This thesis discusses the challenges and opportunities facing the field of accessibility, particularly as computing becomes ubiquitous. It is argued that a new approach is needed that centres around adaptations (specific, atomic changes) to user interfaces and content in order to improve their accessibility for a wider range of people than targeted by present Assistive Technologies (ATs). Further, the approach must take into consideration the capabilities of people at the human level and facilitate collaboration, in planned and ad-hoc environments. There are two main areas of focus: (1) helping people experiencing minor-to-moderate, transient and potentially-overlapping impairments, as may be brought about by the ageing process and (2) supporting collaboration between people by reasoning about the consequences, from different users perspectives, of the adaptations they may require. A theoretical basis for describing these problems and a reasoning process for the semi-automatic application of adaptations is developed. Impairments caused by the environment in which a device is being used are considered. Adaptations are drawn from other research and industry artefacts. Mechanical testing is carried out on key areas of the reasoning process, demonstrating fitness for purpose. Several fundamental techniques to extend the reasoning process in order to take temporal factors (such as fluctuating user and device capabilities) into account are broadly described. These are proposed to be feasible, though inherently bring compromises (which are defined) in interaction stability and the needs of different actors (user, device, target level of accessibility). This technical work forms the basis of the contribution of one work-package of the Sustaining ICT use to promote autonomy (Sus-IT) project, under the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme of research in the UK. Test designs for larger-scale assessment of the system with real-world participants are given. The wider Sus-IT project provides social motivations and informed design decisions for this work and is carrying out longitudinal acceptance testing of the processes developed here.

No description available.

More than 70,000 people worldwide suffer from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease characterized by chronic accumulation of mucus in patients’ lungs provoking bacterial infections, and leading to respiratory failure. An employed age-old treatment to prevent the symptoms of the disease is inhalation of hypertonic saline solution, NaCl at concentrations higher than in the human body (~150 mM). This procedure clears the mucus in the lungs, bringing relief to the patient. However, the biophysical mechanisms underlying this process are not entirely clear. We undertook a new experimental approach to understand the effects of sprayed saline solutions on model lung surfactants towards understanding the mechanisms of the treatment. The surface of lungs contains mainly 1,2-Dipalmitol-sn-glycero-3-phosphocoline (DPPC). As previously assumed by others, we considered that monolayer of DPPC at the air-water interface serves as model system for the lungs surface; we employed a Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) trough and PM-IRRAS to measure surface-specific infrared spectra of the surfactant monolayers and effects on the interfacial tensions. We investigated spraying hyper-saline solutions onto surfactant monolayers at the airwater interface in two parts: (i) validation of our methodology and techniques with stearic acid and (ii) experiments with DPPC monolayers at the air-water interface. Remarkably, when micro-droplets of NaCl were sprayed to the monolayer of stearic acid, we observed enhanced organization of the surfactant, interpreted from the intensities of the CH2 peaks in the surface-specific IR spectra. However, our results with DPPC monolayers didn’t show an effect with the salt added as aerosol, possibly indicating that the experimental methodology proposed is not adequate for the phenomena studied. In parallel, we mimicked respiratory mucous by preparing salt solutions containing 1% (wt%) agar and measured effects on their viscosities. Interestingly, we found that NaCl was much more effective than NaI and NaClO4. This thesis reports structural dynamics of monolayers of stearic acid and DPPC at the airwater interfaces and those of aqueous solutions towards understanding mechanisms underlying the most commonly employed treatment for cystic fibrosis. Our methodology has never been reported before; but requires further modifications to gain deeper insights into the effects of salt sprays on model lung systems.

