bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adult Learning and Virtual Worlds Simulations
Authors: Estes Michele D. , Snow Randell
Published: May 2010

This chapter will explore conditions for meaningful adult learning and explain how virtual environments and in-world simulations enable or discourage the development of intellectual skills in adults. Adult learners possess particular characteristics that should influence instructional designs. Issues that affect learning in the real-world are also found in the virtual world. Particular problems of cognitive and cultural dissonance in the virtual environment, finding and creating meaningful simulations, and protecting the fidelity of authentic simulations in a public space are discussed. Recommendations and future research directions are provided.
Introduction to Quality of Service
Authors: Ibarrola Eva , Liberal Fidel , Ferro Armando
Published: May 2010

The advent and rise of broadband technologies and new applications and services have led to a complex heterogeneous scenario in which providing Quality of Service (QoS) has become a compelling issue. Furthermore, the competitive condition of the telecommunications environment has caused user’s perception of quality to become one of the most differential factors for service providers. Due to this fact, QoS must not only attend to specific technical metrics, but more important, QoS criteria should be defined to assure the level of quality to fulfil the users’ requirements. In this new context, the definition of effective user-oriented QoS management models and frameworks has become a matter of contention. This chapter aims to provide readers a comprehensive analysis of the entire significance of a user-centered approach for quality of service management. For this purpose, a review of the most important issues related to the subject is provided.
Model Based Approach for QoS Constrained Communication and Data Integration among Multiple Agents
Authors: Ramachandra Manjunath , Jain Vikas
Published: May 2010

Meeting the agreed quality of service in a resource crunched data network is challenging. An intelligent element is required to carry out the activities involved. The inferences drawn with different rules need to be merged. Agents are useful for handling this responsibility in data networks and help in resource sharing. An agent is basically an entity that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon its environment through effectors. To handle the network traffic, the agents acquire the traffic status and provide the information on the availability of resources to the source of the traffic. Hence the study on agent communication has become important. Intelligent agents continuously perform the activities including perception of dynamic conditions in the environment, reasoning for interpretation of the perceptions, solve problems, draw inferences and determine actions.
Scalable Intra and Inter Domain IPv6 QoS Management and Pricing Scheme
Authors: Fgee El-Bahlul , Sivakumar Shyamala , Phillips William J. , Robertson William
Published: May 2010

Network multimedia applications constitute a large part of Internet traffic and guaranteed delivery of such traffic is a challenge because of their sensitivity to delay, packet loss and higher bandwidth requirement. The need for guaranteed traffic delivery is exacerbated by the increasing delay experienced by traffic propagating through more than one QoS domain. Hence, there is a need for a flexible and a scalable QoS manager that handles and manages the needs of traffic flows throughout multiple IPv6 domains. The IPv6 QoS manager, presented in this paper, uses a combination of the packets’ flow ID and the source address (Domain Global Identifier (DGI)), to process and reserve resources inside an IPv6 domain. To ensure inter-domain QoS management, the QoS domain manager should also communicate with other QoS domains’ managers to ensure that traffic flows are guaranteed delivery. In this scheme, the IPv6 QoS manager handles QoS requests by either processing them locally if the intended destination is located locally or forwards the request to the neighboring domain’s QoS manager. End-to-end QoS is achieved with an integrated admission and management unit. The feasibility of the proposed QoS management scheme is illustrated for both intra- and inter-domain QoS management. The scalability of the QoS management scheme for inter-domain scenarios is illustrated with simulations for traffic flows propagating through two and three domains. Excellent average end-to-end delay results have been achieved when traffic flow propagates through more than one domain. Simulations show that packets belonging to non-conformant flows experience increased delay, and such packets are degraded to lower priority if they exceed their negotiated traffic flow rates. Many pricing schemes have been proposed for QoS-enabled networks. However, integrated pricing and admission control has not been studied in detail. A dynamic pricing model is integrated with the IPv6 QoS manager to study the effects of increasing traffic flows rates on the increased cost of delivering high priority traffic flows. The pricing agent assigns prices dynamically for each traffic flow accepted by the domain manager. Combining the pricing strategy with the QoS manager allows only higher priority traffic packets that are willing to pay more to be processed during congestion. This approach is flexible and scalable as end-to-end pricing is decoupled from packet forwarding and resource reservation decisions. Simulations show that additional revenue is generated as prices change dynamically according to the network congestion status.
QoS Guaranteed Based Network Management Policies in the Integration of Wired and Wireless Architecture of a Healthcare Network
Authors: Bhattarakosol Pattarasinee , Tanchotsrinon Watcharaporn
Published: May 2010

