Chinese Text Entry with Mobile Devices

Tietokoneiden ja nykyaikaisten matkapuhelimien käytön kannalta on olennaista, että niihin voidaan syöttää tekstiä tehokkaasti. Kiinan kielen eri murteita puhuu äidinkielenään noin viidesosa maailman väestöstä eli yli miljardi ihmistä. Kiinan kielen merkki- ja tavuperustaisuus tekee siitä tekstinsyötön kannalta ainutlaatuisen haastavan. Monet kiinalaisista merkeistä ovat rakenteeltaan monimutkaisia ja homofonisia (ääntyvät samalla tavoin) joidenkin muiden merkkien kanssa. Syötettäessä tekstiä näppäimistöltä tavallinen tapa on käyttää ns. pinyin-koodeja, joiden avulla kukin kiinan merkki voidaan esittää useasta latinalaisen aakkoston merkistä koostuvana koodina. Homofoniasta johtuen tarkoitettu kiinan kielen merkki joudutaan tämän jälkeen vielä valitsemaan usean vaihtoehdon joukosta, mikä tekee tekstinsyöttöprosessista vaikeampaa kuin romaanisten kielten tapauksessa. Lisäksi on otettava huomioon Kiinan eri osissa puhutut useat murteet. Kaikki nämä tekijät yhdessä tekevät kiinankielisen tekstin syötöstä tietokoneille haastavaa. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on parantaa kiinankielisen tekstin syöttötapojen käyttäjäkokemusta käytettäessä matkapuhelimia ja muita mobiililaitteita. Väitöskirjassa tutkitaan empiiristen kokeiden ja mallinnuksen avulla uusia tekstinsyöttötapoja ja niiden käyttöä. Tutkimuksen kohteena on neljä erilaista tekstinsyöttötapaa: kiinankielen käsinkirjoituksen tunnistus, pyörivän kiekon avulla tapahtuva tekstinsyöttö, mandariinikiinaan perustuva sanelu, ja numeronäppäinten avulla tapahtuva pinyin-koodien syöttö. Työssä ehdotetaan uusia tekniikoita sekä käsinkirjoituksen tunnistukseen että kiekkoa käyttävään pinyin-koodien syöttöön. Empiirisissä kokeissa osoittautui että käyttäjät pitivät uusista tekniikoista. Mandariinikiinalle on suunniteltu lyhytviestien sanelusovellus, josta on tehty kaksi käyttäjäkoetta. Myös numeronäppäinten avulla tapahtuvaa pinyin-koodien syöttöä on tutkittu kahdessa kokeessa. Ensimmäisessä kokeessa vertailtiin viittä eri menetelmää. Se tuotti suunnitteluohjeita etenkin koskien fraasien (useamman merkin kokonaisuuksien) syöttöä, tekniikkaa joka voi nopeuttaa tekstinsyöttöä. Toisen osatutkimuksen tuloksena on tekstinsyöttöä kuvaava malli, jonka avulla voidaan ennustaa menetelmän nopeutta kun syötettäessä ei tehdä virheitä. Tutkimus johti myös useisiin jatkotutkimuskysymyksiin. On tarpeen kehittää tehokkaampia menetelmiä tilanteeseen, jossa merkki joudutaan valitsemaan useista vaihtoehdoista. Kehityspotentiaalia on myös merkkien perustana olevien viivojen tunnistustavoissa sekä kosketusnäytöllä esitettyjen näppäimistöjen paremmassa hyödyntämisessä.For using computers and modern mobile phones it is essential that there are efficient methods for providing textual input. About one fifth of the world´s population, or over one billion people, speaks some variety of Chinese as their native language. Chinese has unique characteristics as a logosyllabic language. For example, many Chinese characters are complex in structure and normally homophonic with some others. With keyboards and other key-based input devices the normal approach is to use so-called pinyin input, where the Chinese characters are entered using their pinyin mark that consists of several characters in the Roman alphabet. Because of homophony this technique requires choosing the correct Chinese character from a list of posssible choices, making the input process more complicated than in Roman languages. Moreover, the many varieties of the language in different parts of China have to be taken into account as well. All above factors bring new challenges to the design and evaluation of Chinese text entry methods in computing systems. The overall objective of this dissertation is to improve user experience of Chinese text entry on mobile devices. To achieve the goal, the author explores new interaction solutions and patterns of user behavior in the Chinese text entry process with various approaches including empirical studies and performance modeling. The work covers four means of Chinese text entry on mobile devices: Chinese handwriting recognition, Chinese indirect text entry with a rotator, Mandarin dictation, and Chinese pinyin input methods with a 12-key keypad. New design solutions for Chinese handwriting recognition and pinyin methods utilizing a rotator are proposed and proved being well accepted by users with empirical studies. A Mandarin short message dictation application for mobile phones is also presented , with two associated studies on human factors. Two studies were also carried out on Chinese pinyin input methods that are based on the 12-key keypad. The comparative study of five phrasal pinyin input methods led to design guidelines for the advanced feature of phrasal input. The second study of pinyin input methods produced a predictive model addressing users´ error-free speeds. Based on the conclusions from studies in this thesis, several additional research questions were identified for the future. For example, improvements are necessary to promote user performance on target selection process in Chinese text entry on mobile devices. Moreover, design and studies on stroke methods and Chinese specific soft keyboards are also required

