Investigating the Conditions of Utilizing Web Technology in Educational Project Management

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Web 2.0 technology and especially Wikis could be the appropriate environment for students and teachers to use for educational project management. The conditions under which both teachers and students would be more easily motivated to adopt the use of Wikis were also detected in the case of the Greek educational system. This research aimed at recording limitations or certain suggestions that teachers or students noted and also if there was a way to overcome possible disadvantages. The fact that this study presents specific findings from the combination of interviews of both students and teachers makes it interesting and significant, since it examines the expectations and the possible speculations of both sides

Embodied edutainment experience in a museum: discovering glassblowing gestures "Savoir-verre": an interactive installation for informal learning deployed at "Musée des Arts et Métiers"

International audienceCurrent technological progress has provided innovative methods and tools for learning and discovering various aspects of manual professions. To valorize their artifacts and mostly the craft and know-how behind them, museums are more and more attracted by these innovative interactive technologies. In this paper, we present an interactive installation for embodied edutainment experience developed in the framework of the exhibition "savoir-verre" implemented at "Musée des Arts et Métiers" in Paris. This installation had a double goal: to augment and improve the entire museum visiting experience (entertainment) and at the same time to go deeper into craft discovery, to learn the basics of the expert postures/gestures (education). In front of the camera, that captured their motions, visitors were invited to imitate 3 gestures of an expert glassblower and received real-time multimodal (visual and auditory) feedback, guiding the execution of the gestures. The quantitative analysis of user's motion data captured during the use of the installation highlights its positive effect on users' engagement, on their spatial and temporal performance, confirming the initial hypothesis that the multimodal real-time feedback can contribute to a better understanding and assimilation of expert gestures in glass blowing

Human Movement Representation on Multivariate Time Series for Recognition of Professional Gestures and Forecasting Their Trajectories

International audienceHuman-centered artificial intelligence is increasingly deployed in professional workplaces in Industry 4.0 to address various challenges related to the collaboration between the operators and the machines, the augmentation of their capabilities, or the improvement of the quality of their work and life in general. Intelligent systems and autonomous machines need to continuously recognize and follow the professional actions and gestures of the operators in order to collaborate with them and anticipate their trajectories for avoiding potential collisions and accidents. Nevertheless, the recognition of patterns of professional gestures is a very challenging task for both research and the industry. There are various types of human movements that the intelligent systems need to perceive, for example, gestural commands to machines and professional actions with or without the use of tools. Moreover, the inter class and intra class spatiotemporal variances together with the very limited access to annotated human motion data constitute a major research challenge. In this paper, we introduce the Gesture Operational Model, which describes how gestures are performed based on assumptions that focus on the dynamic association of body entities, their synergies, and their serial and non-serial mediations, as well as their transitioning over time from one state to another. Then, the assumptions of the Gesture Operational Model are translated into a simultaneous equation system for each body entity through State-Space modeling. The coefficients of the equation are computed using the Maximum Likelihood Estimation method. The simulation of the model generates a confidence-bounding box for every entity that describes the tolerance of its spatial variance over time. The contribution of our approach is demonstrated for both recognizing gestures and forecasting human motion trajectories. In recognition, it is combined with continuous Hidden Markov Models to boost the recognition accuracy when the likelihoods are not confident. In forecasting, a motion trajectory can be estimated by taking as minimum input two observations only. The performance of the algorithm has been evaluated using four industrial datasets that contain gestures and actions from a TV assembly line, the glassblowing industry, the gestural commands to Automated Guided Vehicles as well as the Human–Robot Collaboration in the automotive assembly lines. The hybrid approach State-Space and HMMs outperforms standard continuous HMMs and a 3DCNN-based end-to-end deep architecture

Evaluation of the Efficacy and Synergistic Effect of α- and δ-Tocopherol as Natural Antioxidants in the Stabilization of Sunflower Oil and Olive Pomace Oil during Storage Conditions

Tocopherols are natural bioactive compounds with several health benefits. This study evaluated the effect of different ratios of α- and δ- tocopherol homologs to protect sunflower oil (SO) and olive pomace oil (OPO) against oxidation. A synergistic effect was recorded when the two tocopherols were combined at a ratio of 7:1 (α-T/δ-T). The oil samples were exposed to accelerated oxidation conditions using a Rancimat (90 °C and airflow of 15 L/h for 24 h) and protection from tocopherols was compared with that from butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). Assessment of oil stability was examined using well-known parameters such as peroxide value (PV), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), p-anisidine value (p-AV), conjugated dienes (CD) and trienes (CT), and total oxidation (Totox) value, which were all significantly reduced when tocopherols were added at a ratio of 7:1 α-T/δ-T. Primary oxidative compounds measured according to PV were only reduced in SO samples (6.11%). Off-flavor compounds measured via TBARS assay in SO samples were reduced by above 20%, while p-AV was also reduced. CDvalue was correlated with PV in SO samples, while the 7:1 mixture was more effective than BHT for CTvalue. Total oxidation values in SO samples and OPO samples were reduced by 6.02% and 12.62%, respectively. These values in SO samples also provided a remarkable correlation (R2 > 0.95) with incubation time. Moreover, the synergistic effect was not only effective in reducing the oxidation values of oil samples, but also in lowering the degradation rate of tocopherols. Protective effects from tocopherols were mainly observed in SO samples, as OPO samples were more resistant to oxidation processes. This effect was even observed in fatty acid analysis, where the 7:1 mixture provided better results than BHT-spiked samples. Thus, it is suggested that tocopherol mixtures might be used as a natural preservative in the food industry to restrain lipid oxidation processes

