| Design for Adapted Devices: An Evaluation Tool of Smart Things for Seniors | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 3-11 | |
| Javier Barcenilla; Charles Tijus; Djamel Aissaoui; Eric Brangier | |||
| In addition to usual Information and Communication Technology (ICT) devices,
things such as clothes and homes are becoming smart and can be used for
specific aging needs. However, because there is a diversity of senior
impairments, one must diagnose needs, expectations or skills of seniors in
order to provide the best adapted functions and usages. This study is about how
to choose the best care method for seniors by providing a diagnosis based on a
tool called "Design for Adapted Devices" (DAD). DAD tries to develop adaptable
systems based on the comprehensive diagnosis of human deficits and needs of
future users, taking into account the aspects of the individual's activity. DAD
takes into account several dimensions of user diversity like skills and
abilities (motor, cognitive skills, etc.) and measures deficits that modulate
users' performances (social support, experience, etc.). Applied to seniors, DAD
gives prospective data to define future smart things. Keywords: Universal design; senior needs; smart things; impairments diagnosis | |||
| Shaping an Integrating Kitchen Space with Gesture-Based Control System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 12-21 | |
| Agata Bonenberg | |||
| This article provides a summary of research into the integrating kitchen
design: a kitchen designed for simultaneous use by people with mobility
problems, including wheelchair bound persons as well as able-bodied people. By
introducing mobile gesture controlled modules into kitchen furniture it is
possible to dynamically adjust furniture for use in seating or standing
positions. An important aspect of research problem is such location of elements
which would optimize the simultaneous use of kitchen by two persons:
able-bodied and disabled. Keywords: Integrating kitchen; gesture control system; accessibility; degree of
integration; spatial conflict; disabilities | |||
| Universal Access: A Concept to Be Adapted to Technological Development and Societal Change | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 22-29 | |
| Laura Burzagli; Pier Luigi Emiliani | |||
| Society is undergoing a transition toward an information society, due to the
very fast development of ICT technology. This transition is creating a new
complex social environment that requires new ways of looking at universal
accessibility and methodologies to guarantee it. After an analysis of the
present situation and possible developments, the main conclusion of the paper
is that not only the information society (equipment and services) must be
designed for all, but also that it must be designed by all. This means that
users must be integrated not only in the phase of requirement analysis, but as
actors in designing and implementing solutions. Keywords: Universal design; Design for All; Ambient intelligence | |||
| Collective Intelligence for Einclusion | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 30-37 | |
| Laura Burzagli; Pier Luigi Emiliani | |||
| Collective intelligence is a concept under development that could have an
important impact on eInclusion, adding a social component to the actions in
favour of disadvantaged people. Even if some interesting applications of the
concept have been presented, their description so far mainly deals with the
technical aspects of their implementation. The main message of the paper, based
on preliminary work in the laboratory and experiments in the field under
preparation as an activity in the AAL (Ambiente Assisted Living) project FOOD,
is that a careful analysis of the features of the problem to be addressed and
of the community potentially active in the support cooperative network can lead
to a more efficient set up and running of applications based on the collective
intelligent concept. Keywords: Universal design; Collective intelligence; Ambient Intelligence | |||
| Ambient Assistive Technology Considered Harmful | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 38-47 | |
| Yngve Dahl; Babak Farshchian; Anders Kofod-Petersen; Silje Bøthun; Kristine Holbø; Jarl Kåre Reitan | |||
| Ambient assistive technology (AAT) is envisioned as a powerful tool for
facing the growing demands the demographic change toward an aging society puts
on care. While AAT is often expected to increase the quality of life of older
people, this paper holds that relevant interventions often embody values that
can contradict such visions, and in some cases even be harmful to care
receivers. We argue that the strong focus AAT puts on illness and risk
management reflects a medical model of care, which often disregards the
psychosocial challenges that impairments and disabilities associated with old
age can rise. We suggest that design of AAT could benefit from using the social
model of care as design inspiration and value foundation. Such an approach puts
focus on the person rather than the illness. The paper ends by providing a
short description of work in which the social model of care is adopted as a
basis for design of AAT. Keywords: Ambient assistive technology; Disability; Elderly care; Ethics; Human
values; User-centered design; Value sensitive design | |||
| Home Robots, Learn by Themselves | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 48-53 | |
| Osamu Hasegawa; Daiki Kimura | |||
| To build an intelligent robot, we must develop an autonomous mental
development system that incrementally and speedily learns from humans, its
environments, and electronic data. This paper presents an ultra-fast,
multimodal, and online incremental transfer learning method using the
STAR-SOINN. We conducted two experiments to evaluate our method. The results
suggest that recognition accuracy is higher than the system that simply adds
modalities. The proposed method can work very quickly (approximately 1.5 [s] to
learn one object, and 30 [ms] for a single estimation). We implemented this
method on an actual robot that could estimate attributes of "unknown" objects
by transferring attribute information of known objects. We believe this method
can become a base technology for future robots.
SOINN is an unsupervised online-learning method capable of incremental learning. By approximating the distribution of input data and the number of classes, a self-organized network is formed. SOINN offers the following advantages: network formation is not required to be predetermined beforehand, high robustness to noise, and reduced computational cost. In the near future, a SOINN device will accompany an individual from birth; this will allow the agent to share personal histories with its owner. In this occasion, a person's SOINN will know "everything" about its owner, lending assistance at any time and place throughout one's lifetime. Besides having a personal SOINN, an individual can install this self-enhanced agent into human-made products - making use of learned preferences to make the system more efficient. If deemed non-confidential, an individual's SOINN could also autonomously communicate another SOINN to share information. Keywords: SOINN (Self-organizing Incremental Neural Network); Home robots; Machine
learning | |||
| The Future of Universal Access? Merging Computing, Design and Engineering | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 54-63 | |
| Simeon Keates; David Bradley; Andrew Sapeluk | |||
| Technology is advancing at a fast pace while the shape and nature of
computers continues to evolve, with tablets and smartphones illustrating the
move away from the traditional notion of a laptop or desktop computer.
Similarly, networking and sensing technologies are also developing rapidly and
innovatively. All of these technologies have the potential to enfranchise users
with severe functional impairments to be better able to control and interact
with other people and their surroundings. However, this is only possible if
those designing the novel systems based upon these new technologies consider
such users' needs explicitly. This paper examines how these technological
advances can be employed to support these users in the near future. The paper
further discusses issues such as the need for security as systems evolve from
control of specific environments to a potential model for interaction in any
location. Keywords: Universal access; mechatronics; accessibility; environmental control
systems; alternative and augmentative communication (AAC); tablets | |||
| WorkSense: An Interactive Space Design for Future Workplace | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 64-69 | |
| Hsuan-Cheng Lin; Taysheng Jeng | |||
| Technological advances have initiated obvious changes in types of work so
that the traditional cube office layout cannot meet current users' needs. This
paper aims to develop an experimental platform for the workplace which is
centered on satisfying users' demands. Living lab studies are examined in order
to evaluate the uses of the place, with different interactive installations of
furniture in the space, and a back-end BIM platform, to present a humane smart
workplace of the future. Keywords: interactive design; living space; smart space; future workplace | |||
| Building Up Virtual Environments Using Gestures | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 70-78 | |
| Alexander Marinc; Carsten Stocklöw; Andreas Braun | |||
| When realizing human-machine-interaction in smart environments it is
required to create a virtual representation of the environment that encompasses
not only location of the different devices supported but may also contain
meta-information such as technical and logical communication layers or a
description of supported functionalities, e.g. by using semantics. Creating
this representation typically requires technical knowledge and manipulation of
object representation files. Therefor it is a major challenge to enable this
set-up for regular users, by providing an easy way to establish the virtual
environment and the respective position and orientation of integrated devices.
In this work we present a novel user-centered approach to create these physical
parameters in the virtual representation. Based on intuitive gestural
interaction we are able to define the boundaries of appliances and select their
capabilities. We have evaluated this method with various users, in order to
investigate if such a gestural modification of virtual representations provides
an easy way for regular users to create their own smart environment. Keywords: Smart Environments; 3D modeling; distributed computing | |||
| Gathering the Users' Needs in the Development of Assistive Technology: A Blind Navigation System Use Case | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 79-88 | |
| Hugo Paredes; Hugo Fernandes; Paulo Martins; João Barroso | |||
| Assistive technology enables people to achieve independence in the
accomplishment of their daily tasks and enhance their quality of life. However,
the development os assistive technology does not always follow user needs and
expectations, comprising their usability and effectiveness. This paper
discusses the design and evaluation strategies for assistive technologies
applied to a blind navigation system case study. The research carried out
focused on the gathering of user requirements for ensuring enhanced autonomy of
blind people in their daily life. The picked requirements were used in an
architecture that unifies the benefits of a redundant blind navigation system
with a set of services that are provided by daily used information and
communication technologies. The system combines guidance, navigation and
information gathering, extending traditional aids with realtime knowledge of
the surrounding environment to provide an enhanced assistive tool for autonomy
of the blinds. Moreover, the developed solution fills the gap of existing
solutions that require the users to carry a wide range of devices and, mostly,
do not include mechanisms to ensure the autonomy of users in the event of
system failure. Keywords: usability evaluation; interviews; blindness; assistive technology;
navigation; autonomy | |||
| Ambient Assisted Living Development in East Slovakia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 89-96 | |
| Dušan Šimšik; Alena Galajdová; Daniel Siman; Daniela Onofrejová | |||
| Authors describe preliminary results and some new plans in the development
project of the new social service in Kosice city in East Slovakia. On 20 users
group of Kosice citizens it is shown how applied research has been translated
into practical innovation of regional social service based on ICT technology.
