Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) potentially represent a way to deliver services to the public that would previously have require human staff. Making an ECA available online allows out-of-hours access to information and services, as well as allowing users to access the information anywhere there is an internet connection. As handheld devices grow in popularity and become the primary source of internet connection for many users, it is necessary to examine whether an ECA is appropriate for use on a handheld device, and what factors affect its usability. Over the course of four experiments this research examines how using a handheld device is different from using a PC, how an ECA should be presented on a handheld device, how using an ECA service in a public space affects the experience, and how an ECA should interact with users. It was determined that the usability of an ECA service is not affected by the device on which it is experienced, that on smaller screens or in demanding environments the ECA should be emphasised, and that text should be included in an ECA service as long as the ECA remains intermittently visible. It was also found that usability results from the laboratory can be generalised to the real world, that ECA services are appropriate for all ages and genders, that incorporating disclosure elements into an ECA service is a beneficial feature, and that while financial topics are appropriate to be discussed with an ECA, they are best kept to general rather than personal information. The following chapters present the necessary literary background to the field, before covering each experiment individually, and finally presenting detailed conclusions about the usability of ECAs on handheld devices.

<p>Today, several tourist attractions use handheld devices that act as tour guides to give the customers an improved experience and better knowledge of the attraction. A graphical user interface on the devices provides the users with information through sound, pictures and video. In order to improve the information delivered to the users, some of these guides are location-aware. However, location-aware tour guides are expensive to develop. They have to be developed tailored for each attraction, which is a time consuming job.</p><p>By having a framework for the development of location-aware tour guides, the tour guides will be both easier and less expensive to develop. In addition, it will be easy to make changes to the guides if necessary.</p><p>This project resulted in the development of a prototype for a framework for location-aware tour guides. The framework consists of three main tools; a Creator Tool, a Statistical Tool and a Runtime System. The Creator Tool is used to create and configure new tour guides. The Statistical Tool is used by the staff of the attraction. It generates statistics based on information stored in a log. The Runtime System is the system that provides the mobile devices information, adjusted to their location during a guided tour. To demonstrate the use of the framework, we have developed two client applications, one for PDAs and the other for cellphones. Both applications are electronically location-aware tour guides made for the Nidaros Cathedral.</p><p>The cellphone application is an innovative application that may result in a tremendous evolvement in the development of cellphone applications. It shows great potentials in the area of location-aware cellphone applications with high accuracy, and can be used not only in tour attractions, but also in several other fields. Thus, the project has gained a great deal of publicity, both from newspapers and television.</p>

Today, several tourist attractions use handheld devices that act as tour guides to give the customers an improved experience and better knowledge of the attraction. A graphical user interface on the devices provides the users with information through sound, pictures and video. In order to improve the information delivered to the users, some of these guides are location-aware. However, location-aware tour guides are expensive to develop. They have to be developed tailored for each attraction, which is a time consuming job. By having a framework for the development of location-aware tour guides, the tour guides will be both easier and less expensive to develop. In addition, it will be easy to make changes to the guides if necessary. This project resulted in the development of a prototype for a framework for location-aware tour guides. The framework consists of three main tools; a Creator Tool, a Statistical Tool and a Runtime System. The Creator Tool is used to create and configure new tour guides. The Statistical Tool is used by the staff of the attraction. It generates statistics based on information stored in a log. The Runtime System is the system that provides the mobile devices information, adjusted to their location during a guided tour. To demonstrate the use of the framework, we have developed two client applications, one for PDAs and the other for cellphones. Both applications are electronically location-aware tour guides made for the Nidaros Cathedral. The cellphone application is an innovative application that may result in a tremendous evolvement in the development of cellphone applications. It shows great potentials in the area of location-aware cellphone applications with high accuracy, and can be used not only in tour attractions, but also in several other fields. Thus, the project has gained a great deal of publicity, both from newspapers and television.

Mobile hand-held communication device (smart phone) use is very prevalent and growing rapidly. In addition, there is empirical support for heavy use to be associated with musculoskeletal disorders. This study therefore addressed the physical demand and performance when using these devices. The natural texting style for 20 participants was identified and then participants performed standardized static and dynamic tasks on 4 different types of mobile hand-held devices; a touch screen device and 3 devices with different keyboard sizes and layout; a flip or clamshell design, a PDA style device and a phone with a pull out QWERTY keyboard. Participants rated the effort required to complete each task and for dynamic tasks, keystroke speed was also measured. The time history of angles of the carpometacarpal, metacarpophalangeal and interphalageal joints of the thumb as well as motion of the wrist were determined using small surface makers and an optoelectronic motion capture system. Thumb kinematics were normalized to the maximum range of motion of each joint. Statistically significant and substantial differences were found for the dynamic condition: The tasks which required the most motion in the flexion/extension axis of the thumb also required the most effort, and that there is an inverse relationship between effort and typing speed, namely that those tasks, or devices which required the highest effort resulted in the lowest typing speeds, and visa-versa. Similarly, results showed that those static tasks which required the most thumb flexion also required the most effort. Overall, use of the touch screen phone required the least effort for dynamic and static tasks, and also resulted in the highest typing speeds. This could be a result of having the lowest force required to engage the keys. The device which resulted in the lowest typing speed and highest required effort was the flip phone, which also had the highest required force to engage the keys. There was also a weak relationship between user thumb length and required effort, with longer thumb length necessitating a greater about of effort. Those subjects who used the texting style indentified as the slide style which used forearm rotation with a less flexed thumb reported significantly less effort for all tasks than those who used the claw style which used extreme flexion of the thumb joints. However, texting style had no significant effect on typing speed, indicating that someone could adopt the slide style to reduce muscular effort and potentially the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders in the upper limbs and neck without sacrificing performance.

