Towards a hybrid approach for adapting web graphical user interfaces to heterogeneous devices using context

Ubiquitous Computing promises seamless access to a wide range of applications and Internet based services from anywhere, at anytime, and using any device. In this scenario, new challenges for the practice of software development arise: Applications and services must keep a coherent behavior, a proper appearance, and must adapt to a plenty of contextual usage requirements and hardware aspects. Especially, due to its interactive nature, the interface content of Web applications must adapt to a large diversity of devices and contexts. In order to overcome such obstacles, this work introduces an innovative methodology for content adaptation of Web 2.0 interfaces. The basis of our work is to combine static adaption - the implementation of static Web interfaces; and dynamic adaptation - the alteration, during execution time, of static interfaces so as for adapting to different contexts of use. In hybrid fashion, our methodology benefits from the advantages of both adaptation strategies - static and dynamic. In this line, we designed and implemented UbiCon, a framework over which we tested our concepts through a case study and through a development experiment. Our results show that the hybrid methodology over UbiCon leads to broader and more accessible interfaces, and to faster and less costly software development. We believe that the UbiCon hybrid methodology can foster more efficient and accurate interface engineering in the industry and in the academy.

Smile detection for user interfaces

[EN]Perceptual User Interfaces (PUIs) aim at facilitating human-computer interaction with the aid of human-like capacities (computer vision, speech recognition, etc.). In PUIs, the human face is a central element, since it conveys not only identity but also other important information, particularly with respect to the user’s mood or emotional state. This paper describes both a face detector and a smile detector for PUIs. Both are suitable for real-time interaction.

Development and optimization of graphic user interfaces (GUIs) for infrared spectrometers at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo

This Phd thesis was entirely developed at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG, Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma Canary Islands) with the aim of designing, developing and implementing a new Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer (NICS) installed on the Nasmyth A of the telescope. The idea of a new GUI for NICS has risen for optimizing the astronomers work through a set of powerful tools not present in the existing GUI, such as the possibility to move automatically, an object on the slit or do a very preliminary images analysis and spectra extraction. The new GUI also provides a wide and versatile image display, an automatic procedure to find out the astronomical objects and a facility for the automatic image crosstalk correction. In order to test the overall correct functioning of the new GUI for NICS, and providing some information on the atmospheric extinction at the TNG site, two telluric standard stars have been spectroscopically observed within some engineering time, namely Hip031303 and Hip031567. The used NICS set-up is as follows: Large Field (0.25'' /pixel) mode, 0.5'' slit and spectral dispersion through the AMICI prism (R~100), and the higher resolution (R~1000) JH and HK grisms.

Using the Journalistic Metaphor to Design User Interfaces That Explain Sensor Data

Facilitating general access to data from sensor networks (including traffic, hydrology and other domains) increases their utility. In this paper we argue that the journalistic metaphor can be effectively used to automatically generate multimedia presentations that help non-expert users analyze and understand sensor data. The journalistic layout and style are familiar to most users. Furthermore, the journalistic approach of ordering information from most general to most specific helps users obtain a high-level understanding while providing them the freedom to choose the depth of analysis to which they want to go. We describe the general characteristics and architectural requirements for an interactive intelligent user interface for exploring sensor data that uses the journalistic metaphor. We also describe our experience in developing this interface in real-world domains (e.g., hydrology).

Using SCXML to integrate semantic sensor information into context-aware user interfaces

This paper describes a novel architecture to introduce automatic annotation and processing of semantic sensor data within context-aware applications. Based on the well-known state-charts technologies, and represented using W3C SCXML language combined with Semantic Web technologies, our architecture is able to provide enriched higher-level semantic representations of user’s context. This capability to detect and model relevant user situations allows a seamless modeling of the actual interaction situation, which can be integrated during the design of multimodal user interfaces (also based on SCXML) for them to be adequately adapted. Therefore, the final result of this contribution can be described as a flexible context-aware SCXML-based architecture, suitable for both designing a wide range of multimodal context-aware user interfaces, and implementing the automatic enrichment of sensor data, making it available to the entire Semantic Sensor Web

Using clustering techniques for intelligent camera-based user interfaces

The area of Human-Machine Interface is growing fast due to its high importance in all technological systems. The basic idea behind designing human-machine interfaces is to enrich the communication with the technology in a natural and easy way. Gesture interfaces are a good example of transparent interfaces. Such interfaces must identify properly the action the user wants to perform, so the proper gesture recognition is of the highest importance. However, most of the systems based on gesture recognition use complex methods requiring high-resource devices. In this work, we propose to model gestures capturing their temporal properties, which significantly reduce storage requirements, and use clustering techniques, namely self-organizing maps and unsupervised genetic algorithm, for their classification. We further propose to train a certain number of algorithms with different parameters and combine their decision using majority voting in order to decrease the false positive rate. The main advantage of the approach is its simplicity, which enables the implementation using devices with limited resources, and therefore low cost. The testing results demonstrate its high potential.

User interfaces for voice applications.

This paper discusses some of the aspects of task requirements, user expectations, and technological capabilities that influence the design of a voice interface and then identifies several components of user interfaces that are particularly critical in successful voice applications. Examples from several applications are provided to demonstrate how these components are used to produce effective voice interfaces.

