Making Distributed User Interfaces Interruption-Resistant : A Model-Based Approach

International audienceDistributed User Interfaces (DUIs) have gone beyond the fact that traditional user interfaces run on the same computing platform in the same environment. This new interaction paradigm affects the way these novel systems are designed and developed. New features need to be taken into account from the very beginning of the development process and new models and tools need to be considered for the correct development of interactive systems based on DUIs. The starting point of this paper is that DUI-based systems are susceptible of being interrupted in several ways as they are dependent on connectivity. In this proposal this issue is assessed from a conceptual point of view, asking the question of what new features should be considered and how should they be included within the development process? The model-based approach presented provides developers with means to make DUIs resilient or resistant to interruptions

Gestión dinámica de la interacción en aplicaciones web

Internet ha hecho posible que la interacción con las aplicaciones Web se realice prácticamente desde cualquier lugar y en cualquier dispositivo. Gracias a ello, es posible utilizar la plataforma Web para realizar nuestras tareas utilizando múltiples dispositivos de forma coordinada, aprovechando los recursos interactivos distribuidos entre ellos, e incluso en situaciones donde no hay una conectividad permanente a Internet En los últimos años han surgido multitud de propuestas tanto teóricas como prácticas para gestionar estos escenarios de interacción complejos. Aún así, todavía no está resuelta la problemática que plantean estos escenarios, por lo que parece necesario el análisis y el desarrollo de propuestas que estudien en profundidad cómo realizar una gestión dinámica de la interacción en aplicaciones Web en base a los elementos básicos que las constituyen. Con el fin de conocer los conceptos básicos necesarios para esta investigación, se realiza un análisis de las propuestas conceptuales y tecnológicas relacionadas para la caracterización y gestión de la conectividad y entornos multi-dispositivo en sistemas interactivos, particularmente en las aplicaciones Web. De entre las propuestas para habilitar la interacción entre varios dispositivos, la mayoría de ellas consisten en dividir la interfaz de usuario en distintos elementos que son copiados y/o movidos y en mantener un estado coherente del sistema con el fin de completar las tareas en el escenario multi-dispositivo. Muy pocas se centran en definir y habilitar la gestión de los eventos de interacción teniendo en cuenta la conectividad del sistema y la configuración del entorno multi-dispositivo. Para obtener resultados previos que permitan el desarrollo de la investigación se realizan una serie de trabajos que constituyen las bases de la propuesta para la gestión dinámica de la interacción. A partir de estos trabajos previos, podemos concluir que los elementos básicos existentes en la Web y que permiten la interacción del usuario no tienen en cuenta las características de escenarios tales como las configuraciones multi-dispositivo y los escenarios offline. Se propone la Responsive Web Interaction con el fin de realizar una gestión dinámica de la interacción en aplicaciones Web centrada en los niveles de navegación y presentación para la descripción de mecanismos de interacción acorde a los escenarios actuales. Esta propuesta se formaliza a través de un modelo que permite la descripción de la interacción en aplicaciones Web enfocado a los niveles de navegación y presentación. El siguiente paso es la aplicación de los conceptos y relaciones presentados en el modelo a distintos escenarios Web. Para ello, lo deseable es su ejecución sobre aplicaciones Web existentes. Para tal fin se desarrollan dos herramientas. Cada una de ellas está centrada en su correspondiente nivel para ser utilizadas en aplicaciones Web existentes con el fin de comprobar la viabilidad de la propuesta: Proxy Offline para el nivel de navegación y Responsive Web Interaction Tool para el nivel de presentación. Finalmente, con el objetivo de validar nuestra propuesta, se desarrollan y evalúan una serie de prototipos en varios contextos. Para tratar la mayor parte de casos posibles se eligen distintos casos de estudio que ilustran escenarios representativos donde se gestiona la interacción de forma dinámica en escenarios Web actuales

