TY - CHAP A1 - Abendschein, Robin A1 - Desai, Shital A1 - Astell, Arlene J. T1 - Towards Accessibility Guidelines for the Metaverse : A Synthesis of Recommendations for People Living With Dementia T2 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’23) : Workshop "Towards an Inclusive and Accessible Metaverse" N2 - Given the growing interest of corporate stakeholders in Metaverse applications, there is a need to understand accessibility of these technologies for marginalized populations such as people living with dementia to ensure inclusive design of Metaverse applications. We assessed the accessibility of extended reality technology for people living with mild cognitive impairment and dementia to develop accessibility guidelines for these technologies. We used four strategies to synthesize evidence for barriers and facilitators of accessibility: (1) Findings from a non-systematic literature review, (2) guidelines from well-researched technology, (3) exploration of selected mixed reality technologies, and (4) observations from four sessions and video data of people living with dementia using mixed reality technologies. We utilized template analysis to develop codes and themes towards accessibility guidelines. Future work can validate our preliminary findings by applying them on video recordings or testing them in experiments. KW - CHI Conference KW - Accessibility KW - Metaverse KW - extended reality KW - dementia KW - cognitive impairment KW - Human-centered computing / Access KW - Human-centered computing / Human computer interaction (HCI) / Interaction paradigms / Mixed / augmented reality KW - Human-centered computing / Human computer interaction (HCI) / Interaction paradigms / Virtual reality KW - Human-centered computing / Human computer interaction (HCI) / Interactiondevices KW - Human-centered computing / Human computerinteraction (HCI) / Interaction techniques Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-320199 UR - https://sites.google.com/view/accessiblemetaverse ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Breves, Priska A1 - Dodel, Nicola T1 - The influence of cybersickness and the media devices’ mobility on the persuasive effects of 360° commercials JF - Multimedia Tools and Applications N2 - With the rise of immersive media, advertisers have started to use 360° commercials to engage and persuade consumers. Two experiments were conducted to address research gaps and to validate the positive impact of 360° commercials in realistic settings. The first study (N = 62) compared the effects of 360° commercials using either a mobile cardboard head-mounted display (HMD) or a laptop. This experiment was conducted in the participants’ living rooms and incorporated individual feelings of cybersickness as a moderator. The participants who experienced the 360° commercial with the HMD reported higher spatial presence and product evaluation, but their purchase intentions were only increased when their reported cybersickness was low. The second experiment (N = 197) was conducted online and analyzed the impact of 360° commercials that were experienced with mobile (smartphone/tablet) or static (laptop/desktop) devices instead of HMDs. The positive effects of omnidirectional videos were stronger when participants used mobile devices. KW - virtual reality KW - immersive advertising KW - spatial presence KW - cybersickness KW - advertising effectiveness Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269194 SN - 1573-7721 VL - 80 IS - 18 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steininger, Michael A1 - Kobs, Konstantin A1 - Davidson, Padraig A1 - Krause, Anna A1 - Hotho, Andreas T1 - Density-based weighting for imbalanced regression JF - Machine Learning N2 - In many real world settings, imbalanced data impedes model performance of learning algorithms, like neural networks, mostly for rare cases. This is especially problematic for tasks focusing on these rare occurrences. For example, when estimating precipitation, extreme rainfall events are scarce but important considering their potential consequences. While there are numerous well studied solutions for classification settings, most of them cannot be applied to regression easily. Of the few solutions for regression tasks, barely any have explored cost-sensitive learning which is known to have advantages compared to sampling-based methods in classification tasks. In this work, we propose a sample weighting approach for imbalanced regression datasets called DenseWeight and a cost-sensitive learning approach for neural network regression with imbalanced data called DenseLoss based on our weighting scheme. DenseWeight weights data points according to their target value rarities through kernel density estimation (KDE). DenseLoss adjusts each data point’s influence on the loss according to DenseWeight, giving rare data points more influence on model training compared to common data points. We show on multiple differently distributed datasets that DenseLoss significantly improves model performance for rare data points through its density-based weighting scheme. Additionally, we compare DenseLoss to