bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Memória, verdade, justiça e direitos humanos: um estudo sobre as relações entre o Direito e a memória da Ditadura Civil-Militar no Brasil
Authors: Gallo Carlos Artur
Published: December 2015

É analisada a forma como o Direito foi apropriado pelo regime autoritário brasileiro a serviço da Doutrina de Segurança Nacional (DSN). Observa-se que é constituída, no Brasil, uma legalidade autoritária que resulta na legitimação dos atos praticados em nome da ditadura e propicia, após o retorno à democracia, o esquecimento dos crimes cometidos. Atualmente, vê-se que são discutidas possibilidades jurídicas de enfrentamento do tema, analisando os conceitos “justiça de transição” e “justiça anamnética”.
A noção de vida em Hannah Arendt e na Psicanálise
Authors: Costardi Gabriela Gomes
Published: December 2015

Este artigo se propõe a analisar a noção de vida tal como ela é concebida no pensamento de Hannah Arendt e na Psicanálise de Freud e Lacan, desde onde se pretende contextualizar a ausência da noção de sexualidade na obra da autora. Para tal, lança-se mão das reflexões de Arendt sobre a passagem da vida da esfera pública para a privada na modernidade, fator determinante para a constituição do âmbito social, o que permite observar que a pensadora política fundamenta sua análise sobre a vida nas noções de natureza e produtividade. Analisa-se, então, a ideia psicanalítica de vida a partir do desenvolvimento da teoria pulsional em Freud e das contribuições de Lacan, a fim de demarcar como, nesse referencial, a vida coloca em jogo as noções de símbolo e morte. Por fim, observa-se que a sexualidade, conforme postulada pela Psicanálise, é derivada da compreensão de que a linguagem operou uma subversão irreversível na noção de natureza e que o não compartilhamento dessa perspectiva por Hannah Arendt está ligado ao seu silêncio sobre o sexual. 
Matizes verdes, modernização ecológica e usurpação da biodiversidade
Authors: Aquino Filipe
Published: December 2015

A partir da categorização proposta pelo sociólogo espanhol Joan Martínez Alier sobre as correntes ecológicas, este artigo analisa diferentes matizes presentes no movimento ambientalista, buscando apontar e comentar suas múltiplas tendências, considerações e implicações. Ao utilizar a Amazônia como pano de fundo e as transformações lá ocorridas nos últimos vinte anos, investigam-se as condições que situam a modernização ecológica como instrumento da tecnociência que age sob e sobre a biodiversidade a partir da biotecnologia, transformando a questão ambiental em um campo de conflitos, depredação sociocultural e renovação econômica do grande capital transnacional.
Classes sociais e fechamento social: determinantes da desigualdade de renda em São Paulo
Authors: Prates Ian , Barbosa Rogério Jerônimo
Published: December 2015

Recentemente, o tema das desigualdades de renda ganhou grande visibilidade, porém, na maioria das vezes, os fatores explicativos estão no desempenho econômico e nas políticas sociais. Neste trabalho, incorporamos a dinâmica das classes ao debate e oferecemos uma interpretação complementar. As classes ocupacionais operam mecanismos de fechamento social e distribuição de poder que condicionam a distribuição de renda. Tomamos a Região Metropolitana de São Paulo, entre 1981 e 2011, como estudo de caso. Usamos técnicas de decomposição da desigualdade e construímos cenários contrafactuais. As análises mostram que uma polarização “skillbiased” teve lugar durante os anos 1990, mas é revertida durante a década de 2000. Encontramos também polarização associada a outros fatores, que não a qualificação. As dinâmicas das classes ocupacionais foram justamente os componentes que mais tiveram importância na redução das desigualdades, seguidas de perto pelo processo de formalização da mão de obra. O principal vetor de queda das desigualdades foi a homogeneização interna às classes, sugerindo que o regime de classes tenha se tornado mais coeso. Dessa forma, resta principalmente a desigualdade entre ocupações – fazendo com que esse componente assuma maior importância explicativa sobre o estoque de desigualdade atual.
Os estudos de classe na Sociologia em Portugal: uma entrevista com Virgílio Borges Pereira
Authors: Bertoncelo Edison R. E.
Published: December 2015

Virgílio Borges Pereira é professor associado com agregação do Departamento de Sociologia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto (FLUP), onde leciona desde 1994, e investigador do Instituto de Sociologia da mesma instituição, unidade de investigação e desenvolvimento que integra o sistema científico nacional, o qual coordena cientificamente desde 2010. Colabora, desde 2003, com a Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade do Porto no curso de licenciatura/ mestrado integrado e no Programa de Doutorado em Arquitetura. Desde 2008, é investigador associado do Centro de Estudos de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da mesma Universidade.
Classe social e gênero: ativos de herança e ativos de escolha
Authors: Silva Elizabeth B.
Published: December 2015

Este artigo discute até que ponto as posições de classe na Grã-Bretanha contemporânea foram herdadas dos pais e que tipo de escolhas em termos conjugais (e seus efeitos) homens e mulheres fazem em posições sociais diferentes. De modo inovador, o artigo investiga os diferentes ativos herdados de pais e mães por filhos e filhas, visando a um exame refinado dos efeitos de gênero, ainda não presente na literatura. Discriminam-se também as escolhas conjugais de homens e mulheres. Essas explorações se apoiam no material empírico desenvolvido para o estudo britânico Capital Cultural e Exclusão Social (CCSE, na sigla em inglês), inspirado pelo trabalho de Pierre Bourdieu sobre capitais e habitus na definição das posições dos indivíduos nas classes sociais. O artigo indica que o gênero, uma ativo mal compreendido por Bourdieu, afeta a posição de classe de formas sutis e complexas, sendo muito significativo em certos aspectos.

