Neil A. Katz

Mixed reality in virtual world teleconferencing

In this paper we present a Mixed Reality (MR) teleconferencing application based on Second Life (SL) and the OpenSim virtual world. Augmented Reality (AR) techniques are used for displaying virtual avatars of remote meeting participants in real physical spaces, while Augmented Virtuality (AV), in form of video based gesture detection, enables capturing of human expressions to control avatars and to manipulate virtual objects in virtual worlds. The use of Second Life for creating a shared augmented space to represent different physical locations allows us to incorporate the application into existing infrastructure. The application is implemented using open source Second Life viewer, ARToolKit and OpenCV libraries.

Mobile innovation applications for the BYOD enterprise user

As employees began to bring their consumer mobile devices to the office, employees expected corporations to embrace or to provide solutions similar to consumer solutions they were used to on their smartphones. However, because of accountability and security concerns, many enterprises prefer employees use corporate alternatives to popular consumer apps. However, many of these expected enterprise alternatives to consumer solutions were not available to employees. In this paper, we discuss lessons learned during the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) transformation process leading to the rapid development and deployment of internal alternatives to consumer applications, as well as the introduction of technologies to reduce the cost brought on by a large influx of mobile devices connected to the enterprise. We also discuss the importance of a filtered approach to access content through the firewall into the enterprise arena as an alternative to the full virtual private network approach granted to PC devices.

Extending Web Browsers with a Unity 3D-Based Virtual Worlds Viewer

Many virtual worlds are accessed via a rich client interface that must be downloaded and installed into the users environment. For many users, especially enterprise users, this large download and install represents a significant obstacle to virtual world acceptance. The authors describe a technical implementation that uses the Unity 3D browser plug-in as a way to access a virtual world from within a Web browser. Using this familiar tool, users can interact with the rich virtual environments provided by Second Life and OpenSimulator.

Exploring an evolutionary medical analytic wallet

The practice of medicine and biomedical research has become information based, which enhances safety, efficiency, and the effectiveness of the health enterprise. Informational sources such as entire mapped genome systems, advance imaging techniques, health screening technologies and individualized medical plans require advanced analytical engines. Biomedical analytics provides a high throughput system for pattern and feature analysis that delivers personalized or information based medicine. Personal multimedia and medical data need to be shared and combined for proper patient diagnosis and prognosis. A multimodal analytic wallet provides a construct for the encapsulation of personalized information and computational algorithms. This exploratory paper discusses an idea of leveraging neuroplastic fidelity within a virtual and real world biomedical analytic wallet. The key components of the biomedical wallet include a pervasive repository, analytic interface and analytic environment that encompass a neuroplastic fidelity algorithm.