Where's My Cellphone: Non-contact based Hand-Gestures and Ultrasound haptic feedback for Secondary Task Interaction while Driving

Drivers regularly use their smartphones to perform secondary tasks while driving, which can negatively impact traffic safety. In such complex interaction, multimodal feedback has been associated with lowering driver distraction. We investigated four methods for completing a phone-based secondary task while driving: smartphone in hand, smartphone in a rack, buttons on the steering wheel with Head-up-display (HUD), and mid-air gestures with an ultrasound haptic feedback and a HUD. Participants (N=16) drove the Lane Change Test (LCT) simulator with each method to complete predefined secondary tasks. To measure performance in primary task, we recorded lane deviations and for secondary task we measured response times and errors. Additionally, the participants filled in the NASA-TLX questionnaire and ranked each method according to their preferences. The results showed that the performance and preference for the hand and rack conditions were similar, while performance with buttons and gestures was worse, even with ultrasound haptic feedback, than in hand and rack conditions. The results highlight the importance of rigorous user testing when introducing new modalities for in-vehicle interaction to enhance primary and secondary task performance.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Modeling intent and destination prediction within a Bayesian framework: Predictive touch as a usecase

Abstract In various scenarios, the motion of a tracked object, for example, a pointing apparatus, pedestrian, animal, vehicle, and others, is driven by achieving a premeditated goal such as reaching a destination. This is albeit the various possible trajectories to this endpoint. This paper presents a generic Bayesian framework that utilizes stochastic models that can capture the influence of intent (viz., destination) on the object behavior. It leads to simple algorithms to infer, as early as possible, the intended endpoint from noisy sensory observations, with relatively low computational and training data requirements. This framework is introduced in the context of the novel predictive touch technology for intelligent user interfaces and touchless interactions. It can determine, early in the interaction task or pointing gesture, the interface item the user intends to select on the display (e.g., touchscreen) and accordingly simplify as well as expedite the selection task. This is shown to significantly improve the usability of displays in vehicles, especially under the influence of perturbations due to road and driving conditions, and enable intuitive contact-free interactions. Data collected in instrumented vehicles are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed intent prediction approach.</jats:p

Bayesian Intent Prediction in Object Tracking Using Bridging Distributions.

In several application areas, such as human computer interaction, surveillance and defence, determining the intent of a tracked object enables systems to aid the user/operator and facilitate effective, possibly automated, decision making. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic inference approach that permits the prediction, well in advance, of the intended destination of a tracked object and its future trajectory. Within the framework introduced here, the observed partial track of the object is modeled as being part of a Markov bridge terminating at its destination, since the target path, albeit random, must end at the intended endpoint. This captures the underlying long term dependencies in the trajectory, as dictated by the object intent. By determining the likelihood of the partial track being drawn from a particular constructed bridge, the probability of each of a number of possible destinations is evaluated. These bridges can also be employed to produce refined estimates of the latent system state (e.g., object position, velocity, etc.), predict its future values (up until reaching the designated endpoint) and estimate the time of arrival. This is shown to lead to a low complexity Kalman-filter-based implementation of the inference routine, where any linear Gaussian motion model, including the destination reverting ones, can be applied. Free hand pointing gestures data collected in an instrumented vehicle and synthetic trajectories of a vessel heading toward multiple possible harbors are utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Bayesian Intent Prediction in Object Tracking Using Bridging Distributions.

In several application areas, such as human computer interaction, surveillance and defence, determining the intent of a tracked object enables systems to aid the user/operator and facilitate effective, possibly automated, decision making. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic inference approach that permits the prediction, well in advance, of the intended destination of a tracked object and its future trajectory. Within the framework introduced here, the observed partial track of the object is modeled as being part of a Markov bridge terminating at its destination, since the target path, albeit random, must end at the intended endpoint. This captures the underlying long term dependencies in the trajectory, as dictated by the object intent. By determining the likelihood of the partial track being drawn from a particular constructed bridge, the probability of each of a number of possible destinations is evaluated. These bridges can also be employed to produce refined estimates of the latent system state (e.g., object position, velocity, etc.), predict its future values (up until reaching the designated endpoint) and estimate the time of arrival. This is shown to lead to a low complexity Kalman-filter-based implementation of the inference routine, where any linear Gaussian motion model, including the destination reverting ones, can be applied. Free hand pointing gestures data collected in an instrumented vehicle and synthetic trajectories of a vessel heading toward multiple possible harbors are utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.The authors would like to thank Jaguar Land Rover and the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (BTaRoT grant EP/K020153/1) for funding this research

