Virtual reality interaction techniques

This paper addresses the problems associated with interaction in immersive virtual reality and makes recommendations as to how best to deal with these problems, thereby producing a usable virtual reality interactive environment. Immersive virtual reality means that the users are immersed or contained inside the environment in which they are working. For example, they are able to turn their heads and look around, as well as use their bodies to control the system.

The work in progress involves a study of various virtual reality input devices, some designed and implemented as part of the project. Additionally, the paper describes a simple framework for separation of the interaction and application parts of a virtual reality system in order to facilitate an object oriented approach to the implementation of the recommendations, and to the building of future virtual reality applications which incorporate these ideas.

A generic virtual reality interaction system and its extensions using the common object request broker architecture (CORBA)

The paper describes the design and implementation of an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) interaction system. The system aims to provide a flexible mechanism for programmers to implement interaction in their VR applications, making good use of all accepted practices in the field. The paper further describes how the system was extended to a multi-user system using the CORBA middleware layer.

Realistic autonomous fish for virtual reality

We create realistic autonomous fish for Virtual Reality systems. The fish are realistic in appearance, movement and behaviour: the swimming behaviour being non-scripted, within real time rendering.The form of the fish is procedurally created. The size and shape of the form are controlled by a number of variables which are stored in a simple ASCII file. This allows efficient creation of different fish at run time.The behaviour is obtained by implementing a flocking algorithm.

Experiences in porting a virtual reality system to Java

Practical experience in porting a large virtual reality system from C/C++ to Java indicates that porting this type of real-time application is both feasible, and has several merits. The ability to transfer objects in space and time allows useful facilities such as distributed agent support and persistence to be added. Reflection and type comparisons allow flexible manipulations of objects of different types at run-time. Native calls and native code compilation reduce or remove the overhead of interpreting code.Problems encountered include difficulty in achieving cross-platform code portability, limitations of the networking libraries in Java, and clumsy coding practices forced by the language.

Building the second generation of parallel/distributed virtual reality systems

We present the RhoVeR (Rhodes Virtual Reality) system and classify it as a second generation parallel/distributed virtual reality (DVR) system. We discuss the components of the system and thereby demonstrate its support for virtual reality application development, its configurable, parallel and distributed nature, and its synthesis of first generation DVR techniques.

Rhetoric and reality : an examination of performance management in Australian universities

This paper reports on a survey of academics in the Business School of four Australian universities and explores their attitudes to performance management in general and their experience of performance management in their own university. Results indicate an apparent disconnect between the rhetoric of performance management and the reality being experienced in universities.

An energy-autonomous home in Melbourne - myth or reality?

Energy-autonomous buildings are possible. Completely energy self-sufficient houses can be found, for example, in Europe. If it is possible to cover the entire energy demand of a household from only renewable energy generated on site in a central European climate, what is required in a temperate climate, typical of southern Australia? This paper describes an investigation to broadly assess the technical, practical and financial feasibility of energy-autonomy for a hypothetical suburban house in Melbourne, Victoria. The findings firstly demonstrate the importance of reducing energy demand by using passive solar building strategies and energy efficient appliances to reduce demand to a reasonable level. The paper then discusses four scenarios and combinations of technologies to meet this reduced demand. The three scenarios which give energy autonomy increase the capital cost of a typical house by between 15% and 3%, and there would be insufficient roof area to accommodate the solar technologies required in two of the scenarios investigated. It is therefore concluded that while the goal of energy autonomy is technically feasible, it is not likely to be financially or practically acceptable. A fourth scenario of an energy-exporting house was also investigated and is shown to be a much more attractive option.

Between theory and practice : Rudolf Steiner as philosopher and architect

The philosophy and architecture of Rudolf Steiner both aim to give formal expression to his esoteric worldview, however, the means of articulating this worldview fundamentally differ within each discipline. Philosophy and architecture are separated by both process and product, and while an interdisciplinary reading of Steiner’s work does make certain connections between them evident, the incorporeal nature of thinking and the physical reality of building inevitably require different skills of their author, as well as different standards by which to assess them. Although he had no formal training as an architect, Steiner believed that his system of Anthroposophy provided a conceptual framework that would inspire a new style of modern architecture imbued with a spiritual dimension. As such, architecture provided Steiner with a means of visually expressing what words could not, and was therefore a necessary and important part of his philosophical pursuit. This paper explores the tension that exists between Steiner’s philosophy and architecture in its translation from theoretical ideas into built form. Steiner’s approach to architectural design was less concerned with the methods and techniques of the craft than with achieving what he saw as architecture’s true purpose - namely to give voice to the inner spiritual content of the work. However, in order to achieve this ultimate goal, a certain level of architectural competence is required. Therefore, Steiner’s ability as an architect to articulate such lofty ideals will also be assessed. Conceived on the edge of theory and practice, Steiner’s work serves to demonstrate the richness and depth that such an approach has to offer the field of architecture.

Primary science education : reality or myth

Amidst an international call for a re-formed and re-envisaged science education agenda, the actual state of teaching science in primary schools is still much the same as it was 15 years or more ago. Whilst much research has provided insights into possible approaches for primary science education, we still find ‘blockers’ to a fully implemented science curriculum in schools. Pre-service teachers, as part of their assessment in a science education unit, interviewed primary teachers and asked the reason behind the approach to science in schools. The responses were varied, with some schools and teachers paying lip service to science education, whereas, in schools where science is a critical element of the curriculum, it is still mainly through the driving force of one enthusiastic teacher. This research will report on the aggregated responses from the surveys and attempt to identify possible ways forward, as suggested by data analysis.

Student evaluation of teaching : keeping in touch with reality

Student evaluation of teaching is commonplace in many universities and may be the predominant input into the performance evaluation of staff and organisational units. This article used publicly available student evaluation of teaching data to present examples of where institutional responses to evaluation processes appeared to be educationally ineffective and where the pursuit of the ‘right’ student evaluation results appears to have been mistakenly equated with the aim of improved teaching and learning. If the vast resources devoted to student evaluation of teaching are to be effective, then the data produced by student evaluation systems must lead to real and sustainable improvements in teaching quality and student learning, rather than becoming an end in itself.

Click if you like this or occupy as spectacle : situationism and a technological derive

This performative, multi-media lecture re-reads Guy Debord’s book, The Society of the Spectacle (1967) with reference to the global Occupy movement, and the role social media and the Internet play in the facilitation and hindrance of this recent form of political activism. Debord claims that all ‘having’ — that is, all forms of accumulating capital — ‘derives its immediate prestige and its ultimate purpose from appearances’, and that individual reality, which is shaped by social forces, can ‘appear only if it is not actually real (Debord, thesis 18).’ Using the multiple functions and staggering proliferation of various image making technologies used to record and represent OCCUPY actions as a starting point, we respond to Debord’s proposition by examining the ways his analysis of the spectacle both enables and impedes a thorough critique of social media as a spectacular technology par excellence. Part reflective essay, part critical analysis, and part performance, ‘Click if You Like This’ connects various situationist strategies of ‘artistic interference’ — such as the dérive and détournement — with expanded cinema in order to generate a series of questions and provocations about the politics of place, the degradation of social space, networked images and the ubiquity of contemporary ‘spectacular’ technologies, which have colonized all forms of everyday life. This presentation questions whether contemporary forms and strategies of interference are the same as their historical precedents.