This thesis addresses the subject of converging real and virtual environments to a combined entity that can facilitate physiologically complying interfaces for the purpose of training. Based on the mobility and physiological demands of dismounted soldiers, the base assumption is that greater immersion means better learning and potentially higher training transfer. As the user can interface with the system in a natural way, more focus and energy can be used for training rather than for control itself. Identified requirements on a simulator relating to physical and psychological user aspects are support for unobtrusive and wireless use, high field of view, high performance tracking, use of authentic tools, ability to see other trainees, unrestricted movement and physical feedback. Using only commercially available systems would be prohibitively expensive whilst not providing a solution that would be fully optimized for the target group for this simulator. For this reason, most of the systems that compose the simulator are custom made to facilitate physiological human aspects as well as to bring down costs. With the use of chroma keying, a cylindrical simulator room and parallax corrected high field of view video see-though head mounted displays, the real and virtual reality are mixed. This facilitates use of real tool as well as layering and manipulation of real and virtual objects. Furthermore, a novel omnidirectional floor and thereto interface scheme is developed to allow limitless physical walking to be used for virtual translation. A physically confined real space is thereby transformed into an infinite converged environment. The omnidirectional floor regulation algorithm can also provide physical feedback through adjustment of the velocity in order to synchronize virtual obstacles with the surrounding simulator walls. As an alternative simulator target use, an omnidirectional robotic platform has been developed that can match the user movements. This can be utilized to increase situation awareness in telepresence applications.

This study examines the phenomenon of the usage of e-commerce in relation to firms’ internationalization process. Consequently, the study investigates risks and psychic distance in relation to prior research within International business, Internationalization and e- commerce, while focusing on the latest era of academia, namely “Internetalization”. The study investigates how e-commerce and its tools reduce perceived risks associated with firms’ internationalization process and what challenges Swedish SME’s identify while using e- commerce as a tool for internationalization. The study takes a qualitative, multiple case study approach focusing on Swedish SME’s operating in foreign markets within the retail industry. The findings indicate that e-commerce has the potential to generate international market expansion for Swedish SME’s. Further findings show that e-commerce and its tools are leveraged by Swedish SME’s to source, access and exchange valuable information whilst reducing perceived risk related to internationalization since it gives SME’s access to essential information needed for further expansion. Two main challenges are identified. Firstly, trustworthiness and secondly transforming gathered information into valuable information and knowledge. Consequently, the main challenge identified in the internationalization process of Swedish SME’s, resides in coping with the underlying presence of “psychic distance” or “virtuality trap”.

Na concepção docente, o virtual possui apenas uma face, reconhecível por meio do que é visto, elaborado e/ou modificado nas telas dos computadores e demais recursos digitais de tecnologia. Esta pesquisa teve como objeto a virtualidade em suas duas instâncias: a humana, que se faz presente nas projeções que integram o processo de imaginação e criação, em potência e ato; e a sua vertente nas novas tecnologias, em um ambiente digital, denominado virtual, por permitir a visualização e interação com as diversas possibilidades criativas do indivíduo. Teve como objetivos analisar a concepção contemporânea sobre o virtual, principalmente do ponto de vista docente, pesquisar sobre as duas formas pelas quais o virtual se faz presente nas realizações humanas e ,ainda, analisar, por meio de um estudo de caso, quais são as ideias que o professor possui em relação ao virtual e em seu uso em âmbito pedagógico. A hipótese deste trabalho se constitui na afirmação de que o virtual possui duas vertentes, ambas relevantes ao desenvolvimento humano a inerente às capacidades mentais do homem e a que se manifesta por meio das tecnologias digitais. Como metodologia de pesquisa, realizou-se um estudo de caso, com abordagens quantitativa e qualitativa, cujos propósitos foram pesquisar conceitos específicos sobre o tema e realizar uma análise sobre o ponto de vista docente para com o virtual, em um determinado contexto: a Escola Municipal Governador Mário Covas Júnior, em Ubatuba, cidade localizada no litoral norte de São Paulo. Foram utilizados na coleta de dados um questionário quantitativo, para sondagem do uso docente das novas tecnologias, e outro com questões abertas, para que fossem coletadas as concepções dos professores da instituição sobre o virtual nas atividades escolares. Constatou-se que a ênfase do professor ainda está voltada para a presença do virtual em sua segunda instância, a das novas tecnologias. Por meio de uma explanação, que constituiu a intervenção do pesquisador no estudo de caso, outras concepções do virtual foram transmitidas, concluindo-se que a partir destas, pode ser inicialmente estimulada a compreensão do professor para com a virtualidade humana. / In teaching concept, the virtual has only one face, recognizable by what is seen, written and / or modified on the screens of computers and other digital resources of technology. This research had as its object the virtuality in two instances: the human, which is present in the projections that cover the process of imagination and creation in power and act, and his part in the new technologies in a digital environment, called virtual allow for the visualization and interaction with various creative possibilities of the individual. Aimed to analyze the contemporary concept of the virtual, especially from the standpoint of teaching, research about the two ways in which the virtual is present in human achievement and also examine, through a case study, what are the ideas that the teacher has over the virtual connection and its use in teaching. The hypothesis of this thesis is the claim that the virtual is twofold, both relevant to human development - the inherent mental capacities of man and that manifests itself by means of digital technologies. As a research methodology, there was a case study with quantitative and qualitative approaches, whose purpose was to investigate specific concepts on the subject and do an analysis on the point of view toward virtual teacher in a certain context: the School Municipal Governor Mario Covas Junior in Ubatuba, Sao Paulo. Were used to collect the data, a quantitative questionnaire to survey the use of new teaching technologies, and other open questions, that would be collected from teachers\' conceptions of the institution on the virtual school activities. It was found that the emphasis of the teacher is still focused on the virtual presence in your second instance, the new technologies. Through an explanation, which was the researcher\'s intervention in the case study, other concepts were transmitted from the virtual, concluding that from these may be initially stimulated understanding of the teacher toward the virtual human.

