| Presence and Relaxation: A Preliminary Controlled Study | | BIBAK | PHP | 7-25 | |
| Daniela Villani; Giuseppe Riva | |||
| Technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) that induce presence in a virtual,
but still external, perceived world, have great power to evoke emotional
experiences that can lead to psychotherapeutically valuable changes in the
individual. This reflects the power of presence -- seen as the feeling of being
located in a perceived, external world -- in developing and affecting
psychological wellbeing.
Until today Virtual reality Environments (VEs) have been incorporated into a variety of clinical and everyday settings to improve mental health. Nevertheless many areas in the health field can be still explored by using this innovative technology. One example is represented by stress management area, one of the leading mental health problems of western societies linked to several pathologies. Following this trend our proposal is to investigate with a non clinical sample the efficacy of a relaxing narrative through a virtual experience. In a controlled study we compared three different media: Immersive VR, DVD and Audio speaker, by using the same therapeutic narrative and protocol. A control group without treatment was also included in the study. The sample included 60 university students, randomly divided in four experimental conditions. Non parametric test and correlation were used to analyse self-reports and physiological parameters. Within groups analysis -- in both VR and DVD conditions -- showed a significant improvement of the emotional state and significative physiological changes. Furthermore, regression analysis showed that a relationship exists between the sense of presence and the outcome achieved by the mediated experience. However, the absence of significant differences from the analysis between groups suggests that the principal determinant of presence might be the content proposed within the mediated experience. Further reflections about sense of presence in relaxing virtual environments will be discussed. Keywords: Relaxation, Virtual Reality, Presence, Emotions | |||
| Practices to Display Social Presence: A Study in a Shared Mediated Environment | | BIBAK | PHP | 27-59 | |
| Fabiola Scarpetta | |||
| The current study belongs to a series of studies promoted by the EU funded
project "PASION", which focuses on augmenting social presence. The underlying
assumptions to this series is that participants' interventions in the shared
environment represent a way to exhibit their being socially present in that
environment. Therefore, the practices organizing these interventions define
"when", "why" and "how" social presence become relevant in the group. In the
study presented here, participants navigate in a shared, non immersive virtual
world, and can contact each other dyadically via instant messaging. Their task
as a team consists of finding as many treasures as possible in the virtual
world. Chat logs and video recordings of the activity on the screen are
collected, and subsequently analyzed with the approach of Conversation
Analysis. The results show the way in which social presence is addressed in the
chat openings, the occasions in which the intervention of the interlocutor on
the chat is made relevant and the format of this intervention. These results
are connected to the nature of the activity and of the mediated environment. Keywords: Social Presence, Conversation Analysis, Mediated Interaction, Video Game,
Collaboration | |||
| Being Part of the Life of One's Hometown: Strategies to Support Community Connectedness | | BIBAK | PHP | 61-82 | |
| Luis A. Castro; Victor M. Gonzalez | |||
| Information and Communication Technologies can be instrumental for those who
have moved away permanently from their places of origin. This paper presents a
condensed analysis of interviews conducted with twenty six (26) Mexican
migrants and family members living in Mexico. The interviews addressed several
topics ranging from family communication to communication with the community in
general. In this paper, we identify and discuss the strategies followed by
those living away to keep the sense of community connectedness high. Among
those strategies, we found that they keep connected with the community life
through several sources following certain communication patterns which are used
