A New 2D Interaction-based Method for the Behavioral Analysis of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

In neuropsychology, many computerized solutions have been proposed in order to assess patients’ functioning in activities of daily living, via realistic interactive simulation. In this context, most developed systems are based on simple devices, real time 2D interaction, and monoscopic 3D computer graphics environment. Behavioral analysis has drawn the interest of many domains, such as neuropsychology, ergonomics, web design, or virtual reality. However, advances on this topic remains fragmented in their respective areas. Thus, in computerized solutions applied to neuropsychology, the behavioral analysis does not take into account the data from interaction. The potential interest of computerized solutions is hence underexploited. In this paper, we propose a transdisciplinary solution, based on a finer analysis of 2D interaction data, such as stop duration. This method could reveal interesting aspects of users’ behaviors

A dynamic difficulty adjustment model for dysphonia therapy games

CMUP-ERI/TIC/0033/2014Studies on childhood dysphonia have revealed considerable rates for voice disorders in 4 – 12 year-old children. The sustained vowel exercise is widely used as a technique in the vocal (re)education process. However this exercise can become tedious after a short practice. Here, we propose a novel dynamic difficulty adjustment model to be used in a serious game with the sustained vowel exercise to motivate children on practicing this exercise often. The model automatically adapts the difficulty of the challenges in response to the child’s performance. The model is not exclusive to this game and can be used in other games for dysphonia treatment. In order to measure the child’s performance, the model uses parameters that are relevant to the therapy treatment. The proposed model is based on the flow model in order to balance the difficulty of the challenges with the child’s skills.publishersversionpublishe

Stuck in Limbo with Magical Solutions: The Testers’ Lived Experiences of Tools and Automation

The automation of people’s roles at work brings changes to their lives and work, bringing advantages of increased effectiveness and efficiency, yet potentially life-changing effects, including redundancy. The software industry’s purpose is to automate people’s tasks and activities, and this applies also to jobs within the software industry, including teams who specialise in testing software. Test automation projects are not always successful, and our research initially set out to discover whether the challenges were usability-related, and whether HCI methods could help improve tools. We discovered a much richer story, which told of emotional stresses and life experiences within the software testing community. We discuss how automation, with all its benefits, affects motivation, causing disassociation of testers from their roles, and affecting their job-task mix. We show reasons why software test automation affects testers. Finally, we set out our position for our research about the li ved experience of software testers using automation, which we are calling TX: The Testers’ Lived Experiences of Tools and Automation, and argue that the effect of automation and tooling on testers’ lived experience and its effect on their motivation is an area of study worthy of research

Virtual Reality Techniques for 3D Data-Warehouse Exploration

This paper focuses on the evaluation of virtual reality (VR) interaction techniques for exploration of data warehouse (DW). The experimental DW involves hierarchical levels and contains information about customers profiles and related purchase items. A user study has been carried out to compare two navigation and selection techniques. Sixteen volunteers were instructed to explore the DW and look for information using the interaction techniques, involving either a single WiimoteTM (monomanual) or both WiimoteTM and NunchuckTM (bimanual). Results indicated that the bimanual interaction technique is more efficient in terms of speed and error rate. Moreover, most of the participants preferred the bimanual interaction technique and found it more appropriate for the exploration task. We also observed that males were faster and made less errors than females for both interaction techniques

It’s not Just What You Do but also When You Do It: Novel Perspectives for Informing Interactive Public Speaking Training

Most of the emerging public speaking training systems, while very promising, leverage temporal-aggregate features, which do not take into account the structure of the speech. In this paper, we take a different perspective, testing whether some well-known socio-cognitive theories, like first impressions or primacy and recency effect, apply in the distinct context of public speaking perception. We investigated the impact of the temporal location of speech slices (i.e., at the beginning, middle or end) on the perception of confidence and persuasiveness of speakers giving online movie reviews (the Persuasive Opinion Multimedia dataset). Results show that, when considering multi-modality, usually the middle part of speech is the most informative. Additional findings also suggest the interest to leverage local interpretability (by computing SHAP values) to provide feedback directly, both at a specific time (what speech part?) and for a specific behaviour modality or feature (what behaviour ?). This is a first step towards the design of more explainable and pedagogical interactive training systems. Such systems could be more efficient by focusing on improving the speaker’s most important behaviour during the most important moments of their performance, and by situating feedback at specific places within the total speech

