Paper: Improving Remote Collaborative Process Modelling using Embodiment in 3D Virtual Environments

Our paper "Improving Remote Collaborative Process Modelling using Embodiment in 3D Virtual Environments," by Erik Poppe, Ross Brown, Jan Recker and Daniel Johnson, has been accepted at APCCM 2013.

Abstract: Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually  require the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational settings.  While modern process modelling  technologies are beginning to provide a number of features  to support remote, they lack support for visual cues used in co-located collaboration. In this paper,  we  examine the importance of visual cues for collaboration  tasks in collaborative process modelling.   Based on this analysis,  we  present a prototype 3D virtual world process modelling tool that supports a number of visual cues to facilitate remote collaborative process model creation and validation.  We then report on a preliminary analysis of the technology. In conclusion, we proceed to describe the future direction of our research with regards to the theoretical contributions expected from the evaluation of the tool.

Well done Erik!

Ross

Ad: QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment End of Year 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 2 November 2012
Time: 4:30pm – 9pm
Venue: The Edge, State Library of Queensland's Digital Culture Centre Stanley Place, South Brisbane,  Queensland 4101
Map - http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/about/visit#southbank

RSVP: Please RSVP to Ross Brown by 1st November
(Email: r.brown@qut.edu.au)

The show will include the best work created by students graduating from the BGIE degree. The show is an opportunity for you and the industry to meet our graduating students and see some outstanding work. Have fun playing these new games and catch up with friends and colleagues from the industry!

Ross

Paper: Workflow Resource Pattern Modelling and Visualization

Just got the following conference paper "Workflow Resource Pattern Modelling and Visualization" accepted for ACSC 2013 conference, Adelaide, Australia.  Paper is here.

Abstract: Workflow patterns have been recognized as the theoretical basis to modeling recurring problems in workflow systems. A form of workflow patterns, known as the resource patterns, characterise the behaviour of resources in workflow systems. Despite the fact that many resource patterns have been discovered, people still preclude them from many workflow system implementations. One of reasons could be obscurity in the behaviour of and interaction between resources and a workflow management system. Thus, we provide a modelling and visualization approach for the resource patterns, enabling a resource behaviour modeller to intuitively see the specific resource patterns involved in the lifecycle of a workitem. We believe this research can be extended to benefit not only workflow modelling, but also other applications, such as model validation, human resource behaviour modelling, and workflow model visualization.

Well done Hanwen!

Ross

Paper: First international workshop on theory and applications of process visualization

Have just uploaded a version of the front matter for our TAProViz, BPM2012 Workshop in Tallinn, Estonia.

The workshop went very well, with great assistance by my co-chairs Simone Kriglstein and Stefanie Rinderle-Ma.  Thanks to all the presenters, especially to Manfred Reichert who presented the keynote.

We have been asked for copies of the proceedings, but unfortunately Springer holds the copyright on the camera versions.  If you are interested, you may wish contact the authors in the list of papers, to see if they are happy to hand you a draft copy of their paper.

Photos are available here, taken by Simone.

Ross

Paper: Sustaining the future through virtual worlds

Paper "Sustaining the future through virtual worlds" has been accepted at Annual Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference (ASCILITE), 2012, results of educational survey put together by Susan Gregory at UNE, with me as one of many authors.  Paper is here.

Abstract: Virtual worlds continue to be used in Australia and New Zealand higher education institutions although the hype has settled. Whilst some higher education institutions continue to use virtual worlds as they have done for some time, other institutions are trialing different virtual worlds and some are opting out altogether. An overview of how 46 authors from 28 institutions see virtual worlds as an opportunity to sustain the future of higher education is presented. The positives and negatives of using virtual worlds are discussed.

Ross

Paper: Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services

Just had a paper "Interactive product browsing and configuration using remote augmented reality sales services" accepted into the ICSOC 2012 Workshop : Service Clouds in the Enterprise and Beyond.  QUT ePrints Link is here.

Abstract: Real-time remote sales assistance is an underdeveloped component of online sales services. Solutions involving web page text chat, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with configurations of physically complex artefacts. Recently, there has been great interest in the application of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments for remote sales of physical artefacts. However, there is a lack of analysis and development of appropriate software services to support these processes. We extend our previous work with the detailed design of configuration context services to support the management of an interactive sales session using augmented reality. We detail the context and configuration services required, presenting a novel data service streaming configuration information to the vendor for business analytics. We expect that a fully implemented configuration management service, based on our design, will improve the remote sales experience for both customers and vendors alike via analysis of the streamed information.

Many thanks to Helen Paik (UNSW) and Alistair Barros (QUT) for their contributions.

Ross

Paper: Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies

Just had a paper Neural network-based detection of virtual environment anomalies accepted to Neural Computing and Applications, with Alfredo Nantes and Frederic Maire.  The paper is here at QUT ePrints, and here at Springer.

Abstract The increasingly widespread use of large scale 3D virtual environments has translated into an increasing effort required from designers, developers and testers. While considerable research has been conducted in assisting the design of virtual world content and mechanics, to date, only limited contributions have been made regarding the automatic testing of the underpinning graphics software and hardware. In this work, two novel neural network-based approaches are presented to predict the correct visualization of 3D content. Multi-Layer Perceptrons and Self Organizing Maps are trained to learn the normal geometric and color appearance of the objects from validated frames, and used to detect novel or anomalous renderings in new images. Our approach is general, for the appearance of the object is learned rather than explicitly represented. Experiments were conducted on a game engine to determine the applicability and effectiveness of our algorithms. The results show that the neural network technology can be effectively used to address the problem of automatic and reliable visual testing of 3D virtual environments.

Well done Alfredo!

Ross