scholarly journals Exploiting Textured 3D Models for Developing Serious Games

Author(s):  
G. Kontogianni ◽  
A. Georgopoulos

Digital technologies have affected significantly many fields of computer graphics such as Games and especially the field of the Serious Games. These games are usually used for educational proposes in many fields such as Health Care, Military applications, Education, Government etc. Especially Digital Cultural Heritage is a scientific area that Serious Games are applied and lately many applications appear in the related literature. Realistic 3D textured models which have been produced using different photogrammetric methods could be a useful tool for the creation of Serious Game applications in order to make the final result more realistic and close to the reality. The basic goal of this paper is how 3D textured models which are produced by photogrammetric methods can be useful for developing a more realistic environment of a Serious Game. The application of this project aims at the creation of an educational game for the Ancient Agora of Athens. The 3D models used vary not only as far as their production methods (i.e. Time of Flight laser scanner, Structure from Motion, Virtual historical reconstruction etc.) is concerned, but also as far as their era as some of them illustrated according to their existing situation and some others according to how these monuments looked like in the past. The Unity 3D<sup>®</sup> game developing environment was used for creating this application, in which all these models were inserted in the same file format. For the application two diachronic virtual tours of the Athenian Agora were produced. The first one illustrates the Agora as it is today and the second one at the 2nd century A.D. Finally the future perspective for the evolution of this game is presented which includes the addition of some questions that the user will be able to answer. Finally an evaluation is scheduled to be performed at the end of the project.

ACTA IMEKO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Valeria Croce ◽  
Gabriella Caroti ◽  
Andrea Piemonte ◽  
Marco Giorgio Bevilacqua

The digitization of Cultural Heritage paves the way for new approaches to surveying and restitution of historical sites. With a view to the management of integrated programs of documentation and conservation, the research is now focusing on the creation of information systems where to link the digital representation of a building to semantic knowledge. With reference to the emblematic case study of the Calci Charterhouse, also known as Pisa Charterhouse, this contribution illustrates an approach to be followed in the transition from 3D survey information, derived from laser scanner and photogrammetric techniques, to the creation of semantically enriched 3D models. The proposed approach is based on the recognition -segmentation and classification- of elements on the original raw point cloud, and on the manual mapping of NURBS elements on it. For this shape recognition process, reference to architectural treatises and vocabularies of classical architecture is a key step. The created building components are finally imported in a H-BIM environment, where they are enriched with semantic information related to historical knowledge, documentary sources and restoration activities.


Author(s):  
C. Meftah ◽  
A. Retbi ◽  
S. Bennani ◽  
M. Khalidi Idrissi

Abstract. The principle of gamification is very simple: it is a matter of using the game or its principles to facilitate learning. In our case, we are talking about mobile serious games (MSG), and more specifically the creation of scenarios to succeed this MSG. We present you the vision of our Easy course pack. This pack consists of several MSGs. Easy html is one of them. Nevertheless, we present some ideas about the scenarios, personalities and emotions that have impacted the development of MSG Easy html. Especially the importance of the 1st scenario which reflects the image of the game vis-à-vis the learner, the location of the trainer who passes the information via MSG and the developer who must ensure the ergonomics of the game and the correct and implicit passage of the educational information. this study gives as result an MSG which treats and explains all the tags of the HMTL language and certifies the learner at the end of the course.


Author(s):  
A. Zerbi ◽  
S. Mikolajewska

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Although this is not always the common practice, the survey should be an essential preliminary stage to any operation of restoration, enhancement and promotion of cultural heritage. Today, various surveying techniques make it possible to collect large amounts of data quickly and to provide a complete three-dimensional representation of extremely complex artefacts. In fact, 3D models allow a much richer description than traditional 2D representations. However, these survey techniques (laser scanner and photogrammetry above all) necessarily imply that the data that must be elaborated during the processing phase increase dramatically. It is therefore essential to identify methods and workflows that allow to find a compromise between the richness and completeness of the survey data and the problems inherent in the costs and times of execution of the modelling operations. The problem is further heightened by the fact that the importance of historical monumental architecture inevitably requires the use of different techniques integrated with each other, the production of documentation at different scales with different levels of detail and the creation of a 3D model that has the ability to be used for different purposes. This paper describes the survey of one of the most important medieval monuments in northern Italy, the Parma Baptistery, with a special focus on the phase of data restitution. The integrated survey campaigns conducted in recent years have aimed to describe the building in its totality: from the scale of the architecture to the detail, passing through the description of the pictorial cycle that characterizes the interior. This case study represents a moment of reflection, at least for those who wrote it, on the validity of the methods and techniques to be used for the creation of a complete 3D model of a complex historical monument.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 590-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Minaroviech

