Mediating Power: Distance Learning Interfaces, Classroom Epistemology, and the Gaze

Distance learning's interfaces—from corresponding through the postal service to the televised talking head—have traditionally been designed from the top down, supporting banking models of learning or, in writing instruction, current-traditional rhetoric pedagogies. Due to temporal and spatial constraints, these interface designs often support (or encourage) one-way communication from the instructor to the student. Students mostly interact with the instructor by asking questions or submitting work, and they tend to have little correspondence with other peers. These methods clearly privilege the instructor's knowledge and evaluation. Furthermore, these interface designs empower the instructor to gaze upon the students and assess them—often not as a corporeal body but as a corpus of texts. Thus, each interface adopted for distance learning sets up a power dynamic in which the capability to share the roles of creating knowledge is juxtaposed with the instructor's capability to normalize the students and reify their own authority through their gaze. In this article we examine the traditional classroom interface through the correspondence course interface, the simulated classroom interface, and the synchronous video interface to raise questions about the infrastructures of distance learning and their implications for student learning.     

Real-Time Eye,Gaze, and Face Pose Tracking for Monitoring Driver Vigilance

This paper describes a real-time prototype computer vision system for monitoring driver vigilance. The main components of the system consists of a remotely located video CCD camera, a specially designed hardware system for real-time image acquisition and for controlling the illuminator and the alarm system, and various computer vision algorithms for simultaneously, real-time and non-intrusively monitoring various visual bio-behaviors that typically characterize a driver's level of vigilance. The visual behaviors include eyelid movement, face orientation, and gaze movement (pupil movement). The system was tested in a simulating environment with subjects of different ethnic backgrounds, different genders, ages, with/without glasses, and under different illumination conditions, and it was found very robust, reliable and accurate.     

Navigating the Online World: Gaze,Fixations, and Performance Differences between Younger and Older Users

ABSTRACT

The world’s populations and workforces are aging and older adults are now the fastest growing group of internet users. Unfortunately, age-related declines may prevent older adults from performing web-based tasks with the same ease as their younger counterparts. Recent studies have suggested that peripheral navigation may exacerbate age-related online performance gaps as older adults fail to adequately search peripheral elements. Such studies have however relied on the use of preexisting websites with no control for layout, complexity, or prior familiarity. This study tested whether age-related differences in online performance and search behavior exist across various navigational layouts. Participants (N = 47) completed four online tasks with purpose-built websites of equivalent difficulty, length, and content type, yet with varying navigational layouts (center; left-periphery; top-periphery; inconsistent). Participants’ performance (i.e., accuracy/efficiency), search behavior (i.e., eye gaze/fixation), and satisfaction were examined. Identifiable differences between age-groups and navigational layouts were found, with top-peripheral navigation proving most detrimental to the online performance and satisfaction of both younger and older adults. The results inform design principles that aim to increase older adults’ online functionality, and provide an extensive platform for further research.     

Fake news believability: The effects of political beliefs and espoused cultural values

Fake news has led to a polarized society as evidenced by diametrically opposed perceptions of and reactions to global events such as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and presidential campaigns. Popular press has linked individuals’ political beliefs and cultural values to the extent to which they believe in false content shared on social networking sites (SNS). However, sweeping generalizations run the risk of helping exacerbate divisiveness in already polarized societies. This study examines the effects of individuals’ political beliefs and espoused cultural values on fake news believability using a repeated-measures design (that exposes individuals to a variety of fake news scenarios). Results from online questionnaire-based survey data collected from participants in the US and India help confirm that conservative individuals tend to exhibit increasing fake news believability and show that collectivists tend to do the same. This study advances knowledge on characteristics that make individuals more susceptible to lending credence to fake news. In addition, this study explores the influence exerted by control variables (i.e., age, sex, and Internet usage). Findings are used to provide implications for theory as well as actionable insights.     

