Exploring Intrinsic Gender Identity Using Second Life

Virtual Worlds (VWs) provide an environment to understand and explore notions of gender and identity, particularly given the ability for users to experiment with gender in online worlds. Our study analyses gender identity using the virtual space of Second Life (SL) to explore experiences and responses to gender in an avatar. We introduced 46 novice users to the VW of SL in order to see if real life gender influenced their choices of avatar. Participants selected the gender of their original avatar and once they were used to SL, they were then asked to change the gender of that avatar. We used mixed methods research consisting of paper based questionnaires (n=34) and focus groups (n=46) conducted in SL. Nearly all participants chose an initial avatar that reflected their real-life gender with females (n=22) reporting higher levels of identification with this initial avatar. Females were significantly more concerned with the gender-specific appearance of their initial avatar. On swapping gender, females reported higher levels of discomfort and many changed back before 7 minutes. Males (n=24) did not report significant discomfort with their changed-gender avatar and did not revert back to their original avatar as quickly. Our findings suggest that female participants in this study tended to reinforce gender binaries through such things as clothing, hairstyles and behaviors of their avatars. Male participants were less likely to experience discomfort through changing the gender of their avatar (with the males noting they still perceived an avatar with a female appearance as male).

Pivoting the player: a framework for player character research in offline computer role-playing games

This article introduces a theoretical framework for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Player Character Grid and its constituent Pivot Player Character Model, a conceptual framework illustrating the experience of gameplay as perceived through the PC’s eyes. Although video game characters have been scrutinised from many different perspectives, a systematic framework has not been introduced yet. This study aims to fill that void by proposing a model replicable across the cRPG genre. It has been largely inspired by Anne Ubersfeld’s semiological dramatic character research implemented in Reading Theatre I (1999) and is demonstrated with reference to The Witcher (CD Projekt RED 2007).

La loi applicable aux transferts de biens virtuels

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'université Paris1-Sorbonne

Homesick for the unheimlich: back to the uncanny future in Alien: Isolation

In 2014 Sega released Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation, a video game sequel to the 1979 film Alien. As an attempt to create both an authentic homage to the Alien franchise and a credible successor to Ridley Scott’s original film, Alien: Isolation was received as both a work of remediated nostalgia and as a deeply uncanny survival horror. This article discusses Alien: Isolation framed by theories of the uncanny (the unhomely) and of nostalgia (the homely), with the aim of revealing how the production design of the game reconciled these seemingly contradictory but nonetheless overlapping aesthetic qualities. By drawing on examples from Alien: Isolation’s visual and level design, this article discusses how the integration of nostalgic and uncanny qualities could be of value to horror and sci-fi game design, in particular to the development of sequels within existing franchises, and to remediations, remakes and reboots.

Active and reactive power control of synchronous generator for the realization of a virtual power plant

This paper presents a novel power control strategy that decouples the active and reactive power for a synchronous generator connected to a power network. The proposed control paradigm considers the capacitance of the transmission line along with its resistance and reactance as-well. Moreover the proposed controller takes into account all cases of R-X relationships, thus allowing it to function in Virtual Power Plant (VPP) structures which operate at both medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) levels. The independent control of active and reactive power is achieved through rotational transformations of the terminal voltages and currents at the synchronous generator's output. This paper details the control technique by first presenting the mathematical and electrical network analysis of the methodology and then successfully implementing the control using MATLAB-SIMULINK simulation.

SimSight: A Virtual Machine Based Dynamic Call Graph Generator

One problem with using component-based software development approach is that once software modules are reused over generations of products, they form legacy structures that can be challenging to understand, making validating these systems difficult. Therefore, tools and methodologies that enable engineers to see interactions of these software modules will enhance their ability to make these software systems more dependable. To address this need, we propose SimSight, a framework to capture dynamic call graphs in Simics, a widely adopted commercial full-system simulator. Simics is a software system that simulates complete computer systems. Thus, it performs nearly identical tasks to a real system but at a much lower speed while providing greater execution observability. We have implemented SimSight to generate dynamic call graphs of statically and dynamically linked functions in x86/Linux environment. A case study illustrates how we can use SimSight to identify sources of software errors. We then evaluate its performance using 12 integer programs from SPEC CPU2006 benchmark suite.

