Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Users and Context Diversity

There are still various access barriers for deaf users on the Web. Previous studies and accessibility guidelines recommend that text should be written in a simple and clear mode. However, this recommendation is not always possible or applicable, and it does not include deaf users as content producers as well. Instead of trying to simplify or translate all the web content to sign language or simple text language, in this paper we explore how images, avatars and simple text explanations could be used to encourage the learning of written language. This article presents a set of recommendations, prototypes and practices with 15 deaf students and 2 teachers aiming to evaluate design alternatives related to deaf literacy using web resources. The objective is to include the deaf users as text producers and facilitate the communication between hearing and deaf users on synchronous and asynchronous artifacts. Results point out the potentiality, advantages and limitations of the proposed design alternatives and prototypes.

Computer-supported problem solving has become ubiquitous in work and home environments. Within an educational context, specifically design engineering, this paper investigates a framework that integrates two aspects of these interactions that influence the outcome of computer based problem solving: software and mind-set involved in the interaction. The review indicates a number of research opportunities for interaction science to enhance problems-solving and is focused primarily on software tools and solutions that enhance cognitive performance for specialized user populations.

We investigated how visual debuggers impact the performance of a Java programmer who is deaf or hearing impaired (DHI). In previous work, we had shown that despite having attended accessible java course, deaf programmers still perform poorer than their hearing counterparts in tasks like debugging. In this text, we show that visual debuggers present a hope of bridging the gap between the two populations. Typical debugging tasks were assigned to both groups who used industry standard IDE (Eclipse) and a Visual Debugger (JGrasp). Qualitative and quantitative analysis show advantages for the former.

Technology has enabled significant advances in the distribution of information for education. With the Internet the information was available to the global context immediately through computer networks. To treat the contents and structure the information for education groups of researchers and developers worked to create groups of information entitled Learning Objects. This paper demonstrates the re-design of a learning object, in order to adjust it to criteria of gamification and accessibility. The methodological process consisted of: defining the project requirements and the structuring of a storyboard for the collaborative development of learning objects (Braga 2015b; Kethure 2010). Thus, the proposed interface incorporates playful elements for presentation of immersive and interactive content, so as to encourage learning also to people with disabilities, related to low vision, blind and deaf. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to present the process of developing a new interface for content learning about “Triangles and its characteristics” content, this treaty in Descriptive Geometry Course in the Graduate Graphic Design and Product. At the end of this document, we present the resulting learning object of this process, designed from gamification elements and affordability. The methodological procedure used as a base, collaboration in the development of learning objects, and includes: Concept Map, Navigational maps and Storyboard. Besides this, a Storyboard created to meet the needs of this collaborative development is presented. The paper presents a case study focusing on the use of Learning Objects to the teaching content of triangles in the university. The collaborative development process to redesign this platform featured a master’s degree and two doctoral students of the Graduate Program in Design at the Federal University of Parana, and the project was prepared during the course of accessibility and gamification.

Mobile devices, smartphones, phablets and tablets, are widely available. This is a generation of digital natives. We cannot ignore that they are no longer the same students for which the education system was designed traditionally. Studying math is many times a cumbersome task. But this can be changed if the teacher takes advantage of the technology that is currently available. We are working in the use of different tools to extend the classroom in a blended learning model. In this paper, it is presented the development of an eBook for teaching mathematics to secondary students. It is developed with the free and open standard EPUB 3 that is available for Android and iOS platforms. This specification supports video embedded in the eBook. In this paper it is shown how to take advantage of this feature, making videos available about lectures and problems resolutions, which is especially interesting for learning mathematics.

Digital native generations have been technology consumers all their life. Our children should be educated to be capable to contribute, as active producers, to the digital framework with a maturity and critical attitude. To do that children should learn to program from very early stage at school and combine this with electronics can be the right way to motivate them to develop skills such as reasoning, problems resolution, logic, creativity, perseverance and team work. This paper describes the development of an augmented reality book that can be used by children to learn programming and electronics. Students alone, in groups, at home or in the classroom can use mobile devices (smartphones or tablets) and augmented reality to help them in the electronics assembly. We believe that the use of augmented reality will change significantly the teaching activities by enabling the addition of supplementary information that is seen on a mobile device.

The use of a speech recognition system allows access to an simple and efficient interaction, among others, for people with disabilities. In this article, an automatic speech recognition system is presented. It was developed as a system that allows an easy adaptation to different platforms. The model is described with clarity and detail looking for reproducibility by researchers who wish to resume and advance in this field. The model is divided into four stages: acquisition of the data, preprocessing, feature extraction and pattern recognition. Information concerning the functionality of the system is presented in the section named experiments and results. Finally, conclusions are set and a future work is proposed, in order to improve the efficiency and quality of the system.

There are growing interests among researchers worldwide pertaining to efficacy of electroencephalography (EEG) as diagnostic tools and noninvasive treatment for children with special needs. However, there are very limited studies discuss the efficacy of EEG-based experiment protocols among young children with ADHD particularly from the perspective of human-computer interaction methodologies. Thus, this paper provides some background on related studies in EEG for children with attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and some insights on Malaysia experience with regards to ADHD detection and intervention programs. The lesson learnt presented in this paper highlights the factors that affect young children participation in EEG-based experiments that is relevant and beneficial for researchers who are working with children with special needs.

