Adaptive Affective Computing: Countering User Frustration

With the rise of mobile computing and an ever-growing variety of ubiquitous sensors, computers are becoming increasingly context-aware. A revolutionary step in this process that has seen much progress will be user-awareness: the ability of a computing device to infer its user's emotions. This research project attempts to study the effectiveness of enabling a computer to adapt its visual interface to counter user frustration. A two-group experiment was designed to engage participants in a goal-oriented task disguised as a simple usability study with a performance incentive. Five frustrating stimuli were triggered throughout a single 15-minute task in the form of complete system unresponsiveness or delay. An algorithm was implemented to attempt to detect sudden rises in user arousal measured via a skin conductance sensor. Following a successful detection, or otherwise a maximum of a 10-second delay, the application resumed responsiveness. In the control condition, participants were exposed to a “please wait” pop-up near the end of the delay whereas those in the adaption condition were exposed to an additional visual transition to a user interface with calming colours and larger touch targets. This proposed adaptive condition was hypothesized to reduce the recovery time associated with the frustration response. The experiment was successfully able to induce frustration (via measurable skin conductance responses) in the majority of trials. The mean recovery half-time of participants in the first trial adaptive condition was significantly longer than that of the control. This was attributed to a possibility of a large chromatic difference between the adaptive and control colour schemes, habituation and prediction, causal association of adaptation to the frustrating stimulus, as well as insufficient subtlety in the transition and visual look of the adaptive interface. The study produced findings and guidelines that will be crucial in the future design of adaptive affective user interfaces

Distant Electric Vision: Cultural Representations Of Television From “Edison’s Telephonoscope” To The Electronic Screen

Do inventions that exist only on paper have less credibility than functional technologies? How has the meaning and significance of audiovisual media and technology changed over time? This dissertation examines historiography and methodology for media history, arguing for an interdisciplinary approach. It addresses methodological issues in media history—media in transition, media archaeology, and film history—through an examination of television’s speculative era. It tackles moving-image history through an historical investigation of Victorian and Machine age “television”. Because the concept and terminology of “television” changed dramatically during this period, I use the phrases “distant electric vision” and “seeing by electricity,” to define the concept of electric and electronic moving-image technology. By identifying manifestations of “television” before functional models existed, this dissertation examines the ways in which a modern concept of moving-image technology came into existence. Engineers and inventors, as well as audiences and journalists contributed to the construction of “television.” Newspaper announcements, editorial columns, letters to the editor, rumors and satires circulated. Victorian-era readers, writers and inventors pictured “seeing by electricity” to do for the eye what the telephone had done for the ear, bringing people closer together though separated by great distances. In contrast, early twentieth-century Machine-age engineers placed more emphasis on systems, communication, design, and picture quality. Developments in the 1920s with complex systems and electronics made “distant electric vision” a reality. This dissertation identifies several shifts that took place during television’s speculative era from the Victorian “annihilation of space” to Machine-Age systems engineering. Journalists, readers, and engineers all play a part in the rhetoric of innovation. From the Victorian era to the Machine age, the educational function of popular science and the role of audiences in constructing meaning and value for new technologies remain relatively consistent. I offer several case studies, including Thomas Edison’s inventions, illuminating engineering, and Bell Labs experiments with television. This dissertation argues that modern television design relies on the ability of the technology to make an unnatural experience seem as effortless as possible. Ultimately, it advocates for an expanded definition of media and technology, along with an historical emphasis on context

Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History with Technology

In the field of history, the Web and other technologies have become important tools in research and teaching of the past. Yet the use of these tools is limited—many historians and history educators have resisted adopting them because they fail to see how digital tools supplement and even improve upon conventional tools (such as books). In Pastplay, a collection of essays by leading history and humanities researchers and teachers, editor Kevin Kee works to address these concerns head-on. How should we use technology? Playfully, Kee contends. Why? Because doing so helps us think about the past in new ways; through the act of creating technologies, our understanding of the past is re-imagined and developed. From the insights of numerous scholars and teachers, Pastplay argues that we should play with technology in history because doing so enables us to see the past in new ways by helping us understand how history is created; honoring the roots of research, teaching, and technology development; requiring us to model our thoughts; and then allowing us to build our own understanding

Analytics and Intuition in the Process of Selecting Talent

In management, decisions are expected to be based on rational analytics rather than intuition. But intuition, as a human evolutionary achievement, offers wisdom that, despite all the advances in rational analytics and AI, should be used constructively when recruiting and winning personnel. Integrating these inner experiential competencies with rational-analytical procedures leads to smart recruiting decisions

Analytics and Intuition in the Process of Selecting Talent

In management, decisions are expected to be based on rational analytics rather than intuition. But intuition, as a human evolutionary achievement, offers wisdom that, despite all the advances in rational analytics and AI, should be used constructively when recruiting and winning personnel. Integrating these inner experiential competencies with rational-analytical procedures leads to smart recruiting decisions

Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais [1, 2015] - Gender: contributions to an effective understanding changes

[Excerto] Nos últimos 20 anos, as relações de género e a forma como são experienciadas, representadas e consubstanciadas em práticas, sofreram mudanças profundas. Urge compreender este processo de forma mais aprofundada e efetiva, particularmente no que diz respeito às dinâmicas de poder e de controlo envolvidas, e ao espaço dos países de expressão portuguesa. Tendo como pano de fundo estas reconfigurações e interesses, a Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais reúne no seu 5º número contribuições de investigadores em início de carreira e investigadores consagrados de várias partes do mundo (Grã-Bretanha, Estados Unidos da América, Brasil e Portugal) e proporciona aos leitores portugueses a possibilidade de lerem na sua língua materna os trabalhos de Raewyn Connell, Jasbir Puar e Sue Thornham. O conjunto de artigos que integram este número, procura concorrer, numa lógica inter ou transdisciplinar, para uma compreensão aprofundada e crítica das mudanças ocorridas em diversos domínios da sociedade com implicações nas relações e nas identidades de género. Os participantes trabalham com diferentes quadros teóricos e visam a compreensão de questões diversas relacionadas com os domínios da maternidade, das relações afetivas e sexuais, do envelhecimento, do ativismo social, da ciência e da academia, da economia e das políticas públicas. [...]FCT/MEC — Programa Estratégico com a referência UID/CCI/00736/2013 - através de fundos nacionais e quando aplicável cofinanciado pelo FEDER, no âmbito do Acordo de Parceria PT2020. Programa Estratégico com a referência UID/CCI/00736/2013 - através de fundos nacionais e quando aplicável cofinanciado pelo FEDER, no âmbito do Acordo de Parceria PT2020