Application-driven visual computing towards industry 4.0 2018

245 p.La Tesis recoge contribuciones en tres campos: 1. Agentes Virtuales Interactivos: autónomos, modulares, escalables, ubicuos y atractivos para el usuario. Estos IVA pueden interactuar con los usuarios de manera natural.2. Entornos de RV/RA Inmersivos: RV en la planificación de la producción, el diseño de producto, la simulación de procesos, pruebas y verificación. El Operario Virtual muestra cómo la RV y los Co-bots pueden trabajar en un entorno seguro. En el Operario Aumentado la RA muestra información relevante al trabajador de una manera no intrusiva. 3. Gestión Interactiva de Modelos 3D: gestión online y visualización de modelos CAD multimedia, mediante conversión automática de modelos CAD a la Web. La tecnología Web3D permite la visualización e interacción de estos modelos en dispositivos móviles de baja potencia.Además, estas contribuciones han permitido analizar los desafíos presentados por Industry 4.0. La tesis ha contribuido a proporcionar una prueba de concepto para algunos de esos desafíos: en factores humanos, simulación, visualización e integración de modelos

Application-driven visual computing towards industry 4.0 2018

245 p.La Tesis recoge contribuciones en tres campos: 1. Agentes Virtuales Interactivos: autónomos, modulares, escalables, ubicuos y atractivos para el usuario. Estos IVA pueden interactuar con los usuarios de manera natural.2. Entornos de RV/RA Inmersivos: RV en la planificación de la producción, el diseño de producto, la simulación de procesos, pruebas y verificación. El Operario Virtual muestra cómo la RV y los Co-bots pueden trabajar en un entorno seguro. En el Operario Aumentado la RA muestra información relevante al trabajador de una manera no intrusiva. 3. Gestión Interactiva de Modelos 3D: gestión online y visualización de modelos CAD multimedia, mediante conversión automática de modelos CAD a la Web. La tecnología Web3D permite la visualización e interacción de estos modelos en dispositivos móviles de baja potencia.Además, estas contribuciones han permitido analizar los desafíos presentados por Industry 4.0. La tesis ha contribuido a proporcionar una prueba de concepto para algunos de esos desafíos: en factores humanos, simulación, visualización e integración de modelos

A Theoretical Framework for Serious Game Design: Exploring Pedagogy, Play and Fidelity and their Implications for the Design Process

It is widely acknowledged that digital games can provide an engaging, motivating and “fun” experience for students. However an entertaining game does not necessarily constitute a meaningful, valuable learning experience. For this reason, experts espouse the importance of underpinning serious games with a sound theoretical framework which integrates and balances theories from two fields of practice: pedagogy and game design (Kiili, 2005; Seeney & Routledge, 2009). Additionally, with the advent of sophisticated, immersive technologies, and increasing interest in the opportunities for constructivist learning offered by these technologies, concepts of fidelity and its impact on student learning and engagement, have emerged (Aldrich, 2005; Harteveld et al., 2007, 2010). This paper will explore a triadic theoretical framework for serious game design comprising play, pedagogy and fidelity. It will outline underpinning theories, review key literatures and identify challenges and issues involved in balancing these elements in the process of serious game design

Virtual reality obstacle crossing: adaptation, retention and transfer to the physical world

