Matjaz Debevc

Design and development of a mobile computer application to reengineer workflows in the hospital and the methodology to evaluate its effectiveness

This paper describes a new method of collecting additional data for the purpose of skin cancer research from the patients in the hospital using the system Mobile Computing in Medicine Graz (MoCoMed-Graz). This system departs from the traditional paper-based questionnaire data collection methods and implements a new composition of evaluation methods to demonstrate its effectiveness. The patients fill out a questionnaire on a Tablet-PC (or iPad Device) and the resulting medical data is integrated into the electronic patient record for display when the patient enters the doctors examination room. Since the data is now part of the electronic patient record, the doctor can discuss the data together with the patient making corrections or completions where necessary, thus enhancing data quality and patient empowerment. A further advantage is that all questionnaires are in the system at the end of the day - and manual entry is no longer necessary - consequently raising data completeness. The front end was developed using a User Centered Design Process for touch tablet computers and transfers the data in XML to the SAP based enterprise hospital information system. The system was evaluated at the Graz University Hospital - where about 30 outpatients consult the pigmented lesion clinic each day - following Bronfenbrenners three level perspective: The microlevel, the mesolevel and the macrolevel: On the microlevel, the questions answered by 194 outpatients, evaluated with the System Usability Scale (SUS) resulted in a median of 97.5 (min: 50, max: 100) which showed that it is easy to use. On the mesolevel, the time spent by medical doctors was measured before and after the implementation of the system; the medical task performance time of 20 doctors (age median 43 (min: 29; max: 50)) showed a reduction of 90%. On the macrolevel, a cost model was developed to show how much money can be saved by the hospital management. This showed that, for an average of 30 patients per day, on a 250 day basis per year in this single clinic, the hospital management can save up to 40,000 EUR per annum, proving that mobile computers can successfully contribute to workflow optimization.

Design and evaluation of an adaptive icon toolbar

As information systems become increasingly important in many different domains, the potential to adapt them to individual users and their needs also becomes more important. Adaptive user interfaces offer many possible ways to adjust displays and improve procedures for a users individual patterns of work. This paper describes an attempt to design an adaptive user interface in a computer environment familiar to many users. According to one classification of adaptive user interfaces, the adaptive bar described in this paper would be classified as a user-controlled self-adaptation system.At the users convenience, the adaptive bar offers suggestions for adding or removing command icons, based on the frequency and probability of specific commands. It also implements these changes once the user has agreed to them. Beyond the adaptive bar, the general behavior of the whole user interface does not change, thereby allowing the user to maintain a clear general model of the system. This paper describes the decision-making algorithm implemented in the bar. It also describes the bars self-adaptive behavior of displaying the frequency of each icons use through the icons size. Finally, we present some encouraging preliminary results of evaluations by users.

An adaptive short list for documents on the World Wide Web

University of Maribor School of Psychology University of MariborSmetanova 17 Georgia Institute of Technology Smetanova 17S1-2000 Maribor, Slovenia Atlanta, GA 30332 USA S1-2000 Maribor, Slovenia+386 62221 112 +1 4048948344 +386 62221 112debevc@uni-mb. si bmeyer@psy.tfe. gatech. edu rajko. svecko@tni-mb. siABSTRACTSince the World Wide Web (WWW) is so popular andgrowing so quickly, users have almost an intinite numberof sites to choose from. Bookmark features in web browsersallow users to easily record the sites that they would like tobe able to view again, without having to repeatedly searchthrough the WWW. However, bookmark lists for activeweb users can grow very long very quickly. Since user-maintained bookmark lists can easily grow long andsomewhat harder to use, it is usefil to have anautomatically maintained shorter list of useful sites.This paper describes an Adaptive Short List of commonlyused sites. This feature, when integrated into web browsingsoftware. would enable users to check the most probablesites quickly. without having to search through everybookmark they’ve ever created. We also present a decisionalgorithm for selecting sites to include in this list. Thegoal of this system is to determine the most appropriatesites to include in the Adaptive Short List. based on usagedata which the system collects and analyzes while the userworks.KeywordsUser interface, adaptive user interface, World Wide Web,intelligent system. user rnodellingINTRODUCTIONAs more and more information becomes available on theWorld Wide Web and as users discover more of thisinformation, the number of web sites to which they theywant ready access also grows. Web browsing software suchas Netscape [4] supports this need by providing a“bookmark feature. allowing users to return directly to

Accessible Multimodal Web Pages with Sign Language Translations for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

In this paper, we introduce a Sign Language Interpreter Module (SLIM), which delivers transparent sign language videos to deaf and hard of hearing users. Since their first language is the sign language, they rely on the visual modality with some speech input. Therefore in addition to text and images, a video of sign language interpreter should be provided. The SLIM system uses layers for exposing videos over existing web pages, which preserves the layout structure. Our evaluation study has shown that such a system is highly acceptable by deaf and hard of hearing users. Therefore our proposal is to enhance the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, by adding an additional multimodal aspect for presenting existing web information with transparent videos for deaf and hard of hearing users

Towards a low-cost mobile subcutaneous vein detection solution using near-infrared spectroscopy.

