A. De Gloria

Platform for distributed 3D gaming

Video games are typically executed on Windows platforms with DirectX API and require high performance CPUs and graphics hardware. For pervasive gaming in various environments like at home, hotels, or internet cafes, it is beneficial to run games also on mobile devices and modest performance CE devices avoiding the necessity of placing a noisy workstation in the living room or costly computers/consoles in each room of a hotel. This paper presents a new cross-platform approach for distributed 3D gaming in wired/wireless local networks. We introduce the novel system architecture and protocols used to transfer the game graphics data across the network to end devices. Simultaneous execution of video games on a central server and a novel streaming approach of the 3D graphics output to multiple end devices enable the access of games on low cost set top boxes and handheld devices that natively lack the power of executing a game with high-quality graphical output.

A Tile-Expansion Router

A router based on a tile-expansion algorithm and corner stitching data structure is presented. This program finds connections with a minimum number of jogs and it ensures that a possible solution will be found. Using a working tree, it allows an exhaustive and recursive search along all available areas for routing. The connections are made going back through the working tree until the starting terminal is reached. There are two Manhattan layers that the user can choose for each direction to implement connections; the router can be used to wire hierarchical blocks using a chip planning methodology. The program has been successfully tested on examples concerning different classes of problems.

Enhancing the educational value of video games

Lowering the barrier between education and real entertainment is an important challenge in order to better exploit the potential of computers and reach a demographic that is traditionally averse to learning. To this end, it is important to investigate how to exploit the appeal of video games (VGs) to also favor and induce learning via playing video games. Achieving this goal is not only a matter of content, since simply “superimposed” educational content risks being perceived as boring. Hence we believe that the game should feature mechanisms for acquiring knowledge and skill that are smoothly embedded in a meaningful, homogeneous, and compelling whole. Thus, there is a need to compartmentalize components of a game engine so that it becomes easy and efficient to integrate the graphics/interface—which has already been done very well by state-of-the-art successful video games and the educational aspect which is typically poor in those same games. Hence we have defined a general set of mechanisms and modules that can be inserted in state-of-the-art VG environments and are aimed at promoting various kinds of knowledge and procedural skill acquisition. In order to investigate and validate this concept, we have built an educational game, SeaGame, using a state-of-the-art commercial game development approach, and enriched the environment with instances of developed educational modules. Analyzing user test results, we conclude that SeaGame is perceived quite similarly to commercial VGs, which suggests that the proposed mechanisms do not compromise the overall enjoyability of the game, which is key to attracting a wide demographic that is not currently involved in educational activities during their leisure time. The results of this research can be generalized, since the standards of commercial games and the proposed educational enhancements can be instantiated in a variety of educational contexts and applied to different types of content.

Electroencephalogram and Physiological Signal Analysis for Assessing Flow in Games

Passive brain-computer interaction (BCI) can provide useful information to understand a users state and anticipate intentions, which is needed to support adaptivity and personalization. Given the huge variety of audiences, a games capability of adapting to different user profiles-in particular to keep the player in flow-is crucial to make it ever more enjoyable and satisfying. We have performed a user experiment exploiting a four-electrode electroencephalogram (EEG) tool similar to the ones that are soon likely to appear in the market for game control. We have performed a spectral characterization of the video-gaming experience, also in comparison with other tasks. Results show that the most informative frequency bands for discriminating among gaming conditions are around low beta. Simple signals from the peripheral nervous system add marginal information. Classification of three levels of user states is possible, with good accuracy, using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. A user-independent classification performs worse than a user-dependent approach (50.1% versus 66.4% rate). Personalized SVM training and validation time is reasonable (7-8 min). Thus, we argue that a personalized system could be implemented in a consumer context and research should aim at improving classifiers that can be trained online by end users.

Statistical carry lookahead adders

Addition techniques are divided into fixed-time and variable-time ones. While variable time techniques can achieve log/sub 2/(N) average addition time for N-bit operands, the hardware overhead have always made fixed-time adders preferable, such as Carry Lookahead and Carry Select. We present a new variable-time addition technique whose average delay is much lower than log/sub 2/(N) and whose overhead is lower than the one of a CLA adder. The new approach is made feasible by a proper application of VLSI dynamic logic design. We show the mathematical proof, the logic implementation, and the VLSI realization of the new adder. We report circuit simulation results and their comparison with the analytical model.

