Search results for: user interface experience

Authors: Jayanti De

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Users of any urban road infrastructure may be classified into various categories. The current paper intends to see whether the opinions on different environmental and transportation criteria vary significantly among different types of road users or not. The paper addresses this issue by using a unique survey data that has been collected from Kolkata, a highly populated city in India. Multiple criteria should be taken into account while planning on infrastructure development programs. Given limited resources, a welfare maximizing government typically resorts to public opinion by designing surveys for prioritization of one project over another. Designing such surveys can be challenging and costly. Deciding upon whom to include in a survey and how to represent each group of consumers/road-users depend crucially on how opinion for different criteria vary across consumer groups. A unique dataset has been collected from various parts of Kolkata to statistically test (using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test) whether assigning of weights to rank the transportation criteria like congestion, air pollution, noise pollution, and morning/evening delay vary significantly across the various groups of users of such infrastructure. The different consumer/user groups in the dataset include pedestrian, private car owner, para-transit (taxi /auto rickshaw) user, public transport (bus) user and freight transporter among others. Very little evidence has been found that ranking of different criteria among these groups vary significantly. This also supports the hypothesis that road- users/consumers form their opinion by using their long-run rather than immediate experience. As a policy prescription, this implies that under-representation or over-representation of a specific consumer group in a survey may not necessarily distort the overall opinion, since opinions across different consumer groups are highly correlated as evident from this particular case study.

Keywords: multi criteria analysis, project-prioritization, road- users, survey designing

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Authors: R. Estrada, A. Henriquez, R. Becerra, C. Laguna

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Spatial Augmented Reality is a variation of Augmented Reality where the Head-Mounted Display is not required. This variation of Augmented Reality is useful in cases where the need for a Head-Mounted Display itself is a limitation. To achieve this, Spatial Augmented Reality techniques substitute the technological elements of Augmented Reality; the virtual world is projected onto a physical surface. To create an interactive spatial augmented experience, the application must be aware of the spatial relations that exist between its core elements. In this case, the core elements are referred to as a projection system and an input system, and the process to achieve this spatial awareness is called system calibration. The Spatial Augmented Reality system is considered calibrated if the projected virtual world scale is similar to the real-world scale, meaning that a virtual object will maintain its perceived dimensions when projected to the real world. Also, the input system is calibrated if the application knows the relative position of a point in the projection plane and the RGB-depth sensor origin point. Any kind of projection technology can be used, light-based projectors, close-range projectors, and screens, as long as it complies with the defined constraints; the method was tested on different configurations. The proposed procedure does not rely on a physical marker, minimizing the human intervention on the process. The tests are made using a Kinect V2 as an input sensor and several projection devices. In order to test the method, the constraints defined were applied to a variety of physical configurations; once the method was executed, some variables were obtained to measure the method performance. It was demonstrated that the method obtained can solve different arrangements, giving the user a wide range of setup possibilities.

Keywords: color depth sensor, human computer interface, interactive surface, spatial augmented reality

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Authors: Jinseon Song, Yongwan Park

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In this paper, propose method that can user’s position that based on database is built from single camera. Previous positioning calculate distance by arrival-time of signal like GPS (Global Positioning System), RF(Radio Frequency). However, these previous method have weakness because these have large error range according to signal interference. Method for solution estimate position by camera sensor. But, signal camera is difficult to obtain relative position data and stereo camera is difficult to provide real-time position data because of a lot of image data, too. First of all, in this research we build image database at space that able to provide positioning service with single camera. Next, we judge similarity through image matching of database image and transmission image from user. Finally, we decide position of user through position of most similar database image. For verification of propose method, we experiment at real-environment like indoor and outdoor. Propose method is wide positioning range and this method can verify not only position of user but also direction.

Keywords: positioning, distance, camera, features, SURF(Speed-Up Robust Features), database, estimation

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Authors: Viet-Hung Truong, Seung-Eock Kim

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This paper presents a robust software package for practical advanced analysis of space steel framed structures. The pre- and post-processors of the presented software package are coded in the C++ programming language while the solver is written by using the FORTRAN programming language. A user-friendly graphical interface of the presented software is developed to facilitate the modeling process and result interpretation of the problem. The solver employs the stability functions for capturing the second-order effects to minimize modeling and computational time. Both the plastic-hinge and fiber-hinge beam-column elements are available in the presented software. The generalized displacement control method is adopted to solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations.

Keywords: advanced analysis, beam-column, fiber-hinge, plastic hinge, steel frame

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Authors: Mayank Gupta, Siba Prasad Samal, Vasu Kakkirala

