Twenty first-born infants age three to five rronths, nine males and eleven fenales, were observed and vi deotaped for five minutes with each parent, in order to explore touch and gaze in free-play parent-infant interactions. Gazing behaviors of parents and infants and mutual gazing were rreasured in vivo; touching behaviors were rreasured fran the videotapes of each dyad. For each behavi or, four rreasures were taken: percent of total t:irre, average rate per minute, rrean duration of the behavior, and rrean duration of the intervals between behaviors. The results show that, on the average, parent touch and gaze were typical of parents at play with infants: frequent short touches and frequent long gazes. The infants look back at parents much less often, typical of infants whose parents are trying to get their attention. The data show unique response patterns depending on the sex of the infant and parent. Both rrothers and fathers use touch with boys, but not girls, as an instrurrental attention getting technique , touching rrore when the infant looks less often. M:lthers show a rrore canplex response than fathers, probably learned fran their greater caretaking experience. Touching to girls is related only to the parent's own attention, seeming to be a !!Ore expressive response. Yothers, but not fathers, increase their ix gaze reciprocally with girls ' gaze but not toys'. These unique relationships for !!Others and fathers with sons and daughters nay be the beginnings of differential sex-typed socialization. MJthers and fathers of the sane infants show very different behaviors, often negatively correlated, indicating that they may have developed a:rnplernentary relationships with their infants.

In the current study 24 younger adults and 24 older adults haptically discriminated natural 3-D shapes (bell peppers, Capsicum annuum) using unimanual (one hand used to explore two objects) and bimanual (both hands used, but each hand explored separate objects) successive exploration. Haptic exploration using just one hand requires somatosensory processing in only one cerebral hemisphere (the hemisphere contralateral to the hand being used), while bimanual haptic exploration requires somatosensory processing in both hemispheres. Previous studies related to curvature/shape perception have found either an advantage for unimanual exploration over bimanual exploration or no difference between the two conditions. In contrast to the results of previous studies that found an advantage for unimanual exploration, the current study found that unimanual and bimanual haptic exploration produced equivalent shape discrimination performance. The current results also document a significant effect of age on haptic shape discrimination: older adults exhibited moderately reduced shape discrimination performance compared to younger adults, regardless of the mode of exploration (unimanual or bimanual).

Response characteristics and tactile coding capacities of single neurons of the dorsal column nuclei (DCN), and the dorsal horn, in particular, neurons of the spinocervical tract (SCT), were investigated in anaesthetized cats. Purely dynamically-sensitive tactile neurons of the DCN could be divided into two classes, one associated with hair follicle afferent (HFA) input, the other with Pacinian corpuscle (PC) input. The HFA-related class was most sensitive to low-frequency (&lt50 Hz) vibration, had phaselocked responses to vibration frequencies up to ~75 Hz and had a graded response output as a function of vibrotactile intensity changes. PC-related neurons had broader vibrotactile sensitivity, extending to ~300 Hz with tightest phaselocking between 50 and 200 Hz. The SCT neurons in the lumbar dorsal horn had tactile receptive fields on the hairy skin of the hindlimb and a very limited capacity to signal, in a graded way, the intensity parameter of the vibrotactile stimulus. Furthermore, because of their inability to respond on a cycle-by-cycle pattern at vibration frequencies above 5-10 Hz, these neurons were unable to provide any useful signal of vibration frequency beyond ~5-10 Hz, in contrast to DCN neurons. In the parallel human psychophysical study, the capacity for vibrotactile frequency detection and discrimination was examined in five subjects in glabrous and hairy skin. The vibrotactile detection threshold values obtained at four standard frequencies of 20, 50, 100 and 200 Hz were markedly higher on the hairy skin than on the glabrous skin. The discrimination task was examined by means of a two-alternative, forced-choice psychophysical procedure. Measures of the discriminable frequency increment (?????) and the Weber Fraction (????? / ??), revealed similar capacities for frequency discrimination at the two different skin sites at the standard frequencies of 20, 100 and 200 Hz, but an equivocal difference at 50 Hz. Cutaneous local anaesthesia in the dorsal forearm produced a marked impairment in vibrotactile detection and discrimination at the low frequencies of 20 and 50 Hz but little effect at higher frequencies, confirming that vibrotactile detection and discrimination in hairy skin depend upon superficial receptors at low vibrotactile frequencies, but depend on deep, probably Pacinian corpuscle receptors for high frequencies.

<p>Interactive media in public environments, such as touch screen kiosks, is a strongly growing toolfor offering service, information, advertising and entertainment. In order to achieve goodusability when designing the graphical user interface for a customer terminal, it is important tobe aware of the very specific requirements involved with such application. This master thesiscontributes to a framework for the interaction design of touch screen terminals in stores.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis was to discover usability problems and solutions to usability problemsin existing touch screen terminal interfaces. Moreover the work aimed at revealing what designpatterns can be used or created in order to meet the observed problems. Usability problems stemfrom underlying use qualities. These can be seen as forces in design patterns. It was found thatthe patterns would be more useful if structured into a pattern catalogue, containing both highand low-level patterns.</p><p>The study was preformed at Instoremedia, a company that, among other things, develops instore touch screen terminals. The product in focus was an interactive product cataloguedeveloped for Telia. The application was partly studied in situ. The study consisted of five steps:analytical evaluation, stakeholder interview, contextual inquiry, user analysis and design patterndevelopment. The study revealed problems, solutions, needs, goals etc, related to the use of theterminal. The final result is a proposed human computer interaction (HCI) design patterncatalogue for in-store touch screen terminals, which helps prevent the observed problems. Itconsists mostly of already known patterns. Three new patterns have been created. The aim isthat the pattern catalogue should be a helpful tool when making designs-decisions for new touchscreen terminals in the future.</p> / <p>Interaktiv media i publika miljöer, såsom pekskärmsterminaler, är på stark uppgång när detgäller att erbjuda service, information, marknadsföring och underhållning. För att uppnå höganvändbarhet i en kundterminals grafiska gränssnitt är det viktigt att vara medveten om despecifika krav som ställs på en sådan applikation. Detta examensarbete bidrar till ett ramverk fördesignen av pekskärmsterminaler i butiker.</p><p>Syftet med examensarbetet var att hitta användbarhetsproblem och lösningar till potentiellaanvändbarhetsproblem i existerande gränssnitt för pekskärmsterminaler. Vidare syftade arbetettill att ta reda på vilka designmönster som kan användas eller skapas för att möta de observeradeproblemen. Användbarhetsproblem bottnar i underliggande användarbehov. Dessa kan ses somkrafter i designmönster. Det visade sig att designmönster är mer användbara om de ordnas i enmönsterkatalog, som innehåller både hög- och lågnivå mönster.</p><p>Studien utfördes på Instoremedia, ett företag som bland annat utvecklar pekskärmsterminalerför butiker. I fokus stod en interaktiv produktkatalog utvecklad för Telia. Applikationenstuderades delvis in situ. Studien bestod av fem steg: analytisk utvärdering, intressentintervju,kontextuell undersökning, användaranalys och designmönsterutveckling. Studien avslöjadeproblem, lösningar, behov, mål etc., relaterade till användandet av terminalen. Det slutgiltigaresultatet är en föreslagen designmönsterkatalog för pekskärmsterminaler i butiker, somerbjuder lösningar till de observerade problemen. Katalogen består till största delen av redankända mönster. Tre nya designmönster har utvecklats. Målet är att mönsterkatalogen ska kunnaanvändas som ett redskap under framtida design.</p>

<p>Designing touch screen devices includes many variables off how to address design issues in the best possible way. The design includes what type of touch interaction method is to be used, how the interface is to be designed and in which context it will be used. The problematic issue that has to be dealt with is how the designer must put together all these parameters into one final product. This paper presents the case of re-designing a touch screen bedside monitor, a device used in hospitals to observe the vital signs of patients. The design solution presented deals with the issues of how the device was designed to suit the users and environment of a hospital. A contextual inquiry showed the many constraints and standards that had to be met and how they shaped the design solution. Earlier work shows the different methods for touch interaction, interface design and feedback that can be applied for touch screen devices. The resulting design is discussed in relation to the different ways of creating touch screen interfaces, and an example of a work method is presented in the end of the paper on how to design for contextual touch screen devises.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: James C. Galloway, Dept. of Physical Therapy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

One of the essential needs of human beings is to be involved in a social context. The intention of this study was to see if the opportunity to have an iPod Touch, could make it possible for students with literacy difficulties to participate in the regular classes and if the implementation of iPod Touch in the school setting would result in informal learning outside the school. In this case study two pupils with literacy difficulties have been using an iPod Touch in their daily school activity. The pupils as well as their teachers have been interviewed about their experiences of implementing iPod Touch as a tool in the regular classroom teatching. The results indicate that iPod Touch can help students to be in inclusive education and that they use the iPod Touch outside school. Further the study also shows that the success of the implementation of iPod Touch depends on many factors, such as the teachers, the pupil’s literacy problems and access to a wireless Internet.

Sketch recognition allows computers to understand and model hand drawn sketches and diagrams. Traditionally sketch recognition systems required a pen based PC interface, but powerful mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones can provide a new platform for sketch recognition systems. We describe a new sketch recognition library, Strontium (SrL) that combines several existing sketch recognition libraries modified to run on both personal computers and on the Android platform. We analyzed the recognition speed and accuracy implications of performing low-level shape recognition on smartphones with touch screens. We found that there is a large gap in recognition speed on mobile devices between recognizing simple shapes and more complex ones, suggesting that mobile sketch interface designers limit the complexity of their sketch domains. We also found that a low sampling rate on mobile devices can affect recognition accuracy of complex and curved shapes. Despite this, we found no evidence to suggest that using a finger as an input implement leads to a decrease in simple shape recognition accuracy. These results show that the same geometric shape recognizers developed for pen applications can be used in mobile applications, provided that developers keep shape domains simple and ensure that input sampling rate is kept as high as possible.

Designing touch screen devices includes many variables off how to address design issues in the best possible way. The design includes what type of touch interaction method is to be used, how the interface is to be designed and in which context it will be used. The problematic issue that has to be dealt with is how the designer must put together all these parameters into one final product. This paper presents the case of re-designing a touch screen bedside monitor, a device used in hospitals to observe the vital signs of patients. The design solution presented deals with the issues of how the device was designed to suit the users and environment of a hospital. A contextual inquiry showed the many constraints and standards that had to be met and how they shaped the design solution. Earlier work shows the different methods for touch interaction, interface design and feedback that can be applied for touch screen devices. The resulting design is discussed in relation to the different ways of creating touch screen interfaces, and an example of a work method is presented in the end of the paper on how to design for contextual touch screen devises.