Results were obtained in frame of the International European project MonAMI --
Mainstreaming on Ambient Intelligence, supported by the 6-th framework program
of the European Commission. It shows how ambient technology platform MonAMI and
related ICT services were adapted into society in a city and rural area too in
Slovakia. MonAMI is European project focusing on ambient assisted living
concept to increase autonomy, enhance ICT services for monitoring purposes for
carers and support safety of vulnerable people living alone. Current plans for
further development and implementation in praxis in cooperation with the SME
are described. Keywords: seniors; ambient assistive living; sensor networks; open architecture;
tele-health | |||
| Resource Management for Multimodal and Multilingual Adaptation of User Interfaces in Ambient Assisted Living Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 97-106 | |
| Carsten Stocklöw; Andrej Grguric; Tim Dutz; Tjark Vandommele; Arjan Kuijper | |||
| Providing multimodal user interfaces in Ambient Assisted Living scenarios is
a challenging task due to large variety of modalities and languages that can be
used as well as impairments and preferences of end users. Creating an
application that can cope with this multitude of presentation possibilities is
highly complex. However, by separating the application from the presentation
layer and representing the dialog in an abstract form, it is possible to
perform adaptations according to the output parameters. In this work, we
present the concept for a Resource Server for multimodal and distributed
systems which is capable of storing different kinds of resources and associated
metadata, and adapting abstract dialogs. We propose the introduction of a
presentation identifier as placeholder for a set of concrete resources, a
two-stage mapping between identifiers, and a selection algorithm to cope with
the problem of multiple matching resources. Keywords: Ambient Assisted Living; User Interaction; Resource Server | |||
| An Integration Framework for Motion and Visually Impaired Virtual Humans in Interactive Immersive Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 107-115 | |
| Frank Sulzmann; Roland Blach; Manfred Dangelmaier | |||
| A flexible framework has been created to test products taking into account
different impairments. This system offers new opportunities to check products
and design products as accessible as possible. The modular approach allows the
integration of further models and analysis tools. Keywords: framework; service orientated software architecture; modular approach;
digital human model; virtual human; visual impairment; immersive environment;
virtual reality | |||
| BioCyberUrban parQ: An Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing System for Environmental Integration | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 116-124 | |
| Suzete Venturelli; Francisco de Paula Barretto; André Bassani de Freitas | |||
| The goal of BioCyberUrban parQ project is to connect the living things,
objects and environment in order to enable their cybernetic
communication/coexistence in Sarah Kubitschek Park (Brasilia's city park). Art
and society context aim the processes of physical, intellectual and moral users
consciousness development, along with all living beings in the City Park.
Therefore we seek for a better ecosystem coexistence, integration and
communication through the crowd-collected data as the foundation of this cyber
community. Keywords: cyber objects; computer art; art and technology; pervasive computing | |||
| Approaches to E-Learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 127-132 | |
| Susanne Akrawi Hartvig; Eva Petersson Brooks | |||
| E-learning has made its entrance into educational institutions. Compared to
traditional learning methods, e-learning has the benefit of enabling
educational institutions to attract more students. E-learning not only opens up
for an increased enrollment, it also gives students who would otherwise not be
able to take the education to now get the possibility to do so. This paper
introduces Axel Honneth's theory on the need for recognition as a framework to
understand the role and function of interaction in relation to e-learning. The
paper argues that an increased focus on the dialectic relationship between
recognition and learning will enable an optimization of the learning conditions
and the interactive affordances targeting students under e-learning programs.
The paper concludes that the engagement and motivation to learn are not only
influenced by but depending on recognition. Keywords: e-learning; interaction; dialectic relationship; recognition | |||
| Deaf Students and Comic Hypermedia: Proposal of Accessible Learning Object | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 133-142 | |
| Raul Inácio Busarello; Vania Ribas Ulbricht; Patricia Bieging; Vilma Villarouco | |||
| This article presents the perceptions of deaf users that had participated in
an experiment about the use of comics as hypermedia learning object of
descriptive geometry. The methodology used was exploratory research, applied
based on qualitative method. From that the prototype was created and
subsequently tested with the sample of the public. This article presents: an
approach to the profile of the public searched; the structure of the prototype
created; and the results of applying through perspective of deaf students. As a
result it was observed that: the comic's structure and adapted to the
hypermedia presentations facilitate the content's assimilation by the deaf
student. The participants had been adapting quickly to form navigation proposed
in learning object. Moreover, the media creates an emotional appeal to the
audience, which contributes to their learning. Keywords: deaf; comics; hypermedia; accessible; learning object | |||
| Developing Story Performing System for Children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 143-152 | |
| Chien-Hsu Chen; Shao-Yu Wang; Yi-Chai Nina Lee | |||
| Storytelling activity is an effective method to enhance children's
presentation ability, logical thinking and imagination in elementary education.
In this paper, researchers observed elementary school children in the course of
Performing Art and discovered the difficulty for them to operate the puppets.
Hence, the purpose of this paper is to take advantages from both technology and
storytelling activities to solve this kind of problems. A real-time chromakey
technique system which is able to composites the actors and the scenes in
real-time is conducted for children to create plays intuitively as well as
record their performance for sharing, therefore reduce the frustration and
increase the motivation of children in creating stories. Keywords: storytelling; elementary education; performing system; collaboration | |||
| Introducing an Information System for Successful Support of Selective Attention in Online Courses | | BIBA | Full-Text | 153-162 | |
| Martin Ebner; Josef Wachtler; Andreas Holzinger | |||
| Human learning processes are strongly depending on attention of each single learner. Due to this fact any measurement helping to increase students' attention is from high importance. Till now there are some developments called Audience-Response-Systems only available for face-to-face education even for masses. In this publication we introduce a web-based information system which is also usable for online-systems. Students' attention will be conserved based on different interaction forms during the live stream of a lecture. The evaluation pointed out that the system helps to enlarge the attention of each single participant. | |||
| Development of the Hearing Communication System in an Individual and the Classroom | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 163-171 | |
| Manabu Ishihara; Shin-nosukei Suzuki; Jun Shirataki | |||
| Sign language interpretation and PC captioning are used as means of
assisting hearing impaired people to get information. A noise in classroom is
bigger than expected, so it became a problem for hearing impairments who need
concentrate listen. And children and students can't listen teachers speech is
easy to imagine which become a factor of interfere. In classrooms, speech is
infrequently transmitted to a child without interference from background noise.
Background noise refers to any undesired auditory stimuli that interferes with
what a child wants, or needs, to hear and understand. Therefore, a product are
sold which use FM wireless transmission. We have developed a supporting system
of nursing care for the hearing disabled people, using a tablet PC. This
proposed system devices a system which the LAN invented in the school. And it
also use speech transmission on wireless LAN then they consider to use a
smartphone and mobile games device. In the system, we choose a interface of GUI
which is a few operation for beginner. Results of monosyllabic intelligibility
test calculate 86% average. We can judge the system is utility. Keywords: Wi-Hi; LAN; hearing impaired people; tablet PC; intelligibility | |||
| Design and Development of Accessible Educational and Teaching Material for Deaf Students in Greece | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 172-178 | |
| Vassilis Kourbetis | |||
| The project of the Institute of Educational Policy: "Design and Development
of Accessible Educational & Instructional Material for Students with
Disabilities" in part aims at developing accessible educational material with
Greek Sign Language (GSL) as the main access mode. Material for GSL teaching as
a first language to Deaf children is also under development. Part of the
project is the development of best practices and standards to be followed in
the process of designing, developing and documenting GSL material. The study
and the project results, as well as the proper use of the material will be the
main focus of an in-service training course for professionals working with deaf
children. Keywords: Deaf children; Greek Sign Language; accessible educational material | |||
| Universal Design and Accessibility Standards in Online Learning Objects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 179-186 | |
| Cláudia Mara Scudelari de Macedo; Vania Ribas Ulbricht | |||
| This article notes that the media used in distance learning mode can create
barriers to access such content for people who have some form of disabilities.