The Effect of Device When Using Smartphones and Computers to Answer Multiple-Choice and Open-Response Questions in Distance Education

Traditionally in higher education, online courses have been designed for computer users. However, the advent of mobile learning (m-learning) and the proliferation of smartphones have created two challenges for online students and instructional designers. First, instruction designed for a larger computer screen often loses its effectiveness when displayed on a smaller smartphone screen. Second, requiring students to write remains a hallmark of higher education, but miniature keyboards might restrict how thoroughly smartphone users respond to open- response test questions. The present study addressed both challenges by featuring m-learning’s greatest strength (multimedia) and by investigating its greatest weakness (text input). The purpose of the current study was to extend previous research associated with m- learning. The first goal was to determine the effect of device (computer vs. smartphone) on performance when answering multiple-choice and open-response questions. The second goal was to determine whether computers and smartphones would receive significantly different usability ratings when used by participants to answer multiple-choice and open-response questions. The construct of usability was defined as a composite score based on ratings of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. This comparative study used a between-subjects, posttest, experimental design. The study randomly assigned 70 adults to either the computer treatment group or the smartphone treatment group. Both treatment groups received the same narrated multimedia lesson on how a solar cell works. Participants accessed the lesson using either their personal computers (computer treatment group) or their personal smartphones (smartphone treatment group) at the time and location of their choice. After viewing the multimedia lesson, all participants answered the same multiple-choice and open-response posttest questions. In the current study, computer users and smartphone users had no significant difference in their scores on multiple-choice recall questions. On open-response questions, smartphone users performed better than predicted, which resulted in no significant difference between scores of the two treatment groups. Regarding usability, participants gave computers and smartphones high usability ratings when answering multiple-choice items. However, for answering open-response items, smartphones received significantly lower usability ratings than computers

Enabling visually impaired people to use touch screen phones

Includes bibliographical referencesMost mobile applications are not designed for visually impaired people. The concept of universal design is not adopted by most application developers. Therefore, interaction between a visually impaired user and the mobile application becomes cumbersome. Assistive technologies such as screen readers have been developed for different mobile device manufacturer s for visually impaired users. However, they only support the most popular languages spoken in the world such as English. To our knowledge, although research on assistive technologies for the use of mobile devices by visually impaired people has been done, information on that relating to minority languages such as Swahili is virtually non-existent. Therefore, this study investigated the challenges faced by visually impaired Swahili speakers when using mobile phones and then developed a mobile phone application which would enable them to use touch screen phones more independently. As a user center design methodology was adopted, visually impaired people were the focal point for this study. The mobile application was designed and implemented based on the feedback from the participants in all iteration phases and thereafter the final evaluation of a complete application was conducted. The results of the user evaluation showed that most of the visually impaired users were able to complete the tasks independently and were excited to practice even more. Although, the results showed that the sliding - text entry method had more problems than the Braille - method, still users showed preference for the former method. Furthermore, with regard to spoken feedback, the users were willing to use the app even though the quality of the voice was not natural. Overall, the mobile application developed was found to be usable and preferable. While the challenges were explored on the common basic features, it is believed that this work has laid a solid platform for future extensions

Metafore mobilnih komunikacija ; Метафоры мобильной связи.

Mobilne komunikacije su polje informacione i komunikacione tehnologije koje karakteriše brzi razvoj i u kome se istraživanjem u analitičkim okvirima kognitivne lingvistike, zasnovanom na uzorku od 1005 odrednica, otkriva izrazito prisustvo metafore, metonimije, analogije i pojmovnog objedinjavanja. Analiza uzorka reči i izraza iz oblasti mobilnih medija, mobilnih operativnih sistema, dizajna korisničkih interfejsa, terminologije mobilnih mreža, kao i slenga i tekstizama koje upotrebljavaju korisnici mobilnih naprava ukazuje da pomenuti kognitivni mehanizmi imaju ključnu ulogu u olakšavanju interakcije između ljudi i širokog spektra mobilnih uređaja sa računarskim sposobnostima, od prenosivih računara i ličnih digitalnih asistenata (PDA), do mobilnih telefona, tableta i sprava koje se nose na telu. Ti mehanizmi predstavljaju temelj razumevanja i nalaze se u osnovi principa funkcionisanja grafičkih korisničkih interfejsa i direktne manipulacije u računarskim okruženjima. Takođe je analiziran i poseban uzorak od 660 emotikona i emođija koji pokazuju potencijal za proširenje značenja, imajući u vidu značaj piktograma za tekstualnu komunikaciju u vidu SMS poruka i razmenu tekstualnih sadržaja na društvenim mrežama kojima se redovno pristupa putem mobilnih uređaja...Mobile communications are a fast-developing field of information and communication technology whose exploration within the analytical framework of cognitive linguistics, based on a sample of 1005 entries, reveals the pervasive presence of metaphor, metonymy analogy and conceptual integration. The analysis of the sample consisting of words and phrases related to mobile media, mobile operating systems and interface design, the terminology of mobile networking, as well as the slang and textisms employed by mobile gadget users shows that the above cognitive mechanisms play a key role in facilitating interaction between people and a wide range of mobile computing devices from laptops and PDAs to mobile phones, tablets and wearables. They are the cornerstones of comprehension that are behind the principles of functioning of graphical user interfaces and direct manipulation in computing environments. A separate sample, featuring a selection of 660 emoticons and emoji, exhibiting the potential for semantic expansion was also analyzed, in view of the significance of pictograms for text-based communication in the form of text messages or exchanges on social media sites regularly accessed via mobile devices..

