396 research outputs found

    From wall-paintings to electronic technologies: the search for an ideal hybrid space

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    Man have long used elements of his own architectural works, such as walls, floors and roofs, to devise figurative representations, displaying a different reality from the one before in that very space. Some of them, due to its characteristics, seem to have a virtual (represented) space, spatially integrated with the real (physical) space. We understand the hybrid space as the composition of real and virtual spaces, as if they were one. This article analyzes the representations of many historical periods to analyze the approach of the relationship between real and virtual spaces. He has studied wall-paintings and electronic technologies, showing that elements were gradually incorporated in these representations in order to achieve better results at proposing the hybrid space. He has also considered the ways that telecommunication technologies can contribute to the enabling of an old dream of a hybrid space

    Towards Smarter Management of Overtourism in Historic Centres Through Visitor-Flow Monitoring

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    Historic centres are highly regarded destinations for watching and even participating in diverse and unique forms of cultural expression. Cultural tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), is an important and consolidated tourism sector and its strong growth is expected to continue over the coming years. Tourism, the much dreamt of redeemer for historic centres, also represents one of the main threats to heritage conservation: visitors can dynamize an economy, yet the rapid growth of tourism often has negative effects on both built heritage and the lives of local inhabitants. Knowledge of occupancy levels and flows of visiting tourists is key to the efficient management of tourism; the new technologies—the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and geographic information systems (GIS)—when combined in interconnected networks represent a qualitative leap forward, compared to traditional methods of estimating locations and flows. A methodology is described in this paper for the management of tourism flows that is designed to promote sustainable tourism in historic centres through intelligent support mechanisms. As part of the Smart Heritage City (SHCITY) project, a collection system for visitors is developed. Following data collection via monitoring equipment, the analysis of a set of quantitative indicators yields information that can then be used to analyse visitor flows; enabling city managers to make management decisions when the tourism-carrying capacity is exceeded and gives way to overtourism.Funded by the Interreg Sudoe Programme of the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF

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

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    © 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 180Âș/360Âș 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 nÂș 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 – IncorporaciĂłn 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

    Mouvement biologique et entraßnement perceptivo-cognitif chez les personnes ùgées

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    Lorsque nous cherchons un ami dans une foule ou attendons un proche sur le quai d’une gare, l’identification de cette personne nous est souvent possible grĂące Ă  la reconnaissance de sa dĂ©marche. Plusieurs chercheurs se sont intĂ©ressĂ©s Ă  la façon de se mouvoir de l’ĂȘtre humain en Ă©tudiant le mouvement biologique. Le mouvement biologique est la reprĂ©sentation, par un ensemble structurĂ© de points lumineux animĂ©s, des gestes d’un individu en mouvement dans une situation particuliĂšre (marche, golf, tennis, etc.). Une des caractĂ©ristiques du patron de mouvement biologique peu Ă©tudiĂ©e et nĂ©anmoins essentielle est sa taille. La plupart des Ă©tudes concernĂ©es utilisent des patrons de petite taille correspondant Ă  une personne situĂ©e Ă  16 mĂštres de l’observateur. Or les distances d’interaction sociale, chez l’humain, sont gĂ©nĂ©ralement infĂ©rieures Ă  16 mĂštres. D’autre part, les rĂ©sultats des Ă©tudes portant sur la perception des patrons de mouvement biologique et le vieillissement demeurent contradictoires. Nous avons donc, dans un premier temps, Ă©valuĂ©, dans une voĂ»te d’immersion en rĂ©alitĂ© virtuelle, l’importance de la distance entre l’observateur et le patron de mouvement biologique, chez des adultes jeunes et des personnes ĂągĂ©es. Cette Ă©tude a dĂ©montrĂ© que l’évaluation de la direction de mouvement d’un patron devient difficile pour les personnes ĂągĂ©es lorsque le patron est situĂ© Ă  moins de 4 mĂštres, alors que les rĂ©sultats des jeunes sont comparables pour toutes distances, Ă  partir d’un mĂštre et au-delĂ . Cela indique que les gens ĂągĂ©s peinent Ă  intĂ©grer l’information occupant une portion Ă©tendue de leur champ visuel, ce qui peut s’avĂ©rer problĂ©matique dans des espaces oĂč les distances d’interaction sont infĂ©rieures Ă  4 mĂštres. Nombre de recherches indiquent aussi clairement que les gens ĂągĂ©s s’adaptent difficilement Ă  des situations complexes. Nous avons donc cherchĂ©, dans un second temps, Ă  minimiser ces altĂ©rations liĂ©es Ă  l’ñge de l’intĂ©gration des processus complexes, en utilisant une tĂąche adaptĂ©e Ă  l’entraĂźnement et Ă  l’évaluation de l’intĂ©gration de ces processus : la poursuite multiple d’objets dans l’espace ou 3D-MOT (3 Dimensions Multiple Object Tracking). Le 3D-MOT consiste Ă  suivre simultanĂ©ment plusieurs objets d’intĂ©rĂȘt en mouvement parmi des distracteurs Ă©galement en mouvement. Nous avons Ă©valuĂ© les habiletĂ©s de participants jeunes et ĂągĂ©s Ă  une telle tĂąche dans un environnement virtuel en 3D en dĂ©terminant la vitesse maximale de dĂ©placement des objets Ă  laquelle la tĂąche pouvait ĂȘtre exĂ©cutĂ©e. Les rĂ©sultats des participants ĂągĂ©s Ă©taient initialement infĂ©rieurs Ă  ceux des jeunes. Cependant, aprĂšs plusieurs semaines d’entraĂźnement, les personnes ĂągĂ©es ont obtenu des rĂ©sultats comparables Ă  ceux des sujets jeunes non entraĂźnĂ©s. Nous avons enfin Ă©valuĂ©, pour ces mĂȘmes participants, l’impact de cet entraĂźnement sur la perception de patrons de mouvement biologique prĂ©sentĂ©s Ă  4 et 16 mĂštres dans l’espace virtuel : les habiletĂ©s des personnes ĂągĂ©es entraĂźnĂ©es obtenues Ă  4 mĂštres ont augmentĂ© de façon significative pour atteindre le niveau de celles obtenues Ă  16 mĂštres. Ces rĂ©sultats suggĂšrent que l’entraĂźnement Ă  certaines tĂąches peut rĂ©duire les dĂ©clins cognitivo-perceptifs liĂ©s Ă  l’ñge et possiblement aider les personnes ĂągĂ©es dans leurs dĂ©placements quotidiens.When searching for a friend in a crowd or waiting for a loved one at the train station, we often rely heavily on their gait to identify them. The movements of the human body have generated much research interest, and biological motion has been used to study these displacements. Biological motion is described by points at each joint and provides a representation of an individual during a particular action (walking, playing golf, tennis, etc.). Size is one of the defining characteristics of biological motion patterns, and yet, has been overlooked. Most work has used small patterns, corresponding to a person moving at a distance of 16 m from the observer, but much of our social interactions occur at distances closer than this. Furthermore, our representations of the environment can change as we age, but studies assessing the effects of age on the perception of biological motion have yielded inconsistent results. Therefore, using a fully immersive virtual-reality environment, our first goal was to evaluate the impact of distance between observer and pattern, on biological motion perception in both young and older adults. Results indicate that identifying walking direction becomes difficult at distances closer than 4 m for older observers, whereas performance is maintained in younger participants at all distances further away than 1m. This suggests that older participants exhibit difficulty when information must be integrated across a large expanse of their visual field, which could impede them in any situation where interactions occur within a distance of 4m. Much work has suggested further, that older participants adapt to complex environments with greater difficulty. The second goal was to minimize this age-related change to the integration of complex scenes, by using a task devised to both train and assess such integration processes: Multiple Object Tracking in 3-dimentional space, or 3D-MOT. 3D-MOT consists of tracking several moving objects of interest, among similarly moving distractors. In a 3-D virtual-reality environment, we measured the maximum speed at which the objects could travel, for younger and older observers to complete the task with no errors. Initial results indicated that older observers’ performance was worse than that of younger observers. However, after several weeks of training, older observers’ performance improved and became similar to that of untrained younger observers. Finally, our third goal was to evaluate, for these 3D-MOT-trained older observers, the effect of training on biological motion perception at distances of 16 and 4m in virtual space. Findings indicate that performance at 4 m, for older observers who received 3D-MOT training, improved significantly to reach 16 m levels. This suggests that training of this type can reduce age-related perceptuo-cognitive deficits and can possibly aid the elderly in their daily travels

    FROM CELLULOID REALITIES TO BINARY DREAMSCAPES: CINEMA AND PERCEPTUAL EXPERIENCE IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL IMMERSION

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    Technologies in digital cinema are quickly changing the way contemporary filmmakers create films and how audiences currently perceive them. As we move onward into the digital turn, it becomes ever more apparent that the medium of film has been emancipated from its dependence on the photograph. Directors are no longer required to capture the objectively real as it sits before the photographic lens, but can essentially construct it via groundbreaking advancements in computer-generated imagery, motion capture technology, and digital 3D camera systems and display technologies. Since the origins of film, spectators and filmmakers have assumed an existing relationship between reality and the photographic image. Yet digital film technologies now provide us with hyper-facsimiles of reality that are perceived as photographic, but are often created by way of computer processes. Digital cinema currently allows the viewer to inhabit and interact with cinematic realities in unprecedented ways, and it is this contemporary paradigmatic shift from the analog to the digital that has catalyzed fundamentally new ways of looking at the filmic image. In this paper, I will examine the perceptual complexities of contemporary digital film through the lens of these cinematic technologies by examining their impact on the viewer’s experience

    Change blindness: eradication of gestalt strategies

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    Arrays of eight, texture-defined rectangles were used as stimuli in a one-shot change blindness (CB) task where there was a 50% chance that one rectangle would change orientation between two successive presentations separated by an interval. CB was eliminated by cueing the target rectangle in the first stimulus, reduced by cueing in the interval and unaffected by cueing in the second presentation. This supports the idea that a representation was formed that persisted through the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43149–164]. Another possibility is that participants used some kind of grouping or Gestalt strategy. To test this we changed the spatial position of the rectangles in the second presentation by shifting them along imaginary spokes (by ±1 degree) emanating from the central fixation point. There was no significant difference seen in performance between this and the standard task [F(1,4)=2.565, p=0.185]. This may suggest two things: (i) Gestalt grouping is not used as a strategy in these tasks, and (ii) it gives further weight to the argument that objects may be stored and retrieved from a pre-attentional store during this task

    Distant Transmissions

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    Shortwave radio and the Space Race technology of the 1950's and 1960's cultivated intensely individual and collective cultural experiences that encouraged us to explore the unknown. My research on shortwave radio and space travel as landmarks of exploration includes photographs, shortwave spy codes, a spacesuit, and a collection of the QSL cards that shortwave operators mail to one another. The process of constructing my own spacesuit is a manifestation of my experiences and a collaborative effort to examine the power of technology with those I've met while traveling. Photography encourages us to dream of exploring unknown lands through its subjective nature. This research is comprised of photography, audio, and sculpture and is presented under the guise of the "American Interterrestrial Society." This fictitious organization archives my research and illustrates the tension between truth and the fabrication of the photograph

    At the Scene, On the Screen, and Beyond: Experiences and Representations of Coney Island in Early Twentieth Century Photography and Film

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    This thesis will examine representations of Coney Island in photography and short films from the turn o f the twentieth century and in narrative films from the 1920s. I will consider how Coney Island was represented and examine the polysémie functions ofthe. representations. The photographs and films that I have selected as case studies in this investigation are those I believe best illustrate the capacity of these media to show and recreate Coney Island experiences. Representing Coney Island saved economic, national, individual, social, cultural, and artistic ends. Situating this selection o f representations in the contexts that they were produced in and considering their formal components will demonstrate the importance and role that Coney Island representations played in its history and evolution, encompassing the impact that Coney Island and Coney Island representations in the mass media had on American culture and entertainmen

    Public Ephemera: A case study investigation into individual learning experiences at Nocturne: Art at Night

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    Temporary public art events modelled after the Nuit Blanche concept attract thousands of people to city centres in search of contemporary art. As a result, these mass cultural events may be dramatically changing how people interact with contemporary art. This qualitative research project utilizes Nocturne: Art at Night, a city wide, night time art event in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a case study to determine the kinds of learning experiences everyday people have when they engage with art in the context of a temporary public art festival. This research identified factors that influence participants’ understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. Eleven participants without a Fine Arts background were interviewed before and after attending the event. Findings suggest that participants benefit greatly from being able to select which works to engage with and from having numerous and diverse projects to view. Artworks that build on participants’ past experiences and knowledge of specific installation sites also positively impacted learning. The atmosphere and social aspects of participants’ experiences such as interactions with peers and artists were seen as beneficial to participants’ learning experiences. Short viewing times and lack of adequate signage or contextual information were found to be detrimental to participants’ learning, leading to superficial experiences with art. This study determined that cultural events such as Nocturne provide attendees with a preliminary introduction to contemporary art. However, without additional resources, participants could formulate misconceptions about art that affect their understanding of particular artworks
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