This book focuses on the importance of human factors in the development of safe and reliable unmanned systems. It discusses current challenges such as how to improve the perceptual and cognitive abilities of robots, develop suitable synthetic vision systems, cope with degraded reliability in unmanned systems, predict robotic behavior in case of a loss of communication, the vision for future soldier-robot teams, human-agent teaming, real-world implications for human-robot interaction, and approaches to standardize both the display and control of technologies across unmanned systems. Based on the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Human Factors in Robots and Unmanned Systems, held on July 17-21 in Los Angeles, California, USA, this book is expected to foster new discussion and stimulate new advances in the development of more reliable, safer, and highly functional devices for carrying out automated and concurrent tasks.

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the Second International Rapid Mashup Challenge, RMC 2016, held in Lugano, Switzerland in June 2016. The 6 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 8 submissions. They are post-challenge extensions of the selected short participation proposals. The 2016 edition of the Challenge is the second installment of a series of challenges that aim to engage researchers and practitioners in a competition for the best mashup approach.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference of the Immersive Learning Network, iLRN 2017, held in Coimbra, Portugal in June 2017. The proceedings contain 17 full papers together with 4 short papers, carefully reviewed and selected from 80 submissions. This year's special focus is "Honoring Tradition, Immersed in the Future".

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 14th Conference on Advanced Information Technologies for Management, AITM 2016, and the 11th Conference on Information Systems Management, ISM 2016, held as part of the Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, FedCSIS, which took place in Gdansk, Poland, in September 2016. The 13 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 51 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: information technology and systems for knowledge management; information technology and systems for business transformation; and implementation and evaluation of information systems.

The two-volume set CCIS 713 and CCIS 714 contains the extended abstracts of the posters presented during the 19th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCI International 2017, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in July 2017. HCII 2017 received a total of 4340 submissions, of which 1228 papers were accepted for publication after a careful reviewing process. The 177 papers presented in these two volumes were organized in topical sections as follows: Part I: Design and evaluation methods, tools and practices; novel interaction techniques and devices; psychophisiological measuring and monitoring; perception, cognition and emotion in HCI; data analysis and data mining in social media and communication; ergonomics and models in work and training support. Part II: Interaction in virtual and augmented reality; learning, games and gamification; health, well-being and comfort; smart environments; mobile interaction; visual design and visualization; social issues and security in HCI.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Learning Technology for Education in Cloud, LTEC 2017, held in Beijing, China, in August 2017. The 16 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 37 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on Learning Technologies; Learning Tools and Environment; Online Learning and MOOC; Problem Solving and Knowledge Transfer.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 10th International Joint Conference on Software Technologies, ICSOFT 2015, held in Colmar, France, in July 2015. The 23 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 117 submissions. The papers are organized around the following conference tracks: enterprise software technologies; software project management; software engineering methods and techniques; distributed and mobile software systems.

This work deals with the applications of Semantic Publishing technologies in the legal domain, i.e., the use of Semantic Web technologies to address issues related to the Legal Scholarly Publishing. Research in the field of Law has a long tradition in the application of semantic technologies, such as Semantic Web and Linked Data, to real-world scenarios. This book investigates and proposes solutions for three main issues that Semantic Publishing needs to address within the context of the Legal Scholarly Publishing: the need of tools for linking document text to a formal representation of its meaning; the lack of complete metadata schemas for describing documents according to the publishing vocabulary and the absence of effective tools and user interfaces for easily acting on semantic publishing models and theories. In particular, this work introduces EARMARK, a markup meta language that allows one to create markup documents without the structural and semantic limits imposed by markup languages such as XML. EARMARK is a platform to link the content layer of a document with its intended formal semantics and it can be used with the Semantic Publishing and Referencing (SPAR) Ontologies, another topic in this book. SPAR Ontologies are a collection of formal models providing an upper semantic layer for describing the publishing domain. Using EARMARK as a foundation for SPAR descriptions opens up to a semantic characterisation of all the aspects of a document and of its parts. Finally, four user-friendly tools are introduced: LODE, KC-Viz, Graffoo and Gaffe. They were expressly developed to facilitate the interaction of publishers and domain experts with Semantic Publishing technologies by shielding such users from the underlying formalisms and semantic models of such technologies.

