conjunto de servicios de usuario de forma distribuida. En este sentido, se propondrá una arquitectura multiagente basada en organizaciones virtuales que gestione de forma autónoma la infraestructura subyacente constituida por el hardware y los diferentes sensores

In Search of the DomoNovus: Speculative Designs for the Computationally-Enhanced Domestic Environment

Edited version embargoed until 01.02.2018 Full version: Access restricted permanently due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Restriction set on 01.02.2017 by SC, Graduate schoolThe home is a physical place that provides isolation, comfort, access to essential needs on a daily basis, and it has a strong impact on a person’s life. Computational and media technologies (digital and electronic objects, devices, protocols, virtual spaces, telematics, interaction, social media, and cyberspace) become an important and vital part of the home ecology, although they have the ability to transform the domestic experience and the understanding of what a personal space is. For this reason, this work investigates the domestication of computational media technology; how objects, systems, and devices become part of the personal and intimate space of the inhabitants. To better understand the taming process, the home is studied and analysed from a range of perspectives (philosophy, sociology, architecture, art, and technology), and a methodological process is proposed for critically exploring the topic with the development of artworks, designs, and computational systems. The methodology of this research, which consists of five points (Context, Media Layers, Invisible Matter, Diffusion, and Symbiosis), suggests a procedure that is fundamental to the development and critical integration of the computationally enhanced home. Accordingly, the home is observed as an ecological system that contains numerous properties (organic, inorganic, hybrid, virtual, augmented), and is viewed on a range of scales (micro, meso and macro). To identify the “choreographies” that are formed between these properties and scales, case studies have been developed to suggest, provoke, and speculate concepts, ideas, and alternative realities of the home. Part of the speculation proposes the concept of DomoNovus (the “New Home”), where technological ubiquity supports the inhabitants’ awareness, perception, and imagination. DomoNovus intends to challenge our understanding of the domestic environment, and demonstrates a range of possibilities, threats, and limitations in relation to the future of home. This thesis, thus, presents methods, experiments, and speculations that intend to inform and inspire, as well as define creative and imaginative dimensions of the computationally-enhanced home, suggesting directions for the further understanding of the domestic life.Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundatio

Prijedlog ontološki utemeljenog metodološkog okvira za razvoj više-platformskih mobilnih aplikacija

Software development teams are faced with the lack of interoperability during the development of mobile applications for two or more target platforms. The development for second and every other platform means a new project with a need to repeat almost all the phases defined by the chosen methodology but with a narrow possibility of reuse of the already defined artifacts. The existing efforts of professional and scientific community to solve this problem have a similar approach (code once, run everywhere) with similar advantages and drawbacks. Thus, this dissertation aims to propose a different solution and is concerned with: (1) analyzing the methodologies suitable for mobile applications development, (2) observing the implementation of prototype application in order to define artifacts that are created during the development process for two target platforms, (3) semantic description of artifacts and their meaning, and (4) defining unique ontological definition as a base for methodological interoperability. The results of a systematic literature review performed on 6761 primary studies, show that current state-of-the-art literature brings only 22 development methodologies and 7 development approaches which can be identified as eligible for multi-platform mobile applications development. Among these, Mobile-D methodology accompanied with Test Driven Development was chosen and used in the observed development processes for Android and Windows Phone platforms. Total of 71 artifacts were identified and the artifacts reusability level when developing for second target platform was 66.00%. In the last research phase, the artifacts for both platforms were semantically described into a single ontological description comprising 213 classes, 14 object properties and 2213 axioms defined in ALCRIF DL expression sub-language. Having this ontology proved as correct and valid, flexible, reusable and extensible we created the basis for development of an information system to guide the development teams in a more efficient and interoperable process of multiplatform mobile applications development.Razvojni timovi susreću se s problemom neinteroperabilnosti prilikom razvoja aplikacija za dvije ili više mobilnih platformi. Razvoj aplikacije za drugu i svaku sljedeću platformu znači novi projekt u kojem je potrebno ponovno provesti većinu faza definiranih odabranom metodikom razvoja, pri čemu se kreirani artefakti teško ili uopće ponovno ne koriste. Napori profesionalne i znanstvene zajednice za rješenjem ovog problema imaju sličan pristup (kodiraj jednom, koristi svugdje), slične prednosti, ali i zajedničke nedostatke. Stoga ova disertacija navedenom problemu pristupa na nov način i bavi se: (1) analiziranjem metodika pogodnih za razvoj mobilnih aplikacija, (2) promatranjem razvoja prototipne aplikacije u svrhu definiranja artefakata koji nastaju pri razvoju mobilne aplikacije za dvije ciljane platforme, (3) semantičkim opisivanjem definiranih artefakata i njihovih značenja, te (4) definiranjem jedinstvene ontološke definicije kao osnove za metodološku interoperabilnost. Rezultati sustavnog pregleda literature provedenog nad 6761 radom pokazali su da se trenutno u literaturi spominju 22 metodike i 7 pristupa koji su pogodni za razvoj više-platformskih mobilnih aplikacija. Između identificiranih metodika odabrani su Mobile-D metodika i pristup razvoju vođen testiranjem, koji su korišteni pri implementaciji prototipnog rješenja za Android i Windows Phone platformu. Ukupno je identificiran 71 artefakt pri čemu je ponovna iskoristivost artefakata pri razvoju za drugu platformu bila 66.00%. U posljednjoj su fazi istraživanja artefakti semantički opisani u zajedničku ontološku definiciju koja u konačnici sadrži 213 klasa, 14 objektnih svojstava i 2213 aksioma definiranih pomodu ALCRIF-DL jezika izraza. U radu je dokazano da je ontologija valjana, fleksibilna, ponovno iskoristiva i nadogradiva, čime je kreirana osnova za razvoj informacijskog sustava koji bi vodio razvojne timove u efikasnijem i bolje interoperabilnom procesu razvoja više-platformskih mobilnih aplikacija

