A Robot Expressing Emotions Through Gestures: Everyone Outside of Italy Would Understand this?

In the context of our research activities on affective computing and human-robot interaction we are working on both the recognition of human's emotions and the expression of emotions by robots. In our vision, robots will be increasingly present in schools, factories, and homes, and their empathetic behavior may foster their acceptance. In particular, in one of our research, we sought to replicate gestures associated with specific emotions on a social robot, NAO. Our focus was on Ekman's six primary emotions, along with five emotions selected from Plutchik's wheel of emotions. In our opinion the cultural component linked to the expression of emotions through gestures certainly influenced both us and the participants. Thus, we would like to investigate the influence of our culture in the gestural expression of emotion.Comment: MedCHI workshop 202

Uso de ferramentas tecnológicas como apoio à mediação inclusiva

This paper corresponds to an educational model for inclusive mediation, and the new development of feedback through the technological process in the distance education. The aim is supporting the professional training in relation with the educational technology in inclusive mediation. The distance education serves to create competency-based first training for your mediators. This method for the inclusive mediation, it corresponds to the intermediate between the teacher of the curricular subject and the inclusive students in distance education. The new technological instruments as inclusive mediators towards the socio-formative approach; as well as the four pillars of education and the different roles based on distance mediation. The new strategies to give greater educational and social opportunities as support for inclusive mediation, acquiring greater autonomy, security and social responsibility in the educational technological space.  El presente artículo corresponde a un modelo educativo para la mediación inclusiva, y el nuevo desarrollo de retroalimentación a través del proceso tecnológico en la educación a distancia. El objetivo es priorizar la formación profesional en relación con la tecnología educativa en materia de mediación inclusiva. La educación a la distancia sirve para crear la formación inicial basada en competencias para sus mediadores y mediadoras. Este método para la mediación inclusiva corresponde al intermedio entre docente de la asignatura curricular y los y las estudiantes inclusivas en la educación a distancia. Los nuevos instrumentos tecnológicos como mediadores y mediadoras inclusivas hacia el enfoque socioformativo; así como los cuatros pilares de la educación y los diferentes roles basados en la mediación a distancia. Las nuevas estrategias para brindar mayores oportunidades educativas y sociales como apoyo a la mediación inclusiva, adquiriendo una mayor autonomía, seguridad y responsabilidad social en el espacio educativo tecnológico.Este artigo corresponde a um modelo educacional para mediação inclusiva e o novo desenvolvimento de feedback por meio do processo tecnológico na educação a distância. O objetivo é priorizar a formação profissional em relação à tecnologia educacional em termos de mediação inclusiva. A educação a distância serve para criar uma formação inicial baseada em competências para seus mediadores. Este método de mediação inclusiva corresponde ao intermediário entre o professor da disciplina curricular e os alunos inclusivos na educação a distância. Os novos instrumentos tecnológicos como mediadores inclusivos para a abordagem socioformativa; bem como os quatro pilares da educação e os diferentes papéis baseados na mediação a distância. As novas estratégias para proporcionar maiores oportunidades educativas e sociais no apoio à mediação inclusiva, adquirindo maior autonomia, segurança e responsabilidade social no espaço educativo tecnológico

Assessing emissions levels and costs associated with climate and air pollution policies in South Africa

Affordable energy supply and reductions in emissions of local air pollution and greenhouse gases are each important aspects of South Africa's goals. Many traditional solutions, however, work in contradiction to one another. This work investigates effects on estimated emissions and costs of mitigation strategies using the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interaction Synergies (GAINS) model to identify policies that satisfy multiple goals. Eight scenarios that describe air pollution control options and mixes of energy production technologies are implemented in GAINS, which quantifies country-wide air pollution and greenhouse emissions and costs of controls. Emissions and costs trajectories are compared to the business as usual case, which projects CO2 emissions to increase by 60% by 2050 compared to 2015. Results show that replacing all coal generation with renewables reduces CO2 emissions in 2050 by 8% compared to 2015, and that aggressive policy targeting the whole energy sector reduces CO2 emissions in 2050 by 40%. GAINS is used to show co-benefits and tradeoffs of each scenario, such as reductions in emissions control costs that accompany a switch to renewables. The approach provides supporting evidence for policies that exploit co-benefits and avoid contradictions by assessing multiple aspects of the energy sector within the integrated framework provided by the GAINS modeling platform

What about ICT for students with reading and writing difficulties?

The article on publisher's website: https://library.iated.org/view/MOLSTER2016WHAResearch on the relationship between ICT and student learning show conflicting findings. Despite huge investments in technology, we lack clear indications that ICT promotes learning in school. On the contrary, it seems that students using ICT most frequently have the weakest academic performance (Mølster & Nes, 2015). A recently international study shows that students who use computers moderately seem to have somewhat greater learning outcomes than students who use it rarely, while students who use it often perform worse in most areas, even when taking social background and demographics into account (OECD, 2015). A Norwegian survey shows that the digital lifestyle of the students is a challenge in upper secondary education (Krumsvik, Egelandsdal, Sara room, Jones, & Eikeland, 2013). It seems that the major digitalization of school has not been success so far. This has led to a highly polarized debate in Norway on technology's role in education (Haugsbakk, 2011). The question we ask in this paper is what role digital tools play for students who struggle with reading and writing difficulties. Being able to read and write is fundamental for all learning. Therefore, it is important that the school and the teachers do what they can to help these students. That ICT is a valuable tool for learners with various kinds of disabilities has been well documented (Brøyn and Schultz 2005). We also know that ICT can be a valuable tool for students who struggle with reading and writing difficulties. Already in the eighties special education teachers realized that the computer could be used to effectively train students with different kinds of learning difficulties. Special education teachers started to use ICT as an assistive device to compensate for reading and writing difficulties. However, digital technology used to compensate for different difficulties has not reached the classroom fully (Jacobson, Bjørn et al. 2009). This article is based on findings in the Norwegian research project The Function of Special Education (the SPEED project http://www.hivolda.no/speed ). The project has collected a broad range of empirical data from students, teachers and parents on level 5 to 9, including data on the use of computers in both the ordinary teaching and special teaching. A key finding is that ICT seems to play a modest role in everyday schoolwork for students with reading and writing difficulties. On the other hand, we find that both teachers and students report that ICT is very useful as a compensatory or alternative tool for this group of students. The article will attempt to explain this apparent contradiction and discuss what implications it may have for teaching and teacher training

A systematic mapping study on integration proposals of the personas technique in agile methodologies

Agile development processes are increasing their consideration of usability by integrating various user‐centered design techniques throughout development. One such technique is Personas, which proposes the creation of fictitious users with real preferences to drive application design. Since applying this technique conflicts with the time constraints of agile development, Personas has been adapted over the years. Our objective is to determine the adoption level and type of integration, as well as to propose improvements to the Personas technique for agile development. A systematic mapping study was performed, retrieving 28 articles grouped by agile methodology type. We found some common integration strategies regardless of the specific agile approach, along with some frequent problems, mainly related to Persona modelling and context representation. Based on these limitations, we propose an adaptation to the technique in order to reduce the creation time for a preliminary persona. The number of publications dealing with Personas and agile development is increasing, which reveals a growing interest in the application of this technique to develop usable agile softwareThis research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities research grant PGC2018-097265-B-I00, MASSIVE project (RTI2018-095255-B-I00) and by EIT-Health, grant number 19091 (POSITIVE project). This research was also supported by the Madrid Region R&D programme (project FORTE, P2018/TCS-4314

You have been warned: Abusing 5G's Warning and Emergency Systems

The Public Warning System (PWS) is an essential part of cellular networks and a country's civil protection. Warnings can notify users of hazardous events (e.g., floods, earthquakes) and crucial national matters that require immediate attention. PWS attacks disseminating fake warnings or concealing precarious events can have a serious impact, causing fraud, panic, physical harm, or unrest to users within an affected area. In this work, we conduct the first comprehensive investigation of PWS security in 5G networks. We demonstrate five practical attacks that may impact the security of 5G-based Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) as well as Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) alerts. Additional to identifying the vulnerabilities, we investigate two PWS spoofing and three PWS suppression attacks, with or without a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacker. We discover that MitM-based attacks have more severe impact than their non-MitM counterparts. Our PWS barring attack is an effective technique to eliminate legitimate warning messages. We perform a rigorous analysis of the roaming aspect of the PWS, incl. its potentially secure version, and report the implications of our attacks on other emergency features (e.g., 911 SIP calls). We discuss possible countermeasures and note that eradicating the attacks necessitates a scrupulous reevaluation of the PWS design and a secure implementation

