AUGMENTED ENVIRONMENTS The Architecture for the Augmented Era

Human imagination has played with the idea of an alternative technological world for years. From dystopian proposals like Neuromancer or The Matrix to more positive views like the recent Upload series, the exploration of the friction between the digital world and the physical world has entertained the imagination of our society for decades. Outside the fictional environments, the omnipresence of the internet and the development of “the cloud” are showing that the virtual world is possible and that the idea of a Metaverse is no longer part of science fiction but a very real future for human relations (Winters 2021). In line with the idea of the Metaverse, the intersection of the virtual and the physical world is being explored through the idea of Extended Realities. Technology is allowing humans to enhance their capabilities more than ever, and in fact, it has been proposed that we are entering the Augmented era (King 2014). This paper explores the opportunities and possible challenges that “Extended Architecture” has by analyzing a research project based on augmented reality as the media to explore these ideas. This project will propose a speculative approach to how the fact that in the recent future, everyone will have access to an AR device will change the way we perceive and understand our architectural environment

Democratised Making: Skills Enhancing Through Extended Realities

Throughout history, technology has had a crucial influence on the development of our society. Different eras have been defined by sets of technological advancements, which at the same time had a profound impact on the built environment and construction. It has been proposed that, after the internet age, we are entering a new era - the ‘Augmented Age’ (King, 2016), while physicist Michio Kaku argues for the future in which architects rely heavily on Augmented Reality technologies (Kaku, 2015). Machines have become an inseparable part of our daily life. We are immersing ourselves into rapidly developing mixed realities, with portable devices (smartphones, tablets etc.) augmenting our perception of the environment. Barriers between humans and machines are increasingly blurred, and the modes of interaction between them becoming progressively sophisticated at a rapid pace. The future of manufacturing jobs will be embedded with technological add-ons that will augment the capabilities of the workers. This augmentation will come from the XR devices, including (Augmented and Mixed reality) and human-machine collaboration and automation. This relation between technology and human labour will have a high impact on architecture. It will change the traditional roles in the production chain, affecting everything from the way we design to the ways we manufacture. Concepts like designer and artisan are again brought together through Immersive technology. In the same way, the barriers between user and designer are continuously diluted through these technological advances

Augmented Active-Bending Formwork for Concrete, A Manufacturing Technique for Accessible Local Construction of Structural Systems

This research introduces Augmented Reality (AR) for manufacturing concrete structures through an open platform for autonomous construction. The study was developed under the following scopes: computational algorithms for bending simulations, materiality tests, system implementation, and a set of Augmented Reality (AR) tools. AR devices offer a technological tool that allows for a self-built environment through holographic guidance, allowing the untrained workforce to participate in the process. This technology can help users select the system to construct through an Open-Source platform, reducing the gap between complex computational geometries and construction processes. The research aims to investigate a building system that could benefit the UN Objectives SDG 10 by increasing the access to technology in undeveloped communities, SDG 11 and SDG 12 by promoting a self-sustainable method of construction based on local resources and material efficiency. In conjunction with the development of the AR Platform and augmented manufacturing, a 1:1 prototype was built in Quito, Ecuador, with the help of seven people with no previous knowledge of digital tools or construction. Presenting a novel, fast, and affordable concrete formwork connected with AR assisted assembly methods that facilitate access to more efficient and advanced building technology

Association between Facebook addiction, self-esteem and life satisfaction: A cross-sectional study

a b s t r a c t In recent years, many research efforts have been focused on investigation of potential connection between social networking and mental health issues. Particularly important and controversial remains the association between Facebook use, self-esteem and life satisfaction. In our cross-sectional study, on a sample of 381 Facebook users, we tested the existence and strength of this relationship using Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), Facebook Intensity Scale (FBI), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (SES), and Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). With k-means cluster analysis, we divided the sample into 3 groups: ordinary, intensive, and addicted Facebook users. The results of our study show that ordinary Facebook users differ statistically in self-esteem and life satisfaction from both addicted and intensive users. Facebook addiction was in relation with lower self-esteem. Facebook addiction was also negatively related to life satisfaction. These results are in accordance with the previously published findings of other authors in the fields of social networking psychology and psychiatry

Determinants and effects of mobile phone addiction and phubbing: a study in 17 countries

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measurement invariance of the phubbing scale across 20 countries

