In the modern era of industrial digitalization, the convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced data analysis, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is significantly transforming various industrial sectors. This research aimed to study and develop a proposal for an integrated system that combines IoT, data analysis, AR and VR for the monitoring and maintenance of industrial equipment. The importance of this research lies in its potential to contribute to the implementation of predictive maintenance solutions, which can significantly reduce machine downtime in an industrial environment and thus reduce or prevent operational failures. The central research question of this work was the following: how can the integration of IoT, data analysis and augmented and virtual reality contribute to optimizing industrial maintenance? We tested the combination of technologies to enable the creation of an effective predictive maintenance system, capable of alerting operators to anomalous conditions and providing detailed visual instructions for maintenance tasks. As a result, a prototype system was developed and tested, and it has shown the potential to evolve into a real system in an industrial environment.

This article describes gaming and storytelling activities in a mixed environment that integrates the real and virtual worlds, uses an augmented reality paradigm, and is supported by a structuring and presentation framework for use in context-aware mixed-reality applications. The basis of the framework is a generic hypermedia model that can handle different media elements, objects, and relations between spaces and locations in physical and virtual worlds. A main component of the model deals with providing contextual content according to the state of the application and the person using it. A storytelling layer was also defined, mainly by using the contextual mechanisms of the base model. This layer provides abstractions to storytelling applications that reflect the morphology of common story structures and supports gaming flow. The framework is being tested in a gaming and storytelling environment that integrates the real world, media elements, and virtual 3D worlds.

The digital transformation advancement enables multiple areas to provide modern services to their users. Culture is one of the areas that can benefit from these advances, more specifically museums, by presenting many benefits and the most emergent technologies to the visitors. This paper presents an indoor location system and content delivery solution, based on Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons, that enable visitors to walk freely inside the museum and receive augmented reality content based on the acquired position, which is done using the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). The solution presented in this paper was created for the Foz Côa Museum in Portugal and was tested in the real environment. A detailed study was carried out to analyze the RSSI under four different scenarios, and detection tests were carried out that allowed us to measure the accuracy of the room identification, which is needed for proper content delivery. Of the 89 positions tested in the four scenarios, 70% of the received signals were correctly received throughout the entire duration of the tests, 20% were received in an intermittent way, 4% were never detected and 6% of unwanted beacons were detected. The signal detection is fundamental for the correct room identification, which was performed with 96% accuracy. Thus, we verified that this technology is suitable for the proposed solution.

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that requires the use of cognitive treatments to decrease symptoms in which the use of medication is less effective. Innovative strategies such as the use of Virtual Reality (VR) are being tested, but there is still a long way into developing solutions as effective as the current conventional forms of treatment. To study more effective forms of developing these systems, an immersive VR game with a tutorial and two levels of difficulty was developed. Tests were performed in twenty-one healthy subjects, showing promising results, indicating VR’s potential as a complementary approach to conventional treatments for schizophrenia. When properly applied, the use of VR could lead to more efficient and accessible treatments, potentially reducing its costs and reaching a broader population.

The standard for managing image data in healthcare is the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) protocol. DICOM web-viewers provide flexible and accessible platforms for their users to view and analyze DICOM images remotely. This article presents a comprehensive evaluation of various web-based DICOM viewers, emphasizing their performance in different rendering scenarios, browsers, and operating systems. The study includes a total of 16 web-based viewers, of which 12 were surveyed, and 7 were compared performance-wise based on the availability of an online demo. The criteria for examination include accessibility features, such as available information or requirements for usage, interface features, such as loading capabilities or cloud storage, two-dimensional (2D) viewing features, such as the ability to perform measurements or alter the viewing window, and three-dimensional (3D) viewing features, such as volume rendering or secondary reconstruction. Only 4 of the viewers allow for the viewing of local DICOM files in 3D (other than MPR(Multiplanar reconstruction)). Premium software offers a large amount of features with overall good performance. One of the free alternatives demonstrated the best efficiency in both 2D and 3D rendering but faces challenges with missing 3D rendering features in its interface, which is still in development. Other free options exhibited slower performance, especially in 2D rendering but have more ready-to-use features on their web app. The evaluation also underscores the importance of browser choice, with some browsers performing much better than the competition, and highlights the significance of hardware when dealing with rendering tasks.