Using collaborative virtual geographic environment for fire disaster simulation and virtual fire training

Since barrier lakes are affected by a highly changing and complex environment, it is always a great challenge to determine the proper actions that must be performed within a limited amount of time. Existing methods have some restrictions, such as the dispersed data resources and personnel, the loose model integration, and the complicated and unfriendly user interface, which results in low efficiency of dam-break risk assessment under emergency response conditions. These issues were addressed in this paper by constructing a collaborative virtual geographic environment (CVGE), which supports three levels of deeper applications including sharing of distributed resources, tightly geographic process simulation and visualisation analysis, and geographic collaboration. A virtual resource environment and mobile computing service were designed for the distributed resource sharing. A spatiotemporal process model based on cellular automata and parallel computing optimisation was proposed and integrated for real-time simulation and analysis of dam-break risk assessment of barrier lakes. A distributed virtual geographic scene and collaborative workflow were designed to improve the operational efficiency of the models with respect to initiation, computation, output visualisation and analysis. A prototype system was developed to support collaborative dam-break risk assessment of the Xiaojiaqiao barrier lake in Anxian County, Sichuan Province, China. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method could efficiently improve the efficiency of dam-break risk assessment on data supporting, model computation, and visualisation analysis.

A collaborative virtual geographic environment (CVGE) is a 3-D, distributed, and graphical world representing and simulating geographic phenomena and processes to enable geographically distributed users to explore geoproblems and theories and generate hypotheses, and to support geomodel building and validation and collaborative ecological planning. This chapter reports an approach to establishing a CVGE across the Internet, and its application to the collaborative planning of silt dam systems in watersheds through the integration of distributed virtual environments, geographical information systems (GIS), planning models of dam systems, and geocollaboration. The chapter addresses the conceptual and system frameworks of the distributed CVGE, and the 3-D modeling of virtual geographic environments and virtual collaborative studios in addition to the mediated tools for collaboration, such as streaming media based communication, shared whiteboards for text input and graphics drawing, and text-based dialogue. In a case study of the Qiu-Yuan-Gou watershed, Suide County, Shanxi Province, China, a prototype system is designed and developed with Java, Java3D, and VRML. The complete dam systems in the Qiu-Yuan-Gou watershed represent a typical example model of a massive silt dam construction project on the Loess Plateau. The study employs the example model of the watershed to explore the methodologies of collaborative spatial planning of silt dam systems. Using the prototype system, participants can implement communication with each other via media tools, mainly in the virtual collaborative studio, and 3-D editing of shared dams, calculation of topographic properties, and ideal spatial distribution of dam systems in virtual geographic environment.

Advances in Virtual Reality (VR) systems, Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Agent Technology make it possible to design and develop Virtual Training Environments (VTEs), where the trainees can immerse themselves and interact directly with the learning domain. This paper presents the Interaction Specification Workspace (ISW) architecture for the specification and design of virtual environments for training purposes. ISW architecture provides the interaction designer with the capability to specify the training interaction with the virtual environment using the Virtual Reality Multi Flow Graph (VR-MFG) as the underlying interaction specification model. ISW implements a design space, where the processes of interaction specification and design of VTEs take place inside a three-dimensional virtual environment, the objects of which are tools by themselves. Inside this workspace, the designer can associate the abstract objects (the components of the VR-MFG) with “actual” objects of the target virtual environment (kept in a “world” database) and apply a number of agent templates with training capabilities.

The human inspector performing visual inspection of an aircraft is the backbone of the aircraft inspection process, a vital element in assuring safety and reliability of an air transportation system. Training is an effective strategy for improving their inspection performance. A drawback of present-day on-the-job (OJT) training provided to aircraft inspectors is the limited exposure to different defect types. Previous studies have shown offline feedback training using virtual reality (VR) simulators to be effective in improving visual inspection performance. This research aims at combining the advantages of VR technology that includes exposure to a wide variety of defects and the one-on-one tutoring approach of OJT by implementing a collaborative virtual training environment. In an immersive collaborative virtual environment (CVE), avatars are used to represent the co-participants. In a CVE, information of where the trainer is pointing can be provided to a trainee as visual deictic reference (VDR). This study evaluates the effectiveness of simulating on-the-job training in a CVE for aircraft inspection training, providing VDR slaved to a 3D mouse used by the trainer for pointing. The results of this study show that the training was effective in improving inspection performance.

