Supporting Eyes-Free Human–Computer Interaction with Vibrotactile Haptification

The sense of touch is a crucial sense when using our hands in complex tasks. Some tasks we learn to do even without sight by just using the sense of touch in our fingers and hands. Modern touchscreen devices, however, have lost some of that tactile feeling while removing physical controls from the interaction. Touch is also a sense that is underutilized in interactions with technology and could provide new ways of interaction to support users. While users are using information technology in certain situations, they cannot visually and mentally focus completely during the interaction. Humans can utilize their sense of touch more comprehensively in interactions and learn to understand tactile information while interacting with information technology. This thesis introduces a set of experiments that evaluate human capabilities to understand and notice tactile information provided by current actuator technology and further introduces a couple of examples of haptic user interfaces (HUIs) to use under eyes-free use scenarios. These experiments evaluate the benefits of such interfaces for users and concludes with some guidelines and methods for how to create this kind of user interfaces. The experiments in this thesis can be divided into three groups. In the first group, with the first two experiments, the detection of vibrotactile stimuli and interpretation of the abstract meaning of vibrotactile feedback was evaluated. Experiments in the second group evaluated how to design rhythmic vibrotactile tactons to be basic vibrotactile primitives for HUIs. The last group of two experiments evaluated how these HUIs benefit the users in the distracted and eyes-free interaction scenarios. The primary aim for this series of experiments was to evaluate if utilizing the current level of actuation technology could be used more comprehensively than in current-day solutions with simple haptic alerts and notifications. Thus, to find out if the comprehensive use of vibrotactile feedback in interactions would provide additional benefits for the users, compared to the current level of haptic interaction methods and nonhaptic interaction methods. The main finding of this research is that while using more comprehensive HUIs in eyes-free distracted-use scenarios, such as while driving a car, the user’s main task, driving, is performed better. Furthermore, users liked the comprehensively haptified user interfaces

Automated methods for audio-based music analysis with applications to musicology

This thesis contributes to bridging the gap between music information retrieval (MIR) and musicology. We present several automated methods for music analysis, which are motivated by concrete application scenarios being of central importance in musicology. In this context, the automated music analysis is performed on the basis of audio material. Here, one reason is that for a given piece of music usually many different recorded performances exist. The availability of multiple versions of a piece of music is exploited in this thesis to stabilize analysis results. We show how the presented automated methods open up new possibilities for supporting musicologists in their work. Furthermore, we introduce novel interdisciplinary concepts which facilitate the collaboration between computer scientists and musicologists. Based on these concepts, we demonstrate how MIR researchers and musicologists may greatly benefit from each other in an interdisciplinary collaboration. Firstly, we present a fully automatic approach for the extraction of tempo parameters from audio recordings and show to which extent this approach may support musicologists in analyzing recorded performances. Secondly, we introduce novel user interfaces which are aimed at encouraging the exchange between computer science and musicology. In this context, we indicate the potential of computer-based methods in music education by testing and evaluating a novel MIR user interface at the University of Music Saarbrücken. Furthermore, we show how a novel multi-perspective user interface allows for interactively viewing and evaluating version-dependent analysis results and opens up new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaborations. Thirdly, we present a cross-version approach for harmonic analysis of audio recordings and demonstrate how this approach enables musicologists to explore harmonic structures even across large music corpora. Here, one simple yet important conceptual contribution is to convert the physical time axis of an audio recording into a performance-independent musical time axis given in bars.Diese Arbeit trägt dazu bei, die Brücke zwischen der automatisierten Musikverarbeitung und der Musikwissenschaft zu schlagen. Ausgehend von Anwendungen, die in der Musikwissenschaft von zentraler Bedeutung sind, stellen wir verschiedene automatisierte Verfahren vor. Die automatisierte Musikanalyse wird hierbei auf der Basis von Audiodaten durchgeführt. Ein Grund hierfür ist, dass zu einem gegebenen Musikstück üblicherweise viele verschiedene Aufnahmen existieren. Die Verfügbarkeit mehrerer Versionen zu ein und demselben Musikstück wird in dieser Arbeit ausgenutzt, um Analyseresultate zu stabilisieren. Wir demonstrieren, inwieweit die vorgestellten automatisierten Methoden neue Möglichkeiten eröffnen, Musikwissenschaftler in ihrer Arbeit zu unterstützen. Außerdem führen wir neue interdisziplinäre Konzepte ein, die die Kollaboration zwischen Informatikern und Musikwissenschaftlern erleichtern. Auf der Basis dieser Konzepte zeigen wir, dass Informatiker und Musikwissenschaftler im Rahmen einer interdisziplinären Kollaboration erheblich voneinander profitieren können. Erstens stellen wir ein vollautomatisches Verfahren zur Extraktion von Tempoparametern aus Audioaufnahmen vor und zeigen, inwieweit dieses Verfahren Musikwissenschaftler bei der Interpretationsanalyse verschiedener Aufnahmen unterstützen kann. Zweitens führen wir neuartige Benutzerschnittstellen ein, die darauf abzielen, den Austausch zwischen der Informatik und der Musikwissenschaft zu fördern. In diesem Zusammenhang testen und evaluieren wir eine Benutzerschnittstelle an der Hochschule für Musik Saar und deuten auf diese Weise das Potential computer-basierter Methoden im Bereich der Musikerziehung an. Weiterhin stellen wir eine neuartige Benutzerschnittstelle vor, die es auf interaktive Weise ermöglicht, verschiedene Sichtweisen auf versionsabhängige Analyseresultate einzunehmen und diese auszuwerten. Diese Benutzerschnittstelle eröffnet neue Möglichkeiten für interdisziplinäre Kollaborationen. Drittens zeigen wir, wie eine cross-version harmonische Analyse es Musikwissenschaftlern ermöglicht, harmonische Strukturen über riesige musikalische Werkzyklen hinweg zu ergründen. In diesem Zusammenhang ist ein einfacher aber wichtiger konzeptueller Beitrag, die physikalische Zeitachse einer Audioaufnahme in eine versionsunabhängige musikalische Zeitachse gegeben in Takten zu verwandeln

Enhanced Virtuality: Increasing the Usability and Productivity of Virtual Environments

Mit stetig steigender Bildschirmauflösung, genauerem Tracking und fallenden Preisen stehen Virtual Reality (VR) Systeme kurz davor sich erfolgreich am Markt zu etablieren. Verschiedene Werkzeuge helfen Entwicklern bei der Erstellung komplexer Interaktionen mit mehreren Benutzern innerhalb adaptiver virtueller Umgebungen. Allerdings entstehen mit der Verbreitung der VR-Systeme auch zusätzliche Herausforderungen: Diverse Eingabegeräte mit ungewohnten Formen und Tastenlayouts verhindern eine intuitive Interaktion. Darüber hinaus zwingt der eingeschränkte Funktionsumfang bestehender Software die Nutzer dazu, auf herkömmliche PC- oder Touch-basierte Systeme zurückzugreifen. Außerdem birgt die Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Anwendern am gleichen Standort Herausforderungen hinsichtlich der Kalibrierung unterschiedlicher Trackingsysteme und der Kollisionsvermeidung. Beim entfernten Zusammenarbeiten wird die Interaktion durch Latenzzeiten und Verbindungsverluste zusätzlich beeinflusst. Schließlich haben die Benutzer unterschiedliche Anforderungen an die Visualisierung von Inhalten, z.B. Größe, Ausrichtung, Farbe oder Kontrast, innerhalb der virtuellen Welten. Eine strikte Nachbildung von realen Umgebungen in VR verschenkt Potential und wird es nicht ermöglichen, die individuellen Bedürfnisse der Benutzer zu berücksichtigen. Um diese Probleme anzugehen, werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit Lösungen in den Bereichen Eingabe, Zusammenarbeit und Erweiterung von virtuellen Welten und Benutzern vorgestellt, die darauf abzielen, die Benutzerfreundlichkeit und Produktivität von VR zu erhöhen. Zunächst werden PC-basierte Hardware und Software in die virtuelle Welt übertragen, um die Vertrautheit und den Funktionsumfang bestehender Anwendungen in VR zu erhalten. Virtuelle Stellvertreter von physischen Geräten, z.B. Tastatur und Tablet, und ein VR-Modus für Anwendungen ermöglichen es dem Benutzer reale Fähigkeiten in die virtuelle Welt zu übertragen. Des Weiteren wird ein Algorithmus vorgestellt, der die Kalibrierung mehrerer ko-lokaler VR-Geräte mit hoher Genauigkeit und geringen Hardwareanforderungen und geringem Aufwand ermöglicht. Da VR-Headsets die reale Umgebung der Benutzer ausblenden, wird die Relevanz einer Ganzkörper-Avatar-Visualisierung für die Kollisionsvermeidung und das entfernte Zusammenarbeiten nachgewiesen. Darüber hinaus werden personalisierte räumliche oder zeitliche Modifikationen vorgestellt, die es erlauben, die Benutzerfreundlichkeit, Arbeitsleistung und soziale Präsenz von Benutzern zu erhöhen. Diskrepanzen zwischen den virtuellen Welten, die durch persönliche Anpassungen entstehen, werden durch Methoden der Avatar-Umlenkung (engl. redirection) kompensiert. Abschließend werden einige der Methoden und Erkenntnisse in eine beispielhafte Anwendung integriert, um deren praktische Anwendbarkeit zu verdeutlichen. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass virtuelle Umgebungen auf realen Fähigkeiten und Erfahrungen aufbauen können, um eine vertraute und einfache Interaktion und Zusammenarbeit von Benutzern zu gewährleisten. Darüber hinaus ermöglichen individuelle Erweiterungen des virtuellen Inhalts und der Avatare Einschränkungen der realen Welt zu überwinden und das Erlebnis von VR-Umgebungen zu steigern

