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A person is working on a computer in the control room
HSRW – Ralf Darius

Usability Lab

Our usability lab combines state-of-the-art technology with a professional infrastructure designed for research and high-quality user experience studies. It provides the ideal conditions for projects, dissertations and in-depth analyses – from implementation through to evaluation.

Our modern and well-equipped usability laboratory consists of a laboratory area and a control room, separated by a glass partition. The large laboratory and experimental room is equipped with a range of technologies (such as eye-tracking systems, VR and AR devices, sensors, cameras and microphones) and is therefore ideally suited for conducting modern user experience studies, such as the evaluation of everyday objects or various media, including websites, print media and online shops. The laboratory can be used by students and researchers for individual or group studies.

The control room is equipped with a range of devices and control panels that enable the experiment supervisor to adjust various parameters for video and audio recordings easily and conveniently. Professional editing software allows for comprehensive post-processing and analysis of the recorded data. From the control room, the experiment supervisor can monitor the study without influencing it. The Usability Lab is used for research within the framework of externally funded projects, as well as for project and group work as part of course modules, and for BA and MA theses.

Usability Lab facilities (Room 02 02 115)

Workstations:

  • 2 Dell laptops: Precision M4800 mobile workstations (for eye-tracking studies)
  • 1 workstation for eye tracker (Manufacturer: Silverstone; CPU: Core2Duo E8500, RAM: 4 GB; Monitor: 2x BenQ ET0036-B)
  • 1 high-performance AR/VR workstation (manufacturer: DELL; CPU: XEON W2125; RAM: 32 GB)
  • 1 desktop PC (DELL Precision T3500; CPU: Xeon X5550; RAM: 3.0 GB; monitor: DELL)
  • 1 Mac workstation (Mac Pro; monitor: LG 27UD88W)

Equipment:

  • 1 LC Technologies binocular eye-tracking system with dynamic cameras
  • 2 SMI binocular mobile eye-tracking glasses (up to 120 Hz tracking rate)
  • 1 dioptre set (-4 to +4 dioptres)
  • 1 Enobio mobile EEG system with 20 channels
  • 1 Logitec USB webcam
  • 1 Intel RealSense F200 depth + RGB camera
  • 1 Microsoft Kinect 2
  • 1 Microsoft HoloLens
  • 2 Leap Motion controllers
  • 1 camera tripod (by Manfrotto)
  • 1 VitaGuard VG 3100 vital signs monitor from GETEMED (respiratory arrest, heart rate and SpO2 monitoring)
  • 1 mobile Varioport-B system for physiological data acquisition with VARIOGRAF software from BECKER MEDITEC, Karlsruhe
  • 2 SMI dongles for the software used to design and analyse eye-tracking experiments

Office supplies:

  • 1 CISCO IP telephone
  • 1 laser printer (manufacturer: Kyocera)
     

Control room facilities (Room 02 02 120)

Workstations:

  • 1 workstation (magic Multimedia GmbH; Magic MAX HD; CPU: Core i7-960; RAM: 12 GB; Samsung EVO 850 SSD 250 GB; monitor: 3x BenQ ET0036-B)
  • 1 workstation (magic Multimedia GmbH; Magic MAX; CPU: Core i7-4790K; RAM: 16 GB; Samsung EVO 850 SSD 250 GB; monitor: 3x BenQ EW 2440)

Control panels:

  • 1 Sony Remote Control Unit RM-BK 300
  • 1 Any-in-to-3G-SDI multi-functional converter 7 up-converters with synchroniser
  • 1 Roland Multi-Viewer / Switcher MVS-12
  • 1 Behringer Xenyx 802 8-input 2-bus mixer and MIC pre-amp
  • 4 ADVC 220 bidirectional analogue-to-digital video converters

Cameras:

  • 3x remote pan/tilt cameras Sony EVI D70P
  • 1 Sennheiser microphone
  • 1 Canon HE11 HD camcorder

Office equipment:

  • 1 CISCO IP telephone
  • 1 XL Meeting Toolkit (neuland.com coloured cards, pinboard/whiteboard supplies, etc.)
  • 1 S Meeting Toolkit (neuland.com coloured cards, pinboard / whiteboard supplies, etc.)
  • 1 white screen

Software:

  • Morae
  • LC Technologies Nyan software for the design and analysis of eye-tracking experiments
  • SMI BeGaze software for the analysis of eye movements
  • SMI Experimental Centre for the design of eye-tracking experiments
  • EyeDataAnalyser – in-house software for the analysis of eye-tracking data
  • JVideoGazer – proprietary software for the automatic annotation of eye-tracking videos
  • EDIUS 6 and EDIUS NEO 3 video editing software from GrassValley
  • Matlab
  • Full Adobe Suite
     
Rooms

Usability Lab: Building 2 | 2nd Floor | Room 02 02 115 
Control Room: Building 2 | 2nd Floor | 02 02 120 

Opening hours

see notice

Head of Laboratory

Professor Dr Kai Essig

Contact

Professor Dr Kai Essig
kai.essig(at)hochschule-rhein-waal.de