This dissertation presents a basic information-driven sensor management problem, referred to as treasure hunt, that is relevant to mobile-sensor applications such as mine hunting, monitoring, and surveillance. The objective is to classify/infer one or multiple fixed targets or treasures located in an obstacle-populated workspace by planning the path and a sequence of measurements of a robotic sensor installed on a mobile platform associated with the treasures distributed in the sensor workspace. The workspace is represented by a connectivity graph, where each node represents a possible sensor deployment, and the arcs represent possible sensor movements. A methodology is developed for planning the sensing strategy of a robotic sensor deployed. The sensing strategy includes the robotic sensor's path, because it determines which targets are measurable given a bounded field of view. Existing path planning techniques are not directly applicable to robots whose primary objective is to gather sensor measurements. Thus, in this dissertation, a novel approximate cell-decomposition approach is developed in which obstacles, targets, the sensor's platform and field of view are represented as closed and bounded subsets of an Euclidean workspace. The approach constructs a connectivity graph with observation cells that is pruned and transformed into a decision tree, from which an optimal sensing strategy can be computed. It is shown that an additive incremental-entropy function can be used to efficiently compute the expected information value of the measurement sequence over time. The methodology is applied to a robotic landmine classification problem and the board game of CLUE$^{\circledR}$. In the landmine detection application, the optimal strategy of a robotic ground-penetrating radar is computed based on prior remote measurements and environmental information. Extensive numerical experiments show that this methodology outperforms shortest-path, complete-coverage, random, and grid search strategies, and is applicable to non-overpass capable platforms that must avoid targets as well as obstacles. The board game of CLUE$^{\circledR}$ is shown to be an excellent benchmark example of treasure hunt problem. The test results show that a player implementing the strategies developed in this dissertation outperforms players implementing Bayesian networks only, Q-learning, or constraint satisfaction, as well as human players. / Dissertation

<p>The digital games take an increasing part of our western society. The time when gaming was excluded to the most frantic computer fans is long gone. Today the gaming industry competes with both the film- and music industry for the consumers’ attention.</p><p>Despite this, research regarding the digital games has been put aside for a long time. But there is an ongoing process in establishing game studies regarding content and expression aspects that go beyond the question about possible psychological effects and such. But this process is still young and disagreements occur concerning how the games should be approached as an object of study.</p><p>This debate, originating from two different approaches; the narratological and the ludological, has proven to be central to the research society. To reach a better understanding regarding storytelling within the digital games I carried out a narratological analysis of a video game; Shadow of the Colossus for Playstation 2. I used classical narratological tools regarding the syntagmatic structure of storytelling; Propp’s characters and functions and Todorov’s equilibrium formula.</p><p>To be able to carry out this analysis the first step was to identify the storytelling elements of the game so that these could be properly recognized. After that the narratological tools were applied to these. In order not to neglect the medium specific characteristics that the digital games hold, I implemented a minor ludological analysis of its rules, to see how these were connected with the potential storytelling.</p><p>The narratological analysis proved to be useful; a number of Propp’s functions were identified and the storytelling could also be described on the basis of Todorov’s equilibrium. Furthermore a clear connection between the storytelling of the game and the ludus rules, meaning the rules that define the winning conditions and how to reach them. The classic narratological analysis was fruitful, but the medium specific characteristics with systems of rules and their connection to the storytelling elements proved to be an important relationship to illustrate further.</p> / <p>De digitala spelen tar allt större plats i vårt västerländska samhälle. Tiden då spelande bara var för de mest inbitna datorfantasterna är sedan länge förbi. Idag konkurrerar spelindustrin med både film- och musikindustrin om konsumenternas uppmärksamhet.</p><p>Trots det har forskning kring de digitala spelen länge åsidosatts. Men en process är nu i full gång för att etablera forskning kring spel och dess innehålls- och uttrycksmässiga aspekter som ser bortom frågan om eventuella skadliga psykologiska effekter och liknande. Men denna process är ung och oenighet råder om hur spelen som studieobjekt ska behandlas.</p><p>Denna debatt som utgår från två olika ansatser; den narratologiska och ludologiska, har visat sig vara central i forskarvärlden. För att försöka nå bättre förståelse kring berättande i de digitala spelens värld genomförde jag en narratologisk analys av ett enskilt spel; Shadow of the Colossus till Playstation 2. Jag utgick från klassiska narratologiska verktyg som utgår från berättandets syntagmatiska struktur; Propps rollfunktioner och Todorovs jämviktsformel.</p><p>För att kunna genomföra denna analys var första steget att först identifiera de berättande elementen i spelet så att dessa kunde kartläggas. När det var gjort applicerades de narratologiska verktygen på dessa. För att inte helt åsidosätta de mediespecifika kriterierna som de digitala spelen besitter, genomförde jag en enkel ludologisk analys av dess spelregler, för att se hur dessa var sammankopplade med eventuellt berättande.</p><p>Den narratologiska analysen visade sig vara användbar; ett antal av Propps funktioner identifierades och berättandet kunde även beskrivas utifrån Todorovs jämvikt. Dessutom visades ett klart samband mellan spelets berättande och dess ludusregler, det vill säga de regler som definierar mål och hur dessa skall nås. Den klassiska narratologiska analysen var fruktbar, men de mediespecifika egenskaperna med regelsystem och dess sammankoppling med de berättande elementen visade sig vara ett viktigt förhållande att belysa.</p>

Šiame darbe buvo pasiūlyti dirbtinio intelekto pritaikymo būdai bei metodai, kompiuterinio žaidimo personažui, dviejų personažų koviniam žaidimui. Pasiūlytais būdais bei metodais buvo bandoma pritaikyti dirbtinį intelektą kompiuterinio žaidimo personažui, šio tipo žaidimui. Buvo tiriama ar pasliūlyti būdai ir metodai tinka šiai kompiuterinių žaidimų klasei. Taip pat buvo tiriamas agento mokymosi greitis, nuo ko jis priklauso bei ieškomi faktoriai, kurie lemia tokio tipo žaidimo personažams sparčiau mokintis ir naudingiau naudotis įgytomis žiniomis. Atrastus ir ištirtus faktorius buvo stengiamasi suderinti taip, kad mokomas personažas balansuotų tarp greitai besimokančio ir tinkamai besinaudojančio išmoktomis žiniomis. / In this work was offered an adjustments of techniques and methods of artificial intelligence for computer player, in two-players combat games. There was tried to adapt the artificial intelligence to the computer player, with those proposed techniques and methods in this type of games. Also was investigated whether those proposed techniques and methods suits for this class of computer games. In this work also was analyzed agent learning speed, on what depends it and explored the factors that determines the rapid learning speed and efficient use of agent knowledge. Discovered and investigated factors were fitted to the rapid learning speed and efficient use of agent knowledge.

