Teresa Blanco

Managing Emergency Situations in the Smart City: The Smart Signal.

In a city there are numerous items, many of them unnoticed but essential; this is the case of the signals. Signals are considered objects with reduced technological interest, but in this paper we prove that making them smart and integrating in the IoT (Internet of Things) could be a relevant contribution to the Smart City. This paper presents the concept of Smart Signal, as a device conscious of its context, with communication skills, able to offer the best message to the user, and as a ubiquitous element that contributes with information to the city. We present the design considerations and a real implementation and validation of the system in one of the most challenging environments that may exist in a city: a tunnel. The main advantages of the Smart Signal are the improvement of the actual functionality of the signal providing new interaction capabilities with users and a new sensory mechanism of the Smart City.

Online social networks as a tool to support people with special needs

Design, development and assessment of an OSN to support people with special needs.Long-term and large scale pilot in a residence of people with cognitive disability.Experimentation validates a novel OSN user-oriented design methodology.OSN use improves the residence procedures efficiency and the quality of service.OSNs positively influence the social relations of residents, family and care professionals. Supporting people with special needs is a multi-disciplinary endeavour that involves many stakeholders. Social relations have a determining impact on the quality of the related processes. Online social networks (OSN) have demonstrated their capacity to change human interaction paradigms; however, their application to disability is a barely-explored field of research. This paper describes the design, development and deployment of an OSN in a 24/7 residence for people with disabilities in order to improve productivity, enhance the quality of care processes and foster social relations. During fourteen months of operation, 46 people, including caregivers, health professionals (psychologists, occupational therapists, and physiotherapists, among others), supervisors, administrative staff, residents and their family members, used the OSN. Our quantitative and qualitative results indicate adequate OSN technical performance; validate user-oriented design methodology; confirm productivity and quality of service improvement; and confirm the capacity of OSNs to positively influence social relations in such environments.

Needs identification methodology for inclusive design

ABSTRACT Identification of user needs is an essential phase in the early stages of every design project. Many needs identification methodologies are described in the literature. When targeting users with special needs, the task becomes more challenging for different reasons (difficulty of retrieving information, performing prototype testing, etc.). This article presents a novel methodology, Needs Identification Methodology for Inclusive Design (NIMID), that guides the process of needs identification in the inclusive design scenario considering users’ physical, sensorial and cognitive capabilities. NIMID is grounded in Abowd and Beales human–computer interaction framework and uses WHOs International Classification of Functionalities as the taxonomy that provides a common language. We exemplify the application of the methodology in the design of a smart oven for elderly people. We also compare NIMID with other methodologies evidencing its strong points: universality (common international classification of functioning language), systematicity (clearly defined phases and outcomes) and rationality (grounded in well-established interaction theory).

Octopus: A Design Methodology for Motion Capture Wearables

Human motion capture (MoCap) is widely recognised for its usefulness and application in different fields, such as health, sports, and leisure; therefore, its inclusion in current wearables (MoCap-wearables) is increasing, and it may be very useful in a context of intelligent objects interconnected with each other and to the cloud in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, capturing human movement adequately requires addressing difficult-to-satisfy requirements, which means that the applications that are possible with this technology are held back by a series of accessibility barriers, some technological and some regarding usability. To overcome these barriers and generate products with greater wearability that are more efficient and accessible, factors are compiled through a review of publications and market research. The result of this analysis is a design methodology called Octopus, which ranks these factors and schematises them. Octopus provides a tool that can help define design requirements for multidisciplinary teams, generating a common framework and offering a new method of communication between them.

Xassess: crossdisciplinary framework in user-centred design of assistive products

ABSTRACT The design of assistive products (AP) is a challenging process that gathers a wide variety of agents with different objectives and backgrounds. This complex scenario demands reflexive and multi-referential methodologies, where assessment is essential to make steady progress. We present Xassess, a specific methodological framework for assistive product design that interweaves different phases and types of assessments; it is materialised in a set of tools to be used individually or conjointly. We validated our proposal in a real project, developing an online social network for the support of people with neurodegenerative illnesses with three different scenarios running in parallel. Main conclusion is that the methodology contributes not only to achieve better results, but also to optimise the global process of managing the design of AP. Assessment should be considered from the beginning of the project and interweaved at every stage, include the vision of all the disciplines involved in the project, merge qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches, and serve as enabler of the shared understanding among different worlds. As Xassess also allowed us to see innovation from a different perspective, we encourage its use as a design guide for Design for All and to tailor it to other design realms.