 
Apontamentos sobre o significado de memória e verdade no legado da ditadura civil-militar brasileira
Authors: Schincariol Rafael L. F. C.
Published: December 2015

O direito à memória e à verdade são pilares da Justiça de Transição, utilizada, desde 2009, pelo Estado brasileiro, como categoria central para lidar com o legado autoritário da ditadura civil-militar (1964-1985). A Justiça de Transição oferece, assim, um amplo repertório para que países confrontem seu passado violento. No entanto, pesquisas recentes demonstram limitações da categoria e de seu uso. Essas críticas têm sido pouco trabalhadas no debate e em sua aplicação no país. Com base em uma visão crítica da categoria de Justiça de Transição e na observação empírica das especificidades do caso brasileiro, este artigo pretende problematizar essas questões de um ponto de vista analítico, demonstrando como as noções de memória e verdade devem ser abordadas em uma perspectiva mais refinada.
A crise das esquerdas mexicanas à luz do movimento pelos “43 deAyotzinapa”, em 2014
Authors: Modonesi Massimo
Published: December 2015

Este artigo é composto por quatro partes. Na primeira delas, reconstroem-se e analisam-se as raízes e passagens históricas da crise da esquerda no México. Posteriormente, destacam-se as principais características da crise do Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD). Na terceira parte do texto, sintetiza-se a trajetória do movimento de protesto contra o desaparecimento forçado dos quarenta e três estudantes normalistas de Ayotzinapa, em 2014. Finalmente, conclui-se com algumas reflexões sobre o impacto das manifestações e as oportunidades que a presente crise institucional vem oferecendo para a renovação da esquerda mexicana. 
Encarando um mundo desigual, de Michael Burawoy
Authors: Neto José Guirado
Published: December 2015

Para enfrentar um mundo desigual, somos obrigados a interpretá-lo e explicá-lo, mas também a engajar-nos, isto é, a reconhecer que fazemos parte e somos parcialmente responsáveis por ele. Em outras palavras, a desigualdade não é apenas algo externo a nós, mas algo que invade nosso próprio mundo. Nessa medida, eu começo examinando a comunidade global da Sociologia por intermédio da lente da desigualdade. Considero duas perspectivas recentes sobre nosso mundo desigual que vêm de fora da Sociologia: o radicalismo moral do papa Francisco, que enfatiza a exclusão da sociedade de mercado, e a pesquisa inovadora do economista Thomas Piketty, que enfatiza a inclusão desigual na sociedade de mercado. Essas duas faces da desigualdade global espelham os movimentos sociais que reverberaram a partir da crise econômica de 2008, mas que têm suas raízes em uma reação a uma ampla onda de mercantilização, a terceira a acometer o capitalismo moderno. Para explorar o significado da terceira onda de mercantilização, também conhecida como neoliberalismo, e dos movimentos sociais que ela provoca, inspiro-me em dois conceitos de Karl Polanyi – “mercadorias fictícias” e “contramovimento” –, bem como em uma teoria da dinâmica do capitalismo. Concluo com três desafios para uma Sociologia Global focada nos movimentos sociais: elaborar uma teoria que dialoga com experiências globais diversas da mercantilização; desenvolver uma metodologia que reconhece que somos inevitavelmente participantes do mundo que estudamos; e desenvolver uma política que defenda uma visão particular desse mundo; visão que definiu a tradição sociológica desde seu início, ou seja, que defenda a centralidade da sociedade civil contra a expansão desmedida do mercado e do Estado
Ensino de língua portuguesa para a formação profissional na universidade: as sequências narrativas e argumentativas no gênero petição inicial
Authors: Cabral Ana Lúcia Tinoco
Published: December 2015

