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International audience; Technological advances in hardware manufacturing led to an extended range of possibilities for designing physical-digital objects involved in a mixed system. Mixed systems can take various forms and include augmented reality, augmented virtuality, and tangible systems. In this very dynamic context, it is difficult to compare existing mixed systems and to systematically explore the design space. Addressing this design problem, this chapter presents a unified point of view on mixed systems by focusing on mixed objects involved in interaction, i.e. hybrid physical-digital objects straddling physical and digital worlds. Our integrating framework is made of two complementary facets of a mixed object: we define intrinsic characteristics of an object as well as extrinsic characteristics of an object by considering its role in the interaction. Such characteristics of an object are useful for comparing existing mixed systems at a fine-grain level. The taxonomic power of these characteristics is discussed in the context of existing mixed systems from the literature. Their generative power is illustrated by considering a system, Roam, which we designed and developed.

This paper describes an interactive 3-D indoor modeler that effectively creates photo-realistic 3-D indoor models from multiple photographs. This modeler supports the creation of 3-D models from photographs by implementing interaction techniques that use geometric constraints estimated from photographs and visualization techniques that help to easily understand shapes of 3-D models. We evaluated the availability and usability by applying the modeler to model service fields where actual workers provide services and an experience-based exhibit. Our results confirmed that the modeler enables the creation of large-scale indoor environments such as hot-spring inns and event sites at a relatively modest cost. We also confirmed that school children could learn modeling operations and create 3-D models from a photograph for approximately 20 min because of the easy operations. In addition, we describe additional functions that increase the effectiveness of 3-D modeling based on knowledge from service-field modeling. We present applications for behavior analysis of service workers and for 3-D indoor navigation using augmented virtuality (AV)-based visualization realized by photo-realistic 3-D models.

Modelling and simulation of social interaction and networks are of high interest in multiple disciplines and fields of application ranging from fundamental social sciences to smart city management. Future smart city infrastructures and management are characterised by adaptive and self-organising control using real-world sensor data. In this work, humans are considered as sensors. Virtual worlds, e.g., simulations and games, are commonly closed and rely on artificial social behaviour and synthetic sensor information generated by the simulator program or using data collected off-line by surveys. In contrast, real worlds have a higher diversity. Agent-based modelling relies on parameterised models. The selection of suitable parameter sets is crucial to match real-world behaviour. In this work, a framework combining agent-based simulation with crowd sensing and social data mining using mobile agents is introduced. The crowd sensing via chat bots creates augmented virtuality and reality by augmenting the simulated worlds with real-world interaction and vice versa. The simulated world interacts with real-world environments, humans, machines, and other virtual worlds in real-time. Among the mining of physical sensors (e.g., temperature, motion, position, and light) of mobile devices like smartphones, mobile agents can perform crowd sensing by participating in question–answer dialogues via a chat blog (provided by smartphone Apps or integrated into WEB pages and social media). Additionally, mobile agents can act as virtual sensors (offering data exchanged with other agents) and create a bridge between virtual and real worlds. The ubiquitous usage of digital social media has relevant impact on social interaction, mobility, and opinion-making, which has to be considered. Three different use-cases demonstrate the suitability of augmented agent-based simulation for social network analysis using parameterised behavioural models and mobile agent-based crowd sensing. This paper gives a rigorous overview and introduction of the challenges and methodologies used to study and control large-scale and complex socio-technical systems using agent-based methods.

Over the past couple of years, Virtual and Augmented Reality have been at the forefront of the Mixed Reality development scene, whereas Augmented Virtuality has significantly lacked behind. Widespread adoption however requires efficient low-cost platforms and minimalistic interference design. In this work we present Space Wars, an end-to-end proof of concept for an elegant and rapid-deployment Augmented VR platform. Through the engaging experience of Space Wars, we aim to demonstrate how digital games, as forerunners of innovative technology, are perfectly suited as an application area to embrace the underlying low-cost technology, and thus pave the way for other adopters (such as healthcare, education, tourism and e-commerce) to follow suit.

Occupancy grid maps derived from laser range finder readings can be used to create virtual worlds for planar environments. These virtual worlds can be augmented with video to create augmented virtuality displays. Such displays, suitably adapted to represent local terrain and pan-tilt-zoom cameras, can make it easier for operators to simultaneously perceive the pose of the robot and its relation to information in the world. We motivate this claim using two abstractions from a model of cognitive information processing: working memory and mental models. We then describe visualization techniques that try to minimize cognitive workload by displaying information about the "head", "shoulders", "eyes", and "toes" of a teleoperated robot.

