2023
Conference article
Open Access
Towards adaptation of humanoid robot behaviour in serious game scenarios using reinforcement learning
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F.
Repetitive cognitive training can be seen as tedious by older adults and cause participants to drop out. Humanoid robots can be exploited to reduce boredom and the cognitive burden in playing serious games as part of cognitive training. In this paper, an adaptive technique to select the best actions for a robot is proposed to maintain the attention level of elderly users during a serious game. The goal is to create a strategy to adapt the robot's behaviour to stimulate the user to remain attentive through reinforcement learning. Specifically, a learning algorithm (QL) has been applied to obtain the best adaptation strategy for the selection of the robot's actions. The robot's actions consist of a combination of verbal and nonverbal interaction aspects. We have applied this approach to the behaviour of a Pepper robot for which two possible personalities have been defined. Each personality is exhibited by performing specific actions in the various modalities supported. Simulation results indicate learning convergence and seem promising to validate the effectiveness of the obtained strategy. Preliminary test results with three participants suggest that the adaption in the robot is perceived.Source: ALTRUIST 2022 - 2nd Workshop on sociAL roboTs for peRsonalized, continUous and adaptIve aSsisTance, pp. 93–99, Florence, Italy, 16/12/2022
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F.
Repetitive cognitive training can be seen as tedious by older adults and cause participants to drop out. Humanoid robots can be exploited to reduce boredom and the cognitive burden in playing serious games as part of cognitive training. In this paper, an adaptive technique to select the best actions for a robot is proposed to maintain the attention level of elderly users during a serious game. The goal is to create a strategy to adapt the robot's behaviour to stimulate the user to remain attentive through reinforcement learning. Specifically, a learning algorithm (QL) has been applied to obtain the best adaptation strategy for the selection of the robot's actions. The robot's actions consist of a combination of verbal and nonverbal interaction aspects. We have applied this approach to the behaviour of a Pepper robot for which two possible personalities have been defined. Each personality is exhibited by performing specific actions in the various modalities supported. Simulation results indicate learning convergence and seem promising to validate the effectiveness of the obtained strategy. Preliminary test results with three participants suggest that the adaption in the robot is perceived.Source: ALTRUIST 2022 - 2nd Workshop on sociAL roboTs for peRsonalized, continUous and adaptIve aSsisTance, pp. 93–99, Florence, Italy, 16/12/2022
See at:
ceur-ws.org 
| ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2023
Conference article
Open Access
An environment to collect personal memories of older adults and use them to personalise serious games with humanoid robots
Catricalà B., Ledda M., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C., Zedda E.
One of the goals of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions is to be able to stimulate the cognitive resources of older adults. An innovative way to address such stimulation is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots, as they can provide an engaging way to perform exercises useful for training human memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. This paper presents an approach to supporting cognitive stimulation based on personal memories. The humanoid robot can exhibit different behaviours using various modalities, and propose the games in a way personalised to specific individuals' requirements, preferences, abilities, and motivations, which can vary among older adults, and even dynamically evolve over time for the same person depending on changing user needs and health conditions. Using personal memories associated with facts and events that occurred in older adults life in the serious games can increase their engagement, and thus potentially reduce the cognitive training drop-out.Source: ALTRUIST 2022 - 2nd Workshop on sociAL roboTs for peRsonalized, continUous and adaptIve aSsisTance, pp. 44–54, Florence, Italy, 16/12/2022
Catricalà B., Ledda M., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C., Zedda E.
One of the goals of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions is to be able to stimulate the cognitive resources of older adults. An innovative way to address such stimulation is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots, as they can provide an engaging way to perform exercises useful for training human memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. This paper presents an approach to supporting cognitive stimulation based on personal memories. The humanoid robot can exhibit different behaviours using various modalities, and propose the games in a way personalised to specific individuals' requirements, preferences, abilities, and motivations, which can vary among older adults, and even dynamically evolve over time for the same person depending on changing user needs and health conditions. Using personal memories associated with facts and events that occurred in older adults life in the serious games can increase their engagement, and thus potentially reduce the cognitive training drop-out.Source: ALTRUIST 2022 - 2nd Workshop on sociAL roboTs for peRsonalized, continUous and adaptIve aSsisTance, pp. 44–54, Florence, Italy, 16/12/2022
See at:
ceur-ws.org | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2023
Report
Unknown
Modifiche piattaforma MAUVE++ per realizzare il monitoraggio nazionale dell'accessibilità di marzo 2023
Iannuzzi N., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
In questa nota riportiamo le principali modifiche effettuate alla piattaforma MAUVE+ per poter effetuare il monitoraggio nazionale dei siti web delle pubbliche amministrazioni di Marzo 2023, che è stato reso pubblico tramite la dashboard dell'accessibilitàSource: ISTI Project Report, PNRR, Misura 1.4.2, 2023
Iannuzzi N., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
In questa nota riportiamo le principali modifiche effettuate alla piattaforma MAUVE+ per poter effetuare il monitoraggio nazionale dei siti web delle pubbliche amministrazioni di Marzo 2023, che è stato reso pubblico tramite la dashboard dell'accessibilitàSource: ISTI Project Report, PNRR, Misura 1.4.2, 2023
See at: CNR ExploRA
2023
Conference article
Open Access
An adaptive behaviour-based strategy for SARs interacting with older adults with MCI during a serious game scenario
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
The monotonous nature of repetitive cognitive training may cause losing interest in it and dropping out by older adults. This study introduces an adaptive technique that enables a Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) to select the most appropriate actions to maintain the engagement level of older adults while they play the serious game in cognitive training. The goal is to develop an adaptation strategy for changing the robot's behaviour that uses reinforcement learning to encourage the user to remain engaged. A reinforcement learning algorithm was implemented to determine the most effective adaptation strategy for the robot's actions, encompassing verbal and nonverbal interactions. The simulation results demonstrate that the learning algorithm achieved convergence and offers promising evidence to validate the strategy's effectiveness.Source: CHI2023 SARs: TMI - 2023: Socially Assistive Robots as Decision Makers: Transparency, Motivations, and Intentions, Hamburg, Germany, 28/04/2023
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.01492
Metrics:
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
The monotonous nature of repetitive cognitive training may cause losing interest in it and dropping out by older adults. This study introduces an adaptive technique that enables a Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) to select the most appropriate actions to maintain the engagement level of older adults while they play the serious game in cognitive training. The goal is to develop an adaptation strategy for changing the robot's behaviour that uses reinforcement learning to encourage the user to remain engaged. A reinforcement learning algorithm was implemented to determine the most effective adaptation strategy for the robot's actions, encompassing verbal and nonverbal interactions. The simulation results demonstrate that the learning algorithm achieved convergence and offers promising evidence to validate the strategy's effectiveness.Source: CHI2023 SARs: TMI - 2023: Socially Assistive Robots as Decision Makers: Transparency, Motivations, and Intentions, Hamburg, Germany, 28/04/2023
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.01492
Metrics:
See at:
arxiv.org | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2023
Conference article
Open Access
Biography-based robot games for older adults
Catricalà B., Ledda M., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C., Zedda E.
One issue in aging is how to stimulate the cognitive skills of older adults. One way to address it is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots, to provide engaging ways to perform exercises to train memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. We present an approach in which a humanoid robot, by using various modalities, propose the games in a way personalised to specific individuals' experiences using their personal memories associated with facts and events that occurred in older adults' life. This personalization can increase their interest and engagement, and thus potentially reduce the cognitive training drop-out.Source: CHI2023 SARs: TMI - 2023: Socially Assistive Robots as Decision Makers: Transparency, Motivations, and Intentions, Hamburg, Germany, 28/04/2023
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.19849
Metrics:
Catricalà B., Ledda M., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C., Zedda E.
One issue in aging is how to stimulate the cognitive skills of older adults. One way to address it is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots, to provide engaging ways to perform exercises to train memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. We present an approach in which a humanoid robot, by using various modalities, propose the games in a way personalised to specific individuals' experiences using their personal memories associated with facts and events that occurred in older adults' life. This personalization can increase their interest and engagement, and thus potentially reduce the cognitive training drop-out.Source: CHI2023 SARs: TMI - 2023: Socially Assistive Robots as Decision Makers: Transparency, Motivations, and Intentions, Hamburg, Germany, 28/04/2023
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2305.19849
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2023
Journal article
Open Access
Personalisation of humanoid robots: serious games for older adults based on biographical memories
Catricalà B., Manca M., Paterno F., Santoro C., Zedda E.
We present an approach to novel digital cognitive training through serious games able to adapt to personally relevant material from the older adult's life. The games are based on memories associated with the older adult's biography, thus making interactions personalised, relevant, and more engaging. The serious games are accessed through humanoid robots, which can make the training exercise more engaging because of their human-like behaviour.Source: ERCIM news 132 (2023): 28–29.
Catricalà B., Manca M., Paterno F., Santoro C., Zedda E.
We present an approach to novel digital cognitive training through serious games able to adapt to personally relevant material from the older adult's life. The games are based on memories associated with the older adult's biography, thus making interactions personalised, relevant, and more engaging. The serious games are accessed through humanoid robots, which can make the training exercise more engaging because of their human-like behaviour.Source: ERCIM news 132 (2023): 28–29.
See at:
ercim-news.ercim.eu | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2023
Report
Unknown
THE D.3.2.1 - AA@THE User needs, technical requirements and specifications
Pratali L., Campana M. G., Delmastro F., Di Martino F., Pescosolido L., Barsocchi P., Broccia G., Ciancia V., Gennaro C., Girolami M., Lagani G., La Rosa D., Latella D., Magrini M., Manca M., Massink M., Mattioli A., Moroni D., Palumbo F., Paradisi P., Paternò F., Santoro C., Sebastiani L., Vairo C.
Deliverable D3.2.1 del progetto PNRR Ecosistemi ed innovazione - THESource: ISTI Project Report, THE, D3.2, 2023
Pratali L., Campana M. G., Delmastro F., Di Martino F., Pescosolido L., Barsocchi P., Broccia G., Ciancia V., Gennaro C., Girolami M., Lagani G., La Rosa D., Latella D., Magrini M., Manca M., Massink M., Mattioli A., Moroni D., Palumbo F., Paradisi P., Paternò F., Santoro C., Sebastiani L., Vairo C.
Deliverable D3.2.1 del progetto PNRR Ecosistemi ed innovazione - THESource: ISTI Project Report, THE, D3.2, 2023
See at: CNR ExploRA
2023
Conference article
Open Access
MCI older adults' user experience with introverted and extraverted humanoid robot personalities
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
This study aimed to investigate the impact of different personalities in humanoid robots for cognitive training scenarios with older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In particular, we have designed an application with two opposite personalities based on the Extraversion dimension of the Big Five Factors model. A user test with 16 Italian-speaking participants diagnosed with MCI aged 68+ was performed. The analysis of the data collected suggests that the robot's personality can have an effect on the engagement of such users and also found that participants can discriminate between the two personalities. Overall, the study highlights the importance of designing human-robot interactions considering personality-related aspects when considering MCI older adults.Source: CHITALY 2023 - 15th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter: Crossing HCI and AI, Turin, Italy, 20-22/09/2023
DOI: 10.1145/3605390.3605405
Metrics:
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
This study aimed to investigate the impact of different personalities in humanoid robots for cognitive training scenarios with older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In particular, we have designed an application with two opposite personalities based on the Extraversion dimension of the Big Five Factors model. A user test with 16 Italian-speaking participants diagnosed with MCI aged 68+ was performed. The analysis of the data collected suggests that the robot's personality can have an effect on the engagement of such users and also found that participants can discriminate between the two personalities. Overall, the study highlights the importance of designing human-robot interactions considering personality-related aspects when considering MCI older adults.Source: CHITALY 2023 - 15th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter: Crossing HCI and AI, Turin, Italy, 20-22/09/2023
DOI: 10.1145/3605390.3605405
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | dl.acm.org 
| CNR ExploRA
2023
Journal article
Open Access
A web serious game for children with attentive disorders: design and experiences from two trials
Angileri L., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Cognitive developmental disorders are common in children and can affect various abilities. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent childhood psychiatric condition. This work presents PlayToPickUp, a serious game that aims to stimulate children in relevant cognitive domains (attention and error monitoring). A multidisciplinary team of experts and caregivers from two different centres that support therapeutic activities with such children participated from the beginning to the design and the evaluation of the game. Depending on the characteristics and abilities of the player, therapists can customise the game to provide training that best fits the skills and the needs of the child while maintaining the player's motivation. After its development the game was used over two months "in the wild" by children recruited by the two centres. In one case the children played with it within the regular activities offered by the training centre. In the other one, the parents of the children were instructed by caregivers to have the children play the game at home. In the paper we describe the experience gathered from such two studies run in parallel, discussing the aspects that worked better and those that represented difficulties, and the lesson learnt for future studies.Source: Human-computer interaction (2023). doi:10.1080/07370024.2023.2240797
DOI: 10.1080/07370024.2023.2240797
Metrics:
Angileri L., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Cognitive developmental disorders are common in children and can affect various abilities. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent childhood psychiatric condition. This work presents PlayToPickUp, a serious game that aims to stimulate children in relevant cognitive domains (attention and error monitoring). A multidisciplinary team of experts and caregivers from two different centres that support therapeutic activities with such children participated from the beginning to the design and the evaluation of the game. Depending on the characteristics and abilities of the player, therapists can customise the game to provide training that best fits the skills and the needs of the child while maintaining the player's motivation. After its development the game was used over two months "in the wild" by children recruited by the two centres. In one case the children played with it within the regular activities offered by the training centre. In the other one, the parents of the children were instructed by caregivers to have the children play the game at home. In the paper we describe the experience gathered from such two studies run in parallel, discussing the aspects that worked better and those that represented difficulties, and the lesson learnt for future studies.Source: Human-computer interaction (2023). doi:10.1080/07370024.2023.2240797
DOI: 10.1080/07370024.2023.2240797
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | www.tandfonline.com | CNR ExploRA
2023
Conference article
Open Access
Large scale automatic web accessibility validation
Iannuzzi N., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Digital accessibility is considered an important aspect to allow all people, including those with permanent or temporary disabilities, to access the continuously increasing number of digital services. This raises the need for tools able to provide support for monitoring the level of accessibility of a large number of websites in order to understand their actual level of accessibility, and identify the areas that need more interventions for their improvement. We present how we have extended a tool for accessibility validation for this purpose, and the results that we obtained in the validation of about 2.7 million Web pages of Italian public administration Web sites.Source: GoodIT 2023 - 3rd ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good, pp. 307–314, Lisbon, Portugal, 06-08/09/2023
DOI: 10.1145/3582515
Metrics:
Iannuzzi N., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Digital accessibility is considered an important aspect to allow all people, including those with permanent or temporary disabilities, to access the continuously increasing number of digital services. This raises the need for tools able to provide support for monitoring the level of accessibility of a large number of websites in order to understand their actual level of accessibility, and identify the areas that need more interventions for their improvement. We present how we have extended a tool for accessibility validation for this purpose, and the results that we obtained in the validation of about 2.7 million Web pages of Italian public administration Web sites.Source: GoodIT 2023 - 3rd ACM International Conference on Information Technology for Social Good, pp. 307–314, Lisbon, Portugal, 06-08/09/2023
DOI: 10.1145/3582515
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | dl.acm.org | CNR ExploRA
2023
Journal article
Open Access
Older adults' user experience with introvert and extravert humanoid robot personalities
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Humanoid robots can be an effective tool for the cognitive training of older adults. For this purpose, it is important that their interaction be engaging. In this study, we investigate whether proposing robots exhibiting extraverted or introverted personalities can improve user experience. In particular, we have designed and implemented a set of multi-modal cues for such personality traits, which have been exploited in an application proposing typical exercises for cognitive training through a Pepper robot. We report on a user test with 24 older adults (65 +), which provided interesting and positive feedback regarding how the robot personalities have been exhibited and their impact on the experience of such users.Source: Universal access in the information society (Internet) (2023). doi:10.1007/s10209-023-01054-2
DOI: 10.1007/s10209-023-01054-2
Metrics:
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Humanoid robots can be an effective tool for the cognitive training of older adults. For this purpose, it is important that their interaction be engaging. In this study, we investigate whether proposing robots exhibiting extraverted or introverted personalities can improve user experience. In particular, we have designed and implemented a set of multi-modal cues for such personality traits, which have been exploited in an application proposing typical exercises for cognitive training through a Pepper robot. We report on a user test with 24 older adults (65 +), which provided interesting and positive feedback regarding how the robot personalities have been exhibited and their impact on the experience of such users.Source: Universal access in the information society (Internet) (2023). doi:10.1007/s10209-023-01054-2
DOI: 10.1007/s10209-023-01054-2
Metrics:
See at:
link.springer.com | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2023
Software
Unknown
DialogFlow, Google speech API and ChatGPT4 on Pepper
Zedda E., Manca M.
Integration of DialogFlow and Google Speech API on a HRI application for Pepper robot. Technologies used: Java, QiSDK, SQL, Google Speech API, DialogFlow API, Azure and OpenAI API CNR Link: https://giteas2i2s.isti.cnr.it/Human_in_Information_Systems_HIIS/DialogFlow_Pepper https://giteas2i2s.isti.cnr.it/Human_in_Information_Systems_HIIS/GoogleSpeechAPI https://gitea-s2i2s.isti.cnr.it/Human_in_Information_Systems_HIIS/ChatGPTAzure
Zedda E., Manca M.
Integration of DialogFlow and Google Speech API on a HRI application for Pepper robot. Technologies used: Java, QiSDK, SQL, Google Speech API, DialogFlow API, Azure and OpenAI API CNR Link: https://giteas2i2s.isti.cnr.it/Human_in_Information_Systems_HIIS/DialogFlow_Pepper https://giteas2i2s.isti.cnr.it/Human_in_Information_Systems_HIIS/GoogleSpeechAPI https://gitea-s2i2s.isti.cnr.it/Human_in_Information_Systems_HIIS/ChatGPTAzure
See at: CNR ExploRA
2022
Journal article
Open Access
Smartphone-based augmented reality for end-user creation of home automations
Ariano R., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
In the last few years, several end-user tools have been designed to help people who are not professional developers in programming their smart environments. However, such tools are often based on structured visual editors providing abstract representations of the available connected sensors and objects, which can be problematic for end users, and do not particularly encourage their participation. This work aims to make the end-user experience of creating everyday automations involving various types of connected sensors and objects more engaging by replacing extensive, static, structured and comprehensive abstract visual tools with more narrowed, relevant, context-sensitive, dynamic, augmented reality-based representations. We present a solution for this purpose that mobile users can exploit through their smartphone. End users can use the smartphone camera to frame the relevant sensor or object through the developed prototype, then get the current automations associated with it, edit their definition, create new ones as well as monitor the automations involving the whole current environment. We also report a first user test of the developed prototype deployed in a home equipped with connected sensors and objects, which yielded positive feedback.Source: Behaviour & information technology (Online) (2022). doi:10.1080/0144929X.2021.2017482
DOI: 10.1080/0144929x.2021.2017482
Metrics:
Ariano R., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
In the last few years, several end-user tools have been designed to help people who are not professional developers in programming their smart environments. However, such tools are often based on structured visual editors providing abstract representations of the available connected sensors and objects, which can be problematic for end users, and do not particularly encourage their participation. This work aims to make the end-user experience of creating everyday automations involving various types of connected sensors and objects more engaging by replacing extensive, static, structured and comprehensive abstract visual tools with more narrowed, relevant, context-sensitive, dynamic, augmented reality-based representations. We present a solution for this purpose that mobile users can exploit through their smartphone. End users can use the smartphone camera to frame the relevant sensor or object through the developed prototype, then get the current automations associated with it, edit their definition, create new ones as well as monitor the automations involving the whole current environment. We also report a first user test of the developed prototype deployed in a home equipped with connected sensors and objects, which yielded positive feedback.Source: Behaviour & information technology (Online) (2022). doi:10.1080/0144929X.2021.2017482
DOI: 10.1080/0144929x.2021.2017482
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | www.tandfonline.com | CNR ExploRA
2022
Conference article
Open Access
Alexism: ALEXa supporting children with autism in their oral care at home
Parvin P., Manca M., Senette C., Buzzi M. C., Buzzi M., Pelagatti S.
Oral health care can be a challenging experience for children with autism, for their parents and for dentists. Recently, some technology-enhanced systems have been proposed to help people with autism to cope with distressing situations originated by unknown social-life contexts, such as dental care settings with intense sound-visual stimulations. Results were positive in mitigating anxiety at the dental clinic but seem to fail in supporting proper oral hygiene at home. Thanks to the increasing spread of household Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPA) and Vocal Conversational Agents (VCAs), we envisage new opportunities considering the Voice-enabled IPAs not only as support on daily activities but also to enrich and simplify access to healthcare procedures from home. This work attempts to extend the use of technology-enhanced systems for dental care by exploiting the potential of the Vocal User Interface, Amazon Alexa, as an instructional agent with children on the spectrum. To this purpose, we developed a personalized Alexa Skill with two different functionalities: (i) support the child during the routine transition toward the target activity: move to the bathroom to brush their teeth; (ii) act as a persuader and a timer to guide the child during the procedure observing the proper brushing time. We conducted a three-week preliminary study with three children of different autistic profiles. The goal was to collect opportunities and issues deriving from the device introduction in the home context and test the device usage to favour dental care. Results and feedback were encouraging and gave insights to improve this approach.Source: AVI 2022 - International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Frascati, 06-10/06/2022
DOI: 10.1145/3531073.3531157
Metrics:
Parvin P., Manca M., Senette C., Buzzi M. C., Buzzi M., Pelagatti S.
Oral health care can be a challenging experience for children with autism, for their parents and for dentists. Recently, some technology-enhanced systems have been proposed to help people with autism to cope with distressing situations originated by unknown social-life contexts, such as dental care settings with intense sound-visual stimulations. Results were positive in mitigating anxiety at the dental clinic but seem to fail in supporting proper oral hygiene at home. Thanks to the increasing spread of household Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPA) and Vocal Conversational Agents (VCAs), we envisage new opportunities considering the Voice-enabled IPAs not only as support on daily activities but also to enrich and simplify access to healthcare procedures from home. This work attempts to extend the use of technology-enhanced systems for dental care by exploiting the potential of the Vocal User Interface, Amazon Alexa, as an instructional agent with children on the spectrum. To this purpose, we developed a personalized Alexa Skill with two different functionalities: (i) support the child during the routine transition toward the target activity: move to the bathroom to brush their teeth; (ii) act as a persuader and a timer to guide the child during the procedure observing the proper brushing time. We conducted a three-week preliminary study with three children of different autistic profiles. The goal was to collect opportunities and issues deriving from the device introduction in the home context and test the device usage to favour dental care. Results and feedback were encouraging and gave insights to improve this approach.Source: AVI 2022 - International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, Frascati, 06-10/06/2022
DOI: 10.1145/3531073.3531157
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | dl.acm.org | CNR ExploRA
2022
Conference article
Open Access
An approach to exploiting personal memories in humanoid robots serious games for cognitive stimulation of older adults
Catricalà B., Coffaro D., Manca M., Mattioli A., Paternò F., Santoro C.
One of the goals of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions is to be able to stimulate the cognitive resources of older adults. An innovative way to address such stimulation is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots. Such devices are based on Internet of Things technologies since they are collections of sensors and actuators in a human shape. Serious games delivered through humanoid robots can provide an engaging way to perform exercises useful for training human memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. This paper presents an approach to supporting cognitive stimulation based on personal memories. The humanoid robot can exhibit different behaviours through different modalities, and propose the games in a way personalized to specific individuals' requirements, preferences, abilities, and motivations, which can vary among older adults, and even dynamically evolve over time for the same person depending on changing user needs and health conditions.Source: EMPATHY 2022 - 3rd International Workshop on Empowering People in Dealing with Internet of Things Ecosystems, Frascati, 06-10/06/2022
Catricalà B., Coffaro D., Manca M., Mattioli A., Paternò F., Santoro C.
One of the goals of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions is to be able to stimulate the cognitive resources of older adults. An innovative way to address such stimulation is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots. Such devices are based on Internet of Things technologies since they are collections of sensors and actuators in a human shape. Serious games delivered through humanoid robots can provide an engaging way to perform exercises useful for training human memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. This paper presents an approach to supporting cognitive stimulation based on personal memories. The humanoid robot can exhibit different behaviours through different modalities, and propose the games in a way personalized to specific individuals' requirements, preferences, abilities, and motivations, which can vary among older adults, and even dynamically evolve over time for the same person depending on changing user needs and health conditions.Source: EMPATHY 2022 - 3rd International Workshop on Empowering People in Dealing with Internet of Things Ecosystems, Frascati, 06-10/06/2022
See at:
ceur-ws.org | ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2022
Journal article
Open Access
End-user development in industrial contexts: the paper mill case study
Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
This work aims to explore the potentialities of an end-user personalisation platform in industrial settings. In such a context, stakeholders with different roles and competencies collaborate to manage and control an environment where legacy machines coexist and interact with newer ones. Our goal is to provide a rule-based tool that allows end-users to build personalised solutions to respond quickly to the dynamic needs of factories. We report on a case study in the paper factory domain, in which the industrial aspects identified with expert stakeholders through interviews have been simulated and addressed through an extension of a personalisation platform. A first user test of the resulting environment has been carried out with a representative set of users, and has provided useful and encouraging feedback in terms of the potentialities of the proposed approach in industrial contexts.Source: Behaviour & information technology (Online) (2022). doi:10.1080/0144929X.2022.2089597
DOI: 10.1080/0144929x.2022.2089597
Metrics:
Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
This work aims to explore the potentialities of an end-user personalisation platform in industrial settings. In such a context, stakeholders with different roles and competencies collaborate to manage and control an environment where legacy machines coexist and interact with newer ones. Our goal is to provide a rule-based tool that allows end-users to build personalised solutions to respond quickly to the dynamic needs of factories. We report on a case study in the paper factory domain, in which the industrial aspects identified with expert stakeholders through interviews have been simulated and addressed through an extension of a personalisation platform. A first user test of the resulting environment has been carried out with a representative set of users, and has provided useful and encouraging feedback in terms of the potentialities of the proposed approach in industrial contexts.Source: Behaviour & information technology (Online) (2022). doi:10.1080/0144929X.2022.2089597
DOI: 10.1080/0144929x.2022.2089597
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | www.tandfonline.com | CNR ExploRA
2022
Conference article
Open Access
Towards understanding the transparency of automations in daily environments
Paternò F., Gallo S., Manca M., Mattioli A., Santoro C.
This paper outlines a proposal for how to address transparency of automations in daily environments, such as smart homes, based on experiences carried out in previous projects. The trigger-action programming paradigm has been used to describe and implement such automations in both commercial and research tools. Such automations can be generated through machine learning techniques or directly by the end users or through an interaction between an intelligent agent and the user. When they are executed the resulting behaviour does not always result in the desired actions, and users may have difficulties in understanding and controlling them. Thus, there is a need for design criteria and associated tools that help people to understand and control what happens with the automations active in the environments where they live, and explain how they work and can be modified to better meet their needs.Source: IUI-WS 2022 - Workshops at the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) 2022, pp. 187–191, Helsinki, Finland, 21-22/03/2022
Paternò F., Gallo S., Manca M., Mattioli A., Santoro C.
This paper outlines a proposal for how to address transparency of automations in daily environments, such as smart homes, based on experiences carried out in previous projects. The trigger-action programming paradigm has been used to describe and implement such automations in both commercial and research tools. Such automations can be generated through machine learning techniques or directly by the end users or through an interaction between an intelligent agent and the user. When they are executed the resulting behaviour does not always result in the desired actions, and users may have difficulties in understanding and controlling them. Thus, there is a need for design criteria and associated tools that help people to understand and control what happens with the automations active in the environments where they live, and explain how they work and can be modified to better meet their needs.Source: IUI-WS 2022 - Workshops at the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) 2022, pp. 187–191, Helsinki, Finland, 21-22/03/2022
See at:
ceur-ws.org | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2022
Journal article
Open Access
Play with me! A serious game for cognitive stimulation of older adults with a humanoid robot
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F.
Serious games in humanoid robots have an interesting potential to help older adults with cognitive stimulation in non-pharmacological treatments. Additionally, exploiting the multimodal possibilities of the humanoid robots in such a way to provide them with a personality can be suitable to improve users' engagement, and thus their potential participation in cognitive training programmes.Source: ERCIM news 130 (2022): 24–25.
Zedda E., Manca M., Paternò F.
Serious games in humanoid robots have an interesting potential to help older adults with cognitive stimulation in non-pharmacological treatments. Additionally, exploiting the multimodal possibilities of the humanoid robots in such a way to provide them with a personality can be suitable to improve users' engagement, and thus their potential participation in cognitive training programmes.Source: ERCIM news 130 (2022): 24–25.
See at:
ercim-news.ercim.eu | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2022
Journal article
Open Access
PlayToPickup: customisable serious games for children with cognitive disorders
Angileri L., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Cognitive developmental disorders are common in children and affect the language or attention area, such as attention deficit and hyperactivity. In these cases, the individual is unable to engage and interact effectively with the environment, resulting in difficulties in learning and autonomously carrying out daily activities. For these reasons, this work proposes a solution that aims to stimulate children in the relevant cognitive aspects, which are attention, planning tasks and error monitoring. The proposed solution is PlayToPickUp, a serious game that supports tasks that replicate the activities of daily life, such as preparing the backpack, recognising money or emotions.Source: ERCIM news 130 (2022): 22–23.
Angileri L., Manca M., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Cognitive developmental disorders are common in children and affect the language or attention area, such as attention deficit and hyperactivity. In these cases, the individual is unable to engage and interact effectively with the environment, resulting in difficulties in learning and autonomously carrying out daily activities. For these reasons, this work proposes a solution that aims to stimulate children in the relevant cognitive aspects, which are attention, planning tasks and error monitoring. The proposed solution is PlayToPickUp, a serious game that supports tasks that replicate the activities of daily life, such as preparing the backpack, recognising money or emotions.Source: ERCIM news 130 (2022): 22–23.
See at:
ercim-news.ercim.eu | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA
2022
Journal article
Open Access
The transparency of automatic web accessibility evaluation tools: design criteria, state of the art, and user perception
Manca M., Palumbo V., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Several Web accessibility evaluation tools have been put forward to reduce the burden of identifying accessibility barriers for users, especially those with disabilities. One common issue in using accessibility evaluation tools in practice is that the results provided by different tools are sometimes unclear, and often diverging. Such limitations may confuse the users who may not understand the reasons behind them, and thus hamper the possible adoption of such tools. Hence, there is a need for tools that shed light on their actual functioning, and the success criteria and techniques supported. For this purpose, we must identify what criteria should be adopted in order for such tools to be transparent and to help users better interpret their results. In this paper, we discuss such issues, provide design criteria for obtaining user-centred and transparent accessibility evaluation tools, and analyse how they have been addressed by a representative set of open, license-free, accessibility tools. We also report on the results of a survey with 138 users of such tools, aimed at capturing the perceived usefulness of previously identified transparency requirements. Finally, we performed a user study with 18 users working in the Web design or accessibility fields with the goal of receiving more feedback about the transparency of a selected subset of accessibility tools.Source: ACM transactions on accessible computing (2022). doi:10.1145/3556979
DOI: 10.1145/3556979
Metrics:
Manca M., Palumbo V., Paternò F., Santoro C.
Several Web accessibility evaluation tools have been put forward to reduce the burden of identifying accessibility barriers for users, especially those with disabilities. One common issue in using accessibility evaluation tools in practice is that the results provided by different tools are sometimes unclear, and often diverging. Such limitations may confuse the users who may not understand the reasons behind them, and thus hamper the possible adoption of such tools. Hence, there is a need for tools that shed light on their actual functioning, and the success criteria and techniques supported. For this purpose, we must identify what criteria should be adopted in order for such tools to be transparent and to help users better interpret their results. In this paper, we discuss such issues, provide design criteria for obtaining user-centred and transparent accessibility evaluation tools, and analyse how they have been addressed by a representative set of open, license-free, accessibility tools. We also report on the results of a survey with 138 users of such tools, aimed at capturing the perceived usefulness of previously identified transparency requirements. Finally, we performed a user study with 18 users working in the Web design or accessibility fields with the goal of receiving more feedback about the transparency of a selected subset of accessibility tools.Source: ACM transactions on accessible computing (2022). doi:10.1145/3556979
DOI: 10.1145/3556979
Metrics:
See at:
ISTI Repository | ISTI Repository | CNR ExploRA