Gustavo López

Human–Objects Interaction: A Framework for Designing, Developing and Evaluating Augmented Objects

The processes to design, develop, and evaluate augmented objects are complex and should adhere to a Software Engineering methodology with a user-centered approach. This article presents a framework for creating augmented objects focused on the interaction of the final users with these objects. The article applies the framework in three cases of study: an augmented Post-it note for important e-mail notifications, an augmented pajama for capturing vital signs on infants, and an augmented door that is able to capture and send messages when the user is out of office.

Alexa vs. Siri vs. Cortana vs. Google Assistant: A Comparison of Speech-Based Natural User Interfaces

Natural User Interfaces (NUI) are supposed to be used by humans in a very logic way. However, the run to deploy Speech-based NUIs by the industry has had a large impact on the naturality of such interfaces. This paper presents a usability test of the most prestigious and internationally used Speech-based NUI (i.e., Alexa, Siri, Cortana and Google’s). A comparison of the services that each one provides was also performed considering: access to music services, agenda, news, weather, To-Do lists and maps or directions, among others. The test was design by two Human Computer Interaction experts and executed by eight persons. Results show that even though there are many services available, there is a lot to do to improve the usability of these systems. Specially focused on separating the traditional use of computers (based on applications that require parameters to function) and to get closer to real NUIs.

Sign Language Recognition Using Leap Motion

Several million people around the world use signs as their main mean of communication. The advances in technologies to recognize such signs will make possible the computer supported interpretation of sign languages. There are more than 137 different sign language around the world; therefore, a system that interprets those languages could be beneficial to all, including the Deaf Community. This paper presents a system based on a hand tracking device called Leap Motion, used for signs recognition. The system uses a Support Vector Machine for sign classification. We performed three different evaluations of our system with over 24 people.

Notifications for Collaborative Documents Editing

In a collaborative writing session one of the most important activities is the notification to all the collaborators about changes in documents (data awareness). In this paper we propose the use of an augmented object as the mechanism to notify changes in shared documents. In this way, collaborators can be aware of modifications even if they are not in front of the computer. A prototype was implemented and evaluated. The augmented object prototype can be used with the Google Docs suite, which permits the collaborators to work in a distributed and asynchronous way.

Ubiquitous Notification Mechanism to Provide User Awareness

Awareness could be defined as the knowledge that the user has of a particular activity, either individual or collaborative. Good awareness mechanisms provide information to the user at the right time so that s/he can know what is required for her/him to do before s/he is required to do it. Notification mechanisms are a key factor to provide awareness. Ubiquitous technologies can change the paradigm in which notifications are delivered to users. This paper describes the concept and characteristics of awareness, and how researchers have applied different notification mechanisms to provide it. With the lessons learned from 4 project implementations, we propose a service-based plug-and-play framework that models different notification mechanisms that could be used to provide user awareness.

A Mobile Application That Allows Children in the Early Childhood to Program Robots

Children born in the Information Age are digital natives; this characteristic should be exploited to improve the learning process through the use of technology. This paper addresses the design, construction, and evaluation process of TITIBOTS, a programming assistance tool for mobile devices that allows children in the early childhood to create programs and execute them using robots. We present the results of using TITIBOTS in different scenarios with children between 4 and 6 years old. The insight obtained in the development and evaluation of the tool could be useful when creating applications for children in the early childhood. The results were promising; children liked the application and were willing to continue using it to program robots to solve specific tasks, developing the skills of the 21st century.

An Augmented Object Prototype for Helping to Prevent the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome causes unexpected death of infants. Some of the risk factors are related to the prone or side sleeping, ambient temperature and bedclothes overhead, among others. We state that some of these risk factors can be sensed using an augmented object in the bedclothes of the infants, and that the collected information can be sent to an adult through a mobile application. In this paper we present a prototype with sensor-base interfaces that can prevent the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Awareness Supporting Technologies used in Collaborative Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Since the establishment of Computer Supported Collaborative Work as a research area, computer advances have change the paradigm of how technology is applied to improve the performance in collaborative scenarios. Notifications are an important part of this improvement. Technological systems have been applied in order to provide collaborators with the sufficient awareness to keep a task going. In this paper we present the protocol and results of a Systematic Literature Review that delves in the application of new technologies to provide awareness in collaborative systems. Moreover, we classify the collaborative systems found in literature using two traditional taxonomies for CSCW in order to understand which notification mechanisms are used to support which systems. Our review covers the last 10 years and classifies system prototypes based on the context in which they are applied, the notification and information gathering mechanism used, and the assessment performed. With over 400 papers reviewed, 83 that met the review requirements were included. The review results show that traditional interfaces and mobile devices are still the most common notification mechanisms. However, ubiquitous devices and non-traditional interfaces have also been used.

Automatic recognition of the American sign language fingerspelling alphabet to assist people living with speech or hearing impairments

Sign languages are natural languages used mostly by deaf and hard of hearing people. Different development opportunities for people with these disabilities are limited because of communication problems. The advances in technology to recognize signs and gestures will make computer supported interpretation of sign languages possible. There are more than 137 different sign languages around the world; therefore, a system that interprets them could be beneficial to all, especially to the Deaf Community. This paper presents a system based on hand tracking devices (Leap Motion and Intel RealSense), used for signs recognition. The system uses a Support Vector Machine for sign classification. Different evaluations of the system were performed with over 50 individuals; and remarkable recognition accuracy was achieved with selected signs (100% accuracy was achieved recognizing some signs). Furthermore, an exploration on the Leap Motion and the Intel RealSense potential as a hand tracking devices for sign language recognition using the American Sign Language fingerspelling alphabet was performed.

Human aspects of ubiquitous computing: a study addressing willingness to use it and privacy issues

Identifying the human aspects related to ubiquitous systems focused on people’s willingness to use them and privacy concerns was our goal. We selected two ubiquitous systems: a wearable system (Google Glass) and an embedded in context system (Smart Environments). An online survey, with more than 400 participants, which included questions about how people perceive privacy issues related to the use of these two different ubiquitous systems, was conducted. Results show that privacy is not the only factor defining predisposition or aversion towards using ubiquitous systems. Financial, risk, and convenience factors are the others. We discovered that the importance of these factors on the decision to use them or not depends on the system. Regarding privacy, Google Glass generates a higher degree of concern than the Smart Environments alternative. Female participants tend to be more worried than male participants, independently of the ubiquitous system considered. Finally, the youngest participants (16–25 years old) are the most concerned about privacy threats, which was unexpected.