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Scientific Publications of the R&D Group Virtual Reality and Simulation

Articles

Giorgi A, Ronca V, Vozzi A, Aricò P, Borghini G, Capotorto R, Tamborra L, Simonetti I, Sportiello S, Petrelli M, Polidori C, Varga R, van Gasteren M, Barua A, Ahmed MU, Babiloni F and Di Flumeri G (2023) “Neurophysiological mental fatigue assessment for developing user-centered Artificial Intelligence as a solution for autonomous driving”. Front. Neurorobotics. 17:1240933. doi: 10.3389/fnbot.2023.1240933

Sciaraffa, N.; Di Flumeri, G.; Germano, D.; Giorgi, A.; Di Florio, A.; Borghini, G.; Vozzi, A.; Ronca, V.; Varga, R.; van Gasteren, M.; Babiloni, F.; Aricò, P. (2022) “Validation of a Light EEG-Based Measure for Real-Time Stress Monitoring during Realistic Driving”, Brain Sci. 2022, 12, 304. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12030304

Carlos A. Catalina, Susana Garcia-Herrero, Elvira Cabrerizo, Sixto Herrera, Santiago Garcia-Pineda, Fatemeh Mohamadi and M. A. Mariscal (2020) “Music Distraction among Young Drivers: Analysis by Gender and Experience”. Journal of Advanced Transportation, vol. 2020, Article ID 6039762, 12 pages, 2020. DOI 10.1155/2020/6039762

Rodriguez, Mario., Orrite, C. & Medrano, C.  (2020) “Space-time flexible kernel for recognizing activities from wearable cameras”. Pattern Anal Applic, 2020. DOI 10.1007/s10044-020-00942-0

Resende de Almeida R.M. et al., Carlos Alberto Catalina Ortega, Basam Musleh (2020) “Decision Support Systems to Promote Health and Well-Being of People During Their Working Age: The Case of the WorkingAge EU Project”. In: Orailoglu A., Jung M., Reichenbach M. (eds) Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation. SAMOS 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12471. Springer, Cham. DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-60939-9_24

Carlos Alberto Catalina Ortega (2019) “Posibilidades actuales de la realidad virtual y la realidad aumentada aplicada a mantenimiento según casuísticas”. Mantenimiento: ingeniería industrial y de edificios,  Nº. 321, págs. 23-32

López González, V.; García-Valcárcel Muñoz-Repiso, A.; Martín del Pozo, M.; Basilotta GómezPablos, V.; Catalina Ortega, C. A. (2018), “Diseño de métricas de evaluación de Serious Games. Un caso concreto en un juego para la prevención del acoso escolar“. In: Transforming education for a changing world, 2018, Page(s) 313-324, ISBN 978-94-92805-03-4. Publisher: Adaya-Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1456864

Carlos Alberto Catalina Ortega, Marteyn van Gasteren, Svjetlana Kolić-Vehovec, Viola Pinzi, Ana García-Valcárcel Muñoz-Repiso, Eva Paloma Ferrer y Jevgenijs Danilins (2018) “EConfidence, Serious Games para cambiar comportamientos”. Comunicación y Pedagogía – Especial Aumentame EDU 2018

María Vega López González, Ana García-Valcárcel Muñoz-Repiso, Marta Martín del Pozo, Verónica Basilotta Gómez-Pablos y Carlos Alberto Catalina Ortega (2017) “Métricas para la evaluación y análisis de Serious Games. Aportaciones en base al Proyecto eConfidence”. EDUNOVATIC 2017, 1039-1045. 2nd Virtual International Conference on Education, Innovation and ICT 12 – 14 December, 2017.

