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2017
Cardoso, Tiago, João Sousa, and José Barata. "Digital Games Development Model." EAI Endorsed Transactions on Serious Games. 4.12 (2017): e2. Abstract

Nowadays technology follows us everywhere. However, it is often overlooked when dealing with social issues, despite how easily it might improve the life of countless handicapped individuals. In other words, small pieces of software, under the form of games, can help the individual remain focus and go through treatments and therapies effortlessly. But game development is tricky because simply adopting a software development approach is not enough, as it assumes that games as a software can be developed through the commonly used systematic processes, yet these do have specific requirements. This paper proposes a new game development model to successfully deliver a quality serious game, towards social causes, bearing in mind the specific aspects both from games as a special kind of software and from the target players introducing a therapeutic/clinical perspective in the games development model.

Lima, Catiele, José Barata, Pedro Fernandes, and Tiago Cardoso. "Urban-Architect Role in Smart-City planning - Literature Review and Case Studies." International Conference on Engineering. Madeira - Portugal 2017. Abstract

The Urban-Architect role in smart cities is a topic that has not received much attention from the scientific community. This article studies the work of the traditional responsible for thinking the cities, the Urban Architect. Under a critical proposition, aspects of this problematic are identified, which is in part nourished by the deficient action of these professionals.
The study was divided into two parts, the first one materialized through a bibliographical survey, in this section it is presented; 1 - a more detailed description of why this research work; 2 - a contextualisation of the transition of the scenarios is explained; 3 - the problematization and the reflection are raised for some reasons of the "disqualification" of the action of the architect-urbanist in the scene.
The second is based on the discussion between the authors and case studies; 4 - aspects are discussed and some characteristics are listed for "(re) framing" within the ideal scenario; 5 - four case studies are described: two smart cities built from scratch and two cities being transformed into smart cities; 6 - the limitations, conclusions and strands for future work are woven.

2016
Lima, Catiele, José Barata, Pedro Fernandes, and Tiago Cardoso. "A Importância da Atuação do Arquiteto-Urbanista no Planejamento das Smart Cities." Pluris. Brasil 2016. Abstract

A importância do papel do Arquiteto-urbanista na caracterização dos conceitos e no planejamento das Smart Cities é um tema com muito por estudar e desenvolver. Este artigo faz uma aproximação a esta questão através de análise crítica com a seguinte abordagem: 1 - é feita uma descrição mais detalhada do porquê deste trabalho de investigação; 2 – apresenta-se uma contextualização da transição dos cenários; 3 - é levantada a problematização e a identificação de alguns motivos do “desenquadramento” da atuação do arquiteto-urbanista na cena; 4 – são discutidos aspectos e elencadas algumas características para “(re)enquadramento” dentro do cenário ideal, 5 – são analisados alguns casos de estudo; 6 - são tecidas conclusões. Este artigo mostra, portanto, o resultado deste estudo comparativo entre panorama atual e desejado, considerando este último como o cenário conceitual. É inicialmente caracterizada a situação atual através de levantamento da crítica especializada, depois é descrita a situação desejada tendo como base a análise de quatro casos de estudo; sendo dois de Smart Cities construídas a partir do zero e dois de cidade existentes que estão sendo transformadas em Smart Cities. Por fim, são identificados elementos que contribuem, na opinião dos autores, para o reassumir do papel do arquiteto-urbanista. Com este trabalho, foi possível, de uma forma sistematizada, estudar e suscitar ações deficitárias na atuação dos arquitetos-urbanistas, como também descortinar potenciais ações que podem induzir e reverter a transformação do cenário atual. Ficou claro que as necessidades intrínsecas ao novo modelo de cidade exigem ainda mais proposições criativas. O delinear das futuras cenas seria então ideal se os arquitetos-urbanistas retomassem posicionamento crítico propositivo e o utilizassem na solução que imagina novas e condizentes maneiras de habitar o espaço. O prelúdio já delineado convida então, os protagonistas na produção do espaço a alforriar-se da inércia, saindo da condição de espectadores e passando a condição de entendedores antecipados do cenário.

