Welcome to the October 2021 SIGCHI edition of ACM TechNews.

ACM TechNews - SIGCHI Edition is a sponsored special edition of the ACM TechNews news-briefing service focused on issues in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This service serves as a resource for ACM-SIGCHI Members to keep abreast of the latest news in areas related to HCI and is distributed to all ACM SIGCHI members the first Tuesday of every month. ACM TechNews is a benefit of ACM membership and is distributed three times per week on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays to over 100,000 ACM members from over 100 countries around the world. ACM TechNews provides timely coverage of established and emerging areas of computer science, the latest trends in information technology, and related science, society, and technology news. For more information on ACM TechNews and joining the ACM, please click. The Interactions mobile app is available for free on iOS, Android, and Kindle platforms. Download it today and flip through the full-color magazine pages on your tablet or view it in a simplified low-bandwidth text mode on your phone. And be sure to check out the Interactions website, where you can access current and past articles and read the latest entries in our ever-expanding collection of blogs.

Engineers Create 3D-Printed Objects That Sense How a User Is Interacting With Them
MIT News
Adam Zewe
September 14, 2021

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers have created three-dimensionally (3D)-printed mechanisms that sense how force is being applied to an object. The team integrated electrodes into structures fashioned from metamaterials composed of a cellular grid, so when a user applies force to an object made from a metamaterial, some of the interior cells stretch or compress. The researchers exploited this to generate conductive shear cells with two opposing walls made from conductive filament, which act as electrodes, and two walls made from nonconductive filament. The team can measure force applied by a joystick using capacitive sensing to calculate changes in distance between the opposing electrodes. The researchers also designed MetaSense 3D editing software to facilitate rapid prototyping of devices based on force application measurements.

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NIH-Funded Modern 'White Cane' Brings Navigation Assistance to the 21st Century
National Institutes of Health
September 8, 2021

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) developed a robotic cane that uses a building's architectural drawing to help blind and visually impaired users navigate their surroundings. The robotic cane, which features a three-dimensional (3D) camera, an inertial measurement sensor, and an on-board computer, uses sensory and auditory cues to guide users to their desired location while avoiding obstacles. The camera uses infrared light to calculate the distance between the cane and other physical objects. The on-board computer uses this information and data from the inertial sensor to map the user's precise location to the building's floor plan. VCU’s Cang Ye said, "The rolling tip on our robotic cane can guide you to turn at just the right point and exactly the right number of degrees, whether it's 15 degrees or 90. This version can also alert you to overhanging obstacles, which a standard white cane cannot."

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Modified Headphones Translate Sign Language Via Doppler
University of Buffalo
Melvin Bankhead III
September 7, 2021

An international team led by researchers at the University of Buffalo developed a system that pairs noise-cancelling headphones with a smartphone to translate American Sign Language (ASL). The SonicASL system uses Doppler technology to detect fluctuations in acoustic soundwaves generated by hand movements. The researchers modified the noise-cancelling headphones by adding another speaker next to the outward-facing microphone. The SonicASL mobile app uses an algorithm developed by the researchers to identify words and sentences communicated by users via sign language, and speaks those words to the hearing person through the earphones. The researchers tested SonicASL using 42 words, and found the system was 93.8% effective. The algorithm can be used on any smartphone, and the system can be adapted for other languages.

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Apple Devices Identify Early Parkinson's Disease
Medscape
Daniel M. Keller
September 24, 2021

The University of Rochester (UR)'s 12-month Wearable Assessments in the Clinic and Home in Parkinson's disease (WATCH-PD) study found that Apple devices can distinguish between individuals with early, untreated Parkinson’s disease (PD) and healthy controls. The researchers followed 132 participants—82 with PD and 50 controls—provided with Apple Watches and iPhones and assessed on motor and cognitive tasks. The iPhones also had an application to evaluate verbal, cognitive, and other abilities, and participants wore a set of inertial sensors while performing the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Part III (MDS-UPDRS) motor examination. The controls scored better than the PD cohort on MDS-UPDRS overall and on all individual parts of the rating scale, as well as on touchscreen assessments in a finger-tapping task. UR's Jamie Adams said the devices also indicated gait distinctions between groups.

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Researchers Predict Viewer Interest, Not Just Attention, in Public Screen Content
Aalto University (Finland)
September 28, 2021

Researchers at Finland's Aalto University and the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence have developed a technique that can select and organize content on public screen displays by predicting user interest. The new method is based on inverse modeling and requires information about how much time viewers spend in front of different content. Designed for digital displays with multiple content items, the new method allows the display to adapt automatically to prioritize content of interest and how it appears. Aalto's Antti Oulasvirta said, "What's novel about the method is that we don't need eye-tracking or click data to model what people are interested in—it's enough that the screen can measure how long people stay in front of it. We don't need to bother viewers at all."

