Avatars, as promising digital representations and service assistants of users in Metaverses, can enable drivers and passengers to immerse themselves in 3D virtual services and spaces of UAV-assisted vehicular Metavers...Avatars, as promising digital representations and service assistants of users in Metaverses, can enable drivers and passengers to immerse themselves in 3D virtual services and spaces of UAV-assisted vehicular Metaverses. However, avatar tasks include a multitude of human-to-avatar and avatar-to-avatar interactive applications, e.g., augmented reality navigation,which consumes intensive computing resources. It is inefficient and impractical for vehicles to process avatar tasks locally. Fortunately, migrating avatar tasks to the nearest roadside units(RSU)or unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV) for execution is a promising solution to decrease computation overhead and reduce task processing latency, while the high mobility of vehicles brings challenges for vehicles to independently perform avatar migration decisions depending on current and future vehicle status. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a novel avatar task migration system based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning(MADRL) to execute immersive vehicular avatar tasks dynamically. Specifically, we first formulate the problem of avatar task migration from vehicles to RSUs/UAVs as a partially observable Markov decision process that can be solved by MADRL algorithms. We then design the multi-agent proximal policy optimization(MAPPO) approach as the MADRL algorithm for the avatar task migration problem. To overcome slow convergence resulting from the curse of dimensionality and non-stationary issues caused by shared parameters in MAPPO, we further propose a transformer-based MAPPO approach via sequential decision-making models for the efficient representation of relationships among agents. Finally, to motivate terrestrial or non-terrestrial edge servers(e.g., RSUs or UAVs) to share computation resources and ensure traceability of the sharing records, we apply smart contracts and blockchain technologies to achieve secure sharing management. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the MAPPO approach by around 2% and effectively reduces approximately 20% of the latency of avatar task execution in UAV-assisted vehicular Metaverses.展开更多
Nowadays,theuse of Avatars that are unique digital depictions has increased by users to access Metaverse—a virtual reality environment—through multiple devices and for various purposes.Therefore,the Avatar and Metav...Nowadays,theuse of Avatars that are unique digital depictions has increased by users to access Metaverse—a virtual reality environment—through multiple devices and for various purposes.Therefore,the Avatar and Metaverse are being developed with a new theory,application,and design,necessitating the association of more personal data and devices of targeted users every day.This Avatar and Metaverse technology explosion raises privacy and security concerns,leading to cyber attacks.MV-Honeypot,or Metaverse-Honeypot,as a commercial off-the-shelf solution that can counter these cyber attack-causing vulnerabilities,should be developed.To fill this gap,we study user’s engagements with Avatars in Metaverse,analyze possible security vulnerabilities,and create a model named Simplified Avatar Relationship Association with Non-linear Gradient(SARANG)that draws the full diagram of infrastructure components and data flow through accessing Metaverse in this paper.We also determine the most significant threat for each component’s cyberattacks that will affect user data and Avatars.As a result,the commercial off-the-shelf(COTS)of the MV-Honeypot must be established.展开更多
Significant technological trends are impacting health care,from consumerisation,datafication,circular economy,and platformization of services.Web 3.0,or the Internet of Value,enables direct peer-to-peer value exchange...Significant technological trends are impacting health care,from consumerisation,datafication,circular economy,and platformization of services.Web 3.0,or the Internet of Value,enables direct peer-to-peer value exchange,opening up new business models that will impact health care.Among the many technologies that will also be part of the healthcare transformation is artificial intelligence,which shocked the world with the debut of ChatGPT in 2022.This opinion piece will explore how AI underpins the health transformation and,far from being an enemy of health,is the critical friend health care has been waiting for.展开更多
