Masitah Ghazali

Physigrams: modelling devices for natural interaction

This paper explores the formal specification of the physical behaviour of devices ‘unplugged’ from their digital effects. By doing this we seek to better understand the nature of physical interaction and the way this can be exploited to improve the design of hybrid devices with both physical and digital features. We use modified state transition networks of the physical behaviour, which we call physiograms, and link these to parallel diagrams of the digital state. These are used to describe a number of features of physical interaction exposed by previous work and relevant properties expressed using a formal semantics of the diagrams. As well as being an analytic tool, the physigrams have been used in a case study where product designers used and adapted them as part of the design process.

Modelling Devices for Natural Interaction

We do not interact with systems without first performing some physical action on a physical device. This paper shows how formal notations and formal models can be developed to account for the relationship between the physical devices that we actually press, twist or pull and their effects on systems. We use state diagrams of each but find we have to extend these in order to account for features such as bounce-back, where buttons or other controls are sprung. Critical to all is the fact that we are physical creatures and so formal models have to take into account that physicality.

Service identification guideline for developing distributed embedded real-time systems

Analysis and design are the key phases in any software development life cycle. Service identification is one of the most important steps performed in the analysis phase of service-oriented software development life cycle. Service-orientation has been applied successfully in the domain of distributed embedded real-time system because of the advantages it provides such as reusability and interoperability. However, a systematic service-oriented development methodology for distributed embedded real-time system is still missing. A step-by-step guideline for service identification is presented in this study as part of an attempt to define the analysis phase of service-oriented software development life cycle for distributed embedded real-time system. The Smart Home case study is applied to verify the guidelines. This study provides profound descriptions on how to identify services for distributed embedded real-time system. Moreover, this work can be used as a first step towards a systematic service-oriented software development life cycle for distributed embedded real-time systems.

PHandler: An expert system for a scalable software requirements prioritization process

Software requirements engineering is a critical discipline in the software development life cycle. The major problem in software development is the selection and prioritization of the requirements in order to develop a system of high quality. This research analyzes the issues associated with existing software requirement prioritization techniques. One of the major issues in software requirement prioritization is that the existing techniques handle only toy projects or software projects with very few requirements. The current techniques are not suitable for the prioritization of a large number of requirements in projects where requirements may grow to the hundreds or even thousands. The research paper proposes an expert system, called the Priority Handler (PHandler), for requirement prioritization. PHandler is based on the value-based intelligent requirement prioritization technique, neural network and analytical hierarchical process in order to make the requirement prioritization process scalable. The back-propagation neural network is used to predict the value of a requirement in order to reduce the extent of expert biases and make the PHandler efficient. Moreover, the analytical hierarchy process is applied on prioritized groups of requirements in order to enhance the scalability of the requirement prioritization process.

A conceptual framework of Iranian consumer trust in B2C electronic commerce

B2C in the developing countries is not yet a normalcy as compared to the developed countries. In this paper, we attempt to improve trust of B2C in Iran. A number of hypotheses are outlined to prove the theories that could improve the trust. A set of questionnaires was designed to reflect hence test the hypotheses. Various related factors are tested in the collective Iranian culture. From the survey, it was found that recommendations by close friends and families are known as an influencing factor on reputation because of the collective culture. In addition, the type of payment is illustrated as an influencing factor on trust as well. Based on the findings, a refined model of Iran Trust Model (ITM) is derived. The model considers the antecedents and the consequences of trust in Iran. A prototype was implemented and tested, in which the prototype – in the form of an e-commerce website that was developed adhering to the model, for a number of weeks. This study examines antecedents and consequences of trust in Iran. Type of payment and reputation are known as the antecedents that related positively to trust. Trust has a negative relationship with risk and a positive relationship with attitude.

Towards Natural Interaction with Wheelchair Using Nintendo Wiimote Controller

The importance of natural interaction increases when the subjects are disabled people. It has been found that embedded solutions for impaired people lack in fluid interaction properties. This work investigates the interface design of a wheelchair controller according to the rules of physicality. Our aim is to provide further ease of use to the impaired whilst strengthening link between embedded software engineering and human-computer interaction. We propose an improved multi-function interface design by using Nintendo’s Wiimote that is more intuitive, robust, low cost, and most importantly, natural to use.

