Frequency: Quarterly E- ISSN: 2277-2324 P- ISSN: Awaited Abstracted/ Indexed in:Ulrich's International Periodical Directory, Google Scholar, SCIRUS, getCITED, Genamics JournalSeek, EBSCO Information Services
Quarterly published "Inventi Impact: Human-Computer Interaction" is a multidisciplinary journal reporting the fundamental and applied research in human computer interaction. Its target audience is the research community from the academics as well as of industry. The journals focuses on theoretical, imperial and methodological aspects of interaction science and system design as it affect the user.
Virtual worlds became an appealing and fascinating component of today's internet. In particular, the number of educational providers that see a potential for E-Learning in such new platforms increases. Unfortunately, most of the environments and processes implemented up to now do not exceed a virtual modelling of real-world scenarios. In particular, this paper shows that Second Life can be more than just another learning platform. A flexible and bidirectional link between the reality and the virtual world enables synchronous and seamless interaction between users and devices across both worlds. The primary advantages of this interconnection are a spatial extension of face-to-face and online learning scenarios and a closer relationship between virtual learners and the real world....
The proposed assistive hybrid brain-computer interface (BCI) semiautonomous mobile robotic arm demonstrates a design that is (1) adaptable by observing environmental changes with sensors and deploying alternate solutions and (2) versatile by receiving commands from the user’s brainwave signals through a noninvasive electroencephalogram cap. Composed of three integrated subsystems, a hybrid BCI controller, an omnidirectional mobile base, and a robotic arm, the proposed robot has commands mapped to the user’s brainwaves related to a set of specific physical or mental tasks. Theimplementation of sensors and the camera systems enable both the mobile base and the arm to be semiautonomous. The mobile base’s SLAM algorithm has obstacle avoidance capability and path planning to assist the robot maneuver safely. The robot arm calculates and deploys the necessary joint movement to pick up or drop off a desired object selected by the user via a brainwave controlled cursor on a camera feed. Validation, testing, and implementation of the subsystems were conducted using Gazebo. Communication between the BCI controller and the subsystems is tested independently. A loop of prerecorded brainwave data related to each specific task is used to ensure that the mobile base command is executed; the same prerecorded file is used to move the robot arm cursor and initiate a pick-up or drop-off action. A final system test is conducted where the BCI controller input moves the cursor and selects a goal point. Successful virtual demonstrations of the assistive robotic arm show the feasibility of restoring movement capability and autonomy for a disabled user....
We analysed four Rational Unified Process (RUP) projects in Switzerland that identified themselves as following a user-centred\r\napproach. Grounded theory served for analysis of 12 interviews with software developers, project managers, and UI specialists.\r\nFor each professional group we analysed their work context, motivations, work practices, and strategies used to overcome the\r\nobstacles to user-centred design. Results show that end users did not participate in the projects. Instead of working directly with\r\nend users, participants used data from marketing research or consulted colleagues from other departments. Prototypes played an\r\nimportant role. We suggest the following remedies: (1) developing methods for easy integration of existing company knowledge\r\nabout products with usability features, (2) professionalising UI design by educating project stakeholders in standard UI design, (3)\r\ncreating an approved pool of company�s personas for UI specialists� work, and (4) educating customers on their right to get good\r\nuser interfaces....
Mental task onset detection from the continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) in real time is a critical issue in self-paced brain\r\ncomputer interface (BCI) design. The paper shows that self-paced BCI performance can be significantly improved by combining\r\na range of simple techniques including (1) constant-Q filters with varying bandwidth size depending on the center frequency,\r\ninstead of constant bandwidth filters for frequency decomposition of the EEG signal in the 6 to 36Hz band; (2) subjectspecific\r\npostprocessing parameter optimization consisting of dwell time and threshold, and (3) debiasing before postprocessing by\r\nreadjusting the classification output based on the current and previous brain states, to reduce the number of false detections. This\r\ndebiasing block is shown to be optimal when activated only in special cases which are predetermined during the training phase.\r\nAnalysis of the data recorded from seven subjects executing foot movement shows a statistically significant 10% (P < 0.05) average\r\nimprovement in true positive rate (TPR) and a 1% reduction in false positive rate (FPR) detections compared with previous work\r\non the same data....
Objectives. To assess the influence of RAGT on balance, coordination, and functional independence in activities of daily living of\nchronic stroke survivors with ataxia at least one year of injury. Methods. It was a randomized controlled trial. The patients were\nallocated to either therapist-assisted gait training (TAGT) or robotic-assisted gait training (RAGT). Both groups received 3\nweekly sessions of physiotherapy with an estimated duration of 60 minutes each and prescribed home exercises. The following\noutcome measures were evaluated prior to and after the completion of the 5-month protocol treatment: BBS, TUG test, FIM,\nand SARA. For intragroup comparisons, the Wilcoxon test was used, and the Mannââ?¬â??Whitney test was used for between-group\ncomparison. Results. Nineteen stroke survivors with ataxia sequel after one year of injury were recruited. Both groups showed\nstatistically significant improvement (P < 0 05) in balance, functional independencein, and general ataxia symptoms. There were\nno statistically significant differences (P < 0 05) for between-group comparisons both at baseline and after completion of the\nprotocol. Conclusions. Chronic stroke patients with ataxia had significant improvements in balance and independence in\nactivities of daily living after RAGT along with conventional therapy and home exercises. This trial was registered with trial\nregistration number 39862414.6.0000.5505....
