Digital technologies in architecture and engineering: Exploring an engaged interaction within curricula

This chapter focuses on the development and adoption of new Multimedia, Computer Aided Design, and other ICT technologies for both Architecture and Computer Sciences curricula and highlights the multidisciplinary work that can be accomplished when these two areas work together. We describe in detail the addressed educational skills and the developed research and we highlight the contributions towards the improvements of teaching and learning in those areas. We discuss in detail the role of Digital technologies, such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Multimedia, 3D Modelling software systems, Design Processes and its evaluation tools, such as Shape Grammar and Space Syntax, within the Architecture curricula.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Kinetic Atmospheres and Immersion Architecture

This presentation extends the author’s earlier work on dance technologies and in/audible choreographies to delve into participatory sensory architecture and augmented virtuality, introducing concepts of the material affects of flows and aural environments, and discussing the design of wearables used in immersive environments (kinetic atmospheres or ‘kimospheres’). Kinetic atmospheres are conceived as formative, not built/constructed in a stable form but responsive to movers or even ‘wearable’ themselves. Basing its investigation of such porous interactive environments for wearable performance in recent installations of the DAP-Lab, as well as acoustic-theatrical installations and contemporary choreographic architectures and objects, the paper explores the impact of audiophonic wearables on movement choreography and role-play within such kimospheres. Finally, it sketches more speculative developments of how bodies and wearables come to affect, and be affected by, kinetic, sonic and Virtual Reality interfaces – in the sense in which the composer Xenakis had envisioned reverberant multimedia architectures and spatial intensities to be live instruments, not static objects or envelopes. Birringer proposes to rework architectural, cybernetic, and hydrogeological theories of the liquid, and shift attention to liquid aurality and virtuality derived also from anthropological concepts of understanding the movement of water, mist, and vapor (immersion, animation, animateriality)

Supporting active learning through immersive mixed and virtual reality technologies

As the world economies continue to grow, natural resources are being used at such high rates that may negatively affect future generations. One of the issues is that the general population may know some solutions for reducing energy consumption, for example in transportation, but few may know about sustainable food production and sustainability concepts in a wider context. It can be challenging to create learning tools and learning content to suit the learning needs of the general population. This master thesis explores mixed (MR) and virtual (VR) reality technologies as a support tool for learning sustainability concepts through active learning strategies. The research investigates design choices and their effectiveness in creating immersive learning experiences as well as the user’s perceived experiences of presence and motivation to learn. A human-centered design approach is adopted to create a ‘sustainable future city’ use case focusing on learning concepts of sustainable horticulture such as vertical farming, hydroponic-, aeroponic- and aquaponic systems. The research investigates the state-of-the-art of MR and VR technologies, and looks into perceived levels of presence and motivation in an immersive experience that combines MR and VR as one application. Human-centered design activities taken include interviews with five randomly sampled participants to validate requirements, interests in topics, and technology choices. Further on, design and development tasks were carried out to develop a functional prototype running on Meta Quest Pro head mount device. A mixed method approach was taken for the user testing and evaluation of two design iterations. That involved user observation in UiA’s usability laboratory, questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 10 participants. This study’s findings indicate that key design decisions for the immersive experience included guided exploration, realistic visualization, and hand gesture interactions. Further, there were positive outcomes on both observation and feedback from users as high levels of presence, fun, and interest in the topic were distinguished. Some main specific findings were that while most participants were observed to experience presence as expected, one participant indicated that they had a low sense of presence and were distracted by the environment and unfamiliarity with the technology. This suggests that users can feel low levels of presence even when they are fully involved in the virtual environment, because of the cognitive process required to experience presence. Further regarding motivation, all participants stated they preferred the immersive experience over traditional means such as textbooks, as it made learning more fun and interesting in an active way. The study was limited in scope and sample size, nevertheless it was concluded that overall the design decisions made for the use case were at a large extent effective in supporting active learning, and the designed tool can be easily used by the general population

Supporting active learning through immersive mixed and virtual reality technologies

As the world economies continue to grow, natural resources are being used at such high rates that may negatively affect future generations. One of the issues is that the general population may know some solutions for reducing energy consumption, for example in transportation, but few may know about sustainable food production and sustainability concepts in a wider context. It can be challenging to create learning tools and learning content to suit the learning needs of the general population. This master thesis explores mixed (MR) and virtual (VR) reality technologies as a support tool for learning sustainability concepts through active learning strategies. The research investigates design choices and their effectiveness in creating immersive learning experiences as well as the user’s perceived experiences of presence and motivation to learn. A human-centered design approach is adopted to create a ‘sustainable future city’ use case focusing on learning concepts of sustainable horticulture such as vertical farming, hydroponic-, aeroponic- and aquaponic systems. The research investigates the state-of-the-art of MR and VR technologies, and looks into perceived levels of presence and motivation in an immersive experience that combines MR and VR as one application. Human-centered design activities taken include interviews with five randomly sampled participants to validate requirements, interests in topics, and technology choices. Further on, design and development tasks were carried out to develop a functional prototype running on Meta Quest Pro head mount device. A mixed method approach was taken for the user testing and evaluation of two design iterations. That involved user observation in UiA’s usability laboratory, questionnaire and in-depth interviews with 10 participants. This study’s findings indicate that key design decisions for the immersive experience included guided exploration, realistic visualization, and hand gesture interactions. Further, there were positive outcomes on both observation and feedback from users as high levels of presence, fun, and interest in the topic were distinguished. Some main specific findings were that while most participants were observed to experience presence as expected, one participant indicated that they had a low sense of presence and were distracted by the environment and unfamiliarity with the technology. This suggests that users can feel low levels of presence even when they are fully involved in the virtual environment, because of the cognitive process required to experience presence. Further regarding motivation, all participants stated they preferred the immersive experience over traditional means such as textbooks, as it made learning more fun and interesting in an active way. The study was limited in scope and sample size, nevertheless it was concluded that overall the design decisions made for the use case were at a large extent effective in supporting active learning, and the designed tool can be easily used by the general population

