GameFlow heuristics for designing and evaluating real-time strategy games

The GameFlow model strives to be a general model of player enjoyment, applicable to all game genres and platforms. Derived from a general set of heuristics for creating enjoyable player experiences, the GameFlow model has been widely used in evaluating many types of games, as well as non-game applications. However, we recognize that more specific, low-level, and implementable criteria are potentially more useful for designing and evaluating video games. Consequently, the research reported in this paper aims to provide detailed heuristics for designing and evaluating one specific game genre, real-time strategy games. In order to develop these heuristics, we conducted a grounded theoretical analysis on a set of professional game reviews and structured the resulting heuristics using the GameFlow model. The resulting 165 heuristics for designing and evaluating real-time strategy games are presented and discussed in this paper.

Continuous and non-intrusive identity verification in real-time environments based on free-text keystroke dynamics

Internet services are important part of daily activities for most of us. These services come with sophisticated authentication requirements which may not be handled by average Internet users. The management of secure passwords for example creates an extra overhead which is often neglected due to usability reasons. Furthermore, password-based approaches are applicable only for initial logins and do not protect against unlocked workstation attacks. In this paper, we provide a non-intrusive identity verification scheme based on behavior biometrics where keystroke dynamics based-on free-text is used continuously for verifying the identity of a user in real-time. We improved existing keystroke dynamics based verification schemes in four aspects. First, we improve the scalability where we use a constant number of users instead of whole user space to verify the identity of target user. Second, we provide an adaptive user model which enables our solution to take the change of user behavior into consideration in verification decision. Next, we identify a new distance measure which enables us to verify identity of a user with shorter text. Fourth, we decrease the number of false results. Our solution is evaluated on a data set which we have collected from users while they were interacting with their mail-boxes during their daily activities.

Real-time risk monitoring in business processes : a sensor-based approach

This article proposes an approach for real-time monitoring of risks in executable business process models. The approach considers risks in all phases of the business process management lifecycle, from process design, where risks are defined on top of process models, through to process diagnosis, where risks are detected during process execution. The approach has been realized via a distributed, sensor-based architecture. At design-time, sensors are defined to specify risk conditions which when fulfilled, are a likely indicator of negative process states (faults) to eventuate. Both historical and current process execution data can be used to compose such conditions. At run-time, each sensor independently notifies a sensor manager when a risk is detected. In turn, the sensor manager interacts with the monitoring component of a business process management system to prompt the results to process administrators who may take remedial actions. The proposed architecture has been implemented on top of the YAWL system, and evaluated through performance measurements and usability tests with students. The results show that risk conditions can be computed efficiently and that the approach is perceived as useful by the participants in the tests.

Optical techniques for real-time binary multiplication

An optical system which performs the multiplication of binary numbers is described and proof-of-principle experiments are performed. The simultaneous generation of all partial products, optical regrouping of bit products, and optical carry look-ahead addition are novel features of the proposed scheme which takes advantage of the parallel operations capability of optical computers. The proposed processor uses liquid crystal light valves (LCLVs). By space-sharing the LCLVs one such system could function as an array of multipliers. Together with the optical carry look-ahead adders described, this would constitute an optical matrix-vector multiplier.

Assessment of real-time networks and timing for process bus applications

Widespread adoption by electricity utilities of Non-Conventional Instrument Transformers, such as optical or capacitive transducers, has been limited due to the lack of a standardised interface and multi-vendor interoperability. Low power analogue interfaces are being replaced by IEC 61850 9 2 and IEC 61869 9 digital interfaces that use Ethernet networks for communication. These ‘process bus’ connections achieve significant cost savings by simplifying connections between switchyard and control rooms; however the in-service performance when these standards are employed is largely unknown. The performance of real-time Ethernet networks and time synchronisation was assessed using a scale model of a substation automation system. The test bed was constructed from commercially available timing and protection equipment supplied by a range of vendors. Test protocols have been developed to thoroughly evaluate the performance of Ethernet networks and network based time synchronisation. The suitability of IEEE Std 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) as a synchronising system for sampled values was tested in the steady state and under transient conditions. Similarly, the performance of hardened Ethernet switches designed for substation use was assessed under a range of network operating conditions. This paper presents test methods that use a precision Ethernet capture card to accurately measure PTP and network performance. These methods can be used for product selection and to assess ongoing system performance as substations age. Key findings on the behaviour of multi-function process bus networks are presented. System level tests were performed using a Real Time Digital Simulator and transformer protection relay with sampled value and Generic Object Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) capability. These include the interactions between sampled values, PTP and GOOSE messages. Our research has demonstrated that several protocols can be used on a shared process bus, even with very high network loads. This should provide confidence that this technology is suitable for transmission substations.

