This manuscript identifies and documents unsolved problems and research challenges in the extended reality (XR) domain (i.e., virtual (VR), augmented (AR), and mixed reality (MR)). The manuscript is ...structured to include technology, design, and human factor perspectives. The text is visualization/display-focused, that is, other modalities such as audio, haptic, smell, and touch, while important for XR, are beyond the scope of this paper. We further narrow our focus to mainly geospatial research, with necessary deviations to other domains where these technologies are widely researched. The main objective of the study is to provide an overview of broader research challenges and directions in XR, especially in spatial sciences. Aside from the research challenges identified based on a comprehensive literature review, we provide case studies with original results from our own studies in each section as examples to demonstrate the relevance of the challenges in the current research. We believe that this paper will be of relevance to anyone who has scientific interest in extended reality, and/or uses these systems in their research.
E-Gaze: Gaze Estimation With Event Camera Li, Nealson; Chang, Muya; Raychowdhury, Arijit
IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence,
07/2024, Volume:
46, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Near-eye gaze estimation is a task that maps the recording of an eye captured by an adjacent camera to the direction of a person's gaze in space. In contrast to frame-based cameras, event cameras are ...characterized by high sensing rates, low latency, sparse asynchronous data outputs, and high dynamic range, which are well suited for recording the fast eye movements. However, algorithms and system designs that operate on frame-based cameras are not applicable to event-based data, due to the natural differences in the data characteristics. In this work, we study the pattern of near-eye event-based data streams and extract eye features to estimate gaze. First, by analyzing eye parts and movements, and harnessing the polar, spatial, and temporal distribution of the events, we introduce a real-time pipeline to extract pupil features. Second, we present a recurrent neural network with a proposed coordinate-to-angle loss function to accurately estimate gaze from pupil feature sequence. We demonstrated that our system achieves accurate real-time estimation with angular accuracy of 0.46<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">^\circ</tex-math> <mml:math><mml:msup><mml:mrow/><mml:mo>∘</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="li-ieq1-3359606.gif"/> </inline-formula> and update rates of 950 Hz, thus opening up avenues for novel applications. To our knowledge, this is the first system that operates only on event-based data to perform gaze estimation.
Objective:
The objectives of this report were to characterize the regional and state differences in prescription methamphetamine and amphetamine distribution in the US.
Methods:
Prescription ...methamphetamine and amphetamine distribution was obtained from the Drug Enforcement Administration for 2019.
Results:
Total per capita drug weight distribution of amphetamine was 4,000 times higher than methamphetamine. Regionally, total per capita drug weight for methamphetamine was highest in the West (32.2% of total distribution) and lowest in the Northeast (17.4%). The total per capita drug weight for amphetamine was highest in the South (37.0% of total distribution) and lowest in the Northeast (19.4%). Distribution of methamphetamine was 16.1% while amphetamine was 54.0% of its production quota.
Conclusion:
Overall, prescription amphetamine distribution was common while prescription methamphetamine distribution was rare. The patterns observed in distribution are likely the result of stigmatization, differences in accessibility, and the efforts of initiatives such as the Montana Meth Project.
Selecting the right educational vendors in the Metaverse, particularly those utilizing extended reality (XR), is crucial for creating an engaging and immersive learning environment. Careful vendor ...selection ensures the delivery of high-quality XR educational content, considering factors such as seamless integration with different XR devices and addressing associated challenges, which can affect the comfort and well-being of learners.This paper proposes a decision-making model to address the complex task of selecting educational vendors within the Metaverse with a focus on extended reality (XR). Recognizing the challenges inherent in such selections, this work presents a consensus-based measurement of alternatives and ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) model, incorporating single-valued neutrosophic (SVN) information and SVN Dombi-Archimedean weighted aggregation operators. Attribute weights crucial for decision-making are determined through an optimization tool employing cross-entropy measures with partial weight information. The evaluation encompasses nine criteria, including cost, security, privacy, pedagogical alignment, configuration, maintenance, level of control, output tools, degree of immersion, availability of XR learning contents, and time. Four leading vendors including Victory XR, ARuVR, zSpace, and Varjo Technologies are assessed, with zSpace emerging as the most favorable alternative with the highest overall utility value of 0.6889. The paper further conducts sensitivity analysis and performance comparisons to establish the robustness of the ranking results, providing a comprehensive methodology for educational stakeholders addressing the evolving dynamics of the Metaverse.
