Ambient multimodality: towards advancing computer accessibility and assisted living

The aim of this paper is to point out the benefits that can be derived from research advances while implementing concepts such as ambient intelligence and ubiquitous/pervasive computing for promoting universal access in the information society, that is, for contributing to enable everybody, especially people with physical disabilities, to have easy access to all computing resources and information services that the upcoming worldwide information society will soon make available to the general public as well as to expert users. Following definitions of basic concepts relating to multimodal interaction, the significant contribution of multimodality to developing universal access is briefly discussed. Then, a short state of the art in ambient intelligence research is presented, including references to some major research projects either in progress or recently completed. The last section is devoted to bringing out the potential contribution of advances in ambient intelligence research and technology to the improvement of computer access for physically disabled people, hence, to the implementation of universal access. This claim is mainly supported by the following observations: (1) most projects are aiming at implementing ambient intelligence focus research efforts on the design of new interaction modalities and flexible/adaptive multimodal user interfaces; outcomes of these projects may contribute to improving computer access for users with physical disabilities; (2) such projects target applications meant to support users in a wide range of daily activities which will have to be performed simultaneously with the related supporting computing tasks; therefore, users will be placed in situational contexts where they will be confronted with similar difficulties to those encountered by physically disabled users, since they will have to share out their perceptual and motor capabilities between one or several daily activities and the computing tasks meant to support them; (3) ambient intelligence applications being intended for the general public, a wide range of interaction devices supporting a great variety of input and output modalities will be available, making it possible to provide physically disabled users with appropriate human–computer interaction means tailored to their individual needs at a reasonable expense.     

Running focus groups with elderly and disabled elderly participants

This paper is based on a study to determine the information needs of elderly, disabled elderly people, and of their carers, in the UK. Four focus groups were run with a total of 20 participants to identify major themes and aid in the creation of a questionnaire for a national survey. This paper does not describe the findings of the focus groups but reports on the lessons learned from running them, in the light of the increasing importance of such methods. A number of difficulties arose, most associated with age-related declines in sensory, perceptual, cognitive and communication abilities. These difficulties are described, together with the steps that need to be taken to eliminate, or at least ameliorate, them, so that this powerful method of collecting information can be used fruitfully on elderly and disabled elderly people.     

SymbolChat: A flexible picture-based communication platform for users with intellectual disabilities

Persons with intellectual disabilities benefit from participating in the modern information society, especially the World Wide Web, social media and Internet-mediated communication services. Although several computer-based prototypes and commercial systems have been introduced for accessible in-person communication, currently few applications and services exist to support synchronous remote communication for this user group. We introduce SymbolChat, a software platform that supports the creation of multimodal communication applications utilizing picture-based instant messaging. End users and their support personnel can customize the input and output features of the application based on their individual needs and abilities. The interaction is based on touchscreen input and speech output using speech synthesis technology. The SymbolChat platform was developed together with the prospective end users and practitioners in the field of special needs care.We evaluated the prototype application in a field study with nine users with varying degrees of intellectual and other disabilities. The results clearly indicate that the participants were able to express themselves in spontaneous communication using a large-scale picture-based vocabulary (around 2000 symbols) even without prior training in the use of symbols. This finding was supported in the constructive feedback gathered from professionals working in the area. We also successfully applied methodology from other settings, such as child-computer interaction to evaluate interaction in this challenging context.Overall, the results show that social inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities can be improved with customizable communication tools. The implemented communication platform forms a solid basis for further improvements and new communication services. In addition, we found that users with motor impairments would greatly benefit from alternative input and output methods for symbol browsing and selection.     

Information provision for challenging markets: The case of the accessibility requiring market in the context of tourism

The paper investigates the requirements of users with disabilities and the implications that these tourists have for developing accessible tourism information systems. A series of focus groups and interviews revealed the informational needs of people with disabilities, as well as the relevant technical difficulties involved in addressing these needs. The results indicated that the indispensable requirements include the following: (1) the veto or absolutely minimal prerequisites principle; (2) an indication of holistic accessibility paths; and (3) door-to-door access maps. The technical challenges identified focus on interoperability, content integration and personalization. The paper concludes by demonstrating how the tourism industry can overcome these challenges and address disabled travelers’ needs.     

Brain-Computer Interfacing for Intelligent Systems

Advances in cognitive neurosci- ence and brain-imaging technologies give us the unprecedented ability to interface directly with brain activity. These technologies let us monitor the physical processes in the brain that correspond with certain forms of thought. Driven by society's growing recognition of the needs of people with physical disabilities, researchers have begun using these technologies to build brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)communication systems that don't depend on the brain's normal output pathways of peripheral nerves and muscles. In BCIs, users explicitly manipulate their brain activity instead of motor movements to produce signals that control computers or communication devices. This research has extremely high impact, especially for disabled individuals who can't otherwise physically communicate.     

Designing universal access: web-applications for the elderly and disabled

Throughout a person’s life they are likely to experience some degree of impairment. What must be ensured is that these individuals can benefit from the opportunities afforded by technology in the same way as those who are able bodied. With the Internet becoming an increasingly popular medium for organizations to deliver information and services to the public many of these technological benefits are provided through web applications. However, due to possible visual, physical or cognitive impairments, older users and those with disabilities are more likely to experience difficulties. This paper addresses issues relating to usability of web applications for elderly and disabled users and investigates ways in which it can be improved, and whether doing so will affect usability for younger and more able users. Results from experiments undertaken indicated that it was possible to develop a web application for elderly and disabled users without degrading usability for other users.     

The South African Human Language Technology Audit

Human language technology (HLT) has been identified as a priority area by the South African government. However, despite efforts by government and the research and development (R&D) community, South Africa has not yet been able to maximise the opportunities of HLT and create a thriving HLT industry. One of the key challenges is the fact that there is insufficient codified knowledge about the current South African HLT components, their attributes and existing relationships. Hence a technology audit was conducted for the South African HLT landscape, to create a systematic and detailed inventory of the status of the HLT components across the eleven official languages. Based on the Basic Language Resource Kit (BLaRK) framework Krauwer (ELRA Newslett 3(2), 1998), we used various data collection methods (such as focus groups, questionnaires and personal consultations with HLT experts) to gather detailed information. The South African HLT landscape is analysed using a number of complementary approaches and based on the interpretations of the results, recommendations are made on how to accelerate HLT development in South Africa, as well as on how to conduct similar audits in other countries and contexts.     

Extra-Ordinary Human–Machine Interaction: What can be Learned from People with Disabilities?

When specifying, designing and implementing technology for work, it is very important to consider the whole of the potential user group, and not to forget that this might include people with disabilities. Obvious reasons for this are demography, disabled people forming a significant and growing proportion of the workforce, and legal obligations caused by equal opportunities legislation. There are more subtle reasons, however, which link so-called ‘disabled people’ with the rest of the population. The paper notes that most people have some disabilities, sometimes temporarily due to accident, or permanently due to ageing and other processes. In addition it notes that even otherwise fully functioning people can be seriously handicapped by hostile environments, and a parallel is drawn between the human interface needs of disabled people operating in ordinary situations and able-bodied people operating in high workload and stress situations. The paper concludes by suggesting a research agenda for the field on the basis of these considerations.     

Microcomputer‐based geographic information systems

Masdar Technology Ltd is a company that specializes in the applications of microcomputer systems to natural resources development. Earlier this year (1986) the author was commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to undertake a detailed survey of all geographic information systems available for microcomputers. This survey was deemed necessary for two reasons: first because of the proliferation in the number of such systems, owing to the recent dramatic increases in the processing power and storage capacity of microcomputers; and secondly because of the potential importance of these systems to the kind of resources development work undertaken internationally by organizations like FAO. This paper introduces the concept of geographic information systems; discusses those available on microcomputers; and gives an overview of the current state of the market, in relation to the needs of developing countries.     

