Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Probabilistic Model and Metrics for Estimating Perceived Accessibility of Desktop Applications in Keystroke-Based Non-Visual Interactions

Perceived accessibility of an application is a subjective measure of how well an individual with a particular disability, skills, and goals experiences the application via assistive technology. This paper first presents a study with 11 blind users to report how they perceive the accessibility of desktop applications while interacting via assistive technology such as screen readers and a keyboard. The study identifies the low navigational complexity of the user interface (UI) elements as the primary contributor to higher perceived accessibility of different applications. Informed by this study, we develop a probabilistic model that accounts for the number of user actions needed to navigate between any two arbitrary UI elements within an application. This model contributes to the area of computational interaction for non-visual interaction. Next, we derive three metrics from this model: complexity, coverage, and reachability, which reveal important statistical characteristics of an application indicative of its perceived accessibility. The proposed metrics are appropriate for comparing similar applications and can be fine-tuned for individual users to cater to their skills and goals. Finally, we present five use cases, demonstrating how blind users, application developers, and accessibility practitioners can benefit from our model and metrics.
Cross-correlation velocity measurement of gas-liquid two-phase flow based on void fraction

Experimental studies are carried out on the cross-correlation velocity measurement of the gas-liquid two-phase flow based on twin-plane electrical resistance tomography.The principle of cross-correlation velocity measurement is analyzed.A cross-correlation velocity measurement method based on void fraction is proposed.The sample data for the void fraction of the upstream and downstream cross-section are increased by interpolation.Taking advantage of the data storage and playback function of the self-developed software system,the cross-correlation velocity measurement method based on void fraction is evaluated.Experiment results show that the cross-correlation velocity measurement method has good stability and high precision.
Memento Player: Shared Multi-Perspective Playback of Volumetrically-Captured Moments in Augmented Reality

Capturing and reliving memories allow us to record, understand and share our past experiences. Currently, the most common approach to revisiting past moments is viewing photos and videos. These 2D media capture past events that reflect a recorder’s first-person perspective. The development of technology for accurately capturing 3D content presents an opportunity for new types of memory reliving, allowing greater immersion without perspective limitations. In this work, we adopt 2D and 3D moment-recording techniques and build a moment-reliving experience in AR that combines both display methods. Specifically, we use AR glasses to record 2D point-of-view (POV) videos, and volumetric capture to reconstruct 3D moments in AR. We allow seamless switching between AR and POV videos to enable immersive moment reliving and viewing of high-resolution details. Users can also navigate to a specific point in time using playback controls. Control is synchronized between multiple users for shared viewing.
Defining Embodied Provenance for Immersive Sensemaking

Immersive analytics research has explored how embodied data representations and interactions can be used to engage users in sensemaking. Prior research has broadly overlooked the potential of immersive space for supporting analytic provenance, the understanding of sensemaking processes through users’ interaction histories. We propose a concept of embodied provenance, the use of three-dimensional space and embodiment in supporting recalling, reproducing, annotating and sharing analysis history in immersive environments. We highlight a set of design criteria for analytic provenance drawn from prior work and propose a conceptual framework for embodied provenance. We develop a prototype system in virtual reality to demonstrate the concept and support the conceptual framework by providing multiple data views and embodied interaction metaphors in a large space. We present a use case scenario of energy consumption analysis, which shows the system’s potential for assisting analytic provenance using embodiment.
Social Virtual Reality Is My Therapist: Overcoming Social Anxiety Disorder Through Using Social Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) has long been an important research focus in HCI for treating different phobias. More recently, we have seen a more noticeable upgrade in VR, especially social VR. This research explores how socially anxious people use social VR to interact and practice social skills. The study analyzed 351 Reddit posts and comments and found that the immersive and embodied features of social VR, such as physicality, sense of presence, nonverbal communication and shared activities, can help individuals with a social anxiety disorder (SAD) overcome their fear of social interaction. Additionally, the study investigated if social skills gained in social VR can transfer to the offline world. This work highlights the potential of social VR in treating SAD and can inform the design of future social VR platforms to better support individuals with SAD.
A Collective Approach to Providing Digital Skills Training Among U.S. Public Housing Residents

