This technical report presents the data and some results of the experimental research in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (Kansei Engineering), undertaken jointly by Technische Universität Chemnitz (Germany) and Novosibirsk State Technical University (Russia) in Feb- March 2016. In the experiment, 82 Master and Bachelor students of both universities evaluated 21 website of selected German and Russian universities per 10 emotional and 5 quality scales.

[pt] Dispositivos de interação tradicionais como mouse e teclado não se adaptam adequadamente a aplicações imersivas, uma vez que sua utilização nesse tipo de ambiente não é ergonômica, já que o usuário pode estar em pé ou até mesmo em movimento. Além disso, utilizando o modelo atual de interação para esse tipo de aplicação (baseado em wands e mouses 3D), o usuário se vê obrigado a realizar diversas mudanças de contexto a cada vez que necessita realizar uma tarefa não suportada no modo imersivo, especialmente a entrada de símbolos. Essas mudanças constantes de contexto da imersão para o WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) introduzem uma ruptura no modo de interação do usuário com a aplicação. O objetivo deste trabalho é explorar as possibilidades de uso de um dispositivo que mapeia uma interface de toque em um ambiente imersivo de realidade virtual. Foi desenvolvida uma luva para interação com ambientes imersivos de realidade virtual 3D (v-Glove) com duas funcionalidades principais: rastreamento da posição referente ao dedo indicador do usuário no espaço e a geração de uma vibração na extremidade do dedo indicador no momento em que este atinge a localização de uma área plana mapeada no espaço de interação. Foram feitos testes quantitativos e qualitativos com usuários para avaliar a v-Glove, comparando-a com um mouse 3D tradicionalmente utilizado em ambientes imersivos. / [en] Traditional interaction devices such as mouse and keyboard don t adapt to immersive applications, since their use in this kind of environment isn t ergonomic, because the user may be standing or in movement. Moreover, in the current interaction model for this kind of application (based on wands and 3D mice), the users have to change context every time they need to execute a nonimmersive task, specially the symbolic input. These constant context changes from immersion to WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) introduce a rupture in the user interaction with the application. The objective of this work is to explore the use possibilities of a device that maps a touch interface in a virtual reality immersive environment. We developed a glove for interaction in 3D virtual reality immersive environments (v-Glove), which has two main functionalities: tracking of the position of the user s forefinger in the space and the generation of a vibration in the fingertip when it reaches an area mapped in the interaction space. We performed quantitative and qualitative tests with users to evaluate v-Glove, comparing it with a 3D mouse used in immersive environments.

The advent of powerful wearable devices and smartphones has enabled a new generation of “in-the-wild” user studies, adaptive behavioral intervention strategies, and context measurement. Though numerous proof-of-concept studies continue to push the limitations of what a behavioral scientist can do with these technologies, there remains a major methodological roadblock separating behavioral theory and application. Avatar-user interaction theory, for example, is not well defined in its formulation, and thus guidelines for intervention designers depend on heuristic methods and designer intuition. Computational modeling has been slow to move into behavioral science in general, but a growing population of behavioral scientists recognize this shortcoming and are eager to apply new technology to their work. In order to help close this disciplinary rift between systems engineers and behavioral scientists, human-computer interaction principles must be applied to make the seemingly inaccessible “magic” of modeling and simulation techniques accessible to behavioral scientists. Thus, this dissertation presents formative work to help bring engineering methodology to human behavior modeling and simulation. Using theories of avatar-user interaction theory, physical activity regulation, and “information overload” as applications to drive toolkit design, usability considerations and interface needed to connect behavioral scientists with dynamical systems modeling are explored. A number of challenges unique to the modeling of human behavior and quirks of extant modeling efforts in behavioral science mean that existing modeling tools do not satisfy the needs of the community, and a novel design to address these shortcomings is presented. Exploration of the fundamental design questions which arise from application of engineering principles to this unique problem will produce quality publications in software engineering, HCI, and behavioral science. Furthermore, both the “behaviorSim” toolkit and the innovative inclusion of modeling and simulation represent significant contributions to the development and application of human behavioral theory.

<p>New parents often experience significant stress as they take on new roles and responsibilities. Personal informatics practices have increasingly gained attention as they support various aspects of wellness of individuals by providing data-driven self-insights. While several PI systems have been proposed to support mental wellness of individuals not only by providing self-knowledge but also by helping individuals deal with negative emotions, few studies investigated how parenting stress can be managed through PI practices. In this paper, I set out to investigate how new parents make use of flexible self-tracking practices in the context of stress management. The findings of this study indicate that flexible self-tracking practices enable individuals to develop self-knowledge as well as to better communicate with their spouses through data. Based on the findings, I discuss how the self-tracking experiences for the mental wellness of parents can be better designed and provide some considerations for future research and design for parenting stress management.</p>

To be successful citizen science projects need to do two key things: (1) they need to meaningfully engage the public and they must also provide people with the tools, expertise, and/or training needed to participate in rigorous research that can be used by the scientific community. In some ways, these requirements are potentially at odds. Emphasis on rigor and expertise risks excluding members of the public who do not feel qualified to participate in esoteric or technically difficult scientific research. Conversely, projects that eschew rigorous methods in favor of wider participation might lead to bad data that cannot be used to draw any meaningful conclusions to expand scientific understanding. How then do those who are aiming to design successful citizen science programs create tools and processes that facilitate both active engagement and meaningful scientific results for perceived non-expert researchers? This paper uses a case study of the Outsmart Invasive Species Project (Outsmart) to explore how visual media shape the experiences of citizen scientists participating in a data collection project. Outsmart uses visual media such as photographs and videos to train users in identifying invasive species, and asks them to submit their own location-tagged pictures to a central database for review by a trained research team. Using ethnographic field observation, we focused on how visual media serve to improve engagement in non-expert Outsmart users by building confidence and expertise. Our work can provide guidance to other citizen science projects in how to best use visual media to empower citizens and improve scientific outcomes.

<div>The persistent issues that have been identified in the cyber defense domain, such as information-overload, burn-out and high turn-over rates among cyber analysts leads us to question what the cognitive ability contribution is to a more successful cyber performance. Cyber defense researchers theorize that individual differences are determinants of cyber performance success but have yet to establish empirically the role of individual differences. Therefore, the study uses an individual differences approach under a work performance framework to study the contributions of cognitive ability (i.e., attention control) on cyber performance success in a specific cyber work-role (i.e., the Incident Reponder), and through its well-defined primary task (i.e., incident detection system performance). The sample included actual network analysts with a wide range of incident detection expertise, age, and education levels for more reliable and valid scores. The results of the correlational analysis showed that individual differences in attention control (i.e., flexibility and spatial attention) contribute most to the differences in Incident Responder work-performance. A linear regression model then demonstrated that spatial attention and flexibility predict 53 to 60 percent of the variance in cyber performance scores. It is suggested that the KSA's from the NICE framework be updated with the cognitive abilities that contribute to and/or predict cyber performance success, for superior recruitment efforts towards a more efficient cyber defense work-force. </div><div><br></div>

Current generation of consumer electronics products for virtual reality (VR) allows to track user motion in physical play area which can be converted into a corresponding change of their position in a virtual environment. There are, however, some potential pitfalls with using this approach as the main method of user motion in the virtual space. Therefore, vast majority of contemporary applications is based on different methods that do not take advantage of the available play area and the possibilities of the input devices in their entirity. The main goal of this thesis is to propose and demonstrate a feasible way of implementation allowing the use of available physical space and to try to evaluate whether basing the user motion in an application on the described approach can result in an increase of user interest, attract more users and offer them better experience, and whether it therefore can be profitable in spite of all the related disadvantages.

Robotics engineers' ongoing quest to create human-like robots has raised profound questions on their lack of ethical implications. The rapid progress and growth of humanoid robots is said to have a significant impact on society and human psychology in the near future. Interaction Design is a multidisciplinary field in which designers are often encouraged to engage in important conversations and find solutions to complex problems. On the other hand, animators often use animated videos as metaphors to reflect on important matters that are present in our cultural and societal spheres. This study investigates the use of animation in Speculative Design settings as material to bridge two communities together - the animators and roboticists, to foster ethical behaviors and impact future technology. The main result of the design process is a concept for a mobile platform that stimulates discussions on the ethical considerations of human relationships with humanoid robots, through speculative animation. Moreover, the interactive platform enhances imagination, creativity and learning processes between users.

This work deals with problems aging of unipolar transistors. In theoretical parts are described the mechanisms which causing aging unipolar transistors and way leading to the restriction the change of parameters in time. The measurement and data evaluation was built on theoretical knowledge. The model of aging FET is a result of this works; it is creating extraction of data from measured data. Finally, the degradation constants are evaluation from this data. This FET aging model is easy to use in simulators of electronics circuits including aging simulations (e.g. ELDO).

According to non-stopable progress in wireless communications, it is desirable to integrate the RF front-end with the baseband building blocks of communication circuits into a one chip in the recent years. The CMOS technology advances, this is the reason why it becomes attractive for system-on-a-chip implementation, but CMOS device is getting shrink, so the channel electric field increasing and the hot carrier (HCI) effect becomes more significant. If the oxide is scaled down to less than 3 nm, then there is the possibility of soft or hard oxide breakdown (S/HBD) often takes place. As a result of the oxide trapping and interface generation is the long term performance drift and related reliability problems in devices and circuits. During the scaling and increasing chip power dissipation operating temperatures for device have also is increasing. Another reliability concern is the negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) caused by the interface traps under high temperature and negative gate voltage bias are arising while the operation temperature of devices is increasing. Parameter’s extraction is a very important part of the current electronic components modeling process, as it looking for the value of the unknown parameters in mathematical model, which represents physical behavior of given electronic component. The problem of parameter extraction is that fits electronic components mathematical model to a measured data set is an ill-posed problem and its solution is inherently difficult. This diploma thesis presents the parameter extraction, optimization methodology and verifies it on a case study of a MOSFET mathematical models (LEVEL1, LEVEL2 and LEVEL3) parameter extraction. The presented nonlinear method is based on the method of the least squares, which is solved with the aid of Levenberg- Marquardt’s algorithm.