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Copyright of Buca Faculty of Education Journal / Buca Egitim Fakültesi Dergisi is the property of Buca Faculty of Education Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite the support of all kinds of fire prevention measures and hightech fire prevention equipment, fires still occur frequently because of both anthropogenic factors and natural disasters. This issue has drawn the attention of schools, all levels of government, and other organizations. Many types of organizations carry out fire drills throughout the year. Because this kind of drill cannot anticipate the specific circumstances of each fire, which are generally far more complicated than drills, most people cannot correctly choose the optimal escape route from real fires. Thus, a fire-scene virtual simulation system based on the Dijkstra algorithm is here proposed to address such problems as casualties caused by frequent fires and the inability of most people to correctly choose a fire escape route. This virtual fire escape simulation system uses Maya to carry out 3D reconstruction of the fire scene, the Unity engine to conduct interactive function design, and the Dijkstra algorithm to calculate the best escape route. The results of the example indicate that the simulation system solves the problems of the traditional simulation system, such as stiffness, lack of intelligence, and poor simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Spring 2016 issue of Screen Education, I looked at an app called Loop, which could be used for making really simple animations. This is how I started that [...]

The article offers information about the computer chess tournament, Top Chess Engine Championship between the chess engine, Leela Chess Zero and the Houdini, a three dimensional animation software application. It mentions the ratings of the several chess players and their teams played in the Top Chess Engine Championship. It also mentions several techniques used in the computer chess for the opening.

