Edge caching with mobility prediction in virtualized LTE mobile networks

Abstract Mobile Edge Computing enables the deployment of services, applications, content storage and processing in close proximity to mobile end users. This highly distributed computing environment can be used to provide ultra-low latency, precise positional awareness and agile applications, which could significantly improve user experience. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to consider next-generation paradigms such as Information-Centric Networking and Cloud Computing, integrated with the upcoming 5th Generation networking access. A cohesive end-to-end architecture is proposed, fully exploiting Information-Centric Networking together with the Mobile Follow-Me Cloud approach, for enhancing the migration of content-caches located at the edge of cloudified mobile networks. The chosen content-relocation algorithm attains content-availability improvements of up to 500 when a mobile user performs a request and compared against other existing solutions. The performed evaluation considers a realistic core-network, with functional and non-functional measurements, including the deployment of the entire system, computation and allocation/migration of resources. The achieved results reveal that the proposed architecture is beneficial not only from the users’ perspective but also from the providers point-of-view, which may be able to optimize their resources and reach significant bandwidth savings.

Improving cancer services through patient involvement

This book provides a clear approach to establishing a user involvement system in a healthcare organisation and its potential impact on cancer services. Using a tool kit style approach, drawing on examples of successful past projects and case studies to provide evidence of good practice, it describes how to plan and implement different stages of user involvement, enabling organisations to draw on user experience and expertise to evaluate, develop and improve the quality of service that they provide. Members of regional cancer networks, multidisciplinary cancer care teams, and all those involved in the NHS cancer services will find this toolkit interesting reading.

Cancer as a chronic illness? Reconsidering categorization and exploring experience

This article explores the different ways that user experience is defined and conceptualized, and the various policy and professional contexts in which emphasis is placed on exploring users’ views. We go on to examine the experience of cancer as a chronic illness and argue that, although there are common features in the experience of cancer and people with chronic illness, the differences are too significant and cancer should not be defined as a chronic condition. We conclude with a consideration of the methodological difficulties of documenting user experience and identify the need for further methodological development.

Hardware-based and Software-based Security in Digital Rights Management Solutions

The main requirements to DRM platforms implementing effective user experience and strong security measures to prevent unauthorized use of content are discussed. Comparison of hardware-based and software- based platforms is made showing the general inherent advantages of hardware DRM solutions. Analysis and evaluation of the main flaws of hardware platforms are conducted, pointing out the possibilities to overcome them. The overview of the existing concepts for practical realization of hardware DRM protection reveals their advantages and disadvantages and the increasing demand for creation of multi-core architecture, which could assure an effective DRM protection without decreasing the user’s freedom and importing risks for end system security.

We know what you want to buy:a demographic-based system for product recommendation on microblogs

Product recommender systems are often deployed by e-commerce websites to improve user experience and increase sales. However, recommendation is limited by the product information hosted in those e-commerce sites and is only triggered when users are performing e-commerce activities. In this paper, we develop a novel product recommender system called METIS, a MErchanT Intelligence recommender System, which detects users' purchase intents from their microblogs in near real-time and makes product recommendation based on matching the users' demographic information extracted from their public profiles with product demographics learned from microblogs and online reviews. METIS distinguishes itself from traditional product recommender systems in the following aspects: 1) METIS was developed based on a microblogging service platform. As such, it is not limited by the information available in any specific e-commerce website. In addition, METIS is able to track users' purchase intents in near real-time and make recommendations accordingly. 2) In METIS, product recommendation is framed as a learning to rank problem. Users' characteristics extracted from their public profiles in microblogs and products' demographics learned from both online product reviews and microblogs are fed into learning to rank algorithms for product recommendation. We have evaluated our system in a large dataset crawled from Sina Weibo. The experimental results have verified the feasibility and effectiveness of our system. We have also made a demo version of our system publicly available and have implemented a live system which allows registered users to receive recommendations in real time. © 2014 ACM.

