This study examined 100 Arab-American families of children attending a weekly Sunday school in the Southeastern region of the US on their views about infants, toddlers or preschoolers’ touchscreen device usage patterns. Over 80 percent of the respondents have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree. Surveys were completed for 51 boys and 49 girls. Like studies on children of other ethnic groups living in the United States of America show, Arab infants, toddlers and preschoolers’ mobile touchscreen device usage patterns do not conform to the 2016 American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines which suggested no touchscreen device usage for children below 2 years and 1-hour daily usage for children between 2-5 yesrs. However, Arab-American parents hold different views on the use of mobile touchscreens with young children when compared to studies from other parents living in the United States. Also, Arab American parents are less concerned about their infant, toddlers and preschools’ children damage to touchscreen devices. Thus, further studies are required to delineate why Arab American parents’ views on touchscreen devices differ to their young children reported usage habit.

This thesis involves the creation of a system of embedded touchscreen devices called touchSPICE to aid in the learning of basic circuits. Traditionally, circuit theory is taught to students in two different methods, lectures and laboratory exercises. Lectures focus on auditory and visual learning and are largely passive learning. Lab experiments allow students to physically interact with the circuits, and learn visually through viewing output waveforms from simulators or on measurement devices. The goal of the touchSPICE project is to develop a physical system for virtual, real-time SPICE simulation that mimics the laboratory experience. In touchSPICE, touchscreen devices act as circuit nodes that communicate with immediate neighbors using physical wires. Additionally, the nodes communicate wirelessly with a host computer, running a customized version of SPICE. Data is aggregated on the host computer and plotted in real-time. Changes in configuration of the nodes (component types and values), are then reflected on the host computer’s display. The efficacy of touchSPICE as a learning tool was evaluated by using anonymous surveys from 20 subjects including a pretest, followed by an interactive session with touchSPICE, and a follow-up posttest. Results collected showed that with a few changes to improve the responsiveness of the touchscreen, touchSPICE may be an effective method for teaching circuit theory. Additionally, users enjoyed the quick configuration time that touchSPICE provided, and felt that the real-time feedback of touchSPICE helped support understanding of how circuits operate.

Technology plays an increasingly significant role in the lives of children and adults, and it is imperative to understand if and how it impacts the development of psychological processes and the subsequent behaviors of preschool-aged children so that we can better understand how to navigate guidelines for use and interventions for overuse. To better understand the relationship between screen time use and a child’s social emotional development, it is important to consider parent time on screens, child time on screens, and any effects an older sibling in the home or parental gender may have on their development. This study gathered screen time usage rates from parents and their preschool-aged children and then measured the social emotional development of these children using an electronic version of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers, Second Edition (eDECA-2). Results were analyzed using sequential regression models and found child and parent screen time usage to be negatively associated with the social emotional development of the child. There were no moderating effects of the presence of an older sibling in the home. There were only moderating effects for parental gender when considering primary parents, which showed that when a male is a primary parent, increased parental and child screen time leads to a steeper decrease in behavioral concerns than when the primary parent is female. Additionally, categories of screen time usage were analyzed using multiple analyses of variance and showed that parents who used tool-based applications rated their children with higher levels of social emotional development. Results that analyzed the child’s categories of use did not show delineated differences between tool-based and non-tool-based applications.

