Human Systems Engineering and Design (IHSED 2023): Future Trends and Applications

AHFE International

Accelerating Open Access Science in Human Factors Engineering and Human-Centered Computing

Human Systems Engineering and Design (IHSED 2023): Future Trends and Applications

book-cover

Editors: Waldemar Karwowski, Tareq Ahram, Mario Milicevic, Darko Etinger, Krunoslav Zubrinic

Topics: Systems Engineering, Ergonomics in Design

Publication Date: 2023

ISBN: 978-1-958651-88-9

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004106

Articles

Customer-Centered Quality Function Deployment - A Framework for the Iterative Involvement of the Voice of the Customer and Derivation of Measurable Product Requirements in Innovation Design

In this paper, a new approach for the involvement of the voice of the customer in product innovation projects is discussed by using an example of automotive concept design. Today, a company's competitiveness is directly linked with its ability to innovate. At the same time, many product concepts fail in the market, as they do not satisfy customer requirements. Concurrently, the aim of this paper is to design a process that monitors the customers' needs throughout the product development process and allows to translate those requirements into measurable development targets. A literature review deems the traditional development of specification sheets to be static and superficial. Specification sheets often display a generic customer request, however, fail to convey the subliminal customer needs. On the other hand, customer-centred methods (e.g., Design Thinking) allow a deep understanding of those needs but lack their translation into the tangible language of engineers. Therefore, the target of this paper is to close the gap between the two approaches leveraging an adapted and iterative version of the Quality Function Deployment methodology. For this purpose, a three-step study is conducted. Firstly, requirements for the process are collected with the help of experts from the fields of technology, business, and human values. Secondly, a new process model is developed in workshops with experts. In a third step this new process is evaluated through expert feedback. As a result, a new process is presented for identifying, weighting and quantifying future proof product requirements.

Dennis Dombrowski, Bernd Hienz, Stefan Aust, Ludwig Maul

Conference Proceedings

On-site-worker-centered design for work improvements

This paper introduces a case study of work improvement conducted with care workers on site as well as discussions on their motivation of the improvement. For a sustainable service based on work improvements, not only user-centered but also service-provider-centered design is important. However, a co-creation project with on-site workers has a difficulty in designing a successful work improvement due to both their busy daily care work and their psychological burden to accept and launch the designed improvement. Thus, workshop designers should effectively motivate them so that they could join the design project and make a decision to launch the improvement. As for motivation in service design, Bisset introduced differing levels of motivation of a service user[1]. Bisset's framework is useful to understand and analyze each level of motivation though a target of the framework is mainly a service user, not a service provider. For motivating on-site workers, a study with a viewpoint of a service provider is necessary. We conducted 17 co-creation workshops for a year in order to design a work improvement which would be served as a sustainable service. The workshops were designed based on design thinking and focused on solving an environmental problem of their nursing facility. A manager at the facility expected the workers to think and act on their own initiative to improve their work autonomously. Though the workers tried to design a solution for safe and comfortable aisles where a wheelchair does not hit tables or chairs, the trial resulted in failure to launch the solution. A review workshop, which was conducted to analyze the reason why the workshops failed, revealed that they are too cautious to step forward although they learned the importance of understanding users, paying more attention to users and information sharing among workers. They were concerned about disadvantages by the solution such as complaints from users about table layout changes. They were also concerned about the lack of preparation to implement the solution. The review result suggests a design of intrinsic motivation for putting ideas into actions based on what they have learned. We think the intrinsic motivation could be enhanced by both a design of work improvement workshops and a design of their work style changes. As for the former, we included in the workshop design functions for extracting assumed problems during solution operation and devising ideas for problem solving, but the effects were insufficient. As Lockton mentioned[2], the latter depends on both behavior change of the workers and a design of the work environment. Future work will include a better workshop design that raises the motivation level of the workers step by step and exploring effective motivation of the workers to change their work style and workplace.[1] Bisset, F. et al: Designing motivation or motivating design? Exploring Service Design, motivation and behavioural change, Touchpoint: The Journal of Service Design, Vol.2, No.1, pp.15-21, 2010[2] Lockton, D. et al: Modelling the User: How design for sustainable behaviour can reveal different stakeholder perspectives on human nature, Brunel University Research Archive, 2010

Masayuki Ihara, Hiroko Tokunaga, Hiroki Murakami, Shinpei Saruwatari, Kazuki Takeshita, Akihiko Koga, Takashi Yukihira, Shinya Hisano, Masashige Motoe

Conference Proceedings

The Effect of Micro-Breaks on Intellectual Concentration Work: An Individual's Characteristics Measurement

Micro-breaks are very short time breaks such as several tens of seconds during intellectual work and they are expected to be effective to recover intellectual concentration. A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the effect of the micro-breaks focusing on individual characteristics. Thirty-one participants were recruited in this study performing cognitive comparison tasks for 25 minutes on a tablet PC under two conditions, which are micro-break intervention condition and no micro-break intervention condition. Quantitative answering times were analyzed to find the individual's performance characteristic concerning the micro-breaks intervention. Five patterns grouping of performance variations were determined utilizing the moving average and locally-weighted scatterplot smoother data. The result shows that 42% of the total participants resulted that micro-breaks condition outperformed the condition without micro-breaks during all the task periods incorporated in the first pattern group. The second pattern group does not show the eminence of micro-breaks towards 10% of total participants. In the third pattern group, the superiority of the micro-breaks appears after a certain time and not from the beginning of the task shown by 26% of participants' data. The degradation of the micro-break effectiveness is shown in a fourth pattern group for 19% of the sample group. In the last pattern group, both the superiority and deterioration of the micro-break are found in 3% of the data. The results demonstrate each individual's characteristic in responding to the micro-breaks intervention during cognitive task presented in the five patterns group. The majority of the participants benefited from the micro-breaks indicated by more stable and faster performance compared to the no micro-breaks condition.

Orchida Dianita, Kakeru Kitayama, Kimi Ueda, Hirotake Ishii, Hiroshi Shimoda, Fumiaki Obayashi

Conference Proceedings

Data mining with Behaviour and Context-Based Optimal Navigation (BeaCON) for Optimal Navigation

We demonstrate the data mining process for the creation of optimal guidance information using BeaCON (Behaviour and Context-Based Optimal Navigation), a driving simulator and analytics framework. BeaCON implements a novel framework for optimal navigation by integrating user-behavioural and user-cognitive navigation processes. Integration of cognitive models along with route information and behavioural models enables BeaCON not only to identify the high cognitive load scenarios while driving but also the root cause of it. Analysis of high cognitive load scenarios and the root cause can be used to create the principles for the generation of optimal guidance information.

Arun Balakrishna, Tom Gross

Conference Proceedings

User-Centred Design of a Patient App for Carotid Artery Monitoring at Home

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that cerebrovascular diseases account for the second highest cause of death in Europe, contributing to 11% of annual deaths. One of the underlying causes is a stenosis, which refers to the blockage or narrowing of the carotid artery due to the accumulation of plaque within the artery. Although stenoses can result in severe health complications such as strokes, early detection can prevent such complications. The BODYTUNE system aims to detect building stenoses in high-risk patients through an AI-supported auscultation device. This device is accompanied by an app that enables users to take independent measurements from home and manages and displays the results. The development of a high-fidelity interactive prototype of this app is the subject of this paper. The app prototype was developed using the Human-centred design process, an approach defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that places emphasis on the needs and preferences of the user, ensuring that the resulting product meets a high level of usability. To ensure user centricity towards the system's target group a survey of potential at-risk patients for a carotid stenosis was conducted, investigating their needs and abilities, and obtaining design requirements. Inquired points included participants' experience with handling medical systems in home use and their general affinity for technology. The survey revealed that most participants have prior experience with comparable systems such as blood pressure monitors or health and lifestyle apps. However, participants were still concerned about being able to operate the system independently and feared making errors in the measurement process, leading to false results. The survey highlighted the importance of designing an app that is easy to use, instils trust between the system and the users, validates users in their actions, and guides them when problems arise. After the initial research a design was established through several iterations, starting from wireframing to the final design of the interactive prototype. It aims to be trustworthy and professional and convey a positive feel and calming feel. The prototype covers the four following use cases: establishing a connection between the measuring device and the app, taking a measurement, looking up former measuring results and editing profile information. Subsequently to the prototype development a usability test was conducted to assess whether the design met the requirements for the target group and to identify potential usability problems. Six people, representing potential users of the app, participated in the test, and were asked to independently execute each use cases. The tests were observed, and the prototype device was screen recorded. Additionally, an interview was conducted afterwards where participants were asked about their specific struggles and general aspects regarding the app's usability. In total, 24 usability problems were identified from the test, almost two-thirds of which were pointed out by more than one test participant. Despite these issues, participants generally displayed a positive reaction towards the app, stating they feel safe and reassured during use and feeling that the BODYTUNE system would be helpful to them.

Inga Müller, Jasmin Henze, Anja Burmann, Rutuja Salvi, Rainer Baum

Conference Proceedings

Adaptability as a multi-scale strategy for the regeneration of the built environment through circular economy perspective

Since its founding documents, sustainability has recognized collective well-being and environmental protection as the key to the development of society and, at the same time, the main challenge in the relationships between human activities and the limited capacity of ecosystems to support them. For a long time, it was believed that natural and anthropic systems responded to perturbations gradually through a slow adaptive process. Today, we know that vulnerability (economic, social, environmental and health) projects us into a condition of sudden discontinuity, unpredictable and uncontrollable immersive events, in which every single fragility is related to the "whole" and every single action produces an eco or a cascading effect on the well-being of users and the health of the planet. The global crisis scenarios, the conditions of uncertainty and reality complexity, the limited resources and the variability of the framework of the needs show the failure of a "rigid" conception-organization of the built environment often forced to reorganize itself as a result of stressful events for reach acceptable levels of efficiency or to show its fragility (seismic, hydro-geological, climatic, social) by undermining the concepts of stability (environmental, economic and social security) we are used to. Precisely in urban areas, a context in which human health-planetary health relationships express their effects more than elsewhere, it is necessary to intercept new solutions and rules to deal with the direct consequences (deterioration of surface materials, structures, reduction of energy performance) and indirect (loss of identity, interruption of socio-economic activities, loss of livability and conditions of well-being) of climate change on urban centres. Although the literature recognizes the need for impact forecasting tools, it appears increasingly important to support strategies aimed at increasing adaptability understood as a characteristic of the designed system that allows its transformation/modification, increasing its performance qualities and its life span useful. In this sense, adaptability is one of the fundamental requisites for a holistic-circular regeneration and redevelopment of neighbourhoods and architectures, conceived as products that are not "disposable" but "error-friendliness" or "prone to error" and structured to "regenerate" following damage or decompensation through actions of transformation, repair, maintenance, reuse, reconditioning, etc.A paradigm shift is needed in the interpretation of adaptive intervention as a "regenerative process", understood not only as a solution for the restoration/maintenance of acceptable performance conditions - in a linear vision of the life cycle of the designed system - but a moment of "reset /restart" in which the action (of transformability, maintainability, replaceability, reversibility, mitigation/compensation, etc.) underlies a set of strategies structured in a circular process (Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Re-use, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, Recover). In this sense, interventions on the built environment constitute an opportunity to lead cities towards an ecological transition, if considered both as adaptive actions of external (environmental, social and economic) and internal vulnerabilities (variability linked to user needs) but also as interferences (of circular micro processes) to the linear process with which cities have been conceived and evolved, to constitute a step towards the creation of a potentially regenerative and resilient built environment. The paper is part of a study on the topic of sustainable regeneration and redevelopment of existing buildings and urban areas. It explores the implications between the need for adaptive regeneration to ensure both the adequate levels of performance and functionality of the space (indoor, outdoor space ) with its components/materials and the equally urgent need to conceive such adaptive actions in a circular way. The collection, review and systematization of the literature and case studies led to the identification of a framework of adaptive/circular strategies at the micro (the single component), meso (the building) and macro (the public space) scales. The strategies were then validated in three social housing districts in three Italian cities.

Cristiana Cellucci

Conference Proceedings

Predicting comprehensibility of healthcare signs using drawings from participants: A pilot study of sign evaluation

This paper advocates using visual data to evaluate signs, specifically by examining the similarities between signs and drawings produced by end-users based on a sign referent given to them. A similarity score is used to measure the extent to which a sign conforms to users' mental images triggered by the associated referent and to determine whether the sign should be redesigned. Based on the concept underlying the population stereotype production technique, it is argued that a higher similarity score implies higher comprehensibility of the sign. When redesigning is needed, the drawings can also serve as informative feedback for sign modification. This explorative approach is illustrated by a pilot study involving the evaluation of healthcare signs using visual data.

