Graphics and Human Computer Interfaces Commons^™

Libraries Respond To Mobile Ubiquity: Research And Assessment Of Mobile Device Usage Trends For Academic And Medical Libraries, Megan M. Hurst, Eleanor I. Cook, J. Michael Lindsay, Martha F. Earl

Charleston Library Conference

The authors consider trends in mobile device usage for the Internet as a whole, for EBSCO Discovery Service across all client libraries, and at two specific libraries: Preston Medical Library, serving the University of Tennessee (UT) Graduate School of Medicine and UT Medical Center, and the Joyner Library at East Carolina University, serving students and faculty on the main campus. Librarians at Preston Medical Library conducted a survey to determine which mobile devices, platforms, and apps were used by their patrons in 2012. East Carolina University piloted an iPad and e-reader lending program in 2010–2011. The results of each are …

Designing A Goal Journaling Application, Kevin Lufkin

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Achieving a personal goal and making a positive change in one’s life can be a difficult and elusive task. Everyday people are creating and setting new goals for themselves, but more often than not these goals are never realized. Motivation, determination, and discipline are all key elements when it comes to accomplishing a goal, but if there is no clear idea as to how to connect the dots from where one is to where one wants to be these important qualities lose their effectiveness.

The applications that exist today largely fit in the realm of goal/task management and planners. This …

Games People Play: Exploring Depaul's Top-Rated Computer Game Development Program

DePaul Magazine

In March 2014, the Princeton Review, in conjunction with PC Gamer magazine, named the top 25 schools to study game design in the United States and Canada. DePaul's undergraduate program ranked 20th, a considerable leap from 2013’s honorable mention. The graduate program came in at 12th. DePaul's strong ranking reflects the game development program's extension of its basic game development, software engineering and programming to include art, design and storytelling, as well as computer graphics technology, networking, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. Examples of the award-winning games developed by students and now marketed by such going concerns as Sony PlayStation …

Constructive Visualization, Samuel Huron, Sheelagh Carpendale, Alice Thudt, Anthony Tang, Michael Mauerer

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

If visualization is to be democratized, we need to provide means for non-experts to create visualizations that allow them to engage directly with datasets. We present constructive visualization a new paradigm for the simple creation of flexible, dynamic visualizations. Constructive visualization is simple—in that the skills required to build and manipulate the visualizations are akin to kindergarten play; it is expressive— in that one can build within the constraints of the chosen environment, and it also supports dynamics — in that these constructed visualizations can be rebuilt and adjusted. We describe the conceptual components and processes underlying constructive visualization, and …

Smarticles: A Method For Identifying And Correcting Instability And Error Caused By Explicit Integration Techniques In Physically Based Simulations, Susan Aileen Marano

Master's Theses

Using an explicit integration method in physically based animations has many advantages including conceptual and computational simplicity, however, it re- quires small time steps to ensure low numerical instability. Simulations with large numbers of individually interacting components such as cloth, hair, and fluid models, are limited by the sections of particles most susceptible to error. This results in the need for smaller time steps than required for the majority of the system. These sections can be diverse and dynamic, quickly changing in size and location based on forces in the system. Identifying and handling these trou- blesome sections could allow …

Juiciness In Citizen Science Computer Games: Analysis Of A Prototypical Game, Eric D. Ebucktha Buckthal

Master's Theses

Incorporating the collective problem-solving skills of non-experts could ac- celerate the advancement of scientific research. Citizen science games leverage puzzles to present computationally difficult problems to players. Such games typ- ically map the scientific problem to game mechanics and visual feed-back helps players improve their solutions. Like games for entertainment, citizen science games intend to capture and retain player attention. “Juicy” game design refers to augmented visual feedback systems that give a game personality without modi- fying fundamental game mechanics. A “juicy” game feels alive and polished. This thesis explores the use of “juicy” game design applied to the citizen …

