Kamila Rios da Hora Rodrigues

A Systematic Review of Sustainability and Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction

Sustainability is the term employed for the practice of ensuring that goods and services are produced in ways that do not use resources that cannot be replaced. This practice has been in focus on several different research agendas. In the area of Human-Computer Interaction, studies devoted to works investigating this matter began to appear eight years ago. It is a timely moment to look back and see how much the community has achieved. This paper provides the results of a Systematic Review carried out in four scientific databases. The selected papers were grouped considering the topics they present, the methodological approach adopted and the kind of outcomes that emerged. The results suggest that among the different methodological approaches adopted, literature reviews and criticism still form the main basis to underpin the outcomes. Moreover, climate change and energy savings were found to be the specific areas that were most researched. The results obtained make it possible to suggest opportunities for further research.

Design of Therapeutic Information Systems as Indicating Through Signs

Therapeutic information systems are tools to support healthcare professionals to treat their patients, aiding on their rehabilitation, helping them to understand their condition and the treatment procedures, or even motivating themselves to persist on ongoing treatments. Although the importance of digital therapeutic systems, the design of this type of system is still a challenge. Inspired by the Organizational Semiotics, Baranauskas and Bonacin proposed a framework to conduct work in interactive systems design. In the proposed approach, these authors argue in favor of designing as a social process which focuses on problem setting as well as on problem solving. This paper brings reflections of an instantiation of this framework in the context of therapeutic systems and presents the results of an application in a real scenario with patients affected in their mental health.

FIND: facilitating the identification of intervals and moments for incorporation of additional content in continuous media

As a result of many real world demands, the literature abounds with results in the form of annotation-based systems, as it is the case of systems which allow the annotation of audio or video objects as well as digital ink, paper and web pages, to name a few. Among the many types of annotations which may be of interest, annotations in the form of additional content associated with audio or video objects are likely to result in enriched media useful for several applications, including the promotion of accessibility. However, besides the highly demanding intellectual work of defining what additional content should be created for a particular segment of media, the author of that content faces the task of identifying the exact media intervals in which the additional content should be inserted. That task is particularly arduous when the media has a long duration. In this paper we propose FIND, a reference model guiding the construction of systems which aggregate software components for: 1) the specification and the recognition of patterns in audio or video; 2) the synchronized composition of the annotated media; 3) and the formatting of the annotated media into multimedia documents for presentation. We also illustrate how the model was instantiated in a configuration which allows the association of additional content to movies resulting in a multimedia document with better accessibility.

Lessons Learned in Designing a Digital Therapeutic Game to Support the Treatment and Well-Being of Children with Cancer

Therapeutic games not only entertain but also support rehabilitation treatments and help patients and caregivers to understand the therapeutic practices. This kind of game requires careful and responsible development. To the best of our knowledge, there is no variety of methodologies in the literature specifically tailored to develop them. It essentially requires collaborative creation between different domain specialists. Moreover, it is necessary to avoid ad-hoc design processes and favor the structured ones, which can effectively involve and guide stakeholders. Thus, we have adopted a methodology based on Participatory Design and Organizational Semiotics artifacts to guide the design of a therapeutic game that could entertain and inform children who were diagnosed with cancer, as well as their caregivers. The methodology includes the enrichment of Personas, aiming to characterize the intended audience of the therapeutic application. This paper presents an instantiation of such methodology and also describes how the information obtained during that process can aid on therapeutic games design aiming to support the rehabilitation of children under treatment for cancer. We also report some lessons learned from that instantiation, regarding both the methodology application and the specificities of the target audience that should be carefully considered when developing games to support chronic pathologies, especially those involving children.

Emotional Response Evaluation of Users in Ubiquitous Environments: an Observational Case Study

Ubiquitous systems can be characterized as providing transparency, while being context-sensitive and dynamically interactive. Evaluating ubiquitous environments involves challenges ranging from multidisciplinary areas to environmental simulations. However, few studies have been carried out on the users feelings and moods in these environments, i.e. within mental contexts. This paper undertakes an observational case study which involves evaluating emotional responses in ubiquitous environments. A number of volunteers were exposed to stimuli with the aim of changing their mood through colors and images, in accordance with their initial emotional state. Emotional responses were evaluated by means of a hybrid approach that entailed employing different evaluation instruments at different periods of the interaction and which took account of different stakeholders. The results suggest that the approach is appropriate, although some adjustments are required for the evaluation instruments, as well for the interaction time with the environment so that it is possible to collect further data about the users experience.