Introduces the principles of universal design, aggregates the standards,
guidelines and recommendations for creating accessible web content, developing
a set of guidelines for creating accessible learning objects, aiming to support
content-developing teachers in creating learning objects accessible to people
with disabilities. Keywords: Distance Education; Learning Objects; accessibility | |||
| Effective Usage of Stereoscopic Visualization for the Learning of a Motional Mechanism | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 187-194 | |
| Shu Matsuura | |||
| 3D stereoscopic display is expected to be an advantageous interface of the
learning materials to facilitate viewer's spatial recognition. To reduce the
visual fatigue in viewing rotational motions, and to make use of the effect of
stereoscopic display, an intermittent exposure method was considered and
compared with continuous exposure method. Further, the effect of one-second
exposure supplemented with the projected rotational motion was examined. It was
suggested that even such a short-time exposure was effective for improving
spatial recognition, reducing the visual fatigue remarkably. Keywords: 3D stereoscopic display; rotational motion; spatial perception | |||
| Educational Inclusiveness through Ludic Engagement and Digital Creativity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 195-202 | |
| Rachel McCrindle | |||
| This paper describes an approach to teaching and learning that combines
elements of ludic engagement, gamification and digital creativity in order to
make the learning of a serious subject a fun, interactive and inclusive
experience for students regardless of their gender, age, culture, experience or
any disabilities that they may have. This approach has been successfully used
to teach software engineering to first year students but could in principle be
transferred to any subject or discipline. Keywords: Ludic engagement; games; digital creativity; group work; soft skills;
subject knowledge | |||
| Can Accessible Digital Formats Improve Reading Skills, Habits and Educational Level for Dyslectic Youngsters? | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 203-212 | |
| Simon Moe; Michael Wright | |||
| Dyslexic children face significant barriers when reading printed text. It
has been well documented that subsequent lower reading frequency impacts the
ability to read, vocabulary and the desire to go to school, causing a negative
spiral. Finally, poor reading skills contribute to a significantly lower level
of education than for the rest of the population. In 2010 Nota conducted a
national study of dyslexic children's reading frequency, the use of hybrid
audio and welfare. 500 children were interviewed in a telephone survey for half
an hour. Further interviews were also conducted with 200 randomly selected
children. The study supports a positive correlation between dyslexic children's
access to and use of accessible digital formats and their reading habits,
satisfaction with school and ambitions for further education. Keywords: Audiobooks; Dyslexia; Print Disabilities; Daisy | |||
| Using Mediated Communication to Teach Vocational Concepts to Deaf Users | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 213-222 | |
| Ingrid Teixeira Monteiro; Aline da Silva Alves; Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza | |||
| This paper presents an in-depth study on how a small group of deaf users
reacted while learning abstract vocational concepts in the domain of
librarianship, using mediated interaction supported by WNH, a Web Navigation
Helper. WNH's purpose is to allow helpers to create mediation dialogs to enable
or facilitate helpees' online interaction with Web pages. In our study, deaf
employees at a Brazilian library were taught a lesson especially designed for
WNH by a deaf librarian who is fluent in Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) and
Portuguese. Among the results we were able to see the huge gaps between what a
library is for our deaf participants and what it is for non-deaf library
professionals and customers. We could also appreciate the role of technologies
like WNH in preparing deaf users to interact with Web systems in professional
settings. Keywords: Mediated communication; deaf learners; vocational education | |||
| The Effects of Projector Arrangement on Children Physical Activity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 223-230 | |
| Loan Ngo; Fong-Gong Wu | |||
| In kindergarten education, effective teaching is defined to be successful
when children are learning while playing. As a combination of indoor and
outdoor activities, the purpose of kindergarten education is to develop
children physically, psychologically and socially. However, there are always
some limitations from the surrounding environment that prevent kindergarten
education from achieving its purposes. This study considers the effect of
changing infrastructure inside the classroom on children's learning through
physical activities, in particular, the effect of projector arrangement inside
classrooms on kindergarten children's physical activities. This study is
conducted in three different environments: "outdoor environment,"
"one-projector environment," and "two-projector environment" with the aim to
learn about the effect of each environment on children's learning process
through physical activities. The results point to a confident relationship
between children's physical development and in class physical activities
through interacting with projector images. Keywords: Accessibility of Smart Environments; physical activities; children;
projector | |||
| Addressing Learning Disabilities in Ambient Intelligence Educational Environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 231-240 | |
| Stavroula Ntoa; Margherita Antona; George Margetis; Constantine Stephanidis | |||
| Learning disabilities (LD) affect not only an individual's academic skills,
but also many aspects of life for a large population percentage. As a result,
understanding individuals with learning disabilities and addressing their needs
is an active topic of research, although it has been studied for several years.
On the other hand, Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is an emerging field of research.
AmI environments are claimed to be among other things sensitive, caring and
adaptive to their inhabitants. In the context of education, AmI can adopt a
student-centric approach and support the education activities that are taking
place adapting to the individual learner's needs. This paper proposes an
approach for AmI educational environments to assist in identifying, monitoring,
and providing adapted instruction to students with LDs. Keywords: learning disabilities; ambient intelligence; smart classroom | |||
| Ludic Engagement Designs: Creating Spaces for Playful Learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 241-249 | |
| Eva Petersson Brooks | |||
| The learning within and the design of a learning (or therapeutic) situation
constitutes a situated activity with inherent actions and interventions. The
participant profile influences the facilitator's decisions on how to set up the
attributes of the environment relative to the desired learning process and the
expected outcome of that process. This paper presents a model which was
developed relative to the development, use and evaluation of interactive spaces
for playful learning. However, the model has a more generic value as it has
been used in learning situations where other forms of resources and/or methods
have been used. Thus, the general results upon which the present model is
created, indicate that a playful learning tool may be construed by an
open-ended design, in the sense that its (im)material affordances should in a
flexible way support inclusion of different forms of emergent interaction and
forms of play. Keywords: playful learning; design; semiotic interplay; facilitation | |||
| Supporting Accessibility in Higher Education Information Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 250-255 | |
| Arsénio Reis; João Barroso; Ramiro Gonçalves | |||
| Higher education institutions (HEI) and students are highly dependent of
information systems, implemented as web applications. Students must be able to
access this applications, thought accessible web interfaces, in order to
perform their academic activities. This paper presents an overview of a typical
set of web applications used by students and the main concerns regarding
accessibility compliance. The analysis was conducted using the systems at the
University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. Keywords: Higher education institutions; Accessibility; W3C; Moodle; DSpace | |||
| Social Media as Online Mentoring Tools for STEM Students With and Without Disabilities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 256-265 | |
| Robert L. Todd | |||
| Considerable attention has been given to the need for educating a diverse
workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Public
and regulatory institutions have stressed the importance of efforts to recruit
and retain students chronically underrepresented in STEM fields. Individuals
with disabilities are among the most marginalized of these groups and face
significant barriers to accessing higher education STEM programs. This paper
will discuss affordances for e-mentoring of students in STEM education, with a
focus on universal design for online learning and inclusion of all students,
especially those with functional limitations due to disability. Preliminary
data from ongoing research will be reviewed and discussed. Keywords: e-mentoring; STEM; disability; social media; virtual worlds | |||
| Pupils' Satisfaction in Using Netbook | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 266-271 | |
| Fong-Gong Wu; Chii-Zen Yu; Chiu-Min Yen | |||
| E-learning is promoted in elementary school, and netbook is one of the
equipment in e-learning. This study adopted questionnaire survey to discuss the
pupils' satisfaction towards the usage of netbook. The data were analyzed by
SPSS for descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA.
The results are as follows: The order of the satisfaction degree of the pupils
toward netbooks is portability, design, applications, e-learning, online
search, keyboard, and screen. Except for screen, all other aspects are
satisfactory. Regarding the influence of learning background and user
experience on satisfaction, the degree of satisfaction of students who started
to use computers early is lower, and that of students who had more experiences
in using computers is also lower. The order of the influence degree of variate
is gender, computer learning background, and computer using experience. Keywords: Netbook; Satisfaction; Learning background; User experience | |||
| Effectiveness of Learning Chinese Character Using Tablet Technology | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 272-280 | |
| Chao-Yang Yang; Ting-Yi Chiu-Huang; Yu-Ting Wu | |||
| Bad handwriting often results in bad academic performance and discourages
students from learning. Tablet technology has given character learning a new
form such as writing by fingertip and various selection of background color.
Without holding a pen, it is less stress and more intuitive for
character-learning children. With certain background color, child seems pay
more attention on writing. In this research, we piloted an evaluation to which
we investigated whether learning by the tablet features is better than
traditional paper-and-pencil learning. A third-year elementary student who is
in the age of first learning Chinese characters was employed to this study.
Different background color, stroke thickness and writing methods were tested.
