Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Review: The Effect of Interactivity on Learning Physical Actions in Virtual Reality

#Title#
The Effect of Interactivity on Learning Physical Actions in Virtual Reality

#Authors#
Jeremy Bailenson, Kayur Patel, Alexia Nielsen, Ruzena Bajscy, Sang-Hack Jung & Gregorij Kurillo

#Venue#
Media Psychology, Volume 11, Issue 3, 2008

#DOI#

#Abstract#
Virtual reality (VR) offers new possibilities for learning, specifically for training individuals to perform physical movements such as physical therapy and exercise. The current article examines two aspects of VR that uniquely contribute to media interactivity: the ability to capture and review physical behaviour and the ability to see one's avatar rendered in real time from third person points of view. In two studies, we utilised a state-of-the-art, image-based tele-immersive system, capable of tracking and rendering many degrees of freedom of human motion in real time. In Experiment 1, participants learned better in VR than in a video learning condition according to self-report measures, and the cause of the advantage was seeing one's avatar stereoscopically in the third person. In Experiment 2, we added a virtual mirror in the learning environment to further leverage the ability to see oneself from novel angles in real time. Participants learned better in VR than in video according to objective performance measures. Implications for learning via interactive digital media are discussed.

#Comments#

The interesting idea here to me is the possibility of understanding how the movements are better encoded due to visual and proprioceptive feedback.  The question then, is this a two way mechanism?  If the same stimuli are presented, will it bring back better memory.  In addition, is it a movement encoding.  Can the encoding be accessed better by an expert.  Here they are novices in training, what happens if the person already knows the moves, but cannot explain them.  Can they explain them better if they have an immersive 3D view of their actions?  No brainer, it should work in this case clearly.  The question is, will it work as well if the visualisation is not the user of the tool at that moment in time.

They use the term "Sea of Cameras," would have thought a forest would be more apt. :-)

Experiment 1 

They rate the VR learning experience more positively.  Found the VR trainer to be more credible.

Experiment 2

VR version of learning system outperformed the video version, with significant results.

Interesting Quote:

"In fact, there is ample research dedicated to the discordance among self report measures and behavioural measures when measuring behaviour in virtual reality (Bailenson et al., 2004, Bailenson,
Swinth, et al., 2005;  Slater, 2005), concluding that neither self-report nor behavioural measures are sufficient, and that only by examining a host of measures can one assess virtual behaviour"

Shows that we need to use repeated versions of both behavioural and subjective to obtain insights into the effectiveness of such VR interfaces.  Need to keep this in mind for future experiments.

The image reproduction methods used in the paper are poor (think Kinect image level) so the quality of the images in the Tai Chi lessons may have had an effects on results.  Also, they had to look forward to compare themselves in the VR case; a cave or HMD might be better in this case due to a universal viewpoint capability.  Using an Oculus might introduce better results due to ego centre being situated in the training space.


#ImportantRefs#

Bailenson, J. N., Aharoni, E., Beall, A. C., Guadagno, R. E., Dimov, A., & Blascovich,
J. (2004). Comparing behavioral and self-report measures of embodied agents’
social presence in immersive virtual environments. Proceedings of the 7th Annual
International Workshop on PRESENCE, October 13–15, Valencia, Spain.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Boast: My Talented Games Project Students!

On Friday the 31st October our games degree had its industry showcase at the QUT Cube.  Gaute Rasmussen from SAE spoke and a great night was had by around 300 people playing the games created by our students.

Photos are available here: http://1drv.ms/1EnRtZ2.

Our students also published their games that week to the web and generated some great outcomes.  At one stage one of the games, "Primitives," was sitting at number 2 on IndieDB!  I counted six of our games on the IndieDB banner, highlighted by the site.  Great stories have ensued of teams being reviewed on Rock Paper Shotgun and other leading blogs, and of course, the regular YouTube playthroughs from our Russian fans.

Matt Ford and I had a ball supervising them this year.  They have been the best we have ever seen in this unit.

But, don't take my word for it, here is a list of the games available at IndieDB, please download and enjoy!

Ross

===========

Get Quest - http://www.indiedb.com/members/boundwolf/downloads/get-quest
Pipe Runners - http://www.indiedb.com/games/pipe-runners/downloads/pipe-runners-13
Pirates vs Robots - http://www.indiedb.com/games/pirates-vs-robots/downloads
Ghost Lord - http://www.indiedb.com/games/ghostly-tales-of-lordly-manor/downloads/ghostly-tales-of-lordly-manor
2199 - http://www.indiedb.com/games/2199-new-world-order/downloads/2199-new-world-order-beta-111
Azuruk - http://www.indiedb.com/games/azuruk/downloads/azuruk-11
MAD - http://www.indiedb.com/games/magnificent-machines-and-devious-devices/downloads/magnificent-machines-and-devious-devices
Apex Genetics - http://www.indiedb.com/games/apex-genetics/downloads/apex-genetics-installer
Robot Wars - http://www.indiedb.com/games/robotwars/downloads
Treasure Raid - http://www.indiedb.com/games/treasure-raid/downloads
Sweet Revenge - http://www.indiedb.com/games/sweet-revenge/downloads/sweet-revenge
Symphony Quest - http://symphonyquest.com/
Primitives - http://www.indiedb.com/games/primitives/downloads
Ignis Uprising - http://www.indiedb.com/games/ignis-uprising/downloads/ignis-uprising










Sunday, November 9, 2014

Boast: You know you have the best job in the world...

...when your employer buys five Oculus Rifts for you to use. :-)

Ross

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Invite: QUT Games Degree Showcase


QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty is pleased to invite you to the QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment (BGIE) End of Year Showcase.

Date:Friday, 31st October, 2014

Time:5:00pm – 9pm (5:30pm Proceedings Start)

Venue: The Cube, Level 4, P Block, Gardens Point Campus, QUT, 4001

RSVP:Please RSVP to Ross Brown 

Come and see demonstrations of the best polished and published games created by BGIE degree students. The show is an opportunity for you and other industry to meet our graduating students and see their outstanding work.
       