Mental vision:a computer graphics platform for virtual reality, science and education

Despite the wide amount of computer graphics frameworks and solutions available for virtual reality, it is still difficult to find a perfect one fitting at the same time the many constraints of research and educational contexts. Advanced functionalities and user-friendliness, rendering speed and portability, or scalability and image quality are opposite characteristics rarely found into a same approach. Furthermore, fruition of virtual reality specific devices like CAVEs or wearable systems is limited by their costs and accessibility, being most of these innovations reserved to institutions and specialists able to afford and manage them through strong background knowledge in programming. Finally, computer graphics and virtual reality are a complex and difficult matter to learn, due to the heterogeneity of notions a developer needs to practice with before attempting to implement a full virtual environment. In this thesis we describe our contributions to these topics, assembled in what we called the Mental Vision platform. Mental Vision is a framework composed of three main entities. First, a teaching/research oriented graphics engine, simplifying access to 2D/3D real-time rendering on mobile devices, personal computers and CAVE systems. Second, a series of pedagogical modules to introduce and practice computer graphics and virtual reality techniques. Third, two advanced VR systems: a wearable, lightweight and handsfree mixed reality setup, and a four sides CAVE designed through off the shelf hardware. In this dissertation we explain our conceptual, architectural and technical approach, pointing out how we managed to create a robust and coherent solution reducing complexity related to cross-platform and multi-device 3D rendering, and answering simultaneously to contradictory common needs of computer graphics and virtual reality for researchers and students. A series of case studies evaluates how Mental Vision concretely satisfies these needs and achieves its goals on in vitro benchmarks and in vivo scientific and educational projects

Prijedlog ontološki utemeljenog metodološkog okvira za razvoj više-platformskih mobilnih aplikacija

Software development teams are faced with the lack of interoperability during the development of mobile applications for two or more target platforms. The development for second and every other platform means a new project with a need to repeat almost all the phases defined by the chosen methodology but with a narrow possibility of reuse of the already defined artifacts. The existing efforts of professional and scientific community to solve this problem have a similar approach (code once, run everywhere) with similar advantages and drawbacks. Thus, this dissertation aims to propose a different solution and is concerned with: (1) analyzing the methodologies suitable for mobile applications development, (2) observing the implementation of prototype application in order to define artifacts that are created during the development process for two target platforms, (3) semantic description of artifacts and their meaning, and (4) defining unique ontological definition as a base for methodological interoperability. The results of a systematic literature review performed on 6761 primary studies, show that current state-of-the-art literature brings only 22 development methodologies and 7 development approaches which can be identified as eligible for multi-platform mobile applications development. Among these, Mobile-D methodology accompanied with Test Driven Development was chosen and used in the observed development processes for Android and Windows Phone platforms. Total of 71 artifacts were identified and the artifacts reusability level when developing for second target platform was 66.00%. In the last research phase, the artifacts for both platforms were semantically described into a single ontological description comprising 213 classes, 14 object properties and 2213 axioms defined in ALCRIF DL expression sub-language. Having this ontology proved as correct and valid, flexible, reusable and extensible we created the basis for development of an information system to guide the development teams in a more efficient and interoperable process of multiplatform mobile applications development.Razvojni timovi susreću se s problemom neinteroperabilnosti prilikom razvoja aplikacija za dvije ili više mobilnih platformi. Razvoj aplikacije za drugu i svaku sljedeću platformu znači novi projekt u kojem je potrebno ponovno provesti većinu faza definiranih odabranom metodikom razvoja, pri čemu se kreirani artefakti teško ili uopće ponovno ne koriste. Napori profesionalne i znanstvene zajednice za rješenjem ovog problema imaju sličan pristup (kodiraj jednom, koristi svugdje), slične prednosti, ali i zajedničke nedostatke. Stoga ova disertacija navedenom problemu pristupa na nov način i bavi se: (1) analiziranjem metodika pogodnih za razvoj mobilnih aplikacija, (2) promatranjem razvoja prototipne aplikacije u svrhu definiranja artefakata koji nastaju pri razvoju mobilne aplikacije za dvije ciljane platforme, (3) semantičkim opisivanjem definiranih artefakata i njihovih značenja, te (4) definiranjem jedinstvene ontološke definicije kao osnove za metodološku interoperabilnost. Rezultati sustavnog pregleda literature provedenog nad 6761 radom pokazali su da se trenutno u literaturi spominju 22 metodike i 7 pristupa koji su pogodni za razvoj više-platformskih mobilnih aplikacija. Između identificiranih metodika odabrani su Mobile-D metodika i pristup razvoju vođen testiranjem, koji su korišteni pri implementaciji prototipnog rješenja za Android i Windows Phone platformu. Ukupno je identificiran 71 artefakt pri čemu je ponovna iskoristivost artefakata pri razvoju za drugu platformu bila 66.00%. U posljednjoj su fazi istraživanja artefakti semantički opisani u zajedničku ontološku definiciju koja u konačnici sadrži 213 klasa, 14 objektnih svojstava i 2213 aksioma definiranih pomodu ALCRIF-DL jezika izraza. U radu je dokazano da je ontologija valjana, fleksibilna, ponovno iskoristiva i nadogradiva, čime je kreirana osnova za razvoj informacijskog sustava koji bi vodio razvojne timove u efikasnijem i bolje interoperabilnom procesu razvoja više-platformskih mobilnih aplikacija