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Background: Both head‐mounted display (HMD) and augmented reality (AR) are examples of emergent and disruptive technologies that have had little exposure in pharmacy. The developed HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide allowed pharmacists to examine this technology in a familiar context. Aims: To determine acceptance among pharmacists for the HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide, as a form of emergent and disruptive technology. Methods: Forty Australian community pharmacists were recruited for a cohort study. The study was completed in a pre‐ and post‐test manner, where pharmacists were allowed to explore the HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide. The pre‐test included questions related to demographic variables. The post‐test used Technology Assessment Model (TAM) based Likert scale questions on a 1–5 (strongly agree to strongly disagree) scale. Questions unrelated to TAM were also included in the pre‐ and post‐test and compared using a Wilcoxon signed‐rank test. These engaged participants on perceived usefulness of the HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide and their willingness to use technology. Qualitative feedback to open ended questions in the post‐test was also sought. Results: Technology Assessment Model constructs (perceived ease‐of‐use, perceived usefulness, and behavioural intention) indicated a positive reception overall. Pre‐ and post‐test questions regarding perceived usefulness of the HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide and willingness to use technology declined after using the HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide. Conclusion: Participant expectations although still positive, declined after using the HMD‐AR warfarin counselling guide. Further study is needed for technological advances, design optimisation and to assess patient acceptance to ensure the system is fit for purpose for pharmacy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating depth from RGB images is a long-standing ill-posed problem, which has been explored for decades by the computer vision, graphics, and machine learning communities. Among the existing techniques, stereo matching remains one of the most widely used in the literature due to its strong connection to the human binocular system. Traditionally, stereo-based depth estimation has been addressed through matching hand-crafted features across multiple images. Despite the extensive amount of research, these traditional techniques still suffer in the presence of highly textured areas, large uniform regions, and occlusions. Motivated by their growing success in solving various 2D and 3D vision problems, deep learning for stereo-based depth estimation has attracted a growing interest from the community, with more than 150 papers published in this area between 2014 and 2019. This new generation of methods has demonstrated a significant leap in performance, enabling applications such as autonomous driving and augmented reality. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey of this new and continuously growing field of research, summarize the most commonly used pipelines, and discuss their benefits and limitations. In retrospect of what has been achieved so far, we also conjecture what the future may hold for deep learning-based stereo for depth estimation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory condition of the airways with a heterogenous symptom profile. When symptoms are poorly controlled and frequent, asthma sufferers are impacted regularly, with limitations on physical activities and sleep disturbances, significantly impairing quality of life. Asthma is highly prevalent and the leading cause of disease burden in young people. Those aged 0–14 contribute to over half of the asthma hospitalisations within Australia. Asthma education and self-management remains a key component of care; however, challenges remain in the paediatric population with difficulties of engagement. Augmented reality (AR) may provide a novel and effective solution with its ability to superimpose virtual objects into a real-world setting. Using a smartphone or tablet to deliver AR makes this modality accessible to much of the population. AR is a growing field in technology and has already established uses in education and training. The ability to increase motivation, enhance enjoyment and encourage faster concept understanding in the educational setting is encouraging and supports our proposal that AR technology can provide a generation appropriate education delivery modality for young people with asthma. To ensure successful implementation of an AR asthma educational resource on a large scale, the usability, acceptability, barriers and enablers of its use must be investigated. Using an iterative co-design process, an asthma resource utilising AR to deliver education on inhaler technique will be created. Qualitative research will be undertaken using semi-structured interviews with moderator guides to obtain mixed-method data on the AR resource. Participants will be key members of the asthma community including children and adolescents with asthma (8–17 years old), caregivers of children and adolescents with asthma, and health professionals. Understanding the usability, acceptability, barriers and enablers of the AR resource will enable us to improve our alpha version and test an optimal version in a planned feasibility study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of digital technologies is explicitly addressed in the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. The use of augmented reality (AR) technology, as one form of digital technology, is increasingly embedded in digital applications because it allows individuals to interact with real and virtual objects. A significant body of research has reported the benefits afforded by the use of AR technology in schools and higher education settings. However, little