"Semantic Analysis and Understanding of Human Behaviour in Video Streaming "investigates the semantic analysis of the human behaviour captured by video streaming, and introduces both theoretical and technological points of view. Video analysis based on the semantic content is in fact still an open issue for the computer vision research community, especially when real-time analysis of complex scenes is concerned."
"This book explores an innovative, original approach to human behaviour analysis and understanding by using the syntactical symbolic analysis of images and video streaming described by means of strings of symbols. A symbol is associated to each area of the analyzed scene. When a moving object enters an area, the corresponding symbol is appended to the string describing the motion. This approach allows for characterizing the motion of a moving object with a word composed by symbols. By studying and classifying these words we can categorize and understand the various behaviours. The main advantage of this approach lies in the simplicity of the scene and motion descriptions so that the behaviour analysis will have limited computational complexity due to the intrinsic nature both of the representations and the related operations used to manipulate them. Besides, the structure of the representations is well suited for possible parallel processing, thus allowing for speeding up the analysis when appropriate hardware architectures are used. A new methodology for design systems for hierarchical high semantic level analysis of video streaming in narrow domains is also proposed. Guidelines to design your own system are provided in this book."
"Designed for practitioners, computer scientists and engineers working within the fields ofhuman computer interaction, surveillance, image processing and computer vision, this book can also be used assecondary text book for advanced-level students in computer science and engineering."
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"Introducing Spoken Dialogue Systems into Intelligent Environments "outlines the formalisms of a novel knowledge-driven framework for spoken dialogue management and presents the implementation ofa model-based Adaptive Spoken Dialogue Manager(ASDM) called OwlSpeak. The authors have identified three stakeholders thatpotentially influence the behavior of the ASDM: the user, the SDS, and a complex Intelligent Environment (IE) consisting of various devices, services, and task descriptions.
The theoretical foundation of a working ontology-based spoken dialogue description framework, the prototype implementation of the ASDM, and the evaluation activities that are presented as part of this book contribute to the ongoing spoken dialogue research by establishing the fertile ground of model-based adaptive spoken dialogue management.
Thismonograph is ideal for advanced undergraduate students, PhD students, and postdocs as well as academic and industrial researchers and developers in speech and multimodal interactive systems."

This book develops valuable new approaches to digital out-of-home media and digital signage in urban environments. It offers solutions for communicating interactive features of digital signage to passers-by. Digital out-of-home media and digital signage screens are becoming increasingly interactive thanks to touch input technology and gesture recognition. To optimize their conversion rate, interactive public displays must 1) attract attention, 2) communicate to passers-by that they are interactive, 3) explain the interaction, and 4) provide a motivation for passers-by to interact. This book highlights solutions to problems 2 and 3 above. The focus is on whole-body interaction, where the positions and orientations of users and their individual body parts are captured by specialized sensors (e.g., depth cameras). The book presents revealing findings from a field study on communicating interactivity, a laboratory on analysing visual attention, a field study on mid-air gestures, and a field study on using mid-air gestures to select items on interactive public displays.

A 3D user interface (3DUI) is an interface in which the user performs tasks in three dimensions. For example, interactions using hand/body gestures, interaction using a motion controller (e.g. Sony PlayStation Move), interaction with virtual reality devices using tracked motion controllers, etc. All these technologies which let a user interact in three dimensions are called 3D user interface technologies. These 3D user interfaces have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. This book presents state of the art research on exploring 3D user interface technologies for improving video games. It also presents a review of research work done in this area and describes experiments focused on usage of stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and hand gesture-based control in gaming scenarios. These experiments are systematic studies in gaming environments and are aimed at understanding the effect of the underlined 3D interface technology on the gaming experience of a user. Based on these experiments, several design guidelines are presented which can aid game designers in designing better immersive games.

This unique text/reference reviews the key principles and techniques in conceptual modelling which are of relevance to specialists in the field of cultural heritage. Information modelling tasks are a vital aspect of work and study in such disciplines as archaeology, anthropology, history, and architecture. Yet the concepts and methods behind information modelling are rarely covered by the training in cultural heritage-related fields. With the increasing popularity of the digital humanities, and the rapidly growing need to manage large and complex datasets, the importance of information modelling in cultural heritage is greater than ever before. To address this need, this book serves in the place of a course on software engineering, assuming no previous knowledge of the field. Topics and features: Presents a general philosophical introduction to conceptual modelling Introduces the basics of conceptual modelling, using the ConML language as an infrastructure Reviews advanced modelling techniques relating to issues of vagueness, temporality and subjectivity, in addition to such topics as metainformation and feature redefinition Proposes an ontology for cultural heritage supported by the Cultural Heritage Abstract Reference Model (CHARM), to enable the easy construction of conceptual models Describes various usage scenarios and applications of cultural heritage modelling, offering practical tips on how to use different techniques to solve real-world problems This interdisciplinary work is an essential primer for tutors and students (at both undergraduate and graduate level) in any area related to cultural heritage, including archaeology, anthropology, art, history, architecture, or literature. Cultural heritage managers, researchers, and professionals will also find this to be a valuable reference, as will anyone involved in database design, data management, or the conceptualization of cultural heritage in general. Dr. Cesar Gonzalez-Perez is a Staff Scientist at the Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit), within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The increasing advances in electronics allows smaller and more powerful devices, bringing wearable computing closer to reality. However, most wearable computers are very distinguished and placed on clothes and accessories. This book tries to tackle this phenomenon by introducing a new wearable computing subfield called beauty technology. By using the body's surface as an interactive platform, the integration of technology into beauty products is explored and can be applied directly to ones skin, fingernails, and hair adding new functionality to beauty products using technology in a personal, seamless and fashionable way. An interdisciplinary approach is taken, exploring the design of Beauty Technologies such as Conductive Makeup, Tech Nails, Hairware and FX e-makeup in order to create novel interfaces for Human Computer Interaction.

The Handbook on Socially Interactive Agents provides a comprehensive overview of the research fields of Embodied Conversational Agents, Intelligent Virtual Agents, and Social Robotics. Socially Interactive Agents (SIAs), whether virtually or physically embodied, are autonomous agents that are able to perceive an environment including people or other agents, reason, decide how to interact, and express attitudes such as emotions, engagement, or empathy. They are capable of interacting with people and one another in a socially intelligent manner using multimodal communicative behaviors, with the goal to support humans in various domains. Written by international experts in their respective fields, the book summarizes research in the many important research communities pertinent for SIAs, while discussing current challenges and future directions. The handbook provides easy access to modeling and studying SIAs for researchers and students, and aims at further bridging the gap between the research communities involved. In two volumes, the book clearly structures the vast body of research. The first volume starts by introducing what is involved in SIAs research, in particular research methodologies and ethical implications of developing SIAs. It further examines research on appearance and behavior, focusing on multimodality. Finally, social cognition for SIAs is investigated using different theoretical models and phenomena such as theory of mind or pro-sociality. The second volume starts with perspectives on interaction, examined from different angles such as interaction in social space, group interaction, or long-term interaction. It also includes an extensive overview summarizing research and systems of human-agent platforms and of some of the major application areas of SIAs such as education, aging support, autism, and games.

Touch and gesturaldeviceshave been hailed as next evolutionary step in human-computer interaction. As software companies struggle to catch up with one another in terms of developing the next great touch-based interface, designers are charged with the daunting task of keeping up with the advances innew technology and this new aspect to user experience design.

Product and interaction designers, developers and managers are already well versed in UI design, but touch-based interfaces have added a new level of complexity. They need quick references and real-world examples in order to make informed decisions when designing for these particular interfaces. "Brave NUI World" is the first practical book for product and interaction developers and designing touch and gesture interfaces. Written by developers of industry-first, multi-touch, multi-user products, this book gives you the necessary tools and information to integrate touch and gesture practices into your daily work, presenting scenarios, problem solving, metaphors, and techniques intended to avoid making mistakes.

*Provides easy-to-apply design guidance for the unique challenge of creating touch- and gesture-based user interfaces

*Considers diverse user needs and context, real world successes and failures, and a look into the future of NUI

*Presents thirty scenarios, giving practitioners a multitude of considerations for making informed design decisions and helping to ensure that missteps are never made again"

This book explores a society currently being transformed by the influence of advanced information technology, and provides insights into the main technological and human issues and a holistic approach to inclusion, security, safety and, last but not least, privacy and freedom of expression. Its main aim is to bridge the gap between technological solutions, their successful implementation, and the fruitful utilization of the main set of e-Services offered by governments, private institutions, and commercial companies. Today, various parameters actively influence e-Services' success or failure: cultural aspects, organisational issues, bureaucracy and workflow, infrastructure and technology in general, user habits, literacy, capacity or merely interaction design. The purpose of this book is to help in outlining and understanding a realistic scenario of what we can term e-Citizenry. It identifies today's citizen, who is surrounded by an abundance of digital services, as an "e-Citizen" and explores the transition from their traditional role and behaviour to new ones. The respective chapters presented here will lay the foundation of the technological and social environment in which this societal transition takes place. With its balanced humanistic and technological approach, the book mainly targets public authorities, decision-makers, stakeholders, solution developers, and graduate students.

The information infrastructure - comprising computers, embedded devices, networks and software systems - is vital to operations in every sector: inf- mation technology, telecommunications, energy, banking and ?nance, tra- portation systems, chemicals, agriculture and food, defense industrial base, public health and health care, national monuments and icons, drinking water and water treatment systems, commercial facilities, dams, emergency services, commercial nuclear reactors, materials and waste, postal and shipping, and government facilities. Global business and industry, governments, indeed - ciety itself, cannot function if major components of the critical information infrastructure are degraded, disabled or destroyed. This book, Critical Infrastructure Protection III, is the third volume in the annualseriesproducedbyIFIP WorkingGroup11.10onCriticalInfrastructure Protection, an active international community of scientists, engineers, prac- tioners and policy makers dedicated to advancing research, development and implementation e?orts related to critical infrastructure protection. The book presents original research results and innovative applications in the area of infrastructure protection. Also, it highlights the importance of weaving s- ence, technology and policy in crafting sophisticated, yet practical, solutions that will help secure information, computer and network assets in the various critical infrastructure sectors. This volume contains seventeen edited papers from the Third Annual IFIP Working Group 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure P- tection, held at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 23-25, 2009. The papers were refereed by members of IFIP Working Group 11.10 and other internationally-recognized experts in critical infrastructure protection.

This book offers a clear, yet comprehensive guide to how to structure a design project, focusing in particular on the key questions designers, architects, policy makers and health professionals should consider when working towards inclusion through design. The book is based on a series of lessons held by the author and his colleague Avril Accolla, whose aim was to train technicians at all levels to be capable of catering for the needs of the elderly. It clearly draws the outline of their "Ask the Right Question" approach, whose purpose is to help convey the notions in question appropriately to people with such widely different backgrounds, curricula, interests and cultures. Using a minimalist approach, based mainly on the discussion of eye-catching real-life examples placed in logical order and a crystal clear, engaging style, this book is a must-have for designers, technicians, customers and health practitioners, as well as social scientists and policy makers who deal with inclusive design at different levels and anyone interested in topics related to technological evolution and social integration.

Collaboration among individuals - from users to developers - is central to modern software engineering. It takes many forms: joint activity to solve common problems, negotiation to resolve conflicts, creation of shared definitions, and both social and technical perspectives impacting all software development activity. The difficulties of collaboration are also well documented. The grand challenge is not only to ensure that developers in a team deliver effectively as individuals, but that the whole team delivers more than just the sum of its parts.

The editors of this book have assembled an impressive selection of authors, who have contributed to an authoritative body of work tackling a wide range of issues in the field of collaborative software engineering. The resulting volume is divided into four parts, preceded by a general editorial chapter providing a more detailed review of the domain of collaborative software engineering. Part 1 is on "Characterizing Collaborative Software Engineering," Part 2 examines various "Tools and Techniques," Part 3 addresses organizational issues, and finally Part 4 contains four examples of "Emerging Issues in Collaborative Software Engineering."

As a result, this book delivers a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview and empirical results for researchers in academia and industry in areas like software process management, empirical software engineering, and global software development. Practitioners working in this area will also appreciate the detailed descriptions and reports which can often be used as guidelines to improve their daily work.

The ability to harness Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) is increasingly at the heart of competitiveness and sustainable growth. As countries engage in an increasingly competitive global economy, they are trying to weave ICT into their development strategies, in the same way enterprises have learned to use ICT to transform their business models and strategies. This integration offers a new path to development that is responsive to the challenges of our times.

In National Strategies to Harness Information Technology, Nagy Hanna and Peter Knight provide a framework for assessing the opportunities, challenges, and prospects for "e-transformation"and for analyzing the options and innovations adopted to manage the e-transformation process. They ask hard questions: what does it take to harness ICT to transform an economy? Why some countries accelerate their development journey with ICT while others fail? How did successful countries balance the need for strategic leadership with bottom up innovation? Can countries reduce the risks of digital divide? What have been the roles of government and private sectors? What lessons can be learned for countries at different levels of development?

Featuring contributions from country experts, the editors and authors provide in-depth case studies of ICT deployment in Singapore, Finland, the Philippines, and South Africa, and asses the progress of such efforts. The result is an essential resource for academic researchers, policy analysts, policymakers, and industry leaders interested in the role of ICT in national development, innovation, and economic growth.In National Strategies to Harness Information Technology, Nagy Hanna and Peter Knight provide a framework for assessing the opportunities, challenges, and prospects for "e-transformation"and for analyzing the options and innovations adopted to manage the e-transformation process. They ask hard questions: what does it take to harness ICT to transform an economy? Why some countries accelerate their development journey with ICT while others fail? How did successful countries balance the need for strategic leadership with bottom up innovation? Can countries reduce the risks of digital divide? What have been the roles of government and private sectors? What lessons can be learned for countries at different levels of development?

Featuring contributions from country experts, the editors and authors provide in-depth case studies of ICT deployment in Singapore, Finland, the Philippines, and South Africa, and asses the progress of such efforts. The result is an essential resource for academic researchers, policy analysts, policymakers, and industry leaders interested in the role of ICT in national development, innovation, and economic growth."

Focuses on the process by which manually crafting interactive, hypertextual maps clarifies one's own understanding, communicates it to others, and enables collective intelligence. The authors see mapping software as visual tools for reading and writing in a networked age. In an information ocean, the challenge is to find meaningful patterns around which we can weave plausible narratives. Maps of concepts, discussions and arguments make the connections between ideas tangible - and critically, disputable. With 22 chapters from leading researchers and practitioners (5 of them new for this edition), the reader will find the current state-of-the-art in the field. Part 1 focuses on knowledge maps for learning and teaching in schools and universities, before Part 2 turns to knowledge maps for information analysis and knowledge management in professional communities, but with many cross-cutting themes: * reflective practitioners documenting the most effective ways to map * conceptual frameworks for evaluating representations * real world case studies showing added value for professionals * more experimental case studies from research and education * visual languages, many of which work on both paper and with software * knowledge cartography software, much of it freely available and open source * visit the companion website for extra resources: books.kmi.open.ac.uk/knowledge-cartography Knowledge Cartography will be of interest to learners, educators, and researchers in all disciplines, as well as policy analysts, scenario planners, knowledge managers and team facilitators. Practitioners will find new perspectives and tools to expand their repertoire, while researchers will find rich enough conceptual grounding for further scholarship.

Usability testing and user experience research typically take place in a controlled lab with small groups. While this type of testing is essential to user experience design, more companies are also looking to test large sample sizes to be able compare data according to specific user populations and see how their experiences differ across user groups. But few usability professionals have experience in setting up these studies, analyzing the data, and presenting it in effective ways. Online usability testing offers the solution by allowing testers to elicit feedback simultaneously from 1,000s of users. "Beyond the Usability Lab" offers tried and tested methodologies for conducting online usability studies. It gives practitioners the guidance they need to collect a wealth of data through cost-effective, efficient, and reliable practices. The reader will develop a solid understanding of the capabilities of online usability testing, when it s appropriate to use and not use, and will learn about the various types of online usability testing techniques.

*The first guide for conducting large-scale user experience research using the internet *Presents how-to conduct online tests with 1000s of participants from start to finish *Outlines essential tips for online studies to ensure cost-efficient and reliable results "

Pervasive computing enables users to interact with information resources in their everyday lives. The development of computational technologies that can exist in ever smaller devices while simultaneously increasing processing power allows such devices to blend seamlessly into tangible environments. Intelligent Technologies and Techniques for Pervasive Computing provides an extensive discussion of such technologies, theories and practices in an attempt to shed light on current trends and issues in the adaption of pervasive systems. Within its pages, students and practitioners of computer science will find both recent developments and practical applications an overview of the field and how intelligent techniques can help to improve user experience in the distribution and consumption of pertinent, timely information. This book is part of the Advances in Computational Intelligence and Robotics series collection.

