Virtual Environments

The illustrations of the Benedictine monk, artist, and chronicler Matthew Paris offer a gateway into the thirteenth-century world. This new study of his cartography emphasizes the striking innovations he brought to it, and shows how the maps became an investment and repository of certain medieval spatial practices: travel through the world, the occurrence of history in that world, and the religious practices and devotional attitudes that were assiduously cultivated within the larger visual culture of St. Albans abbey [in great measure produced by Matthew's own images]. Travel [i.e. space], history [time], and devotion [liturgy], then, are the primary issues and meanings deposited in and registered by Matthew Paris's cartographic landscape. In searching out these contexts, the book explores the paradigm of imagined pilgrimage as an organizing principle that pushes into greater relief medieval understandings of their arrangements of places and of histories. Thus traveling through geography could enact its meanings in a dynamic, religious, even devotional performance of the maps' materials. Richly illustrated with black and white and colour plates.

Virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMD) appear to be effective research tools,
which may address the problem of ecological validity in neuropsychological testing.
However, their widespread implementation is hindered by VR induced symptoms
and effects (VRISE) and the lack of skills in VR software development. This study
offers guidelines for the development of VR software in cognitive neuroscience and
neuropsychology, by describing and discussing the stages of the development of Virtual
Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL), the first neuropsychological battery in
immersive VR. Techniques for evaluating cognitive functions within a realistic storyline
are discussed. The utility of various assets in Unity, software development kits, and other
software are described so that cognitive scientists can overcome challenges pertinent
to VRISE and the quality of the VR software. In addition, this pilot study attempts to
evaluate VR-EAL in accordance with the necessary criteria for VR software for research
purposes. The VR neuroscience questionnaire (VRNQ; Kourtesis et al., 2019b) was
implemented to appraise the quality of the three versions of VR-EAL in terms of user
experience, game mechanics, in-game assistance, and VRISE. Twenty-five participants
aged between 20 and 45 years with 12–16 years of full-time education evaluated various
versions of VR-EAL. The final version of VR-EAL achieved high scores in every sub-score
of the VRNQ and exceeded its parsimonious cut-offs. It also appeared to have better
in-game assistance and game mechanics, while its improved graphics substantially increased the quality of the user experience and almost eradicated VRISE. The results
substantially support the feasibility of the development of effective VR research and
clinical software without the presence of VRISE during a 60-min VR session.

This document describes the work currently in progress within the Virtual Museum Transnational Project (V-MUST.NET), within the Work Package 2 “house of Questions” dedicated to establish requirements and criteria analysis in the Virtual Museum domain. This deliverable contains the research and the state of the art about VM taking into account the results from Deliverables 2.1 and 2.2 and increasing them with new researches about the presence of VM in Europe and outside Europe, describing and analyzing their main characteristic.Deliverable 2.3 b is the updated version (2012-2013)

Sustainable sound planning has been drawing more attention as citizens are demanding higher levels of comfort and livable environment while keeping the convenient access to transportation and neighborhood in urban settings. Particularly in Hong Kong, we see a lot of innovative building designs, such as smart facades, are there improving the overall indoor sonic environment of the premises. Apparently, different situations and designs can result in varying levels of costs and benefits. How to balance these becomes a challenge for the acoustical designers and sound planners. This paper presents a case study revealing how virtual reality technology can be applied to let the relevant stakeholders "experience" the noise benefits that a particular smart facade design can bring by "perceiving" the sonic environment and having it associated with different design options and costs.

If the medium is the message, what is the message of virtual reality (VR)? This article examines virtual reality communications media. Some forms of VR, for example immersive virtual reality, literally situate the user inside an informed computational space. The essence of VR is the inclusive relationship between the participant and the virtual environment. Communication takes place through direct experience in the immersive, digital environment. Thus, these environments may directly implicate what we can say about our very ability to know, that is, about consciousness itself. In this sense, VR brings metaphysical inquiry within the purview of an empirical testbed that conjoins human psychology, or the psychological “presence” of the knowing self, with configurable digital phenomena to define “there.” This essay argues that a fundamental message of VR may be to illumine timeless philosophical inquiries concerning the nature of knowing and being and thus direct our attention to what Aristotle called the eternal question: What is reality? VR directs our attention to the nature of reality by directing our attention to consciousness as the experience of being.

