1,721,000 research outputs found
Study and development of methodologies and advance solutions to support design of smart and inclusive environment
No full textL’aumento della popolazione anziana avrà nei prossimi anni un forte impatto sulla nostra società, in particolare sul finanziamento del Welfare. Per garantire che il sistema del welfare sia sostenibile è essenziale sostenere gli anziani nel mantenersi indipendenti: questo è il motivo per cui il design for inclusion è un tema importante per l'Unione Europea.
In questo contesto, le tecnologie domotiche possono giocare un ruolo chiave nel supportare gli anziani nella vita quotidiana e nell’aumentare il loro benessere. Tuttavia, nonostante la domanda di questi prodotti è in aumento e la tecnologia necessaria esiste già da decenni, esse rimangono scarsamente utilizzate.
Il fallimento delle soluzioni disponibili è dovuto al fatto esse non sono inclusive. Infatti i progettisti spesso si concentrano più sui problemi tecnologici o sulle funzionalità dei prodotti che sui bisogni e le abilità degli utenti, oppure si limitano a seguire le linee guida progettuali, senza considerarne il contesto d’uso.
Durante gli ultimi anni, sono stati proposti molti approcci che mirano a supportare la progettazione di prodotti più inclusivi. Tuttavia, non è ancora stato definito un metodo che fornisca strumenti pratici in grado di guidare il progettista in modo sistematico nelle scelte progettuali. In questo contesto, il lavoro di ricerca propone una metodologia, basata su un approccio centrato sull’utente che grazie a strumenti in grado di guidare le scelte progettuali a seconda dei bisogni e delle abilità degli utenti finali, mira a supportare la progettazione di prodotti inclusivi, modulari e adattabili.
Il metodo e gli strumenti proposti sono stati utilizzati nella progettazione di un ambiente cucina, grazie anche a tecnologie domotiche risultasse accessibile e utilizzabile per le persone anziane e disabili. I risultati sperimentali dimostrano che il metodo e gli strumenti proposti consentono di supportare efficacemente la progettazione di prodotti inclusivi
A BBN-based Method to Manage Adaptive Behavior of a Smart User Interface
No full textAbstractThe present study proposes a new method to manage adaptation behaviour of adaptive system according to the output information provide by a user model based on Bayesian Belief Network (BBN). Such method has been applied in the development of smart interfaces for cooking and kitchen management, such as meal preparation and interaction with the major kitchen appliances, pandering the user's skills, expertise and disabilities. Nevertheless, this method is flexible and suitable enough to be used in other application contexts. The validity of the decision making algorithm has been tested through simulation of real user case scenarios
How to use Virtual and Augmented Reality techniques to design high usable human-machine interfaces
No full textA systematic approach to support conceptual design of inclusive products
No full textOver the last years, several approaches have been defined to support Universal Design. However, a method that allows supporting universal design process in a systematic way is still lacking. Consequently, very often, products are merely designed according to design guidelines, without considering their effective context of use, while the success of products is often determined by the experience, intuition and sensitivity of designers, rather than by a real good design practice. In this context, the paper propose a systematic approach to support the conceptual design of modular and adaptive products, where for products we mean any device, tool, artefact, building, or service
Strengthening teachers' social-emotional skills: the preliminary results of a mindful-based protocol
Full text linkThis contribution presents the results of an experimental study aimed at increasing the socio-emotional skills of teachers and educators through a mindful-based protocol. Teachers' social-emotional competence is important for mastering their profession's social and emotional challenges, preventing stress and burnout, and building positive teacher/student relationships. Psychometric questionnaires and an open-ended questionnaire were administered. The study's results highlight a positive influence on perceived stress and emotions management
A method to identify VR-based set-up to foster elderly in design evaluation
No full textUser involvement during design process is an important issue in inclusive design (ID). To this purpose, in the last years, virtual reality (VR) technologies have been introduced to construct virtual prototypes, in order to allow test with users even at the end of the conceptual design phase. The present paper aims to propose a method to support the selection of VR interaction technologies, which can be suited by end users accordingly to their physical and cognitive abilities. The proposed method is applied in order to compare the main VR interaction technologies with the objective to identify an optimal low-cost VR set-up to involve elderly people in evaluation of an innovative concept of kitchen environment which implement smart grid and home automation technologies
Consumers vs Internet of Things: A Systematic Evaluation Process to Drive Users in the Smart World
Full text linkAbstractSmart Objects (SOs) market offers a wide variety of products apparently similar but characterized by different features that the average users fail to perceive. Consequently, their purchasing is often based on price and brand affection. In this context, users need a tool able to guide them in choosing the most suitable object to satisfy their expectations. To this purpose, this paper proposes a new systematic method to assess SOs in a comprehensive way: it allows to objectively assess and compare products and provides evaluation results tailored on users’ needs. A first validation is carried out on three different SO typologies
Spatial Augmented Reality: An application for human work in smart manufacturing environment
No full textSpatial Augmented reality (SAR) represents a key technology for the development of smart manufacturing as it is barrier free, does not require the use of Head Mounted Displays or any other wearable devices and it fits most of the industrial constraints. The paper presents a novel SAR-based system to support the manual work in future smart factories. It conveys technical instructions during assembly, provides alerts in case of risks for humans' safety and finally identifies which postures can bring to muscoloscheletric problems if repeated. Experiments with 30 participants demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed SAR-based system as compared LED monitor-based system and the overall achieved usability. The results proved that SAR technology improves the operators' performance with respect to a LED monitor-based system and that users well accept it. We found that SAR is more effective for difficult tasks than for simple one
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