“Solving” ambiguity in the virtual space: communication strategies in a collaborative virtual environment

Collaborative virtual environments (CVE) face the challenge of succeeding in incorporating critical dimensions of cooperation and communication in everyday working situations. One of these dimensions, situation ambiguity, is scarcely considered in studies on CVE although it can prove a key factor in future use of CVE in real work situations. Many computer-supported cooperative environments and telecommunication systems, like those currently used in telemedicine, would benefit from the incorporation of some degree of situation ambiguity allowing users to deploy their diagnostic and interpretive abilities. In the perspective adopted in this study, ambiguity is the contingent outcome of the ongoing interaction taking place between the environment and the interests of social actors. The research focuses on the cooperation within couples of participants facing situation ambiguity in a virtual environment: a simulated city named Babylon. Participants moved in the city through an avatar and could communicate in one of the following conditions: face-to-face, phone or chat. Their goal was that of meeting somewhere in the city, in a place that they did not know previously. Babylon contained elements designed to allow both production and detection of ambiguity. Ambiguity emerged when participants realized the presence of inconsistencies in the way they perceived the situations they had to face. The moments in which ambiguity was perceived—called “critical events” (CE)—were measured and described through qualitative (ethnographically oriented) methods. The different strategies that participants used to “solve” ambiguity were characterized as: looking for environmental cues, narrowing the focus of attention and investing on cooperation. Both CEs and strategies were analyzed with respect to the three communication conditions: face-to-face, phone and chat. All the communication conditions allowed the emergence of ambiguity and the negotiation of strategies to solve ambiguity between partners: according to literature, chat is very costly in terms of time spent on writing but this disadvantage did not block completely the emergence of ambiguity and the development of adequate strategies of solution. All navigations but three (on a total of 18 couples) succeeded: the partners did meet in a short time (less than 15 min) relying on their pragmatic resources in a new virtual place. Further research is required to clarify the possible factors influencing the choice of one strategy over the others, the order in which strategies follow each other and the role of leadership in ambiguity detection and solution.     

Exploring the social competence of students with autism spectrum conditions in a collaborative virtual learning environment – The pilot study

Social reciprocity deficits are a core feature of the autism spectrum conditions (ASCs). Many individual with ASCs have difficulty with social interaction due to a frequent lack of social competence. This study focuses on using a virtual learning environment to help the deficiencies of social competence for people with ASCs, and to increase their social interaction. Specifically, it primitively explores social competence in collaborative virtual learning environment (CVLE) systems, and behavioral performance in social and cognitive interactions. Thus, this CVLE-social interaction system involves a 3D expressive avatar, an animated social situation, and verbal as well as text-communication. A preliminary empirical study involved CVLE-social interaction systems. Three participants who had been diagnosed with ASCs were conducted using a multiple baseline research for evidence of improved social competence through usage of the system. The experimental study consisted of 17 days; and the results showed that using the CVLE-social interaction system had significant positive effects on participants’ performance, both within the CVLE-social interaction system and in terms of reciprocal social interaction learning.     

Mental rotation: a key to mitigation of motion sickness in the virtual environment?

Some of our recent observations suggest that mental rotation may be important for reduction of motion sickness in microgravity as well as in the microgravity simulator. Therefore, we suggest that development of the ability to perform mental rotation may be important for adaptation to many virtual environments. Training virtual environment operators to perform mental rotation may enhance operator performance both by increasing their ability to "locomote in" and manipulate that environment and by reducing motion sickness associated with transitions between virtual and normal environments.     

The development of VAG—a 3D virtual agribusiness environment and strategy game

VAG—a prototype animated, interactive, three-dimensional virtual environment model of a supply chain in the agribusiness sector has been developed as a CD-based game of strategy. Users (players) have to both create their supply chain by choosing the components that make it up, and then play the game in the role of the Manager of one of the components in it: the goal being to maximise the success of that component. Evaluation of the player’s business acumen and the ‘health’ of the particular component in the supply chain are calculated based on the information use and decision making that transpires. Animation and activated 3D graphics of decision making are trialled as a way of providing an immersive learning experience (the “Know How” rather than simply the “Know What”). This paper introduces VAG Version 1—the concept, the issues and the workarounds required to create this first version as a demonstration tool to enhance agribusiness education and research. A small sample qualitative evaluation of the demonstration model is included to provide some feedback to the future design and development of the concept. The future developmental opportunity for extending VAG into a massive multiplayer online game in true virtual reality is also briefly discussed as a way of extending “E” learning scenarios.     

The physiological mirror—a system for unconscious control of a virtual environment through physiological activity

This paper introduces a system for real-time physiological measurement, analysis, and metaphorical visualization within a virtual environment (VE). Our goal is to develop a method that allows humans to unconsciously relate to parts of an environment more strongly than to others, purely induced by their own physiological responses to the virtual reality (VR) displays. In particular, we exploit heart rate, respiration, and galvanic skin response in order to control the behavior of virtual characters in the VE. Such unconscious processes may become a useful tool for storytelling or assist guiding participants through a sequence of tasks in order to make the application more interesting, e.g., in rehabilitation. We claim that anchoring of subjective bodily states to a virtual reality (VR) can enhance a person’s sense of realism of the VR and ultimately create a stronger relationship between humans and the VR.     

