Gerrit Niezen

From events to goals: Supporting semantic interaction in smart environments

When we connect smart devices to one another we open up many new possibilities. One interesting possibility is to support high-level semantic interaction without requiring multiple steps on multiple devices. In this paper we investigate how ontologies, runtime task models, Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) models, and the blackboard architectural pattern may be used to enable semantic interaction for pervasive computing. An initial demonstrator was developed to visualize and manipulate semantic connections between devices in a smart home environment. The demonstrator provides a way for users to physically interact with devices on a high level of semantic abstraction without being bothered with the low-level details.

Evaluating and optimising accelerometer-based gesture recognition techniques for mobile devices

The objective of this study was to evaluate the various gesture recognition algorithms currently in use, after which the most suitable algorithm was optimized in order to implement it on a mobile device. Gesture recognition techniques studied include hidden Markov models, artificial neural networks and dynamic time warping. A dataset for evaluating the gesture recognition algorithms was gathered using a mobile devices embedded accelerometer. The algorithms were evaluated based on computational efficiency, recognition accuracy and storage efficiency. The optimized algorithm was implemented on the mobile device to test the empirical validity of the study.

Semantic connections: Exploring and manipulating connections in smart spaces

In envisioned smart environments, enabled by ubiquitous computing technologies, electronic objects will be able to interconnect and interoperate. How will users of such smart environments make sense of the connections that are made and the information that is exchanged? This Internet of Things could have a life of its own, exchanging digital concepts and values between its members, having an understanding of each other and communicating in their own language. In this paper we report on an ongoing research project in the context of smart home environments. We discuss possibilities to represent this digital world in the physical reality we live in, by providing handles to control and clues to understand, build conceptual models of connections that exist or can be made. This is achieved by making semantic abstractions of low-level events and presenting them to users at a higher level, in a simplified fashion. Furthermore, we used an ontology to describe the low-level events, and used reasoning to infer high-level meaningful information. Although we are in the preliminary stages of our research, we consider it worthwhile to share and illustrate our findings by presenting a demonstrator, that implements our ideas in a home entertainment scenario.

Open-source hardware for medical devices

Open-source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so anyone can study, modify, distribute, make and sell the design or the hardware based on that design. Some open-source hardware projects can potentially be used as active medical devices. The open-source approach offers a unique combination of advantages, including reducing costs and faster innovation. This article compares 10 of open-source healthcare projects in terms of how easy it is to obtain the required components and build the device.

Triangulating empirical and analytic techniques for improving number entry user interfaces

Empirical methods and analytic methods have been used independently to analyse and improve number entry system designs. This paper identifies key differences in exploring number entry errors combining laboratory studies and analytic methods and discusses the implications of triangulating methods to more thoroughly analyse safety critical design. Additionally, a previously presented analytic method used to analyse number entry interfaces is generalised to analyse more types of number entry systems. This paper takes number entry to mean interactively entering a numeric value, as opposed to entering a numeric identifier such as a phone number or ISBN. Many applications of number entry are safety critical, and this paper is particularly motivated by user interfaces in healthcare, for instance for specifying drug~dosage.

Performance evaluation of a semantic smart space deployment

A smart space is a physical space with heterogeneous smart objects that collaborate and share information to perform tasks desired by users. Interoperability among smart objects is the key challenge in smart spaces. In this paper, we discuss a semantic interoperability approach for smart spaces introduced by the SOFIA (Smart Objects for Intelligent Applications) project. A semantic interoperability architecture is introduced and implemented for a use case scenario deployment. This deployment consists of many heterogeneous smart objects, designed and manufactured by different companies and institutions, that exchange information through the interoperability architecture. The architecture, realized as a smart home pilot, is evaluated based on a performance analysis. The results indicate acceptable response times for a networked user interface.

Comparing wireless sensor network routing protocols

Selecting a routing protocol for a wireless sensor network depends on various factors like the network lifetime, success rate and the number of nodes in the network. This paper compares four popular routing protocols used in wireless sensor networks. The experimental setup is described, after which the various protocols are compared and evaluated.

User experience evaluation through the brain's electrical activity

A novel system for measuring the user experience of any user interface by measuring the feedback directly from the brain through Electroencephalography (EEG) is described. We developed an application that records data for different emotions of the user while using any interface and visualises the data for any interval during the task, as well as presenting various statistics and insight about the data. The application also provides the points of mouse movement on any interface as different coloured dots, where the colour represents the mental load at those points. This makes it easier to identify the user experience based on emotions at exact points on the user interface. In experiments, the brain activity of participants was recorded while they performed tasks on both a well-designed and poorly designed user interface. Screen and mouse cursor position were recorded, along with the values of several facial expressions and emotions extracted from the EEG. Users were interviewed after the study to share their experiences. For each study session analysis was done by comparing EEG, screen recording and interview data. Results showed that frustration, furrow and excitement values reflect user experience.

Designing the Internet of Things for learning environmentally responsible behaviour

We present two designs in the area of the Internet of Things, utilizing the ontology-driven Smart Objects For Intelligent Applications (SOFIA) Interoperability Platform (IOP). The IOP connects domestic objects in the physical world to the information world, allowing for coaching the behaviour of, or raising awareness in, domestic energy consumption. The concept and architecture of the SOFIA IOP is introduced, in which the domestic objects are knowledge processors connected to a semantic information broker. This broker, using a blackboard design pattern, ontologies, and semantic web technologies, enables interoperability among both digital and physical entities. The two designs based on the SOFIA IOP are presented as examples for coaching with and learning from the Internet of Things. Although both designs are in the area of domestic energy consumption, they can be seen as good starting points towards broader areas of ubiquitous learning enabled by the Internet of Things.

Employing Number-Based Graphical Representations to Enhance the Effects of Visual Check on Entry Error Detection

Number entry is a mundane and error-prone task. To find errors, users often rely on visual checks to compare the differences between their instructions and the numbers they have actually input, a task that is difficult for users to do accurately. We therefore propose the use of number-based graphical representations (GRs) as a complement to conventional numeric representations (NR) to enhance visual checks, so users can examine both GRs and NRs to detect errors. We conducted two experiments to explore the issues raised. Experiment 1 examined the effects of GRs and NRs on representation difference detection (i.e. checking if two GRs or NRs are identical). The two representations had a comparative performance by time and error rate. In Experiment 2, we investigated the performance of GRs and NRs with number entry tasks. While extending the task time (increased by 38%), number entry with GRs resulted in significantly fewer errors than without GRs (decreased by 60%). Participants also had a high preference for number entry with GRs. Therefore, the proposed technique is promising for number entry error reduction, and that in safety critical applications improved safety can be achieved.