Romanian Journal of
Human - Computer InteractionVol. 3 (2010) Special issue: Human Computer Interaction 2010
Proceedings of the National Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
Bucharest, 2-3 September 2010ISSN 1843-4460
Contents
Patterns of HCI Design and Design of Patterns
Ahmed Seffah
1-6
The Pedagogical Usability - Methodological and Practical Considerations
Ana-Maria Borozan, Ileana Trandafir
7-10
Software for Access of Persons with Disabilities to Scientific Content
Ion Smeureanu, Narcisa Isăilă
11-14
Testing with Visual Impairment Users of a Local Public Administration Web Site
Iulian Lesneanu, Dragoş-Daniel Iordache
15-18
MOSpy – Software Instrument for Accessibility Analysis of Graphical User Interfaces
Paul Fogarassy-Neszly, Iulius Szijjarto
19-22
A Case Study in Formative Usability Evaluation of a Local Public Administration Web Site
Dragoş Daniel Iordache, Ruxandra Dora Marinescu, Maria Gheorghe-Moisii, Costin Pribeanu
23-28
Facial Expression Recognition Based on Computer-Vision Specific Methods
Delia Mitrea, Sergiu Nedevschi, Dorian Gorgan
29-32
Principles of Olfactory Human-Computer Interfaces
Iulian Popescu
33-36
User Interaction Techniques Regarding Satellite Image Processing - GreenView and GreenLand Exemplification
Dănuţ Mihon, Victor Bâcu, Teodor Ştefănut, Dorian Gorgan
37-44
R3 - A Configurable Input Device for Free-Space Interaction
Daniel Cernea, Achim Ebert, Andreas Kerren, Valentina Morar
45-50
Depth Perception Evaluation of 3D Virtual Prototypes Using Imersive CAVE Systems
Florin Gârbacia, Eugen Butilă
51-54
A Ball Tracking Technique for Augmented Reality Applications
Dragoş Cătălin Barbu, Silvia-Ramona Bunea, Ştefan Măgureanu
55-58
Didactics in Assisted Instruction
Gabriel Zamfir
59-64
Interactive Tools for Lessons Development in Collaborative eLearning Systems
Mircea Mărginean, Teodor Ştefanut, Dorian Gorgan
65-70
Improving a eLearning System Using Specific Elements of a Question-Answering System
Adrian Iftene, Ancuţa Rotaru
71-74
MDL – Computer Assisted Lesson Development Module
Daniel Safta, Dorian Gorgan
75-80
Development of Multimedia Components for Educational Mobile Systems
Adriana Elena Reveiu, Marian Dârdală
81-84
Improve the Relevance of Search Engine Results Using Semantic Information from Wikipedia
Cristina Scheau, Traian Eugen Rebedea, Costin Chiru, Ştefan Trăuşan-Matu
85-90
Using Design Patterns to Redesign the Search Engine of an Academic Web Site
Sabin-Corneliu Buraga, Ecaterina Valica
91-94
Evaluation and Automatic Summarization of Chat Conversations
Mihai Dascălu, Stefan Trăuşan-Matu, Philippe Dessus
95-100
Location-based Services Personalization Using Genetic Algorithms and Intelligent Agents
Liviu Adrian Cotfas, Andreea Dioşteanu
101-104
Extracting Implicit Opinions of Economic Texts
Claudiu Cristian Muşat, Ştefan Trauşan-Matu
105-108
Interactive Components in a Environment for Grid Applications Development
Victor Bâcu, Dorian Gorgan
109-114
Task Modeling at Operational Level in the Context of Model-based Design
Costin Pribeanu
115-118
Using Software for Decoding and Analysis of Physiological Reactivity in Human Higher Cognitive Processes
Mihai Aniţei, Mihaela Chraif, Andrei Neacşu, Claudiu Papasteri, Mihai Ciolacu
119-122
Designing and Developing an Interactive System for the Management of the Organizations Involved in the Transport Research Activities
Ionuţ Petre, Dragoş Marian Smada
123-126
New Technologies and Children’s Cognitive Development: Some Guidelines and Recommendations for Design
Ana-Maria Marhan
127-130
Medical Assistance Through the Internet for Persons with Mobility Impairments and for Persons Residing in Rural and Medically Under-Served Areas
Adriana Alexandru, Cristina Simona Alecu
131-134
Abstracts
Patterns of HCI Design and Design of Patterns
Ahmed Seffah
Human-Centered Software Engineering Group
Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Concordia University, Montreal Canada
seffah@cse.concordia.caAbstract. User interface design patterns also called HCI or interaction or usability patterns have been introduced first as a medium to capture and represent solutions to users’ problems. Patterns have been used also as a medium for transferring the expertise of HCI designers and usability professionals to software engineers, who are usually unfamiliar with UI design and usability principles. Design patterns have been considered also as a lingua franca for crossing cultural and professional barriers between different stakeholders. Several HCI professionals have introduced their own pattern languages with specific terminology, classification and meanings. Patterns have also been presented as building reusable blocks at different levels of granularity, which can be combined to compose new interactive systems. Despite the obvious and acclaimed potential of these pattern-driven design approaches, patterns usage has not achieved the acceptance and widespread applicability envisaged by pattern pioneers such as Christopher Alexander. This paper provides an analysis of the facts about patterns usages, pattern languages and pattern-based design approaches. Some shortcomings in the presentation and application of HCI patterns are identified and discussed under the prevailing fallacies. Based on the analysis of how patterns have used so far, we draw some recommendations and future perspectives on what can be done to address the existing shortcomings. Making patterns more accessible, easily understandable, comparable and integratable in software and HCI design tools can promote HCI patterns to claim the usability, usefulness and importance originally envisaged for the pattern-oriented design approach.
The Pedagogical Usability - Methodological and Practical Considerations
Ana-Maria Borozan, Ileana Trandafir
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
{marika, itran} @ici.roAbstract. The paper presents some specific aspects of the usability of web-based e-learning systems, focusing on the concept of pedagogical usability as a quality feature distinct from general usability. There are briefly analyzed aspects as scope, learning process, content, tasks, learner variables, interaction with users, results evaluation and their implementation in SinPers project (Innovative system for personalized and user-centered learning, with applications to project management). As will be seen below these seven aspects were considered since the requirements specification and design, and were implemented progressively as the system was built.
Software for Access of Persons with Disabilities to Scientific Content
Ion Smeureanu, Narcisa Isăilă
Academy of Economic Studies
Bucharest, 6, Romană Square
smeurean@ase.ro, isaila_narcisa@yahoo.comAbstract. For people with visual impairments, especially for the blind persons, the access to scientific content raises issues of accessibility both to reading web documents, which contain specific elements of mathematics as images, with or without alternative text and reading from files containing mathematical expressions. The utility of applications for synthesis of artificial language from a text (the mathematical expressions are converted into textual form using editors) written in Romanian language is undeniable, given that increased the concerns for the creation of facilities designed to contribute to a better integration of persons with disabilities in society. The purpose of this paper is the result of research in education field, namely the access to science, integrating the facilities audio presentation of information.
Testing with Visual Impairment Users of a Local Public Administration Web Site
Iulian Lesneanu1, Dragoş Daniel Iordache 2
1 Centrul Şcolar “Regina Elisabeta”
108, Vatra Luminoasă, Bucharest
iulianlesneanu@gmail.com
2 National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
iordache@ici.roAbstract. Accessibility and usability are two concepts which evolved together, usability being associated with ergonomics (especially cognitive ergonomics) of the user-interfaces and accessibility being associated with the not discriminative access to information technology. In this paper are presented the results of testing with visual impairment users of a local public administration Web site. The user testing goal was the identification of the main usability and accessibility problems the blind users are dealing with.
