Search Results (75)

Digitalization has shaped every part of our world, from education to healthcare, from finance to entertainment, and from manufacturing to social interactions. This digital transformation has put tremendous power in the hands of individuals and delivered even better results than sticking to old, traditional ways. Such effective digitalization cannot be achieved easily; a good digitized system is the product of a lot of effort. In this paper, we explore the state-of-the-art advancements in smart education technologies, analyze existing digital solutions, and outline considerations for developing a tailored system to digitalize the Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) assessment for Moroccan primary education. Our approach aims to bridge skill gaps by integrating serious games, adaptive learning techniques, and real-time analytics to enhance assessment effectiveness and ease educators’ workloads. Full article

This study investigates the influence of experiential programs (EPs) on enhancing consumer experience offerings at luxury resorts. EPs encompass a variety of activities, amenities, and services designed to immerse consumers in the local culture, scenery, and authenticity. The research focuses explicitly on EPs related to fitness, evening entertainment, children’s activities, and personalized experiences. By analyzing data from 30 resorts, significant trends and typologies within each category of EP emerged, highlighting the diverse ways in which resorts meet consumers’ desires for immersive and status-enhancing experiences. Valuable insights were gained through semi-structured interviews with two hoteliers, providing a deeper understanding of the strategic integration of EPs. Fitness EPs highlight activities, including hiking and yoga, whereas evening entertainment encompasses experiences like mixology, music, and astronomy education. For children, EPs prioritize cultural immersion through hands-on experiences, while personalized EPs—including romance packages and private dining—allow for consumer exclusivity. The research underscores how these EPs align with contemporary trends in conspicuous consumption, where luxury resorts leverage unique, high-quality, and culturally rich experiences to reinforce affluence and societal standing. The findings emphasize that EPs are a vital strategy for luxury resorts to differentiate themselves in a competitive market, enhancing consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive self-image. Full article

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a non-invasive and portable way to capture neurophysiological activity, which provides the basis for brain–computer interface systems and more innovative applications, from entertainment to security. However, the acquisition of EEG signals often suffers from noise contamination and even signal interruption problems due to poor contact of the electrodes, body movement, or heavy noise. Such heavily contaminated and lost signal segments are usually removed manually, which can hinder practical system deployment and application performance, especially in scenarios where continuous signals are required. In our previous work, we proposed the weighted gate layer autoencoder (WGLAE) and demonstrated its effectiveness in learning dependencies in EEG time series and encoding relationships among EEG channels. The WGLAE adopts a gate layer to encourage the AE to approximate multiple relationships simultaneously by controlling the data flow of each input variable. However, it only applies a sequential control scheme without taking into account the physical meaning of EEG channel locations. In this study, we investigate the gating mechanism for WGLAE and validate the importance of having a proper gating scheme for learning relationships between EEG channels. To this end, several gate control mechanisms are designed that embed EEG channel locations and their corresponding underlying physical meanings. The influences introduced by the proposed gate control mechanisms are examined on an open dataset with different scales and associated with various stimuli. The experimental results suggest that the gating mechanisms have varying influences on reconstructing EEG signals. Full article

Gaming is one of the largest industries of digital entertainment. Modern gaming software may be susceptible to command execution delay, which may be caused by various factors, such as insufficient rendering capabilities or limited network resources. At the time of writing this paper, the utilized advances in gaming are often accompanied by brief descriptions when communicated to the users. While such descriptions may be compressed into a couple of words, even a single word may impact user experience. Due to the cognitive bias induced by the labeling effect, the impact of such a word may actually be more significant than what the user genuinely perceives. In this paper, we investigate the influence of the labeling effect on the perception of command execution delay in gaming. We carried out a series of subjective tests to measure how the word “optimized” affects gaming experience. The test variables of our experiment were the added delay between command and execution, the speed of the game, and the label that was assigned to gaming sequences. The test participants were tasked to directly compare gaming sequences with the different labels assigned: “optimized” and “not optimized”. In every comparison, both sequences had the same objective characteristics; only the label differed. The experiment was conducted on single-input and continuous-input computer games that we developed for this research. The obtained results indicate that for both of these input types, the labeling effect has a statistically significant impact on perceived delay. Overall, more than 70% of the subjective ratings were affected by the assigned labels. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between the amount of delay and the effect of cognitive bias. The speed of the game also affected the obtained results, yet statistically significant differences were only measured between the slowest and the fastest gameplay. Full article

This study investigates the effects of events in the New Zealand city of Christchurch’s Central Business District (CBD) on pedestrian movements over the period from 2018 to 2020. Christchurch represents an ideal example of how contemporary urban design and marketing techniques can be combined to attract people to places that have been negatively affected by a natural disaster. Events played an integral part of the regeneration efforts to attract pedestrians and support economic recovery. Through analysing hourly pedestrian movements in the rebuilt and revitalised parts of the city, results show that public events contribute positively to pedestrian volumes; however, the result is not statistically significant. Common cause, rather than entertainment events, draw larger pedestrian volumes, reflecting a stronger preference for events that contribute to social coherence after the disruptive event. Pedestrian visitations during the summer months, holidays, and from Thursday to Saturday have a positive effect on pedestrian volume and even non-event days draw pedestrians to the CBD, a likely result from the regeneration narrative and personal experience associated with the renewed CBD. This research shows how the importance of temporal effects challenges the role of events as a stand-alone tool designed to drive economic recovery within a revitalised urban environment. Full article

This study investigates the efficacy of VR-based cognitive training using the game Beat Saber in enhancing cognitive functions in amateur e-athletes. Participants were divided into two groups, undergoing either 8-day or 28-day training. Significant improvements were observed in reaction time (RT) and eye–hand coordination (EHC) for both groups. Notably, cognitive gains in EHC were maintained over time, indicating the durability of training effects. The lack of significant differences between the short-term and long-term training outcomes suggests that even brief, intensive VR training can lead to substantial cognitive improvements, potentially obviating the need for extended training periods. The findings underscore the potential of immersive VR games like Beat Saber as effective tools for cognitive training. This study also highlights the relevance of VR technology beyond entertainment, demonstrating its application in cognitive enhancement. Given the rising popularity of esports and VR, integrating such technologies into cognitive training programs offers a promising avenue for improving cognitive functions in younger populations familiar with virtual environments. The results suggest that VR-based interventions can enhance cognitive functions which are crucial for both competitive esports and general cognitive functioning, making VR a versatile tool in various training contexts. Further research is recommended to explore the generalizability of these findings to other VR games and different populations. Full article

This article critically examines the star persona of Lola Flores, an iconic Spanish flamenco artist, within the historical and political context of Francoist Spain (1939–1975). It argues that Flores’s carefully constructed star image not only persisted into post-Franco Spain but also served as a covert vehicle for the continued propagation of National-Falangist Catholic ideology. The article primarily focuses on two major productions: the book Lola en carne viva. Memorias de Lola Flores (1990) and the television series El coraje de vivir (1994). Both portray a linear and cohesive version of her life from childhood to her later years, carefully curated to defend and rehabilitate her image. While many view Flores as a self-made artist, the article argues that her star persona was a deliberate construct—shaped by Suevia Films, a major Francoist-era film studio, and media narratives that aligned her with traditional gender roles, Catholic values, and Spanish nationalism. Despite emerging in post-Franco Spain, Flores’s narrative does not mark a rupture from the ideological frameworks of the past. Instead, it repackages Francoist values—particularly those surrounding patriarchal gender norms, suffering, and the glorification of sacrifice—to ensure her continued relevance. Suevia Films (1951) played a significant role in shaping her star persona as a symbol of Spanish folklore, aligning her with Francoist ideals of nation, Catholic morality, and submissive femininity. Her image was used to promote Spain internationally as a welcoming and culturally rich destination. Her persona fit within Franco’s broader strategy of using flamenco and folklore to attract foreign tourism while maintaining tight ideological control over entertainment. Flores’s life is framed as a rags-to-riches story, which reinforces Social Spencerist ideology (a social Darwinist perspective) that hard work and endurance lead to success, rather than acknowledging systemic oppression under Francoism. Her personal struggles—poverty, romantic disappointments, accusations of collaboration with the Franco regime, and tax evasion—are framed as necessary trials that strengthen her character. This aligns with the Catholic ideal of redemptive suffering, reinforcing her status as the mater dolorosa (Sorrowful Mother) figure. This article highlights the contradictions in Flores’s gender performance—while she embodied passion and sensuality in flamenco, her offstage identity conformed to the submissive, self-sacrificing woman idealized by the Francoist Sección Femenina (SF). Even in her personal life, Flores’s narrative aligns with Francoist values—her father’s bar, La Fe de Pedro Flores, symbolizes the fusion of religion, nationalism, and traditional masculinity. Tico Medina plays a key role by framing Lola en carne viva as an “authentic” and unfiltered account. His portrayal is highly constructed, acting as her “defense lawyer” to counter criticisms. Flores’s autobiography is monologic—it suppresses alternative perspectives, ensuring that her version of events remains dominant and unquestioned. Rather than acknowledging structural oppression, the narrative glorifies suffering as a path to resilience, aligning with both Catholic doctrine and Francoist propaganda. The article ultimately deconstructs Lola Flores’s autobiographical myth, demonstrating that her public persona—both onstage and offstage—was a strategic construction that perpetuated Francoist ideals well beyond the dictatorship. While her image has been celebrated as a symbol of Spanish cultural identity, it also functioned as a tool for maintaining patriarchal and nationalist ideologies under the guise of entertainment. Full article

With the rise of digital marketing, videos have become pivotal in promoting agritourism by showcasing local features, attracting visitors, and building trust. This study examines the effects of video maturity and content empowerment on consumer behavior by focusing on dimensions such as clarity, coherence, emotional appeal, entertainment, information, and practicality. Survey data from 527 Taiwanese consumers, analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), reveal that video clarity (β = 0.105, p < 0.05) and coherence (β = 0.163, p < 0.01) significantly enhance trust, while flow experience exhibits an even stronger positive impact (β = 0.372, p < 0.001). Among content factors, knowledge has the most pronounced effect on flow experience (β = 0.440, p < 0.001), followed by emotionality, entertainment, and practicality. Moreover, both trust (β = 0.177, p < 0.001) and flow experience (β = 0.240, p < 0.001) positively influence purchase intentions, with the effect of flow experience being more dominant. These findings underscore the importance of high clarity, coherent narratives, and immersive emotional engagement in agritourism video marketing. The study makes significant theoretical contributions by refining the understanding of video-based consumer engagement, and it offers practical insights for enhancing agritourism promotional strategies. Full article

Using a commodity RGB-D sensor is a popular and cost-effective way to enable interaction at room scale, as such a device supports body tracking functionality at a reasonable price point. Even though the capabilities of such devices might be enough for applications like entertainment systems where a person plays in front of a television, this type of sensor is unfortunately sensitive to occlusions from objects or other people, who might be in the way in more sophisticated room-scale set-ups. One may use multiple RGB-D sensors and aggregate the collected data to address the occlusion problem, increase the tracking range, and improve accuracy. However, doing so requires the gathering of calibration information with regard to the sensors themselves and also regarding their relative placement on interactable surfaces. Another challenging consequence of relying on multiple sensors is the need to perform skeleton matching and merging based on their respective body tracking data (e.g., so that skeletons from different sensors but belonging to the same person are recognised as such). The present contribution focuses on approaches to tackling these issues. Ultimately, it contributes a working human interaction tracking system, leveraging multiple RGB-D sensors to provide unobtrusive and occlusion-resilient understanding capabilities. This constitutes a suitable basis for room-scale experiences such as those based on wall-sized displays. Full article