A parental perspective on apps for young children

Touchscreen applications (apps) for young children have seen increasingly high rates of growth with more than a hundred thousand now available apps. As with other media, parents play a key role in young children’s app selection and use. However, to date, we know very little about how parents select apps for their children. Guided by uses and gratification theory, a survey was conducted with 600 Dutch parents who had at least one child between three and seven years old. Across two studies, we identified parents’ most important needs that drive their selection of children’s apps as well as the extent to which these needs differ by parenting style. Results indicate five overarching parental needs when it comes to children’s apps, and confirm that these needs vary by parenting style. Findings offer important insight into how parents select apps for their children.     

Putting the brain to work: neuroergonomics past, present, and future

OBJECTIVE: The authors describe research and applications in prominent areas of neuroergonomics. BACKGROUND: Because human factors/ergonomics examines behavior and mind at work, it should include the study of brain mechanisms underlying human performance. METHODS: Neuroergonomic studies are reviewed in four areas: workload and vigilance, adaptive automation, neuroengineering, and molecular genetics and individual differences. RESULTS: Neuroimaging studies have helped identify the components of mental workload, workload assessment in complex tasks, and resource depletion in vigilance. Furthermore, real-time neurocognitive assessment of workload can trigger adaptive automation. Neural measures can also drive brain-computer interfaces to provide disabled users new communication channels. Finally, variants of particular genes can be associated with individual differences in specific cognitive functions. CONCLUSIONS: Neuroergonomics shows that considering what makes work possible - the human brain - can enrich understanding of the use of technology by humans and can inform technological design. APPLICATION: Applications of neuroergonomics include the assessment of operator workload and vigilance, implementation of real-time adaptive automation, neuroengineering for people with disabilities, and design of selection and training methods.     

Optimization-based resource allocation in communication networks

The continuously growing number of applications competing for resources in current communication networks highlights the necessity for efficient resource allocation mechanisms to maximize user satisfaction. Optimization Theory can provide the necessary tools to develop such mechanisms that will allocate network resources optimally and fairly among users. The aim of this paper is to provide a starting point for researchers interested in applying optimization techniques in the resource allocation problem for current communication networks. To achieve that we, first, describe the fundamental optimization theory tools necessary to design optimal resource allocation algorithms. Then, we describe the Network Utility Maximization (NUM) framework, a framework that has already found numerous applications in network optimization, along with some recent advancements of the initial NUM framework. Finally, we summarize some of our recent work in the area and discuss some of the remaining research challenges towards the development of a complete optimization-based resource allocation protocol.     

Seeing and Being Seen: The Effects on Gesture Production

Speakers are argued to adapt their language production to their addressee's needs. For instance, speakers produce fewer and smaller hand gestures when interlocutors cannot see each other. Yet is this because speakers know their addressee cannot see them, or because they themselves do not see their addressee? By means of computer‐mediated communication we manipulated these factors independently. We found that speakers took into account what their addressee saw. They produced more and larger gestures when they knew the addressee could see them. Seeing the addressee increased gesture production only if speakers could readily interpret the addressee's eye gaze, which is not usually the case in mediated interaction. Adding this affordance resulted in gesturing being similar in mediated and unmediated communication.     

A survey on approaches to gridification

The Grid shows itself as a globally distributed computing environment, in which hardware and software resources are virtualized to transparently provide applications with vast capabilities. Just like the electrical power grid, the Grid aims at offering a powerful yet easy‐to‐use computing infrastructure to which applications can be easily ‘plugged’ and efficiently executed. Unfortunately, it is still very difficult to Grid‐enable applications, since current tools force users to take into account many details when adapting applications to run on the Grid. In this paper, we survey some of the recent efforts in providing tools for easy gridification of applications and propose several taxonomies to identify approaches followed in the materialization of such tools. We conclude this paper by describing common features among the proposed approaches, and by pointing out open issues and future directions in the research and development of gridification methods. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Software assurance practices for mobile applications

