Children undergoing Dialysis spend a lot of time on self-care, including three hospital visits a week, three to ve hours in length, accounting for 30% of their after-school time. As a result, many of these children lack the time to lead an active life, and combined with their ailing health, leads to deteriorating quality of life. As a result, many of these children lack con dence in their capabilities and cannot answer questions such as \Can I bike to school?". Cyclescape, an exercise VR game, aims to provide entertainment to patients undergoing dialysis, improve their quality of life, and help them answer such questions. This thesis explores converting real-world data into a personal game level, consisting of a path in a game that players (patients) can traverse on a stationary bike while undergoing dialysis. We will explore the di erent types of real-world map data available and how they are used in video games. We will then derive di erent goals the map should address to improve the player's condition and then design Cyclescape to meet them. Lastly, we will analyze how successful Cyclescape was in meeting these goals. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Cette recherche propose d’analyser les impacts et les enjeux géographiques d’un cyberespace omni présent. Sous l’impulsion du web 2.0 et celle des globes virtuels (Google Earth, Virtual Earth, World Wind), la production et la diffusion du savoir géographique subissent d’amples transformations. Les espaces virtuels et autres services de géolocalisation (LBS) remplacent peu à peu la carte papier et le guide touristique. Ces usages participent à l’émergence d’un espace complexe où viennent se mêler des usages dans l’espace réel et des usages dans l’espace virtuel. Parallèlement, une production d’intérêt géographique en résulte, hors des milieux qui, jusqu’à ces dernières années, en étaient les initiateurs et les utilisateurs obligés : universités, organismes de recherche, géographes professionnels, Etats, ONG, militaires … Cette thèse éclairera donc le lecteur sur la réalité géographique des (nouveaux) usages du cyberespace, qu’ils soient liés à la production « amateur » de contenus géographiques (néogéographie) ou à la consommation « augmentée » de l’espace géographique. / This research proposes to analyze the impacts and challenges of an omnipresent geographical cyberspace. Spurred on by web 2.0 and that of virtual globes (Google Earth, Virtual Earth, World Wind), the production and diffusion of geographical knowledge undergo further transformations. Virtual spaces and other location-based services (LBS) are gradually replacing the paper map and tourist guide. These uses contribute to the emergence of a complex space where uses in real space and uses in the virtual space mingle. Meanwhile, production of geographical interest results outside areas which, until recently, were the initiators and traditional users: universities, research organizations, professional geographers, states, NGOs, military ... This thesis will enlighten the reader on the geographical reality of the (new) uses of cyberspace, whether related to the production of "amateur" geographical content (neogeography) or to consumption "augmented" of geographical space.

The following work presents several trans-disciplinary resources for understanding cities beyond just their physical form and spatial processes. The conceptualization of cities from a top-down, modern and post- modern approach to the form-function duality lacks multiple dimensions, which need to be studied in order to gain a proper understanding of how contemporary urban societies perform nowadays. Instead, this work considers settlements as a set of an infinite number of individual perceptions and experiences, which construct overlapping layers of hidden and intangible information that shape cities as complex systems. Social relations that are moving progressively to the virtual realm are becoming major factors in decision-making and location choices by citizens. This definition of a city’s hidden image is developed through the study of data retrieved from online servers. To do so, this work focuses on spatial and temporal activity patterns, values of certain places and their quantitative weight within the urban fabric, the distribution and nature of places, the observation of people’s perception of certain places through the representation of activities captured by pictures posted online, or several other theoretical and methodological approaches under the umbrella of crowd-sourced data in the city.