Accessible Gaming through Mainstreaming Kinetic Controller

Leisure is a very important aspect in our everyday life; and gaming is one of the main ways to it. Depending on the particular situation of each person, the way of playing could be very different. Motivation, preferences, skills, knowledge are some of the factors that influences this experience. When the person has a disability, additional agents come to scene such as cognitive level and mobility. Besides the design of the game, these factors clearly affect how the person interacts with the game; its user interface. In this paper we present a tool that allows people with disabilities to play games with a normalized user interface. This tool a) manages several wireless kinetic remote controllers, e.g. the Wiimotes; b) can be configured to capture any voluntary movements users could do and c) convert them into the specific inputs required by existing adapted games. As a result, users with disabilities can experience and enjoy games that were previously inaccessible to them.

Research Lines to Improve Access to Health Instrumentation Design

Abstract This document seeks new areas of research in musculoskeletal health instrumentation development, under the current context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the design needs of achieving more efficient, profitable, and better user experience in healthcare-related products and services. Three health measurement instrumentation case studies are presented, which show latent barriers and needs as well as possible methods of solving these situations. The cases deal with instrumentation related to motion capture (MoCap), balance control measurement, and muscle strength measured by dynamometry. Using the cases, a scheme that includes the key elements involved in a health instrumentation system is proposed. The scheme is ideated to facilitate the creation of health development tools (HDT) that are intermediate tools that designers, developers, or researchers can use to implement health products and services in a more efficient, and accessible way.

DISEÑO DE LA GESTIÓN DEL CICLO DEL AGUA EN PEQUEÑOS NÚCLEOS URBANOS MEDIANTE DESIGN THINKING

En el presente articulo se estudia la problematica de la gestion del agua en pequenos nucleos urbanos no tecnificados. Este escenario presenta una alta complejidad tanto de usuarios como de entorno combinada con la dificultad para recurrir a tecnologias de mercado por cuestiones presupuestarias. Basado en metodos de diseno, y con un planteamiento metodologico iterativo y disenado ad hoc con tecnicas que permiten una profundizacion incremental (personas, shadowing, necesidades relacionales, etc.) se desarrolla un conocimiento profundo de los diferentes escenarios, procesos, usuarios y tecnologias involucradas. Sacando a la luz informacion latente a priori no especificada, sintetizando y estructurando una gran cantidad de informacion de tal modo que sea usable a la hora de disenar las posibles soluciones, se identifican necesidades comunes a escenarios y usuarios muy diferentes entre si y se mejora la comunicacion y el entendimiento entre especialidades diversas. En definitiva, las subsiguientes fases de diseno y desarrollo de la solucion se afrontan con una garantia mucho mayor de exito en terminos de viabilidad tecnica y comercial. Palabras clave: Design Thinking, multidisciplinaridad, gestion del agua, metodologias de diseno, codiseno, Personas, shadowing

PROPUESTA METODOLÓGICA PARA EL DIAGNÓSTICO MULTIDISCIPLINAR DE PROBLEMAS DE INGENIERÍA

RESUMEN: En el presente articulo se plantea la potencia del uso de metodologias de diseno para el diagnostico multidisciplinar de problemas en el ambito de la ingenieria. Evidenciamos su capacidad en el marco de un proyecto real en el que se estudia la problematica de la gestion del agua en pequenos nucleos urbanos no tecnificados. Con el objetivo especifico de generar un conocimiento profundo de un entorno compuesto por varios escenarios con una complejidad humana y tecnica muy grande, se plantea una estrategia metodologica inspirada en Design Thinking. Mediante un planteamiento de evaluacion mixto, la propuesta demuestra su validez empirica en terminos de efectividad y eficiencia, asi como su valor como catalizador de la multidisciplinaridad. Palabras clave: Design Thinking, multidisciplinaridad, gestion del agua, metodologias de diseno, codiseno