| Politeness in Interaction Design | | BIBA | PDF | 1-8 | |
| Lyn Pemberton | |||
| Principles such as minimising memory requirements, clarifying affordance and providing effective feedback have been widely called upon to explain aspects of user experience. These principles call on research in cognitive psychology, often seen as the "home discipline" of human computer interaction. However, since interacting with a computer can be seen in some ways as a communicative act, it may also be useful to call on principles that have been developed in the core communication science of linguistics, especially pragmatics. In this paper we describe the major features of linguistic politeness theory and suggest ways in which usability problems may usefully be reframed in terms of positive and negative face threats. We consider ways in which UI designers can mitigate these threats by applying politeness strategies. | |||
| Challenges in Streamlining User Experience Design | | BIBA | PDF | 9-12 | |
| Paul-Alexandru Chirita | |||
| As the software industry has evolved into having solutions for many of our basic needs, User Experience (UX) looks like the next big thing to invest in, especially in the enterprise world. This paper presents three development directions I consider crucial for UX design in the years to come: (1) Brining the design inspiration process closer to designers' tools and making it more organized, (2) Further optimizing current content creation algorithms, and especially (3) Evaluating new designs with the masses, in a semi-automated fashion. | |||
| A Framework for Assessing Online Presence in Social Media | | BIBA | PDF | 13-16 | |
| Ana Maria Marhan | |||
| This paper intends to provide a set of criteria for analyzing various social media platforms against their potential for supporting users in building their online presence. The four basic elements included in this framework: identity, space, persistency and action have been selected following an empirical analysis of various software platforms currently used currently in academic networking, and supported by recent findings in psychology and sociology. | |||
| A System for the Evaluation of the Participation of a Student to a Discussion Forum | | BIBA | PDF | 17-24 | |
| Iulia Pasov; Stefan Trausan-Matu; Traian Rebedea | |||
| The purpose of this study is to provide a tool used in computer mediated communication and designed to support educational experiences. The application is based on the Community of Inquiry model, which consists of three elements: the cognitive presence, the social presence and the teaching presence. Those presences are identified according to certain indicators which define complex patterns that are used by researchers to analyze student messages. The final application implements a rule-based algorithm that evaluates participations to forums according to those patterns. The study suggests that any computerized conference between students can create a community of inquiry for educational purposes. | |||
| Studies on Data Visualization and Infographics | | BIBA | PDF | 25-28 | |
| Alecsandru Grigoriu; Sabin Corneliu Buraga | |||
| In this article a series of contributions are described regarding the data visualization domain and infographic design on behalf of two case studies. The first represents an original approach towards social network data visualization and delivering final results in vector formats. The second case study consists of designing an infographic solution for the Mozilla Labs Design Challenge -- Open Data Visualization Competition -- which is meant to offer a design and statistical interpretation of the public data released by The Mozilla Foundation regarding the Firefox users and their way of interaction with the browser -- the data was released through the "Mozilla Test Pilot" initiative. | |||
| Dialogism Concepts in the Evaluation of the Participants of a Chat | | BIBA | PDF | 29-34 | |
| Mihai Dascalu; Stefan Trausan-Matu; Traian Rebedea; Diana Lupan; Stefan Bobocescu-Kesikis | |||
| The article introduces a model for discourse analysis, customized for chat conversation, which is used for assessing collaboration derived from the intertwining perspectives of different conversation participants. Our model is derived from dialogism and is focused on the 3 central concepts of the analysis: utterance, voice and echo; these factors enable us to achieve a deep and holistic perception of the discourse. The path of the evaluation process starts from granting support to the ongoing discussion by using the collaborative environment made available to the participants, models the discussion based on the utterance graph and grants feedback regarding collaboration and involvement in each conversation thread. In essence, our analysis takes into consideration quantitative aspects measured in terms of active involvement in the discussion, qualitative ones at cognitive level by assessing the relevance of each utterance, but also social factors derived from voice intertwining. | |||
| Polycafe: Advanced System for the Evaluation of Chat Conversations Based on the Polyphonic Model | | BIBA | PDF | 35-42 | |
| Traian Rebedea; Mihai Dascalu; Stefan Trausan-Matu; Ana Teodorescu; Alexandra Ene | |||
| Chat conversations have become very popular among the members of various
online communities. With the popularity growth of computer supported
collaborative learning (CSCL), chat conversations have started being used in
educational environments. Nevertheless, assessing students through the analysis
of the chats they participate in has the two main problems: the process is
complex and time consuming. Therefore, the need of performing automatic
analysis and evaluation of students based on chat conversations rose
drastically.
