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Object selection is a fundamental and primary task in any Virtual Environment (VE). However, object selection in dense VEs presents challenges of inaccurate selection, higher error rates and increased task completion times. The challenges are further amplified when target objects are small as nail size, occluded and located at different distances from users. In this paper, we present a two-stage elicitation study for object selection in 4 dense VEs (2x2 selection conditions: the selection of near vs distant objects; with or without occlusion) in a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) based Virtual Reality (VR) platform. In study 1, we identified the most natural and intuitive gestures through a user-generated gesture study. In total, 737 gestures and 23, 29, 26 and 36 unique gestures were collected from 40 participants for mentioned VEs. We calculated an overall score to elucidate further a total of 3, 2, 3 and 3 gestures. In study 2, a new group of 33 participants rated these gestures on ease of performance, gesture appropriateness, body-part suitability and ranked them for user preferences and effort. Finally, we elucidate them to present one gesture each for each VE based on the results obtained from the study 2. We present and discuss the findings of preferences of upper body gestures, a strong emphasis on the confirmation, bringing targets within hands reach and non-occluded, accuracy over effort, scale manipulation of the VE and influence and adoption of WIMP and touch interfaces.A total of 40 non-paid participants (27 males, 13 females) from the age group of 18-35 (Mean= 25.42, SD= 4.07) were chosen for the study. The participants were university students. As Plaumann et al. [32] showed a strong influence of handedness, we recruited only right-handed participants for the study. All participants had prior experience in using HMD-VR platforms (e.g. Oculus Rift and/or HTC Vive). Their experiences included a minimum of 10 hours of playing games or watching movies or combined in the last six months. They were also familiar with gestural interfaces due to prior experience in using a Nintendo Wii remote or Microsoft Kinect for at least 10 hours in the last six months.

Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) based Virtual Reality (VR) has shown promising results in training and education. We present ATOM, an HMD-VR interface to educate students about atoms, atomic structures and historical research experiments conducted in understanding atomic structures. ATOM is designed to complement the classroom learning for grade 9 students through an interactive and practice-based learning experience. Preliminary evaluation with 10 students revealed higher interest, increase engagement and playfulness. The students also pointed out a few difficult user interactions.

In immersive VR environments, object selection is an essential interaction. However, current object selection techniques suffer from issues of hand jitter, accuracy, and fatigue, especially to select nail-size objects. Here, we present locked dwell time-based point and tap, a novel object selection technique designed for nail-size object selection in a dense virtual environment. The objects are within arm’s reach. We also compare locked dwell time-based point and tap with magnetic grasp, pinch and raycasting. 40 participants evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of these techniques. The results found that locked dwell time-based point and tap took significantly less task completion time and error rate. It was also the most preferred and caused least effort among all the techniques. We also measured easy to use, easy to learn and perceived naturalness of the techniques.

The Asian CHI symposium 2021 is the joint event organized by the researchers and practitioners in Asia. The symposium aims to bring together young and senior researchers from the academics and industries in one forum to exchange ideas and foster social network in the field of HCI. The symposium showcases the latest HCI work from Asia and those focusing on incorporating Asian sociocultural factors in their design and implementation. In addition to circulating ideas and envisioning future research in human-computer interaction, this symposium aims to foster social networks among academics (researchers and students) and practitioners and grow a research community from Asia.

Students with visual impairment and blindness learn 3D shapes using physical models, which pose portability issues and high associated costs. Although tactile and kinesthetic feedback systems have been proposed for non-visual exploration of 3D virtual objects, such systems tend to suffer from similar shortcomings. In this research, we propose TMOVE, a low-cost handheld tactile feedback actuator to provide tactile, vibrotactile, and combined feedback for the exploration of virtual space. We conducted a preliminary study with 10 blindfolded sighted participants to compare the perceived 3D experience and the effectiveness of using the feedback modalities in the exploration of two coplanar virtual line segments. We found that all the feedback modalities are equally effective in the exploration of virtual space, and multimodal feedback offers an enhanced 3D perception of virtual objects. We believe the findings presented in this paper will be helpful for designers and researchers in developing low-cost tactile feedback systems.

