Romanian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

5-14

Authors: Dragos Datcu

The paper describes the integration of two major fields of research, namely tele-collaboration by augmented reality (AR) and affective computing (AC). Furthermore, 3 different scenarios on tele-collaboration by virtual co-location are proposed for experiments with AC-AR studies. A system architecture is presented as support for the development of AC-AR tele-collaboration applications enabling joint work of local workers and remote experts.

19-24

Authors: Bradi Rares, Dorian Gorgan

The task of hand gesture recognition is actively researched and challenging because of complex backgrounds, different lighting environments and unpredictable hand movements. This paper presents an analysis along with an implementation of a system that can recognize the hand center, the fingers and the hand wrist. Hand center recognition is done by finding the minimum inscribed circle in the hand contour. Fingers are detected using the k-curvature algorithm. The hand’s positions along a trajectory are analyzed and based on those a general direction is inferred. Tracking of the features is performed using Kalman filtering in order to achieve stability and robustness. The hand gestures are composed based on a desired direction and a certain positioning of the fingers. An evaluation is performed with the purpose of: quantifying the robustness of the system, to determine the error rate and the processing rate.

29-34

Authors: Oana Balan, Alin Moldoveanu, Florica Moldoveanu

A virtual dressing room (also generally known as a “virtual fitting room” or “virtual changing room”) stands for a virtual reality based software application that allows users to try on clothes and see how they actually fit, without taking the effort of changing them physically. Virtual dressing room applications give information about the size, fit, texture and styling of a certain garment. The technologies have quickly advanced since the year 2005. According to their methodological approach, they can be classified into solutions which involve motion capture, body scan, 3D reconstruction and modeling or augmented reality techniques. From the shoppers’ point of view, the aim of virtual dressing room systems is to help them make quicker buying decisions regarding the fit and styling of the clothes they intend to buy. On the other hand, retailers can benefit from this new technological advancement by decreasing the level of garment returns, reducing the refunds and improving their brand image. This paper presents a state of the art of the actual fitting room systems available on the market, taking into account their technological approach, usability, design of the virtual avatar, simulation and accuracy of presentation.

41-44

Authors: Lars Ballieu Christensen, Marian Padure

In many cases, users with different disabilities have difficulties in accessing information online and offline. Often, development of formats accessible to vulnerable groups require additional costs, time, knowledge. Need for additional services to create as many accessible formats is required and myriad standard formats disclosure. RoboBraille is an online service for converting documents into alternative formats: audio, DAISY text and / or audio, e-book or Braille. The interaction of users with the RoboBraille services is easy by using an available web interface and converted documents by e-mail directly from the RoboBraille server.

51-54

Authors: Paul Fogarassy-Neszly, Vasile Gherhes

This paper presents two different applications implementing two different methods for automatic language identification with the purpose of speech synthesis. Implemented algorithms are described, as well as specific working conditions of such applications and applications’ user interfaces are described. While the language identification based on character Unicode encoding detection need few system resources and is very fast, the statistical analysis based algorithms require more resources and are slower. Finding an optimal compromise is both a challenge for developers as for the user, who should decide at runtime the optimal application configuration for real working conditions. At the end of the paper several considerations are presented, concerning the indispensable inertia in language switching if the application is used for differentiated speech synthesis.

61-64

Authors: Levente-Lóránt Nagy, Dorian Gorgan

In complex scenarios of interactive AR applications the user must manipulate both real objects and virtual objects. This paper presents experiments on the development of intuitive user interaction techniques for the selection of virtual entities, the definition and usage of virtual buttons, menus and the invokation of some operations. It also defines notions of the used interaction techniques, exemplifies manipulation scenarios and highlights the theoretical and practical difficulties.

69-74

Authors: Alexandru Balog

Comparing the results obtained from studies on quality of e-learning requires that measurement scales to be stable in different environments and contexts of use. In this article is tested the model eLearnQ used in the evaluating the quality of the e-learning service using data collected from 188 students (102 women, 86 men). In order to test model invariance and study gender differences is applied Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA). The results show that no there are gender differences in perceptions of service quality e-learning in the two groups of students in the context of e-learning in Romania.

81-84

Authors: Costin Pribeanu

Learning applications based on augmented reality (AR) are perceived by students as attractive and innovative. This paper presents a method and a predictive model to analyze why learning Chemistry with an AR-based application is perceived by students as innovative. For the model development a method based on multi-level multiple linear regressions was used. The results are highlighting that the real objects and the feeling of control over the learning process are the main factors that make the application to be perceived as innovative.

91-94

Authors: Dragos Daniel Iordache

Facebook is a social network that has gained worldwide popularity. In March 2014, the company reported 802 million daily active users, of which a large number are students. This article presents the results of qualitative analysis of data collected through standardized qualitative interviews conducted with a small number of students enrolled in graduate courses at the University of Bucharest

99-104

Authors: Vlad Doru Colceriu, Victor Bacu, Teodor Stefănut, Dorian Gorgan

The current paper presents the flow of information and user states used for establishing a global context used for train localization in a low cost railway platform. Localization is based on a low precision GNSS and inertial sensors integrated in commercial mobile devices, such as tablet PC's and smart-phones. The integrity requirements of such a solution on which safety of life depends are stringent. So in order to satisfy them the current solution proposes to partially externalize to the public the localization and other services traditionally provided by the conductor, by hinging on the devices of the crowd

109-112

Authors: Lidia Bajenaru, Ana-Maria Borozan, Mihaela Tomescu, Daniel Savu

The paper presents aspects regarding the design and implementation of an interactive system for the evaluation of a virtual enterprise agility. The solution adopted is a web portal that provides services for the creation and management of a virtual enterprise, on-line shop services to support the enterprise activity and an application for evaluation and reporting of enterprise activity in general and especially of its agility. It highlights the system adaptability, scalability and usability.

117-122

Authors: Adrian Iftene, Lenuta Alboaie, Cristina Serban, Alexandra Siriteanu

In the last years, the number of visual resources has grown substantially and in parallel there was created new advanced algorithms to retrieve relevant information in such a collection. This paper presents a system that enables indexing and searching operations over a large amount of data available in a collection of images. In order to recommend relevant results, we have used clustering algorithms that allow us grouping similar images by content in the same cluster. The paper contains several sections, in which we provide an overview of the state of the field, the proposed system architecture that we have built and results that we had obtained.

129-132

Authors: Valentin Radut, Ionut Petre, Dragos Marian Smada

In this paper is presented the web portal eCulturalHighway - a system built towards the user access to information on institutions and cultural sites (museums, theaters, art galleries, memorials, archaeological sites) presented at the level of city/village, county and country, that emphasise the potential of national cultural repository and also information about accommodation establishments (hotels, motels, hostels) in the localities in which the objectives are placed. The paper describes the facilities that this portal provides to the users, the relational database developed to manage the necessary data for proper functioning, the means through which the information is inserted and handled inside the database and the procedure by which the Google Maps API has been integrated into eCulturalHighway to provide a broader perspective in terms of tourism.