The aim of this thesis is to compare two different interface approaches for pervasive gameswith a focus on immersion. We designed and created two small pervasive games and implemented bothon two different platforms; smartphone and wearable device. We created four pervasive gameprototypes which we tested with a group of fourteen testers. We subsequently conducted interviewsusing the Repertory Grid Technique. The findings suggest that our testers appreciated wearable devicesmore than smartphones in the context of immersion, while they identified characteristics theyassociated with each platform; Smartphones were considered familiar, inconspicuous, casual but notvery exciting. Wearables were considered a new experience and fun but also strange and attention-drawing.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects 300 million people worldwide and is a major contributor to the global burden of disease. The aetiology of depression, emerging through a gene x environment interaction, is still incompletely understood which prevents tailoring of treatment approaches. In addition to MDD core symptoms, such as anhedonia (a diminished anticipation or experience of pleasure), depressed patients suffer from a plethora of manifestations including cognitive impairments, which occur primarily in the domains of executive function, attention and memory. Patients remitted from affective symptoms of MDD often continue to display cognitive impairments. These cognitive deficits are the longest present residual symptom, predict treatment response and increase risk of relapse. Consequently, cognitive impairments need to be targeted more effectively by antidepressants for complete remission from MDD. Clinically relevant animal models are essential for developing, tailoring and testing such novel, pro-cognitive antidepressants. This PhD project aimed to establish a preclinical screening platform for the testing of pro-cognitive antidepressants, to improve understanding of MDD risk factors and consequent symptom development, and finally, to focus on clinical relevance of the applied techniques. The chronic mild stress (CMS) rodent model of depression was used, known for displaying the core symptom anhedonia, but also for a high construct, face and predictive validity. The environmental MDD risk factor 'stress' induces an anhedonic-like phenotype in a subgroup of exposed rats, whereas another subgroup of rats is resilient, as determined by the sucrose consumption test. The cognitive performance of different rat strains, including CMS anhedonic-like and resilient rats, was assessed employing the touchscreen operant platform, which was developed based on the Cambridge neuropsychological test automated battery (CANTAB) for assessing cognition in humans. Furthermore, a group of anhedonic-like rats was treated with the antidepressant vortioxetine, which acts as both a pro-cognitive and antidepressant treatment. Our results showed that stress exposure induced anhedonia in albino and pigmented rat strains, although stress did not affect cognitive performance of pigmented rats in a simple pairwise discrimination touchscreen task. Applying a more complex pairedassociates learning touchscreen task revealed impaired cognitive performance in the CMS anhedonic-like but not in the resilient phenotype. Furthermore, vortioxetine treatment reversed anhedonia in the CMS model and altered executive functions in treated rats. The expression of genes involved in the stress response, affective disorders and neuronal plasticity was altered in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus owned to treatment and hedonic state. Thus, we have demonstrated that the CMS model exhibits both stress-induced cognitive alterations and depression-associated cognitive impairments in touchscreen tasks. Furthermore, touchscreen testing was sufficiently sensitive to detect alterations in cognitive performance due to pharmacological intervention. Overall, we established a potential platform for pro-cognitive antidepressant drug screening. Furthermore, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), involved in learning and memory, was examined in the context of depression. BDNF is reduced in MDD patients as well as in preclinical models in response to stress. Although this suggests that BDNF contributes to the aetiology of depression, studies including mice heterozygous for BDNF (BDNF+/-) have generated conflicting results. BDNF+/- rats may provide a more suitable model as (1) rats have a greater behavioural repertoire than mice, (2) classical behaviour tests are designed for rats, and (3) rats, like humans, produce peripheral BDNF. We found anhedonia and mild signs of anxiety in BDNF+/- rats, accompanied by prefrontal and hippocampal changes in expression of genes relevant in psychiatric disorders and underpinning learning. Thus, behavioural and molecular findings in BDNF+/- rats complement existing literature and suggest that rats are a more suitable model in BDNF research than mice. Overall, the project uncovered environmental and genetic manifestations of risk factors in translational models and established a novel tool for translational pro-cognitive antidepressant drug screening.

