Materials Breakthrough Could Eliminate Bootups

Topics include a new version of Adobe Flash that streams Internet content directly to TVs; a project that is researching ways to build computers that don't require bootups; an open source, write-once-run-anywhere approach for mobile applications; and injuries caused by the Nintendo Wii game console.     

Painting in the air with Wii Remote

The Wii, which is a home video game console released by Nintendo, has rapidly become the world’s most popular console since its release in November 2006. A distinguishing feature of the Wii is its innovative motion-sensitive controller, the Wii Remote, which could be used as a hand-held pointing device and that has brought many people to gaming for the first time. The popularity of Wii and the innovative design of Wii Remote provide us the motivation to develop a novel air painter system which includes basic painting functions, free sketching, and Chinese, English and Japanese recognition. Vibration and noise effect often influence the recognition of the system, so several fault tolerance mechanisms are proposed in this paper to reduce these effects. Moreover, a unifying character and free sketch recognition scheme, which is based on the stroke code sequences, is proposed to process the recognition. One of the advantages of this approach is that the same mechanism could be applied to the whole system and it could incorporate the fault tolerance mechanisms proposed in this paper.     

A method of two-handed gesture interactions with applications based on commodity devices

Recent progress on human–computer interface technology has enabled more intuitive and natural communications between humans and sensor-based devices in many fields such as games, e-learning, augmented reality (AR), and medical image processing. While traditional human–computer interface devices such as the keyboard and mouse still dominate in our daily life, we propose a new method of two-handed gesture interactions to control applications based on commodity devices such as Wiimote, the primary controller for Nintendo’s Wii game console. Our main goal is to construct a unified way to interact with computers and their application systems just like using home appliances. The proposed system allows users to track their fingers moving in three-dimensional space in real time and define each gesture’s function by using the commodity devices.     

Usability perception of different video game devices in elderly users

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability perception of seniors on video game use with different control devices. Twenty-four seniors participated in the study (12 women, 12 men, 69 years old in average) and eight children (8 years old in average). The setting included the use of two Kinect motion sensors, three computers, three projectors, three video cameras, two audio devices, the Angry Birds and Happy Sky videogames, one Xbox 360 console, a Nintendo Wii device and a Touchscreen configured so that participants could play the games in senior–child pairs. Data were collected according to user friendliness, experience and social interaction. This study suggests that video game control devices for seniors should be adapted to compensate for their function, sensor and cognitive limitations.     

The Nintendo Wii as a tool for neurocognitive rehabilitation,training and health promotion

Health professionals have used virtual reality as an aid for several types of treatment. Given that virtual reality systems are expensive and not always available, a more accessible type of virtual reality technology is video games. The Nintendo Wii™ (NW) is a video game system that uses virtual reality technology, as defined by Deutsch, Borbely, Filler, Huhn, and Guarrera-Bowlby (2008), which may be used for health promotion. The Nintendo Wii™ also provides an opportunity for social interaction; thus, it is a promising tool with great potential for the treatment of specific disorders.The aim of this article is to evaluate the ways in which the Nintendo Wii has been used to treat specific disorders or to promote cognitive or physical improvements through a review of the literature. The results have shown that the NW is a potentially useful tool in some therapeutic treatments that can be used with people of diverse social statuses and tastes. Despite the positive initial results, further studies are required to provide a better evaluation of video game usage in therapeutic programs.     

Motion games improve balance control in stroke survivors: A preliminary study based on the principle of constraint-induced movement therapy

Stroke patients with hemiparesis often exhibit an asymmetrical weight distribution, with the paretic leg providing less support and less weight-shift activity than the sound leg does. For upper-limb hemiparesis constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT), where the sound limb is constrained and the patient is forced to use the paretic limb, has proven to be one of the most effective rehabilitation methods. However, this method has not been successfully modified for balance rehabilitation, since hard constraints on the lower limb are difficult to impose and can increase the risk of patient injuries. Here we introduce a novel approach that encourages stroke survivors to use the paretic leg for weight-shifting tasks during balance control training in a virtual reality setting. We recorded motion signals from each leg in real time and streamed modified versions of these signals to the Nintendo Wii Fit gaming system. By independently manipulating the influence of each leg during game play, we successfully forced the stroke survivors to increase the use of the paretic leg. Our preliminary clinical trial, including three patients with hemiparesis in the chronic phase, found that one-week of training improved patients’ ability to maneuver their center of pressure (COP) during a tracking task. More encouragingly, patient’s weight distributions became more symmetrical. These initial results suggest that manipulating control gains during VR rehabilitation may allow the principles of CIMT to be applied during balance training in stroke survivors.     

