Guest Editorial

Gaming-Simulation can be viewed as a hybrid form involving the performance of game activities in simulated context. In this simulated context players have goals, they have to perform sets of activities, deal with constraints on what can be done, and handle payoffs (good and bad) as consequences of the actions. Gaming-Simulation has recently gained considerable popularity as a tool for education and training, both in industrial and academic environments. Gaming-Simulation promotes interest and motivation, presents information and principles, puts players into situations which they must articulate positions, ideas, arguments and facts they have previously learned, or train them skills they will need later. A Gaming-Simulation is a sequential decision-making exercise, with the basic function of providing an artificial but realistic environment that enables players to experience the consequences of their decisions through immediate response. The elements in a Gaming-Simulation (roles, goals, activities, constraints and consequences) are patterned from real life, and the linkages among them simulate the elements of the real-world system. Its objective is to enhance a comprehensive understanding of complex systems and to communicate and develop knowledge and skills. In this way Gaming-Simulation can serve as a precision tool to link a more complex model to the real world

A Framework for Examining Desktop Video Conferencing in the Organisational Context

This paper proposes, and applies, a framework for examining desktop video conferencing in the organisational context. The framework helps organisations both to uncover the relative benefits of, and problems in, the use of desktop video conferencing and to reconcile some of the problems that evolve from this use

Guest Editorial

Research in emerging technologies involves collaborative and co-operative research from many areas and perspectives in computer science and information systems research. This special issue tries to provide a snapshot ofleading-edge research in the field of multimedia systems. For this purpose, we have invited a number of prominent and well-respected multimedia figures to contribute papers for this special issue, as well as soliciting papers from the general multimedia research community. The response was overwhelming and all of the work submitted was of a high standard, but, unfortunately, as is the case with Special Issues, we just did not have space for everyone whose work was worthy of the audience. This Special Issue comprises thirteen papers, six of which were invited

Towards an Intelligent Knowledge Based Tutoring System for Foreign Language Learning

Intelligent Tutoring Systems have found a wide range of potential applications across a multitude of disciplines and subject areas. The Intelligent Spaniard is an Intelligent Knowledge Based Tutoring System designed to assist intermediate level students with their learning of Spanish grammar, by testing their knowledge of regular and irregular verbs. This paper describes the system\u27s architecture which takes the form of three rule-based expert systems working in synergy with each other. The Intelligent Spaniard has been developed as a domain-independent generic tutoring system, hence, its knowledge bases can be replaced with knowledge bases containing the vocabulary and grammar of other foreign languages

Using Hypertext in Developing the Human Computer Interface to Gaming-Simulation Environments that Incorporate Intelligent Tutoring Support

A Gaming-Simulation Environment for teaching and learning that incorporates Intelligent Tutoring Support also serves as a supporting tool for the Human Computer Interface. The Human Computer Interface to this environment will affect how players interact with the domain that is both being tutored upon and is being the object of game play. The development of this interface is subject to a variety of constraints. This paper suggests a Hypertext Approach to developing this Integrated Environment and thus the Interface that promises to oust or minimise these constraints

Using Hypertext to Implement Multiple Tutoring Strategies in an Intelligent Tutoring System for Music Learning

Variation in tutoring strategies plays an important part in Intelligent Tutoring Systems. The potential for providing an adaptive Intelligent Tutoring System depends on having a range of tutoring strategies to select from. In order to react effectively to the student\u27s needs, an Intelligent Tutoring System has to be able to choose intelligently among the strategies and determine which strategy is best for an individual student at a particular moment. This paper describes, through the discussion pertaining to the implementation of SONATA, a music theory tutoring system, how an Intelligent Tutoring System can be developed to support multiple tutoring strategies during the course of interaction. SONATA has been implemented using a hypertext tool, HyperCard II.1

An MPEG-7 scheme for semantic content modelling and filtering of digital video

Abstract Part 5 of the MPEG-7 standard specifies Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS); that is, the format multimedia content models should conform to in order to ensure interoperability across multiple platforms and applications. However, the standard does not specify how the content or the associated model may be filtered. This paper proposes an MPEG-7 scheme which can be deployed for digital video content modelling and filtering. The proposed scheme, COSMOS-7, produces rich and multi-faceted semantic content models and supports a content-based filtering approach that only analyses content relating directly to the preferred content requirements of the user. We present details of the scheme, front-end systems used for content modelling and filtering and experiences with a number of users

Lu-Lu: A framework for collaborative decision making games

This paper proposes Lu-Lu as an add-on architecture to open MMOGs and social network games, which has been developed to utilise a key set of ingredients that underline collaborative decision making games as reported within the research literature: personalisation, team matching, non-optimal decision making, leading, decisiveness index, scoring, levelling, and multiple stages. The implementation of Lu-Lu is demonstrated as an add-on to the classic supply chain beer game, including customisation of Lu-Lu to facilitate information exchange through the Facebook games platform, e.g., Graph API and Scores API. Performance assessment of Lu-Lu using Behaviour-Driven Development suggests a successful integration of all key ingredients within Lu-Lu's architecture, yielding autonomous behaviour that improves both player enjoyment and decision making

A serious gaming approach to managing interference in ad hoc femtocell wireless networks

The aim of this paper is to optimize femtocell performance by managing interference between femtocell devices and between a femtocell and a macrocell. It achieves this using a three-phase approach that involves deployment of femtocells and control of resulting connections through consideration and management of path loss, transmission power, signal strength and coverage area. Simulation experiments of the proposed three-phase approach at a local college that experiences a poor service from the macrocell predict significant improvements in femtocell performance in terms of managing both types of interference: co-tier and cross-tier, number of users who experience good service, coverage, and mitigating outage probability. The overall and individual complexity of each phase has also been considered. Our approach has been compared with some existing techniques chosen from the literature that has been reviewed and its predicted performance is significantly improved in comparison to these