Interactive Training Environment Research Articles

The Versatile Teaching Eye: an affordable, 3D-printed model eye for simulating ophthalmic examination.

To describe the Versatile Teaching Eye (VT Eye), a 3D-printed model eye designed to provide an affordable examination simulator, and to report the results of a pilot program introducing the VT Eye and an ophthalmic training curriculum at a teaching hospital in Ghana. TinkerCAD was used to design the VT Eye, which was printed with ABS plastic. The design features an adapter that permits use of a smartphone as a digital fundus. We developed a set of digital flashcards allowing for an interactive review of a range of retinal pathologies. An analog fundus was developed for practicing traditional slit lamp and indirect examinations as well as retinal laser practice. The model was used for a period of 2 weeks by ophthalmic trainees at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana, to practice indirect ophthalmoscopy, slit lamp biomicroscopy, smartphone funduscopy, and retinal image drawing. Results were assessed at by means of a pre-/post-training survey of 6 residents. The VT Eye accommodates diverse fundus examination techniques. Its 3D-printed design ensures cost-effective, high-quality replication. When paired with a 20 D practice examination lens, the digital fundus provides a comprehensive, interactive training environment for <$30.00 (USD). This device allows for indirect examination practice without requiring an indirect headset, which may increase the amount of available practice for trainees early in their careers. In the Ghana pilot program, the model's use in indirect examination training sessions significantly boosted residents' confidence in various examination techniques. Comparing pre- and post-session ratings, average reported confidence levels rose by 30% for acquiring clear views of the posterior pole, 42% for visualizing the periphery, and 141% for capturing important pathology using personal smartphones combined with a 20 D lens (all P < 0.05). The VT Eye is readily reproducible and can be easily integrated into ophthalmic training curricula, even in regions with limited resources. It offers an effective and affordable training solution, underscoring its potential for global adoption and the benefits of incorporating innovative technologies in medical education.

Enhancing volleyball training: empowering athletes and coaches through advanced sensing and analysis.

Modern sensing technologies and data analysis methods usher in a new era for sports training and practice. Hidden insights can be uncovered and interactive training environments can be created by means of data analysis. We present a system to support volleyball training which makes use of Inertial Measurement Units, a pressure sensitive display floor, and machine learning techniques to automatically detect relevant behaviours and provides the user with the appropriate information. While working with trainers and amateur athletes, we also explore potential applications that are driven by automatic action recognition, that contribute various requirements to the platform. The first application is an automatic video-tagging protocol that marks key events (captured on video) based on the automatic recognition of volleyball-specific actions with an unweighted average recall of 78.71% in the 10-fold cross-validation setting with convolution neural network and 73.84% in leave-one-subject-out cross-validation setting with active data representation method using wearable sensors, as an exemplification of how dashboard and retrieval systems would work with the platform. In the context of action recognition, we have evaluated statistical functions and their transformation using active data representation besides raw signal of IMUs sensor. The second application is the "bump-set-spike" trainer, which uses automatic action recognition to provide real-time feedback about performance to steer player behaviour in volleyball, as an example of rich learning environments enabled by live action detection. In addition to describing these applications, we detail the system components and architecture and discuss the implications that our system might have for sports in general and for volleyball in particular.

Construction and Reform of the Russian Audiovisual Speaking Course in Higher Vocational Institutions in the Context of Deep Learning

Abstract This paper focuses on the development and construction of language teaching in higher vocational colleges and universities under the perspective of deep learning, proposes the use of multimedia courseware to update the course content, interactive teaching to optimize knowledge transfer and skills training, and the creation of an interactive training environment for the Russian language. Analyze the language learning environment of higher vocational colleges under deep learning, clarify the direction of Russian language teaching, use wavelet transform algorithm to compress and process Russian language teaching resources, and enrich the teaching construction. Classify language classroom teaching interaction behaviors, clarify the criteria for judging teaching interaction behaviors, put forward connection timing classification technology under deep learning, and construct classroom interaction behavior recognition based on speech recognition. Combining video samples to analyze the classroom interactive behaviors of Russian language teaching, analyzing the use of Russian digital teaching resources, and evaluating the advantages of the reform of the Russian Audiovisual Speaking course in the light of students’ satisfaction with the reform of the course. In the interactive Russian language classroom teaching, the proportion of teacher’s and student’s speech is 24.24% and 30.205%, respectively. The proportion of open-ended questions and closed questions is 4.68% and 3.67%, respectively, and 83.62% of the students are satisfied with the classroom teaching of Russian Audiovisual and Speaking, so it can be seen that the construction and reform of the Russian language course forms a classroom that takes the students as the main body and the teacher as the auxiliary teaching This shows that the construction and reform of the Russian language course forms a classroom with students as the main body and teachers as the auxiliary teaching, which is in line with the needs of Russian language teaching.

