Recognition of Masked Faces in the Era of the Pandemic: No Improvement Despite Extensive Natural Exposure.

Face masks, which became prevalent across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic, have had a negative impact on face recognition despite the availability of critical information from uncovered face parts, especially the eyes. An outstanding question is whether face-mask effects would be attenuated following extended natural exposure. This question also pertains, more generally, to face-recognition training protocols. We used the Cambridge Face Memory Test in a cross-sectional study (N = 1,732 adults) at six different time points over a 20-month period, alongside a 12-month longitudinal study (N = 208). The results of the experiments revealed persistent deficits in recognition of masked faces and no sign of improvement across time points. Additional experiments verified that the amount of individual experience with masked faces was not correlated with the mask effect. These findings provide compelling evidence that the face-processing system does not easily adapt to visual changes in face stimuli, even following prolonged real-life exposure.

DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL MODEL OF A CONVENTIONAL LATHE BASED ON AUGMENTED REALITY FOR TRAINING IN A MACHINE TOOL WORKSHOP

Training for industrial operations is an important task in different aspects related to safety, technical and operational topics, that are developed in university specialties. These issues are a priority process of learning and training for the use of machine tool workshop equipment. Likewise, the application of the industrial innovation paradigms of the different topics of Industry 4.0 are a necessity for technical and training development in engineering students, with augmented reality being one of the most important concepts of said industrial trend. This study shows the process of the development and validation study of a digital model of a conventional C&J CQ6125V lathe, based on augmented reality, with the aim of contributing to the educational process in the machine tool workshop at the Mexican University UPAEP. Given the need for Hybrid learning activities, caused by the SARS-COV-2 pandemic, where students considered models of Face-to-Face and Online activities, it was used in machine tool workshop courses as an alternative training and a learning instrument of laboratory teams. This application based on software for mobile devices was developed taking into account training considerations for the recognition of the essential elements of the lathe and the safety characteristics in its use, through the identification of its moving parts, using an interface easy to use for students involved in the machine tool shop. Once access to the augmented reality application was facilitated to interested parties, a survey was conducted on a non-probabilistic sample of engineering students to diagnose the essential operational functions of the application. The results stand out that the augmented reality exercise has an average higher than a value of four in Likert's scale for the number of components shown, the identification of the components from color codes and the animation of the lathe mechanisms. As well as the availability for installation and management of the application. The improvement findings of the students in the engineering areas show the need to improve the graphics to represent the real components of the lathe and the training parameters of the machine tool described. © 2022 IMCIC 2022 - 13th International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics, Proceedings. All rights reserved.