López García, C., Catalina Ortega, C. A., & Zednik, H (2017) “Realidade Virtual e Aumentada: Estratégias de Metodologias Ativas nas Aulas sobre Meio Ambiente”. Informática na Educação, 20(1), 46-59. Retrieved from http://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/InfEducTeoriaPratica/article/view/70613/41072

Carlos Catalina Ortega, C. López García y H. Zednik (2016) “Aplicación de la Realidad Virtual y Aumentada en actividades para dinamizar las aulas sobre Medio Ambiente”. XXIV Ciclo de Palestras sobre Novas Tecnologias na Educação. Premiado como Best Paper. Pp. 41-50

Saracchini, R. F., Catalina, C. A., Minetto, R., & Stolfi, J. (2016) “Real-Time Visual Odometry by Patch Tracking Using GPU-Based Perspective Calibration”. In International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics (pp. 475-492). Springer, Cham (2016, February).

Carlos Catalina Ortega y C. López García (2016) “La integración de la Realidad Virtual en educación: un reto por alcanzar”. Comunicación y Pedagogía, 287-288, pp 92-98

Rafael Saracchini, and Carlos Catalina Ortega. (2015) “An augmented reality platform for wearable assisted living systems.” Journal of Theoretical and Applied Computer Science 9.1 (2015): 56-79.

Rafael Saracchini, Carlos Catalina Ortega, Luca Bordoni (2015) “A Mobile Augmented Reality Assistive Technology for the Elderly”. Comunicar, 45, pp 65-74. DOI: 10.3916/C45-2015-07

Rafael Saracchini, Carlos Catalina Ortega (2014) “An Easy to Use Mobile Augmented Reality Platform for Assisted Living Using Pico-projectors”. Lecture Notes on Computer Science –  Computer Vision and Graphics, 8671, pp 552-561, Springer International Publishing. Ver Revista

“JVRC 2012” (Joint Virtual Reality Conference): Demo aplicación estarteco Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. 17 October 2012
Presented Demos: estARteco: Augmented Reality to Ecosystem Service (Instituto Tecnológico de Castilla y León (ITCL)

“Realidad aumentada: su impacto en la formación”. America Learning & Media en Latinoamérica. Nº 4. 2011

“Realidad aumentada para el cuidado del medioambiente”. America Learning & Media en Latinoamérica

Catalina C.A. “estARteco, un juego formativo gratuito con realidad aumentada”. Revista CyL Digital, num. 6. Junta de Castilla y León. Observatorio Regional de la Sociedad de la Información (ORSI). Ver Revista

Catalina C.A. “TextoSign: Traductor de texto a lengua de signos” Revista CyL Digital, num. 3. Junta de Castilla y León. Observatorio Regional de la Sociedad de la Información (ORSI). Ver Revista

Catalina C.A. ¿El 3D se limita a las películas como Avatar? Revista CyL Digital, num. especial. Junta de Castilla y León. Observatorio Regional de la Sociedad de la Información (ORSI). Ver Revista

Congresses

14th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2023)

Giorgi, Andrea & Ronca, Vincenzo & Vozzi, Alessia & Aricò, Pietro & Borghini, Gianluca & Tamborra, Luca & Simonetti, Ilaria & Sportiello, Simone & Petrelli, Marco & Varga, Rodrigo & van Gasteren, Marteyn & Babiloni, Fabio & Di Flumeri, Gianluca. (2023). “Multimodal characterization of mental fatigue on professional drivers”. Diciembre 2022. 10.54941/ahfe1003009