Mobile software applications have to cope with a particular environment that involves small size, limited resources, high autonomy requirements, competitive business models and many other challenges. To provide development guidelines that respond to these needs, several practices have been introduced; however, it is not clear how these guidelines may contribute to solve the issues present in the mobile domain. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of the mobile ecosystem challenges many of the premises upon which the proposed practices were designed. In this paper, we present a survey of the literature on software assurance practices for mobile applications, with the objective of describing them and assessing their contribution and success. We identified, organized and reviewed a body of research that spans in three levels: software development processes, software product assurance practices, and software implementation practices. By carrying out this literature survey, we reviewed the different approaches that researchers on Software Engineering have provided to address the needs that raise in the mobile software development arena. Moreover, we review the evolution of these practices, identifying how the constant changes and modernization of the mobile execution environment has impacted the methods proposed in the literature. Finally, we introduced discussion on the application of these practices in a real productive setting, opening an area for further research that may determine if practitioners have followed the proposed assurance paradigms.     

Towards a practical framework for managing the risks of selecting technology to support independent living

Information and communication technology applications can help increase the independence and quality of life of older people, or people with disabilities who live in their own homes. A risk management framework is proposed to assist in selecting applications that match the needs and wishes of particular individuals. Risk comprises two components: the likelihood of the occurrence of harm and the consequences of that harm. In the home, the social and psychological harms are as important as the physical ones. The importance of the harm (e.g., injury) is conditioned by its consequences (e.g., distress, costly medical treatment). We identify six generic types of harm (including dependency, loneliness, fear and debt) and four generic consequences (including distress and loss of confidence in ability to live independently). The resultant client-centred framework offers a systematic basis for selecting and evaluating technology for independent living.     

Internet accessibility: beyond disability

The Web accessibility movement originated in the activities of people with disabilities and their advocates. Most specifically, blind people led the way to opening the benefits of the Internet to disabled citizens. In the United States, the effort to achieve this goal gained momentum when Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act came into effect in 2001. Section 508 requires all federal government purchases of electronic and information technology products to meet accessibility standards. Today, the Internet is largely accessible to blind computer users, providing access to research materials, online shopping for nearly every imaginable product, a variety of entertainment options, career and professional sites, and other resources too. Accessibility guidelines offer a baseline for interoperability that goes beyond the needs of disabled people.     

Imhotep: an approach to user and device conscious mobile applications

As the dependence on mobile devices increases, the need for supporting a wider range of users and devices becomes crucial. Elders and people with disabilities adopt new technologies reluctantly, a tendency caused by the lack of adaptation of these technologies to their needs. To address this challenge, this paper describes a framework, Imhotep, whose aim is to aid developers in the accessible application creation process, making the creation of user-centered applications easier and faster. Our framework allows to easily adapt the applications to the constraints imposed by the user capabilities (sensorial, cognitive, and physical capabilities) and device capabilities by providing a repository that will manage the compilation and deployment of applications that include a set of preprocessor directives in the source code. These directives are enhanced with concepts that are automatically adjusted to the current trends of mobile devices by using a Fuzzy Knowledge-Eliciting Reasoner. Our final goal is to increase the number of applications targeted to elders and people with disabilities providing tools that facilitate their development. The paper also describes the evaluation of both the accuracy of the fuzzy terms generated for mobile devices and the usability of the proposed platform.     

An Analysis of Public Clouds Elasticity in the Execution of Scientific Applications: a Survey

Elasticity can be seen as the ability of a system to increase or decrease the computing resources allocated in a dynamic and on demand way. It is an important feature provided by cloud computing, that has been widely used in web applications and is also gaining attention in the scientific community. Considering the possibilities of using elasticity in this context, a question arises: “Are the available public cloud solutions suitable to provide elasticity to scientific applications?” To answer the question, in a first moment we present a survey on the use of cloud computing in scientific scenarios, providing an overview of the subject. Next, we describe the elasticity mechanisms offered by major public cloud providers and analyzes the limitations of the solutions in providing elasticity for scientific applications. As the main contribution of the article, we also present an analysis over some initiatives that are being developed to overcome the current challenges. In our opinion, current computational clouds are developing rapidly but have not yet reached the necessary maturity level to meet all scientific applications elasticity requirements. We expect that in the coming years the efforts being taken by numerous researchers in this area identify and address these challenges and lead to better and more mature technologies that will improve cloud computing practices.