Gaze perception and awareness in smart devices

Eye contact and gaze awareness play a significant role for conveying emotions and intentions during face-to-face conversation. Humans can perceive each other's gaze quite naturally and accurately. However, the gaze awareness/perception are ambiguous during video teleconferencing performed by computer-based devices (such as laptops, tablet, and smart-phones). The reasons for this ambiguity are the (i) camera position relative to the screen and (ii) 2D rendition of 3D human face i.e., the 2D screen is unable to deliver an accurate gaze during video teleconferencing. To solve this problem, researchers have proposed different hardware setups with complex software algorithms. The most recent solution for accurate gaze perception employs 3D interfaces, such as 3D screens and 3D face-masks. However, today commonly used video teleconferencing devices are smart devices with 2D screens. Therefore, there is a need to improve gaze awareness/perception in these smart devices. In this work, we have revisited the question; how to improve a remote user's gaze awareness among his/her collaborators. Our hypothesis is that ‘an accurate gaze perception can be achieved by the ‘3D embodiment’ of a remote user's head gesture during video teleconferencing’. We have prototyped an embodied telepresence system (ETS) for the 3D embodiment of a remote user's head. Our ETS is based on a 3-DOF neck robot with a mounted smart device (tablet PC). The electromechanical platform in combination with a smart device is a novel setup that is used for studying gaze awareness/perception in 2D screen-based smart devices during video teleconferencing. Two important gaze-related issues are considered in this work; namely (i) ‘Mona-Lisa Gaze Effect’ – the gaze is always directed at the person independent of his position in the room, and (ii) ‘Gaze Awareness/Faithfulness’ – the ability to perceive an accurate spatial relationship between the observing person and the object by an actor. Our results confirm that the 3D embodiment of a remote user head not only mitigates the Mona Lisa gaze effect but also supports three levels of gaze faithfulness, hence, accurately projecting the human gaze in distant space.     

Acceptance,emotion and behaviour

Abstract

The introduction of standards will hopefully ensure that users can access particular computer resources through a communications network for their own purposes without major problems. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has developed a seven-layer reference model which is to be used for the purpose of incorporating standards relating to the interconnection of open systems (OSI). It is important that the human factors requirements are considered in relation to this model if the aim of generality of use is to be achieved. This paper considers some of the major human factors requirements and describes an approach to translating them into design standards which can be implemented. The approach starts from a consideration of user activity and develops into a language interface which could reside in layers of the reference model.     

Attentional Landmarks and Active Gaze Control for Visual SLAM

This paper is centered around landmark detection, tracking, and matching for visual simultaneous localization and mapping using a monocular vision system with active gaze control. We present a system that specializes in creating and maintaining a sparse set of landmarks based on a biologically motivated feature-selection strategy. A visual attention system detects salient features that are highly discriminative and ideal candidates for visual landmarks that are easy to redetect. Features are tracked over several frames to determine stable landmarks and to estimate their 3-D position in the environment. Matching of current landmarks to database entries enables loop closing. Active gaze control allows us to overcome some of the limitations of using a monocular vision system with a relatively small field of view. It supports 1) the tracking of landmarks that enable a better pose estimation, 2) the exploration of regions without landmarks to obtain a better distribution of landmarks in the environment, and 3) the active redetection of landmarks to enable loop closing in situations in which a fixed camera fails to close the loop. Several real-world experiments show that accurate pose estimation is obtained with the presented system and that active camera control outperforms the passive approach.      

基于视线跟踪和手势识别的人机交互

提出一种新的基于视线跟踪和手势识别的交互方式用于远距离操作计算机。系统通过摄像头采集用户的图像,利用图像识别算法检测人眼和手指的位置,由人眼和指尖的连线确定用户指向屏幕的位置,通过判别用户手势的变化实现各种操作,达到人机交互的目的。实验结果表明,该交互方式可以较好地定位屏幕和判断用户的操作,实现自然、友好的远距离人机交互。     

Controlling a Smartphone Using Gaze Gestures as the Input Mechanism

The emergence of small handheld devices such as tablets and smartphones, often with touch sensitive surfaces as their only input modality, has spurred a growing interest in the subject of gestures for human–computer interaction (HCI). It has been proven before that eye movements can be consciously controlled by humans to the extent of performing sequences of predefined movement patterns, or “gaze gestures” that can be used for HCI purposes in desktop computers. Gaze gestures can be tracked noninvasively using a video-based eye-tracking system. We propose here that gaze gestures can also be an effective input paradigm to interact with handheld electronic devices. We show through a pilot user study how gaze gestures can be used to interact with a smartphone, how they are easily assimilated by potential users, and how the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm can effectively discriminate intentional gaze gestures from otherwise typical gaze activity performed during standard interaction with a small smartphone screen. Hence, reliable gaze–smartphone interaction is possible with accuracy rates, depending on the modality of gaze gestures being used (with or without dwell), higher than 80 to 90%, negligible false positive rates, and completion speeds lower than 1 to 1.5 s per gesture. These encouraging results and the low-cost eye-tracking equipment used suggest the possibilities of this new HCI modality for the field of interaction with small-screen handheld devices.     

