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Purpose: Participation and accessibility issues faced by gamers with multi-sensory disabilities are themes yet to be fully understood by accessible technology researchers. In this work, we examine the personal experiences and perceptions of individuals with deafblindness who play games despite their disability, as well as the reasons that lead some of them to stop playing games.
Materials and methods: We conducted 60 semi-structured interviews with individuals living with deafblindness in five European countries: United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Greece and Sweden.
Results: Participants stated that reasons for playing games included them being a fun and entertaining hobby, for socialization and meeting others, or for occupying the mind. Reasons for stop playing games included essentially accessibility issues, followed by high cognitive demand, changes in gaming experience due their disability, financial reasons, or because the accessible version of a specific game was not considered as fun as the original one.
Conclusions: We identified that a considerable number of individuals with deafblindness enjoy playing casual mobile games such as Wordfeud and Sudoku as a pastime activity. Despite challenging accessibility issues, games provide meaningful social interactions to players with deafblindness. Finally, we introduce a set of user-driven recommendations for making digital games more accessible to players with a diverse combination of sensory abilities.
IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION
- Digital games were considered a fun and entertaining hobby by participants with deafblindness. Furthermore, participants play games for socialization and meeting others, or for occupying the mind.
- Digital games provide meaningful social interactions and past time to persons with deafblindness.
- On top of accessibility implications, our findings draw attention to the importance of the social element of gaming for persons with deafblindness.
- Based on interviews, we introduce a set of user-driven recommendations for making digital games more accessible to players with a diverse combination of sensory abilities.
Due to the increasing aging of the population, the number of elderly people requiring care is growing in most European countries. However, the number of caregivers working in nursing homes and on daily care services is declining in countries like Germany or Italy. This limits the time for interpersonal communication. Furthermore, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, social distancing during contact restrictions became more important, causing an additional reduction of personal interaction. This social isolation can strongly increase emotional stress. Robotic assistance could contribute to addressing this challenge on three levels: (1) supporting caregivers to respond individually to the needs of patients and residents in nursing homes; (2) observing patients’ health and emotional state; (3) complying with high hygiene standards and minimizing human contact if required. To further the research on emotional aspects and the acceptance of robotic assistance in care, we conducted two studies where elderly participants interacted with the social robot Misa. Facial expression and voice analysis were used to identify and measure the emotional state of the participants during the interaction. While interpersonal contact plays a major role in elderly care, the findings reveal that robotic assistance generates added value for both caregivers and patients and that they show emotions while interacting with them.
Soziale Roboter, die mit uns kommunizieren und menschliche Verhaltensmuster imitieren, sind ein wichtiges Zukunftsthema. Während viele Arbeiten ihr Design und ihre Akzeptanz erforschen, gibt es bislang nur wenige Untersuchungen zu ihrer Marktfähigkeit. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Arbeit liegt auf dem Einsatz sozialer Roboter in den Bereichen Gesundheit und Pflege, wo die zukünftige Integration sozialer Roboter ein enormes Potenzial hat. Eine Studie mit 197 Personen aus Italien und Deutschland untersucht gewünschte Funktionalitäten und Kaufpräferenzen und berücksichtigt hierbei kulturelle Unterschiede. Dabei bestätigte sich die Wichtigkeit mehrerer Dimensionen des ALMERE-Modells (z. B. wahrgenommene Freude, Nützlichkeit und Vertrauenswürdigkeit). Die Akzeptanz korreliert stark mit der Investitionsbereitschaft. Viele ältere Personen betrachten soziale Roboter als „assistierende technische Geräte“ und erwarten, dass diese von Versicherungen und der öffentlichen Hand bezuschusst werden. Um ihren zukünftigen Einsatz zu erleichtern, sollten soziale Roboter in die Datenbanken medizinischer Hilfsmittel integriert werden.
The transition from college to university can have a variety of psychological effects on students who need to cope with daily obligations by themselves in a new setting, which can result in loneliness and social isolation. Mobile technology, specifically mental health apps (MHapps), have been seen as promising solutions to assist university students who are facing these problems, however, there is little evidence around this topic. My research investigates how a mobile app can be designed to reduce social isolation and loneliness among university students. The Noneliness app is being developed to this end; it aims to create social opportunities through a quest-based gamified system in a secure and collaborative network of local users. Initial evaluations with the target audience provided evidence on how an app should be designed for this purpose. These results are presented and how they helped me to plan the further steps to reach my research goals. The paper is presented at MobileHCI 2020 Doctoral Consortium.
Loneliness, an emotional distress caused by the lack of meaningful social connections, has been increasingly affecting university students who need to deal with everyday situations in a new setting, especially those who have come from abroad. Currently there is little work on digital solutions to reduce loneliness. Therefore, this work describes the general design considerations for mobile apps in this context and outlines a potential solution. The mobile app Noneliness is used to this end: it aims to reduce loneliness by creating social opportunities through a quest-based gamified system in a secure and collaborative network of local users. The results of initial evaluations with the target audience are described. The results informed a user interface redesign as well as a review of the features and the gamification principles adopted.
This paper describes a comparative study of two tactile systems supporting navigation for persons with little or no visual and auditory perception. The efficacy of a tactile head-mounted device (HMD) was compared to that of a wearable device, a tactile belt. A study with twenty participants showed that the participants took significantly less time to complete a course when navigating with the HMD, as compared to the belt.
A Gamified and Adaptive Learning System for Neurodivergent Workers in Electronic Assembling Tasks
(2020)
Learning and work-oriented assistive systems are often designed to fit the workflow of neurotypical workers. Neurodivergent workers and individuals with learning disabilities often present cognitive and sensorimotor characteristics that are better accommodated with personalized learning and working processes. Therefore, we designed an adaptive learning system that combines an augmented interaction space with user-sensitive virtual assistance to support step-by-step guidance for neurodivergent workers in electronic assembling tasks. Gamified learning elements were also included in the interface to provide self-motivation and praise whenever users progress in their learning and work achievements.
Wow, You Are Terrible at This!: An Intercultural Study on Virtual Agents Giving Mixed Feedback
(2020)
While the effects of virtual agents in terms of likeability, uncanniness, etc. are well explored, it is unclear how their appearance and the feedback they give affects people's reactions. Is critical feedback from an agent embodied as a mouse or a robot taken less serious than from a human agent? In an intercultural study with 120 participants from Germany and the US, participants had to find hidden objects in a game and received feedback on their performance by virtual agents with different appearances. As some levels were designed to be unsolvable, critical feedback was unavoidable. We hypothesized that feedback would be taken more serious, the more human the agent looked. Also, we expected the subjects from the US to react more sensitively to criticism. Surprisingly, our results showed that the agents' appearance did not significantly change the participants' perception. Also, while we found highly significant differences in inspirational and motivational effects as well as in perceived task load between the two cultures, the reactions to criticism were contrary to expectations based on established cultural models. This work improves our understanding on how affective virtual agents are to be designed, both with respect to culture and to dialogue strategies.
Tactile Navigation with Checkpoints as Progress Indicators?: Only when Walking Longer Straight Paths
(2020)
Persons with both vision and hearing impairments have to rely primarily on tactile feedback, which is frequently used in assistive devices. We explore the use of checkpoints as a way to give them feedback during navigation tasks. Particularly, we investigate how checkpoints can impact performance and user experience. We hypothesized that individuals receiving checkpoint feedback would take less time and perceive the navigation experience as superior to those who did not receive such feedback. Our contribution is two-fold: a detailed report on the implementation of a smart wearable with tactile feedback (1), and a user study analyzing its effects (2). The results show that in contrast to our assumptions, individuals took considerably more time to complete routes with checkpoints. Also, they perceived navigating with checkpoints as inferior to navigating without checkpoints. While the quantitative data leave little room for doubt, the qualitative data open new aspects: when walking straight and not being "overwhelmed" by various forms of feedback in succession, several participants actually appreciated the checkpoint feedback.
Deafblindness, also known as dual sensory loss, is the combination of sight and hearing impairments of such extent that it becomes difficult for one sense to compensate for the other. Communication issues are a key concern for the Deafblind community. We present the design and technical implementation of the Tactile Board: a mobile Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device for individuals with deafblindness. The Tactile Board allows text and speech to be translated into vibrotactile signs that are displayed real-time to the user via a haptic wearable. Our aim is to facilitate communication for the deafblind community, creating opportunities for these individuals to initiate and engage in social interactions with other people without the direct need of an intervener.
Deafblindness, a form of dual sensory impairment, signifcantly impacts communication, access to information and mobility. Inde- pendent navigation and wayfnding are main challenges faced by individuals living with combined hearing and visual impairments. We developed a haptic wearable that provides sensory substitution and navigational cues for users with deafblindness by conveying vibrotactile signals onto the body. Vibrotactile signals on the waist area convey directional and proximity information collected via a fisheye camera attached to the garment, while semantic informa- tion is provided with a tapping system on the shoulders. A playful scenario called “Keep Your Distance” was designed to test the navigation system: individuals with deafblindness were “secret agents” that needed to follow a “suspect”, but they should keep an opti- mal distance of 1.5 meters from the other person to win the game. Preliminary fndings suggest that individuals with deafblindness enjoyed the experience and were generally able to follow the directional cues.
Interaction and capturing information from the surrounding is dominated by vision and hearing. Haptics on the other side, widens the bandwidth and could also replace senses (sense switching) for impaired. Haptic technologies are often limited to point-wise actuation. Here, we show that actuation in two-dimensional matrices instead creates a richer input. We describe the construction of a full-body garment for haptic communication with a distributed actuating network. The garment is divided into attachable-detachable panels or add-ons that each can carry a two dimensional matrix of actuating haptic elements. Each panel adds to an enhanced sensoric capability of the human- garment system so that together a 720° system is formed. The spatial separation of the panels on different body locations supports semantic and theme-wise separation of conversations conveyed by haptics. It also achieves directional faithfulness, which is maintaining any directional information about a distal stimulus in the haptic input.
Nowadays, the wide majority of Europeans uses smartphones. However, touch displays are still not accessible by everyone. Individuals with deafblindness, for example, often face difculties in accessing vision-based touchscreens. Moreover, they typically have few fnancial resources which increases the need for customizable, low-cost assistive devices. In this work-in-progress, we present four prototypes made from low-cost, every-day materials, that make modern pattern lock mechanisms more accessible to individuals with vision impairments or even with deafblindness. Two out of four prototypes turned out to be functional tactile overlays for accessing digital 4-by-4 grids that are regularly used to encode dynamic dot patterns. In future work, we will conduct a user study investigating whether these two prototypes can make dot-based pattern lock mechanisms more accessible for individuals with visual impairments or deafblindness.
Co-Designing Assistive Tools to Support Social Interactions by Individuals Living with Deafblindness
(2020)
Deafblindness is a dual sensory impairment that affects many aspects of life, including mobility, access to information, communication, and social interactions. Furthermore, individuals living with deafblindness are under a high risk of social isolation. Therefore, we identified opportunities for applying assistive tools to support social interactions through co-ideation activities with members of the deafblind community. This work presents our co-design approach, lessons learned and directions for designing meaningful assistive tools for dual sensory loss.
Well-designed and informative product presentations can support consumers in making purchase decisions. There are plenty of facts and details about a product of interest. However, also emotions are an important aspect for the purchase decision. The unique visualization opportunities of virtual reality (VR) can give users of VR applications the feeling of being there (telepresence). The applications can intensely engage them in a flow experience, comprising the four dimensions of enjoyment, curiosity, focused attention and control. In this work, we claim that VR product presentations can create subjective product experiences for consumers and motivate them to reuse this innovative type of product presentation in the future, by immersing them in a virtual world and causing them to interact with it. To verify the conceptual model a study was conducted with 551 participants who explored a VR hotel application. The results indicate that VR product presentations evoke positive emotions among consumers. The virtual experience made potential customers focus their attention on the virtual world and aroused their curiosity about getting more information about the product in an enjoyable way. In contrast to the theoretical assumption, control did not influence the users’ behavioral intentions to reuse VR product presentation. We conclude that VR product presentations create a feeling of telepresence, which leads to a flow experience that contributes to the behavioral intention of users to reuse VR product presentations in the future.
