• Research Experience for Undergraduates

HCI Graduate Program
1620 Howe Hall
Ames, IA 50010
515-294-2089
• Emerging Technologies Conference 2008

• Virtual Reality Applications Center

• Faculty Opening for Assistant Professor, Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
posted: August 25, 2008
• Touchtable tech, Robotics and ETC'08 coverage… Check out the Spring 2008 issue of VRTech!
posted: August 15, 2008
• Top Schools, Top Programs: ISU Human Computer Interaction graduate program ranked #7 among top performing individual Information Science/Information Systems programs.
posted: May 02, 2008
• Iowa State design researcher (Debra Satterfield) teams with Mayo Clinic to study medical decision aids
— ISU News Service: 07/28/2008
• Bernard named interim dean of Iowa State University College of Engineering
— ISU News Service: 07/23/2008
• Teaching Toolbox: A Chair in your Future
— ASEE Connections: 07/01/2008
• Car manufacturing: Vehicle makers appreciate the virtues of virtual design
— Financial Times: 05/28/2008
HCI Publications
| Papers | Proceedings | Dissertations and Theses |
Papers
The Role of Effective Modeling in the Development of Self-efficacy: The Case of the Transparent Engine
Author(s): Scheibe, K.P., Mennecke B., Luse, A.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education. Volume 51. pp 21-42.
- Year: 2007
Computing technology augments learning in education in a number of ways. One particular method uses interactive programs to demonstrate complex concepts. The purpose of this article is to examine one type of interactive learning technology, the transparent engine. The transparent engine allows instructors and students to view and directly interact with educational concepts such as Web-enabled software development. The article first presents a framework describing transparent engines. The framework details four types of transparent engines: (1) enactive mastery/manipulatable, (2) enactive mastery/nonmanipulatable, (3) vicarious experience/manipulatable, and (4) vicarious experience/nonmanipulatable. Following this, we present the results of an experiment designed to examine this framework by testing its predictions for one quadrant, vicarious experience/nonmanipulatable. The results support the framework in that students taught concepts with the aid of the vicarious experience/nonmanipulatable transparent engine had significantly higher domain-specific self-efficacy compared to those taught the same concepts without this tool.
A Component-Based Framework for Visualization of Intrusion Detection Events
Author(s): Luse, A., Scheibe, K., Townsend, A.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Information Systems Security.
- Year: 2008
A Comprehensive Tool for Recovering 3D Models from 2D Photos with Wide Baselines
Author(s): Lu, Yuzhu, Smith, Shana
- Type: paper
- Citation: Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering.
- Year: 2006
Recovering 3D objects from 2D photos is an important application in the areas of computer vision, computer intelligence, feature recognition, and virtual reality. This paper describes an innovative and systematic method that integrates automatic feature extraction, automatic feature matching, manual revision, feature recovery, and model reconstruction into an effective and integrated 3D object recovery tool. The proposed method is a convenient and inexpensive way to recover 3D scenes and models directly from 2D photos. New automatic key-point selection and hierarchical matching algorithms were developed for matching 2D photos with wide baselines. The method uses a universal camera intrinsic matrix estimation technique to eliminate the need for camera calibration experiments. A new automatic texture-mapping algorithm was also developed for finding the best textures in 2D photos. The paper includes some examples and results to show the capabilities of the new method.
Yield improvement via minimisation of step height non-uniformity in chemical mechanical planarisation (CMP) with pressure and velocity as control variables
Author(s): Kadavasal, M. S., Chandra, A., Eamkajornsire, S., Bastawros, A.
- Type: paper
- Citation: International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management (IJMTM). Volume 7. Issue 5/6. pp 467-489.
- Year: 2005
Obtaining local and global planarities is one of the prime criteria in dielectric and metal planarisations. Although chemical mechanical planarisation (CMP) helps us achieve these criteria in constant pattern density surfaces, the same is not true for variable pattern density surfaces. This results in formation of global step heights across the die. This paper provides open loop control algorithms for obtaining planarity across a die containing variations in pattern densities. Zonal pressure and/or velocity variations are used as control variables for this purpose. Based on the variation of pattern density and surface heights across the die, the surfaces are separated into zones and the pressure and velocity in individual zones are varied spatially and temporally. It is observed from simulations that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the local and global planarities. The zonal pressure control improves the upper surface uniformity, whereas zonal velocity control significantly increases step height uniformity. The advantageous features of these two schemes are then combined to simultaneously maximise upper surface uniformity, and minimise step heights across the entire die. Work is currently in progress on physical realisation of these algorithms.
A Low Cost Virtual Reality Human Computer Interface for CAD Model Manipulating
Author(s): Seth, A., Smith, S., Shelley, M., Qi, J.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Engineering Deesign Graphics Journal. Volume 69. pp 31-38.
- Year: 2005
Interactions with high volume complex three-dimensional data using traditional two-dimensional computer interfaces have, historically, been inefficient and restrictive. However, during the past decade, virtual reality (VR) has presented a new paradigm for human-computer interaction. This paper presents a VR human-computer interface system, which aims at providing a solution to the human-computer interaction problems present in today’s computer-aided design (CAD) software applications. A data glove device is used as a 3D interface for CAD model manipulation in a virtual design space. To make the visualization more realistic, real-time active stereo vision is provided using LCD shutter glasses. To determine the ease of use and intuitiveness of the interface, a human subject study was conducted for performing standard CAD manipulation tasks. Analysis results and technical issues are also presented and discussed.
PC Based Virtual Reality for CAD Model Viewing
Author(s): Seth, A., Smith, S.
- Type: paper
- Citation: The Journal of Technology Studies. Volume 30. pp 32-37.
- Year: 2004
This article introduces the current status of VR applications in industry and the technologies involved in the low-cost VR systems. The number of companies producing low-cost VRrelated hardware and software is continuously increasing. New hardware and software technical terms are confusing or meaningless to people without any prior background in VR. Thus, choosing the right VR tool for a particular application is challenging for potential users. This article introduces different available stereo image rendering techniques, such as anaglyphic, page flipping, and sync doubling, and major low-cost VR hardware and software tools available for CAD model viewing. The purpose of this article is to help CAD users and product designers have a better understanding about VR technology so that they can develop their own VR systems to increase the efficiency of design communication.
A Virtual Reality Environment for Patient Data Visualization and Endoscopic Surgical Planning
Author(s): Foo, J.L., Lobe, T., Winer, E.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Journal of Laparoendoscopic & Advanced Surgical Techniques.
- Year: 2008
A Framework for Interactive Visualization of Digital Medical Images
Author(s): Koehring, A., Foo, J.L., Miyano, G., Lobe, T., Winer, E.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Journal of Laparoendoscopic & Advanced Surgical Techniques.
- Year: 2008
Improving Solution Charateristics of Particle Swarm Optimization Using Digital Pheromones
Author(s): Kalivarapu, V., Foo, J.L., Winer, E.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization Journal, Springer Publications..
- Year: 2008
A Multi-Fidelity Software Framework for Interactive Modeling of Advective and Diffusive Contaminant Transport in Groundwater
Author(s): Kalivarapu, V., Winer, E.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Environmental Modelling & Software Journal.
- Year: 2008
Firewalls: Continuing Solutions for Network Security
Author(s): Luse, A., Townsend, A.M., Scheibe, K.P.
- Type: paper
- Citation: (Forthcoming in) Handbook of Research on Information Security and Assurance.
- Year: 2008
Audio Platform Game (APG) Design for Players with Visual Impairments
Author(s): Oren, M., Harding, C., Bonebright, T.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness.
- Year: 2008
A novel audio platform game (APG) that creates a spatial, interactive experience via audio cues was evaluated. A pilot user study with players with visually impairments and an experiment comparing the visual and audio game versions using both players with normal vision and with visual impairments revealed that all participants played APG successfully.
Customer training in self-service technology
Author(s): Zhao, X., Mattila, A., Tao, L. -S.E.
- Type: paper
- Citation: International Journal of Service Industry Management. Volume 19. Issue 5.
- Year: 2008
Tumor Segmentation from Computed Tomography (CT) Image Data using a Probabilistic Pixel Selection Approach
Author(s): Foo J.L., Miyano G., Lobe T., Winer E.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Journal of Digital Imaging.