Combining the power of online crowdsourcing with creative writing user interfaces

The goal of this work was to provide professional and amateur writers with a new way of enhancing their productivity and mental well-being, by helping them overcoming writers block and being able to achieve a state of optimal experience while writing. Our approach is based on bringing together different components to create what we call a creative moment. A creative moment is composed by an image, a text, a mood, a location and a color. The color presented in the creative moment varied according to the mood that was associated to the creative moment. With the creative moments we hoped that our users could have a way to easily trigger their creativity and have a kick start in their work. The prototyping of a web crowdsourcing platform, named CreativeWall, and a Microsoft Word Add-In, that was used on the user study performed, is described and their implementations are discussed. The user study reveals that our approach does have a positive influence in the productivity of the participants when compared with another existing approach. The study also revealed that our approach can ease the process of achieving a state of optimal experience by enhancing one of the dimensions presented on the Flow Theory. At the end we present what we consider would be some possible future developments for the concept created during the development of this work.

Combining the power of online crowdsourcing with creative writing user interfaces

The goal of this work was to provide professional and amateur writers with a new way of enhancing their productivity and mental well-being, by helping them overcoming writers block and being able to achieve a state of optimal experience while writing. Our approach is based on bringing together different components to create what we call a creative moment. A creative moment is composed by an image, a text, a mood, a location and a color. The color presented in the creative moment varied according to the mood that was associated to the creative moment. With the creative moments we hoped that our users could have a way to easily trigger their creativity and have a kick start in their work. The prototyping of a web crowdsourcing platform, named CreativeWall, and a Microsoft Word Add-In, that was used on the user study performed, is described and their implementations are discussed. The user study reveals that our approach does have a positive influence in the productivity of the participants when compared with another existing approach. The study also revealed that our approach can ease the process of achieving a state of optimal experience by enhancing one of the dimensions presented on the Flow Theory. At the end we present what we consider would be some possible future developments for the concept created during the development of this work.

Design and implementation of graphical user interfaces for complex simulations

The development of increasingly powerful computers, which has enabled the use of windowing software, has also opened the way for the computer study, via simulation, of very complex physical systems. In this study, the main issues related to the implementation of interactive simulations of complex systems are identified and discussed. Most existing simulators are closed in the sense that there is no access to the source code and, even if it were available, adaptation to interaction with other systems would require extensive code re-writing. This work aims to increase the flexibility of such software by developing a set of object-oriented simulation classes, which can be extended, by subclassing, at any level, i.e., at the problem domain, presentation or interaction levels. A strategy, which involves the use of an object-oriented framework, concurrent execution of several simulation modules, use of a networked windowing system and the re-use of existing software written in procedural languages, is proposed. A prototype tool which combines these techniques has been implemented and is presented. It allows the on-line definition of the configuration of the physical system and generates the appropriate graphical user interface. Simulation routines have been developed for the chemical recovery cycle of a paper pulp mill. The application, by creation of new classes, of the prototype to the interactive simulation of this physical system is described. Besides providing visual feedback, the resulting graphical user interface greatly simplifies the interaction with this set of simulation modules. This study shows that considerable benefits can be obtained by application of computer science concepts to the engineering domain, by helping domain experts to tailor interactive tools to suit their needs.

Face description for perceptual user interfaces

[EN]We investigate mechanisms which can endow the computer with the ability of describing a human face by means of computer vision techniques. This is a necessary requirement in order to develop HCI approaches which make the user feel himself/herself perceived. This paper describes our experiences considering gender, race and the presence of moustache and glasses. This is accomplished comparing, on a set of 6000 facial images, two di erent face representation approaches: Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Gabor lters. The results achieved using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) based classi er are promising and particularly better for the second representation approach.

Multiple face detection at different resolutions for perceptual user interfaces

[EN]This paper describes in detail a real-time multiple face detection system for video streams. The system adds to the good performance provided by a window shift approach, the combination of different cues available in video streams due to temporal coherence. The results achieved by this combined solution outperform the basic face detector obtaining a 98% success rate for around 27000 images, providing additionally eye detection and a relation between the successive detections in time by means of detection threads.

A framework for programmatically designing user interfaces in javascript

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of creating a declarative user interface language suitable for rapid prototyping of mobile and Web apps. Moreover, this paper presents a new framework for creating responsive user interfaces using JavaScript. Design/methodology/approach – Very little existing research has been done in JavaScript-specific declarative user interface (UI) languages for mobile Web apps. This paper introduces a new framework, along with several case studies that create modern responsive designs programmatically. Findings – The fully implemented prototype verifies the feasibility of a JavaScript-based declarative user interface library. This paper demonstrates that existing solutions are unwieldy and cumbersome to dynamically create and adjust nodes within a visual syntax of program code. Originality/value – This paper presents the Guix.js platform, a declarative UI library for rapid development of Web-based mobile interfaces in JavaScript.

Kinect with ROS, interact with oculus: towards dynamic user interfaces for robotic teleoperation

Teleoperation remains an important aspect for robotic systems especially when deployed in unstructured environments. While a range of research strives for robots that are completely autonomous, many robotic applications still require some level of human-in-The-loop control. In any situation where teleoperation is required an effective User Interface (UI) remains a key component within the systems design. Current advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) software and hardware such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google Cardboard combined with greater transparency to robotic systems afforded by middleware such as the Robot Operating System (ROS) provides an opportunity to rapidly improve traditional teleoperation interfaces. This paper uses a System of System (SoS) approach to present the concept of a Virtual Reality Dynamic User Interface (VRDUI) for the teleoperation of heterogeneous robots. Different geometric virtual workspaces are discussed and a cylindrical workspace aligned with interactive displays is presented as a virtual control room. A presentation mode within the proposed VRDUI is also detailed, this shows how point cloud information obtained from the Microsoft Kinect can be incorporated within the proposed virtual workspace. This point cloud data is successfully processed into an OctoMap utilizing the octree data structure to create a voxelized representation of the 3D scanned environment. The resulting OctoMap is then displayed to an operator as a 3D point cloud using the Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display (HMD).