Šio darbo tikslas buvo nustatyti kaip įsitraukimas į kompiuterinių žaidimų žaidimą siejasi su paauglių agresyviu elgesiu bei kaip gimimo eiliškumas siejasi su įsitraukimu į kompiuterinių žaidimų žaidimą ir priklausomybę sukeliančių medžiagų vartojimu. Atliktame tyrime dalyvavo 224 10, 11 ir 12 klasių Jurbarko Giedraičio-Giedriaus gimnazijos mokiniai, kurių amžius 16 - 19 m. 14 apklausoje dalyvavusių paauglių yra mergaitės, 75 – berniukai. Kiekvienas tiriamasis turėjo užpildyti po keletą klausimynų: Įsitraukimą į kompiuterinius žaidimus matuojančią skalę ir Buss – Durkee klausimyną paauglio agresyvumo lygiui vertinti. Tiriamųjų buvo paprašyta atsakyti į 116 anketos klausimų. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad didesnis įsitraukimas į kompiuterinių žaidimų žaidimą siejasi su didesne fiziniu agresyviu elgesiu tarp merginų. Fizinis agresyvus elgesys tarp vaikinų nesiskiria skirtingo įsitraukimo į kompiuterinius žaidimus grupėse. Verbalinis agresyvus elgesys vienodai būdingas tiek mažiau įsitraukusiems į kompiuterinius žaidimus paaugliams, tiek ir daugiau įsitraukusiems. T skirtų paaugliams ir M skirtų subrendusiesiems kategorijų kompiuterinių žaidimų žaidimas nesisieja su didesniu paauglių agresyviu elgesiu. Taip pat didesnis įsitraukimas į kompiuterinių žaidimų žaidimą nesisieja su didesniu priklausomybę sukeliančių medžiagų vartojimu tarp vaikinų. Didesnis įsitraukimas į kompiuterinių žaidimų žaidimą siejasi su didesniu merginų alkoholio ir kitų narkotinių medžiagų vartojimu... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of this work was to determine how involvement in computer game play is associated with adolescent aggressive behaviour and how birth order refers to the access to computer game play and consumption of addictive substanes. The research was conducted with 224 students from 10, 11 and 12 classes in Jurbarkas Giedraitis - Giedrius High School, aged 16 - 19. There were 14 girls and 75 boys among surveyed teenagers. Each had to answer several questionnaires: involvement in computer games, measuring scale and Buss – Durkee questionnaire to access the level of adolescent aggression. Subjects were asked to answer 116 questions. The results showed that greater involvement in computer game play associated with greater physical agressive behaviour among girls. The physical aggressive behaviour among boys is no different to the involvement of different groups of computer games. Verbal aggressive behaviour is equally inherent for less or more involving in computer games among teenagers.T for teens and M for mature categories, computer games play is not associated with greater aggressive behaviour among teenagers. It is also greater involvement in computer game play is not associated with higher consumption of addictive substance using among boys. Increased involvement in comouter game play is associated with increased female using of alcohol and other drugs. Birth order in the family is not associated with higher consumption of addictive substance using and greater... [to full text]

Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht am Beispiel von Online-Rollenspielen, wie sich prosoziales Verhalten in virtuellen Umgebungen im Vergleich zu dem in realen Umgebungen unterscheidet. Ausgangspunkt für die Untersuchungen sind die Modelle zum und Einflussgrößen auf das prosoziale Verhalten, die als Ergebnisse der einschlägigen Forschung realer Hilfesituationen vorliegen. Unter Berücksichtigung der Charakteristika und Besonderheiten von Online-Rollenspielen werden verschiedene Variablen wie Attraktivität des Hilfeempfängers, Ähnlichkeit zwischen Helfer und Hilfeempfänger, die Schwere der Notsituation und Gruppenzugehörigkeit auf ihre Auswirkung auf das prosoziale Verhalten in virtuellen Szenarien getestet. Um ein maximales Maß an externer Validität zu gewährleisten, kommt dabei die Methode der In-situ-Untersuchung zum Einsatz, bei der das Verhalten der Probanden in natürlichen Spielsituationen erfasst wird. Die Ergebnisse zeigen bei weiblichen Avataren einen signifikanten Einfluss der Attraktivität bei männlichen Helfern, wohingegen es bei fehlender Verfügbarkeit von Attraktivitätsmerkmalen keine Geschlechtsunterschiede gibt. Kein Einfluss auf prosoziales Verhalten kann bei den Variablen Schwere der Notsituation und perzeptueller Ähnlichkeit nachgewiesen werden. Darüber hinaus wird mittels einer Fragebogenstudie der Einfluss dispositionaler Merkmale, die unter dem Begriff prosoziale Persönlichkeit zusammengefasst werden, auf prosoziales Verhalten untersucht. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die positiven Prädiktoren empathic concern, other-oriented moral reasoning und der negative Prädiktor personal distress einen signifikanten Einfluss auf das Auftreten prosozialen Verhaltens in realen und in virtuellen Szenarien haben. Allerdings unterscheidet sich die Höhe des Einflusses dieser Variablen in Abhängigkeit der Zielpersonen des prosozialen Verhaltens (Ingroup vs. Outgroup) sowie des Umgebung (real vs. virtuell).

