An Immersive Telepresence System using RGB-D Sensors and Head Mounted Display

We present a tele-immersive system that enables people to interact with each other in a virtual world using body gestures in addition to verbal communication. Beyond the obvious applications, including general online conversations and gaming, we hypothesize that our proposed system would be particularly beneficial to education by offering rich visual contents and interactivity. One distinct feature is the integration of egocentric pose recognition that allows participants to use their gestures to demonstrate and manipulate virtual objects simultaneously. This functionality enables the instructor to ef- fectively and efficiently explain and illustrate complex concepts or sophisticated problems in an intuitive manner. The highly interactive and flexible environment can capture and sustain more student attention than the traditional classroom setting and, thus, delivers a compelling experience to the students. Our main focus here is to investigate possible solutions for the system design and implementation and devise strategies for fast, efficient computation suitable for visual data processing and network transmission. We describe the technique and experiments in details and provide quantitative performance results, demonstrating our system can be run comfortably and reliably for different application scenarios. Our preliminary results are promising and demonstrate the potential for more compelling directions in cyberlearning.Comment: IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia 201

Smartening the Environment using Wireless Sensor Networks in a Developing Country

The miniaturization process of various sensing devices has become a reality by enormous research and advancements accomplished in Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) lithography. Regardless of such extensive efforts in optimizing the hardware, algorithm, and protocols for networking, there still remains a lot of scope to explore how these innovations can all be tied together to design Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for smartening the surrounding environment for some practical purposes. In this paper we explore the prospects of wireless sensor networks and propose a design level framework for developing a smart environment using WSNs, which could be beneficial for a developing country like Bangladesh. In connection to this, we also discuss the major aspects of wireless sensor networks.Comment: 5 page

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Its Application in EFL Classrooms

Howard Gardner claims that every human possesses eight intelligences whereas the IQ test mainly focuses on two: linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Because of this, in many classrooms, teachers who tend to focus on those two intelligences limit other possible ways that students learn. This paper examines the theory of MI (multiple intelligences) and how we can apply its principles in school and EFL classrooms. The author concludes that understanding MI theory and its principles is extremely important,since using MI-based activities opens up a wide range of possibilities for helping students learn more effectively and successfully in EFL classrooms

Shrinking Spaces and Emerging Role of Information Technology in India

The ever expanding Indian cities and its population from 27 million from early 20th century to 377 million in early 21st century put forth a challenge for urban planners and managers to solve complex integrated problems and to design smart sustainable cities. Even in near future the scale of problem will be going to rise as it is estimated that about 50 percent of total Indian population, which is about 814 million person, will be living in Indian cities by 2050. Moreover, the fastest growing or changing Information Technologies are playing a greater role in transformation of urban spaces in Indian cities. Hence, the present paper is an attempt to analyse the impact of Information Technologies in transformation of urban planning process in India. The paper, in relation with the case study of Delhi, analyse the implication of IT on city structure and urban spaces. It is certain the all aspects of urban fabric have an Information Technological print in different magnitudes and scale. Cybernetic age has given us different life style, working pattern and mobility behaviour. Increasing speed of internet from 2G to 3G, 4G and even 5G; from participatory interactive Web 2.0 technologies to Web 3.0, 4.0 technology; shrinking physical spaces of financial banks from whole building to Sq. meter, Sq. feet (ATM), inches (laptop), cm (Mobile), even mm (intelligent banking chip). Such technological, social, physical and economical changes will raise many question in the mind of planner, like is the functional boundaries of cities will vanish? Is IT will bridge the gap or create the digital divide among urban community? Is IT shrinking the urban spaces or not? After analysing the Indian urban and IT policy and understanding the Delhi Urban structure, the present paper tries to answer these questions. By understanding the existing complex settlement interdependence the present paper also recommends the possible solutions that IT may facilitate or hasten the development and, whether it needs to be treated as process and not an end. Finally the paper proves the hypothesis that “IT will shrink the space by eliminating the factor of time and distance by creating virtual space, but in reality it will make urban functional boundaries to sprawl and thus expand the physical urban space”

The Immersive Education Laboratory: understanding affordances, structuring experiences, and creating constructivist, collaborative processes, in mixed-reality smart environments

In this paper we describe how the iClassroom and other technologies are providing the testbed through which we are able to design, develop, and research future intelligent environments. We describe the process of distinguishing between the technical and pedagogical aspects of immersive learning environments, while simultaneously considering both in the redefinition of effective intelligent learning spaces. This paper describes how our laboratory is working on specific projects that increase our understanding of the distinct advantages of technical design elements, like immersive visual displays, and pedagogical design elements that need to be in place as we go through the process of structuring learning situations that create constructivist, collaborative experiences. We describe specific technologies and their design across these multiple dimensions and the ways in which they are helping us better understand how to maximize technological affordances for increased positive learning outcomes. Finally, through this design research process, as we begin to better understand the affordances and iteratively create design guidelines, our hope is that eventually a prescriptive framework emerges that informs both the practice of embedded technology development and the deliberate incorporation of technical attributes into both the educational space and the pedagogy through which students learn

A Preliminary Study of Integrating Flipped Classroom strategy for Classical Chinese Learning

[[abstract]]This is a multiphase study which aims to investigate how to provide learners with an method to acquire classical Chinese through integrating mobile technology with the flipped classroom approach. Currently, in the first phase of study, the researcher adopts informant design through questionnaire survey to understand students' and instructors' perceptions of using mobile learning devices for classical Chinese learning, and afterwards the researcher constructs the system based on the pilot results. The pilot questionnaire results, structure of the developed mobile learning system and the practical application of the developed system for classical Chinese teaching and learning are described in the paper.[[notice]]補正完

Interactive on smart classroom system using beacon technology

The emergence of many internet industries ushers in IOT era, and about to bring us to the point of universal connectivity. In the field of education, the IOT technology has a broad applicable prospect for a more interactive and intelligent way by improving the quality of teaching and management. The proposed class affair management system is mean to enrich the interaction between lecturers and students which in an efficient and smart way. Based on the existing model, a layered architecture is proposed to build the beacon based campus management system. Backend device and protocols compose the physical layer to collect the raw data from physical objects. Data link layer and control layer are responsible for forming required package and sending to corresponding layer. Beacon technology used for proposed design applies Bluetooth low energy 4.0 standard which allowing devices exchange data through Bluetooth at an extremely low power consumption-using a single coin cell battery can last for several years. Saved up to 97 percentage energy compared with similar system. The entire proposed platform allows participants to bring personally owned devices to access campus management system. Through location information, teaching activities and personalized information notification can be automatically accomplished, which will inspire the innovation and development of classroom teaching mode. Beacon technology has a great potential that can be completely transplanted into other scenario such as the hypermarket and library

The Effect of the Internet of Things (IoT) on Education Business Model

The introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) in education, which allows Internet based communications to happen between physical objects, sensors and controllers, has changed educational institutions massively. By embedding sensors in objects and integrating cloud computing, augmented reality, wearable technologies and big data in this platform, different parameters of the educational environment can be measured and analysed to provide useful information. It also has created a new interaction between people and the environment in educational organisation. In this research based on the recent IoT projects in education, we will categorize the application of IoT in education into four groups: energy management and real time ecosystem monitoring, monitoring student’s healthcare, classroom access control and improving teaching and learning. We will investigate and analyse how this platform has changed the Education Business Model and added new value propositions in such organizations based on the Canvas Business Model