Facets of Virtual Environments: First International Conference, FaVE 2009, Berlin, Germany, July 27-29, 2009, Revised Selected Papers (Lecture Notes of ... and Telecommunications Engineering)

This book constitutes the proceedings of the First International ICST Conference on Facets of Virtual Conference, FaVE 2009, held in Berlin, Germany, in July 2009. The 15 invited and regular papers present in the first set the application of virtual worlds to science and in the second set the social aspects of using virtual worlds, both for research and application. 3642117422......Page 1 Facets of VirtualEnvironments......Page 3 Table of Contents......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 What Is VGE?......Page 13 Why VGE Rising?......Page 14 Related Work......Page 15 Revolution of Geography Research Methods and Geographic Languages......Page 16 VGE Extends Geographic Environment in the Real World......Page 17 Experimental Geography......Page 18 VGE as a Virtual Geographic Experiment Platform......Page 19 Discussion and Conclusion......Page 20 References......Page 21 Introduction......Page 23 Background......Page 24 Self-expression in Virtual Worlds......Page 25 The Vacancy Problem......Page 26 Related Work......Page 27 Real World Implementation......Page 28 Virtual World Implementation......Page 29 Dual Reality Event and Discussion......Page 34 Discussion......Page 35 Conclusion......Page 36 References......Page 37 Introduction......Page 40 The Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA)......Page 41 Improving Scientific Collaboration and Communication......Page 42 A New Approach to Numerical Simulations......Page 44 Immersive Multi-Dimensional Data Visualization......Page 47 Information Architectures for the Next Generation Web......Page 49 Concluding Comments......Page 51 References......Page 53 Introduction......Page 55 Related Work......Page 56 World of Warcraft......Page 57 Methodology......Page 58 Spatial Analysis......Page 60 Temporal Analysis......Page 62 Network Structures......Page 64 Conclusions......Page 68 References......Page 69 Introduction......Page 71 Time-Pressure and Spatial Cognition......Page 72 Introducing Landmarks and Time-Pressure......Page 73 Conclusions......Page 75 References......Page 77 Introduction......Page 79 Weather and Mood......Page 80 Virtual Environments and Presence......Page 81 Design......Page 82 Materials......Page 83 Dependent Variables and Measures......Page 84 Results......Page 85 Discussion......Page 86 References......Page 87 Introduction......Page 90 Legal Topics of Terms of Service......Page 91 Complexity of Terms of Service......Page 93 Readability......Page 94 Evolution......Page 95 Scope......Page 96 Dealing with Terms of Service Complexity......Page 97 Conclusions......Page 99 References......Page 100 Introduction......Page 102 A Next Generation Online Virtual World Retail Store......Page 103 Domain Ontology and Its Creation......Page 105 Concepts of the Domain......Page 106 Handling Queries on the Domain......Page 107 A Detailed Example......Page 108 Integrating Virtual Worlds and Business Applications......Page 109 Integration Mechanisms......Page 110 Carrying Out Real-World Transactions......Page 111 Role of Visual Semantics in Retail Stores......Page 112 Shopping by Example......Page 113 References......Page 115 Introduction......Page 117 Related Work......Page 118 Virtual Worlds......Page 119 Usage Scenario......Page 120 Architecture and Implementation......Page 122 Applications......Page 125 Usage Scenarios with StellarSim......Page 128 Conclusions and Future Work......Page 129 References......Page 130 Introduxction......Page 132 Online Multi-user Virtual Environments......Page 133 A Blueprint for the Creation of Collaboration Patterns......Page 134 The Semiotic Triad as an Organizing Structure......Page 135 Action and Interaction in 3D Virtual Environments......Page 136 A Typology of Objects in Virtual Environments......Page 137 A Blueprint for Embodied Virtual Collaboration......Page 139 Examples of Collaboration Patterns Based on the Blueprint......Page 141 Conclusion......Page 144 References......Page 145 Introduction......Page 146 Emotions and Virtual Characters......Page 147 Modelling Artificial Emotions and Its Recognition......Page 149 Multifunctional Aspects of the Gestural Behavior......Page 151 Scheme for Virtual Character Research......Page 152 Psychological States - Personality......Page 153 Verbal and Nonverbal Communication......Page 154 Cognitive Processing......Page 155 Virtual Environments......Page 156 Evaluation Method......Page 157 References......Page 158 Introduction......Page 162 Transportation......Page 163 Artificiality......Page 164 Methods......Page 165 Experiment Setup......Page 166 Experiment......Page 167 Experimental Procedure......Page 168 Development of Questionnaires......Page 169 Results for Data Analysis and Interpretation......Page 171 Conclusion......Page 173 References......Page 174 Introduction......Page 176 Literature Review......Page 178 Methodology......Page 179 Leveling......Page 180 End-Game......Page 182 Discussion and Conclusion......Page 186 References......Page 187 Introduction......Page 189 Characteristics of Virtual Environments (and Worlds)......Page 190 The Application of Human Rights in Virtual Worlds......Page 191 Normative Framework......Page 193 Possible Actions......Page 194 In-Game Discrimination: Some Examples......Page 195 Possible Actions......Page 196 Conclusion......Page 197 Introduction......Page 198 Consumers as Producers......Page 199 Social and Cultural Lens......Page 200 Technical Lens......Page 202 Economic and Business Lens......Page 203 Legal and Policy Lens......Page 205 Discussion......Page 206 Emergent Behavior......Page 208 Factors Impacting Consumers as Producers......Page 209 Conclusions and Future Work......Page 211 References......Page 212 Author Index......Page 214 In recent years, the popularity of virtual worlds has increased significantly and they have consequently come under closer academic scrutiny. Papers about virtual worlds are typically published at conferences or in journals that specialize in something - tirely different, related to some secondary aspect of the research. Thus a paper d- cussing legal aspects of virtual worlds may be published in a law journal, while a psychologist's analysis of situation awareness may appear at a psychology conference. The downside of this is that if you publish a virtual worlds paper at an unrelated conference in this manner you are likely to be one of only a handful of attendees working in the area. You will not, therefore, achieve the most important goal of - tending conferences: meeting and conversing with like-minded colleagues from the academic community of your field of study. Virtual worlds touch on many well-established themes in other areas of science. Researchers from all these fields will therefore be looking at this new, interesting, and growing field. However, to do effective research related to these complex constructs, researchers need to take into account many of the other facets from other fields that impact virtual worlds. Only by being familiar with and paying attention to all these different aspects can virtual worlds be properly understood.