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ispartof: pages:1-17 ispartof: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems pages:1-17 ispartof: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22) location:New Orleans, LA, USA date:30 Apr - 5 May 2022 status: published

Physical activity (PA) positively impacts the quality of life of older adults, with technology as a promising factor in maintaining motivation. Within Computer Science and Engineering, research investigates how to track PA of older adults for various purposes. We present a systematic review of 204 papers and discuss wearable tracking systems according to their purpose, technological context, and target audience, as well as design and evaluation processes with particular attention to the meaningful involvement of older adults. Our results show that most systems focus on supervising older adults in the context of disease and frailty management. Only few systems focus on supporting older adults by promoting rehabilitation and respecting agency of older adults via self-monitoring PA, or encouraging PA to maintain healthy levels of activity. Moreover, systems are often narrowly limited to walking, although older adults may enjoy a broader range of activities. Likewise, the involvement of older adults in design processes is scarce, and their experience with a given technology is rarely considered relevant for evaluation. In sum, we contribute an overview of wearable technology for tracking older adults’ PA, contextualize our findings within recommendations provided by Sports and Rehabilitation Science, and illustrate opportunities for future work.

BACKGROUND Emotions and mood are important for overall well-being. Therefore, the search for continuous, effortless emotion prediction methods is an important field of study. Mobile sensing provides a promising tool and can capture one of the most telling signs of emotion: language. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to examine the separate and combined predictive value of mobile-sensed language data sources for detecting both momentary emotional experience as well as global individual differences in emotional traits and depression. METHODS In a 2-week experience sampling method study, we collected self-reported emotion ratings and voice recordings 10 times a day, continuous keyboard activity, and trait depression severity. We correlated state and trait emotions and depression and language, distinguishing between speech content (spoken words), speech form (voice acoustics), writing content (written words), and writing form (typing dynamics). We also investigated how well these features predicted state and trait emotions using cross-validation to select features and a hold-out set for validation. RESULTS Overall, the reported emotions and mobile-sensed language demonstrated weak correlations. The most significant correlations were found between speech content and state emotions and between speech form and state emotions, ranging up to 0.25. Speech content provided the best predictions for state emotions. None of the trait emotion–language correlations remained significant after correction. Among the emotions studied, valence and happiness displayed the most significant correlations and the highest predictive performance. CONCLUSIONS Although using mobile-sensed language as an emotion marker shows some promise, correlations and predictive R2 values are low.

Breastfeeding brings benefits for newborns and parents, but can be a challenging process. In this paper, we leverage a mixed-methods approach that builds on the Integrated Behavioural Model (IBM) to explore parents' perspectives toward breastfeeding along with their lived experiences, and examine the role of technology in this setting. Results of twelve semi-structured interviews and 175 online survey responses suggest generally positive attitudes toward breastfeeding and good theoretical knowledge. This is combined with a complex lived experience of breastfeeding where main challenges are situated in practical, emotional, and environmental/societal aspects, which are currently not sufficiently recognised by technology that seeks to support breastfeeding. Building upon our findings, we present points for reflection for the design of technology to support breastfeeding, focusing on the importance of drawing from the lived experience of parents, and ensuring that technology not only casts breastfeeding as an individual but also as a collective effort. ispartof: pages:1-13 ispartof: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems pages:1-13 ispartof: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems location:Yokohama, Japan date:8 May - 13 May 2021 status: published

Technology use in antenatal education is often basic and inadequately presents the emotional and practical challenges of breastfeeding. This work presents Virtual Feed, a Virtual Reality interactive breastfeeding simulation designed with parents and health care professionals to convey key aspects of breastfeeding and to explore the potential and limitation of interactive technology in eliciting intimacy in parent-child space.