Raposo, Miguel, Raquel Barateiro, Susana Martins, Tiago Cardoso, Miguel Palha, and José Barata. "Improving the Learning of Child Movements Through Games." International Conference on Serious Games, Interaction and Simulation. Springer, Cham, 2016. 15-22. Abstract

A Developmental Coordination Disorder can be identified when children show motor skills either below the expected levels considered adequate to their physical age or the opportunities provided for their learning. This problem affects four to six percent of school-age children, meaning that, from a very early stage of their life, they have several difficulties to adapt to the daily needs. In order to reduce the impact caused by this disorder, a team of therapists from “ – collected a wide range of exercises that allow the stimulus of several motor areas, including both the Gross and Fine Motor Skills. However, the application of this therapeutics is restricted to regular appointments. Since the motor stimulus, in order to be effective, need continuous application, it was found to be necessary to have a tool that in a practical and affordable way, fulfill this need. Therefore, the proposal presented in this article describes the creation of a systematic collection of such exercises in a friendly user manner for the children to be able to exercise elsewhere.

Lopes, Tiago, Tiago Cardoso, and José Barata. "Sign Language Support–Adding a Gesture Library to the Leap Motion SDK." International Conference on Serious Games, Interaction and Simulation. Springer, Cham, 2016. 109-116. Abstract

There are several research initiatives that tackle gesture recognition. Nevertheless the interaction between the input devices and an application level is still a hard task that has to be accomplished each time a new system is being developed. The objective of this research work is to facilitate that endeavor by introducing a new generic software layer between the gesture capture device and the application level. This layer will provide the introduction of a gesture library and a set of functionalities both to feed this library and pursue gesture recognition afterwards. The objective is to hinder lower-level software/hardware details from a developer towards letting him or her to focus directly at the Application Level. This article presents the created architecture for this new layer. The validation was made using the Leap Motion, at the Sensor Level, and creating a Serious Game devoted to Sign Language exercising, at the Application Level.

Simao, José, Luisa Cotrim, Teresa Condeco, Tiago Cardoso, Miguel Palha, Yves Rybarczyk, and José Barata. "Using Games for the Phonetics Awareness of Children with Down Syndrome." International Conference on Serious Games, Interaction and Simulation. Springer, Cham, 2016. 1-8. Abstract

Computers and technology can play a key role in supporting learning, namely for students with special educational needs. Nevertheless, despite the emphasis the society puts on the use of technology and its fast proliferation in the area of education, few initiatives focus on the specific needs of children with disabilities. Motivated by this gap, this research work proposes a computer assisted education application that targets to teach talking and reading through games. The work described herein was carried out in close cooperation with - , a child-care institution that works with children with distinct growth disorders, namely the Down syndrome.

2015
Cardoso, Tiago, Vitor Santos, Carolina Santos, and José Barata. "Games’ Social Tech Booster." SGames 2015 - 5th International Conference on Serious Games, Interaction and Simulation. 2015. Abstract

The society has organized itself towards facing existing social needs like the care for children with Down syndrome, Deafness or Autism Spectrum Disorders, among several other pathologies. As a result, several organizations emerged towards handling these issues, composed of doctors, therapists, psychologists, among other professionals, but excluding technology experts. On the other hand side, the finalist students from technology universities usually have a final course where they have to create a complete project from scratch. This article proposes a method for applying the effort and enthusiasm of such students in the above mentioned social causes through games’ development.

Cardoso, Tiago, Vitor Santos, Carolina Santos, and José Barata. "Transferência de Tecnologia para Causas Sociais através dos Vídeo Jogos." VideoJogos 2015. Coimbra-Portugal 2015. Abstract

A sociedade organizou-se para fazer frente a necessidades como o tratamento e acompanhamento de crianças ou jovens com Síndrome de Down, Surdez, Autismo, entre outras patologias. Como resultado, surgiram distintas organizações com o objetivo de lidar com estes casos, compostas por médicos, terapeutas, psicólogos, sociólogos e outros profissionais, mas excluindo profissionais dedicados ao desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias. Por outro lado, alunos finalistas de cursos tecnológicos desenvolvem normalmente um projeto tecnológico do início na disciplina final dos seus cursos - Projeto/Dissertação de fim de curso. Este artigo propõe um método para aplicar o esforço e entusiasmo de tais alunos às causas sociais mencionadas através do desenvolvimento de Jogos.