Have fun playing these new games and catch up with friends and colleagues from the industry!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Paper: Augmenting and assisting model elicitation tasks with 3D virtual world context metadata










Just had a paper I have written with Stefanie Rinderle-Ma, Simone Kriglstein and Sonja Kabicher-Fuchs accepted for COOPIS 2014.  Paper is found here.

This is the fourth paper I have had published this year with Simone, part of a productive collaboration with my Austrian colleagues.

Abstract. Accurate process model elicitation continues to be a time consuming task, requiring skill on the part of the interviewer to extract explicit and tacit process information from the interviewee. Many errors occur in this elicitation stage that would be avoided by better activity recall, more consistent specification methods and greater engagement in the elicitation process by interviewees. Theories of situated cognition indicate that interactive 3D representations of real work environments engage and prime the cognitive state of the viewer. In this paper, our major contribution is to augment a previous process elicitation methodology with virtual world context metadata, drawn from a 3D simulation of the workplace. We present a conceptual and formal approach for representing this contextual metadata, integrated into a process similarity measure that provides hints for the business analyst to use in later modelling steps. Finally, we conclude with examples from two use cases to illustrate the potential abilities of this approach.

Ross

Saturday, August 16, 2014

CFP: Interactive Entertainment 2014 - (EXTENSION to Submission Date - 31 August)

Interactive Entertainment 2014 - Fun and Games – Call For Papers

(EXTENSION to Submission Date - 31 August, 2014)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location: University of Newcastle, Australia
Conference Dates:  2-3 December, 2014
Paper Submissions: 31 August, 2014 (EXTENDED)


Interactive Entertainment is Australasia's longest running games and digital entertainment conference. IE2014 marks the 10th anniversary of the conference which is hosted this year by the University of Newcastle, Australia.

IE2014 welcomes scientists, designers, artists, technicians, students, industry and academics from across the spectrum. We encourage contributions from fields as diverse as computer science, social science, design, communication, media studies, music, engineering, health and mathematics. Anyone interested in the myriad of technologies and issues that impact on interactive entertainment and computer games are encouraged to come along and share their discipline's perspective on "Fun and Games".   

TOPICS
---------

·         heuristic methodologies
·         control and evaluation
·         design practices and method
·         design history
·         transmedia
·         experience measurement
·         dynamic difficulty balancing
·         core mechanics
·         discussions on narrative
·         networking models
·         game physics
·         game graphics
·         sound design
·         artificial intelligence
·         user interface design
·         serious games
·         exergaming
·         development processes
·         evaluation methodologies
·         creativity in games
·         experimental gameplay forms
·         advances in mobile and portable games
·         Virtual Reality
·         interactive simulation
·         interactive film
·         animation in games
·         history of interactive media
·         commercial concerns
·         case studies on interactive applications
·         games thinking not listed here


SUBMISSIONS
------------------
IE2014 will accept four kinds of submissions; all types of submissions will be peer reviewed published online in the ACM International Conference Proceedings. http://www.acm.org/publications/icp_series

Regular Papers (Recommended length: 7-10 pages)
All regular papers will be peer reviewed fortechnical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Accepted papers are required to give a 15-20 minute presentation at the conference.

Short Papers (Recommended length: 3 pages)
Short papers represent novel work in progress that may not be yet as mature as regular submissions, but still represents a significant contribution to the field. All short papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Accepted papers are required to present a poster at the conference.

Demo Submissions (Recommended length: 1 page)
Technical demonstrations show innovative and original implementations to interactive entertainment. Demo papers will be reviewed by the conference chair and the program chair forsignificance and relevance.

Exhibition Submissions (Recommended length: 1 page)
These submissions are for work which will be exhibited in the conference's dedicated space. Applicants are to submit a short write-up outlining and contextualising the work to be exhibited, including pictures. They will need to provide a clear understanding of the proposed exhibited design work and its relationship with interactive entertainment.


MORE INFORMATION
---------------------------

For more information, please visit http://ieconference.org/ie2014/ or email ieconference2014@gmail.com



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Karen Blackmore
Lecturer
School of Design, Communication and Information Technology
Room MCG18, McMullin Building
The University of Newcastle
University Drive
Callaghan NSW 2308

Ph: +61 2 492 15206
Fax: +61 2 492 15896



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, August 11, 2014

Paper Review: On the Problem of Predicting Real World Characteristics from Virtual Worlds

#Title#
On the Problem of Predicting Real World Characteristics from Virtual Worlds

#Authors#
Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Cuihua Shen, Jaideep Srivastava and Noshir Contractor

#Venue#
Predicting Real World Behaviors from Virtual World Data, 
Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, Cuihua Shen, Jaideep Srivastava, Noshir Contractor Editors,
Springer Verlag

#DOI#
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-07142-8

#Abstract#
Abstract Availability of massive amounts of data about the social and behavioral characteristics of a large subset of the population opens up new possibilities that allow researchers to not only observe people’s behaviors in a natural, rather than artificial, environment but also conduct predictive modeling of those behaviors and characteristics. Thus an emerging area of study is the prediction of real world characteristics and behaviors of people in the offline or “real” world based on their behaviors in the online virtual worlds. We explore the challenges and opportunities in the emerging field of prediction of real world characteristics based on people’s virtual world characteristics, i.e., what are the major paradigms in this field, what are the limitations in current predictive models, limitations in terms of generalizability, etc. Lastly, we also address the future challenges and avenues of research in this area.

#Comments#

They describe the ideas behind the "Mapping Principle," and that this mapping between virtual and real behaviours cannot necessarily be assume to hold for all cases.  

Representations in different worlds may change the results; not much of a problem for me due to lack of need for non-representative avatars, but may impact on fidelity of representation arguments for identification with avatars.

