Showing posts with label simulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simulation. Show all posts

Oct 1, 2013

Learning to Teach through Mixed Reality: UCF's TeachLivE

Imagine this.  A mixed-reality environment designed to provide pre-service student teachers and teachers looking to improve their skills a chance to try out new strategies, without messing up with real kids!   TLE TeachLiveEwas developed by researchers at the Synthetic Reality Lab located at the Institute for Simulation & Training at the University of Central Florida. It  looks like a great training tool for young college students who are planning to take on the challenge of a career in education.  

With modifications, the TeachLivE system looks like it would be a good tool for building skills of principals-in-training, as well as others who plan to work in the schools, such as  future school psychologists, school nurses, and school resource officers.

Below is a description of the system from the TeachLivE website, along with some videos and related links. 

(Be sure to watch the video of MILES, near the end of this post. MILES is a similar application designed to support the training of social workers and therapists, and features that could be used to enhance the TeachLiveE system.)


"TLE TeachLivE™ is a mixed-reality classroom with simulated students that provides teachers the opportunity to develop their pedagogical practice in a safe environment that doesn’t place real students at risk. This lab is currently the only one in the country using a mixed reality environment to prepare or retrain pre-service and in-service teachers. The use of TLE TeachLivE™ Lab has also been instrumental in developing transition skills for students with significant disabilities, providing immediate feedback through bug-in-ear technology to pre-service teachers, developing discreet trial skills in pre-service and in-service teachers, and preparing teachers in the use of STEM-related instructional strategies." -TeachLivE 

Virtual Reality Classroom Trains Teacher

"There is a child with ADHD, there is a child who is going to take out their cell phone, and do something with his cell phone right there for our pre-service teacher, if our preservice teacher is not paying attention to that child.  So what they've tried to do is actually program different types of children into each simulated avatar." -Dr. David Rock, Dean, School of Education, University of Mississippi. 




RELATED
A good overview of the use of virtual worlds and environments for learning.At 7:44, Stephen Bronack, of Learn NC, provides an overview of TeachLivE at TEDX Greenville. TeachLivE is in place at Clemson University in S.C.
 


MILES: Motivation Interviewing Learning Environment and Simulation (MILES) was created by researchers at the USC Institute of Creative Technologies and uses the power of a game engine to create the main character.  MILES is used at the USC School of Social Work to help future therapist develop their therapist/client interactive skills to provide treatment for service members, veterans, or family members of people impacted by the military, and is used by group of students in social work graduate courses in a way that tracks learning progress and informs classroom discussion.



TeachLivE Website
TeachLivE program at UCF attracts interest from Sesame Street Creators
Amanda Palmiera, Central Florida Future, 7/21/13
My World Has Been Rocked: Educator reviews 'TeachLive', a virtual teaching environment
Brian Greenberg, edSurge 6/24/13
UM Uses Student Avatars for Teacher Training
Andrew Mark Abernathy, Ole Miss News 3/18/13
SLU using avatars, virtual classrooms as teaching tools
The Times-Picayune, 4/9/13

TeachLivE publications:
Elford, M., Carter, R., & Aronin, S. (2013). Virtual reality check: Teachers use bug-in-ear coaching to practice feedback techniques with student avatars. JSD34(1), 40–43.

Hayes, A. T., Straub, C. L., Dieker, L. A., Hughes, C. E., & Hynes, M. C. (2013). Ludic Learning: Exploration of TLE TeachLivETM and Effective Teacher Training. Int. J. Gaming Comput. Mediat. Simul., 5(2), 20-33. doi: 10.4018/jgcms.2013040102

Andreasen, J. B. & Haciomeroglu, E. S. (2009). Teacher training in virtual environments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Atlanta, GA. 

USC Develops Virtual Tool to Train Child Interviewers
Evy Jacobson, USC Gould School Of Law, 5/14/13
Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment
USC Institute for Creative Technologies

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Blend My Learning 
NewSchools Venture Fund

Apr 25, 2013

Quick Post/Videos: Evolving Soft Robots (Cornell's Creative Machines Lab); Leap Motion + Google Earth Experiment (PO-MO)

Evolution in Action: Soft Robots!

A team from Cornell's Creative Machines Lab have been researching simulations of evolutionary robots, and as a result, have come up with an entertaining video of what they've discovered so far.  According to the project's website, the work was inspired by developmental biology, to use evolutionary algorithms as a tool to develop locomotion.

The following description of the video was quoted from Jeff Clune's YouTube site:

"Here we evolve the bodies of soft robots made of multiple materials (muscle, bone, & support tissue) to move quickly. Evolution produces a diverse array of fun, wacky, interesting, but ultimately functional soft robots. "

Link to the paper.
Unshackling Evolution: Evolving Soft Robots with Multiple Materials and a Powerful Generative Encoding. Cheney, MacCurdy, Clune, & Lipson. Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. 2013. (pdf)"

LEAP Motion + Google Earth
Meg, from PO-MO, has a LEAP Motion developer kit. Earlier this week, LEAP Motion provided support for Google Earth integration, and asked developers to submit videos of their experiments.  I like the Superwoman theme of this video!

LEAP Motion & Google Earth = Superhero Flight Simulator from PO-MO Inc. on Vimeo.

RELATED
Watch as these adorable robots evolve the ability to walk
George Dvorsky, io9, 4/25/13
Virtual, Squishy Creatures Evolve to Run Using Evolutionary Algorithms
Science Daily, 4/23/13
Cornell Creative Machines Lab Website
PO-MO
LEAP Motion

Apr 1, 2013

The Uncanny Valley is Here! Activision's real-time character demo is chillingly real. (Not an April 1st joke.)

Up with Activision in the Uncanny Valley

I first heard the term 'uncanny valley' about eight or nine years ago when I was taking a 3D-modeling class.  At that time, the technology available was not close to reaching this valley - where robots or computer-generated characters are so real that they are almost repulsive.

A lot has changed over the years.

The following video, recently featured by Activision Blizzard during the 2013 Game Developer Conference, has attracted much attention in just a few days, partly because it is so real.



Although I noticed that a little more work needs to be done with the teeth, I was impressed. I liked the quality of the eye shaders that were used in the creation of this demo.  Examples of faces created with this feature turned on and off can be found on Jorge Jimenez' blog.  Jorge's slides from a 2012 course offered during SIGGRAPH provide additional information.

Computer processers have become powerful enough to handle quite a lot of processing, and the tech world has been spreading the word. Below is a presentation by Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, about the company's work simulate the human face, touching on the 'uncanny valley':


Although the use of this technology to create characters, realistic on many levels, seems to be a bit creepy, it might be OK after some refinement.  There are a few questions that remain unanswered.   What would be the impact on children or teens who might spend many hours each week playing games with such realistic characters?  I'd hate to have a nightmare featuring one of these guys!

I think that this technology might have some potential for use in serious games and simulations, such as preparing emergency workers to handle a variety of realistic scenarios. Games with realistic digital characters, capable of generating a range of facial expressions, might be useful to support the learning of social interaction skills among young people with autism spectrum disorders.


RELATED/SOMEWHAT RELATED
Is It Real?  With New Technology Has Activision Crossed the 'Uncanny Valley'?
Eyder Peralta, the two-way, NPR, 3/28/13
Activision Reveals Animated Human That Looks So Real, It's Uncanny
Charlie White, Mashable, 3/28/13
Karl F. MacDorman's Writings (some focus on the uncanny valley)
Advances in Real-Time Rendering in Games Course (SIGGRAPH2012)
Separable Subsurface Scattering and Photorealistic Eyes Rendering (pptx)
Jorge Jimenez, Presenter, SIGGRAPH 2012)
Next Generation of Character Rendering Teaser (pptx)
Jimenez and Team
Crossing the 'uncanny valley': Nvidia's Faceworks renders realistic human faces
Dean Takahashi, VB/Gamesbeat, 3/18/13
Real-Time Realistic Skin Translucency
Jimenez, J., Whealan, D., Sundstedt, V., Gutierrez, D IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2010
Exploring the Uncanny Valley Research Website (Indiana University School of Informatics)
Gaze-based Interaction for Virtual Environments pdf
Jimenez, J., Gutierrez, D., Latorre, P.  Journal of Universal Computer Science
Mori, Masahiro (1970). Bukimi no tani [the uncanny valley] (K. F. MacDorman & T. Minato, Trans.). Energy, 7(4), 33-35. 
2013 GPU Technology Conference Keynote Presentations