Transfer of learning in virtual environments: a new challenge?

The aim of all education is to apply what we learn in different contexts and to recognise and extend this learning to new situations. Virtual learning environments can be used to build skills. Recent research in cognitive psychology and education has shown that acquisitions are linked to the initial context. This provides a challenge for virtual reality in education or training. A brief overview of transfer issues highlights five main ideas: (1) the type of transfer enables the virtual environment (VE) to be classified according to what is learned; (2) the transfer process can create conditions within the VE to facilitate transfer of learning; (3) specific features of VR must match and comply with transfer of learning; (4) transfer can be used to assess a VE’s effectiveness; and (5) future research on transfer of learning must examine the singular context of learning. This paper discusses how new perspectives in cognitive psychology influence and promote transfer of learning through the use of VEs.     

The impact of two different think-aloud instructions in a usability test: a case of just following orders?

The instructions used in think-aloud studies can range from a simple request to think-aloud, to an explicit instruction to include certain types of content. The present study compared two think-aloud instructions: the classic neutral think-aloud instruction and an explicit instruction requesting explanations and content that is relevant to the user experience. Data from task performance, mental workload, think-aloud protocols and usability problems were collected from 16 participants, equally distributed between the two think-aloud instruction conditions. No differences were found in task performance, however, participants in the explicit instruction condition reported higher mental workload and a focus on finding interface problems. The explicit instruction condition also yielded more utterances about the user experience, expectations and explanations of behaviour than the neutral condition. An analysis of the resultant usability problems revealed that the explicit instruction led to a larger number of dialogue, navigation, layout and functionality problems, but that the problems which were unique to this condition were, in the main, at a low level of severity.     

Demand characteristics in assessing motion sickness in a virtual environment: or does taking a motion sickness questionnaire make you sick?

The experience of motion sickness in a virtual environment may be measured through pre and postexperiment self-reported questionnaires such as the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Although research provides converging evidence that users of virtual environments can experience motion sickness, there have been no controlled studies to determine to what extent the user's subjective response is a demand characteristic resulting from pre and posttest measures. In this study, subjects were given either SSQ's both pre and postvirtual environment immersion, or only postimmersion. This technique tested for contrast effects due to demand characteristics in which administration of the questionnaire itself suggested to the participant that the virtual environment may produce motion sickness. Results indicate that reports of motion sickness after immersion in a virtual environment are much greater when both pre and postquestionnaires are given than when only a posttest questionnaire is used. The implications for assessments of motion sickness in virtual environments are discussed.     

Insights from surgeons’ eye-movement data in a virtual simulation surgical training environment: effect of experience level and hand conditions

Today, with the advancements in the eye-tracking technology, it has become possible to follow surgeons’ eye movements while performing surgical tasks. Despite the availability of studies providing a better understanding of surgeons’ eye movements, research in the particular field of endoneurosurgery is very limited. Analysing surgeons’ eye-movement data can provide general insights into how to improve surgical education programmes. In this study, four simulation-based task-oriented endoscopic surgery training scenarios were developed and implemented by 23 surgical residents using three different hand conditions; dominant, non-dominant, and both. The participants’ recorded eye data comprised fixation number, fixation duration, saccade number, saccade duration, pursuit number, pursuit duration, and pupil size. This study has two main contributions: First, it reports on the eye-movement behaviours of surgical residents, demonstrating that novice residents tended to make more fixations and saccades than intermediate residents. They also had a higher fixation duration and followed the objects more frequently compared to the intermediates. Furthermore, hand conditions significantly affected the eye movements of the participants. Based on these results, it can be concluded that eye-movement data can be used to assess the skill levels of surgical residents and would be an important measure to better guide trainees in surgical education programmes. The second contribution of this study is the eye-movement event classifications of 10 different algorithms. Although the algorithms mostly provided similar results, there were a few conflicted values for some classifications, which offers a clue as to how researchers can utilise these algorithms with low sampling frequency eye trackers.     

The digital agenda of virtual currencies: Can BitCoin become a global currency?

This paper identifies and analyzes BitCoin features which may facilitate BitCoin to become a global currency, as well as characteristics which may impede the use of BitCoin as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value, and compares BitCoin with standard currencies with respect to the main functions of money. Among all analyzed BitCoin features, the extreme price volatility stands out most clearly compared to standard currencies. In order to understand the reasons for such extreme price volatility, we attempt to identify drivers of BitCoin price formation and estimate their importance econometrically. We apply time-series analytical mechanisms to daily data for the 2009–2014 period. Our estimation results suggest that BitCoin attractiveness indicators are the strongest drivers of BitCoin price followed by market forces. In contrast, macro-financial developments do not determine BitCoin price in the long-run. Our findings suggest that as long as BitCoin price will be mainly driven by speculative investments, BitCoin will not be able to compete with standard currencies.     

