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Over the last few decades, there has been a lot of focus on the development of electrochromic energy storage system (EESS) integrated technology, and numerous developments have taken place for their reliable performance. It is an emerging and exciting field of research, which is making a significant contribution to the advancement of technology by embedding two different technologies in a single device for a wide range of applications. While overcoming barriers related to the development of EESS and the goal of reliable efficiency motivates new developments in the energy storage systems (ESS). Nowadays, a very important goal in research is to make current life more comfortable by creating more convenient, highly excellent, and portable devices by incorporating more functionality into energy-saving materials. To date, EESS with many functions such as being highly flexible, stretchable, self-healing, photo-responsive, and self-charging has been extensively explored. With all the additional functionalities they can be used in the progression of various devices, such as in wearable electronics, as a power source for other small electronic devices, in smart electrochromic window (ECW) construction and, in information display systems, etc. The development of multifunctional ESS is required due to new objectives and high energy demand in line with existing and future energy-related requirements and therefore, its research and development are always ongoing with excellent efforts. However, the active electrode material studied so far and the various assembly techniques used for it, need to be systematically reviewed so that it can be used for further study to develop more efficient EESS. This report will give a brief overview of the exploited literature along with their performance statistics on the literature published so far in this field.

Current literature indicates that a lack of weather knowledge and poor product interpretability may be contributing to the high probability of fatalities in general aviation weather-related acciden...

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) must comply with specific standards to operate in the National Airspace System (NAS). Among the requirements are the detect and avoid (DAA) capabilities, which include display, alerting, and guidance specifications. Previous studies have queried pilots for their subjective feedback of these display elements on earlier systems; the present study sought pilot evaluations with an initial iteration of the unmanned variant of a Next Generation Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS XU). Sixteen participants piloted simulated aircraft with both standalone and integrated DAA displays. Their opinions were gathered using post-block and post-simulation questionnaires as well as guided debriefs. The data showed pilots had better understanding and comfort with the system when using an integrated display. Pilots also rated ACAS XU alerting and guidance as generally acceptable and effective. Implications for further development of ACAS XU and DAA displays are discussed.

Non-invasive brain-computer interfaces can be implemented through different paradigms, the most used one being motor imagery and evoked potentials, although recently there has been an interest in paradigms based on perception and visual imagery. Following this approach, this work demonstrates the classification of visual imagery, visual perception and also the possibility of knowledge transfer between these two domains from EEG signals using convolutional neural networks. Also, we propose an adequate framework for such classification, which uses convolutional neural networks and the black hole heuristic algorithm for the search for optimal neural network structures Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature

Information theory can be used to analyze the cost-benefit of visualization processes. However, the current measure of benefit contains an unbounded term that is neither easy to estimate nor intuitive to interpret. In this work, we propose to revise the existing cost-benefit measure by replacing the unbounded term with a bounded one. We examine a number of bounded measures that include the Jenson-Shannon divergence and a new divergence measure formulated as part of this work. We describe the rationale for proposing a new divergence measure. As the first part of comparative evaluation, we use visual analysis to support the multi-criteria comparison, narrowing the search down to several options with better mathematical properties. The theoretical discourse and conceptual evaluation in this paper provide the basis for further comparative evaluation through synthetic and experimental case studies, which are to be reported in a separate paper., Following the SciVis 2020 reviewers' request for more explanation and clarification, the origianl article, "A Bounded Measure for Estimating the Benefit of Visualization, arxiv:2002.05282", was split into two articles, on "Theoretical Discourse and Conceptual Evaluation" and "Case Studies and Empirical Evaluation" respectively. This is the first article

Ecological Interface Design (EID) is a framework for developing dynamic interfaces that support operators to understand and take appropriate actions within highly-complex systems. This two-part study involved the development and evaluation of a novel EID-based static aviation risk management display. A within-subjects survey-based experiment employed measures of decision accuracy, situation awareness, user workload, usability, and user perceptions. Results from 23 participants showed that when compared to a risk interface utilised by a large aviation company, the EID display achieved higher usability and lower workload ratings with large effect sizes, with no differences in decision accuracy and situation awareness. The findings provide evidence that the EID framework can improve upon static traditional displays. Research contributions also include a novel model of an aviation ground operations system and an example application of EID to the development of a static display. Further research is necessary to identify the extent of the applications and benefits to static displays.

Museums in most countries of the world are a platform for culture, science and art throughout the ages, and it is one of theeducational and cultural means of communication that provides the visitor with an abundant experience of information, ideas, andscientific, artistic and aesthetic values. The Children's Museum is the laboratory in which a young child can satisfy his naturalinterests with arts, sciences, beauty and creativity. The International Museums Council has adopted the idea of children's museums.Therefore, we must pay attention to introducing the Egyptian child to his identity and the history of his ancestors. All these museumsaim in the interest of children in the first place, as they help them to acquire facts, experiences and skills that are not achieved forthem outside it through automatic learning and free play, and to achieve learning through exploration and provide an encouragingenvironment. With the rapid technological advancements that have occurred in the field of computers, so-called virtual museumshave emerged, which provide children with digital information in a way that suits their abilities and needs by exploring andpresenting multiple sources of information, through which the child learns self-learning that will allow them to learn about othermuseums in all countries of the world. Without them having to go to it, because of the importance of realistic and virtual museumsin the lives of our children and considering them a basic source for increasing their historical, geographical, artistic, literary andscientific information, and because it is the source of their formal and informal education, the study confirms the need to trainspecialists who have the ability to educational and artistic production of electronic or virtual museum content, and to createCooperative frameworks in educational institutions through which museum gates can be opened to be windows to many museums.

Because of the operation distractions created by large in-vehicle touch screens, it is necessary to explore the influence of the locations at which clicking and sliding gestures are performed on driving safety and operation performance. This study conducted two experiments to identify an easy operation area. In experiment 1, the influence of control size and control position on click offsets was discussed. The results showed that click offsets increased with increasing control size. Click offsets were larger at positions blocked by a driver's arm and that were far away from drivers. The click accuracy equation was fitted for different hot zone sizes. Experiment 2 focused on identifying easy sliding ranges. The results revealed sliding areas for 20%, 50%, and 80% of users under different sliding directions and positions. This study identified easy and difficult areas for users to operate large in-vehicle touch screens, providing theoretical guidance for display buttons arrangement.

Micro light-emitting diode (microLED) technologies have been rapidly developing in the past decade and stand to be the prominent display technology for high-brightness applications. MicroLED microdisplays are particularly well-suited for systems that compete with high ambient light, such as augmented reality headsets and smartwatches that reflect light from the sun. However, there are several technological issues to overcome before microLED cost can be driven to a point that enables widespread commercial use. This dissertation covers the current microLED technological landscape, key issues to overcome, and an in-depth discussion on microLED performance and applications using modeled and experimentally fabricated microLEDs. The first experiment focuses on microLED fabrication fidelity and methods to overcome the challenge of defect-free displays. Current ultra-high definition display resolution standards require approximately 25 million individual microLED emitters with an expected zero dead pixels. To better identify defect states at early stages of fabrication, this dissertation presents methods using photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence that can identify dry-etching related damage to GaN/InGaN microLEDs that result in dead pixels. Expanding on fabrication fidelity, the second study in this dissertation examines surface recombination losses in etched GaN/InGaN microLEDs from nitrogen vacancy trap states. As microLED emitter size decreases, the ratio of etched surface area to emitter area size increases and injected current recombining at surface trap states increases causing large efficiency losses. To combat this, this study examines pGaN contact geometry selections and the influence on surface recombination losses. In particular, the results show that there is a strong dependence on efficiency for a desired output power in relation to current density. Utilizing the fabrication knowledge from the first two studies, applications and implementations of microLED microdisplays as a structured illumination microscopy light source within miniaturized microscopes are presented. There is discussion on future miniaturization strategies and next steps to improve device performance. Finally, this dissertation includes a short discussion on a display-adjacent technology, organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). An investigation on the electrostatic discharge resilience of parylene in OFETs is presented for applications in flexible high-voltage thin-film transistors.

This paper reports on two studies focusing on the design of collision avoidance headway displays. The first study aims at examining interface issues relating to the headway information to drivers. It investigates integrated visual and auditory warnings. The purpose of the second study is to examine two particular factors that may affect drivers' braking responses in their use of an experimental Collision Avoidance System. It looks at the effects of both the absolute speeds of the target and following vehicle and the relative speed differences between the two vehicles.

This paper presents a discussion of the role of standards in in- vehicle man-machine interaction (MMI). It first looks at the types of standards that exist, including product, performance, and procedural. It briefly discusses the relevance of standards, and the importance of producing valid and supportive standards. The paper then describes international standards bodies, the different working groups, and their priorities.

This paper explores the decisions designers must make when developing Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) displays. It describes a design support process that has been developed to help formulate answers that reflect current human factors research and accepted design principles. Examples of decision tools that makeup this process are provided along with a description of how these tools can be used together to aid in the design process. In addition, specific results, generated using these design tools to analyze a large set of proposed ATIS information items, are also presented and discussed.

The present study examined whether the non-chronological age factor, engagement in physical exercise, affected responses to multimodal (combinations of visual, auditory, and/or tactile) signals differently between younger and older adults in complex environments. Forty-eight younger and older adults were divided into exercise and non-exercise groups, and rode in a simulated Level 3 autonomous vehicle under four different task conditions (baseline, video watching, headway estimation, and video-headway combination), while being asked to respond to various multimodal warning signals. Overall, bi- and trimodal warnings had faster response times for both age groups across driving conditions, but was more pronounced for older adults. Engagement in physical exercise was associated with smaller maximum braking force for younger participants only, and also corresponded to longer average fixation durations, compared to the non-exercise group. Findings from this research can help to guide decisions about the design of warning and information systems for semi-autonomous vehicles.

El present treball té com a objectiu l’estudi de les noves tecnologies en l’àmbit del patrimoni cultural i com aquestes poden suposar, no només una eina de comprensió per al públic, sinó també una nova manera d’entendre el que veiem. Pretén mostrar com, al segle XXI, són moltes les aplicacions de les tecnologies i la importància que tenen aquestes. També la manera en què han canviat la nostra manera d’apropar-nos al patrimoni i a les institucions museístiques. De les pàgines web a les sales immersives, la selecció de mitjans digitals explicats en aquest treball vol fer veure el gran ventall i possibilitats d’aquestes, i plantejar-les com a recurs vàlid i eficaç, i com a possible solució al problema de la comprensió que trobem majoritàriament en jaciments i ruïnes

This article proposes a novel smart car demonstration platform, with a focus on the intuitive paradigm of human?computer interaction (HCI). The main objective here is to circumvent driver distraction when manipulating built-in car-appropriate applications (apps) for future smart car development. Two major development directions for a smart car's HCI are investigated and discussed in detail: 1) an in-vehicle user interface, which focuses on utilizing the user interface of a transparent windshield display to keep the driver's head up and eyes focused on the roadway, and 2) an in-vehicle interaction design, which emphasizes an intuitive interaction framework to minimize distractions while driving. This article addresses the major difficulties of each direction and discusses related challenges and solutions to achieve safety and comfort during smart car operation.

Express lanes are usually freeway lanes that are separated from general purpose lanes to provide higher mobility. Guide signs upstream of express lanes are crucial because drivers have to read, comprehend, and then react to them accordingly while traveling at high speeds. As such, the objective of this research is to determine the optimal amount and type of information to display and the manner in which the information should be communicated to drivers. A focus group study involving 49 participants was conducted to assess drivers’ understanding, preferences, and opinions toward the guide signs at the entrance to express lanes. Several new sign designs and alternatives were evaluated. From the focus group study results, it was concluded that additional real-time information on travel time and average speed on express lanes helped drivers decide if they wanted to use the express lanes. However, participants found both travel time and speed information to be ambiguous. It is recommended that drivers be educated about these measures so that they correctly interpret this information. Although this additional information is useful to drivers, care needs to be taken to not overload drivers with too much information. It is imperative to consider the other existing signs and that drivers need to comprehend this information while driving at high speeds.

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Informàtica, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2019, Director: Anna Puig Puig, [en] Today, technology is evolving faster than ever. We are surrounded by in an endless number of new devices that try to recreate reality, and it is increasing, day by day, a more authentic immersion in game worlds. Virtual reality has recently experimented a boom and it does not look like this increasing trend is stopping any soon. It already has many different devices capable of using this technology and millions of consumers of this new reality all around the world. As you can imagine, the content visualized through the augmented reality glasses is not the same as the content that has been used for conventional computer games. This work proposes a set of metrics to objectively detect the quality of virtual reality images. To do this, a set of lighting techniques are implemented and afterwards analysed. Using these lighting techniques and generating a set of test images, we have been able to identify which visualization techniques are the most useful and well suited to be used in virtual reality.

Nearly all airport passengers’ journeys rely on the public address (PA) system through which information is given to provide real-time announcements accessible to all. This information is important and time-sensitive, but easy to miss or misunderstand. In an effort to improve the effectiveness of passenger information dissemination in an International Airport in the Philippines, a study on the airport’s PA announcements was conducted. Specific areas of the airport where PA announcements are vital were identified. A survey of passenger perception of audibility and intelligibility of announcements was conducted. In addition, signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) for different locations was measured and compared to recommended levels. Out of the 405 survey respondents, 42% were able to hear and correctly recall important parts of the most recent announcement, 25% were able to hear that an announcement was aired, but were unable to correctly recall what was announced, and 33% responded that they were not aware that any announcements were aired within the past ten minutes prior to their receiving of the questionnaire. An average SNR of 8.58 dBA as opposed to the recommended minimum of 10 dBA was found. Recommendations include the utilization of Flight Information Display Systems (FIDS) screens along with audible announcement modifications.

Partially automated vehicles present interface design challenges in ensuring the driver remains alert should the vehicle need to hand back control at short notice, but without exposing the driver to cognitive overload. To date, little is known about driver expectations of partial driving automation and whether this affects the information they require inside the vehicle. Twenty-five participants were presented with five partially automated driving events in a driving simulator. After each event, a semi-structured interview was conducted. The interview data was coded and analysed using grounded theory. From the results, two groupings of driver expectations were identified: High Information Preference (HIP) and Low Information Preference (LIP) drivers; between these two groups the information preferences differed. LIP drivers did not want detailed information about the vehicle presented to them, but the definition of partial automation means that this kind of information is required for safe use. Hence, the results suggest careful thought as to how information is presented to them is required in order for LIP drivers to safely using partial driving automation. Conversely, HIP drivers wanted detailed information about the system's status and driving and were found to be more willing to work with the partial automation and its current limitations. It was evident that the drivers' expectations of the partial automation capability differed, and this affected their information preferences. Hence this study suggests that HMI designers must account for these differing expectations and preferences to create a safe, usable system that works for everyone. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.]

