Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Interaction for Health, Safety, Mobility and Complex Environments

Energy is considered a resource for survival. The demand and supply of natural resources used to generate, transmit, and consume the power make the puzzle for the human race even more complex. Other physical elements like water, copper wiring, electric cars, nuclear power plants, oil platforms, consumer tablets, and buildings to name a few are attached to the energy ecosystem adding mass confusion to a system failing to keep up with the global changes. This paper deals with a methodology for designing a smarter power and energy management system, following the V-cycle. It focuses on building a model using systems modeling language (SysML). The application of systems engineering process in power and energy is presented in this paper as well as the devices in the systems which are going to have a software component enveloping the digitization and proliferation of better, faster, and more effective ways of reusing our best practices in systems engineering. This paper introduces a system-of-systems engineering approach codified in client power management software needed for the urgent transformation of global power systems.

The present study examined whether early exposure of student Air Traffic Controllers (ATCos) to NextGen automation technology in the form of integrated Data Comm affects the degree to which they come to rely on this tool instead of voice-based, manual tools to manage traffic. The data reported in this study comes from 24 students who took part in one of two semesters of an ATCo training course offered by our organization. One group received little or no early training with integrated Data Comm, managing no aircraft (AC) that were NextGen equipped or only 25% that were NextGen equipped in the first half of the course. A second group managed 75% aircraft (AC) that were NextGen equipped from the beginning of the training course. After the first half of the course, both groups received training with at least 50% NextGen-equipped aircraft (AC). Both groups were tested in a midterm and final exam that required them to manage traffic in a mixed equipage scenario. We found that proficiency of the students predicted their performance. Moreover, by the final exam, students converged on the same strategy, preferring to issue clearances using voice rather than Data Comm, regardless of early exposure to automation tools. This is likely because voice communication is faster than Data Comm, and is associated with greater efficiency of air traffic management.

Touch-based user interfaces are increasingly used in private and professional domains. While touch interfaces have a high practicability for general daily applications, it is a central question if touch based interfaces also meet requirements of specific professional domains. In this paper we explore the applicability of touch gestures for the domain of medical imaging. We developed a set of intuitively usable gestures, applicable to different screen sizes. The development was entirely user-centered and followed a three-step procedure. (1) The gesture set was developed by asking novices to propose possible gestures for different actions in medical imaging. (2) The gesture set was implemented in a commercial medical imaging solution and (3) evaluated by professional radiologists. The evaluation shows that the user-centered procedure was successful: The gestures did not only work equally well on different screen sizes, but revealed to be intuitive to use or easy to learn.

Construction and maintenance of signaling pathway is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. In addition, integration of various pathways is also ineffective since several markup languages are used to express pathways. To overcome these limitation, automatic pathway construction and extension with a standard format may provide a solution. The proposed approach has constructed a gold standard corpus that describes the signaling pathways, and it has been used to training and evaluating the automatic pathway construction and extension. Moreover, a standard format to express the signaling pathways has been developed and has been used to express the previous major 10 signaling pathways. An effective visualization tool has been also developed for the standardized format as well. The visualization tool can help to construct pathways and extend the current pathways using all articles in PubMed.

Indoor emergency is a challenging research domain. It has to deal with dynamic situations, unexpected consequence of incidents, many entities involved such as human and building elements. Emergency simulation cannot avoid these various and dynamic information. This research proposes a multilayer of ontology-based floor plan representation in order to describe how the simulation goes with these complexities. Our approach uses ontology to model a floor plan into various perspectives e.g.,

AccessibilityPerspective

,

ControllingPerspective

. Each perspective is used to support different purposes. For example,

AccessibilityPerspective

is used for way finding and navigation. These perspectives are represented by multilayer of graphs, one perspective per one graph. The research objective is to increase users’ situational awareness in the indoor emergency simulation. The are two main advantages in this model. First is a capability to handle dynamic situations and consequences of emergency using ontology and inference rules. Second is the use of multilayered graph-based representation in describing the floor plan’s situation in various perspectives and overcoming information overload. With these advantages, users can notice how the simulation goes, what and where have been changed in a glance.

Development of new multisensory Soldier display systems requires context-driven evaluation of technology by expert users to assure generalizability to operations. The capture of Soldier performance demands is particularly challenging in this regard, as many factors converge to impact performance in actual usage. In this paper, we describe new capabilities for tactile communications that include an authoring system, use of android-driven displays for control and map-based information, and engineering tactors with differing salient characteristics. This allows development of a dual-tactor display that affords a larger variety of tactile patterns for communications, or TActions. These innovations are integrated in a prototype system. We used the system to present navigational signals to combat-experienced soldiers to guide development of tactile principles and the system itself. Feedback was positive for the concept, operational relevance, and for ease of interpretation.

The main causes of maritime accidents are derived from insufficient surveillance. In a narrow channel, there are a lot of opportunities which a ship encounters other ships. Therefore, we need to pay attention to steer ships sufficiently. In this situation, the ship watchers convey accurate information to the ship pilots, then, ship pilots have to provide direction of steering precisely. It is not easy to determine the surrounding circumstances and give instructions to steer the ship in a short time. Therefore, it is needed that the system to support surveillances which shorten the time of transmitting the circumstances to the ship pilots. In this study, we will generate the 3D surveillance model of acquired images with surveillance cameras which set up for all directions on the ship and radar images, and we propose a new method to display information around a ship. In this experiment, we have tested our proposed system with actual images at “Shioji-maru”.