Obstacle detection display for visually impaired:Coding of direction, distance, and height on a vibrotactile waist band

Electronic travel aids (ETAs) can potentially increase the safety and comfort of blind users by detecting and displaying obstacles outside the range of the white cane. In a series of experiments, we aim to balance the amount of information displayed and the comprehensibility of the information taking into account the risk of information overload. In Experiment 1, we investigate perception of compound signals displayed on a tactile vest while walking. The results confirm that the threat of information overload is clear and present. Tactile coding parameters that are sufficiently discriminable in isolation may not be so in compound signals and while walking and using the white cane. Horizontal tactor location is a strong coding parameter, and temporal pattern is the preferred secondary coding parameter. Vertical location is also possible as coding parameter but it requires additional tactors and makes the display hardware more complex and expensive and less user friendly. In Experiment 2, we investigate how we can off-load the tactile modality by mitigating part of the information to an auditory display. Off-loading the tactile modality through auditory presentation is possible, but this off-loading is limited and may result in a new threat of auditory overload. In addition, taxing the auditory channel may in turn interfere with other auditory cues from the environment. In Experiment 3, we off-load the tactile sense by reducing the amount of displayed information using several filter rules. The resulting design was evaluated in Experiment 4 with visually impaired users. Although they acknowledge the potential of the display, the added of the ETA as a whole also depends on its sensor and object recognition capabilities. We recommend to use not more than two coding parameters in a tactile compound message and apply filter rules to reduce the amount of obstacles to be displayed in an obstacle avoidance ETA.</p

Interaction Analysis and Cognitive Infocommunications

Cognitive infocommunications encompasses both scientific and engineering oriented approaches to examining extensions of human cognitive capabilities that may be assimilated within the concept of humanity. Necessary (but not sufficient) conditions for the success of any candidate technology include solving problems within private and public spheres of existence, in thought and communication. Exemplar cognitive infocommunication technologies that have been assimilated in to the concept of humanitiy are examined: emotion, gesture, language. Implications for research programmes conducted within the cognitive infocommunications discipline are outlined

Users' performance of accessible sound-only computer games

This work is conducted at two levels to meet the requirements of this research. The first objective is to develop a better understanding of how to design better sound-only games for a wide range of users. A new theoretical framework has been crafted to achieve this objective (Human Understanding Theory of Novel Games with Simplex, or the HUNGS theory). Such a theory aims to capture the current consensus about user requirements (as far as it is possible to do so) whilst understanding the principles and practices of interactive systems, namely the design of accessible sound-only games. The second objective is to understand better the psychology of intended users of such games. The importance of the present work is to test psychological concepts in the very different and very popular context of computer games. Implications found for users at work or working on serious tasks may not generalize to game players. To achieve the second requirement, a number of existing games were explored before a new game was designed (namely the Totally Lost game), using a range of methods. The Totally Lost game and different versions of the same game have been designed and evaluated based on user experiences

Sustainable Organic Agriculture for Developing Agribusiness Sector

Developing sustainable organic agriculture and resilient agribusiness sector is fundamental, keeping in mind the value of the opportunity presented by the growing demand for healthy and safe food globally, with the expectation for the global population to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, and 11 billion by 2100.Lately, the main threats in Europe, and worldwide, are the increasingly dynamic climate change and economic factors related to currency fluctuations. While the current environmental policy provides several mechanisms to support agribusinesses in mitigating organic food for daily increasing human population and stability of the currency, it does not contemplate the relative readiness of individuals and businesses to act correctly.Organic farming is the practice that relies more on using sustainable methods to cultivate crops and produce food animals, avoiding chemicals and dietary synthetic drug inputs that do not belong to the natural ecosystem. Organic agriculture can also contribute to meaningful socioeconomic, ecologically sustainable development, and significantly in the development of the agribusiness sector, especially in developing countries