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The internet world and its priorities have changed considerably in the last decade. Browsing on smart phones has increased manifold and is set to explode much more. Users spent considerable time browsing different websites, that gives a great deal of insight into user’s preferences. Instead of plain information classifying different aspects of browsing like Bookmarks, History, and Download Manager into useful categories would improve and enhance the user’s experience. Most of the classification solutions are server side that involves maintaining server and other heavy resources. It has security constraints and maybe misses on contextual data during classification. On device, classification solves many such problems, but the challenge is to achieve accuracy on classification with resource constraints. This on device classification can be much more useful in personalization, reducing dependency on cloud connectivity and better privacy/security. This approach provides more relevant results as compared to current standalone solutions because it uses content rendered by browser which is customized by the content provider based on user’s profile. This paper proposes a Naive Bayes based lightweight classification engine targeted for a resource constraint devices. Our solution integrates with Web Browser that in turn triggers classification algorithm. Whenever a user browses a webpage, this solution extracts DOM Tree data from the browser’s rendering engine. This DOM data is a dynamic, contextual and secure data that can’t be replicated. This proposal extracts different features of the webpage that runs on an algorithm to classify into multiple categories. Naive Bayes based engine is chosen in this solution for its inherent advantages in using limited resources compared to other classification algorithms like Support Vector Machine, Neural Networks, etc. Naive Bayes classification requires small memory footprint and less computation suitable for smartphone environment. This solution has a feature to partition the model into multiple chunks that in turn will facilitate less usage of memory instead of loading a complete model. Classification of the webpages done through integrated engine is faster, more relevant and energy efficient than other standalone on device solution. This classification engine has been tested on Samsung Z3 Tizen hardware. The Engine is integrated into Tizen Browser that uses Chromium Rendering Engine. For this solution, extensive dataset is sourced from dmoztools.net and cleaned. This cleaned dataset has 227.5K webpages which are divided into 8 generic categories ('education', 'games', 'health', 'entertainment', 'news', 'shopping', 'sports', 'travel'). Our browser integrated solution has resulted in 15% less memory usage (due to partition method) and 24% less power consumption in comparison with standalone solution. This solution considered 70% of the dataset for training the data model and the rest 30% dataset for testing. An average accuracy of ~96.3% is achieved across the above mentioned 8 categories. This engine can be further extended for suggesting Dynamic tags and using the classification for differential uses cases to enhance browsing experience.

Keywords: chromium, lightweight engine, mobile computing, Naive Bayes, Tizen, web browser, webpage classification

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Authors: Tomáš Ludík, Jiří Barta, Sabina Chytilová, Josef Navrátil

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Emergency management is a discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. Appropriate emergency management software allows better management of these risks and has a direct influence on reducing potential negative impacts. Although there are several emergency management software products in the Czech Republic, they cover user requirements from the emergency management field only partially. Therefore, the paper focuses on the issues of requirement analysis within development of emergency management software. Analysis of the current state describes the basic features and properties of user requirements for software development as well as basic methods and approaches for gathering these requirements. Then, the paper presents more specific mechanisms for requirement analysis based on chosen software development approach: structured, object-oriented or agile. Based on these experiences it is designed new methodology for requirement analysis. Methodology describes how to map user requirements comprehensively in the field of emergency management and thus reduce misunderstanding between software analyst and emergency manager. Proposed methodology was consulted with department of fire brigade and also has been applied in the requirements analysis for their current emergency management software. The proposed methodology has general character and can be used also in other specific areas during requirement analysis.

Keywords: emergency software, methodology, requirement analysis, stakeholders, use case diagram, user stories

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Authors: Anu Soikkelii, Laura Sorri

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Finnish national research project, User- and Business-oriented Suburb Renovation Concept (KLIKK), was started in January 2012 and will end in June 2014. The perspective of energy efficiency is emphasised in the project, but also it addresses what improving the energy efficiency of suburban apartment buildings means from the standpoint of architecturally valuable buildings representing different periods. The project will also test the impacts of stricter energy efficiency requirements on renovation projects. The primary goal of the project is to develop a user-oriented, industrial, economic renovation concept for suburban apartment building renovation, extension and construction of additional storeys. The concept will make it possible to change from performance- and cost-based operation to novel service- and user-oriented, site-specifically tailored renovation methods utilizing integrated order and delivery chains.The present project is collaborating with Ministry of the Environment and participating cities in developing a new type of lighter town planning model for suburban renovations and in-fill construction. To support this, the project will simultaneously develop practices for environmental impact assessment tools in renovation and suburban supplementary and in-fill construction.

Keywords: energy efficiency, prefabrication, renovation concept, suburbs, sustainability, user-orientated

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Authors: Georgios Boustras, Cleo Varianou Mikellidou, Christos Argyropoulos

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Summer 2021 was marked by a number of prolific fires in the EU (Greece, Cyprus, France) as well as outside the EU (USA, Turkey, Israel). This series of dramatic events have stretched national civil protection systems and first responders in particular. Despite the introduction of National, Regional and International frameworks (e.g. rescEU), a number of challenges have arisen, not only related to climate change. RESPOND-A (funded by the European Commission by Horizon 2020, Contract Number 883371) introduces a unique five-tier project architectural structure for best associating modern telecommunications technology with novel practices for First Responders of saving lives, while safeguarding themselves, more effectively and efficiently. The introduced architecture includes Perception, Network, Processing, Comprehension, and User Interface layers, which can be flexibly elaborated to support multiple levels and types of customization, so, the intended technologies and practices can adapt to any European Environment Agency (EEA)-type disaster scenario. During the preparation of the RESPOND-A proposal, some of our First Responder Partners expressed the need for an information management system that could boost existing emergency response tools, while some others envisioned a complete end-to-end network management system that would offer high Situational Awareness, Early Warning and Risk Mitigation capabilities. The intuition behind these needs and visions sits on the long-term experience of these Responders, as well, their smoldering worry that the evolving threat of climate change and the consequences of industrial accidents will become more frequent and severe. Three large-scale pilot studies are planned in order to illustrate the capabilities of the RESPOND-A system. The first pilot study will focus on the deployment and operation of all available technologies for continuous communications, enhanced Situational Awareness and improved health and safety conditions for First Responders, according to a big fire scenario in a Wildland Urban Interface zone (WUI). An important issue will be examined during the second pilot study. Unobstructed communication in the form of the flow of information is severely affected during a crisis; the flow of information between the wider public, from the first responders to the public and vice versa. Call centers are flooded with requests and communication is compromised or it breaks down on many occasions, which affects in turn – the effort to build a common operations picture for all firstr esponders. At the same time the information that reaches from the public to the operational centers is scarce, especially in the aftermath of an incident. Understandably traffic if disrupted leaves no other way to observe but only via aerial means, in order to perform rapid area surveys. Results and work in progress will be presented in detail and challenges in relation to civil protection will be discussed.

