David Fonseca Escudero

Acoustic Filter. New Virtual Reality Audio Format Pretends to Enhance Immersive Experience

The implementation of sound in a virtual environment enhances immersive experience, and some audio formats have been developed for virtual reality. These formats are very powerful but they have also some limitations. Here we build upon this previous work by examining the properties of these formats. The aim of this study is to present the possibility of a new audio format based on the characteristics of the soundscape. Following the principles of audio correla‐ tion, an acoustic filter with the properties of the space is defined. The filter contains the acoustic information of the space and is able to be used whether in virtual reality and in acoustic analysis applications. This indicates that there is a possi‐ bility of obtaining a new audio format that contains the properties of the place.

Field Measurements of Electrical Consumption in a Multi-purpose Educational Building

The energy demand of non-domestic building includes a wide variety of uses and energy services. Researchers of Polytechnic University of Madrid and American University of Ras Al Khaimah have developed a smart metering system to report and analyze the electrical consumption in buildings. The system is non-intrusive, can be easily deployed in electric boards and sends data to a central base station located away from the metering device. In this article the system is tested in an educational facility. The lighting, power outlets and HVAC circuits are analyzed and finally the results are discussed.

Educating Urban Designers using Augmented Reality and Mobile Learning Technologies / Formación de Urbanistas usando Realidad Aumentada y Tecnologías de Aprendizaje Móvil

This paper describes an educational experience using augmented reality (AR) on mobile devices as axa0 tool for learning urban design concepts and specifically for architecture degree students. In a real project-based exercise, the participants had to design a sculpture to be placed in a public space, checking the suitability of the object as for example the form, scale, location, materials, etc., and taking into account the surroundings. The project is controlled on-site using AR on mobile platforms, encouraging collaborative learning by sharing the 3D models of their proposals, and acting both as producers and consumers of AR content in the process. To assess both the usability of technology, as well as the learning improvement, the class was divided into two groups with equivalent pre-course grades: a control group, who followed the conventional course in the laboratory, and a test group, who used AR technology. At the end of the course, the AR-using group showed a significant increase in academic performance, higher motivation and satisfaction compared to the control group.This paper describes an educational experience using augmented reality (AR) on mobile devices as axa0 tool for learning urban design concepts and specifically for architecture degree students. In a real project-based exercise, the participants had to design a sculpture to be placed in a public space, checking the suitability of the object as for example the form, scale, location, materials, etc., and taking into account the surroundings. The project is controlled on-site using AR on mobile platforms, encouraging collaborative learning by sharing the 3D models of their proposals, and acting both as producers and consumers of AR content in the process. To assess both the usability of technology, as well as the learning improvement, the class was divided into two groups with equivalent pre-course grades: a control group, who followed the conventional course in the laboratory, and a test group, who used AR technology. At the end of the course, the AR-using group showed a significant increase in academic performance, higher motivation and satisfaction compared to the control group.

One picture or a thousand words? Influence of question length and illustration support on the success and skip rates on online tests

The growing popularity of automatically graded online tests, either as an evaluation or self-assessment tool in online or blended education, demands a review of how these questions are designed and delivered to their intended audience. This paper analyzes the results of over 20,000 preuniversity mock online quizzes designed to train the students for the Spanish university admission test (known as “Pruebas nde Acceso a la Universidad” or “Selectividad”) in the technical drawing subject, corresponding to the June and September intakes of 2009 and 2015. The influence of two key aspects on the questions success and skip rates is assessed: (a) the presence or absence of illustration support and (b) the length ofthe question as a proxy ofreading comprehension difficulty. nThe results support that the presence of an accompanying illustration in the questions result in fewer skipped questions and mode successful answers, while the length of the question has the opposite effect. The performance difference in the 6-year span is also discussed, showing a slight decline over time in the pass rates while the skip rates remain stable. When comparing both two intakes, corresponding to different academic profiles of students that passed the June exam and those who did not, the success ratio is unsurprisingly lower for the students in the second intake. These findings should help improving the design of online quizzes, including nmore visual content and/or rephrasing the questions to be more concise, to fit the requirements of students educated in a more visual environment of multimedia technologies.

Disabled personages in the full-length films of Pixar animation studios (1995-2006)

Many of the different characters that appear in the computer animated movies of Pixar Animation Studios (nowadays belonging to The Walt Disney Company) are personages. From a dramaturgical point of view, these can be linked with the concept of Archetype, which Carl Gustav Jung used from the antiquity models of personality.n The same types of personages appear in all times and in all cultures. The universal patterns make it possible for the experience to be shared in different histories. These patterns do not identify concrete idiosyncrasies, but they function as a temporary development in a story for the purpose of enriching of it.n Another way of interpreting the personages of a narrative history is to consider them as complementary facets of the main character (the hero). As the history develops, the characteristics of these personages modify the personality of the future hero.n The aim of this work is to analyze the influence of these complementary personages in the transformation of the main character and examine whether the presence of a disability is used to obtain this transformation. As we will see, not only do we find personages whose disability affects the development of the protagonist, but others that simply fulfill other secondary functions.