This volume constitutes the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Serious Games, Interaction, and Simulation, held in Novedrate, Italy, in September 2015. The 16 revised full papers together with 2 keynote papers were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. They focus on the design, development, use, and application of games for purposes other than entertainment. As such they cover areas like cognition, psychology, technology-enhanced education, evaluation and assessment, multimedia and information technology, and feature new scientific approaches and results from experiments and real-life applications.

This book provides readers with a timely snapshot of ergonomics research and methods applied to the design, development and prototyping - as well as the evaluation, training and manufacturing - of products, systems and services. Combining theoretical contributions, case studies, and reports on technical interventions, it covers a wide range of topics in ergonomic design including: ecological design; educational and game design; cultural and ethical aspects in design; user research and human-computer interaction in design; as well as design for accessibility and extreme environments, and many others. The book places special emphasis on new technologies such as virtual reality, state-of-the-art methodologies in information design, and human-computer interfaces. Based on the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Ergonomics in Design, held on July 17-21, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, USA, the book offers a timely guide for both researchers and design practitioners, including industrial designers, human-computer interaction and user experience researchers, production engineers and applied psychologists.

This book focuses on computational modeling and simulation research that advances the current state-of-the-art regarding human factors in simulation and applied digital human modeling. It reports on cutting-edge simulators such as virtual and augmented reality, on multisensory environments, and on modeling and simulation methods used in various applications, such as surgery, military operations, occupational safety, sports training, education, transportation and robotics. Based on the AHFE 2017 International Conference on Human Factors in Simulation and Modeling, held on July 17-21, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, USA, the book is intended as a timely reference guide for researchers and practitioners developing new modeling and simulation tools for analyzing or improving human performance. It also offers a unique resource for modelers seeking insights into human factors research and more feasible and reliable computational tools to foster advances in this exciting research field.

The use of interactive technology in the arts has changed the audience from viewer to participant and in doing so is transforming the nature of experience. From visual and sound art to performance and gaming, the boundaries of what is possible for creation, curating, production and distribution are continually extending. As a consequence, we need to reconsider the way in which these practices are evaluated. Interactive Experience in the Digital Age explores diverse ways of creating and evaluating interactive digital art through the eyes of the practitioners who are embedding evaluation in their creative process as a way of revealing and enhancing their practice. It draws on research methods from other disciplines such as interaction design, human-computer interaction and practice-based research more generally and adapts them to develop new strategies and techniques for how we reflect upon and assess value in the creation and experience of interactive art. With contributions from artists, scientists, curators, entrepreneurs and designers engaged in the creative arts, this book is an invaluable resource for both researchers and practitioners, working in this emerging field.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Context-Aware Systems and Applications, ICCASA 2016, held in Thu Dau Mot, Vietnam, in November 2016. The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from 35 submissions and cover a wide spectrum in the area of Context-Aware-Systems (CAS). CAS is characterized by its self- facets such as self-organization, self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimization, self-protection, where context awareness used to dynamically control computing and networking functions. The overall goal of CAS is to realize nature-inspired autonomic systems that can manage themselves without direct human interventions.

