Natural interaction in virtual TV sets through the synergistic operation of low-cost sensors

Universal Access in the Information Society - A virtual TV set combines images from the real world with a virtual environment in order to obtain images that give the impression of the real...     

MaDViWorld: a software framework for massively distributed virtual worlds

The MaDViWorld project represents an original attempt to define an appropriate software architecture for supporting massively distributed virtual world systems. A non‐massively distributed virtual world system is typically engineered as a client–server application for which a single server or more rarely a small cluster of servers contain all the world pertinent data and assume the world accessibility, consistency and persistence. On the client side, many of them enable interaction with the other users and the various objects of the world. The main originality of our approach resides in the fact that the server part of the proposed system is no more limited to a few centralized servers, but can be distributed on arbitrarily many of them. Indeed, MaDViWorld, the prototypal software framework already implemented using Java and RMI by our group, allows for creating the rooms of a given world on several machines, each running the server application. It is then possible to connect the rooms by way of simple doors and to populate them with active objects. Finally, avatars managed by the client application visit the rooms and interact with the active objects either directly on the remote host or locally by cloning or transporting them first to the client machine. This paper draws from the experience gained with the development of our first prototype in order to discuss, both at the user's and the vi‐world developer's level, the main software engineering issues related to the implementation of such massively distributed virtual world systems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Playing on a holo-stage: towards the interaction between real and virtual performers

This paper presents a number of ongoing projects that will be valuable to the development of technologies for digital theatre and performance. This paper describes an EU ACTS project called RESOLV which develops an integrated system to capture real 3D environments using laser and video. Current research on motion tracking, statistical behaviour modelling and simulation is presented, and possible applications, both for visual augmentation and audio generation, are discussed. The projects presented were not originally designed in the domain of theatre and performance, however their results and output seem to be well suited to be applied in this area.     

Extended impedance control using real and virtual sensors for redundant manipulators

Control of a redundant manipulator based on an impedance-control framework with multiple simultaneous control sources is described. Each control source provides a different behavior type. An application is decomposed into multiple simultaneous behaviors whose resultant behavior will provide the motion necessary to execute the task. The simultaneous control inputs are merged using impedance control to compute a resultant command to the manipulator. The task space of each behavior can have the dimensionality of the mechanism being controlled. Control of a seven-degree-of-freedom manipulator is described here with an available task space for each behavior of dimensionality seven.     

Dr. Jekyll vis-à-vis Mr. Hyde: Personality variation between virtual and real worlds

Organizations use virtual-worlds to enhance group discussion; it allows an individual to decouple his or her rendered from actual behavior; resulting in others perceiving him or her to have two or more personalities. Building on self-regulation theory, we examined how satisfaction in the virtual-world was affected by these personality differences. A field study was conducted to attempt to understand this; it involved 297 students engaged in a virtual tutorial group using Second Life. We found that small variations in personality between the virtual and real world groups (such as being helpful, sociable, seeking recognition, or submissive) could lead to greater satisfaction of the discussion.     

The influence of self-discrepancy between the virtual and real selves in virtual communities

Virtual communities enable one to pretend to be a different person or to possess a different self-identity at little or no cost. Despite the ubiquity of such communities, there is limited theoretical and empirical research regarding the effect of taking on a different self-identity associated with one’s psychological and behavioral functioning in those communities. To address this issue, drawing on the self-concept rooted in sociopsychology, this study employs the self-discrepancy index, which assesses the degree of differences between one’s virtual and real selves; the study goes onto develop a theoretical framework that links self-discrepancy, psychological states (i.e., autonomy, recovery, and catharsis), and behavior (i.e., contribution quality and quantity). The results of an analysis involving 299 survey participants show that self-discrepancy has a significant influence on autonomy and recovery and that this, in turn, influences levels of contribution quality and quantity. It is of note that the results of this study indicate that catharsis is inversely related to contribution quality. Furthermore, subgroup analysis reveals that the effects of self-discrepancy on contribution vary depending on whether the virtual community is utilitarian or hedonic.     