Every community in the world expects to have a high value of life. Therefore, budgets are pooling to the local healthcare unit to increase healthcare and medical services to their citizen. One common implementation in the healthcare system is a healthcare network, where all necessary information are transferred to safe patients’ lives. Various developments in medical equipments integrate communication circuit to enhance ability to transmit data direct from patients to medical staffs so that their lives can be safe in time. Since the implementation of wireless network is widely spread, this paper proposes the integration of the wireless network and wired network to serve a healthcare system under a management policy. The results have shown that the proposed architecture with policy has a better quality of services than another alternative solution using QoS standard metrics. Thus, the paper ensures that a qualified healthcare network can be achieved under the condition that the suitable architecture must be implemented and the right management policies are also applied.
Why Virtual Worlds?
Authors: Adrian Angela
Published: May 2010

This book will examine the legal realities which are emerging from Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). MMORPGs are any computer network-mediated games in which at least 1,000 players are role-playing simultaneously in a graphical environment. They are also known as virtual worlds. The term virtual reality was coined by Jaron Lanier in 1989. Lanier is one of the pioneers of the field, founding the company VPL Research (from Virtual Programming Languages) which built some of the first systems in the 1980s. The related term artificial reality has been in use since the 1970s and cyberspace dates to 1984.
It is Only a Game
Authors: Adrian Angela
Published: May 2010

In many ways, ubiquitous computing is viewed as the opposite of virtual reality. The earliest writings on ubiquitous computing recognized this fundamental difference. “Perhaps most diametrically opposed to our vision [of ubiquitous computing] is the notion of ‘virtual reality,’ which attempts to make a world inside the computer . . . . Virtual reality focuses an enormous apparatus on simulating the world rather than on invisibly enhancing the one that already exists. Indeed, the opposition between the notion of virtual reality and ubiquitous, invisible computing is so strong that some of us use the term ‘embodied virtuality’ to refer to the process of drawing computers out of their electronic shells.” (Weiser, 1991) Yet, the two share an important common trait: both are mediated by computing ability. The previous chapter introduced “MMORPGs” which are also sometimes referred to as game worlds or virtual worlds. Some of the most popular American MMORPGs are World of Warcraft, Everquest, Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, and City of Heroes. Legend of Mir, Final Fantasy XI, Lineage II, MU Online, Ragnarok Online, Lineage, and Kingdom of the Winds are some popular Asian MMORPGs. Dubit, Runescape, Playdo, and Habbo Hotel are popular in Europe. (Terra Nova, 2008) Another type of popular virtual world is the social virtual world, also sometimes referred to as “unstructured.” Some popular social virtual worlds are Second Life, Sims Online, Project Entropia, and There. (Virtual Worlds Review, 2008) Categorization as “social” does not fully comprehend these virtual worlds. Each world relies to an extent on user-created content. For example, Second Life started as a largely blank slate with most in-world objects being designed and created in-world by individual players. (Second Life, Create Anything, 2008) Social worlds can also have some game-like incentive aspects. The entire concept embodies far more than traditional video games.
A NoC-Based Infrastructure to Enable Dynamic Self Reconfigurable Systems
Authors: Möller Leandro , Grehs Ismael , Carvalho Ewerson , Soares Rafael , Calazans Ney , Moraes Fernando
Published: May 2010

Platform-based designed SoC includes one or more processors, RTOS, intellectual property blocks, memories and an interconnection infrastructure. An associated advantage of processor is flexibility at the software level. Hardware is not flexible. Thus, dedicated IP blocks must be inserted at design time. An alternative is to provide the platform with reconfigurable hardware blocks with sufficient capacity to implement any envisaged dedicated IP block. Dynamic self-reconfigurable systems (DSRSs) introduce flexibility to hardware. In DSRSs, IP blocks are loaded according to application demand, an approach that potentially reduces area, power consumption and total system cost. Platform-based design associated to dynamic reconfiguration techniques provide both hardware and software flexibility. The contributions of this work are: (i) DSRS architecture proposal; (ii) straightforward DSRS design flow for this architecture; (iii) NoC specifically designed to support dynamic hardware reconfiguration; (iv) two proof-of-concept case studies. Results point that among the best implementation choices for DSRS are those that employ NoCs as communication infrastructure, adopt the use of software configuration controllers, make use of unidirectional LUT-based IP interfaces and dispose of an internal port for reconfiguration.
An Efficient Hardware/Software Communication Mechanism for Reconfigurable NoC
Authors: Lin Wei-Wen , Shen Jih-Sheng , Hsiung Pao-Ann
Published: May 2010

