Vanessa Regina Margareth Lima Maike

A Wearable Face Recognition System Built into a Smartwatch and the Blind and Low Vision Users

Assistive technologies need to be affordable, ergonomic and easy to use. In this work we argue that smartwatches could be assistive devices for the visually impaired, if they have the potential to run complex applications. Hence, in this paper we propose a face recognition system to show that it’s technically possible to develop a real-time computer vision system in a wearable device with limited hardware, since such systems generally require powerful hardware. A case study is presented using the first generation Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The system runs only on the watch’s hardware and consists in a face detection and recognition software that emits an audio feedback so that visually impaired users know who is around them. The case study includes an evaluation of the proposal with users. Results are shown and discussed validating the technological aspects of the proposal and pointing out room for improving the aspects of interaction.

Seeing through the Kinect: A Survey on Heuristics for Building Natural User Interfaces Environments

The idea of interacting with technologies through touch-less and body-based interfaces has caused great excitement amongst users, but for the designers it has created various new challenges. Usability encompasses part of these challenges, and there have been attempts at creating heuristics for NUIs design. However, most of these heuristics consider using a device such as Kinect for the recognition of gestures, not people or objects. Therefore, in this paper we investigate the subject by presenting a systematic literature review aimed at finding heuristics for the design and evaluation of NUIs. Our analysis focuses on the scenario of helping people with visual disabilities in their daily activities. By looking at the state of the art, we intend to verify how many and which heuristics fit in this context.

A Kinect-Based Wearable Face Recognition System to Aid Visually Impaired Users

In this paper, we introduce a real-time face recognition (and announcement) system targeted at aiding the blind and low-vision people. The system uses a Microsoft Kinect sensor as a wearable device, performs face detection, and uses temporal coherence along with a simple biometric procedure to generate a sound associated with the identified person, virtualized at his/her estimated 3-D location. Our approach uses a variation of the K-nearest neighbors algorithm over histogram of oriented gradient descriptors dimensionally reduced by principal component analysis. The results show that our approach, on average, outperforms traditional face recognition methods while requiring much less computational resources (memory, processing power, and battery life) when compared with existing techniques in the literature, deeming it suitable for the wearable hardware constraints. We also show the performance of the system in the dark, using depth-only information acquired with Kinects infrared camera. The validation uses a new dataset available for download, with 600 videos of 30 people, containing variation of illumination, background, and movement patterns. Experiments with existing datasets in the literature are also considered. Finally, we conducted user experience evaluations on both blindfolded and visually impaired users, showing encouraging results.

A Smart Supermarket must be for All: a Case Study Including the Visually Impaired

Shopping in the supermarket is a necessity in modern life. This task, however, can be a challenge for people with disabilities, making them dependent on relatives or supermarket employees to aid them. In this paper, we investigate the subject by proposing and experimenting a system that takes advantage of current ubiquitous computing to support all customers in finding and selecting products in a supermarket. Based on the Internet of Things (IoT), this system is embedded in a mobile platform. A case study conducted with users -- including visually impaired ones -- is reported and discussed. The results are compared with previous experiments conducted with users without disabilities, revealing the impact the system has in terms of efficiency, and feelings of satisfaction, control and motivation.

Exploring new formats of the Self-Assessment Manikin in the design with children

Lang and Bradleys Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) is an assessment tool that has been successfully used in different areas to elicit the affective responses in the three levels of valence, excitement and dominance. The pictographic format of this instrument makes it accessible for those with low literacy skills, including children and the elderly. In this article, we report and discuss our experiences using SAM and we present the adaptations made to SAM along a process that originated new formats of SAM, used in design practices with children.

A Wearable Face Recognition System Built into a Smartwatch and the Visually Impaired User

Practitioners usually expect that real-time computer vision systems such as face recognition systems will require hardware components with high processing power. In this paper, we present a concept to show that it is technically possible to develop a simple real-time face recognition system in a wearable device with low processing power ??? in this case an assistive device for the visually impaired. Our platform of choice here is the first generation Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. Running solely in the watch, without pairing to a phone or tablet, the system detects a face in the image captured by the camera, and then performs face recognition (on a limited dictionary), emitting an audio feedback that either identifies the recognized person or indicates that s/he is unknown. For the face recognition approach we use a variation of the K-NN algorithm which accomplished the task with high accuracy rates. This paper presents the proposed system and preliminary results on its evaluation.

Designing Natural User Interfaces Scenarios for All and for Some: An Analysis Informed by Organizational Semiotics Artifacts

The design of Natural User Interface (NUI) technologies is still in its early stages; therefore, it does not have well-established guidelines, especially ones that consider the context of Accessibility. This increases the challenges for designers of these technologies to achieve products fulfilling their purpose. . In this paper we present a research project that aims at exploring NUI devices within the Accessibility context, with the goal of proposing ways to promote a better design for NUI technologies. We present this project from an Organizational Semiotics perspective, so that the context we aim to focus on shows itself clearly during the entire design process. Our ultimate goal is to promote better NUI designs, especially for people with disabilities, supporting their autonomy and inclusion in society.

