Gesture based persuasive interfaces for public ambient displays

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática 2º Semestre, 2011/2012This Master thesis studies how Public Ambient Displays (PAD) can be used as a tool to achieve behaviour change, through persuasive technology. In order to reach the goals of the thesis, an interactive public ambient display system called Motion-based Ambient Interactive Display (MAID) was developed. MAID is driven to motivate behaviour changes regarding domestic energy consumption, through a persuasive game interface based on gesture recognition technology. The developed prototype guides players through the different rooms of a house, where they have to find out what is wrong and practice the correct actions to save energy, using similar gestures to the ones they would use in real life to achieve the same goals. The system provides feedback regarding the consequences of each action, in order to make users aware of the consequences of their actions. The implementation of MAID is based on a purpose built, highly configurable and modular framework. It allows the administrator to fine tune and tweak the application to the necessities of the setup location constraints, by adjusting basic display properties, change image content or even modify the scripted gameplay itself. The scripted game system is flexible enough to allow the repurposing of the framework, beyond the previously defined theme, for future studies. The MAID was subjected to user testing, in order to show that it is possible to create a persuasive PAD interface, using seamless interaction methods, with the currently available technology, and use it to spread awareness of a cause, leading to behaviour change.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - project DEAP (PTDC/AAC-AMB/104834/2008); CITI/DI/FCT/UNL (PEst-OE/EEI/UI0527/201

Neon Chalk: Designing Software to Support Drawing as Play for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Neon Chalk is a prototype piece of software designed to support drawing as play, for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). It incorporates a minimalist interface to reduce distraction while drawing, compelling colours and sound that are configurable for each user, and an interaction design that makes the stimulus reward outputted by the software contingent on input from the child drawing. The design and development of the Neon Chalk prototype has motivated and informed the assessment of user-centred data gathering techniques. Six children with ASD were involved in this research. The techniques used within this studied are evaluated based on their suitability of use with this challenging user population

Tangible user interfaces and social interaction in children with autism

Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) offer the potential for new modes of social interaction for children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Familiar objects that are embedded with digital technology may help children with autism understand the actions of others by providing feedback that is logical and predictable. Objects that move, playback sound or create sound – thus repeating programmed effects – offer an exciting way for children to investigate objects and their effects. This thesis presents three studies of children with autism interacting with objects augmented with digital technology. Study one looked at Topobo, a construction toy augmented with kinetic memory. Children played with Topobo in groups of three of either Typically Developing (TD) or ASC children. The children were given a construction task, and were also allowed to play with the construction sets with no task. Topobo in the task condition showed an overall significant effect for more onlooker, cooperative, parallel, and less solitary behaviour. For ASC children significantly less solitary and more parallel behaviour was recorded than other play states. In study two, an Augmented Knights Castle (AKC) playset was presented to children with ASC. The task condition was extended to allow children to configure the playset with sound. A significant effect in a small sample was found for configuration of the AKC, leading to less solitary behaviour, and more cooperative behaviour. Compared to non-digital play, the AKC showed reduction of solitary behaviour because of augmentation. Qualitative analysis showed further differences in learning phase, user content, behaviour oriented to other children, and system responsiveness. Tangible musical blocks (‘d-touch’) in study three focused on the task. TD and ASC children were presented with a guided/non-guided task in pairs, to isolate effects of augmentation. Significant effects were found for an increase in cooperative symbolic play in the guided condition, and more solitary functional play was found in the unguided condition. Qualitative analysis highlighted differences in understanding blocks and block representation, exploratory and expressive play, understanding of shared space and understanding of the system. These studies suggest that the structure of the task conducted with TUIs may be an important factor for children’s use. When the task is undefined, play tends to lose structure and the benefits of TUIs decline. Tangible technology needs to be used in an appropriately structured manner with close coupling (the distance between digital housing and digital effect), and works best when objects are presented in familiar form

Emotions in context: examining pervasive affective sensing systems, applications, and analyses

Pervasive sensing has opened up new opportunities for measuring our feelings and understanding our behavior by monitoring our affective states while mobile. This review paper surveys pervasive affect sensing by examining and considering three major elements of affective pervasive systems, namely; “sensing”, “analysis”, and “application”. Sensing investigates the different sensing modalities that are used in existing real-time affective applications, Analysis explores different approaches to emotion recognition and visualization based on different types of collected data, and Application investigates different leading areas of affective applications. For each of the three aspects, the paper includes an extensive survey of the literature and finally outlines some of challenges and future research opportunities of affective sensing in the context of pervasive computing

Assistive learning technologies for learners with ADHD and ASD: – a review 2006-2016

This literature review was a part of a research project investigating how technologies can be utilised to support learners with developmental and attention deficit to be included in mainstream learning contexts.  The review contains research within the field of assistive learning technologies for learners with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder from 2006 to 2016. The review is conducted, by using systematic and qualitative academically acknowledged literature search methods. Seven categories of technology-based interventions are recognised from current research, where technologies have been used to support: 1) memory disabilities and/or brain training, 2) increasing focusing attention, 3) time and task management, 4) communication, 5) reading, writing, language and literacy skills, 6) changing behaviour and 7) group work and collaboration. The results indicate that the overall findings of the rendered studies present mixed conclusions. The review calls for more research in a mainstream learning context with a universal design for learning approach

Shortages and challenges in augmentative communication through tangible interaction using a user-centered design and assessment process

In this article, we present an assessment process on a tangible interaction application oriented to individuals with complex communication needs, called ACoTI, and details about the main results obtained thus far. The process is based on a set of decisions that have been surveyed as key elements for assessing this type of experiences, based on a background review that was carried out. In addition to that, it has taken into account the contribution of key players from the special education field and it is the foundation for the user-centered and evolutionary design of the application. A number of findings and challenges that open up the door to keep contributing to this specific area was presented. For instance, creating an authoring tool that is available for the educators to be able to generate themselves customized activities for their students, considering the specific needs of each of them