Finding, Understanding and Learning: Making Information Discovery Tasks Useful for Children and Teachers

We present our ongoing efforts on the development of a search environment tailored to 6-15 year-olds that can foster learning though retrieval of materials that not only satisfy the information needs of users but also match their reading abilities. YouUnderstood.me is an enhanced environment based on a popular search engine specifically designed to help students deal with search for learning tasks, and allow teachers to track their progress. An initial assessment conducted on YouUnderstood.me and well-known (children-oriented) search engines based on queries generated by K-9 students, showcases the need for this type of environment

Interactive Intent Modeling for Exploratory Search

Exploratory search requires the system to assist the user in comprehending the information space and expressing evolving search intents for iterative exploration and retrieval of information. We introduce interactive intent modeling, a technique that models a user’s evolving search intents and visualizes them as keywords for interaction. The user can provide feedback on the keywords, from which the system learns and visualizes an improved intent estimate and retrieves information. We report experiments comparing variants of a system implementing interactive intent modeling to a control system. Data comprising search logs, interaction logs, essay answers, and questionnaires indicate significant improvements in task performance, information retrieval performance over the session, information comprehension performance, and user experience. The improvements in retrieval effectiveness can be attributed to the intent modeling and the effect on users’ task performance, breadth of information comprehension, and user experience are shown to be dependent on a richer visualization. Our results demonstrate the utility of combining interactive modeling of search intentions with interactive visualization of the models that can benefit both directing the exploratory search process and making sense of the information space. Our findings can help design personalized systems that support exploratory information seeking and discovery of novel information.Peer reviewe

Autism detection based on eye movement sequences on the web: a scanpath trend analysis approach

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by ACM in W4A '20: Proceedings of the 17th International Web for All Conference on 20/04/2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1145/3371300.3383340 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Autism diagnostic procedure is a subjective, challenging and expensive procedure and relies on behavioral, historical and parental report information. In our previous, we proposed a machine learning classifier to be used as a potential screening tool or used in conjunction with other diagnostic methods, thus aiding established diagnostic methods. The classifier uses eye movements of people on web pages but it only considers non-sequential data. It achieves the best accuracy by combining data from several web pages and it has varying levels of accuracy on different web pages. In this present paper, we investigate whether it is possible to detect autism based on eye-movement sequences and achieve stable accuracy across different web pages to be not dependent on specific web pages. We used Scanpath Trend Analysis (STA) which is designed for identifying a trending path of a group of users on a web page based on their eye movements. We first identify trending paths of people with autism and neurotypical people. To detect whether or not a person has autism, we calculate the similarity of his/her path to the trending paths of people with autism and neurotypical people. If the path is more similar to the trending path of neurotypical people, we classify the person as a neurotypical person. Otherwise, we classify her/him as a person with autism. We systematically evaluate our approach with an eye-tracking dataset of 15 verbal and highly-independent people with autism and 15 neurotypical people on six web pages. Our evaluation shows that the STA approach performs better on individual web pages and provides more stable accuracy across different pages

Dynamic User Profiling for Search Personalisation

The performance of a personalised search system largely depends upon the ability to build user profiles which accurately capture the user's search interests. However, many approaches to user profiling have neglected the dynamic nature of the user's search interests. That is, a user's search interests typically change in response to their interactions with the search system during the search period. Therefore, a profile built for previous searches might not reflect that user's current search interests. A widely used type of profile represents the topical interests of the user. In these cases, a typical approach is to build a user profile using topics discussed in documents which the user has found relevant, and where the topics are obtained from a human-generated ontology or directory. However, a key limitation of these approaches is that many documents may not contain the topics covered in the ontology. Moreover, the human-generated ontology requires manual effort to determine the correct categories for each document. In this research, we address these problems by proposing novel techniques for dynamically building user profiles which capture the user's search interests changing over time. Instead of using a human-generated ontology, we use a topic modelling technique (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) for unsupervised extraction of the topics from documents. To dynamically build user profiles, we make two important assumptions. First, that the group of users with whom a user shares a set of common interests may be different depending upon the particular topic of interest. Second, the more recently clicked/relevant documents tell us more about the user's current search interests. To test these assumptions, we develop and implement dynamic user profiles, and then evaluate them on two search personalisation tasks. Our first chosen task is personalising search results returned by a Web search engine, and the second is the task of personalising query suggestions made by an Intranet search engine. We found that dynamic user profiles can significantly improve the ranking quality over well-established baselines

