Extensive work focuses on the uses of technology at scale for post-literate populations (e.g., MOOC, learning games, Learning Management Systems). Little attention is afforded to non-literate populations, particularly in the developing world. This paper presents an approach using mobile devices with the ultimate goal to reach 770 million people. We developed a novel platform with a cloud backend to deliver educational content to over a thousand marginalized children in different countries: specifically, in remote villages without schools, urban slums with overcrowded schools, and at-risk, rural schools. Here we describe the theoretical basis of our system and results from case studies in three educational contexts. This model will help researchers and designers understand how mobile devices can help children acquire basic skills and aid each other's learning when the benefit of teachers is limited or non-existent.

This paper presents a new methodology for navigating virtual environments called “The River Analogy.” This analogy provides a new way of thinking about the user's relationship to the virtual environment; guiding the user's continuous and direct input within both space and time allowing a more narrative presentation. The paper then presents the details of how this analogy was applied to a VR experience that is now part of the permanent collection at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

There have been several recent efforts to build behavior-based autonomous creatures.While competent autonomous action is highly desirable, there is an important need to integrate autonomy with "directability".In this paper we discuss the problem of building autonomous animated creatures for interactive virtual environments which are also capable of being directed at multiple levels.We present an approach to control which allows an external entity to "direct" an autonomous creature at the motivational level, the task level, and the direct motor level.We also detail a layered architecture and a general behavioral model for perception and action-selection which incorporates explicit support for multi-level direction.These ideas have been implemented and used to develop several autonomous animated creatures.

This paper presents a general system for camera movement upon which a wide variety of higher-level methods and applications can be built.In addition to the basic commands for camera placement, a key attribute of the CINEMA system is the ability to inquire information directly about the 3D world through which the camera is moving.With this information high-level procedures can be written that closely correspond to more natural camera specifications.Examples of some high-level procedures are presented.In addition, methods for overcoming deficiencies of this procedural approach are proposed.

We present a new interactive modeling technique based on the notion of sculpting a solid material. A sculpting tool is controlled by a 3D input device and the material is represented by voxel data; the tool acts by modifying the values in the voxel array, much as a "paint" program's "paintbrush" modifies bitmap values. The voxel data is converted to a polygonal surface using a "marching-cubes" algorithm; since the modifications to the voxel data are local, we accelerate this computation by an incremental algorithm and accelerate the display by using a special data structure for determining which polygons must be redrawn in a particular screen region. We provide a variety of tools: one that cuts away material, one that adds material, a "sandpaper" tool, a "heat gun," etc. The technique provides an intuitive direct interaction, as if the user were working with clay or wax. The models created are free-form and may have complex topology; however, they are not precise, so the technique is appropriate for modeling a boulder or a tooth but not for modeling a crankshaft.