The article introduces and discusses the background, concept, evaluation results as well as educational sociological perspectives of an interview-based research project on the digital participation of socially disadvantaged children and adolescents. The main thesis is that adolescents can be supported in their participation in society through access to computers and the acquisition of comprehensive media competencies in the form of pedagogical media training. The evaluative results of the project indicate that these flanking measures are especially helpful for primary education families looking to improve their social standing. A milieu of little cognitive stimulation and limited cultural capital within the family lead to a rash dissipation of the effects achieved through media training therefore making it clear that further support is necessary.

Modern inclusive educational approaches try to eliminate educational inequalities and barriers in the learning and teaching process. For this reason, and by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), it is necessary to differentiate educational material and tools in order to allow all students, including those with disabilities, to access education. The objective of this paper is to present the innovative interactive applications for the education of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) students. The content of the educational documents is rendered in Greek Sign Language (GSL). The multimedia electronic form of the Hybrid books combines the presentation of the original printed book in GSL, the text in subtitles underneath the GSL video, videos with text navigation as well as the audio recording of the text by a native speaker. The applications are free and accessible to all via the web, offer various benefits to students, teachers, parents and others involved in the education of D/HH students.

This study focuses on the effects of mobile augmented reality (MAR) on word recognition learning. The study developed an interactive effect and corresponding video on word learning in MAR. MAR uses the camera of the mobile phone. It is installed in to interpose virtual objects on the real life view through the camera. The study participants were two fifth-grade elementary school children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and reading disabilities. The study followed a single-case design using ABA’ models in which A indicated the baseline, B indicated the intervention and A’ indicated the maintenance phrase. The experiment period was almost 3 months. The independent variable was word recognition teaching with MAR on Chinese literacy ability of ‘read the words’ and ‘select the correct the word to blank line’. The experimental results demonstrated that the scores for 2 children with ADHD and reading disabilities increased considerably during the intervention and maintenance phrases. The developmental applications of these results are also discussed.

Interactive science simulations are commonly used educational tools. PhET Interactive Simulations are a popular suite of free science simulations used by teachers and students worldwide. These simulations are designed using implicit scaffolding, a design framework developed by the PhET project. Implicit scaffolding supports student learning without the use of instructions or other explicit guidance within the simulations. Recently, the PhET project has begun expanding the inclusive features in the simulations and aims to broaden implicit scaffolding beyond the visual. In this work, we present results from an analysis of user interviews exploring the relationship between auditory description design and implicit scaffolding. Findings indicate that our approaches to auditory descriptions can result in productive user interactions, similar to those found in prior work on implicit scaffolding with visual designs, demonstrating that implicit scaffolding approaches can include non-visual design.

MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provides remarkable learning opportunities for a great diversity of people. MOOCs have been studied from several perspectives, including accessibility. However, little attention has so far been paid to investigating whether MOOC platforms themselves are accessible for instructors who are the authors of MOOCs. To ensure universal and equal access to the MOOC platforms, a systematic study of the accessibility of the MOOC platforms from instructors’ perspective is essential. This paper presents results from a heuristic evaluation of the Canvas platform, focusing on its accessibility to instructors creating course contents in MOOCs. We have based the evaluation on Part A of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 by W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The preliminary results show that although Canvas provides much support for instructors to create accessible MOOCs, it does not comply fully with ATAG 2.0.

The supposition that the Literacy through the Direct Way Methodology (LDWM) will also fit the blind children’s context led us to take advantage of a PhD thesis that built a set of requirements for an application to help teachers and deaf students in this method’s activities. Our main objective was to investigate how a tangible interaction for blind children’s literacy should be. This goal was pursued mapping the set of requirements elicited for deaf children to the context of blind ones, through conceptual readings, a working process continuously close to a blind teacher - also a national reference in Braille literacy, and the searching for proper interface elements and interaction techniques for blind students placed in the reading and writing acquisition process. This paper describes the research path and the results achieved up to date.

Interactive computer simulations are effective learning tools commonly used in science education; however, they are inaccessible to many students with disabilities. In this paper, we present initial findings from the design and implementation of accessibility features for the PhET Interactive Simulation, Balloons and Static Electricity. Our focus: access for screen reader users. We designed an interaction flow that connected keyboard interactions with reactions in dynamic content. Then using a Parallel Document Object Model (PDOM), we created access to simulation content and interactive sim objects. We conducted interviews with screen reader users to evaluate our progress, and to understand better how they engage with interactive simulations. We share findings about our successes and challenges in the design and delivery of dynamic verbal text description, of efficient keyboard navigation, and the challenges we faced in making a keyboard accessible drag and release mechanism for a highly interactive simulation object, a Balloon.

The communication between people with normal hearing with those having hearing or speech impairment is difficult. Learning a new alphabet is not always easy, especially when it is a sign language alphabet, which requires both hand skills and practice. This paper presents the GyGSLA system, standing as a completely portable setup created to help inexperienced people in the process of learning a new sign language alphabet. To achieve it, a computer/mobile game-interface and an hardware device, a wearable glove, were developed. When interacting with the computer or mobile device, using the wearable glove, the user is asked to represent alphabet letters and digits, by replicating the hand and fingers positions shown in a screen. The glove then sends the hand and fingers positions to the computer/mobile device using a wireless interface, which interprets the letter or digit that is being done by the user, and gives it a corresponding score. The system was tested with three completely inexperience sign language subjects, achieving a 76 % average recognition ratio for the Portuguese sign language alphabet.

