1,721,138 research outputs found
On Engaging Communities in Smart Societies: Crowdsourcing, Gamification, and Participatory Design for Accessible, Sustainable, and Safer Urban Mobility
Full text linkSmart Cities aim to improve urban life by making cities more accessible, sustainable, and safer. From this concept emerged the idea of smart society. In smart societies, pervasive and innovative technologies and data are exploited to enhance society’s overall functioning and well-being. In this context, smart mobility plays a relevant role. This chapter aims to present three case studies, developed as a proof-of-concept (PoC), in the context of sustainable and accessible urban mobility. In comparing them, different dimensions of interest will be considered, such as (i) the community of interest, (ii) the design process, (iii) the exploited technologies, and (iv) the engagement strategies. Ultimately, some final remarks are presented, discussing the relevance of actively engaging communities in creating smart services for our cities and society
Exploiting co-design, game thinking and citizen science in a workshop-like experience for stimulating reflections with teens
No full textPreface of special issue on future generation ICT solutions for digital social innovation and sustainable development
No full textPreface of special issue on future generation ICT solutions for digital social innovation and sustainable developmen
What Does Air Quality Sound Like? On Exploring the impact of Data Sonification Versus Data Visualization
Full text linkAir pollution is currently a hot topic and a significant threat that impacts not only climate change but also the health of individuals. As a matter of fact, it was estimated that it causes 6.7 million premature deaths annually, and, in 2021, 97% of the urban population was exposed to particulate matter concentrations above the World Health Organization’s health-based guideline. Generally, individuals have no perception of the air quality around them and in the city where they live, and their knowledge of the subject depends on what they learn from newscasts or newspapers. However, increasing awareness of the topic can help them make more conscious choices. To partly tackle this problem, we developed a web-based prototype exploiting two modalities to communicate air quality data: data sonification (through audio) and data visualization (through animated video). With the aim of investigating the best communication modality that, eventually, can raise awareness on the topic, we performed a preliminary study. To anticipate some findings, we found out that the videos were considered less mentally demanding and less frustrating, while the sound was considered more pleasant. At the same time, while the videos required less time to be understood and communicated a more precise level of pollution, the audios were considered, on hand, more involving, making the users also feel more immersed in the experience, and, on the other hand, gave the possibility to concentrate on something else while experiencing the data
How are you, Mar Menor? Fostering Awareness About an Ecological Crisis through Children's Art and Conversational Generative AI
Full text linkEducating children and teenagers on environmental issues is crucial, as they not only internalize the importance of ecological preservation but can also share this knowledge at home, spreading awareness within their families and communities about these delicate matters. In this work, we introduce an innovative approach to raising awareness of environmental challenges faced by the Mar Menor lagoon by blending children’s art with conversational artificial intelligence. We built an interactive narrative visualization where users can learn about the ecosystem while exploring related drawings created by children and engaging in voice conversations with a chatbot powered by generative AI. To validate our approach, we conducted a preliminary evaluation of the prototype during the European Researchers’ Night 2024 where we gathered positive feedback through user tests and questionnaires, proving the potential of combining children’s creativity and AI technology to foster environmental stewardship and raise awareness about fragile ecosystems
Tourism for all: A mobile application to assist visually impaired users in enjoying tourist services
No full textThis paper presents a mobile application designed in collaboration with an association devoted to facilitating the enjoyment of tourist services by visually impaired people (including low vision and blind users). In the design process, we performed a questionnaire to collect requirements and feedback from users. The outcome (100 answers) drove the design of mockups, and then, of the final application. Moreover, to make the application more appealing, we implemented gamification mechanism (to motivate the user in contributing to the application) and recommendation strategies (to assist users in choosing the tourist services). Some preliminary tests showed that the application results compliance with the most used screen readers and that users appreciated the provided functions
The madeira touch: Encouraging visual-spatial exploration using a tactile interactive display
No full textThe current information marketplace for tourists is dominated by for-profit purveyors of information. Potential visitors must rely on experts-for-hire or search engine results in order to learn about a desired destination. In this paper, we introduce The Madeira Touch, a multimodal display installation rooted in the unique characteristics of Madeira, which allows users to explore the island by selecting a type of scenery and showing the user-generated photos of that type of scenery in a map-based interface. To make this pervasive display more engaging, we designed an exploratory tactile-input mode of interaction: users will be able to touch a physical object, representing a type of scenery (a rock for mountains, a seashell for the sea, etc.), which will then bring up suitable photos of that type of scenery overlaid on a map of the island. The display will help users to form their mental image of the island and to plan trips that best suit their interests. Copyright is held by the author/owner(s)
Editorial: Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good
No full textThe journal Mobile Networks and Applications reflects the emerging symbiosis of portable computers and wireless networks, addressing the convergence of mobility, computing and information organization, access and management
On personalizing Web content through reinforcement learning
No full textNowadays, a large use of personalization techniques is used to adapt Web content to users’ habits, mainly with the aim of offering appropriate products and services. This paper presents a system that uses personalization and adaptation techniques, in order to transcode or modify contents (e.g., adapt text fonts) so as to meet preferences and needs of elderly users and users with disabilities. Such an adaptation can have a positive effect, in particular for users with some reading-related disabilities (i.e., people with dyslexia, users with low vision, users with color blindness, elderly people.). To avoid issues arising from applying transformations to the whole content, the proposed system uses Web intelligence to perform automatic adaptations on single elements composing a Web page. The transformation is applied on the basis of a reinforcement learning algorithm which manages a user profile. The system is evaluated through simulations and a real assessment, where elderly users where asked to use the system prototype for a time period and to perform some specific tasks. Results of the qualitative evaluation confirm the feasibility of the proposal, showing its validity and the users’ appreciation
Integrazione del tool autore AContent con Moodle
No full textScopo di questo articolo è presentare il lavoro di integrazione tra Moodle e AContent, in atto presso l’Università di Bologna. L’obiettivo di questo progetto è quello di ottenere un sistema di
authoring basato su AContent e dotato di caratteristiche tecnologiche e metodologiche in linea con lo stato dell’arte, che consenta di produrre materiali facilmente ed efficacemente caricabili su Moodle
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