654 research outputs found
Empowering end users to customize their smart environments: model, composition paradigms and domain-specific tools
No full textResearch on the Internet of Things (IoT) has devoted many efforts to technological aspects. Little social and practical benefits have emerged so far. IoT devices, so-called smart objects, are becoming even more pervasive and social, leading to the need to provide non-technical users with innovative interaction strategies for controlling their behavior. In other words, the opportunities offered by IoT can be amplified if new approaches are conceived to enable non-technical users to be directly involved in “composing” their smart objects by synchronizing their behavior. To fulfil this goal, this article introduces a model that includes new operators for defining rules combining multiple events and conditions exposed by smart objects, and for defining temporal and spatial constraints on rule activation. The article also presents the results of an elicitation study that was conducted to identify possible visual paradigms for expressing composition rules. Prototypes implementing the resulting visual paradigms were compared during a controlled experiment and the one that resulted most relevant for our goals was used in a study that involved home automation experts. Finally, the article discusses some design implications that came out from the performed studies and presents the architecture of a platform supporting rule definition and execution
“Isn’t This Archaeological Site Exciting!”: a Mobile System Enhancing School Trips
No full textExplore! is an m-learning system that aims to improve young visitors' experience of historical sites. It exploits the imaging and multimedia capabilities of the latest generation cell phone, creating electronic games that support learning of ancient history during a visit to historical sites. Explore! consists of two main components: 1) the Game Application running on cellular phones, to be used during the game and 2) the Master Application running on a notebook, used by the game master (i.e. a teacher) to perform a reflection phase, which follows the game. Having the Game Application been described in previous papers, in this work we mainly illustrate the Master Application
A Visual Paradigm for Defining Task Automation
No full textIn the last years, researchers are devoting many efforts to improve technological aspects of the Internet of Things (IoT), while little attention has dedicated to social and practical sides. Professional developers program the behavior of smart objects. In addition, often the functionality exposed by a single object are not able, alone, to exhaustively support the end users' tasks. The opportunities offered by IoT can be amplified if new highlevel abstractions and interaction paradigms enable also non-technical users to compose the behavior of multiple objects. To fulfill this goal, we present a model to express rules for smart object composition, which includes new operators for defining rules coupling multiple events and conditions exposed by smart objects, and for defining temporal and spatial constraints on rule activation. Such model has been implemented in a Web application whose composition paradigm has been designed during an elicitation study with 25 participants
An EUD approach to the design of educational games
No full textDistance education has experienced profound changes due to the introduction of new technologies, especially mobile devices of different types. It is necessary to define new learning techniques which are able to capture students' attention and to engage them in their learning activities, reducing problems like distraction generated by the use of the device itself and/or by the surrounding environment. Game-based learning is a valuable possibility. The excursion-game has been recently proposed to support pupils learning history during visits to historical sites; its goal is to make the visit and the overall experience of cultural heritage more engaging. This paper describes the approach followed in the design of the system implementing the excursion-game; it takes into account an end-user development perspective in order to allow domain experts, i.e., experts in history and cultural heritage, contributing to design excursion-games for a wide set of historical sites
A visual paradigm for defining task automation
No full textIn the last years, researchers are devoting many efforts to improve technological aspects of the Internet of Things (IoT), while little attention has dedicated to social and practical sides. Professional developers program the behavior of smart objects. In addition, often the functionality exposed by a single object are not able, alone, to exhaustively support the end users' tasks. The opportunities offered by IoT can be amplified if new highlevel abstractions and interaction paradigms enable also non-technical users to compose the behavior of multiple objects. To fulfill this goal, we present a model to express rules for smart object composition, which includes new operators for defining rules coupling multiple events and conditions exposed by smart objects, and for defining temporal and spatial constraints on rule activation. Such model has been implemented in a Web application whose composition paradigm has been designed during an elicitation study with 25 participants
Organizing the multimedia content of an m-learning service through Fedora Digital Objects
No full textIn this paper a software infrastructure is presented, developed in the ambit of the CHAT (“Cultural Heritage fruition & e-learning applications of new Advanced (multimodal) Technologies”) research project to provide context-sensitive services accessible through thin clients such as cellular phones or PDAs. We propose a client/server architecture. On the server side, software modules implement the algorithms to manage the “dialogue” with the user. The client application displays the multimedia contents sent by the server and captures user interaction and contextual data registered by the mobile device carried by the user and/or received from other sensors in the surrounding environment. The multimedia contents are organized through Digital Objects managed by the Fedora open-source content management software. An additional system component, the Authoring Tool, allows end users lacking computer programming expertise to develop multimedia contents for the different services provided. Exploiting the wide applicability of the infrastructure, we have designed an m-learning service, called Explore!, that supports and enhances middle school students' experience of a visit to an archaeological par
Organizing the multimedia content of an m-learning service through Fedora Digital Objects
No full textIn this paper a software infrastructure is presented, developed in the ambit of the CHAT (“Cultural Heritage fruition & e-learning applications of new Advanced (multimodal) Technologies”) research project to provide context-sensitive services accessible through thin clients such as cellular phones or PDAs. We propose a client/server architecture. On the server side, software modules implement the algorithms to manage the “dialogue” with the user. The client application displays the multimedia contents sent by the server and captures user interaction and contextual data registered by the mobile device carried by the user and/or received from other sensors in the surrounding environment. The multimedia contents are organized through Digital Objects managed by the Fedora open-source content management software. An additional system component, the Authoring Tool, allows end users lacking computer programming expertise to develop multimedia contents for the different services provided. Exploiting the wide applicability of the infrastructure, we have designed an m-learning service, called Explore!, that supports and enhances middle school students' experience of a visit to an archaeological par
DEG: Involving end users and domain experts in design of educational games
No full textDesigning educational games is an arduous task that requires a multidisciplinary team, whose components must be provided with tools allowing them to actively participate in the creation of such games. This first edition of the DEG Workshop aims at providing researchers interested in this area the possibility to share and discuss their experiences. This workshop is addressed to researchers and practitioners, involved in the design and evaluation of technology-supported games, to discuss their experience in relation to means for involving end users as well as experts in the process, before, during and after the product has been completed. Issues such as how the technology affects the process, in particular in terms of game genres and technologies used (e.g. city games, mobile games, educational games, games on multitouch displays etc.), are examined. Special attention is given to scenarios that affect the expected user experience, measuring factors like pleasure, learning outcome, etc. and the effect of end-user involvement on them
Interaction with large displays: a survey
No full textLarge interactive displays are increasingly placed in public (or semi-public) locations, including museums, shops, various city settings and offices. This article discusses the evolution of such displays by looking at their use and analyzing how they are changing the concept of human-computer interaction through new modalities. By surveying the literature on systems using these displays, relevant features were identified and used as classification dimensions. The analysis provided may inform the design and development of future installations. A discussion on research challenges concludes the article
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