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As the Museums and Interactivity-oriented Science Centres of the world are reinventing themselves more as creators of culture than just conservators of culture, they are getting keener to explore how various data retrieval and HCI technologies can symbiotically fit into the methods of museology. Museums, since their advent, have used spatial and temporal scanning to present stories that evolve either over time or through space. But these have always remained static timelines that are limited in content, lack interactive exploration, and miss any metaphorical interaction that allows one to have the experience of physically scanning a space or a timeline. In this work, we report how a new HCI technology was used to retrieve all-sky map data and present the multi-wavelength view of the universe to the uninitiated visitor having no skill to navigate through sophisticated astronomy instruments. We describe an intuitive interface that takes no training and learning for the visitors to operate. They can start analyzing multi-wavelength all-sky maps of our galaxy in no time -- exactly as professional astronomers do. Stressing upon the ease of usability, reliability of data, and fail-safe operation, visitors are given access to additional layers of information that can be presented in myriad options chosen by the visitor. They can compare thin slices of galactic images in various wavelengths and look for essential radiation sources that are otherwise not apparent in the naked eye or simple optical observations. The public exhibit was based on duplex data communication between a computer and a PIC microprocessor controller using IEEE 1284 parallel port in ECP mode thus making it a generic technology for interactive displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gazi Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Dergisi Part C: Tasarım ve Teknoloji is the property of Gazi University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Gazi Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Dergisi Part C: Tasarım ve Teknoloji is the property of Gazi University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of the study is to model the micro-scale process patterns which can be identified during team conceptual design activities. A state-transition model has been developed and used to empirically investigate the patterns of design operations during two types of team conceptual design activities: ideation and concept review. The presented work builds on the perception of design problems as ill-defined and implies that conceptual design activities involve the simultaneous development of problems and solutions using three distinctive design operations—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The three design operations have been defined as fine-grain design steps performed by design teams when exploring the content of both the problem and the solution dimensions of the design space. Moreover, design operations have been conceptualised as transitions between states of the explored design space, thus providing a basis for the state-transition model. The model's ability to map and visualise proportions of design operation sequences emerging during ideation and concept review has facilitated the identification of both the activity-specific patterns and patterns that were likely to appear during both types of empirically investigated activities. The two activities exhibited similar patterns, such as alternation of solution synthesis and analysis, sequences of synthesis, analysis and evaluation within solution space, and the potential co-evolution episodes. Nevertheless, divergent traits have been identified for ideation, and convergent traits for concept review, based on the significant differences in proportions of design operations and their sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's views on the role of women in computing and technology since 1969. Topics discussed include their role in moon landing on July 20, 1969, their growth in the field of software engineering, computer pioneers of 19th century, their works in scientific laboratories and development of human computers.

Visual tracking is a challenging research topic in the field of computer vision with many potential applications. A large number of tracking methods have been proposed and achieved designed tracking performance. However, the current state-of-the-art tracking methods still can not meet the requirements of real-world applications. One of the main challenges is to design a good appearance model to describe the target’s appearance. In this paper, we propose a novel visual tracking method, which uses compressed features to model target’s appearances and then uses SVM to distinguish the target from its background. The compressed features were obtained by the zero-tree coding on multiscale wavelet coefficients extracted from an image, which have both the low dimensionality and discriminate ability and therefore ensure to achieve better tracking results. The experimental comparisons with several state-of-the-art methods demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Computer Science department at Tecnológico Nacional de México-CENIDET, Mexico, with the collaboration of the Psychological department of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Spain, is on a developing process for the creation of an immersive virtual environment through virtual reality (VR) for the e-learning educational area. Such environment, works through electroencephalographic lectures (EEG) from the students, acquired by a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), to adapt the virtual content to the profile and needs of the student on real-time basis. This system can detect the accuracy of attention and concentration levels on mental states, for the optimum development of the activities requested on an e-learning platform; if the student is not on a suitable concentration level, the system is able to induce the student to the requested mental state. The present document shows the proposal of different recommended activities that induce the mentioned mental states and the EEG response of each one. As well, the definition of the ideal learning emotional state that will be included as a part