DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTER-BASED PHOTOSHOP LEARNING MEDIA USING COMPUTER BASED INTERACTION METHOD

Advances in communication and information technology need to be continuously adapted to various disciplines, including education. Nowadays, Photoshop is one of the most widely used editing software by designers to produce quality images. Factors that influence efforts to improve users' Photoshop learning abilities include teacher competence, learning facilities, learning environment, user learning motivation, and learning models used. To support Photoshop learning, it is necessary to design an attractive learning media. Computer-Based Instruction is one of the techniques commonly used to create a learning application, CBI is usually used for making interesting designs that apply human-computer interaction and how learning materials are made. And it can help users understand and further increase user enthusiasm and motivation to learn Photoshop. Macromedia Flash is a program used to design a learning application that describes the learning storyline. Photoshop CS 3 tutorial is designed using Macromedia Flash 8 which can be easily understood by users in the learning proces

Eye tracking and visualization. Introduction to the Special Thematic Issue

There is a growing interest in eye tracking technologies applied to support traditional visualization techniques like diagrams, charts, maps, or plots, either static, animated, or interactive ones. More complex data analyses are required to derive knowledge and meaning from the data. Eye tracking systems serve that purpose in combination with biological and computer vision, cognition, perception, visualization,  human-computer-interaction, as well as usability and user experience research. The 10 articles collected in this thematic special issue provide interesting examples how sophisticated methods of data analysis and representation enable researchers to discover and describe fundamental spatio-temporal regularities in the data. The human visual system, supported by appropriate visualization tools, enables the human operator to solve complex tasks, like understanding and interpreting three-dimensional medical images, controlling air traffic by radar displays, supporting instrument flight tasks, or interacting with virtual realities. The development and application of new visualization techniques is of major importance for future technological progress

Sampling rate influences saccade detection in mobile eye tracking of a reading task

The purpose of this study was to compare saccade detection characteristics in two mobile eye trackers with different sampling rates in a natural task. Gaze data of 11 participants were recorded in one 60 Hz and one 120 Hz mobile eye tracker and compared directly to the saccades detected by a 1000 HZ stationary tracker while a reading task was performed. Saccades and fixations were detected using a velocity based algorithm and their properties analyzed. Results showed that there was no significant difference in the number of detected fixations but mean fixation durations differed between the 60 Hz mobile and the stationary eye tracker. The 120 Hz mobile eye tracker showed a significant increase in the detection rate of saccades and an improved estimation of the mean saccade duration, compared to the 60 Hz eye tracker. To conclude, for the detection and analysis of fast eye movements, such as saccades, it is better to use a 120 Hz mobile eye tracker

Accurate pupil center detection in off-the-shelf eye tracking systems using convolutional neural networks

Remote eye tracking technology has suffered an increasing growth in recent years due to its applicability in many research areas. In this paper, a video-oculography method based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for pupil center detection over webcam images is proposed. As the first contribution of this work and in order to train the model, a pupil center manual labeling procedure of a facial landmark dataset has been performed. The model has been tested over both real and synthetic databases and outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving pupil center estimation errors below the size of a constricted pupil in more than 95% of the images, while reducing computing time by a 8 factor. Results show the importance of use high quality training data and well-known architectures to achieve an outstanding performance.This research was funded by Public University of Navarra (Pre-doctoral research grant) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Contract 'Challenges of Eye Tracking Off-the-Shelf (ChETOS)' with reference: PID2020-118014RB-I0

A Low Cost and Computationally Efficient Approach for Occlusion Handling in Video Surveillance Systems

In the development of intelligent video surveillance systems for tracking a vehicle, occlusions are one of the major challenges. It becomes difficult to retain features during occlusion especially in case of complete occlusion. In this paper, a target vehicle tracking algorithm for Smart Video Surveillance (SVS) is proposed to track an unidentified target vehicle even in case of occlusions. This paper proposes a computationally efficient approach for handling occlusions named as Kalman Filter Assisted Occlusion Handling (KFAOH) technique. The algorithm works through two periods namely tracking period when no occlusion is seen and detection period when occlusion occurs, thus depicting its hybrid nature. Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) feature tracker governs the operation of algorithm during the tracking period, whereas, a Cascaded Object Detector (COD) of weak classifiers, specially trained on a large database of cars governs the operation during detection period or occlusion with the assistance of Kalman Filter (KF). The algorithm’s tracking efficiency has been tested on six different tracking scenarios with increasing complexity in real-time. Performance evaluation under different noise variances and illumination levels shows that the tracking algorithm has good robustness against high noise and low illumination. All tests have been conducted on the MATLAB platform. The validity and practicality of the algorithm are also verified by success plots and precision plots for the test cases

A serious games platform for cognitive rehabilitation with preliminary evaluation

In recent years Serious Games have evolved substantially, solving problems in diverse areas. In particular, in Cognitive Rehabilitation, Serious Games assume a relevant role. Traditional cognitive therapies are often considered repetitive and discouraging for patients and Serious Games can be used to create more dynamic rehabilitation processes, holding patients' attention throughout the process and motivating them during their road to recovery. This paper reviews Serious Games and user interfaces in rehabilitation area and details a Serious Games platform for Cognitive Rehabilitation that includes a set of features such as: natural and multimodal user interfaces and social features (competition, collaboration, and handicapping) which can contribute to augment the motivation of patients during the rehabilitation process. The web platform was tested with healthy subjects. Results of this preliminary evaluation show the motivation and the interest of the participants by playing the games.- This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia in the scope of the projects: PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2015 and PEst-UID/CEC/00027/2015. The authors would like to thank also all the volunteers that participated in the study

Modeling Gaze-Guided Narratives for Outdoor Tourism

Many outdoor spaces have hidden stories connected with them that can be used to enrich a tourist’s experience. These stories are often related to environmental features which are far from the user and far apart from each other. Therefore they are difficult to explore by locomotion, but can be visually explored from a vantage point. Telling a story from a vantage point is challenging since the system must ensure that the user can identify the relevant features in the environment. Gaze-guided narratives are an interaction concept that helps in such situations by telling a story dynamically depending on the user’s current and previous gaze on a panorama. This chapter suggests a formal modeling approach for gaze-guided narratives, based on narrative mediation trees. The approach is illustrated with an example from the Swiss saga around ’Wilhelm Tell