The development and evaluation of a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing interaction

Recent developments in wireless communication, mobile computing, and sensor technologies have prompted a new vision of the world in which we live. As witnesses the effects of Moore's law, which are evident in many aspects of innovative technical opportunity, such as cost, size, capacity, bandwidth, etc. These advances allow us to build new types of human-computer-environment interaction in augmented physical spaces. Ideally, mobile computing devices can go with people so that they can access information on the move as being constantly connected to the digital space. Sensor technologies enable mobile computing devices to sense their users and environments. This increases the interaction bandwidth between a human and a mobile computing device. The development of context-sensitive mobile computing systems requires considerable engineering skills. None of the existing approaches provides an effective means of obtaining location and environmental information using "standard" hardware and software. This raises the entry level of discovering more about this type of interaction to the designers. In addition, it is important to stress that relatively little is known about the usability problems that might arise from interaction with these different context-sensitive mobile computing applications. The focus of this thesis is on the development of a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing. This thesis makes two contributions. The most significant contribution is the presentation of the Glasgow Context Server (GCS). It has been specifically designed to address the concerns mentioned above. It successfully integrates an off-the-shelf radio Local Area Network (LAN) with the infrared sensors that have been a feature of many previous context-sensitive mobile computing applications. The GCS is intended to help interface designers validate the claimed benefits of location sensing, location disclosing and environment sensing applications. The second contribution is the working applications, in particular, a web-based annotation system for physical objects and a shopping assistant built upon the GCS environment. These demonstrations are used to evaluate the GCS approach and point out the challenging issues in computing technology as well as usability concern. The hope is that this research can provide interface designers with an in-depth reference to a prototyping environment for context-sensitive mobile computing applications

On the Implications of Sense of Control over Bicycling : Design of a Physical Stamina-Aware Bike

Bicycling has become a mainstream activity among the environmental aware generation. Bicycling communities have gradually shown interests in quantitative data of the bicycling experiences such as road roughness, inclination, pollution, etc. Bikers utilize these data to infer the possible stamina cost and quality of surroundings. This supports them to make a better decision. This study assumes that fitness level indexed by stamina cost could enhance a biker's sense of control. The prototype in this paper was developed to provide stamina cost information, which is inferred from the terrain patterns of a biking route. In the system evaluation, participants took a positive attitude toward this prototype and approved the importance of stamina cost feedback. This paper also concluded several key issues about designing the stamina cost feedback system for bikers

Mechanisms underlying Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae exotoxin ApxI induced expression of IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α in porcine alveolar macrophages

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (A. pleuropneumoniae) causes fibrino-hemorrhagic necrotizing pleuropneumonia in pigs. Production of proinflammatory mediators in the lungs is an important feature of A. pleuropneumoniae infection. However, bacterial components other than lipopolysaccharide involved in this process remain unidentified. The goals of this study were to determine the role of A. pleuropneumoniae exotoxin ApxI in cytokine induction and to delineate the underlying mechanisms. Using real-time quantitative PCR analysis, we found native ApxI stimulated porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) to transcribe mRNAs of IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Heat-inactivation or pre-incubation of ApxI with a neutralizing antiserum attenuated ApxI bioactivity to induce cytokine gene expression. The secretion of IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α protein from PAMs stimulated with ApxI was also confirmed by quantitative ELISA. In delineating the underlying signaling pathways contributing to cytokine expression, we observed mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) p38 and cJun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) were activated upon ApxI stimulation. Administration of an inhibitor specific to p38 or JNK resulted in varying degrees of attenuation on ApxI-induced cytokine expression, suggesting the differential regulatory roles of p38 and JNK in IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α production. Further, pre-incubation of PAMs with a CD18-blocking antibody prior to ApxI stimulation significantly reduced the activation of p38 and JNK, and subsequent expression of IL-1β, IL-8 or TNF-α gene, indicating a pivotal role of β2 integrins in the ApxI-mediated effect. Collectively, this study demonstrated ApxI induces gene expression of IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF-α in PAMs that involves β2 integrins and downstream MAPKs

WWW 2007 / Poster Paper Topic: Social Networks Life is Sharable: Mechanisms to Support and Sustain Blogging Life Experience

Recent trend in the development of mobile devices, wireless communications, sensor technologies, weblogs, and peer-to-peer communications have prompted a new design opportunity for enhancing social interactions. This paper introduces our preliminary experiences in designing a prototype utilizing the aforementioned technologies to share life experience. Users equipped with camera phones coupled with short-range communication technology, such as RFID, can capture life experience and share it as weblogs to other people. However, in reality, this is easier said than done. The success of weblogs relies on the active participation and willingness of people to contribute. To encourage active participations, a ranking system, AgreeRank, is specifically developed to get them motivated. Categories and Subject Descriptors H5.1 [Information Interface and Presentation]: Multimedia Information Systems – Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities

Identifying the Usability Factors of Mid-Air Hand Gestures for 3D Virtual Model Manipulation

Although manipulating 3D virtual models with mid-air hand gestures had the benefits of natural interactions and free from the sanitation problems of touch surfaces, many factors could influence the usability of such an interaction paradigm. In this research, the authors conducted experiments to study the vision-based mid-air hand gestures for scaling, translating, and rotating a 3D virtual car displayed on a large screen. An Intel RealSense 3D Camera was employed for hand gesture recognition. The two-hand gesture with grabbing then moving apart/close to each other was applied to enlarging/shrinking the 3D virtual car. The one-hand gesture with grabbing then moving was applied to translating a car component. The two-hand gesture with grabbing and moving relatively along the circumference of a horizontal circle was applied to rotating the car. Seventeen graduate students were invited to participate in the experiments and offer their evaluations and comments for gesture usability. The results indicated that the width and depth of detection ranges were the key usability factors for two-hand gestures with linear motions. For dynamic gestures with quick transitions and motions from open to close hand poses, ensuring gesture recognition robustness was extremely important. Furthermore, given a gesture with ergonomic postures, inappropriate control-response ratio could result in fatigue due to repetitive exertions of hand gestures for achieving the precise controls of 3D model manipulation tasks

Exploring the Interactivity Issues of the Stereoscopic 3D Systems for Design Education

Stereoscopic 3D displays have been used by some research groups to present learning contents for education. However, in the highly interactive situations, the intertwined depth cues may result in symptoms that hamper the usability of such systems. In this research, an experiment was conducted to explore the interactivity issues. Thirty students were invited to participate in the experiment. The first task was to identify the differences between printed pictures and 3D virtual models. The second task was to point out ergonomic or design problems in a single piece of furniture or pairs of chairs and tables. Based on the analysis, discomfort caused by model rotation did contribute to the degree of overall discomfort. Even all participants had the background of using 3D modeling systems, some still experienced different levels of symptoms. Their comments indicated that adaptive adjustments of disparity and control response ratio were necessary in the highly interactive situations

Finding Suitable Candidates: The Design of a Mobile Volunteering Matching System

It can be difficult to get started with voluntary work for potential volunteers (PVs). Moreover, it is difficult to find and recruit suitable candidates for nonprofit organizations. To help solve this problem we designed a mobile matching prototype that enables an organization to actively promote ongoing volunteer activities with the need of recruitment through their bubble icons on an instant map. In the other end, PVs can easily get started by monitoring the colors of the icons and tap the ones which match their interests. This allows them to read about developing threads and browse the corresponding activities. The system is evaluated by interviewing two organization managers and three volunteers

The Common Characteristics of User-Defined and Mid-Air Gestures for Rotating 3D Digital Contents

Recently, the technology of mid-air gestures for manipulating 3D digital contents has become an important research issue. In order to conform to the needs of users and contexts, eliciting user-defined gestures is inevitable. However, it was reported that user-defined hand gestures tended to vary significantly in posture, motion and speed, making it difficult to identify common characteristics. In this research, the authors conducted an experiment to study the intuitive hand gestures for controlling the rotation of 3D digital furniture. Twenty graduate students majored in Industrial Design were invited to participate in the task. Although there were great varieties among different participants, common characteristics were extracted through systematic behavior coding and analysis. The results indicated that open palm and D Handshape (American Sign Language) were the most intuitive hand poses. In addition, moving hands along the circumference of a horizontal circle was the most intuitive hand motion and trajectory