Considerations in Designing Human-Computer Interfaces for Elderly People

As computing devices continue to become more heavily integrated into our lives, proper design of human-computer interfaces becomes a more important topic of discussion. Efficient and useful human-computer interfaces need to take into account the abilities of the humans who will be using such interfaces, and adapt to difficulties that different users may face – such as the difficulties that elderly users must deal with. Interfaces that allow for user-specific customization, while taking into account the multiple difficulties that older users might face, can assist the elderly in properly using these newer computing devices, and in doing so possibly achieving a better quality of life through the advanced technological support that these devices offer. In this paper, we explore common problems the elderly face when using computing devices and solutions developed for these problems. Difficulties ultimately fall into several categories: cognition, auditory, haptic, visual, and motor-based troubles. We also present an idea for a new adaptive operating system with advanced customizations that would simplify computing for older users

Tacsel: Shape-Changing Tactile Screen applied for Eyes-Free Interaction in Cockpit

International audienceTouch screens have become widely used in recent years. Nowadays they have been integrated on numerous electronic devices for common use since they allow the user to interact with what is displayed on the screen. However, these technologies cannot be used in complex systems in which the visual attention is very limited (cockpit manipulation, driving tasks, etc.). This paper introduces the concept of Tacsel, the smaller dynamic element of a tactile screen. Tacsels allow shape-changing and flexible properties to touch screen devices providing eyes-free interaction. We developed a high-resolution prototype of Tacsel to demonstrate its technical feasibility and its potential within a cockpit context. Three interaction scenarios are described and a workshop with brainstorming and video-prototyping is conducted to evaluate the use of the proposed Tacsel in several cockpit tasks. Results showed that interactive Tacsels have a real potential for future cockpits. Several other possible applications are also described, and several advantages and limitations are discussed

Challenges in Developing Applications for Aging Populations

Elderly individuals can greatly benefit from the use of computer applications, which can assist in monitoring health conditions, staying in contact with friends and family, and even learning new things. However, developing accessible applications for an elderly user can be a daunting task for developers. Since the advent of the personal computer, the benefits and challenges of developing applications for older adults have been a hot topic of discussion. In this chapter, the authors discuss the various challenges developers who wish to create applications for the elderly computer user face, including age-related impairments, generational differences in computer use, and the hardware constraints mobile devices pose for application developers. Although these challenges are concerning, each can be overcome after being properly identified

Haptic Stylus and Empirical Studies on Braille, Button, and Texture Display

This paper presents a haptic stylus interface with a built-in compact tactile display module and an impact module as well as empirical studies on Braille, button, and texture display. We describe preliminary evaluations verifying the tactile display's performance indicating that it can satisfactorily represent Braille numbers for both the normal and the blind. In order to prove haptic feedback capability of the stylus, an experiment providing impact feedback mimicking the click of a button has been conducted. Since the developed device is small enough to be attached to a force feedback device, its applicability to combined force and tactile feedback display in a pen-held haptic device is also investigated. The handle of pen-held haptic interface was replaced by the pen-like interface to add tactile feedback capability to the device. Since the system provides combination of force, tactile and impact feedback, three haptic representation methods for texture display have been compared on surface with 3 texture groups which differ in direction, groove width, and shape. In addition, we evaluate its capacity to support touch screen operations by providing tactile sensations when a user rubs against an image displayed on a monitor

Re-Presenting Text in a Website for Visually Impaired Users using Braille Line

As new web technologies emerging and being adopted in the design of a website, web accessibility has become a major issue especially for people with disabilities .Limitation of assistive technology to render webpage has also been contributing factor for poor web accessibility by the visually impaired users. This issue has caused visually impaired users loss semantic information of webpage besides creating frustration situation of web browsing. In this paper, factors that cause web browsing frustration to the visually impaired users and types of tactile effects that can be implemented in the Braille Line device to render the semantic information of webpage are explored. The main objectives of this project is to build a website reader and program a Braille Line 20 cell device for web browsing focusing on presenting non visual text elements such as font attributes and text hierarchy that can be critical to meaning of the text. Tactile technology have been chosen to be adopted in the Braille Line as the touch is the most active sense of visually-impaired people to acquire knowledge .From the prototype to be build, a sample group of visually impaired users will be taken to test and evaluate the website and the device in terms of technology as well as its effectiveness. The results and recommendations were shared by the end of the project as a key milestone for future renditions of the project

Uses of Technology in Upper Secondary Mathematics Education

Mathematics Education; Educational Technology; Teaching and Teacher Educatio

Re-Presenting Text in a Website for Visually Impaired Users using Braille Line

As new web technologies emerging and being adopted in the design of a website, web accessibility has become a major issue especially for people with disabilities .Limitation of assistive technology to render webpage has also been contributing factor for poor web accessibility by the visually impaired users. This issue has caused visually impaired users loss semantic information of webpage besides creating frustration situation of web browsing. In this paper, factors that cause web browsing frustration to the visually impaired users and types of tactile effects that can be implemented in the Braille Line device to render the semantic information of webpage are explored. The main objectives of this project is to build a website reader and program a Braille Line 20 cell device for web browsing focusing on presenting non visual text elements such as font attributes and text hierarchy that can be critical to meaning of the text. Tactile technology have been chosen to be adopted in the Braille Line as the touch is the most active sense of visually-impaired people to acquire knowledge .From the prototype to be build, a sample group of visually impaired users will be taken to test and evaluate the website and the device in terms of technology as well as its effectiveness. The results and recommendations were shared by the end of the project as a key milestone for future renditions of the project

Designing an Educational and Intelligent Human-Computer Interface for Older Adults

As computing devices continue to become more heavily integrated into our lives, proper design of human-computer interfaces becomes a more important topic of discussion. Efficient and useful human-computer interfaces need to take into account the abilities of the humans who will be using such interfaces, and adapt to difficulties that different users may face – such as the particular difficulties older users must face. However, various issues in the design of human-computer interfaces for older users yet exist: a wide variance of ability is displayed by older adults, which can be difficult to design for. Motions and notions found intuitive by younger users can be anything but for the older user. Properly-designed devices must also assist without injuring the pride and independence of the users – thus, it’s understood that devices designed “for the elderly” may encounter a poor reception when introduced to the ageing community. Affective computing gives current researchers in HCI a useful opportunity to develop applications with interfaces that detect mood and attention via nonverbal cues and take appropriate actions accordingly. Current work in affective computing applications with older adult users points to possibilities reducing feelings of loneliness in the older adult population via these affective applications. However, we believe that everyday applications – such as chat programs or operating systems – can also take advantage of affective computing principles to make themselves more accessible for older adults, via communication enhancement. In this thesis, we document a variety of work in the field of developing human-computer interfaces for the older adult user, and the various requirements each of these studies confirm regarding human-computer interaction design for the elderly. We then explain how integration of affective computing can positively affect these designs, and outline a design approach for proper human-computer interfaces for the elderly which take into account affective computing principles. We then develop a case study around a chat application – ChitChat – which takes these principles and guidelines into account from the beginning, and give several examples of real-world applications also built with these guidelines. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the broader impacts of this work

