This book presents in a systematic manner the advanced technologies used for various modern robot applications. By bringing fresh ideas, new concepts, novel methods and tools into robot control, robot vision, human robot interaction, teleoperation of robot and multiple robots system, we are to provide a state-of-the-art and comprehensive treatment of the advanced technologies for a wide range of robotic applications. Particularly, we focus on the topics of advanced control and obstacle avoidance techniques for robot to deal with unknown perturbations, of visual servoing techniques which enable robot to autonomously operate in a dynamic environment, and of advanced techniques involved in human robot interaction. The book is primarily intended for researchers and engineers in the robotic and control community. It can also serve as complementary reading for robotics at the both graduate and undergraduate levels.

By bringing together various current directions, Software Project Management in a Changing World focuses on how people and organizations can make their processes more change-adaptive. The selected chapters closely correspond to the project management knowledge areas introduced by the Project Management Body of Knowledge, including its extension for managing software projects.

The contributions are grouped into four parts, preceded by a general introduction. Part I Fundamentals provides in-depth insights into fundamental topics including resource allocation, cost estimation and risk management. Part II Supporting Areas presents recent experiences and results related to the management of quality systems, knowledge, product portfolios and global and virtual software teams. Part III New Paradigms details new and evolving software-development practices including agile, distributed and open and inner-source development. Finally, Part IV Emerging Techniques introduces search-based techniques, social media, software process simulation and the efficient use of empirical data and their effects on software-management practices.This book will attract readers from both academia and practice with its excellent balance between new findings and experience of their usage in new contexts. Whenever appropriate, the presentation is based on evidence from empirical evaluation of the proposed approaches. For researchers and graduate students, it presents some of the latest methods and techniques to accommodate new challenges facing the discipline. For professionals, it serves as a source of inspiration for refining their project-management skills in new areas."

Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) have become a new genre of "play culture," integrating communication and entertainment in a playful, computer-mediated environment that evolves through user interaction. This book comprehensively reviews the origins, players, and social dynamics of MOGs, as well as six major empirical research methods used in previous works to study MOGs (i.e., observation/ethnography, survey/interviews, content and discourse analysis, experiments, network analysis, and case studies). It concludes that MOGs represent a highly sophisticated, networked, multimedia and multimodal Internet technology, which can construct entertaining, simultaneous, persistent social virtual worlds for gamers. Overall, the book shows that what we can learn from MOGs is how games and gaming, as ubiquitous activities, fit into ordinary life in today's information society, in the moments where the increased use of media as entertainment, the widespread application of networked information technologies, and participation in new social experiences intersect. Key Features: Contains pertinent knowledge about online gaming: its history, technical features, player characteristics, social dynamics, and research methods Sheds light on the potential future of online gaming, and how this would impact every aspect of our everyday lives - socially, culturally, technologically, and economically Asks promising questions based on cutting-edge research in the field of online game design and development

Internet technology has arguably changed the rules by which individuals, social movements, and institutions compete for political and cultural influence in technologically advanced societies. The author considers this reality through reference to the concept of hegemony; looking to the ways in which diverse actors in American civil society compete with one another while simultaneously challenging dominant sources of authority. The Arab/Israeli conflict is drawn upon as a boundary object holding direct interest to a wide range of state-aligned lobbies, broadly-based social movements, and marginalized 'extremist' groups, each of which hopes to affect the course of U.S. Mid-East policy. While various dimensions of internet use and activism are explored, Stephen Marmura directs particular attention to the importance and limitations of the World Wide Web as a mass medium. Examining phenomena ranging from mainstream news dissemination to the propaganda warfare visible online amongst racist, religious fundamentalist, and ultra-nationalist organizations, he argues the Net's greatest advantages are ultimately accrued by those most vested in the political status quo. Marmura argues further that widespread use of the Web is likely contributing to processes of social fragmentation, even as it reinforces ideological discourses favorable to state power.

With the growth of public and private data stores and the emergence of off-the-shelf data-mining technology, recommendation systems have emerged that specifically address the unique challenges of navigating and interpreting software engineering data.

This book collects, structures and formalizes knowledge on recommendation systems in software engineering. It adopts a pragmatic approach with an explicit focus on system design, implementation, and evaluation. The book is divided into three parts: "Part I - Techniques" introduces basics for building recommenders in software engineering, including techniques for collecting and processing software engineering data, but also for presenting recommendations to users as part of their workflow."Part II - Evaluation" summarizes methods and experimental designs for evaluating recommendations in software engineering."Part III - Applications" describes needs, issues and solution concepts involved in entire recommendation systems for specific software engineering tasks, focusing on the engineering insights required to make effective recommendations. The book is complemented by the webpage rsse.org/book, which includes free supplemental materials for readers of this book and anyone interested in recommendation systems in software engineering, including lecture slides, data sets, source code, and an overview of people, groups, papers and tools with regard to recommendation systems in software engineering.

