Smart Assistive Technology for People with Visual Field Loss

Visual field loss results in the lack of ability to clearly see objects in the surrounding environment, which affects the ability to determine potential hazards. In visual field loss, parts of the visual field are impaired to varying degrees, while other parts may remain healthy. This defect can be debilitating, making daily life activities very stressful. Unlike blind people, people with visual field loss retain some functional vision. It would be beneficial to intelligently augment this vision by adding computer-generated information to increase the users' awareness of possible hazards by providing early notifications. This thesis introduces a smart hazard attention system to help visual field impaired people with their navigation using smart glasses and a real-time hazard classification system. This takes the form of a novel, customised, machine learning-based hazard classification system that can be integrated into wearable assistive technology such as smart glasses. The proposed solution provides early notifications based on (1) the visual status of the user and (2) the motion status of the detected object. The presented technology can detect multiple objects at the same time and classify them into different hazard types. The system design in this work consists of four modules: (1) a deep learning-based object detector to recognise static and moving objects in real-time, (2) a Kalman Filter-based multi-object tracker to track the detected objects over time to determine their motion model, (3) a Neural Network-based classifier to determine the level of danger for each hazard using its motion features extracted while the object is in the user's field of vision, and (4) a feedback generation module to translate the hazard level into a smart notification to increase user's cognitive perception using the healthy vision within the visual field. For qualitative system testing, normal and personalised defected vision models were implemented. The personalised defected vision model was created to synthesise the visual function for the people with visual field defects. Actual central and full-field test results were used to create a personalised model that is used in the feedback generation stage of this system, where the visual notifications are displayed in the user's healthy visual area. The proposed solution will enhance the quality of life for people suffering from visual field loss conditions. This non-intrusive, wearable hazard detection technology can provide obstacle avoidance solution, and prevent falls and collisions early with minimal information

Understanding and designing for control in camera operation

Kameraleute nutzen traditionell gezielt Hilfsmittel um kontrollierte Kamerabewegungen zu ermöglichen. Der technische Fortschritt hat hierbei unlängst zum Entstehen neuer Werkzeugen wie Gimbals, Drohnen oder Robotern beigetragen. Dabei wurden durch eine Kombination von Motorisierung, Computer-Vision und Machine-Learning auch neue Interaktionstechniken eingeführt. Neben dem etablierten achsenbasierten Stil wurde nun auch ein inhaltsbasierter Interaktionsstil ermöglicht. Einerseits vereinfachte dieser die Arbeit, andererseits aber folgten dieser (Teil-)Automatisierung auch unerwünschte Nebeneffekte. Grundsätzlich wollen sich Kameraleute während der Kamerabewegung kontinuierlich in Kontrolle und am Ende als Autoren der Aufnahmen fühlen. Während Automatisierung hierbei Experten unterstützen und Anfänger befähigen kann, führt sie unweigerlich auch zu einem gewissen Verlust an gewünschter Kontrolle. Wenn wir Kamerabewegung mit neuen Werkzeugen unterstützen wollen, stellt sich uns daher die Frage: Wie sollten wir diese Werkzeuge gestalten damit sie, trotz fortschreitender Automatisierung ein Gefühl von Kontrolle vermitteln? In der Vergangenheit wurde Kamerakontrolle bereits eingehend erforscht, allerdings vermehrt im virtuellen Raum. Die Anwendung inhaltsbasierter Kontrolle im physikalischen Raum trifft jedoch auf weniger erforschte domänenspezifische Herausforderungen welche gleichzeitig auch neue Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten eröffnen. Um dabei auf Nutzerbedürfnisse einzugehen, müssen sich Schnittstellen zum Beispiel an diese Einschränkungen anpassen können und ein Zusammenspiel mit bestehenden Praktiken erlauben. Bisherige Forschung fokussierte sich oftmals auf ein technisches Verständnis von Kamerafahrten, was sich auch in der Schnittstellengestaltung niederschlug. Im Gegensatz dazu trägt diese Arbeit zu einem besseren Verständnis der Motive und Praktiken von Kameraleuten bei und bildet eine Grundlage zur Forschung und Gestaltung von Nutzerschnittstellen. Diese Arbeit präsentiert dazu konkret drei Beiträge: Zuerst beschreiben wir ethnographische Studien über Experten und deren Praktiken. Sie zeigen vor allem die Herausforderungen von Automatisierung bei Kreativaufgaben auf (Assistenz vs. Kontrollgefühl). Zweitens, stellen wir ein Prototyping-Toolkit vor, dass für den Einsatz im Feld geeignet ist. Das Toolkit stellt Software für eine Replikation quelloffen bereit und erleichtert somit die Exploration von Designprototypen. Um Fragen zu deren Gestaltung besser beantworten zu können, stellen wir ebenfalls ein Evaluations-Framework vor, das vor allem Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bestimmt. Darin erweitern wir etablierte Ansätze um eine neurowissenschaftliche Methodik, um Daten explizit wie implizit erheben zu können. Drittens, präsentieren wir Designs und deren Evaluation aufbauend auf unserem Toolkit und Framework. Die Alternativen untersuchen Kontrolle bei verschiedenen Automatisierungsgraden und inhaltsbasierten Interaktionen. Auftretende Verdeckung durch graphische Elemente, wurde dabei durch visuelle Reduzierung und Mid-Air Gesten kompensiert. Unsere Studien implizieren hohe Grade an Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bei unseren Ansätzen, die zudem kreatives Arbeiten und bestehende Praktiken unterstützen.Cinematographers often use supportive tools to craft desired camera moves. Recent technological advances added new tools to the palette such as gimbals, drones or robots. The combination of motor-driven actuation, computer vision and machine learning in such systems also rendered new interaction techniques possible. In particular, a content-based interaction style was introduced in addition to the established axis-based style. On the one hand, content-based cocreation between humans and automated systems made it easier to reach high level goals. On the other hand however, the increased use of automation also introduced negative side effects. Creatives usually want to feel in control during executing the camera motion and in the end as the authors of the recorded shots. While automation can assist experts or enable novices, it unfortunately also takes away desired control from operators. Thus, if we want to support cinematographers with new tools and interaction techniques the following question arises: How should we design interfaces for camera motion control that, despite being increasingly automated, provide cinematographers with an experience of control? Camera control has been studied for decades, especially in virtual environments. Applying content-based interaction to physical environments opens up new design opportunities but also faces, less researched, domain-specific challenges. To suit the needs of cinematographers, designs need to be crafted with care. In particular, they must adapt to constraints of recordings on location. This makes an interplay with established practices essential. Previous work has mainly focused on a technology-centered understanding of camera travel which consequently influenced the design of camera control systems. In contrast, this thesis, contributes to the understanding of the motives of cinematographers, how they operate on set and provides a user-centered foundation informing cinematography specific research and design. The contribution of this thesis is threefold: First, we present ethnographic studies on expert users and their shooting practices on location. These studies highlight the challenges of introducing automation to a creative task (assistance vs feeling in control). Second, we report on a domain specific prototyping toolkit for in-situ deployment. The toolkit provides open source software for low cost replication enabling the exploration of design alternatives. To better inform design decisions, we further introduce an evaluation framework for estimating the resulting quality and sense of control. By extending established methodologies with a recent neuroscientific technique, it provides data on explicit as well as implicit levels and is designed to be applicable to other domains of HCI. Third, we present evaluations of designs based on our toolkit and framework. We explored a dynamic interplay of manual control with various degrees of automation. Further, we examined different content-based interaction styles. Here, occlusion due to graphical elements was found and addressed by exploring visual reduction strategies and mid-air gestures. Our studies demonstrate that high degrees of quality and sense of control are achievable with our tools that also support creativity and established practices

Understanding and designing for control in camera operation

Kameraleute nutzen traditionell gezielt Hilfsmittel um kontrollierte Kamerabewegungen zu ermöglichen. Der technische Fortschritt hat hierbei unlängst zum Entstehen neuer Werkzeugen wie Gimbals, Drohnen oder Robotern beigetragen. Dabei wurden durch eine Kombination von Motorisierung, Computer-Vision und Machine-Learning auch neue Interaktionstechniken eingeführt. Neben dem etablierten achsenbasierten Stil wurde nun auch ein inhaltsbasierter Interaktionsstil ermöglicht. Einerseits vereinfachte dieser die Arbeit, andererseits aber folgten dieser (Teil-)Automatisierung auch unerwünschte Nebeneffekte. Grundsätzlich wollen sich Kameraleute während der Kamerabewegung kontinuierlich in Kontrolle und am Ende als Autoren der Aufnahmen fühlen. Während Automatisierung hierbei Experten unterstützen und Anfänger befähigen kann, führt sie unweigerlich auch zu einem gewissen Verlust an gewünschter Kontrolle. Wenn wir Kamerabewegung mit neuen Werkzeugen unterstützen wollen, stellt sich uns daher die Frage: Wie sollten wir diese Werkzeuge gestalten damit sie, trotz fortschreitender Automatisierung ein Gefühl von Kontrolle vermitteln? In der Vergangenheit wurde Kamerakontrolle bereits eingehend erforscht, allerdings vermehrt im virtuellen Raum. Die Anwendung inhaltsbasierter Kontrolle im physikalischen Raum trifft jedoch auf weniger erforschte domänenspezifische Herausforderungen welche gleichzeitig auch neue Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten eröffnen. Um dabei auf Nutzerbedürfnisse einzugehen, müssen sich Schnittstellen zum Beispiel an diese Einschränkungen anpassen können und ein Zusammenspiel mit bestehenden Praktiken erlauben. Bisherige Forschung fokussierte sich oftmals auf ein technisches Verständnis von Kamerafahrten, was sich auch in der Schnittstellengestaltung niederschlug. Im Gegensatz dazu trägt diese Arbeit zu einem besseren Verständnis der Motive und Praktiken von Kameraleuten bei und bildet eine Grundlage zur Forschung und Gestaltung von Nutzerschnittstellen. Diese Arbeit präsentiert dazu konkret drei Beiträge: Zuerst beschreiben wir ethnographische Studien über Experten und deren Praktiken. Sie zeigen vor allem die Herausforderungen von Automatisierung bei Kreativaufgaben auf (Assistenz vs. Kontrollgefühl). Zweitens, stellen wir ein Prototyping-Toolkit vor, dass für den Einsatz im Feld geeignet ist. Das Toolkit stellt Software für eine Replikation quelloffen bereit und erleichtert somit die Exploration von Designprototypen. Um Fragen zu deren Gestaltung besser beantworten zu können, stellen wir ebenfalls ein Evaluations-Framework vor, das vor allem Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bestimmt. Darin erweitern wir etablierte Ansätze um eine neurowissenschaftliche Methodik, um Daten explizit wie implizit erheben zu können. Drittens, präsentieren wir Designs und deren Evaluation aufbauend auf unserem Toolkit und Framework. Die Alternativen untersuchen Kontrolle bei verschiedenen Automatisierungsgraden und inhaltsbasierten Interaktionen. Auftretende Verdeckung durch graphische Elemente, wurde dabei durch visuelle Reduzierung und Mid-Air Gesten kompensiert. Unsere Studien implizieren hohe Grade an Kontrollqualität und -gefühl bei unseren Ansätzen, die zudem kreatives Arbeiten und bestehende Praktiken unterstützen.Cinematographers often use supportive tools to craft desired camera moves. Recent technological advances added new tools to the palette such as gimbals, drones or robots. The combination of motor-driven actuation, computer vision and machine learning in such systems also rendered new interaction techniques possible. In particular, a content-based interaction style was introduced in addition to the established axis-based style. On the one hand, content-based cocreation between humans and automated systems made it easier to reach high level goals. On the other hand however, the increased use of automation also introduced negative side effects. Creatives usually want to feel in control during executing the camera motion and in the end as the authors of the recorded shots. While automation can assist experts or enable novices, it unfortunately also takes away desired control from operators. Thus, if we want to support cinematographers with new tools and interaction techniques the following question arises: How should we design interfaces for camera motion control that, despite being increasingly automated, provide cinematographers with an experience of control? Camera control has been studied for decades, especially in virtual environments. Applying content-based interaction to physical environments opens up new design opportunities but also faces, less researched, domain-specific challenges. To suit the needs of cinematographers, designs need to be crafted with care. In particular, they must adapt to constraints of recordings on location. This makes an interplay with established practices essential. Previous work has mainly focused on a technology-centered understanding of camera travel which consequently influenced the design of camera control systems. In contrast, this thesis, contributes to the understanding of the motives of cinematographers, how they operate on set and provides a user-centered foundation informing cinematography specific research and design. The contribution of this thesis is threefold: First, we present ethnographic studies on expert users and their shooting practices on location. These studies highlight the challenges of introducing automation to a creative task (assistance vs feeling in control). Second, we report on a domain specific prototyping toolkit for in-situ deployment. The toolkit provides open source software for low cost replication enabling the exploration of design alternatives. To better inform design decisions, we further introduce an evaluation framework for estimating the resulting quality and sense of control. By extending established methodologies with a recent neuroscientific technique, it provides data on explicit as well as implicit levels and is designed to be applicable to other domains of HCI. Third, we present evaluations of designs based on our toolkit and framework. We explored a dynamic interplay of manual control with various degrees of automation. Further, we examined different content-based interaction styles. Here, occlusion due to graphical elements was found and addressed by exploring visual reduction strategies and mid-air gestures. Our studies demonstrate that high degrees of quality and sense of control are achievable with our tools that also support creativity and established practices

Enhanced Living Environments

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1303 “Algorithms, Architectures and Platforms for Enhanced Living Environments (AAPELE)”. The concept of Enhanced Living Environments (ELE) refers to the area of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) that is more related with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Effective ELE solutions require appropriate ICT algorithms, architectures, platforms, and systems, having in view the advance of science and technology in this area and the development of new and innovative solutions that can provide improvements in the quality of life for people in their homes and can reduce the financial burden on the budgets of the healthcare providers. The aim of this book is to become a state-of-the-art reference, discussing progress made, as well as prompting future directions on theories, practices, standards, and strategies related to the ELE area. The book contains 12 chapters and can serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate students, post-graduate students, educators, faculty members, researchers, engineers, medical doctors, healthcare organizations, insurance companies, and research strategists working in this area

