Dale-Marie Wilson

Multimodal programming for dyslexic students

As the Webs role in society increases, so to does the need for its universality. Access to the Web by all, including people with disabilities has become a requirement of Web sites as can be seen by the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. This universality has spilled over into other disciplines, e.g. screen readers for Web browsing; however Computer Science has not yet made significant efforts to do the same. The main focus of this research is to provide this universal access in the development of virtual learning environments, more specifically in computer programming. To facilitate this access, research into the features of dyslexia is required: what it is, how it affects a persons thought process and what changes are necessary to facilitate these effects. Also, a complete understanding of the thought process in the creation of a complete computer program is necessary. Dyslexia has been diagnosed as affecting the left side of the brain. The left side of the brain processes information in a linear, sequential manner. It is also responsible for processing symbols, which include letters, words and mathematical notations. Thus dyslexics have problems with the code generation, analysis and implementation steps in the creation of a computer program. Potential solutions to this problem include a multimodal programming environment. This multimodal environment will be interactive, providing multimodal assistance to the user as they generate, analyze and implement code. This assistance will include the ability to add functions and loops via voice and receiving a spoken description of a code segment that has been selected by the cursor.

Voice interfaced vehicle user help

Manuals were designed to provide support and information about the usage and maintenance of the vehicle. In many cases users manuals are the drivers only guidance. However, lack of clarity and efficiency of manuals lead to user dissatisfaction. In vehicles this problem is even more crucial given that driving a motor vehicle is, for many people, the most complex and potentially dangerous task they will perform during their lifetime. In this paper we present a voice interfaced driver manual that can potentially fix the deficiencies of its alternatives. In addition we aim to provide a case for the integration of such technology in a vehicle to reduce driver distraction, increase driver satisfaction, and manual usability, while also benefiting Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in lowering costs and reducing the documentation process.

Can Culture Translate to the Virtual World

The United States consists of a diverse population of ethnic groups. Catering health care to such a culturally diverse population can be difficult for health care professionals. Culture plays a complex role in the development of health and human service delivery programs. Cultural Competence has emerged as an important issue to improve quality and eradicate racial/ethical disparities in health care. The Nursing Standards of proficiency for nursing education emphasize that nurses should be able to acknowledge patients cultural practices and take cultural influences into account when providing nursing care. A major challenge facing the nursing profession is educating and assisting nurses in providing culturally relevant care. To tackle this issue we have created virtual humans that will represent different cultures. These virtual humans will serve as educational tool that allow nurses to understand and handle patients from different cultures. Our first culturally-specific virtual human is a young Indian girl. In this paper we will discuss the architecture to create a culturally specific virtual patient.

'How may I help you'-spoken queries for technical assistance

Spoken dialog systems, including interactive assistants, have emerged as a viable option for presenting technical communication. Thus has contributed to interests in improving the effectiveness and design of such systems through natural language. Traditional methods of natural language processing include parts-of-speech tagging, syntactic parsing, and statistical models. This paper introduces a new conversational question answering methodology, Answer First (A1) that bypasses traditional methods and removes the need for preprocessing of queries.

AVARI: animated virtual agent retrieving information

Avari is a virtual receptionist for the Computer Science department at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her components include background subtraction to detect a persons presence, speech recognition, audio and visual devices to communicate with passersby. Deployed in a public setting, we investigate the reactions and interactions of passersby with Avari. We describe the design and architecture of the virtual human and discuss the effectiveness of a publicly deployed virtual human.

Applying Aggregation Concepts for Image Search

Through the influx of information content on the Internet, a number of image search methodologies have been presented and implemented to increase the accuracy of image retrieval including keywords, object classification and feature processing. Both keyword and object classification models rely heavily on human subjects, which is time-consuming and error-prone with inconsistency in word agreement. We propose two feature processing methods without human intervention. The feature collage algorithm compares images based on particular features such as color histogram whereas the feature independent algorithm considers each features dimension as independent contributors to the image quality. Using query-by-example, we organize images using rank aggregation methods, previously applied in text information retrieval. We show through empirical experimentation the benefits of our feature processing algorithms over traditional CBIR approaches.

Virtual game show host — Dr. Chestr

This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of an interactive virtual human Dr. Chestr: Computerized Host Encouraging Students to Review. Game show hosts exert a unique personality that becomes the trademark of their respective game shows. Our aim is to create virtual humans that can interact naturally and spontaneously using speech, emotions and gesture. Dr. Chestr is our virtual game show host that exhibits a personality designed to increase user engagement. Dr. Chestr is designed to test users with questions about the C++ programming language and allows the user to communicate using the most natural form of interaction, speech. We present the architecture and user evaluations of the Dr. Chestr Game Show.

Domain Instruction Server (DIS)

Web based instruction is growing at an incredible rate. Teachers, instructors, trainers and several others are putting their instructional content online. The format, style and media types vary from instructor to instructor. In essence, Web based instruction is being done by an unknown number of people in an unknown number of ways, using different media types and platforms. An instruction repository is introduced that has the ability to unite all Web based instruction under one umbrella. The media types, platforms, instructors and formats will remain independent. The repository will create a new instructional model for Web based instruction.

Virtual Standardized Patient as a Training Tool for Mild TBI Screening

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has recognized Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as a priority condition for healthcare services. However, diagnosis rates of TBI in the VA TBI screening tool (VATBIST) vary quite widely across the Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities. Factors that make this diagnostic decision difficult include the reliance on patient self-report, the symptom overlap of mild TBI with other conditions (especially behavioral health and pain), and the need for nuanced diagnostic understanding by the clinician. With the objective of standardizing the TBI screening process, a Virtual Standardized Patient (VSP) portraying an OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) veteran with mild TBI was proposed as a training tool. This paper presents the design and development of the VSP and describes the results from the preliminary study conducted to validate the usability of a VSP for training within this context.

iTech: An Interactive Virtual Assistant for Technical Communication

A manual accompanies almost every product or device. Manuals are usually included with products or services to provide customer assistance and provide technical information to users. However, Thimbleby states, “User manuals are the scapegoat of bad system design.” (Major, 1985; Thimbleby, 1996). Technical communications are provided through several mediums and manuals are one example of this. Other mediums range from interactive animation to virtual reality (Hailey, 2004), with each new medium attempting to improve upon the drawbacks of the previous one. The first medium introduced was the paper manual. However, issues with paper manuals have been widely documented, especially by technicians in the armed forces. Problems include lack of portability, inaccuracy, and increasing content and complexity (Ventura, 1988). To improve upon the drawbacks of paper manuals alternative mediums such as online manuals for technical communication emerged.