http://www.hindawi.com The latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation © 2013 , Hindawi Publishing Corporation . All rights reserved. Tue, 07 May 2013 17:37:51 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/641074/ Introduction. Development of a robotic arm that can be operated using an exoskeletal position sensing harness as well as a dry electrode brain-computer interface headset. Design priorities comprise an intuitive and immersive user interface, fast and smooth movement, portability, and cost minimization. Materials and Methods. A robotic arm prototype capable of moving along 6 degrees of freedom has been developed, along with an exoskeletal position sensing harness which was used to control it. Commercially available dry electrode BCI headsets were evaluated. A particular headset model has been selected and is currently being integrated into the hybrid system. Results and Discussion. The combined arm-harness system has been successfully tested and met its design targets for speed, smooth movement, and immersive control. Initial tests verify that an operator using the system can perform pick and place tasks following a rather short learning curve. Further evaluation experiments are planned for the integrated BCI-harness hybrid setup. Conclusions. It is possible to design a portable robotic arm interface comparable in size, dexterity, speed, and fluidity to the human arm at relatively low cost. The combined system achieved its design goals for intuitive and immersive robotic control and is currently being further developed into a hybrid BCI system for comparative experiments. Alexander Astaras, Nikolaos Moustakas, Alkinoos Athanasiou, and Aristides Gogoussis Copyright © 2013 Alexander Astaras et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:11:21 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/619767/ There is a growing debate in the literature regarding the tradeoffs between lab and field evaluation of mobile devices. This paper presents a comparison of field-based and lab-based experiments to evaluate user experience of personalised mobile devices at large sports events. A lab experiment is recommended when the testing focus is on the user interface and application-oriented usability related issues. However, the results suggest that a field experiment is more suitable for investigating a wider range of factors affecting the overall acceptability of the designed mobile service. Such factors include the system function and effects of actual usage contexts aspects. Where open and relaxed communication is important (e.g., where participant groups are naturally reticent to communicate), this is more readily promoted by the use of a field study. Xu Sun and Andrew May Copyright © 2013 Xu Sun and Andrew May. All rights reserved. Sun, 07 Apr 2013 16:18:49 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/902316/ Mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) systems incorporate video conferencing equipment onto mobile robot devices which can be steered from remote locations. These systems, which are primarily used in the context of promoting social interaction between people, are becoming increasingly popular within certain application domains such as health care environments, independent living for the elderly, and office environments. In this paper, an overview of the various systems, application areas, and challenges found in the literature concerning mobile robotic telepresence is provided. The survey also proposes a set terminology for the field as there is currently a lack of standard terms for the different concepts related to MRP systems. Further, this paper provides an outlook on the various research directions for developing and enhancing mobile robotic telepresence systems per se, as well as evaluating the interaction in laboratory and field settings. Finally, the survey outlines a number of design implications for the future of mobile robotic telepresence systems for social interaction. Annica Kristoffersson, Silvia Coradeschi, and Amy Loutfi Copyright © 2013 Annica Kristoffersson et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:10:27 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/218084/ Face Interface is a wearable prototype that combines the use of voluntary gaze direction and facial activations, for pointing and selecting objects on a computer screen, respectively. The aim was to investigate the functionality of the prototype for entering text. First, three on-screen keyboard layout designs were developed and tested () to find a layout that would be more suitable for text entry with the prototype than traditional QWERTY layout. The task was to enter one word ten times with each of the layouts by pointing letters with gaze and select them by smiling. Subjective ratings showed that a layout with large keys on the edge and small keys near the center of the keyboard was rated as the most enjoyable, clearest, and most functional. Second, using this layout, the aim of the second experiment () was to compare entering text with Face Interface to entering text with mouse. The results showed that text entry rate for Face Interface was 20 characters per minute (cpm) and 27 cpm for the mouse. For Face Interface, keystrokes