Carlos Arce-Lopera

User Engagement Through Multimodal Feedback and Involvement in Game Design with a Wearable Interface

A wearable interface was designed, built and tested as a prototype to evaluate users’ engagement in a game setting. The wearable interface consisted of a light sensor and three different types of actuators: a RGB led, a buzzer and a vibe motor. Evaluations of the interface performance were conducted focusing on two main components: the multimodal feedback system and the involvement in game design over several rounds. Experimental results showed that our wearable interface is comfortable and imperceptible. Moreover, our wearable interface is simple enough for users to be able to add game modes based on social agreements. Our results demonstrate how meaningful multimodal feedback and self-directed involvement in game design can address several human factors challenges faced by user engagement designers.

An Elastic Interface for Artistic Composition and Performance

We present an elastic interface designed to capture coarse and continuous movements that are characteristics of artistic, creative and performance processes. We tested our prototype and compared its performance with other two more traditional interfaces. Experimental results show that our interface is outperformed in simple tasks. However, for more complex scenarios, its performance is similar to the other interfaces both in response time and in precision error. The results suggest that our prototype is suitable for artistic composition and performance.

The French, German, and Spanish sound of eating fresh fruits and vegetables

A set of onomatopoeic expressions for eating fruits and vegetables is compared across subjects whose native language is Spanish, French, or German. Subjects chose the onomatopoeia that best represented the sound of eating a fruit or vegetable (celery, banana, strawberry, passion fruit, mango, apple, orange, and tomato). Results show there are onomatopoeias that have a higher frequency of response in one language compared to the others. Thus, it is possible to assume that depending on the language there is a better way to express haptic and auditory information associated to fruit and vegetable consumption. Moreover, and considering the three languages, results show there are three categories of responses based on the relative strength of the material (strong and medium strength, and soft). Thus, there is some consistency in the onomatopoeias that represent the sound of eating a fruit or a vegetable. To conclude, results differ by language, but they are consistent within a category of sound.

Subject or object: a product’s scent congruent perspectives

Purpose The purpose of this paper is evaluate to what extent consumers can recognise a scent within a context that is congruent either with the product or with the user, respectively, objects’ quality or subjects’ involvement. Design/methodology/approach This paper consists of two experimental studies. The first study assesses people’s capacity to recognise three scents: leather, synthetic leather, and fabric. The second study assesses the way in which a frame of reference (quality or involvement) affects people’s capacity for scent recognition (leather and fabric). Findings Results confirm the difficulty of scent recognition revealing, in the first study, a low level of consistency in subjects’ responses. The second study shows an interaction between the type of scent and consumers’ framework: subjects who are primed to think about product quality present more accurate scent recognition when they smell leather, whereas subjects who are primed to think about themselves present more accurate scent recognition when they smell fabric. Practical implications These results can be used in brand communication. A scent, such as that of leather, should highlight quality attributes in its communication. If the product is unscented, communication should highlight the subject who uses the product. Originality/value Previous studies show the importance of the consistency between scent and product marketing strategies. This study complements these findings by differentiating the context where a scent is presented considering either the product (the object’s quality attributes) or the individual who uses that product (subject’s involvement).

Towards an Efficient Algorithm to Get the Chorus of a Salsa Song

A well-known musical genre and part of Latin-American cultural identity is Salsa. To be able to perform a scientific analysis of this genre, the first step to take is to analyze the structure of Salsa songs. Furthermore, the most representative part of Salsa is the chorus. In this paper we detail the design and implementation of an algorithm developed for getting the chorus of any Salsa song.