- Year: 2007
Tumor Segmentation from Computed Tomography (CT) Image Data using a Probabilistic Pixel Selection Approach
Author(s): Cordes S.
- Type: paper
- Citation: Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning. Volume 2. Issue 4. pp 79-91.
- Year: 2006
Proceedings
Evaluation of Spatial Abilities within a 2D Auditory Platform Game
Author(s): Oren M., Harding C., Bonebright T.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: ASSETS 2008 Conference.
- Year: 2008
Cutting, Deforming and Painting of 3D meshes in a Two Handed Viso-haptic VR System
Author(s): Faeth A., Oren M., Sheller J., Godinez S., Harding C.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Virtual Reality Conference 2008. pp 213-216.
- Year: 2008
Effectiveness of Using an Intelligent Tutoring System to Train Users on Off-the-Shelf Software
Author(s): Hategekimana C., Gilbert S., Blessing S.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education. pp 414-419.
- Year: 2008
Enhancing Multi-user Interaction with Multi-touch Tabletop Displays using Hand Tracking
Author(s): Dohse K., Dohse T., Still J., Parkhurst D.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings IEEE Advances in Computer Human Interaction, 2008.
- Year: 2008
A rear-projection multi-touch tabletop display was augmented with hand tracking utilizing computer vision techniques. Touch detection by frustrated total internal reflection is useful for achieving interaction with tabletop displays, but the technique is not always reliable when multiple users in close proximity simultaneously interact with the display. To solve this problem, we combine touch detection and hand tracking techniques in order to allow multiple users to simultaneously interact with the display without interference. Our hope is that by considering activities occurring on and above a tabletop display, multiuser interacbecome more natural and useful, which should ultimately support collaborative work.
Virtual Reality Based Multi-Modal Teleoperation Using Mixed Autonomy
Author(s): Kadavasal M., Seth A., Oliver J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference & CIE, 2008.
- Year: 2008
Interactive Multi-Modal Visualization Environment for Complex System Decision Making
Author(s): Foo J.L., Lobe T., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: ASME 2008 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference IDETC/CIE 2008.
- Year: 2008
A Framework for Interactive Examination of Automatic Segmented Tumors in a Virtual Environment
Author(s): Foo J.L., Miyano G., Lobe T., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 16th Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) Conference. Volume 132. pp 120-122.
- Year: 2008
Virtual Reality: A Treatment Oriented Approach to Workplace Stress, poster presentation
Author(s): Connors M., Bloedel J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Third ICOH International Conference on Psychosocial factors in the Workplace.
- Year: 2008
An Empirical Investigation of Affordances and Conventions
Author(s): Still J.D., Dark V.J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition.
- Year: 2008
There is a debate in the literature concerning whether a distinction between affordances and cultural conventions ought to be drawn. It is possible that in the absence of affordances users develop conventions to resolve interaction ambiguity. We explored whether a difference between affordances and conventions existed through a button pressing task. Our results show that affordances exist when the spatial button configuration is congruent with directional cues. When affordances were not available, most participants demonstrated consistent button-to-action mapping that sometimes represented a convention. Additionaly there was no differences in response time in the affordance and convention conditions.
What determines where you look in photographs of complex objects?
Author(s): Still J.D., Dark V.J., Parkhurst D.J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association.
- Year: 2008
Three-Dimensional Multi-Objective UAVPath Planner Using Meta-Paths for Decision Making and Visualization
Author(s): Swartzentruber L., Foo J.L., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 4th Annual AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Specialist Conference.
- Year: 2008
Implementation of Digital pheromones in Particle Swarm Optimization for Constrained Optimization Problems
Author(s): Kalivarapu V., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the 49th AIAA/ASME/AHS/ACS Structures, Structural Dymanics, and Materials Conference, AIAA 2008.
- Year: 2008
Parallel Implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Through Digital Pheromone Sharing
Author(s): Kalivarapu V., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the ASME 2008 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE 2008).
- Year: 2008
A Location-based Approach for Distributed Kiosk Design
Author(s): Luse A., Vidrio-Baron S., Mennecke B., Townsend A.M.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 14th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2008).
- Year: 2008
Improving Direction-Giving Through Utilization of an RFID-Enabled Kiosk
Author(s): Luse A., Townsend A.M.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 2008 IEEE International Conference on Electro/Information Technology (EIT 2008).
- Year: 2008
GuardDV: A Proximity Detection Device for Homeless Survivors of Domestic Violence
Author(s): Jordan Z., Marsh E., Luse A., Tao L.E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 26th Annual Computer Human Interaction Conference (CHI 2008).
- Year: 2008
Convergence of Physical and Logical Security: A Pre-implementation Checklist
Author(s): Melendez J.C., Luse A., Townsend A.M., Mennecke B.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Midwest United States Association for Information Systems Conference (MWAIS 2008).
- Year: 2008
Learn to Use and Use to Learn: Technology in Virtual Learning Environments
Author(s): Correia A.P., Karpova E., Baran E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: American Educational Research Association 2008 Annual Meeting.
- Year: 2008
Developing Effective Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge (TPACK) in PreK-6 Teachers
Author(s): Schmidt D.A., Seymour J., Baran E., Thompson A.D.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International..
- Year: 2008
Interactive Deformation Through Mesh-Free Stress in Virtual Reality
Author(s): Faas D., Vance J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of IDETC/CIE 2008 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference.
- Year: 2008
Virtual reality (VR) techniques are used to create an environment that allows an engineer to modify the shape of a part and see the changes in the stress state immediately. A virtual reality application, Interactive Virtual Design Application (IVDA), that allows fast mesh-free analysis of multiple element types, including two-dimensional (2D) elements, is described in detail. Taylor series approximations and Pre-conditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) methods are used with mesh-free analysis to perform quick reanalysis during interactive shape modification. Prior to this work, only 3D elements were incorporated into the method. The addition of 2D elements greatly expands the potential application of this work. Several software packages including VR Juggler, OpenHaptics, OPCODE, Tahoe and OpenGL/GLM/GLUT libraries are combined in the resulting application to handle a variety of elements. This approach also supports concurrent product design and assembly methods prototyping. The addition of 2D analysis capability is discussed in this paper. The method is described and a sample problem presented.
Adaptive Fuzzy Segmentation of Tumors in Three-Dimensional Computed Tomography (CT) Image
Author(s): Foo J.L., Miyano G., Lobe T., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: ASME 2007 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2007.
- Year: 2007
Interactive Mesh-Free Stress Analysis for Mechanical Design Assembly with Haptics
Author(s): Faas D., Fischer A., Vance J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of IDETC/DAC 2007 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference.
- Year: 2007
This paper describes a virtual reality application that performs fast stress reanalysis coupled with virtual reality and haptics that allows rapid evaluation of multiple designs throughout the product design process. The Interactive Virtual Design Application (IVDA) allows the engineer to interactively explore new design geometry while simultaneously examining the finite element analysis results. In the presence of other parts in the assembly, the new shape can be analyzed and modified, taking into consideration mating part fits. This approach supports concurrent product design and assembly methods prototyping. A “two-step” approach utilizing Taylor series approximations and Pre-conditioned Conjugate Gradient methods is used to perform quick reanalysis during interactive shape modification. The virtual environment provides an immersive three-dimensional workspace. Haptics are used to provide feedback of the stress gradient as the part geometry is changed, thus facilitating the designer’s understanding of the impact of shape change on product performance.
3D Reconstruction and Non linear Finite Element Analysis of the Embryonic Left Ventricle
Author(s): Faas D., Buffinton C., Sedmera D.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the ASME 2007 Summer Bioengineering Conference (SBC2007).
- Year: 2007
Changes in mechanical loading in the developing heart produce changes in morphology, mechanical material properties, and proliferative patterns [1-3]. Understanding the relationship of these changes to mechanical stress and strain requires a geometrically accurate model of the entire ventricle including the trabecular pattern and material property, boundary condition, and loading specification. A 3D reconstruction and finite element technique were developed to reconstruct the heart from serial confocal sections and then calculate stress and train distributions over the entire volume for the passive state. A sensitivity study to variations in pressure loading and material properties was also performed. Control hearts and two treatments, pressure overload and pressure underload, were modeled. The results show hat stresses in the trabeculae are much larger than those in the ventricular walls. Strains in the pressure-overloaded hearts were significantly smaller than control or underloaded, so a negative feedback system in strain level is not indicated.
