Robert J. Hendley

Case study. Narcissus: visualising information

It is becoming increasingly important that support is provided for users who are dealing with complex information spaces. The need is driven by the growing number of domains where there is a requirement for users to understand, navigate and manipulate large sets of computer based data; by the increasing size and complexity of this information and by the pressures to use this information efficiently. The paradigmatic example is the World Wide Web, but other domains include software systems, information systems and concurrent engineering. One approach to providing this support is to provide sophisticated visualisation tools which lead the users to form an intuitive understanding of the structure and behaviour of their domain and which provide mechanisms which allow them to manipulate objects within their system. The paper describes such a tool and a number of visualisation techniques that it implements.

My Phone and Me: Understanding People's Receptivity to Mobile Notifications

Notifications are extremely beneficial to users, but they often demand their attention at inappropriate moments. In this paper we present an in-situ study of mobile interruptibility focusing on the effect of cognitive and physical factors on the response time and the disruption perceived from a notification. Through a mixed method of automated smartphone logging and experience sampling we collected 10372 in-the-wild notifications and 474 questionnaire responses on notification perception from 20 users. We found that the response time and the perceived disruption from a notification can be influenced by its presentation, alert type, sender-recipient relationship as well as the type, completion level and complexity of the task in which the user is engaged. We found that even a notification that contains important or useful content can cause disruption. Finally, we observe the substantial role of the psychological traits of the individuals on the response time and the disruption perceived from a notification.

A Web services approach to learning path composition

The increasing availability of open and large e-learning repositories and the advent of distributed technologies such as Web services have led to a renewed interest in distributed e-learning. Composition rather than aggregation is seen as a way forward in the design and implementation of learning paths. In this paper, a framework for courseware composition is presented in terms of workflow management and semantic Web technologies. In order to cater for the needs of learners and to provide flexible learning content, a compositional platform, BPEL4WS, is enhanced by the introduction of virtual Web services, which are initially unbound. The resolution of these services is performed by agents, through search, discovery and late binding. This approach has the advantage that it overcomes some of the limitations of BPEL4WS and that it decouples the design of learning paths from the delivery of learning content. It also enhances adaptivity in e-learning provision.

Exploitation in Affect Detection in Open-Ended Improvisational Text

We report progress on adding affect-detection to a program for virtual dramatic improvisation, monitored by a human director. We have developed an affect-detection module to control an automated virtual actor and to contribute to the automation of directorial functions. The work also involves basic research into how affect is conveyed through metaphor. The project contributes to the application of sentiment and subjectivity analysis to the creation of emotionally believable synthetic agents for interactive narrative environments.

Adaptivity in E-Learning Systems

Traditional e-learning systems have been, typically, designed for a generic learner, irrespective of individual knowledge, skills and learning styles. In contrast, adaptive e-learning systems can enhance learning by taking into account different learner characteristics and by personalising learning material. Although a large number of systems incorporating learning style have been deployed, there is a lack of comprehensive, comparative evaluations. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by comparing a number of adaptive e-learning systems. It considers three main perspectives: the learner model, the domain model and the adaptation model. A set of criteria is generated for each perspective, and applied to a representative sample of adaptive e-learning systems.

Towards multi-modal anticipatory monitoring of depressive states through the analysis of human-smartphone interaction

Remarkable advances in smartphone technology, especially in terms of passive sensing, have enabled researchers to passively monitor user behavior in real-time and at a granularity that was not possible just a few years ago. Recently, different approaches have been proposed to investigate the use of different sensing and phone interaction features, including location, call, SMS and overall application usage logs, to infer the depressive state of users. In this paper, we propose an approach for monitoring of depressive states using multi-modal sensing via smartphones. Through a brief literature review we show the sensing modalities that have been exploited in the past studies for monitoring depression. We then present the initial results of an ongoing study to demonstrate the association of depressive states with the smartphone interaction features. Finally, we discuss the challenges in predicting depression through multimodal mobile sensing.

Exploring Nonconscious Behaviour Change Interventions on Mobile Devices

Modern cognitive psychology theories such as Dual Process Theory suggest that the source of much habitual behaviour is the nonconscious. Despite this, most behaviour change interventions using technology (BCITs) focus on conscious strategies to change peoples behaviour. We propose an alternative avenue of research, which focuses on understanding how best to directly target the nonconscious via mobile devices in real-life situations to achieve behaviour change.

Exploitation in affect detection in improvisational e-drama

We report progress on adding affect-detection to a program for virtual dramatic improvisation, monitored by a human director. To aid the director, we have partially implemented emotion detection. within users’ text input. The affect-detection module has been used to help develop an automated virtual actor. The work involves basic research into how affect is conveyed through metaphor and contributes to the conference themes such as building improvisational intelligent virtual agents for interactive narrative environments.

Synergistic Annotation of Multimedia Content

We describe work in progress toward a new approach for multimedia annotation in which the system and user work synergistically together. This work in progress is particularly focused on enabling journalists to efficiently annotate articles for submission to news agencies. Initial work on gathering user requirements is detailed along with several interesting findings that resulted from this process: capturing mood and emotion is needed as well as descriptive content. Important areas for future research are also highlighted and discussed.

Accept the Banana: Exploring Incidental Cognitive Bias Modification Techniques on Smartphones

Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) techniques show promise in psychology as an attitude, affect and/or behaviour change technique, but have yet to be implemented or evaluated extensively on smartphones. We present a pilot study exploring appropriate gestures for accepting and rejecting healthy eating stimuli on smartphones and apply them in an incidental, unobtrusive way within a smartphone screen shown at unlock time. Our main finding is evidence that a short course of incidental smartphone CBM alters some measures of food attitudes. We suggest a programme of future research to explore the area further, informed by our results and a related user survey