555 research outputs found

    Design and Evaluation of Controller-based Raycasting Methods for Efficient Alphanumeric and Special Character Entry in Virtual Reality

    Get PDF
    Alphanumeric and special characters are essential during text entry. Text entry in virtual reality (VR) is usually performed on a virtual Qwerty keyboard to minimize the need to learn new layouts. As such, entering capitals, symbols, and numbers in VR is often a direct migration from a physical/touchscreen Qwerty keyboard—that is, using the mode-switching keys to switch between different types of characters and symbols. However, there are inherent differences between a keyboard in VR and a physical/touchscreen keyboard, and as such, a direct adaptation of mode-switching via switch keys may not be suitable for VR. The high flexibility afforded by VR opens up more possibilities for entering alphanumeric and special characters using the Qwerty layout. In this work, we designed two controller-based raycasting text entry methods for alphanumeric and special characters input (Layer-ButtonSwitch and Key-ButtonSwitch) and compared them with two other methods (Standard Qwerty Keyboard and Layer-PointSwitch) that were derived from physical and soft Qwerty keyboards. We explored the performance and user preference of these four methods via two user studies (one short-term and one prolonged use), where participants were instructed to input text containing alphanumeric and special characters. Our results show that Layer-ButtonSwitch led to the highest statistically significant performance, followed by Key-ButtonSwitch and Standard Qwerty Keyboard, while Layer-PointSwitch had the slowest speed. With continuous practice, participants' performance using Key-ButtonSwitch reached that of Layer-ButtonSwitch. Further, the results show that the key-level layout used in Key-ButtonSwitch led users to parallel mode switching and character input operations because this layout showed all characters on one layer. We distill three recommendations from th results that can help guide the design of text entry techniques for alphanumeric and special characters in VR

    Digital Technologies for Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language: a collective monograph

    Get PDF
    Колективна монографія розкриває різні аспекти використання цифрових технологій у навчанні англійської мови як іноземної/другої мови (цифровий сторітелінг, мобільні застосунки, інтерактивне навчання і онлайн-ігри, тощо) та надає освітянам і дослідникам ресурс для збагачення їхньої професійної діяльності. Окрема увага приділена цифровим інструментам для впровадження соціально-емоційного навчання та інклюзивної освіти на уроках англійської мови. Для вчителів англійської мови, методистів, викладачів вищих закладів освіти, науковців, здобувачів вищої освіти

    Blending the Material and Digital World for Hybrid Interfaces

    Get PDF
    The development of digital technologies in the 21st century is progressing continuously and new device classes such as tablets, smartphones or smartwatches are finding their way into our everyday lives. However, this development also poses problems, as these prevailing touch and gestural interfaces often lack tangibility, take little account of haptic qualities and therefore require full attention from their users. Compared to traditional tools and analog interfaces, the human skills to experience and manipulate material in its natural environment and context remain unexploited. To combine the best of both, a key question is how it is possible to blend the material world and digital world to design and realize novel hybrid interfaces in a meaningful way. Research on Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) investigates the coupling between physical objects and virtual data. In contrast, hybrid interfaces, which specifically aim to digitally enrich analog artifacts of everyday work, have not yet been sufficiently researched and systematically discussed. Therefore, this doctoral thesis rethinks how user interfaces can provide useful digital functionality while maintaining their physical properties and familiar patterns of use in the real world. However, the development of such hybrid interfaces raises overarching research questions about the design: Which kind of physical interfaces are worth exploring? What type of digital enhancement will improve existing interfaces? How can hybrid interfaces retain their physical properties while enabling new digital functions? What are suitable methods to explore different design? And how to support technology-enthusiast users in prototyping? For a systematic investigation, the thesis builds on a design-oriented, exploratory and iterative development process using digital fabrication methods and novel materials. As a main contribution, four specific research projects are presented that apply and discuss different visual and interactive augmentation principles along real-world applications. The applications range from digitally-enhanced paper, interactive cords over visual watch strap extensions to novel prototyping tools for smart garments. While almost all of them integrate visual feedback and haptic input, none of them are built on rigid, rectangular pixel screens or use standard input modalities, as they all aim to reveal new design approaches. The dissertation shows how valuable it can be to rethink familiar, analog applications while thoughtfully extending them digitally. Finally, this thesis’ extensive work of engineering versatile research platforms is accompanied by overarching conceptual work, user evaluations and technical experiments, as well as literature reviews.Die Durchdringung digitaler Technologien im 21. Jahrhundert schreitet stetig voran und neue Geräteklassen wie Tablets, Smartphones oder Smartwatches erobern unseren Alltag. Diese Entwicklung birgt aber auch Probleme, denn die vorherrschenden berührungsempfindlichen Oberflächen berücksichtigen kaum haptische Qualitäten und erfordern daher die volle Aufmerksamkeit ihrer Nutzer:innen. Im Vergleich zu traditionellen Werkzeugen und analogen Schnittstellen bleiben die menschlichen Fähigkeiten ungenutzt, die Umwelt mit allen Sinnen zu begreifen und wahrzunehmen. Um das Beste aus beiden Welten zu vereinen, stellt sich daher die Frage, wie neuartige hybride Schnittstellen sinnvoll gestaltet und realisiert werden können, um die materielle und die digitale Welt zu verschmelzen. In der Forschung zu Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) wird die Verbindung zwischen physischen Objekten und virtuellen Daten untersucht. Noch nicht ausreichend erforscht wurden hingegen hybride Schnittstellen, die speziell darauf abzielen, physische Gegenstände des Alltags digital zu erweitern und anhand geeigneter Designparameter und Entwurfsräume systematisch zu untersuchen. In dieser Dissertation wird daher untersucht, wie Materialität und Digitalität nahtlos ineinander übergehen können. Es soll erforscht werden, wie künftige Benutzungsschnittstellen nützliche digitale Funktionen bereitstellen können, ohne ihre physischen Eigenschaften und vertrauten Nutzungsmuster in der realen Welt zu verlieren. Die Entwicklung solcher hybriden Ansätze wirft jedoch übergreifende Forschungsfragen zum Design auf: Welche Arten von physischen Schnittstellen sind es wert, betrachtet zu werden? Welche Art von digitaler Erweiterung verbessert das Bestehende? Wie können hybride Konzepte ihre physischen Eigenschaften beibehalten und gleichzeitig neue digitale Funktionen ermöglichen? Was sind geeignete Methoden, um verschiedene Designs zu erforschen? Wie kann man Technologiebegeisterte bei der Erstellung von Prototypen unterstützen? Für eine systematische Untersuchung stützt sich die Arbeit auf einen designorientierten, explorativen und iterativen Entwicklungsprozess unter Verwendung digitaler Fabrikationsmethoden und neuartiger Materialien. Im Hauptteil werden vier Forschungsprojekte vorgestellt, die verschiedene visuelle und interaktive Prinzipien entlang realer Anwendungen diskutieren. Die Szenarien reichen von digital angereichertem Papier, interaktiven Kordeln über visuelle Erweiterungen von Uhrarmbändern bis hin zu neuartigen Prototyping-Tools für intelligente Kleidungsstücke. Um neue Designansätze aufzuzeigen, integrieren nahezu alle visuelles Feedback und haptische Eingaben, um Alternativen zu Standard-Eingabemodalitäten auf starren Pixelbildschirmen zu schaffen. Die Dissertation hat gezeigt, wie wertvoll es sein kann, bekannte, analoge Anwendungen zu überdenken und sie dabei gleichzeitig mit Bedacht digital zu erweitern. Dabei umfasst die vorliegende Arbeit sowohl realisierte technische Forschungsplattformen als auch übergreifende konzeptionelle Arbeiten, Nutzerstudien und technische Experimente sowie die Analyse existierender Forschungsarbeiten

    Moving usable security research out of the lab: evaluating the use of VR studies for real-world authentication research