Entre as preocupações do ensino universitário encontra-se proficiência escritora dos estudantes, especialmente no que diz respeito aos gêneros específicos das diversas áreas de atuação profissional. Relativamente à formação de profissionais da área do Direito, essa questão se mostra ainda mais indispensável, visto ser a língua escrita ferramenta de trabalho para o profissional desta área. O texto apresenta reflexões sobre o ensino de escrita na Universidade voltado para a formação profissional de estudantes de Direito, focalizando o gênero Petição Inicial e o estatuto das sequências textuais narrativas na construção argumentativa desse gênero jurídico. Para tanto, apresenta algumas questões sobre proficiência em escrita (MOLITOR-LÜBBERT, 2010; KELLOGG E WHITEFORD, 2012; FAYOL, FOULIN, MAGGIO E LÉTÉ, 2012), traz uma breve explanação teórica das sequências narrativas (ADAM, 2011), conceitua o gênero Petição Inicial no escopo do Processo Civil (GRECO FILHO, 1995) e aponta algumas diretrizes a prática de escrita desse gênero na universidade.
Gêneros orais e ensino: entre o dito e o prescrito
Authors: Rodrigues Linduarte Pereira , Dantas Maria Aparecida Calado de Oliveira
Published: December 2015

Considerando as discussões entre especialistas e outros profissionais preocupados em (re) significar as práticas peda-gógicas nas aulas de língua materna, o presente trabalho enfatiza a necessidade de uma revisão e um melhor encaminhamento do fazer docente. Nesse sentido, propõe analisar os pressupostos dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais de Língua Portuguesa (BRASIL, 1998), quanto ao tratamento da oralidade nas práticas de sala de aula, e observar o que, de fato, se efetiva no livro didático de por-tuguês. Fundamenta-se em teorias linguísticas contemporâneas que alertam para a importância do trabalho com gêneros textuais na sala de aula de língua materna (MARCUSCHI, 2003; MATÊNCIO, 2001; SCHNEUWLY & DOLZ, 2004), ressaltando as ações docentes frente aos gêneros orais em prol da aprendizagem e do aperfeiçoamento da língua na escola. O trabalho evidencia a necessidade de conhecer os pressupostos dos documentos oficiais que regulamentam o ensino de língua portuguesa para que se promova uma avaliação cuidadosa na escolha do livro didático de português, visando à promoção de situações linguísticas em sala de aula que contemplem o trabalho com gêneros orais. Diante disso, busca participar ativamente do debate sobre a modalidade oral da língua que se constitui objeto de ensino de língua materna na educação básica.
Gênero discursivo, estilo, autoria
Authors: Puzzo Miriam Bauab
Published: December 2015

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir o uso estilístico da língua em enunciados concretos, na perspectiva dialógica da lingua-gem. Para discutir essa questão, foi selecionado o artigo de opinião “Notas sem confete”, de Fernando de Barros e Silva, veiculado na Folha de S. Paulo, de 6 de fevereiro de 2008, observando como o tema, a proposta do autor e sua relação com o contexto imediato criam uma forma expressiva diferenciada, rompendo com a forma composicional e o estilo genérico do artigo. Nessa perspectiva analítica, procura-se demonstrar que o estilo não se reduz ao sujeito-enunciador, mas resulta das relações dialógicas que o enunciador mantém com o leitor presumido e com o contexto social. Como postula Bakhtin, o estilo decorre da relação dialógica mantida entre o enunciador e o grupo social (BAKHTIN, 2003). Destaca-se, portanto, a questão da autoria em gêneros permeáveis à inflexão subjetiva, alterando seu formato.
Dubuffet avec Damisch
Authors: Minturn Kent
Published: December 2015

This article examines philosopher Hubert Damisch's extensive scholarship on Jean Dubuffet, including his editorial travails and annotations of the four volumes of the artist's complete writings, Prospectus et tous écrits suivants. Further, it is argued that Dubuffet's art and writings influenced the development of Damisch's particular counter-historical methodological approach to the history of art.
On the Uses and Abuses of Look-alikes
Authors: Bois Yve-Alain
Published: December 2015

Panofsky defined pseudomorphosis as: “The emergence of a form A, morphologically analogous to, or even identical with, a form B, yet entirely unrelated to it from a genetic point of view.” The phenomenon of look-alikes across geographically and historically distant cultures fascinated archeologists, art historians, anthropologists, and linguists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The two competing explanations they proposed (the permanence of human nature/human migrations in a distant past) were far from persuasive, and the topic, deemed embarrassing, almost entirely vanished from scholarly debate. Claude Levi-Strauss's remarkable attempt, in 1944–45, to provide a structural account of the phenomenon was met with utter silence. In recent years several scholars have been less intimidated by this issue, but too often they resort to the old nativist, a-historical argument, sometimes abusively basing their claims on neuroscience. A structural, sociohistorical account of pseudomorphosis is needed today more than ever.
A Nose Gesture Interface Device: Extending Virtual Realities
Authors: Henry Tyson R. , Yeatts Andrey K. , Hudson Scott E. , Myers Brad A. , Feiner Steven
Published: December 2015

This paper reports on the1 development of a nose-machine interface device that provides real-time gesture, position, smell and facial expression information. The DATANOSE™2—Data AtomaTa CORNUCOPIA pNeumatic Olfactory 1/O-deviSE Tactile Manipulation (Olsen, 1986; Myers, 1991)—allows novice users without any formal nose training to perform complex interactive tasks.
Neural Networks for the Segmentation of Teleoperation Tasks
Authors: Fiorini Paolo , Giancaspro Antonio , Losito Sergio , Pasquariello Guido
Published: December 2015

