The development and applications of serious games in the public services: defence and health

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.The latest advances of Virtual Reality technologies and three-dimensional graphics, as well as the developments in Gaming Technologies in the recent years, have stemmed the proliferation of Serious Games in a broader spectrum of research applications. Among the most popular areas of application are public services such as Defence and Health, where digital technologies realise new challenges and opportunities for research and development of Serious Games and for a variety of contexts. As with all games, the user engagement is elevated and apart from the entertaining aspect, Serious Games serve as a novel and promising alternative experience to knowledge transfer. Furthermore, Serious Games bring to the end user and the overall society a series of attractive benefits. These benefits include safety, cost-effectiveness, increased motivation and personalisation. Hence, this Thesis aims to investigate novel approaches of developing Serious Games that utilise the recent advances of Virtual Reality and Gaming Technology and facilitate the aforementioned benefits. The process of design and development of the novel tools and applications follow an iterative manner and are driven by the review of the available literature as well as end-user feedbackEPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council ) , MOD (UK), NHS (UK

Pairing market risk with credit risk

This paper uses an exclusive proprietary data set of European Credit Derivatives and VIX markets, covering a sample of 5 to 7 years, to study the nature of the link between credit risk and market risk, widely acknowledged in the academic literature. This allows us to establish cointegration in the VIX and iTraxx/CDS markets in a framework where arbitrageurs exploit temporary equilibrium mispricing following pairs strategies. Expected profits, defined in terms of VECM parameters, are positive for all VIX-iTraxx pairs strategies considered. Markets are integrated in that price discovery on both sides of the Atlantic reflect the same underlying information with predominant price leadership of the VIX market over the European CDS market

The gamification of accessibility design: A proposed framework

The use of Gamification for the purpose of training and raising awareness has attracted considerable interest over the last years. However, the development of such solutions to use within the area of accessibility design has not been yet explored. In this paper, we present a proposed framework using Gamification as a method for engaging and motivating web designers to increase the adoption of the W3C WCAG 2.0 guidelines. It is anticipated that our framework will provide a more interactive and intuitive learning experience

Development and preliminary evaluation of a novel low cost VR-based upper limb stroke rehabilitation platform using Wii technology.

Abstract Purpose: This paper proposes a novel system (using the Nintendo Wii remote) that offers customised, non-immersive, virtual reality-based, upper-limb stroke rehabilitation and reports on promising preliminary findings with stroke survivors. Method: The system novelty lies in the high accuracy of the full kinematic tracking of the upper limb movement in real-time, offering strong personal connection between the stroke survivor and a virtual character when executing therapist prescribed adjustable exercises/games. It allows the therapist to monitor patient performance and to individually calibrate the system in terms of range of movement, speed and duration. Results: The system was tested for acceptability with three stroke survivors with differing levels of disability. Participants reported an overwhelming connection with the system and avatar. A two-week, single case study with a long-term stroke survivor showed positive changes in all four outcome measures employed, with the participant reporting better wrist control and greater functional use. Activities, which were deemed too challenging or too easy were associated with lower scores of enjoyment/motivation, highlighting the need for activities to be individually calibrated. Conclusions: Given the preliminary findings, it would be beneficial to extend the case study in terms of duration and participants and to conduct an acceptability and feasibility study with community dwelling survivors. Implications for Rehabilitation Low-cost, off-the-shelf game sensors, such as the Nintendo Wii remote, are acceptable by stroke survivors as an add-on to upper limb stroke rehabilitation but have to be bespoked to provide high-fidelity and real-time kinematic tracking of the arm movement. Providing therapists with real-time and remote monitoring of the quality of the movement and not just the amount of practice, is imperative and most critical for getting a better understanding of each patient and administering the right amount and type of exercise. The ability to translate therapeutic arm movement into individually calibrated exercises and games, allows accommodation of the wide range of movement difficulties seen after stroke and the ability to adjust these activities (in terms of speed, range of movement and duration) will aid motivation and adherence - key issues in rehabilitation. With increasing pressures on resources and the move to more community-based rehabilitation, the proposed system has the potential for promoting the intensity of practice necessary for recovery in both community and acute settings.The National Health Service (NHS) London Regional Innovation Fund

Chain of command in autonomous cooperative agents for battles in real-time strategy games

This paper investigates incorporating chain of command in swarm intelligence of honey bees to create groups of ranked co-operative autonomous agents for an RTS game in to create and re-enact battle simulations. The behaviour of the agents are based on the foraging and defensive behaviours of honey bees, adapted to a human environment. The chain of command is implemented using a hierarchical decision model. The groups consist of multiple model-based reflex agents, with individual blackboards for working memory, with a colony level blackboard to mimic the foraging patterns and include commands received from ranking agents. An agent architecture and environment are proposed that allows for creation of autonomous cooperative agents. The behaviour of agents is then evaluated both mathematically and empirically using an adaptation of anytime universal intelligence test and agent believability metric

Swarm intelligence for autonomous cooperative agents in battles for real-time strategy games

This paper investigates the use the swarm intelligence of honey bees to create groups of co-operative AI for an RTS game in order to create and re-enact battle simulations. The behaviour of the agents are based on the foraging and defensive behaviours of honey bees, adapted to a human environment. The groups consist of multiple model-based reflex agents, with individual blackboards for working memory, with a colony level blackboard to mimic the foraging patterns. An agent architecture and environment is proposed that allows for creation of autonomous cooperative agents. The behaviour of agents is then evaluated and their intelligence is tested using an adaptation of Anytime Universal Intelligence Test

Ultrasonic-Based Environmental Perception for Mobile 5G-Oriented XR Applications

One of the sectors that is expected to significantly benefit from 5G network deployment is eXtended Reality (XR). Besides the very high bandwidth, reliability, and Quality of Service (QoS) to be delivered to end users, XR also requires accurate environmental perception for safety reasons: this is fundamental when a user, wearing XR equipment, is immersed in a “virtual” world, but moves in a “real” environment. To overcome this limitation (especially when using low-cost XR equipments, such as cardboards worn by the end user), it is possible to exploit the potentialities offered by Internet of Things (IoT) nodes with sensing/actuating capabilities. In this paper, we rely on ultrasonic sensor-based IoT systems to perceive the surrounding environment and to provide “side information” to XR systems, then performing a preliminary experimental characterization campaign with different ultrasonic IoT system configurations worn by the end user. The combination of the information flows associated with XR and IoT components is enabled by 5G technology. An illustrative experimental scenario, relative to a “Tourism 4.0” IoT-aided VR application deployed by Vodafone in Milan, Italy, is presented

Robert Neumann’s Hochstaplernovelle: the imaginary Balkans, Mediterranean and Central Europe

Hochstaplernovelle, Robert Neumann’s novella published in 1930, can be read as a distinct genre variety of the trickster theme (a topic popular in German literature), but is also analytically interesting due to its troubled representation of the Balkan complex. Consequently, this article focuses on the function of the Balkan discourse in Neumann’s fictional prose as well as its localization at the Mediterranean (nowadays Croatian) coastline of the former Dual Monarchy. Strategies of fictionalization employed in the novella point to a polyvalent potential of the Balkan discourse. The notion of Balkanism is understood and analysed as a discursive formation: references to older Balkan discourses from the cultural and historic space of the former monarchy quoted in the novella can therefore be described in terms of “nesting Orientalism” (Bakic-Hayden), a phenomenon in symbolic geography