Revista Romana de Interactiune Om-Calculator

1-6

Authors: Ahmed Seffah

User interface design patterns also called HCI or interaction or usability patterns have been introduced first as a medium to capture and represent solutions to users’ problems. Patterns have been used also as a medium for transferring the expertise of HCI designers and usability professionals to software engineers, who are usually unfamiliar with UI design and usability principles. Design patterns have been considered also as a lingua franca for crossing cultural and professional barriers between different stakeholders. Several HCI professionals have introduced their own pattern languages with specific terminology, classification and meanings. Patterns have also been presented as building reusable blocks at different levels of granularity, which can be combined to compose new interactive systems. Despite the obvious and acclaimed potential of these pattern-driven design approaches, patterns usage has not achieved the acceptance and widespread applicability envisaged by pattern pioneers such as Christopher Alexander. This paper provides an analysis of the facts about patterns usages, pattern languages and pattern-based design approaches. Some shortcomings in the presentation and application of HCI patterns are identified and discussed under the prevailing fallacies. Based on the analysis of how patterns have used so far, we draw some recommendations and future perspectives on what can be done to address the existing shortcomings. Making patterns more accessible, easily understandable, comparable and integratable in software and HCI design tools can promote HCI patterns to claim the usability, usefulness and importance originally envisaged for the pattern-oriented design approach.

11-14

Authors: Ion Smeureanu, Narcisa Isaila

For people with visual impairments, especially for the blind persons, the access to scientific content raises issues of accessibility both to reading web documents, which contain specific elements of mathematics as images, with or without alternative text and reading from files containing mathematical expressions. The utility of applications for synthesis of artificial language from a text (the mathematical expressions are converted into textual form using editors) written in Romanian language is undeniable, given that increased the concerns for the creation of facilities designed to contribute to a better integration of persons with disabilities in society. The purpose of this paper is the result of research in education field, namely the access to science, integrating the facilities audio presentation of information.

19-22

Authors: Paul Fogarassy-Neszly, Iulius Szijjarto

This paper present a software instrument dedicated for Graphical User Interfaces accessibility analysis. The presentation is realized through a case study presenting the way this instrument works. There are presented some accessibility deficiencies for the analyzed application and recommendations for accessibility improvement.

29-32

Authors: Delia Mitrea, Sergiu Nedevschi, Dorian Gorgan

The automatic, computerized recognition of the emotional states based on the facial expression represents an important step towards the elimination of the communication gaps that exist between the man and the machine. The corresponding methods have multiple practical applications. The human face is the most important element able to provide useful information concerning the emotional and affective state, besides the body position. The detection of the facial expression through computer vision based methods represents an efficient solution, in both concerning accuracy and cost. In this paper we will present the most relevant methods that exist in the corresponding domain, at national al international level, then we will describe our own solution, based on the computation of potentially useful imagistic features and on the application of some performant classification algorithms. The imagistic features refer to the shape and orientation of the facial elements (eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin, brow) in the context of a certain emotional state. We also establish the relevance of the determined imagistic features and the role that various facial regions play in the process of facial expression recognition

37-44

Authors: Danut Mihon, Victor Bâcu, Teodor Stefanut, Dorian Gorgan

Environmental applications have an increasing role in the modern society and in the life of human kind, through the services they offer (e.g. meteorological prediction, wheatear forecast, etc). Unfortunately most of the natural phenomena prediction models work with large sets of parameters and unknown values that have to be calibrated. This operation is high computing power consuming, because of the large volume of data needed to be processed. GreenView and GreenLand are two environmental applications that use Grid infrastructure for the execution phase. The interactive interface of the two applications facilitates their usage, by hiding from the user the internal complexity of the Grid processing. GreenView and GreenLand offer the user different HCI (Human Computer Interaction) techniques regarding the monitoring of the temperature distribution and vegetation growth distribution over worldwide geographical areas.

51-54

Authors: Florin Girbacia, Andreea Beraru, Eugen Butila

In this paper an experimental study that aimed depth perception of virtual prototypes in an immersive environment compared with the depth perception of virtual prototypes using 2D LCD monitor is presented. The experiment carried out shows that perceived depth values estimated for virtual prototypes is significantly influenced by the stereoscopic visualization. Another interesting result of the study was that the estimated depth accuracy significantly increases with the depth size that has to be perceived. The results of conducted experimental study illustrate that the use of immersive stereoscopic visualization is useful during Computer Aided Design related activities.

59-64

Authors: Gabriel Zamfir

Currently, cognitive development is based on diversifying activities which depend on use of personal computers. In terms of technology, the modern world is constantly developing, with its systems becoming more efficient, with which an individual or group of individuals endowed with a rich amount of knowledge systematically, offering increasingly diversified. From a social perspective, the difficulty lies precisely to teach the knowledge workers in order to understand and apply available technology. This paper analyzes and summarizes learning problems by reconsidering the relationship between theory and practice. A new paradigm is proposed, focused on didactics developed in an assisted instruction environment. By this approach, the teacher - personal computer - student triad reflected in education activities are highlighted, in human-computer interaction context.

71-74

Authors: Adrian Iftene, Ancuta Rotaru

Today Web developers try to create customized Web pages that are specific for every user, based on characteristics such as their interests, social class they belong to them or the context in which they access the pages. Web application that we built it helps the two categories of users (students and teachers) to communicate more easily from a distance. One of the basic components of this system identifies similar questions posted by students on basis of the question type and answer type and based on common keywords. This component helps the student first, because it can quickly get an acceptable answer to his question, from a similar question that already exist in the system, with already responded from the teacher. Secondly it helps the teacher, because when a student no longer wishes to answer the question (being satisfied with the answer given), he can mark the question to not longer is forwarded to the teacher. In this way, the system automatically reduces the number of questions requiring a response from the teacher.

81-84

Authors: Adriana Reveiu, Marian Dardala

This paper proposes a solution based on templates for generating multimedia components for distributed training systems, which can be used in applications that run on both PCs and mobile devices. The purpose of this solution is to provide access to training resources, usually available in classrooms through personal computers, in other locations, using mobile devices. To become useful tools in education, the technical solutions proposed aimed to use the potential of mobile devices and adapting educational content to the specific characteristics of mobile devices, communications networks, user preferences and user’s knowledge.

91-94

Authors: Sabin-Corneliu Buraga, Ecaterina Valica

Paper presents the use of design patterns as a solution for redesigning the interaction between visitors and the search engine of an academic Web site – in this case, the collaborative XWiki-based Web site of the Faculty of Computer Science, „A. I. Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania.

101-104

Authors: Liviu Adrian Cotfas, Andreea Diosteanu

This article analyzes possible solutions for improving Location-based Services (LBS) by using genetic algorithms and intelligent agents. The proposed solution enables identifying the points of interest based on the user profile and on the current context, and also generating routes in multi-modal and multi-operator public transport networks. The route generator process is based on a genetic algorithm that offers users the possibility to have a flexible restriction set for quantifying the importance degree of each associated optimization criterion. Therefore, we add an additional level of personalization over the exclusive use of fixed constraints set in the route identification process. The points of interest are represented by using intelligent agents and the communication between them is realized with the help of predefined ontologies.

109-114

Authors: Victor Bâcu, Dorian Gorgan

The degree of usability of the Grid applications by specialists in other fields than computer science is low. This is due to the lack of interactive components integrated in the Grid platforms that allow a transparent access to Grid infrastructure. The majority of the Grid applications may only be used through command line scripts. An environment for Grid application development should provide interactive components for data management and workflows on Grid and interactive components for development and inclusion of operators. In this paper we present an architecture of such a development environment with emphasis on interaction techniques and interactive components.

119-122

Authors: Mihai Anitei, Mihaela Chraif, Claudiu Papasteri, Neacsu Andrei, Ciolacu Mihai

The scientific data obtained by the polygraph technique concerning the human psychophysiological reactivity has been disputed by a part of the scientific community, who invoke the lack of consistent theories which would sustain the existence of clear, causal links between the cognitive processes involved in simulation and the measured physiological peripheral parameters (respiratory parameters, cardiovascular parameters, galvanic skin response). In this context, neurosciences are all the more looked upon to explain the approach of the cognitive level of simulated behavior, in the attempt to understand the neurophysiological basis of the underlying mental processes. This article emphasises the utility of the LX 4000- version 9.9.5. used by the Lafayette model 4000 polygraph in detecting and analising the human psychophysiological reactivity to different stimuli and during superior cognitive processes. The conclusions of this article demonstrate that the operationalization of these technologies must be synchronized with the fundamental research which targets the elaboration of solid scientific theories concerning simulated behavior.

127-130

Authors: Ana Maria Marhan

Most HCI principles and design recommendations have been tested and refined in the process of developing computer interfaces for the adult user. During the last few years, a growing demand for new sets of recommendations has occurred. This paper discusses an example of guidelines to be specifically used in the process of design and evaluation of computer interfaces for very young users, especially children entering formal education system (5 to 8 years old).

81-96

Authors: Claudiu Musat, Marian-Andrei Rizoiu, Stefan Trausan-Matu1

Topic modeling is a growing research field and novel ways of interpreting and evaluating results are necessary. We propose a method for evaluating and improving the performance of topic models generating algorithms relying on WordNet data. We first propose a measure for determining a topic model’s fitness factoring in its broadness and redundancy. Then, for each individual topic, the amount of relevant information it provides, along with its most important words and related concepts are determined by defining a cohesion function based on the topic’s projection on WordNet concepts. The model as a whole is improved by eliminating each topic’s outliers with respect to the ontology projection. We define a inter topic ontology based distance and we further use it to investigate the impact of removing redundant topics from a model with regard to the overlap between topics’ ontological projections. Clustering similar topics into conceptually cohesive groups is tried as an alternative to pruning less relevant topics. Results show that evaluating and improving statistical models with WordNet is a promising research track that leads to more coherent topic models.

125-138

Authors: Dragos Daniel Iordache

Nowadays, the e-learning applications are integrated in most of curricular areas and scholar cycles. In this context, the perceived utility of these applications at end-user level is an important issue. A series of theories and models (Technology Acceptance Model - TAM, Innovation Diffusion Theory – IDT, Student Integration Model - SIM) have been developed regarding the acceptance of informatics technologies in general and the e-learning technologies in particular. This paper is focussing on the main aspects of the acceptance theories and models in the context of e-learning applications.

157-170

Authors: Mihai Anitei, Mihaela Chraif, Claudiu Papasteri, Andrei Neacsşu

The facial microexpresions had been situated in the main stream of research for over 5 decades. Therefore, Eakman highlighted two main directions: the possibility to learn the facial microepressions and to learn how to code and analyze the facial microexpresion in different situations. This study highlights the importance of facial microexpressions simulation in human memory retrieval. Learning to code and analyze the facial microexpressions od relevant for selection interview, education, selling and marketing. This way people can express conscious and unconscious the facial microexpressions. The role of the psychologist is focused on the facial microexpressions interpretation making the differences between the true or simulated emotions.

1-16

Authors: Felix Hamza-Lup, Elizabeth Murrell, James LaPlant, William Baird, Dorin-Mircea Popovici

3D simulations augment the presentation of abstract concepts by enhancing our understanding. However, most simulations only make use of two of our five senses: sight and hearing. If we employ additional sensory communication channels in these simulations, we may gain a deeper understanding of illustrated concepts by increasing the communication bandwidth and providing alternative perspectives. We present the implementation of the sense of touch in 3D simulations for teaching important concepts from introductory physics. Specifically, we have developed a visuo-haptic simulator that illustrates friction. We hypothesize that interactive 3D haptic simulations are useful for engaging students in subject study and allowing them to put into context the material presented.

33-52

Authors: Sabin-Corneliu Buraga, Alexandru Angelescu, Petrica Manoila

This article is presenting the multiple relationships that could be established between users and electronic games. The paper presents several considerations regarding the main characteristics and the roles of human factor in the context of entertainment applications. We mainly refer to the design of most important game types. Our research includes an original case study – the development of a combative game deployed on the XNA platform –, developed on the basis of discussed aspects and certain interaction design patterns.

65-79

Authors: Marian Padure

The interaction between the visually impaired user and the assistive technology offered the possibility to structure a new professional and educational approach, very much in conformity with the present social system's requirements. Nonetheless, we must take into consideration also the personality traits involved in this interaction and the changes that occur consequently to this interaction. In this article, we wanted to present a synthesis of the research already undertaken at a national level in the past few years and also to present the main conclusions from a technical, occupational and educational perspective, along with future research paths in the field of the interaction between the visually impaired user and the assistive technologies, which impose themselves on medium and long term in our country.