In the inland areas of Campania (Italy), the Taburno-Camposauro Regional Natural Park covers almost 137 square kilometres. It well represents, in the reliefs that give it its name, the southern segment of the Apennine chain. In fact, the rock outcrops, landscape features and surface and ground water make it possible to reconstruct the geological evolution of this area. Nonetheless, it is possible to understand how the history of man, who has frequented these places since ancient times, has developed by taking advantage of the resources offered by this territory. Among these resources, it is believed that the characteristics of the geological heritage spread throughout the Park can also be an opportunity to attract not only researchers, but also significant tourist flows. To this end, not only has the procedure been initiated to be included in the world network of Geoparks, but efforts have also been made to promote the most representative geological sites using the latest communication tools (e.g., social media). Besides these, numerous initiatives aimed at schools and national tourism agencies were developed. Promotion found particular emphasis with the realisation of an art installation by a well-known author in a water catchment system. In fact, this installation triggered an artistic vein around the beauty of the sites, manifested by videos and photo exhibitions and even forms of entertainment. These events have increased interest in the geological heritage, as evidenced by the increase in visitors observed by a specific analysis of the performance of social media posts, as well as frequent visitors to the geoheritage elements of the Park. Full article

In the past few years, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has expanded and now reached mainstream levels for applications such as infrastructure inspection, agriculture, transport, security, entertainment, real estate, environmental conservation, search and rescue, and even insurance. This surge in adoption can be attributed to the UAV ecosystem’s maturation, which has not only made these devices more accessible and cost effective but has also significantly enhanced their operational capabilities in terms of flight duration and embedded computing power. In conjunction with these developments, the research on Absolute Visual Localization (AVL) has seen a resurgence driven by the introduction of deep learning to the field. These new approaches have significantly improved localization solutions in comparison to the previous generation of approaches based on traditional computer vision feature extractors. This paper conducts an extensive review of the literature on deep learning-based methods for UAV AVL, covering significant advancements since 2019. It retraces key developments that have led to the rise in learning-based approaches and provides an in-depth analysis of related localization sources such as Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs), highlighting their limitations and advantages for more effective integration with AVL. The paper concludes with an analysis of current challenges and proposes future research directions to guide further work in the field. Full article

Enhancing farmers’ adoption of clean energy is crucial for promoting sustainable rural development and ecological environmental protection. It not only reduces the consumption of traditional fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental pollution but also optimizes the structure of rural energy consumption, improves farmers’ quality of life, and supports the goal of building a green countryside. This paper investigates the impact of internet use on farmers’ adoption of clean energy and the associated peer effects, further exploring how internet use influences these peer effects. The analysis is based on data from the 2018 and 2020 waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The study’s findings reveal that (1) farmers’ adoption of clean energy exhibits a significant peer effect, and internet use also has a significant positive impact on this adoption. Both the peer effect and internet use effectively enhance farmers’ clean energy utilization, a conclusion that holds even after robustness checks. (2) Internet use significantly strengthens the peer effect, particularly when it is used for social and entertainment purposes, where this reinforcing effect is most pronounced. (3) The peer effect, the impact of internet use on clean energy adoption, and the strengthening of the peer effect by internet use vary according to farmers’ geographical location and household income. These findings provide valuable insights and recommendations for improving policies aimed at promoting clean energy adoption among farmers, ultimately fostering its broader diffusion and application in rural areas. Full article

