448 research outputs found

    The Effect of 2D and 3D Menus on Memory Retention in User Interface Design

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    The increasing use of 3D user interface elements, particularly 3D menus, demonstrates the need to expand research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as it pertains to 3D user interfaces. The results of this thesis contribute to the understanding of the cognitive impacts of using 3D menus. Multiple application areas for 3D menus have been identified where memory retention is a critical success factor, but little research has been done in the area of memory retention for 3D menus. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if the use of 3D carousel menus increases retention of information over 2D menus and if is there a gender effect with these results. A three factor split-plot (one-between subject factor and two-within subject factors) experiment was designed to test if menu dimension, content type, and gender are significant factors in memory retention and to determine if there are any interactions between these factors. The results of the experiment revealed that dimension and gender are not significant factors in the retention of information and none of the interactions of dimension (2D vs. 3D), gender, and content were significant. Several subjects’ questionnaire responses demonstrated that the menu dimension they perceived to better aid retention was 3D; however these results were not statistically significant. While these results showed that within the boundaries chosen the use of a 3D menu neither promotes nor degrades memory retention, there are still a number of questions that need to be answered regarding the use of 3D menus and their effect on other cognitive processes

    A methodology for user Interface adaptation of multi-device broadcast-broadband services

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    New audiovisual experiences involve consuming several contents displayed through multiple internet-connected devices. The TV is still the central hub of the living room, but it is often used simultaneously with other screens. Consequently, the user has the chance to consume all different contents at once across multiple devices. However, no existing adaptation models are available to dynamically adapt such a multitude of contents in multi-device contexts. To address this gap, this paper proposes a novel multi-device adaptation methodology to build adaptive User Interfaces for multi-screen hybrid broadcastbroadband TV experiences. The methodology is extensible to any kind of content, device and user, and is applicable to different contexts considering technological evolution and other fields of application. The proposed methodology is the outcome of extensive research that arose from a previous multi-device media service deployment with broadcasters

    Reanimating cultural heritage through digital technologies

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    Digital technologies are becoming extremely important for web-based cultural heritage applications. This thesis presents novel digital technology solutions to 'access and interact' with digital heritage objects and collections. These innovative solutions utilize service orientation (web services), workflows, and social networking and Web 2.0 mashup technologies to innovate the creation, interpretation and use of collections dispersed in a global museumscape, where community participation is achieved through social networking. These solutions are embedded in a novel concept called Digital Library Services for Playing with Shared Heritage (DISPLAYS). DISPLAYS is concerned with creating tools and services to implement a digital library system, which allows the heritage community and museum professionals alike to create, interpret and use digital heritage content in visualization and interaction environments using web technologies based on social networking. In particular, this thesis presents a specific implementation of DISPLAYS called the Reanimating Cultural Heritage system, which is modelled on the five main functionalities or services defined in the DISPLAYS architecture, content creation, archival, exposition, presentation and interaction, for handling digital heritage objects. The main focus of this thesis is the design of the Reanimating Cultural Heritage system's social networking functionality that provides an innovative solution for integrating community access and interaction with the Sierra Leone digital heritage repository composed of collections from the British Museum, Glasgow Museums and Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. The novel use of Web 2.0 mashups in this digital heritage repository also allows the seamless integration of these museum collections to be merged with user or community generated content, while preserving the quality of museum collections data. Finally, this thesis tests and evaluates the usability of the Reanimating Cultural Heritage social networking system, in particular the suitability of the digital technology solution deployed. Testing is performed with a user group composed of several users, and the results obtained are presented

    Do You Know What I Know?:Situational Awareness of Co-located Teams in Multidisplay Environments

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    Modern collaborative environments often provide an overwhelming amount of visual information on multiple displays. In complex project settings, the amount of visual information on multiple displays, and the multitude of personal and shared interaction devices in these environments can reduce the awareness of team members on ongoing activities, the understanding of shared visualisations, and the awareness of who is in control of shared artifacts. Research reported in this thesis addresses the situational awareness (SA) support of co-located teams working on team projects in multidisplay environments. Situational awareness becomes even more critical when the content of multiple displays changes rapidly, and when these provide large amounts of information. This work aims at getting insights into design and evaluation of shared display visualisations that afford situational awareness and group decision making. This thesis reports the results of three empirical user studies in three different domains: life science experimentation, decision making in brainstorming teams, and agile software development. The first and the second user studies evaluate the impact of the Highlighting-on-Demand and the Chain-of-Thoughts SA on the group decision-making and awareness. The third user study presents the design and evaluation of a shared awareness display for software teams. Providing supportive visualisations on a shared large display, we aimed at reducing the distraction from the primary task, enhancing the group decision-making process and the perceived task performance