Cardoso, Tiago, João Delgado, and José Barata. "Hand gesture recognition towards enhancing accessibility." Procedia Computer Science. 67 (2015): 419-429. Abstract

Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI) is a key topic on the Accessibility area, namely in what concerns a Smart-City environment, where humans have to interact with artefacts spread all around one particular city. In the last decade HCI has experienced a significant evolution towards a desired fully natural user interface, for example in what concerns the ability to recognize a wide range of hand gestures in real-time. Some efforts have lately been made in the hardware sector in order to deploy sensors that may gather information about the human body movements, as detailed as possible. One example of this effort is the Kinect Sensor from Microsoft. Nevertheless, although these solutions provide a solution for the body movement, they lack on the details, namely the hands, given their small dimension compared to the body as a whole. In other words, the SDKs provided by the vendors of these devices usually lack on the needed details concerning hand movements that would be needed for an accurate hand gesture recognition implementation. This paper presents an extension to the Kinect SDK based on a contour analysis for the estimation of the hand position. This algorithms are then used to provide the creation of a gesture library that might be used afterwards.

Galveia, Bruno, Tiago Cardoso, Vitor Santor, and Yves Rybarczyk. "Towards the creation of a gesture library." EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies. 2 (2015): 1-8. Abstract

The evolution of technology has risen new possibilities in the so called Natural User Interfaces research area. Among distinct initiatives, several researchers are working with the existing sensors towards improving the support to gesture languages. This article tackles the recognition of gestures, using the Kinect sensor, in order to create a gesture library and support the gesture recognition processes afterwards.

Santos, Vitor, Carolina Santos, and Tiago Cardoso. "Use of sociology concepts as the basis of a model for improving accessibility in Smart Cities." Procedia Computer Science. 67 (2015): 409-418. Abstract

The use of mobile devices and their use for Internet access, for georeferentiation and services consumption had a huge increase.

Today, these devices ability to establish cooperation networks and to interact intelligently and cooperatively with the surrounding environment has growing importance.

In this paper, we propose a system, based on a model which uses the social paradigms in mobile ubiquitous interactions, capable to effectively connect and integrate these devices in order to improve the accessibility in the cities. The model is inspired in concepts from the theory of organizations and sociology, as the notions of “social role”, “ownership” and “responsibility”, to be incorporated in each device.

We present an example for applying the model in the context of accessibility in smart cities for the pedestrian traffic light automatic management.

Franco, José, Fátima Trindade, Sandra Silva, Miguel Palha, and Tiago Cardoso. "“No Reino dos Fonemas” jogo sério para a aprendizagem da leitura." (2015). Abstract

Neste artigo é apresentado um jogo sério que visa auxiliar a iniciação da aprendizagem do Princípio Alfabético
(discriminação auditiva dos sons das vogais) em crianças com dificuldades na aprendizagem (em particular
com alterações na consciência fonológica). Para isso são estudados vários motores de jogo e o conceito de elearning. São mostrados os vários cenários do jogo bem como as suas funcionalidades e propósitos. Este jogo
foi criado para capacitar instituições de apoio a crianças com perturbações do neurodesenvolvimento.

2014
Rybarczyk, Yves, Tiago Cardoso, Tiago Coelho, Rita Oliveira, and João Rosas. "Body Ownership of Virtual Avatars: An affordance Approach of Telepresence." Enterface 2013 Proceedings. Springer, 2014. Abstract

Virtual environments are an increasing trend in today’s society. In this scope, the avatar is the representation of the user in the virtual world. However, that relationship lacks empirical studies regarding the nature of the interaction between avatars and human beings. For that purpose it was studied how the avatar’s modeled morphology and dynamics affect its control by the user. An experiment was conducted to measure telepresence and ownership on participants who used a Kinect Natural User Interface (NUI). The body ownership of different avatars was assessed through a behavioral parameter, based on the concept of affordances, and a questionnaire of presence. The results show that the feelings of telepresence and ownership seem to be greater when the kinematics and the avatar’s proportions are closer to those of the user.

