The present study evaluates a methodological workflow that could identify dinosaur tracks and trackways more comprehensively at outcrop scale. The approach described here is based both on 3D modelling by photogrammetry at different resolutions, and on suitably processed digital elevation models (DEMs). The ichnosite of Anza, Morocco, was chosen to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed pipeline, because 323 dinosaur and pterosaur tracks discovered there have already been published. One subsector containing 89 tracks, identified in the two companion works that followed a traditional approach, was selected and divided into four subzones. By combining different DEM processes (hill-shade, slope, sky-view factor, and positive openness), almost twice as many tracks (175 vs 89) are now identified in these subzones. However, the improvement is not homogeneous. In the first subzone, the previous works reported 25 tracks vs. 22 with the 3D modelling techniques used here, whereas results for the second and third subzones show considerable improvement with 3D (21 vs 38 tracks and 42 vs 81 tracks, respectively). The enhancement is even more dramatic for the fourth subzone, where 34 new tracks are now identified, whereas with the traditional approach, only one track was previously reported. It is likely that such improvements depend on several factors, i.e. the surface conditions of the rocks (e.g. irregularities, cracking, etc.), and on the preservation state and depth of the tracks. Morphometric measurements of tracks and trackways obtained from 3D models are very similar to those derived from traditional fieldwork methods. The digital approach can be applied rapidly at different resolutions, but the models acquired with the pole-mounted camera provide a good compromise, with a resolution high enough (~2 mm/pix) to spot tracks, while respecting computational constraints. Once treated, DEMs greatly facilitate the reproduction of track outlines, drawn according to criteria defined by the operator.
Navigational systems guide users providing visual and acoustic indications, burdening user’s attention. On the one hand, following visual guidance is challenging because of the constant need to switch the gaze between the display and the surroundings. On the other hand, auditory indications can be obtrusive and inefficient. Tactile displays, i.e., systems that send stimuli via the tactile channel, can overcome such limitations. They are useful when the visual and auditory attention is limited and they can deliver precise spatial information in an unobtrusive manner all around the user. Navigational systems deploying tactile guidance have been experimented with different devices (e.g., hand-held devices, belts, armband and wristband). Here we compared a tactile vest and a tactile glove in guiding users through an itinerary in an urban setting. Twenty-four people (9 males) participated in the study (mean age 24.37, SD= 2.24). Our findings show that the both devices are efficient as navigation tool. Despite both devices were well-received by users, their appearance was relevant. The vest was in fact praised for the clearness of the indications, while the glove was preferred for being unbulky and light-weighted.
In the context of activity recognition, wearable devices are nowadays the preferable hardware thanks to their usability, user experience and performances; at the same time, these devices present limitations in terms of computational capability and memory, which force the algorithm design to be at the same time efficient and simple. In this work, we adopt Symbolic Aggregate Approximation (SAX), a symbolic approach for information retrieval in time series data that allows dimensionality and numerosity reduction; SAX is employed here, in combination with 1-Nearest Neighbor classifier, to identify activity phases in continuous repetitive activities from inertial time-series data. The proposed approach is validated on a cross-country skiing dataset and on a daily living activities dataset.
The availability of indexes linked to distinct mental functions suggests their use in the evaluation of the cerebral impact of human machine interface or devices by measuring the induced cerebral activity. This approach could reveal additional information concerning the efficacy evaluation of the proposed device or interface, beyond the participants' behavioral and verbal reports. The mental workload index (frontal EEG power spectra increase in the theta band and simultaneous parietal EEG power spectra decrease in the alpha band) is an example of these indexes and in this study it was employed to identify the most appropriate cochlear implant processor in one postlingually deaf 43 years old male unilateral CI user. Results were compared with those obtained in another study involving the selection of the most appropriate devices in a helicopter cockpit. Data showed a statistical significant difference between sound processors (Freedom, CP810 and CP910) (F(2,180) = 3,046 p=0.05. In addition, the trials in which the Noise filter reduction function was adopted reported statistically significantly lower IWL values in comparison to the trials with No noise filter reduction use (F(1,90) = 8,027 p = 0,006). The evidences support the capability of identifying the devices eliciting less workload level. Such devices would free up user's cognitive resources that will be available for other additional tasks.
