While a lot of efforts have been on outdoor intelligent systems, internal living environment system that suits the occupancy’s behaviour has not received much attention. The intelligent living environment designed in this study has three components; the physical world (environment), the database and the decision maker. The study sought to design a model that senses ever changing home conditions such as lights, doors and windows. Other variables that were looked at include, but not limited to the number of people in the room and inside thermodynamics and human activity. Global information such as temperature, gas or electricity usage and time of the day will also be received by the system through various sensing facilities. The information will be sent to a rules engine for a decision on an appropriate action to be taken. The action may include just turning off the lights, in the case of a mild abnormality or a high alert to an emergency response unit in a most severe case. The study proposes a context aware and proactive neural networks control system to control a living environment with a main focus on the aged citizens living alone. The proposed living environment was not developed to an actual or “mock” building containing a representation of subset of sensors, actuators and controllers as used in the actual systems due to lack of funding. However, the study will report on the modelling and simulation of the home system variables based on the chosen Artificial Intelligent technique using MATLAB/SIMULINK. These results indicate a possibility of implementing the designed living environment to increase the resident’s security. / Electrical and Mining Engineering / M. Tech. (Engineering: Electrical)

Submitted by Milena Rubi ( ri.bso@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-17T13:29:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi ( ri.bso@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-17T13:29:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi ( ri.bso@ufscar.br) on 2017-10-17T13:29:26Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-17T13:29:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BUENO_Danilo_2017.pdf: 12404601 bytes, checksum: b788f4b11bbb3fb391f608449597ae16 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-30 / Não recebi financiamento / The use of mobile devices to browse the Web has become increasingly popular as a consequence of easy access to the Internet. However, moving from the desktop development to the mobile platform features, requests from developers an important focus on interaction elements which fit into the interaction demands. There by, several approaches have emerged for adaptation of Web applications. One of the most adopted solution by Web developers are front-end frameworks . Nevertheless, this technique has shortcomings that directly impact in the interaction elements and user satisfaction. In this scenario, the objective of this work is to propose a hybrid adaptation approach of context-sensitive Web interfaces with multimodality support, called HyMobWeb, which aims to help developers to create solutions closer to the device’s characteristics, to the contexts of use and the needs of end-users. The approach is composed of stages of static and dynamic adaptation. Static adaptation subsidizes developers in marking elements to be adapted through a grammar that can reduce the coding effort of solutions that address aspects related to multimodality and context sensitivity. Dynamic adaptation is responsible for analyzing changes in the context of the user and performing the marked adaptations in static adaptation. The approach was outlined from a review of the literature on mobile Web interface adaptation and three exploratory studies. The first and second study dealt with end users’ difficulties regarding the use of non-mobile Web applications. The third is about gaps in traditional adaptations - made through frameworks front-end - in relation to the users needs. Aiming to evaluate the approach, two evaluations were carried out, one from the perspective of the developer and another from the end user. The first one focused on verifying the acceptance of the proposal by software developers in the use of the grammar and resources proposed from it. The second sought to identify if the adaptation, previously implemented by the developers, brought satisfaction to the end-users during its use. The findings suggested that HyMobWeb brought significant contributions to the work of the developers and that the resources explored by the approach provided positive reactions to the satisfaction of end-users. / O uso de dispositivos móveis para navegar na Web tornou-se cada vez mais popular devido à proliferação dos aparelhos e sua facilidade de acesso. No entanto, a transição da plataforma desktop para mobile inseriu um novo desafio aos desenvolvedores sobre o uso de elementos de interação e de suas funcionalidades. Com isso, surgiram diversas abordagens para adaptação das aplicações Web. Entre elas, uma das mais comuns entre Desenvolvedores Web é a utilização de frameworks front-end . Contudo, estes frameworks possuem limitantes nas funcionalidades de adaptação das interfaces com deficiências que impactam diretamente nos elementos de interação e na satisfação do usuário. Diante deste cenário, este trabalho tem como objetivo propor a HyMobWeb, uma abordagem híbrida de adaptação de interfaces Web móveis sensíveis ao contexto e com suporte a multimodalidade, que visa a auxiliar os desenvolvedores na criação de soluções mais próximas às características do dispositivo, aos contextos de utilização, e as necessidades dos usuários finais. A abordagem é composta das etapas de adaptação estática e dinâmica. A adaptação estática subsidia os desenvolvedores na marcação de elementos a serem adaptados através de uma gramática que pode reduzir o esforço de codificação de soluções que abordam aspectos relacionados à multimodalidade e à sensibilidade ao contexto. A adaptação dinâmica é a responsável por analisar as mudanças no contexto do usuário e realizar as adaptações marcadas na adaptação estática. A abordagem foi delineada a partir de uma revisão da literatura acerca da adaptação de interface Web em dispositivos móveis e três estudos exploratórios. O primeiro estudo tratou sobre as dificuldades dos usuários finais em relação à utilização de aplicações Web não adaptadas aos dispositivos móveis. O segundo sobre os impactos da adição da multimodalidade em tais ambientes. Enquanto o terceiro, sobre as lacunas existentes nas adaptações tradicionais - realizadas através de frameworks front-end - em relação às necessidades dos usuários finais. Visando avaliar a abordagem, duas avaliações foram realizadas: uma na perspectiva do desenvolvedor e outra do usuário final. A primeira focou em verificar aceitação da proposta por parte dos desenvolvedores de software no uso da gramática e recursos propostos a partir dela. A segunda buscou identificar se a adaptação, previamente implementada pelos desenvolvedores, trazia satisfação para os usuários finais durante seu uso. Os resultados encontrados sugeriram que a HyMobWeb trouxe contribuições significativas para o trabalho dos desenvolvedores e que os recursos explorados pela abordagem propiciaram reações positivas na satisfação dos usuários finais

