m-Learning in the education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level: A user requirements study

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE.An extensive user requirements study was carried out to define the scope of functionality for the applications of m-learning with the potential to enhance the student performance and experience within the BSc Multimedia Technology and Design (MMTD) course at the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, United Kingdom. Based on participatory action research and user-centered design, the study involved 58 students attending the course at Level 2. All students participated in three sequential study sessions. The first session included a presentation of the concept of m-learning and a selection of related applications and underlying technologies. The second session consisted of 13 moderated semistructured focus groups. The groups were steered to specify their ideas as to how m-learning could best contribute to the MMTD course. In the third session, working in the same groups as in the second, the students were briefed to refine the ideas arising from the focus group discussions and "translate?? them into the concept of the single m-learning application (one per group) that was seen as being potentially the most beneficial for the course. The 13 smart-phone-based m--learning applications that were thus generated were subsequently analyzed and their individual functions broken down and grouped into five main functionality themes. These themes, outlining the scope of functionality for m-learning in the context of education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level, are: administration, presentation, feedback, motivation, and innovation

m-Learning in the education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level: A user requirements study

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE.An extensive user requirements study was carried out to define the scope of functionality for the applications of m-learning with the potential to enhance the student performance and experience within the BSc Multimedia Technology and Design (MMTD) course at the School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, United Kingdom. Based on participatory action research and user-centered design, the study involved 58 students attending the course at Level 2. All students participated in three sequential study sessions. The first session included a presentation of the concept of m-learning and a selection of related applications and underlying technologies. The second session consisted of 13 moderated semistructured focus groups. The groups were steered to specify their ideas as to how m-learning could best contribute to the MMTD course. In the third session, working in the same groups as in the second, the students were briefed to refine the ideas arising from the focus group discussions and "translate?? them into the concept of the single m-learning application (one per group) that was seen as being potentially the most beneficial for the course. The 13 smart-phone-based m--learning applications that were thus generated were subsequently analyzed and their individual functions broken down and grouped into five main functionality themes. These themes, outlining the scope of functionality for m-learning in the context of education of multimedia technologists and designers at the university level, are: administration, presentation, feedback, motivation, and innovation

Using remote vision: The effects of video image frame rate on visual object recognition performance

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.The process of using remote vision was simulated in order to determine the effects of video image frame rate on the performance in visual recognition of stationary environmental hazards in the dynamic video footage of the pedestrian travel environment. The recognition performance was assessed against two different video image frame rate variations: 25 and 2 fps. The assessment included a range of objective and subjective criteria. The obtained results show that the effects of the frame rate variations on the performance are statistically insignificant. This paper belongs to the process of development of a novel system for navigation of visually impaired pedestrians. The navigation system includes a remote vision facility, and the visual recognition of the environmental hazards by the sighted human guide is a basic activity in aiding the visually impaired user of the system in mobility

Client-server-based LBS architecture: A novel positioning module for improved positioning performance

Permission to distribute obtained from publisher.This work presents a new efficient positioning module that operates over client-server LBS architectures. The aim of the proposed module is to fulfil the position information requirements for LBS pedestrian applications by ensuring the availability of reliable, highly accurate and precise position solutions based on GPS single frequency (L1) positioning service. The positioning module operates at both LBS architecture sides; the client (mobile device), and the server (positioning server). At the server side, the positioning module is responsible for correcting user’s location information based on WADGPS corrections. In addition, at the mobile side, the positioning module is continually in charge for monitoring the integrity and available of the position solutions as well as managing the communication with the server. The integrity monitoring was based on EGNOS integrity methods. A prototype of the proposed module was developed and used in experimental trials to evaluate the efficiency of the module in terms of the achieved positioning performance. The positioning module was capable of achieving a horizontal accuracy of less than 2 meters with a 95% confidence level with integrity improvement of more than 30% from existing GPS/EGNOS services

Perceptual impact of environmental factors in sighted and visually impaired individuals

To a visually impaired individual the physical world presents many challenges. For a person with impaired sight, wayfinding through a complex environment is fraught with dangers, both actual and imagined. The current generation of mobility aids have the possibility of addressing a broad range of physical issues through technological solutions. The perception of difficulty however, can mean that many visually impaired individuals are fearful or uncomfortable about independent mobility or travel. In this context it becomes necessary to discover exactly what environments, environmental factors or items constitute a ‘perception of difficulty’ in the individuals mental landscape and may trigger a negative response before they interact with the physical environment. This paper reports on research, which sought to ascertain what levels of perceptual difficulties specific environments and factors presented to individuals. The research was conducted with both visually impaired and sighted groups and compared differences and similarities in perceptual difficulty between these two groups

Embedding Immersive Technologies into Product Design Education: Students' Awareness of Virtual Reality as a Tool to Support the Development of Design Solutions

Copyright 2022 The Authors. Using new and emerging technologies in education can increase student engagement and support teaching methods. However, using any technological tool requires prior knowledge and understanding, especially in education. An online survey was used to gather data on product design students' knowledge of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. As a case study, this survey will examine how the use of Virtual Reality technology can impact the product design development process and design thinking. A questionnaire was distributed to product design students as part of a mixed method approach. Students' views on common design solution development practices and Virtual Reality technology were quantified and analysed through open-ended and closed-ended questions. The survey revealed students' preferred modelling and rendering software, sketching methods, level of detail in sketches, prototyping materials and tools, assessment modes and aspects. The questionnaire also assessed students' knowledge of VR and their perceptions of its utility in product design. In product/industrial design education, high student awareness of technology indicates a bright future

Evaluation of eGovernment websites usability in Jordan

In the Information and Communications Technology era, eGovernment projects present a great opportunity for governments to offer better and quicker services to their users from the public. However, the success and the failure of these projects to achieve the expected goals depend heavily on some important aspects, mainly websites usability. The research in this thesis focuses on the usability of eGovernment websites in Jordan as a case study, as it is one of the developing countries facing problems due to websites usability. Hence, the main aim of the research was to investigate the situation of the Jordanian eGovernment websites with a view to improving usability, as well as to propose a roadmap to reinforce websites usability in order to achieve better utilisation and a more successful eGovernment project in Jordan. This research work achievement and major contributions have been accomplished through three stages; the first stage investigated the level of usability of eGovernment in Jordan from a manager‟s perspective. The study for this stage involved a sample of 37 managers who are in charge of managing and maintaining eGovernment projects in Jordan. The research revealed that the main problems undermining Jordanian eGovernment usability are the lack of the general usability awareness amongst management, the lack of clear usability standards and guidelines, the insufficient level of end-user involvement in the process of design and maintenance of eGovernment services, limited budgets and the lack of expert web-designers. The second stage was to build a clear overview about the status of eGovernment websites usability in Jordan by investigating main aspects related to design that affect the success of eGovernment websites in Jordan from an end-user‟s perspective. The study for this stage involved 155 participants for testing five Jordanian eGovernment websites. It was revealed that the Jordanian eGovernment websites generally do not have a high level of usability, and that there is a lack of understanding of the needs and requirements of the end-users. In addition, the study discovered a lack of testing and monitoring of the websites, a lack of involvement of end-users, poor collaboration and coordination among government agencies, poor standardisation, and lack of trust/satisfaction. The outcome from the early mentioned studies was used in the third stage, which has been used to establish the model to improve the usability of eGovernment websites in Jordan through a clear roadmap. The model has four components: website manager and designer, end-users, usability committee (advisory, executive), design process (usability requirements, pre-implementation test, post-implementation and maintenance). The model which was established and evaluated can be very beneficial for promoting eGovernment websites usability, in Jordan particularly and in other countries with similar backgrounds and situations.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceKingdom of JordanGBUnited Kingdo

Interface design for a remote guidance system for the blind : using dual-screen displays

The mobility for the visually impaired people is one of the main challenges that researchers are still facing around the world. Although some projects have been conducted to improve the mobility of visually impaired people, further research is still needed. One of these projects is Brunel Remote Guidance System (BRGS). BRGS is aimed to assist visually impaired users in avoiding obstacles and reaching their destinations safely by providing online instructions via a remote sighted guide. This study comes as continuation of the development process of BRGS; the main aim that has been achieved of this research is the optimisation of the interface design for the system guide terminal. This helps the sighted guide to assist the VIUs to avoid obstacles safely and comfortably in the micro-navigation, as well as to keep them on the right track to reach their destination in the macro-navigation. After using the content analysis, the performance factors and their assessments method were identified in each BRGS‘ element, which concluded that there is a lack of research on the guide terminal setup and the assessment method for the sighted guide performance. Furthermore, there are no model to assist the sighted guide performance and two-screen displays used in the literature review and similar projects. A model was designed as a platform to conduct the evaluation on sighted guide performance. Based on this model, the computer-based simulation was established and tested, which made the simulation is ready for next task; the evaluation of the sighted guide performance. The conducted study determined the effects of the two-screen displays on the recognition performance of the 80 participants in the guide terminal. The performance was measured with the context of four different resolution conditions. The study was based on a simulation technique, which is consisted of two key performance elements in order to examine the sighted guide performance; the macro-navigation element and the micro-navigation element. The results show that the two-screen displays have an effect on the performance of the sighted guide. The optimum setup for the two-screen displays for the guide terminal consisted of a big digital map screen display (4CIF [704p x 576p]) and a small video image screen display (CIF [352p x 288p]), which one of the four different resolutions. This interface design has been recommended as a final setup in the guide terminal.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Building Subjective Opinions on Amateur Football Player 1 Step Kicks by Analyzing Ankle Biomechanics

Copyright © 2021 Aroganam G, et al. Kicking is the fundamental skill in Football. 2 most common shots are Laces (In step) and Inside (Side foot). Key biomechanical features are Hip flexion, Knee extension, Backswing, Force on landing foot, Ball Contact and Follow through. In this experiment, a simple kick study with University football team regarding their technique upon Ball Contact is analyzed. “1-step” kicking analysis was done via video recording, importing into an application, plotting the motion of kick, and its velocities. An Inertial Measuring Unit sensor was placed on the front outer sole of the football boot to monitor the ankle rotations upon ball contact. The aim was to understand each player’s technique regarding their position profile and gameplay approach. Based on existing opinions on players, could technology analysis, with camera and sensor support observation assessment? A Decision matrix was created to rank each kicker against tracked features linking to selected biomechanics. After reviewing video and sensor data, 2 players showed differences compared to initial observed rank, with greater understanding of 1 player’s technique.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Brunel University London.https://www.jscimedcentral.com/SportsMedicine/sportsmedicine-8-1174.pd

Improving Reproducibility whilst Maintaining Accuracy in Function Point Analysis

Existing proposals to improve the measurement reproducibility of Function Point Analysis (FPA) oversimplify its standard rules, threatening its measurement accuracy. We introduce a new artifact called Function Point Tree (FPT), which allows for full data collection required to count function points, reducing the experts’ personal interpretation and thus the size variation. The new measurement method, called FPT-based FPA (FPT-FPA), enlarges FPA standardization and systematization. Using this method allows to improve measurement reproducibility whilst maintaining its accuracy. Preliminary results of an empirical study show coefficients of variation for FTP-FPA lower than the maximum expected for both reproducibility and accuracy for some scenarios