QoS differentiation in IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks for real-time control

IEEE 802.11 based wireless local area networks (WLANs) are being increasingly deployed for soft real-time control applications. However, they do not provide quality-ofservice (QoS) differentiation to meet the requirements of periodic real-time traffic flows, a unique feature of real-time control systems. This problem becomes evident particularly when the network is under congested conditions. Addressing this problem, a media access control (MAC) scheme, QoS-dif, is proposed in this paper to enable QoS differentiation in IEEE 802.11 networks for different types of periodic real-time traffic flows. It extends the IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) by introducing a QoS differentiation method to deal with different types of periodic traffic that have different QoS requirements for real-time control applications. The effectiveness of the proposed QoS-dif scheme is demonstrated through comparisons with the IEEE 802.11e EDCA mechanism.

Numerical studies of load bearing LSF walls under realistic design fire conditions

Fire safety of light gauge steel frame (LSF) stud walls is important in the design of buildings. Currently LSF walls are increasingly used in the building industry, and are usually made of cold-formed and thin-walled steel studs that are fire-protected by two layers of plasterboard on both sides. Many experimental and numerical studies have been undertaken to investigate the fire performance of load bearing LSF walls under standard fire conditions. However, the standard time-temperature curve does not represent the fire load present in typical residential and commercial buildings that include considerable amount of thermoplastic materials. Real building fires are unlikely to follow a standard time-temperature curve. However, only limited research has been undertaken to investigate the fire performance of load bearing LSF walls under realistic design fire conditions. Therefore in this research, finite element thermal models of the traditional LSF wall panels without cavity insulation and the new LSF composite wall panels were developed to simulate their fire performance under recently developed realistic design fire curves. Suitable thermal properties were proposed for plasterboards and insulations based on laboratory tests and literature review. The developed models were then validated by comparing their thermal performance results with available results from realistic design fire tests, and were later used in parametric studies. This paper presents the details of the developed finite element thermal models of load bearing LSF wall panels under realistic design fire time-temperature curves and the re-sults. It shows that finite element thermal models can be used to predict the fire performance of load bearing LSF walls with varying configurations of insulations and plasterboards under realistic design fires. Failure times of load bearing LSF walls were also predicted based on the results from finite element thermal analyses.

Studies in power hardware in the loop (PHIL) simulation using real-time digital simulator (RTDS)

In power hardware in the loop (PHIL) simulations, a real-time simulated power system is interfaced to a piece of hardware, usually called hardware under test (HuT). A PHIL test can be realized using several simulation tools. Among them Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) is an ideal tool to perform complex power system simulations in near real-time. Stable operation of the entire system, along with the accuracy of simulation results are the main concerns regarding a PHIL simulation. In this paper, a simulated power network on RTDS will be interfaced to HuT through a voltage source converter (VSC). Issues around stability and other interface problems are studied and a new method to stabilize some unstable PHIL cases is proposed. PHIL simulation results in PSCAD and RSCAD are presented.

Analysis of regionally enhanced GPS orbit and clock solutions and contribution to improvement of real-time precise point positioning

This work experimentally examines the performance benefits of a regional CORS network to the GPS orbit and clock solutions for supporting real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP). The regionally enhanced GPS precise orbit solutions are derived from a global evenly distributed CORS network added with a densely distributed network in Australia and New Zealand. A series of computational schemes for different network configurations are adopted in the GAMIT-GLOBK and PANDA data processing. The precise GPS orbit results show that the regionally enhanced solutions achieve the overall orbit improvements with respect to the solutions derived from the global network only. Additionally, the orbital differences over GPS satellite arcs that are visible by any of the five Australia-wide CORS stations show a higher percentage of overall improvements compared to the satellite arcs that are not visible from these stations. The regional GPS clock and Uncalibrated Phase Delay (UPD) products are derived using the PANDA real time processing module from Australian CORS networks of 35 and 79 stations respectively. Analysis of PANDA kinematic PPP and kinematic PPP-AR solutions show certain overall improvements in the positioning performance from a denser network configuration after solution convergence. However, the clock and UPD enhancement on kinematic PPP solutions is marginal. It is suggested that other factors, such as effects of ionosphere, incorrectly fixed ambiguities, may be the more dominating, deserving further research attentions.

Long summer days : grounded learning of words for the uneven cycles of real world events

Time and space are fundamental to human language and embodied cognition. In our early work we investigated how Lingodroids, robots with the ability to build their own maps, could evolve their own geopersonal spatial language. In subsequent studies we extended the framework developed for learning spatial concepts and words to learning temporal intervals. This paper considers a new aspect of time, the naming of concepts like morning, afternoon, dawn, and dusk, which are events that are part of day-night cycles, but are not defined by specific time points on a clock. Grounding of such terms refers to events and features of the diurnal cycle, such as light levels. We studied event-based time in which robots experienced day-night cycles that varied with the seasons throughout a year. Then we used meet-at tasks to demonstrate that the words learned were grounded, where the times to meet were morning and afternoon, rather than specific clock times. The studies show how words and concepts for a novel aspect of cyclic time can be grounded through experience with events rather than by times as measured by clocks or calendars