ChartMaster is a digital tool developed by Hong Zou in 2015, through co-design with visually impaired screen reader users, to improve the accessibility and usability of interactive stock market charts. The first ChartMaster usability study, conducted with screen reader users, demonstrated that the tool not only helped them access data points quicker and easier, but also proved to be “educational.” The next usability study, conducted with sighted novice investors to examine ChartMaster’s educational value, is described in this paper. Novice investors found it easier to discover features, learn action possibilities and locate specific data through ChartMaster than through direct interaction with stock market charts. Several of their experiences, such as finding the summary feature helpful in understanding the chart, were similar to those reported previously by visually impaired screen reader users, suggesting comparable cognitive and emotional barriers to financial literacy for both groups. Improvements to ChartMaster were also suggested.

This paper presents a set of activities specially designed for children with developmental delay to be run on vision-based tangible tabletops. This way, the benefits that the combination of tabletop devices and Tangible Interaction offers to the treatment of cognitive problems can reach the children, which is the final aim of the work presented here. Two evaluations with children have been carried out as the result of a collaboration with an occupational therapy center, which has allowed us to detect some usability problems in the developed activities and to extract some conclusions that are also presented in this work.

People with autism spectrum disorder have different levels of impairment regarding to communication, interaction, and imagination - three social skills necessary to engage in face-to-face interaction. One way to possibly overcome these inabilities is to seek for online communities where they can express themselves freely without being judged for their appearance or difficulty of eye gazing and talking conventionally. Although there are other implications to consider, as the ones related to online security or bullying, there are social skills which could be better learnt through these communities. In this paper we review this relatively new way of social organization and we discuss the current gains and possible prospects.

The Technology could have a greater impact on the life of people, especially for disabled people. In this paper we focus on smart objects designed for the autistic people. In fact the IoT technologies are proving their suitability for these users. So we made a review and a qualitative analysis of the actual offer of these objects, adding also items for disabled people and not specifically designed for autistic people. Its general aim is try to understand if the smart objects could be useful for the autistic people and how they do this. As result, we present a proposal of classification of the smart objects for the autistic people, based on the symptoms of the Autism on which the object could have an effect.

When developing technologies for persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) there are multiple aspects posing challenges to the community. First of all, there are several viewpoints at stake, from the targeted person to family and caretakers, needing careful consideration and yielding conflicting interests and motivations that need to be considered. Second, design and development teams often include people with a very diverse background, from psychologists to software engineers, who need to be able to fully communicate their knowledge and ideas regarding the users, and understand the different team viewpoints towards the best possible outcome. In this context, we argue that Personas (and in particular, families of Personas) can be a powerful tool to tackle these challenges. As a first stage of our work, we present the methods considered for the creation of a Persona for a 10 years old kid with ASD along with its full description. At this stage, the Persona has been evaluated by a panel of experts and was considered in the design of a first application prototype for children with ASD.

People diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face difficulties in everyday life with their communication and interaction skills. Previous studies have shown that the use of social networks could be used by people with ASD to help them build connections and overcome their difficulties with social skills. However, most autism intervention research has involved young children in Western cultures. In Arab countries, adults on the autism spectrum experience the same difficulties in addition to dealing with other issues, such as stigma within society, a lack of services, cultural rules and the inability to sufficiently benefit from existing technologies designed according to the culture and language of Western countries. This study focuses on exploring and observing the use of social media by people with ASD (high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome) in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this research is to understand the role that technology plays in the lives of adults with ASD in Saudi Arabia, in order to make recommendations for research and practice. This research could also help future researchers to understand the needs and behaviours of Arab individuals with ASD towards social technologies, and it could be a leading research for the autism community in Arab countries.

In this study, the development of the objectivity index for the diagnosis of the children who has Kanner syndrome with a lack of the communication ability and an evaluation of the curative effect using the ocular movement measurement is discussed. In past study, we developed communication applications “Eye Talk” and “Eye Tell” for people who have difficulty in conversation and writing such as children with physical disability, ALS patients or elderlies using the blink determination system. The team of Dr. Kitazawa in Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences in Osaka University performed the clinical application to distinguish Kanner syndrome group by measuring “where and when” he/she looks at using Tobii eye tracker. Our study is a judgment by the ocular movement measurement. We developed the image processing technique by afterimage used in the blink determination. First the eye area is captured by a front camera of laptop PC. Second, we extracted the pixels of pupils with 30–40 fps of accuracy and digitized eyeball movements. We converted the difference in eyeball movements between the right and left eyes into a graph and define it in multidimensional measure. We measured the amount of the degree that the eyes of the subject run off the track based on the afterimage, then added up the amount of change of right and left eyes and showed the total. After we corrected data, we set the identification border with density function of the distribution, cumulative frequency function, and ROC curve. With this, we established an objective index to determine Kanner syndrome, normal, false positive, and false negative. Furthermore, after analyzing the data in a two-dimensional coordinate, difference between autistic group and typical developmental group became clear. There were few differences in children who are on the border line between autistic and non-autistic comparing with typical developmental children when we validated with the fixation. However, the identification border could be detected definitely in pursuit.It was revealed that this inspection technique to capture eyeball movements by afterimage could detect disorders of sociability clearly and easily. In many educational institutions, this method can be used to evaluate learning and curative effects in future.

