Understanding concurrent earcons: applying auditory scene analysis principles to concurrent earcon recognition

Two investigations into the identification of concurrently presented, structured sounds, called earcons were carried out. One of the experiments investigated how varying the number of concurrently presented earcons affected their identification. It was found that varying the number had a significant effect on the proportion of earcons identified. Reducing the number of concurrently presented earcons lead to a general increase in the proportion of presented earcons successfully identified. The second experiment investigated how modifying the earcons and their presentation, using techniques influenced by auditory scene analysis, affected earcon identification. It was found that both modifying the earcons such that each was presented with a unique timbre, and altering their presentation such that there was a 300 ms onset-to-onset time delay between each earcon were found to significantly increase identification. Guidelines were drawn from this work to assist future interface designers when incorporating concurrently presented earcons

Feasibility of ActivABLES to promote home-based exercise and physical activity of community-dwelling stroke survivors with support from caregivers : A mixed methods study

BackgroundTechnical applications can promote home-based exercise and physical activity of community-dwelling stroke survivors. Caregivers are often able and willing to assist with home-based exercise and physical activity but lack the knowledge and resources to do so. ActivABLES was established to promote home-based exercise and physical activity among community-dwelling stroke survivors, with support from their caregivers. The aim of our study is to investigate the feasibility of ActivABLES in terms of acceptability, demand, implementation and practicality.MethodsA convergent design of mixed methods research in which quantitative results were combined with personal experiences of a four-week use of ActivABLES by community-dwelling stroke survivors with support from their caregivers. Data collection before, during and after the four-week period included the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC), Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) and Five Times Sit to Stand Test (5xSST) and data from motion detectors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stroke survivors and caregivers after the four-week period. Descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data. Qualitative data was analysed with direct content analysis. Themes were identified related to the domains of feasibility: acceptability, demand, implementation and practicality. Data was integrated by examining any (dis)congruence in the quantitative and qualitative findings.ResultsTen stroke survivors aged 55-79years participated with their informal caregivers. Functional improvements were shown in BBS (+2.5), ABC (+0.9), TUG (-4.2) and 5xSST (-2.7). More physical activity was detected with motion detectors (stand up/sit down +2, number of steps +227, standing +0.3h, hours sitting/lying -0.3h). The qualitative interviews identified themes for each feasibility domain: (i) acceptability: appreciation, functional improvements, self-initiated activities and expressed potential for future stroke survivors; (2) demand: reported use, interest in further use and need for follow-up; (3) implementation: importance of feedback, variety of exercises and progression of exercises and (4) practicality: need for support and technical problems. The quantitative and qualitative findings converged well with each other and supported the feasibility of ActivABLES.ConclusionsActivABLES is feasible and can be a good asset for stroke survivors with slight or moderate disability to use in their homes. Further studies are needed with larger samples.Peer reviewe

Developing ActivABLES for community-dwelling stroke survivors using the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadBackground: Novel technical solutions are called for to promote home-based exercise among community-dwelling stroke survivors supported by their caregivers. Lack of resources and knowledge about how to accomplish it, has been demonstrated. The objective of this study is to describe in detail the development of ActivABLES, a technical intervention to promote home-based exercise and physical activity engagement of community-dwelling stroke survivors with support from their caregivers. Methods: The technical development process of ActivABLES was guided by the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for development and evaluation of complex interventions as well as by principles of human-centred design and co-design. The main steps included: (1) Synthesis of evidence supporting the inclusion of balance exercises, mobility and walking exercises and exercises for the upper arm; (2) Implementation of initial user studies with qualitative data collection from individual interviews with stroke survivors, and focus group interviews with caregivers and health professionals; (3) Preliminary testing of eight prototypes with seven stroke survivors and their caregivers. Results: After the preliminary testing of eight prototypes, four prototypes were not further developed whereas four prototypes were modified further. In addition, two new prototypes were developed, leaving six prototypes for further modification: 1) ActivFOAM for balance exercises, 2) WalkingSTARR to facilitate walking, 3) ActivBALL for hand exercises, 4) ActivSTICKS for upper arm exercises, and 5) ActivLAMP and 6) ActivTREE which both give visual feedback on progress of daily exercise and physical activities. ActivFOAM, ActivBALL and ActivSTICKS are all connected to a tablet where exercise instructions are given. All the exercise prototypes can be connected to ActivLAMP and ActivTREE to give feedback on how much exercise the user has done. Settings can be individualised and recommended daily time and/or repetition can easily be changed as the user progresses to higher activity levels. Conclusions: The development process of ActivABLES was guided by the principles of human-centred design, with iterative testing of future users, and by the MRC framework of complex intervention, with a repeated process of development and testing. This process resulted in six prototypes which are available for feasibility testing among a small group of community-dwelling stroke survivors. Keywords: Home-based exercise; Stroke survivors; Technical intervention.NordForsk ActivABLES project Icelandic Physiotherapy Association Icelandic Ministry of Welfar

A tutorial for olfaction-based multisensorial media application design and evaluation

© ACM, 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in PUBLICATION, {VOL50, ISS5, September 2017} https://doi.org/10.1145/310824

Graph Builder: Constructing Non-visual

This paper introduces a novel application called Graph Builder, which allows visually impaired people to interactively construct bar graphs using a force feedback device. We discuss the limitations of current technology to allow such interactive construction and explain why, in educational environments, such interactive construction is important. Evaluations of Graph Builder showed that users could construct graphs accurately. However results showed that a large number of `off-by-one' errors occurred, where the bar was set either one unit too high or too low. Revisions to the mechanism to manipulate bars were made, and further non-speech audio feedback was added. A further evaluation showing that the proportion of `off-by-one' errors had been reduce

FISHEARS - The Design of a Multimodal Focus and Context System

this paper we describe a new focus and context visualization technique called multimodal focus and context. This technique uses a hybrid visual and spatialized audio display space to overcome the limited visual displays of mobile devices. We demonstrate the technique by applying it to maps of theme park

An investigation into the identification of concurrently presented earcons

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.In this paper we describe an experiment investigating the ability of participants to identify multiple, concurrently playing structured sounds, called earcons. Several different sets of earcons were compared, one ``state of the art'' set based on the guidelines of Brewster [1], and other sets of earcons modified to take account of auditory scene analysis principles. The effect of the number of concurrently playing earcons on identification was also investigated, with instances of 1, 2, 3 and 4 concurrently playing earcons tested. Overall, performance was low, with less than two earcons being successfully identified in any condition. However it was found that both staggering the onset times of each earcon, as well as presenting each earcon with a unique timbre, had a significantly positive effect on identification