Andreas Floros

The aim of this research is to discover the bond of entropy and the experience of video game immersion, using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to interpret the immersive experiences of players and how this bond of entropy and immersion could be transferred on other immersive technologies. The experiment was conducted on a selection of low-entropy scenes in three video games belonging to the genre of interactive drama. Six players were selected as the sample group for this research, based on their playthrough experiences of the games Heavy Rain (2010), Until Dawn (2015) and Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (2019) on the PlayStation platform. By monitoring the levels of entropy and immersion during their playthroughs, this research explores the potential of transferring immersion through the use of entropy from digital games to other immersive technologies. According to the research highlights and through data interpretation, entropy is found to be immensely infl...

BACKGROUND: One of the most serious concerns of parents, caregivers, teachers and therapists is children’s independent living, particularly of those with special educational needs (SEN). Purpose-built programs for the acquisition of independent living skills are considered a priority in special education settings. The main problem is the inefficacy of detached interventions to meet the needs of as many students as possible. OBJECTIVE: Our response is to create transmedia applications for inclusive learning environments. To this end, we have taken a participatory design approach to develop a project for Daily Living Skills Training by combining special education pedagogies, filmic methods, game design and innovative technologies. In this paper, we present the design and development of Waking up In the Morning (WUIM), and its improvement through user-based and expert-based evaluations by students, therapists and developers. The main research purpose is to confirm if: (1) the final pro...

At the core of augmented reality audio (ARA) technology lies the ARA mix, a process responsible for the assignment of a virtual environment to a real one. Legacy ARA mix models have focused on the natural reproduction of the real environment, whereas the virtual environment is simply mixed through fixed gain methods. This study presents a novel approach of a dynamic ARA mix that facilitates a smooth adaptation of the virtual environment to the real one, as well as dynamic control of the virtual audio engine, by taking into account the inherent characteristics of both ARA technology and binaural auditory perception. A prototype feature extraction technique of auditory perception characteristics through a real-time binaural loudness prediction method was used to upgrade the legacy ARA mix model into a dynamic model, which was evaluated through benchmarks and subjective tests and showed encouraging results in terms of functionality and acceptance.

Music composition from nonlinear dynamics has been a subject of thorough research, producing interesting music tracks. Simple chaotic maps or even more complex iterative schemes have been proposed, taking advantage of the “structured spontaneity” of nonlinear dynamics by directly transforming the mathematical objects to musical entities. In this work we examine the music compositions produced by two nonlinear systems in terms of complexity, expressed through the Shannon Information Entropy of their Pitch Class Profiles. We present a methodology to interpret the information obtained by the iterative equation s to several tonal and rhythmic attributes. This methodology is implemented in real-time software. A Graphical User Interface is provided that allows the user to adjust several variables while listening to and observing the derived results.

Legacy technologies for word recognition can benefit from emerging affective voice retrieval, potentially leading to intelligent applications for smart houses enhanced with new features. In this work we introduce the implementation of a system, capable to react to common spoken words, taking into account the estimated vocal stress level, thus allowing the realization of a prioritized, affective aural interaction path. Upon the successful word recognition and the corresponding stress level estimation, the system triggers particular affective-prioritized actions, defined within the application scope of an intelligent home environment. Application results show that the established affective interaction path significantly improves the ambient intelligence provided by an affective vocal sensor that can be easily integrated with any sensor-based home monitoring system.

Abstract: We present a suite of inclusive games designed to address the needs of people with blindness or low vision. Particularly, through the employment of modern sonification strategies that achieves efficient perceptual representation of the game‐play, several audio‐games with different scenarios and application scope (entertainment and education) were developed and demonstrated. A platform called “Memor‐i studio” that allows nontechnical users (including blind ones under supervision) to create such inclusive games has also been developed. The overall presentation includes the detailed description of the outcome of the evaluation process involved children and young people aged between 7 and 20 years old from the Special Elementary School for the Blind in Athens and the Education and Rehabilitation Centre for the Blind in Athens, Greece. The description is also extended to include the design framework of Memor‐i studio. The conclusions of this evaluation are unexpectedly encouraging, showing that the specific type of inclusive games genre may be a strong alternative toward the development of accessible games for blind people, providing a secure starting point for future developments on this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased interest for developing new representation techniques and tools for proving and demonstrating basic mathematical propositions and concepts is the forefront of educational research worldwide in the area of e-learning for mathematics. Although many novel ideas have been proposed for illustrating basic mathematical (i.e. geometrical) concepts, currently there is a lack of effective methods to dynamically reproduce an alternative representation of the underlying concepts. The proposed approach introduces valuable explanatory tools for efficiently supporting the learning objectives, enabling students to reach the core of each notion. In this work, a digital multimedia methodology is presented which implements the above dynamic representation approach. Recent, state-of-the-art trends in multimedia technology related to modern two or three-dimensional (2D or 3D) object modelling are utilised in order to efficiently reproduce a virtual mathematical environment in which selecte...