Training in virtual environments: putting theory into practice

In-class teaching not only concentrates on lecture content delivery but also on maintaining strong mutuality between lecturer-students and student-student. Online lectures are gaining popularity due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the learning-teaching process has become ineffective because existing video conferencing solutions are not intended for academic purposes. This research was conducted to identify the pain points of online education and develop an enhanced software solution. A user survey confirmed that an isolated environment tends to diminish attentiveness during online lectures. Also, it is difficult for teachers to observe the attentiveness of all the students. As a solution, student attentiveness was measured using their facial expressions and collected data shown to lecturers through a virtual student behavioural environment. The physical separation causes students to feel isolated during lectures, which can negatively affect their academic development and social and psychological development. The developed application also provides a virtual group study environment as a feature. According to the results gathered in the user acceptance testing phase, it was found that the attention detection feature helps students keep their attention at a significant level. Further, 9 out of 10 teachers who participated in the testing acknowledged that the simulated student behavioural view could provide a more immersive experience. 71% of students preferred the new collaborative virtual environment, and students further elaborated that the virtual environment was more likely the physical group studies. 72% of students mentioned that the collaborative group study tool helped eliminate isolation during group studies.

Changes to Training Practices during a Pandemic - The Experience of the Irish National Trauma & Orthopaedic Training Scheme

As one of the most expensive and frequently used resources, cranes play an essential role in the operation of activities on construction sites. They require certified operators whose knowledge of codes and regulations is essential for safe and productive lift tasks. Blind spots pose a significant issue for crane operators as they limit the crane operator’s field-of-view that potentially slows down execution of such tasks. Often collaboration between crane operators and ground personnel is limited and requires advanced communication techniques, such as radios, to resolve the limited visibility issue. Although visualization technology has been widely adopted in practice to enhance visibility, education and training programs related to cranes lack multi-user collaboration environments. This paper presents an approach towards developing a virtual training environment that allows multiple subjects to participate in lifting operations cooperatively. Through a 3D real-time immersive user visualization interface users are able to perform hands-on tasks such as operating cranes and directing blind lifts. In addition, geometry constraints and safety hazards are introduced to augment the simulation-fidelity of the virtual training environment. A test involving two users was conducted and the results show that the proposed approach can effectively simulate collaborative tasks in crane lifting operations. This study has potential to enhance the productivity and safety of crane lifting operations.

This chapter reviews and compares the most promising collaborative virtual environment platforms, which have been used or proposed for supporting educational activities in terms of their potential to support collaborative e-learning. The most promising environment according to the results of this review is Second Life. Second Life is further examined by validating the platform’s features, philosophy and policies against some basic design principles for collaborative virtual learning environments in order to better assess its design adequacy for online learning. Furthermore, the chapter will present the features that the authors have implemented within the Second Life platform, in order to facilitate both the jigsaw and fishbowl collaborative e-learning techniques. Finally, the authors will present a case study concerning the evaluation of Second Life by undergraduate students in order to assess its potential to support these collaborative e-learning techniques.

Aim. This article investigates how Virtual Collaborative Learning environments can be integrated into university courses and what their implications are so that they promote more meaningful learning. Two pilot courses, which were part of the Erasmus+ CBHE Valeu-X project, Business Communication and Image Processing offered by "Aleksander Moisiu", University Durres, were part of this research. This study focuses on how the designs of VCL can help students improve problem-solving skills, confidence, and communication skills, encourage engagement and social interaction, and inspire creativity. Methods. Qualitative research design was used in this study with data collected and analysed manually by the researcher. The participatory observation was used in the implementation of two pilot courses – Image Processing and Business Communication using Teams as their online learning platform. The data were gathered through the close observation of the dynamics in Virtual Collaborative Learning environments focusing on the roles and interactions between the participants. Results. This research proves that assigning roles to students during online learning group activity helps them collaborate effectively. At the same time, tutors were preferred as they are referred to as helpers among students. Teams were able to study together and socialize with one another by assigning specific tasks to the team members and by using the appropriate tools. Conclusion. Virtual collaborative learning ought to be taught in university courses, particularly in Europe's emerging nations. It involves assigning tasks to group members to foster productivity and cooperation. According to the study's participants, e-tutors play a critical role in the educational process.

