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Evaluates several cluster solutions for immersive displays used in consumer graphic cards. HyPi-6 from Fraunhofer research institute; ARSBOX from ARS Electronica Futurelab; VR Juggler-Based Solutions.

Advances in digital health technologies have revolutionised home medical care. Yet many home medical devices (HMEDs, which includes devices referred to as 'life support equipment') rely upon a stable and resilient electricity supply. For users of HMEDs, interruptions to electricity supply can compromise treatment, well-being or survival. This paper addresses a challenge critical to the continued innovation in digital health technologies: the reliable supply of electricity. We bridge the current gap between electricity networks and digital health technologies through a novel method for the remote detection of the phase (that is, which part of the network that each house is connected to), in order to eliminate avoidable interruptions to supply for HMED users. We present an unsupervised phase identification algorithm capable of remote phase detection at scale, and without transformer data. This method translates data insights into actionable energy provision for HMED users and other vulnerable customers, enables more accurate management and planning, and improves electricity reliability which is critical for HMED users and the continued advances in digital health technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly reoriented the lives of billions of people across the globe toward working, learning, and subsisting from home. This paper examines the consequences of this disruption of electricity use in Australian households. Using high-frequency electricity monitoring from 491 houses and per-circuit monitoring and in-depth interviews with 17 households, the paper (1) compares changes in energy use before and during COVID-19 lockdown, (2) quantifies the key drivers of changes in energy use experienced by households during lockdown, and (3) tracks households' interactions with energy use feedback. The findings identify significant increases in certain aspects of household electricity use directly related to COVID-19, including increased cooking and digital device use. Yet despite the government mandate requiring a large proportion of the population to remain at home, overall energy use among the majority of Queensland households monitored actually decreased during lockdown versus prior, driven primarily by a reduction in air conditioner use during lockdown as the weather cooled. Further, despite significant quantified and self-reported changes in energy use, users who had energy use feedback installed accessed their dashboards less during lockdown than they did prior. The paper discusses these results in the context of statistics on COVID-19 related energy demand fluctuations elsewhere, and the implications for the provision of energy use information to residents during significant disruptions such as lockdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Various elements influence micro-climate around building and impact its energy use. • Micro-climatic impact on buildings in sub-tropical/tropical zones is rarely studied. • Passivhaus building performance in sub-tropical/tropical zones is under examined. • Passivhaus buildings are sensitive to surrounding micro-climates in temperate zones. • Digitised Eco-feedback is effective in increasing energy consumption awareness. The earth's climate differs enormously across its breadth with numerous small-scale variations to surrounding atmospheric conditions (micro-climates) existing side by side. These differences impact indoor environments of residential buildings and, depending on occupants' preferences, building energy use, and can mean that home designs are unfit for the local context. Although considered leaders in producing energy efficient designs which are equally comfortable for occupants and the environment, even Passivhaus (PH) homes have been demonstrated to be sensitive to localised outdoor conditions. Meanwhile, occupants have little understanding of their own domestic energy use, how the situation of their property might impact their comfort, and of more sustainable alternatives open to them. To boost understanding of household energy use and to encourage energy conservation, instantaneous computerised feedback on household's energy consumption (Eco-feedback) has been widely used. Along with improving household energy use understanding, Eco-feedback technologies may assist in comprehending local micro-climatic conditions around a building, and in learning how to manipulate these can help to establish and sustain preferred indoor conditions with minimal energy use. This can be achieved through producing personalised and contextualised feedback and responses to update and renovate users' homes by suggesting short-term actions and long-term design recommendations. This systematic literature review paper explores the breadth of Eco-feedback techniques, their relative benefits and shows how these could be deployed in the context of understanding building performance in the home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel method to estimate an approximation of the reflectance characteristics of optically thick, homogeneous translucent materials using only a single photograph as input. First, we approximate the diffusion profile as a linear combination of piecewise constant functions, an approach that enables a linear system minimization and maximizes robustness in the presence of suboptimal input data inferred from the image. We then fit to a smoother monotonically decreasing model, ensuring continuity on its first derivative. We show the feasibility of our approach and validate it in controlled environments, comparing well against physical measurements from previous works. Next, we explore the performance of our method in uncontrolled scenarios, where neither lighting nor geometry are known. We show that these can be roughly approximated from the corresponding image by making two simple assumptions: that the object is lit by a distant light source and that it is globally convex, allowing us to capture the visual appearance of the photographed material. Compared with previous works, our technique offers an attractive balance between visual accuracy and ease of use, allowing its use in a wide range of scenarios including off-the-shelf, single images, thus extending the current repertoire of real-world data acquisition techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]