RezMela™: Rapid virtual scenario authoring to maximize Return On Investment in VLEs

Rameshsharma (Ramesh) Ramloll

www.rezmela.com

Towards a theory of customization

How to dissect the whole into useful and reusable parts.(in other words …)How to design sub-parts so that they can be efficiently and economically reconnected to yield new, diverse and useful combinations.Customization is currently an Art ...

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How do customization opportunities impact ROI (Return on investment)?

Re-use: Not having the need to rebuild everything from scratch lowers cost of production.

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Customization by user: Providing opportunities for users to adapt their virtual world to meet emerging needs, without having to rebuild from scratch or buy a whole new system, drives to a large extent return on investment.

Is this goal new?: NO! There has certainly been prior attempts to address this goal.

What is different with the RezMela approach?: While RezMela primarily addresses customizability of virtual worlds, our approach has deeper implications that we reveal in this talk.

The ‘construction set’ approach in the real world

Lego

Meccano

K’Nex

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The ‘construction set’ approach in the virtual world

Minecraft

Second Life

Kerbal Space Program

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The pantograph: mechanical scaling up or down app

Mobile joint

Fixed joint

Blue pen

Red pen

Invented by Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner (1603)Believed to have been used by Da Vinci (1452-1519)

OQ

Scale = |OQ|/|OP|

P

The mechanical TurkBaron Wolfgang Von Kempelen

BA

The RezMela™ board

inworld-map RezMela icon

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2 m

2 m

Opensim Region

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256 m

256 m

Magnification = 128 x 128 = 16384

World object

O: originO

The RezMela™ board - 3D functionality

inworld-map Tree icon

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2 m

2 m

Opensim RegionN

256 m

256 m

Magnification = 128 x 128 = 16384

Tree on an elevation

Hill icon

Hill

OO: origin

The RezMela™ board - scalability of approach

inworld-map Tree icon

N

2 m

2 m

Opensim e.g. MegaRegion

N

512 m

512 m

Magnification = 256 x 256 = 65536

Tree on an elevation

Hill icon

Hill

O: originO

RezMela approach vs

‘Drag and drop of content’ from viewer inventoryTemporal Demand (NASA TLX factor): How much time pressure did you feel due to the pace at which the tasks or task elements occurred? Was the pace slow or rapid?Travel Distance for Content deployment (TCD): Distance that needs to be navigated through (e.g. camming, walking, flying) in order to find target locations for content deployment

Content deployment area (size of world)

0

RezMela

Tem

pora

l Dem

and

Traditional drag and dropfrom inventory

Basic differentiator between RezMela and traditional approach

The time taken to deploy content using RezMela is much less that dragging and dropping content from the inventory. This effect becomes more pronounced as the size of the area needed for content deployment increases.

The RezMela™ board - deploying content for an example large region

RezMela™ as a multi-user unified interface to create, control and monitor world objects

RezMela icon World object

RezMela is also a virtual world control and real-time information visualization application.

Acting on icon produces change in correspondingworld object

Acting on worldobject produces change in correspondingicon

RezMela does not only provide a rapid content deployment approach.

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control

feedback

The RezMela™ synched boards - multiple concurrent views

inworld-map Tree icon

N

2 m

2 m

Hill icon

Climate control view: navigate storm system

inworld-map Tree icon

N

2 m

2 m

Hill icon

Population control view: navigate population

NPCs

The RezMela™ synched boards - visualizing world events

inworld-map Tree icon

N

2 m

2 m

Hill iconStorm trajectory view: Storm has caught up with some of the people (NPCs)

Population status view: The storm victims are represented with a change in color

inworld-map Tree icon

N

2 m

2 m

Hill icon

The RezMela™ board - Embodiment example (very first version)

A B

C

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Example RezMela™ library of objects used to assemble advanced virtual learning environments

Categories (partial list) RezMela library objects (partial list)

Plants Tree, Trees, Bush, Bushes, Forest, Park etc.

Buildings House, Block of flats, ground floor, top floor, Silos, Cooling tower, Hospital, Restaurant, etc.

Vehicles Police, EMT, Firefighter, Helicopter, Truck, Civilian, Military etc.

Equipment Roadblocks, Decon tents, Isolation compartment, Medical equipment, weapons, PPE dispenser etc.

People Police, Health care, Firefighter, EMT, Civilian, individuals or in groups, etc.

Weather Clouds, Rain, Storm, Lightning, fog etc.

Core structure of many RezMela library objects: M Linkset - Malleable Linkset

An M Linkset is a group of objects linked together that can be directly manipulated by the user, that is through touch or clicks, in order to change its shape, function or behavior.

Many RezMela objects in its library are M Linksets.

Designing library objects is more an art than a science at the moment.

Example of M Linked world objects

A B C

More examples of M_linked world objects and their advanced behaviors

A B C

D E F

A B C

More examples of M_linked world objects and their advanced behaviors

Putting it all together

Wizard of Oz: Man behind the curtain… may be teachers could be that ‘Man’ and try to reach students by immersing them in challenging situations, or problem based situations that require creative solutions ...

Revisiting the Wizard of Oz experiment

Wikipedia: In the field of human-computer interaction, a Wizard of Oz experiment is a research experiment in which subjects interact with a computer system that subjects believe to be autonomous, but which is actually being operated or partially operated by an unseenhuman being.

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Expected evolution of RezMela board operator interventions

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RezMela design iterations

0

100 Percentage of situations that require board operator interventions

Percentage of world objects with pre-programmed autonomous responses

timecurrently

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How does RezMela increase directly ROI?● RezMela is based on the re-use of subparts that can be combined to create new

environments.● Customization is real time and user driven.● Customization is direct manipulation centric and involves zero scripting.● RezMela enables high speed assembly of virtual learning environments through point

and click.● The nature of the core RezMela interface is such that it makes it immediately available

in a fully immersive 3D setting through 3D headsets. Therefore, content can be generated without having to break immersion.

● The RezMela approach reduces the gap between ‘theory instruction’ and ‘practising of learned concepts using simulations’ by providing opportunities to transit between the two learning spaces iteratively at minimal cost.

Summary and Conclusion