Improving Generalization in Reinforcement Learning–Based Trading by Using a Generative Adversarial Market Model

With the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning (RL) has been widely applied to portfolio management. However, shortcomings remain. Specifically, because the training environment of an RL-based portfolio optimization framework is usually constructed based on historical price data in the literature, the agent potentially 1) violates the definition of a Markov decision process (MDP), 2) ignores their own market impact, or 3) fails to account for causal relationships within interaction processes; these ultimately lead the agent to make poor generalizations. To surmount these problems-specifically, to help the RL-based portfolio agent make better generalizations-we introduce an interactive training environment that leverages a generative model, called the limit order book-generative adversarial model (LOB-GAN), to simulate a financial market. Specifically, the LOB-GAN models market ordering behavior, and LOB-GAN's generator is utilized as a market behavior simulator. A simulated financial market, called Virtual Market, is constructed by the market behavior simulator in conjunction with a realistic security matching system. Virtual Market is then leveraged as an interactive training environment for the RL-based portfolio agent. The experimental results demonstrate that our framework improves out-of-sample portfolio performance by 4%, which is superior to other generalization strategies.

Interactive simulation of realistic flexible and tearable membrane using virtual reality and haptic force-feedback interface

The paper deals with the description of a methodology for addressing the real-time simulation of a soft membrane that can be deformed and torn by the interactive two-way action of the user. The methodology makes use of the combination of an efficient real-time solver, a haptic interface with force feedback and it is implemented in a virtual reality environment in order to achieve a very high level of immersion. The elastic properties of the membrane and the corresponding haptic feedback are modelled using an accurate structural model based on a flexible-rigid (f-rigid) multibody model. The f-rigid approach is a trade-off between the accuracy of a full finite element model and the computational efficiency of a multibody model able to be solved using high efficiency sequential impulse solver. The f-rigid model is verified by dedicated experimental tests about nonlinear deformation and rupture. The proposed methodology can be the base of the development of interactive training environments, ergonomic and usability studies and for the assessment and optimization of product design.

Improved Control of a Virtual Prosthesis Using a Pattern Recognition Algorithm and an Interactive Training Environment in a Transhumeral Amputee Demonstrating Local Reinnervation

Contemporary advances in amputation care include the development of myoelectric prostheses. .

Gesturing and Embodiment in Teaching: Investigating the Nonverbal ‎Behavior of Teachers in a Virtual Rehearsal Environment ‎

Interactive training environments typically include feedback mechanisms designed to help trainees improve their performance through either guided or self-reflection. In this context, trainees are candidate teachers who need to hone their social skills as well as other pedagogical skills for their future classroom. We chose an avatar-mediated interactive virtual training system–TeachLivE–as the basic research environment to investigate the motions and embodiment of the trainees. Using tracking sensors, and customized improvements for existing gesture recognition utilities, we created a gesture database and employed it for the implementation of our real-time gesture recognition and feedback application. We also investigated multiple methods of feedback provision, including visual and haptics. The results from the conducted user studies and user evaluation surveys indicate the positive impact of the proposed feedback applications and informed body language. In this paper, we describe the context in which the utilities have been developed, the importance of recognizing nonverbal communication in the teaching context, the means of providing automated feedback associated with nonverbal messaging, and the preliminary studies developed to inform the research.

Implementation of a Virtual Training Simulator Based on 360° Multi-View Human Action Recognition

Virtual training has received a considerable amount of research attention in recent years due to its potential for use in a variety of applications, such as virtual military training, virtual emergency evacuation, and virtual firefighting. To provide a trainee with an interactive training environment, human action recognition methods have been introduced as a major component of virtual training simulators. Wearable motion capture suit-based human action recognition has been widely used for virtual training, although it may distract the trainee. In this paper, we present a virtual training simulator based on 360° multi-view human action recognition using multiple Kinect sensors that provides an immersive environment for the trainee without the need to wear devices. To this end, the proposed simulator contains coordinate system transformation, front-view Kinect sensor tracking, multi-skeleton fusion, skeleton normalization, orientation compensation, feature extraction, and classifier modules. Virtual military training is presented as a potential application of the proposed simulator. To train and test it, a database consisting of 25 military training actions was constructed. In the test, the proposed simulator provided an excellent, natural training environment in terms of frame-by-frame classification accuracy, action-by-action classification accuracy, and observational latency.

