Stories within Immersive Virtual Environments

[eng] How can we use immersive and interactive technologies to portray stories?How can we take advantage of the fact that within immersive virtual en-vironments people tend to respond realistically to virtual situations andevents to develop narrative content? Stories in such a media would allowthe participant to contribute to the story and interact with the virtualcharacters while the narrative plot would not change, or change only upto how it was decided a priori. Participants in such a narrative would beable to freely interact within the virtual environments and yet still beaware of the main trust of the stories presented. How can we preserve the‘respond as if it is real’ phenomenon induced by these technologies, butalso develop an unfolding plot in this environment? In other words, canwe develop a story, conserving the structure, its psychological and cul-tural richness and the emotional and cognitive involvement it supposes,in an interactive and immersive audiovisual space?In recent years Virtual Reality therapy has shown that an Immersive Vir-tual Environment (IVE) with a predetermined plot can be experienced asan interactive narrative. For example, in the context of Post TraumaticStress Disorder treatment, the reactions of the participants and the thera-peutic impact suggest that an IVE is a qualitatively different experiencethan classical audiovisual content. However, the methods to develop suchkind of content are not systematic, and the consistency of the experienceis only granted by a therapist or operator controlling in real time theunfolding narrative. Can a story with a strong classical plot be renderedin an automated and interactive immersive virtual environment?..[cat] Podem emprar la realitat virtual immersiva per contar històries? Com po-dem aprofitar el fet que dins dels entorns virtuals immersius les personestendeixen a respondre de manera realista a les situacions i esdevenimentsvirtuals per desenvolupar històries? Els participants en aquest tipus denarrativa podrien interactuar lliurement amb els entorns virtuals i noobstant això experimentarien les històries presentades com a plausibles iconsistents. Una història en aquest medi audiovisual permetria als parti-cipants interactuar amb els personatges virtuals i contribuir activamentals esdeveniments escenificats en l’entorn virtual. Malgrat això, la tramaestablerta a priori no canviaria, o canviaria només dins els marges es-tablerts per l’autor. Com podem preservar el fet que hom tendeix a "re-spondre com si fos real" induït per aquestes tecnologies mentre desenvolu-pem una trama en aquests entorns? En altres paraules, podem desenvolu-par una història conservant-ne l’estructura, la riquesa cultural i psicolò-gica i la implicació emocional i cognitiva que suposa, en una realitatvirtual immersiva i interactiva?Recentment la teràpia de realitat virtual ha mostrat que un entorn vir-tual amb un guió preestablert pot ser percebut com una narració inter-activa. Per exemple, en el context del tractament de Trastorns per EstrèsPostraumàtic, les reaccions i impactes terapèutics suggereixen que pro-voca una sensació de realitat que en fa una experiència qualitativamentdiferent als continguts audiovisuals clàssics. No obstant això, la consistèn-cia de l’experiència tan sols pot ser garantida si un un terapeuta o op-erador controla en temps real el flux dels esdeveniments constituint elguió narratiu. Podem representar un guió clàssic en un entorn virtualautomatitzat?..

A multimessenger story: Using electromagnetic and gravitational wave detections of binary black holes to improve parameter estimation