Thereby, in the last years efforts have been made in order to develop an instrument that can automatically analyze collaborative chat conversations used in educational contexts. In this paper we propose a solution based on natural language processing, social network analysis, latent semantic analysis, as well as data-mining and information retrieval techniques. All these perspectives are integrated in order to present various facilities, such as participant evaluation, utterance and collaboration assessment, topics visualization and semantic search. | |||
| The Impact of Usability Problems on the Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Enjoyment of an Augmented Reality Learning Scenario | | BIBA | PDF | 43-48 | |
| Dragos Daniel Iordache; Costin Pribeanu | |||
| Augmented reality technologies create new opportunities to increase students' motivation to learn. The integration of real objects in a computing environment requires specific interaction techniques which are making more difficult the development of usable applications in this area. Individual usability evaluation methods have specific advantages but also limitations when used in isolation. This suggests as appropriate a mixed research methodology. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of usability problems on the perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment that is based on the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data. | |||
| Design of a Haptic Cover for Mobile Devices for Persons with Visual Impairment | | BIBA | PDF | 49-52 | |
| Cristian-Alexandru Dragusanu; Petronela Stan; Andreea-Alexandra Iuga; Marina Cufliuc | |||
| In this article we will describe a method of interaction between a user with visual impairment and a mobile device. These users have a big disadvantage because the feedback offered by a common mobile device is mostly visual. Taking, for instance, blind users who wish to compose simple piano songs, we propose an application and a cover that will help them. The cover is specially designed for a mobile device with capacitive touchscreen. This cover is provided with embossed buttons, marked with Braille characters. It is made out of conductive foam that allows sending commands to the touch interface of the phone. | |||
| Informatics Devices and Devices with Vocal Interface | | BIBA | PDF | 53-58 | |
| Paul Fogarassy-Neszly | |||
| The paper describes software applications and hardware devices with voice user interface. The aim of these is to provide accessibility to information and communication technologies for peoples with reading disability, and on the other hand to improve the usability and ergonomics. Different software applications and hardware devices are presented, for blind and visual impaired peoples and for the general use. | |||
| The Influence of Perceptual Accuracy on the User Learning Experience with a Biology Application | | BIBA | PDF | 59-62 | |
| Costin Pribeanu | |||
| In recent years there is a growing interest for the hedonic aspects of interacting with e-learning systems. The interaction techniques based on augmented reality (AR -- Augmented Reality) provides new opportunities to increase the motivational value of e-learning platforms. In this paper we present a formative index measuring the accuracy of visual and auditory perception of a learning application for Biology. The analysis between the formatively measured items and a formatively measured construct highlights the influence of this specific usability aspect on the perceived enjoyment. | |||
| Development of Usability Heuristics. Case Study: Grid Computing Applications | | BIBA | PDF | 63-66 | |
| Cristian Rusu; Dorian Gorgan; Silvana Roncagliolo; Virginica Rusu Magureanu | |||
| The usability of applications based on new technologies brings new challenges. There is a need for new usability evaluation methods or (at least) traditional methods should be adapted to the new environments/requirements. Heuristic evaluation is a well known and widely used usability inspection method. Specific usability heuristics, suitable for specific applications, were proposed by many authors; however, the heuristics development process is poorly documented. The paper proposes a methodology to develop new usability heuristics. The methodology is applied in order to develop usability heuristics for Grid Computing applications. | |||
| Adaptive Student E-Learning System | | BIBA | PDF | 67-70 | |
| Liana Cornelia Hedesiu; Cornelia Melenti | |||
| In this article we will describe the theoretical basis, models and standards of adaptive student learning. In the last part of the paper there will be a presentation of the educational application Sintegro_AE, a desktop application designed for foreign students that want to learn the written Romanian language. The application was designed so that it will respect the level reached by a student in his/her training. | |||
| Educational Content Management System for Competence-Based Learning | | BIBA | PDF | 71-74 | |
| Ana-Maria Borozan; Ileana Trandafir | |||
| The paper presents some aspects of design and development of an educational
content management system for competence-oriented learning.