This diploma thesis is concerned on the creation of computer game (adventure). This game may be used as means of motivation in chemistry lessons at primary school. The student is tested on the relevant topics of organic chemistry during the game. The tests are mainly directed on the organic chemistry nomenclature. The adventure takes place in the castle Jindřichův Hradec. The student also learns the basic facts and history of this compound. In this way they acquire inter-subject links.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:39:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3684.pdf: 7790921 bytes, checksum: ef6e5a5f1894cd91504da57b15472df0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-22 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / This study aims to examine to what extent the teaching oriented activities can contribute to the development of an educational computer game with the participation of students in the sixth year of Elementary Education. The teaching oriented activities were developed at first on paper in order to take into account oral and written elaborations of the students while the game was being "gestated". This strategy is based on current methodologies adopted in Computer Science, to build software or computer games that take into consideration the participation of users in the development process, such as "participatory design" or "user-centered design ". To utilize these methodologies we took into account some necessity encountered in the classroom by the actresses and actors of the research (teacher, student, programmer and researcher). The concern with educational computer games in the classroom is inspired on current pedagogical practices, where technology is increasingly being used and in some cases do not cause "real" changes in the traditional methodological approaches in the classroom. The construction of the data occurred in a public school in the inland of the state of São Paulo. The research question was defined as: to what extent the teaching oriented activities of geometric concepts can contribute to the development of an educational computer game with students in the sixth year of elementary school? The research was qualitative and the data analysis was constructed from the organization, reading and analysis of "teaching episodes." Such reviews are based on written and oral elaborations of students, identifying those that can assist on the development of educational computer game. We also intend to understand how such a process takes place, regarding the interaction among students, teacher, researcher and developer. As main findings we highlight the contribution of teaching oriented activities in the reveal of some unexpected situations throughout its development, which allow a special look as for some pedagogical aspects of the game. However, we emphasize a need to discuss some aspects that go beyond pedagogical issues, such as a necessary reconfiguration of the school aiming to promote dialogue with students of the twenty-first century. This reconfiguration is in the sense of conceiving a school that takes into consideration aspects of current society such as the networked information, its nonlinearity, as well as a school that prioritizes creativity and autonomy in educational processes. / O presente trabalho teve como principal objetivo analisar em que medida as atividades orientadoras de ensino podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento de um jogo computacional educativo com a participação de estudantes do sexto ano do Ensino Fundamental. As atividades orientadoras de ensino foram desenvolvidas, a princípio, no papel com o intuito de levar em consideração as elaborações, orais e escritas, dos estudantes enquanto o jogo estava sendo gestado . Tal estratégia baseia-se nas atuais metodologias, adotadas na Ciência da Computação, para construção de software ou jogos computacionais que levam em consideração a participação dos usuários no seu processo de desenvolvimento, como o design participativo ou o design centrado no usuário . Para utilizarmos dessas metodologias levamos em consideração algumas necessidades encontradas na sala de aula pelas atrizes e pelos atores da pesquisa (professora da turma, estudantes, programador e pesquisadora). A preocupação com os jogos computacionais educativos em sala de aula inspira-se nas práticas pedagógicas atuais, onde a tecnologia está cada vez mais inserida e, em alguns casos, não provocam mudanças reais nas tradicionais abordagens metodológicas em sala de aula. A construção dos dados ocorreu em uma escola pública estadual do interior do estado de São Paulo. A questão de pesquisa está assim definida: em que medida as atividades orientadoras de ensino de conceitos geométricos podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento de um jogo computacional educativo com estudantes do sexto ano do Ensino Fundamental? A pesquisa é qualitativa e a análise dos dados foi construída a partir da organização, leitura e análise dos episódios de ensino . Tais análises são baseadas nas elaborações escritas e orais de estudantes identificandose aquelas que podem auxiliar no processo de desenvolvimento do jogo computacional educativo. Ao mesmo tempo temos como intenção compreender como se dá tal processo a partir da interação entre estudantes, professora, pesquisadora e programador. Como principais resultados destacamos a contribuição das atividades orientadoras de ensino no sentido de revelar alguns inesperados ao longo do seu desenvolvimento os quais permitem um olhar diferenciado aos aspectos pedagógicos do jogo. Porém, destacamos uma necessidade de discutirmos elementos que vão além das questões pedagógicas, como uma necessária reconfiguração da escola para promover e auxiliar o diálogo com os estudantes do século XXI. Essa reconfiguração vai no sentido de pensarmos uma escola que dialogue com aspectos da sociedade atual como a informação em rede, sua não linearidade, assim como priorizar a criatividade e autonomia nos processos educativos.