    Get PDF
    Empirical evaluations of real-world research artefacts that derive results from observations and experiments are a core aspect of usable security research. Expert interviews as part of this thesis revealed that the costs associated with developing and maintaining physical research artefacts often amplify human-centred usability and security research challenges. On top of that, ethical and legal barriers often make usability and security research in the field infeasible. Researchers have begun simulating real-life conditions in the lab to contribute to ecological validity. However, studies of this type are still restricted to what can be replicated in physical laboratory settings. Furthermore, historically, user study subjects were mainly recruited from local areas only when evaluating hardware prototypes. The human-centred research communities have recognised and partially addressed these challenges using online studies such as surveys that allow for the recruitment of large and diverse samples as well as learning about user behaviour. However, human-centred security research involving hardware prototypes is often concerned with human factors and their impact on the prototypes’ usability and security, which cannot be studied using traditional online surveys. To work towards addressing the current challenges and facilitating research in this space, this thesis explores if – and how – virtual reality (VR) studies can be used for real-world usability and security research. It first validates the feasibility and then demonstrates the use of VR studies for human-centred usability and security research through six empirical studies, including remote and lab VR studies as well as video prototypes as part of online surveys. It was found that VR-based usability and security evaluations of authentication prototypes, where users provide touch, mid-air, and eye-gaze input, greatly match the findings from the original real-world evaluations. This thesis further investigated the effectiveness of VR studies by exploring three core topics in the authentication domain: First, the challenges around in-the-wild shoulder surfing studies were addressed. Two novel VR shoulder surfing methods were implemented to contribute towards realistic shoulder surfing research and explore the use of VR studies for security evaluations. This was found to allow researchers to provide a bridge over the methodological gap between lab and field studies. Second, the ethical and legal barriers when conducting in situ usability research on authentication systems were addressed. It was found that VR studies can represent plausible authentication environments and that a prototype’s in situ usability evaluation results deviate from traditional lab evaluations. Finally, this thesis contributes a novel evaluation method to remotely study interactive VR replicas of real-world prototypes, allowing researchers to move experiments that involve hardware prototypes out of physical laboratories and potentially increase a sample’s diversity and size. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications of using VR studies for prototype usability and security evaluations. It lays the foundation for establishing VR studies as a powerful, well-evaluated research method and unfolds its methodological advantages and disadvantages

    Improving conversations with digital assistants through extracting, recommending, and verifying user inputs

    Get PDF
    Digital assistants, including chat bots and voice assistants, suffer from discrepancies and uncertainty in human text and speech inputs. Human dialogue is often varied, ambiguous, and inconsistent, making data entry prone to error and difficult for digital assistants to process. Finding and extracting pertinent information from unstructured user inputs improves and expands the use of digital assistants on any platform. By confirming data entries and providing relevant recommendations when invalid information is provided, the digital assistant enables the use of natural language and introduces a higher degree of flow into the conversation.This paper describes a series of input logic codifiers that form a corrective method to overcome errors and ambiguity typical of voice and text inputs. When users make a common mistake or forget data, the digital assistant can bridge the gap by recommending the most similar data that is available. The assistant measures the delta between the user’s utterance and valid entries using fuzzy logic to identify the closest and next closest data that relates to the unstructured text.Furthermore, there are endless ways to denote dates, locations, etc., making it difficult for digital assistants to extract accurate and relevant data from the user’s natural language. However, the assistant may infer the desired data format or reference from the dialogue provided and validate this with the user as a follow-on question. The desired data format or type is inferred using fuzzy extraction methods, such as fuzzy date extraction, to isolate the desired data format from the unstructured text. This extracted information is then verified or confirmed by the user to maintain data accuracy and avoid downstream data quality issues

    Design and evaluation of graphical authentication systems for Arab children

    Get PDF
    The increasing use of digital technologies by all ages means the number of online accounts used by children is also increasing. The COVID-19 pandemic further increased this situation with children staying at home to do schooling and communicate with friends online. It is thus urgent to investigate authentication systems for this age group. Text passwords are still the most used authentication systems, however children have a range of problems with them. Unfortunately, little research has investigated suitable authentication systems for children. The aim of this programme of research is to bridge this gap by investigating the usability of graphical authentication systems for children. The research is divided into three phases, each consisting of one or more studies that provide insight for the next phase. Phase 1 focuses on understanding and exploring password knowledge and practices of children who are native speakers of Arabic. This phase revealed a number of challenges for Arabic children with text passwords, due to their level of cognitive development and lack of literacy in the English language. In Phase 2 two graphical authentication systems, DoodlePass and ObjectPass, were designed and evaluated based on three usability aspects: effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The findings showed that both these systems are effective, efficient, and satisfying for Arab children aged 6 to 12 years, and promising alternatives for text passwords. Phase 3 compared the DoodlePass and ObjectPass authentication systems. The findings showed that ObjectPass is significantly more effective, efficient, and satisfying compared with DoodlePass. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data were undertaken at all stages of the research. Overall, the findings suggest that graphical authentication systems are usable and promising alternatives for text passwords to overcome literacy and memorability challenges for children in the 6 to 12 years age group

    Practitioner perspectives of technology use in early years settings.