BACKGROUND Glaucoma, the silent thief of sight, is a major cause of blindness worldwide. It is a burden for people in low-income countries, specifically countries where glaucoma-induced blindness accounts for 15% of the total incidence of blindness. More than half the people living with glaucoma in low-income countries are unaware of the disease until it progresses to an advanced stage, resulting in permanent visual impairment. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the acceptability of the Glaucoma Easy Screener (GES), a low-cost and portable visual field screening platform comprising a smartphone, a stereoscopic virtual reality headset, and a gaming joystick. METHODS A mixed methods study that included 24 eye care professionals from 4 hospitals in Southwest Ethiopia was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of GES. A pre-post design was used to collect perspectives before and after using the GES by using questionnaires and semistructured interviews. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to determine the significance of any change in the scores of the questionnaire items (two-tailed, 95% CI; α=.05). The questionnaire and interview questions were guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. RESULTS Positive results were obtained both before and after use, suggesting the acceptance of mobile health solutions for conducting glaucoma screening by using a low-cost headset with a smartphone and a game controller. There was a significant increase (two-tailed, 95% CI; α=.05) in the average scores of 86% (19/22) of postuse questionnaire items compared with those of preuse questionnaire items. Ophthalmic professionals perceived GES as easy to use and as a tool that enabled the conduct of glaucoma screening tests, especially during outreach to rural areas. However, positive evaluations are contingent on the accuracy of the tool. Moreover, ophthalmologists voiced the need to limit the tool to screening only (ie, not for making diagnoses). CONCLUSIONS This study supports the feasibility of using a mobile device in combination with a low-cost virtual reality headset and classic controller for glaucoma screening in rural areas. GES has the potential to reduce the burden of irreversible blindness caused by glaucoma. However, further assessment of its sensitivity and specificity is required. CLINICALTRIAL

Amongst the various characteristics of a speech signal, the expression of emotion is one of the characteristics that exhibits the slowest temporal dynamics. Hence, a performant speech emotion recognition (SER) system requires a predictive model that is capable of learning sufficiently long temporal dependencies in the analysed speech signal. Therefore, in this work, we propose a novel end-to-end neural network architecture based on the concept of dilated causal convolution with context stacking. Firstly, the proposed model consists only of parallelisable layers and is hence suitable for parallel processing, while avoiding the inherent lack of parallelisability occurring with recurrent neural network (RNN) layers. Secondly, the design of a dedicated dilated causal convolution block allows the model to have a receptive field as large as the input sequence length, while maintaining a reasonably low computational cost. Thirdly, by introducing a context stacking structure, the proposed model is capable of exploiting long-term temporal dependencies hence providing an alternative to the use of RNN layers. We evaluate the proposed model in SER regression and classification tasks and provide a comparison with a state-of-the-art end-to-end SER model. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model requires only 1/3 of the number of model parameters used in the state-of-the-art model, while also significantly improving SER performance. Further experiments are reported to understand the impact of using various types of input representations (i.e. raw audio samples vs log mel-spectrograms) and to illustrate the benefits of an end-to-end approach over the use of hand-crafted audio features. Moreover, we show that the proposed model can efficiently learn intermediate embeddings preserving speech emotion information. ispartof: Eurasip Journal On Audio Speech And Music Processing vol:2021 issue:1 pages:1-16 ispartof: location:Germany status: published

Chronic arthritis (CA) represents a group of musculoskeletal diseases that require frequent physical therapy and a well-monitored medication regime to improve or maintain disease status. To support patients in this disease management, health apps may provide a solution. However, patients with CA differ in their disease trajectory, needs and preferences. There-fore, in this paper, we investigate the tailoring of motivational mHealth features for the heterogeneous group of patients with CA. An exploratory study was carried out, consisting of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 34 patients with CA and six health professionals. Through qualitative analysis, we first derive a typology distinguishing patients of the Defeatist, Worrier, Warrior and Cruiser type. Each type is characterized by their own disease management needs and coping strategies. Next, we unveil how each patient type has different preferred motivational strategies. These findings may inform healthcare informatics researchers who wish to tailor mHealth applications and interventions to the diversity of patients characterized by musculoskeletal diseases and chronic pain. keywords: Musculoskeletal system;Pain;Medical treatment;Arthritis;Trajectory;Informatics;Interviews;Chronic arthritis;mHealth;personalization;tai-loring;motivational design;patient profiles ispartof: pages:1-12 ispartof: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI) pages:1-12 ispartof: IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI) location:Oldenburg, Germany date:30 Nov - 3 Dec 2020 status: Published online

Game interaction and gameplay are usually rapid, putting the player under pressure. Here, we explore calm game interaction as a concept that rejects the idea of rushing the player, and emphasizes thought-through, accurate and relaxed player interaction. We present Shadventures, a two-player exploration game that uses shadows of one player's hands in combination with keyboard input from the second player to provide a calming player experience.

Sailing Skweezee is a game that explores squeeze interaction in virtual reality. Squeezing a soft controller stuffed with conductive wool steers a virtual boat through a course on water. The game is played with an Oculus Rift headset and is developed in Unity. An open source Skweezee library for Unity implements the squeeze interaction. Sailing Skweezee is found to deliver an immersive experience, aligning subtle physical manipulations of soft material with a floating experience of sailing on a virtual sea.

In recent years there has been major growth in the use of gamification in education. It can be utilized to develop assignments or learning environments. Lots of studies have already proven the positive impact of introducing such tools to students. This paper examines how gamification techniques can be used in the electrical engineering course. It describes the developed tool, future opportunities and possible extensions. The CLR: Current Surf is a nice illustration of combining visualizations with game elements to create highly motivating learning environments. It provides students with a choice of a way of exploring new material: active learning by interacting with a visualization tool, which helps to simulate the altering of circuit's components values, or learning new concepts while passing levels in the gamified environment. Future steps of the project will include the evaluation and gathering students' feedback.

Despite an abundance of literature on health behavior, behavior change, and motivational psychology, it is not always clear for health app designers how to translate these theoretical models and constructs into actionable, motivational app features. To bridge the gap between theories and features, we crafted a dyad of lenses. The lens of features offers designers a description at the implementation level. The lens of theories presents an accessible explanation of the health theory. Essential is that each lens offers cross-links: the lens of features links to the different theoretical concepts that ground the feature. The lens of theories cross-links to the different features that operationalize the theory or construct. The dyadic lenses are accessible via an online platform. In this paper, we first present the development of the dyadic lenses, i.e. the selection of the features and mapping to psychological theories. Next, we present an evaluation of the dyadic lenses by 52 aspirant app designers. Results suggest that the platform facilitates the selection and implementation of motivational features in mHealth applications. By making the platform publicly available (www.lensesof motivationaldesign.com), we aim to provide actionable advice for app creators, and to allow them to integrate motivational features while retaining how these are grounded in theory.

Squeeze interaction, defined as squeezing a soft object that affects computed feedback, is a promising interaction technique due to its expressive character. Skweezee for Processing is a Processing library that allows makers to im- plement squeeze interactions in a lightweight manner. The library offers a set of features based on data extraction al- gorithms and aims to preserve the dynamics of squeezes in the mapping from user action to system output. Distribut- ing Skweezee for Processing as an open source library, we invite the community to further investigate the potential of squeeze interactions and to contribute to the extension and improvement of the library. We emphasize the potential for rich squeeze interaction by demonstrating a game that implements squeeze interaction as core mechanic. Addi- tionally, we demonstrate the ease of implementing squeeze interactions in a variety of settings using the Skweezee for Processing library. ISBN 978-1450370684 (Paperback) ispartof: pages:375-381 ispartof: TEI '19: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction pages:375-381 ispartof: TEI '19: 13th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction location:Tempe, AZ, USA date:17 Mar - 20 Mar 2019 status: Published online

Breastfeeding is widely promoted due to its health benefits for infants, but breastfeeding rates in many industrialised countries are low, and some mothers struggle to establish a positive feeding relationship with their child. We draw from breastfeeding research along with a qualitative enquiry into the lived experiences of breastfeeding mothers to outline an agenda for the design of playful technology to support healthy infant feeding. We describe how games can (and cannot) be leveraged to support the feeding journey and normalize breastfeeding, while respecting individual feeding choices, targeting mothers, partners, and wider society, laying out an agenda for future research.

The Phonoloco technology allows to repurpose a set of regular smartphones into a system that allows for playful interactions. The most important feature of the proposed system is the use of the front-facing camera and a pattern on the ceiling in order to sense the position of each device lying on a flat surface at centimeter precision. This way each smartphone becomes a digital manipulative that can be displaced by the player. The details of the technology will be revealed and an overview of possible interactions will be given. Two games were developed and tested with preschoolers, illustrating the feasibility of the system.