Animated learning materials have the potential to support the teaching and learning process. In this paper, we examine the comparative usefulness of animated and static learning materials for teaching cyber security concepts to a group of UK undergraduate computer science students. The animated cyber security learning materials appeared to be viewed by the undergraduate computer science participants overall as being slightly more informative than the equivalent static learning materials for learning some cyber security concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animating an articulated character requires the explicit specification of interior skeleton structure and its attachment to skin surface. This task of “rigging” typically involves the manual weight painting and deformation fine-tuning with popular conventional animation methods. Weight painting is unavoidably a time-consuming and laborious process that would need sophisticated skills from animators during animation production. In this paper, using the extended position-based dynamics (PBD), we have articulated a strategy to generate the realistic skin deformation and reuse the painted weights on a new character. For each frame, the skin is deformed by the linear blend skinning method (LBS) at first. To solve the problem of candy-wrapper effect and surface overlapping in LBS, we improve the traditional PBD method by adding energy constraints and employ several geometrically and physically-based constraints to refine the deformed skin automatically. To further reduce the animator’s workload from tedious rigging process, we propose the weight retargeting approach using surface matching and interpolation based on the powerful bi-harmonic distance. It could transfer the weights of an existing model to a new character with similar topology. Through numerous experiments, we could demonstrate the visual performance of our new techniques on a variety of articulated characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a smart toy (SmartAnimals) which provides a mixed reality environment for children with intellectual disabilities. SmartAnimals includes a virtual space including computer based animations, sounds and characters, and a real space including plastic toys, and a receiver panel. SmartAnimals with a flexible context leads children to learn daily life concepts easily. To test usability of SmartAnimals, an empirical study was carried out with 6 children having intellectual disability (ID) and four special education teachers. The findings indicated that smart toys could be beneficial for children with ID especially who have limited concentration. It enables children with easy and fast learning. Smart toys also affect children's performance in a positive way while learning cognitive concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Introduction: The structure/function of the cranial nerves is a core topic for dental students. However, due to the perceived complexity of the subject, it is often difficult for students to develop a comprehensive understanding of key concepts using textbooks and models. It is accepted that the acquisition of anatomical knowledge can be facilitated by visualisation of structures. This study aimed to develop and assess a novel cranial nerve animation as a supplemental learning aid for dental students. Materials and Methods: A multidisciplinary team of anatomists, neuroscientists and a computer scientist developed a novel animation depicting the cranial nerves. The animation was viewed by newly enrolled first‐year dental students, graduate entry dental students (year 1) and dental hygiene students (year 1). A simple life scenario employing the use of the cranial nerves was developed using a cartoon‐type animation with a viewing time of 3.58 minutes. The animation was developed with emphasis on a life scenario. The animation was placed online for 2 weeks with open access or viewed once in a controlled laboratory setting. Questionnaires were designed to assess the participants’ attitude towards the animation and their knowledge of the cranial nerves before and after visualisation. This study was performed before the delivery of core lectures on the cranial nerves. Results: Our findings indicate that the use of the animation can act as a supplemental tool to improve student knowledge of the cranial nerves. Indeed, data indicate that a single viewing of the animation, in addition to 2‐week access to the animation, can act as a supplemental learning tool to assist student understanding of the structure and function of cranial nerves. The animation significantly enhanced the student's opinion that their cranial nerve knowledge had improved. From a qualitative point of view, the students described the animation as an enjoyable and useful supplement to reading material/lectures and indicated that the animation was a useful tool in understanding the cranial nerves. Conclusion: Overall, these findings indicate that an animation demonstrating the cranial nerves in a simple, everyday functional scenario may act as a learning aid in the study of cranial nerves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of rendering a 3D animation often takes a very long time to complete. In situations where it would take several hours or even many days, it is inconvenient to spend that time near the rendering computer in order to control and oversee the process. Through the work with 3D computer graphic technologies, the authors realized that there is no simple solution on the market that facilitates the monitoring of the remote computer that is running the rendering process. This paper deals with developing a system to enable those tasks to be done from a remote computer or any mobile device. The developed proof-of-concept system consists of two Python programs communicating over the Dropbox service and a computer that is running the Autodesk Maya software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The experience of time and temporally extended events is a fundamental property of mind, and of time-based media arts. In dealing with properties of time, does the operational logic of contemporary media production tools cohere with philosophical views on the experience of time? This article considers a range of views on the phenomenal experience of time as they relate to the production of time-based media. Embedded within our production technologies, the artist is faced with a new philosophical instrument: the production timeline. The timeline utility in most time-based media software (and non-digital precursors) adopts the cinematic model as its operating metaphor; a series of frames, assembled one after the other in sequence. But the timeline brings new temporal complications such as reversibility, hierarchy and modifiability. The timeline also contorts time into a spatialized dimension, represented as a linear vector within the software interface. Automatic adoption of the linear timeline and the frame as the base unit of temporal thinking is problematic. J. M. E. McTaggart’s argument for the unreality of time based on contradictions within a range of possible temporal modal logics is compared with approaches to animation and editing software, and also interactive media software and their unique approach to time as potential events is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animation is an amazing way to bring content alive. For many students an animation can be that doorway into understanding wider theoretical concepts. It moves on from the nineteenth-century teaching [...]

The article proposes the use of Autodesk Maya, a software used in animation and industrial design, as tool to improve education and research in nematology. Topics discussed include the possibility of creating a three-dimensional (3D) model based only on the combination of scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy images, steps in using the software, and the other advantages of using the software.

The most intriguing scene in Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007) occurs after the movie is over. At the very bottom of the end credits, following the usual Pixar-perfect lists of loop [...]

The silicon drift detector energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SDD-EDS) system offers revolutionary improvements over the classic Si(Li)-EDS for mapping the compositional microstructure of matter with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For […]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.10.001 Byline: Patrick M. Markey, Kelly Scherer Keywords: Video game; Psychoticism Abstract: The current study examined the potential moderating effects of motion capture technology and participants' own level of psychoticism on their hostility and aggressive thoughts after playing violent video games. A total of 118 participants (68 females, 50 males) first completed a measure of psychoticism and then played either a violent video game or a non-violent video game using either a traditional controller or motion capture controls. Immediately after the video game play period, participants' current level of hostility and aggressive cognitions were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that the use of motion capture controls did not increase the negative effects of violent video games. However, participants with elevated levels of psychoticism were much more affected by violent video games than other participants. Such findings suggest that only some individuals are adversely affected by violent video games and that those who are affected have preexisting dispositions which make them susceptible to such violent media. Author Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085, USA

