WAIS Seminar:LinkedTV: Building the Future of Television

Abstract Broadcast video can be augmented with links to information related to the topics in the video and to other related entities. Viewers are sufficiently digitally literate that they can carry out their own searches during or after a broadcast. We investigate what types of information viewers would actually like to see while being engaged in watching a news broadcast. On the base of this we have designed user interfaces for passive and active uses of a second screen to accompany a news broadcast. A next step is to understand the specific types of information users would like to consult and investigate whether these can be automatically generated.

An automatic correction tool for relational database schemas

A Web-based tool developed to automatically correct relational database schemas is presented. This tool has been integrated into a more general e-learning platform and is used to reinforce teaching and learning on database courses. This platform assigns to each student a set of database problems selected from a common repository. The student has to design a relational database schema and enter it into the system through a user friendly interface specifically designed for it. The correction tool corrects the design and shows detected errors. The student has the chance to correct them and send a new solution. These steps can be repeated as many times as required until a correct solution is obtained. Currently, this system is being used in different introductory database courses at the University of Girona with very promising results

ACME - Mòdul d'usuaris convidats

El projecte ACME va néixer, l’any 1998, amb la finalitat de millorar la docència de les matemàtiques en els estudis d’Enginyeria Industrial i Enginyeries Tècniques de l’Escola Politècnica de la Universitat de Girona, amb la intenció de buscar la manera de que els alumnes s’impliquessin i participessin més activament en aquesta matèria fent ús de la xarxa com a via de comunicació. El projecte ACME, Avaluació Continuada i Millora de l’Ensenyament, és una eina d’e-learning que té com a objectiu fer una avaluació continuada dels alumnes a través d’uns dossiers personalitzats de problemes que el professor proposa. El sistema permet fer el seguiment, per part del professor, del progrés del conjunt de la classe, o d’un alumne individual, en una assignatura concreta. Això fa que l’ACME tingui un gran valor pedagògic. Els objectius d’aquest projecte final de carrera són els següents: • Desenvolupar un sistema de gestió d’usuaris convidats que ens permeti acceptar o denegar l’accés a usuaris que prèviament han fet una petició per poder utilitzar l’ACME. • Crear un sistema que faciliti la tasca d’assignar als usuaris els temes i els problemes més adients pel seu perfil. • Desenvolupar tot un seguit de millores i ampliacions amb la intenció d’integrar el nou mòdul dins les interfícies existents: Ampliar la interfície d’administració en l’apartat d’usuari amb la opció per gestionar els usuaris convidats. Ampliar la interfície d’administració en l’apartat del quadern de problemes amb les opcions adients per tal de gestionar les assignatures dels convidats.

Investigating novel point-select techniques for older people

As the number and proportion of older people worldwide continues to grow, robotic devices can play a role in helping older people continue to live independent and active lives. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and interactions that involve pointing to items and selecting them are becoming more common in assistive robots. The authors are currently working on a project investigating techniques to improve point-select interactions for older people. In particular, the project studies how older people respond to expanding and moving targets. The research is ongoing, and this paper describes the methods that will be used in upcoming experiments.

Bringing the target to the cursor: proxy targets for older adults

Studies in the literature have proposed techniques to facilitate pointing in graphical user interfaces through the use of proxy targets. Proxy targets effectively bring the target to the cursor, thereby reducing the distance that the cursor must travel. This paper describes a study which aims to provide an initial understanding of how older adults respond to proxy targets, and compares older with younger users. We found that users in both age groups adjusted to the proxy targets without difficulty, and there was no indication in the cursor trajectories that users were confused about which target, i.e. the original versus the proxy, was to be selected. In terms of times, preliminary results show that for younger users, proxies did not provide any benefits over direct selection, while for older users, times were increased with proxy targets. A full analysis of the movement times, error rates, throughput and subjective feedback is currently underway.

Norms-based simulation for personalised service provision

User interfaces have the primary role of enabling access to information meeting individual users' needs. However, the user-systems interaction is still rigid, especially in support of complex environments where various types of users are involved. Among the approaches for improving user interface agility, we present a normative approach to the design interfaces of web applications, which allow delivering users personalized services according to parameters extracted from the simulation of norms in the social context. A case study in an e-Government context is used to illustrate the implications of the approach.