A​ ​ study​ ​ from​ ​ UCLondon​ ​ &​ ​ UniNottingham​ ​ found​ ​ most​ ​ neurons​ ​ in​ ​ the​ ​ brain's​ ​ auditory​ ​ cortex​ ​ detect​ ​ where​ ​ a sound​ ​ is​ ​ coming​ ​ from​ ​ relative​ ​ to​ ​ the​ ​ head,​ ​ but​ ​ some​ ​ are​ ​ actually​ ​ tuned​ ​ to​ ​ a​ ​ sound​ ​ source's​ ​ actual​ ​ position in​ ​ the​ ​ world. The​ ​ PLOS-published​ ​ report​ ​ also​ ​ looked​ ​ at ​ how​ ​ head​ ​ movements​ ​ change​ ​ the​ ​ responses​ ​ of​ ​ neuro-matrices that​ ​ track​ ​ sound​ ​ location.

Article examines how our​ brain's​ ​ routine​ ​ represention of​ ​ sound​ ​ location is​ ​ in​ ​ either​ ​ an​ ​ egocentric​ ​ manner​ ​ –​ ​ for​ ​ example,​ ​ to​ ​ tell​ ​ a​ ​ phone​ ​ is​ ​ ringing to​ ​ one's​ ​ left​ ​ or​ ​ right​ ​ –​ ​ or​ ​ in​ ​ an​ ​ allocentric​ ​ manner​ ​ –​ ​ hearing​ ​ the​ ​ phone​ ​ is​ ​ on​ ​ the​ ​ table.​ ​ ​ ​ However,​ ​ as​ ​ our​ ​ head​ ​ moves neurons​ ​ with​ ​ an​ ​ egocentric​ ​ focus​ ​ expand​ ​ to​ ​ incorporate​ ​ more​ ​ neural-networks​ ​ related​ ​ to​ ​ vision​ ​ and​ ​ balance. This​ ​ expanded​ ​ engagement​ ​ offers​ ​ potential​ ​ to​ ​ improve​ ​ both​ ​ brain​ ​ plasticity​ ​ and​ ​ cognition;​ ​ when​ ​ a​ ​ dynamic influence​ ​ is​ ​ challenging​ ​ our​ ​ neurology​ ​ to​ ​ respond​ ​ differently​ ​ (the​ ​ phone's​ ​ position​ ​-​ ​ relative​ ​ to​ ​ the​ ​ ears​ ​-changes).​ ​ ​ ​ While​ ​ the​ ​ allocentric​ ​ neurons​ ​ consistently​ ​ maintain​ ​ their​ ​ response​ ​ level​ ​-​ ​ suggesting​ ​ certain sound-based​ ​ protocols​ ​ would​ ​ be​ ​ more​ ​ conducive​ ​ for​ ​ relaxation​ ​ and​ ​ meditative​ ​ practice. 

While we often hear sounds presented through earphones as being inside our heads, these findings "flesh out" more of the nature of 4th-dimensional facets of sound source algorithms.  More specifically, the acoustics can be crafted by sound designers to incorporate information about body and head movements to create a more robust externally-rendered environment.

At present, spatial sound is rapidly gaining broader recognition as our media are moving towards 3-dimensional representations using virtual reality, augmented reality or 360-video technologies. The coming-of-age of a creative discipline opening up ways of expressing and communicating with sound that were not possible before.

Sound is being represented spatially ever more accurately with evolving technologies that takes us beyond a mere reproduction of familiar acoustic reality.  At present, spatial sound is rapidly gaining broader recognition as media moves towards 3-dimensional representations using virtual reality environments/360-video technologies. What's the big deal here?

