Francesc Valls Dalmau

From Raw Data to Meaningful Information: A Representational Approach to Cadastral Databases in Relation to Urban Planning

Digesting the data hose that cities are constantly producing is complex; data is usually structured with different criteria, which makes comparative analysis of multiple cities challenging. However, the publicly available data from the Spanish cadaster contains urban information in a documented format with common semantics for the whole territory, which makes these analyses possible. This paper uses the information about the 3D geometry of buildings, their use and their year of construction, stored in cadastral databases, to study the relation between the built environment (what the city is) and the urban plan (what the city wants to become), translating the concepts of the cadastral data into the semantics of the urban plan. Different representation techniques to better understand the city from the pedestrians’ point of view and to communicate this information more effectively are also discussed.

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.

Herramienta de visualización de rutas accesibles en espacios urbanos utilizando tecnología HTML5

Este articulo ha sido posible, gracias a los trabajos realizados desde el Centro de Politica de Suelo y Valoraciones (CPSV) y el Laboratorio de Modelizacion Virtual de la Ciudad (LMVC) en el marco del “Ciudad sin barreras. Herramienta para la avaluacion y visualizacion de la accesibilidad al espacio publico, en base a tecnologias TLS, GIS i GPS, dirigido por el profesor Josep Roca Caldera (coautor) financiado en el marco de la Convocatoria RecerCaixa 2013, en la tematica La casa y la ciudad adaptadas a las persones con discapacidad. Por ello los autores agradecen a RecerCaixa y ACUP el desarrollo de la convocatoria, que posibilita publicar trabajos como este, resultantes de los proyectos de investigacion que se pueden realizar gracias a ella.

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 de 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. The 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 more 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.