In recent years, research in telemanipulation has been concerned primarily with problems related to the control of teleoperators and their man-machine aspects. As the need for extensive teleoperation for the deployment and maintenance of space systems increases, research needs to focus on techniques to improve operator performance and reduce operator fatigue during telemanipulation. This paper describes the development of an approach to teleoperation task supervision that can be used in advanced man-machine interfaces to monitor teleoperation performance and to help operators with task-level feedback. A Segmentation Program has been designed to identify teleoperation task phases, independently of variations in working conditions and in phase duration and sensor values. The program uses neural networks to segment the force data of a peg-in-hole task into the task phase sequence. The network connections were trained with an off-line Hidden Markov Model of the peg-in-hole task providing specific transition times and task phase sequences. Two network architectures have been tested during simulation with real teleoperation data: the first is based on turning temporal sequences into spatial patterns; the second extends the first model by including network output in the input array. We found that the first architecture needed a higher number of iterations to learn the associations, while the latter had a higher convergency speed and recognition rate. The architecture with the best performance was used in the realtime implementation of the segmentation program on a teleoperation system. In experiments of peg-in-hole tasks, the network had a lower recognition rate than in simulation, but it showed unexpected generalization capabilities by correctly segmenting tasks whose phase sequence was significantly different from those sequences in the training data.
Optical Design for a Head-Mounted Display
Authors: Ma Jiantao , Hollerbach John M. , Hunter Ian W.
Published: December 2015

This paper presents a design concept for a head-mounted display, incorporating color stereo vision using commercial LCDs and our own optical relay design. The focus here is on the optical system design, which must meet specifications for a wide field of view, size and cost constraints, and aberration minimization based on human factors. Two multispherical lens systems are presented and compared, one a straight structure and the other a folded structure, which satisfy the design constraints. Their aberrations (distortion, coma, lateral color, field curvature, and astigmatism) have been well corrected, according to human perceptual constraints explicitly discussed. Each has a 20-mm eye relief and an instantaneous field of view greater than 60°; the former has an exit pupil of 10 mm and the latter of 8 mm.
Providing Situation Awareness Assistance to Users of Large-Scale, Dynamic, Complex Virtual Environments
Authors: Stytz Martin R. , Block Elizabeth , Soltz Brian
Published: December 2015

As virtual environments grow in complexity, size, and scope users will be increasingly challenged in assessing the situation in them. This will occur because of the difficulty in determining where to focus attention and in assimilating and assessing the information as it floods in. One technique for providing this type of assistance is to provide the user with a first-person, immersive, synthetic environment observation post, an observatory, that permits unobtrusive observation of the environment without interfering with the activity in the environment. However, for large, complex synthetic environments this type of support is not sufficient because the mere portrayal of raw, unanalyzed data about the objects in the virtual space can overwhelm the user with information. To address this problem, which exists in both real and virtual environments, we are investigating the forms of situation awareness assistance needed by users of large-scale virtual environments and the ways in which a virtual environment can be used to improve situation awareness of real-world environments. A technique that we have developed is to allow a user to place analysis modules throughout the virtual environment. Each module provides summary information concerning the importance of the activity in its portion of the virtual environment to the user. Our prototype system, called the Sentinel, is embedded within a virtual environment observatory and provides situation awareness assistance for users within a large virtual environment.
Design and Control of Shared Conferencing Environments for Audio Telecommunication Using Individually Measured HRTFs
Authors: Aoki Shigeaki , Cohen Michael , Koizumi Nobuo
Published: December 2015

A technique is presented for dynamically invoking a set of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) and scaling gain, driven by a dynamic map in a graphic window. With such an interface, users may configure a virtual conferencing environment, manipulating virtual positions of teleconferees. The design of a personal headphone teleconferencing prototype is proposed, integrating spatialized sound presentation with individualized HRTF measurement using a bifunctional transducer. According to judgment tests, the use of individualized HRTFs instead of dummy-head HRTFs can reduce front-back sound image confusion.
Multimodal Mouse: A Mouse-Type Device with Tactile and Force Display
Authors: Akamatsu Motoyuki , Sato Sigeru , MacKenzie I. Scott
Published: December 2015

A mouse was modified to add tactile and force display. Tactile feedback, or display, was added via a solenoid driving a small pin protruding through a hole in the mouse button. Force feedback was added via an electromagnet and an iron mouse pad. Both enhancements were embedded in the mouse casing, increasing its weight from 103 to 148 g. In a target selection task experiment, the addition of tactile information feedback reduced target selection times slightly, compared to the no additional feedback condition. A more pronounced effect was observed on the clicking time—the time to selection once the cursor entered the target. In this case, we observed a statistically significant speed-up of about 12% in the presence of tactile feedback. The modified mouse was also used in a test of virtual texture. The amplitude and frequency of solenoid pulses were varied according to the movement of the mouse and the underlying virtual texture. Subjects could reliably discriminate between different textures.
A 3D Spatial Interface Device Using Tensed Strings
Authors: Ishii Masahiro , Sato Makoto
Published: December 2015