It is well established that individuals tend to underestimate visually presented walking speeds when relying on treadmills for virtual walking. However, prior to the present studies this perceptual distortion had not been observed in relation to Walking-in-Place (WIP) locomotion, and a number of the factors contributing to the perceptual distortion have yet to be identified. In this paper we present a summary of seven of our studies investigating what factors that influence self-motion perception during virtual walking and two meta-analyses of the findings of the seven studies. The studies relate to how gait cycle characteristics, visual display properties, and methodological differences affect speed underestimation during treadmill and WIP locomotion. The studies suggested the following: A significant main effect was found for step frequency; both display and geometric field of view were inversely proportional to the degree of underestimation; varying degrees of peripheral occlusion and increased HMD weight did not yield significant main effects; and the choice of method (i.e., how the speeds were presented) had a significant effect on the upper and lower bounds of what speeds were perceived as natural. All seven studies compared treadmill and WIP locomotion and higher speeds were generally preferred during treadmill walking, but only some studies found a significant effect. Meta-analyses of the differences between the two movement types revealed a significant difference and provided pooled estimates of the magnitude of this difference.
The job interview is an anxiety-provoking situation, and it is often a significant challenge for the long-term unemployed. We have created software that provides a virtual reality experience with which individuals who have been jobless for 12 months or longer could systematically improve their job interview skills, reduce their fears, and increase their confidence about going on job interviews. We assessed the feasibility and efficacy of Job Interview Simulation Training (JIST) in a randomized controlled trial. Participants included 28 long-term unemployed individuals who were actively seeking employment. On average, they had 24.96 years (SD = 8.07) of work experience and had been unemployed for 20.07 months (SD = 9.83). The average age was 47.54 years (SD = 7.66). Participants were randomized to JIST (n = 16) or Control (n = 12) groups. JIST consisted of 5 sessions of simulated job interviews. The participants found JIST easy to use, easy to navigate and useful to train communication skills. We used t-test and Cohen's d effect size computation to analyze changes in outcome measures. The JIST group improved their job interview role-play performance (p < 0.01) and job interview self-confidence (p < 0.01) between baseline and follow-up as compared with the Control group (p > 0.05). The JIST group also had significantly increases in results of simulated interviews (p < 0.01). Future research may help clarify whether this intervention helps to increase job interview frequency and get a job.
In this paper we present two comparisons of two novel physical interface for interacting with a virtual environment in the form of a skiing game. The interfaces were compared through two separate within-subjects studies. In the first study we compared a wobble board augmented with a low-cost 3D accelerometer with the Wii Balance Board, and in the second study we compared a step machine augmented with the same accelerometer with the Wii Balance Board. Keyboard and mouse peripherals were included in both studies in order to see how the novel interfaces and the Wii Balance Board would measure up against these commonly used input devices. The interfaces were evaluated in terms of performance, perceived ease of use, and enjoyment. The results of the first study show that participants reported the wobble board to be the hardest to control, although their performance was better than using the Wii Balance Board. A positive correlation was found between reported enjoyment of the interface and easiness to control it. The results of the second study show that participants found the step machine to be the most enjoyable and the second easiest. In both studies the mouse and keyboard peripherals were superior in terms of performance and perceived ease of use.
We present a conversation analysis of openings sequences of online text-based chat counseling. Particular about this chat counseling is that the clients made available their help question through pre-screening. The data consisted of 40 chat sessions with pre-screening and 34 sessions without pre-screening from the Dutch alcohol and drugs chat service. In the chat sessions with pre-screening, the participants displayed accountability with regard to the norms relevant to pre-given information, which took up space and time and frequently involved interactional misalignment. In chat sessions without pre-screening of the question, the openings followed a more fluent interactional course. We discuss how affordances of digital communication media may work as constraints when the participants orient to interactional norms known from other, offline environments.
In an effort to better understand the ways that small groups use digital technology as they move through a physical environment, this paper describes the methods used by groups of three people to maintain a group participation structure as they accomplish a quest-type task during mobile augmented reality game play. The game was available on one mobile digital device (an Apple iPhone) that was shared by three players as they negotiated a set of point-to-point route finding tasks. Video-recordings of each group were made using three cameras (two head-mounted cameras and one hand-held camera). We focus on the different ways that the single device was oriented to by group members via talk-ininteraction as they accomplished the game activity. In particular, we outline the practices for talk-in-interaction (including gaze, postural alignment, and deictic expressions) used by the participants to maintain their constitution as a group, to accomplish a shared visual focus on the single device, and to explicitly transfer the device from one player to another.
