Digital health has strong potential for promoting physical activity (PA), yet interventions often fail to sustain engagement among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women. Prior reviews focus on short-term efficacy or surface-level localisation, while a design-oriented synthesis of deep cultural adaptation and long-term strategies remain limited. This scoping review systematically screened 1968 records, analysed 18 studies and identified a critical design paradox: techno-solutionist systems overlook social and cultural barriers, while social-support features often fail in low-activity social networks. To address this gap, we propose the Culturally Embedded Interaction Framework, integrating five dimensions: culturally-grounded measurement, multi-modal interaction, contextual and temporal adaptability, embedded social weaving, and theory-guided cultural adaptation. The framework advances beyond accessibility-focused approaches by mapping behavioural theory to design mechanisms that support sustained and culturally plural participation. We provide actionable design principles to help HCI researchers and practitioners move from one-size-fits-all models toward adaptive, theory-informed, and culturally sustaining design.

Strength training is important for health, but conventional resistance exercise can feel repetitive or intimidating. Immersive virtual reality (VR) exergames may make strength training more engaging by combining physical movement with playful interaction. While rhythm-based exergames have shown motivational benefits, especially for continuous aerobic activities, less is known about whether music and beat synchronisation are beneficial for slower, form-focused strength exercises. We present BeatWeights, a VR dumbbell exergame in which players perform bicep curls while scooping and throwing fries to customers in a fast-food scenario. In a within-subjects study with 16 participants, we compared three one-minute conditions: synchronised music, non-synchronised music, and no music. Participants reported intrinsic motivation, perceived exertion, and muscle fatigue after each condition. Results showed a significant effect of condition on Interest/Enjoyment, with both music conditions rated more enjoyable than silence. However, synchronised music did not provide additional benefits over non-synchronised music, and no significant differences were found for perceived exertion or fatigue. These findings suggest that music can support affective engagement in short VR strength exergames, while precise beat synchronisation may be less critical for this exercise context.

Exergames can motivate sedentary individuals to adopt more active lifestyles, and VR implementations offer even greater engagement. However, VR exergames can also induce cybersickness, which may threaten long-term adherence. Since exercise and cybersickness share several physiological symptoms, it remains unclear whether increased exertion contributes to greater discomfort. This study examined whether exercise intensity affects cybersickness during VR cycling. Participants (N=24) completed three fixed-path sessions, each lasting 2.5 minutes, at no, light, and moderate exertion while providing real-time and post-session sickness ratings. No significant differences in cybersickness were observed across conditions. While the modest sample size and short exposure duration limit the strength of the conclusions, these findings suggest that, within short-duration fixed-motion VR cycling, light to moderate physical effort does not substantially alter reported cybersickness. This indicates that exercise intensity could be varied to support improved user outcomes without clear increases in discomfort under similar controlled conditions.

• Motivation mainly focuses on enhancing understanding of abstract concepts. • Most research focuses on transformations, leaving other topics underexplored. • Unity-based mobile tools with marker tracking are widely used. • Evidence shows improved performance, but comparisons with traditional methods are mixed. • Mixed evidence on cognitive load and recurring usability challenges.

Financial literacy empowers individuals to make informed and effective financial decisions, improving their overall financial well-being and security. However, for many people understanding financial concepts can be daunting and only half of US adults are considered financially literate. Data visualization simplifies these concepts, making them accessible and engaging for learners of all ages. This systematic review analyzes 37 research papers exploring the use of data visualization and visual analytics in financial education and literacy enhancement. We classify these studies into five key areas: (1) the evolution of visualization use across time and space, (2) motivations for using visualization tools, (3) the financial topics addressed and instructional approaches used, (4) the types of tools and technologies applied, and (5) how the effectiveness of teaching interventions was evaluated. Furthermore, we identify research gaps and highlight opportunities for advancing financial literacy. Our findings offer practical insights for educators and professionals to effectively utilize or design visual tools for financial literacy. • This systematic review provides the first structured synthesis of data visualization in financial literacy education, analyzing 37 studies by addressing five key research questions on its historical development, research motivations, financial education pedagogy, visualization technologies, and intervention evaluation. • We identify critical research gaps, including the need for more interactive and adaptive visualization tools, broader audience inclusion beyond students, and stronger empirical validation of visualization effectiveness. These findings offer practical guidance for educators, researchers, and tool developers to enhance financial literacy education.

Grading computer graphics programming assessments and generating formative and summative feedback can require significant effort on the part of human experts.Since these assessments generate visual outputs that can be static or animated, determining correctness may be subjective.For feedback to be effective, it must be delivered in a timely manner.This can be a challenge for introductory computer graphics-based courses since cohort size can be substantial, errors in visual output can be subtle, and causes of errors are often not obvious.In this paper, we explore the feasibility of an automated system for marking visual output and providing program implementation feedback for learners in an introductory computer graphics-based design course in three short programming assessments, including static and animated scenes.To assess the effectiveness of our approach, we compare the marks generated by our tool with those assigned by a human expert.We show that it is possible to automate marking, providing both a grade based on the visual output and formative feedback on source code in the style of a human marker.This can improve objective consistency, grade reproducibility, and reduce marking time, enabling a course to scale to support large cohorts without the need for more resourcing for human markers.We describe lessons learnt and potential pitfalls to assist educators with introducing automated marking for their courses.Finally, we identify areas for future refinement and development of our automated system.

Despite extensive security research on various Android components, such as kernel or runtime, little attention has been paid to the proprietary vendor blobs within Android firmware. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale empirical study to understand the update patterns and assess the security implications of vendor blobs. We specifically focus on GPU blobs because they are loaded into every process for displaying graphics user interfaces and can affect the entire system’s security. We examine over 13,000 Android firmware releases between January 2018 and April 2024. Our results reveal that device manufacturers often neglect vendor blob updates. About 82% of firmware releases contain outdated GPU blobs (up to 1,281 days). A significant number of blobs also rely on obsolete LLVM core libraries released more than 15 years ago. To analyze their security implications, we develop a performant fuzzer that requires no physical access to mobile devices. We discover 289 security and behavioral bugs within the blobs. We also present a case study demonstrating how these vulnerabilities can be exploited via WebGL. This work underscores the critical security concerns associated with vulnerable vendor blobs and emphasizes the urgent need for timely updates from device manufacturers.

Folk-wisdom in software engineering suggests that small functions that adhere to the principle of single-responsibility have several advantages over longer, monolithic functions, including improvement in code comprehension. Despite this widespread view, empirical research on the impact of functional decomposition on understanding code is sparse, yet it is central to software development practices.

Teaching large cohorts in upper-level computing courses is challenging, as providing rapid feedback and marking at scale is difficult without significant resources. Many institutions lack funds to employ a large number of skilled markers or such markers are simply not available.

In response to growing global concerns surrounding sedentary lifestyles among adults, the imperative to motivate physical activity has driven the exploration of Virtual Reality (VR) exergames as a promising solution. Personality traits, particularly competitiveness, can play a pivotal role in influencing individuals' motivation to engage in either competitive or non-competitive versions of the same exergame. While existing studies have primarily focused on sports-related competitive orientations, they have overlooked the potential gain in information from gaming-related personality traits. This research addresses this gap by using a modified gaming-related competitiveness questionnaire and evaluating a VR cycling exergame featuring solo, self-competition and virtual opponent cycling conditions in a controlled user study with 38 participants. Empirical findings reveal a notable difference in self-rated competitiveness between the two domains of sports and gaming, and significant correlations between some gamer-types and motivation. These findings highlight the importance of these personality types during exergaming and their potential efficacy for personalisation to increase motivation.

Many Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, such as learning tools, would benefit from utilising mental states such as cognitive load. Increases in cognitive load (CL) are often reflected in the alteration of physiological responses, such as pupil dilation (PD), electrodermal cctivity (EDA), heart rate (HR), and electroencephalography (EEG). However, the relationship between these physiological responses and cognitive load are usually measured while participants sit in front of a computer screen, whereas VR environments often require a high degree of physical movement. This physical activity can affect the measured signals, making it unclear how suitable these measures are for use in interactive Virtual Reality (VR).

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) are an emerging technology with numerous applications. Electroencephalogram (EEG) motor imagery (MI) is among the most common BCI paradigms and has been used extensively in healthcare applications such as post-stroke rehabilitation. Using a Virtual Reality (VR) game, Push Me, we conducted a pilot study to compare MI accuracy with Gel or active-dry EEG electrodes. The motivation was to (1) investigate the MI paradigm in a VR environment and (2) compare MI accuracy using active dry and gel electrodes with different Machine Learning (ML) classifications (SVM, KNN and RF). The results indicate that while gel-based electrodes, in combination with SVM, achieved the highest accuracy, dry electrode EEG caps achieved similar outcomes, especially with SVM and KNN models.