The results show that no significance between but aesthetics. There are steady
stroke, slanted character, ratio and distance. And these aesthetics appear in
specific colors strokes and background, thick and thin strokes or by finger and
stylus writing. Keywords: handwriting; tablet; color; stroke; background | |||
| AcceSciTech: A Global Approach to Make Scientific and Technical Literature Accessible | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 283-290 | |
| Alex Bernier; Dominique Burger | |||
| In this paper, we introduce AcceSciTech, a research and development project
which addresses the challenges faced in providing access to scientific and
technical literature for the visually impaired and, more broadly, for those who
are not able to read conventional print. Based on XML formats, this project
aims to develop a coherent set of tools to produce, edit, deliver and to render
complex documents accessible to impaired people. Keywords: accessible publishing; Braille; DAISY; ebooks; EPUB; PEF; print-disabled
persons; scientific documents; workflow; XML | |||
| Exploration of Picture E-Book Design for App Web | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 291-296 | |
| Cheih-Ying Chen; Hung-Chieh Chang | |||
| The objective of this study is to investigate the interactive relationship
between picture e-book design and children with the interface of APP web for
mobile devices. In order to achieve the objective, the focus of this study is
in applying APP technology to picture e-book. Also, APP web interfaces based on
both smartphone and tablet via picture book are designed in the study.
Furthermore, this study discusses children interface satisfaction in reading
the e-book. It shows that both the interactive process and the result differ in
smartphone and in tablet. It seems to be the best way for children to read the
picture e-book if they can easily touch the buttons on the screen of a tablet. Keywords: Picture e-book; APP web design; smartphone; tablet | |||
| Read-Aid -- An Assistive Reading Tool for Children with Dyslexia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 297-304 | |
| Suvarna Rekha; Sai Gollapudi; Harini Sampath; Bipin Indurkhya | |||
| We developed a software application, Read-Aid to help improve reading
pattern in children with Dyslexia with visual processing problems. We
hypothesized that after a dyslexic child's interaction with our application,
there will be an improvement in their reading speed and comprehension. We
compared our results with existing masked-reading intervention approach. A
between-group study was conducted with 15 children. Results were significant
(p=0.026) suggesting that our Read-Aid tool has potential as an assistive
technology application. Keywords: Non-linear reading; Assistive technology; Learning disabilities | |||
| Comparison of the Effectiveness of Different Accessibility Plugins Based on Important Accessibility Criteria | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 305-310 | |
| Alireza Darvishy; Hans-Peter Hutter | |||
| This paper compares two new freely available software plugins for MS
PowerPoint and Word documents that we have developed at the ZHAW with similar
tools with respect to important accessibility criteria. Our plugins [1, 2, 3]
allow the analysis of accessibility issues and consequently the generation of
fully accessible PDF documents. The document authors using these plugins
require no specific accessibility knowledge. The plugins are based on a
flexible software architecture concept [1] that allows the automatic generation
of fully accessible PDF documents originating from various authoring tools,
such as Adobe InDesign [5], Word or PowerPoint [6, 7]. Other available plugins,
on the other hand, need accessibility knowledge in order to use them properly
and effectively. Keywords: Document accessibility; automatic generation of accessible PDF; screen
reader; visual impairment; accessibility; tagged PDF; software architecture;
PowerPoint and Word documents; PDF accessibility ISO standard | |||
| Nonvisual Presentation and Navigation within the Structure of Digital Text-Documents on Mobile Devices | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 311-320 | |
| Martin Lukas Dorigo; Bettina Harriehausen-Mühlbauer; Ingo Stengel; Paul S. Haskell-Dowland | |||
| This paper introduces a novel concept for an assistive technology in support
of blind and visually impaired persons for nonvisual presentation and
navigation within the structure of digital text-documents on mobile devices
(smart phones, internet tablets, etc.) which enables them to get a fast
overview over the structure of an entire document. The advantages compared to
state of the art screen readers are that it enables them to identifying the
type, position, length and context of each logical structure element, the
current cursor position within the document as well as to accessing any
structure element at any time in an arbitrary order. For the nonvisual
presentation of the document structure elements auditory icons, tones and
vibration feedback are used. Navigation and cursor routing is provided by
performing gestures on the touch screen. There is no expensive special hardware
required. Keywords: Assistive technology; nonvisual; presentation; navigation; cursor routing;
mobile devices; smart phone; internet tablet; auditory icon; tone; vibration
feedback; touch screen; gestures; logical structure; overview; skimming and
scanning; document accessibility; blind; visual impairment | |||
| Usability of Web Search Interfaces for Blind Users -- A Review of Digital Academic Library User Interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 321-330 | |
| Tapio Haanperä; Marko Nieminen | |||
| In this paper we report our findings on the usability of four digital
academic library databases when used by blind individuals using a screen
reader. Our interaction level analysis shows that despite improvements in
accessibility guidelines and technologies web search interfaces still lack good
usability for screen reader users. Accessibility issues appear to have been
addressed from the angle of technical readability instead of usability or user
experience. As a result of the analysis we present design suggestions for
making a web search interface more usable for screen reader users: 1)
Highlighting search results (e.g. using headings), 2) No unnecessary elements
before search results, 3) Search edit field and button in the beginning, 4)
Descriptive labeling of search elements, 5) Abstract right after the search
result title. Keywords: accessibility; usability; screen readers; web search; user interface | |||
| Design and Developing Methodology for 8-dot Braille Code Systems | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 331-340 | |
| Hernisa Kacorri; Georgios Kouroupetroglou | |||
| Braille code, employing six embossed dots evenly arranged in rectangular
letter spaces or cells, constitutes the dominant touch reading or typing system
for the blind. Limited to 63 possible dot combinations per cell, there are a
number of application examples, such as mathematics and sciences, and assistive
technologies, such as braille displays, in which the 6-dot cell braille is
extended to 8-dot. This work proposes a language-independent methodology for
the systematic development of an 8-dot braille code. Moreover, a set of design
principles is introduced that focuses on: achieving an abbreviated
representation of the supported symbols, retaining connectivity with the 6-dot
representation, preserving similarity on the transition rules applied in other
languages, removing ambiguities, and considering future extensions. The
proposed methodology was successfully applied in the development of an 8-dot
literary Greek braille code that covers both the modern and the ancient Greek
orthography, including diphthongs, digits, and punctuation marks. Keywords: document accessibility; braille; 8-dot braille; assistive technologies | |||
| Effects of Environmental Illuminance on the Readability of E-Books | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 341-347 | |
| Tatsuya Koizuka; Takehito Kojima; Shunta Sano; Nobuhiro Ishio; Masaru Miyao | |||
| We carried out experiments to evaluate the readability of e-books using
different display systems. We used two types of e-paper (Amazon KindleDX and
300dpiEPD), one type of backlit LCD (new iPad), and ordinary paper text. In the
experiments, we conducted subjective evaluations and measured viewing distance.
This study found a dependency between readability and illuminance of each
device. Keywords: Evaluation of Accessibility; Usability; User Experience; E-books; E-paper;
KindleDX; iPad; Readability; Illuminance | |||
| Verification of the Minimum Illuminance for Comfortable Reading of an E-Paper | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 348-355 | |
| Takehito Kojima; Shunta Sano; Nobuhiro Ishio; Tatsuya Koizuka; Masaru Miyao | |||
| Various e-paper devices also have been released (e.g. Amazon's Kindle
DX™), and their features include paper-like display and low power
consumption. In our previous studies, in high light conditions, readability of
the backlight LCD dropped significantly, because of the glare of the
surrounding background. On the other hand, the readability of the electronic
paper is increased, it was easy to read than backlit LCD. The e-paper that have
low contrast ratio, evaluation of readability was low. In low light, the
evaluation of the readability of the backlit LCD was high. The aim of this
experiment was to verify the minimum illumination for comfortable reading with
e-paper in low illumination (300 or less lx). Keywords: e-paper; backlight LCD; minimum illumination; readability evaluation | |||
| Aging Effects on the Readability of Characters on E-Book Terminals | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 356-363 | |
| Ranson Paul Lege; Satoshi Hasegawa; Akira Hasegawa; Takehito Kojima; Masaru Miyao | |||
| In recent years, e-book terminals are spreading rapidly. In the current
aging society, there is an increasing need for elderly people to use
information devices such as e-book. The readability of characters on e-book
displays is important especially for elderly people. Few studies have measured
subjectively the visibility of characters on e-book displays. In this study we
examined the relationship between the readability of characters on e-book
terminals compared with the characters printed on paper. The readability of
characters on the displays of e-books deteriorates remarkably as the characters
become smaller, especially when the user is an elderly person. Thus, makers of
mobile text characters should consider aging so that e-book terminals are
readable to all age groups. Keywords: Readability; Visibility; iPad; Character; Aging Effects | |||
| Improving Communication of Visual Signals by Text-to-Speech Software | | BIBA | Full-Text | 364-371 | |
| Robert F., Jr. Lorch; Julie Lemarié | |||
| Printed signals are well-documented aids to reading and memory for expository text. Despite their usefulness, many TTS applications fail to adequately communicate signaling. A theoretical framework called "SARA" provides an analysis of printed signals that identifies what specific information should be rendered in order to preserve the signaling function. Further, SARA identifies two important criteria -- the availability criterion and the accessibility criterion -- that should help guide the evaluation of alternative auditory renderings of signals. | |||
| Online Digital Libraries at Universities: An Inclusive Proposal | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 372-381 | |
| Amanda Meincke Melo; Joseane Giacomelli da Silva | |||
| Information accessibility at online digital libraries is an essential
requirement so people can use them independently. These are very common systems
at Universities for sharing academic knowledge and for supporting learning.
However, information accessibility to people with disabilities is not properly
taken into account when designing and maintaining end-user interfaces and
content. This paper is part of a broader research that aims at contributing to
the implementation of an accessible online digital library system at UNIPAMPA,
Brazil, as well as at promoting the universal access on other online digital
library systems. Based on the literature review and a case study in
Human-Computer Interaction, this research proposes a set of accessibility
guidelines to design and maintain online digital libraries. These guidelines
should be part of inclusive educational settings. Keywords: accessible online digital libraries; information accessibility; universal
design; inclusive design; inclusive education; online learning; Brazil | |||
| Access to Books: Human Rights, Copyright and Accessibility | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 382-388 | |
| Abigail P. Rekas | |||
| This paper will explore the tension between the right to read (ensuring
intellectual property does not create an unreasonable barrier to access) and
the protection afforded to literary works by copyright, particularly how
copyright policy can limit access to content. Using statutory analysis of
international copyright law and human rights law, it will look at the way Human
Rights treaties have addressed intellectual property in the past, and will
compare them to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities. This will be followed by a discussion the proposed World
Intellectual Property Organization Treaty on Limitations and Exceptions for
Visually Impaired Persons/Persons with Print Disabilities and how this proposed
treaty will increase access to content for persons with disabilities. The
conclusion of this analysis is that copyright policy must evolve in order to
keep up with technology to enable equal access to content for persons with
disabilities. Keywords: WIPO; Accessibility; Copyright; Exceptions; Limitations; UNCRPD; Human
Rights; Visually Impaired; Print Disabled; Disability; Dyslexic; Access to
Knowledge; Access to Content | |||
| Providing an Accessible Track Changes Feature for Persons Who Are Blind | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 389-398 | |
| John G. Schoeberlein; Yuanqiong Wang | |||
| Collaborative writing applications are widely utilized in the work place to
co-author documents and to exchange ideas. Unfortunately, persons who are blind
have difficulty in identifying the changes and their related context, which
prevents them from actively participating in collaborative writing. In order to
expand on the knowledge gained from previous research, additional usability
studies were carried out with participants who are blind utilizing Microsoft
Word with the focus on track change and comment features. Based on results from
all the previous usability studies, a Microsoft Word Add-In was proposed to
solve the issues identified. This paper briefly presents the results of the
usability studies, the prototype design of the Microsoft Word Add-In and a
pilot review of the Microsoft Word Add-In for making the track change and
comment features accessible and usable. Keywords: Collaborative writing; accessibility; usability; blind | |||
| Improving the Accessibility of Digital Documents for Blind Users: Contributions of the Textual Architecture Model | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 399-407 | |
| Laurent Sorin; Mustapha Mojahid; Nathalie Aussenac-Gilles; Julie Lemarié | |||
| This paper presents a framework which aims at describing text formatting,
based on a model coming from the field of logic and linguistics, the Textual
Architecture Model [23]. The goal is to improve documents accessibility for
blind users. The project will later focus on evaluating the efficiency of
different navigation and content presentation strategies, based on this
framework. Keywords: blind people; documents accessibility; visual signals; text structure | |||
| Adopting Open Protocols to Increase the Impact on Digital Repositories | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 408-416 | |
| Ligia Eliana Setenareski; Marcos Sfair Sunye; Walter Shima | |||
| Recently the discussion of technological standards became important due to
the profusion of new technologies arising from the development of
microelectronics, computing, telecommunications, etc. Sometimes, one standard
can be adopted or not, depending on the way the competition unfolds. As it is
well known, it is not necessarily the best standard which becomes dominant,
neither are the consumers who choose it, but the standard from the firm that
used the most efficient market strategies. Sometimes a standard takes a long
time to become dominant or will not be established because the competition
process forces the manufacturers to permanent innovation. Considering the
development of digital libraries, the development of diffusion and preservation
systems has followed another course, not based on competition, but through the
exploration of the symbiosis between Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), Open
Archiving Initiative (OAI), and following the Google dominance. From this
initiative, the cost of interoperability among digital libraries has greatly
diminished. The NSDL (National Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
and Education Digital Library) defines three levels of cooperation needed to
achieve interoperability. The technical level is related to the capacity of
each digital library for sharing their metadata and enabling a unified search.
The level of correlated content allows distinct repositories to describe their
contents uniformly. The organizational level allows the sharing of management
and governance of the repositories. This case study describes the open
protocols adopted by UFPR in the construction of its digital repository. The
digital library's files on logs are used to analyse the increase in the
accessibility and visibility of scientific production in this institution. Keywords: Digital Library; Accessibility; First Mover; FOSS; Open Archiving; OAI-PMH;
network externality; technological patterns; lock-in | |||
| A Pilot Study: Integrating an Emergency Department with Indiana's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 419-425 | |
| Hamed Abedtash; John T. Finnell | |||
| Rapid increase in abuse and overdose of controlled substances was the main
driving force of implementing Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP). We
aimed to describe how the integrated Indiana's PDMP (INSPECT) data into an
electronic health record (EHR) can improve clinical workflow within an
emergency department (ED). After integration, upon patient arrival into the ED,
a PDMP report containing history of dispensed schedule II-V medications is
retrieved and stored in the patient's medical record. The evaluation of the new
system among physicians showed high satisfaction of having access to the
patients' medication history through the existing EHR. We show that the PDMP
data was easily accessible and more informative in the new integrated system.
The PDMP report alters the pattern of prescribing narcotic medications to
patients. In conclusion, enhancing workflow through PDMP reports integration
with the patients' EHR is valued by the clinicians and reduces the number of
narcotic prescriptions. Keywords: Opioid abuse; Prescription drug monitoring program; PDMP; Doctor shopping;
EHR; Electronic health records; Effectiveness evaluation | |||
| Can Ubiquitous Devices Utilising Reminiscence Therapy Be Used to Promote Well-Being in Dementia Patients? An Exploratory Study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 426-435 | |
| Claire Ancient; Alice Good; Clare Wilson; Tineke Fitch | |||
| This exploratory study aimed to assess whether ubiquitous devices could be
used to facilitate person-centred reminiscence therapy. In order to test this
approach to delivering a reminiscence therapy intervention, a tablet
application was designed (using participatory design) and tested by the carers
of people with dementia. The study showed that there is the potential to
utilise the recent advances in mobile technology to facilitate reminiscence
therapy. However, it did not provide conclusive proof that the device would be
effective in its delivery of reminiscence therapy, but further research will
aim to explore this. Keywords: Dementia; Reminiscence Therapy; Ubiquitous Devices | |||
| Human Computer Confluence in Rehabilitation: Digital Media Plasticity and Human Performance Plasticity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 436-445 | |
| Anthony Lewis Brooks | |||
| Digital media plasticity evocative to embodied interaction is presented as a
utilitarian tool when mixed and matched to target human performance potentials
specific to nuance of development for those with impairment. A distinct
intervention strategy trains via alternative channeling of external stimuli
that bypasses desensitized/dysfunctional sensory pathways to close the
afferent/efferent loop. Designing method and apparatus to optimize participant
motivation is core of the emergent model. Accessible play, fun, and creativity
are central as user experiences, rather than traditional therapeutic approaches
promoting mindsets and activities commonly considered enduring, mundane and
boring. The concept focuses on sensor-based interfaces mapped to control
tailored-content that acts as direct and immediate feedbacks mirroring input.
These flexible, adaptive, and 'plastic' options offer facilitators new
tool-kits for individualized interventions to supplement traditional approaches
and strategies. Conclusions point to how required informal/non-formal training
of such plastic approaches requires formal accreditation to realize potentials
and adoptions. Keywords: Digital Media & Human Performance Plasticity; Alternative channeling;
HCI; Games; Creativity; Brain Plasticity; Afferent-efferent Neural Loop Closure | |||
| Universal Conceptual Design Solution for Built-in Orthopaedic Rocker-Bar Device | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 446-452 | |
| Robert C. C. Chen | |||
| Gout is an acute inflammatory joint disorder (Arthritis) caused by
deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals around joints, tendons, and
other tissues. According to data from the Survey [1] of Taiwanese Epidemiology
in 1999, residents have a 0.4% chance of developing gout disease with a rise of
about 7.5% every year in Taiwan. In the UK, Gout affects about 1 in 200 adults.