This paper describes the various technological elements used to create and support a simulated flight operations control center for the purpose of collegiate aviation training. The simulation center also serves as a platform to research team dynamics, educational efficacy, and individual occupational stereotypes. The simulation facility relies on the harmonious integration of technologies to meet operational requirements including realism, flexibility, and capability.

To meet the increasing demands for air travel in the U.S., the NextGen program is introducing new automation tools and changing the way that operators in the National Airspace System perform their jobs. Air traffic controllers in NextGen will rely on these automation tools to successfully manage aircraft in their sector. It is important that these operators be sufficiently trained, and that they trust the automation tools. Yet, no research has attempted to directly train individuals to trust automation. We report on a training study that was designed to train novice air traffic controllers to trust the automated tools of NextGen in a radar internship course. We then evaluate how the students’ trust in automation influenced their performance, workload, and situation awareness.

Many traditional artworks in Japan are now facing the issue of raising successors to conserve their culture. It usually takes decades to learn artisan skills in conventional way. We propose a learning system using augmented reality technology to help transferring techniques in one of the Japanese traditional papermaking

kamisuki

. First, we measured the expert’s motion and extracted tacit skills. Second we examined the relation between extracted motion and paper quality by software simulation. Finally, we developed a projection based augmented reality system that visualizes experts’ tacit skills to leaners when they train papermaking. As a result, the system helped enabling learner to obtain techniques to improve the quality of paper in short time period.

The aim of this study was to construct a makeup support system. This system will show what kind of impression a user’s face gives to other persons. Moreover, the system shows how to apply makeup, on the basis of individual facial features, to achieve the ideal impression. In the first step of the research described in this paper, we conducted an experiment in which subjects evaluated facial pictures of eight impressions. On each face, facial-feature points were extracted and used to calculate the ratio of the length and the width of parts of the face. The results of the experiment suggested that the user’s impression will be changed by modifying a part of the face by the use of makeup.

Medical diagnostic procedures generally comprise a step of collecting patients’ symptoms, a step of diagnostic decisions, and a step of selecting appropriate methods of treatment. In traditional medical treatment based on analogical inference, analyzing present collected symptoms and choosing symptoms to query are mightily important for the diagnosis and these are essential conditions for appropriate treatment. Use of information systems that support present diversity of symptoms information and considerable options for the next step can avoid missing out timely and useful knowledge during the procedures. We have developed an application that having user interfaces guiding various analytic cases and their next optional choice and clinicians are able to improve the efficiency of procedures with this. By analyzing semantically linked data to symptoms, the application is possible to support efficiently collecting symptoms and selecting methods of treatment. This interfaces help users by requiring a minimal operation but supporting diverse probabilities.

There is a need to study the OWL-based application schema to ensure interoperable data exchange between ocean-related institutions, and supporting researcher’s intelligent data search. In this study, the RDF vocabularies are defined on the basis of the elements derived through element decision study for managing scientific data in the field of ocean observation. The application schema was verified by using the temperature profile data of CTD data observed in the ’Chukchi’ sea selected from the data provided by the National Oceanographic Data Center of the US.

Performance dashboards are used as a strategic decision support tool in organizations. In this research, we examine the relationships between the usability of performance dashboards, the usefulness of operational and tactical support, and the quality of strategic support that they provide. We hypothesize that usability of performance dashboards will influence user perceptions of the usefulness of the operational and tactical support provided by the dashboards, which in turn influence the perceived quality of strategic support provided.

BookAidee is a system to manage people who evacuate into public school buildings from disaster. The system identifies people by using already implemented structure of school library books that have RFID tags. These tags are used for connecting the person into the system database. We have implemented the system in server and client applications and tested the feasibility.

Industrial plan alarm systems form an essential part of the operator interfaces for automatically monitoring plant state deviations and for attracting plant operators’ attention to changes that require their intervention. To design effective plant alarm systems, it is essential to evaluate their performances. In this paper, some performance monitoring methods of plant alarms systems for alarm system rationalization are reviewed.

The number of crew members in commercial flights has decreased to two members, down from the five-member crew required 50 years ago. One question of interest is whether the crew should be reduced to one pilot. In order to determine the critical factors involved in safely transitioning to a single pilot, research must examine whether any performance deficits arise with the loss of a crew member. With a concrete understanding of the cognitive and behavioral role of a co-pilot, aeronautical technologies and procedures can be developed that make up for the removal of the second aircrew member. The current project describes a pre-study walkthrough process that can be used to help in the development of scenarios for testing future concepts and technologies for single pilot operations. Qualitative information regarding the tasks performed by the pilots can be extracted with this technique and adapted for future investigations of single pilot operations.

Human machine interfaces (HMI) in the product division of air traffic management (ATM) are in use for long time spans. For an efficient use of HMIs not only user centered but also migration tolerant designs are important. Migration tolerance therefore means considering future requirements for a long lasting controller HMI life cycle. For efficient ATM, the concept of system wide information management (SWIM) will be introduced. This generates a large amount of additional information that will influence controller work. In this paper, we therefore describe a new controller role called Information-and-Conflict-Manager (ICM) who handles the complexity induced by SWIM. The resulting HMI design draft demonstrates how the integration of data could be managed. ICM also supervises training to support controllers successfully passing future flight guidance transitions.

Passengers in rural areas are provided with little or no information regarding public transport disruptions. This can result in high levels of travel uncertainty with significant potential to affect travel behaviour. This paper, through 52 interviews, and 7 focus groups in rural areas in Scotland and England, explores the passenger experience, and the technology usage of individuals during disruption. The analysis indicates that a wide range of behavioural responses are evident, extending well beyond the choice of route or mode of transport. Further, we identify that the individual utilises various technologies (e.g. social media), and kinship networks to insulate against the effects of disruption. In addition, we present the co-design process of a set of technologies (a smartphone application and and an SMS service) that aim to improve the passenger exprience during disruption. This work provides an initial step towards understanding the interplay between disruption, passenger experience, and the design space for improving the passenger experience of individuals during disruption.

The NextGen Cockpit Situation Display (CSD), developed by NASA Ames’s Flight Deck Display Laboratory, provides advanced flight control functionalities and traffic/weather displays to pilots [1]. Traditionally, the user operates with the CSD using a computer mouse and receives only visual feedback about the controlling actions. In this work, we integrate force feedback in the Route Assessment Tools of the CSD, where the user can manage the flight plan to resolve conflicts in real-time. A spring force, with a variable stiffness coefficient, was used to model the force feedback with its strength varying proportionally to the overall path length. Force display was provided as an indicator of the effort required to deviate from the optimal path to assist the user in decision making. The force feedback models were evaluated on a software testbed created on Microsoft Foundation Class with the Novint Falcon haptic-feedback input device.

Aiming to explore the transforming role of information technologies in automobile service, this paper first introduces two major technology trends: Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things, as well as their applications in automobile service. After that, the paper focuses on investigating the technology innovations in automobile service, and how the innovations transform the traditional business. Future research directions are discussed finally.

The purpose of this research is to develop the control chart robust for complex multidimensional data. In this study, we propose the methodology of anomaly data visualization and detection using hybrid model of Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) and Peculiarity Factor (PF). LVQ is neural network model which uses supervised learning algorithm. It is useful to classification of multidimensional data with nonlinearity and multi-collinearity. PF is a criterion for evaluating peculiarity and is widely used for outlier detection. In the proposing method, PF of input data is calculated using the weight vector of LVQ. The anomaly data assigned to the class of the normal data was able to be displayed as an outlier on the control chart by calculation of PF on LVQ. The proposed model realized the robust discernment and visualization of the anomaly data that have complex distribution by small computational complexity.

This paper describes an approach to implementing a train ride simulation system that is aimed at application to museum exhibits. A novel device was developed that presents the vehicle motion to a user in the standing state through the floor and assist strap. The prototype device has two degrees of freedom that enable horizontal translation of the floor and the strap. Using the device, a control algorithm to represent the lateral acceleration and rolling was investigated. An experiment proved that the change of track curvature presented by the algorithm can be recognized by the subject.

With increased competitive challenges in the manufacturing sector, the need for operational excellence has led to an increased presence of robotics in factory settings. Traditionally, robotics in manufacturing has been relegated to routine and monotonous tasks performed in isolation to ensure human safety. Now, the advancements in robotics are encouraging a paradigm shift – human-robot collaboration. These new robotic systems are imbued with the ability to 1) perceive anomalies in work environments and to correct/workaround these deficiencies, 2) adapt to changes in workload by means of reconfiguring their layout in a facility, and 3) autonomously navigate factory floors. Although we would like to believe that these innate abilities of second-generation robotics allow for immediate implementation of human-robot collaboration on factory floors, the truth is that more research is required to ensure safety, analyze performance, and define standards. This paper explores potential interaction objectives for human-robot communication in flexible robotic cells.

In recent years, scholarly research on the use of new technology in healthcare has intensified. Some of the main challenges identified in the literature include the integration of dissimilar signaling systems, network barriers such as bandwidth allocation, battery life in wireless devices, the security and privacy protection associated with data transmission using public network and the user friendliness of the systems, among others. The aim of this paper is to address some of the above concerns by introducing a secure, multiplatform network system capable of providing the dynamic bandwidth allocation required for today’s home healthcare services. It incorporates a user friendly interface by introducing a unique instrument integrated with the community cloud arrangement to provide a more robust system to address the needs of multiple stakeholders.

It has been pointed out that when people lack the information needed in the event of a disaster, such as a disastrous earthquake, this could lead to social chaos, including unwanted rumors and outrages, or could disrupt rescue and relief activities. In our prior study, we established a service infrastructure with an autonomous wireless network, aiming at providing services to collect and deliver disaster information. The system consists of many small sub systems. An authorized user can register information using one of the sub systems that is working correctly. Asynchronously, they search another sub system via wireless network, and then they communicate to each other in order to exchange information they have. As a result, the information will be shared within a wide area by those processes like a bucket brigade. In this study, we improved and extended the system so that it may meet more nearly actually.

This paper introduces an approach to build a new system application addressing the smart management of binding related information for in-vehicle infotainment systems. The system application is based on a client-server model using Web technologies and provides message oriented middleware to drive bidirectional GUI-Application communication. Additionally, it also allows GUI-Application binding at runtime and supports the same GUI to be bound with the applications located on different devices. The result shows that this approach improved the reusability and the adaptability of binding related information, and also increased the flexibility and the scalability of IVI systems.

Despite increasing mental health problems among college undergraduate students, little work has been done to investigate factors that can improve health promotion among this population. To address this need we designed a research program that addresses health promotion toward young adults. In particular, we are interested in addressing mental health and risky health behaviors among college undergraduate students. The research reported in this study is the result of the first basic step in our research program.

This research explores the barriers that marginalized citizens face with access to healthy alternatives to the high calorie, highly-processed foods available in most urban areas. Numerous barriers, including technology-related ones, are identified and propositions are offered that might reduce the negative effect of these challenges/encounters. From examining the benefit to citizens on public assistance that results from adequate education about healthy eating, to education on the existence of accessible healthy alternatives, and access to inexpensive accessible food sources this study focuses on offering possible real world solutions, both technology-related and non-technology related, to the barriers to inclusion of economically marginalized citizens.

There are approximately 400,000 adverse drug events per year in hospitalized patients which has resulted in more than $ 3.5 billion spent in subsequent recovery care. The present paper reviews the literature relating to the usability of information found on pharmaceutical labels. In particular, we examine the legibility and comprehensibility of the information provided on the labels. In addition, we highlight the differences in the physical makeup of medication that can be implemented to help users identify their medication. Finally, we provide recommendations for factors that should be examined in future research to improve the usability of pharmaceutical labels. Presently, the FDA has few standards and guidelines regarding the content and layout of a prescription label. We hope that the recommendations provided in this paper can lead to the development of standards for formatting and presenting information on prescription labels that will reduce the number of medical cases involving ingestion of the wrong medication.

A dialog based speech user interface was designed and implemented for a cosmetic facial makeup support system for visually impaired persons. The system helps visually impaired women to makeup her lips, eye blows, and eye shadows using lip sticks, eye blow pencils, and eye shadows. It works as an intelligent dressing mirror using image recognition technologies to judge her performances and to advice corrections. To communicate between the system and users, a dialog based speech user interface is used. Although the system is still a prototype, it was confirmed that the system is usable and useful.

This paper discusses the usefulness of the Urgent Communication System (UCS) on mobile device that is originally proposed by a hearing impaired person. Since the UCS is simple menu like pictogram sheet and the patient is simply to point the pain portion or severe level by the finger to communicate with remote supporters. Then the UCS is to particularly focus on the communication method of complaint of pain/ache/grief by hearing impaired patients. The UCS is drawn by icons and pictograms with help of minimum selected key words. Ache portions are drawn in the two dimensions. UCS is implemented on mobile touch panels applying nine functions above such as iPad and Android devices to make hearing impaired or language dysfunction people communicate the remote supports in such urgent situations through the IT clouds. Proposed UCS is evaluated by hearing impaired people in the manner of the usability test. The results by the hearing impaired people with UCS are that the time to collaborate is shorter for about 70%. In the interview after the evaluation, many hearing impaired people pointed out that this service will ease their predicted mental concern at the emergency.

This paper describes an effort to develop a new communication supporting environment which engenders a greater sense of social proximity among geographically distributed families, particularly between hospitalized children and their families. We conducted a qualitative study including two in-depth field interviews with in-hospital school teachers and the mother of a hospitalized child. The results from qualitative analysis provided us with insight into the organization of the interactions between the hospitalized child and the family. On the basis of the results, we established a set of design principles and developed four different types of technology prototypes for peripheral communication. The design principles played a splicing role in binding the heterogeneous processes of qualitative research and the development of prototypes. Future works involve the enhancement of design principles and prototypes, and methodological improvements.

According to the report about inconvenient for foreigners, there are a lot of problems when communicating with medical staff in the medical service. Considering the spread of digital personal assistants and mobile phone, we proposed a communication support system using these devices for foreigners, which would be able to be easily used in medical service. In this paper, we developed the communication support system for X-ray examination, especially. From the experimental results, we concluded the effectiveness of our system because necessary time for X-ray examination was shortened when using our system.

The purpose of this study was to develop a screening device for the early detection of glaucoma. We evaluated our proposal system by comparing the results obtained by using the proposed system and Humphrey Field Analyzer (HFA), which was commercially available visual field measurement device. Quantitative evaluation of the proposed system and HFA visual field test results, and calculating the correlation coefficient, we were able to obtain a more moderate positive correlation. This study suggested that the proposed system was potentially useful as an alternate screening device for the detection of the early stage of glaucoma.

To examine the identification of “social actors,” we created an experimental environment to observe how people interpret the behavior of others. Our experimental environment, which physically provided interaction between a human and a computer, was a media system that connected two sides of the experimental environment to a computer network. In our experiment task, participants used our system to determine whether the other party was a human or a computer. In this study, we regard the attribution of agency toward the behaviors of others as a sign of agency identification. Our experiment results suggest that the human identification of “social actors” is induced by the interaction between the target entity and the subjects.

This report proposes a new support system that allows elderly people able to live with a sense of security without the help of other people. In this system, by using sensors, it is possible to watch closely the condition of elderly people from a distant public institution. Furthermore, the significant information to maintain their physical condition is presented by this system. Then, according to an experiment using this system, the possibility is made clear that this system would be useful for the support of elderly people.

This paper addresses design approach of simulation exercise with use of tool to encourage an able-bodied person to understand the situations of a patient suffering from loss of perceptual function and motor function due to brain damage from perspective of human-human communication enhancement. The author considers that a traditional hemiplegia simulation suit provides an experience different from actual experience that a patient has, and has focused on the variance between bodily actions in thinking and feeling and bodily actions in physical situation in order to generate much more realistic experience of being a patient. This paper describes two simulation devices based on this approach: a hemiplegic-gait simulation device and a strange-depth-feeling device, and also discussion of the significance of such simulation exercise and the development of user’s ability to understand the situations of a patient.

The demographic change has tremendous consequences for health care availability, with a growing mismatch between rising numbers of patients and the declining number of care personnel. As a consequence, considerable shortcomings in availability, accessibility, and quality of health care can be expected. Telemedicine and telemonitoring services are promising approaches to compensate this gap, especially for long-term monitoring, nevertheless also within the supply chain of health care. Despite the potential, the acceptance of telemedicine is quite low. In this paper we report on two studies focusing on acceptance of telemedical services. First, chronically ill persons were experimentally studied with respect to their acceptance of telemedical systems. Second, a survey was conducted to assess medical professionals’ points of view. Findings reveal perceived benefits in the context of telemedical services, however, also considerable barriers, especially on the medical doctors’ side. Outcomes may contribute to the development of a sensitive and transparent communication and information strategy for stakeholders, as well as a public awareness for the benefits and the drawbacks of telemedical services.

This paper will discuss how an NFC enabled university campus can provide a wide range of user-friendly advanced services for its students and staff. These services combine information sources related to teaching, room reservation, social networking, proximity sensing, information collection and exchange, calendar services, event notifications, ticketing, loyalty cards, payment and more. In the ongoing NFC City Campus trial the usage of NFC enabled mobile phones, SIM cards as secure elements, and an adaptive infrastructure supporting information integration, demonstrates how NFC can contribute to the development of user friendly advanced services.

Throughout the world, mobile devices have become one of the standard means of communication and data access. With the rapid and continual improvement in technology, these devices have taken on several of the roles that were once restricted to laptops and desktop computers. One of the fastest growing areas for mobile devices is that of GPS navigation. Work in this area has produced a variety of navigation and information apps using GPS satellites. These apps have become very popular in developed countries and as a result, visitors to developing countries generally expect to gain access to some form of information system however basic. This paper presents BARMOTIN a voice controlled mobile tourism information system for the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The social media and related applications were developed and spread fast in our daily lives. Many users of social network sites (SNS) would use social network functions to communicate with their friends, such as share, like (or dislike), check in, upload interesting information to website, etc. Research on visible icons design in SNS user interfaces were one of the most important direct manipulation research issues. Moreover, how the privacy setting in different interaction model were discussed in this study. The results showed that: (1) The well-designed icons illustrated higher concreteness, less complexity, higher familiarity and suitable semantic distance than others; (2) There existed higher privacy setting in personal photo content than landscape photo content; (3) The design element used with most highest percentage was the “man image” because the functions were related to friends’ photos and popular users’ photos in the photo sharing Apps; (4) Different privacy setting considerations were dependent on different interaction models and scenarios.

An increasing number of electronic devices employ touchscreens as the operating method. Among these devices, smartphones have exhibited the most rapid development. To achieve more impressive visual effects, the size of smartphone displays has gradually increased. However, the resulting disadvantage is that these devices cannot be operated using one hand. In situations where users must operate the phone with one hand, some screen areas cannot be reached by their thumb. Thus, the demand for one-handed operation remains. This demand is related to operating convenience, which is obviously not provided by existing products. This study analyzes touchscreen cell phones with varying screen sizes, from 2.55 to 5.3 in, currently available on the market to examine the efficiency of one-handed operation by investigating four operating directions, that is, diagonal, horizontal, vertical, and center-cross. In addition, a customized application was developed to record the operating sequences, frequencies, numbers of errors, and positions of errors to understand the effect that display sizes have on one-handed operation. According to the analysis results, 4-in touchscreen cell phones generated the fewest operating errors, and 3-in touchscreen cell phones provided the shortest operating time. To obtain optimal visual effects, the implementation of 4-in screens for touchscreen cell phones may be the best option for one-handed operation.

This paper describes a middleware platform for user-generated multimedia contents which facilitates visualization and communication of vector-borne diseases (dengue, malaria, etc.). It acts as a community platform, where diverse users from geographically distributed locations can collaborate to seek and contribute multimedia contents of such diseases and related issues (breeding sites, etc.). Some of the essential services supported by the system are display of live hotspots, timeline, multimedia and Twitter-feed visualization, and location based services for both users and authorities. As a proof-of-concept, dengue disease was selected to build services using this platform to observe its capabilities.

When working on a task, mobile device users want to complete their work as quickly and efficiently as possible. In order to accomplish this they must use the navigational tools available on the system’s interface. The importance of control design to user success requires system designers to consider all aspects of interface design: control tool characteristics, target audience demographics, and even frequency of use, to name a few. This research investigates characteristics (shape, location, and depth vs. breadth) of navigational control tools in order to determine their impact on user performance during common tasks on a mobile device. Cue theory predicts that performance is enhanced when cues are provided during decision-making situations. In the current research, controls with appropriate differentiation are expected to provide the cues necessary for users to more quickly identify their desired target.

Research on the behavioral-based security of information systems within organizations and for personal use has been common over the last decade, however little is known regarding how individuals perceive the security of their mobile devices. This study seeks to explore how the security notifications within a mobile application environment alter adoption and security-related beliefs concerning their device. We propose a theoretical model based on the technology adoption and psychological theories, and propose an experiment to test the model. Contributions and implications of the work are then proposed.

At present, there are very few methods to utilize the vibration function in personal digital assistant (PDA) devices, which are simple, but poor in variation. These methods do not effectively use the vibration function’s potential. In our research, we aim to maximize the use of vibration function for communication using PDA devices with the objective of adding a new value to the PDA’s vibration function. We evaluate the relationships between vibrations and images evoked by them. From the results, we found the vibration patterns corresponding to each eight main type of feeling words in Japanese.

In this paper, we describe our developed a new presence display system running on IP-phone. And we also describe the knowledge provided by construction and use of the before system. We thought that we run new presence display system on touch panel display of IP-phone, then we designed and constructed the new system. Our new system is operating since 2010. People’s presence status can be viewed through the web browser such as running on iPad. Presence status on web browser is changed immediately when you change it on an IP-phone. These are used Ajax technology. The presence display is easily customizable in every section. We added the indication of the call state of the telephone to a presence display. Thus you can go to meet a person by the timing when a call was over.

In the near future, interfaces for personal information devices with large touch screens that are capable of processing different types of information in a more intuitive manner will become indispensable. In this study, we developed “MobiGaze.PC,” a system that can achieve stable gaze tracking on a mobile tablet PC. Users can interactively acquire information using both the touch screen and gaze tracking on a mobile device. First, we created the hardware setup using a tablet PC, cameras, and other apparatus. Next, we developed a method of detecting the eye area using a Purkinje image, and the position of the center of the pupil and the Purkinje image in low resolution. We then performed experiments to evaluate the accuracy of these methods. Finally, we developed a number of multimodal applications of the proposed system.

Many types of VR systems have been developed to provide spatial views and surround sound to express high levels of presence. Recently, high-definition TV and 5.1 ch surround sound systems have been made available for watching 3D movies at home. In the near future, more realistic display systems such as “Super Hi-Vision” will be developed and introduced into our homes. However, these types of visual or auditory display systems may require the allocation of a large space for fixed, specialized equipment, and they tend to be expensive. Moreover, compared to the amount of free contents on the Web, highly realistic contents for such systems are still lacking. In this study, we propose a spatial audiovisual display system that comprises multiple mobile devices and a Web-based design system, which allows average users to create and share spatial audio content on the Web.

Residents’ Disaster Prevention Organization (or Self-protection Organization against Disaster) is defined as “voluntary disaster prevention organization based on mutual help of residents” in Basic Counter Disaster Act which was enacted in 1961 in Japan. Although the organizations have national average household coverage ratio of over 75 percent, residents often do not recognize they are registered as member of organization. Furthermore, activities such as safety inquiry, and registration and management at evacuation centers are paper based, making them unable to utilize the latest ICT technologies and resulting in ineffective and inefficient evacuation support activities. In this paper, based on a national web survey conducted in 2011, we will reveal residents’ participation in Residents’ Disaster Prevention Organization, as well as explore how ICT can support the organizations in times of disaster. In order to change personal data into social information, which is necessary when safety inquiry and registration at evacuation center are conducted under disaster, we propose a prototype information system utilizing QR code and GIS (Geographic Information System), which its effectiveness was validated by questionnaire responded by disaster drill participants.

The need to reduce aircraft accidents and incidents is paramount in general aviation, specifically, those attributed to aeronautical decision-making and poor judgment. Accident statistics confirms aeronautical decision-making and poor judgment as a significant contributor to general aviation accidents and incidents (Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association, 2010). The absence of a positive safety culture in general aviation to include training organizations affects pilot judgment and decision making. The learning process and education through actual and simulated flight training and the relationship of a positive safety culture during the learning process and training is of importance and currently under study using the Frasca mentor Advance Aviation Training Device.

In the past years we have seen overwhelming information abundance in the automotive domain. Numerous advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle information systems (IVIS) are introduced even in middle-sized class cars. In the future, new technologies based on Vehicle-2-X Communication (V2X) open a wide range of safety, traffic efficiency and infotainment applications. In order to ensure driving safety, user-friendly information presentation and interaction are inalienable for automotive applications. However, conflicts between numerous applications running in parallel will inevitably occur: On the one hand, there exist spatial and technical constraints at a driver’s workplace. On the other hand, a driver has limited cognitive resources to spare for additional information perception. This paper elaborates on a generic Automotive HMI concept, which provides a coordination layer for independent applications. The implementation was applied to a field operational test for V2X providing a suitable test-bed for evaluation in real traffic scenarios with over 30 applications.

Our previous study proposed Deceleration for Collision Avoidance (DCA) as an new index for use when evaluating collision risk against forward obstacles. The present manuscript proposes four non-dimensional parameter indices which are based mainly on the DCA, in order to provide quantitative assessment of safe driving behavior. Numerical simulations are performed to verify validity of the proposed indices.

In a rapidly aged society, providing mobility aids such as motorized wheelchairs is becoming increasingly important. Although such mobility aids have recently been developed with autonomous locomotion functions, their technologies and locomotive styles are basically based on unmanned vehicles, not on welfare mobility aids. In order to realize harmonious autonomous locomotion, this research proposed the concept of "Interpersonal Contexts on pedestrian areas", and developed prototype technologies utilizing the contexts: velocity control based on interaction prediction of surrounding pedestrians, and interactive collision avoidance based on surrounding mobility type. This paper explains briefly their functions and results, and discussed their utilities based on the interpersonal contexts.

It is becoming an important issue to develop methods to evaluate driving capability of cognitively impaired persons. In this paper, we conducted an experiment, by using a small and low-fidelity driving simulator (a Honda Safety-Navi), to collect driving data of several categories of drivers in order to understand what kind of driving activities could be degraded due to the cognitive disabilities. Healthy non-professional drivers, healthy professional bus drivers, patients but not cognitively impaired, drivers cognitively impaired by “higher brain dysfunction” were compared. The results showed that degradation of the skill to stop at an appropriate point required by a stop line is a useful index of the whole driving skill in the experimental conditions.

This research was undertaken to explore how the safety margin influenced the occurrence of the risk-taking behavior that violated the rules through an experiment where the participants were required to carry out a go-around task in which a simulated railroad crossing was included. Three levels of the waiting time for the train coming with the flashing light signal at the crossing were settled as the safety margins. The results of the experiment suggested that the large safety margin might cause to make the subjective probability of the failure of the violation and the subjective probability of receiving punishment for the violation decreased and the tendency toward the violation. The results of the simulation suggested that the violation occurrence could be explained by the expected utility theory.

Alarm system is one of the most important element of the plant-operator interfaces in the industrial plants. Alarm lifecycle management is very important to maintain the safety, quality, environmental and economic efficiency of the plant. In our previous study, we proposed the method to select adequate alarm variables and evaluation method in diagnostic and timely manner. In this study, we proposed a method to determine the setpoints for alarm system using three indices and the results of dynamic process simulation on the rationalization stage of the lifecycle of alarm management. And we also presented feasibility of our method by demonstration of a case study.

Previous studies have proposed educational methods to improve the basic driving behaviors of unsafe drivers by evaluating their actual driving behaviors. In this paper, we report on applying the teaching methods proposed by previous studies to a new method for bicyclists to improve their safe riding behavior and awareness. The results of our education experiments indicated that it was important for a rider to increase the chance of noticing a crossing bicycle by confirming safety by looking right and left. The participants did not have this knowledge before the education. After the bicycle riding simulation and education, they understood it was effective to confirm safety by looking right and left to decrease the risk of an accident.

Soft control is one of the major characteristics of advanced main control rooms (MCRs) in nuclear power plants, which have been recently developed using digital and computer technologies. Various kinds of advanced MCR designs have been proposed with their own features, and every design has advantageous and disadvantageous effects on operator performance. In this work, to observe operator behaviors using soft controls, the simulation data were analyzed. The analysis results showed that the interface management tasks occupy a large portion compared to the primary tasks in providing control inputs to the devices. These additional tasks required for performing an operation cause further possibility of human errors. Therefore, it is necessary to design an interface that can optimize the additional tasks for preventing errors. Through human error analyses for interface designs, a more human error preventive design is achievable.

Issues of Human-Machine Interaction in the aircraft’s cockpit are well known as causes of events that collaborate with material and human losses. In this scenario, the design and evaluation of interfaces must follow rigorous methods. The objective of this work is to develop an evaluation method of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) within the cockpit in order to reduce erroneous actions. This method is based on theories and techniques from the Organizational Semiotics (OS) field. The feasibility of the proposed method was investigated in a case study in an aeronautical simulated scenario with the participation of three pilots. The intention is contribute to the advancement of knowledge in HCI cockpit environment, particularly in the understanding of human factors related to semantic, pragmatics and the situational awareness aspects of the interaction with computing devices, as well as creates a feasible method to evaluate these factors during the execution of the mission’ tasks.