to as a way to reencounter with their people periodically. These findings serve
to highlight the relevance of the role played by ICTs on supporting community
connectedness for migrants and the opportunities for defining and developing
new technologies. Keywords: Community Connectedness, Presence, Migration | |||
| Being Inside the Quantum Atom | | BIBAK | PHP | 83-98 | |
| Assimina M. Kontogeorgiou; Joan Bellou; Tassos A. Mikropoulos | |||
| This article explores the possibility of using dynamic Educational Virtual
Environments (EVEs) for helping students with limited background in physics and
mathematics to deeply understand Quantum Mechanics principles and create the
correct mental images of atomic models. Taking under consideration the results
of our pilot study we have created "The Quantum Atom", an educational
environment with which 38 students interacted during well-designed learning
tasks based on the social constructivist approach. The sense of presence seems
to play an important role in our positive learning outcomes. Further research
must be done in this domain focusing on the main features of Virtual Reality as
many researchers argue that they support knowledge construction. Keywords: Quantum Mechanics, Atomic Model, Educational Virtual Environments, Presence,
Learning Outcomes | |||
| Task and Stimulation Paradigm Effects in a P300 Brain Computer Interface Exploitable in a Virtual Environment: A Pilot Study | | BIBAK | PHP | 99-108 | |
| Francesco Piccione; Konstantinos Priftis; Paolo Tonin; Denis Vidale; Roberto Furlan; Marianna Cavinato; Antonio Merico; Lamberto Piron | |||
| The aim of the present study is to compare different visual elicitation
paradigms exploitable in a Virtual Environment in order to establish whether
the BCI is affected by the structure of the elicitation paradigm, the
modalities of stimulus presentation, and the complexity of stimulus recognition
and semantic processing. We have developed a device which can control the
motion of a cursor on a computer graphical interface, using ERPs (Piccione et
al., 2006). Subsequently, we tested different visual elicitation paradigms
which evoked P300 waves to control the movement of an object in a virtual
environment. Visual stimuli, consisting of four arrows (forward, right, back,
left), were randomly presented in peripheral positions of a virtual
environment. Users were instructed to recognize only the stimulus related to
the preferred object movement direction (target). The sum of the absolute
differences between target and non-target traces (ra index) was compared in the
different elicitation paradigms. Results showed a significant reduction of ra
index with the use of more semantically complex paradigms. Therefore, the P300
BCI system seems to be affected by the structure of the elicitation paradigm,
the modalities of stimulus presentation, and the complexity of stimulus
recognition and semantic processing. Keywords: BCI, ERP, P300, Visual Paradigms, Virtual Environment | |||
| The Use of Virtual and Mixed Reality Environments for Urban Behavioural Studies | | BIBAK | PHP | 119-130 | |
| Andrew J. Park; Thomas W. Calvert; Patricia L. Brantingham; Paul J. Brantingham | |||
| Virtual/mixed reality 3D models of real-world environments can be used to
run behavioural and other experiments with real human subjects, replacing the
traditional approach where studies are conducted in physical environments. Use
of the virtual/mixed reality environments can minimize problems related to
feasibility, experimental control, ethics and cost, but care must be taken to
ensure that the environments are immersive and create "suspension of
disbelief". In this position paper the issues involved are discussed and
illustrated by a 3D virtual model of an urban environment that is being used to
study the role of fear in pedestrian navigation. Keywords: Virtual Environment, Urban Environment, Pedestrian Navigation, CPTED, Fear
of Crime | |||
| Tags and the City | | BIBAK | PHP | 131-156 | |
| Minna Isomursu | |||
| This paper analyzes the findings of a set of field studies that explored the
use of near field communication (NFC) tags in a mixed reality environment for
providing access to digital services by touching a tag with a mobile phone. The
field studies provide insight into user experience, usability, user acceptance
and technical implementation issues that need to be considered when designing