Considerando as tecnologias digitais de comunicação como parte condicionante do ambiente social contemporâneo, esta pesquisa teve como objetivo realizar um estudo exploratório sobre a sociabilidade no e do ambiente virtual, através do cruzamento entre a experiência narrada e vivida pela pesquisadora nesses ambientes e diferentes teorias sociais. Através da imersão em dois tipos distintos de agrupamento virtual, Second Life e BarCamp, buscou-se encontrar elementos que possibilitassem um diálogo entre a concepção de situação social e como ela se apresenta em ambientes virtuais. Para tanto, procurou-se considerar a discussão acerca da dualidade entre conceitos de real e virtual, que muitas vezes pode invalidar a importância de novos tipos de relações sociais, simplificando sua complexidade e impedindo melhor análise de suas especificidades. / Considering digital technology for communication as a conditioning factor of contemporary social environment, this research is seeking to perform an exploring study about sociability within and from virtual environment, through the intersection between the experiences narrated and lived by the researcher and different social theories. Elements which could enable a dialog between the conception of social situation and how it is displayed in virtual environments were examined through immersion in two distinct types of virtual groups, Second Life and BarCamp. In that direction, the discussion concerning duality of concepts about real and virtual was considered, although that might invalidate the importance of new types of social relationship, oversimplifying its complexity and obstructing better analysis of its specificity.

A pesquisa \"Habitar híbrido: interatividade e experiência na era da cibercultura\" buscou estudar as transformações ocorridas na família contemporânea e em seus modos de vida, verificando os impactos das novas tecnologias de informação e comunicação no cotidiano doméstico e social do habitar híbrido e interativo advindo da virtualidade, analisando a concepção projetual de arquitetura, sua produção e o resultado espacial alcançado em projetos de habitação, fornecendo critérios que possam auxiliar na reflexão sobre o design e a domesticidade. / The research \"Hybrid habitation: interactivity and experience in the cyberculture era\" aims to study the transformations occurred in contemporary family and their way of life, verifying the impacts of new information and communication technologies at hybrid dwelling, in the social and domestic quotidian, succeeded by virtuality; analyzing architectures project conception, its production and its spatial result in habitation projects, supplying criteria that can be helpful for designing and domesticity reflections.