Purpose:This research presents findings from a qualitative exploration of the reactions of adolescents(12-14 years old)to navigating an exergame with an avatar created from multiple scans of the player(referred to as ...Purpose:This research presents findings from a qualitative exploration of the reactions of adolescents(12-14 years old)to navigating an exergame with an avatar created from multiple scans of the player(referred to as a self-representational avatar).Methods:Post-gameplay interviews were conducted with adolescents following participation in a 20-min laboratory session(21.2±0.8 min,mean±SD)where the self-representational avatar was navigated through an exergame.Verbatim transcripts(n=40)were coded and analyzed by 2 independent coders using hybrid thematic analysis for this secondary data analysis.Codes were reviewed to identify themes representing adolescents’reactions.Results:Four themes emerged.Adolescents connected with their avatars and felt protective toward them,which influenced their actions in the exergame and contributed to their overall game enjoyment.Conclusion:Creating exergames navigated by a self-representational avatar was an enjoyable experience and influenced gameplay.Future research should explore the effect of this approach on gameplay frequency and intensity over time.展开更多
Objective:The liver is the most common metastatic site in advanced colorectal cancer.Most patients with colorectal cancer liver metastasis(CRLM)cannot benefit from currently available treatment.Patient-derived xenogra...Objective:The liver is the most common metastatic site in advanced colorectal cancer.Most patients with colorectal cancer liver metastasis(CRLM)cannot benefit from currently available treatment.Patient-derived xenograft(PDX)models with defined molecular signatures are attractive preclinical models and essential for preclinical studies.展开更多
BACKGROUND The response to chemotherapy treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC)is difficult to predict and the identification of patients who most likely will benefit from aggressive chemothe...BACKGROUND The response to chemotherapy treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC)is difficult to predict and the identification of patients who most likely will benefit from aggressive chemotherapy approaches is crucial.The concept of personalized medicine has emerged in the last years with the objective to tailor the medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient,and particularly to the tumor biology of each patient.The need for invivo xenotransplantation models for cancer patients has increased exponentially,and for this reason zebrafish avatars have gained popularity.Preliminary studies were conducted also with PDAC tissue.AIM To develop a simple,not expensive,diffusible zebrafish embryo model as avatar for patients affected by PDAC.METHODS Tumor tissue was taken from the surgical specimen by the histopathologist.After its fragmentation into small pieces,they are stained with CM-Dil.Small pieces of stained tissue were transplanted into the yolk of wt AB zebrafish embryos with a glass capillary needle.Embryos were incubated at 35°C in E3 medium supplemented with 1%Pen/Strep in the presence or absence of drugs for the following days in respect of the treatment plan(Gemcitabine;Gemcitabine and Oxaliplatin;Gemcitabine and nab-Paclitaxel;5-Fluorouracil and Folinic acid and Oxaliplatin and Irinotecan).The response of zebrafish xenografts to the chemotherapy options has been analyzed by monitoring the fluorescent stained area at 2 h post injection(hpi),1 d and 2 d post injection(dpi).In each time point,the mean size of the stained area was measured by ImageJ and it was normalized with respect to the 1 dpi time point mean relative tumor area(RTA).We evaluated the effect of the chemotherapy exposition comparing the mean RTA of each treated subgroup and the control group and evaluating the percentage reduction of the mean RTA by comparing each treated subgroup with the control group.RESULTS Between July 2018 and October 2019,a total of 15 patients with pancreatic cancer were prospectively enrolled.In all cases,it was possible to take a fragment of the tumor from the surgical specimen for the xenotransplantation in the zebrafish embryos.The histological examination confirmed the presence of a PDAC in all cases.In absence of chemotherapy(control group),over time the Dil-stained area showed a statistically significant increase in all cases.A statistically significant reduction of the mean RTA in the treated subgroups for at least one chemotherapy scheme was reported in 6/15(40%)cases.The analysis of the percentage reduction of the RTA in treated subgroups in comparison to the control group revealed the presence of a linear relationship in each subgroup between the percentage reduction of the RTA and the number of cases reporting each percentage threshold considered for the analysis.CONCLUSION Our model seems to be effective for the xenotransplantation of PDAC tissue and evaluation of the effect of each chemotherapy scheme on the xenotransplanted tumor tissue.展开更多