Feeling present in arousing virtual reality worlds: prefrontal brain regions differentially orchestrate presence experience in adults and children

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool for simulating aspects of the real world. The success of VR is thought to depend on its ability to evoke a sense of "being there", that is, the feeling of "Presence". In view of the rapid progress in the development of increasingly more sophisticated virtual environments (VE), the importance of understanding the neural underpinnings of presence is growing. To date however, the neural correlates of this phenomenon have received very scant attention. An fMRI-based study with 52 adults and 25 children was therefore conducted using a highly immersive VE. The experience of presence in adult subjects was found to be modulated by two major strategies involving two homologous prefrontal brain structures. Whereas the right DLPFC controlled the sense of presence by down-regulating the activation in the egocentric dorsal visual processing stream, the left DLPFC up-regulated widespread areas of the medial prefrontal cortex known to be involved in self-reflective and stimulus-independent thoughts. In contrast, there was no evidence of these two strategies in children. In fact, anatomical analyses showed that these two prefrontal areas have not yet reached full maturity in children. Taken together, this study presents the first findings that show activation of a highly specific neural network orchestrating the experience of presence in adult subjects, and that the absence of activity in this neural network might contribute to the generally increased susceptibility of children for the experience of presence in VEs.

Real Design of a Virtual Landscape : Designing and building a landscape in Second Life

3D Virtual Environments (VE) are real; they exist as digital worlds with the advantage of having none of the constraints of the real world. As such they are the perfect training ground for design students who can create, build and experiment with design solutions without the constraint of real world projects. This paper reports on an educational setting used to explore a model for using VE such as Second Life (SL) developed by Linden Labs in California, as a collaborative environment for design education. A postgraduate landscape architecture learning environment within a collaborative design unit was developed to integrate this model where the primary focus was the application of three-dimensional tools within design, not as a presentation tool, but rather as a design tool. The focus of the unit and its aims and objectives will be outlined before describing the use of SL in the unit. Attention is focused on the collaboration and learning experience before discussing the outcomes, student feedback, future projects using this model and potential for further research. The outcome of this study aims to contribute to current research on teaching and learning design in interactive VE’s. We present a case study of our first application of this model.

An optimising compiler for generated tiny virtual machines

VMSCRIPT is a scripting language designed to allow small programs to be compiled for a range of generated tiny virtual machines, suitable for sensor network devices. The VMSCRIPT compiler is an optimising compiler designed to allow quick re-targeting, based on a template, code rewriting model. A compiler backend can be specified at the same time as a virtual machine, with the compiler reading the specification and using it as a code generator.

Synchrophasor Broadcast over Internet Protocol for Distributed Generator Synchronization

Synchronous islanded operation involves continuously holding an islanded power network in virtual synchronism with the main power system to aid paralleling and avoid potentially damaging out-of-synchronism reclosure. This requires phase control of the generators in the island and the transmission of a reference signal from a secure location on the main power system. Global positioning system (GPS) time-synchronized phasor measurements transmitted via an Internet protocol (IP) are used for the reference signal. However, while offering low cost and a readily available solution for distribution networks, IP communications have variable latency and are susceptible to packet loss, which can make time-critical control applications difficult. This paper investigates the ability of the phase-control system to tolerate communications latency. Phasor measurement conditioning algorithms that can tolerate latency are used in the phase-control loop of a 50-kVA diesel generator. © 2010 IEEE.

FEM based Virtual Prototyping and Design of Third Harmonic Excitation System for Low Voltage Brushless Alternators

