Serious interface design for dental health: Wiimote-based tangible interaction for school children

This paper describes a camera-based approach towards creating a tangible interface for serious games. We introduce our game for dental health targeted at school children which implements the Nintendo WiiMote as infrared camera. Paired with a gesture-recognition system, this combination allows us to apply real-world items as input devices. Thereby, the game tries to address different aspects of dental hygiene along with the improvement of children's motor skills. In our focus group test, we found that tangible interfaces offer great potential for educational purposes and can be used to engage kids in a playful learning process by addressing their childlike curiosity and fostering implicit learning

Integrating mobile robotics and vision with undergraduate computer science

This paper describes the integration of robotics education into an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. The proposed approach delivers mobile robotics as well as covering the closely related field of Computer Vision, and is directly linked to the research conducted at the authors’ institution. The paper describes the most relevant details of the module content and assessment strategy, paying particular attention to the practical sessions using Rovio mobile robots. The specific choices are discussed that were made with regard to the mobile platform, software libraries and lab environment. The paper also presents a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of student results, including the correlation between student engagement and performance, and discusses the outcomes of this experience

The determining factors of service value and satisfaction for edutainment services in Malaysia

Edutainment is a growing business in our country and it is precisely to study the service value and satisfaction to learn about customers behaviors. The purpose of this study is to identify antecedents of service value and satisfaction and determine the relationship and which antecedents are most influential on value and satisfaction. This research used a nonprobability with mall intercept convenience sampling and 130 respondents were participated in this survey. This study employed the Descriptive analysis, Correlation analysis, and Multiple Regression Analysis. For the data analysis, we have used 127 questionnaires and 7 questionnaires were eliminated due to incomplete. The results of this study are supported that overall service marketing mix and service quality have a positive and significant relationship between service value and service satisfaction. Meanwhile, the most influential antecedents on value are the physical evidence and service quality, for service satisfaction is the service quality. Our research suggests that the edutainment marketing managers should create an effective service marketing mix strategies which leads to customer perceived quality, perceived value as well as perceived satisfaction

Exploring digital comics as an edutainment tool: An overview

This paper aims t oexplore the growing potential of digital comics and graphic novels as an edutainment tool.Initially, the evolvement of comics medium along with academic and commercial initiatives in designing comicware systems arebriefly discussed. Prominent to this study, the methods and impact of utilizing this visual media with embedded instructional content and student-generated comics in classroom setting are rationallyoutlined.By recognizing the emerging technologies available for supporting and accelerating educational comic development, this article addresses the diverse research challenges and opportunities of innovating effective strategies to enhance comics integrated learning across disciplines

A Paradigm Shift from Optimal Play to Mental Comfort: A Perspective from the Game Refinement Theory

The game refinement theory focuses on the game designer perspective, where its application in various types of games provides evidence of the occurring paradigm shift. Utilizing the logistical model of game outcome uncertainty, it provides a platform for incorporating gamified experience observed in games to be adopted in domains outside of game while retaining the context of the game. Making games as a testbed, the implications of the game refinement theory have been observed in the educational and business perspective, while further explored its utility in interpreting some states of the human mind. In addition, a holistic view of design in games and in the real-world environments was discussed, where the prospects of the game refinement theory were also highlighted

Adaptive Nonparametric Image Parsing

In this paper, we present an adaptive nonparametric solution to the image parsing task, namely annotating each image pixel with its corresponding category label. For a given test image, first, a locality-aware retrieval set is extracted from the training data based on super-pixel matching similarities, which are augmented with feature extraction for better differentiation of local super-pixels. Then, the category of each super-pixel is initialized by the majority vote of the $k$-nearest-neighbor super-pixels in the retrieval set. Instead of fixing $k$ as in traditional non-parametric approaches, here we propose a novel adaptive nonparametric approach which determines the sample-specific k for each test image. In particular, $k$ is adaptively set to be the number of the fewest nearest super-pixels which the images in the retrieval set can use to get the best category prediction. Finally, the initial super-pixel labels are further refined by contextual smoothing. Extensive experiments on challenging datasets demonstrate the superiority of the new solution over other state-of-the-art nonparametric solutions.Comment: 11 page