MOSpy – Software Instrument for Accessibility Analysis of Graphical User Interfaces
Paul Fogarassy-Neszly,1, Iuliu Szijjarto 2
1 BAUM Engineering
8, Traian Moşoiu Street, Arad 310175
pf@baum.ro2 BAUM Retec AG
In der Au 22, D-69257 Wiesenbach
is@baum.deAbstract. This paper present a software instrument dedicated for Graphical User Interfaces accessibility analysis. The presentation is realized through a case study presenting the way this instrument works. There are presented some accessibility deficiencies for the analyzed application and recommendations for accessibility improvement.
A Case Study in Formative Usability Evaluation of a Local Public Administration Web Site
Dragoş Daniel Iordache, Ruxandra Dora Marinescu, Maria Gheorghe-Moisii, Costin Pribeanu
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
{iordache, doruma, maria, pribeanu}@ici.roAbstract. Usability of local public administration web sites should be a key concern in the implementation of the Information Society in Romania. Unfortunately, usability evaluation is not yet a current practice. The purpose of this paper is to present a usability evaluation methodology and a case study targeting a local public administration web site. The evaluation procedure is based on two methods: heuristic evaluation and user testing. A heuristic evaluation was performed against a set of 24 heuristics. Then a user testing was carried on that was based on the think aloud protocol. The evaluation results obtained with each method were analyzed as regarding their confidence and validity.
Facial Expression Recognition Based on Computer-Vision Specific Methods
Delia Mitrea, Sergiu Nedevschi, Dorian Gorgan
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science
Bariţiu Str., No. 26-28, Cluj-Napoca
{Delia.Mitrea, Sergiu.Nedevschi, Dorian.Gorgan}@cs.utcluj.roAbstract. The automatic, computerized recognition of the emotional states based on the facial expression represents an important step towards the elimination of the communication gaps that exist between the man and the machine. The corresponding methods have multiple practical applications. The human face is the most important element able to provide useful information concerning the emotional and affective state, besides the body position. The detection of the facial expression through computer vision based methods represents an efficient solution, in both concerning accuracy and cost. In this paper we will present the most relevant methods that exist in the corresponding domain, at national al international level, then we will describe our own solution, based on the computation of potentially useful imagistic features and on the application of some performant classification algorithms. The imagistic features refer to the shape and orientation of the facial elements (eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin, brow) in the context of a certain emotional state. We also establish the relevance of the determined imagistic features and the role that various facial regions play in the process of facial expression recognition.
Principles of Olfactory Human-Computer Interfaces
Iulian Popescu
SoftTehnica
Șos. N. Titulescu, nr.1, bl. A7, sc. C, Sector 1, Bucharest
iulian.popescu@softtehnica.roAbstract. This paper is a foray into the issue of odor representation in digital form, but also specific aspects of olfactory human-computer interfaces.
User Interaction Techniques regarding Satellite Image Processing – GreenView and GreenLand Exemplification
Dănuţ Mihon, Victor Bâcu, Teodor Ştefănuţ, Dorian Gorgan
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
28, Memorandumului Street, Cluj-Napoca
{vasile.mihon, victor.bacu, teodor.stafanut, dorian.gorgan}@cs.utcluj.roAbstract. Environmental applications have an increasing role in the modern society and in the life of human kind, through the services they offer (e.g. meteorological prediction, wheatear forecast, etc). Unfortunately most of the natural phenomena prediction models work with large sets of parameters and unknown values that have to be calibrated. This operation is high computing power consuming, because of the large volume of data needed to be processed. GreenView and GreenLand are two environmental applications that use Grid infrastructure for the execution phase. The interactive interface of the two applications facilitates their usage, by hiding from the user the internal complexity of the Grid processing. GreenView and GreenLand offer the user different HCI (Human Computer Interaction) techniques regarding the monitoring of the temperature distribution and vegetation growth distribution over worldwide geographical areas.