Gaze Patterns and the Temporal Organization of Multiple Activities in Mobile Smartphone Uses

We have analyzed the temporal organization of gaze switches (to and away from the mobile screen) of mobile smartphone users in urban environments, and we discuss how such patterns of gaze switches can help us understand how users jointly manage mobile communication as well as other activities in everyday urban settings. More specifically, we report on the findings of an empirical study of smartphone use in transport situations, in which we have combined video recordings made with user-worn camera glasses with mobile screen capture data. First we show how being oriented toward multiactivity appears as a particular form of attunement to the potential sequential implicativeness of events occurring on screen or in the mobility environment. This provides the opportunity to treat them as possible occasions to switch the orientation of one’s gaze from one activity-relevant field of activity to another. Second we discuss how interfaces with a “rugged” sequential texture. We argue that such rugged interfaces offer frequent sequential opportunities that might be especially useful in multiactivity situations in public places, where balancing the demands of two or more activities may constitute a serious moral and/or safety concern.     

Gaze Interaction With Vibrotactile Feedback: Review and Design Guidelines

Vibrotactile feedback is widely used in mobile devices because it provides a discreet and private feedback channel. Gaze-based interaction, on the other hand, is useful in various applications due to its unique capability to convey the focus of interest. Gaze input is naturally available as people typically look at things they operate, but feedback from eye movements is primarily visual. Gaze interaction and the use of vibrotactile feedback have been two parallel fields of human–computer interaction research with a limited connection. Our aim was to build this connection by studying the temporal and spatial mechanisms of supporting gaze input with vibrotactile feedback. The results of a series of experiments showed that the temporal distance between a gaze event and vibrotactile feedback should be less than 250 ms to ensure that the input and output are perceived as connected. The effectiveness of vibrotactile feedback was largely independent of the spatial body location of vibrotactile actuators. In comparison to other modalities, vibrotactile feedback performed equally to auditory and visual feedback. Vibrotactile feedback can be especially beneficial when other modalities are unavailable or difficult to perceive. Based on the findings, we present design guidelines for supporting gaze interaction with vibrotactile feedback.     

基于瞳孔角膜反射技术的视线估计方法

作为信息获取与人机交互的一种新型方式,视线跟踪技术已经成为计算机视觉领域的热门研究方向。视线跟踪的核心技术是视线估计。针对现有视线估计方法标定复杂、限制头部运动等问题,提出了一种改进的基于二维瞳孔角膜反射技术的视线估计方法。在单相机单光源条件下,通过建立瞳孔角膜反射模型、补偿个体差异误差、补偿头部运动误差等步骤实现单点标定视线估计。实验结果表明,用该算法估计视线,在一定范围内,头部移动不会带来精度的明显下降。     

In the Eye of the Beholder: A Survey of Models for Eyes and Gaze

Despite active research and significant progress in the last 30 years, eye detection and tracking remains challenging due to the individuality of eyes, occlusion, variability in scale, location, and light conditions. Data on eye location and details of eye movements have numerous applications and are essential in face detection, biometric identification, and particular human-computer interaction tasks. This paper reviews current progress and state of the art in video-based eye detection and tracking in order to identify promising techniques as well as issues to be further addressed. We present a detailed review of recent eye models and techniques for eye detection and tracking. We also survey methods for gaze estimation and compare them based on their geometric properties and reported accuracies. This review shows that, despite their apparent simplicity, the development of a general eye detection technique involves addressing many challenges, requires further theoretical developments, and is consequently of interest to many other domains problems in computer vision and beyond.     

Pascal-P,program structure and program behaviour

This note describes some interesting results observed during the implementation of Pascal-P upon a Data General NOVA computer. A significant performance improvement was obtained by altering the program structure of the Pascal-P compiler to reflect the dynamic behaviour of the program. Some implications of this behaviour for the design of computer architectures are discussed.     