Multimedia standards, frameworks and models are already well established for generalized presentations. However, the situation is much less advanced for systems, which require the combination of advanced sound-oriented features and capabilities similar to those used to interact with highly demanding visual content. In this respect, current commercial presentation applications have been found lacking, often revealing multifaceted presentation limitations, including lack of sound control and delivery. They rarely offer cross-platform compatibility, provide limited programmability, are restrictive on data-interaction, and only support static WWW-based delivery. To overcome the above-stated deficiencies, a number of innovations are proposed, including the presentation of a combined multimedia framework, supported by a model that describes content-connectivity and stream-synchronization, enabling interaction for all audiovisual data-types included in the system.

Citizen Science aims to engage people in research activities on important issues related to their well-being. Smart Cities aim to provide them with services that improve the quality of their life. Both concepts have seen significant growth in the last years, and can be further enhanced by combining their purposes with IoT technologies that allow for dynamic and large-scale communication and interaction. However, exciting and retaining the interest of participants is a key factor for such initiatives. In this paper we suggest that engagement in Citizen Science projects applied on Smart Cities infrastructure can be enhanced through contextual and structural game elements realized through augmented audio interactive mechanisms. Our inter-disciplinary framework is described through the paradigm of a collaborative bird call recognition game, in which users collect and submit audio data, which are then classified and used for augmenting physical space with virtual soundscape maps. We disc...

Real-time digital audio streaming over unreliable wireless IP networks, such as WLANs, encounters playback quality degradation, due to late arrivals or permanent loss of the transmitted packets. In this paper we present a perceptually efficient error concealment technique, which, combined with playback synchronization correction schemes and a high-rate wireless transmission protocol with Qualityof-Service support, can significantly improve the overall audio playback quality of typical multichanel home-theater wireless applications.

In this paper we argue that Web-standards compliance of open source e-learning platforms is an important issue which has to be thoroughly addressed. The draft evaluation of randomly selected open source e-learning platforms, against usability and accessibility standards, resulted in an unexpectedly high failure rate for the validators employed and eventually set the basis for the examination of learning management systems with respect to Web-standards. In an effort to improve the level of Web-standards compliance, we attempt to identify the type of the usual mistakes, along with their origin, and suggest appropriate solutions. More specifically, we attempt to classify the errors according to the alleged origin source by testing demonstrative installations of e-learning products as provided by their developers. In the first part we discuss in theoretical level the way in which contemporary content management systems affect the web publishing process, as opposed to the static hypertex...

This paper introduces the work-in-progress AstroSonic, an educational audio-only game on the subject of Astronomy that aims to investigate the efficiency of applying game mechanics on non-speech audio content to convey non-musical, scientific curricula. First, the authors establish the theoretical framework by analyzing the positive impact of audio interaction in the context of educational and game environments, discussing the directions, in which educational audio games have been developed, and describing the ways, in which sound has been implemented for the sonification of astronomical data. Then, the first two levels of the game are presented in terms of concept, sound, and mechanics design, as well as how these reflect on the targeted curriculum by guiding players to fly their spaceship into low earth orbit and collect hazardous space debris.

A quality of service mechanism for a wireless network includes providing an admission control policy for a quality of service access point (QAP) to manage bandwidth by accepting or denying service to admitted traffic streams of quality of service stations (QSTAs) Further included is renegotiating different access category parameters in the QAP for enhancing performance in the wireless network. An additional aspect also includes monitoring in the QSTAs for enhanced networking to determine whether bandwidth allocation to a specific ...

Man perceives three dimensions but this does not necessarily exclude the existence of higher spatial dimensions, also known as 'hyperspace'. Higher dimensions have been and still are the object of study and source of inspiration for many artists and scientists. Many efforts have been made to perceive hyperspace through vision. The audio 'visualization' of hyperspace may result in a better outcome, perhaps due to similarities between sound and hyperspatial gravitational waves, or even because the corresponding audio centers in our brain are better suited for perceiving hyperspace. Focusing on Varèse, we proceed to a concise historical retrospective of the efforts to approach fourth dimension through music. The interaction between artists and the world of science, as well as the intuition which forms an integral part of Art, have both been a decisive source of inspiration. Furthermore, we describe the characteristics of hyperspatial sound based on scientific discoveries. Finally, we present a logical approach to the hyperspatial audio system based on these characteristics and describe an interactive installation art on acoustic hyperspace.

Augmented Reality Audio Games (ARAG) enrich the physical world with virtual sounds to express their content and mechanics. Existing ARAG implementations have focused on exploring the surroundings and navigating to virtual sound sources as the main mode of interaction. This paper suggests that gestural activity with a handheld device can realize complex modes of sonic interaction in the augmented environment, resulting in an enhanced immersive game experience. The ARAG “Audio Legends” was designed and tested to evaluate the usability and immersion of a system featuring an exploration phase based on auditory navigation, as well as an action phase, in which players aim at virtual sonic targets and wave the device to hit them or hold the device to block them. The results of the experiment provide evidence that players are easily accustomed to auditory navigation and that gestural sonic interaction is perceived as difficult, yet this does not affect negatively the system’s usability and ...

ABSTRACT Recent developments related to immersive audio systems are mainly originating from binaural audio processing technology. In this work, a novel high-quality binaural modeling engine is presented suitable for supporting a wide range of applications in the area of virtual reality, mobile playback and computer games. Based on a set of optimized algorithms for Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTF) equalization, acoustic environment modeling and crosstalk cancellation, it is shown that the proposed binaural ...

Based on the current version of the forthcoming IEEE802.11e standard, the paper examines the wireless, real-time transmission of high-quality audio streams. The required procedures that provide the necessary Quality of Service (QoS) support are presented and optimized for digital audio applications, and their effect on the achieved playback quality is estimated through a sequence of tests, in terms of the achieved wireless bit rate and the end-to-end packet delay. Both two-channel and multi-channel audio playback setups are considered, in order to accurately simulate typical stereo and home theater wireless applications.

Using analytic PCM-to-PWM mapping, combined with a novel method for eliminating PWM-induced distortions (Jithering), a distortion-free, all-digital and high-quality PWM coder was developed. High efficiency and performance is achieved at switching frequencies ...

ABSTRACT In this work we aim to combine a game platform with the concept of collaborative music synthesis. We use bio- inspired intelligence for developing a world - the Lake - where multiple tribes of artificial, autonomous agents live within, having survival as their ultimate goal. The tribes exhibit primitive social swarm-based behavior and intelli- gence, which is used for taking actions that will potentially allow to dominate the game world. Tribes’ populations also demonstrate a number of physical properties that re- strict their ability to act illimitably. Multiuser intervention is employed in parallel, affecting the automated decisions and the physical parameters of the tribes, thus infusing the gaming orientation of the application context. Finally, sound synthesis is achieved through a complex mapping scheme established between the events occurring in the Lake and the rhythmic, harmonic and dynamic-range pa- rameters of an advanced, collaborative sound composition engine. This complex mapping scheme allows the produc- tion of interesting and complicated sonic patterns that fol- low the performance evolution in both objective and con- ceptual levels. The overall synthesis process is controlled by the conductor, a virtual entity that determines the syn- thesis evolution in a way that is very similar to directing an ensemble performance in real world.

ABSTRACT Emotion recognition from sound signals represents an emerging field of recent research. Although many existing works focus on emotion recognition from music, there seems to be a relative scarcity of research on emotion recognition from general sounds. One of the key characteristics of sound events is the sound source spatial position, i.e. the location of the source relatively to the acoustic receiver. Existing studies that aim to investigate the relation of the latter source placement and the elicited emotions are limited to distance, front and back spatial localization and/or specific emotional categories. In this paper we analytically investigate the effect of the source angular position on the listener’s emotional state, modeled in the well–established valence/arousal affective space. Towards this aim, we have developed an annotated sound events dataset using binaural processed versions of the available International Affective Digitized Sound (IADS) sound events library. All subjective affective annotations were obtained using the Self Assessment Manikin (SAM) approach. Preliminary results obtained by processing these annotation scores are likely to indicate a systematic change in the listener affective state as the sound source angular position changes. This trend is more obvious when the sound source is located outside of the visible field of the listener.