of the future works. It is important to mention that such activities are based on psychological researches that are dedicated to measure the levels of attention, concentration and other executive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al GRANO: Framing Worlds is a composite gallery installation with individually installable artifacts that can be shown in various combinations. Three cognitive "chunks" explore different electronic technologies to address historical, cultural, scientific and geopolitical positions related to maize, a contested grain considered both food and cultural symbol in Mexico and a source of macro profits for multinational agribusiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common to use counting strategies to produce time intervals accurately. Does counting improve the accuracy (deviation of produced duration from veridical duration) and precision (variability of produced duration) of time productions in the range of seconds to minutes? In a series of experiments, we compared chronometric counting to intuitive timing (no counting) and to attentional control (simultaneously performing mental arithmetic). In a field experiment, participants had to produce time intervals of 60-s duration in a classroom setting. Relative to intuitive timing, counting did not improve the accuracy (absolute error) of time productions but led to overproduction of duration (larger constant error). In four laboratory experiments, we tested the effects of counting on time production of 10-, 30-, 45-, 60-, and 90-s intervals. Consistently, counting did not improve the accuracy of time production. The relative overproduction due to counting was replicated for long intervals (60 and 90 s) but disappeared at shorter intervals. However, across all intervals tested, counting had positive effects on the precision of time production. As expected, mental arithmetic impaired accuracy and precision and led to overproduction of duration, indicating that participants followed instructions. Based on the experimental data, the overproduction of longer intervals due to counting can neither be explained in terms of attentional processes nor by means of a word-length effect when counting multisyllabic numbers or when participants switch their pace of counting from mono- to multisyllables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Input systems using eye blinks have been proposed. A main purpose of these systems is communication aid for the severely disabled. For employing eye blinks as a command input, these input systems need to detect voluntary (conscious) blinks. We developed a measurement method for variation in pixels of open-eye area from an image sequence. This measurement method enables us to extract blinking waver patterns. We previously proposed an automatic classification method between one type of voluntary blinks and involuntary (unconscious) blinks. If the type of classifiable voluntary blinks increase, we can assign an individual command to each type. Applying this blink type classification to a human-computer interface will improve the efficiency when inputting commands. In this paper, we introduce a new type of voluntary blinks to increase classifiable blink type. In addition, our classification method is extended for automatic classification between two types of voluntary blinks and involuntary blinks. This new classification method is realized by two blink type determinations based on wave pattern parameters that we employ. We clarify proper parameter combinations for the new classification method. Using these proper parameter combinations, we achieved approximately 95% classification rates for 10 subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The framework of plateaus, dips, and leaps shines light on periods when individuals may be inventing new methods of skilled performance. We begin with a review of the role performance plateaus have played in (a) experimental psychology, (b) human-computer interaction, and (c) cognitive science. We then reanalyze two classic studies of individual performance to show plateaus and dips which resulted in performance leaps. For a third study, we show how the statistical methods of Changepoint Analysis plus a few simple heuristics may direct our focus to periods of performance change for individuals. For the researcher, dips become the marker of exploration where performance suffers as new methods are invented and tested. Leaps mark the implementation of a successful new method and an incremental jump above the path plotted by smooth and steady log-log performance increments. The methods developed during these dips and leaps are the key to surpassing one's teachers and acquiring extreme expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the first and second wave of Human Computer Interaction, the third wave grapples with wicked problems. However, re-solutions to wicked problems embodied in artifacts frame and change the understanding of the problem itself. Research through Design (RtD) is a constructive methodology to understand this interplay of problem framing through designing artifacts. RtD is also suited to resurface the theory within those artifacts through annotation. These annotations expose and emphasize qualities, values and assumptions held within artifacts by its creators. In addition to those modes for annotation, we will suggest two additional abstract frames through which RtD artifacts can be further annotated: Open Research Agenda and Interdisciplinarity. We will apply both frames to one research artifact, Loaded Dice to distill qualities from this artifact's framing. Through this we will show how creating and deploying an artifact can change its environment which also includes its creators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews recent progress of portable short-range noncontact microwave radar systems for motion detection, positioning, and imaging applications. With the continuous advancements of modern semiconductor technologies and embedded computing, many functionalities that could only be achieved by bulky radar systems in the past are now integrated into portable devices with integrated circuit chips and printed circuits boards. These portable solutions are able to provide high motion detection sensitivity, excellent signal-to-noise ratio, and satisfactory range detection capability. Assisted by on-board signal processing algorithms, they can play important roles in various areas, such as health and elderly care, veterinary monitoring, human-computer interaction, structural monitoring, indoor tracking, and wind engineering. This paper reviews some system architectures and practical implementations for typical wireless sensing applications. It also discusses potential future developments for the next-generation portable smart radar systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial information acquisition happens in large part through the visual sense. Studying visual attention and its connection to cognitive processes has been the interest of many research efforts in spatial cognition over the years. Recent technological developments have led to an increasing popularity of eye-tracking methodology for investigating research questions related to spatial cognition, geographic information science (GIScience) and cartography. At the same time, eye trackers can nowadays be used as an input device for (cognitively engineered) user interfaces to geographic information. We provide an overview of the most recent literature advancing and utilizing eye-tracking methodology in these fields, introduce the research articles in this Special Issue, and discuss challenges and opportunities for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both individual learning (IL) and collaborative learning (CL) provide students with different benefits. However, previous research indicates that cognitive styles affect students’ learning preferences. Thus, it is necessary to examine how cognitive styles influence students’ reactions to IL and CL. Among various cognitive styles, Pask’s Holist/Serialist biases have recently received considerable attention. Accordingly, the current study aims to illuminate how Holists and Seriailsts react to IL and CL. Subsequent results indicate heterogeneous groups with both Holists and Serialists obtain the best learning performance when undertaking CL. Furthermore, the findings suggest that there is a need to provide Serialists with additional support, regardless of either IL or CL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rise is increasingly impacting on the global financial and monetary order. To manage its growing centrality in global financial flows and its new relevance for patterns of currency usage, Beijing has been creating a set of new institutional arrangements in three crucial fields: the provision of crisis liquidity, development financing, and a global infrastructure to internationalize its currency. In contrast to the dominant power political interpretation of such developments, this article highlights the strong linkages of Beijing's new initiatives with the changes in China's capitalist development path and stresses their experimental character that serves to manage the economic and political risks of China's accelerating financial internationalization. With a distinct learning attitude regarding its rising geoeconomic prominence and engagement, Beijing's risk-averse strategy involves a very careful linking, layering, and nesting of new arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to identify how principals shape the adoption and implementation of professional learning communities. The study employed a sequential mixed-methods approach in which interviews, observations, and document analysis informed survey design. Teachers were surveyed in four elementary schools about the practices and supports they received in grade-level professional learning communities. Qualitative and survey data reveal that principals influence both what teachers undertake in professional learning communities and how well they carry out these activities. The study was limited to a small sample of only four schools in two districts and relied primarily on principal and teacher self-reports. More work is needed to explore the role of principals in a broader sample as well as the relationship between district and building leadership. Findings are discussed in terms of what actions principals can undertake to sustain meaningful professional communities. This article provides guidance on how principals can influence and support teacher collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploration of principal learning mechanisms (PLM) to support a learning-centered school aimed to develop, field-test, and validate a PLM-measuring instrument. Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of items to examine factorial validity, the developed scale was correlated with other work-related established constructs (e.g., principal’s instructional leadership, teacher’s organizational commitment). Findings revealed that the four-factor model (Storing and retrieving, Receiving, Disseminating, and Analyzing) was the best fit between the empirical results and the conceptual formulation. The PLM may prove an efficient tool for principals to assess how to promote learning in and by the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful adoption of e-learning systems is mainly dependent on the learners' attitude and willingness to use them. This survey was conducted to investigate agricultural extension workers' attitudes toward using e-learning for on-the-job training in Iran and factors which affect it. Using the stratified sampling technique a sample of 379 extension workers were selected from six provinces. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data through an interview method. Findings show that extension workers' attitude toward e-learning is generally positive. Extension workers' knowledge of elearning, access to technical support, and their motivation influence their attitude toward the use of e-learning for on-the job training. Therefore, recommendations are provided to promote the experts' motivation, knowledge and to improve infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare event learning has not been actively researched since lately due to the unavailability of algorithms which deal with big samples. The research addresses spatio-temporal streams from multi-resolution sensors to find actionable items from a perspective of real-time algorithms. This computing framework is independent of the number of input samples, application domain, labelled or label-less streams. A sampling overlap algorithm such as Brooks-Iyengar is used for dealing with noisy sensor streams. We extend the existing noise pre-processing algorithms using Data-Cleaning trees. Pre-processing using ensemble of trees using bagging and multi-target regression showed robustness to random noise and missing data. As spatio-temporal streams are highly statistically correlated, we prove that a temporal window based sampling from sensor data streams converges after n samples using Hoeffding bounds. Which can be used for fast prediction of new samples in real-time. The Data-cleaning tree model uses a nonparametric node splitting technique, which can be learned in an iterative way which scales linearly in memory consumption for any size input stream. The improved task based ensemble extraction is compared with non-linear computation models using various SVM kernels for speed and accuracy. We show using empirical datasets the explicit rule learning computation is linear in time and is only dependent on the number of leafs present in the tree ensemble. The use of unpruned trees (t) in our proposed ensemble always yields minimum number (m) of leafs keeping pre-processing computation to n x t logm compared to N² for Gram Matrix. We also show that the task based feature induction yields higher Qualify of Data (QoD) in the feature space compared to kernel methods using Gram Matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, affective computing usually focuses on individual's affective dynamics instead of buildups of those of groups from a holistic perspective. Practically, the forms of group decision makers' preferences associated with multi-attribute decision-making problems are too complex to calculate programs' orders by judgment matrix, suffering difficulties in achieving the weights of sub-attributes based on the group judgment preferences. Currently, few researches are concerned with the definitions and generating methods of group affective preferences from the perspective of affective dynamics. In response to these challenges, this paper explicitly presents a stimulated and transferring affective computing model, along with the definition of group affective preferences and the interactive generating methods, which can gradually grasp group's experience in group decision making and help reduce group's subjective fatigue and make decisions more quickly. To exemplify applications of the proposed methods for a kind of multi-attribute decision-making problems, a test function and a chemical process control issue are investigated, giving rise to satisfied results and showing validity of the contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we proposed a hand gesture recognition method using concentric with the coordinate information. Hand, the image of the area who entered through the camera through the binarization task and the change in the color space to extract the skin area was to determine forming a circle with the center of the center of the hand region to obtain the change of the input data. The circle and measure the similarity of the two concentric circles of different sizes. Concentric with coordinate information through image processing than the existing recognizer and the recognition through learning process is possible using a hand gesture recognition gesture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the attention gained by mental athletes (MA) from Neuroscience community. Topics discussed include various demonstrations which involve tricks that regular individuals can learn, efforts of Daniel Tammet for his extraordinary calculation abilities, and several myths about autistic savant calendrical calculators.

High precision Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements are becoming more and more popular in alpine skiing due to the relatively undemanding setup and excellent performance. However, GNSS provides only single-point measurements that are defined with the antenna placed typically behind the skier's neck. A key issue is how to estimate other more relevant parameters of the skier's body, like the center of mass (COM) and ski trajectories. Previously, these parameters were estimated by modeling the skier's body with an inverted-pendulum model that oversimplified the skier's body. In this study, we propose two machine learning methods that overcome this shortcoming and estimate COM and skis trajectories based on a more faithful approximation of the skier's body with nine degrees-of-freedom. The first method utilizes a well-established approach of artificial neural networks, while the second method is based on a state-of-the-art statistical generalization method. Both methods were evaluated using the reference measurements obtained on a typical giant slalom course and compared with the inverted-pendulum method. Our results outperform the results of commonly used inverted-pendulum methods and demonstrate the applicability of machine learning techniques in biomechanical measurements of alpine skiing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing is a high-level process of a physical system. Recent interest in non-standard computing systems, including quantum and biological computers, has brought this physical basis of computing to the forefront. There has been, however, no consensus on how to tell if a given physical system is acting as a computer or not; leading to confusion over novel computational devices, and even claims that every physical event is a computation. In this paper, we introduce a formal framework that can be used to determine whether a physical system is performing a computation. We demonstrate how the abstract computational level interacts with the physical device level, in comparison with the use of mathematical models in experimental science. This powerful formulation allows a precise description of experiments, technology, computation and simulation, giving our central conclusion: physical computing is the use of a physical system to predict the outcome of an abstract evolution. We give conditions for computing, illustrated using a range of non-standard computing scenarios. The framework also covers broader computing contexts, where there is no obvious human computer user. We introduce the notion of