Multimodal 'Eyes-Free' interaction techniques for mobile devices

Mobile and wearable computers present input/output prob-lems due to limited screen space and interaction techniques. When mobile, users typically focus their visual attention on navigating their environment - making visually demanding interface designs hard to operate. This paper presents two multimodal interaction techniques designed to overcome these problems and allow truly mobile, 'eyes-free' device use. The first is a 3D audio radial pie menu that uses head gestures for selecting items. An evaluation of a range of different audio designs showed that egocentric sounds re-duced task completion time, perceived annoyance, and al-lowed users to walk closer to their preferred walking speed. The second is a sonically enhanced 2D gesture recognition system for use on a belt-mounted PDA. An evaluation of the system with and without audio feedback showed users' ges-tures were more accurate when dynamically guided by au-dio-feedback. These novel interaction techniques demon-strate effective alternatives to visual-centric interface de-signs on mobile devices.

Acute mobile phone operation affects neural function in humans

OBJECTIVES: Mobile phones (MP) are used extensively and yet little is known about the effects they may have on human physiology. There have been conflicting reports regarding the relation between MP use and the electroencephalogram (EEG). The present study suggests that this conflict may be due to methodological differences such as exposure durations, and tests whether exposure to an active MP affects EEG as a function of time. METHODS: Twenty-four subjects participated in a single-blind fully counterbalanced cross-over design, where both resting EEG and phase-locked neural responses to auditory stimuli were measured while a MP was either operating or turned off. RESULTS: MP exposure altered resting EEG, decreasing 1-4 Hz activity (right hemisphere sites), and increasing 8-12 Hz activity as a function of exposure duration (midline posterior sites). MP exposure also altered early phase-locked neural responses, attenuating the normal response decrement over time in the 4-8 Hz band, decreasing the response in the 1230 Hz band globally and as a function of time, and increasing midline frontal and lateral posterior responses in the 30-45 Hz band. CONCLUSIONS: Active MPs affect neural function in humans and do so as a function of exposure duration. The temporal nature of this effect may contribute to the lack of consistent results reported in the literature.

Can the Q Link Ally,® a form of sympathetic resonance technology (SRT™), sttenuate scute mobile phone-related changes to neural function?

OBJECTIVES: Exposure to active mobile phones (MP) has been shown to affect human neural function as shown by the electroencephalogram (EEG). Although it has not been determined whether such effects are harmful, a number of devices have been developed that attempt to minimize these MP-related effects. One such device, the Q Link Ally® (QL; Clarus Products, International, L.L.C., San Rafael, CA), is argued to affect the human organism in such a way as to attenuate the effect of MPs. The present pilot study was designed to determine whether there is any indication that QL does alter MP-related effects on the human EEG. DESIGN: Twenty-four (24) subjects participated in a single-blind, fully counterbalanced crossover design in which subjects' resting EEG and phase-locked neural responses to auditory stimuli were assessed under conditions of either active MP or active MP plus QL. RESULTS: The addition of QL to the MP condition increased resting EEG in the gamma range and did so as a function of exposure duration, and it attenuated MP-related effects in the delta and alpha range (at trend-level). The addition of the QL also affected phase-locked neural responses, with a laterality reversal in the alpha range and an alteration to changes over time in the delta range, a reduction of the MP-related beta decrease over time at fronto-posterior sites, and a global reduction in the gamma range that increased as a function of exposure duration. No unambiguous relations were found between these changes and either performance or psychologic state. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study suggests that the addition of the QL to active MP-exposure does affect neural function in humans, altering both resting EEG patterns and the evoked neural response to auditory stimuli, and that there is a tendency for some MP-related changes to the EEG to be attenuated by the QL.

Deformation microstructure under nanoindentations in Cu using 3D x-ray structural microscopy

We have used a recently developed x-ray structural microscopy technique to make nondestructive, submicron-resolution measurements of the deformation microstructure below a 100mN maximum load Berkovich nanoindent in single crystal Cu. Direct observations of plastic deformation under the indent were obtained using a ~0.5 µm polychromatic microbeam and diffracted beam depth profiling to make micron-resolution spatially-resolved x-ray Laue diffraction measurements. The local lattice rotations underneath the nanoindent were found to be heterogeneous in nature as revealed by geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) densities determined for positions along lines beneath a flat indent face and under the sharp Berkovich indent blade edges. Measurements of the local rotation-axes and misorientation-angles along these lines are discussed in terms of crystallographic slip systems.

Semantic Interpretation of 3D Point Clouds of Historical Objects

This paper presents the main concepts of a project under development concerning the analysis process of a scene containing a large number of objects, represented as unstructured point clouds. To achieve what we called the "optimal scene interpretation" (the shortest scene description satisfying the MDL principle) we follow an approach for managing 3-D objects based on a semantic framework based on ontologies for adding and sharing conceptual knowledge about spatial objects.

