Tips for AR in Higher Education

Recent research conducted by Jisc showed that students were more serious than ever about technology, with nearly a third (32 %) saying tech facilities played a part in their choice of university.  Combine that statement with the fact that students are open to innovative ways of learning, with more than a third interested in virtual lectures (37%) and dedicated mobile apps (35%) to help them study, and it is easy to understand why universities are keen to up their tech game. The most common reason for AR remaining on the peripheries in higher education is not lack of appetite, but rather a general lack of knowledge about how to get these programmes off the ground.

 

Here are five tips to get you started: (a) Consider the application: AR works especially well where it is difficult to expose students to real-life environments. (b) Simplify the subject material: If you work in a maths or science discipline you might not think AR is applicable to you, but actually it’s an excellent conduit for conveying abstract concepts. (c) Visualise your users: Think about who will be using the app and what learning environments they are used to. (e) Test your ideas: If you fail to consult them during the development cycle you could deliver something that is a long way removed from what they were expecting.

More information:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/augmented-reality-in-higher-education-five-tips-to-get-started/2018933.article?utm_source=GaggleAMP-Jisc&utm_medium=LinkedIn+%28GaggleAMP%29&utm_campaign=AutoAMP+Messages&utm_content=augmented-reality-in-higher-education-five-tips-to-get-started-319994#.VPoqK9937ps.twitter

Vive VR HMD

HTC has just announced the Vive, a virtual reality headset developed in collaboration with Valve. It will be available to consumers later this year, with a developer edition coming out this spring. The company has promised to have a significant presence at the Game Developers Conference next week, where devs will have a chance to play with Valve's VR technology.

The Vive Developer Edition uses two 1200 x 1080 displays that refresh at 90 frames per second, eliminating jitter and achieving photorealistic imagery according to HTC. The displays are said to envelope your entire field of vision with 360-degree views. The company says in a press release that it's the first device to offer a full room-scale experience.

More information:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/1/8127445/htc-vive-valve-vr-headset

Prosthetic Leg Sees Ahead

The Michigan Technological University mechanical engineer and his team have already developed a prototype that can provide a range of motion that rivals a natural gait. Next, they aim to give their robotic ankle something different: eyes. Researchers are developing an artificial vision system. The key components are a low-cost camera and a computer-controlled actuator, which adjusts the ankle's position through a system of cables.

The camera can identify the profile of the ground, while the computer knows where the next footstep will be, based on how the user is moving the leg. Then the computer analyzes the information from the camera and applies the correct angle and stiffness to the ankle, just as you would with your biological foot and ankle. Thus, the ankle could adapt precisely, whether the user is climbing stairs or striding over a pothole.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150227181046.htm

Brain Controlled Bionic Reconstruction

Three Austrian men have become the first in the world to undergo a new technique called ‘bionic reconstruction’ enabling them to use a robotic prosthetic hand controlled by their mind. All three men suffered for many years with brachial plexus injuries and poor hand function as a result of motor vehicle and climbing accidents. The new technique was developed by researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, together with engineers from the Department of Neurorehabilitation Engineering of the University Medical Center Goettingen. It combines selective nerve and muscle transfers, elective amputation, and replacement with an advanced robotic prosthesis using sensors that respond to electrical impulses in the muscles. Following comprehensive rehabilitation, the technique restored a high level of function, in all three recipients, aiding in activities of daily living. Brachial plexus avulsion injuries represent an inner amputation, irreversibly separating the hand from neural control. Existing surgical techniques for such injuries are crude and ineffective and result in poor hand function. Researchers were able to create and extract new neural signals via nerve transfers amplified by muscle transplantation.

