Nuno Escudeiro

Abstract
This paper presents the evaluation methods and techniques applied to the serious game developed within the VirtualSign project as well as the results achieved through those methods. VirtualSign is a Portuguese sign language bi-directional translator with three main components. The components are a gesture to text translator, a text to gesture translator and a serious game. The serious game aims to make the process of learning sign language easier and enjoyable using the VirtualSign bi-directional translator. The method used to evaluate the VirtualSign was the Quantitative Evaluation Framework (QEF). The translator undertakes a rigid validation process by both sign language experts and the deaf community. The evaluation process was also supported by questionnaires. The precision of the translator has a direct impact on the game performance. To evaluate the precision of the automatic translator we have used QEF and 10-fold cross validation to estimate the accuracy of the translator. The experimental results show a precision above 90%. In the identification of the Portuguese Sign Language terms As for the game the quality rate is 88% based on the QEF evaluation.

Abstract
The ageing process is naturally accompanied by changes in people's cognitive processes. The European population ageing is a challenge for the European social policy and for the mental health professionals. New technologies can play an important role in the neurocognitive stimulation area as they possess characteristics that might reduce the anxiety levels of patients participating in neurocognitive stimulation or assessment programs. In particular, serious games provide a setting that can be explored to improve the easy access to neurocognitive stimulation and assessment, regardless of place and time, at a lower cost then traditional approaches. This paper presents a serious game aiming to analyse neurocognitive deficits and stimulate the players' deficitary neurocognitive processes. This game is built on top of sound neurocognitive psychotherapy for adults, mainly addressing the cognitive processes of attention and memory. The game will simulate real world scenarios, allowing a better generalization process due to ecological validity.

Abstract
Identifying hand configuration is a critical feature of sign language translation. In this paper, we describe our approach to recognize hand configurations in real time with the purpose of providing accurate predictions to be used in automatic sign language translation. To capture the hand configuration we rely on data gloves with 14 sensors that measure finger joints bending. These inputs are sampled at a frequency of 100Hz and fed to a classifier that predicts the current hand configuration. The classification model is created from an annotated sample of hand configurations previously acquired. We expect this approach to be accurate and robust in the sense that the performance of the classification model should not vary significantly when the classifier is being used by one or another user. The results from our experimental evaluation show that there is a very high accuracy, meaning that data gloves are a good approach to capture the descriptive features of hand configurations. However, the robustness of such an approach is not as good as desirable since the accuracy of the classifier depends on the user, i.e., the accuracy is high when the classifier is used by a user who trained it but decreases in other cases.

Abstract
This paper presents the game developed within the VirtualSign project. This game aims to make the process of learning sign language easier and enjoyable. In the game the player can control an avatar and interact with several objects and Non-player characters in order to obtain signs. To obtain those signs the player will have to overcome challenges and use the VirtualSign Translator. The player then has to perform the gesture himself and information is sent from the translator to the game. This improves the interactivity and makes the game more interesting and motivating. The game has as an inventory system where the signs are kept and can be checked. This lets the user visualize and learn or train the various existing configurations of gestures. There are also various checkpoints to check the player acquired knowledge, a highscore list and a continuous storyline.

Abstract
One of the major challenges for healthcare professionals in the XXI century is the increasing number of elderly in the world population. It is clearly important to find ways to stimulate cognitively this population, helping them to develop strategies and maintaining independency in their daily life activities. Conventional cognitive stimulation is time consuming task often causing discomfort in patients. Computer based tools may be used to perform cognitive stimulation and improve transferability in a setting that does not increase anxiety in individuals. This paper aims to present a pilot study of automatic platforms to enhance the cognitive process for older adults in order to promote an active aging.