An augmented reality-based fashion design interface with artistic contents generated using deep generative models

Fashion design is an art that reshapes the designers’ imagination into visible content which requires a significant amount of time and effort. The assistance provided by the available design tools are limited in the sense of visualizing and fitting of the generated cloth on the human body. We present, ARGAN-an Augmented Reality (AR) based Fashion Design system which is able to generate a new dress when a sketch and a theme image are provided as the input into a Controllable Generative Adversarial Network. Further, this system can visualize the generated virtual 2D apparel in realtime on a real human body using Augmented Reality. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt at utilizing Deep Generative Models (e.g. GANs) in an Augmented Reality prototype in fashion designing for generate creative fashion content in 2D and exploiting the possibility of Deep Generative Models to generate fashion designs align to a theme. Our findings show that the use of the ARGAN can support fashion designers’ during their designing process

The use of augmented reality to deliver enhanced user experiences in fashion industry

With the advancement of new technologies, industries are developing rapidly. Among them, the fashion industry is a vast area that involves the production of raw materials, the production of fashion goods by designers, and retail sales. One of the most contributed technologies used in industry is Augmented reality. The use of new technologies can address the limitations of traditional fashion experience and enhance user experience. Undertaking a comparative thematic analysis of AR research in the fashion industry, this paper considers how AR applications evolve to enhance designer skills and knowledge throughout the past decades and the customization of clothes by users themselves to make a satisfactory and comfortable product. Secondly, the paper considers the enhancement of customer experience by analyzing how clothing retail has progressed with the adoption of AR applications. Finally, we have concluded the review paper by addressing the future research ideas. The results of the review show that possible improvements can be done for fashion designing and enhancing customer experience using AR and hybrid technologies

City form as a strategy for city branding: a comparative study of Kandy and Galle

City branding concept is based on marketing the city’s history, culture, natural resources, architectural values, social opportunities and lifestyle. This research will investigate the impact of city form or the physical layout of a city as a city branding strategy with respect to two well-functioning cities; Kandy and Galle. Landscape architectural character is mainly expressed through the city form. The analysis was carried out through the experience of the residents, commuters and tourists of the city. The data was collected under two questionnaire surveys to determine the current brand of the city and to analyse the impact due to each of the selected city form elements landmarks, parks and streets. The positive and negative attributes of the selected spaces were further analysed to evaluate the extent of the impact. According to the findings, the impact generated by the landmarks were high when compared to the parks and streets. And the impact of city form was higher in Kandy than Galle. These findings emphasize the factors which affect the different levels of impact from the city form to the development, establishment and endurance of a city brand

Deprotonation as a Unified Pathway for Organothiol Binding to Citrate- and Borohydride Reduced Gold Nanoparticles

The mechanism of organothiol (OT) binding to gold has remained controversial for decades. There are three mechanisms proposed for OT binding to gold surfaces. The first is the radical pathway in which the sulfur-bound hydrogen atoms (RS-H) are released as hydrogen atoms which eventually converted into hydrogen gas. Second is the deprotonation pathway in which the sulfur-bound hydrogen atoms leave as protons. Third is direct adsorption in which the RS-H bonds remain intact on the gold surface. This study demonstrates a combined pH and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic study of organothiol binding to citrate- and borohydride-reduced gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in polar (water), moderately polar (dichloromethane), and nonpolar (toluene,hexane) solvents. Thiol deprotonation provides a unified pathway for OT binding to AuNPs regardless of solvent polarity of the ligand binding solutions. This work should contribute to resolve the long-standing debate on the fate of the sulfur-bound hydrogen of organothiols self-assembled on gold

Appraising indoor thermal perception of elderly in hot climates: An experimental investigation of free-running residential aged care homes in Colombo