This study aims at designing and implementing a single channel stand-alone Brain-Controlled Switch (BCS) device, which records the electroencephalography (EEG) signals from the scalp using electrodes, amplifies it, eliminates interferences (associated with the EEG signals) and processes the EEG signals to extract and decode temporal signal features to determine user’s intention of regulating an external switch. The design of our “brain-controlled switch” device is implemented using a bio-potential amplifier and a microcontroller. The bio-potential amplifier amplifies the EEG signals to a level sufficient for processing, eliminates interferences and ensures patient safety. The microcontroller (dsPIC30F4013) digitizes the amplified and conditioned analog EEG signals from the bio-potential amplifier, extracts the desired signal features for decoding and prediction of user’s intention and accordingly operates the external switch. When the user concentrates on an external visual stimulus or performs externally triggered movement (hand movement or motor imagery movement), a reproducible pattern appears in user’s EEG frequency bands. The analysis of these patterns is used to decode and predict user’s intention to operate an external switch. To realize our “brain-controlled switch”, we explored two EEG sources: steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) and beta rebounds, which are patterns generated in the EEG frequency bands associated with focusing on an external visual stimulus or performing externally triggered movements. In case of SSVEP based brain controlled switch, a repetitive visual stimulus (LED flickering at a specified frequency) was used. When the user concentrates on the flickering LED, a dominant fundamental frequency (equivalent to the flickering frequency) appears in the spectral representation of the EEG signals recorded at occipital lobes. Our microcontroller implemented a digital band pass filter to extract the frequency band containing this fundamental frequency and continuously took an average of the amplitude power every predetermined time interval. Whenever the amplitude average power exceeded the preset power threshold the external switch was turned ON. A healthy subject participated in this study, and it took approximately 3.14 ± 1.81 seconds of active concentration for the subject to turn ON the switch in real time with a false positive rate of 1.17%. In case of beta rebound based brain controlled switch, the subject was instructed to perform a brisk hand movement following an external synchronization signal. Our design focused on the post-movement beta rebound which occurs after the cessation of the movement to operate the external switch. Our microcontroller in this case implemented a digital band pass filter to extract the beta band and continuously took an average of its amplitude power every predetermined time interval. Whenever the amplitude average power exceeded the preset power threshold the external switch was turned ON. It took approximately 12.23 ± 7.39 seconds of active urging time by the subject to turn ON the switch in real time with a false positive rate of 9.33%. Thus we have designed a novel stand-alone BCS device which operates an external switch by decoding and predicting user’s intentions.

Ce travail porte sur la mise en place des outils de modélisation micromécanique permettant d’étudier le comportement de l’argilite du Callovo-Oxfordien. Ce géomatériau poreux est modélisé comme un milieu hétérogène à trois échelles d’espace distinctes. L’échelle microscopique révèle l’hétérogénéité de la phase argileuse sur laquelle s’est appuyé le modèle morphologique synthétisé comme un polycristal poreux. Des prédictions numériques du comportement élasto-plastique et isotrope transverse de la phase d’argile tenant compte d’interactions mécaniques entre des cristaux sont effectuées à l’aide d’une approche incrémentale de Hill. Ensuite, un modèle poroélastique pour matériaux granulaires saturés avec effets d’interface imparfaite est proposé. Sur la base de ce modèle poroélastique et s’appuyant sur le cadre de l’homogénéisation non linéaire, on met en évidence l’impact des interfaces imparfaites de type Mohr-Coulomb cohésif sur le critère de résistance de géomatériaux granulaires. Enfin, nous avons proposé un modèle complet pour la prédiction de la résistance de l’argilite du Callovo-Oxfordien sous l’hypothèse que la matrice argileuse est un matériau poreux avec la phase solide décrite par un critère Drucker-Prager parfaitement plastique. Il est important de noter que le mécanisme de rupture exploré inclut la possibilité d’une concentration de déformation à l’interface de noyau (rigide)-matrice. Ce modèle est analysé en détail et ses prédictions apparaissent tout à fait probantes. / This work focuses on the development of micromechanical modeling tools to study the behavior of the Callovo-Oxfordian argillite. This geomaterial is modeled as a porous heterogeneous medium at three distinct spatial scales. The microscopic scale reveals the heterogeneity of the clay phase on which the morphological model synthesized as a porous polycrystal was based. Numerical predictions of the elastoplastic and transversely isotropic clay phase considering mechanical interactions between the crystals are performed by using an incremental approach. Then, a poroelastic model for saturated granular materials with imperfect interface effects is proposed. On the basis of this poroelastic model and the nonlinear homogenization, we showcase the impact of the cohesive Mohr-Coulomb imperfect interfaces on the strength criterion of granular geomaterials. Finally, we propose a complete model for the prediction of the strength of Callovo-Oxfordian argillite under the assumption that the clay matrix is a porous material with the solid phase described by a perfectly plastic Drucker-Prager criterion. It is important to note that the explored failure mechanism includes the possibility of a strain concentration at the (rigid) inclusion-matrix interface. This model is analyzed in detail and its predictions appear quite convincing.