There is a growing debate in the literature regarding the tradeoffs between lab and field evaluation of mobile devices. This paper\r\npresents a comparison of field-based and lab-based experiments to evaluate user experience of personalised mobile devices at\r\nlarge sports events. A lab experiment is recommended when the testing focus is on the user interface and application-oriented\r\nusability related issues. However, the results suggest that a field experiment is more suitable for investigating a wider range of\r\nfactors affecting the overall acceptability of the designed mobile service. Such factors include the system function and effects of\r\nactual usage contexts aspects. Where open and relaxed communication is important (e.g., where participant groups are naturally\r\nreticent to communicate), this is more readily promoted by the use of a field study....
Recently, motor imagery brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have been developed for use in motor function assistance and rehabilitation engineering. In particular, lower-limb motor imagery BCI systems are receiving increasing attention in the field of motor rehabilitation, because these systems could accurately and rapidly identify a patient’s lower-limb movement intention, which could improve the practicability of the motor rehabilitation. In this study, a novel lower-limb BCI system combining visual stimulation, auditory stimulation, functional electrical stimulation, and proprioceptive stimulation was designed to assist patients in lower-limb rehabilitation training. In addition, the Riemannian local linear feature construction (RLLFC) algorithm is proposed to improve the performance of decoding by using unsupervised basis learning and representation weight calculation in the motor imagery BCI system. Three in-house experiment were performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system in comparison with other state-of-the-art methods. The experimental results indicate that the proposed system can learn low-dimensional features and correctly characterize the relationship between the testing trial and its k-nearest neighbors....
Safety of human-robot physical interaction is enabled not only by suitable robot control strategies but also by suitable sensing\ntechnologies. For example, if distributed tactile sensors were available on the robot, they could be used not only to detect\nunintentional collisions, but also as human-machine interface by enabling a new mode of social interaction with the machine.\nStarting from their previous works, the authors developed a conformable distributed tactile sensor that can be easily conformed to\nthe different parts of the robot body. Its ability to estimate contact force components and to provide a tactile map with an accurate\nspatial resolution enables the robot to handle both unintentional collisions in safe human-robot collaboration tasks and intentional\ntoucheswhere the sensor is used as human-machine interface. In this paper, the authors present the characterization of the proposed\ntactile sensor and they show how it can be also exploited to recognize haptic tactile gestures, by tailoring recognition algorithms,\nwell known in the image processing field, to the case of tactile images. In particular, a set of haptic gestures has been defined to test\nthree recognition algorithms on a group of 20 users. The paper demonstrates how the same sensor originally designed to manage\nunintentional collisions can be successfully used also as human-machine interface....
It is evident that a lot of accidents occur because of drowsiness or inattentiveness of the driver. The logical consequence is that we have to find methods to better analyze the driver. A lot of research has been spent on camera-based systems which focus on the driver's eye gaze or his head movement. But there are few systems that provide camera-free driver analyzing. This is the main goal of the work presented here which is structured in three phases, with the operational goal of having a working driver analyzer implemented in a car. The main question is: is it possible to make statements concerning the driver and his state by using vehicle data from the CAN Bus only? This paper describes the current state of driver analyzing, our overall system architecture, as well as future work. At the moment, we focus on detecting the driving style of a person....
Virtualized reality games offer highly interactive and engaging user experience and therefore game-based approaches (GBVR)\nmay have significant potential to enhance clinical rehabilitation practice as traditional therapeutic exercises are often repetitive\nand boring, reducing patient compliance. The aim of this study was to investigate if a rehabilitation training programme using\nGBVR could simultaneously improve both motor skill (MS) and confidence (CON), as they are both important determinants of\ndaily living and physical and social functioning. The study was performed using a nondominant hand motor deficit model in\nnonambidextrous healthy young adults, whereby dominant and nondominant arms acted as control and intervention conditions,\nrespectively. GBVR training was performed using a commercially available tennis-based game. CON and MS were assessed by\nhaving each subject perform a comparable real-world motor task (RWMT) before and after training. Baseline CON and MS for\nperforming the RWMTwere significantly lower for the nondominant hand and improved after GBVR training, whereas there were\nno changes in the dominant (control) arm. These results demonstrate that by using a GBVR approach to address a MS deficit in a\nreal-world task, improvements in both MS and CON can be facilitated and such approaches may help increase patient compliance...
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