Men are more commonly affected than women and first attack of gout typically
develops in middle age and there is a family history of gout in about 1 in 5
cases. In spite of being unacceptable in style, rocker-bar is always an
effective treatment, this research is, therefore, focused on a universal design
concept and fitting assessment in relation to the design of orthopaedic
rocker-bar with new universal hidden built-in construction, which provides the
best way to improve the appearance, comfort and strength, it is suitable not
only for gout disorders, but also for those patients with standing, walking or
shoe-fitting corrective requirements. Keywords: Universal concept; Orthopaedics; Rocker-bar | |||
| User Acceptance of a Community-Based Healthcare Information System Preserving User Privacy | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 453-462 | |
| Chien-Lung Hsu; Ming-Ren Lee | |||
| Community-based healthcare information systems (HIS) are developed to cope
with the demand for home healthcare. However, the issue of privacy protection
in HIS adoption has not been given sufficient attention. This study is to
propose a privacy-enhanced framework and to investigate the role of privacy
protection in HIS adoption. Our research model extends the unified theory of
acceptance and use of technology by considering perceived security and
information security literacy. Our experimental HIS is implemented according to
our proposed privacy-enhanced framework which integrates healthcare
applications and privacy protection mechanisms. The former includes health
management, physiological monitoring, healthcare education, and healthcare
consulting modules. The latter contains secure transmission, privacy protection
and access control modules. Analyses indicate that user adoption of HIS is
directly affected by social influence, performance expectancy, facilitating
conditions, and perceived security. Perceived security has a mediating effect
between information security literacy and user adoption. Keywords: privacy protection; healthcare information system; UTAUT; perceived
security; information security literacy | |||
| Application of Human Error Identification (HEI) Techniques to Cognitive Rehabilitation in Stroke Patients with Limb Apraxia | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 463-471 | |
| Charmayne M. L. Hughes; Chris Baber; Marta Bienkiewicz; Joachim Hermsdörfer | |||
| The aim of this study was to consider the potential uses of human error
identification (HEI) techniques in the development of a Personal Healthcare
System (PHS) capable of delivering cognitive rehabilitation of activities of
daily living (ADL) for stroke patients with limb apraxia (i.e., CogWatch). HEI
techniques were able to predict a number of apraxic errors, as well as the
associated consequences. The results of the present study indicate that HEI
analysis is a useful tool in the design of cognitive systems that seek to
reduce or eliminate errors in apraxic populations. The results will be
implemented in the CogWatch system and will be used to develop error reduction
strategies that prevent errors from occurring, and to provide post-error
feedback to help the user correct their actions. Keywords: Human error identification; apraxia; activities of daily living | |||
| Facilitators and Barriers to Patients' Engagements with Personal Health Records: Systematic Review | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 472-481 | |
| Abdulrahman Jabour; Josette F. Jones | |||
| The purpose of this paper is to identify the facilitators and barriers to
patents' engagement with Personal Health Records (PHR). We performed systematic
review searching Pub Med, IEEE, and Google Scholar for studies published
between January, 2001 to September, 2012. Among the 508 articles identified, 14
articles included in the result. We extracted the key study characteristics and
categorized facilitators and barriers using the Technology Acceptance Model
(TAM). In total, there were 10 barriers, and 6 facilitators identified. The 6
facilitators were related to both perceived usefulness and ease of use, where
the barriers were mostly related to ease of use. Recruited participants were
mostly older patients with chronic diseases. The result of this review
indicates that patients in general recognize the value of PHR but they appear
to have technical difficulties. Keywords: Systematic review; Personal Health Records PHR; Patients' engagement;
Facilitators and Barriers; PHR Design | |||
| Complexity Analysis of a Transfer Center | | BIBA | Full-Text | 482-489 | |
| Josette F. Jones; Michelle Lenox; Tami Raute; Shelly Maersch; Cortney Gundlach; Mark Pfaff | |||
| Patient throughput and the reduction of wait times for care are critical to
improve patient outcomes in life-threatening emergencies. The concept of
patient throughput underpins many wait time improvement techniques currently
being implemented by healthcare providers across the industry as well as at
Indiana University (IU) Health. Without the ability to implement effective
patient throughput process improvement solutions, healthcare providers will
struggle to reduce wait times and meet strategic goals of improved patient
outcomes.
IU Health launched its first patient transfer program between intensive care units. A level 1 vascular emergency program in August 2009; the initiative was soon complemented by other patients transfer programs. The success of the program showed a significant drop in median emergency department-to-operating room time, reductions in time spent at referring hospitals and in transit. Despite the successes, the program is left with increasing demand (volume & acuity) and a need for interactive care pathway or delivery of care solutions to streamline the patient throughput and to adequately measure impacts on patient outcomes and capacity management. The paper will present a preliminary analysis of (1) observations of current workflows and their complexity, and (2) based on the observations suggest patient throughput simulation in order to identify bottlenecks and test potential solutions and protocols before actually implementing them in practice. | |||
| Analysis of User-Generated Multimedia Data on Medication Management and Consumption Behavior Using Data Mining Techniques | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 490-499 | |
| Chaiwoo Lee; Lisa A. D'Ambrosio; Richard Myrick; Joseph F. Coughlin; Olivier L. de Weck | |||
| Technology-enabled tools have been suggested as a solution to assist older
adults in the management and consumption of medications. However, existing
systems and studies are often limited by incomplete understanding of the
potential users' behaviors. This study uses a web-based survey and photo
submission system to collect and analyze user profiles and behavioral
characteristics. Various data mining techniques, including association rules,
clustering and classification, are used on quantified data to find important
behavioral patterns, group users with similar characteristics, and discern
factors related to risky medication management behaviors. This paper presents
the process and results of analysis, including a detailed description of coding
scheme and model development. Practical and methodological implications are
also discussed. Keywords: Medication compliance; assistive technology; user observation; survey
research; design for aging population | |||
| Motion Sensing Technology on Rehabilitation for Children with Physical Disabilities | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 500-507 | |
| Chien-Yu Lin; Ming-Chi Lin; Shu-Hua Chen | |||
| This research is focus on application of hand-eye coordination of motion
sensing for children with developmental disabilities. Based on the base
technology of interactive technology, thereby bringing the children the
experience of the interactive technology application. There are 2
demonstrations on this research. The equipments are actually applied on
children with developmental disabilities, the research focus on using low-cost
equipment, then the relative activities will be easy follow for children. In
this research, the devices relied upon user-friendly design, reducing the
working load. The projector will be presented other children to participate and
share interactive content, extended deep Tablet PC application. The aim of this
study was to evaluate whether training via interactive effect enhances the
motivation of CP children. These findings suggest that training of sense of
hand-eye coordination could help to increase the motivation of training for
children with different needs. Keywords: intuition; hand-eye coordination; high tension; resource class; children;
disabilities; cerebral palsy | |||
| A Surgery Planning System by Visualizing 3D Profile of the Knee during Motion for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 508-515 | |
| Kouki Nagamune; Yuichiro Nishizawa; Daisuke Araki; Koji Nishimoto; Yuichi Hoshino; Ryosuke Kuroda; Masahiro Kurosaka | |||
| Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is one of the surgeries to
recover the knee function. The ACL reconstruction attach the grafts which is
harvested from other parts to the femur and tibia. The grafts connects the
femur and tibia by passing through the bone tunnels. One of the techniques
makes the bone tunnel of the femur and tibia in one line at a proper knee
flexion angle. If the angle is improper, the bone tunnel is made at high risk
of infection. So, it is important to visualize the virtual bone tunnels at
various knee angle as a planning system. This paper proposes a new method to
visualize 3D profile of the knee and the virtual bone tunnels during motion
with 3D scanner and 3D electromagnetic sensors. Keywords: surgery planning system; visualization; orthopaedics | |||
| Data Reduction for Continuum of Care: An Exploratory Study Using the Predicate-Argument Structure to Pre-process Radiology Sentences for Measurement of Semantic Similarity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 516-525 | |
| Eric Newsom; Josette F. Jones | |||
| In the clinical setting, continuum of care depends on integrated information
services to assure a smooth progression for patient centered care, and these
integrated information services must understand past events and personal
circumstances to make care relevant. Clinicians face a problem that the amount
of information produced in disparate electronic clinical notes is increasing to
levels incapable of being processed by humans. Clinicians need a function in
information services that can reduce the free text data to a message useful at
time of care. Information extraction (IE) is a sub-field of natural language
processing with the goal of data reduction of unstructured free text. Pertinent
to IE is an annotated corpus that frames how IE methods should create a logical
expression necessary for processing meaning of text. This study explores and
reports on the requirements to using the predicate-argument statement (PAS) as
the framework. A convenient sample from a prior study with ten synsets of 100
unique sentences from radiology reports deemed by domain experts to mean the
same thing will be the text from which PAS structures are formed. Through
content analysis of pattern recognition, findings show PAS is a feasible
framework to structure sentences for semantic similarity measurement. Keywords: Information Extraction; Predicate-Argument Structure; Semantic Similarity | |||
| Ontological Model for CDSS in Knee Injury Management | | BIBA | Full-Text | 526-535 | |
| Kanitha Phalakornkule; Josette F. Jones; John T. Finnell | |||
| Due to the increased adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and its integrated clinical decision support (CDS) tools, health information technology (HIT) is a key influence in Medicine. The main challenges in healthcare are to integrate the information across care units and to increase the quality of continuity of patient care. There are three types of knowledge sources in medicine: (1) Evidence Based Practice (EBP), (2) Practice Based Evidence, and (3) Medical Textbooks. Information in these sources is presented and organized in different formats. Ontology may allow us to integrate knowledge discovered from two separate data sources without platform restrictions. The knowledge can be reusable and sharable without the need of technology. Further, this paper also combines the strengths from both EBP and PBE on knee treatment. The hybrid knowledge model will derived from real practices while integrating existing external knowledge discovered and reported in published literatures. | |||
| Content Analysis of Specialist Interviews in the Development of the Music Therapy Activity System | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 536-543 | |
| Kevin C. Tseng; Chieh-Yun Liu | |||
| The study aims to define the needs and specification of a music therapy
system based on music therapy programs designed for elderly dementia patients.