Configuration of the world influences the nature of the mapping, as the pvp and pve tasks may change levels of aggression or cooperation in the VW or game.

They cite the "Proteus Effect," behaviours are affected by the appearance and intended nature of the avatar.  Could this be used to empathise with your boss or underling in an organisation in BPM?!?  Could be exploited in a training manner.  Maybe it brings out perceptions of what another job entails, so that perceptions of roles can be tested.

They bring out the difference in using data to drive the notion of theorising about behaviour; reduces reliance on a priori concepts about behaviours.

They suggest to augment data logging with surveys, in order to determine other states outside of the game to be included in the modelling; straight forward but has to be said.  Remotely logging people does not provide context with regards to their behaviours.

Generalisation across virtual worlds is still an unaddressed problem.

They note that people may lie when answering surveys, which can be uncovered by log data, eg. time spent playing games.  But this is the same for every scenario, one imagines, especially with social repercussions. 

They suggest actually using the worlds before testing them; in some ways a classic case of simulating your experiment before you actually carry it out.  They suggest a minimum time of world use before the research can be published,  and suggest it should be enforced at conferences at in journals.

Case studies:

Economics - virtual world economic patterns commute to real world patterns eg. Castronova.  A black market exists for virtual money.

Epidemiology - citation of the Corrupted Blood incident in WOW.  Spread of disease was similar to human real viruses, including remote location commencement and travelling escaping people bringing the plague to the other regions.  They note that the cost of infection is trivial compared to real life, thus behaviours are different; bringing up a rationale cost benefit analysis model as a basis for action.

Deviant Clandestine Behaviours - this has a strong mapping due to social factors in being found out so to speak.  Gold farming is noted as a major example in the virtual world cases.  Some behaviours, such as thinning of social networks, have been found to be similar in virtual world and in real world gang examples.

Mentoring - mentoring networks are different from other social networks.  But there is a limited form of mapping to the real world.

They do note that the online worlds allow the testing of hypotheses that are note possible in the real world, but they may not be applicable fully to the real world, as noted in other case studies.

They finish with an interesting comparison of a theory based approach to virtual world behaviour predictive modelling, or a data driven, bottom up modelling approach, based upon data mining for correlations to particular behaviours.

They note that the mapping principle is the overarching assumption in this work, but caution is urged due to the often lack of generalisation between the mapping found in different virtual worlds.


#ImportantRefs#

15. Hall,M.,Frank,E.,Holmes,G.,Pfahringer,B.,Reutemann,P.,Witten,I.H.:TheWEKAdata mining software: an update. ACM SIGKDD Explor. Newsl. 11(1), 10–18 (2009)
16. Johnson, N.F., Xu, C., Zhao, Z., Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Tita, G., Hui, P.M.: Human group formation in online guilds and offline gangs driven by a common team dynamic. Phys. Rev. E. 79(6), 066117 (2009)

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Info: 3D Virtual Worlds to Save Qld Wallabies!

Attached is a picture of me wearing an Occulus Rift wandering around the (virtual) hills of South-east Queensland. In collaboration with Prof. Kerrie Mengersen@QUT, Justine Murray@CSIRO and Prof Peter Bruza@QUT, we have developed a prototype tool for eliciting expert knowledge from environmental managers using elevation models of natural environments.


Research hypothesis is that the Bayesian wallaby population models will be of a better quality if extracted with greater situational information provided by the interactive virtual world. Normally the process is performed with 2D GIS systems.

Will be testing the prototype soon with environmental experts. Thanks to Kerrie Mengersen, Michael Rosemann and Peter Bruza for the support.  Thanks to the bods at QUT VISER for the usual Star Wars equipment.

BTW, the prototype has been developed by a third year QUT games undergraduate RA, Wesley Heard.

Ross

Sunday, August 3, 2014

CFP: Visual Computing (ISVC'14) - Call for Papers, Las Vegas, NV

CALL for PAPERS

10th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC'14)
December 8-10, 2014
Monte Carlo Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
http://www.isvc.net

ISVC provides a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and
practitioners to present their latest research findings, ideas,
developments and applications in visual computing. We seek papers
contributing to the state of the art and practice in any of the four
central areas of visual computing: (1) computer vision, (2) computer
graphics, (3) virtual reality, and (4) visualization.  Of particular
interest are papers that combine technologies from two or more areas.

**** Important Dates
Paper submissions               August 23, 2014
Notification of acceptance      October 7, 2014
Final camera ready paper        October 31, 2014
Advance Registration            October 31, 2014
ISVC'14 Symposium               December 8-10, 2014

***** Keynote Speakers
Arun Ross, Michigan State University, USA
Melanie Tory, Univ of Victoria, Canada
Rama Chellapa, Univ of Maryland, USA
Bernd Frohlich, Bauhaus Univ, Weimar, Germany
Luc Vincent, Google, USA
Gopi Meenakshisundaram, Univ of California at Irvine, USA

**** Special Tracks
1. Computational Bioimaging
2. 3D Mapping, Modeling and Surface Reconstruction
3. Tracking for Human Activity Monitoring
4. Unmanned Autonomous Systems
5. Intelligent Computing and Cyber Security
6. Multimedia Forgery Detection
7. Big Data Computer Vision
8. Unconstrained Biometrics: Challenges and Applications
9. Intelligent Transportation Systems
10. Visual Perception and Robotic Systems


(Area 1) Computer Vision Chairs:
         Kambhamettu Chandra, University of Delaware, USA
         El Choubassi Maha, Intel, USA

(Area 2) Computer Graphics Chairs:
         Zhigang Deng, University of Houston, USA
         Carlson Mark, DreamWorks Animation, USA

(Area 3) Virtual Reality Chairs:
         McMahan, Ryan, University of Texas at Dallas, USA
         Jerald, Jason, NextGen Interactions, USA

(Area 4) Visualization Chairs:
         Zhang, Hui, Indiana University, USA
         Drucker, Steven, Microsoft, USA

**** Submission Procedure

Papers submitted to ISVC'14 must not have been previously published and
must not be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. A
complete paper should be submitted in camera-ready format. The length
should match that intended for final publication. The page limit is 12
pages. In submitting a paper the author(s) agree that, upon acceptance,
they will prepare the final manuscript in time for inclusion into the
proceedings and will present the paper at the symposium.