Reading and drawing geometric shapes are challenging tasks for visually impaired and blind users. The development of a human-centered design solution to address these issues and simulate the techniques of tactile drawing requires a detailed understanding of the process. The objective of this study is to understand the method of reading compound shapes and drawing primitive shapes (triangle and rectangle) to help design digital drawing tool. We conducted a direct observational study of tactile reading and drawing tasks along with semi-structured interviews of 10 visually impaired and blind students. We analyzed the data through affinity analysis and identified a set of validation strategies for drawing and shape identification techniques for reading used by the participants for error prevention and recovery. We present the findings in detail and discuss them in this paper. We believe that the findings will help designers, developers, and researchers to design technology-based interventions for non-visual drawing.

Proxy gestures have proven to be a powerful tool and widely used for desktop and smartphone based user interactions. However, regarding its use for virtual travel in Virtual environments (VEs), specific limitation arises concerning the gestures naturalness, intuitiveness and the fatigue involved while performing the gesture in the real space. The proxy gestures must be natural, demand less effort and have the ability to move long virtual distances without colliding with the real-world boundaries. In this paper, we present a gesture elicitation study to find the most natural and intuitive body-gestures for the virtual travel task in three different VEs in a sitting position. This paper discusses our two experiments. In experiment 1, we extract the most natural and intuitive gesture by asking participants to perform gestures for virtual travel in three different VEs including selection and manipulation of objects in different difficulty levels. This is followed by the experiment 2, where a new group of 40 participants evaluated the extracted gestures based on appropriateness, ease of use of the gesture, effort and user preference. We identified the leaning gesture suitable for the virtual travel task in VE1 and VE3 and the pointing gesture suitable for the VE2. We discuss the results and qualitative findings of both experiments in this paper.

The landscape orientation of smartphone offers a better aspect ratio and extensive view for watching media and photography. However, it presents challenges of occlusion, reachability, and frequent re-gripping in one-handed interactions. To address these issues we took the opportunity of deformation gestures to interact with future flexible smartphones. A preliminary survey was conducted to understand one-handed landscape mode usage patterns. Then, the 1st study was conducted to identify 3 most preferred one-handed landscape mode grips. In the 2nd study, we gathered unique user-defined deformation gestures to identify the set of most natural and intuitive gestures corresponding to each grip. We also found 3 gestures that can be performed in more than one grip. Finally, we discuss the influence of the grips on performing gestures.

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are the essential link to healthy communities for Indian households. We present insights and findings of two focus group studies conducted with 16 ASHAs and 8 ASHA trainers across two health centers in Assam, India. We conducted two focus group studies to investigate challenges and opportunity areas in current health worker training ecosystem. Our objective was to identify insights that formulate design directions in order to develop technology solutions to train ASHAs effectively. We found challenges of poor training schedules, outdated information, inadequate contextual knowledge and field-based challenges, poor accessibility, and portability of the training material and low-confidence in communicating sensitive health information. We propose the need for technology intervention that supports practice-based learning, methods of role-playing and use of cultural songs and dance to increase engagement. We also propose the use of peer learning and sharing among ASHAs to increase adoption and acceptance.

Community Health Workers (CHWs), specially Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) play a significant role in improving healthcare services in developing countries like India. Although ASHAs are key-actors influencing rural health care, they are inefficiently trained. This leads to sub-optimal knowledge and skill sets, hence poor information delivery among community members. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of Pragati, a mobile-based Head Mounted Display (HMD) enabled Virtual Reality (VR) interface for training ASHAs. A user study conducted among 19 users revealed significant learnability and self-efficacy post-Pragati usage. Further, we conducted a between-group study among 57 CHWs to assess effects of 3 platforms (i) Pragati, (ii) mobile phone-based traditional videos and (iii) mobile phone-based 360-degree video on measures of learnability, self-efficacy, engagement, and presence. The results showed no impact of the platform for learnability and self-efficacy, whereas a significant increase in engagement and presence was observed for Pragati.

