UI for Thermographic System
Interface of the thermographic system for the detection of psycho-physiological changes in usability analysis.
Role: Student researcher, application developer, usability analyst.
Done at: User Centered Technologies Research Group, Dornbin, Austria.
Duration: 3 Months.
Tasks: Information Architecture, Software development, High-fidelity prototypes, GUI design for desktop application, Heuristic evaluation
Introduction
UCT Research Institute aimed to advance the level of usability of human computer interfaces by developing adaptive and intelligent interfaces of the next generation. One of the then contemporary research and development topics were psycho-physiological usability evaluation techniques using thermography camera.
Functions of the thermographic camera
The use of the thermography camera in HCI is to measure the skin temperature with high accuracy and resolution in a wide temperature range. The changes in the skin temperature can then be analyzed for various usability studies.
Features
· Flexibility provided in the software.
· Usable values compatible with the physiological measurement data generated and stored separately.
· The software was platform independent.
· The results of the full system was used to deduce new usability measures.
· Setup could be used for conducting usability tests and plotting meaningful visualization.
 Interface of experimental setup with input feeds of participant hands' image from the thermographic and infrared camera. |
 Interface plotting the thermographic data into a Java applet. |
Conceptualized and developed the GUI of thermographic system from scratch in Java eclipse platform which was purchased by the UCT research lab. It was taken up as a reliable medium of conducting usability tests. The pilot study conducted with the test setup constituting stimulus dependent skin conductance as primary input source and the thermography system as the alternative means of study for the psycho-physiological responses had high correlations. This confirmed the accuracy of the latter medium.
Figure: The process of capturing thermographic data to GUI applet.
The usability tests conducted was based on the following approaches: -
· Anticipation (get ready for specific using of devices)
· Attention (realize the relevant information)
· Concentration (focus on only current achievements)
· Emotion (subjective affiliation towards application)
· Motivation (enthusiasm in solving operating problem)
· Impression (aesthetic appraisals of visual displays)
· Orientation (remembering a point of reference within websites and applications)