[dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI

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Browsing [dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI by Department "Mediatekniikan laitos"

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  • Aesthetic measures for automated magazine layout on tablet devices
    (2012) Kivelä, Ida-Maria
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    The aim of this thesis was to define computational aesthetics parameters for tools which are automatically laying out electronic magazines originally been published as print for tablet devices. The motivation was to answer the challenges publishers face due to the evolution of new media platforms. Two kinds of objective screen layout based measures for aesthetics were included in this study. The first set of measures consisted of simple numerical counts like the number of images and the second one of mathematical formulas expressing more sophisticated visual design features such as the balance of layout. Study materials consisted of a Finnish monthly computer magazine and its automatically generated and professionally designed versions of article layouts. The device used to render the content was an Apple iPad. Together 160 screenshots from the magazines were taken and evaluated by 40 participants. Also the usability of the magazine applications was investigated by interviewing the participants and by taking advantage of the System Usability Scale. It was found that participants were attracted to certain proportions between images and text. Also recommendations for minimum font size and margin width as well as type of text presentation were given. The only complex measure revealing statistically significant correlations was proportion. In addition several usability related issues were found.
  • Algorithmic modifications to the emotional content of motion capture data
    (2010) Lehtonen, Klaus
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Motion capture has become frequently used in computer games and movies. Since the captured motions can be very realistic, it is also possible to see many emotions in the animations that use the captured material. Having the ability to display a motion with different emotions could be useful for games and storytelling. Capturing one action with different kind of emotions can take a lot of time. To solve this problem modifications that change the emotional content of a motion clip have been developed. The goal of this thesis was to search and implement ways to modify captured motions in order to change their emotional appearance. Based on the findings of a literature survey, modifications that affect the posture of a character, the length of the motion paths and acceleration of the motion were implemented. A questionnaire with animated motion was made to survey if the modifications really affect the emotions seen in motions. The results of the thesis show that the changes in posture and in the length of motion paths did help creating the emotions sad, strong, excited, tired, weak and afraid. The emotions angry and relaxed were not successfully created with the modifications. The modification did also affect the femininity and the masculinity of the characters in the animations. The results include a list of possible improvements to the modifications that could be a basis for future research.
  • Aligning Scrum methodology with ERP implementation projects
    (2011) Ratilainen, Sakari
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    In this study, possibilities for applying Scrum, an agile software method, into enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation in projects were investigated. Traditionally such projects have been done using some linear development method, i.e. a waterfall method and some of them have been less than successful in respect to the invested effort. The empirical part of the study was conducted as a qualitative research using an adapted version of the case company's consulting technique for data collection and analysis. Data was gathered in two interview rounds with the first one covering issues in the current ERP projects and the second one validating recommendations on using Scrum to possibly solve some of the problem. In the light of the results customer understanding and commitment are repeating challenges and Scrum could theoretically provide some relief to these issues. A full-scale Scrum implementation was, however, not seen as a very feasible option due to ERP systems' integrated architecture.
  • Applicability of web camera and motion detection for controlling computer games
    (2010) Pyy, Jarkko
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Computers have traditionally been controlled with input devices like keyboard and mouse. New interface types utilize cameras or other devices to produce more versatile experiences and offer other benefits. Games that are played with gestures in front of camera are free of hand held devices and may be intuitive and enable new experiences. Studies have also shown that computer games that require physical activities can have positive effects on health. This Thesis takes a look at currently existing motion controlled games. A proof of concept game is also developed using motion detection technologies. The game is playable with a normal web camera and doesn't set specific requirements for environment. The Thesis evaluates the technology behind motion controlled games as well as the quality and usability of the games. Results indicate that currently available camera games in the Internet leave room for improvement. The development of the proof of concept game enlightens some challenges of making camera interfaces. The user tests reveal that camera games can be likable. Overall, it seems that there is more potential in motion controlled games that has been harnessed so far.
