4,059 research outputs found

    Designing an Online Platform to Support Long-distance Romantic Relationships

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    Nowadays, Long-Distance Relationships (LDRs) are increasingly popular and ubiquitous for many reasons, including travel for career, education, and parent care. Compared to geographically-close relationships; it seems LDRs face many challenges: difficulties in communication, time zone difference, temptations from others, and lack of physical engagement, among other things. While the rise of computer-mediated communication provide many channels for interaction for LDR partners, statistics show that many long-distance relationships still don\u27t last. I focused on two important factors that can impact relationship satisfaction—self-disclosure and a caring response. I employed an online survey to understand how partners self-disclose and show a caring response with each other in long-distance romantic relationships versus in an in-person romantic relationship. I found that the best channel to support self-disclosure and care is video, but video is not as convenient as text. I also discovered that, for most participants, the favorite part of offline communication is being able to see facial expressions and body language, hear tone of voice and have physical contact. Inspired by this research and participant feedback through focus groups, I designed an app called LoveNotes. The app emphasizes facial expression and tone, and uses the connotation of love letters. This app has potential to encourage LDR partners to express emotion and thoughts in a stronger, more accurate, more detectable way

    Messaging in mobile augmented reality audio

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    Monen käyttäjän välinen asynkroninen viestintä tapahtuu tyypillisesti tekstiä käyttäen. Mobiileissa käyttötilanteissa tekstinsyöttö voi kuitenkin olla hidasta ja vaivalloista. Sekä viestien kirjoittaminen että lukeminen vaatii huomion keskittämistä laitteen näyttöön. Tässä työssä kehitettiin viestintäsovellus, jossa tekstin sijaan käytetään puhetta lyhyiden viestien jakamiseen ryhmien jäsenten välillä. Näitä viestejä voidaan kuunnella heti niiden saapuessa tai niitä voi selata ja kuunnella myöhemmin. Sovellusta on tarkoitettu käytettävän mobiilin lisätyn äänitodellisuuden alustan kanssa, mikä mahdollistaa lähes häiriintymättömän ympäristön havaitsemisen samalla kun kommunikoi ääniviestien avulla. Pieni ryhmä käyttäjiä testasi sovellusta pöytätietokoneilla ja kannettavilla tietokoneilla. Yksi isoimmista eduista tekstipohjaiseen viestintään verrattuna todettiin olevan puheen mukana välittyvä ylimääräinen tieto verrattuna samaan kirjoitettuun viestiin, puheviestinnän ollessa paljon ilmeikkäämpää. Huonoja puolia verrattuna tekstipohjaiseen viestintään olivat hankaluus selata vanhojen viestien läpi sekä vaikeus osallistua useampaan keskusteluun samaan aikaan.Asynchronous multi-user communication is typically done using text. In the context of mobile use text input can, however, be slow and cumbersome, and attention on the display of the device is required both when writing and reading messages. A messaging application was developed to test the concept of sharing short messages between members of groups using recorded speech rather than text. These messages can be listened to as they arrive, or browsed through and listened to later. The application is intended to be used on a mobile augmented reality audio platform, allowing almost undisturbed perception of and interaction with the surrounding environment while communicating using audio messages. A small group of users tested the application on desktop and laptop computers. The users found one of the biggest advantages over text-based communication to be the additional information associated with a spoken message, being much more expressive than the same written message. Compared with text chats, the users thought it was difficult to quickly browse through old messages and confusing to participate in several discussions at the same time

    Investigating L1 Arabic EFL Learners’ Interactional and Attentional Processes in Text and Voice Task-based Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