A Review of Eye Gaze in Virtual Agents,Social Robotics and HCI: Behaviour Generation,User Interaction and Perception

A person's emotions and state of mind are apparent in their face and eyes. As a Latin proverb states: ‘The face is the portrait of the mind; the eyes, its informers’. This presents a significant challenge for Computer Graphics researchers who generate artificial entities that aim to replicate the movement and appearance of the human eye, which is so important in human–human interactions. This review article provides an overview of the efforts made on tackling this demanding task. As with many topics in computer graphics, a cross‐disciplinary approach is required to fully understand the workings of the eye in the transmission of information to the user. We begin with a discussion of the movement of the eyeballs, eyelids and the head from a physiological perspective and how these movements can be modelled, rendered and animated in computer graphics applications. Furthermore, we present recent research from psychology and sociology that seeks to understand higher level behaviours, such as attention and eye gaze, during the expression of emotion or during conversation. We discuss how these findings are synthesized in computer graphics and can be utilized in the domains of Human–Robot Interaction and Human–Computer Interaction for allowing humans to interact with virtual agents and other artificial entities. We conclude with a summary of guidelines for animating the eye and head from the perspective of a character animator.     

基于Hough变换和梯度信息的人眼视线方向估计

本文主要研究使用廉价的摄像头进行人眼视线方向估计,所采用的方法是在眼部特征分析的基础上引入边缘梯度方向信息.首先对人眼模型进行讨论,并在样本分析的基础上提出了新的眼睛模型.作为眼睛模型的组成部分,上眼睑、内外角点和虹膜检测所采用的技术是基于梯度信息的Hough变换.根据所定义的视线模型和眼部特征分析,人眼视线方向就可以得到有效的估计.将所提出的人眼视线方向估计算法应用于实时视线跟踪系统,并通过凝视点标定、估计结果分类和错估率统计等方法对算法性能进行考察,结果表明所提算法在低分率的图像条件下具有更高的估计精度.     

Motion-based behaviour learning, profiling and classification in the presence of anomalies

Techniques for understanding video object motion activity are becoming increasingly important with the widespread adoption of CCTV surveillance systems. Motion trajectories provide rich spatiotemporal information about an object's activity. This paper presents a novel technique for clustering and classification of motion. In the proposed motion learning system, trajectories are treated as time series and modelled using modified DFT (discrete fourier transform)-based coefficient feature space representation. A framework (iterative HSACT-LVQ (hierarchical semi-agglomerative clustering-learning vector quantization)) is proposed for learning of patterns in the presence of significant number of anomalies in training data. A novel modelling technique, referred to as m-Mediods, is also proposed that models the class containing n members with m Mediods. Once the m-Mediods-based model for all the classes have been learnt, the classification of new trajectories and anomaly detection can be performed by checking the closeness of said trajectory to the models of known classes. A mechanism based on agglomerative approach is proposed for anomaly detection. Our proposed techniques are validated using variety of simulated and complex real life trajectory data sets.     

The asymptotic behaviour,the angles of departure,and the angles of approach,of the characteristic frequency loci

In algebraic function theory, there is a well established method which uses ‘Newton's diagram’ to find the series expansions of an algebraic function q(x) in the neighbourhood of a point x₀ . In this paper it is shown how, for a linear, time-invariant, multi-variable feedback system, this method can be used to find :

(i) the asymptotic behaviour of the characteristic frequency loci (multivariable root loci) ;

(ii) the angles of departure of the characteristic frequency loci from the open-loop poles ; and

(iii) the angles of approach of the characteristic frequency loci to the finite zeros of such a system.     

Accident history,risk perception and traffic safe behaviour

Abstract

This study clarifies the associations between accident history, perception of the riskiness of road travel and traffic safety behaviours by taking into account the number and severity of accidents experienced. A sample of 525 road users in Cameroon answered a questionnaire comprising items on perception of risk, safe behaviour and personal accident history. Participants who reported involvement in more than three accidents or involvement in a severe accident perceived road travel as less risky and also reported behaving less safely compared with those involved in fewer, or less severe accidents. The results have practical implications for the prevention of traffic accidents.

Practitioner Summary: The associations between accident history, perceived risk of road travel and safe behaviour were investigated using self-report questionnaire data. Participants involved in more than three accidents, or in severe accidents, perceived road travel as less risky and also reported more unsafe behaviour compared with those involved in fewer, or less severe accidents. Campaigns targeting people with a less serious, less extensive accident history should aim to increase awareness of hazards and the potential severity of their consequences, as well as emphasising how easy it is to take the recommended preventive actions. Campaigns targeting those involved in more frequent accidents, and survivors of serious accidents, should address feelings of invulnerability and helplessness.