Significantly extended and revised versions of selected papers will be
considered for publication in a special issue of the International Journal
on Artificial Intelligence Tools (IJAIT) (ISI/SCIE indexed) and the
Computers and Graphics journal(ISI/SCIE indexed). Moreover,
significantly extended and revised versions of selected papers from
the "Computational Bioimaging" special track will be considered for a
special issue of the Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical
Engineering: Imaging & Visualization journal.

A "best paper" award ($500) will be sponsored by MERL. The symposium's proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in Lecture Notes in Computer Science.


ISVC'14 Organizing Committee

CFP: Interactive Entertainment 2014 - Fun and Games – Call For Papers


Interactive Entertainment 2014 - Fun and Games – Call For Papers
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Location: University of Newcastle, Australia
Conference Dates:  2-3 December, 2014
Paper Submissions: 16 August, 2014
http://ieconference.org/ie2014/
Interactive Entertainment is Australasia's longest running games and digital entertainment conference. IE2014 marks the 10th anniversary of the conference which is hosted this year by the University of Newcastle, Australia.
IE2014 welcomes scientists, designers, artists, technicians, students, industry and academics from across the spectrum. We encourage contributions from fields as diverse as computer science, social science, design, communication, media studies, music, engineering, health and mathematics. Anyone interested in the myriad of technologies and issues that impact on interactive entertainment and computer games are encouraged to come along and share their discipline's perspective on "Fun and Games".   
TOPICS
---------
·         heuristic methodologies
·         control and evaluation
·         design practices and method
·         design history
·         transmedia
·         experience measurement
·         dynamic difficulty balancing
·         core mechanics
·         discussions on narrative
·         networking models
·         game physics
·         game graphics
·         sound design
·         artificial intelligence
·         user interface design
·         serious games
·         exergaming
·         development processes
·         evaluation methodologies
·         creativity in games
·         experimental gameplay forms
·         advances in mobile and portable games
·         Virtual Reality
·         interactive simulation
·         interactive film
·         animation in games
·         history of interactive media
·         commercial concerns
·         case studies on interactive applications
·         games thinking not listed here
SUBMISSIONS
------------------
IE2014 will accept four kinds of submissions; all types of submissions will be peer reviewed published online in the ACM International Conference Proceedings. http://www.acm.org/publications/icp_series
Regular Papers (Recommended length: 7-10 pages)
All regular papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Accepted papers are required to give a 15-20 minute presentation at the conference.
Short Papers (Recommended length: 3 pages)
Short papers represent novel work in progress that may not be yet as mature as regular submissions, but still represents a significant contribution to the field. All short papers will be peer reviewed for technical merit, significance, clarity and relevance to interactive entertainment. Accepted papers are required to present a poster at the conference.
Demo Submissions (Recommended length: 1 page)
Technical demonstrations show innovative and original implementations to interactive entertainment. Demo papers will be reviewed by the conference chair and the program chair for significance and relevance.
Exhibition Submissions (Recommended length: 1 page)
These submissions are for work which will be exhibited in the conference's dedicated space. Applicants are to submit a short write-up outlining and contextualising the work to be exhibited, including pictures. They will need to provide a clear understanding of the proposed exhibited design work and its relationship with interactive entertainment.
MORE INFORMATION
---------------------------
For more information, please visit http://ieconference.org/ie2014/ or email ieconference2014@gmail.com

Friday, July 25, 2014

Video: Gesture-based Process Modelling on QUT Cube



Fortune Truong has been at it again, developing new features for our prototype gesture-based modelling tool for the QUT Cube.  I particularly like the undo and redo gestures at 1:10 in the video.

Thanks to Information Systems School and the Institute of Future Environments at QUT for the support.

Well done Fortune!

Ross

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Info: Touch Screen Gesture-based Process Modelling

Picture on the left shows Markus Rittenbruch and Fortune Truong working in the QUT VISER laboratory on our new gesture-based process modeller, destined for the QUT Cube.


We have implemented a set of gestures to promote its use with large scale touch screen collaboration systems, such as the Cube.   Note, both participants in the image are modelling concurrently, as it is a multi-user system.


We will be looking for process modelling volunteers soon to perform a collaboration experiment. Keep your eyes peeled for an invite to take part in some leading edge collaborative modelling research.


Many thanks to Michael Rosemann (HOS) and Ian Mackinnon (IFE) for support, and the VISER laboratory for access to their Star Wars gear.


This project is a collaboration involving myself, Erik Poppe and Artem Polyvany at QUT, and Alex Nolte at Bochum University, Germany.


Get in contact if you are interested in the project.

Ross

Paper: Workflow patterns as a means to model task succession in games

Just had a paper accepted for ICEC 2014 (LNCS) with Simone Kriglstein and Guenter Wallner, colleagues from Vienna Austria.  Paper is found here.  In it, we seek to use workflow patterns to provide a formal basis for the modelling and simulation of user tasks in computer games.

Abstract. Over about the last decade, people involved in game development have noted the need for more formal models and tools to support the design phase of games. It is argued that the present lack of such formal tools is currently hindering knowledge transfer among designers. Formal visual languages, on the other hand, can help to more effectively express, abstract and communicate game design concepts. Moreover, formal tools can assist in the prototyping phase, allowing designers to reason about and simulate game mechanics on an abstract level.  In this paper we present an initial investigation into whether workflow patterns – which have already proven to be effective for modeling business processes – are a suitable way to model task succession in games.  Our preliminary results suggest that workflow patterns show promise in this regard but some limitations, especially in regard to time constraints, currently restrict their potential.