Nutritional Quality and Antioxidant Properties of Brown and Black Lentil Sprouts

Lentils are known to be an integral part of a nutritionally balanced diet. Their sprouts are considered even more nutritional since they contain phytonutrients that confer health benefits. As such, incorporating them into a human diet can be advantageous. In this study, seeds from brown and black lentils were germinated aiming to study the changes in their nutritional value after they were grown for different amount of days to different lengths. Since the sprouts can be consumed at various stages of their growth, four growth stages were studied. For each stage, three batches were grown, and one sample of each batch was randomly picked and analyzed in triplicates. The sprouts were examined for their nutritional value. To this end, their content of proteins and carbohydrates was determined, as well as their content in carotenoids and vitamin C. Moreover, emphasis was placed on the phytochemical compounds contained in the sprouts. As results indicate, lentil sprouts not only exhibit high nutritional value but they are also rich in antioxidant compounds. More specifically, an increase of up to 18.8% in the protein content was recorded for 15 cm length sprouts (compared to lentil seeds), accompanied by a decrease in the carbohydrate content of up to 68.9%. Carotenoids and vitamin C content increased up to 224% and 389%, respectively. Additionally, a 34% increase in the polyphenol content was recorded. Moreover, a direct correlation between sprout length and nutritional value was observed, using principal component analysis (PCA) and multivariate correlation analysis (MCA)

Mixed-Reality Demonstration and Training of Glassblowing

Traditional crafts exhibit tangible and intangible dimensions. Intangible dimensions include the practitioner’s gestural know-how in craft practice and have received smaller attention than tangible dimensions in digitization projects. This work presents the process of representation and presentation of the glasswork and is exemplified in the re-creation of a historical object. Following an articulated pipeline approach for data collection, annotation, the crafting process is represented visually and semantically in a way that can be meaningfully presented and utilized in craft training and preservation. The outcomes of the proposed approach were used to implement a Mixed Reality installation. The installation targets craft presentation through an exploration of the workspace, as well as craft training through an interactive experience where users re-enact gestures of a glass master holding a tool and receiving audiovisual feedback on the accuracy of their performance. Preliminary evaluation results show high acceptance of the installation and increased user interest

Mixed-Reality Demonstration and Training of Glassblowing

International audienceTraditional crafts exhibit tangible and intangible dimensions. Intangible dimensions include the practitioner’s gestural know-how in craft practice and have received smaller attention than tangible dimensions in digitization projects. This work presents the process of representation and presentation of the glasswork and is exemplified in the re-creation of a historical object. Following an articulated pipeline approach for data collection, annotation, the crafting process is represented visually and semantically in a way that can be meaningfully presented and utilized in craft training and preservation. The outcomes of the proposed approach were used to implement a Mixed Reality installation. The installation targets craft presentation through an exploration of the workspace, as well as craft training through an interactive experience where users re-enact gestures of a glass master holding a tool and receiving audiovisual feedback on the accuracy of their performance. Preliminary evaluation results show high acceptance of the installation and increased user interest

Traditional Craft Training and Demonstration in Museums

International audienceThis work regards the representation of handicrafts for craft training and demonstration in the environment of an ethnographic heritage museum. The craft of mastic cultivation is chosen as a use case. This paper presents the process of representation and presentation of this craft, following an articulated pipeline approach for data collection, annotation, and semantic representation. The outcomes were used to implement an exhibition that targets the presentation of craft context and craft training, through interactive experiences, mobile applications, and a hands-on training where users reenact the gestures of a mastic cultivator. Preliminary evaluation results show high acceptance for the installation and increased user interest

Multimodal Narratives for the Presentation of Silk Heritage in the Museum

International audienceIn this paper, a representation based on digital assets and semantic annotations is established for Traditional Craft instances, in a way that captures their socio-historic context and preserves both their tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage dimensions. These meaningful and documented experiential presentations are delivered to the target audience through narratives that address a range of uses, including personalized storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), augmented physical artifacts, Mixed Reality (MR) exhibitions, and the Web. The provided engaging cultural experiences have the potential to have an impact on interest growth and tourism, which can support Traditional Craft communities and institutions. A secondary impact is the attraction of new apprentices through training and demonstrations that guarantee long-term preservation. The proposed approach is demonstrated in the context of textile manufacturing as practiced by the community of the Haus der Seidenkultur, a former silk factory that was turned into a museum where the traditional craft of Jacquard weaving is still practiced