Henry Been-Lirn Duh

A study on Singaporean women's acceptance of using mobile phones to seek health information.

OBJECTIVE This paper is an exploratory study that investigates Singaporean womens acceptance of using mobile phones to seek health information. METHOD A mobile web containing health topics was developed to track Singaporean womens actual use of their mobile phones to seek health information. A survey questionnaire measured variables hypothesized to predict Behavioural Intention. The survey responses were then matched to the data collected on actual use. Correlation analysis and hierarchical regression were used to analyze the data collected. RESULTS Findings revealed that Perceived Usefulness and Self-efficacy positively predicted the intention to use mobile phones to seek health information. The study also confirmed the presence of an intention-behaviour gap among participants. The conversion of intention to actual behaviour hinges on technical concerns and design factors. Prior experiences with health information seeking reinforced womens evaluations of the usefulness of the mobile web application and helped them to feel more self-efficacious about using their mobile phones to seek health information. Using mobile phones to seek health information was found to be complementary to online health information seeking and can be regarded as an alternative source to the internet for seeking health information. CONCLUSION This study contributes to the existing literature by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of mobile health information seeking, for which there has been a lack of studies, and demonstrated that the inclusion of additional variables can enhance TAMs predictive power. The empirical presence of an intention-behaviour gap calls for future research to investigate the reasons behind the gap. Finally, the findings from this study can serve as input to promote womens use of mobile phones for better self-management of health.

Conflicting motion cues to the visual and vestibular self-motion systems around 0.06 Hz evoke simulator sickness.

The basic question this research addressed was, how does simulator sickness vary with simulated motion frequency? Participants were 11 women and 19 men, 20 to 63 years of age. A visual self-motion frequency response curve was determined using a Chattecx posture platform with a VR4 head-mounted display (HMD) or a back-projected dome. That curve and one for vestibular self-motion specify a frequency range in which vestibular and visual motion stimuli could produce conflicting self-motion cues. Using a rotating chair and the HMD, a third experiment supported (p < .01) the hypothesis that conflicting cues at the frequency of maximum “crossover” between the curves (about 0.06 Hz) would be more likely to evoke simulator sickness than would conflicting cues at a higher frequency. Actual or potential applications of this work include a preliminary design guidance curve that indicates the frequency range of simulated motion that is likely to evoke simulator or virtual reality sickness; for simulators intended to operate in this frequency range, appropriate simulator sickness interventions should be considered during the design process.

A wearable, self-calibrating, wireless sensor network for body motion processing

A novel self-calibrating sensing technology using miniature linear encoders and inertial/magnetic measurement unit (IMU) provides the accuracy, fast response and robustness required by many body motion processing applications. Our sensor unit consists of an accelerometer, a 3-axis magnetic sensor, 2 gyroscopes and a miniature linear encoder. The fusion of data from the sensors is accomplished by extracting the gravity related term from the accelerometer and consistently calibrating the gyroscopes and linear encoder when the sensor unit is under static conditions. Using the fused sensors, we developed a complete motion processing system that consists of a gateway where the human kinematics modeling is embedded. A time divided multiple access wireless architecture is adopted to synchronize the sensor network at 100 Hz. Experimental results show that the combination of the IMU and linear encoder produces a low RMS error of 3.5deg and correlation coefficient of 99.01%. A video showing the capture a performers upper body motion is also realized.

An “independent visual background” reduced balance disturbance envoked by visual scene motion: implication for alleviating simulator sickness

Simulator sickness (SS) / virtual environment (VE) sickness is expected to become increasingly troublesome as VE technology evolves [20]. Procedures to alleviate SS / VE sickness have been of limited value [12]. This paper investigated a possible procedure to reduce SS and VE sickness. Postural disturbance was evoked by visual scene motion at different frequencies. Differences in disturbance were examined as a function of simultaneous exposure to an “independent visual background” (IVB). Eight subjects were tested at two scene motion frequencies and three different IVB conditions using a within-subjects design. An expected statistically significant interaction between IVB condition and frequency was observed. For low frequency scene movements, subjects exhibited less balance disturbance when the IVB was presented. We suggest that an IVB may alleviate disturbance when conflicting visual and inertial cues are likely to result in simulator or VE sickness.

