With the increase in global life expectancy and the advance of technology, the creation of age-friendly environments is a priority in the design of new products for elderly people healthcare. This paper presents a proposal for a real-time health monitoring system of older adults living in geriatric residences. This system was developed to help caregivers to have a better control in monitoring the health of their patients and have closer communication with their patients’ family members. To validate the feasibility and effectiveness of this proposal, a prototype was built, using a biometric bracelet connected to a mobile application, which allows real-time visualization of all the information generated by the sensors (heart rate, body temperature, and blood oxygenation) in the bracelet. Using these data, caregivers can make decisions about the health status of their patients. The evaluation found that the users perceived the system to be easy to learn and use, providing initial evidence that our proposal could improve the quality of the adult’s healthcare.

Network intrusion detection has been generally dealt with using sophisticated software and statistical analysis, although sometimes it has to be done by administrators, either by detecting the intruders in real time or by revising network logs, making this a tedious and timeconsuming task. To support this, intrusion detection analysis has been carried out using visual, auditory or tactile sensory information in computer interfaces. However, little is known about how to best integrate the sensory channels for analyzing intrusion detection alarms. In the past, we proposed a set of ideas outlining the benefits of enhancing intrusion detection alarms with multimodal interfaces. In this paper, we present a simplified sound-assisted attack mitigation system enhanced with auditory channels. Results indicate that the resulting intrusion detection system effectively generates distinctive sounds upon a series of simple attack scenarios consisting of denial-of-service and port scanning.

This paper presents an overview of auditory display (the use of non-speech sounds to convey information) applied to the study of molecular properties in human-computer interfaces, particularly in virtual environments. Chemistry researchers and students have difficulty in analysing and comprehending molecular structure and bonding and other biomolecular characteristics. Research reports that non-speech sounds have been useful in identifying trends in gene sequences and molecular characteristics, which when used in virtual environments, can facilitate comprehension of complex relationships that are difficult to perceive through visualisation alone. q

Recebido em 21/6/11; aceito em 5/9/11; publicado na web em 8/11/11 A USABILITY STUDY OF EDUCATIONAL MOLECULAR VISUALIZATION ON SMART PHONES. Chemistry students have difficulty understanding molecular structures and their functions. To aide their comprehension, molecular visualization software has been developed to run on smart phones, but in order to positively influence learning it must have a high degree of usability (usability measures how software is used in terms of efficiency, efficacy and satisfaction). This paper describes a usability study of molecular visualization software running on a smart phone, where chemistry students analyzed molecular models. Results showed very good usability and 95% of students wanted to use it in further classes.Keywords: molecular visualization; mobile computing; usability. INTRODUCCIÓNLos estudiantes de química generalmente tienen dificultad para comprender ciertos conceptos científicos de bioquímica y áreas afines, por ejemplo, las estructuras moleculares.1 Estudios empíricos llevados a cabo anteriormente 2 han mostrado que muchos estudiantes no comprenden fácilmente las representaciones microscópicas de moléculas debido a su escala y sus características físico-químicas abstractas. La dificultad en el aprendizaje se debe principalmente a que suceden los procesos a una escala muy diferente y diminuta y con una estructura tridimensional demasiado intrincada, por lo que su comprensión resulta difícil. Esto sucede a menudo con la comprensión de los enlaces moleculares.3 A pesar de que los alumnos de química, en los primeros años de estudio de licenciatura, aprenden a cómo representar en diferentes formatos las geometrías moleculares (proyecciones de Fisher, taquigráfica, etc.) aún se requiere que el alumno muestre ciertas facultades espaciales para construir y entender la disposición tridimensional de las estructuras moleculares. 4 Las herramientas didácticas tradicionales (por ejemplo, el pizarrón o los modelos moleculares de plástico) pueden servir para aprender ciertos conceptos generales sobre la estructura de las moléculas, pero tienen ciertas limitaciones para analizar y entender conceptos muy puntuales y precisos en la estructura y dinámica de las moléculas. Es por esto que para ayudar a su comprensión, los estudiantes deben apoyarse en información multisensorial, principalmente visual y táctil y dicha información debe mostrarse al estudiante de manera práctica y accesible. 5Una aplicación importante de la visualización molecular por computadora es en la enseñanza de las estructuras moleculares, de los elementos de simetría inherentes a las moléculas y algunas propiedades electrónicas que puedan visualizarse de acuerdo a algún código de colores, por ejemplo, densidad electrónica, el potencial electrostático, disposición de las fuerzas de van der Waals.6 Desde que se creó la WWW, los estudiantes de química pueden obtener de Internet infinidad de modelos moleculares en 3D, almacenados en formatos tales como VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), el cual es un lenguaje...

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is an area with a wide range of concepts and knowledge. Therefore, a need to innovate in the teaching-learning processes to achieve an effective education arises. This article describes a proposal for teaching HCI through the development of projects that allow students to acquire higher education competencies through the design and evaluation of computer games. Finally, an empirical validation (questionnaires and case study) with 40 undergraduate students (studying their fifth semester of software engineering) was applied at the end of the semester. The results indicated that this teaching method provides the students with the HCI skills (psychology of everyday things, involving users, task-centered system design, models of human behavior, creativity and metaphors, and graphical screen design) and, more importantly, they have a positive perception on the efficacy of the use of videogame design in a higher education course.