Ioannis Pachoulakis

I. Pachoulakis

The present article reports on the second tool of a custom-built toolkit intended to train astronomers into simulating and visualizing the composite 3D structure of winds from hot close double stars by implementing a technique which is similar to multi-directional medical tomography. The flagships of the toolkit are the Spectrum Analyzer and Animator (SA 2 ) and the Binary 3D Renderer (B3dR). Following application of the first tool, SA 2 as detailed in paper I, the composite wind structure of the binary has been recovered and the B3dR is subsequently employed to visualize the results and simulate the revolution of the entire system (stars, winds and wind-interaction effects) around the common centre of mass. The B3dR thus repackages the end product of a lengthy physical modeling process to generate realistic multimedia content and enable the presentation of the 3D system from the point of view of an observer on Earth as well as from any other observer location in the Galaxy.

I. Pachoulakis

The present sequence of two articles reports on a custom-built toolkit implementing a technique similar to multi-directional medical tomography to simulate and visualize the composite 3D structure of winds from hot close double stars. In such hot binaries, the light sources scanning and probing the composite wind volume are the bright "surfaces" (photospheres) of the individual stars. Then, as the Keplerian orbit is traced out and the geometry presented to the observer varies, each star constitutes an analyzer upon its companion's wind. In contrast to medical tomography, however, these targets are too far to be resolved spatially so we resort to modeling the ultraviolet (UV) spectral lines of certain wind ions (e.g., N+4, Si+3, C+3) whose shapes vary with Keplerian phase as the stars revolve around their common centre of mass. The flagships of the toolkit are the Spectrum Analyzer and Animator (SA 2 ) and the Binary 3D Renderer (B3dR). The SA 2 is the subject of the present article (paper I). It automates (a) the derivation of light curves from the observed spectra and (b) the generation of synthetic binary wind-line profiles which reproduce the morphologies and variabilities of the observed wind profiles. The second tool, the B3dR is discussed in paper II.

Ioannis Pachoulakis, Nikolaos Papadopoulos, Cleanthe Spanaki

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative movement disorder where motor dysfunction gradually increases as the disease progress. In addition to administering dopaminergic PD-specific drugs, attending neurologists strongly recommend regular exercise combined with physiotherapy. However, because of the long-term nature of the disease, patients following traditional rehabilitation programs may get bored, lose interest and eventually drop out as a direct result of the repeatability and predictability of the prescribed exercises. Technology supported opportunities to liven up a daily exercise schedule have appeared in the form of character-based, virtual reality games which promote physical training in a non-linear and looser fashion and provide an experience that varies from one game loop the next. Such "exergames", a word that results from the amalgamation of the words "exercise" and "game" challenge patients into performing movements of varying complexity in a playful and immersive virtual environment. Today's game consoles such as Nintendo's Wii, Sony PlayStation Eye and Microsoft's Kinect sensor present new opportunities to infuse motivation and variety to an otherwise mundane physiotherapy routine. In this paper we present some of these approaches, discuss their suitability for these PD patients, mainly on the basis of demands made on balance, agility and gesture precision, and present design principles that exergame platforms must comply with in order to be suitable for PD patients.