As a revolutionary sci-fi epic, Avatar, is not only a milestone of screen history, but also the number one grossing movie of all time. The film Avatar is just a typical representation of Hollywood's hegemonic purp...As a revolutionary sci-fi epic, Avatar, is not only a milestone of screen history, but also the number one grossing movie of all time. The film Avatar is just a typical representation of Hollywood's hegemonic purpose--making American cultural hegemonic ideologies conquer "the others" in an unconscious way and making big sum of commercial takes. The main way of realizing this penetration is through variation of genres.展开更多
Even though people approach a new technological development with distance, they have to use these technologies in order to keep up with the requirements of the age. As a result of the rapidly developing artificial int...Even though people approach a new technological development with distance, they have to use these technologies in order to keep up with the requirements of the age. As a result of the rapidly developing artificial intelligence and technology sector, the concept of metaverse is a virtual world that can be used in the health, tourism, marketing, advertising, education and gaming industries. When the literature is reviewed, it is seen that there are many domestic and foreign sources on the subject, but most of these sources are generally related to developments in the gaming and entertainment sectors. But apart from this, studies are being carried out to make it possible to use it in many sectors, including its use in the health sector. With this study, it is aimed to briefly mention what the existing metaverse studies are and to prepare a detailed research result for its use in the health sector. This study consists of five chapters. In the first part, information on the definition of the metaverse concept and how it has developed is given, and the infrastructure requirements necessary for the formation of the metaverse universe are mentioned. In the second section, it is discussed what kind of hardware and software tools may be needed if metaverse technology is possible. In the third section, research on the areas in which metaverse technology can be used in the health sector and current studies and future studies are included. In the fourth section, the legal aspects of this situation when a metaverse-based health service is to be initiated with twin avatars are discussed. In the last section, the advantages and disadvantages of metaverse technology are discussed. It can be seen from the study that the positive aspects of this kind of activity in the field of health will be more positive. As a result, the study constitutes an important value that will be a source for similar studies to be conducted in the future.展开更多
Recent advancements in the field have resulted in significant progress in achieving realistic head reconstruction and manipulation using neural radiance fields(NeRF).Despite these advances,capturing intricate facial d...Recent advancements in the field have resulted in significant progress in achieving realistic head reconstruction and manipulation using neural radiance fields(NeRF).Despite these advances,capturing intricate facial details remains a persistent challenge.Moreover,casually captured input,involving both head poses and camera movements,introduces additional difficulties to existing methods of head avatar reconstruction.To address the challenge posed by video data captured with camera motion,we propose a novel method,AvatarWild,for reconstructing head avatars from monocular videos taken by consumer devices.Notably,our approach decouples the camera pose and head pose,allowing reconstructed avatars to be visualized with different poses and expressions from novel viewpoints.To enhance the visual quality of the reconstructed facial avatar,we introduce a view-dependent detail enhancement module designed to augment local facial details without compromising viewpoint consistency.Our method demonstrates superior performance compared to existing approaches,as evidenced by reconstruction and animation results on both multi-view and single-view datasets.Remarkably,our approach stands out by exclusively relying on video data captured by portable devices,such as smartphones.This not only underscores the practicality of our method but also extends its applicability to real-world scenarios where accessibility and ease of data capture are crucial.展开更多
We propose a human avatar representation scheme based on intrinsic coordinates,which are invariant to isometry and insensitive to human pose changes,and an efficient pose transfer algorithm that can utilize this repre...We propose a human avatar representation scheme based on intrinsic coordinates,which are invariant to isometry and insensitive to human pose changes,and an efficient pose transfer algorithm that can utilize this representation to reconstruct a human body geometry following a given pose.Such a pose transfer algorithm can be used to control the movement of an avatar model in virtual reality environments following a user's motion in real time.Our proposed algorithm consists of three main steps.First,we recognize the user's pose and select a template model from the database who has a similar pose;then,the intrinsic Laplacian offsets encoded in local coordinates are used to reconstruct the human body geometry following the template pose;finally,the morphing between the two poses is generated using a linear interpolation.We perform experiments to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of our algorithm.We believe our proposed system is a promising human modeling tool that can be used in general virtual reality applications.展开更多