Alucinação transensorial

Após uma breve reflexão sobre teorias do digital e não-digital, este ensaio se preocupa com questões da percepção comum e dos sentidos não usuais, enfatizando a kinaesthetic, noções transensoriais de ex-stasis e o afeto material do ambiente. O autor discute exemplos retirados de estudos atmosféricos, de objetos arquitetônicos e coreográficos, assim como do design de vestimentas usadas em ambientes sensoriais performáticos que foram concebidos como formativos, não construídos em formas estáveis. Além disso, baseando suas investigações em ambientes elementais e coreografias aurais de produções recentes do DAP-Lab, esse ensaio explora os impactos das vestimentas que afetam, e são afetadas por, as interfaces de realidade aumentada e virtualidade aumentada em atmosferas cinéticas – aqui chamadas “kimospheres” – no sentido em que o compositor Xenakis havia imaginado arquiteturas multimídia reverberantes e intensidades espaciais para serem instrumentos vivos, não objetos estáticos ou envelopes

Offshore marine visualization

In 85 B.C. a Greek philosopher called Posidonius set sail to answer an age-old question: how deep is the ocean? By lowering a large rock tied to a very long length of rope he determined that the ocean was 2km deep. These line and sinker methods were used until the 1920s when oceanographers developed the first echo sounders that could measure the water's depth by reflecting sound waves off the seafloor. The subsequent increase in sonar depth soundings resulted in oceanologists finally being able to view the alien underwater landscape. Paper printouts and records dominated the industry for decades until the mid 1980s when new digital sonar systems enabled computers to process and render the captured data streams.In the last five years, the offshore industry has been particularly slow to take advantage of the significant advancements made in computer and graphics technologies. Contemporary marine visualization systems still use outdated 2D representations of vessels positioned on digital charts and the potential for using 3D computer graphics for interacting with multidimensional marine data has not been fully investigated.This thesis is concerned with the issues surrounding the visualization of offshore activities and data using interactive 3D computer graphics. It describes the development of a novel 3D marine visualization system and subsequent study of marine visualization techniques through a number of offshore case studies that typify the marine industry. The results of this research demonstrate that presenting the offshore engineer or office based manager with a more intuitive and natural 3D computer generated viewing environment enables complex offshore tasks, activities and procedures to be more readily monitored and understood. The marine visualizations presented in this thesis take advantage of recent advancements in computer graphics technology and our extraordinary ability to interpret 3D data. These visual enhancements have improved offshore staffs' spatial and temporal understanding of marine data resulting in improved planning, decision making and real-time situation awareness of complex offshore data and activities

An evaluation framework for virtual reality safety training systems in the South African Mining Industry

The mining industry in South Africa contributes significantly to the national economy. Despite stringent safety legislation, mining accidents cause numerous fatalities and injuries. Inadequate or insufficient training is often cited as a root cause of accidents. Conventional class-based safety training has not reduced the incidence of accidents significantly. By contrast, virtual reality training tools can provide simulated exposure to real-world working conditions without the associated risks. This study describes the application of design-based research (DBR) in the design and development of two desktop virtual reality (VR) systems for safety training in the South African mining industry. The results of a usability context analysis were applied in the design of a VR prototype on generic hazards recognition and rectification, which was used and evaluated at South Africa‘s largest platinum mine site. A case study was conducted to investigate the causes and occurrences of falls of ground, which resulted in the design and development of a second VR prototype focusing on identifying and addressing underground geological conditions. DBR was also used in the generation of an evaluation framework for evaluating VR training systems, namely the Desktop VR Evaluation Framework (DEVREF), which is the major deliverable of the research. DEVREF can make a major contribution to the domain of e-training in mines and is transferable and customisable beyond its initial application. The process flow of the research thus moved beyond merely providing a solution to a complex real-world problem and became a classic DBR study with dual outcomes, namely a practical real-world solution in the form of two VR training systems and a theoretical contribution in the form of the DEVREF evaluation framework. DEVREF evaluates the design of desktop VR training systems in the categories of instructional design, usability, VR systems design, and context-specific criteria for mining. The use of DEVREF is demonstrated by reporting the application of its criteria in evaluating the two VR training systems. Heuristic evaluation, end-user surveys, and interviews were used as evaluation methods. A third contribution is methodological, in that this work proposes a new DBR process model and an interaction design lifecycle model suitable for VR training systems.ComputingD. Phil. (Information Systems