Sasanka Prabhala

Ethnography, Ethnography or Ethnography? What Happens When the Same Word Means Different Things to Different People?

This paper discusses how the notion and practice of ethnography differs for practitioners with different disciplinary backgrounds, especially in a context where ethnography exits academia to enter industry contexts. The paper is divided into four sections. The first provides background to specific experiences and briefly over-views existing literature. In the second part we compare our experiences through an industry case study. The third section proposes a taxonomy, suggesting a number of implications, and providing recommendations on how to integrate cross-disciplinary approaches to expand the scope of conducting user research. The final section wraps up our propositions and provides a number of recommendations.

Emerging Artificial Intelligence Application: Transforming Television into Smart Television

The science of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been applied in different fields such as financial systems, health-care systems, transport systems, and military systems. However, there has been very little research and application of AI solutions in the field of consumer electronics (CE) especially as related to TV and TV related products even with the arrival of Smart TV and Smart TV products in the marketplace. This paper examines the user research on TV practices, discusses the experiences consumers’ desire and want, and the AI tools necessary for the development efforts of true Smart TV and Smart TV products.

Interactive Model-Based Decision Making for Time-Critical Vehicle Routing

Advances in technology, software algorithms, and operations research methods provide the opportunity for effectively coupling the human decision maker with optimization modelling algorithms in large-scale systems operating in dynamic and uncertain environments. In military applications, such as search and rescue/destroy missions or real-time route planning or re-planning provide time windows within which critical decisions need to be made. Using a specially constructed human-computer integrated routing application, an evaluation was conducted to compare the effects of interactive model-based solutions with respect to automated solutions generated by mathematical modelling algorithms in the context of unmanned aerial vehicle route planning. Results indicate that significantly more high priority targets were covered in the human integrated approach compared to the automated solution without any significant degradation with respect to all the other dependent measures including percentage of total targets covered, low priority targets covered, total targets covered in threat zone, high priority targets covered in threat zone, and low priority targets covered in threat zone.

The rise of middle and upper middle class in emerging markets: product and service opportunities

The middle and upper middle class population in the often termed emerging markets is typically a less investigated target as most consumer research and development efforts for such markets are primarily focused on rural communities as well as the lower to middle class population. We believe that, in a context where emerging markets are in constant transformation and the middle to upper middle classes are on a substantial growth path, it is important to explore appropriate ways to address these market segments as they represent an opportunity space for technological research and development. This paper discusses and shares results of a recent case study where a number of concepts and products were developed for such market segments in emerging markets and subsequently tested in China, Egypt, India and Brazil.

Making Faces: Exploring Perceptions of Personality Based on Emotional Expressions

Researchers at Wright State University have been working on modeling computer agents with personality. Perception of personality between humans is based on many factors, one of which includes facial expression. Many researchers have explored the ability to recognize emotion in faces, while other research focuses on perception of personality based on faces (physiognomy). The purpose of this study combines these two areas of research to determine how participants rate different personality dimensions based on emotional expression. Participants rated ten static computer faces on the 30 personality subtraits from the Big Five Factor model of personality. The results show that participants did rate personalities differently depending on the facial expression. Participants perceived similar personality traits between the two different faces that expressed the same emotion. Results will be discussed along with future research directions.

Perceptions of Personality in Computer Agents: Effects of Culture and Gender

Developing computer agents with personalities may be one way to enhance human-machine collaboration. To create computer agents with personalities it is essential to identify the actions, language, and/or behaviors that people indicate signify the personalities they perceive. Additionally it is possible that culture and gender may play a role in how computer personalities are perceived. This research investigated how culture and gender affect the perception of computer personalities within a computer game. Participants were asked to rate the computer characters in a blackjack game based on the Big Five Factor personality trait model and to describe the actions, language, and/or behaviors that gave them their impressions. The results show that participants did perceive personality in the computer characters and were able to describe actions, languages and behaviors leading to their perceptions. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences based on culture and gender differences. This research provides a starting point for development of computer agents with personalities incorporating personality theory into model development.

Investigation of error rates when controlling multiple uninhabited combat aerial vehicles

As systems become more and more complex the use of automation tools becomes more important. Although automation is introduced to reduce human workload, improve situational awareness, and system reliability, increases in automation features also increase the overall complexity of the system. Despite the fact that research has been and is being conducted investigating the effects of automation on human performance, the results are often contradictory. This suggests the need for a universal way of presenting results so that trade-offs can be carried out between different studies. The purpose of this research was to investigate how a decision structure approach might be used as an aid for designers and researchers to conduct design trade-offs when designing user interfaces for uninhabited combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs).

Laptop Security and Data Protection with Intel® Anti-Theft Service.

With technology advancements and widespread adoption of connectivity, more and more users are using a wide range of devices to access information whenever and wherever they want. With increase in laptop usage, there is also an increase in laptop theft. This paper describes how Intel® Anti-Theft Service (IATS) powered by Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel AT) helps protect both the asset (device) and data by locking down the device if lost or stolen. In this paper, we outline the working of Intel AT, operation of IATS, design and development of IATS from user experience viewpoint, and conclude with shared quantitative and qualitative metrics for implementation of Intel AT with customers and partners.

Emerging Markets: Product and Service Opportunities for Middle and Upper Middle Class

The middle and upper middle class population in the often termed emerging markets is typically a less investigated target as most consumer research and development efforts for such markets are primarily focused on rural communities as well as the lower to middle class population. We believe that, in a context where emerging markets are in constant transformation and the middle to upper middle classes are on a substantial growth path, it is important to explore appropriate ways to address these market segments as they represent an opportunity space for technological research and development. This paper discusses and shares results of a recent case study where a number of concepts and products were developed for such market segments in emerging markets and subsequently tested in China, Egypt, India and Brazil. This paper is an extended version of “The rise of middle and upper middle class in emerging markets: Products and service opportunities”, published in Proceedings of the 20th Australian Conference on Computer-Human Interactions: Designing for Habitus and Habitat, OZCHI, 2008 [1].

Evaluating Human Interaction with Automation in a Complex UCAV Control Station Simulation Using Multiple Performance Metrics

The dynamics and complexities of human–machine systems and the overwhelming amount of data that must be handled by human operators is making automation a critical factor in planning, decision-making, and in execution in many complex systems. Complex systems are characterized by uncertainty, ambiguity, ill-defined goals, dynamically changing conditions, distractions, and time pressures. A semi-autonomous system requiring significant human-centered design support are remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), space maneuverable vehicles (SMVs), and unmanned emergency vehicles (UEVs). The objectives of this research are to (1) develop a simulation system that would allow investigation of human operator performance issues when supervising multiple UCAV vehicles, and (2) investigate human performance through the collection of multiple dependent measures. The simulation tool was designed to be adaptable to allow continued research on a variety of factors related to the control of autonomous vehicles. A research study using this simulation tool investigated the effects of automation and the number of UCAVs being controlled on operator performance during an identify and destroy mission. Results indicate that increasing the number of UCAVs significantly increased workload under LOW Automation and the increase in workload was reduced when HIGH Automation was introduced. This study showed that operators are able to control multiple UCAVs more effectively with appropriate automation.