Exploring the Potential of Full Body and Hand Gesture Teleoperation of Robots Inside Heterogeneous Human-Robot Teams

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 2008-2012
Author(s):  
Seng Lee Koh ◽  
Kevin Pfeil ◽  
Joseph J. LaViola
Keyword(s):  
User Study ◽  
Spatial Interaction ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Interaction Interface ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Game Console ◽  
Quantitative Performance ◽  
Multiple Robot ◽  
Robot Configurations

We present a within-subjects user study to compare robot teleoperation schemes based on traditional PC and game console input hardware, to a 3D spatial interaction interface. The goal of the study is to explore whether 3D spatial gestures can be an effective teleoperation scheme for multiple robot configurations in a heterogeneous Human-Robot Team (HRT). Our research explores the user’s performance and disposition towards each teleoperation scheme so as to study their preferences regarding the efficacy of gesture-based teleoperation. Our results indicate that despite little training and lack of exposure on using 3D spatial interaction schemes to control robots, users are able to complete a complex task with the robot team with no statistically significant difference in quantitative performance. Qualitative statistics are analyzed and a discussion of user preferences is provided.

scholarly journals Incorporating Behavioral Trigger Messages Into a Mobile Health App for Chronic Disease Management: Randomized Clinical Feasibility Trial in Diabetes

10.2196/15927 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e15927
Author(s):  
Scott Sittig ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Sriram Iyengar ◽  
Sahiti Myneni ◽  
Amy Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Disease Management ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Chronic Disease Management ◽  
Text Messages ◽  
Feasibility Trial ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
The Impact

Background Although there is a rise in the use of mobile health (mHealth) tools to support chronic disease management, evidence derived from theory-driven design is lacking. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the impact of an mHealth app that incorporated theory-driven trigger messages. These messages took different forms following the Fogg behavior model (FBM) and targeted self-efficacy, knowledge, and self-care. We assess the feasibility of our app in modifying these behaviors in a pilot study involving individuals with diabetes. Methods The pilot randomized unblinded study comprised two cohorts recruited as employees from within a health care system. In total, 20 patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited for the study and a within-subjects design was utilized. Each participant interacted with an app called capABILITY. capABILITY and its affiliated trigger (text) messages integrate components from social cognitive theory (SCT), FBM, and persuasive technology into the interactive health communications framework. In this within-subjects design, participants interacted with the capABILITY app and received (or did not receive) text messages in alternative blocks. The capABILITY app alone was the control condition along with trigger messages including spark and facilitator messages. A repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare adherence with behavioral measures and engagement with the mobile app across conditions. A paired sample t test was utilized on each health outcome to determine changes related to capABILITY intervention, as well as participants’ classified usage of capABILITY. Results Pre- and postintervention results indicated statistical significance on 3 of the 7 health survey measures (general diet: P=.03; exercise: P=.005; and blood glucose: P=.02). When only analyzing the high and midusers (n=14) of capABILITY, we found a statistically significant difference in both self-efficacy (P=.008) and exercise (P=.01). Although the ANOVA did not reveal any statistically significant differences across groups, there is a trend among spark conditions to respond more quickly (ie, shorter log-in lag) following the receipt of the message. Conclusions Our theory-driven mHealth app appears to be a feasible means of improving self-efficacy and health-related behaviors. Although our sample size is too small to draw conclusions about the differential impact of specific forms of trigger messages, our findings suggest that spark triggers may have the ability to cue engagement in mobile tools. This was demonstrated with the increased use of capABILITY at the beginning and conclusion of the study depending on spark timing. Our results suggest that theory-driven personalization of mobile tools is a viable form of intervention. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04132089; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT004122089

Sexuality Education Intervention for Parents of Children With Disabilities: A Pilot Training Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Clatos ◽  
Matthew Asare
Keyword(s):  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
Sexual Communication ◽  
Pilot Training ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Education Intervention ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Paired Samples ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Within Subjects

The purpose of the study is to evaluate pilot sexuality education intervention for parents of children with disabilities between ages between 6 and 25 years old. A within subjects design was utilized and 15 parents of children with disabilities were recruited to receive a two-week sexuality education without a control group. A paired-samples t-test results showed that there was a significant difference between the participants’ pre-test and post intervention scores in their attitude and beliefs, sexual communication, knowledge, and self-efficacy of sexuality education among children with disabilities (all p<.001). The intervention change the participants sexual communication behavior and increased knowledge about sexuality education among parents of children with disabilities.

scholarly journals Performance, Movement, Posture, and Perceived Discomfort in Active vs. Static Seating

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 1154-1158
Author(s):  
Jeremy D. Faulk ◽  
Cameron C. McKee ◽  
Heather Bazille ◽  
Michael Brigham ◽  
Jasmine Daniel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Trunk Movement ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Static Conditions

Active seating designs may enable users to move more frequently, thereby decreasing physiological risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle. In this preliminary study, two active seating designs (QOR360, Ariel; QOR360, Newton) were compared to a static chair (Herman Miller, Aeron) to understand how active vs. static seating may affect task performance, movement, posture, and perceived discomfort. This within-subjects experiment involved n = 11 student participants who sat upon each of the three chairs for 20 minutes while performing a series of computer-based tasks. Participants showed increased trunk movement while also reporting higher levels of perceived discomfort in the two active chair conditions. There was no significant difference in either posture or fine motor task performance between the active and static conditions. Future research may benefit from additional physiological measurements along with a wider variety of tasks that require seated users to make postural adjustments.