A mobile testing application using Unity was developed to analyse what impact button sizes and button layouts has on the accuracy of touch as well as the time to finish a labyrinth. This was tested on a Nexus 4 phone. 28 users navigated a small object through a labyrinth in which they collect keys to open the door to the exit. Each participant did the test 6 times with different combinations of button size and button layout each time, done in a random order. Hits, misses, completion time, order of button size and order of button layout was collected and then visualized using R. A mixed model analysis was used to analyse the data. The model to estimate what impact button size has on time is found to be poor while the model to estimate accuracy is assumed to be good. Results show that a button size larger than 6.0mm is required for the average user to have satisfactory accuracy. / En testapplikation för mobila enheter utvecklades i Unity för att analysera vilken påverkan knappstorlekar och gränssnitt har på träffsäkerheten och tiden att slutföra en labyrint. Detta testades på en Nexus 4 telefon. 28 användare navigerade ett litet objekt genom en labyrint i vilken de samlar nycklar för att öppna dörren till utgången. Varje deltagare utförde testet 6 gånger med annorlunda kombination av knappstorlek och gränssnittsdesign varje gång, detta i slumpmässig ordning. Träffar, missar, slutföringstid, vilken ordning som knappstorlek och gränssnittsdesign presenterades för användaren samlades in och visualiserades med R. En blandmodell användes för att analysera data. Modellen för vilken påverkan som knappstorlekar har på slutföringstiden ansågs otillräcklig medan modellen för hur träffsäkerheten påverkas av knappstorlekar ansågs god. Resultaten visar att en knappstorlek större än 6,0mm krävs för den genomsnittliga användaren ska ha en tillfredställande träffsäkerhet.

Ce travail de thèse a été réalisé grâce à une collaboration entre le laboratoire IMS (Université Bordeaux 1, CNRS) et la société STANTUM dans le cadre d’une bourse CIFRE.La thématique étudiée se positionne dans le domaine en pleine expansion des interfaces tactiles intégrées dans les écrans. La mise en production ces dernières années des systèmes multi-touches a permis l’arrivée sur le marché grand public de nombreux dispositifs tels que les GPS, les Smartphones ou encore les tablettes. Malgré tout, de nombreux problèmes sont encore à résoudre, en particulier la possibilité d’avoir une écriture naturelle via un stylet, en posant la main sur la tablette comme sur une feuille de papier. Après un rappel sur l’historique et sur l’intérêt des dalles tactiles comme interface homme/machine, le premier chapitre présente les principales technologies actuelles et la technologie iVSM développée par STANTUM. La structure des dalles tactiles et les différentes étapes de fabrication de ces dernières sont abordées dans le deuxième chapitre. Nous avons ensuite développé un modèle théorique permettant de décrire le fonctionnement et les limitations de la technologie. Ces dernières peuvent survenir lorsque l’utilisateur écrit sur la dalle tactile et peuvent empêcher, dans certaines configurations, une bonne reconnaissance d’écriture. Deux approches sont proposées dans le quatrième chapitre pour corriger ces phénomènes inhérents : la couche résistive et les diodes intercalées. Le dernier chapitre est dévolu à la partie expérimentale. Tout d’abord, les différentes approches dédiées à la réalisation d’une couche résistive, que ce soit par enduction par sol-gel ou encore par pulvérisation cathodique, sont présentées. Pour la caractérisation des dalles tactiles, nous avons mis en place des facteurs de qualité permettant de juger efficacement de l’amélioration des performances et avons également pris en compte les paramètres de dureté, d’adhésion et surtout d’état de surface des couches intermédiaires. La seconde partie de ce chapitre se focalise sur la réalisation des diodes par les approches couches minces (jonction tunnel par PVD, diode organique et jonction PN en silicium amorphe). / This work comes from close collaboration between IMS laboratory (University of Bordeaux 1, CNRS) and STANTUM. This thesis is focused on tactile interface integrated on display. Recently multitouch systems became compatible for consumer electronic market which led to incoming devices such as GPS, Smartphones and tablet PC. However troubles still remained. Performing the discrimination between finger, palm and stylus was still an insuperable technology step to provide natural handwriting input on a display. After reminding a brief historic and the interest as human to machine interface, the first chapter presents the dominating touch screen technologies at the moment and the iVSM STANTUM technology. Touch screen structure and fabrication processes are approached, including industrial step as laser patterning or stencil printing. Then a theoretical model is detailed to explain the iVSM scanning engine and the inherent phenomena. These latter can occur when user is writing on the display with stylus in certain configurations. Two approaches are discussed in the third chapter in order to cut off or at least decrease those phenomena amplitude: the resistive layer and the embedded matrix diodes. The last chapter is dedicated to experimental results. Firstly, several processes, as doctor-blade and physical vapor deposition, are explained. Characterization is performed in using quality factors, to specifically evaluate inherent phenomena decreasing. Hardness, roughness and surface morphology are also discussed in this chapter. The second part is focused on embedded matrix diodes using thin film technologies (tunnel junction, organic diode and a-Si PN junction).

