Boardtalker: Initial experiences and open problems in prototyping a talking digital whiteboard to assist visually impaired students

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.BoardTalker is an assistive technology system that is designed to help visually impaired students by allowing them to hear material that is written extemporaneously on a whiteboard during class. The system uses a touch-sensitive electronic whiteboard that the teacher can write on with his or her finger. Material written by the teacher is converted to ASCII text and displayed on the surface of the board where it can be read by the fully-sighted students in the class. The visually impaired student can press a button that causes the current contents of the board to be spoken into an earpiece or small speaker. Several prototypical systems were developed by students in the author's Human Computer Interaction class; common themes, lessons learned and open problems are presented based on these prototypes

Design and Implementation of Kawaii Robots by Japanese and American University Students using Remote Collaboration

This paper describes our approach to the design and implementation of virtual Kawaii robots and spaces by Japanese and American university students using remote collaboration. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change our planned 7-week collaboration from in-person to virtual with a resultant change in the target product of our collaboration from real robots to virtual robots. Based on our new plan, students designed virtual spaces with robot pairs, proposed evaluation items for the robot pairs, evaluated their designs, and analyzed the results. The students designed each robot pair with the goal that one robot would be more kawaii and the other would be less kawaii due to a variation in a single attribute such as shape or color. The evaluation instrument used adjective pairs that were suitable to evaluate the affective values of the robot pairs and the virtual spaces the robots occupied. Through the design experience, students learned a lot about Kawaii Engineering and affective evaluation, which gave them a deeper understanding of Japanese culture from the viewpoint of Kansei/Affective Engineering

Design and Cross-cultural Evaluation of a Kawaii (Cute) Roomba Vacuum

As robots become increasingly common in daily life, it is critical that roboticists design devices that are accepted broadly, including across cultures and genders. This paper reports on a project that seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii (Japanese cuteness) plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, robotic gadgets across cultures. Specifically, we report on the design of a Roomba-style vacuum that has been modified to be kawaii in several ways as follows: (a) dressed in a cute animal-like costume, (b) uses cute colors, (c) makes a cute sound when it hits an obstacle, (d) shakes its body when it hits an obstacle, and (e) spins its eyes when it hits an obstacle. After reporting on our design, this paper also reports on a pilot user study to investigate and compare the perceptions of cuteness and acceptance of the Plain Roomba as compared to Mango. The study participants viewed photographs and videos of the Plain Roomba and the kawaii Roomba and answered qualitative and quantitative survey questions regarding the two designs. We report on the cute attributes identified by study participants. We also compare results for American, Japanese, and Vietnamese college students. This comparison suggests a tendency for the Japanese participants to make different judgements about kawaii-ness as compared to the other groups

Using pen-based computers across the computer science curriculum

This paper describes our use of pen-based electronic classrooms to enhance several computer science courses. After presenting our motivation for undertaking this work, and its relevance to the growing interest in using tablet PC's in the classroom, we present an overview of our use of this technology to engage students during class. Finally, we present the students ’ reaction to the approach as measured through attitude surveys and a focus group

A case study in the design of software that uses auditory cues to help low vision students view notes on a blackboard

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), Boston, MA, July 7-9, 2003.This ongoing project investigates the interplay between educational technology, pen-based computing, and auditory displays with respect to the design of assistive technology for low-vision students in a classroom setting. Specifically, we report on the design, implementation, and evaluation of a software system named v-VIS (Viewer for Visually Impaired Students) that addresses the problems low-vision students have in seeing material which may be written on a blackboard or overhead projector in a traditional classroom setting. Instead of writing extemporaneously on a blackboard or overhead projector, the instructor in a v- VIS enabled classroom uses an electronic stylus to write and sketch material freehand on the surface of an electronic video tablet. Material written on the video tablet is input into a computer projection system which displays it on a screen at the front of the room, thereby allowing fully sighted students to view the material much as they would if the instructor was writing on an overhead projector. The instructors writing is simultaneously transmitted to a computer located at the low-vision student's desk where this material is displayed using color adjustment, zoom, and audio cues. Several distinct auditory cues are used to inform the low-vision student when new material begins to arrive on the screen, how long this material continues to arrive, and which region of the screen the material is being displayed on. Work on the v-VIS system has been informed both by a formal user study comparing several different audio cue designs, and by gathering feedback from a low-vision student who used the system in a semester-long statistical methods course