Quality of experience evaluation of voice communication: an affect-based approach

Voice communication systems such as Voice-over IP (VoIP), Public Switched Telephone Networks, and Mobile Telephone Networks, are an integral means of human tele-interaction. These systems pose distinctive challenges due to their unique characteristics such as low volume, burstiness and stringent delay/loss requirements across heterogeneous underlying network technologies. Effective quality evaluation methodologies are important for system development and refinement, particularly by adopting user feedback based measurement. Presently, most of the evaluation models are system-centric (Quality of Service or QoS-based), which questioned us to explore a user-centric (Quality of Experience or QoE-based) approach as a step towards the human-centric paradigm of system design. We research an affect-based QoE evaluation framework which attempts to capture users' perception while they are engaged in voice communication. Our modular approach consists of feature extraction from multiple information sources including various affective cues and different classification procedures such as Support Vector Machines (SVM) and k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN). The experimental study is illustrated in depth with detailed analysis of results. The evidences collected provide the potential feasibility of our approach for QoE evaluation and suggest the consideration of human affective attributes in modeling user experience.

3D Navigation with Six Degrees-of-Freedom using a Multi-Touch Display

With the introduction of new input devices, such as multi-touch surface displays, the Nintendo WiiMote, the Microsoft Kinect, and the Leap Motion sensor, among others, the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) finds itself at an important crossroads that requires solving new challenges. Given the amount of three-dimensional (3D) data available today, 3D navigation plays an important role in 3D User Interfaces (3DUI). This dissertation deals with multi-touch, 3D navigation, and how users can explore 3D virtual worlds using a multi-touch, non-stereo, desktop display. The contributions of this dissertation include a feature-extraction algorithm for multi-touch displays (FETOUCH), a multi-touch and gyroscope interaction technique (GyroTouch), a theoretical model for multi-touch interaction using high-level Petri Nets (PeNTa), an algorithm to resolve ambiguities in the multi-touch gesture classification process (Yield), a proposed technique for navigational experiments (FaNS), a proposed gesture (Hold-and-Roll), and an experiment prototype for 3D navigation (3DNav). The verification experiment for 3DNav was conducted with 30 human-subjects of both genders. The experiment used the 3DNav prototype to present a pseudo-universe, where each user was required to find five objects using the multi-touch display and five objects using a game controller (GamePad). For the multi-touch display, 3DNav used a commercial library called GestureWorks in conjunction with Yield to resolve the ambiguity posed by the multiplicity of gestures reported by the initial classification. The experiment compared both devices. The task completion time with multi-touch was slightly shorter, but the difference was not statistically significant. The design of experiment also included an equation that determined the level of video game console expertise of the subjects, which was used to break down users into two groups: casual users and experienced users. The study found that experienced gamers performed significantly faster with the GamePad than casual users. When looking at the groups separately, casual gamers performed significantly better using the multi-touch display, compared to the GamePad. Additional results are found in this dissertation.

Digital anthropology and educational eGames: learning through behavioural patterns in digital, game-based contexts

The selected publications are focused on the relations between users, eGames and the educational context, and how they interact together, so that both learning and user performance are improved through feedback provision. A key part of this analysis is the identification of behavioural, anthropological patterns, so that users can be clustered based on their actions, and the steps taken in the system (e.g. social network, online community, or virtual campus). In doing so, we can analyse large data sets of information made by a broad user sample,which will provide more accurate statistical reports and readings. Furthermore, this research is focused on how users can be clustered based on individual and group behaviour, so that a personalized support through feedback is provided, and the personal learning process is improved as well as the group interaction. We take inputs from every person and from the group they belong to, cluster the contributions, find behavioural patterns and provide personalized feedback to the individual and the group, based on personal and group findings. And we do all this in the context of educational games integrated in learning communities and learning management systems. To carry out this research we design a set of research questions along the 10-year published work presented in this thesis. We ask if the users can be clustered together based on the inputs provided by them and their groups; if and how these data are useful to improve the learner performance and the group interaction; if and how feedback becomes a useful tool for such pedagogical goal; if and how eGames become a powerful context to deploy the pedagogical methodology and the various research methods and activities that make use of that feedback to encourage learning and interaction; if and how a game design and a learning design must be defined and implemented to achieve these objectives, and to facilitate the productive authoring and integration of eGames in pedagogical contexts and frameworks. We conclude that educational games are a resourceful tool to provide a user experience towards a better personalized learning performance and an enhance group interaction along the way. To do so, eGames, while integrated in an educational context, must follow a specific set of user and technical requirements, so that the playful context supports the pedagogical model underneath. We also conclude that, while playing, users can be clustered based on their personal behaviour and interaction with others, thanks to the pattern identification. Based on this information, a set of recommendations are provided Digital Anthropology and educational eGames 6 /216 to the user and the group in the form of personalized feedback, timely managed for an optimum impact on learning performance and group interaction level. In this research, Digital Anthropology is introduced as a concept at a late stage to provide a backbone across various academic fields including: Social Science, Cognitive Science, Behavioural Science, Educational games and, of course, Technology-enhance learning. Although just recently described as an evolution of traditional anthropology, this approach to digital behaviour and social structure facilitates the understanding amongst fields and a comprehensive view towards a combined approach. This research takes forward the already existing work and published research onusers and eGames for learning, and turns the focus onto the next step — the clustering of users based on their behaviour and offering proper, personalized feedback to the user based on that clustering, rather than just on isolated inputs from every user. Indeed, this pattern recognition in the described context of eGames in educational contexts, and towards the presented aim of personalized counselling to the user and the group through feedback, is something that has not been accomplished before.