R3 - A Configurable Input Device for Free-Space Interaction
Daniel Cernea 1, Achim Ebert 1, Andreas Kerren2, Valentina Morar3
1 Universitatea Tehnică din Kaiserslautern, Deutschland
Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße, Geb. 47, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Deutschland
{cernea, ebert}@cs.uni-kl.de
2 Universitatea Linnaeus, Sweden
Vejdes Plats 7, SE-351 95 Växjö, Sweden
andreas.kerren@lnu.se
3 Universitatea “Politehnica” Timişoara, Romania
2, Vasile Pârvan Avenue, Timişoara
valentina.morar@gmail.comAbstract. Nowadays, a variety of input devices support 3D interaction by offering 6 degrees of freedom (DoF). Nonetheless, such devices that are available for free-space usage (i.e., without the need for a surface as reference system) are rarely intuitive and rather limited in number. To tackle these problems, we propose a highly configurable mid-air device that supports an intuitive interaction with virtual environments. R3 (roll, rotate, rattle) offers good accuracy for 2D and 3D navigation, modeling and gameplay, but also tactile feedback through the presence of a trackball, all this in a user-oriented way. Additionally, the device can be easily switched back to being used as a regular mouse.
Depth Perception Evaluation of 3D Virtual Prototypes Using Imersive CAVE Systems
Florin Gîrbacia, Andreea Beraru, Eugen Butilă
Transilvania University from Brasov
B-dul Eroilor 29, 500036, Brasov
{garbacia, aberaru, butila}@unitbv.roAbstract. In this paper an experimental study that aimed depth perception of virtual prototypes in an immersive environment compared with the depth perception of virtual prototypes using 2D LCD monitor is presented. The experiment carried out shows that perceived depth values estimated for virtual prototypes is significantly influenced by the stereoscopic visualization. Another interesting result of the study was that the estimated depth accuracy significantly increases with the depth size that has to be perceived. The results of conducted experimental study illustrate that the use of immersive stereoscopic visualization is useful during Computer Aided Design related activities.
A Ball Tracking Technique for Augmented Reality Applications
Dragoş Cătălin Barbu1, Silvia-Ramona Bunea2, Ştefan Măgureanu2
1 National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
dbarbu@ici.ro
2 Universitatea Politehnică Bucharest
Splaiul Independenţei, No.313, Bucharest
{ramona.s.bunea, smagureanu}@gmail.comAbstract. This article presents a robust tracking technique based on colored balls and with a reduced need for computing resources. The technique is based on a random Hough transform algorithm which is optimized for use in real-time applications such as augmented reality systems. Requiring only a conventional color camera attached to a regular PC, this approach allows to determine the 3D position of balls based on interactive processing frameworks. The algorithm is fast enough to be easily combined with other real-time tracking engines. Unlike tracking techniques based on recognition of planar markers, this technique provides robustness to partial occlusion, which interact with real objects.
Didactics in Assisted Instruction
Gabriel Zamfir
Academy of Economic Studies
Bucharest, 6, Romană Square, 1st District
zamfir@ase.roAbstract. Currently, cognitive development is based on diversifying activities which depend on use of personal computers. In terms of technology, the modern world is constantly developing, with its systems becoming more efficient, with which an individual or group of individuals endowed with a rich amount of knowledge systematically, offering increasingly diversified. From a social perspective, the difficulty lies precisely to teach the knowledge workers in order to understand and apply available technology. This paper analyzes and summarizes learning problems by reconsidering the relationship between theory and practice. A new paradigm is proposed, focused on didactics developed in an assisted instruction environment. By this approach, the teacher - personal computer - student triad reflected in education activities are highlighted, in human-computer interaction context.
Interactive Tools for Lessons Development in Collaborative eLearning Systems
Mircea Mărginean, Teodor Ştefănuţ
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science
Bariţiu Str., No. 26-28, Cluj-Napoca
margineanmircea@yahoo.com, teodor.stefanut@cs.utcluj.roAbstract. Current direction in the development of eLearning systems is mainly oriented towards creating collaborative lessons using interactive tools. The teacher has the possibility to create the lesson using interactive tools while the students can use it in running mode in a collaborative way, very similar to a lesson organized in the classroom, where the teacher can interact with his students in real time. This paper presents different types of interactive tools, their development methodology and their integration into already existing eLearning systems. Have been studied, developed and integrated the following types of tools: text visualization, image visualization, video visualization. Each tool is composed of two modules: the edit module – available to the teacher only, and the visualization module – available to the teacher as well as to the students. One of the problems that have been discussed in this paper was the maximization of the space available to the visualization module and, at the same time, the minimization of the space available for the editing module. Another problem discussed here concerns the proposal of a base standard for the modular development of the tools, so this process to be kept independent against the eLearning platform where the tools will be eventually integrated.
Improving a eLearning system Using Specific Elements of a Question-Answering System
Adrian Iftene, Ancuța Rotaru
Faculty of Computer Science, “Al. I. Cuza” University
Str. General Berthelot, 16, Iași 700483, Romania
{adiftene, ancuta.rotaru}@infoiasi.roAbstract. Today Web developers try to create customized Web pages that are specific for every user, based on characteristics such as their interests, social class they belong to them or the context in which they access the pages. Web application that we built it helps the two categories of users (students and teachers) to communicate more easily from a distance. One of the basic components of this system identifies similar questions posted by students on basis of the question type and answer type and based on common keywords. This component helps the student first, because it can quickly get an acceptable answer to his question, from a similar question that already exist in the system, with already responded from the teacher. Secondly it helps the teacher, because when a student no longer wishes to answer the question (being satisfied with the answer given), he can mark the question to not longer is forwarded to the teacher. In this way, the system automatically reduces the number of questions requiring a response from the teacher.
MDL – Computer Assisted Lesson Development Module
Daniel Safta, Dorian Gorgan
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science
Bariţiu Str., No. 26-28, Cluj-Napoca
davonkeep@yahoo.com, dorian.gorgan@cs.utcluj.roAbstract. In this article we present a new approach to teaching computer science - the evaluation and visual modeling of algorithms based on metaphorical forms - applied within the core of a virtual education system, the development module for computer-based lessons (MDL). We reveal the structure and characteristics of the teaching process that we implemented in the proposed system, students and their roles, applied teaching methods, solutions for evaluation and a case study on a lesson model. We presented the state of the art in this domain highlighting the advantages of the described solution set, and also possible extensions.
Development of Multimedia Components for Educational Mobile Systems
Adriana Reveiu, Marian Dârdală
Academy of Economic Studies
Bucharest, 6, Romană Square, 1st District
{reveiua, dardala}@ase.ro
Abstract. This paper proposes a solution based on templates for generating multimedia components for distributed training systems, which can be used in applications that run on both PCs and mobile devices. The purpose of this solution is to provide access to training resources, usually available in classrooms through personal computers, in other locations, using mobile devices. To become useful tools in education, the technical solutions proposed aimed to use the potential of mobile devices and adapting educational content to the specific characteristics of mobile devices, communications networks, user preferences and user’s knowledge.
Improve the Relevance of Search Engine Results Using Semantic Information from Wikipedia
Cristina Șcheau1, Traian Rebedea 1, Costin Chiru 1, Ştefan Trăuşan-Matu1,2
1 “Politehnica” University of Bucharest,
313 Splaiul Independentei, Bucharest
2 Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of the Romanian Academy,
13 Calea 13 Septembrie, Bucharest
{cristina.scheau, traian.rebedea, costin.chiru, trausan}@cs.pub.roAbstract. Depending on the user’s intention, the queries processed by a search engine can be classified in transactional, informational and navigational. In order to meet the three types of searches, at this moment search engines basically use algorithmic analysis of the links between pages improved by a factor that depends on the number of occurrences of the keywords in the query and the order of these words on each web page returned as a result. For transactional and informational queries, the relevance of the results returned by the search engine may be improved by using semantic information about the query concepts when computing the order of the results presented to the user. Wikipedia is a huge thesaurus which has the advantage of already being multi-lingual and semi-structured, presenting a dense structure of internal links that can be used to extract various types of information. This paper proposes a method to extract semantic relations between concepts considered as the names of the articles from Wikipedia, and then use these relations to determine the rank of the results returned by a search engine for a given query.
