While much attention in location-based game and wearable research is about their benefits as in-class education or is aimed at children, rather less research has been done about the combination of location-based games and wearables in private use. This paper investigates a game solution for the low history knowledge of German teenagers and focuses on the learning success of the combination of a proposed location-based mobile game and wearable, called ‘Geocation’ for educational purposes as well as the enjoyment of it. Two prototype sets, functional and appearance, about the location-relevant topic ‘King Ludwig II’ were created and tested with 36 teenagers in Munich. To analyze the learning success pre-and post-test surveys were conducted and applied to the strategy of gamification. The enjoyment of the combination of the location-based mobile game and wearable was evaluated by connecting it to the GameFlow theory and conducting post-test interviews. The study has shown that the connected wearable was not crucial for the player’s learning success; however, it contributed to the user’s motivation and enjoyment.

Les objets connectés ont aujourd’hui pénétré les foyers et, poussés par une société tournée de plus en plus vers le bien-être, ces capteurs mesurent et proposent dorénavant une grande variété de données physiologiques. L’arrivée à maturité des technologies de la réalité virtuelle, couplée avec l’avènement des objets connectés, permet et favorise dès lors de nouvelles perspectives dans la proposition d’expériences immersives enrichies. De nombreux travaux dans le domaine de la réalité virtuelle rapportent l’exploitation des signaux physiologiques. Ceux-ci se basent principalement sur du matériel médical, qui possède des contraintes d’utilisation forte, reste souvent encombrant et limite de fait la mobilité des utilisateurs. Pour tenter de pallier ces limites, nos travaux se concentrent donc sur l’utilisation originale des wearables (objets connectés portés) comme substituts aux capteurs physiologiques traditionnels dans le cadre d’applications immersives. Ce travail de thèse se positionne à mi-chemin entre une étude de faisabilité technologique et une étude fondamentale sur l’expérience utilisateur (UX).Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de nos recherches est de contribuer à la connaissance concernant l’impact de l’utilisation des données physiologiques dans des environnements virtuels immersifs. Nous étudierons en particulier l’influence d’un biofeedback cardiaque, via des capteurs connectés grand public, sur l’engagement utilisateur et le sentiment d’agentivité. Nous avons ainsi mené deux expérimentations nous permettant d’étudier l’impact des différentes modalités de biofeedback sur l’expérience utilisateur. Notre première expérimentation met en place un biofeedback cardiaque dans un jeu d’horreur en réalité virtuelle, permettant d’augmenter le sentiment de peur. Les résultats de cette expérimentationconfortent l’intérêt de l’utilisation de capteurs connectés comme moyen de captation physiologique dans des expériences de réalité virtuelle immersive. Ils mettent également en avant l’impact positif de ce biofeedback sur la dimension d’engagement de l’expérience utilisateur. La deuxième expérience porte sur l’utilisation de l’activité cardiaque comme une mécanique d’interaction obligatoire. Elle est découpée en deux parties, la première permettant de quantifier le niveau de compétence des participants dans le contrôle de leur activité cardiaque et la seconde les plongeant dans une suite de tâches en réalité virtuelle ; le contrôle cardiaque est de fait nécessaire pour les réussir. Les résultats de cette expérience démontrent la possibilité d’utiliser la dite mécanique pour des expériences virtuelles immersives et indiquent un impact positif sur le sentiment d’agentivité, lié au niveau de compétence des participants. Sur un plan théorique, cette thèse propose une synthèse des modèles de l’expérience utilisateur en environnement virtuel et soumet par ailleurs les bases d’un modèle que nous nommons « l’immersion physiologique ». / The internet of things has now entered every home and, with a society more and more focused towards wellness, these sensors measure and offer henceforth a wide variety of physiological data. Virtual reality technologies reaching maturity, coupled with the advent of the internet of things, allow consequently new opportunities to propose improved immersive experiences. If we identify nowadays many virtual reality studies reporting the usage of physiological data, they mainly use medical equipment, which poses strong usability constraints, is often cumbersome and limits mobility. In an attempt to overcome these limitations, this study therefore focuses on the original usage of smart wearables as substitutes for traditional sensors in immersive applications. Thus, this thesis is positioned halfway between a technological feasibility study and a fundamental user experience study.In this context, the objective of our study is to contribute to knowledge about the impact of the use of physiological data in immersive virtual environments. More precisely, the impact of biofeedback, via off-the-shelf smart wearables, on user engagement and the sense of agency. We have thus carried out two experiments allowing us to study the impacts of the different biofeedback modalities on user experience. Our first experiment implements a biofeedback based on heart rate in a virtual reality horror game, allowing to enhance the feeling of fear. The results of this experiment confirm the interest of using smart wearables to capture physiological data for immersive virtual reality experiences. They also highlight the positive impact of this biofeedback on user engagement. The second experiment focuses on the use of cardiac activity as a mandatory interaction mechanism. This experiment is divided into two parts, the first one quantifying the participants’ level of competency in heartrate control and the second one immersing them in a series of tasks in virtual reality ; heartrate control is necessary to complete the different steps of the experience. The results of this experiment demonstrate the possibility of using the said interaction mechanic for virtual reality experiences and indicate a positive impact on the sense of agency, linked with the level of competency of the participants. On a theoretical level, this thesis proposes a synthesis of user experience models in virtual environment and submit the foundations of a model that we call "physiological immersion".

Submitted by PPG Comunica??o Social (famecos-pg@pucrs.br) on 2018-04-23T19:28:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LUCIELE_COPETTI_DIS.pdf: 2336913 bytes, checksum: 11a44c7d0a0ef6f716884301d9d4e826 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sheila Dias (sheila.dias@pucrs.br) on 2018-05-07T17:09:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LUCIELE_COPETTI_DIS.pdf: 2336913 bytes, checksum: 11a44c7d0a0ef6f716884301d9d4e826 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-07T17:18:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUCIELE_COPETTI_DIS.pdf: 2336913 bytes, checksum: 11a44c7d0a0ef6f716884301d9d4e826 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-20 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / The Internet is said to be giving rise to a new area of expertise on health communication, increasingly ubiquitous and constantly improving from the huge amount of information that can be easily and quickly retrieved by those concerned with their health. For testing this hypothesis, the researcher conducted a quantitative study with Brazilian women between the ages of 20 and 60 years using wearable apps and devices suitable to monitoring their health, supposedly stimulating in them the development of good preventive habits. The reading of authors like Michel Foucault, Nikolas Rose, Lucien Sfez and David Le Breton gave the study a theoretical scope, drawing relations between health, culture and society. This discussion gives prominence to mobility and digital media, especially those devices developed in the last ten years or so. The researcher then depicts the resources for three case studies: networks, apps and wearables, concentrating on the female public. The quantitative research shows that education and social backgrounds affect the use of technology in personal healthcare. In conclusion, this study confirms the body as an effective network agent embedded in cultural, social and technological practices. / Uma nova ?rea na comunica??o da sa?de est? surgindo via Internet, atrav?s da qual aquela primeira se torna ub?qua e se beneficia de fluxos de informa??o pass?veis de apropria??o cada vez mais ?gil e imediata por parte dos interessados. Com base nessa premissa, realizou-se uma pesquisa quantitativa com brasileiras entre 20 e 60 anos que utilizam aplicativos e dispositivos vest?veis capazes de auxiliar no monitoramento da pr?pria sa?de e, assim, estimular o desenvolvimento de h?bitos preventivos. Para dar sustenta??o ? pesquisa, aborda-se a rela??o entre sa?de, cultura e sociedade, a partir da leitura das obras de Michel Foucault, Nikolas Rose, Lucien Sfez e David Le Breton. Introduz-se o tema da comunica??o na ?rea da sa?de, com destaque para o papel adquirido pela Internet em particular o aspecto da mobilidade, integrado tamb?m pelos dispositivos digitais desenvolvidos no ?ltimo dec?nio. Passo cont?nuo, procede-se ? exemplifica??o destes recursos atrav?s da an?lise de tr?s casos: redes, aplicativos e dispositivos vest?veis. O recorte foi feito com vistas a focar no uso de redes, dispositivos e wearables pelo p?blico feminino. A pesquisa quantitativa concluiu que aparentemente as vari?veis educacionais e de classe social influenciam nos usos dessas tecnologias na sa?de. Dessa forma, o estudo proposto confirmou que o corpo ? agente efetivo nas redes, envolvendo pr?ticas sociais, culturais e tecnol?gicas.