基金supported in part by NSFC (62102099, U22A2054, 62101594)in part by the Pearl River Talent Recruitment Program (2021QN02S643)+9 种基金Guangzhou Basic Research Program (2023A04J1699)in part by the National Research Foundation, SingaporeInfocomm Media Development Authority under its Future Communications Research Development ProgrammeDSO National Laboratories under the AI Singapore Programme under AISG Award No AISG2-RP-2020-019Energy Research Test-Bed and Industry Partnership Funding Initiative, Energy Grid (EG) 2.0 programmeDesCartes and the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programmeMOE Tier 1 under Grant RG87/22in part by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) (SRG-ISTD-2021- 165)in part by the SUTD-ZJU IDEA Grant SUTD-ZJU (VP) 202102in part by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, through its SUTD Kickstarter Initiative (SKI 20210204)。
文摘Avatars, as promising digital representations and service assistants of users in Metaverses, can enable drivers and passengers to immerse themselves in 3D virtual services and spaces of UAV-assisted vehicular Metaverses. However, avatar tasks include a multitude of human-to-avatar and avatar-to-avatar interactive applications, e.g., augmented reality navigation,which consumes intensive computing resources. It is inefficient and impractical for vehicles to process avatar tasks locally. Fortunately, migrating avatar tasks to the nearest roadside units(RSU)or unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV) for execution is a promising solution to decrease computation overhead and reduce task processing latency, while the high mobility of vehicles brings challenges for vehicles to independently perform avatar migration decisions depending on current and future vehicle status. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a novel avatar task migration system based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning(MADRL) to execute immersive vehicular avatar tasks dynamically. Specifically, we first formulate the problem of avatar task migration from vehicles to RSUs/UAVs as a partially observable Markov decision process that can be solved by MADRL algorithms. We then design the multi-agent proximal policy optimization(MAPPO) approach as the MADRL algorithm for the avatar task migration problem. To overcome slow convergence resulting from the curse of dimensionality and non-stationary issues caused by shared parameters in MAPPO, we further propose a transformer-based MAPPO approach via sequential decision-making models for the efficient representation of relationships among agents. Finally, to motivate terrestrial or non-terrestrial edge servers(e.g., RSUs or UAVs) to share computation resources and ensure traceability of the sharing records, we apply smart contracts and blockchain technologies to achieve secure sharing management. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the MAPPO approach by around 2% and effectively reduces approximately 20% of the latency of avatar task execution in UAV-assisted vehicular Metaverses.
基金supported by the Institute of Information&Communications Technology Planning&Evaluation(IITP)(Project Nos.2022-0-00701,10%,RS-2023-00228996,10%,RS-2022-00165794,10%)the ICTR&DProgram of MSIT/IITP(ProjectNo.2021-0-01816,10%)a National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)grant funded by the Korean Government(Project No.RS2023-00208460,60%).
文摘Nowadays,theuse of Avatars that are unique digital depictions has increased by users to access Metaverse—a virtual reality environment—through multiple devices and for various purposes.Therefore,the Avatar and Metaverse are being developed with a new theory,application,and design,necessitating the association of more personal data and devices of targeted users every day.This Avatar and Metaverse technology explosion raises privacy and security concerns,leading to cyber attacks.MV-Honeypot,or Metaverse-Honeypot,as a commercial off-the-shelf solution that can counter these cyber attack-causing vulnerabilities,should be developed.To fill this gap,we study user’s engagements with Avatars in Metaverse,analyze possible security vulnerabilities,and create a model named Simplified Avatar Relationship Association with Non-linear Gradient(SARANG)that draws the full diagram of infrastructure components and data flow through accessing Metaverse in this paper.We also determine the most significant threat for each component’s cyberattacks that will affect user data and Avatars.As a result,the commercial off-the-shelf(COTS)of the MV-Honeypot must be established.
