"Comida di buteco" : o botequim, um pedaço da alma carioca, em uma iniciativa de construção de comunidade virtual de marca

O botequim é um estabelecimento que serve comida caseira, em porções generosas e a baixo custo, também servindo petiscos típicos e bebidas, isto num ambiente informal, com arquitetura e decoração típicas. Durante muito tempo teve sua imagem associada ao ócio e ao vício, ao ponto dos proprietários rejeitarem a associação dos seus estabelecimentos ao termo botequim. Esta visão mudou com a recente valorização do termo botequim, através do lançamento de guias como o “Rio Botequim”, “Guia Veja Comer & Beber”, das colunas “Pé-limpo” e “Pé-sujo”, ambas publicadas no caderno “Rio Show” do jornal O Globo, e do concurso “Comida di Buteco”. Apesar de haver em todo território brasileiro 297.000 estabelecimentos semelhantes que ocupam em torno de 1.600.000, não são facilmente encontrados estudos que abordem o botequim de um ponto de vista empresarial. Objeto deste estudo o concurso “Comida di Buteco” foi criado em 2000 e atualmente acontece em 16 cidades de 8 estados brasileiros e conta com mais de 370 estabelecimentos concorrentes. O presente estudo tem por objetivo apresentar de que maneira os organizadores do concurso incentivam através de sua página no Facebook a formação de uma comunidade virtual de marca em torno do concurso e se esta se estende aos botequins participantes. Para a realização deste objetivo esta pesquisa se apoia em um referencial teórico mapeado dentro da literatura disponível sobre: o botequim; o concurso “Comida di Buteco”; marca e a criação de seus significados; comunidade de marca e comunidade virtual de marca. Optou-se por abordar o fenômeno de forma qualitativa usando-se a etnografia como metodologia para a coleta de dados e no tratamento destes aplicou-se a análise de discurso mediado por computador. O resultado da análise é confrontado com o referencial teórico e conclui-se que a organização do concurso “Comida di Buteco” incentiva a formação de uma comunidade virtual de marca em torno do concurso, através da troca de informações e opiniões, da divulgação do concurso e estabelecimentos, do incentivo a autoconsciência de grupo. Não foi possível comprovar se esta comunidade se estende aos estabelecimentos concorrentes, porém verificou-se que estes tiram proveito da divulgação de suas marcas pelo concurso.

World Cup da record via streaming: negli Usa è l'evento sportivo più visto di sempre su smartphone e tablet

La Coppa del Mondo è diventata l'evento sportivo in diretta streaming più seguito di sempre negli Stati Uniti. Quest'anno per la prima volta numerosi cittadini statunitensi sono entrati in sintonia con l'evento sportivo e la diffusione dei dispositivi mobili ha sicuramente contribuito a questo risultato: soprattutto i più giovani hanno seguito per la prima volta le partite proprio tramite smartphone, tablet e computer, generando numeri da record.

Integrating eye tracking in virtual reality for stroke rehabilitation

This thesis reports on research done for the integration of eye tracking technology into virtual reality environments, with the goal of using it in rehabilitation of patients who suffered from stroke. For the last few years, eye tracking has been a focus on medical research, used as an assistive tool  to help people with disabilities interact with new technologies  and as an assessment tool  to track the eye gaze during computer interactions. However, tracking more complex gaze behaviors and relating them to motor deficits in people with disabilities is an area that has not been fully explored, therefore it became the focal point of this research. During the research, two exploratory studies were performed in which eye tracking technology was integrated in the context of a newly created virtual reality task to assess the impact of stroke. Using an eye tracking device and a custom virtual task, the system developed is able to monitor the eye gaze pattern changes over time in patients with stroke, as well as allowing their eye gaze to function as an input for the task. Based on neuroscientific hypotheses of upper limb motor control, the studies aimed at verifying the differences in gaze patterns during the observation and execution of the virtual goal-oriented task in stroke patients (N=10), and also to assess normal gaze behavior in healthy participants (N=20). Results were found consistent and supported the hypotheses formulated, showing that eye gaze could be used as a valid assessment tool on these patients. However, the findings of this first exploratory approach are limited in order to fully understand the effect of stroke on eye gaze behavior. Therefore, a novel model-driven paradigm is proposed to further understand the relation between the neuronal mechanisms underlying goal-oriented actions and eye gaze behavior.