Consideraciones alrededor de la Danza-movimiento Terapia y sus aplicaciones en el ámbito social

El artículo presenta aspectos generales sobre la Danza Movimiento Terapia (DMT). Aborda sus orígenes históricos y su evolución en las últimas décadas. La DMT es un modelo de intervención psicoterapéutica, que comparte numerosos elementos con otras terapias creativas, y cuya singularidad se encuentra en la consideración de las manifestaciones no verbales y el movimiento creativo dentro de un proceso terapéutico. Se hace hincapié en su aspecto multidisciplinar y en su creciente aplicación en entornos sociales y educativos como un modo de promover y potenciar la salud. Finalmente, se presenta brevemente la situación actual de la profesión en España enmarcada en el contexto europeo.

Exploring problem-framing through behavioural heuristics

Design for behaviour change aims to influence user behaviour, through design, for social or environmental benefit. Understanding and modelling human behaviour has thus come within the scope of designers’work, as in interaction design, service design and user experience design more generally. Diverse approaches to how to model users when seeking to influence behaviour can result in many possible strategies, but a major challenge for the field is matching appropriate design strategies to particular behaviours (Zachrisson & Boks, 2012). In this paper, we introduce and explore behavioural heuristics as a way of framing problem-solution pairs (Dorst & Cross, 2001) in terms of simple rules. These act as a ‘common language’ between insights from user research and design principles and techniques, and draw on ideas from human factors, behavioural economics, and decision research. We introduce the process via a case study on interaction with office heating systems, based on interviews with 16 people. This is followed by worked examples in the ‘other direction’, based on a workshop held at the Interaction ’12 conference, extracting heuristics from existing systems designed to influence user behaviour, to illustrate both ends of a possible design process using heuristics.

Käytettävyyssuunnittelun teoria ja käytäntö: Tapaustutkimus huonekalujen verkkokaupasta

