Revista Romana de Interactiune Om-Calculator

9-12

Authors: Paul - Alexandru Chiriţă

As the software industry has evolved into having solutions for many of our basic needs, User Experience (UX) looks like the next big thing to invest in, especially in the enterprise world. This paper presents three development directions I consider crucial for UX design in the years to come: (1) Bringing the design inspiration process closer to designers’ tools and making it more organized, (2) Further optimizing current content creation algorithms, and especially (3) Evaluating new designs with the masses, in a semi-automated fashion.

17-24

Authors: Iulia Pasov, Stefan Trausan-Matu, Traian Rebedea

utilizată în comunicarea mediată de computer (CMC) precum şi în sprijinirea experiențelor educaționale pe calculator. Acest studiu se bazează pe un model numit comunitate de interes (“community of inquiry”) ce constă în trei elemente esențiale ale unui proces educaţional: prezenţa cognitivă, socială şi educativă. Indicatori (cuvinte, expresii) pentru fiecare dintre cele trei elemente se obțin în urma analizei textelor. Acești indicatori reprezintă șabloane pe care cercetătorii le folosesc pentru a analiza niște comunicări scrise, dar şi pentru a ghida personalul didactic spre a utiliza conferințele computerizate cât mai eficient, ca pe un mediu ce facilitează dezvoltarea educației. Prin acest studiu se demonstrează că orice conferință computerizată are potențialul de a crea o comunitate cu scopuri educaționale

29-34

Authors: Mihai Dascălu, Ștefan Trăușan-Matu, Traian Rebedea, Diana Lupan, Ștefan Bobocescu-Kesikis

Articolul introduce un model de analiză al discursului, particularizat pe discuții de tip chat, care este utilizat pentru evaluarea colaborării rezultată în urma întrețeserii diverselor perspective ale participanților la conversație. Modelul este derivat din dialogism si este axat pe reliefarea celor 3 concepte centrale ale analizei: replica, ecoul și vocea, în lipsa cărora nu am fi avut o percepție profundă și holistică asupra discursului. Traseul evaluării pornește de la oferirea suportului pentru desfășurarea discuției prin intermediul mediului de colaborare pus la dispoziția participanților, modelează discuția pe baza grafului de replici rezultat și oferă feedback la nivel de colaborare și implicare de-a lungul firelor de discuție. În esență, analiza ia în considerare aspecte cantitative cuantificate prin implicarea activă în discuție, calitative la nivelul cognitiei și al relevanței fiecărei replici, precum și sociale din perspectiva inter-animării diverselor voci.

43-48

Authors: Dragos Daniel Iordache, Costin Pribeanu

Tehnologiile bazate pe realitate îmbogăţită – AR (Augmented Reality) crează noi oportunităţi de creştere a motivaţiei pentru învăţare în rândul elevilor. Integrarea dintre real şi virtual necesită tehnici de interacţiune specifice, fapt care face mai dificilă dezvoltarea de aplicaţii utilizabile în acest domeniu. Metodele individuale de evaluare a utilizabilităţii prezintă avantaje specifice dar şi limite atunci când sunt aplicate în mod izolat. Aceasta sugerează utilizarea unei metodologii mixte de cercetare. Această lucrare prezintă o analiză, a impactului pe care o au problemele de utilizabilitate asupra utilităţii şi plăcerii percepute, bazată pe triangularea datelor cantitative şi calitative.

53-58

Authors: Paul Fogarassy-Neszly

În acest articol sunt descrise aplicaţii software şi hardware cu interfaţă vocală. Scopul acestora este pe de o parte de a asigura accesul persoanelor cu deficienţe de citire la tehnica de calcul şi comunicare, iar pe de altă parte de a îmbunătăţi uzabilitatea şi ergonomia acestora. Sunt prezentate atât aplicaţii informatice şi dispozitive pentru persoane cu deficienţe de vedere, cât şi de uz general.

63-66

Authors: Cristian Rusu, Dorian Gorgan, Silvana Roncagliolo, Virginica Rusu

Utilizabilitatea aplicaţiilor bazate pe noi tehnologii ridică noi probleme. Sunt necesare noi metode de evaluare sau (cel puţin) metodele clasice ar trebui adaptate noilor realitaţi/cerinţe. Una dintre cele mai cunoscute metode de evaluare a utilizabilităţii este evaluarea euristică. Mulţi autori au propus seturi specifice de euristici de utilizabilitate, pentru aplicaţii specifice. Procesul de dezvoltare a noilor euristici este puţin formalizat şi (foarte) rar documentat. Lucrarea de faţă prezintă o propunere de metodologie de dezvoltare de noi euristici de utilizabilitate. Se exemplifică aplicarea metodologiei în cazul dezvoltării de euristici de utilizabilitate pentru aplicaţii Grid Computing.

71-74

Authors: Ana-Maria Borozan, Ileana Trandafir

Lucrarea prezintă câteva aspecte privind proiectarea şi realizarea unui sistem de management al conţinutului educaţional destinat învăţării orientate pe competenţe. În realizarea sistemului au fost luate în considerare o serie de aspecte specifice şi cerinţe la care sistemele de e-learning orientate pe competenţe trebuie să răspundă: • crearea sinergiei dintre procesele de învăţare - instruire şi managementul cunoştinţelor; • o nouă abordare privind dobândirea de competenţe şi învăţarea la locul de muncă, procesul de învăţare continuă în care competenţa trebuie să constituie un echilibru între interesul individual şi cel al organizaţiei; • structurarea conţinutului şi evidenţierea unor aspecte semantice care să permită personalizarea şi ghidarea la nivel individual a învăţării / instruirii; • compatibilitatea cu standardele internaţionale care asigură reutilizarea conţinutului educaţional în diferite contexte şi interoperabilitatea sistemelor de e-learning şi de management al resurselor umane. Aceste obiective şi cerinţe sunt corelate cu obiectivele actuale ale cercetărilor la nivel european din Programul cadru 7, 2007-2013, în domeniul Technology Enhanced Learning (TeLearn).

79-82

Authors: Alexandru Balog

În acest articol se definesc dimensiunile calităţii serviciilor de e-learning în scopul dezvoltării unui instrument de măsurare. Sunt trecute în revistă realizările în domeniu şi sunt prezentate fundamentele teoretice ale modelului. Se defineşte un model multidimensional şi ierarhic printr-un factor de ordinul trei (calitatea serviciului de e-learning), trei dimensiuni modelate ca factori de ordinul doi (calitatea interfeţei, calitatea interacţiunii, calitatea rezultatului) şi nouă subdimensiuni modelate ca factori de ordinul unu. În final se prezintă modul de continuare a cercetării.

91-94

Authors: Dragos Catalin Barbu, Dragos Nicolau

În producţia de ţesături, pentru asigurarea calităţii, detectarea defectelor este un pas vital. Această lucrare prezintă un sistem de detectare a defectelor în ţesături în timp real care necesită algoritmi eficienţi şi puternici de detectare a defectelor. Pe baza caracteristicilor structurii ţesăturilor, folosim modelele local binare (Local Binary Patterns – LBP) pentru a detecta defectele în ţesături. Datorită caracteristicilor subtile ale defectelor, inspecţia defectelor din ţesături este deosebit de dificilă dar şi datorită variaţiilor în textura ţesăturii şi modificărilor factorilor de mediu (de ex.: iluminare, zgomot, etc.). Implementarea online a algoritmilor a arătat că poate fi implementat cu resurse disponibile în mod obişnuit şi poate fi adaptată pentru aplicaţii industriale.

99-102

Authors: Claudiu Mera, Dorian Gorgan

În acest articol vom descrie realizarea unei aplicaţii de vizualizare interactivă la distanţă a unor scene de obiecte 3D. În acest scop, se prezintă o aplicaţie interactivă care permite atât utilizatorilor unor sisteme cu capabilităţi grafice reduse, cât şi celor având sisteme performante, să vizualizeze scene ale căror complexitate grafică implică un efort de calcul semnificativ. Sunt introduse aspecte teoretice legate de activitatea curentă în acest domeniu. În finalul lucrării, se prezintă realizările obţinute prin implementarea aplicaţiei.

107-110

Authors: Mihaela Coneac, Adrian Iftene

În acest articol se prezintă cum poate fi folosită gestica mâinii în interacțiunea om-calculator. Acest tip de interacțiune poate fi foarte util în cazul persoanelor, care întâmpină de obicei dificultăți, atunci când trebuie să folosească tastatura sau mouse-ul, pentru a putea utiliza calculatorul. Evaluarea pe care am realizat-o ne confirmă acest lucru, subiecții umani care au participat la experiment arătându-se încântați de faptul că pot cu ajutorul mâinii să dea mult mai ușor comenzi uzuale.

115-118

Authors: Marian Dardala, Adriana Reveiu, Titus Felix Furtună

Articolul își propune să prezinte o arhitectură software de implementare a unui model de realitate virtuală în cadrul sistemelor informatice geografice (GIS). Datele spațiale oferă o perspectivă schematică a realității, de aceea se impune a folosi și date raster pentru a da mai mult realism arealului geografic studiat. Folosirea imaginilor drept fundal pentru zona geografică studiată reprezintă o modalitate simplă de a reflecta mai exact realitatea din teren. Imaginile satelitare, ortofotoplanurile sunt câteva surse de astfel de date raster care pot fi folosite în GIS. In cazul unui areal urban, modelele de realitate virtuală imersivă sunt printre cele mai adecvate în a prezenta fidel realitatea.

123-126

Authors: Emil Stanescu, Ileana Stanescu

In cadrul lucrării prezentăm unele concepte şi tendinţe referitoare la micşorarea complexităţii interacţiunii unui utilizator cu echipamentele pe care le are la dispoziţie în cadrul unui spaţiu inteligent. Spaţiul inteligent conţine o varietate de echipamente şi aplicaţii software care oferă informaţii şi se adaptează la contextul existent în acest mediu. Contextul şi conştientizarea contextului în cadrul sistemelor de calcul capătă o importanţă din ce în ce mai mare prin proliferarea echipamentelor de calcul şi a senzorilor care înconjoară un utilizator mobil. Contextul poate fi privit pe diferite paliere putând fi folosit atât pentru îmbunătăţirea interfeţei cu utilizatorul cât şi pentru furnizarea unor servicii adaptate contextului existent. Ca studiu de caz referitor la îmbunătăţirea interacţiunii omcalculator, prezentăm o abordare recentă de conectare wireless inteligentă a unui terminal, care dispune de interfeţe de reţea multiple, la puncte de acces ale unor reţele de comunicaţie care folosesc tehnologii diferite. Această conectare se face fără a fi nevoie de intervenţia utilizatorului pentru selectarea punctelor de acces la reţelele respective.

109-130

Authors: Verginica Barbu Mititelu

Assuming the perspective of automatically identifying derived words and their bases in the Romanian wordnet, with the aim of enriching it with derivational relations and semantic labels associated to them, in this article we present the results of a case study whose aim was to automatically identify suffixes by means of which new words are created in Romanian. In the beginning of the paper we make a brief overview of derivation in Romanian, also anticipating the challenges of our study. For the automatic identification of the suffixes in words we used generalized suffix trees for representing the lemmas in an electronic Romanian lexicon. We imposed a series of filters, identified via observation, by means of which we improved the results. For the evaluation of the identified suffixes we used gold standard lists of suffixes grouped according to the part of speech of the derived words. The evaluation of results was performed in three stages, by comparing them with the gold standard list of suffixes, with the gold standard list of suffixes and suffixoides, and with the unified gold standard list of suffixes and suffixoides of the parts of speech displaying homonymy in Romanian. We showed how the precision and accuracy of the algorithm change with the threshold imposed on the productivity of suffixes. The present study reveals the necessary knowledge for recognizing the morphological structure of words, the difficulties encountered in this process, and also the importance of this study for linguistic research, for the Artificial Intelligence domain, in tasks such as information retrieval, summarization, question answering and all the other tasks relying on natural language processing.

157-174

Authors: Constantin Prica

The belief that computers cannot play a central role in music composition is wrong. Research has been conducted in this field for over 50 years. In this paper, we propose an application which can be of real help to a composer in the music composition process. The chosen music genre is one that is highly formalized, namely strict counterpoint. The rules and constraints of the genre are suitable for a recursive implementation of generating and testing candidates. Using this method, the application composes up to 10.000 lines of valid counterpoint. The results are promising, being similar to those presented by a human composer. The aid provided by computers, if accepted, could transform music composition.

23-50

Authors: Maria Roditis, Andreea Tabacariu, Stefan Trausan-Matu

The article presents recommendation systems in terms of the most important aspects and types of algorithms used in different approaches and implementations, as well as issues which arise and need to be overcome. The application presented in this article was developed based on a combination of multiple ways to recommend images. The proposed model brings quality results using the following aspects of recommendation: social - by applying the concept of collaborative filtering, visual - by calculating the similarities between the visual features extracted from images, semantic - using metrics based on WordNet similarity between terms, and also by integrating a SVM classifier for recognition of scene types based on visual aspects. We present in detail the scientific methods and the architectural design used in our proposed system.

65-80

Authors: Costin Pribeanu

Up to now few approaches to usability evaluation exist that are using structural models to analyze the causal relations between various factors influencing the quality of use and / or the intention to use. Also, few measurement models exist that are including composite constructs targeting several dimensions. Adequate specification of measurement models according to the nature of construct and direction of causal relations between a construct and its measures is an important research topic in recent years. In this paper a synthesis of recent advances in formative models specification and validation methodology is presented. The methodology was applied to develop a structural model having as focal variable a composite construct measured with formative indicators. The purpose of this study is to get more insights into specific usability issues and to analyze the relationship between usability and the perceived enjoyment.

7-10

Authors: Ana-Maria Borozan, Ileana Trandafir

The paper presents some specific aspects of the usability of web-based e-learning systems, focusing on the concept of pedagogical usability as a quality feature distinct from general usability. There are briefly analyzed aspects as scope, learning process, content, tasks, learner variables, interaction with users, results evaluation and their implementation in SinPers project (Innovative system for personalized and user-centered learning, with applications to project management). As will be seen below these seven aspects were considered since the requirements specification and design, and were implemented progressively as the system was built.

15-18

Authors: Iulian Lesneanu, Dragos Daniel Iordache

Accessibility and usability are two concepts which evolved together, usability being associated with ergonomics (especially cognitive ergonomics) of the user-interfaces and accessibility being associated with the not discriminative access to information technology. In this paper are presented the results of testing with visual impairment users of a local public administration Web site. The user testing goal was the identification of the main usability and accessibility problems the blind users are dealing with.

23-28

Authors: Dragos Daniel Iordache, Ruxandra Dora Marinescu, Maria Gheorghe-Moisii, Costin Pribeanu

Usability of local public administration web sites should be a key concern in the implementation of the Information Society in Romania. Unfortunately, usability evaluation is not yet a current practice. The purpose of this paper is to present a usability evaluation methodology and a case study targeting a local public administration web site. The evaluation procedure is based on two methods: heuristic evaluation and user testing. A heuristic evaluation was performed against a set of 24 heuristics. Then a user testing was carried on that was based on the think aloud protocol. The evaluation results obtained with each method were analyzed as regarding their confidence and validity.

33-36

Authors: Iulian Popescu

form, but also specific aspects of olfactory human-computer interfaces.

45-50

Authors: Daniel Cernea, Achim Ebert, Andreas Kerren, Valentina Morar

Nowadays, a variety of input devices support 3D interaction by offering 6 degrees of freedom (DoF). Nonetheless, such devices that are available for free-space usage (i.e., without the need for a surface as reference system) are rarely intuitive and rather limited in number. To tackle these problems, we propose a highly configurable mid-air device that supports an intuitive interaction with virtual environments. R3 (roll, rotate, rattle) offers good accuracy for 2D and 3D navigation, modeling and gameplay, but also tactile feedback through the presence of a trackball, all this in a user-oriented way. Additionally, the device can be easily switched back to being used as a regular mouse.

55-58

Authors: Dragos Catalin Barbu, Silvia-Ramona Bunea, Stefan Măgureanu

This article presents a robust tracking technique based on colored balls and with a reduced need for computing resources. The technique is based on a random Hough transform algorithm which is optimized for use in real-time applications such as augmented reality systems. Requiring only a conventional color camera attached to a regular PC, this approach allows to determine the 3D position of balls based on interactive processing frameworks. The algorithm is fast enough to be easily combined with other real-time tracking engines. Unlike tracking techniques based on recognition of planar markers, this technique provides robustness to partial occlusion, which interact with real objects.

65-70

Authors: Mircea Marginean, Teodor Stefanut

Current direction in the development of eLearning systems is mainly oriented towards creating collaborative lessons using interactive tools. The teacher has the possibility to create the lesson using interactive tools while the students can use it in running mode in a collaborative way, very similar to a lesson organized in the classroom, where the teacher can interact with his students in real time. This paper presents different types of interactive tools, their development methodology and their integration into already existing eLearning systems. Have been studied, developed and integrated the following types of tools: text visualization, image visualization, video visualization. Each tool is composed of two modules: the edit module – available to the teacher only, and the visualization module – available to the teacher as well as to the students. One of the problems that have been discussed in this paper was the maximization of the space available to the visualization module and, at the same time, the minimization of the space available for the editing module. Another problem discussed here concerns the proposal of a base standard for the modular development of the tools, so this process to be kept independent against the eLearning platform where the tools will be eventually integrated.

75-80

Authors: Daniel Safta, Dorian Gorgan

In this article we present a new approach to teaching computer science - the evaluation and visual modeling of algorithms based on metaphorical forms - applied within the core of a virtual education system, the development module for computer-based lessons (MDL). We reveal the structure and characteristics of the teaching process that we implemented in the proposed system, students and their roles, applied teaching methods, solutions for evaluation and a case study on a lesson model. We presented the state of the art in this domain highlighting the advantages of the described solution set, and also possible extensions.

85-90

Authors: Cristina Scheau, Traian Rebedea, Costin Chiru, Stefan Trausan-Matu

Depending on the user’s intention, the queries processed by a search engine can be classified in transactional, informational and navigational. In order to meet the three types of searches, at this moment search engines basically use algorithmic analysis of the links between pages improved by a factor that depends on the number of occurrences of the keywords in the query and the order of these words on each web page returned as a result. For transactional and informational queries, the relevance of the results returned by the search engine may be improved by using semantic information about the query concepts when computing the order of the results presented to the user. Wikipedia is a huge thesaurus which has the advantage of already being multi-lingual and semi-structured, presenting a dense structure of internal links that can be used to extract various types of information. This paper proposes a method to extract semantic relations between concepts considered as the names of the articles from Wikipedia, and then use these relations to determine the rank of the results returned by a search engine for a given query.

95-100

Authors: Mihai Dascalu, Stefan Trausan-Matu, Philippe Dessus

With the continuous evolution of collaborative environments, the need for automatic analysis and participant assessment in Instant Messenger discussions (chats) has become more and more important. Moreover, a key element in a grading and evaluation system for participants and utterances is summarization. In order to achieve the previous goals, a series of factors specific to natural language processing (including semantic analysis by means of Latent Semantic Analysis - LSA) and data-mining were taken into consideration. In order to achieve a thorough and multi-perspective approach for assessing participants, the system includes facilities derived from Page’s essay grading techniques, readability assessment and metrics specific to social networks analysis. A golden standard was used for assessing the relevance of the obtained results and for validation purposes of the proposed method.

