David Whittinghill

Building a Serious Game to Teach Secure Coding in Introductory Programming Courses

We report the development and initial evaluation of a serious game that, in conjunction with appropriately designed matching laboratory exercises, can be used to teach secure coding and Information Assurance (IA) concepts across a range of introductory computing courses. The IA Game is a role-playing serious game (RPG) in which the student travels through seven computer techno-inspired environments (IA concept rooms); in each environment he/she learns a different IA concept. After playing each level, the student completes a related CS educational module comprised of a theory lesson and a lab assignment. The game is being created with a user-centered iterative approach that includes two forms of evaluation: formative and summative. In this paper we report the findings of an initial formative evaluation of the first 2 game levels with a group of undergraduate students.

A Simulator to Study the Effects of Color and Color Blindness on Motion Sickness in Virtual Reality Using Head-Mounted Displays

We have created an Android-based virtual reality (VR) simulator to investigate the effects that color and color blindness have on visually induced motion sickness in virtual reality using Samsung Gear VR. We simulate a patterned optokinetic drum or sphere spinning for test subjects to look at. By choosing specific colors and using color blindness filters, we can investigate the impact on a colorblind person who looks at a spinning optokinetic drum or sphere that seemingly shows one flat color. The amount of the time that elapses before motion sickness symptoms occur can be recorded and compared among observers with normal color vision, colorblind observers, and test subjects who have a color blindness filter enabled. We believe that our new tool will contribute to improvements in accessibility of VR games and simulations developed for modern head–mounted displays, including those designed to hold a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.

Impact of graphical fidelity on physiological responses in virtual environments

Higher quality computer graphics in interactive applications in the areas of virtual reality and games is generally assumed to create a more immersive experience for the end user. In this study we examined this assumption by testing to what degree graphical fidelity was associated with physiological arousal as measured by a galvanic skin response (GSR) sensor. Thirty-six subjects played two different video games at the highest and lowest graphical quality settings while their GSR activity was measured. No significant difference in GSR was observed that was associated with graphical quality. We conclude that, for applications in which an emotional response is desired, increased graphical quality alone does not predict a physiological arousal response.

A Comparison of Text-Annotated vs. Purely Visio-Spatial Instructions for Video Game Input Sequences

Animated tutorials for controller input sequences in video games will be easier for developers to localize, and therefore more universally accessible across multiple nationalities, if they are designed to rely on purely visio-spatial, text-free communication. However, it has hitherto been unclear whether a lack of text in such tutorials may be associated with lower effectiveness in overall teaching outcomes, given that text may augment the available information. With this in mind, we conducted a between-subjects study in which 42 subjects each played one of two versions of a custom, stand-alone game control tutorial designed to teach character moves for an action/fighting game; both versions contained animated visuals, but one also included onscreen text instructions. We recorded players’ performances in each version by measuring elapsed times, failure counts, demonstration replay counts, and skip counts using software-based logging and combined each player’s data in these categories to create an overall effectiveness index to measure and compare teaching efficacy associated with each version. We compared the means of our data between the version groups using t-tests with results suggesting that people playing the non-text-annotated version performed at least as well, all around, as those playing the text-annotated version and even better in the areas of elapsed time, failure count, and overall score. Though a significant co-factor—player skill/experience—is likely an influence that should be further delineated in future studies, our findings clearly demonstrated that text-free game control tutorials are as good as, if not better than, text-annotated ones.

User-Assisted Inverse Procedural Facade Modeling and Compressed Image Rendering

We take advantage of human intuition by encoding facades into a procedural representation. Our user-assisted inverse procedural modeling approach allows users to exploit repetitions and symmetries of facades to create a split grammar representation of the input. Terminal symbols correspond to repeating elements such as windows, window panes, and doors and their distributions are encoded as the production rules. Our participants achieved a compression factor that averaged 57 % (min = 12 %, max = 99 %) while taking on average 7 min (min = 1, max = 25) to compress an image. The compressed facades do not suffer from occlusion problems present in the input, such as trees or cars. Our second contribution is a novel rendering algorithm that directly displays the compressed facades in their procedural form by interpreting the procedural rules during texture lookup. This algorithm provides considerable memory savings while achieving comparable rendering performance.