CAPES / This master thesis presents the further development of a galvanic vestibular stimulator for use in fMRI examinations developed in a previous thesis (MANCZAK, 2012). This thesis amends the GVS by circuits to measure feedback values and implements the stimulation circuit with digital components, such as a microcontroller and flyback integrated circuits. The microcontroller is used in order to control the current source and process the measured values. The communication between the PC, which allows user interaction through a graphical user interface, and the microcontroller is implemented through optical communication, which is defined by a communication protocol specification. The digital circuitry is designed to be placed within the MRI room, meeting the requirements imposed by strong magnetic fields and radio frequency pulses. The underlying hypothesis of the thesis is that the device can be placed within the MRI room without having a negative impact on the MRI image quality. Laboratory tests without the MRI confirmed the correct design of the galvanic vestibular stimulator.

CAPES / This master thesis presents the further development of a galvanic vestibular stimulator for use in fMRI examinations developed in a previous thesis (MANCZAK, 2012). This thesis amends the GVS by circuits to measure feedback values and implements the stimulation circuit with digital components, such as a microcontroller and flyback integrated circuits. The microcontroller is used in order to control the current source and process the measured values. The communication between the PC, which allows user interaction through a graphical user interface, and the microcontroller is implemented through optical communication, which is defined by a communication protocol specification. The digital circuitry is designed to be placed within the MRI room, meeting the requirements imposed by strong magnetic fields and radio frequency pulses. The underlying hypothesis of the thesis is that the device can be placed within the MRI room without having a negative impact on the MRI image quality. Laboratory tests without the MRI confirmed the correct design of the galvanic vestibular stimulator.

The object of this study was to assess the influence of native language, as a principal cultural characteristic, one users’ behavior when using a web-based e-commerce application. The study expands on previous research by comparing English and Russian users. The research also considered demographic data to assess additional factors that influence behavior and task performance. The research design encompassed an online shopping application with two different navigation menus. One menu was based on the action-object model and the other was based on the object-action model. The user interface was created in two different languages (Russian and English). This study suggests that language, as a cultural indicator, has a direct relationship to user satisfaction and performance in e-commerce web applications.