Byline: Carlos Busso (1), Murtaza Bulut (1), Chi-Chun Lee (1), Abe Kazemzadeh (1), Emily Mower (1), Samuel Kim (1), Jeannette N. Chang (1), Sungbok Lee (1), Shrikanth S. Narayanan (1) Keywords: Audio-visual database; Dyadic interaction; Emotion; Emotional assessment; Motion capture system Abstract: Since emotions are expressed through a combination of verbal and non-verbal channels, a joint analysis of speech and gestures is required to understand expressive human communication. To facilitate such investigations, this paper describes a new corpus named the 'interactive emotional dyadic motion capture database' (IEMOCAP), collected by the Speech Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL) at the University of Southern California (USC). This database was recorded from ten actors in dyadic sessions with markers on the face, head, and hands, which provide detailed information about their facial expressions and hand movements during scripted and spontaneous spoken communication scenarios. The actors performed selected emotional scripts and also improvised hypothetical scenarios designed to elicit specific types of emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, frustration and neutral state). The corpus contains approximately 12 h of data. The detailed motion capture information, the interactive setting to elicit authentic emotions, and the size of the database make this corpus a valuable addition to the existing databases in the community for the study and modeling of multimodal and expressive human communication. Author Affiliation: (1) Speech Analysis and Interpretation Laboratory (SAIL), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA Article History: Registration Date: 12/09/2008 Received Date: 15/10/2007 Accepted Date: 02/09/2008 Online Date: 05/11/2008

This paper reports on the impact of using custom animation software to teach second/third year computer/electrical engineering students in the microprocessing systems course at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Over the span of 13 years' experience with teaching the course, the difficulties and limitations with conventional lectures and visual aids led to the development of custom animation of the course material to provide an additional teaching modality to teach the complex and abstract subject matter more effectively. The custom animation software consists of the ability to create and/or modify microinstructions, create and/or modify macroinstructions, and animate the execution of instructions (using the 'water-flowing through pipes' analogy) by showing address and data transmission juxtaposed against an animated clock. A postunit, mixed method survey administered to students reveals substantial cognitive gains and modest motivational outcomes, reinforcing the animation's effectiveness and sparking motivation for further research. Index Terms--Computer animation, courseware, macroinstruction, microinstruction, microprocessor, microprogrammability, mixed method survey, postunit.

A newly developed software application (Clover) is presented for constructing animated narrative vignette. The results have indicated that Clover is a viable tool for providing the process of self discovery, cognitions and identity by using animated narrative vignette simulations.

A study uses models and algorithms to develop a 3D anthropomorphic architecture, which facilitates animations in online presentations.

The Russian Internet flash animation subculture is tried to be located within tensions between forms of production, dissemination and content and modes of perception, decoding and interpretation based on national identities, gender stereotypes and changing class structure. The focus is on the Internet project Masiania launched in fall 2001 by a St. Petersburg-based Internet group called 'mult.ru'.

This paper presents the program BOUNCE for animating transients on transmission lines. BOUNCE is used for classroom demonstrations of fundamental concepts such as traveling wave, reflected wave, reflection from an unmatched load, and transmission through junctions and branches. BOUNCE provides a 'laboratory' for students to use in verifying homework exercises solved with a lattice diagram. BOUNCE is used to demonstrate fundamental principles of logic design, such as ringing because of mismatch at high-impedance gate inputs, the effect of gate-input capacitance, and the effect of logic-gate rise time. BOUNCE graphically demonstrates the transition to the sinusoidal steady state and the concept of a standing wave, as the result of an unmatched load, as an introduction to solving transmission lines with phasors. This paper describes the operation of the BOUNCE program and then discusses various classroom demonstrations and the associated homework exercises. Index Terms--Animation, lattice diagram, logic design, teaching software, transients, transmission line, traveling wave.