Molecular biology is a demanding subject, requiring students to master abstract, three-dimensional (3D) concepts across a range of spatial scales. Virtual reality (VR) is a medium that excels at portraying scale and 3D concepts, and allows people to have tangible experiences of otherwise intangible subjects. This paper describes Hands-on DNA, a virtual reality learning experience for teaching undergraduate university students about the scale and structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), a central molecule in molecular biology. The intention of Hands-on DNA is to leverage the advantages of virtual reality against specific challenges faced in teaching molecular biology. We derive design requirements motivated by pedagogy, provide guidelines, and discuss lessons learned during development. Our user study shows that students perceive Hands-on DNA as a fun, engaging, effective learning tool, and that it addresses some of the weaknesses in molecular biology education. Our results also suggest that new interaction techniques to support learning in VR need to be developed (e.g., for note taking) and that the increasing penetration of recreational VR increases students’ expectations and hence the risk of students being disappointed of VR learning tools.

Previous research has shown a correlation between spatial reasoning skills and success in many STEM subjects including computing. More recent research suggests not just a correlation but also a causation, i.e., students' achievements in computing can be improved by improving spatial reasoning skills. So far most of the literature in the education field has treated spatial skills as a single entity, e.g., authors often only measured or trained one specific skill, or did not differentiate between different skills during assessment. We investigate how students' success in introductory computer graphics is correlated to different types of spatial skills. The results of a user study with 36 participants suggest that success in introductory computer graphics is correlated to students' abilities in mental rotation and spatial visualisation but is not correlated with spatial perception skills. We also found a large variation of spatial abilities in the student cohort. We discuss possible reasons for our results and implications for teaching and learning.

We present a Virtual Reality (VR) game, PlayMeBack, to investigate cognitive load measurement in interactive VR environments using pupil dilation, Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Heart Rate (HR). The user is shown different patterns of tiles lighting up and is asked to replay the pattern back pressing the tiles in the same sequence they lit up. The task difficulty depends on the length of the observed pattern (3-6 keys). This task is designed to explore the effect of cognitive load on physiological cues, and if pupil dilation, EEG, GSR and HR can be used as measures of cognitive load.

Learning computer graphics requires a diverse range of skills, such as mathematics, programming, problem-solving and 3D reasoning skills. One fundamental area students struggle with is three-dimensional (3D) transformations, partially due to a lack of visuospatial skills.

Exergames commonly use low to moderate intensity exercise protocols. Their effectiveness in implementing high intensity protocols remains uncertain. We propose a method for improving performance while maintaining intrinsic motivation in high intensity VR exergaming. Our method is based on an interactive adaptation of the feedforward method: a psychophysical training technique achieving rapid improvement in performance by exposing participants to self models showing previously unachieved performance levels. We evaluated our method in a cycling-based exergame. Participants competed against (i) a self model which represented their previous speed; (ii) a self model representing their previous speed but increased resistance therefore requiring higher performance to keep up; or (iii) a virtual competitor at the same two levels of performance. We varied participants' awareness of these differences. Interactive feedforward led to improved performance while maintaining intrinsic motivation even when participants were aware of the interventions, and was superior to competing against a virtual competitor.

Teaching and learning computer graphics is often considered challenging due to it requiring a diverse range of skills such as mathematics, programming, problem solving, and art and design. Assignments are a popular tool to support learning and to assess students' understanding. The value of such assignments depends on the ability to give fast (and ideally formative) feedback, and enabling students to interactively explore the solution space. This is often a problem, in particular for large classes, where assignment marking can take many days or even weeks. By the time feedback is received students often don't remember details, and there is usually no opportunity to resubmit and hence little motivation to reflect on and correct mistakes.

The increasing cost of healthcare represents a serious challenge to most developed countries. Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases, rather than preventing them. In this paper we evaluate technologies for supporting senior health consumers. Based on this we propose a framework for a novel telehealth system overcoming many of the shortcomings of existing technologies. The new system is web-based, has a Facebook-like plug-in architecture for adding new health applications, and incorporates social networking functionalities. We discuss the challenges in implementing the system, and summarize a user study evaluating the system. Our results demonstrate that health consumers have a positive view of this new telehealth technology, and that it can positively change the attitude of users towards their health.

