Inducing sadness and anxiousness through visual media: measurement techniques and persistence

The persistence of negative moods (sadness and anxiousness) induced by three visual Mood Induction

Theory-based Habit Modeling for Enhancing Behavior Prediction

Psychological theories of habit posit that when a strong habit is formed through behavioral repetition, it can trigger behavior automatically in the same environment. Given the reciprocal relationship between habit and behavior, changing lifestyle behaviors (e.g., toothbrushing) is largely a task of breaking old habits and creating new and healthy ones. Thus, representing users' habit strengths can be very useful for behavior change support systems (BCSS), for example, to predict behavior or to decide when an intervention reaches its intended effect. However, habit strength is not directly observable and existing self-report measures are taxing for users. In this paper, built on recent computational models of habit formation, we propose a method to enable intelligent systems to compute habit strength based on observable behavior. The hypothesized advantage of using computed habit strength for behavior prediction was tested using data from two intervention studies, where we trained participants to brush their teeth twice a day for three weeks and monitored their behaviors using accelerometers. Through hierarchical cross-validation, we found that for the task of predicting future brushing behavior, computed habit strength clearly outperformed self-reported habit strength (in both studies) and was also superior to models based on past behavior frequency (in the larger second study). Our findings provide initial support for our theory-based approach of modeling user habits and encourages the use of habit computation to deliver personalized and adaptive interventions

Expected Information Needs of Parents for Pervasive Awareness Systems

Abstract. This paper examines the communication needs of busy parents that can be served by awareness systems: systems supporting a continuous and semi-automated flow of information about the activities of communicating individuals. We report an online survey involving 69 participants. This survey focused on whether the types of information offered by awareness systems as these are introduced in current research literature are appreciated by busy parents. The results show a) that information items that allow personalization and expressing intentionality are more desired than those than low granularity and automatically sensed information that is easy to collect automatically b) the attitudes regarding the information that people wish to share about themselves is almost identical to what they wish to know of their partners and c) survey methods focusing on information do not need to differentiate between the direction of information flow or whether this is symmetric, since people report almost identical preferences

Experience Research in Ambient Intelligence

no abstrac

Ambient assisted living research in the CareLab

As technology development progresses, the vision of ambient intelligence has provided a human-centric approach to applications of technology. In the context of aging societies, ambient intelligence has focused on providing assistive solutions for elders at risk of losing their independence. In this article we report on a research environment called CareLab and describe three projects that have studied the role of technology in the monitoring and coaching of older adults. By focusing on the need for a feeling of safety, cognitive stimulation, and social connectedness, these projects have investigated the role of technology applications for supporting the elderly in maintaining an independent lifestyle. Finally, we discuss some challenges crucial for the success of ambient assisted-living research.</p

Ambient assisted living research in the CareLab

As technology development progresses, the vision of ambient intelligence has provided a human-centric approach to applications of technology. In the context of aging societies, ambient intelligence has focused on providing assistive solutions for elders at risk of losing their independence. In this article we report on a research environment called CareLab and describe three projects that have studied the role of technology in the monitoring and coaching of older adults. By focusing on the need for a feeling of safety, cognitive stimulation, and social connectedness, these projects have investigated the role of technology applications for supporting the elderly in maintaining an independent lifestyle. Finally, we discuss some challenges crucial for the success of ambient assisted-living research.</p

Testing interactive products with the robot intervention method

This paper introduces robot intervention, a novel approach to usability testing with children. A social robot is used as a proxy for a test administrator who conducts an active intervention session remotely in a Wizard of Oz fashion. The motivation of the technique is that children will feel at ease and enjoy interacting with the social robot, and thus produce more frequent and informative verbalizations regarding their interaction with the product under test. First experiences regarding this method are positive with regards to the feasibility of the method and with regards to how well it is received by children