The convergence of inexpensive video-enabled mobile phones, high-speed mobile data networks and ubiquitous sensing devices opens up a new design space called “live mobile video interaction”. It gives rise to a new genre of applications concerning live mobile video production, which can be seen as an instance of the said space. In this work we are particularly interested to explore potential technical challenges and opportunities presented by “live mobile video interaction”. We started our investigation by studying two existing prototypes from the said genre i.e. the Instant Broadcasting System (IBS) and the Mobile Vision Mixer (MVM). We studied their applicability for amateur users of collaborative mobile video production tools and the problems caused by inherent communication delays in the Internet. We acquired initial user feedback and conducted technical tests on Instant Broadcasting System (IBS) and Mobile Vision Mixer (MVM). Our results indicate that lack of synchronisation among video streams causes problems for directors in such systems that were not present in professional systems. We also identified two distinct video production modes depending on visual access of the director to the event that is being filmed. Based on our study we proposed technical design suggestions and indications on how to solve the synchronisation problems in respective mixing modes. We also proposed an algorithm for frame-rate exclusive synchronisation management of live streams in a collaborative mobile production environment. We further probed the design space using the research through design method, which resulted in a fully functional prototype system called “Livenature” that would incite an emotional connection that exists between people and the places they cherish. Further investigation of Livenature allowed us to produce detailed studies about experiential and technical aspects of the system, thus revealing phenomenological and technical dimensions of the design space.

For over a century, mankind has been dreaming about technologies that combined reality with the wonders of the virtual world. Nowadays, Augmented Reality (AR) is doing just that, and with an emergence of AR in many new fields, there is reason to believe that it will be a widely used communication tool in the future. However, it is important to know what the benefits and disadvantages of AR is, not just from a user perspective, but also from a developer perspective. Therefore, a literature study on human communication and AR was performed in this thesis, along with the development of a mobile AR application, and also two surveys inquiring about the attitudes regarding AR present in people in the communications industry. The literature study showed that AR can help people process information by increasing the visualization aspect, and that it is a durable technology to the changes that languages go through. There is, however, a risk that AR can be an excluding technology, especially for older people, and the application development process also showed that there are compatibility issues to consider before developing. / I mer än ett århundrade har mänskligheten drömt om teknologier som kombinerar verkligheten med den virtuella världens under. Nuförtiden gör Augmented Reality (AR) precis det, och med AR:s framträdande i många nya områden så finns det anledning att tro att det kommer bli ett vida använt kommunikationsverktyg i framtiden. Det är dock viktigt att veta vad AR:s för- och nackdelar är, inte bara från ett användarperspektiv, utan även från ett utvecklarperspektiv. Därmed utfördes i detta examensarbete en litteraturstudie om mänsklig kommunikation och AR, tillsammans med utvecklingen av en mobil AR-applikation, och även två enkäter som undersökte attityden kring AR som fanns hos personer i kommunikationsbranschen. Litteraturstudien påvisade att AR kan hjälpa människor att behandla information genom att öka visualiseringsaspekten, och att det är en teknologi som är hållbar mot de förändringar som språk genomgår. Det finns dock en risk att AR kan vara en exkluderande teknologi, speciellt för äldre människor, och applikationsutvecklingsprocessen visade också att det finns kompabilitetsproblem att överväga före utveckling.

