Design considerations for the ideal low vision aid: insights from de-brief interviews following a real-world recording study

PURPOSE: Low Vision Aids (LVAs) can have a transformative impact on people living with sight loss, yet the everyday requirements for developing such devices remain poorly understood and defined. This study systematically explored LVA requirements through a structured de-brief interview following a real-world self-recording study. The purpose of this work was to define the actual needs of those living with sight loss so that low vision services can better address them in future. METHODS: Thirty-two visually impaired volunteers with varying levels of previous LVA experience participated in a de-brief interview centred around a structured questionnaire. The de-brief followed a one-week real-world study during which participants used recoding spectacles to capture and narrate all situations in which they would use a ‘perfect sight aid’. Content and thematic analyses were used to analyse interviews which had the purpose of contextualising these recordings and exploring requirements around psychological, functional and design factors. CONCLUSIONS: There is a substantial opportunity for new LVAs to address visual needs that traditional devices and coping strategies cannot support. Functional, psychological and design factors require careful consideration for future LVAs to be relevant and widely adopted

Augmented Tangible Surfaces to Support Cognitive Games for Ageing People

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19695-4_27The continuous and rapidly increasing elderly population requires a revision of technology design in order to devise systems usable and meaningful for this social group. Most applications for ageing people are built to provide supporting services, taking into account the physical and cognitive abilities that decrease over time. However, this paper focuses on building technology to improve such capacities, or at least slow down their decline, through cognitive games. This is achieved by means of a digitally-augmented table-like surface that combines touch with tangible input for a more natural, intuitive, and appealing means of interaction. Its construction materials make it an affordable device likely to be used in retirement homes in the context of therapeutic activities, and its form factor enables a versatile, quick, and scalable configuration, as well as a socializing experience.This work received financial support from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the National Strategic Program of Research and Project TIN2010-20488, and from Universitat Politécnica de Valencia under Project UPV-FE-2014-24. It is also supported by fellowships APOST D/2013/013 and ACIF/2014/214 within the VALi+d program from Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Esport (GVA).García Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Catalá Bolós, A. (2015). Augmented Tangible Surfaces to Support Cognitive Games for Ageing People. En Ambient Intelligence - Software and Applications. Springer. 263-271. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19695-4_27S26327

Emerging technologies for learning (volume 1)

Collection of 5 articles on emerging technologies and trend