文摘Significant technological trends are impacting health care,from consumerisation,datafication,circular economy,and platformization of services.Web 3.0,or the Internet of Value,enables direct peer-to-peer value exchange,opening up new business models that will impact health care.Among the many technologies that will also be part of the healthcare transformation is artificial intelligence,which shocked the world with the debut of ChatGPT in 2022.This opinion piece will explore how AI underpins the health transformation and,far from being an enemy of health,is the critical friend health care has been waiting for.
基金supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health(to ZD and DTR21HD075048)funded in part with federal funds from the USDA/ARS under Cooperative Agreement No.58-3092-5-001。
文摘Purpose:This research presents findings from a qualitative exploration of the reactions of adolescents(12-14 years old)to navigating an exergame with an avatar created from multiple scans of the player(referred to as a self-representational avatar).Methods:Post-gameplay interviews were conducted with adolescents following participation in a 20-min laboratory session(21.2±0.8 min,mean±SD)where the self-representational avatar was navigated through an exergame.Verbatim transcripts(n=40)were coded and analyzed by 2 independent coders using hybrid thematic analysis for this secondary data analysis.Codes were reviewed to identify themes representing adolescents’reactions.Results:Four themes emerged.Adolescents connected with their avatars and felt protective toward them,which influenced their actions in the exergame and contributed to their overall game enjoyment.Conclusion:Creating exergames navigated by a self-representational avatar was an enjoyable experience and influenced gameplay.Future research should explore the effect of this approach on gameplay frequency and intensity over time.
文摘Objective:The liver is the most common metastatic site in advanced colorectal cancer.Most patients with colorectal cancer liver metastasis(CRLM)cannot benefit from currently available treatment.Patient-derived xenograft(PDX)models with defined molecular signatures are attractive preclinical models and essential for preclinical studies.
文摘BACKGROUND The response to chemotherapy treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma(PDAC)is difficult to predict and the identification of patients who most likely will benefit from aggressive chemotherapy approaches is crucial.The concept of personalized medicine has emerged in the last years with the objective to tailor the medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient,and particularly to the tumor biology of each patient.The need for invivo xenotransplantation models for cancer patients has increased exponentially,and for this reason zebrafish avatars have gained popularity.Preliminary studies were conducted also with PDAC tissue.AIM To develop a simple,not expensive,diffusible zebrafish embryo model as avatar for patients affected by PDAC.METHODS Tumor tissue was taken from the surgical specimen by the histopathologist.After its fragmentation into small pieces,they are stained with CM-Dil.Small pieces of stained tissue were transplanted into the yolk of wt AB zebrafish embryos with a glass capillary needle.Embryos were incubated at 35°C in E3 medium supplemented with 1%Pen/Strep in the presence or absence of drugs for the following days in respect of the treatment plan(Gemcitabine;Gemcitabine and Oxaliplatin;Gemcitabine and nab-Paclitaxel;5-Fluorouracil and Folinic acid and Oxaliplatin and Irinotecan).The response of zebrafish xenografts to the chemotherapy options has been analyzed by monitoring the fluorescent stained area at 2 h post injection(hpi),1 d and 2 d post injection(dpi).In each time point,the mean size of the stained area was measured by ImageJ and it was normalized with respect to the 1 dpi time point mean relative tumor area(RTA).We evaluated the effect of the chemotherapy exposition comparing the mean RTA of each treated subgroup and the control group and evaluating the percentage reduction of the mean RTA by comparing each treated subgroup with the control group.RESULTS Between July 2018 and October 2019,a total of 15 patients with pancreatic cancer were prospectively enrolled.In all cases,it was possible to take a fragment of the tumor from the surgical specimen for the xenotransplantation in the zebrafish embryos.The histological examination confirmed the presence of a PDAC in all cases.In absence of chemotherapy(control group),over time the Dil-stained area showed a statistically significant increase in all cases.A statistically significant reduction of the mean RTA in the treated subgroups for at least one chemotherapy scheme was reported in 6/15(40%)cases.The analysis of the percentage reduction of the RTA in treated subgroups in comparison to the control group revealed the presence of a linear relationship in each subgroup between the percentage reduction of the RTA and the number of cases reporting each percentage threshold considered for the analysis.CONCLUSION Our model seems to be effective for the xenotransplantation of PDAC tissue and evaluation of the effect of each chemotherapy scheme on the xenotransplanted tumor tissue.