Consolidation of Usability Problems With Novice Evaluators Re-Examined in Individual vs. Collaborative Settings

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 525-538
Author(s):  
Rebekka Hoffmann ◽  
Anna Helga Jónsdóttir ◽  
Ebba Thora Hvannberg
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Group Decision ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
Accuracy Rate ◽  
Consolidation Process ◽  
Positive Group ◽  
Usability Problems ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Within Subjects

Abstract Usability testing can involve multiple users and evaluators. In such cases, consolidating usability problems (UPs) constitutes an essential part of data analysis. In a between-subjects design, this study aims to re-examine a previous study by comparing the results of novice evaluators merging UPs individually vs. collaboratively and to assess the quality of the final UP lists, by computing the merging rate and the accuracy rate, respectively. Law and Hvannberg compared the results of evaluators merging UPs individually vs. collaboratively in a within-subjects design, revealing a tendency towards merging UPs in collaborative settings. In the present study, 45 novice evaluators consolidated four UP lists into a single UP master list while working alone or with a partner. The results showed no significant difference between evaluators in the two settings, suggesting that the UP consolidation process does not benefit from positive group decision effects.

scholarly journals Do direct payments improve outcomes for older people who receive social care? Differences in outcome between people aged 75+ who have a managed personal budget or a direct payment

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 961-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN WOOLHAM ◽  
GUY DALY ◽  
TIM SPARKS ◽  
KATRINA RITTERS ◽  
NICOLE STEILS
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Postal Questionnaire ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Direct Payment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Direct Payments

ABSTRACTDirect payments – cash for people eligible for adult social care and spent by them on care and support – are claimed to enable care to better reflect user preferences and goals which improve outcomes. This paper compares outcomes of older direct payment users and those receiving care via a managed personal budget (where the budget is spent on the recipients behalf by a third party). The study adopted a retrospective, comparative design using a postal questionnaire in three English councils with adult social care responsibilities in 2012–13. Included in the study were 1,341 budget users aged 75+, living in ordinary community settings. The overall response rate was 27.1 per cent (339 respondents). Three validated scales measured outcomes: EQ-5D-3L (health status), the Sheldon–Cohen Perceived Stress Scale and the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (social care-related quality of life). The study found that direct payment users appreciated the control conferred by budget ownership, but in practice, for many it did not ‘translate’ into improved living arrangements. It also found no statistically significant difference in outcomes between direct payment and managed personal budget users. The paper argues that despite policy and other guidance and research evidence about effective implementation of direct payments for older people, the absence of evidence for better outcomes may at least in part be attributable to values underpinning policies relating to personalisation and personal budgets.

scholarly journals On the effective visualisation of dynamic attribute cascades

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Archambault ◽  
Helen C. Purchase
Keyword(s):  
User Study ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Social Media Analysis ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Link Diagrams ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Different Types ◽  
History Of ◽  
Presentation Methods

Cascades appear in many applications, including biological graphs and social media analysis. In a cascade, a dynamic attribute propagates through a graph, following its edges. We present the results of a formal user study that tests the effectiveness of different types of cascade visualisations on node-link diagrams for the task of judging cascade spread. Overall, we found that a small multiples presentation was significantly faster than animation with no significant difference in terms of error rate. Participants generally preferred animation over small multiples and a hierarchical layout to a force-directed layout. Considering each presentation method separately, when comparing force-directed layouts to hierarchical layouts, hierarchical layouts were found to be significantly faster for both presentation methods and significantly more accurate for animation. Representing the history of the cascade had no significant effect. Thus, for our task, this experiment supports the use of a small multiples interface with hierarchically drawn graphs for the visualisation of cascades. This work is important because without these empirical results, designers of dynamic multivariate visualisations (in many applications) would base their design decisions on intuition with little empirical support as to whether these decisions enhance usability.

scholarly journals Enchanted by Your Surrounding? Measuring the Effects of Immersion and Design of Virtual Environments on Decision-Making

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Oberdörfer ◽  
David Heidrich ◽  
Sandra Birnstiel ◽  
Marc Erich Latoschik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Visual Angle ◽  
User Study ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
Positive And Negative Affect ◽  
Gambling Task ◽  
Common Goal ◽  
Significant Difference

Impaired decision-making leads to the inability to distinguish between advantageous and disadvantageous choices. The impairment of a person’s decision-making is a common goal of gambling games. Given the recent trend of gambling using immersive Virtual Reality it is crucial to investigate the effects of both immersion and the virtual environment (VE) on decision-making. In a novel user study, we measured decision-making using three virtual versions of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The versions differed with regard to the degree of immersion and design of the virtual environment. While emotions affect decision-making, we further measured the positive and negative affect of participants. A higher visual angle on a stimulus leads to an increased emotional response. Thus, we kept the visual angle on the Iowa Gambling Task the same between our conditions. Our results revealed no significant impact of immersion or the VE on the IGT. We further found no significant difference between the conditions with regard to positive and negative affect. This suggests that neither the medium used nor the design of the VE causes an impairment of decision-making. However, in combination with a recent study, we provide first evidence that a higher visual angle on the IGT leads to an effect of impairment.

