Images in Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS): An Eye Tracking Study

Current forms of online help are increasingly making use of images (graphical illustrations or photographs), along with textual instructions to effectively assist users in performing a specific task. Users typically want to accomplish tasks quickly and devote limited attention to help systems. Hence, it is essential that these images facilitate efficient understanding of the task at hand and complement the instructions well. The first goal of the project was to create quick and inexpensive images that work better than or as well as existing graphical illustrations. The second goal was to conduct a usability test with eye tracking to compare guidance of visual attention by three types of images: graphic illustrations, digital photographs and modified digital photographs. During the test, other key measures like success rates and time on task were also measured. Subjective preferences for the three types of images were also evaluated. Results indicated that the modified photographs performed better in guiding the visual attention of users to the relevant areas of the image than the other two image types. Though not statistically significant, the trend showed that task completion times for tasks with the modified photographs were shorter than those with the other image types (i.e., tasks with modified photographs were quicker than those with other image types). Subjective ratings indicated that participants preferred photographs and modified photographs to the existing graphical illustrations

Understanding First-Person and Third-Person Videos in Computer Vision

Due to advancements in technology and social media, a large amount of visual information is created. There is a lot of interesting research going on in Computer Vision that takes into consideration either visual information generated by first-person (egocentric) or third-person(exocentric) cameras. Video data generated by YouTubers, Surveillance cameras, and Drones which is referred to as third-person or exocentric video data. Whereas first-person or egocentric is the one which is generated by GoPro cameras and Google Glass. Exocentric view capture wide and global views whereas egocentric view capture activities an actor is involved in w.r.t. objects. These two perspectives seem to be independent yet related. In Computer Vision, these two perspectives have been studied by various domains like Activity Recognition, Object Detection, Action Recognition, and Summarization independently. Their relationship and comparison are less discussed in the literature. This paper tries to bridge this gap by presenting a systematic study of first-person and third-person videos. Further, we implemented an algorithm to classify videos as first-person/third-person with the validation accuracy of 88.4% and an F1-score of 86.10% using the Charades dataset.

Machine Learning based Stress Detection using Keyboard Typing Behavior

Emotion detection is one of those areas where technological advances have brought about significant changesin the human lifestyle. During COVID-19 pandemic, due to the work from home culture, use of computers and laptop was suddenly increased. Introduction of digital environments gave it a whole new dimension. Emotion detection is a virtual or computerized way to detect stress. People suffer from various kinds of stress in day to day activities and it is directly connected to their performance. The stress factor can be expressed through a number of ways and human behavior.  The way in which humans interact with the computer can reveal the emotional state of the user, mainly the stress. Keyboard typing behavior or characteristics can be used for stress detection. This paper focuses on understanding typing behaviour of human and indicate their stress level. Relevant features are extracted from typing behavior of a user and used for training machine learning models for detection of stress. K-Nearest Neighbor algorithm gave highest accuracy of 84.21% with dimensionality reduction approach

Yoga therapy as potential treatment for type II diabetic patients

Yoga is an ancient science of India. The main aim of this study was to see effects of yoga intervention on blood sugar levels (BSL) in persons diagnosed as having type II diabetes. The objective of the study was to check fasting and post-prandial BSL before and after yoga therapy in the study groups. Thirty Patients with type II diabetes were selected for the present study. Patients were then divided in to the experimental group of 15 people and control group of 15 people. Yoga therapy was administered for 6 days a week, for 4 weeks. Pre post session BSL tests were carried out for both groups. The result showed no significant difference between pre Session post session of fasting BSL (p =0.41) in experimental group. But there was significant difference in pre session post session of post prandial BSL in experimental group (p= 0.00). Fasting BSL between experimental control group is also no significant (p= 0.08) whereas post prandial BSL difference between experimental control group is significant (p= 0.00).

Concept of Rasayana for a Better Health - A Review

Rasayana, or rejuvenation therapy, is one of the eight main branches of Ayurveda and is recommended to increase Ojas (life force) after detoxification programmes. The Rasayana drugs and formulations provides longevity, memory, intelligence, freedom from diseases, youthful age, excellence of luster, complexion and voice, optimum strength of physique and sense organs, respectability and brilliance. It is good for all age groups for the elderly, pregnant women, children. Rasayana therapy prevents the effects of early ageing on both, and increases the body’s resistance to disease. Tonic food and herbs that nurture Ojas tend to be heavy and nourishing, and can be hard to digest, so that the state of Agni (digestive fire) needs to be considered first. Rasayana therapy is particulary good for Vata types during the autumn, to give them weight and strength and help them endure the long, cold winter. It is contraindicated in any condition associated with Ama (toxins), for obese people, and during colds and flu, congestive disorders, fevers, infectious diseases and allergies. For 5,000 years or so, the wisdom of Ayurveda has provided guidelines for slowing down the ageing process (Jara) by increasing Ojas. Modern scientific evaluation of Rasayana plants and other treatments used in Ayurveda have borne out the fact that rejuvenative tonics have the ability to protect the body against the ravages of age and the damaging effects of the environment in which we live, by enhancing the body’s ability to fight off disease-carrying organisms through non-specifically activating the immune system. Use of rejuvenative foods, oils, herbs and behavioral rejuvenation is very important in making a life longer, disease free and happy

A Review of IT Initiatives in Rural India

Empowerment may be at the individual, organizational or up to the whole of country level. This paper examines ICT initiatives as an empowerment enabler in rural India. One rural eHealth empowerment initiative is the Karnataka Internet Assisted Diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity (KIDROP). An example of an eGovernance initiative is Bhoomi, while the rollout of computers will enable not only eGovernance but eEducation as well. Facilitating such schemes is the use of Solar Minigrids as a means of strategically adding to the electrical power supply, as a means of overcoming electricity shortages, which is even more of a problem in rural areas than it also happens to be in the urban centres of India. This paper not only explores these technological empowerment initiatives, but examines parameters aiding and hindering such stratagems, including issues surrounding resistance to change, gender role expectations in communities and lack of basic infrastructure

Analysis & Design of Active RFID Tag

The Active Radio Frequency Identification tag that is RFID tag with battery is promising solution for low power consumption and precise localization in indoor as well as for outdoor environment. In this paper, Design and Implementation of an Active RFID tag is proposed with capability of far reading distance, high reliability, low cost, low power consumption and long life. The Active RFID tag is a transmitter designed using the AVR ATmega16 microcontroller and wireless data transmission chip CC2500. The objective of tag is achieved by optimization of the circuit design for continuous Tag ID transmission of each Tag has its unique ID. The transmitted Tag ID is captured by receiver referred as RFID reader, the hardware and software implementation are presented in this paper with measurement in a typical indoor environment. Keywords-— RFID, Low Cost, Active Tag, Short Range Communicatio