Salient pole brushless alternators coupled to IC engines are extensively used as stand-by power supply units for meeting in- dustrial power demands. Design of such generators demands high power to weight ratio, high e ciency and low cost per KVA out- put. Moreover, the performance characteristics of such machines like voltage regulation and short circuit ratio (SCR) are critical when these machines are put into parallel operation and alterna- tors for critical applications like defence and aerospace demand very low harmonic content in the output voltage. While designing such alternators, accurate prediction of machine characteristics, including total harmonic distortion (THD) is essential to mini- mize development cost and time. Total harmonic distortion in the output voltage of alternators should be as low as possible especially when powering very sophis- ticated and critical applications. The output voltage waveform of a practical AC generator is replica of the space distribution of the ux density in the air gap and several factors such as shape of the rotor pole face, core saturation, slotting and style of coil disposition make the realization of a sinusoidal air gap ux wave impossible. These ux harmonics introduce undesirable e ects on the alternator performance like high neutral current due to triplen harmonics, voltage distortion, noise, vibration, excessive heating and also extra losses resulting in poor e ciency, which in turn necessitate de-rating of the machine especially when connected to non-linear loads. As an important control unit of brushless alternator, the excitation system and its dynamic performance has a direct impact on alternator's stability and reliability. The thesis explores design and implementation of an excitation i system utilizing third harmonic ux in the air gap of brushless al- ternators, using an additional auxiliary winding, wound for 1=3rd pole pitch, embedded into the stator slots and electrically iso- lated from the main winding. In the third harmonic excitation system, the combined e ect of two auxiliary windings, one with 2=3rd pitch and another third harmonic winding with 1=3rd pitch, are used to ensure good voltage regulation without an electronic automatic voltage regulator (AVR) and also reduces the total harmonic content in the output voltage, cost e ectively. The design of the third harmonic winding by analytic methods demands accurate calculation of third harmonic ux density in the air gap of the machine. However, precise estimation of the amplitude of third harmonic ux in the air gap of a machine by conventional design procedures is di cult due to complex geome- try of the machine and non-linear characteristics of the magnetic materials. As such, prediction of the eld parameters by conven- tional design methods is unreliable and hence virtual prototyping of the machine is done to enable accurate design of the third har- monic excitation system. In the design and development cycle of electrical machines, it is recognized that the use of analytical and experimental methods followed by expensive and in exible prototyping is time consum- ing and no longer cost e ective. Due to advancements in com- putational capabilities over recent years, nite element method (FEM) based virtual prototyping has become an attractive al- ternative to well established semi-analytical and empirical design methods as well as to the still popular trial and error approach followed by the costly and time consuming prototyping. Hence, by virtually prototyping the alternator using FEM, the important performance characteristics of the machine are predicted. Design of third harmonic excitation system is done with the help of results obtained from virtual prototype of the machine. Third harmonic excitation (THE) system is implemented in a 45 KVA ii experimental machine and experiments are conducted to validate the simulation results. Simulation and experimental results show that by utilizing third harmonic ux in the air gap of the ma- chine for excitation purposes during loaded conditions, triplen harmonic content in the output phase voltage is signi cantly re- duced. The prototype machine with third harmonic excitation system designed and developed based on FEM analysis proved to be economical due to its simplicity and has the added advan- tage of reduced harmonics in the output phase voltage.

Virtual Radio Engine

Software Defined Radio (SDR) hardware platforms use parallel architectures. Current concepts of developing applications (such as WLAN) for these platforms are complex, because developers describe an application with hardware-specifics that are relevant to parallelism such as mapping and scheduling. To reduce this complexity, we have developed a new programming approach for SDR applications, called Virtual Radio Engine (VRE). VRE defines a language for describing applications, and a tool chain that consists of a compiler kernel and other tools (such as a code generator) to generate executables. The thesis presents this concept, as well as describes the language and the compiler kernel that have been developed by the author. The language is hardware-independent, i.e., developers describe tasks and dependencies between them. The compiler kernel performs automatic parallelization, i.e., it is capable of transforming a hardware-independent program into a hardware-specific program by solving hardware-specifics, in particular mapping, scheduling and synchronizations. Thus, VRE simplifies programming tasks as developers do not solve hardware-specifics manually.

Generating Realistic Camera Shake for Virtual Scenes

When depicting both virtual and physical worlds, the viewer's impression of presence in these worlds is strongly linked to camera motion. Plausible and artist-controlled camera movement can substantially increase scene immersion. While physical camera motion exhibits subtle details of position, rotation, and acceleration, these details are often missing for virtual camera motion. In this work, we analyze camera movement using signal theory. Our system allows us to stylize a smooth user-defined virtual base camera motion by enriching it with plausible details. A key component of our system is a database of videos filmed by physical cameras. These videos are analyzed with a camera-motion estimation algorithm (structure-from-motion) and labeled manually with a specific style. By considering spectral properties of location, orientation and acceleration, our solution learns camera motion details. Consequently, an arbitrary virtual base motion, defined in any conventional animation package, can be automatically modified according to a user-selected style. In an animation package the camera motion base path is typically defined by the user via function curves. Another possibility is to obtain the camera path by using a mixed reality camera in motion capturing studio. As shown in our experiments, the resulting shots are still fully artist-controlled, but appear richer and more physically plausible.