Visual Channels Research Articles

A Preliminary Study of the Relation of Visual Attention to Stimulus Complexity and Functional Vision in Individuals With Cortical Visual Impairment: Implications for Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Purpose: Individuals with cortical visual impairment (CVI) can have difficulties with visual processing due to physical damage or atypical structures of visual pathways or visual processing centers in the brain. Many individuals with CVI have concomitant disabilities, including significant communication support needs; these individuals can benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Because much AAC involves a visual channel, implementation of AAC must consider the unique visual processing skills and challenges in CVI. However, little is known empirically about how to best design AAC for individuals with CVI. This study examined processing of visual stimuli in four young adolescents with CVI. Method: This study used a within-subjects experimental design that sought to provide an in-depth description of the visual engagement of individuals with CVI when viewing stimuli of various levels of complexity, either with or without a social cue. Results: Participants engaged most with the simplest stimuli (relative to the size of those stimuli) and engaged more when a social cue was provided during the task. The level of engagement with more complex stimuli was related to participants' score on the CVI Range, a clinical assessment tool that characterizes level of visual functioning. Conclusions: Implications for AAC include considerations for the internal complexity of AAC symbols and the complexity of the arrays created for individuals with CVI. Clinicians working with children with CVI who use AAC should consider the unique features of their visual processing.

Factors Affecting the Accessibility of Voice Telephony for People with Hearing Loss: Audio Encoding, Network Impairments, Video and Environmental Noise

This paper describes four studies with a total of 114 individuals with hearing loss and 12 hearing controls that investigate the impact of audio quality parameters on voice telecommunications. These studies were first informed by a survey of 439 individuals with hearing loss on their voice telecommunications experiences. While voice telephony was very important, with high usage of wireless mobile phones, respondents reported relatively low satisfaction with their hearing devices’ performance for telephone listening, noting that improved telephone audio quality was a significant need. The studies cover three categories of audio quality parameters: (1) narrowband (NB) versus wideband (WB) audio; (2) encoding audio at varying bit rates, from typical rates used in today's mobile networks to the highest quality supported by these audio codecs; and (3) absence of packet loss to worst-case packet loss in both mobile and VoIP networks. Additionally, NB versus WB audio was tested in auditory-only and audiovisual presentation modes and in quiet and noisy environments. With WB audio in a quiet environment, individuals with hearing loss exhibited better speech recognition, expended less perceived mental effort, and rated speech quality higher than with NB audio. WB audio provided a greater benefit when listening alone than when the visual channel also was available. The noisy environment significantly degraded performance for both presentation modes, but particularly for listening alone. Bit rate affected speech recognition for NB audio, and speech quality ratings for both NB and WB audio. Packet loss affected all of speech recognition, mental effort, and speech quality ratings. WB versus NB audio also affected hearing individuals, especially under packet loss. These results are discussed in terms of the practical steps they suggest for the implementation of telecommunications systems and related technical standards and policy considerations to improve the accessibility of voice telephony for people with hearing loss.

Learning to diagnose accurately through virtual patients: do reflection phases have an added benefit?

BackgroundSimulation-based learning with virtual patients is a highly effective method that could potentially be further enhanced by including reflection phases. The effectiveness of reflection phases for learning to diagnose has mainly been demonstrated for problem-centered instruction with text-based cases, not for simulation-based learning. To close this research gap, we conducted a study on learning history-taking using virtual patients. In this study, we examined the added benefit of including reflection phases on learning to diagnose accurately, the associations between knowledge and learning, and the diagnostic process.MethodsA sample of N = 121 medical students completed a three-group experiment with a control group and pre- and posttests. The pretest consisted of a conceptual and strategic knowledge test and virtual patients to be diagnosed. In the learning phase, two intervention groups worked with virtual patients and completed different types of reflection phases, while the control group learned with virtual patients but without reflection phases. The posttest again involved virtual patients. For all virtual patients, diagnostic accuracy was assessed as the primary outcome. Current hypotheses were tracked during reflection phases and in simulation-based learning to measure diagnostic process.ResultsRegarding the added benefit of reflection phases, an ANCOVA controlling for pretest performance found no difference in diagnostic accuracy at posttest between the three conditions, F(2, 114) = 0.93, p = .398. Concerning knowledge and learning, both pretest conceptual knowledge and strategic knowledge were not associated with learning to diagnose accurately through reflection phases. Learners’ diagnostic process improved during simulation-based learning and the reflection phases.ConclusionsReflection phases did not have an added benefit for learning to diagnose accurately in virtual patients. This finding indicates that reflection phases may not be as effective in simulation-based learning as in problem-centered instruction with text-based cases and can be explained with two contextual differences. First, information processing in simulation-based learning uses the verbal channel and the visual channel, while text-based learning only draws on the verbal channel. Second, in simulation-based learning, serial cue cases are used to gather information step-wise, whereas, in text-based learning, whole cases are used that present all data at once.

