Unveiling Emotions: Attitudes Toward Affective Technology

With its ability to sense and/or generate human emotions, affective computing calls for a new generation of technology. This study brings affective technologies into focus which can sense human emotions. Compared to other types of technology, affective technologies have distinct characteristics—anthropomorphism, uncontrollability, capturing of highly sensitive data, unfamiliarity, and complexity—with fundamental effects on the interaction with humans. These characteristics of affective technology create a feeling of uncertainty about how such a system works. However, the attitudes people exhibit toward the usage, notably trust, such as affective assistance systems has received only scant attention. Hence, we define attitudes toward affective technology and contribute to the literature by proposing a research model that we analyzed using a quantitative methodology with 303 participants. From the theoretical model, we derive implications for theory, practice, and design

ADVANTAGES AND PROPOSITIONS OF LEARNING EMOTION RECOGNITION IN VIRTUAL REALITY FOR PEOPLE WITH AUTISM

People with an autism spectrum disorder face the daily challenge of social interactions – partic-ularly in non-verbal communication. These difficulties make adequate interpersonal interactions “in real-time” a challenging obstacle to overcome in many cases and can lead to excessive de-mands, frustration and isolation (low level of Theory of Mind). Emotion cards are usually used in autism therapy to learn basic skills for recognizing emotions. Learning with autism is charac-terized by spontaneous – sometimes-extraordinary – mastery of complex contents. People with autism learn facts, details and routines well but have difficulties to transfer the learned contents to another context (Weak Central Coherence) or to react flexible to unpredicted events (low Ex-ecutive Function). In addition, research has shown that autistics learn social competences while using a computer and performing practical exercises. Such systems provide the possibility to use an accepted computer simulated (virtual) environment in which autistic children can be taught social competences as emotion recognition. Consequently, we assume that learning emotion recognition in virtual learning environments can remove barriers and obstacles for autistics as they are more successful in solving social problems. Therefore, we are discussing in the paper at hand the potentials of how emotion recognition can be learned in virtual reality

Agency and Body Ownership in Immersive Virtual Reality Environments: A Laboratory Study

Virtual reality (VR) technologies such as head-mounted displays are gaining increasing attention since the Oculus Rift development kit entered the market in 2016. VR is assumed to offer great potential for different purposes such as entertainment, gaming, education, or healthcare. Briefly summarized, VR provides an enclosed virtual environment in which users can become immersed, can move and look freely at 360-degree in any direction, and they can interact, manipulate, or create virtual objects with their entire body. With regard to these properties and the characteristic of immersion (a user’s state of deep involvement with an IT) we examine how immersion can be enhanced by the theoretical constructs of agency and body ownership in a VR space. Therefore, we conduct a laboratory study to enhance the perception of being in voluntary control of actions (agency) and the sense of the virtual body as one’s own one (body ownership) with 69 participants

Perceived Limitations of Telemedicine from a Phenomenological Perspective

In the course of healthcare digitization, the roles of therapists and patients are likely to change. To shape a theoretical based process of technological transformation, a phenomenological perspective on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is introduced. Therefore, this paper illustrates the benefit of a holistic view on patients and therapists to describe and explain phenomena concerning Human Technology Interaction (HTI). The differentiation between a measurable objective body and a habitual subjective body helps to evaluate and anticipate constituting factors of accepting telemedicine systems. Taking into account findings from a secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews we conducted with primary care physicians, we develop a phenomenological framework for HTI in healthcare. Our aim is to structure future research concerning design implications for ICT and the implementation of telemedicine systems in clinical and primary care

Building Digital Bridges: Exploring the Digitized Collaboration of General Practitioners and Mobile Care in Rural Areas

In the process of digitalization of healthcare, professionals, such as mobile care nurses or general practitioners, are facing both new challenges and opportunities. Digital technologies thereby promise to affect the cooperation of healthcare professionals on various levels, e.g., increasing quality of care, improving interprofessional communication, or optimizing economic aspects of care. Our study examines current issues of healthcare professionals concerning a digital change of care. We conducted qualitative interviews with primary care practitioners and providers of mobile care (nurses and care managers) to understand perceived obstacles in the process of digitalization and to formulate possible implications to encounter those obstacles. Our results suggest that insufficient communication and a lack of mutual trust have to be considered relevant issues. We therefore propose to focus future research on the interchangeability of different communication and documentation systems

