Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:06:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5369.pdf: 9612866 bytes, checksum: 5042244a0ce446b39888368498a1bff3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-08 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The evolution of ubiquitous computing, techniques for handling continuous media and composition, representation and presentation of multimedia objects, among other areas of information technology and communication, enable the exploration and study of interesting results that can be achieved with the incorporation of these technologies in different areas of knowledge and application. The areas of Electronic Learning (EE) and Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) were chosen to perform this kind of study and exploration. Besides providing a rich environment for research in education, the work required applied research in ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction and multimedia systems. The work also included the development and improvement of prototypes, particularly presentation machines and capture & access systems for human activities. As a byproduct, it presents an intrumentalized classroom which can perform the ubiquitous capture of multimodal educational presentation for further generation of an equivalent multimedia learning object. These learning objects can be accessed via Learning Management System (LMS) on the Web in an asynchronous way or in synchronous sessions with professors/tutors/students. The multimedia learning objects may be used in MOOCs and as support for classroom learning. Moreover, the log of users interactions with the objects can provide clues for improvement in the educational presentation. / A evolução da computação ubíqua, das técnicas de manipulação de mídia contínua e da composição, representação e apresentação de objetos multimídia, entre outras áreas das tecnologias da informação e comunicação, viabilizam a exploração e o estudo de resultados interessantes que podem ser alcançados com a incorporação dessas tecnologias em diferentes áreas de conhecimento e de aplicação. Escolheu-se as áreas de Electronic Learning (EE) e Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) para se realizar esse tipo de estudo e exploração. Além de propiciar um rico ambiente para pesquisas em educação, o trabalho requereu a elaboração de pesquisa aplicada em computação ubíqua, interação humano-computador e sistemas multimídia. O trabalho também envolveu o desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento de protótipos, particularmente de máquinas de apresentação e sistemas para captura & acesso de atividades humanas. Como subproduto, é apresentada uma sala de aula instrumentada capaz de realizar a captura ubíqua de apresentações educacionais multimodais para posteriormente transformá-las em objetos de aprendizagem multimídia. Esses objetos de aprendizagem podem ser acessados pela Web, via Learning Management System (LMS), tanto de forma assíncrona como em sessões síncronas entre professores/tutores/alunos. Os objetos de aprendizagem multimídia podem ser utilizados em qualquer contexto educacional (como MOOCs e no apóio ao ensino presencial). Além disso, pode-se utilizar o log das interações dos usuários com os objetos para encontrar possíveis alvos de melhoria nas apresentações educacionais.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Ubiquitous computing is known as the third wave of computing, which aims at making computational devices become more permeated to the users lives. It has helped people to perform their daily activities in many areas of expertise, especially in the educational domain where it assists instructors and students during their academic duties, achieving knowledge anywhere and anytime, making use of unobtrusive ways of reaching the desired content. Multimedia capture and context-awareness are two relevant subjects in ubiquitous computing research. While the former results in large amounts of digital media (e.g., video, audio, slides, text comments) being automatically produced, the latter oers the proper means to integrate and access such content. By merging the two concepts, users may benet from tools that allow them to retrieve, view and interact with the captured media artifacts. Thus, this work presents a communication model based on peer-to-peer networks, used for transferring and replicating the captured content. Furthermore, a contextual access architecture is presented for personalization and recommendation of interactive multimedia content captured in an instrumented educational environment. This architecture takes into account context information, user preferences and presentation constraints in order to personalize the access experience, tailoring it to users\' needs. As a case study, the proposals were implemented in Classroom eXperience, which is a ubiquitous computing platform for multimedia capturing designed to automatically record lectures and make them available to students. / Computação ubíqua é conhecida como a terceira onda da computação, a qual visa tornar os dispositivos computacionais mais integrados à vida das pessoas. Ela tem ajudado as pessoas a realizarem suas atividades diárias em diferentes domínios, especialmente no domínio educacional, onde auxilia instrutores e alunos durante as suas atividades acadê- micas obtendo conhecimento em qualquer lugar e a qualquer momento, fazendo uso de formas não intrusivas para recuperar o conteúdo desejado. Captura e acesso multimídia e ciência de contexto são dois importantes temas em pesquisas de computação ubíqua. Enquanto o primeiro produz automaticamente um grande volume de mídias digitais (ex., vídeo, áudio, slides, comentários de texto), o segundo oferece meios adequados para integrar e acessar tal conteúdo. Ao fundir os dois conceitos, os usuários podem se beneciar de ferramentas que lhes permitam recuperar, visualizar e interagir com os artefatos de mídia capturados. Assim, este trabalho apresenta um modelo de comunicação baseado em redes peer-to-peer, utilizado para transferência e replicação do conteúdo capturado. Além disso, uma arquitetura de acesso contextual é apresentada para personalização e recomendação de conteúdo multimídia interativo capturado em ambientes educacionais instrumentados. Essa arquitetura utiliza uma abordagem que considera informações de contexto, preferências do usuário e restrições de apresentação a m de personalizar a experiência de acesso, adequando-a às necessidades dos usuários. Como estudo de caso, as propostas foram implementadas no Classroom eXperience, que é uma plataforma de computação ubíqua para captura multimídia concebida para gravar automaticamente as aulas ministradas e disponibilizá-las posteriormente aos alunos. / Mestre em Ciência da Computação

Many older adults desire to maintain their quality of life by living and aging independently in their own homes. However, it is difficult for older adults to notice and track the subtle changes in their own abilities because these abilities can change gradually over a long period of time. Technology in the form of ubiquitous sensors embedded in objects in the home can play a role in keeping track of the functional abilities of individuals unobtrusively, objectively, and continuously over a long period of time. This work introduces a sensing technique called “task-based embedded assessment” that monitors how well specific tasks important for independence are carried out using everyday objects found in the home with which individuals regularly interact. Following formative studies on the information needs of older adults and their caregivers, a sensing system called “dwellSense” that can monitor, assess, and provide feedback about how well individuals complete tasks, such as taking medications, using the phone, and making coffee, was designed, built, and evaluated. Multiple longterm (over 10 months) field deployments of dwellSense were used to investigate how the data collected from the system could support greater self-awareness of abilities and intentions to improve in task performance. Presenting and reflecting on data from ubiquitous sensing systems such as dwellSense is challenging because it is both highly dimensional as well as large in volume, particularly if it is collected over a long period of time. Thus, this work also investigates the time dimension of reflection and has identified that real-time feedback is particularly useful for supporting behavior change, and longer-term trended feedback is useful for greater awareness of abilities. Traditional forms of assessing the functional abilities of individuals tend to be either biased, lacking ecological validity, infrequent, or expensive to conduct. An automated sensor-based approach for assessment is compared to traditional performance testing by a trained clinician and found to match well with clinician-generated ratings that are objective, frequent, and ecologically valid. The contributions from this thesis not only advance the state of the art for maintaining quality of life and care for older adults, but also provide the foundations for designing personal sensing systems that aim to assess an individual’s abilities and support behaviors through the feedback of objective, timely sensed information.