The work presented in this thesis investigates techniques for learning from demonstration (LFD). LFD is a well established approach to robot learning, where a teacher demonstrates a behavior to a robot pupil. This thesis focuses on LFD where a human teacher demonstrates a behavior by controlling the robot via teleoperation. The robot should after demonstration be able to execute the demonstrated behavior under varying conditions. Several views on representation, recognition and learning of robot behavior are presented and discussed from a cognitive and computational perspective. LFD-related concepts such as behavior, goal, demonstration, and repetition are defined and analyzed, with focus on how bias is introduced by the use of behavior primitives. This analysis results in a formalism where LFD is described as transitions between information spaces. Assuming that the behavior recognition problem is partly solved, ways to deal with remaining ambiguities in the interpretation of a demonstration are proposed. A total of five algorithms for behavior recognition are proposed and evaluated, including the dynamic temporal difference algorithm Predictive Sequence Learning (PSL). PSL is model-free in the sense that it makes few assumptions of what is to be learned. One strength of PSL is that it can be used for both robot control and recognition of behavior. While many methods for behavior recognition are concerned with identifying invariants within a set of demonstrations, PSL takes a different approach by using purely predictive measures. This may be one way to reduce the need for bias in learning. PSL is, in its current form, subjected to combinatorial explosion as the input space grows, which makes it necessary to introduce some higher level coordination for learning of complex behaviors in real-world robots. The thesis also gives a broad introduction to computational models of the human brain, where a tight coupling between perception and action plays a central role. With the focus on generation of bias, typical features of existing attempts to explain humans' and other animals' ability to learn are presented and analyzed, from both a neurological and an information theoretic perspective. Based on this analysis, four requirements for implementing general learning ability in robots are proposed. These requirements provide guidance to how a coordinating structure around PSL and similar algorithms should be implemented in a model-free way. / Arbetet som presenteras i den här avhandlingen undersöker tekniker för att lära robotar från demonstrationer (LFD). LFD är en väl etablerad teknik där en lärare visar roboten hur den ska göra. Den här avhandlingen fokuserar på LFD där en människa fjärrstyr roboten, som i sin tur tolkar demonstrationen så att den kan repetera beteendet vid ett senare tillfälle, även då omgivningen förändrats. Flera perspektiv på representation, igenkänning och inlärning av beteende presenteras och diskuteras från ett kognitionsvetenskaplig och datavetenskapligt perspektiv. LFD-relaterade koncept så som beteende, mål, demonstration och repetition definieras och analyseras, med fokus på hur förkunskap kan implementeras genom beteendeprimitiv. Analysen resulterar i en formalism där LFD beskrivs som övergångar mellan informationsrymder. I termer av formalismen föreslås även sätt att hantera tvetydigheter efter att en demonstration tolkats genom igenkänning av beteendeprimitiv. Fem algoritmer för igenkänning av beteende presenteras och utvärderas, däribland algoritmen Predictive Sequence Learning (PSL). PSL är modellfri i bemärkelsen att den introducerar få antaganden om inlärningssituationen. PSL kan fungera som en algoritm för både kontroll och igenkänning av beteende. Till skillnad från flertalet tekniker för igenkänning av beteende använder PSL inte likheter i beteende mellan demonstrationer. PSL utnyttjar i stället prediktiva mått som kan minska behovet av domänkunskap vid inlärning. Ett problem med algoritmen är dock att den drabbas av kombinatorisk explosion då inputrymden växer vilket gör att någon form av högre koordination behövs för inlärning av komplexa beteenden. Avhandlingen ger dessutom en introduktion till beräkningsmässiga modeller av hjärnan där en stark koppling mellan perception och handling spelar en central roll. Typiska egenskaper hos dessa modeller presenters och analyseras från ett neurologiskt och informationsteoretiskt perspektiv. Denna analys resulterar i fyra krav för att implementera generell inlärningsförmåga i robotar. Dessa krav ger vägledning till hur en koordinerande struktur för PSL och liknande algoritmer skulle kunna implementeras på ett modellfritt sätt.

Mobile digital library service could make students’ lives easier and may help academic libraries to enhance their image by offering their services through smartphones, which are very popular among students nowadays. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive theoretical framework to understand factors affecting the adoption of such a service. This research focused on factors affecting the intention to use a mobile digital library within the context of the UAE and explored features and services that would encourage students to adopt such technology. The research design considered users’ perspectives, comprised a number of phases and employed mixed methods. The first phase involved designing a preliminary prototype and framework based on the literature and the technology acceptance model (TAM). This prototype was used in the second (exploratory) phase as a stimulus material when students and librarians were interviewed in 10 focus groups. Based on their comments and views, factors that affect their intention were explored and hypotheses were generated. This exploratory phase allowed the development of a theoretical framework for mobile digital library adoption. Focus group results, card sorting methodology and usability testing produced a final prototype that was sent to all students at Zayed University within UAE with an experiential online questionnaire through e-mail. This testing phase was conducted to test the hypotheses and confirm the importance of the same factors extracted in the second phase. The results obtained from the 211 respondents supported a number of paths in the proposed theoretical framework. First, Perceived usefulness, Perceived ease of use, Mobile and web experience, Distinctiveness/prestige, and Trust were found significantly affecting the Behaviour intention directly. Second, Mobility, Library assistance, Interface design, and Social influence were found to affect the intention to use indirectly through Perceived ease of use. Finally, the relationship between Perceived ease of use and Perceived usefulness was found significant. The results lead for producing a final framework for mobile digital library acceptance consisting of seven external factors falling in the three general categories: interface characteristics, personal characteristics and system characteristics. It consists of Interface design, Social influence, Mobility, Library assistance, Distinctiveness/prestige, Mobile and web search experience and Perceived trust. This research contributed in understanding factors affecting mobile digital library adoption within the developing world.

The ability to visualize and manipulate an airspace is an important tool for an instructor controlling a flight simulator mission. Usually, airspaces are observed and manipulated through 2D and 3D views on a computer screen. A problem with using computer screen is spatial perception, which is significantly limited when observing a 3D space. Technologies such as AR and VR provide new possibilities for presenting and manipulating objects and spaces in 3D which could be used to improve spatial perception. Microsoft's HoloLens is a see-through head mounted display which can project 3D holograms into the real world to create an AR experience. This thesis presents a prototype for displaying a 3D map view using HoloLens which has been designed to improve spatial perception while maintaining high usability. The prototype has been evaluated through heuristic and formative evaluations and was well received by its potential users. The prototype has also been used to present suggestions to improve spatial ability for similar applications.