a 'computational entity', and its critical role in defining when computing is taking place in physical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One crucial feature of expertise is the ability to spontaneously recognize where and when knowledge can be applied to simplify task processing. Mental arithmetic is one domain in which people should start to develop such expert knowledge in primary school by integrating conceptual knowledge about mathematical principles and procedural knowledge about shortcuts. If successful, knowledge integration should lead to transfer between procedurally different shortcuts that are based on the same mathematical principle and therefore likely are both associated to the respective conceptual knowledge. Taking commutativity principle as a model case, we tested this conjecture in two experiments with primary school children. In Experiment 1, we obtained eye tracking data suggesting that students indeed engaged in search processes when confronted with mental arithmetic problems to which a formerly feasible shortcut no longer applied. In Experiment 2, children who were first provided material allowing for one commutativity-based shortcut later profited from material allowing for a different shortcut based on the same principle. This was not the case for a control group, who had first worked on material that allowed for a shortcut not based on commutativity. The results suggest that spontaneous shortcut usage triggers knowledge about different shortcuts based on the same principle. This is in line with the notion of adaptive expertise linking conceptual and procedural knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the nineteenth century, French scientific institutions became interested in young “mental calculators,” arithmetical prodigies able to quickly and accurately perform complex mental calculations. The first scientists to study mental calculators were phrenologists who sought to prove the existence of a calculating organ in the frontal lobe. Paul Broca introduced one such mental calculator, Jacques Inaudi, to the Anthropological Society of Paris in 1880. Broca attributed extraordinary faculty for mental calculation to memory functioning (the psychological hypothesis) rather than physiological difference (the phrenological hypothesis). In 1892, prominent French Academy of Sciences member Jean-Martin Charcot produced a noteworthy study of Inaudi on the organization’s behalf. Charcot observed that Inaudi called upon auditory memory rather than visual memory in his mental calculations, unlike most mental calculators who preceded him. Like Broca, Charcot was skeptical of the phrenological hypothesis, though he noted that Inaudi’s skull was markedly plagiocephalic. Interestingly, anthropological examination of Inaudi is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience. Thus, Charcot seems to have anticipated present research on the localization of mental calculation and memory for numbers.1. 1The Academy of Sciences, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV (1638–1715) with the goal of contributing to the advancement and application of the sciences in France, was one of the earliest European scientific institutions. As a prestigious society, it played an active role in defining scientific and technological research policy as well as drafting and publishing official reports. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management & Innovation is the property of Wyzsza Szkola Biznesu-National Louis University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management & Innovation is the property of Wyzsza Szkola Biznesu-National Louis University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We present a conceptual architecture for adaptive human-computer interface of a PT operation platform based on context-awareness. This architecture will form the basis of design for such an interface. This paper describes components, key technologies, and working principles of the architecture. The critical contents covered context information modeling, processing, relationship establishing between contexts and interface design knowledge by use of adaptive knowledge reasoning, and visualization implementing of adaptive interface with the aid of interface tools technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about developing a group user model able to predict unknown features (attributes, preferences, or behaviors) of any interlocutor. Specifically, for systems where there are features that cannot be modeled by a domain expert within the human computer interaction. In such cases, statistical models are applied instead of stereotype user models. The time consumption of these models is high, and when a requisite of bounded response time is added most common solution involves summarizing knowledge. Summarization involves deleting knowledge from the knowledge base and probably losing accuracy in the medium-term. This proposal provides all the advantages of statistical user models and avoids knowledge loss by using an R-Tree structure and various search spaces (universes of users) of diverse granularity for solving inferences with enhanced success rates. Along with the formalization and evaluation of the approach, main advantages will be discussed, and a perspective for its future evolution is provided. In addition, this paper provides a framework to evaluate statistical user models and to enable performance comparison among different statistical user models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical reasoning is a core component of cognition and the study of experts defines the upper limits of human cognitive abilities, which is why we are fascinated by peak performers, such as chess masters and mental calculators. Here, we investigated the neural bases of calendrical skills, i.e. the ability to rapidly identify the weekday of a particular date, in a gifted mental calculator who does not fall in the autistic spectrum, using functional MRI. Graph-based mapping of effective connectivity, but not univariate analysis, revealed distinct anatomical location of “cortical hubs” supporting the processing of well-practiced close dates and less-practiced remote dates: the former engaged predominantly occipital and medial temporal areas, whereas the latter were