scholarly journals Mixed Reality (XR) research and practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-42
Author(s):  
Claudio Aguayo

Up until recently, learning affordances (possibilities) offered by immersive digital technology in education, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), were addressed and considered in isolation in educational practice. In the past five to ten years this has shifted towards a focus on integrating digital affordances around particular learning contexts and/or settings, creating a mixed reality (MR) ‘continuum’ of digital experiences based on the combination of different technologies, tools, platforms and affordances. This idea of a ‘digital continuum’ was first proposed during the mid 1990s by Milgram and Kishino (1994), conceptualised as an immersive continuum going from the real environment (RE) end, where no digital immersion exists in the real world, all the way to the fully digitally immersive VR end, where digital immersion is at its full.   Recent literature expands the original digital continuum view – rooted in Milgram and Kishino (1994), to now consider MR environments extending to a multi-variety of sensorial dimensions, technological tools and networked intelligent platforms, and embodied user engagement modes, creating interconnected learning ecosystems and modes of perception (see for example Mann et al., 2018; and Speicher, Hall & Nebeling, 2019). This new approach to MR is referred to as XR, where the X generally stands for ‘extended reality’ (referring to all the points along the MR continuum and beyond), or for ‘anything reality’ (accounting for the range of existing immersive technologies and denoting the imminently yet-to-come new digital affordances). XR as a multi-dimensional immersive learning environment can be approached and understood as a dynamic and culturally-responsive ‘medium’, offering targeted, flexible and adaptable user experiences coming from user-centric learning design strategies and pedagogy (Aguayo, Eames & Cochrane, 2020).   Today, XR as an emergent learning approach in education invites us to re-conceptualise technology-enhanced learning from a completely different epistemological stand. We have moved from focusing on the individual and isolated use of immersive digital technology like AR and VR as ‘learning tools’ that can enhance and augment learning experiences and outcomes in education; to now going beyond hardware and software and consider perception, cognition, aesthetics, emotions, haptics, embodiment, contexts (space), situations (time), and culture, among others, as critical components of a purposefully designed XR learning ecosystem (Aguayo et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2017; Maas & Hughes, 2020). Imagine the educational possibilities when artificial intelligence (AI) learning algorithms connected to internet of things (IoT) devices come into play with XR in education (Cowling & Birt, 2020; Davies, 2021).   The challenge remains in knowing how to ground such epistemological and technological innovation into authentic, contextual, and tangible practice, while facilitating the balancing with non-technology mediated lived experiences in the real world (i.e. real reality (RR), Aguayo, 2017). Here, a set of XR research and practice case studies from Auckland University of Technology’s AppLab are presented to showcase and discuss how XR as a new paradigm is leading the exploration of digital innovation in education.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-242
Author(s):  
Siyuan Chen ◽  
Minchen Wei

Color appearance models have been extensively studied for characterizing and predicting the perceived color appearance of physical color stimuli under different viewing conditions. These stimuli are either surface colors reflecting illumination or self-luminous emitting radiations. With the rapid development of augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), it is critically important to understand how the color appearance of the objects that are produced by AR and MR are perceived, especially when these objects are overlaid on the real world. In this study, nine lighting conditions, with different correlated color temperature (CCT) levels and light levels, were created in a real-world environment. Under each lighting condition, human observers adjusted the color appearance of a virtual stimulus, which was overlaid on a real-world luminous environment, until it appeared the whitest. It was found that the CCT and light level of the real-world environment significantly affected the color appearance of the white stimulus, especially when the light level was high. Moreover, a lower degree of chromatic adaptation was found for viewing the virtual stimulus that was overlaid on the real world.


Author(s):  
Mark S. Massa

This chapter presents an examination of the thoughts and writings of Lisa Sowle Cahill, a moral theologian at Boston College. Taking issue with both Germain Grisez and Jean Porter, Cahill seeks to construct a new paradigm of natural law that addresses feminist and poststructural scholars. Cahill believed that any paradigm of intercultural or interreligious ethics that purported to be describing moral duties in the real world must begin by exploring how ethical questions are intimately tied to the concrete experiences in specific (often religiously diverse) communities. Her paradigm addressed the concerns of feminist and postimperialist scholars in moving beyond the “false universalism” offered by paradigms like that of neo-scholasticism, while offering a “realist” understanding of social ethics that remained true to the realist impulses in Catholic moral theology.