is known about the contribution of AR technology to teaching practice and child learning outcomes in the preschool years. Here, we present a summary of the limited research that has explored the use of AR in preschool curricula and argue for the need for further research to explore the contribution of AR to high-quality pedagogical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GNSS has limitations or cannot be applied in specific environments with poor geometry like city streets, tunnels, bridges, quarries, mines, ports or in indoor environment in general. In 2003 Locata Corporation from Australia began with the development of a new, completely independent technology called Locata, which was designed to overcome the limitations of GNSS. Within the project "Wearable Outdoor Augmented Reality System for the Enrichment of Touristic Content" Locata system was implemented for the first time in the Republic of Croatia. The quality of the established LocataNet network and the quality of the Locata positioning are presented in this paper as the basis for future research of possibilities to use Locata in displacement measurement. Achieved positioning precision is in a range of few mm in the horizontal direction and up to a couple of cm in the vertical direction. Although high level of precision is achieved, the accuracy, i. e. the errors of positioning solutions are up to several cm. Among other things, the research presented in this paper is focused on the reasons for achieved lower accuracy that probably have their roots in the instability of the LocataLite transmitting antennas in the established LocataNet. They namely affect the estimated float ambiguities of carrier phase measurements. Potential of relative positioning is another topic of this research, because it could allow the fixing of ambiguities to integer values and result in increase of accuracy and precision of positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Elevated blood glucose levels in pregnancy increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Modifying consumption of carbohydrate‐rich foods is important for blood glucose regulation; however, the tools commonly used to assist in guiding portion control are impractical. The present study aimed to evaluate usability of ServARpreg, a mobile phone‐based nutrition tool, and its effectiveness with respect to improving carbohydrate and standard serve size knowledge in pregnant women. Methods: A baseline survey assessed knowledge of carbohydrates and standard serve sizes of pregnant women. A subset of women living in Newcastle were invited to use ServARpreg, containing pregnancy nutrition information and augmented reality guidance on portion control. A follow‐up survey was sent to all women 4 weeks after baseline and women who received ServARpreg also received a process evaluation survey after 10 weeks. Results: Responses were received from 186 pregnant women for the baseline survey, with 97 completing the follow‐up (52.2%). Of the 56 women eligible to receive ServARpreg in the sub‐study, 47 accepted (83.9%) and, of these, 40 completed the process evaluation survey (85.1%). At follow‐up, there was a significant group × time interaction in favour of the ServARpreg group for carbohydrate quantification knowledge (F1,279 = 9.705, P = 0.002). Standard serve size knowledge did not change between groups. In the process evaluation survey, 80% strongly agreed/agreed that ServARpreg made them more aware of how much they ate and 72.5% found ServARpreg easy to use. Conclusions: ServARpreg has shown potential to educate pregnant women about carbohydrate quantification and increase portion size awareness. Further refinement of the tool and evaluation is needed to improve standard serve size knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the benefits of play and discovery in cities have been widely discussed, the impact of augmented reality games, such as Pokémon Go, induced urban discovery on different demographics and their impact on perceptions of public spaces is yet to be studied. This paper examines the perceptions and usage of public spaces by different demographics of augmented reality gamers. The study finds that there are several statistically significant differences between the experiences of men and women, and players of different ages playing Pokémon Go in public spaces in Australia, particularly in their mobility, sense of marginalization and sense of place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital Twins (DTs) have been developed for several pilot-scale membrane capacitive deionization (mCDI) units that are located in remote communities in China and Australia for desalination of brackish water and treated domestic wastewater. These pilot-scale mCDI units have a production capacity ranging from 5 to 50 m3/day and a water recovery rate of up to 85%. The mCDI DTs use Head-mounted Displays (HMDs) to facilitate the visualisation of transient real-time data and historical data from various sensors in the physical plants. The DTs contain device tag and sensor data display functions which greatly enhance the model functionality and user experience. By combining the DTs with Mixed Reality (MR) technology that blends elements of both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), it was possible to use the DTs for remote control and remote operator training in an immersive environment. Our results suggest that more facile remote control and improved training outcomes could be achieved by use of DTs by the water industry compared to those achieved by conventional control and training methods. [Display omitted] • Digital Twins (DTs) of membrane capacitive deionization (mCDI) units developed. • The DTs blend elements of both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). • Different communication approaches required depending on local infrastructure. • More facile remote control and improved training outcomes achieved by use of DTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]