Colour characterization of handheld game console displays

During recent years, research on colour vision has used traditional visual colorimeters, cathode ray tubes (CRT), and personal-computer controlled LCD-TFT screens to generate chromatic stimuli. We here explore the possibilities offered by a particular family of electronic devices whose use has lately been expanding rapidly, and which have one or more TFT screens and all the hardware needed for portable and autonomous use: handheld game consoles. We considered the different consoles available on the market, and as a result conducted an initial comparative study of two models – Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. As a result of this study, we checked the potential of using the Nintendo DS console, of which more than 100 million units have been sold worldwide. The results of our tests clearly indicated that it can be used as a tool in colour vision and physiological optics at the same technical level as CRT or TFT screens.     

Hacking the Nintendo Wii Remote

Since its introduction, the Nintendo Wii remote has become one of the world's most sophisticated and common input devices. Combining its impressive capability with a low cost and high degree of accessibility make it an ideal platform for exploring a variety of interaction research concepts. The author describes the technology inside the Wii remote, existing interaction techniques, what's involved in creating custom applications, and several projects ranging from multiobject tracking to spatial augmented reality that challenge the way its developers meant it to be used.     

谈网络环境下的体育教学

传统的体育理论课,通常是以教师讲授体育理论知识为主,学生多数时间都是被动地学习。将网络引入理论课课堂,在体育理论课教学中突破传统教学模式,引导学生乐学、爱学,促进学生的主动学习,不失为一种有益的尝试。     

Comparing hybrid learning with traditional approaches on learning the Microsoft Office Power Point 2003 program in tertiary education

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a hybrid learning approach to deliver a computer science course concerning the Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003 program in comparison to delivering the same course content in the form of traditional lectures. A hundred and seventy-two first year university students were randomly assigned into two teaching method groups: traditional lecture instruction (TLI) and hybrid lecture instruction (HLI). Each group received six 95-min periods of instruction divided into 4 sections: a) 5-min brief outline of the key learning points, b) 40-min lecture on general knowledge c) 45-min constructivist-inspired learning activities and d) 5-min summary on key learning points. In the beginning and the end of this study students completed a 17-item multiple choice knowledge test. Two-way analysis of variances (ANOVA), with repeated measures on the last factor, were conducted to determine effect of method groups (TLI, HLI) and measures (pre-test, post-test) on knowledge test. The measures main effect was significant, as well as the groups x measures interaction effect. Two independent-samples t test were conducted to follow up the significant interaction. Differences in mean ratings of knowledge performance between the two teaching groups were not significantly different at first measure, while the TLI method group yielded a significantly lower mean rating at second measure. The findings indicated that HLI approach might be a superior option for undergraduate students on learning the Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003 program.     

Motion capture controls negate the violent video-game effect

Considerable research suggests that violent video game play increases players’ aggression. However, few studies have investigated this effect in the now ubiquitous context of motion-capture technology. Study 1 used a 2 × 2 design, with a violent (Soul Calibur) and non-violent (Lego Indiana Jones) game, played under analog (Playstation 3) and motion-capture (Nintendo Wii) conditions. Violent video game play led to less aggression when participants used motion-capture controls. Study 2 eliminated potential confounds by using the only game on the Wii system that can be played identically with or without motion capture (Punch-Out!!). Again, participants who used motion-capture were less aggressive. Study 3 looked for effects of cooperative vs. competitive play during 2-player motion-capture gaming (Soul Calibur, Wii). Participants using motion-capture controls in competitive and cooperative scenarios did not differ from baseline. These results run counter to standard models relating violent video game play to aggressive behavior, highlighting the difficulty in anticipating the effects of newer, more immersive technology.     

