Natural Notation for the Domestic Internet of Things

This study explores the use of natural language to give instructions that might be interpreted by Internet of Things (IoT) devices in a domestic `smart home' environment. We start from the proposition that reminders can be considered as a type of end-user programming, in which the executed actions might be performed either by an automated agent or by the author of the reminder. We conducted an experiment in which people wrote sticky notes specifying future actions in their home. In different conditions, these notes were addressed to themselves, to others, or to a computer agent.We analyse the linguistic features and strategies that are used to achieve these tasks, including the use of graphical resources as an informal visual language. The findings provide a basis for design guidance related to end-user development for the Internet of Things.Comment: Proceedings of the 5th International symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD), Madrid, Spain, May, 201

Corrección del error en el proceso de registro en los sistemas de realidad aumentada utilizando técnicas heurísticas

Desde la masificación de los primeros computadores en la década de los 90’s su uso estaba restringido a desarrollar tareas específicas y cálculos repetitivos. En la actualidad, los computadores y sistemas informáticos están permeando cada vez más las actividades humanas, convirtiéndose en lo que Weiser define como Sistemas Ubicuos [Wei99]. Este nuevo paradigma de interacción humano-máquina implica disponer de interfaces naturales que permitan una comunicación efectiva entre el usuario y la máquina, presentando grandes retos para las ciencias de la computación en cuanto al diseño de sistemas, su modelamiento y, en particular, el desarrollo de las interfaces de usuario. En este contexto, las interfaces deben entrar en consonancia con el concepto de Amplificación de la Inteligencia [Bro96][Bro96a] tal que permita la creación de sistemas capaces de amplificar o mejorar las capaces cognitivas humanas en lugar de imitarlas o reemplazarlas. En esta búsqueda de interfaces cada vez más naturales que extiendan las capacidades perceptivas humanas, surge la creación de nuevos entornos y metáforas de visualización como la Realidad Virtual (RV) y la Realidad Aumentada (RA). En particular, la realidad aumentada aparece como un nuevo paradigma de visualización e interacción humano-máquina que permite al usuario obtener información adicional (información virtual) de su entorno e incluso manipular esta información conservando su relación con el ambiente real. La obtención de dicha información adicional, se logra mediante la superposición en el ambiente real, de información virtual generada por computador. La creación de un sistema de realidad aumentada involucra varias etapas, a saber: calibración de dispositivos, extracción de características, seguimiento y registro. Esta última etapa presenta grandes retos para la creación de un ambiente de RA realista, ya que aquí se une tanto la información virtual como la real; si dicha alineación no es correcta, el sistema será visualmente incoherente. Es por esto que el registro es una etapa crítica que actualmente limita las aplicaciones de realidad aumentada. En la presente tesis, se aborda por medio de técnicas heurísticas esta limitación, que ha sido recurrente en la literatura. Como aporte se propone el uso de técnicas heurísticas, las cuales hasta ahora no han sido abordadas en la literatura, para disminuir el error existente entre la información de posicionamiento obtenida en etapas anteriores al proceso de registro (información estimada) y la información real. Dicha disminución en el error se traduce en un alineamiento real-virtual (etapa de registro) mucho más preciso y coherente, obteniendo en consecuencia sistemas o ambientes que apoyen de manera efectiva los problemas de visualización y acceso a información en una mayor cantidad de aplicaciones./Abstarct. Since the first computers appear in the early 90’s, its use was restricted to perform specific tasks and repetitive calculations. Today, computers are getting mixed in human activities more and more, becoming what Weiser [Wei99] defined as ubiquitous systems. This new paradigm of human-machine interaction implies the availability of natural interfaces that allow an effective communication between the user and the machine. It presents great challenges for computer science related to the systems design and modeling, and in particular, the development of user interfaces. In this context, the interfaces must be in relation with the concept of Intelligence Amplification [Bro96][Bro96a], that allows the creation of systems that can amplify or improve human cognitive perceptions rather than imitate or replace them. In this search for more and more natural interfaces that extend human cognitive capacities, new environments and visualization metaphors such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) rose. In particular, augmented reality appears as a new paradigm for visualization and human-machine interaction that allows the user to obtain additional information (virtual information) from his/her environment and even manipulate this information while preserving their relationship with the real world. Obtaining such information is achieved by the overlap in the real environment, virtual information generated by computer. The creation of an augmented reality system involves several steps, namely, device calibration, feature extraction, tracking and registration. This last stage presents great challenges for creating an realistic AR environment, since this stage binds both the virtual and the real information, if the alignment is not correct, the system will be visually incoherent. This is why the registration is a critical stage which currently limits the applications of augmented reality. In this thesis, this limitation is tackle by means of heuristics. Contributions include the use of heuristics to reduce the error between the position information obtained in previous stages to the registration process (information estimated) and real data. This reduction in error resulting in a real-virtual alignment (registration stage) much more accurate and consistent, thus gaining support to systems and environments to solve effectively visualization problems and access to information in a larger number of applications.Maestrí

Vision-Augmented molecular dynamics simulation of nanoindentation

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.This thesis has contributed to the literature by providing a pathway to simplify the process of carrying out molecular dynamics simulation. As a part of the investigation, a user-friendly vision-augmented technique was developed to set up and carry out atomistic simulations using hand-gestures. The system is novel in its concept as it enables the user to directly manipulate the atomic structures on the screen, in 3D space using hand gestures, allowing the exploration and visualisation of molecular interactions at different relative conformations. The hand gestures are used to pick and place atoms on the screen allowing thereby the ease of preparing and carrying out molecular dynamics simulations in a more intuitive way. The end result is that users with limited expertise in developing molecular structures can now do so easily and intuitively by the use of body gestures to interact with the simulator to study the system in question. The proposed system was tested by performing parallel molecular dynamics simulations to study (i) crystal anisotropy of a diamond cubic substrate (crystalline silicon) using nanoindentation with a long-range (Screened bond order) Tersoff potential and (ii) crystal anisotropy of a body centre cubic metal (tantalum) using nanoindentation with an Embedded Atomic Method (EAM) type potential. The MD data was post-processed to reveal size effects observed in anisotropy of both these materials, namely, silicon and tantalum. The value of hardness and elastic modulus obtained from the MD data was found in accordance with what has been discovered previously by experiments, thereby validating the simulations. Based on this, it is anticipated that the proposed system will open up new horizons to the current methods on how an MD simulation is designed and executed.King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al- Saud Ministry of Higher Education and Northern Borders University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabi

Augmenting sticky notes as an I/O interface

The design and implementation of systems that combine both the utilities of the digital world as well as intrinsic affordances of traditional artifacts are challenging. In this paper, we present ‘Quickies’, an attempt to bring one of the most useful inventions of the 20th century into the digital age: the ubiquitous sticky notes. ‘Quickies’ enriches the experience of using stickynotes by linking hand-written sticky-notes to the mobile phone, digital calendars, task-lists, e-mail and instant messaging clients. By augmenting the familiar and ubiquitous physical sticky-note, ‘Quickies’ leverages existing patterns of behavior, merging paper-based sticky-note usage with the user’s informational experience. The project explores how the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), RFID, and ink recognition technologies can make it possible to create intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located, can send reminders and messages, and more broadly, can act as an I/O interface to the digital information world