1,721,043 research outputs found
A Survey on Digital Twin: Definitions, Characteristics, Applications, and Design Implications
Full text linkWhen, in 1956, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was officially declared a research field, no one would have ever predicted the huge influence and impact its description, prediction, and prescription capabilities were going to have on our daily lives. In parallel to continuous advances in AI, the past decade has seen the spread of broadband and ubiquitous connectivity, (embedded) sensors collecting descriptive high dimensional data, and improvements in big data processing techniques and cloud computing. The joint usage of such technologies has led to the creation of digital twins, artificial intelligent virtual replicas of physical systems. Digital Twin (DT) technology is nowadays being developed and commercialized to optimize several manufacturing and aviation processes, while in the healthcare and medicine fields this technology is still at its early development stage. This paper presents the results of a study focused on the analysis of the state-of-the-art definitions of DT, the investigation of the main characteristics that a DT should possess, and the exploration of the domains in which DT applications are currently being developed. The design implications derived from the study are then presented: they focus on socio-technical design aspects and DT lifecycle. Open issues and challenges that require to be addressed in the future are finally discussed
A visual language and interactive system for end-user development of internet of things ecosystems
No full textThis paper presents the definition of a visual language and its implementation with the design of a visual interactive system for the collaborative management of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors (e.g., wearable fitness trackers, ambient sensors, fitness apps, nutrition apps, sleep trackers) for improving people's quality of life and promoting wellness awareness. The system, called SmartFit Rule Editor, is designed to be used by coaches and trainers of non-professional teams of athletes for monitoring and analyze fitness and wellness data streams and to support them in detecting relevant events and specifying rules for actions taking. Our research is framed under the scope of computer semiotics and semiotic engineering theories. This allows us to study how to support coaches and trainers as a community of domain experts - but not IT and IoT experts - to use elements of a visual language to indirectly manage physical devices and their data streams without the need to know technical specification of the devices, the apps, and the data. We apply a socio-technical approach to design being able to study the social and the technological aspects of the use of the Internet of Things ecosystem, considering them as closely interconnected and dependent. Such an approach underpins user-centered design and development methodologies in order to design the most suitable User eXperience according to users' culture, needs, context of use, and activity
Communicability of traditional interfaces VS chatbots in healthcare and smart home domains
Full text linkThis paper presents a study about communicability of conversational interfaces (namely chatbots) under a semiotic perspective. A chatbot is a software system that allows you to simulate real conversations between devices and users by means of a conversational interface (CI). After introducing the chatbot concept, focusing on its advantages and issues, we will present two domains of use in which chatbot interfaces can be effective: healthcare and smart home. For carrying out simple tasks such as finding information or triggering operations, users need an easy-to-use and to an easy-to-learn system to communicate with. To face this, conversational interfaces represent the latest trend in the field of digital design. For studying the communicability aspects of a CI, we carried out a user test to compare traditional and chatbot interfaces. This paper aims at evaluating the benefits at the communicability level of a chatbot in comparison to traditional GUI for incrementing the effectiveness and efficacy of communication between users and the system specifically for users with poor attitude in using technologies. In details, we evaluated the communicability of two prototypes that can be used to solve simple tasks in order to favour user inclusion, including everyone with very little exposure to technologies
Scoping review on automatic color equalization algorithm
Full text linkDigital image processing is at the base of everyday applications aiding humans in several fields, such as underwater monitoring, analysis of cultural heritage drawings, and medical imaging for computer-aided diagnosis. The starting point of all such application regards the image enhancement step. A desirable image enhancement step should simultaneously standardize the illumination in the image set, possibly removing bad or not-uniform illumination effects, and reveal all hidden details. In 2002, a successful perceptual image enhancement model, the automatic color equalization (ACE) algorithm, was proposed, which mimics the color and contrast adjustment of the human visual system (HVS). Given its widespread usage, its correlation with the HVS, and since it is easily implementable, we propose a scoping review to identify and classify the available evidence on ACE, starting from the papers citing the two funding papers on the algorithm. The aim of this work is the identification of what extent and in which ways ACE may have influenced the research in the color imaging field. Thanks to an accurate process of papers tagging, classification, and validation, we provide an overview of the main application domains in which ACE was successfully used and of the different ways in which this algorithm was implemented, modified, used, or compared
End-user development, end-user programming and end-user software engineering: A systematic mapping study
Full text linkEnd-User Development (EUD), End-Programming (EUP) and End-User Software Engineering (EUSE) are three related research fields that study methods and techniques for empowering end users to modify and create digital artifacts. This paper presents a systematic mapping study aimed at identifying and classifying scientific literature about EUD, EUP and EUSE in the time range January 2000–May 2017. We selected 165 papers found through a manual selection of papers from specific conferences, journal special issues, and books, integrated with an automatic search on the most important digital libraries. The answer to our research question was built through a classification of the selected papers on seven dimensions: type of approach, interaction technique, phase in which the approach is adopted, application domain, target use, class of users, and type of evaluation. Our findings suggest that EUD, EUP and EUSE are active research topics not only in Human–Computer Interaction, but also in other research communities. However, little cross-fertilization exists among the three themes, as well as unifying frameworks and approaches for guiding novice designers and practitioners. Other findings highlight trends and gaps related to the analysis’ dimensions, which have implications on the design of future tools and suggest open issues for further investigations
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