Engineering an education for the future

Faced with rapid and unremitting change in the disciplines of electrical and computer engineering (ECE), some educators argue that they should deliberately not respond aggressively. Rather, educators should focus on fundamentals that will serve the students well for an entire career. Although the authors agree, they go on to explain that this approach largely begs the question of what those fundamentals are. Of course, it is desirable to impart all feasible fundamentals, but that seems impossible given the expanding breadth of knowledge required in the ECE field. Thus, the question this article addresses is: What are the fundamental skills and knowledge that are important for a future career in ECE? What should be the educational priorities? The authors believe that the center of gravity of most undergraduate curricula today is too far on the side of attempting to train the small cadre of technical experts, a hopeless task within a four- or five-year program. The authors advocate an alternative vision in which the undergraduate program focuses on a limited and carefully chosen set of core ideas, supplemented by real-world examples and importantly by student self-exploration and learning. Such an undergraduate program also emphasizes breadth, an exposure to a range of technical issues, as well as mathematics, science, humanities and social sciences. After the undergraduate experience, the students divide themselves into several groups: one group chooses to leave with an undergraduate degree; a second group stays for a master's degree; while the third group stays for a doctorate     

基于聚类分析的智能答疑系统在招生 咨询方面的应用

生源质量是高校人才培养工作的重要因素,优质的生源是高校高水平人才培养的首要环节,招生宣传、招生咨询 同步在招生工作中发挥着重要作用。高校招生在线咨询通常采用人工回复或基于关键词匹配的问答系统来处理,存在效率低 下、回答问题不及时等缺陷。采用聚类分析方法,对招生咨询中遇到的问题进行集中分析,将不同层次、不同类别的问题进行 归纳整理,统一解答。同时采用智能的网上答疑方法,系统自动识别并解答相关招生问题。     

Discovering API Directives from API Specifications with Text Classification

Application programming interface (API) libraries are extensively used by developers. To correctly program with APIs and avoid bugs, developers shall pay attention to API directives, which illustrate the constraints of APIs. Unfortunately, API directives usually have diverse morphologies, making it time-consuming and error-prone for developers to discover all the relevant API directives. In this paper, we propose an approach leveraging text classification to discover API directives from API specifications. Specifically, given a set of training sentences in API specifications, our approach first characterizes each sentence by three groups of features. Then, to deal with the unequal distribution between API directives and non-directives, our approach employs an under-sampling strategy to split the imbalanced training set into several subsets and trains several classifiers. Given a new sentence in an API specification, our approach synthesizes the trained classifiers to predict whether it is an API directive. We have evaluated our approach over a publicly available annotated API directive corpus. The experimental results reveal that our approach achieves an F-measure value of up to 82.08％. In addition, our approach statistically outperforms the state-of-the-art approach by up to 29.67％in terms of F-measure.     

A successful interdisciplinary course on coputational intelligence

This article presents experiences from the introduction of a new three hour interdisciplinary course on computational intelligence (CI) taught at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This course is unique in the sense that it covers five main paradigms of CI and their integration to develop hybrid intelligent systems. The paradigms covered are artificial immune systems (AISs), evolutionary computing (EC), fuzzy systems (FSs), neural networks (NNs) and swarm intelligence (SI). While individual CI paradigms have been applied successfully to solve real-world problems, the current trend is to develop hybrids of these paradigms since no one paradigm is superior to any other for solving all types of problems. In doing so, respective strengths of individual components in a hybrid CI system are capitalized while their weaknesses are eliminated. This CI course is at the introductory level and the objective is to lead students to in-depth courses and specialization in a particular paradigm (AISs, EC, FSs, NNs, SI). The idea of an integrated and interdisciplinary course like this, especially at the undergraduate level, is to expose students to different CI paradigms at an early stage in their degree program and career. The curriculum, assessment, implementation, and impacts of an interdisciplinary CI course are described.     