With estimates of prevalence between 1 in 68 and 1 in 88 children [11], accurate and early identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in young children remains a pressing public health issue. In the absence of a single biomarker for ASD, however, a diagnosis is currently reached on the basis of a portfolio of evidence assembled by various health care professionals, parents and educational specialists. Studies have shown that early diagnosis and subsequent intervention are key to a favourable prognosis for children with autism. Many families, however, experience long periods of time between appointments with health care professionals, thus delaying the diagnosis and subsequent access to support and interventions. In this paper, we consider the potential role of m-health software solutions in supporting the diagnosis and ongoing monitoring of ASDs in young children. We consider their application particularly within the context of the UK’s National Health Service. This paper also presents a review of some of the current literature on user-behaviour analysis software on mobile computing devices such as tablet computers and smartphones, along with some of the emerging m-health solutions for supporting the diagnosis of ASD in children.

Till now, very few works have studied Virtual-Reality (VR) based intervention on Chinese children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which motivates our study here. In particular, we designed a VR room where players learn new words through the ‘look’ of its visual form on one of the walls of the room. The integration of audio and visual modalities in the VR environment further promotes children’s word-recognition skills. This study offers early insights into the acceptability of such intervention technique among Chinese parents and their children with ASD. Moreover, the study also attempts to examine how children explore and scan their field of view, and how these eye-gaze patterns relate to their word-learning skill.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by deficits in social skills and communications. This paper describes a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) on the Android platform designed to investigate the collaborative behaviors and communication skills of children with ASD. The mobile CVE has the advantages of (1) widespread availability, and (2) allowing flexible communication between people. This presented mobile CVE allows two users in different locations to interact and communicate with each other while playing puzzle games on mobile devices. Multiple puzzle games with different interaction patterns were designed in the environment, including turn-taking, information sharing, and enforced collaboration. Audio and video chat were implemented in the environment in order for the geographically distributed players to talk with and see each other. The usability of the environment has been validated through a user study involving five pairs of subjects. Each pair included one child with ASD and one typically developing (TD) child. The results showed that the presented CVE environment may have the potential to improve players’ collaborative behaviors and communication skills.

Children with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often suffer from deficits in communication and social interaction, which lead to various social challenges in interacting with peers in collaborative tasks. The application of Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) technology in ASD intervention brings advantages in providing a safe, flexible, and collaborative environment. This paper proposes and describes the development of a novel distributed CVE system for playing a series of collaborative games using hand movement that is tracked in real-time via cameras. These games aim to positively impact the social interaction of users. A usability study indicated potential of this system in fostering collaboration and communication skills among children with and without ASD.

In the past decade, the field of social robotics has focused its efforts on robotic systems whose main purpose is to support and elongate independent living at home for the elderly. A quick research on the subject will produce numerous publications on robotic prototypes, on the methodologies used to derive design requirements, and on the results from laboratory based evaluations. Reports on how such systems perform in actual home environments with ever-changing parameters and conditions are scarce and so are reports on what to take into consideration when planning the implementation of such complex evaluations. This paper will discuss some of the challenges that were faced by the experiment team during the home trials of an autonomously moving social robotic system.

An aging population in a society leads to higher expenditure on social security and medical care. To reduce the cost of treatment, it is essential that preventing frailty of nearly aged women by undertaking habitual physical exercise such as walking, since 70 % of national nursing expense is for this cohort. However, if walking activity has performed with bad posture, it will result in musculoskeletal disease. Therefore, a system that supports to correct walking activity is required. In this research, we propose a system that promotes each users walking habits, including daily steps and walking posture. The result of the experiment suggested that Avatar-based gait representation improves the self-consciousness of users’ walking posture significantly rather than number-based representation.

The world’s population is aging at an unprecedented rate. Promoting the engagement of senior workforces is essential to cover the increasing cost of social security and to provide aging workers with a raison d’être. Although many seniors are willing to work, senior workforces, with their waning strength and skills, are not commonly employed. We argue that the on-demand economy is a promising platform for the senior workforce because of the flexibility it provides to these workers. First, we introduce a new classification of on-demand services, distinguishing four groups: property sharing, real-world skills, bargaining of goods, and online crowdsourcing. Next, we discuss key technologies needed to improve support to senior workforce in an on-demand economy. Finally, we build an online consumer-to-consumer matching platform, GBER, where senior workers find local jobs. GBER consists of two functions: a comprehensive help-matching function, and a specialized freelancer-matching function.

People in modern societies have increasingly sedentary lifestyles. They usually do not have time to take part in physical activity on a regular basis. Additionally, due to time constraints, people are consuming more processed and junk foods. This behavior may lead to health issues, such as obesity or cardiovascular disease. On the other hand people are becoming more aware and more interested in doing physical activities, which has resulted in an increase of memberships at gymnasiums. People usually obtain better results in training by having a personal trainer, especially in the beginning, because personal trainers can recommend safer and more effective exercises, as well as provide motivation. Moreover, personal trainers can also play the roles of life coaches or nutritionists. Despite the benefits, having a personal trainer can be difficult. Due to time constraints, it might not be simple to combine both schedules of the personal trainer and the client. In this paper we present a novel health training platform to maximize the personal trainer and client relationship and, therefore, increase the client’s well-being. The health training platform allows clients to have sensors connected to their smartphones and send their exercise data to their personal trainer. It also allows personal trainers to observe their clients’ evolution and provide feedback. The health training platform has an architecture that allows multiple configurations involving personal trainers, clients and gymnasiums. We have built and tested a prototype of a health training platform.