AKSEN ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Andrey Caesar Effendi ◽  
LMF Purwanto

The use of digital technology today can be said to be inseparable in our daily lives. Digital technology isslowly changing the way we communicate with others and the environment. Socialization that is usuallyface-to-face in the real world now can be done to not having to meet face-to-face in cyberspace. Thisliterature review aims to see a change in the way of obtaining data that is growing, with the use of digitaltechnology in ethnographic methods. The method used in this paper is to use descriptive qualitativeresearch methods by analyzing the existing literature. So it can be concluded that the use of digitalethnography in the architectural programming process can be a new way of searching for data at thearchitectural programming stage.


2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger K. C. Tan ◽  
Adrian David Cheok ◽  
James K. S. Teh

For better or worse, technological advancement has changed the world to the extent that at a professional level demands from the working executive required more hours either in the office or on business trips, on a social level the population (especially the younger generation) are glued to the computer either playing video games or surfing the internet. Traditional leisure activities, especially interaction with pets have been neglected or forgotten. This paper introduces Metazoa Ludens, a new computer mediated gaming system which allows pets to play new mixed reality computer games with humans via custom built technologies and applications. During the game-play the real pet chases after a physical movable bait in the real world within a predefined area; infra-red camera tracks the pets' movements and translates them into the virtual world of the system, corresponding them to the movement of a virtual pet avatar running after a virtual human avatar. The human player plays the game by controlling the human avatar's movements in the virtual world, this in turn relates to the movements of the physical movable bait in the real world which moves as the human avatar does. This unique way of playing computer game would give rise to a whole new way of mixed reality interaction between the pet owner and her pet thereby bringing technology and its influence on leisure and social activities to the next level


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 475
Author(s):  
María Diez Ojeda ◽  
Miguel Ángel Queiruga-Dios ◽  
Noelia Velasco-Pérez ◽  
Emilia López-Iñesta ◽  
José Benito Vázquez-Dorrío

At a key moment when education systems are moving towards the development of 21st-century skills at school, we propose to develop them with a series of enquiry activities connected to the real world on the subject of Chemistry in Compulsory Secondary Education. The four selected topics have practical aspects, as they are related to industrial chemistry, and are proposed in educational practice using the 5E model. The results obtained in a pilot test with 22 students show that the context created facilitates the development of 21st century competences. It is understood that this novel proposal can be successfully employed in other contexts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Sclater

The research presented in this article strives to answer the question: how do we educate for sustainability? I have provided evidence that arts-based educational research methods and major cultural resources provide very rich learning experiences that extend across disciplinary boundaries and can be crafted into pedagogical practices that help orientate learners of all levels to issues of sustainability. The article addresses the challenge of developing pedagogies for socio-ecological sustainability across disciplines in higher education. I present three kinds of conceptual resources in support of this project: theoretical influences that provide a range of lenses through which I can focus on my research concerns and pedagogical developments; methodological innovations – the use of the Dérive combined with a narrative record; and real-world aesthetic resources derived from gallery visits, an architectural exploration and interactive, scientific visits to major botanical gardens in Europe. I also briefly outline the importance of research resources derived from my own interdisciplinary work in virtual worlds - technology enhanced learning (TEL). These resources have led to a fusion of ideas from my own empirical research and personal experiences and observations in the real world. The most significant outcome of my Dérive experiences is a reminder of the power of aesthetic and emotional responses in learning activities. The blending of digital and analogue conceptual resources has synergised my thinking about pedagogies of sustainability, and increased my understanding of the importance of engagement with the real world, the role of emotion in learning and the power of experiential learning. I argue that personal and collective responses to artwork can act synergistically, and that community learning and individual learning are linked in informal settings, as evidenced by the Dérives presented in this article.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-10
Author(s):  
Rehan Ahmed Khan

