Thursday, March 26, 2009
ElderGadget Blog: Useful Tech and Tools
Today I came across the ElderGadget Blog when I was searching for technology that might be helpful to my father, who recently spent the last few weeks in an intensive care unit.
Here are a few things I found on the blog, including what I found when I followed a link to the bindependent website:
Smart Table: A Broadband Communication System for the Elderly
ID Studiolab, Delft University of Technology, NL
"The smart system is aimed to prevent possible social isolation between elderly people and their social contacts. It consists of the Smart Table and the Smart Messenger, which provide easy and intuitive way for elderly people to benefit from the advantage of communication technology and improve the satisfaction of their social activities."
"During the design research, a working prototype is made and evaluated by a user test. The Smart Table offers people a way to use broadband communication without the need for a computer. The television will be used for video communication (web-cam) and the table as user-interface. On the table contact persons can be selected and images and video can be shared. The elderly person can capture images that will be shared instantly. The contact person can select images from his or her computer, which will be projected on the table of the elderly person". (TU Delft - Faculty Industrial Design Engineering - Master Design for Interaction - Project Interactive Technology Design - Vincent Steurs & Juin-Yi Huang)
Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Reader
Photo Watch
Clarity-C900: Amplified Big Button Cell Phone
911 Guardian: "Tiny wearable speakerphone"
Extra Large TV Remote Control
SmartShopper: Electronic grocery-list maker
Bierley's ColorMouse Video Magnifier
RELATED
Live from CES - Dakim's Brain Fitness Keeps Seniors Sharp
Previous post: Ubiquitous Computing - Grandpa and grandkids use a webcam and Skype across the miles
YouTube Vlogger: Geriatric1927
Geriatric Gripes and Grumbles
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
UPDATE: Microsoft's SenseCam Aids Memory Recall
From the
"SenseCam is a wearable digital camera that is designed to take photographs passively, without user intervention, while it is being worn. Unlike a regular digital camera or a cameraphone, SenseCam does not have a viewfinder or a display that can be used to frame photos. Instead, it is fitted with a wide-angle (fish-eye) lens that maximizes its field-of-view. This ensures that nearly everything in the wearer’s view is captured by the camera, which is important because a regular wearable camera would likely produce many uninteresting images."
New study proves that Microsoft's sensory innovation aids memory recall
Technology Review Article
Images from Microsoft Research:
SenseCam Videos
Research and Publications
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Link to article: Demonstrating the Feasibility of Using Forearm Electromyography for Muscle-Computer Interfaces
I couldn't resist posting a link to an interesting article, Demonstrating the Feasibility of Using Forearm Electromyography for Muscle-Computer Interfaces, that was shared at the recent CHI 2008 conference in Florence, Italy.
- CHI 2008, April 5–10, 2008, Florence, Italy.
Copyright 2008 ACM 978-1-60558-011-1/08/04
About the Authors:
Desney Tan, a researcher at Microsoft, is one of the article's authors. Tan is known for his research with large screen displays, and also for his work with emerging forms of human/computer/technology interaction. T. Scott Saponas is a fourth-year Ph.D student at the University of Washington and was recently selected as a 2008 Microsoft Research Fellow. Ravin Balakrishnan is an associate professor at of computer science at the University of Toronto. (Balakrishnan was the co-author of Exploring the feasibility of video mail for illiterate users. Proceedings of AVI 2008 - the Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces.)
Back Story:
I came across this article while preparing slides for a presentation during a pre-conference session at the Games for Health conference in May. I'll be discussing usability and accessibility considerations for children's games for health in K-12 settings, from a UDL (Universal Design for Learning) perspective. UDL is closely related to the concepts of Universal Design and Universal Usability(pdf).
A muscle-computer interface might provide some creative ways to include students with special needs many more opportunities to participate with their "non-disabled" peers, especially in inclusive classrooms.
Traditional assistive technology input devices don't quite make it for some of the students, as many are difficult for teachers, therapists, or parents to program. The purpose behind the devices is to allow one student to access applications- or games- on one computer (or console). In many cases, the devices only work on certain applications or websites. Even if the student CAN access the application, game, or website through an assistive device, the application might not be designed to accommodate the special needs, or accommodate alternate modes of input, interaction, or feedback.
Although assistive technology and augmented communication devices used in education setting allows for some peer-to-peer and student-to-staff-to-student interaction, it is not designed for collaborative technologies, including multi-user learning games and applications, such as EduSim, that usually run on on larger displays and interactive whiteboards, found an increasing number of classrooms.
The muCI interface might prove to be an effective way for children, teens, and adults with special needs to interact with kiosks and interactive information displays that they come across in the community. These displays are becoming ubiquitous in in retail environments, museums, airports, hospitals, and other public spaces. If the applications for displays in public spaces are designed to allow for input from something like the muCI interface, and if future versions of the muCI interface are designed for cross-platform interoperability, the chances of effective community integration for people with special needs of all ages will be vastly improved.
We have a long way to go. It is essential that the teams who participate in this type of research include people from a variety of disciplines and examine this space from a broader perspective.
