The Perception/Action loop: A Study on the Bandwidth of Human Perception and on Natural Human Computer Interaction for Immersive Virtual Reality Applications

Virtual Reality (VR) is an innovating technology which, in the last decade, has had a widespread success, mainly thanks to the release of low cost devices, which have contributed to the diversification of its domains of application. In particular, the current work mainly focuses on the general mechanisms underling perception/action loop in VR, in order to improve the design and implementation of applications for training and simulation in immersive VR, especially in the context of Industry 4.0 and the medical field. On the one hand, we want to understand how humans gather and process all the information presented in a virtual environment, through the evaluation of the visual system bandwidth. On the other hand, since interface has to be a sort of transparent layer allowing trainees to accomplish a task without directing any cognitive effort on the interaction itself, we compare two state of the art solutions for selection and manipulation tasks, a touchful one, the HTC Vive controllers, and a touchless vision-based one, the Leap Motion. To this aim we have developed ad hoc frameworks and methodologies. The software frameworks consist in the creation of VR scenarios, where the experimenter can choose the modality of interaction and the headset to be used and set experimental parameters, guaranteeing experiments repeatability and controlled conditions. The methodology includes the evaluation of performance, user experience and preferences, considering both quantitative and qualitative metrics derived from the collection and the analysis of heterogeneous data, as physiological and inertial sensors measurements, timing and self-assessment questionnaires. In general, VR has been found to be a powerful tool able to simulate specific situations in a realistic and involving way, eliciting user\u2019s sense of presence, without causing severe cybersickness, at least when interaction is limited to the peripersonal and near-action space. Moreover, when designing a VR application, it is possible to manipulate its features in order to trigger or avoid triggering specific emotions and voluntarily create potentially stressful or relaxing situations. Considering the ability of trainees to perceive and process information presented in an immersive virtual environment, results show that, when people are given enough time to build a gist of the scene, they are able to recognize a change with 0.75 accuracy when up to 8 elements are in the scene. For interaction, instead, when selection and manipulation tasks do not require fine movements, controllers and Leap Motion ensure comparable performance; whereas, when tasks are complex, the first solution turns out to be more stable and efficient, also because visual and audio feedback, provided as a substitute of the haptic one, does not substantially contribute to improve performance in the touchless case

Studying natural human-computer interaction in immersive virtual reality: A comparison between actions in the peripersonal and in the near-action space

Interacting in immersive virtual reality is a challenging and open issue in human-computer interaction. Here, we describe a system to evaluate the performance of a low-cost setup, which has not the need of wearing devices to manipulate virtual objects. In particular, we consider the Leap Motion device and we assess its performance into two situations: reaching and grasp in the peripersonal space, and in the near-action space, i.e. when a user stays on foot and can move his own arms to reach objects on a desk. We show how these two situations are similar in terms of user performance, thus indicating a possible use of such device in a wide range of reaching tasks in immersive virtual reality

Corlatti_et_al_Parasites & ARTs chamois_Supporting Information_2

Parasite data and individual / environmental covariates

NEW TRENDS IN LUXURY GOODS CONSUMPTIONS. A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS

Luxury is a very subjective concept, strictly connected to the values and assumptions people use to orientate their choices and behaviors. Values are concepts or beliefs, which refer to desirable states or behaviors, and are used as standards or criteria to select or evaluate behavior and events (Schwartz, 1994). They impact on individuals’ perceptions and choices, and this happens both at an individual and at a collective level. Our study is a working progress paper as a first attempt to investigate the effects of cultural values on the demand of luxury goods, to answer the following questions: Does consumers’ perception of luxury goods vary across countries? Does culture affect this perception

Engineering Reliable Interactions in the Reality-Artificiality Continuum

none5noMilgram's reality-virtuality continuum applies to interaction in the physical space dimension, going from real to virtual. However, interaction has a social dimension as well, that can go from real to artificial depending on the companion with whom the user interacts. In this paper we present our vision of the Reality-Artificiality bidimensional Continuum (RAC), we identify some challenges in its design and development and we discuss how reliable interactions might be supported inside RAC.mixedAncona, Davide; Bassano, Chiara; Chessa, Manuela; Mascardi, Viviana; Solari, FabioAncona, Davide; Bassano, Chiara; Chessa, Manuela; Mascardi, Viviana; Solari, Fabi

Analysis of the effects of meteorology on aircraft exhaust dispersion and deposition using a Lagrangian particle model

The risk of air quality degradation is of considerable concern particularly for those airports that are located near urban areas. The ability to quantitatively predict the effects of air pollutants originated by airport operations is important for assessing air quality and the related impacts on human health. Current emission regulations have focused on local air quality in the proximity of airports. However, an integrated study should consider the effects of meteorological events, at both regional and local level, that can affect the dispersion and the deposition of exhausts. Rigorous scientific studies and extensive experimental data could contribute to the analysis of the impacts of airports expansion plans. This paper is focused on the analysis of the effects of meteorology on aircraft emission for the Marco Polo Airport in Venice. This is the most important international airport in the eastern part of the Po' Valley, one of the most polluted area in Europe. Air pollution is exacerbated by meteorology that is a combination of large and local scale effects that do not allow significant dispersion. Moreover, the airport is located near Venice, a city of noteworthy cultural and architectural relevance, and nearby the lagoon that hosts several areas of outstanding ecological importance at European level (Natura 2000 sites). Dispersion and deposit of the main aircraft exhausts (NOx, HC and CO) have been evaluated by using a Lagrangian particle model. Spatial and temporal aircraft exhaust dispersion has been analyzed for LTO cycle. Aircraft taxiing resulted to be the most impacting aircraft operation especially for the airport working area and its surroundings, however occasionally peaks may be observed even at high altitudes when cruise mode starts. Mixing height can affect concentrations more significantly than the concentrations in the exhausts themselves. An increase of HC and CO concentrations (15-50%) has been observed during specific meteorological events. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Preliminary analysis of reproductive success in a large mammal with alternative mating tactics, the Northern chamois, Rupicapra rupicapra

In polygynous mating systems, reproductive skew depends on the ability of males to monopolize females, which in turn may promote the development of contrasting traits in the two sexes. Although dominant individuals normally enjoy a higher reproductive success (RS) than subordinates, the use of genetic markers has shown that behavioural observations of male mating success may not provide reliable clues of RS. We report the preliminary results of the first DNA-based paternity analysis on the Northern chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), a scarcely dimorphic mountain ungulate described as highly polygynous, in relation to mating tactic and age. Because of sampling difficulties, the success in parentage assignment was low, and the interpretation of results requires caution. Territorial males had a greater RS than nonterritorial ones but they were unable to monopolize mating events. Age had a weak effect on paternity outcome but only males ≥ 6 years showed siring success. Although future studies are needed to assess the opportunity for sexual selection in male chamois, the concurrence of limited sexual size dimorphism, compensatory growth, unbiased sex-specific survival, RS of alternative mating tactics and, possibly, long breeding tenure, may hint at the adoption of a conservative mating strategy in this species

A VR Game-based System for Multimodal Emotion Data Collection

The rising popularity of learning techniques in data analysis has recently led to an increased need of large-scale datasets. In this study, we propose a system consisting of a VR game and a software platform designed to collect the player’s multimodal data, synchronized with the VR content, with the aim of creating a dataset for emotion detection and recognition. The game was implemented ad-hoc in order to elicit joy and frustration, following the emotion elicitation process described by Roseman’s appraisal theory. In this preliminary study, 5 participants played our VR game along with pre-existing ones and self-reported experienced emotions