188 research outputs found

    Design and Implementation of a wearable, context-aware MR framework for the Chloe@University application

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    In this paper, we present the technical details and the challenges we faced during the development and evaluation phases of our wearable indoor guiding system which consists of a virtual personal assistant guiding the user to his/her desired destination. The main issues that will be discussed can be classiïŹed in three categories: context detection, real-time 3D rendering and user interaction

    Mental vision:a computer graphics platform for virtual reality, science and education

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    Despite the wide amount of computer graphics frameworks and solutions available for virtual reality, it is still difficult to find a perfect one fitting at the same time the many constraints of research and educational contexts. Advanced functionalities and user-friendliness, rendering speed and portability, or scalability and image quality are opposite characteristics rarely found into a same approach. Furthermore, fruition of virtual reality specific devices like CAVEs or wearable systems is limited by their costs and accessibility, being most of these innovations reserved to institutions and specialists able to afford and manage them through strong background knowledge in programming. Finally, computer graphics and virtual reality are a complex and difficult matter to learn, due to the heterogeneity of notions a developer needs to practice with before attempting to implement a full virtual environment. In this thesis we describe our contributions to these topics, assembled in what we called the Mental Vision platform. Mental Vision is a framework composed of three main entities. First, a teaching/research oriented graphics engine, simplifying access to 2D/3D real-time rendering on mobile devices, personal computers and CAVE systems. Second, a series of pedagogical modules to introduce and practice computer graphics and virtual reality techniques. Third, two advanced VR systems: a wearable, lightweight and handsfree mixed reality setup, and a four sides CAVE designed through off the shelf hardware. In this dissertation we explain our conceptual, architectural and technical approach, pointing out how we managed to create a robust and coherent solution reducing complexity related to cross-platform and multi-device 3D rendering, and answering simultaneously to contradictory common needs of computer graphics and virtual reality for researchers and students. A series of case studies evaluates how Mental Vision concretely satisfies these needs and achieves its goals on in vitro benchmarks and in vivo scientific and educational projects

    Pedagogies of affect in physical education : exploring teaching for affective learing in the curriculum area of health and wellbeing

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    The purpose of this thesis is to explore the practice of pedagogies of affect in secondary school physical education. The decision to consider the affective domain as the main focus was in response to current issues relating to mental health among young people. This thesis has the overarching concern of how physical education is producing affective learning outcomes with a sample of Scottish secondary schools. In the Scottish context, physical education may make a significant contribution to the area of health and wellbeing, which is one of the cross-curricular priorities. This thesis includes three findings chapters as a result of adopting a pragmatic mixed methods approach to investigate the complexity of the practice.;The first findings chapter (Chapter 4) considered the question of the degree to which twenty teachers engaged in pedagogies of affect and how their teaching behaviour influenced pupils' affective learning outcomes, with the use of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a lens. The findings indicated that observed need-supportive teaching behaviour had a direct impact on pupils' affective learning outcomes. The second findings chapter (Chapter 5) was to build upon the previous chapter by revealing eight teachers' reflections on their observed lessons. This chapter focuses on the questions to what extent the teachers were aware of their teaching behaviour and why they behaved in the ways they did, which is a gap that previous studies have not covered yet.;One of the key findings in this chapter was how well teachers know their pupils' feelings and how important it is to build trusting relationships with their pupils in order to teach for positive affective learning. The third findings chapter (Chapter 6) centred on how teachers' and pupils' conceptualisation of health and wellbeing was enacted in their teaching and learning in consideration of the Scottish context. A holistic understanding of health emphasised the importance of building confidence, a growth mindset, and relationships with others, which could strengthen teaching and learning of health and wellbeing, particularly in the affective domain.The purpose of this thesis is to explore the practice of pedagogies of affect in secondary school physical education. The decision to consider the affective domain as the main focus was in response to current issues relating to mental health among young people. This thesis has the overarching concern of how physical education is producing affective learning outcomes with a sample of Scottish secondary schools. In the Scottish context, physical education may make a significant contribution to the area of health and wellbeing, which is one of the cross-curricular priorities. This thesis includes three findings chapters as a result of adopting a pragmatic mixed methods approach to investigate the complexity of the practice.;The first findings chapter (Chapter 4) considered the question of the degree to which twenty teachers engaged in pedagogies of affect and how their teaching behaviour influenced pupils' affective learning outcomes, with the use of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a lens. The findings indicated that observed need-supportive teaching behaviour had a direct impact on pupils' affective learning outcomes. The second findings chapter (Chapter 5) was to build upon the previous chapter by revealing eight teachers' reflections on their observed lessons. This chapter focuses on the questions to what extent the teachers were aware of their teaching behaviour and why they behaved in the ways they did, which is a gap that previous studies have not covered yet.;One of the key findings in this chapter was how well teachers know their pupils' feelings and how important it is to build trusting relationships with their pupils in order to teach for positive affective learning. The third findings chapter (Chapter 6) centred on how teachers' and pupils' conceptualisation of health and wellbeing was enacted in their teaching and learning in consideration of the Scottish context. A holistic understanding of health emphasised the importance of building confidence, a growth mindset, and relationships with others, which could strengthen teaching and learning of health and wellbeing, particularly in the affective domain