With the progress of technology, more and more intellectual properties (IPs) can be integrated into one single chip. The performance bottleneck has shifted from the computation in individual IPs to the communication among IPs. A Network-on-Chip (NoC) was proposed to provide high scalability and parallel communication. An ASIC-implemented NoC lacks flexibility and has a high non-recurring engineering (NRE) cost. As an alternative, we can implement an NoC in a Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). In addition, FPGA devices can support dynamic partial reconfiguration such that the hardware circuits can be configured into an FPGA at run time when necessary, without interfering hardware circuits that are already running. Such an FPGA-based NoC, namely reconfigurable NoC (RNoC), is more flexible and the NRE cost of FPGA-based NoC is also much lower than that of an ASIC-based NoC. Because of dynamic partial reconfiguration, there are several issues in the RNoC design. We focus on how communication between hardware and software can be made efficient for RNoC. We implement three communication architectures for RNoC namely single output FIFO-based architecture, multiple output FIFO-based architecture, and shared memory-based architecture. The average communication memory overhead is less on the single output FIFO-based architecture and the shared memory-based architecture than on the multiple output FIFO-based architecture when the lifetime interval is smaller than 0.5. In the performance analysis, some real applications are applied. Real application examples show that performance of the multiple output FIFO-based architecture is more efficient by as much as 1.789 times than the performance of the single output FIFO-based architecture. The performance of the shared memory-based architecture is more efficient by as much as 1.748 times than the performance of the single output FIFO-based architecture.
Design Methodologies and Mapping Algorithms for Reconfigurable NoC-Based Systems
Authors: Rana Vincenzo , Santambrogio Marco D. , Meroni Alessandro
Published: May 2010

This chapter describes in details the different approaches and design methodologies that can be employed in order to create reconfigurable Network-on-Chip-based systems. The target architecture can be mainly defined either as a homogeneous or as a non-homogeneous grid of tiles. Furthermore, in addition to these architectures, it is also possible to identify a regular non-homogeneous solution, which is a sort of mix of the previous two. A second distinction can be done based on the reconfiguration capabilities that the target system can support. In particular, by using one of the previously introduced architectures, it is possible to develop a reconfigurable system, based on the NoC paradigm, in which the communication infrastructure, the mapping of the computational cores or both can be dynamically configured at run-time.
High-Level Programming of Dynamically Reconfigurable NoC-Based Heterogeneous Multicore SoCs
Authors: Vanderbauwhede Wim
Published: May 2010

With the increase in System-on-Chip (SoC) complexity and CMOS technology capabilities, the SoC design community has recently observed a convergence of a number of critical trends, all of them aimed at addressing the design gap: the advent of heterogeneous multicore SoCs and Networks-on-Chip and the recognition of the need for design reuse through Intellectual Property (IP) cores, for dynamic reconfigurability and for high abstraction-level design. In this chapter, we present a solution for High-level Programming of Dynamically Reconfigurable NoC-based Heterogeneous Multicore SoCs. Our solution, the Gannet framework, allows IP core-based Heterogeneous Multicore SoCs to be programmed using a high-level language whilst preserving the full potential for parallelism and dynamic reconfigurability inherent in such a system. The required hardware infrastructure is small and low-latency, thus adding full dynamic reconfiguration capabilities with a small overhead both in area and performance.
Verification of Attributes in Linked Lists Using Ant Colony Metaphor
Authors: Banerjee Soumya , Mahanti P. K.
Published: May 2010

The chapter describes the validation of the attributes of linked list using modified pheromone biased model (of Ant colony) under complex application environment mainly for kernel configuration and device driver operations. The proposed approach incorporates the idea of pheromone exploration strategy with small learning parameter associated while traversing a linked list. This process of local propagation on loop and learning on traversal is not available with the conventional validation mechanism of data structure using predicate logic. It has also been observed from simulation that the proposed ant colony algorithm with different pheromone value produces better convergence on linked list.
Attaching People and Technology
Authors: Mörtberg Christina , Elovaara Pirjo
Published: May 2010

The Swedish public sector is involved in an overwhelming change process aiming towards creating a good-service society based on information technology. Rationalisation, efficiency and effectiveness are the leading signs in the dominating discourse of Swedish society of today. This discourse is silent about public sector employees, their agencies, their participation, and how the public sector is the dominant labour market for women. Alternative stories of women’s presence in the creation of a good-service society are presented with a focus on performances of gender, skills, learning and technology. The empirical material was collected in municipalities in the south east of Sweden. Methods sensitive to everyday practices in order to create space and time for women and their stories were developed and used. The methodological approach, feminist technoscience, provides opportunities to move beyond the dominating IT discourses in order to make visible other discourses where women are present.
Gendered Knowledge Production in Universities in a Web 2.0 World
Authors: Kirkup Gill
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines the access women have had historically to engage in knowledge production as university scholars or students. It discusses the changing nature of knowledge production in universities, and the impact of some Web 2.0 tools on this activity. It asks, through a detailed discussion of wikis and blogging if Web 2.0 tools can challenge the traditional gendering of university knowledge production,.
Multimedia Design of Assistive Technology for Those with Learning Disabilities
Authors: DaCosta Boaventura , Seok Soonhwa
Published: May 2010

