The path for developing an internationally usable product with a human-machine interface is described in this textbook, from theory to conception and from design to practical implementation. The most important concepts in the fields of philosophy, communication, culture and Ethnocomputing as the basis of intercultural user interface design are explained. The book presents directly usable and implementable knowledge that is relevant for the processes of internationalization and localization of software. Aspects of software ergonomics, software engineering and human-centered design are presented in an intercultural context; general and concrete recommendations and checklists for immediate use in product design are also provided. Each chapter includes the target message, its motivation and theoretical justification as well as the practical methods to achieve the intended benefit from the respective topic. The book opens with an introduction illuminating the background necessary for taking culture into account in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) design. Definitions of concepts are followed by a historical overview of the importance of taking culture into account in HCI design. Subsequently, the structures, processes, methods, models, and approaches concerning the relationship between culture and HCI design are illustrated to cover the most important questions in practice.

This unique text deals with the most important legal areas for e-commerce related business in most of the member states in Europe as well as the USA. In doing so the text takes into consideration the national law of the following countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA. Topics that are dealt with include: contract law, consumer protection, intellectual property law, unfair competition, antitrust law, liability of providers, money transactions, privacy and data protection. The country-specific contributions follow a questionnaire which can be found in the beginning. The uniform structure of each contribution enables the reader to quickly find an answer to a legal question. All contributions have been written by experts from each member state.

This book examines the fundamental question of how legislators and other rule-makers should handle remembering and forgetting information (especially personally identifiable information) in the digital age. It encompasses such topics as privacy, data protection, individual and collective memory, and the right to be forgotten when considering data storage, processing and deletion. The authors argue in support of maintaining the new digital default, that (personally identifiable) information should be remembered rather than forgotten. The book offers guidelines for legislators as well as private and public organizations on how to make decisions on remembering and forgetting personally identifiable information in the digital age. It draws on three main perspectives: law, based on a comprehensive analysis of Swiss law that serves as an example; technology, specifically search engines, internet archives, social media and the mobile internet; and an interdisciplinary perspective with contributions from various disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics, amongst others.. Thanks to this multifaceted approach, readers will benefit from a holistic view of the informational phenomenon of "remembering and forgetting". This book will appeal to lawyers, philosophers, sociologists, historians, economists, anthropologists, and psychologists among many others. Such wide appeal is due to its rich and interdisciplinary approach to the challenges for individuals and society at large with regard to remembering and forgetting in the digital age.

Wearable Sensing and Intelligent Data Analysis for Respiratory Management highlights the use of wearable sensing and intelligent data analysis algorithms for respiratory function management, offering several potential and substantial clinical benefits. The book allows for the early detection of respiratory exacerbations in patients with chronic respiratory diseases, allowing earlier and, therefore, more effective treatment. As such, the problem of continuous, non-invasive, remote and real-time monitoring of such patients needs increasing attention from the scientific community as these systems have the potential for substantial clinical benefits, promoting P4 medicine (personalized, participative, predictive and preventive). Wearable and portable systems with sensing technology and automated analysis of respiratory sounds and pulmonary images are some of the problems that are the subject of current research efforts, hence this book is an ideal resource on the topics discussed.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th IFIP WG 5.5 Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises, PRO-VE 2014, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in October 2014. The 73 revised papers were carefully selected from 190 submissions. They provide a comprehensive overview of identified challenges and recent advances in various collaborative network (CN) domains and their applications, with a particular focus on the following areas in support of smart networked environments: behavior and coordination; product-service systems; service orientation in collaborative networks; engineering and implementation of collaborative networks; cyber-physical systems; business strategies alignment; innovation networks; sustainability and trust; reference and conceptual models; collaboration platforms; virtual reality and simulation; interoperability and integration; performance management frameworks; performance management systems; risk analysis; optimization in collaborative networks; knowledge management in networks; health and care networks; and mobility and logistics.

Personal computers have made life convenient in many ways, but what about their impacts on the environment due to production, use and disposal? Manufacturing computers requires prodigious quantities of fossil fuels, toxic chemicals and water. Rapid improvements in performance mean we often buy a new machine every 1-3 years, which adds up to mountains of waste computers. How should societies respond to manage these environmental impacts?
This volume addresses the environmental impacts and management of computers through a set of analyses on issues ranging from environmental assessment, technologies for recycling, consumer behaviour, strategies of computer manufacturing firms, and government policies. One conclusion is that extending the lifespan of computers (e.g. through reselling) is an environmentally and economically effective strategy that deserves more attention from governments, firms and the general public.

This book offers means to handle interference as a central problem of operating wireless networks. It investigates centralized and decentralized methods to avoid and handle interference as well as approaches that resolve interference constructively. The latter type of approach tries to solve the joint detection and estimation problem of several data streams that share a common medium. In fact, an exciting insight into the operation of networks is that it may be beneficial, in terms of an overall throughput, to actively create and manage interference. Thus, when handled properly, "mixing" of data in networks becomes a useful tool of operation rather than the nuisance as which it has been treated traditionally. With the development of mobile, robust, ubiquitous, reliable and instantaneous communication being a driving and enabling factor of an information centric economy, the understanding, mitigation and exploitation of interference in networks must be seen as a centrally important task.

Globalization has shifted perspectives on individualism and identity as cultural exchange occurs more rapidly in an age of heightened connectivity. As technology connects those around the world, it too helps to provoke a shift in the autonomy of individuals. The Handbook of Research on Individualism and Identity in the Globalized Digital Age explores the ways in which globalization has impacted the human experience with a specific emphasis on the field of education and human development. This research-based publication presents critical perspectives on the global changes that are occurring as a result of globalization. Researchers, professionals, and graduate-level students will find this publication to be an essential resource.

This volume deals with the so-called new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and their interrelationship with Muslims and the interpretation of Islam. This volume taps into what has been labelled Media Studies 2.0, which has been characterized by an intensified focus on everyday meanings and 'lay' users - in contrast to earlier emphases on experts or self-acclaimed experts. This lay adoption of ICT and the subsequent digital 'literacy' is not least noticeable among Muslim communities. According to some global estimates, one in ten internet users is a Muslim. This volume offers an ethnography of ICT in Muslim communities. The contributors to this volume also demonstrate a new kind of moderation with regard to more sweeping and avant-gardistic claims, which have characterized the study of ICT previously. This moderation has been combined with a keen attention to the empirical material but also deliberations on new quantitative and qualitative approaches to ICT, Muslims and Islam, for instance the digital challenges and changes wrought on the Qur'an, Islam's sacred scripture. As such this volume will also be relevant for people interested in the study of ICT and the blooming field of digital humanities. Scholars of Islam and the Islamic world have always be engaged and entangled in their object of study. The developments within ICT have also affected how scholars take part in and influence public Islamic and academic discussions. This complicated issue provides basis for a number of meta-reflexive studies in this volume. It will be essential for students and scholars within Islamic studies but will also be of interest for anthropologists, sociologists and others with a humanistic interest in ICT, religion and Islam.

As interactive application software such as apps, installations, and multimedia presentations have become pervasive in everyday life, more and more computer scientists, engineers, and technology experts acknowledge the influence that exists beyond visual explanations. Computational Solutions for Knowledge, Art, and Entertainment: Information Exchange Beyond d104 focuses on the methods of depicting knowledge-based concepts in order to assert power beyond a visual explanation of scientific and computational notions. This book combines formal descriptions with graphical presentations and encourages readers to interact by creating visual solutions for science-related concepts and presenting data. This reference is essential for researchers, computer scientists, and academics focusing on the integration of science, technology, computing, art, and mathematics for visual problem solving.

Public and situated display technologies can have an important impact on individual and social behaviour and present us with particular interesting new design considerations and challenges. While there is a growing body of research exploring these design considerations and social impact this work remains somewhat disparate, making it difficult to assimilate in a coherent manner. This book brings together the perspectives of key researchers in the area of public and situated display technology. The chapters detail research representing the social, technical and interactional aspects of public and situated display technologies. The underlying concern common to these chapters is how these displays can be best designed for collaboration, coordination, community building and mobility. Presenting them together allows the reader to examine everyday display activities within the context of emerging technological possibilities.

This work is on biometric data indexing for large-scale identification systems with a focus on different biometrics data indexing methods. It provides state-of-the-art coverage including different biometric traits, together with the pros and cons for each. Discussion of different multimodal fusion strategies are also included.

The present economic and social environment has given rise to new situations within which companies must operate. As a first example, the globalization of the economy and the need for performance has led companies to outsource and then to operate inside networks of enterprises such as supply chains or virtual enterprises. A second instance is related to environmental issues. The statement about the impact of ind- trial activities on the environment has led companies to revise processes, to save - ergy, to optimize transportation.... A last example relates to knowledge. Knowledge is considered today to be one of the main assets of a company. How to capitalize, to manage, to reuse it for the benefit of the company is an important current issue. The three examples above have no direct links. However, each of them constitutes a challenge that companies have to face today. This book brings together the opinions of several leading researchers from all around the world. Together they try to develop new approaches and find answers to those challenges. Through the individual ch- ters of this book, the authors present their understanding of the different challenges, the concepts on which they are working, the approaches they are developing and the tools they propose. The book is composed of six parts; each one focuses on a specific theme and is subdivided into subtopics.

As personal computers have become more available, there has been a great deal of optimism for educational reform through wide computer use, both at school and in the home. Beyond Technology's Promise, first published in 1994, takes a hard look at the home computer scene. The research reported in the book focuses on whether families are using computers to help children learn academic skills and, if so, how well they are doing it. The three year, qualitative investigation provides contextual information crucial to our understanding of how computers are really being used. The authors draw the not so surprising conclusion that most children use computers to play games. They therefore propose directions that must be taken in order to facilitate the educational use of home computers or any other promising educational technology. In so doing, they examine such topics as parental leadership, the home-school computer connection, and the role of gender in home computing use.

Exploring the implications of the internet and bio-technologies for intimate and sexual life, this book discusses the concept of citizenship in relation to the extension of public health through the internet, and reveals concerns that sexually transmitted infections and HIV are associated with such technologies.

The ongoing migration of computing and information access from stationary environments to mobile computing devices for eventual use in mobile environments, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablet PCs, next generation mobile phones, and in-car driver assistance systems, poses critical challenges for natural human-computer interaction. Spoken dialogue is a key factor in ensuring natural and user-friendly interaction with such devices which are meant not only for computer specialists, but also for everyday users.

Speech supports hands-free and eyes-free operation, and becomes a key alternative interaction mode in mobile environments, e.g. in cars where driver distraction by manually operated devices may be a significant problem. On the other hand, the use of mobile devices in public places, may make the possibility of using alternative modalities possibly in combination with speech, such as graphics output and gesture input, preferable due to e.g. privacy issues. Researchers' interest is progressively turning to the integration of speech with other modalities such as gesture input and graphics output, partly to accommodate more efficient interaction and partly to accommodate different user preferences.

This book:
-combines overview chapters of key areas in spoken multimodal dialogue (systems and components, architectures, and evaluation) with chapters focussed on particular applications or problems in the field;
-focuses on the influence of the environment when building and evaluating an application.

Audience: Computer scientists, engineers, and others who work in the area of spoken multimodal dialogue systems in academia and in the industry;
graduatestudents and Ph.D. students specialising in spoken multimodal dialogue systems in general, or focusing on issues in these systems in mobile environments in particular.

The volume is devoted to the relevant problems in the legal sphere, created and generated by recent advances in science and technology. In particular, it investigates a series of cutting-edge contemporary and controversial case-studies where scientific and technological issues intersect with individual legal rights. The book addresses challenging topics at the intersection of communication technologies and biotech innovations such as freedom of expression, right to health, knowledge production, Internet content regulation, accessibility and freedom of scientific research.

This volume contains selected papers from the 10th Interdisciplinary Workshop in Informatics and Psychology which had as its theme Cognitive Aspects in Visual Languages and Interfaces. Visual languages in general, visual programming languages in particular, and graphical or visual user interfaces are increasingly regarded as important improvements for the interaction between people and artifacts. Visual and graphical user interfaces have already a history of a number of years in terms of research and development. The focus on visual languages and visual programming languages, however, is more recent. The development of graphical user interfaces was accompanied and reinforced by psychological research but visual languages are still mainly inventions of designers and not designed on the basis of principles derived also from knowledge of psychology or other behavioral sciences.

The presentations and discussions at the workshop showed increasing interest in paradigms of visual languages and their psychological foundation. Visual languages and interfaces must be seen as means to support and enhance represention, application and processing knowledge visually. The study of the cognitive aspects in visual languages and interfaces is thus an important part of Human-Computer Interaction as a discipline "concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computer systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them" (definition of HCI in the ACM SIGCHI Curricula for Human-Computer Interaction). This book will stimulate future research in the area of Human-Computer Interaction and Visual Languages.

Humans interact with the world through perception, reason about what they see with their front part of their brains, and save what they experience in memory. They also, however, have limitations in their sight, hearing, working memory, and reasoning processes. Cognitively Informed Intelligent Interfaces: Systems Design and Development analyzes well-grounded findings and recent insights on human perception and cognitive abilities and how these findings can and should impact the development and design of applications through the use of intelligent interfaces. Many software and systems developers currently address these cognitive issues haphazardly, and this reference will bring together clear and concise information to inform and assist all professionals interested in intelligent interfaces from designers to end users.

'Visual Languages for Interactive Computing' presents problems and methodologies related to the syntax, semantics, and ambiguities of visual languages.

"Both newbies (newcomers to the Internet) and Netizens (old-timers) will find challenges and rewards in this witty, knowledgeable, and timely report from the electronic front."
--"Publishers Weekly"

"Vividly describes the virtual realm as a place of interconnecting communities every bitas complicated, exciting, and dangerous as any city."
--"Booklist"

"A pleasant antidote to the breathless rhetoric one finds in many books and magazines devoted to computer culture."
--"Technology Review"

"Grossman brings a wealth of professional and personal experience to the material-and a clarity of style and analysis that is a welcome relief from both the hyperbolic prose of many Net boosters and the overwrought jeremiads of cyberphobes."
--"Reason"

"There is a lot to like about this survey, especially the diligent research and reading the author has invested in it. The endnotes are vast and informative..."From Anarchy to Power" gathers strengh as it goes along."
--"The Christian Century"

"An informative exploration into many of the issues and problems that plague the Net today...From Anarchy to Power is a must read."
-- "ComputerUser.com"

companion website: http: //www.nyupress.org/fap

Yesterday's battles over internet turf were fought on the net itself: today's battles are fought in government committees, in Congress, on the stock exchange, and in the marketplace. What was once an experimental ground for electronic commerce is now the hottest part of our economic infrastructure.

In From Anarchy to Power, Wendy Grossman explores the new dispensation on the net and tackles the questions that trouble every online user: How vulnerable are the internet andworld wide web to malicious cyber hackers? What are the limits of privacy online? How real is internet addiction and to what extent is the news media responsible for this phenomenon? Are women and minorities at a disadvantage in cyberspace? How is the increasing power of big business changing internet culture?

We learn about the political economy of the internet including issues of copyright law, corporate control and cryptography legislation. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the international dimensions of the net, focusing on privacy and censorship in the United States, Europe and Canada and the hitherto ignored contributions of other countries in the development of the net. Entertaining and informative From Anarchy to Power is required reading for anyone who wants to know where the new digital economy is heading.

The book Multimedia for Accessible Human Computer Interfaces is to be the first resource to provide in-depth coverage on topical areas of multimedia computing (images, video, audio, speech, haptics, VR/AR, etc.) for accessible and inclusive human computer interfaces. Topics are grouped into thematic areas spanning the human senses: Vision, Hearing, Touch, as well as Multimodal applications. Each chapter is written by different multimedia researchers to provide complementary and multidisciplinary perspectives. Unlike other related books, which focus on guidelines for designing accessible interfaces, or are dated in their coverage of cutting edge multimedia technologies, Multimedia for Accessible Human Computer Interfaces takes an application-oriented approach to present a tour of how the field of multimedia is advancing access to human computer interfaces for individuals with disabilities. Under Theme 1 "Vision-based Technologies for Accessible Human Computer Interfaces", multimedia technologies to enhance access to interfaces through vision will be presented including: "A Framework for Gaze-contingent Interfaces", "Sign Language Recognition", "Fusion-based Image Enhancement and its Applications in Mobile Devices", and "Open-domain Textual Question Answering Systems". Under Theme 2 "Auditory Technologies for Accessible Human Computer Interfaces", multimedia technologies to enhance access to interfaces through hearing will be presented including: "Speech Recognition for Individuals with Voice Disorders" and "Socially Assistive Robots for Storytelling and Other Activities to Support Aging in Place". Under Theme 3 "Haptic Technologies for Accessible Human Computer Interfaces", multimedia technologies to enhance access to interfaces through haptics will be presented including: "Accessible Smart Coaching Technologies Inspired by Elderly Requisites" and "Haptic Mediators for Remote Interpersonal Communication". Under Theme 4 "Multimodal Technologies for Accessible Human Computer Interfaces", multimedia technologies to enhance access to interfaces through multiple modalities will be presented including: "Human-Machine Interfaces for Socially Connected Devices: From Smart Households to Smart Cities" and "Enhancing Situational Awareness and Kinesthetic Assistance for Clinicians via Augmented-Reality and Haptic Shared-Control Technologies".

This important book collects together Peter Nijkamp's work on spatial-economic markets, particularly housing and labour markets, and the increasing impact of information technology on mobility and the location of firms, residents and job seekers.The first part deals with applied modelling and theoretical advances in housing market dynamics and research. The papers address issues such as the implications of household dynamics for relocation decisions, migration movements in Europe, and the driving forces for migration decisions of ethnic groups. The second part focuses on the spatial labour market, dealing with recruitment channel and search channel choices by job seekers and firms, vacancy durations and the opportunities offered by ethnic entrepreneurship for improving the chances of ethnic groups. The third part comprises an analysis of spatial mobility flows and interaction patterns and the final part emphasises the scope and effect of information technology in transport. This includes the effect of real-time information on the behaviour of car drivers, the effect of telematics devices on public transport users, the importance of telematics for the freight transport sector and the adoption mechanisms of ICT users and their related policy implications. This collection will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in the housing and labour markets and the impact on both of developments in IT and transport.