Specification and Usability Evaluation of an Attention-aware Remote Control designed in a Physical Prototype

This paper defines requirements for entering text in interactive digital TV, based on theories of shared attention, in order to make a prototype of a remote control which enables more natural user interaction. The physical prototype of this newly created device features movement recognition and sensory feedback as modalities of interaction. In usability tests, data on users’ performance and satisfaction was collected, as well as data on their cognitive load (attention) and state of meditation (relaxation) captured through an Electroencephalogram device. The results showed that the solution, analyzed for a sample of 18 users, increased performance for typing long texts by 26.5%, raised satisfaction scores by 15%, relaxation scores by 29.4%, and maintained the users’ cognitive load when compared to use of an infrared remote control.

An Agent-Based Approach for Delivering Educational Contents Through Interactive Digital TV in the Context of T-Learning

The support of technological resources in teaching and learning has contributed to make them more efficient and enjoyable. Through this support has become quite common to use media resources before explored only for entertainment for educational purposes, among them the TV. The interactive Digital TV (iDTV) provides resources that make possible the development of a plethora of educational applications. However, since TV is a mass distribution device, an aggravating factor in the use of this media for education is the presentation of contents (learning objects) inadequate according to both the users' previous knowledge and the subject of courses in which they are enrolled. This paper tries to fill this gap by proposing an educational environment for iDTV, supported by an adequate standard for classification of learning objects for t-learning, in order to deliver educational contents for iDTV, according to users' knowledge level and suitability of contents to ongoing course.