An increasing number of applications require 3D content. However, its creation from real-world data either necessitates expensive equipment, artistic skills, or is constrained, for example, by the range of the utilized sensors. Image-based modeling is rapidly increasing in popularity since cameras are very affordable, widely available, and have a wide image acquisition range suitable for objects of vastly different size. The technique is especially suitable for mobile robotics involving low cost equipment and robots with a light payload, for example, small UAVs. In this paper we describe a novel image-based modeling system, which produces high-quality 3D content automatically from a collection of unconstrained and uncalibrated 2D images. The system estimates camera parameters and a 3D scene geometry using Structure-from-Motion (SfM) and Bundle Adjustment techniques. The point cloud density of 3D scene components is enhanced by exploiting silhouette information of the scene. This hybrid approach dramatically improves the reconstruction of objects with few visual features, for example, unicolored objects, and improves surface smoothness. A high quality texture is created by parameterizing the reconstructed objects using a segmentation and charting approach which also works for objects which are not homeomorphic to a sphere. The resulting parameter space contains one chart for each surface segment. A texture map is created by back projecting the best fitting input images onto each surface segment, and smoothly fusing them together over the corresponding chart by using graph-cut techniques.

Finite element (FE) models are frequently used in engineering and life sciences within time-consuming simulations. In contrast with the regular grid structure facilitated by volumetric data sets, as used in medicine or geosciences, FE models are defined over a non-uniform grid. Elements can have curved faces and their interior can be defined through high-order basis functions, which pose additional challenges when visualizing these models. During ray-casting, the uniformly distributed sample points along each viewing ray must be transformed into the material space defined within each element. The computational complexity of this transformation makes a straightforward approach inadequate for interactive data exploration. In this paper, we introduce a novel coherency-based method which supports the interactive exploration of FE models by decoupling the expensive world-to-material space transformation from the rendering stage, thereby allowing it to be performed within a precomputation stage. Therefore, our approach computes view-independent proxy rays in material space, which are clustered to facilitate data reduction. During rendering, these proxy rays are accessed, and it becomes possible to visually analyze high-order FE models at interactive frame rates, even when they are time-varying or consist of multiple modalities. Within this paper, we provide the necessary background about the FE data, describe our decoupling method, and introduce our interactive rendering algorithm. Furthermore, we provide visual results and analyze the error introduced by the presented approach.

Designing healthcare systems for the elderly is a challenging endeavour. Telehealth systems are gaining popularity among elderly users, but such applications are mostly doctor-centric and are predominantly used for managing and/or treating diseases instead of preventing them. They do little to motivate patients to change their lifestyle and proactively manage their health. To address these shortcomings, we propose a web-based telehealth system, which uses Web 2.0 technologies in order to add social support and user defined content. In this study, we determine the functional and interface requirements of the system by conducting open individual semi-structured interviews with eight elderly people of age range 60 to 87. A paper prototype and three interfaces of existing Web 2.0 health applications were used to determine the optimum user interface design of the system. A qualitative content analysis was used to evaluate the responses. Overall, the respondents were positive about the idea of using the web to manage their healthcare from home and made several suggestions such as including applications to manage their diet, physiotherapy exercises to improve their health conditions and simple network games to reduce loneliness.

Mobile robots are increasingly entering the real and complex world of humans in ways that necessitate a high degree of interaction and cooperation between human and robot. Complex simulation models, expensive hardware setup, and a highly controlled environment are often required during various stages of robot development. There is a need for robot developers to have a more flexible approach for conducting experiments and to obtain a better understanding of how robots perceive the world. Mixed Reality (MR) presents a world where real and virtual elements co-exist. By merging the real and the virtual in the creation of an MR simulation environment, more insight into the robot behaviour can be gained, e.g. internal robot information can be visualised, and cheaper and safer testing scenarios can be created by making interactions between physical and virtual objects possible. Robot developers are free to introduce virtual objects in an MR simulation environment for evaluating their systems and obtain a coherent display of visual feedback and realistic simulation results. We illustrate our ideas using an MR simulation tool constructed based on the 3D robot simulator Gazebo.