“Turn that frown upside-down”: A contextual account of emoticon usage on different virtual platforms

Evidence highlights the prevalent usage of emoticons within digital forms of textual communication and the impact on the recipient. However, little evidence demonstrates the interpersonal functions for the user and whether this varies as a product of virtual platform. This formed the basis for the current study in which participants (N = 92) provided open-ended accounts of their reasons for using emoticons across three virtual platforms (email, text message, and social networking site), and their general emoticon usage across these. Responses revealed a number of themes on reasons for emoticon usage. The first was; “aiding personal expression”, with sub-themes of; “establishing emotional tone”; and “to lighten the mood”. Other themes were “reducing ambiguity of discourse” and “appropriateness of context”. Overall, there was consistency across platforms, on both the personal and interpersonal functions which emoticons served. However, some disparity was identified as email platforms were deemed inappropriate for emoticon use, regardless of the fact that emoticons were recognised as important emotional aids for communication. Taken together these findings highlight the importance of emoticon usage for the user, through a contextual lens to recognise the influential factors upon these behaviours and the implications this has for digital text-based communication. In this regard, this contributes further conceptualisation of one aspect of hyperpersonal communication within virtual interactions, and how different platforms may permit these self-presentational efforts to a greater or lesser extent.     

Evaluation of commercial brain–computer interfaces in real and virtual world environment: A pilot study

This paper identifies the user’s adaptation on brain-controlled systems and the ability to control brain-generated events in a closed neuro-feedback loop. The user experience is quantified for the further understanding of brain–computer interfacing. A working system has been developed based on off-the-shelf components for controlling a robot in both the real and virtual world. Using commercial brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) the overall cost, set up time and complexity can be reduced. The system is divided in two prototypes based on the headset type used. The first prototype is based on the Neurosky headset and it has been tested with 54 participants in a field study. The second prototype is based on the Emotiv headset including more sensors and accuracy, tested with 31 participants in a lab environment. Evaluation results indicate that robot navigation through commercial BCIs can be effective and natural both in the real and the virtual environment.     

An approach to providing a user of a “social folksonomy” with recommendations of similar users and potentially interesting resources

“Social folksonomies” can be regarded as new-generation folksonomies obtained by empowering classical folksonomies with some features typical of social networks. Currently, they represent the natural evolution of traditional folksonomies since the presence of social network features in them could lead to an enormous increase of their performance. In order to efficiently and effectively handle this kind of folksonomies, new approaches appear compulsory because the simple extension of the ones operating on classical folksonomies appears incapable of fully capturing the new potentials of these entities. In this paper, we first illustrate a new approach that fully exploits the “social” features of these folksonomies to provide a user with recommendations of similar users and resources. Then, we present some experiments devoted to measure its performance. Finally, we compare it with various related ones already proposed in the literature.     

The “up-and-down” method with a variable step in digital sampling conversion

The author proposes a method for reducing the errors of conversion and/or the number of strobings with using a variable step in the “up-and-down” method.     

Towards a parallel component in a GPU–CUDA environment: a case study with the L-BFGS Harwell routine

Modern graphics processing units (GPUs) have been at the leading edge of increasing parallelism over the last 10 years. This fact has encouraged the use of GPUs in a broader range of applications, where developers are required to lever age this technology with new programming models which ease the task of writing programs to run efficiently on GPUs. In this paper, we discuss the main guidelines to assist the developer when porting sequential scientific code on modern GPUs. These guidelines were carried out by porting the L-BFGS, the (Limited memory-) BFGS algorithm for large scale optimization, available as Harwell routine VA15. The specific interest in the L-BFGS algorithm arises from the fact that this is the computational module with the longest running time of a Oceanographic Data Assimilation application software, on which some of the authors are working.     

How do different types of intragroup conflict affect group potency in virtual compared with face-to-face teams? A longitudinal study

The number of organizations using teamwork is increasing. In this context, group potency has emerged as a key construct in group research. Moreover, in the last decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) have allowed organizations to form virtual teams. Consequently, a considerable amount of research has analysed the functioning of virtual teams. We focus on intragroup conflict as a relevant antecedent of potency in computer-mediated communication groups. Specifically, the aim of this research is to examine the role of ICT in the relationship between intragroup conflict and group potency in a longitudinal study. A laboratory experiment was carried out comparing 44 groups working in two communication media (face-to-face and computer-mediated communication). The groups developed a project over a one-month period. The results show that communication media play a moderator role between intragroup conflict (relationship and task conflict) and group potency. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Note to “Scheduling jobs and maintenances in flexible job shop with a hybrid genetic algorithm”

In this note, we show that there are some errors in the 0–1 integer programming model in recent paper [Scheduling jobs and maintenances in flexible job shop with a hybrid genetic algorithm 17 (2006) 493–507]. We point out these errors and correct them.