Videogame interactions show a rather complex participation framework: players interact with present or absent players in and out of the game, directly or by avatars. The avatar, as fictional character which a player embodies in the videogame, has a central position: it is only through him and his actions that the player can act in the game. We therefore propose to question in detail the place the players of videogames give to the avatars. We will focus particularly on the organization of turn-taking in a complex and dynamic activity (Mondada, 2013), in which the participants constantly address their co-players as well as the different avatars in the game played by themselves. The space itself is constantly changing because the game goes on constantly. Our study is based on a collection of extracts from four French videogame interactions.The analysis revealed a particular form of turn-taking in videogame interactions (Colon de Carvajal, 2011; Piirainen-Marsh & Tainio, 2009), where the switch of turns of speech is highly dependent on the actions in the virtual world of the videogame. Thus, we have identified four forms of exchange as if a turn or action (Goodwin & Goodwin, 2004) is addressed to: a) a player, b) an avatar, c) a player and his avatar together, and d) an unclear referent.
Individuals navigating a space use two strategies: adults mainly use a ‘counting’ strategy (i.e. numbering or counting the intersection in the town; memorising a series of left and right turns from a given starting position), children rely more on a ‘response’ strategy (i.e. using reference points or landmarks; turn after the blue building). A lot of research into spatial cognition requires the use of virtual environments and uses regular environments (‘Cartesian grids, Squareland or city-block raster’ (Hamburger and Knauff, 2011), ‘radial maze’ type (Astur, Tropp, Sava, Constable and Markus, 2004), etc.) but few studies have focused on how children and adolescents learn to memorise an itinerary in a less regular environment (Nys, Gyselinck, Orriols and Hickmann, 2015). The originality of this work is to understand how children and adolescents learn to memorise an itinerary in a developmental perspective (participants aged 6 to 15 years old). The intention is also to identify any development in the strategies when the children and adolescents reproduce a route in two differently structured environments (cities with a regular or irregular plan). The results of the first experiment, conducted with V-Squarecity (a regular environment), show that the environment does not require the employment of response strategies, but may give rise to strategies for organising/storing spatial information (counting strategies). It will also be shown that younger children use response strategies and that older children develop counting strategies. The result of the second experiment, conducted with V-Sinuouscity (an irregular environment), reveal the reduced use of counting strategies. This work emphasises the need to take account of the nature of simulated spaces during studies on spatial strategies.
This paper addresses culturally rooted factors within web design and how their theoretical study must affect the design process. We describe and relate theories that have developed over a period of 20 years, traceable in the published literature. We follow the links that connect them in the study of cultural and cognitive aspects in web design and how they finally converge in practical recommendations for designers, providing an original point of view combining academic research on categorization of culture elements and suggestions for designers stemming from user experience models applied to web sites.
The amount of French text messaging related to spelling 1 level: why some letters are produced and others are not? 2 Tonia Lanchantin1, Aurélie Simoës-Perlant and Pierre Largy 3 4 Université de Toulouse 2 – Le Mirail, Toulouse (France) 5 6 ABSTRACT 7 All spellers do not modify randomly when they use Digital Writing in Instant Messaging. 8 Some letters are written, not written or replaced and we tried to provide in-depth 9 understanding of the underlying reasons for the phenomenon. One could choose to type the 10 word “arrête” with one “r” (since all the other letters have a basic value, or the most frequent 11 value) as s/he may consider the other “r” as useless (since it has a zero value). Students 12 wrote two dictations: the first on a sheet of paper; the second on an instant messaging 13 website. Results showed that students rarely modified letters with a base value, but mainly 14 modified other letters (e.g. with a zero value). As a conclusion, the fact that adolescents 15 preserved, replaced or did not write letters according to their value proves that the use of 16 modifications (or textism) in French does not leave anything to chance: it is based on the 17 spelling system itself. 18 19
This article concerns the smartglass technology Google Glass (GG). Five different settings with different participants have been video recorded and analysed. The article builds upon ethnomethodology and conversation analysis with a focus on how the intersubjective turn-taking system is challenged when a participant is using GG. The article presents three overall issues and associated analysis of three examples of GG use in multiactivity settings. The analysis shows how 1) object orientation and identity, 2) private experience and knowledge, and 3) turn-taking and participation are key issues in GG-related multiparty and multiactivity social interaction. The term Glasshole, which has been used in the media for people using GG in somehow rude ways, is in this article more precisely understood as a person being conversationally inappropriate in terms of e.g. misspeaking, producing overlap, and producing unfamiliar actions such as staring out into the open robotically. The article concludes by discussing implications for future design, with a focus on future technologies’ ability to provide information that fits into real-time social interaction.