abstract: Machine learning (ML) has played an important role in several modern technological innovations and has become an important tool for researchers in various fields of interest. Besides engineering, ML techniques have started to spread across various departments of study, like health-care, medicine, diagnostics, social science, finance, economics etc. These techniques require data to train the algorithms and model a complex system and make predictions based on that model. Due to development of sophisticated sensors it has become easier to collect large volumes of data which is used to make necessary hypotheses using ML. The promising results obtained using ML have opened up new opportunities of research across various departments and this dissertation is a manifestation of it. Here, some unique studies have been presented, from which valuable inference have been drawn for a real-world complex system. Each study has its own unique sets of motivation and relevance to the real world. An ensemble of signal processing (SP) and ML techniques have been explored in each study. This dissertation provides the detailed systematic approach and discusses the results achieved in each study. Valuable inferences drawn from each study play a vital role in areas of science and technology, and it is worth further investigation. This dissertation also provides a set of useful SP and ML tools for researchers in various fields of interest. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2018

Based on cross-modal learning and multiple resources theory, human performance can be improved by receiving and processing additional streams of information from the environment. In alarm situations, alarm meanings need to be distinguishable from each other and learnable for users. In audible alarms, by manipulating the temporal characteristics of sounds different audible signals can be generated. However, in some cases such as in using discrete medical alarms, when there are too many audible signals to manage, changes in temporal characteristics may not generate discriminable signals that would be easy for listeners to learn. Multimodal displays can be developed to generate additional auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli for helping humans benefit from cross-modal learning and multiple attentional resources for a better understanding of the alarm situations. In designing multimodal alarm displays in work domains where the alarms are predominantly auditory-based and where accessing visual displays is not possible at all times, tactile displays can enhance the effectiveness of alarms by providing additional streams of information for understanding the alarms. However, because of low information density of tactile information presentation, the use of tactile alarms has been limited. In this thesis, by using human subjects, the learnability of auditory and tactile alarms, separately and together in an audio-tactile display were studied. The objective of the study was to test cross-modal learning when messages of an alarm (i.e. meaning, urgency level) were conveyed simultaneously in audible, tactile and audio-tactile alarm displays. The alarm signals were designed by using spatial characteristics of tactile, and temporal characteristics of audible signals separately in audible and tactile displays as well as together in an audio-tactile display. This study explored if using multimodal alarms (tactile and audible) would help learning unimodal (audible or tactile) alarm meanings and urgency levels. The findings of this study can help for design of more efficient discrete audio-tactile alarms that promote learnability of alarm meanings and urgency levels.

Localization is critical to a number of wireless network applications. In many situations GPS is not suitable. This dissertation (i) develops novel localization schemes for wireless networks by explicitly incorporating mobility information and (ii) applies localization to physical analytics i.e., understanding shoppers' behavior within retail spaces by leveraging inertial sensors, Wi-Fi and vision enabled by smart glasses. More specifically, we first focus on multi-hop mobile networks, analyze real mobility traces and observe that they exhibit temporal stability and low-rank structure. Motivated by these observations, we develop novel localization algorithms to effectively capture and also adapt to different degrees of these properties. Using extensive simulations and testbed experiments, we demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of our new schemes. Second, we focus on localizing a single mobile node, which may not be connected with multiple nodes (e.g., without network connectivity or only connected with an access point). We propose trajectory-based localization using Wi-Fi or magnetic field measurements. We show that these measurements have the potential to uniquely identify a trajectory. We then develop a novel approach that leverages multi-level wavelet coefficients to first identify the trajectory and then localize to a point on the trajectory. We show that this approach is highly accurate and power efficient using indoor and outdoor experiments. Finally, localization is a critical step in enabling a lot of applications --- an important one is physical analytics. Physical analytics has the potential to provide deep-insight into shoppers' interests and activities and therefore better advertisements, recommendations and a better shopping experience. To enable physical analytics, we build ThirdEye system which first achieves zero-effort localization by leveraging emergent devices like the Google-Glass to build AutoLayout that fuses video, Wi-Fi, and inertial sensor data, to simultaneously localize the shoppers while also constructing and updating the product layout in a virtual coordinate space. Further, ThirdEye comprises of a range of schemes that use a combination of vision and inertial sensing to study mobile users' behavior while shopping, namely: walking, dwelling, gazing and reaching-out. We show the effectiveness of ThirdEye through an evaluation in two large retail stores in the United States. / text

Background Wearable technology, which is a part of the Internet of Things (IoT), appears to be an upcoming trend with increasing importance within the business world. Nevertheless, no clear business model for companies working with wearables had been defined yet taking the influences wearables have on businesses and especially their value proposition into consideration. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to offer input to the lack of existing literature within business models and wearables technology. The aim is to unfold a general business model that can be used within wearable companies/IoT businesses and show the influence these technologies have on them. Methodology In order to conduct an empirical research a multiple case study has been conducted, based on semi-structured interviews with eight companies, which core business consists out of wearable technology. The frameworks on business models by Gassmann et al (2014) and Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010) serve as the basis for this study and its analysis, which is based on a grounded theory approach. Results It appears that a great amount of similarities can be found through the cross-case analysis between the cases. This makes the construction of a new business model possible. The unfolded model gives also a new contribution to the theory of Hui (2014) regarding a new area of value creation and value capture within IoT businesses.