Research suggests these findings could be helpful in the design of technologies involving extended virtual reality (augmented/mixed) and enhance balance and movement process as well as neuro-rehab therapy.
Spatial sound can inform us about how we relate as human beings to our environment. It also tells us something essential about the inner workings of our perception and consciousness.

More than anything it explores the ways we experience reality through listening. Such as how the reality we hear is intrinsically based on what we know and assume about the world around us.  As we embody sound in space we’re also embodied by personal memory, can we listen from within? What then do we perceive?

One example is how spatial sound helps interpret facets of a vital link between brain waves and acoustic stimulation called frequency-following responses (FFR).  While FFR hasn't been studied in any great detail (with respect to its therapeutic and clinical utility) an interesting application looked at ​​allocentric and egocentric spatial processing under stress conditions that routinely activate sound processing FFR regions in the brain. 

Consult:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0617/150617-egocentric-hearing

- https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11070  (Cortical contributions to the auditory frequency-following response revealed by MEG) Nature Communications 7, Article number: 11070 (2016) doi:10.1038/ncomms11070

- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14910-y (Real-time Acute Stress Facilitates Allocentric Spatial Processing in a Virtual Fire Disaster) Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 14616 (2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14910-y

- The Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation (JCR - ISSN  1784-9983). 

Published quarterly, the Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation (JCR), is unique among academic journals in that it focuses on the rapidly expanding worldwide trend of moving toward technological applications in healthcare.  One of the official journals of the International Association of CyberPsychology, Training, and Rehabilitation (iACToR).

3D design and 3D contents are becoming ever so popular in today's technology. The whole world is moving towards the 3D content platform, 3D printers, 3D TV sets, 3D mobiles etc. no exception to that is the web and all things in it. AquaFlux and Epsilon are two of our state of the art skin measurement instruments. Originally developed by our research group as research projects, AquaFlux and Epsilon have now been commercialised and used in more than 70 organisations worldwi de. However, due to the nature of the technologies, they often require on-site intensive training, which is expensive and time-consuming. There is a genuine need for an interactive virtual training environment that users can be trained whenever and wherever they want. This pa per demonstrates the development of a web-based interactive 3D virtual environment for these two skin measurement instruments to serve this demand. The new system contains detailed virtual user manuals, step by step interactive instructions that will direct the users on how to use these two skin measurement devices. The virtual environment will benefit users by giving users a very realistic feel about how these instruments work. VR (Virtual Reality) is an essential technology that will deliver to users the experience and knowledge in this regard.

Mit diesem Titel liegt eine veröffentlichte Magisterarbeit vor, deren redaktioneller Beschreibungstext auf dem Buchrücken einen „Blick über den Tellerrand hinaus“ verspricht. Dieses Versprechen soll sich durch drei Leitaspekte einlösen, die den Einfluss von virtuellen Welten auf das menschliche Verhalten fokussieren, zweitens das Suchtpotenzial und die Isolation von der Außenwelt thematisieren und drittens die neuen sozialen Komponenten beleuchten, die durch die ‚Begehung’ virtueller Welten ermöglicht werden.

Online communities have been proactive in producing collaborative creative content such as music, games and other social interactions. Online collaboration has enabled contributors to peer produce and share masses of creative content. Examples range from information sharing such as Wikipedia to open source software and other specific art projects. Software vendors have recently introduced low cost 2D and 3D content authoring tools allowing user communities to generate and share creative content. Emerging networking programming interfaces available inside modern game engines allow contributors to implement multiplayer or multiuser interaction relatively easily. This paper presents a 3D art creation framework to be used over networked infrastructure in a multiuser environment. Contributors will be able to create 3D sculptures at runtime, share with other users in a common networked working environment and critique each other’s work. Experimental work also involved evaluating procedura...

The museum, intended as a mere container aimed only at the conservation of objects, has long since given space to activities of cultural production and promotion that have finally allowed the entry of new forms of communication. Based on dynamic storytelling and multimodal information, they propose to implement an effective dialogue with the anthropological, economic, social and cultural context, activating a set of various activities aimed at conveying complex and constantly evolving messages. From the simple linear and didactic communication mode, we move toward informative, persuasive and educational communication. But the most interesting aspect of this evolution is that it has strongly modified the exhibition logics and the ways in which cultural contents are used by the public. Based on these premises, we present in this article the results of some methodological approaches experimented in different museum installations. They consider different criteria, from passive to active visit, from serious games to immersive enjoyment.

Purpose: To describe the development and opportunities for implementation of virtual teeth with and without pathology for use in a virtual learning environment in dental education. Material and methods: The creation of virtual teeth begins by scanning a tooth with a cone beam CT. The resulting scan consists of multiple two-dimensional grey-scale images. The specially designed software program ColorMapEditor connects these two-dimensional images to create a three-dimensional tooth. With this software, any aspect of the tooth can be modified, including its colour, volume, shape and density, resulting in the creation of virtual teeth of any type. Results: This article provides examples of realistic virtual teeth with and without pathology that can be used for dental education.ColorMapEditor offers infinite possibilities to adjust and add options for the optimisation of virtual teeth. Discussion: Virtual teeth have unlimited availability for dental students, allowing them to practise as often as required. Virtual teeth can be made and adjusted to any shape with any type of pathology. Further developments in software and hardware technology are necessary to refine the ability to colour and shape the interior of the pulp chamber and surface of the tooth to enable not only treatment but also diagnos-tics and thus create a greater degree of realism. Conclusion: The creation and use of virtual teeth in dental education appears to be feasible but is still in development; it offers many opportunities for the creation of teeth with various pathologies, although an evaluation of its use in dental education is still required.

Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that can help educators enhance their classrooms. With one-to-one initiatives and application (app) development creating affordable technology, teachers have more access to innovative supports for their students with disabilities’ academic, social, emotional, and behavioral skill development. Using AR, teachers can provide multimedia support while utilizing the student’s own environment. There are multiple apps available for teacher usage, which are free across multiple platforms and/or devices. This article describes exactly what AR is and how it can be used to support students with disabilities. An app is introduced to get started in the classroom with additional ways to utilize AR for learning.

Although various methods of procedurally generating cities have been proposed in recent years, the problem remains that a user desiring a city from a particular time period or country would have to make time-consuming modifications to an already existing engine to achieve acceptable results. This paper proposes a set of programmable elements that can be adjusted to accommodate for buildings from a broad range of architectural styles, which can then be incorporated into a larger engine.

Exposure to natural environments can provide a wide array of benefits – such as improved immune function, attention, cognitive performance and mood; reduced pain, anxiety and depression; and faster recovery from stress and injury. We are developing a research project that will explore the extent to which exposure to natural environments in virtual reality (VR) can improve human health and wellbeing compared with exposure to real natural environments. Recordings of psychological (e.g., personality, mood) and physiological (e.g., skin response, cortisol level) measurements will be taken while subjects view and hear natural environment scenes in a virtual reality head mounted display or in the ‘actual’ natural environments from which the video and audio fields are recorded. Our study will add to an emerging field of research on the effects of simulated natural environments and provide the foundation for applied research on therapeutic applications for people with limited mobility or on bed rest, in assisted living facilities and hospitals, or in densely populated urban areas without access to nature.

— Gesture recognition has been considered as one of the most effective input methods to interact with virtual environments (VEs). The skeleton tracking techniques which have been widely used for gesture recognition purposes showed common accuracy issues with Micro-gestures that can affect user's enjoyment. In this paper, we propose a multimodal interaction technique and test it using a designed wearable head-mounted tracker as a measurement instrument. We also designed a theoretical framework to resolve the weaknesses of Micro-Gestures recognition in CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). The effectiveness of proposed method and its impact of user's joyfulness has been tested by a 3D gesture-based interface. The results showed improvement in user's enjoyment using the designed measuring and input method for navigation within a 3D CAVE by improving system's accuracy.

This paper traces the development of techniques of recording carvings on megalithic tombs and on open-air rock-art in Ireland from 1699 to the present day. Analysis shows that after the initial pioneering phase, recording methodologies tended to develop in accelerated bursts, interspersed with lulls in activity. In all, four phases of activity can be identified; in each there were a critical number of researchers who interacted with each other, driving forward advances in various forms of recording methods. Part 2 of the paper describes the application of new methods of digital recording, notably Structure from Motion photogrammetry. It shows how the resulting data have been used to create new ways of experiencing Irish prehistoric art in virtual environments, either as entire monuments in the landscape or within a “virtual museum”, using the open-source Blender 3D animation and game engine software.

Εικονικοί  Δημόσιοι Οργανισμοί και Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη. Η εφαρμογή στο Α.Σ.Ε.Π.
Πως η αξιολόγηση θα ξεπεραστεί από την τεχνολογία των εικονικών οργανισμών και θα οδηγήσει στη κατάργηση διαδικασιών και φορέων
Virtual Public Organizations and the Implementation of Artificial Intelligence. The Case of ASEP in Greece

This chapter examines social media relations, which build virtual Erdogans as two opposite realities, with netnography method because of community composition and cultural sharing contents. It will be analyzed visual 'Erdogan' productions in Anti-Tayyip (Opponent) and Erdoğan Sevdalıları-Lovers of Erdogan (Fan/Supporter) communities and it will be drawn post-truth biography of a leader in visual culture of social media. Two different/opposite virtual realities of Erdogan, which are reproduced in social media sociality every day, lead to expansion of polarized political climate in the context of organic society and absorb the political identity of Erdogan.

This paper identifies the “virtual worlds” paradigm in psychoanalytic approaches to video games. Sometimes counterproductive to game interpretation, this paradigm views all games as an escape into separate and substitutive virtual reality. I argue that the virtual worlds framework only applies to some video games, and rarely encapsulates most games’ address to the player. I propose an alternative approach based in separation-individuation and attachment theory, pointing to how a wide variety of games provide players with “secure base” experiences as a form of affect regulation and metacognition. Introducing three broad categories of tether fantasies in video games—lifeline, home base, and perpetuum mobile—, I map out some of the generic terrain of commercial games from a secure base perspective, emphasizing the value of going and coming in the process of developing autonomy. I argue that the tether fantasy in video games not only illustrates the integration of attachment and separation-individuation schools of thought, but also offers a compelling reason to reconsider the analytical meaning of video game play. The paper’s analysis of Minecraft as a home base tether game also explores the question of how games can themselves serve as an anchor for ventures into more complicated social worlds at times of transition like nest-leaving, or for times of stress in adult life.

This study investigated whether personal relevance influences the affective appraisal of a desktop virtual environment (VE) in simulated darkness. In the real world, darkness often evokes thoughts of vulnerability, threat, and danger, and may automatically precipitate emotional responses consonant with those thoughts (fear of darkness). This influences the affective appraisal of a given environment after dark and the way humans behave in that environment in conditions of low lighting. Desktop VEs are increasingly deployed to study the effects of environmental qualities and (architectural or lighting) interventions on human behaviour and feelings of safety. Their (ecological) validity for these purposes depends critically on their ability to correctly address the user's cognitive and affective experience. Previous studies with desktop (i.e., non-immersive) VEs found that simulated darkness only slightly affects the user's behavioral and emotional responses to the represented environment, in contrast to the responses observed for immersive VEs. We hypothesize that the desktop VE scenarios used in previous studies less effectively induced emotional and behavioral responses because they lacked personal relevance. In addition, factors like signs of social presence and relatively high levels of ambient lighting may also have limited these responses. In this study, young female volunteers explored either a daytime or a night-time (low ambient light level) version of a desktop VE representing a deserted (no social presence) prototypical Dutch polder landscape. To enhance the personal relevance of the simulation, a fraction of the participants were led to believe that the virtual exploration tour would prepare them for a follow-up tour through the real world counterpart of the VE. The affective appraisal of the VE and the emotional response of the participants were measured through self-report. The results show that the VE was appraised as slightly less pleasant and more arousing in simulated darkness (compared to a daylight) condition, as expected. However, the fictitious follow-up assignment had no emotional effects and did not influence the affective appraisal of the VE. Further research is required to establish the qualities that may enhance the validity of desktop VEs for both etiological (e.g., the effects of signs of darkness on navigation behaviour and fear of crime) and intervention (e.g., effects of street lighting on feelings of safety) research. How to cite this article Toet et al. (2016), Effects of personal relevance and simulated darkness on the affective appraisal of a virtual environment. PeerJ 4:e1743

