Selan Rodrigues dos Santos

Using Mobile Phones to Control Desktop Multiplayer Games

This work presents a multiplatform architecture to support the design and implementation of desktop multiplayer games controlled by mobile phones with Bluetooth capability. Our main objective was to demonstrate that by harnessing technologies such as J2ME, J2SE, and Bluetooth communication it is possible to transform any mobile phone that support these technologies into a wireless application-independent remote controller. To demonstrate the flexibility of this approach, we have focused on employing mobile phones as game controllers. We developed four games in different genres/styles that support various input modes among players. The results gathered from our testbed games are twofold: i) in terms of overall game performance there was no noticeable communication delays, and; ii) in terms of gameplay, we have observed that the nature of the game interaction supported by this communication architecture has enhanced the social aspect of games---each game offered a entertaining environment in which a group of people could engage in.

Handcopter Game: A Video-Tracking Based Serious Game for the Treatment of Patients Suffering from Body Paralysis Caused by a Stroke

This work describes the development of a serious game focused on health treatment. The Handcopter Game was designed to support the recovery of motor function in patients who have suffered a stroke recently. We propose a non-conventional low cost input device to function as the game controller. It detects the patients hand movements via computer vision algorithms and map that to movements of the game character in the virtual environment. The premise is that the game play makes patients execute hand movements typically found in a physiotherapy session. We also discuss how to use this game as part of the patients treatment. Finally, we present the results collected when real patients played the game as part of their recovery treatment.

RadialNet: An Interactive Network Topology Visualization Tool with Visual Auditing Support

The pervasive aspect of the Internet increases the demand for tools that support both monitoring and auditing of security aspects in computer networks. Ideally, these tools should provide a clear and objective presentation of security data in such a way as to let network administrators detect or even predict network security breaches. However, most of these data are still presented only in raw text form, or through inadequate data presentation techniques. Our work tackles this problem by designing and developing a powerful tool that aims at integrating several information visualization techniques in an effective and expressive visualization. We have tested our tool in the context of network security, presenting two case studies that demonstrate important features such as scalability and detection of critical network security issues.

Advances in network topology security visualisation

The pervasive aspect of the internet increases the demand for tools that support both monitoring and auditing of security aspects in computer networks. Ideally, these tools should provide a clear and objective presentation of security data in such a way as to let network administrators detect or even predict network security breaches. However, most of these data are still presented only in raw text form or through inadequate data presentation techniques. Our work addresses this problem by designing and developing a tool that aims at integrating several information visualisation techniques in an effective and expressive visualisation. We also present a novel method that detects OpenBSD PF SYN Proxy and Honeyd. This detection of Honeyd improve the visualisation content assuring that the presented data is not fake and the OpenBSD PF SYN Proxy detection shows which nodes are safe from TCP SYN flooding attacks and improve firewall detection. We have tested our tool in the context of network security, presenting two case studies that demonstrate important features such as scalability and detection of critical network security issues.

Investigating the Distance Compression on Virtual Environments by Comparing Visualization Devices

The correct distance perception is important for executing various interactive tasks such as navigation, selection and manipulation. It is known, however, that, in general, there is a significant distance perception compression in virtual environments, mainly when using Head-Mounted Displays -- HMDs. This perceived distance compression may bring various problems to the applications and even hinder the utility of those applications that depends on the correct judgment of distances. The scientific community, so far, have not been able to determine the causes of the distance perception compression in virtual environments. For this reason, it was the objective of this work to investigate, through user experiments, the influence of both the field-of-view -- FoV -- and the distance estimation methods on this perceived compression. For that, we conducted an experimental study with 32 participants, in which we compared the my3D device and a HMD trying to determine the causes of the compressed perception. The results showed that user interacting with my3D reported worst distance estimations, on average, when compared to the results of the same users interacting with a HMD, for both tested estimation methods. The causes of that are believed to be the incorrect stimulus of the peripheral vision of the user, the smaller FoV and the smaller immersion sense, as described by the participants of the experiment.

Camera control based on rigid body dynamics for virtual environments

Desktop Virtual Environments (VEs) are an attractive choice for low-cost virtual reality systems. However, the level of virtual presence — the subjective sensation of perceiving oneself immersed within an environment — that desktop VEs offer is lower than immersive ones. There exist approaches that try to reduce the gap between the level of presence in these two types of VEs. For instance, to improve the interaction aspect by providing an environment that supports physically based behavior or to display high quality graphics that increases the overall scene realism. Most of these approaches have been employed in the design of desktop VEs, but often lacked a formal evaluation of their real impact on the level of presence afforded. This paper presents our work and research findings on developing a model to control camera travel based on rigid body dynamics. A physics engine simulates the dynamics involved in altering the cameras physical parameters — such as forces, torques, tensor of inertia — which, in turn, controls viewpoint orientation and locomotion. Our aim was twofold: to propose a camera whose movement behaviors were easy to program, and; to engage users of a desktop VE in a richer interaction experience capable of raising their level of presence. We designed an experimental study with a group of volunteers and measured their performance in controlling the camera as well as their reported virtual presence using the Witmer and Singers Presence Questionnaire.

Contando histórias com realidade aumentada: estratégia para promover a fluência da leitura infantil

O objetivo deste trabalho e discutir o papel das tecnologias digitais no incentivo a leitura infantil. A compreensao textual de estudantes brasileiros e muito precaria, e sao necessarias medidas eficazes para melhorar esse quadro. Uma estrategia e fomentar a leitura desde os primeiros anos de escola, na esperanca de que melhorias na fluencia, na construcao de vocabulario e no desenvolvimento de atracao pela narrativa textual possam contribuir para a criacao de uma sociedade leitora. Neste trabalho, discutimos e apresentamos uma proposta de utilizacao de uma tecnologia digital em particular, a realidade aumentada, que cria uma nova perspectiva de interacao com o livro como objeto fisico, para melhorar a fluencia da leitura e auxiliar a melhorar os indices de compreensao leitora dos estudantes brasileiros. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Telling stories with augmented reality: a strategy to increase fluency in children’s reading Abstract: This paper aims to discuss the role of digital technologies in stimulating children’s reading. Brazilian students’ reading comprehension is very poor, and effective actions are necessary to improve this situation. One strategy is to stimulate reading habits since the early grades, hoping that improvements in fluency, vocabulary building and increased interest in narratives may contribute to the creation of a society of readers. In this paper, we discuss and present a proposal for the utilization of augmented reality, a digital technology that has brought about a new perspective for interacting with books as physical objects, in order to improve Brazilian students’ reading fluency and their performance in reading comprehension tests. Keywords: Reading comprehension; Reading fluency; Augmented reality