João Madeiras Pereira

An update to the systematic literature review of empirical evidence of the impacts and outcomes of computer games and serious games

Continuing interest in digital games indicated that it would be useful to update Connolly et al.s (2012) systematic literature review of empirical evidence about the positive impacts and outcomes of games. Since a large number of papers was identified in the period from 2009 to 2014, the current review focused on 143 papers that provided higher quality evidence about the positive outcomes of games. Connolly et al.s multidimensional analysis of games and their outcomes provided a useful framework for organising the varied research in this area. The most frequently occurring outcome reported for games for learning was knowledge acquisition, while entertainment games addressed a broader range of affective, behaviour change, perceptual and cognitive and physiological outcomes. Games for learning were found across varied topics with STEM subjects and health the most popular. Future research on digital games would benefit from a systematic programme of experimental work, examining in detail which game features are most effective in promoting engagement and supporting learning. The current systematic literature review updates Author (date).The review looks at impacts and outcomes of playing digital games from 2009 to 2014.Multi-component coding of papers, games and learning outcomes was used.Many papers were found with 143 papers providing high quality evidence.Games for entertainment and learning addressed different outcomes.

iThink: A Game-Based Approach Towards Improving Collaboration and Participation in Requirement Elicitation☆

Abstract Requirements are the heart of Information Systems development because they determine how the system will operate. There- fore, requirements elicitation is a critical activity of the information systems development life cycle. Recognizing the im- portance of collaborative work and the huge difficulty of gathering stakeholders at the same time and place, researches have been proposing web collaborative tools to elicit requirements. In this article we present a game-based collaborative tool called iThink that aims at improving the participation in a requirement elicitation process. iThink takes advantage of the associa- tion between “gamification” concepts and the six hats of thinking method for collecting both new requirements and feedback about existing ones and for presenting the requirement elicitation process in a form of a collaborative game. Two case-studies, involving several stakeholders, are also presented with the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness and acceptance of this tool.

A comparative study of interaction metaphors for large-scale displays

Large-scale displays require new interaction techniques because of their physical size. There are technologies that tackle the problem of interaction with such devices by providing natural interaction to larger surfaces. We argue, however, that large-scale displays offer physical freedom that is not yet being applied to interaction. To better understand how distance affects user interaction, we present a comparative study of interaction metaphors for large-scale displays. We present three metaphors: Grab, Point and Mouse. The metaphors were included in our tests as we felt that each would be more suited to a specific distance: this is the focus of our tests. We then asked the users to solve a puzzle using those metaphors from different distances. We discovered that the point metaphor achieves better results on all tests. However, there is evidence that grab and mouse remain valid for specific tasks.

Cerebral gas embolism associated with central venous catheter: Systematic review

OBJECTIVE Cerebral gas embolism (CGE) is a potentially catastrophic complication of central venous catheters (CVCs) manipulation or accidental disconnection, which is rarely reported in the literature. This systematic review aims to characterize the clinical manifestations, imaging features and outcome of CGE associated with CVCs. METHODS Systematic literature search of all published cases of CGE associated with CVCs, and identification of previously unreported local cases. Descriptive analysis of all cases, mortality analysis for cases with individualized data. RESULTS Of the 158 patients with CGE associated with CVCs found, 71.8% were male and mean age was 56.4years. CGE symptoms frequently occurred while in the upright position. The most frequent neurological manifestation was sudden-onset focal neurological sign (67.7%), followed by coma (59.5%), epileptic seizures (24.7%) and encephalopathy (21.5%). Imaging revealed intracranial air bubbles in 69.1% and cerebral ischemia or edema was demonstrated in 66.7%. Overall mortality was 21.7%, and clinical predictors of mortality were increasing age (p<0.001), coma (p=0.001), cardiorespiratory arrest shortly after symptom onset (p<0.001) and male sex (p=0.035). CONCLUSIONS CGE associated with CVCs may mimic ischemic stroke, but patients frequently present a severe vigilance disturbance and epileptic seizures. Mortality occurs in 1/5 of patients, which substantiates implementation of protocols and measures to prevent this severe complication of CVC use.