Коллективные методы обучения в гуманитарном образовании

The article analyzes the prospect of using collective teaching methods in higher education. The psychological component of the effectiveness of the collective teaching method is substantiated: conditions for the formation of positive self-esteem, improvement of the psychological climate of the study group; decrease in volitional tension during classes due to greater dynamism (complete absence of monotony due to a change in activities). creating a positive emotional background by meeting the social need for communication. The substantiation of the pedagogical effectiveness of the collective learning method is given by the fact that information is perceived immediately through the visual and auditory channel, systematized and refined, the period between the assimilation and use of information is minimal. In the course of clarifying the concept of collective learning, it is compared with group teaching methods. The choice of a collective teaching method is substantiated. A pedagogical experiment on the use of a collective teaching method is presented and its results are evaluated.

Secure Audio-Visual Data Exchange for Android In-Vehicle Ecosystems

Mobile device pairing inside vehicles is a ubiquitous task which requires easy to use and secure solutions. In this work we exploit the audio-video domain for pairing devices inside vehicles. In principle, we rely on the widely used elliptical curve version of the Diffie-Hellman key-exchange protocol and extract the session keys from the acoustic domain as well as from the visual domain by using the head unit display. The need for merging the audio-visual domains first stems from the fact that in-vehicle head units generally do not have a camera so they cannot use visual data from smartphones, however, they are equipped with microphones and can use them to collect audio data. Acoustic channels are less reliable as they are more prone to errors due to environmental noise. However, this noise can be also exploited in a positive way to extract secure seeds from the environment and audio channels are harder to intercept from the outside. On the other hand, visual channels are more reliable but can be more easily spotted by outsiders, so they are more vulnerable for security applications. Fortunately, mixing these two types of channels results in a solution that is both more reliable and secure for performing a key exchange.

Changes in the characteristics of perception channels in the process of mastering the discipline «Osteopathy»

Introduction. Perception is a holistic reflection of objects and phenomena. A person has all the channels of perception — auditory, visual, kinesthetic. Only the expression degree of each channel in the overall structure of perception is different. Psychologists studied the specific weight of perception channels in its overall structure in a single-stage «slice». There is no reliable data on changes in perception in one group of subjects over a long period of time. Osteopathic researches have examined the development of touch during learning process. At the same time, there have not been studied the dynamics of perception as a whole system.The goal of the study is to research the changes of the perception channels among students of the cycle of professional retraining in the specialty «Osteopathy» in the process of 4-year education and to compare it with the perception channels characteristics of teachers of the cycle.Materials and methods. From 2018 to 2021 a cohort, prospective study was conducted. The study involved persons enrolled in a long (3,5 years) cycle of professional retraining in the specialty «Osteopathy» from I to IV courses — 63 people (35 men, 28 women, age from 26 to 52 years, median 36,5 years), and also teachers of osteopathy with at least 5 years of work experience — 20 people (14 men, 6 women, age from 31 to 55 years, median 48 years). An annual survey was conducted based on the questionnaire of S. A. Efremtseva «Diagnostics of the dominant perceptual modality», which consists of 48 questions aimed at identifying the predominant (dominant) channels of perception in three directions: auditory, visual or kinesthetic. The maximum score for each of the three modality channels is 16, the minimum is 0. The survey was anonymous. In the questionnaire, the participants provided only data on their gender, age, study group number, and the date of the study.Results. The general structure of the students′ perception underwent changes during their learning. The specific weight of the kinesthetic channel in the general structure of listeners′ perception grew annually and doubled in the IV year in comparison with the beginning of training. At the same time, the specific weight of other channels of perception decreased steadily. The expression of all channels of listeners′ perception in absolute numbers also increased (p<0,005). The kinesthetic channel showed the most stable positive dynamics. Its expression began to grow already in the second year of the learning (p<0,001), while the expression of the auditory and visual channels had a statistically significant difference only when comparing 3rd and 4th years of the learning (p<0,005). The perception channels among the teachers of osteopathy were characterized by high absolute indices with similar values for individual channels. In half of the subjects, the kinesthetic channel prevailed in the structure of perception, and in the second half the polymodal channel prevailed with a high rate of kinesthetics. The expression of all perception channels of the osteopathic school students during the learning process gradually approached to that of the osteopathy teachers. At the 4th year of the learning, students did not statistically significantly differ from teachers by the absolute values of perception channels indicators.Conclusion. The students of the osteopathic school showed a regular increase in the expression of all perception channels during their learning (p<0,005). The expression of the kinesthetic channel grew most rapidly. The largest increasing across all channels occurred in the 4th year of the learning. During the first three years of the learning, the listeners, in terms of the perception channels expression, gradually approached the teachers who had high indicators by all channels. At the 4th year, the students did not differ statistically significantly from the teachers. Therefore, the primary training in osteopathy should last at least 3,5–4 years for the high perception index formation of perception of an osteopathic physician.

Methodological approaches to the formation of professionally oriented english lexical competence in speaking in future specialists of hotel and restaurant business

Methodological approaches to the formation of professionally oriented English lexical competence in speaking in future hotel and restaurant specialists are selected and revealed, and the principles of this process are substantiated. The essence and structure of professionally oriented English lexical competence in speaking of future specialists of hotel and restaurant business are formulated. The preconditions of vocabulary use, including terminological, are considered. It has been found, that the production of oral speech is impossible without the perception and understanding of oral speech by ear. The following approaches are described, which provide methodical and methodological substantiation of the process of formation of professionally oriented English lexical competence in speaking in future specialists of hotel and restaurant business, such as: communicative, interactive, student-centric, sociolinguistic. The peculiarities of formation of professionally oriented English lexical competence in speaking in future specialists of hotel and restaurant business on the basis of the communicative approach are outlined. The educational materials, used in the application of the communicative approach, are investigated. The interactive discourse, which is a type of communicative activity, is considered. The principles, on which this process is based, are analyzed: general methodological principles (situational; communicative activity; communicative value; immersion), specific principles speech clichés, parallel activation of visual and auditory channels of information perception). Recommendations for the optimal combination of classroom learning and extracurricular learning, including independent work with the help of network technologies using video, audio and text materials, are given. Learning outcomes are formulated on the basis of the student-centered approach, attention is focused on students' skills and competencies. On the basis of the sociolinguistic approach, the creation of educational situations for the purpose of reproduction of scenarios of professionally oriented communication of experts of hotel and restaurant business is provided. It is concluded, that the formation of professionally oriented English lexical competence in speaking in future hotel and restaurant professionals on the basis of communicative, interactive, student-centric, sociolinguistic approaches will ensure the effectiveness of this process

ДИСКУРСИВНА СПЕЦИФІКА МЕТАКОМУНІКАЦІЇ В ТЕЛЕ/РАДІОМОВЛЕННІ

The article discovers discourse-specific characteristics of metacommunication, typical of TV/radio broadcasts. It identifies that TV/radio discourse belongs to oral media discourse that uses audio (and visual) channel of information transfer. The study marks the realization of six main types of metacommunication that have been introduced by the corresponding groups of meta-means, called phatic, regulative, referential, reflective, cohesive and modal, in TV/radio discourse in order to establish its metacommunication discourse-specific characteristics and to indicate "regular meta-means of oral media discourse". Based on the quantitative analysis, the article confirms that metacommunication specifics of TV/radio discourse is in its regulative character, and, consequently, almost all possible patterns of accentuating (denoting appeals, intentions, intensifications, degree, as well as attracting or affecting) and commentating (denoting confirmations, disagreements, distancing, explanations, generalizations, comparatives and conditions, confessions etc.) means are realized there. It also proves that the second most important in TV/radio discourse is a phatic metacommunication due to the host’s use of contact-establishing, contact-maintaining and contact-terminating meta-means. A special attention has been paid to the study of the same phatic means used in the beginning and at the end of the program. The research specifies that referential metacommunication is least typical of TV/radio discourse because the spontaneity of oral speech does not presuppose careful recollection of word-to-word citations, their authors etc.

Language Transfer: Dominant Channels in Perception

The paper covers a range of issues related to the specifics of Russian language mastering by Indian students studying in English and Russian. The research is based on an integrative methodological platform that combines approaches to multilingualism formation from the standpoint of psychological linguistics, cognitive linguistics, the theory of language contacts, discourse and communication science. The research involves the techniques of psychological and semantic analyses and verbal associations, the methods of contextual analysis and comparison. The material of the paper is the data obtained from online surveys of Indian students who have been studying at universities in North Ossetia-Alania for six years (elementary and pre-intermediate levels of Russian language proficiency). The study is aimed at identifying perception channels that represent the features of foreign students cognitive style in the Russian natural environment, descripting level-by-level interfering influence of native languages and weak interference of English. Based on text fragments and lexical units, vectors and methods of interlingual interference were demonstrated, its leading types were determined, that are phonetic, phonemic, graphemic, phonemic-graphemic, morphological and lexical. The role of English as a communicative mediator is defined. The analysis done confirmed complex application of auditory, visual and kinesthetic channels at the information input, and revealed the dominance of the auditory perception channel at the information output while learning the Russian language by Indian students. The Indian students cognitive style tends to be simplified through contamination of written and oral speech, compression, abbreviations usage, intensification of associative and semantic links. Strategies for using Internet translation, imitation of mastering the Russian language, literal translation from English into Russian, strategies for the implementation of graphic, phonetic-graphic principles of writing, phonemic and grammatical reduction were identified as the basic communication strategies of Indian students learning Russian.

Postural Balance Ability and the Effect of Visual Restriction on Older Dancers and Non-Dancers.

Dance has been suggested to be an advantageous exercise modality for improving postural balance performance and reducing the risk of falls in the older population. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether visual restriction impacts older dancers and non-dancers differently during a quiet stance balance performance test. We hypothesized higher balance performance and greater balance deterioration due to visual restriction in dancers compared with non-dancers, indicating the superior contribution of the visual channel in the expected higher balance performances of dancers. Sixty-nine (38 men, 31 women, 74 ± 6 years) healthy older adults participated and were grouped into a Greek traditional dance group (n = 31, two to three times/week for 1.5 h/session, minimum of 3 years) and a non-dancer control group (n = 38, no systematic exercise history). The participants completed an assessment of one-legged quiet stance trials using both left and right legs and with eyes open while standing barefoot on a force plate (Wii, A/D converter, 1,000 Hz; Biovision) and two-legged trials with both eyes open and closed. The possible differences in the anthropometric and one-legged balance parameters were examined by a univariate ANOVA with group and sex as fixed factors. This ANOVA was performed using the same fixed factors and vision as the repeated measures factor for the two-legged balance parameters. In the one-legged task, the dance group showed significantly lower values in anteroposterior and mediolateral sway amplitudes (p = 0.001 and p = 0.035) and path length measured in both directions (p = 0.001) compared with the non-dancers. In the two-legged stance, we found a significant vision effect on path length (p < 0.001) and anteroposterior amplitude (p < 0.001), whereas mediolateral amplitude did not differ significantly (p = 0.439) between closed and open eyes. The dance group had a significantly lower CoP path length (p = 0.006) and anteroposterior (p = 0.001) and mediolateral sway amplitudes (p = 0.003) both in the eyes-open and eyes-closed trials compared with the control group. The superior balance performance in the two postural tasks found in the dancers is possibly the result of the coordinated, aesthetically oriented intersegmental movements, including alternations between one- and two-legged stance phases, that comes with dance. Visual restriction resulted in a similar deterioration of balance performance in both groups, thus suggesting that the contribution of the visual channel alone cannot explain the superior balance performance of dancers.

Improving the Discriminability of Haptic Icons: The Haptic Tuning Fork

Technological advances enable the capture and management of complex data sets that need to be correctly understood. Visualisation techniques can help in complex data analysis and exploration, but sometimes the visual channel is not enough, or it is not always available. Some authors propose using the haptic channel to reinforce or substitute the visual sense, but the limited human haptic short-term memory still poses a challenge. We present the haptic tuning fork, a reference signal displayed before the haptic information for increasing the discriminability of haptic icons. With this reference, the user does not depend only on short-term memory. We have decided to evaluate the usefulness of the haptic tuning fork in impedance kinesthetic devices as these are the most common. Furthermore, since the renderable signal ranges are device-dependent, we introduce a methodology to select a discriminable set of signals called the haptic scale. Both the haptic tuning fork and the haptic scale proved their usefulness in the performed experiments regarding haptic stimuli varying in frequency.

Vibrotactile-Based Operational Guidance System for Space Science Experiments

On-orbit astronauts and scientists on the ground need to cooperate closely, to complete space science experiments efficiently. However, for the increasingly diverse space science experiments, scientists are unable to train astronauts on the ground about the details of each experiment. The traditional interaction of visual and auditory channels is not enough for scientists to directly guide astronauts to experimentalize. An intuitive and transparent interaction interface between scientists and astronauts has to be built to meet the requirements of space science experiments. Therefore, this paper proposed a vibrotactile guidance system for cooperation between scientists and astronauts. We utilized Kinect V2 sensors to track the movements of the participants of space science experiments, process data in the virtual experimental environment developed by Unity 3D, and provide astronauts with different guidance instructions using the wearable vibrotactile device. Compared with other schemes using only visual and auditory channels, our approach provides more direct and more efficient guidance information that astronauts perceive is what they need to perform different tasks. Three virtual space science experiment tasks verified the feasibility of the vibrotactile operational guidance system. Participants were able to complete the experimental task with a short period of training, and the experimental results show that the method has an application prospect.

Beyond visual semantics: Exploring the role of scene text in image understanding

Images with visual and scene text content are ubiquitous in everyday life. However, current image interpretation systems are mostly limited to using only the visual features, neglecting to leverage the scene text content. In this paper, we propose to jointly use scene text and visual channels for robust semantic interpretation of images. We do not only extract and encode visual and scene text cues, but also model their interplay to generate a contextual joint embedding with richer semantics. The contextual embedding thus generated is applied to retrieval and classification tasks on multimedia images, with scene text content, to demonstrate its effectiveness. In the retrieval framework, we augment our learned text-visual semantic representation with scene text cues, to mitigate vocabulary misses that may have occurred during the semantic embedding. To deal with irrelevant or erroneous recognition of scene text, we also apply query-based attention to our text channel. We show how the multi-channel approach, involving visual semantics and scene text, improves upon state of the art.

Hierarchical Conditional Relation Networks for Multimodal Video Question Answering

Video Question Answering (Video QA) challenges modelers in multiple fronts. Modeling video necessitates building not only spatio-temporal models for the dynamic visual channel but also multimodal structures for associated information channels such as subtitles or audio. Video QA adds at least two more layers of complexity – selecting relevant content for each channel in the context of the linguistic query, and composing spatio-temporal concepts and relations hidden in the data in response to the query. To address these requirements, we start with two insights: (a) content selection and relation construction can be jointly encapsulated into a conditional computational structure, and (b) video-length structures can be composed hierarchically. For (a) this paper introduces a general-reusable reusable neural unit dubbed Conditional Relation Network (CRN) taking as input a set of tensorial objects and translating into a new set of objects that encode relations of the inputs. The generic design of CRN helps ease the common complex model building process of Video QA by simple block stacking and rearrangements with flexibility in accommodating diverse input modalities and conditioning features across both visual and linguistic domains. As a result, we realize insight (b) by introducing Hierarchical Conditional Relation Networks (HCRN) for Video QA. The HCRN primarily aims at exploiting intrinsic properties of the visual content of a video as well as its accompanying channels in terms of compositionality, hierarchy, and near-term and far-term relation. HCRN is then applied for Video QA in two forms, short-form where answers are reasoned solely from the visual content of a video, and long-form where an additional associated information channel, such as movie subtitles, presented. Our rigorous evaluations show consistent improvements over state-of-the-art methods on well-studied benchmarks including large-scale real-world datasets such as TGIF-QA and TVQA, demonstrating the strong capabilities of our CRN unit and the HCRN for complex domains such as Video QA. To the best of our knowledge, the HCRN is the very first method attempting to handle long and short-form multimodal Video QA at the same time.

Robot Transparency and Anthropomorphic Attribute Effects on Human-Robot Interactions.

Anthropomorphic robots need to maintain effective and emotive communication with humans as automotive agents to establish and maintain effective human–robot performances and positive human experiences. Previous research has shown that the characteristics of robot communication positively affect human–robot interaction outcomes such as usability, trust, workload, and performance. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of transparency and anthropomorphism in robotic dual-channel communication, encompassing the voice channel (low or high, increasing the amount of information provided by textual information) and the visual channel (low or high, increasing the amount of information provided by expressive information). The results showed the benefits and limitations of increasing the transparency and anthropomorphism, demonstrating the significance of the careful implementation of transparency methods. The limitations and future directions are discussed.

Features of “Inverted” Educational Resources for Distance Learning of Pupils

Purpose of research. The purpose of the paper is to describe the features of the “inverted” educational resources intended for the implementation of additional subject training of schoolchildren in a distance mode, which are created on the basis of the concepts of the problem-solving approach and micro-learning. Distance learning technologies, widely introduced into educational practice, require a high level of self-organization and internal motivation from the student to work independently, which necessitates the search for new approaches to the development of educational resources that would help maintain the interest and attention of students until the end of training. Features of the generation of modern schoolchildren, such as a low level of concentration, the prevalence of “clip way of thinking” and the visual channel of information perception, the search for the most comfortable conditions for the implementation of educational activities necessitate a revision of the form and content of educational information, taking into account the possibilities of its development along an individual trajectory. Materials and methods. Based on a theoretical analysis of psychological, pedagogical, methodological literature on the topic of research and modern statistical data demonstrating the level of readiness and motivation of students for independent distance learning, the paper describes the features of the structure and content of “inverted” educational resources, built taking into account the cognitive and psychosocial characteristics of modern “digital” generation. The necessity of compressing and structuring educational material and presentation in a question-and-task, visualized format is substantiated. Results. As the results of the research, the paper describes the concept and features of “inverted” educational resources. An inverted learning resource is understood as a complex digital learning tool, the content of which is presented in the form of a hierarchical tree or a semantic network of questions, each of which is supplied with brief visualized theoretical information and explanatory practical examples that implement inductive-deductive connections (concretization-generalization). The main idea behind the development of such tools is that the “inverted” learning resources, on the one hand, implement a non-linear approach to the implementation of learning activities in accordance with the individual characteristics of a particular student (the current level of training, knowledge gaps, specific interests and difficulties), with the other - they create conditions for the initial systematization and complex internalization of the acquired knowledge and methods of action, contain a “cognitive challenge” aimed at increasing educational motivation through the implementation of mechanisms of formative self-control at the initial stage. Based on these features, the authors see a special effect of using such resources in the field of additional training. Having already a certain baggage of knowledge and experience in the subject area being mastered, the student can begin the study by identifying deficiencies and possible difficulties, their reflection, and only then proceed to a more conscious formation of new knowledge and specific methods of action. Conclusion. In conclusion, the paper summarizes the features of “inverted” resources for distance learning of schoolchildren, provides further plans for the development of the project, and also identifies the possible areas to use the results. The materials of the article may be of interest to developers of digital learning resources, researchers of educational learning models, teachers wishing to use digital cognitive and mental learning technologies.

Speakers exhibit a multimodal Lombard effect in noise

In everyday conversation, we are often challenged with communicating in non-ideal settings, such as in noise. Increased speech intensity and larger mouth movements are used to overcome noise in constrained settings (the Lombard effect). How we adapt to noise in face-to-face interaction, the natural environment of human language use, where manual gestures are ubiquitous, is currently unknown. We asked Dutch adults to wear headphones with varying levels of multi-talker babble while attempting to communicate action verbs to one another. Using quantitative motion capture and acoustic analyses, we found that (1) noise is associated with increased speech intensity and enhanced gesture kinematics and mouth movements, and (2) acoustic modulation only occurs when gestures are not present, while kinematic modulation occurs regardless of co-occurring speech. Thus, in face-to-face encounters the Lombard effect is not constrained to speech but is a multimodal phenomenon where the visual channel carries most of the communicative burden.

Identification of Words and Phrases Through a Phonemic-Based Haptic Display

Stand-alone devices for tactile speech reception serve a need as communication aids for persons with profound sensory impairments as well as in applications such as human-computer interfaces and remote communication when the normal auditory and visual channels are compromised or overloaded. The current research is concerned with perceptual evaluations of a phoneme-based tactile speech communication device in which a unique tactile code was assigned to each of the 24 consonants and 15 vowels of English. The tactile phonemic display was conveyed through an array of 24 tactors that stimulated the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the forearm. Experiments examined the recognition of individual words as a function of the inter-phoneme interval (Study 1) and two-word phrases as a function of the inter-word interval (Study 2). Following an average training period of 4.3 hrs on phoneme and word recognition tasks, mean scores for the recognition of individual words in Study 1 ranged from 87.7% correct to 74.3% correct as the inter-phoneme interval decreased from 300 to 0 ms. In Study 2, following an average of 2.5 hours of training on the two-word phrase task, both words in the phrase were identified with an accuracy of 75% correct using an inter-word interval of 1 sec and an inter-phoneme interval of 150 ms. Effective transmission rates achieved on this task were estimated to be on the order of 30 to 35 words/min.

Intelligibility of Haptic Signals in Vehicle Information Systems.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to verify changes in a driver’s emotions through the physical characteristics of haptic signals. This is to improve the performance of drivers by designing haptic signals with emotional semantics. Background: Currently, drivers receive a variety of information through intelligent systems installed in their vehicles. Because this is mainly achieved through visual and auditory channels, an excessive amount of information is provided to drivers, which increases the amount of information and cognitive load that they must accept. This, in turn, can reduce driving safety. It is, therefore, necessary to develop a haptic signal, a sensory channel that has not been widely used in in-vehicle information systems. Methods: The experiment was performed to collect a driver’s emotions according to the haptic signal in a driving simulator. Haptic signals were designed by various frequencies and accelerations, and driver emotions were collected through Kansei engineering techniques and analyzed through factor analysis. To verify intelligibility, haptic signals were compared and evaluated based on response time, response rate, and amount of transmitted information. Results: The final determined emotional map consisted of dangerousness and urgency. Based on the emotional map, four emotional semantic haptic signals were designed. It was confirmed that these four signals displayed higher performance than the discriminability haptic signal in terms of response time, response rate, and amount of transmitted information. Conclusions: Using emotional maps, it is possible to design haptic signals that can be applied to various driving situations. These maps may also assist in securing design guidelines for haptic signals that apply to in-vehicle information systems.

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ІННОВАЦІЙНИХ ФОРМ НАВЧАННЯ НА УРОКАХ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ

Nowadays foreign language is not just a part of nation's culture, it is also the guarantee of student’s successful career in the future. The achievement of high level proficiency of foreign language is not possible without fundamental language training in higher education institution. Most of them in our country provide students with at least two or even three foreign languages. In the context of higher school reforming, important changes in the educational technologies of foreign language teaching are envisaged. Modern language education is also gradually being modernized, introducing a modular rating system for teaching foreign languages. Interdisciplinary integration, democratization and economization of education determine the manifestation of innovative components in the teaching of the foreign languages. All this requires the formulation of the new claims for teaching and a foreign language teacher in the Free Economic Zone. At the current stage of society development, the purpose of foreign language teaching in higher education institutions is students' mastering of communicative competencies that will allow them to implement their knowledge, skills and abilities to solve specific communicative tasks in real life situations. The introduction of the new effective methods of foreign language teaching in the process of preparing students of humanities and technical specialties has become not only desirable but also necessary. Innovative orientation requires teachers to master and apply the pedagogical innovations, as well as stimulate the search for new forms and methods of educational process organization. High-quality language training of students is impossible without the use of modern educational technologies. The most effective are the professionally-oriented foreign language learning, the project work in teaching, the application of information and telecommunication technologies, the work with educational computer programs in foreign languages (multimedia system), the distance technologies in foreign language learning, the use of Internet resources, the foreign language teaching in the computer environment (forums, blogs, e-mail, etc.). Nowadays, the methodology of the use of computer programs is being developed actively getting more used. Computer programs offer ample opportunities to improve the process of foreign language learning, increasing its efficiency. The computer program provides the perception of information through auditory and visual channels, so it also allows you to organize teaching and control the foreign language acquisition in different modes of independent search and at different levels of complexity. Foreign language teaching means are important to ensure the full and effective organization of students' learning in the classroom to master foreign language activities.