Schema theory provides a foundation for the analysis of game play patterns created by players during their interaction with a game. Schema models derived from the analysis of play provide a rich explanatory framework for the cognitive processes underlying game play, as well as detailed hypotheses for the hierarchical structure of pleasures and rewards motivating players. Game engagement is accounted for as a process of schema selection or development, while immersion is explained in terms of levels of attentional demand in schema execution. However, schemas may not only be used to describe play, but might be used actively as cognitive models within a game engine. Predesigned schema models are knowledge representations constituting anticipated or desired learned cognitive outcomes of play. Automated analysis of player schemas and comparison with predesigned target schemas can provide a foundation for a game engine adapting or tuning game mechanics to achieve specific effects of engagement, immersion, and cognitive skill acquisition by players. Hence, schema models may enhance the play experience as well as provide a foundation for achieving explicitly represented pedagogical or therapeutic functions of games.
This study investigates individuals' cognitive load processing abilities while engaged on a decision-making task in serious games, to explore how a substantial cognitive load dominates over the physiological arousal effect on pupil diameter. A serious game was presented to the participants, which displayed the on-line biofeedback based on physiological measurements of arousal. In such dynamic decision-making environment, the pupil diameter was analyzed in relation to the heart rate, to evaluate if the former could be a useful measure of cognitive abilities of individuals. As pupil might reflect both cognitive activity and physiological arousal, the pupillary response will show an arousal effect only when the cognitive demands of the situation are minimal. Evidence shows that in a situation where a substantial level of cognitive activity is required, only that activity will be observable on the pupil diameter, dominating over the physiological arousal effect indicated by the pupillary response. It is suggested that it might be possible to design serious games tailored to the cognitive abilities of an individual player, using the proposed physiological measurements to observe the moment when such dominance occurs.
Secure and reliable sensing plays the key role for cognitive tracking i.e., activity identification and cognitive monitoring of every individual. Over the last years there has been an increasing interest from both academia and industry in cognitive authentication also known as biometric recognition. These are an effect of individuals’ biological and physiological traits. Among various traditional biometric and physiological features, we include cognitive/brainwaves via electroencephalogram (EEG) which function as a unique performance indicator due to its reliable, flexible, and unique trait resulting in why it is hard for an un-authorized entity(ies) to breach the boundaries by stealing or mimicking them. Conventional security and privacy techniques in the medical domain are not the potential candidates to simultaneously provide both security and energy efficiency. Therefore, state-of-the art biometrics methods (i.e., machine learning, deep learning, etc.) their applications with novel solutions are investigated and recommended. The experimental setup considers EEG data analysis and interpretation of BCI. The key purpose of this setup is to reduce the number of electrodes and hence the computational power of the Random Forest (RF) classifier while testing EEG data. The performance of the random forest classifier was based on EEG datasets for 20 subjects. We found that the total number of occurred events revealed 96.1% precision in terms of chosen events.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being employed in a rapidly increasing number of applications in mining, including the emerging area of mapping underground void spaces such as stopes, which are otherwise inaccessible to humans, automated ground vehicles and survey technologies. Void mapping can provide both visual rock surface and 3D structural information about stopes, supporting more effective planning of ongoing blast designs. Underground stope mapping by UAVs, however, involves overcoming a number of engineering challenges to allow flights beyond operator line-of-sight where there is no global positioning system (GPS), natural or artificial light, or existing communications infrastructure. This paper describes the construction of a UAV sensor suite that uses sound navigation and ranging (SONAR) data to create a rough 3D model of the underground UAV operational environment in real time to provide operators with high situational awareness for beyond line-of-sight operations. The system also provides a backup when dust obscures visual sensors to provide situation awareness and a coarser, but still informative, 3D model of the underground space. Typically, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems have superseded SONAR sensors for similar applications. LIDAR is much more accurate than SONAR, but has several disadvantages. SONAR sensor data is sparse, and therefore much easier to process in real time on-board the UAV than LIDAR. The SONAR sensor hardware is also lighter than current LIDAR systems, which is of importance regarding the constrained payload capacity of UAVs. However, the most important factor that makes SONAR stand out in this application is its ability to operate in dusty or smoke-filled environments. The UAV system was tested both above and below-ground using a predefined path with check point locations for the UAV to follow. Due to the lack of GPS, survey points in combination with photogrammetry allowed the UAV's location to be estimated. This allowed the system to be tested to determine how accurate the SONAR data is in comparison with 3D modelling via photogrammetry of images from a separate digital single-lens reflex camera. Comparing the shape of void surfaces determined by photogrammetry with that determined by SONAR provides quantifiable accuracy when the photogrammetry models are used as ground truth data. Above-ground and underground pilot studies have determined that SONAR sensors provide acceptable accuracy compared with modelling via photogrammetry, sufficient to provide effective situational awareness for human operation of the UAV beyond line-of-sight.
Gameplay research about experiential phenomena is a challenging undertaking, given the variety of experiences that gamers encounter when playing and which currently do not have a formal taxonomy, such as flow, immersion, boredom, and fun. These informal terms require a scientific explanation. Ludologists also acknowledge the need to understand cognition, emotion, and goaloriented behavior of players from a psychological perspective by establishing rigorous methodologies. This paper builds upon and extends prior work in an area for which we would like to coin the term "affective ludology." The area is concerned with the affective measurement of player-game interaction. The experimental study reported here investigated different traits of gameplay experience using subjective (i.e., questionnaires) and objective (i.e., psychophysiological) measures. Participants played three Half-Life 2 game level design modifications while measures such as electromyography (EMG), electrodermal activity (EDA) were taken and questionnaire responses were collected. A level designed for combat-oriented flow experience demonstrated significant high-arousal positive affect emotions. This method shows that emotional patterns emerge from different level designs, which has great potential for providing real-time emotional profiles of gameplay that may be generated together with selfreported subjective player experience descriptions.
Evaluating the effectiveness of virtual environments as training and analysis systems one must take into account both strongly and weakly defined measures of visual behaviour and associated experience. The investigation of cross correlations between strongly defined measures of logged gaze behaviours, and weakly defined measures of subjective perceptions of visual behaviour, reveals significant discrepancies. The existence of these discrepancies casts doubt upon the effectiveness of using self-reporting questionnaires to assess training effectiveness. However, making participants aware of these discrepancies can be a potentially powerful method for increasing the effectiveness of training using virtual worlds.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.