Integrated Acceptance Model for On-demand Car Functions: exploring determinants of drivers' acceptance

This research paper investigates the factors influencing drivers' acceptance of on-demand car functions (ODCFs) and proposes an integrated acceptance model specific to the ODCFs context. While limited marketing research has explored consumer responses to ODCFs, understanding the determinants of consumers' intention to accept ODCFs is crucial. Existing acceptance models, although effective in explaining variances in consumer behavior, need to be adapted and extended to enhance explanatory power in individual contexts. To address this gap, a comprehensive literature review on ODCFs and related domains was conducted, identifying 74 acceptance factors. Drawing upon the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the Car Technology Acceptance Model (CTAM), and the identified factors, a multi-level acceptance model tailored to the ODCFs context was developed. At the meso-level, the baseline model incorporates factors such as exposure to ODCFs, domain-specific, symbolic-affective, and moral-normative factors. The micro-level pertains to distinct individual variance components, encompassing socio-demographic attributes, travel behavioral patterns, personality dispositions, and technological inclinations. These micro-level determinants exert a discernible influence on the factors situated at the meso-level of analysis. A partial model that considers cross-level influences and advocates for multi-level research to examine the contextual factors' impacts on acceptance empirically is proposed to operationalize the model. By adopting this approach, researchers can gain deeper insights into the acceptance of ODCFs and shed light on the mechanisms underlying consumer behavior in this specific context

The Use of digital games to enhance the physical exercise activity of the elderly : a case of Finland

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), population ageing is a global phenomenon, which brings both challenges and opportunities for society. The current longer expected lifespan can create opportunities for the elderly to contribute in many ways to their families and communities. However, it greatly depends on their quality of life, which is affected by many factors, including physical and functional health, social well-being, and cognitive abilities. The WHO (2012) states that physical health is one of the indicators for the elderly’s quality of life, and it declines with increasing age. Participation in regular physical exercises can help the elderly improve their physical and mental health, and this has been aided by the use of modern technologies to promote the elderly’s physical and functional health. Of these latest technologies, digital games have shown promise to improve and enhance the elderly’s physical activities through fun and engaging gameplay. The literature highlights that some commercial games in the market (e.g. Microsoft Kinect- Sports and Nintendo Wii Sports games) have the potential to improve the elderly’s physical health such as gait, balance, and fall prevention. However, researchers argue that these commercial games are not designed specifically for the elderly and their physical exercise activities. They state that most commercial games are not user-friendly for the elderly whose functional and physical abilities are limited due to their advanced years. The literature points out that more studies need to be undertaken to understand the usability and usefulness of digital games for physical exercise activities so that game designers can create elderly-friendly digital games in the future. In Finland, the government has been focusing on promoting healthy ageing and increasing home care services for the elderly. In recent years, Finnish researchers have used digital games to promote older Finns’ healthy and active ageing. The existing literature, whilst showing the potential of digital games for elderly Finns’ physical health, also acknowledges further research is needed particularly in the context of Finland. Thus, in this study, we aimed at investigating digital games to specifically assess their applications for older Finns’ physical activities, focusing on the quality of users’ experiences, and their reported ease of use and perceived usefulness. We used the mixed methods approach, which applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study design included four stages: requirements gathering, analysis and design, prototyping, and evaluation. Firstly, we conducted pre-studies to elicit users’ requirements. This was followed by the analysis of the resulting data to identify trends and patterns, which fuelled ideas in the brainstorming game design and development phases. The final product was a digital game-based physical exercise called the Skiing Game. We then evaluated the Skiing Game in Finland with 21 elderly Finns (M=7, F=14, Average Age =76). By using questionnaires, observation, and interviews, we investigated user experiences, focusing on the game’s usability, and usefulness for enhancing the physical activity and wellbeing of the elderly. We also conducted a comparative test of the Skiing Game in Japan with 24 elderly Japanese participants (M=12, F=12, Average Age = 72) to further understand non-Finnish elderly users’ experiences. The findings from the usability study of the Skiing Game in Finland demonstrated that elderly Finns had a positive experience in the gameplay, and their motivation was noticeably high. It also confirmed that elderly Finns have a genuine interest in digital game-based exercises and strong intentions to play digital games as a form of physical exercise in the future. Although prior to the study most of them had negative views and misconceptions about digital games, after the gameplay their attitudes were decidedly positive. They acknowledged that whilst playing digital games could be an alternative way of exercising for them their use would primarily be when they don’t have access to their usual non-digital physical exercise. The Japanese usability of the Skiing Game showed that the elderly Japanese people also had positive user experiences in playing digital games, and also intend to use them in the future. Similarly, after playing the game they reported that their attitudes towards digital games become positive, and indicated playing digital games could be an alternative way of exercising. Although the comparison of the two studies suggests that the elderly Finns had relatively more positive experiences whilst playing the Skiing Game, compared to their Japanese counterparts, in general, both groups had a positive experience in the gameplay and showed interest in digital games as an alternative exercise. Based on the usability lessons learned from these two studies, recommendations for practitioners and designers regarding improvements in game design and development are made in this report. Implementing these modifications into future designs and further development of digital games for the elderly will improve their commercial viability and user uptake. The findings from this study can provide valuable insights, particularly for Finnish policymakers and healthcare practitioners who are keen to introduce digital games into the aged-care sector in Finland. The studies have also provided valuable insights into the optimal methods for introducing Finnish digital games to international markets, in particular, digital games tailored specifically for the physical exercise needs and motivations of the elderly. By taking into consideration the limitations of the study, we provide our future studies and further improvements of the game to be conducted

Improving accessibility for people with dementia: web content and research

The Internet can provide a means of communication, searching for information, support groups and entertainment, amongst other services, and as a technology, can help to promote independence for people with dementia. However, the effectiveness of this technology relies on the users’ ability to use it. Web content, websites and online services need to be designed to meet the abilities and needs of people with dementia, and thus the difficulties that these users encounter must be explored and understood.The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate web content accessibility for People with Dementia and develop recommendations for improving current guidelines based on accessibility needs. The secondary aim is to support people with dementia having a voice within research through development of accessible ethical processes.Qualitative data were collected with a scoping study using questionnaires about everyday technology use (people with dementia and older adults without dementia); and in-depth interviews to explore difficulties and web accessibility issues. A document analysis was conducted on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (ISO/IEC40500:2012) for inclusion of the needs of people with dementia followed by review of Web Usability Guidance (ISO9241-151:2008) to consider how gaps relating to the unmet accessibility needs for people with dementia could be met. The scoping study found that both people with dementia and older adults without dementia use everyday ICT to access the Web. Both groups described difficulties with web interface interactions, which refined the research scope to web content accessibility. The interview data with people with dementia (n=16) and older adults without dementia (n=9) were analysed using Grounded Theory techniques. It was found that both user groups experienced the same types of difficulties using the Web, but that dementia symptoms could exacerbate the difficulties from usability issues (older adults without dementia) into accessibility issues for people with dementia. Navigation was a key issue for both groups, with a range of web content design elements contributing to accessibility issues with navigation for people with dementia. The document analysis found that the accessibility guidance did not address all the accessibility issues encountered by people with dementia. However, the usability guidance did address many of the accessibility issues for web content navigation experienced by people with dementia. The research provides recommendations for improvements to web content accessibility guidelines including content from usability guidelines, and amendments to current guidelines and success criteria. A new ethical recruitment/consent process was developed and tested as part of the research process and is recommended for use in future research to support engagement of people with dementia.</div

Accessibility of Health Data Representations for Older Adults: Challenges and Opportunities for Design

Health data of consumer off-the-shelf wearable devices is often conveyed to users through visual data representations and analyses. However, this is not always accessible to people with disabilities or older people due to low vision, cognitive impairments or literacy issues. Due to trade-offs between aesthetics predominance or information overload, real-time user feedback may not be conveyed easily from sensor devices through visual cues like graphs and texts. These difficulties may hinder critical data understanding. Additional auditory and tactile feedback can also provide immediate and accessible cues from these wearable devices, but it is necessary to understand existing data representation limitations initially. To avoid higher cognitive and visual overload, auditory and haptic cues can be designed to complement, replace or reinforce visual cues. In this paper, we outline the challenges in existing data representation and the necessary evidence to enhance the accessibility of health information from personal sensing devices used to monitor health parameters such as blood pressure, sleep, activity, heart rate and more. By creating innovative and inclusive user feedback, users will likely want to engage and interact with new devices and their own data

Feature Papers "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives"

The "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: States of the Art and Future Perspectives" publication presents contemporary, innovative, and insightful narratives, debates, and frameworks based on an international collection of papers from scholars spanning the fields of gerontology, social sciences, architecture, computer science, and gerontechnology. This extensive collection of papers aims to move the narrative and debates forward in this interdisciplinary field of age-friendly cities and communities

Privacy, Trust, and the Public's Comfort with Sharing Health Data with Third-Party Commercial Companies

Healthcare partnerships with third-party commercial companies have been met with reservations from the public about the privacy of health information and concerns about how this data is used. While research points to the need to provide patients greater control over the use of their data, or notification of data use, it is not yet clear how to move forward with this effort while balancing the needs of researchers for quality data sets. To better understand and characterize the public’s comfort with third-party commercial companies and perhaps manage and address the public’s concern, in this dissertation I examine the relationships between the public’s comfort with sharing health data with third-party commercial companies for patient and business purposes in relation to the public’s comfort with demographic characteristics, perceived healthcare access, trust in the health system and trust in providers, privacy concerns, and altruism. I also explore the effect of a past data breach and concern about recent data breach events, comfort with researchers, quality analysts, commercial companies, and law enforcement, confidence in existing health data laws, and desire for greater control over health data or notification of data use on the public’s comfort with sharing health data with third-party commercial companies. In this dissertation I present the results of a survey of the US public (n = 1841) to assess comfort with sharing health data with third-party commercial companies for patient or business purposes. Weighted Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Regression analysis was used to first estimate the relationship between comfort with third-party commercial companies for patient and business purposes (dependent variables) and the aforementioned independent variables, followed by stepwise regression modeling to estimate a full model of contributing factors to the public’s comfort with sharing health data with third-party commercial companies. In the final analysis, variables that were significantly (p<0.05) related to comfort with data sharing for patient purposes included: comfort with researchers and commercial companies, comfort with law enforcement accessing genetic data, altruism, individuals between the ages of 45-59, and educational attainment. Statistically significant variables associated with data sharing for business purposes included: comfort with researchers, quality analysts, and commercial companies, comfort with law enforcement accessing genetic data, concern about Memorial Sloan Kettering’s startup company, Paige.AI, and employment status. The most salient factors associated with respondent’s comfort with sharing health data with third-party commercial companies for both patient and business purposes were trust in the health system, confidence in existing laws and policies, and desire for notification. The results of this study suggest that increasing trust in the health system may have a greater impact on the public’s comfort than efforts to address privacy concerns alone. Desire for notification was also more important to the public’s comfort with third-party commercial companies than the desire for control over health data. Patients may be better served by focusing on efforts to build trust in healthcare organizations and by providing notification of health data use instead of more granular control over health data use.PHDHlth Infrastr & Lrng Systs PhDUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163279/1/mgracet_1.pd

Socio-Cognitive and Affective Computing

Social cognition focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactions. On the other hand, the term cognitive computing is generally used to refer to new hardware and/or software that mimics the functioning of the human brain and helps to improve human decision-making. In this sense, it is a type of computing with the goal of discovering more accurate models of how the human brain/mind senses, reasons, and responds to stimuli. Socio-Cognitive Computing should be understood as a set of theoretical interdisciplinary frameworks, methodologies, methods and hardware/software tools to model how the human brain mediates social interactions. In addition, Affective Computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects, a fundamental aspect of socio-cognitive neuroscience. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer science, electrical engineering, psychology, and cognitive science. Physiological Computing is a category of technology in which electrophysiological data recorded directly from human activity are used to interface with a computing device. This technology becomes even more relevant when computing can be integrated pervasively in everyday life environments. Thus, Socio-Cognitive and Affective Computing systems should be able to adapt their behavior according to the Physiological Computing paradigm. This book integrates proposals from researchers who use signals from the brain and/or body to infer people's intentions and psychological state in smart computing systems. The design of this kind of systems combines knowledge and methods of ubiquitous and pervasive computing, as well as physiological data measurement and processing, with those of socio-cognitive and affective computing

Experiences of Adult College Learners as They Acquire Digital Literacy Skills

A substantial barrier to learning for adult college students over the age of 50 is technology literacy. These students may not have the digital skills required for college, which is a disadvantage for social, educational, and career development. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the learning supports and types of learning required for digital literacy development of undergraduate college students over 50 attending 4-year institutions. Data sources included interviews with 12 participants over the ages of 50 from six 4-year colleges. After the interviews were completed, six of the 12 students participated in two focus group sessions of three students each. Data analysis involved open coding to identify themes. Results indicated the primary need for support was the learning management system due to participants’ inexperience using technology for learning. Skill levels did not match the expectations of college administrators for students to rely on technology for every aspect of learning. When students had learning management system support, they could use the system to learn. Rather than rely on institutional services introduced during coursework, students took ownership of their learning through support from family, peers, and social media resources. Results may help higher education institutions provide better support for these learners to promote positive social change through equitable opportunities for all generations of college students