The interaction of the market competition between LCD TV and PDP TV

The size of CRT TV has always been limited by their bulk. However, the introduction of flat plane display TV has led to much larger screens, new rounds of technological innovation, largescale investment and an increasing share of the consumer market. Moreover, this development has spurred competition for market share between LCD TV and PDP TV.This study intends to investigate the dynamic competitive relationship between PDP TV and LCD TV by means of the quarterly shipment of TV. The Lotka–Volterra competition diffusion model has been adopted to conduct the empirical analysis, with the Lyapunov function used to carry out equilibrium and stability analysis. The result illustrates that there is good fitting performance in adopting this model. In the competitive relationship we can regard the LCD TV as a prey and the PDP TV as the predator. Nevertheless, the possibility of dropping the price of LCD TV is an advantage, which can be noted in the higher growth rate compared to PDP TV. With respect to the equilibrium and stability analysis, 30- to 39-in. and 40- to 49-in. PDP TV will not disappear from the market, but will instead reach stable equilibrium with LCD TV.     

Study of a distributed control architecture for a quadruped robot

Looking at legged robots, it is sometimes very important to take into account some of the practical aspects (when focusing on theoretical ones) in order to implement control-command levels.In this way, we have treated the problem of the realization of dynamic or quasi-dynamic gaits with a quadruped robot using a new approach from which we have derived an efficient control/command scheme. This is based on a simple consideration which lies in the fact that the Dynamic Model (DM) can be decomposed into two main parts. From our point of view, we consider a part devoted to the command of the legs which could be called a Leg Inverse Dynamic Model (LIDM). We consider a second part dealing with the global characteristics of the platform. At this level, one can control the system. It will be called the LPIM (Leg to Platform Interaction Model).This goal is reached assuming a dichotomy in a distributed architecture and by the way we present it. Further justification of our method will be given in several stages throughout the paper. We paid great attention to time-saving considerations with respect to communication protocols and data exchange at the same level and between the three levels we derived from our basic investigations.     

Comparison of spatial orientation skill between real and virtual environment

Virtual Reality - Virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool and is increasingly used in many different fields, in which virtual walking can be generalized through detailed modeling of the physical...     

A distributed implementation of a virtual machine for Java

The cluster virtual machine (VM) for Java provides a single system image of a traditional Java Virtual Machine (JVM) while executing in a distributed fashion on the nodes of a cluster. The cluster VM for Java virtualizes the cluster, supporting any pure Java application without requiring that application be tailored specifically for it. The aim of our cluster VM is to obtain improved scalability for a class of Java Server Applications by distributing the application's work among the cluster's computing resources. The implementation of the cluster VM for Java is based on a novel object model which distinguishes between an application's view of an object (e.g. every object is a unique data structure) and its implementation (e.g. objects may have consistent replications on different nodes). This enables us to exploit knowledge on the use of individual objects to improve performance (e.g. using object replications to increase locality of access to objects). We have already completed a prototype that runs pure Java applications on a cluster of NT workstations connected by a Myrinet fast switch. The prototype provides a single system image to applications, distributing the application's threads and objects over the cluster. We used the cluster VM to run, without change, a real Java Server Application containing over 10 Kloc

1 Kloc means Kilo lines of code—used to describe the size of applications in terms of source lines count.

for the source code and achieved high scalability for it on a cluster. We also achieved linear speedup for another application with a large number of independent threads. This paper discusses the architecture and implementation of the cluster VM. It focuses on achieving a single system image for a traditional JVM on a cluster while describing, in short, how we aim to obtain scalability. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of a master-slave architecture for distributed evolutionary computations.