Live-action mass-casualty training and virtual world training

Live-action training simulations with expert facilitators are considered by many to be the gold-standard in training environments. However, these training environments are expensive, provide many logistical challenges, and may not address the individual’s learning needs. Fortunately, advances in distance-based learning technologies have provided the foundation for inexpensive and effective learning environments that can simultaneously train and educate students on a much broader scale than live-action training environments. Specifically, intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been proven to be very effective in improving learning outcomes. The Virtual Civilian Aeromedical Evacuation Sustainment Training (VCAEST) interface takes advantage of both of these technologies by enhancing a virtual world with a web-based ITS, AutoTutor LITE (Learning in Interactive Training Environments). AutoTutor LITE acts as a facilitator in the virtual world by providing just-in-time feedback, presenting essential domain knowledge, and by utilizing tutoring dialogues that automatically assess user input. This paper will discuss the results of an experimental evaluation of the VCAEST environment compared to an expert-led live-action training simulation.

The wheel of design: assessing and refining the usability of geoportals

ABSTRACTGeoportals play a major role in geospatial data distribution to end-users like researchers and engineers. For maximum effectiveness, an intuitive and comprehensive graphical user interface (GUI) is a paramount property of such portals. GeoVITe (GEOdata Visualization and Interactive Training Environment) is a geodata-sharing portal, providing ETH Zurich employees with direct access to geoinformation and geoservices. The guiding functional requirement for the GeoVITe geoportal is that a user should visually (spatially, thematically and temporally) navigate the spatial data, select the desired dataset and area and directly download the required data in a straightforward manner through a user-friendly GUI running in a standard Web browser. After several improvements that have been made to GeoVITe since its wide-spread launch in 2010, the user interface of GeoVITe was recently put under scrutiny with the help of a usability evaluation. Results showed multiple possibilities for improvement, belonging to one of three categories: (i) distribution of GUI elements, (ii) concentration on relevant functionality and (iii) improvements to the geodata download workflow. Based on these findings, three key recommendations for designing a geoportal can be made: (i) full-screen map with simple navigation, (ii) instant user feedback and (iii) multifunctional search. Further work will require an assessment of the presented redesign as a next step in the iterative process of GUI design improvement.

Construction industry offsite production: A virtual reality interactive training environment prototype

The ‘traditional’ construction industry has constantly been challenged to improve its inherent problematic practices. Offsite production (OSP), under the umbrella of modern methods of construction (MMC), has been acknowledged as a means to help improve construction industry performance as well as meet new market demands through the provision of improved, adaptable, and sustainable buildings. However, the deployment of OSP systems, if not managed properly, may adversely affect the end result and be counterproductive. It is therefore imperative that the construction industry stakeholders learn and appreciate the specifics, merits, as well as the risks associated with OSP systems in order to achieve the desired outcomes and consequently improve industry performance. On-the-job-training (OJT) is usually sought to facilitate ‘experiential’ learning, which is argued to be particularly effective where a great deal of independence is granted to the task performer. However, OJT has been criticised for being expensive, limited, and sometimes devoid of the actual training context. In order to address the problems encountered with OJT, several virtual reality (VR) solutions have been proposed. This paper introduces one such VR solution prototype, in order to provide a risk-free environment for learning without the ‘do-or-die’ consequences often faced on real construction projects. The proffered solution provides a unique VR environment for practicing new working conditions associated with OSP practices. While the ‘scenes’ of the VR environment take place on a construction site, the environment predominantly targets professionals, such as project managers, construction managers, architects, designers, suppliers and manufacturers, to allow multidisciplinary learning to occur, and hence overcome ‘knowledge silos’ or ‘knowledge compartmentation’. The VR environment enables unforeseen problems often caused by professionals’ decisions, faulty work, and health and safety issues to occur; where the implications of which can be evaluated in respect of time, cost and resources. The VR environment proposed does not aim to resolve problems associated with OSP per se, rather aims to allow ‘things to go wrong’ and consequently allows users not only to ‘experience’ the resulting implications but also to reflect on those implications as part of the learning process. This paper discusses and presents the prototype for the first development phase of the VR interactive training environment. While the prototype was tested and validated with domain experts from industry, the research community, and academia from different EU countries, the data used in developing the prototype was constrained to one project in the UK which may limit the generalisability of results.

An online ear training program designed for students, acousticians, and architects

As part of a continuing research initiative at the Program in Architectural Acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an online ear training program has been designed and implemented for scholars active in architectural acoustics, as well as professional acousticians and architects. The project aims to provide users the opportunity to learn to evaluate selected acoustical parameters without the employment of measurement equipment. The author believes that this training program will be indispensable for those who seek careers in fields related to acoustics for such skills are currently considered to be obtainable through professional experience in the field alone. The program was created using Macromedia Flash animations to develop an interactive training environment. Features such as user identification and an animated user interface create a personalized and entertaining experience while a score tracking system and high score table encourage friendly competition amongst users. As a result, users are compelled to return for successive training sessions which promote long-term growth and learning. Basic requirements for participation include an installed version of the Flash plug-in, an internet-enabled computer, and a pair of headphones.