Delgado, João, Tiago Cardoso, and Pedro Mota. "Depth Based Hand Shape Recognition using Contour Analisys." VideoJogos'2014. 2014. Abstract

— Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) faces a great challenges in what concerns the creation of a fully natural interface that is able to recognize a wide range of hand gestures in real-time. Lately efforts have been made by the research community catalyzed by the wide appearance of depth sensors such as the one from the Microsoft Kinect sensor. Nevertheless the available solutions struggle to robustly recognize hand gestures since, compared with the rest of the body, the hand is a small region with many joints, difficult to recognize and ultimately track. This paper proposes a hand shape recognition method that takes advantage of the depth sensor and the joint tracking ability of Microsoft Kinect sensor. The proposed method relies on the analysis of the hand contour or outline and compares it with previously stored templates achieving a good recognition ratio and proving it eligible
for real-time scenarios.

Rosas, João, Gonçalo Carvalho, Yves Rybarczyk, and Tiago Cardoso. "Development of an Ambient Assisted Living." Enterface 2013 Proceedings. Springer, 2014.
Rybarczyk, Y., T. Coelho, T. Cardoso, and R. De Oliveira. "Effect of avatars and viewpoints on performance in virtual world: efficiency vs. telepresence." EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies. 14.1 (2014): e4. Abstract

An increasing number of our interactions are mediated through e-technologies. In order to enhance the human’s feeling of presence into these virtual environments, also known as telepresence, the individual is usually embodied into an avatar. The natural adaptation capabilities, underlain by the plasticity of the body schema, of the human being make a body ownership of the avatar possible, in which the user feels more like his/her virtual alter ego than himself/herself. However, this phenomenon only occurs under specific conditions. Two experiments are designed to study the human’s feeling and performance according to a scale of natural relationship between the participant and the avatar. In both experiments, the human-avatar interaction is carried out by a Natural User Interface (NUI) and the individual’s performance is assessed through a behavioural index, based on the concept of affordances, and a questionnaire of presence The first experiment shows that the feeling of telepresence and ownership seem to be greater when the avatar’s kinematics and proportions are close to those of the user. However, the efficiency to complete the task is higher for a more mechanical and stereotypical avatar. The second experiment shows that the manipulation of the viewpoint induces a similar difference across the sessions. Results are discussed in terms of the neurobehavioral processes underlying performance in virtual worlds, which seem to be based on ownership when the virtual artefact ensures a preservation of sensorimotor contingencies, and simple geometrical mapping when the conditions become more artificial.

Bueno, Pedro, Tiago Cardoso, and Pedro Delgado. "Game Wizard." VideoJogos'2014. 2014. Abstract

Nowadays there is a clear increase of products or tailored solutions with the goal of better adept to the needs of
clients. In another context there is a wide growth of computers’ presence in the class rooms, in order to assist
the teacher to captivate and motivate the students using educational games. However not all teachers have the
advanced computer knowledge that would allow them to personalize games, which would benefit children by
providing tailored solutions to their specific needs. Having this problem into consideration it was designed/idealized a system that relies on a framework of game creation that allows a user with less informatics skills to create a game based on a model. Although there are many games of this type it would be useful and innovative for a teacher to be able to create a game that is personalized to the students’ needs and according to the skills that they wish to develop. This system consists in an interface where the user has to follow some established steps, in order to achieve a file containing all the game features, which is later imported to
a framework. That system allows the creation of different games, as long as these games come under the same game mechanics.

Rybarczyk, Yves, Tiago Cardoso, João Rosas, and Luis M. Camarinha-Matos Innovative and Creative Developments in Multimodal Interaction Systems: 9th Ifip Wg 5.5 International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces, Enterface 2013, Lisbon, Portugal, July 15-August 9, 2013, Proceedings. Springer, 2014. Abstract

This book contains the outcome of the 9th IFIP WG 5.5 International Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces, eNTERFACE 2013, held in Lisbon, Portugal, in July/August 2013. The 9 papers included in this book represent the results of a 4-week workshop, where senior and junior researchers worked together on projects tackling new trends in human-machine interaction (HMI). The papers are organized in two topical sections. The first one presents different proposals focused on some fundamental issues regarding multimodal interactions, i.e., telepresence, speech synthesis and interactive modeling. The second is a set of development examples in key areas of HMI applications, i.e., education, entertainment and assistive technologies.

