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Traditional teaching methods in construction management education often face challenges in providing students with practical, real-world experiences crucial for skill development. To address these limitations, this study explores the potential of integrating building information modeling (BIM) and virtual reality (VR) as educational tools for construction management students. Our aim is to assess the effectiveness of a 4D-BIM-based VR simulation in enhancing student's learning experiences and performance in construction project management. This research employs a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative data and qualitative insights from a comparative experiment involving undergraduate students. Quantitative data were collected through objective error detection measures in construction sequences and processes, while qualitative insights were gathered from participant feedback. The findings highlight that students using VR-based simulations detected more errors in construction sequences and processes than in traditional 2D drawings, showcasing the utility of BIM and VR-enabled approaches in teaching construction management. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on integrating advanced technologies into educational practices, particularly in construction management, where practical hands-on experiences are crucial for skill development and real-world application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation involves all types of patients, including people with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is considered a complex syndrome characterized in general by fundamental and characteristic distortions of thinking and perception. The quality of life of a person with schizophrenia can be compromised by difficulty in carrying out their daily tasks and by the social stigma of their condition. The importance of training and sensitizing students in rehabilitation areas to this type of problem to improve the rehabilitation processes in which they will participate as future professionals involves empathy and the ability to communicate with these populations. It is possible through virtual reality to create immersive environments to simulate some psychotic symptoms characteristic of people with schizophrenia, such as visual hallucinations and hearing voices. The aim of this study was to test the effect of exposure to experiences characteristic of schizophrenia through two different types of immersive environments, graphical computational virtual reality and 360° video, on students from areas of social rehabilitation regarding empathy, social distance, and attitudes towards people with schizophrenia. Although the results were positive for the three parameters under study, no significant differences were found for each of them between the environments to which the participants were exposed. This study concluded that the choice between the two types of immersive environments should be based on the project's objectives, the target audience's needs, and available resources, rather than the type of environment itself, as their impact was similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Augmented Reality (AR) system is a technology that overlays digital information, such as images, sounds, or text, onto a user's view of the real world, providing an enriched and interactive experience of the surrounding environment. It has evolved into a potent instrument for improving human perception and decision-making across various domains, including industrial, automotive, healthcare, and urban planning. This systematic literature review aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of AR technology, its limitations, and implementation challenges in the most significant areas of application in engineering and beyond. The review will explore the state-of-the-art AR techniques, their potential use cases, and the barriers to widespread adoption, while also identifying future research directions and opportunities for innovation in the rapidly evolving field of augmented reality. This study works as a compilation of the existing technologies in the subject, especially useful for beginners in AR or as a starting point for developers who seek to innovate or implement new technologies, thus knowing the limitations and current challenges that could arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The integration of biofeedback systems in Emotionally Adaptive Immersive Environments contributes to increase their interactivity, allowing them to be used in therapeutic programs. The interactivity of an immersive environment comes up from the relationship that is established between the user and the system. This relationship results in a set of data exchanges between human and technological actors. The real-time biofeedback devices allow to collect in real time the biodata generated by the user during the exhibition. The analysis, processing and conversion of these biodata into multimodal data allows to relate the stimuli with the emotions they trigger. This work describes an adaptive model for biofeedback data flows management used in the design of interactive immersive systems. The use of an affective algorithm allows to identify the types of emotions felt by the user and the respective intensities. The mapping between stimuli and emotions creates a set of biodata that can be used as elements of interaction that will readjust the stimuli generated by the system. The real-time interaction generated by the evolution of the user's emotional state and the stimuli generated by the system allows him to adapt attitudes and behaviors to the situations he faces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach to the representation and presentation of spatial and geographical context of cultural heritage sites is proposed. The goal is to combine semantic representations of social and historical context with 3D representations of cultural heritage sites acquired through 3D reconstruction and 3D modeling technologies, to support their interpretation and presentation in education and tourism. Several use cases support and demonstrate the application of the proposed approach including immersive craft and context demonstration environment and interactive games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) technology is emerging as a tool for simulating different eating environments to better understand consumer sensory response to food. This research explored the impact of different environmental contexts on participants' hedonic ratings of two different food products: beef steaks, and milk chocolate, using VR as the context-enhancing technology. Two separate studies were conducted. For beef, two different contextual conditions were compared: traditional sensory booths and a VR restaurant. For chocolate, data were generated under three different contextual conditions: traditional sensory booths, VR Irish countryside; VR busy city (Dublin, Ireland). All VR experiences were 360-degree video based. Consumer level of engagement in the different contextual settings was also investigated. The results showed that VR had a significant effect on participants' hedonic responses to the food products. Beef was rated significantly higher in terms of liking for all sensory attributes when consumed in the VR restaurant. While for chocolate, the VR countryside context generated significantly higher hedonic scores for flavour and overall liking in comparison to the sensory booth. Taken together, both studies demonstrate how specific contextual settings can impact participants' sensory response to food products, when compared to a traditional sensory laboratory condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional booths where sensory evaluation usually takes place are highly controlled and therefore have limited ecological validity. Since virtual reality (VR) is substantially interactive and engaging, it has the potential to be applied in sensory science. In this preliminary study, three chocolate types (milk, white, and dark) were evaluated under three contextual settings, including sensory booths (control) and two VR environments (360-degree videos using VR headsets: (i) a pleasant sightseeing tour, and (ii) a live music concert). Untrained participants (n = 67) were asked to rate their liking and the intensity of different chocolate attributes based on the 9-point hedonic scale and just-about-right-scale (JAR). Emotions were evaluated using the check-all-that-apply (CATA) method. Results showed that there were no significant effects of context type on the tasting experience; however, there were significant effects of chocolate type. Milk and white chocolates were preferred over dark chocolate irrespective of the context type. Additionally, more positive emotions were elicited for the dark chocolate in the "virtual live concert" environment. Dark chocolate under the other two environments was associated with negative emotional terms, such as "bored" and "worried." In terms of more reliable and ecologically valid sensory responses, further research is needed to match suitable VR environments to different chocolate types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]