In the field of surgery, major changes that have occurred include the advent of minimally invasive surgery and the realization of the importance of the ‘systems’ in the surgical care of the patient (Pierorazio & Allaf, 2009). Challenges in surgical training are two-fold: (i) to train the surgical residents to manage a patient clinically (ii) to train them in operative skills (Singh & Darzi,2013). In Pakistan, another issue with surgical training is that we have the shortest duration of surgical training in general surgery of four years only, compared to six to eight years in Europe and America (Zafar & Rana, 2013). Along with it, the smaller number of patients to surgical residents’ ratio is also an issue in surgical training. This warrants formal training outside the operation room. It has been reported by many authors that changes are required in the current surgical training system due to the significant deficiencies in the graduating surgeon (Carlsen et al., 2014; Jarman et al., 2009; Parsons, Blencowe, Hollowood, & Grant, 2011). Considering surgical training, it is imperative that a surgeon is competent in clinical management and operative skills at the end of the surgical training. To achieve this outcome in this challenging scenario, a resident surgeon should be provided with the opportunities of training outside the operation theatre, before s/he can perform procedures on a real patient. The need for this training was felt more when the Institute of Medicine in the USA published a report, ‘To Err is Human’ (Stelfox, Palmisani, Scurlock, Orav, & Bates, 2006), with an aim to reduce medical errors. This is required for better training and objective assessment of the surgical residents. The options for this training include but are not limited to the use of mannequins, virtual patients, virtual simulators, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Simulation is a technique to substitute or add to real experiences with guided ones, often immersive in nature, that reproduce substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive way. Mannequins, virtual simulators are in use for a long time now. They are available in low fidelity to high fidelity mannequins and virtual simulators and help residents understand the surgical anatomy, operative site and practice their skills. Virtual patients can be discussed with students in a simple format of the text, pictures, and videos as case files available online, or in the form of customized software applications based on algorithms. In a study done by Courtielle et al, they reported that knowledge retention is increased in residents when it is delivered through virtual patients as compared to lecturing (Courteille et al., 2018).But learning the skills component requires hands-on practice. This gap can be bridged with virtual, augmented, or mixed reality. There are three types of virtual reality (VR) technologies: (i) non-immersive, (ii) semi-immersive, and (iii) fully immersive. Non-immersive (VR) involves the use of software and computers. In semi-immersive and immersive VR, the virtual image is presented through the head-mounted display(HMD), the difference being that in the fully immersive type, the virtual image is completely obscured from the actual world. Using handheld devices with haptic feedback the trainee can perform a procedure in the virtual environment (Douglas, Wilke, Gibson, Petricoin, & Liotta, 2017). Augmented reality (AR) can be divided into complete AR or mixed reality (MR). Through AR and MR, a trainee can see a virtual and a real-world image at the same time, making it easy for the supervisor to explain the steps of the surgery. Similar to VR, in AR and MR the user wears an HMD that shows both images. In AR, the virtual image is transparent whereas, in MR, it appears solid (Douglas et al., 2017). Virtual augmented and mixed reality has more potential to train surgeons as they provide fidelity very close to the real situation and require fewer physical resources and space compared to the simulators. But they are costlier, and affordability is an issue. To overcome this, low-cost solutions to virtual reality have been developed. It is high time that we also start thinking on the same lines and develop this means of training our surgeons at an affordable cost.


Envigogika ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bohuslav Binka ◽  
Jan Činčera ◽  
Martin Černý

The paper analysis how the Schwartz’ theory of universal values promoted in the Real World Learning Model might be applied in educational practice. In its first part it introduces the Schwartz’ theory and its basic assumptions. In the second part it presents its critical reflection based on works of Pareto and Sorel. As they argue, the theory is too “optimistic” as it does not presuppose the ability of value of power to “mask” itself for other values. On the basis of this criticism, the paper discusses possible risks of non-reflected effort to force values of univerzalism or benevolence in education by the means of power discourse, and recommends an open self-reflection of a teacher as a prevention of such a risk.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Regan Petrie

<p>Early, intense practice of functional, repetitive rehabilitation interventions has shown positive results towards lower-limb recovery for stroke patients. However, long-term engagement in daily physical activity is necessary to maximise the physical and cognitive benefits of rehabilitation. The mundane, repetitive nature of traditional physiotherapy interventions and other personal, environmental and physical elements create barriers to participation. It is well documented that stroke patients engage in as little as 30% of their rehabilitation therapies. Digital gamified systems have shown positive results towards addressing these barriers of engagement in rehabilitation, but there is a lack of low-cost commercially available systems that are designed and personalised for home use. At the same time, emerging mixed reality technologies offer the ability to seamlessly integrate digital objects into the real world, generating an immersive, unique virtual world that leverages the physicality of the real world for a personalised, engaging experience.  This thesis explored how the design of an augmented reality exergame can facilitate engagement in independent lower-limb stroke rehabilitation. Our system converted prescribed exercises into active gameplay using commercially available augmented reality mobile technology. Such a system introduced an engaging, interactive alternative to existing mundane physiotherapy exercises.  The development of the system was based on a user-centered iterative design process. The involvement of health care professionals and stroke patients throughout each stage of the design and development process helped understand users’ needs, requirements and environment to refine the system and ensure its validity as a substitute for traditional rehabilitation interventions.  The final output was an augmented reality exergame that progressively facilitates sit-to-stand exercises by offering immersive interactions with digital exotic wildlife. We hypothesize that the immersive, active nature of a mobile, mixed reality exergame will increase engagement in independent task training for lower-limb rehabilitation.</p>


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