A comprehensive framework for the rapid prototyping of ubiquitous interaction

In the interaction between humans and computational systems, many advances have been made in terms of hardware (e.g., smart devices with embedded sensors and multi-touch surfaces) and software (e.g., algorithms for the detection and tracking of touches, gestures and full body movements). Now that we have the computational power and devices to manage interactions between the physical and the digital world, the question is—what should we do? For the Human-Computer Interaction research community answering to this question means to materialize Mark Weiser’s vision of Ubiquitous Computing. In the desktop computing paradigm, the desktop metaphor is implemented by a graphical user interface operated via mouse and keyboard. Users are accustomed to employing artificial control devices whose operation has to be learned and they interact in an environment that inhibits their faculties. For example the mouse is a device that allows movements in a two dimensional space, thus limiting the twenty three degrees of freedom of the human’s hand. The Ubiquitous Computing is an evolution in the history of computation: it aims at making the interface disappear and integrating the information processing into everyday objects with computational capabilities. In this way humans would no more be forced to adapt to machines but, instead, the technology will harmonize with the surrounding environment. Conversely from the desktop case, ubiquitous systems make use of heterogeneous Input/Output devices (e.g., motion sensors, cameras and touch surfaces among others) and interaction techniques such as touchless, multi-touch, and tangible. By reducing the physical constraints in interaction, ubiquitous technologies can enable interfaces that endow more expressive power (e.g., free-hand gestures) and, therefore, such technologies are expected to provide users with better tools to think, create and communicate. It appears clear that approaches based on classical user interfaces from the desktop computing world do not fit with ubiquitous needs, for they were thought for a single user who is interacting with a single computing systems, seated at his workstation and looking at a vertical screen. To overcome the inadequacy of the existing paradigm, new models started to be developed that enable users to employ their skills effortlessly and lower the cognitive burden of interaction with computational machines. Ubiquitous interfaces are pervasive and thus invisible to its users, or they become invisible with successive interactions in which the users feel they are instantly and continuously successful. All the benefits advocated by ubiquitous interaction, like the invisible interface and a more natural interaction, come at a price: the design and development of interactive systems raise new conceptual and practical challenges. Ubiquitous systems communicate with the real world by means of sensors, emitters and actuators. Sensors convert real world inputs into digital data, while emitters and actuators are mostly used to provide digital or physical feedback (e.g., a speaker emitting sounds). Employing such variety of hardware devices in a real application can be difficult because their use requires knowledge of underneath physics and many hours of programming work. Furthermore, data integration can be cumbersome, for any device vendor uses different programming interfaces and communication protocols. All these factors make the rapid prototyping of ubiquitous systems a challenging task. Prototyping is a pivoting activity to foster innovation and creativity through the exploration of a design space. Nevertheless, while there are many prototyping tools and guidelines for traditional user interfaces, very few solutions have been developed for a holistic prototyping of ubiquitous systems. The tremendous amount of different input devices, interaction techniques and physical environments envisioned by researchers produces a severe challenge from the point of view of general and comprehensive development tools. All of this makes it difficult to work in a design and development space where practitioners need to be familiar with different related subjects, involving software and hardware. Moreover, the technological context is further complicated by the fact that many of the ubiquitous technologies have recently grown from an embryonic stage and are still in a process of maturation; thus they lack of stability, reliability and homogeneity. For these reasons, it is compelling to develop tools support to the programming of ubiquitous interaction. In this thesis work this particular topic is addressed. The goal is to develop a general conceptual and software framework that makes use of hardware abstraction to lighten the prototyping process in the design of ubiquitous systems. The thesis is that, by abstracting from low-level details, it is possible to provide unified, coherent and consistent access to interacting devices independently of their implementation or communication protocols. In this dissertation the existing literature is revised and is pointed out that there is a need in the art of frameworks that provide such a comprehensive and integrate support. Moreover, the objectives and the methodology to fulfill them, together with the major contributions of this work are described. Finally, the design of the proposed framework, its development in the form of a set of software libraries, its evaluation with real users and a use case are presented. Through the evaluation and the use case it has been demonstrated that by encompassing heterogeneous devices into a unique design it is possible to reduce user efforts to develop interaction in ubiquitous environments. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------En la interacción entre personas y sistemas de computación se han realizado muchos adelantos por lo que concierne el hardware (p.ej., dispositivos inteligentes con sensores integrados y superficies táctiles) y el software (p.ej., algoritmos para el reconocimiento y rastreo de puntos de contactos, gestos de manos y movimientos corporales). Ahora que se dispone del poder computacional y de los dispositivos para proporcionar una interacción entre el mundo fisico y el mundo digital, la pregunta es—que se debería hacer? Contestar a esta pregunta, para la comunidad de investigación en la Interacción Persona-Ordenador, significa hacer realidad la visión de Mark Weiser sobre la Computación Ubicua. En el paradigma de computación de escritorio, la metáfora del escritorio se implementa a través de la interfaz gráfica de usuario con la que se interactúa a través de teclado y ratón. En este paradigma, los usuarios se adaptan a utilizar dispositivos artificiales, cuyas operaciones deben ser aprendidas, y a interactuar en un entorno que inhibe sus capacidades. Por ejemplo, el ratón es un dispositivo que permite movimientos en dos dimensiones, por tanto limita los veintitrés grados de libertad de una mano. La Computación Ubicua se considera como una evolución en la historia de la computación: su objetivo es hacer que la interfaz desaparezca e integrar el procesamiento de la información en los objetos cotidianos, provistos de capacidad de computo. De esta forma, el usuario no se vería forzado a adaptarse a la maquinas sino que la tecnología se integrarían directamente con el entorno. A diferencia de los sistemas de sobremesa, los sistemas ubicuos utilizan dispositivos de entrada/salida heterogéneos (p.ej., sensores de movimiento, cameras y superficies táctiles entre otros) y técnicas de interacción como la interacción sin tocar, multitáctil o tangible. Reduciendo las limitaciones físicas en la interacción, las tecnologías ubicuas permiten la creación de interfaces con un mayor poder de expresión (p.ej., gestos con las manos) y, por lo tanto, se espera que proporcionen a los usuarios mejores herramientas para pensar, crear y comunicar. Parece claro que las soluciones basadas en las interfaces clásicas no satisfacen las necesidades de la interacción ubicua, porque están pensadas por un único usuario que interactúa con un único sistema de computación, sentado a su mesa de trabajo y mirando una pantalla vertical. Para superar las deficiencias del paradigma de escritorio, se empezaron a desarrollar nuevos modelos de interacción que permitiesen a los usuarios emplear sin esfuerzo sus capacidades innatas y adquiridas y reducir la carga cognitiva de las interfaces clásicas. Las interfaces ubicuas son pervasivas y, por lo tanto, invisibles a sus usuarios, o devienen invisibles a través de interacciones sucesivas en las que los usuarios siempre se sienten que están teniendo éxito. Todos los beneficios propugnados por la interacción ubicua, como la interfaz invisible o una interacción mas natural, tienen un coste: el diseño y el desarrollo de sistemas de interacción ubicua introducen nuevos retos conceptuales y prácticos. Los sistemas ubicuos comunican con el mundo real a través de sensores y emisores. Los sensores convierten las entradas del mundo real en datos digitales, mientras que los emisores se utilizan principalmente para proporcionar una retroalimentación digital o física (p.ej., unos altavoces que emiten un sonido). Emplear una gran variedad de dispositivos hardware en una aplicación real puede ser difícil, porque su uso requiere conocimiento de física y muchas horas de programación. Además, la integración de los datos puede ser complicada, porque cada proveedor de dispositivos utiliza diferentes interfaces de programación y protocolos de comunicación. Todos estos factores hacen que el prototipado rápido de sistemas ubicuos sea una tarea que constituye un difícil reto en la actualidad. El prototipado es una actividad central para promover la innovación y la creatividad a través de la exploración de un espacio de diseño. Sin embargo, a pesar de que existan muchas herramientas y líneas guías para el prototipado de las interfaces de escritorio, a día de hoy han sido desarrolladas muy pocas soluciones para un prototipado holístico de la interacción ubicua. La enorme cantidad de dispositivos de entrada, técnicas de interacción y entornos físicos concebidos por los investigadores supone un gran desafío desde el punto de vista de un entorno general e integral. Todo esto hace que sea difícil trabajar en un espacio de diseño y desarrollo en el que los profesionales necesitan tener conocimiento de diferentes materias relacionadas con temas de software y hardware. Además, el contexto tecnológico se complica por el hecho que muchas de estas tecnologías ubicuas acaban de salir de un estadio embrionario y están todavía en un proceso de desarrollo; por lo tanto faltan de estabilidad, fiabilidad y homogeneidad. Por estos motivos es fundamental desarrollar herramientas que soporten el proceso de prototipado de la interacción ubicua. Este trabajo de tesis doctoral se dedica a este problema. El objetivo es desarrollar una arquitectura conceptual y software que utilice un nivel de abstracción del hardware para hacer mas fácil el proceso de prototipado de sistemas de interacción ubicua. La tesis es que, abstrayendo de los detalles de bajo nivel, es posible proporcionar un acceso unificado, consistente y coherente a los dispositivos de interacción independientemente de su implementación y de los protocolos de comunicación. En esta tesis doctoral se revisa la literatura existente y se pone de manifiesto la necesidad de herramientas y marcos que proporcionen dicho soporte global e integrado. Además, se describen los objetivos propuestos, la metodología para alcanzarlos y las contribuciones principales de este trabajo. Finalmente, se presentan el diseño del marco conceptual, así como su desarrollo en forma de un conjunto de librerías software, su evaluación con usuarios reales y un caso de uso. A través de la evaluación y del caso de uso se ha demostrado que considerando dispositivos heterogéneos en un único diseño es posible reducir los esfuerzos de los usuarios para desarrollar la interacción en entornos ubicuos

Tabletop tangible maps and diagrams for visually impaired users

En dépit de leur omniprésence et de leur rôle essentiel dans nos vies professionnelles et personnelles, les représentations graphiques, qu'elles soient numériques ou sur papier, ne sont pas accessibles aux personnes déficientes visuelles car elles ne fournissent pas d'informations tactiles. Par ailleurs, les inégalités d'accès à ces représentations ne cessent de s'accroître ; grâce au développement de représentations graphiques dynamiques et disponibles en ligne, les personnes voyantes peuvent non seulement accéder à de grandes quantités de données, mais aussi interagir avec ces données par le biais de fonctionnalités avancées (changement d'échelle, sélection des données à afficher, etc.). En revanche, pour les personnes déficientes visuelles, les techniques actuellement utilisées pour rendre accessibles les cartes et les diagrammes nécessitent l'intervention de spécialistes et ne permettent pas la création de représentations interactives. Cependant, les récentes avancées dans le domaine de l'adaptation automatique de contenus laissent entrevoir, dans les prochaines années, une augmentation de la quantité de contenus adaptés. Cette augmentation doit aller de pair avec le développement de dispositifs utilisables et abordables en mesure de supporter l'affichage de représentations interactives et rapidement modifiables, tout en étant accessibles aux personnes déficientes visuelles. Certains prototypes de recherche s'appuient sur une représentation numérique seulement : ils peuvent être instantanément modifiés mais ne fournissent que très peu de retour tactile, ce qui rend leur exploration complexe d'un point de vue cognitif et impose de fortes contraintes sur le contenu. D'autres prototypes s'appuient sur une représentation numérique et physique : bien qu'ils puissent être explorés tactilement, ce qui est un réel avantage, ils nécessitent un support tactile qui empêche toute modification rapide. Quant aux dispositifs similaires à des tablettes Braille, mais avec des milliers de picots, leur coût est prohibitif. L'objectif de cette thèse est de pallier les limitations de ces approches en étudiant comment développer des cartes et diagrammes interactifs physiques, modifiables et abordables. Pour cela, nous nous appuyons sur un type d'interface qui a rarement été étudié pour des utilisateurs déficients visuels : les interfaces tangibles, et plus particulièrement les interfaces tangibles sur table. Dans ces interfaces, des objets physiques représentent des informations numériques et peuvent être manipulés par l'utilisateur pour interagir avec le système, ou par le système lui-même pour refléter un changement du modèle numérique - on parle alors d'interfaces tangibles sur tables animées, ou actuated. Grâce à la conception, au développement et à l'évaluation de trois interfaces tangibles sur table (les Tangible Reels, la Tangible Box et BotMap), nous proposons un ensemble de solutions techniques répondant aux spécificités des interfaces tangibles pour des personnes déficientes visuelles, ainsi que de nouvelles techniques d'interaction non-visuelles, notamment pour la reconstruction d'une carte ou d'un diagramme et l'exploration de cartes de type " Pan & Zoom ". D'un point de vue théorique, nous proposons aussi une nouvelle classification pour les dispositifs interactifs accessibles.Despite their omnipresence and essential role in our everyday lives, online and printed graphical representations are inaccessible to visually impaired people because they cannot be explored using the sense of touch. The gap between sighted and visually impaired people's access to graphical representations is constantly growing due to the increasing development and availability of online and dynamic representations that not only give sighted people the opportunity to access large amounts of data, but also to interact with them using advanced functionalities such as panning, zooming and filtering. In contrast, the techniques currently used to make maps and diagrams accessible to visually impaired people require the intervention of tactile graphics specialists and result in non-interactive tactile representations. However, based on recent advances in the automatic production of content, we can expect in the coming years a growth in the availability of adapted content, which must go hand-in-hand with the development of affordable and usable devices. In particular, these devices should make full use of visually impaired users' perceptual capacities and support the display of interactive and updatable representations. A number of research prototypes have already been developed. Some rely on digital representation only, and although they have the great advantage of being instantly updatable, they provide very limited tactile feedback, which makes their exploration cognitively demanding and imposes heavy restrictions on content. On the other hand, most prototypes that rely on digital and physical representations allow for a two-handed exploration that is both natural and efficient at retrieving and encoding spatial information, but they are physically limited by the use of a tactile overlay, making them impossible to update. Other alternatives are either extremely expensive (e.g. braille tablets) or offer a slow and limited way to update the representation (e.g. maps that are 3D-printed based on users' inputs). In this thesis, we propose to bridge the gap between these two approaches by investigating how to develop physical interactive maps and diagrams that support two-handed exploration, while at the same time being updatable and affordable. To do so, we build on previous research on Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) and particularly on (actuated) tabletop TUIs, two fields of research that have surprisingly received very little interest concerning visually impaired users. Based on the design, implementation and evaluation of three tabletop TUIs (the Tangible Reels, the Tangible Box and BotMap), we propose innovative non-visual interaction techniques and technical solutions that will hopefully serve as a basis for the design of future TUIs for visually impaired users, and encourage their development and use. We investigate how tangible maps and diagrams can support various tasks, ranging from the (re)construction of diagrams to the exploration of maps by panning and zooming. From a theoretical perspective we contribute to the research on accessible graphical representations by highlighting how research on maps can feed research on diagrams and vice-versa. We also propose a classification and comparison of existing prototypes to deliver a structured overview of current research