This thesis reports an ontology-based approach to automatic generation of highly tailored GUI components that can make customized data requests for the end users. Using this GUI generator, without knowing any programming skill a domain expert can browse the data schema through the ontology file of his/her own field, choose attribute fields according to business's needs, and make a highly customized GUI for end users' data requests input. The interface for the domain expert is a tree view structure that shows not only the domain taxonomy categories but also the relationships between classes. By clicking the checkbox associated with each class, the expert indicates his/her choice of the needed information. These choices are stored in a metadata document in XML. From the viewpoint of programmers, the metadata contains no ambiguity; every class in an ontology is unique. The utilizations of the metadata can be various; I have carried out the process of GUI generation. Since every class and every attribute in the class has been formally specified in the ontology, generating GUI is automatic. This approach has been applied to a use case scenario in meteorological and oceanographic (METOC) area. The resulting features of this prototype have been reported in this thesis.

[pt] As comunidades sociais online sao cada vez mais utilizadas como plataformas para diversas formas de interacao e compartilhamento de informacões, tanto em forma sincrona (em tempo real) quanto de forma assincrona. A perspectiva do acoplamento da computacao social com a capacidade atual de sensoriamento dos dispositivos moveis torna possível o desenvolvimento de aplicativos sociais com maior grau de sensibilidade ao contexto, de deteccao de atividades de individuos e grupos e também de uma interacao social implicita atraves do compartilhamento de informacoes de contexto. Alem do contexto pervasivo obtido a partir dos dispositivos moveis, os veinculos e interacoes do usuario nas redes sociais tambem podem ser considerados ricas fontes de informacao para aplicacoes pervasivas. O Mobile Social Gateway (MoSoGw) e um servico web que fornece uma interface generica para transferencia de informacao de uma forma otimizada entre os dispositivos moveis e diferentes redes sociais, bem como servicos de terceiros. Sua interface e generica na medida em que torna transparente para o aplicativo movel cliente a interacao com essas redes sociais e servicos de terceiros. O desempenho e a escalabilidade tambem foram levados em consideracao durante a concepcao e implementacao do MoSoGw. No contexto desta dissertacao, o termo escalabilidade deve ser entendido como a capacidade que a aplicacao tem de suportar um volume crescente de usuarios móveis ou estar preparada para esse crescimento. Assim, tanto a arquitetura quanto as tecnologias utilizadas em seu desenvolvimento foram cuidadosamente escolhidas de forma a escalar para milhares de clientes e suportar o alto volume de requisicoes simultaneas. / [en] Online social communities are increasingly used as platforms for manifold forms of interaction and information sharing, both in real-time and asynchronous. The prospect of coupling social computing with sensing capabilities of current mobile devices makes it possible to provide social applications with higher degrees of context-awareness, detection of activities of individuals and groups, as well as implicit social interaction through sharing of context-sensitive information. In addition to the pervasive context obtained from the mobile devices, the links and user interactions in social networks can be regarded as rich sources of information for pervasive applications. Mobile Social Gateway (MoSoGw) is a web service that provides a generic interface for optimized information transfer between mobile devices and different social networks, as well as third-party web services. Its interface is generic in that it makes transparent to the mobile client application the interaction with social networks and web services. Performance and scalability were major concerns when designing and implementing MoSoGw. Hence, its architecture and all technologies used in its development have been carefully chosen so as to scale to thousands of clients and support high volume of concurrent requests.