To date, the relation between multilingualism and the Semantic Web has not yet received enough attention in the research community. One major challenge for the Semantic Web community is to develop architectures, frameworks and systems that can help in overcoming national and language barriers, facilitating equal access to information produced in different cultures and languages. As such, this volume aims at documenting the state-of-the-art with regard to the vision of a Multilingual Semantic Web, in which semantic information will be accessible in and across multiple languages. The Multilingual Semantic Web as envisioned in this volume will support the following functionalities: (1) responding to information needs in any language with regard to semantically structured data available on the Semantic Web and Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud, (2) verbalizing and accessing semantically structured data, ontologies or other conceptualizations in multiple languages, (3) harmonizing, integrating, aggregating, comparing and repurposing semantically structured data across languages and (4) aligning and reconciling ontologies or other conceptualizations across languages. The volume is divided into three main sections: Principles, Methods and Applications. The section on "Principles" discusses models, architectures and methodologies that enrich the current Semantic Web architecture with features necessary to handle multiple languages. The section on "Methods" describes algorithms and approaches for solving key issues related to the construction of the Multilingual Semantic Web. The section on "Applications" describes the use of Multilingual Semantic Web based approaches in the context of several application domains. This volume is essential reading for all academic and industrial researchers who want to embark on this new research field at the intersection of various research topics, including the Semantic Web, Linked Data, natural language processing, computational linguistics, terminology and information retrieval. It will also be of great interest to practitioners who are interested in re-examining their existing infrastructure and methodologies for handling multiple languages in Web applications or information retrieval systems.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Mobile Computing, Applications, and Services (MobiCASE 2015) held in Berlin, Germany, in November 2015. The 16 full and 4 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 submissions, and are presented together with 4 papers from the First Workshop on Situation Recognition by Mining Temporal Information (SIREMETI 2015). The conference papers cover the following topics: intelligent caching, activity recognition and crowdsourcing, mobile frameworks, middleware, interactive applications and mobility.

This book constitutes the proceedings of two conferences: The 5th International Conference on ArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation (ArtsIT 2016) and the First International Conference on Design, Learning and Innovation (DLI 2016). ArtsIT is reflecting trends in the expanding field of digital art, interactive art, and how game creation is considered an art form. The decision was made to augment the title of ArtsIT to be in future known as "The International Conference on Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation". The event was hosted in Esbjerg, Denmark in May 2016 and attracted 76 submissions from which 34 full papers were selected for publication in this book. The papers represent a forum for the dissemination of cutting-edge research results in the area of arts, design and technology.

As more and more equipment incorporates advanced technologies, usability -- the ability of equipment to take advantage of users' skills and thereby to function effectively in the broad range of real work situations -- is becoming an essential component of equipment design. Usability: Turning Technologies into Tools collects six essays that herald a fundamental shift in the way industry and researchers think about usability. In this new, broader definition, usability no longer means safeguarding against human error, but rather enabling human beings to learn, to use, and to adapt the equipment to satisfy better the demands and contingencies of their work. Following an introduction that develops some core concepts of usability, the subsequent chapters: -- describe the role of usability in guiding one of Xerox's largest strategic initiatives -- analyze a Monsanto chemical plant where a study of worker's conversational patterns contributed to the design of a more effective system of controls -- present an empirical study of equipment design practices in U.S. industry which contrasts technology-centered and skill-based design approaches -- summarize recent Scandinavian experiences with user participation in design, with specific reference to the DEMOS and UTOPIA projects -- analyze European experiences that suggest five key criteria for effective human-centered design of advanced manufacturing technology --offer an insightful discussion of the powerful, often hidden human and organizational resources that conventional design processes overlook. Today, three quarters of all advanced technology implementations in manufacturing fail to achieve their performance goals because of inadequate usability. By viewing the human being as a mechanistic system component, and not a particularly reliable one, the traditional "human factors" model of usability virtually ensures that the uniquely human qualities -- experience, adaptation, innovation -- will be neglected, and therefore that new technologies will realize little of their true potential. Usability: Turning Technologies into Tools answers the need for better usability criteria and more effective design and usability assurance processes. In so doing, it leads the way to making a new, broader concept of usability central to design. Its chapters will be of interest to managers and professionals in computer systems, manufacturing engineering, industrial design, and human factors, as well as researchers in disciplines such as computer science, engineering, design studies, sociology, organizational behavior and human resource management, industrial relations, education, and business strategy.