Mobile Applications for Cultural and Historical Places

A review of free applications of smartphones working under the operation system of Android is made in the paper. The applications present users information about historical and cultural places of interest at travelling. There are three main groups of applications subject of discussion in the paper – world, national and regional. Their abilities, positive and negative characteristics are compares and described. A conclusion can be made that there is a necessity of new application that presents tourists detailed information about the Old capital of Bulgaria.

A comparison of two distributed large-volume measurement systems:the mobile spatial co-ordinate measuring system and the indoor global positioning system

Advances in the area of industrial metrology have generated new technologies that are capable of measuring components with complex geometry and large dimensions. However, no standard or best-practice guides are available for the majority of such systems. Therefore, these new systems require appropriate testing and verification in order for the users to understand their full potential prior to their deployment in a real manufacturing environment. This is a crucial stage, especially when more than one system can be used for a specific measurement task. In this paper, two relatively new large-volume measurement systems, the mobile spatial co-ordinate measuring system (MScMS) and the indoor global positioning system (iGPS), are reviewed. These two systems utilize different technologies: the MScMS is based on ultrasound and radiofrequency signal transmission and the iGPS uses laser technology. Both systems have components with small dimensions that are distributed around the measuring area to form a network of sensors allowing rapid dimensional measurements to be performed in relation to large-size objects, with typical dimensions of several decametres. The portability, reconfigurability, and ease of installation make these systems attractive for many industries that manufacture large-scale products. In this paper, the major technical aspects of the two systems are briefly described and compared. Initial results of the tests performed to establish the repeatability and reproducibility of these systems are also presented. © IMechE 2009.

3D printed sensing patches with embedded polymer optical fibre Bragg gratings

The first demonstration of a polymer optical fibre Bragg grating (POFBG) embedded in a 3-D printed structure is reported. Its cyclic strain performance and temperature characteristics are examined and discussed. The sensing patch has a repeatable strain sensitivity of 0.38 pm/μepsilon. Its temperature behaviour is unstable, with temperature sensitivity values varying between 30-40 pm/°C.

Semantikos: proposta de interfaces para aplicativo mediador de técnica de diferencial semântico em mobile tablet

This research aims to systematize a proposal of developing a mobile tablet application in order to help implementing the Semantic Differential technique – SD, under the approach of Participatory Design. In 1975, Osgood et al. created the Semantic Differential technique. Since then, many experiments use it to measure the affective perception of individuals concerning objects and concepts by means of compounded scales of bipolar adjectives, based on the theoretical models that support the technique: the conductible, spatial and metric models. During the application of the technique with potential users, the researcher must simultaneously manage several contexts, that is, audio recorder, when authorized, and observe and record spontaneous reports of the respondent. It is noticeable that often occurs a cognitive overload during this event. Thus, the use of a single application whose interface is assigned to its users and respondents could assist researchers in applying the SD technique. This research aimed to understand the processes inherent to the task of implementing the Semantic Differential technique and obeyed the following steps: a) training of users, b) background questionnaire c) interview with Focus Group, and d) cooperative evaluation. Besides these procedures, one can also observe the degrees of facilitation or difficulty concerning the use of the conventional model, which is the development and application of scales with the aid of printed material, pencil, pens, clipboards, and recorder software for editing the document and data analysis. This paper comprises reactions and impressions from the experiences of users of SD technique. Considering the data recollected from the user’s observation, the hypothesis of the experiment proved to be right. It means that the development of the application for mobile tablet employing the technique of Semantic Differential is viable, since it assembles all the steps in one only tool, increases the accomplishment of the task between user/researcher and user/respondent resulting in their mutual satisfaction.

Uma proposta de solução para funcionamento offline em aplicações android

Given the growing demand for the development of mobile applications, driven by use increasingly common in smartphones and tablets grew in society the need for remote data access in full in the use of mobile application without connectivity environments where there is no provision network access at all times. Given this reality, this work proposes a framework that present main functions are the provision of a persistence mechanism, replication and data synchronization, contemplating the creation, deletion, update and display persisted or requested data, even though the mobile device without connectivity with the network. From the point of view of the architecture and programming practices, it reflected in defining strategies for the main functions of the framework are met. Through a controlled study was to validate the solution proposal, being found as the gains in reducing the number of lines code and the amount of time required to perform the development of an application without there being significant increase for the operations.

Uma proposta de solução para funcionamento offline em aplicações android

Given the growing demand for the development of mobile applications, driven by use increasingly common in smartphones and tablets grew in society the need for remote data access in full in the use of mobile application without connectivity environments where there is no provision network access at all times. Given this reality, this work proposes a framework that present main functions are the provision of a persistence mechanism, replication and data synchronization, contemplating the creation, deletion, update and display persisted or requested data, even though the mobile device without connectivity with the network. From the point of view of the architecture and programming practices, it reflected in defining strategies for the main functions of the framework are met. Through a controlled study was to validate the solution proposal, being found as the gains in reducing the number of lines code and the amount of time required to perform the development of an application without there being significant increase for the operations.

