Collaborative behavior, performance and engagement with visual analytics tasks using mobile devices

Interactive visualizations are external tools that can support users’ exploratory activities. Collaboration can bring benefits to the exploration of visual representations or visu‐ alizations. This research investigates the use of co‐located collaborative visualizations in mobile devices, how users working with two different modes of interaction and view (Shared or Non‐Shared) and how being placed at various position arrangements (Corner‐to‐Corner, Face‐to‐Face, and Side‐by‐Side) affect their knowledge acquisition, engagement level, and learning efficiency. A user study is conducted with 60 partici‐ pants divided into 6 groups (2 modes×3 positions) using a tool that we developed to support the exploration of 3D visual structures in a collaborative manner. Our results show that the shared control and view version in the Side‐by‐Side position is the most favorable and can improve task efficiency. In this paper, we present the results and a set of recommendations that are derived from them

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall: Collaborative Screen-Mirroring for Small Groups

Screen mirroring has been available to consumers for some time, however if every mobile device in the room supports screen mirroring to the main display (e.g. a shared TV), this necessitates a mechanism for managing its use. As such, this paper investigates allowing users in small intimacy groups (friends, family etc.) to self-manage mirrored use of the display, through passing/taking/requesting the display from whomever is currently mirroring to it. We examine the collaborative benefits this scheme could provide for the home, compared to existing multi-device use and existing screen mirroring implementations. Results indicate shared screen mirroring improves perceived collaboration, decreases dominance, preserves independence and has a positive effect on a group's activity awareness

The Use of Multiple Slate Devices to Support Active Reading Activities

Reading activities in the classroom and workplace occur predominantly on paper. Since existing electronic devices do not support these reading activities as well as paper, users have difficulty taking full advantage of the affordances of electronic documents. This dissertation makes three main contributions toward supporting active reading electronically. The first contribution is a comprehensive set of active reading requirements, drawn from three decades of research into reading processes. These requirements explain why existing devices are inadequate for supporting active reading activities. The second contribution is a multi-slate reading system that more completely supports the active reading requirements above. Researchers believe the suitability of paper for active reading is largely due to the fact it distributes content across different sheets of paper, which are capable of displaying information as well as capturing input. The multi-slate approach draws inspiration from the independent reading and writing surfaces that paper provides, to blend the beneficial features of e-book readers, tablets, PCs, and tabletop computers. The development of the multi-slate system began with the Dual-Display E-book, which used two screens to provide richer navigation capabilities than a single-screen device. Following the success of the Dual-Display E-book, the United Slates, a general-purpose reading system consisting of an extensible number of slates, was created. The United Slates consisted of custom slate hardware, specialized interactions that enabled the slates to be used cooperatively, and a cloud-based infrastructure that robustly integrated the slates with users' existing computing devices and workflow. The third contribution is a series of evaluations that characterized reading with multiple slates. A laboratory study with 12 participants compared the relative merits of paper and electronic reading surfaces. One month long in-situ deployments of the United Slates with graduate students in the humanities found the multi-slate configuration to be highly effective for reading. The United Slates system delivered desirable paper-like qualities that included enhanced reading engagement, ease of navigation, and peace-of-mind while also providing superior electronic functionality. The positive feedback suggests that the multi-slate configuration is a desirable method for supporting active reading activities

Updating the art history curriculum: incorporating virtual and augmented reality technologies to improve interactivity and engagement

Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This project investigates how the art history curricula in higher education can borrow from and incorporate emerging technologies currently being used in art museums. Many art museums are using augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to transform their visitors' experiences into experiences that are interactive and engaging. Art museums have historically offered static visitor experiences, which have been mirrored in the study of art. This project explores the current state of the art history classroom in higher education, which is historically a teacher-centered learning environment and the learning effects of that environment. The project then looks at how art museums are creating visitor-centered learning environments; specifically looking at how they are using reality technologies (virtual and augmented) to transition into digitally interactive learning environments that support various learning theories. Lastly, the project examines the learning benefits of such tools to see what could (and should) be implemented into the art history curricula at the higher education level and provides a sample section of a curriculum demonstrating what that implementation could look like. Art and art history are a crucial part of our culture and being able to successfully engage with it and learn from it enables the spread of our culture through digital means and of digital culture

Tac-tiles: multimodal pie charts for visually impaired users

Tac-tiles is an accessible interface that allows visually impaired users to browse graphical information using tactile and audio feedback. The system uses a graphics tablet which is augmented with a tangible overlay tile to guide user exploration. Dynamic feedback is provided by a tactile pin-array at the fingertips, and through speech/non-speech audio cues. In designing the system, we seek to preserve the affordances and metaphors of traditional, low-tech teaching media for the blind, and combine this with the benefits of a digital representation. Traditional tangible media allow rapid, non-sequential access to data, promote easy and unambiguous access to resources such as axes and gridlines, allow the use of external memory, and preserve visual conventions, thus promoting collaboration with sighted colleagues. A prototype system was evaluated with visually impaired users, and recommendations for multimodal design were derived

MoleculARweb: A Web Site for Chemistry and Structural Biology Education through Interactive Augmented Reality out of the Box in Commodity Devices