This book explores the emerging field of hyperconnectivity looking at technology and systems that allow person-to-person and person-to-machine communication in networked organizations and the social and economic impact of this society. The author begins by presenting literary culture and interaction, focusing on the development of the Poetry Mix-Up platform, before looking at electronic and magnetic user interfaces for multisensory experiences. He then offers insights into the controversial topic of human intimacy with robots, looking at recent developments like the Kissinger device amongst others. The author concludes by exploring the potential social impact of hyperconnectivity and its future applications. Hyperconnectivity is essential reading to anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of this emerging field especially researchers, designers and engineers who are interested in multi-platform communication, digital networks and HCI.

Quality-of-Service (QoS) is normally used to describe the non-functional characteristics of Web services and as a criterion for evaluating different Web services. "QoS Management of Web Services" presents a new distributed QoS evaluation framework for these services. Moreover, three QoS prediction methods and two methods for creating fault-tolerant Web services are also proposed in this book. It not only provides the latest research results, but also presents an excellent overview of QoS management of Web sciences, making it a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students in service computing.

Zibin Zheng is an associate research fellow at the Shenzhen Research Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China. Professor Michael R. Lyu also works at the same institute.

This book focuses on the importance of human factors in the development of reliable and safe unmanned systems. It discusses current challenges such as how to improve perceptual and cognitive abilities of robots, develop suitable synthetic vision systems, cope with degraded reliability of unmanned systems, predict robotic behavior in case of a loss of communication, the vision for future soldier-robot teams, human-agent teaming, real-world implications for human-robot interaction, and approaches to standardize both display and control of technologies across unmanned systems. Based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Human Factors in Robots and Unmanned Systems, held on July 27-31, 2016, in Walt Disney World (R), Florida, USA, this book is expected to foster new discussion and stimulate new ideas towards the development of more reliable, safer, and functional devices for carrying out automated and concurrent tasks.

This book challenges the ways we read, write, store, and retrieve information in the digital age. Computers-from electronic books to smart phones-play an active role in our social lives. Our technological choices thus entail theoretical and political commitments. Dennis Tenen takes up today's strange enmeshing of humans, texts, and machines to argue that our most ingrained intuitions about texts are profoundly alienated from the physical contexts of their intellectual production. Drawing on a range of primary sources from both literary theory and software engineering, he makes a case for a more transparent practice of human-computer interaction. Plain Text is thus a rallying call, a frame of mind as much as a file format. It reminds us, ultimately, that our devices also encode specific modes of governance and control that must remain available to interpretation.

This book challenges the ways we read, write, store, and retrieve information in the digital age. Computers-from electronic books to smart phones-play an active role in our social lives. Our technological choices thus entail theoretical and political commitments. Dennis Tenen takes up today's strange enmeshing of humans, texts, and machines to argue that our most ingrained intuitions about texts are profoundly alienated from the physical contexts of their intellectual production. Drawing on a range of primary sources from both literary theory and software engineering, he makes a case for a more transparent practice of human-computer interaction. Plain Text is thus a rallying call, a frame of mind as much as a file format. It reminds us, ultimately, that our devices also encode specific modes of governance and control that must remain available to interpretation.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on E-Democracy, E-Democracy 2015, held in Athens, Greece, in December 2015. The 13 revised full papers presented together with 8 extended abstracts were carefully selected from 33 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on privacy in e-voting, e-polls and e-surveys; security and privacy in new computing paradigms; privacy in online social networks; e-government and e-participation; legal issues. The book also contains the extended abstracts describing progress within European research and development projects on security and privacy in the cloud; secure architectures and applications; enabling citizen-to-government communication.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Perspectives in Business Informatics Research, BIR 2016, held in Prague, Czech Republic, in September 2016. Overall, 61 submissions from 16 countries were rigorously reviewed by 42 members of the program committee representing 21 countries. The selected 21 full papers and 3 short papers are included in this volume together with 2 abstracts of invited talks. This year again, the papers presented at the conference cover many important aspects of the development, use, and application of management information systems. The papers have been organized in topical sections on Business Processes and Enterprise Modeling; Information Systems Development; Information Systems Management; Learning and Capability; and Data Analysis.