Progettazione e sviluppo di un' applicazione mobile basata su Wi-Fi Direct per la comunicazione tra veicoli e pedoni

Questo documento di tesi si incentra principalmente sullo studio delle reti wireless mobili e dei relativi scenari di utilizzo. In particolare, come esse vengono applicate per il riconoscimento e la prevenzione di incidenti stradali. Vista l’importanza di questo problema a livello di sicurezza stradale, ho deciso di sviluppare un' applicazione per smartphone Android, in grado di riconoscere le attività di uso quotidiano dell’utente e associarle a dei comportamenti, come ad esempio quello di un ciclista, di un pedone o di un automobilista. Nel caso in cui, in uno scenario stradale i dispositivi si trovassero ad una distanza ravvicinata, possono comunicare tramite una connessione Wi-Fi Direct il loro ruolo e lanciare messaggi di pericolo per avvisare la loro presenza, in modo da prevenire collisioni stradali. La realtà in cui si vuole collocare questa applicazione è quella che viene chiamata Pedestrian Detection, già idea di General Motors, che la sta sviluppando sui futuri veicoli che metterà in produzione nei prossimi anni e che sicuramente integreranno funzionalità aggiuntive per la segnalazione di pericoli tramite smartphone e Wi-Fi Direct.

My Personal Trainer: applicazione di e-learning per il fitness su piattaforma Android

L’obiettivo della tesi è quello di mettere in pratica e approfondire le conoscenze acquisite durante il percorso universitario, al fine di avvicinarsi a quello che sarà poi il mondo del lavoro. Questa motivazione e la voglia di realizzare qualcosa di concreto hanno portato alla scelta di sviluppare un’applicazione per sistemi mobile, in questo modo è stato necessario affrontare le varie fasi di sviluppo di un software che comprendono in particolare la progettazione e l’implementazione. All'interno della tesi si darà uno sguardo al contesto in cui l’applicazione MyPersonalTrainer vuole andarsi ad inserire, si procederà con la descrizione della fase di progettazione che comprende l'analisi dei requisiti, poi si analizzerà la fase di implementazione e infine verranno effettuate delle considerazioni sui possibili sviluppi futuri.

Progetto e realizzazione di una applicazione mobile a supporto di iniziative ed eventi culturali

Obbiettivo di questa tesi è presentare l'applicazione per dispositivi mobili denominata “dPiP” (che sta per “di Piazza in Piazza“), il suo scopo, il suo funzionamento ed il processo che ha portato dalla sua ideazione al suo utilizzo nell'ambito delle iniziative dell'Università di Bologna in occasione dell'EXPO2015. In particolare, l'applicazione è strettamente correlata all'installazione "di Piazza in Piazza" che è stata ospitata presso la Biblioteca Malatestiana di Cesena, da Settembre 2015 a Maggio 2016.

State-of-the-Art Multihoming Protocols and Support for Android

Il traguardo più importante per la connettività wireless del futuro sarà sfruttare appieno le potenzialità offerte da tutte le interfacce di rete dei dispositivi mobili. Per questo motivo con ogni probabilità il multihoming sarà un requisito obbligatorio per quelle applicazioni che puntano a fornire la migliore esperienza utente nel loro utilizzo. Sinteticamente è possibile definire il multihoming come quel processo complesso per cui un end-host o un end-site ha molteplici punti di aggancio alla rete. Nella pratica, tuttavia, il multihoming si è rivelato difficile da implementare e ancor di più da ottimizzare. Ad oggi infatti, il multihoming è lontano dall’essere considerato una feature standard nel network deployment nonostante anni di ricerche e di sviluppo nel settore, poiché il relativo supporto da parte dei protocolli è quasi sempre del tutto inadeguato. Naturalmente anche per Android in quanto piattaforma mobile più usata al mondo, è di fondamentale importanza supportare il multihoming per ampliare lo spettro delle funzionalità offerte ai propri utenti. Dunque alla luce di ciò, in questa tesi espongo lo stato dell’arte del supporto al multihoming in Android mettendo a confronto diversi protocolli di rete e testando la soluzione che sembra essere in assoluto la più promettente: LISP. Esaminato lo stato dell’arte dei protocolli con supporto al multihoming e l’architettura software di LISPmob per Android, l’obiettivo operativo principale di questa ricerca è duplice: a) testare il roaming seamless tra le varie interfacce di rete di un dispositivo Android, il che è appunto uno degli obiettivi del multihoming, attraverso LISPmob; e b) effettuare un ampio numero di test al fine di ottenere attraverso dati sperimentali alcuni importanti parametri relativi alle performance di LISP per capire quanto è realistica la possibilità da parte dell’utente finale di usarlo come efficace soluzione multihoming.