Edvar Vilar Neto

Evaluating the Usability on Multimodal Interfaces: A Case Study on Tablets Applications

Usability has become the main quality attribute on the development of digital devices. Meanwhile, the new interaction paradigms represent a great challenge for usability. Traditional methods for usability evaluation may not be appropriated to the nature of these new interaction models. This paper introduces a new set of usability heuristics for multimodal paradigm, specially multitouch and speech-based interaction. We analyzed traditional usability heuristics, characteristics of multitouch and speech-based interaction, and guidelines for developers, aiming to reach a satisfactory result. A comparative case study between our proposal and Nielsen’s heuristics is then conducted.

An Open Catalog of Hand Gestures from Sci-Fi Movies

In Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) movies, filmmakers try to anticipate trends and new forms of interaction. Metaphors are created allowing their characters to interact with devices and futuristic environments. These devices and metaphors may be target of research considering they have proven to be useful before, as for example the Star Trek communicator (1966) similarity to the Motorola StarTAC phone (1996). Moreover, the impact of the new interfaces on the audience may indicate their expectations regarding future gesture interactions. Thus, the goal of this work is to collect and expose a compilation of hand interactions in Sci-Fi movies, providing an open catalog to researchers as resource to future discussions. The data visualization and analysis is facilitated through an open-source web application. Additionally, we classify the collected data according to a series of established criteria and our own knowledge.

Bare hand natural interaction with augmented objects

In this work in progress we address the problem of interacting with augmented objects. A bare hand tracking technique is developed, which allied to gesture recognition heuristics, enables interaction with augmented objects in an intuitive way. The tracking algorithm uses a flock of features approach that tracks both hands in real time. The interaction occurs by the execution of grasp and release gestures. Physics simulation and photorealistic rendering are added to the pipeline. This way, the tool provides more coherent feedback in order to make the virtual objects look and respond more likely real ones. The pipeline was tested through specific tasks, designed to analyze its performance regarding the easiness of use, precision and response time.

Glassist: Using Augmented Reality on Google Glass as an Aid to Classroom Management

Google glass is a hands-free, head-mounted intelligent device that can be worn as a wearable computing eyewear. This work discusses its potential in education by proposing an application, the Glassist, aiming at helping teachers management tasks. The application allows teachers to create individual portfolios for students, manage their information and share it with peers. The tool uses Augmented Reality to recognize students face and display relevant information about them. We also discuss some preliminary results regarding its evaluation. To conclude, we point out some future works.

Fishtank Everywhere: Improving Viewing Experience over 3D Content

The goal of this work is to analyze the user experience of the motion parallax effect on common use displays, such as monitors, tvs and mobile devices. The analysis has been done individually for each device and comparing each other to understand the impact on the immersion of such media. Moreover, we focused on understanding the user impression on the change of an usual passive visualization paradigm to the interactive visualization possibility allied to the motion parallax effect.

In-Place Natural and Effortless Navigation for Large Industrial Scenarios

Here we address the problem of navigating in virtual environments with fixed display visualizations (e.g. projections and tvs) by using natural gestures. Gesture metaphors have proven to be a powerful tool for human computer interaction. Examples arise from smartphones to state of the art projects like the Holodesk (from Microsoft Research). However, regarding the use of gestures for navigation in virtual environments, a specific limitation arises in respect to the user movimentation in the real space. The gestures should provide the user a way of turning the virtual camera direction without losing the view of the screen. Moreover, the user must be able to move long distances in the virtual environment without trespassing real world boundaries and without becoming fatigued.

ARkanoidAR: An Augmented Reality System to Guide Biomechanical Movements at Sagittal Plane

In motor rehabilitation, the search for better methodologies is intense. In parallel, natural interaction technologies are considered to be a nice approach for rehabilitation guidance, as they can provide content for visual feedback in augmented reality. This paper describes an augmented reality physiotherapy rehabilitation system called ARkanoidAR, which was implemented using the Microsoft Kinect and whose main focus is to provide feedback for biomechanical movements, more specifically those which occurs on the sagittal plane. The main objective of this paper is to propose the ARkanoidAR and evaluate its usability in the rehabilitation context. We conceived and applied a usability quiz, and its results obtained shows that the application is efficient in guiding and engaging users to do motor rehabilitation exercises and that it is easy to be set up and handled.

Sci-Fi Gestures Catalog

In Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) movies, filmmakers try to anticipate trends and new forms of interaction. Metaphors are created allowing their characters to interact with futuristic devices and environments. These devices and metaphors should be target of research considering they have proven to be useful before. Moreover, the impact of the new interfaces on the audience may indicate their expectations regarding future gesture interactions. Thus, the first goal of this work is to collect and expose a compilation of gestural interactions in Sci-Fi movies, providing a catalog to researchers as resource to future discussions. The second goal is to classify the collected data according to a series of criteria. The catalog is also open to new content contribution, and fellow researchers are invited to provide additional entries of hand gesture scenes from any Sci-Fi title as well as suggestions about new classification criteria and amendments on the already provided content.

Combining Principles of Experience, Traditional Heuristics and Industry Guidelines to Evaluate Multimodal Digital Artifacts

This paper presents how combining principles of user experience, traditional usability and industry design and development guidelines can impact the user knowledge elicitation process. The main objective is to provide an alternative for practitioners and researchers who seek up to date frameworks to evaluate contemporary digital artifacts. These advances generated better results on that matter and elevated an opportunity of a new usability testing, much more adequate in the established context.

Improving Song Guessing Games Through Music Track Composition

In this work we propose a different scheme for music guessing games, based on a constructive approach. By analyzing current available mobile games, we show the barriers that must be surpassed to make such games viable and how novel this work is. We have implemented a game prototype called “What’s the Song” and performed user tests with both usual and constructive approaches. A Likert questionnaire was answered by all users and it points out that the constructive approach improves game engagement and overall user experience.