Modelling dietary intake of older adults can prevent nutritional deficiencies and diet-related diseases, improving their quality of life. Towards such direction, a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM)-based modelling approach that models the interdependencies between the factors that affect the Quality of Nutrition (QoN) is presented here. The proposed FCM-QoN model uses a FCM with seven input-one output concepts, i.e., five food groups of the UK Eatwell Plate, Water (H2O), and older adult’s Emotional State (EmoS), outputting the QoN. The weights incorporated in the FCM structure were drawn from an experts’ panel, via a Fuzzy Logic-based knowledge representation process. Using various levels of analysis (causalities, static/feedback cycles), the role of EmoS and H2O in the QoN was identified, along with the one of Fruits/Vegetables and Protein affecting the sustainability of effective food combinations. In general, the FCM-QoN approach has the potential to explore different dietary scenarios, helping health professionals to promote healthy ageing and providing prognostic simulations for diseases effect (such as Parkinson’s) on dietary habits, as used in the H2020 i-Prognosis project (www.i-prognosis.eu).

During the last two decades, robotic rehabilitation has become widespread, particularly for upper limb physical rehabilitation. Major findings prove that the efficacy of robot-assisted rehabilitation can be increased by motivation and engagement, which is offered by exploiting the opportunities of gamification and exergaming. This paper presents a tele-rehabilitation framework to enable interaction between therapists and patients and is a combination of a graphical user interface and a high dexterous robotic arm. The system, called MAGNI, integrates a 3D exercise game with a robotic arm, operated by therapist in order to assign in real-time the prerecorded exercises to the patients. We propose a game that can be played by a patient who has suffered an injury to their arm (e.g. Stroke, Spinal Injury, or some physical injury to the shoulder itself). The experimental results and the feedback from the participants show that the system has the potential to impact how robotic physical therapy addresses specific patient’s needs and how occupational therapists assess patient’s progress over time.

Many elderly people are living apart from their children. We want to develop a system that can reinforce the connection and emotional feelings between aged parents and their children by combing new digital technologies with soft and warm leather material. Through an iterative design process that includes user interview and observation, design exploration, low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes, and usability testing, we present a small digital screen attached to an existing leather wallet of the aged parent to receive and display pictures or videos sent from their adult children. By attaching LINK, the old leather wallet serves as an invisible channel, sharing and connecting beautiful family memories without interrupting the private life of either side.

Senior people inevitably experience the deterioration of cognitive functions and physical capabilities. Studies showed that elderly people are more likely to be involved in collisions in complex traffic situations. As the number of elder scooter riders is rising around the world, this study presented a hazard warning helmet aimed to help the elderly avoid traffic hazards and possible collisions. Our helmet was designed to provide visual warnings of fast approaching vehicles when elder riders pass through double-parked vehicles. An observational study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the helmet design. Five elderly participants were recruited to wear our helmet and a conventional helmet respectively to interact with 50 double parked vehicles (including cars and scooters). Participants’ behavioral reactions were observed and recorded. Results of the study identified four behavioral reactions to double parked vehicles: (1) reducing speed when passing through (without looking back), (2) reducing speed and looking back before passing through, (3) looking in the side mirror before passing through, (4) passing through without taking precaution. Results also showed that participants wearing our helmet were more likely to reduce speed before passing through double parked vehicles than those wearing a conventional helmet. This work has contributions on (1) lowing traffic collision rates, (2) helping elder scooter users be more aware of traffic hazards, and (3) improving elder scooter users’ risky behavior.

Designing and conducting user studies and pilot trials within the Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) domain remains a major challenge for researchers. This work presents the architecture and implementation of an infrastructure for streaming and playing back AHA datasets recorded in ecologically valid environments on demand. The CAC Playback Manager presented in this paper, is a system composed of a number of streaming players delivering data streams to remote clients. This manager simulates the output of sensors that have been previously recorded during a pilot trial or experiment. The recorded output is reproduced (playback) through the CAC-framework communication channel as if the pilot/experiment was conducted now. The CAC Playback Manager exposes its functionality through an API to facilitate researchers in utilizing it. A web application has been developed on top of this API in order to facilitate the study of several use cases presented within this work. Finally, the potential socioeconomic impact of the system is presented.

Live communication over long distances is indispensable for seniors, and tools have evolved to improve the sense of presence: sight is added by video and robots represent bodies at remote locations. Emerging technologies that assist cognitive abilities may improve the communication quality beyond reality. However, they have been independently developed and cannot be integrated easily. This results in not only raising the development cost but also hampering new technology being installed in this area. Therefore, we propose a platform for remote and live communication that supports portable and fast data transfer connections as fundamental functions and possesses a plug-in framework that enables features to be extended dynamically on the basis of a common interface. In this paper, we explain the design of this platform and describe some plug-in based applications and scenarios built on it as examples validating the concept.

Home-use glucose meters provide a simple real-time means for diabetic mellitus patients to monitor their blood sugar. However, there are still many interface design defects in current glucose meter products which can easily cause operation errors. The aim of this study is to identify the perceptional information of commercial home-use glucose meter interfaces for the elderly. First, three aspects of perception information of glucose meters was examined, consisting of the behavioral information (BI), assemblage information (AI), and conventional information (CI) of glucose meters. Then, five elderly test subjects older than 65 years who never used home-use glucose meters before were recruited to perform usability tests in order to identify perceptional information. The results demonstrated that five parts should be used, and nine assembly processes should be operated during glucose measurement. The application for assembly-disassembly ability is required for the part-part category; the AI and CI provide effective support for this application. The critical factors that may cause operation errors involved lancing devices and test strips rather than glucose meters. Possible reasons for this might arise from poor design of product perceptual information or unclear symbols. The conclusion is that product designers should provide more perception information, especially in terms of AI, to assist elderly users to understand how to use home-use medical devices such as glucose meters.

Stroke episodes are a major health issue worldwide for which most patients require an initial period of special rehabilitation and functional treatment, involving medical doctors and specialized therapists, followed by ambulatory physiotherapy exercise. In this second period most do not fulfil the prescribed recovery plan, resulting in setbacks in their recovery. This paper reports on the design of a methodology to develop a system to support the ambulatory rehabilitation therapy, providing constant feedback to the clinicians, by means of an information system platform, and maintaining the patient motivation by using an exergames approach to design and deliver the therapy exercises to the patient.

Computer-based training (CBT) has lately been applied for the cognitive rehabilitation of stroke patients. However, most CBT programs do not consider body movement, which is important for cognitive rehabilitation because body movement (action) and thought (mind) are deeply correlated. Based on the coupling of action and mind, we propose a tangible tabletop-based training (TTBT) platform, E-CORE. We conducted a comparative study between E-CORE (TTBT) and RehaCom (CBT), for which we recruited eight patients as participants. We used the performance score yielded by the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI), the System Usability Scale (SUS), and the Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS) for quantitative analysis, and observation and semi-structured interviews as tools for qualitative analysis. Even though the user group was comparatively small, we found that E-CORE (TTBT) increases patients’ motivation for rehabilitation.

This study aimed to analyze the design of cervical collar devices for elderly patients with central cord syndrome during physical therapy-based rehabilitation and to summarize related patient needs. To design a cervical collar device that met patient needs, a physician and patients who had worn a cervical collar for more than three months were both interviewed to collect opinions from a professional perspective and from user experience. A qualitative analysis of the content of the interview was then conducted to characterize an optimal cervical collar device for elderly patients with central cord syndrome during rehabilitation. The analytical results showed that cervical collar device development should focus on comfort and fixity.

In the aging Japanese society, most elderly people still have enough energy to work and have the potential to become essential labor forces. A job matching method that can allocate their unique abilities is required. However, the current job matching relies on each recruiter’s tacit knowledge, and the recruiter assigns only specific candidates to work profiles. In this paper, we propose an interactive job matching system that can reflect the recruiter’s tacit knowledge and help search for diverse elderly workers for each work profile. The results indicate that interactions of the proposed system can improve the matching diversity by retrieving recruiters’ tacit knowledge. When there is a work profile in which it is difficult to extract appropriate keywords, our interactions become most effective.

The explosive growth of computerized systems aimed at improving cognitive functions has rised the question of provision of feedback to trainees during the training. In order to address some of the issues regarding feedback, two studies were performed in computerized systems for puzzle completion tasks. The first study questioned whether the mere knowledge that feedback is available should produce a motivational effect, creating a psychological state of mind that could improve training and transfer. We tested this hypothesis among 76 undergraduate students using a puzzle replication task. The results demonstrated that performance was improved among trainees who are given the opportunity to receive feedback compared with those for whom feedback is not available. The second study evaluated the effect of a complementary audio feedback (CAF) in a 50-piece puzzle completion task among 53 undergraduate students. Results demonstrated that the difference between the higher achievers and the lower achievers was larger in the CAF group compared to the Control group. In addition, while the Control group used a planning strategy more, the CAF group used a trial and error strategy more. Hence, CAF which is in the low-level of feedback is not recommended for the weaker performers.

Our framework offers solution approaches for that inadequacy to be overcome. An abstract description define each test case, its transformation to the designated target platforms as well as the operations and parameters to be processed within the evaluation in such a way that it is independent of any platform. The control of our automated framework workflow is based on Python and Apache Ant which trigger the execution of the described definitions with the result that different tools can be used flexible and purpose-dependent.We conduct an visual error detection evaluation of FFmpeg, Telestream Episode and Adobe Media Encoder. This consists the creation of single uncompressed images based on the definitions of the test patterns in POV-Ray. After that, they are merged together to video samples which form the platform dependent instances of the test cases. All of these videos are processed with different codecs and encoding qualities during the evaluation. The results are compared with its uncompressed raw material or other test cases.The evaluation shows that the identical test case video file results in visual strongly different outcomes after the encoding. Furthermore some created test cases cause complete losses of the raw information data, ringing artefacts at contrast edges and flicker effects.

The presented study explores diverse ways of demonstrating the product in a digital way, e.g. in big digital outdoor telebims, monitors situated in supermarkets or electronic shops available on the Internet. Three different factors were examined in a laboratory based experiment: product presentation background colors (red, green, and blue), presentation shape (sharp versus rounded edges) and presentation dimensionality (two and three dimensional). The potential customers expressed their purchase intentions towards various product presentation variants by means of pairwise comparisons. The analysis of data collected from 51 persons revealed the statistical importance of all three examined factors along with the significance of dimensionality and shape interaction. Subjects preferred rounded options more than these with sharp edges only. The three dimensionally looking package was better liked than its two dimensional counterpart. Participants favored also blue background color over the red and green ones .

Information and communication technology, particularly multimedia technology and the Internet, are commonly employed in the assessment, treatment and education of speech-language and communication disorders. Considering that video artefacts supplement or replace the speech therapist and can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous settings, they represent an important part of an online therapy. This paper presents a part of an ongoing research regarding the use of video in speech-language online therapy. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, we describe how video artefacts have been designed in accordance with the principles of multimedia learning and subsequently employed in telerehabilitation of pediatric speech disorder (dyslalia). Second, we introduce a set of quality attributes which significantly affect the success of the implementation of educational video artefacts in speech-language pathology (SLP) online therapies. Finally, we present and discuss the results of a pilot study carried out with an objective to examine the perceived quality of educational video artefacts applied in SLP telerehabilitation.