Abstract: A non-adequate psychophysical condition represents a major factor in causing car accidents. In particular, 20% of car crashes are caused by mental fatigue and drowsiness, with dramatic consequences and fatalities. Nowadays strategies to reduce the risks while driving. The on-board systems equipping current vehicles are not able to intervene before the sudden onset of drowsy episodes and are affected by a poor accuracy resulting in several events’ misclassifications (i.e., false positive) causing drivers’ mistrust of technology.Being able to recognise in advance the occurrences of fatigue and drowsiness episodes would dramatically increase road safety and reduce car crashes. This is extremely relevant especially for professional drivers who drive for prolonged periods leading to an increase of risks due to not-proper psychophysical conditions. Even if professional drivers are trained to prevent, recognise, and minimize the effect of fatiguing, it must be considered that often the driver becomes conscious of drowsiness and mental fatigue onset too late, that is when it is already driving in a not-safe condition. The aim of this study was to adopt a multimodal approach to characterize the initial phases of fatigued mental state while driving, to develop an effective and timely detecting methodology. Ten volunteer professional drivers have been recruited to take part in an experimental protocol, performed in a car simulator. The experiment took place in the afternoon to increase the chance of eliciting mental fatigue and it consisted in driving for 45 minutes in a monotonous city-like environment. Before performing the monotonous driving task, participants were asked to drive for 15 minutes in a high-difficulty track race to induce fatigue, increasing the probability of a not-adequate psychophysical condition during the following monotonous driving task. Aiming at developing a neurophysiological model for mental fatigue characterization, a multimodal neurophysiological assessment was performed collecting the Electroencephalographic (EEG) and Electroculographic (EOG) signals. In parallel, behavioural assessment was performed through a secondary reaction task to detect eventual variation of performance from individual normal levels because of an altered psychophysical condition. Subjective measures were collected as well for the self-assessment of both fatigue and drowsiness state and task perception (high vs low demand). Behavioural and subjective measures have been so employed to (i) validate the experimental design; and to (ii) support and validate the employment of neurophysiological measures for characterizing the mental fatigue.

Proceedings of the 29th European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL)

Fugini, Mariagrazia & Barenghi, Alessandro & Comai, Sara & Pelosi, Gerardo & Tedesco, Roberto & van Gasteren, Marteyn & Catalina, Carlos & Leal, Estefanía & Losada, Raquel & Almeida, Rosa & Grau, Adriana & Aguado, Yolanda & Mertens, Alexander & Rick, Vera & Gunes, Hatice & Xu, Tian & Borghini, Gianluca & Ronca, Vincenzo & Sagha, Hesam. (2020). “Working Age: Providing Occupational Safety through Pervasive Sensing and Data

Conference: H-Workload : models & applications. (Rome 2019) 

    Rick, Vera & Czerniak, Julia & Mertens, Alexander & Ronca, Vincenzo & Vozzi, Alessia & Aricò, Pietro & Di Flumeri, Gianluca & Sciaraffa, Nicolina & Catalina, Carlos & van Gasteren, Marteyn & Cobo, Maite & Nitsch, Verena & Babiloni, Fabio & Borghini, Gianluca. (2019). “WorkingAge: Smart Working Environments for all Ages”.

    In the European research project WorkingAge (WA), a system is being developed that will use innovative HCI methods to measure emotional, cognitive and physical strain of workers. At the same time, with the use of Internet of Things (IoTs), sensors will be able to detect environmental conditions. The purpose is to promote healthy habits of users in their working environment and daily living activities in order to improve their working and living conditions. By studying elderly workers and the working place requirements in three different working environments (office, driving and manufacturing), both user and environmental aspects will be considered. Information obtained will be used for the creation of interventions that will lead to healthy aging inside and outside the working environment. WA will test and validate an integrated solution that learns the user’s behaviour, health data and preferences and naturally interacts with the user through continuous data collection and analysis, with data protection always being a primary concern.

    II Congreso Virtual Internacional de Educación, Innovación y TIC – EDUNOVATIC 2017

    http://www.edunovatic.org/

    María Vega López González, Ana García-Varcáncel Muñoz-Repiso, Marta Martín del Pozo, Verónica Basilotta Gómez-Pablos, Carlos Alberto Catalina Ortega. “Serious games evaluation and analysis metrics: Contribution for eConfidence project”. II Congreso Virtual Internacional de Educación, Innovación y TIC. 12-14 diciembre, 2107. Madrid, España

    When we talk about Serious Games, we refer to games whose main goal goes beyond pure entertainment in order to research the area of education and training. In this line, eConfidence Project is carried out: a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant agreement No 732420. Its purpose is analyzing the benefits which could be obtained through the use of Serious Games to change teenager
    student’s behaviour and attitudes related to bullying and safe use of Internet.
    To know the quality of this kind of these kinds of games and estimate their effect on behaviour changes, we need specific and concrete analysis indicators, called metrics. Software designers and educators work together on the definition of these parameters with two primary purposes: decide whether or not they will be able to provide the information needed to achieve the stated goals, and assure the consumer retention and monetization for the software design company.