A pesquisa explora a intersecção entre o design de informação e os estudos acerca do fenômeno urbano, considerando o avanço recente das tecnologias voltadas à representação e as possibilidades que trazem à comunicação visual. É proposta uma introdução ao tema da cidade, abordada tanto de uma perspectiva macro, que busca embasamento nas ciências, quanto do ponto de vista da experiência urbana de seus usuários. Em seguida, são investigadas as possibilidades do design de informação nesse contexto, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica da teoria relacionada ao tema e da análise de projetos e iniciativas que buscam aproximar, por meio do design e do uso de ambientes virtuais, conjuntos de dados e informações da cognição humana. Com relação às tecnologias, são investigadas ferramentas de representação da informação urbana, envolvendo visualização de dados, interação humano-computador e navegação por ambientes tridimensionais. Em um paralelo com a arquitetura, são observadas formas como a informação tem sido espacializada em ambientes físicos e virtuais. Por fim, o trabalho propõe investigações práticas, de modo a explorar particularidades de algumas das ferramentas disponíveis, e pondera sobre a atuação do designer na representação da informação urbana à luz das questões estudadas. / This research explores the intersection between information design and studies on urban phenomena, considering the recent developments in technologies of representation and possibilities that they bring to visual comunication. An introduction to the theme of the city is proposed, viewed both from a macro perspective, that seeks grounding in science, and from the perspective of the user experience. Then, are investigated the possibilities of information design in this context, trough a literature review of the theme and analysis of information design projects that seek to approach urban issues and human cognition. With regard to digital technologies, the representation of urban information evolving automatized data visualization, human-computer interaction and navigation in 3D environments are investigated. In a parallel with architecture, ways in which information has been spatialized in physical and virtual environments are observed. Lastly, the research proposes a practical investigation, to explore particularities of some available tools and to consider the role of designers on representation of urban information, taking into account the studied issues.