This is the final of three chapters serving as the introduction to this handbook which addresses the relationship between human cognition and assistive technologies and its design for individuals with cognitive disabilities. In this chapter the authors build upon the last two chapters and focus specifically on research investigating the visual and auditory components of working memory. The authors present the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, a learning theory proposing a set of instructional principles grounded in human information processing research that provide best practices in designing efficient multimedia learning environments. Much like the last chapter, the instructional principles presented are grounded in empirically-based study and consolidate nearly twenty years of research to highlight the best ways in which to increase learning. Altogether, the authors stress the common thread found throughout this three chapter introduction—that technology for learning should be created with an understanding of design principles empirically supported by how the human mind works. They argue that the principles emerging from the cognitive theory of multimedia learning may have potential benefits in the design of assistive technologies for those with learning disabilities.
Cognitive Load and Disorientation Issues in Hypermedia as Assistive Technology
Authors: Demirbilek Muhammet
Published: May 2010

Advances in information and communication technologies have raised the quality of inclusive education programs. Inclusive education, a recent advance in educational technology, has served to increase the ability of students with special needs. Hypermedia as an assistive technology has the potential to teach and train individuals with disabilities. However, like every technology, hypermedia itself is not problem-free. Disorientation and cognitive load are two of the most challenging problems related to hypermedia learning environments. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight disorientation and cognitive load problems in hypermedia learning environments where learners usually face a serious problem while navigating such environments.
Multi-Sensory Environments and Augmentative Communication Tools
Authors: Wagner Cynthia L. , Delisi Jennifer
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses the use of augmentative communication tools in conjunction with use of a multi-sensory environment. Though little has been written about the pairing, the authors discuss related literature, the history of their program’s use, the emerging communicators with whom they notice a great benefit, and the challenges of implementation. The purpose of this chapter is to open the discussion about the relationship between the two, to examine some of the related research, and to propose new research directions which could benefit adults who face communication challenges due to sensory issues. The focus is on the issues faced by adults with developmental disabilities and autism.
Assistive Technology for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
Authors: Fitzpatrick Michael , Theoharis Raschelle
Published: May 2010

Although the majority of deaf and hard of hearing (d/hh) students are educated in the public school system (Turnball, Turnball, & Wehmeyer, 2010) there is limited research and literature regarding how educators can effectively meet their educational needs by implementing assistive and instructional technologies into their curriculum. This chapter provides an overview of the various assistive and instructional technologies available to d/hh students and outlines how these students access and use technology. This chapter contributes to the fundamental ideal that integrating assistive and instructional technologies can greatly enhance the academic and social outcomes for d/hh students. It should be noted, that the Deaf community does not adhere to person first language because they do not view deafness as a disability but as a culture.
Effects of Assistive Technologies Combined with Desktop Virtual Reality in Instructional Procedures (1)
Authors: Dotterer Gary
Published: May 2010

Based on research, desktop virtual reality (DVR) has been shown to have learning benefits over traditional methods of instruction. However, implementing assistive technology (ATs) in DVR would seem to enhance the learning process. This study aimed to examine effects of web-based DVR on learning performances. The literature reviewed for this particular study ultimately shows DVR to be beneficial in training in many fields found in the workforce. The overall advantages utilizing advanced technology in the form of DVR and ATs allow safe and controlled training environments, realistic simulations, and the ability to reconstruct learner processes and interactions.
Effects of Assistive Technologies Combined with Desktop Virtual Reality in Instructional Procedures (2)
Authors: Dotterer Gary
Published: May 2010

Twenty-four practical nursing and health careers students were introduced by random assignment to the four treatments. Specifically, the study compared the learning effects on an instrument connection procedure used in a medical setting of four different learning treatments: text-only instruction, image-only instruction, desktop virtual reality (DVR) with assistive technologies (ATs) (i.e., audio combined with closed caption) instruction, and hands-on demonstration instruction. This study used descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and qualitative comments and observation to discover important design and implementation challenges for DVR.
Response to Intervention
Authors: Dunn Michael W.
Published: May 2010