A MODEL-BASED APPROACH FOR DESCRIBING OFFLINE NAVIGATION OF WEB APPLICATIONS

International audienceThe ubiquitousness of the Internet is changing the way users perform their tasks. There is a trend and sometimes a real need to be always connected. The client-server paradigm used in the Web greatly facilitates the consumption of contents. However, there are many situations where the user's tasks in a Web application might be interrupted due to an unexpected loss of connectivity, temporary unavailability of Web servers, external events, etc., setting the browse to an offline state. The availability of local storage in Web browsers might suggest that users can perform some of their tasks when offline. Nonetheless, several technical constraints might prevent users from efficiently resuming their tasks over the Web after the offline period. In this paper we present a model-based approach called the Offline Model, which is aimed at supporting the execution of tasks interrupted by loss of connectivity based on user navigation with Web applications. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the Offline Model can be exploited to mitigate some of the disruptive effects of interruptions, due to offline navigation, on user tasks based on Web navigation in existent Web applications. The feasibility of such a model approach is demonstrated by a support tool and illustrated by a case study of navigation in a real scenario: the DBLP Web site

Collaborative e-learning through drag & share in synchronous shared workspaces

e-Learning platforms allow users to collaborate with one other. Moodle, as one of the main e-Learning platforms, provides tools to perform collaborative tasks. With these tasks, students are able to share documents and information. The means provided by Moodle are not enough to perform some collaborative tasks, such as sharing documents in real-time. In this scenario users must be aware of what is happening in the system effectively. We propose the use of Drag Share within Moodle, a collaborative tool that allows users to synchronously share resources in real-time. Through this tool, teachers are able to easily provide a shared workspace for students and be able to create groups. With such a tool, students can share all kind of resources and be aware of what is going on in the system in which they are participating and of what they are doing. All these features use standard technologies, such as HTML5

Designing postures for rehabilitation therapies in a multimodal system based on a 3D virtual environment and movement-based interaction

Technological advances have facilitated new approaches to support different needs in healthcare environments. In particular, in the field of rehabilitation therapies, we can find software applications that have been developed to support the performance of specific exercises, often with different customization options. However, there are still many gaps that need to be addressed to provide more and better global solutions. In this article, we present a novel system aimed at physiotherapists, which allows them to create new rehabilitation exercises designed to meet the specific needs of their patients. This implies the creation of individualized therapies that contribute to a better and faster recovery of patients. The system consists of a virtual 3D environment with a 3D skeleton representing the patient. The physiotherapist can interact with the skeleton to design the desired postures that the patient should practice according to their personal limitations. The system allows physiotherapists to compose a complete and personalized set of exercises. Alternatively, the physiotherapist may also create the postures by means of a motion sensing device using motion- and voice-based interaction. Both options pose research challenges that the authors have addressed to provide the solution presented in this paper.g Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work has been partially supported by the national project granted by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Spain) with reference RTI2018–099942-B-I00 and by the regional project (ref: SBPLY/17/ Multimedia Tools and Applications 180501/000495) granted by the regional government (JCCM) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER

Proceedings of 5th Workshop on Distributed User Interfaces: Distributing Interaction (DUI'2016)

The 5th Workshop on Distributed User Interfaces was focused on distributing interactions. Current technology and ICT models generate configurations in which the same user interface can be offered through different interactions. These new technological ecosystems appear as a result of the existence of many heterogeneous devices and interaction mechanisms. Consequently, new conditions and possibilities arise, which not only affects the distribution of the user interfaces but also the distribution of the user’s interactions. Thus, we shift the focus from addressing the distribution of user interfaces to the distribution of the user’s interactions, which poses new challenges that need to be explored. In this context, Web engineering appears as a fundamental research field since it helps to develop device-independent Web applications with user interfaces that are capable of being distributed and accessed through different interaction modes. This fact makes Web environments especially interesting within the scope of this workshop. As in the previous workshops in this series, the main goal is to bring together people working on distributed interactions and enable them to share their knowledge in aspects related to new interaction paradigms such as movement-based interaction, speech recognition, gestures, touch and tangible interaction, etc., and the way we can manage them in a distributed setting