Multimodal virtual environments: an opportunity to improve fire safety training?

Fires and fire-related fatalities remain a tragic and frequent occurrence. Evidence has shown that humans adopt sub-optimal behaviours during fire incidents and, therefore, training is one possible means to improve occupant survival rates. We present the potential benefits of using Virtual Environment Training (VET) for fire evacuation. These include experiential and active learning, the ability to interact with contexts which would be dangerous to experience in real life, the ability to customise training and scenarios to the learner, and analytics on learner performance. While several studies have investigated fire safety in VET, generally with positive outcomes, challenges related to cybersickness, interaction and content creation remain. Moreover, issues such as lack of behavioural realism have been attributed to the lack realistic sensory feedback. We argue for multimodal (visual, audio, olfactory, heat) virtual fire safety training to address limitations with existing simulators, and ultimately improve the outcomes of fire incidents. © 2020, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health

The Science of Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments

This book goals hits basic idea: giving a review on Virtual Reality and on the theory at its basis. Starting from history, going trought science as medicine, arriving at technical stuff this is in syntesis this book. For everyone interested in “How it work?”. Only one problem: sometimes is too difficoult to understand at no graduate persons dues to hi level techincal explanations in particoular in display chapte

Kelluvien asuntojen infratarkastelu

Tämän insinöörityön tavoitteena on tuottaa ratkaisu kelluvien asuntojen sähkö-, vesi- ja viemäriverkostolle. Ratkaisussa otetaan huomioon sen toimivuus pohjoismaisissa olosuhteissa ympäri vuoden. Erityishuomiota vaativat vedenpinnan korkeuserot jotka voivat olla rasitteeksi vesi- ja viemäröintikanavalle ja liitoksille sekä rakenteiden jäätymisen tuomat haasteet eristyksille. Insinöörityössä selvitetään onko kohteessa mahdollista liittää asuntojen viemäröintikanava suoraan kunnallisverkkoon tai vaihtoehtoisesti rannalle sijoitettavaan omaan umpisäiliöön josta se tyhjennetään loka-autolla. Tutkimusmenetelmä on vertaileva case tutkimus ja tavoitteena on tuottaa mahdollisimman kustannustehokas ja toimiva suunnitelma yrityskäyttöön. Insinöörityössä keskitytään yhteen ratkaisuun joka ei välttämättä sellaisenaan sovellu käytettäväksi muihin vastaaviin asumismuotoihin

Position and orientation sensing in virtual environments

Looks at changes in the human-computer interface, particularly in the field of using computers for applications which require an accurate registration from an input device in "six degrees of freedom", including robotics, CAD, anthropometric/biomechanic analysis, military, digital antique cataloguing and archaeological site surveys.</p

Bridging the Gaps in a Model-Based System Engineering Workflow by Encompassing Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation

This paper discusses how gaps in a model-based system engineering (MBSE) workflow can be bridged through the use of special model transformation tools. The goal is to create an integrated workflow tool chain to facilitate integration of various subsystems and verification of the overall system performance to meet a set of desired system requirements. This paper describes an implementation in a model-based representation that encompasses real system hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) components to verify the effectiveness and capability of the development platform. Discussion is provided on the developed model transformation processes that make this possible and is explained through the application of our approach to the development of subsystems for a vehicle system. The key contributions of research include: 1) identification of a suitable model-based systems design methodology and toolset (based on IBM Rhapsody/Mathworks Simulink combination) to include HIL for system verification; 2) design and development of model transformation tools to facilitate bidirectional transformation of an IBM Rhapsody model to a Simulink model; and 3) successful mapping between platform independent models and platform-specific models involving HIL. The research outcomes show particularly promising results that are anticipated to benefit the MBSE community