Abstract Introduction: Due to the increasing popularization of computers and the internet expansion, Alternative and Augmentative Communication technologies have been employed to restore the ability to communicate of people with aphasia and tetraplegia. Virtual keyboards are one of the most primitive mechanisms for alternatively entering text and play a very important role in accomplishing this task. However, the text entry for this kind of keyboard is much slower than entering information through their physical counterparts. Many techniques and layouts have been proposed to improve the typing performance of virtual keyboards, each one concerning a different issue or solving a specific problem. However, not all of them are suitable to assist seriously people with motor impairment. Methods: In order to develop an assistive virtual keyboard with improved typing performance, we performed a systematic review on scientific databases. Results: We found 250 related papers and 52 of them were selected to compose. After that, we identified eight essentials virtual keyboard features, five methods to optimize data entry performance and five metrics to assess typing performance. Conclusion: Based on this review, we introduce a concept of an assistive, optimized, compact and adaptive virtual keyboard that gathers a set of suitable techniques such as: a new ambiguous keyboard layout, disambiguation algorithms, dynamic scan techniques, static text prediction of letters and words and, finally, the use of phonetic and similarity algorithms to reduce the user's typing error rate.

AbstractIntroductionLocked-In Syndrome is admittedly the worst case of motor and speech impairment, it seriously damages the ability of oral and gestural communication of patients. In recent years, alternative and augmentative communication technology has provided resources to restore these patients' ability to communicate.MethodsIn order to relate and classify the main methods with that purpose, this work conducted a systematic review on several journal databases.ResultsWe found 203 related papers and 55 of them were selected to compose the study. After that, we classified them into three major groups and we identified the main difficulties when using each approach.ConclusionIn order to overcome these difficulties, we propose a new system concept to develop an adaptive, robust and low cost communication environment. The proposed system is composed of five modules: data entry, communication, aid to the caregiver and external interaction.

Este trabalho apresenta um modelo para organização de conteúdos didáticos em sistemas tutores inteligentes conexionistas. A disponibilidade de conteúdos didáticos em formato único tem se apresentado como um problema para muitos estudantes. A inadequação de um formato único de conteúdo que desconsidera diferenças de perfil individual pode apresentar resultados ineficientes no processo de ensino aprendizagem. A proposta de estruturação multinível de conceitos possibilita diferentes combinações de apresentação para um mesmo conteúdo. Pressupondo que o padrão bem sucedido de organização do estudo por um estudante pode ser aplicado a outros estudantes com perfis semelhantes, um sistema foi estruturado para auxiliar na tarefa de personalização reativa do conteúdo. A personalização é propiciada por uma rede neural que associa o perfil do estudante a um padrão proximal de aprendizagem. Este padrão é combinado com regras de especialistas para possibilitar uma seleção probabilistica para que o sistema apresente a reatividade nos diferentes momentos do processo. Os resultados do experimento indicam que a abordagem é eficiente ao proporcionar melhor aproveitamento do conteúdo no processo individual de estudo e o seu potencial emprego no Ensino a Distância.

This paper presents a model for organization of educational content in connectionists intelligent tutoring systems. The availability of educational content in a single format has emerged as a problem for many students. The inadequacy of a single format of content that ignores differences in individual profiles may have inefficient outcomes in the teaching-learning process. The proposed multilevel structure allows for different combinations of concepts for presentation to the same content. Assuming that the pattern of successful organization of the study by a student can be applied to other students with similar profiles, a system was structured to assist in the task of customization reactive content. The customization is provided by a neural network that links the student's profile to a proximal learning pattern. This pattern is combined with expert rules to enable a probabilistic selection so that the system presents the reactivity in the different learning stages. The results of experiments indicate that the approach is effective in providing better use of the content in the personal study and its potential use in Distance Education.

A visualização do resultado de uma tomografia computadorizada (CT) em 3D aumenta a qualidade do diagnóstico médico e, consequentemente, a probabilidade de sucesso no tratamento. Para obter uma maior qualidade na imagem 3D, é necessário obter fatias próximas umas das outras. Motivados pela meta de obter um apropriado balanceamento entre a quantidade de fatias e a qualidade da visualização, este trabalho apresenta uma técnica de retoque digital por interpolação 3D para fatias de CT usadas na visualização de estruturas do corpo humano. O retoque digital é feito através de equações diferenciais parciais não lineares (EDP). As EDPs têm sido utilizadas no contexto de processamento de imagens para preencher regiões defeituosas de imagens em 2D. Inspirado por esta ideia, este artigo propõe um método de interpolação para preencher as regiões vazias entre as fatias de TC. Para isto, considera-se a grande semelhança entre duas fatias reais consecutivas, onde o primeiro passo do método proposto é a criação de fatias virtuais. As fatias virtuais contêm todas as regiões similares entre as duas fatias intercaladas, sendo que onde não há semelhança entre as fatias reais, as fatias virtuais conterão regiões indefinidas. No segundo passo do método proposto, as fatias virtuais criadas serão utilizadas junto com as fatias reais para a reconstrução da estrutura em três dimensões, mapeadas no exame. O método é capaz de reconstruir as curvaturas das estruturas internas do paciente sem a necessidade de utilizar fatias muito próximas uma das outras. Os experimentos realizados mostram a eficiência do método proposto.

The visualization of a computerized tomographic (TC) exam in 3D increases the quality of the medical diagnosis and, consequently, the success probability in the treatment. To obtain a high quality image it is necessary to obtain slices which are close to one another. Motivated towards the goal of reaching an improved balance between quantity of slices and visualization quality, this research work presents a digital inpainting technique of 3D interpolation for CT slices used in the visualization of human body structures. The inpainting is carried out via non-linear partial differential equations (PDE). The PDE's have been used, in the image-processing context to fill in the damaged regions in a digital 2D image. Inspired by this idea, this article proposes an interpolation method for the filling in of the empty regions between the CT slices. To do it, considering the high similarity between two consecutive real slice, the first step of the proposed method is to create the virtual slices. The virtual slices contain all similarity between the intercaleted slices and, when there aren't similarities between real slices, the virtual slices will contain indefinite portions. In the second step of the proposed method, the created virtual slices will be used together with the real slices images, in the reconstruction of the structure in three dimensions, mapped onto the exam. The proposed method is capable of reconstructing the curvatures of the patient's internal structures without using slices that are close to one another. The experiments carried out show the proposed method's efficiency.