During the system development were taken into account a number of specific issues and requirements that competence oriented e-learning systems must meet: * create synergy between the learning-training processes and knowledge management, * new approach for competence acquisition and workplace learning, lifelong learning where the competence must be a balance between the individual interests and that of the organization, * content structuring and highlighting some semantic aspects to allow personalization and guidance to individual learning / training, * compatibility with international standards that ensure educational content reuse in different contexts and the interoperability of e-learning and human resource management systems. These objectives and requirements are correlated with current research objectives at European level in the Framework Program 7, 2007-2013, in Technology Enhanced Learning (TeLearn). | |||
| MDL Applications for Programming Lessons | | BIBA | PDF | 75-78 | |
| Daniel Safta; Dorian Gorgan | |||
| In this article we present applications of the lesson development module (MDL) -- the solution modeling component -- in two computer programming lessons, case studies conducted through a new approach to teaching computer science: visual modeling of algorithms and their evaluation based on metaphorical forms. We highlighted the impact of the implemented teaching strategies and of the applied learning methods on two types of users: students and teachers. A comparative study was conducted in two types of lessons, 2D and 3D. | |||
| A Multidimensional and Hierarchical Model for Assessing the Quality of E-Learning Services | | BIBA | PDF | 79-82 | |
| Alexandru Balog | |||
| This article defines dimensions of e-learning services quality to develop a measuring instrument. It reviewed the achievements in the field and theoretical concepts. It defines a multidimensional and hierarchical model by a factor of order three (the quality of the e-learning service), three dimensions modeled as second order factors (quality of interface, interaction quality, outcome quality) and nine sub-dimensions modeled as first order factors. Finally it shows how to further research. | |||
| Video Game Development Concepts | | BIBA | PDF | 83-90 | |
| Alexandru Angelescu; Sabin-Corneliu Buraga | |||
| The paper represents a case study which provides an overview of the main concepts regarding the development of video games, and of the methods used by independent game developers to put these concepts into practice. The notions presented in the article will be highlighted using an original project, Beneath a Crimson Sky, a flight simulator developed using the Microsoft XNA framework. | |||
| System for Defect Detection in Fabrics | | BIBA | PDF | 91-94 | |
| Dragos Catalin Barbu; Dragos Nicolae Nicolau | |||
| In the textile industry, for quality assurance, defect detection is a vital step. This paper presents a system for real time defect detection in fabrics which requires efficient and powerful algorithms. Based on the characteristics of the fabrics texture we use local binary patterns (LBP) to detect defects in fabric. Due to subtle defects, inspection of fabric defects is particularly difficult also because of variations in fabric texture and due to changes in environmental changes (e.g. illumination, noise, etc.). Online implementation of the algorithms showed that it can be implemented with the resources normally available and can be adapted for industrial applications. | |||
| Interaction Techniques for Satellite Image Processing on the Grid | | BIBA | PDF | 95-98 | |
| Vlad Doru Colceriu; Dorian Gorgan | |||
| The current paper presents the Human-Computer interaction techniques, which follow from executing the business part of an application on the Grid. It presents the way in which such a software deals with data management, data input selection, process state visualization and operator execution. Also it presents an alternative visualization technique for input and output data in a comparative way. During the presentation of each technique an analysis will be made of its the benefits and shortcomings. | |||
| Remote Visualization of Dynamical 3d Graphical Scenes | | BIBA | PDF | 99-102 | |
| Claudiu Mera; Dorian Gorgan | |||
| This paper presents the development of an application used for remote visualization of 3D graphical scenes. For this purpose, an interactive application is realized. The main goal of the system is to allow users of computers with limited graphical resources to visualize complex scenes that require a significantly large amount of computation. The secondary goal of the system is to let users of systems with powerful resources to dynamically configure and interact with complex 3D models. Theoretical aspects related to the current work in this field are introduced. The paper concludes by describing the achievements obtained by implementing the current system. | |||
| Human-Computer Interaction Techniques in Grid Based Hydrological Model Execution -- gSWAT Application | | BIBA | PDF | 103-106 | |
| Danut Mihon; Victor Bâcu; Teodor Stefanut; Dorian Gorgan | |||
| The environmental applications development has an increasing impact in modern society, through the simulation and prediction capabilities of the Earth phenomena (e.g. temperature distribution in time, floods prevention, water pollution, etc). This paper describes the gSWAT platform, based on the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) hydrological model. There are two main objectives related to this application: SWAT model calibration and execution. Each watershed has its own characteristics, described in terms of hydrologic parameters. Based on the values of these parameters the users could create different scenarios to simulate and to predict the hydrological phenomena. The calibration process requires a large volume of data processing. This is the main reason why the gSWAT was implemented as a Grid-based application. The Grid infrastructure offers high storage and power computing capabilities and support for parallel executions. | |||
| Using Hand Gestures in Human-Computer Interaction | | BIBA | PDF | 107-110 | |
| Mihaela Coneac; Adrian Iftene | |||
| This article discusses how to use hand gestures in human-computer
interaction. People, who are not very accustomed with computers, find this
method much more intuitive than using the mouse or keyboard.
