This study examines the use of eye tracking sensors as a means to identify children's behavior in attention-enhancement therapies. For this purpose, a set of data collected from 32 children with different attention skills is analyzed during their interaction with a set of puzzle games. The authors of this study hypothesize that participants with better performance may have quantifiably different eye-movement patterns from users with poorer results. The use of eye trackers outside the research community may help to extend their potential with available intelligent therapies, bringing state-of-the-art technologies to users. The use of gaze data constitutes a new information source in intelligent therapies that may help to build new approaches that are fully-customized to final users' needs. This may be achieved by implementing machine learning algorithms for classification. The initial study of the dataset has proven a 0.88 (±0.11) classification accuracy with a random forest classifier, using cross-validation and hierarchical tree-based feature selection. Further approaches need to be examined in order to establish more detailed attention behaviors and patterns among children with and without attention problems.

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Augmented Reality (AR) is getting close to real use cases, which is driving the creation of innovative applications and the unprecedented growth of Head-Mounted Display (HMD) devices in consumer availability. However, at present there is a lack of guidelines, common form factors and standard interaction paradigms between devices, which has resulted in each HMD manufacturer creating their own specifications. This paper presents the first experimental evaluation of two AR HMDs evaluating their interaction paradigms, namely we used the HoloLens v1 (metaphoric interaction) and Meta2 (isomorphic interaction). We report on precision, interactivity and usability metrics in an object manipulation task-based user study. 20 participants took part in this study and significant differences were found between interaction paradigms for translation tasks, where the isomorphic mapped interaction outperformed the metaphoric mapped interaction in both time to completion and accuracy, while the contrary was found for the resize task. From an interaction perspective, the isomorphic mapped interaction (using the Meta2) was perceived as more natural and usable with a significantly higher usability score and a significantly lower task-load index. However, when task accuracy and time to completion is key mixed interaction paradigms need to be considered.

Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent disorders within the child population today. Inattention problems can lead to greater difficulties in completing assignments, as well as problems with time management and prioritisation of tasks. This article presents an intelligent tele-therapy tool based on Serious Games for Health, aimed at the improvement of time management skills and the prioritisation of tasks. This tele-system is based on the use of decision trees within Django, a high-level Python Web framework. The technologies and techniques used were selected so as to boost user involvement and to enable the system to be easily customised. This article shows the preliminary results of the pilot-phase in an experiment performed to evaluate the use of adaptive tele-therapies within a group of typically developing children and adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years old without ADHD. To do so, we relied on the collection of parameters and the conduct of surveys for assessing time management skills, as well as measuring system usability and availability. The results of a time management survey highlighted that the users involved in the trial did not use any specific or effective time management techniques, scoring 1.98 and 2.30 out of 5 points in this area for ages under 15 and over 16 years old, respectively. The final calculations based on the usability questionnaire resulted in an average score of 78.75 out of 100. The creation of a customisable tool capable of working with different skills, in conjunction with the replication of the current study, may help to understand these users’ needs, as well as boosting time management skills among teenagers with and without ADHD.

Influence of interaction fidelity and rendering quality on perceived user experience have been largely explored in Virtual Reality (VR). However, differences in interaction choices triggered by these rendering cues have not yet been explored. We present a study analysing the effect of thermal visual cues and contextual information on 50 participants' approach to grasp and move a virtual mug. This study comprises 3 different temperature cues (baseline empty, hot and cold) and 4 contextual representations; all embedded in a VR scenario. We evaluate 2 different hand representations (abstract and human) to assess grasp metrics. Results show temperature cues influenced grasp location, with the mug handle being predominantly grasped with a smaller grasp aperture for the hot condition, while the body and top were preferred for baseline and cold conditions.