Ross

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

CFP: IVAPP 2015

Please consider submitting a paper to IVAPP 2015

CFP: APCCM 2015

-------------------------------------------------------

The Eleventh Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modeling (APCCM 2015)
     Jan. 27-30, 2015, Sydney, Australia
     http://2015.apccm.org
     Submission Deadline : Aug. 11 (Abstract) , Aug. 18 (Full Paper) 2014

=============================
Aims
=============================
The Asia-Pacific Conferences on Conceptual Modelling provide an annual forum for disseminating the results of innovative research in information modelling and related areas. The eleventh conference of the series will be held in January 2015 as part of the Australasian Computer Science Week (ACSW 2015), and the Australasian Computer Science Week 2015 will be hosted at the UWS Parramatta Campus in Sydney, Australia.
Registration for APCCM will enable delegates to attend sessions in any conference participating in the Australasian Computer Science Week.

=============================
Scope
=============================
The amount, complexity and diversity of information held in computer systems are constantly on the increase, and so are the requirements and challenges to be met for useful access and manipulation of this information. Conceptual modelling is fundamental to the development of up-to-date information and knowledge-based systems. The conference series aims at bringing together experts from all areas of computer science and information systems with a common interest in the subject.
APCCM invites papers describing original contributions in all fields of conceptual modelling and related areas. Papers should be no more than 10 pages in length conforming to the formatting instructions as outlined below.
APCCM invites contributions addressing current research in conceptual modelling as well as experiences, novel applications and future challenges. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

   Business, enterprise, process and services modelling;
   Concepts, concept theories and ontologies;
   Conceptual modelling and user participation;
   Conceptual modelling for
       Decision support and expert systems;
       Digital libraries;
       E-business, e-commerce and e-banking systems;
       Health care systems;
       Knowledge management systems;
       Mobile information systems;
       User interfaces; and
       Web-based systems;
   Conceptual modelling of semi-structured data and XML;
   Conceptual modelling of spatial, temporal and biological data;
   Conceptual modelling quality;
   Conceptual models for cloud computing applications;
   Conceptual models for supporting requirement engineering;
   Conceptual models in management science;
   Design patterns and object-oriented design;
   Evolution and change in conceptual models;
   Implementations of information systems;
   Information and schema integration;
   Information customisation and user profiles;
   Information recognition and information modelling;
   Information retrieval, analysis, visualisation and prediction;
   Information systems design methodologies;
   Knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and knowledge management;
   Methods for developing, validating and communicating conceptual models;
   Models for the Semantic Web;
   Philosophical, mathematical and linguistic foundations of conceptual models;
   Reuse, reverse engineering and reengineering; and
   Software engineering and tools for information systems development.

Each paper will be judged on its originality, significance, technical quality, relevance and presentation. The quality of accepted papers is further strengthened by a low acceptance rate of about 30%.
APCCM proceedings will be published by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) in the CRPIT Series. Please note that it is CRPIT policy that at least one author of all accepted papers to the conferences and workshops in the series would both register and present at the event concerned. Failure to do so without a reason acceptable to the organisers of the event will result in the paper being retrospectively withdrawn from both the proceedings and all citation sources.
It is also CRPIT policy that all papers be original and not concurrently submitted elsewhere. Once again, we reserve the right to retrospectively withdraw a paper from the proceedings if we later find this not to be the case.
After the conference, authors of the best papers will be invited to submit an extended version for publication in a joint Special Issue of the Journal of Universal Computer Science (J.UCS). 

===========================
Electronic Submission
===========================
Submission to APCCM 2015 will be electronically only via EasyChair at
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=apccm2015.

===========================
Important Dates
===========================
Abstract Submission: August 11th, 2014
Full Paper Submission: August 18th, 2014
Author Notification: October 07th, 2014
Camera-ready Paper Submission: October 28th, 2014
Author Registration: November 03rd, 2014
Early-bird Registration: December 01st, 2014
ACSW 2015 Conferences: January 27th -- 30th, 2015

===========================
Conference Organization
===========================

Program Committee Chairs
Motoshi Saeki   (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
Henning Koehler   (Massey University, New Zealand)

Publicity Chairs
Markus Kirchberg   (VISA Inc. & National University of Singapore)

Programm Committee Memebers
Joao Paulo Almeida, Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil
Boualem Benatallah, University of New South Wales, Australia
Marko Boskovic, Research Studios Austria
Ross Brown, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Gill Dobbie, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Flavio Ferrarotti, Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand
Aditya Ghose, University of Wollongong, Australia
Georg Grossmann, University of South Australia, Australia
Sven Hartmann, Clausthal University of Technology, Germany
Brian Henderson-Sellers, University of Technology, Australia
Markus Kirchberg, VISA Inc. and National University of Singapore, Singapore
Hiroyuki Kitagawa, Tsukuba University, Japan
Yasushi Kiyoki, Keio University, Japan
Henning Koehler, Massey University, New Zealand
Aneesh Krishna, Curtin University, Australia
Alberto Laender, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Lam-Son Le, University of Wollongong, Australia
Chiang Lee, National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan
Sebastian Link, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Hui Ma, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Takako Nakatani, Tsukuba University, Japan
Christine Natschlager, Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Austria
Martin Necasky, Charles University, Czech Republic
Wilfred Ng, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Jolita Ralyte, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Jan Recker, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Michael Rosemann, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Motoshi Saeki, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Michael Schrefl, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Nigel Stanger, University of Otago, New Zealand
Markus Stumptner, University of South Australia, Australia
Ernest Teniente, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain
Riccardo Torlone, Roma Tre University, Italy
Qing Wang, Australian National University, Australia
Eric Yu, University of Toronto, Canada

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Paper Review: Learning to Manipulate and Categorize in Human and Artificial Agents

#Title#
Learning to Manipulate and Categorize in Human and Artificial Agents

#Authors#
Giuseppe Morlino, Claudia Gianelli, Anna M. Borghi, Stefano Nolfia

#Venue#
Cognitive Science (2014) 1–26

#DOI#
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12130

#Abstract#
This study investigates the acquisition of integrated object manipulation and categorization abilities through a series of experiments in which human adults and artificial agents were asked to learn to manipulate two-dimensional objects that varied in shape, color, weight, and color intensity. The analysis of the obtained results and the comparison of the behavior displayed by human and artificial agents allowed us to identify the key role played by features affecting the agent/environment  interaction, the relation between category and action development, and the role of cognitive biases originating from previous knowledge.