Placing Videos On A Semantic Hierarchy For Search Result Navigation, Song Tan, Yu-Gang Jiang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Organizing video search results in a list view is widely adopted by current commercial search engines, which cannot support efficient browsing for complex search topics that have multiple semantic facets. In this article, we propose to organize video search results in a highly structured way. Specifically, videos are placed on a semantic hierarchy that accurately organizes various facets of a given search topic. To pick the most suitable videos for each node of the hierarchy, we define and utilize three important criteria: relevance, uniqueness, and diversity. Extensive evaluations on a large YouTube video dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Gamification Of Education: A Review Of Literature, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Qing Zeng, Venkata R. Telaprolu, Abhishek Padmanabhuni Ayyappa, Brenda Eschenbrenner

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We synthesized the literature on gamification of education by conducting a review of the literature on gamification in the educational and learning context. Based on our review, we identified several game design elements that are used in education. These game design elements include points, levels/stages, badges, leaderboards, prizes, progress bars, storyline, and feedback. We provided examples from the literature to illustrate the application of gamification in the educational context.

A Proof Of Concept For Crowdsourcing Color Perception Experiments, Ryan Nathaniel Mcleod

Master's Theses

Accurately quantifying the human perception of color is an unsolved prob- lem. There are dozens of numerical systems for quantifying colors and how we as humans perceive them, but as a whole, they are far from perfect. The ability to accurately measure color for reproduction and verification is critical to indus- tries that work with textiles, paints, food and beverages, displays, and media compression algorithms. Because the science of color deals with the body, mind, and the subjective study of perception, building models of color requires largely empirical data over pure analytical science. Much of this data is extremely dated, …

Virtual Reality Engine Development, Varun Varahamurthy

Master's Theses

With the advent of modern graphics and computing hardware and cheaper sensor and display technologies, virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular in the fields of gaming, therapy, training and visualization. Earlier attempts at popularizing VR technology were plagued by issues of cost, portability and marketability to the general public. Modern screen technologies make it possible to produce cheap, light head-mounted displays (HMDs) like the Oculus Rift, and modern GPUs make it possible to create and deliver a seamless real-time 3D experience to the user. 3D sensing has found an application in virtual and augmented reality as well, allowing for a …

Interactive Two-Sided Transparent Displays: Designing For Collaboration, Jiannan Li, Saul Greenberg, Ehud Sharlin, Joaquim Jorge

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Transparent displays can serve as an important collaborative medium supporting face-to-face interactions over a shared visual work surface. Such displays enhance workspace awareness: when a person is working on one side of a transparent display, the person on the other side can see the other's body, hand gestures, gaze and what he or she is actually manipulating on the shared screen. Even so, we argue that designing such transparent displays must go beyond current offerings if it is to support collaboration. First, both sides of the display must accept interactive input, preferably by at least touch and / or pen, …

Learning Euclidean-To-Riemannian Metric For Point-To-Set Classification, Zhiwu Huang, R. Wang, S. Shan, X. Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we focus on the problem of point-to-set classification, where single points are matched against sets of correlated points. Since the points commonly lie in Euclidean space while the sets are typically modeled as elements on Riemannian manifold, they can be treated as Euclidean points and Riemannian points respectively. To learn a metric between the heterogeneous points, we propose a novel Euclidean-to-Riemannian metric learning framework. Specifically, by exploiting typical Riemannian metrics, the Riemannian manifold is first embedded into a high dimensional Hilbert space to reduce the gaps between the heterogeneous spaces and meanwhile respect the Riemannian geometry of …

Daisy Filter Flow: A Generalized Discrete Approach To Dense Correspondences, Hongsheng Yang, Wen-Yan Lin, Jiangbo Lu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

No abstract provided.