    Get PDF
    Perspectives of early years practitioners in English preschools were the focus for this thesis. Particularly exploring the use technology in the EYP role, and how they support children to use technology. Originally, intending to explore how the removal of technology and ICT from the 2021 revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework would affect provision, data was collected during the national lockdowns of COVID-19, so practitioners also shared experiences of how the use of technology and digital media changed during this time, and how children’s technology and digital media use in settings differed from pre lockdown. To ensure data collection could continue during lockdowns, the original data collection method of focus groups changed to telephone interviews and online questionnaires that allowed 103 practitioners to share their views. However, despite a change in methods, a qualitative methodology remained. Data suggests practitioners used digital media more during periods of lockdown, providing learning opportunities for children, meeting virtually with colleagues, and supporting parents. Children’s technology and digital media use in settings also changed; due to policy guidance, sanitising equipment and keeping children in ‘bubbles’ meant sharing devices became more difficult. Practitioners shared opinions and beliefs that children use technology too much at home, without considering whether children use technology for consumption or creation in these spaces. Further, practitioners often use technology with children to ‘tick a box’ for OFSTED without considering how these technologies can be woven into the classroom ecology to benefit all areas of learning and development as a tool for multimodal learning. Recommendations for practice include working with qualification awarding organisations to ensure early years qualifications include some content on technology use, and the creation of a lead practitioner role (Digital Activity Lead Co-ordinator, or DALCo) who can champion and lead technology use in their setting

    Continuous touchscreen biometrics: authentication and privacy concerns

    Get PDF
    In the age of instant communication, smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives, with a significant portion of the population using them for a variety of tasks such as messaging, banking, and even recording sensitive health information. However, the increasing reliance on smartphones has also made them a prime target for cybercriminals, who can use various tactics to gain access to our sensitive data. In light of this, it is crucial that individuals and organisations prioritise the security of their smartphones to protect against the abundance of threats around us. While there are dozens of methods to verify the identity of users before granting them access to a device, many of them lack effectiveness in terms of usability and potential vulnerabilities. In this thesis, we aim to advance the field of touchscreen biometrics which promises to alleviate some of the recurring issues. This area of research deals with the use of touch interactions, such as gestures and finger movements, as a means of identifying or authenticating individuals. First, we provide a detailed explanation of the common procedure for evaluating touch-based authentication systems and examine the potential pitfalls and concerns that can arise during this process. The impact of the pitfalls is evaluated and quantified on a newly collected large-scale dataset. We also discuss the prevalence of these issues in the related literature and provide recommendations for best practices when developing continuous touch-based authentication systems. Then we provide a comprehensive overview of the techniques that are commonly used for modelling touch-based authentication, including the various features, classifiers, and aggregation methods that are employed in this field. We compare the approaches under controlled, fair conditions in order to determine the top-performing techniques. Based on our findings, we introduce methods that outperform the current state-of-the-art. Finally, as a conclusion to our advancements in the development of touchscreen authentication technology, we explore any negative effects our work may cause to an ordinary user of mobile websites and applications. In particular, we look into any threats that can affect the privacy of the user, such as tracking them and revealing their personal information based on their behaviour on smartphones

    Barriers and facilitators of chronic breathlessness digital self-management interventions in people living with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - a systematic review and narrative synthesis

    Get PDF
    Abstract Background Recent research highlighted the expansion of telehealth has accelerated and will continue unabated. Patients with advanced chronic respiratory diseases experience breathlessness, often to a debilitating extent. This review aims to identify the barriers and facilitators to self-management, digital health intervention implementation, focusing on managing pain and breathlessness, in community-dwelling adults living with lung cancer and/or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Methods A systematic review of the literature following PRISMA guidelines, searching Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library and CINAHL databases, with two searches performed in June 2021 and April 2022. Study quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and the PARIHS framework was employed to extract key data. The findings were summarised via narrative synthesis and interventions classified according to the World Health Organization framework for digital health interventions. Results Twenty-four included studies indicate the current literature is highly heterogeneous in terms of both quality and study types. Barriers and facilitators towards intervention implementation were found. Ease of use, a good degree of intervention accessibility and financial savings over standard care were among the strongest facilitators. Advanced patient age, lack of technological skills or trust, variability of patient needs and unused data appeared as some of the main barriers. Discussion Involving all stakeholders during the early stages of planning, particularly patients and healthcare practitioners is very likely to increase chances of intervention implementation success. Interventions also should not increase burden on healthcare practitioners and implementing interventions locally appears to be more effective. Conclusions New knowledge is provided via a list of barriers and facilitators towards self-management interventions implementation. Earlier disease staging, younger target populations and advanced healthcare settings are likely to be the strongest facilitators towards implementation success, while healthcare practitioners will need additional support. Given the current fragmented state of the literature on this topic, future studies should focus on longer-term effectiveness and adherence of digital health interventions in chronic breathlessness, conducted both qualitatively and quantitatively
    corecore