Cardoso, Tiago, João Gameiro, João Rosas, and Yves Rybarczyk. "KINECT-SIGN: Teaching Sign Language to "Listeners" through a Game." nternational Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces - Enterface 2013 Proceedings. Springer, 2014. Abstract

Sign language is the hearing impaired form of communicating with other people, including listeners. Most cases, impaired people have learned sign language form childhood. The problem arises when a listener comes in contact with an impaired person. For instances, if a couple has a child which is impaired, the parents find a challenge to learn the sign language. In this article, a new playful approach to assist the listeners to learn sign language is proposed. This proposal is a serious game composed of two modes: School-mode and Competition-mode. The first offers a virtual school where the user learns to sign letters and the second offers an environment towards applying the learned letters. Behind the scenes, the proposal contains a sign language recognition system, based on three modules: 1 – the standardization of the Kinect depth camera data; 2 – a gesture library relying on the standardized data; and 3 – the real-time recognition of gestures. A prototype was developed – Kinect-Sign – and tested in a Portuguese Sign-Language school and on eNTERFACE’13 resulting in a joyful acceptance of the approach.

Santos, Vitor, Tiago Cardoso, and Eva Oliveira. "Using creativity techniques to create new computer games." VideoJogos'2014. 2014. Abstract

In the face of growing global game production competition, the ability to come out with new ideas to create computer games is widely recognized today as important. In this context, the chance to resort - in a practical way - to known creativity techniques or adaptations of these to help innovation in this field is a promising challenge, both in the field of entertainment games and the so called serious games. In this article we present the development of a research work in this area and the result proposal method for the introduction of creativity in Games Design. The main objective is the construction of innovative Games that have not been identified by the normal methods used in the analysis of games proposals. We present a case study of the method implemented for the identification of new games design opportunities in an MSc Games course.

2013
Gameiro, João, Tiago Cardoso, and Yves Rybarczyk. "Kinect-sign: teaching sign language to “listeners” through a game." Conference on Electronics, Telecomunications and Computers - CETC . Lisbon, Portugal, 2013. 141-159. Abstract

The sign language is widely used by deaf people around the globe. As the spoken languages, several sign languages do exist. The way sign language is learned by deaf people may have some details to be improved, but one can state that the existing learning mechanisms are effective when we talk about a deaf child, for example. The problem arises for the non-deaf persons that communicate with the deaf persons – the so-called listeners. If, for example, one couple has a new child that turns to be deaf, these two persons find a challenge to learn the sign language. In one hand, they cannot stop their working life, especially because of this sad news turns to be more costly, on the other hand, the existing mechanisms target the deaf-persons and are not prepared for the listeners. This paper proposes a new playful approach to help these listeners to learn the sign language. The proposal is a serious game composed of two modes: School-mode and Competition-mode. The first provides a school-like environment where the user learns the letter-signs and the second provides the user an environment used towards testing the learned skills. Behind the scenes, the proposal is based on two phases: 1 – the creation of a gestures library, relying on the Kinect depth camera; and 2 – the real-time recognition of gestures, by comparing what the depth camera information to the existing gestures previously stored in the library. A prototype system, supporting only the Portuguese sign language alphabet, was developed – the Kinect-Sign – and tested in a Portuguese Sign-Language school resulting in a joyful acceptance of the approach.