This research was aimed at the optimisation of the usability of content-rich computer and mobile based e-learning material. The goal was to preserve the advantages of paper based material in designing optimised modules that were mobile and computer-based, but at the same time avoiding the pitfalls of converting traditional paper based learning material for use on screen. A mobile eye tracker was used to analyse how students studied similar course content on paper, and on mobile device. Screen based eye tracking was also used to analyse how participants studied corresponding content on a desktop screen. Eye movements which were recorded by an eye tracker revealed the sequences of fixations and saccades on the text that was read by each participant. By analysing and comparing the eye gaze patterns of students reading the same content on three different delivery platforms, the differences between these platforms were identified in terms of their delivery of content rich, text based study material. The results showed that more students read online content on a computer screen than on mobile devices. The inferential analysis revealed that the differences in reading duration, comprehension, linearity and fixation count on the three platforms were insignificant. There were significant differences in saccade length. This analysis was used to identify strong aspects of the respective platforms and consequently derive guidelines for using these aspects optimally to design content rich material for delivery on computer screen and mobile device. The limitations of each platform were revealed and guidelines for avoiding these were derived / Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Text mining is a process of extraction of knowledge from unstructured text documents. We have huge volumes of text documents in digital form. It is impossible to manually extract knowledge from these vast texts. Hence, text mining is used to find useful information from text through the identification and exploration of interesting patterns. The objective of this thesis in text mining area is to find compact but high quality frequent patterns from text documents related to neuroscience field. We try to prove that interactive sampling algorithm is efficient in terms of time when compared with exhaustive methods like FP Growth using RapidMiner tool. Instead of mining all frequent patterns, all of which may not be interesting to user, interactive method to mine only desired and interesting patterns is far better approach in terms of utilization of resources. This is especially observed with large number of keywords. In interactive patterns mining, a user gives feedback on whether a pattern is interesting or not. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling method, frequent patterns are generated in an interactive way. Thesis discusses extraction of patterns between the keywords related to some of the common disorders in neuroscience in an interactive way. PubMed database and keywords related to schizophrenia and alcoholism are used as inputs. This thesis reveals many associations between the different terms, which are otherwise difficult to understand by reading articles or journals manually. Graphviz tool is used to visualize associations.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / A Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is a hardware and software system that establishes direct communication between human brain and the environment. In a BCI system, brain messages pass through wires and external computers instead of the normal pathway of nerves and muscles. General work ow in all BCIs is to measure brain activities, process and then convert them into an output readable for a computer. The measurement of electrical activities in different parts of the brain is called electroencephalography (EEG). There are lots of sensor technologies with different number of electrodes to record brain activities along the scalp. Each of these electrodes captures a weighted sum of activities of all neurons in the area around that electrode. In order to establish a BCI system, it is needed to set a bunch of electrodes on scalp, and a tool to send the signals to a computer for training a system that can find the important information, extract them from the raw signal, and use them to recognize the user's intention. After all, a control signal should be generated based on the application. This thesis describes the step by step training and testing a BCI system that can be used for a person who has lost speaking skills through an accident or surgery, but still has healthy brain tissues. The goal is to establish an algorithm, which recognizes different vowels from EEG signals. It considers a bandpass filter to remove signals' noise and artifacts, periodogram for feature extraction, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classification.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Our connections to the digital world are invoked by brands, but the intersection of branding and interaction design is still an under-investigated area. Particularly, current websites are designed not only to support essential user tasks, but also to communicate an institution's intended brand values and traits. What we do not yet know, however, is which design factors affect which aspect of a brand. To demystify this issue, three sub-projects were conducted. The first project developed a systematic approach for evaluating the branding effectiveness of content-intensive websites (BREW). BREW gauges users' brand perceptions on four well-known branding constructs: brand as product, brand as organization, user image, and brand as person. It also provides rich guidelines for eBranding researchers in regard to planning and executing a user study and making improvement recommendations based on the study results. The second project offered a standardized perceived usability questionnaire entitled DEEP (design-oriented evaluation of perceived web usability). DEEP captures the perceived website usability on five design-oriented dimensions: content, information architecture, navigation, layout consistency, and visual guidance. While existing questionnaires assess more holistic concepts, such as ease-of-use and learnability, DEEP can more transparently reveal where the problem actually lies. Moreover, DEEP suggests that the two most critical and reliable usability dimensions are interface consistency and visual guidance. Capitalizing on the BREW approach and the findings from DEEP, a controlled experiment (N=261) was conducted by manipulating interface consistency and visual guidance of an anonymized university website to see how these variables may affect the university's image. Unexpectedly, consistency did not significantly predict brand image, while the effect of visual guidance on brand perception showed a remarkable gender difference. When visual guidance was significantly worsened, females became much less satisfied with the university in terms of brand as product (e.g., teaching and research quality) and user image (e.g., students' characteristics). In contrast, males' perceptions of the university's brand image stayed the same in most circumstances. The reason for this gender difference was revealed through a further path analysis and a follow-up interview, which inspired new research directions to unpack even more the nexus between branding and interaction design.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Environmental planning is very cumbersome work for environmentalists, government agencies like USDA and NRCS, and farmers. There are a number of conflicts and issues involved in such a decision making process. This research is based on the work to provide a common platform for environmental planning called WRESTORE (Watershed Restoration using Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Resources). We have designed a system that can be used to provide the best management practices for environmental planning. A distributed system was designed to combine high performance computing power of clusters/supercomputers in running various environmental model simulations. The system is designed to be a multi-user system just like a multi-user operating system. A number of stakeholders can log-on and run environmental model simulations simultaneously, seamlessly collaborate, and make collective judgments by visualizing their landscapes. In the research, we identified challenges in running such a system and proposed various solutions. One challenge was the lack of fast optimization algorithm. In our research, several algorithms are utilized such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Learning Automaton (LA). However, the criticism is that LA has a slow rate of convergence and that both LA and GA have the problem of getting stuck in local optima. We tried to solve the multi-objective problems using LA in batch mode to make the learning faster and accurate. The problems where the evaluation of the fitness functions for optimization is a bottleneck, like running environmental model simulation, evaluation of a number of such models in parallel can give considerable speed-up. In the multi-objective LA, different weight pair solutions were evaluated independently. We created their parallel versions to make them practically faster in computation. Additionally, we extended the parallelism concept with the batch mode learning. Another challenge we faced was in User Modeling. There are a number of User Modeling techniques available. Selection of the best user modeling technique is a hard problem. In this research, we modeled user's preferences and search criteria using an ANN (Artificial Neural Network). Training an ANN with limited data is not always feasible. There are many situations where a simple modeling technique works better if the learning data set is small. We formulated ways to fine tune the ANN in case of limited data and also introduced the concept of Deep Learning in User Modeling for environmental planning system.