Keywords: first responders, safety, civil protection, new technologies

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Authors: Wen-Wei Chiang

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In this study, the researcher developed a scale for use in measuring the degree to which high school students experience a state of flow. The researcher then verified its reliability and validity in an actual classroom setting. The ultimate objective was to identify feasible methods by which to promote the experience of a flow state among high school students engaged in the study of science. The nine indices identified in this study to assess the engagement of high school students focus primarily on the study of science-related topics; however, the principles on which they are based are applicable to a wide range of learning situations. Teachers must outline the goals of each lesson clearly and provide unambiguous feedback. They must also look for ways to make the lessons more fun and appealing.

Keywords: flow experience, positive psychology, questionnaire, science learning

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Authors: Aleksandr I. Korobov, Natalia V. Shirgina, Aleksey I. Kokshaiskiy

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The transformation of two types of acoustic waves can occur on a flat interface between two solids at oblique incidence of longitudinal and shear bulk acoustic waves (BAW). This paper presents the results of experimental studies of the properties of reflection and propagation of longitudinal wave and generation of second and third longitudinal and shear harmonics of BAW at oblique incidence of longitudinal BAW on a flat rough boundary between two solids. The experimental sample was a rectangular isosceles pyramid made of D16 aluminum alloy with the plane parallel bases cylinder made of D16 aluminum alloy pressed to the base. The piezoelectric lithium niobate transducer with a resonance frequency of 5 MHz was secured to one face of the pyramid to generate a longitudinal wave. Longitudinal waves emitted by this transducer felt at an angle of 45° to the interface between two solids and reflected at the same angle. On the opposite face of the pyramid, and on the flat side of the cylinder was attached longitudinal transducer with resonance frequency of 10 MHz or the shear transducer with resonance frequency of 15 MHz. These transducers also effectively received signal at a frequency of 5 MHz. In the spectrum of the transmitted and reflected BAW was observed shear and longitudinal waves at a frequency of 5 MHz, as well as longitudinal harmonic at a frequency harmonic of 10 MHz and a shear harmonic at frequency of 15 MHz. The effect of reversing changing of external pressure applied to the rough interface between two solids on the value of the first and higher harmonics of the BAW at oblique incidence on the interface of the longitudinal BAW was experimentally investigated. In the spectrum of the reflected signal from the interface, there was a decrease of amplitudes of the first harmonics of the signal, and non-monotonic dependence of the second and third harmonics of shear wave with an increase of the static pressure applied to the interface. In the spectrum of the transmitted signal growth of the first longitudinal and shear harmonic amplitude and non-monotonic dependence - first increase and then decrease in the amplitude of the second and third longitudinal shear harmonic with increasing external static pressure was observed. These dependencies were hysteresis at reversing changing of external pressure. When pressure applied to the border increased, acoustic contact between the surfaces improves. This increases the energy of the transmitted elastic wave and decreases the energy of the reflected wave. The second longitudinal acoustic harmonics generation was associated with the Hertz nonlinearity on the interface of two pressed rough surfaces, the generation of the third harmonic was caused by shear hysteresis nonlinearity due to dry friction on a rough interface. This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project №14-22-00042).

Keywords: generation of acoustic harmonics, hysteresis nonlinearity, Hertz nonlinearity, transformation of acoustic waves

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Authors: Raef Cherif, Houssine Bakkali, Wafaa El Khatiri, Yacine Yaddaden

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The analysis of how vibrations are transmitted between components is required in many engineering applications. Transfer path analysis (TPA) has been a valuable engineering tool for solving Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH problems using sub-structuring applications. The most challenging part of a TPA analysis is estimating the equivalent forces at the contact points between the active and the passive side. Component TPA in situ Method calculates these forces by inverting the frequency response functions (FRFs) measured at the passive subsystem, relating the motion at indicator points to forces at the interface. However, matrix inversion could pose problems due to the ill-conditioning of the matrices leading to inaccurate results. This paper establishes a TPA model for an academic system consisting of two plates linked by four springs. A numerical study has been performed to improve the interface forces identification. Several parameters are studied and discussed, such as the singular value rejection and the number and position of indicator points chosen and used in the inversion matrix.

Keywords: transfer path analysis, matrix inverse method, indicator points, SVD decomposition

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Authors: Gemma Postil, Claire Zanin, Michael Halpin, Caroline Ritter

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Illness experience research typically focuses on people that are living with a medical condition; however, the broad consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are impacting those without the virus itself, as many experienced extensive lockdowns, social isolation, and distress. Drawing on conceptual work in the illness experience literature, we argue that policy and social changes tied to COVID-19 produce biographical disruptions. In this sense, we argue that the COVID-19 pandemic produces illness experience without illness, as the pandemic comprehensively impacts health and biography. This paper draws on 30 in-depth interviews with young adults living in Prince Edward Island (PEI), which were conducted as part of a larger project to understand how young adults navigate compliance with the COVID-19 pandemic. We then inductively analyzed the interviews with a constructivist grounded theory approach. Specifically, we demonstrate that young adults living in PEI during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced biographical disruptions throughout the pandemic despite not contracting the virus. First, we detail how some participants experience biographical acceleration, with the pandemic accelerating relationships, home buying, and career planning. Second, we demonstrate biographical stagnation, wherein participants report being unable to pursue major life milestones. Lastly, we describe biographical regression, wherein participants feel they are losing ground during the pandemic and are actively falling behind their peers. These findings provide the novel application of illness experience concepts to the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, contribute to work on illness experience and ambiguity, and extend Bury’s conceptualization of biographical disruption. In conclusion, we demonstrate that young adults experienced the biographical disruption expected from having COVID-19 without having an illness, highlighting the depth to which the pandemic affected young adults.

Keywords: illness experience, lived experience, biographical disruption, COVID-19, young adults

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Authors: Aysen Celen Ozturk, Hatice Dulger

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University may be defined as a teaching institution consisting of faculties, institutes, colleges, and units that have undergraduate and graduate education, scientific research and publications. It has scientific autonomy and public legal personality. Today, universities are not only the institutions in which students and lecturers experience education, training and scientific work. They also offer social, cultural and artistic activities that strengthen the link with the city. This also incorporates all city users into the campus borders. Thus, universities contribute to social and individual development of the country by providing science, art, socio-cultural development, communication and socialization with people of different cultural and social backgrounds. Moreover, universities provide an active social life, where the young population is the majority. This enables the sense of belonging to the users to develop, to increase the interaction between academicians and students, and to increase the learning / producing community by continuing academic sharing environments outside the classrooms. For this reason, besides academic spaces in university campuses, the users also need closed and open spaces where they can socialize, spend time together and relax. Public open spaces are the most important social spaces that individuals meet, express themselves and share. Individuals belonging to different socio-cultural structures and ethnic groups maintain their social experiences with the physical environment they are in, the outdoors, and their actions and sharing in these spaces. While university campuses are being designed for their individual and social development roles, user needs must be determined correctly and design should be realized in this direction. While considering that requirements may change over time, user satisfaction should be questioned at certain periods and new arrangements should be made in existing applications in the direction of current demands. This study aims to determine the user requirements through the case of Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Meşelik Campus / Turkey. Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) questionnaire, cognitive mapping and deep interview methods are used in the research process. All these methods show that the students, academicians and other officials in the Meşelik Campus of Eskişehir Osmangazi University find way finding elements insufficient and are in need of efficient landscape design and social spaces. This study is important in terms of determining the needs of the users as a design input. This will help improving the quality of common space in Eskişehir Osmangazi University and in other similar universities.

Keywords: university campuses, public open space, user requirement, post occupancy evaluation

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Authors: Bahareh Ansari

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Background: The Open Government Data (OGD) movement in the last decade has encouraged many government organizations around the world to make their data publicly available to advance democratic processes. But current open data platforms have not yet reached to their full potential in supporting all interested parties. To make the data useful and understandable for everyone, scholars suggested that opening the data should be supplemented by visualization. However, different visualizations of the same information can dramatically change an individual’s cognitive and emotional experience in working with the data. This study reviews the data visualization literature to create a list of the methods empirically tested to enhance users’ performance and experience in working with a visualization tool. This list can be used in evaluating the OGD visualization practices and informing the future open data initiatives. Methods: Previous reviews of visualization literature categorized the visualization outcomes into four categories including recall/memorability, insight/comprehension, engagement, and enjoyment. To identify the papers, a search for these outcomes was conducted in the abstract of the publications of top-tier visualization venues including IEEE Transactions for Visualization and Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics, and proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The search results are complemented with a search in the references of the identified articles, and a search for 'open data visualization,' and 'visualization evaluation' keywords in the IEEE explore and ACM digital libraries. Articles are included if they provide empirical evidence through conducting controlled user experiments, or provide a review of these empirical studies. The qualitative synthesis of the studies focuses on identification and classifying the methods, and the conditions under which they are examined to positively affect the visualization outcomes. Findings: The keyword search yields 760 studies, of which 30 are included after the title/abstract review. The classification of the included articles shows five distinct methods: interactive design, aesthetic (artistic) style, storytelling, decorative elements that do not provide extra information including text, image, and embellishment on the graphs), and animation. Studies on decorative elements show consistency on the positive effects of these elements on user engagement and recall but are less consistent in their examination of the user performance. This inconsistency could be attributable to the particular data type or specific design method used in each study. The interactive design studies are consistent in their findings of the positive effect on the outcomes. Storytelling studies show some inconsistencies regarding the design effect on user engagement, enjoyment, recall, and performance, which could be indicative of the specific conditions required for the use of this method. Last two methods, aesthetics and animation, have been less frequent in the included articles, and provide consistent positive results on some of the outcomes. Implications for e-government: Review of the visualization best-practice methods show that each of these methods is beneficial under specific conditions. By using these methods in a potentially beneficial condition, OGD practices can promote a wide range of individuals to involve and work with the government data and ultimately engage in government policy-making procedures.