Augmented/virtual realities (ARs/VRs) promise to revolutionize STEM education. However, most easy-to-use tools are limited to static visualizations, which limits the approachable content, whereas more interactive and dynamic alternatives require costly hardware, preventing large-scale use and evaluation of pedagogical effects. Here, we introduce https://MoleculARweb.epfl.ch, a free, open-source web site with interactive AR webpage-based apps that work out-of-the-box in laptops, tablets, and smartphones, where students and teachers can naturally handle virtual objects to explore molecular structure, reactivity, dynamics, and interactions, covering topics from inorganic, organic, and biological chemistry. With these web apps, teachers and science communicators can develop interactive material for their lessons and hands-on activities for their students and target public, in person or online, as we exemplify. Thousands of accesses to moleculARweb attest to the ease of use; teacher feedback attests to the utility in online teaching and homework during a pandemic; and in-class plus online surveys show that users find AR engaging and useful for teaching and learning chemistry. These observations support the potential of AR in future education and show the large impact that modern web technologies have in democratizing access to digital learning tools, providing the possibility to mass-test the pedagogical effect of these technologies in STEM education.Fil: Rodríguez, Fabio Cortés. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Suiza. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics; SuizaFil: Frattini, Gianfranco. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas; ArgentinaFil: Krapp, Lucien F.. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Francia. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics; SuizaFil: Martinez Hung, Hassan. Universidad de Oriente; VenezuelaFil: Moreno, Diego Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Química Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Química Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Roldán, Mariana. Provincia de Córdoba. Instituto Colbert; ArgentinaFil: Salomón, Jorge Eduardo. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Escuela de Educación Técnica Nro. 4; ArgentinaFil: Stemkoski, Lee. Adelphi University; Estados UnidosFil: Traeger, Sylvain. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Suiza. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics; SuizaFil: Dal Peraro, Matteo. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Suiza. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics; SuizaFil: Abriata, Luciano Andres. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Suiza. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics; Suiz

Doing augmented reality: a discourse analysis

Since its emergence in the 90s, augmented reality has been referred to as the superimposition of virtual objects on the view of the physical world, and holds a promise to fundamentally change the way we interact with the digital universe. However, AR was never able to achieve such objectives, and after the Google Glass Experiment in 2013, what is evident is a conflict between the research visions and consumer expectations. Seeing that reality is done through discursive practices and enactments, this thesis examines how AR is done by those who are involved in its development, its promotion and its use, through textual and discourse analysis, aiming to understand the vision behind its development. We first analyse the emergence and development of AR, following with the analysis of the Google Glass Experiment, as a materialization of the technology. Taking into consideration the potential for behavior and lifestyle change held in AR development, understanding the underlying discourses and visions is of crucial importance as we bring technology to our reality. As a result we have a better assessment of the current technology situation as well as insights for future development and solutions in the field of augmented reality.Desde o seu surgimento nos anos 90, a realidade aumentada (RA) tem sido referida como a sobreposição de objetos virtuais na visão do mundo físico, e tem consigo a promessa de mudar fundamentalmente a maneira como interagimos com o universo digital. No entanto, a realidade aumentada nunca foi capaz de atingir tais objetivos e, após o Google Glass Experiment em 2013, o que fica evidente é um conflito entre as visões da pesquisa e as expectativas do consumidor. Vendo que a realidade se faz por meio de práticas e decretos discursivos, esta tese examina como a RA é construída por aqueles que estão envolvidos em seu desenvolvimento, sua promoção e seu uso, por meio da análise textual e do discurso, com o objetivo de compreender a visão por trás de seu desenvolvimento. Analisamos primeiro o surgimento e desenvolvimento da RA, seguindo com a análise do Google Glass Experiment, como uma materialização da tecnologia. Levando em consideração o potencial de mudança de comportamento e estilo de vida no desenvolvimento de RA, entender os discursos e visões subjacentes é de importância crucial à medida que trazemos a tecnologia para nossa realidade. Como resultado, temos uma melhor avaliação da situação atual da tecnologia, bem como percepções para o desenvolvimento futuro e soluções no campo da realidade aumentada

AUGMENTED TOUCH INTERACTIONS WITH FINGER CONTACT SHAPE AND ORIENTATION

Touchscreen interactions are far less expressive than the range of touch that human hands are capable of - even considering technologies such as multi-touch and force-sensitive surfaces. Recently, some touchscreens have added the capability to sense the actual contact area of a finger on the touch surface, which provides additional degrees of freedom - the size and shape of the touch, and the finger's orientation. These additional sensory capabilities hold promise for increasing the expressiveness of touch interactions - but little is known about whether users can successfully use the new degrees of freedom. To provide this baseline information, we carried out a study with a finger-contact-sensing touchscreen, and asked participants to produce a range of touches and gestures with different shapes and orientations, with both one and two fingers. We found that people are able to reliably produce two touch shapes and three orientations across a wide range of touches and gestures - a result that was confirmed in another study that used the augmented touches for a screen lock application

Eyewear Computing \u2013 Augmenting the Human with Head-Mounted Wearable Assistants

The seminar was composed of workshops and tutorials on head-mounted eye tracking, egocentric vision, optics, and head-mounted displays. The seminar welcomed 30 academic and industry researchers from Europe, the US, and Asia with a diverse background, including wearable and ubiquitous computing, computer vision, developmental psychology, optics, and human-computer interaction. In contrast to several previous Dagstuhl seminars, we used an ignite talk format to reduce the time of talks to one half-day and to leave the rest of the week for hands-on sessions, group work, general discussions, and socialising. The key results of this seminar are 1) the identification of key research challenges and summaries of breakout groups on multimodal eyewear computing, egocentric vision, security and privacy issues, skill augmentation and task guidance, eyewear computing for gaming, as well as prototyping of VR applications, 2) a list of datasets and research tools for eyewear computing, 3) three small-scale datasets recorded during the seminar, 4) an article in ACM Interactions entitled \u201cEyewear Computers for Human-Computer Interaction\u201d, as well as 5) two follow-up workshops on \u201cEgocentric Perception, Interaction, and Computing\u201d at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) as well as \u201cEyewear Computing\u201d at the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp)