Design and evaluation of user’s physical experience in an Ambient Interactive Storybook and full body interaction games

The paper presents the design and evaluation of an original Ambient Interactive Storybook (AIS) for children, including its platform, the background story, and 10 full body interactive games. The evaluation, which focused on the user’s physical experience and elements important to the designer, has been methodologically derived from the Kroflič’s and Laban’s framework Body, Space, Time and Relationship, and additionally supported by sport science measurements. An experiment with 8 participants playing 10 games for 20 min was conducted and recorded to a digital video. Participants’ physical experience was evaluated through the analysis of postures, the quality of the movement, the body parts used in the interaction, the playing area, the direction of movement, direction of gaze, tempo, dynamics and the quantity of motion (QoM). Results of the experiment are discussed in relation and with implications for game design. Conclusions are drawn with the summary of main findings, to better understand the mechanisms and principles involved the design of user’s physical activity in full body interactive games for children. The theoretical work of Laban and Kroflič proved to be useful for interaction and games design in the transition from desktop to full body interactive games.     

Group identification as a mediator of the effect of players’ anonymity on cheating in online games

This study aims to add to the discussion about the applicability of the classical deindividuation theory and social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE) in explaining online behaviours. It explores the effect of anonymity in facilitating social influence of group identity in online game cheating. A nationally representative survey was conducted face to face. Results from the survey administered in Singapore confirm predictions derived from the SIDE and challenge the classical deindividuation theory. Specifically, it was concluded that the frequency of gaming with online strangers (anonymous gaming) significantly predicted the frequency of cheating in online games. The effect of anonymity on game cheating was found to be significantly mediated by the group identification with online gaming communities/groups. Gender differences were found. Male gamers cheated more frequently than female gamers. Female gamers are more likely to cheat as a consequence of group identification than male gamers. Implications and future research are discussed.     

Design shopping as an experience: Exploring the effect of the live-streaming shopping characteristics on consumers’ participation intention and memorable experience

Live-streaming shopping becomes increasingly popular recently. However, little research explored why live-streaming shopping is so successful in continuously promoting sales and engaging consumers. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, we explore the effects of five distinct characteristics (information richness, interactivity, vividness, social presence, and newness) of live-streaming shopping on consumers’ continuous participation intentions, and investigate the underlying organism from both the momentary states (i.e., perceived diagnosticity, perceived enjoyment, and perceived social support) and the reflective state (i.e., memorable experience). The results of a multi-method empirical study indicate that the memorable experience is a strong indicator of continued shopping behaviors.     

Are there optimal levels of arousal to memory? Effects of arousal,centrality, and familiarity on brand memory in video games

Using a modified first-person shooter game, Counter Strike 2, this study tested (1) if the Yerkes–Dodson law could be applied to the relationship between physiological arousal (skin conductance) and brand memory in the new interactive technology setting; (2) if central and familiar ads are better recognized; and (3) if there are any interaction effects among arousal, centrality, and familiarity on brand memory. A pre-test was conducted to estimate the cut-off points of arousal into three levels (low, medium, and high) in the identical setting. Through within-subject analysis, a total of 550 cases were categorized into the three levels of arousal and analyzed. The results showed the highest recognition scores at the medium level of arousal, and no significant difference between the medium and high levels of arousal in brand memory. The participants remembered better centrally located brands than peripheral brands. Familiarity also had a positive relationship with the levels of arousal. Particularly, the recognition scores for centrally located brands increased with the levels of arousal, but no difference was found for peripheral brands. Findings and implications were discussed.     

Study of multiple moving targets’ detection in fisheye video based on the moving blob model

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper discussed some improved algorithms for multiple moving targets detection and tracking in fisheye video sequences which based on the moving blob model....     

