Mayores y nuevas tecnologías: motivaciones y dificultades

3rd International Conference on the Elderly and New Technologies. III Jornadas Internacionales de Mayores y Nuevas Tecnologías.Students participating in University Programs for Seniors are gradually more adapted to the technological changes taking place in society. E-inclusion is becoming a reality and the sentence “This is not for me” is less heard. We are concerned in knowing the motivations that make students enroll in an educational program like the University Programs for Seniors and the reasons that make students participate in a massive way in workshops or courses related to technology issues. The needs and interests shown by the students help program managers to plan appropriate activities and teachers to know better the kind of student that attends their classes. It is important to know the difficulties that our students confront, as it will help us to adapt the class contents to the group and to transform their weaknesses into strengths. Therefore, our case study analyses the motivations and interests of the group of students that is currently attending a course related with new technologies in the Open University for Seniors (uom). The work also gathers together the main common difficulties when working with the computer. Finally, results are compared with a group of students that have never enrolled in a course related with new technologies.Los alumnos participantes en programas universitarios para mayores (pum) cada vez están más adaptados a los cambios tecnológicos que se están produciendo de manera progresiva en la sociedad. La e-inclusión es cada vez más real y el argumento de «eso no es para mí» cada vez lo escuchamos menos. Pero el tema que más nos interesa y al que le queremos dar el espacio que merece en este estudio es el conocer cuáles son las motivaciones que hacen que, primero, se matriculen en un programa educativo, como los programas universitarios para mayores, y, segundo, que se matriculen de una manera masiva a los talleres, o cursos, relacionados con temas tecnológicos en sus diversas variantes. Las necesidades y los intereses que los alumnos muestran ayudan a los responsables de los programas a crear actividades idóneas para los alumnos mayores y a los docentes a conocer un poco más al alumnado que acude a sus clases. Conocer las dificultades con las que nuestros alumnos se encuentran es importante debido a que, de esta manera, podemos adaptar los contenidos al grupo y así posibilitar que esas debilidades se conviertan en fortalezas. Por tanto, nuestro estudio se basa en conocer las motivaciones y los intereses del grupo de alumnos mayores que en estos momentos están realizando los cursos de informática en el programa universitario de la Universitat Oberta per a Majors (uom), así como aquellas dificultades con las que los docentes se encuentran de manera más habitual, comparándolo a su vez con un grupo de alumnos que no se han matriculado nunca en un curso de informática

Analysis of Gender Differences in Facial Expression Recognition Based on Deep Learning Using Explainable Artificial Intelligence

Potential uses of automated Facial Expression Recognition (FER) cover a wide range of applications such as customer behavior analysis, healthcare applications or providing personalized services. Data for machine learning play a fundamental role, therefore, understanding the relevancy of the data in the outcomes is of utmost importance. In this work we present a study on how gender influences the learning of a FER system. We analyze with Explainable Artificial intelligence (XAI) techniques how gender contributes to the learning and assess which facial expressions are more similar regarding face regions that impact on the classification. Results show that there exist common regions in some expressions both for females and males with different intensities (e.g. happiness); however, there are other expressions like disgust, where important face regions differ. The insights of this work will help improving FER systems and understand the source of any inequality

Educational e-inclusion for students with severe motor difficulties

The purposes of educational e-inclusion are fairness, equality and quality in the educational processes and offering the benefits of ICTs to all students. The impossibility of using computers or accessing the Internet increases educational exclusion and segregation. In this paper, we present an experience carried out at a special education center. This experience involved users with severe motor disabilities, and its purpose was to design and develop a computer-access system that was usable and adapted to the user. This system has allowed adding activities to the educational curriculum based on new technologies

Usability of vision-based interfaces

Vision-based interfaces can employ gestures to interact with an interactive system without touching it. Gestures are frequently modelled in laboratories, and usability testing should be carried out. However, often these interfaces present usability issues, and the great diversity of uses of these interfaces and the applications where they are used, makes it difficult to decide which factors to take into account in a usability test. In this paper, we review the literature to compile and analyze the usability factors and metrics used for vision-based interfaces.Postprint (published version

