Tiago Cardoso

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.