Augmented reality takes the real world and through the use of graphics, sound and other effects allows you to enhance the environment. It makes a game more real. Your social media app puts you where want to be or go. Pro iOS 5 Augmented Reality walks you through the foundations of building an augmented reality application for the iPhone or iPad. From using MapKit, to the accelerometer and magnetometer, to integrating facial recognition and Facebook data, you'll learn the building blocks of creating augmented reality applications. Case studies are included in this one-of-a-kind book and you'll learn how to create augmented reality apps that unleash the full potential of the on-board sensors and camera. This book complements other iOS game or social media apps development books available from Apress. After reading Pro iOS 5 Augmented Reality, you'll be able to build augmented reality rich media apps or integrate all the best augmented reality techniques and tools into your existing apps.

The articles by well-known international experts intend to facilitate more elaborate expositions of the research presented at the seminar, and to collect and document the results of the various discussions, including ideas and open problems that were identified. Correspondingly the book will consist of two parts. Part I will consist of extended articles describing research presented at the seminar. This will include papers on tracking, motion capture, displays, cloth simulation, and applications. Part II will consist of articles that capture the results of breakout discussions, describe visions, or advocate particular positions. This will include discussions about system latency, 3D interaction, haptic interfaces, social gaming, perceptual issues, and the fictional "Holodeck."

Develop AI-powered apps and games for HoloLens and mixed reality headsets This is a complete guide to programming AI-powered mixed reality apps with the Windows Mixed Reality platform. Step by step, Dawid Borycki guides you through every type of mixed reality development, from simple 2D to cutting-edge apps for Microsoft HoloLens and immersive headsets. First, you'll learn to write UWP 2D apps that adapt for any Windows 10 device, transfer camera images to machine learning services, and use mobile sensor readings to control headset content. Then, building on these skills, you'll master every facet of building cross-platform 3D apps that link augmented reality content to real objects. Advanced Microsoft technology expert Dawid Borycki shows how to: Set up a mixed reality development environment with all the tools you'll need, including HoloLens and Mixed Reality simulators Write Universal Windows 2D apps for all Windows 10 devices, and adjust their views and capabilities to specific hardware Render media streams, acquire video from world-facing cameras, and detect human faces in those images Generate descriptions of what the user sees, and present them via text or speech Build AI-powered voice-controlled apps with Microsoft Cognitive Services (MCS) Master core concepts and techniques for building 3D mixed reality apps with Unity Format 3D objects with materials to create holograms Add interactions to holograms based on user input Integrate HoloLens capabilities, including air gestures, spatial sound, and mapping

This sweeping introduction to the science of virtual environment technology masterfully integrates research and practical applications culled from a range of disciplines, including psychology, engineering, and computer science. With contributions from the field's foremost researchers and theorists, the book focuses in particular on how virtual technology and interface design can better accommodate human cognitive, motor, and perceptual capabilities. Throughout, it brings the reader up-to-date with the latest design strategies and cutting-edge virtual environments, and points to promising avenues for future development. The book is divided into three parts. The first part introduces the reader to the subject by defining basic terms, identifying key components of the virtual environment, and reviewing the origins and elements of virtual environments. The second part focuses of current technologies used to present visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic information. The book concludes with an in-depth analysis of how environments and human perception are integrated to create effective virtual systems. Comprehensive and splendidly written, Virtual Environmentsand Advanced Interface Design will be the "bible" on the subject for years to come. Students and researchers in computer science, psychology, and cognitive science will all want to have a copy on their shelves.

This book explains how to plan and build a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a collection of technologies that creates secure connections or "tunnels" over regular Internet lines. It discusses costs, configuration, and how to install and use VPN technologies that are available for Windows NT and Unix, such as PPTP and L2TP, Altavista Tunnel, Cisco PIX, and the secure shell (SSH). New features in the second edition include SSH and an expanded description of the IPSec standard.

Automating technologies threaten to usher in a workless future. But this can be a good thing-if we play our cards right. Human obsolescence is imminent. The factories of the future will be dark, staffed by armies of tireless robots. The hospitals of the future will have fewer doctors, depending instead on cloud-based AI to diagnose patients and recommend treatments. The homes of the future will anticipate our wants and needs and provide all the entertainment, food, and distraction we could ever desire. To many, this is a depressing prognosis, an image of civilization replaced by its machines. But what if an automated future is something to be welcomed rather than feared? Work is a source of misery and oppression for most people, so shouldn't we do what we can to hasten its demise? Automation and Utopia makes the case for a world in which, free from need or want, we can spend our time inventing and playing games and exploring virtual realities that are more deeply engaging and absorbing than any we have experienced before, allowing us to achieve idealized forms of human flourishing. The idea that we should "give up" and retreat to the virtual may seem shocking, even distasteful. But John Danaher urges us to embrace the possibilities of this new existence. The rise of automating technologies presents a utopian moment for humankind, providing both the motive and the means to build a better future.

Research on multi-agent systems has provided a promising technology for implementing cognitive intelligent non-playing characters. However, the technologies used in game engines and multi-agent platforms are not readily compatible due to some inherent differences in concerns. Where game engines focus on real-time aspects and thus propagate efficiency and central control, multi-agent platforms assume autonomy of the agents. Increased autonomy and intelligence may offer benefits for a more compelling gameplay and may even be necessary for serious games. However, problems occur when current game design techniques are used to incorporate state-of-the-art multi-agent system technology. A very similar argument can be given for agent-based (social) simulation.

This volume contains the papers presented at AGS 2009, the First International Workshop on Agents for Games and Simulations, held in Budapest on May 11, 2009. The focus of the workshop was on the particular challenges facing those using agent technology for games and simulations, with topics covering the technical, conceptual and design aspects of the field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2007, held in Paris, France, September 17-19, 2007.

The 19 revised full papers and 12 revised short papers presented together with 5 invited talks and the abstracts of 32 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 100 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on Rendering and Analysis, Culture and Identity, Behavior Models, Feedback Models, Dialogues, Applications, Evaluation, Gaze models and Emotions.

An accessible, nontechnical overview of active touch sensing, from sensory receptors in the skin to tactile surfaces on flat screen displays. Haptics, or haptic sensing, refers to the ability to identify and perceive objects through touch. This is active touch, involving exploration of an object with the hand rather than the passive sensing of a vibration or force on the skin. The development of new technologies, including prosthetic hands and tactile surfaces for flat screen displays, depends on our knowledge of haptics. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Lynette Jones offers an accessible overview of haptics, or active touch sensing, and its applications. Jones explains that haptics involves integrating information from touch and kinesthesia-that is, information both from sensors in the skin and from sensors in muscles, tendons, and joints. The challenge for technology is to reproduce in a virtual world some of the sensations associated with physical interactions with the environment. Jones maps the building blocks of the tactile system, the receptors in the skin and the skin itself, and how information is processed at this interface with the external world. She describes haptic perception, the processing of haptic information in the brain; haptic illusions, or distorted perceptions of objects and the body itself; tactile and haptic displays, from braille to robotic systems; tactile compensation for other sensory impairments; surface haptics, which creates virtual haptic effects on physical surfaces such as touch screens; and the development of robotic and prosthetic hands that mimic the properties of human hands.

The implementation of virtual environments in education has been rapidly increasing in frequency after the COVID-19 pandemic. As these technologies rise in popularity, it is essential to understand the roles digital technologies play in fostering connections and learning, the affordances of digital texts and spaces for virtual classroom experiences, the difficulties educators have faced and how these practices have been crafted to meet these challenges, and more. Innovations in Digital Instruction Through Virtual Environments advances knowledge about the pedagogical decisions and lived experiences of researchers and educators both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It features research from those who have worked to sustain and develop digital/media pedagogical practices. Covering topics such as active learning environments, emotional labor, and textual engagements, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for educators and administrators of both K-12 and higher education, pre-service teachers, teacher educators, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

With the advent of the internet and handheld or wearable media systems that plunge the user into 360 video, augmented-or virtual reality-technology is changing how stories are told and created. In this book, John V. Pavlik argues that a new form of mediated communication has emerged: experiential news. Experiential media delivers not just news stories but also news experiences, in which the consumer engages news as a participant or virtual eyewitness in immersive, multisensory, and interactive narratives. Pavlik describes and analyzes new tools and approaches that allow journalists to tell stories that go beyond text and image. He delves into developing forms such as virtual reality, haptic technologies, interactive documentaries, and drone media, presenting the principles of how to design and frame a story using these techniques. Pavlik warns that although experiential news can heighten user engagement and increase understanding, it may also fuel the transformation of fake news into artificial realities, and he discusses the standards of ethics and accuracy needed to build public trust in journalism in the age of virtual reality. Journalism in the Age of Virtual Reality offers important lessons for practitioners seeking to produce quality experiential news and those interested in the ethical considerations that experiential media raise for journalism and the public.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Augmented and Virtual Reality, AVR 2015, held in Lecce, Italy, in September 2015. The 32 papers and 8 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 82 submissions. The SALENTO AVR 2015 conference brings together a community of researchers from academia and industry, computer scientists, engineers, and physicians in order to share points of views, knowledge, experiences, and scientific and technical results related to state-of-the-art solutions and technologies on virtual and augmented reality applications for medicine, cultural heritage, education, industrial sectors, as well as the demonstration of advanced products and technologies.

There are dramatic global challenges that urge us to examine our identities and the need for intercultural dialogue to overcome differences and bring the world together around the concept of a global human module. Dialogue is important to give the world an agenda for action based on tolerance, mutual respect, and fairness. These actions can only succeed if people are clear about the foundations of cultures and civilizations, which can only be reached through dialogue. It is essential to solve how we can reach the next level of technology with inclusion, peace, and dialogue in the era of the metaverse. Dynamics of Dialogue, Cultural Development, and Peace in the Metaverse provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in the metaverse. It explains the strategic role of trust at different levels of the information and knowledge society. Covering topics such as digital culture, peace training, and religion in the metaverse, this premier reference source is an essential resource for business leaders and executives, politicians, government officials, sociologists, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

In the fast-developing world of Industry 4.0, which combines Extended Reality (XR) technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), creating location aware applications to interact with smart objects and smart processes via Cloud Computing strategies enabled with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), factories and processes can be automated and machines can be enabled with self-monitoring capabilities. Smart objects are given the ability to analyze and communicate with each other and their human co-workers, delivering the opportunity for much smoother processes, and freeing up workers for other tasks. Industry 4.0 enabled smart objects can be monitored, designed, tested and controlled via their digital twins, and these processes and controls are visualized in VR/AR. The Industry 4.0 technologies provide powerful, largely unexplored application areas that will revolutionize the way we work, collaborate and live our lives. It is important to understand the opportunities and impact of the new technologies and the effects from a production, safety and societal point of view.