#Comments#
The paper looks at issues in the effect of action on categorisation.  They present that categorisation is grounded in in the sensorimotor system, according to present experiments and theory.  And again suggest the central role of action in cognition.

They also look at the issues around how categories enable the flexible usage of objects, and how the grasping of objects changes according to the tasks needed, as per the classic idea of affordances by Gibson (1979).

Important quote: "Affordances are proposed to be the product of the conjunction, in the brain, of repeated visuomotor experiences." Probably a no-brainer to the design community, but important to me, as I need to see this generalise to virtual worlds.  It should be noted that the systems used in this experiment were synthetic, so the effects should generalise to a virtual world, as it is simply shapes and colours with physical properties.  However, there is a history of visual search research with simple shapes not generalising to real images.  This must be considered in any assumptions of efficacy in virtual world simulations.

The experiments involved the manipulation of 2D objects on the screen with a mouse pointer in placing and shaking tasks.   The weight of the objects is aligned with categories and some of the categories are also based on colour, blinking and shape.  The humans (20) were compared to neural network agents.

"The results indicated the discriminative features affecting the agent environment interaction such as weight facilitate the acquisition of the required categorisation abilities with respect to alternative features that are equally informative but that do not affect the outcome of the agent actions."  This leads them to the conclusion that the categorisation for both humans and agents, not withstanding any other factors, is affected by the embodiment of the activity; weight required interaction, not just observation.

The results showed support for a model whereby the interaction with light vs heavy objects produces categories far more effectively than other factors.  Embodied action thus has a great affect on categorisation, whether it affects every category is still uncertain, as the other visual effects (from grounded cognitive affects) still caused categories to form, just not as soon in the training.

They consider this to contribute to a STRONG position of embodiment being central to the creation of categories, and not just being a more peripheral contributor.

They also note a shape effect with humans, ie. they used a curvilinear path with circles, and a rectilinear path with square.  Thus previous memories of the objects influenced their actions and thus the categories.

They also note that the categories are from an interaction of the agent with the environment, and not so from top-down or bottom-up processes exclusively, not overgeneralised or fine granularity categories, but as a dynamic process between agent and environment.

While this is categorisation, and not a memory task, one still has to wonder, for my work, if the memory of a process will be much more enhanced by embodied interactions, and not just visual interactions alone.  One could hypothesise that if the category is more strongly created with embodied action, then the memory of that category (if it maps to say activity specifications) then should be stronger on acting it out.  So an Occulus and Kinect space should measurably work better in process memory tasks than a pure visual space; with both working better than a simple interview.

Something to think about I guess.

#ImportantRefs#

CFP Extension: TAProViz 2014 extended to the 8th June!

The submission date of our process visualisation workshop is now extended to the 8th June.  Please consider contributing a paper.  Details are here.



Ross

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Video: Virtual World S-BPM Elicitator



Video of S-BPM based virtual world modelling tool developed by my Honours student Joel Harman with the financial assistance of Metasonic, AG - http://www.metasonic.de/

The tool allows a stakeholder to use a 3D representation of their work place to provide activity and message information to create an S-BPM model.

This was presented and tested in focus groups at the S-BPM One conference in Eichstaett over Easter.

Well done Joel! Thanks again to Metasonic for the provision of a scholarship for Joel and travel money to Eichstaett.

Ross

Paper Review: How Social Distance of Process Designers Affects the Process of Process Modeling

#Title#
How Social Distance of Process Designers Affects the Process of Process Modeling:
Insights From a Controlled Experiment

#Authors#
Jens Kolb, Michael Zimoch, Barbara Weber, Manfred Reichert
#Venue#
In: 29th Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 2014), Enterprise Engineering Track, 24-28 March, 2014, Gyeongju, South Korea.

#DOI#
http://dbis.eprints.uni-ulm.de/1011/

#Abstract#
The increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAISs) by enterprises has resulted in large process model collections. Usually, process models are created either by in-house domain experts or external consultants. Thereby, high model quality is crucial, i.e., process mod- els should be syntactically correct and sound, and also reflect the real business processes properly. While numerous guidelines exist for creating correct and sound process mod- els, there is only little work dealing with cognitive aspects affecting process modeling. This paper addresses this gap and presents a controlled experiment using construal level theory. We investigate the influence the social distance of a process designer to the modeled domain has on the creation of process models. In particular, we are able to show significant differences between high and low social distance in respect to model quality and granularity. The results may help enterprises to compose adequate teams for creating or optimizing business process models.

#Comments#

Dsiclaimer!!! I do work with these people, and have a virtual world now with Jens and Michael, as a further extension to this work.  However, I am reviewing this paper as it has relevance to the situated cognition aspects that I am investigating, so I thought I would mull over it a little.

So their paper talks about a psychological distance concept, derived from Construal Level Theory (Todorov) which is a social psychology construct.  While it makes sense, I wonder whether this distance is related to how grounded, embodied or situated the memory of the tasks has become, I think social distance is linked to straight forward memory of sequences in some way.

Is the social distance related or synonymous with theories of situated cognition and memory with task sequences.  The context of their work is within the view-oriented visuals generated by their proView project implementation.  However, that is for typical process models, not 3D visuals of a work place.