Robots and automata are key elements of every vision and forecast of life in the near and distant future. However, robots and automata also have a long history, which reaches back into antiquity. Today most historians think that one of the key roles of robots and automata was to amaze or even terrify the audience: They were designed to express something mythical, magical, and not explainable. Moreover, the visions of robots and their envisioned fields of application reflect the different societies. Therefore, this short history of robotics and (especially) anthropomorphic automata aims to give an overview of several historical periods and their perspective on the topic. In a second step, this work aims to encourage readers to reflect on the recent discussion about fields of application as well as the role of robotics today and in the future.
Top-level staff prefers to live in urban areas with perfect social infrastructure. This is a common problem for excellent companies (“hidden champions”) in rural areas: even if they can provide the services qualified applicants appreciate for daily living, they fail to attract them because important facts are not presented sufficiently in social media or on the corporate website. This is especially true for applicants with families. The contribution of this paper is four-fold: we provide an overview of the current state of online recruiting activities of hidden champions (1). Based on this corpus, we describe the applicant service gap for company information in rural communes (2). A study on user experience (UX) identifies the applicants’ wishes and needs, focusing on a family-oriented information system on living conditions in rural areas (3). Finally, we present the results of an online survey on the value of such information systems with more than 200 participants (4).
What emotional effects does gamification have on users who work or learn with repetitive tasks? In this work, we use biosignals to analyze these affective effects of gamification. After a brief discussion of related work, we describe the implementation of an assistive system augmenting work by projecting elements for guidance and gamification. We also show how this system can be extended to analyse users' emotions. In a user study, we analyse both biosignals (facial expressions and electrodermal activity), and regular performance measures (error rate and task completion time).
For the performance measures, the results confirm known effects like increased speed and slightly increased error rate. In addition, the analysis of the biosignals provides strong evidence for two major affective effects: the gamification of work and learning tasks incites highly significantly more positive emotions and increases emotionality altogether. The results add to the design of assistive systems, which are aware of the physical as well as the affective context.
Soziale Roboter unterscheiden sich von Servicerobotern, da sie auch komplexere Interaktionen und Kommunikation beherrschen. Einige können Emotionen simulieren oder sogar erkennen. Einsatzbereiche gibt es viele: vom Haushalt über die Pflege bis in den medizinischen Bereich. Wo liegen die Grenzen der aktuellen Systeme? Wie müssen soziale Roboter aussehen und interagieren, um als nützliche Helfer statt als Konkurrenten wahrgenommen zu werden? Dieser Artikel gibt einen kurzen Überblick bestehender sozialer Roboter. Er beleuchtet deren Akzeptanz im wichtigen Bereich Gesundheit und Pflege anhand der Ergebnisse einer Expertenstudie und gibt eine zeitliche Perspektive zur weiteren Entwicklung.
We present the design of a system combining augmented reality (AR) and gamification to support elderly persons’ rehabilitation activities. The system is attached to the waist; it collects detailed movement data and at the same time augments the user’s path by projections. The projected AR-elements can provide location-based information or incite movement games. The collected data can be observed by therapists. Based on this data, the challenge level can be more frequently adapted, keeping up the patient’s motivation. The exercises can involve cognitive elements (for mild cognitive impairments), physiological elements (rehabilitation), or both. The overall vision is an individualized and gamified therapy. Thus, the system also offers application scenarios beyond rehabilitation in sports. In accordance with the methodology of design thinking, we present a first specification and a design vision based on inputs from business experts, gerontologists, physiologists, psychologists, game designers, cognitive scientists and computer scientists.