scholarly journals Measuring Learnability through Virtual Reality Laboratory Application: A User Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10812
Author(s):  
Ghazala Rasheed ◽  
Muzafar Khan ◽  
Noman Malik ◽  
Adnan Akhunzada
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
User Study ◽  
Virtual Laboratory ◽  
Control Group ◽  
School Students ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Virtual Laboratories ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Experimental Group

The cutting-edge technology of virtual reality has changed almost every aspect of life in e-commerce, engineering, medicine, and entertainment. This technology has also made its way to the field of education in the form of virtual laboratories. A lack of student engagement and interest towards STEM subjects is reported in the literature. Several studies have been conducted to evaluate virtual reality in education, but these studies are limited in terms of participants and subject coverage. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of virtual laboratories to develop student’s practical learning skills for secondary school physics. For this purpose, a desktop-based virtual laboratory application was developed based on the guidelines extracted from the literature. A user study was adopted as the main research method, and it was conducted with 184 students of 4 different schools. In each school, students were divided into two groups: experimental (used the virtual laboratory application) and control (used a physical laboratory). The data were collected through an academic quiz conducted at the end of the study. The mean score of the experimental group was 7.16, compared with 5.87 for the control group. The results revealed that the students’ learning using the virtual laboratory application was better compared with the control group. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the performance of boys and girls in both groups. The usability questionnaire was also completed by 92 students of the experimental group to assess the application interface. The mean score was 73.5 (above average) with an internal consistency of 0.76. The participants found the virtual laboratory application to be user-friendly, easy to use, and supportive in learning.

scholarly journals Perceived user preferences and usability evaluation of mainstream wearable devices for health monitoring

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxi Jia ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Dong Wen ◽  
Lizhong Liang ◽  
Li Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Health Monitoring ◽  
Usability Evaluation ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
User Preference ◽  
Heart Health ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Fitness Tracking ◽  
Fitness Trackers

Background There are many problems with fitness trackers, such as device usability, which limit their large-scale application, and relevant studies are limited in terms of their sample size and evaluation methods. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the perceived usability of various mainstream fitness trackers on the market, and to learn about user feedback on feature preferences for each device. Methods Trial use of seven mainstream fitness trackers (two smart watches and five smart wristbands) followed by a survey study were applied. The questionnaire was specifically developed for this study, which included two parts (user preferences and device usability in five dimensions). We recruited users to test the devices for at least 30 days and asked experienced users to provide feedback in order to evaluate each device, including the rating and user preference of each device. Results We received 388 valid questionnaires, in which users rated their responses on a five-point Likert scale. (1) User preference: the average user satisfaction was 3.50–3.86 (points), and the rating for willingness to buy averaged between 3.36 and 3.59. More users were willing to wear (58.3–81.3%) and purchase (56.8–83.0%) the devices than were not. The top three general feature preferences were daily activity tracking, heart health monitoring, and professional fitness tracking. The top three health-related feature preferences were heart rate monitoring, daily pedometer, and professional fitness tracking. (2) Usability evaluation: product design was rated from 3.57 to 4.00; durability, 3.63–4.26; ease of use, 3.70–3.90; added features, 3.30–3.83; and user-rated accuracy, 3.44–3.78. A significant difference was observed in the rating of product design and durability among the different devices (p < 0.05) score. Conclusions Users generally had positive subjective intent regarding fitness trackers but were less satisfied with their cost effectiveness. The users preferred health related features such as heart health monitoring, and professional fitness tracking. The rating of most of the current mainstream fitness trackers was fair with some significant differences among the devices. Thus, further improvement is needed.

scholarly journals Intuitiveness of geospatial uncertainty visualizations: a user study on point symbols

Geografie ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Brus ◽  
Michal Kučera ◽  
Stanislav Popelka
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
User Study ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
User Testing ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Point Symbol ◽  
User Centered

Be understanding of uncertainty, or the difference between a real geographic phenomenon and the user’s understanding of that phenomenon, is essential for those who work with spatial data. From this perspective, map symbols can be used as a tool for providing information about the level of uncertainty. Nevertheless, communicating uncertainty to the user in this way can be a challenging task. Be main aim of the paper is to propose intuitive symbols to represent uncertainty. Bis goal is achieved by user testing of specially compiled point symbol sets. Emphasis is given to the intuitiveness and easy interpretation of proposed symbols. Symbols are part of a user-centered eye-tracking experiment designed to evaluate the suitability of the proposed solutions. Eye-tracking data is analyzed to determine the subject’s performance in reading the map symbols. Be analyses include the evaluation of observed parameters, user preferences, and cognitive metrics. Based on these, the most appropriate methods for designing point symbols are recommended and discussed.

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