Modelling a conversational agent (Botocrates) for promoting critical thinking and argumentation skills

Students in higher education institutions are often advised to think critically, yet without being guided to do so. The study investigated the use of a conversational agent (Botocrates) for supporting critical thinking and academic argumentation skills. The overarching research questions were: can a conversational agent support critical thinking and academic argumentation skills? If so, how? The study was carried out in two stages: modelling and evaluating Botocrates' prototype. The prototype was a Wizard-of-Oz system where a human plays Botocrates' role by following a set of instructions and knowledge-base to guide generation of responses. Both stages were conducted at the School of Education at the University of Leeds. In the first stage, the study analysed 13 logs of online seminars in order to define the tasks and dialogue strategies needed to be performed by Botocrates. The study identified two main tasks of Botocrates: providing answers to students' enquiries and engaging students in the argumentation process. Botocrates’ dialogue strategies and contents were built to achieve these two tasks. The novel theoretical framework of the ‘challenge to explain’ process and the notion of the ‘constructive expansion of exchange structure’ were produced during this stage and incorporated into Botocrates’ prototype. The aim of the ‘challenge to explain’ process is to engage users in repeated and constant cycles of reflective thinking processes. The ‘constructive expansion of exchange structure’ is the practical application of the ‘challenge to explain’ process. In the second stage, the study used the Wizard-of-Oz (WOZ) experiments and interviews to evaluate Botocrates’ prototype. 7 students participated in the evaluation stage and each participant was immediately interviewed after chatting with Botocrates. The analysis of the data gathered from the WOZ and interviews showed encouraging results in terms of students’ engagement in the process of argumentation. As a result of the role of ‘critic’ played by Botocrates during the interactions, users actively and positively adopted the roles of explainer, clarifier, and evaluator. However, the results also showed negative experiences that occurred to users during the interaction. Improving Botocrates’ performance and training users could decrease users’ unsuccessful and negative experiences. The study identified the critical success and failure factors related to achieving the tasks of Botocrates

Proceedings of the Eighth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CliC-it 2021

The eighth edition of the Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-it 2021) was held at Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca from 26th to 28th January 2022. After the edition of 2020, which was held in fully virtual mode due to the health emergency related to Covid-19, CLiC-it 2021 represented the first moment for the Italian research community of Computational Linguistics to meet in person after more than one year of full/partial lockdown

RESPONSE TIME TO HAZARD: THE ROLE OF ATTENTION, DECISION MAKING AND EMOTIONS ON EXPECTATIONS IN REAL-LIFE AND VIRTUAL DRIVING