Mobile phone addiction is a robust phenomenon observed throughout the world. The social aspect of mobile phone use is crucial; therefore, phubbing is a part of the mobile phone addiction phenomenon. Phubbing is defined as ignoring an interlocutor by glancing at one's mobile phone during a face-to-face conversation. The main aim of this study was to investigate how the Phubbing Scale (containing 10 items) might vary across countries, and between genders. Data were collected in 20 countries: Belarus, Brazil, China, Croatia, Ecuador, India, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and USA. The mean age across the sample (N = 7696, 65.8% women, 34.2% men) was 25.32 years (SD = 9.50). The cross-cultural invariance of the scale was investigated using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA) as well as the invariance analyses. Additionally, data from each country were assessed individually via confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs). We obtained two factors, based on only eight of the items: (a) communication disturbances and (b) phone obsession. The 8 items Phubbing Scale

Evaluation of the selfitis behavior scale across two Persian-speaking countries, Iran and Afghanistan: advanced psychometric testing in a large-scale sample

Selfitis—which started off as a hoax but has now been investigated empirically—has been defined as the obsessive–compulsive desire to take photos of oneself and post them on social media. Furthermore, a scale to assess selfitis, the Selfitis Behavior Scale (SBS), has been developed. This study applied advanced psychometric testing methods, including confirmatory factor analysis (utilizing classical test theory) and the Rasch model (utilizing modern test theory), to examine the psychometric properties among Persian speakers (in Iran and Afghanistan). The participants (3163 Iranians and 1100 Afghanistani) completed an online survey posted on Instagram pages. The SBS showed promising properties, including satisfactory reliability (e.g., internal consistency and test–retest reliability), excellent construct validity (e.g., good fit in the CFA and Rasch models), and acceptable measurement invariance across Iranian and Afghan samples. Consequently, the SBS is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing selfitis among Persian-speaking samples

Country indicators moderating the relationship between phubbing and psychological distress: A study in 20 countries

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Frontiers Media. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.588174Problematic mobile phone use can be related to negative mental states. Some studies indicate that behavioural dependency is related to variables associated with the country of origin. The aim of our study was to investigate if country indicators moderated the relationship between phubbing and psychological distress. Our sample consisted of 7,315 individuals from 20 countries, who completed the Phubbing Scale and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6). The analyses also included country indicators: the Gender Gap Index (GGI), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Social Progress Index (SPI), Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, and the World Happiness Index (WHI). Our results showed that psychological distress was related to at least one dimension of phubbing (i.e., to communication disturbance or phone obsession) in all countries, which means this relationship is culturally universal. The results of the study demonstrate the importance of testing measurement invariance to determine what type of analysis and what type of conclusion are valid in a given study or comparison. Moreover, the increasing or decreasing correlation between phubbing and distress is related to some culture-level indices.This study was financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant no. NCN UMO-2017/26/M/HS6/00779. In Brazil, the data collection was partly funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) under the grant number 424802/2016-3.Published onlin

Nuclear entropy, angular second moment, variance and texture correlation of thymus cortical and medullar lymphocytes: Grey level co-occurrence matrix analysis

Grey level co-occurrence matrix analysis (GLCM) is a well-known mathematical method for quantification of cell and tissue textural properties, such as homogeneity, complexity and level of disorder. Recently, it was demonstrated that this method is capable of evaluating fine structural changes in nuclear structure that otherwise are undetectable during standard microscopy analysis. In this article, we present the results indicating that entropy, angular second moment, variance, and texture correlation of lymphocyte nuclear structure determined by GLCM method are different in thymus cortex when compared to medulla. A total of 300 thymus lymphocyte nuclei from 10 one-month-old mice were analyzed: 150 nuclei from cortex and 150 nuclei from medullar regions of thymus. Nuclear GLCM analysis was carried out using National Institutes of Health ImageJ software. For each nucleus, entropy, angular second moment, variance and texture correlation were determined. Cortical lymphocytes had significantly higher chromatin angular second moment (p < 0.001) and texture correlation (p < 0.05) compared to medullar lymphocytes. Nuclear GLCM entropy and variance of cortical lymphocytes were on the other hand significantly lower than in medullar lymphocytes (p < 0.001). These results suggest that GLCM as a method might have a certain potential in detecting discrete changes in nuclear structure associated with lymphocyte migration and maturation in thymus