Response to intervention (RTI) is a method for classifying students with a learning disability. In collaboration with pertinent school staff, the general education teacher designs interventions for students who struggle with core academic skills such as reading, writing, and/or math; the teacher or other school personnel (e.g., paraprofessionals) then implements the interventions. If students do not improve, this data is used to substantiate the students’ classification with a learning disability. Providing individual or small-group interventions can pose a real challenge for general education teachers given the typical demands they face in managing a classroom. To help address this, assistive technology can provide a means for students to practice and develop skills as well as have ongoing data about their progress—without ongoing involvement by the teacher. Assistive technology can be an efficient component in the RTI process.
Assistive Technology for Teacher Education
Authors: Belfi Marcie M. , Jones Kristen E.
Published: May 2010

The purpose of this chapter is to provide teacher educators with current research related to assistive technology (AT) in K-12 schools. The first two sections present findings from the literature, first related to providing AT to culturally and linguistically diverse populations within a family context, and secondly to helping students with learning disabilities use AT for writing. Implications for practice are discussed. This chapter concludes with an overview of a curriculum model for training preservice teachers to become familiar with AT across the lifespan, choose appropriate AT for their students, and be able to practically use AT in the classroom.
Sharing Usability Information
Authors: Bach Paula M. , Jiang Hao , Carroll John M.
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, we investigate the social and communication challenges surrounding usability information sharing. Our objective is to investigate a communication paradox: software development teams, consisting of usability engineers, software developers, and project managers, chose communication channels to use every day that are not channels they prefer to use. This paradox was discovered in a survey and explored further in interviews with software development teams. Results indicated that challenges with common ground and work coupling affect the extent to which the affordances of different communication channels can be taken advantage of. The value of this study highlights and explains the paradox from a time-space perspective and provides insight to usability information sharing among software engineering teams. Future work includes investigating the effect of social capital on communication channel preference along with understanding how important usability issues can be discussed in complex teams.
Operationalization from Dehumanizing Ideologies
Authors: Remtulla Karim  A.
Published: May 2010

This chapter raises a socio-cultural critique of the ‘dehumanizing ideologies’ workplace e-learning scenario. Dehumanizing ideologies operationalize the workforce in the workplace through strategic priorities, value chains, and business processes. The workplace e-learning scenario of dehumanizing ideologies precipitates around the instantiation of three concepts: information and communication technologies (ICTs), knowledge, and commodification. An exploratory case study looks at Human Capital Theory. The basic assumptions on economics, knowledge, and people which permeate and sustain this socio-economic view are questioned. These pursuits result in a dichotomous worker (when people are considered as capital and, as such, separable from their knowledges). Unquestioned, socio-cultural assumptions and consequences now facing and evaluating the workforce also become known as are the pedagogical outcomes of a workplace e-learning that is interpreted by human capital theory and its concomitant ideologies. Socio-cultural insensitivity from workplace e-learning, in this scenario, comes from the basic, unquestioned assumption that workers are essentially socially flawed and culturally inferior; accountable for overcoming their sociocultural flaws and inferiorities; and, need to be operationalized by workplace e-learning, through strategic priorities, value chains, and business processes, to meet the expectations of the infallible and commodified workplace. The recurring confluence of commerce, technology, and government, all now become visible as they ideologically mould global, knowledgebased economic policies which in turn influence local knowledge management practices and apparatuses. Organizations that wish to participate in global, knowledge-based economies readily comply. Workplace e-learning now becomes another ideological instrument for the ideological pursuits of commodified knowledges from an operationalized and dehumanized subject within 21st century organizations.
Evaluating Voice User Interfaces in Ubiquitous Applications
Authors: Salvador Valéria Farinazzo Martins , Soares de Oliveira Neto João , de Paiva Guimarães Marcelo
Published: May 2010

In the current trend of applications going more and more ubiquitous, it is necessary to determine some characteristics, requirements and properties that must be assured in order that the application provides quality service to its users. This chapter describes a study on the evaluation of Voice User Interface (VUI) in Ubiquitous Applications and discusses some of issues which may impact the evaluation process when using the voice as a natural way of interacting with computers. The authors present a set of guidelines and usability principles that should be considered when developing VUIs for Ubiquitous Applications. Finally, they present the results of a case study which was performed in order to test and exemplify the concepts presented here.
Wireless Sensor Network based Data Fusion and Control Model for an Oil Production Platform
Authors: Bhattacharyya Mitun , Kumar Ashok , Bayoumi Magdy
Published: May 2010