The book is particularly well-suited for graduate students and researchers building new recommendation systems for software engineering applications or in other high-tech fields. It may also serve as the basis for graduate courses on recommendation systems, applied data mining or software engineering. Software engineering practitioners developing recommendation systems or similar applications with predictive functionality will also benefit from the broad spectrum of topics covered."

This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste.By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology's longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies.

This thesis lays the groundwork for the automatic supervision of the laser incision process, which aims to complement surgeons' perception of the state of tissues and enhance their control over laser incisions. The research problem is formulated as the estimation of variables that are representative of the state of tissues during laser cutting. Prior research in this area leveraged numerical computation methods that bear a high computational cost and are not straightforward to use in a surgical setting. This book proposes a novel solution to this problem, using models inspired by the ability of experienced surgeons to perform precise and clean laser cutting. It shows that these new models, which were extracted from experimental data using statistical learning techniques, are straightforward to use in a surgical setup, allowing greater precision in laser-based surgical procedures.

Computing is ubiquitous and if you think otherwise, that in itself might be the best evidence that it is so. Computers are omnipresent in modern life and the multimedia computing environment of today is becoming more and more seamless. Bringing together contributions from dozens of leading experts, Ubiquitous Multimedia Computing educates readers on Ubi-Media Computing on three levels: infrastructures, where fundamental technologies are being developed; middleware, where the integration of technologies and software systems continues to be defined; and applications, where its concepts are evolving into real-world products and processes. In presenting a wealth of new directions and new technology that is changing the way we communicate, learn, play, and live day by day, this book - Examines various architectures for delivering multimedia content including streaming devices , wireless networks, and various hybrids Looks at rapidly developing sensor technology including wearable computers Demonstrates the use of advanced HCI devices that allow the simplest body gestures to govern increasingly complex tasks Introduces newsputers that take the use of embedded image information in a host of practical directions Looks at how ubiquitous computing can eliminate traffic congestion and improve the efficiency and quality of medical care Looks at how computing is personalizing learning environments and revolutionizing our approach to the three R's. While these pages serve as a timely reference for researchers working in all areas of product development and human computer interaction, they also provide engineers, doctors, and many other professionals, as well as educators and graduate students with a view that reveals the otherwise invisible seams of this age of ubi-media computing.

Develops a Comprehensive, Global Model for Contextually Based Processing Systems A new perspective on global information systems operation Helping to advance a valuable paradigm shift in the next generation and processing of knowledge, Introduction to Contextual Processing: Theory and Applications provides a comprehensive model for constructing a contextually based processing system. It explores the components of this system, the interactions of the components, key mathematical foundations behind the model, and new concepts necessary for operating the system. After defining the key dimensions of a model for contextual processing, the book discusses how data is used to develop a semantic model for contexts as well as language-driven context-specific processing actions. It then applies rigorous mathematical methods to contexts, examines basic sensor data fusion theory and applies it to the contextual fusion of information, and describes the means to distribute contextual information. The authors also illustrate a new type of data repository model to manage contextual data, before concluding with the requirements of contextual security in a global environment. This seminal work presents an integrated framework for the design and operation of the next generation of IT processing. It guides the way for developing advanced IT systems and offers new models and concepts that can support advanced semantic web and cloud computing capabilities at a global scale.

Understanding the complexity of tactic knowledge has become increasingly important to the enhancement of organizational flow. ""Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning"" aims to advocate the need for ""human factor"" consideration from a (tactic) knowledge capital point of view. ""Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning"" offers academicians and practitioners an illustration of the importance of tacit knowledge to an organization, presenting a means to measure and track tacit knowledge in individuals and recommendations on firm attributes and their ideal utilization of the tacit knowledge resource.

This book gathers new empirical findings fostering advances in the areas of digital and communication design, web, multimedia and motion design, graphic design, branding, and related ones. It includes original contributions by authoritative authors based on the best papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Digital Design and Communication, Digicom 2021, together with some invited chapters written by leading international researchers. They report on innovative design strategies supporting communication in a global, digital world, and addressing, at the same time, key individual and societal needs. This book is intended to offer a timely snapshot of technologies, trends and challenges in the area of design, communication and branding, and a bridge connecting researchers and professionals of different disciplines, such as graphic design, digital communication, corporate, UI Design and UX design.