The evaluation that we performed confirms this, human subjects who participated in the experiment showed that they can be pleased by possibility to give common commands easier. | |||
| Evaluation of the Effort to Mental Reconstruct the Objects from Technical Drawings | | BIBA | PDF | 111-114 | |
| Florin Gîrbacia; Eugen Butila; Andreea Beraru | |||
| In this paper is presented an experiment aimed to estimate the cognitive complexity of 2D technical drawings by measuring the reaction time and the accuracy of mentally reconstructed 3D images from 2D planar projections. From the performed experiment we can emphasize that the increased reaction time and reduced accuracy of 3D reconstructed brain images show the complexity the engineer is facing in the product development process. The precision and reaction time was not considerably improved by using 3D stereoscopic viewing. As a general conclusion, we can declare that improvement of actual 2D technical drawings by co-location of three dimensional models could be a viable alternative. | |||
| Virtual Reality Model in Geographical Information Systems | | BIBA | PDF | 115-118 | |
| Dârdala Marian; Reveiu Adriana; Furtuna Titus Felix | |||
| The paper presents a software architecture to implement a virtual reality model inside the Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Spatial data provides a schematic view of reality, so it is necessary to use raster data to give more realism to the studied geographic area. Using images as background for the studied geographical area is a simple way to accurately reflect reality on the ground. Satellite images, orthophotoplans are several sources of such raster data can be used in GIS. In the case of an urban area, immersive virtual reality models are the most appropriate models to present the reality more realistic. | |||
| Using Motion-Capture Technology in Real Time Interactive Environments | | BIBA | PDF | 119-122 | |
| Rizea Victor Adrian; Dinca Florin Alexandru; Ilie Ciprian; Hramco Vera; Polceanu Mihai; Dorin-Mircea Popovici | |||
| This paper brings into discussion the use of technology which is capable of
capturing human body movements (motion capture -- MoCap) in an interactive
virtual environment. We adopted two complementary perspectives. The first deals
with issues that arise from the use of MoCap to obtain behaviours for virtual
actors. The second regards the problems of capturing, applying and showing
different natural behaviours, in real time, for a virtual character which is
the user's avatar.
In order to demonstrate the presented subject we have chosen to make use of an interactive virtual environment which represents the reconstruction of the ancient Tomis colony. Here the users can experiment harbour activities through interaction with the virtual characters that are present in the environment; this interaction is enhanced by the possibility of communication with a character controlled by a real life historian, the real guide. After we present the architectural solution, the article brings into discussion the many aspects of using MoCap, demonstrating our point of view through the above mentioned application and ends with conclusions. | |||
| Using Context for Improving Human-Computer Interaction in Intelligent Spaces | | BIBA | PDF | 123-126 | |
| Emil Stanescu; Ileana Stanescu | |||
| In this paper we included some concepts and trends about diminishing the
interaction complexity of an user with his equipments throughout an intelligent
space.
The intelligent space includes different equipments and software applications which offer information and adapt to the existent context in that environment. The increased importance of context and context-awareness in computing environments is due to dissemination of computers and sensors near the mobile users. The context can be seen on different levels, it being able to improving user interface and, also, for supplying of services adapted to existent context. As a case study on improving human-computer interaction, we depict a recent approach on an intelligent wireless connection of a terminal, owning multiple interfaces, to access points of some communications networks which are using different technologies. That connection is made without user intervention for selecting access points to that networks. | |||
| Musical Information Retrieval System. Theory and Applications | | BIBA | PDF | 127-130 | |
| Adrian Simion | |||
| In this paper are analyzed some specific Music Information Retrieval problems. Also it presents introductory notions and some practical applications in this domain. Many of the notions and some techniques for solving the problems will be put to test in a program developed by the author, detailed at the end of the paper. The last part draws some conclusions about the difficulties in MIR (Music Information Retrieval) and about the future of this domain. | |||