This essay is a narrative analyze of the computer game Halo. The purpose of the essay is to see what function the narrative elements have in a computer game of the action genre. The analyze is done with a neo-formalistic approach according to the theory of David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. The choice of game was based on it's positive reviews mentioning the story. The essay tries to give a picture of research in the field and researchers views on narratives and computer games. The conclusion is that this particular game uses the narrative to motivate progress through the game and give the player a goal to play towards. It's also been used to enhance the players experience. / Uppsatsen gör en analys av de narrativa delarna i datorspelet Halo. Syftet med uppsatsen är att se vilken funktion de narrativa elementen fyller i ett datorspel i actiongenren. Analysen har gjort utifrån neoformalistisk teori enligt David Bordwell och Kristin Thompson. Valet av spel gjordes utifrån de positiva recensioner spelet fått som nämner historien i spelet. Uppsatsen försöker ge en bild av dagens forskning inom datorspel och narrativ och den bild framstående forskare har. Slutsatsen är att spelet har använt narrativ för att fungera som drivkraft genom spelet och att ge spelaren det mål som man ska spela mot för att vinna. Det har också använts för att förhöja spelarens upplevelse.

The aim of this study is to examine the language from a small sample of texts from the chat channels of World of Warcraft and analyze the differences found between World of Warcraft English and Standard English. In addition, the studywill compare the language found in World of Warcraft with language found on other parts of the Internet, especially chatgroups. Based on 1045 recorded chat messages, this study examines the use of abbreviations, emoticons, vocabulary, capitalization, spelling, multiple letter use and the use of rare characters. The results of the investigation show that the language of World of Warcraft differs from Standard English on several aspects, primarily in the use of abbreviations. This is supported by secondary sources. The results also show that the use of language is probably not based on the desire to deliver a message quickly, but rather to reach out to people. In addition, the results show that the language found in World of Warcraft is more advanced than a simple effort to try to imitate speech, thereby performing more than written speech.

The purpose of this thesis was to contribute to our knowledge of what haptics can bring to the table as a human-computer interface rendering technique, which other rendering techniques cannot. An experiment was set up in which a multi-interfaced game was used to convey an information structure to interface users. Each of the game’s three user interfaces utilized one of three different rendering techniques: haptic rendering, graphic rendering, and graphic-haptic rendering. The capacity of each rendering technique to represent the information structure was assessed in terms of the effect of the corresponding interface on three aspects of the user interaction: user performance, user satisfaction and system usability. The result indicated that user performance benefitted from a graphic or graphic-haptic rendering over a haptic rendering. There were no differences between the rendering techniques with regards to the overall user satisfaction. However, there were notable differences on the user satisfaction metric subscale level. The haptic rendering required higher attentive effort than other renderings. Also, the graphic rendering better facilitated the perception of having clear goals and feedback. The results also suggested that the overall system usability benefitted from a graphic or graphic-haptic rendering over a haptic rendering.