Multimedia blogging in physical education: Effects on student knowledge and ICT self-efficacy

The main idea behind this study was to explore the educational potential of multimedia blogging for academic disciplines such as Physical Education (PE) that are not heavily based on written discourse and where multiple representations are important in learning. A class blog was utilized as a means for PE students to reflect on and showcase their performances of four specific basketball skills, through creating multimedia posts on these skills and receiving comments from their instructors, peers and an external expert. The effectiveness of multimedia blogging was evaluated, in terms of the acquisition of knowledge of the specific basketball skills and the self-efficacy in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), as compared to that of an equivalent multimedia website which lacked the blogging component. Students’ responses to the blogging activity were also investigated. The sample were 70 undergraduate PE students who were assigned to two groups, one of which used the class blog (Group A, N = 35) and the other one the website (Group B, N = 35), both for 11 weeks. The study followed a pretest/posttest experimental design, taking before and after measurements of each group through written questionnaires. Participation in the blogging activity did have a positive impact on students’ ICT self-efficacy, given that Group A students exhibited significant gains in Internet self-efficacy as well as in multimedia processing and blogging self-efficacy, whereas those of Group B did not. Students’ responses to the blogging activity were also positive. However, within both groups no significant increase was found in students’ knowledge of the basketball skills. The implications of the findings for higher education and future research are discussed.     

Effects on performance of adding simple complementary auditory feedback to a visual-spatial task

The current study examined the effect of simple complementary auditory feedback (CAF) on performance and performance strategies in a puzzle completion task. Fifty-three undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of two training groups: a CAF group, which received simple auditory feedback during the task; and a Control group, which did not receive the auditory feedback. The difference between the higher and lower achievers (in terms of time needed to complete the puzzle) was larger in the CAF group compared to the Control group. As for performance strategies, participants in the CAF group engaged less in strategies which involved pre-planning (for example, separating out edge pieces) and focused more on trying to maximize short-term achievements (for example, through trial and error). The findings suggest that CAF which entails low-level feedback is not recommended for weaker performers, for whom it promotes less-effective strategies focused on short-term goals.     

计算机应用型人才培养教学模式改革与创新

本文主要讨论计算机应用型人才培养的新模式,构建适应新的教学模式的培养方案、课程体系和实践体系。经过5年实践,特别是本科学生全过程检验,我校已初步形成了一套适应社会需要的计算机应用型人才培养教学模式。     

Games, Virtual Reality, and the Pursuit of Happiness

The paper discusses the aspects of games and virtual reality in human happiness.In the past few decades, scientists have focused most of their attention on developing technologies that sharpen only the minds or relieve minds and bodies of certain duties. The people become smarter but incredibly unhealthy. Health games seem to offer one solution to this problem. Entertainment based health interventions have a huge potential to transform healthcare. Most people love games.Play is a fundamental mode of expression, fulfills the human need to connect with the "other," and can even be fun. Serious play is also great exercise for the mind and spirit. The Nintendo Wii was a good start for motivating people to get off the couch. But Wii isn't good enough for virtual reality (VR) fans due to easy sensor cheats, but Wii is the first step toward liberation. For many people, the Wii is as close to VR as they've ever gotten. Health games and sensor based experiences have recently become the new, shiny promise of hope and change in our field. However, an affordable, untethered full body VR experience is still the Holy Grail. Playing Flower game was as close to VR. Liberated from complex controller buttons, the author role played a flower petal by using the controller's tilt sensor to navigate a sublime landscape.It was exhilarating, and for once, appreciated all the special realtime graphics effects that compensated for the absence of head tracking and stereoscopy, luxuries that was always expected from VR. The author concluded that health games is an exciting research area today. It's an opportunity to reuse what learned from decades of CG, VR, and digital game research, merge that with knowledge with other areas, and release new ideas into the world.     

The use of a computer tutorial as a replacement for human tuition in a mastery learning strategy

Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) is a traditional activity in tertiary education. Few available CAL programs exhibit user friendliness and most are complex simulation or modelling programs not primarily designed as instructional programs. Authoring languages are designed to enable teachers to write instructional programs without the need to learn computer languages. This investigation reports upon the use of a tutorial program written in the authoring language “STAF2” to replace human tuition as part of a mastery learning experience in undergraduate biology. A similar mastery learning experience, taught identically to both student groups served as a control. All learning was assessed cognitively in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and the results compared between the human-taught and STAF2-taught groups. All learning experiences resulted in the majority of students attaining mastery. The students taught by the STAF2 computer program attained significantly higher scores for retention of knowledge, its application and evaluation when compared with those taught by a human teacher. Whilst there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of comprehension, analysis and synthesis, the mean scores and the percentage of students attaining mastery after computer tuition was higher than the human taught group. The implications of these results are discussed.