Virtual reality (VR) paradigms are increasingly being used in movement and exercise sciences with the aim to enhance motor function and stimulate motor adaptation in healthy and pathological conditions. Locomotor training based in VR may be promising for motor skill learning, with transfer of VR skills to the physical world in turn required to benefit functional activities of daily life. This PhD project aims to examine locomotor adaptations to repeated VR obstacle crossing in healthy young adults as well as transfers to the untrained limb and the physical world, and retention potential of the learned skills. For these reasons, the current thesis comprises three studies using controlled VR obstacle crossing interventions during treadmill walking. In the first and second studies we investigated adaptation to crossing unexpectedly appearing virtual obstacles, with and without feedback about crossing performance, and its transfer to the untrained leg. In the third study we investigated transfer of virtual obstacle crossing to physical obstacles of similar size to the virtual ones, that appeared at the same time point within the gait cycle. We also investigated whether the learned skills can be retained in each of the environments over one week. In all studies participants were asked to walk on a treadmill while wearing a VR headset that represented their body as an avatar via real-time synchronised optical motion capture. Participants had to cross virtual and/or physical obstacles with and without feedback about their crossing performance. If applicable, feedback was provided based on motion capture immediately after virtual obstacle crossing. Toe clearance, margin of stability, and lower extremity joint angles in the sagittal plane were calculated for the crossing legs to analyse adaptation, transfer, and retention of obstacle crossing performance. The main outcomes of the first and second studies were that crossing multiple virtual obstacles increased participants’ dynamic stability and led to a nonlinear adaptation of toe clearance that was enhanced by visual feedback about crossing performance. However, independent of the use of feedback, no transfer to the untrained leg was detected. Moreover, despite significant and rapid adaptive changes in locomotor kinematics with repeated VR obstacle crossing, results of the third study revealed limited transfer of learned skills from virtual to physical obstacles. Lastly, despite full retention over one week in the virtual environment we found only partial retention when crossing a physical obstacle while walking on the treadmill. In summary, the findings of this PhD project confirmed that repeated VR obstacle perturbations can effectively stimulate locomotor skill adaptations. However, these are not transferable to the untrained limb irrespective of enhanced awareness and feedback. Moreover, the current data provide evidence that, despite significant adaptive changes in locomotion kinematics with repeated practice of obstacle crossing under VR conditions, transfer to and retention in the physical environment is limited. It may be that perception-action coupling in the virtual environment, and thus sensorimotor coordination, differs from the physical world, potentially inhibiting retained transfer between those two conditions. Accordingly, VR-based locomotor skill training paradigms need to be considered carefully if they are to replace training in the physical world

Fire safety and emergency evacuation training for occupants of building using 3D virtual simulation

With advancement in technology, building structures are becoming bigger and more complex. Incidences of horrifying fires that occur in such complex structures resulting in loss of property as well as lives are recorded worldwide. Emergency evacuation training can play a crucial role in mitigating damage not only in cases of fire, explosion or chemical spill but also in cases of natural calamities like floods and hurricanes. Conventional safety training provided in industries mostly comprises of unidirectional flow of information. Due to this passive learning style, response of employees in real life emergency situations is known to be ineffective. The proposed research focuses on the development of virtual emergency evacuation safety training for residents, workers and employees. This research developed a 3 dimensional (3D) virtual fire safety and emergency evacuation training for building occupants. A 3D model of a real engineering college building in the University of Central Florida (UCF) was developed in a virtual world and participants could interact with various objects and scenarios in this virtual building on a standard desktop computer using keyboard and mouse. Expert interviews and literature review were utilized to develop contents of fire safety and emergency evacuation training. Also, a slide based fire safety and emergency evacuation training was developed based on same contents and made available through a website. An effort was made to develop both trainings- virtual and slide based to be comparable in terms of contents. A case study with two sets of experiments comprising of 143 participants from UCF community was conducted to understand factors such as fidelity, simulation sickness, engagement and effectiveness of 3D virtual and slide based fire safety and emergency evacuation training. Results of fidelity and simulation sickness validated use of 3D virtual training for training building residents on fire safety and emergency evacuation. Data analysis of knowledge tests allowed to compare short terms and long term effectiveness of 3D virtual training and slide based training. To further understand engagement, physiological measure- electroencephalograph (EEG) of 40 healthy participants was recorded in second set of experiments. Ratio of Beta and Alpha frequency bands was studied to understand attention paid by trainees in 3D virtual and slide based training

Creative Machine

Curators: William Latham, Atau Tanaka and Frederic Fol Leymarie A major exhibition exploring the twilight world of human/machine creativity, including installations, video and computer art, Artificial Intelligence, robotics and Apps by leading artists from Goldsmiths and international artists by invitation. The vision for organising the Creative Machine Exhibition is to show exciting works by key international artists, Goldsmiths staff and selected students who use original software and hardware development in the creative production of their work. The range of work on show, which could be broadly termed Computer Art, includes mechanical drawing devices, kinetic sculpture driven by fuzzy logic, images produced using machine learning, simulated cellular growth forms and the self-generating works using automated aesthetics, VR, 3D printing, and social telephony networks. Traditionally, Computer Art has held a maverick position on the edge of mainstream contemporary culture with its origins in Russian Constructivist Art, biological systems, “geeky” software conferences, rave / techno music and indie computer games. These artists have defined their own channels for exhibiting their work and organised conferences and at times been entrepreneurial at building collaborations with industry at both a corporate and startup level (with the early computer artists in the 1970s and 1980s needing to work with computer corporations to get access to computers). Alongside this, interactive media art drew upon McLuhan’s notion of technology as extensions of the human to create participatory, interactive artworks by making use of novel interface technology that has been developed since the 1980s. However, with new techniques such as 3D printing, the massive spread of sophisticated sensors in consumer devices like smartphones, and the use of robotics by artists, digital art would appear to have an opportunity to come more to the fore in public consciousness. This exhibition is timely in that it coincides with an apparent wider growth of public interest in digital art, as shown by the Digital Revolution exhibition at the Barbican, London and the recent emergence of commercial galleries such as Bitforms in New York and Carroll / Fletcher in London, which, acquire and show technology-based art. The Creative Machine exhibition is the first event to make use of Goldsmiths’ new Sonics Immersive Media Lab (SIML) Chamber. This advanced surround audiovisual projection space is a key part of the St James-Hatcham refurbishment. The facility was funded by capital funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Goldsmiths, as well as research funding from the European Research Council (ERC). This is connected respectively to the Intelligent Games/Game Intelligence (IGGI) Centre for Doctoral Training, and Atau Tanaka’s MetaGesture Music (MGM) ERC grant. The space was built by the SONICS, a cross-departmental research special interest group at Goldsmiths that brings together the departments of Computing, Music, Media & Communications, Sociology, Visual Cultures, and Cultural Studies. It was designed in consultation with the San Francisco-based curator, Naut Humon, to be compatible with the Cinechamber system there. During Creative Machines, we shall see, in the SIML space, multiscreen screenings of work by Yoichiro Kawaguchi, Naoko Tosa, and Vesna Petresin, as well as a new immersive media work by IGGI researcher Memo Akten

Immersive virtual reality and emergencies: tutorials for a serious game in a flood context in comparison

openLa realtà virtuale immersiva ha recentemente dimostrato enormi potenzialità in ambito di apprendimento, in particolare per quanto riguarda le situazioni di emergenza, in quanto consente all’utente di imparare a gestire situazioni di pericolo in un contesto protetto. Nonostante ciò, non sempre la realtà virtuale con finalità educative ha ottenuto i risultati sperati. È stato ipotizzato che ciò sia dovuto al carico cognitivo e alla difficoltà nell'apprendere i comandi d'interazione. Il presente elaborato si propone di valutare l'effetto di diverse versioni di tutorial per l'insegnamento dei comandi sull’apprendibilità degli stessi e sull'apprendimento dei concetti e dei comportamenti convogliati da un serious game sulle alluvioni, in particolare è stato manipolato il contesto virtuale nel quale il tutorial viene eseguito e la possibilità di interagire nell’ambiente virtuale durante la fase di familiarizzazione con i comandi.Immersive virtual reality has recently shown enormous potential in the field of learning, in particular in the field of emergency situations as it allows to learn how to manage dangerous situations in a protected context. Despite this, virtual reality for educational purposes has not always achieved the desired results; it has been hypothesized that this is due to cognitive load and to the difficulty in learning interaction commands. The present study aims to evaluate the effect of different versions of tutorials for teaching commands on their learnability and on the learning of concepts and behaviors conveyed by a serious game on floods. Specifically, the virtual context in which the tutorial is executed and the possibility of interacting in the virtual environment during the familiarization phase with the commands were manipulated

Creating Church Online: An Ethnographic Study of Five Internet-Based Christian Communities