StakeMeter: Value-Based Stakeholder Identification and Quantification Framework for Value-Based Software Systems

Value-based requirements engineering plays a vital role in the development of value-based software (VBS). Stakeholders are the key players in the requirements engineering process, and the selection of critical stakeholders for the VBS systems is highly desirable. Based on the stakeholder requirements, the innovative or value-based idea is realized. The quality of the VBS system is associated with the concrete set of valuable requirements, and the valuable requirements can only be obtained if all the relevant valuable stakeholders participate in the requirements elicitation phase. The existing value-based approaches focus on the design of the VBS systems. However, the focus on the valuable stakeholders and requirements is inadequate. The current stakeholder identification and quantification (SIQ) approaches are neither state-of-the-art nor systematic for the VBS systems. The existing approaches are time-consuming, complex and inconsistent which makes the initiation process difficult. Moreover, the main motivation of this research is that the existing SIQ approaches do not provide the low level implementation details for SIQ initiation and stakeholder metrics for quantification. Hence, keeping in view the existing SIQ problems, this research contributes in the form of a new SIQ framework called ‘StakeMeter’. The StakeMeter framework is verified and validated through case studies. The proposed framework provides low-level implementation guidelines, attributes, metrics, quantification criteria and application procedure as compared to the other methods. The proposed framework solves the issues of stakeholder quantification or prioritization, higher time consumption, complexity, and process initiation. The framework helps in the selection of highly critical stakeholders for the VBS systems with less judgmental error.

A Bi-metric and Fuzzy c-means based intelligent stakeholder quantification system for value-based software

Requirements engineering (RE) deals with the software requirements elicitation, validation and verification processes and implementation of elicited requirements. The RE process, for value-based software (VBS) development, is one of the highly complex and non-linear processes which mainly depends on the key stakeholders. VBS systems are extremely different from traditional systems due to their association with financial streams. There is a need of value-based RE practices. Stakeholders’ analysis plays a vital role in the selection of critical stakeholders for RE phase in VBS development. Different stakeholders’ identification and quantification (SIQ) approaches are presented by researchers in order to identify and quantify the stakeholders. The existing approaches are not uniform in terms of process activities and different stakeholders’ attributes. Nonuniformity results in higher time consumption and higher complexity. The existing SIQ approaches are not suitable for current value-based RE practices. Hence, this research presents an intelligent decision support system for the VBS SIQP using stakeholder metrics and fuzzy logic. The data is finally divided into three clusters in order to select the highly prioritized stakeholders for VBS systems.

User centered design practices in healthcare: A systematic review

Effectiveness in modern healthcare and services and the optimization of processes and operational sequences must be designed from the perspective of the end user. This paper aims to identify and analyse the common practices of User Centred Design (UCD) that had been implemented in previous studies in the context of analysis, design and evaluation phases and provide an overview from the research findings as a reference for other researchers. Studies were manually searched via online databases and further analysed based on the predefined research questions. This study reviews 60 papers published in the field of healthcare services on adopted UCD approaches between 1992 and 2014 (May). The results show that although UCD approach has a history of 22 years, it is not yet a normalcy in Asia countries. Interview, prototyping and usability testing are the most common activities adopted in respect to the UCD phases.

Integrating Perception into V − Hajj: 3D Tawaf Training Simulation Application

To achieve realism in computer graphics traditionally requires increasingly complex algorithms, along with greater computer power and hardware resources. However, the recent growing integration of perception research into computer graphics offers a more economical solution. Psychophysical experiments are now conducted to find out areas that can be manipulated to transform complex computations to “computation cuts”. This perception based approach provides better resource consumption to elements that matters most to humans, so the output is still perceived as visually correct. This paper explores the opportunity to apply perceptual concepts in the development of V-Hajj; a 3D simulation application for Tawaf (a Hajj ritual) training. Recent findings from related psychophysical experiments are discussed to identify at which prospect perception can be applied in V-Hajj. It is ultimately believed that integrating perceptual concepts would help in developing a more efficient and less consumptive real-time rendering techniques that further improve user immersion and interactivity.