Yi Lin Wong

Conference Proceedings

DJaytopia: a hybrid intelligent DJ co-remixing system

Nowadays, musical mixing platforms are featured with programmed interventions and digitized information visualization to support DJ's performance (Montano 2010), however, the visualization is always obscure to the average music consumers (Beamish, Maclean, and Fels 2004). Being a well-performed DJ requires the level of expertise and experience that most average music consumers lack (Cliff 2000), as every audience has a completely different taste in music (Schäfer and Sedlmeier 2010). This study aims at developing an AI / ML-based system to lower the bar for novice DJs and even average music consumers to create personalized music remixes.Generally, music can be intelligently composed by analyzing harmonic and melodic features to generate genre-specific compositional elements or to alter the compositional structure of a song (Tan and Li 2021). Despite the technical breakthroughs that have been made, listeners have reacted negatively to this music due to the lack of user data to back it up and the neglect of the user's perception of the piece (Tigre Moura and Maw 2021). In a conventional scenario, DJs can express their attitudes towards music preferences by listening to the music directly, which requires a well understanding of the audience's mind. Following the recent launch and explosion of ChatGPT, which has evidenced that an intelligent system could help users innovate by solving their problems in textual form through conversational interactions (Dis et al. 2023; Dwivedi et al. 2023); also collecting the users' feedback through conversations, observing user reactions, and inviting user reviews. Such AI-enabled systems are able to learn about the user's preferred music style and various DJ mixing techniques. This study adopts a typical human-in-the-loop (HITL) approach to develop a crowd-learning music mixing system implementing AI and Virtual Reality technologies. The proposed HITL-based co-music arrangement system should be able to collect musical data and techniques; a VR environment is built to provide users with a platform to record user-created music and corresponding applied methods as well as audience ratings worldwide. After processing the data, users can try out a compilation of songs assisted by a robotic arm. With the help of the robotic arm, it will be easier and faster for users to create collections with a personal touch and more specific techniques. The essential functions include: a) Providing users with an immersive environment to learn the basic operations of the DJ console. b) Collecting the user's preferences for compilation techniques and the content of different DJ's compositions for use through an “immersive online multiplayer music compilation platform” to generate a personalized library of methods to help the user compile songs; c) Assisting the user in creating their preferred individual compilation style faster as they try out the DJ's operations; d) Indicating to the user where the music needs to be equalized, switched or arranged. Instead of showing the user the digital music signal to assist in creating more efficiently, the system directly operates on the DJ console.User experience experiments were conducted with both novice DJs and experienced DJs to validate whether the proposed system could help humans in creating more engaging music with stronger musicality. Five participants, respectively three novice DJs and two experienced DJs, joined two experiments of half an hour on a virtual DJ and an actual DJ console. They started the experiment by experiencing the virtual DJ console and DJ community in VR. They remixed independently first and then collaborated with the robotic arm together for music production on the actual DJ console. Three different audience also joined the experiment to evaluate the performance of users. The result was that the music produced with the robotic arm had better musicality. The user's attitude towards the whole experience, reflected in whether the music was rhythmic or the system was inspiring was recorded in the feedback. Overall, the users had a satisfying and smooth experience, and the collaborative music remixing had a certain level of musicality, but there is still some room for improvement in terms of user understanding. However, the users expressed that this fresh collaborative approach made them more interested in DJing and motivated their desire to learn and create.

Yue Wu, Anran Qiu, Liuxuan Ruan, Xuejie Li, Jinhao Huang, Stephen Jia Wang

Conference Proceedings

CoSculpt: An AI-Embedded Human-Robot Collaboration System for Sculptural Creation

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have witnessed significant advancements, leading to the emergence of AI-aided systems that assist in artwork creation. However, the current AI-powered creation support tools predominantly focus on generating 2D images, with limited assistance for 3D object creation, particularly in the field of sculpture. Additionally, as the automation capabilities of machines continue to grow, artists often struggle to maintain control over the creative process. Therefore, the collaboration between artists and AI in sculpturing remains unclear, along with the allocation of responsibilities to ensure the artist's controllability over the sculpture creation process.This study aims to address these gaps by developing CoSculpt, an AI-powered human-robot collaboration sculpturing system with three distinct modes. We explore how humans and AI-embedded robots can interact, delegate tasks, and assume control during various stages of the sculpture creation workflow. By utilizing this system, artists can effectively collaborate with AI technology, leveraging its capabilities while maintaining a significant degree of control over the sculpture creation process.The findings from this study shed light on the potential of human-AI collaboration in sculpturing and provide insights into how artists can effectively navigate the intersection of art and technology. The proposed AI-powered human-robot collaboration system offers a new paradigm for sculptural creation, fostering a harmonious synergy between human creativity and the technical capabilities of AI. Ultimately, this research contributes to the ongoing dialogue on the role of AI in the artistic domain and paves the way for future advancements in the field of sculpture.

Mingyuan Zhang, Zhaolin Cheng, Sheung Ting Ramona Shiu, Jiacheng Liang, Cong Fang, Zhengtao Ma, Stephen Jia Wang

Conference Proceedings

Designing A Rehabilitation-Purposed No-Direct-Contact Collaborative Robotic System For Stroke Patients

Different from the traditional rehabilitation methods, rehabilitation robots can provide repetitive and meaningful tasks that make the rehabilitation process smarter and more efficient during upper extremity rehabilitation for stroke patients. Therefore, rehabilitation robots are often used to assist patients during their rehabilitation training. From a robotic system perspective, it needs to sense the user's various needs to provide real-time assistance and allow the user to trust the robot. This means that the system must be able to monitor and process the user's level of fatigue. The analysis of EMG signals is used as a criterion to determine the level of muscle fatigue. At the same time, the degree of intervention that stroke patients receive during the rehabilitation process is also a challenge(Fang et al. 2017). For instance, the current rehabilitation robots often help the user to complete the rehabilitation training by means of end traction, the robot is attached to the user's arm, pulling the arm to complete the training. This approach could reduce muscle fatigue and increase the efficiency of rehabilitation.Even though direct contact and traction have been proven in studies to help patients perform better in rehabilitation, from a general HSI perspective, the degree of direct traction assistance may reduce the patient's sense of independence which affects their cognitive and motor function. This paper proposes a No-Direct-Contact Collaborative (NDCC) robotic-arm system that assists patients with physical game tasks. The NDCC system means that the robotic arm doesn't directly touch and hold the patient's upper limb as traditional robots would, but rather works in a cooperative way to complete the task, picking up and moving objects together with patients when they need. The purpose of the NDCC system is to avoid excessive interference to the patient during rehabilitation training, which is beneficial to the patient's cognitive and motor function recovery. In recent years, there has been a gradual increase in the use of robotic systems to assist in rehabilitation exercises for stroke patients and different kinds of interaction have been proposed. (Janssen et al. 2017) suggested that “interactive, engaging game-based rehabilitation tools, which match the abilities of the participant, could provide variation and attractiveness, thereby facilitating recovery of residual motor and cognitive function.” For instance, HarmonySHR system provides end-traction assistance at different recovery stages to complete rehabilitation exercises. With game elements embedded in rehabilitation systems, older patients are not only more attached to the training process but also can train their cognitive controls that “allow them to interact with our complex environment in a goal-directed manner (Anguera et al.2013)”. Therefore, the robotic arm is a “guide” rather than a “teammate.” In our research, it has been possible to collect and process the user's EMG signal during the task in real-time and convert it to RMS (Root Mean Square), and use Huskylens sensors to enable the robotic arm to track the position of the user's upper limb in real-time. The proposed study will be verified through two types of experiments, including Expert Participation and User Experience Experiments, giving designers a new direction to think about the degree of interaction and intervention between robots and stroke patients. In future studies, feedback from the user's EMG signal data and Patient's Rehabilitation Questionnaire (Fang et al. 2017) will be collected and analyzed. The physiological state of the upper limb will be determined by examining the EMG signal. The Patient's Rehabilitation Questionnaire will also be given to the user, aiming to assess the user's cognitive status and sense of independence under the two different assistance methods.

Liyan Wei, Wenxuan Cheng, Zhengzheng Luo, Mo Kit Yu, Chan Hiu Tung, Zhengtao Ma, Yaqi Zhang, Stephen Jia Wang

Conference Proceedings

Design and Development of an Electric Power-assisted Quadricycle for Female Day-trippers Visiting the Shonan Area

In recent years, rental services such as e-bikes and electric kickboards are becoming popular for short-distance local transportation for tourists. However, since fully electric mobility requires a driver's license in Japan, it is difficult to say that anyone can easily ride such vehicles. Electric power-assisted bicycles, which can be driven without a driver's license, help people get around comfortably, but they are difficult to use in the rain. In addition, users are at risk of wobbling or falling when riding at low speeds or stopping because they are heavy.In this study, we designed and developed an electric power-assisted quadricycle that does not require a driving license and has no risk of tipping over as a secondary means of transportation targeting female tourists visiting the Shonan area for a day trip.

Takako Nonaka, Tatsuro Inage, Shuji Takano, Yoshimi Miyata

Conference Proceedings

Human-Centered Design for a Virtual Human led mHealth Intervention for Suicide Prevention

Addressing the significant mental and physical healthcare needs of Veterans requires innovative strategies to enhance access to evidence-based care. The integration of Virtual Human (VH) agents into Mobile Health (mHealth) applications presents a promising opportunity to overcome barriers associated with suicide prevention and connect with Veterans. The Battle Buddy (BB) project was conceived as a mobile wellness and suicide prevention application, empowering Veterans with an always-available resource concierged by an engaging and supportive conversational VH agent. Human-centered design is essential in the development of all interactions focused on the persuasive strategies of (1) personalization, (2) self-monitoring, (3) tunneling, (4) suggestion, and (5) expertise. Veterans can interact with the BB VH during daily check-ins, learn about mental health and wellness strategies, participate in interactive activities, increase self-awareness of their current status, and build and work safety plans in times of suicidal crisis. BB is designed to provide the Veteran with easy access to a suicide prevention ecosystem in which a wealth of evidenced-based interventions will be delivered in a non-stigmatizing fashion by a computer-based dialogue system with virtual embodiment, utilizing various multi-modal language cues such as text, speech, animated facial expressions, and gestures to interact with users. This paper explores our human-centered design process for the BB feature set to target the negative effects of social isolation and loneliness, conditions that challenge Veteran healthcare and suicide prevention.

Sharon Mozgai, Albert Rizzo, Arno Hartholt

Conference Proceedings

Color matching research of electronic maps based on deep cognitive judgment

At present, people are paying more and more attention to the study of the display effect of electronic maps. It has been proved that the color matching of electronic maps could affect users' search performance. This study is based on the actual user needs, to further explore the influence of electronic map color matching on the user's depth cognitive judgment. This study designed 4 kinds of color matching schemes, using ergonomics experiments to measure the operating time and accuracy rate, to study the impact of map color schemes on user perception and judgment. The experiment result shows that the electronic map color matching has an impact on the user's deep cognitive judgment, the result can provide reference and basis for the color design of electronic maps.

Jingwen Xie, Bei zhang, Mengxiu Wang

Conference Proceedings

Analysis on the influence of long endurance on the operation performance of electronic map color matching scheme

In order to study the influence of long flight time on the operation performance of personnel under the electronic map color scheme and obtain the electronic map color scheme suitable for long flight time, this study designed an ergonomic experiment simulating the operation of electronic map by personnel under the environment of 60 days of long flight time, and studied the operation performance of four electronic map color schemes: color matching, sunlight color matching, yellow light source color matching and gray color matching. The results show that the long endurance has a significant impact on the operation performance of different color schemes, and the color scheme of yellow light source has good operation performance and is more applicable under the condition of long endurance.

Kaili Yin, ZiAng Chen, Chao Yang, Xiaoyi Zhou

Conference Proceedings

The effect of operation steps on the efficiency of human-computer interaction

In the field of human-computer interaction design, the efficiency of interaction operations has become an increasing concern, and how to complete tasks quickly and accurately has become the focus of our research. Therefore, this study took the two tasks of "information addition" and "information deletion" as typical cases, and carried out ergonomic experiments. By analyzing the physiological indicators and performance indicators of operators in the process of completing tasks, the completion of tasks under different operating steps was analyzed. The results show that the performance of the task is significantly improved after the reduction of interaction steps. This conclusion can be applied to the human-machine interface interaction design to improve the efficiency of user interaction operations.

Mengxiu Wang, Jingwen Xie, Qianfei Chen

Conference Proceedings

The influence of button size on operation performance in long - term closed and isolated environment

Long-term isolation in a closed environment will lead to fluctuations in users' cognition and operation to a certain extent. As the basic controls of touch control system, the size of the button also has a significant impact on operation performance. In view of the special operation environment of long-term isolation and sealing, this study conducted a study on the influence of button size on operation performance in the long-term isolation and sealing environment. Seven buttons of different sizes were selected, and under a long-term closed isolation environment, with 12 days as an experimental cycle, 7 consecutive ergonomic experiments were carried out, with task performance as the main indicator. The experimental results show that in the long-term airtight isolation scenario, the minimum recommended size of the touch screen interface button is 16mm. The larger the button size, the better the operation performance, and there is no significant relationship with the airtight isolation time. The conclusion of this study can provide scientific support for the size design of touch control interface in long-term closed and isolated environment.

Qianfei Chen, Mengxiu Wang, Jingwen Xie

Conference Proceedings

Using the Decision Ladder to understand human decision-making processes during a UAV-equipped SAR mission

The uptake of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) within the Search and Rescue (SAR) application is becoming ubiquitous owing to the way in which UAVs can support and extend SAR responses. During a SAR mission, UAVs are deployed to offer a birds-eye perspective of the search space which is captured by the onboard payload sensors and transmitted to human operators in real time. Currently, this data stream is processed manually by a Payload Operator to identify any hazards or signs of human life on the ground. However, the task of identifying and extrapolating information using the display technology is highly challenging. This is primarily due to the high levels of cognitive effort which must be expended over time to detect sightings that are likely to be camouflaged or obscured by the surrounding terrain. For this reason, system engineers are looking to develop image classification modules capable of autonomous object detection and labelling to streamline the information acquisition process from the UAV. When looking to introduce novel functionality, such as an image classification module, it is important to consider how decision-making processes are currently undertaken by the team of human operators. In doing so, a greater understanding is yielded on how the current ways of working could be supported through further design intervention. The current work aims to capture these processes using the representational medium of the Decision Ladder. Rasmussen (1974) developed the Decision Ladder to define the different information processing activities undertaken by a decision-maker when identifying an appropriate course of action within a given situation. In order to develop the Decision Ladder for the UAV-equipped SAR scenario, knowledge elicitation activities were conducted using interviews with SAR personnel.The final amalgamated Decision Ladder was populated using the responses from the interviews. The decision model demonstrated the complexity of utilising UAVs to support a SAR mission due to the regulatory and technological constraints associated with the UAV. In addition, the importance of a validation activity was emphasised by the SAR personnel which would be conducted to determine the accuracy of any information presented by the automated system. Here, the decision ladder was able to identify the broad set of information aspects that would be reviewed by the human-UAV team. The subsequent knowledge obtained would be used to identify the relevance of a sighting and determine the most appropriate response using the limited resources available within the SAR environment. This insight provided from the Decision Ladder was used to propose a set of novel design recommendations that could extend the capabilities of the image classification module within the SAR context. Therefore, this work advocates the use of a user-centred design approach to support the development of technologies based on the tasks and cognitive processes of the end-user.

Sophie Hart, Victoria Steane, Mark Chattington, Seth Bullock, Jan Noyes

Conference Proceedings

Ecological Collaborative Support System for maritime navigation teams

Maritime navigation is a demanding and complex domain that involves risks for people, the environment, and economic activity. The tasks associated with its execution require advanced training, expertise, experience, and a collaborative Navigation Team. Furthermore, naval operations demand higher readiness, accuracy, and resilience due to additional constraints. The response to these challenges has been integrating further automation and information systems. However, the effectiveness of innovative trends had been questioned by recent naval accidents like those involving the US and Norwegian naval ships.In bridge crews, collaboration is progressively more dependent on technological means since they are the information sources, and team members need to share and exchange different information formats besides audio. Furthermore, the increasing number of control functions and information systems required to strengthen the bridge situational awareness came with an additional cost to human operators. Therefore, navigation teams need further assistance in this challenging context to achieve a consistent and coherent situational awareness regarding the integrated systems in use, comprising technological and human agents' activities. The proposed solution under development is a Collaborative Decision Support System (C-DSS) fitted to the vessels' bridge systems requirements to reduce the cognitive workload, enhance collaboration between team members and information systems, and strengthen team situational awareness and sensemaking.Several studies addressed the need to provide enhanced interfaces with higher levels of abstraction representation, adjusted to the changed role of human operators, easily adaptable; improved collaboration between humans and automated agents, and superior information integration from internal and external environments. The most critical property of interfaces is to simplify the "discovery of the meaningfulness" of the problem space. World's representation should include the relevant and critical elements tailored to the task, augmenting the interaction experience, increasing the decision-making skill, and assisting the discovery of significant phenomena. The used methodology was an anthropocentric approach to innovation - design thinking. The process was performed with five phases: empathy, definition, idealization, prototyping and tests. Interface design prototypes were made with Mockups, covering the following several team roles. Usability tests, questionnaires and interviews were applied to validate and assess the C-DSS. Five focus group tests were made iteratively, with fifteen SMEs, twice with navigators, and once with SMEs from the other role, three in each iterative evaluation test, with a 1.5-hour duration. Following a snowball selection principle, participants were recruited from the Portuguese navy with the organization's guidance to ensure that all participants had an extensive seagoing experience.At the current stage of the C-DSS development, the results indicate significant potential for interface strategies. Results show that end-users would like to have the C-DSS, considering it innovative, friendly, easy to learn and with the information they need. The usability test allowed us to correct and improve numerous user interface design issues. The main difficulties maintained in terms of usability were related to recording data. The envisaged C-DSS is fitted to the vessels' bridge systems requirements embracing several prerequisites like being portable and customizable, enabling goals and priorities' management, logging performance and behavioural data, sharing different information formats, supporting information synchronization, providing situational awareness information about the system and operators.This study contributes to the understanding of the collaborative decision-making process in navigation teams through two objectives: first, systematising the main difficulties and challenges and, second, presenting a desirable solution, possible from a technological and financially viable point of view. The developed prototype has four distinct graphic interfaces, that complement each other and are oriented to the context of the user's role, based on the continuous contribution of target users, that is, elements belonging to navigation teams. The contributions allowed an improved understanding of the problem, idealise the solution, and improve the C-DSS, from design to insertion and adaptation of new functions.In the validation process of the prototype, it was found that the experts would like to use the C-DSS, stating that they would have greater autonomy and, even so, would be able to make an exceptional contribution to the team. Finally, the design thinking approach provided a basis for continuous feedback from end-users, becoming a twofold benefit by triggering new ideas of possible solutions to be deployed onboard.

Vítor Fernando Plácido Da Conceição, Rafaela Marques, Pedro Água, Joakim Dahlman

Conference Proceedings

Common variables of a good problem: contributions of inclusive design in and beyond academia

Design education today faces the complexity of social challenges. Young designers often tend to dive straight into creating abstract drawings and developing conceptual discourses without addressing the core purpose of the design. This lack of a clear purpose can demotivate designers. Drawing upon the author's experience and inclusive design examples, this paper delves into the pedagogical significance of formulating a "good problem". By examining common variables found in the manipulation of everyday objects, including interactions with individuals with disabilities during academic exercises, students have discovered a wellspring of inspiration. The paper advocates for the pivotal role of inclusive design within academia and its potential to fuel innovation in tackling societal challenges. Moreover, it highlights the wide-ranging impact of design solutions born from demanding circumstances, offering benefits to diverse groups of people. By bridging the realms of academia and real-world application, this study seeks to nurture critical reflection and contribute to the enhancement of inclusive design processes.

Paula Trigueiros

Conference Proceedings

In a Digital/Artificial Intelligence time can sketches still be useful for Design Process?

Design is, undoubtedly, a creative process. To solve several design problems, designers need tools with specific qualities. Can sketches still be beneficial during design creative process?The relationship between freehand drawing and designers is very old, as the designers use this medium as a way of giving space to creative thinking.Sketching is often used as a tool during idea generation in the early stages of design process. It is in this initial phase of project conception in design where sketches are more frequently used.With the advent of digital drawing tools, most designers, from several design areas, still prefer to sketch with a pen, or a pencil on a paper during the ideas generation.However, and for several users, sketches may seem obsolete representations, totally unable to compete with the modern and sophisticated modeling tools.Nowadays, the use of digital rendering has grown, as the advancement of hardware and software that provide the use of the technique via computer is notorious.With the evolution of technology, the end of manual drawing has long been one of the most discussed issues.There are, however, questions for its future: should technological means completely replace the old method in the name of speed, practicality and immediate results?This paper reflects on sketching as the conception and representation or presentation of an idea, essential to human-centered design practice.We intend to investigate how sketches can still be powerful representations of new ideas, as part of a larger design process, as a key method for thinking, reasoning, and exploring solutions for design problems.

Ana Moreira da Silva

Conference Proceedings

Color materiality and urban equipment: factor of inclusion, comfort and safety

Color is inseparable from matter, shape, object. Color, as an integral part of light, is inherent to the project, and is therefore an element of form. As long as there is light, Color is a component of everything around us and of ourselves, affecting us at every moment of our lives: our body but also our emotions, disposition and mental faculties. Color is light made visible, through interaction with surfaces of all kinds: opaque or translucent surfaces make Color visible. Whether designing a hand-scale object or a piece of equipment, interior design or architecture or urban space, they all deal with spatialities. The characterization of these spatialities goes through the structure, surface texture, coating, type of light (natural or artificial), shape/background relationships, ways of approaching and reading modes, and their correct use or fruition. Color, being matter, directly linked to the surfaces of objects, has to be understood globally and as part of the conceptual process of the product.However, designers are not always aware that the product they design, such as the Color inherent to the respective material used in its construction, can be a factor of inclusion or exclusion of its users, in addition to several other components that can value or not its use or fruition. The main aim of this paper is exactly Color as the material of urban equipment, addressing psychological and physiological aspects of Color, and the importance of its knowledge and correct handling in the act of designing equipment for urban space, not only as an integral part of the creative process, assuming itself as a cultural and imaginative act, but also as a product of a rational approach that can allow greater inclusion and provide greater comfort and safety to its users. In the development of this research Project, a mixed methodology was used, consisting of a literature review and a survey of users of urban garden equipment, aged between 35 and 75. The results achieved so far are presented, which underline the importance of a correct application of the Color materiality when designing urban equipment.

Fernando Moreira da Silva, Margarida Gamito

Conference Proceedings

Colour? What Colour? A difficult understanding between urban environment' professionals and users.

The built environment witnessed in the last years significant challenges and changes. From the growing of population inhabiting urban areas, natural disasters, and a pandemic context, built environment disclosers its impact in human experience. Based on the concepts of human centred design and social and cultural sustainability, urban solutions have been developing to improve and qualify user experience. The layout of public and private spaces has been challenged in its formal configuration, dimensions, and equipment, by means of research, available data, and the success of some practices. This movement has been beneficial to city centres, but it is expanding to dwelling peripheries, boosting multifunctionalities and solutions oriented to human requirements and expectancies answering to a need well recognised and experienced during the pandemic context.Despite the changes and the good examples, colour as a vital parameter of visual communication, is still neglected and applied as a simple aesthetic component. Repeatedly, the chromatic palettes are based on (inter)national fashion trends, disregarding the geography, climate, and culture of the place. Colour focus and/or blur our attention, while emphasising and/or disguising an element in its context, organising the space, aiding in orientation while communicating messages and symbols that illustrate the identity of the place and the community. Colour has the ability of challenge the perception of the volumes - despite their nature and scale – and spaces regarding their formal shape, proportions, visual weight, and texture. Furthermore, colour as an element of urban environment, expresses the hierarchy of the elements and their order in the environmental composition with respect to function, structure, etc. Furthermore, colour defines how individuals visually experience the environ, and as a medium it gives significance, emotional attitude, and functional information, emerging as a crucial attribute in human perception of the built environment.Numerous reasons can justify the repeated negligence in the use of colour in urban environ: the fear of using colour, unawareness, (or lack of skills) about how to use it, the copy of international and/or awarded models, and the use of finishing materials and colour tendencies, among others. However, this is a common reality for designers and architects, which sets the hypothesis of these professionals are unaware of the roles performed by colour and its impact in human daily living, while experiencing environments, products, and communication systems.The aim of this research paper is to raise the discussion regarding the way colour is neglected in the design of urban space although its importance to define the user experience. From the discussion we expect to have a better understanding of the problem and propose some guidelines to minimise it. To achieve the expected results, this piece of research will be supported by literature review related with the identified keywords and the analysis of some case studies in the Portuguese context. Literature review aims to explore the concepts and justify its importance not only for this study but in the urban planning, and the case studies to illustrate the (un)aware use of colour and its impact in place and community identity.

Cristina caramelo gomes

Conference Proceedings

Toward an online rehabilitation exercise service based on personal independent living goals and risk management

In a nursing care domain, labor shortage is a significant problem. Information communication technologies (ICT) are expected as a tool to solve it. Care services, that value “personhood” of individuals, should be designed based on a person-centered principle[1]. We aim to develop an online rehabilitation exercise service that utilizes the ICT but is based on the principle. This paper reports a trial of intervention experiment of the online rehabilitation exercise, which was conducted as a 12-time event for three months. A subject, a female in 78 years old with left hemiplegia who desires more rehabilitation opportunities, joined about 45-minute online exercise sessions in addition to regular outpatient rehabilitations. She exercised by watching a model exercise on a tablet screen that is connected to the nursing facility. The model exercises were performed by an occupational therapist for the first four times and by on-site care workers for the rest. A manual with notes on exercise instruction was distributed to the workers. The instructor change and the manual are for the future regular operation of the service. The exercises were designed for not only the recovery of her arm and fingers on the affected side but also her rehabilitation goal of being able to cook again since a goal setting is important[2]. For risk management, the exercises were limited to those performed in a sitting position and her burden was confirmed before, during, and after the exercise. The exercise design was tentatively determined based on information from a manager of the nursing facility and from an interview with her. After that, the exercise load was adjusted according to her response in trial sessions by the occupational therapist. As a result of physical function measurements, questionnaires, and interviews, there was no improvement in physical functions, but an effect of her self-disclosure was confirmed.[1] Kitwood, T. and Bredin, K. (1992) Towards a theory of dementia care: Personhood and well-being, Ageing and Society, Vol.12, No.3, pp.269-287.[2] Smit EB, Bouwstra H, Hertogh CM, Wattel EM, van der Wouden JC. (2019) Goal-setting in geriatric rehabilitation: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Clin Rehabil., Vol.33, No.3, pp.395-407.

Takashi Yukihira, Hiroko Tokunaga, Masayuki Ihara, Hiroki Murakami, Akihiko Koga, Ryoichi Maeda, Shinpei Saruwatari, Kazuki Takeshita, Shinya Hisano, Masashige Motoe

Conference Proceedings

Study on How New Technologies Have Been Used to Tackle Mobility Issues in Smart Cities

Statistics show that the fertility rate has decreased during the last decades, but life expectancy has more than doubled during the last century. It indicates that there is a trend of more and more working-aged people traveling in the cities. It becomes more problematic when we look at the study of the United Nations which estimates that 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas and projects a proportion of 70% by 2050. This is a problem because most cities have not been planned to bear flows of people of this magnitude, and this is the root cause of most mobility issues that people face every day over the world. On the other hand, technological evolution has been outstanding in the last few years, and smart cities can make use of this advancement, especially to improve urban mobility. Examples of technologies that have been adopted in this field are the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Information Systems, and Intelligent Transportation Systems. This work aims to highlight the importance of all these tools in the application scenario of smart cities and, with this aim, brings an overview of each of them and a bibliographic review that shows how they are being currently discussed and adopted.

Gabriel Caumo Vaz, Yuzo Iano, Gabriel Gomes de Oliveira, Euclides Lourenço Chuma, Wandercleiton Da Silva Cardoso, Alessandra Cristina Santos Akkari

Conference Proceedings

What To Do When The Requirements Are Unknown? - Development of a Simulator for Excretory Care

We developed a simulator to practice the digital disimpaction technique, a kind of excretory care that is commonly performed by home-care nurses in Japan. The key point of this study is that the requirements for creating a simulation model were not known in advance, so we adopted a rapid prototyping method, in which product development is carried out by repeatedly creating and testing simple prototypes and a user-participatory design method, where feedback is obtained directly from users. We proceeded with the development of the simulator and the definition of requirements simultaneously, repeating the process of creation, trial use, and feedback from interviews with skilled nurses. Digital disimpaction is a complex procedure involving interaction with a living body, in which a finger stimulates the rectum and facilitates the excretion of feces leveraging the rectum's natural biological response. Digital disimpaction is performed primarily by a nurse. Since digital disimpaction is an embarrassing and sometimes painful procedure for the patient, a smooth and comfortable technique is desirable. On the other hand, only a limited set of circumstances are provided to learn the digital disimpaction technique. The requirement for a "procedure requiring non-visible interaction," such as digital disimpaction, is hard to acquire through a simple interview because it is performed based on subjective sensation. Further, while the movement of the finger within the body is crucial, it is essentially impossible to learn through observation of a skilled nurse as it is not visible from the outside. For this reason, we created a simple rectal model as a first prototype. We improved the model by extracting requirements from observations and feedback on actual trial use by skilled nurses. From the first user experience of the simple 3D printed model, requirements were extracted regarding the texture of the rectum, the interaction between finger movement and rectal response, and the characteristics of the feces. A rectal model with a mucosal structure and a fecal model was created based on the obtained requirements. Through the second user experience, the process was repeated, where requirements were again extracted regarding the shape of the rectal model, the characteristics of the mucosa, and the rectal response with the finger movement. We redesigned the model to meet these refined requirements and developed a buttock model covering the rectal model.The results of the third user experience confirmed that the simulator mostly reproduced the intestinal setting as perceived by the nurses during the actual digital disimpaction procedure. This study suggests that the combination of rapid prototyping and user-participatory design can be used to systemize subjects for which requirements are hard to define in advance, such as care procedures based on tacit knowledge.

Shoko Miyagawa, Young Ah Seong, Zebing Mao, Tatsuhiro Horii, Hiroyuki Nabae, Shingo Maeda, Toshinori Fujie, Kenjiro Tadakuma, Hideyuki Sawada, Koichi Suzumori

Conference Proceedings

Methods for the collection and characterization of airborne particles in the textile industry

Airborne particulate matter is one of the main air pollutants. Their impact on mortality, and the occurrence of pulmonary and cardiovascular complications, have been the subject of numerous studies. Airborne particles are complex mixtures of organic and inorganic substances from different sources of particle emissions. Particulate Matter (PM) particles are classified according to their aerodynamic diameter expressed in µm and can vary from coarse (PM 10) to fine (less than PM 2.5). These diameter considerations are fundamental because they condition the penetration of particles into the bronchopulmonary system and the body. In recent years, there has been an interest in so-called “ultra-fine” particles, with a diameter of 0.1 µm (or 100 nm), or PM 0.1. They are nanoparticles and their impact on human health is not yet clear.With more than 1.5 million employees, textiles and clothing is a diverse sector that plays an important role in the European manufacturing industry, producing a turnover of €162 billion.An important component of the solid particles that generate air pollution in the textile industry is microplastics (MP) and nano plastics (NP), which also include microfibers (<5mm) and nanofibers (<100 nm), respectively. The particles released into the air during fiber and yarn processing range from 1 µg/m3 to 50 µg/m3.The paper presents the results of the determination of indoor and outdoor air concentration levels in textile companies, to identify the areas with the highest concentration level, by using an online recording system such as the Laser Aerosol Spectrometer MINI LAS model 11-E. The total concentration level TSP (µg/m3), the fractions PM 10(µg/m3), PM 2.5(µg/m3), PM1(µg/m3), as well as the total number of particles TC (1/l), were shown. It was noted that TSP is approximately at the same level both indoors and outdoors, but the fractions of PM10, PM2.5, and PM1 have much higher values indoors than outdoors with possible consequences on workers' health.The next step was the collection of fibers, namely micro and nano plastic particles from the vicinity of the workplaces of polyester, polyamide, and polypropylene fibers processing units in the textile industry in Romania, to obtain a sufficient quantity for laboratory analysis to determine the size and shape of the particles as well as their chemical composition. Two types of pumps were used, differentiated by their operating parameters: TECORA SKYPOST with airflow of 38 l/min and GILAIRPLUS with airflow 2l/min. Filters made of different materials with different diameters and pore sizes were used, namely: quartz filters (ø 47 mm, and ø 37 mm) on a TECORA SKYPOST type pump, polycarbonate nucleopore coated with a gold membrane (ø 25 mm) and silica filter (ø 9 mm) on GILAIRPLUS type pump.Using descriptive statistics, the calculation of correlation coefficients highlighted a strong correlation between the variables: "Collected mass/ Air concentration" and "Collected mass/ Air volume" for all diameters of the filters.The highest collected particle volume, determined by weighing the filters before and after collection, was obtained with the quartz filters (ø 47 mm) at an airflow of 38 l/min. The particles collected (polyester, polyamide, polypropylene) in the first stage were analyzed by SEM and thermogravimetric and it was found that the quartz filters absorbed the particles inside, with very few remaining on the surface. Thus no known methods can be used to perform analysis for particles collected on quartz filters. The number of particles on the filters was insufficient for analysis either because of the collection parameters used or because of the loss of particles during transport. As a result, in the next step, the use of 9 mm Si filters using the GILAIRPLUS pump at an airflow rate of 2l/min was chosen.To improve the transport conditions and avoid the loss of the particles and keep them on the surface of the filters, two methods were applied:- after weighing the filters were reintroduced into the collection pump holder;- a filtration system for airborne micro-nano plastics was designed and manufactured to selectively collect and transport PM10 and PM1 particles collected on SI filters.In both cases, SEM, Raman mapping, and GS-MS microscopy were used for analysis.Several times more PM10 than PM1 (74.5µg compared to 12.5 µg) was found. In all cases, both particles and fibers showed the same Raman fingerprint.The GS-MS analyses showed some contamination of the workspaces with particles other than the processed fibers. The presence of non-notifiable substances was also observed.The most viable filters are Si filters with a pore size of 10 microns to 1 micron and the use of the selected collection and transport filter system. In the following a filter system will be applied for collection on Au membrane-coated polycarbonate filters.

Emilia Visileanu, Marian Catalin Grosu, Paul Tiberiu Miclea, Korinna Altmann, Dirk Brossell

Conference Proceedings

An Augmented Reality Book for Schematic English Reading Comprehension Development Skills in Grade 6 Students

Significant advancements are still required for augmented reality (AR). Augmented reality (AR) is a partly immersive experience in which users interact directly with a 3-D overlay onto the external reality in real time. This research aimed to examine the results of using an augmented reality (AR) book in improving students' schematic English reading comprehension skills, students' learning achievement, and students' knowledge retention, and to identify students' level of learning satisfaction. A total of 29 grade 6 students participated in the quasi-experimental study. The results revealed that students have significantly increased their English reading scores after exposing to the AR book at 0.01 significance level. There was non-significant difference between the first and second posttest scores as promoting knowledge retention. Students were satisfied in using the AR book at the highest level.

Kanita Nitjarunkul

Conference Proceedings

From Handicrafts to Habitat: Investigating Terite's Applications in Space

The challenges associated with prolonged human space exploration missions require sustainable and innovative approaches to ensure the health and well-being of astronauts. Many indigenous plants around the world can potentially serve as valuable resources for long-duration space missions. The raw material Ischnosiphon Axouma commonly known as (Terite) is indigenous to the island of Trinidad. Before the 15th century, terite was used in weaving by the island's indigenous inhabitants to make household items, such as baskets for fishing, jewelry, and utensils that lasted a lifetime. Some of the weaving techniques used have been passed on to generations and are present today. The terite is cut from the stalk and split into equal widths to extract the raw material strands. The roots are left intact to ensure continuous growth; they self-replenish. The strands produce eco-friendly craft items such as; tabletops, lampshades, book covers, plates, teacup holders, and more. The leaves have the potential to be used to make sanitary plates and bowls. The inner part of the stalk is used as a natural fertilizer for plants. Thus most of the Terite plant can be utilised with minimum wastage. In this paper, a design thinking approach is outlined to help us identify and evaluate potential experiments that could yield innovative solutions to the challenges of space habitation. It also identifies the areas of study and the considerations that are necessary to long-duration space travel and the potential for the development of space tourism within the Caribbean region.In this paper, we propose potential experiments to begin to explore terite as a sustainable and multifunctional resource in space. The experiments are as follows:(1) Cultivation and processing: Experiments done in this area would focus on optimizing the cultivation and processing of Terite in space habitats and other planets. This would involve testing the feasibility of growing Terite in different conditions, including various lighting and temperature settings. Additionally, we would investigate the best methods for processing Terite, such as drying and extracting its fibres, to maximize its usefulness as a resource.(2) Construction Application: these experiments would examine Terite's potential applications as a material for construction in space habitats. We would test its mechanical properties, such as its tensile strength, elasticity, and toughness, to determine its suitability for different engineering applications and astronaut personal items to survive under space conditions. Additionally, we would investigate its compatibility with other materials commonly used in space habitats, such as metals and plastics.(3) Reinforced 3D printing: the experiment would aim to determine whether Terite fibers can be a useful and sustainable reinforcement for 3D printing in space, providing additional strength and durability to printed objects while reducing the need for synthetic materials.By taking a design thinking approach, we can not only explore the potential of Terite as a valuable resource for space exploration and long-duration space missions but also uncover new opportunities for innovation and collaboration across different fields and disciplines. Ultimately, this approach can help us design more sustainable, efficient, and user-centred solutions for the challenges of space habitation.

Brandon Cuffie

Conference Proceedings

Logical Design Matrix (LDM): How to operationalize systemic projectual design thinking in complex contexts.

In recent years, the design discipline has achieved a leading role in fields of knowledge where complex projects requiring a systemic scope are addressed and implemented. This has created the challenge for designers to communicate to others the way in which this discipline generates knowledge in applied research projects. For most design practitioners, this is implicit in the way projects are carried out, however, professionals from other disciplines that make up teams do not always have the same understanding of the process, making it difficult to move forward together within a project framework. Simultaneously, nowadays the complexity of situations being addressed has escalated exponentially. Problems are no longer bounded, where there is a one-way solution, instead they exist within complex ecosystems and are in constant movement, where responses must be systemic and have the same mutation potential to evolve as the context and its issues do. In this context, designers as part of interdisciplinary teams have a double challenge. On the one hand, to contribute from and for the design discipline itself, by displaying and communicating the design process methods within the design spectrum. And, on the other hand, to implement and demonstrate to others the methodological contribution of the design projective thinking in the general process of the multidisciplinary team. This article proposes and discusses a model and a systemic instrument that addresses the complexity present in the materialization and operationalization of the contribution of the projectual design thinking process. The synthesis of the model and subsequent instrument is presented through the review, systematization and discussion of cases where this tool has been applied. Both methodological and systemic elements are relevant for the internal organization of the applied research project as well as for the interdisciplinary team that develops it and the stakeholders involved.

Katherine Mollenhauer, Cala Del Rio, Javiera Rodriguez, Daniela Bianchi, Sara Riveros

Conference Proceedings

An Experimental Examination of the Effects of the Invisible Human Experience on Self-esteem

Moderate self-esteem is considered desirable from perspectives such as leading to effective decision-making (Baumeister et al. 2003; Kirkpatrick and Ellis 2003). One factor that can lead to low self-esteem is the perceived large difference between the ideal self and the actual self-views (Bills, Vance, and McLEAN 1951; Hannover, Birkner, and Pöhlmann 2006). Therefore, we hypothesized that through an experience as if one had become an “Invisible Human”, self-esteem reduction could be prevented by diminishing one's existence and removing their awareness of comparing one's ideal self with one's actual self-views. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the Invisible Human experience of the invisible human on self-esteem.In the experiment, participants experienced the Invisible Human experience through Augmented Reality (AR). (1) the feeling of being an invisible human, (2) the sense of one's physical self-presence, (3) the self-evaluation consciousness, (4) the difference between the ideal self and the real self, and (5) state self-esteem scale were evaluated through questionnaires before and after the AR experience. In the experience, images acquired using a camera attached to a head-mounted display (HMD) were processed in real-time to create an image in which only the body of the participants seems to have disappeared from the real view, which was then presented on the HMD. Valid data obtained were N=24 (15 females and 9 males, age 21.3²2.3 years).The results showed that Significant differences were found in (1), (2), and (3) before and after the experience, which indicates that the Invisible Man experience made participants feel more as if they were invisible, their sense of self-presence decreased, and their self-evaluation consciousness weakened. There was also a tendency for (4) the difference between the ideal self and actual self-views to become smaller. However, there was no significant difference in the (5) state self-esteem scale. The impact of the Invisible Human experience might change depending on the participants' usual level of self-esteem. If low self-esteem can be high and high self-esteem can be low, then the Invisible Human experience may work effectively to maintain their self-esteem to be moderate. In future studies, more evaluations with a larger number of participants are needed.Baumeister, Roy F., Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger, and Kathleen D. Vohs. 2003. “Does High Self-Esteem Cause Better Performance, Interpersonal Success, Happiness, or Healthier Lifestyles?” Psychological Science in the Public Interest: A Journal of the American Psychological Society 4 (1): 1–44.Bills, R. E., E. L. Vance, and O. S. McLEAN. 1951. “An Index of Adjustment and Values.” Journal of Consulting Psychology 15 (3): 257–61.Hannover, Bettina, Norbert Birkner, and Claudia Pöhlmann. 2006. “Ideal Selves and Self-Esteem in People with Independent or Interdependent Self-Construal.” European Journal of Social Psychology 36 (1): 119–33.Kirkpatrick, Lee A., and Bruce J. Ellis. 2003. “An Evolutionary-Psychological Approach to Self-Esteem: Multiple Domains and Multiple Functions.” Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Interpersonal Processes, 409–36.

Kimi Ueda, Maho Sasaki, Ayumi Noda, Hirotake Ishii, Hiroshi Shimoda

Conference Proceedings

Standardisation in support of accessibility for mobility users in Europe

Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are playing an ever-increasing role in everyone's lives, specially thanks to vast range of ICT devices and services which create a lot of opportunities for end-users (access to huge amounts of information, fostered people interaction, …), thereby improving their quality of life. In this context, the role of mobility-related devices (e.g., smartphones) and their use with services (e.g., payment, public services) is key for enabling efficient and secure end-user interaction.Two approaches can support this goal, regarding terminology and language coverage. On the one hand, from the end-user point of view, discovering and understanding the services offered by ICT should not become a challenge, with different device manufacturers and service providers using a divergent set of terms to denominate identical devices and service features: a remedy for diverging denominations of features could be harmonized and user-centered ICT terminologies, facilitating feature recognition by all users, including those with cognitive impairments. On the other hand, harmonized terminologies should be able to support diverse languages, such as those spoken in European Union, in a consistent manner.ETSI, the European Telecommunication Standards Institute, is the home of global telecommunications standards such as 3G, LTE, 5G, and DECT, and its Technical Committee Human Factors is publishing standards documents that aim at increasing the usability and accessibility of ICT. ETSI has developed and published a consistent approach for such harmonized ICT terminologies materializing in a number of publicly and freely standardisation documents.Several ETSI Specifications (ES) have been developed over time. ETSI ES 202 076 is addressing a minimum set of spoken commands required to control the generic and common functions of ICT devices and services that use speaker-independent speech recognition. The related commands have been specified for all the official languages of the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). A similar language range is available for the ETSI ES 202 130 which specifies the minimum repertoires and assignments of graphic (letter, digit and special) characters to standard 12-key telephone keypads and specifies their ordering for ICT devices with telephony functionality.Currently, ETSI is developing a harmonized terminology -- published as ETSI Guide EG 203 499 -- covering commonly used, basic ICT features of current and upcoming ICT devices (4 groups, e.g., telephony and photography), services and applications (12 groups, e.g., banking and navigation) focusing on mobile contexts of use. The result is a multilingual terminology supporting over 800 terms.The work has been undertaken in three steps by subsequent ETSI Specialist Tasks Forces with a broadening language support, from 5 languages in the first version up to a coverage of all the official languages of EU and EFTA in the last version to be published in May 2024. The proposed paper will outline the expected benefits of using standardisation in this end-user mobility context, present the methodologies applied and provide examples of the resulting terminologies. It will also discuss the adoption of these specifications and how they support their intended users, i.e., the industry actors (e.g., manufacturers, service providers).

Emmanuel Darmois, Martin Boecker

Conference Proceedings

The tetrahedron of sustainability design - a 3D framework for the integral and interdisciplinary development of circular economy oriented products

Traditional product design follows three main directions that had to be thought and planned in an integrated way: Desirability, feasibility, and viability. Aspects from user research, technology development and business models must be weighed against each other and to be optimized as holistic concept. For future product design those three dimensions seems to be not sufficient any more as the sustainable impact from products regarding their production, usage and end of life, becomes an important factor in development processes. The so-called circular economy, that describes the goal of a most efficient use of resources and products in closed loops, brings with it totally new requirements for products and their development. Already the traditional innovation design should have been understood as a joint task of market researchers, engineers, business planers and designers, but the arising challenge of the development objectively sustainable products needs that interdisciplinary thinking even more. New frameworks, tools and method that allow the interdisciplinary exchange in an effective way to enable the creation of joint visions and concepts are needed. While the traditional three fields of product design as described by Tim Brown can be showed in two-dimensional frameworks as three overlapping circles, the addition of sustainability as fourth design field needs more complex visualization that brings the different aspects in relation to each other. For solving that task and for creating a new tool as core for interdisciplinary, circular economy oriented design projects, we developed and evaluated a three-dimensional framework – the tetrahedron of sustainability design. The critical aspect of integrating the circular economy as a decision parameter into innovation processes arises through the facts that target conflicts will come up that can not be solved in an easy way as product individual lifetimes must be taken into consideration. Therefore, the main goal of the framework is to motivate discussions of different disciplines and their decisions regarding to the effecting influence on other design fields. It is created as tangible three-dimensional object as anchor point for workshops and individual considerations. The tetrahedron of sustainability designs shows the four fields of future product design as equilateral pyramid with triangular bases, with each design field representing one of the bases. The corners of the pyramid, each closed by three of the design fields, are defined as four main levers of sustainable product concepts. At the top of the pyramid, the central value proposition that can be described as a set of abstract value elements that should be fulfilled by the product, must be thought by reflecting the customers (desirability), the business model (viability) as well as the sustainability effects (integrity). While those first three design fields open up the space of conceptualization, the field at the basement of the pyramid represents the technological realization (feasibility) of the products. It is enclosed by the following corners: The R-Strategies define how circular economy effect should be created, e.g. by recycling, reusing of parts or rethinking of the product functions. Beneath the technical realization. This corner is additionally affected by the understanding of the customer and the sustainability effects. The next corner, the life cycle consideration, describes how a product is produced, used, maintained and how its end of life can be shaped. As well as the technical realization, the design fields of the business model and the sustainability effects are relevant to that corner. The last corner is defined as the degree of servitization what is based on the understanding of innovations as solution-oriented product-service-systems. While the physical parts are described by the technical realization, the business model and the customer wishes affect what product aspects can be realized as additional value-added service or by innovative ownership-models. As last part of the framework six edges have been defined, each located between two design fields and two corners. Those six edges are formulated as concrete decision points and hints for the design process. Starting from the value proposition corner, every three edges of the space of conceptualization lead to one of the tree corners that surround the basement of realization and are influencing the determination of the abstract product concept. Against that, the three edges of the base of realization are formulated as guiding principles for the physical product design. The whole framework, its elements and the way of usage will be explained an defined more in detail in the paper. Furthermore, the framework will be shown and evaluated on an exemplary design project. As example the concrete design project of an electric scooter for young urban generations will be introduced and reflected regarding of the aspects of the framework.

Sebastian Stegmüller, Franziska Braun

Conference Proceedings

When Something Is in the Way: Parameters of Perception and Reaction Speed in Train Drivers

A challenge for automation in open track railway systems is the lack of safety standards for obstacle detection and benchmarks for the performance of automated systems. In this work, the foundation for such a benchmark was established with the help of two studies aimed at understanding the reaction time mechanisms of this task. A simulator experiment with professional train drivers and an online study with a larger sample of non-train-drivers were conducted to analyze the reaction time to obstacles along the tracks. The size and contrast of the obstacles, as well as driving speed and use of train protection systems, were varied in a within-subjects design and their effects on reaction time were analyzed with a linear regression model on log-transformed data. The results show that larger obstacles and those with higher contrast are detected significantly faster. Obstacles that are approached at a higher speed were also detected significantly faster. However, varying the train protection system produced ambiguous results. The findings from this research provide a baseline for further research on train driver sensory capabilities and safety standard definition for future automation.

Helena Wasle, Anne Goralzik, Birte Thomas-friedrich, David Schackmann, Esther Bosch

Conference Proceedings

OSH risks of health and social care workers working in clients' homes in Finland

In Finland, the number and frequency of accidents at work in the health and social services industry have increased between 2010 and 2020. The need for services provided at home has increased and will increase in the future. Results of a previous survey study conducted for occupational safety and health (OSH) specialists showed that the safety protections of home care workers were lower compared to those employed in hospitals and institutions. The client's home as a working environment is challenging and the employer's opportunities to ensure the safety and health of working conditions are limited. Health and social care workers meet multiple OSH challenges while working in an individual's home. Health care workers in general are exposed to many dangers, examples of which include biological hazards such as needle puncture infections or other infectious diseases, chemical hazards including medicines and disinfectants used in cancer treatments, physical hazards such as ionizing radiation, ergonomic risks, for example, when dealing with a patient, and psychosocial risks such as violence and shift work.This article is about the OSH risks of health and social care workers while working at clients' homes in Finland. Three municipalities, two private companies and one non-profit organization participated in the study. The data for this paper was collected through online survey (n = 160) and interviews (n = 55). Altogether, the interviews included 89 participants. The participants were, for example, nurses, personal assistants, supervisors, head of home care, or from the safety organization. The focus is on questions related to what the participants and respondents saw as OSH risks and challenges in their work performed in the client's home. The process and methods will be described in detail in the article.The results of the preliminary data analysis indicate that work of the health and social care workers has many risks. According to survey, the main risks are related to, for example home as a working environment, physical ergonomics, mental, psychosocial and ethical burden, organizing and scheduling the working day, alarming aid, lack of peer support and cooperation with others. This paper contributes to prior research by providing new information about OSH risks of health and social care workers while working at clients' home. It is important to recognize the risks because it is the foundation of safety work. Only risks that are known can be managed.

Johanna Pulkkinen, Maria Lindholm

Conference Proceedings

Identifying occupational health and safety risk assessment development needs in Finnish case companies

Risk assessment is a key tool in occupational safety work at workplaces. A systematic risk assessment can be used to meet the statutory obligation to determine and assess the hazard and risk factors for the safety and health of employees in companies of all sizes. Furthermore, by developing risk assessments, workplaces can reduce accidents and improve the safety and healthiness of working conditions. Since a lot of time and resources are used for risk assessment at workplaces, the assessment should be efficient and successful. With risk assessment, companies can simultaneously improve job productivity and competitiveness and support the preservation of workers' ability to work. Previous studies have suggested that risk assessment development needs include, for example, the development of resourcing and improvement of communication, competence and knowledge. This study aims to produce knowledge of Finnish workplaces' risk assessment development needs related to safety and health at work in order to better meet the company's own needs. The material was acquired with a new questionnaire that aids organizations in finding out personnel's perceptions of the practices and development needs of occupational safety risk assessment. Based on the responses, development targets can be identified, and risk assessment skills in different parts of an organization can be compared. The questionnaire can be used to determine, for example, whether the objectives of risk assessment have been understood within an organization. The questionnaire includes both closed and open-ended questions. The open-ended questions clarify previous selections and for example, suggest ways to arrange training to an organization. The questionnaire was part of a larger project, and the questions were based on previous phases of the project. Four companies piloted the questionnaire. After receiving feedback, a few modifications were made. The process and methods of creating the questionnaire will be described in more detail in the article. The final questionnaire was sent to three organizations. The first is a part of a public organization, the second is a private company in the transport sector, and the third organization provides maintenance services for industrial companies. The companies' contact persons forwarded the link to the questionnaire respondents, and 348 responses were received. The results were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The revealed development needs generally concerned, among others, the planning of risk assessment, which includes for instance risk assessment goals and frameworks planned by the organizations. Regarding the definition of measures, the determination of risk assessment and management was raised. In addition, communication about the progress of the determined measures, going through the risk assessment with the employees, giving feedback to those conducting the assessment, and clearly documenting the results were among the identified development needs. Next, a practical model for workplaces to develop their occupational health and safety risk assessments will be developed.

Minna Rantala, Maria Lindholm, Sari Tappura, Jouni Kivistö-Rahnasto

Conference Proceedings

Safety engineering in design of autonomous public transportation systems

There are several safety challenges in the development of autonomous public transportation systems operating in urban environments. Special methods are needed for the identification and treatment of important human actions and for the recognition and prevention of potential human errors. This paper describes the utilisation of Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) in development and definition of autonomous tram transportation systems. The results are based on characteristics of tram transportation and human factors in autonomous transportation systems. Also, interviews of tram system operators and tram drivers were used in this study. The paper aims to conclude main safety engineering issues in autonomous tram systems and how to use FRAM approach to identify and solve them.

Jari Laarni, Antti Väätänen

Conference Proceedings

Contribution To Safety Standards and Their Relevance for Ergonomic Risk Assessment In Slovakia

Ensuring that a person's health is protected at work, it is important to monitor the parameters that affect his or her body. Important parameters for occupational health protection are the position and movement of the employee during the performance of work. These have a direct influence on the likelihood of damage to the musculoskeletal system, so it is necessary to introduce appropriate protective measures. It is also necessary, for long-term monitoring of the impact, to establish the correct limits of movements and positions, based on the legislation in force. There are two standards in the territory of the Slovak Republic, Decree 542/2007 Coll. and STN EN 1005-4+A1, which do not coincide. Comparing to French standards, i.e. AFNOR and INRIS, implemented in measurement wireless multisensory system CAPTIV, the legislation in force does not conform, so the measurement evaluation is not clearly established. Therefore, we compared the values needed for workload assessment. Such assessment is useful for exoskeleton selection, as a possible alternative to a personal protective equipment, providing support for the body and preventing damage to it. To select the right exoskeleton, it is essential to evaluate the work process and the load that accompanies the particular work task.

Daniela Onofrejova, Hana Pacaiova

Conference Proceedings

Touch Sensing on Semi-Elastic Textiles with Border-Based Sensors

This study presents a novel approach for touch sensing using semi-elastic textile surfaces that does not require the placement of additional sensors in the sensing area, instead relying on sensors located on the border of the textile. The proposed approach is demonstrated through experiments involving an elastic Jersey fabric and a variety of machine-learning models. The performance of one particular border-based sensor design is evaluated in depth. By using visual markers, the best-performing visual sensor arrangement predicts a single touch point with a mean squared error of 1.36 mm on an area of 125 by 125 mm. We built a textile-only prototype that is able to classify touch at three indent levels (0, 15, and 20 mm) with an accuracy of 82.85%. Our results suggest that this approach has potential applications in wearable technology and smart textiles, making it a promising avenue for further exploration in these fields.

