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Peer‐to‐Peer computing offers many attractive features, such as collaboration, self‐organization, load balancing, availability, fault tolerance and anonymity. However, it also faces many serious challenges. In our previous work, we implemented a synchronous P2P collaboration platform called TOMSCOP. However, the TOMSCOP was implemented only in Windows XPOS. In this work, we extend our previous work and present a multi‐platform Peer‐to‐Peer system. The proposed system operates very smoothly in UNIX Solaris 9 OS, Linux Suse 9.1 OS, Mac OSX, and Windows XP. In this paper, we present the design of proposed system and four web application tools: info, joint draw pad, shared web browser and subaru avatar.

To paint large workpieces automatically, painting manipulators with hollow wrists must be transported by mobile platforms to different positions because of their limited workspaces. This paper aims to provide a visualization method for finding appropriate base positions (BPs) and maximum painting areas for manipulators.

This paper begins by analyzing the motion characteristics of manipulators possessing a spherical wrist and summarizing them into three constraints – positioning, orientation and singularity avoidance. The hollow wrist is simplified and considered as spherical by introducing the concepts of an inner wrist center and an outer wrist center. Taking the three constraints into consideration, the boundaries of the manipulating space are formulated analytically. Finally, to verify the method, the space obtained is applied to determine the maximum painting areas for flat, cylindrical and conical surfaces. Experiments of robotic painting were used to confirm the results.

Compared with previous studies, the maximum areas obtained using the proposed method increased by 17-131 per cent with an algorithm of lower complexity, and the process remained visually intuitive, thereby demonstrating that the method of manipulating space is more effective.

Such a method allows individuals to visualize the entire painting area at the current BP, thereby maximizing painting areas or optimizing BPs. It opens a black box that is the relationship between BPs and blocks. The method can also be used to choose the best configuration for painting manipulators, select the end-effector structure parameters, split surfaces into blocks, etc.

Draping is one method used in clothing design. It is important to virtualize draping in real time, and virtual cloth handling is a key technology for this purpose. A mouse is often used for real-time cloth handling in many studies. However, gesture manipulation is more realistic than movements using the mouse. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate virtual cloth manipulation using hand gestures in the real world.

In this study, the authors demonstrate three types of manipulation: moving, cutting, and attaching. The user’s hand coordinates are obtained with a Kinect, and the cloth model is manipulated by them. The cloth model is moved based on the position of the hand coordinates. The cloth model is cut along a cut line calculated from the hand coordinates. In attaching the cloth model, it is mapped to a dummy model and then part of the cloth model is fixed and another part is released.

This method can move the cloth model according to the motion of the hands. The authors have succeeded in cutting the cloth model based on the hand trajectory. The cloth model can be attached to the dummy model and its form is changed along the dummy model shape.

Cloth handling in many studies is based on indirect manipulation using a mouse. In this study, the cloth model is manipulated according to hand motion in the real world in real time.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model of “environmental control”. Environmental control can be provided through: furnishings and work tools that can be modified or manipulated, choice of time and location of work, organizational policies for flexible work programs, training, and computing and communications technologies that extend control. This paper seeks to propose that enhanced environmental control is related to improved individual, group and organizational performance.

A conceptual model is presented of environmental control coupled with a review and analysis of relevant literature that support the model and identify areas that require further development and research.

The literature review and analysis show support for the model of environmental control. The research reviewed reveals a consistent relationship between workplace capabilities that provide control, and positive behavioral and business performance outcomes for individuals, teams and business units. The review identifies gaps in the empirical support for the model and provides directions for future research.

Ultimately, environmental control is proposed as a means for providing choice about where, when and how to work, which can be used to improve the performance of people and organizations. Thus, environmental control is a crucial capability in which organizations should invest, by optimizing choice through workspace, policies, and technology. By leveraging control as a central component of workplace strategy, organizations may enhance their competitive advantage.

Much of the research described in the paper, and methods employed, are appropriate for exploratory research and theory‐building.