Effects of characteristics of image quality in an immersive environment

Image quality issues such as field of view (FOV) and resolution are important for evaluating presence and simulator sickness (SS) in virtual environments (VEs). This research examined effects on postural stability of varying FOV, image resolution, and scene content in an immersive visual display. Two different scenes (a photograph of a fountain and a simple radial pattern) at two different resolutions were tested using six FOVs (30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180 deg.). Both postural stability, recorded by force plates, and subjective difficulty ratings varied as a function of FOV, scene content, and image resolution. Subjects exhibited more balance disturbance and reported more difficulty in maintaining posture in the wide-FOV, highresolution, and natural scene conditions.

An independent visual background reduced simulator sickness in a driving simulator

Simulator sickness (SS)-virtual environment (VE) sickness is expected to become increasingly troublesome as VE technology evolves. This paper investigated using an independent visual background (IVB) to reduce SS and VE sickness. The IVB is a visual scene component that provides visual motion and orientation cues that match those from the vestibular receptors. In this study, the IVB was stationary, fixed with respect to inertial space. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment examined the differences in visual motion-induced postural disturbance as a function of simultaneous exposure to an IVB. Subjects exhibited less balance disturbance when the IVB was presented. An expected statistically significant interaction between IVB presence-absence and visual scene motion oscillation frequency was observed. In the second experiment, subjects reported less SS when the IVB was presented during the VE exposure. We suggest that an IVB may alleviate disturbance when conflicting visual and inertial cues evoke SS.

Senior-friendly technologies: interaction design for senior users

The elderly represent a valid group of users who can potentially benefit greatly from engaging with technology, such as healthcare systems or playing digital games. Yet, less attention has been given to the significance of senior citizens as technology users, as compared to the common younger population. In an effort to fill in the gap, this workshop aims to investigate the design of technology for senior citizens. To provide for more focused, thus more productive discussion, we will use elderly mobile phone games as a case in point here. The overarching objective is to understand what can help to make for better and more meaningful use of interactive applications and technology by the elderly, for instance, games on the mobile phone.

Enjoyment or engagement? role of social interaction in playing massively mulitplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGS)

Based on data collected through 40 in-depth interviews, it is found that (a) the balance between perceived challenges and skills, and (b) the types of in-game social interactions can both facilitate and impede the enjoyment of game playing. Through these two factors, a conclusive link was also found between game enjoyments and a gamers engagement level. Engaged gamers experience optimal enjoyment more frequently and value the importance of social interactions more than non-engaged gamers. In addition, game enjoyment can be enhanced through game design and it can also be adversely affected by real world contextual factors and technical difficulties. More importantly, the study underlines the importance of social interaction. Social interaction is the key factor that determines the level of engagement of gamers. For engaged gamers, social interaction is essential in this gaming experience. For non-engaged gamers, social interaction is not important and they have little tolerance of negative social interaction within the game.

The changing dynamic of social interaction in World of Warcraft: the impacts of game feature change

This study examines how changes in game features through patches and expansions can affect the social interaction within massively multiplayer games. Since patches and expansions are now commonplace within massively multiplayer games, understanding of the relationship would enable better production of social capital. In-depth interviews uncovered that the recent changes to the World of Warcraft affect in-game social interaction in 3 aspects. The areas of social interaction affected included interpersonal relationships, community size and social alienation. The discussions highlight how these findings can advance models of social interaction within MMOs.

An integrated design flow in user interface and interaction for enhancing mobile AR gaming experiences

Interaction is a prominent feature that distinguishes computer (video) games from other kinds of entertainment [1, 2]. Given that Augmented Reality (AR) presentations enable the creation of user interactions that expand traditional HCI from 2D to 3D spaces, this offer an ideal opportunity for game developers to design more playful and interesting mobile AR games that embed various interaction forms. This paper introduces a mobile AR cooking game that is based on the integration of adopted AR interaction and user interface principles in its design flow. These embedded interactions are designed with considerations and spatial mappings to real cooking mechanisms in order to provide a unique gaming experience and increased engagement for a better overall AR interaction on the multimodal mobile device.