Videoblogging as an Emerging Technology in Education
Author(s): Baran E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Selected School and Media papers presented at the 2007 International Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.
- Year: 2007
Designing cross-border online collaborative learning experiences
Author(s): Correia A.P., Baran E., Yusop F.D.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of ED-MEDIA World Conference on Educational Multimedia Hyper media & Telecommunications 2007. pp 1769-1778.
- Year: 2007
The Effects of Video-cases on Studnts' Perceptions of the Characteristics and Skills of a Good Teacher
Author(s): Baran E., Kiraz E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education International. pp 1388-1392.
- Year: 2007
Using Video-case Based Instruction in an Introduction to Teaching Profession Course
Author(s): Baran E., Kiraz E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the Society of Information Technology and Teacher Education International.
- Year: 2007
Top Five Ways to Prepare for a Virtual Collaboration
Author(s): Correia A.P., Baran E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Iowa Technology & Education Connection 2007 Conference.
- Year: 2007
An Integrated Cerebro-Cerebellar Model Demonstrating Associative Learning and Motor Control
Author(s): Peck C., Streeter T., Kozloski J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the 10th Tamagawa-Riken Dynamic Brain Forum.
- Year: 2007
A model of the cerebellum is proposed that explains cerebellar contributions to motor function and associative learning. This model is consistent with a wide range of biological observations and it places the cerebellum into a global, integrated network. A computational model is implemented using Wilson-Cowan style models, and the capabilities of associative learning and complex reaching behaviors, using a one armed automaton, are demonstrated. It is shown how the integrated cerebro-cerebellar model learns to modulate the cortex to produce specific, expected behaviors and other capabilities attributed to the cerebellum.
A Statistical Analysis of Particle Swarm Optimization With and Without Digital Pheromones
Author(s): Kalivarapu V., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proc. 3rd Annual AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Specialist Conference, Paper No. AIAA-2007-1882.
- Year: 2007
Immersive Product Configurator for Conceptual Design
Author(s): Zhang R., Noon C., Winer E., Oliver J., Gilmore B., Duncan J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the ASME 2007 International Design Engineering Technical Conference, DETC2007-35390.
- Year: 2007
Three-Dimensional Multi-objective Path Planner for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Author(s): Foo J.L., Knutzon J., Oliver J., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proc. 3rd Annual AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Specialist Conference, Paper No. AIAA-2007-1881.
- Year: 2007
Towards Sensor Enhanced Virtual Reality Teleoperation in Dynamic Environment
Author(s): Kadavasal M.S., Oliver J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference & CIE.
- Year: 2007
Speed Sonic Across the Span: Building a Platform Audio Game
Author(s): Oren M., Harding C., Bonebright T.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: ICAD '07.
- Year: 2007
We describe the sound design and initial user study of an audio game created for gamers with visual impairments. Despite the wild popularity of platform games such as Super Mario [1] and the development of many audio games over the past decade, the platform genre has so far been all but ignored by audio game designers. To fill this gap and to add to the limited entertainment choices visually impaired gamers have, we developed a platform game that can be played via an audio-only interface. We conducted a study to test our game and audio design choices, to measure the users' performance and to find out if the game was fun to play. This usability study used 9 participants who played the game as a traditional video game (audio-visual input) and 9 participants who played the game as a pure audio game (audio-only input). The results show that, although it took the audio-only group considerably longer to play through the game, they did not make significantly more mistakes and they seemed to find the audio-only version challenging, yet enjoyable.
Speed Sonic Across the Span: A Platform Audio Game
Author(s): Oren M.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Association of Computing Machinery CHI '07.
- Year: 2007
We describe the design process and initial user study of an audio game created for the visually impaired. Until the advent of 3D graphics games, platform games where the player jumps from platform to platform, such as Mario and Sonic, were wildly popular [1]. Although any audio games have been developed over the past decade, the platform genre has been all but ignored. To fill this gap and to add to the limited choices visually impaired gamers have, we developed a platform game that can be also be played via audio-only interface and compared it to a traditional audio-visual version. In addition, we had both visually impaired participants try out the audio-only version of the game and compared their performance with each of the two sighted participant groups.
Viewpoint invariant object features attract overt visual attention (poster)
Author(s): Still J.D., Dark V.J., Parkhurst D.J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Meeting of Vision Sciences Society.
- Year: 2007
Allowing for Greater Network Security Management through Incorporation of a Distributed Management System
Author(s): Luse A
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 5th Annual Big XII MIS Research Symposium.
- Year: 2007
Invariant Features Detected with Computer Vision Allow Better Human Object Recognition in Photographs (poster)
Author(s): Wolff T., Still J.D., Parkhurst D.J., Dark V.J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Meeting of Midwestern Psychological Association.
- Year: 2007
3D Reconstruction and Finite Element Stress/Strain Analysis of the 6-d Chick Heart
Author(s): Buffinton C., Faas D., Sedmera D.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Weinstein Cardiovascular Development Conference.
- Year: 2006
The morphology and material properties of the embryonic heart change in response to mechanical loading. Understanding the control system operative in this response requires modeling the entire ventricle to determine the distribution of mechanical stress and strain. A 3D reconstruction and finite element technique was developed to calculate this stress/strain distribution. Optical sections in 3mm steps in a dorsoventral direction were produced from confocal imaging of 6-d whole-mount chick hearts. Z-stacks contained 500-600 sections; two to four stacks of 512x512 x-y pixels covered the left and right ventricles. AMIRA software imported the image stacks which were then merged in x-y and downsampled to 6-mm cubic voxels. Tracing with interactive pen display segmented the left ventricle (LV) and interventricular septum from the atria, right ventricle, and valves, which were removed from the image. Thresholding techniques segmented the gray-scale image into myocardial tissue and background. Finally, the surface was triangulated into approximately 100K surface elements. The surface meshes were imported into Hypermesh to create a volumetric tetrahedral mesh of approximately 300K elements. Boundary conditions of fixation at the superior surface and internal pressure of ~500 Pa were applied. The tissue was represented by a Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic rubber model, u=0.475 and stress-strain properties from uniaxial tensile tests of LV strips. The k-file from Hypermesh was imported into LSDYNA for a nonlinear explicit finite element solution. The results show that, in passive diastolic loading, the stresses and strains in the trabeculae are large while those in the exterior LV wall are relatively much less. Thinner areas of the septum also have larger stresses and strains. Most of the trabeculae are in tension, but the compact wall shows both tension and compression. Thus the trabeculae may play an important role in sensing and actuating the myocardial response to mechanical load. Supported by NIH-NIBIBEB002077.
Robot Self-Recognition Using Conditionally Probability Based Contigency
Author(s): Godby K.M., Lane J.A.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
- Year: 2006
As robots become more sophisticated and pervasive, they will be forced to operate in more dynamic and social environments. In order to develop a theory of mind to account for the intents, beliefs, and motivations of other individuals, a robot needs to be able to distinguish between another entity and itself. One proposed method of learning the difference between self and other is to use contingency, the time dependence of perception and action.
Watson (1994) suggested contingency as a method used by infants when learning to detect self. He outlined four general ethods for detecting contingency: contiguity, temporal correlation, conditional probability, and causal implication.For our experiment, we chose to implement Watson’s conditional probability method of contingency detection. Conditional probability keeps track of instances in which the behavior occurs and the stimulus does not, versus instances when the stimulus occurs but the behavior does not.
Augmented Reality E-Commerce Assistant System: Designing While Shopping
Author(s): Yuzhu Lu, Smith Shana
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of IDETC/CIE'06.
- Year: 2006
Listening to guests' real voice from their experience with hotels
Author(s): Li-Shan Eva Tao, Miyoung Jeong
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 11th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism Conference.
- Year: 2006
Customer training in self-service technology
Author(s): Li-Shan Eva Tao, Xinyuan Zhao, Anna S. Mattila
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 11th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism Conference.
- Year: 2006
A Parralel Implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization Using Digital Pheromones
Author(s): Kalivarapu V., Foo J., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 11th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference.
- Year: 2006
A parallel implementation of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) using digital pheromones to coordinate the movements of ht eswarm within an n-dimensional design space is presented in this paper. Digital pheromones are models simulating real pheromones emittee by insects for communication to indicate a source of food or a nesting location. This principle of communication and organization between each insect in a swarm offers substantial improvement when integrated into a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Digital Swarms are used to search a design space with digital pheromones aiding communication within the swarm to improve search efficiency.With statistical analysis, the pheromone strength in a region of the design space is determined. The swarm then reacts accordingly based on the probability that this region may contain an optimum. When implemented in a parallel computing architecture, significant performance increases were observed. This paper presents the method development and results from several test cases.
Multinodal UAV Ground Control System
Author(s): Batkiewicz T., Dohse K.C., Kalivarapu V., Dohse T., Walter B., Knutzon J., Parkhurst D., Winer E., Olver J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 11th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference.
- Year: 2006
As unmanned units become more capable of self-control, and as their integration into our military forces increase, the role of the operator of these units is going to change. Current UAV ground control systems typically require to much of the operator’s attention per unit, and the role of the future operator will be more like that of a manager than that of a pilot. This paper describes research being done on a user interface for a future ground control system. Beginning with a visualization of a virtual battlefield, this next-generation UAV ground control system incorporates all available information and analyses in combination with a synthetic battlespace in a context-relevant manner. This marriage of synthetic and real information feeds, within a single visualization space, is designed to increase the situational
awareness of a single operator. This virtual battlefield provides the operator with the information necessary to accomplish their task, with multiple modes of interaction for the user. The UAV Ground Control System detailed here utilizes a speech command interface, a wireless joystick interface, as well as a tablet-based direct manipulation interface similar to those used in general air unit ground control systems. Through these different types of interactions, an operator is presented with various sources of data to manage and command military units as clearly and simply as possible.Implementation of Digital Pheromones for Use in Particle Swarm Optimization
Author(s): Kalivarapu V., Foo J., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 11th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference.
- Year: 2006
This paper presents a new approach to particle swarm optimization (PSO) using digital pheremones to coordinate the movements of the swarm within an n-dimensional design space. In traditional PSO, an initial randomly generated population swarm propagates towards the global optimum over a series of iterations. Each particle in the swarm explores the design space based on the information provided by previous best particles. This information is used to generate a velocity vector indicating a search direction towards a promising design point, and to update the particle positions. This paper presents how digital pheromones can be incorporated into the velocity vector update equation. Digital pheromones are models simulating the real pheromones produced by insects for communication to indicate a source of food or a nesting location. This principle of communication and organization between each insect in a swarm offers substantial improvement when integrated into PSO. Particle swarms search the design space with digital pheromones aiding communication within the swarm to improve search efficiency. Through additional information from the pheromones, particles within the swarm exploring the design space and locate the solution more efficiently and accurately than traditional PSO. In this paper, the development of this method is described in detail along with the results from several optimization test problems.
Big wings, No bull: Do-it-yourself podcasts for the distributed course
Author(s): Sean Cordes
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of Brick & Click Libraries Academic Library Symposium.
- Year: 2006
Excuse me professor but when are you passing out the podcasts?
Author(s): Sean Cordes
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Internet Librarian 2006, Integrated Experiences: Compelling Content Combinations.
- Year: 2006
A Comprehensive Tool for Recovering 3D Models from 2D Photos with Wide Baselines
Author(s): Lu Y., Smith S.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: IASTED International Conference: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION.
- Year: 2005
A Comprehensive Tool for Recovering 3D Models from 2D Photos with Wide Baselines
Author(s): Lu Y., Smith S.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: NAIT 2005 Convention.
- Year: 2005
Icon Design Study: Questinnaire and Results
Author(s): Rusch M.L., Murphy E.D., Hourcade J.P.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: United States Census Bureau, Statistical Research Division, Human-Computer Interaction Memorandum Series #71.
- Year: 2005
Yield Improvement via minimization of step height non-uniformity in Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP)
Author(s): Kadavasal M., Eamkajornsiri S., Chandra A., Bastawros A.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of NSF DMII Grantees Conference.
- Year: 2005
A Low Cost Virtual Reality Human Computer Interface for CAD Model Manipulating
Author(s): Seth A., Smith S., Shelley M., Qi J.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of the 2005 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition.
- Year: 2005
A Desktop Network Haptic Interface for Mechanical Assembly
Author(s): Seth A., Su H. J., Vance J.M.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Proceedings of ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition.
- Year: 2005
Using a Web-Based Query Engine and Immersive Virtual Reality to Select and View 3D Anthropometry in Vehicle Operator Worstation Design
Author(s): Zhang J., Smith S.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 46th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference.
- Year: 2005
This paper presents the development and testing of a tool for designing vehicle operator workstations using 3D anthropometry. The tool consists of two major modules: 1) a webbased engine to query a large database of human anthropometry for selecting human perators representative of a specified user population, and 2) an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) software application used to view the selected anthropometry in relation to vehicle CAD designs. This tool allows a designer to view and interact with fully immersive 3D representations of vehicle operator enclosures and controls from typical CAD models along with digital human models selected from the anthropometry database. This environment allows visualization to aid in the trade-off decisions that come between ergonomic and functional (i.e. structural, electrical, etc.) design. The environment makes use of a webbased interface for the querying of a large anthropometric dataset with over 4500 participants. A designer is presented with a rich set of features to build, store, and manage queries using attributes such as height, weight, reach, gender, and occupation to locate pertinent subsets of subjects for a specific vehicle design. A list of subjects obtained from the query engine can then be sent to a VR environment for viewing with vehicle CAD data. This linkage makes the selecting and viewing of subjects seamless. A detailed description of the design problem being addressed, software development, and sample test cases are presented to demonstrate the intuitive nature and ease of use of the environment.
An Approach to Convert Vertex-Based 3D Representations to Combinatorial B-Splines for Real-Time Visual Collaboration
Author(s): Kalivarapu V., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: 43rd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit.
- Year: 2005
Scientific Visualization and Virtual Reality are increasingly being used for the design of complex systems. These
technologies offer powerful capabilities to make decisions that are cost and time effective. The next logical extension is to collaborate with these visual models in real-time, where parts of a design team are geographically separated. Specifically, visual collaboration enables ideas and proposed changes to be discussed exactly on a virtual model of a product. However, high-end visualization hardware and Internet technologies impede widespread use of real-time visual collaboration due to the large amount of data from which these epresentations are created. These data are typically in the form of 3D vertex-based models, which offer a high degree of realism when displayed, but at a price of storage, rendering speeds and processing efficiency. The more realistic the representation desired, the larger the number of vertices required and hence the higher the file size. In this paper, we propose a new data modeling and handling technique where traditional vertex-based models are converted into combinatorial B-Spline based wire-frame models that allow realtime visual collaboration in the context of typical virtual reality systems. Using appropriate filtering methods, parametric equations are computed for each curved segment in a vertexbased representation and bundled together with sampled linear segments of the model. The computed parametric equation based models occupy only a fraction of the size when compared to the original vertex-based models. These lightweight models can easily be transmitted over the Internet, in real-time, for viewing with a platform independent visual client program. The proposed methods were tested on several example data files to prove the method’s effectiveness.A multi-phase, probabilistic approach to image segmentation in MRI and CT studies
Author(s): Foo J.L., Winer E.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: BioMedicine 2005, 6th International Conference on Modeling in Medicine and Biology 2005.
- Year: 2005
Comparison of Mobile Text Entry Methods
Author(s): Cerney M., Mila B., Hill L.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th Annual Meeting.
- Year: 2004
International Collaboration in Open Source Software Development: Implications for Enhancing Educational Practice
Author(s): Antonenko P., Udin V.
- Type: proceeding
- Citation: World Conference on E-Learning in Corp., Govt., Health, & Higher Education. Volume 1. pp 1058-1061.
- Year: 2004
Dissertations And Theses
From gesture recognition to functional motion analysis: Quantitative techniques for the application and evaluation of human motion
Author(s): Melinda Marie Cerney
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2005
Gesture recognition has the potential to be a natural and powerful tool in virtual environments, supporting efficient and intuitive interaction between the human and the computer. A review of the cognitive, perceptual, and human factors motivations for the use of gesture in virtual environments is provided. A set of guidelines for gesture development and a categorization of gesture-based interaction tasks are formulated for practitioners.
Human movement tracking using a wearable wireless sensor network
Author(s): Yifei Wang
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2005
Human movement tracking systems have been used in many fields, from medical rehabilitation to virtual reality user interfaces. Most movement tracking systems are expensive, difficult to implement, and lack flexibility. Furthermore, they tend to be cumbersome when wired, making them impractical for general purpose applications. Wireless sensor network technology has been developed and widely used in outdoor environmental monitoring applications, such as, in agriculture, sensor networks are used to provide early alerts for frost damage and help in precision harvesting to maximize crop quality. It has shown that wireless sensor network is effective, efficient, inexpensive, and easy to implement. This research proposes to utilize the advantages of wireless sensor networks in the field of human movement tracking. A wearable wireless sensor network is implemented according to the guidelines of wearable systems, and its performance is evaluated with respect to the number of sensors and the communications bandwidth. A test case application involving an interactive dance performance is discussed to validate the effectiveness of our wireless sensor network and how it integrates into a virtual reality application.
Design and implementation of general purpose reinforcement learning agents
Author(s): Tyler Streeter
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2005
Intelligent agents are becoming increasingly important in our society. We currently have house cleaning robots, computer-controlled opponents in video games, unmanned aerial combat vehicles, entertainment robots, and autonomous explorers in outer space. But there are many problems with the current generation of intelligent agents. Most of these problems stem from the fact that they are designed for very specific problems. Each intelligent agenthas limited adaptability to new tasks; if conditions change slightly, the agent may quicklybecome confused. Additionally, a huge engineering effort is required to design an agent foreach new task. Ideally, we would have a reusable general purpose agent design. Such ageneral purpose agent would be able to adapt to changing environments and would be easy to train to handle new tasks. To implement this agent design, we can use ideas from the field of reinforcement learning, an approach with strong mathematical foundations and intriguing biological implications. The available reinforcement learning algorithms are powerful because of their generality: agents simply receive a scalar reward value representing successor failure. Additionally, these algorithms can be combined with other powerful ideas (e.g.planning from a learned internal model). This thesis provides a step towards the goal of general purpose agents. It discusses a detailed agent design and provides a concrete software implementation of these ideas. It covers the components necessary for such a general purpose agent, starting with a minimal design andproceeding to develop a more powerful learning architecture. The final design uses temporaldifference learning, radial basis functions, planning, uncertainty estimations, and curiosity.The main contributions of this thesis are: a novel combination of temporal differencelearning with planning, uncertainty, and curiosity; a discussion of correlations betweentheoretical reinforcement learning and reward processing in biological brains; a practicalOpen Source implementation of general purpose reinforcement learning agents; andexperimental results showing learning performance on several tasks, including two physicalcontrol problems.
Computer Aided Process Planning for Rapid Prototyping using a Genetic Algorithm
Author(s): Alex Renner
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2008
This thesis presents a new method for Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) for a subtractive Rapid Prototyping (RP) process. The “CNC-RP” process uses a 4-axis CNC machining center to create parts with flat end-mills. The objective is to determine the optimal system parameters for the RP process - those that enable parts to be created in a shorter amount of time. Two main contributions make this possible. First, a method of generating different machining orientation sets enables the part to be created with the same level of safety and quality available with the current system. Second, machining time is related to tool selection. These two contributions are combined into a single objective function. A Genetic Algorithm technique is implemented to determine the best machining tool sizes and machining orientations. The results show that a Genetic Algorithm can be applied to a RP process plan to reduce the total processing time.
Ethnic-Identity Intensity as a Moderator of the technology acceptance model and its antedecents
Author(s): Marcus Alexander
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2008
The goal of this dissertation is oriented to study the longitudinal motivation of minorities to adopt and learn new, innovative technologies. The primary research question: is there some reason the African-American experience is driving certain sub-groups of the population to the wrong side of the digital divide? To examine this, I introduce ethnic identity as a moderating variable to a leftward extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Additionally, both components of the classic TAM (ease of use and usefulness) are broken down into two antecedents: 1) ease of use- a) trait efficacy and b) state efficacy and 2) usefulness (completely replaced by) - a) symbolic utility and b) functional utility. State efficacy has a significant relationship to both ease of use as well as intent to use. Functional utility has a significant relationship to intent to use. Ethnic-Identity and its intensity does have a moderating effect to a more parsimonious model (were significant paths are compared for invariance. Implications for innovative technology development and adoption as a function of one's motivations and experiences are discussed.
Design and evaluation of auditory spatial cues for decision making within a game environment for persons with visual impairments
Author(s): Michael Oren
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2008
An audio platform game was created and evaluated in order to answer the question of whether or not an audio game could be designed that effectively conveys the spatial information necessary for persons with visual impairments to successfully navigate the game levels and respond to audio cues in time to avoid obstacles. The game used several types of audio cues (sounds and speech) to convey the spatial setup (map) of the game world. Most audio-only players seemed to be able to create a workable mental map from the game’s sound cues alone, pointing to potential for the further development of similar audio games for persons with visual impairments. The research also investigated the navigational strategies used by persons with visual impairments and the accuracy of the participants’ mental maps as a consequence of their navigational strategy. A comparisons of the maps created by visually impaired participants with those created by sighted participants playing the game with and without graphics, showed no statistically significant difference in map accuracy between groups. However, there was a marked difference between the number of “invented” objects when we compared this value between the sighted audio-only group and the other groups, which could serve as an area for future research.
The acceptance of domestic technology: TAM as applied to a proposed classification scheme
Author(s): Helen Colvin
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2008
Information systems researchers have studied technology acceptance for decades. Domestic technologies, such as ambient computing devices or smart homes have more recently begun to show up in scientific literature, mostly in the area of computing design. Such studies often use an ethnographic method, or study the development and potential use of particular gadgets or systems. Consumers have largely not embraced these technologies. In asking why this is the case, a previously proven method to study technology acceptance was sought and found in Davis' Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study seeks to demonstrate the applicability of TAM to the study of emerging domestic technologies. In addition, a classification scheme is proposed for domestic technologies, classifying technologies based on task goal and technology type. Participants in the study were exposed to technologies from each of the four classification quadrants. Standard TAM measures, along with measures of gender, sex role attitude, and product class involvement were administered to 113 participants and path analysis was performed to determine the effect on behavioral intention (i.e., the intention to use the technology) of these factors.
Design patterns in level design: common practices in simulated environment construction
Author(s): Denise Bacher
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2008
The creation of video game levels is an inexact and often intuitive process. Currently, much of level design focuses on the “how” as opposed to the “why.” That is to say, level designers know how to build a level, but do not know why they built it the way they did. Before more immersive player experiences can occur, an understanding of what levels are, what common functionality exists between them, and a means of consistently reproducing player behaviors is necessary. The author advances the premise that by examining the use of design patterns in architecture, computer science, and interaction design, a foundation can be created to better characterize commonly occurring problems and solutions within level design. When multiple patterns are applied, the group becomes a language. This language can then be used as a means for creating novel levels as well as a lexicon for analyzing existing games.
BioN: a novel interface for biological network visualization
Author(s): Lisa McGarthwaite
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2008
Information Visualization impacts every day life. As life continues to become more technologically enhanced, increasing amounts of data are being collected, stored, and analyzed. Technology assists researchers and scientists not only to make new discoveries, but also to create new ways to explore the information they collect. This paper contains a small preview of the vast field of Information Visualization. From the various fields of visualization, visualization history, and current findings, we investigate the field’s impact. After studying the current technologies and tools for visualizing networks, we believe there is a more optimal solution than ones currently in use. We propose BioN, a new, novel touchbased interface for exploration and discovery of large, multivariate biological networks. The new program incorporates the ability to see the networked data in multi-windowed and multigraphed representation. This ability will allow users to exploit the inherent strengths in the different graphs formats.
Real-time water simulation and rendering using features of the latest Ope-capable graphics hardware
Author(s): Ken Kopecky
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
This thesis discusses methods of easily rendering and simulating water, as well as simulating its effect on, and the effects on it from, physical objects.
Methods for Augmented Reality E-commerce
Author(s): Yuzhu Lu
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2007
A new type of e-commerce system and related techniques are presented in this dissertation that customers of this type of e-commerce could visually bring product into their physical environment for interaction. The development and user study of this e-commerce system are provided. A new modeling method, which recovers 3D model directly from 2D photos without knowing camera information, is also presented to reduce the modeling cost of this new type of e-commerce. Also an immersive AR environment with GPU based occlusion is also presented to improve the rendering and usability of AR applications. Experiment results and data show the validity of these new technologies.
Effects of field of view and stereo graphics on memory in immersive command and control
Author(s): K.C. Dohse
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
Understanding what factors contribute to performance in virtual environments is key to designing future systems for training and teleoperation. The military is already a large user of virtual reality for training and may use virtual reality for real-time operations in the future for command and control. This research aims to identify what effects manipulating the field of view and the use of stereoscopic graphics have on performance of memory-based tasks. Presence, situation awareness, workload and simulator sickness were measured. The results of a controlled study with 100 subjects did not find a statistically significant relationship between field of view or stereo and memory performance. The results also indicated that memory performance is significantly correlated positively with situation awareness and negatively with frustration. This research indicates that the use of stereo graphics and large displays do not necessarily increase situation awareness in all contexts, but that systems should strive for higher situation awareness in order to increase a user's memory of the simulation.
AI Loom: a generic development framework for multi-agent systems ideally suited for virtual worlds
Author(s): Josh Brown
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
This thesis discusses the use of a multiagent system as a framework for the development of a distributed virtual world. The research has resulted in the development of a distributed generic multiagent system called AI Loom and a prototype distributed virtual world called Plane. The discussion in this thesis focuses on the approach taken and the discussions made in the design and implementation of both of these technologies.
Development of an immersive game-based virtual reality training program to teach fire safety skills to children
Author(s): Emily Ericson
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
Injuries from residential fires are often overlooked as a dangerous safety concern for children. While lectures and
classroom learning techniques can be effective in mitigating this risk, studies have shown that kids retain information better if they are allowed to practice escape techniques. Virtual Reality (VR) has been used both to simulate situations that are too dangerous to practice in real life and as a tool to help children learn. This thesis presents the two stage development of the Fire Safety Project, a game-based VR training environment to increase children’s understanding of fire safety. In the first iteration students help firefighters to identify home fire hazards and then practice escaping from a simulated fire in a virtual environment. Surveys administered show that participants felt that they had learned something during training. Many young participants also wanted to have active control over the virtual environment. In response, the second iteration is more game-based and allows children to explore the environment independently and “zap” fire hazards with the help of a tracked 6DOF wand. A user study was carried out and results indicate that students enjoyed the program; however there were no concrete learning gains from the use of the VR simulation.Developing virtual watersheds for evaluating the dynamics of land use change
Author(s): Sumit Sharma
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
Design and evaluation of a perceptually adaptive rendering system for immersive virtual reality environments
Author(s): Kimberly Weaver
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
This thesis presents the design and evaluation of a perceptually adaptive rendering system for immersive virtual reality. Rendering realistic computer generated scenes can be computationally intensive. Perceptually adaptive rendering reduces the computational burden by rendering detail only where it is needed. A rendering system was designed to employ perceptually adaptive rendering techniques in environments running in immersive virtual reality. The rendering system combines lessons learned from psychology and computer science. Eccentricity from the user‟s point of gaze is used to determine when to render detail in an immersive virtual environment, and when it can be omitted. A pilot study and a full study were carried out to evaluate the efficacy of the perceptually adaptive rendering system. The studies showed that frame rates can be improved without overly distracting the user when an eccentricity-based perceptually adaptive rendering technique is employed. Perceptually adaptive rendering techniques can be applied in older systems and enable them to display higher quality environments without reducing interactivity.
Combining physical constraints with geometric constraint-based modeling for virtual assembly
Author(s): Abhishek Seth
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2007
The human-computer interface technology provided in modern CAD systems makes the use of two dimensional (2D)
computer interfaces, e.g. a keyboard and mouse, to generate and interact with CAD models. In addition, all CAD systems project complex 3D CAD models on a two dimensional computer screen, and the designer has to understand the spatial relationship of the different parts in the assembly by visualizing it in his/her mind. Because of the 2D nature of the keyboard and mouse, his/her interaction with complex 3D CAD models is restrictive and unintuitive. As compared to the traditional computer interface, VR provides a more interactive and intuitive interface for interacting with complex 3D CAD models; however, the high cost related to the VR equipment and the high level of technical skill required for implementing these technologies have restricted the widespread acceptance of such useful technologies. With the development of low-cost VR technologies in recent years, VR solutions have become more accessible. The objective of the research presented in this thesis is to implement the currently available low-cost VR technology for providing solution to the human-computer interaction problems present in today's CAD applications. The thesis first reviews and analyzes some of the low-cost VR applications which are available in the market for interacting with CAD models. It then elucidates the development and implementation of a low-cost VR human-computer interface, the "VR CAD Model Viewer," which is capable of importing and rendering stereo views of CAD models made in CAD systems like Pro/Engineer. The application developed also provides the user with the 3D 6-degree of freedom Data Glove device to interact with CAD models using his/her hands. A human subjects study is also performed which aims at recording the interface performance and user feedback about the use and intuitiveness of the interface. Studying this new type of learning experience and charting its strengths and limits is an important frontier for cognitive science research, scientific modeling, and constructive pedagogy.Painter training in virtual reality: conceptualization, design, and implementation
Author(s): Steven Pautz
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
This thesis describes the conceptualization, design, and implementation of a tool which simulates the activity of spray
painting, intended to augment the training of industrial spray painters at John Deere. Spray painting is a difficult task, and current methods of training do not result in the desired level of trainee expertise and performance. Through close cooperation with stakeholders at John Deere, a virtual reality-based simulation tool has been created, which provides a realistic recreation of the spray painting experience--particularly the feedback offered by the behavior and visual appearance of paint sprayed onto a surface. This paper discusses the motivation, intent, structure, and technical details which define and direct that simulation. A number of technologies were used in this simulation, and a number of algorithms developed, in order to provide an accurate and effective reproduction of the spray painting experience. These include the use of a physical paint spray gun, the software modeling of various system components and their interactions with each other, the creation of several different tools and features for feedback and review, and the detailed simulation of both the behavior and the visual appearance of wet paint applied to a surface, in accordance with the specific attributes of the paint. These features provide feedback similar to—and in some cases greater than—the feedback available during the actual paint spraying process, allowing a trainee to develop the skills necessary to ensure proper paint application without incurring the monetary, material, and environmental costs associated with physical painting.The effect of leads on cognitive load and learning in a conceptually rich hypertext environment
Author(s): Pavlo D. Antonenko
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2007
The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether leads affect cognitive load and learning from conceptually rich hypertext. Measures of cognitive load included selfreport of mental effort, reading time, and event-related desynchronization percentage of alpha, beta, and theta brain wave rhythms. Conceptual and structural knowledge tests, as well as a recall measure were used to determine learning performance. Measures of learners’ reading ability, prior knowledge, and metacognitive awareness were employed to establish the effect of individual differences on cognitive load and learning from traditional and leadaugmented hypertext. Results demonstrated that while leads appeared to reduce brain wave activity associated with split attention, processing of redundant information contained in hypertext nodes may have increased extraneous cognitive load, and decreased germane load that is required for learning to take place. Whereas the benefits of leads relative to cognitive load and learning may have been mediated by the redundancy effect, learners with better developed metacognitive skills tended to use leads as a tool to review information in the linked nodes while revisiting content in the primary text passage. Limitations of the currently available cognitive load measures are discussed as applied to direct assessment of this theoretical construct.
