Publications
The Behaviour Assessment Model for the Analysis and Evaluation of Pervasive Services
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B. Klein, I. Pretel, U. Reips, AB. Lago, D. Lopez-de-Ipiña. The Behaviour Assessment Model for the Analysis and Evaluation of Pervasive Services. In Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing. Volume 206, 2013, pp 1129-1140. ISBN: 978-3-642-36980-3
Abstract: Several mobile acceptance models exist today that focus on user interface handling and usage frequency evaluation. Since mobile applications reach much deeper into everyday life, it is however important to better consider user behaviour for the service evaluation. In this paper we introduce the Behaviour Assessment Model (BAM), which is designed to gaining insights about how well services enable, enhance and replace human activities. More specifically, the basic columns of the evaluation framework concentrate on (1) service actuation in relation to the current user context, (2) the balance between service usage effort and benefit, and (3) the degree to which community knowledge can be exploited. The evaluation is guided by a process model that specifies individual steps of data capturing, aggregation, and final assessment. The BAM helps to gain stronger insights regarding characteristic usage hotspots, frequent usage patterns, and leveraging of networking effects showing more realistically the strengths and weaknesses of mobile services.
Keywords: Mobile services, user acceptance, human-computer interaction, technological acceptance model, log data analysis, service design, living lab.
Enable tweet-geolocation and don't drive ERTs crazy! Improving situational awareness using Twitter
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J. Sixto, O. Peña, B. Klein and D. López-De-Ipiña. Enable tweet-geolocation and don't drive ERTs crazy! Improving situational awareness using Twitter. In Proceedings of SMERST 2013: Social Media and Semantic Technologies in Emergency Response. pp. 27--31. 15-16 April 2013, University of Warwick, Coventry UK
Abstract: When traditional communication services are down in an emergency, Twitter has proven to provide first-line information to emergency response teams. The lack of geotagged tweets complicates these teams labor when trying to pin-point the events on a map. A rapid identification of situational awareness on incidents may help reduce the number of casualties and damages thanks to an efficient management. In this paper, we present a new approach to improve geo-location accuracy in Twitter posts, relying on NLP techniques and online geo-location APIs, which provides the most trusted event location from a Twitter stream.
Keywords: Twitter; NLP; emergency events; geolocation.
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Swiping fingers on a screen is not enough! Dusting off toy blocks to build new gaming experiences through mobile apps
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P. Garaizar, O. Peña, and J.A. Romero. Swiping fingers on a screen is not enough! Dusting off toy blocks to build new gaming experiences through mobile apps. In Proceedings of EDUCON2013 - 4th IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference. pp. xxxx-xxxx, March 13-15, 2013. Berlin, Germany
Abstract: Smartphones have become everyday objects for many children. They learn how to count, spell or paint by swiping their fingers on a screen, using some of the thousands of applications specially designed for them. However, real world interactions also need other kind of skills for physical object manipulation, often developed through traditional toys. In this paper we present 3DU Blocks, a proposal to take advantage of both approaches, combining traditional building blocks with the features provided by mobile devices to create new gaming experiences.
Keywords: educational programs; educational technology; image color analysis; learning; user interfaces.
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Montessori in the mobile era: Building new learning experiences through tangible user interfaces
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P. Garaizar, O. Peña, and J.A. Romero. Montessori in the mobile era: Building new learning experiences through tangible user interfaces. In Proceedings of INTED2013 - 7th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. ISBN: 978-84-616-2661-8, pp. 5158-5164, 4-5 March, 2013. Valencia, Spain
Abstract: The growing prevalence of smartphones in the daily lives of many children has enabled new learning scenarios. An overwhelming supply of educational applications are designed to facilitate their autonomous learning in painting, counting, spelling and so on. Apparently, this approach is in line with the principles of Montessori education (independence, freedom and respect for the natural psychological development of the children). However, the well developed GUI interaction skills (tapping, swiping or pinching items through multi-touch gestures on a screen) of the 21st century children are useless for manipulating physical objects. Exploring the real world requires a different set of capabilities (e.g., fine prehensile skills), often developed through traditional toys and games. For this reason we have developed 3DU Blocks, a proposal that combines traditional toy blocks with the features provided by mobile devices to create new gaming experiences and open the door to explore new educational scenarios. 3DU Blocks is a library for color recognition of arrangements of traditional toy blocks, allowing to use them as a Tangible User Interface. As an early example of the capabilities of this library, we have developed 3DU Blocks Music, an educational game where players have to recreate simple melodies using toy blocks to represent musical instruments and notes. Therefore, the emphasis of Montessori in physical materials to help the autonomous learning process is combined with the immediate feedback and scaffolded challenges provided by the mobile application.
Keywords: educational programs, educational technology, image color analysis, learning, user interfaces, tui, toy blocks, mobile.
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Distributed Data and Information Fusion in Visual Sensor Networks
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Federico Castanedo, Juan Gomez-Romero, Miguel A. Patricio, Jesus García, Jose M. Molina. “Distributed Data and Information Fusion in Visual Sensor Networks”. Distributed Data Fusion for Network-Centric Operations. CRC Press. Nov 2012.
