Reviewerly/exHarmony huggingface dataset:
Variational Bayesian deep network for blind Poisson denoising

Deep learning-based approaches have recently achieved considerable results in Poisson denoising under low-light conditions. However, most existing methods mainly focus on the network architecture design, which lacks physical interpretability and thus unsuitable for blind denoising in real environments with unknown levels of noises. To address this issue, we propose a variational Bayesian deep network for blind Poisson denoising (VBDNet). We mainly consider an approximate posterior form for the noise variance in a variational Bayesian framework and utilize a neural network to parameterize the variance of Poisson noise. For network design, VBDNet is divided into two sub-networks. The noise estimation sub-network is responsible for the Bayesian inference. This network improves the blind denoising ability of the subsequent denoising sub-network by learning Poisson noise characteristics under different noise levels in the training process. A network of U-Net structures implements the denoising sub-network for noise removal. By combining the advantage of Bayesian inference (noise estimation sub-network) and deep learning (denoising sub-network), VBDNet outperforms other state-of-the-art methods on both synthetic and natural data. The code and details are available at https://github.com/HLImg/VBDNet.
Cybersecurity Compliance Requirements for USA Department of Defense Contractors - Dragons at the Gate

Dragons at the Gate provides you with insightful details about those who continue to exploit our intellectual expertise, and technical expertise and take advantage of our trust. Your life and your family's lives will and are being impacted. This paper is intended to wake you up and realize you have already been attacked and who and what you do not matter to those that attack us. This paper will not solve the problem but will provide you with an insight into how you might influence those you count on to protect you or what you might do to protect yourself, those around you, and the rest of us. These collectively will help in protecting us against the problem (cybersecurity attacks). It is still up to you. We will look at the cause and effect of the attackers, the cause and effect of defending against them, and the restrictions that prevent us from attacking back. With over 50 years of hands-on experience in the computer industry, I provide a perspective from the coding, configuration, and large-scale computing systems to the cloud. I have worked in this industry from the private sector, healthcare, and government. I understand the legislative and front-line business perspectives. I have felt and continue to feel your pain. You have no idea what is coming next, and neither do I. If you are a front line, IT professional, or senior IT executive this paper is intended to help you get the message across to all senior executives, and employees that the Dragon is at the Gate and has already broken through the walls! The Department of Defense has placed and is increasing the requirements and the penalties for DoD contractors not complying with existing and future cybersecurity laws. It's the senior executive that will be confronted by the DoD, not the IT professional! But are our laws good enough when our laws do not pertain to our adversaries?
Investigating the Role of Vection, Presence, and Stress on Visually Induced Motion Sickness

Visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) is a common side-effect when using visual displays such as Virtual Reality applications. The goal of the present study was to further investigate how VIMS is related to the sensations of vection (i.e., illusory self-motion) and presence (i.e., feeling of "being there"). In addition, we explored how acute stress, anxiety, and discomfort may affect the severity of VIMS. A total of 53 participants were exposed to a 15-min-long VIMS-inducing visual stimulus while their level of VIMS was recorded before, during, and after stimulus exposure. Results showed significant, positive correlations between VIMS severity and vection frequency (i.e., the total amount of vection experienced), vection intensity, and presence. Only weak to moderately strong correlations were found for VIMS and stress. Interestingly, regression analysis revealed that vection frequency and the level of discomfort experienced prior to the experiment were the two best predictors of VIMS severity. The results of this study help to better understand how VIMS, vection, and presence are linked to each other and how individual and situational factors add to the experience of VIMS.
A Bibliometric-Based Study of Virtual Reality User Interface Design

To systematically understand the global characteristics of virtual reality user interface design research in the international context, grasp the current research hotspots and theoretical foundations of virtual reality user interface design, and explore new trends in future development based on current research hotspots. Using the literature related to virtual reality user interface design collected by Web of Science as the data source, we use VOSviewer and CiteSpace to map the scientific knowledge in terms of year output distribution, country, research institution, author, reference co-citation and keyword clustering, and conduct visual analysis to sort out the research. The results show that the overall number of literature in the search area is on the rise, and China and the United States are in the leading position in research. The research hotspots are mainly focused on "user interface design", "hci", "system", "virtual environment", "visualization", etc., and the research status is relatively mature. Human-centered computing, mixed reality, augmented reality, education, experience, immersive virtual reality, interaction paradigm, and 3D modeling become the new trend of future development. The lack of close collaboration between research institutions and authors and the small number of high-production authors are the main limitations of this stage of research.
Now Look Here! $$\Downarrow $$ Mixed Reality Improves Robot Communication Without Cognitive Overload

Recently, researchers have initiated a new wave of convergent research in which Mixed Reality visualizations enable new modalities of human-robot communication, including Mixed Reality Deictic Gestures (MRDGs) – the use of visualizations like virtual arms or arrows to serve the same purpose as traditional physical deictic gestures. But while researchers have demonstrated a variety of benefits to these gestures, it is unclear whether the success of these gestures depends on a user's level and type of cognitive load. We explore this question through an experiment grounded in rich theories of cognitive resources, attention, and multi-tasking, with significant inspiration drawn from Multiple Resource Theory. Our results suggest that MRDGs provide task-oriented benefits regardless of cognitive load, but only when paired with complex language. These results suggest that designers can pair rich referring expressions with MRDGs without fear of cognitively overloading their users.
Being Elsewhere: An Information Architecture Approach to the Design of a Sense of Presence in XR Environments

This paper frames extended reality (XR) as an information-based designed environment and argues that its design requires principles, tools and methods of digital design and experience design to be revisited and revised. Approaching the design of XR environments from the perspective of information architecture, the paper stipulates that the naturality commonly associated with a sense of presence in XR space cannot be achieved simply through the design or redesign of the visual interface layer, but rather requires a structural approach that leverages human embodiment and spatial thought. The paper tracks this conversation from interface to architecture by anchoring it to Bates’ seminal work on information seeking strategies as exaptation and on her seminal intuition of the role that the environment plays in supporting human information needs; to Horan’s definition of physical and digital space as elements in a continuum in which the ongoing expansion of digital is transforming the physical environment; to Benyon’s conceptualization of blended space as the novel space emerging from the intimate commingling of digital with physical; and to Resmini and Rosati’s heuristic information architecture principles for the design of digital/physical experiences. The paper then describes important structural challenges in the design of XR environments, illustrates the relevance of the framing introduced here by means of a brief case study, and concludes by offering a discussion and preliminary conclusions.
Research on Mixed Reality Visual Augmentation Method for Teleoperation Interactive System

Highly intelligent teleoperated robots are playing an increasingly important role in high-risk tasks. This paper proposed a teleoperation vision enhancement method in mixed reality scenarios, aiming at the problems of poor interactive telepresence at the control terminal of the teleoperation system and the difficulty for the operator to obtain real experience. By building the video stream transmission based on this method, the researchers realized the real-time presentation of the remote scene. This research carried out the interface visualization of the mixed reality visual enhancement interactive system by analyzing the target requirements in the teleoperation interaction task and improved the interactive control strategy in the mixed reality scene. This teleoperation interactive system effectively solves the problem of synchronous reproduction of remote operation scenes, improves operators’ interaction efficiency and accuracy, and verifies the advantages and application prospects of mixed reality display technology.
Multimodality: Exploring Sensibility and Sense-Making Beyond the Metaverse

Immersive technologies are increasingly integrated into creative practice and various aspects of everyday life as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). These extended reality (XR) technologies are particularly relevant for researchers exploring human-computer relationships where users intend to interact with 3D objects and real-time multimedia in a spatial context. XR is being researched, developed, and deployed for communicating and building knowledge around what is being called the metaverse. The present trajectory for creating metaverse experiences strongly tends toward attaining heightened realism. Here we discuss the various factors of multimodality that challenge the idea that research in interaction for mixed realities should narrowly converge on or limit itself to developing applications intended to captivate users in these realist environments. We emphasize advancements in multimodality to further experimentation with human sensory modalities. To this end, we discuss the recent aesthetic theory proposed by Fuller and Weizman (2021), which is oriented to the attunement of the senses to further our capacities for sensing and sense-making. Building on Fuller and Weizman's references to notions of memory, synaesthesia, kinaesthetics, and chronesthesia, we consider multimodality within mixed realities beyond realism to raise users' sensibility and discernment toward both virtual and physical environments via new forms of experimentation with the senses.
Exploring the User Experience and Effectiveness of Mobile Game-Based Learning in Higher Education

Recent technological and societal changes have heightened the uptake of mobile educational games across all subjects and levels of education. Nevertheless, developing mobile games with a set of design guidelines in mind, does not necessarily imply they will naturally engage learners and improve the learning experience. Building on this tenet, this study aims to explore how higher education students experience learning programming principles by playing a maze-solving mobile educational game; evaluate how effective the game’s features are in terms of engaging students; and inquire how effective mobile devices are as a learning platform for teaching programming and algorithmic thinking. The overarching theme that emerged by analysing the gathered data is the need to promote ‘engagement by design’, indicating that subtle synergies are required between the technological qualities and design features of a mobile educational game, the pedagogical context, and human factors, towards achieving the desired level of learner engagement.
An Interactive Digital Twin of a Composite Manufacturing Process for Training Operators via Immersive Technology

Recently, there has been a growing interest in digital learning platforms and immersive technology for teaching, e.g., complex machine operators. This study investigates the use of a Mixed Reality (MR) system for operator training in a thermoforming case study, emphasizing the significance of user interface (UI), user experience (UX), and usability in MR applications. The work proposes a spatial user interface (UI) for MR applications that enables users to interact with virtual objects in the actual environment. Moreover, to enhance the UX, a real-time 3D heat transfer simulation was developed and integrated into the MR application to allow the learner to monitor and control the manufacturing process closely. The proposed framework is validated by an MR headset (Microsoft HoloLens 2). Lastly, a user study with eight participants was conducted, which showed the usability of the app using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire, scoring an overall usability rate of ~85/100.
CAPTAIN: An AI-Based Chatbot for Cyberbullying Prevention and Intervention

Cyberbullying is a widespread and growing problem that can cause various psychological and health well-being outcomes in youth and is considered a serious public health threat. Cutting-edge informatics technology would enable us to identify and stop cyberbullying to prevent harm, death, and privacy violations. However, current cyberbullying prevention approaches offer limited interactions, individualized education, and in-time intervention. With the current emerging technologies in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the use of chatbots have become increasingly popular in health promotion. However, there are current technological challenges that need to be addressed, such as detecting and preventing cyberbullying in real-time, providing personalized responses and intervention, as well as developing the chatbot with a user-friendly interface. This paper introduces CAPTAIN (Cyberbullying Awareness and Prevention Through Artificial INtelligence), an AI-based chatbot for cyberbullying prevention that can provide anytime interaction for personalized intervention.
Multimodal Interactive System for Visualization of Energy Data in Extended Reality (XR) Settings

The municipal utility supervises all aspects of the city's public utilities, e.g., the power grid. For example, power grid maintenance requires the technician to know where underground cables are installed while having their hands free for maintenance work. Using an immersive headset such as HoloLens provides a technician with these capabilities. This contribution presents DENKI (Data, Energy, Network, Knowledge, Interaction). This HoloLens application supports technicians of the municipal utility "Stadtwerke Saarlouis GmbH" with a detailed overview of the equipment, its utilization, and possibilities to investigate malfunctions. We will exemplify some app functions.
A Comparative Analysis of Real Time Open-Source Speech Recognition Tools for Social Robots

Social robots are designed to support people through their capabilities such as information gathering, processing, analyzing, and predicting. Social robots play a vital role in various fields such as medical, entertainment, education, and assistance. Speech is a fundamental characteristic of social robots to establish communication with humans. The advancement of artificial intelligence has facilitated speech recognition tools to be substantially effective. It is easier to comprehend the meaning of a speech if it is documented. The speech recognition tools help robots in recognizing human speech. It is supposed that robots can precisely understand what humans are attempting to convey, however it is not achievable every time due to several factors such as constraints in terms of robot functionality or noise in the environment. There are research studies which indicate that speech recognition of children is a challenging problem for robots. The in-built speech recognition capabilities of such robots can be enhanced by integrating it with a more efficient speech recognition tool available in this domain. Therefore, it is necessary to select the appropriate speech recognition tool so that robots can understand human speech in a consistent way. In the present study we are analyzing five real-time speech-to-text recognition tools available from open sources: Google speech recognition, Vosk, CMUSphinx, DeepSpeech and Whisper. Evaluation metrics are generally used to evaluate the performance of speech recognition tools. This analysis will enable us to determine the best real time open-source tool to employ for robot-human interaction.
Understanding extra-role security behaviors: An integration of self-determination theory and construal level theory

Extra-role security behaviors (ERSBs) – spontaneous security behaviors that are not prescribed in organizational security policies – are seen as a useful addition to securing informational assets in organizations. However, this exploratory study, based on findings obtained through 29 in-depth-interviews, challenges this positive perspective and shows that extra-role security behaviors cut both ways: They are either helpful or harmful. In addition, our results suggest that (1) ERSB contributes to varying degrees to the effectiveness of information security compliance, (2) the self-determination theory contributes to understanding the motivators for ERSB, and (3) the construal level theory of psychological distance explains the differential risk evaluation of ERSB. We discuss implications for researchers and practitioners – particularly in terms of promoting the beneficial nature of extra-role security behaviors – and suggest compelling avenues for future research.
Behavioral Coding for Predicting Perceptions of Interactions in Dyads

Verbal and non-verbal interpersonal interactions, if quantified, can be important factors for analyzing the performance of globalized team members. While using a survey is a common way to measure the interpersonal interactions, behavioral observation is a method that can effectively save time and avoid individual bias in interpretation. This between-subjects experiment collected data from 101 participants in a face-to-face (F2F), video conference (VC), and virtual reality (VR) training communication between the participant and a confederate trainer. The study explored whether the three conditions affected facial and interpersonal behavior differently. Secondly, the study examined whether future researchers could use the behavior markers to predict social and task variables. The dependent behavioral marker variables were Affirmation, Head Nod, Socializing, Question, Leaning Forward, Common Point of Reference, Mirroring, and Hand Gesture. Results showed that Affirmation and Question occurred significantly more often in F2F and VR than in VC. Participants also scored significantly higher in Head Nod in F2F than in VR and VC conditions, and VR socializing scores were also significantly higher than VC condition. Finally, correlation analysis showed that some self-report survey responses could possibly be replaced with behavioral observation methods. Future researchers who can automate the behavioral coding could thus use this approach rather than survey questions for those constructs.
Changing Hearts and Minds: The Role of Cybersecurity Champion Programs in Cybersecurity Culture

Humans have often been written off as the weakest link in the cybersecurity industry. This paper looks at the human factor from a different perspective, seeking ways to leverage the human element to improve cybersecurity. The human element and its importance in cybersecurity defense and security incidents have been widely studied. The relationship between organizational cybersecurity culture and cybersecurity posture has also been examined in the literature. What is lacking is the examination of how an organization could improve its cybersecurity culture. Accordingly, we explore the possibility of cybersecurity champions to impact organizational cybersecurity culture, thereby improving the organization’s cybersecurity posture. The option of leveraging cybersecurity champions to impact culture is proposed, and existing theoretical bases of Champion Theory and Promotor Theory in innovation management are explored to support the implementation of cybersecurity champions. These theories are then applied to existing cybersecurity culture research. Innovation champions exhibit transformational leadership characteristics to inspire innovation; four types of promotors (expert promotors, power promotors, process promotors and relationship promotors) use their various sources of power to remove barriers to innovation. Eight hypotheses are developed about the possible effect of the presence of cybersecurity innovation champions and cybersecurity promotors on four factors which have been found to have significant impact on information security culture in previous research (Tejay & Mohammed, 2022): group cohesiveness or alignment, professional codes (codes of ethics or conduct), informal work practices, and cybersecurity awareness.
Comparing the Update Expressivity of Communication Patterns and Action Models

Any kind of dynamics in dynamic epistemic logic can be represented as an action model. Right? Wrong! In this contribution we prove that the update expressivity of communication patterns is incomparable to that of action models. Action models, as update mechanisms, were proposed by Baltag, Moss, and Solecki in 1998 and have remained the nearly universally accepted update mechanism in dynamic epistemic logics since then. Alternatives, such as arrow updates that were proposed by Kooi and Renne in 2011, have update equivalent action models. More recently, the picture is shifting. Communication patterns are update mechanisms originally proposed in some form or other by Agotnes and Wang in 2017 (as resolving distributed knowledge), by Baltag and Smets in 2020 (as reading events), and by Velazquez, Castaneda, and Rosenblueth in 2021 (as communication patterns). All these logics have the same expressivity as the base logic of distributed knowledge. However, their update expressivity, the relation between pointed epistemic models induced by such an update, was conjectured to be different from that of action model logic. Indeed, we show that action model logic and communication pattern logic are incomparable in update expressivity. We also show that, given a history-based semantics and when restricted to (static) interpreted systems, action model logic is (strictly) more update expressive than communication pattern logic. Our results are relevant for distributed computing wherein oblivious models involve arbitrary iteration of communication patterns.