Game-based evacuation drill using augmented reality and head-mounted display

Purpose–Evacuation drills should be more realistic and interactive. Focusing on situational and audio-visual realities and scenario-based interactivity, we have developed a game-based evacuation drill (GBED) system that presents augmented reality (AR) materials on tablet computers. Our current research purpose is to improve visual reality (AR materials) in our GBED system. Design/methodology/approach–Our approach is to develop a new GBED system that superimposes digital objects (e.g. 3DCG elements) onto real-time vision using a marker-based AR library, a binocular opaque head-mounted display (HMD) and other current easily available technologies. Findings–Our findings from a trial experiment are that the new GBED system can improve visual reality and is appropriate for disaster education. However, a few problems remain for practical use. Research limitations/implications–When using the GBED system, participants (i.e. HMD wearers) can suffer from 3D sickness and have difficulty in moving. These are important safety problems in HMD-based systems. Social implications–The combination of AR and HMDs for GBEDs (i.e. integrating virtual and real worlds) will raise questions about its merits (pros and cons). Originality/value–The originality of our research is the combination of AR and an HMD to a GBED, which have previously been realized primarily as simulation games in virtual worlds. We believe that our research has the potential to expand disaster education

Slice and Dice: A Physicalization Workflow for Anatomical Edutainment

During the last decades, anatomy has become an interesting topic in education---even for laymen or schoolchildren. As medical imaging techniques become increasingly sophisticated, virtual anatomical education applications have emerged. Still, anatomical models are often preferred, as they facilitate 3D localization of anatomical structures. Recently, data physicalizations (i.e., physical visualizations) have proven to be effective and engaging---sometimes, even more than their virtual counterparts. So far, medical data physicalizations involve mainly 3D printing, which is still expensive and cumbersome. We investigate alternative forms of physicalizations, which use readily available technologies (home printers) and inexpensive materials (paper or semi-transparent films) to generate crafts for anatomical edutainment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first computer-generated crafting approach within an anatomical edutainment context. Our approach follows a cost-effective, simple, and easy-to-employ workflow, resulting in assemblable data sculptures (i.e., semi-transparent sliceforms). It primarily supports volumetric data (such as CT or MRI), but mesh data can also be imported. An octree slices the imported volume and an optimization step simplifies the slice configuration, proposing the optimal order for easy assembly. A packing algorithm places the resulting slices with their labels, annotations, and assembly instructions on a paper or transparent film of user-selected size, to be printed, assembled into a sliceform, and explored. We conducted two user studies to assess our approach, demonstrating that it is an initial positive step towards the successful creation of interactive and engaging anatomical physicalizations

Meet Amadeo: a proposal

A aposta nas indústrias criativas e culturais é cada vez mais importante para um desenvolvimento económico sustentável, combinando aspetos económicos, culturais, socias e tecnológicos. É também importante perceber como instituições seculares como os museus se tem adaptado aos novos tempos e aproveitado as novas tecnologias e novas formas de exposição em seu benefício, como o Edutainment. Através da revisão de literatura e entrevistas a entidades que trabalham na área, foi proposto fazer uma análise ao Edutainment e como é que este é usado em contexto museológico. Decorrente desta análise os seus resultados foram aplicados à proposta de transferir o modelo da exposição Edutainment e imersiva Meet Vincent, idealizada pelo Museu Van Gogh de Amesterdão, para a realidade portuguesa. Com realidade portuguesa, quer-se dizer pegar no essencial da exposição imersiva criada na Holanda e aplicá-la à vida e obra de Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, o pintor escolhido para o projeto. Diferente de outras exposições imersivas, tanto a exposição Meet Vincent como a proposta feita doravante prezam por partilhar o homem por detrás do pintor e a forma como a sua vivência terá influenciado a sua arte. Exposições imersivas não são novidades, mas acredita-se que o diferencial de transportar a audiência até aos anos 10 do século XX, ao dia a dia de Amadeo possa tornar a proposta de conhecer Amadeo de Souza Cardoso bem-sucedida.The focus on creative and cultural industries is increasingly important for a sustainable economic development, combining economic, cultural, social and technological aspects. It is also important to understand how secular institutions like museums have adapted to the new times and taken advantage of new technologies and new exhibition formats in their benefit, like Edutainment. Through literature review and interviews with entities that work in the area, we analysed Edutainment and how it is used in the museological context. The results of this analysis were applied to the proposal we present: transferring the Edutainment model and immersive exhibition Meet Vincent, created by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, to the Portuguese reality. By Portuguese reality, we mean taking the essentials of the immersive exhibition created in the Netherlands and applying them to the life and work of Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, the painter chosen for the project. Unlike other immersive exhibitions, both the Meet Vincent exhibition and the proposal made hereafter aim to share the man behind the painter and the way in which his life experience influenced his art. Immersive exhibitions are not new, but it is believed that the differential of transporting the audience to the 10's of the 20th century, to Amadeo's daily life can make the proposal of meeting Amadeo de Souza Cardoso successful