While there is a lot of talk about how we now live in a knowledge society, the reality has been less impressive: We have yet to truly transition to a knowledge society-in part, this book argues, because discussion mostly focuses on a knowledge economy and information society rather than on ways to mobilise to create an actual knowledge society. That all may change, however, with the rise of open data and big data. This book considers the role of the open data movement in fostering transformation, showing that at the heart of any successful mobilisation will be an emerging open data ecosystem and new ways for societal actors to effectively produce and use data.

C-RAN and virtualized Small Cell technology poses several major research challenges. These include dynamic resource allocation, self-configuration in the baseband pool, high latency in data transfer between radio unit and baseband unit, the cost of data delivery, high volume of data in the network, software networking aspects, potential energy savings, security concerns, privacy of user's personal data at a remote place, limitations of virtualized environment, etc. This book provides deeper insights into the next generation RAN architecture and surveys the coexistence of SDN, C-RAN and Small Cells solutions proposed in the literature at different levels.

Restart prepares readers to do the hard work of reentering an in-person post-pandemic world by examining the relationships we have formed with ourselves, our devices, and others in quarantine. Social anxiety and a tendency to avoid any awkwardness in embodied spaces were on the rise before the pandemic. Matters are far worse now that we have spent more than a year overly reliant upon our technology, incapable of safely spending time socially and relationally with others. All the while, research indicates that the kind of resilience and grit that in-person interactions involve are crucial for life satisfaction and success. This means that the social isolation from which we are emerging will have profound and lasting effects on us unless we actively work to re-integrate communal living healthily. In Restart: Designing a Healthy Post-Pandemic Life, Doreen Dodgen-Magee discusses how to harness the energy of the global re-opening of day-to-day in-person life and how to use that energy to create healthier relationships with technology, our social connections, and ourselves. Special emphasis on social anxiety, the re-opening of businesses, and how to help children through this transition is offered. Readers will learn how to break habits that hurt us/them, keep us/them isolated, and damage our/their mental health. Also offered are tips, tools, and recommendations for how to set norms that will help readers manage their anxiety, hesitance, and over-excitement about reentering an interactive world.

This book constitutes selected, revised and extended papers from the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2021, held as a virtual event in April 2021. The 27 revised full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 143 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: artificial intelligence in education; information technologies supporting learning; learning/teaching methodologies and assessment; social context and learning environments; ubiquitous learning; current topics.

Neuro-robotics is one of the most multidisciplinary fields of the last decades, fusing information and knowledge from neuroscience, engineering and computer science. This book focuses on the results from the strategic alliance between Neuroscience and Robotics that help the scientific community to better understand the brain as well as design robotic devices and algorithms for interfacing humans and robots. The first part of the book introduces the idea of neuro-robotics, by presenting state-of-the-art bio-inspired devices. The second part of the book focuses on human-machine interfaces for performance augmentation, which can seen as augmentation of abilities of healthy subjects or assistance in case of the mobility impaired. The third part of the book focuses on the inverse problem, i.e. how we can use robotic devices that physically interact with the human body, in order (a) to understand human motor control and (b) to provide therapy to neurologically impaired people or people with disabilities.

Behavior Change Research and Theory: Psychological and Technological Perspectives provides a unified account of behavior change theories and broad coverage of application domains and best practices. From a psychological and human-computer interaction perspective, the book puts a strong emphasis on the psychological foundations of behavior change, and explores the relationship between technology and behavior change. It will cover the major behavior change theories: planned behavior; health belief model; protection motivation; transtheoretical; and more recent approaches to behavior change like Nudge, and Mindspace. The section on health research and behavior change will cover interventions like diet and fitness, mental health, smoking cessation, and diabetes management. Topics also include financial and security research, and behavior change in relation to financial and other forms of sensitive information (passwords, phishing, and financial transactions). The last section will highlight the challenges and opportunities afforded by the increasing use of mobile technology with respect to the design of programs and apps aimed at facilitating behavior change and the role of social media.

This book, Management Information and Optoelectronic Engineering, is a collection of papers presented at the 2015 International Conference on Management, Information and Communication and the 2015 International Conference on Optics and Electronics Engineering which was held on October 24-25, 2015 in Xia Men, China. The book provides state-of-the-art research results and development activities in Optics and Electronics Engineering, Management, Information and Communication and will benefit researchers and practitioners in the field.

This book provides a general introduction to the R Commander graphical user interface (GUI) to R for readers who are unfamiliar with R. It is suitable for use as a supplementary text in a basic or intermediate-level statistics course. It is not intended to replace a basic or other statistics text but rather to complement it, although it does promote sound statistical practice in the examples. The book should also be useful to individual casual or occasional users of R for whom the standard command-line interface is an obstacle.

