User-centered multi-layer programming approach to model scenarios on driving simulators

Le simulateur de conduite est un outil très utilisé par les chercheurs, Il leurs permet d'étudier le comportement des conducteurs, d'analyser certains aspects de la sécurité routière et d'évaluer des Systèmes d'Aide à la Conduite (SAC). La modélisation des scénarios pour ces simulateurs de conduite est une tâche cruciale et complexe pour le chercheur. Elle exige des compétences techniques et de programmation spécifiques, pour lesquelles les chercheurs ne sont pas nécessairement formés. Une des principales raisons est le manque de conception centrée sur l'utilisateur (UCD), ce qui pourrait expliquer la difficulté des chercheurs à atteindre leurs objectifs avec des simulateurs de conduite. L'interface utilisateur n'est donc pas très intuitive et conviviale dans la plupart des simulateurs de conduite. Afin de combler l'écart entre les compétences des utilisateurs et les objectifs qu'ils souhaitent atteindre en utilisant des simulateurs de conduite, une approche de programmation multicouche centrée sur l'utilisateur est proposée. Une étude a été menée sur des utilisateurs afin de recueillir leurs besoins et leurs exigences pour modéliser des scénarios sur simulateur de conduite. Les différentes étapes que suit l'utilisateur final lors de la conception d'un protocole expérimental et les différents types d'utilisateurs qui interagissent avec les simulateurs de conduite ont été identifiés. L'interface pour le développement d'un protocole expérimental a été divisée en trois sous-interfaces, qui sont utilisées par les différents utilisateurs qui interagissent avec les simulateurs de conduite : le 'Template Builder' pour le personnelle technique, le 'Experiment Builder' pour les chercheurs, et le 'Experiment Interface' pour les opérateurs expérimentés. L'utilisation de cet 'Experiment Builder' peut permettre aux chercheurs de développer des scénarios à haut niveau tout en exploitant les primitives de programmation. Une évaluation de l'approche a été effectuée sur un prototype semi-fonctionnel et fonctionnel. Lors de l'évaluation, les utilisateurs finaux (les chercheurs) ont développé un protocole expérimental sur simulateurs de conduite. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que l'approche proposée permet aux chercheurs non-programmeurs de modéliser des scénarios sur les simulateurs de conduite sans aucune aide technique ou de programmation. En outre, chaque simulateur de conduite à une plate-forme d'exécution différente. Un cadre d'interopérabilité et un Scénario-Meta Langage (SML) ont été proposés et développés afin de porter les scénarios d'une plateforme à une autre. Les scénarios développés avec l'approche de programmation multicouches peuvent ainsi être exécutées sur différent simulateurs de conduite. Le cadre d'interopérabilité et le métalangage ont été testés avec succès en les intégrant dans le logiciel SCANeR.Driving simulators are useful tools for researcher in order to study the drivers' behaviour, to analyze road safety features and to evaluate ADAS (Advance Driving Assistance Systems). Modeling scenarios on driving simulators is a critical and complex task for behavioral researcher. It requires specific technical and programming skills, for which researchers are not formally trained. One of the main reasons why designing scenarios is a complex task is the lack of User-Centered Design (UCD) of the scenario authoring tools, which could account for the skills they lack in order to achieve their objectives with driving simulators. The user interfaces are thus not very intuitive and user-friendly in most driving simulators. A User- Centered andMultilayer programming approach is proposed in order to fill the gap between the end-user's skills and the goals they want to achieve with driving simulators. A user study was conducted to gather the user's needs and requirements to model scenarios on driving simulators. Different steps have been identified, followed by the end-users while designing an experimental protocol; moreover, different types of users who interactwith driving simulators have been identified. We propose that the interface to develop an experimental protocol should be split into three sub-interfaces used by different end-users who interact with driving simulators: the Template Builder for Technical persons, the Experiment Builder for Researchers, and the Experiment Interface, for Experiment operators. Using the Experiment Builder, researchers can develop scenarios at high-level exploiting the programming primitives. An evaluation of the approach was conducted on a semi-functional and a functional prototype. During the evaluation, end-users (behavioral researchers) developed experimental protocols on driving simulators. The results have shown that the proposed approach has empowered the non-programmers to model scenarios on driving simulators without any technical or programming help from technical persons. Besides, every driving simulator has a different execution platform. An interoperability framework and a Scenario-Meta Language (SML) is proposed and developed to port the scenarios from one platform to another. The scenarios developed using the multi-layer programming approach can be executed on different driving simulators. The interoperability framework and the meta-language has been successfully tested by integrating them with the SCANeR software

Towards the development of a User Interface to model scenarios on driving Simulators

International audienceScenario Modeling on driving simulator requires careful consideration and controlled environment (depending on the research objectives) to achieve the desired goal of the experiment. It is one of the critical steps while designing and implementing an experiment on a driving simulator. It specifies where and what happens in the simulator by specifying, where to place the virtual objects and what those objects will be doing during the experimental trials. But complex and technical nature of driving simulator makes it difficult for the end-users (behavioral researchers/trainers) to design and execute and experimental protocol

Managerial ability and firm value: A new perspective

Using a sample of U.S. firms over three decades, we examine whether the efficiency with which managers generate revenue has an impact on firm value. We find that managerial ability is positively related to firm value such that one standard deviation increase in ability is associated with a 5.7% increase in firm value relative to the mean level. Importantly, by exploiting exogenous CEO turnover, we establish causality between managerial ability and firm value. This relation is stronger in the presence of corporate governance mechanisms, such as institutional investors and financial analysts. We also document a reduction in value-destroying practices - such as earnings management - in firms with more efficient managers

A detailed description of a user-centered interface to model scenarios on driving simulator

International audienceModeling scenarios on driving simulators is a complex and difficult task for end-users because most of them usually don’t have the skills required to program the scenarios. In this paper, we present a User-centered solution in which we split the scenario modeling interface into 3 subinterfaces (Template Builder, Experiment Builder, Experiment Interface) based on user skills.We have developed a prototype of the interface, which is explained in detail

Filling the user skill gap using HCI techniques to implement experimental protocol on driving simulators

Abstract-Programming activities are performed not only by programmers but also by end-users in order to support their primary goals in different domains and applications. End-users do not have formal training in programming, so interaction environment and systems are needed, which could account for user skills. The objective of our work is to fill the gap between the user skills and the goals they want to achieve using driving simulators. This paper presents the results of a research in which, we have proposed a solution for the primary users of the driving simulator to design and implement experimental protocol. We have used user-centered design (UCD) technique, conducted a user survey, and proposed a solution, in which we have categorized the Interface of the driving simulator into three sub-interfaces based on the skills of the users. These interfaces are Experiment Builder (Nontechnical persons), Template builder (for technical persons) and Experiment Interface (for any user to execute experiment). A prototype based on this concept is developed and evaluated. Our results indicate that, users can implement an experimental protocol without having programming skills using our proposed design

Filling the user skill gap using HCI techniques to implement experimental protocol on driving simulators

Programming activities are performed not only by programmers but also by end-users in order to support their primary goals in different domains and applications. End-users do not have formal training in programming, so interaction environment and systems are needed, which could account for user skills. The objective of our work is to fill the gap between the user skills and the goals they want to achieve using driving simulators. This paper presents the results of a research in which we have proposed a solution for the primary users of the driving simulator to design and implement experimental protocol. We have used the user-centered design (UCD) technique, conducted a user survey, and proposed a solution, in which we have categorized the Interface of the driving simulator into three sub-interfaces based on the skills of the users. These interfaces are Experiment Builder (Nontechnical persons), Template builder (for technical persons) and Experiment Interface (for any user to run as experiment). A prototype based on this concept is developed and some feedback were collected from end-users. Our results indicate that, users can implement an experimental protocol without having programming skills using our proposed design

User-centered design approach to model scenarios on driving simulators

International audienceModelling scenarios on driving simulators is a critical and complex task for behavioural researchers. It requires specific technical and programming skills, for which researchers are typically not formally trained. The main reason for this complexity is the lack of User-Centred Design (UCD) in scenario authoring tools, including an unintuitive and user-unfriendly interaction environment. This could account for some of the challenges faced by behavioural researchers in achieving their objectives with driving simulators. In this chapter, we discuss the problem in detail and propose a user-centred solution, which has been evaluated by users. We also propose a meta-language and an interoperability framework to generalise our solution, so that our approach could be used on most driving simulators

Filling the user skill gap using HCI techniques to implement experimental protocols on driving simulators

Programming activities are performed not only by programmers but also by end-users in order to support their primary goals in different domains and applications. End-users do not have formal training in programming, so interaction environment and systems are needed, which could account for user skills. The objective of our work is to fill the gap between the user skills and the goals they want to achieve using driving simulators. This paper presents the results of a research in which, we have proposed a solution for the primary users of the driving simulator to design and implement experimental protocol. We have used user-centered design (UCD) technique, conducted a user survey, and proposed a solution, in which we have categorized the Interface of the driving simulator into three sub-interfaces based on the skills of the users. These interfaces are Experiment Builder (Nontechnical persons), Template builder (for technical persons) and Experiment Interface (for any user to execute experiment). A prototype based on this concept is developed and evaluated. Our results indicate that, users can implement an experimental protocol without having programming skills using our proposed design

Skill or effort? Institutional ownership and managerial efficiency

Using a sample of U.S. firms during the 1989-2015 period, we study whether the efficiency with which managers generate revenue is sensitive to monitoring by institutional shareholders. We find that institutional ownership is positively related to managerial efficiency. Our identification relies on a discontinuity in ownership around the Russell 1000/2000 Index threshold and suggests that the positive effect of institutional ownership on managerial efficiency is causal. Furthermore, we document that monitoring by institutions helps improve managerial efficiency, and that an exogenous increase in institutional ownership leads to higher pay-for-performance sensitivity. Finally, we find consistent results after excluding from our sample forced CEO turnovers, suggesting that institutional shareholders force incumbent managers to exert greater effort rather than influence the replacement of less efficient CEOs. Taken together, our findings highlight the important role played by institutional shareholders in getting the most out of corporate executives. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved