Which way to turn? Guide orientation in virtual way finding

In this paper we describe an experiment aimed at determining the most effective and natural orientation of a virtual guide that gives route directions in a 3D virtual environment. We hypothesized that, due to the presence of mirrored gestures, having the route provider directly face the route seeker would result in a less effective and less natural route description than having the route provider adapt his orientation to that of the route seeker. To compare the effectiveness of the different orientations, after having received a route description the participants in our experiment had to ‘virtually’ traverse the route using prerecorded route segments. The results showed no difference in effectiveness between the two orientations, but suggested that the orientation where the speaker directly faces the route seeker is more natural

Semiotic & Perception Of Way Finding Among Younger Consumers

The purpose of the research is aiming to recognize proper design systems of way finding in Malaysia. The idea is to determine the perceptions of younger consumers is associated with the multi-combinations design of way finding been applied in Malaysia now days, been affected with their demographic profiles or flexibility of psychology aspects due to their emotions and feeling and its connection with spatial space and environment. A survey in gaining perceptions based on the design differentiation of way finding was conducted among youngsters, resulted with many kind of clues, ideas and semiotic perspective of way finding and its improvement. It was associated with 100 younger consumers (20 aged – 25 years old). Participants been explained with the basic knowledge of way finding in Malaysia and responded with the question given. It resulted with a conclusion that there are many issues and critical concern related with our design system of way finding, 56 of young consumers claimed that its friendly user, give some suggestion that by using text and its application is suited to enhance meaning of way finding in Malaysia. Furthermore, the improvement of the systems will be able to increase the good feelings of peoples. Association of 100 young consumers (male: 28, female=72) were been asked to respond on survey questions, they been exposed with different design systems of way finding in Malaysia and assortment of perceptions been gathered. The practicality of semiotic knowledge, beneficial impact of it, in relation with cognitive mapping been performed during the session. Findings revealed with many kinds of clues on the way their doing an interpretation of design system of way finding in Malaysia. The crucial impacts gathered is directly coming from the approach of way finding been applied, resulted with 56 participants claimed that the way finding design system is friendly user, contributed to relevant recommendation to use text and its application to perceive meaning of location and direction, proven by 35 participants out of 100. Significantly, the research will indicate many kinds of good perceptions on the usage of semiotics understanding with relevant way finding in Malaysia. By having a helpful and identification signage design systems, it’s able to reduce frustrated feelings, confusions, tiredness, stress, and illness and save times during navigating to preferable locatio

Designing and evaluating procedural instructions with the four components model.

Procedures form the heart of user instructions, tutorials, reference guides, job-aids, online help, way-finding instructions, medicine prescriptions, and so on. This paper summarizes the four component model, which is intended to integrate best practices and research outcomes

Towards Egocentric Way-Finding Appliances Supporting Navigation in Unfamiliar Terrain

In this paper, we discuss foundations, requirements and first experiences with a mobile information system that supports, and is ecologically compatible with, human vision-based navigation and acquirement of spatial knowledge during movement through the physical world. The appliance assists a person finding his/her way from an origin to a destination by providing an egocentric (viewer-centered) rather than an abstract top-down map-type view of the surrounding environment. We illustrate the use of the application in a foreign, or partially familiar, built environment of the scale of a small town or university campus and discuss first field experiments exploring egocentric way-finding support

Sign Comprehension in Young Adults, the Healthy Elderly, and Older People with Varying Levels of Cognitive Impairment - Report Series # 5

This study, conducted in the fall of 2004 and the winter of 2005, sought to determine whether sign comprehension suffers in healthy aging and in the presence of cognitive impairment. Sign comprehension is critical for effective driving, response to warnings and way-finding. If signs are poorly comprehended by older people including those with cognitive impairment, accident risk will be increased and independence may be compromised. Groups of young adults, healthy older adults and older adults with varying levels of cognitive impairment were asked the meaning of 65 signs used for driving, warning and way-finding. Healthy older adults were generally good at sign comprehension, but had some difficulty with way-finding signs. Older adults with cognitive impairments had poorer sign comprehension overall and were particularly poor with way-finding signage. Testing of sign comprehension needs to involve a more heterogeneous sampling of older adults. As well, signs that include text would be beneficial to those with cognitive impairment

