An Open Source Testing Tool for Evaluating Handwriting Input Methods

This paper presents an open source tool for testing the recognition accuracy of Chinese handwriting input methods. The tool consists of two modules, namely the PC and Android mobile client. The PC client reads handwritten samples in the computer, and transfers them individually to the Android client in accordance with the socket communication protocol. After the Android client receives the data, it simulates the handwriting on screen of client device, and triggers the corresponding handwriting recognition method. The recognition accuracy is recorded by the Android client. We present the design principles and describe the implementation of the test platform. We construct several test datasets for evaluating different handwriting recognition systems, and conduct an objective and comprehensive test using six Chinese handwriting input methods with five datasets. The test results for the recognition accuracy are then compared and analyzed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 11 tables. Accepted to appear at ICDAR 201

Smart Signs: Showing the way in Smart Surroundings

This paper presents a context-aware guidance and messaging system for large buildings and surrounding venues. Smart Signs are a new type of electronic door- and way-sign based on wireless sensor networks. Smart Signs present in-situ personalized guidance and messages, are ubiquitous, and easy to understand. They combine the easiness of use of traditional static signs with the flexibility and reactiveness of navigation systems. The Smart Signs system uses context information such as user’s mobility limitations, the weather, and possible emergency situations to improve guidance and messaging. Minimal infrastructure requirements and a simple deployment tool make it feasible to easily deploy a Smart Signs system on demand. An important design issue of the Smart Signs system is privacy: the system secures communication links, does not track users, allow almost complete anonymous use, and prevent the system to be used as a tool for spying on users

Real-time Gesture Recognition Using RFID Technology

This paper presents a real-time gesture recognition technique based on RFID technology. Inexpensive and unintrusive passive RFID tags can be easily attached to or interweaved into user clothes. The tag readings in an RFID-enabled environment can then be used to recognize the user gestures in order to enable intuitive human-computer interaction. People can interact with large public displays without the need to carry a dedicated device, which can improve interactive advertisement in public places. In this paper, multiple hypotheses tracking is used to track the motion patterns of passive RFID tags. Despite the reading uncertainties inherent in passive RFID technology, the experiments show that the presented online gesture recognition technique has an accuracy of up to 96%

Situated navigation support for heterogeneous large crowds via augmented signage

PhD ThesisNavigating unfamiliar places is a common problem people face, and there is a wealth of commercial and research-based applications particularly for mobile devices that provide support in these settings. While many of these solutions work well on an individual level, they are less well suited for very crowded situations, e.g. sports matches, festivals and fairs, or religious events such as pilgrimages. In a large crowd, attending to a mobile device can be hazardous, the underlying technology might not scale well, and some people might be excluded due to not having access to a mobile device. Public signage does not suffer from these issues, and consequently, people frequently rely on signage in crowded settings. However, a key disadvantage of public signage is that it does not provide personalised navigation support. We have therefore investigated augmented signage as a navigation support system for use in large crowds. This thesis investigates the issues of guidance by augmented displays and how this can be made more suitable for people who navigate in groups in unfamiliar areas. In this context we have undertaken three studies as examples to explore how augmented displays can provide aid to people in crowded places. In the first study, we investigated the question of whether the use of dynamic public signage can help pilgrims count or remember the Tawaf rounds while walking around the Ka’bah. We analysed the current situation in Mecca based on a literature review and a series of interviews with pilgrims, who had completed at least one pilgrimage (already visited Mecca). We then presented a prototypical dynamic signage and reported on a user study we conducted in a realistic setting in order to evaluate the system. The results suggest that dynamic signage may be a feasible option to improve the safety of pilgrims in Mecca. In the second study, we introduced a scalable signage-based approach and present results from a comparison study contrasting two designs for augmented signage with a base approach. The results provide evidence that such a system could be easily useable, may reduce task load, and could improve navigation performance. In the final study, we developed public displays (static and dynamic signage) and investigated the ability of using such displays to assist pilgrims of Mecca to find each other after becoming separated while performing rituals inside the Haram (e.g. Tawaf pillar). Once again here we have addressed the issue through a series of interviews with people who had experienced pilgrimage before. Then we constructed a full idea that allowed us to design the initial system and presented it in a focus group session to gain feedback and redesign the system. Afterwards, we conducted a lab-based user study. The results we obtained suggest that a person can extract information (by reading the dynamic signage), also results showed that users were able to remember their information (whilst completing some distraction tasks), and then they completed the static signs tasks successfully. Generally results showed that the system can indicate people to the right place where they can meet again after becoming separated. In general, these results provided good evidence that augmented signage supported by colour and visual codes might provide considerable help in situations with large and heterogeneous crowds. It might be developed and used in different settings for provisional navigation information and allow multi-users to extract their personalised information individually

A Survey of Interaction Techniques and Devices for Large High Resolution Displays

Innovations in large high-resolution wall-sized displays have been yielding benefits to visualizations in industry and academia, leading to a rapidly growing increase of their implementations. In scenarios such as these, the displayed visual information tends to be larger than the users field of view, hence the necessity to move away from traditional interaction methods towards more suitable interaction devices and techniques. This paper aspires to explore the state-of-the-art with respect to such technologies for large high-resolution displays