Lynne Baillie

Exploring multimodality in the laboratory and the field

There are new challenges to us, as researchers, on how to design and evaluate new mobile applications because they give users access to powerful computing devices through small interfaces, which typically have limited input facilities. One way of overcoming these shortcomings is to utilize the possibilities of multimodality. We report in this paper how we designed, developed, and evaluated a multimodal mobile application through a combination of laboratory and field studies. This is the first time, as far as we know, that a multimodal application has been developed in such a way. We did this so that we would understand more about where and when users envisioned using different modes of interaction and what problems they may encounter when using an application in context.

Investigating the long-term use of exergames in the home with elderly fallers

Rehabilitation has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of falling in older adults. However, low adherence to rehabilitation exercises in the home means that seniors often do not get the therapy that they require. We propose that the use of tailored exergames could encourage adherence to falls rehabilitation in the home, as exergames have proved successful in clinical settings. We describe the results from the first known study to investigate the long-term (12 weeks) use of exergames, designed in close collaboration with elderly users, for falls rehabilitation in the home. Our findings suggest that there is an untapped potential of exergames for home rehabilitation use, as our findings show that there was better adherence to exercise in participants who used the exergames, versus those who used standard care. Finally, we make recommendations for designers, on the design of exergames for the rehabilitation of seniors.

Exploring & designing tools to enhance falls rehabilitation in the home

Falls are the leading cause of accidental injury-related deaths in the elderly; a fall can lead to a loss of independence, and a fear of falling. Rehabilitation programmes involving exercise have proved the most successful way to reduce the risk of falls. However, the limitations of standard care (e.g. booklets) could prevent home users from receiving the full therapeutic benefit that rehabilitation offers. Having consulted users and health experts, we developed games, and visualizations for falls rehabilitation that we believe could potentially overcome the main barriers to effective rehabilitation in the home. In this paper, we describe user studies that we carried out with older adults to evaluate the use of these visual tools versus standard care, both in the laboratory and in the home. Our main findings show that our visualizations and games were able to overcome the major limitations of standard care, and that they were usable and acceptable to the end users.

A novel knee rehabilitation system for the home

In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of an interactive home-based rehabilitation visualisation system used by a wide variety of ages (users in our studies were aged from 47-89) to undertake rehabilitation in the home following knee replacement surgery. We present the rehabilitation visualization system and the results of a randomized controlled study in which we investigated the usability and feasibility of the system in the home. We found that our users were able to use the system successfully for their rehabilitation with improved rehabilitation outcomes after 6 weeks when compared to the current rehabilitation care. Finally we highlight the lessons learned which will benefit prospective designers of home rehabilitation technology in ensuring successful home evaluations in clinical rehabilitation.

Comparing conceptual designs for mobile access to geo-spatial information

Spatial information appliances (SIA), which enable mobile users to interact with the physical environment, have recently received an increasing amount of interest from the research community. This paper presents a comparative outdoor user study on conceptual designs for 4 interaction areas considered important for SIAs: selection, search, information sniffing, and remote viewing. Implications for future research are discussed.

Rolling, rotating and imagining in a virtual mobile world

New mobile devices can be difficult to use because they give users access to powerful computing devices through small interfaces, which typically have limited input facilities. One way of overcoming these shortcomings is to think of new interaction methods that could be utilized by the user. We report in this paper on a new interaction method for mobile devices in which the user can point his or her mobile device at a building and view a virtual representation of it. In addition, the user can view the building at different times in its past and literally see it morphing into its current state. Another interesting aspect of our prototype is that as the user moves the device the view they see on their mobile interface moves with them, thus allowing the user to experience the real and the virtual world at the same time.

The LiLiPUT prototype: a wearable lab environment for user tests of mobile telecommunication applications

User trials for future mobile telecommunication applications inherently pose several particular challenges which are difficult to meet in a traditional lab environment. In this paper we describe LiLiPUT (Lightweight Lab Equipment for Portable User Testing in Telecom-munications), a highly flexible wearable test system which has been realized as a fully operational prototype at the Telecommunications Research Center Vienna (ftw.). Then we illustrate how we use LiLiPUT for testing various types of mobile application in the wild.

Why aren't Users Using Protection? Investigating the Usability of Smartphone Locking

One of the main reasons why smartphone users do not adopt screen locking mechanisms is due to the inefficiency of entering a PIN/pattern each time they use their phone. To address this problem we designed a context-sensitive screen locking application which asked participants to enter a PIN/pattern only when necessary, and evaluated its impact on efficiency and satisfaction. Both groups of participants, who prior to the study either locked or did not lock their phone, adopted our application and felt that unlocking their phone only when necessary was more efficient, did not annoy them and offered a reasonable level of security. Participants responded positively to the option of choosing when a PIN/pattern is required in different contexts. Therefore, we recommend that designers of smartphone locking mechanisms should consider ceding a reasonable level of control over security settings to users to increase adoption and convenience, while keeping smartphones reasonably secure.

FEATURE Realizing the vision of mobile spatial interaction

Rainer Simon Telecommunications Research Center (ftw.) | rainer.simon@ftw.at Mobile computers are increasingly used as a link between the physical and the digital worlds. This innovation demands a more sophisticated multidisciplinary approach to the modeling of spatial interaction than has yet been developed. Our aim in this article is to open up the “black box” of mobile spatial interaction (MSI) and discuss some issues and possible approaches that could be taken. Groundbreaking concepts that proposed how to combine virtual information with the user’s direct surroundings arose as early as the 1990s. Two early examples include Egenhofer’s Smart Compasses, which point and direct people to places of interest, and Geo-Wands, virtual geographic pointers for the selection of surrounding objects and

Capturing the response of players to a location-based game

Location-based games offer opportunities for us to learn more about people’s interactions and feelings towards the environment they are in as well as to understand more about the mental models and locations associated with known environments, e.g. a university campus with its associations of learning. In our study, we wanted to manipulate the activities in a game to take advantage of certain locations in the hope of producing certain emotional reactions. However, it is not enough to simply produce these reactions; one must also have a way of capturing any emotions produced whether these are the ones expected or not. The objective of this paper, therefore, was to trial a new methodology for location-based games that aims at capturing the players’ emotional reactions to the activities in a game whilst in certain locations. In order to test the methodology, we designed a location-based game that can be played on any Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone that has an accelerometer. The game has been designed to interweave with a persons’ normal activity. As a result, there is little distinction between gaming time and non-gaming time.