The use of cursor measures for motion-impaired computer users

“Point and click” interactions remain one of the key features of graphical user interfaces (GUIs). People with motion-impairments, however, can often have difficulty with accurate control of standard pointing devices. This paper discusses work that aims to reveal the nature of these difficulties through analyses that consider the cursor’s path of movement. A range of cursor measures was applied, and a number of them were found to be significant in capturing the differences between able-bodied users and motion-impaired users, as well as the differences between a haptic force feedback condition and a control condition. The cursor measures found in the literature, however, do not make up a comprehensive list, but provide a starting point for analysing cursor movements more completely. Six new cursor characteristics for motion-impaired users are introduced to capture aspects of cursor movement different from those already proposed.

Perception and haptics

For people with motion impairments, access to and independent control of a computer can be essential. Symptoms such as tremor and spasm, however, can make the typical keyboard and mouse arrangement for computer interaction difficult or even impossible to use. This paper describes three approaches to improving computer input effectivness for people with motion impairments. The three approaches are: (1) to increase the number of interaction channels, (2) to enhance commonly existing interaction channels, and (3) to make more effective use of all the available information in an existing input channel. Experiments in multimodal input, haptic feedback, user modelling, and cursor control are discussed in the context of the three approaches. A haptically enhanced keyboard emulator with perceptive capability is proposed, combining approaches in a way that improves computer access for motion impaired users.

Building simulation

This chapter aims to provide an overview of building simulation in a theoretical and practical context. The following sections demonstrate the importance of simulation programs at a time when society is shifting towards a low carbon future and the practice of sustainable design becomes mandatory. The initial sections acquaint the reader with basic terminology and comment on the capabilities and categories of simulation tools before discussing the historical development of programs. The main body of the chapter considers the primary benefits and users of simulation programs, looks at the role of simulation in the construction process and examines the validity and interpretation of simulation results. The latter half of the chapter looks at program selection and discusses software capability, product characteristics, input data and output formats. The inclusion of a case study demonstrates the simulation procedure and key concepts. Finally, the chapter closes with a sight into the future, commenting on the development of simulation capability, user interfaces and how simulation will continue to empower building professionals as society faces new challenges in a rapidly changing landscape.

High sensitivity recording of afferent nerve activity using ultra-compliant microchannel electrodes: an acutein vivovalidation

Neuroprostheses interfaced with transected peripheral nerves are technological routes to control robotic limbs as well as convey sensory feedback to patients suffering from traumatic neural injuries or degenerative diseases. To maximize the wealth of data obtained in recordings, interfacing devices are required to have intrafascicular resolution and provide high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) recordings. In this paper, we focus on a possible building block of a three-dimensional regenerative implant: a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microchannel electrode capable of highly sensitive recordings in vivo. The PDMS 'micro-cuff' consists of a 3.5 mm long (100 µm × 70 µm cross section) microfluidic channel equipped with five evaporated Ti/Au/Ti electrodes of sub-100 nm thickness. Individual electrodes have average impedance of 640 ± 30 kΩ with a phase angle of −58 ± 1 degrees at 1 kHz and survive demanding mechanical handling such as twisting and bending. In proof-of-principle acute implantation experiments in rats, surgically teased afferent nerve strands from the L5 dorsal root were threaded through the microchannel. Tactile stimulation of the skin was reliably monitored with the three inner electrodes in the device, simultaneously recording signal amplitudes of up to 50 µV under saline immersion. The overall SNR was approximately 4. A small but consistent time lag between the signals arriving at the three electrodes was observed and yields a fibre conduction velocity of 30 m s−1. The fidelity of the recordings was verified by placing the same nerve strand in oil and recording activity with hook electrodes. Our results show that PDMS microchannel electrodes open a promising technological path to 3D regenerative interfaces.

A decadal view of biodiversity informatics: challenges and priorities

Biodiversity informatics plays a central enabling role in the research community's efforts to address scientific conservation and sustainability issues. Great strides have been made in the past decade establishing a framework for sharing data, where taxonomy and systematics has been perceived as the most prominent discipline involved. To some extent this is inevitable, given the use of species names as the pivot around which information is organised. To address the urgent questions around conservation, land-use, environmental change, sustainability, food security and ecosystem services that are facing Governments worldwide, we need to understand how the ecosystem works. So, we need a systems approach to understanding biodiversity that moves significantly beyond taxonomy and species observations. Such an approach needs to look at the whole system to address species interactions, both with their environment and with other species.It is clear that some barriers to progress are sociological, basically persuading people to use the technological solutions that are already available. This is best addressed by developing more effective systems that deliver immediate benefit to the user, hiding the majority of the technology behind simple user interfaces. An infrastructure should be a space in which activities take place and, as such, should be effectively invisible.This community consultation paper positions the role of biodiversity informatics, for the next decade, presenting the actions needed to link the various biodiversity infrastructures invisibly and to facilitate understanding that can support both business and policy-makers. The community considers the goal in biodiversity informatics to be full integration of the biodiversity research community, including citizens' science, through a commonly-shared, sustainable e-infrastructure across all sub-disciplines that reliably serves science and society alike.

The concept of e-service from a social interaction perspective

Today’s e-services are complex phenomenon consisting of several different e-services linked together. The e-services are provided by IT systems and presented to customers through user interfaces. Within web design research criteria are laid out for the design of good user interfaces, but one problem is that these analyses are performed without a service focus. This lack of service focus can result in the designed user interfaces providing indistinct service concepts, especially where several e-services are intertwined with each other.In order to design IT system interfaces, we have to be clear about which e-services are provided by the IT system and how these e-services are related to each other. This paper presents a framework for the analysis of user interfaces in terms of focused e-service, service environment and two types of intertwined e-services; related e-services and interrelating e-services. The analyses are exemplified by an Internet based e-marketplace. The paper discusses how the framework can be combined with ordinary web design criteria and how it can be used for e-service development.

Gamers preferenser för användargränssnitt på en spelrelaterad webbplats

Användargränssnittsdesign är en stor del av en webbsidas intryck och förändras snabbt i takt med teknologins utveckling och trender. Men det gäller även att locka rätt användare. Hur lockar en webbsida till sig rätt målgrupp? Målet med rapporten var att analysera målgruppen gamers utifrån hur de upplever det grafiska användargränssnittet på en spelrelaterad webbsida. Rapporten behandlar även översiktitligt om aktuella trender för webbdesign tilltalar gamers. Undersökningen utfördes i två delar. I den första delen undersöktes 20 av de största spelrelaterade webbsidornas användargränssnitt. Under del två genomfördes en enkät och intervjuer med målgruppen gamers. I både enkäten och intervjuerna fick respondenterna ta ställning till olika mockups av en fiktiv webbsida. Det var stor skillnad på vad gamers ansåg vara tilltalande jämfört med hur de analyserade webbsidorna såg ut. Exempelvis var endast 25 % av de analyserade webbsidorna mörka medan 71,9 % av respondenterna föredrog en mörk layout.

A Resource Centric Approach For Advancing Collaboration Through Hydrologic Data And Model Sharing

HydroShare is an online, collaborative system being developed for open sharing of hydrologic data and models. The goal of HydroShare is to enable scientists to easily discover and access hydrologic data and models, retrieve them to their desktop or perform analyses in a distributed computing environment that may include grid, cloud or high performance computing model instances as necessary. Scientists may also publish outcomes (data, results or models) into HydroShare, using the system as a collaboration platform for sharing data, models and analyses. HydroShare is expanding the data sharing capability of the CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System by broadening the classes of data accommodated, creating new capability to share models and model components, and taking advantage of emerging social media functionality to enhance information about and collaboration around hydrologic data and models. One of the fundamental concepts in HydroShare is that of a Resource. All content is represented using a Resource Data Model that separates system and science metadata and has elements common to all resources as well as elements specific to the types of resources HydroShare will support. These will include different data types used in the hydrology community and models and workflows that require metadata on execution functionality. The HydroShare web interface and social media functions are being developed using the Drupal content management system. A geospatial visualization and analysis component enables searching, visualizing, and analyzing geographic datasets. The integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS) is being used to manage federated data content and perform rule-based background actions on data and model resources, including parsing to generate metadata catalog information and the execution of models and workflows. This presentation will introduce the HydroShare functionality developed to date, describe key elements of the Resource Data Model and outline the roadmap for future development.