External fluctuations in front dynamics with inertia: The overdamped limit

We study the dynamics of fronts when both inertial effects and external fluctuations are taken into account. Stochastic fluctuations are introduced as multiplicative noise arising from a control parameter of the system. Contrary to the non-inertial (overdamped) case, we find that important features of the system, such as the velocity selection picture, are not modified by the noise. We then compute the overdamped limit of the underdamped dynamics in a more careful way, finding that it does not exhibit any effect of noise either. Our result poses the question as to whether or not external noise sources can be measured in physical systems of this kind.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in European Physical Journal

From simplicial Chern-Simons theory to the shadow invariant II

This is the second of a series of papers in which we introduce and study a rigorous "simplicial" realization of the non-Abelian Chern-Simons path integral for manifolds M of the form M = Sigma x S1 and arbitrary simply-connected compact structure groups G. More precisely, we introduce, for general links L in M, a rigorous simplicial version WLO_{rig}(L) of the corresponding Wilson loop observable WLO(L) in the so-called "torus gauge" by Blau and Thompson (Nucl. Phys. B408(2):345-390, 1993). For a simple class of links L we then evaluate WLO_{rig}(L) explicitly in a non-perturbative way, finding agreement with Turaev's shadow invariant |L|.Comment: 53 pages, 1 figure. Some minor changes and corrections have been mad

Simulating Light-Weight Personalised Recommender Systems in Learning Networks: A Case for Pedagogy-Oriented and Rating-Based Hybrid Recommendation Strategies

Recommender systems for e-learning demand specific pedagogy-oriented and hybrid recommendation strategies. Current systems are often based on time-consuming, top down information provisioning combined with intensive data-mining collaborative filtering approaches. However, such systems do not seem appropriate for Learning Networks where distributed information can often not be identified beforehand. Providing sound way-finding support for lifelong learners in Learning Networks requires dedicated personalised recommender systems (PRS), that offer the learners customised advise on which learning actions or programs to study next. Such systems should also be practically feasible and be developed with minimized effort. Currently, such so called light-weight PRS systems are scarcely available. This study shows that simulation studies can support the analysis and optimisation of PRS requirements prior to starting the costly process of their development, and practical implementation (including testing and revision) during field experiments in real-life learning situations. This simulation study confirms that providing recommendations leads towards more effective, more satisfied, and faster goal achievement. Furthermore, this study reveals that a light-weight hybrid PRS-system based on ratings is a good alternative for an ontology-based system, in particular for low-level goal achievement. Finally, it is found that rating-based light-weight hybrid PRS-systems enable more effective, more satisfied, and faster goal attainment than peer-based light-weight hybrid PRS-systems (incorporating collaborative techniques without rating).Recommendation Strategy; Simulation Study; Way-Finding; Collaborative Filtering; Rating

The turn to precarity in twenty-first century fiction

This is an open access article. Copyright © 2014 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH.Recent years have seen several attempts by writers and critics to understand the changed sensibility in post-9/11 fiction through a variety of new -isms. This essay explores this cultural shift in a different way, finding a ‘turn to precarity’ in twenty-first century fiction characterised by a renewal of interest in the flow and foreclosure of affect, the resurgence of questions about vulnerability and our relationships to the other, and a heightened awareness of the social dynamics of seeing. The essay draws these tendencies together via the work of Judith Butler in Frames of War, in an analysis of Trezza Azzopardi’s quasi-biographical study of precarious life, Remember Me

TIME-SYMMETRIC INITIAL DATA SETS IN 4--D DILATON GRAVITY

I study the time--symmetric initial--data problem in theories with a massless scalar field (dilaton), free or coupled to a Maxwell field in the stringy way, finding different initial--data sets describing an arbitrary number of black holes with arbitrary masses, charges and asymptotic value of the dilaton. The presence of the scalar field gives rise to a number of interesting effects. The mass and charges of a single black hole are different in its two asymptotically flat regions across the Einstein--Rosen bridge. The same happens to the value of the dilaton at infinity. This forbids the identification of these asymptotic regions in order to build (Misner) wormholes in the most naive way. Using different techniques, I find regular initial data for stringy wormholes. The price payed is the existence singularities in the dilaton field. The presence of a single--valued scalar seems to constrain strongly the allowed topologies of the initial space--like surface. Other kinds of scalar fields (taking values on a circle or being defined up to an additive constant) are also briefly considered.Comment: latex file, 38 pages