文摘As a revolutionary sci-fi epic, Avatar, is not only a milestone of screen history, but also the number one grossing movie of all time. The film Avatar is just a typical representation of Hollywood's hegemonic purpose--making American cultural hegemonic ideologies conquer "the others" in an unconscious way and making big sum of commercial takes. The main way of realizing this penetration is through variation of genres.
文摘Even though people approach a new technological development with distance, they have to use these technologies in order to keep up with the requirements of the age. As a result of the rapidly developing artificial intelligence and technology sector, the concept of metaverse is a virtual world that can be used in the health, tourism, marketing, advertising, education and gaming industries. When the literature is reviewed, it is seen that there are many domestic and foreign sources on the subject, but most of these sources are generally related to developments in the gaming and entertainment sectors. But apart from this, studies are being carried out to make it possible to use it in many sectors, including its use in the health sector. With this study, it is aimed to briefly mention what the existing metaverse studies are and to prepare a detailed research result for its use in the health sector. This study consists of five chapters. In the first part, information on the definition of the metaverse concept and how it has developed is given, and the infrastructure requirements necessary for the formation of the metaverse universe are mentioned. In the second section, it is discussed what kind of hardware and software tools may be needed if metaverse technology is possible. In the third section, research on the areas in which metaverse technology can be used in the health sector and current studies and future studies are included. In the fourth section, the legal aspects of this situation when a metaverse-based health service is to be initiated with twin avatars are discussed. In the last section, the advantages and disadvantages of metaverse technology are discussed. It can be seen from the study that the positive aspects of this kind of activity in the field of health will be more positive. As a result, the study constitutes an important value that will be a source for similar studies to be conducted in the future.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.6247075018 and No.62322210)the Innovation Funding of ICT,CAS(No.E461020)+1 种基金Beijing Munici-pal Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars(No.JQ21013)Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission(No.Z231100005923031).
文摘Recent advancements in the field have resulted in significant progress in achieving realistic head reconstruction and manipulation using neural radiance fields(NeRF).Despite these advances,capturing intricate facial details remains a persistent challenge.Moreover,casually captured input,involving both head poses and camera movements,introduces additional difficulties to existing methods of head avatar reconstruction.To address the challenge posed by video data captured with camera motion,we propose a novel method,AvatarWild,for reconstructing head avatars from monocular videos taken by consumer devices.Notably,our approach decouples the camera pose and head pose,allowing reconstructed avatars to be visualized with different poses and expressions from novel viewpoints.To enhance the visual quality of the reconstructed facial avatar,we introduce a view-dependent detail enhancement module designed to augment local facial details without compromising viewpoint consistency.Our method demonstrates superior performance compared to existing approaches,as evidenced by reconstruction and animation results on both multi-view and single-view datasets.Remarkably,our approach stands out by exclusively relying on video data captured by portable devices,such as smartphones.This not only underscores the practicality of our method but also extends its applicability to real-world scenarios where accessibility and ease of data capture are crucial.
基金the National Science Foundation of USA under Grant No.IIS-1320959 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.61728206.
文摘We propose a human avatar representation scheme based on intrinsic coordinates,which are invariant to isometry and insensitive to human pose changes,and an efficient pose transfer algorithm that can utilize this representation to reconstruct a human body geometry following a given pose.Such a pose transfer algorithm can be used to control the movement of an avatar model in virtual reality environments following a user's motion in real time.Our proposed algorithm consists of three main steps.First,we recognize the user's pose and select a template model from the database who has a similar pose;then,the intrinsic Laplacian offsets encoded in local coordinates are used to reconstruct the human body geometry following the template pose;finally,the morphing between the two poses is generated using a linear interpolation.We perform experiments to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of our algorithm.We believe our proposed system is a promising human modeling tool that can be used in general virtual reality applications.