Understanding how to design health data visualizations for Chilean older adults on mobile devices

Mobile devices, including activity trackers and smartwatches, can help older adults monitor health parameters passively and unobtrusively. Most user interactions with small devices consist of brief glances at the time or notifications. Consuming information from small displays poses challenges, which have been seldom studied from the perspective of older users. In this paper, we worked with older adults towards creating health data visualizations for them for small devices. We conducted a mixed-methods study with 30 older adults, in which we (1) conducted group discussions to understand participants’ opinions, (2) measured times taken to interpret health data visualizations with and without progress information, (3) measured how much information they could manage to see during brief glances. When data was visualized without progress indicators, participants took less time to understand the data and made fewer errors. Participants preferred health data visualizations that featured peaceful, and positive pictorial representations. We present design opportunities for older adults’ data visualizations in small devices

Towards online socially acceptable robot navigation

When robots move through social spaces (i.e., environments shared with people) such as museums and shopping centers, they must navigate in a safe and socially acceptable manner to facilitate their inclusion and adoption. Therefore, robots operating in such settings must be able not only to avoid colliding with nearby obstacles, but also to show socially accepted behaviors, e.g., by minimizing the disruption in the comfort zone of nearby people. While there are well known approaches for social robot navigation, they are mostly based on social force models, which suffer from local minima. Meanwhile, other robot navigation frameworks do not consider social aspects. In this paper, we present an online social robot navigation framework, which is capable of generating collision free and socially acceptable paths online in uncontrolled crowded environments. Our proposed framework employs a modified sampling-based planner together with a new social relevance validity checking strategy. To evaluate our approach, we have designed a simulated social space in which the Pepper robot can safely navigate in a socially accepted manner. We compare our approach with other two alternative solutions while measuring specific social navigation metrics

Technologies for managing the health of older adults with multiple chronic conditions: A systematic literature review

Multimorbidity is defined as the presence of two or more chronic medical conditions in a person, whether physical, mental or long-term infectious diseases. This is especially common in older populations, affecting their quality of life and emotionally impacting their caregivers and family. Technology can allow for monitoring, managing, and motivating older adults in their self-care, as well as supporting their caregivers. However, when several conditions are present at once, it may be necessary to manage several types of technologies, or for technology to manage the interaction between conditions. This work aims to understand and describe the technologies that are used to support the management of multimorbidity for older adults. We conducted a systematic review of ten years of scientific literature from four online databases. We reviewed a corpus of 681 research papers, finally including 25 in our review. The technologies used most frequently by older adults with multimorbidity are mobile applications and websites, and they are mostly focused on communication and connectivity. We then propose opportunities for future research on addressing the challenges in the management of several simultaneous health conditions, potentially creating a better approach than managing each condition as if it were independent

Trusted autonomous vehicles: an interactive exhibit

Recent surveys about autonomous vehicles show that the public is concerned about the safety consequences of system or equipment failures and the vehicles' reactions to unexpected situations. We believe that informing about the technology and quality, e.g., safety and reliability, of autonomous vehicles is paramount to improving public expectations, perception and acceptance. In this paper, we report on the design of an interactive exhibit to illustrate (1) basic technologies employed in autonomous vehicles, i.e., sensors and object classification; and (2) basic principles for ensuring their quality, i.e., employing software testing and simulations. We subsequently report on a public engagement event involving this exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2019 in the exhibit titled "Trusted Autonomous Vehicles". We describe the process of designing and developing the artefacts used in our exhibit, the theoretical background associated to them, the design of our stand, and the lessons learned. The activities and findings of this study can be used by other educators and researchers interested in promoting trust in autonomous vehicles among the general public

Situating network infrastructure with people, practices, and beyond: A community building workshop

Our world is now connected and even entangled in unprecedented ways through networked technologies. Yet pockets of unequal connectivity persist, and technical infrastructures for connectivity remain difficult to design and build even for experts. In this workshop we aim to bring together a global community of multi- and inter-disciplinary researchers and implementers working on infrastructure development and connectivity to explore the existing design challenges and opportunities for bringing technical dimensions of networked infrastructures in conversation with human-computer interaction (HCI) and the social science of infrastructure. We will share, assess and define research problems and resources for rethinking networked infrastructures from human-, community-, and society-centered perspectives, understanding them to be embedded with human values and biases. We particularly intend our collaborative work to support real-world connectivity initiatives, which have grown in critical importance over the pandemic years—especially projects in support of Global South communities. Concrete deliverables from the workshop will include: (1) an initial shared bibliography to help formalize the state of knowledge in our area, (2) an agenda of shared goals, challenges, and intentions in our field, (3) a compilation of resources to support future work, and (4) social and organizing infrastructures for continued communication and academic collaboration