Keywords: best practices, data visualization, literature review, open government data

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Authors: Michael Smalenberger

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Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) are computer-based platforms which can incorporate artificial intelligence to provide step-by-step guidance as students practice problem-solving skills. ITS can replicate the benefits of one-on-one tutoring, foster transactivity in collaborative environments, and lead to substantial learning gains when used to supplement the instruction of a teacher or when used as the sole method of instruction. Developments improving the ease of ITS creation have recently increased their proliferation, leading many K-12 schools and institutions of higher education in the United States to regularly use ITS within classrooms. We investigated how students perceive their experience using an ITS. In this study, 111 undergraduate students used an ITS in a college-level introductory statistics course and were subsequently asked for feedback on their experience. Results show that their perceptions were generally favorable of the ITS, and most would seek to use an ITS both for STEM and non-STEM courses in the future. Along with detailed transaction-level data, this feedback also provides insights on the design of user-friendly interfaces, guidance on accessibility for students with impairments, the sequencing of exercises, students’ expectation of achievement, and comparisons to other tutoring experiences. We discuss how these findings are important for the creation, implementation, and evaluation of ITS as a mode and method of teaching and learning.

Keywords: college statistics course, intelligent tutoring systems, in vivo study, student perceptions of tutoring

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Authors: Saleem Rao, Mohammed Al-Ghadeer, Archan Banerjee, Hossein Fariborzi

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Materials imperfection, particularly two-level-system (TLS) defects in planer superconducting quantum circuits, contributes significantly to decoherence, ultimately limiting the performance of quantum computation and sensing. Oxides at air interfaces are among the host of TLS, and different material has been used to reduce TLS losses. Passivation with an inorganic layer is not an option to reduce these interface oxides; however, they can be etched away, but their regrowth remains a problem. Here, we report the chemisorption of molecular self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) at air interfaces of superconducting co-planer waveguide (CPW) resonators that suppress the regrowth of oxides and also modify the dielectric constant of the interface. With SAMs, we observed sustained order of magnitude improvement in quality factor -better than oxide etched interfaces. Quality factor measurements at millikelvin temperature and at single photon, XPS data, and TEM images of SAM passivated air interface sustenance our claim. Compatibility of SAM with micro-/nano-fabrication processes opens new ways to improve the coherence time in cQED.

Keywords: superconducting circuits, quality-factor, self-assembled monolayer, coherence

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Authors: Sofia Maria Poulimenou, Ioannis Deliyannis, Elisavet Filippidou, Stamatella Laboura

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Smart technologies are being actively used to improve the experience of travel and promote or demote a destination’s reputation via a wide variety of social media applications and platforms. This paper conceptualises the design and deployment of smart management apps to promote culture, sustainability and accessibility within two destinations in Greece that represent the extremes of visiting scale. One is the densely visited Corfu, which is a UNESCO’s heritage site. The problems caused by the lack of organisation of the visiting experience and infrastructures affect all parties interacting within the site: visitors, citizens, public and private sector. Second is Kilkis, a low tourism destination with high seasonality and mostly inbound tourism. Here the issue faced is that traditional approaches to inform and motivate locals and visitors to explore and taste of the culture have not flourished. The problem is apprehended via the design and development of two systems named “Hologrammatic Corfu” for Corfu old town and “BRENDA” for the area of Kilkis. Although each system is designed independently, featuring different solutions to the problems, both approaches have been designed by the same team and a novel gaming and gamification methodology. The “Hologramatic Corfu” application has been designed, for the exploration of the site covering user requirments before, during and after the trip, with the use of transmedia content such as photos, 360-degree videos, augmented reality and hologrammatic videos. Also, a statistical analysis of travellers’ visits to specific points of interest is actively utilized enabling visitors to dynamically re-rooted during their visit, safeguarding sustainability and accessibility and inclusivity along the entire tourism cycle. “BRENDA” is designed specifically to promote gastronomic and historical tourism. This serious game implements and combines gaming and gamification elements in order to connect local businesses with cultural points of interest. As the environment of the project has a strong touristic orientation, “BRENDA” supports food-related gamified processes and historical games involving active participation of both local communities (content providers) and visitors (players) which are more likely to be successfully performed in the informal environment of travelling and promote sustainable tourism experiences. Finally, the paper presents the ability to re-use existing gaming components within new areas of interest via minimal adaptation and the use of transmedia aspects that enables destinations to be rebranded into smart destinations.

Keywords: smart tourism, gamification, user experience, transmedia content

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Authors: Abdullah Mohamed, Raipat Vaidehi

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With increasing immigration to urban areas, every city is experiencing shortage of housing. Vertical habitats are the only solution to this problem, it is hence important to make sure that these habitats are environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. A lot of work on vertical habitats has already been carried out in terms of environmental and economic sustainability, hence this research aims to study the aspects of social sustainability of the vertical habitats. It being the least studied topic, opens many reals of novelty and uniqueness. In this Research, user perception survey and various mapping methods have been used to study the social sustainability of the existing vertical habitats in the selected cities. The various aspects that can be used to define social sustainability of any place include; safety, equity, accessibility, legibility, imagibility, readability, memorability and ease of movement. This research would help to evolve new strategies in form of design and/or guidelines to make the existing vertical habitats socially sustainable.