Medium of Gameplay
Author(s): Chad Kilgore
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
The Paleontological Stratigraphic Interval Construction and Analysis Tool
Author(s): Josh Reed
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2007
Core description diagrams are the primary record of the cylindrical rock samples that result from the scientific drilling process. Typically, these diagrams are drawn by hand in field books and then drafted up in a graphics program for publication. Very rarely are the actual data encoded in the diagrams, e.g., depth in core, grain size, and lithology, captured in a format that can be manipulated and analyzed. This thesis introduces the Paleontological Stratigraphic Interval Construction and Analysis Tool (PSICAT), an interactive, cross-platform environment for creating, viewing, and editing core description diagrams, and discusses the design and implementation of its extensible software architecture and data model which allows it to seamlessly capture and visualize core description data. PSICAT was used to log nearly 1300 meters of sediment core drilled during ANtarctic DRILLing (ANDRILL) project's McMurdo Ice Shelf expedition.
Managing multiple unmanned aerial vehicles from a 3D virtual environment
Author(s): Jared Knutzon
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2006
One hundred and three years ago the aviation age began with the Wright brothers in Kittyhawk, North Carolina. It is well known that manned aviation has made tremendous progress over the decades that followed. Less familiar are the deep history and roots of unmanned aviation, which is often thought of as a recent phenomenon. Initially, modern unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were instruments of war, and the challenge was to develop an unmanned system that could fly a preplanned route and return home. Once this level of autonomy was reached, it became clear that UAVs would have a considerable impact on future conflicts, but the possibilities extend beyond the practice of war and have potential to affect almost everyone’s lives. This potential, however, will not be met with current interface technologies, which require a team of operators to control one UAV. New technologies must be created to reverse this ratio. One operator must be able to control multiple UAVs. To accomplish this goal, the operator must be able to manage the UAVs’ flight paths and sensor feeds. The operator must also be able to maintain good situational awareness. This dissertation presents a 3D immersive ground control station capable of dynamic real-time path re-planning and in-context target confirmation as one possible solution to these challenges.
Low-cost eye-tracking for human computer interaction
Author(s): Dongheng Li
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2006
Knowing the user's point of gaze has long held the promise of being a useful methodology for human computer interaction. However, a number of barriers have stood in the way of the integration of eye tracking into everyday applications, including the intrusiveness, robustness, availability, and price of eye-tracking systems. The goal of this thesis is to lower these barriers so that eye tracking can be used to enhance current human computer interfaces. An eye-tracking system was developed. The system consists of an open-hardware design for a digital eye tracker that can be built from low-cost o -the-shelf components, and a set of open-source software tools for digital image capture, manipulation, and analysis in eye-tracking applications. Both infrared and visible spectrum eye-tracking algorithms were developed and used to calculate the user's point of gaze in two types of eye tracking systems, head-mounted and remote eye trackers. The accuracy of eye tracking was found to be approximately one degree of visual angle. It is expected that the availability of this system will facilitate the development of eyetracking applications and the eventual integration of eye tracking into the next generation of everyday human computer interfaces.
The development of a virtual reality based CAD system for design review
Author(s): Thomas Erlemeier
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2006
Virtual reality is currently utilized to view and evaluate product designs but is not used to alter designs. The design is typically completed on desktop workstations with CAD software and then evaluated within a virtual environment. Integrating VR and CAD could potentially improve designs by allowing several engineers and managers to critique and modify designs together, enabling concurrent engineering. This thesis discusses the development of a virtual reality based CAD system for altering designs during a design review. A list of criteria was first created to assess the system’s effectiveness in a design review which formed the basis for the development. The system integrates Pro/Engineer using the J-Link interface and VR Juggler. A wireless networked tablet PC along with a wand and tracker were chosen to operate the system. The developed system proved to meet the majority of the criteria and shows potential to meet all of the criteria.
Synesthetic music experience communicator
Author(s): Lew Hill
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2006
The Synesthetic Music Experience Communicator combines research in the areas of human computer interaction, music technology, and human perception to illustrate the experience of synesthesian mental imagery in response to musical sounds. Synesthesian musicians have reported positive benefits from their augmented awareness of sound in the areas of pitch identification, memorization, composition, and improvisation. This dissertation attempts to communicate both the experience and performance benefits associated with this cognitive phenomenon. Several virtual worlds have been developed to explore group education, rehearsal, and the artistic transformation of live performances into informative and entertaining visual presentations. Initial inspirations, background research, development stages, iterations, user evaluation, and future directions are discussed. Two virtual reality prototype systems are overviewed. The first demonstrates chromesthetic translations of real-time Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) events. The second demonstrates real-time transformations of multi-band Fast Fourier Transform processed audio into visual scenery. Observations and feedback about the initial prototype systems are summarized. Three systems are proposed which expand the initial prototypes and demonstrate concepts for computer augmented ensemble rehearsals. The Synesthetic Visualizer modules combine real-time audio and MIDI data to demonstrate synesthesia and photism-like imagery. The Computer Augmented Percussion Trainer and Small Ensemble Trainer are proposed to augment musical practices and rehearsals by providing real-time displays of ensemble members’ performances and displaying transformations between instrument fingerings. An introductory user study is conducted to determine which aspects of music are best communicated by the visual displays and to evaluate the potential benefits of this synesthetic approach. The user study asks participants to consider this research in relationship to existing music visualization and education methods. Exhibitions and publication efforts are reviewed. The user study, observations, and exhibitions serve to validate the core hypothesis of this research. The dissertation concludes by proposing an intelligent interactive synesthetic software agent to facilitate profile driven multimedia content creation.
It came from the Internet: Media diffusion of computer security threats
Author(s): Adam Patridge
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2006
This study examined media coverage of computer security threats by print sources using diffusion of innovation as the theoretical background. A content analysis was done on 2322 articles from keyword searches on five computer security threat names. After limiting coverage to present-tense usage of threat names, 902 articles remained. The analysis was done based on the knowledge types presented in articles, the number of days spent covering threats, the distribution of coverage over that time span, the number of articles per single media sources, the distribution of knowledge types per week of coverage, and the placement of media sources within adopter categories. Across all threats, there articles were 35 percent awareness-knowledge, 42 percent how-to knowledge, and 23 percent principles-knowledge. Coverage spans ranged from 63 days to 567 days (with an average of 287 days). The distribution of coverage over time for all threats showed steep spikes coinciding with the release of an exploit to known vulnerabilities. The top 20 individual media
sources were mostly wire services (75 percent, with 20 percent newspapers and five percent magazines); only 47 of the 176 individual sources had at least five articles across all threats. Knowledge types per week of coverage were varied across the threats. In the adopter categories, innovators were all wire services, early adopters were nine newspapers and 15 wire services, and early majority adopters were 37 newspapers, 16 wire services, and eleven magazines. Across all threats, there was a significant coverage spike that showed up following the release of an exploit to a vulnerability. Wire services were consistently part of the first sources to cover a threat and were often quite dense with repeated coverage compared to newspapers and magazines.An integrated task manager for virtual command and control
Author(s): Thomas Batkiewicz
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2006
The Task Manager is a desktop/tablet PC interface to the Battlespace research project that provides interactions and displays for supervisory control of unmanned aerial vehicles. Utilizing a north-up map display, the Task Manager provides a direct-manipulation interface to the units involved in an engagement. Used in two primary modes, the Task Manager can be used either in a planning/review mode that can be used to generate mission scenarios or a live-streaming mode that connects to a live Battlespace simulation via a network connection to edit and update path information on the fly. The goal of this research is to combine the precision of 2D mouse and pen-based interaction with the increased situational awareness provided by 3D battlefield visualizations like the Battlespace application. Combined use of these interfaces, either by a single operator or a small team of operators with task-specific roles, is proposed to produce a more favorable ratio of operators to units in field operations with superior decision-making capabilities due to the specific nature of the interfaces.
