With the aim of addressing the difficulty in identifying temperatures in virtual chemistry experiments, we propose a temperature-sensing simulation method of virtual chemistry experiments. We construct a virtual chemistry experiment temperature simulation platform, based on which a wearable temperature generation device is developed. The typical middle school virtual experiments of concentrated sulfuric acid dilution and ammonium nitrate dissolution are conducted to verify the actual effect of the device. The platform is capable to indicate near real-world experimental situations. The performance of the device not only meets the temperature sensing characteristics of human skin, but also matches the temperature change of virtual chemistry experiments in real-time. It is demonstrated that this temperature-sensing simulation method can represent exothermic or endothermic chemistry experiments, which is beneficial for students to gain understanding of the principles of thermal energy transformation in chemical reactions, thus avoiding the danger that may be posed in the course of traditional teaching of chemistry experiments effectively. Although this methoddoes not have a convenient enough operation for users, the immersion of virtual chemical experiments can be enhanced.

This paper explores new approaches to recognize Chinese characters in images through touch sense. We extract the gradient image fused with brightness and chrominance information by the flow-based Gauss difference algorithm, and use the edge tangential flow method to smooth image contour, to obtain smooth character contours with significant edge features. Then, we use a tactile generation algorithm with five mechanical elements to generate stable and continuous tactile information based on the normal vector of triangular patches of the surface. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods, we developed a Chinese character tactile sensing system. Experiments show that Chinese characters in images can be recognized by touch sense with higher recognition accuracy rate.

Force generation will improve the immersion and authenticity of the virtual environment with human computer interaction. Considering the limitations of single-point interaction with force generation, this paper proposes real-time force generation methods based on double-points interaction. Analyzing the double-points interaction behaviors, we propose different equations to calculate the interactive force under four different interaction states. We establish an experimental environment to test the efficiency of double-points haptic interaction. The evaluation results show that the method can generate interactive force in time, enhance the immersion and authenticity of the virtual environment, and improve the naturalness of human computer interaction.

This paper presents preliminary results of a currently funded NSF project that is developing and validating an instrument to assess the relationship between project appropriateness in domain relatedness, ambiguity, and genderedness and student efficacy in first-year engineering design courses. Because design is a defining activity for engineers, it is widely adopted as a means to introduce students to engineering. Many engineering schools now have first-year engineering courses, which feature engineering design learning in team-based settings. From a student's perspective, motivation and self-efficacy may decrease when (1) the project domain (e.g., electrical engineering) is not directly related to their chosen major (e.g., chemical engineering), (2) the projects are perceived to be overly complex and ambiguous vis-à-vis student preparation, and (3) skewed toward a particular gender (e.g., masculine or feminine oriented). With this work, we aim to assist engineering design instructors in refining content to achieve higher retention rates.