Combating shoulder-surfing: a hidden button gesture based scheme

This project describes an authentication technique that is shoulder-surfing resistant. Shoulder surfing is an attack in which an attacker can get access to private information by observing the user’s interaction with a terminal, or by using recording tools to record the user interaction and study the obtained data, with the objective of obtaining unauthorized access to a target user’s personal information. The technique described here relies on gestural analysis coupled with a secondary channel of authentication that uses button pressing. The thesis presents and evaluates multiple alternative algorithms for gesture analysis, and furthermore assesses the effectiveness of the technique.

Antropofagia ritual e identidade cultural nas sociedades ameríndias: a representação do "Outro" na literatura brasileira e portuguesa do século XIX

Universidade da Madeira

Remote presence: supporting deictic gestures through a handheld multi-touch device

This thesis argues on the possibility of supporting deictic gestures through handheld multi-touch devices in remote presentation scenarios. In [1], Clark distinguishes indicative techniques of placing-for and directing-to, where placing-for refers to placing a referent into the addressee’s attention, and directing-to refers to directing the addressee’s attention towards a referent. Keynote, PowerPoint, FuzeMeeting and others support placing-for efficiently with slide transitions, and animations, but support limited to none directing-to. The traditional “pointing feature” present in some presentation tools comes as a virtual laser pointer or mouse cursor. [12, 13] have shown that the mouse cursor and laser pointer offer very little informational expressiveness and do not do justice to human communicative gestures. In this project, a prototype application was implemented for the iPad in order to explore, develop, and test the concept of pointing in remote presentations. The prototype offers visualizing and navigating the slides as well as “pointing” and zooming. To further investigate the problem and possible solutions, a theoretical framework was designed representing the relationships between the presenter’s intention and gesture and the resulting visual effect (cursor) that enables the audience members to interpret the meaning of the effect and the presenter’s intention. Two studies were performed to investigate people’s appreciation of different ways of presenting remotely. An initial qualitative study was performed at The Hague, followed by an online quantitative user experiment. The results indicate that subjects found pointing to be helpful in understanding and concentrating, while the detached video feed of the presenter was considered to be distracting. The positive qualities of having the video feed were the emotion and social presence that it adds to the presentations. For a number of subjects, pointing displayed some of the same social and personal qualities [2] that video affords, while less intensified. The combination of pointing and video proved to be successful with 10-out-of-19 subjects scoring it the highest while pointing example came at a close 8-out-of-19. Video was the least preferred with only one subject preferring it. We suggest that the research performed here could provide a basis for future research and possibly be applied in a variety of distributed collaborative settings.

Práticas educativas interculturais como inovação pedagógica na Escola indígena Pedro Ferreira de Queiroz, Ibimirim, Pernambuco, Brasil

O presente estudo se propôs a pesquisar sobre as práticas educativas interculturais, como inovação pedagógica na escola indígena, a partir de uma classe multisseriada da Escola Indígena Pedro Ferreira de Queiroz, localizada na Aldeia Kambiwá, município de Ibimirim/Pernambuco - Brasil. Instaura a percepção freireana de educação que, ambientada na concepção problematizadora e libertadora, se assenta numa tendência contestadora, que defende o reconhecimento e a prática educacional para a inserção social. Nesse contexto, delimitamos a abordagem qualitativa, sob inspiração da etnografia como possibilidade de investigar, descrever e analisar a problemática de pesquisa, definindo, ainda, um esquema de interpretação e de perspectivas do fenômeno estudado, o que possibilitou destacar, de forma aproximada, as intenções subjacentes ao mesmo. Os dados obtidos apontam que as estratégias pedagógicas utilizadas na escola, campo de estudo e, no entendimento da maioria dos/as entrevistados/as, defendem o princípio da interculturalidade, como inovação, no âmbito da prática pedagógica, visando a construção do conhecimento ou a valorização da cultura quando, o professor da turma investigada, o grupo gestor e liderança, incentivam os estudantes a se reconhecerem como índio, reafirmando sua identidade étnica, através de atividades culturais ambientadas no ritual doToré, praticado na abertura das aulas e no recreio; valorizam o artesanato indígena, a merenda de alimentos cultivados pela comunidade, ou apreciam o uso da história oral encorajando, assim, mudanças nas práticas consideradas tradicionais. Contudo, o estudo aponta para a instauração de um processo incipiente de inovação que rebate em ações mais efetivas de mudança no que se referem à formação acadêmica dos/as professores indígenas, a organização curricular dos conteúdos, do material didático, do calendário, da avaliação e da ação dos docentes quando, esses, tratam do conhecimento e das percepções na sala de aula, além dos entraves provocados pela burocracia e falta de preparação técnica/pedagógica do poder público em atender as especificidades.