Educational e-inclusion for students with severe motor difficulties

The purposes of educational e-inclusion are fairness, equality and quality in the educational processes and offering the benefits of ICTs to all students. The impossibility of using computers or accessing the Internet increases educational exclusion and segregation. In this paper, we present an experience carried out at a special education center. This experience involved users with severe motor disabilities, and its purpose was to design and develop a computer-access system that was usable and adapted to the user. This system has allowed adding activities to the educational curriculum based on new technologies

Advanced and natural interaction system for motion-impaired users

Human-computer interaction is an important area that searches for better and more comfortable systems to promote communication between humans and machines. Vision-based interfaces can offer a more natural and appealing way of communication. Moreover, it can help in the e-accessibility component of the e-inclusion. The aim is to develop a usable system, that is, the end-user must consider the use of this device effective, efficient and satisfactory. The research's main contribution is SINA, a hands-free interface based on computer vision techniques for motion impaired users. This interface does not require the user to use his upper body limbs, as only nose motion is considered. Besides the technical aspect, user's satisfaction when using an interface is a critical issue. The approach that we have adopted is to integrate usability evaluation at relevant points of the software developmen

Segmentación de objetos parcialmente ocluidos utilizando cámaras TOF

El presente artículo propone un método de segmentación para imágenes obtenidas con una cámara de tiempo de vuelo. El objetivo principal es segmentar objetos parcialmente ocluidos evitando que sean subdivididos como dos o mas partes de objetos diferentes. El método propuesto explota la capacidad de la cámara utilizada para obtener simultáneamente imágenes de intensidad y de rango de la misma escena. Aplicando adecuadamente técnicas de detección de bordes en ambas imágenes, el método propuesto cierra adecuadamente el contorno de los objetos de la escena 3D. La estimación de las superficies se realiza minimizando la suma de los errores al cuadrado para finalmente estimar las superficies correspondientes a los mismos objetos. Se presentan resultados experimentales del método propuesto y se derivan conclusiones a partir de los mismos.Eje: Workshop Computación gráfica, imágenes y visualización (WCGIV)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Analyzing the Importance of Marking Links to Special Targets in Mobile Web

Literature points out the importance of indicating when a link opens a different website in a new window, since this is the default behavior that users expect, but this problem has not been specifically studied in mobile devices yet. This paper explains a study that was carried out with 20 different mobile devices and 19 users. We compared the usability of opening links in the same window or in a new one, informing or not informing the user about the target, as well as the convenience of using icons or text to inform about the target of a link. Results show that 95% of the devices used for the experiment had browser multi-window support, and we conclude that mobile users prefer to be previously informed when a link opens in a new window, and that the preferred method for informing them is using an icon instead of a text

La usabilidad de las interfaces basadas en visión

Las interfaces basadas en visión hacen uso de gestos para la comunicación del usuario con el sistema interactivo sin la necesidad de dispositivos que requieran contacto físico. El modelado de gestos suele realizarse en laboratorios y es importante que se lleve a cabo la evaluación de su usabilidad, pero la gran diversidad de usos y aplicaciones de estas interfaces hace que resulte difícil decidir qué factores tener en cuenta cuando se mide la usabilidad. En este artículo se presenta una revisión de la literatura cuyo objetivo es clasificar i recopilar los factores y las métricas de usabilidad que se utilizan para validar las interfaces basadas en visión.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

La inclusión de e-actividades como estrategia de enseñanza a distancia en un curso de postgrado : Experiencia en el curso “Interfaces avanzadas”

Este artículo describe una experiencia de innovación en la propuesta de enseñanza a distancia de un curso, Interfaces Avanzadas, que integra la currícula del Doctorado en Ciencias Informática de la Facultad de Informática de la Universidad de La Plata Basándonos en la teoría de la distancia transaccional (DT) de M. Moore con sus tres elementos constitutivos: diálogo, estructura y autonomía, el trabajo se focaliza en la definición de e-actividades que fomenta la interacción entre los participantes y la interactividad con los materiales de estudio y con el entorno virtual de enseñanza y aprendizaje.This article describes an innovation experience in a distance education proposal in a course about “Advanced Interfaces”, which integrates the curricula of Ph.D. at the IT School at the University of La Plata. Based on the framework of Transactional Distance (TD) from M. Moore and its three constituent elements: dialog, instructional structure and autonomy, this article focuses on the definition of e-activities to improve interaction among students and interactivity with study materials and the educational virtual environment.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI