Hyo Chang Kim

Understanding the Elders' Interaction with Smart Home in Korea

Smart Home is an application of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in living environment. The concept of smart home has received interests as future solution for the elders and disabled to enhance quality of life. The long-term objective of this study is to design accessible Smart Home for the elders. And a key element to design accessible Smart Home is in-depth understanding of interaction between users and system. In this work-in-progress paper, we present two-phase study to obtaining better understand interaction between the elders and Smart Home. As results we present preliminary insights from diary study and interview on the elders living in built-in Smart Home in Korea. The results will contribute to improve convenience and satisfaction of the elders by making practical use of their interaction characteristics in their daily residential environment.

A Study of Properties and Services of a Smart Home for the Elderly

Republic of Korea is expected to enter into a super-aged society. Therefore, the needs of studying improved services and policies which support the quality of life, health, and comfortable living condition of the elderly are likely to increase. This study suggested a research direction of necessary properties and services for a smart home by analyzing existing studies to support the life of the elderly. Through investigation and analysis of studies of smart home and the elderly, we identified problems and implications of current smart home related studies.

Natural Thumb Zone on Smartphone with One-Handed Interaction: Effects of Thumb Length and Screen Size

This study aimed at investigating natural thumb zone of the user in smartphone touchscreen with one-handed grip. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their thumb lengths: small, medium, large. Experiments were carried out using three smartphones of different sizes: 4.7 in., 5.1 in., 5.2 in. The natural thumb zone of each group was analyzed using heat-map method. In large group, the thumb zone occupied more than 50% of the touch screen, while small and medium groups occupied only about 30% in all smartphones of different sizes. Compare to other groups, the thumb zone ratio of the small group in 5.2 in. smartphone was found greatly reduced. The lowermost region and the upper-left region of the smartphone touchscreen are not commonly included in natural thumb zone, regardless of the thumb-length groups. The results of this study could be used for designing new mobile device to enhance the usability of one-handed interaction; small devices with a touch screen as well.

Understanding the Characteristics of Behavior on Elderly Living in a Smart Home

Objective: The aim of this study is to find and propose the behavioral characteristic of the elderly at their living space through diary study. Background: Recent development of technology and the emergence of various IT devices is contributing to active research in smart home, services which considers the behavior characteristics of the elderly are still unable to be provided. Method: This study performed self-diary study method with ten households aged over 65 that lived in smart home. Based on these data collected from the diary study, six behavior characteristics of elderly were drawn. Results: The elderly were aware of their cognitive and physical limitations and showed fear. They are difficult to adapt in the state of the art. Their activities to acquire information were limited and were against changes, preferring to maintain the old ways. Conclusion: The result of this study, findings of behavioral characteristics of the elderly reveal that most of them spend their time on personal maintenance, socializing and leisure activities. Therefore, smart home services related to these characteristics should be considered as a top priority. Application: The results of the behavior characteristics can be utilized for planning out future smart home services and thereby contributing to increase in convenience and satisfaction of the elderly.

User centered inclusive design process: a 'situationally-induced impairments and disabilities' perspective

Mobile phones provide many functions to improve peoples daily lives. However, there are some difficulties to apply the specialty of the mobile device on existing simple schematics of drawings and the approaches. Moreover, regarding handicapped people as special users is causing the stigma effect. Therefore, this research suggests an inclusive design process that by considering the idea of situationally-induced impairments and disabilities (SIID) for developing the product, its design is not only considered for the handicapped people, but also normal people can experience the handicapped situations.