We present in this paper researches focused on specification and production of virtual training environments. The use of Virtual Environments (VE) for training is strongly stimulated by important needs of training on sensitive equipment. But the development of such applications is generally done in new projects, where the reusability of existing developments is a major issue. We present here a platform of development, based on internal models that have been designed to achieve this reusability and standardization for the efficient development of new virtual environments. We defined a new generic model named STORM, used to describe reusable behaviors for 3D objects and reusable interactions between those objects or with humans. We also defined a scenario language named LORA, which allow non-computer scientists author various and complex sequences of tasks in a virtual scene. Based on those models, as an industrial validation with Nexter-Group, we have created 20 operational scenarios of maintenance virtual training on military equipments. We are also begining to create collaborative environments, where virtual and real humans have to collaborate to achieve their procedures.

Collaborative virtual assembly environment is a vital computer-aided design tool in product design and can be used as a learning and training tool. It helps in supporting complex product design by enabling designers to collaborate and communicate with other designers involved in the product design. This paper proposes a collaborative virtual assembly environment built in two phases for the immersive and non-immersive environments. Phase one was developed in Unity 3D using Virtual Reality Toolkit (VRTK) and Steam VR. Whereas, phase two was built using Vizard and Vizible. This work aims to allow scientists and engineers to discuss the concept design in a real-time VR environment so that they can interact with the objects and review their work before it is deployed. This paper proposes the system architecture and describes the design and implementation of a collaborative virtual assembly environment. The outcome of this work is to be able to resolve communication and interaction problems that arise during the concept-design phase.

Purpose: To examine the reaction time when human subjects process information presented in the visual channel under both a direct vision and a virtual rehabilitation environment when walking was performed.Method: Visual stimulus included eight math problems displayed on the peripheral vision to seven healthy human subjects in a virtual rehabilitation training (computer-assisted rehabilitation environment (CAREN)) and a direct vision environment. Subjects were required to verbally report the results of these math calculations in a short period of time. Reaction time measured by Tobii Eye tracker and calculation accuracy were recorded and compared between the direct vision and virtual rehabilitation environment.Results: Performance outcomes measured for both groups included reaction time, reading time, answering time and the verbal answer score. A significant difference between the groups was only found for the reaction time (p = .004). Participants had more difficulty recognizing the first equation of the virtual environment.Conclusions: Participants reaction time was faster in the direct vision environment. This reaction time delay should be kept in mind when designing skill training scenarios in virtual environments. This was a pilot project to a series of studies assessing cognition ability of stroke patients who are undertaking a rehabilitation program with a virtual training environment.Implications for rehabilitationEye tracking is a reliable tool that can be employed in rehabilitation virtual environments.Reaction time changes between direct vision and virtual environment.

Because of the difference between the virtual simulation environment and the real working environment, when designing the virtual simulation teaching method, there is usually a problem that the teaching performance of the method is poor due to unreasonable data mapping rules. In this regard, a virtual simulation teaching method of deep integration of production and teaching under digital mode is proposed. According to the types of existing teaching resources, firstly, the data is cleaned, and then the teaching resources are integrated and standardized. By obtaining the relevant data of the real teaching environment, the corresponding data mapping rules are formulated, and the obtained data are mapped into the digital space to build a virtual simulation teaching environment, thus designing a virtual simulation teaching scheme. Through the above design, the design of virtual simulation teaching method is completed. The experimental results show that the designed virtual simulation teaching method with deep integration of production and teaching in digital mode has good teaching performance in practical application.

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) such as massive multi-user 3D games and military training environments can place strict requirements on network when participating users are sharing the 3D virtual environment through mobile devices in an ad-hoc network. This paper presents an optimization mechanism for Gnutella network to better meet the mobility and the network requirements of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). With the rapidly increasing use of mobile personal devices, we are facing new challenges and opportunities for making efficient mobile collaborative virtual environments (MCVEs) applications based on Gnutella network. The proposed work comprises an enhancement of the Gnutella network through an efficient overlay formation protocol, and a novel caching optimization technique implemented in specific nodes selected through a Gnutella Ultrapeer system (GUS) mechanism. The resulting approach should overcome several problems including flooding and the limited capacity of mobile devices. In order to evaluate our designed protocols, we run the system over several ad-hoc routing protocols, simulation results shows that each ad-hoc routing protocol performs well only under specific simulation scenarios.