Abstract
Exergames require obtaining or computing information regarding the players’ physical activity and context. Additionally, ensuring that the players are assigned challenges that are adequate to their physical ability, safe and adapted for the current context (both physical and spatial) is also important, as it can improve both the gaming experience and the outcomes of the exercise. However, the impact adaptivity has in the specific case of virtual reality exergames still has not been researched in depth. In this paper, we present a virtual reality exergame and an experimental design aiming to compare the players’ experience when playing both adaptive and regular versions of the game. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018.

Abstract
Serious games are starting to attain a higher role as learning tools in several and diversified contexts such as education and training. Serious games provide a favorable learning environment where mistakes can occur without real life penalty and students get instant feedback from challenges. The rules, behavior simulation, and feedback from the player's actions of the studied games, provide a realistic context for learning where failure and repetition can be a positive contribution to achieve success. These challenges are designed in accordance with the intended learning objectives and will self-adapt and repeat according to the student difficulty level while providing instant feedback. There is decisively an acquisition of knowledge and experience through: (1) motivating and engaging environments, (2) approaches to problem solving and simulation of different situations, and also, (3) from contexts where players can develop professional skills. However, how do we certify acquired knowledge and competencies? Until now, most research has been focused on the evaluation of the game itself rather than on the learners' assessment. The analysis of the player is usually performed at the end of the game using traditional questionnaire forms. Instead of that, using our Correlation Matrix methodology [15], we provide a set of guidelines for game designers to build specific games for the certification of competences, and an in-game assessment in location-based cultural heritage applications. This assessment can be done with in-game mechanics and challenges providing a learning path to obtain the intended competences. These guidelines are established on a triad of components: Competencies/Mechanics/Play, following the approach of Casper Harteveld (Play/Meaning/Reality) [19]. This is needed for balancing the relationship between the game mechanics for serious games genres, the array of competences to certify, and the game elements. This paper presents a matrix of generic skills, based on the Education Competences [12] which serves as a reference to identify which competencies must be used to obtain the performance success of each situation. Based on the combination of identified competencies and the training game genres, this choice allows the identification of the most appropriate and necessary mechanics and challenges by comparison with a correlation matrix between competencies and game genre analysis with 120 serious games. Currently this methodology is being applied in the context of tourism guide's applications with the key objective of identifying ability patterns correlated in acquiring different skills (multiplex). In the tourism guide's context these skills could be planning and organizing the city exploration through challenges and targets to achieve, and successful assess heritage knowledge by quizzes or photos taken. As a result, existing game mechanics are identified and new ones are created and implemented in a Location-Based Gaming (LBG) platform to support more learning and to better interact with the heritage sites. As a case study the guidelines will be applied to a tourism mobile route application, about Porto heritage, to provide an improved design so that it may also be capable of in-game certification of tourism guides.

Abstract
Physical maps of a city or region are important pieces of geographical information for tourists and local citizens. Unfortunately the amount of information that can be presented on a piece of paper is limited. In order to extend the map information we propose an augmented reality (AR) system, ARTourMap, for additional information visualization and interaction. This system provides an abstraction layer to develop applications based on the concept of separated logic map tiles taking advantage of a multi-target system where several regions of the map trigger different superimposed graphics. This allows the map to be folded, to be partially occluded, and to have dematerialized information. To demonstrate the proposed system ARTourMap, three layers were developed: a location-based game with points of interest (POIs), a 3D building visualization and an historical map layer. © 2016 The Eurographics Association.

Abstract
The use of 360 degrees videos has been increasing steadily in the 2010s, as content creators and users search for more immersive experiences. The freedom to choose where to look at during the video may hinder the overall experience instead of enhancing it, as there is no guarantee that the user will focus on relevant sections of the scene. Visual annotations superimposed on the video, such as text boxes or arrow icons, can help guide the user through the narrative of the video while maintaining freedom of movement. This paper presents a web-based immersive visualizer for 360. videos that contain dynamic media annotations, rendered in real-time. A set of annotations was created with the purpose of providing information or guiding the user to points of interest. The visualizer can be used with a computer, using a keyboard and mouse or HTC Vive, and in mobile devices with Cardboard VR headsets, to experience the video in virtual reality, which is made possible with the WebVR API. The visualizer was evaluated through usability tests, to analyze the impact of different annotation techniques on the users' experience. The obtained results demonstrate that annotations can assist in guiding the user during the video, and a careful design is imperative so that they are not intrusive and distracting for the viewers.

Abstract
This paper proposes a framework for the creation of interactive multimedia applications that take advantage of detected features from user-captured photos. The goal is to create games, architectural and space planning applications that interact with visual elements in the images such as walls, floors and empty spaces. The framework takes advantage of a semi-automatic algorithm to detect scene elements and camera parameters. Using the detected features, virtual objects can be inserted in the scene. In this paper several example applications are presented and discussed, and the reliability of the detection algorithm is compared with other systems. The presented solution analyses the photos using graph-cuts for segmentation, vanishing point detection and line analysis to detect the scene elements. The main advantage of the proposed framework is the semi-automatic creation of the tri-dimensional model to be used in mixed reality applications. This enables scenarios where the user can be responsible for the input scene without much prior knowledge or experience. The current implemented examples include a furniture positioning system and a snake game with a user-built maze in the real world. The proposed system is ideal for multimedia mobile applications where interaction is combined with the back camera of the device.

Abstract