Samuel Zühlke, Andreas Stöckl, David Schedl

Conference Proceedings

Sustainable regulation as driver for transformation in fashion industry

The world is changing incrementally, exacerbating planetary boundaries (Rockström et al., 2009) and, as such, current lifestyles. Environmental pollution is gaining problematic levels, and the textile industry is considered one of the main culprits. The textile supply chain creates different types of waste and scrap that belong not only to the semi-finished product but also to the goods needed in the production stages (Nayak, R. 2019).The textile production process is known to consume resources, once considered unlimited, such as 'water, which now needs to be totally recovered and treated, fuel from fossil resources and a variety of chemicals on a large scale. Industry estimates show that more than 35 percent of chemicals released into the environment are the result of various textile treatment and dyeing processes (Thiry 2011). In the Italian landscape there are many examples of companies operating in the textile sector, where we find the closed cycle of production wastewater.The urgency of transitioning to circular and sustainable models has led governments to dwell on the role of textile companies with regard to sustainability, noting that they do not seem to be reforming at a pace and scale that would considerably combat environmental and climate change. The question that arises concerns the emergence of a number of new regulatory proposals and how they will impact within textile companies. Although most of the newer proposals are still a long way from becoming law, some regulations require textile companies to review the way they produce and communicate the nature of their products, involving EU manufacturers, importers, and retailers in the round.As part of the Circular Economy Action Plan, in March 2022, the EU published the "Sustainable Textiles Strategy 2030," which focuses on circularity of textiles and making brands responsible for waste sent to landfills (Digital Agenda Eu. 2022) and aims to make textiles more durable, repairable, reusable and recyclable. It also pledges to combat fast fashion and unsold textiles and ensure that they are produced with respect for social rights.The European Commission has made its regulatory proposals official, including the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, or Espr, which establishes a framework for improving product circularity.Thus, the role of design becomes critical for a more rational use of resources in the development of new products (Thorpe, 2007; Fletcher & Grose, 2012; Fletcher, 2014), which should be designed in a way that reduces waste, scrap, pollutants, and pollution, reaching the zero-waste goal. The treatment of this issue poses two different studies from the outset because the complexities between waste and waste generation in pre-consumption and post-consumption are different.If it is true that rules and standards are the lever of transformation the designer will have to come up with a new design process in compliance with the standard but producing innovation and making sustainability a tangible value in the value chain of the semi-finished or finished product.

Elena Pucci, Maria Claudia Coppola

Conference Proceedings

Integrated supply chain models in Italy. Cases study of circular economy in the Italian textile and fashion field.

The contribution aims to investigate integrated supply chain models in Italy. Through the analysis of some case studies, it aims to provide an initial mapping of territories where the involvement of communities in the production chains of local companies has generated sustainable circular supply chain models. In addition to the need to take action on carbon emissions (Coccia, 2022), there is a clear need to focus attention on a local dimension of textile and fashion production, capable of conceiving its own doing as part of a totality in which all the living beings that belong to a specific territorial ecosystem move, understood as a set of relations between an environmental system and a human society, which, organised also with evolved urban structures, find in that environmental system most of the fundamental resources for life, developing culturally and producing a system of relations, symbols, knowledge. The concept of the territorial ecosystem becomes fundamental for practicing the concept of sustainability of human settlements (Saragosa, 2001). By shifting the focus to the creation of a virtuous system capable of including and revitalizing local realities (Vaccari, 2021) by building a new system (Fletcher, 2013), new value can be generated and overcome not only the climate crisis but also the cultural crisis in which contemporary society finds itself. The research aims to build the foundations for starting a mapping exercise of those Italian territories, with a focus on central regions such as Tuscany and Marche, where a strategic scenario emerges made up of entrepreneurial realities in which the chain of processes and operations is collectively distributed among the various players. Starting with the raw material and ending with the finished product, the territorial manufacturing assets are distributed among the various actors who manage the various stages of the chain independently.Among these, a virtuous example is Re.Verso, a collaborative circular economy programme in Tuscany, focused on the reuse, recycling, and reduction of textile waste through the construction of a participative community. The programme aims to build an integrated, transparent, traceable, and certified supply chain divided into three phases: sourcing and selection of post-consumer materials, mechanical transformation of these raw materials, and development of a new product through the production of yarn, fabric, and finished accessories. The research aims to investigate a model of innovative practices, which are expressed in participative design dynamics, relations with the territory, new narratives, and synergies between people and communities (Franzo, 2020). To investigate these realities, located in a varied geographical context, which have chosen to work together, to make and create a new system, aimed at the survival and recovery of their economy, to bring the places back to life by preserving skills and knowledge. It is a pervasive revolution that is changing the whole of society, not just industry, so much so that people started talking first about enterprise 4.0 and then about supply chain 4.0 up to ecosystem 4.0 (Idevaia, Resce, 2019).

Filippo Maria Disperati, Maria Antonia Salomè

Conference Proceedings

Sustainable textile and circular economy: paradigm changing

To address sustainability is to talk about empathy and exhaustible natural resources, i.e., to adhere to attitudes in the present that can avoid future scarcity. The more we consume, the more we produce. The more it is produced, the greater the negative impact on nature and the frequency of disposal, promoting damage to the soil and, consequently, to ourselves, one of the fast fashion problems. The circular economy is based on a sustainable attitude and the concept of the five R's: rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle materials and energy. The objective of the circular economy is, therefore, to promote socio-environmental responsibility actions among people, whether individuals or legal entities, understanding that nothing has a definitive end. Among the various R's of the circular economy, this research project focuses on recycling, which means reusing a product so that another object can be manufactured from it, such as the textile product. In this sense, several sustainable actions involving the circular economy have been taken by the regulatory bodies of the textile industry and by the fabric manufacturers themselves. The idea is to collaborate with the conception, structuring and execution of projects that aim to carry out ecologically correct activities. With the worsening of the environmental crisis and the urgent need to implement Sustainable Development, companies have felt greater pressure to integrate sustainability into their business, namely companies in the Textile and Clothing Industry, whose environmental and social impact is notorious. Although the value attributed to sustainable practices depends on the business model and vision of the companies, the textile industry is an industry in which sustainability is of special importance. From material selection to product disposal, the value chain has a significant environmental and social impact, namely related to: the use of toxic chemicals in the dyeing process; the high energy consumption and working conditions in the confection; the high amounts of greenhouse gases emitted in transport; in addition to the disposal of clothing in landfills and incineration. The main objective of this ongoing research project is to understand and to underline the importance of sustainability and the circular economy in textile production, as perceived by young designers and fashion students, as well as by consumers of recycled textile products. For this, a mixed methodology composed of literature review and survey was used. This paper presents the results achieved so far, which show awareness on the part of the different groups that took part in the study, but also the difficulties and challenges faced by the implementation of sustainable measures in the practice of recycling textile products.

Fernando Moreira da Silva

Conference Proceedings

Perspectives of Design for Recycling in Fashion System. Redefining fashion waste value models

The Fashion industry is facing significant structural and systemic challenges that require a paradigm shift. According to Agamben, the resilience of complex systems is the response to the ability to adapt and evolve through the adoption of innovative and alternative approaches that are able to transfigure reality by overcoming apparent difficulties. The notion of intempestivity, in particular, assumes a critical role in building resilience based on innovation and sustainability. It is defined as a dynamic form that requires a constant process of reinvention, using apparent damage as an opportunity to evolve toward substantial improvement. Calamities, pandemic threats, food crises, destruction of ecosystems and cultural heritages are just some of the negative phenomena, in many ways dramatic, with which design, increasingly has to deal from a survival perspective, returning to "new basic needs," as well as offering solutions to improve the quality of human life. In Europe, economic growth, closely dependent on increased production and consumption of resources generates harmful effects on the environment, eroding biodiversity, and altering climate stability, health and human well-being. Current production and consumption models do not follow sustainability criteria, triggering irreversible phenomena that require urgent intervention strategies. Earth Overshoot Day signals the date when humanity has used all the biological resources that the Earth regenerates throughout the year. While dramatic, the event stirs the consciousness of individuals, about the limits of the Planet and its depleted resources. An often overlooked but significant contributor to the environmental emergency is the overproduction of clothing. According to the World Bank, the Fashion sector is responsible for 10 percent of annual global carbon emissions. Despite approaches in terms of recycling and reuse, globally 88 percent of recycling refers to polyester from bottles, with only 12 percent of recycled material coming from pre-consumer and post-consumer textile waste; moreover, global production of sustainable materials is growing significantly, although there are still negative impacts due to resource leakage in processing. The European framework calls for more efficient management of textile waste, in relation to the development of circular processes in the relevant industry. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles calls for textiles to be free of harmful substances, durable, recyclable, and made with mandatory minimum amounts of recycled fibers by 2030; a generic statement that without specific objectives, results in non-compliant outcomes. The textile and apparel manufacturing sectors experience damage along the supply chain that needs a thorough investigation into production processes, shining a spotlight on the real possibilities of post-consumer recycling, from sorting to waste management, according to circular economy principles. From the complex relationship between raw materials, design and production practices and ecosystems, innovative solutions are determined by considering fragilities, environmental and social, to restore the balance. The paper brings together several case studies discussing the effectiveness of changing sectors through recycling and upcycling processes, circularity of materials, and reduction through textile waste valorization. Investigating the dynamics governing the post-consumer waste system, it reveals the effectiveness of upcycling processes in tracing models and conditions useful for sustainable transformation. The desired response of the textile/clothing sector transposes the paradigm shift between sustainable logic and the design perspective of recycling.

Carmela Ilenia Amato, Martina Orlacchio

Conference Proceedings

Usability testing of instructions for use in cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of ultrasound probes

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) represents an area of big interest in healthcare. In this context, 'reprocessing' means a cleaning, disinfection or sterilisation process carried out on a used device in order to allow its safe reuse. A typical IPC responsibility assignments matrix includes healthcare facilities, manufacturers of reprocessing agents and equipment, and manufacturers of medical devices. This project aims to analyze and validate the Instructions for Use (IFUs) for reprocessing of ultrasound (US) probes, from the point of view of the usability, in accordance with IEC 62366-1:2015+AMD1:2020 and IEC TR 62366-2:2016.US probes enable a wide range of applications, with the level of infection risk based on the Spaulding Classification, going from noncritical and semi-critical (intact skin and mucous membrane contacts respectively), to critical (intraoperative). In addition to the diverse clinical procedures, the risk of contamination depends also on the variability in the healthcare environment and user knowledge and expertise.Safe reprocessing of an US probe requires that its IFUs, considered as part of the user interface, are clear, legible, and complete. For this reason, to ensure their correct execution and workflow, a usability testing for the reprocessing IFUs is performed. According to the IEC 62366 standards, such test consists of two steps: formative and summative evaluations. The overall aim of the first step is to explore if the instructions are recognizable, understandable and operable by the user and to identify worst-case scenarios and critical tasks which will be further investigated during the second step by a user group, including lay and professional users with different profiles and needs. For the purpose of this project, the usability testing has confirmed a powerful tool to verify that our reprocessing IFUs for aUS probe can be easily and effectively used. The preliminary analysis and the following interviews of diverse users operating in different environments, have provided evidence that such IFUs enable the user to perform a proper and reliable reprocessing for a safe reuse of the probe.

Marianna Oliverio, Daniele Fiesoli, Simona Bellavia, Ramona De Luca

Conference Proceedings

Sit-standing posture and chairless chair. A prototype without ground contact.

Currently there are many types of wearable devices for unconventional sitting. The devices are named suggestively: wearable chairless chair. What all these products have in common is an additional support behind the heel. The additional support, a ground contact behind the heel, appears to add more stability and at the same time increases the complexity of the product, the weight and the difficulty of wearing it.The research assumes that there is no need for additional support nor ground contact. The working method consisted of analyzing products on the market. The analysis was followed by understanding the functioning and the biomechanical cause for the existence of the posterior support. The analysis was carried out by relating the human silhouette, its body volumes and geometry, to the shape and structure of the devices. We focused on the side view because it is the one that gives the asymmetric behavior of the body volumes. In the biomechanical analysis we kept the premises of locating the center of mass, of spatial summation of the partial centers of mass (the head, the trunk and the limbs) as well as the reference to the ground support polygon of the soles. Biomechanical and static analysis was followed by the identification and isolation of that component of body geometry responsible for the need of posterior support. The analysis was then repeated in its absence. It was necessary to correct the geometry of the body and change the degree of flexion of the knees and ankles. The verification of the hypothesis has been achieved by developing a device that corresponds to a body geometry, does not provide posterior support and at the same time eliminates orthostatic muscle stress. Tests were carried out with primitive mock-ups and prototypes, with briefly articulated parts that meet the condition of being wearable through permanent contact with the leg and the thigh. The results were encouraging from the point of view of stability but were unsatisfactory from the point of view of the comfort offered by the primitive prototypes. Refinement of the prototype was achieved by developing the design of the thigh and leg interface components as well as the design of the flexion locking subsystem. Of particular concern was the contact between the product and the surface of the thigh and calf. Refined in this way the prototype unquestionably preserved the stability of the human subject and presented an improvement in comfort criteria.In conclusion, the research confirms the hypothesis. The no ground contact prototype allows a posture in which orthostatic stress is avoided, with good stability and with enough containment to be wearable.