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    While there is a growing body of research considering second and foreign language (L2) learners’ interaction and cognitive engagement in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC), much of the speculation is based on the potential of text chat, with a great deal of uncertainty of how L2 learning opportunities can occur in voice chat. However, voice chat has now become more feasible for this specific purpose, due to the widespread availability of the relevant hardware. In addition, relative to text chat, voice chat has higher social presence and increased social and prosodic cues (e.g. voice tone, stress, intonation), which could promote better understanding and smoother flow of communication. There is, however, a dearth of research on its impact on language learning in comparison to the research on text chat. In a study involving 40 (20 dyads) intermediate-level Arabic learners of English, this thesis attempts to fill this gap by investigating the impact of text chat and voice chat on negotiations and noticing during task-based interactions. The study had a one-shot, repeated-measures design. Stimulated recall interviews were carried out after the completion of the task-based interactions in the two modalities, in order to elicit data on the participants’ noticing of interactional feedback. Follow up questionnaires and interviews were also administered to elicit participants’ perceptions of their learning experience in the two modalities. The findings revealed that voice chat generated more negotiation episodes and incidents of noticing of feedback than text chat. These differences were, however, not statistically significant. Conversely, text chat generated significantly more instances of self-initiated noticing (i.e. self-repairs) than voice chat. Self-repair during text chat, however, tended to focus on spelling. These quantitative findings suggested that, regardless of the SCMC modality, both contexts are equally facilitative for promoting negotiated interaction and noticing of feedback. Moreover, qualitative analysis of the learners’ responses in the debriefing interviews revealed their appreciation for both modalities, implying that both contexts could be incorporated in L2 teaching and learning. In addition, as learners reported that text chat was time-consuming and resulted in incoherent and shallow discourse, pedagogical implications stress that learners need to be prepared for this type of communication, so as to ease the level of completing tasks in text chat, increase their productions and support a more rewarding L2 chatting experience. Additionally, the stimulated recall data offered some methodological implications pertaining to the study of the cognitive process of noticing

    Towards a framework for socially interactive robots

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    250 p.En las últimas décadas, la investigación en el campo de la robótica social ha crecido considerablemente. El desarrollo de diferentes tipos de robots y sus roles dentro de la sociedad se están expandiendo poco a poco. Los robots dotados de habilidades sociales pretenden ser utilizados para diferentes aplicaciones; por ejemplo, como profesores interactivos y asistentes educativos, para apoyar el manejo de la diabetes en niños, para ayudar a personas mayores con necesidades especiales, como actores interactivos en el teatro o incluso como asistentes en hoteles y centros comerciales.El equipo de investigación RSAIT ha estado trabajando en varias áreas de la robótica, en particular,en arquitecturas de control, exploración y navegación de robots, aprendizaje automático y visión por computador. El trabajo presentado en este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo añadir una nueva capa al desarrollo anterior, la capa de interacción humano-robot que se centra en las capacidades sociales que un robot debe mostrar al interactuar con personas, como expresar y percibir emociones, mostrar un alto nivel de diálogo, aprender modelos de otros agentes, establecer y mantener relaciones sociales, usar medios naturales de comunicación (mirada, gestos, etc.),mostrar personalidad y carácter distintivos y aprender competencias sociales.En esta tesis doctoral, tratamos de aportar nuestro grano de arena a las preguntas básicas que surgen cuando pensamos en robots sociales: (1) ¿Cómo nos comunicamos (u operamos) los humanos con los robots sociales?; y (2) ¿Cómo actúan los robots sociales con nosotros? En esa línea, el trabajo se ha desarrollado en dos fases: en la primera, nos hemos centrado en explorar desde un punto de vista práctico varias formas que los humanos utilizan para comunicarse con los robots de una maneranatural. En la segunda además, hemos investigado cómo los robots sociales deben actuar con el usuario.Con respecto a la primera fase, hemos desarrollado tres interfaces de usuario naturales que pretenden hacer que la interacción con los robots sociales sea más natural. Para probar tales interfaces se han desarrollado dos aplicaciones de diferente uso: robots guía y un sistema de controlde robot humanoides con fines de entretenimiento. Trabajar en esas aplicaciones nos ha permitido dotar a nuestros robots con algunas habilidades básicas, como la navegación, la comunicación entre robots y el reconocimiento de voz y las capacidades de comprensión.Por otro lado, en la segunda fase nos hemos centrado en la identificación y el desarrollo de los módulos básicos de comportamiento que este tipo de robots necesitan para ser socialmente creíbles y confiables mientras actúan como agentes sociales. Se ha desarrollado una arquitectura(framework) para robots socialmente interactivos que permite a los robots expresar diferentes tipos de emociones y mostrar un lenguaje corporal natural similar al humano según la tarea a realizar y lascondiciones ambientales.La validación de los diferentes estados de desarrollo de nuestros robots sociales se ha realizado mediante representaciones públicas. La exposición de nuestros robots al público en esas actuaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta esencial para medir cualitativamente la aceptación social de los prototipos que estamos desarrollando. De la misma manera que los robots necesitan un cuerpo físico para interactuar con el entorno y convertirse en inteligentes, los robots sociales necesitan participar socialmente en tareas reales para las que han sido desarrollados, para así poder mejorar su sociabilida