Treballs finals del Màster de Fonaments de Ciència de Dades, Facultat de matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2018, Tutor: Mireia Ribera i Eloi Puertas i Prats, [en] This thesis concludes the Masters studies in Data Science of the University of Barcelona during the course 2017/2018. It contains a study of the escoltas catalans census, an non-profit organization, part of the scouts foundation, with the aim of obtaining insights that might be useful for enhacing their internal organization or assisting future decisions by adding information. The work done during this thesis includes different stages of the datascience pipeline, from data gathering and data enriching to the use of state of the art techniques for predicting future behaviours. The analysis performed on the obtained data resulted in two main outcomes: • Infographics. A visualization explaining data characteristics and some interesting facts found while performing the data analysis was created. In order to create this visualization, techniques learned during the course of the Presentation and Visualization subject were applied. • Analysis of implication. Aiming to have a better understanding of which factors determine the implication of the association members, a study of the length of stay and its correlated circumstances has been performed. Apart of those outcomes, the job done around data cleaning, formatting and enriching might be considered another interesting outcome of this project. To perform the analysis, open data has been leveraged to add the necessary information about the context and domain. To perform all done work regarding data acquisition, processing and analysis, different open source tools have been used. All the information and details about project outcomes and development are explained in the present document.

Treballs finals del Màster de Fonaments de Ciència de Dades, Facultat de matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2018, Tutor: Mireia Ribera i Eloi Puertas i Prats, [en] Nowadays information overflows our brains, especially when you can receive any kind of information at any time. With this in mind, The Banc dels Aliments Foundation wants to find a way to make people understand the work that they do. The aim of this project consists on finding the best way to design and develop a visualization for the Banc dels Aliments showing the maximum information about the food distributed during the last ten years in the province of Barcelona. Proving that with a good visualization the user can understand everything in a short time.

This paper describes a user study on the interaction with an in-vehicle information system (IVIS). The motivation for conducting this research was to investigate the subjectively and objectively measured impact of using a single- or multi-modal IVIS while driving. A hierarchical, list-based menu was presented using a windshield projection (head-up display), auditory display and a combination of both interfaces. The users were asked to navigate a vehicle in a driving simulator and simultaneously perform a set of tasks of varying complexity. The experiment showed that the interaction with visual and audio-visual head-up displays is faster and more efficient than with the audio-only display. All the interfaces had a similar impact on the overall driving performance. There was no significant difference between the visual only and audio-visual displays in terms of their efficiency and safety; however, the majority of test subjects clearly preferred to use the multi-modal interface while driving.

Mobile devices have become increasingly popular in supporting persons to find their ways in our daily lives. Research has been initiated to address issues including the efficiency of wayfinding instructions and the effect of using mobile devices on spatial awareness including cognitive mapping and spatial orientation. In this paper, we present our initial work on the design of mobile map display that visualises distant landmarks at the edge of mobile screen to support spatial orientation. Empirical assessments show that the visualisation of distant landmarks, in comparison with the visualisation without distant landmarks, contributes positively to persons with low sense of direction to be spatially oriented. Furthermore, this design dramatically reduces the frequency of zooming activity on mobile devices. Results indicate the potentials and challenges of extending this design into routing services that could further support user's wayfinding efficiency and spatial awareness.

Studies in the field of pedestrian navigation have shown advantages of map–image combinations. While in a previous work, the map view was either replaced with an image view in predefined situations, or the user was required to manually switch between both views, we suggest to use a split screen displaying maps and images at the same time. We developed two variants, one employing panoramic images aligned to the mobile device's orientation and the other using simple photographs, and we evaluated both against manual switching in a field study. While none of the interfaces outperformed the other, results indicate advantages of panoramic images independent of manual switching or the split screen.

Recently, main control rooms have been considerably changed by modern computer techniques. Some of the features that distinguish digital control rooms from conventional, analog rooms in nuclear power plants include advanced alarm systems, graphic information display systems, computerized procedure systems, and soft control. These features can bring changes in operator tasks, changing the characteristics of tasks or creating new tasks for operators. It is especially expected that these features may bring out changes in the operator's diagnostic tasks and strategies in a digital control room as compared with an analog control room. This study investigates the differences in the operator's diagnostic tasks and strategies in analog and digital control rooms. This study also attempts to evaluate how new systems in a digital control room affect diagnostic strategies. Three different approaches, which are complementary, are used to identify diagnostic strategies in the digital control room and in the analog cont...

Integrated multimodal systems is one promising direction to improve human–vehicle interaction. In order to create intelligent human–vehicle interfaces and reduce visual load during secondary tasks, combining a haptic rotary device and a graphic display will provide one practical solution. However, in literature, the proper display position for the haptic rotary device is not fully investigated. In this paper, one experimental infotainment system is studied (including a haptic rotary control device and a graphic display) to evaluate the proper display position. Measurements used include task completion time, reaction to road events, lane/velocity keeping during secondary tasks, and user preference. Three display positions are considered: high mounted position, cluster position, and center stack position. The results show that, with increased on-road and off-road visual loads, the cluster display position can reduce lane position deviation significantly compared to high mounted and center stack positions. In addition, the high mounted and cluster display positions are better toward two different road events, including strong wind gust and extreme deceleration of the lead car.

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Informàtica, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2017, Director: Eloi Puertas i Prats, This end-of-grade paper is the continuation of another project that has as its title: Application to assess the degree of cachexia in cancer patients by Javier Gómez Sánchez. The project is supported by a research group of the Faculty of Biology of Barcelona. The application already has accommodation on a server of the Faculty and is currently in operation. The purpose of continuing with this project is to deepen the tool and provide it with new functionalities. Enhancing and strengthening the application. The project will focus on visualizing data with the creation of graphs to make it easier for users to keep track of their patients. In this way it will be easier to see the evolution of the patients. The different users will be grouped into roles. We will be able to separate the permissions of each one of them and to have more control over its sections and its functionalities. Methods will be implemented to have greater control over users. These methods will delete, modify and view users. On the other hand, users will have an account recovery system. To make the application more secure during tool development it will be migrated to https to have the data safe when traveling over the internet.

Automatic eco-driving advice has the potential to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions. However, providing eco-driving information to the driver will inevitably draw attention away from the driving task. The objective of this research is to investigate the effects of intermittent versus continuous visual eco-driving information on glance behaviour in an attempt to find the best approach to display eco-driving information from a traffic safety perspective. Twenty-three truck drivers drove on a village road, a rural road and a motorway section in an advanced moving base truck simulator. A number of situations with relevance for eco-driving, such as traffic lights, crests, changes in posted speed limits, and a motorway entrance, were investigated. The level of difficulty of the traffic situations varied. Four conditions were tested: baseline without eco-driving information, intermittent feedback, continuous feedback and self-selected feedback (personalised settings selected by the driver). As expected, the drivers looked at the eco-driving system when it was active, and more so when the traffic situation was less demanding. Importantly, drivers waited longer with their first glance at the display when the traffic situation was more complex. In conclusion, intermittent information is recommended over continuous information as it leads to shorter dwell times, and as it is easier for the system designer to control when the periods of increased glance frequency occur, by presenting the information in strategically advantageous locations that are not demanding for the driver.

The present study investigates the effect stimulus–response binding processes in action control have on drivers’ behavior. Warning displays of driver assistance systems usually consist of several features, even those that may have no particular meaning for a currently to-be-executed response. Yet, research on distractor processing has shown that all features in a selection situation are integrated with responses and thereby can later on directly influence behavior due to feature-based retrieval of responses (which can be compatible or incompatible in the current situation). In four experiments we investigated the influence of ignored display-features on responses to local danger warnings. Participants responded manually (Experiment 1, N = 30) to the display colors and ignored additional icons (depicting a particular danger) on the displays. We approached responding in a driving and braking situation by using foot pedals for the responses (Experiment 2, N = 29), using a go/no-go task (as to imitate braking vs. no braking; Experiment 3, N = 60), and a real driving situation (Experiment 4, N = 25). We observed clear effects of feature-based response retrieval on performance when the features were relatively complex, while participants reacted via foot pedals as well as while driving a car. The repetition of an ignored feature facilitated behavior if the response also repeated, but hampered different responses. It is concluded that the possible influence of distractor–response binding on drivers’ responses should be taken into account for the design of local danger warnings in driver assistance systems.

China is carrying out the development of civil aviation aircraft which contains over 150 seats and will be flight-tested in 2014. Aiming at the visual coding design of the integrated display system for aircraft cockpit, it is considered that the human-rating design of visual coding has a direct effect on the ergonomics and safety of the pilot operating an aircraft. Therefore, this study focuses on the human-rating design of visual coding based on the airworthiness requirements, including the interpretation and analysis of the ergonomics airworthiness requirements, the ergonomics design of character size and color matching of visual coding. Drawn by the study: European and American airworthiness regulations have the same basic requirements but stronger operability compared with Chinese ones; the ergonomics design method of visual coding proposed in the current study is feasible, and the experiment results of the character size and color matching are consistent with the regulations published by the European and American airworthiness authorities, which can be applied to the development of China's airworthiness regulations.

Numerous Program Visualization tools (PVs) have been developed for assisting novice students to understand their source code further. However, none of them are practical to be used in the context of completing programming laboratory task; students are required to keep switching between PV and programming workspace since PV’s features are considerably limited for developing programming solution from scratch. This paper combines PV with programming workspace to handle such issue. Resulted tool (which is named PITON) has 13 features extracted from PythonTutor (a program visualization tool), PyCharm (a programming workspace), and student’s feedbacks about PythonTutor. According to think-aloud and user study, PITON is more practical to be used than a combination of PythonTutor and PyCharm. Further, its features are considerably helpful; students rated these features as useful and frequently used

The effectiveness of signal coordination can be undermined by over-long spacing and different vehicle dynamic characteristics between neighbouring signal intersections in a signalised highway system. This study presents two dynamic speed guidance (DSG) strategies based on the traffic environment and facility deployment to congregate the traffic flow and optimise the arterial coordinated signal control system. One of them is the in-car display for individual guidance, and the other is the roadside display for group guidance. The two DSG strategies are calculated using the rolling horizon approach. A simulation platform that integrates data communication, traffic mobility and DSG application is programmed based on VISSIM, a microscopic simulation model. A section of Cao'an highway is used to assess the efficiency of two DSG strategies. The assessment results show that both the average stops and travel time of arterial vehicles can be optimised with the application of the two DSG strategies. In addition, the in-car strategy provides a significant benefit for on-board unit equipped vehicles, even in a low level of market penetration rate.

An evaluation approach for correspondence-driven domains is suggested and implemented. Touch screen and trackball controls were evaluated as interaction devices for large-area displays in the cockpits of highly agile jet aircraft. To account for the context conditions of selected use cases, informatory quality and the difficulty of situational demands were analysed and manipulated experimentally in dual-task scenarios, which were completed by experienced pilots. Results indicate a clear performance advantage of touch compared to trackball interaction, accompanied by less workload. Informatory dimensions induce different performance and workload ratings. Cognitive demands interfere the least with aiming performance, followed by visual and motor. Task and device influences are interdependent. Motor components of an additional task interfere especially with trackball control actions. Workload operates as a buffer. When difficulty increases, performance decrements are lower than workload increments. It is argued that this cognitive manipulation of informatory context is advisable for correspondence-driven domains, where context is expected to influence human---machine interaction. Transfer to automotive display evaluation appears to be straightforward.

In this paper, we present a new framework for multimodal volume visualization that combines several informationtheoretic strategies to define both colors and opacities of the multimodal transfer function. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully automatic scheme to visualize multimodal data. To define the fused color, we set an information channel between two registered input data sets and, afterwards, we compute the informativeness associated with the respective intensity bins. This informativeness is used to weight the color contribution from both initial 1D transfer functions. To obtain the opacity, we apply an optimization process that minimizes the informational divergence between the visibility distribution captured by a set of viewpoints and a target distribution proposed by the user. This distribution is defined either from the data set features, from manually set importances, or from both. Other problems related to the multimodal visualization, such as the computation of the fused gradient and the histogram binning, have also been solved using new information-theoretic strategies. The quality and performance of our approach is evaluated on different data sets This work was supported in part by the Spanish Government under Grant TIN2010-21089-C03-01, the Catalan Government under Grant 2009-SGR-643, and by SUR of DEC of Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government)

We describe the all-engine-out landing of Air Transat Flight 236 in the Azores Islands (August 24, 2001) and use certain aspects of that accident to motivate a conceptual framework for the organization and display of information in complex human-interactive systems. Four hours into the flight, the aircraft experienced unusual oil indications. Two hours later, a fuel system failure led to a full-blown emergency that was not evident to the crew until it was too late. Although all relevant data to avoid the emergency were available to the aircraft computer systems, the design choices made about what to display and how to display it kept the pilots “in the dark.” The framework proposed here consists of six levels, beginning from the extraction of data from physical signals, abstracting from raw data to form visual representations on the user interface, and finally integrating high-level elements and information structures. We illustrate how the framework can be used to analyze some of the shortcomings in current display design, and we discuss some principles of information organization and formal analysis of task logic that might help to improve design. Finally, we sketch a design for a helicopter engine display based on these principles.

Korea is currently experiencing a rapidly increasing distribution rate of in-vehicle display devices, such as navigation or DMB displays, owing to remarkable advances in IT. At the same time, the number of traffic accidents and traffic violations is increasing due to the distraction of drivers’ attention by such devices. In particular, in-vehicle display devices such as navigation systems temporarily distract drivers’ visual or cognitive attention when they perform a unit task. Accordingly, it is necessary to prepare adequate standards to regulate in-vehicle display devices, especially in Korea. There are few empirical studies that have employed experiments to support such regulation. In this study, an experiment was conducted using a driving simulator to establish the proper standards regarding the maximum distraction time per unit task that can be allowed without causing any disturbance in safe driving. A total of 25 participants participated in the experiment. The distraction time was controlled by asking participants to perform the two tasks at once: while participants were driving as a primary task, they performed secondary task that count the number of intersections between the start point and the arrival point displayed on the screen. The results showed that the 2.0 second condition differed from the controlled condition in the deviation in the distance from the preceding vehicle, speed, and steering wheel movement, whereas there were no differences between the controlled condition and the 1.0 or 1.5 second condition. Finally, the limitations of the study and the implications of the findings with regard to future studies and application of the Korean version of guidelines for in-vehicle display devices are discussed.

This study evaluated the effect of visual pedestrian signal displays on the ability of persons with reduced visual acuity to accurately and confidently identify the pedestrian interval. While watching video clips of actual intersections presented on a 42-in. monitor under simulated visual impairment, participants attempted to determine the pedestrian interval (“Walk,” flashing “Don't Walk,” or steady “Don't Walk”) and provided confidence ratings for each judgment. Participants in Experiment 1 experienced simulated acuities of 20/70, 20/100, and 20/200; participants in Experiment 2 experienced approximate acuities of 20/20, 20/50, and 20/300. The study made a critical comparison of two methods of signaling the pedestrian change interval (i.e., flashing “Don't Walk”): (a) simultaneous presentation of a countdown and a flashing upraised hand symbol and (b) a countdown-only display without the flashing upraised hand. With the exception of performance in the 20/300 vision category, participants' accuracy on the interval discrimination task was, overall, rather high. However, under simulated visual impairment of 20/70 or worse, participants' success in correctly determining the pedestrian interval was, on average, 21.5 percentage points lower for the countdown display presented without the flashing upraised hand than for the countdown display with the upraised hand. The participants' average reported confidence in their judgment was also lower for the countdown-only condition, and their interval judgment response times also showed a negative effect of the countdown-only display. Implications of the study findings with regard to visual impairment and signal displays for the pedestrian change interval are discussed.

Continuity and interpolation have been crucial topics for computer graphics since its very beginnings. Every time we want to interpolate values across some area, we need to take a set of samples over that interpolating region. However, interpolating samples faithfully allowing the results to closely match the underlying functions can be a tricky task as the functions to sample could not be smooth and, in the worst case, it could be even impossible when they are not continuous. In those situations bringing the required continuity is not an easy task, and much work has been done to solve this problem. In this paper, we focus on the state of the art in continuity and interpolation in three stages of the real-time rendering pipeline. We study these problems and their current solutions in texture space (2D), object space (3D) and screen space. With this review of the literature in these areas, we hope to bring new light and foster research in these fundamental, yet not completely solved problems in computer graphics We would like to thank the people that helped this work to become true, in particular the ViRVIG-GGG members. This work was partially funded by the TIN2013-47137-C2-2-P project from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain

The Fortran subroutine package pengeom provides a complete set of tools to handle quadric geometries in Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport. The material structure where radiation propagates is assumed to consist of homogeneous bodies limited by quadric surfaces. The pengeom subroutines (a subset of the penelope code) track particles through the material structure, independently of the details of the physics models adopted to describe the interactions. Although these subroutines are designed for detailed simulations of photon and electron transport, where all individual interactions are simulated sequentially, they can also be used in mixed (class II) schemes for simulating the transport of high-energy charged particles, where the effect of soft interactions is described by the random-hinge method. The definition of the geometry and the details of the tracking algorithm are tailored to optimize simulation speed. The use of fuzzy quadric surfaces minimizes the impact of round-off errors. The provided software includes a Java graphical user interface for editing and debugging the geometry definition file and for visualizing the material structure. Images of the structure are generated by using the tracking subroutines and, hence, they describe the geometry actually passed to the simulation code. Program summary Program title: Pengeom Catalogue identifier: AEYH_v1_0 Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEYH_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen’s University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 89390 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 5062646 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: Fortran, Java. Computer: PC with Java Runtime Environment installed. Operating system: Windows, Linux. RAM: 210 MiB Classification: 21.1, 14. Nature of problem: The Fortran subroutines perform all geometry operations in Monte Carlo simulations of radiation transport with arbitrary interaction models. They track particles through material systems consisting of homogeneous bodies limited by quadric surfaces. Particles are moved in steps (free flights) of a given length, which is dictated by the simulation program, and are halted when they cross an interface between media of different compositions or when they enter selected bodies. Solution method: The pengeom subroutines are tailored to optimize simulation speed and accuracy. Fast tracking is accomplished by the use of quadric surfaces, which facilitate the calculation of ray intersections, and of modules (connected volumes limited by quadric surfaces) organized in a hierarchical structure. Optimal accuracy is obtained by considering fuzzy surfaces, with the aid of a simple algorithm that keeps control of multiple intersections of a ray and a surface. The Java GUI PenGeomJar provides a geometry toolbox; it allows building and debugging the geometry definition file, as well as visualizing the resulting geometry in two and three dimensions. Restrictions: By default pengeom can handle systems with up to 5000 bodies and 10,000 surfaces. These numbers can be increased by editing the Fortran source file. Unusual features: All geometrical operations are performed internally. The connection between the steering main program and the tracking routines is through a Fortran module, which contains the state variables of the transported particle, and the input-output arguments of the subroutine step. Rendering of two- and three-dimensional images is performed by using the pengeom subroutines, so that displayed images correspond to the definitions passed to the simulation program. Additional comments: Java editor and viewer (PenGeomJar), geometry examples, translator to POV-Ray™ format, detailed manual. The Fortran subroutine package pengeom is part of the penelope code system [1]. Running time: The running time much depends on the complexity of the material system. The most complicated example provided, phantom, an anthropomorphic phantom, has 264 surfaces and 169 bodies and modules, with different levels of grouping; the largest module contains 51 daughters. The rendering of a 3D image of phantom with 1680x1050 pixels takes about 25 s (i.e., about 1.5⋅10 −5 seconds per ray) on an Intel Core I7-3520M CPU, with Windows 7 and subroutines compiled with gfortran. References: [1] F. Salvat, PENELOPE-2014: A Code System for Monte Carlo Simulation of Electron and Photon Transport, OECD/NEA Data Bank, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, 2015. Available from http://www.nea.fr/lists/penelope.html .