O objetivo geral deste trabalho é cartografar as práticas e experiências que ancoram os discursos dos diversos actantes em torno da questão da dependência de videogames. O intuito é simular, ainda que de forma provisória, um parlamento das coisas (LATOUR, 1994) acerca dos debates sobre o assunto. Por meio de uma investigação das práticas e discursos de atores humanos e não-humanos, desfazendo as fronteiras entre os chamados mundos reais e virtuais, pretende-se, então, descrever as suas relações em rede. Neste sentido, aqui há uma inversão em relação à maioria dos estudos sobre o tema: o vício não é entendido como uma explicação, mas exatamente o que precisa ser explicado. / The effort to be undertaken in this research will be mapping the practices of the various agents around the issue of video game addiction by investigating the manner in which the rhetoric of drug addiction works in the social regulation of the use of electronic games. In this sense, well map the varied semantics of notions, categories or concepts of dependence and addiction, such as enunciated and practiced by the various individuals involved in the controversy: the players themselves (in its multiple gaming environments such as home, school or work), parents or people close to these players, the games industry professionals, scientists from different fields (psychiatry, psychotherapy, education, game studies), politicians, laws and news. Through the analysis of practices and discourses of the actors, articulating the dimensions of the so-called \"real\" world and the virtual worlds, without, however, falling into an asymmetrical dichotomy between true and false, we intend to understand the meanings of their relationships with videogames.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:24:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta pesquisa busca refletir sobre o pensamento desenvolvido acerca do cinema, do arquivo e da memória pelas imagens do filme Nós que aqui estamos por vós esperamos. O filme de Marcelo Masagão representa um novo tipo de audiovisual, que surge e é possibilitado pelos novos suportes tecnológicos de imagens. A abordagem que faço das imagens de arquivo aproxima-as da duração audiovisual. O pensamento aqui desenvolvido parte de dentro de um filme, através dos devires presentes nas imagens de arquivo montadas no fluxo, para engendrar diferentes sentidos na sua montagem / This research seeks to reflect the thought developed by the images departed from the film Nós que aqui estamos por vós esperamos concerning Film, Archive and Memory. Marcelo Masagão’s film represents a new kind of audiovisual that arises and is made possible through the new technological supports of images. The approach I make on archive images brings them closer to the audiovisual duration. The thought developed here starts from inside a film through the becomings that are present in the archive images edited in the flow in order to breed different meanings in its editing

Orientador: Clélia Aparecida Martins / Banca: Franklin Leopoldo e Silva / Banca: Hélio Rebelo Cardoso Júnior / Resumo: O tema principal desse trabalho é a apresentação da crítica dispensada por Gilles Deleuze às filosofias do sujeito. Este é um assunto recorrente em seus textos, embora apareça disperso principalmente no que diz respeito à figura do cogito como começo em filosofia e a sua inserção no quadro do que ele irá chamar de postulados da imagem dogmática do pensamento. Fugindo dessa imagem para devolver à imanência seus direitos, o autor irá propor um campo transcendental, e a partir daí, um plano de imanência pré-subjetivo e pré-objetivo como condição para se pensar uma subjetividade. Ver-se-á como Deleuze encontra no pensamento de Bergson rica fonte para afirmar a realidade virtual desse plano e do tempo que lhe é próprio; imaginado por esse autor como uma pura multiplicidade virtual que se atualiza em estados de coisa ou estados vividos. Afirmada a realidade desse plano, pode-se, a partir de então, voltar a pensar sujeito e objeto fora do "abrigo" da tradição. A crítica deleuziana mostra, ainda, que Descartes tivera papel fundamental como criador de uma vertente da imagem do pensamento levada a cabo como abrigo pelas filosofias da reflexão. Tal imagem se constitui a partir de uma subsunção da imanência ao interior de uma consciência pura, de um sujeito pensante. Será mostrado como a partir de Descartes, e com Kant e Husserl como aqueles que permaneceram presos à imagem dogmática, o plano de imanência é tratado como um campo da consciência. Estabelecida a crítica, será evidenciada a necessidade última do pensamento deleuziano de reafirmar esse plano após destituir a posição de fundamento assumida pela consciência. Apartado de qualquer forma de consciência o campo transcendental se mostra, então, como uma vida de pura imanência; e as terminologias subjetivas dão lugar às novas terminologias deleuzianas. / Mestre

Communication technologies have become a central characteristic of workplace functioning. The literature has suggested that the use of these technologies fundamentally changes the manner in which team members interact. The present study sought to reorganize previous research on the impact of virtuality on team emergent states and behavioral processes to elucidate how different degrees of team virtuality shape team functioning, and to investigate the manner in which these relationships differ according to team type, team membership stability, and publication year. Findings from 174 studies (total number of teams = 9204; total N approximately 26,050) suggest that there is not a strong relationship between team virtuality and emergent states and behavioral processes. However, moderator analyses revealed that a reliance on highly virtual tools may be most detrimental to action teams and ad hoc teams. Moreover, findings demonstrate that the degree to which virtuality shapes team transition and action process may be changing over time.

Today the most prosperous interface of architectural design and representation has become the architectural model both in its digital and physical forms. There has been a shift in the design medium from the physical modeling processes to computer-aided design, by way of which the computational design methods have established a much more dynamic, complex, and continual design. In this process, the digital design model now accompanies the whole design as a single entity, contrary to conventional analog modeling techniques where design is compartmentalized into linear phases. By the embracement of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) in company of computeraided design (CAD), physical modeling has gained another dimension in the interwoven relationship of the digital and physical. The aim of this study is to explore the novel conceptual and computational changes which mark the departure of this new mode of design from the old. There has always been a hierarchy of presence between the virtual space of representations and architecture&rsquo / s materiality. Within this context, the emphasis of the study is on the relationship between the virtuality of conception and modeling processes, and the materiality of construction, production and fabrication.