Smart device application as teaching tool for improving listening skill to students of second bachillerato bgu at unidad educativa Liceo Cristiano Peninsular. La libertad, province of Santa Elena, school year 2015 - 2016.

The present work is an investigation which objective was to establish the use of whatsApp as a teaching tool to improve the listening skills on 15 students from second bachillerato BGU at unidad educativa Liceo Cristiano Peninsular, in Santa Elena province, Ecuador. The investigational group was allowed to use whatsApp cross mobile application in a smart device, whose principal characteristics are the usefulness of audio message sending and video sharing that allowed enhancing the listening skills on students through the practice of songs, video clips, lectures and podcast. For the development of this research it was required to apply the qualitative method by implementing techniques such as: Focus group, observation and interviews. The results of these analysis demonstrated that the application of mobile learning technique in a smart device (whatsApp), generate significant effects on listening skills of students such as the improvement of listening skill among 12% and 20% where students passed from A2.1 to A2.2 level in listening skills according to common european framework reference since the encouragement and confidence that scholars feel while they use a social network properly. These outcomes suggest that teachers should start changing traditional ways of teaching English specifically in the listening training sessions and explore new methods to improve production on students

Understanding the interaction strategies of blind health IT users: a qualitative study

Blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals face significant accessibility and usability problems while interacting with web and mobile applications. Current approaches to resolve those problems are overly techno-centric and ignore the role of BVI users in determining the success or failure of an interaction. Using the “Theory of Affordances” as a theoretical lens, this research includes the users in the equation. This research argues that the interaction strategies of BVI users play a vital role in determining the success or failure of their web and mobile interactions. Extant Information Systems literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of the BVI users’ interaction strategies. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to produce a comprehensive understanding of the BVI web and mobile users’ interaction strategies, respective accessibility, and usability problems, and use that knowledge to resolve the identified problems. This research is situated in the context of BVI users’ personal health information management using web and mobile applications. The research adopts a novel semiethnographic, conversation-style qualitative data collection methodology. The research design is an observation study with BVI web and mobile users. The research produces the comprehensive understanding of the web and mobile interaction strategies of BVI participants, and the respective accessibility and usability problems. The identified Web interaction strategies are: *Use of screen-reader specific navigation functions, *Use of links list, *Use the up and down arrow keys, *Use the “table layer”, *Using arrow keys, *Use of the tab key, *Use of the screen-find function, *Hit the enter key, *Hit the spacebar, *Tab and shift + tab in succession, *Up and down arrow keys in succession, *Use screen-reader function such as insert + tab in JAWS, *Re-doing the component-level operation, *Restarting the browser and re-doing the entire task-flow, *Trial and error, The identified mobile interaction strategies are: *Sequential scanning, *Gambling scanning, *Direct-touch scanning, *Read character-by-character, *Read word-by-word, *Read line-by-line, *Skim through headings, *Flick left and flick right in succession, *Flick left and flick right in succession, *Use of handwriting, *Use of braille screen input, *Use of direct-touch typing, *Use the dictation feature, *Use of an external keyboard, *Use of standard typing, *Use of touch typing, *Re-doing the component-level operation, *Moving one step back and re-tracing the path, *Restarting the application and re-doing the entire task-flow, *Trial and error. The web interaction strategies are very similar to the mobile interaction strategies. The participants often develop multiple strategies to achieve their objectives and then choose to execute one or more of the strategies considering various contextual factors. The strategies can be broadly classified as exploration or exploitation. The strategies in the exploration category intend to gather the information about the interface. The strategies in the exploitation category intend to use the properties of the interface without exploring the interface. This research makes the following contributions: *Defines the construct “interaction strategy” as a coordinated sequence of user interactions with online resources that is intended to achieve an interaction goal. It allows us to study the entire interaction as a single unit. *Develops a semi-ethnographic, conversation-style qualitative data-collection methodology to study human technology interactions. It implements the methodology to study the BVI users’ web and mobile interactions using a screen-reader. * Develops the theoretical analysis methodology to identify the areas of improvement in human technology interactions. *Generates the design and interaction principles to resolve the identified accessibility and usability problems