associated mainly with prefrontal, orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate connectivity. These results point to the effect of extensive practice on the development of expertise and long term working memory, and demonstrate the role of frontal networks in supporting performance on less practiced calculations, which incur additional processing demands. Through the example of calendrical skills, our results demonstrate that the ability to perform complex calculations is initially supported by extensive attentional and strategic resources, which, as expertise develops, are gradually replaced by access to long term working memory for familiar material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The software quality evaluation is still not a fully resolved problem in Software Engineering. It is known that software quality depends upon several quality attributes such as reliability, modifiability, understandability, testability, usability, portability, and so on. Several authors and international standards have tried to reach an agreement on their definition over the years and provide a standard and accurate one. Due to the complexity of software systems, it is often difficult to evaluate the overall quality of their underlying software components. A way for evaluation is to use software metrics as quantitative predictors when evaluating the quality attributes. There are several metrics based on statistical methods, similar to those used for product inspection and quality assurance in manufacturing, that have been investigated during time by Software Engineering. Some authors have started to use Fuzzy Theory in software assessment and evaluation. And it seems that its usage improves the evaluation of the software quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many applications require knowledge about how to deceive, including those related to safety, security, and warfare. Speech and text analysis can help detect deception, as can cameras, microphones, physiological sensors, and intelligent software. Models of deception and noncooperation can make a virtual or mixed-reality training environment more realistic, improve immersion, and thus make it more suitable for training military or security personnel. Robots might need to operate in physical and nontraining environments where they must perform military activity, including misleading the enemy. The contributions to this installment of Trends & Controversies present state-of-the-art research approaches to the analysis and generation of noncooperative and deceptive behavior in virtual humans, agents, and robots; the analysis of multiparty interaction in the context of deceptive behavior; and methods to detect misleading information in texts and computer-mediated communication. Articles include: "Computational Deception and Noncooperation," by Anton Nijholt; "Robots that Need to Mislead: Biologically-Inspired Machine Deception," by Ronald C. Arkin; "Deception in Sports Using Immersive Environments," by Sébastien Brault, Richard Kulpa, Franck Multon, and Benoit Bideau; "Non-Cooperative and Deceptive Virtual Agents," by David Traum; "Deception Detection in Multiparty Contexts,"by Hayley Hung; "Deception Detection, Human Reasoning, and Deception Intent," by Eugene Santos Jr., Deqing Li, and Fei Yu; and "Automatic Deception Detection in Computer-Mediated Communication," by Lina Zhou and Dongsong Zhang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the ever-increasing popularity of mobile devices, text entry on such devices is becoming more of a challenge. Problems with traditional keypads primarily lie with placement of the letters alphabetically on the keys. This configuration, though very easy to remember, requires higher number of keystrokes and key jamming along with a limitation in Flexibility of finger movement, as many frequent letters are not easily reachable by the thumb. Besides, users have to move their thumb extensively which also increases typing time and provides less comfort. in this paper, we have considered these issues and proposed a novel solution to the problems identified. The proposed solution focuses on both the structure of suitable human finger movements and ordering of the letters on the keys. We also took the basic Human Computer Interaction principles and general issues into consideration. Designs were found that have performance surpassing the traditional keypads, while maintaining better usability. Performance measurement through simulations of our proposed system have shown a rapid lessening of key jamming by up to 51.38 percent, improvements in flexibility of finger movement by up to 7.31 percent, number of keystrokes by up to 29.99 percent, and reduction of total distance while changing keys by up to 2.04 percent. In summary, this work represents an improved keypad layout for text entry on cell phones and other similar devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to customize multi-touch gestures for different applications, and facilitate multi-touch gesture recognition, an application oriented and shape feature based multi-touch gesture description and recognition method is proposed. In this method, multi-touch gestures are classified into two categories, namely atomic gesture and combined gesture, where combined gesture is a combination of atomic gestures using temporal, spatial and logical relationships. For description, users' motions are mapped into gestures, and then semantic constraints of an application are extracted to build the accessible relationships between gestures and entity states. For recognition, trajectories of a gesture are projected onto an image, and the shape feature of every trajectory and relationships between each other are extracted to match with gesture templates. Experiments show that this method is independent to multi-touch platforms, robust to manipulating differences of users, and it is scalable and reusable for users and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detractors of Searle's Chinese Room Argument have arrived at a virtual consensus that the mental properties of the Man performing the computations stipulated by the argument are irrelevant to whether computational cognitive science is true. This paper challenges this virtual consensus to argue for the first of the two