After a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) event, there will not be time to transport people to a whole-body-counter (WBC), since it is a specialized instrument. This work will assess the feasibility of using handheld spectrometers for measuring the radioactivity that may have been inhaled by a victim as a consequence of an RDD event. Measurements were made with a handheld isotope identifier using a slab phantom and several radioactive point sources. A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Realistic Torso Phantom and a set of phantoms based on Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) reports were also used in this work. These phantoms include the human skeleton and have tissue-equivalent organs. Computational models were developed of all of the phantoms using the Monte Carlo Transport code MCNP. After validation of the computer model, MCNP runs were conducted using other sources that are likely to be used in a RDD. Calculations were then done to find the Minimum Detectable Activity (MDA) of all sources used. The Minimum Detectable Dose (MDD) was then calculated for the MIRD phantoms at various times after inhalation.

Given the increasing influence of technology and the explosion in data collection demands, the acceptance and assimilation of new paradigms and technologies require today’s educators, researchers, and evaluators to select appropriate tools and apply them effectively. One of these technologies—handheld computers—makes the benefits of computerized data collection more accessible to field-based researchers. Three related studies were conducted to evaluate handheld-based data collection system for use in special education settings and to highlight the acceptability factors to effectively use this emerging technology. The first study reviewed the recent literature on the dependability and willingness of teachers to adopt handheld data collection systems and emphasized five important factors: (1) perceived ease of use; (2) perceived usefulness; (3) intention to use; (4) dependability; and (5) subjective norms. The second study discussed the dependability of handheld computers used by special education teachers for collecting self-report data by addressing four dependability attributes: reliability, maintainability, availability, and safety. Data were collected from five sources: (1) self-reports of time use by 19 special education teachers using Pocket PC computers, (2) observations of time use from eight external data collectors, (3) teacher interviews, (4) technical reports prepared by the researcher, and (5) teacher satisfaction. Results indicated that data collection via handheld computers yielded accurate, complete, and timely data, and was appropriate for these four dependability attributes. The last study investigated teachers’ acceptance of handheld computer use by testing the relationship among five factors that influence intention to use this technology which was based on a modified version of the technology acceptance model using the handheld computer acceptance survey responses from 45 special education teachers. The results showed that intention to use handheld computer was directly affected by the devices’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The issue of dependability had a direct and indirect statistically significant effect on perceived ease of use and usefulness, and intention to use a handheld computer, respectively. Overall, three studies demonstrated that handheld computers can be effectively used in the direct observation of behavior in a school environment, without requirements of any settings.

Magistro darbe nagrinėjamos mobilios technologijos bei ju naudojimas mokyme. Šio darbo tikslas – aprašyti mobilias mokymui tinkamas technologijas, atlikti ju naudojimo mokyme analize. Pirmiausia aprašomos ir nagrinėjamos mokymui tinkamos mobiliosios technologijos, lyginamos šiu priemoniu galimybės pagal ju sudėtinguma, patoguma vartotojui ir funkciju ivairove. Pateikta praktinio mobiliuju technologiju naudojimo mokyme analizė – atlikta vykdomu Europoje ir pasaulyje mobiliuju technologiju taikymo mokyme projektu ir ju ataskaitu apžvalga. Atlikta Lietuvos moksleiviu nuostatu apie mobilias technologijas ir ju naudojima mokymui anketinė apklausa ir gautu duomenu analizė. / Modern technologies and the usage of them in teaching are being analysed in the Master’s thesis. The aim of this work is to describe mobile technologies suitable for teaching, to have the analysis of their usage in teaching. First of all mobile technologies suitable for teaching are being discussed, the possibilities of these means, having in mind their complexity, convenience for the user and the range of their functions are being compared. Practical analysis of mobile technologies is presented – a review of reports on the projects of mobile technologies which are applied in Europe and in the world is made. The analysis of the attitude of Lithuanian schoolchildren towards modern technologies and their usage in teaching as well as a questionnaire and the analysis of all the data was made.

