Development of a monthly to seasonal forecast framework tailored to inland waterway transport in central Europe

Traditionally, navigation-related forecasts in central Europe cover short- to medium-range lead times linked to the travel times of vessels to pass the main waterway bottlenecks leaving the loading ports. Without doubt, this aspect is still essential for navigational users, but in light of the growing political intention to use the free capacity of the inland waterway transport in Europe, additional lead time supporting strategic decisions is more and more in demand. However, no such predictions offering extended lead times of several weeks up to several months currently exist for considerable parts of the European waterway network. This paper describes the set-up of a monthly to seasonal forecasting system for the German stretches of the international waterways of the Rhine, Danube and Elbe rivers. Two competitive forecast approaches have been implemented: the dynamical set-up forces a hydrological model with post-processed outputs from ECMWF general circulation model System 4, whereas the statistical approach is based on the empirical relationship ("teleconnection") of global oceanic, climate and regional hydro-meteorological data with river flows. The performance of both forecast methods is evaluated in relation to the climatological forecast (ensemble of historical streamflow) and the well-known ensemble streamflow prediction approach (ESP, ensemble based on historical meteorology) using common performance indicators (correlation coefficient; mean absolute error, skill score; mean squared error, skill score; and continuous ranked probability, skill score) and an impact-based evaluation quantifying the potential economic gain. The following four key findings result from this study: (1) as former studies for other regions of central Europe indicate, the accuracy and/or skill of the meteorological forcing used has a larger effect than the quality of initial hydrological conditions for relevant stations along the German waterways. (2) Despite the predictive limitations on longer lead times in central Europe, this study reveals the existence of a valuable predictability of streamflow on monthly up to seasonal timescales along the Rhine, upper Danube and Elbe waterways, and the Elbe achieves the highest skill and economic value. (3) The more physically based and the statistical approach are able to improve the predictive skills and economic value compared to climatology and the ESP approach. The specific forecast skill highly depends on the forecast location, the lead time and the season. (4) Currently, the statistical approach seems to be most skilful for the three waterways investigated. The lagged relationship between the monthly and/or seasonal streamflow and the climatic and/or oceanic variables vary between 1 month (e.g. local precipitation, temperature and soil moisture) up to 6 months (e.g. sea surface temperature). Besides focusing on improving the forecast methodology, especially by combining the individual approaches, the focus is on developing useful forecast products on monthly to seasonal timescales for waterway transport and to operationalize the related forecasting service

CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION OF A STEREO CAMERA SYSTEM AUGMENTED WITH A LONG-WAVE INFRARED MODULE TO MONITOR ULTRASONIC WELDING OF THERMOPLASTICS

Ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics has become an important industrial manufacturing process in the fields of aerospace and transportation. High quality standards are demanded and a reliable quality assessment routine is fundamental. Most on-site and off-site approaches are time consuming or require additional active illumination. Especially temperature models have proven to be good indicators for welding quality. We present a methodology to measure the surface temperature in real-time and visualize it simultaneously as a 3D model. Through augmenting a stereo camera system with an additional passive thermal infrared camera, we are able to map the heat data of multiple successive welds of large, free-form structures into a common 3D data representation. A challenging calibration approach is used to derive the inner and exterior orientation for the trifocal camera system. Geometric and radiometric improvements for an aluminium chessboard allow the usage of wide-angle optics for the thermal infrared camera. Consequently, we verify the quality of each camera by means of their resolving power. Therefore, a Siemens star test pattern is used for the thermal camera as well. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methodology on a robot-guided ultrasonic welding tool

CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION OF A STEREO CAMERA SYSTEM AUGMENTED WITH A LONG-WAVE INFRARED MODULE TO MONITOR ULTRASONIC WELDING OF THERMOPLASTICS