Robotics 2010

Without a doubt, robotics has made an incredible progress over the last decades. The vision of developing, designing and creating technical systems that help humans to achieve hard and complex tasks, has intelligently led to an incredible variety of solutions. There are barely technical fields that could exhibit more interdisciplinary interconnections like robotics. This fact is generated by highly complex challenges imposed by robotic systems, especially the requirement on intelligent and autonomous operation. This book tries to give an insight into the evolutionary process that takes place in robotics. It provides articles covering a wide range of this exciting area. The progress of technical challenges and concepts may illuminate the relationship between developments that seem to be completely different at first sight. The robotics remains an exciting scientific and engineering field. The community looks optimistically ahead and also looks forward for the future challenges and new development

3D-in-2D Displays for ATC.

This paper reports on the efforts and accomplishments of the 3D-in-2D Displays for ATC project at the end of Year 1. We describe the invention of 10 novel 3D/2D visualisations that were mostly implemented in the Augmented Reality ARToolkit. These prototype implementations of visualisation and interaction elements can be viewed on the accompanying video. We have identified six candidate design concepts which we will further research and develop. These designs correspond with the early feasibility studies stage of maturity as defined by the NASA Technology Readiness Level framework. We developed the Combination Display Framework from a review of the literature, and used it for analysing display designs in terms of display technique used and how they are combined. The insights we gained from this framework then guided our inventions and the human-centered innovation process we use to iteratively invent. Our designs are based on an understanding of user work practices. We also developed a simple ATC simulator that we used for rapid experimentation and evaluation of design ideas. We expect that if this project continues, the effort in Year 2 and 3 will be focus on maturing the concepts and employment in a operational laboratory settings

Gaze-Based Human-Robot Interaction by the Brunswick Model

We present a new paradigm for human-robot interaction based on social signal processing, and in particular on the Brunswick model. Originally, the Brunswick model copes with face-to-face dyadic interaction, assuming that the interactants are communicating through a continuous exchange of non verbal social signals, in addition to the spoken messages. Social signals have to be interpreted, thanks to a proper recognition phase that considers visual and audio information. The Brunswick model allows to quantitatively evaluate the quality of the interaction using statistical tools which measure how effective is the recognition phase. In this paper we cast this theory when one of the interactants is a robot; in this case, the recognition phase performed by the robot and the human have to be revised w.r.t. the original model. The model is applied to Berrick, a recent open-source low-cost robotic head platform, where the gazing is the social signal to be considered

Foundations and applications of human-machine-interaction

Der vorliegende Tagungsband zur 10. Berliner Werkstatt Mensch-Maschine-Systeme gibt einen Einblick in die aktuelle Forschung im Bereich der Mensch-Maschine- Interaktion. Einen besonderen Fokus stellt das Wechselspiel von Grundlagenforschung und anwendungsbezogener Forschung dar, was sich im breiten Themenspektrum widerspiegelt, welches von theoretischen und methodischen Betrachtungen bis hin zu anwendungsnahen Fragestellungen reicht. Dabei finden Inhalte aus allen Phasen des Forschungsprozesses Beachtung, sodass auch im Rahmen der 10. Berliner Werkstatt MMS wieder sowohl neue Untersuchungskonzepte als auch abschließende Befunde diskutiert werden. Zentrale Themengebiete sind u. a. Fahrer-Fahrzeug-Interaktion, Assistenzsysteme, User Experience, Usability, Ubiquitous Computing, Mixed & Virtual Reality, Robotics & Automation, Wahrnehmungsspezifika sowie Psychophysiologie und Beanspruchung in der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion.The proceedings of the 10th Berlin Workshop Human-Machine-Systems provide an insight into the current research in the field of human-machine-interaction. The main focus lies on the interplay between basic and applied research, which is reflected in the wide range of subjects: from theoretical and methodological issues to application oriented considerations. Again all stages of the research process are represented in the contributions of the 10th Berlin Workshop HMS. This means new research concepts as well as final results are subject of this volume. Central topics include driver-vehicleinteraction, assistance systems, user experience, usability, ubiquitous computing, mixed and virtual reality, robotics & automation, perception specifics, as well as psychophysiology and workload in human-machine-interaction

Analysis of the backpack loading efects on the human gait

Gait is a simple activity of daily life and one of the main abilities of the human being. Often during leisure, labour and sports activities, loads are carried over (e.g. backpack) during gait. These circumstantial loads can generate instability and increase biomechanicalstress over the human tissues and systems, especially on the locomotor, balance and postural regulation systems. According to Wearing (2006), subjects that carry a transitory or intermittent load will be able to find relatively efficient solutions to compensate its effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio