Roaming Edge vNFs using Glasgow Network Functions

While the network edge is becoming more important for the provision of customized services in next generation mobile networks, current NFV architectures are unsuitable to meet the increasing future demand. They rely on commodity servers with resource-hungry Virtual Machines that are unable to provide the high network function density and mobility requirements necessary for upcoming wide-area and 5G networks. In this demo, we showcase Glasgow Network Functions (GNF), a virtualization framework suitable for next generation mobile networks that exploits lightweight network functions (NFs) deployed at the edge and transparently following users' devices as they roam between cells

Social media for student learning: enhancing the student experience and promoting deep learning

Traditional Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) was introduced as a retention-motivated initiative in the College of Science and Engineering 5 years ago. Despite a high level of interest from students, there were several practical barriers that prevented many students from attending these sessions. As an alternative, an online space for Virtual Peer Assisted Learning (VPAL) was trialled. VPAL was found to have not only all the benefits of traditional PAL but also more that had not been anticipated. In this paper we will discuss the practicalities involved and the design choices that had to be made. We will also showcase some anonymised examples of academic and social dialogue between peers and outline some of the unexpected advantages of using VPAL over traditional PAL

VMXR: a EUD Environment for Virtual Merchandizing in XR

This paper presents the current development state of VMXR, a Proof of Concept (PoC) environment allowing people without programming experience to create and configure product showcases in a Virtual and eXtended reality setting. The aim of the PoC is to identify proper metaphors and workflows for supporting showcase designers in creating interactions with the virtual product representation or enhancing the physical environment through additional information and media

Virtual Phenomenology: A Critical Essay about the Relationship between Virtual Environments and the Senses

This article focuses on the content, process, and outcome of the design brief titled virtual phenomenology under the professional elective course DDFT 473 – Virtual Environments. The emphasis of the course tackled the relationship between the virtual realm and the senses using virtual reality HMD and controllers as tools allowing students the possibilities to create virtual spaces inside virtual reality. Students spent more than 50 hours inside the virtual void trying to correlate and ignite specific senses in relation to each created virtual space. Despite the tremendous researches related to immersive education, this article attempts to showcase the process and outcome within the framework of VR Sketch application and how the usage of VR technology affect and empower the creation of virtual spaces through the senses rather than focusing on a traditional 2D iterative method of creating architectural spaces

The CAVE (TM) automatic virtual environment: Characteristics and applications

Virtual reality may best be defined as the wide-field presentation of computer-generated, multi-sensory information that tracks a user in real time. In addition to the more well-known modes of virtual reality -- head-mounted displays and boom-mounted displays -- the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago recently introduced a third mode: a room constructed from large screens on which the graphics are projected on to three walls and the floor. The CAVE is a multi-person, room sized, high resolution, 3D video and audio environment. Graphics are rear projected in stereo onto three walls and the floor, and viewed with stereo glasses. As a viewer wearing a location sensor moves within its display boundaries, the correct perspective and stereo projections of the environment are updated, and the image moves with and surrounds the viewer. The other viewers in the CAVE are like passengers in a bus, along for the ride. 'CAVE,' the name selected for the virtual reality theater, is both a recursive acronym (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) and a reference to 'The Simile of the Cave' found in Plato's 'Republic,' in which the philosopher explores the ideas of perception, reality, and illusion. Plato used the analogy of a person facing the back of a cave alive with shadows that are his/her only basis for ideas of what real objects are. Rather than having evolved from video games or flight simulation, the CAVE has its motivation rooted in scientific visualization and the SIGGRAPH 92 Showcase effort. The CAVE was designed to be a useful tool for scientific visualization. The Showcase event was an experiment; the Showcase chair and committee advocated an environment for computational scientists to interactively present their research at a major professional conference in a one-to-many format on high-end workstations attached to large projection screens. The CAVE was developed as a 'virtual reality theater' with scientific content and projection that met the criteria of Showcase

A Performing Artist\u27s Journey...Begins (Senior Showcase)

As a Theatre major, my sponsor and I decided that my Honors Research Project would be a one-person, twenty-minute performance. Originally, this showcase was going to be a live theatre event. Due to coronavirus and social distancing, I had to adjust and adapt as I transformed my piece into a virtual performance. In choosing the content that would be performed, I carefully selected pieces that represented my journey as a performing artist the past four years. I wanted to showcase my growth and range as a performer. I chose one monologue from each of the six MainStage Theatre productions I have performed in at The University of Akron. I also wrote an introduction, conclusion, and brief introductions to each monologue, and included a song from my a Cappella group. All in all, I feel that this virtual senior showcase accomplished my original goals: it tested my acting abilities; captures my essence as a performer; showcases my range, past performances, and specific techniques I have developed; denotes a theme of evolution as it follows my collegiate performance journey; and truly represents the time and work I put in, while simultaneously serving as a capstone and culmination of my experience

Out of the woods. [Solo Exhibition]

This virtual exhibition was part of the Gray's School of Art (RGU) Postgraduate Showcase in 2020. The showcase featured works by GSA masters students, as well as works by 31 creative practitioners who had successfully completed the Look Again "Creative Entrepreneurship" post-graduate short-course. "Out of the Woods" was a solo exhibition by Kevin Andrew Morris, in which the following works were exhibited: wood-fired stonewares "Cassiopeia Dram", "Taps Aff", "Lochnagar Royal Dram", "Sportsmans Pocket Flask" and "Fly Cup" (all 2019); and wood-fired porcelain "Pilgrim Flask" (2018). The works were displayed alongside a photograph ("Flame On" by Elysia Athanatos, 2019) that showed Kevin working at a kiln

An outdoor spatially-aware audio playback platform exemplified by a virtual zoo

Outlined in this short paper is a framework for the construction of outdoor location-and direction-aware audio applications along with an example application to showcase the strengths of the framework and to demonstrate how it works. Although there has been previous work in this area which has concentrated on the spatial presentation of sound through wireless headphones, typically such sounds are presented as though originating from specific, defined spatial locations within a 3D environment. Allowing a user to move freely within this space and adjusting the sound dynamically as we do here, further enhances the perceived reality of the virtual environment. Techniques to realise this are implemented by the real-time adjustment of the presented 2 channels of audio to the headphones, using readings of the user's head orientation and location which in turn are made possible by sensors mounted upon the headphones. Aside from proof of concept indoor applications, more user-responsive applications of spatial audio delivery have not been prototyped or explored. In this paper we present an audio-spatial presentation platform along with a primary demonstration application for an outdoor environment which we call a {\em virtual audio zoo}. This application explores our techniques to further improve the realism of the audio-spatial environments we can create, and to assess what types of future application are possible