Regis Rossi Alves Faria

An experience using X3D for virtual cultural heritage

In this paper we present our experience in using Virtual Reality Technologies to accurately reconstruct and further explore ancient and historic city buildings. Virtual reality techniques provide a powerful set of tools to explore and access the history of a city. In order to explore, visualize and hear such history, we divided the process in three phases: historical data gathering and analysis; 3D reconstruction and modeling; interactive immersive visualization, auralization and display. The set of guidelines devised helped to put into practice the extensible tools available in VR but not always easy to put together by inexperienced users. These guidelines also helped the smoothness of our work and helped avoiding problems in the subsequent phases. Most importantly, the X3D standard provided an environment capable of helping the design and validation process as well as the visualization phase. To finalize, we present the results achieved and further analyze the extensibility of the framework. Although VR tools and techniques are widely available at present, there is still a gap between using the tools and really taking advantage of VR in historic architectural reconstruction so that users might immerse themselves into this world and thus be able to consider various scenarios and possibilities that might lead to new insightful inspiration. This is an ongoing process that we think will increase and help current architectural development.

The Brazilian digital television system access device architecture

In early 2003, the Brazilian government accelerated the decision process on analog to digital transition of terrestrial TV broadcast infrastructure, naming this initiative The Brazilian Digital Television System (SBTVD). This paper describes the access device architecture we have proposed for the SBTVD, as well as related issues. We focused on several requirements among which: flexibility to support the social economical diversity enabling market implementations that can vary on cost, complexity and applications; digital inclusion targeting a minimal cost architecture providing a simple access device to information and services by convergent broadcast and point-to-point telecommunication means; and scalability targets incorporating state-of-the-art technology, considering emerging services and the current legacy analog TV infrastructure available in Brazil. We cover the following specific topics: an architecture overview considering scalability, interoperability and regional and international requirements, operating system and middleware interfaces, audio and video coding formats and associate standards, technical and economical analysis, usability and user interface consistency. Finally two prototypes for the outlined access device architecture are reported.

Development of a pilot telemedicine network for paediatric oncology in Brazil

We established a pilot telemedicine network for paediatric oncology in Brazil, linking the School of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo City to the ‘Hospital de Base’ in Porto Velho, Rondonia, located in the Amazon region, 3000 km away. The videoconferencing link used ISDN transmission at 384 kbit/s. The network was used for patient screening, follow-up, treatment monitoring and other activities. Between March 2000 and 2002, 69 videoconferences were held for 33 patients, 29 with cancer. During this period, 16 patients required transfer, 18 patients died and 11 achieved cancer remission. The main cause for patient mortality (infection) was not one that could be addressed directly by telemedicine. Using the School of Medicine as a benchmark, the average mortality rate for paediatric cancer patients in the pilot was higher. However, it was lower than previous levels observed at Rondonia (62% versus 80%).

Crosscale: A 3D virtual musical instrument interface

Inspired by principles for designing musical instruments we implemented a new 3D virtual instrument with a particular mapping of touchable virtual spheres to notes and chords of a given musical scale. The objects are metaphors for note keys organized in multiple lines, forming a playable spatial instrument where the player can perform certain sequences of notes and chords across the scale employing short gestures that minimizes jump distances. The idea of different arrangements for notes over the playable space is not new, being pursued on alternative keyboards for instance. This implementation employed an Oculus Rift and a Razer Hydra for gesture input and showed that customization of instrumental mappings using 3D tools can contribute to ease the performance of complex songs by allowing fast execution of specific note combinations.

Development of a telemedicine model for emerging countries: a case study on pediatric oncology in Brazil.

This article discusses a telemedicine model for emerging countries, through the description of ONCONET, a telemedicine initiative applied to pediatric oncology in Brazil. The ONCONET core technology is a Web-based system that offers health information and other services specialized in childhood cancer such as electronic medical records and cooperative protocols for complex treatments. All Web-based services are supported by the use of high performance computing infrastructure based on clusters of commodity computers. The system was fully implemented on an open-source and free-software approach. Aspects of modeling, implementation and integration are covered. A model, both technologically and economically viable, was created through the research and development of in-house solutions adapted to the emerging countries reality and with focus on scalability both in the total number of patients and in the national infrastructure

A Virtual Musical Instrument for 3D Performance with Short Gestures: Exploring Mapping Strategies with Virtual Reality

We present a new digital virtual instrument designed, built and played using 3D interactive technologies, with interest in reducing both learning time and difficulty in playing musical phrases and chords across the musical scale. Design concepts stress on a smart note mapping, rely on bi-manual interaction, and intend an optimized gestural performance on a virtual keyboard to shorten playing trajectories. The proposed keyboard is built stacking note keys in multiple lines, and the note mapping allows performing typical musical intervals and patterns with short gestures. This implementation employed an Oculus Rift head-mounted display and a Razer Hydra for gesture input. The combination of 3D visualization, natural interaction and the proposed mapping is meant to contribute to ease musical performance by allowing fast execution of specific note sequences. The instrument concept encapsulates complexity by creating a fluid way for musicians to perform gesture patterns that would otherwise require non-trivial motor skills.