Mobile hand-held communication device (smart phone) use is very prevalent and growing rapidly. In addition, there is empirical support for heavy use to be associated with musculoskeletal disorders. This study therefore addressed the physical demand and performance when using these devices. The natural texting style for 20 participants was identified and then participants performed standardized static and dynamic tasks on 4 different types of mobile hand-held devices; a touch screen device and 3 devices with different keyboard sizes and layout; a flip or clamshell design, a PDA style device and a phone with a pull out QWERTY keyboard. Participants rated the effort required to complete each task and for dynamic tasks, keystroke speed was also measured. The time history of angles of the carpometacarpal, metacarpophalangeal and interphalageal joints of the thumb as well as motion of the wrist were determined using small surface makers and an optoelectronic motion capture system. Thumb kinematics were normalized to the maximum range of motion of each joint. Statistically significant and substantial differences were found for the dynamic condition: The tasks which required the most motion in the flexion/extension axis of the thumb also required the most effort, and that there is an inverse relationship between effort and typing speed, namely that those tasks, or devices which required the highest effort resulted in the lowest typing speeds, and visa-versa. Similarly, results showed that those static tasks which required the most thumb flexion also required the most effort. Overall, use of the touch screen phone required the least effort for dynamic and static tasks, and also resulted in the highest typing speeds. This could be a result of having the lowest force required to engage the keys. The device which resulted in the lowest typing speed and highest required effort was the flip phone, which also had the highest required force to engage the keys. There was also a weak relationship between user thumb length and required effort, with longer thumb length necessitating a greater about of effort. Those subjects who used the texting style indentified as the slide style which used forearm rotation with a less flexed thumb reported significantly less effort for all tasks than those who used the claw style which used extreme flexion of the thumb joints. However, texting style had no significant effect on typing speed, indicating that someone could adopt the slide style to reduce muscular effort and potentially the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders in the upper limbs and neck without sacrificing performance.

The goal of this research thesis is to explore and evaluate a novel interaction interface performing canonical manipulations in 3D space for Augmented Reality (AR) on handheld devices. Different from current handheld AR applications usually using touch-screen based interaction methods, we developed a 3D gesture based interaction approach for handheld AR using an attached RGB-Depth camera to provide intuitive 3D interaction experience in 3D space. By identifying fingertips and mapping their 3D positions into the coordinate system of AR virtual scene, our proposed method allows users to perform operations on virtual objects using their fingers in midair with six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF). We applied our methods in two systems: (1) a client-server handheld AR system, and (2) a standalone handheld tablet AR system. In order to evaluate the usability of our gesture-based interface we conducted a user study in which we compared the performance to a 2D touch-based interface. From the results, we concluded that traditional 2D touch-based interface performed faster than our proposed 3D gesture-based interface. However, our method proved a high entertainment value, suggesting great possibilities for leisure applications.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in the adult population, affecting about 5% of the population over 65 years. Occurrence of AF is an independent risk factor for stroke, and together with other cardiovascular risk factors (CHADS2/CHA2DS2- VASc), the stroke risk increases. Since AF is often paroxysmal and asymptomatic (silent) it may remain undiagnosed for a long time and many AF patients are not discovered before suffering a stroke. Aims: To estimate the prevalence of previously undiagnosed AF in an out-of-hospital population with CHADS2 ≥1, in patients with an enlarged left atrium (LA) and of total AF prevalence in sleep apnea (SA) patients, conditions that have been associated with AF. To compare the efficacy of short intermittent ECG with continuous 24h Holter ECG in detecting arrhythmias. Methods: Patients without known AF recorded 10−30 second handheld ECG (Zenicor-EKG®) registrations during 14−28 days at home, both regular, asymptomatic registrations twice daily and when having cardiac symptoms. Recordings were transmitted through the in-built SIM card to an internet-based database. Patients with palpitations or dizziness/presyncope referred for 24h Holter ECG were asked to additionally record 30-second handheld ECG registrations during 28 days at home. Results: In the out-of-hospital population with increased stroke risk, previously unknown AF was diagnosed in 3.8% of 928 patients. Comparing AF detection in patients with an enlarged LA versus normal LA showed that eleven of 299 patients had AF. Five of these had an enlarged LA (volume/BSA). No statistical difference in AF prevalence was found between patients with enlarged and normal LA, 3.3% and 3.2% respectively, (p = 0.974). AF occurred in 7.6% of 170 patients with sleep apnea, in 15% of patients with sleep apnea ≥60 years, and in 35% of patients with central sleep apnea. AF prevalence was also associated with severity of sleep apnea, male gender and diabetes. Comparing the efficacy of arrhythmia detection in 95 patients with palpitations or dizziness/presyncope with continuous 24h Holter and short intermittent ECG, 24h Holter found AF in two and AV-block II in one patient, resulting in 3.2% relevant arrhythmias detected. Short intermittent ECG diagnosed nine patients with AF, three with PSVT and one with AV-block II, in total 13.7% relevant arrhythmias. (p = 0.0094). Conclusions: Screening in the out-of-hospital patient population (mean age 69.8 years) yielded almost 4% AF, making it seem worthwhile to screen older patients with increased stroke risk for AF with this method. Screening patients with LA enlargement (mean age 73.1 years) did not result in higher detection rates compared with the general out-of-hospital population. AF occurred in 7.6% of patients with sleep apnea, (mean age 57.6 years) and was associated with severity of sleep apnea, presence of central sleep apnea, male gender, age ≥60 years, and diabetes. Short intermittent ECG is more effective in detecting relevant arrhythmias than 24h Holter ECG in patients with palpitations or dizziness/presyncope.