per character (KSPC) value was 1.1 and minimum string distance (MSD) error rate was 0.12. These values compare especially well with other similar techniques. Outi Tuisku, Veikko Surakka, Ville Rantanen, Toni Vanhala, and Jukka Lekkala Copyright © 2013 Outi Tuisku et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 03 Mar 2013 11:06:38 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/120791/ Francesco Bellotti, Bill Kapralos, Kiju Lee, and Pablo Moreno-Ger Copyright © 2013 Francesco Bellotti et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:38:43 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/136864/ There is a consensus that serious games have a significant potential as a tool for instruction. However, their effectiveness in terms of learning outcomes is still understudied mainly due to the complexity involved in assessing intangible measures. A systematic approach—based on established principles and guidelines—is necessary to enhance the design of serious games, and many studies lack a rigorous assessment. An important aspect in the evaluation of serious games, like other educational tools, is user performance assessment. This is an important area of exploration because serious games are intended to evaluate the learning progress as well as the outcomes. This also emphasizes the importance of providing appropriate feedback to the player. Moreover, performance assessment enables adaptivity and personalization to meet individual needs in various aspects, such as learning styles, information provision rates, feedback, and so forth. This paper first reviews related literature regarding the educational effectiveness of serious games. It then discusses how to assess the learning impact of serious games and methods for competence and skill assessment. Finally, it suggests two major directions for future research: characterization of the player’s activity and better integration of assessment in games. Francesco Bellotti, Bill Kapralos, Kiju Lee, Pablo Moreno-Ger, and Riccardo Berta Copyright © 2013 Francesco Bellotti et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:12:55 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/187024/ Increasing number of research activities and different types of studies in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems show potential in this young research area. Research teams have studied features of different data acquisition techniques, brain activity patterns, feature extraction techniques, methods of classifications, and many other aspects of a BCI system. However, conventional BCIs have not become totally applicable, due to the lack of high accuracy, reliability, low information transfer rate, and user acceptability. A new approach to create a more reliable BCI that takes advantage of each system is to combine two or more BCI systems with different brain activity patterns or different input signal sources. This type of BCI, called hybrid BCI, may reduce disadvantages of each conventional BCI system. In addition, hybrid BCIs may create more applications and possibly increase the accuracy and the information transfer rate. However, the type of BCIs and their combinations should be considered carefully. In this paper, after introducing several types of BCIs and their combinations, we review and discuss hybrid BCIs, different possibilities to combine them, and their advantages and disadvantages. Setare Amiri, Reza Fazel-Rezai, and Vahid Asadpour Copyright © 2013 Setare Amiri et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:02:17 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/745216/ Power assist systems are usually used for rehabilitation, healthcare, and so forth.This paper puts emphasis on the use of power assist systems for object transfer and thus brings a novelty in the power-assist applications. However, the interactions between the systems and the human users are usually not satisfactory because human features are not included in the control design. In this paper, we present the development of a 1-DOF power assist system for horizontal transfer of objects. We included human features such as weight perception in the system dynamics and control. We then simulated the system using MATLAB/Simulink for transferring objects with it and (i) determined the optimum maneuverability conditions for object transfer, (ii) determined psychophysical relationships between actual and perceived weights, and (iii) analyzed load forces and motion features. We then used the findings to design a novel adaptive control scheme to improve the interactions between the user and the system. We implemented the novel control (simulated the system again using the novel control), the subjects evaluated the system, and the results showed that the novel control reduced the excessive load forces and accelerations and thus improved the human-system interactions in terms of maneuverability, safety, and so forth. Finally, we proposed to use the findings to develop power assist systems for manipulating heavy objects in industries that may improve interactions between the systems and the users. S. M. Mizanoor Rahman and Ryojun Ikeura Copyright © 2012 S. M. Mizanoor Rahman and Ryojun Ikeura. All rights reserved. Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:17:13 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/185320/ Mental task onset detection from the continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) in real time is a critical issue in self-paced brain computer interface (BCI) design. The paper shows that self-paced BCI performance can be significantly improved by combining a range of simple techniques including (1) constant-Q filters with varying bandwidth size depending on the center frequency, instead of constant bandwidth filters for frequency decomposition of the EEG signal in the 6 to 36 Hz band; (2) subject-specific postprocessing parameter optimization consisting of dwell time and threshold, and (3) debiasing before postprocessing by readjusting the classification output based on the current and previous brain states, to reduce the number of false detections. This debiasing block is shown to be optimal when activated only in special cases which are predetermined during the training phase. Analysis of the data recorded from seven subjects executing foot movement shows a statistically significant 10% () average improvement in true positive rate (TPR) and a 1% reduction in false positive rate (FPR) detections compared with previous work on the same data. Raheleh Mohammadi, Ali Mahloojifar, and Damien Coyle Copyright © 2012 Raheleh Mohammadi et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:30:25 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/127627/ Introduction. Sensorimotor cortex is activated similarly during motor execution and motor imagery. The study of functional connectivity networks (FCNs) aims at successfully modeling the dynamics of information flow between cortical areas. Materials and Methods. Seven healthy subjects performed 4 motor tasks (real foot, imaginary foot, real hand, and imaginary hand movements), while electroencephalography was recorded over the sensorimotor cortex. Event-Related Desynchronization/Synchronization (ERD/ERS) of the mu-rhythm was used to evaluate MI performance. Source detection and FCNs were studied with eConnectome. Results and Discussion. Four subjects produced similar ERD/ERS patterns between motor execution and imagery during both hand and foot tasks, 2 subjects only during hand tasks, and 1 subject only during foot tasks. All subjects showed the expected brain activation in well-performed MI tasks, facilitating cortical source estimation. Preliminary functional connectivity analysis shows formation of networks on the sensorimotor cortex during motor imagery and execution. Conclusions. Cortex activation maps depict sensorimotor cortex activation, while similar functional connectivity networks are formed in the sensorimotor cortex both during actual and imaginary movements. eConnectome is demonstrated as an effective tool for the study of cortex activation and FCN. The implementation of FCN in motor imagery could induce promising advancements in Brain Computer Interfaces. Alkinoos Athanasiou, Chrysa Lithari, Konstantina Kalogianni, Manousos A. Klados, and Panagiotis D. Bamidis Copyright © 2012 Alkinoos Athanasiou et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:02:17 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/389523/ This paper describes the evaluation of an educational game designed to give learners of foreign languages the opportunity to practice their spoken language skills. Within the speech interactive Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) program, scenarios are presented in which learners interact with virtual characters in the target language using speech recognition technology. Two types of interactive scenarios with virtual characters are presented as part of the game: the one-to-one scenarios which take the form of practice question and answer scenarios where the learner interacts with one virtual character and the interactive scenario which is an immersive contextualised scenario where the learner interacts with two or more virtual characters within the scene to complete a (task-based) communicative goal. The study presented here compares learners’ subjective attitudes towards the different scenarios. In addition, the study investigates the performance of the speech recognition component in this game. Forty-eight students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) took part in the evaluation. Results indicate that learners’ subjective ratings for the contextualised interactive scenario are higher than for the one-to-one, practice scenarios. In addition, recognition performance was better for these interactive scenarios. Hazel Morton, Nancie Gunson, and Mervyn Jack Copyright © 2012 Hazel Morton et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:51:18 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/578295/ Error potentials (ErrP) are alterations of EEG traces following the subject’s perception of erroneous feedbacks. They provide a way to recognize misinterpreted commands in brain-computer interfaces (BCI). However, this has been evaluated online in only a couple of studies and mostly with very few subjects. In this study, we implemented a P300-based BCI, including not only online error detection but also, for the first time, automatic correction. We evaluated it in 16 healthy volunteers. Whenever an error was detected, a new decision was made based on the second best guess of a probabilistic classifier. At the group level, correction did neither improve nor deteriorate spelling accuracy. However, automatic correction yielded a higher bit rate than a respelling strategy. Furthermore, the fine examination of interindividual differences in the efficiency of error correction and spelling clearly distinguished between two groups who differed according to individual specificity in ErrP detection. The high specificity group had larger evoked responses and made fewer errors which were corrected more efficiently, yielding a 4% improvement in spelling accuracy and a higher bit rate. Altogether, our results suggest that the more the subject is engaged into the task, the more useful and well accepted the automatic error correction. Perrin Margaux, Maby Emmanuel, Daligault Sébastien, Bertrand Olivier, and Mattout Jérémie Copyright © 2012 Perrin Margaux et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:09:42 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/461247/ We have developed an intelligent agent to engage with users in virtual drama improvisation previously. The intelligent agent was able to perform sentence-level affect detection from user inputs with strong emotional indicators. However, we noticed that many inputs with weak or no affect indicators also contain emotional implication but were regarded as neutral expressions by the previous interpretation. In this paper, we employ latent semantic analysis to perform topic theme detection and identify target audiences for such inputs. We also discuss how such semantic interpretation of the dialog contexts is used to interpret affect more appropriately during virtual improvisation. Also, in order to build a reliable affect analyser, it is important to detect and combine weak affect indicators from other channels such as body language. Such emotional body language detection also provides a nonintrusive channel to detect users’ experience without interfering with the primary task. Thus, we also make initial exploration on affect detection from several universally accepted emotional gestures. Li Zhang and Bryan Yap Copyright © 2012 Li Zhang and Bryan Yap. All rights reserved. Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:45:37 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/124728/ We present a brain-computer interface (BCI) version of the famous “Connect Four”. Target selection is based on brain event-related responses measured with nine EEG sensors. Two players compete against each other using their brain activity only. Importantly, we turned the general difficulty of producing a reliable BCI command into an advantage, by extending the game play and rules, in a way that adds fun to the game and might well prove to trigger up motivation in future studies. The principle of this new BCI is directly inspired from our own implementation of the classical P300 Speller (Maby et al. 2010, Perrin et al. 2011). We here establish a proof of principle that the same electrophysiological markers can be used to design an efficient two-player game. Experimental evaluation on two competing healthy subjects yielded an average accuracy of 82%, which is in line with our previous results on many participants and demonstrates that the BCI “Connect Four” can effectively be controlled. Interestingly, the duration of the game is not significantly affected by the usual slowness of BCI commands. This suggests that this kind of BCI games could be of interest to healthy players as well as to disabled people who cannot play with classical games. Emmanuel Maby, Margaux Perrin, Olivier Bertrand, Gaëtan Sanchez, and Jérémie Mattout Copyright © 2012 Emmanuel Maby et al. All rights reserved. Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:22:02 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/213143/ Virtualized reality games offer highly interactive and engaging user experience and therefore game-based approaches (GBVR) may have significant potential to enhance clinical rehabilitation practice as traditional therapeutic exercises are often repetitive and boring, reducing patient compliance. The aim of this study was to investigate if a rehabilitation training programme using GBVR could simultaneously improve both motor skill (MS) and confidence (CON), as they are both important determinants of daily living and physical and social functioning. The study was performed using a nondominant hand motor deficit model in nonambidextrous healthy young adults, whereby dominant and nondominant arms acted as control and intervention conditions, respectively. GBVR training was performed using a commercially available tennis-based game. CON and MS were assessed by having each subject perform a comparable real-world motor task (RWMT) before and after training. Baseline CON and MS for performing the RWMT were significantly lower for the nondominant hand and improved after GBVR training, whereas there were no changes in the dominant (control) arm. These results demonstrate that by using a GBVR approach to address a MS deficit in a real-world task, improvements in both MS and CON can be facilitated and such approaches may help increase