•A decision-support model is suggested for ranking XR educational vendors under metaverse.•Some robust Dombi-Archimedean weighted aggregation operators are presented under SVN context.•A consensus based SVN-MARCOS methodology is proposed with partial weights information of attributes.
From BIM to metaverse for AEC industry Hadavi, Ahmad; Alizadehsalehi, Sepehr
Automation in construction,
April 2024, 2024-04-00, Volume:
160
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
BIM-to-Metaverse offers benefits to the AEC industry, but the challenge of efficiently and effectively implementing it will be formidable and require several years. The objective of this study is to ...identify the outsourcing forms of this new technology for construction project stakeholders and to explore its associated implementation challenges. Specifically addressed will be (a) innovations in XR technologies and how to convert BIM models to XR models for visualization in the metaverse, (b) an integrated definition function (IDEF0) model that describes how to prepare the BIM model for metaverse, (c) a use case for utilizing metaverse in the AEC industry and an evaluation of the concerns that must be resolved prior to successful implementation, and (d) an example illustrating the process. The metaverse implementation in design and construction can enhance collaboration, productivity, and quality but implementation cost, data security, and hardware and software interoperability are major challenges in its implementation.
•Metaverse has potential for improving workflow and productivity in AEC industry.•This study proposed an IDEF0 model for design and construction phases.•This study explored challenges and limitations of implementing Metaverse in construction projects.•This study reviewed applications of metaverse in non-AEC industries.•This study proposed a use case for metaverse in a construction project.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and affects approximately 30 million individuals worldwide. With the growth of the older population in developed nations, ...the prevalence of AD is expected to triple over the next 50 years while its early diagnosis remains being a difficult task. Functional imaging modalities including Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are often used with the aim of achieving early diagnosis. However, conventional evaluation of SPECT images often relies on manual reorientation, visual reading of tomographic slices and semiquantitative analysis of certain regions of interest (ROIs). These steps are time consuming, subjective and prone to error. This paper shows a fully automatic computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system for improving the early detection of the AD. The proposed approach is based on image parameter selection and support vector machine (SVM) classification. A study is carried out in order to finding the ROIs and the most discriminant image parameters with the aim of reducing the dimensionality of the input space and improving the accuracy of the system. Among all the features evaluated, coronal standard deviation and sagittal correlation parameters are found to be the most effective ones for reducing the dimensionality of the input space and improving the diagnosis accuracy when a radial basis function (RBF) SVM is used. The proposed system yields a 90.38% accuracy in the early diagnosis of the AD and outperforms existing techniques including the voxel-as-features (VAF) approach.
The so-called metaverse relates to a vision of a virtual, digital world which is parallel to the real, physical world, where each user owns and interact through his/her own avatar. Music is one of ...the possible activities that can be conducted in such a space. The “Musical Metaverse” (MM), the metaverse part which is dedicated to musical activities, is currently in its infancy, although is a concept that is constantly evolving and is progressing at a steady pace. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, as of today an investigation about the opportunities and challenges posed by the MM has not been conducted yet. In this paper, we provide a vision for the MM and discuss what are the opportunities for musical stakeholders offered by current implementations of the MM, as well as we envision those that are likely to occur as the metaverse emerges. We also identify the technical, artistic, ethical, sustainability, and regulatory issues that need to be addressed so for the MM to be created and utilized in efficient, creative, and responsible ways. Given the importance and timeliness of the MM, we believe that a discussion on the related opportunities and concerns is useful to provide developers with guidelines for creating better virtual environments and musical interactions between stakeholders.
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