In this chapter the authors propose methodologies for improving the efficiency of a control system in an industrial environment, specifically an oil production platform. They propose a data fusion model that consists of four steps – preprocessing, classification and association, data association and correlation association, and composite decision. The first two steps are executed at the sensor network level and the last two steps are done at the network manager or controller level. Their second proposal is a distributed hierarchical control system and network management system. Here the central idea is that the network manager and controller coordinate in order to make delays in feedback loops as well as for increasing the lifetime of the sensor network. The authors finally conclude the control system proposal by giving a controlling model using sensor networks to control the flow of hydrocarbons in an oil production platform.
Hybrid Intelligent Systems in Ubiquitous Computing
Authors: Gavrilov Andrey V.
Published: May 2010

In this chapter hybrid approach to development of intelligent systems is applied to ubiquitous computing systems, in particular, to smart environment. Different classifications of Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS) are looking and two examples of hybrid approach for smart environment are suggested: framework based on expert system and neural network for programming of behavior of smart objects and paradigm of context-based programming-learning of behavior of intelligent agent. Besides this chapter offers an attempt to systematize concepts for development of HIS as any introduction to methodology for development of HIS is suggested. The author hopes that this chapter will be useful for researchers and developers to better understand challenges in development of ambient intelligence and possible ways to overcome them.
Videogames and Moral Pedagogy
Authors: Staines Dan
Published: May 2010

The Four Component Model of Moral Functioning is a framework for understanding moral competence originally developed by James Rest and subsequently revised with Darcia Narvaez. It posits that moral competence can be broken up into four distinct components: moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral action. The purpose of the present chapter is to demonstrate, via an examination of three commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) videogames (Ultima IV, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect), how this model can function as a blueprint for the design of moral content in games intended for pedagogy and entertainment.
What Videogames have to Teach us about Screenworld and the Humanistic Ethos
Authors: Phelps David
Published: May 2010

Recent societal critiques charge that the pervasiveness and ubiquity of screen-based technologies place the emotional, social, and cognitive development of their users at stake. Many of these critiques suffer, however, from a sensational and moralistic formulation. To move forward ethical investigation into sophisticated inquiry this essay closely examines one screenworld technology, videogames, with an aim of (a) categorizing videogames’ active and performative features and (b) assessing how these features present themselves during gameplay as compatible, incompatible, and antithetical to our humanistic needs. These needs form a value system termed the Humanistic Ethos which is further articulated into measurable characteristics along four dimensions—the Poetic Imagination, Dialogic Relations, Systemic Thinking, and Existential Vigor. A survey of videogames along with two case studies develop these dimensions within their technical, social, and personal contexts revealing the delicate interplay between designer, game and player. Design principles compatible with the Humanistic Ethos are discussed. Limitations and future directions are also considered.
Ethics at Play
Authors: Gilbert Sam
Published: May 2010

This chapter discusses how young people think about ethical issues in online games as seen in the GoodPlay project’s interviews with fourteen online gamers, ages 15 to 25. After providing background on the GoodPlay project and relevant moral psychology and video games research, this chapter describes individualistic, interpersonal, and communal models of ethical thinking that describe young players. These observed models suggest that online games are encouraging players to practice sophisticated ethical thinking skills and therefore might be valuable tools for fostering ethical thinking. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future directions in the study and use of games to foster ethical thinking.
The Mechanic is the Message
Authors: Swain Chris
Published: May 2010

Humans learn through play. All games are learning devices—though most teach the player how to play the game itself and do not strive to communicate information with utility in the real world. This chapter is for designers seeking to design game mechanics to communicate learning objectives, values, and ethical messages. The term “mechanic” describes both a) the actions a player takes as she interacts in the context of a game (e.g., run, jump, shoot, negotiate) and b) the response of the system to player actions. In other words, the mechanics are the essence of the player interacting with the game. When the mechanics of a game align with the values the game’s designer strives to communicate, then the player is learning those values experientially. Learning science shows us that this type of experiential learning is a powerful and natural type of learning for humans. Designing game mechanics as described above is easier said than done. This chapter includes six best practices for achieving success, which are supported by case study examples from leading designers in the field.
Using Mission US
Authors: Schrier Karen , Diamond James , Langendoen David
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, the authors describe Mission US: For Crown or Colony?, a history game for middle school students that they collaboratively designed, developed and tested. The authors argue that empathy is an important component of ethical thinking, and that history games, if well designed, can support the practice of empathy. The authors analyze how they designed Mission US to encourage the development of historical empathy and ethical thinking skills. Moreover, the authors also relate their design challenges, and the ethics of representing the past in games. They conclude with real world results from classroom implementation of the game, and design recommendations for creating games for historical empathy.
Towards Application of Collective Robotics in Industrial Environment
Authors: Kernbach Serge
Published: May 2010

