Building a usable and accessible semantic web interaction platform

Semantic Web applications take off is being slower than expected, at least with respect to “real-world” applications and users. One of the main reasons for this lack of adoption is that most Semantic Web user interfaces are still immature from the usability and accessibility points of view. This is due to the novelty of these technologies, but this also motivates the exploration of alternative interaction paradigms, different from the “traditional” Web or Desktop applications ones. Our proposal is realized in the Rhizomer platform, which explores the possibilities of the object–action interaction paradigm at the Web scale. This paradigm is well suited for heterogeneous resource spaces such as those common in the Semantic Web. Resources, described by metadata, correspond to the objects in the paradigm. Semantic web services, which are dynamically associated to these objects, correspond to the actions. The platform is being put into practice in the context of a research project in order to build an open application for media distribution based on Semantic Web technologies. Moreover, its usability and accessibility have been evaluated in this real setting and compared to similar systems.

The State of HCI in Ibero-American countries

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a challenging discipline that is currently concerned with the design, implementation and evaluation of interactive systems for human use, as well as the study of major phenomena surrounding them. Indeed, interdisciplinary communities formed by scientists, university teachers and students, people coming from the industry and customers related to HCI are emerging in different parts of the world. In particular, this article overviews the HCI community in the Ibero-American context, which involves hundreds of millions of people working or studying in HCI, whose cultural background is primarily associated with the Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures, regardless of ethnic and geographical differences. Our final goal is to improve the visibility of this particular HCI community, enhancing the self awareness of its members and their individual motivation and future exchanges.

Using the optical flow to implement a relative virtual mouse controlled by head movements

The following paper introduces the work conducted to create a relative virtual mouse based on the interpretation of head movements and face gesture through a low cost camera and the optical flow of the images. This virtual device is designed specifically as an alternative non-contact pointer for people with mobility impairments in the upper extremities and reduced head control. The proposed virtual device was compared with a conventional mouse, a touchpad and a digital joystick. Validation results show performances close to a digital joystick but far away from a conventional mouse.

Guia de contingut digital accessible: vídeo

La guia consta d’un conjunt de documents en format pdf i d’una web (http://www.videoaccessible.udl.cat) que es complementen per donar pautes, recomanacions i exemples necessaris per poder mostrar informació en format vídeo digital accessible per a les persones amb diferents discapacitats.

Planificació del vídeo accessible

Aquest document tracta els aspectes principals que cal preveure en la producció d’un vídeo accessible. Es ressegueixen les tres etapes que regeixen la creació de productes audiovisuals (planificació, producció i difusió) i es donen pautes per permetre introduir l’accessibilitat en cadascuna. Es repassa també la legislació principal sobre autoritzacions d’enregistrament i es donen així mateix consells sobre les llicències Creative Commons més recomanables per difondre el producte final.

Guia de subtitulació

Aquest document és una introducció a la subtitulació amb eines gratuïtes. Concretament es tracten les eines CaptionTube, Subtitle Workshop, Universal Subtitles, vSync i, finalment, Timed Text.

Guia d’audiodescripció (CapScribe)

Aquest document és una introducció a l’eina CapScribe per a audiodescripcions en vídeos digitals. Es tracta d’un programari gratuït per als entorns Mac d’Apple i pot treballar amb vídeos de Quicktime, YouTube i alguna altra plataforma i/o reproductor.

Guia d’Internet (HTML5 i reproductors web)

Aquest document dóna les pautes bàsiques per poder incorporar vídeos incrustats en una pàgina web codificada en HTML5, amb un reproductor accessible. Així mateix, es dóna una introducció a l’eina ccPlayer, reproductor de vídeos que està implementat com un objecte SWF Flash i que permet l’addició de subtítols. Veurem també una altra eina similar, el JWPlayer.

Guia de Camtasia Studio

Aquest document és una introducció a l’eina Camtasia Studio. L’aplicació està especialitzada, entre d’altres, a elaborar vídeos de contingut docent accessible a partir de presentacions preparades en Microsoft PowerPoint.

Introducció a la conversió d’àudio a text

Aquest document és una introducció a les eines Dragon Naturally Speaking i Audacity, especialitzades a optimitzar la transcripció d’arxius sonors.

Guia d’SCORM

Aquest document és una introducció a l’eina RELOAD i a les funcionalitats d’SCORM del Moodle.

Disseny d'una agenda cognitivament adaptada per a persones adultes amb discapacitat psíquica

El projecte que es presenta en aquesta memòria té com a objectiu el disseny d'una aplicació agenda amb tècniques orientades a l'usuari (Disseny Centrat en l'Usuari). Seguint aquestes metodologies es pretén dissenyar una agenda que aconsegueixi un grau de satisfacció alt per part dels usuaris, una part dels quals té unes habilitats cognitives especials, i un gestor d'agendes que agilitzi la coordinació als professionals de suport que treballen diàriament amb ells. L'objectiu final de les dues aplicacions és el mateix: millorar el benestar dels usuaris.

ACACIA: an agent-based program for simulating behavior to reach long-term goals

We present ACACIA, an agent-based program implemented in Java StarLogo 2.0 that simulates a two-dimensional microworld populated by agents, obstacles and goals. Our program simulates how agents can reach long-term goals by following sensorial-motor couplings (SMCs) that control how the agents interact with their environment and other agents through a process of local categorization. Thus, while acting in accordance with this set of SMCs, the agents reach their goals through the emergence of global behaviors. This agent-based simulation program would allow us to understand some psychological processes such as planning behavior from the point of view that the complexity of these processes is the result of agent-environment interaction.

Effects of P300-based BCI use on reported presence in a virtual environment

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are becoming more and more popular as an input device for virtual worlds and computer games. Depending on their function, a major drawback is the mental workload associated with their use and there is significant effort and training required to effectively control them. In this paper, we present two studies assessing how mental workload of a P300-based BCI affects participants" reported sense of presence in a virtual environment (VE). In the first study, we employ a BCI exploiting the P300 event-related potential (ERP) that allows control of over 200 items in a virtual apartment. In the second study, the BCI is replaced by a gaze-based selection method coupled with wand navigation. In both studies, overall performance is measured and individual presence scores are assessed by means of a short questionnaire. The results suggest that there is no immediate benefit for visualizing events in the VE triggered by the BCI and that no learning about the layout of the virtual space takes place. In order to alleviate this, we propose that future P300-based BCIs in VR are set up so as require users to make some inference about the virtual space so that they become aware of it,which is likely to lead to higher reported presence.

Multisensory stimulation can induce an illusion of larger belly size in immersive virtual reality

Body change illusions have been of great interest in recent years for the understanding of how the brain represents the body. Appropriate multisensory stimulation can induce an illusion of ownership over a rubber or virtual arm, simple types of out-of-the-body experiences, and even ownership with respect to an alternate whole body. Here we use immersive virtual reality to investigate whether the illusion of a dramatic increase in belly size can be induced in males through (a) first person perspective position (b) synchronous visual-motor correlation between real and virtual arm movements, and (c) self-induced synchronous visual-tactile stimulation in the stomach area.