This paper introduces a new mathematical model of the master-slave architecture for distributed evolutionary computations (EC). This model is validated using a concrete implementation based on the Distributed BEAGLE C++ framework. Results show that contrary to (current) popular belief, master-slave architectures are able to scale well over local area networks of workstations using off-the-shelf networking equipment. The main properties of the master-slave are also compared with those of the more mainstream island-model.     

A geospatial technique for detecting distance and Reflection Angle between real and virtual objects

This paper presents a geospatial collision detection technique consisting of two methods: Find Object Distance (FOD) and Find Reflection Angle (FRA). We show how the geospatial collision detection technique using a computer vision system detects a computer generated virtual object and a real object manipulated by a human user and how the virtual object can be reflected on a real floor after being detected by a real object. In the geospatial collision detection technique, the FOD method detects the real and virtual objects, and the FRA method predicts the next moving directions of virtual objects. We demonstrate the two methods by implementing a floor based Augmented Reality (AR) game, Ting Ting, which is played by bouncing fire-shaped virtual objects projected on a floor using bamboo-shaped real objects. The results reveal that the FOD and the FRA methods of the geospatial collision detection technique enable the smooth interaction between a real object manipulated by a human user and a virtual object controlled by a computer. The proposed technique is expected to be used in various AR applications as a low cost interactive collision detection engine such as in educational materials, interactive contents including games, and entertainment equipments. Keywords: Augmented reality, collision detection, computer vision, game, human computer interaction, image processing, interfaces.     

A simple model and a distributed architecture for realizing one-stop e-government

In this paper, we propose a generic model for one-stop e-government and a distributed architecture for its implementation. The model follows a very basic paradigm: the public administration is composed of an unstructured network of entities that upload and download information objects to/from each other and to/from service repositories in order to deliver client-centered services. The architecture is based on widely available technologies such as HTTP, SSL, XML and PKI and it supports the implementation of life events, single access points, concurrent providers and integrated delivery channels. We argue that the proposed architecture permits the interconnection of almost any kind of government body and that it establishes a common ground upon which new standardization levels can be built. As a starting point, we also define a set of general requirements for one-stop e-government.     

Design and verification of a lightweight reliable virtual machine monitor for a many-core architecture

Virtual machine monitors (VMMs) play a central role in cloud computing. Their reliability and availability are critical for cloud computing. Virtualization and device emulation make the VMM code base large and the interface between OS and VMM complex. This results in a code base that is very hard to verify the security of the VMM. For example, a misuse of a VMM hyper-call by a malicious guest OS can corrupt the whole VMM. The complexity of the VMM also makes it hard to formally verify the correctness of the system’s behavior. In this paper a new VMM, operating system virtualization (OSV), is proposed. The multiprocessor boot interface and memory configuration interface are virtualized in OSV at boot time in the Linux kernel. After booting, only inter-processor interrupt operations are intercepted by OSV, which makes the interface between OSV and OS simple. The interface is verified using formal model checking, which ensures a malicious OS cannot attack OSV through the interface. Currently, OSV is implemented based on the AMD Opteron multi-core server architecture. Evaluation results show that Linux running on OSV has a similar performance to native Linux. OSV has a performance improvement of 4%–13% over Xen.     

Control of a phosphate processing plant via a synergistic architecture for adaptive,intelligent control

The field of computational intelligence (CI) is primarily concerned with the development of computer systems that are capable of adapting to and exploiting information about their environments, much like organisms in natural systems are capable of doing. It is no coincidence therefore, that the field of CI relies heavily on computer techniques patterned after natural systems. Many of these techniques including neural networks, genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic have demonstrated their utility in solving problems independent of other methods. However, as the systems we seek to control, design, and improve become increasingly complex, it is unlikely that any single CI technique will prove to be adequate. This paper describes an architecture combining the three CI techniques listed above that can be used to produce process control systems suitable for effectively manipulating complex engineering systems characterized by relatively slow process dynamics. Implementation of the architecture results in a level-two intelligent control system. The effectiveness of the level-two intelligent controller is demonstrated via application to an operating phosphate processing plant.     