Abstract: With the recent proliferation of service-oriented architectures (SOA), cloud computing technologies, and distributed-interconnected systems, distributed fusion is taking on a larger role in a variety of applications—from environmental monitoring and crisis management to intelligent buildings and defense. Drawing on the work of leading experts around the world, Distributed Data Fusion for Network-Centric Operations examines the state of the art of data fusion in a distributed sensing, communications, and computing environment. Get Insight into Designing and Implementing Data Fusion in a Distributed Network Addressing the entirety of information fusion, the contributors cover everything from signal and image processing, through estimation, to situation awareness. In particular, the work offers a timely look at the issues and solutions involving fusion within a distributed network enterprise. These include critical design problems, such as how to maintain a pedigree of agents or nodes that receive information, provide their contribution to the dataset, and pass to other network components. The book also tackles dynamic data sharing within a network-centric enterprise, distributed fusion effects on state estimation, graph-theoretic methods to optimize fusion performance, human engineering factors, and computer ontologies for higher levels of situation assessment. A comprehensive introduction to this emerging field and its challenges, the book explores how data fusion can be used within grid, distributed, and cloud computing architectures. Bringing together both theoretical and applied research perspectives, this is a valuable reference for fusion researchers and practitioners. It offers guidance and insight for those working on the complex issues of designing and implementing distributed, decentralized information fusion.
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E-learning platform for Integrated Management of Documents based on Automatic Digitalization
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Ana B. Lago Vilariño and Iván Pretel García. E-learning platform for Integrated Management of Documents based on Automatic Digitalization. On IEEE-RITA: Revista Iberoamericana de Tecnologías del Aprendizaje AUG. 2012 VOL. 7 Number 3 ISSN: 932-8540
Abstract: Despite the advances in computing, traditional paper is still widely used in learning and knowledge work. Most current learning technologies do not account for this paper-centric practice and focus on a complete digitization of learning contents, activities, and communication. This paper presents an e-learning platform that combines work with printed and digital documents. It integrates pen-and-paper-based interaction techniques that enable users to manage their digitized documents. Moreover, this platform integrates different e-learning platforms providing a single intuitive interface to management them. Finally, a case study of the use of the platform in university education is presented.
Keywords: Learning management system; digital pen; Moodle; Google
Mobile Interaction Capturing System in Real Environments
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Iván Pretel García and Ana B. Lago Vilariño. Mobile Interaction Capturing System in Real Environments. On Computer Technology and Application AUG. 2012 VOL. 3 Number 8 ISSN: 1934-7332
Abstract: Mobile applications are being used in a great range of fields and application areas. As a result, many research fields have focused on the study and improvement of such devices. The current Smartphones are the best example of the research and the evolution of these technologies. Moreover, the software design and development is progressively more focused on the user; finding and developing new mobile interaction models. In order to do so, knowing what kind of problems the users could have is vital to enhance a bad interaction design. Unfortunately, a good software quality evaluation takes more time than the companies can invest. The contribution revealed in this work is a new approach to quality testing methodology focused on mobile interactions and their context in use where external capturing tools, such as cameras, are suppressed and the evaluation environments are the same as the user will use the application. By this approach, the interactions can be captured without changing the context and consequently, the data will be more accurate, enabling the evaluation of the quality-in-use in real environments.
Keywords: Human computer interaction; quality in use; mobile services; context-awareness.
Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence
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José Bravo, Diego López-de-Ipiña, Francisco Moya. Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 7656, pp. 1-523, Springer, ISBN: 978-3-642-35376-5, December 2012.
Abstract: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence, UCAmI 2012, held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, in December 2012. The 70 research papers were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The main focus of this book has been to explore how Ambient Intelligence can contribute towards smarter but still more sustainable environments. Beyond sustainable computing the proceedings also include research work describing progress on other key research topics for AmI such as human environment mobile-mediated (through NFC or AR) interaction, artificial intelligence techniques to foster user- and context-aware environment adaptation, future internet trends such as social networks analysis, linked data or crowd-sourcing applied to AmI, internet-connected object ecosystems collaborating to give place to smarter environments.
Keywords: Distributed Computing; human-robot natural interaction; Middleware; social network analysis; virtual worlds.
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Lightweight User Access Control in Energy-Constrained Wireless Network Services
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J. A. M. Naranjo, Pablo Orduña, Aitor Gómez-Goiri, Diego López-de-Ipiña, L. G. Casado. Lightweight User Access Control in Energy-Constrained Wireless Network Services. In Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Inteligence (UCAmI'12). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2012, pp 298-305. ISBN: 978-3-642-35376-5. December, 2012 - Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
Abstract: This work introduces a novel access control solution for infrastructures composed of highly constrained devices which provide users with services. Low energy consumption is a key point in this kind of scenarios given that devices usually run on batteries and are unattended for long periods of time. Our proposal achieves privacy, authentication, semantic security, low energy and computational demand and device compromise impact limitation on a simple manner. The access control provided is based on user identity and time intervals. We discuss these properties and compare our proposal to previous related work.
Keywords: Access Control, Wireless Network Services, Internet of Things, Sustainability.
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Situation-Driven Development: A Methodology for the Development of Context-Aware Systems
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David Martin, Diego López de Ipiña, Carlos Lamsfus, Aurkene Alzua. Situation-Driven Development: A Methodology for the Development of Context-Aware Systems. In Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Inteligence (UCAmI'12). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2012, pp 298-305. ISBN: 978-3-642-35376-5. December, 2012 - Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
Abstract: Several toolkits have been proposed in order to ease the development of context-aware systems, providing high-level programming interfaces to manage context data. One of the main tasks in the development of such systems is the definition of user situations that have to be identified by the system in order to adapt its behaviour. These situations are best defined by domain experts, but usually they do not have programming skills. Apart from that, there is a lack of methodologies to guide the development process. This paper presents a methodology based on the definition of situations that is designed to involve domain experts in the development process. This way, they can support programmers in the definition of the required situations. Also, a web-based platform has been implemented in order to manage context data without any programming skills. This way, domain experts can also configure the situations to be detected by the system.
Keywords: Context-Awareness; End-User Programming; Mobile Services.
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