A reliable real-time transport protocol for networked control systems over wireless networks

Deploying wireless networks in networked control systems (NCSs) has become more and more popular during the last few years. As a typical type of real-time control systems, an NCS is sensitive to long and nondeterministic time delay and packet losses. However, the nature of the wireless channel has the potential to degrade the performance of NCS networks in many aspects, particularly in time delay and packet losses. Transport layer protocols could play an important role in providing both reliable and fast transmission service to fulfill NCS’s real-time transmission requirements. Unfortunately, none of the existing transport protocols, including the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), was designed for real-time control applications. Moreover, periodic data and sporadic data are two types of real-time data traffic with different priorities in an NCS. Due to the lack of support for prioritized transmission service, the real-time performance for periodic and sporadic data in an NCS network is often degraded significantly, particularly under congested network conditions. To address these problems, a new transport layer protocol called Reliable Real-Time Transport Protocol (RRTTP) is proposed in this thesis. As a UDP-based protocol, RRTTP inherits UDP’s simplicity and fast transmission features. To improve the reliability, a retransmission and an acknowledgement mechanism are designed in RRTTP to compensate for packet losses. They are able to avoid unnecessary retransmission of the out-of-date packets in NCSs, and collisions are unlikely to happen, and small transmission delay can be achieved. Moreover, a prioritized transmission mechanism is also designed in RRTTP to improve the real-time performance of NCS networks under congested traffic conditions. Furthermore, the proposed RRTTP is implemented in the Network Simulator 2 for comprehensive simulations. The simulation results demonstrate that RRTTP outperforms TCP and UDP in terms of real-time transmissions in an NCS over wireless networks.

Integrating real time positioning systems to improve blind lifting and loading crane operations

Mobile/tower cranes are the most essential forms of construction plant in use in the construction industry but are also the subject of several safety issues. Of these, blind lifting has been found to be one of the most hazardous of crane operations. To improve the situation, a real-time monitoring system that integrates the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is developed. This system aims to identify unauthorized work or entrance of personnel within a pre-defined risk zone by obtaining positioning data of both site workers and the crane. The system alerts to the presence of unauthorized workers within a risk zone——currently defined as 3m from the crane. When this happens, the system suspends the power of the crane and a warning signal is generated to the safety management team. In this way the system assists the safety management team to manage the safety of hundreds of workers simultaneously. An onsite trial with debriefing interviews is presented to illustrate and validate the system in use.

Assessment of precision timing and real-time data networks for digital substation automation

This project researched the performance of emerging digital technology for high voltage electricity substations that significantly improves safety for staff and reduces the potential impact on the environment of equipment failure. The experimental evaluation used a scale model of a substation control system that incorporated real substation control and networking equipment with real-time simulation of the power system. The outcomes confirm that it is possible to implement Ethernet networks in high voltage substations that meet the needs of utilities; however component-level testing of devices is necessary to achieve this. The assessment results have been used to further develop international standards for substation communication and precision timing.

Harnessing the power of real and virtual social networks during disasters

The mass media and emergency services organisations routinely gather information and disseminate it to the public. During disaster situations both the media and emergency services require acute situational awareness. New social media technologies offer opportunities to enhance situational awareness by crowd-sourcing information using real and virtual social networks. This paper documents how real and virtual social networks were used by a reporter and by members of the public to gather and disseminate emergency information during the flash flood disaster in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley in January 2011 and in the days and weeks after the disaster.

Using real-time authentic online learning scenarios to teach criminal intelligence

Criminal intelligence is an area of expertise highly sought-after internationally and within a variety of justice-related professions; however, producing university graduates with the requisite professional knowledge, as well as analytical, organisational and technical skills presents a pedagogical and technical challenge to university educators. The situation becomes even more challenging when students are undertaking their studies by distance education. This best practice session showcases the design of an online undergraduate unit for final year justice students which uses an evolving real-time criminal scenario as the focus of authentic learning activities in order to prepare students for graduate roles within the criminal intelligence and justice professions. Within the unit, students take on the role of criminal intelligence analysts, applying relevant theories, models and strategies to solve a complex but realistic crime and complete briefings and documentation to industry standards as their major summative assessment task. The session will demonstrate how the design of the online unit corresponds to authentic learning principles, and will specifically map the elements of the unit design to Herrington & Oliver’s instructional design framework for authentic learning (2000; Herrington & Herrington 2006). The session will show how a range of technologies was used to create a rich learning experience for students that could be easily maintained over multiple unit iterations without specialist technical support. The session will also discuss the unique pedagogical affordances and challenges implicated in the location of the unit within an online learning environment, and will reflect on some of the lessons learned from the development which may be relevant to other authentic online learning contexts.