Käytettävien ohjelmistojen suunnittelu tuo hyötyjä loppukäyttäjälle sekä muille sidosryhmille. Verkkokaupassa käytettävyys on elintärkeää, koska asiakkaat vaihtavat helposti seuraavalle sivustolle, mikäli he eivät löydä etsimäänsä. Tutkimusten mukaan käytettävyys vaikuttaa ostopäätöksen tekemiseen. Lisäksi käytettävyydellä on merkitystä asiakastyytyväisyyteen, joka taas vaikuttaa asiakasuskollisuuteen. Tässä tutkielmassa tutkittiin, miten käytettävyyttä suunnitellaan käytännössä verrattuna teoreettisiin suosituksiin. Tapaustutkimuksen kohteena oli huonekaluja myyvän kansainvälisen yrityksen verkkokaupan uudistamiseen tähtäävä projekti. Uudistamistarve nousi aikaisemman verkkokauppaversion puutteellisesta käytettävyydestä. Projekti toteutettiin ketterällä Scrum-menetelmällä. Empiirinen aineisto kerättiin puolistrukturoitujen haastattelujen avulla. Haastateltavat olivat käyttökokemuksen suunnitteluun osallistuvia henkilöitä. Haastattelujen teemat laadittiin teoreettisen aineiston pohjalta. Teoreettisessa osuudessa tutkittiin käytettävyyden suunnitteluun liittyviä periaatteita, prosessia ja menetelmiä. Aikaisemmasta tutkimuksesta löydettiin 12 periaatetta, jotka tukevat ja luonnehtivat käyttäjäkeskeistä suunnittelua. Käytettävyyttä suunnitellaan käyttäjäkeskeisen prosessin avulla. Eri prosessimallit pitivät keskeisinä asioina käyttökontekstin määrittelyä ja ymmärtämistä, mitattavia käytettävyysvaatimuksia, suunnitteluratkaisujen empiiristä arviointia sekä suunnitteluprosessin iteratiivisuutta. Lisäksi tarkasteltiin, mitä suunnittelumenetelmiä tutkijat ehdottavat käytettävyyden suunnitteluun ja mitä kyselytutkimusten perusteella todellisuudessa käytetään. Verkkokauppaprojektissa käytettävyyden suunnittelu erosi osittain teoreettisista suosituksista. Käyttökontekstitietoa ei ollut kaikilla projektiin osallistuvilla, eikä käytettävyysvaatimuksia ollut asetettu teorian tarkoittamalla tavalla. Yhtäläisyyksiäkin löytyi. Verkkokauppaprojektissa suunnitteluratkaisuja arvioitiin empiirisesti todellisten käyttäjien edustajien avulla. Suunnitteluprosessi oli iteratiivinen eli suunnitteluratkaisuja oltiin valmiita muuttamaan arvioinnin tuloksena. Tutkimuksen perusteella suositellaan, että verkkokauppaprojektissa parannettaisiin kommunikointia, koska käyttökontekstitieto ei saavuttanut kaikkia projektissa työskenteleviä. Teorian tulisi entisestään korostaa kommunikoinnin tärkeyttä. Tutkimuksen perusteella esitetään myös, että teoria ohjaisi paremmin vaatimusmäärittelyjen tekemiseen käytännössä. Avainsanat: Käytettävyys, käyttäjäkeskeinen suunnittelu, käytettävyyden periaatteet, käytettävyyden suunnittelumenetelmät, ketterä ohjelmistokehitys, tapaustutkimus

Playing with sound and gesture in digital audio games

This article introduces the genre of a digital audio game and discusses selected play interaction solutions implemented in the Audio Game Hub, a prototype designed and evaluated in the years 2014 and 2015 at the Gamification Lab at Leuphana University Lüneburg.1 The Audio Game Hub constitutes a set of familiar playful activities (aiming at a target, reflex-based reacting to sound signals, labyrinth exploration) and casual games (e.g. Tetris, Memory) adapted to the digital medium and converted into the audio sphere, where the player is guided predominantly or solely by sound. The authors will discuss the design questions raised at early stages of the project, and confront them with the results of user experience testing performed on two groups of sighted and one group of visually impaired gamers.

Interaction techniques with novel multimodal feedback for addressing gesture-sensing systems

Users need to be able to address in-air gesture systems, which means finding where to perform gestures and how to direct them towards the intended system. This is necessary for input to be sensed correctly and without unintentionally affecting other systems. This thesis investigates novel interaction techniques which allow users to address gesture systems properly, helping them find where and how to gesture. It also investigates audio, tactile and interactive light displays for multimodal gesture feedback; these can be used by gesture systems with limited output capabilities (like mobile phones and small household controls), allowing the interaction techniques to be used by a variety of device types. It investigates tactile and interactive light displays in greater detail, as these are not as well understood as audio displays. Experiments 1 and 2 explored tactile feedback for gesture systems, comparing an ultrasound haptic display to wearable tactile displays at different body locations and investigating feedback designs. These experiments found that tactile feedback improves the user experience of gesturing by reassuring users that their movements are being sensed. Experiment 3 investigated interactive light displays for gesture systems, finding this novel display type effective for giving feedback and presenting information. It also found that interactive light feedback is enhanced by audio and tactile feedback. These feedback modalities were then used alongside audio feedback in two interaction techniques for addressing gesture systems: sensor strength feedback and rhythmic gestures. Sensor strength feedback is multimodal feedback that tells users how well they can be sensed, encouraging them to find where to gesture through active exploration. Experiment 4 found that they can do this with 51mm accuracy, with combinations of audio and interactive light feedback leading to the best performance. Rhythmic gestures are continuously repeated gesture movements which can be used to direct input. Experiment 5 investigated the usability of this technique, finding that users can match rhythmic gestures well and with ease. Finally, these interaction techniques were combined, resulting in a new single interaction for addressing gesture systems. Using this interaction, users could direct their input with rhythmic gestures while using the sensor strength feedback to find a good location for addressing the system. Experiment 6 studied the effectiveness and usability of this technique, as well as the design space for combining the two types of feedback. It found that this interaction was successful, with users matching 99.9% of rhythmic gestures, with 80mm accuracy from target points. The findings show that gesture systems could successfully use this interaction technique to allow users to address them. Novel design recommendations for using rhythmic gestures and sensor strength feedback were created, informed by the experiment findings.

