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Helena Webb – paper

DFPulse: The 2024 Digital Forensic Practitioner Survey

This paper reports on the largest survey of digital forensic practitioners to date (DFPulse) conducted from March to May 2024
resulting in 122 responses. The survey collected information about practitioners’ operating environments, the technologies they
encounter, investigative techniques they use, the challenges they face, the degree to which academic research is accessed and
useful to the practitioner community, and their suggested future research directions. The paper includes quantitative and qualitative
results from the survey and a discussion of the implications for academia, the improvements that can be made, and future research
directions

TAS Hub funded

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Horia Maior – Paper

Exploring the Impact of Verbal-Imagery Cognitive Style on Web Search Behaviour and Mental Workload

CHIIR ’24, March 10–14, 2024, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Cognitive style has been shown to influence users’ interaction with search interfaces. However, as a fundamental dimension of cognitive styles, the relationship between the Verbal-Imagery (VI) cognitive style dimension and search behaviour has not been studied thoroughly, and it is not clear whether VI cognitive style can be used to inform search user interface design. We present a study (N=29), investigating how search behaviour and mental workload (MWL) changes relate to VI cognitive styles by examining participants’ search behaviour across three increasingly complex tasks.
MWL was subjectively rated by participants, and blood oxygenation
changes in the prefrontal cortex were measured using functional
near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Our results revealed a significant difference between verbalisers
and imagers in search behaviour. In particular, verbalisers preferred
a Sporadic navigation style and adopted the Scanning strategy as
they processed information, according to their viewing and bookmarking patterns, whereas imagers preferred the Structured navigation style and reading information in detail. The fNIRS data
showed that verbalisers had significantly higher blood oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex when using the same search interface,
suggesting a higher MWL than imagers. When based on task complexity bias, the search time significantly increased as task complexity increased, but there were no significant differences in search
behaviours. Our study indicated that VI cognitive styles have a
noticeable and stronger impact on users’ searching behaviour and
their MWL when interacting with the same interface than task complexity, which can be considered further in future search behaviour
studies and search user interface design.

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Horia Maior – paper

I think I don’t feel sick: Exploring the Relationship Between Cognitive Demand and Cybersickness in Virtual Reality using fNIRS

Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), April 23–
28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany.

Virtual Reality (VR) applications commonly use the illusion of self motion (vection) to simulate experiences such as running, driving, or fying. However, this can lead to cybersickness, which diminishes the experience of users, and can even lead to disengagement with this platform. In this paper we present a study in which we show that users performing a cognitive task while experiencing a VR rollercoaster reported reduced symptoms of cybersickness. Furthermore, we collected and analysed brain activity data from our participants during their experience using functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS): preliminary analysis suggests the possibility that this technology may be able to detect the experience of cybersickness. Together, these results can assist the creators of VR experiences, both through mitigation of cybersickness in the design process, and by better understanding the experiences of their users.

 

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Horia Maior – new paper

Telepresence Robots for Remote Participation in Higher
Education

Junrui Hu, Gisela Reyes-Cruz, Horia Alexandru Maior, Joel Fischer

Telepresence robotics enable people to synchronously communicate
and interact at a distance. The Covid-19 pandemic caused in-person
teaching and research activities to migrate online in almost all
society sectors (including higher education). In hybrid learning
environments, telepresence robots have the potential to increase
the effectiveness of distance learning by enhancing user presence,
allowing students to remain physically embodied and socially connected. However, to be accepted, trusted, and adopted in higher
education, more work is needed to investigate the specific requirements of telepresence robotics in these settings. In this paper, we
present the results of a mixed methods study exploring how the
use of a telepresence robot in a simulated learning and research
environment affects trust in and user experience of telepresence
robots used in higher education. We aimed to understand users’
attitudes and requirements for the use of telepresence robots in academic teaching and research. Our findings suggest that the level of
trust is contingent upon the user, the performance of the robot, and
the credibility of the developing organisation. We additionally map
out the current challenges encountered by the use of telepresence
robots in these settings and provide suggestions to improve user
experience by highlighting new software and hardware capabilities.

Access the paper here.