This paper describes a 3D kinesthetic interface device using tensed strings. The results of the experiments on pick-and-place tasks show that not only sensations of collision but also weights of virtual objects are important in virtual environments.
Virtual Reality Technologies and People with Disabilities
Authors: Treviranus Jutta
Published: December 2015

Virtual reality development, by virtue of shifting the focus from the machine to the human user and by broadening both the input and output channel, may lead to significant advances in alternative access systems for people with disabilities. This paper examines new possibilities arising from virtual reality development. Three examples are used to illustrate uses of virtual reality systems In the area of adaptive technology.
An Operator Interface for Teleprogramming Employing Synthetic Fixtures
Authors: Sayers Craig P. , Paul Richard P.
Published: December 2015

In the teleprogramming system an operator is presented with a virtual reality representation of a remote environment. The operator's interaction within that virtual environment is observed and translated into a sequence of robot program instructions for transmission to, and execution by, a robot at the remote site. In this paper we focus on operator interaction with the master station of the teleprogramming system. The use of synthetic fixtures to provide force and visual clues to assist the operator in performing tasks with speed and precision is discussed. It is suggested that, at least in some situations, it is both necessary and desirable to trade off realism for improved task performance. The difficulty of coping with exceptional conditions and, in particular, uncertainty in the world model used to generate the virtual environment is described and the operator interface for diagnosing and resolving errors is presented. An overview is also given of both the hardware and software used to implement the master station for the teleprogramming system.
A Distributed Data Sharing Environment for Telerobotics
Authors: Ciscon Lawrence A. , Wise James D. , Johnson Don H.
Published: December 2015

We designed and implemented a distributed processing environment for uniformly communicating and sharing information among remotely located robots and human operators. This environment interconnects heterogeneous processors to withstand dynamically changing configurations and communications failures, and to support mixed-mode operation (simultaneous teleoperation and autonomous modes). The key design notion is undirected, data-driven communication: the recipients of data rather than the creators define communications paths for well-formed data blocks augmented by descriptive properties. Using this environment, we have implemented both a hierarchical path planner for an intelligent mobile robot operating over a local-area network and a telerobotic testbed that supports long-distance teleoperation.
Cosmic Worm in the CAVE: Steering a High-Performance Computing Application from a Virtual Environment
Authors: Roy Trina M. , Cruz-Neira Carolina , DeFanti Thomas A.
Published: December 2015

Developing graphic interfaces to steer high-performance scientific computations has been a research subject in recent years. Now, computational scientists are starting to use virtual reality environments to explore the results of their simulations. In most cases, the virtual reality environment acts on precomputed data; however, the use of virtual reality environments for the dynamic steering of distributed scientific simulations is a growing area of research. We present in this paper the initial design and implementation of a distributed system that uses our virtual reality environment, the CAVE, to control and steer scientific simulations being computed on remote supercomputers. We discuss some of the more relevant features of virtual reality interfaces, emphasizing those of the CAVE, describe the distributed system developed, and present a scientific application, the Cosmic Worm, that makes extensive use of the distributed system.
Research in Virtual Environments and Simulation at the Institute for Simulation and Training of the University of Central Florida
Authors: Moshell J. Michael , Cortes Art , Clarke Tom , Abel Kimberly C. , Kilby Mark , Lisle Curtis R. , Mapes Daniel P. , Morie Jacquelyn F.
Published: December 2015

The Institute for Simulation and Training (IST) was created in 1984 by the University of Central Florida to provide research support to the U.S. Department of Defense in the area of simulation-based training. In 1989, IST's Visual Systems Laboratory (VSL) was inaugurated. Focal areas of research at VSL include distributed realtime physical simulation, interoperability among networked simulators, the application of virtual environments to education, training, and design, and head-mounted display technology. Section 1 describes the history of IST and VSL, and VSL's early projects. Section 2 surveys current research projects in three main areas: dynamic environments, interoperability, and virtual environments. Section 3 describes service and educational activities, and Section 4 provides insight into future research plans.
The Determination of Environmental Accessibility and ADA Compliance Through Virtual Wheelchair Simulation
Authors: Stredney Don , Carlson Wayne , Swan J. Edward , Blostein Beth
Published: December 2015

