Tania Di Mascio

An ontology based visual tool for query formulation support

In this paper we describe the principles of the design and development of an intelligent query interface, done in the context of the SEWASIE (SEmantic Webs and AgentS in Integrated Economies) European IST project. The SEWASIE project aims at enabling a uniform access to heterogeneous data sources through an integrated ontology. The query interface is meant to support a user in formulating a precise query - which best captures her/his information needs - even in the case of complete ignorance of the vocabulary of the underlying information system holding the data. The intelligence of the interface is driven by an ontology describing the domain of the data in the information system. The final purpose of the tool is to generate a conjunctive query ready to be executed by some evaluation engine associated to the information system.

Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning

This volume presents recent research on Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning. It contains the contributions of MIS4TEL 2015, which took place in Salamanca, Spain,. On June 3rd to 5th 2015. Like the previous edition, this proceedings and the conference is an open forumfor discussing intelligent systems for Technology Enhanced Learning and empirical methodologies for their design or evaluation MIS4TEL 15 conference has been organized by University of L aquila, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the University of Salamanca.

The User Classes Building Process in a TEL Project

Nowadays, circa 10% of 7-11 olds turn out to be poor comprehenders: they demonstrate text comprehension difficulties, related to inference making, despite proficiency in low-level cognitive skills like word reading. To improve the reading comprehension of these children, TERENCE, a technology enhanced learning project, aims at stimulating inference-making about stories. In order to design and develop the TERENCE system, we use a user centred design approach that requires an in depth study of the system’s main end-users, namely, its learners and educators. This paper reports the user classes building process for learners by means of user-centred design field studies.

Tuning a CBIR system for vector images: the interface support

This paper presents a system supporting tuning and evaluation of a Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) engine for vector images, by a graphical interface providing query-by-sketch and query-by-example interaction with query results, and analysis of result quality. Vector images are first modelled as an inertial system and then they are associated with descriptors representing visual features invariant to affine transformation. To support requirements of different application domains, the engine offers a variety of moment sets as well as difierent metrics for similarity computation. The graphical interface offers tools that helps in the selection of criteria and parameters necessary to tune the system to a specific application domain.

Engaging “New Users” into Design Activities: The TERENCE Experience with Children

The diffusion of digital technology is bringing new types of users “into the market”, like children, elderly people, or technology illiterate people. Designers and researchers have to face new design challenges having at disposal a lighter and less structured body of knowledge about characteristics and demands of these users, and even consolidated design methods may prove to be inefficient. With respect to these issues, and more specifically with focus on data gathering techniques, in this paper we discuss the experience of the TERENCE project, aimed at developing a technology enhanced learning system for improving text comprehension in children 7–11 years old. In particular, our experience suggests extending the repertoire of inquiry techniques with methods shaped and informed by gamefulness phenomena.

Evaluation Plan of TERENCE: When the User-Centred Design Meets the Evidence-Based Approach

TERENCE is an FP7 EU project that aims at developing an adaptive learning system with the twofold objective of helping children in improve deep text understanding, and supporting teachers in their daily work. The present paper focuses on the design of the evaluation of the pedagogical effectiveness and the usability of the TERENCE software. It starts from the user-centred design experience, evidence-based medicine, psychology, and from discussions about statistical methods and ethics considerations. The objective is to provide an innovative, evidence-based and efficient support, for children and teachers, that could be an efficient alternative to the traditional method of reading, so as to prevent and reduce problems of text comprehension that represent a public health and social problem. For this purpose, we developed an evaluation protocol within a reading laboratory in collaboration with teachers, to be hosted in the school structures that will join the project in Italy.

User-centred and evidence-based design of smart games for poor text comprehenders: the TERENCE experience

More than 10% of children in the age range 7-11 turn out to be poor text comprehenders: they have difficulties in reasoning about events of a story. TERENCE is the first adaptive learning system with stories and companion smart games, for reasoning about stories, and developed for primary-school poor comprehenders. The development of TERENCE followed both the user-centred and the evidence-based design methodologies, by placing users at the centre of the development process and by choosing a design because of evidence of its effectiveness for the users. This paper presents the TERENCE smart games: it explains how such methodologies were used for iteratively designing and evaluating incrementally improved versions of the TERENCE smart games.

VISTO: A new CBIR system for vector images

In this paper, we present the main features of VISTO (Vector Image Search TOol), a new content-based image retrieval (CBIR) system for vector images. Though unsuitable for photo-realistic imagery, vector graphics are continually becoming more advanced and diffused. Vector images are fully scalable, resolution independent, not restricted to rectangular shape, allowing layering and editable/searchable text. Notwithstanding this increasing interest, the research area concerning CBIR systems for vectorial images is quite new, and our research on a vector based CBIR system actually derives from a precise request of vector based application experts that did not find appropriate solutions to their retrieval problems in customary shape-based CBIR system. To the best of our knowledge, VISTO is the first CBIR system for vector images proposed in the literature, and it supports the retrieval of images in SVG (scalable vector graphics) format. We discuss VISTO from both the engine and the interface points of view, and then evaluate its engine from an experimental point of view within an advanced high quality 2D animation environment supporting cartoon episodes management. To satisfy the requirements of stroke-based applications, in VISTO vector images are modelled as inertial systems and then associated with descriptors representing visual features invariant to translation, rotation, and scaling transformations. Furthermore, to efficiently serve different application domains, the engine offers a variety of moment sets as well as different distance functions for similarity computation. The graphical interface offers tools that help in the selection of criteria and parameters necessary to tune the system to a specific application domain.

A visual ontology-driven interface for a web sign language dictionary

Sign languages are visual-gestural languages developed mainly in deaf communities; their tempo-spatial nature makes it difficult to write them, yet several transcription systems are available for them. Most sign languages dictionaries interact with their users via a transcription-based inteface; thus their users need to be expert of their specific transcription system. The e-LIS dictionary is the first web bidirectional dictionary for Italian sign language-Italian; using the current interface, the dictionary users can define a sign interacting with intuitive iconic images, without knowing the underlying transcription system. Nevertheless the users of the current e-LIS dictionary are assumed to be expert of Italian sign language. The e-LIS ontology, which specifies how to form a sign, was created to allow even the non-experts of Italian sign language to use the dictionary. Here we present a prototype of a visual interface based on the e-LIS ontology for the e-LIS dictionary; the prototype is a query-oriented navigation interface; it was designed following the User Centred Design Methodology, which focuses on the user during the design, development and testing of the system.

Design smart games with requirements, generate them with a click, and revise them with a GUIs

TERENCE is an FP7 ICT European project that is developing an adaptive learning system for supporting poor comprehenders and their educators. Its learning material are books of stories and games. The games are specialised into smart games, which stimulate inference-making for story comprehension, and relaxing games, which stimulate visual perception and not story comprehension. The paper focuses on smart games. It first describes the TERENCE system architecture, thus delves into the design of smart games starting from the requirements and their automated generation, by highlighting the role of the reasoning module therein. Finally, it outlines the manual revision of the generated smart games, and ends with short conclusions about the planned improvements on the automated generation process.