Behavioral and Physiological Assessment of a Virtual Reality Version of the MATB-II Task

The goal of this research was to examine the possible benefits of adapting the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB-II) in a virtual reality (VR) environment to provide an immersive and ecological platform for studies on mental workload in the aerospace domain. The original desktop MATB-II has many advantages, but the level of immersion remains moderate, and the computer screen greatly reduces the spatial dimension existing in real environments such as the cockpit. Thirty-one participants performed an experiment during which we compared the original MATB-II with the new virtual version, called “MATB-II VR”. We used subjective, performance, and cardiovascular measurements. The virtual MATB-II was performed without (“MATB-II VR No Touch”) and with tactile feedback (“MATB-II VR Touch”). In general, the results showed that mental and physical efforts were higher and performances lower with the virtual version. Heart rate was higher with the virtual version, supporting the idea that such environment is more challenging. The individual performance in the desktop and the virtual environments correlated well, showing that our virtual version engaged analog physical and cognitive abilities as compared with the original version. Interestingly, performance during MATB-II VR was well predicted by basic mental rotation performance assessed with a neuropsychological task

Using Virtual Reality Techniques to Study Cognitive Processes in Car Driving Activity

A central question in cognitive sciences is how behaviors adapted to the situations encountered are produced. This question can be addressed in different ways and often requires the researcher to choose between highly controlled and standardized laboratory situations (commonly referred to as artificial settings) and studies undertaken in natural settings which may be more realistic, but cannot be controlled as required by a rigorous scientific approach. Using car driving as an example, our study will show how virtual reality (VR) offers a compromise between these two alternatives. Indeed, VR can simulate controlled immersive environments that offer different levels of realism. Moreover, VR makes it possible to implement different devices. For instance, VR enables researchers to analyze oculomotor behavior, which is fundamental in the field of car driving and is considered an indicator of attentional deployment. The work presented in this paper is based on a car driving simulator curre ntly under development and aimed at studying the cognitive processes involved in car driving such as attentional processes and anticipatory mechanisms

Practising public speaking: user responses to using a mirror versus a multimodal positive computing system

A multimodal Positive Computing system with real-time feedback for public speaking has been developed. The system uses the Microsoft Kinect to detect voice, body pose, facial expressions and gestures. The system is a real-time system, which gives users feedback on their performance while they are rehearsing a speech. In this study, we wished to compare this system with a traditional method for practising speaking, namely using a mirror. Ten participants practised a speech for sixty seconds using the system and using the mirror. They completed surveys on their experience after each practice session. Data about their performance was recorded while they were speaking. We found that participants found the system less stressful to use than using the mirror. Participants also reported that they were more motivated to use the system in future. We also found that the system made speakers more aware of their body pose, gaze direction and voice

Middle Level Education Aims for Equity and Inclusion, but Do Our School Websites Meet ADA Compliance?

An often-overlooked component of a middle school website is the necessity for that website to be accessible to those with disabilities, while following the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act. In support of the belief that support the belief that inclusive education and respect for diversity should be integrated throughout the school, this study investigated the accessibility of middle school websites in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio by selecting a random sample of 150 schools and analyzing their homepages using WAVE (Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator), which reports accessibility violations by annotating a copy of the page that was evaluated and presenting embedded icons and indicators to disclose breaches with ADA. Out of 150 districts, 54% had errors that need immediate attention and all 150 schools had alerts of likely violations that ranged from alt-text omissions and empty or confusing links to issues with color contrast and keyboard-only navigation. The article proceeds to give practical suggestions for eliminating many of the errors, even for those shareholders with less than sophisticated technological expertise