  • "Being there": Social Presence in Closing Deals in E-selling
    (2011) Marin, Jarno
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Social presence has been found to enhance the current situation of the e-commerce, which lacks social interaction. Social presence introduces aspects familiar to offline selling and by building trust it helps to solve important problems such as shopping cart abandonment. The effects of social presence are needed most at the end phase of the e-selling process, where they can be seen to work as a supportive interaction cue called "being there". The objective of this study is to understand the effects of social presence at the end phase of e-selling process. To understand these effects better, social presence is linked to basic purchasing aspects: trust, utilitarian and hedonic motives and purchase behaviour. This study presents the theoretical background of perceived social presence, trust, habituating, revelling and purchase behaviour at the end phase of e-selling and then creates a conceptual model of them. To test this model recommender application with varying social presence in the consumer electronic is built. Experimentation is conducted using this recommender application. This study shows that perceived social presence has positive effect on purchase behavior at the end phase of e-selling, even though this effect is mediated by trust. The perceived social presence has also positive effect on habituating and revelling, which in turn do not have significant effect on purchase behavior. This concludes that social presence enhances the end phase of e-selling process by reducing the uncertainty and making the purchase process more enjoyable.
  • Collaborative page-level bookmarking in document search
    (2010) Heikkinen, Juuso
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Finding and sharing information efficiently is a challenge with economic value for organisations employing knowledge workers. While search engines have reto1utionised information retrieval in the World Wide Web, the progress for search within company intranets has been slower due to their special characteristics. The recent rise of the social media is inspiring new approaches for searching, sharing and discovering information. While many of the concepts on enabling collaboration in reformation search activities are still experimental, social bookmarking services have already gained wide-scale adoption and are finding their way to intranets as well. As collaboration and knowledge-sharing has been found to improve performance of working groups, tools supporting collaborative search are expected to become more common. In this thesis a software application to enhance document search is proposed. The system enables book narking pages from multi-page documents, managing them into collections and collaborating with other users. The prototype implementation that has been built and deployed for testing purposes shows feasibility of the concept. Experiences gathered from development and testing suggest ideas and refinements for further development.
  • Context-Aware DVB-H Service Software Framework
    (2011) Lehtinen, Juha-Matti
     Master's thesis
    Kontekstilla tarkoitetaan tietoa, jota voidaan käyttää jonkin kokonaisuuden tilanteen luonnehtimiseen. Kontekstitietoinen järjestelmä hyödyntää tätä kontekstia tuottaakseen merkityksellistä tietoa ja/tai palveluita järjestelmän käyttäjälle. Kontekstitietoisuus on yhä olennaisempi käsite tulevaisuuden mobiilipalveluissa ja -sovelluksissa. Personointi on myös olennainen käsite: sitä käytetään tarjotun sisällön ja käyttäjän kiinnostusten väliseen vertailuun. Mobiilipalveluntarjoajat tarvitsevat edullisia sisällönlähetystapoja. Eräs mahdollinen ratkaisu tähän on DVB-H-teknologian käyttö. DVB-H on digitaali-TV-spesifikaatio, joka on suunniteltu käytettäväksi mobiiliympäristöissä. DVB-H:n avulla voidaan tavoittaa suuri joukko asiakkaita erittäin kustannustehokkaasti. Kontekstitietoisuuden ja DVB-H-teknologian yhdistäminen mobiilipalveluksi on potentiaalisesti merkittävä skenaario: tämän kaltaisen palvelun käyttäjät pystyisivät kuluttamaan juuri sellaista sisältöä, jota he tarvitsevat ja josta he ovat kiinnostuneita; toisaalta palveluntarjoajat hyötyvät huomattavasti tästä rahallisesti. Edellä kuvattuun skenaarioon perustuen tässä diplomityössä esitetään i) kehitetty kontekstitietoisen DVB-H-palvelun ohjelmistokehys ja ii) referenssitoteutus, joka tehtiin ohjelmistokehyksen suunnittelun validoimiseksi. Tutkimuskysymys oli seuraavanlainen: millä tavoin kontekstitietoisuutta ja personointia voidaan hyödyntää DVB-H:n avulla välitetyn sisällön suosittelemiseksi käyttäjille. Kehitetty ohjelmistokehys suunniteltiin aiempaan tutkimukseen ja kontekstitietoisten mobiilipalveluiden ja -sovelluksien kehittämissuosituksiin perustuviin vaatimuksiin nojautuen. Ongelmat, jotka liittyvät kontekstitietoisuuden hyödyntämiseen DVB-H:ssa, käsiteltiin myös ohjelmistokehyksen kehittämisen täydentämiseksi. Referenssitoteutuksen vaatimusten mukainen toiminta validoitiin testiskenaarioilla. Skenaarioista saatujen tulosten avulla kontekstitietoisen DVB-H-palvelun kehittäjät voivat edelleen parantaa ohjelmistokehyksen toimintaa. Skenaariot osoittavat, että kontekstitietoisen mobiilisuosittelupalvelun kehittäminen DVB-H:lle ei ole vain mahdollista mutta myös suotavaa.
  • Creating a three-dimensional cave system and modifying it in real time
    (2012) Assola, Jaakko
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    The problem of the thesis is to create a three-dimensional cave system which can be modified in real time. The cave system must work fast and look good. The thesis studies different techniques for creating the cave system. For example, the marching cubes algorithm is used for creating geometry and triplanar texture mapping is used for mapping textures in arbitrary geometry. Several methods are also discussed for achieving better graphical quality and efficiency. The thesis also introduces a prototype as the solution to the problem. Using the previously studied techniques and some other methods, the prototype is able to create the desired cave system. The prototype meets the requirements quite well. The performance and the graphical quality are good. Surfaces look smooth and the frame rate is steady, even when modifying the land heavily. Thus, the prototype creates a good base for developing a possible video game in the future.
  • Käytettävyysohjenuorien määrittäminen tablettilehden navigaatioratkaisulle
    (2011) Mykkänen, Juhani
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    This thesis aims to define usability guidelines for the navigation solution of such a tablet paper that is intended to be experienced as easy-to-use beginning from the first try. The user experience of such a paper is studied from the point of view of young media savvy users aged between 18 and 34. A tablet paper is defined as an electronic paper that can be browsed with a tablet computer equipped with a touchscreen and capable of handling multimedia content. Easy-to-use is defined through the ISO standard for usability: the extent to which the tablet paper can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. A navigation solution comprises all the UI elements that affect the user's experience while she reads or browses through the paper. This reading and browsing extends to individual articles, pages, sections and the whole of the paper including text, images and other content elements. A literature review forms the basis of nine hypotheses' and a so called 31 model of what kind of characteristics define an easy-to-use tablet navigation solution. The review focuses on usability, user experience, navigation of information spaces including websites, mental models of users, sense of location in an information space and the recent literature on tablet computers and touch UIs. Research methods for the empirical part include heuristic expert evaluation, user interviews and the method of thinking aloud reinforced with a method called the free form walkthrough. The material from the 18 usability tests is categorized and coded according to individual users, papers and the elements of each navigation solution. The material is then analysed and reviewed against the original hypotheses. Based on this review 21 usability guidelines divided into six subcategories are formed. These guidelines confirm the earlier hypotheses and also contribute to the literature by giving new information about usability issues regarding tablet navigation. The main results are as follows: The user learns the navigation logic of a tablet paper the fastest if the paper relies on known navigational mental models from print and the web. In order not to confuse the user she needs clear visual affordances on the possibilities of the navigation solution. The user can be prevented from getting lost in the paper by providing clear visual hints of the location of the user. The UIs table of contents is the most important element of the navigation solution. The user needs to find the TOC right away and it has to offer versatile tools for both moving around the paper as browsing and glancing through it. The user does not necessarily need the chance to change text size, but he almost invariably wants to zoom into pictures and other visual elements. The user will make errors in navigation which is why a back button needs to be offered. The users also have differing preferences regarding the rotation of the tablet paper which means that the paper needs to function in both horizontal and vertical rotation of the device. The users don't seem to read the instructions for the paper which means that they have to be brought on the screen by force in order to be seen. For future research it is suggested to study tablet paper usability in different target groups, over longer time and other than those studied here.
