Loukas Pap

I got my Bachelor's Degree at AUEB. Specifically, I graduated from the Department of Management Science and Technology. My major was in Data Science and Software Engineering.

Currently, I am pursuing my Master of Science in Computer Science, at NKUA (aka UoA).

I worked as an Intern Software Engineer in Netcompany-Intrasoft (Mar 22 - Jun 22) and then I joined the company as a Junior (Oct 22 - Sep 23).

My main programming language is Python, followed by Java and Kotlin. I've also worked on 2 Android projects.

Here are my reflections on some interesting papers/articles I have read through time.

#1 Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality • Slater, M., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2016)

As I started reading this paper, I was curious about how Virtual Reality (VR) can be applied to the diverse sectors of
              human life, and what the results may be.
              There were lots of sections in the paper talking about the use of VR in many aspects in human life, but I am going to highlight the ones that were more interested to me.

              

The first one was the combination of it with Data Visualization & Education together. Data are the oil of the 21st century, and the ability to visualise them in various forms (both statistical
              and non) is already giving us insights about a topic. But, with the use of this technology one can immerse in the data and experiment with these in new ways, like
              touching, speaking, etc. An example I though of, is an Electrical engineer learning to program micro-computers (like Arduino). Instead of trying to experiment with a physical device, he can experiment inside
              a virtual world, without the danger to damage the device (e.g. from wrong cable connection) and also try combining some sensors. Concurently, data like wats can be seen virtually in real-time
              and make the comprehension deeper.
              
              

Sports is another amazing field where VR can change drastically. Both as a spectator and a player. As a spectator, one is given the chance to watch the game from different angles,
              following the action all the time, and getting better experience. Also, the nature of the technology, automatically eliminates the need to pay for better placed seats 
              (e.g. more close to the field of play) because everybody will be able to access all points of views concurently without physical presence, so the same cost will be available. But, there is
              high posibility that a separation of accesible views in premium, free or some other business model will exist. After all, all this equipment need to be bought, maintained, replaced, etc.
              As a player, teams or inividuals can improve strategy through training inside the virtual world, when exposed in various situations. If I think of it accompanied by visuotactile synchrony
              it can get much close to real situations.

#2 “Would You Give a Virtual Electric Shock to an Avatar?” • Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Mel Slater, 12 April 2019

This article, shows that VR plays an important role in human psychology. We see that even though, many participants
              knew they were harming an avatar, they still tried to help it answer so as not to activate the electric shock and they still got stressed. 
              Far more interesting from this paper, is the Miligram experiment
              on which the paper has its roots. As Miligram reported:

              
              “...even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality,
              relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”
              
              This, should alert for a big change in human ethics. One, should learn to stand for his beliefs, his standards under any circumstances. Even if that means to die for them. This will not only
              set the person free from self-doubts about his actions, but as a whole, it will create a more "true" society. By saying "true", I am talking about humans that express their real opinion,
              and not altering it, for example because they care about what others might think. Nevertheless, even if we think of a more advanced scenario, like the Totalitarian world George Orwell writes about in
              his book "1984", if the society does not react due to fear/pressure of authority, the results will be destructive. It is not an exaggeration to see what happens in China with the score-point
              system.

#3 At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence • Matthew Lombard, Theresa Ditton, 01 September 1997


              At the heart of it All gave me a solid understanding on various aspects of the discussed topic: Presence. To begin with the Concept Explication section,
              it describes how the presence can be perceived in 6 different areas. Two are the things, as I was reading, I liked most: First, is that I see each of
              these "kinds" of presences happening -or have hapened- in the everyday world, to me or to the others. The various mediums that can achieve that, are the ones
              that many people and children interact with, daily. I still remember my classmates having this new game, the "Tamagotchi" where they take care of a pet in a very
              small grey screen wit 3-4 buttons, but even though it was fake, the kids still cared about not to let this virtual avatar die. The second thing I like, is that
              it opens to me an exploration interest in the field of psychology, in order to understand how these mediums co-operate to achieve the feeling of presence in the
              person.

              

Moving on to the next section, there are lots of experiments describing the various appliances of the "most... important determinants of precense",
              which are sensory richness and vividness. It explains a lot about why a cinema immerses the viewers in the movie, especially if it is 3D. The one
              that got my attention, is in the dimensionality sub-section, the example of the “The Glorification of St. Ignatius” from Andrea Pozzo. I pictured it in my mind,
              having seeing similar paintings in the ceiling of Roman-Catholic churches (from the internet), but when I searched the image and saw it, it was truly amazing the loss
              of boundaries to where the painting begin and ends relatively to the architecture of the church (the same was commented in the paper). Other variables quoted that
              indeed increment the sense of presence is the depth of sounds, the image resolution/size/etc., the interactivity and many more things, that I personally eperienced
              while I was playing video-games. Each of this can be applied differently in the genres of games, to achive different feelings, but with the same goal: to maxify
              presence. Lastly, the number of people is something important, because to live an experience with a friend, a colleague, a family member, etc. makes it more livable,
              simple as that (think of a horror Escape Room with friends).

#4 Creating Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications: Current Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities • Ashtari, N. et all., April 2020


              This paper highlights 8 barriers when working on AR/VR application, common to different types of developers. Generally, as a programmer I can relate at some point with some of
                the problems, like the difficulty to know where to start when begining a new project with a new technology. Having also made one project in Unity, I understand struggles
                like debuging. As P2-Dx comments: “...sometimes the bug comes from Unity... sometimes the bug actually is in the code itself”.
                Table 3 is interesting, as it shows how participants worked on the 3 phases of creating an application. One can see that the professionals designers actually worked more professionaly, 
                and focused on all 3 phases. On the other hand, Domain Experts (Dx) and Hobbyists (H), half of them skipped the prototyping phase and went straight away for the implementation, which
                means that they would implement the idea on the fly, in a trial-and-error procedure. This is because in the phase of designing and prototyping, no matter the domain,
                problems, pain-points for the user, etc. will always occur. It is also obvious that classic 2D UX guidelines do not align well in the 3D world. The motion, the world,
                the story, the whole experience changes. Even the user itself reveils a different persona wihch can not be seen in the 2D world, and the creator must predict beforehand.
                


                Nevertheless, there are many concepts when making an AR/VR application which needs a lot of time and different set of skills. I believe it is critical to make access to the tools and 
                the various processes, easy for End-User Developers, because it will unlock a lot of pottential on the applications that could be created. Every one of them with expertise to a domain,
                would have the ability to transfer it in something that is live, interactive, and open to everyone.

follow text with

Hello.