Cognitive Load in Real-Time Strategy Gaming: Human Opponent Versus AI Opponent

This paper examines the cognitive load in real-time strategy gaming subjects along with physiological and subjective measurements. The subjects were college students from a northeastern university in China. This paper is a study into players’ cognitive load measurement when playing against human opponents and game artificial intelligences (game AIs). Using eye trackers, action per minute recorders and questionnaires, we collected qualitative data from participants about their cognitive load through playing against human opponents and game AI opponents. The results indicate that players have more cognitive load when playing against human opponents than against game AI opponents. Secondly, as the players’ gaming skill increased, their cognitive load did not differ substantially when they switched from playing against human players to playing against game AI opponents. A deeper understanding of players’ cognitive load can enable a developer to design a more appropriate game experience.

Multiplayer Kinect Serious Games: A Review

Single and multiplayer serious Kinect games have been used in many different areas, including education. Due to its relative newness as a technology, a dearth of literature exists concerning the requirements for the use of Kinect games in educational settings. A comprehensive review was conducted to include various perspectives in order to provide background information on the existing research base that upholds the educational uses of these games. The review was built on empirical and theoretical studies conducted in the area of multiplayer Kinect games. A total of 748 articles were screened and 71 coded. While an abundance of convergent evidence from closely related domains has been produced on the subject, providing a set of recommendations for its proper usage; few studies have focused specifically on the role, development and effects of multiplayer Kinect games in educational settings. The potential for Kinect games to enhance learning experiences within educational contexts is promising; however, care must be taken to account for physical safety, emotional safety, and activity structure. Specific recommendations for addressing these important aspects of the use of multiplayer Kinect games are described in detail in the body of this manuscript.

Z-depth integration: a new technique for manipulating z-depth properties in composited scenes

This paper presents a new technique in the production pipeline of asset creation for virtual environments called Z-Depth Integration (ZeDI). ZeDI is intended to reduce the time required to place elements at the appropriate z-depth within a scene. Though ZeDI is intended for use primarily in two-dimensional scene composition, depth-dependent “flat” animated objects are often critical elements of augmented and virtual reality applications (AR/VR). ZeDI is derived from “deep image compositing”, a capacity implemented within the OpenEXR file format. In order to trick the human eye into perceiving overlapping scene elements as being in front of or behind one another, the developer must manually manipulate which pixels of an element are visible in relation to other objects embedded within the environments image sequence. ZeDI improves on this process by providing a means for interacting with procedurally extracted z-depth data from a virtual environment scene. By streamlining the process of defining objects’ depth characteristics, it is expected that the time and energy required for developers to create compelling AR/VR scenes will be reduced. In the proof of concept presented in this manuscript, ZeDI is implemented for pre-rendered virtual scene construction via an AfterEffects software plug-in.

Art and code: the aesthetic legacy of Aldo Giorgini

In 1975 Aldo Giorgini developed a software program in FORTRAN called FIELDS, a numerical visual laboratory devoted entirely to art production. Working extensively as both artist and scientist, Giorgini was one of the first computer artists to combine software writing with early printing technologies, leaving an aesthetic legacy in the field of the digital arts. His individual process was innovative in that it consisted of producing pen-plotted drawings embellished by the artists hand with painting, drawing, and screen-printing. This paper is the product of a multi-year study of Giorginis primary source materials provided by his estate. The authors examine the methods used by Giorgini during the 1970s that allowed him to create computer-aided art, in the hope that publishing this work will ensure that future generations of digital artists, technologists and scientists can be educated in Giorginis contribution to the history of the digital arts.