Keskusteluavustimen kehittäminen kuulovammaisia varten automaattista puheentunnistusta käyttäen

Understanding and participating in conversations has been reported as one of the biggest challenges hearing impaired people face in their daily lives. These communication problems have been shown to have wide-ranging negative consequences, affecting their quality of life and the opportunities available to them in education and employment. A conversational assistance application was investigated to alleviate these problems. The application uses automatic speech recognition technology to provide real-time speech-to-text transcriptions to the user, with the goal of helping deaf and hard of hearing persons in conversational situations. To validate the method and investigate its usefulness, a prototype application was developed for testing purposes using open-source software. A user test was designed and performed with test participants representing the target user group. The results indicate that the Conversation Assistant method is valid, meaning it can help the hearing impaired to follow and participate in conversational situations. Speech recognition accuracy, especially in noisy environments, was identified as the primary target for further development for increased usefulness of the application. Conversely, recognition speed was deemed to be sufficient and already surpass the transcription speed of human transcribers.Keskustelupuheen ymmärtäminen ja keskusteluihin osallistuminen on raportoitu yhdeksi suurimmista haasteista, joita kuulovammaiset kohtaavat jokapäiväisessä elämässään. Näillä viestintäongelmilla on osoitettu olevan laaja-alaisia negatiivisia vaikutuksia, jotka heijastuvat elämänlaatuun ja heikentävät kuulovammaisten yhdenvertaisia osallistumismahdollisuuksia opiskeluun ja työelämään. Työssä kehitettiin ja arvioitiin apusovellusta keskustelupuheen ymmärtämisen ja keskusteluihin osallistumisen helpottamiseksi. Sovellus käyttää automaattista puheentunnistusta reaaliaikaiseen puheen tekstittämiseen kuuroja ja huonokuuloisia varten. Menetelmän toimivuuden vahvistamiseksi ja sen hyödyllisyyden tutkimiseksi siitä kehitettiin prototyyppisovellus käyttäjätestausta varten avointa lähdekoodia hyödyntäen. Testaamista varten suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin käyttäjäkoe sovelluksen kohderyhmää edustavilla koekäyttäjillä. Saadut tulokset viittaavat siihen, että työssä esitetty Keskusteluavustin on toimiva ja hyödyllinen apuväline huonokuuloisille ja kuuroille. Puheentunnistustarkkuus erityisesti meluisissa olosuhteissa osoittautui ensisijaiseksi kehityskohteeksi apusovelluksen hyödyllisyyden lisäämiseksi. Puheentunnistuksen nopeus arvioitiin puolestaan jo riittävän nopeaksi, ylittäen selkeästi kirjoitustulkkien kirjoitusnopeuden

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

Digital Media Usage of Sensory Impaired Users in Wales 2018 Report

What benefits have digital media brought to sensory impaired users in Wales and what are the barriers that affect people who have sensory loss in using digital technologies

Digital Media Usage of Sensory Impaired Users in Wales 2018 Report

This document reports the main statistical findings from a survey of digital media usage and attitudes of sensory impaired users in Wales. The report offers a comprehensive review of the benefits that digital media has brought to sensory impaired users in Wales and some of the barriers that affect people who have sensory loss. Reported data shows that although only used by half of the sight-impaired community, digital media is crucial to the wellbeing of the sight-impaired users. However, blind and partially sighted people who responded to the questionnaire demonstrate a disadvantaged level of digital media engagement. This report has identified a number of barriers facing people who are sensory impaired in Wales in accessing information, education and services. Barriers were identified mainly in the areas of financial restraints, access to training opportunities, and web accessibility. In addition to emphasise the importance of financial support, digital skills training and web accessibility, the report also recommend a new technology design agenda to the industry in both public and private sectors. Authors endorse what Graham Pullin (2009) suggests the ‘resonant design’ approach, which incorporates disabled and non-disabled users based on coincident needs. Design should emphasize on users and tailor the technology capacity around the need of the user, even such design might look like low-tech and long-lasting

