**5. Conclusions**

108 Virtual Reality and Environments

virtual workspace developments. It should be noted here, that these tools are replications of 2-D tools used in real world (RL) applications. Additionally, the content from these tools is housed within the virtual world solution itself and is not generally pulled from external resources or over the Internet. Content for slide presentations and document viewings are often uploaded directly to the virtual world environment for viewing. The following characteristics are anticipated from of virtual workspaces at the Involvement Stage (Stage

1. *Business Environment* - The environment created by virtual workspaces at Involvement Stage of the model is characterized by manually management established workflows and auto construction of the virtual workspace. Teaming is controlled at the management level as well. Management ability to track resource time and activity, and

2. *Collaborative Tasks* – Basic collaborative tasks would include: enhanced communication from avatar including use of non-verbal cues such as avatar position, movement and gestures. The Involvement Stage also describes the inclusion of audio and video collaborative features incorporated beyond basic in-world collaboration functionalities. These may include use of voice chat, avatar body gesturing (i.e. pointing, raising hand, laughing, etc.) and use of video streams. As with basic in-world collaborations discussed previously, the content from background audio is housed within the virtual world solution itself and is not generally pulled from external resources. Content from voice chats and basic avatar action and gesturing is logged and maintained internally

3. *End-users* – Although most of the virtual workspace is pre-created for the end-user, there is some capability for workspace definition by the end-users. End-users are involved in formal and informal socializing, virtual meetings, conference calls, and

4. *Encompassing Technologies* – At this stage, technologies would include built-in voice/text chat capabilities. Access to social sites and user interaction. Extensive use of digital proxy/avatar within the virtual workspace. Sharing of corporate/private correspondence, document collaboration, and virtual social gatherings are supported.

The focus at the Rendering Stage (Stage Ivr) is on creation of a shared presence and experience with the user. The virtual workspace are designed with specific processes in mind that are temporal or lasting for a finite period of time. The physical laws of the real world are applicable aiding in familiarity and assimilation with spaces and business processessupported. At this beginning stage, businesses will have encorporated visually appealing, immersive and and systematically-generated virtual workspaces. The following characteristics are anticipated from virtual workspaces at the Rendering Stage (Stage Ivr) of

1. *Business Environment* - The environment created by virtual workspaces at Rendering Stage of the model is characterized by displays and exhibits, architectural design and modeling, virtual tourism, and marketing. Predefined virtual workspaces. Most content is static and persistent with minimal fluidity to the content of the environment.

Management has full control of virtual workspace design.

IIvr) of the model:

provide automated task assignment.

within the virtual world solution.

webinar type sessions.

**4.7 Stage Ivr – Rendering Stage** 

the model:

So the ROTATOR model is a proposed staged theoretical model that moves from reality and augmented reality towards collaborative virtualized environments or from purely virtual environments towards reality in four like steps. The model is set up to allow organizations to effectively understand and then evaluate their collaborative virtual workspace goals and objectives in order to create a long term plan for implementation and deployment of those workspaces. This model is just the first step in a larger framework the authors intend to develop based on case study analysis of past and projected implementations to help companies find the proper fit for their needs when using virtual spaces and like technology options for company communication and work.

The ROTATOR model is built on the premise that businesses may be starting from either a fully reality-based setting that does not yet use any virtualized communication mediums and move towards more aggressive forms of virtual medium use by adding augmented spaces to their systems. As the model moves towards the center space-labeled Section IV in the model—businesses can evaluate the delivery of each stage of the virtualized medium before reaching the fuller virtual reality space and/or plan for movement based on uses, needs and goals of the organization.

On the far right of the ROTATOR model a business might begin to see ways to continue it's movement into the more complex arenas of fully immersive virtual reality as these capabilities become more plausible for the organization to manage. It is anticipated that along with the more aggressive stages, nearer to the center Stage IV of the model, there will be greater risks for businesses to consider and a more difficult process of maintaining business content that may increase cost and some exposure for these businesses. However, this should not preclude some businesses from investing in the newest emergent options of virtual reality tools.

The impetus behind the ROTATOR model is to provide a structured first step in assisting businesses in evaluating and planning ahead for these kinds of implementations—be they aggressive use of newer immersion techniques for business collaborations or more stable

ROTATOR Model:

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**6** 

Hong Zhang *Rowan University* 

*USA* 

**Optical Touch Screen and Its Application as a** 

**Next Generation Classroom Response System** 

The way we interact with computers strongly influences how we use the technology. The traditional input methods such as using a keyboard or a computer mouse (Forlines et al, 2007) are still in dominance. Meanwhile, new methods have been explored and developed to provide more diversified or more intuitive user experiences. These include touch screen (Albinsson & Zhai, 2003), voice recognition (Krishnaraj et al, 2010) and brain wave detection (Li et al, 2010; Kaul, 2008). Inspired by the market success of Palm Pilot, and more recently Apple iPhone and iPad, touch screen based devices are becoming increasingly popular (Ostashewski & Reid, 2010) and are expanding their applications to many traditionally noncomputing intensive fields, such as health care (Astell et al, 2010; Clark et al, 2009), driving

A traditional touch screen covers the entire displaying surface with a matrix of resistors or capacitors (Ritchie & Turner, 1975; IEEE Software, 1991). Special circuits are used to capture the changes of the resistances or capacities of the matrix due to the user's touch. The changes are then converted to cursor positions accordingly. The resistive or capacitive technology requires the use of special materials such as indium tin oxide to be both transparent and conductive. However, the supplies of such materials are dwindling fast and the costs are increasing dramatically. Meanwhile, the amount of materials used on such touch screens is almost proportional to their sizes. In compact equipment such as PDAs and cell phones, or in special applications such as public information kiosks, costs of such touch screens can be justified. In regular office or household use, price is often a hurdle that

Different approaches of touch screen technology are developed to overcome the difficulties associated with the resistive or capacitive technologies. For example, an ultrasonic method was proposed to take advantage of surface acoustic waves (Katsuki et al, 2003). Meanwhile, optical based touch screen technology gained renewed interest. It was introduced early but did not gain momentum due to the cost of the digital cameras decades ago. More recently, the prices of single chip digital cameras have dropped significantly. At the level around \$1 a piece, it becomes feasible to take cameras as the building blocks of today's input technology. Several algorithms have been introduced within the optical input technology. Some examples include using frustrated total internal reflection (Han, 2005) or using two cameras

(Lenné et al, 2011) and education (Willis & Miertschin, 2004; Zurn & Frolik, 2004).

**1. Introduction** 

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http://socialcomputingjournal.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=837