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Neelima Sailaja – new paper

User-Centred Repair: From Current Practices to Future Design

Damla, Kilic & Neelima Sailaja:

From the kitchen to the bathroom, homes are now equipped with various technological devices like smart vacuums, intelligent mirrors, digital thermostats, wearables, and voice-controlled assistants such as Amazon Alexa. This surge in ubiquitous technologies contributes to the growing concern of electronic waste, or e-waste, globally. Research focuses on developing strategies for e-waste reduction, and is considering a range of approaches on governmental, industrial and societal levels. To gain a comprehensive understanding of smart device repair, our research was structured into several distinct tasks, each supported by semi-structured interviews, each tailored to explore different facets of repair behaviours and decision-making. A total of fifteen one-on-one study sessions were conducted as part of this research. The study’s findings will be presented in three primary sections, each shedding light on distinct aspects of repair practices and decision-making. Along with the aforementioned results around current repair practices, repair decision making drivers and future expectations, our paper offers two significant contributions to human-computer interaction (HCI) research and practice. First, we place our findings in a broader context, anchoring them within the existing body of literature on HCI, repair practices, and the IoT. Second, we leverage our findings along with wider literature to conclude our paper with a set of design recommendations that align with current actual user practice around IoT repair; is inclusive of user expectations around every day reparability in future IoT; and enables user decision making around IoT repair thereby making IoT reparability an accessible and equitable process.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) Volume 14718 LNCS, Pages 52 – 712024 12th International Conference on Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions, DAPI 2024, held as part of the 26th HCI International Conference, HCII 2024Washington29 June 2024through 4 July 2024: DOI10.1007/978-3-031-59988-0_4

 

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Horia to join Max Wilson at this year’s Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

Horizon Transitional Assistant Professor, Horia Maior will be joining Dr Max Wilson, Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London (2-7 July) to demonstrate different types of wearable brain scanning devices.  The ‘Brain Team’ will be gathering people’s opinions on how they feel about using consumer neurotechnology.  More information about this event can be found in this University of Nottingham Press Release.

 

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Horia Maior – new paper

Adaptive Human-Swarm Interaction based on Workload Measurement using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

One of the challenges of human-swarm interaction (HSI) is how to manage the operator’s workload. In order to do this, we propose a novel neurofeedback technique for the realtime measurement of workload using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The objective is to develop a baseline
for workload measurement in human-swarm interaction using fNIRS and to develop an interface that dynamically adapts to the operator’s workload. The proposed method consists of using fNIRS device to measure brain activity, process this through a machine learning algorithm, and pass it on to the
HSI interface. By dynamically adapting the HSI interface, the swarm operator’s workload could be reduced and the performance improved.

Read more from this paper here

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Horia Maior – new paper – consumer wearable technologies

The CHI’24 Workshop on the Future of Cognitive Personal Informatics

While Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has contributed to demonstrating that physiological measures can be used to detect cognitive changes, engineering and machine learning will bring these to application in consumer wearable technology. For HCI, many open questions remain, such as: What happens when this becomes a cognitive form of personal informatics? What goals do we have for our daily cognitive activity? How should such a complex concept be conveyed to users to be useful in their everyday lives? How can we mitigate potential ethical concerns? This is different to designing BCI interactions; we are concerned with understanding how people will live with consumer neurotechnology. This workshop will directly address the future of Cognitive Personal Informatics (CPI), by bringing together design, BCI and physiological data, ethics, and personal informatics researchers to discuss and set the research agenda in this inevitable future.

Read more from this paper here

 

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AI Safety Summit workshop

Horizon Transitional Assistant Professor Horia Maior shares his experience of facilitating a workshop on Ethics and Responsible Innovation in the application of AI within the nuclear energy sector at the AI Summit hosted by the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Robotics and AI Collaboration (RAICo)..

“Together with Dr Virginia Portillo and Dr Pepita Barnard I had the privilege of facilitating a workshop on Ethics and Responsible Innovation in the application of AI within the nuclear energy sector.

The summit was nothing short of inspiring. It was an incredible opportunity to delve into the critical discussions surrounding AI safety and ethics, particularly in an industry as crucial as nuclear energy.

But what made the summit truly remarkable was the chance to connect with a diverse group of passionate researchers and practitioners. From academia and industry to the public sector, the breadth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and willingness to collaborate was genuinely inspiring.

I must also shout out to my University of Nottingham colleagues Jack Chaplin, and Giovanna Martinez Arellano who delivered two other enlightening workshops on AI Safety and AI Assurance, as well as colleagues from the Omnifactory® for the amazing facility tour provided on the day.

Reflecting on these amazing few days, I’m filled with gratitude for the opportunity to contribute to such vital conversations, to learn, network, and collaborate, and advance the ethical use of AI across different sectors.

Thank huge thank you to Horizon Digital Economy Research, UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) Hub and Responsible Ai UK  for supporting our work!

Thanks also to the UK Atomic Energy Authority, RAICo, the University of Nottingham, Phill Mulvana MSc FIET CMgr MCMI, David Branson III and everyone involved for an unforgettable summit.