Open Access Published by Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag

Volume 14 Issue 2 - Special Issue: "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Technologies"

Issue of i-com

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Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available July 30, 2015

Frontmatter

Page range: i-iv

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Editorial

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Introduction to the Special Issue on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Technologies

Maximilian Eibl, Peter Ohler, Daniel Pietschmann

Page range: 105-106

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Research article

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Hybrid Avatar-Agent Technology – A Conceptual Step Towards Mediated “Social” Virtual Reality and its Respective Challenges

Daniel Roth, Marc Erich Latoschik, Kai Vogeley, Gary Bente

Page range: 107-114

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Abstract

Driven by large industry investments, developments of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies including unobtrusive sensors, actuators and novel display devices are rapidly progressing. Realism and interactivity have been postulated as crucial aspects of immersive VR since the naissance of the concept. However, today’s VR still falls short from creating real life-like experiences in many regards. This holds particularly true when introducing the “social dimension” into the virtual worlds. Apparently, creating convincing virtual selves and virtual others and conveying meaningful and appropriate social behavior still is an open challenge for future VR. This challenge implies both, technical aspects, such as the real-time capacities of the systems, but also psychological aspects, such as the dynamics of human communication. Our knowledge of VR systems is still fragmented with regard to social cognition, although the social dimension is crucial when aiming at autonomous agents with a certain social background intelligence. It can be questioned though whether a perfect copy of real life interactions is a realistic or even meaningful goal of social VR development at this stage. Taking into consideration the specific strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines, we propose a conceptual turn in social VR which focuses on what we call “hybrid avatar-agent systems”. Such systems are required to generate i) avatar mediated interactions between real humans, taking advantage of their social intuitions and flexible communicative skills and ii) an artificial social intelligence (AIS) which monitors, and potentially moderates or transforms ongoing virtual interactions based on social signals, such as performing adaptive manipulations of behavior in intercultural conversations. The current article sketches a respective base architecture and discusses necessary research prospects and challenges as a starting point for future research and development.

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Designing with Ethnography: Tabletops and the Importance of their Physical Setup for Group Interactions in Exhibitions

Michael Storz, Kalja Kanellopoulos, Claudia Fraas, Maximilian Eibl

Page range: 115-125

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Abstract

Designing interactive surfaces for walk-up-and-use scenarios in semi-public spaces like museums is a challenging task, since they need to be intuitive and appealing for a broad range of users. We describe the iterative development of two tabletop prototypes and their applications with a combination of interaction design and different types of ethnography. We outline the extensive development process and describe a user study with our second prototype, conducted in an exhibition about new media and digital cooperation for one week. Especially the physical setup of our tabletops distinguishes them from others. It consists of several seating elements to make interaction more comfortable for a heterogeneity of active users and onlookers. As an example for the analysis of the collected data we outline an interaction session of a group of 15 people. Results show that the artifact was well received and that groups and their interactions benefited from the physical setup.

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Human Capacities for Emotion Recognition and their Implications for Computer Vision

Benny Liebold, René Richter, Michael Teichmann, Fred H. Hamker, Peter Ohler

Page range: 126-137

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Abstract

Current models for automated emotion recognition are developed under the assumption that emotion expressions are distinct expression patterns for basic emotions. Thereby, these approaches fail to account for the emotional processes underlying emotion expressions. We review the literature on human emotion processing and suggest an alternative approach to affective computing. We postulate that the generalizability and robustness of these models can be greatly increased by three major steps: (1) modeling emotional processes as a necessary foundation of emotion recognition; (2) basing models of emotional processes on our knowledge about the human brain; (3) conceptualizing emotions based on appraisal processes and thus regarding emotion expressions as expressive behavior linked to these appraisals rather than fixed neuro-motor patterns. Since modeling emotional processes after neurobiological processes can be considered a long-term effort, we suggest that researchers should focus on early appraisals, which evaluate intrinsic stimulus properties with little higher cortical involvement. With this goal in mind, we focus on the amygdala and its neural connectivity pattern as a promising structure for early emotional processing. We derive a model for the amygdala-visual cortex circuit from the current state of neuroscientific research. This model is capable of conditioning visual stimuli with body reactions to enable rapid emotional processing of stimuli consistent with early stages of psychological appraisal theories. Additionally, amygdala activity can feed back to visual areas to modulate attention allocation according to the emotional relevance of a stimulus. The implications of the model considering other approaches to automated emotion recognition are discussed.

