Cockpit Text Communications: Evaluating the Efficiency and Accuracy of Different Keyboards

Non-voice data exchanges will become a primary method of communication between pilots and Air Traffic Controllers as the Federal Aviation Administration’s plan for the Next Generation Air Traffic Control System (NextGen) evolves. In support of this communication evolution, pilots will need the most efficient interface tools in order to accurately and quickly exchange text messages with Air Traffic Control. Keyboards, or similar input devices, will be become a necessity in the cockpit. This study aims to investigate and compare the typing speed and accuracy possible using three sizes of two-hand, QWERTY1 keyboards: a full size (100%), a medium size (92%), and a small size (thumb typing home theater PC keyboard) that could be used for aviation data exchanges. Each study participant was administered 15 typing tests having aviation specific content, on each keyboard, including 5 tests of short length, 5 tests of medium length, and 5 tests of long length. The results of this study suggest that in terms of words per minute typing speed, participants using the medium size keyboard had a slightly faster typing speed than with the large keyboard, while the small keyboard produced a considerably slower typing speed than either the medium or large keyboards. In terms of accuracy, participants using the small keyboard had the highest level of accuracy, followed by the medium keyboard, while the least accurate keyboard tended to be the large keyboard. Overall, findings suggest that the optimal size of two-handed, QWERTY keyboard for use in an aircraft cockpit was the medium keyboard

Using Information Communications Technologies to Implement Universal Design for Learning

The purpose of this paper is to assist Ministries of Education, their donors and partners, Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs), and the practitioner community funded by and working with USAID to select, pilot, and (as appropriate) scale up ICT4E solutions to facilitate the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), with a particular emphasis on supporting students with disabilities to acquire literacy and numeracy skills. The paper focuses primarily on how technology can support foundational skills acquisition for students with disabilities, while also explaining when, why, and how technologies that assist students with disabilities can, in some applications, have positive impacts on all students’ basic skills development. In 2018, USAID released the Toolkit for Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read, section 3.1 of which provides basic information on the role of technologies to support UDL principles and classroom learning. This paper expands upon that work and offers more extensive advice on using ICT4E1 to advance equitable access to high quality learning. Like the UDL toolkit, the audience for this guide is mainly Ministries of Education and development agencies working in the area of education, but this resource can also be helpful for DPOs and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) wishing to pilot or spearhead ICT initiatives. Content for this paper was informed by expert interviews and reviews of field reports during 2018. These included programs associated with United Nations, Zero Project, World Innovation Summit, UNESCO Mobile Learning Awards, and USAID’s All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development. Relevant case studies of select education programs integrating technology to improve learning outcomes for students with disabilities were summarized for this document

Kosketusnäytöllisten mobiililaitteiden syöksy Internetiin: Käytettävyyssuosituksia Yhden Webin saavuttamiseksi

Tämä työ tarjoaa päivitettyä tietoa mobiilin Web-selailun käyttökokemuksesta, mikä on tarpeen, sillä mobiilin Webin tila on muuttunut huomattavasti viime vuosina. Mobiilien sivunlatausten määrä lähti voimakkaaseen kasvuun uuden sukupolven puhelinten kuten iPhonen myötä. Näissä laitteissa yhdistyvät täysimittainen selain sekä useissa tapauksissa kosketusnäyttökäyttöliittymä. Vuorovaikutus Webin kanssa kosketusnäytöllisillä mobiililaitteilla eroaa suuresti tietokoneselailusta. Suuren näytön, hiiren ja näppäimistön sijaan sivuja katsellaan taskukokoiselta näytöltä, ja sivuja vieritetään ja zoomataan sormi- tai piirrineleillä. Monissa laitteissa ei ole fyysisiä kirjoitusnäppäimiä, vaan täysi QWERTY-näppäimistö ponnahtaa ruudulle tarvittaessa. Käyttökokemusta tutkittiin asiantuntija-arvion ja käytettävyystestin avulla. Useita verkkosivuja arvioitiin erilaisilla mobiililaitteilla 3 asiantuntijan voimin, ja testissä 18 mobiilin Webin käyttäjää käytti Webiä 6 mobiili- ja pöytälaitteella. Tutkimuksessa löydettiin selkeitä verkkosivutekijöitä, jotka huonontavat mobiili-Webin käyttökokemusta jopa edistyneimmillä laitteilla. Tyypilliset Webin käytettävyysongelmat korostuivat, ja pienet näytöt sekä kosketuskäyttöliittymät osoittivat uusia haasteita. Tuloksena muodostettiin 60 käytettävyyssuositusta, joita hyödyntämällä mobiilikäyttäjien käyttökokemusta Webissä voidaan parantaa. Suositukset käsittelevät verkkosivun ulkoasua ja navigointia, raskasta sisältöä ja epäyhteensopivuuksia, syötettä vaativia sisältöjä sekä tekijöitä, jotka liittyvät laitetunnistukseen ja erillisiin mobiilikäyttöliittymiin. Mutta toisin kuin aikaisemmat tutkimukset osoittavat, tie parannukseen ei ole kovin pitkä, sillä mobiiliselailu koettiin kokonaisuudessaan melko miellyttävänä.This thesis provides a needed update for mobile web browsing user experience research, as the state of the mobile Web has changed substantially in the last few years. The emergence of new-generation phones, such as the iPhone, started an unparalleled rise in the number of mobile page views of websites. These devices combine full-featured browsers and, in many cases, touch screen interfaces. As for interaction with the Web, mobile touch screen devices differ from desktop devices to a large extent. Instead of a big screen, mouse, and keyboard, a pocket-size screen displays the pages, which are zoomed and scrolled with finger or stylus gestures. No physical buttons are provided for writing in many devices, but a virtual full QWERTY keyboard pops up on the screen when needed. A study consisting of an expert evaluation of several websites with different mobile devices by 3 specialists, and a usability test with 18 mobile Web users using 6 mobile and desktop devices was carried out. The study found that there are clear website design factors that deteriorate the mobile Web UX even when a high-end device is used. Classic website usability issues were emphasized, and new issues were presented by small screens and touch interfaces. As a result, 60 UX guidelines were defined. Utilizing these allows for providing a better UX for the mobile users of full websites. The guidelines consist of recommendations concerning website layout and navigation, heavy content and incompatibilities, content demanding input, and factors related to device detection and separate mobile interfaces. However, in contrast to the _ndings of previous related studies, the road of enhancement is not that long, as the overall pleasantness of mobile browsing was considered rather high

