Norman Powell

• Project Manager at The University of Sheffield

As humans start to spend more time in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) it becomes important to study their interactions in such environments. One aspect of such interactions is personal space. To begin to address this, we have conducted empirical investigations in a non immersive virtual environment: an experiment to investigate the influe...

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are recently getting more popularity as mediums for conducting virtual interactions. Little is known, however, about the difficulties the CVE users experience during interactions in these environments and the means to make such interactions more productive. To begin to address this, we first, review the res...

Four different instances of enquiry-based learning (EBL), developed in a School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, are described. Key decisions in the design of these activities are detailed, emphasising flexibility in approach. Although the activities took place in broadly the same environment, the local contexts required subtle tailoring....

While personal space invasion anxiety has been studied widely in the physical world, little research has been conducted about it in virtual reality environments. This paper, then, discusses and evaluates the anxiety level caused by personal space invasion in a virtual reality environment (VRE) using two different methodologies. The results of the t...

This paper reports on the evaluation of a second-year Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) activity designed to prepare students in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering for a group project, known as the Embedded Systems Project [1]. Enquiry-Based Learning is a student-centred, collaborative approach to learning, which allows the student to i...

Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) was developed in the third-year, Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) module Optoelectronic Devices and Systems. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an instance of EBL, where the students' enquiry into a topic is triggered by an initial problem or scenario. This module begins with a PBL exercise, which covers display...

This paper describes the introduction of a series of structured activities into the second year tutorials (SYT), designed to prepare students for a team project in the following semester. The tutorial activities take the form of a series of five linked problems, which simulate aspects of a practical team project, developing team working, project pl...

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) hold great potential for people With autism. An exploratory empirical study Was conducted to determine if children and youth With autism could understand basic emotions as represented by a humanoid avatar. Thirty-four participants (ages 7.8—16 years) reported to have autism interacted With a softWare progra...

Personal space is an important aspect of people's interactions in the physical world as it functions as a comfort zone during interaction. Little is known, however, about how personal space might operate in virtual worlds. To begin to address this, we have conducted two experiments concerning personal space invasions in collaborative virtual enviro...

We report an investigation exploring the effect of avatar gender on the anxiety level caused by personal space (PS) invasion in desktop collaborative virtual environments (DCVE). We outline an experiment in which participants, of both genders, whose avatars’ PS were “invaded” by other avatars of either gender, reported their anxiety levels through...

This poster explores some of the issues associated with teaching computer science to students with dyslexia. Issues associated with both student learning generally and computer science specifically are considered. The accessibility of teaching materials made available through virtual learning environments (VLEs) is addressed. Twelve resulting guide...

This paper explores some of the issues associated with teaching computer science to students with dyslexia. Issues associated with both student learning generally and computer science specifically are considered. The accessibility of teaching materials made available through virtual learning environments (VLEs) is addressed. Twelve resulting guidel...

This paper reports an investigation of the impact of students’ cognitive style on their effective use of educational text-based computer-mediated conferences. The research centres on an empirical study involving students from three courses run by the British Open University. Statistical analysis of the data does not suggest that cognitive style has...

The drape attributes of fabrics, number of folds, depth of folds and evenness of folds were measured together with the drape coefficient. The relationship between these measurements and the subjective evaluation of the fabric drape was modelled for each end-use on a neural network using back propagation, which can correctly predict the grades of 90...

The drape attributes of fabrics, number of folds, depth of folds and evenness of folds were measured together with the drape coefficient. The relationship between these measurements and the subjective evaluation of the fabric drape were modelled for each end use on a neural network using back propagation, which can correctly predict the grades of 9...

The project is based on creating more effective industry/university links that allow faster response times by creating a local data network to exchange information. The textiles, clothing and retailing industries need to be more responsive if they are to compete in the world markets. They have to respond quickly to changes in consumer demand, predi...

The objective of the centre is to provide measurement, testing and interpretation services to the textile, clothing and retailing industries, using the technologies resulting from many years of innovative research work, carried out at the University of Bradford. The unique systems employed measure fabric parameters objectively. These measurements a...

Reports the dynamic modelling of garments on synthetic humans. Develops the model based on a physical analogue to a deep shell system for describing and predicting the real 3-D shape of clothes. Determines the garment motion by fabric deformation energy, gravity and external constraints of the garment, such as collision forces, using the deformable...

True 3-D garment design (CAD) systems are fundamental for the next generation of intelligent textile and garment manufacture and retailing. Reports a new approach for modelling fabric. The fabric model is developed based on a physical analogue to a deep shell system for describing and predicting the real 3-D shape of clothes. The fabric motion is d...

A model of liquid crystal orientation under the influence of an arbitrary potential pattern; and therefore, the phase exhibited by the liquid crystal device is presented. The model consists of a two-step iterative solution: (1) the potential distribution for a pre-set liquid crystal tilt and orientation is solved, (2) using this solution, a small a...

At present there is considerable interest in fixed binary optic systems made by micro- fabrication techniques to produce arrays of miniature optical components for the control of light. These devices essentially replicate the phase curvature of their macroscopic counterparts by a 2n level substrate etched using n binary masks, the approximation bei...

Two orthogonally aligned liquid crystal lenses with spherical Fresnel zone plate electrode configurations have been demonstrated to focus an unpolarised broadband object with resulting good quality images. Switch on times of 15ms are reported along with modulation depths of 91.5%.

In a world where interaction is a significant part of everyday life, personal space (PS) – an invisible bubble surrounding human body -is important. This is because PS functions as a comfort zone during interaction, a factor in designing physical environments, and invading such space produces anxiety and discomfort. Little is known, however, about...

PL has entered the educational lexicon through government policy for schools. At the University of Manchester it is characterised by: the choice of learners in what, when and how they learn; small-group or individual scale discussions with their tutors, with a great degree of interaction and self-expression. EBL is an open, flexible, social and sup...

This paper describes the use of problem-based Learning (PBL) in the delivery of a level 3 unit: Design and Implementation of VLSI Systems. A "hybrid" approach has been taken with lectures being interleaved with floating facilitator, PBL sessions. A series of four problems were presented during the course of the unit, each problem focusing on a diff...

As humans start to spend more time in collaborative virtual environment (CVE), coordinating the interaction between the humans in these environments is becoming increasingly important. We have been investigating one aspect of such coordination, namely the issue of an avatar's "personal space". Intuitively it can be expected that CVE users might dec...

Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) was developed in the third-year module Robotics. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is an instance of EBL, where the students' enquiry into a topic is triggered by an i nitial scenario. A PBL scenario was introduced towards the end of this module, where the students are asked to act as consultants engaged in a systems integra...

Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) has been gaining momentum in undergraduate programmes internationally. It is argued [1, 5] that EBL provides students with a learning experience through which they develop professional and personal skills as well as attributes ranging from teamwork and leadership skills to problem solving and information literacy. They...