tag-based services. The paper proposes that if NFC technology becomes common,
there is a compelling need for methods and practices for tag management. If
such practices are not used and available, tags can form "tag litter" that
ruins the user experience by corrupting the trust towards tags and tag-based
services. Keywords: mixed reality, NFC, tags, physical browsing | |||
| Experiences of Evaluating Presence in Augmented Realities | | BIBAK | PHP | 157-172 | |
| A Rod McCall?; Anne-Kathrin Braun | |||
| This paper presents an overview of a study of 24 people who used an
augmented reality game called TimeWarp. The paper initially discusses the game
and evaluation methods chosen, it then explores emerging issues from the
evaluation which are applicable to other augmented reality games and how
existing user testing methods require further improvements in order to capture
data relevant to the issues. Keywords: Augmented Reality (AR), Multimodal Interfaces, Mobile Gaming, Pervasive
Gaming, Mixed Reality (MR) | |||
| Experience Design for Interactive Products: Designing Technology Augmented Urban Playgrounds for Girls | | BIBAK | PHP | 173-188 | |
| Aadjan van der Helm; Walter Aprile; David Keyson | |||
| Recent technological developments have made it possible to apply experience
design also in the field of highly interactive product design, an area where
involvement of non-trivial technology traditionally made it impossible to
implement quick design cycles. With the availability of modular sensor and
actuator kits, designers are able to quickly build interactive prototypes and
realize more design cycles. In this paper we present a design process that
includes experience design for the design of interactive products. The design
process was developed for a master level course in product design. In addition,
we discuss several cases from this course, applying the process to designing
engaging interactive urban playgrounds. Keywords: Urban, Prototyping, Exercise, Sport, Serious Game, Gender, Obesity,
Experience Design | |||
| Decoding Cognitive States from fMRI Data Using Support Vector Regression | | BIBAK | PHP | 189-201 | |
| Maria Grazia Di Bono; Marco Zorzi | |||
| In this paper we describe a method based on Support Vector machines for
Regression (SVR) to decode cognitive states from functional Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (fMRI) data. In the context of the Pittsburgh Brain Activity
Interpretation Competition (PBAIC, 2007), three participants were scanned
during three runs of 20-minute immersion in a Virtual Reality Environment (VRE)
where they played a game that engaged them in various search tasks. A set of
objective feature ratings was automatically extracted from the VRE during the
scanning session, whereas a set of subjective features was then derived from
each individual experience. The aim of the present study was to explore the
feasibility of the SVR approach in the case of an extremely complex regression
problem, in which subjective experience of participants immersed in a VRE had
to be predicted from their fMRI data. The proposed methodology was modeled as a
multiphase process: a pre-processing phase, based on a filter approach, for
fMRI image voxel selection, and a prediction phase, implemented by nonlinear
SVR, for decoding subjective cognitive states from the selected voxel time
series. Results highlight the generalization ability of nonlinear SVR, making
this approach particularly interesting for real world application of Brain
Computer Interface (BCI). Keywords: Brain Computer Interfaces, Signal Processing, fMRI Data, Multivariate
Analysis, Support Vector Machine | |||
| Contrasting the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Virtual Reality and Real Environments in the Treatment of Acrophobia | | BIBAK | PHP | 203-216 | |
| Carlos M. Coelho; Carlos F. Silva; Jorge A. Santos; Jennifer Tichon; Guy Wallis | |||
| Previous studies reported good results in using virtual reality for the
treatment of acrophobia. Similarly this paper reports the use of a virtual
environment for the treatment of acrophobia. In the study, 10 subjects were
exposed to three sessions of simulated heights in a virtual reality (VR)
system, and 5 others were exposed to a real environment. Both groups revealed
significant progress in a range of anxiety, avoidance and behaviour
measurements when confronted with virtual as well as real height circumstances.
