HUCAPP 2022 Abstracts

Area 1 - Agents and Human Interaction
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 2 - Interaction Techniques and Devices
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 3 - Theories, Models and User Evaluation
Full Papers Short Papers

Area 1 - Agents and Human Interaction

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 8
Title:

Towards Personalization by Information Savviness to Improve User Experience in Customer Service Chatbot Conversations
Authors:

Tim Polzehl, Yuexin Cao, Vicente S. Carmona, Xiaoyi Liu, Changjian Hu, Neslihan Iskender, André Beyer and Sebastian Möller
Abstract: Information savviness describes the ability to find, evaluate and reflect information online. Customers with high information savviness are more likely to look up product information online, read customer reviews before making a purchase decision. By assessing Information Savviness from chatbot interactions in a technical customer service domain, we analyze its impact on user experience (UX), expectations and preferences of the users in order to determine assessable personalization targets that acts dedicatedly on UX. To find out which UX factors can be assessed reliably, we conduct an assessment study through a set of scenario-based tasks using a crowd-sourcing set-up and analyze UX factors. We reveal significant differences in users’ UX expectations with respect to a series of UX factors like acceptability, task efficiency, system error, ease of use, naturalness, personality and promoter score. Our results strongly suggest a potential application for essential personalization and user adaptation strategies utilizing information savviness for the personalization of technical customer support chatbots.
Download
Paper Nr: 32
Title:

Teaching Drivers about ADAS using Spoken Dialogue: A Wizard of Oz Study
Authors:

Luka Rukonić, Marie-Anne P. Mwange and Suzanne Kieffer
Abstract: Understanding the limitations and capabilities of the advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) is a prerequisite for their safe and comfortable use. This paper presents a formative user study on the use of a dialogue-based system, implemented using the Wizard of Oz (WOz) technique, to help drivers learn about the correct use of driving assistance. We investigated whether drivers would build the correct mental model of the driving assistance systems through natural language dialogue. We describe the evolution of the prototype over four iterations of formative evaluation with older and younger drivers. Using a mixed-method approach, combining the WOz, interviews, questionnaires, and a knowledge quiz, we evaluated the prototype of a voice assistant and identified the teaching content objectives. Participants’ mental model about ADAS was assessed to evaluate the efficacy of the teaching approach. The results show that the teaching goals need to be clearly communicated to the drivers to ensure the adoption of the VA.
Download
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 2
Title:

Advances in the Usability of Banking System Interfaces in Saudi Arabia
Authors:

Norah Aldowaihi, Razan Alhossaini, Shahad Bin-Sweleh, Shrifa Aldakheel, Malak Alamri and Sarah Alhumoud
Abstract: Nowadays, most people manage their finances without the need to often visit branch offices and deal face- to-face with employees; instead, they use internet banking, automated teller machines (ATMs), and mobile banking. Therefore, the usability of those systems is crucial for accomplishing needed financial tasks. This study investigated the user interfaces of different banking systems, specifically, multilingual ones used in the Arab world (because the number of expatriates in this region is large and they speak various different languages). The results are presented in comparison to a previous interface analysis published in 2015. The study also presents a holistic overview of the requirements of socio-cultural design for banking interfaces. Finally, it presents the findings as design recommendations for socio-cultural aspects of Arab world banking interfaces.
Download
Paper Nr: 10
Title:

A Study of the Frameworks for Digital Humans: Analyzing Facial Tracking evolution and New Research Directions with AI
Authors:

Carlos Vilchis, Miguel Gonzalez-Mendoza, Leonardo Chang, Sergio A. Navarro-Tuch, Gilberto O. Ruiz and Isaac Rudomin
Abstract: There actual scenario of techniques and methods to improve our perception of digitals humans is mostly oriented to increase alikeness and interactivity inside a helpful workflow. Breakthrough milestones have been achieved to improve facial expression recognition systems thanks to the effectiveness of Deep Neural Networks. This survey analyzes all the open and fully integrated frameworks (deep learning-based or not) available today. All of those can be replicated by peers to analyze their effectiveness and efficiency in real-time environments. Also, we present an overview analysis of present-day environments for digital humans that use state-of-the-art facial tracking and animation retargeting to settle a direction on the future steps in our research objectives in this field.
Download
Paper Nr: 13
Title:

Health-CAT: Development of a Mobile Robot for Assisting Caregivers
Authors:

William K. Juel, Frederik Haarslev and Leon Bodenhagen
Abstract: The demographic change is expected to challenge the healthcare sector which in many countries is already struggling today leading to, e.g., a shortage of staff. Since robot technology is playing a minor role in health- care today, robotics is considered to be one mean to mitigate some of the challenges related to the demographic changes. This paper discusses hurdles for introducing robotics solutions in healthcare and describes the identification of a use case as well as the development of a robot prototype. End users have been involved throughout an iterative development process leading to a prototype that has been tested during normal operations.
Download
Paper Nr: 20
Title:

Facial Emotion Expression Corpora for Training Game Character Neural Network Models
Authors:

Sheldon Schiffer, Samantha Zhang and Max Levine
Abstract: The emergence of photorealistic and cinematic non-player character (NPC) animation presents new challenges for video game developers. Game player expectations of cinematic acting styles bring a more sophisticated aesthetic in the representation of social interaction. New methods can streamline workflow by integrating actor-driven character design into the development of game character AI and animation. A workflow that tracks actor performance to final neural network (NN) design depends on a rigorous method of producing single-actor video corpora from which to train emotion AI NN models. While numerous video corpora have been developed to study emotion elicitation of the face from which to test theoretical models and train neural networks to recognize emotion, developing single-actor corpora to train NNs of NPCs in video games is uncommon. A class of facial emotion recognition (FER) products have enabled production of single-actor video corpora that use emotion analysis data. This paper introduces a single-actor game character corpora workflow for game character developers. The proposed method uses a single actor video corpus and dataset with the intent to train and implement a NN in an off-the-shelf video game engine for facial animation of an NPC. The efficacy of using a NN-driven animation controller has already been demonstrated (Schiffer, 2021, Kozasa et. al 2006). This paper focuses on using a single-actor video corpus for the purpose of training a NN-driven animation controller.
Download
Paper Nr: 21
Title:

Using a Quality Model to Evaluate User Interface Trustworthiness of e-Commerce Systems: Scoring Strategies and Preliminary Results
Authors:

Andréia Casare, Tania Basso, Celmar Guimarães da Silva and Regina Moraes
Abstract: Trust in computational systems involves technical aspects and also aspects of human interaction. While technical aspects have been largely studied, we noted that there are few studies about human interaction regarding trust. In the e-commerce context, lack of consumer trust is a critical impediment to the success of e-commerce activities since users avoid systems they do not trust. In this paper, we present the results of a pilot test on a quality model to assess the trustworthiness of e-commerce systems based on user interface. The goal of the interface-based quality model is to complement the trustworthiness measurement of the whole system (i.e., complementing technical aspects measurements, such as security, connectivity, scalability, isolation, among others) and to help users to know if the e-commerce systems they are using are trustworthy. The pilot test was a means of evaluating the material to be used in a wider user interface test. In this test, we collected questionnaire answers and automatic measures, which were normalized to be inserted into our quality model. We also proposed a criteria to weight attribute scores in the model, according to the answers provided by users. Based on these results, the evaluation procedure and assets should be refined to better attend the purposes of the future assessment.
Download
Paper Nr: 30
Title:

Fostering Well-being in Care with the Nautical Designed Plant Watering Robot
Authors:

Philipp Graf, Kevin Lefeuvre, Oskar Palinko, Lakshadeep Naik, Christian Zarp, Andreas Bischof, Eva Hornecker and Norbert Krüger
Abstract: The well-being of older people in care homes does not only rely on health and bodily needs but also includes spiritual or social needs. The presence of plants and distraction from everyday routines are two rarely addressed issues in this regard. Having those in mind, we developed the concept of the ’Plant Watering Robot’ (PWR), a robotic device that has a double purpose: to water plants and serve as an attraction to observers thereby creating amusement. It is designed as a little ship inhabited by a small ’captain’ that is displayed as being in charge of the device’s actions. The pilot interacts with various synchronized elements building up a narrative of being in charge of watering the plants. We first report on related work before describing the interaction concept in more detail. We then elaborate the technical implementation of the PWR focussing on mechanical and software aspects.
Download
Paper Nr: 36
Title:

Emotional and Engaging Movie Annotation with Gamification
Authors:

Lino Nunes, Cláudia Ribeiro and Teresa Chambel
Abstract: Entertainment has always been present in human activities, satisfying needs and playing a role in the lives of individuals and communities. In particular, movies have a strong emotional impact on us, with their rich multimedia content and their stories; while games tend to defy and engage us facing challenges and hopefully achieving rewarding experiences and results. In this paper, we present a web application being designed and developed to access movies based on emotional impact, with the focus on the emotional annotation of movies, using different emotional representations, and gamification elements to further engage users in this task, beyond their intrinsic motivation. These annotations can help enriching emotional classification of movies and their impact on users, with machine learning approaches, later helping to find movies based on this impact; and they can also be collected as personal notes like on a journal where users collect the movies they treasure the most, and that they can review and even compare along their journey. We also present a preliminary user evaluation, allowing to assess and learn about its perceived utility, usability and user experience, and to identify most promising features and directions for further improvements and developments.
Download
Paper Nr: 7
Title:

User Reception of Babylon Health’s Chatbot
Authors:

Daniela Azevedo, Axel Legay and Suzanne Kieffer
Abstract: Over the past decade, renewed interest in artificial intelligence systems prompted a proliferation of human-computer studies studies. These studies uncovered several factors impacting users’ appraisal and evaluation of AI systems. One key finding is that users consistently evaluated AI systems performing a given task more harshly than human experts performing the same task. This study aims to uncover another finding: by presenting a mHealth app as either AI or omitting the AI label and asking participants to perform a task, we evaluated whether users still consistently evaluate AI systems more harshly. Moreover, by picking young and well educated participants, we also open new research avenues to be further studied.
Download
Paper Nr: 18
Title:

Comprehensive Musculoskeletal Care Platform Enabling At-home Patient Care
Authors:

Ghazal Ershadi, Serena Hughes, Raja Sundaram and Majid Sarrafzadeh
Abstract: Pain and stiffness in the musculoskeletal system cause limited range of motion and loss of mobility. Remediation includes home care programs, physical therapy, medication, and if necessary, surgery. Much of the recovery occurs at home. Active engagement by patients in their care program is crucial for successful clinical recovery. Recovering from a partial or total joint replacement requires active participation in an exercise program to help minimize swelling and improve motion and strength. On the other hand, non-surgical musculoskeletal indications, also require a personalized exercise plan for recovery. Patients need support with following their care at home. Remote care programs and monitoring offer convenient, safe, and time and cost-efficient care, including at-home physical therapy programs, and have broad clinical scope. We studied one such program. This paper reports the results of a platform that digitizes care programs for all musculoskeletal conditions, engages patients at their convenience, while providing visibility to recovery progress via patient-reported and sensor-generated data. We introduce Plethy Recupe which is a comprehensive platform for musculoskeletal care with a joint motion sensor, intuitive app, and intelligent clinical dashboard. Six exercises were selected from this platform and 10 individuals were asked to perform the exercises to evaluate the accuracy of the range of motion (ROM) and complete a questionnaire on the usability of the solution.
Download
Paper Nr: 29
Title:

Tiny Neural Network Pipeline for Vocal Commands Recognition @Edge
Authors:

Ivana Guarneri, Alessandro Lauria, Giovanni M. Farinella and Corrado Santoro
Abstract: Vocal analysis and speech recognition have been a challenge for the research community for a long time. The widespread of deep learning approaches, the availability of big datasets and the increasing computational capabilities of processors, have contributed to achieve disruptive results in this field. Most of the high performing existing speech recognition systems are available as cloud services. Other systems are hybrid, with some parts on the cloud and some modules running on the microcontroller. One of the challenges is to realize high performing speech recognition systems running on the edge, where the edge is an integrated platform, composed by a processing unit, a bank of memory and a power unit. In this paper is proposed an end-to-end deep learning approach to recognize a set of vocal commands able to work on an edge IoT node. Tests have been performed on a tiny platform and the study with different settings is reported.
Download

Area 2 - Interaction Techniques and Devices

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 5
Title:

Near and Far Interaction for Augmented Reality Tree Visualization Outdoors
Authors:

Gergana Lilligreen, Nico Henkel and Alexander Wiebel
Abstract: The implementation of augmented reality in nature and in an environmental education context, is not a common case. Furthermore, augmented reality is often used basically for visualization, which puts users in a rather passive state. In this paper we investigate how near and far interaction using a head-mounted-display can be combined with visualization on a tree outdoors and which of the interaction techniques are suitable for a future use in an environmental education application. We examine the interaction with virtual leaves on the floor combined with a virtual-real interaction with a real tree. Parameters like type of interaction, different real surroundings and time task performance, as well the interplay and connection between them are discussed and investigated. Additionally, process visualization in a nature setting like clouds and rain, and growing of tree roots are included in the augmented reality modules and evaluated in user tests followed by a questionnaire. The results indicate, that for a future educational application both, near and far interaction, can be beneficial.
Download
Paper Nr: 33
Title:

AMI: Attention based Adaptative Feedback with Augmented Reality to Improve Takeover Performances in Highly Automated Vehicles
Authors:

Baptiste Wojtkowski, Indira Thouvenin and Veronica Teichrieb
Abstract: In the coming decade, the level 3 of semi-autonomous vehicles on the SAE scale is set to develop. However, the question of the transition of control between human and vehicle remains a widely debated question. From a cognitive point of view, this operation consists of placing the user back in a sensorimotor loop while limiting cognitive overload. In order to reduce this, several augmented reality / mixed reality approaches have been carried out. In this preliminary study, we propose an approach based on adaptive feedback. A naive adaptation model based on the work of Herzberger is introduced, studying the behavior of the user through his head behavior to determine an attention level. We carried out an experiment in a driving simulator reproducing a highway in virtual reality and displaying AR feedback through the virtual environment. The experiment tends to show that users perform better when they are placed in front of adaptive feedback. In a future work, we plan to complicate this model.
Download
Paper Nr: 38
Title:

Electrodermal Activity Evaluation of Player Experience in Virtual Reality Games: A Phasic Component Analysis
Authors:

Diego Navarro, Valeria Garro and Veronica Sundstedt
Abstract: Electrodermal activity (EDA) is considered to be an effective metric for measuring changes in the arousal level of people. In this paper, the phasic component of EDA data from players is analyzed in relation to their reported experience from a standardized questionnaire, when interacting with a couple of virtual reality games that featured two different input devices: the HTC Vive and Leap Motion controllers. Initial results show that there are no significant differences in the phasic component data, despite having significant differences in their respective player experience. Furthermore, no linear correlations are found between the phasic component data and the evaluated experience variables, with the only exception of negative affect which features a weak positive correlation. In conclusion, the phasic component of EDA data has here shown a limited correlation with player experience and should be further explored in combination with other psychophysiological signals.
Download
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Assisting Storyboarders in Expressive 3D Pose Creation with a 2D Sketch-based Interface
Authors:

Sophia Mouajjah and Cedric Plessiet
Abstract: Storyboarding is an ideation and prototyping process that constitutes one of the keystones in visual and narrative productions, such as filmmaking and performing arts. During this step, storyboard artists start giving poses and expressions to their characters. However, in the case of 3D film making, the final movie will be transposed from a 2D to a 3D medium, which means that artists do not have an accurate view of the result of their work. Existing 3D interfaces do not suit the storyboarders’ needs, as their complexity tend to impede and alter their creative process. This study focus on the development of an intuitive system that allows artists to pose 3D characters using simple 2D strokes as an interaction method. Our technique combines several representation modes to let users incrementally develop their poses in a monocular view. We evaluated the system by posing various characters with different anatomies and levels of details, which showed that it has the advantage of being flexible and helps in gaining time compared to the classical keyframe method.
Download
Paper Nr: 23
Title:

Quest-centric Authoring of Stories, Quests, and Dialogues for Computer Game Modifications
Authors:

Robin Horst, Micha Lanvers and Ralf Dörner
Abstract: A computer game modification (mod) is an extension or variation of an already published computer game, usually developed by hobbyists. Creating computer games requires expertise from different disciplines. For role-playing games (RPGs), one of them is the development of coherent stories, for example, through quests and dialogues between characters. Different expert authoring tools exist supporting story writing specialists in their profession. However, based on the results of our related work analysis and expert interviews with two lead storywriters of successful mods (Enderal and Legends of Ahssûn), we identified a gap of research regarding story writing tools suitable for the modding community. In this paper, we introduce quest-centric concepts for supporting modders in designing and managing quests for RPG mods and illustrate how to use graph-based visualization techniques for modeling interactive dialogues and dependencies between quest components of a story. Based on statistically significant results of an expert user study utilizing a reference implementation of our concepts, we conclude that the quest-centric concepts supported our participants and that the proposed graph visualizations and automatic optimization suggestions were particularly helpful to them.
Download
Paper Nr: 26
Title:

Small Objects Manipulation in Immersive Virtual Reality
Authors:

Eros Viola, Fabio Solari and Manuela Chessa
Abstract: In this pilot study, we analyze how the user approaches the manipulation of small virtual objects using different technologies, such as the HTC Vive controllers, the Leap Motion, and the Manus Prime haptic gloves. The aim of the study is to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of the three devices in a pick-and-place and simple manipulation task, specifically the assembling of a three-dimensional object composed of several mechanical parts of different shapes and sizes. 12 subjects perform the proposed experiment in a within-subjects study. We measured the total time to complete the entire task, the partial timing and the errors as the number of objects lost, to understand which are the most difficult actions. Moreover, we analyze the user feelings with the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ), and the System Usability Scale (SUS). Both timing measurements and user experience reveal the weaknesses of the gloves, which suffer from problem in correctly tracking the thumb, thus in allowing grasping actions. Controllers are still a good compromise, though some fine tasks could not be correctly performed. The vision-based solution of the Leap Motion is appreciated by users, and it is stable enough to perform the given task.
Download
Paper Nr: 11
Title:

Spatial User Interaction: What Next?
Authors:

Khadidja Chaoui, Sabrina Bouzidi-Hassini and Yacine Bellik
Abstract: Spatial user interaction refers to interactions that use spatial attributes or spatial relations between entities to trigger system functions. Spatial user interaction can offer intuitive interactions between users and their environment, particularly in ubiquitous environments where interconnected objects are in constant interaction. Many research works demonstrated the relevance of the spatial user interaction paradigm. Nevertheless, only a few were conducted to standardize the necessary concepts for designing spatial applications and to propose software tools that support spatial user interaction. The present work reviews the literature for spatial user interaction design and development. It analyses papers dealing with applications supporting spatial user interaction. It shows a lack of generic tools for designing/developing applications supporting spatial user interactions and proposes directions for future research work in this field.
Download

Area 3 - Theories, Models and User Evaluation

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 12
Title:

Effect of Errors on the Evaluation of Machine Learning Systems
Authors:

Vanessa Bracamonte, Seira Hidano and Shinsaku Kiyomoto
Abstract: Information such as accuracy and outcome explanations can be useful for the evaluation of machine learning systems, but they can also lead to over-trust. This means that an evaluator may not have suspicion that a machine learning system could have errors, and that they may overlook problems in the explanation of those systems. Research has shown that errors not only decrease trust but can also promote curiosity about the performance of the system. Therefore, presenting errors to evaluators may be an option to induce suspicion in the context of the evaluation of a machine learning system. In this paper, we evaluate this possibility by conducting three experiments where we asked participants to evaluate text classification systems. We presented two types of errors: incorrect predictions and errors in the explanation. The results show that patterns of errors in explanation negatively influenced willingness to recommend a system, and that fewer participants chose a system with higher accuracy when there was an error pattern, compared to when the errors were random. Moreover, more participants gave evidence from the explanations in their reason for their evaluation of the systems, suggesting that they were able to detect error patterns.
Download
Paper Nr: 15
Title:

Passenger’s Comfort Recognition during Autonomous Navigation of Personal Mobility Vehicles in Crowded Pedestrian Spaces
Authors:

Yosuke Isono, Hiroshi Yoshitake and Motoki Shino
Abstract: The development of autonomous navigation systems for personal mobility vehicles is underway to support mobility in large-scale facilities such as airports and shopping malls where pedestrians coexist. One of the required functions of autonomous navigation is comfort, such as not causing anxiety to the passengers. The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of passenger’s comfort recognition, that is, how the passenger feels comfortable depending on the behavior of the surrounding pedestrians and the vehicle when the personal mobility vehicle moves autonomously in a crowded environment. An experiment was conducted to obtain subjective assessment of passenger comfort using a VR simulator. By focusing on situation awareness as a process affecting passenger’s comfort recognition, the influence of situation awareness on passenger’s comfort recognition was analyzed and the characteristics of passenger’s comfort recognition were discussed.
Download
Paper Nr: 24
Title:

A Machine Learning based Analysis of e-Sports Player Performances in League of Legends for Winning Prediction based on Player Roles and Performances
Authors:

Farnod Bahrololloomi, Sebastian Sauer, Fabio Klonowski, Robin Horst and Ralf Dörner
Abstract: Predicting the outcome of an electronic sports (e-sports) match is a non-trivial task to which different approaches can be applied. While the e-sports domain and particularly the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre with League of Legends (LoL) as one of its most successful games is growing tremendously and is professionalizing, in-depth analysis approaches are demanded by the profession. For example, player and match analyses can be utilized for training purposes or winning predictions to foster the match preparation of players. In this paper, we propose two novel performance metrics derived from data of past LoL matches. The first is based on a Machine Learning (ML) based approach and includes individual player variables of a match. The second metric is generally based on heuristics derived from the ML approach. We evaluate the second metric by applying it for winning prediction purposes. Furthermore, we evaluate the importance of different roles of a LoL team to the outcome of a match and utilize the findings in the winning prediction. Overall, we show that the influence of a particular role on the match’s outcome is negligible and that the proposed performance metric based winning prediction could predict the outcome of matches with 86% accuracy.
Download
Paper Nr: 31
Title:

Behavioral and Physiological Assessment of a Virtual Reality Version of the MATB-II Task
Authors:

Zoe Gozzi, Vsevolod Peysakhovich, Alma Cantu and Mickael Causse
Abstract: The goal of this research was to examine the possible benefits of adapting the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB-II) in a virtual reality (VR) environment to provide an immersive and ecological platform for studies on mental workload in the aerospace domain. The original desktop MATB-II has many advantages, but the level of immersion remains moderate, and the computer screen greatly reduces the spatial dimension existing in real environments such as the cockpit. Thirty-one participants performed an experiment during which we compared the original MATB-II with the new virtual version, called “MATB-II VR”. We used subjective, performance, and cardiovascular measurements. The virtual MATB-II was performed without (“MATB-II VR No Touch”) and with tactile feedback (“MATB-II VR Touch”). In general, the results showed that mental and physical efforts were higher and performances lower with the virtual version. Heart rate was higher with the virtual version, supporting the idea that such environment is more challenging. The individual performance in the desktop and the virtual environments correlated well, showing that our virtual version engaged analog physical and cognitive abilities as compared with the original version. Interestingly, performance during MATB-II VR was well predicted by basic mental rotation performance assessed with a neuropsychological task.
Download
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Interactive Multimodal System Characterization in the Internet of Things Context
Authors:

Fabrice Poirier, Anthony Foulonneau, Jérémy Lacoche and Thierry Duval
Abstract: The internet of things (IoT) is a chance to provide users with pervasive environments in which they can interact naturally with the environment. Multimodal interaction is the domain that provides this naturalness by using different senses to interact. However, the IoT context requires a specific process to create such multimodal systems. In this article, we investigate the process of creating multimodal systems with connected devices as interaction mediums, and provide an analysis of the existing tools to complete this process. We discuss tools that could be designed to support the creation process when the existing ones are not sufficient.
Download
Paper Nr: 17
Title:

Effects of Global Illumination of Virtual Objects in 360º Mixed Reality
Authors:

Jingxin Zhang, Jannis Volz and Frank Steinicke
Abstract: Consistent rendering of virtual objects in 360◦ videos is challenging and crucial for spatial perception and the overall user experience in so-called 360◦ mixed reality (MR) environments. In particular, global illumination can provide important depth cues for localizing spatial objects in MR, and, moreover, improve the overall user experience. Previous works have introduced MR algorithms, which allow for the seamless composition of 3D virtual objects into a 360◦ video-based virtual environment (VE). For instance, for consistent global illumination, the light source in the 360◦ video can be detected and used to illuminate virtual objects and shadow calculation, or the 360◦ video can be reflected on specular virtual objects, known as environment mapping. Until now, it has not been evaluated if and to what extent global illumination of virtual objects in 360◦ MR environments improve spatial localization and user experience. To address this research question, we performed a user study in which we compared object localization with and without global illumination in 360◦ MR environments. The results show that the global illumination of virtual objects significantly reduces the localization error and improves the overall user experience in 360◦ MR environments.
Download
Paper Nr: 25
Title:

A Specification Language and a Modeling Tool for Spatial User Interaction
Authors:

Khadidja Chaoui, Sabrina Bouzidi-Hassini, Yacine Bellik, Chabane Karasad and Abderrahmane Hamzaoui
Abstract: Spatial user interaction result from considering spatial attributes (localization, orientation. . . ) of entities or spatial relations between them (distance, relative position. . . ) to trigger system functions. Recently, more and more spatial interactive applications exist in daily life (parking radar in cars, automatic doors in supermarkets and building...). Such interfaces offer more natural and intuitive interactions due to their facility to use or downright their transparency. According to our literature review on spatial interaction works, we noticed that most of them focused on the desire to demonstrate the relevance of the interaction paradigm itself. Unfortunately, only few works were conducted to standardize necessary concepts for the spatial interface development such as specification languages, modeling or simulation tools. These letters facilitate designers work and contribute to the democratization of this kind of interaction. In this context, we present in this paper, a modeling language called SUIL (Spatial User Interaction Language) and a framework for modeling and simulating spatial interfaces called SIMSIT (Spatial Interfaces Modeling and SImulation Tool).
Download
Paper Nr: 28
Title:

Analysis of the Relationship between Subjective Difficulty of a Task and the Efforts Put into It using Biometric Information
Authors:

Katsuko T. Nakahira, Munenori Harada and Muneo Kitajima
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel method for analyzing the relationships between the difficulty of tasks and the effort of learners to accomplish them using biometric information. The biometric information we adopted was as follows: 1) pupil diameter variation for estimating subjective task difficulty, and 2) eye movements indicative of answer selection times for assessing subjective efforts and strategies to solve the problems. The data used in this study are eye movement data obtained in a different study for studying brain activities during arithmetic calculations in terms of electroencephalography (EEG) data (Suzuki et al., 2021). This study reanalyzed the eye movement data by introducing the following two variables: 1) the duration times in the characteristic areas for solving the tasks to understand how the participants strategically retrieved the task information, and 2) the changes in the sizes of pupil diameter to understand the levels of engagement of the participants while solving the tasks. This study suggests that the relationships found in these variables should characterize the participants’ learning attitudes and could be related to confidence and satisfaction in the attention-relevance-confidence-satisfaction (ARCS) model, indicating the possibility of applying the results to educational systems.
Download
Paper Nr: 39
Title:

HCP–VR: Training First Responders through a Virtual Reality Application for Hydrogeological Risk Management
Authors:

Federico De Lorenzis, Filippo G. Pratticò and Fabrizio Lamberti
Abstract: Training First Responders (FRs) can represent a difficult task due to the need for preparing trainees to face dangerous situations without exposing them to actual risks. VR technology can help overcome these limitations by offering accurate simulations in which trainees can safely experience critical scenarios while improving their knowledge and skills about a specific procedure. In this paper, a Virtual Reality Training System (VRTS) designed to train FRs in the High Capacity Pumping (HCP) procedure is presented. This application aims to prepare operators through two different training modes (Guided and Evaluated) within a realistic computer- generated scenario. A user study involving 22 operators from the Civil Protection of Regione Piemonte was conducted to assess the learning efficacy and the overall quality of the VRTS. Feedback was collected both via qualitative evaluations and a quiz session on theoretical content. Participants praised the usability of the application and the overall quality of the training experience. Finally, the scores of the quiz session showed a knowledge gain associated with the use of the VRTS to train in the considered procedure.
Download
Paper Nr: 16
Title:

Imagining the World with Your Robot in It: User Story Mapping as a HRI Design Method
Authors:

Galina Kalugina
Abstract: The article describes a goal-based method of requirements elicitation for the initial design of robots and robotized processes on both prototype and production levels. The method utilizes a top-down approach similar to the User Story Mapping, widely used as an ideation tool in software development. It does not require special training to use, but it works best when professionals from different areas of expertise are involved in the ideation process. It results in a holistic model of the robotic product or process that accommodates both end-users and stakeholders and balances the scope of features to develop with deadlines in hand.
Download