The use of speech recognition technology by people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: a scoping review

More than 80% of people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (plwALS) develop difficulties with their speech, affecting communication, self-identity and quality of life. Automatic speech recognition technology (ASR) is becoming a common way to interact with a broad range of devices, to find information and control the environment. ASR can be problematic for people with acquired neurogenic motor speech difficulties (dysarthria). Given that the field is rapidly developing, a scoping review is warranted

Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Evidence-Based Systematic Review

[EN] Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disease that is specially characterized by impairments in social communication and social skills. ASD has a high prevalence in children, affecting 1 in 160 subjects. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an effective tool for intervention in the health field. Different recent papers have reviewed the VR-based treatments in ASD, but they have an important limitation because they only use clinical databases and do not include important technical indexes such as the Web of Science index or the Scimago Journal & Country Rank. To our knowledge, this is the first contribution that has carried out an evidence-based systematic review including both clinical and technical databases about the effectiveness of VR-based intervention in ASD. The initial search identified a total of 450 records. After the exclusion of the papers that are not studies, duplicated articles, and the screening of the abstract and full text, 31 articles met the PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison and Outcomes) criteria and were selected for analysis. The studies examined suggest moderate evidence about the effectiveness of VR-based treatments in ASD. VR can add many advantages to the treatment of ASD symptomatology, but it is necessary to develop consistent validations in future studies to state that VR can effectively complement the traditional treatments.Mesa Gresa, P.; Gil Gómez, H.; Lozano Quilis, JA.; Gil-Gómez, J. (2018). Effectiveness of Virtual Reality for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Evidence-Based Systematic Review. Sensors. 18(8):1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/s18082486S115188World Health Organizationhttp://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disordersColombi, C., & Ghaziuddin, M. (2017). Neuropsychological Characteristics of Children with Mixed Autism and ADHD. Autism Research and Treatment, 2017, 1-5. doi:10.1155/2017/5781781Merriam-Websterhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/virtual%20realityBird, M.-L., Cannell, J., Jovic, E., Rathjen, A., Lane, K., Tyson, A., … Smith, S. (2017). A Randomized Controlled Trial Investigating the Efficacy of Virtual Reality in Inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 98(10), e27. doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2017.08.084Albiol-Pérez, S., Gil-Gómez, J.-A., Muñoz-Tomás, M.-T., Gil-Gómez, H., Vial-Escolano, R., & Lozano-Quilis, J.-A. (2017). The Effect of Balance Training on Postural Control in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease Using a Virtual Rehabilitation System. Methods of Information in Medicine, 56(02), 138-144. doi:10.3414/me16-02-0004Garcia-Palacios, A., Herrero, R., Vizcaíno, Y., Belmonte, M. A., Castilla, D., Molinari, G., … Botella, C. (2015). Integrating Virtual Reality With Activity Management for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 31(6), 564-572. doi:10.1097/ajp.0000000000000196Bekelis, K., Calnan, D., Simmons, N., MacKenzie, T. A., & Kakoulides, G. (2017). Effect of an Immersive Preoperative Virtual Reality Experience on Patient Reported Outcomes. Annals of Surgery, 265(6), 1068-1073. doi:10.1097/sla.0000000000002094Orlosky, J., Itoh, Y., Ranchet, M., Kiyokawa, K., Morgan, J., & Devos, H. (2017). Emulation of Physician Tasks in Eye-Tracked Virtual Reality for Remote Diagnosis of Neurodegenerative Disease. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 23(4), 1302-1311. doi:10.1109/tvcg.2017.2657018Areces, D., Rodríguez, C., García, T., Cueli, M., & González-Castro, P. (2016). Efficacy of a Continuous Performance Test Based on Virtual Reality in the Diagnosis of ADHD and Its Clinical Presentations. Journal of Attention Disorders, 22(11), 1081-1091. doi:10.1177/1087054716629711Phé, V., Cattarino, S., Parra, J., Bitker, M.-O., Ambrogi, V., Vaessen, C., & Rouprêt, M. (2016). Outcomes of a virtual-reality simulator-training programme on basic surgical skills in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery. The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, 13(2), e1740. doi:10.1002/rcs.1740Pulijala, Y., Ma, M., Pears, M., Peebles, D., & Ayoub, A. (2018). Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality in Surgical Training—A Randomized Control Trial. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, 76(5), 1065-1072. doi:10.1016/j.joms.2017.10.002Jarrold, W., Mundy, P., Gwaltney, M., Bailenson, J., Hatt, N., McIntyre, N., … Swain, L. (2013). Social Attention in a Virtual Public Speaking Task in Higher Functioning Children With Autism. Autism Research, 6(5), 393-410. doi:10.1002/aur.1302Mishkind, M. C., Norr, A. M., Katz, A. C., & Reger, G. M. (2017). Review of Virtual Reality Treatment in Psychiatry: Evidence Versus Current Diffusion and Use. Current Psychiatry Reports, 19(11). doi:10.1007/s11920-017-0836-0Liu, X., Wu, Q., Zhao, W., & Luo, X. (2017). Technology-Facilitated Diagnosis and Treatment of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Engineering Perspective. Applied Sciences, 7(10), 1051. doi:10.3390/app7101051Van Bennekom, M. J., de Koning, P. P., & Denys, D. (2017). Virtual Reality Objectifies the Diagnosis of Psychiatric Disorders: A Literature Review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00163Provoost, S., Lau, H. M., Ruwaard, J., & Riper, H. (2017). Embodied Conversational Agents in Clinical Psychology: A Scoping Review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(5), e151. doi:10.2196/jmir.6553Lau, H. M., Smit, J. H., Fleming, T. M., & Riper, H. (2017). Serious Games for Mental Health: Are They Accessible, Feasible, and Effective? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 7. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00209Parsons, S. (2016). Authenticity in Virtual Reality for assessment and intervention in autism: A conceptual review. Educational Research Review, 19, 138-157. doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2016.08.001Den Brok, W. L. J. E., & Sterkenburg, P. S. (2014). Self-controlled technologies to support skill attainment in persons with an autism spectrum disorder and/or an intellectual disability: a systematic literature review. Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 10(1), 1-10. doi:10.3109/17483107.2014.921248Ip, H. H. S., Wong, S. W. L., Chan, D. F. Y., Byrne, J., Li, C., Yuan, V. S. N., … Wong, J. Y. W. (2018). Enhance emotional and social adaptation skills for children with autism spectrum disorder: A virtual reality enabled approach. Computers & Education, 117, 1-15. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2017.09.010Chen, C.-H., Lee, I.-J., & Lin, L.-Y. (2016). Augmented reality-based video-modeling storybook of nonverbal facial cues for children with autism spectrum disorder to improve their perceptions and judgments of facial expressions and emotions. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 477-485. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.033Didehbani, N., Allen, T., Kandalaft, M., Krawczyk, D., & Chapman, S. (2016). Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training for children with high functioning autism. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 703-711. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.033Lorenzo, G., Lledó, A., Pomares, J., & Roig, R. (2016). Design and application of an immersive virtual reality system to enhance emotional skills for children with autism spectrum disorders. Computers & Education, 98, 192-205. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2016.03.018Wade, J., Zhang, L., Bian, D., Fan, J., Swanson, A., Weitlauf, A., … Sarkar, N. (2016). A Gaze-Contingent Adaptive Virtual Reality Driving Environment for Intervention in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. 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A User-Centred Methodology for the Development of Computer-Based Assistive Technologies for Individuals with Autism.

The design and development of computer assistive technologies must be tied to the needs and goals of end users and must take into account their capabilities and preferences. In this paper, we present MeDeC@, a Methodology for the Development of Computer Assistive Technologies for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which relies heavily in our experience working with end users with ASD. The aim of this methodology is not to design for a broad group of users, but to design highly customizable tools so that they can be easily adapted to specific situations and small user groups. We also present two applications developed using MeDeC@ in order to test its suitability: EmoTraductor, a web application for emotion recognition for people with Asperger Syndrome, and ReadIt, a web browser plug-in to help people with ASD with written language understanding difficulties to navigate the Internet. The results of our evaluation with end users show that the use of MeDeC@ helps developers to successfully design computer assistive technologies taking into account the special requirements and scenarios that arise when developing this kind of assistive applications.pre-print703 K