Our approach to multimedia big data is based on data reduction and processing techniques for the extraction of the most relevant information in form of instances of five different object classes selected from the TRECVid Evaluation campaign on a shot-level basis on 4 h of video footage from the BBC EastEnders series. In order to reduce the amount of data to be processed, we apply an adaptive extraction scheme that varies in the number of representative keyframes. Still, many duplicates of the scenery can be found. Within a cascaded exploratory study of four tasks, we show the opportunity to reduce the representative data, i.e. the number of extracted keyframes, by up to 84 % while maintaining more than 82 % of the appearing instances of object classes.

Audio description can be defined as an activity of linguistic mediation that transforms visual to verbal, allowing for a better comprehension of scenes when there is no dialog between personages. In this paper, we present the conception, development, and an initial usability evaluation of a software suite for audio description. The proposal pursues to facilitate and widen a comprehension of videos for people with visual disabilities by using synthesized voice. We developed a video player– ADVPlayer – that synchronizes the original video with a second audio containing a TTS version of an audio description script. We evaluated the usability of ADVPlayer with students with visual impairment in two South American countries. This evaluation revealed a high comprehension and acceptance in terms of satisfaction and confidence.

Recently, with the rapid progress in image processing and three-dimensional (3D) technology, stereoscopic images are not only seen on television but also in theaters, on game machines, etc. However, symptoms such as eye fatigue and 3D sickness may be experienced when viewing 3D films on displays and visual environments. The influence of stereoscopic vision on the human body has been insufficiently understood; therefore, it is important to consider the safety of viewing virtual 3D content. In this study, we examine whether exposure to 3D video clips affects the human body such as brain blood flow. Subjects viewed 3D video clips on the display of portable game machines, and time series data of their brain blood flow was measured by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with use of FOIRE-3000 (Shimazu Co. Ltd., Kyoto). Our results showed oxyhemoglobin tended to increase throughout the cerebral cortex while operating the game machines on the 3D display in comparison with the 2D display.

With interactive displays, such as touchscreens, becoming an integrated part of the modern vehicle environment, predictive displays have emerged as a solution to minimize the effort as well as cognitive, visual and physical workload associated with using in-vehicle displays. It utilises gesture tracking in 3D as the basis of an input modality enabling interface component acquisition (pointing and selections). Nevertheless, the predictive display technology has the potential to facilitate and assist human computer interaction for motion impaired users, for example, those with cerebral palsy, tremors and spasms, in various scenarios. It also has a wider application in inclusive design addressing general ranges of impairments, such as those arising from ageing. This paper explores the potential of this promising technology and proposes that a predictive display, which was developed to aid drivers in a situationally induced impairment due to using non-driving interfaces in a moving car, can be applicable to the health induced impairment arising from perturbations due to physical movement disorders. It is concluded that 3D predictive gesture tracking can simplify and expedite target acquisition during perturbed pointing movements due to a health/physical-capability impairment.

Individuals with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty functioning independently on essential tasks that require adaptive skills such as driving. Recently, computer-aided technology, such as Virtual Reality (VR), is being widely used in ASD intervention to teach basic skills to children with autism. However, most of these works either do not use feedback or solely use performance feedback from the participant for system adaptation. This paper introduces a physiology-based task adaptation mechanism in a virtual environment for driving skill training. The difficulty of the driving task was autonomously adjusted based on the participant’s performance and engagement level to provide the participant with an optimal level of challenge. The engagement level was detected using an affective model which was developed based on our previous experimental data and a therapist’s ratings. We believe that this physiology-based adaptive mechanism can be useful in teaching driving skills to adolescents with ASD.

This paper looks at recent trends in automotive human machine interfaces, with a lens of evaluation from an inclusive design perspective. The goal of Inclusive Design is to ensure that the population of potential users for a product or service is maximised. Until relatively recently, automotive human machine interfaces (HMI’s) have excluded and caused difficulties for users due to visibility, reach and force required to operate controls. Over the last 15 or so years however, there has been a significant increase in control and display location, interface types and integration of functions, as well as dramatically increased potential functionality due to in-vehicle emergent technologies. It is suggested that this increase in interface unfamiliarity for a driver will cause significant difficulty and potential exclusion, due to the demands of learning and conflicts in expectation. The effects on this trend in the context of an ageing population and automated driving technologies are discussed.

Taiwan welcomed 8 million international visitors in 2013. In a study by Chang Hsuan Hsuan [3], subjects had 38 % failure rate in three wayfinding tests. It is obvious that travelers require guidance from time to time during the journey. Normally, travelers use maps; however once feeling uncertainty, they would seek for excessive reassurance from others [2].This study summarized wayfinding strategies into two kinds. The first one is “turn-by-turn strategy”, in which travelers ask for directions as primary wayfinding information. The second is “map strategy”, in which visitors employ a map for wayfinding. As providing tourists with a piece of map seems to be a regular practice, this study intended to challenge it by examining efficiency, frequency of information inquiry and mental workload in the wayfinding journeys.In the experiment, we employed “participant observation” and recorded wayfinding process of subjects such as wayfinding behavior and reassurance time and location.Research findings are as follows:Those using “turn-by-turn strategy” save time of journey, in other words, they are faster reach the destination than that of “map strategy”.Those using “turn-by-turn strategy” inquired wayfinding information less frequently, which means less frequently bothered by intolerance of uncertainty.Locating the position on the map is the major factor for those applying “map strategy” who have high frequency of reading map, and minor for navigation.