    EAI International Conference on IoT Technologies for HealthCare

    Simulator of behavioural aspects for safer transport

    Mobyen Uddin Ahmed, Shahina Begum, Carlos Alberto Catalina, Lior Limonad, Bertil Hök, Gianluca Di Flumeri. “Cloud-based Data Analytics on Human Factor Measurement to Improve Safer Transport”. In 4th EAI International Conference on IoT Technologies for HealthCare October 24–25, 2017. Angers, France, At Angers, France. Projects

    Abstract: Road transport is known to be the most dangerous of all transport modes and poses a major societal challenge for EU. It has been claimed that 90% of road-traffic crashes are caused by driver error, being unsafe behaviour a significant factor in traffic accidents. Improving road safety means understanding the individual and collective behaviour of actors involved (drivers, two wheelers, pedestrians) and their interaction between themselves and safety-related systems and services. The goal of SIMUSAFE (SIMUlator of Behavioural Aspects for SAFEr Transport) following the FESTA-V model methodology is to develop realistic multi-agent behavioural models in a transit environment where researchers will be able to monitor and introduce changes in every aspect , gathering data not available in real world conditions.
    Driving simulators of several vehicles (cars, motorcycles, bicycles) and Virtual Reality (for pedestrians) will be used to simulate test environments. This will also enable the evaluation of scenarios which are not possible even with naturalistic driving (dangerous conditions, multiple monitored actors in the same scene, under influence of substances). Data collected from simulations will be correlated with naturalistic driving tests, such that the simulation and model aspects are the closest possible to real world data. From the developed model and collected data, impacting factors causing an event (crash, nearcollision, infractions) from the environment and road users will be identified and quantified. Such knowledge will be the base for the development of more effective and pro-active measures for the prevention and mitigation of such factors, with subsequent impact in the safety devices market, regulations and driver education.

    International Conference on Excellence, Creativity and Innovation – ICIE 2016 

    http://www.icieconference.net/

    Rafael F. V. Saracchini. “Latest Developments in Informatics: Virtual & Reality Augmented”. In 13th ICIE conference 2016 on Excellence & Innovation in Basic-Higher Education & Psychology Creativity – Innovation – Latest Development in Research & Practices. Rijeka – Croatia (May 18-21, 2016)

    International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications – 2016

    http://www.visapp.visigrapp.org/

    Saracchini, Rafael FV, Carlos A. Catalina, R. Minetto, J Stolfi. “VOPT: Robust Visual Odometry by Simultaneous Feature Matching and Camera Calibration”, – In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, (2016)

    Abstract: In this paper we describe VOPT, a robust algorithm for visual odometry. It tracks features of the environment with known position in space, which can be acquired through monocular or RGBD SLAM mapping algorithms. The main idea of VOPT is to jointly optimize the matching of feature projections on successive frames, the camera’s extrinsic matrix, the photometric correction parameters, and the weight of each feature at the same time, by a multi-scale iterative procedure. VOPT uses GPU acceleration to achieve real-time performance, and includes robust procedures for automatic initialization and recovery, without user intervention. Our tests show that VOPT outperforms the PTAMM algorithm in challenging videos available publicly.

    keywords: 3D Tracking, Augmented Reality, Camera Calibration, Real-time and GPU Processing

    International Conference on Information Visualization Theory and Applications –  IVAPP 2015

    http://www.ivapp.visigrapp.org/

    Helena C. G. Leitao, Rafael F. V. Saracchini, Jorge Stolfi. “Geometric Encoding, Filtering, and Visualization of Genomic Sequences”

    Abstract: This article describes a three-channel encoding of nucleotide sequences, and proper formulas for filtering and downsampling such encoded sequences for multi-scale signal analysis. With proper interpolation, the encoded sequences can be visualized as curves in three-dimensional space. The filtering uses Gaussian-like smoothing kernels, chosen so that all levels of the multi-scale pyramid (except the original curve) are practically free from aliasing artifacts and have the same degree of smoothing. With these precautions, the overall shape of the space curve is robust under small changes in the DNA sequence, such as single-point mutations, insertions, deletions, and shifts.

    Keywords: bio-sequences analysis, signals analysis, filtering, multi-scale

    International Conference on Computer Vision and Graphics ICCVG 2014

    http://iccvg.wzim.sggw.pl/

    Rafael F. V. Saracchini, Carlos C. Ortega. “An Easy to Use Mobile Augmented Reality Platform for Assisted Living Using Pico-projectors”

    Abstract: We present in this paper an easy to use Computer Vision based platform for real-time 3D mapping, and augmented reality in indoors environments and its innovative application in Assisted Living. The information is displayed to the user by projecting it into the environment by a wearable device with embedded pico-projector. The system does not need markers or complicated set-ups, using low cost off-the-shelf equipment. It is also robust to small changes of the environment, and can make use of surrounding objects to provide more stable camera tracking. Pilot tests in health care centres and residences demonstrated the efficacy of the initial prototype.

    Maite Cobo, Carlos A. Catalina, Rafael F.V. Saracchini, Nacodeal Natural communication Device for Assiting Living. Poster and presentation at congreso de Investigación y Envejecimiento: una respuesta multidisciplinar. Diciembre 2013

    R. Saracchini, C.A. Catalina-Ortega, M. Cobo-Abeytua, Social interaction Nacodeal , AAL Forum, September 2012

    Bordoni L., Scocchera F., Sdogati C. Carlos Alberto Catalina-Ortega, Maite Cobo. Elderly with temporary memory loss: the nacodeal scenario, AAL Summit Bilbao, June 2012

    CARVI 2011. IX CONGRESO DE APLICACIONES DE REALIDAD VIRTUAL

    Catalina Ortega, C.A. “IDE para creación de manuales con Realidad Aumentada para PC y PDA” JOREVIR 2009: Third conference on Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments

    Abstract: En el presente artículo se mostrará el desarrollo de un editor de manuales interactivos mediante realidad aumentada (ECRAM). Los manuales interactivos son una de las aplicaciones más interesantes que sepueden desarrollar con esta tecnología, sin embargo tienen varios problemas a la hora de su aplicación en entornos industriales. En el presente proyecto se pretende disminuir el impacto de dos de ellos: la necesidad de expertos programadores para poder crear un manual de operaciones y la cantidad de tiempo necesario para crearlos. Como solución a este problema ITCL ha desarrollado una primera versión de un editor de operaciones que, de forma fácil y sin necesidad de conocimientos específicos, permite crear los pasos para realizar una operación y poder visualizarla en un PC o una PDA.
    Keywords: realidad aumentada, mantenimiento, prevención, formación, motor gráfico, 3D.

    Catalina Ortega C.A. “Simulador de carretillas elevadoras” JOREVIR 2009: Third conference on Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments

    Abstract: Las carretillas elevadoras son uno de los elementos que más accidentes provocan en los entornos industriales. Una de las herramientas para paliar los efectos de estos accidentes así como disminuir su número, consiste en proporcionar una mejor formación a los operarios que emplearan estas máquinas. Para ello se ha creado un simulador de carretillas completo con una cabina de una carretilla real sensorizada que es manejada por el operario a formar, este visualiza el entorno gracias a un casco de realidad virtual y un sensor de seguimiento de cabeza.
    Keywords: simulador, realidad virtual, simulación vehículos, prevención, formación, motor física, motor gráfico, 3D

    Copyright Registries

    SOFTWARE REGISTRATION:

    • BU-97-14. NACODEAL Tracking and recognition libraries
    • 00765-01338296. SIGEDA – Synthetic Images Generator for Data Augmentation
    • 00765-01762946. Software for the motor rehabilitation of cerebral palsy patients