The paper combines the discussion of technical agency and hybrid networks of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) with an ethnomethodological/conversation analytical (EMCA) perspective on situated practices in which participants ascribe agency to technical artefacts. While ANT works with (ethnographic) description of hybrid networks in which human and non-human actants are granted agency without differentiating different kinds of agency, EMCA focuses on the member's perspectives and the situated construction of technical agency that is made relevant within an ongoing interaction. Based on an EMCA analysis of three video recordings of situations in which technical agency is made relevant by the human participants, the paper demonstrates different ways in which agency is granted to technical artefacts. Human participants can treat a technology as communication partner, as an active part (and actant) of an activity or as an opponent of action. The paper argues that technical agency is neither an inherent affordance of an artefact nor something that remains the same during a course of action. The affordances of technical artefacts are enacted within situated and ongoing practices in socio-material settings in which the human participants orient towards the artefact in different ways; thereby, the construction of technical agency can shift from moment to moment.
This paper investigates transmission delay in technology-mediated interaction from a participant's perspective. The approach chosen here contrasts with previous studies of delay: only what is seen, heard and done at one end (i.e., what is available on screen) is considered in the analysis. It is argued that participants themselves lack access to the other sides of their interactions as they unfold at remote locations, and they thus cannot observe and deal with delay from an outside perspective. Analyzing single cases of delay-in-interaction within the framework of conversation analysis, the focus is on dispersed conversation partners' resources to detect a problem, and to make visible and relevant the experience of time lag. The data used consist of video-based mediated meetings between knowledge workers of a small Finnish company. Phenomena that may evoke reference to transmission delay in interaction include prolonged overlap, gap and sequential disarray and missed attempt at turn-taking. Delay in such cases is referred to as an explanation for mismatching, incongruous contributions. This, as well as participants' observable attempts to restore order, reveals fundamental expectations and orientations with respect to sequentiality as well as to technology-mediation.
Persuasive technologies are suitable for encouraging green transportation behaviour towards CO 2 emissions reduction. For example, such technologies can guide and support users in finding trips that cause low emissions and in the long term change their behaviour and habits towards more sustainable transport decisions. In this paper, we focus on persuasive strategies supported by a choice architecture approach and incorporated in a smartphone application, aiming at providing urban travellers with a solution that will influence them to consider the environmental friendliness of travel modes while planning a route. We focus specifically on the persuasive strategies of Reduction, Tailoring, Tunnelling, Cause-andEffect Simulation and Suggestion. The choice architecture approach leverages routing options and results of a commercial routing engine in order to provide proper default options as well as filter and structure the results according to user preferences and contexts while emphasizing environmentally friendly routes. Our approach is integrated in a route-planning assistant for everyday use that is implemented for Android mobile phones and follows a client‐ server architecture. An evaluation with 24 participants using the system for 8 weeks showed good acceptance of our approach, increased environmental impact awareness, and qualitative comments also conveyed instances of behavioural change.
Studying changes in brain activation according to the valence of emotion-inducing stimuli is essential in the research on emotions. Due to the ecological potential of virtual reality, it is also important to examine whether brain activation in response to emotional stimuli can be modulated by the three-dimensional (3D) properties of the images. This study uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to compare differences between 3D and standard (2D) visual stimuli in the activation of emotion-related brain areas. The stimuli were organized in three virtual-reality scenarios, each with a different emotional valence (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral). The scenarios were presented in a pseudo-randomized order in the two visualization modes to twelve healthy males. Data were analyzed through a GLM-based fixed effects procedure. Unpleasant and neutral stimuli activated the right amygdala more strongly when presented in 3D than in 2D. These results suggest that 3D stimuli, when used as "building blocks" for virtual environments, can induce increased emotional loading, as shown here through neuroimaging.
