Andrea Szymkowiak

Issues surrounding the user-centred development of a new interactive memory aid

Memory problems are often associated with the ageing process and are one of the commonest effects of brain injury. Electronic memory aids have been successfully used as a compensatory approach to provide reminders to individuals with prospective memory problems. This paper describes the usability issues surrounding the development of a new memory aid rendered on a personal digital assistant (PDA); in addition, it discusses the importance of a user-centred design process for the development of the memory aid and preliminary qualitative findings from interviews and focus groups of disabled or elderly users.

Usable technology? Challenges in designing a memory aid with current electronic devices

Abstract Electronic devices such as personal digital assistants have been used successfully as aids for people with memory problems. However, limitations of currently available technology can create difficulties in the day-to-day use of such devices, particularly for memory impaired and older users. These limitations are discussed in terms of both the software and hardware issues, and are set into the context of challenges raised in the current study, which is to design a new interactive memory aid. It is concluded that a specific, customisable software interface is needed to meet the dynamic requirements of the user groups. This would also go some way to compensate for the hardware limitations until available technology becomes more usable.

Memojog – An Interactive Memory Aid Incorporating Mobile Based Technologies

Memory problems are often associated with ageing and are among the most common effects of brain injury. Such problems can severely disrupt daily life and put huge strain on family members and carers. Electronic devices have been used successfully to provide short and timely reminders to memory-impaired individuals. The Memojog project has developed and evaluated a mobile, interactive communication and memory-aid system with elderly and memory-impaired people. The system utilizes current and easily available technology such as the internet and GPRS mobile telephony. This paper will look at the design as well as the successes and limitations of the Memojog system.

A memory aid with remote communication using distributed technology

Electronic memory aids have been used successfully to give reminders to individuals with memory problems. These aids usually present short action reminders that are acknowledged by the user. The recent enhancement of handheld computers with wireless technology has rendered them multi-functional and presents an opportunity to be exploited to meet the demands of the user. This paper describes the architecture of an electronic memory aid system we have developed and are currently evaluating with memory-impaired participants. In addition to providing action prompts, the developed system allows data entry not only on the device itself, but also from other stations. Hence, the memory-impaired user and third parties can remotely enter data into the device, depending on the skills of the user. The system also remotely monitors users’ acknowledgements of reminders and allows third parties to initiate further actions where appropriate.

Joint Attention for Pointing but not Grasping Postures

“Joint attention” refers to changes in one`s own action potentials after observing somebody else’s actions. For example, perceived gaze leads to corresponding attention shifts (Hood et al., 1998; Schuller and Rossion, 2001), and seeing a taskirrelevant pointing arm influences directional judgments (Langton and Bruce, 2000). Observing a grasping movement induces preparation of similar actions (Fadiga et al., 1995), and viewing grasping hands facilitates congruent manual responses (Craighero et al., 2002). Viewpoint-independent action simulation through “mirror neurons” has been suggested as the neural substrate for such joint attention effects (Decety and Grezes, 1999; Gallese, 2001; Gallese and Goldman, 1998). Here we show that joint attention facilitates encoding of visual information from the target locations of intended actions. The effect is viewpointindependent and does not seem to generalize to completed actions.

Keystroke dynamics in the pre-touchscreen era

Biometric authentication seeks to measure an individual’s unique physiological attributes for the purpose of identity verification. Conventionally, this task has been realized via analyses of fingerprints or signature iris patterns. However, whilst such methods effectively offer a superior security protocol compared with password-based approaches for example, their substantial infrastructure costs, and intrusive nature, make them undesirable and indeed impractical for many scenarios. An alternative approach seeks to develop similarly robust screening protocols through analysis of typing patterns, formally known as keystroke dynamics. Here, keystroke analysis methodologies can utilize multiple variables, and a range of mathematical techniques, in order to extract individuals’ typing signatures. Such variables may include measurement of the period between key presses, and/or releases, or even key-strike pressures. Statistical methods, neural networks, and fuzzy logic have often formed the basis for quantitative analysis on the data gathered, typically from conventional computer keyboards. Extension to more recent technologies such as numerical keypads and touch-screen devices is in its infancy, but obviously important as such devices grow in popularity. Here, we review the state of knowledge pertaining to authentication via conventional keyboards with a view toward indicating how this platform of knowledge can be exploited and extended into the newly emergent type-based technological contexts.

Gendering the Machine: Preferred Virtual Assistant Gender and Realism in Self-Service

A virtual agent is a human-like character that is designed to assist users in interactions with technology and virtual worlds. Research into the preferred visual characteristics of a virtual agent has focused on education-based agents, gaming avatars, and online help assistants. However, findings from these studies are not necessarily generalizable to other technologies, such as self-service checkouts (SSCO). This paper describes data from 578 participants, looking at the gender preferences of Virtual Assistants (VA) in a SSCO context and the impact of VA realism depending on user gender. Due to female participants’ preference for female VAs, and an overall preference for three-dimensional characters, a realistic, female VA should be used in SSCO. The results are discussed in terms of similarity-attraction theory and social role theory.

Changing the View: Towards the Theory of Visualisation Comprehension

The core problem of the evaluation of Information Visualisation is that the end product of visualisation – the comprehension of the information from the data – is difficult to measure objectively. This paper outlines a description of visualisation comprehension based on two existing theories of perception: Principles of Perceptual Organisation and the Reverse Hierarchy Theory. The resulting account of the processes involved in visualisation comprehension enables evaluation that is not only objective, but also non-comparative, providing an absolute efficiency classification. Finally, as a sample application of this approach, an experiment studying the benefits of interactivity in 3D scatterplots is presented.

Information visualization and the arts-science-social science interface

In a world of ever-increasing and newly discovered complexities, and rapidly expanding data sets describing man-made and natural phenomena, information visualization offers a means of structuring and enabling interpretation of these data in the context of that complexity. Advances in graphics hardware, art asset pipelines and parallelized computational platforms offer unprecedented potential. However, harnessing this potential to good effect is challenging and requires the integration of skills from the arts and social sciences to support scientific endeavor in the physical and life sciences. Here, we consider those skills and describe four case studies that highlight interoperation among disciplines at this arts-science-social science interface.

Linking Recorded Data with Emotive and Adaptive Computing in an eHealth Environment

Telecare, and particularly lifestyle monitoring, currently relies on the ability to detect and respond to changes in individual behaviour using data derived from sensors around the home. This means that a significant aspect of behaviour, that of an individuals emotional state, is not accounted for in reaching a conclusion as to the form of response required. The linked concepts of emotive and adaptive computing offer an opportunity to include information about emotional state and the paper considers how current developments in this area have the potential to be integrated within telecare and other areas of eHealth. In doing so, it looks at the development of and current state-of-the-art of both emotive and adaptive computing, including its conceptual background, and places them into an overall eHealth context for application and development.