The widespread use of power wheelchairs has greatly increased the requirements for the accessibility of buildings and other architectural structures to handicapped persons. In addition, recent advances in microcomputer technology have made possible increasingly sophisticated power wheelchair interfaces, such as halo, puff and sip, and muscle control mechanisms, which can provide mobility for an even larger portion of the handicapped population. Finally, the ADA (the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) requires handicapped accessibility for (almost) all public structures. We have developed a virtual structure prototyping system that allows navigation by a person using a power wheelchair. The system is a tool for three groups of people: (1) for architects and designers, it provides structure visualization that can both improve the handicapped accessibility of building designs and test a structure for ADA compliance; (2) for wheelchair users, it provides more appropriate device fitting and training with wheelchair control mechanisms; and (3) for health care professionals, it provides evaluations of wheelchair users. The system consists of an instrumented, joystick-driven power wheelchair connected to a high-performance graphics workstation; it simulates the actual speed and maneuverability of the particular wheelchair within a virtual structure. The display generates realistic interiors containing multiple light sources and surface textures and is viewed in stereo through lightweight polarized glasses. The system maintains a hierarchical data structure which detects collisions between the virtual wheelchair and the environment. In this paper we discuss (1) the system's user interface, (2) the system's hardware and software configuration, (3) the impact of the system on the architectural design process, and (4) future system additions. In the last section we also discuss virtual manipulation for enabling technology.
Virtual Environments Research in the Air Force Institute of Technology Virtual Environments, 3-D Medical Imaging, and Computer Graphics Laboratory
Authors: Stytz Martin R. , Amburn Philip , Lawlis Patricia K. , Shomper Keith
Published: December 2015

The Air Force Institute of Technology Virtual Environments, 3-D Medical Imaging, and Computer Graphics Laboratory is investigating the 3-D computer graphics, user-interface design, networking protocol, and software architecture aspects of distributed virtual environments. In this paper we describe the research projects that are underway in the laboratory. These projects include the development of an aircraft simulator for a distributed virtual environment, projects for observing, analyzing, and understanding virtual environments, a space virtual environment, a project that incorporates “live” aircraft range data into a distributed virtual environment, a virtual environment application framework, and a project for use in a hospital emergency department. We also discuss the research equipment infrastructure in the laboratory, recent publications, and the educational services we provide.
The DIVE Laboratory
Authors: Carlsson Christer , Jää-Aro Kai-Mikael
Published: December 2015

The Swedish multiinstitutional research program MultiG spawned a number of research projects concerned with telecommunication, telecollaboration, and telepresence. One of these projects is DIVE (Distributed Interactive Virtual Environments), a multiuser virtual reality system developed jointly by the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. DIVE is used as the platform for research in collaborative work in virtual spaces. In cooperation with the universities of Lancaster, Manchester, and Nottingham, the DIVE group has developed a spatial model for interaction. In this model each participant defines subspaces for their presence and attention. The intersection of those subspaces provides for varying degrees of mutual awareness, which is presumed to support more natural human-human interaction in virtual environments.
Visibility Computation for Efficient Walkthrough of Complex Environments
Authors: Yagel Roni , Ray William
Published: December 2015

In many virtual reality applications as well as general computer graphics we need to consider large numbers of objects to render one image. In many cases rendering can be preceded by a culling phase that employs simple mechanisms to reject most of the objects. As a result, only a very small portion of the model has to go through the time-consuming process of hidden object removal. We report on such a culling mechanism that is based on regular space subdivision into cells followed by cell classification into interior, exterior, and wall cells. A special cell-to-cell visibility algorithm is then activated between every two nonexterior cells. Only the objects in the potentially visible set of cells are actually submitted to the hidden object removal algorithm. We report on the implementation of the algorithm and its performance for walkthrough of various environments.
Detection of Unexpected Motion While Driving:From Psychophysics to Real World via Virtual Environments
Authors: Liu Andrew , Pentland Alex P.
Published: December 2015

This paper describes a set of experiments investigating the interaction between the location of eye fixations and the detection of unexpected motion while driving. Both psychophysical and real-world observations indicate that there are differences between the upper and lower visual fields with respect to driving. We began with psychophysical experiments to test whether the detection of unexpected motion Is inherently different in the upper and lower visual fields. No difference was found. However, when texture was added to the driving surface, a large difference was found, possibly due to optokinetic nystagmus stimulated by the texture. These results were confirmed in a driving simulator, and their implications for head-up displays (HUDs) explored. We found that the same upper/lower field asymmetry could be found with digital HUDs but not with analog HUDs. These experiments illustrate how virtual environment technology can connect knowledge from psychophysical experimentation to more realistic situations.
Dynamic Response of Electromagnetic Spatial Displacement Trackers
Authors: Adelstein Bernard D. , Johnston Eric R. , Ellis Stephen R.
Published: December 2015

Overall system latency—the elapsed time from input human motion until the immediate consequences of that input are available in the display—is one of the most frequently cited shortcoming of current virtual environment (VE) technology. Given that spatial displacement trackers are employed to monitor head and hand position and orientation in many VE applications, the dynamic response intrinsic to these devices is an unavoidable contributor to overall system latency. In this paper, we describe a testbed and method for measurement of tracker dynamic response that use a motorized rotary swing arm to sinusoidally displace the VE sensor at a number of frequencies spanning the bandwidth of volitional human movement. During the tests, actual swing arm angle and VE sensor reports are collected and time stamped. By calibrating the time stamping technique, the tracker's internal transduction and processing time are separated from data transfer and host computer software execution latencies. We have used this test-bed to examine several VE sensors—most recently to compare latency, gain, and noise characteristics of two commercially available electromagnetic trackers: Ascension Technology Corp.'s Flock of Birds™ and Polhemus Inc.'s Fastrak™.
A Body Model Server for Human Motion Capture and Representation
Authors: Bers Joshua
Published: December 2015