Instructional eLearning technologies for the vision impaired

The principal sensory modality employed in learning is vision, and that not only increases the difficulty for vision impaired students from accessing existing educational media but also the new and mostly visiocentric learning materials being offered through on-line delivery mechanisms. Using as a reference Certified Cisco Network Associate (CCNA) and IT Essentials courses, a study has been made of tools that can access such on-line systems and transcribe the materials into a form suitable for vision impaired learning. Modalities employed included haptic, tactile, audio and descriptive text. How such a multi-modal approach can achieve equivalent success for the vision impaired is demonstrated. However, the study also shows the limits of the current understanding of human perception, especially with respect to comprehending two and three dimensional objects and spaces when there is no recourse to vision

A tablet-based application for older adults to enhance memory: Communication with archiving stories

Sharing emotion is one aspect of communication between humans. Throughout human history people have regularly met face to face in order to share or collect information and to experience emotional interaction. As technology rapidly developed the means of communication have dramatically moved to online space through social communication methods or through online information spaces where people comment or write their ideas and thoughts. Although most audiences now use online communication methods, the older population has been relatively neglected in the industry because they are sometimes considered customers outside the major market. The main goal of this study was (1) to develop a technology-friendly interface design prototype based on a touch-based tablet application using universal design principles and (2) to assess the prototype design through several research methods such as field observation, surveys, and interviews. This study can expand designers’ knowledge for the next step of application of development for older adults. This study found that even though older adults are sometimes isolated from society, they might think of relationships as an important part of their later life. Although technology may be harder for older adults to learn, this study found it possible if older adults are willing to learn and use a communication application. This study also found that intuitive visual cues might play an important role in aiding older adults to grasp and understand the structure of an application. Technology-friendly interface design can enable older adults to use technology routinely in their daily lives. The designer’s role in this process would be to seek better understanding through the user study and to find the visual elements to provide a technology-friendly environment for older adults

EXPLORING THE ACCESSIBILITY OF HOME-BASED, VOICE-CONTROLLED INTELLIGENT PERSONAL ASSISTANTS

From an accessibility perspective, home-based, voice-controlled intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) have the potential to greatly expand speech interaction beyond dictation and screenreader output. This research examines the accessibility of off-the-shelf IPAs (e.g., Amazon Echo) by conducting two exploratory studies. To explore the use of IPAs by people with disabilities, we analyzed 346 Amazon Echo reviews mentioning users with disabilities, followed by interviews with 16 visually impaired IPA users. Although some accessibility challenges exist, individuals with a range of disabilities are using IPAs, including unexpected uses such as speech therapy and memory aids. The second study involved a three-week deployment of Echo Dot, a popular IPA, with five older adults who use technology infrequently. Findings indicate preferences for using IPAs over traditional computing devices. We identify design implications to improve IPAs for this population. Both studies highlight issues of discoverability and the need for feature-rich voice-based applications. The findings of this research can inform future work on accessible voice-based IPAs

Analysing a new mobile bilateral audiology test for children

Hearing loss in Australian children, primarily Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, is a growing concern for the Australian public health sector. In certain rural communities up to 90 per cent of children have been found to experience some form of hearing loss. Although hearing loss can be the result of a number of different causes, including congenital influences, the most common cause of hearing loss in Australian children is attributed to a common middle ear infection, otitis media. To address the issue, numerous solutions have been proposed, tested and implemented, although the problem persists due to geographic, environmental and cultural limitations. However, the availability of new technology, including smart phones and extended mobile telecommunications networks, has provided new opportunities to overcome these limitations. This research project comprised of the development of an application for Apple iOS devices and initial testing of this for accuracy and proof of concept. The application is designed to emulate a professional gold standard hearing test, which is traditionally conducted in a calibrated and controlled environment. While similar applications currently exist, many utilise nonstandard testing methods and there is no data or published documentation to support claims for their accuracy. This thesis discusses the pilot study conducted to determine whether this specially developed mobile application can be utilised for self-administered hearing tests for children; to reduce the strain on current telehealth services; and complement similar solutions to achieve a holistic approach for diagnosing hearing loss and ear infection. The results of the study outline a number of unforeseen circumstances encountered, which resulted in minimal obtained quantitative data. However, findings during the testing, that impacted on the testing procedures of the application, were derived from surveys, interview and observations and provide evidence to support the claim that a mobile application, used for mobile phone and tablet devices, can be used to supplement audiology testing of children and would be accepted by both parents and audiologists