The mobile music therapy system proposed from this study will allow music
therapy to no longer be restricted by location, time, and instrument needs,
while at the same time preserving the emphasis of music therapy on
personalization, wide choice, and options of both active and passive
activities. In order to evaluate whether the designed activities meet the needs
of dementia patient and their caregivers, the present study utilized a
semi-structured interview format to collect perspectives from three different
music therapists on the system; the vocabulary content of the responses were
then subjected to linguistic analysis to determine the suitability of the
system structure for user needs. The results demonstrated that music therapists
approved of the system functions and confirmed its suitability for its target
populations. Keywords: content analysis; dementia; elderly; music therapy; system | |||
| Supporting the Continuum of Care for Combat Wounded Patients: Adaptive Interfaces for Personal Health Records | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 544-552 | |
| Harry D., IV Tunnell; Aeshvarya Verma | |||
| In this paper, we describe a concept for an adaptive interface for a
military Personal Health Record (PHR). PHRs are electronic records used by
people to manage their personal healthcare information. In the Military
Healthcare System, combat wounded patients encounter a range of challenges due
to the unique nature of the military environment and the severity of their
wartime injuries. These factors affect how people interact with a computer
interface. In many instances, combat wounded patients eventually have
assistance from family members, professional caregivers, and others. This forms
a disparate end-user population. Because the pool of potential users includes
people with a wide range of cognitive and physical capabilities, an adaptive
interface that considers attributes of health can improve user experiences. Keywords: Adaptive interfaces; ability-based design; Personal Health Record (PHR);
combat wounded; military informatics | |||
| Design Guidelines for an Integrated PHR System: An Approach for UI Designers to Break Down Individual-Level Barriers to PHR Adoption | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 553-562 | |
| Shu-Wen Tzeng; Yuan Zhou | |||
| The significance of the quality of healthcare information has been
recognized in the health care field. How will health information reach people,
including patients, health care providers, employers, and etc.? How can
information flow seamlessly among systems in a secure environment? In the case
of individuals, how can one access, manage and share his/her health information
with authorized health providers? To answer those questions, PHR (Personal
Health records) plays a crucial role here. User interface design is essential
for improving the usability of interactive systems like PHRs. In this study,
two PHR applications are examined; rules will be applied to a PHR system design
prototype to demonstrate how constructing and integrating of intuitive graphic
design is carried out, and how to make PHRs more user-friendly by incorporating
users' daily activities into personal health decision making and medical care. Keywords: Integrated PHR System; User Interface; Design Guidelines | |||
| Evaluation of User Interface of Computer Application Developed for Screening Pediatric Asthma | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 563-570 | |
| Maryam Zolnoori; Josette F. Jones; Mostafa Moin; Hassan Heidarnejad; Mohammad Reza Fazlollahi; Masoud Hosseini | |||
| Asthma is a chronic disease which has a negative effect on the quality of
life of (1.4% to 27.4%) people around the world. Unfortunately in many
countries, because of limited access to pulmonary physicians, and laboratory
tests, asthma is usually under diagnosed especially at the first stages of this
disease. The purpose of this study is to report a patient-centered computer
application for diagnosing pediatric asthma. Techniques of semantic networks,
production rules, fuzzy logic, and decision trees have been applied for
representing evidence-based research knowledge. User-Interface of this system
is evaluated by nurse practitioners. Result of this evaluation reinforces that
this system meets requirements of user interaction satisfaction. Keywords: Asthma; diagnosis; decision tree; semantic network; fuzzy logic; user
interface evaluation | |||
| Engaging Students with Intellectual Disabilities through Games Based Learning and Related Technologies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 573-582 | |
| David Brown; Penny Standen; Maria Saridaki; Nick Shopland; Elina Roinioti; Lindsay Evett; Simon Grantham; Pauline Smith | |||
| Studies within our research group have shown that Digital Games Based
Learning (DGBL) can have a positive effect on some of the core development
needs of people with intellectual disabilities and associated sensory
impairments. Of current interest is the expansion of DGBL activities on mobile
platforms. The RECALL Project describes the development and evaluation of a
novel route learning system for people with disabilities using location based
services (on the Android OS). Research has shown that route guidance systems
suppress cognitive map development, and for a target audience described as
having 'poor spatial skills', systems that develop route learning rather than
guidance are required. Two studies are reported here. The first demonstrates
that there were less navigational errors made, and less help required, in the
more independent usage of the system, than in the earlier training stages. The
second focusses on more qualitative evaluation of soft skills and personal
development via the use of the system, and of the gamified version of the
software. It looks specifically at how a playful approach can aid the
understanding of map based representations. Keywords: route learning; mobile; digital games based learning; disability | |||
| Multimedia Information Delivery on Mobile Cultural Applications | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 583-592 | |
| Heloisa Candello | |||
| In this paper we describe a user evaluation that aims to understand the use
of multimodal features in mobile cultural guides. The object of the study was a
mobile guide prototype that delivers cultural heritage information about
sculptures in the city of Brighton -- UK. The study was taken in situ with 32
participants from diverse nationalities. Participants followed a short
sculpture tour using a touch-screen mobile phone to access the application. The
data was analyzed using descriptive statistical methods and qualitative
methods. Relevant findings were identified, such as: the presence of the volume
controls on the screen, multitask functions and visibility of hyperlinks. The
length and quantity of information accessed by users was proportional to their
familiarity with the content, language skills and time available. Pictures
assisted in learning about subject history and way finding. Additionally, audio
served the purpose when participants want to see the details of the sculpture
or light conditions were not proper to visualize the screen. Video was suitable
for before or after the tour. Those results served the base to formulated
design recommendations for developing audiovisual cultural heritage guides. Keywords: user interface design; mobile HCI; mobile cultural guides | |||
| Creativity, Mobile Multimedia Systems, Human and Social Factors in Software: Communicability Excellence for All | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 593-602 | |
| Francisco V. Cipolla Ficarra; Alejandra Quiroga; Valeria M. Ficarra | |||
| We present a first set of results and trends in the formal and factual
sciences aimed at reaching excellence of communicability for all in the second
decade of the new millennium. Through a set of heuristic evaluation techniques
and strategies for the analysis of communicability we present the first causes
facing the presence and absence of creativity in the south of Europe, with
regard to the contents for the mobile multimedia systems such as the PC tablets
and the multimedia phones. Finally, a special case of human and social factors
related to the web attacks is presented to foster local and international
business in the multimedia publishing sector. Keywords: Creativity; Communicability; Multimedia; Education; Human Factors;
Evaluation | |||
| Development of Smart Device-Based Thermostatic Control System Appling on Cooling Vests | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 603-610 | |
| Jing-Jing Fang; Tai-Hong Kuo; Cheng-Ying Wu | |||
| This paper presents a smart device-based thermostatic control system for
cooling vest application. The whole system consists of three parts: a
pump-based circulating cooling system, a temperature sensing module, and an
Android-based application software. The smart device uses Bluetooth technology
to receive temperature sensor datum from the vest. The thermostatic control App
determines whether to turn the pump motor on or off in order to transmit the
motor signal to the vest. One smart device can control and record multiple
cooling or heating vests at the same time in order to easily manipulate and
save resources. A simple experiment was designed and implemented to verify the
effect of thermostatic control to the vests. The results showed that this
system helps to enhance the duration of the cooling or heating system and
provides high efficiency and flexibility. The future work will focus on
biomedical signal monitoring and web-based remote control. Keywords: Smart device; cooling/heating vests; thermostatic control; Bluetooth | |||
| Dead-Until-Touched: How Digital Icons Can Transform the Way We Interact with Information | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 611-619 | |
| Isabel Cristina G. Fróes | |||
| This paper challenges the way we currently use and interact with information
through digital icons and static metaphors. The latest computer and mobile
devices' graphical user interfaces need to be reevaluated in order to support
the paradigm shift from static and local to mobile and cloud-based
interactions. Furthermore this paper questions the lingering of static icons
used in computers, mobile and tablet interfaces. The paper also presents
concrete suggestions on how expanding the functionality of digital icons can
better afford how users interact with information. Keywords: GUI; UI; Icons; Metaphors; Interaction Design | |||
| AwareCover: Interactive Cover of the Smartphone for Awareness Sharing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 620-625 | |
| Ayumi Fukuchi; Koji Tsukada; Itiro Siio | |||
| Although there are many systems that support communication by sharing
activities of people in separate locations, these systems still have problems
to be used in daily environment. Smart phones are promising platform to solve
these problems since many people always carry them. Therefore, we focus on the
cover for the smart phones, and propose a cover-type system called AwareCover
that supports users to share remote awareness by attaching the
sensors/actuators in a cover of a smart phone. We also implement PadPet as a
prototype based on this concept. Keywords: Smartphone cover; tablet cover; awareness sharing; tangible | |||
| Mobile Technology and E-Inclusion | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 626-635 | |
| John Isaacs; Santiago Martinez; Ken Scott-Brown; Allan Milne; Aled Evans; Daniel Gilmour | |||
| This paper will describe work funded by the European Union (Intereg NSR)
iAge project which attempts to address the issues surrounding accessibility to
mobile devices and services. The project takes the approach of combining three
approaches directed at allowing greater inclusion in mobile technologies for
our increasingly aging population. Focus groups sessions are used to ascertain
the real problems the older generation has with mobile devices. An iterative
design process is then used to create assistive applications which not only
assist the user but give them a purpose to interact with the technology.