During the years 2013-2016 a great number of buildings (medieval castles, churches and other monuments) in Slovakia were digitized. STUDIO 727 was the main provider of these digitalization works. The subject of our investigation was the most significant Slovakian historical objects. Within the digitalization project we have created 3D models of the most important Slovakian monuments, as e.g. Bojnice castle, gothic church in Spišský Štvrtok or Devin castle, where there are also artifacts from Roman period, La Tène era and Middle Ages. The aim of the project was to identify current technological possibilities for the creation of virtual presentations of real spaces. During the creation of the 3D models we used a combination of Photogrammetry and 3D space scanning by laser scanner LIDAR (Leica brand). Final modification of laser outputs was made using Cyclone software. Post processing was done with Capture Reality, Autodesk Maya and MeshLab software. 2D documentation was made using AutoCAD. The purpose of documentation was to capture the appearance of historical buildings and historical building technologies, to keep culture heritage for next generation. Some monuments, which have been falling apart progressively, were documented. The documentation created will contribute to culture heritage publicity and provides documentation for the future renovation of these particular monuments. The Entry of this project was the process of creating 3D virtual models and 2D documentation. Contribution was created thanks to EU project, within the Operational program Informatization of society. Project was supported by The Ministry of Culture of Slovak Republic and Government Office of Slovak Republic.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Ingrid Luana Almeida Da Silva ◽  
Deynne A Silva ◽  
Ronei M. Moraes ◽  
Liliane S. Machado

Serious Games são uma categoria especial de jogos que possuem um propósito que vai além da diversão, e por isso podem ser utilizados para promover propaganda, conscientização, ensino e treinamento. O GeoplanoPEC e o GeoplanoMob são serious games educacionais, baseados nas atividades realizadas em um tabuleiro chamado Geoplano, desenvolvidos pelo Laboratório de Tecnologias para o Ensino Virtual e Estatística (LabTEVE) da UFPB. Esses serious games buscam apoiar o aprendizado de geometria plana e o GeoplanoPEC foi desenvolvido considerando as configurações dos computadores das escolas públicas da Paraíba, enquanto que o GeoplanoMob foi desenvolvido considerando os telefones celulares com capacidade de executar aplicativos gráficos. Na época em que os serious games foram implementados, essas plataformas não possuíam muita capacidade computacional e, devido a essa limitação, os jogos tiveram que direcionar sua jogabilidade para o trabalho com perímetros de quadrados. No GeoplanoPEC, a disputa acontece através do desenho de quadrados com perímetro obtido através da multiplicação da face de dois dados e pode ocorrer entre dois jogadores ou entre um jogador e o computador, no qual as jogadas do computador são realizadas por uma inteligência baseada em redes Bayesianas do tipo Naive Bayes. O GeoplanoMob foi desenvolvido para uma plataforma ainda mais limitada quando comparada aos computadores pessoais. Dessa forma não foi possível implantar o sistema inteligente naquela versão do jogo, ocasionando numa alteração no desafio que passou a consistir na realização individual de desenhos a partir de instruções fornecidas por um personagem do jogo. O avanço tecnológico das plataformas móveis e a proliferação destas no ambiente escolar tornou possível a elaboração de uma nova versão dos jogos para a plataforma Android, que expande as funcionalidades das versões anteriores. Com o objetivo de ampliar o escopo de sua utilização nas escolas, a nova versão explora o perímetro e a área de formas geométricas como quadrados, losangos, retângulos, paralelogramos, trapézios e triângulos.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Guay ◽  
Zeyad A. S. Emam ◽  
Adam B. Anderson ◽  
Maria A. Aronova ◽  
Irina D. Pokrovskaya ◽  
...  

