Alistair D. N. Edwards

An evaluation of earcons for use in auditory human-computer interfaces

An evaluation of earcons was carried out to see whether they are an effective means of communicating information in sound. An initial experiment showed that earcons were better than unstructured bursts of sound and that musical timbres were more effective than simple tones. A second experiment was then carried out which improved upon some of the weaknesses shown up in Experiment 1 to give a significant improvement in recognition. From the results of these experiments some guidelines were drawn up for use in the creation of earcons. Earcons have been shown to be an effective method for communicating information in a human-computer interface.

The Sonic Enhancement of Graphical Buttons

Graphical buttons are common to almost all interfaces but they are not without problems. One common difficulty is slipping off a button by mistake and not noticing. Sonically-enhanced buttons were designed to overcome this problem and were experimentally evaluated. Timing, error rates and workload measures were used. Error recovery was significantly faster and required fewer keystrokes with the sonically-enhanced buttons than with standard ones. The workload analyses showed participants significantly preferred the sonically-enhanced buttons to standard ones. This research indicates that by simple addition of sound one of the major problems with graphical buttons can be overcome.

Parallel earcons: reducing the length of audio messages

This paper describes a method of presenting structured audio messages, earcons, in parallel so that they take less time to play and can better keep pace with interactions in a human-computer interface. The two component parts of a compound earcon are played in parallel so that the time taken is only that of a single part. An experiment was conducted to test the recall and recognition of parallel compound earcons as compared to serial compound earcons. Results showed that there are no differences in the rates of recognition between the two groups. Non-musicians are also shown to be equal in performance to musicians. Some extensions to the earcon creation guidelines of Brewster, Wright and Edwards are put forward based upon research into auditory stream segregation. Parallel earcons are shown to be an effective means of increasing the presentation rates of audio messages without compromising recognition rates.

Improving the usability of speech-based interfaces for blind users

Adaptations using speech synthesis provide a basic level of access to computer systems for blind users, but current systems pose a number of usability problems. A study was carried out in order to assess the impact of certain issues on the usability of a typical speech adaptation. The results suggest that much work needs to be done on the design of speech dialogues.

Multimedia Interface Design in Education

This book is about the design and use of advanced multimedia interfaces for learning. Each chapter is concerned with some aspect of the theory or practice of multimedia interfaces and their use as tools to facilitate human learning. The chapters treat the issue from a wide variety of perspectives, including human-computer interaction, interface design, artificial intelligence, intelligent tutoring systems, psychology, education, and music. Three points distinguish the book: It is specifically about the use of multiple media in educational contexts; it addresses the use of multiple media within human-computer interaction, not merely the use of computers to mediate multimedia presentations; it addresses the problems from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives, not simply a technology-driven pragmatism. The book is based on papers presented at a NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in September 1989 as part of the NATO Science Committee six-year Programme on Advanced Educational Technology.

Design Principles for Tactile Interaction

Although the integration of tactile feedback within the human-computer interface could have considerable benefits this channel of communication is often overlooked or, at most, employed on an ad hoc basis. One contributing factor to the reluctance of interface designers to consider using tactual feedback is the lack of established design principles for doing so. A preliminary set of principles for tactile interface design are described. These have been constructed using the findings of a study into the presentation of music notation to blind people.

The design of auditory interfaces for visually disabled users

Recent developments in the design of human-machine interfaces have resulted in interfaces which make access to computer-based equipment more difficult for visually disabled people. The aim of this project was to explore whether it is possible to adapt such interfaces so as to make them usable by people who cannot see a screen. The approach adopted was based upon two principles: the replacement of visual interface entities by auditory analogues and appropriately constraining the resultant interface. Two forms of sound were used to embody the auditory interface: musical tones and synthetic speech. In order to test the principles a word processing program was implemented which demonstrated that a visual program might be adapted to be accessed through such an interface.

Lambda:: a multimodal approach to making mathematics accessible to blind students

The study of mathematics is all but precluded to most blind students because of the reliance on visual notations. The Lambda System is an attempt to overcome this barrier to access through the development of a linear mathematical notation which can be manipulated by a multimodal mathematical editor. This provides access through braille, synthetic speech and a visual display. Initial results from a longitudinal study with prospective users are encouraging.

An approach to the evaluation of assistive technology

A valid criticism of may innovations in assistive technology is that they have not been evaluated. However. there are obstacles which make this form of technology difficult to evaluate according to conventional paradigms. The reasons behind this are discussed. A particular evaluation which endeavoured to circumvent those problems is described. The item evaluated was Matllta/k, a program to make mathematics accessible to blind people.

Progress in Gestural Interaction

Progress in Gestural Interaction contains papers presented at the first Gesture Workshop, which was designed to bring together researchers working on gesture-based interfaces and gestural interaction and to provide a forum for the presentation and exchange of ideas and research currently in progress. It encompassed all aspects of gestural interaction, including:- what are gestures?; appropriateness of gestures used in interfaces; interactional issues; suitable applications; sign-language recognition. Papers are presented from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, USA and Ireland to provide an international viewpoint and the book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of gestural interaction, human-computer interaction, multi-modal interfaces, automatic sign language interpretation and pattern recognition. It could also be a useful supplementary text for courses on multi-modal human-computer interaction.