3D virtual worlds are recognized as collaborative learning environments. However, the underlying technology is not sufficiently mature and the virtual worlds look cartoonish, unlinked to reality. Thus, it is important to enrich them with elements from the real world to enhance student engagement in learning activities. Our approach is to build learning environments where participants can either be in the real world or in its mirror world while sharing the same hybrid space in a collaborative learning experience. This paper focuses on the system architecture and a usability study of a proof-of-concept for these hybrid learning environments. The architecture allows the integration of the real world and its 3D virtual mirror; the exchange and geolocalization of multimodal information, and also the orchestration of learning activities. The results of the usability evaluation show positive engagement effects on participants in the mirror world and, to a lesser extent, on those in the real world. This research has been partially supported by the following projects: “España Virtual” within the Ingenio 2010 program, subcontracted by Elecnor Deimos, "EEE" (TIN2011-28308-C03-01) funded by the Spanish National Plan of Research, Development and Innovation, and "eMadrid", S2009/TIC-1650 “Investigación y Desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid” funded by the Region of Madrid. Publicado

Background Mixed reality (MR), the computer-supported augmentation of a real environment with virtual elements, becomes ever more relevant in the medical domain, especially in urology, ranging from education and training over surgeries. We aimed to review existing MR technologies and their applications in urology. Methods A non-systematic review of current literature was performed using the PubMed-Medline database using the medical subject headings (MeSH) term “mixed reality”, combined with one of the following terms: “virtual reality”, “augmented reality”, ‘’urology’’ and “augmented virtuality”. The relevant studies were utilized. Results MR applications such as MR guided systems, immersive VR headsets, AR models, MR-simulated ureteroscopy and smart glasses have enormous potential in education, training and surgical interventions of urology. Medical students, urology residents and inexperienced urologists can gain experience thanks to MR technologies. MR applications are also used in patient education before interventions. Conclusions For surgical support, the achievable accuracy is often not sufficient. The main challenges are the non-rigid nature of the genitourinary organs, intraoperative data acquisition, online and multimodal registration and calibration of devices. However, the progress made in recent years is tremendous in all respects and the gap is constantly shrinking.

What is virtuality in organizational design? In this chapter we argue for the importance of understanding the nature and effect of the characteristics of virtual organizations, rather than simply focusing on how these characteristics are different from co-located organizations. Through a review of literature relating to virtual organizations we identify two different dimensions: locational and relational differentiation, which capture the nature of virtual organizations well. We anchor theoretically these dimensions to organization design and information processing theory. This enables us to identify their effects and consequences for coordination in information processing terms. We thereby not only integrate theory of virtual organization into extant theory of organization design but, more importantly, also demonstrate how increasing virtuality essentially imposes an information processing dilemma for organizations: Locational differentiation reduces the information processing capacity, while relational differentiation increases the information processing requirements. We discuss the managerial as well as the theoretical implications of these findings.

Part 5: Mixed Reality and 3D Worlds; International audience; Globalization and increasing collaboration between remote teams drive the need for teleconference systems. However, currently no videoconferencing system matches the face-to-face experience for a business meeting with many participants in a flexible and affordable manner. In search for a better solution, we created a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) application that visualizes key events detected using computer vision (e.g., participant entering the meeting room, talking, presenting) in a 3D virtual environment. The goal was to provide a good sense of overview to users when many meeting participants - represented by 3D avatars - from remote locations join a teleconference. In this paper, a technical overview of the working prototype - built using 3D game technology - is presented. Also, feedback from multiple user tests performed during the development of the prototype is discussed and presented as a set of recommendations. From the technical perspective, we found that existing 3D game technology is mature, affordable and contains the features needed to build the VMR application. From the users’ and experts’ feedback, we conclude that the VMR has merits as a teleconferencing support tool accompanying a video stream that conveys more detailed non-verbal communication of the active speaker.

It is becoming increasingly important to include information about power generation from renewable energy sources in the training of electrical engineers. Solar energy is arguably the most common renewable energy source in use today. Providing practical hands-on training on solar energy power generation today requires the use of photovoltaic panel devices which are used for transforming solar energy into electrical energy. In many developing countries, practical hands-on training on solar power generation is limited due to the cost of photovoltaic panel devices and so the training consists of theoretical and tutorial classes sometimes supported by remote and virtual laboratories. This paper presents an augmented virtuality tool where real-time information from a mobile device’s sensors is used directly within a virtual or computer generated environment. The tool provides a practical context for hands-on tutorial exercises on solar energy power generation.

For the past two years, the research interest concerning subjects related to the area of (artificial) emotions has grown considerably. Generically, the goal is to develop new architectures/frameworks that are suitable for designing virtual or robotic agents whose behaviour may somehow be compared with the "emotional facet" of human behaviour. In this paper, an emotion-based system architecture, together with an application of it for control and supervision purposes is presented.