Welcome to the September 2018 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.

Robots Help Children With Autism Improve Social Skills
YaleNews
William Weir
August 22, 2018

Yale University researchers have determined autistic children's social skills can improve as a result of prolonged interaction with social robots. Over the course of a month-long study, robots modeled eye contact and other social behaviors to guide children with Autism Spectrum Disorder through storytelling and interactive games designed to promote social skills such as emotional understanding, taking turns, and seeing things from others' perspectives. The children worked with the robots for 30 minutes each day for 30 days, and the resulting clinical data revealed improvements in their social behaviors. Caregivers said the children were noticeably better at making eye contact and initiating communication by the study's conclusion. Yale's Brian Scassellati said, "This is the first study that put fully autonomous robots directly into homes, but we will need these robots to operate for more than a month in order to support social skill learning more broadly."

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Actuation Gives New Dimensions to an Old Material
Carnegie Mellon University
Byron Spice
August 22, 2018

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers have developed a reversible actuation technology using paper mated to conducting thermoplastic. The thermoplastic heats and expands in response to electricity, causing the paper to bend or fold, or to revert to a predetermined shape when the current is removed. Using a three-dimensional printer, the actuator is printed on plain copy paper in a layer only 0.5 millimeters thick. The actuator is then heated and the paper bent or folded into a default shape, after which electrical leads can be affixed to the actuator. CMU's Guanyun Wang said, "Most robots—even those made of paper—require an external motor. Ours do not, which creates new opportunities, not just for robotics, but for interactive art, entertainment, and home applications." CMU's Lining Yao said the team is refining the method to realize different folding or bending effects, as well as developing techniques for printing touch sensors, finger-sliding sensors, and bending-angle detectors to control the actuators.

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Researchers 3D-print Prototype for 'Bionic Eye'
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
August 28, 2018

University of Minnesota researchers have three-dimensionally (3D) printed a complete "bionic eye" prototype, depositing light receptors on its hemispherical surface. The University of Minnesota's Michael McAlpine said they used a custom-built multimaterial 3D printer to dispense a base ink of silver particles on a glass dome. The ink remained in place and dried uniformly, and the team then employed semiconducting polymers to print photodiodes to convert light into electricity. McAlpine said they were surprised to discover the resulting semiconductors realized 25% conversion efficiency. He said the next stage of the project will involve printing a prototype with even more efficient light receptors, and finding a method for printing on a soft hemispherical material that can be implanted into an actual eye.

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New Tech Helps Deaf-Blind People 'Watch' TV
Science News for Students
Kathiann Kowalski
August 17, 2018

Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain have developed a method to allow people who are both deaf and blind to "watch" television in real time. The system relays audio and video information from the TV to a refreshable braille display that can be interpreted by touching it with fingers. The university's Angel Garcia Crespo says the application extracts subtitles and visual descriptions from the broadcast signal, integrating and rendering them both as data for braille; a second app sends the data to the refreshable braille displays in less than a second. The Dicapta Foundation in Winter Springs, FL, is working with Garcia Crespo's team to ready the technology for deployment in the U.S.

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Virtual Reality Providing Real-World Literacy, Numeracy Learning Tool
University of Otago
August 17, 2018

Researchers in the Information Science department of New Zealand’s University of Otago built a prototype virtual reality (VR) system to help prisoners at a local corrections facility improve their reading and writing skills. Otago's Jonny Collins developed the application to integrate educational content in collaboration with New Zealand charitable organization Methodist Mission Southern, while local firm Animated Research Limited helped design the panoramic environment. The prototype 360-degree virtual world program simulates car assembly in an automotive workshop, with the model's realism informed via consultation with an actual automotive repair business. Otago's Holger Regenbrecht says, "It was good for us to be able to test the idea that learning to read can also be achieved through virtual reality immersion in a specific setting targeted at a particular user group. This more interesting and relevant environment can help learning, and improved literacy skills for prisoners in this case improve rehabilitation and integration into the community."

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Novel Sensors Could Enable Smarter Textiles
University of Delaware
August 16, 2018

University of Delaware (UD) researchers are developing next-generation smart textiles by creating flexible carbon nanotube composite coatings for various fibers, and these coatings act as sensors that can measure an exceptionally wide range of pressure. The team electrophoretically deposited polyethyleneimine functionalized carbon nanotubes on fibers, including cotton, nylon, and wool, in the form of nerve-like electrically conductive nanocomposite coatings. UD's Erik Thostenson says the sensors are "very sensitive to forces ranging from touch to tons." He also says the coatings, which are only 250 to 750 nanometers thick, are flexible and pleasant to the touch, while their constituent materials are inexpensive and relatively eco-friendly. Thostenson's team is working with UD's Jill Higginson in a pilot project to determine how these sensors, when embedded in footwear, perform in comparison with biomechanical lab techniques when measuring forces on people's feet as they walk.

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How Smart Contact Lenses Will Help Keep an Eye on Your Health
ZDNet
Jo Best
August 14, 2018

Purdue University researchers have combined contact lenses and sensor technology to help track an individual's blood glucose levels as a tool for diabetes management. Using a process called interfacial debonding, a team led by Purdue's Chi Hwan Lee separated thin-film electronics from their wafer substrate, then printed them onto the contact lenses. Lee says the glucose sensors affixed to the lens are covered by a "thin layer of transparent, biocompatible, and breathable polymer" so the lens will not irritate the eye or interfere with the wearer's vision. He also says patients could potentially wear the soft contact lens to manage ocular diseases, with sensors and stimulators noninvasively accessing the corneal surface, inner eyelids, or both. Lee says the researchers “have established the optimal materials, design layouts, and fabrication methods to generate prototype devices," adding that the university will soon begin the first stage of testing the devices.

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Researchers Develop 'Digital Twins' to Teach Us How to Exercise Smarter
News-Medical
August 28, 2018

Researchers at Griffith University in Australia have developed computer simulations of joint and muscle movements to teach users how to exercise in way that prevents knee pain and damage. The system creates computer simulations or "digital twins" of individual patients so they can see how their muscles and joints work. The digital twins are personalized to help researchers understand how people use their muscles and how that affects their knees. The system can calculate, in real time, the forces acting on a person's joints while walking, and it uses this information to provide patients a personalized exercise program so they can move in ways that are easier on their joints. The researchers say the technology will help reduce pain, and slow or prevent the progression of osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal ailments.

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Could Computers Help Close Partisan Divides?
UW-Madison News
Sam Million-Weaver
August 8, 2018

University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) researchers are exploring ways to use computers to gain a wide perspective of political discussions, and the impact of media, social networks, and personal interactions on those discussions. The team hopes this research will help close the partisan gap between people on opposing political sides. UW-Madison's Lewis Friedland and colleagues plan to tap social media posts, public opinion surveys, news coverage, and in-person interviews to define a "communication ecology" between people and institutions in Wisconsin. They are employing machine learning to identify how people of opposite political leanings assign different meanings to the same words. The researchers convert words into geometric concepts called vectors, and compare them via mathematical operations. They have combined the power of word embeddings from Wikipedia with the specificity of political Tweets with an algorithm to detect words that opposing partisans use differently, and to deduce the political ideology of a Tweet's author with about 90% accuracy based on language alone.

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