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Given the limitations of traditional methods of data collection and the increased use of smartphones, there is growing attention given to using smartphone apps for activity-travel surveys. Smartphones, through their location-logging capability, allow for the collection of high-quality data on the travel patterns of individuals over multiple days while minimizing the burden on those being monitored. This paper presents the results of an investigation into the potential and limitations of smartphone apps as passenger travel survey instruments. It evaluates the accuracy and performance of various smartphone apps using properly recorded ‘ground truth’ data. Through an open and global invitation to travel survey app and trace processing suite developers, a total of 17 apps were recruited for testing. A controlled experiment was devised, and the accuracy of the apps evaluated based on their ability to reproduce ground truth trip information. Further, the performance of the apps in terms of battery drain was also quantified and evaluated. Results indicate that while accuracy in terms of the trip ends/starts is reasonably high in most cases, mode inference accuracy varied significantly, with a maximum 65–75% accuracy achieved. As such, until significant improvements in mode inference algorithms arise, purely passive location-logging smartphone apps cannot serve as full-fledged automated travel survey instruments. While this may seem problematic, with minor input from respondents regarding regularly visited locations and modes used, as well as specific test case tuning and use of external data such as General Transit Feed Specification, there is an excellent potential to significantly reduce overall response burden and allow for high quality multi-day travel diary data to be collected. Implications of our findings for app design are discussed.

Smartphones offer a potential alternative to collect high-quality information on the travel patterns of individuals without burdening the respondents with reporting every detail of their travel. Smartphone apps have recently become a common tool for travel survey data collection around the world, especially for multiday surveys. However, there still exists a lack of systematic assessment of issues related to smartphone app-based surveys, such as the impact of app design or the recruitment method on the collected data. Through a large-scale experiment (named the City Logger), this paper assesses the data produced by the City Logger app, to better understand recruitment avenues (targeted invitation versus crowdsourcing), and examine differences in respondents’ travel behavior recruited through crowdsourcing methods. The paper also examines how app design, and particularly the user input method for trip validation, influences participants’ responses. The results indicate that, while crowdsourcing recruitment is promising, it might not yet be the best way to capture a true representation of the population. For app design, a combination of real-time and travel diary approaches is recommended. An ideal app would prompt users real-time and create a travel diary, so users can validate, edit, or delete the recorded information.

An open-source web-application, TouchTerrain, was developed to simplify the production of 3D-printable terrain models. Direct Digital Manufacturing (DDM) using 3D Printers can change how geoscientists, students, and stakeholders interact with 3D data, with the potential to improve geoscience communication and environmental literacy. No other manufacturing technology can convert digital data into tangible objects quickly at relatively low cost; however, the expertise necessary to produce a 3D-printed terrain model can be a substantial burden: knowledge of geographical information systems, computer aided design (CAD) software, and 3D printers may all be required. Furthermore, printing models larger than the build volume of a 3D printer can pose further technical hurdles. The TouchTerrain web-application simplifies DDM for elevation data by generating digital 3D models customized for a specific 3D printer's capabilities. The only required user input is the selection of a region-of-interest using the provided web-application with a Google Maps-style interface. Publically available digital elevation data is processed via the Google Earth Engine API. To allow the manufacture of 3D terrain models larger than a 3D printer's build volume the selected area can be split into multiple tiles without third-party software. This application significantly reduces the time and effort required for a non-expert like an educator to obtain 3D terrain models for use in class. The web application is deployed at http://touchterrain.geol.iastate.edu , while source code and installation instructions for a server and a stand-alone version are available at Github: https://github.com/ChHarding/TouchTerrain_for_CAGEO .

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) has been hailed as a potential gamechanger for non-communicable disease (NCD) management, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Individual studies illustrate barriers to implementation and scale-up, but an overview of implementation issues for NCD mHealth interventions in LMICs is lacking. This paper explores implementation issues from two perspectives: information in published papers and field-based knowledge by people working in this field. Methods: Through a scoping review publications on mHealth interventions for NCDs in LMICs were identified and assessed with the WHO mHealth Evidence Reporting and Assessment (mERA) tool. A two-stage web-based survey on implementation barriers was performed within a NCD research network and through two online platforms on mHealth targeting researchers and implementors. Results: 18 studies were included in the scoping review. Short Message Service (SMS) messaging was the main implementation tool. Most studies focused on patient-centered outcomes. Most studies do not report on process measures and on contextual conditions influencing implementation decisions. Few publications reported on implementation barriers. The websurvey included twelve projects and the responses revealed additional information, especially on practical barriers related to the patients’ characteristics, low demand, technical requirements, integration with health services and with the wider context. Many interventions used low-cost software and devices with limited capacity that not allowing linkage with routine data or patient records, which incurred fragmented delivery and increased workload. Conclusion: Text messaging is a dominant mHealth tool for patient-directed of quality improvement interventions in LMICs. Publications report little on implementation barriers, while a questionnaire among implementors reveals significant barriers and strategies to address them. This information is relevant for decisions on scale-up of mHealth in the domain of NCD. Further knowledge should be gathered on implementation issues, and the conditions that allow universal coverage.

There is significant need to plan for the growing demand for clean energy in the future. This research project anticipates a very high wind penetration future for the state of Iowa, and with it the necessity to upgrade or build transmission to transfer the energy to load centers in the east and south. Unlike the traditional planning approach which identifies generation and transmission system investment sequentially, a co-optimization approach identifies them simultaneously, yielding significant economic benefit. Interpreting the results of the planning process is crucial, and the ability to visualize them facilitates understanding of the plan. Thus, to support this approach, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to select feasible sites for wind farms and to efficiently communicate co-optimized generation and transmission expansion planning investment results.

The continued advancement in computer interfaces to support 3D tasks requires a better understanding of how users will interact with 3D user interfaces in a virtual workspace. This article presents two studies that investigated the effect of visual, auditory, and haptic sensory feedback modalities presented by a virtual button in a 3D environment on task performance (time on task and task errors) and user rating. Although we expected task performance to improve for conditions that combined two or three feedback modalities over a single modality, we instead found a significant emergent behavior that decreased performance in the trimodal condition. We found a significant increase in the number of presses when a user released the button before closing the virtual switch, suggesting that the combined visual, auditory, and haptic feedback led participants to prematurely believe they actuated a button. This suggests that in the design of virtual buttons, considering the effect of each feedback modality independently is not sufficient to predict performance, and unexpected effects may emerge when feedback modalities are combined.

This paper describes the visualization of global solar radiation data for teaching and research. ERA-40 data (1957-2002) [7,8] from the ECMWF model [6] was processed into annual and monthly averages over 45 years. A collaborative and iterative design methodology, including perceptually validated color progression was used. The data was visualized via Python's matplotlib (basemap) module. The results (maps and animations), data and python code can be downloaded from https://iastate.box.com/solarRadiationMaps

Planning of transportation infrastructure requires analyzing combinations of many different types of geospatial information (maps). Conventional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or Computer Aided Design systems limit the planner's ability to perceive and effectively use multiple data layers together. To improve the planner's ability to interact with multiple layers of disparate spatial information, this article presents a novel computer system, which combines vision with haptics (touch) and sound. In this new form of Multi-Sensory Information System (MSIS), visual information is augmented by a 3-D haptic device (PHANToM) and by sound (sonification). In a recent study, it was investigated how engineering students used this multi-sensory GIS for planning the location (the alignment) of a new road. The results indicate that certain forms of vision, haptics, and audio were used preferentially to represent certain types of spatial data. A generalization of such a multi-sensory approach could provide researchers with the basis for further development and, eventually, the augmentation of established procedures with the MSIS in highway location planning and related areas.

In this paper, we report our ongoing research into multi-sensory investigation of geoscientific data. Our geoscientific data investigation system (GDIS) integrates three-dimensional, interactive computer graphics, touch (haptics) and real-time sonification into a multi-sensory virtual environment. GDIS has been used to investigate geological structures derived from high-resolution bathymetry-maps of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It helped us obtain improved models of the mega-mullions, which promise to grant insight into the deeper structures of the ocean floor. Haptic force feedback was used to precisely digitize line-features on three-dimensional morphology and to feel surface properties via varying friction settings; additional, overlapping data can be perceived via sound (sonification). We also report on the results of a psycho-acoustic study about the absolute recognition of sound signals, and on the actual feedback that we have received from a number of geoscientists during a recent major geoscience conference.

The Interactive Workbench was initially a collaboration between the University of Houston's Virtual Environment Research Institute (VERI, but then known as VETL) and BHP's research branch. The latter wished to evaluate the potential long-term impact of virtual reality (VR) on the resource industry. Oil and gas exploration, in which computer technology/expertise is widespread, was chosen as a testing ground.

In a geographic information system (GIS), suitability analysis is used to model the spatial distribution of suitability within a region of interest with regard to a planning goal. This analysis is based on the combination of multiple geospatial source datasets, which spatially overlap, and each encodes a factor that contributes a certain weight to the overall suitability. “Possibility space” refers to an event space that represents all possible outcomes of the suitability analysis. This paper proposes an interactive possibility space for real-time visualization and exploration with a goal to help understand meaningful relationships between variable combinations and the suitability outcomes. A case study for siting wind farm locations in northwest Iowa is presented to demonstrate the practical application and usefulness of the possibility space.

The simple action of pressing a button is a multimodal interaction with an interesting depth of complexity. As the development of computer interfaces supporting 3D tasks progresses, there is a need to understand how users will interact with virtual buttons that generate multimodal feedback. Using a phone number dialing task on a virtual keypad, this study examined the effects of visual, auditory, and haptic feedback combinations on task performance and on the motion of individual button presses. The results suggest that the resistance of haptic feedback alone was not enough to prevent participants from pressing the button farther than necessary. Reinforcing haptic feedback with visual or auditory feedback shortened the depth of the presses significantly. However, the shallower presses that occurred with trimodal feedback may have led participants to release some buttons too early, which may explain an unexpected increase in mistakes where the participant missed digits from the phone number.

This paper deals with roundabout visibility and perception design requirements, including available standards and guidelines in the US and Europe for warning signs. To provide for the highest levels of safety, visual perception of junctions is important even where advance warning signs are provided, to reinforce driver knowledge and confidence in their actions. For roundabouts, three different types of central island development are recently suggested to affect their visual perception, and the related classification defines the reduced, the compressed and the streamlined, or slender, central island development. The paper proposes new methodologies to test this perceptibility of various roundabout designs and developments. Two research strategies based on the specific roundabout visual intrusion defined by the solid angle are outlined: on-site stand-by/2D and virtual video/3D. Finally, some preliminary results are discussed in view of selecting original and proper standards. Moreover, future research is suggested for extending the methodology to more comprehensive application.

We describe a prototype software system for investigating novel human-computer interaction techniques for 3-D geospatial data. This system, M4-Geo (Multi-Modal Mesh Manipulation of Geospatial data), aims to provide a more intuitive interface for directly manipulating 3-D surface data, such as digital terrain models (DTM). The M4-Geo system takes place within a 3-D environment and uses a Phantom haptic force feedback device to enhance 3-D computer graphics with touch-based interactions. The Phantom uses a 3-D force feedback stylus, which acts as a virtual "finger tip" that allows the user to feel the shape (morphology) of the terrain's surface in great detail. In addition, it acts as a touch sensitive tool for different GIS tasks, such as digitizing (draping) of lines and polygons directly onto a 3-D surface and directly deforming surfaces (by pushing or pulling the stylus in or out). The user may adjust the properties of the surface deformation (e.g., soft or hard) locally by painting it with a special "material color."The overlap of visual and force representation of 3-D data aides hand-eye coordination for these tasks and helps the user to perceive the 3-D spatial data in a more holistic, multi-sensory way. The use of such a 3-D force feedback device for direct interaction may thus provide more intuitive and efficient alternatives to the mouse and keyboards driven interactions common today, in particular in areas related to digital landscape design, surface hydrology and geotechnical engineering.

In this paper, we compare the mental maps created by sighted participants with the maps created by participants with visual impairments during the study of an auditory platform game. The game uses audio cues to convey a 2D side-scrolling view of the spatial layout of the game world. We studied three groups with 9 participants each: a control group of sighted participants playing an audio-visual version of the game, sighted participants playing the audio-only version of the game, and participants with visual impairments playing the audio-only version of the game. Immediately after playing two of the game's levels, we transferred the participants' verbal descriptions of the level's layout onto paper maps and gave each map a "mapping score" that expressed how closely a map matched the actual layout of the game level. The results suggest that in this setting, all participants were able to create maps with roughly the same accuracy no matter which version of the game they played (audio-visual or audio-only) and independent of the participant's level of visual ability (sighted persons or persons with visual impairments).

We describe M4, the multi-modal mesh manipulation system, which aims to provide a more intuitive desktop interface for freeform manipulation of 3D meshes. The system combines interactive 3D graphics with haptic force feedback and provide several virtual tools for the manipulation of 3D objects represented by irregular triangle meshes. The current functionality includes mesh painting with pressure dependent brush size and paint preview, mesh cutting via drawing a poly-line on the model and two types of mesh deformations. We use two phantoms, either in a co-located haptic/3D-stereo setup or as a fish tank VR setup with a 3D flat panel. In our system, the second hand assists the manipulation of the object, either by ";holding"; the mesh or by affecting the manipulation directly. While the connection of 3D artists and designers to such a direct interaction system may be obvious, we are also investigating its potential benefits for landscape architects and other users of spatial geoscience data. Feedback from an upcoming user study will evaluate the benefits of this system and its tools for these different user groups.

Planning of transportation infrastructure requires analyzing combinations of many different types of geo-spatial information (maps). Displaying all of these maps together in a tradition Geographic Information System (GIS) limits its effectiveness with visual clutter and information overload. Multi-modal interfaces (MMIs) aim to improve the efficiency of human-computer interaction by combining several types of sensory modalities. We are presenting a prototype virtual environment using vision, haptics and sonification for multi-modal GIS scenarios such as road planning. We use a point-haptic device (Phantom) for various haptic effects and sonification to present additional non-visual data while drawing on a virtual canvas. We conducted a user study to gather experience with this multi-modal system and to learn more about how these users interact with geospatial data via various combinations of sensory modalities. The results indicate that certain forms of haptics and audio were preferentially used to present certain types of spatial data.

This paper describes the development of applications for the interactive investigation of three-dimensional geological andgeophysical data, using an Interactive Workbench. The Interactive Workbench is essentially a large (175 cm by 125 cm)light table, on which stereo images are back-projected. The position of the user's head and hands are determined by amagnetic tracking system. The user interacts via a 3D mouse with geoscientific data objects that appear to be placed on orabove the table. A high-end Silicon Graphics Workstation (Onyx2) renders the stereo image 30 times a second for the users current eye position. We have implemented a pen-driven user interface (traditional GUI) as well as virtual tools for positioning, picking and cutting in order to visualize and, in some instances, edit geological objects like horizons, faults,seismic data, well bores, etc.This approach enables geoscientists to more fully exploit three-dimensional geoscientific data by providing them with a trulythree-dimensional display that can be shared (locally or remotely) with others. In addition, the three-dimensional interactivitythat this technology provides can support more productive modeling of geoscientific data and more efficient verification ofthe resulting interpretations.Keywords: Scientific Visualization, Virtual Reality, Geophysical Data, Direct manipulation of virtual objects, ImmersiveDisplay

In this paper, we report on our ongoing research into multimodal investigation of geoscientific data. Our system integrates three-dimensional, interactive computer graphics, touch (haptics) and real-time sound synthesis into a multimodal interface. We present applications of multimodal investigations of geoscientific data that pertain to surface meshes on which several typical properties were mapped and to geophysical volume data. Finally, we report on the preliminary results of a psychological study, which is being conducted to increase our understanding of the recognition of audio value in an absolute sense.

Summary This paper describes ongoing research in the area of Virtual Environments with application to geoscientific data. Building on recent experience with interactive stereo systems we are enhancing these purely visual systems by using forcefeedback technology (touch) and real-time sound synthesis. The paper describes a general approach for the use of this new method and several prototype applications dealing with geoscientific data from different domains. First results are encouraging and point to a variety of potentially powerful applications of the method