The chapter is concerned with a significant area of modern robotics, i.e. multiple robots working as one group, team, swarm or organism. The notion of taxonomy is introduced and an overview of cooperative, networked, swarm and nano-robotics is given. The chapter also analyzes reconfigurable robotics as a tool for improving granularity and adaptive functionality. The development of symbiotic self-reconfigurable systems is discussed and a survey of artificial self-organization is provided. Advantages provided by robots working in collective ways are demonstrated, such as: advanced flexibility and adaptivity; possibilities to evolve behaviours, functions and structures; extended reliability of swarm and symbiotic systems; economic considerations related to agility of enterprises. Finally, emphasis is given paid to a more “difficult issue” which artificial self-organization. It is indicated that technical collective systems may have self-organizing phenomena, despite the fact that they are artificially designed.
Fault Tolerant Control of Nonholonomic Mobile Robot Formations
Authors: Dierks T. , Thumati B. T. , Jagannathan S.
Published: May 2010

In this chapter, a fault tolerant kinematic/torque control law is developed using backstepping for leader-follower based formation control in order to accommodate the dynamics of the robots and the formation in contrast with kinematic-based formation controllers. First, nominal control laws are derived for the leader and follower robots under the assumption of normal operation (no faults), and the stability of the individual robots and the formation is verified using Lyapunov methods. Subsequently, in the presence of state faults such as actuator fault, flat-tire etc., which could be incipient or abrupt in nature, an online fault detection and accommodation (FDA) scheme is derived to mitigate the effects of a fault by modifying the nominal controller. In other words, an additional term is introduced to the existing control law to minimize the effects of the fault, and this additional term is a function of the unknown fault dynamics which are recovered using the online learning capabilities of a neural network. Further, mathematical stability results are derived using Lyapunov theory, and both the FDA scheme and the formation errors are guaranteed to render asymptotic stability in the presence of faults. Numerical results are provided to verify the theoretical conjectures.
Technical Analysis and Implementation Cost Assessment of Sigma-Point Kalman Filtering and Particle Filtering in Autonomous Navigation Systems
Authors: Rigatos Gerasimos G.
Published: May 2010

The chapter provides technical analysis and implementation cost assessment of Sigma-Point Kalman Filtering and Particle Filtering in autonomous navigation systems. As a case study, the sensor fusion-based navigation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is examined. The UAV tracks a desirable flight trajectory by fusing measurements coming from its Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and measurements which are received from a satellite or ground-based positioning system (e.g. GPS or radar). The estimation of the UAV’s state vector is performed with the use of (i) Sigma-Point Kalman Filtering (SPKF), (ii) Particle Filtering (PF). Trajectory tracking is succeeded by a nonlinear controller which is derived according to flatness-based control theory and which uses the UAV’s state vector estimated through filtering. The performance of the autonomous navigation system which is based on the aforementioned state estimation methods is evaluated through simulation tests. Implementation cost assessment shows that PF requires more sample points than SPKF to approximate the state distribution. Therefore PF is a computationally more demanding method which needs more costly computing machines. However, the PF is a nonparametric filter which can be applied to any kind of state distribution, while the SPKF state estimators are still based on the assumption of a Gaussian process and measurement noise.
Identification of Linear Time-Varying Systems
Authors: Asutkar Vinayak G. , Patre Balasaheb M.
Published: May 2010

This chapter deals with identification of time-varying systems using Kalman filter approach. Most physical systems exhibit some degree of time-varying behaviour for many reasons. These systems cannot effectively be modelled using time invariant models. A time-varying autoregressive with exogenous input (TVARX) model is good to model these time-varying systems. The Kalman filter approach is a superior way to estimate the system parameters. This approach can track the time-varying parameters and is suitable for recursive estimation. It works well even when there are abrupt changes in the system parameters. Kalman filter is known to be an optimal estimator even when there is significant noise. In the proposed approach, for the purpose of simulation, we employ first order TVARX model and its parameters are estimated using recursive Kalman filter method. The system parameters are varied in continuous and abruptly changing manner to reveal the physical situation. To show the efficacy of the proposed approach, the time-varying parameters are estimated for different noise conditions. The performance is evaluated by calculating error performance measures. The results are found to be satisfactory with reasonable accuracy for noisy conditions even for fast changing parameters. The numerical examples illustrate efficacy of the proposed Kalman filter based approach for identification of time-varying systems.
Component Models Based Approach for Failure Diagnosis of Discrete Event Systems
Authors: Philippot Alexandre , Sayed-Mouchaweh Moamar , Carré-Ménétrier Véronique
Published: May 2010

