Beyond application-led research in pervasive display systems

This position paper argues that more research is needed into identifying key abstractions and reference criteria for multi-purpose display systems. This would enable research in this area to go beyond the development of specific applications and move towards enabling infrastructures that could serve the needs of multiple applications.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - POSC/EIA/58832/2004FEDER - POS_Conheciment

Exploring an option space to engineer a ubiquitous computing system

Engineering natural and appropriate interactive behaviour in ubiquitous computing systems presents new challenges to their developers. This paper explores formal models of interactive behaviour in ubiquitous systems. Of particular interest is the way that these models may help engineers to visualise the consequences of different designs. Design options based on a dynamic signage system (GAUDI) are explored using different instances of a generic model of the system.EPSRC -Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EP/F01404X/1

An interface design for urban recreational walking: A practice-based case study

GPS-enabled mobile maps are now commonly used to wayfind in urban locations. Though increasingly efficient and more widely available, little attention has been paid to how novel approaches to the design of the visual interface may support particular user-experiences. This article presents the results of a practice-based study focusing on the design of an interface which allows walkers to maintain an awareness of the surrounding environment as they wayfind. Through an iterative process, a mixed-fidelity working prototype was developed and tested in a field setting. Results indicate that the interface promoted a high level of awareness of the surrounding environment

Enhancing privacy in public spaces through crossmodal displays

Abstract. The selection of appropriate display technology and interaction techniques relies upon an understanding of the public-private nature of information and the spaces from which it is accessed. We propose a crossmodal ambient display framework that supports multiple users simultaneously accessing information which contains both public and personal elements. Crossmodal ambient displays are multi-user interfaces that facilitate the efficient public access of personalized information, while maintaining the anonymity of each user in physical public spaces. Based on psychological theories of crossmodal attention which characterize human capabilities for matching information picked up by different modalities, the framework takes advantage of both public displays and mobile devices through the use of peripheral cues, and makes possible the integration of multi-task performance and information personalization in public space

Evaluating Dynamic Signage for Emergency Evacuation using an Immersive Video Environment

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.There are numerous reasons to evacuate a building in case of emergency; generally evacuation runs in case of constraints as fire, earthquake, indoor air pollution incidents, terrorist attacks and so on. There was a fire tragedy reported on January 28, 2013 in a night club in Brazil that many victims confused the exit sign with that for the toilet sign, where 50 bodies were found dead in toilet. It is reported that the victims lost their sense of direction due to the smoke [1]. Consequently the traditional static emergency signs are no longer effective especially in a complex building. They are not intelligent to decide how many people are using different exit, where the fire is and how much it may spread or how the evacuee will decide and think while they are in panic. They are several attempts to simulate the evacuation area and create a better model to dynamically lead the evacuee to exit. However creating such system is difficult because the prediction of behaviors in emergency incidents, modeling and examination in the real scenario are the biggest problems. Evacuation exercise are expensive and time consuming, as a result Virtual Environment (VEs) might be the feasible solution to create the emergency scenario and to study the physical, cognitive, and perceptual capabilities of the evacuees, letting them to experience and feel the emergency incident that are impossible to apply in the real world. This project presents the use of VE, called Immersive Video Environment (IVE) [2] to investigate and evaluate the possible dynamic signage inside a building to guide the evacuees to safety and exit. IVE system contains three screens with 140 degree from each other using 3 back projected wall at the same time. In this study dynamic signs inform the evacuee by following the exit signs cause of fire emergency and move towards the exit. Generally the user of VE is disoriented or discomforted due to navigation (Travel) part. As a result, following factors are evaluated by using some pre-defined questionnaire such as Simulator Sickness Questionnaire and NASA TLX: 1. The pre-movement time or response time to the dynamic signs. 2. Panic behavior or Decision making 3. Comfort of the system due to navigation part. 4. Performance of IVE 5. Realism of the simulation 8 scenarios have been managed for this experiment in which each of them last around 30 to 40 seconds for a trip from start point to the exit door. In the entire scenario, the exit signs will be varied. The test participants were 10 people (5 Female, 5 Male) who come from different countries not specially Germany. There were great considerable results of decision making in this study for example, there were several errors for the fire sign during the experiment besides the response time for the fire sign were highly more than the other designs. From the evaluator recognition, it is said that their response has been influenced by the exit door or the design of sign. Generally the performance and the comfort of the system show interesting results in the emergency simulation and footage video for VE. There were a significant different in term of discomfort between men and women and the results of their response time had significant difference. By users rating, the realism of the simulation has been confirmed. For response time experiment, some errors and significant variation were observed during the individual test. The IVE can be used for future experiment investigation such as way finding. The proposed system shall help to yield more reliable information about human behavior and decision making in emergency egress and creating a model. Locations, timing, duration and speed, helping from dynamic signs can be considered as decision-making process subject to emergency evacuation