Maria Moga, Dan Radu Moga

Conference Proceedings

Physiological and cognitive real-time stress analysis as a basis for optimised human-machine teaming and safe decision processes for military forces

Introduction In recent decades, the development of autonomous cyber-physical systems for a wide range of tasks has been the focus of research activities for military organisations. Modern security forces can be seen as socio-technical systems. Only an integrated approach, in which people, organisation and technology are viewed as interlocking elements, enables the optimisation of the overall system. Soldiers are still at the center of deployed sociotechnical systems despite major innovations in the field of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (Swiss, 2020). An efficient and coordinated interaction in a task force and an optimised human-machine teaming are essential prerequisites for a successful operation and thus also for increasing the safety of the soldiers in critical operational situations. This requires, on the one hand, optimal HMI development, but also, on the other hand, information about the mental and physical state of the soldier to provide improved decision processes and operational performance. Information on a common operational picture and the status of the technical systems used is usually available, but not the psychophysical situation of the soldier. Therefore extensive development projects have been launched for solutions of psycho-physiological monitoring, with new possibilities arising from innovative developments in the field of bio-sensor technology. The aim is to optimise human performance in the field and the interaction between man and machine with highly sophisticated mission equipment. An important success factor in complex operations is the quality of the necessary decisions (decision intelligence) in time-critical security situations, whereby the current psychophysical stress state of the person is a decisive factor. Therefore, an ongoing challenge for the military task forces is managing personnel to optimise and sustain performance, improve security while also ensuring health and wellbeing. In the course of intensive training and exercises as well as in real operational scenarios, soldiers often suffer physiological and psychological borderline stresses and injuries during physical and combat-related training. In this context efficient solutions for the physiological monitoring of soldiers based on the integration of innovative biosensor technology and specific load models considering load characteristics of different military forces will enable a targeted support.Motivation and Background The challenging military work tasks are often associated with a high degree of physical stress and require a high level of mental performance and concentration. Reduced concentration and reaction cause delayed or possibly even wrong decisions, which can have critical consequences. In this context a real-time system for physiological status monitoring (RT-PSM) offers new opportunities for military purpose with individual assessment of soldiers' performance limits. However, most commercially available health and performance sport systems do not meet the relevant military requirements. They typically lack validated methods and algorithms to derive essential information in real time and are not designed to be integrated into soldier's technological ecology (Friedl, 2018). Based on the specific requirements and the experience of the Austrian Armed Forces, an RT-PSM was developed as part of the VitalMonitor project and geared to the working conditions and multifactorial stress situations of CBRN defence personnel and light infantry forces. The main objectives were to analyze the individual stress in deployment scenarios and to achieve a targeted improvement in the individual performance level through personalized adaptive training concepts and thus to optimize the health and fitness of the individual soldier. The research project VitalMonitor therefore focuses on the development of a (I) real-time monitoring system, which analyses changes in physiological parameters from heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, core body temperature, etc., (II) development of a stress model considering load characteristics of different military forces, (III) communication solution for a real-time data transfer, (IV) data management and interactive real-time visualization module to support decision processes for mission commanders to determine optimal work-rest-cycles preventing physical overstraining in trainings and missions and (V) an expert interface to visualize sensor data streams (low-level data) together with model-based analysis results (high-level data) in a graphical interface as a basis for model development, verification and optimization.This paper gives an overview of the main developments and results implemented and achieved within the VitalMonitor project. In the following, wearable sensors and their evaluation, the development of a specific load model, the real-time visualization modules and finally a conclusion and outlook will be presented.

Alexander Almer, Anna Weber, Florian Haid, Julia Tschuden, Lucas Paletta, Michael Schneeberger, Dietmar Wallner, Paul Glanz, Philip Klöckl, Dominik Eder, Gerald Bauer, Oliver Kühr, Thomas Hölzl

Conference Proceedings

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on attitudes towards Human-Robot Collaboration in the Healthcare Environment

The need of nursing staff will continue to increase in the next years. At the same time, the healthcare system will face an increase of elderly people. So, the future society will be confronted with socio-political and economic challenges. It is expected that human-robot collaboration will increase in healthcare. This should support and relieve care staff. An online study was conducted to examine differences in the acceptance of different care robots and the general attitude towards robots in the healthcare sector. To additionally analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, two different measurement times were used, one at the beginning of the pandemic resp. after the first corona wave and the first lockdowns, and one five months later. The results of the study should help to understand the acceptance of the potential use of different robots in healthcare and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Verena Wagner-Hartl, Katharina Gleichauf, Ramona Schmid, Nicole Dewald

Conference Proceedings

Can Transient Simulations Improve Lower Limb-Prosthesis Interaction Analysis?

Human gait is a highly dynamic process; however, most numerical analyses to simulate a lower limb prosthesis wearer are still performed using an implicit static method. To account for the dynamic effects, a transient numerical simulation was performed in this study, simulating a gait cycle of a lower limb-prosthesis system. Donning of the socket followed by heel strike and push-off conditions of the gait were analysed using a recently developed generic transtibial limb model representing an average transtibial amputee. The static results previously obtained were compared with the transient simulation and the results in terms of contact pressure at residual limb-liner interface and von-Mises stresses in the prosthetic socket were evaluated. The numerical results show a significant difference between the transient and static numerical simulations due to the dynamic effect incorporated in the numerical analysis, indicating a need to include these effects to obtain more realistic conditions.

Vasja Plesec, Gregor Harih

Conference Proceedings

Classification of Depression Based on Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Signals Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Depression is a significant mental health issue affecting individuals worldwide. In this study, we aimed to classify healthy, depressed, and suicidal individuals using functional nearinfrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals combined with machine learning algorithms. The dataset consisted of fNIRS measurements collected from participants in different mental states. Our experiment indicates that the implementation of the histogram based gradient boosting algorithm (HGBM) achieved the highest accuracy rate of 78.76% and the highest precision rate of 92% for depressed category. The HGBM outperformed other algorithms such as k-NN and CatBoosting. The study highlights the potential of fNIRS and machine learning in the detection and classification of depression.

Nahyun Lee, Jieming Zhang, Yongho Lee, Taekun Kim, Hyewon Kim, and Hong Jin Jeon

Conference Proceedings

How to select and implement a suitable Low-Code Development Platform

Low-code programming allows the creation of software applications using a graphical user interface with minimal classical programming code ("low code") and without requiring extensive programming knowledge. This puts it in contrast to previous generations of programming languages. The advantages of low-code development are manifold, including the increase of software development capacities through a partial decentralization of the development process, speeding up software development through the low-code approach, and designing software with a strong user-centric focus. Using a low-code development platform can help companies adapt their own business processes to changing requirements more quickly and to make complexity resulting, for example, from heterogeneous customer wishes, manageable. Since many low-code development platforms are available, it is not easy for companies to select and successfully introduce a platform that meets their requirements. For this reason, this article presents a procedure model that assists in the process of selecting and implementing a platform.

Sven Hinrichsen, Alexander Nikolenko, Kai Leon Becker, Benjamin Adrian

Conference Proceedings

Modeling low-code databases with executable UML

This study aims to create a method for transforming a Unified Modeling Language (UML) class model into an open-source end-user database. The manual transformation of UML class models into a database can be time-consuming and prone to errors. By making a database schema from a UML class model in standard XMI format, our framework offers an automated alternative and makes the transformation more useful. The tool gets the tables, attributes, and connections that compose the schema from the class model's classes, properties, and relationships. The tool also has an abstract RESTful web service component to give the newly made database a web interface. Such a tool will make it easier for software engineers with less experience, especially students, to learn and use UML class models. We implemented the framework for a Baserow end-user database and evaluated it on a student internship use case. The accompanying code is available as an open-source GitHub repository.

Alan Bubalo, Nikola Tanković

Conference Proceedings

Validation of virtual reality tools for unique aircraft interiors

A Virtual Reality (VR) application has been developed which supports engineers during product creation processes of unique aerospace interior. Ten trained engineers participated in a user study, which explored the differences in efficiency and user experience of two use cases within VR and conventional working methods. The study represented real day-to-day challenges and included two tasks: detecting the visibility of components for design reviews and cable routing for assembly processes. Five experts per task had to complete their assignment in both VR and their conventional working tools. In the visibility task participants had to decide whether the component of interest is visible or not in three different scenarios. For the cable task the experts were asked to route a specific cable for components in order to plan the amount of material that was needed in the final assembly. They had to estimate the cable length for four different cable routings and the outcome was compared to the optimal cable length for each given task. In both tasks the time until a decision has been measured. The results show that engineering processes can be supported by VR applications, which can help saving time in visibility testing and cable routing, as well as potentially saving resources by improving the accuracy of calculation for an ideal cable length. There are further potential benefits for users, as VR strains the workload less than conventional working methods. Furthermore, the study has shown that participants who were less experienced with VR technologies did significantly better with the VR application compared to conventional working methods during the visibility check.

Kathrin Konkol, Hannah Reusing

Conference Proceedings

Verification of the integration process of algorithms and sensor data for mental health applications

Mood disorders are becoming more frequent and, especially after the pandemic years, the importance of analysing and preventing such disorders has become clear. In the worst cases, people can suffer from depression or bipolar disorder leading to hospitalization or sick leave with serious economic and social consequences for the individual and their environment. Thanks to the development of technology, there are increasingly useful portable devices for monitoring individual daily activity. The data collected is very useful for understanding not only the individual's environment but also for characterizing their emotional profile. However, good monitoring requires the use of a diverse set of information sources. Medical consultations are the traditional source of information but in many cases this information is lacking or insufficient. The new sources of information are diverse: smart devices such as smart watches or even the mobile phone itself, portable sensors of various types and even activity records on social networks. All these data can be integrated and processed in such a way that a characterization profile of behaviour related to the emotional state of the individual is determined. However, the manufacturers of these devices apply aggregation algorithms to the monitored data to provide the client with a friendlier and easier to interpret version, but they do not usually provide the raw data collected by the sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, temperature, etc.). There is still no regulated standardization that obliges the manufacturer to provide the data to the owners of the devices. Both raw data and aggregation algorithms work like a black box in most cases. The information presented by the device applications (generally apps) is very relevant and the interpretation of the users has direct consequences on their behaviour (behaviour modification, medication administration, etc.). For this reason, it is essential to verify the algorithms used in the previous process, guaranteeing that the information integrated (and presented) really corresponds to the information collected by the sensors. In this paper we present a suitable system for the verification of aggregated data from personal activity monitoring sensors. The system includes a parsing algorithm that makes the data structure and relates it to the output. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been tested with real data over a period of two years and for both daytime activity and sleep quality monitoring. The algorithm is perfectly scalable to be used on any device, so the computer system presented can be useful for future computer auditing of this type of process.

Victoria Lopez, Pavel Llamocca, Diego Urgelés, Yury Jiménez, Cesar Guevara, Carlos Viñals, Maria Espinosa

Conference Proceedings

Preserving the Human Element in Pilot Weather Reports (PIREPs)

Pilot reports (PIREPs) are reports describing in-flight weather conditions submitted by pilots, and provide crucial weather information to other pilots for pre-flight and in-flight planning. However, the current PIREP system is antiquated, prone to error, and has been identified as a safety concern according to a 2017 National Transportation Safety Board Special Report. The current paper describes some preliminary results from a proof of concept study investigating the feasibility, utility, and usability of a PIREP submission and retrieval process that uses VHF radio, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. In this concept, pilots were able to submit and retrieve PIREPs without talking to an air traffic controller but by communicating with an automated VHF ground station via a voice-user interface. Pilots were also able to retrieve PIREPs online (website and mobile app), where they could listen to voice recordings of PIREPs or read voice-to-text transcriptions of PIREPs submitted in their local area. Most aircraft today are equipped with a VHF radio, which is the primary communication tool used to file PIREPs via communicating either with a Flight Service or Air Traffic Control facility. The use of a dedicated radio frequency for submitting and retrieving PIREPs has the potential to provide an additional mechanism for pilots to communicate these reports reducing congestion on other FSS and ATC frequencies. For the period of time between November 4, 2022 and April 30, 2023; over 200 pilot-participants who were flying within or overflying the areas with radius of ~ 50 nm from two airports—Will Rogers World Airport (KOKC) in Oklahoma and Nenana Municipal Airport (PANN) in Alaska submitted and retrieved~5,000 PIREPs. Two PIREP ground station identifiers were used for this research: (a) “PIREP Watch Alaska” and (b) “PIREP Watch Oklahoma”. For this initial phase of the research, the system did not have the capability to map ADS-B equipped aircraft to aircraft type, location or altitude without querying the pilot. Pilots identified a number of areas of growth for this concept, such as the need for aviation-specific vocabulary in the voice-to-text transcription aspect of the technology. Overall, pilots were highly enthusiastic about the proof of concept study and supported the feasibility, utility, and usability of this novel method of submitting and retrieving PIREPs. This innovative system preserves the human element in modern weather information sources by allowing pilots to use free form when reporting their direct weather observations in-flight while eliminating the need to talk to an air traffic controller or flight service specialist. Furthermore, it offers data-driven support for modernizing the PIREP system.

Daniela Kratchounova, Hannah Baumgartner

Conference Proceedings

Transdisciplinary design research of Homebound Seniors

According to the World Population Prospects report released by the United Nations, the proportion of individuals aged 65 and above is expected to increase from 9% in 2019 to 16% between 2019 and 2050. This trend indicates a rapid increase in the elderly population, which poses significant social development challenges. Maintaining the health of the elderly is essential for their continued ability to contribute to their families and communities. The complex effects of aging, such as physiological degradation, memory loss, and diminished physical coordination, can significantly impact daily life, making it crucial to find ways to delay aging and enhance the quality of life of the elderly. Achieving this goal requires transdisciplinary collaboration among professionals.This design research project involved a transdisciplinary team comprising geriatric occupational therapy, electrical engineering, and digital design professionals who proposed a design solution for solitary older adults. The proposed solution is a multi-player drumming interactive device designed for home use, integrating virtual and physical elements with low technological burden on users. This interactive device combines various elements, including music therapy, interactive games, upper limb exercises, cognitive training, and social connection, among others.Transdisciplinary collaboration among professionals is crucial in addressing complex issues that require diverse perspectives and expertise. The collaboration between professionals in geriatric occupational therapy, electrical engineering, and digital design can lead to more comprehensive and effective solutions. However, challenges associated with such collaborations include integrating diverse knowledge systems, aligning different work logics, and incorporating different problem-solving approaches. The potential benefits of transdisciplinary collaboration include more innovative problem-solving and consideration of the needs and preferences of aging populations.In this study, digital designers studied game-based learning theories for older adults, interface design requirements, and their habits of using online courses. They collaborated with geriatric occupational therapists to investigate the interactive user needs and drumming course planning for older adults, while electrical engineers integrated the virtual and real operating interface to reduce the elderly's learning burden. The system enabled older adults to play online games with other players at home through a simple drumming game using Unity and Bluetooth connection technology. This not only helped to prevent muscle atrophy but also facilitated remote communication with other players.Experimental testing of the proposed design showed its suitability for future applications in the field of elderly entertainment. The study examined the effects of drumming on the upper limb muscles, cognition, and emotions of older adults, as well as the ease of use of the overall system structure for the elderly. Despite communication barriers due to the use of technical language and jargon specific to each profession and the need for team members to develop a mutual understanding of each other's work logic and problem-solving approaches, transdisciplinary collaboration offers a promising approach to addressing complex issues in geriatric occupational therapy, electrical engineering, and digital design.