This paper discusses the technology and commercialization challenges of a research initiative intended to establish a wireless metropolitan network for the city of Corfu. Key wireless mesh networking issues are discussed and value for the potential service providers and users of the network is specified. The network development builds on advanced features of wireless mesh networks, like multi-channel and multi-radio operation, connectivity to a fixed network infrastructure through multiple links and general purpose applications support, which overcome many of the limitations that are currently imposed by wireless ad-hoc networks. The proposed network is designed to provide apart from broadband Internet access a number of sophisticated services to the citizens, tourists and business visitors of the island. To assure viability and expansion for the CorfuNet initiative, the present study discusses scenarios on two alternative business models, namely the collaborative and the single pro...

ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to develop a socially-intelligent service team comprised of multiple robots with sophisticated sonic interaction capabilities that aims to transparently collaborate towards efficient and robust monitoring by close interaction. In the distributed scenario proposed in this study, the robots share any acoustic data extracted from the environment and act in-sync with the events occurring in their living environment in order to provide potential means for efficient monitoring and decision-making within a typical home enclosure. Although each robot acts as an individual recognizer using a novel emotionally-enriched word recognition system, the final decision is social in nature and is followed by all. Moreover, the social decision stage triggers actions that are algorithmically distributed among the robots' population and enhances the overall approach with the potential advantages of the team work within specific communities through collaboration.

ABSTRACT Sound mixing is a well-established task applied (directly or indirectly) in many fields of music and sound production. For example, in the case of classical music orchestras, their conductors perform sound mixing by specifying the reproduction gain of specific groups of musical instruments or of the entire orchestra. Moreover, modern sound artists and performers also employ sound mixing when they compose music or improvise in real-time. In this work a system is presented that incorporates a gestural interface for real-time multitrack sound mixing. The proposed gestural sound mixing control scheme is implemented on an open hardware micro-controller board, using common sensor modules. The gestures employed are as close as possible to the ones particularly used by the orchestra conductors. The system overall performance is also evaluated in terms of the achieved user experience through subjective tests.

ABSTRACT Audio networking is a growing field, introducing new and exiting possibilities in the pro- fessional audio industry [1]; but it also drastically changes the way audio systems will be designed, built, and used. Today’s networks have enough bandwidth to transport hundreds of high quality audio channels, replacing hundreds of kilograms of cabling in conventional analog audio systems [2]. Currently there are many systems on the market that distribute audio over Ethernet but the majority of sound engineers are not using them yet. There are mainly two reasons that audio networks are not as popular as expected. First, many of the systems are based on a proprietary implementation that does not allow interoperability between different vendors. Second, wired networks, like the conventional analog audio networks, also need a cable installation. It is therefore understood that the development of a wireless digital audio distribution system would be a significant contribution in this sector. IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) as the primary wireless technology in computer networking has made wireless networks widely available and inexpensive. With its most recent amendments, as well as the use of the 5-GHz ISM band, it can facilitate many high quality audio channels. However, the use of this tech- nology has not been the choice for the audio industry so far. It is obvious that a sequence of problems related with the nature of this technology impede the use of Wi-Fi in professional live sound and studio applications [3]. Apart from the well-known drawbacks of interference and security, encountered in all wireless data transmission systems, the way that Wi-Fi arbi- trates the wireless channel access is what causes the majority of the problems. In this paper we highlight the drawbacks of the IEEE 802.11 MAC algorithm in handling multiple stations broadcasting of audio data. We simulate a live audio data wireless network and test the limits of the protocol for this type of traffic. Moreover, we modify the 802.11 MAC algorithm to address the above problems. We test the amended protocol using simulation and analyze the results. We also give the directions for the future research in order for this widely accepted technology to be used in the professional audio industry. Open Access: http://www.aes.org/journal/online/JAES_V61/4/

ABSTRACT A PCM to PWM converter is presented, based on a novel distortion compensating method which requires no oversampling to be applied in the digital PWM time domain and achieves high-fidelity audio performance at clock rates less than 90 Mbit/sec. The analysis of the performance of this converter is estimated using objective measurements (e.g., amplitude of the harmonics, THD÷noise) for sinewave modulating signals and auralisation tests of typical audio material