Scalable context-dependent analysis of emergency egress models

Pervasive environments offer an increasing number of services to a large number of people moving within these environments, including timely information about where to go and when, and contextual information about the surrounding environment. This information may be conveyed to people through public displays or direct to a person's mobile phone. People using these services interact with the system but they are also meeting other people and performing other activities as relevant opportunities arise. The design of such systems and the analysis of collective dynamic behaviour of people within them is a challenging problem. We present results on a novel usage of a scalable analysis technique in this context. We show the validity of an approach based on stochastic process-algebraic models by focussing on a representative example, i.e. emergency egress. The chosen case study has the advantage that detailed data is available from studies employing alternative analysis methods, making cross-methodology comparison possible. We also illustrate how realistic, context-dependent human behaviour, often observed in emergency egress, can naturally be embedded in the models, and how the effect of such behaviour on evacuation can be analysed in an efficient and scalable way. The proposed approach encompasses both the agent modelling viewpoint, as system behaviour emerges from specific (discrete) agent interaction, and the population viewpoint, when classes of homogeneous individuals are considered for a (continuous)approximation of overall system behaviour

Modelling Interactive Experience, Function and Performance in Ubiquitous Systems

Abstract The cost of deploying a ubiquitous system to enhance a physical environment is likely to be considerable. The success of its deployment is highly dependent on its context: the physical environment and the activities that are to be carried out within it. This paper provides an initial exploration of whether stochastic process algebras (in particular PEPA with a Fluid Flow semantics) might be used to explore consequences before deployment. The focus of the exploration is to aid understanding of how a proposed system supports users within the environment. The challenge is to provide notations and techniques that will enable the analysis of potentially complex systems

The impact of airport road wayfinding design on senior driver behaviour

Airport road access wayfinding refers to a process in which a driver makes a decision to navigate using information support systems in order to arrive to airport successfully. The purpose of this research is to evaluate senior drivers’ behaviour of alternative airport road access designs. In order to evaluate the impact of wayfinding, the combination of simulated driving and completion of a questionnaire were performed. Quantitative data was acquired to give significant results justifying the research outcomes and allow non-biased interpretation of the research results. It represents the process within the development of the methodology and the concept of airport road access design and driving behaviour. Wayfinding complexity varied due to differing levels of road-side furniture. The simulated driving parameters measured were driving mistakes and performances of senior drivers. Three types of driving scenarios were designed consisting of 3.8 miles of airport road access. 40 senior drivers volunteered to undertake these tasks. The questionnaire was used as a supporting study to increase the reliability and validity of the research. Respondents who volunteered for the simulated driving test were encouraged to participate in the questionnaire sessions. The questionnaire was answered after each simulation test was completed. The Mean, Standard Deviation (SD) and Two-Way ANOVA test were used to analyse the results and discussed with reference to the use of the driving simulation. The results confirmed that age group has no significant effect of airport road access complexity design on driving behaviour. Although many studies have been conducted on wayfinding in general, a detailed evaluation on airport road access wayfinding network and driving behaviour in respect of senior drivers were still unexplored domains

Designing Usable and Secure Authentication Mechanisms for Public Spaces

Usable and secure authentication is a research field that approaches different challenges related to authentication, including security, from a human-computer interaction perspective. That is, work in this field tries to overcome security, memorability and performance problems that are related to the interaction with an authentication mechanism. More and more services that require authentication, like ticket vending machines or automated teller machines (ATMs), take place in a public setting, in which security threats are more inherent than in other settings. In this work, we approach the problem of usable and secure authentication for public spaces. The key result of the work reported here is a set of well-founded criteria for the systematic evaluation of authentication mechanisms. These criteria are justified by two different types of investigation, which are on the one hand prototypical examples of authentication mechanisms with improved usability and security, and on the other hand empirical studies of security-related behavior in public spaces. So this work can be structured in three steps: Firstly, we present five authentication mechanisms that were designed to overcome the main weaknesses of related work which we identified using a newly created categorization of authentication mechanisms for public spaces. The systems were evaluated in detail and showed encouraging results for future use. This and the negative sides and problems that we encountered with these systems helped us to gain diverse insights on the design and evaluation process of such systems in general. It showed that the development process of authentication mechanisms for public spaces needs to be improved to create better results. Along with this, it provided insights on why related work is difficult to compare to each other. Keeping this in mind, first criteria were identified that can fill these holes and improve design and evaluation of authentication mechanisms, with a focus on the public setting. Furthermore, a series of work was performed to gain insights on factors influencing the quality of authentication mechanisms and to define a catalog of criteria that can be used to support creating such systems. It includes a long-term study of different PIN-entry systems as well as two field studies and field interviews on real world ATM-use. With this, we could refine the previous criteria and define additional criteria, many of them related to human factors. For instance, we showed that social issues, like trust, can highly affect the security of an authentication mechanism. We used these results to define a catalog of seven criteria. Besides their definition, we provide information on how applying them influences the design, implementation and evaluation of a the development process, and more specifically, how adherence improves authentication in general. A comparison of two authentication mechanisms for public spaces shows that a system that fulfills the criteria outperforms a system with less compliance. We could also show that compliance not only improves the authentication mechanisms themselves, it also allows for detailed comparisons between different systems