Treballs Finals de Grau d'Enginyeria Informàtica, Facultat de Matemàtiques, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2016, Director: Eloi Puertas i Prats, Academic tutors at universities find themselves without enough tools or material to help their students due to the lack of knowledge of each student’s academic profile. For this reason, we have performed a comprehensive study of student data in order to obtain supplementary material for the tutor. Clusterization algorithms have been used to separate the students into groups to identify general characteristics of the students belonging to a particular cluster. Dropout of each cluster and relationships between groups have been studied as well. A k-NN classifier has been used to create a prediction model which is able to predict in which cluster a student will belong the next academic year. Finally, visualization technics have been used to present the results of the analysis.

Due to high vehicle velocities rural intersections have a disproportionately high rate of fatalities. The current study examines the transition from an infrastructure-based rural intersection crossing assist system to one located inside a vehicle. Moreover, we investigate the efficacy of the in-vehicle system. Three different designs of the assist system were examined regarding their impact on driving performance and applicability to varying age groups and visibility conditions. These designs differed in terms of their complexity based on the amount of information that drivers received about the intersection traffic. Seventy-two older and younger participants divided into the three design groups crossed a busy rural intersection in a simulated environment. Drivers completed four blocks of trials in which the presence of the assist system and visibility conditions (limited, clear) were counterbalanced. When presented with the assist system drivers were less likely to accept a smaller gap, especially under low-visibility conditions. The design of the assist system that resulted in the best overall intersection crossing performance was also the most informative about the traffic. Older drivers exhibited some benefits from the presence of the assist system, although not to the same extent as the younger drivers. The results suggest that some infrastructure-based assist or information display systems could successfully be transitioned to inside a vehicle.

We present the results of two online surveys asking participants to indicate what type of air traffic information might be conveyed by a number of symbols and symbol features (color, fill, text, and shape). The results of this initial study suggest that the well-developed concepts of ownership, altitude, and trajectory are readily associated with certain symbol features, while the relatively novel concept of equipage was not clearly associated with any specific symbol feature.

The current study examines the human-machine interface of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) from a user-perspective, focussing on the evaluation of BEV-specific displays, the relevance of provided information and challenges for drivers due to the concept of electricity in a road vehicle. A sample of 40 users drove a BEV for 6 months. Data were gathered at three points of data collection. Participants perceived the BEV-specific displays as only moderately reliable and helpful for estimating the displayed parameters. This was even less the case after driving the BEV for 3 months. A taxonomy of user requirements was compiled revealing the need for improved and additional information, especially regarding energy consumption and efficiency. Drivers had difficulty understanding electrical units and the energy consumption of the BEV. On the background of general principles for display design, results provide implications how to display relevant information and how to facilitate drivers' understanding of energy consumption in BEVs. Practitioner Summary: Battery electric vehicle (BEV) displays need to incorporate new information. A taxonomy of user requirements was compiled revealing the need for improved and additional information in the BEV interface. Furthermore, drivers had trouble understanding electrical units and energy consumption; therefore, appropriate assistance is required. Design principles which are specifically important in the BEV context are discussed.

A real-time energy management display is developed and evaluated, and the feasibility and utility of the display in providing real-time guidance and information on an aircraft's energy state is investigated. Flight simulations were conducted with the UTSI's Aviation Systems research flight simulator to validate the display and to evaluate its utility for flying along constant specific excess power (PS) contours and for directly obtaining PS contours from level acceleration flight test. This study considers the energy state of the aircraft from the point of view of the relation that exists between specific excess power, PS, and the forces in flight. The approach yields as one result a cubic function for the PS of the aircraft. We then directly solve for velocity, V, as the control parameter for a given PS as a function of altitude, H. Using LabView software, this technique is used to build a real-time energy management display which provides guidance and real-time information on the aircraft's energy state. Flight simulation results proved the display to be successful in obtaining direct PS contours from level acceleration flight tests and in providing guidance for flights along constant PS contours at low airspeeds, although it was difficult to keep the PS constant. Santrauka Sukurtas ir įvertintas realaus laiko energijos valdymo monitorius, ištirtos jo galimybės ir panaudojimas informacijai apie energijos būklę teikti. Skrydžio simuliacijos rodo, kad monitorius sėkmingai gauna tiesioginįPSkontūrą greitėjančio skrydžio metu ir gali nukreipti skrydžius palei nuolatinįPSkontūrą, esant nedideliam greičiui, nors ir sunku išlaikyti nuolatinįPS. Reikšminiai žodžiai: perteklinė galia,horizontalusis pagreitėjimas,aukštis,greitis

Good weather-related decision making is critical for the safe conduct of general aviation flights. A number of tools have been developed in recent years to help pilots visualize the actual and forecast weather for their planned flight. In this study we compare the effectiveness of a graphic weather visualization tool designed for preflight decision making with conventional coded reports and plain English translations. Qualified pilots from several aero clubs were asked to view 4 hypothetical cross-country flights. Departure and destination weather reports (METARs) were provided for each flight in 1 of 4 formats—code, plain English, graphic, or both graphic and plain English. Following a short interference task, the pilots were asked to recall as much of the weather information as possible. Results showed that pilots correctly recalled most information from the dual graphic and plain English display but this was largely attributable to the additional time required to process the 2 displays. Although the fo...