An inclusive workplace environment should be comfortable and functional for all of its users. Over the past decade, workplace environments have changed to offer more flexible spaces in a variety of ways and locations. Modern office designs blend different working and social spaces, which include, for example, modular workstations, corridors, furniture, non-traditional layouts and open spaces. In this way, workplaces are designed to offer spaces for the effective collaboration of staff and to optimize work practices by promoting spontaneous and free-flowing communication. However, new design tendencies often lead to greater complications in moving around the workplace. Such complications may affect all workers, but they will mainly affect those with sight loss who experience extra difficulties in pursuing their target destination.

The aim of the present study was to examine if a verbal description of an urban area or an audio-tactile map would support the development of an effective cognitive route that could be used consequently for detecting specific points of interest in the actual area. Twenty adults with blindness (total blindness or only light perception) took part in the research. Two O&M aids were used: verbal descriptions and audio-tactile maps readable with the use of a touchpad device. Participants were asked to use each aid separately to encode the location of 6 points of interest, and next to walk within the area with the scope of detecting these points. The findings proved that an individual with visual impairments can acquire and use an effective cognitive route through the use of an audio-tactile map, while relying on a verbal description entails greater difficulties when he/she comes into the physical environment.

Airports are challenging for travellers with disabilities and senior travellers with functional limitations due to the complexity of terminal environments and the variety of activities (e.g. navigation, check-in, security check) required for one to successfully depart or arrive. Without sufficient information associated with the context of airport environments, travellers with disabilities and functional limitations are not able to plan their activities or efficiently navigate through terminals and surrounding areas. For departing travellers, time is the most important contextual information due to constraints and potential barriers. Without providing the necessary information about the time it takes to complete each activity, especially when navigating, travellers with disabilities and functional limitations are not able to plan or anticipate any upcoming situations. This paper introduces a universal mobile application called GatePal that was designed based on the results of a preliminary user study and utilizes universal design principles to assist travellers with diverse abilities with navigation at airports.

We are investigating cognitive spatial mapping skills in people who are blind through the use of virtual navigation and assessing the transference of acquired spatial knowledge in large-scale, real-world navigation tasks. Training is carried out with a user-centered, computer-based, navigation software platform called Haptic Audio Game Application (HAGA). This software was developed to assist in orientation and mobility (O&M) training by introducing blind users to a spatial layout of a large-scale environment through immersive and simulation-based virtual navigation. As part of a self-directed, free exploration strategy, users interact with HAGA in order to navigate through a simulated indoor and outdoor virtual environment that represents an actual physical space. Navigation is based on the use of iconic and spatialized auditory cues and vibro-tactile feedback so as to build a cognitive spatial map of the surrounding environment. The ability to transfer acquired spatial information is then assessed in a series of physical navigation tasks carried out in the actual target environment explored virtually.

In this paper a 3D map solution combined with a mobile phone application is presented. This solution enables blind users to perceive their spatial location from tactile stimulation, but also contextual information from a mobile application that provides this information via mobile phone, using audio. In the proposed model, 3d map sections embedding NFC technology support the application scenario described in this work.

In this study, we aim to better the user experience of the visually impaired when navigating in unfamiliar outdoor environments assisted by mobility technologies. We propose a framework for assessing their cognitive-emotional experience based on ambulatory monitoring and multimodal fusion of electroencephalography, electrodermal activity, and blood volume pulse signals. The proposed model is based on a random forest classifier which successfully infers in an automatic way the correct urban environment among eight predefined categories (AUROC 93 %). Geolocating the most predictive multimodal features that relate to cognitive load and stress, we provide further insights into the relationship of specific biomarkers with the environmental/situational factors that evoked them.

Ensuring that mixed reality spaces are inclusive to those who have motor impairments requires evaluating and, if necessary, modifying existing technology for the assistive mobility devices they use. Heads-up displays (HUDs) are a common facilitator of virtual augmentations on physical reality, especially for motor vehicles. However, little research to date has explored the efficacy of such displays for powered chairs, which is paramount to ensure safety and effectiveness of use. In this pilot study, we compared (a) transparency of the display (transparent, semi-transparent, and opaque) and (b) presentation mode of the information (text, icon, and text + icon) through dynamic powered chair navigation tasks in a controlled course setup. We found no difference for workload and error among transparency and presentation styles, but a significant difference between presentation styles on delay. These results will be evaluated in full through an mixed reality platform with powered chair users.

This paper presents a methodology for designing automotive user interfaces using Situation Awareness (SA). The development of interfaces providing users with relevant, timely information is critical for optimal performance. This paper presents a variation on the original SA model allowing for a consideration of all situational factors in a modern motor car. “Dual Goal SA” provides environmental and cognitive considerations for developing interfaces used when multi-tasking. A pilot study was carried out to test the Dual Goal concept and identify appropriate measures. Subjective results proved inconclusive. Objective results showed good evidence supporting the hypothesis but most promising was a factor analysis involving all key objective measures. This produced factors that classified the experimental groups consistently with predictions, demonstrating evidence of variations in performance consistent with variations in SA for two competing goals.