Architectural historian and theorist Mario Carpo examines the status quo of digital innovation. Whereas the espousal of animation software in the 1990s placed architects conspicuously at the forefront of new technologies as early adopters and adapters, in the new millennium they have less enthusiastically embraced the participatory opportunities of Web 2.0 and open-source modes of working. Could the desire for single authorship be holding designers back? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probabilistic methods provide a powerful paradigm for modeling of robot motion and its environment; a precursor for autonomous navigation of mobile robots. As a graduate-level engineering course, probabilistic robotics encompasses the techniques used in robot localization and mapping in unstructured environments. This article presents a simulation and animation software program developed mainly as a teaching tool that can help the students visualize different robot localization solutions through both parametric filters (viz., the Extended Kalman Filter, Unscented Kalman Filter) and nonparametric filters (viz., the histogram filter, Rao-Blackwell particle filter). The program is also a powerful tool for performance analysis and tuning of such filters commonly used for robot localization, mapping, and autonomous navigation. The simulation features dead reckoning (e.g., INS), range-only sensing (e.g., rangefinder), bearing-only sensing (e.g., digital camera), or a combination of them. The program includes a simple graphical user interface that allows for changing both filtering and sensing parameters, and monitoring the effects of those changes on the animation of a unicycle in a 2D environment. The program animates the unicycle motion and shows the kinematic results in several graphs simultaneously to evaluate the performance of different methods in finding the robot pose. The program is available as an open-source Matlab script to facilitate future modifications and improvements of the code by the students interested in robotics, mechatronics, and control engineering. This article presents the features of the program and briefly discusses the algorithms implemented in the software. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 20: 721-727, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in computer technology have tremendously increased the use of functional data, whose graphical representation can be infinite-dimensional curves, images or shapes. This article describes four methods for visualizing functional time series using an R add-on package. These methods are demonstrated using age-specific Australian fertility data from 1921 to 2006 and monthly sea surface temperatures from January 1950 to December 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animating an articulated 3D character currently requires manual rigging to specify its internal skeletal structure and to define how the input motion deforms its surface. We present a method for animating characters automatically. Given a static character mesh and a generic skeleton, our method adapts the skeleton to the character and attaches it to the surface, allowing skeletal motion data to animate the character. Because a single skeleton can be used with a wide range of characters, our method, in conjunction with a library of motions for a few skeletons, enables a user-friendly animation system for novices and children. Our prototype implementation, called Pinocchio, typically takes under a minute to rig a character on a modern midrange PC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simulation motion of Virtual Reality (VR) objects and humans has experienced important developments in the last decade. However, realistic virtual human animation generation remains a major challenge, even if applications are numerous, from VR games to medical training. This paper proposes different methods for animating virtual humans, including blending simultaneous animations of various temporal relations with multiple animation channels, minimal visemes for lip synchronisation, and space sites of virtual human and 3D object models for object grasping and manipulation. We present our work in our natural language visualisation (animation) system, CONFUCIUS, and describe how the proposed approaches are employed in CONFUCIUS' animation engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the hardware and software capabilities of interactive media has allowed an increase in the use of animated imagery within software learning environments. New animation software programs, targeted specifically for use on the World Wide Web (WWW) and CD-ROMs, have been introduced into the market place for programmers, designers and others who may have little training or experience with incorporating animated imagery into interactive content. This paper provides an overview of theories which relate to motion in the areas of education, science and culture. This paper is not meant to be an exhaustive source, but more of a reflective piece on work done in other fields that relates to animation within software. The final portion of this paper lists six common uses of animation in learning software, as well as ten recommended guidelines for evaluation of animations within a software learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 1989 article in Industrial Engineering, two major types of simulation software for manufacturing applications were discussed, namely, simulation languages and manufacturing simulators. Languages were described as having essentially […]

The convincing communicator, computer-generated animation gives a near-perfect view of how products move. The impressive displays that have their roots in production houses are now providing upfront, frame-byframe depictions of […]

Slick software turns computer models into showpieces. Once regarded as too expensive, computer technology is making inroads into the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. As costs plummet, architects across […]