17,475 research outputs found
Assessing the effectiveness of direct gesture interaction for a safety critical maritime application
Multi-touch interaction, in particular multi-touch gesture interaction, is widely believed to give a more natural interaction style. We investigated the utility of multi-touch interaction in the safety critical domain of maritime dynamic positioning (DP) vessels. We conducted initial paper prototyping with domain experts to gain an insight into natural gestures; we then conducted observational studies aboard a DP vessel during operational duties and two rounds of formal evaluation of prototypes - the second on a motion platform ship simulator. Despite following a careful user-centred design process, the final results show that traditional touch-screen button and menu interaction was quicker and less erroneous than gestures. Furthermore, the moving environment accentuated this difference and we observed initial use problems and handedness asymmetries on some multi-touch gestures. On the positive side, our results showed that users were able to suspend gestural interaction more naturally, thus improving situational awareness
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air and vegetation: case study at three selected toll stations along North South Expressway in Johor, Malaysia
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from vehicular emission are products of
the incomplete combustion of organic fuel, and are usually attached to the particulate
matter from the emission and can caused pollution and hazard to human health due to
its carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic characteristics. The objective of this
study is i) to determine the concentration PAHs in the air of sampling area, ii) to
determine the concentration PAHs in vegetation, iii) to determine the relationship of
concentration of PAHs in plants and air of sampling area and iv) to study the
different composition of PAHs in different species of plants to determine the
potential biomonitoring agent. The study is carried out at three toll stations along
PLUS’ North-South Expressway in Johor. Air sample and plant leaves sample
collected were extracted with ultrasonic agitation in dichloromethane and
fractionated according to polarity before submitted to gas chromatography – mass
spectrometry analysis to determine the concentration of the PAHs compounds.
Spearman’s rank correlation test was carried out using SPSS to determine the
correlation between concentration of PAHs in air and plant leaves sample. Seven
PAHs were identified and quantified in the atmospheric sample and plant leaves
sample. Those PAHs were acenaphtylene (ACN), phenanthrene (PHE), fluorene
(FL), pyrene (PY), chrysene (CHR), benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), and benzo[a]pyrene
(BaP). Significant correlation at 0.05 level (2-tailed) was observed in samples
of Ficus microcarpa, Cordyline fruticosa, Hibiscus spp., and Ixora coccinea with the
value 0.622, 0.643, 0.680 and 0.608 respectively. The positive correlation shows that
the plants have capabilities to absorb organic pollutants from the environment. Based
from this research, the most suitable species to be introduced into the environment as
a biomonitoring agent and to be further studied as a medium for low and medium
level pollution bioremediation is Ficus microcarpa, Cordyline fruticosa, and Ixora
coccine
Remote surface inspection system
This paper reports on an on-going research and development effort in remote surface inspection of space platforms such as the Space Station Freedom (SSF). It describes the space environment and identifies the types of damage for which to search. This paper provides an overview of the Remote Surface Inspection System that was developed to conduct proof-of-concept demonstrations and to perform experiments in a laboratory environment. Specifically, the paper describes three technology areas: (1) manipulator control for sensor placement; (2) automated non-contact inspection to detect and classify flaws; and (3) an operator interface to command the system interactively and receive raw or processed sensor data. Initial findings for the automated and human visual inspection tests are reported
Investigating Performance and Usage of Input Methods for Soft Keyboard Hotkeys
Touch-based devices, despite their mainstream availability, do not support a
unified and efficient command selection mechanism, available on every platform
and application. We advocate that hotkeys, conventionally used as a shortcut
mechanism on desktop computers, could be generalized as a command selection
mechanism for touch-based devices, even for keyboard-less applications. In this
paper, we investigate the performance and usage of soft keyboard shortcuts or
hotkeys (abbreviated SoftCuts) through two studies comparing different input
methods across sitting, standing and walking conditions. Our results suggest