patient compliance. Alasdair G. Thin Copyright © 2012 Alasdair G. Thin. All rights reserved. Thu, 22 Nov 2012 12:13:22 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/123725/ User modeling and profiling has been used to evaluate systems and predict user behaviors for a considerable time. Models and profiles are generally constructed based on studies of users’ behavior patterns, cognitive characteristics, or demographic data and provide an efficient way to present users’ preferences and interests. However, such modeling focuses on users’ interactions with a system and cannot support complicated social interaction, which is the emerging focus of serious games, educational hypermedia systems, experience, and service design. On the other hand, personas are used to portray and represent different groups and types of users and help designers propose suitable solutions in iterative design processes. However, clear guidelines and research approaches for developing useful personas for large-scale and complex social networks have not been well established. In this research, we reflect on three different design studies related to social interaction, experience, and cross-platform service design to discuss multiple ways of identifying both direct users and invisible users in design research. In addition, research methods and attributes to portray users are discussed. Ko-Hsun Huang, Yi-Shin Deng, and Ming-Chuen Chuang Copyright © 2012 Ko-Hsun Huang et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:10:03 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/369637/ Usability testing is a key step in the successful design of new technologies and tools, ensuring that heterogeneous populations will be able to interact easily with innovative applications. While usability testing methods of productivity tools (e.g., text editors, spreadsheets, or management tools) are varied, widely available, and valuable, analyzing the usability of games, especially educational “serious” games, presents unique usability challenges. Because games are fundamentally different than general productivity tools, “traditional” usability instruments valid for productivity applications may fall short when used for serious games. In this work we present a methodology especially designed to facilitate usability testing for serious games, taking into account the specific needs of such applications and resulting in a systematically produced list of suggested improvements from large amounts of recorded gameplay data. This methodology was applied to a case study for a medical educational game, MasterMed, intended to improve patients’ medication knowledge. We present the results from this methodology applied to MasterMed and a summary of the central lessons learned that are likely useful for researchers who aim to tune and improve their own serious games before releasing them for the general public. Pablo Moreno-Ger, Javier Torrente, Yichuan Grace Hsieh, and William T. Lester Copyright © 2012 Pablo Moreno-Ger et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:07:26 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/624538/ This study investigated motivational strategies and the assessment of learners’ motivation during serious gameplay. Identifying and intelligently assessing the effects that these strategies may have on learners are particularly relevant for educational computer-based systems. We proposed, therefore, the use of physiological sensors, namely, heart rate, skin conductance, and electroencephalogram (EEG), as well as a theoretical model of motivation (Keller’s ARCS model) to evaluate six motivational strategies selected from a serious game called Food-Force. Results from nonparametric tests and logistic regressions supported the hypothesis that physiological patterns and their evolution are suitable tools to directly and reliably assess the effects of selected strategies on learners’ motivation. They showed that specific EEG “attention ratio” was a significant predictor of learners’ motivation and could relevantly evaluate motivational strategies, especially those associated with the Attention and Confidence categories of the ARCS model of motivation. Serious games and intelligent systems can greatly benefit from using these results to enhance and adapt their interventions. Lotfi Derbali and Claude Frasson Copyright © 2012 Lotfi Derbali and Claude Frasson. All rights reserved. Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:35:04 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/654791/ This paper describes the design and evaluation of Zoo U, a novel computer game to assess children’s social skills development. Zoo U is an innovative product that combines theory-driven content and customized game mechanics. The game-like play creates the opportunity for stealth assessment, in which dynamic evidence of social skills is collected in real time and players’ choices during gameplay provide the needed data. To ensure the development of an engaging and valid game, we utilized an iterative data-driven validation process in which the game was created, tested, revised based on student performance and feedback, and retested until game play was statistically matched to independent ratings of social