Photogrammetric 3D modeling technology has progressed with giant leaps during recent years. This technical report goes through the current state of this technology. It provides some examples of practical application areas, describes the workflow of photogrammetric 3D modeling, lists some hardware requirements, provides a sample of software packages available and compares them with each other. It describes the workflow of 3D visualization for virtual reality, provides an example of a project where the technology is utilized and finally lists the challenges of this technology and anticipates its future.

The PhD dissertation Cyberpunk and New Media Art: Digital Art and Performance aims to examine the literary and visual legacy of the Cyberpunk movement and to explore its ideas, concepts and methodologies in the context of New Media artistic practices. The goal of this work is to comment on a multidisciplinary level on the influence of Cyberpunk theory and aesthetics. Furthermore, it seeks to identify its practice in the construction of the creative mechanisms of contemporary digital art and media performance.
The Cyberpunk phenomenon is approached through the definition of its socio- historical, philosophical and aesthetic context as a science fiction genre. Likewise, New Media Art is defined through the characteristics of its language, its precursors, its pioneers and the state of the digital art currents. By focusing on the terminology and the creative expression of Cyberpunk and Media Art, this thesis sets off to examine the artistic results that emerge from their union. Special emphasis is given to the fields of virtual technologies, technology and mythology and the body as a technologically enhanced interface.

Resumen. This work aims to explore the effect of simulating physical robotics into a VR system, and analyse the different levels of complexity and abstraction needed to understand how a robotic mechanism interacts with environment and behaves regarding its capabilities and limitations. Therefore, robotics are being explored in several approaches sustaining its potential in educational contexts, whose use and implementation allows to increase significantly the range of activities liable to be developed, and promote also integration between several knowledge spheres. The development of new mechanisms and the search for solutions to new problems push students to look for new ideas, notions and ways for interacting with the environment, increasing the capabilities acquired by students, by developing the processes needed to solve problems and quests in a project-based learning environment. This project presents how a mechanical design project is shown and presented, while modelling in CAD (computer aided design) software, whose objective is the creation and development of a platform for a differential wheeled non-holonomic robot, which has a structure formed by two fixed conventional wheels, being controlled in an independent way and, in the other way, by two support wheels (sort spherical or caster ball) typified as a non-centred adjustable wheels. It includes a control and position system that uses odometry, and is based in distance incremental information based on time. Its control systems and trajectory generation are developed using available functionality systems in Robot Operating System (ROS). Besides, Gazebo simulator is being used to control and generate trajectories, and create, at the same time, scenarios where it's possible to develop and research for experimental frameworks in order to improve mechanics and movements, performing also complex indoor and outdoor environments for recreating physics and trajectories.