Keywords: user lifestyle, user perception, social sustainability, vertical habitats

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Ghaani, Niall English

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Hydrogen is looked upon as the next-generation clean-energy carrier; the search for an efficient material and method for storing hydrogen has been, and is, pursued relentlessly. Clathrate hydrates are inclusion compounds wherein guest gas molecules like hydrogen are trapped in a host water-lattice framework. These types of materials can be categorised as potentially attractive hosting environments for physical hydrogen storage (i.e., no chemical reaction upon storage). Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulations have been performed to investigate thermal-driven break-up of propane-hydrate interfaces with liquid water at 270-300 K, with the propane hydrate containing either one or no hydrogen molecule in each of its small cavities. In addition, two types of hydrate-surface water-lattice molecular termination were adopted, at the hydrate edge with water: a 001-direct surface cleavage and one with completed cages. The geometric hydrate-ice-liquid distinction criteria of Báez and Clancy were employed to distinguish between the hydrate, ice lattices, and liquid-phase. Consequently, the melting temperatures of interface were estimated, and dissociation rates were observed to be strongly dependent on temperature, with higher dissociation rates at larger over-temperatures vis-à-vis melting. The different hydrate-edge terminations for the hydrate-water interface led to statistically-significant differences in the observed melting point and dissociation profile: it was found that the clathrate with the planar interface melts at around 280 K, whilst the melting temperature of the cage-completed interface was determined to be circa 270 K.

Keywords: hydrogen storage, clathrate hydrate, molecular dynamics, thermal dissociation

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Authors: Ukpaka Paschal

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Margret Boden argues that a creative product is one that is new, surprising, and valuable as a result of the combination, exploration, or transformation involved in producing it. Boden uses examples of artificial intelligence systems that fit all of these criteria and argues that real creativity involves autonomy, intentionality, valuation, emotion, and consciousness. This paper provides an analysis of all these elements in order to try to understand whether they are sufficient to account for creativity, especially human creativity. This paper focuses on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), which is a class of artificial intelligence algorithms that are said to have disproved the common perception that creativity is something that only humans possess. This paper will then argue that Boden’s listed properties of creativity, which capture the creativity exhibited by GANs, are not sufficient to account for human creativity, and this paper will further identify “first-person phenomenological experience” as an essential property of human creativity. The rationale behind the proposed essential property is that if creativity involves comprehending our experience of the world around us into a form of self-expression, then our experience of the world really matters with regard to creativity.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, creativity, GANs, first-person experience

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Authors: Shilpa Sharma, Lakshmi Ganesh, Mantra Gurumurthy, Shweta Sharma

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Board games provide affordances of 21st-century skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and strategy. Board games such as chess, Catan, Battleship, Scrabble, and Taboo can enhance learning in these areas. While board games are popular in informal child settings, their use in formal K-12 education is limited. To encourage teachers to incorporate board games, it's essential to grasp their perceptions and tailor professional development programs accordingly. This paper aims to explore teacher attitudes toward board games and propose interventions to motivate teachers to integrate and create board games in the classroom. A user study was conceived, designed, and administered with teachers (n=38) to understand their experience in playing board games and using board games in the classroom. Purposive sampling was employed as the questionnaire was floated to teacher groups that the authors were aware of. The teachers taught in K-12 affordable private schools. The majority of them had experience ranging from 2-5 years. The questionnaire consisted of questions on teacher perceptions and beliefs of board game usage in the classroom. From the responses, it was observed that ~90% of teachers, though they had experience of playing board games, rarely did it translate to using board games in the classroom. Additionally, it was observed that translating learning objectives to board game objectives is the key factor that teachers consider while using board games in the classroom. Based on the results from the questionnaire, a professional development workshop was co-designed with the objective of motivating teachers to design, create and use board games in the classroom. The workshop is based on the principles of gamification. This is to ensure that the teachers experience a board game in a learning context. Additionally, the workshop is based on the principles of andragogy, such as agency, pertinence, and relevance. The workshop will begin by modifying and reusing known board games in the learning context so that the teachers do not find it difficult and daunting. The intention is to verify the face validity and content validity of the workshop design, orchestration and content with experienced teacher development professionals and education researchers. The results from this study will be published in the full paper.

Keywords: board games, professional development, teacher motivation, teacher perception

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Authors: Yi-Ju Lee

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This study identified the hypothesised relationship between creative experience, and revisit intention of handmade oriental parasol umbrella in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was administered in Meinong town, Kaohsiung. The components of creative experience were found as “sense of achievement”, “unique learning” and “interaction with instructors” in creative tourism. The result also revealed significant positive relationships between creative experience and revisit intention in handmade activities. This paper provides additional suggestions for enhancing revisit intention and guidance regarding creative tourism.

Keywords: creative tourism, sense of achievement, unique learning, interaction with instructors, folk art

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Authors: Hong Mengdi, Li Jianan, Ji Fei, Chen Aiting, Wang Qian

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Objective: To overcome the communication barriers that audiologists encounter during cochlear implant mapping, particularly the challenge of eliciting subjective feedback from recipients regarding electrical stimulation, and to enhance the capabilities of existing technologies, we teamed up with software engineers to design an interactive approach for patient-audiologist communication. This approach employs a tablet (PAD) as the interface for a communication and feedback system between patients and audiologists during the mapping process, known as the Cochlear Implant Mapping Assistance System. Methods: Capitalizing on the touchscreen functionality of the PAD, the recipients' subjective feedback during cochlear implant mapping is instantly transmitted to the audiologist's mapping computer. The system acts as a platform for auditory assessment instruments, facilitating immediate evaluation of recipients' post-mapping hearing and speech discrimination capabilities. Furthermore, the system is designed to augment the visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) process. The system consists of six modules, including three testing projects: loudness testing, hearing threshold testing, and loudness balance testing; two assessment projects: warble tone testing and digit speech testing; and one VRA animation project. It also incorporates speech-to-text and text input display functions tailored to accommodate speech communication difficulties in hearing-impaired individuals, with pre-installed common exchange content between audiologists and recipients. Audiologists can input sentences by selecting options. The system supports switching between Chinese and English versions, suitable for audiologists and recipients who use English, facilitating international application of the system. Results: The Cochlear Implant Mapping Assistance System has been in use for over a year in the Auditory Implant Center of the Department of Otology and Neurotology, Medical Center of Otology and Head & Neck Surgery, Chinese PLA General Hospital, with more than 300 recipients using this mapping system. Currently, the system operates stably, with both audiologists and recipients providing positive feedback, indicating a significant improvement over previous methods. It is particularly well-received by pediatric recipients, significantly enhancing the work efficiency of audiologists and improving the feedback efficiency and accuracy of recipients. The system enhances the comprehensibility for cochlear implant recipients, improves wearing comfort and user experience, facilitates cochlear implant auditory mapping, and increases the collection of previously challenging-to-obtain data during the existing assisted mapping process, such as loudness testing data, electrical stimulation testing data, warble tone testing data, loudness balance testing data, digit speech testing data, and visual reinforcement audiometry testing data. Real-time data recording improves the accuracy of assisted mapping. The interface design is meticulously crafted to accommodate patients of varying ages and cognitive abilities, featuring an intuitive design that allows for effortless, guidance-free use by patients.

Keywords: audiologist, subjective feedback, mapping, cochlear implant

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Authors: Lok Yi Joyce Poon

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China's mobile payment market has boomed in the past few years. WeChat (Chinese name as Weixin) owned by Tencent is known as the fastest growing all-in-one social messaging platforms. The company has launched the WeChat Pay in 2013, in which users can link their credit card to their user account and make payments within the app’s built in digital wallet. WeChat Payment is a one-stop payment tool that can provide a seamless online experience for the shoppers to transfer money between WeChat users (peer-to-peer) and make payments online by scanning a QR code, a prominent facilitator for transactions in WeChat, to complete the payment with the app without directing the users to the external websites. The aims of this study are to examine the effectiveness of WeChat mobile payment in China as well as the impacts of the China teen’s online purchasing behavior since the establishment of WeChat Payment. The research method of this study is conducted by both online survey on Sojump, a popular online survey platform in China. A total of 120 respondents among 18 to 25 teens in China completed the survey. Data sources included participants’ response to an end-of-session questionnaire, encompassing with the types of multiple choice, open-ended questions. To have an in-depth analysis, a face-to-face interview with a Chinese teen who is a frequent user of the WeChat Pay. The main finding of the study shows that the majority of the teenagers frequently use the WeChat payment tool because of its convenience, user-friendliness and the scenarios offered within the WeChat Wallet. The respondents claimed that they will settle the bills in their daily lives via WeChat Pay. However, the respondents in the age group of 40 or above will not use the WeChat Pay due to the security concern and they do not see the app as a platform for commercial activities like online shopping. Throughout the study, it is recommended WeChat should put more efforts on the security issue and improve the payment technology by adopting the near-field communication terminals instead of requiring users to scan QR codes before they complete the transaction.

Keywords: digital wallet, mobile payment, online purchasing behavior, WeChat Pay

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Authors: An-Na Li, Ying-Yu Chen, Chang-Kuang Chiou

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Food tourism is one of the growing industries and areas of interest in the tourism industry today. The Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are aware of the importance of gastronomy in order to stimulate local and regional economic development. From the heritage and cultural aspects, gastronomy is becoming a more important part of the cultural heritage of region and countries. Heritage destinations provide culinary heritage, which fits the current interest in traditional food, and cuisine is part of a general desire for authentic experiences. However, few studies have empirically examining food tourist’s behavior. This study examined the effects of cuisine experience, emotions and tourists’ revisit intentions. A total of 402 individuals responded to the on-site survey in the historic town of Lu-Kang in Taiwan. The results indicated that tourists’ cuisine experience include place flavor, media recommended local learning, life transfer and interpersonal share. In addition, cuisine experience had significant impacts on emotions, which in turn cuisine experience and emotions had significant effects on tourists’ revisit intentions. The findings suggested that the cuisine experience is a multi- dimensions construct. On the other hands, the good quality of cuisine experience could evoke tourists’ positive emotions and it plays a significant role in promote tourist revisit intentions and word of mouth. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Keywords: culinary tourism, cuisine experience, emotions, revisit intentions

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Authors: Mohd Noah A. Rahman, Afzaal H. Seyal, Norhafilah Bara

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Developing a software application using an interface with computers and peripheral devices using gestures of human body such as hand movements keeps growing in interest. A review on this hand gesture detection and recognition based on computer vision technique remains a very challenging task. This is to provide more natural, innovative and sophisticated way of non-verbal communication, such as sign language, in human computer interaction. Nevertheless, this paper explores hand detection and hand gesture recognition applying a vision based approach. The hand detection and recognition used skin color spaces such as HSV and YCrCb are applied. However, there are limitations that are needed to be considered. Almost all of skin color space models are sensitive to quickly changing or mixed lighting circumstances. There are certain restrictions in order for the hand recognition to give better results such as the distance of user’s hand to the webcam and the posture and size of the hand.

Keywords: hand detection, hand gesture, hand recognition, sign language

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Authors: Tae Jin Choi, Jong Ok Kim, Sang Min Jin, Gilwon Yoon

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Analysis of EEG brainwave provides information on mental or emotional states. One of the particular states that can have various applications in human machine interface (HMI) is concentration. 8-channel EEG signals were measured and analyzed. The concentration index was compared during resting and concentrating periods. Among eight channels, locations the frontal lobe (Fp1 and Fp2) showed a clear increase of the concentration index during concentration regardless of subjects. The rest six channels produced conflicting observations depending on subjects. At this time, it is not clear whether individual difference or how to concentrate made these results for the rest six channels. Nevertheless, it is expected that Fp1 and Fp2 are promising locations for extracting control signal for HMI applications.

Keywords: concentration, EEG, human machine interface, biophysical

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Authors: Ibrahim Abdullahi Mohammad

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A library catalogue exists not only as an inventory of the collections of the particular library, but also as a retrieval device. It is provided to assist the library user in finding whatever information or information resources they may be looking for. The paper proposes that this location objective of the library catalogue can only be fulfilled, if the library catalogue is constructed, bearing in mind the information needs and searching behavior of the library user. Comparing AACR2 and RDA viz-a-viz the changes RDA has introduced into bibliographic standards, the paper tries to establish the level of viability of RDA in relation to AACR2.

Keywords: library catalogue, information retrieval, AACR2, RDA

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Authors: Wided Batita, Stéphane Roche, Claude Caron

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Geodesign is an emergent term related to a new and complex process. Hence, it needs to rethink tools, technologies and platforms in order to efficiently achieve its goals. A few tools have emerged since 2010 such as CommunityViz, GeoPlanner, etc. In the era of Web 2.0 and collaboration, WikiGIS has been proposed as a new category of tools. In this paper, we present WikiGIS functionalities dealing mainly with the iteration and traceability management to support the collaboration of the Geodesign process. Actually, WikiGIS is built on GeoWeb 2.0 technologies —and primarily on wiki— and aims at managing the tracking of participants’ editing. This paper focuses on a simplified simulation to illustrate the strength of WikiGIS in the management of traceability and in the access to history in a Geodesign process. Indeed, a cartographic user interface has been implemented, and then a hypothetical use case has been imagined as proof of concept.

Keywords: geodesign, history, traceability, tracking of participants’ editing, WikiGIS

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Authors: Camilla Marini, Deborah Agostino

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Cultural institutions provide more than service-based offers; indeed, they are experience-based contexts. A cultural experience is a special event that encompasses a wide range of values which, for visitors, are primarily cultural rather than economic and financial. Cultural institutions have always been characterized by inclusivity and participatory practices, but the upcoming of digital technologies has put forward their interest in collaborative practices and the relationship with their audience. Indeed, digital technologies highly affected the cultural experience as it was conceived. Especially, museums, as traditional and authoritative cultural institutions, have been highly challenged by digital technologies. They shifted by a collection-oriented toward a visitor-centered approach, and digital technologies generated a highly interactive ecosystem in which visitors have an active role, shaping their own cultural experience. Most of the studies that investigate value co-creation in museums adopt a single perspective which is separately one of the museums or one of the users, but the analysis of the convergence/divergence of these perspectives is still emphasized. Additionally, many contributions focus on digital value co-creation as an outcome rather than as a process. The study aims to provide a joint perspective on digital value co-creation which include both museum and visitors. Also, it deepens the contribution of digital technologies in the value co-creation process, addressing the following research questions: (i) what are the convergence/divergence drivers on digital value co-creation and (ii) how digital technologies can be means of value co-creation? The study adopts an action research methodology that is based on the case of WORTHY, an educational project which involves cultural institutions and schools all around Europe, creating a virtual collaborative museum. It represents a valuable case for the aim of the study since it has digital technologies at its core, and the interaction through digital technologies is fundamental, all along with the experience. Action research has been identified as the most appropriate methodology for researchers to have direct contact with the field. Data have been collected through primary and secondary sources. Cultural mediators such as museums, teachers and students’ families have been interviewed, while a focus group has been designed to interact with students, investigating all the aspects of the cultural experience. Secondary sources encompassed project reports and website contents in order to deepen the perspective of cultural institutions. Preliminary findings highlight the dimensions of digital value co-creation in cultural institutions from a museum-visitor integrated perspective and the contribution of digital technologies in the value co-creation process. The study outlines a two-folded contribution that encompasses both an academic and a practitioner level. Indeed, it contributes to fulfilling the gap in cultural management literature about the convergence/divergence of service provider-user perspectives but it also provides cultural professionals with guidelines on how to evaluate the digital value co-creation process.

Keywords: co-creation, digital technologies, museum, value

Procedia PDF Downloads 147