Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

The changing world of work that we live in is characterised by forming part of globalisation and virtualness. The previous era managers focused on how to make money and how this money can work for them. The changing world of work is characterised by global competitiveness in delivering quality products quicker and cheaper. Globalisation presents continuous advancements in technology, which requires a new mindset. These technological advancements have a profound effect on culture, training and management of staff. This brings about change in flexible working arrangements and the traditional office made space within certain organisations for virtual offices. The move towards virtualness causes companies to work more closely with their customers to be able to coordinate rapid changes in products (Schuh, Millarg & Gorannson, 1998; Weissenfeld, Fisscher, Pearson & Brockhoff, 200 1). The financial institution referred to in this study was also driven by globalisation and technological advancements to re-engineer the current way in which they do business. It became evidently clear that there was a need for a shift towards virtualness, which called for the identifying of relevant competencies; needed by employees for working in a virtual environment. These competencies will enable the organisation to select the right employees and provide them with information that could be utilised in training the current virtual employees according to the competencies identified. The objectives of this research were firstly to conduct a job analysis to determine the important competencies needed by virtual workers, in a specific job at a financial institution in South Africa. Secondly to compare the current competencies of the virtual workers (who took part in the research) with the competencies identified by the job analysis to be important for this specific job. Thirdly to determine the skills required for virtual workers and compare these skills with the skills ranked by the current virtual workers to be important. Fourthly to identify how these virtual workers experienced the effect of virtualness on their performance. Lastly to make recommendations regarding future training and selection purposes. A survey design (cross-sectional) was used to determine competencies needed by virtual workers for a specific job at a financial institution in South Africa. The study population consisted of (N= 71) employees in a virtual job at a financial institution in South Africa. The Work Profile Systems (WPS), Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ), Performance Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) and a Skills Audit (SA) were administered. Results of the research indicated that 44% of the study population exhibits the competencies needed by virtual workers as indicated by the Inventory of Management Competencies (IMC) Profile of the WPS. The results of the Performance Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) indicated that the current virtual workers experienced the greatest impact of virtualness on improving the attainment of personal goals, as well as improving the achievement of organisational goals. The results from the Skills Audit (SA) identified skills that were essential for virtual workers in a specific job within a virtual environment, according to the feedback received from the current virtual workers. They compared favourably with the skills identified by literature as being important. Recommendations to the organisation and for future research have been made and limitations were also discussed. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Virtual Reality has once again emerged as a platform with great potential for exploratory research. An expectation for the next generation virtual reality platforms is to be used as a tool for graphical designers as a new way to access the virtual world and interact with digital content. Just as mobile applications are developed for smaller screens with touch capabilities and desktop applications for computer screens with the input of mouse and keyboard, the interfaces of VR applications need to be designed with the capabilities and limitations of the platform in mind. A common component in modern graphic editing software is layer management: having the final output of the application divided into sub-components. This thesis explores how layer management can best be implemented in room-scale Virtual Reality with a focus on selection, navigation and manipulation through an iterative design study. The study concludes that, to improve the learnability of a system, interactions should be based on real-world interaction for naturalistic tasks while drawing inspiration from desktop applications for more abstract tasks. Furthermore, the environment needs to be adjusted to the systems designated tasks as well as the physical characteristics of the user. Lastly, as previous studies have suggested, amplifying the movement of manipulated objects in relation to the movement of the controller decreases the required movement of the user, reducing fatigue and increasing the user’s reach. However, this amplification was perceived as a reduction in precision, which some users valued more than movement reduction. Therefore, the amplification factor should be adjusted in relation to the operation’s precision requirements. While directly applicable to layer management in VR, these findings could serve as guidelines for applications utilizing 2D content in a virtual environment, room-scale VR applications designed to perform abstract tasks, and productivity tools for Virtual Reality. / Virtual Reality (VR) har på senare år sett ett uppsving både vad gäller teknisk utveckling och intresse hos konsumenter. Den nya generationens VR-plattformar har stor potential för utforskande studier både vad gäller användningsområden och interaktionsgränssnitt. En av förväntningarna är att VR ska kunna användas inom grafisk formgivning som ett verktyg för att tillgå- och interagera med digitalt innehåll på nya sätt. Precis som mobila applikationer är utvecklade för mindre touch-skärmar och PC-applikationer är designade för mus- och tangentbordsinteraktion med återkoppling genom en datorskärm så kommer gränssnitten för framtidens VR applikationer att vara utformade efter denna plattforms specifikationer. En vanlig komponent i dagens grafiska redigeringsprogramvaror är bildlagerhantering; att ha en bild eller bildruta uppdelad i mindre delar där varje del kan redigeras och påverkas som en separat enhet. Denna uppsats utforskar genom en iterativ designstudie hur bildlagerhantering kan implementeras i en VR miljö med fokus på navigation, val av objekt och manipulation av objekt. Studien visar att interaktionsgränssnitten som baseras på interaktioner med verkligheten och interaktion med traditionella PC applikationer för naturliga respektive abstrakta operationer gör interaktionerna lättare att lära sig och förstå. Förutom de uppgifter som systemet är ämnat att utföra bör även utformningen av den virtuella miljön ta hänsyn till de fysiska egenskaperna hos användaren. Som tidigare studier har visat så kan ett förstärkt utslag av manipulerade objekt i förhållande till kontrollen minska den rörelse som krävs av användaren för att utföra en uppgift och därigenom minska trötthet och öka användarens effektiva räckvidd. Denna förstärkning uppfattades dock som en reducering av precision, vilket vissa användare värdesatte mer än reducering av krävd rörelse. Därför ska förstärkningsgraden sättas i relation till den precision som krävs av varje operation. Studiens resultat är direkt applicerbara för lagerhantering i VR men kan också användas som riktlinjer för VR applikationer som hanterar 2D-innehåll i en 3D miljö samt VR applikationer med syfte att användas som produktivitetsverktyg.