In a participatory design process, patients as well as care providers play a critical role in the design and development of healthcare apps. However, special attention should be given to problematic group dynamics that may arise from unequal power across participants. In this paper, we present Turning Tables, a focus group method, inspired by social interdependence theory (SIT), to mitigate asymmetric power. First, we present our SIT-inspired protocol for conducting focus groups. Next, via a qualitative analysis of 2 focus groups, we describe group dynamics and evaluate our method. Observations show that by splitting teams into patients versus care providers, and by specifying turn-taking (giving the floor to patients first), unequal power can be mitigated. However, observations also show that participants default back into their traditional roles during less formalized moments.

Excessive uninterrupted sitting, also known as sedentary behavior, has been detrimentally associated with several health outcomes. However, the general population is often unaware of these health risks. Mobile phone technology offers great potential to increase awareness and to initiate behavior change. This study examined the short-term effects of stAPP, a smartphone-based intervention, on prolonged sitting behavior. Fifty-eight participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (IG, n = 31) or a control group (CG, n = 27). After 1 week of baseline assessment, the IG received stAPP (i.e. smartphone, smartphone app and corresponding motion sensor) and used it during the following week. CG participants were monitored during 2 weeks without receiving stAPP. Total daily sitting time and prolonged sitting bouts (>30 min bouts of sitting) were objectively assessed using activPAL3 inclinometers. Although no significant changes emerged in the CG in any of the sitting parameters, total sitting time (on weekdays; p = 0.032), number of prolonged sitting bouts (>30 min of sitting) [both on week- (p < 0.001) and weekend days (p = 0.008)] and average duration of prolonged sitting bouts [both on week- (p = 0.004) and weekend days (p = 0.029)] decreased significantly in the IG. The stAPP smartphone-based intervention constitutes a promising intervention tool to interrupt and reduce prolonged sitting behavior. Further long-term studies on a larger scale are needed to further explore the effectiveness of a smartphone-based intervention aimed at reducing prolonged sitting behavior.

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic arthritis (CA) ideally apply self-management behaviors between consultations. This enduring, tedious task of keeping track of disease-related parameters, adhering to medication schemes, and engaging in physical therapy may be supported by using a mobile health (mHealth) app. However, further research is needed to determine which self-management features are valued most by adult patients with CA patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the preference of features for an mHealth app to support self-management behavior in patients with CA. In addition, we aimed to explore the motives behind these ratings. METHODS: A mixed-methods approach was used to gather information from 31 adult patients (14 females), aged 23 to 71 years (mean 51 [SD 12.16]), with CA. Structured interviews were conducted to gather data pertaining to preferences of app features. Interviews were analyzed qualitatively, whereas ratings for each of the 28 features studied were analyzed quantitatively. RESULTS: In general, patients with CA favored the use of features pertaining to supporting active and direct disease management, (eg, medication intake and detecting and alarming of bad posture), helping them to keep a close watch on their disease status and inform their health care professional (eg, providing a means to log and report disease-related data) and receiving personalized information (eg, offering tailored information based on the patient's health data). Patients strongly disliked features that provide a means of social interaction or provide incentivization for disease-related actions (eg, being able to compare yourself with other patients, cooperating toward a common goal, and receiving encouragement from friends and/or family). Driving these evaluations is the finding that every patient with CA hurts in his/her own way, the way the disease unfolds over time and manifests itself in the patient and social environment is different for every patient, and patients with CA are well aware of this. CONCLUSIONS: We have offered an insight into how patients with CA favor mHealth features for self-management apps. The results of this research can inform the design and development of prospective self-management apps for patients with CA. ispartof: JMIR mHealth and uHealth vol:7 issue:3 ispartof: location:Canada status: Published online

With the rise in smartphones, many mobile health apps are released that are not grounded in theory [1]. Several theories that catalog persuasive and/or behavior change principles exist, however these theories are not adapted for mHealth apps. The principles or techniques cataloged in these theories are described and often interpreted in an additive deterministic manner, more use of techniques means more persuasiveness, which is in stark contrast with how these techniques should be interpreted. In this paper we present 26 lenses for motivational design of mHealth apps and an online tool to assess the motivational capability of mobile health applications. This online tool allows designers to be inspired and researchers to code the presence of 26 motivational principles. Next, it provides tailored feedback regarding underlying psychological drivers that empower the user in his or her actions.

We present an evaluation of a DIY-toolkit, designed to empower caregivers to create tailor-made, unique assistive solutions for their clients. More specifically, the toolkit aims to enable occupational therapists to turn everyday soft objects into smart devices that can be programmed to recognize certain manipulations. These smart objects can then be used to control applications or to play certain games. Our evaluation reveals that occupational therapists were able to make use of the toolkit without the aid of a technical expert. The therapists hacked everyday objects such as cushions, socks, cuddly toys and repurposed them for therapy. They computationally augmented them and tailored them to clients' needs and desires. From our evaluation, we also derive five guidelines that can inform others when creating DIY-toolkits for assistive technology. ispartof: pages:387-394 ispartof: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction pages:387-394 ispartof: International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction location:Stanford, CA, USA date:15 Jan - 19 Jan 2015 status: published

DIESEL-X is a computer game that was developed to detect a high risk for developing dyslexia in preschoolers. The game includes three mini-games that test the player on three skills that are considered to yield outcome measures that predict the onset of dyslexia: the detection threshold of frequency modulated tones, a test on phonological awareness in which the player has to identify words that have the same phonetic ending, and a test on letter knowledge. In order to keep the motivation of the player high during testing, these tests are embedded in a computer game. We discuss the participatory design process that was adopted to design and develop the game, the rationale behind the design decisions, and we describe the resulting games.

Skweezees are soft objects filled with conductive padding, which are capable of detecting different squeeze gestures using electrodes dispersed all over the object. This paper presents a case-study on the design and development of a tangible product based on the Skweezee system, namely a cushion remote. Squeeze-based gestures for soft user interfaces have rarely been explored. Therefore, we have worked on establishing squeeze-based gestures for a soft cushion interface for controlling a television, by means of a user-centered approach. The user study has brought out appropriate gestures for controlling a cushion remote. A prototype was designed using these gestures. The end result is a cushion remote that uses the Skweezee system and a gesture set for a Skweezee-based cushion remote control. ispartof: pages:409-419 ispartof: ICoRD 15 vol:35 pages:409-419 ispartof: International Conference on Research into Design location:Bangalore date:7 Jan - 9 Jan 2015 status: accepted

In this paper we describe the design, development and testing of two computer games using Sifteo Cubes that help children to train their visual perspective taking (VPT) skills, i.e. the ability to see the world from another person's perspective. The challenge was to design an enjoyable and usable game that takes into account the huge variability in the perspective taking skills within the target group (preschoolers at the age of five, and older children with learning disabilities). Sifteo Cubes can be considered as digital or intelligent manipulatives that are often used in instruction. We advocate that these type tangible objects can help children performing VPT related tasks since they allow for actions in the real world that aid their thinking. Pre-test and post-test results revealed a short term learning effect on VPT skills after playing the two games. ispartof: pages:107-113 ispartof: Proceedings of the first ACM SIGCHI annual symposium on Computer-human interaction in play (CHI PLAY '14) pages:107-113 ispartof: ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY) location:Toronto, Canada date:19 Oct - 22 Oct 2014 status: published

Skweezees are soft, deformable objects that recognize their shape deformation. Typically, a Skweezee has a fabric 'skin' and is filled with conductive padding. Several fabric electrodes are dispersed over the shape, and a small electronic circuit measures the resistance between each possible pair of electrodes. As the shape is deformed as a result of a squeeze gesture, the resistance patterns between electrode pairs change. A machine learning algorithm allows to differentiate between the different shape deformations. In addition, user-friendly open source software allows defining and recording squeeze gestures. Consequently, Skweezees enable rich gestural squeeze interaction for the DIY community. In this Skweezee Studio, participants are invited to bring their own plush toy (or another soft object) and to transform it into a Skweezee. Moreover, participants will be introduced to the mechanical, electrical and digital properties of Skweezees and participants will be able to explore and discuss the potential of e-textile, and of soft, tangible and haptic interactions in general.

