Search results for "Graphics"
showing 10 items of 1223 documents
Coupling Mechanics of Antikythera Gearwheels
2012
This paper discusses the gear coupling mechanics of the ancient Antikythera mechanism, among whose distinctive characteristics was the triangular shaping of the teeth. The engagement of the tooth pairs is analyzed in detail, estimating the temporal variation of the speed ratio due to the back and forth shifting of the relative instant center. The admissibility of the theoretical contact points is carefully checked, and the magnitude of the successive tooth collisions is calculated together with the energy losses arising from the particular nature of the coupling. Some interesting results are that only one tooth pair turns out to be active at each time instant and the real path may belong on…
A GPU-Based Multi-agent System for Real-Time Simulations
2010
The huge number of cores existing in current Graphics Processor Units (GPUs) provides these devices with computing capabilities that can be exploited by distributed applications. In particular, these capabilites have been used in crowd simulations for enhancing the crowd rendering, and even for simulating continuum crowds. However, GPUs have not been used for simulating large crowds of complex agents, since these simulations require distributed architectures that can support huge amounts of agents. In this paper, we propose a GPU-based multi-agent system for crowd simulation. Concretely, we propose the use of an on-board GPU to implement one of the main tasks that a distributed server for c…
The Mathematical Table of the Palazzina Cinese in Palermo. Animation and Virtual Reality Techniques for an Edutainment Project
2023
The Palazzina Cinese of Palermo was built on a project by Venanzio Marvuglia in 1799 on behalf of Ferdinand IV of Borbone, when the royal family, fleeing from Naples following the establishment of the Parthenopean Republic, moved to Sicily. The building, known as “Chinese” due to its style, is full of particular architectural and decorative solutions. An element of particular interest is theMathematical Table, designed to avoid any contact between the living room and the kitchen below, isolating it from smells and servants. Thanks to a complex system of winches and pulleys, in fact, the dishes could be served by letting the central portion of the table and small circular areas fall into the…
Old Gibellina: the map, the world, the Aleph
2019
The present contribution intends to propose an epistemological reflection on the links and relationships that interweave the map, cultural heritage, landscape and places. I have identified an interpretative horizon that intersects the scientific geographic debate with the literary subject and proposed a specific reading of the site of Old Gibellina in Sicily, Italy, where reality and representation seem to converge. In 1968, Gibellina was razed to the ground by an earthquake. Then the site of Old Gibellina was covered by the ‘Grande Cretto’: the work of Land Art made by the artist Alberto Burri. In my perspective, the Cretto represents a unique place: it is a full-size map, it is landscape…
Jews under Islam in early modern Morocco in travel chronicles
2020
This paper addresses the relationship between the ideological and legal structures that discriminated against Jews in early modern Morocco and its reflection in social practices. The study shows th...
The development and validation of the Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient
2016
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a new instrument for measuring cultural intelligence in the business context (BCIQ).Design/methodology/approach– The paper describes the process of the conceptualization of the model and the development of the instrument, the sample, as well as the validation of the instrument. Directions on the use of the instrument and future research are discussed.Findings– The instrument shows good psychometric properties and good predictive power and outperforms other publicly available CQ measures on a number of dimensions.Originality/value– The unique features and advantages of the present instrument are as follows: first, a refined factor structure co…
School performance of children from monogamous and polygamous families in Nigeria
2014
Scholastic success of Nigerian children coming from polygamous ( n = 50) and monogamous families ( n = 156) was compared. No differences between the two groups were observed across background variables of demographics, parental education and occupation, or family support for schooling. There were no differences in the Junior Secondary School Entrance Exam scores between the groups. However, children from polygamous families reported more difficulties in mathematics and English than their counterparts from monogamous families. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research.
Virtual Acoustic Rendering in Old Spaces: Application to an Early-Modern Theatre in València, “L’Olivera”
2018
The application of the VR to the renderization of ancient and lost buildings is one important topic in the cultural heritage field nowadays. Moreover, the addition of other senses apart from the graphical view, increases the sensation of immersion in a virtual application. The aim of this paper is to show the work on a virtual acoustic system, based on Unity, FMOD and Csound. This system has been implemented to render binaural auralizations and has been applied to the renderization of an old and lost theatre in Valencia (Spain). This theatre was firstly build in the 16th century, and rebuilt several times until the 18th century. It has been modelled from ancient documents. The auralization …
I Like Cities; Do You Like Letters? Introducing Urban Typography in Art Education
2010
This article proposes a study of the letters and graphics found in the city, while at the same time opening up unusual spaces linked to the cultural arena and visual geographies for the creation of learning spaces in art education, introducing urban typography for training teachers. The letters in urban spaces can help us reinterpret the patrimonial fabric of cities. With the help of typography, visual arts educators have a powerful graphic resource with which to articulate the complex communicative network of streets. We suggest walking as an aesthetic practice; strolling around the city as a very cultural means to motivate our students. We have at our disposal in our cities a genuine muse…
Definition of a Model-Based Detector of Curvilinear Regions
2007
This paper describes a new approach for detection of curvilinear regions. These features detection can be useful for any matching based algorithm such as stereoscopic vision. Our detector is based on curvilinear structure model, defined observing the real world. Then, we propose a multi-scale search algorithm of curvilinear regions and we report some preliminary results.