Cyberworlds

Este artículo analiza las consecuencias del cierre de la plataforma digital There.com y las actividades de los usuarios tras este suceso. Se trata de uno de los cibermundos sociales más populares, junto con Second Life y Habbo. El estudio demuestra que, ante una situación crítica como es el cierre de una plataforma digital, las audiencias se revelan como especialmente creativas, participativas y colaborativas en la búsqueda de nuevos espacios en los que seguir en contacto y restablecer su comunidad, lo cual pone de manifiesto el carácter sólido, estable y duradero de los vínculos y relaciones tejidas en internet.

The work focuses on the description and evaluation of an augmented reality nanomanipulator, called “NanoLearner” platform used as educational tool in practical works of nanophysics. Through virtual reality associated to multisensory renderings, students are immersed in the nanoworld where they can interact in real time with a sample surface or an object, using their senses as hearing, seeing and touching. The role of each sensorial rendering in the understanding and control of the "approach-retract" interaction has been determined thanks to statistical studies obtained during the practical works. Finally, we present two extensions of the use of this innovative tool for investigating nano effects in living organisms and for allowing grand public to have access to a natural understanding of nanophenomena.

Abstract Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is one of the leading killers worldwide. Lipoprotein and apolipoprotein play an important role in developing CHDs. To tackle the challenging task of CHD lipoprotein and atherosclerotic research, collaborative work is crucial. With an ...

The work focuses on the description and evaluation of an augmented reality nanomanipulator, called “NanoLearner” platform used as educational tool in practical works of nanophysics. Through virtual reality associated to multisensory renderings, students are immersed in the nanoworld where they can interact in real time with a sample surface or an object, using their senses as hearing, seeing and touching. The role of each sensorial rendering in the understanding and control of the "approach-retract" interaction has been determined thanks to statistical studies obtained during the practical works. Finally, we present two extensions of the use of this innovative tool for investigating nano effects in living organisms and for allowing grand public to have access to a natural understanding of nanophenomena.

This article shows that the creation of cyberworlds (interactive virtual environments) can be an excellent educational tool covering a wide range of computer science and engineering disciplines. We present the experiences gathered during more than one semester of work with computer science students in the framework of semester projects developed at the virtual reality lab of EPFL. Our objective is to share the lessons learnt by both the students and researchers (project advisors). We describe the projects proposed, the methods applied to help the students reach the objectives, the problems faced during the development work and how we managed to solve them.

This paper describes HyperMem, a system to store and replay user experiences in mixed reality worlds. The experience is stored as a set of hypermedia nodes and links, with the information that was displayed along with the video of the real world that was navigated. It uses a generic hypermedia model implemented as software components developed to handle mixed reality environments. This approach is applied to an augmented museum, that includes information and gaming activities in the physical and virtual 3D worlds. The paper presents the goals of the system, the underlying hypermedia model, the type of worlds that we are considering, and the architecture and tools for replaying and repurposing stored information