scholarly journals Learning and Building Together in an Immersive Virtual World

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Roussos ◽  
Andrew Johnson ◽  
Thomas Moher ◽  
Jason Leigh ◽  
Christina Vasilakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Informal Education ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Narrative Development ◽  
Collaborative Environments ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Approach To Learning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Immersive Virtual Environment

This paper describes the design, evaluation, and lessons learned from a project involving the implementation of an immersive virtual environment for children called NICE (Narrative-based, Immersive, Constructionist/Collaborative Environments). The goal of the NICE project was to construct a testbed for the exploration of virtual reality as a learning medium within the context of the primary educational reform themes of the past three decades. With a focus on informal education and domains with social content, NICE embraces the constructivist approach to learning, collaboration, and narrative development, and is designed to utilize the strengths of virtual reality: a combination of immersion, telepresence, immediate visual feedback, and interactivity. Based on our experiences with a broad range of users, the paper discusses both the successes and limitations of NICE and concludes with recommendations for research directions in the application of immersive VR technologies to children's learning.

scholarly journals A Review of Embedded Systems Education in the Arduino Age: Lessons Learned and Future Directions

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed El-Abd
Keyword(s):  
Embedded Systems ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Market Trends ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, the subject of embedded systems education in the Arduino age is examined. Arduino is an open-source microcontroller platform that has been widely popular in the past decade among hobbyists and academics. Arduino is increasingly being adopted in courses that span different disciplines in schools and universities. As a result, numerous papers are being published every year in different engineering education conferences and journals reporting the integration of Arduino in teaching. In this work, the impact of Arduino on embedded systems education is investigated. First, challenges facing embedded systems education are identified from the literature. Second, different Arduino teaching integration methodologies reported in the literature are surveyed and analyzed. Third, the question whether Arduino successfully addresses embedded education challenges or not is discussed taking both surveyed findings and recent market trends into consideration. Finally, a number of open-ended research directions are proposed.

scholarly journals Back to reality: transition techniques from short HMD-based virtual experiences to the physical world

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Horst ◽  
Ramtin Naraghi-Taghi-Off ◽  
Linda Rau ◽  
Ralf Dörner
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
User Study ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Common Presentation ◽  
Presentation Media ◽  
Virtual Experiences ◽  
Short Times

AbstractEvery Virtual Reality (VR) experience has to end at some point. While there already exist concepts to design transitions for users to enter a virtual world, their return from the physical world should be considered, as well, as it is a part of the overall VR experience. We call the latter outro-transitions. In contrast to offboarding of VR experiences, that takes place after taking off VR hardware (e.g., HMDs), outro-transitions are still part of the immersive experience. Such transitions occur more frequently when VR is experienced periodically and for only short times. One example where transition techniques are necessary is in an auditorium where the audience has individual VR headsets available, for example, in a presentation using PowerPoint slides together with brief VR experiences sprinkled between the slides. The audience must put on and take off HMDs frequently every time they switch from common presentation media to VR and back. In a such a one-to-many VR scenario, it is challenging for presenters to explore the process of multiple people coming back from the virtual to the physical world at once. Direct communication may be constrained while VR users are wearing an HMD. Presenters need a tool to indicate them to stop the VR session and switch back to the slide presentation. Virtual visual cues can help presenters or other external entities (e.g., automated/scripted events) to request VR users to end a VR session. Such transitions become part of the overall experience of the audience and thus must be considered. This paper explores visual cues as outro-transitions from a virtual world back to the physical world and their utility to enable presenters to request VR users to end a VR session. We propose and investigate eight transition techniques. We focus on their usage in short consecutive VR experiences and include both established and novel techniques. The transition techniques are evaluated within a user study to draw conclusions on the effects of outro-transitions on the overall experience and presence of participants. We also take into account how long an outro-transition may take and how comfortable our participants perceived the proposed techniques. The study points out that they preferred non-interactive outro-transitions over interactive ones, except for a transition that allowed VR users to communicate with presenters. Furthermore, we explore the presenter-VR user relation within a presentation scenario that uses short VR experiences. The study indicates involving presenters that can stop a VR session was not only negligible but preferred by our participants.

scholarly journals A Bibliometric Analysis of Human-Machine Interaction Methodology for Electric-Powered Wheelchairs Driving from 1998 to 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7567
Author(s):  
Xiaochen Zhang ◽  
Lanxin Hui ◽  
Linchao Wei ◽  
Fuchuan Song ◽  
Fei Hu
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Power Wheelchairs ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Machine Interaction

Electric power wheelchairs (EPWs) enhance the mobility capability of the elderly and the disabled, while the human-machine interaction (HMI) determines how well the human intention will be precisely delivered and how human-machine system cooperation will be efficiently conducted. A bibliometric quantitative analysis of 1154 publications related to this research field, published between 1998 and 2020, was conducted. We identified the development status, contributors, hot topics, and potential future research directions of this field. We believe that the combination of intelligence and humanization of an EPW HMI system based on human-machine collaboration is an emerging trend in EPW HMI methodology research. Particular attention should be paid to evaluating the applicability and benefits of the EPW HMI methodology for the users, as well as how much it contributes to society. This study offers researchers a comprehensive understanding of EPW HMI studies in the past 22 years and latest trends from the evolutionary footprints and forward-thinking insights regarding future research.

scholarly journals Reimagining School Nursing: Lessons Learned From a Virtual School Nurse

2021 ◽  
pp. 1942602X2199643
Author(s):  
Bill Marrapese ◽  
Jenny M. Gormley ◽  
Kristen Deschene
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
School Nurses ◽  
Virtual Schools ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Virtual School ◽  
School Nursing ◽  
Job Description ◽  
Brick And Mortar ◽  
Ongoing Support

The COVID-19 pandemic has required thousands of public schools to quickly adapt to hybrid or fully remote models. These new models have presented unprecedented challenges for school nurses as they learn how to optimize their interactions with parents and students to provide ongoing support and monitoring of health. The growing reliance on virtual and hybrid public education is also placing new demands on school nurses to be versed in telehealth and school physicians to support their work. Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School (GCVS) and other public virtual schools have been meeting these challenges for many years prior to the pandemic and have “lessons learned” to share with traditional “brick-and-mortar” nursing staff. GCVS students benefit from a climate that rewards collaboration between the health team, parents, teachers, and administrators, and this article will describe the role, job description, and other practices related to school nursing in a primarily virtual world.

Investigating a Virtual Reality-based Emergency Response Scenario and Intelligent User Interface for First Responders

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 2114-2118
Author(s):  
Randall Spain ◽  
Jason Saville ◽  
Barry Lui ◽  
Donia Slack ◽  
Edward Hill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
User Interface ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
User Interfaces ◽  
Mental Workload ◽  
First Responders ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Intelligent User Interfaces ◽  
Intelligent User Interface

Because advances in broadband capabilities will soon allow first responders to access and use many forms of data when responding to emergencies, it is becoming critically important to design heads-up displays to present first responders with information in a manner that does not induce extraneous mental workload or cause undue interaction errors. Virtual reality offers a unique medium for envisioning and testing user interface concepts in a realistic and controlled environment. In this paper, we describe a virtual reality-based emergency response scenario that was designed to support user experience research for evaluating the efficacy of intelligent user interfaces for firefighters. We describe the results of a usability test that captured firefighters’ feedback and reactions to the VR scenario and the prototype intelligent user interface that presented them with task critical information through the VR headset. The paper concludes with lessons learned from our development process and a discussion of plans for future research.

scholarly journals Epidemiology of childhood tuberculosis after ceasing universal Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccination

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayori Kobayashi ◽  
Takashi Yoshiyama ◽  
Kazuhiro Uchimura ◽  
Yuko Hamaguchi ◽  
Seiya Kato
Keyword(s):  
Policy Change ◽  
Vaccine Coverage ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Health Authority ◽  
Bacillus Calmette Guerin ◽  
Notification Rate ◽  
Bcg Vaccination ◽  
The Past ◽  
Childhood Tb ◽  
Selective Vaccination

AbstractUniversal Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination is recommended in countries with high tuberculosis (TB) burden. Nevertheless, several countries have ceased universal BCG vaccination over the past 40 years, with scarce comparative epidemiological analyses regarding childhood TB after the policy change. We analysed data on childhood TB in countries that ceased universal BCG vaccination. Data sources included national/international databases, published papers, annual TB reports, and public health authority websites. Childhood TB notification rate increased in one of seven countries with available data. Pulmonary TB and TB lymphadenitis were the main causes of increasing childhood cases, while changes in severe forms of TB cases were minor. Maintaining high vaccine coverage for the target group was a common challenge after shifting selective vaccination. In some countries showing no increase in childhood TB after a BCG policy change, the majority of childhood TB cases were patients from abroad or those with overseas parents; these countries had changed immigration policies during the same period. Heterogeneity in childhood TB epidemiology was observed after ceasing universal BCG vaccination; several factors might obscure the influence of vaccination policy change. Lessons learned from these countries may aid in the development of better BCG vaccination strategies.