The master thesis deals with the topic of including and using tablets in the process of the German language teaching. In its first three chapters, it lays down the basic facts and observation relevant to the usage of a tablet as a teaching aid. Furthermore, two methods of research were carried out in its practical part, namely questionnaire research and action research. This thesis is aimed at presenting a cohesive description of the possibilities of didactic and methodical usage of tablets in the process of foreign language teaching, particularly then in the German language teaching. The result of the questionnaire research showed, that tablets do not have its established position even in the schools that have already got them. It also revealed, that the frequency of usage tablets in foreign language teaching was quite low, but the pupils perceived it as sufficient.

The Master`s thesis gives the basic facts about realisation of HMI. It will measure and display the electric quantity of electric traction of the Marabu experimental aircraft. The HMI is possible to use for other difficult applications. The main part of the thesis is overviewed the graphic function library for LCD.

Smartphones are used today to accomplish a variety of different tasks, but it has some issues that might be solved with new technology. Augmented Reality is a developing technology that in the future can be used in our daily lives to solve some of the problems that smartphones have. Before people will adopt the new augmented technology it is important to have an intuitive method to interact with it. Hand gesturing has always been a vital part of human interaction. Using hand gestures to interact with devices has the potential to be a more natural and familiar method than traditional methods, such as keyboards, controllers, and computer mice. The aim of this thesis is to explore whether hand gesture recognition in an Augmented Reality head-mounted display can provide the same interaction possibilities as a smartphone touchscreen. This was done by implementing an application in Unity that mimics an interface of a smartphone, but uses hand gestures as input in AR. The Leap Motion Controller was the device used to perform hand gesture recognition. To test how practical hand gestures are as an interaction method, text typing was chosen as the task to be used to measure this, as it is used in many applications on smartphones. Thus, the results can be better generalized to real world usage.Five different keyboards were designed and tested in a pilot study. A controlled experiment was conducted, in which 12 participants tried two hand gesturing keyboards and a touchscreen keyboard. This was done to compare how hand gestures compare to touchscreen interaction. In the experiment, participants wrote words using the keyboards, while their completion time and accuracy was recorded. After using a keyboard, a questionnaire was completed by the participants to measure the usability.  The results consists of an implementation of five different keyboards, and data collected from the experiment. The data gathered from the experiment consists of completion time, accuracy, and usability derived from questionnaire responses. Statistical tests were used to determine statistical significance between the keyboards used in the experiment. The results are presented in graphs and tables. The results show that typing with pinch gestures in augmented reality is a slow and tiresome way of typing and affects the users completion time and accuracy negatively, in relation to using a touchscreen. The lower completion time, and higher usability, of the touchscreen keyboard could be determined with statistical significance. Prediction and auto-completion might help with fatigue as fewer key presses are needed to create a word. The research concludes that hand gestures are reasonable to use as input technique to accomplish certain tasks that a smartphone performs. These include simple tasks such as scrolling through a website or opening an email. However, tasks that involve typing long sentences, e.g. composing an email, is arduous using pinch gestures. When it comes to typing, the authors advice developers to employ a continuous gesture typing approach such as Swype for Android and iOS.