Accessibility-by-design: a framework for delivery-context-aware personalised media content re-purposing

This paper describes a framework architecture for the automated re-purposing and efficient delivery of multimedia content stored in CMSs. It deploys specifically designed templates as well as adaptation rules based on a hierarchy of profiles to accommodate user, device and network requirements invoked as constraints in the adaptation process. The user profile provides information in accordance with the opt-in principle, while the device and network profiles provide the operational constraints such as for example resolution and bandwidth limitations. The profiles hierarchy ensures that the adaptation privileges the users' preferences. As part of the adaptation, we took into account the support for users' special needs, and therefore adopted a template-based approach that could simplify the adaptation process integrating accessibility-by-design in the template.

User-intimate requirements hierarchy resolution framework (UI-REF)

Abstract. This paper presents the User-Intimate Requirements Hierarchy Resolution Framework (UI-REF) based on earlier work (Badii 1997-2008) to optimise the requirements engineering process particularly to support userintimate interactive systems co-design. The stages of the UI- EF framework for requirements resolution-and-prioritisation are described. UI-REF has been established to ensure that the most-deeply-valued needs of the majority of stakeholders are elicited and ranked, and the root rationale for requirements evolution is trace-able and contextualised so as to help resolve stakeholder conflicts. UI-REF supports the dynamically evolving requirements of the users in the context of digital economy as under-pinned by online service provisioning. Requirements prioritisation in UI-REF is fully resolved while a promotion path for lower priority requirements is delineated so as to ensure that as the requirements evolve so will their resolution and prioritisation.

Security, trust and privacy supported by context-aware middleware

Driven by new network and middleware technologies such as mobile broadband, near-field communication, and context awareness the so-called ambient lifestyle will foster innovative use cases in building automation, healthcare and agriculture. In the EU project Hydra1 highlevel security, trust and privacy concerns such as loss of control, profiling and surveillance are considered at the outset. At the end of this project the Hydra middleware development platform will have been designed so as to enable developers to realise secure ambient scenarios especially in the user domains of building automation, healthcare, and agriculture. This paper gives a short introduction to the Hydra project, its user domains and its approach to ensure security by design. Based on the results of a focus group analysis of the building automation domain typical threats are evaluated and their risks are assessed. Then, specific security requirements with respect to security, privacy, and trust are derived in order to incorporate them into the Hydra Security Meta Model. How concepts such as context security, semantic security, and virtualisation support the overall Hydra approach will be introduced and illustrated on the basis of a technical building automation scenario.

An ontological modelling of user requirements for personalised information provision

The knowledge economy offers opportunity to a broad and diverse community of information systems users to efficiently gain information and know-how for improving qualifications and enhancing productivity in the work place. Such demand will continue and users will frequently require optimised and personalised information content. The advancement of information technology and the wide dissemination of information endorse individual users when constructing new knowledge from their experience in the real-world context. However, a design of personalised information provision is challenging because users’ requirements and information provision specifications are complex in their representation. The existing methods are not able to effectively support this analysis process. This paper presents a mechanism which can holistically facilitate customisation of information provision based on individual users’ goals, level of knowledge and cognitive styles preferences. An ontology model with embedded norms represents the domain knowledge of information provision in a specific context where users’ needs can be articulated and represented in a user profile. These formal requirements can then be transformed onto information provision specifications which are used to discover suitable information content from repositories and pedagogically organise the selected content to meet the users’ needs. The method is provided with adaptability which enables an appropriate response to changes in users’ requirements during the process of acquiring knowledge and skills.

