Inclusion of immersive virtual learning environments and visual control systems to support the learning of students with Asperger syndrome

This paper presents the use of immersive virtual reality systems in the educational intervention with Asperger students. The starting points of this study are features of these students' cognitive style that requires an explicit teaching style supported by visual aids and highly structured environments. The proposed immersive virtual reality system, not only to assess the student's behavior and progress, but also is able to adapt itself to the student's specific needs. Additionally, the immersive reality system is equipped with sensors that can determine certain behaviors of the students. This paper determines the possible inclusion of immersive virtual reality as a support tool and learning strategy in these particular students' intervention. With this objective two task protocols have been defined with which the behavior and interaction situations performed by participant students are recorded. The conclusions from this study talks in favor of the inclusion of these virtual immersive environments as a support tool in the educational intervention of Asperger syndrome students as their social competences and executive functions have improved.

3D model reconstruction using neural gas accelerated on GPU

In this work, we propose the use of the neural gas (NG), a neural network that uses an unsupervised Competitive Hebbian Learning (CHL) rule, to develop a reverse engineering process. This is a simple and accurate method to reconstruct objects from point clouds obtained from multiple overlapping views using low-cost sensors. In contrast to other methods that may need several stages that include downsampling, noise filtering and many other tasks, the NG automatically obtains the 3D model of the scanned objects. To demonstrate the validity of our proposal we tested our method with several models and performed a study of the neural network parameterization computing the quality of representation and also comparing results with other neural methods like growing neural gas and Kohonen maps or classical methods like Voxel Grid. We also reconstructed models acquired by low cost sensors that can be used in virtual and augmented reality environments for redesign or manipulation purposes. Since the NG algorithm has a strong computational cost we propose its acceleration. We have redesigned and implemented the NG learning algorithm to fit it onto Graphics Processing Units using CUDA. A speed-up of 180× faster is obtained compared to the sequential CPU version.

Shades of CORDS in the Kush : the false hope of "unity of effort" in American counterinsurgency /

"Counterinsurgency (COIN) requires an integrated military, political, and economic program best developed by teams that field both civilians and soldiers. These units should operate with some independence but under a coherent command. In Vietnam, after several false starts, the United States developed an effective unified organization, Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS), to guide the counterinsurgency. CORDS had three components absent from our efforts in Afghanistan today: sufficient personnel (particularly civilian), numerous teams, and a single chain of command that united the separate COIN programs of the disparate American departments at the district, provincial, regional, and national levels. This paper focuses on the third issue and describes the benefits that unity of command at every level would bring to the American war in Afghanistan. The work begins with a brief introduction to counterinsurgency theory, using a population-centric model, and examines how this warfare challenges the United States. It traces the evolution of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and the country team, describing problems at both levels. Similar efforts in Vietnam are compared, where persistent executive attention finally integrated the government's counterinsurgency campaign under the unified command of the CORDS program. The next section attributes the American tendency towards a segregated response to cultural differences between the primary departments, executive neglect, and societal concepts of war. The paper argues that, in its approach to COIN, the United States has forsaken the military concept of unity of command in favor of 'unity of effort' expressed in multiagency literature. The final sections describe how unified authority would improve our efforts in Afghanistan and propose a model for the future."--P. iii.

Virtual training environments to improve train driver's crisis decision making

This paper reports on a current research project in which virtual reality simulators are being investigated as a means of simulating hazardous Rail work conditions in order to allow train drivers to practice decision-making under stress. When working under high stress conditions train drivers need to move beyond procedural responses into a response activated through their own problem-solving and decision-making skills. This study focuses on the use of stress inoculation training which aims to build driver’s confidence in the use of new decision-making skills by being repeatedly required to respond to hazardous driving conditions. In particular, the study makes use of a train cab driving simulator to reproduce potentially stress inducing real-world scenarios. Initial pilot research has been undertaken in which drivers have experienced the training simulation and subsequently completed surveys on the level of immersion experienced. Concurrently drivers have also participated in a velocity perception experiment designed to objectively measure the fidelity of the virtual training environment. Baseline data, against which decision-making skills post training will be measured, is being gathered via cognitive task analysis designed to identify primary decision requirements for specific rail events. While considerable efforts have been invested in improving Virtual Reality technology, little is known about how to best use this technology for training personnel to respond to workplace conditions in the Rail Industry. To enable the best use of simulators for training in the Rail context the project aims to identify those factors within virtual reality that support required learning outcomes and use this information to design training simulations that reliably and safely train staff in required workplace accident response skills.

Enhancing experiential learning via virtual environments

Research indicates Virtual Reality (VR) is delivering on it's promised potential to provide enhanced training and education outcomes. A significant research project, at the University of Queensland, has constructed a number of virtual contexts in which the phenomena experienced by patients who have psychosis are reproduced for use in psychiatry education. Symptoms of psychosis reproduced include delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder. The new software enables psychiatry students to experience the inner world of a patient with psychosis. Lecturers in psychiatry report VR has the potential to enhance student's abilities to actually 'feel' the types of emotions and physiological reactions a hallucination precipitates in a patient. The current work of the project and stages of software development will be demonstrated. The virtual environments provide a new method of delivering experiential learning opportunities to higher education classrooms.

