Kher Hui Ng

A design framework for a home-based stroke rehabilitation system: Identifying the key components

We present a design framework for a sensor-based stroke rehabilitation system for use at home developed through the analysis of data collected from a series of workshops. Participants had a variety of backgrounds and included people living with stroke and health professionals who work with them. Our focus in these workshops was to learn more about the social context around stroke care, to share early project ideas and develop a design framework for developing systems. In this paper we present a detailed analysis of participant responses and use this analysis to draw specific conclusions about the components and configuration that we believe should be in future systems.

Augmenting amusement rides with telemetry

We present a system that uses wireless telemetry to enhance the experience of fairground and theme park amusement rides. Our system employs wearable technologies to capture video, audio, heart-rate and acceleration data from riders, which are then streamed live to large public displays and are also recorded. This system has been embedded into a theatrical event called Fairground: Thrill Laboratory in which riders are first selected from a watching audience and their captured data is subsequently presented back to this audience and discussed by experts in medical monitoring, psychology and ride design. Drawing on our experience of deploying the system on three contrasting rides, during which time it was experienced by 25 riders and over 500 audience members, we reflect on how such telemetry data can enhance amusement rides for riders and spectators alike, both during and after the ride.

Understanding food consumption lifecycles using wearable cameras

Application of design in HCI is a common approach to engendering behavioural change to address important challenges such as sustainability. Encouraging such change requires an understanding of current motivations and behaviours in the domain in question. In this paper, we describe use of wearable cameras to study motivations and behaviours around food consumption by focusing on two contrasting cultures, Malaysia and the UK. Our findings highlight the potential of wearable cameras to enhance knowledge of food consumption practices and identify where and how some digital interventions might be appropriate to change food behaviour. This includes appealing to people’s motivations behind food consumption and capitalising on existing practices such as gifting of food and social meals. We propose a food consumption lifecycle as a framework to understand and design human–food interaction. The use of wearable cameras enabled us to capture a high-level overview of spatially distributed food-related practices and understand food behaviours in greater depth.

PINS push in and POUTS pop out: creating a tangible pin-board that ejects physical documents

There is an asymmetry in many tangible interfaces: while phicons can be used to manipulate digital information, the reverse is often not possible - the digital world cannot push back. We describe a tangible pin-board that pushes back by physically ejecting paper documents when they are digitally deleted. This is realized using pouts, addressable pin-like devices that communicate with a Pin&Play board and that can eject themselves by contracting an internal Muscle Wire actuator to trigger a mechanical latch. To demonstrate and begin to evaluate the technology we have developed an initial application of pouts involving a game where online players vote to eject physical pictures from a pin-board.

Design of a mobile garden guide based on Artcodes

The use of location-based technology to augment visitor experiences has received considerable attention over the years. In this study, we take an alternative perspective on these kind of location based experiences by focusing on the design of garden signage based on visual recognition technology called Artcodes. This allows signage to be designed and created to provide both visual and contextual meaning as well as associated digital content when scanned using a mobile device. The goal is to form understanding of the impact this technology has on visitor experiences in terms of how users interact with these Artcodes-based garden signages. The project contributes towards the design and development of a mobile learning trail that is educational, yet fun.

TraceIt: An Air Tracing Reading Tool for Children with Dyslexia

In this paper, we explore how assistive technology can be used to support the learning development of children with dyslexia. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability. Existing strategies employed to help dyslexic children to read include multi-sensory methods such as tracing letters in the air. New technologies could help them learn by utilising all senses. In this paper, we present TraceIt, an interactive learning tool to teach children with dyslexia how to read through multi-sensory methods to include visual, auditory and kinaesthetic movement. Building upon prior work on tangible interaction, it allows students to air trace alphabets using physical objects of a specific colour to interact with the reading program. Based on evaluations conducted at the Dyslexia Association of Malaysia, this paper contributes towards understanding the opportunities as well as challenges involved in applying such interaction technique to support the learning development of children with dyslexia.

Wearables or infrastructure: contrasting approaches to collecting behavioural data in the home

This paper examines and contrasts two approaches to collecting behavioural data within the home. The first of these involves filming from static video cameras combined with network logging to capture media consumption activities across multiple screens. The second utilises wearable cameras that passively collect still images to provide insights into food related behaviours. The paper compares the approaches from the perspective of the researchers and participants, and outlines the key benefits and challenges of each, with the aim of further mapping the space of possibilities now available when studying behaviour in the home.

The iterative development of a tangible pin-board to symmetrically link physical and digital documents

There is an asymmetry in many tangible interfaces: while physical objects can be used to manipulate digital information, the reverse is often not possible—the digital world cannot push back. We introduce a new push-back tangible technology, a pin-board that physically ejects paper documents. This is realized by extending the Pin&Play technology to support ‘pouts’, addressable pin-like devices that can remove themselves from a board using muscle wire actuators. We describe how this technology has been developed through two iterations of prototyping, application and formative study. An initial study revealed how potential mismatches between the physical and digital characteristics of pouts caused difficulties with users predicting pop-out events and reasoning about the state of pouts. This led us to extend pouts to reveal more of their internal state, an approach verified through a second study. It also raises more general issues for the design of pushback tangible technologies and ubiquitous interfaces.

Treasure codes: augmenting learning from physical museum exhibits through treasure hunting

Previous studies have highlighted the difficulty that designers face in creating mobile museum guides to enhance small group experiences. In this paper, we report a study exploring the potential of mobile visual recognition technology (Artcodes) to improve users’ experiences in a visitor centre. A prototype mobile guide in the form of a treasure hunt was developed and evaluated by means of a field study comparing this technology with the existing personal guided tour. The results reveal a preference for the mobile guide amongst participants and show significant learning gains from pre-test to post-test compared with the pre-existing personal tour. Our observational analyses indicate how the mobile guide can be used to improve visitors’ learning experiences by supporting active discovery and by balancing physical and digital interactions. We further expand the concept of design trajectories to consider micro-scaffolding as a way of understanding and designing future public technologies.

Designing an Interactive Mural for Cultural Reflections

While many cultural heritage projects currently exist, few explore how to record and transform intangible heritage into a publicly accessible collection. This paper presents an interactive system combining the Web and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to create an internet-linked interactive mural that allows visitors to listen and interact with crowdsourced life stories. Our findings highlight positive user reactions and some evidence of the interactive system being able to support cultural reflections. While the life stories appeal to most of the adults, younger children were less patient and interested in listening to them. Instead they were attracted to visual projections and the unobtrusive technology. We propose a design framework, outlining three design aspects necessary to understand and design engaging and immersive user experience. The use of interactive mural enabled us to understand the challenges of preserving and sharing intangible heritage so that they are heard and can be reflected upon in greater depth. The paper also outlines recommendations for future work to include a long term longitudinal study and to introduce mechanism for reviewing crowdsourced content.