Windson Viana de Carvalho

A context-aware web content generator based on personal tracking

Context-awareness has been successfully included in the mobile phone applications due mainly to the presence of numerous sensors and the access to several communication networks. Therefore, we present a Context-Aware Web Content Generator Based on Personal Tracking, which uses the user context information obtained by mobile devices to generate content for a large number of web applications. While registering the trajectory followed by the mobile device, it allows users to create multimedia documents (e.g. photo, audio, video), which are connected to an enriched description of the user context (e.g. weather, location, date). Finally, all this data and documents are combined to produce a new content, which is published on the Web. We also show results of tests performed in a real scenario and describe our strategy to avoid battery overconsumption and memory overflow in mobile phones. Moreover, a user evaluation is presented in order to measure the system performance, in terms of precision and system overall usability.

CRITiCAL: A Configuration Tool for Context Aware and mobiLe Applications

This paper presents an approach for modelling and generating Context-Aware and Mobile (CAM) applications based on (i) Model-Driven Engineering and (ii) context acquisition middleware concepts. Our approach allows software engineers to build CAM applications by modelling contextual information and rule-based behaviour on a visual notation. These graphical models are transformed into an Android-based code, targeted for a context-aware middleware called LoCCAM, which encapsulates device sensors access. An initial user evaluation conducted with a group of fourteen computer science volunteers was implemented and indicates time reduction gains in the middleware configuration process and that the complexity in the writing of contextual behaviour of applications is also decreased.

A Model-Driven Approach to Generate Context-Aware Applications

With the advances in mobile devices and ubiquitous computing, mobile and context-aware applications is becoming increasingly emerging. However, the development process of these applications still faces some challenges (e.g, heterogeneity of devices, complexity of the sensors access code, etc). The adoption of middleware platforms for context-aware systems is a well-known solution used to overcome such problems. An example of middleware developed for this purpose is LoCCAM, which allows adaptive acquisition of contextual information on Android based devices. But LoCCAM still presents issues concerning middleware configuration of contextual information. One approach to mitigate these existing problems is the usage of MDE (Model-Driven Engineering) paradigm. This paper shows a Visual Domain-Specific Language for modeling contextual information that is used in the development of applications using the LoCCAM. This language aims at generating skeletons of Android projects. These projects are properly configured for the use of middleware, including a transparent access to the contextual information. The main benefit of our solution it to provide a better abstraction to software developers concerning the configuration of LoCCAM middleware.

Recommendations for the Development of Accessible Games for People with Down Syndrome

In Brazil, there isn’t a census which indicates the number of people with Down syndrome, but it is estimated that 270 thousand people have it (MOVIMENTO DOWN, 2012). This syndrome has several degrees of impairments, which causes intellectual and motor delays. In face of it, this team started to think in a way to help these persons to develop their abilities and quality of life. As a result, mobile games were a solution found, because as Vygotsky (1991) said, games promote the intellectual, social and moral development, and the type chosen was based on the fact that mobile is the most platform used to play nowadays. So, before solutions were projected, this research aims to create a list of accessibility recommendations for designing graphical user interfaces for games based on the people with Down Syndrome characteristics. It is important to know, that it represents the first step of the master’s thesis study and other guidelines were added to complement the guide. Therefore, an exploratory research was made to get to know the impairments that the trisomy 21 could cause. This study was based on Silveira (2012), Danielski (1999), Movimento Down (2013, 2015), Lima (2011) and Marques (2012) and established 6 recommendations for visual, auditory, speech and language, short memory, concentration and abstract thoughts difficulties. Although this list was not tested yet, because a mobile game is being created following these criterias, the team believes that they can contribute to making accessible games and the recommendations do not prejudicate the gameplay or the game design cycle of production. It just suggests some inputs on interface and configuration modes to help this and other people.

Towards context-aware behaviour generation

Development of Context-Aware and Mobile (CAM) applications requires software engineers to write complex code (e.g., adaptation mechanisms, context management) and deal with heterogeneity issues regarding devices and sensors. A promise to deal with this issue approach is the combination of MDE (Model-Driven Engineering) design principles and CAM middleware platforms. Following this approach, we present in this paper CRITiCAL, a ConfiguRation Tool for Context Aware and mobiLe applications. This tool enables visual modelling of contextual information and adaptive behaviour of a CAM application. From visual models, a code generation is performed and its result contains all methods required for communication between the application and a context management middleware. We aim at offering a simplified and visual way to define context acquisition mechanisms (e.g., get user location) and context rules in order to accelerate the development of CAM applications.

Auxiliando o Processo de Ensino-Aprendizagem do Braille Através de Dispositivos Touch Screen

Com a crescente insercao das tecnologias de informacao e comunicacao (TIC’s) no contexto da sala de aula e, principalmente, no atendimento educacional especializado as pessoas com deficiencia visual, percebe-se que para o ensino do Braille ainda sao utilizados recursos bem tradicionais, como a reglete. Neste artigo e apresentada uma proposta de inovacao, o aplicativo LeBraille, que simula os instrumentos utilizados para o aprendizado em Braille, integrando o processo de aquisicao do conhecimento e o mundo digital. Esse sistema possui uma utilizacao semelhante a reglete, porem o papel utilizado na escrita Braille sera substituido por uma tela sensivel ao toque, os pontos da celula Braille serao elementos desta tela e a puncao correspondera a pressao exercida pelo dedo do utilizador na tela do dispositivo portatil. Ao capturar as informacoes puncionadas, ocorrerao manipulacoes no sistema para reproducao de um retorno perceptivel ao usuario, seja por meio de uma saida sonora e/ou tatil.