Cerebral Palsy is a permanent movement and posture related disorder. It happens by birth so generally physiotherapy starts at a very early age. So many of the patients are kids. Treatment involves a lot of physiotherapy which further includes varied exercise with different equipment. These equipment lags engagement and for kids it becomes very important. From many physiotherapy we have chosen fine motor skill development, precisely improving hand rotation. Solution targets the kids and uses light and sound feedback to enhance their engagement. This solution also helps in eye hand coordination and color concept. Further evaluation was done with some kids at a NGO and results came to be positive. Kids showed interest in playing with the board. Though no statistical analysis could be done as every individual is different and have different severity of diseases so analysis was difficult.

ICT interventions are proved as some of the effective means of driving changes in rural areas socially, as it ensures equal access for less privileged groups. This time ICT is used for management of a disease called PCOS. PCOS is a disease that occurs in girls. It is rapidly gaining considerable proportions and needs an effective method for its mitigation. We conducted study aimed to understand the level of awareness and concern, young adolescent girls have towards their body and observed their interactions with the social environment in this regard. This paper describes their common behavioral pattern based on the qualitative user study conducted among fifteen people including twelve adolescent girls, two doctors (gynecologists) and one Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) member. This paper further proposes 'SheHealthy', a serious game aimed to generate awareness and educate young adolescent girls among all strata of society towards healthy living and precautions to evict possibilities of encountering PCOS in future.

With gestural interfaces becoming increasingly popular across multiple platforms and devices, there is a need to investigate suitable gestural inputs, its effectiveness and acceptance of such interaction techniques. In this paper, we present a study conducted to investigate four suitable gestural input methods (i) Grabbing (ii) Pointing (iii) Hand motion in 2D plane and (iv) Body movement in 3D space for menu selection, their performance and acceptance for gesture-controlled user interfaces using a game "Treasure Hunt". Study was conducted with two different sets of 20-20 participants in public and private environment. We investigated the gestures from participants for their ranking preferences, social acceptance (user and spectator) and positive-negativeaffect after experiencing each menu selection method. Each selection method was also evaluated for its usability through collecting error rates and task completion time. These parameters were analyzed for exploring trends within and between environments. We observed that Grabbing was most preferred for both public and private environment, however it took significantly higher time to complete the task. Pointing and Hand Motion in 2D Plane found most errors in both environments. Higher social acceptance was found in public environment than private environment. We also present subjective analysis and discuss them in detail.

While most of the educational systems for challenged learners have been inspired and adopted from developed regions, a little work has been done in implementing such systems for intellectually and developmentally challenged (IDC) children in developing regions. We conducted a study at a special school in North-eastern region of India to understand the needs and problems of these children and their caregivers. Some of the critical findings include the ineffectiveness of the existing teaching methods and the mental exhaustion of teachers while addressing the challenges faced by these children. In this paper, we present CoinBeam, a physical learning system based on tangible interactions which helps these children to learn the concepts of currency denomination splitting. The functioning of the CoinBeam is analogous to the working of a typical beam balance that is used to compare weights. The designed prototype was evaluated with four students in the presence of two teachers and one therapist. Our findings suggest that students are highly motivated in adapting to such learning systems that involve their active participation. While this work focuses on a specific use case, our results indicate some intriguing insights about the collaborative, associative and social aspects of these physical learning systems.

We present a study of using embodied health information system for developing regions focusing on users not familiar with technology. We designed and developed a health information system with two gesture-based selection techniques: pointing to a screen and touching one's own body part. We evaluated the prototype in user study with 37 semi-literate and literate participants. Our results indicate a clear preference (76%) for touching in the healthcare domain. Based on our observations and user feedback, we present four design guidelines for developing embodied systems for the developing world: designing body-centric interaction to overcome literacy and technological proficiency barriers, addressing the misconceptions of system behaviors with users not familiar with technology, understanding effects of cultural constraints on interaction, and utilizing interactive virtual avatars to connect with the users.