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Using Internet in Retirement Boosts Cognitive Function
Lancaster University (U.K.)
September 20, 2021

U.K. and Norwegian scientists determined greater Internet use in retirement years can boost one’s cognitive function. The team analyzed the cognitive function of 2,105 retirees across Europe in 2013 and 2015, focusing on word recall. People who used the Internet post-retirement could remember an average 1.22 extra words in the recall test versus non-users; those who remembered more words also were more likely to be male, younger, better educated, in better health, and to have been retired for a shorter period. Vincent O'Sullivan at the U.K.'s Lancaster University Management School also observed that retirees who used computers for work before retiring were more likely to keep using them afterwards, and had better cognitive function.

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AR Applications Assist Astronaut Repairs to Space Station
NASA
September 2, 2021

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) T2 Augmented Reality (T2AR) project enables astronauts to perform repairs at the International Space Station without assistance from ground support. T2AR combines Microsoft HoloLens AR goggles with custom-built software, providing three-dimensional directional cues to orient users' gaze to work sites while displaying procedure instructions. The demonstration application follows users' verbal commands to navigate procedures, and overlays hardware with AR cues and procedure text as appropriate; the platform also delivers assistive information like videos and system overlays. NASA's Bryan Dansberry said, "The space station is the perfect platform to test out AR systems and refine these tools so they will be ready when future astronauts need them."

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Fake-Waking Voice Assistant
Technische Universitat Darmstadt (Germany)
September 24, 2021

Researchers at Germany's Technische Universität Darmstadt and China's Zhejiang University demonstrated that automatically and systematically generated false wake words, or "fuzzy words," can be recognized by common voice assistants. The researchers generated more than 960 custom fuzzy words in English and Chinese using genetic algorithms and machine learning. They found voice assistants “woke” to fuzzy words that differed significantly from real wake-up words, indicating background noise and the speaker's volume and gender did not play a role. In the context of concerns that the "fake wake phenomenon" could be used by attackers to activate voice assistants without users’ knowledge, the researchers recommended manufacturers of voice assistants should retrain their models with the generated fuzzy words, to improve their accuracy.

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Tesla Drivers Become Inattentive When Autopilot Is Activated
TechCrunch
Rebecca Bellan
September 20, 2021

A study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers supports the idea that Tesla's Autopilot system, which is not autonomous, is not that safe. The research found drivers may not be using Autopilot as recommended; safety features like traffic-aware cruise control and autosteering make drivers less attentive, which may result from misunderstanding Autopilot's capabilities and limitations. Analysis of glance data found drivers may grow inattentive when using partly automated driving systems like the Autopilot. The MIT researchers developed a glance-behavior model, "based on naturalistic data, that can help understand the characteristics of shifts in driver attention under automation and support the development of solutions to ensure that drivers remain sufficiently engaged in the driving tasks."

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These Sensor-Studded Smart Clothes Just Might Save Your Life
The Wall Street Journal
Benoit Morenne
September 7, 2021

Smart garments developed by startups and universities aim to track, or even improve, wearers' health. Nanowear's SimpleSense sash contains billions of nanosensors that monitor 85 medical signs, with the results recorded by a smartphone app and sent to physicians. Bloomertech has developed a bra that records the wearer's heart rhythm and other biomarkers to detect signs of potential cardiac arrest. BioSerenity's Neuronaute cap allows wearers to perform electroencephalograms at home to identify anomalies in brain activity indicative of epilepsy. Researchers at Finland's University of Helsinki developed the Maiju jumpsuit to detect signs of neurodevelopmental delays in infants. At China's Fudan University, researchers have come up with a fabric that could allow people with speech disabilities to type on a keyboard and have the words displayed on their clothing. North Carolina State University researchers used a mathematical model and a computer design program to create fabrics that cannot be penetrated by mosquitoes.

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Tactile Holograms Are Touch of Future Tech
University of Glasgow (U.K.)
September 2, 2021

A research team at the U.K.'s University of Glasgow has developed a system that creates the sensation of touch when interacting with holographic projections. The "aerohaptics" system uses a Leap Motion sensor to track users' hand movements, and a moveable nozzle to generate precisely controlled jets of air. The researchers demonstrated the system with a computer-generated, three-dimensional (3D) image of a basketball displayed in space, with users able to "feel" the shape of the virtual ball and "push" it with varying force. Glasgow's Ravinder Dahiya said, "We believe aerohaptics could form the basis for many new applications in the future, such as creating convincing, interactive 3D renderings of real people for teleconferences. It could help teach surgeons to perform tricky procedures in virtual spaces during their training, or even allow them to command robots to do the surgeries for real."

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Misinformation on Twitter Adversely Affects Adults' Health Decisions
University of Bristol News (U.K.)
September 2, 2021

Researchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and the University of Pennsylvania found that adult smokers shown tweets falsely implying that e-cigarettes cause more harm than conventional cigarettes were deterred from using the devices as a way to stop smoking. The study of 2,400 U.K. and U.S. adult smokers also found that tweets implying that e-cigarettes are harmless could encourage U.S. smokers to use e-cigarettes and perceive them as less harmful than regular cigarettes. Bristol's Caroline Wright said, "People are increasingly encountering free and publicly available health information through social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. However, this ease of accessing information comes at a cost as the spread of misinformation can have negative consequences on people's health choices and behavior."

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