Intelligent Techniques to Accelerate Everyday Text Communication

People with some form of speech- or motor-impairments usually use a high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device to communicate with other people in writing or in face-to-face conversations. Their text entry rate on these devices is slow due to their motor abilities. Making good letter or word predictions can help accelerate the communication of such users. In this dissertation, we investigated several approaches to accelerate input for AAC users. First, considering that an AAC user is participating in a face-to-face conversation, we investigated whether performing speech recognition on the speaking-side can improve next word predictions. We compared the accuracy of three plausible microphone deployment options and the accuracy of two commercial speech recognition engines. We found that despite recognition word error rates of 7-16%, our ensemble of n-gram and recurrent neural network language models made predictions nearly as good as when they used the reference transcripts. In a user study with 160 participants, we also found that increasing number of prediction slots in a keyboard interface does not necessarily correlate to improved performance. Second, typing every character in a text message may require an AAC user more time or effort than strictly necessary. Skipping spaces or other characters may be able to speed input and reduce an AAC user\u27s physical input effort. We designed a recognizer optimized for expanding noisy abbreviated input where users often omitted spaces and mid-word vowels. We showed using neural language models for selecting conversational-style training text and for rescoring the recognizer\u27s n-best sentences improved accuracy. We found accurate abbreviated input was possible even if a third of characters was omitted. In a study where users had to dwell for a second on each key, we found sentence abbreviated input was competitive with a conventional keyboard with word predictions. Finally, AAC keyboards rely on language modeling to auto-correct noisy typing and to offer word predictions. While today language models can be trained on huge amounts of text, pre-trained models may fail to capture the unique writing style and vocabulary of individual users. We demonstrated improved performance compared to a unigram cache by adapting to a user\u27s text via language models based on prediction by partial match (PPM) and recurrent neural networks. Our best model ensemble increased keystroke savings by 9.6%

Interaction and the Art of User-Centered Digital Musical Instrument Design

This thesis documents the formulation of a research-based practice in multimedia art, technology and digital musical instrument design. The primary goal of my research was to investigate the principles and methodologies involved in the structural design of new interactive digital musical instruments aimed at performance by members of the general public, and to identify ways that the design process could be optimized to increase user adoption of these new instruments. The research was performed over three years and moved between studies at the University of Maine, internships in New York, and specialized research at the Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory at McGill University. My work is presented in two sections. The first covers early studies in user interaction and exploratory works in web and visual design, sound art, installation, and music performance. While not specifically tied to the research topic of user adoption of digital musical instruments, this work serves as the conceptual and technical background for the dedicated work to follow. The second section is dedicated to focused research on digital musical instrument design through two major projects carried out as a Graduate Research Trainee at McGill University. The first was the design and prototype of the Noisebox, a new digital musical instrument. The purpose of this project was to learn the various stages of instrument design through practical application. A working prototype has been presented and tested, and a second version is currently being built. The second project was a user study that surveyed musicians about digital musical instrument use. It asked questions about background, instrument choice, music styles played, and experiences with and attitudes towards new digital musical instruments. Based on the results of the two research projects, a model of digital musical instrument design is proposed that adopts a user-centered focus, soliciting user input and feedback throughout the design process from conception to final testing. This approach aims to narrow the gap between conceptual design of new instruments and technologies and the actual musicians who would use them