Wen Huei Chou, Chung-wen Hung, Ya-ling Ko

Conference Proceedings

Revisiting Port Supply Chain Integration Complexity from the Perspective of Systems Leadership: A Bibliometric Analysis and Future Research Directions

This paper provides a bibliometric analysis of 121 articles regarding the implications of the systems leadership perspective on the concept of port supply chain integration complexity. Since the systems leadership perspective characterizes an early stage of development and is still rare and has not been addressed nor studied widely, this paper reveals relevant results on the basis of citation analysis metrics. The bibliographic data is extracted from the world's most renowned scientific database ISI Web of Science, and analyzed via the VOSviewer and the HistCiteTM software. The bibliographic coupling methodology utilized in the VOSviewer software reveals four emergent and interconnected research clusters: (1) Port resilience and security vulnerabilities in complex maritime networks; (2) Big data and AI in ports; (3) Industry 4.0 essential elements for ports; and (4) Emerging best practices for systems leadership in ports – the case of BRI. A detailed and rigorous content analysis of the most impactful articles is conducted in order to reveal the intellectual structure of each research cluster, and the application of the HistCiteTM LCSe citation analysis metric reveals the trending articles within each research cluster, enabling the formation of future research directions for each research cluster. The findings obtained in this paper form the basis for advancing the perspective of systems leadership on the concept of port supply chain integration complexity because it provides scholars easy and quick access to the major articles forming the bedrock of each research cluster; while it may aid industry professionals with new information relevant for improving their decision capabilities, thus fostering the establishment of a more robust and better integrated maritime transportation system.

Miljen Sirotic, Alen Jugovic

Conference Proceedings

Equipment-as-a-Service – necessary changes for service-based business models

Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) describes a paradigm in which all resources of an ecosystem are offered as services. If this approach is applied in the manufacturing industry with physical goods such as machines or equipment, we talk about Equipment-as-a-Service (EaaS). Depending on the value proposition of the EaaS, a distinction can be made between availability, utility, result, and success centric EaaS business models. For example, in availability centric EaaS business models, the value proposition consists of the availability of a service with agreed performance standards, with the billing parameter being the time in which it is being made available. In dependency of the value proposition the service provider takes over several risks. One risk he always must take over is the investment risk for the equipment To be able to realize the value propositions listed above and to assess and take over the risks, there is a need for change in the company of the provider. This work shows this need for change as a basis for the planning and implementation of EaaS services.To identify the need for change we conducted three workshops of 120 minutes each with 7 small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) from the field of mechanical and plant engineering to develop one of their transactional business models conceptually into an EaaS business model. The methodical approach of the workshops followed three phases which are necessary for the development of an EaaS business model: (1) target group orientation, (2) EaaS service and delivery and (3) benefit and pricing model. In the first phase, the focus is on the target group and its needs, which shall be satisfied with an EaaS service. The second phase focuses on the EaaS itself, which consists of physical and digital service components. In addition, the own organizational and technical as well as the cooperative structures required for the service provision are considered. In the third phase, a subscription-based pricing model must be developed based on the provided benefits.The results show that understanding EaaS users is fundamental in the development of an EaaS service. Since these are a combination of physical and digital service components, they can be designed very individually to meet the customer needs. This combination means that different types of users can and should be addressed in a company. This requires the development of additional services and the definition of performance guarantees, whose fulfillments should be made transparent to the service user. To do that corresponding technical and organizational measures are necessary, for which, for example, the digital support of administrative processes by monitoring systems or the change in sales or product management is required. If these requirements cannot be met with the company's internal structures, strategic partnerships with insurance companies, banks or IT providers are necessary to support the EaaS provider. All these changes require not only technological and organizational adjustments but also new pricing models, which are reflected in new methods for price calculation and usage assessment.

Dimitri Evcenko, Holger Kett, Jürgen Falkner

Conference Proceedings

Analysis of readiness to implement the level of knowledge and use of new digital technologies (AI, IoT and e-services) in the SOEs in Poland

The survey was commissioned by the Prime Minister's Office. It was intended to verify the level of readiness for the implementation of new digital technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud technologies, big data, metaverse, AR/VR) in Polish State Owned Enterprises (hereinafter: SOE). Work on this material began in late 2022, and the survey itself was actually conducted using the CAWI method on a sample of 170 SOEs in January 2023. The most numerous companies represented in the survey were medium-sized companies (50-249 employees), as well as those from cities with a population between 100,000 and 500,000. It is worth mentioning that due to the scarcity of foundational data on the implementation of new digital technologies in SOEs, the survey conducted is exploratory in nature. It fills, to a large extent, the knowledge gap on the state of implementation of new digital technologies in SOEs. The article presents the main conclusions of the study.

Sylwia Stefaniak

Conference Proceedings

Is there a clear understanding of using human factors and ergonomics at work?

Human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) is a scientific discipline that aims to understand interactions among humans and other elements of a system where an individual performs his/her work tasks with different materials, tools and technologies in a certain work environment in given time. HF/E applies theory, principles, data and methods in design to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. International Ergonomics Association (IEA) has defined HF/E specialists core competencies as foundation knowledge, HF/E measurement and analysis skills, HF/E evaluation skills, HF/E recommendation skills, HF/E implementation skills, scientific skills, and professional behavior. In addition, Centre for Registration of European Ergonomists (CREE) has defined European Ergonomists as professionals who are experienced in using knowledge from the areas of anatomy, physiology, psychology, social organization and the physical environment to design work systems, structures and activities to optimize human performance and well-being. However, in public discussion and in generic understanding, it is not clear what HF/E or ergonomics means nor who are HF/E specialists or ergonomists, what do they do and where do they work.This study aims to contribute to the above presented discussion. A questionnaire was conducted to collect internationally HF/E experts' (n = 8) opinions on proactive designing of work and work environments. Beside the questionnaire, to gain the same understanding nationally, qualitative interviews for Finnish professionals (n = 9) were conducted with a semi-structured interview form. The questions in both phases were based on a handbook, “People in designing work and the working environment - a handbook for the proactive planning of work and design of working environments” (later “handbook”), commissioned by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The handbook aimed to offer tools for proactive planning of work and designing working environments. In this study, related to the questionnaire, the focus is on the questions “What is your image about who are doing the planning of work and design of work environment at workplaces?”, “Who are responsible for taking care that all needed actions for planning and designing the work will be done?”, “Who are responsible for the whole process (designing of work)?”, “Who are responsible for the needed knowledge (designing of work)?”, and “How would you define the role and tasks of a HFE professional in this kind of process (designing of work)?”. Related to interviews, the focus is on the generic views and comments about the design process and the roles in it, inspired by the discussion about the handbook. The materials were analyzed by categorization.In the interviews, the overall opinion was that there is no clear picture of who actually is an HF/E specialist, how it is defined and who are they specifically in Finland, which may lead to false impressions. In the questionnaire, roles and responsibilities in planning and designing the work and utilizing HF/E in it, were described with wide variety in the answers. These preliminary results suggest that there is a need to widen the public discussion and public view on HF/E specialists and sharpen the understanding about them.

Maria Lindholm, Elina Parviainen

Conference Proceedings

An Implementation of Educational Programming Environment Using Tangible Materials

Recently, people started to pay attention on the education using tangible teaching materials. The field of programming education is not an exception. Researchers in education have found that tangible teaching materials improve students' logical thinking ability. Because the tangible teaching materials make students deepen their understanding by touching them with their hands and seeing them with their eyes. In other words, they appeal to students' all five senses. Programming language independent learning materials are used in several educational institutions around the world. Programming environments using some kinds of graphics are commonly used, but they restrict their users' operations due to the abilities of installed computers and their small screens. To overcome this problem, we have developed a tangible teaching material for programming education. This system makes it possible for the users to learn programming by using its tangible materials for either group education or individual learning. The purpose of this research is to solve one of the common problems widely seen among programming learners. That is letting the instructors know the learners' programming situations in classes. It is difficult for instructors to collect data about what progress each student makes and what obstacle makes them be delay. Our system takes advantages of tangible teaching materials and provides such data for instructors. In this paper, we report our experiences about the development of a tangible material for programming education. Since our goal is to support programming classes in higher educational institutes, our target is how to develop and improve individual programming methods. This research is a new attempt to support programming classes with limited time.The student using this tangible teaching materials is supposed to arrange a set of programming cards. Each card has a QR code that matches an operation procedure. Upon completion of the arrangement of QR codes, the student takes a photo of these cards using the camera of a tablet. The series of QR codes construct a Python program, and it is executed on the device. The instructor can monitor each student's progress remotely, since each QR code has annotation that informs the instructor what program element it is executing so that the instructor can collect detailed information about the program individual student constructing. The instructor can classify students into several categories based on the collected information, then set study points for the students corresponding to the categories. The collected information contains where the students failed in their programs and how they tried to correct the errors. Some corrections are right, and some are not. Then the instructor further classifies students in the same categories so that the instructor can recognize each student's weak points and give him or her careful guidance. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our tangible materials for programming education, we have conduct numerical experiments over college students. We have observed 80% of them improve their logical thinking ability. As a future work, we will implement stronger support features for instructors so that the instructor can analyze students' common errors and rightly guide them.

Toshiyasu Kato, Yasushi Kambayashi, Koji Oda

Conference Proceedings

QHS methodology to develop competency standards for talent management in customs agency

A customs agency that integrates the services of tariff classification, maritime clearance and supply chain services, must comply with regulations of legal requirements, implying a constant specialization in the management of talent in operations management, the development of a quality management system contributes to continuous improvement processes, with the implementation of the QHS methodology, competency standards will be developed to certify the specialized talent of the staff, ensuring the learning curve and generational change to consolidate the KPIs of customer satisfaction.

Ramon Moreno Bravo, Rodolfo Martinez Gutierrez, Roberto Castro Bojorquez, Juan Gualberto Flores Velazquez

Conference Proceedings

Administration of Operations and Quality Systems with Social Responsibility in Customs Agency

In the foreign trade sector, customs agencies assume legal compliance challenges, objectives, and customer service goals that they must monitor through KPIs, to strengthen operations management, the QHS methodology is used to develop diagnostic and proposal mechanisms to develop models of quality management systems, risk, and social responsibility. Business philosophy, talent management, teamwork and senior management leadership are success factors for business growth.

Rafael Solaiza Olachea, Rodolfo Martinez Gutierrez, Efren Plata Casas, Alfonso Alvarez Juan

Conference Proceedings

QHS methodology for strategic planning, KPIs and talent management in cross-border transport drivers

The companies that integrate the supply chain of foreign trade and customs offer the service of transport of goods as a key piece of their business model, to maintain competitiveness in the market before the regulatory requirements and organizational growth it is necessary to manage the specialized talent in positions of Cross-border Transport Drivers, through competency standards and KPI monitoring that integrates the business philosophy, with the implementation of the QHS methodology it is projected as a tool for the development of a corporate strategic plan for consolidation of operations.

Jose Luis De La Fuente Piñeirua, Rodolfo Martinez Gutierrez, Carlos Antonio Valdez Barrera, Pedro Valdez Barrera

Conference Proceedings

Workload Assessment of Human-Machine Interface: A Simulator Study with Psychophysiological Measures

Human-machine Interface (HMI) is critical for safety during automated driving, as it serves as the only media between the automated system and human users. To guarantee an understandable and transparent HMI, an evaluation method is urgently needed. However, there hasn't been a standardized and objective assessment method for HMI transparency. The methods used to evaluate HMI nowadays are primarily subjective and not efficient. To bridge the gap, an objective and standardized HMI assessment method was proposed in a previous study, but the adaptation to a simulator environment was not validated. Hence, the objective of this study is to first identify suitable objective workload measures in a driving context before incorporating them into the proposed transparency assessment method. In this study, two psychophysiological measures, electrocardiography (ECG) and electrodermal activity (EDA) were evaluated for their effectiveness in finding differences in mental workload among different HMI designs in a driving simulator. Three HMI designs with different transparency were developed and used as independent variables. Besides the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) between normal heartbeats from the ECG and the skin conductance response (SCR) from the EDA, self-reported NASA-TLX scores were also evaluated and considered as dependent variables. The study was conducted in a static driving simulator with a field of view of 120 degrees. A total of 24 participants were recruited, and each experienced 12 trials counterbalanced for HMI designs and driving scenarios. Participants were asked to monitor the HMI constantly and activate SAE Level 2 automated driving system whenever they felt comfortable. During the interaction, the eye tracker was applied to identify the time points when participants were gazing at the HMI designs. These time points were later used as references to calculate the corresponding RMSSD and SCR. Results showed that the RMSSD from ECG and the SCR from EDA were able to identify significant differences in objective mental workload when interacting with in-vehicle HMIs. Plus, the same correlations among HMI designs for two psychophysiological measures and the NASA-TLX were also identified. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to use psychophysiological measures to estimate the mental workload when interacting with HMI during automated driving. The results of this study could be used as a firm ground for future research. The findings not only help identify suitable objective workload measures for the interaction with HMI during simulator driving but also serve as the first step toward a standardized transparency assessment method.

Yuan-cheng Liu, Nikol Figalová, Jürgen Pichen, Philipp Hock, Martin Baumann, Klaus Bengler

Conference Proceedings