Quantifying epistemic actions in human-computer interaction

As digital systems move away from traditional desktop setups, new interaction paradigms are emerging that better integrate with users’ realworld surroundings, and better support users’ individual needs. While promising, these modern interaction paradigms also present new challenges, such as a lack of paradigm-specific tools to systematically evaluate and fully understand their use. This dissertation tackles this issue by framing empirical studies of three novel digital systems in embodied cognition – an exciting new perspective in cognitive science where the body and its interactions with the physical world take a central role in human cognition. This is achieved by first, focusing the design of all these systems on a contemporary interaction paradigm that emphasizes physical interaction on tangible interaction, a contemporary interaction paradigm; and second, by comprehensively studying user performance in these systems through a set of novel performance metrics grounded on epistemic actions, a relatively well established and studied construct in the literature on embodied cognition. The first system presented in this dissertation is an augmented Four-in-a-row board game. Three different versions of the game were developed, based on three different interaction paradigms (tangible, touch and mouse), and a repeated measures study involving 36 participants measured the occurrence of three simple epistemic actions across these three interfaces. The results highlight the relevance of epistemic actions in such a task and suggest that the different interaction paradigms afford instantiation of these actions in different ways. Additionally, the tangible version of the system supports the most rapid execution of these actions, providing novel quantitative insights into the real benefits of tangible systems. The second system presented in this dissertation is a tangible tabletop scheduling application. Two studies with single and paired users provide several insights into the impact of epistemic actions on the user experience when these are performed outside of a system’s sensing boundaries. These insights are clustered by the form, size and location of ideal interface areas for such offline epistemic actions to occur, as well as how can physical tokens be designed to better support them. Finally, and based on the results obtained to this point, the last study presented in this dissertation directly addresses the lack of empirical tools to formally evaluate tangible interaction. It presents a video-coding framework grounded on a systematic literature review of 78 papers, and evaluates its value as metric through a 60 participant study performed across three different research laboratories. The results highlight the usefulness and power of epistemic actions as a performance metric for tangible systems. In sum, through the use of such novel metrics in each of the three studies presented, this dissertation provides a better understanding of the real impact and benefits of designing and developing systems that feature tangible interaction.

Uso de renderização volumétrica e realidade virtual para problemas de percolação na engenharia

In the recovering process of oil, rock heterogeneity has a huge impact on how fluids move in the field, defining how much oil can be recovered. In order to study this variability, percolation theory, which describes phenomena involving geometry and connectivity are the bases, is a very useful model. Result of percolation is tridimensional data and have no physical meaning until visualized in form of images or animations. Although a lot of powerful and sophisticated visualization tools have been developed, they focus on generation of planar 2D images. In order to interpret data as they would be in the real world, virtual reality techniques using stereo images could be used. In this work we propose an interactive and helpful tool, named ZSweepVR, based on virtual reality techniques that allows a better comprehension of volumetric data generated by simulation of dynamic percolation. The developed system has the ability to render images using two different techniques: surface rendering and volume rendering. Surface rendering is accomplished by OpenGL directives and volume rendering is accomplished by the Zsweep direct volume rendering engine. In the case of volumetric rendering, we implemented an algorithm to generate stereo images. We also propose enhancements in the original percolation algorithm in order to get a better performance. We applied our developed tools to a mature field database, obtaining satisfactory results. The use of stereoscopic and volumetric images brought valuable contributions for the interpretation and clustering formation analysis in percolation, what certainly could lead to better decisions about the exploration and recovery process in oil fields

Participatory design in the project of virtual learning environment of histology

This present article describes a research on the development, under the approach of participatory design, a virtual teaching-learning of Histology in which students and teachers participated actively in all stages of development of the educational environment. We postulates that the development of virtual learning environment of Histology, through the Participatory Design approach, contributes to greater acceptance and use by students and that the adoption of virtual environment for teaching and learning by teachers is a determining factor of use by students

Computer-Guided Surgery in Implantology: Review of Basic Concepts

The aim of the present study was to conduct a critical literature review about the technique of computer-guided surgery in implantology to highlight the indications, purposes, immediate loading of implants and complications, protocol of fabrication, and functioning of virtual planning software. This literature review was based on OLDMEDLINE and MEDLINE databases from 2002 to 2010 using the key words "computer-guided surgery" and "implant-supported prosthesis." Thirty-four studies regarding this topic were found. According to the literature review, it was concluded that the computer-assisted surgery is an excellent treatment alternative for patients with appropriate bone quantity for implant insertion in complete and partially edentulous arches. The Procera Nobel Guide software (Nobel Biocare) was the most common software used by the authors. In addition, the flapless surgery is advantageous for positioning of implants but with accurate indication. Although the computer-guided surgery may be helpful for virtual planning of cases with severe bone resorption, the conventional surgical technique is more appropriate. The surgical guide is important for insertion of the implants regardless of the surgical technique, and the success of immediate loading after computer-guided surgery depends on the accuracy of clinical and/or laboratorial steps.

Conditional reasoning: A key to assessing computer-based knowledge-building communication processes

This article describes a methodological approach to conditional reasoning in online asynchronous learning environments such as Virtual-U VGroups, developed by SFU, BC, Canada, consistent with the notion of meaning implication: If part of a meaning C is embedded in B and a part of a meaning B is embedded in A, then A implies C in terms of meaning [Piaget 91]. A new transcript analysis technique was developed to assess the flows of conditional meaning implications and to identify the occurrence of hypotheses and connections among them in two human science graduate mixed-mode online courses offered in the summer/spring session of 1997 by SFU. Flows of conditional meaning implications were confronted with Virtual-U VGroups threads and results of the two courses were compared. Findings suggest that Virtual-U VGroups is a knowledge-building environment although the tree-like Virtual-U VGroups threads should be transformed into neuronal-like threads. Findings also suggest that formulating hypotheses together triggers a collaboratively problem-solving process that scaffolds knowledge-building in asynchronous learning environments: A pedagogical technique and an built-in tool for formulating hypotheses together are proposed. © Springer Pub. Co.

Scalable distributed virtual environments using multicast application level

Most of architectures proposed for developing Distributed Virtual Environment (DVE) allow limited number of users. To support the development of applications using the internet infrastructure, with hundred or, perhaps, thousands users logged simultaneously on DVE, several techniques for managing resources, such as bandwidth and capability of processing, must be implemented. The strategy presented in this paper combines methods to attain the scalability required, In special the multicast protocol at application level.

Using multiple abstraction levels to speedup an MPSoC virtual platform simulator

Virtual platforms are of paramount importance for design space exploration and their usage in early software development and verification is crucial. In particular, enabling accurate and fast simulation is specially useful, but such features are usually conflicting and tradeoffs have to be made. In this paper we describe how we integrated TLM communication mechanisms into a state-of-the-art, cycle-accurate, MPSoC simulation platform. More specifically, we show how we adapted ArchC fast functional instruction set simulators to the MPARM platform in order to achieve both fast simulation speed and accuracy. Our implementation led to a much faster hybrid platform, reaching speedups of up to 2.9 and 2.1x on average with negligible impact on power estimation accuracy (average 3.26% and 2.25% of standard deviation). © 2011 IEEE.

Virtual instrumentation: A practical approach to control and supervision process

This work describes a control and supervision application takes into account the virtual instrumentation advantages to control and supervision industrial manufacturing stations belonging to the modular production system MPS® by Festo. These stations integrate sensors, actuators, conveyor belt and other industrial elements. The focus in this approach was to replace the use of programmable logic controllers by a computer equipped with a software application based on Labview and, together, performs the functions of traditional instruments and PLCs. The manufacturing stations had their processes modeled and simulated in Petri nets. After the models were implemented in Labview environment. Tests and previous similar works in MPS® installed in Automation Laboratory, at UNESP Sorocaba campus, showed the materials and methods used in this work allow the successful use of virtual instrumentation. The results indicate the technology as an advantageous approach for the automation of industrial processes, with gains in flexibility and reduction in project cost. © 2011 IEEE.

Mutual occlusion between real and virtual elements in Augmented Reality based on fiducial markers

Augmented Reality (AR) systems which use optical tracking with fiducial marker for registration have had an important role in popularizing this technology, since only a personal computer with a conventional webcam is required. However, in most these applications, the virtual elements are shown only in the foreground a real element does not occlude a virtual one. The method presented enables AR environments based on fiducial markers to support mutual occlusion between a real element and many virtual ones, according to the elements position (depth) in the environment. © 2012 IEEE.

Particle competition and cooperation to prevent error propagation from mislabeled data in semi-supervised learning

Semi-supervised learning is applied to classification problems where only a small portion of the data items is labeled. In these cases, the reliability of the labels is a crucial factor, because mislabeled items may propagate wrong labels to a large portion or even the entire data set. This paper aims to address this problem by presenting a graph-based (network-based) semi-supervised learning method, specifically designed to handle data sets with mislabeled samples. The method uses teams of walking particles, with competitive and cooperative behavior, for label propagation in the network constructed from the input data set. The proposed model is nature-inspired and it incorporates some features to make it robust to a considerable amount of mislabeled data items. Computer simulations show the performance of the method in the presence of different percentage of mislabeled data, in networks of different sizes and average node degree. Importantly, these simulations reveals the existence of the critical points of the mislabeled subset size, below which the network is free of wrong label contamination, but above which the mislabeled samples start to propagate their labels to the rest of the network. Moreover, numerical comparisons have been made among the proposed method and other representative graph-based semi-supervised learning methods using both artificial and real-world data sets. Interestingly, the proposed method has increasing better performance than the others as the percentage of mislabeled samples is getting larger. © 2012 IEEE.

Fuzzy community structure detection by particle competition and cooperation

Identification and classification of overlapping nodes in networks are important topics in data mining. In this paper, a network-based (graph-based) semi-supervised learning method is proposed. It is based on competition and cooperation among walking particles in a network to uncover overlapping nodes by generating continuous-valued outputs (soft labels), corresponding to the levels of membership from the nodes to each of the communities. Moreover, the proposed method can be applied to detect overlapping data items in a data set of general form, such as a vector-based data set, once it is transformed to a network. Usually, label propagation involves risks of error amplification. In order to avoid this problem, the proposed method offers a mechanism to identify outliers among the labeled data items, and consequently prevents error propagation from such outliers. Computer simulations carried out for synthetic and real-world data sets provide a numeric quantification of the performance of the method. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

Sociedade em rede: faces virtuais da ideologia capitalista do século XXI

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)