Ultrasonic welding of thermoplastics has become an important industrial manufacturing process in the fields of aerospace and transportation. High quality standards are demanded and a reliable quality assessment routine is fundamental. Most on-site and off-site approaches are time consuming or require additional active illumination. Especially temperature models have proven to be good indicators for welding quality. We present a methodology to measure the surface temperature in real-time and visualize it simultaneously as a 3D model. Through augmenting a stereo camera system with an additional passive thermal infrared camera, we are able to map the heat data of multiple successive welds of large, free-form structures into a common 3D data representation. A challenging calibration approach is used to derive the inner and exterior orientation for the trifocal camera system. Geometric and radiometric improvements for an aluminium chessboard allow the usage of wide-angle optics for the thermal infrared camera. Consequently, we verify the quality of each camera by means of their resolving power. Therefore, a Siemens star test pattern is used for the thermal camera as well. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methodology on a robot-guided ultrasonic welding tool

Virtual Reality in Marketing: A Framework, Review, and Research Agenda

[EN] Marketing scholars and practitioners are showing increasing interest in Extended Reality (XR) technologies (XRs), such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), as very promising technological tools for producing satisfactory consumer experiences that mirror those experienced in physical stores. However, most of the studies published to date lack a certain measure of methodological rigor in their characterization of XR technologies and in the assessment techniques used to characterize the consumer experience, which limits the generalization of the results. We argue that it is necessary to define a rigorous methodological framework for the use of XRs in marketing. This article reviews the literature on XRs in marketing, and provides a conceptual framework to organize this disparate body of work.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities funded project - ATHENEA-DPI2017-91537-EXP and by the European Commission project RHUMBO - H2020-MSCA-ITN-2018-813234Alcañiz Raya, ML.; Bigné, E.; Guixeres, J. (2019). Virtual Reality in Marketing: A Framework, Review, and Research Agenda. Frontiers in Psychology. 10:1-15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01530S11510Alcañiz, M., Parra, E., & Chicchi Giglioli, I. A. (2018). Virtual Reality as an Emerging Methodology for Leadership Assessment and Training. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01658Alshaal, S. E., Michael, S., Pamporis, A., Herodotou, H., Samaras, G., & Andreou, P. (2016). Enhancing Virtual Reality Systems with Smart Wearable Devices. 2016 17th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM). doi:10.1109/mdm.2016.60Ausin, J. M., Guixeres, J., Bigné, E., & Alcañiz, M. (2017). Facial Expressions to Evaluate Advertising: A Laboratory versus Living Room Study. Advances in Advertising Research VIII, 109-122. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-18731-6_9Babić Rosario, A., Sotgiu, F., De Valck, K., & Bijmolt, T. H. A. (2016). The Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth on Sales: A Meta-Analytic Review of Platform, Product, and Metric Factors. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(3), 297-318. doi:10.1509/jmr.14.0380Baños, R. M., Botella, C., Rubió, I., Quero, S., García-Palacios, A., & Alcañiz, M. (2008). Presence and Emotions in Virtual Environments: The Influence of Stereoscopy. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(1), 1-8. doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.9936Barlow, A. K. J., Siddiqui, N. Q., & Mannion, M. (2004). Developments in information and communication technologies for retail marketing channels. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 32(3), 157-163. doi:10.1108/09590550410524948Barnes, S. J. (2011). Understanding use continuance in virtual worlds: Empirical test of a research model. Information & Management, 48(8), 313-319. doi:10.1016/j.im.2011.08.004Bayousuf, A., Al-Khalifa, H. S., & Al-Salman, A. (2018). Haptics-Based Systems Characteristics, Classification, and Applications. Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition, 4652-4665. doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-2255-3.ch404Bearden, W. O., & Netemeyer, R. G. (1999). Handbook of Marketing Scales. doi:10.4135/9781412984379Bigné, E., Llinares, C., & Torrecilla, C. (2016). Elapsed time on first buying triggers brand choices within a category: A virtual reality-based study. Journal of Business Research, 69(4), 1423-1427. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.119Bonetti, F., Warnaby, G., & Quinn, L. (2017). Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Physical and Online Retailing: A Review, Synthesis and Research Agenda. Progress in IS, 119-132. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64027-3_9Brady, M., Fellenz, M. R., & Brookes, R. (2008). Researching the role of information and communications technology (ICT) in contemporary marketing practices. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 23(2), 108-114. doi:10.1108/08858620810850227Bressoud, E. (2013). Testing FMCG innovations: experimental real store versus virtual. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(4), 286-292. doi:10.1108/jpbm-05-2012-0141Brody, A. B., & Gottsman, E. J. (1999). Pocket BargainFinder: A Handheld Device for Augmented Commerce. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 44-51. doi:10.1007/3-540-48157-5_6Bruer, J. T. (s. f.). Building bridges in neuroeducation. The Educated Brain, 43-58. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511489907.005Burke, R. R. (2017). Virtual Reality for Marketing Research. Innovative Research Methodologies in Management, 63-82. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64400-4_3Burke, R. R. (2002). Technology and the Customer Interface: What Consumers Want in the Physical and Virtual Store. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30(4), 411-432. doi:10.1177/009207002236914Carpenter, I. D., Simmons, J. E. L., Ritchie, J. M., & Dewar, R. G. (1997). Virtual manufacturing. Manufacturing Engineer, 76(3), 113-116. doi:10.1049/me:19970309Castellanos, M. C., Ausin, J. M., Guixeres, J., & Bigné, E. (2018). Emotion in a 360-Degree vs. Traditional Format Through EDA, EEG and Facial Expressions. Advances in Advertising Research IX, 3-15. doi:10.1007/978-3-658-22681-7_1Chen, L.-D., & Tan, J. (2004). Technology Adaptation in E-commerce: European Management Journal, 22(1), 74-86. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2003.11.014Chicchi Giglioli, I. A., Pravettoni, G., Sutil Martín, D. L., Parra, E., & Raya, M. A. (2017). A Novel Integrating Virtual Reality Approach for the Assessment of the Attachment Behavioral System. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00959Clemente, M., Rey, B., Rodriguez-Pujadas, A., Barros-Loscertales, A., Banos, R. M., Botella, C., … Avila, C. (2013). An fMRI Study to Analyze Neural Correlates of Presence during Virtual Reality Experiences. Interacting with Computers, 26(3), 269-284. doi:10.1093/iwc/iwt037Clemente, M., Rodríguez, A., Rey, B., & Alcañiz, M. (2014). Assessment of the influence of navigation control and screen size on the sense of presence in virtual reality using EEG. Expert Systems with Applications, 41(4), 1584-1592. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2013.08.055Daugherty, T., Li, H., & Biocca, F. (2008). Consumer learning and the effects of virtual experience relative to indirect and direct product experience. Psychology and Marketing, 25(7), 568-586. doi:10.1002/mar.20225Dellarocas, C., Katona, Z., & Rand, W. (2013). Media, Aggregators, and the Link Economy: Strategic Hyperlink Formation in Content Networks. Management Science, 59(10), 2360-2379. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2013.1710DONNA L. HOFFMAN THOMAS P. NOVAK. (1997). A New Marketing Paradigm for Electronic Commerce. The Information Society, 13(1), 43-54. doi:10.1080/019722497129278Farah, M. F., Ramadan, Z. B., & Harb, D. H. (2019). The examination of virtual reality at the intersection of consumer experience, shopping journey and physical retailing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 48, 136-143. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.02.016Fisher, C. E., Chin, L., & Klitzman, R. (2010). Defining Neuromarketing: Practices and Professional Challenges. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 18(4), 230-237. doi:10.3109/10673229.2010.496623Fox, J., Arena, D., & Bailenson, J. N. (2009). Virtual Reality. Journal of Media Psychology, 21(3), 95-113. doi:10.1027/1864-1105.21.3.95Fusaro, M., Tieri, G., & Aglioti, S. M. (2016). Seeing pain and pleasure on self and others: behavioral and psychophysiological reactivity in immersive virtual reality. Journal of Neurophysiology, 116(6), 2656-2662. doi:10.1152/jn.00489.2016Grewal, D., Roggeveen, A. L., & Nordfält, J. (2017). The Future of Retailing. Journal of Retailing, 93(1), 1-6. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2016.12.008Gummesson, E. (1987). The new marketing—Developing long-term interactive relationships. Long Range Planning, 20(4), 10-20. doi:10.1016/0024-6301(87)90151-8Higuera-Trujillo, J. L., López-Tarruella Maldonado, J., & Llinares Millán, C. (2017). Psychological and physiological human responses to simulated and real environments: A comparison between Photographs, 360° Panoramas, and Virtual Reality. Applied Ergonomics, 65, 398-409. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2017.05.006Hoffman, D. L., & Novak, T. P. (1996). Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations. Journal of Marketing, 60(3), 50-68. doi:10.1177/002224299606000304Homburg, C., Jozić, D., & Kuehnl, C. (2015). Customer experience management: toward implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(3), 377-401. doi:10.1007/s11747-015-0460-7Huang, Y. C., Backman, K. F., Backman, S. J., & Chang, L. L. (2015). Exploring the Implications of Virtual Reality Technology in Tourism Marketing: An Integrated Research Framework. International Journal of Tourism Research, 18(2), 116-128. doi:10.1002/jtr.2038Hunt, S. D. (1983). General Theories and the Fundamental Explananda of Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 47(4), 9-17. doi:10.1177/002224298304700402IJsselsteijn, W., Ridder, H. de, Freeman, J., Avons, S. E., & Bouwhuis, D. (2001). Effects of Stereoscopic Presentation, Image Motion, and Screen Size on Subjective and Objective Corroborative Measures of Presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 10(3), 298-311. doi:10.1162/105474601300343621Ischer, M., Baron, N., Mermoud, C., Cayeux, I., Porcherot, C., Sander, D., & Delplanque, S. (2014). How incorporation of scents could enhance immersive virtual experiences. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00736Jaeger, S. R., & Porcherot, C. (2017). Consumption context in consumer research: methodological perspectives. Current Opinion in Food Science, 15, 30-37. doi:10.1016/j.cofs.2017.05.001Jerald, J. (2017). Human-centered design for immersive interactions. 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR). doi:10.1109/vr.2017.7892361Jones, K., & Biasiotto, M. (1999). Internet retailing: current hype or future reality? The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 9(1), 69-79. doi:10.1080/095939699342688Kalantari, M., & Rauschnabel, P. (2017). Exploring the Early Adopters of Augmented Reality Smart Glasses: The Case of Microsoft HoloLens. Progress in IS, 229-245. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64027-3_16Kannan, P. K., & Li, H. «Alice». (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 22-45. doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.006Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2009). Consumer Use and Business Potential of Virtual Worlds: The Case of «Second Life». International Journal on Media Management, 11(3-4), 93-101. doi:10.1080/14241270903047008Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2009). The fairyland of Second Life: Virtual social worlds and how to use them. Business Horizons, 52(6), 563-572. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2009.07.002Stanney, K., Kennedy, R., Harm, D., Compton, D., Lanham, D., & Drexler, J. (2003). Con.gural Scoring of Simulator Sickness, Cybersickness and Space Adaptation Syndrome. Virtual and Adaptive Environments, 247-278. doi:10.1201/9781410608888.ch12Kenning, P. H., & Plassmann, H. (2008). How Neuroscience Can Inform Consumer Research. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 16(6), 532-538. doi:10.1109/tnsre.2008.2009788Keshavarz, B., & Hecht, H. (2011). Validating an Efficient Method to Quantify Motion Sickness. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 53(4), 415-426. doi:10.1177/0018720811403736Klein, L. R. (1998). Evaluating the Potential of Interactive Media through a New Lens: Search versus Experience Goods. Journal of Business Research, 41(3), 195-203. doi:10.1016/s0148-2963(97)00062-3Kolesar, M. B., & Wayne Galbraith, R. (2000). A services‐marketing perspective on e‐retailing: implications for e‐retailers and directions for further research. Internet Research, 10(5), 424-438. doi:10.1108/10662240010349444Koontz, M. L., & Gibson, I. E. (2002). Mixed reality merchandising: bricks, clicks – and mix. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 6(4), 381-395. doi:10.1108/13612020210448664Liston, P. M., Kay, A., Cromie, S., Leva, C., D’Cruz, M., Patel, H., … Aromaa, S. (2012). Evaluating the iterative development of VR/AR human factors tools for manual work. Work, 41, 2208-2215. doi:10.3233/wor-2012-0443-2208Kruijff, E., & Riecke, B. E. (2018). Navigation Interfaces for Virtual Reality and Gaming. Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3170427.3170643Lamberton, C., & Stephen, A. T. (2016). A Thematic Exploration of Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing: Research Evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an Agenda for Future Inquiry. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 146-172. doi:10.1509/jm.15.0415Latorre, J., Llorens, R., Colomer, C., & Alcañiz, M. (2018). Reliability and comparison of Kinect-based methods for estimating spatiotemporal gait parameters of healthy and post-stroke individuals. Journal of Biomechanics, 72, 268-273. doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2018.03.008LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436-444. doi:10.1038/nature14539Lee, K. S., & Tan, S. J. (2003). E-retailing versus physical retailing. Journal of Business Research, 56(11), 877-885. doi:10.1016/s0148-2963(01)00274-0Lee, N., Broderick, A. J., & Chamberlain, L. (2007). What is ‘neuromarketing’? A discussion and agenda for future research. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 63(2), 199-204. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2006.03.007Li, H., Daugherty, T., & Biocca, F. (2003). The Role of Virtual Experience in Consumer Learning. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(4), 395-407. doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1304_07Chuan-Chuan Lin, J., & Lu, H. (2000). Towards an understanding of the behavioural intention to use a web site. International Journal of Information Management, 20(3), 197-208. doi:10.1016/s0268-4012(00)00005-0Liu, C., & Arnett, K. P. (2000). Exploring the factors associated with Web site success in the context of electronic commerce. Information & Management, 38(1), 23-33. doi:10.1016/s0378-7206(00)00049-5Lorenz, M., Busch, M., Rentzos, L., Tscheligi, M., Klimant, P., & Frohlich, P. (2015). I’m There! The influence of virtual reality and mixed reality environments combined with two different navigation methods on presence. 2015 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR). doi:10.1109/vr.2015.7223376Marín-Morales, J., Higuera-Trujillo, J. L., Greco, A., Guixeres, J., Llinares, C., Scilingo, E. P., … Valenza, G. (2018). Affective computing in virtual reality: emotion recognition from brain and heartbeat dynamics using wearable sensors. Scientific Reports, 8(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-018-32063-4Mars, P., Chen, J. R., & Nambiar, R. (2018). Learning Algorithms. doi:10.1201/9781351073974Massara, F., Liu, S. S., & Melara, R. D. (2010). Adapting to a retail environment: Modeling consumer–environment interactions. Journal of Business Research, 63(7), 673-681. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.004Mathwick, C. (2002). Understanding the online consumer: A typology of online relational norms and behavior. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(1), 40-55. doi:10.1002/dir.10003Mazloumi Gavgani, A., Walker, F. R., Hodgson, D. M., & Nalivaiko, E. (2018). A comparative study of cybersickness during exposure to virtual reality and «classic» motion sickness: are they different? Journal of Applied Physiology, 125(6), 1670-1680. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00338.2018McGrath, J. L., Taekman, J. M., Dev, P., Danforth, D. R., Mohan, D., Kman, N., … Bond, W. F. (2017). Using Virtual Reality Simulation Environments to Assess Competence for Emergency Medicine Learners. Academic Emergency Medicine, 25(2), 186-195. doi:10.1111/acem.13308Meehan, M., Insko, B., Whitton, M., & Brooks, F. P. (2002). Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 21(3), 645-652. doi:10.1145/566654.566630Meißner, M., Pfeiffer, J., Pfeiffer, T., & Oppewal, H. (2019). Combining virtual reality and mobile eye tracking to provide a naturalistic experimental environment for shopper research. Journal of Business Research, 100, 445-458. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.09.028Menezes, P., Gouveia, N., & Patrão, B. (2017). Touching Is Believing - Adding Real Objects to Virtual Reality. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, 681-688. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64352-6_64Merrilees, B. (2002). Interactivity Design as the Key to Managing Customer Relations in E-Commerce. Journal of Relationship Marketing, 1(3-4), 111-126. doi:10.1300/j366v01n03_07Nalivaiko, E., Davis, S. L., Blackmore, K. L., Vakulin, A., & Nesbitt, K. V. (2015). Cybersickness provoked by head-mounted display affects cutaneous vascular tone, heart rate and reaction time. Physiology & Behavior, 151, 583-590. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.08.043Neslin, S. A., Grewal, D., Leghorn, R., Shankar, V., Teerling, M. L., Thomas, J. S., & Verhoef, P. C. (2006). Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Customer Management. Journal of Service Research, 9(2), 95-112. doi:10.1177/1094670506293559Pantano, E., & Servidio, R. (2012). Modeling innovative points of sales through virtual and immersive technologies. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 19(3), 279-286. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2012.02.002Papagiannidis, S., Pantano, E., See-To, E. W. K., & Bourlakis, M. (2013). Modelling the determinants of a simulated experience in a virtual retail store and users’ product purchasing intentions. Journal of Marketing Management, 29(13-14), 1462-1492. doi:10.1080/0267257x.2013.821150Parsons, T. D. (2015). Virtual Reality for Enhanced Ecological Validity and Experimental Control in the Clinical, Affective and Social Neurosciences. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00660Perid, J. L. A., & Steiger, P. (1998). Making Electronic Commere Easier to Use With Novel User Interfaces. Electronic Markets, 8(3), 8-12. doi:10.1080/10196789800000032Ranasinghe, N., Nakatsu, R., Nii, H., & Gopalakrishnakone, P. (2012). Tongue Mounted Interface for Digitally Actuating the Sense of Taste. 2012 16th International Symposium on Wearable Computers. doi:10.1109/iswc.2012.16Rieuf, V., Bouchard, C., Meyrueis, V., & Omhover, J.-F. (2017). Emotional activity in early immersive design: Sketches and moodboards in virtual reality. Design Studies, 48, 43-75. doi:10.1016/j.destud.2016.11.001Schnall, S., Hedge, C., & Weaver, R. (2012). The Immersive Virtual Environment of the digital fulldome: Considerations of relevant psychological processes. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 70(8), 561-575. doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2012.04.001Scholz, J., & Smith, A. N. (2016). Augmented reality: Designing immersive experiences that maximize consumer engagement. Business Horizons, 59(2), 149-161. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2015.10.003Seibert, J., & Shafer, D. M. (2017). Control mapping in virtual reality: effects on spatial presence and controller naturalness. Virtual Reality, 22(1), 79-88. doi:10.1007/s10055-017-0316-1Skarbez, R., Brooks, Jr., F. P., & Whitton, M. C. (2018). A Survey of Presence and Related Concepts. ACM Computing Surveys, 50(6), 1-39. doi:10.1145/3134301Slater, M., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2016). Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 3. doi:10.3389/frobt.2016.00074Stone, R. J. (1995). The reality of virtual reality. World Class Design to Manufacture, 2(4), 11-17. doi:10.1108/09642369310091106Szymanski, D. M., & Hise, R. T. (2000). E-satisfaction: an initial examination. Journal of Retailing, 76(3), 309-322. doi:10.1016/s0022-4359(00)00035-xTeo, W.-P., Muthalib, M., Yamin, S., Hendy, A. M., Bramstedt, K., Kotsopoulos, E., … Ayaz, H. (2016). Does a Combination of Virtual Reality, Neuromodulation and Neuroimaging Provide a Comprehensive Platform for Neurorehabilitation? – A Narrative Review of the Literature. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2016.00284Tikkanen, H., Hietanen, J., Henttonen, T., & Rokka, J. (2009). Exploring virtual worlds: success factors in virtual world marketing. Management Decision, 47(8), 1357-1381. doi:10.1108/00251740910984596Usoh, M., Catena, E., Arman, S., & Slater, M. (2000). Using Presence Questionnaires in Reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 9(5), 497-503. doi:10.1162/105474600566989Van Herpen, E., Pieters, R., & Zeelenberg, M. (2009). When demand accelerates demand: Trailing the bandwagon☆. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19(3), 302-312. doi:10.1016/j.jcps.2009.01.001Van Herpen, E., van den Broek, E., van Trijp, H. C. M., & Yu, T. (2016). Can a virtual supermarket bring realism into the lab? Comparing shopping behavior using virtual and pictorial store representations to behavior in a physical store. Appetite, 107, 196-207. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2016.07.033Van Kerrebroeck, H., Brengman, M., & Willems, K. (2017). When brands come to life: experimental research on the vividness effect of Virtual Reality in transformational marketing communications. Virtual Reality, 21(4), 177-191. doi:10.1007/s10055-017-0306-3Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2007). Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(1), 1-10. doi:10.1007/s11747-007-0069-6Varma, V., & Nathan-Roberts, D. (2017). Gestural Interaction with Three-Dimensional Interfaces; Current Research and Recommendations. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 61(1), 537-541. doi:10.1177/1541931213601618Verhoef, P. C., Kannan, P. K., & Inman, J. J. (2015). From Multi-Channel Retailing to Omni-Channel Retailing. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), 174-181. doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2015.02.005Verhulst, A., Normand, J.-M., Lombart, C., & Moreau, G. (2017). A study on the use of an immersive virtual reality store to investigate consumer perceptions and purchase behavior toward non-standard fruits and vegetables. 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR). doi:10.1109/vr.2017.7892231Vrechopoulos, A., Apostolou, K., & Koutsiouris, V. (2009)