Es creu que la fusió de dos forats negres supermassius produeix una gran intensitat d'ones gravitacionals i, en general, un forat negre resultant que retrocedeix respecte al centre de masses del sistema binari predecessor. Si la coalescència es produeix en una galàxia rica en gas, es pot observar també una contrapartida electromagnètica força lluminosa. Els sistemes de forats negres supermassius en què es puguin detectar ambdues emissions ens oferiran una oportunitat única per descodificar les propietats dels forats negres originals a partir de les ones gravitacionals i també determinar la velocitat del forat negre resultant a partir de les observacions electromagnètiques. El consens entre astrofísics és que les dues emissions combinades podrien establir restriccions més fortes a les propietats dels forats negres en procés de fusió que una sola emissió, tanmateix encara no es coneixen les implicacions quantitatives d'aquestes deteccions múltiples. Motivats per aquesta qüestió, investiguem la millora en l'estimació de paràmetres en sistemes binaris de forats negres supermassius que suposarien les esmentades deteccions múltiples i quantifiquem quines configuracions se'n veurien més beneficiades. Els resultats d'aquest treball són d'importància directa per al futur observatori d'ones gravitacionals LISA i també són rellevants per a tots els altres observatoris d'ones gravitacionals i electromagnètiques que poden formar part de deteccions múltiples de fusions de forats negres supermassius.Se cree que la fusión de dos agujeros negros supermasivos produce una gran intensidad de ondas gravitacionales y, en general, un agujero negro resultante que retrocede respecto al centro de masas del sistema binario original. Si la coalescencia se produce en una galaxia rica en gas, se puede observar además una contrapartida electromagnética. Los sistemas de agujeros negros supermasivos en los que se puedan detectar ambas emisiones nos ofrecerán una oportunidad única para descodificar las propiedades de los agujeros negros originales utilizando las ondas gravitacionales y para determinar la velocidad del agujero negro resultante a partir de las observaciones electromagnéticas. El consenso entre astrofísicos es que la combinación de ambas emisiones podría establecer restricciones más fuertes a las propiedades de los agujeros negros en proceso de fusión que solamente una emisión, sin embargo aun no se conocen las implicaciones cuantitativas de dichas detecciones múltiples. Motivados por esta cuestión, investigamos la mejora en la estimación de parámetros en sistemas binarios de agujeros negros supermasivos que supondrían dichas detecciones múltiples y cuantificamos qué configuraciones se verían más beneficiadas. Los resultados de este trabajo son de importancia directa para el futuro observatorio de ondas gravitacionales LISA, y también son relevantes para todos los demás observatorios de ondas gravitacionales y electromagnéticas que pueden formar parte de detecciones múltiples de fusiones de agujeros negros supermasivos.A coalescence of two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is expected to produce copious amounts of gravitational waves (GWs) and in general, a remnant SMBH that is recoiling with respect to the center of mass of its parent binary. When the SMBH coalescence occurs in a gas-rich galaxy, GWs may be accompanied by a luminous electromagnetic (EM) counterpart. Systems of SMBHs for which both emission signatures can be detected will provide us with a unique opportunity to decode the properties of the pre-merger binaries from GWs and to determine the speed of the recoiling remnant from EM observations. There is a consensus among astrophysicists that combined together, the GW and EM detections should provide stronger constraints on the properties of merging binaries than either one in isolation, but the quantitative implications of such detections are yet to be understood. Motivated by this question, we investigate the improvement in SMBH binary parameter estimation brought about by the multimessenger detections of their mergers and quantify which binary configurations will benefit the most from this approach. The results of this work are of direct importance for the future space-based GW observatory LISA and are also relevant to all other GW and EM observatories that will partake in multimessenger detections of coalescing black hole binaries.Outgoin