A Framework supporting collaboration on the distributed design of integrated systems

The work described in this thesis aims to support the distributed design of integrated systems and considers specifically the need for collaborative interaction among designers. Particular emphasis was given to issues which were only marginally considered in previous approaches, such as the abstraction of the distribution of design automation resources over the network, the possibility of both synchronous and asynchronous interaction among designers and the support for extensible design data models. Such issues demand a rather complex software infrastructure, as possible solutions must encompass a wide range of software modules: from user interfaces to middleware to databases. To build such structure, several engineering techniques were employed and some original solutions were devised. The core of the proposed solution is based in the joint application of two homonymic technologies: CAD Frameworks and object-oriented frameworks. The former concept was coined in the late 80's within the electronic design automation community and comprehends a layered software environment which aims to support CAD tool developers, CAD administrators/integrators and designers. The latter, developed during the last decade by the software engineering community, is a software architecture model to build extensible and reusable object-oriented software subsystems. In this work, we proposed to create an object-oriented framework which includes extensible sets of design data primitives and design tool building blocks. Such object-oriented framework is included within a CAD Framework, where it plays important roles on typical CAD Framework services such as design data representation and management, versioning, user interfaces, design management and tool integration. The implemented CAD Framework - named Cave2 - followed the classical layered architecture presented by Barnes, Harrison, Newton and Spickelmier, but the possibilities granted by the use of the object-oriented framework foundations allowed a series of improvements which were not available in previous approaches: - object-oriented frameworks are extensible by design, thus this should be also true regarding the implemented sets of design data primitives and design tool building blocks. This means that both the design representation model and the software modules dealing with it can be upgraded or adapted to a particular design methodology, and that such extensions and adaptations will still inherit the architectural and functional aspects implemented in the object-oriented framework foundation; - the design semantics and the design visualization are both part of the object-oriented framework, but in clearly separated models. This allows for different visualization strategies for a given design data set, which gives collaborating parties the flexibility to choose individual visualization settings; - the control of the consistency between semantics and visualization - a particularly important issue in a design environment with multiple views of a single design - is also included in the foundations of the object-oriented framework. Such mechanism is generic enough to be also used by further extensions of the design data model, as it is based on the inversion of control between view and semantics. The view receives the user input and propagates such event to the semantic model, which evaluates if a state change is possible. If positive, it triggers the change of state of both semantics and view. Our approach took advantage of such inversion of control and included an layer between semantics and view to take into account the possibility of multi-view consistency; - to optimize the consistency control mechanism between views and semantics, we propose an event-based approach that captures each discrete interaction of a designer with his/her respective design views. The information about each interaction is encapsulated inside an event object, which may be propagated to the design semantics - and thus to other possible views - according to the consistency policy which is being used. Furthermore, the use of event pools allows for a late synchronization between view and semantics in case of unavailability of a network connection between them; - the use of proxy objects raised significantly the abstraction of the integration of design automation resources, as either remote or local tools and services are accessed through method calls in a local object. The connection to remote tools and services using a look-up protocol also abstracted completely the network location of such resources, allowing for resource addition and removal during runtime; - the implemented CAD Framework is completely based on Java technology, so it relies on the Java Virtual Machine as the layer which grants the independence between the CAD Framework and the operating system. All such improvements contributed to a higher abstraction on the distribution of design automation resources and also introduced a new paradigm for the remote interaction between designers. The resulting CAD Framework is able to support fine-grained collaboration based on events, so every single design update performed by a designer can be propagated to the rest of the design team regardless of their location in the distributed environment. This can increase the group awareness and allow a richer transfer of experiences among them, improving significantly the collaboration potential when compared to previously proposed file-based or record-based approaches. Three different case studies were conducted to validate the proposed approach, each one focusing one a subset of the contributions of this thesis. The first one uses the proxy-based resource distribution architecture to implement a prototyping platform using reconfigurable hardware modules. The second one extends the foundations of the implemented object-oriented framework to support interface-based design. Such extensions - design representation primitives and tool blocks - are used to implement a design entry tool named IBlaDe, which allows the collaborative creation of functional and structural models of integrated systems. The third case study regards the possibility of integration of multimedia metadata to the design data model. Such possibility is explored in the frame of an online educational and training platform.