Urban transportation constitutes a complex and dynamic system influenced by various factors, including population density, infrastructure, economic activities, and individual travel behavior. Taxis, as a widespread mode of transportation in many cities, play a crucial role in meeting the transportation needs of urban residents. By using data field theory and the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) modeling method, this study explored the complex relationship between taxi demand and traffic-related factors in urban core areas and revealed the potential factors affecting taxi starting and landing points. This research reveals that during the morning peak hours (7:00–9:00), at locations such as long-distance bus terminals, bus stations, parking areas, train stations, and bike-sharing points, taxi demand significantly increases, particularly in the central and southeastern regions of the urban core. Conversely, demand is lower in high-density intersection areas. Additionally, proximity to train stations is positively correlated with higher taxi demand, likely related to the needs of long-distance travelers. During the evening peak hours (17:00–19:00), the taxi demand pattern resembles that of the morning peak, with long-distance bus terminals, bus stations, and parking and bike sharing areas remaining key areas of demand. Notably, parking areas frequently serve as pick-up points for passengers during this time, possibly associated with evening activities and entertainment. Moreover, taxi demand remains high around train stations. In summary, this study enhances our understanding of the dynamics of urban taxi demand and its relationship with various transportation-related influencing factors within the core urban areas. The proposed grid partitioning and GWR modeling methods provide valuable insights for urban transportation planners, taxi service providers, and policymakers, facilitating service optimization and improved urban mobility. Full article

Smart devices have become the core ingredient in maintaining human society, where their applications span basic telecommunication, entertainment, education, and even critical security tasks. However, smartphone security measures have not kept pace with their ubiquitousness and convenience, exposing users to potential security breaches. Shading light on shortcomings of traditional security measures such as PINs gives rise to biometrics-based security measures. Open-set authentication with pretrained Transformers especially shows competitive performance in this context. Bringing this closer to practice, we propose CoreTemp, a greedy coreset sampled template, which offers substantially faster authentication speeds. In parallel with CoreTemp, we design a fast match algorithm where the combination shows robust performance in open-set mobile biometrics authentication. Designed to resemble the effects of ensembles with marginal increment in computation, we propose PIEformer+, where its application with CoreTemp has state-of-the-art performance. Benefiting from much more efficient authentication speeds to the best of our knowledge, we are the first to attempt identification in this context. Our proposed methodology achieves state-of-the-art results on HMOG and BBMAS datasets, particularly with much lower computational costs. In summary, this research introduces a novel integration of greedy coreset sampling with an advanced form of pretrained, implicitly ensembled Transformers (PIEformer+), greatly enhancing the speed and efficiency of mobile biometrics authentication, and also enabling identification, which sets a new benchmark in the relevant field. Full article

Smart cities are powered by several new technologies to enhance connectivity between devices and develop a network of connected objects which can lead to many smart industrial applications. This network known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) consists of sensor nodes that have limited computing capacity and are sometimes not able to execute intricate industrial tasks within their stipulated time frame. For faster execution, these tasks are offloaded to nearby fog nodes. Internet access and the diverse nature of network types make IIoT nodes vulnerable and are under serious malicious attacks. Malicious attacks can cause anomalies in the IIoT network by overloading complex tasks, which can compromise the fog processing capabilities. This results in an increased delay of task computation for trustworthy nodes. To improve the task execution capability of the fog computing node, it is important to avoid complex offloaded tasks due to malicious attacks. However, even after avoiding the malicious tasks, if the offloaded tasks are too complex for the fog node to execute, then the fog nodes may struggle to process all legitimate tasks within their stipulated time frame. To address these challenges, the Trust-based Efficient Execution of Offloaded IIoT Trusted tasks (EEOIT) is proposed for fog nodes. EEOIT proposes a mechanism to detect malicious nodes as well as manage the allocation of computing resources so that IIoT tasks can be completed in the specified time frame. Simulation results demonstrate that EEOIT outperforms other techniques in the literature in an IIoT setting with different task densities. Another significant feature of the proposed EEOIT technique is that it enhances the computation of trustable tasks in the network. The results show that EEOIT entertains more legitimate nodes in executing their offloaded tasks with more executed data, with reduced time and with increased mean trust values as compared to other schemes. Full article