Nos últimos anos observa-se um intenso debate acerca da transição da TV analógica para a TV digital, acompanhada pela incorporação de inúmeras inovações, dentre as quais destacamos a interatividade, que abre uma nova modalidade para este meio de comunicação, a TV interativa. Os desafios de pesquisa e desenvolvimento em TV interativa são amplos e ainda não totalmente investigados. Em particular, a questão da consistência de interfaces com usuário se apresenta como um tópico relevante e pouco explorado na literatura. Esta dissertação investiga a questão da consistência da interface com o usuário para a TV interativa, considerando seus aspectos teóricos e de implementação. Para tanto investigamos na literatura de Interfaces Humano-Computador a questão da consistência e suas abordagens. Considerando que a consistência é uma característica relativa a um modelo, buscamos identificar modelos de interfaces de TV interativa que sejam exemplos de boas práticas a serem seguidas. A metodologia proposta e utilizada é composta por cinco etapas, a saber: modelagem do usuário, análise de tarefas, diretrizes gerais de interface, análise comparativa de plataformas e coordenação da interface. As três primeiras etapas geram recomendações enquanto que a etapa de análise comparativa gera referências. Utilizando estes dois subsídios a etapa de coordenação da interface objetiva elencar exemplos de interfaces que possam se tornar modelos, esta etapa também verifica a consistência interna do modelo proposto e elabora alternativas no caso das soluções encontradas não serem satisfatórias. No âmbito desta metodologia realizamos extensas avaliações experimentais, dentre as quais destacamos a proposta de quatro modelos de usuário (Torcedor Antenado, Mãe Ocupada, Meia Idade com Ajuda e Torcedor com Baixa Alfabetização), uma análise contextual de tarefas envolvendo dois dos quatro modelos de usuário propostos, bem como uma extensa análise comparativa entre sete plataformas de TV. Este trabalho resultou numa proposta integrada de interface que abrange três aspectos: um mapa de navegação, um conjunto mínimo de teclas para o controle remoto e um modelo de navegação. O mapa de navegação apresenta a taxonomia do sistema. O conjunto mínimo de teclas compreende os recursos mínimos que devem estar universalmente disponíveis ao usuário. O modelo de navegação apresenta uma forma consistente e extensível de navegação para ser utilizada em aplicativos de TV interativa. / In the past few years there has been an intense debate about the transition from analog to digital Television, with the acquisition of many innovations. Of particular interest to this study is the interactivity, which opens a new modality for this medium, the interactive TV. The challenges posed by research and development in interactive TV are ample and not fully investigated. In particular, the question of user interface consistency presents itself as a relevant topic, which is little explored in the literature. This work investigates the question of user interface consistency for interactive TV, taking into account it\'s theoretical and implementation implications. The question of consistency and its approaches was reviewed in the literature of Human-Computer Interfaces. Considering that consistency is a characteristic relative to a model, we tried to identify models of interactive TV interfaces, which are examples of best practices to be followed. The methodology proposed and utilized has five steps: user modeling, task analysis, interface guidelines, platform comparative analysis and interface coordination. The first three steps generate recommendations while the comparative analysis generates references. Using these two products the interface coordination tries to determine examples of interfaces, which can become models, this step also verifies the internal consistency of the proposed model and elaborates alternatives if the found solutions are not satisfactory. Using this methodology a large experimental evaluation was performed. Of special interest is the proposition of four user models, a contextual task analysis of two of the user models as well as an extensive comparative analysis between seven TV platforms. The result of this work is the proposition of an integrated interface, which focuses on three aspects: the navigation map, the minimum remote and a navigation model. The navigation map is the taxonomy of the system. The minimum remote is a group of keys that should be universally available to the user. The navigation model presents a consistent and extensible mechanism for navigation in interactive TV applications.

Made available in DSpace on 2019-03-30T00:02:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-12-26 / A importância de conhecer o usuário no processo de desenvolvimento de um produto, ou serviço se dá pelo o fato de que existem falhas nesse procedimento, as quais são relacionadas à experiência do usuário, como a falta de entendimento sobre o usuário, requisitos mal definidos e a deficiência na comunicação entre os envolvidos nesse processo. Com o auxílio de um modelo da experiência do usuário, na fase inicial de um projeto, pode-se diminuir essas falhas, tendo em vista que ele é proposto para conhecer o usuário, suas experiências e características. O objetivo deste trabalho é propor uma estratégia a de apoiar profissionais a avaliarem um modelo da experiência do usuário, quanto à escolha de métodos de critérios de pesquisa. Logo, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática para saber se os modelos da experiência do usuário coletados foram criados a partir do conhecimento da norma ISO 9241-210, pois a qualidade dos processos de software/serviços está cada vez mais sendo estudada, por meio de modelos de padrões, além disso, para identificar quais eram seus elementos, como eram avaliados e em que contexto eram aplicados. Este tipo de investigação dispõe um resumo das evidências relacionadas a uma estratégia de intervenção, por meio da aplicação de métodos sistematizados de busca. Com essa estratégia, propõe-se o uso de checklist como um método para avaliação dos modelos da experiência do usuário, o qual possui como critérios, para verificação e validação, a norma ISO 9241-210, as facetas da experiência do usuário e o modelo de referência para desenvolvimento de serviço, o MR-MPS-SV, visto que existe uma tendência à integração entre design de serviço e experiência do usuário. Para validação desses checklists, foram realizadas entrevistas com um especialista em experiência do usuário e analista de requisitos, visando também à melhoria dos checklists propostos. Por meio dessas entrevistas, os checklists passaram por uma evolução, realizando alterações nos seus itens e incrementando a estratégia de avaliação de modelos da experiência do usuário, proposta nesta dissertação. Palavras-chave: Experiência do Usuário. Modelo. Avaliação. ISO 9241-210.