A COMUNICAÇÃO ORGANIZACIONAL INTERNA E O AMBIENTE VIRTUAL: NOVAS TENDÊNCIAS

Esta tese trata do impacto nas Comunicações Internas das Organizações em relação à virtualidade e teve como objetivo descrever e analisar as mudanças ocorridas na comunicação interna das organizações privadas com o advento das tecnologias. Para atingir nosso objetivo fizemos uso da pesquisa bibliográfica, partindo do exame das teorias comunicacionais disponíveis e dos recursos técnicos inerentes à comunicação e às tecnologias da informação aplicadas à organização. Estabelecemos a convergência em relação às tendências e efeitos que poderão ser observados, por meio de um diálogo com especialistas da área Comunicacional através de um estudo qualitativo, onde fizemos uso da metodologia do Painel Delphi com o intuito de descrevermos e analisarmos as mudanças ocorridas nos meios, analisarmos seus impactos e traçarmos um cenário futuro em relação à utilização das tecnologias da informação e comunicação no ambiente organizacional interno. Os resultados de nossa pesquisa demonstraram que a comunicação interna organizacional deverá ser intensamente mediada por computador, mas não se limitará a ele, justamente pela realidade e condição cultural de cada organização, um mix comunicacional (com veículos tradicionais e virtuais) deverá ser a condição mais lógica para uma comunicação eficiente, uma vez que abrange todo o tipo de público e formato de mensagens.(AU)

A COMUNICAÇÃO ORGANIZACIONAL INTERNA E O AMBIENTE VIRTUAL: NOVAS TENDÊNCIAS

Esta tese trata do impacto nas Comunicações Internas das Organizações em relação à virtualidade e teve como objetivo descrever e analisar as mudanças ocorridas na comunicação interna das organizações privadas com o advento das tecnologias. Para atingir nosso objetivo fizemos uso da pesquisa bibliográfica, partindo do exame das teorias comunicacionais disponíveis e dos recursos técnicos inerentes à comunicação e às tecnologias da informação aplicadas à organização. Estabelecemos a convergência em relação às tendências e efeitos que poderão ser observados, por meio de um diálogo com especialistas da área Comunicacional através de um estudo qualitativo, onde fizemos uso da metodologia do Painel Delphi com o intuito de descrevermos e analisarmos as mudanças ocorridas nos meios, analisarmos seus impactos e traçarmos um cenário futuro em relação à utilização das tecnologias da informação e comunicação no ambiente organizacional interno. Os resultados de nossa pesquisa demonstraram que a comunicação interna organizacional deverá ser intensamente mediada por computador, mas não se limitará a ele, justamente pela realidade e condição cultural de cada organização, um mix comunicacional (com veículos tradicionais e virtuais) deverá ser a condição mais lógica para uma comunicação eficiente, uma vez que abrange todo o tipo de público e formato de mensagens.

The growing importance of inter-company collaboration

Guest editorial: This special issue has been drawn from papers that were published as part of the Second European Conference on Management of Technology (EuroMOT) which was held at Aston Business School (Birmingham, UK) 10-12 September 2006. This was the official European conference for the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT); the overall theme of the conference was “Technology and global integration.” There were many high-calibre papers submitted to the conference and published in the associated proceedings (Bennett et al., 2006). The streams of interest that emerged from these submissions were the importance of: technology strategy, innovation, process technologies, managing change, national policies and systems, research and development, supply chain technology, service and operational technology, education and training, small company incubation, technology transfer, virtual operations, technology in developing countries, partnership and alliance, and financing and investment. This special issue focuses upon the streams of interest that accentuate the importance of collaboration between different organisations. Such organisations vary greatly in character; for instance, they may be large or small, publicly or privately owned, and operate in manufacturing or service sectors. Despite these varying characteristics they all have something in common; they all stress the importance of inter-organisational collaboration as a critical success factor for their organisation. In today's global economy it is essential that organisations decide what their core competencies are what those of complementing organisations are. Core competences should be developed to become a bases of differentiation, leverage and competitive advantage, whilst those that are less mature should be outsourced to other organisations that can claim to have had more recognition and success in that particular core competence (Porter, 2001). This strategic trend can be observed throughout advanced economies and is growing strongly. If a posteriori reasoning is applied here it follows that organisations could continue to become more specialised in fewer areas whilst simultaneously becoming more dependent upon other organisations for critical parts of their operations. Such actions seem to fly in the face of rational business strategy and so the question must be asked: why are organisations developing this way? The answer could lie in the recent changes in endogenous and exogenous factors of the organisation; the former emphasising resource-based issues in the short-term, and strategic positioning in the long-term whilst the later emphasises transaction costs in the short-term and acquisition of new skills and knowledge in the long-term. For a harmonious balance of these forces to prevail requires organisations to firstly declare a shared meta-strategy, then to put some cross-organisational processes into place which have their routine operations automated as far as possible. A rolling business plan would review, assess and reposition each organisation within this meta-strategy according to how well they have contributed (Binder and Clegg, 2006). The important common issue here is that an increasing number of businesses today are gaining direct benefit from increasing their levels of inter-organisational collaboration. Such collaboration has largely been possible due to recent technological advances which can make organisational structures more agile (e.g. the extended or the virtual enterprise), organisational infra-structure more connected, and the sharing of real-time information an operational reality. This special issue consists of research papers that have explored the above phenomenon in some way. For instance, the role of government intervention, the use of internet-based technologies, the role of research and development organisations, the changing relationships between start-ups and established firms, the importance of cross-company communities of practice, the practice of networking, the front-loading of large-scale projects, innovation and the probabilistic uncertainties that organisations experience are explored in these papers. The cases cited in these papers are limited as they have a Eurocentric focus. However, it is hoped that readers of this special issue will gain a valuable insight into the increasing importance of collaborative practices via these studies.