Multimodal augmented reality tangible gaming

This paper presents tangible augmented reality gaming environment that can be used to enhance entertainment using a multimodal tracking interface. Players can interact using different combinations between a pinch glove, a Wiimote, a six-degrees-of-freedom tracker, through tangible ways as well as through I/O controls. Two tabletop augmented reality games have been designed and implemented including a racing game and a pile game. The goal of the augmented reality racing game is to start the car and move around the track without colliding with either the wall or the objects that exist in the gaming arena. Initial evaluation results showed that multimodal-based interaction games can be beneficial in gaming. Based on these results, an augmented reality pile game was implemented with goal of completing a circuit of pipes (from a starting point to an end point on a grid). Initial evaluation showed that tangible interaction is preferred to keyboard interaction and that tangible games are much more enjoyable

The usability attributes and evaluation measurements of mobile media AR (augmented reality)

This research aims to develop a tool for creating user-based design interfaces in mobile augmented reality (MAR) education. To develop a design interface evaluation tool, previous literature was examined for key design elements in the educational usage of MAR. The evaluation criteria identified were presence, affordance, and usability. The research used a focus group interview with 7 AR experts to develop a basic usability evaluation checklist, which was submitted to factor analysis for reliability by 122 experts in practice and academia. Based on this checklist, a MAR usability design interface test was conducted with seven fourth-grade elementary students. Then, it conducted follow-up structured interviews and questionnaires. This resulted in 29 questions being developed for the MAR interface design checklist.ope

Three-dimensional outgrowth of a wood-rotting fungus added to a contaminated soil from a former gasworks site

The capability of wood-rotting fungi (WRF) to colonise contaminated soil is an important fungal characteristic in the development of WRF-based soil bioremediation, it is also important to have methods that monitor the presence of the WRF in the soil. In this lab-scale study, it was shown that it was possible to re-capture, localise and identify a brown-rot fungus, Antrodia vaillantii, after it has been inoculated into, and grown in, a contaminated soil from a former gasworks site. The three-dimensional outgrowth of A. vaillantii was monitored by allowing it to grow into fungicide-treated wood baits, temporarily placed in the soil. After two weeks, the baits were withdrawn from the soil and surface sterilised with hydrogen peroxide to favour fungi growing inside baits, i.e., A. vaillantii. After subsequent plating of baits on selective agar medium the presence of A. vaillantii was confirmed with PCR/RFLP. A. vaillantii was found to be viable throughout the 54 days long study and exhibited a surface growth pattern similar to other well-known cord-forming basidiomycetes. Firstly, the upper part of the soil closest to the place of inoculation was colonised, however, over a period of time, the area of colonisation spread deeper into the soil. The detection method employed in the current study gave a conservative estimate of the fungal proliferation and did not require extensive sampling. Its use could be applicable in both applied research, such as soil bioremediation, and in pure microbial ecology studies

Growth of inoculated white-rot fungi and their interactions with the bacterial community in soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as measured by phospholipid fatty acids

The objective of this study was to examine the possibility of measuring the growth of three white-rot fungi in soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), by estimating the soil levels of the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) 18:2ω6,9. The effect of the fungi on the PAH concentration and on the indigenous bacterial population in the soil was monitored. As shown by visual examination, the fungi investigated, Pleurotus ostreatus, Phanerochaete chrysoporium and Hypholoma fasciculare, grew well in autoclaved soil, whilst only H. fasciculare grew in non-autoclaved soil. In these reactors, there was also detected an increase in the PLFA 18:2ω6,9. However, the interpretation of the PLFA data was somewhat disturbed since 18:2ω6,9 also was found to be present in the birch wood used as a fungal substrate. In autoclaved soil, P. ostreatus and P. chrysosporium were found to exhibit a PAH-degrading capability, with the total PAH concentration decreasing from 209±35 and 186±2 to 149±6 and 109±6 mg/kg dry weight (dw) soil, respectively, during the 10 week incubation period. No PAH-degradation could be detected in any treatment using non-autoclaved soil. In the autoclaved soil, the total level of bacterial specific PLFAs in all fungal treatments, and in a control using added ground birch sticks, was found to be lowered. In the non-autoclaved soil, 6 out of 9 selected bacterial PLFAs exhibited a significant change between the treatments, but the overall total content of bacterial PLFAs did not change. The present study has shown that it is possible to measure fungal growth in a PAH-contaminated soil derived from a former gasworks plant by estimating the levels of the PLFA 18:2ω6,9. The inoculated fungi affected the indigenous bacteria, as shown by estimating the level of bacterial specific PLFAs. Finally, fungal PAH-degradation could be detected in autoclaved soil but not in non-autoclaved soil