“Online churches” are Internet-based Christian communities, seeking to pursue worship, discussion, friendship, teaching, support, proselytisation and other key religious goals through computer-mediated communication. These online churches are one example of “online religion”, a new kind of digital religious practice that promises to transform worship, authority, community and the construction of identity. This thesis examines five online churches, representing diverse media, theological traditions, leadership structures and forms of external oversight. Each has created a sizeable congregation and offers forms of worship and community online. I used ethnographic methods to examine these churches with particular attention to media, worship, community and leadership. I conducted long-term participant observation over the three years of my research, taking part in online and offline activities whenever possible, speaking informally with as many people as possible and interviewing over 100 leaders and members. Survey data and other written materials were also studied where available, including media reports, participant accounts and online blog posts. My research suggested seven important themes present in each group: mass appeal, the formation of community, spiritual experience, the replication of familiar elements of architecture, liturgy and organisation, the prevalence of local churchgoing among online participants, patterns of internal control and systems of external oversight. Each case study demonstrates the very different negotiations of those themes at work in each group. In my final chapter, I bring together threads and insights from each case study according to four key dimensions of one common theme: the relationship between digital and everyday life. Online churches deliberately replicate familiar elements of everyday activity, become part of the everyday, remain carefully distinct from the everyday and become distinctively digital. We must attend to all four of these layers to adequately understand and evaluate what takes place online, and what role that online activity plays in everyday religious lives

バーチャルリアリティ技術と実機を組み合わせた安全研修システム

筑波大学修士(情報学)学位論文・平成30年3月23日授与(39514号

Virtual Worlds Apart : A Comparative Study on Digital Games in Japan and the West

