IMPACT OF GEOLOCATION DATA ON AUGMENTED REALITY USABILITY: A COMPARATIVE USER TEST

While the use of location-based augmented reality (AR) for education has demonstrated benefits on participants’ motivation, engagement, and on their physical activity, geolocation data inaccuracy causes augmented objects to jitter or drift, which is a factor in downgrading user experience. We developed a free and open source web AR application and conducted a comparative user test (n = 54) in order to assess the impact of geolocation data on usability, exploration, and focus. A control group explored biodiversity in nature using the system in combination with embedded GNSS data, and an experimental group used an external module for RTK data. During the test, eye tracking data, geolocated traces, and in-app user-triggered events were recorded. Participants answered usability questionnaires (SUS, UEQ, HARUS).We found that the geolocation data the RTK group was exposed to was less accurate in average than that of the control group. The RTK group reported lower usability scores on all scales, of which 5 out of 9 were significant, indicating that inaccurate data negatively predicts usability. The GNSS group walked more than the RTK group, indicating a partial effect on exploration. We found no significant effect on interaction time with the screen, indicating no specific relation between data accuracy and focus. While RTK data did not allow us to better the usability of location-based AR interfaces, results allow us to assess our system’s overall usability as excellent, and to define optimal operating conditions for future use with pupils

La multimorbidité n’est pas une maladie [Multimorbidity is not a diagnosis]

We have been studying multimorbidity in epidemiology and clinical practice since the 1970s. Growing experience shows that the concept of multimorbidity is helpful for epidemiologists to describe population-level changes, but of little use to patients and clinicians who 'diagnose' multimorbidity. Several large, rigorous clinical trials show that organizational changes in primary care can improve the care of these complex patients, but do not improve directly health-related quality of life. This article describes the history of multimorbidity and results of recent randomized trials to prompt a discussion of new approaches to improve the experience of people living with multiple chronic diseases

Ultra Low-Power MEMS-based Radio for Wireless Sensor Networks

The recent advances made in MEMS and particularly in RF MEMS technology are enabling new architectures for the integration of RF transceivers with improved performance and smaller size. Several fundamental building blocks benefit from the availability of high-Q resonators in the RF front-end, the analog baseband and the frequency synthesizer to lower power consumption, phase noise and die area. In addition, the compatibility of MEMS with CMOS opens the door to a higher integration level using for example an above-IC approach. This paper presents the recent work made at CSEM in the field of ultra low-power transceiver for wireless sensor network applications. It first presents the high-Q resonators, including the BAW resonators used in the RF front-end and in the RF oscillator together with MEMS used in the low frequency oscillators and IF section. These MEMS are activated thanks to an A1N piezo layer avoiding the need for high voltage generation which is incompatible with the low-power and low-voltage requirement. These MEMS are also temperature compensated by the combination of additional layers and electronics means. The paper then focuses on the main building blocks that can take advantage of high-Q resonators starting with the RF front-end. The fundamentals of oscillators built around high-Q devices is described, highlighting the basic trade-offs. Finally, new approaches for the analog baseband are described. This includes an example of a quadrature Sigma-Delta converter combining the different functions of anti-alias and image-reject filter together with analog-to-digital conversion. An alternative to traditional Sigma-Delta oversampled converters is the use of phase analog-to-digital converters to directly quantize the phase information without the need to convert the amplitude. This innovative approach can save power and complexity for all wireless applications using phase or frequency modulations