This work presents a framework by which a massive multiagent organization can be controlled and modified without resorting to micromanagement and without needing advanced knowledge of potentially complex organizations. In addition to their designated duties, agents in the proposed framework perform some method of determining optimal traits such as configurations, plans, knowledge bases and so forth. Traits follow survival of the fittest rules in which more successful traits overpower less successful ones. Subproblem partitions develop emergently as successful solutions are disseminated to and aggregated by unsuccessful agents. Provisions are provided to allow the administrator to guide the search process by injecting solutions known to work for a particular agent. The performance of the framework is evaluated via comparison to individual state-space search.

Cheap and easy to use eye tracking can be used to turn a common display into a gaze-contingent display: a system that can react to the user's gaze and adjust its content based on where an observer is looking. This can be used to enhance the rendering on screens based on perceptual insights and the knowledge about what is currently seen. This thesis investigates how GCDs can be used to support aspects of depth and colour perception. This thesis presents experiments that investigate the effects of simulated depth of field and chromatic aberration on depth perception. It also investigates how changing the colours surrounding the attended area can be used to influence the perceived colour and how this can be used to increase colour differentiation of colour and potentially increase the perceived gamut of the display. The presented investigations and empirical results lay the foundation for future investigations and development of gaze-contingent technologies, as well as for general applications of colour and depth perception. The results show that GCDs can be used to support the user in tasks that are related to visual perception. The presented techniques could be used to facilitate common tasks like distinguishing the depth of objects in virtual environments or discriminating similar colours in information visualisations.

abstract: Improving accessibility to public buildings by people with special needs has been an important societal commitment that is mandated by federal laws. In the information age, accessibility can mean more than simply providing physical accommodations like ramps for wheel-chairs. Better yet, accessibility will be fundamentally improved, if a user can be made aware of important location-specific information like functions of offices near the user within a building. A smart environment may help a new person quickly get acquainted about the environment. Such features can be more critical for cases of making an indoor environment more accessible to people with visual impairment. With the intention to promote the integration of visually impaired people in society, this thesis efforts on methodologies for building smart and accessible indoor office environments with the help of Apple's Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology called iBeacon to provide location awareness and enable easy access to information about the environment to people with visual impairment. This thesis presents work done on developing an iterative based approach in improving the configuration of given number of iBeacons to gain optimal signal coverage in a given office space environment and enabling smart features such as tagging points of interest and push notifications. This work aims to exploit the idea to look at visual impairment beyond the level of disability and cash it at as an opportunity to bring about a change of style of living. This work develops a methodology by introducing an end-to-end systems that uses intelligent server side and visually-impaired-friendly client side interfaces to give a prototype of an assistive technology to help them do basic activities like getting familiarized about an office environment without the need for asking for assistance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2017

E-handelns utveckling har förändrat hur vi ser på och handlar allt från kläder och böcker, till hemelektronik. Medan stora delar av dessa branscher idag drivs online, finns det en bransch som oavsett välfungerande alternativ, ändå inte följt e-handelns utveckling - livsmedelshandeln. Tidigare forskning och litteratur brister i att presentera någon tydlig bild av varför konsumenten fortfarande inte köpt idén med livsmedelshandel online, och denna studie syftar således att undersöka vilka faktorer, ur konsumentens perspektiv, ligger till grund för livsmedelshandelns underrepresentation inom e-handel. Ett område som ämnar att just förstå sig på användarens eller kundens perspektiv är användarforskning. Användarforskning används i studien som metodologiskt angreppssätt, där den kvalitativa intervjun används som datainsamlingsmetod. Genom en tematisk analys av den insamlade datan kunde flertalet teman rörande motivation, beteende, uppfattning och oro identifieras, som sedan presenteras i form av en persona.  Studiens resultat tyder på att det finns en tydlig anledning för konsumenten att handla livsmedel online istället för i traditionell butik, men att det finns ett antal orosmoment unika till livsmedelshandeln online som avskräcker. Dessa är delvis kopplade till leverans av livsmedel, en oro kring att behöva ta emot varor samt att leveransen tar för lång tid vilket inte stöttar deltagarnas spontana handelsbeteende. Utöver leverans visade sig även bristen på kontroll över val av färskvaror vara en oroande faktor unik till livsmedelshandeln online.

abstract: The wide adoption and continued advancement of information and communications technologies (ICT) have made it easier than ever for individuals and groups to stay connected over long distances. These advances have greatly contributed in dramatically changing the dynamics of the modern day workplace to the point where it is now commonplace to see large, distributed multidisciplinary teams working together on a daily basis. However, in this environment, motivating, understanding, and valuing the diverse contributions of individual workers in collaborative enterprises becomes challenging. To address these issues, this thesis presents the goals, design, and implementation of Taskville, a distributed workplace game played by teams on large, public displays. Taskville uses a city building metaphor to represent the completion of individual and group tasks within an organization. Promising results from two usability studies and two longitudinal studies at a multidisciplinary school demonstrate that Taskville supports personal reflection and improves team awareness through an engaging workplace activity. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Computer Science 2013