This thesis focuses on virtual restorative environments – specifically, the way that natural environments have been created in a virtual context to elicit beneficial effects on restoration and stress recovery. As the field of restorative environment research is mostly concerned with studying the environment itself, the interaction between participant and environment tends to consist of open exploration, and other ways to interact are often overlooked. The aim of this thesis was therefore to construct a virtual restorative environment with an additional possibility to interact, and to explore how the interaction is connected to a virtual environment’s perceived restorativeness. To gain deeper understanding about how different people perceived the virtual environments, the experiment was conducted using qualitative measures such as questionnaires, open questions and interviews. The results indicate that the perception of a virtual environment’s restorativeness is a very subjective matter, as the individual differences between the participants affected the way that they perceived the environments.

This thesis describes a study carried out with the aim of discovering user preferences as to the design of 3-dimensional virtual worlds for accessing information. No literature was found which dealt with this topic, and it was therefore thought that, rather than ask users to make a selection from arbitrarily-chosen designs, it would be informative to consult the users from the beginning of the design process. To this end, a Grounded Theory methodology was adopted, and users were selected from postgraduate students and staff from Information Management courses at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. Three “rounds” of interviews were conducted. The first round was concerned with finding out what ideas for a world design people would have, the second with testing four worlds derived from the first round, and the third with exploring further ideas that users had, based on their experience of the test worlds. At each stage of the process, emergent theories were constructed, and modified according to subsequent findings. It was established that the factors which influenced this group of users in their preferences for the design of worlds were not structural, as might have been assumed, but instead were related to properties such as familiarity, organisation, assistance, and quality of information and presentation. When the results were examined in the context of developments in the use of virtual environments, it was found that they provide a theoretical underpinning for practices such as the provision of “conventional” library structures in the popular online environment Second Life. This is not a statistical exercise, but it would appear that there are no significant differences based on the criteria of age, gender, or whether a user was staff or student. More thorough studies would be required to determine this absolutely, but for the moment it appears more useful to draw a broad set of conclusions. ii Issues were identified which indicate potentially rewarding areas for further research and design. Specifically, it would be of interest to discover whether the affective responses of these groups are also common to other groups, and to experiment further with worlds designed in the light of the current findings. Further investigation of the small number of cases in which users do not respond to the worlds would also be desirable, to determine whether this response is characteristic of a group of people who will not react positively to any world, or whether these users simply reacted negatively to the examples presented.

The Internet faces well-known challenges in realizing modifications to the core architecture. To help overcome these limitations, the use of network virtualization has been proposed. Network virtualization enables the deployment of novel network architectures and services on existing Internet infrastructure. Virtual networks run over physical networks and use Internet paths and protocols as essentially a link layer in the virtual network. Virtual networks can also share the resources in the physical substrate. Effective use of the underlying substrate network requires intelligent placement of virtual networks so that underlying resources do not incur over-subscription. Because virtual networks can come and go over time, and underlying networks can experience their own dynamic changes, virtual networks need to be migrated---re-mapped to the physical network during active operation---to maintain good performance. While virtual network placement, and to a lesser extent migration, has been studied in the past, little attention has been devoted to designing, deploying, and evaluating migration mechanisms for virtual networks. In this dissertation, we design virtual network migration mechanisms for different substrate platforms and further design a system to mitigate the effects of virtual network migration. In particular this dissertation makes the following contributions: 1. With the goal of minimizing the disruption during a virtual network migration, we design three algorithms for scheduling the sequence of virtual router moves that takes a virtual network from its original placement to its new placement. 2. We design and implement a controller-based architecture for virtual network migration on PlanetLab. This work explores the challenges in implementing virtual network migration on real infrastructure. Recommendations are given for infrastructure that support virtual network migration. 3. We propose and implement a mechanism to mitigate the performance degradation resulting from virtual network migration through transport and application layer collaboration. We utilize a centralized controller to notify the end-systems or the gateways about the time of the virtual network migration such that we prevent packet loss to the application traffic of the end-systems.