Utilising presence in places to support mobile interaction

Physical places are given contextual meaning by the objects and people that make up the space. Presence in physical places can be utilised to support mobile interaction by making access to media and notifications on a smartphone easier and more visible to other people. Smartphone interfaces can be extended into the physical world in a meaningful way by anchoring digital content to artefacts, and interactions situated around physical artefacts can provide contextual meaning to private manipulations with a mobile device. Additionally, places themselves are designed to support a set of tasks, and the logical structure of places can be used to organise content on the smartphone. Menus that adapt the functionality of a smartphone can support the user by presenting the tools most likely to be needed just-in-time, so that information needs can be satisfied quickly and with little cognitive effort. Furthermore, places are often shared with people whom the user knows, and the smartphone can facilitate social situations by providing access to content that stimulates conversation. However, the smartphone can disrupt a collaborative environment, by alerting the user with unimportant notifications, or sucking the user in to the digital world with attractive content that is only shown on a private screen. Sharing smartphone content on a situated display creates an inclusive and unobtrusive user experience, and can increase focus on a primary task by allowing content to be read at a glance. Mobile interaction situated around artefacts of personal places is investigated as a way to support users to access content from their smartphone while managing their physical presence. A menu that adapts to personal places is evaluated to reduce the time and effort of app navigation, and coordinating smartphone content on a situated display is found to support social engagement and the negotiation of notifications. Improving the sensing of smartphone users in places is a challenge that is out-with the scope of this thesis. Instead, interaction designers and developers should be provided with low-cost positioning tools that utilise presence in places, and enable quantitative and qualitative data to be collected in user evaluations. Two lightweight positioning tools are developed with the low-cost sensors that are currently available: The Microsoft Kinect depth sensor allows movements of a smartphone user to be tracked in a limited area of a place, and Bluetooth beacons enable the larger context of a place to be detected. Positioning experiments with each sensor are performed to highlight the capabilities and limitations of current sensing techniques for designing interactions with a smartphone. Both tools enable prototypes to be built with a rapid prototyping approach, and mobile interactions can be tested with more advanced sensing techniques as they become available. Sensing technologies are becoming pervasive, and it will soon be possible to perform reliable place detection in-the-wild. Novel interactions that utilise presence in places can support smartphone users by making access to useful functionality easy and more visible to the people who matter most in everyday life.

Metodologia participativa para repositórios de recursos educacionais abertos

This research deals with the use of a participatory design methodology to develop a repository of open educational resources, the Arcaz. Discusses key aspects of neutrality and determinism of technology within the context of Social Studies of Science and Technology and presents some concepts of critical theory of technology related to the democratic construction of technological artifacts. Discusses the philosophical heritage of the movements that led to the emergence of free software, open education and open educational resources and argues that participatory design share similar ideals. It presents concepts of human-computer interaction, interaction design and user centered design, important to enhance the user experience in information systems. It addresses the participatory design as a methodology that allows the democratic participation of users in the technological construction, promoting mutual learning and active voice for the participants. Develops a participatory design methodology adapted to the Arcaz context of use and provides the procedures for the meetings conducted to apply participatory design techniques to the repository and the results obtained. It concludes with a study of some of the interventions suggested in the system and orientations for future applications of participatory practices in the development of the repository and a list of best practices, focusing on ethical principles that should guide the participatory design.