105-108

Authors: Claudiu Cristian Musat, Stefan Trausan-Matu

We propose a new approach to opinion mining that relies not on explicit occurrences of opinions in economic texts but on implicit ones extracted from the polarity of the discussed economic subtopic. We begin by dynamically generating a financial text corpus, following outgoing links from a set of financial web pages and then by checking whether economic topics are discussed. We separate economic from non economic texts by searching for key expressions from a database built beforehand. In the second phase we prove that the majority of economic texts that contain personal opinions can be retrieved based solely on the implicit opinions within. We rely on co-occurrences of economic indicators and future state modifiers to determine the polarity of each text. We also present an extraction method for the said key terms.

115-118

Authors: Costin Pribeanu

In the context of model-based design of user interfaces it is important to pay attention to the modelling of all relevant aspects as well as to the specification of relationships between models. The task model has a particular importance since it mediates the relationship between the domain model and the presentation model. The purpose of this paper is to approach task modeling at operational level from a broader perspective, defined by the activity theory and the reference model for multi-target user interfaces.

123-126

Authors: Ionut Petre, Dragos Smada

The purpose of this paper is to present the Web interface that provides the access to the information from the database built within the TransNew European project. This project aims to develop and exploit an international database, containing data about organizations that activate in the Transport Research domain. TransNew is focused on assesing, analyzing and defining research strategies for the Transport area in the New Member States and Associated States. The interface provides to the final user a fast access to data about research organizations, transport research projects, evaluations of the national transport policies or information about the researchers involved in these projects. The administration mode of the interface provides the organizations the possibility to easily insert, manage and update the data about their activities and results.

131-134

Authors: Adriana Alexandru, Cristina Simona Alecu

This paper presents an IT system (MeDist), which offers an operative and user-friendly patient-medical system interface. The system will be a useful instrument for healthcare services for persons in rural areas and for persons located in remote or isolated places and also for those un-transportable, with special needs. In order to assist them, at the design of the system we have taking into account of the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) reccomendations within the initiative in developing accessible websites (Web Accessibility Initiative – WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium. The MeDist system offers: teleconsultation (remote medical assistance), monitoring of chronic patients in need of locally unavailable specialists, orientation of the patient towards the best place of treatment, medical care and recovery, and facilities for making patient appointments.

97-124

Authors: Daniela Maria Andrei, Adriana-Mihaela G

This paper focuses on the relation between the main concepts used in Human-Computer Interaction domain in order to study users’ perception of interactive products quality like usability, satisfaction, and user experience. In order to achieve this goal, we have proposed a reseach that verifies the psychometric qualities of the instruments used to measure the above mentioned concepts. Three such instruments have beean translated and adapted for romanian users – AttrakDiff 2.0., Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction şi Software Usability Measurement Inventory. These instruments have been filled in by 213 users of the web site www.psychology.ro. The obtained results show that there are some deficiencies of the scales construct validity.

139-156

Authors: Dorian Gorgan, Teodor Stefanut, Mircea Marginean, Victor Bâcu

The eLearning platforms have been intensively developed in the last decade by providing performant educational services at lower costs than the classical methods. Even so, the development has been significantly limited by the extensive requirement of the eLearning applications for high processing capacity and performant resources. The Grid architecture, which substitutes the single server based architecture, provides solutions for the domains such as management and processing of huge quantities of data (e.g. satellite images, 3D simulations, etc), distributed data processing, and distributed processing over a great number of computing workstations. This paper presents the eGLE platform that supports the using of resources for data storage and distributed processing in Grid systems, and the approach through which the lessons can be developed and executed in domains such as Earth Observation, massive spatial data processing, medicine, etc. It is highlighted as well a new possibility of developing educational materials by efficient mechanisms of repurposing and adapting of teaching objects already available.