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Reconstructing Buildings with Discontinuities and Roof Overhangs from Oblique Aerial Imagery

This paper proposes a two-stage method for the reconstruction of city buildings with discontinuities and roof overhangs from oriented nadir and oblique aerial images. To model the structures the input data is transformed into a dense point cloud, segmented and filtered with a modified marching cubes algorithm to reduce the positional noise. Assuming a monolithic building the remaining vertices are initially projected onto a 2D grid and passed to RANSAC-based regression and topology analysis to geometrically determine finite wall, ground and roof planes. If this should fail due to the presence of discontinuities the regression will be repeated on a 3D level by traversing voxels within the regularly subdivided bounding box of the building point set. For each cube a planar piece of the current surface is approximated and expanded. The resulting segments get mutually intersected yielding both topological and geometrical nodes and edges. These entities will be eliminated if their distance-based affiliation to the defining point sets is violated leaving a consistent building hull including its structural breaks. To add the roof overhangs the computed polygonal meshes are projected onto the digital surface model derived from the point cloud. Their shapes are offset equally along the edge normals with subpixel accuracy by detecting the zero-crossings of the second-order directional derivative in the gradient direction of the height bitmap and translated back into world space to become a component of the building. As soon as the reconstructed objects are finished the aerial images are further used to generate a compact texture atlas for visualization purposes. An optimized atlas bitmap is generated that allows perspectivecorrect multi-source texture mapping without prior rectification involving a partially parallel placement algorithm. Moreover, the texture atlases undergo object-based image analysis (OBIA) to detect window areas which get reintegrated into the building models. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method a proof-of-concept test on sample structures obtained from real-world data of Heligoland/Germany has been conducted. It revealed good reconstruction accuracy in comparison to the cadastral map, a speed-up in texture atlas optimization and visually attractive render results