These signals were then decoded and translated into solid mechatronic hand function. Before amputation, all three patients spent an average of 9 months undergoing cognitive training, firstly to activate the muscles, and then to use the electrical signals to control a virtual hand. Once they had mastered the virtual environment, they practiced using a hybrid hand -- a prosthetic hand attached to a splint-like device fixed to their non-functioning hand. Three months after amputation, robotic prostheses gave all three recipients substantially better functional movement in their hands, improved quality of life, and less pain. For the first time since their accidents all three men were able to accomplish various everyday tasks such as picking up a ball, pouring water from a jug, using a key, cutting food with a knife, or using two hands to undo buttons. Brachial plexus injuries occur when the nerves of the brachial plexus -- the network of nerves that originate in the neck region and branch off to form the nerves that control movement and sensation in the upper limbs, including the shoulder, arm, forearm, and hand -- are damaged. Brachial plexus injuries often occur as a result of trauma from high speed collisions, especially in motorcycle accidents, and in collision sports.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150224192618.htm

Informatics Colloquium Invited Talk

Today, I gave an invited talk at the faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Czech Republic as part of the ‘Informatics Colloquium’ series. The title of my presentation was ‘Procedural Generation for Interactive Virtual Environments’. The presentation provided an overview of procedural generation methods and techniques for both creating content and modelling human behaviour.

The main focus of my talk was on generating realistic terrain landscapes as well as buildings and subsequently cities. As far as human behaviour is concerned the main emphasis was on modelling accurately crowd behaviour in urban environments. Specific examples were demonstrated in the area of virtual reconstruction of cultural heritage as well as interactive computer games.

More information:

http://www.fi.muni.cz/research/colloquium/

Light of Paul Gauguin's Work

French artist Paul Gauguin is well known for his colourful paintings of Tahitian life - such as the painting that sold recently for nearly $300 million - but he also was a highly experimental printmaker. Little is known, however, about the techniques and materials Gauguin used to create his unusual and complex graphic works. Now a team of scientists and art conservators from Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago has used a simple light bulb, an SLR camera and computational power to uncover new details of Gauguin's printmaking process - how he formed, layered and re-used imagery to make 19 unique graphic works in the Art Institute's collection. The new results establish Gauguin's use of materials and process in a chronological order, solving the puzzle of how ‘Nativity’ was made. Gauguin created the print using a layering of images created on paper by drawings, transfer of images and two different inks. The surface topography research on ‘Nativity’ and other graphic works by the artist will be part of a major Gauguin exhibit at the Art Institute in 2017.

The ‘Nativity’ findings overturn an earlier theory as to how Gauguin might have produced the print. Researchers reproduced in an Art Institute lab, what they believed to be Gauguin's process. The printmaking process the research team had identified produced a print very similar to Gauguin's original. To measure the 3D surface of the prints, they used some very accessible techniques that can be used by art conservators and historians around the world to analyze artworks. In applying these techniques to Gauguin's work, they came up with some interesting answers to questions about what his printing process was. Researchers studied ‘Nativity’ and 18 other Gauguin mono-prints in the Art Institute's collection. They used multiple wavelengths of light shining from different directions onto the prints to investigate the surface of the paper and re-evaluate how Gauguin created his works. The photometric stereo technique allowed the researchers to mathematically separate colour from surface shape, providing a much clearer view of the paper's topography.

More information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150214184525.htm

Open Source VR Platform Takes on 13 New Partners

An open source virtual reality platform reports 13 new partners. This is the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem, envisioned as the platform that can bring together companies doing work in a number of areas of virtual reality. OSVR aims to set an open standard for virtual reality input devices, games and output. Its framework offers the potential to unite developers and gamers under a single platform. As the platform is open-source, people working with hardware developmental kit designs or software plugins, for example, for motion control, game engines, and stereoscopic video output get complete access to what they need. An OSVR white paper makes a case for how this would be beneficial for gaming developers.

OSVR provides interfaces as opposed to an API to a specific piece of hardware. If there are multiple devices that provide the same type of information, these devices can be interchanged. You can reconfigure the OSVR 'plumbing' so that the game can continue to work well regardless of how where hand position is coming from. With OSVR, game developers can focus on what they want to do with the data, as opposed to how to obtain it. In short, OSVR would let you mix and match hardware and software packages. This means that companies that focus on a particular software or hardware component (e.g., gaze detection module or eye-tracking camera) are not left out of the VR eco-system: their expertise can be interconnected with components from others.

More information:

http://phys.org/news/2015-02-source-virtual-reality-platform-partners.html