Industrial Heritage Education and User Tracking in Virtual Reality

Industrial heritage provides one of the most important records of social and technological progress and has international potential for education and development. This chapter presents the potential to use the virtual reality devices for informal education in technical and natural sciences. The hypothetical virtual appearance of an industrial power plant from the nineteenth century in Slovak city of Piešťany was intricately reconstructed by a combination of identified conserved valuable parts of the building and preserved original equipment and archival plans. This practical result—interactive virtual tool—educates about the lost heritage by allowing viewers to look closer and experience the former atmosphere of industrial work. During the virtual visits, users are motion tracked and invited to take photographs to mark the most interesting motives. Gathered data from this users’ observation were analyzed to find behavioral patterns and to give feedback information about the exhibition’s attractivity, used in further presentations

Mixed Reality in the Presentation of Industrial Heritage Development

The chapter ‘Mixed reality in the presentation of industrial heritage development’ is aimed at exploring opportunities for collaboration between theoretical research, monument preservation, virtual reality and architectural practice. It deals with the identified key factors that conditionally affect the quality and efficiency of architectural design process of architects within the cooperation in the conservation process of industrial heritage as well as the opportunities of transfer the research results from futuristic disciplines. For this purpose, the chapter examines the case study ‘the reconstruction of Old Power Plant in city Piešťany’ and describes possible solutions on the basis of the Mixed reality (MR). The opportunity to experience the industrial object with multiple senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch) in MR delivered a unique personalized experience and immersive memories about lost heritage

How to Use Haptic Technology in Interactive Digital Documentation of Heritage

Virtual restoration of the extinct heritage is a method of reconstruction of an already destroyed work in a virtual environment. It represents a way and an opportunity to reenter the remodeled simulated space interactively and experience its contemporary atmosphere and former author expression. In addition to visual and acoustic experiences, haptic technologies represent the potential for expanding sensory perception, which is not yet sufficiently used in the architectural sector. This study focuses on defunct and endangered works of interior architecture and industrial heritage, which were significant at the time of their inception and shaped the direction of the industry. Especially in the case of cultural and spiritual heritage, we focus on interiors, which, by their short-term nature, are neither objective nor physically documentable. Selected extinct works for which there was enough data or there was still the possibility of consultation with a living author were experimentally virtually reconstructed. Using haptic technologies, we have expanded the observer’s ability to interactively analyze space and its context through User Tracking of observers. The data obtained in this way continue to help the creators of the architecture set new starting points and limits for the current creation and design as well

One-Parameter Statistical Methods to Recognize DDoS Attacks

Within our academic high-speed network infrastructure which is used for connecting all universities and high schools in our country to the Internet, there are thousands of cybersecurity attacks occurring every day. That is why, within our SANET II project, an effort has been made to create a self-learning system without a teacher, which would be able to quickly adapt to arbitrary traffic and recognize DDoS attacks on time, even in high-speed networks, with a potential simple implementation into a hardware probe. In the article, we deal with the Hurst and autoregression coefficients and the coefficient of variation. We test the coefficients on simulated data and on real records of attacks. For early machine recognition of the attack, we propose the so-called predicting σ-tunnel. The obtained results can lead to the investigation of other prediction methods that would improve the early recognition of an attack

Determination of Solar-Surface-Area-to-Volume Ratio: Early Design Stage Solar Performance Assessment of Buildings

One of the main targets of globally aimed strategies such as the UN-supported Race to Zero campaign or the European Green Deal is the decarbonisation of the building sector. The implementation of renewable energy sources in new urban structures, as well as the complex reconstruction of existing buildings, represents a key area of sustainable urban development. Supporting this approach, this paper introduces the solar-surface-area-to-volume ratio (Rsol) and the solar performance indicator (Psol), applicable for evaluation of the energy performance of basic building shapes at early design stages. The indicators are based on the preprocessors calculated using two different mathematical models—Robinson and Stone’s cumulative sky algorithm and Kittler and Mikler’s model—which are then compared and evaluated. Contrary to the commonly used surface-area-to-volume ratio, the proposed indicators estimate the potential for energy generation by active solar appliances integrated in the building envelope and allow optimisation of building shape in relation to potential energy losses and potential solar gains simultaneously. On the basis of the mathematical models, an online application optimising building shape to maximise sun-exposed surfaces has been developed. In connection with the solar-surface-area-to-volume ratio, it facilitates the quantitative evaluation of energy efficiency of various shapes by the wider professional public. The proposed indicators, verified in a case study presented, shall result in the increased sustainability of building sector by improving the utilisation of solar energy and overall energy performance of buildings

Potentials and Limits of Photovoltaic Systems Integration in Historic Urban Structures: The Case Study of Monument Reserve in Bratislava, Slovakia

In the context of the current energy crisis and climate change, the importance of discussions on how to incorporate monument protection into sustainable strategies that mitigate the human impact on the environment and implement renewable sources while preserving cultural values is raised. Through the case study of the Monument Reserve in Bratislava, Slovakia, this article presents the potentials and limits of the integration of photovoltaic systems in historic urban structures that directly affect their feasible participation in smart city and positive energy district concepts by means of energy cooperativeness. This study highlights the most current recommendations and basic principles on how to assess their visual impact and select the most appropriate solutions. Using the datafication process, it analyzes the irradiance of pitched and flat roof polygons of the set area based on their characteristics such as the normal vector azimuth and slope of the rooftops. For this purpose, a 3D morphological model in LOD3 detail and the open-source solar irradiation model r.sun implemented in GRASS GIS / QGIS were used. The data obtained provided an estimate of the output potential to endow the city’s power grid and were compared to the electricity consumption of the particular city district. Furthermore, these data are suitable for designing a customized technical and aesthetic solution for the integration of photovoltaics with respect to cultural sustainability, as well as for decision- and policy makers

Augmented reality and tangible user interfaces as an extension of computational design tools

The paper envisions the use of Augmented Reality (AR) as an interactive and communication tool utilized in the architectural design research, education, and practice. It summarises the current knowledge and various applications of this immersive technology in both the theoretical and practical field and focuses on a particular type of the AR implementation – tangible user interfaces (TUI) – in a computational design context. The outcome of the research is an adaptation of the originally GRASS-GIS-powered Tangible Landscape tool into Grasshopper 3D environment, which is more accurate and suitable for the architectural design workflow with respect to 3D computation, algorithmic modelling and different scale management. The newly prototyped tool is reactive to the modifications of the physical model and projects the computed additional information on it in real time and thus can communicate with the designer or observer, which results in a more interactive, haptic man-machine interface. The projected and visualised data on the physical model are the outcome of the computing algorithm designed in Grasshopper that allows for a wide range of applications, including the visualisation of shadows and solar potential analysis and thus depicts the physical model in multiple dimensions. Furthermore, the article discusses the potential and further development of this tool as well as the possibilities of layering different AR technologies in the subsequent research