Rybarczyk, Y., G. Carrasco, T. Cardoso, and Pavão I. Martins. "A serious game for multimodal training of physician novices." ICER2013 - 6th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation. Seville, Spain: IATED, 2013. 4944-4949. Abstract

Serious games are usually applied to cognitive learning. However, the development of recent Natural User Interfaces (NUI) enables us to use serious games for a more holistic training. This project proposes to implement an educative game that teaches medical students how to carry out a neurological examination. The purpose is to improve not only the cognitive knowledge of the young physicians but also their sensorimotor skills. The game takes place in a virtual doctor office, which is modelled in 3D. Many possible clinical cases related to different neurologic diseases are simulated. The users are tested at two skill levels. First of all, they have to choose the right exam according to the patient’s symptoms. This initial stage is used to assess the theoretical expertise of the students. If the choice is correct, the physical examination begins. In order to evaluate the motor performance, a Kinect NUI is used. Such a device allows for the natural and intuitive control of the doctor’s avatar because there is a direct link between the individual’s and the avatar’s joints. Due to the fact that the real movements of the student are recorded with some accuracy, it is possible to gauge whether or not the medical gesture is properly applied to the virtual patient. In particular, the force and the precision of the movements are measured and compared to reference values. After each examination immediate feedback is given, so that the learners may rectify their choices and improve the quality of their motor skills at the next training session. Overall, the objective of this software is to enable the future physicians to practice a basic medical exam on a wide scope of neurologic disorders, without any risk for the patients and through an enjoyable approach.

Macedo, Patricia, Tiago Cardoso, and Luis M. Camarinha-Matos. "Value systems alignment in product servicing networks." Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2013. 71-80. Abstract

The notion of service-enhanced product brings new perspectives for value creation and differentiation in manufacturing. The existence of complex and highly customized products, the inclusion of business services that add value to the product typically require the collaboration of multiple stakeholders. It is natural that each stakeholder has its own set of values and preferences and as a result, conflicts among them might emerge due to some values misalignment. Therefore, the Value System Alignment assessment should be included when selecting partner for the formation of long-term collaborative networks for the operation and management of the product life-cycle. This paper presents the implementation of a Value System alignment assessment model, as a component of the cloud-based collaborative environment designed to support a mix of collaborative enterprise networks involved in the solar energy sector.

2012
Cardoso, Tiago, and Luis M. Camarinha-Matos. "Pro-active service ecosystem framework." International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing. 26 (2012): 1021-1041. Abstract

Service orientation is a main trend in the development of support infrastructures for collaborative networks, namely in the manufacturing sector. Nevertheless, a literature review still shows the lack of a common understanding of the service concept, namely when we compare the software and business perspectives. As a contribution towards the integration of these two perspectives, this article introduces a conceptual framework based on the notion of representation of services in an ambassador-like manner through the introduction of a proactiveness mechanism. An example scenario and results with a prototype implementation are also discussed.

Cardoso, Tiago Proactive Services Ecosystem Framework”. Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Lisboa, 2012. Abstractcardoso_2012.pdf

Collaborative-Networks (CN) have experienced a fast evolution in the last two decades. The
collaboration among independent entities or professionals supported by Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) has attracted the research community to establish the
conceptual basis for this scientific discipline. Service Orientation has been one of the key selected
paradigms for that conceptual basis. Nevertheless, the service concept itself does not have a
common understanding in the Business and ICT worlds. In the former, client satisfaction,
resources management and business process models are some example concerns, whilst the later
deals with interoperability, remote function calling or communication protocols.
If for example an enterprise provides some service, it may hire specialists to wrap such
service into web-services, expecting to reach worldwide potential new clients. In fact, nowadays
Web Services and Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) are the technological elements most
commonly used. However, these are passive elements in the sense they do not perform any action
towards pursuing business interests, which constitute a limiting factor from a business
perspective. Another approach for the above mentioned enterprise is to follow the Multi-Agent
Systems (MAS) approach, as the pro-activity is a keyword in such contexts. Nevertheless, as
MAS approaches are not so commonly used and not so robust yet, the worldwide potential set of
new clients is reduced; which also constitutes an inhibitor factor from the business perspective.
This dissertation proposes a Pro-Active Services Ecosystem Framework, gathering
inspiration from both the SOA and MAS research areas, trying to bridge the business and ICT
worlds through the base concepts for the creation of a Services’ Ecosystem where business
services are represented in a pro-active manner towards pursuing business interests, like finding
collaboration opportunities or improving the chances each CN member has to see its services
selected among competitors, for example. This work also includes a prototype system applied /
validated in the area of a Professional Virtual Community of Senior Professionals.