Verfahren zur Inhaltsadaption von Darstellungselementen

Dieser Bericht gibt einen Überblick über bekannte Verfahren und Technologien zur automatischen Adaption von Darstellungselementen für mobile Endgeräte, wobei der Schwerpunkt bei Verfahren zur Adaption von Bildern, Videos, Webseiten und Audiodateien liegt. Ziel ist es, basierend auf den Eigenschaften des Endgerätes und den Interaktionsmöglichkeiten, geeignete Darstellungsformate automatisch abzuleiten. Als mögliche Endgeräte werden Mobiltelefone, PDAs, Tablet PCs und Notebook PCs betrachtet. Ein guter Adaptionsalgorithmus sollte eine computergestützte Umformatierung von nur einmal bereit gestellten Inhalten für die verschiedenen Formfaktoren, Auflösungen, Bildschirmgrößen, Interaktionstechniken (Maus, Stift, Touch-Screen usw.) und Netzbandbreiten unterstützen

Universal Accessibility as a Multimodal Design Issue

In recent years, many research activities have focused on design that aims to produce universally accessible systems, taking into account special needs of various user groups. These special needs are associated with many user factors, such as impairments of speech, hearing or vision, cognitive limitations, aging, as well as with various environmental factors. Fields that address this problem, such as Usability, Universal Accessibility, Universal Design, or Inclusive Design have been developed as relatively independent domains, but they share many aspects with other human-computer interaction (HCI) disciplines. However, researchers and practitioners are often not aware of interconnections among concepts of universal accessibility and "ordinary" HCI. In view of this situation, in this article we show there is a fundamental connection between multimodal interface design and universal accessibility, and that awareness of these links can help both disciplines. Researchers from these areas may use different terminology, but the concepts they use often have essentially the same meaning. We propose a unified conceptual framework where these areas can be joined

A Model-Driven Framework to Support Games Development: An Application to Serious Games

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is a software development approach which focuses on the creation of models to represent a domain with the aim of automatically generating software artefact using a set of software tools. This approach enables practitioners to produce a variation of software in by reusing the concepts in the domain model without worrying about the technical intricacies of software development. Therefore, this approach can help to increases productivity and it makes software design easier for the practitioners. The application of this approach into games development domain presents an interesting proposition and could help to simplify production of computer games.Computer games are interactive entertainment software designed and developed to engage users to participate in goal-directed play. Many find computer gaming to be persuasive and engaging, and they believe that through the application of game design and game technology in non-entertainment domains can create a positive impact. Computer games designed primarily for non-entertainment purpose are generally known as serious games. The development of games software, in no relation to the intended purpose of it, is technically complex and it requires specialist skills and knowledge. This is the major barrier that hinders domain experts who intend to apply computer gaming into their respective domains. Much research is already underway to address this challenge, whereby many of which have chosen to use readily available commercial-off-the-shelf games while others have attempted to develop serious games in-house or collaboratively with industry expertise. However, these approaches present issues including appropriateness of the serious game content and its activities, reliability of serious games developed and the financial cost involved. The MDE approach promises new hopes to the domain experts, especially to those with little or no technical knowledge who intend produce their own computer games. Using this approach, the technical aspects of games development can be hidden from the domain experts through the automated generation of software artefact. This simplifies the production of computer games and could provide the necessary support to help non-technical domain experts to realise their vision on serious gaming.This thesis investigates the development of a model-driven approach and technologies to aid non-technical domain experts in computer games production. It presents a novel model-driven games development framework designed to aid non-technical domain experts in producing computer games. A prototype based on the model-driven games development framework has been implemented to demonstrate the applicability of this solution. The framework has been validated through the prototypical implementations and these have been evaluated. A case study has been conducted to present a use-case scenario and to examine if this approach can help non-technical domain experts in producing computer games and also to find out if it would lower the barrier towards adoption of game-based learning as an alternative teaching and learning approach.The work in this thesis contributes to the area of software engineering in games. The contributions made in this research includes (1) a blueprint for model-driven engineering for games development, (2) a reusable formalised approach to document computer game design and (3) a model of game software that is independent of implementation platform

State-of-the-Art Model Driven Game Development: A Survey of Technological Solutions for Game-Based Learning

Game-based learning harnesses the advantages of computer games technology to create a fun, motivating and interactive virtual learning environment that promotes problem-based experiential learning. Such an approach is advocated by many commentators to provide an enhanced learning experience than those based on traditional didactic methods. However, the adoption of such a seductive learning method engenders a range of technical, educational and pedagogical challenges, including: (i) how to enable domain experts - with little computer games development skills – to plan, develop and update their teaching material without going through endless and laborious iterative cycles of software and content development and/or adaptation; (ii) how to choose the right mix of entertainment and game playing to deliver the required educational and pedagogical lesson/teaching material; and (iii) how to reuse existing games software frameworks and associated editing environments for game-based learning. Much research is already underway at addressing the stated challenges; however, these approaches do not address the key challenge of facilitating the planning and development of teaching material with the right mix of pedagogical elements, educational components and fun. Thus, this study aims to investigate the use of model-driven software engineering approaches to facilitate non-technical domain experts (teachers) to plan, develop and maintain game-based learning resources regardless of the intricacies of the game engine/environment (platform) used. This article investigates the state-of-the-art in model-driven game development to provide a summary of developments in game design languages, game software modelling languages, game models, game software models, model-driven game frameworks, game software frameworks, model-driven engineering tools and assistive user interfaces. The findings from this survey will prove a useful guide for future development of high-level educational game creation tools for game-based learning