At first sight, the concept of web personalization looks deceivingly simple. A web personalization system is a software component that collects information on visitors to a web site and leverages this knowledge to deliver them the right content, tailoring presentation to the user's needs. All over the world, web designers and web content managers rely on web personalization solutions to improve the effectiveness and - ability of their web-based applications. Still, the scientific foundation of web personalization remains a controversial issue. Practitioners know very well that when properly implemented, personalization del- ers a much better user experience; but when it is poorly implemented, personalization may backfire and even distract the user's attention away from some useful (and co- ly-to-develop) enriched content. In other words, tailoring content, and varying it routinely, may make a site more attractive; but an unstable site look can have a negative impact on the overall m- sage. Everybody seems to agree that this is a real danger; but there are specific qu- tions that are much harder to answer convincingly.

This book introduces state-of-the-art research on simulation and serious games for education. Based partially on work presented at the 3rd Asia-Europe Symposium on Simulation and Serious Games (3rd AESSSG) held in Zhuhai, China as part of the 2016 ACM SIGGRAPH International Conference on Virtual-Reality Consortium and Applications in Industry (VRACI 2016), it includes a selection of the best papers from both. The book is divided into three major domains of education applications that use simulation and serious games: science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education; special needs education; and humanity and social science education. A valuable resource for researchers and developers in simulation and serious games for education benefit from this book, it also offers educators and professionals involved in training insights into the possible applications of simulation and serious games in various areas.

Assistive and augmentive communication is an emerging research area receiving much support from the disabled community. It enables communication for those with impairments or restrictions on the production or comprehension of spoken or written language. Assistive and Augmentive Communication for the Disabled: Intelligent Technologies for Communication, Learning and Teaching provides benefits to the professionals and researchers working in various disciplines in the field, such as special education, healthcare, computational intelligence and information technology. Moreover, this book provides insights and support to individuals who are concerned with the development of children and adults with disabilities. It covers recently completed studies, as well as ongoing research, to provide a cutting-edge window into this area of promising, new applications.

End users have become increasingly integrated into computing environments, necessitating continued inquiry into successful models for end user design and development and the impact that these models have on performance and productivity. End-User Computing, Development and Software Engineering: New Challenges explores the implementation of organizational and end user computing initiatives and provides foundational research to further the understanding of this discipline and its related fields. This book reviews the factors and barriers to ICT adoption in organizations, opportunities and benefits of communities of practice, and impact that end user computing can have on overall firm performance.

What Is BCI2000? BCI2000 is a general-purpose software platform for brain-computer interface (BCI) research. It can also be used for a wide variety of data acquisition, stimulus p- sentation, and brain monitoring applications. BCI2000 has been in development since 2000 in a project led by the Brain-Computer Interface R&D Program at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health in Albany, New York, USA, with substantial contributions by the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Tubingen, Germany. In addition, many laboratories around the world, most notably the BrainLab at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, and Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome, Italy, have also played an important role in the project's development. Mission The mission of the BCI2000 project is to facilitate research and the development of applications in all areas that depend on real-time acquisition, processing, and feedback of biosignals. Vision Our vision is that BCI2000 will become a widely used software tool for diverse areas of research and development.

Computer-Aided Innovation (CAI) is emerging as a strategic domain of research and application to support enterprises throughout the overall innovation process. The 5.4 Working Group of IFIP aims at defining the scientific foundation of Computer Aided Innovation systems and at identifying state of the art and trends of CAI tools and methods. These Proceedings derive from the second Topical Session on Computer- Aided Innovation organized within the 20th World Computer Congress of IFIP. The goal of the Topical Session is to provide a survey of existing technologies and research activities in the field and to identify opportunities of integration of CAI with other PLM systems. According to the heterogeneous needs of innovation-related activities, the papers published in this volume are characterized by multidisciplinary contents and complementary perspectives and scopes. Such a richness of topics and disciplines will certainly contribute to the promotion of fruitful new collaborations and synergies within the IFIP community. Gaetano Cascini th Florence, April 30 20 08 CAI Topical Session Organization The IFIP Topical Session on Computer-Aided Innovation (CAI) is a co-located conference organized under the auspices of the IFIP World Computer Congress (WCC) 2008 in Milano, Italy Gaetano Cascini CAI Program Committee Chair [email protected]