Users’ viewpoint of usability and user experience testing procedure - gaining methodological insights in a case of an interactive HbbTV application

We present a novel meta-methodological approach for the user experience and usability methodology procedure evaluation, shown in an example of the user experience and usability study of an interactive HbbTV application. The idea behind this research is not only to evaluate and improve the TV-WEB service but also to gain insights how the participants perceived the whole Ux evaluation procedure itself. The research questions focused mainly on the time complexity (temporal demand) and the frustration level of the TV-WEB evaluation procedure. Additionally the appropriateness of the selected content used, interface and interaction design, and the service impressions and satisfaction/payment related questions was sought. A special questionnaire based on the NASA TLX standard test is presented. The concept has been successfully implemented in several live field trials in three countries (BiH, Serbia and Montenegro). In the user experience and usability study of the service itself more than 150 participants were involved, of those 35 took part in the meta-methodology study. The feedback was quantitatively evaluated on a 7-point Likert scale, with “1” indicating the best positive feedback, “4” neutral/undecided feedback and “7” the most negative feedback. The quantitative average summary results obtained in the three evaluation studies were 1.30 for both the BiH and Serbia test study cases and the score of 1.22 for the test study case in Montenegro. These results show that a great majority of the participants found the whole evaluation procedure time-wise and frustration-wise undemanding, with appropriate content, presentation style and overall attitude towards them. By using this approach it was possible to improve the user experience and usability methodology used, producing more reliable results and providing better user experience in the final version of the product as well as providing a pleasant experience during the testing of the product.     

The Influence of Online Search Behavior on Consumers’ Decision-Making Heuristics

Information seeking activities have been broadly categorized into two types: exploratory and directed search. Likewise, product-related information is processed either by alternative or by attribute. The current literature does not specifically describe the effect of online information-seeking activities on the type of information processing employed by a consumer. The present study seeks to investigate this relationship, as well as the effect of repeat visits to a website as an antecedent of information seeking. An eye-tracking experiment was performed to test these relationships. Results indicate that participants with a greater proportion of time spent looking at directed-search elements had longer visual sweeps across the attributes of a song, indicating a greater degree of alternative-based processing. Additionally, repeat website visits resulted in a marginally higher proportion of time spent performing directed search. The implication of the findings in relation to website customization according to users’ information searching behavior is discussed.     

Extracting knowledge of customers’ preferences in massively multiplayer online role playing games

Due to fierce competition in game markets, to identify customers’ true needs is one of the crucial factors in online game industry. Traditionally, game producers heavily rely on game testers, who are primarily responsible for analyzing computer games, finding software defects and being a part of quality control process, to achieve this goal. But, it is not often reliable. To ensure the investment can be returned, game producers need an effective approach to discover frequently shifted customer preferences in time. Recently, Kano model and data mining techniques have been successfully applied to recognize customers’ preferences and implement customer relationship management tasks, respectively. However, in traditional Kano analysis, only basically statistical analysis techniques are used, and they are insufficient to provide advanced knowledge to enterprisers. Therefore, in order to discover the relationship between/among quality elements in Kano model and to extract knowledge related to customer preferences, this study proposes a knowledge acquisition scheme that integrates several data mining techniques including association rule discovery, decision tree, and self-organizing map neural network, into traditional Kano model. An actual case of customer satisfaction survey regarding massively multiplayer online role playing game has been provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.     

Perfect aggregation of information in two-person multistage games with fixed sequence of moves and aggregated information on partner’s choice

Two-person multistage game with fixed sequence of moves is considered, under perfect information on existing history of the game and aggregated information on the current move of player 2. Having this information at each stage i, player 1 is the first to choose his move x(in1)(.); moreover, in the beginning of the game player 1 announces his strategy x(.)=(a(in1)(.),..., x(in)(.)) for n future stages. Given information regarding the choice of player 1 and history of the game, player 2 strives to maximize his payoff function via the strategy v=(v(in1), v(in2),..., v(inn)). In this paper the sufficient conditions of perfect aggregation, involving certain results from the theory of Lie groups, are provided for the game in question.     

Theorem proving in technology transfer: the user’s point of view

The aim of this paper is to discuss the potentials, problems and critical factors for the industrial usage of mechanized theorem proving. The approach followed in this paper is somehow unusual. The starting point is the results of an industrial project whose goal was the assessment of the state of the art of provers (and of tools supporting formal methods in general). We describe the project results in terms of evaluation criteria, classification of technologies and tools and critical factors for industrial take-up. We present the results of the assessment in the same spirit, the same kind of analysis and even the same terminology which were used in the presentations and in the deliverables of the project. This should result in a presentation of a “different view” of the problem of technology transfer in theorem proving, that we call the “user’s point of view”. In this way, we hope to give a new perspective in the discussion of the industrial take-up of the theorem proving technology.     

Do video games exert stronger effects on aggression than film? The role of media interactivity and identification on the association of violent content and aggressive outcomes

This study investigated whether media interactivity would influence the short-term effects of violent content on audience aggression. The general aggression model, social cognitive theory, and character identification offered the theoretical framework. A random sample of 102 male college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: video game playing, recorded game-play watching, or movie watching. The results indicated that video game players (mediated enactive experience) experienced greater increases in aggressive affect, aggressive cognition, and physiological arousal than participants who watched recorded game play or comparable movie scenes (mediated observational experience). The study indicated that media interactivity in video game exacerbated the violent effect on short-term, aggressive responses. Character identification did not mediate the effect of media interactivity on aggression. Future studies should incorporate more comprehensive measures of character identification to investigate inconsistent findings regarding media interactivity and identification.     

Editor’s note: Special issue on internet of things system technologies based on quality of experience

Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications -     

Impact of hand-assisted viewing on user performance and?learning patterns in virtual environments

The ability to locate, select and interact with objects is fundamental to most Virtual Reality (VR) applications. Recently, it was demonstrated that the virtual hand metaphor, a technique commonly used for these tasks, can also be employed to control the virtual camera, resulting in improved performance and user evaluation in visual search tasks.     

Quality of experience of 360 video – subjective and eye-tracking assessment of encoding and freezing distortions

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The research domain on the Quality of Experience (QoE) of 2D video streaming has been well established. However, a new video format is emerging and gaining...     

Rationally or emotionally: how should voice user interfaces reply to users of different genders considering user experience?

Cognition, Technology & Work - Voice user interfaces (VUIs) have exploded in popularity over the past 3 years. However, there has been little research on the reply methods that VUIs...     

Training data selection with user’s physical characteristics data for acceleration-based activity modeling

This paper proposes an activity recognition method that models an end user’s activities without using any labeled/unlabeled acceleration sensor data obtained from the user. Our method employs information about the end user’s physical characteristics such as height and gender to find and select appropriate training data obtained from other users in advance. Then, we model the end user’s activities by using the selected labeled sensor data. Therefore, our method does not require the end user to collect and label her training sensor data. In this paper, we propose and test two methods for finding appropriate training data by using information about the end user’s physical characteristics. Moreover, our recognition method improves the recognition performance without the need for any effort by the end user because the method automatically adapts the activity models to the end user when it recognizes her unlabeled sensor data. We confirmed the effectiveness of our method by using 100 h of sensor data obtained from 40 participants.     

Fuzzy approach for intrusion detection based on user’s commands

The article concerns the problem of detecting masqueraders in computer systems. A masquerader in a computer system is an intruder who pretends to be a legitimate user in order to gain access to protected resources. The article presents an intrusion detection method based on a fuzzy approach. Two types of user’s activity profiles are proposed along with the corresponding data structures. The solution analyzes the activity of the computer user in a relatively short period of time, building a user’s profile. The profile is based on the most recent activity of the user, therefore, it is named the local profile. Further analysis involves creating a more general structure based on a defined number of local profiles of one user, called the fuzzy profile. It represents a generalized behavior of the computer system user. The fuzzy profiles are used directly to detect abnormalities in users’ behavior, and thus possible intrusions. The proposed solution is prepared to be able to create user’s profiles based on any countable features derived from user’s actions in computer system (i.e., used commands, mouse and keyboard data, requested network resources). The presented method was tested using one of the commonly available standard intrusion data sets containing command names executed by users of a Unix system. Therefore, the obtained results can be compared with other approaches. The results of the experiments have shown that the method presented in this article is comparable with the best intrusion detection methods, tested with the same data set, in the matter of the obtained results. The proposed solution is characterized by a very low computational complexity, which has been confirmed by experimental results.     

Methodology I’M IN applied to workshop: successful educational practice for consultants in user experience with gamification fields

Universal Access in the Information Society - The article is based on the development of a new methodology that promotes and contributes to a workshop, incorporating user experience as an...