Smartphone Augmented Reality Applications for Tourism

Invisible, attentive and adaptive technologies that provide tourists with relevant services and information anytime and anywhere may no longer be a vision from the future. The new display paradigm, stemming from the synergy of new mobile devices, context-awareness and AR, has the potential to enhance tourists’ experiences and make them exceptional. However, effective and usable design is still in its infancy. In this publication we present an overview of current smartphone AR applications outlining tourism-related domain-specific design challenges. This study is part of an ongoing research project aiming at developing a better understanding of the design space for smartphone context-aware AR applications for tourists

Towards Rapid Generation and Visualisation of Large 3D Urban Landscapes for Mobile Device Navigation

In this paper a procedural 3D modelling solution for mobile devices is presented based on scripting algorithms allowing for both the automatic and also semi-automatic creation of photorealistic quality virtual urban content. The combination of aerial images, GIS data, 2D ground maps and terrestrial photographs as input data coupled with a user-friendly customized interface permits the automatic and interactive generation of large-scale, accurate, georeferenced and fully-textured 3D virtual city content, content that can be specially optimized for use with mobile devices but also with navigational tasks in mind. Furthermore, a user-centred mobile virtual reality (VR) visualisation and interaction tool operating on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for pedestrian navigation is also discussed. Via this engine, the import and display of various navigational file formats (2D and 3D) is supported, including a comprehensive front-end user-friendly graphical user interface providing immersive virtual 3D navigation

Capture, Processing and Presentation of Digital Cultural Items

The trend of digitizing analogue artefacts from cultural heritage collections to create cultural digital items. The user experience of Cultural Heritage Practitioners (CHP) must be understood in order to support academic efforts in producing practical contributions that benefit those working with cultural digital items. In this publication we follow a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 CHPs and supporting technical professionals who work with cultural digital items on a daily basis. We then code their responses for theme, analysing their thoughts and concerns regarding key topics connected to cultural digital items such as interactivity and the challenges of digitization within the culture heritage sector

Applying Psychological Theory to in-game moral behaviors through the development of a purpose-made game

A number of video games involve moral narratives or require the players to make moral decisions. Research from psychologists has helped to understand the effects that video game content can have on how individuals think, feel and behave. Recent research has examined the role of morality in video games, yet there are many inconsistencies in the findings that could be due to the use of commercial video games for research purposes, which contain biases such as familiarity with the game and favorite characters. By developing a bespoke game designed specifically for the purpose of exploring morality, these potential biases can be reduced. Before designing the game, morality in existing video games is critically analyzed, using theories from moral psychology. From this, a game was developed to measure behavioral outcomes through which moral decisions are made; with the aim to address biases that are inherent in commercial games. Then, the resultant game was used to investigate how participants make moral choices in video games

Biologically inspired simulation of livor mortis

We present a biologically motivated livor mortis simulation that is capable of modelling the colouration changes in skin caused by blood pooling after death. Our approach consists of a simulation of post mortem blood dynamics and a layered skin shader that is controlled by the haemoglobin and oxygen levels in blood. The object is represented by a layered data structure made of a triangle mesh for the skin and a tetrahedral mesh on which the blood dynamics are simulated. This allows us to simulate the skin discolouration caused by livor mortis, including early patchy appearance, fixation of hypostasis and pressure induced blanching. We demonstrate our approach on two different models and scenarios and compare the results to real world livor mortis photographic examples