Often, logging data while playing a game-based health application is of specific interest, not only to the players themselves, but equally to therapists, health counselors, coaches, researchers, etc. Therefore, designing and developing a health game on its own is not enough; one also needs to foresee a health game data management system (DMS). In this paper we present eight requirements for a ‘generic’ health game DMS. We will start by discussing the diversity and similarity between four different health games and their data. After the analysis of the games and data, we will present a final set of requirements that need to be addressed when building a health game DMS: data-centralization, data-synchronization, data integrity, role-based access, accountability, a generic data structure, UI flexibility and development extensibility. We hope that these requirements can inform health game professionals when designing their own DMS.

In this study the perception of the fundamental frequency (F0) of periodic stimuli by cochlear implant users is investigated. A widely used speech processor is the Continuous Interleaved Sampling (CIS) processor, for which the fundamental frequency appears as temporal fluctuations in the envelopes at the output. Three experiments with four users of the LAURA (Registered trade mark of Philips Hearing Implants, now Cochlear Technology Centre Europe) cochlear implant were carried out to examine the influence of the modulation depth of these envelope fluctuations on pitch discrimination. In the first experiment, the subjects were asked to discriminate between two SAM (sinusoidally amplitude modulated) pulse trains on a single electrode channel differing in modulation frequency ( deltaf = 20%). As expected, the results showed a decrease in the performance for smaller modulation depths. Optimal performance was reached for modulation depths between 20% and 99%, depending on subject, electrode channel, and modulation frequency. In the second experiment, the smallest noticeable difference in F0 of synthetic vowels was measured for three algorithms that differed in the obtained modulation depth at the output: the default CIS strategy, the CIS strategy in which the F0 fluctuations in the envelope were removed (FLAT CIS), and a third CIS strategy, which was especially designed to control and increase the depth of these fluctuations (F0 CIS). In general, performance was poorest for the FLAT CIS strategy, where changes in F0 are only apparent as changes of the average amplitude in the channel outputs. This emphasizes the importance of temporal coding of F0 in the speech envelope for pitch perception. No significantly better results were obtained for the F0 CIS strategy compared to the default CIS strategy, although the latter results in envelope modulation depths at which sub-optimal scores were obtained in some cases of the first experiment. This indicates that less modulation is needed if all channels are stimulated with synchronous F0 fluctuations. This hypothesis is confirmed in a third experiment where subjects performed significantly better in a pitch discrimination task with SAM pulse trains, if three channels were stimulated concurrently, as opposed to only one.

The Skweezee System is an easy, flexible and open system for designing and developing squeeze-based, gestural interactions. It consists of Skweezees, which are soft objects, filled with conductive padding, that can be deformed or squeezed by applying pressure. These objects contain a number of electrodes that are dispersed over the shape. The electrodes sense the shape shifting of the conductive filling by measuring the changing resistance between every possible pair of electrodes. In addition, the Skweezee System contains user-friendly software that allows end-users to define and to record their own squeeze gestures. These gestures are distinguished using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. In this paper we introduce the concept and the underlying technology of the Skweezee System and we demonstrate the robustness of the SVM based classifier via two experimental user studies. The results of these studies demonstrate accuracies of 81% (8 gestures, user-defined) to 97% (3 gestures, user-defined), with an accuracy of 90% for 7 pre-defined gestures. ispartof: pages:521-529 ispartof: Proceedings of the 26th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology pages:521-529 ispartof: UIST '13 location:St. Andrews, UK date:8 Oct - 11 Oct 2013 status: published

Over the past decades, preschoolers emerged as frequent and experienced users of new digital media. As this trend continues, it is important for game designers to address the gratifications of this new gaming audience. Unfortunately, existing theoretical frameworks on meaningful gameplay for preschoolers are rare, outdated, or they lack a comprehensive validation. In this paper, we present a User Experience (UX) Laddering study to unveil the gameplay preferences of preschoolers, relying on five-year olds (n=25) as active research participants. The results of this study provide a set of meaningful and useful guidelines for future game designers, directed at this young target group. Copyright 2013 ACM. ispartof: pages:147-156 ispartof: Proceedings of The Interaction Design and Children pages:147-156 ispartof: Interaction Design and Children date:24 Jun - 27 Jun 2013 status: published

The goal of the DYSL-X project is to develop a tool to predict whether a preschooler (5 yrs) shows high risks for developing dyslexia. This tool is a tablet game that incorporates tests to take specific performance measures that allow for this prediction. The game will thus serve as an assessment tool to be used in school psychology services and clinical diagnostic and rehabilitation centers. In order to design the optimal tablet game for preschoolers, during the first phase of the projects several existing games for preschoolers were evaluated in order to derive design guidelines for games targeted at preschoolers. These design guidelines are presented in this paper and next, we show how these guidelines were used to develop the final game of the DYSL-X project.