Addressing the digital divide would support access to essential activities such as healthcare, employment, and education among under-resourced communities in the United States (U.S.). However, half of the adults in the U.S. lack confidence and preparedness to use digital tools for learning. We developed and piloted an intervention to train public housing residents as intermediaries to provide digital support to their community members to address this gap. Collaborating with community partners, we developed a cohort-based basic digital skills training program consisting of online courses and offline social learning support. We trained nine public housing residents and present best practices of collective training and the challenges the trainees faced. Preliminary results suggest an increase in trainees’ self-efficacy in basic digital skills. Our approach aims to increase digital literacy and minimize barriers to online learning among traditionally-excluded populations. Our work extends prior interventions that only provide device and Internet access.
Unpacking the Lived Experiences of Smartwatch Mediated Self and Co-Regulation with ADHD Children

Challenges associated with ADHD affect children’s daily routines and response to environmental stimuli, and support from parents is helpful in managing and overcoming behavior regulation challenges. Positive reinforcement is increasingly integrated into family technologies for teaching regulation skills, but typically support specific co-located activities. To better understand how technology can support co-regulation within families with ADHD children, we deployed CoolTaco, a smartwatch and phone system to support collaboration in creating tasks, gaining points for achieving them, and redeeming rewards. Ten families with ADHD children used CoolTaco in their daily routines. By qualitatively analyzing family interviews and usage logs, we find that smartwatches can help provide pervasive regulation support to children, but the division across devices and parent-child roles interfere with developing independence. We discuss how technology should support co-regulation while also fostering future self-regulation, such as by guiding children in goal setting and helping them reflect on progress and achievements.
asEars: Designing and Evaluating the User Experience of Wearable Assistive Devices for Single-Sided Deafness

Single-sided deafness (SSD) significantly restricts social participation in hearing/speaking cultures due to the person’s difficulty hearing conversations on their deaf side. Although hearing aids for SSD are effective in social situations, the acceptance rate remains low at 4%. To address this problem, we designed and developed a bone conduction-based device to be worn with eyeglasses, involving 53 individuals with SSD including two authors. We conducted a four-week diary study comparing our proposed device with traditional Contralateral Routing of Signals (CROS) hearing aids and explored the factors that might affect the acceptance rate of assistive devices for SSD. The findings indicated that our design was more acceptable for users with SSD due to its effectiveness, social acceptability, and the ability for wearers to use other devices simultaneously, such as earbuds. Based on our results, we discuss implications for designing wearable assistive devices to promote greater acceptance among the target population.
Tutoria11y: Enhancing Accessible Interactive Tutorial Creation by Blind Audio Producers

Audio production is a skilled practice that requires mastery in highly complex software and hardware tools. Blind audio producers face a steep learning curve where they must learn multiple inaccessible audio production tools in conjunction with workarounds for screen reader support. Learning audio production is made even more challenging due to a scarcity of educational resources geared towards blind people. Grounded in formative interviews and observations with seven blind audio production instructors, we developed Tutoria11y, an extension for GarageBand to support blind audio producers in creating accessible, interactive tutorials that screen reader users can follow to receive step-by-step guidance and confirmation of their actions. Findings from design exploration sessions with five blind instructors highlight how Tutoria11y can support tutorial creation and augment tutorial playback for blind audio producers. We discuss how we can rethink technology’s role as a means to amplify, rather than replace, the knowledge of disabled experts.
"This machine is for the aides": Tailoring Voice Assistant Design to Home Health Care Work

This paper explores how the design of interactive voice assistants (IVAs) might be tailored to support home health aides’ important work in complex home care contexts. We designed two custom IVAs: one that looks like an aide’s medical kit and one that blends into the home environment. We also designed a voice-based application that provides aides with guidance for day-to-day tasks and for performing a medical assessment. Via a lab-based study with 25 aides and seven patients, we explore how tailoring the IVAs’ design to home health care might impact its acceptability as a work device, enabling cooperative work among aides and clients, while potentially causing conflict that will require IVA designers to decide whose values to prioritize. We also highlight limits in aides’ power to control IVAs in clients’ homes. Finally, we discuss implications for designing privacy-preserving IVAs, including leveraging IVAs’ physical design to enact privacy mechanisms and opportunities to build ‘always on’ IVAs for privacy-sensitive contexts like home health care.
Assisting with Fingertip Force Control by Active Bio-Acoustic Sensing and Electrical Muscle Stimulation

Fingertip force control plays an important role in learning motor skills. Exoskeleton gloves have been developed to assist with fingertip force control, but having the equipment on the fingers interferes with finger motion control and tactile sensation. Thus, we present a system for assisting with voluntary fingertip force control that does not require any devices to be worn on the fingers. In this study, we focused particularly on lateral pinch force, which is grip force achieved with the pad of the thumb and the lateral surface of the index finger to grasp objects. We use active bio-acoustic sensing to estimate voluntary pinch force with piezo elements attached to the back of the hand and electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) to the forearm to control involuntary pinch force in a closed-loop system. We developed three prototypes and conducted user studies to investigate whether our system can assist with pinch force control under several target forces, from weak to strong. Our user studies showed that the combination of active bio-acoustic sensing and EMS can assist users in maintaining the pinch force closer to the target force.
Impact of softness on users’ perception of curvature for future soft curvature-changing UIs