skills. We first investigated whether the data collected through extensive logging of student actions provided information that could be used to improve the assessment. We found that detailed game logs of socially relevant player behavior combined with external measures of player social skills provided an efficient vector to incrementally improve the accuracy of the embedded assessments. Next, we investigated whether the game performance correlated with teachers’ assessments of students’ social skills competencies. An evaluation of the final game showed (a) significant correlations between in-game social skills assessments and independently obtained standard psychological assessments of the same students and (b) high levels of engagement and likeability for students. These findings support the use of the interactive and engaging computer game format for the stealth assessment of children’s social skills. The created innovative design methodologies should prove useful in the design and improvement of computer games in education. Melissa E. DeRosier, Ashley B. Craig, and Rebecca P. Sanchez Copyright © 2012 Melissa E. DeRosier et al. All rights reserved. Sun, 14 Oct 2012 10:04:04 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/831959/ There are many virtual environments found in the serious game community that simulate real world scenarios. There is a broad range of fidelity and experimental controls among these serious games. An important component to most evaluations is the extent to which level of fidelity impacts the persons immersed in the serious game. While a great deal of virtual environment and serious game research has assessed the subjective state or feeling of the participant (e.g., the participant’s sense of presence) through the use of questionnaires, the current study examines participant experience by examining psychophysiological responses of participants to their surroundings. The primary goal in this study was evaluative: will a virtual environment with arousing contents result in increased sensory arousal if it is presented in a highly immersive configuration? A secondary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of our environment to offer varying levels of stimulus threat to impact the user’s experience of the virtual environment. Increased simulation fidelity in an arousing environment resulted in faster heart rates and increased startle eyeblink amplitudes, suggesting that higher fidelity scenarios had great efficacy related to sensory arousal. Thomas D. Parsons, Albert A. Rizzo, Christopher G. Courtney, and Michael E. Dawson Copyright © 2012 Thomas D. Parsons et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:00:48 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/343197/ The recent development of three dimensional (3D) display technologies has resulted in a proliferation of 3D video production and broadcasting, attracting a lot of research into capture, compression and delivery of stereoscopic content. However, the predominant design practice of interactions with 3D video content has failed to address its differences and possibilities in comparison to the existing 2D video interactions. This paper presents a study of user requirements related to interaction with the stereoscopic 3D video. The study suggests that the change of view, zoom in/out, dynamic video browsing, and textual information are the most relevant interactions with stereoscopic 3D video. In addition, we identified a strong demand for object selection that resulted in a follow-up study of user preferences in 3D selection using virtual-hand and ray-casting metaphors. These results indicate that interaction modality affects users’ decision of object selection in terms of chosen location in 3D, while user attitudes do not have significant impact. Furthermore, the ray-casting-based interaction modality using Wiimote can outperform the volume-based interaction modality using mouse and keyboard for object positioning accuracy. Haiyue Yuan, Janko Ćalić, and Ahmet Kondoz Copyright © 2012 Haiyue Yuan et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:22:12 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/741304/ Traditionally only speech communicates emotions via mobile phone. However, in daily communication the sense of touch mediates emotional information during conversation. The present aim was to study if tactile stimulation affects emotional ratings of speech when measured with scales of pleasantness, arousal, approachability, and dominance. In the Experiment 1 participants rated speech-only and speech-tactile stimuli. The tactile signal mimicked the amplitude changes of the speech. In the Experiment 2 the aim was to study whether the way the tactile signal was produced affected the ratings. The tactile signal either mimicked the amplitude changes of the speech sample in question, or the amplitude changes of another speech sample. Also, concurrent static vibration was included. The results showed that the speech-tactile stimuli were rated as more arousing and dominant than the speech-only stimuli. The speech-only stimuli were rated as more approachable than the speech-tactile stimuli, but only in the Experiment 1. Variations in tactile stimulation also affected the ratings. When