Computer games

Researchers increasingly use virtual reality (VR) to perform behavioral experiments, especially in vision science. These experiments are usually programmed directly in so-called game engines that are extremely powerful. However, this process is tricky and time-consuming as it requires solid knowledge of game engines. Consequently, the anticipated prohibitive effort discourages many researchers who want to engage in VR. This paper introduces the Perception Toolbox for Virtual Reality (PTVR) library, allowing visual perception studies in VR to be created using high-level Python script programming...

Individuals with neurological disorders often exhibit altered manual dexterity and muscle weakness in their upper limbs. These motor impairments with tremor lead to severe difficulties in performing Activities of Daily Living (ADL). There is a critical need for ADL-focused robotic training that improves individual's strength when engaging with dexterous ADL tasks. This research introduces a new approach to training ADLs by employing a novel robotic rehabilitation system, Spherical Parallel INstrument for Daily Living Emulation (SPINDLE), which incorporates Virtual Reality (VR) to simulate ADL tasks...

BACKGROUND: Although game-based applications have been used in disaster medicine education, no serious computer games have been designed specifically for training these nurses in an IEMT setting. To address this need, we developed a serious computer game called the IEMTtraining game. In this game, players assume the roles of IEMT nurses, assess patient injuries in a virtual environment, and provide suitable treatment options. METHODS: The design of this study is a retrospective comparative analysis...

Technological advances in head-mounted displays (HMDs) facilitate the acquisition of physiological data of the user, such as gaze, pupil size, or heart rate. Still, interactions with such systems can be prone to errors, including unintended behavior or unexpected changes in the presented virtual environments. In this study, we investigated if multimodal physiological data can be used to decode error processing, which has been studied, to date, with brain signals only. We examined the feasibility of decoding errors solely with pupil size data and proposed a hybrid decoding approach combining electroencephalographic (EEG) and pupillometric signals...

The widespread use of computers and the Internet has substantially changed the gaming environment during the past ten years. The gambling industry is no longer exclusive to land-based gaming establishments (such as casinos and racetracks). Today, a few keystrokes on a computer are all it takes to access gaming operations. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and various other platforms constitute a particular form of access that has drawn more attention from academics in gambling studies...

Due to its wide application, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has been extensively studied in the motion planning community in recent years. However, in the current DRL research, regardless of task completion, the state information of the agent will be reset afterward. This leads to a low sample utilization rate and hinders further explorations of the environment. Moreover, in the initial training stage, the agent has a weak learning ability in general, which affects the training efficiency in complex tasks...

In this article, we investigate the Nash-seeking problem of a set of agents, playing an infinite network aggregative Markov game. In particular, we focus on a noncooperative framework where each agent selfishly aims at maximizing its long-term average reward without having explicit information on the model of the environment dynamics and its own reward function. The main contribution of this article is to develop a continuous multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithm for the Nash-seeking problem in infinite dynamic games with convergence guarantee...

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the use of gamification in the classroom, in terms of its effects on attention, concentration, creativity, and generic capabilities, for university students enrolled in a Bachelor's degree program in Physiotherapy. METHODS: An experimental design was implemented, using three groups differentiated by their time of exposure to the game (0 min, 30 min, or 60 min per week). The sample consisted of 73 s-year students from a Bachelor's degree program in Physiotherapy...

In stroke rehabilitation, simple robotic devices hold the potential to increase the training dosage in group therapies and to enable continued therapy at home after hospital discharge. However, we identified a lack of portable and cost-effective devices that not only focus on improving motor functions but also address sensory deficits. Thus, we designed a minimally-actuated hand training device that incorporates active grasping movements and passive pronosupination, complemented by a rehabilitative game with meaningful haptic feedback...

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether attentional bias to food cues and appetitive traits are independently and interactively associated with adiposity in adolescents. METHOD: Eighty-five adolescents, 14-17-years had their attentional bias to food images measured in a sated state by computing eye tracking measures of attention (first fixation duration, cumulative fixation duration) to food and control distractor images that bordered a computer game. Parents reported adolescent appetitive traits including the food approach domains of enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, emotional overeating, and the food avoidance domains of satiety responsiveness and emotional overeating through the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire...