Augmented reality tangible interfaces for CAD design review
Author(s): Ronald Sidharta
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2006
CAD programs have been in development for almost forty years. In the beginning, CAD was synonymous with the
electronic creation and storage of 2D drawings, a replacement for the traditional draftsmen's table. Though CAD has evolved over the ensuing years to a primarily 3D tool, its 2D roots are clearly evident in the user interface. The creation of 2D drawings maps naturally to the interfaces provided by 2D desktop computers, but as the role of CAD programs has become increasingly three dimensional, the 2D analogy is extended beyond the breaking point. Unlike 2D drawing, the desktop metaphor does not provide an intuitive mechanism for the creation and manipulation of 3D objects. In order to adapt the 2D desktop to create and manage 3D objects, new interface methodologies and special purpose widgets were invented to map 2D actions into 3D, mappings that require significant training for users and increase their cognitive load. The goal of the research presented in this thesis is to consider an alternative to 2D desktop based interfaces for design review, an alternative that reduce the users' cognitive load while selecting and manipulating 3D objects during the design review process. In this thesis, we identify three specific interaction challenges common to design reviews: 3D browsing, 3D positioning/orientation, and 3D assembly/disassembly. We then describe a new set of Augmented Tangible Interfaces (ATI) designed to more naturally support these three tasks. ATI uses augmented reality techniques to allow a computer to recognize a set of tangible objects and generate virtual graphics that integrate with a user's vision, letting those users "see" and "handle" those virtual 3D objects naturally, as if they were real, physical objects. In this thesis, we discuss the research problem and the related research that motivated us to develop this new ATI. We then discuss the detailed implementation of our system, both hardware and software. In the HCI consideration chapter we discuss the usability of the system and then discuss future work.The Mole: a Pressure-Sensitive Mouse
Author(s): Jake Ingman
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2006
Tangle: The creation of a trusted, task-based, distributed information system utilizing a peer-to-peer network
Author(s): Jason Schneekloth
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2005
Every day more and more people from all walks of life use computers to communicate. Using a wide variety of new tools, including email, instant messaging, online chat rooms, and blogs, people of all ages have adopted computers as a means to keep in touch. Typically, each of these communication forms requires its own application, regardless of whom information is being sent to. For example, an email client is needed send email to a friend, and a separate instant messaging client is needed to send instant messages to that same friend. Not only are different applications required to send information between the same two people, but the information is routed differently, using different network topologies and technologies, in order to complete what is essentially a simple form of communication between two people.
Email and instant messaging are just two of the many examples of computer mediated communication. Everyday it seems, people find another way to use computers to share information with one another. Many other examples exist, such as sharing pictures between friends, sharing music, sharing knowledge —the list goes on and on. These ommunications typically occur within groups – friends and family, a project team, a group or division within an nterprise. The information exchanged within these groups does not respect application boundaries. For example, the people a person shares pictures with are also likely to receive email and instant messages from that person. This thesis discusses the design and creation of a comprehensive peer-to-peer communication system referred to as Tangle. The goal of Tangle is to provide a common framework and communication network to support communication in any form between a group of people, providing a common entry point for any type of communication between groups of trusted peers. With this underlying infrastructure created, Tangle provides a base set of functionality which the veryday computer user would find most useful. Tangle also defines a mechanism to create new forms of communication within a group, called a Tangle Extension. These extensions provide unlimited extensibility to the set of task oriented communications possible between groups of peers using Tangle.
Renaissance: a functional shading language
Author(s): Chad Austin
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2005
Programmable graphics hardware is growing in capability and flexibility at a rapid pace. Existing languages for programming this hardware make it difficult at best to build collections of custom graphics algorithms that can be combined as needed. We present a pure functional shading language, Renaissance, that uses the concepts of computational frequency and frequency inference to naturally allow composition of shader concepts without generating redundant code. We also provide most of the benefits of metaprogramming languages without the restriction of requiring a full host environment.
Interaction in an immersive virtual Beijing courtyard house
Author(s): Qian Chen
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2005
Courtyard housing had been a standard dwelling type in China for more than 3000 years, which integrated tightly with local customs, aesthetics, philosophy, and natural conditions. As the representative of Chinese courtyard housing, Beijing's style has its unique features including structure, plan layout, and urban form. How to present these features effectively is of great importance to understand Beijing courtyard housing. The current major visualization methods in architecture include physical model, digital imaging, and hand drawing. All of them have two common limitations-- small dimensions and non-interaction. As an alternative, VR owns two advantages--immersion and interactivity. In a full-immersive VR environment, such as the C6, users can examine virtual buildings at full-scale and operate models interactively at real-time. Thus, this project attempts to implement an interactive simulation of Beijing courtyard house in C6, and find out if architectural knowledge can be presented through this environment. The methodological steps include VR modeling, interaction planning, and C6 implementation. A four-yard house in Beijing was used as the prototype of VR modeling. By generating the model into six versions with different nodes and textures, it was found that the fewer nodes a model has, the quicker it is in C6. The main interaction mechanism is to demonstrate the main hall's structure interactively through menu selection. The sequence to show the structure is based on its constructional process. Each menu item uses the name of structural components, and by clicking a menu item, the corresponding constructional step is shown in C6. There were five viewers invited to see the simulation and comment on the functionality of full-immersion and interactivity in this product. Overall, the results are positive that the full-immersive and interactive VR environment is potentially effective to present architectural knowledge. A major suggestion from the viewers is that more details can be added in the simulation, such as characters and furniture. Upon the accomplishment of this project, a method to implement architectural simulations efficiently in C6 could be found. In the future, this study could involve more complex interactions such as virtual inhabitants, as a means to show the Chinese culture vividly.
Designs for a general purpose wearable computer
Author(s): Brian Mila
- Type: thesis
- Year: 2005
To provide input and control, wearable computer solutions must replace the familiar desktop interface devices of keyboard and mouse with specialized hardware. While successful wearable input solutions have been developed for domain specific applications, a standard input interface for general purpose wearable computing has yet to emerge. The steep learning curves and unruly hardware of the solutions proposed thus far are one of the factors keeping wearable computing out of the mainstream. This thesis proposes a new input and control approach that increases wearable computing usability by integrating several commonly available devices into a comprehensive system. The proposed system integrates commercial, off the shelf hardware together with generalized software applications that increase the usability and general utility of a wearable computer. The hardware consists of a wearable computer, a clip-on microdisplay eyepiece and a standard PDA running Pocket PC. Through a Bluetooth network, the PDA can wirelessly control the text input (keyboard) and pointer control (mouse) of the wearable computer. The software consists of two applications designed to provide easy access to new content and previously stored data. One application presents a user with a continuous scroll of new content which can be attended to at the user's discretion. The content is dynamically retrieved from any online sources, and can range from news feeds and stock quotes to calendars and weather reports. New content can be added to the user's persistent digital store at any time. The second application, a private peer-to-peer data sharing program called the Tangle, was developed to fuse the user's multiple data sources (home or work computer, wearable computer, PDA) into a single, searchable repository. Tangle also provides easy access to the digital assets of other, trusted Tangle users. Tangle makes it easy for virtually any content that a user encounters while using the system to be easily added to the user's persistent data store.
Virtual environment UAV swarm management using GPU calculated digital pheromones
Author(s): Bryan Walter
- Type: dissertation
- Year: 2005
Our future military force will be complex: a highly integrated mix of manned and unmanned units. These unmanned units could function individually or within a swarm. The readiness of future warfighters to work alongside and utilize these new forces depends on the creation of usable interfaces and training simulators. The difficulty is that current unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control interfaces require too much operator attention and common swarm control methods require expensive computational power. This dissertation discusses how to improve upon current user interfaces and how to improve the performance of a common swarm control method, the digital pheromone field. This method uses digital pheromones to bias the movements of individual units within a swarm toward areas that are attractive and away from areas that are dangerous or unattractive. A more efficient method for performing pheromone field calculations is introduced, one that harnesses the power of the GPU (graphics processing unit) in today's graphics cards by reshaping the ADAPTIV swarm control algorithm into a form acceptable to the GPU's pipeline [1]. The GPU ADAPTIV implementation is tested in scenarios that involve up to 50,000 virtual UAVs. When compared to its counterpart CPU implementation, the GPU version performed over 30 times faster than the CPU version. This gain translates directly into lower costs for training the future warfighter today and fielding the swarms of tomorrow. Finally, this dissertation presents a vision for combining these new interface ideas and performance enhancements into an effective swarm control interface and training simulator.