The present study explored the effectiveness of different symbol features in facilitating participants’ ability to extract important information in visually-cluttered displays. Participants were presented with arrays of visual symbols consisting of a number of visual targets amidst distractor symbols. The participants had to decide as quickly and accurately as possible whether there were more targets or more distractors present in the array. Symbol features (color, fill, letter, and shape) were varied on a block-to-block basis, while set size and ratio of targets to distractors (easy/20:80 or difficult/40:60) were varied on a trial-by-trial basis. The results of this experiment revealed that search based on color gave rise to the best performance, while search based on shape gave rise to the worst performance. When selecting features that might aid in the rapid extraction of important air traffic information, the results of the present study suggest that the use of color coding may be most effective.

This paper discusses a way to detect the driver’s intention to decelerate the vehicle in a car-following situation. In the present study, a field observation of a car driving and an experiment were conducted. In the field observation, the data were collected for analyzing a driver’s maneuvering of the accelerator and brake pedals in order to design a system that can detect the driver’s intention to deceleration. The method based on the covering brake pedal found to be highly reliable. In the experiment, an investigation using an experimental vehicle and a test course was conducted to evaluate the influence of the proposed system on the driver behavior. The experimental results showed that the system was effective in improving the driver’s accelerator release time (ART) and the brake onset time (BOT).

This study evaluates the effect of prioritizing right-turning vehicles in traffic flow not only at an artificial intersection but also at an existing corridor equipped with several intersections. The traffic simulator used in this study quantifies the effect of prioritizing a right-turning vehicle on traffic efficiency, safety, and the environment of an intersection. The ratio of prioritizing a right-turning vehicle is given as stochastic probability density functions. Numerical analysis showed that low traffic demand and low probability of prioritizing a right-turning vehicle brought significant improvement to traffic efficiency, safety and the environment. The effect was as significant as installing a general right-turn pocket and its special signal phase. It was concluded that humans have potential to improve this efficiency as significant as that of when a right-turn pocket is installed, which is costly and time-consuming.

This study uses collision-prevention support information at a blind intersection as an example to discuss a methodology for estimating the collision mitigation ratio when the collision avoidance information is used by a driver. It also discusses the acceptable delay time for information presentation regarding a crossing vehicle at a blind intersection. First, driver performance in terms of braking timing and deceleration operation for collision avoidance was analyzed in a driving simulator when the onset timing of the information to notify the driver about a crossing vehicle was changed. Next, a driver model was constructed that simulated a braking operation when a crossing vehicle appeared at a blind intersection where there were no traffic signals. Through Monte Carlo simulations using this driver model, an estimation was made of the frequency of collisions to vehicles crossing the blind intersection. In addition to this estimation, the acceptable delay time for presenting the information was estimated. One of the results indicates that the delay time should be less than 2 s. This means the information should be presented to the driver when the time to collision (TTC) is longer than 3 s to mitigate the probability of collision.

The aim of this study is to examine the differences of operability between dominant hand and non-dominant hand in car driving context, especially in operating of touch screen of car navigation system. For the operation of touch screen of car navigation system during car driving, the primary task is of course car driving, and the secondary task is the operation of the touch screen for a car navigation system. In this study, we drove 2 kinds of experiments; the 1st experiment was to investigate the basic usage for touch screen, and the 2nd experiment was to examine the characteristics under dual tasks; the primary and the secondary tasks. As a result, in case of single task, we could find significant differences between with dominant hand and with non-dominant hand. On the other hand, in case of dual task, we could not find significant differences so much, but only when the secondary task was not so complicated we could find statistical difference between dominant hand and non-dominant hand.

The burgeoning use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) has required the rapid response of stakeholders to identify best practices in the selection and training of UAS operators and managers. This paper examines the Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Other aspects (KSAs/KSAOs) that have been identified as necessary of UAS operators. Historical studies on KSAs are outlined and commonalities in KSAs among UAS platforms are identified. Further, best practices for KSA enhancement training, such as Simulation Based Training (SBT) and Scenario Based Training (ScBT), are described. Example training scenario development is provided as is a sample training event utilizing the outlined practices is given.

Haptic guidance provides good affinity between the driver and the assist control system for steering assist control automobiles. It is expected that haptic shared control can achieve smooth transferring of automation authority between human and automated system because it involves continuous physical interaction. Many research studies have derived smooth transferring control authority between human and machine based on such environmental factors as position in a lane. However, it is difficult to change control authority smoothly when the driver’s intent changes, due to difficulty of detecting such change. Thus, the present study proposes a method to estimate the cooperative relationship between human and machine in the haptic guidance control of a steering assist system. In addition, a gain-tuning control method based on detection of cooperative status is proposed. The proposed control method is applied to a lane-keeping assist control that enables the driver to change lanes smoothly. Finally, its effectiveness is demonstrated by experiment results using a driving simulator.

Using a simulated ground control station, this study documents the methods for measuring the verbal response and execution time of unmanned aerial system (UAS) pilots to direct commands from air traffic controllers (ATCos). Although prior research has examined characteristics of ATCo-manned aircraft communication, there is very little literature on response times of UAS-ATCo communication. Thus, there is a great need to examine the measured response of UAS pilots to ATCo commands given that there will be more extensive inclusion of UAS operations in the national airspace in the near future. The present paper aims to provide a methodology for measuring part of the UAS and ATCo interaction, one that can be used in future studies involving UAS operations in the national airspace.