scholarly journals Low-Asymmetry Interface for Multiuser VR Experiences with Both HMD and Non-HMD Users

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 397
Author(s):  
Qimeng Zhang ◽  
Ji-Su Ban ◽  
Mingyu Kim ◽  
Hae Won Byun ◽  
Chang-Hun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Mobile Device ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
User Study ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Head Mounted Display ◽  
And Behavior

We propose a low-asymmetry interface to improve the presence of non-head-mounted-display (non-HMD) users in shared virtual reality (VR) experiences with HMD users. The low-asymmetry interface ensures that the HMD and non-HMD users’ perception of the VR environment is almost similar. That is, the point-of-view asymmetry and behavior asymmetry between HMD and non-HMD users are reduced. Our system comprises a portable mobile device as a visual display to provide a changing PoV for the non-HMD user and a walking simulator as an in-place walking detection sensor to enable the same level of realistic and unrestricted physical-walking-based locomotion for all users. Because this allows non-HMD users to experience the same level of visualization and free movement as HMD users, both of them can engage as the main actors in movement scenarios. Our user study revealed that the low-asymmetry interface enables non-HMD users to feel a presence similar to that of the HMD users when performing equivalent locomotion tasks in a virtual environment. Furthermore, our system can enable one HMD user and multiple non-HMD users to participate together in a virtual world; moreover, our experiments show that the non-HMD user satisfaction increases with the number of non-HMD participants owing to increased presence and enjoyment.

scholarly journals Time Travel to the Past of Bosnia and Herzegovina through Virtual and Augmented Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3711
Author(s):  
Selma Rizvić ◽  
Dušanka Bošković ◽  
Vensada Okanović ◽  
Ivona Ivković Kihić ◽  
Irfan Prazina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Virtual Museum ◽  
The Past ◽  
Intangible Heritage ◽  
Physical Form ◽  
Virtual And Augmented Reality ◽  
Cultural Monuments

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) has a very picturesque past. Founded in 11th century, it has always been a crossroads of faiths and civilizations. Extended Reality (XR) technologies can finally take us to time travel into this history, enable us to experience past events and meet historical characters. In this paper, we overview the latest applications we developed that use Virtual Reality (VR) video, Virtual and Augmented Reality (AR) for interactive digital storytelling about BH history. “Nine dissidents” is the first BH VR documentary, tackling a still tricky subject of dissidents in the Socialist Yugoslavia, artists and writers falsely accused, persecuted and still forbidden. “Virtual Museum of Old Crafts” aims to present and preserve crafts intangible heritage through Virtual Reality. “Battle on Neretva VR” is recreating a famous WWII battle offering the users to experience it and meet comrade Tito, the commander of the Yugoslav Liberation Army. “Sarajevo 5D” shows the cultural monuments from Sarajevo that do not exist anymore in physical form using Augmented Reality. Through user experience studies, we measure the user immersion and edutainment of these applications and show the potential of XR for the presentation and preservation of cultural heritage.

scholarly journals The Clinical Utility of Virtual Reality in Neurorehabilitation: A Systematic Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 117957351881354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thais Massetti ◽  
Talita Dias da Silva ◽  
Tânia Brusque Crocetta ◽  
Regiani Guarnieri ◽  
Bruna Leal de Freitas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Clinical Utility ◽  
Spinal Cord Injuries ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
The Past ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
The Impact

Background: Virtual reality (VR) experiences (through games and virtual environments) are increasingly being used in physical, cognitive, and psychological interventions. However, the impact of VR as an approach to rehabilitation is not fully understood, and its advantages over traditional rehabilitation techniques are yet to be established. Method: We present a systematic review which was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). During February and March of 2018, we conducted searches on PubMed (Medline), Virtual Health Library Search Portal databases (BVS), Web of Science (WOS), and Embase for all VR-related publications in the past 4 years (2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018). The keywords used in the search were “neurorehabilitation” AND “Virtual Reality” AND “devices.” Results: We summarize the literature which highlights that a range of effective VR approaches are available. Studies identified were conducted with poststroke patients, patients with cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, and other pathologies. Healthy populations have been used in the development and testing of VR approaches meant to be used in the future by people with neurological disorders. A range of benefits were associated with VR interventions, including improvement in motor functions, greater community participation, and improved psychological and cognitive function. Conclusions: The results from this review provide support for the use of VR as part of a neurorehabilitation program in maximizing recovery.

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