Loukas Kalisperis

The VR-Desktop: An Accessible Approach to VR Environments in Teaching and Research

The VR-Desktop initiative is an effort to bring key benefits of projection-based virtual reality into the mainstream of teaching and research at the Pennsylvania State University, through the deployment of comparatively low cost and easy to use virtual reality and integrated multimedia display systems within a variety of contexts. Recent experiences with design and implementation of single- and multi-screen VR systems for teaching and research are described. The systems discussed employ low cost and readily available hardware components, familiar desktop computing environments, and open-source VR development toolkits. The approach is modular and easily adaptable to various applications in research or instruction.

Environmentally conscious design – educating future architects

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how US architectural programs are addressing environmental imperatives through curricular‐based initiatives. It offers a brief overview of how environmentally conscious design education has evolved and compares curricular approaches to social, aesthetic, and technical sustainability education from six architecture programs considered to be national leaders in sustainability education.Design/methodology/approach – Views from leading architectural programs on sustainable education were compiled and assessed leading to a curricular study of course and degree offerings.Findings – It was found that four consistent approaches to undergraduate sustainable design education are being promoted: core value: all course content addresses sustainable design; systems‐focused: support courses fulfill needs for sustainable education; choice: sustainable education is through student selection of courses offerings; and specialization: sustainable education is a specialty endeavor mainly ...

Design Visualization:A Media Effects Approach

This paper proposes an integrative approach in the evaluative phase of the design process, incorporating concepts, methodologies and measurement strategies that are well established in media psychology. The paper suggests a variable-centered approach for conceptualizing visualization technologies and to evaluate their potential to simulate architectural experience. Psychophysiological measures are introduced to capture the affective component of the architectural experience facilitated by visualization tools such as virtual reality. These are important in order to empirically evaluate the experiential aspects of an architectural space through visualization. Ideas are illustrated with examples drawn from prior and ongoing research collaboration between an architectural visualization lab and a media effects research lab.

Expanded research on human shape factors for inclined surfaces

Abstract Wherever artificial climates are created for human occupation, the aim of the design is that individuals experience thermal comfort in the environment. Among other factors thermal comfort depends on mean radiant temperature. In creating artificial climates for human occupancy, the designer must take into account the interaction of the human with the heated surfaces. Calculation of mean radiant temperature is dependent on room geometry and the position of the human within the room as expressed by the shape factors. Early work in the area provided an elaborate method for calculating person-to-enclosure radiant heat exchange for simplistic and orthogonal enclosures based only on the generation of shape factors of a person and a surface within a rectilinear enclosure. However, architecture is not limited to simple rectilinear enclosures. Geometric reduction of complex enclosures to simple rectilinear shapes is time-consuming and inaccurate, and thus is inadequate for use in the design of appropriate heating systems. This paper presents a new, expanded method based on previous work by the authors for developing shape factors of a person to a rectilinear inclined surface. This research investigated the following four cases in order to determine shape factors for inclined surfaces: (a) inclined rectangle in front of the person and above his center, and behind the person and below his center; (b) inclined rectangle in front of the person and below his center, and behind the person and above his center; (c) inclined rectangle at the side of the person and above forward of his center, and at the side of the person, behind and below his center; (d) inclined rectangle at the side of the person, below and forward of the persons center, and at the side, above, and back of the persons center. In cases where the location of the person is known, but not his orientation, a mean value of the shape factor is determined. The new design method increases the accuracy of calculation and prediction of human thermal comfort and allows designers to simulate complex enclosures, utilizing the latest design knowledge of radiant heat exchange to increase human thermal comfort. The method of solution parallels that used by Fanger to generate shape factors for horizontal and vertical surfaces.

A Unique Art Form: The Friezes of Pirgi

In the village of Pirg, on the Greek island of Chios, the faades of hundreds of buildings are completely covered with gray and white friezes. Circles, squares, triangles and rhomboids are used to create a lively geometry, ranging from the straightforward to the complex, to give each house its distinctive identity, its own unique face to display to the world. While analyzing the frieze designs, the authors discovered that the frieze artists intuitively obey a unique set of color-reversing rules. The goal of the project was to explain this powerful art form and to discover the essential mathematical structure underlying these color-reversing friezes.

Visualizing Human-Environment Interactions: Integrating Concepts and Techniques from HCI, Human Factors and Media Psychology

As architecture becomes increasingly integrated with information technology, we need to envision new approaches for architectural visualization. In this paper, we describe an evolving approach for architectural visualization that integrates affordable virtual reality tools, motion capture technology and psychophysiological measurement tools. We start by tracing the development and validation of our two virtual reality labs. Next, we describe our current attempts at visualizing embodied interaction and the use of behavioral agents for simulating human-environment interaction. We conclude by discussing our current work and future directions, particularly our idea to integrate psychophysiological tools for measuring cognitive and affective responses to these information rich environments.