Despite VR participants experiencing considerably shorter treatment times than
the real-world subjects, significant improvements were recorded on the
Behavioural Avoidance Test, the Attitudes Toward Heights Questionnaire and the
Acrophobia Questionnaire. These results are suggestive of a possible higher
effectiveness and efficiency of VR in treating acrophobia. Keywords: Acrophobia, heights, virtual reality, fear, treatment | |||
| A Design Framework for Mapping Social Relationships | | BIBAK | PHP | 225-246 | |
| Alistair Sutcliffe | |||
| This paper describes a design framework for representing social-spatial data
on maps and diagrams and then illustrates the design approaches for
representing social data in two applications. One derives from a project which
compared social relationships, organisational structures and social networks of
organisational members. The second project produced visualisation tools to
support epidemiological investigations of obesity. The mapping approaches for
different types of social data are illustrated with case studies. Keywords: visualization, social data, representational design | |||
| Social Interaction through Map-based Wikis | | BIBAK | PHP | 247-267 | |
| Andrea Marcante; Loredana Parasiliti Provenza | |||
| This paper introduces the notion of map-based wiki, a wiki that allows users
to interact with each other and with information through a digital map. The
map, either geographic or conceptual, becomes a medium for creating knowledge
through digital annotations. Annotations may be multimodal. Audio or icon notes
set the mood for perceiving map space, while text or graphic notes create
information space. We analyze examples to gauge map-based wikis' potential,
then focus on Banco Territorio, a map-based wiki designed for information and
emotional spaces, which localizes both spaces to overcome cultural
misunderstanding in social interaction through digital maps. Keywords: map-based wiki, digital annotation, social interaction and communication,
knowledge sharing, emotional mood | |||
| Nurturing Learners' Communities by Creating and Sharing Maps | | BIBAK | PHP | 269-289 | |
| Sosuke Miura; Pamela Ravasi; Masanori Sugimoto | |||
| We present the SketchMap system, which integrates outdoor and classroom
activities to support children's collaborative learning. Individual children
create maps near their school in an outdoor environment using a SketchMap
client. The maps are uploaded to the SketchMap web server for sharing among the
children, who have created maps of different areas. Children can edit or add
new information to the maps in their classroom or in their home. The goal of
the SketchMap project is to investigate whether integrating outdoor and
classroom activities, and sharing children's experiences through the maps can
actually promote their collaborative learning and nurture learning communities
including teachers and parents. The SketchMap system has been used in "Safety
Map" and "Nature Exploration" classes in a Japanese elementary school.
Evaluation of the SketchMap system is in progress, and issues found through the
educational practices are described. Keywords: Outdoor learning, collaborative learning, tablet PC, GPS, safety map, nature
exploration map | |||
| SIM: A dynamic multidimensional visualization method for social networks | | BIBAK | PHP | 291-320 | |
| Maria Chiara Caschera; Fernando Ferri; Patrizia Grifoni | |||
| Visualization plays an important role in social networks analysis to explore
and investigate individual and groups behaviours. Therefore, different
approaches have been proposed for managing networks patterns and structures
according to the visualization purposes. This paper presents a method of social
networks visualization devoted not only to analyse individual and group social
networking but also aimed to stimulate the second-one. This method provides
(using a hybrid visualization approach) both an egocentric as well as a global
point of view. Indeed, it is devoted to explore the social network structure,
to analyse social aggregations and/or individuals and their evolution.
Moreover, it considers and integrates features such as real-time social network
elements locations in local areas. Multidimensionality consists of social
phenomena, their evolution during the time, their individual characterization,
the elements social position, and their spatial location. The proposed method
was evaluated using the Social Interaction Map (SIM) software module in the
scenario of planning and managing a scientific seminars cycle. This method
enables the analysis of the topics evolution and the participants' scientific
interests changes using a temporal layers sequence for topics. This knowledge
provides information for planning next conference and events, to extend and
modify main topics and to analyse research interests trends. Keywords: Social network visualization, Spatial representation of social information,
Map based visualization | |||
| Applying a Cognitive Engineering Approach to Interface Design of Energy Management Systems | | BIBAK | PHP | 321-345 | |
| Thomas Hoff; Andreas Hauser | |||
| This article presents a case study of the user interface design of a grid
(energy) management system. The theoretical backdrop of the case study is
cognitive engineering, with its focus on supporting three levels of cognitive
control, namely skill-, rules-, and knowledge-based control, respectively. In
this design case study, the interface of the grid management system is divided
into three hierarchical levels, each corresponding to a type of cognitive
control. Details of the prototype system (the Compact System State Display) are
introduced, as a reference to readers familiar with the particular challenges
of designing energy management systems. The article also discusses the basic
assumptions regarding human cognition and behaviour that engineers and
designers might utilize in the design process, including the pros and cons of
these assumptions. Keywords: Ecological psychology, abstraction hierarchy, cognitive work analysis,
energy management systems | |||