Browsing by Author "Mostafa, Ahmed"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Interacting with Microseismic Visualizations
    (2013-01-23) Mostafa, Ahmed; Sharlin, Ehud; Greenberg, Saul; Costa Sousa, Mario; Brazil, Emilio
    Microseismic visualization systems present complex 3D data of small seismic events within oil reservoirs to allow experts to explore and interact with that data. Yet existing systems suffer several problems: 3D spatial navigation and orientation is difficult, and selecting 3D data is challenging due to the problems of occlusion and lack of depth perception. Our work mitigates these problems by applying both proxemic interactions and a spatial input device to simplify how experts navigate through the visualization, and a painting metaphor to simplify how they select that information.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Mediating Experiential Learning in Interactive Immersive Environments
    (2018-01-22) Mostafa, Ahmed; Sharlin, Ehud; Costa Sousa, Mário; Chan, Sonny; Takashima, Kazuki; Boulanger, Pierre; El-Sheimy, Naser
    Simulation and immersive environments are gaining popularity in various contexts. Arguably, such interactive systems have the potential to benefit many users in a variety of education and training scenarios. However, some of these systems especially with the lack of skilled instructors are still faced by challenges of operational complexity, the incorporation of different technologies and features, and the limited availability of performance measures and feedback. Therefore, the design of these systems would benefit from integrating experiential aspects and essential educational aids. For example, users of such learning systems, especially the novice ones, can be better supported by a smoother learning curve, detailed guidance features, the availability of feedback and performance reporting, and the integration of engaging & reflective capabilities. In essence, we recognize a need to re-explore learning aids and how they impact design, usage, and overall learning experience in interactive immersive environments. The goal of this dissertation is to mediate experiential learning in interactive immersive environments. This includes exploring existing and novel learning aids that would facilitate learning with improved engagement and immersion, enrich learners with insightful reflections, better support novice users’ learning and training needs, and ultimately enhance the overall experience. To achieve this goal, we utilized existing learning models and simulation-based training approaches and proposed a framework of learning aids to mediate learning in interactive immersive environments. Working closely with domain expert collaborators, we designed, implemented and evaluated four new interactive immersive prototypes in an attempt to validate the practicality of our aids. The first prototype, NeuroSimVR, is a stereoscopic visualization augmented with educational aids to support how medical users learn about a common back surgery procedure. The second prototype, ReflectiveSpineVR, is an immersive virtual reality surgical simulation with innovative interaction history capabilities that aim to empower users’ memories and enable deliberate repetitive practice as needed. The third prototype, JackVR, is an interactive immersive training system, utilizing novel gamification elements, and aims to support oil-and-gas experts in the process of landing oil rigs. Our fourth prototype, RoboTeacher, involves a humanoid robot instructor for teaching people industrial assembly tasks. In our prototypes, we presented novel learning aids, visualization, and interaction techniques that are new to many of the current immersive learning tools. We conclude this dissertation with lessons learned and guidelines for designing with learning aids in future research directions that target interactive experiential environments.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Visualizing highly multidimensional time varying Microseismic Events
    (2012-10-16T16:48:30Z) Mostafa, Ahmed; Carpendale, Sheelagh; Brazil, Emilio; Eaton, David; Sharlin, Ehud; Costa Sousa, Mario
    Making decisions about improving an oil and gas reservoir model based upon microseismic data is a difficult challenge for reservoir engineers and analysts. These difficulties arise because the available data contains inaccuracies, has high-dimensionality and has a high degree of uncertainty. Currently these difficulties are intensified by the lack of computational tools to support interactive visual interpretation and integration of geophysical data leading to robust structural models of the reservoir and its parameters. To address these difficulties domain experts are demanding better and more detailed visualization tools to help them as they explore their data. In this paper, we present a tool that contains a set of interactive visualizations that combines, merges and extends existing visualization techniques. We describe the iterative design process we undertook to develop the tool, relying on insight from domain specialists. Our tool supports 3D spatial analysis and exploration of the data with a set of manipulations designed to provide domain experts with insights into their highly complex microseismic data. Our microseismic visual-analysis tool also provides an extended parallel coordinates implementation to: (1) support interactive filtering and selection through combined filter and shadow boxes that can remove the uninteresting events from further analysis, (2) correlate between the data attributes by axes reordering and outlier discovery, and (3) visually correlate the data events rendering through additional visual elements such as color maps. Our multiple coordinated views link the insights gained from one view with other views instantaneously. We conclude with a discussion of the feedback provided to us by the domain experts.