Due to the UN and EU’s strong interest in digitizing cultural heritage, the application of 3D scanning technology is gaining importance, even in the case of under-explored areas, such as the 3D scanning of historical clothes. This article discovers and compares methodologies of 3D scanning of historical clothes presented in the literature in order to determine if a new methodology is needed. PRISMA protocol was used to browse scientific sources in an organized way. We posed the following research question: How have 3D scanners been used to digitize historical clothes? The very limited number of works identified, despite our thorough search, allows us to conclude that this topic is very new, and a lot of research can be conducted in the future. We analyzed the methodologies proposed by other authors, taking into account factors such as what was scanned, what was the purpose of scanning, what hardware and software was used, how detailed the description was, etc. It was revealed that other authors explored the topic insufficiently and no complex and coherent methodology of 3D digitization of historical clothes is present. Generally, the field of 3D scanning of historical clothing remains, at this point, very small and fragmented. This work is one of steps to change it.

With the increasing demand for more complex and larger models in different fields, such as the design of virtual worlds, video games, and computer animated movies, the need to generate them automatically has become more necessary than ever. Manual tools are no longer sufficient to match this rising need, and the impact that automatic tools may have within these fields is essential and may lead to an adoption of virtual worlds in a growing number of applications. Indeed, it is possible to eliminate most of the effort associated with the creation of such environments, by providing tools that may generate “massive” 3D content automatically. In consequence these tools may lead to an exponential growth of virtual environments and represent an important turn into the design of realistic virtual cities, which may have a huge impact on virtual world users. This chapter discusses the very complex issue of where and when procedural modelling may be used and presents some solutions and methods that have been successfully used in the aforementioned fields of application.

The manual creation of virtual environments is a demanding and costly task. With the increasing demand for more complex models in different areas, such as the design of virtual worlds, video games and computer animated movies the need to generate them automatically has become more necessary than ever.This paper presents a framework for the automatic generation of houses based on architectural rules. This approach has some innovating features, including the implementation of architectural rules, and produces 2D floor plans as well as complete 3D models, with a high level of detail, in just a few seconds. To evaluate the framework two different applications were developed and the output models were tested for different fields of application (e.g. virtual worlds). The results obtained contain evidences that the proposed framework may lead to the development of several specific applications to produce accurate 3D models of houses representing different realities (e.g. civilizations, epochs, etc.).

Esta pesquisa aborda a importância da adoção de estratégias inclusivas na educação a distância (EAD), com o objetivo de oferecer uma aprendizagem de qualidade para todos. O presente estudo, de abordagem qualitativa e exploratória, apresenta os resultados de entrevistas com 21 voluntários com deficiência visual, em relação as razões para escolher a EAD e suas percepções sobre a acessibilidade nessa modalidade educativa. Também analisamos a contribuição da cooperação entre todos os envolvidos no processo de ensino-aprendizagem e desenvolvimento de um curso a distância (como por exemplo alunos, professores, profissionais de informática, entre outros) para a promoção de uma comunicação acessível. A partir dos dados obtidos, concluímos que a política de cooperação é uma potente estratégia de inclusão de pessoas com deficiência visual na EAD, ao promover a diminuição de barreiras comunicacionais e aumentar a troca de conhecimento entre todos. Palavras-chave: Deficiência visual. Educação a distância. Inclusão. Política de cooperação. Tecnologia assistiva.

This paper, referring to a work in progress, describes functional elements of the user interface of a Virtual World that may provide an important contribution to the process by which primary teachers and pupils collaborate in negotiating spatial configurations of educational spaces (classroom, playground, set for a theatre play, etc.). We have observed this process and some of its inherent difficulties and identified requirements or the functional elements of the interface. Finally, we reflect about factors impacting children's feelings of lack of authorship and ownership of spatial configurations resulting from collaboration and how a computer system may help in this regard. This Virtual World is therefore configured to be applied in educational contexts where curricular models reflect the new childhood culture where children have an active role in the spaces where they spend most of their time, as schools that adopt the Portuguese Modern School Movement pedagogical model.