AbstractBiologists who use electron microscopy (EM) images to build nanoscale 3D models of whole cells and their organelles have historically been limited to small numbers of cells and cellular features due to constraints in imaging and analysis. This has been a major factor limiting insight into the complex variability of cellular environments. Modern EM can produce gigavoxel image volumes containing large numbers of cells, but accurate manual segmentation of image features is slow and limits the creation of cell models. Segmentation algorithms based on convolutional neural networks can process large volumes quickly, but achieving EM task accuracy goals often challenges current techniques. Here, we define dense cellular segmentation as a multiclass semantic segmentation task for modeling cells and large numbers of their organelles, and give an example in human blood platelets. We present an algorithm using novel hybrid 2D–3D segmentation networks to produce dense cellular segmentations with accuracy levels that outperform baseline methods and approach those of human annotators. To our knowledge, this work represents the first published approach to automating the creation of cell models with this level of structural detail.


2021 ◽  
pp. 104687812110312
Author(s):  
Lucy R. Zheng ◽  
Catherine M. Oberle ◽  
W. A. Hawkes-Robinson ◽  
Stéphane Daniau

Background The use of games for social skill development in the classroom is accelerating at a tremendous rate. At the same time, the research surrounding games designed for teaching social skills remains fragmented. This systematic review summarizes the current existing literature on social skill serious games for young people ages 5 to 19 and is the first review of serious games to note the demographic and geographic component of these studies. Method This review included papers that: evaluated a game designed to teach social skills; included measurable, quantitative outcomes; have a translation or be published in English; were peer-reviewed; date from January 2010 to May 2020; and have a nonclinical study population between ages of 5 to 19. Keywords were obtained from the CASEL 5 framework. Results Our findings are mixed but suggest that serious games may improve social skills when used alongside in-person discussion. We also found potential effects of the length of time of gameplay, intervention, and follow-up on social skill serious game effectiveness. Although this review found promising research conducted in East Asian countries and with minority samples in the United States, the majority of social skill serious game research takes place in the United States and Australia, with unreported demographic information and white-majority samples. Conclusions Due to the limited number of published studies in this area and studies lacking methodological rigor, the effectiveness of using games to teach social skills and the impact of background on social skill learning require further discussion.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Cheek ◽  
Theresa Fleming ◽  
Mathijs FG Lucassen ◽  
Heather Bridgman ◽  
Karolina Stasiak ◽  
...  

Background Internet interventions for improving health and well-being have the potential to reach many people and fill gaps in service provision. Serious gaming interfaces provide opportunities to optimize user adherence and impact. Health interventions based in theory and evidence and tailored to psychological constructs have been found to be more effective to promote behavior change. Defining the design elements which engage users and help them to meet their goals can contribute to better informed serious games. Objective To elucidate design elements important in SPARX, a serious game for adolescents with depression, from a user-centered perspective. Methods We proposed a model based on an established theory of health behavior change and practical features of serious game design to organize ideas and rationale. We analyzed data from 5 studies comprising a total of 22 focus groups and 66 semistructured interviews conducted with youth and families in New Zealand and Australia who had viewed or used SPARX. User perceptions of the game were applied to this framework. Results A coherent framework was established using the three constructs of self-determination theory (SDT), autonomy, competence, and relatedness, to organize user perceptions and design elements within four areas important in design: computer game, accessibility, working alliance, and learning in immersion. User perceptions mapped well to the framework, which may assist developers in understanding the context of user needs. By mapping these elements against the constructs of SDT, we were able to propose a sound theoretical base for the model. Conclusions This study’s method allowed for the articulation of design elements in a serious game from a user-centered perspective within a coherent overarching framework. The framework can be used to deliberately incorporate serious game design elements that support a user’s sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, key constructs which have been found to mediate motivation at all stages of the change process. The resulting model introduces promising avenues for future exploration. Involving users in program design remains an imperative if serious games are to be fit for purpose.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-48
Author(s):  
Laila Shoukry ◽  
Stefan Göbel

This paper presents the design and development of "StoryPlay Multimodal", a mobile multimodal analytics platform for the evaluation of Serious Games. It is intended to serve researchers, teachers and educational game developers as a means to assess their Serious Game Design. This is done by capturing, pre-processing, synchronizing and visualizing multimodal serious games analytics and mobile sensor data from playtesting sessions. By linking log data with multimodal data, it is possible to uncover relations between design elements, gameplay interactions, context parameters and affective and cognitive states. This is crucial for gaining full insight into the session, even if not present with the player at the same location. After discussing design requirements, the architecture of the software, the different modules, additional features, implementation challenges and solutions are presented. The testing settings, participants and results are also discussed to demonstrate how the evaluation procedure can be applied to deliver valuable outcomes for Serious Games Research.


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