Using Serious Games for Cognitive Disabilities

Serious games have increasingly become a good option with regards to professional training. However, the majority isn’t appropriate for people with cognitive disabilities, since there are several obstacles when developing for such a heterogeneous population.

Gamifying requirement elicitation: Practical implications and outcomes in improving stakeholders collaboration ☆

Abstract The requirements engineering process is a key phase of the Information System development since it determines its functionalities and its operation. Before requirements can be analyzed, modeled, or specified they must be gathered through an elicitation process. Requirements elicitation is non-trivial because you can never be sure you get all requirements from the user or stakeholder by just asking them what the system should do. Requirements elicitation practices include interviews, questionnaires, user observation, workshops, brainstorming, use cases, role playing and prototyping. However, these common procedures are still prone to be ambiguous or incorrect which can lead the Information Systems to failure. It is consensual that one of the major problem of this activity relates to the communication and collaboration between different and distant stakeholders. Thus, recent studies have been proposing web collaborative tools to gather these stakeholders in order to elicit requirements. The paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptance of such a collaborative tool which was developed by using a gamification approach and the Six Thinking Hats method. The document also makes a discussion of the implication and outcomes of improving stakeholders collaboration.

A New Approach to Walking in Place

Walking in Place (WIP) is an important locomotion technique used in virtual environments. This paper proposes a new approach to WIP, called Speed-Amplitude-Supported Walking-in-Place (SAS-WIP), which allows people, when walking along linear paths, to control their virtual speed based on footstep amplitude and speed metrics. We argue that our approach allows users to better control the virtual distance covered by the footsteps, achieve higher average speeds and experience less fatigue than when using state-of-the-art methods based on footstep frequency, called GUD-WIP.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy: a rare, but serious, complication of epileptic seizures

Cardiology Department of Hospital de Braga, Braga, Portugal.Correspondence: Joao Rocha; Neurology Department, Hospital de Braga; Sete Fontes, Sao Victor; 4710-243 Braga - Portugal; E-mail: joaomrocha@gmail.comConflict of interest: There is no conflict of interest to declare.Received 10 June 2012; Received in final form 12 September 2012; Accepted 19 September 2012.

Solis'Curse - A Cultural Heritage Game Using Voice Interaction with a Virtual Agent

This paper presents a game with the aim of developing persistent knowledge inside a Cultural Heritage exhibition. The authors developed a game called Solis Curse, that was used as a way of testing the knowledge acquired during the museum visit. Similar to an entertainment quiz, the game presents a set of questions with progress ional levels of difficulty. Through the analysis of the responses and some others qualitative and quantitative metrics such, as the difficulty level and time, the players score is calculated and compared with a global ranking ladder. Beside putting to test the visitors knowledge, the game also offers the possibility of speech interaction with a embodied conversational agent that steers the game and helps the user to successfully complete the task at hand. Based on interdisciplinary multimedia technologies and cultural contents, Solis Curse suports an entertainment platform for a younger audience, which may be regarded as a mean to convey cultural heritage contents, conducted by the motto of learning by playing. The results of this research point out the benefits of having game as an aid to the learning process and also shows the impact of multi-modal interaction on the user immersion.

3D modelling of laser scanned and photogrammetric data for digital documentation: the Mosteiro da Batalha case study

Advances in both terrestrial laser scanning hardware and photogrammetric systems combined are creating increasingly precise and rich 3D coloured data. In this article we show how computer graphics and visualization techniques have played an important role in real-time visualization, data management, modelling, and data fusion in an increasing number of applications such as surveying engineering, structure analysis, architecture, archaeology and cultural heritage. Specifically, we describe the typical modelling steps involved in the creation of a range of digital documents provided by the 3D digitization company Artescan to customers. We present how these modelling steps were applied in the context of creating digital documents used in the preservation of Mosteiro da Batalha.