Does social distance creates abstraction? Or does it simply provide different memories of acting out the process, or, different simulations of that process from our own internal perspectives?!?!?

They do note spatial issues, but have not addressed this in their work.

Interestingly, their thoughts give support to my ideas of using virtual worlds to engage people at the level of operationalisation in a process.  A first hypothesis could be: does the use of the virtual world undermine some of the social distance by the act of roleplaying the process in front of the analyst doing the modelling?!?

From their analysis: "In summary, hypotheses H1,1 and H1,3 can be accepted. In turn, hypothesis H1,4 is only partially supported and thus it cannot be accepted. Further, hypothesis H1,2 must be rejected. From this, we can conclude that low social distance has a positive impact on the granularity (H1,1) and semantic quality (H1,3) of resulting process models. We may also assume that low social distance has a positive impact on the perceived quality (H1,4); however, since it is partially supported, it cannot be generalized. Regarding syntactic quality (H1,2), no statistically significant difference is observed."

So the closer the social distance, the better are the semantic and granular aspects of the model.  I find interesting the observation that the only change is the modelling brief at the start having a stranger vs intimate friend in the lunch acquisition process.  It is intriguing that the social distance has an effect on the articulation of a process, and at a significant level on first analysis.  Does, maybe, this even come down to motivation?!?  Could it be that the participants were primed by the reference to friend to be more engaged in the task.  I note no controls on this aspect in the paper, but maybe I missed some subtlety in my brief reading.

Also, could the emotional attachment priming have affected the acquisition of memories, memories that can be read by the person in their modelling task.  So, is it social distance, or attachment levels that are measured here?  Maybe some controls around the identity of the person they are lunching with are needed.  Hey, if I imagined my lovely partner Ulrike, then I can imagine it affecting my motivation levels in some way. :-)

Also, the chances are that they have a memory of lunching with friends, and not with foreign strangers, thus the particpants are reading straight from memory.

My final thoughts are that there may be more experimentation needed to tease out the interactions of social distance vs actual memories vs motivation levels.

However, an intriguing paper, with lots of future analysis possibilities relevant to my work.


#ImportantRefs#

Construal Theory - Todorov, A., Goren, A., Trope, Y.: Probability as a Psychological Distance: Construal and Preferences. J Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007) 473–482

Semiotic Theory and Conceptual Models - Lindland, O.I., Sindre, G., Solvberg, A.: Understanding Quality in Conceptual Modeling. IEEE Software 11 (1994) 42–49

Experimental Design - Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Ho ̈st, M., Ohlsson, M.C., Regnell, B., Wesslen, A.: Experimentation in Software Engineering - An Introduction. Kluwer (2000)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Paper Review: Aspects of situated cognition in embodied numerosity: the case of finger counting

#Title#
Aspects of situated cognition in embodied numerosity: the case of finger counting

#Authors#
Mirjam Wasner, Korbinian Moeller, Martin H. Fischer, Hans-Christoph Nuerk

#Venue#
Cognitive Processing, Springer Verlag

#DOI#
DOI 10.1007/s10339-014-0599-z

#Abstract#
Numerical cognitions such as spatial-numerical associations have been observed to be influenced by
grounded, embodied and situated factors. For the case of finger counting, grounded and embodied influences have been reported. However, situated influences, e.g., that reported counting habits change with perception and action within a given situation, have not been systematically examined. To pursue the issue of situatedness of reported finger-counting habits, 458 participants were tested in three separate groups: (1) spontaneous condition: counting with both hands available, (2) perceptual condition: counting with horizontal (left-to-right) perceptual arrangement of fingers (3) perceptual and proprioceptive condition: counting with horizontal (left-to-right) perceptual arrangement of fingers and with busy dominant hand.  Report of typical counting habits differed strongly between the three conditions. 28 % reported to start counting with the left hand in the spontaneous counting condition (1),
54 % in the perceptual condition (2) and 62 % in the perceptual and proprioceptive condition (3). Additionally, all participants in the spontaneous counting group showed a symmetry-based counting pattern (with the thumb as number 6), while in the two other groups, a considerable Numerical cognitions such as spatial-numerical associations have been observed to be influenced by
grounded, embodied and situated factors. For the case of finger counting, grounded and embodied influences have been reported. However, situated influences, e.g., that reported counting habits change with perception and action within a given situation, have not been systematically examined. To pursue the issue of situatedness of reported finger-counting habits, 458 participants were tested in three
separate groups: (1) spontaneous condition: counting with both hands available, (2) perceptual condition: counting with horizontal (left-to-right) perceptual arrangement of fingers (3) perceptual and proprioceptive condition: counting with horizontal (left-to-right) perceptual arrangement of fingers and with busy dominant hand.  Report of typical counting habits differed strongly between the three conditions. 28 % reported to start counting with the left hand in the spontaneous counting condition (1),
54 % in the perceptual condition (2) and 62 % in the perceptual and proprioceptive condition (3). Additionally, all participants in the spontaneous counting group showed a symmetry-based counting pattern (with the thumb as number 6), while in the two other groups, a considerable

#Comments#

A key insight comes from the statement that all or at least some of our knowledge representations have a situated component drawn from the circumstances of knowledge acquisition.

They suggest that cognitive reps are grounded on the physical properties in the real world - grounded cognitions, as compared to embodied cognition, which is based upon a proprioceptive feedback from our sensor motor systems as they engage with the physical world.  Finally, situated cognition is associated with the tasks being performed, from contextual information presented.

Thus counting has been associated with grounded cognition; the number of objects in the world, but not so far with a situated form of cognition.  Note that large numbers above us in space is consistent from culture to culture, but left to right effects in grounded cognition occur from the written language rules of the culture; left to right or right to left effects due to numerical reading order.

This differentiation is a key issue for my work in virtual worlds, as we can see effects coming from the visual perception of the worlds, in a form of grounded cognition, but in the case of desktop virtual worlds, we can only have a mediated experience of the world, so key situated cognition paths in our brains are not engaged due to lack of sensory motor feedback.