This paper presents a body model server (BMS) that provides real-time access to the position and posture of a person's torso, arms, hands, head, and eyes. It can be accessed by clients over a network. The BMS is designed to function as a device-independent data-layer between the sensing devices and client applications that require real-time human motion data, such as animation control. It can provide clients with accurate information at up to 40 Hz. For data collection, the model uses four magnetic position/ orientation sensors, two data-gloves, and an eye-tracker. The BMS combines the data-streams from the sensors and transforms them into snapshots of the user's upper-body pose. A geometric model made up of joints and segments structures the input. Posture of the body is represented by joint angles. Two unique characteristics of our approach are the use of the implicit, geometric constraints of the sensed body to simplify the computation of the unmeasured joint angles, and the use of time-stamped data that allow synchronization with other data streams, e.g., speech input. This paper describes the architecture of the BMS, including the management of multiple input devices, the representation and computation of the position and joint angle data, and the client-server interface.
Leibniz's Palace of the Fates: A Seventeenth-Century Virtual Reality System
Authors: Steinhart Eric
Published: December 2015

In the late 1600s the mathematician and philosopher Leibniz produced the first description of a virtual reality system. He described an organized system of virtual worlds available for human perceptual exploration, along with an interface for exploring them. Leibniz's work on the logic of possible worlds has direct relevance to the conceptual foundations of virtual reality work today.
CRYSTAL: Building Multicontext Virtual Environments
Authors: Tsao Jeffrey , Lumsden Charles J.
Published: December 2015

Current virtual environment systems are, for the most part, dedicated to specific applications such as engineering or surgery. The CRYSTAL project applied the concept of crystals, or 3D “windows,” to segment the virtual world into independent volumes, which may interact with each other. The contents of individual crystals can be very different from crystal to crystal, so the resulting virtual environment (VE) is not restricted to any unique context, and it is suitable as a general-purpose workspace. Crystals are created and owned by independent programs called modules, which serve as functional elements of the VE. There are basic modules to provide common functions, such as navigation, wand control, and so on. Extra modules can be launched to add content and functionality to the VE, and the modules can also be terminated interactively. Unlike “pipelined” systems for VE design, CRYSTAL modules are designed to self-assemble and resolve any interface conflicts automatically. As a result, they do not place a high demand on user proficiency in customizing VEs for a variety of uses.
Forces in Laparoscopic Surgical Tools
Authors: Gupta Vineet , Reddy Narender P. , Batur Pelin
Published: December 2015

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS), even with its shortcomings, has had a far reaching impact in the field of surgery. During MIS procedures, as the surgeon's hands are remote from the site of the surgery, they do not have a feel of the tissue being manipulated and the forces that should be applied to manipulate the tissue. Studies are being conducted to provide tactile and force feedback of the tissues being manipulated to the surgeon. However, the surgeons are trained in conventional surgery and are familiar with the forces that they apply on the conventional surgical tools. Therefore, before such studies are conducted, there is a need for quantitative comparison of conventional and laparoscopic tools. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine if the forces applied on the conventional surgical forceps are the same as those applied on the laparoscopic forceps during the same procedures. The results of the study showed that the handle and tip forces in laparoscopic forceps were significantly different from that of the conventional surgical forceps (p ≤0.005). The results also showed that the mean power of the surface EMG measured from flexor pollicis brevis (flexor of the thumb) and the extensor pollicis brevis (extensor of the proximal thumb) while manipulating laparoscopic forceps were significantly different from that measured while manipulating conventional surgical forceps for the same procedure (p ≤ 0.005).
EMG-Based Interface for Position Tracking and Control in VR Environments and Teleoperation
Authors: Suryanarayanan Srikanth , Reddy Narender P.
Published: December 2015

Position tracking and control using bioelectric signals are emerging as promising techniques. Surface electromyographic (EMG) signals are being researched for tracking human movements, direct proportional control of teleoperators, and object manipulation in VR environments. This study investigates the use of surface EMG to track elbow joint angle during flexion-extension of the arm applied to control of a virtual environment or an anthropomorphic telemanipulator. An intelligent system based on neural networks and fuzzy logic has been developed to use the processed surface EMG signal and predict the joint angle. The intelligent system has been tested on normal subjects performing flexion-extension of the arm of various angles and at several speeds. The joint angles predicted by the intelligent system were input to a computer-simulated model of an elbow manipulator. Preliminary results show the average root mean squared (RMS) error between the actual elbow joint angle measured with a goniometer and the joint angle reproduced by the robot model to be less than 20%. The technique of using EMG as an interface for tracking and direct biocontrol has great potential in VR and telemanipulation.
NaviCam:A Magnifying Glass Approach to Augmented Reality
Authors: Rekimoto Jun
Published: December 2015