Institutional Boundaries And Trust Of Virtual Teams In Collaborative Design: An Experimental Study In A Virtual World Environment, Shu Z. Schiller, Brian Mennecke, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Andy Luse

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Members of virtual teams often collaborate within and across institutional boundaries. This research investigates the effects of boundary spanning conditions on the development of team trust and team satisfaction. Two hundred and eighty-two participants carried out a collaborative design task over several weeks in a virtual world, Second Life. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to examine our research model, which compares individual level measurement between two boundary spanning team conditions. The results indicate that trusting beliefs have a positive impact on team trust, which in turn, influences team satisfaction. Further, we found that, compared to cross-boundary teams, within-boundary teams …

Coffee: Context Observer For Fast Enthralling Entertainment, Anthony M. Lenz

Master's Theses

Desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and the Kinect, oh my! With so many devices available to the average consumer, the limitations and pitfalls of each interface are becoming more apparent. Swimming in devices, users often have to stop and think about how to interact with each device to accomplish the current tasks at hand. The goal of this thesis is to minimize user cognitive effort in handling multiple devices by creating a context aware hybrid interface. The context aware system will be explored through the hybridization of gesture and touch interfaces using a multi-touch coffee table and the next-generation Microsoft Kinect. …

Hydrographic Surface Modeling Through A Raster Based Spline Creation Method, Julie G. Alexander

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The United States Army Corp of Engineers relies on accurate and detailed surface models for various construction projects and preventative measures. To aid in these efforts, it is necessary to work for advancements in surface model creation. Current methods for model creation include Delaunay triangulation, raster grid interpolation, and Hydraulic Spline grid generation. While these methods produce adequate surface models, attempts for improved methods can still be made.

A method for raster based spline creation is presented as a variation of the Hydraulic Spline algorithm. By implementing Hydraulic Splines in raster data instead of vector data, the model creation process …

The Design And Implementation Of A Lightweight Game Engine For The Iphone Platform, Luke B. Godfrey

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, the design for a two dimensional game engine for the iPhone using the entity component system (ECS) model is presented as a solution to enable developers to streamline game development. Some background concepts are explained, including the ECS model and a brief overview of part of the iOS SDK used in this project. Related work is explored. An implementation of the design is then described in detail, presented as two parts: a framework and a core set of systems. Finally, the implemented engine is evaluated according to three criteria: ease of use, flexibility, and efficiency. The results …

A Framework For Constructing Serious Games, Taylor Glen Yust

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Communicating ideas and knowledge through serious games is a trend that is currently gaining in popularity. However, at present, there is a distinct lack of a game development methodology that takes a critical approach to transforming information into gameplay. This thesis presents a framework that can be followed to construct compelling serious games that are effective at transferring knowledge to the player. This is accomplished through an analysis of atomic knowledge items and their relationships to one another, followed by a meaningful and synergetic implementation of these ideas at a foundational mechanics level.

This thesis also describes the development of …

Efficient Ray Tracing For Mobile Devices, Rafael De Melo Aroxa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The demand for mobile devices with higher graphics performance has increased substantially in the past few years. Most mobile applications that demand 3D graphics use commonly available frameworks, such as Unity and Unreal Engine. In mobile devices, these frameworks are built on top of OpenGL ES and use a graphics technique called rasterization, a simple concept that yields good performance without sacrificing graphic quality. However, rasterization cannot easily handle some physical phenomena of light (i.e. reflection and refraction). In order to support such effects, the graphics framework has to emulate them, thereby leading to suboptimal results in term of quality. …

Exploring Video Streaming In Public Settings: Shared Geocaching Over Distance Using Mobile Video Chat, Jason Procyk, Carman Neustaedter, Carolyn Pang, Anthony Tang, Tejinder K. Judge

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Our research explores the use of mobile video chat in public spaces by people participating in parallel experiences, where both a local and remote person are doing the same activity together at the same time. We prototyped a wearable video chat experience and had pairs of friends and family members participate in 'shared geocaching' over distance. Our results show that video streaming works best for navigation tasks but is more challenging to use for fine-grained searching tasks. Video streaming also creates a very intimate experience with a remote partner, but this can lead to distraction from the 'real world' and …