This is evidence of a layering of the cognitive effects of VWs on people, due to levels of immersion.  Thus even with Kinect based interfaces etc., unless there is haptic feedback, we will lack a lot of the information required to make a full recall of information available from previous experiences of the task.

So does this indicate that the knowledge is compartmentalised into the various senses, with some relationships in between?  What would change in our cognition when moving from a desktop world, to an embodied world.  The idea is that the sensory motor component is strongly related to the task information; ie. you have access to this memory when you perform the task with your body.

This may explain why we cannot articulate verbally our work practices without the use of our bodies to prompt recall, even with a visual representation, we need embodiment and task context to fully activate all recall; ie. a physical role-play.

Is there another level, the differentiation between real-context and roleplaying context, the so-called suspension of disbelief, where we think the representation is real, and not a synthetic representation?

Thus the major contribution of the paper is to note the influence of task context effects on the finger counting process.  So for me, the question is whether this effect continues into complex work environment tasks in processes.

So, in an experiment, we can hypothesise that for a memory test, the use of an immersive system (Occulus) will produce different results to a desktop screen virtual world.  We expect that the task specified will be influenced by the part of the body used in the experiment.  This could be an important concept to explore with memory and immersive virtual worlds.

#ImportantRefs#

Loetscher T, Schwarz U, Schubiger M, Brugger P (2008) Head turns
bias the brain’s random number generator. Curr Biol 18(2):R60–
R62

Friday, May 9, 2014

2nd CFP: TAProViz 2014 : 3rd International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization

2nd Call For Papers

3rd International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization, Haifa, Israel - 08 September 2014


In conjunction with the 12th International Conference on Business Process Management BPM2014 - http://bpm2014.haifa.ac.il/

========================
Call for Papers
========================

Visualizations can make the structure and dependencies between elements in processes accessible in order to support users who need to analyze process models and their instances. However, effectively visualizing processes in a user-friendly way is often a big challenge, especially for complex process models which can consist of hundreds of process components (e.g., process activities, data flows, and resources) and thousands of running process instances in different execution states. Many challenges remain to be addressed within the broad area of process visualization such as: scalability, human-computer interaction, cognitive aspects, applicability of different approaches, collaboration, process evolution, run-time requirements of process instances and applications, etc.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

* Visual Metaphors in Processes
* Visual Design and Aesthetics for Processes
* Visualization of Dynamic Data in Processes
* Change Visualization for Processes
* Interface and Interaction Techniques for Process Visualization
* Visualization Techniques for Collaboration and Distributed Processes
* Visualization of Large-scale Processes
* Cognition and Perception in Process Visualization
* Evaluation and User Studies of Process Visualization
* Visual Modeling Languages
* Analysis Techniques and Visualization for Processes
* Process Visualization of Large Screens
* Mobile Process Visualization
* Visualization Tools and Systems for Processes
* Visualization Techniques for Processes
* Process Visualization and Sonification
* Virtual World Process Visualization
* Immersive Process Modeling Approaches
* 3D Process Visualization Approaches

========================
Format of the Workshop
========================

The half day workshop will comprise accepted papers and tool evaluations. Papers should be submitted in advance and will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee.

This year will also include a new innovation in the programme. Part of the workshop time (depending on the number of prototype submissions) will be set aside for focus group assessments of tools. We will be requesting tool report authors, successful workshop paper authors and panel members attending BPM, to assist in the assessment of demonstration visualization techniques and software. This evaluation process will be a service to attendees, as these heuristic assessments can be written up later as separate papers, or by the workshop chairs as an aggregated workshop outcome. Such evaluations will be an exciting addition to the workshop, as people experienced in Information Visualization, BPM, HCI and related fields, will provide detailed feedback on your prototypes. The evaluation approach is largely in the hands of the tool report writers, but at a minimum, should involve direct interaction with your software and some form of validation via a questionnaire.

All accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) series. There will be a single LNBIP volume dedicated to the proceedings of all BPM workshops. As this volume will appear after the conference, there will be informal proceedings during the workshop. At least one author for each accepted paper should register for the workshop and present the paper.

========================
Important Dates
========================

* Deadline for workshop paper submissions: 1 June 2014
* Notification of Acceptance: 1 July 2014
* Camera-ready version: 23 July 2014
* TAProViz Workshop: 8 September 2014

========================
Paper Submission
========================

Prospective authors are invited to submit papers for presentation in any of the areas listed above.

Three types of submissions are possible:

* (1) full papers (12 pages long) reporting mature research results
* (2) position papers reporting research that may be in preliminary stage that has not yet been evaluated
* (3) tool reports, to be evaluated at the workshop

Position papers and tool reports should be no longer than 6 pages. Tool reports should include a brief evaluation plan as an appendix, for the evaluation session at the workshop on the day.

Papers must be in English and must present original research contributions not concurrently submitted elsewhere. Papers should be submitted in the LNBIP format. The title page must contain a short abstract, a classification of the topics covered, preferably using the list of topics above, and an indication of the submission category (regular paper/position paper/tool report).

All accepted workshop papers will be published by Springer as a post-workshop proceedings volume in the series Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP). Hard copies of these proceedings will be shipped to all registered participants approximately four months after the workshops, while preliminary proceedings will be distributed during the workshop.

Submitted papers will be evaluated, in a double blind manner, on the basis of significance, originality, technical quality, and exposition. Papers should clearly establish their research contribution and the relation to the theory and application of process visualization.

========================
Registration
========================
Accepted papers imply that at least one of the authors will register for BPM2014 and present the paper at the TAProViz workshop.

Further workshop information is available from the website:http://www.wst.univie.ac.at/topics/taproviz14/

Hope to see you at TAProViz'14!

Thanks and best regards,

Ross Brown
Simone Kriglstein
Stefanie Rinderle-Ma


TAProViz Organising Committee