Optimum Watermark Detection and Embedding in Digital Images

This work concentrates on the problem of watermarking of still images using the luminance component, through the use of spread spectrum techniques, both in space (direct sequence spread spectrum or DSSS) and frequency (frequency hopping or FH), following the guidelines of Delaigle et al. (1998). The system described is able to embed watermarks and recover them with zero probability of error. The problem is faced from a statistical detection point of view through the analysis of the density function of the image to be marked. A Cauchy model is found to be very accurate and some tests are performed in order to assess improved detection quality. The resulting system turns out to be easy to encrypt and very robust to filtering and JPEG compression.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

From Paper to Pixels: A Usability Study of a Tsunami Safety E-Booklet

See tsunami safety e-booklet at http://bit.ly/tsunamilayoutMore people have died in Hawai‘i from tsunamis than from hurricanes, floods, and volcanoes combined, making it our State’s most deadly natural hazard. For tsunami education to be effective, especially in younger audiences, learners must be engaged through multiple modalities. To help meet this need, a printed tsunami safety booklet has been modernized to an e-booklet format. Using a turtle superhero as a guide, the Hawaii tsunami safety e-booklet (http://bit.ly/tsunamilayout) helps educate 3rd through 5th grade students about tsunami hazards, preparedness, evacuation, warning, and risk. A research study was designed to evaluate the content, effectiveness, and user satisfaction of the interactive e-booklet through iterative usability testing. Two rounds of testing were conducted face-to-face and through Google Hangouts on Air where participants “thought out loud” as they explored the e-booklet content. Additional feedback was captured asynchronously through a survey link on each page of the e-booklet. A post-study captured additional attitudinal data. Changes were made to portions of the e-booklet focusing on the participants’ recommendations which included immediate audio and visual feedback, increased control over multimedia, personalization, and gamification. Feedback from the second round of usability testing indicated that improvements made to the e-booklet augmented the overall user experience

How Can Digital Personal(ized) Books Enrich the Language Arts Curriculum?

Digital personal(ized) books are a relatively recent addition to the rich repertoire of literacy resources available to pre-K and elementary school teachers. This article summarizes the key ways in which personal(ized) books can enrich the language arts curriculum, drawing on a series of empirically based examples. The value of personalization in the digital stories is explained theoretically using the framework of five As: autonomy, authorship, authenticity, attachment, and aesthetics. The five As apply to personal(ized) stories created for, or by, young students and are used to generate some practical suggestions for future use of touchscreens in the classroom

PRINSIP- PRINSIP TEORI BEBAN KOGNITIF DALAM MERANCANG MEDIA PEMBELAJARAN MATEMATIKA

Media pembelajaran merupakan salah satu komponen sistem pembelajaran. Tanpa media, proses pembelajaran sebagai proses komunikasi juga tidak akan bisa berlangsung secara optimal. Penggunaan media dalam pembelajaran dapat membantu siswa dalam memberikan pengalaman yang bermakna bagi siswa dan dapat mempermudah siswa dalam memahami sesuatu yang abstrak menjadi lebih konkrit. Media pembelajaran interaktif merupakan salah satu jenis media pembelajaran. Dalam mengembangkan media pembelajaran interaktif perlu mempertimbangkan beban kognitif siswa. Teori yang membicarakan beban kognitif adalah Cognitive Load. Berdasarkan teori beban kognitif (cognitive load theory), agar tercapai pembelajaran yang efektif, pengembangan media interaktif harus dapat mengurangi pemrosesan beban kognitif extraneous, mengatur pemrosesan beban kognitif intrinsic, dan membantu mengembangkan pemrosesan beban kognitif germane

Shopping as Experience and Website as a Social Actor: Web Interface Design and Para-Social Presence

