1,721,024 research outputs found
Engagement Recognition using Easily Detectable Behavioural Cues
No full textThis paper discusses an approach to monitor the level of engagement of video game players based on the theory of flow in the gaming experience. Starting from the flow framework, we developed a non-obtrusive system that estimates the player’s state of engagement by analysing non-verbal behavioral cues that are easily detected with simple hardware, such as a webcam and a traditional keyboard and mouse setup. We present the design and the results of an empirical study aimed at gathering data and model the player’s engagement. Facial expressions, head movements, keyboard and mouse activities were recorded while participants played a first-person shooter video game. We used an adapted version of the Experience Sampling Methodology to gather the ground truth and trained a Support Vector Machine classifier that recognizes the affective states, reaching an accuracy of 73%. The results showed that the level of engagement is reasonably predicted by considering the head movements and facial expressions only. The findings could aid in developing digital games able to use the information about the player’s affective state to adapt their content and support the game experience
Audio-augmented paper for therapy and educational intervention for children with autistic spectrum disorder
No full textAutism affects children?s learning and social development. Commonly used rehabilitative treatments are aimed at stimulating the social skills of children with autism. In this article, we present a prototype and a pilot study on an audio-augmented paper to support the therapy of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The prototype supports audio recording with standard sheets of paper by using tangible tools that can be shared between the therapist and the child. The prototype is a tool for the therapist to engage the child in a storytelling activity. We use a progressive design method based on a dynamic process that merges concept generation, technology benchmarking and activity design into continuously enriching actions. The paper highlights the qualities and benefits of using tangible audio-augmented artefacts for therapy and educational intervention for children with ASD. The work describes three main qualities of our prototype: from building cooperation to attention control, flow control, and using the children?s own voices to foster attention
Modelling the Personality of Participants during Group Interactions
No full textIn this paper we target the automatic prediction of two personality traits, Extraversion and Locus of Control, in a meeting scenario using visual and acoustic features. We designed our task as a regression one where the goal is to predict the personality traits‟ scores obtained by the meeting participants. Support Vector Regression is applied to thin slices of behavior, in the form of 1-minute sequences
Authoring the 'Intelligence' of an Educational Game
No full textIn this paper, we describe a frame-based production rules system that works ad the Artificial intelligence Engine of an educational computer game. We discuss the need of an authoring environment clearly separated by the game in order to allow a technical staff without any skills in either AI or Computer Science to encode the intelligence of the game. Finally, we briefly introduce two graphical interfaces for authoring and testing frame hierarchies and production rules. The production rule system and the authoring tool have been developed in the context of a project funded by the European Community to develop a prototypical educational computer gam
Multimodal Corpora for an Automatic System Fostering Participants’ Engagement in Informal Conversations around a Museum Café Table
No full textIn this paper we present the multimodal data collected for developing a system able to influence the behavior of small groups in an informal and non goal-oriented conversation scenario. The prototype system looks like a table in a museum cafeteria and it is aimed at inducing the people sitting around to talk about their visit to the museum. To this aim, the system provides visual cues to foster participants’ engagement in the conversation. The cues are contextualized by automatically monitoring the group dynamics and by continuously planning and executing minimalist strategies based on the participants’ speaking activity and visual attention. In the paper, we shortly describe the system, its main components and functionalities. We then present the two data collections carried out to gather multimodal data to tune the basic perceptual modules of the system (voice activity detector and face tracker) and to improve the presentation engine of the visual cues
Automatic Prediction of Individual Performance from Thin Slices of Behavior
No full textThis paper targets the automatic detection of individual performances in group tasks by means of short sequences, ‘‘thin slices’’, of nonverbal behavior. We designed our task as a
classification one. We also investigated the relevance of social
context in our task and the effectiveness of our feature selection
Multimodal Recognition of Personality Traits in Social Interactions
No full textThis paper targets the automatic detection of personality traits in a meeting environment by means of audio and visual features; information about the relational context is captured by means of acoustic features designed to that purpose. Two personality traits are considered: Extraversion (from the Big Five) and the Locus of Control. The classification task is applied to thin slices of behaviour, in the form of 1-minute sequences. SVM were used to test the performances of several training and testing instance setups, including a restricted set of audio features obtained through feature selection. The outcomes improve considerably over existing results, provide evidence about the feasibility of the multimodal analysis of personality, the role of social context, and pave the way to further studies addressing different features setups and/or targeting different personality traits
Semantically Enhanced Hypermedia: A First Step
No full textThe paper introduces a framework to automatically build hypermedia links from a semantically annotated repository of multimedia data. The system architecture is based on a relational database accessible through XML queries on an HTTP connection.
A shallow semantic representation is encoded as a set of key words that correspond to entities in the domain. This representation is used to annotate the texts and the images in the database. Communicative strategies are then employed by the graphical interface to dynamically produce links to the dat
Effect of geometry and Reynolds number on the flow field of low-swirl combustors
No full textFlames within combustors can be stabilised by creating recirculation of hot products to act as a heat source for the
continuous ignition of the fresh mixture. Swirling flows through sudden expansions is the most common solution
adopted to induce recirculation zones. In addition to flame stabilisation, the swirling motion enhances the mixing
between the fuel and the oxidant streams, promoting complete fuel combustion.
Because of the close relation between flow field and combustor performance, swirling flows have been widely
studied in the literature. Experimental analyses usually deal with high-swirling flows because they produce strong
recirculation zones which provide a stable anchoring to the flame. By comparison, few studies in the literature focus
on low-swirl flow fields.
In this study, low-swirling flows generated by axial swirlers are analysed. Data taken from the literature of axial and
tangential velocities measured on combustors of similar geometry and swirl number are compared in order to
evaluate the effect of some design and operating parameters on the flow field. The literature database is extended
considering original measurements performed by the authors on a laboratory combustor. The paper aims at
providing a comprehensive insight of the flow field by considering the effect of parameters not yet systematically
investigated in low-swirl combustors
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