1,721,007 research outputs found
Support users towards more conscious food consumption habits: A case study
No full textDesign for Sustainability is a research area based on a multidisciplinary approach, which has become increasingly important in recent years. Great attention is paid to the design of products that can impact on users' behaviours, through embedded smart technologies, e.g. Internet of Things (IoT). In fact, IoT systems are able to "dialogue" with the users, supporting the identification of any misbehaviour, and suggesting more sustainable ones. This paper presents a research aiming at supporting users towards more conscious food consumption in their daily life to reduce food waste. As a case study, it has been developed an interactive system in which chicken eggs are used as main communication element. Indeed, the environmental footprint of the egg industry is very heavy, and eggs are one of the main wasted food. The interactive system consists of a physical product, an eggs tray, integrating sensors and actuators for handling the interaction with users. It is accompanied by an interactive application for monitoring eggs consumption, displaying eggs waste statistics, and an Augmented Reality part for children, aimed to improve their awareness about food waste and the impact on their food habits through an "edutainment" approach
A Framework for Developing XR Applications Including Multiple Sensorial Media
No full texteXtended Reality applications include multiple sensorial media to increase the quality of the User Experience. In addition to traditional media, video, and sound, two other senses are typically integrated: touch and smell. The development of applications that integrate multiple sensorial media requires a framework for properly managing their activation and synchronization. The paper describes a framework for the development of eXtended Reality mulsemedia applications and presents some applications based on the integration of smells developed using the framework
Applications virtually augmenting real experiences for behavioral change
Full text linkDesign for Sustainability is a research area based on a multidisciplinary approach, which has become increasingly important in recent years. Among the several approaches to Design for Sustainability emerged in the past decades, great attention is paid to the “Design for sustainable behavior” approach, used to design products that can impact on users' behaviors, through embedded smart technologies, e.g., Internet of Things (IoT). In fact, IoT systems are able to "dialogue" with the users, supporting the identification of any misbehavior, and suggesting more sustainable ones. The authors identified the opportunity to design and develop AR interactive applications aiming to generate awareness about the impact of humans on Earth, make people reason about how they can directly contribute to limit the expansion of this problem and induce their behavioral change. The applications are meant to engage users in an active process of exploring and discovering informative contents and to foster them to elaborate a personal and critical vision and change their bad habits. Specifically, this paper presents two case studies about the design and development of Augmented Reality applications and IoT products to be used for supporting users towards more conscious food consumption in their daily life, in order to reduce food waste
Virtual reality to improve the user experience of traditional museums
No full textMuseums have been subjected to important changes in the approach they use to involve visitors. Among the other trends, storytelling and interactive exhibitions are two of the most used approaches used to make exhibitions more interesting for users. Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality methods can be effectively used in the context of a museum exhibition to support both storytelling and interaction. The primary objective of the use of these technologies is to make the visit of museums much more engaging, and suitable for different types of visitors. Among the several museums that are moving in this direction, there is the Museo Astronomico di Brera. The museum mainly consists of a corridor, hosting instruments used by astronomers, and the Cupola Schiaparelli, which is an observatory dome. The aim of the research presented in this paper is to develop an interactive Virtual Reality application to be used for improving the users’ experience of visits to the Museo Astronomico di Brera. Specifically, the paper presents a VR application to virtually visit the Dome. Preliminary tests have been carried out for evaluating the users' sense of presence in the VR environment. An analysis of the collected data is presented in the paper
Multisensory VR for delivering training content to machinery operators
No full textThe issue of training operators in the use of machinery is topical in the industrial field and in many other contexts, such as university laboratories. Training is about learning how to use machinery properly and safely. Beyond the possibility of studying manuals to learn how to use a machine, operators typically learn through on-the-job training. Indeed, learning by doing is in general more effective, tasks done practically are remembered more easily, and the training is more motivating and less tiresome. On the other hand, this training method has several negative factors. In particular, safety may be a major issue in some training situations. An approach that may contribute overcoming negative factors is using Virtual Reality and digital simulations techniques for operators training. The research work presented in this paper concerns the development of a multisensory Virtual Reality environment for training operators to properly use machinery and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The context selected for the study is a university laboratory hosting manufacturing machinery. It has been developed an application that allows user to navigate the laboratory, to approach a machine and learn about how to operate it and also what PPE to use while operating. Specifically, the paper describes the design and implementation of the application
Multisensory Virtual Reality for Delivering Training Content to Machinery Operators
No full textThe issue of training operators in the use of machinery is topical in the industrial field and in many other contexts, such as university laboratories. Training is about learning how to use machinery properly and safely. Beyond the possibility of studying manuals to learn how to use a machine, operators typically learn through on-The-job training. Indeed, learning by doing is in general more effective, tasks done practically are remembered more easily, and the training is more motivating and less tiresome. On the other hand, this training method has several negative factors. In particular, safety may be a major issue in some training situations. An approach that may contribute overcoming negative factors is using Virtual Reality and digital simulation techniques for operators training. The research work presented in this paper concerns the development of a multisensory virtual reality application for training operators to properly use machinery and personal protective equipment (PPE). The context selected for the study is a university laboratory hosting manufacturing machinery. The application allows user to navigate the laboratory, to approach a machine and learn about how to operate it, and also to use proper PPE while operating a machine. Specifically, the paper describes the design and implementation of the application and presents the results of preliminary testing sessions
A Conceptual Framework to Support a New Collaborative Design Process for Immersive Technology Integration in Museum Exhibitions
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Empowering Virtual Humans’ Emotional Expression in the Metaverse
No full textThe Metaverse is defined as an interconnected network of 3D environments that enable multisensory interactions with virtual environments, digital objects, and people. A central component of a Metaverse is the realism of human interaction with the environment and each other, which is achieved through emotional expression. However, there are limitations in realistically representing human emotions and facial expressions in real time through virtual avatars. In this paper, the authors present a research project called Meta-EmoVis aimed at improving the realism of the Metaverse by detecting human facial expressions and translating them into emotional feedback that influences aspects of the virtual avatar and environment. The Emoj tool is used to collect data and map facial expressions to basic emotions, as well as detect the human engagement level. The goal is to create a world of real social interaction and emotional sharing in virtual spaces that are sensitive and adaptive to human emotional and mental states. Preliminary user tests to evaluate the effectiveness of the application are presented
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