    An investigation of mid-air gesture interaction for older adults

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    Older adults (60+) face natural and gradual decline in cognitive, sensory and motor functions that are often the reason for the difficulties that older users come up against when interacting with computers. For that reason, the investigation and design of age-inclusive input methods for computer interaction is much needed and relevant due to an ageing population. The advances of motion sensing technologies and mid-air gesture interaction reinvented how individuals can interact with computer interfaces and this modality of input method is often deemed as a more “natural” and “intuitive” than using purely traditional input devices such mouse interaction. Although explored in gaming and entertainment, the suitability of mid-air gesture interaction for older users in particular is still little known. The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential of mid-air gesture interaction to facilitate computer use for older users, and to address the challenges that older adults may face when interacting with gestures in mid-air. This doctoral research is presented as a collection of papers that, together, develop the topic of ageing and computer interaction through mid-air gestures. The initial point for this research was to establish how older users differ from younger users and focus on the challenges faced by older adults when interacting with mid-air gesture interaction. Once these challenges were identified, this work aimed to explore a series of usability challenges and opportunities to further develop age-inclusive interfaces based on mid-air gesture interaction. Through a series of empirical studies, this research intends to provide recommendations for designing mid-air gesture interaction that better take into consideration the needs and skills of the older population and aims to contribute to the advance of age-friendly interfaces

    Healthy Aging in Place: An Integrated Smart Home Using Alexa-compatible Technology

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    The purpose of this research was to address current healthcare concerns among the aging population. Around the globe, the average life expectancy is projected to continue increasing resulting in a higher prevalence of age-related disease. With the ever-increasing capabilities of modern technology, it is necessary to apply this technology to increase the health and safety of older adults. This work had three objectives. The first objective was the establishment of an integrated smart home aimed at creating a healthy aging-in-place environment through the use of Alexa. The second objective was the development and integration of a completely custom health device that could display two-way communication with the voice assistant platform. The third objective was to display the telemedicine and education capabilities of Alexa using custom skills implementing a variety of Q&A methods. These two Skills would each accomplish a different purpose. COTS devices were implemented into the smart home system to show the ease of expanding the concept. The custom device created was the Alexa-compatible automatic pill dispenser. It was modeled using the CAD software Solidworks. It was then printed from ABS plastic using the Fortus 250mc 3D printer. A custom Alexa Skill was created to interface the pill dispenser with the Alexa device. Finally, additional custom Skills were created using Alexa Blueprints

    Development of an industrial line parametric editor in virtual reality via Autodesk Vred

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    This thesis describes the development of a parametric virtual reality editor for an industrial line for quality inspection, packaging and palletizing of ceramic tiles. This project has been developed entirely within the R&D laboratory of Sacmi S.C., and includes a complete study of the implementation of an application of this kind, from the initial software and hardware selection phase, through the design of algorithms and code programming - in Python language - to the creation of interactive tools and widgets specifically designed for the exploration of the environment, interaction with the scene and automatic production of outputs, with the aim of framing this editor within the production process of automatic lines for the realization of ceramic materials. The editor is defined as "parametric" due to the fact that it requires the user to provide as input a series of values necessary for the configuration of the lines - up to a maximum of three, each with a set of independent parameters - and then it automatically proceeds to compute the geometries and animate the scene, allowing the user to enter in an immersive and realistic context, in order to make a choice among the proposed lines. Communication protocols have also been developed between different scenes for the transfer of data from one to the other, and for the transfer of the user between the different environments through commands given directly in virtual reality. Subsequently, a phase aimed at optimizing the simulation was addressed, in order to increase its stability and decrease the possible stress induced during the presence in VR. Finally, an early study was carried out on multi-user experience – i.e. the presence of several users in the same scene - with the aim of testing possible developments in the field of trade fairs and employee training

    Semantic Interaction in Web-based Retrieval Systems : Adopting Semantic Web Technologies and Social Networking Paradigms for Interacting with Semi-structured Web Data

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    Existing web retrieval models for exploration and interaction with web data do not take into account semantic information, nor do they allow for new forms of interaction by employing meaningful interaction and navigation metaphors in 2D/3D. This thesis researches means for introducing a semantic dimension into the search and exploration process of web content to enable a significantly positive user experience. Therefore, an inherently dynamic view beyond single concepts and models from semantic information processing, information extraction and human-machine interaction is adopted. Essential tasks for semantic interaction such as semantic annotation, semantic mediation and semantic human-computer interaction were identified and elaborated for two general application scenarios in web retrieval: Web-based Question Answering in a knowledge-based dialogue system and semantic exploration of information spaces in 2D/3D
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