Internationalization and localization: evaluating and testing a Website for Asian users

The objective of this study was to combine internationalization and localization of Websites and improvement of Website usability with user-centred design methods. This study designed for internationalization and localization of Websites for Asian users, and implemented usability engineering into every phase of Website usability testing, based on the internationalization and localization perspectives of the honeywell.com/your home Website. The first step was to develop the usage scenarios. Three Asian usability specialists carried out one heuristic evaluation session for the current honeywell.com/your home Website. The usability problems were analysed and possible solutions to these problems were discussed. In the next phase, cluster analysis was utilized to test current information architecture. The results provided options for future information architecture development for this Website. Finally, a performance measurement test was conducted to investigate the performance for Asian users. Based on the results, suggestions for improving the Website usability from the localization perspective were provided. The results demonstrate the user-centred design (UCD) approach and stress international and local issues in Website development to Website designers.     

Usability testing in 2000 and beyond

Usability testing is a widely used technique to evaluate user performance and acceptance of products and systems. It was introduced in the late 1980s and rose to popularity in the past decade. This paper provides a view of the current status of usability testing as a method and describes how it will be used in the 21st century. Although usability testing may not be the most efficient technique for discovery of usability problems, it is a reliable way to estimate quantitatively users' performance and subjective satisfaction with products. Four major trends in usability testing include: common reporting formats and methods for industry; Internet application and website testing; testing of mobile, handheld devices; and testing in more naturalistic environments such as simulated homes and classrooms. In the 21st century, ‘quick and clean’ usability testing methods are needed to provide valid and reliable data on how well people use products and systems, and how they like using them.     

Playing stupid, caring for users, and putting on a good show: Feminist acts in usability study work

As a feminist HCI agenda develops, feminist analyses of behaviour must venture beyond the dominant liberal feminist approach to include other feminist approaches. Using the personal narrative or auto-ethnographic method, this article explores the role of gender in usability work, a common research practice in HCI. In this article, the author interprets three gendered behaviours that occur in usability work - playing stupid, caring for and about users, and putting on a good show - demonstrating that while these behaviours appear anti-feminist in a liberal feminist framework, they appear feminist in alternative feminist frameworks, such as relational/care-giving, sex-positive, multicultural, post-colonial and Third Wave. The article demonstrates how a feminist HCI agenda that embraces the multiplicity of feminisms necessarily forces a re-examination of usability work’s relationship to both feminism and HCI research methods.     

网站建设的一般原则及网站推广技巧

本文根据实践经验，从软件工程的角度，对网站建设中由于缺乏统一的规划和风格，造成网站建设和维护效率低下的问题，提出了以软件工程的方法来建设网站，建立一系列的规范以供网站建设者们参考，并介绍了常用的网站推广技巧。     

基于ASP．NET的糖尿病网站设计与实现

网站根据湘雅二医院内分泌研究所中南大学糖尿痛中心的需求．结合当代计算机数据库管理技术和ASP．NET编程技术设计开发糖尿病网站系统。该网站采用B／S架构模式．SQLServer2005作为数据库管理系统,对网站进行设计和实现。通过网站树立了糖尿病中心形象,提高了糖尿病中心的知名度,人们可以不受地域和时间限制了解糖尿病中心的医疗信息,从中获得服务,网站也加强了糖尿病中心对科研资料的有效利用和资源共享。     

Introducing the Internet to the over-60s: Developing an email system for older novice computer users

Contemporary technology offers many benefits to older people, but these are often rendered inaccessible through poor software design. As the Internet increasingly becomes a source of information and services it is vital to ensure that older people can access these resources. As part of project funded by the UK government, a multi-disciplinary team set out to develop usable software that would help to introduce older people to the Internet. The first step was to develop an email system for older people with no experience of Internet use. The project was intended to show that it is possible to design usable technology for this group and to explore some of the issues involved in doing so. Design and technical challenges necessitated various tradeoffs. The system produced demonstrated the success of the design decisions: it was significantly easier to use than, and preferred to, a commercial equivalent by a group of older people with no experience of Internet use.     