This paper discusses the opportunity afforded by a substantial research grant to examine three aspects of recent school design and learning. First, spaces that support effective learning, second, the role of the building in achieving sustainability, and third, pedagogies and practices that support one and two. Schools are complex systems in which the physical environment interacts with pedagogical, socio-cultural, curricular, motivational and socio-economic factors as well as providing benefits or costs in environmental terms. Limiting the research focus to exemplar case study schools will enable a more comprehensive study of the schools as 3D texts. Through proactive research methodologies, students, teachers and architects will collaborate to manipulate the spaces to suit different learning modalities. Students will help collect environmental data and therefore learn more about climate and energy. They will also participate within teams to further their problem solving, communication and organizational skills. Teachers will become more aware of and hopefully skilled at managing space both environmentally and pedagogically. Architects will have the unusual opportunity of experiencing and analyzing their designs through the eyes of users. While this ambitious research is in its infancy, the interdisciplinary approach and support from nine industry partners is relevant for other researchers who are seeking to have an impact on design practice using an action research methodology. The research is timely.4 Following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom, Australian state and federal governments have committed to reinvigorate our aging school stock. This research led by an interdisciplinary team, was developed in partnership with Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, the Victorian Government Architect's Office, and seven design firms with expertise in learning environments. The research has been funded by the Australian Research Council

Accounting for seventy five percent of urban housing in Vietnam, street houses refer to a mixed-use housing typology that emerged in the 17th century. Such housing has evolved in response to Vietnam's unique culture and environmental conditions. Residential and commercial functions are integrated in a flexible and expandable manner, creating a variety of compositional possibilities in spatial layouts. In addition, transitional spaces such as courtyards, balconies, loggia, and terraces provide shading, cooling, and ventilation effects throughout the building. As one of the most adaptive and popular urban dwellings, the street house has promoted daily domestic activities and the identities of Vietnamese urban areas. However, such valuable aspects have received less attention in many recent urban developments in Vietnam. As such, the goal of this study is to identify and analyze the unparalleled ingenuity of the street house, particularly focusing on its spatial flexibility and environmental responsiveness. Furthermore, this study is intended to apply analytical investigations to the design of contemporary high-rise housing in Vietnam.

With such purposes, this paper is structured in two sequences. In the first phase, typological characteristics of the street house are studied; a field survey is performed to address the evolutionary transformation of the street house. By studying several precedents in Vietnam, our study focused on understanding the ways in which spaces are manipulated and in which diverse indoor and outdoor spaces are created. In addition, passive environmental systems are studied, meaning systems that are integrated with the spaces in order to control the microclimatic conditions of the house. Next, the morphology of the forms and space components are carefully examined through the contemporary examples of street house models in Vietnam. Especially, the flexible nature of the street house, in terms of spatial composition and expansion, is identified. In the second phase, a transition from the street house to high-rise housing is explored based on the previous analytical studies; compositional logic for arranging internal and external spaces are outlined to generate typological unit plans of street houses. Out of diverse design possibilities, an exemplary high-rise building is proposed to address the notions of spatial flexibility and integrated passive systems that are found in the street house. Ultimately, the proposed design aims to enrich dwelling environments for new high-rise urban communities.

This exploratory study, a Ph.D. dissertation completed at the University of Western Ontario in 2013, examines the materially embedded relations of power between library users and staff in public libraries and how building design regulates spatial behavior according to organizational objectives. It considers three public library buildings as organization spaces (Dale & Burrell, 2008) and determines the extent to which their spatial organizations reproduce the relations of power between the library and its public that originated with the modern public library building type ca. 1900. Adopting a multicase study design, I conducted site visits to three, purposefully selected public library buildings of similar size but various ages. Site visits included: blueprint analysis; organizational document analysis; in-depth, semi-structured interviews with library users and library staff; cognitive mapping exercises; observations; and photography.

Despite newer approaches to designing public library buildings, the use of newer information technologies, and the emergence of newer paradigms of library service delivery (e.g., the user-centered model), findings strongly suggest that the library as an organization still relies on many of the same socio-spatial models of control as it did one century ago when public library design first became standardized. The three public libraries examined show spatial organizations that were designed primarily with the librarian, library materials, and library operations in mind far more than the library user or the user’s many needs. This not only calls into question the public library’s progressiveness over the last century but also hints at its ability to survive in the new century.

Education and new technologies travel parallel pathways, with each often informing development of the other. In recent decades, educators have utilized technologies, such as television and the Internet, to develop and deliver course content. More recently, another technology has emerged that might possibly change education as it is currently practiced. Augmented reality merges manipulable digital imagery into real-world spaces and in real time. The technologies used to create augmented environments already exist in the mass market and have already begun to show up in a wide variety of fields, including education. This chapter will provide an overview of augmented reality and explore current and potential uses in higher education.

This paper identifies the importance of space management in support of the functions of academic libraries. It reviews current solutions on library space management by pinpointing their advantages and disadvantages, and it introduces GIS (geographic information systems) as a tool for library space management, because of its capacity for analyzing spatial data and interactive information. A proposal is outlined that attempts to highlight the process of developing, implementing, maintaining, and utilizing a GIS system for academic libraries.