Michał R. Wróbel

Emotions in the software development process

This paper presents the results of a survey on the experience of emotions in the work of software developers. Quantitative analysis revealed information about emotions affecting programmers, their frequency and impact on their performance. The concept of emotional risk to productivity was also presented. It allows to choose the emotional states, which should be avoided. Furthermore, all collected data were analyzed with information about the experience of developers. In addition to most hazardous emotions, those with the most positive impact on productivity were selected.

Emotion recognition and its application in software engineering

In this paper a novel application of multimodal emotion recognition algorithms in software engineering is described. Several application scenarios are proposed concerning program usability testing and software process improvement. Also a set of emotional states relevant in that application area is identified. The multimodal emotion recognition method that integrates video and depth channels, physiological signals and input devices usage patterns is proposed and some preliminary results on learning set creation are described.

Emotion Recognition and Its Applications

This paper aims at illustrating diversity of possible emotion recognition applications. It provides concise review of affect recognition methods based on different inputs such as biometrics, video channel or behavioral data. It proposes a set of research scenarios of emotion recognition applications in the following domains: software engineering, website customization, education, and gaming. The scenarios show complexity and problems of applying affective computing in different domains. Analysis of the scenarios allows drawing some conclusions on challenges of automatic recognition that have to be addressed by further research.

Modern approaches to file system integrity checking

One of the means to detect intruderpsilas activity is to trace all unauthorized changes in a file system. Programs which fulfill this functionality are called file integrity checkers. This paper concerns modern approach to file system integrity checking. It reviews architecture of popular systems that are widely used in production environment as well as scientific projects, which not only detect intruders but also take actions to stop their activity. The concept and architecture of ICAR system (integrity checking and restoring system), which we are developing, will be presented. The ICAR System not only covers functionality of integrity checkers but also automatically restores files, which were modified by the intruder. ICAR has been designed as kernel module of the operating system and it uses read-only devices to store data. The article can prove useful to the operating systems users, that are interested in securing their data and system configuration.

Comparison of selected off-the-shelf solutions for emotion recognition based on facial expressions

The paper concerns accuracy of emotion recognition from facial expressions. As there are a couple of ready off-the-shelf solutions available in the market today, this study aims at practical evaluation of selected solutions in order to provide some insight into what potential buyers might expect. Two solutions were compared: FaceReader by Noldus and Xpress Engine by QuantumLab. The performed evaluation revealed that the recognition accuracies differ for photo and video input data and therefore solutions should be matched to the specificity of the application domain.

Affective reactions to playing digital games

The paper presents a study of emotional states during a gameplay. An experiment of two-player Tetris game is reported, followed by the analysis of the results - self-reported emotional states as well as physiological signals measurements interpretation. The study reveals the diversity of emotional reactions and concludes, that a representative players emotional model is hard to define. Instead, an adaptive approach to emotion recognition and individualized classifiers seem to be a better solution for affect-aware digital games.

Security information sharing for smart grids: Developing the right data model

The smart grid raises new security concerns which require novel solutions. It is commonly agreed that to protect the grid the effective collaboration and information sharing between the relevant stakeholders is prerequisite. Developing a security information sharing platform for the smart grid is a new research direction which poses several challenges related to the highly distributed and heterogeneous character of the grid. In this paper an approach to developing a data model for security information sharing platform for the smart grid which responds to these questions is presented together with the results of its application.

Operating system security by integrity checking and recovery using write-protected storage

An integrity checking and recovery (ICAR) system is presented here, which protects file system integrity and automatically restores modified files. The system enables files cryptographic hashes generation and verification, as well as configuration of security constraints. All of the crucial data, including ICAR system binaries, file backups and hashes database are stored in a physically write-protected storage to eliminate the threat of unauthorised modification. A buffering mechanism was designed and implemented in the system to increase operation performance. Additionally, the system supplies user tools for cryptographic hash generation and security database management. The system is implemented as a kernel extension, compliant with the Linux security model. Experimental evaluation of the system was performed and showed an approximate 10% performance degradation in secured file access compared to regular access.

Towards the participant observation of emotions in software development teams

Emotions, moods and temperament influence our behaviour in every aspect of life. Until now plenty of research has been conducted and many theories have been proposed to explain the role of emotions within the working environment. However, in the field of software engineering, interest in the role of human factors in the process of software development is relatively new. In the paper the research design process that has been proposed details a novel approach using the method of participant observation in order to investigate the role of emotions in IT projects. The participant observation protocol presented was developed in an iterative manner, where successive phases were validated in two preliminary studies.

Evaluation Criteria for Affect-Annotated Databases

In this paper a set of comprehensive evaluation criteria for affect-annotated databases is proposed. These criteria can be used for evaluation of the quality of a database on the stage of its creation as well as for evaluation and comparison of existing databases. The usefulness of these criteria is demonstrated on several databases selected from affect computing domain. The databases contain different kind of data: video or still images presenting facial expressions, speech recordings and affect-annotated words.