Stories within Immersive Virtual Environments

How can we use immersive and interactive technologies to portray stories? How can we take advantage of the fact that within immersive virtual environments people tend to respond realistically to virtual situations and events to develop narrative content? Stories in such a media would allow the participant to contribute to the story and interact with the virtual characters while the narrative plot would not change, or change only up to how it was decided a priori. Participants in such a narrative would be able to freely interact within the virtual environments and yet still be aware of the main trust of the stories presented. How can we preserve the ‘respond as if it is real’ phenomenon induced by these technologies, but also develop an unfolding plot in this environment? In other words, can we develop a story, conserving the structure, its psychological and cultural richness and the emotional and cognitive involvement it supposes, in an interactive and immersive audiovisual space? In recent years Virtual Reality therapy has shown that an Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) with a predetermined plot can be experienced as an interactive narrative. For example, in the context of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment, the reactions of the participants and the therapeutic impact suggest that an IVE is a qualitatively different experience than classical audiovisual content. However, the methods to develop such kind of content are not systematic, and the consistency of the experience is only granted by a therapist or operator controlling in real time the unfolding narrative. Can a story with a strong classical plot be rendered in an automated and interactive immersive virtual environment? The thesis developed through this document is that it is possible. Specifically the thesis is that this can be achieved through two principles of interaction that we call ‘ATP’ and ‘Substitution’. ATP stands for ‘Advance The Plot’, and it is an underlying goal of the system to always find the best action possible in any given context that will advance the state of the story being expressed. The second principle, Substitution, states that the human participant in an immersive interactive story can assume the role of any character or, what is equivalent, that if he does not do what the system expects him to do, a virtual character will do it instead. To implement such principles, a story cognitive model named Trama is proposed. The purpose of such a story model is to give artificial agents a guide to decide what to do in an interactive situation in such a way that the human participant has the impression of interacting within one or more narrative plots. To validate such method, three experiments address the main assumptions of the approach.The first one is concerned with whether people interact with virtual characters in a similar way they do with real people, analysing this in a particular aspect of interpersonal communication, namely interpersonal distances. The second assesses whether people identify with their virtual bodies, which is one of the basic assumptions underlying the principles of interaction proposed. The third experiment shows that the story model allows to implement stories in such a way that people can interact within an immersive virtual environment while conserving the impression there is a narrative plot, and that they have assumed a particular role in it. In addition to the experiments, we explore whether the formalism developed within the Trama model captures some aspects of the important role that stories have in cognitive development.Podem emprar la realitat virtual immersiva per contar històries? Com podem aprofitar el fet que dins dels entorns virtuals immersius les persones tendeixen a respondre de manera realista a les situacions i esdeveniments virtuals per desenvolupar històries? Els participants en aquest tipus de narrativa podrien interactuar lliurement amb els entorns virtuals i no obstant això experimentarien les històries presentades com a plausibles i consistents. Una història en aquest medi audiovisual permetria als participants interactuar amb els personatges virtuals i contribuir activament als esdeveniments escenificats en l’entorn virtual. Malgrat això, la trama establerta a priori no canviaria, o canviaria només dins els marges establerts per l’autor. Com podem preservar el fet que hom tendeix a "respondre com si fos real" induït per aquestes tecnologies mentre desenvolupem una trama en aquests entorns? En altres paraules, podem desenvolupar una història conservant-ne l’estructura, la riquesa cultural i psicològica i la implicació emocional i cognitiva que suposa, en una realitat virtual immersiva i interactiva? Recentment la teràpia de realitat virtual ha mostrat que un entorn virtual amb un guió preestablert pot ser percebut com una narració interactiva. Per exemple, en el context del tractament de Trastorns per Estrès Postraumàtic, les reaccions i impactes terapèutics suggereixen que provoca una sensació de realitat que en fa una experiència qualitativament diferent als continguts audiovisuals clàssics. No obstant això, la consistència de l’experiència tan sols pot ser garantida si un terapeuta o operador controla en temps real el flux dels esdeveniments constituint el guió narratiu. Podem representar un guió clàssic en un entorn virtual automatitzat? La tesi principal d’aquest treball és que és possible. En concret, la tesi és que això es pot aconseguir a través de dos principis d’interacció que anomenem ‘ATP’ i ‘Substitució’. ATP significa ‘avançar en la trama’ (Advance The Plot ), i és un objectiu inherent en el sistema per trobar, en qualsevol context, la millor acció possible que farà avançar la història contada. El segon principi, Substitució, formalitza el fet que el participant humà en una trama interactiva pot assumir el paper de qualsevol personatge o, el que és equivalent, que si no fa el que el sistema espera que faci, un personatge virtual ho farà en el seu lloc. Per posar en pràctica aquests principis, he introduït un model cognitiu d’història anomenat Trama. La funció d’aquest model és donar als agents artificials una guia per decidir què fer en una situació interactiva, de manera que el participant humà té la impressió d’interactuar dins d’un o més guions narratius. Introdueixo 3 experiments per abordar els principals supòsits d’aquest mètode. El primer avalua si les persones interactuen amb personatges virtuals de manera similar que fan amb persones reals en un aspecte particular de la comunicació interpersonal: les distàncies interpersonals. El segon estudia fins a quin punt hom s’identifica amb el seu cos virtual, un dels supòsits bàsics subjacents als principis d’interacció proposats. El tercer experiment mostra que el model Trama permet implementar les històries de tal manera que les persones poden interactuar en un entorn virtual immersiu tot conservant la impressió que participen en un guió narratiu subjacent on hi assumeixen un rol concret. També exploro si el formalisme desenvolupat reflecteix o prediu algunes de les moltes funcions que les històries tenen en el desenvolupament cognitiu