In seinem zukunftsweisenden Text The Cyborg’s Dilemma: Embodiment in Virtual Environments (1997) entwickelte Frank Biocca das Konzept des progressive embodiment. Mit diesem Theoriekonzept entwirft Biococa ein interaktionistisches Modell des mediatisierten Raumes, in welchem sich physischer Körper und technologische Apparatur über ein komplex gestaltetes Interface miteinander verbinden lassen. Diese Verbindung bleibt allerdings nicht ein rein technisches Kalkül, sondern mündet direkt im kognitionsphilosophischen ›Cyborg’s Dilemma‹ und der damit verbundenen Problemstellung, wie sich das subjektivierte Ich während der rezeptiven Verkörperung innerhalb digitaler Bildsimulationen autonom von der artifiziellen Präsenz des Technischen abgrenzen kann. Dies führt zu der bereits europhänomenologisch anmutenden Frage: »Where am ›I‹ present?«.
Mit Blick auf aktuelle Medientechnologien – vor allem in Bezug
auf immersive Interfaces und Displays – lässt sich plausibel vom
progressive embodiment oder von Medien der Verkörperung in zweifacher Hinsicht sprechen: Zum einen unterstützen die von Biococa genannten Interfaces die virtuelle Verkörperung der Rezipienten in den simulierten Bildraum hinein; und zum anderen entwickeln sich die Medien immer stärker zu ›Körpern der Bilder‹, indem sie eine multimodale und damit sinnlich-extensive Repräsentation erlauben.

Narrative action in its meaningfulness, is the presentation of the author‟s view of reality: an imparting of an inter-subjective experience to the audience. This paper proposes a view of narrative that is relevant to the apparatus and the nature of user experience in immersive IVEs: as an aggregate of temporally successive experiential states. Narrative action is a structuring operation of elements and constituents of the story world towards that end. To the audience, a narrative is always emergent. This paper defines a concept called Narrative State, which refers back to the user state for narrative order in emergence, and identifies the progressive elements of a narrative. Since the participative user is also a narrative element, the system needs a regulatory mechanism that works on user states simultaneously.

Las formas de promocionar un sitio turístico están evolucionando rápidamente, generando la necesidad de actualizar las técnicas de marketing y gestión de un destino de forma permanente. El surgimiento de nuevas tecnologías, ha revolucionado la manera de promocionar los lugares, es por eso que cualquier destino que desee tener éxito se debería actualizar a estos nuevos desafíos (Perdomo, Rincón, & Sanchez, 2013, Guttentag, 2010).
Es por ello que el presente trabajo de investigación se enfoca en dar un acercamiento al uso de la realidad virtual para la promoción de un destino; planteando a esta tecnología como un instrumento influenciador de la imagen de un destino, y en consecuencia, de la intención de visita de un potencial turista.
Para llevar a cabo este trabajo primeramente se hizo una aproximación de carácter teórico, en donde se describen los conceptos fundamentales de la imagen de un destino y una experiencia de realidad virtual, para posteriormente dar lugar a un análisis cualitativo, con entrevistas, sobre las percepciones de los usuarios antes y después de una experiencia de este tipo.
En una segunda etapa, y con el fin de ampliar los resultados obtenidos durante las entrevistas, se llevó a cabo un experimento exploratorio, a partir de una experiencia de realidad virtual en el marco de la Feria Internacional de Turismo de América Latina 2018, para luego compararlo con los resultados obtenidos en la presentación del mismo destino bajo otros soportes.
Por último, se exponen los resultados obtenidos durante el trabajo de campo, junto con las conclusiones y una recomendación para estudios futuros sobre esta temática.

Computer games are quickly gaining momentum by enabling new approaches to teaching and learning experience for programming courses in K-12 curriculum. However, it remains unclear if the game interface and elements created by using three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds combined with visual programming languages or a visual programming environment can affect students’ learning performance. This quasi-experimental study presents evidence about how a game can assist boys and girls to gain a greater understanding on skills related to CT for developing, implementing and transforming their solution plans into code based on their computational problem-solving strategies. A total of fifty (n=50) high school students who volunteered to participate in this study divided into a control group (n=25) and an experimental (n=25) group that used Scratch and OpenSim with the Scratch4SL palette, respectively to propose their solutions for the same problem-solving tasks via a simulation game. The study findings indicate substantial differences and important points of view about students’ learning performance by assessing their computational problem-solving strategies. Students from the experimental group performed significantly better both in measures of problem-solving and algorithmic thinking. Mean scores on post-questionnaires from the experimental group revealed improvements higher than their control group counterparts in two aspects. First, students of the former group created more complete computational instructions with rules to be specified and delivered the learning goals. Second, students of the same group proposed and applied more correct computational concepts and practices in code. Finally, this study discusses the implications for designing learning experiences using OpenSim with Scratch4SL.