基于扫描匹配预处理的即时定位与地图创建

研究了室内自主移动机器人的即时定位与地图创建问题。分析了目前解决SLAM问题的方法,提出了基于扫描匹配预处理的即时定位与地图创建,用扫描匹配为SLAM提供机器人先验位姿信息。对实验结果和数据的分析,得出了所提出方法可进一步提高SLAM的精度和鲁棒性。     

基于语义分割的室内动态场景同步定位与语义建图

针对动态物体在室内同步定位与地图构建（SLAM）系统中影响位姿估计的问题，提出一种动态场景下基于语义分割的SLAM系统。在相机捕获图像后，首先用PSPNet（Pyramid Scene Parsing Network）对图像进行语义分割；之后提取图像特征点，剔除分布在动态物体内的特征点，并用静态的特征点进行相机位姿估计；最后完成语义点云图和语义八叉树地图的构建。在公开数据集上的五个动态序列进行多次对比测试的结果表明，相对于使用SegNet网络的SLAM系统，所提系统的绝对轨迹误差的标准偏差有6.9%~89.8%的下降，平移和旋转漂移的标准偏差在高动态场景中的最佳效果也能分别提升73.61%和72.90%。结果表明，改进的系统能够显著减小动态场景下位姿估计的误差，准确地在动态场景中进行相机位姿估计。     

基于ORB-SLAM的室内机器人定位和三维稠密地图构建

针对在室内机器人定位和三维稠密地图构建系统中,现有方法无法同时满足高精度定位、大范围和快速性要求的问题,应用具有跟踪、地图构建和重定位三平行线程的ORB-SLAM算法估计机器人三维位姿;然后拼接深度摄像头KINECT获得的三维稠密点云,提出空间域上的关键帧提取方法剔除冗余的视频帧;接着提出子地图法进一步减少地图构建的时间,最终提高算法的整体速度。实验结果表明,所提系统能够在大范围环境中准确定位机器人位置,在运动轨迹为50 m的大范围中,机器人的均方根误差为1.04 m,即误差为2%,同时整体速度为11帧/秒,其中定位速度达到17帧/秒,可以满足室内机器人定位和三维稠密地图构建的精度、大范围和快速性的要求。     

“网站建设与维护”课程的教学研究与实践

"网站建设与维护"是一门实践性和实用性都很强的课程,本文结合教学目标,对"网站建设与维护"课程从教学内容设置、教学方法和考核方式等方面进行了研究与探索,并取得了良好的教学效果。     

基于VSLAM的自主移动机器人三维同时定位与地图构建

移动机器人在探索未知环境且没有外部参考系统的情况下,面临着同时定位和地图构建（SLAM）问题。针对基于特征的视觉SLAM（VSLAM）算法构建的稀疏地图不利于机器人应用的问题,提出一种基于八叉树结构的高效、紧凑的地图构建算法。首先,根据关键帧的位姿和深度数据,构建图像对应场景的点云地图;然后利用八叉树地图技术进行处理,构建出了适合于机器人应用的地图。将所提算法同RGB-D SLAM（RGB-Depth SLAM）算法、ElasticFusion算法和ORB-SLAM（Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF SLAM）算法通过权威数据集进行了对比实验,实验结果表明,所提算法具有较高的有效性、精度和鲁棒性。最后,搭建了自主移动机器人,将改进的VSLAM系统应用到移动机器人中,能够实时地完成自主避障和三维地图构建,解决稀疏地图无法用于避障和导航的问题。     

Creating global software: A conspectus and review

Ten books on the development of international software are reviewed and used to develop a framework for the globalization of software. Most of the books are written or edited by practitioners of global software development and therefore are filled with practical knowledge and methodologies which can guide the novice or even the experienced developer to first internationalize and then localize software. The books span a six year time span, during which the resources available to support the global software development effort have expanded and standards have been established, resulting in reduced effort. This conspectus starts with an introduction that includes several definitions, spells out the issues of translation from one language to another, localization, organization, culture, interface design, documentation, and quality assurance, recommends approaches for development of micro-based software for Macintosh and Windows environments, and ends with a unifying summary.     

基于WiFi指纹序列匹配的机器人同步定位与地图构建

同步定位与地图构建（SLAM）是当前机器人定位导航的研究热点,可靠的闭环检测是图优化SLAM的关键。而在大范围的复杂环境下,通过视觉或激光雷达进行闭环检测的可靠性低且计算开销大。针对这一问题,提出了一种基于WiFi指纹序列匹配的图优化SLAM算法。所提算法采用指纹序列进行闭环检测,由于指纹序列中包含多个指纹数据,信息量比单个指纹点对的数据丰富,因此将传统的基于指纹点对的匹配扩展到指纹序列的匹配可以大幅减小闭环误判的几率,从而确保了闭环检测的准确性,满足了SLAM在大范围复杂环境下的算法高精度要求。采用两组实验数据（机器人从不同的起点开始）对所提算法进行验证的结果表明：与高斯相似度的方法相比,所提算法的精度在第一组数据上提高了22.94%;在第二组数据上提高了39.18%。实验结果充分验证了所提算法在提高定位精度、确保闭环检测可靠性方面的优越性。     

Dependence maximization localization: a novel approach to 2D street-map-based robot localization

Recently, localization methods based on detailed maps constructed using simultaneous localization and mapping have been widely used for mobile robot navigation. However, the cost of building such maps increases rapidly with expansion of the target environment. Here, we consider the problem of localization of a mobile robot based on existing 2D street maps. Although a large amount of research on this topic has been reported, the majority of the previous studies have focused on car-like vehicles that navigate on roadways; thus, the efficacy of such methods for sidewalks is not yet known. In this paper, we propose a novel localization approach that can be applied to sidewalks. Whereas roadways are typically marked, e.g. by white lines, sidewalks are not and, therefore, road boundary detection is not straightforward. Thus, obtaining exact correspondence between sensor data and a street map is complex. Our approach to overcoming this difficulty is to maximize the statistical dependence between the sensor data and the map, and localization is achieved through maximization of a mutual-information-based criterion. Our method employs a computationally efficient estimator of squared-loss mutual information, through which we achieve near real-time performance. The efficacy of our method is evaluated through localization experiments using real-world data-sets     

The development of a theoretical framework and design tool for process usability assessment

The purpose of usability engineering is to facilitate the deployment of new products by decreasing development costs and improving the quality of systems. This paper will discuss the development and delivery of a unique, theoretically based software tool that provides engineers and designers with easy access to the most recent advances in human-machine interface design. This research combines several theoretical views of the interaction process into a hybrid model. Based on this model, a software tool was produced that allows engineers to model the human interaction process within their design. The system then provides feedback on the interaction process through items such as: the amount of mental effort required by a user, the degree to which the system conforms to human capabilities, the expected time to complete the interaction, where potential human error may occur, as well as potential misunderstandings or points of confusion to the users. The designer may then use this information to improve the design of the system. Validation of this technique indicates that the hybrid model produces accurate predictions of usability attributes and that the technique transfers from the laboratory to the real world.     

Early traces of usability as a science and as a profession

Shackel’s paper [Shackel, B., 1991. Usability – context, framework, definition, design and evaluation. In: Shcakel, B., Richardson, S. (Eds.), Human Factors for Informatics Usability. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK] is reviewed in an attempt to assess his contribution to the development of usability as a science and as a profession. Usability related research is first situated in the period around 1990. The contributions to usability as a science then are addressed via Professor Shackel’s definition and evaluation of usability. Finally, his contribution toward usability as a profession is acknowledged via his view of usability in the light of wider business goals.     

Website design,trust and culture: An eight country investigation

User perceptions of website design (for Information Content, Information Design, Navigation Design, Visual Design), Website Trust, and Transaction Security are examined for differences in an eight country sample. Motivation for the investigation includes: (1) to test and compare user reactions to website design in countries with different degrees of uncertainty avoidance, (2) to consider user reactions based on country economic and technological conditions related to the theory of institutional trust and social capital, and (3) to extend clustering theory and the GLOBE cultural cluster model to determine if culturally similar countries group regarding user perceptions of websites. Overall and as predicted, users in low uncertainty avoidance, high institutional trust and social capital countries such as Canada and the USA have the most favorable perceptions of website design. An interesting finding is that while country economic and technological conditions may temper user perceptions in some instances, overall culture is a stronger predictor. Clustering theory is a useful determinant of user perceptions, and there is strong support that users within a given cultural cluster have similar requirements regarding website design.     

Hierarchy of users׳ web passwords: Perceptions,practices and susceptibilities

In this study, we propose a hierarchy of password importance, and we use an experiment to examine the degree of similarity between passwords for lower-level (e.g. news portal) and higher-level (e.g. banking) websites in this hierarchy. We asked subjects to construct passwords for websites at both levels. Leveraging the lower-level passwords along with a dictionary attack, we successfully cracked almost one-third of the subjects׳ higher-level passwords. In a survey, subjects reported frequently reusing higher-level passwords, with or without modifications, as well as using a similar process to construct both levels of passwords. We thus conclude that unsafely shared or leaked lower-level passwords can be used by attackers to crack higher-level passwords.     

实时监视招办网站及其数据的程序设计与实现

所介绍的程序可以及时发现招生办网站不可访问及录取查询数据的不正确,并且及时用手机短信通知管理员。在实际运用中,程序能够达到实时监视招生办网站及其数据的作用。对此程序加以改造,可实现对其它网站及其数据的监视。     

高职院校人才培养工作评估专题网站的研究与设计

部分省份在人才培养工作评估的方式上采用网络评审,很多院校也开发了相应评估网站,但此类网站从功能上来说,更像是评建办日常发布相应评估信息的网站,达不到评估目的。从技术框架、网站结构、模块功能分析入手,设计能很好反映评估指标要求的网络评审的人才培养工作评估专题网站,为高职院校人才评估信息化建设做了一定的开拓性工作,具有很强的参考作用。