External HMI for self-driving vehicles: Which information shall be displayed?

The objective of this study was to investigate pedestrians’ informational needs towards self-driving vehicles (SDVs). Previous research has shown that external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) compensate for pedestrian-driver communication when SDVs are integrated into traffic. However, detailed insights on which information the eHMI shall provide lack so far. In a mixed design study, N = 59 participants encountered a simulated driverless vehicle in different traffic scenarios (a. unsignalized intersection vs. b. parking lot; between-subject factor). We investigated the effect of no eHMI (baseline) vs. eHMIs displaying the automated driving system (ADS) status, and informing subsequently about its perception of the pedestrian and/or its intent for the next maneuver ((1) no eHMI, (2) status eHMI, (3) status + perception eHMI, (4) status + intent eHMI, (5) status + perception + intent eHMI; within-subject factor). A mixed-methods design was used to explore participants’ subjective feelings, traffic behavior, and underlying attitudes. The findings reveal that any eHMI contributes to a more positive feeling towards SDVs compared to the baseline condition without eHMI, consistent among traffic scenarios: participants felt significantly safer, reflected greater trust and user experience ratings, and perceived the SDV as more intelligent and transparent. The status indicator mainly drives these beneficial effects on subjective measures. Participants reported that the status information explains the absence of a driver steering the vehicle. Compared to the status eHMI, the status + perception eHMI reflects no further benefit regarding subjective feelings and even has a negative impact on traffic flow. Moreover, participants regarded the additional information on the vehicle’s perception as an obvious gimmick. On the contrary, the status + intent eHMI increases user experience, perceived intelligence, and transparency for pedestrians more than the mere status eHMI. Participants reported that additionally informing about the vehicle’s intent adds a further sense of safety. The present study failed to show any improvements in traffic flow but found evidence for individual crossing and clearing strategies among pedestrians. This work can inform the future design of eHMIs.     

MP3播放器外观设计效果的眼动评估

以大学生为被试,利用眼动法和主观评定法,分析了大学生在评估不同颜色（银白色、红色）、不同外形（椭圆形、圆形、长方体形和四棱柱形）MP3播放器外观设计时的眼动特征。结果发现：对于MP3播放器的外观来说,被试最关注的区域是功能键区域,即就是关注MP3播放器的人机交流功能;对于不同外形的MP3播放器,被试对圆形MP3播放器最感兴趣。     

An experimental investigation of the interaction between displays and models in multicriteria decision support

An experiment in multicriteria decision support was conducted that examined two types of information displays, two different multiattribute models and two levels of task complexity in a laboratory setting with students as subjects. The findings focused on the ‘process’ behaviour and the ‘design’ elements of the human-machine interface. Findings concerning the process behaviour suggested that the subjects' actions on data acquisition were guided by their cognitive preference for the attributes, but that the subjects had no discernible search pattern for evaluation. Findings for design included a significant interaction between display and model in weight estimation and assessment. The practical implications for software design are also discussed.     

Is the mind-body interface microscopic?

This paper puts forward the hypothesis that consciousness might be linked to matter in a way which is more sophisticated than the traditional macroscopic Cartesian hypothesis suggests.Advances in the biophysics of the nervous system, not only on the level of its macroscopic functioning but also on the level of individual ion channels, have made the question of how finely consciousness is tied to matter and its dynamics more important. Quantum mechanics limits the attainable resolution and puts into doubt the idea of an infinitely fine-woven attachment. A recent approach to physics rekindles such a rationalist hope. Endophysics focuses on the global implications of microscopic computer simulations of chemical and biophysical processes. A complete artificial universe can be set up in the computer. It produces non-classical and nonlocal effects inside — on the interface that exists between an internal observer (fluid neuron) and the rest of the world. This interface is finer than any brain property to which the status of the mind-body interface has been attributed hitherto. A new class of experiments becomes possible in the artificial world and, by analogy, in the real world. Magnetic resonance imaging experiments, routinely performed under open-loop conditions, can be repeated under psychophysical (closed-loop) conditions — in search for microscopically induced changes in the perceived and measured structure of the world.     

The Net in the Park

Ubiquitous Computing, Pervasive Computing, Physical Computing, Everyware, Tangible User Interface, and the Internet of Things all share the same viewpoint—a viewpoint that sees computers, phones, and game consoles as no longer being the only devices in our environment deemed worthy to embody computation and be connected. Each of these approaches focuses on slightly different aspects of the features and potentialities of the enabling technologies (i.e., Physical Computing focuses on the growing power of microcontrollers; IOT on the increasing influence of tagging systems; Everyware on the pervasiveness of the web through wired and wireless connections, etc.) We understand and place more emphasis on the similarities then the differences among these approaches, and at the same time, we try to address specific human activity issues by exploiting these new enabling technologies and visions. In the paper, we present a project, Wi-roni, that addresses two issues: in-person communication and the added value of being in a given location when accessing a given content. To this end, we considered in some detail the possibilities of three of these enabling technologies: ultrasound sensors, MEMS, and mash-up of Internet application. These technologies were chosen based on the nature of the human activity, and not vice versa. In Wi-roni, an Urban Architecture project located in the La Gora public park in Monteroni d'Arbia, a small village in the province of Siena (Italy), we developed two interconnect solutions: Wi-wave, a column for accessing web audio content in public spaces, and Wi-swing, a children’s swing that tells stories while swinging. These devices represent both the concrete grounds from which to begin to address the abovementioned human activity issues and the playground in which to explore the new, emerging interaction modalities that the enabling technologies could allow.     

耳标在小屏幕界面设计中的应用

耳标是一种向用户提供计算机客体、操作或交互信息的非言语听觉信号。本文比较了言语听觉界面与非言语听觉界面的特点 ,并就非言语听觉界面设计中的两种基本表征方式———耳标技术和听标技术的优缺点做了简单介绍 ,指出耳标技术是用于小屏幕界面设计的有效方式之一。作者重点概述了耳标的构成元素、构成方式以及信息呈现方式 ,并从功效学角度对耳标设计原则作了简要总结     

Regularity re-revisited: modality matters

The issue of regular-irregular past tense formation was examined in a cross-modal lexical decision task in Modern Greek, a language where the orthographic and phonological overlap between present and past tense stems is the same for both regular and irregular verbs. The experiment described here is a follow-up study of previous visual lexical decision experiments (Tsapkini, Kehayia, & Harema, 2002) that also addressed the regular-irregular distinction in Greek. In the present experiment, we investigated the effect of input modality in lexical processing and compared different types of regular and irregular verbs. In contrast to our previous intra-modal (visual-visual) priming experiments, in this cross-modal (auditory-visual) priming study, we found that regular verbs with an orthographically salient morphemic aspectual marker elicited the same facilitation as those without an orthographically salient marker. However, irregular verbs did not exhibit a different priming pattern with respect to modality. We interpret these results in the framework of a two-level lexical processing approach with modality-specific access representations at a surface level and modality-independent morphemic representations at a deeper level.     

Processing "d-linked" phrases

Linguists draw a distinction between two types of interrogatives: discourse linked (d-linked) phrases such as which man, which implies the existence of a set of contextually determined entities (men) from which the speaker is asking for a choice, and non–d-linked interrogatives such as who, which carry no such implication. Two questionnaires and an on-line reading study showed that readers prefer a d-linked phrase more than a non–d-linked phrase as the antecedent for a pronoun, suggesting that d-linked phrases are immediately instantiated in a discourse representation that is checked during the process of pronoun interpretation. Comparable difficulty is not observed for non–d-linked interrogatives. A questionnaire and an on-line listening study also showed that readers and listeners were more willing to accept a grammatical island violation containing a pronoun when the pronoun's antecendent was a d-linked interrogative than when the antecedent was non–d-linked, suggesting that they check a discourse representation for the pronoun antecedent. All results suggest that d-linked phrases are immediately interpreted in a discourse representation, not just in a syntactic representation.     

Study of γ/γ′ interfacial width in a nickel-based superalloy by scanning transmission electron microscopy

The γ/γ′ interfaces are thought to play an important role in determining the mechanical properties in single-crystal nickel-based superalloys. In this article, interfacial width in DD6, one second-generation single-crystal superalloy containing 2 wt% Re, has been studied by means of scanning transmission electron microscopy. From an atomic resolution high angle annular dark field image, both compositional interfaces and order–disorder interfaces are studied, and it is first found that the interfacial width of chemical composition is same with that between the ordered and disordered phases.     

Coarsening behaviour of gamma prime precipitates and concurrent transitions in the interface width in Ni-14 at.% Al-7 at.% Cr

Coupling atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscopy, the temporal evolution of γ′ precipitate morphology and size distribution and compositional width of the γ/γ′ interface, have been tracked in a model Ni-14Al-7Cr (at.%) alloy, during isothermal annealing at 800?°C subsequent to rapid quenching. During the initial annealing period, coalescence-dominated growth and coarsening of γ′ precipitates are accompanied by a gradual decrease in the interface width, eventually leading to classical LSW coarsening with a constant interface width at extended annealing time periods.