A critical analysis of music recommendation systems and new perspectives

Many businesses enhance on-line user experience using various recommender systems which have a growing innovation and research interest. Recommender systems in music streaming applications proactively suggest new selections to users by attempting to predict user preferences. While current music recommendation systems help users to efficiently discover fascinating music, challenges remain in this research area. This paper presents a critical analysis of current music recommender systems and proposes a new hybrid recommender system with efficient and enhanced prediction capabilities

The use of augmented reality to deliver enhanced user experiences in fashion industry

With the advancement of new technologies, industries are developing rapidly. Among them, the fashion industry is a vast area that involves the production of raw materials, the production of fashion goods by designers, and retail sales. One of the most contributed technologies used in industry is Augmented reality. The use of new technologies can address the limitations of traditional fashion experience and enhance user experience. Undertaking a comparative thematic analysis of AR research in the fashion industry, this paper considers how AR applications evolve to enhance designer skills and knowledge throughout the past decades and the customization of clothes by users themselves to make a satisfactory and comfortable product. Secondly, the paper considers the enhancement of customer experience by analyzing how clothing retail has progressed with the adoption of AR applications. Finally, we have concluded the review paper by addressing the future research ideas. The results of the review show that possible improvements can be done for fashion designing and enhancing customer experience using AR and hybrid technologies

New interaction tools for preserving an old language

The Penan people of Malaysian Borneo were traditionally nomads of the rainforest. They would leave messages in the jungle for each other by shaping natural objects into language tokens and arranging these symbols in specific ways – much like words in a sentence. With settlement, the language is being lost as it is not being used by the younger generation. We report here, a tangible system designed to help the Penans preserve their unique object writing language. The key features of the system are that: the tangibles are made of real objects; it works in the wild; and new tangibles can be fabricated and added to the system by the users. Our evaluations show that the system is engaging and encourages intergenerational knowledge transfer, thus has the potential to help preserve this language

Confucius computer: a philosophical digital agent for intergenerational philosophical play

Confucianism is commonly defined as “... a system of philosophical, ethical and political thought based on the teachings of Confucius,” which originated through the teachings of Confucius during the sixth-century BCE. It is a way of life or a philosophy of human nature that considers human relationships as the foundation of the society. Confucius teachings had highly influenced the development of several cultures in Asia, making Confucianism an intangible cultural heritage. In this paper, we are re-acquainting users with an intangible heritage that is part of their everyday, by developing a system that permits experiencing Confucius teachings virtually and interactively. The system can measure philosophical intent of the human and generate meaningful philosophical answers. It is also aimed for intergenerational sharing of Confucius heritage through a simple interactive process with the virtual sage making the experience enjoyable and entertaining. Previous research in natural language processing (NLP) mainly focused on the understanding and delivering of human natural language accurately. In this research, we explored how to apply NLP to model the knowledge and teachings of Confucius, through the natural conversation between human and computer. This virtual Confucius, a chat agent that generates outputs based on Confucius teachings, using a series of algorithms and techniques to improve the matching accuracy between user input and computer output, introduces a novel way of interacting with intangible cultures. Our user evaluation results revealed that there is a positive correlation between relevance and enjoyment, finding their experiences interacting with virtual Confucius very encouraging. Adults who participated in experiencing the virtual Confucius together with their children believed that this system has the potential to improve intergenerational interactions through shared play

Editorial: Multisensory Human-Food Interaction

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the context of Human-Food Interaction (HFI) to capitalize on multisensory interactions in order to create, modify, and enhance our food-related experiences. There are two ideas that may explain this interest. First, research has provided a strong case for the fact that eating and drinking are among the most multisensory events of our everyday lives. This has paved the way to target both intrinsic and extrinsic sensory cues to design specific food experiences. Second, given the ubiquitous nature of technology and the increasing availability of multisensory-oriented devices, both researchers and practitioners have become interested in the roles that these technologies can play in food contexts

Multisensory Human-Food Interaction

Our food experiences can be significantly influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic multisensory information. Therefore, it is crucial to understand and apply the principles that govern the systematic connections that exist between the senses in the context of Human-Food Interaction (HFI). In our Research Topic, namely Multisensory Human-Food Interaction (MHFI), several studies that consider such connections in the context of HFI are presented. We also have contributions that focus on multisensory technologies that can be used to share and reproduce specific HFIs. This eBook, which resulted from the Research Topic, presents some of the most recent developments in the field of MHFI. In particular, it consists of two main sections and corresponding articles. The eBook begins with the Editorial, which provides an overview of MHFI. Then, it includes six articles that relate to principles in MHFI and three on technologies in MHFI. We hope that the different contributions featured here will support future developments in MHFI research

Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Multi-Sensorial Approaches to Human-Food Interaction

Eating and drinking are, perhaps, some of the most multisensory events of our everyday life. Take, for instance, flavor, which is one of the most important elements of such experiences. It is known that flavor is the product of the integration of, at least, gustatory and (retronasal) olfactory cues. Nevertheless, researchers have suggested that all our senses can influence the way in which we perceive flavor, not to mention our eating and drinking experiences. For instance, the color and shape of the food, the background sonic cues in our eating environments, and/or the sounds that derive from the food's mastication can all influence our perception and enjoyment of our eating and drinking experiences. In this workshop, we were particularly interested in new systems that were designed to enhance people's eating experiences in the context of HFI and which were based on the principles that govern the systematic connections that exist between the senses (e.g., spatiotemporal congruence, semantic congruence, and crossmodal correspondences. This included the experiencing food interactions digitally in remote locations, sensing flavor information from one place, transferring them over the internet digitally, and effectively regenerate at the destination. Further, we were interested in digital interfaces that would bring advantages such as precious controlling, cheaper maintenance, avoid refilling, and avoid calories. Therefore, in this workshop we called for studies on flavor sensing and actuation interfaces, new communication mediums, and persisting and retrieving technologies for HFI. Enhancing social interactions to augment the eating experience was another issue we intended addressed in this workshop. In addition, we wanted to discuss what is possible through multimodal technology and what is not possible without it during this workshop. Factors such as measurement techniques (e.g. mastication, eating speed, food tracking, psychophysiological responses to food consumption), potential for interactivity, and potential for customized experiences were taken into consideration. Finally, applications of multisensory approaches to HFI were also encouraged to submit since they can promote healthy eating habits, design of food-related products (e.g. packaging) and more compelling eating experiences