Soft (compliant) curvature-changing UIs provide haptic feedback through changes in softness and curvature. Different softness can impact the deformation of UIs when worn and touched, and thus impact the users’ perception of the curvature. To investigate how softness impacts users’ perception of curvature, we measured participants’ curvature perception accuracy and precision in different softness conditions. We found that participants perceived the curviest surfaces with similar precision in all different softness conditions. Participants lost half the precision of the rigid material when touching the flattest surfaces with the softest material. Participants perceived all curvatures with similar accuracy in all softness conditions. The results of our experiment lay the foundation for soft curvature perception and provide guidelines for the future design of curvature- and softness-changing UIs.
Visual StoryCoder: A Multimodal Programming Environment for Children’s Creation of Stories

Computational thinking (CT) education reaches only a fraction of young children, in part because CT learning tools often require expensive hardware or fluent literacy. Block-based programming environments address these challenges through symbolic graphical interfaces, but users often need instructor support to advance. Alternatively, voice-based tools provide direct instruction on CT concepts but can present memory and navigation challenges to users. In this work, we present Visual StoryCoder, a multimodal tablet application that combines the strengths of each of these approaches to overcome their respective weaknesses. Visual StoryCoder introduces children ages 5–8 to CT through creative storytelling, offers direct instruction via a pedagogical voice agent, and eases use through a block-like graphical interface. In a between-subjects evaluation comparing Visual StoryCoder to a leading block-based programming app for this age group (N = 24), we show that Visual StoryCoder is more understandable to independent learners, leads to higher-quality code after app familiarization, and encourages personally meaningful projects.
Embodying Physics-Aware Avatars in Virtual Reality

Embodiment toward an avatar in virtual reality (VR) is generally stronger when there is a high degree of alignment between the user’s and self-avatar’s motion. However, one-to-one mapping between the two is not always ideal when user interacts with the virtual environment. On these occasions, the user input often leads to unnatural behavior without physical realism (e.g., objects penetrating virtual body, body unmoved by hitting stimuli). We investigate how adding physics correction to self-avatar motion impacts embodiment. Physics-aware self-avatar preserves the physical meaning of the movement but introduces discrepancies between the user’s and self-avatar’s motion, whose contingency is a determining factor for embodiment. To understand its impact, we conducted an in-lab study (n = 20) where participants interacted with obstacles on their upper bodies in VR with and without physics correction. Our results showed that, rather than compromising embodiment level, physics-responsive self-avatar improved embodiment compared to no-physics condition in both active and passive interactions.
Perspective and Geometry Approaches to Mouse Cursor Control in Spatial Augmented Reality

Spatial augmented reality (SAR) can extend desktop computing out of the monitor and into our surroundings, but extending the standard style of mouse input is challenging due to real-world geometry irregularity, gaps, and occlusion. We identify two general approaches for controlling a mouse cursor in SAR: perspective-based approaches based on raycasting, such as Nacenta et. al’s Perspective Cursor, and geometry-based approaches that closely associate cursor movement with surface topology. For the latter, we introduce Everywhere Cursor, a geometry-based approach for indirect mouse cursor control for complex 3D surface geometry in SAR. A controlled experiment compares approaches. Results show the geometry-based Everywhere Cursor improves accuracy and precision by 29% to 60% on average in a tracing task, but when traversing long distances, the perspective-based Perspective Cursor and Raycasting techniques are 22% to 49% faster, albeit with 4% to 10% higher error rates.
OpenMic: Utilizing Proxemic Metaphors for Conversational Floor Transitions in Multiparty Video Meetings

Turn-taking is one of the biggest interactivity challenges in multiparty remote meetings. One contributing factor is that current videoconferencing tools lack support for proxemic cues; i.e., spatial cues that humans use to enact their social relations and intentions. While more recent tools provide support for proxemic metaphors, they often focus on approach and leave-taking rather than turn-taking. In this paper, we present OpenMic, a videoconferencing system that utilizes proxemic metaphors for conversational floor management by providing 1) a Virtual Floor that serves as a fixed-feature space for users to be aware of others’ intention to talk, and 2) Malleable Mirrors, which are video and screen feeds that can be continuously moved and resized for conversational floor transitions. Our exploratory user study found that these system features can aid the conversational flow in multiparty video meetings. With this work, we show potential for embedding proxemic metaphors to support conversational floor management in videoconferencing systems.
Improving Learning-based Camera Pose Estimation for Image-based Augmented Reality Applications

Camera tracking is essential for many augmented reality (AR) applications, such as rendering virtual content on top of a display. While marker-based camera tracking methods can accurately estimate the camera pose, they require pre-placed markers and occupy valuable screen space, potentially impacting the user experience. In contrast, markerless camera tracking methods do not have these limitations but tend to be less stable. In this work, we propose an improved approach for camera tracking that utilizes salient visual features commonly found on websites. We develop robust algorithms for detecting these features and design efficient methods for estimating the camera pose from them. Our approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of robustness, as demonstrated by our experiments. This work paves the way for a wide range of important AR applications, such as online shopping and interactive AR games.
Squeez’In: Private Authentication on Smartphones based on Squeezing Gestures

In this paper, we proposed Squeez’In, a technique on smartphones that enabled private authentication by holding and squeezing the phone with a unique pattern. We first explored the design space of practical squeezing gestures for authentication by analyzing the participants’ self-designed gestures and squeezing behavior. Results showed that varying-length gestures with two levels of touch pressure and duration were the most natural and unambiguous. We then implemented Squeez’In on an off-the-shelf capacitive sensing smartphone, and employed an SVM-GBDT model for recognizing gestures and user-specific behavioral patterns, achieving 99.3% accuracy and 0.93 F1-score when tested on 21 users. A following 14-day study validated the memorability and long-term stability of Squeez’In. During usability evaluation, compared with gesture and pin code, Squeez’In achieved significantly faster authentication speed and higher user preference in terms of privacy and security.
Fable Reborn: Investigating Gameplay Experience between a Human Player and a Virtual Dungeon Master

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a role-playing game typically played face-to-face with participants seated around a tabletop. Online technologies have enabled the conduct of live sessions on virtual platforms, allowing players to continue enjoying the game despite geographic distances. Playing D&D relies heavily on a dungeon master who is tasked with preparing the fictional world and facilitating the interaction between players who each control a single story character. In this paper, we investigate the impact of employing AI techniques in designing a virtual dungeon master (VDM) on the gameplay experience of D&D players. The VDM utilizes Open AI’s GPT2 model to generate story prompts in combination with an input plausibility checker, a dice rolling feature, and a candidate story prompt scorer. Feedback from D&D players revealed that the VDM is capable of producing believable fantasy stories but lacks consistency in the quality of its generated stories. Our findings point to the potential abilities of an artificially intelligent agent in engaging human D&D players in role-playing games; however, the VDM is still not capable of truly replicating the experience of playing with a human DM.
(Re-)Distributional Food Justice: Negotiating conflicting views of fairness within a local grassroots community

Sustainable HCI and Human-Food-Interaction research have developing interest in preventing food waste through food sharing. Sustainability requires attention to both the opportunities and challenges associated with the building of food sharing groups engaged in the redistribution of food but also in developing a wider agenda which includes, for instance, the local production of food resources. In this paper, we argue for a better understanding of the different conceptions of ‘fairness’ which inform volunteer and guest practice and in turn mediate community-building efforts. We examine the practices surrounding ‘SharingEvent’ and challenges faced to sustainability by the heterogenous, and sometimes contested, commitments of the people involved. We further consider how ICT provided opportunities for explicit examination of ideological differences concerning what ‘sharing’ might mean. Our findings show that community building is dependent on the negotiation of different values and purposes identified. We derive recommendations for action-oriented researchers ultimately concerned with systemic transformation.
Research on PCB Defect Detection Algorithm Based on Improved YOLOv5

Printed circuit boards (PCB) are defective in industrial manufacturing. To address the current problem of low accuracy of small target defect detection, a YOLOv5 improvement algorithm for more accurate small target detection is proposed to improve the accuracy. Firstly, the k-means clustering algorithm is used at the input side to cluster the dataset and analyze the anchor frames that match this dataset to improve the localization accuracy of the model. Second, a dual-attention mechanism is added to the backbone network to improve the feature extraction capability of the target. Then, a small target detection layer is added to the network at the output end to improve the efficiency of small target detection. Finally, the loss function at the output side is improved to reduce the loss value of the bounding box and speed up the rate of bounding box regression. The experimental results show that the accuracy rate of the improved YOLOv5 algorithm is improved from 84.2% to 95.2%, which can meet the require.