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Can a computer truly be creative? This is the philosophical question that defines this thesis. It is suggested that the only way for this question to be answered in the affirmative, is to thoroughly investigate the cognitive nature of creativity. First the thesis proposes a definition of creativity based on cognitive research, human intuition and artificial creativity debates. This definition accounts for not only that thecreative product has to be both novel and useful, but that the creative agent has to exceed a certain level of cognitive maturity (in thesis referred to as - intelligence) and be aware of the creative process and context. The framework for the creative process isfounded on the psychologically supported notion of a circle of divergent and convergent thinking, and a cognitive machinery of conceptual blending. It is in the framework of the creative process that the criterion for the creative productis generated. In the circle of divergent and convergent thinking and through conceptual blending, novel ideas are first generated, then evaluated. For this to be possible thecreative agent has to exceed a certain level of cognitive abilities, and in order to properly evaluate the product, it also needs to have awareness of the process and context to beable to evaluate the product. A second part of the thesis looks at problems with AI and what that means for the approaches to artificial creativity. By using the reasoning behind the definition, the possibility to create truly creative computers are proposed and discussed. In the line of the definition a conceptual suggested approach is presented, that if satisfied it is the author’s suggestion that the artificial system should be deemed "creative". The artificial agent has far to go before it is equal in cognitive maturity to human intellect, and the capacity for awareness of the process and context is debatable. Genetic algorithms, randomness and perception is presented as possibilities for artificial agents to create novelty, and a multi layered processing system build on learning through perception, and evaluation build on key concepts from context and statistics of previous knowledge, is introduced as possible means of creating artificial creativity.

The management of records is an essential part of any organization. Today this implies the management of mostly digital records in electronic record management systems. There are many standards for record management. Three influential standards was compared and used to evaluate such an electronic record management system in this thesis. The purposes of the thesis was to find out how the core features support and interfere with each other, and which changes could be done to a system evaluated according to the standards, as well as what the major challenges were when using document standards to evaluate an electronic record management system. The standards were MoReq2010, ISO 15489 and DoD 5012.02. To conform to the standards, some changes could be done to the studied system. For instance, changing document keys and to include more metadata about disposal of records. The conclusions were that standards are a good complementary source when developing an existing record management system, even though their size and complexity level are issues to deal with.

Människan inhämtar och bearbetar information via sina sinnen för att skapa en bild av omvärlden. Mängden information som människan kan bearbeta är begränsad, speciellt i komplexa miljöer där flera uppgifter ska utföras. Fokus för denna studie är att reducera piloters kognitiva belastning för att underlätta i svåra flygsituationer. Ett stort problem idag är att när en pilot förlorar yttre visuella referenser så kan spatial desorientering uppstå. Ett resultat av det kan vara att helikoptern börjar driva utan att piloten märker något. Förutom en grundpanel som piloter alltid har tillgång till har fyra olika potentiella stöd, för att motverka drift, jämförts i ett experiment. Displayerna som skulle kunna ge stöd avseende drift är en visuell display, en taktil väst samt en kombination av den visuella displayen och den taktila västen, även kallad bimodal display. 12 deltagare deltog i experimentet och 8 av dem var studenter. Resultatet visar att deltagarna presterar signifikant sämre med grundpanelen än med de övriga displayerna. Resultatet visar också att prestationen med en taktil väst eller bimodal display inte skiljer sig från en visuell display. Detta är ett lovande resultat som tyder på att prestationen av att undvika drift med en taktil- eller en bimodal display är likvärdig en välbeprövad visuell display. Det i sin tur betyder att informationen skulle kunna delas upp på flera sinnen och reducera kognitiv belastning. Om informationen avseende drift kan delas upp på flera sinnen finns det resurser kvar att lägga på andra uppgifter, till exempel att spana ut i luftrummet istället för att titta på instrument inne i cockpit.

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Conducting UX research has beneficial effects on product development and results in a successful user experience [24,30], [27]. By involving the end-users simultaneously, the usability and the usefulness of the product increase, as well as the user satisfaction [14], [19]. Previous studies have shown that despite the importance of UX research and user involvement, a coherent setup of UX research methods and knowledge about user involvement is currently lacking among UX professionals [21], [26]. This study was therefore conducted to explore further the contemporary practice of UX research among UX professionals in Swedish organizations, in order to gain insights into the current practice among UX professionals in Sweden. Hence, the aim of this study was to gain knowledge of the incorporated UX research methods used among UX professionals within Swedish organizations, how the UX research activities are practiced in relation to other work-related activities, and to what extent the UX professionals conduct UX research involving end-users. By using a mixed-method approach, semi-structured interviews and an online survey were conducted in order to explore this subject. 10 UX professionals participated in the semi-structured interviews that consisted of 10 questions regarding their practice of UX research and user involvement. The online survey was distributed on different social media platforms and was based on the results from the semi-structured interviews. The survey got 53 individual answers, with 24 completed answers and 29 partly completed answers. The results from both data gatherings established that the most common UX research methods incorporated in the present work of UX professionals in Swedish organizations were interviews, user testing, and heuristic evaluations. The amount of time spent on UX research activities, in relation to other activities, varied between the UX professionals and what they stated in the semi-structured interviews and the online survey. The survey established that UX professionals spend a total of 51 hours on different UX research activities, whilst the semi-structured interviews established that the hours spent on the UX research depends on the project cycle, with a variation from no work per week at all, to working full time per week. The most common UX research method to involve end-users was when conducting interviews, as established in both the semi-structured interviews and the online survey. The majority of the UX professionals stated in both the interviews and the online survey that they would like to involve end-users more but were limited to different aspects such as time constraints, the size of the UX team, and the difficulties of recruiting.

In an interaction between two participants the listener continuously gives feedback to the speaker in the form of gestures and verbal utterances; this is called backchanneling. An example of commonly used backchanneling is nodding or the verbal utterance “yeah”. Backchanneling improves the quality of the interaction as well as the participants' experience. In human-robot interaction the outcome of a robot reacting to human backchanneling has been poorly studied. In this thesis, it is investigated how a user study which examined the effects of a robot reacting to human backchanneling can be designed. Furthermore, how a robot responding to human backchanneling impacts the human’s tendency to backchannel towards the robot. In addition, how it affects specific backchanneling, encouraging/non- encouraging backchanneling. Earlier studies on interaction were reviewed and taken into consideration for the design of the study. In addition, three pilot studies were executed to get an overview of design improvements. The participants involved in the pilot studies were interviewed after completing their part of the pilot study and the result from the pilot studies was taken into consideration for structuring the design of a user study. After the design of the user study was realized, the study was conducted containing 31 participants, four of the 31 participants were later excluded from the study. The participants were randomized into a control and an intervention group. The designed user study contained a one-on-one interaction with a Pepper-robot and a participant in a controlled area; this was repeated for all participants in the study.  The Pepper-robot was controlled with a Wizard of Oz user interface during the interactions with the participants. For the intervention group the Pepper-robot responded to the participant’s backchanneling. This did not occur for the control group. The dialog with the Pepper-robot was otherwise the same between the two groups. The Pepper-robot’s utterances were pre-programmed. The interaction with the Pepper-robot was divided into five separate parts: introduction, jokes, riddles, game and ending. Each part contains a different topic of conversation. The dependent variables in the experiment were the number of times the participant performs backchanneling, as well as the number of times specific backchanneling behaviour were executed (encouraging/non- encouraging). The interaction between the participants and the Pepper-robot was video recorded. Video-annotation of the interactions was executed. The first section in the interaction (introduction) was excluded from the video-annotation due to the time limitation of the project. The user study concluded that the human’s tendency to backchannel was not affected by a robot reacting to the human’s backchanneling with the exception regarding the joke section of the interaction where the human’s tendency to execute a nod was higher for the intervention group.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 5 February 2019, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Medicine / Adult age estimation is of value when creating a biological profile for an unknown set of human remains. Two age estimation methods, the well-known Suchey-Brooks method and the newly introduced Enhanced Computational methods were investigated. Differences between males and females as well as between populations necessitate further research to ascertain whether these methods were accurate enough to be used within a white South African population. A total of 184 well-preserved os coxae were sampled from white South African individuals with known age and sex. The selected os coxae represented male (n=99) and female (n=85) individuals aged 15 to 84 years. The os coxae were subjected to phase analysis, during which the symphyseal surface of the pubis was assigned a phase according to descriptions and pubic symphyseal casts. Following phase analysis, the pubic symphyses were scanned using an Artec Spider 3D scanner. After processing, the laser scans were uploaded into two versions of the forAge program to obtain seven different point estimates for the age-at-death of an individual. The Suchey-Brooks method performed well in a white South African population with statistically significant moderate positive correlations and relatively low biases in both males and females. In contrast, the Enhanced Computational methods performed poorly with weak correlations and higher biases than that observed for the Suchey-Brooks method. The Enhanced Computational methods, however, show a decrease in the intra and inter-observer error typically associated with phase-based methods. Currently, the Suchey-Brooks method can be used in a white South African population, although room for improvement exists. On the other hand, population specific formulae need to be developed for the Enhanced Computational methods before they can used in a white South African population. / E.K. 2019

As autonomous vehicles (AVs) are introduced in mining settings, mine workers must adapt to a new type of workflow. This thesis presents how a design process for developing and validating a user accepted Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) concept in an autonomous mining environment can be performed. Through concept development based on user needs, the project explores the design space of what makes a well-received interaction concept according to the mine worker. Multiple mining scenarios are investigated and evaluated based on their HMI complexity before concepts are produced for one specific loading scenario between a loader and a dumper truck, working as a baseline scenario for comparison. The explorative design process consists of a range of methods that describe the concept development for an autonomous integration to this baseline loading scenario. The methodology is user-centred and involve both expert-users and non-expert users for evaluation throughout the process and the factors user acceptance and trust are constantly considered. At last, the final concept is validated with the mine workers following the modified Technology of Acceptance Model (mTAM) to evaluate the level of perceived Usefulness, perceived Ease-of-Use and perceived Preservation of Craftsmanship. It also gives an indication of how effective the design process is.  It is found that a suitable autonomous integration to the baseline scenario is the meeting between a manual loader and an AV dumper, due to the high level of HMI complexity based on the number of steps and difficulties when two vehicles need cooperation to complete the scenario. The concept development for this resulted in a concept consisting of a touch-based tablet in the loader cabin with complementary physical buttons, a voice assistant for natural communication and an external Human-Machine Interface (eHMI) that share the AV’s intentions and system status for increased trust and reliability. The mTAM user validation received a low number of end-user participants (7) and hence, conclusion cannot be drawn from the results. Although, the proposed final concept scored an average of 2.83/5 for perceived Usefulness, 3.83/5 for perceived Ease-of-Use and 4.21/5 for Preservation of Craftsmanship, showing a tendency that the completed design process resulted in a concept that has potential to find user acceptance and trust.