Creating and broadcasting video-based multi-platform experiences

The majority of TV consumers now watch TV programs in a multi-display environment. Second screens –most often smartphones - are generally used to check information not directly related to the events in the TV content being watched. Broadcasters have tried to orchestrate these different platforms, and there is reason to believe this contributes to user engagement. However, their success has been limited. This might be caused, at least in part, by the different formats of content being used: mobile apps show graphics and text similar to web content, while TV renders a continuous stream of audiovisual content. The arrival of virtual reality displays to the living room further increases the need for consistent experiences across displays. ImmersiaTV is an European H2020 Research and Innovation action that is redesigning the production and delivery process to offer a new form of broadcast multi-platform video. This novel form of multi-platform video is based on the following assumptions: 1. The arrival of head-mounted displays (HMD) to the living room further requires the delivery of content that is consistent across displays, giving freedom to the end-user to engage with content in one or another device. This means that content must be adapted to the specificities of each device, both in terms of content format and interactive input (or lack of interaction, for the case of the TV), but the end-user should be free to adopt one or another device at different moments of the program being broadcasted. 2. This new form of broadcast multi-platform video must seamlessly integrate with and further augment traditional TV and second screen consumer habits. For TV, this means that content can be consumed simply by sitting on the couch and watching, without further input, and that the audiovisual language used follows established conventions. For tablets and smartphones, it means that user input and social media integration must work seamlessly with the specificities of each device. To address these requirements, in the first year of the project we have designed and implemented an end-to-end production, delivery and rendering pipeline for offline content production which specifically addresses these needs. In this short article we outline the design principles, production and delivery methods as well as the tools used and developed for this purpose. Section 2 outlines the design principles adopted, and related academic work. Section 3 introduces the elements constituting the ImmersiaTV end-to-end pipeline and, where there exist, commercial alternatives. Section 4 introduce our main conclusions and further planned work within ImmersiaTV to address some of the limitations detected. The content examples are adapted from the first pilot of ImmersiaTV

Agent-Based Models to study tuberculosis in Nigeria

2018/201

The Subjective Sensation of Synchrony: an Experimental Study

People performing actions together have a natural tendency to synchronize their behavior. Consistently, people doing a task together build internal representations not only of their actions and goals, but also of the other people performing the task. However, little is known about which are the behavioral mechanisms and the psychological factors affecting the subjective sensation of synchrony, or "connecting" with someone else. In this work, we sought to find which factors induce the subjective sensation of synchrony, combining motion capture data and psychological measures. Our results show that the subjective sensation of synchrony is affected by performance quality together with task category, and time. Psychological factors such as empathy and negative subjective affects also correlate with the subjective sensation of synchrony. However, when people estimate synchrony as seen from a third person perspective, their psychological factors do not affect the accuracy of the estimation. We suggest that to feel this sensation it is necessary to, first, have a good joint performance and, second, to assume the existence of an attention monitoring mechanism that reports that the attention of both participants (self and other) is focused on the task

Diseño de una instalación de autoconsumo fotovoltaico con excedentes para un espacio gastronómico en Mallorca

En este proyecto se desarrolla el cálculo, el criterio y la selección de los materiales necesarios para una instalación solar fotovoltaica en un espacio gastronómico, proyectada en la isla de Mallorca. Por un lado, se estudiará la normativa vigente (reglamentos y reales decretos) y se hará un seguimiento de la misma, pues ésta está en continuas actualizaciones. Además, se llevará a cabo el estudio de la zona de instalación y se tomarán los datos de consumo del usuario final con el objetivo de dimensionar correctamente la instalación. Por otro lado, se determinarán los materiales y componentes necesarios para llevar a cabo dicha instalación. Para ello, se seguirán ciertos procedimientos de cálculo establecidos en las normativas actuales además de contar con la ayuda del software PVSYST, con el cual se irán verificando las decisiones tomadas. Una vez se dispongan de los materiales y componentes, se procederá al diseño de la configuración de los mismos con tal de optimizar la instalación. Finalmente, se detallará un presupuesto para el cliente y un estudio económico donde quedará reflejado el coste total y el tiempo de amortización del proyecto

The relationship between virtual body ownership and temperature sensitivity.

In the rubber hand illusion tactile stimulation seen on a rubber hand, that is synchronous with tactile stimulation felt on the hidden real hand, can lead to an illusion of ownership over the rubber hand. This illusion has been shown to produce a temperature decrease in the hidden hand, suggesting that such illusory ownership produces disownership of the real hand. Here we apply immersive virtual reality (VR) to experimentally investigate this with respect to sensitivity to temperature change. Forty participants experienced immersion in a VR with a virtual body (VB) seen from a first person perspective. For half the participants the VB was consistent in posture and movement with their own body, and in the other half there was inconsistency. Temperature sensitivity on the palm of the hand was measured before and during the virtual experience. The results show that temperature sensitivity decreased in the consistent compared to the inconsistent condition. Moreover, the change in sensitivity was significantly correlated with the subjective illusion of virtual arm ownership but modulated by the illusion of ownership over the full virtual body. This suggests that a full body ownership illusion results in a unification of the virtual and real bodies into one overall entity - with proprioception and tactile sensations on the real body integrated with the visual presence of the virtual body. The results are interpreted in the framework of a"body matrix" recently introduced into the literature