This paper presents an Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) intervention through a novel audio assisted mobile application, designed for low literate mothers in rural and sub-urban parts of Assam in India. It explores new methods to enhance the usability of ICTs by adopting the per-poor or grassroots level innovation model which facilitates the poor to innovate for themselves through their interpretation of existing technologies. Systematically harvesting grassroots innovation is gaining momentum and attracting ICT interventions due to the increasing availability of low cost personalized mobile phones. Following a user centred design approach, we designed an audio-visual based application for the Nokia 6303. This would impart maternal health care information to low literate mothers and provide them with easier access to government health care facilities. Our research and field work involved 24 participants and investigated new modes of disseminating maternal health care information without disrupting the existing government health care system. We explored usage of Interactive Genetic Algorithms (IGAs) to redefine our layout from scratch and compared two methods of representing graphics- metaphorical icons and realistic visuals, observing significant preference for the latter. We found that grid based menu icons in small screen interfaces were more adaptable than a list based menu. To consolidate and validate the design proposed by us, we qualitatively tested a high fidelity prototype with 8 fresh participants. Our findings provide a possible systematic set of considerations that can be taken prior to realizing per-poor innovation in future ICT4Ds.

In this paper, we describe the idea of an associated physical object that is used to control the functionalities of a screen based interface (like a website) metaphorically. The focus of this project was to define meaningful metaphors between interactions with a physical object and online digital services. We took dropbox (www.dropbox.com) as a case example for this project. Dropbox offers cloud storage and file synchronization to its client. The exploration was done by studying the features and usage of the web portal and then associating it with possible interactions with the physical object, which in our experiment was an actual box container. We designed a physical box to store data physically and digitally simultaneously. The box also has provisions to share this data with public or private groups. The project outcome is a functional prototype capable of executing basic functionalities of the web service by providing simple and intuitive interactions with the box.

Limited access to information, lack of motivation and unawareness of cause, precaution and prevention of Tuberculosis (TB) are some of the leading causes for in-adherence towards TB therapy. We present key findings and insights through a contextual enquiry conducted with patients and healthcare workers, in order to develop new Information Communication Technology (ICT) interventions for empowerment of TB patients in rural parts of Assam. We also propose Parichaya, a low-cost device that helps patients in utilizing their idle time during medication to learn about the disease and importance of DOTS therapy. The device aims to motivate the patients to adhere to DOTS therapy and to make informed health decisions. Using a basic recording module and push buttons, the system makes use of illustrations with embedded audio in Assamese language to spread awareness through narratives. The device, in the form of a medical kit, replaces the traditional medication blisters for TB patients.

In this paper we present ChemicAble, a Tangible User Interface (TUI) for teaching ionic bonding to students of grade 8 to 10. ChemicAble acts as an exercise tool for students to understand better the concepts of ionic bonding by letting them explore and learn. We discuss the instructional content of the system along with its prototyping details. Usability testing conducted with students has been discussed. The system realizes its aim of learning collaboratively with fun.

This paper introduces AstroGrasp, an educational tangible user interface that aims at facilitating collaborative hands-on learning of basic astronomy concepts of eclipses and the cause of seasons. AstroGrasp allows users to explore the concepts of eclipse and seasons by physically manipulating hemispherical tokens of the Earth and the moon. Leveraging the benefits of physical manipulation and continuous real-time digital feedback, AstroGrasp is aimed at providing an effective, constructive and engaging learning experience.

We introduce a novel concept of a tangible camera to be used as a teaching tool for beginners of videography. The tangible camera can be interfaced with any 3D modeling/animation software with a built in camera tracking application to allow for its direct, real-time manipulation using our tangible camera. This gives the userample scope to explore various camera shots, angles and movements using the physical camera over the virtually modeled scenarios on the 3D platform without having to use a real physical camera which is expensive and not often portable. The tangible camera provides a cost effective, easy to use and portable device to explore various basic concepts of cinematography freely. In this project we explore the possibilities of this concept using 'Autodesk Maya 2014' --an industry standard software used by professionals for 3D modeling and animation. We discuss the need for better interactive ways to teach basic videography, the lack of enough equipment for all the students of the subject due to the high cost of equipment, and how this small device would help in providing an inexpensive yet highly interactive platform for students to grasp the concept of videography in much better way than it is currently done today. We explain how this toolcan help students as a pre-visualization aid to quickly build up rich storyboards that ultimately help them hone their skills of videography.