The miniaturization of electronics in modern times has enabled the possibility of creating a “continuity of care” using small wearable bioelectronic devices. Using wearable devices, such as the Fitbit or Garmin fitness trackers, allows for the exchange of data between devices which can be used to improve the accuracy of data analysis and thus patient health. In this thesis work, three wearable bioelectronic devices are proposed: an EOG-based eye-gaze tracking assistive technology device for the physically disabled to control a computer cursor, a battery-operated miniaturized polysomnograph that can store and transmit data wirelessly to sleep technicians and a trauma-detecting personal locator beacon. The first two system designs are outlined and simulated, followed by the testing of a prototype while the third system is a proposed design that will be reduced to practice at a later date. With continued development needed in the signal processing algorithms, the eye-gaze tracking computer mouse demonstrated capability and repeatable results. The wearable sleep sensor system also demonstrated capability and provided data with high signal-to-noise ratios on most channels before any filtering, allowing for comparable signal quality to conventional polysomnography devices.

abstract: This dissertation research investigates the social implications of computing artifacts that make use of sensor driven self-quantification to implicitly or explicitly direct user behaviors. These technologies are referred to here as self-sensoring prescriptive applications (SSPA’s). This genre of technological application has a strong presence in healthcare as a means to monitor health, modify behavior, improve health outcomes, and reduce medical costs. However, the commercial sector is quickly adopting SSPA’s as a means to monitor and/or modify consumer behaviors as well (Swan, 2013). These wearable devices typically monitor factors such as movement, heartrate, and respiration; ostensibly to guide the users to better or more informed choices about their physical fitness (Lee & Drake, 2013; Swan, 2012b). However, applications that claim to use biosensor data to assist in mood maintenance and control are entering the market (Bolluyt, 2015), and applications to aid in decision making about consumer products are on the horizon as well (Swan, 2012b). Interestingly, there is little existing research that investigates the direct impact biosensor data have on decision making, nor on the risks, benefits, or regulation of such technologies. The research presented here is inspired by a number of separate but related gaps in existing literature about the social implications of SSPA’s. First, how SSPA’s impact individual and group decision making and attitude formation within non-medical-care domains (e.g. will a message about what product to buy be more persuasive if it claims to have based the recommendation on your biometric information?). Second, how the design and designers of SSPA’s shape social behaviors and third, how these factors are or are not being considered in future design and public policy decisions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016

Technology is rapidly advancing and more sophisticated wearables capable of monitoring health concerns and potential diseases are entering the market. Meanwhile, regulations are just catching up and the new EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be implemented in May of 2018. This thesis reviews the concerns voiced by users when using wearables collecting their sensitive health data and compare them with the upcoming regulatory changes, to see if they address the many worries of users. The main goal of the GDPR is to bring ownership of the data back to the individual as well as harmonizing the market in the EU, but the question is if its focus is on the right things that users actually value and will their concerns be eased by the new regulations? A high-level review of the current and upcoming regulations on data collection was made as well as reviewing already discovered user concerns. The study was made using qualitative methodology and face-to-face interviews with users affected by medical conditions, in order to identify their perception of trust in wearable technology monitoring their health status. The results were analyzed using a thematic analysis where three main areas of concern were discovered. These where then compared to the literature review. The three areas of concern that were discovered are: a lack of control where users have a clear need of ownership of their personal data, the concern of companies abusing individual’s data for commercial purposes and a doubt in the level of trust users can put in the information they receive. The GDPR does address several of these concerns by bringing ownership of data back to the users. By strengthening the need for explicit consent from the companies, more transparent policies and security implementations of data integrity, the GDPR features several steps that could ensure the privacy of users such as distribution of data and “the right to be forgotten”. Upcoming research can go deeper into the GDPR and the future will tell if it is successful in its aim to empower the user as it might seem excellent on paper but face several challenges in reaching its goal.