    Computational Intelligence and Human- Computer Interaction: Modern Methods and Applications

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    The present book contains all of the articles that were accepted and published in the Special Issue of MDPI’s journal Mathematics titled "Computational Intelligence and Human–Computer Interaction: Modern Methods and Applications". This Special Issue covered a wide range of topics connected to the theory and application of different computational intelligence techniques to the domain of human–computer interaction, such as automatic speech recognition, speech processing and analysis, virtual reality, emotion-aware applications, digital storytelling, natural language processing, smart cars and devices, and online learning. We hope that this book will be interesting and useful for those working in various areas of artificial intelligence, human–computer interaction, and software engineering as well as for those who are interested in how these domains are connected in real-life situations

    Enhancing fan experience during live sports broadcasts through second screen applications

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    When sports fans attend live sports events, they usually engage in social experiences with friends, family members and other fans at the venue sharing the same affiliation. However, fans watching the same event through a live television broadcast end up not feeling so emotionally connected with the athletes and other fans as they would if they were watching it live, together with thousands of other fans. With this in mind, we seek to create mobile applications that deliver engaging social experiences involving remote fans watching live broadcasted sports events. Taking into account the growing use of mobile devices when watching TV broadcasts, these mobile applications explore the second screen concept, which allows users to interact with content that complements the TV broadcast. Within this context, we present a set of second screen application prototypes developed to test our concepts, the corresponding user studies and results, as well as suggestions on how to apply the prototypes’ concepts not only in different sports, but also during TV shows and electronic sports. Finally, we also present the challenges we faced and the guidelines we followed during the development and evaluation phases, which may give a considerable contribution to the development of future second screen applications for live broadcasted events

    Procrastination on social networking sites: types, triggers, and socio-technical countermeasures.

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    Procrastination has become an important field in academic research and refers to a voluntary delay in performing tasks that need to be done. Procrastination can lead to negative consequences such as low academic performance, low work productivity and anxiety. Numerous studies have examined the factors that may lead people to procrastinate, such as low self-efficacy, low self-regulation and low self-esteem. Social networking sites (SNSs) may facilitate procrastination; for example, notifications could be a distraction that promotes procrastination for people, preventing them from performing their original tasks. This Thesis aims to understand how procrastination on SNS occurs, the role of SNS design in triggering it and how to engineer social media to combat it through existing and novel features. Then, this knowledge will be used to develop a method to combat procrastination on SNS. This method will be informed by psychological theories as well as technical and socio-technical countermeasures. To achieve this goal, a mixed methods approach was conducted with SNS users, including focus groups and diary studies, co-design sessions and surveys. The results of these studies helped to develop a method that helps users to gain more control over their procrastination on SNS. The developed method is supported by persuasive techniques including reminders and suggestions, which help to persuade users to change their usage style without forcing them toward the change. Finally, the developed method was evaluated with SNS users who self-declared as procrastinators on SNS. The evaluation study examines five aspects: clarity, procrastination awareness, coverage, effectiveness and acceptance. The results demonstrated that the combating procrastination on SNS method (D-Crastinate) helps to improve users’ control over their procrastination

    Communication Strategy Use and Negotiation of Meaning in Text Chat and Videoconferencing

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    This study aims at investigating meaning negotiation and communication strategy use among nonnative speakers of English in text chat and videoconferencing. Learners in a Chinese and a Japanese university participated in text chats and videoconferences to discuss culture-related topics using English as the common language. Text chat scripts and videoconferencing transcripts were analyzed using a simplified version of the meaning negotiation model developed by Smith (2003a). A survey was conducted on communication strategy use. Results of the discourse analysis and the survey indicate that both text chat and videoconferencing are valuable tools to assist meaning negotiation and facilitate second language acquisition. Compared to videoconferencing, text chat has the potential of promoting lexical acquisitio
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