How level and type of deafness affects user perception of multimedia video clips

Our research investigates the impact that hearing has on the perception of digital video clips, with and without captions, by discussing how hearing loss, captions and deafness type affects user QoP (Quality of Perception). QoP encompasses not only a user's satisfaction with the quality of a multimedia presentation, but also their ability to analyse, synthesise and assimilate informational content of multimedia . Results show that hearing has a significant effect on participants’ ability to assimilate information, independent of video type and use of captions. It is shown that captions do not necessarily provide deaf users with a ‘greater level of information’ from video, but cause a change in user QoP, depending on deafness type, which provides a ‘greater level of context of the video’. It is also shown that post-lingual mild and moderately deaf participants predict less accurately their level of information assimilation than post-lingual profoundly deaf participants, despite residual hearing. A positive correlation was identified between level of enjoyment (LOE) and self-predicted level of information assimilation (PIA), independent of hearing level or hearing type. When this is considered in a QoP quality framework, it puts into question how the user perceives certain factors, such as ‘informative’ and ‘quality’.

Context relevant persuasive interaction and design: consideration of human factors influencing B2C persuasive interaction

The revolutions of electronic and mobile commerce have opened up unique opportunities for global marketing and business to consumer (B2C) persuasive interaction; with the aim of influencing user behavior. The success or failure of such persuasive interaction is impacted by cultural, social, and personal dimensions. Accordingly, failure to consider such dimensions risks the user forming a negative attitude towards retailer’s websites or mobile applications, which subsequently threatens customer behavior. A better understanding of human factors influencing the way people perceive B2C persuasive interaction is needed. This paper is introduces the concept of a context relevant persuasive interaction and proposes a guideline for designing relevant B2C persuasive interaction.

Gaze stabilization testing: The efficiency and test-retest reliability of user operated control versus the parameter estimation (PEST) algorithm

The primary objective of this research study is to determine which form of testing, the PEST algorithm or an operator-controlled condition is most accurate and time efficient for administration of the gaze stabilization test

Shared decision-making in mental health care : a user perspective on decisional needs in community-based services

BACKGROUND: Shared decision-making (SDM) is an emergent research topic in the field of mental health care and is considered to be a central component of a recovery-oriented system. Despite the evidence suggesting the benefits of this change in the power relationship between users and practitioners, the method has not been widely implemented in clinical practice. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate decisional and information needs among users with mental illness as a prerequisite for the development of a decision support tool aimed at supporting SDM in community-based mental health services in Sweden. METHODS: Three semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 22 adult users with mental illness. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using a directed content analysis. This method was used to develop an in-depth understanding of the decisional process as well as to validate and conceptually extend Elwyn et al.'s model of SDM. RESULTS: The model Elwyn et al. have created for SDM in somatic care fits well for mental health services, both in terms of process and content. However, the results also suggest an extension of the model because decisions related to mental illness are often complex and involve a number of life domains. Issues related to social context and individual recovery point to the need for a preparation phase focused on establishing cooperation and mutual understanding as well as a clear follow-up phase that allows for feedback and adjustments to the decision-making process. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The current study contributes to a deeper understanding of decisional and information needs among users of community-based mental health services that may reduce barriers to participation in decision-making. The results also shed light on attitudinal, relationship-based, and cognitive factors that are important to consider in adapting SDM in the mental health system.

Adopting a computational approach to identifying and modelling future development initiatives within the urban context

In 2002 the State Government of Victoria, in partnership with the City of Greater Geelong and Deakin University, initiated and urban design framework to explore development opportunities of a series of redundant industrial sites adjacent to Geelong's central activities area (CAA). One of the objectives of the framework was to explore a range of initiatives based on the expansion of Deakin University Waterfront campus from 700 students to an expected cohort of 5000 students. Working with a set of predefined constructs for different types of city-based user groups, such as net floor space requirements and time/travel distances between facilities, the following paper presents a simple computational approach to assist in identifying, mapping, and spatially exploring different development scenarios.

User-generated content and the changing news cycle

Blogs represent a major development in media consumption and practice.  The Pew Center in the United States reported in mid-2005 that about eight million Americans had created blogs and 32 million read them.  That's equivalent to two-thirds the number of people who read a daily newspaper during a week, a challenging giguew in the context of dwindling circulations.  Blogs represent the start of the 'personal media' revolution, but are only the tip of a range of new media developments.  This paper describes the blog phenomenon and notes its arrival via a series of major new stories.  It suggests we are seeing the emergence of a new news cycle, as blogs and other internet-based media usurp broadcast's role in breaking news.  The paper describes a range of emerging digital journalism forms that make up the 'personal media' revolution.  These include blogs delivered via mobile phones (moblogs); video-based blogs (v-logs); newspapers' use of podcasting to deliver content; and wikis, or peer-generated online content. The media's reaction to this new form of content is described, and the other concludes by looking at the forces driving this new form of journalism.

User mobility prediction in hybrid and ad hoc wireless networks

Next Generation Networks will employ hybrid network architectures using both cellular and ad hoc networking concepts. The vision of real-time
multimedia services requires that mobility management be addressed in a proactive manner. If the user movements can be predicted accurately in a
hybrid network environment then handoff/cluster change, resource reservation and context transfer procedures can be efficiently completed as required by node mobility. In this work we propose a sectorized ad hoc mobility prediction scheme for cluster change prediction. Simulation study of the scheme shows it to be efficient in terms of prediction accuracy and prediction related control overhead despite randomness in user movement.

End-user experience with information in Web-based electronic service : a case study

End-user experience with information presumably considered as one of the prominent factors shaping the adoption of web-based electronic services. User interfacing with large amount of information the rationale is to deduce the effect in the current web-based task environment. Understanding user’s perception on the basis of the prior experience with information may provide insights into what constitutes in driving those perceptions and their effect in the current and future task in web-based electronic services. The paper lays the theoretical context of end-user experience with information and proceeds further in an attempt to distinguish the role in web-based electronic services.

Families as carers-information needs in a cultural context

While the important role of family as a carer has been increasingly recognised in healthcare service provision, particularly for patients with acute or chronic illnesses, the carer’s information needs have not been well understood and adequately supported by current health information systems. In order to effectively provide continuous and home-based care for the patient, a family relative as the primary carer needs sufficient access to medical knowledge and patient’s health information. There are two challenges. First, being a family relative, the primary carer is often a non-medical practitioner. Second, in Australia, many primary carers are family relatives of patients from a non-English speaking background. They are often seen as interpreters in clinical consultation sessions. Their roles and responsibilities as an interpreter and a carer are often mixed and blurry.
Therefore, their information needs are often seen as secondary to the patient or neglected. The primary carer’s information needs are currently not yet well understood.

This paper reports finding from a case study which examines an on-line diary of a husband-carer who provided support and care for his wife, who at the time of care was a lung cancer patient. The case study examines an ongoing learning process that the husband went through, identifies information needs by the carer and cultural factors which played an important role in the husband’s interpretation of information, decision making and provision of care. The finding extends a current model of the user’s information needs in the literature and suggests implications for further research into developing health information systems to meet information needs by the family carer.

Conceptualizing user satisfaction in the ubiquitous computing era

In this research-in-progress paper we argue that technology in the ubiquitous computing era offers experiences to users that extend well beyond the functional, practical applications offered in the world of work. In this era a realm of engagement is opening up to the individual that transcends the utilitarian, to encompass hedonic and social existence. Our central argument, therefore, is that user satisfaction is a notion which must extend to encompass rich, holistic human experience involving complex and fleeting interactions, driven by highly personal circumstances. We argue that the expectations, requirements and value perceptions of individuals in this dynamic context may only be anticipated and understood if situational factors (such as location, time, context, history-of-use) and quality of life factors (such as life stage, mobility, health, income, background, education) are taken into account. We identify the fundamental differences in key characteristics of user satisfaction between the traditional and ubiquitous computing environments and provide details about our own research approach, in which we are exploring ubiquitous content provision from the perspective of content providers.