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with

Selection facilitation schemes for predictive touch with mid-air pointing gestures in automotive displays

Predictive touch is an HMI technology that relies on inferring, early in the pointing gesture, the interface item a driver or passenger intends to select on an in-vehicle display [1, 2]. It simplifies and expedites the selection task, thereby reducing the associated interaction effort. This paper presents two studies on drivers using predictive touch and focuses on evaluating the best means to facilitate selecting the intended on-display item. This includes immediate midair selection with the system autonomously auto-selecting the predicted interface component, hover/dwell and drivers pressing a button on the steering wheel to execute the selection action. These were arrived at in an expert workshop study with twelve participants. The results of the subsequent evaluation study with twenty four participants demonstrate, using quantitative and qualitative measures, that immediate mid-air selection is a promising assistive scheme, where drivers need not touch a physical surface to select interface components, thus touch-free control

Contributions to the science of controlled transformation

writing completed in april 2013My research activities pertain to "Informatics" and in particular "Interactive Graphics" i.e. dynamic graphics on a 2D screen that a user can interact with by means of input devices such as a mouse or a multitouch surface. I have conducted research on Interactive Graphics along three themes: interactive graphics development (how should developers design the architecture of the code corresponding to graphical interactions?), interactive graphic design (what graphical interactions should User Experience (UX) specialists use in their system?) and interactive graphics design process (how should UX specialists design? Which method should they apply?) I invented the MDPC architecture that relies on Picking views and Inverse transforms. This improves the modularity of programs and improves the usability of the specification and the implementation of interactive graphics thanks to the simplification of description. In order to improve the performance of rich-graphic software using this architecture, I explored the concepts of graphical compilers and led a PhD thesis on the topic. The thesis explored the approach and contributed both in terms of description simplification and of software engineering facilitation. Finally, I have applied the simplification of description principles to the problem of shape covering avoidance by relying on new efficient hardware support for parallelized and memory-based algorithms. Together with my colleagues, we have explored the design and assessment of expanding targets, animation and sound, interaction with numerous tangled trajectories, multi-user interaction and tangible interaction. I have identified and defined Structural Interaction, a new interaction paradigm that follows the steps of the direct and instrumental interaction paradigms. I directed a PhD thesis on this topic and together with my student we designed and assessed interaction techniques for structural interaction. I was involved in the design of the "Technology Probes" concept i.e. runnable prototypes to feed the design process. Together with colleagues, I designed VideoProbe, one such Technology Probe. I became interested in more conceptual tools targeted at graphical representation. I led two PhD theses on the topic and explored the characterization of visualization, how to design representations with visual variables or ecological perception and how to design visual interfaces to improve visual scanning. I discovered that those conceptual tools could be applied to programming languages and showed how the representation of code, be it textual or "visual" undergoes visual perception phenomena. This has led me to consider our discipline as the "Science of Controlled Transformations". The fifth chapter is an attempt at providing this new account of "Informatics" based on what users, programmers and researchers actually do with interactive systems. I also describe how my work can be considered as contributing to the science of controlled transformations

The Micro-Politics of Border Control: Internal Struggles at Canadian Customs

This dissertation explores the remaking of Canadian customs from the point of view of border officers tasked with processing trucks and commodities. Historically employed for tax collection, border authorities have gradually been incorporated into security provision and trade facilitation. This has entailed the pluralization of public and private actors who have a stake in border regulation as well as the design of a series of organizational reforms, new customs programs, border technologies and intelligence-led policing strategies. As a result, there has been a disembedding of borderwork and a displacement of decision-making away from ports of entry. Frontline security professionals negotiate these changes in ways that have consequences for our understanding of border priorities. In response to the consequences of this new division of labour, including their loss of clout in the security field, customs officers attempt to maintain their hold on border responsibilities by relying on their discretionary powers. Meanwhile, they emphasize the potentially dangerous aspects of their work over the more administrative by deploying an enforcement narrative––one that has recently found its concrete application in their union's successful campaign to obtain arming for its members. While an analysis of the "pistolization" of borderwork indicates the progressive adoption of a policing sensibility by border officers, an examination of their restructured professional socialization reveals the emergence of distinct generational approaches to borderwork. Hiring and training play a central part in shaping "old ways" and "new ways" of doing borderwork. Anchored in divergent temporalities of border control, these internal categorizations of skills and attitudes point to the new registers of distinction mobilized by officers as they negotiate a transitioning security field