Current augmented reality (AR) systems are not designed to be used in our daily lives. Head-mounted see-through displays are too cumbersome and look too unusual for everyday life. The limited scalability of position-tracking devices limits the use of AR to very restricted environments. This paper proposes a different way to realize AR that can be used in an open environment by introducing the concept of ID awareness and a hand-held video see-through display. Unlike other AR systems that use head-mounted or head-up displays, our approach employs the combination of a palmtop-sized display and a small video camera. A user sees the real world through the display device, with added computer-augmented information. We call this configuration the magnifying glass approach. It has several advantages over traditional head-up or head-mounted configurations. The main advantage is that the user is not required to wear any cumbersome headgear. The user can easily move the display device around like a magnifying glass and compare real and augmented images. The video camera also obtains information related to real-world situations. The system recognizes real-world objects using the video images by reading identification (ID) tags. Based on the recognized ID tag, the system retrieves and displays information about the real-world object to the user. The prototype hand-held device based on our proposed concept is called NaviCam. We describe several potential applications. Our experiments with NaviCam show the great potential of our video see-through palmtop display. It was significantly faster than a head-up configuration, and its subjective score from testers was also higher.
Magnetic Tracker Calibration for Improved Augmented Reality Registration
Authors: Livingston Mark A. , State Andrei
Published: December 2015

We apply a look-up table technique to calibrate both position and orientation readings from a magnetic tracker for use in virtual environments within a defined working volume. In a test volume of 2.4 cubic meters, the method reduced the tracker's average position error by 79% and its average orientation error by 40%. We test the correction table against the tracker's performance outdoors (a metal-poor environment) and show that readings taken in our lab and corrected by our method exhibit less error than uncorrected readings taken outdoors. We demonstrate that such reduction in position error visibly improves registration in an augmented reality system, whereas the (lesser) reduction in orientation error does not visibly improve registration. We show that the model we used for the orientation error function was incorrect, preventing our method from achieving better correction of orientation error, We discuss future directions for correction of orientation error.
Fly Me to the Moon: A Survey of American Historical and Contemporary Simulation Entertainments
Authors: Maloney Judith
Published: December 2015

Simulation experiences captivate the imagination of today's entertainment-seeking public. Once located exclusively at a few venues, these simulations are increasingly prevalent in a variety of locales including malls and casinos. While today's public may view these entertainments as novel, these forms of simulation have rich historical antecedents that can be traced to entertainment and technological innovations of the nineteenth century. Focusing on American examples from the time period of 1820 to the present, this paper examines a wide variety of immersive entertainments that attempted to simulate an experience, environment, or event so realistically that viewers accepted the imitation as authentic and realistic. This paper examines cycloramas, panoramas, historic recreations, and a selection of mechanical rides from amusement parks and world's fair midways that provided group experiences. An examination of the social functions of these precursors strengthens our understanding of the significance of contemporary simulation entertainments in the United States.
Autonomous Visualization of Real Environments for Telepresence Applications
Authors: Geist Robert , Stinson Todd , Schalkoff Robert , Gurbuz Sabri
Published: December 2015

The autonomous, noncontact creation of virtual environments from existing, real environments is described. The technique uses structured light to provide direct estimation of 3D surface patch parameters. Active (laser) cameras are used to determine 3D object models, and passive camera images are used to generate color and texture. This process, termed virtualization, has immediate application to providing telepresence in previously unmodeled or unstructured environments. An example of the process is shown and directions for future research are indicated.
Virtual Life Network: A Body-Centered Networked Virtual Environment
Authors: Pandzic Igor-Sunday , Thalmann Nadia Magnenat , Capin Tolga K. , Thalmann Daniel
Published: December 2015

In order to feel the sense of presence in a virtual environment, it is important for the participants to become a part of this environment and interact with it through natural behaviors. This interaction is even more important in networked collaborative virtual environments, in which the participants need to see and interact with each other. We present the Virtual Life Network (VLNET), a joint research effort in the field of networked collaborative virtual environments at MIRALab of the University of Geneva and the Computer Graphics Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. In VLNET each participant is represented by a virtual human actor with realistic appearance and movements similar to the actual body. Interacting with the environment through his virtual body, the participant is perceived by himself and others in a natural way. Since it is generally not possible to track all degrees of freedom of the human body in order to reproduce realistic body motion, we introduce the motor functions that generate natural motion for standard tasks such as walking and arm motion; they are based on limited tracked information (hand and head positions). By using the same virtual human representation, but with the addition of high-level control, autonomous virtual actors can be introduced into the environment to perform some useful tasks or simply to make the environment more appealing. To further enhance the realistic feel of the virtual environment and to simplify object manipulation we provide the facility of defining object behaviors by attaching motor functions to the objects.
A Most Insulting Violation The Burning of the HMS Gaspee and the Delaying of the American Revolution
Authors: Messer Peter C.
Published: December 2015

“A Most Insulting Violation,” argues that the successful resolution of the controversy surrounding the burning of the HMS Gaspee (1772) highlights how North American colonists’ decisions about violently resisting British imperial authority rested on a vernacular vision of empire that prioritized lived experience over Whig ideology and economic interest.