Progettazione e sviluppo di interfacce multimodali composte da grafica e voce per piattaforme desktop e mobile basata su modelli

L'obiettivo di questa tesi è la definizione di un linguggio, basato su XML, che descriva in maniera logica le interfacce multimodali integrando la modalità grafica con quella vocale. Viene proposto un metodo per la trasformazione da interfaccia logica a interfaccia multimodale reale, utilizzando template XSLT che producono codice XHTML+Voice

INTERMOD: un enfoque ágil, dirigido por modelos y centrado en el usuario, para desarrollar aplicaciones interactivas

305 p.En el actual contexto tecnológico surge la necesidad de cambiar el enfoque de desarrollo del software interactivo. Se ha demostrado que el enfoque tradicional por fases no se adapta bien a los cambios frecuentes que exige la complejidad semántica de estas aplicaciones, ya que en cada fase trata el proyecto completo e implica al usuario solo al principio y en la entrega del mismo.Hace ya algún tiempo que existe la tendencia ágil que enfoca un proyecto a la entrega pronta e iterativa de resultados parciales, dado que el mercado actual es muy competitivo y exige resultados rápidos. La integración continua y los ciclos cortos permiten aceptar los cambios de forma temprana. Sin embargo, los factores de fracaso en el uso de estos enfoques son varios. Entre ellos, destacan los problemas organizativos, la falta de mecanismos para la planificación y/o el seguimiento del proyecto, y la indefinición del papel fundamental del cliente.La metodología propuesta en esta tesis busca resolver dos importantes problemas. Por una parte, adecuarse a las necesidades del usuario, posiblemente cambiantes, desde el principio al fin del proyecto. Un modelo específico para la recogida y evaluación temprana de los requisitos, y la integración de técnicas de usabilidad, serán cruciales para lograrlo. Por otra parte, formalizar el desarrollo del proyecto para que ayude al proceso. Las reglas de planificación y gestión propuestas en un desarrollo ágil por modelos lograrán superar este reto.Esta tesis presenta la metodología InterMod para el desarrollo de aplicaciones interactivas que se fundamenta en el desarrollo ágil e integra los principios de la Ingeniería de la Usabilidad y el desarrollo dirigido por modelos

INTERMOD: un enfoque ágil, dirigido por modelos y centrado en el usuario, para desarrollar aplicaciones interactivas

305 p.En el actual contexto tecnológico surge la necesidad de cambiar el enfoque de desarrollo del software interactivo. Se ha demostrado que el enfoque tradicional por fases no se adapta bien a los cambios frecuentes que exige la complejidad semántica de estas aplicaciones, ya que en cada fase trata el proyecto completo e implica al usuario solo al principio y en la entrega del mismo.Hace ya algún tiempo que existe la tendencia ágil que enfoca un proyecto a la entrega pronta e iterativa de resultados parciales, dado que el mercado actual es muy competitivo y exige resultados rápidos. La integración continua y los ciclos cortos permiten aceptar los cambios de forma temprana. Sin embargo, los factores de fracaso en el uso de estos enfoques son varios. Entre ellos, destacan los problemas organizativos, la falta de mecanismos para la planificación y/o el seguimiento del proyecto, y la indefinición del papel fundamental del cliente.La metodología propuesta en esta tesis busca resolver dos importantes problemas. Por una parte, adecuarse a las necesidades del usuario, posiblemente cambiantes, desde el principio al fin del proyecto. Un modelo específico para la recogida y evaluación temprana de los requisitos, y la integración de técnicas de usabilidad, serán cruciales para lograrlo. Por otra parte, formalizar el desarrollo del proyecto para que ayude al proceso. Las reglas de planificación y gestión propuestas en un desarrollo ágil por modelos lograrán superar este reto.Esta tesis presenta la metodología InterMod para el desarrollo de aplicaciones interactivas que se fundamenta en el desarrollo ágil e integra los principios de la Ingeniería de la Usabilidad y el desarrollo dirigido por modelos

A Model-Driven approach to content repurposing

The Multimedia Metamodel defines platform-independent multimedia concepts, opening the way for novel approaches to designing content repurposing solutions. Designers can use the metamodel to create content and add metadata to existing content, simplifying content analysis and repurposing