Data Visualization in Enlightenment Literature and Culture explores the new interpretive possibilities offered by using data visualization in eighteenth-century studies. Such visualizations include tabulations, charts, k-means clustering, topic modeling, network graphs, data mapping, and/or other illustrations of patterns of social or intellectual exchange. The contributions to this collection present groundbreaking research of texts and/or cultural trends emerging from data mined from existing databases and other aggregates of sources. Describing both small and large digital projects by scholars in visual arts, history, musicology, and literary studies, this collection addresses the benefits and challenges of employing digital tools, as well as their potential use in the classroom. Chapters 1, 3, 8 and 10 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Successful User Experience: Strategy and Roadmaps provides you with a hands-on guide for pulling all of the User Experience (UX) pieces together to create a strategy that includes tactics, tools, and methodologies. Leveraging material honed in user experience courses and over 25 years in the field, the author explains the value of strategic models to refine goals against available data and resources. You will learn how to think about UX from a high level, design the UX while setting goals for a product or project, and how to turn that into concrete actionable steps. After reading this book, you'll understand: How to bring high-level planning into concrete actionable steps How Design Thinking relates to creating a good UX How to set UX Goals for a product or project How to decide which tool or methodology to use at what point in product lifecycle This book takes UX acceptance as a point of departure, and builds on it with actionable steps and case studies to develop a complete strategy, from the big picture of product design, development and commercialization, to how UX can help create stronger products. This is a must-have book for your complete UX library.

Usability Testing Essentials presents a practical, step-by-step approach to learning the entire process of planning and conducting a usability test. It explains how to analyze and apply the results and what to do when confronted with budgetary and time restrictions. This is the ideal book for anyone involved in usability or user-centered design-from students to seasoned professionals. Filled with new examples and case studies, Usability Testing Essentials, Second Edition is completely updated to reflect the latest approaches, tools and techniques needed to begin usability testing or to advance in this area.

"Fundamentally, making games is designing with others, everyone contributing from different angles towards the best possible product. Conclusively, Garcia-Ruiz has chosen a collection of chapters that demonstrates several different aspects of working in gaming and working with others that stands to raise the level of expertise in the field." -Veronica Zammitto, Senior Lead Games User Research, Electronic Arts, Inc., from the Foreword Usability is about making a product easy to use while meeting the requirements of target users. Applied to video games, this means making the game accessible and enjoyable to the player. Video games with high usability are generally played efficiently and frequently while enjoying higher sales volumes. The case studies in this book present the latest interdisciplinary research and applications of games user research in determining and developing usability to improve the video game user experience at the human-computer interface level. Some of the areas examined include practical and ethical concerns in conducting usability testing with children, audio experiences in games, tangible and graphical game interfaces, controller testing, and business models in mobile gaming. Games User Research: A Case Study Approach provides a highly useful resource for researchers, practitioners, lecturers, and students in developing and applying methods for testing player usability as well as for conducting games user research. It gives the necessary theoretical and practical background for designing and conducting a test for usability with an eye toward modifying software interfaces to improve human-computer interaction between the player and the game.

The content of this textbook is organized as a theory of language for the construction of talking robots. The main topic is the mechanism of natural language communication in both the speaker and the hearer. In the third edition the author has modernized the text, leaving the overview of traditional, theoretical, and computational linguistics, analytic philosophy of language, and mathematical complexity theory with their historical backgrounds intact. The format of the empirical analyses of English and German syntax and semantics has been adapted to current practice; and Chaps. 22-24 have been rewritten to focus more sharply on the construction of a talking robot.

Emotion pervades human life in general, and human communication in particular, and this sets information technology a challenge. Traditionally, IT has focused on allowing people to accomplish practical tasks efficiently, setting emotion to one side. That was acceptable when technology was a small part of life, but as technology and life become increasingly interwoven we can no longer ask people to suspend their emotional nature and habits when they interact with technology. The European Commission funded a series of related research projects on emotion and computing, culminating in the HUMAINE project which brought together leading academic researchers from the many related disciplines. This book grew out of that project, and its chapters are arranged according to its working areas: theories and models; signals to signs; data and databases; emotion in interaction; emotion in cognition and action; persuasion and communication; usability; and ethics and good practice. The fundamental aim of the book is to offer researchers an overview of the related areas, sufficient for them to do credible work on affective or emotion-oriented computing. The book serves as an academically sound introduction to the range of disciplines involved - technical, empirical and conceptual - and will be of value to researchers in the areas of artificial intelligence, psychology, cognition and user-machine interaction.