In this work, we develop and analyze the impact of using a gamified application to encourage users to adopt an eco-sustainable driving style. The proposed solution uses elements of gamification such as rankings, scores, prizes, and levels to encourage and engage the driver in an urban context. The score, in terms of eco-sustainable driving, is calculated by considering vehicle speed, acceleration and braking parameters during the driving session. The application also provides real-time feedback in order to help the driver improve his/her driving style. Whenever the application detects a sudden change in speed, known as an unsustainable behavior, it will warn the user so as to let him/her correct the driving style. Our solution is oriented to assist people in eco-sustainable driving while preventing them from loss of interest and from reverting to his/her former bad driving behaviors.

In this work, we propose a system whose goal is to improve road safety by leveraging the Situation Awareness (SA) of drivers. Our solution is based on a mobile application that, through web services, a real-time database, and onboard sensors, provides drivers with continuous audio and visual feedback supporting specific elements of the SA to help users to drive safely. Moreover, a companion smartwatch application was designed to give drivers additional notifications through a combination of long and short vibrations. Such notification can be used to strengthen the smartphone notification or as an alternative to them.

The evaluation of Dyslexeasy, a reading program for mobile Android devices that is specifically built for people with dyslexia, is presented in this research. Dyslexeasy combines the most effective approach to show text to persons with dyslexia with a unique feature: progressive text reproduction. Our first prototype is for Italian, despite the fact that the novel algorithm employed for this unique feature is language agnostic. We conducted a pilot study with possible stakeholders to evaluate Dyslexeasy. Working with five dyslexic participants, we assessed the effectiveness of the algorithm on the basis of dyslexia, as well as the user experience. Our findings reveal that the participants were satisfied with the quality of the text generated by the algorithm and the overall user experience. As a result, we argue in this paper that a mobile app like Dyslexeasy could have a significant influence on persons with dyslexia.

Nowadays, mobile applications represent the principal means to enable human interaction. Being so pervasive, these applications should be made usable for all users: accessibility collects the guidelines that developers should follow to include features allowing users with disabilities (e.g., visual impairments) to better interact with an application. While research in this field is gaining interest, there is still a notable lack of knowledge on how developers practically deal with the problem: (i) whether they are aware and take accessibility guidelines into account when developing apps, (ii) which guidelines are harder for them to implement, and (iii) which tools they use to be supported in this task. To bridge the gap of knowledge on the state of the practice concerning the accessibility of mobile applications, we adopt a mixed-method research approach with a twofold goal. We aim to (i) verify how accessibility guidelines are implemented in mobile applications through a coding strategy and (ii) survey mobile developers on the issues and challenges of dealing with accessibility in practice. The key results of the study show that most accessibility guidelines are ignored when developing mobile apps. This behavior is mainly due to the lack of developers' awareness of accessibility concerns and the lack of tools to support them during the development.

This paper presents a patient-centered interaction project of Pepper humanoid robotic therapy applications for children with attention deficit. This new therapeutic methodology was created to support and make therapeutic work more attractive. Pepper comes with a tablet and two identical cameras. The tablet is used to make the patients interact with the application, while the cameras are used to capture their emotions in real-time to understand the degree of attention and any difficulties they may have. The interaction with the tablet takes place through some exercises in the form of games. The exercises performed by the patients are analyzed and combined with the data acquired by the cameras. The combination of these data is elaborated to propose adequate levels of therapeutic activity. This process leads to the digitization of the patients' therapeutic path so that any improvement (or worsening) is monitored and makes Pepper a reliable and predictable technological intermediary for the child. The work was developed in collaboration with a diagnostic and therapeutic center, where it is being tested. By interacting with a humanoid robot, children show greater involvement, which can be explained, according to psychologists, by the fact that a robot is emotionally less rich than humans and the patients feel less fearful.

Mobile applications are currently one of the primary means enabling any kind of social and human interaction. Being so pervasive, these applications should be made usable for all users: accessibility collects the guidelines that developers should follow to include features allowing users with disabilities (e.g., visual impairments) to better interact with an application. The external quality and, particularly, the usability of these apps influences the application acceptance and usage patterns. For this reason, developers are increasing their attention to the problem of accessibility, which is the branch of computer-human interaction that defines the guidelines to make an application usable by all users. This article describes the purpose and progress of the author's doctoral studies on user interaction, usability, and motivational questions related to the accessibility of mobile applications.

In this work, we illustrate an innovative treatment for patients affected by Behavioral Disorders, that relies on the use of Pepper humanoid robot. This new therapeutic methodology was created to support and make the therapist's work more attractive. Pepper is equipped with a tablet and two identical cameras. The tablet is used to let the patient interact with the application, while the cameras are used to capture their real-time emotions to understand the degree of attention and any difficulty that they may have. The interaction with the tablet takes place through some exercises in the form of games. The exercises performed by the subject are analyzed and combined with the data captured by the cameras. The combination of these data is processed to propose appropriate levels of therapeutic activities. This process leads to the digitization of the patient's healing path so that any improvement (or worsening) is monitored and causes Pepper to become a reliable and predictable technological intermediary for the child. The work has been developed in collaboration with a diagnostic and therapeutic center. Interacting with a humanoid robot, children exhibit a higher engagement, which can be explained, according to the psychologists, by the fact that a robot is emotionally less rich than human beings, and the patient feels less scared.

The forest fires represent a social emergency that requires significant economic and organizational commitment. Safety and the lack of reliable and timely localization of firefighters is a big problem. In this paper, we present Karya Advanced Sensor, an automatic, accurate, and reliable IT solution able to locate firefighters in harsh environments and support decision making activities at control rooms. The system consists of sensors perfectly integrated into firefighters' uniforms, which are used to monitor in real-time individual operators' activities as well as the entire fire area. In particular, in case a firefighter gets injured, the system will activate the rescue teams quickly, as there will be a constant link between the firefighters and the medical assistance. The firefighter can also specify the reason for the accident, which is critical information for a more timely and appropriate health intervention. Moreover, the system is able to perform an automatic real-time mapping of forest fires and possibly estimate its propagation rate, providing precious support to control rooms, which are the center of the team coordination.

In Industry 4.0, Human Machine Interfaces are largely used in order to increase the performances of production processes at the same time reducing the number of emergencies and accidents. In manufacturing, the most typical system used to monitor the production is the Andon. It is a graphical system exploited in plants to notify operators who deal with management, maintenance and production performance of the presence of a problem. Of course, the usability of such interfaces is essential to allow an operator to identify and react more effectively to potentially critical situations. Improving the usability of such interfaces is a big challenge due to the increasing complexity of the data that must be processed and understood quickly by operators. In this paper, we present a set of guidelines to help professional developers to design usable interfaces for monitoring industrial production in manufacturing. Such guidelines are based on usability principles and formalized by reviewing existing industrial interfaces. Using a realistic case study prepared with manufacturing experts, we propose an Andon interface that we developed to test the efficacy of these guidelines on a last generation touch-wall device.

Today, the deaf community represents a population of more than 70 million individuals around the globe. Sign language is recognized as one of the most popular means of communication for the deaf. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes and promotes the use of sign languages and establishes that their use is critical to ensuring access to information and services, both in everyday life and during emergencies. However, most public information and service providers do not comply with the goal of providing information and services through speech-to-sign language interpreters. In this paper we leverage the results of our previous work and propose ProSign+, a cloud-based speech-to- sign language platform conceived as an intermediary service for any legal entity which is expected to provide inclusive access to information and services also for deaf people (e.g., public transportation companies, municipalities, hospitals, schools and higher education institutions). The idea is to foster a cost-effective transformation of public service providers towards the goal of leaving no one behind, which is central to the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.

Context. Nowadays, mobile applications represent the principal means to enable human interaction. Being so pervasive, these applications should be made usable for all users: accessibility collects the guidelines that developers should follow to include features allowing users with disabilities (e.g., visual impairments) to better interact with an application. Problem. While research in this field is gaining interest, there is still a notable lack of knowledge on how developers practically deal with the problem: (i) whether they are aware and take accessibility guidelines into account when developing apps, (ii) which guidelines are harder for them to implement, and (iii) which tools they use to be supported in this task. Objective. To bridge the gap of knowledge on the state of the practice concerning the accessibility of mobile applications. Method. Adopting a mixed-method research approach, we aim to (i) verify how accessibility guidelines are implemented in mobile applications through a coding strategy and (ii) survey mobile developers on the issues and challenges of dealing with accessibility in practice. Limitations. Threats are represented by the size of the app sample and the number of answers to our survey study.