that SoftCuts not only are appreciated by participants but also support rapid
command selection with different devices and hand configurations. We also did
not find evidence that walking deters their performance when using the Once
input method.Comment: 17+2 pages, published at Mobile HCI 202
Haptic-GeoZui3D: Exploring the Use of Haptics in AUV Path Planning
We have developed a desktop virtual reality system that we call Haptic-GeoZui3D, which brings together 3D user interaction and visualization to provide a compelling environment for AUV path planning. A key component in our system is the PHANTOM haptic device (SensAble Technologies, Inc.), which affords a sense of touch and force feedback – haptics – to provide cues and constraints to guide the user’s interaction. This paper describes our system, and how we use haptics to significantly augment our ability to lay out a vehicle path. We show how our system works well for quickly defining simple waypoint-towaypoint (e.g. transit) path segments, and illustrate how it could be used in specifying more complex, highly segmented (e.g. lawnmower survey) paths
Virtual Reality applied to biomedical engineering
Actualment, la realitat virtual esta sent tendència i s'està expandint a l'àmbit mèdic, fent possible l'aparició de nombroses aplicacions dissenyades per entrenar metges i tractar pacients de forma més eficient, així com optimitzar els processos de planificació quirúrgica. La necessitat mèdica i objectiu d'aquest projecte és fer òptim el procés de planificació quirúrgica per a cardiopaties congènites, que compren la reconstrucció en 3D del cor del pacient i la seva integració en una aplicació de realitat virtual. Seguint aquesta línia s’ha combinat un procés de modelat 3D d’imatges de cors obtinguts gracies al Hospital Sant Joan de Déu i el disseny de l’aplicació mitjançant el software Unity 3D gracies a l’empresa VISYON. S'han aconseguit millores en quant al software emprat per a la segmentació i reconstrucció, i s’han assolit funcionalitats bàsiques a l’aplicació com importar, moure, rotar i fer captures de pantalla en 3D de l'òrgan cardíac i així, entendre millor la cardiopatia que s’ha de tractar. El resultat ha estat la creació d'un procés òptim, en el que la reconstrucció en 3D ha aconseguit ser ràpida i precisa, el mètode d’importació a l’app dissenyada molt senzill, i una aplicació que permet una interacció atractiva i intuïtiva, gracies a una experiència immersiva i realista per ajustar-se als requeriments d'eficiència i precisió exigits en el camp mèdic
The Magnitude of Menu Costs: Direct Evidence from Large U.S. Supermarket Chains
We use store-level data to document the exact process of changing prices and to directly measure menu costs at five multi-store supermarket chains. We show that changing prices in these establishments is a complex process, requiring dozens of steps and a nontrivial amount of resources. The menu costs average 0.52/price change. These menu costs may be forming a barrier to price changes. Specifically, (1) a supermarket chain facing higher menu costs (due to item pricing laws which require a separate price tag on each item) changes prices 2 1/2 times less frequently than the other four chains; (2) within this chain, the prices of products exempt from the law are changed over three times more frequently than the products subject to the law.Menu Cost, Posted Prices, Multiproduct Retailer, Price Rigidity, Sticky Prices, Rigid Prices, Cost of Price Adjustment, New Keynesian Economics, Time Dependent Pricing
Dynamic Influence Networks for Rule-based Models
We introduce the Dynamic Influence Network (DIN), a novel visual analytics
technique for representing and analyzing rule-based models of protein-protein
interaction networks. Rule-based modeling has proved instrumental in developing
biological models that are concise, comprehensible, easily extensible, and that
mitigate the combinatorial complexity of multi-state and multi-component
biological molecules. Our technique visualizes the dynamics of these rules as
they evolve over time. Using the data produced by KaSim, an open source
stochastic simulator of rule-based models written in the Kappa language, DINs
provide a node-link diagram that represents the influence that each rule has on
the other rules. That is, rather than representing individual biological
components or types, we instead represent the rules about them (as nodes) and
the current influence of these rules (as links). Using our interactive DIN-Viz
software tool, researchers are able to query this dynamic network to find
meaningful patterns about biological processes, and to identify salient aspects
of complex rule-based models. To evaluate the effectiveness of our approach, we
investigate a simulation of a circadian clock model that illustrates the
oscillatory behavior of the KaiC protein phosphorylation cycle.Comment: Accepted to TVCG, in pres
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