Towards the Automotive HMI of the Future: Overview of the AIDE-Integrated Project Results

The Adaptive Integrated Driver-vehicle interfacE (AIDE) is an integrated project funded by the European Commission in the Sixth Framework Programme. The project, which involves 31 partners from the European automotive industry and academia, deals with behavioral and technical issues related to automotive human-machine interface (HMI) design, with a particular focus on integration and adaptation. The project involves tightly integrated empirical research, driver-behavior modeling, and methodological and technological development. This paper provides an overview of the AIDE Sub-Project 3 results dealing with the design, development, and integration of the AIDE system in three prototype vehicles, together with the evaluation results of the trials.

Designing a Course for Stimulating Entrepreneurship in Higher Education through Serious Games

Enhancing the offer for entrepreneurship education is an important challenge for the nowadays knowledge societies. The eSG project is addressing this issue by analysing the added value that could be contributed by employing serious games (SGs) as a tool for allowing students – in particular technology students - to become familiar, mainly through practice, with basic concepts of entrepreneurship and company management. This paper presents the main requirements for the course and SGs obtained by surveying literature, entrepreneurs, students and teachers. We represented the requirements in a table template keeping into account usability, pedagogy, the entrepreneurship skills expressed by state of the art models and three major axes for entrepreneurship education at universities. These table descriptors were then used to assess validity of SGs and choose an appropriate mix for the courses. We have also defined a set of metrics to evaluate the advancement of students during the course. Based on these tools and knowledge, the next steps of the project will involve extensive user testing in the actual courses that are being performed in Genoa, Delft and Barcelona.

Fuzzy logic microcontroller

We propose an architecture dedicated mainly to medium-range applications that demand computational power combined with low cost for the resulting hardware system (chip and board). Our architecture is a 16-bit processor with dedicated instructions and hardware for efficient support of fuzzy logic. To make the architecture effective for control applications developed with a traditional approach or with fuzzy logic, we equipped the processor with a microcontrollers general features. Our design accounts for application characteristics to provide efficient hardware support for fuzzy logic. To achieve this we first analyzed fuzzy control algorithms and derived a general model for fuzzy computation. In defining the model, we considered the large spectrum of possible inference methods, fuzzification and defuzzification mechanisms, and the operators used in control applications. On this basis, we defined the instruction set that supports this computational model and a proper architectural solution. We tested the system (composed of the software model and its hardware support) by simulating different sets of general-purpose and fuzzy control benchmarks.

COMUNICAR: designing a multimedia, context-aware human-machine interface for cars

The European Union co-funded COMUNICAR (communication multimedia unit inside car) project designed and developed an integrated multimedia human–machine interface (HMI) able to manage a wide variety of driver information systems (from entertainment to safety). COMUNICAR proposed an innovative information provision paradigm, in which the on-vehicle HMI is able to tailor the delivery of the information in real time according to the actual driving context and the driver’s workload. COMUNICAR adopted a user-centred design process involving an iterative development based on extensive user tests since the early phases of the project. This approach was particularly useful to define and improve the layout of the user interface and specify the rules that decide the scheduling and the modalities of the delivery of the information messages to the driver. This paper introduces the COMUNICAR concept and the user-centred flow of design. Then, a concrete case of user-test driven, iterative improvement of a system’s functionality is presented. We also briefly describe two software tools that we have designed to enhance the development process in a user-centred perspective. Finally, the future evolution of the concept of smart and safe information scheduling is sketched and discussed.

Block placement with a Boltzmann Machine

The Boltzmann Machine is a neural model based on the same principles of simulated annealing that reaches good solutions, reduces the computational requirements, and is well suited for a low-cost, massively parallel hardware implementation. In this paper we present a connectionist approach to the problem of block placement in the plane to minimize wire length, based on its formalization in terms of the Boltzmann Machine. We detail the procedure to build the Boltzmann Machine by formulating the placement problem as a constrained quadratic assignment problem and by defining an equivalent 0-1 programming problem. The key features of the proposed model are: (1) high degree of parallelism in the algorithm, (2) high quality of the results, often near-optimal, and (3) support of a large variety of constraints such as arbitrary block shape, flexible aspect ratio, and rotations/reflections. Experimental results on different problem instances show the skills of the method as an effective alternative to other deterministic and statistical techniques. >