We make a case for treating a Web site as a social actor and propose para-social presence as a central construct to measure the structure of the relationship that evolves between a web site and its visitors. Para- social presence (PSP) captures the underlying psychological cues that measure the level and extent of interaction among participating social entities (in an online shopping context in this study). We also argue that one medium could possess different levels of PSP, depending on how it is configured and used. The first phase of our research conceptualizes and develops an instrument to measure PSP. The second phase investigates the impact of new technologies and associated web interface design decisions on perceived communication characteristics of a medium, PSP and subsequent user evaluations of the web site. Specifically, this research studies the impact of personalization technologies and support for virtual communities

A component framework for personalized multimedia applications

Eine praktikable Unterstützung für eine dynamische Erstellung von personalisierten Multimedia-Präsentationen bieten bisher weder industrielle Lösungen noch Forschungsansätze. Mit dem Software-technischen Ansatz des MM4U-Frameworks („MultiMedia For You“) wird erstmals eine generische und zugleich praktikable Unterstützung für den dynamischen Erstellungsprozess bereitgestellt. Das Ziel des MM4U-Frameworks ist es den Anwendungsentwicklern eine umfangreiche und anwendungsunabhängige Unterstützung zur Erstellung von personalisierten Multimedia-Inhalten anzubieten und damit den Entwicklungsprozess solcher Anwendungen erheblich zu erleichtern. Um das Ziel eines Software-Frameworks zur generischen Unterstützung der Entwicklung von personalisierten Multimedia-Anwendungen zu erreichen, stellt sich die Frage nach einer geeigneten Software-technischen Unterstützung zur Entwicklung eines solchen Frameworks. Seit der Einführung von objektorientierten Frameworks, ist heute die Entwicklung immer noch aufwendig und schwierig. Um die Entwicklungsrisiken zu reduzieren, sind geeignete Vorgehensmodelle und Entwicklungsmethoden erstellt worden. Mit der Komponenten-Technologie sind auch so genannte Komponenten-Frameworks entstanden. Im Gegensatz zu objekt-orientierten Frameworks fehlt derzeit jedoch ein geeignetes Vorgehensmodell für Komponenten-Frameworks. Um den Entwicklungsprozess von Komponenten-Frameworks zu verbessern ist mit ProMoCF („Process Model for Component Frameworks“) ein neuartiger Ansatz entwickelt worden. Hierbei handelt es sich um ein leichtgewichtiges Vorgehensmodell und eine Entwicklungsmethodik für Komponenten-Frameworks. Das Vorgehensmodell wurde unter gegenseitigem Nutzen mit der Entwicklung des MM4U-Frameworks erstellt. Das MM4U-Framework stellt keine Neuerfindung der Adaption von Multimedia-Inhalten dar, sondern zielt auf die Vereinigung und Einbettung existierender Forschungsansätze und Lösungen im Umfeld der Multimedia-Personalisierung. Mit so einem Framework an der Hand können Anwendungsentwickler erstmals effizient und einfach eine dynamische Erstellung ihrer personalisierten Multimedia-Inhalte realisieren

Multimedia design principle in developing multimedia learning application (MMLA) to increase children awareness of child sexual abuse

This paper is focusing on multimedia design principles as a design strategy in designing and developing a multimedia learning application with purpose to increase children’s awareness of potential sexual abuse situations.Currently, children’s knowledge and awareness about danger and self-protection is still lacking and they are not totally aware of prohibited adult’s touches over their body.In such situation, they need to be educated and made aware of.In such situation, with the advantages of current multimedia technologies, learning can be supported by effective multimedia application.Accordingly, this study develops a learning application by adapting an instructional design model for design and development by Alessi and Trollip.Then, alpha and beta testing has been conducted with the help of an expert.It was found that the advantages of multimedia technology can facilitate children in better understanding of child sexual abuse and improve their awareness of the issues

