As the need for sensors increases with the inception of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of the two Kinect devices and the Leap Motion Controller. When evaluating the suitability, the authors’ focus was on the state of the art, device comparison, accuracy, precision, existing gesture recognition algorithms and on the price of the devices. The aim of this study is to give an insight whether these devices could substitute more expensive sensors in the industry or on the market. While in general the answer is yes, it is not as easy as it seems: There are significant differences between the devices, even between the two Kinects, such as different measurement ranges, error distributions on each axis and changing depth precision relative to distance.

Neurosurgery is a medical specialty that relies heavily on imaging. The use of computed tomography and magnetic resonance images during preoperative planning and intraoperative surgical navigation is vital to the success of the surgery and positive patient outcome. Augmented reality application...

Background and objectives: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience challenges with social interactions, a core feature of the disorder. Social skills therapy has been shown to be helpful. Over the past several years, computer-assisted and robot-assisted therapies have been infiltrating the social skills teaching environment. Rapid progress in the field of technology, especially in the robotics area, offers tremendous possibilities for innovation and treatment or even education for individuals with ASD. This paper’s purpose is to drive awareness of these innovative interventions in order to support the social lives of children with ASD. The aims of the paper are identifying (1) the types of Information Technology platforms that are being evaluated in computer and robot-assisted therapies for children with ASD; (2) the various disciplines or professions studying and utilizing these computer and robot-assisted social skill therapies; (3) the outcomes being evaluated in each trial; and (4) if results demonstrate benefits to children with autism. Materials and Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, Science Direct, and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials published over the past five years. Search terms incorporated the subject intersection of autism, and computer or robot-assisted therapy. Results were mined for pediatric populations only and study designs establishing controlled comparisons. Results: Eighteen unique international studies were identified that utilize robot interventions (11 studies) and serious computer game interventions (seven studies). Most demonstrated promising results in improving outcomes for children with ASD. Study implications reveal a rapidly evolving assistive technology for ASD social skills therapy. Conclusions: These interventions show considerable promise, but more effectiveness and cost effectiveness research of high quality should be carried out with larger numbers of children. Also, further studies are necessary to evaluate these technologies’ effectiveness amongst adults with ASD and within unique subsets of the higher functioning autism population.

Several works of literature contributed to the web evaluation process in recent years to promote digital inclusion by addressing several accessibility guidelines, methods, processes, and techniques. Researchers have investigated how the web evaluation process could be facilitated by including accessibility issues to obtain an inclusive and accessible solution to improve the user experience and increase user satisfaction. Three systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have been conducted in the context of past research, considering such research focuses. This paper presents a new SLR approach concerning accessibility in the web evaluation process, considering the period from 2010 to 2021. The review of 92 primary studies showed the contribution of publications on different phases of the web evaluation process mainly by highlighting the significant studies in the framework design and testing process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study focused on the web accessibility literature reporting the engineering assets for evaluation of new accessible and inclusive web-based solutions (e.g., websites). Besides, in this study, we aim to provide a new direction to the web designers and developers with an updated view of process, methods, techniques, tools, and other crucial aspects to contribute to the accessible process enrichment, as well as depict the gaps and challenges that may be worthy to be investigated in the future. The findings of this SLR introduce a new dimension in web accessibility research on determining and mitigating the research gap of web accessibility issues for web designers, developers, and other practitioners.

Road traffic injuries are one of the primary reasons for death, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. Safety in land transport is one of the major concerns for road safety authorities and other policymakers. For this reason, contributory factors identification associated with crashes is necessary for reducing road crashes and ensuring transportation safety. This paper presents an analytical approach to identifying significant contributing factors of Bangladesh road crashes by evaluating the road crash data, considering three different severity levels (non-fetal, severe, and extremely severe). Generally, official crash databases are compiled from police-reported crash records. Though the official datasets are focusing on compiling a wide array of attributes, an assorted number of unreported issues can be observed that demands an alternative source of crash data. Therefore, this proposed approach considers compiling crash data from newspapers in Bangladesh which could be complimentary to the official crash database. To conduct the analysis, first, we filtered the useful features from compiled crash data using three popular feature selection techniques: chi-square, Two-way ANOVA, and Regression analysis. Then, we employed three machine learning classifiers: Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Naïve Bayes over the extracted features. A confusion matrix was considered to evaluate the proposed model, including classification accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. The predictive machine learning model, namely, Random Forest using Label Encoder with chi-square and Two-way ANOVA feature selection process, seems the best option for crash severity prediction that provides high prediction accuracy. The resulting model highlights nine out of fourteen independent features as responsible factors. Significant features associated with crash severities include driver characteristics (gender, license type, seat belts), vehicle characteristics (vehicle type), road characteristics (road surface type, road classification), environmental conditions (day of crash occurred, time of crash), and injury localization. This outcome may contribute to improving traffic safety of Bangladesh.

Background: Positive results can be obtained through game-based learning, but children with physical disabilities have fewer opportunities to participate in enjoyable physical activity. Because intelligent serious games can provide personalized learning opportunities, motivate the learner, teach 21st-century skills, and provide an environment for authentic and relevant assessment, they may be used to help children and adolescents with different kinds of learning disabilities to develop social and cognitive competences. Objective: The aim of the study was to produce and evaluate a suite of intelligent serious games based on accessible learning objectives for improving key skills, personal development, and work sustainability among children with learning difficulties. Methods: We conducted this research between 2016 and 2018, with pupils aged 11 to 12 years with learning disabilities who were integrated into the mainstream educational system. We used a 4-step methodology to develop learner creativity and social competences: (1) needs analysis, (2) development of learning content, (3) development of intelligent serious games, and (4) a usability evaluation focusing on the research questions and hypothesis. This was based on an initial teachers’ evaluation, using a survey, of students using 2 of the games, where the main goal was to determine user motivation and initiative and to improve the games and the evaluation process. The initial evaluation was followed by a pilot evaluation, which was performed for all proposed games, in all partner countries. Results: In an initial evaluation with 51 participants from Slovenia consisting of a pretest, followed by intelligent serious game intervention and concluding with a posttest, we observed statistically significant improvement in social and cognitive competences measured by tests. Based on these findings and observations, we improved the games and evaluation process. In the pilot test, conducted in all participating countries on a sample of 93 participants, the mean score on the teachers’ observation form on the pretest (before students began using the intelligent serious games) was 3.9. In the posttest, after students had used intelligent serious games, the mean score was 4.1. Conclusions: We focused on developing and evaluating intelligent serious games for persons with learning disabilities, particularly for students with disabilities who are integrated into the mainstream educational system. Such games provide an opportunity for personalized learning and should be tailored to ensure that every learner can achieve the highest standard possible. However, we recommend that the games be adapted based on the students’ needs and capabilities and a specially developed curriculum. The collected feedback showed that (1) children with learning disabilities need appropriately developed intelligent serious games, and (2) intelligent serious games, and the pertaining didactic methodology, should be based on an interoperable curriculum, so that teachers and trainers can use them. The student survey confirmed improvements in all aspects.