Beyond: collapsible tools and gestures for computational design

Since the invention of the personal computer, digital media has remained separate from the physical world, blocked by a rigid screen. In this paper, we present Beyond, an interface for 3-D design where users can directly manipulate digital media with physically retractable tools and hand gestures. When pushed onto the screen, these tools physically collapse and project themselves onto the screen, letting users perceive as if they were inserting the tools into the digital space beyond the screen. The aim of Beyond is to make the digital 3-D design process straightforward, and more accessible to general users by extending physical affordances to the digital space beyond the computer screen

A Framework to Investigate the Role of Mobile Technology in the Healthcare Organizations

The technology acceptance model (TAM), and the modified technology acceptance model (MTAM) will be evaluated to measure the acceptance of mobile technology in a healthcare scenario. Based on the results of the study, a user behavioral model in regard to mobile technology adoption in healthcare will be proposed

Optical Camouflage - Review

Fiber optic systems are important telecommunication infrastructure for world-wide broadband networks. Wide band width signal transmission with low delay is a key requirement in present day applications. Optical fibers provide enormous and unsurpassed transmission bandwidth with negligible latency, and are now the transmission medium of choice for long distance and high data rate transmission in telecommunication networks. This paper focused on the creation of invisibility with the help of technologies like Optical camouflage Image based rendering and Retro reflective projection. The object that needs to be made transparent or invisible is painted or covered with retro reflective material. There are some beneficial applications for this simple but astonishing technology. The different methods of optical camouflage provide invisibility in the visible site of spectrum. One of the most promising applications of this technology, however, has less to do with making objects invisible and more about making them visible. nbs

A survey of haptics in serious gaming

Serious gaming often requires high level of realism for training and learning purposes. Haptic technology has been proved to be useful in many applications with an additional perception modality complementary to the audio and the vision. It provides novel user experience to enhance the immersion of virtual reality with a physical control-layer. This survey focuses on the haptic technology and its applications in serious gaming. Several categories of related applications are listed and discussed in details, primarily on haptics acts as cognitive aux and main component in serious games design. We categorize haptic devices into tactile, force feedback and hybrid ones to suit different haptic interfaces, followed by description of common haptic gadgets in gaming. Haptic modeling methods, in particular, available SDKs or libraries either for commercial or academic usage, are summarized. We also analyze the existing research difficulties and technology bottleneck with haptics and foresee the future research directions

A Wearable Head-mounted Projection Display

Conventional head-mounted projection displays (HMPDs) contain of a pair of miniature projection lenses, beamsplitters, and miniature displays mounted on the helmet, as well as a retro-reflective screen placed strategically in the environment. We have extened the HMPD technology integrating the screen into a fully mobile embodiment. Some initial efforts of demonstrating this technology has been captured followed by an investigation of the diffraction effects versus image degradation caused by integrating the retro-reflective screen within the HMPD. The key contribution of this research is the conception and development of a mobileHMPD (M-HMPD). We have included an extensive analysis of macro- and microscopic properties that encompass the retro-reflective screen. Furthermore, an evaluation of the overall performance of the optics will be assessed in both object space for the optical designer and visual space for the possible users of this technology. This research effort will also be focused on conceiving a mobile M-HMPD aimed for dual indoor/outdoor applications. The M-HMPD shares the known advantage such as ultralightweight optics (i.e. 8g per eye), unperceptible distortion (i.e. ≤ 2.5%), and lightweight headset (i.e. ≤ 2.5 lbs) compared with eyepiece type head-mounted displays (HMDs) of equal eye relief and field of view. In addition, the M-HMPD also presents an advantage over the preexisting HMPD in that it does not require a retro-reflective screen placed strategically in the environment. This newly developed M-HMPD has the ability to project clear images at three different locations within near- or far-field observation depths without loss of image quality. This particular M-HMPD embodiment was targeted to mixed reality, augmented reality, and wearable display applications

USAR: um modelo preditivo para avaliação da acessibilidade em tecnologias assistivas baseadas em realidade aumentada

Currently about 15% of the world population has some type of disability. For these people the use of assistive technologies is essential. Augmented reality emerges as an important alternative to the creation of new assistive technologies, due to its numerous forms of participant tracking, which, if combined, can provide new possibilities for interaction. However, the use of augmented reality in the context of assistive technology is not a panacea, as each disability is unique, as well as each person has its own peculiarities. Therefore, it is important to analyze the accessibility of these applications, to ensure the benefit of its use effectively. This work proposes a predictive evaluation model, based on universal design and ISO 9241-171 standard. This model is able to evaluate the accessibility of augmented reality applications, when used as assistive technologies. The evaluation process consists of completing questionnaires, composed of clear and intelligible issues, so that they can meet the multidisciplinary public, without requiring any prior knowledge in evaluating accessibility. The product of evaluation made by questionnaires is a numerical indicator of accessibility, which represents the degree of compliance with accessibility requirements. The questions are sensitives to context, each questionnaire includes guidelines, which contains the minimum requirements of the participant, for each criteria, it is thus possible to obtain a holistic view of the evaluation, which can be customized for each participant or generalized to a specific disability. The main objective of this work is to propose a predictive model for the evaluation of accessibility, serving special educators, developers and assistive technology consumers, as a criteria for the decision of use of augmented reality applications.Atualmente cerca de 15% da população mundial possui algum tipo de deficiência. Para estas pessoas o uso das tecnologias assistivas é essencial. A realidade aumentada surge como uma importante alternativa, para a criação de novas tecnologias assistivas, devido às suas inúmeras formas de rastreamento do participante, que, se combinadas, conseguem proporcionar novas possibilidades de interação. Entretanto, o uso da realidade aumentada, no contexto das tecnologias assistivas, não é uma panaceia, pois cada deficiência é única, assim como cada pessoa possui suas próprias particularidades. Portanto, é importante analisar a acessibilidade destas aplicações, para que o benefício do seu uso possa ser realmente assegurado. Esta dissertação propõe um modelo preditivo de avaliação, baseado no Design Universal e na norma ISO 9241-171. Este modelo é capaz de avaliar a acessibilidade de aplicações de realidade aumentada, quando usadas como tecnologias assistivas. O processo de avaliação consiste no preenchimento de questionários, compostos por questões claras e inteligíveis, para que possam atender à um público multidisciplinar, sem a exigência de qualquer conhecimento prévio em avaliação de acessibilidade. O produto da avaliação feita pelos questionários é um indicador de acessibilidade, que representa o grau de conformidade com os requisitos de acessibilidade. A aplicação dos questionários é sensível ao contexto, cada questionário inclui guias de utilização, que contém os requisitos mínimos do participante, para cada critério de avaliação, desta forma, é possível obter uma visão holística da avaliação, que pode ser customizada para cada participante ou generalizada para uma deficiência específica. O principal objetivo desta dissertação é propor um modelo preditivo, para a avaliação da acessibilidade, servindo aos educadores especiais, desenvolvedores e consumidores de tecnologias assistivas, como critério para a utilização ou não das aplicações de realidade aumentada

Direct Manipulation Of Virtual Objects

Interacting with a Virtual Environment (VE) generally requires the user to correctly perceive the relative position and orientation of virtual objects. For applications requiring interaction in personal space, the user may also need to accurately judge the position of the virtual object relative to that of a real object, for example, a virtual button and the user\u27s real hand. This is difficult since VEs generally only provide a subset of the cues experienced in the real world. Complicating matters further, VEs presented by currently available visual displays may be inaccurate or distorted due to technological limitations. Fundamental physiological and psychological aspects of vision as they pertain to the task of object manipulation were thoroughly reviewed. Other sensory modalities--proprioception, haptics, and audition--and their cross-interactions with each other and with vision are briefly discussed. Visual display technologies, the primary component of any VE, were canvassed and compared. Current applications and research were gathered and categorized by different VE types and object interaction techniques. While object interaction research abounds in the literature, pockets of research gaps remain. Direct, dexterous, manual interaction with virtual objects in Mixed Reality (MR), where the real, seen hand accurately and effectively interacts with virtual objects, has not yet been fully quantified. An experimental test bed was designed to provide the highest accuracy attainable for salient visual cues in personal space. Optical alignment and user calibration were carefully performed. The test bed accommodated the full continuum of VE types and sensory modalities for comprehensive comparison studies. Experimental designs included two sets, each measuring depth perception and object interaction. The first set addressed the extreme end points of the Reality-Virtuality (R-V) continuum--Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) and Reality Environment (RE). This validated, linked, and extended several previous research findings, using one common test bed and participant pool. The results provided a proven method and solid reference points for further research. The second set of experiments leveraged the first to explore the full R-V spectrum and included additional, relevant sensory modalities. It consisted of two full-factorial experiments providing for rich data and key insights into the effect of each type of environment and each modality on accuracy and timeliness of virtual object interaction. The empirical results clearly showed that mean depth perception error in personal space was less than four millimeters whether the stimuli presented were real, virtual, or mixed. Likewise, mean error for the simple task of pushing a button was less than four millimeters whether the button was real or virtual. Mean task completion time was less than one second. Key to the high accuracy and quick task performance time observed was the correct presentation of the visual cues, including occlusion, stereoscopy, accommodation, and convergence. With performance results already near optimal level with accurate visual cues presented, adding proprioception, audio, and haptic cues did not significantly improve performance. Recommendations for future research include enhancement of the visual display and further experiments with more complex tasks and additional control variables