Integrating cognitive load theory and concepts of human–computer interaction

With the continually increasing complexity of e-learning environments, there is a need for integrating concepts of cognitive load theory (CLT) with concepts of human–computer interaction (HCI). Basic concepts of both fields were reviewed and contrasted. A literature review was conducted within the literature database “The Guide to Computing Literature,” searching for “cognitive load theory” and “Sweller.” Sixty-five publications contained “cognitive load” in their titles or abstracts. Each publication was checked to see whether it contained the concepts of intrinsic, extraneous, or germane cognitive load. The review showed that CLT concepts have been adopted in HCI. However, the concept of germane cognitive load has attracted less attention up to the present time. Two conceptual models are proposed. The first model divides extraneous cognitive load into load induced by the instructional design and load caused by software usage. The model clarifies the focus of traditional usability principles and of existing instructional design principles derived from CLT. The second model fits CLT concepts into the basic components of user-centered design. The concept of germane cognitive load illustrates that an increase of cognitive load can be desirable when designing e-learning environments. Areas for future interdisciplinary research are sketched.     

An observer‐metamerism sensitivity index for electronic displays

The effect of observer metamerism induced by electronic displays depends to a large extent on their primary spectra (red, green, and blue in the most common case). In particular, for narrow‐band primary spectra whose peak wavelength lies in the range of high variability of the observer's color‐matching function, some observers can experience very large differences between actual surface colors (e.g. in a light booth) and displayed colors if the monitor is optimized for the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) 1931 standard observer. However, because narrow‐band light‐emitting diodes lead to larger color gamuts, more and more monitors with very narrow band primaries are coming onto the market without manufacturers taking into account the associated problem of observer variations. Being able to measure these variations accurately and efficiently is therefore an important objective. In this paper, we propose a new approach to predict the extent of observer metamerism for a particular multiprimary display. Unlike existing dedicated models, ours does not depend on a reference illuminant and a set of reflectance spectra and is computationally more efficient.     

Computer assisted matching of anatomical vessel trees

Many inexact automatic tree matching algorithms are available. However, they provide matches that are not completely error free. Another option is to use manually matched node-pairs, but this enormously slows down the process. Our contribution to the state of the art is to combine the advantages of both solutions. We enhance the automatic tree matching algorithm designed by Graham et al., so that it is possible to interact with it by previously selecting important matches or by subsequently fixing the provided wrong matches. We apply the tree matching algorithm to the anatomical vasculature of the liver. Furthermore, we developed several visualization features to make manual tree interaction as easy as possible. Both, the interactive and automatic part of the implemented component were evaluated. As a result, the speed of the automatic tree matching algorithm is increased. It takes 7.45 s for trees up to 192 nodes and less than 1 s if three input matches are provided. In addition to this, an in-depth evaluation of the robustness of the algorithm is presented. The results are remarkable. The average of wrong matches varies between 1.17 and 1.4 node-pairs in the worst cases. The rate of correct matches is high. The evaluation of the visualization features for interactive refinement of matches showed that the percentage of wrong matches found is increased from 56.25% to 78.43%. The mean time to find them is decreased from 227 to 122 s.     

PS+Pre/Post: A novel structure and access mechanism for wireless XML stream supporting twig pattern queries

XML data broadcast is an efficient way to disseminate XML data to a large number of mobile clients in mobile wireless networks. Recently, several indexing methods have been proposed to improve the performance of XML query processing in terms of access time and tuning time over XML streams. However, existing indexing methods cannot process twig pattern XML queries. In this paper, we propose a novel structure for streaming XML data called PS+Pre/Post by integrating the path summary technique and the pre/post labeling scheme. Our proposed XML stream structure exploits the benefits of the path summary technique and the pre/post labeling scheme to efficiently process different types of XML queries over the broadcast stream. Experimental results show that our proposed XML stream structure improves the performance of access time and tuning time in processing different types of XML queries.     

Cyclic deformation behavior of non-isoaxial copper tricrystals and bicrystals

The cyclic hardening and saturation behaviors of copper tricrystals and bicrystals were investigated in strain-controlled multiple step tests. The results show that, for the inclined grain boundary (GB) bicrystal with single slip components, the cyclic stress strain (CSS) curve exhibits a plateau or quasi-plateau region, while the CSS curve of tricrystals shows no plateau. Observations of surface morphologies indicated that owing to the strain incompatibility of three grains, at lower strain amplitude the triple junction (TJ) retards obviously the primary slip in grains and makes deformation near it smaller than that near the bicrystal GB, while at higher strain amplitude slip can be distributed near the TJ homogeneously. The probability of crack initiation at the same TJ is closely related to the loading direction. The saturation dislocation structures of tricrystal specimens under the strain amplitude of the last step were explored by the electron channeling contrast technique in SEM (ECC-SEM). Loop patches with persistent slip band (PSB) ladders embedded were found even in the TJ vicinity for all grains. Dislocation-free zones (DFZ) occurred in the vicinity of TJ and GB, and the difference in shapes between them is due to the difference in internal stress field. Misoriented cell structure and dislocation wall structure were found near the crack tip, and the formation of them is associated with the cooperative action of crack tip, GB, grain orientation and the applied strain amplitude.     

Dynamic searchable symmetric encryption for storing geospatial data in the cloud

International Journal of Information Security - We present a dynamic searchable symmetric encryption scheme allowing users to securely store geospatial data in the cloud. Geospatial data sets often...     

Augmented reality supporting user-centric building information management

The rapid development of geo-referenced information changed the way on how we access and interlink data. Smartphones as enabling devices for information access are main driving factor. Thus, the hash key to information is the actual position registered via camera and sensory of the mobile device. A rising technology in this context is Augmented Reality (AR) as its fuses the real world captured with the smartphone camera with geo-referenced data. The technological building blocks analyse the intrinsic sensor data (camera, GPS, inertial) to derive a detailed pose of the smartphone aiming to align geo-referenced information to our real environment. In particular, this is interesting to applications where 3D models are used in planning and organization processes as, e.g., facility management. Here, Building Information Models (BIM) were established in order to hold “as built” information, but also to manage the vast amount of additional information coming with the design, such as building components, properties, maintenance logs, documentation, etc. One challenge is to enable stakeholders involved in the overall building lifecycle to get mobile access to the management system within on-site inspections and to automatise feedback of newly generated information into the BIM. This paper describes a new AR framework that offers on-site access to BIM information and user centric annotation mechanism.     

Towards precise real-time 3D difference detection for industrial applications

3D difference detection is the task to verify whether the 3D geometry of a real object exactly corresponds to a 3D model of this object. We present an approach for 3D difference detection with a hand-held depth camera. In contrast to previous approaches, with the presented approach geometric differences can be detected in real-time and from arbitrary viewpoints. The 3D difference detection accuracy is improved by two approaches: first, the precision of the depth camera's pose estimation is improved by coupling the depth camera with a high precision industrial measurement arm. Second, the influence of the depth measurement noise is reduced by integrating a 3D surface reconstruction algorithm. The effects of both enhancements are quantified by a ground-truth based quantitative evaluation, both for a time-of-flight (SwissRanger 4000) and a structured light depth camera (Kinect). With the proposed enhancements, differences of few millimeters can be detected from 1 m measurement distance.