the tactile stimulation was static vibration the speech-tactile stimuli were rated as more arousing than when the concurrent tactile stimulation was mimicking speech samples. The results suggest that tactile stimulation offers new ways of modulating and enriching the interpretation of speech. Katri Salminen, Veikko Surakka, Jani Lylykangas, Jussi Rantala, Teemu Ahmaniemi, Roope Raisamo, Dari Trendafilov, and Johan Kildal Copyright © 2012 Katri Salminen et al. All rights reserved. Thu, 13 Sep 2012 07:39:49 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/835246/ Even if their spatial reasoning capabilities remain quite similar to those of sighted people, blind people encounter difficulties in getting distant information from their surroundings. Thus, whole body displacements, tactile map consultations, or auditory solutions are needed to establish physical contacts with their environment. Therefore, the accuracy of nonvisual spatial representations heavily relies upon the efficiency of exploration strategies and the ability to coordinate egocentric and allocentric spatial frames of reference. This study aims to better understand the mechanisms of this coordination without vision by analyzing cartographic exploration strategies and assessing their influence on mental spatial representations. Six blind sailors were immersed within a virtual haptic and auditory maritime environment. They were required to learn the layout of the map. Their movements were recorded and we identified some exploration strategies. Then they had to estimate the directions of six particular seamarks in aligned and misaligned situations. Better accuracy and coordination were obtained when participants used the “central point of reference” strategy. Our discussion relative to the articulation between geometric enduring representations and salient transient perceptions provides implications on map reading techniques and on mobility and orientation programs for blind people. Mathieu Simonnet and Stéphane Vieilledent Copyright © 2012 Mathieu Simonnet and Stéphane Vieilledent. All rights reserved. Mon, 10 Sep 2012 09:01:06 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/521521/ One of the more debated issues regarding training simulators is their validity for transfer of skills to sensory environments that differ from the simulator. In two experiments, the advantages of three-dimensional (3D) and collocated (Col) visual displays were evaluated in a realistic and complex visuomotor task. The two factors were evaluated independently, comparing Col-2D with dislocated-2D (experiment 1) and with Col-3D (experiment 2). As expected, in both cases the more immersive presentation condition facilitated better performance. Furthermore, improvement following training in the more immersive condition carried over to the following less immersive condition but there was no carry over in the opposing order of presentation. This is taken as an indication for the differential development of skills conditioned by the level of immersiveness of the training environment. This further suggests that learning of complex realistic tasks is not carried over from less immersive simulator to the complex sensory environment of reality, due to the large gap in sensory patterns. Dror David Lev and Miriam Reiner Copyright © 2012 Dror David Lev and Miriam Reiner. All rights reserved. Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:36:25 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/948693/ This study examines the impact of organizational antecedences (i.e., organizational support and information policy) and technical antecedences (i.e., subjective server response time and objective server response time) to perceived usability, perceived strain, and commercial transactions (i.e. purchases) in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. Data were gathered from a web-based study with 491 employees using e-procurement bookseller portals. Structural equation modeling results revealed positive relationships of organizational support and information policy, and negative relationships of subjective server response time to usability after controlling for users' age, gender, and computer experience. Perceived usability held negative relationships to perceived strain and fully mediated the relation between the three significant antecedences and perceived strain while purchases were not predicted. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications and consequences for successfully designing and implementing B2B e-commerce information systems. Udo Konradt, Lüder Lückel, and Thomas Ellwart Copyright © 2012 Udo Konradt et al. All rights reserved. Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:07:21 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/768180/ In order to collaboratively explore an environment with a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV), an operator needs a mobile interface, which can support the operator’s divided attention. To this end, we developed the Micro Aerial Vehicle Exploration of an Unknown Environment (MAV-VUE) interface, which allows operators with minimal training the ability to remotely explore their environment with a MAV. MAV-VUE employs a concept we term Perceived First-Order (PFO) control, which allows an operator to effectively “fly” a MAV with no risk to the vehicle. PFO control utilizes a position feedback control loop to fly the MAV while presenting rate feedback to the operator. A usability study was conducted to evaluate MAV-VUE. This interface was connected remotely to an actual MAV to explore a GPS-simulated urban environment. David Pitman and Mary L. Cummings Copyright © 2012 David Pitman and Mary L. Cummings. All rights reserved. Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:30:15 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/251384/ The latest smartphones with GPS, electronic compasses, directional audio, touch screens, and so forth, hold a potential for location-based services that are easier to use and that let users focus on their activities and the environment around them. Rather than interpreting maps, users can search for information by pointing in a direction and database queries can be created from GPS location and compass data. Users can also get guidance to locations through point and sweep gestures, spatial sound, and simple graphics. This paper describes two studies testing two applications with multimodal user interfaces for navigation and information retrieval. The applications allow users to search for information and get navigation support using combinations of point and sweep gestures, nonspeech audio, graphics, and text. Tests show that users appreciated both applications for their ease of use and for allowing users to interact directly with the surrounding environment. Mats Liljedahl, Stefan Lindberg, Katarina Delsing, Mikko Polojärvi, Timo Saloranta, and Ismo Alakärppä Copyright © 2012 Mats Liljedahl et al. All rights reserved. Tue, 14 Aug 2012 11:12:35 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/158487/ The present study investigated the effects of brief synthesized spoken words with emotional content on the ratings of emotions and heart rate responses. Twenty participants' heart rate functioning was measured while they listened to a set of emotionally negative, neutral, and positive words produced by speech synthesizers. At the end of the experiment, ratings of emotional experiences were also collected. The results showed that the ratings of the words were in accordance with their valence. Heart rate deceleration was significantly the strongest and most prolonged to the negative stimuli. The findings are the first suggesting that brief spoken emotionally toned words evoke a similar heart rate response pattern found earlier for more sustained emotional stimuli. Mirja Ilves and Veikko Surakka Copyright © 2012 Mirja Ilves and Veikko Surakka. All rights reserved. Sun, 05 Aug 2012 10:20:28 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/210507/ This research investigates if a computer and an alternative input device in the form of sensor gloves can be used in the process of teaching children sign language. The presented work is important, because no current literature investigates how sensor gloves can be used to assist children in the process of learning sign language. The research presented in this paper has been conducted by assembling hardware into sensor gloves, and by designing software capable of (i) filtering out sensor noise, (ii) detecting intentionally posed signs, and (iii) correctly evaluating signals in signs posed by different children. Findings show that the devised technology can form the basis of a tool that teaches children sign language, and that there is a potential for further research in this area. Kirsten Ellis and Jan Carlo Barca Copyright © 2012 Kirsten Ellis and Jan Carlo Barca. All rights reserved. Sun, 05 Aug 2012 09:35:58 +0000 http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2012/324694/ Empirical studies have repeatedly shown that autonomous artificial entities elicit social behavior on the part of the human interlocutor. Various theoretical approaches have tried to explain this phenomenon. The agency assumption states that the social influence of human interaction partners (represented by avatars) will always be higher than the influence of artificial entities (represented by embodied conversational agents). Conversely, the Ethopoeia concept predicts that automatic social reactions are triggered by situations as soon as they include social cues. Both theories have been challenged in a 2×2 between subjects design with two levels of agency (low: agent, high: avatar) and two interfaces with different degrees of social cues (low: textchat, high: virtual human). The results show that participants in the virtual human condition reported a stronger sense of mutual awareness, imputed more positive characteristics, and allocated more attention to the virtual human than participants in the text chat conditions. Only one result supports the agency assumption; participants who believed to interact with a human reported a stronger feeling of social presence than participants who believed to interact with an artificial entity. It is discussed to what extent these results support the social cue assumption made in the Ethopoeia approach. Jana Appel, Astrid von der Pütten, Nicole C. Krämer, and Jonathan Gratch Copyright © 2012 Jana Appel et al. All rights reserved.