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Abundant HCI research exists on the many assistive technologies that provide help with everyday physical and cognitive tasks. However, while a purely assistive approach often casts aging people in passive roles, recent studies suggest that adults may be 'flourishing' way into advanced age, even though implicit ageist prejudices are difficult to eradicate. Negative age-related stereotypes are the hidden and yet urgent issue we address in this study. There is a clear opportunity for an anti-ageist perspective in HCI, an approach that we propose as complementary to assistive technologies: in addition to providing solutions for the aging population, we urgently call for designs about aging, to spark a conversation on age, raise awareness and ultimately contrast ageist stereotypes. We point at empathy as a key element to reconceptualize, at least in part, HCI's contribution to research on aging. We present a design critique of two interactive pieces that, although not without flaws, suggest how future empathy-raising artifacts might be. Our analysis combines pragmatist aesthetics, interaction criticism and ludology, and yields four design tactics (recurring configurations of significant elements) that are generative in bringing about broader design implications towards a different, empathy-based concept of aging in HCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into user engagement with assisted living technology (ALT) has investigated design issues including usability, functionality and aesthetics; looked at user attitude and acceptance research; and examined social factors including the need to create ALT which appropriately supports the relationship between users and service providers. Based on an empirical case study of older persons' independent living services offered by a large UK housing provider, we propose that there is a further, key dimension of ALT user engagement: social leveraging. We show how user engagement with key ALT including personal pendant alarms, pull cords and intercoms is shaped and supported in important ways by the ongoing social interaction of residents and skilled staff at independent living schemes. We discuss implications of social leveraging for reconsidering the importance of human resource as part of independent living services, during a time of transition to new technological models, and in light of current funding and organizational priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reflect upon the ethical dilemmas faced during our research exploring the potential of Google Glass as a self-care technology for people with Parkinson's. Our project involved two stages of research: an initial study that explored the overall acceptability and responses of people with Parkinson's to the technology; and a follow-up study that examined participants' experiences of the technology in more depth through further trials and a series of co-design activities. While our first trials were successful, leading to publication and subsequent local and national publicity, our follow-up trials were hampered by technical problems that were often out of our control. We highlight how participants' heightened expectations prior to the second trial, as a result of public discourse around the project, were difficult to meet. This led to our participants articulating their frustrations, feelings of lowered self-confidence, and in some cases a reduced sense of self-worth. We reflect on how the decisions and actions taken during the project led to these dilemmas, and how these relate to contemporary challenges in human-computer interaction research where there is increased focus on in the wild studies of technology use and a pressure to publicly disseminate the findings of research. In doing so, we offer an open and honest account of how a set of ethical dilemmas emerged while conducting technology field trials with a potentially vulnerable group, and offer guidance to future researchers finding themselves in similar circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an empirical understanding of concerns that the application of a sensorenhanced medical alert system, or personal emergency response (PER) system, raises from the perspective of care receivers (users) and care providers. Data were gathered in the context of a field trial of a PER system supporting both user-initiated alerts and automatic fall detection alerts. The system was tested at two residential care facilities for 3 weeks. Drawing on data primarily from post-trial group and pair interviews, we describe and compare care receivers' and providers' views on the following emerging concerns: (i) form factor and ergonomics, (ii) system feedback and user control and (iii) sensor precision and trust. Based on feedback from stakeholder groups, we discuss potential value biases, or discriminating factors, embedded in the evaluated PER system. We also discuss the implications of our findings for a value-driven design agenda for future PER systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of age on visuomotor tracking using submental and anterior neck surface electromyography (sEMG) to assess feasibility of computer control via neck musculature, which allows people with little remaining motor function to interact with computers. Thirty-two healthy adults participated: 16 younger adults aged 18-29 years and 16 older adults aged 69-85 years. Participants modulated sEMG to achieve targets presented at different amplitudes using real-time visual feedback. Root mean squared (RMS) error was used to quantify tracking performance. RMS error was increased for older adults relative to younger adults. Older adults demonstrated more RMS error than younger adults as a function of increasing target amplitude. The differential effects of age found on static tracking performance in anterior neck musculature suggest more difficult translation of human--computer interfaces controlled using anterior neck musculature for static tasks to older populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses physiological measurements to estimate human workload and effort in physical human-robot interaction. Ten subjects performed 19 consecutive task periods using the ARMin robot while difficulty was varied along two scales. Three physiological modalities were measured: electroencephalography, autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses (electrocardiography, skin conductance, respiration, skin temperature) and eye tracking. After each task period, reference workload and effort values were collected using the NASA Task Load Index. Machine learning was used to estimate workload and effort from physiological data. All three physiological modalities performed significantly better than random, particularly using nonlinear estimation algorithms. The most important ANS responses were respiration and skin conductance, while the most important electroencephalographic information was obtained from frontal and central sites. However, all three physiological modalities were outperformed by task performance and movement data. This suggests that future studies should try to demonstrate advantages of physiological measurements over other information sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose and evaluate a novel audio-haptic map system to improve map accessibility for the visually impaired while reading city maps and making pre-journey routes. The system employs a touch-sensitive pin-matrix display and represents various map elements through a pre-defined set of tactile map symbols consisting of raised and lowered pins. The interactive user interface allows users to not only acquire auditory and Braille geographic information by touching the involved map elements, but also prepare pre-journey routes by exploring large-scale areas through panning and zooming. Furthermore, the positive results of the evaluation conducted with 10 blind users indicate that blind users are able to use the proposed map system to read street maps and make pre-journey routes in unknown areas, with acquired configurational knowledge and route knowledge. Two-thirds of participants prefer swell-paper maps with only two zoom levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous and wireless transmission of vital signs for personalized healthcare is gaining a great deal of interest from Ambient Assisted Living solutions. Personalized healthcare capabilities are limited to the patient data available, which is usually dynamic and incomplete. For that reason, regular monitoring of patients with the aim of offering a suitable analysis of patient evolution is required. Continuous monitoring requires the integration of wireless communication technologies and embedded systems into wearable and portable monitoring systems. In addition, a user interface intuitive is also required, which is easy to use and understand by the patients and caregivers. This work proposes a solution such as Near Field Communication (NFC) for personalized healthcare based on the Internet of Things. NFC is a technology integrated in smart phones that provides capabilities for identification of devices/sensors, and presents ubiquitous communication capabilities between the sensor and the device. NFC also presents challenges in terms of the performance and efficiency of data transmission, due to the constrained resources and capabilities of ubiquitous devices and the latency introduced by the NFC technology. These challenges are intrinsic to NFC since it was originally considered only for simple identification and not for continuous data transmission. In this context, this paper presents a novel monitoring system for continuous data transmission from a set of clinical devices based on NFC which has been optimized in order to make communications feasible. This novel monitoring system is also composed by a set of participatory sensing applications to support caregivers and for patients to self-monitor and self-manage their health status wirelessly. A technical evaluation based on latencies associated with use of NFC for continuous monitoring and an evaluation of usability by a group of elderly users and their caregivers, which studies the interactions between the users and the system, are demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]