Assessing the Elderly's Emotional Responses while Interact with Movies Enriched with Additional Multimedia Content

The elderly population is faced with barriers when using new Information and Communication Technologies ICT. These barriers include their low ability to read, as well as fears or lack of involvement with the media content. With the interactivity provided by the interactive Digital TV iDTV, it is possible to attract greater interest among this audience. This paper provides data from a case study conducted to analyze the emotional responses of the elderly when interacting with a movie enriched with additional multimedia content. This content was added in excerpts with narrative structures that can trigger feelings of doubt or dissatisfaction and require reasoning or prior knowledge of the subject. The results suggest that the elderly prefer to watch TV more passively and without the intervention of other media. Considering the results a set of good practices and strategies was formulated for the design and of TV programs for this audience.

Interaction of the elderly viewer with additional multimedia content to support the appreciation of television programs

For many people, television is still the main form of entertainment. The elderly population, in particular, spends much time at home and uses the television for companionship and entertainment. However, in some countries, due to low education level or the absence of it, to physical limitations and/or cognitive difficulties, to the lack of prior knowledge, among other difficulties, part of the elderly viewers do not enjoy enough the programs to have satisfaction with them. With the interactivity provided by the Digital TV, additional information may help the elderly viewer to better appreciate television programs and have more fun. This paper presents data from an observational case study conducted in the Brazilian scenario to analyze the interaction of elderly viewers with TV programs enriched with additional multimedia content in different formats. From the experience, some good practices for the design of additional multimedia content to the elderly viewer were formalized.

Towards a Semiotic-Based Approach to the Design of Therapeutic Digital Games

Healthcare professionals may employ therapeutic games as playful activities to promote rehabilitation for their patients. However, despite the importance, currently the literature does not provide multidisciplinary approaches to support designing these games. To overcome this scenario, we propose a semiotic-based approach to aid stakeholders with different backgrounds on designing therapeutic digital games. The approach results from a study of the literature and reports of the experience of a multidisciplinary team on the creation of therapeutic games. It explores Participatory Design and Organizational Semiotics methods and artifacts to promote the Problem Clarification, Interaction Modeling, Design Materialization, and Evaluation as fundamental design practices of effective solutions. The approach was evaluated to design new therapeutic games and the results suggest that it helps the team on identifying therapeutic objectives and reaching them.

Activity of Brazilian HCI Community from 2012 to 2017 in the Context of the Challenge 'Future, Smart Cities, and Sustainability'

Grand Challenges are ranked and defined to guide an area/discipline so that efforts and long term initiatives focus on providing disruptive solutions. These challenges represent a key component to highlight core issues that cannot be tackled in a short term or by a single person, requiring multiple efforts and sometimes whole communities. This position paper presents a discussion involving activities of the Brazilian Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community in the 2012-2017 period in the context of the challenge Future, Smart Cities and Sustainability, which is part of the Grand Research Challenges in Human-Computer Interaction in Brazil (GranDIHC-BR). The analysis performed shows that this challenge is one of the least addressed by the Brazilian HCI community and that actions fommenting GranDIHC-BR must be taken continuously, e.g., conferences, competitions, or submission tracks related to GranDIHC-BR challenges less covered by the Brazilian HCI community. From the presented results, one expects to summarize: (1) activities performed in the context of the challenge, (2) reflections around the theme, and (3) to outline a research agenda for the next 5 years.

An Interaction Modeling Language for Therapeutic Applications

Healthcare professional use therapeutic applications as an aid on treating their patients. The Literature describes the importance of including multiple stakeholders for creating effective therapeutic applications; therefore, it is important to support co-design activities including as many stakeholders as possible. This paper describes an interaction modeling language for therapeutic applications. The languages goal is enabling stakeholders to contribute towards the creation, by offering their domain knowledge, and expressing their desires and longings to collaborate on the development of more effective therapeutic applications. The language was successfully used to model applications for two different institutions, each of which treating patients with different therapeutic and interaction needs. Professionals and students of computer science, healthcare, and arts collaborated on the design of those applications, and have used the language for the modelling.