1,721,025 research outputs found
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
Design trade-offs in cultures of participation: empowering end users to improve their quality of life
No full textCommunicability 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
Chatbots and conversational interfaces: Three domains of use
No full textThe natural language, in its oral or textual form, represents the main medium for communicating between human beings. Over time, technological advances have provided new means and tools through which human beings can express themselves and communicate with each other, without altering the original mode of interaction. In recent years, the search for new forms of interaction between users and systems has led to the diffusion of a new possible communication method that exploits a conversational approach based on natural language, which is referred to by using the term chatbot. This paper aims at exploring new chatbot-based conversational interfaces that allow users to exploit the most used interaction strategies by human beings, that is the natural language. Among the many possible application domains, this paper focuses on the introduction of a chatbot for supporting users in interacting with services for public administration (PA), health and wellbeing and home automation
Preface 4th Edition of the International Workshop on Cultures of Participation in the Digital Age
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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