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Cognitive Tools for Design Engineers: A Framework for the Development of Intelligent CAD Systems

Stephen L. Wood, Gisela Susanne Bahr, Marc Ritter

Page range: 138-146

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Abstract

Great design engineers are highly creative and unorthodox individuals who invent novel solutions that satisfy a set of constraints that are often ill-defined and customer driven. Designers use many tools to develop their designs, such as computer aided design (CAD) systems, that do not support the cognition that drives the design process. This paper develops the cognitive psychological background, a state of the practice based rationale for CAD enhancement and the research framework for cognitive CAD tools that support the design engineer during the creative problem solving process through reasoning and meaningful design alternatives. The research framework presented here was initially created for the development of cognitive tools for mechanical design but is transferable to other design disciplines. At the core of the research plan are the development and implementation of an artificial memory that is interpreted with real-time data analyses supported by machine learning, and made accessible to the design engineer through interaction design for intelligent CAD (iCAD).

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Modeling Interruption and Resumption in a Smartphone Task: An ACT-R Approach

Maria Wirzberger, Nele Russwinkel

Page range: 147-154

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Abstract

This research aims to inspect human cognition when being interrupted while performing a smartphone task with varying levels of mental demand. Due to its benefits especially in the early stages of interface development, a cognitive modeling approach is used. It applies the cognitive architecture ACT-R to shed light on task-related cognitive processing. The inspected task setting involves a shopping scenario, manipulating interruption via product advertisements and mental demands by the respective number of people shopping is done for. Model predictions are validated through a corresponding experimental setting with 62 human participants. Comparing model and human data in a defined set of performance-related parameters displays mixed results that indicate an acceptable fit – at least in some cases. Potential explanations for the observed differences are discussed at the end.

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Storytelling as a Means to Transfer Knowledge via Narration

A Scenario for a Narrating Pedagogical Agent

Madlen Wuttke, Valentin Belentschikow, Nicholas H. Müller

Page range: 155-160

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Abstract

The following paper describes a new form of human-computer- / human-agent-interaction. Three scientific disciplines converge their knowledge about storytelling principles, pedagogical agent design and narrative structures to form an intuitive way of sharing information as well as transferring knowledge.

Brief report

Publicly Available July 12, 2015

Usability Integration in Agile Development Processes: A Practice-Oriented Best Practice Approach

Hartmut Schmitt, Dominik Magin, Andreas Maier, Richard Wacker, Josh Wang

Page range: 161-168

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Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly rely on agile software development. However, the majority of established usability methods have been developed with traditional software engineering principles in mind. So, one might assume that these methods and tools might not be applicable to agile development projects. In this paper, a possible approach to systematically adapting traditional usability methods to application in agile projects is introduced and documented as best practices. These best practices can be quickly and dynamically employed by agile development team members and can thus contribute to higher quality of software development outputs. The approach described in this paper was developed in the context of a German research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and conducted by one research institute and three software-developing enterprises and will be evaluated throughout the further course of the project. For this purpose, a number of best practices have been adapted to the context of agile software development and described in detail in order to allow inexperienced software developers of small and medium-sized enterprises to successfully apply these best practices. As two examples of these best practices, we illustrate the best practices ‘Contextual Inquiry’ and ‘Template-Based UI Design’ in this paper.

About this journal

Objective
This journal is devoted to human-computer interaction, media design, usability, engineering and systems evaluation, software ergonomics, cooperative systems, e-learning, mobile and ubiquitous systems, user-adaptive systems, agent development tools and methods for media in different application fields (including e-business, knowledge management, leisure and entertainment, transport, engineering, and medicine), barrier-free systems design, and the social aspects of information and communication technologies.

The journal seeks to build bridges between research and practice as well as between teaching and business, emphasizing interdisciplinary teamwork and application-oriented solutions.

The journal is the official organ of the special interest group on "Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)" in the German Association for Informatics (GI).

i-com is an open access journal since 2023. It publishes English-language articles only. The publication frequency is three times per year.

Topics

Computer science
Psychology
Media design
Marketing/branding
Sociology
Business management
Labor and organizational studies

Article formats
Expert research, review articles, and brief reports