Extracting Semantically Annotated 3D Building Models with Textures from Oblique Aerial Imagery

This paper proposes a method for the reconstruction of city buildings with automatically derived textures that can be directly used for facade element classification. Oblique and nadir aerial imagery recorded by a multi-head camera system is transformed into dense 3D point clouds and evaluated statistically in order to extract the hull of the structures. For the resulting wall, roof and ground surfaces high-resolution polygonal texture patches are calculated and compactly arranged in a texture atlas without resampling. The facade textures subsequently get analyzed by a commercial software package to detect possible windows whose contours are projected into the original oriented source images and sparsely ray-casted to obtain their 3D world coordinates. With the windows being reintegrated into the previously extracted hull the final building models are stored as semantically annotated CityGML ”LOD-2.5” objects

True 3D Building Reconstruction – Façade, Roof and Overhang Modeling from Oblique and Vertical Aerial Imagery

Aerial imaging systems increasingly gain oblique viewing capabilities. Through these passive systems, photogrammetric 3D point clouds of a scene become available in addition to traditional vertical 2.5D information. In the field of urban reconstruction, this complementary information seeks for robust and automated fusion methods in order to derive 3D building geometry as well as topology in larger scales. It is sequentially shown how to get from façade planes over building footprints to roof reconstruction including overhangs. Façade planes are extracted from a photogrammetric high-resolution 3D point cloud. Local regression methods in 2D space are used to determine the local direction and a criterion for the local linearity of the point cloud. Based on these two parameters, the 3D point cloud is segmented according to which façade it belongs to. From the segmented point cloud, building footprints are extracted as polygons. Similar to cadaster information, those polygons, along with a traditional digital surface model (DSM), serve for one thing as the basis for overhang determination which is performed by fitting polynoms on the outside of façades and using their inflection points as overhang boundary. For another thing, they serve as roof areas which are segmented, topologically described and geometrically modelled. Again local regression methods are used but this time in 3D space in order to segment roof parts. Subsequently, the roof topology is derived using region growing methods. The final building models hold both, geometrical and topological properties

Implementing Hydrological Forecasting Services Supporting Waterway Management and Transportation Logistics Relating to Hydroclimatic Impacts

As recent years have shown, inland waterways are prone to hydroclimatic impacts. Dry spells, such as in 2003, 2015 or 2018, significantly affected freight transport as well as passenger shipping along Central Europe’s major inland waterways, such as the River Rhine. At the same time, heavy rainfall and the proceeding sea-level rise increasingly hamper the management of numerous inland waterways, such as the Kiel Canal. As prognostic information enables waterway stakeholders to take preventive measures regarding hydroclimatic impacts, the demand for extended-range hydrological forecasts tailored to the management and use of waterways is significantly increasing. Based on preliminary studies, the Federal Institute of Hydrology started developing preliminary extended-range forecast products for relevant gauges at the German waterways since 2015. Step-by-step operational services supplying these new forecast products have been set-up. For the River Rhine, a ten-day forecast has been publicly available since 2019. In 2022, a six-week forecast for Rhine and Elbe will further extend the waterway-related forecasting services in Germany. This article provides insight into the setting of these extended navigation-related forecasting services, where the communication of forecast uncertainties is still a major challenge