    14 Years of Self-Tracking Technology for mHealth -- Literature Review: Lessons Learnt and the PAST SELF Framework

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    In today's connected society, many people rely on mHealth and self-tracking (ST) technology to help them adopt healthier habits with a focus on breaking their sedentary lifestyle and staying fit. However, there is scarce evidence of such technological interventions' effectiveness, and there are no standardized methods to evaluate their impact on people's physical activity (PA) and health. This work aims to help ST practitioners and researchers by empowering them with systematic guidelines and a framework for designing and evaluating technological interventions to facilitate health behavior change (HBC) and user engagement (UE), focusing on increasing PA and decreasing sedentariness. To this end, we conduct a literature review of 129 papers between 2008 and 2022, which identifies the core ST HCI design methods and their efficacy, as well as the most comprehensive list to date of UE evaluation metrics for ST. Based on the review's findings, we propose PAST SELF, a framework to guide the design and evaluation of ST technology that has potential applications in industrial and scientific settings. Finally, to facilitate researchers and practitioners, we complement this paper with an open corpus and an online, adaptive exploration tool for the PAST SELF data.Comment: 40 pages, 10 figure

    A human centric approach to the Internet of things

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    This research focuses on human interaction with the IoT, not only from the perspective of the user, but also considering the requirements that smart objects should meet to support human activities. It analyses how the IoT was originally conceived from a technology and data driven approach, and why there is a need to provide an IoT framework that considers humans’ tasks and goals. As such, the nature of the actions and interactions found in a human-based IoT are discussed in the context of social-like collaborations, where actors are in pursue of a common goal. This thesis reframes Human-IoT interaction as a social, collaborative system, described in terms of its capacity to support the activities of the involved social actors in pursuit of a common goal. A structure is proposed to describe the nature of these interactions, and a methodology to model user behaviour based on the tasks and goals supporting a theme is proposed. The methodology is used to analyse the requirements of a domestic IoT system, leading to the implementation of a demonstrator system, and a study to validate the method. This research posits that user experience should inform IoT system design to prevent misunderstanding of its purpose

    Spring 2016 Commencement.

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    The PDF for the May 20-21, 2016, Texas Tech University commencement exercises is 52 pages long

    Advancing Dietetic Practice through the Implementation and Integration of Smartphone Apps

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    As the burden of obesity and its related chronic diseases grows, dietitians have integral roles in providing individualised medical nutrition therapy. Smartphone mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have potential to support and extend reach of dietetic services. This thesis examines how mHealth apps could be implemented and integrated by dietitians to advance nutrition care. Based on a narrative review of current evidence, the novel mobile Nutrition Care Process grid was developed, providing dietitians with best-practice guidance for using mHealth apps across the nutrition care process. Surveying dietitians internationally revealed that 62% used mHealth apps in their practice, although primarily as an information resource and for patient self-monitoring rather than as an integral part of the nutrition care process. Similarly, the public used commercial health and fitness apps, such as MyFitnessPal, to track health behaviours. However, individuals performed suboptimally when using MyFitnessPal to track dietary intake, with the app underestimating mean energy intake by -1863kJ (SD=2952kJ, P=0.0002) compared to 24-hour recalls. Qualitative feedback from dietitians, the public and patients are presented to guide app developers in designing quality mHealth apps. A behavioural analysis was conducted using the COM-B model and intervention recommendations were formulated to facilitate uptake of mHealth apps into dietetic practice. These recommendations were incorporated into a two-phase intervention comprising of an educational and training workshop and a 12-week phase where dietitians used an integrated commercial app platform with their patients. The intervention was found to be feasible to deliver and improved dietitians’ mHealth app self-efficacy. There is translational potential for this intervention to equip the profession with greater capability, opportunity, motivation and self-efficacy to use mHealth apps in dietetic practice and in patient nutrition care

    Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

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    Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs
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