The GRIP project takes an open innovation approach by multiple design iterations together with multiple experts in a relatively new area for design (work-related stress). The GRIP relaxation space offers employees an adaptive environment inspired by nature that reacts to people's presence and creates a personal environment, varying in size, soundscape and animated light. The environment stimulates paced breathing, meditation and helps employees to become more aware and in control of their personal response to stressors and relaxation. The design has been evaluated by 23 experts with backgrounds in design, research and healthcare. These evaluations resulted in very positive responses regarding the low effort required and the high quality of the relaxation experience provided by the design. The open approach has resulted in a design of the relaxation space that provides a platform for further exploration and innovation within and beyond the domain of work-related stress.

Controlling computer games and other applications with motion-based gestures has become common in the last decade. In this paper we present a method to recognize relatively complex gestures with a simple, fast and yet reliable classifier algorithm. More specifically, the purpose of the classifier is to recognize large gestures, as measured with the accelerometers and gyro sensors present in the Wii remote controller. The classifier is used and tested in the context of a computer game that forces the player to make large movements. The outcomes confirm that only large gestures are recognized correctly, leading to successful play. Therefore, the classifier might be particular useful for designers of exertion games. ispartof: pages:109-112 ispartof: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Fun and Games pages:109-112 ispartof: Fun and Games 2012 location:Toulouse, France date:4 Sep - 6 Sep 2012 status: published

We present the Boneshaker framework, a generic framework developed to facilitate the design of physical therapy games with the Unity 3D engine. The Boneshaker framework lowers the threshold for developing a variety of physical therapy games as it allows both developer and therapist to quickly add input devices and change specific game dynamics/therapy exercises. ispartof: pages:2447-2452 ispartof: Proceedings CHI 2012 pages:2447-2452 ispartof: CHI 2012 location:Austin, USA date:5 Jan - 10 Jan 2012 status: published

In this paper we extend the field of organic user interfaces and introduce the Splash Controller. The main concept of a Splash Controller is that a user interacts with computing technology by manipulation of water in some kind of receptacle. To this end we highlight the possibilities of Splash Controllers, specifically as game controllers. Next, we specify a simple and robust technology for the detection of water. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of a Splash Controller, we additionally present the design and development of one specific Splash Controller prototype.

While reconciling a creative game design process with a complex software engineering process is already a daunting task, serious games add another ingredient to an already volatile mixture: the challenge of crafting an effective learning experience. In order to achieve this strenuous objective, Group T's e-Media Lab and the Centre for User Experience Research, K.U.Leuven, have developed a player-centered, iterative, interdisciplinary and integrated (P-III) framework. This framework has been developed over the course of five years of research on the design and development of serious games. Hence, P-III is built bottom-up, molded and shaped, tested and refined through several research projects [1,9,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. While P-III also prescribes a specific process, in this paper we limit ourselves to highlighting the four pillars of the P-III framework, and their theoretical underpinnings. © 2012 Springer-Verlag. ispartof: pages:82-86 ispartof: SERIOUS GAMES: THE CHALLENGE vol:280 pages:82-86 ispartof: 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Research on Technology, Education and Communication location:BELGIUM, KAHO St Lieven Campus, Ghent date:19 Oct - 21 Oct 2011 status: published

With the advent of computer games involving the movement of the player's whole body or body parts, an opportunity arises to develop games for people with motor disabilities. In this paper we present four minigames developed for people suffering from spasticity and loss of motor control. We thereby focus on the input devices, sensor signal processing and mapping of players' actions on events in the game. In order to adapt the game to the player's motor skills and goals, specific attention should be paid to calibration procedures and adjustable parameters. We illustrate how this can be done and simultaneously, we demonstrate the feasibility for the development of digital games for physical therapy with currently available commercial input devices. ispartof: pages:117-124 ispartof: TEI '11 Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction pages:117-124 ispartof: 5th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction location:Madeira, Portugal date:23 Jan - 26 Jan 2011 status: published