Using Design Patterns to Redesign the Search Engine of an Academic Web Site
Sabin-Corneliu Buraga, Ecaterina Valică
1 Faculty of Computer Science, “A. I. Cuza” University of Iași, România
Berthelot, 16 – 700483 Iași, România
{busaco, evalica}@info.uaic.roAbstract. Paper presents the use of design patterns as a solution for redesigning the interaction between visitors and the search engine of an academic Web site – in this case, the collaborative XWiki-based Web site of the Faculty of Computer Science, „A. I. Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania.
Evaluation and Automatic Summarization of Chat Conversations
Mihai Dascălu1, Ștefan Trăușan-Matu1, Philippe Dessus,2
1 University “Politehnica“ of Bucharest,
313 Splaiul Independenței,
060042 Bucharest, Romania
{mihai.dascalu, stefan.trausan}@cs.pub.ro
2 Grenoble University
1251 av. Centrale, BP 47, F-38040 Grenoble CEDEX 9, France
philippe.dessus@upmf-grenoble.frAbstract. With the continuous evolution of collaborative environments, the need for automatic analysis and participant assessment in Instant Messenger discussions (chats) has become more and more important. Moreover, a key element in a grading and evaluation system for participants and utterances is summarization. In order to achieve the previous goals, a series of factors specific to natural language processing (including semantic analysis by means of Latent Semantic Analysis - LSA) and data-mining were taken into consideration. In order to achieve a thorough and multi-perspective approach for assessing participants, the system includes facilities derived from Page’s essay grading techniques, readability assessment and metrics specific to social networks analysis. A golden standard was used for assessing the relevance of the obtained results and for validation purposes of the proposed method.
Location-based Services Personalization Using Genetic Algorithms and Intelligent Agents
Liviu Adrian Cotfas, Andreea Dioșteanu
Academy of Economic Studies
Bucharest, 6, Romană Square, 1st District
liviu.cotfas@ase.ro, andreea.diosteanu@ie.ase.roAbstract. This article analyzes possible solutions for improving Location-based Services (LBS) by using genetic algorithms and intelligent agents. The proposed solution enables identifying the points of interest based on the user profile and on the current context, and also generating routes in multi-modal and multi-operator public transport networks. The route generator process is based on a genetic algorithm that offers users the possibility to have a flexible restriction set for quantifying the importance degree of each associated optimization criterion. Therefore, we add an additional level of personalization over the exclusive use of fixed constraints set in the route identification process. The points of interest are represented by using intelligent agents and the communication between them is realized with the help of predefined ontologies.
Extracting Implicit Opinions of Economic Texts
Claudiu Cristian Muşat, Ştefan Trauşan-Matu
“Politehnica” University of Bucharest,
313 Splaiul Independentei, Bucharest
{claudiu.musat, trausan}@cs.pub.roAbstract. We propose a new approach to opinion mining that relies not on explicit occurrences of opinions in economic texts but on implicit ones extracted from the polarity of the discussed economic subtopic. We begin by dynamically generating a financial text corpus, following outgoing links from a set of financial web pages and then by checking whether economic topics are discussed. We separate economic from non economic texts by searching for key expressions from a database built beforehand. In the second phase we prove that the majority of economic texts that contain personal opinions can be retrieved based solely on the implicit opinions within. We rely on co-occurrences of economic indicators and future state modifiers to determine the polarity of each text. We also present an extraction method for the said key terms.
Interactive Components in a Environment for Grid Applications Development
Victor Bâcu, Dorian Gorgan
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Automation and Computer Science
Bariţiu Str., No. 26-28, Cluj-Napoca
{victor.bacu, dorian.gorgan}@cs.utcluj.roAbstract. The degree of usability of the Grid applications by specialists in other fields than computer science is low. This is due to the lack of interactive components integrated in the Grid platforms that allow a transparent access to Grid infrastructure. The majority of the Grid applications may only be used through command line scripts. An environment for Grid application development should provide interactive components for data management and workflows on Grid and interactive components for development and inclusion of operators. In this paper we present an architecture of such a development environment with emphasis on interaction techniques and interactive components.