the state-of-the-art method SMOGN, finding that our method mostly yields better performance. Our approach provides more control over model training as it enables us to actively decide on the trade-off between focusing on common or rare cases through a single hyperparameter, allowing the training of better models for rare data points. KW - supervised learning KW - imbalanced regression KW - cost-sensitive learning KW - sample weighting KW - Kerneldensity estimation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269177 SN - 1573-0565 VL - 110 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Caliskan, Aylin A1 - Crouch, Samantha A. W. A1 - Giddins, Sara A1 - Dandekar, Thomas A1 - Dangwal, Seema T1 - Progeria and aging — Omics based comparative analysis JF - Biomedicines N2 - Since ancient times aging has also been regarded as a disease, and humankind has always strived to extend the natural lifespan. Analyzing the genes involved in aging and disease allows for finding important indicators and biological markers for pathologies and possible therapeutic targets. An example of the use of omics technologies is the research regarding aging and the rare and fatal premature aging syndrome progeria (Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, HGPS). In our study, we focused on the in silico analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in progeria and aging, using a publicly available RNA-Seq dataset (GEO dataset GSE113957) and a variety of bioinformatics tools. Despite the GSE113957 RNA-Seq dataset being well-known and frequently analyzed, the RNA-Seq data shared by Fleischer et al. is far from exhausted and reusing and repurposing the data still reveals new insights. By analyzing the literature citing the use of the dataset and subsequently conducting a comparative analysis comparing the RNA-Seq data analyses of different subsets of the dataset (healthy children, nonagenarians and progeria patients), we identified several genes involved in both natural aging and progeria (KRT8, KRT18, ACKR4, CCL2, UCP2, ADAMTS15, ACTN4P1, WNT16, IGFBP2). Further analyzing these genes and the pathways involved indicated their possible roles in aging, suggesting the need for further in vitro and in vivo research. In this paper, we (1) compare “normal aging” (nonagenarians vs. healthy children) and progeria (HGPS patients vs. healthy children), (2) enlist genes possibly involved in both the natural aging process and progeria, including the first mention of IGFBP2 in progeria, (3) predict miRNAs and interactomes for WNT16 (hsa-mir-181a-5p), UCP2 (hsa-mir-26a-5p and hsa-mir-124-3p), and IGFBP2 (hsa-mir-124-3p, hsa-mir-126-3p, and hsa-mir-27b-3p), (4) demonstrate the compatibility of well-established R packages for RNA-Seq analysis for researchers interested but not yet familiar with this kind of analysis, and (5) present comparative proteomics analyses to show an association between our RNA-Seq data analyses and corresponding changes in protein expression. KW - progeria KW - aging KW - omics KW - RNA sequencing KW - bioinformatics KW - sun exposure KW - HGPS KW - IGFBP2 KW - ACKR4 KW - WNT Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-289868 SN - 2227-9059 VL - 10 IS - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich A1 - Wienrich, Carolin T1 - Congruence and plausibility, not presence: pivotal conditions for XR experiences and effects, a novel approach JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - Presence is often considered the most important quale describing the subjective feeling of being in a computer-generated and/or computer-mediated virtual environment. The identification and separation of orthogonal presence components, i.e., the place illusion and the plausibility illusion, has been an accepted theoretical model describing Virtual Reality (VR) experiences for some time. This perspective article challenges this presence-oriented VR theory. First, we argue that a place illusion cannot be the major construct to describe the much wider scope of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VR, AR, MR: or XR for short). Second, we argue that there is no plausibility illusion but merely plausibility, and we derive the place illusion caused by the congruent and plausible generation of spatial cues and similarly for all the current model’s so-defined illusions. Finally, we propose congruence and plausibility to become the central essential conditions in a novel theoretical model describing XR experiences and effects. KW - XR KW - experience KW - presence KW - congruence KW - plausibility KW - coherence KW - theory KW - prediction Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284787 SN - 2673-4192 VL - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Landeck, Maximilian A1 - Alvarez Igarzábal, Federico A1 - Unruh, Fabian A1 - Habenicht, Hannah A1 - Khoshnoud, Shiva A1 - Wittmann, Marc A1 - Lugrin, Jean-Luc A1 - Latoschik, Marc Erich T1 - Journey through a virtual tunnel: Simulated motion and its effects on the experience of time JF - Frontiers in Virtual Reality N2 - This paper examines the relationship between time and motion perception