Rapid demographic transition with higher growth in ageing population demonstrate a major societal challenge in South Asia and Sri Lankans will age faster than other developing economies in the region. Climate shocks of people living in economically deprived countries will increase in future and elders are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of temperature extremes. The study experimentally investigated free-running residential care homes in hot climate of Colombo performing simultaneous personal monitoring and questionnaire surveys. Results explicitly prove overheated indoors with less air flow. Majority of elders confirmed thermally unacceptable interiors with warm thermal sensations and low air velocities of 0.1 to 0.29 m/s with predominant preference of more air movement proves inadequate passive airflow. A significant relationship between wind preference and presence of openings of their place of stay were evident. Staying away from a window or door instigated to practice a behavioural adaptation of moving towards transitional areas such as corridors, verandas, and outdoor spaces for more wind sensation. Since ageing is associated with physical inabilities and elders spend their life mostly in indoors, findings emphasize the importance of enhancing passive airflow and application of appropriate design strategies to ensure optimum air velocities and dispersion of airflow within interiors

Winter marine birds in False Creek : a spatial analysis of bird distributions and anthropogenic disturbances

The City of Vancouver has the ambition to be one of the greenest cities in the world (City of Vancouver, 2012). Through bylaws and policy changes, they have committed to reduce their ecological footprint, enhance urban sustainability and meet objectives like protecting natural spaces from development and restoring natural habitat. In order to achieve their goals, the City needs to make sustainable development decisions, informed by research about surrounding ecosystems and the species that live there. False Creek, a saltwater inlet on the south end of downtown, is of particular interest for both its urban and natural roles within the city landscape. Proposed development plans for the northeast corner of False Creek created interest for the City to collect more information about the status of the ecosystem. To learn more about the health of the False Creek ecosystem, marine birds were chosen as an indicator because they are highly integrated in both the aquatic and terrestrial features of the landscape, are sensitive to climate change, and are easily identifiable. Because Vancouver is a stopover on a major north-south bird migration route and contains regions that have been identified as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) according to internationally recognized standards, the city’s role in providing habitat to both migratory and resident species is globally significant. False Creek is one such area within an IBA, but no detailed studies about which marine birds use the area and how human activities disturb different species has been attempted to date. This project was established to help fill information gaps by conducting a baseline survey of the marine birds present in False Creek during the winter months. The research questions driving our study were: 1) Which marine bird species are present in False Creek between November and February? 2) What are the distributions of the observed species and how many are observed in the field? 3) What are human activities that disturb marine birds in False Creek?Science, Faculty ofEarth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department ofUnreviewedUndergraduat

Structures And Conformations Of Alkanedithiols On Gold And Silver Nanoparticles In Water

Organodithiols with two distal thiols have been used extensively in gold and silver nanoparticle (AuNP and AgNP) applications. However, understanding the structures and conformations of organodithiols on these nanoparticles is challenging. Reported in this work is a combined surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometry (ICP-MS), and localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) study of alkyldithiol (ADT, (HS-(CH2)n-SH, n = 2, 4, and 6) interactions with AuNPs and AgNPs in water. These complementary techniques revealed a series of new insights that would not be possible using individual methods. A large-fraction of ADTs lies flat on AuNP surfaces. The upright ADTs are dimerized horizontally through disulfide-bond, or remain as monothiolates on the AuNP surfaces. The possibility of a significant amount of vertically disulfide-linked organodithiol on the surface is excluded on the basis of ICP-MS and AuNP LSPR experiments. ADTs induced significant AgNP disintegrations in which ADTs are predominantly in dithiolate forms. This work highlights the extraordinary complexity of organodithiol interactions with plasmonic nanoparticles. The insights provided in this work will be important for enhancing fundamental understanding of the structure and properties of organothiol-functionalized AgNPs and AuNPs

Ion Pairing As The Main Pathway For Reducing Electrostatic Repulsion Among Organothiolate Self-Assembled On Gold Nanoparticles In Water

Organothiol binding to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in water proceeds through a deprotonation pathway in which the sulfur-bound hydrogen (RS-H) atoms are released to solution as protons and the organothiol attach to AuNPs as negatively charged thiolate. The missing puzzle pieces in this mechanism are (i) the significance of electrostatic repulsion among the likely charged thiolates packed on AuNP surfaces, and (ii) the pathways for the ligand binding system to cope with such electrostatic repulsion. Presented herein are a series of experimental and theoretical evidence that ion pairing, the coadsorption of negatively charged thiolate and positively charged cations, is a main mechanism for the system to reduce the electrostatic repulsion among the thiolate self-assembled onto AuNP surfaces. This work represents a significant step forward in the comprehensive understanding of organothiol binding to AuNPs