main theses of the persons reply, namely, that the mental properties of the Man are what matter. It does this by challenging many of the arguments and conceptions put forth by the systems and logical replies to the Chinese Room, either reducing them to absurdity or showing how they lead, on the contrary, to conclusions the persons reply endorses. The paper bases its position on the Chinese Room Argument on additional philosophical considerations, the foundations of the theory of computation, and theoretical and experimental psychology. The paper purports to show how all these dimensions tend to support the proposed thesis of the persons reply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Eye Gaze Tracking Systems (EGTSs) estimate the Point Of Gaze (POG) of a user. In diagnostic applications EGTSs are used to study oculomotor characteristics and abnormalities, whereas in interactive applications EGTSs are proposed as input devices for human computer interfaces (HCI), e.g. to move a cursor on the screen when mouse control is not possible, such as in the case of assistive devices for people suffering from locked-in syndrome. If the user's head remains still and the cornea rotates around its fixed centre, the pupil follows the eye in the images captured from one or more cameras, whereas the outer corneal reflection generated by an IR light source, i.e. glint, can be assumed as a fixed reference point. According to the so-called pupil centre corneal reflection method (PCCR), the POG can be thus estimated from the pupil-glint vector. Methods: A new model-independent EGTS based on the PCCR is proposed. The mapping function based on artificial neural networks allows to avoid any specific model assumption and approximation either for the user's eye physiology or for the system initial setup admitting a free geometry positioning for the user and the system components. The robustness of the proposed EGTS is proven by assessing its accuracy when tested on real data coming from: i) different healthy users; ii) different geometric settings of the camera and the light sources; iii) different protocols based on the observation of points on a calibration grid and halfway points of a test grid. Results: The achieved accuracy is approximately 0.49°, 0.41°, and 0.62° for respectively the horizontal, vertical and radial error of the POG. Conclusions: The results prove the validity of the proposed approach as the proposed system performs better than EGTSs designed for HCI which, even if equipped with superior hardware, show accuracy values in the range 0.6°-1°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A future smart space will include many intelligent objects that can operate using ubiquitous computing technology. These intelligent objects should provide personalized, ad hoc application services by automatically recognizing relationships with users. To do so, there should be a method of establishing awareness of the relationship between a user and an object. However, while several recent approaches have suggested simple tools to improve the relationships themselves, very few methods are proposed for recognizing those relationships. Hence, this paper proposes a methodology for reasoning the relationship context between a user and an object. To do so, the Case-Based Reasoning method is adopted and amended. We also implement a prototype system and analyse significance via a laboratory experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of the ideas proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human face provides useful information during interaction; therefore, any system integrating Vision-Based Human Computer Interaction requires fast and reliable face and facial feature detection. Different approaches have focused on this ability but only open source implementations have been extensively used by researchers. A good example is the Viola-Jones object detection framework that particularly in the context of facial processing has been frequently used. The OpenCV community shares a collection of public domain classifiers for the face detection scenario. However, these classifiers have been trained in different conditions and with different data but rarely tested on the same datasets. In this paper, we try to fill that gap by analyzing the individual performance of all those public classifiers presenting their pros and cons with the aim of defining a baseline for other approaches. Solid comparisons will also help researchers to choose a specific classifier for their particular scenario. The experimental setup also describes some heuristics to increase the facial feature detection rate while reducing the face false detection rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This communication reports on the results of a web accessibility audit of public Web sites in Greece. The audit was conducted in 2008 by the Human Computer Interaction Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science of FORTH, in its capacity as the Greek National Contact Centre of the European Design for All e-Accessibility Network. In an earlier e-Accessibility study in 2004, that evaluated approximately 250 public and commercial Web sites in Greece, 73% of the sample failed to meet the most basic requirements for web accessibility (). Four years later, in the context of a re-audit, a similar sample was examined for compliance with the same web accessibility standard (WCAG 1.0), as set by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. The accessibility checks were conducted during the period from March to September 2008. A comparison of the results indicates that although new web development technologies may have been employed, instead of improving the overall status of e-accessibility, this has resulted in a serious deterioration in overall accessibility levels. Such findings—85% of sites failed to comply with Level A—suggest that Greek Web sites are likely to present even more significant access barriers to people with disability than in the past. As Web Accessibility is poorly understood and, until today, new platforms have failed to deliver products that conform to WCAG, the need emerges for a concrete legislative framework to set accessibility specifications for all public Web sites in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]