  • Developing a web-based service platform architecture for context-aware mobile services
    (2011) Perkola, Paula
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    In this thesis, the requirements and specifications for a context- and user-specific web-based mobile application platform were defined. Based on the accumulated requirements, a platform architecture was designed and documented and was finally evaluated by a panel of information system and mobile web application experts. This Master's Thesis and the work involved were completed as part of the HUBI.mobi Project at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The requirements outlined for a web-based mobile application platform were listed by their characteristics into functional, non-functional and service-specific requirements. The functional requirements specified were location-awareness, context-awareness, data input interfaces, map, user profile and user activity tracking. The non-functional requirements outlined for the platform were reusability, cross-device functionality, scalability and multilingual content support. Lastly, the platform's service-specific requirements were identified as Journey Planner, Events and Recommender. An architecture for the m.HUBI Platform was designed and documented based on the specific requirements. The platform consists of both server-side and client-side components. Communication between the platform's two sides is handled via HTTP GET and POST messages that carry data in standard XML format. The platform's architecture was evaluated by three expert analysts that utilized their experience in mobile web application development and information systems design to assess how well the platform meets its requirements. The architecture evaluation raised issues and concerns regarding the platform's context-awareness, data input interface and scalability requirements. Overall, the expert analysis proved the m.HUBI Platform to adequately meet the requirements specified for it.
  • Näyttölaitteiden väritarkkuuden mittaaminen ja laskennallinen arviointi
    (2010) Kuokka, Henri
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    This thesis is a part of the target company's multi-year development project, in which an objective colour accuracy measurement system for display devices has been developed. This thesis covers only a limited portion of the whole development project. The thesis' literary part explains the relation between the physics of light and the human visual system describes the basics of light and colour measurement and gives an introduction to the International Commission on Illumination's (CIE) colorimetric system, which makes it possible to measure the colour sensation of a human observer. The section also includes a brief technical overview to today's most common display technologies and explores ways to utilize colour theory in predicting light and colour produced by display devices. The literary part also explains how an unambiguous target colour coordinate can be calculated for each RGB colour displayed by the studied display device. These target colours shall he used as a reference for the actual colour measurements. Information of both the studied display device itself and international standards binding its colour rendering are needed for the target colour calculations. Common examples of a colour reproduction standard covering display devices are sRGB (consumer class computer displays) and ITU-R Rec. 709 (home theatre displays). In the experimental part of the thesis a new display device colour measurement system was designed and implemented. The new system uses a Konica Minolta CS-200 spectrocolorimeter to measure a large number of test images without a direct connection between the presentation of the test images and their measurements. This allows semi-automated colour measurements even when the picture source is not a computer (e.g. from a DVD or blu-ray player). During this work a colour analysis software named Näyttöanalyysi was implemented. The software makes it easy and efficient to process, evaluate and compare colour measurements of multiple displays. The developed display colour measurement system and the Näyttöanalyysi analysis software are currently used in all display device tests and studies within the target company.
  • Document classification using machine learning and ontologies
    (2011) Nyberg, Katariina
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    This master's thesis explores a way in which documents can be automatically classified based on their contents. Automatic classification of data is one of the main applications of machine learning. With the help of already classified data a model for the most likely class can be learned. Whether adding background knowledge from ontologies can be added to the model in order to improve the classification accuracy, is also explored in this master's thesis. A new machine learning model is introduced that incorporates ontology information. The proposed method for learning a classification model and enhancing it with ontology information is used in a case study for the Finnish National Archives and a set of digital documents that have been manually classified. An RDF schema for representing documents, sentences and words is created in order to prepare the data for the machine learning analysis. The words are put into base form and matched semi-automatically with concepts of the General Finnish Ontology YSO. Then the ontology enhanced model is applied on the data and the most likely classes for documents are learned. The master's thesis shows that the classification accuracy of the model increases when ontology information is added to it.
  • Effective communication media for customer feedback in agile software projects
    (2013) Koski, Mikko
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Software development methodologies have shifted from waterfall development to iterative agile development. Instead of building an application in one big piece, iterative development relies on small and frequently delivered increments. This opens new possibilities and responsibilities for a software project's customer to provide feedback for the development team in order to guide the project. Various studies about communication in agile software projects have been conducted but not so many with a clear focus on feedback communication, even though it has been identified to be one of the key elements in a successful agile project. In this thesis, feedback communication is taken into a focus by trying to answer the research question what are the properties that make a communication tool effective for giving and receiving feedback in agile software projects? Four communication media theories have been applied in this thesis to answer the research question. The theories are media richness, media synchronicity, media naturalness and media fitness theory. Based on these theories, a hypothesis is constructed about the properties that are valuable for a feedback tool. To validate the hypothesis a prototype called Hannotaatio has been built. Hannotaatio is a tool for giving visual feedback about websites by taking a screenshot and drawing on them. The prototype is validated by interviewing people who have used it in real-life software projects. The result of the study was that even though interviewees valued face-to-face communication and argued it to be the most efficient communication medium, they also valued properties in communication media that are not available in face-to-face communication. Hannotaatio tries to increase the naturalness in the communication and thus shortens the gap between face-to-face communication and e-communication media. Interviewees noted that Hannotaatio is the second best option for feedback communication after face-to-face communication.
  • Tapahtumakeskeiset arkkitehtuurit ja niiden hyödyntäminen tuotekonfiguraattorisovelluksissa
    (2012) Haverinen, Samuli
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    This master's thesis discusses the possibilities of utilizing event-centric software architectures in product configurator applications. The first objective was to determine which architecturally significant features are important in product configurators. The second objective was to research and compare the benefits and downsides of event-centric architectures when compared to traditional software architectures. This was done to decide whether the event-centric architectures can be used to solve problems related to, for example, performance, scalability and traceability in ABB's product configurators. The theory part of this thesis first explains the meaning of software architectures and the importance to understand them. In addition, the theory part defines traditional and event-centric architectures and explains their differences. Finally, this part introduces product configurators and briefly describes the contexts and ways they are utilized. The research part was divided into three sections. First, a survey was conducted to determine the importance of some architecturally significant features in product configurators. Second the concept of event sourcing was studied by applying it into an existing product configurator. Third a simple prototype was created of a product configurator utilizing event-centric architectures. Based on these methods, an estimate was formed about the suitability of each architecture for use in product configurators, and the architectures were given scores accordingly. Based on the results, it can be concluded that performance, maintainability and data integrity are the most important architecturally significant features in product configurators. This implies that neither event-centric architectures nor traditional architectures are very suitable to be used in product configurators. Instead, a hybrid model combining the most suitable parts of both architectures would likely work best.
  • Organisaatioiden välisen sähköisen tiedonsiirron käyttöön vaikuttavat tekijät
    (2012) Koskentalo, Elina
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Electronic data interchange (EDI) between organizations enables many benefits for the participants by enhancing and streamlining efficiency of business document interchange and its underlying processes. Although numerous studies worldwide have attempted to explain the factors leading to adoption of EDI, the results have remained ambiguous. Moreover many of those studies examining the factors affecting EDI usage and its final outcomes have reported only conflicting results. This master's thesis presents an empirical study that aims to identify factors affecting EDI adoption, usage and its final outcomes in organizations. The study was realized by the Finnish Information Society Development Centre (TIEKE), which considers one of its main goals to be enhancing the usage of electronic procedures in organizations that operating in Finland. To identify the factors affecting EDI adoption, we examined various organizational factors, including resources, competences, attitudes, procedures and dyadic factors. The factors affecting EDI usage were identified by exploring the procedures, dyadic factors and user experience. The final outcomes of the usage as well as the factors affecting these were analyzed in terms of the EDI usage (utilization, diversity, integration) and the size of the organization. Four factors were found to have an impact on EDI adoption: the positive attitude of management towards EDI, the usage of Lean and .IIT procedures and the usage of other information systems. EDI usage was also affected by the usage of other information systems and experience. These results suggest that EDI usage partly affects the final outcomes of the usage in terms of the expected benefits, cost-effectiveness, extent to which EDI is perceived to be meaningful for the business and the actual costs of usage. The costs of usage were, in turn, found to be affected by the Size of the company.
  • An Interoperable Equipment Server for Building Automation Systems
    (2007) Järvinen, Hannu
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Purpose of this Master's Thesis is to explore the possibilities to integrate the management of the building automation systems and equipment. We would like to have a centralized management server, which integrates the monitoring and operating with different automation systems into one. Furthermore, these servers could be connected together to make the system more scalable and flexible. Nowadays, there are a considerable number of different protocols and industry standards at the building automation sector. Manufacturers have made their own customized tools to control the equipment. First step to make building automation systems centrally manageable is to use some standard way for communication between the different parts of the system. Of course, we also want to store all the equipment data in the same format, which makes the system more logical. All the equipment data available in standard format makes the development of the user interface easier. It also opens new possibilities for developing different kind of user interfaces. We should not limit the user interface to only one but to make it possible to make general as well as customized, mobile or automated user interfaces.
  • Knowledge transfer between onsite and offshore offices in a system development project
    (2012) Paakkarinen, Panu
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    Information system development has, over the last decades, become a highly global business. Working across geographical and cultural boundaries requires careful management. The objective of this thesis was to identify central factors involved in knowledge sharing between onsite and offshore offices of a system development project, and to assess how different tools are used in transferring knowledge. In the literature review effective knowledge transfer was identified to crystallize in three factors: people, knowledge, and method. People have to be willing and able to share their knowledge, the type of knowledge affects how well the knowledge can be codified and transferred, and the choice of method is dependent upon the knowledge being transferred and the people involved in the process. A case study of a system development project with employees in two different continents was conducted to analyse the project's knowledge transfer practices through a survey, interviews, document analysis, and participatory observation. Case study results suggest that all three main factors (people, knowledge, and method) need to be remembered when transferring knowledge in a multi-cultural system development project. Difference in style of communication can lead to misunderstandings and incomplete transfer. Instant messaging was found to be used for transferring contextual and technical knowledge. On the other hand, managerial knowledge was most frequently transferred via email. By having a clear process of knowledge transfer, clear channels and methods for resolving ambiguity, and promoting clear communication through agreed terminology, a project can try to improve the level of success in its knowledge transfer practices.
  • Managing event data in a distributed ecosystem
    (2011) Autio, Juho
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    The Web is filled with information about real-life events, but it is impossible to get a comprehensive view of them. Different event information services are not interoperable, because they do not conform to standard representation formats or interfaces. This thesis aims at finding a suitable way of combining and sharing event data in a distributed ecosystem. Semantic Web technologies were chosen as a foundational platform, because they are designed for aggregating data from different representation formats, not to forget their support for implementing Linked Data principles. This thesis includes a study of general event characteristics and a report on existing event data sources and formats, such as iCalendar, hCalendar and EventsML. Existing event ontologies are covered as well. To gain practical experience on the research subject, a proof-of-concept event service was developed and deployed as a part of a distributed ecosystem. Requirements, design and evaluation of the service prototype and the underlying ontology were based on real-life use cases. As the outcome of this research, the ontology-driven approach was shown to suit well for sharing, linking, combining and querying events and any related data in a distributed ecosystem.
  • Media experience on tablet devices - towards affect-adaptive applications
    (2012) Meri, Sami
     School of Science | Master's thesis
    This thesis studied how the affective state of a user could be measured when using an application on a tablet device. Also, this thesis studied whether only slight differences in media content have an effect on user's responses and how long do these responses last and are they usable in user-adaptive applications. In the theoretical part of the thesis definitions for user experience and media experience was discussed. Also, theoretical part covers the methods and characteristics of measuring emotions and media experience via psychophysiological measures as well as general definitions for user-adaptive systems and affective computing. In the experimental part, Helsinki Travel Guide -application was created and two different experimental setups were conducted. Either neutral or positively valenced content was shown depending on test setup either before or after main article. Psychophysiological measures were recorded during the participant's use of the application to find out possible emotional responses and their effect time. First setup results showed that facial muscle activity over orbicularis oculii and zygomaticus major was significantly higher for positively valenced content than neutral content. Higher EDA activity for neutral content was also reported. Several other significant results were also found and discussed. Results from both setups showed that psychophysiological responses are short-term phenomena and last less than 5 seconds - at least in this context.