Computer Virtual Environments Research Articles

Overlay Technologies for Internet-Based Virtual Computing Environment

Internet resources have the natural characteristics of growth,autonomy and diversity,which have brought great challenges to the efficient aggregation of these resources.Utilizing overlay to organize resources and support efficient resource discovery is an important approach to aggregate resources on-demand in Internet-based Virtual Computing Environment(iVCE).This paper gives an overview of research advances on overlay technologies in iVCE.To adapt to the growth and autonomy of Internet resources,an overlay topology construction mechanism based on Kautz graph is first introduced,and it is extended to a universal method for constructing overlay topologies based on arbitrary regular graphs.To adapt to the diversity of Internet resources,a grouped overlay topology construction mechanism is then proposed.Based on the overlay constructed above,an efficient range query scheme is presented,and the optimization methods of overlay topology as well as other complex query techniques are discussed.

Leveraging Game-Play in a 3D World

Computer games have the potential to engage students who do not respond well to traditional classroom activities. To test the appeal and usability of game-play in the classroom, four ninth grade science classes in a rural Upstate New York school were randomly assigned to learn an introductory genetics unit for three class periods in either an online, multi-user, virtual world computer environment or in a traditional classroom setting using lecture, worksheets and model building. The groups were then reversed for a second three-day trial. Quizzes were given before, at midpoint and at the end of the study. Both groups demonstrated significant knowledge gain of the genetics curriculum. This study demonstrates that self-directed learning can occur while exploring virtual world computer environments. The students were enthusiastic about using virtual worlds for education and indicated a strong preference for a variety of teaching methods, which suggests that offering mixed modalities may engage students who are otherwise uninterested in school.

Consumer-Centric Service Aggregation: Method and Its Supporting Framework

The Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) should demand collect and aggregate distributed resources, and provide efficient publication, discovery and subscription mechanisms. Since resources are usually virtualized as services, the goals of the VCE largely rely on service oriented computing technologies. However, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) organizes services in a provider-centric manner, which brings a critical problem: More services come to being, more complex and difficult the service discovery and subscription become. A consumer-centric approach is proposed to addressing this problem. First, function similar services according to consumer's functionality requirements are dynamically aggregated as a service pool. The pool will act as a virtual service so that consumers only discover and subscribe the service pool instead of a large number of candidate services. The qualities of the services in a service pool could form a spectrum of QoS so that consumer's quality requirements can be satisfied by automated QoS negotiation. Based on the service pool, the VCE could provide an

Service Behavior and Quality Consistency in Virtualized Computing Environment

A unified framework based on Petri-net for the modeling of service behavior and QoS is proposed. Based on this framework a set of service consistency rules are derived to improve the accuracy of service discovery and to ensure the system consistency in service substitution. A middleware named SOBECA (service-oriented, behavior and capability support architecture) compatible with current Web services standards is developed to make a proof of concept of the framework. In SOBECA the service description is extended with behavior and quality

Clique-Based Reputation System in Self-Organizing Internet-Based Virtual Computing Environment

By borrowing the construction and evolution mechanisms of the social groups, a reputation system based on groups of autonomic elements (AE) is proposed, which is called clique-based reputation system (CRS). With the combination of the clique-based reputation evaluation and reputation inspired clique evolution, CRS makes the reputation model more realistic on evaluation of the characteristic of AE behaviors and better convergent properties. Meanwhile, the node cluster results from the clique evolution make a foundation for the differential service for AE based on reputation, incentivize them to take corporative behaviors, and provide reliable services.

Internet-based virtual computing environment (iVCE): Concepts and architecture

Resources over Internet have such intrinsic characteristics as growth, autonomy and diversity, which have brought many challenges to the efficient sharing and comprehensive utilization of these resources. This paper presents a novel approach for the construction of the Internet-based Virtual Computing Environment (iVCE), whose significant mechanisms are on-demand aggregation and autonomic collaboration. The iVCE is built on the open infrastructure of the Internet and provides harmonious, transparent and integrated services for end-users and applications. The concept of iVCE is presented and its architectural framework is described by introducing three core concepts, i.e., autonomic element, virtual commonwealth and virtual executor. Then the connotations, functions and related key technologies of each components of the architecture are deeply analyzed with a case study, iVCE for Memory.

Strengthening the Weakest Link in Digital Protection

Although much has been written about digital protection technologies, the greatest vulnerability in any system is invariably the person behind the keyboard. In our one-semester course at the US Military Academy in New York, we educate roughly 800 undergraduates from nontechnical fields each year on intermediate-level IT skills. We place our students in an isolated virtual-computing environment, give them hands-on experience with a variety of attack vectors that hackers use to exploit vulnerabilities, and provide them with a multidimensional framework for understanding and mitigating risks. As a result of this educational experience, our students are better able to internalize the concepts we teach and end up with an increased realization of the actions required to protect crucial resources. To achieve our goal of reducing the potential vulnerabilities nontechnical users introduce, we've integrated three major components into our course: 1) a broad overview of key IT topics; 2) lessons directly targeting information assurance (IA); and 3) a recurring thread of ethical and security considerations that's explicitly injected into lessons throughout the semester

Private Transactions in Public Places: An Exploration of the Impact of the Computer Environment on Public Transactional Web Site Use

Organizations and governments continue to advance toward using electronic means to interact with their customers. However, the use of this medium presents an access-toservice issue for people across the digital divide who do not have private Internet access from their homes. Publicly-available computers connected to the Internet are an important and expanding source of Internet access for consumers. Still, we do not know if people are willing to engage in e-commerce transactions in such environments. We expand the Facilitating Conditions construct of Triandis’ (1980) modified theory of reasoned action to develop a model of transactional Web site use in public environments that incorporates the physical and virtual computer environments associated with publicly accessible computers, moderated by the individual’s need for privacy. The model was tested in public libraries, and the results indicate that the virtual and physical facilitating conditions of a public computer are determinants of e-commerce use in a public environment, and the user’s need for privacy moderates these relationships.

Adjective Production by Learners of German in Chatroom and Face-to-Face Discussions

A chatroom environment is a virtual computer environment that enables users of networked computers to communicate via keyboard input with each other. Unlike asynchronous email, chatroom conversations take place at the same time. Thus this type of contact between users is often referred to as synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). Using a chatroom in educational settings provides additional opportunities for students to communicate with each other. For example, students can contribute to a discussion at the same time without waiting for their turn, and they usually have a bit more time to compose and review a message before they send it to the other students.

Evaluation of an Urban Design Project: Imagery and Realistic Computer Models

State-of-the-art computer technology has improved the integration of different types of representations and data and has provided new possibilities for manipulating results. Consequently, the use of computers has been widespread in urban design and the planning process. The potential that computer virtual environments brought for describing future developments to the public at large is enormous. Nevertheless, when imagery and realism dominate the communication process, they may obscure important issues that relate more to the underlying logic of urban design fabric. A sample of 23 university students from nonarchitecture courses and a sample of 23 students from architecture (contrasted group design) were used for analysing differences in their evaluation on form and content of a video presentation concerning an urban design project in Lisbon. The urban design project was focused on an important avenue of the city—Avenida da Liberdade. Several representation methods and different techniques for viewing images were used on video presentation: photography, colour film, 3D-rendered model with animation, plans, and photomontage. The results highlighted the power that imagery and realistic computer models have, when used in an unbalanced way, for overshadowing differences between subjects. This is because at the end of the questionnaire both groups had a positive opinion about the urban design project, but significant differences were found in relation to their evaluation and understanding of both content and form of video presentation.