Heuristics for NUI Revisited and Put into Practice

Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) represent a strong tendency for interaction with new computational technologies. They also represent a big challenge for designers, since delivering the promised feelings of naturalness is not trivial. In this paper, we revisit a set of 23 heuristics for NUI applications within the context of three experiments to evaluate the design of two scenarios of using NUI as assistive technology systems. While using the initial set of heuristics, they also were evaluated. Results of the experiments led to a leaner set of 13 NUI heuristics, with a compliance scale ranging from –4 to 4. The heuristics in the revisited set were defined, described and illustrated in the context of the experiments, so that they can be useful for designers and evaluators.

First Steps in Developing Tangible Artifacts for All: Enabling Ideation and Discussion Processes

Including everyone in the process of designing information systems is a challenge, especially considering that techniques and tools traditionally used in this process are written documents. This can make them non-accessible to people in special conditions, e.g., the visually impaired. Therefore, in this paper we present the first steps we took towards redesigning some of these techniques and tools, turning them into tangible digital artifacts. These initiatives are presented as two case studies. One intends to tackle the problem of materializing an idea discussion tool that has an existing graphical representation. The other, takes on the challenge of re-interpreting an ideation technique with well-defined dynamics. In the end, they point towards how to redesign other artifacts.

Jogos de RPG na Aula de História: Primeiros Passos na Construção de uma Ferramenta de Autoria

The keynotes goal is to reflect on emergent opportunities for human Discovery (in science), Creativity (in art & industry), and Learning (in education) as processes often occurring serendipitously in individuals and in communities empowered by dynamic Web connections in the global village. These reflections seem to fit best with the mandate of the CBIE Conference: sustainable education.Este trabalho apresenta uma evolucao do assistente inteligente SAE para inferir e fornecer orientacao pedagogica coerente com varias metodologias educacionais, superando uma dificuldade tradicional para este tipo de software, alem de fornecer mais apoio ao ensino-aprendizagem personalizado.O artigo fundamenta-se nos resultados do processo de desenvolvimento de um ambiente web de aprendizagem, ja modelado em dissertacao de mestrado (CABRAL,2006). O sistema tem por objetivo facilitar o acompanhamento das atividades que envolvem a definicao e a elaboracao de pre-projetos de Trabalhos de Conclusao de Curso (TCC). Para atingir tal objetivo o sistema e baseado em uma camada de agentes inteligentes que atuam como colaboradores para execucao de todas as atividades necessarias ao desenvolvimento do TCC. Para que esses agentes atuem de forma satisfatoria no ambiente e necessario o estabelecimento de um processo de comunicacao que possibilite aos agentes agirem em um nivel conceitual mais proximo do ser humano. Dessa forma, este artigo expoe os resultados obtidos ao longo do desenvolvimento dos agentes computacioniais e seus mecanismos de comunicacao.Este artigo descreve o projeto de desenvolvimento de jogo educativo baseado em metodologias participativas, pelas quais estudantes da rede publica de ensino medio idealizam, projetam e desenvolvem prototipos de um jogo sobre Sistema Imunologico e virus da Dengue. O objetivo da pesquisa e verificar os impactos do processo sobre a aprendizagem dos estudantes.O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar resultados de estudo de um caso exploratorio, realizado junto aos alunos de uma Instituicao de Ensino Superior. Como resultados, foram levantados indicadores de avaliacao do Sistema de EaD e identificados problemas, segundo a percepcao dos alunos. A partir dos resultados destaca-se que a Universidade desconhece a metodologia ITIL® e que seria fundamental que fosse implantada uma estrategia do servico (fase inicial da ITIL®), conduzindo a melhoria continua do servico e da infra-estrutura da Universidade.O facil acesso as informacoes devido a difusao da internet possibilita o enriquecimento intelectual, mas por vezes acaba por ser um meio de usufruir do conhecimento de outrem sem mencionar seus creditos/direitos autorais, o que por fim acaba na configuracao do plagio. O plagio no meio academico e uma tarefa dificil de ser controlada, devido o grande numero de trabalhos que sao feitos por uma vasta quantidade de alunos e tambem pelo excesso de tarefas dos professores e pelo pouco tempo que conseguem dedicar para o controle da qualidade e autenticidade dos trabalhos. Com isso, e importante contar com softwares que auxiliem no processo de verificacao de indicios de plagio, desta maneira o presente trabalho vislumbra desenvolver uma nova ferramenta de analise de indicios de plagio bem como aprimorar o metodo DIP – Detector de Indicios de Plagio para auxiliar o docente na verificacao da autenticidade dos trabalhos.A Neuropedagogia promove o confronto sucessivo e simultâneo entre concepcoes tacitas, crencas e valores normativos com esquemas inovadores, criando um espaco entropico e poetico no âmbito da experiencia humana. A natureza da ciencia neuropedagogica exige um modelo fractal de construcao de mundo, sustentado pelo prazer da perplexidade. Busca-se a geratriz e as leis de formacao para atingir a unanimidade sobre o conceito de educacao de pessoas com alta dotacao humana, impossivel de se concretizar, sem o recurso das ideologias filosoficas, cientificas e tecnologias aliadas as eticas.In this talk I will elaborate on the development, implementation and evaluation of the use of online tools for learning, with special attention to games and gamification, sharing and collaboration.