In current cochlear implant systems, the fundamental frequency F0 of a complex sound is encoded by temporal fluctuations in the envelope of the electrical signals presented on the electrodes. In normal hearing, the lower harmonics of a complex sound are resolved, in contrast with a cochlear implant system. In the present study, it is investigated whether "place-coding" of the first harmonic improves the ability of an implantee to discriminate complex sounds with different fundamental frequencies. Therefore, a new filter bank was constructed, for which the first harmonic is always resolved in two adjacent filters, and the balance between both filter outputs is directly related to the frequency of the first harmonic. The new filter bank was compared with a filter bank that is typically used in clinical processors, both with and without the presence of temporal cues in the stimuli. Four users of the LAURA cochlear implant participated in a pitch discrimination task to determine detection thresholds for F0 differences. The results show that these thresholds decrease noticeably for the new filter bank, if no temporal cues are present in the stimuli. If temporal cues are included, the differences between the results for both filter banks become smaller, but a clear advantage is still observed for the new filter bank. This demonstrates the feasibility of using place-coding for the fundamental frequency.

Five post-lingually deafened users of the LAURA cochlear implant were presented with two trains of biphasic pulses applied concurrently to two widely separated channels. They could all discriminate between stimuli where pulses on the two channels were nearly synchronous (inter-channel delay=0.1 ms) and those where there was a longer delay applied to one channel. All showed an asymmetry, being more sensitive when the longer delay was on either the more basal or, depending on the listener, the more apical channel. For four out of the five listeners this asymmetry could be at least partly attributed to one stimulus, with a 0.1-ms delay in either the apical (three listeners) or basal (one listener) channel, sounding markedly different from all other stimuli used in the experiment. Both the overall sensitivity of listeners and the general pattern of results survived the presentation of maskers on intermediate channels, and did not vary markedly with changes in the polarity of the pulses applied to one channel. Although the results varied substantially across listeners, it is concluded that they demonstrate a genuine sensitivity to the relative timing of stimulation applied to discrete populations of auditory nerve fibers.

A new method to code the speech envelope in continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) processors for cochlear implants is proposed. In this enhanced envelope, the rapid adaptation seen in the response of auditory nerves to sound stimuli is incorporated. Two strategies, one using the standard envelope (CIS) and one using the enhanced envelope (EECIS), were tested perceptually with six postlingually deafened users of the LAURA cochlear implant. The tests included identification of stop consonants in three different vowel contexts and monosyllabic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Significant improvements in correct identification scores were observed for stop consonants in intervocalic /a/ context (p = 0.026): average results varied from 46% correct for CIS to 55% for EECIS. This improvement was mainly due to the better transmission of place of articulation. The differences in identification scores for stop consonants in /i/ and /u/ context were not significant. The identification scores for the medial vowels of the CVC words were significantly higher when the EECIS strategy was used: average results increased from 39% correct to 46% correct (p = 0.018). No significant differences were observed between the results for initial and final consonants of the CVC words. The present results demonstrate that the inclusion of the rapid adaptation in the speech processing for cochlear implants can improve speech intelligibility.

Five post‐lingually deafened users of the LAURAflex cochlear implant detected temporal asynchronies between two 400‐ms, 100‐Hz trains of 40‐μs biphasic pulses, applied to two ‘‘target’’ electrode pairs. The pulses in the signal stimulus of each 2IFC trial were delayed by between 0.3 and 4.8 ms on either the basal or apical target, relative to those on the other target. The pulses in the standard stimuli were nearly synchronous, containing a 0.1 ms‐delay to the electrode whose pulses were not delayed in the signal. All listeners performed substantially above chance over a wide range of delays. Four were more sensitive to basal delays than to apical delays; one showed the opposite trend. Presenting a ‘‘masking’’ 1000‐Hz pulse train to electrode(s) between the two targets did not substantially affect the results. This finding, combined with the wide (6–10 mm) separation between the targets suggests that performance was not mediated by neurons responding to both target electrodes. Rather, it is argued that they represent a genuine sensitivity to differences in timing between discrete auditory channels.