A novel Big Data analytics and intelligent technique to predict driver's intent

Modern age offers a great potential for automatically predicting the driver's intent through the increasing miniaturization of computing technologies, rapid advancements in communication technologies and continuous connectivity of heterogeneous smart objects. Inside the cabin and engine of modern cars, dedicated computer systems need to possess the ability to exploit the wealth of information generated by heterogeneous data sources with different contextual and conceptual representations. Processing and utilizing this diverse and voluminous data, involves many challenges concerning the design of the computational technique used to perform this task. In this paper, we investigate the various data sources available in the car and the surrounding environment, which can be utilized as inputs in order to predict driver's intent and behavior. As part of investigating these potential data sources, we conducted experiments on e-calendars for a large number of employees, and have reviewed a number of available geo referencing systems. Through the results of a statistical analysis and by computing location recognition accuracy results, we explored in detail the potential utilization of calendar location data to detect the driver's intentions. In order to exploit the numerous diverse data inputs available in modern vehicles, we investigate the suitability of different Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques, and propose a novel fuzzy computational modelling methodology. Finally, we outline the impact of applying advanced CI and Big Data analytics techniques in modern vehicles on the driver and society in general, and discuss ethical and legal issues arising from the deployment of intelligent self-learning cars

Dispute on the Internet: the format of discourse, linguistic technologies, modern language tactics

The concept of discourse is fundamental to modern linguistics. Discourse is a connecting link for all linguistic research, and modern ideas about discourse, without exaggeration, reflect the process of formation of linguistic science. The purpose of this work is to analyze the linguistic and stylistic features of the dispute on the Internet, namely: the format of discourse, linguistic technologies, and modern language tactics. The subject of the study is the debate on the Internet as a way to find out the positions of the participants in the discussion. During the study, a number of general scientific methods were used: the method of analogy, the method of generalization, the method of observation, the method of comparison, the method of experiment, the method of analysis, and the historical method. As a result of the research, the format of discourse, linguistic technologies, and modern language tactics of debate on the Internet were analyzed. Thus, it is emphasized that in the debate on the Internet, a combination of verbal and nonverbal components of the message realizes such an important feature of media discourse as multimedia. Non-verbal means of communication become a kind of background for the message, which thus receives additional expressive-emotional-evaluative overtones, which helps to put in the mind of the recipient a particular idea. In addition, the extreme pragmatism of modern man creates new challenges for its information. Today, to enhance the "presence effect", it is necessary to create the illusion of a new reality, an integral part of which is Internet discourse

Validation and Perceptions of an Advance organizer on Main Elements of Research: Philosophical Assumptions, Paradigms, and Praxis

Novice researchers lack an understanding of philosophical assumptions, paradigms, and praxis (3Ps) and their relationships with each other in research. As a result, the lack of understanding and application of the 3Ps components by novice researchers undermines confidence in the rigor and trustworthiness of their research. This study focused on filling this gap by providing a learning tool (Advance Organizer – AO) that contributes to developing knowledge of 3Ps in novice researchers. To achieve this, a two phased study was conducted. The first phase used a Delphi technique to collect data of the design of the AO in three rounds with instructional design experts, while the second phase, used semi-structured interviews with novice researchers to conduct a user test of the AO.Phase 1 produced evidence from instructional design experts that the principles of multimedia learning (i.e., coherence, signaling, spatial contiguity, segmenting, pre-training, modality, multimedia, personalization) have been used to a great extent in 3Ps AO. This reduced the external cognitive load, the management of the intrinsic cognitive load, and an increase in the germane cognitive load. Instructional design experts have also voiced their opinion of the 3Ps AO as a helpful learning tool for novice researchers. The results of phase 2 revealed that novice researchers, with either lower or higher experiences in research, faced challenges in understanding the 3Ps of the research. They described these components interchangeably and in unstructured ways, sometimes incorrectly. After reviewing the 3Ps learning tool, novices showed positive impressions and results during final conversations about the 3Ps. In short, instructional design experts and novice researchers alike expressed that the 3Ps AO is a helpful learning