Virtual Reality Technologies in Health Care: A Literature Review of Theoretical Foundations

The digitization of health care promises an improvement of medical care through the adoption of virtual reality (VR) related technologies. Although most undergoing mechanisms of clinical effectiveness are yet not defined theoretically, research approaches have already taken place in several empirical settings. To structure current and upcoming scientific work in this field, we conducted a literature review with regard to theoretical implications of both IS-related and healthcare-related research. We found several theoretical bases to build upon in the field of psychology, but expressed a need for enrichment of theoretical foundations in the field of IS research. We therefore plead for a theoretical foundation enriched by synergetic concepts of clinically effective VR related technologies. Finally, we conclude that VR related technologies appear as a promising approach worth further theoretical and empirical research in order to improve medical care

Constituting Factors of a Digitally Influenced Relationship between Patients and Primary Care Physicians in Rural Areas

In times of an ageing society and a rural exodus of primary care physicians, healthcare systems are facing major challenges. To maintain comprehensive care and an equitable access to healthcare services, today’s technological advancements represent a promising measure. Technologies empower patients by providing innovative tools such as sensors and applications for self-measurement, leading to self-initiated interventions, while supporting physicians in handling rising demands through telemedicine and spatially detached solutions. These enhanced treatments come with patient and physician-sided challenges such as incorrect digital information provided to the patient, negatively affecting treatment quality and leading to high issue resolving efforts. In order to investigate the perspectives of rural physicians on treatment digitalization and effects of patient empowerment, we conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Our findings show that patient activation, impacts on treatment process, patient differentiation, and patient-physician-interaction are relevant factors in the physicians’ valuation and willingness to use health technologies

Identification of potential biomarkers in donor cows for in vitro embryo production by granulosa cell transcriptomics

<div><p>The Ovum Pick Up-<i>In vitro</i> Production (OPU-IVP) of embryos is an advanced reproductive technology used in cattle production but the complex biological mechanisms behind IVP outcomes are not fully understood. In this study we sequenced RNA of granulosa cells collected from Holstein cows at oocyte aspiration prior to IVP, to identify candidate genes and biological mechanisms for favourable IVP-related traits in donor cows where IVP was performed separately for each animal. We identified 56 genes significantly associated with IVP scores (BL rate, kinetic and morphology). Among these, <i>BEX2</i>, <i>HEY2</i>, <i>RGN</i>, <i>TNFAIP6</i> and <i>TXNDC11</i> were negatively associated while <i>Mx1</i> and <i>STC1</i> were positively associated with all IVP scores. Functional analysis highlighted a wide range of biological mechanisms including apoptosis, cell development and proliferation and four key upstream regulators (COX2, IL1, PRL, TRIM24) involved in these mechanisms. We found a range of evidence that good IVP outcome is positively correlated with early follicular atresia. Furthermore we showed that high genetic index bulls can be used in breeding without reducing the IVP performances. These findings can contribute to the development of biomarkers from follicular fluid content and to improving Genomic Selection (GS) methods that utilize functional information in cattle breeding, allowing a widespread large scale application of GS-IVP.</p></div

Motivating for Healthier Drinking Behavior: Applying the Health Action Process Approach in Virtual Reality

The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) contributes to several health problems among adults and children. In this paper, we build upon the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA), which has already been successfully used in many health contexts to achieve preventive health behavior. However, research shows that in contexts like healthy dieting, people seem to neglect risks, which is generally an important predictor of intention and indirect behavior. Therefore, we want to use virtual reality (VR) and its beneficial characteristics to manipulate participant\u27s risk awareness by giving them interactive feedback to their choice of beverages. We assume this could shape their intention to consume less SSBs. To test our assumption, we use a one-way between-subject design (feedback design: informational vs. informational with related physical activity) in laboratory study. We suggest positive results of our feedback manipulation to risk awareness and furthermore to the consumption behavior