Task Modeling at Operational Level in the Context of Model-based Design
Costin Pribeanu
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
pribeanu@ici.roAbstract. In the context of model-based design of user interfaces it is important to pay attention to the modelling of all relevant aspects as well as to the specification of relationships between models. The task model has a particular importance since it mediates the relationship between the domain model and the presentation model. The purpose of this paper is to approach task modeling at operational level from a broader perspective, defined by the activity theory and the reference model for multi-target user interfaces.
Using Software for Decoding and Analysis of Physiological Reactivity in Human Higher Cognitive Processes
Mihai Aniței, Mihaela Chraif, Claudiu Papasteri, Neacşu Andrei, Ciolacu Mihai
Bucharest University, Faculty of Psychology And Educational Studies
mihai.anitei@unibuc.ro, mihaelapopa14@yahoo.com, claudiu.papasteri@gmail.com, andrei.ncs@gmail.com, ciolacu.mihai88@yahoo.comAbstract. The scientific data obtained by the polygraph technique concerning the human psychophysiological reactivity has been disputed by a part of the scientific community, who invoke the lack of consistent theories which would sustain the existence of clear, causal links between the cognitive processes involved in simulation and the measured physiological peripheral parameters (respiratory parameters, cardiovascular parameters, galvanic skin response). In this context, neurosciences are all the more looked upon to explain the approach of the cognitive level of simulated behavior, in the attempt to understand the neurophysiological basis of the underlying mental processes. This article emphasises the utility of the LX 4000- version 9.9.5. used by the Lafayette model 4000 polygraph in detecting and analising the human psychophysiological reactivity to different stimuli and during superior cognitive processes. The conclusions of this article demonstrate that the operationalization of these technologies must be synchronized with the fundamental research which targets the elaboration of solid scientific theories concerning simulated behavior.
Designing and Developing an Interactive System for the Management of the Organizations involved in the Transport Research Activities
Ionuţ Petre, Dragoş Smada
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
{ipetre, dsmada}@ici.roAbstract. The purpose of this paper is to present the Web interface that provides the access to the information from the database built within the TransNew European project. This project aims to develop and exploit an international database, containing data about organizations that activate in the Transport Research domain. TransNew is focused on assesing, analyzing and defining research strategies for the Transport area in the New Member States and Associated States. The interface provides to the final user a fast access to data about research organizations, transport research projects, evaluations of the national transport policies or information about the researchers involved in these projects. The administration mode of the interface provides the organizations the possibility to easily insert, manage and update the data about their activities and results.
New Technologies and Children’s Cognitive Development: Some Guidelines and Recommendations for Design
Ana Maria Marhan
Institute of Philosophy and Psychology ”C. Rădulescu Motru”
House of Academy, Calea 13 Septembrie Nr.13, 011455, Bucharest
amarhan@acm.orgAbstract. Most HCI principles and design recommendations have been tested and refined in the process of developing computer interfaces for the adult user. During the last few years, a growing demand for new sets of recommendations has occurred. This paper discusses an example of guidelines to be specifically used in the process of design and evaluation of computer interfaces for very young users, especially children entering formal education system (5 to 8 years old).
Medical Assistance Through the Internet for Persons with Mobility Impairments and for Persons Residing in Rural and Medically Under-Served Areas
Adriana Alexandru, Cristina Simona Alecu
National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest
8-10, Mareşal Averescu Avenue, Bucharest
{adriana, simona}@ici.roAbstract. This paper presents an IT system (MeDist), which offers an operative and user-friendly patient-medical system interface. The system will be a useful instrument for healthcare services for persons in rural areas and for persons located in remote or isolated places and also for those un-transportable, with special needs. In order to assist them, at the design of the system we have taking into account of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) reccomendations within the initiative in developing accessible websites (Web Accessibility Initiative – WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium. The MeDist system offers: teleconsultation (remote medical assistance), monitoring of chronic patients in need of locally unavailable specialists, orientation of the patient towards the best place of treatment, medical care and recovery, and facilities for making patient appointments.