New digital technological possibilities allow physical museum artefacts to be transferred into a virtual environment using 3D computer models with rich information content for educational purposes. However, although several museum websites have applied relevant educational theories to learning activities in these 3D environments, these alone are not enough to develop 3D museum environments without consideration of virtual visiting styles in the learning context. This research addresses the relationship between visiting styles and the design of 3D museum environments based on pedagogic approaches for learning efficacy. Relevant literature on the nature of web-based museum systems was reviewed. Three stages of primary research (a critical review, observations and interviews) were also conducted in this study. The critical review examined the use of 3D technologies in current museum websites in terms of informational aspects and the learning context. The observation studies identified the relationship between visitor behaviours and associated learning activities within 3D museum environments. The interviews further elicited experts’ views and were used to test the research hypotheses. A theoretical design reference model was developed. Initially based on the Reeves multimedia design model, the model consists of three phases: analysis, design and assessment. A prototype 3D exhibition was created based on the theoretical model and two pedagogic approaches. Evaluation of this showed that the design of the exhibits with rich multimedia formats had the potential for more effective visitor learning. The two pedagogic approaches encouraged the related visiting style(s), leading to a deeper engagement with the content and ultimately improving learning efficiency.

The impact of training on virtual team effectiveness was assessed in five areas: communication, planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, resolving conflict, and responding to customer requirements. A 12-page survey was developed exploring all aspects of virtual teams. 180 surveys were distributed, 52 were returned representing 43 companies. Training led to higher effectiveness in planning tasks and setting goals, solving problems and making decisions, and conflict resolution, but not in communication and responding to customer requirements. Training may not solve all the problems that virtual teams will encounter; however, training will make the challenges easier to handle.

Panoramic image Virtual Reality (VR) is a 360 degree image which has been interpreted as a kind of VR that allows users to navigate, view, hear and have remote access to a virtual environment. Panoramic Video VR builds on this, where filming is done in the real world to create a highly dynamic and immersive environment. This is proving to be a very attractive technology and has introduced many possible applications but still present a number of challenges, considered in this research. An initial literature survey identified limitations in panoramic video to date: these were the technology (e.g. filming and stitching) and the design of effective navigation methods. In particular, there is a tendency for users to become disoriented during way-finding. In addition, an effective interface design to embed contextual information is required. The research identified the need to have a controllable test environment in order to evaluate the production of the video and the optimal way of presenting and navigating within the scene. Computer Graphics (CG) simulation scenes were developed to establish a method of capturing, editing and stitching the video under controlled conditions. In addition, a novel navigation method, named the “image channel” was proposed and integrated within this environment. This replaced hotspots: the traditional navigational jumps between locations. Initial user testing indicated that the production was appropriate and did significantly improve user perception of position and orientation over jump-based navigation. The interface design combined with the environment view alone was sufficient for users to understand their location without the need to augment the view with an on screen map. After obtaining optimal methods in building and improving the technology, the research looked for a natural, complex, and dynamic real environment for testing. The web-based virtual zoo (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums) was selected as an ideal production: It had the purpose to allow people to get close to animals in their natural habitat and created particular interest to develop a system for knowledge delivery, raising protection concerns, and entertaining visitors: all key roles of a zoo. The design method established from CG was then used to develop a film rig and production unit for filming a real animal habitat: the Formosan rock monkey in Taiwan. A web-based panoramic video of this was built and tested though user experience testing and expert interviews. The results of this were essentially identical to the testing done in the prototype environment, and validated the production. Also was successfully attracting users to the site repeatedly. The research has contributed to new knowledge in improvement to the production process, improvement to presentation and navigating within panoramic videos through the proposed Image Channel method, and has demonstrated that web-based virtual zoo can be improved to help address considerable pressure on animal extinction and animal habitat degradation that affect humans by using this technology. Further studies were addressed. The research was sponsored by Taiwan’s Government and Twycross Zoo UK was a collaborator.

Os guias cirúrgicos são importantes neste caso, pois transferirão a informação do planejamento cirúrgico para o ato cirúrgico e permitirão a realização cirúrgica do movimento e as novas posições planejadas de maxila e / ou mandíbula, para corrigir a deformidade dentofacial do paciente. Assim, a preparação de guias cirúrgicos assume grande importância no sucesso do tratamento, sendo o foco deste trabalho. Foram selecionados oito pacientes previamente submetidos à cirurgia ortognática e cada paciente deu origem a um grupo, de acordo com o movimento maxilar. Grupo 1 (avanço), Grupo 2 (reposicionamento superior do incisivo - RSI), Grupo 3 (reposicionamento superior dos molares - RSM), Grupo 4 (mudança da linha média), Grupo 5 (reposicionamento inferior de incisivos - RII) Grupo 6 (reposicionamento inferior de molares - RIM), Grupo 7 (avanço com RSI e RIM) e Grupo 8 (avanço com RII e RSM) de acordo com a deformidade dentofacial do paciente. Para os Grupos de 1 a 6 planejou-se duas amplitudes de movimentação (3 e 6mm) e para os Grupos 7 e 8 apenas uma amplitude (6mm). O software de planejamento virtual Dolphin Imaging 11.9&reg importou imagem de exame tomografia computadorizada e digitalização de arcos dentários. Foram realizadas simulações de cirurgia virtual em 3D e guias cirúrgicos virtuais foram obtidos e exportados para impressora 3D (impressão em resina). Em articulador semi-ajustável (ASA), o modelo da maxila foi separado da plataforma de montagem e o guia cirúrgico obtido do planejamento virtual 3D foi utilizado para remontar o modelo da maxila ligado ao modelo da mandíbula (posicionado de acordo com arco facial e registro pré-operatório). A maxila foi fixada na nova posição e transferida para a mesa de Erickson, na qual as medidas foram feitas para verificar o movimento planejado (direção e quantidade de movimento). Os dados foram tabulados e submetidos à análise estatística para avaliação da concordância entre o planejamento virtual 3D e os valores encontrados na Mesa de Erickson. Observou-se excelente concordância entre os métodos, independentemente da direção, ponto de referência analisado ou quantidade da movimentação (3 ou 6mm). A maior variação encontrada foi de 0,42mm na amplitude de movimentação de 6mm e a maior média (0,07mm) na região do elemento 16, evidenciando a alta concordância entre os métodos de obtenção de guias cirúrgicos para cirurgia ortognática. Não foram encontradas diferenças estatisticamente significantes, e portanto, a obtenção de guias cirúrgicos por meio do planejamento virtual 3D em cirurgia ortognática possui excelente concordância com a tradicional Mesa de Erickson (Cirurgia de Modelos) / Surgical guides are important in this case, since they will transfer the information of surgical planning to the surgical act and allow the surgical achievement of the movement and the new planned positions of maxilla and / or mandible, to correct the patient´s dentofacial deformity. Thus, preparation of surgical guides assumes great importance on treatment success, being the focus of this work. It was selected eight patients previously submitted to Orthognathic Surgery and each patient gave rise to a group, according to the maxillary movement. Group 1 (advancement), Group 2 (upper repositioning of incisor - URI), Group 3 (upper repositioning of molars - URM), Group 4 (midline changing), Group 5 (down repositioning of incisors DRI) Group 6 (down repositioning of molars - DRM), Group 7 (advancement with URI and DRM) and Group 8 (advancement with DRI and URM) according to the patient´s dentofacial deformity. To Groups 1 to 6 two amplitudes of movement were planned (3 and 6mm) and for Groups 7 and 8 only one amplitude (6mm). Dolphin Imaging 11.9&reg virtual planning software imported image of computed tomographic examination and scanning of dental arches. Simulation of 3D virtual surgery was performed and virtual surgical guides obtained, which were exported to the 3D printer (resin impression). In semi-adjustable articulator (SAA) the maxilla model was separated from the SAA mounting platform and the surgical guide obtained from 3D virtual surgical planning was used to reassemble the maxilla model linked to mandible model (positioned according to facial bow and preoperative registration). The maxilla was fixed in the new position and transferred to Erickson\'s table, in which measurements were made to verify the planned movement (direction and amount of movement). The data were tabulated and submitted to statistical analysis to evaluate the agreement between 3D virtual planning and the values found in Erickson\'s Table. There was an excellent agreement between the methods, regardless of direction, reference point analyzed or amount of movement (3 or 6mm). The greatest variation was 0.42 mm in the movement amplitude of 6mm and the highest mean (0,07mm) in the region of element 16, evidencing the high agreement between the methods of attainment of surgical guides for orthognathic surgery. No statistical significant differences were found, and so, the attainment of surgical guides for orthognathic surgery by 3D virtual surgical planning in orthognathic surgery has an excellent agreement with the traditional Erickson´s table (Model Surgery)