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on laadullista ja vertailevaa tutkimusta käyttämällä löytää eroja japanilaisten ja länsimaisten digitaalisten pelien ja pelikulttuurien välillä, ja tarjota tärkeää tietoa sekä tutkijoille että pelifirmoille. Työn tieteenaloja ovat pelitutkimus ja kulttuuriantropologia. Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan kahdeksaatoista japanilaista ja länsimaista peliä, jotka on julkaistu vuosien 1996 ja 2014 välillä, mutta näiden tapaustutkimusten lisäksi analyysissä on käytetty myös muita digitaalisia pelejä tutkimustuloksien vahvistamiseksi. Materiaali koostuu myös useista kirjoista, akateemisista tutkimuksista, artikkeleista, myyntiluvuista, haastatteluista ja aiheisiin liittyvistä nettisivuista, joiden avulla syvennetään kuvaa pelisuunnittelusta, japanilaisesta ja länsimaisesta kulttuureista ja arvoista, hahmosuunnittelusta sekä muista aiheeseen liittyvistä tekijöistä. Työssä käyttyjen myyntilukujen mukaan japanilaiset ja länsimaiset pelaajat suosivat toisistaan poikkeavia pelialustoja ja peligenrejä. Sen lisäksi tapausanalyysit ja muut työssä tutkitut pelit sekä lähdeaineisto osoittavat, että japanilaisten ja länsimaisten pelien pelimekaniikkojen ja muiden pelin sisäisten elementtien välillä on valtavia eroja. Ensiksikin japanilaiset pelit käyttävät kolmannen persoonan kuvakulmaa siinä missä ensimmäisen persoonan ja kolmannen persoonan kuvakulman käytön osuus on jakautunut suhteellisen tasaisesti länsimaisten pelien välillä. Toisekseen suurin osa tutkituista länsimaisista peleistä tarjoaa pelaajalleen valtavat määrät vapautta pelihahmon suunnittelun ja kehittämisen, dialogivalintojen ja tarinaan vaikuttavien päätöksien muodossa, mutta tutkitut japanilaiset pelit sen sijaan käyttävät valmiiksi luotuja hahmoja, eivätkä anna mahdollisuutta vaikuttaa keskustelujen tai juonen sisältöön. Myös valmiiksi luotujen hahmojen välillä on suuria eroja tutkittujen länsimaisten ja japanilaisten pelien välillä, ja näitä eroja esitellään melko yksityiskohtaisesti työssä. Tämän lisäksi analysoidut länsimaiset pelit käyttävät suhteellisen fotorealistista 3D-grafiikkaa ja realistisia tai ”fantasiarealistisia” olentoja ja puitteita siinä missä analysoitujen japanilaisten pelien grafiikat ottavat useimmiten vaikutteita japanilaisista sarjakuvista ja puitteet ja olennot ovat mielikuvituksellisia. Myös taistelutilanteet ovat erilaisia näiden pelien välillä. Tutkitut japanilaiset pelit sisältävät usein vuoropohjaisia taisteluja erillisessä taistelumoodissa, mutta länsimaiset pelaajat vaikuttavat suosivan reaaliaikaisten komentojen syöttöä ja sitä, että näkevät viholliset jo kartalla. Lisäksi tallennusmekaniikat poikkeavat toisistaan, sillä lähes kaikki tutkitut länsimaiset pelit antavat pelaajan tallentaa pelin vapaasti milloin tahansa, mutta japanilaiset pelit käyttävät sekä tallennuspisteitä että vapaata tallennusta yhtälailla. Siinä missä tutkitut länsimaiset pelit vaikuttavat korostavan yksilön kyvykkyyttä, hahmot japanilaisissa peleissä panostavat yhteistyöhön ja muiden auttamiseen. Japanilaisissa peleissä vältetään myös graafista väkivaltaa, seksuaalisia teemoja ja rikollisuutta, mutta länsimaisissa peleissä näitä esiintyy. Suurin osa työssä esiintyneistä japanilaisista peleistä sisältää mekaniikkoja, jotka liittyvät esineiden tai olentojen keräilyyn, sekä hahmoja, jotka sopivat tuotteistamiseen useiden massamediakanavien avulla, mikä tekee hahmosuunnittelusta erityisen tärkeää japanissa myytävissä peleissä.This thesis is a comparative and qualitative study of Japanese and Western digital games and gaming cultures with the focus on the Japanese video games market. The objective is to find differences between Japanese and Western games and gaming cultures, and the thesis falls into the academic fields of game studies and cultural anthropology. This study attempts to give essential information for a Western game studio attempting to create commercial success in Japan, and to researchers of digital games or Japanese culture. The mechanics and in-game elements of 18 critically acclaimed and commercially successful Western and Japanese video games published between 1996 and 2014 are analyzed, and various other game titles of various genres are used to support or to counter the findings. To gain an understanding of game design, Japanese and Western cultural values, character design and other factors, several books, academic researches, articles, sales data, and different web pages related to the issue are studied alongside these games. Several games industry experts are also interviewed. According to sales data studied in this thesis, Japanese and Western gamers seem to prefer different gaming platforms and game genres. In addition, according to the case studies and other games studied, there are several differences between Japanese and Western digital games regarding game-mechanics, gameplay and other in-game elements. Firstly, Japanese games use a third-person camera whereas the ratio between first-person and third-person perspective is somewhat equally divided among Western games. In most of the Western games studied the player is offered significant freedom in the form of dialogue options, avatar customization and development, and choices which changed the course of the storyline and game-world. Instead in the Japanese games researched the protagonist is pre-determined, the game offers no dialogue options, and the player is not able to affect the storyline. There are also significant differences between the pre-determined player characters of Western and Japanese games. Furthermore, Western games seem to offer relatively photorealistic graphics and realistic or fantasy-realistic creatures and settings while the graphics in Japanese games are commonly cartoon-like and the games are recurrently situated in fantasy settings with imaginative creatures. Combat situations are also handled differently. Japanese games frequently use turn-based combat situated in a separate combat mode whereas Western gamers seem to prefer seeing the enemies on a map and issue commands in real-time. Saving mechanics also differ in that Western games commonly allow the player to save the game at any point whereas there is an equal division between saving points and being able to save freely among Japanese games. In addition, the characters in Japanese games are likely to co-operate and help other characters within the game while Western games seem to emphasize individual prowess. Moreover, there is a clear aversion to crime, graphic violence and sexual themes in Japanese games whereas some Western games include this kind of content. Finally, a lot of Japanese games seem to promote mechanics related to collecting creatures or objects, and characters suitable for cross-media commodification, making character design in these games extremely important.