Excessive venipunctures are both time- and resource-consuming events, which cause anxiety, pain, and distress in patients, or can lead to severe harmful injuries. We propose a low-cost mobile health solution for subcutaneous vein detection using near-infrared spectroscopy, along with an assessment of the current state of the art in this field. The first objective of this study was to get a deeper overview of the research topic, through the initial team discussions and a detailed literature review (using both academic and grey literature). The second objective, that is, identifying the commercial systems employing near-infrared spectroscopy, was conducted using the PubMed database. The goal of the third objective was to identify and evaluate (using the IEEE Xplore database) the research efforts in the field of low-cost near-infrared imaging in general, as a basis for the conceptual model of the upcoming prototype. Although the reviewed commercial devices have demonstrated usefulness and value for peripheral veins visualization, other evaluated clinical outcomes are less conclusive. Previous studies regarding low-cost near-infrared systems demonstrated the general feasibility of developing cost-effective vein detection systems; however, their limitations are restricting their applicability to clinical practice. Finally, based on the current findings, we outline the future research direction.

Modeling, design, development and evaluation of a hypervideo presentation for digital systems teaching and learning

Hypervideos are multimedia files, which differ from traditional video files in that they can be navigated by using links that are embedded in them. Students can therefore easily access content that explains and clarifies certain points of the lectures that are difficult to understand, while at the same time not interrupting the flow of the original video presentation. In this paper we report on the design, development and evaluation of a hypermedia e-Learning tool for university students. First, the structure of the hypervideo model is presented; once the structure is known, the process of creating hypervideo content is described in detail, as are the various ways in which content can be linked together. Finally, an evaluation is presented, which has been carried out in the context of an engineering class by use of an interactive experiment, involving N = 88 students from a digital systems course. In this study the students were randomly assigned to two groups; one group participated in the course as usual, whilst the second group participated in the same course while also combining the conventional learning with the hypervideo content developed for the course. The students’ learning results showed that the students who had access to the hypervideo content performed significantly better than the comparison group.

Intuitive E-Teaching by Using Combined HCI Devices: Experiences with Wiimote Applications

The wide availability of game based technologies and sophisticated e-Learning possibilities creates new demands and challenges on Human---Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering (HCI&UE). Solid research in HCI must support improvement in learning ability and creativity for both teachers and students. According to recent market surveys the Wii remote controller or Wiimote is currently more wide spread than standard Tablet PCs and is the most used computer input device worldwide. As a collection of many sensors, also including Bluetooth technology, accelerometers and IR sensors, Wiimote is of great interest for HCI experiments, especially in the area of e-Learning and e-Teaching. In this paper, we present results gained from the investigation of the potential of Wiimote as both a standard input device --- such as mouse or presenter --- and as a gesture and finger tracking sensor. We demonstrate, on the basis of examples from e-Teaching, how easily everyday gestures can be interpreted in regular computer applications utilizing Wiimotes hardware modules and some additional software modules.

An Answer to “Who Needs a Stylus?” on Handwriting Recognition on Mobile Devices

”Who needs a stylus?” asked the late Steve Jobs during his introduction of the iPhone. Interestingly, just at this time, Apple had made a patent application in handwriting and input recognition via pen, and Google and Nokia followed. So, “who needs a stylus then?” According to our experience in projects with mobile devices in the “real-world” we noticed that handwriting is still an issue, e.g. in the medical domain. Medical professionals are very accustomed to use a pen, whereas touch devices are rather used by non-medical professionals and definitely preferred by elderly people. During our projects on mobile devices, we noticed that both handwriting and touch has certain advantages and disadvantages, but that both are of equal importance. So to concretely answer “Who needs a stylus?” we can answer: Medical professionals for example. And this is definitely a large group of users.

On line ECG processing and visualization using android SmartPhone

This paper demonstrates the use of smartphone in processing and analysis of ECG signal. The signal is acquired through the standard microphone input and processed by Android application. In addition to acquisition and visualization, the proposed system performs QRS detection and heart rate calculation, all in real time, behind a low occupation of operating resources. After explanation of the working principle, an experimental configuration is described and preliminary results are presented.

Optimization of a Handwriting Recognition Algorithm for a Mobile Enterprise Health Information System on the Basis of Real-Life Usability Research

Optimizing data acquisition in mobile health care in order to increase accuracy and efficiency can benefit the patient. The software company FERK-Systems has been providing enterprise mobile health care information systems for various medical services in Germany for many years. Consequently, the need for a usable front-end for handwriting recognition, particularly for the use in ambulances was needed. While handwriting recognition has been a classical topic of computer science for many years, numerous problems still need to be solved. In this paper, we report on the study and resulting improvements achieved by the adaptation of an existing handwriting algorithm, based on experiences made during medical rescue missions. By improving accuracy and error correction the performance of an available handwriting recognition algorithm was increased. However, the end user studies showed that the virtual keyboard is still the preferred method compared to handwriting, especially among participants with a computer usage of more than 30 hours a week. This is possibly due to the wide availability of the QUERTY/QUERTZ keyboard.