Design and development of a maintenance and virtual training system for ancient Chinese architecture

Ancient Chinese architecture is an important aspect of traditional Chinese culture and has been studied by many scholars around the world via historical documents, photographs, and three-dimensional models. In this paper, a building information model (BIM) and virtual reality (VR) and video analysing technology are used to develop a maintenance and virtual training system for ancient architecture. A digital ancient architecture model that includes a three-dimensional model and attributes is established, and the model can be visualized using a VR video processing system. Based on this system, we propose a method of fire detection in the maintenance system to ensure the safety of ancient buildings. After performing lightweight processing of the three-dimensional model, the Forge platform, which can achieve high-speed browsing via Web browsers, is used to perform the virtual construction, dismantling and other functions. By providing an immersive experience, users will develop a deeper understanding of ancient architectural structures and construction processes, which will accelerate research on ancient architecture.     

Exploring relationships between students’ interaction and learning with a haptic virtual biomolecular model

This study explores tertiary students’ interaction with a haptic virtual model representing the specific binding of two biomolecules, a core concept in molecular life science education. Twenty students assigned to a haptics (experimental) or no-haptics (control) condition performed a “docking” task where users sought the most favourable position between a ligand and protein molecule, while students’ interactions with the model were logged. Improvement in students’ understanding of biomolecular binding was previously measured by comparing written responses to a target conceptual question before and after interaction with the model. A log-profiling tool visualized students’ movement of the ligand molecule during the docking task. Multivariate parallel coordinate analyses explored any relationships in the entire student data set. The haptics group produced a tighter constellation of collected final docked ligand positions in comparison with no-haptics students, coupled to docking profiles that depicted a more fine-tuned ligand traversal. Students in the no-haptics condition employed double the amount of interactive behaviours concerned with switching between different visual chemical representations offered by the model. In the no-haptics group, this visually intense processing was synonymous with erroneously ‘fitting’ the ligand closer distances to the protein surface. Students who showed higher learning gains tended to engage fewer visual representational switches, and were from the haptics group, while students with a higher spatial ability also engaged fewer visual representational switches, irrespective of assigned condition. From an information-processing standpoint, visual and haptic coordination may offload the visual pathway by placing less strain on visual working memory. From an embodied cognition perspective, visual and tactile sensorimotor interactions in the macroworld may provide access to constructing knowledge about submicroscopic phenomena. The results have cognitive and practical implications for the use of multimodal virtual reality technologies in educational contexts.     

Object-attribute architecture for design and modeling of distributed automation systems

The application of the object-attribute (OA) architecture of computing environment to implementation of distributed automation systems with computational nodes (computers or PLCs) of different hardware architectures is described. The features of OA modeling of distributed automation tools and the main techniques for modeling, programming, and debugging of such systems are shown.     

A microservice-based architecture for enhancing the user experience in cross-device distributed mashup UIs with multiple forms of interaction

Universal Access in the Information Society - Mobility and continuous connection entail the emergence of heterogeneous devices with multiple forms of interaction. However, it is challenging for...     

Performance of a skilled motor task in virtual and real environments

Three experiments compared the performances of adult participants (three groups of 10) on a perceptuo-motor task in both real world (RW) and virtual environments (VEs). The task involved passing a hoop over a bent wire course, and three versions of the task were used: a 3-D wire course with no background, a flattened version of the 3-D course (2½-D course) with no background, and the 2½-D course with added background to provide spatial context. In all three experiments the participants had to prevent the hoop from touching the wire as they moved it. In the first experiment, the VE condition produced about 18 times more errors than the RW task. The VE 2½-D task was found to be as difficult as the 3-D, and the 2½-D with the added background produced more errors than the other two experiments. Taken together, the experiments demonstrate the difficulty of performing fine motor tasks in VEs, a phenomenon that has not been given due attention in many previous studies of motor control in VEs.