Virtual Reality (VR) simulators represent a powerful tool for training humans to perform tasks which are otherwise expensive or dangerous to duplicate in the real world. The idea is not new. This technology has been successfully extended and utilised in the mining industry in a range of applications (There are a number of lessons that can be learned from other industries that have effectively utilised virtual technology for a number of years. A number of organisational knowledge models have been used in their creation such as the SECI model (Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination and Internalisation) developed by Nonaka et al. who have extensively published on its use (Nonaka et al 1998; Nonaka et al 2000). However, recently an increasing number of authors have raised issues with these theories, many reporting that the empirical basis of the models are unsatisfactory and thus that the models themselves are flawed.

Concernsovertheuseofvirtualreality(VR)systemsinexperimental psychological research exist. It is found that human egocentric depth perception in a virtual environment (VE) has significant errors compared to real physical environment. It is hypothesized that due to the presence of a human body as a size reference in a mixed reality CAVE-like system, the accuracy of depth esti‐ mation will improve. The second hypothesis proposes that when a participant is allowed to move around the VE, motion parallax will supplement the depth perception ability. Results showed that the features of an immersive system did not aid the estimation. Around 40 % underestimation of actual distance was observed above 15 m. By using a 3D-military jet instead of 2D-wall as the judg‐ ment object, a significant improvement in the accuracy is found. Pictorial cues were hence, suggested as the improvement basis for next part of the study.

Interior space design is a collaborative process for deriving different proposals on the content and structure of any type of interior space. This process is partially supported by mainstream CAD systems which are not designed for that particular task but for general engineering-or architectural-design development. Although, several add-on modules have been developed for supporting mainly arctitectural design, still, significant effort is required in order to employ a CAD system due to their increased requiremenets and slow learning ...

ImmerseMe is a virtual reality technology (VR technology) software with automatic speech recognition (ASR) embedded into language learning lessons designed for language study. The desktop version is currently licensed to over 13,000 users (Cardwell, 2017). Created from 360 degree videos recorded from around the world, ImmerseMe provides language learners with novel opportunities to interact with pragmatically authentic situations, i.e. buying bread, reserving a room, asking for directions. Despite increasing interest and momentum in the field, there remains a dearth of studies investigating second language (L2) learning through virtual reality (Lee and Wong, 2015; Lin & Lan 2015), and even fewer examining L2 in ASR (Liakin et al., 2015).

Considering the L2 affordances of ImmerseMe, what are the average minutes of use for first time and returning users? How might this focused time of spoken output and interactivity impact language learners? Time spent interacting in the target language is crucial for second language acquisition (Ellis, 2005). “Time on task” is especially important for SLA in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environments (Blake, 2011, p. 21). In a typical classroom, L2 students are rarely provided with several instances of personalized and immediate feedback on oral production. ImmerseMe users must continually speak target utterances into the microphone to progress through lessons. ImmerseMe offers over 450+ lessons in 9 languages that range in minutes depending on lesson storyline pathways.

Analyzing company backend user data, preliminary results indicate that 52% of learners used the software for 19-35 minutes during one session. Data demonstrate that sessions for returning users averaged 3 minutes less than their counterparts. Compared to a classroom setting, time immersed in individualized speaking and listening practice for 20 minutes is valuable and rare for typical language classes. These affordances and time averages suggest there is merit in L2 VR technology software as a complement to classroom language instruction.