Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

VELOS : a VR platform for ship-evacuation analysis

Virtual Environment for Life On Ships (VELOS) is a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) system that aims to support designers to assess (early in the design process) passenger and crew activities on a ship for both normal and hectic conditions of operations and to improve ship design accordingly. This article focuses on presenting the novel features of VELOS related to both its VR and evacuation-specific functionalities. These features include: (i) capability of multiple users’ immersion and active participation in the evacuation process, (ii) real-time interactivity and capability for making on-the-fly alterations of environment events and crowd-behavior parameters, (iii) capability of agents and avatars to move continuously on decks, (iv) integrated framework for both the simplified and advanced method of analysis according to the IMO/MSC 1033 Circular, (v) enrichment of the ship geometrical model with a topological model suitable for evacuation analysis, (vi) efficient interfaces for the dynamic specification and handling of the required heterogeneous input data, and (vii) post-processing of the calculated agent trajectories for extracting useful information for the evacuation process. VELOS evacuation functionality is illustrated using three evacuation test cases for a ro–ro passenger ship

Agents for educational games and simulations

This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications

Visual authoring of virtual reality conversational scenarios for e‑learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to face-to-face activities being developed in a virtual format that often offers a poor experience in areas such as education. Virtual Learning Environments have improved in recent years thanks to new technologies such as Virtual Reality or Chatbots. However, creating Virtual Learning Environments requires advanced programming knowledge, so this work is aimed to enable teachers to create these new environments easily. This work presents a set of extensions for App Inventor that facilitate the authoring of mobile learning apps that use Chatbots in a Virtual Reality environment, while simultaneously monitoring of student activity. This proposal is based on integrating block-based languages and Business Process Model and Notation diagrams. The developed extensions were successfully implemented in an educational app called Let’s date!. A quantitative analysis of the use of these extensions in App Inventor was also carried out, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of blocks required. The proposed contribution has demonstrated its validity in creating virtual learning environments through visual programming and modelling, reducing development complexity

Analysis of Impact of Natural Ventilation Strategies in Ventilation Rates and Indoor Environmental Acoustics Using Sensor Measurement Data in Educational Buildings

Indoor environmental conditions can significantly affect occupants’ health and comfort. These conditions are especially important in educational buildings, where students, teachers and staff spend long periods of the day and are vulnerable to these factors. Recently, indoor air quality has been a focus of attention to ensure that disease transmission in these spaces is minimised. In order to increase the knowledge in this field, experimental tests have been carried out to characterise the impact of natural ventilation strategies on indoor air quality and the acoustic environment. This study has evaluated three ventilation scenarios in four different classrooms in buildings of the University of Granada, considering different window and door opening configurations. Ventilation rates were estimated using the CO2 Decay Method, and background noise recordings were made in each classroom for acoustic tests. Results show that specific natural ventilation strategies have a relevant impact that is worth considering on the background noise in indoor spaces. In this sense ventilation rates provided by the different configurations varied between 3.7 and 39.8 air changes per hour (ACH) and the acoustic tests show a background noise ranging from 43 to 54 dBA in these scenarios. Consequently, managers and teachers should take into account not only the ACH, but also other collateral impacts on the indoor environmental conditions such as the thermal comfort or the acoustic environment.Consejo General de la Arquitectura Técnica (CGATE)State Research Agency (SRA) of Spain and European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) under project PID2019-108761RB-I00