Technology enhanced interaction framework

This paper focuses on the development of a general interaction framework to help design technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects, particularly in complex situations. A review of existing interaction frameworks shows that none of them help technology designers and developers to consider all of the possible interactions that occur at the same time and in the same place. The main and sub-components of the framework are described and explained and examples are given for each type of interaction. Work is now in progress to provide designers with an easy to use tool that helps them apply the framework to create technology solutions to complex communication and interaction problems and situations

Issues in conducting expert validation and review and user evaluation of the technology enhanced interaction framework and method

A Technology Enhanced Interaction Framework has been developed to support designers and developers design and develop technology enhanced interactions for complex scenarios involving disabled people. Issues of motivation, time, and understanding when validating and evaluating the Technology Enhanced Interaction Framework were identified through a literature review and questionnaires and interviews with experts. Changes to content, system, and approach were made in order to address the identified issues. Future work will involve detailed analysis of the expert review and validation findings and the implementation of a motivating approach to user evaluation

Using the technology enhanced interaction framework for interaction scenarios involving disabled people

This paper focuses on the development of a general interaction framework to help design technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects, particularly in complex situations when disabled people are involved. The main and sub-components of the framework are described. A tool was developed to provide advice on design and development factors for technological support. Work is now in progress to validate the framework and the tool with expert designers and accessibility experts before evaluating it with technology designers

Status report of RMS active damping augmentation

A status report of Remote Manipulator System (RMS) active damping augmentation is presented. Topics covered include: active damping augmentation; benefits of RMS ADA; simulated payload definition; sensor and actuator definition; ADA control law design; Shuttle Engineering Simulator (SES) real-time simulation; and astronaut evaluation

Using the technology enhanced interaction framework for interaction scenarios involving disabled people

This paper focuses on the development of a general interaction framework to help design technology to support communication between people and improve interactions between people, technology and objects, particularly in complex situations when disabled people are involved. The main and sub-components of the framework are described. A tool was developed to provide advice on design and development factors for technological support. Work is now in progress to validate the framework and the tool with expert designers and accessibility experts before evaluating it with technology designers

Synote: development of a Web-based tool for synchronized annotations

This paper discusses the development of a Web-based media annotation application named Synote, which addresses the important issue that while the whole of a multimedia resource on the Web can be easily bookmarked, searched, linked to and tagged, it is still difficult to search or associate notes or other resources with a certain part of a resource. Synote supports the creation of synchronized notes, bookmarks, tags, links, images and text captions. It is a freely available application that enables any user to make annotations in and search annotations to any fragment of a continuous multimedia resource in the most used browsers and operating systems. In the implementation, Synote categorized different media resources and synchronized them via time line. The presentation of synchronized resources makes full use of Web 2.0 AJAX technology to enrich interoperability for the user experience. Positive evaluation results about the performance, efficiency and effectiveness of Synote were returned when using it with students and teachers for a number of undergraduate courses

A hypothesis of the operation of cerebellar circuits involved in axial and limb movements

For most brain regions the only realistic approach to theory is a top down, systems view because the evidence is too sparse to ‘join the dots’. For a number of reasons the cerebellum is probably the best-suited large brain structure to take a different, evidence-based approach. That is the approach here, combining evidence of anatomy, electrophysiology, molecular biology and behavioural conditioning studies with mathematical and computational modelling, to build a model of the way the cerebellum derives output from input. Modelling is used to test predictions and to generate hypothetical data not available with current experimental techniques, which feed back into the model. This allows modelled behaviour of different parts of the circuit to be tested against evidence of other parts. The focus is on circuits involved in control of axial and limb movements, although parts of an explanation are likely to be portable to other circuits (because cerebellar circuit wiring is modular). An important part of the proposals is that the functions of pattern recognition and output coding are separate. It is a function of recoding in the granular layer to turn input variables into independent (and fewer) internal variables. Independence means they can be used in different functions without mutual interference of the execution of those functions with each other. Pattern recognition determines which circuits have output and when, but does not code output. Instead, the response to a known pattern following training is permissive, creating a time window in which output cells are controlled ad hoc by internally generated information about movement. Recoding in the granular layer, as well as having a long-suspected role in pattern detection, also has a role in control of output rates, by turning (what is from a cerebellar view) an arbitrary range and frequency distribution of input rates into a narrow range of granule cell rates with a fixed bandwidth and a frequency distribution with a fixed shape, so that the only functional variable of internal signals traffic at the scale of input to a Purkinje cell is the adjustable range