in virtual environments. Previous work has shown that the perception of motion can affect the perception of time. We developed a virtual environment that simulates motion in a tunnel and measured its effects on the estimation of the duration of time, the speed at which perceived time passes, and the illusion of self-motion, also known as vection. When large areas of the visual field move in the same direction, vection can occur; observers often perceive this as self-motion rather than motion of the environment. To generate different levels of vection and investigate its effects on time perception, we developed an abstract procedural tunnel generator. The generator can simulate different speeds and densities of tunnel sections (visibly distinguishable sections that form the virtual tunnel), as well as the degree of embodiment of the user avatar (with or without virtual hands). We exposed participants to various tunnel simulations with different durations, speeds, and densities in a remote desktop and a virtual reality (VR) laboratory study. Time passed subjectively faster under high-speed and high-density conditions in both studies. The experience of self-motion was also stronger under high-speed and high-density conditions. Both studies revealed a significant correlation between the perceived passage of time and perceived self-motion. Subjects in the virtual reality study reported a stronger self-motion experience, a faster perceived passage of time, and shorter time estimates than subjects in the desktop study. Our results suggest that a virtual tunnel simulation can manipulate time perception in virtual reality. We will explore these results for the development of virtual reality applications for therapeutic approaches in our future work. This could be particularly useful in treating disorders like depression, autism, and schizophrenia, which are known to be associated with distortions in time perception. For example, the tunnel could be therapeutically applied by resetting patients’ time perceptions by exposing them to the tunnel under different conditions, such as increasing or decreasing perceived time. KW - passage of time KW - illusion of self-motion KW - vection KW - virtual tunnel KW - therapeutic application KW - virtual reality KW - extended reality (XR) Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-301519 SN - 2673-4192 VL - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holfelder, Marc A1 - Mulansky, Lena A1 - Schlee, Winfried A1 - Baumeister, Harald A1 - Schobel, Johannes A1 - Greger, Helmut A1 - Hoff, Andreas A1 - Pryss, Rüdiger T1 - Medical device regulation efforts for mHealth apps during the COVID-19 pandemic — an experience report of Corona Check and Corona Health JF - J — Multidisciplinary Scientific Journal N2 - Within the healthcare environment, mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) are becoming more and more important. The number of new mHealth apps has risen steadily in the last years. Especially the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an enormous amount of app releases. In most countries, mHealth applications have to be compliant with several regulatory aspects to be declared a “medical app”. However, the latest applicable medical device regulation (MDR) does not provide more details on the requirements for mHealth applications. When developing a medical app, it is essential that all contributors in an interdisciplinary team — especially software engineers — are aware of the specific regulatory requirements beforehand. The development process, however, should not be stalled due to integration of the MDR. Therefore, a developing framework that includes these aspects is required to facilitate a reliable and quick development process. The paper at hand introduces the creation of such a framework on the basis of the Corona Health and Corona Check apps. The relevant regulatory guidelines are listed and summarized as a guidance for medical app developments during the pandemic and beyond. In particular, the important stages and challenges faced that emerged during the entire development process are highlighted. KW - mHealth KW - mobile application KW - MDR KW - medical device regulation KW - medical device software Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-285434 SN - 2571-8800 VL - 4 IS - 2 SP - 206 EP - 222 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Obremski, David A1 - Friedrich, Paula A1 - Haak, Nora A1 - Schaper, Philipp A1 - Lugrin, Birgit T1 - The impact of mixed-cultural speech on the stereotypical perception of a virtual robot JF - Frontiers in Robotics and AI N2 - Despite the fact that mixed-cultural backgrounds become of increasing importance in our daily life, the representation of multiple cultural backgrounds in one entity is still rare in socially interactive agents (SIAs). This paper’s contribution is twofold. First, it provides a survey of research on mixed-cultured SIAs. Second, it presents a study investigating how mixed-cultural speech (in this case, non-native accent) influences how a virtual robot is perceived in terms of personality, warmth, competence and credibility. Participants with English or German respectively as their first language watched a video of a virtual robot speaking in either standard English or German-accented English. It was expected that the German-accented speech would be rated more positively by native German participants as well as elicit the German stereotypes credibility and conscientiousness for both German and English participants. Contrary to the expectations, German participants rated the virtual robot lower in terms of competence and credibility when it spoke with a German accent, whereas English participants perceived the virtual robot with a German accent as more credible compared to the version without an accent. Both the native English and native German listeners classified the virtual robot with a German accent as significantly more neurotic than the virtual robot speaking standard English. This work shows that by solely implementing a non-native accent in a virtual robot, stereotypes are partly transferred. It also shows that the implementation of a non-native accent leads to differences in the perception of the virtual robot. KW - non-native accent KW - social robotics KW - intelligent virtual agents KW - stereotypes KW - mixed-cultural KW - culturally aware KW - socially interactive agents Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-293531 SN - 2296-9144 VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tsoulias, Nikos A1 - Jörissen, Sven A1 - Nüchter, Andreas T1 - An approach for monitoring temperature on fruit surface by means of thermal point cloud JF - MethodsX N2 - Heat and excessive solar radiation can produce abiotic stresses during apple maturation, resulting fruit quality. Therefore, the monitoring of temperature on fruit surface (FST) over the growing period can allow to identify thresholds, above of which several physiological disorders such as sunburn may occur in apple. The current approaches neglect spatial variation of FST and have reduced repeatability, resulting in unreliable predictions. In this study, LiDAR laser scanning and thermal imaging were employed to detect the temperature on fruit surface by means of 3D point cloud. A process for calibrating the two sensors based on an active board target and producing a 3D thermal point cloud was suggested. After calibration, the sensor system was utilised to scan the fruit trees, while temperature values assigned in the corresponding 3D point cloud were based on the extrinsic calibration. Whereas a fruit detection algorithm was performed to segment the FST from each apple. • The approach allows the calibration of LiDAR laser scanner with thermal camera in order to produce a 3D thermal point cloud. • The method can be applied in apple trees for segmenting FST in 3D. Whereas the approach can be utilised to predict several physiological disorders including sunburn on fruit surface. KW - point cloud KW - thermal point cloud KW - fruit temperature KW - sunburn KW - food quality KW - precision horticulture Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-300270 SN - 2215-0161 VL - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seufert, Anika A1 - Poignée, Fabian A1 - Hoßfeld, Tobias A1 - Seufert, Michael T1 - Pandemic in the digital age: analyzing WhatsApp communication behavior before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdown JF - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications N2 - The strict restrictions introduced by the COVID-19 lockdowns, which started from March 2020, changed people’s daily lives and habits on many different levels. In this work, we investigate the impact of the lockdown on the communication behavior in the mobile instant messaging application WhatsApp. Our evaluations are based on a large dataset of 2577 private chat histories with 25,378,093 messages from 51,973 users. The analysis of the one-to-one and group conversations confirms that the lockdown severely altered the communication in WhatsApp chats compared to pre-pandemic time ranges. In particular, we observe short-term effects, which caused an increased message frequency in the first lockdown months and a shifted communication activity during the day in March and April 2020. Moreover, we also see long-term effects of the ongoing pandemic situation until February 2021, which indicate a change of communication behavior towards more regular messaging, as well as a persisting change in activity during the day. The results of our work show that even anonymized chat histories can tell us a lot about people’s behavior and especially behavioral changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and thus are of great relevance for behavioral researchers. Furthermore, looking at the pandemic from an Internet provider perspective, these insights can be used during the next pandemic, or if the current COVID-19 situation worsens, to adapt communication networks to the changed usage behavior early on and thus avoid network congestion. KW - cultural and media studies KW - information systems and information technology KW - science, technology and society Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-300261 VL - 9 ER -