Lo scopo della presente ricerca è studiare il peso del fattore umano nei tempi di reazione alla guida. I tempi di reazione son stati studiati sin dalle origini della Psicologia sperimentale, tuttavia se applicati alla guida risulta obsoleto a causa delle specifiche condizioni in cui la reazione si svolge, ai cambiamenti del traffico moderno e ai nuovi dispositivi di supporto intelligente. In letteratura emerge chiaramente l’influenza sul tempo di reazione delle aspettative, della salienza della risposta, della percezione del rischio, dei carichi cognitivi e delle condizioni di rilevazione. La presente ricerca si prefigge di affrontare l’impatto e le modalità di influenza di questi aspetti psicologici sui tempi di reazione alla guida. In particolare i dati registrati in condizioni di guida ecologica reale saranno usati per a) studiare l’influenza delle aspettative sui processi attentivi, emozionali e di presa di decisione alla guida in risposta al pericolo, e b) per valutare l’influenza di diversi livelli di realismo di simulazioni e simulatori virtuali sui processi psicologici che determinano l’IPTR. I risultati mostrano differenze significative nelle diverse fasi che compongono l’IPTR nelle diverse condizioni. I simulatori di guida si sono rivelati avere una validità relativa, ma non assoluta rispetto ai processi attivati nelle condizioni ecologiche, dimostrandosi però in grado di ricreare e modificare coerentemente i processi di avvistamento del pericolo in funzione della prevedibilità dello stesso; rendendoli strumenti utili per l’apprendimento. La ricerca fornisce informazioni sul funzionamento dei processi cognitivi ed emotivi alla guida utili per la ricostruzione degli incidenti, la sicurezza e la prevenzione stradale.The aim of the present research is to study the role of human factor in a salient driving ability for road accident prevention, that is reaction time to danger. Reaction times (RTs) have been investigated since the origin of experimental Psychology, however when applied to driving, the values became obsolete due to modern driving conditions and interaction with advance driving automatic systems and devices. The influence of expectation, urgency, risk perception, cognitive load and driving conditions on the process that determine RTs have been steadily proven in literature. The present research aims to tackle the influence of these factors on RTs while driving. In particular data measured in real-life driving are used to a) study the influence of expectation on attention, emotions and decision making process, and b) assess the influence of virtual settings with different levels of realism, on the psychological process that determine RTs. A specific task that manipulate driver’s expectations was created to assess the influence of attention and decision making process in the different context on RTs. Results show significant differences in the RTs phases, for different situation. Driving simulators with different levels of realism proved to not have absolute validity, but rather relative on the meanings and learning process in detecting danger and deciding what response foster; giving us interesting information for drivers education, road safety and accident reconstruction

Teaching/Learning Physics: Integrating Research into Practice

The GIREP-MPTL International conference on Teaching/Learning Physics: Integrating Research into Practice [GIREP-MPTL 2014] was held from 7 to 12 July 2014 at the University of Palermo, Italy. The conference has been organised by the Groupe International de Recherche sur l’Enseignement de la Physique [GIREP] and the Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning [MPTL] group and it has been sponsored by the International Commission on Physics Education [ICPE] – Commission 14 of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics [IUPAP], the European Physical Society – Physics Education Division [EPS-PED], the Latin American Physics Education Network [LAPEN] and the Società Italiana di Fisica [SIF]. The theme of the conference, Teaching/Learning Physics: Integrating Research into Practice, underlines aspects of great relevance in contemporary science education. In fact, during the last few years, evidence based Physics Education Research provided results concerning the ways and strategies to improve student conceptual understanding, interest in Physics, epistemological awareness and insights for the construction of a scientific citizenship. However, Physics teaching practice seems resistant to adopting adapting these findings to their own situation and new research based curricula find difficulty in affirming and spread, both at school and university levels. The conference offered an opportunity for in-depth discussions of this apparently wide-spread tension in order to find ways to do better. The purpose of the GIREP-MPTL 2014 was to bring together people working in physics education research and in physics education at schools from all over the world to allow them to share research results and exchange their experience. About 300 teachers, educators, and researchers, from all continents and 45 countries have attended the Conference contributing with 177 oral presentations, 15 workshops, 11 symposia, and around 60 poster presentations, together with 11 keynote addresses (general talks). After the conference, 147 papers have been submitted for the GIREP-MPTL 2014 International Conference proceedings. Each paper has been reviewed by at least two reviewers, from countries that are different to those of the authors and on the basis of criteria described on the Conference web site. Papers were subsequently revised by authors according to reviewers’ comments and the accepted papers are reported in this book, divided in 8 Sections on the basis of the keywords suggested by authors. The other book section (actually, the first one) contains the papers that six of the keynote talkers sent for publication in this Proceedings Book. We would like to thank all the authors that contributed with their papers to the realization of this book and all the referees that with their criticism helped authors to improve the quality of the papers