The new material introduced by the ITTF in 2014 for table tennis balls has attracted significant attention from players and coaches. Changes in both material selection and production procedures are likely to have affected the static performance of the ball. However, the raw data regarding the elasticity and hardness of these new material balls, encompassing various brands and structures, often lacks practical information crucial for players' rapid adaptation and daily training. The static properties tested in this study were provided by the ITTF, covering both hardness and elasticity...

In the smart era, big data analysis based on sensor units is important in intelligent motion. In this study, a dance sports and injury monitoring system (DIMS) based on a recyclable flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (RF-TENG) sensor module, a data processing hardware module, and an upper computer intelligent analysis module are developed to promote intelligent motion. The resultant RF-TENG exhibits an ultra-fast response time of 17 ms, coupled with robust stability demonstrated over 4200 operational cycles, with 6% variation in output voltage...

We present an experiment on the immediate and lasting effects of reminder nudges in a complex environment. In the study, 1,542 subjects face a setting where, within a brief time frame, they have to pay attention to and perform multiple actions in a computer game. The experiment investigates i) the effect of reminders on the reminded actions and their spillovers on nonreminded actions; ii) spillovers between multiple nudges when the number of reminded actions is increased; and iii) intertemporal spillovers from having been exposed to reminders on actions after reminders are withdrawn...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) has been extensively applied to coordination optimization for its task distribution and scalability. The goal of the MARL algorithms for coordination optimization is to learn the optimal joint strategy that maximizes the expected cumulative reward of all agents. Some cooperative MARL algorithms exhibit exciting characteristics in empirical studies. However, the majority of the convergence results are confined to repeated games. Moreover, few MARL algorithms consider adaptation to the switched environments such as the alternation between peak hours and off-peak hours of urban traffic flow or an obstacle suddenly appearing on the planned route for the automated guided vehicle...

Empathy is significant in nursing, and showing empathy toward a patient positively impacts a patient's health. Learning empathy through immersive simulations is effective. Immersion is an essential factor in virtual reality. This study aimed to describe nursing students' experiences of empathy in a virtual reality simulation game. Data were collected from nursing students (n = 20) from May 2021 to January 2022. Data collection included individual semistructured interviews; before the interviews, the virtual reality gaming procedure was conducted...

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology based on P300 signals has a broad application prospect in the assessment and diagnosis of clinical diseases and game control. The paper of selecting key electrodes to realize a wearable intention recognition system has become a hotspot for scholars at home and abroad. In this paper, based on the rich-club phenomenon that exists in the process of intention generation, a phase lag index (PLI)-rich-club-based intention recognition method for P300 is proposed. The rich-club structure is a network consisting of electrodes that are highly connected with other electrodes in the process of P300 generation...

This international multicenter randomized controlled trial aimed to compare the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) distraction with an identical non-VR game in reducing needle-related pain and anxiety in children undergoing venous blood draw. The study involved 304 children aged 5-9 years undergoing a blood draw procedure, randomly allocated to one of three groups: VR distraction, non-VR distraction, and control group (usual care). The distraction task was based on the Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) paradigm, and the game was identical in design and gameplay for both VR and non-VR distraction groups...

Cooperation is key to prosperity in human societies. Population structure is well understood as a catalyst for cooperation, where research has focused on pairwise interactions. But cooperative behaviors are not simply dyadic, and they often involve coordinated behavior in larger groups. Here we develop a framework to study the evolution of behavioral strategies in higher-order population structures, which include pairwise and multi-way interactions. We provide an analytical treatment of when cooperation will be favored by higher-order interactions, accounting for arbitrary spatial heterogeneity and nonlinear rewards for cooperation in larger groups...

Citizen science video games are designed primarily for users already inclined to contribute to science, which severely limits their accessibility for an estimated community of 3 billion gamers worldwide. We created Borderlands Science (BLS), a citizen science activity that is seamlessly integrated within a popular commercial video game played by tens of millions of gamers. This integration is facilitated by a novel game-first design of citizen science games, in which the game design aspect has the highest priority, and a suitable task is then mapped to the game design...