Workshops are then used to provide developers and service providers with an
interactive experience of how the elderly feel when using mobile technology.
Finally the paper describes how the combination of these approaches will create
a transnational framework of best practice for future developers. Keywords: E-inclusion; Mobile HCI; Assisted Living | |||
| How Unfamiliar Words in Smartphone Manuals Affect Senior Citizens | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 636-642 | |
| Tatsuya Ishihara; Masatomo Kobayashi; Hironobu Takagi; Chieko Asakawa | |||
| Elderly people are motivated to continue working, but may have difficulties
working in full-time jobs and need flexible working styles to compensate for
their declining physical abilities. ICT can help support flexible working
styles by enhancing communication between people in distant places. Smartphones
offer various features for communication and information gathering, thus
creating more opportunities to work. However, smartphone adoption has been slow
for the elderly. One of the reasons is that elderly people have lower
familiarity with computer terminology and therefore find the manuals difficult
to understand. In this study, we investigated factors that make smartphone
manuals hard to understand. We first asked elderly people about their
familiarity with words found in smartphone manuals. Our second survey asked
about sentences extracted from the smartphone manuals. By analyzing these
results, we found that the comprehension was highly correlated with their
familiarity with the specialized vocabulary. Keywords: Word familiarity; text readability; ageing; smartphone | |||
| The Relationship between Touchscreen Sizes of Smartphones and Hand Dimensions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 643-650 | |
| Yu-Cheng Lin | |||
| With the development of communication technology, mobile phone seems to
become an important personnel device that everyone must have. As the
introduction of 3rd-generation mobile telecommunication, the technology of
touch screen was started to be applied on the mobile phones. A smartphone is a
mobile phone built on a mobile operating system with advanced computing
capability. Many functionality and application like digital cameras, GPS and
web-browser, were combined on the smartphone to form a multi-use device. Most
of modern smartphones include high-resolution touchscreens for display and
control. As the development of smartphone, the size of touchscreen becomes
larger and larger. However, the question is that a larger screen is convenient
to every user? The aim of this study is to realize the relationship between
touchscreen sizes of smartphones and user's relative hand dimensions based on
the operation time, operation error rate and subjective thumb fatigue. Sixty
subjects, including 30 males and 30 females were invited to attend the
experiment. The experiment design includes 3 touchscreen sizes. The hand length
and palm width were both divided into three categories respectively. The
analyzed results indicates that the relationships between touchscreen size and
category of hand length and between touchscreen size and category of palm width
are both positive from the views of error rate and the subjective fatigue.
Therefore, larger touchscreen size is more appropriate to larger hand and palm.
Furthermore, longer operation time is needed for people who have small hand and
palm because they spend more time to move their thumb and handle the smartphone
stably. Keywords: touchscreen; anthropometry; hand dimension; smartphone | |||
| Tilt-Based Support for Multimodal Text Entry on Touchscreen Smartphones: Using Pitch and Roll | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 651-660 | |
| Sandi Ljubic; Mihael Kukec; Vlado Glavinic | |||
| In this paper we propose a multimodal text entry method for touchscreen
smartphones, where standard Tap modality can be used in combination with Pitch
and Roll movements that change the orientation of the mobile device. Data from
the built-in orientation sensors are used as a basis for commands that support
character layout changing. Tilting the device in the appropriate direction will
cause visual enlargement of the corresponding half of the current keyboard
layout, thus enabling easier character selection, and solely sensor-based text
entry. The prototype implementation of the proposed interaction method is
analyzed and evaluated via usability testing experiments, with special focus on
efficiency of text entry. As the proposed method is also applicable on
touchscreen tablets, the form factor of mobile devices is reviewed with respect
to text entry performance both of supported interaction modalities (tilt-only
and tilt-and-tap) and of possible device orientations (portrait and landscape). Keywords: text entry; multimodal interaction; accessibility; mobile device sensors;
touchscreens | |||
| Audio Transportation System for Blind People | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 661-670 | |
| Jaime Sánchez; Márcia de Borba Campos | |||
| The purpose of this study was to design, develop and evaluate audio-based
software to assist people who are blind in public bus transportation. The
audio-based software for mobile devices Audiotransantiago was designed in order
to provide information regarding authorized bus stops for the entire bus
service in the city of Santiago de Chile (known as Transantiago). The study was
designed to allow users who are blind to build up a mental map that is adjusted
to their surroundings while traveling on the bus system. It was found that the
use of the software improved information processing skills, tempo-spatial
orientation and orientation and mobility skills (O&M), as users were able
to navigate from one place to another without having to obtain information
prior to their trip. Keywords: People with visual disabilities; Audio-based interfaces; Orientation and
Mobility; environmental perception and cognition | |||
| Towards Mobile Embodied 3D Avatar as Telepresence Vehicle | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 671-680 | |
| Yutaka Tokuda; Atsushi Hiyama; Takahiro Miura; Tomohiro Tanikawa; Michitaka Hirose | |||
| In this paper, we present mobile embodied 3D avatar to shift a rich
experience of avatar from a virtual world to our real life with a new style of
telepresence. Conventional telepresence research have focused on the exact
re-creation of face-to-face communication at a fixed position in a specialized
room, so there have been much less research on a life-sized mobile telepresence
system despite many off-the-shelf mobile telepresence robots available. We
propose various scalable holographic displays to visualize a life-sized avatar
in an actual life. In addition, we introduce architecture to control embodied
avatar according to user's intention by extending popular architecture for a
multimodal virtual human, namely SAIBA. Our primitive prototype system was
tested with 5 simple avatar animations to embody with a wheeled platform robot
and a life-sized transparent holographic display and proved realistic avatar's
movement complying user's intention and the situation at the remote location of
avatar. Keywords: interaction techniques; avatar; telepresence; telework; mobility;
transparent display; platforms and metaphors; multimodal interaction; SAIBA | |||
| One-Handed Gesture Design for Browsing on Touch Phone | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 681-690 | |
| Fong-Gong Wu; Jo-Yu Kuo | |||
| The goal of this research is to understand how dual-surface touch gesture
helps user interact mobile phone with one hand from user experience
perspective. Hence, we proposed a set of gestures and some design
recommendations for enhancing the browsing usability. Finally we emulated the
information seeking task on mobile phone. The results showed that, compare to
traditional graphic user interface, browsing gestures eased the thumb fatigue,
reduced the error rate and task completed time. Keywords: one-handed interaction; dual-surface touch gesture; web browsing; touch
phone | |||