This chapter addresses the problem of diagnosing Discrete Event Systems (DESs), specifically manufacturing systems with discrete sensors and actuators. Manufacturing systems are generally composed of several components which can evolve with the course of time (new components, new technologies …). Their diagnosis requires the computation of a global model of the system. This is not realistic due to the great number of components. In this chapter, we propose to perform the diagnosis by using component models. Each component model is constructed using different information sources represented by sensor-actuator spatial structure (plant model), controller specifications (desired behaviour) and temporal information about the actuators reactivity. In addition, components’ technological constraints and characteristics are considered for this construction. For each model, a local diagnoser is computed. Its complexity is polynomial because the diagnosis is computed only for the faults that it can diagnose. Limited information about the global system functioning is required to synchronize the functioning of local diagnosers. This synchronisation is considered using a set of expert rules representing the symbolic information about the global desired behaviour. The local diagnosers are then used to perform diagnosis online. They validate, in the case of normal functioning, the transmission of control signals and incoming sensor data between the controller and the plant.
Improving the Tracking of Student Participation and Effort in Online Learning
Authors: Douglas Ian
Published: May 2010

Much research into educational technology is focused on tools for supporting teaching and learning. In contrast to this work, relatively little research is conducted into technology that tracks student participation and effort. No matter how good the educational technology, learning is dependent on a sufficient input of effort from the student. Most Learning Management Systems have some tools for tracking students, but they are currently difficult to use and underused by instructors. This chapter examines the importance of tracking in student management, reviews attempts to improve the quality of tracking tools, and suggests paths for future research based on the deficiencies in current tools.
Improving Hybrid and Online Course Delivery Emerging Technologies
Authors: Jones Nory B. , Graham Christian
Published: May 2010

As educational budgets continue to shrink, colleges and universities have turned to online course delivery as a means of increasing enrollments. In addition, with the proliferation of Internet-based course management and other software that facilitate the learning experience, many traditional courses are adding an online component, creating hybrid courses in different formats. In this chapter, the authors explore different strategies and technology solutions to help instructors develop rich, dynamic courses, whether they are completely online or hybrid courses that use online tools and technologies to augment the traditional class. This chapter covers the advantages and disadvantages of hybrid courses, technologies and practices available for them, emerging technologies such as Second Life™, social networks, dense wavelength division multiplexing, telepresence, satellite networks, and the use of texting in the classroom.
Quality of Sensor-Originated Information in Coalition Information Networks
Authors: Bisdikian Chatschik , Kaplan Lance M. , Srivastava Mani B. , Thornley David J. , Verma Dinesh , Young Robert I.
Published: May 2010

Coalition operations greatly benefit from the exchange of information collected from a plethora of wirelessly communicating sensors deployed in the theater of operation. However, to make judicious use of this information and then act effectively based on this information, knowledge of its quality, and a common means of expressing and communicating this quality are necessary. This chapter considers quality of information (QoI) for sensor networks starting with building a definition of QoI from first principles and by exploiting industry efforts to define quality in other domains, notably quality of service. The definition touches upon two complementary yet distinct aspects of quality: (a) the inherent quality attributes that characterize information; and (b) the assessment of these attributes within the context of applications utilizing the information, referred as the value of information (VoI). It then discusses information as a service and the various QoI viewpoints that associate sensor-originated information providers with sensor-enabled applications in dynamic coalition environments. Then, information processors and operators are introduced, which are functional modules in end-to-end systems that process information based on the QoI attributes. Finally, a data model for QoI metadata, describing the QoI attributes, is presented. The data model provides a common means to describe and communicate QoI attributes among information processors. It enables the indexing and searching of the most pertinent information, of desired quality, and information sources and the on-demand binding of applications to sources that is necessary to support operations in multiparty coalitions.
Graph Mining Techniques for Networking Applications
Authors: Aggarwal Charu C. , Lu Eric Yu-En
Published: May 2010

Computer networks are inherently graphical in structure, since they contain multiple geographically distributed nodes, which are connected by communication links. In many cases, such as large military networks, this also leads to a network-centric view of the data. This naturally leads to an information network representation of the data. In information networks, the nodes represent the different elements of information, and the links represent the logical relationships between them. An even higher layer of logical organization is a social network, in which the nodes correspond to the different entities in the network, and the links correspond to the interactions. The common element among the different kinds of networks which are encountered in practical network-centric representation of the data is that they can all be represented in the form of a structural graph. This structural behavior can be used in order to glean different kinds of practical insights. This chapter will provide an overview of these different graph mining techniques and their applications to the various kinds of networks.