Welcome to the April 2019 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.

Humans Struggle to Cope When Automation Fails
The Economist
March 14, 2019

The challenge of the human-machine interface will grow as long as human operators handle increasingly automated machines, such as airplanes, cars, trains, and ships. This issue was highlighted by the March 10 crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8. While authorities around the world have grounded the model, Boeing insists the planes are safe to fly. The company is updating the MAX's automated flight-control software to make it easier for pilots to assume manual control. Boeing, and its chief competitor Airbus, both equip their planes with computers that handle most of the flying—though each relies on a different philosophy of how a pilot can react to the computerized systems. Boeings are designed to make the pilot feel like the aviator in charge, while Airbus's joystick is only used during takeoff and landing. Studies have shown that when people have to take control from an automated system, it can take them about five seconds to grasp what is happening. The monotony of monitoring a semi-automated system could reduce vigilance by provoking what psychologists call "passive" fatigue. This idea has led some carmakers to consider skipping semi-automation and go straight to something closer to full autonomy.

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Machines That Translate Wants Into Actions
Scientific American
Richard Andersen
April 1, 2019

Advanced brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) promise to facilitate seamless links between brain and prostheses by translating neural signals into actions. The performance of existing BMIs tends to be imprecise or sluggish, but breakthroughs allow implantation of interfaces in brain regions that formulate intentions to move, enhancing the BMI's versatility for persons with spinal cord injuries. Ideally, a neural prosthesis must compensate for users' inability to sense tactile sensations or body positioning via bidirectional signaling, beaming the intentions of the subject while also detecting the touch and positioning data from sensors on a robotic limb. One team of scientists has implanted microelectrode arrays in the somatosensory cortex of a tetraplegic person, and sent small electric currents through the array so the subject could perceive sensations from the surface of their hand. Flexible electrodes also should enable more stable neural recordings.

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This Hospital Modeled Itself After the Apple Store, Lets Pregnant Mothers Use Gadgets to Monitor Their Health at Home
CNBC
Christina Farr
March 4, 2019

Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans has launched the Connected Maternity Online Monitoring (MOM) initiative, which is free to mothers-to-be so they can monitor their health from home. Modeled after the Apple Genius Bar, Ochsner's "O Bar" features connected weight scales, blood pressure monitors, activity trackers, and other gadgets for expectant mothers, who are reminded via smartphone to measure their weight and blood pressure, with readings sent to HealthKit and then shared with their doctors via Ochsner's electronic medical record system. The Connected MOM program, which has enrolled 1,000 patients so far and soon will be opened up to women with higher-risk pregnancies, has reduced in-person visits by an average of 25% to 30%, according to Ochsner’s Dr. Richard Milani. Said Milani, "We're realizing that we can keep tabs on our patients using technology at a higher frequency than we would in a purely analog world."

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In Competition, People Get Discouraged by Competent Robots
Cornell Chronicle (NY)
Melanie Lefkowitz
March 11, 2019

Researchers at Cornell University have learned that when robots are out-performing humans in contests for cash prizes, the people consider themselves less competent, expend slightly less effort, and tend to dislike the robots. As part of the study, the researchers brought together roboticists and behavioral economists to examine how a robot's performance affects humans' behavior and reactions when they are competing against each other at the same time. The findings validated behavioral economists' theories about loss aversion, which predict that people will not try as hard when their competitors are doing better, and suggests how workplaces might optimize teams of people and robots working together. Said Cornell’s Alap Kshirsagar, "We were surprised that people found themselves less competent against a fast, competitive robot, even though there's no direct interaction."

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New Interactive Technology to Help Children With Special Needs Learn Better
Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)
April 1, 2019

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed an interactive educational tool to make learning more engaging for children with special needs. The reconfigurable i-Tile system supports activities that incorporate purposeful movement, game-like elements, and responsive audio-visual feedback, to boost and sustain student engagement. The system also enables educators to adapt and design new learning activities to meet students' learning needs. The system features two tablet computers and a custom-designed card-reader that detects objects, like a picture or alphabet card, via radio-frequency identification; a teacher facilitates the lesson using one tablet, and the other functions as a coordinated remote display, linked to the classroom's projection display.

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Tracking Readers' Eye Movements Can Help Computers Learn
Wired
Gregory Barber
March 28, 2019

Nora Hollenstein at ETH Zurich in Switzerland developed a dataset that combined eye-tracking data and brain signals recorded by electroencephalography (EEG) scans, to find patterns that can improve how neural networks understand language. In collaboration with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Hollenstein used the dataset to steer a neural network to the key parts of a sentence it was trying to comprehend. The addition of more gaze data, such as when eyes flit between words to confirm a relationship, helped the network better identify entities, like places and people. Hollenstein said the goal is to harness gaze data to help reduce manual labeling required for using machine learning in rare languages, and in reading tasks where labeled data is limited. In an ideal scenario, Hollenstein said, gaze would be a starting point complemented by EEG measurements as researchers find more relevant signals in the noise of brain activity.

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Disaster Response Turns to VR for Grim Training
Agence France-Presse
March 27, 2019

Christian Rouffaer, a former Swiss army officer turned video game enthusiast, has recruited graphic designers from the gaming industry to help create the International Committee of the Red Cross' (ICRC) first virtual reality (VR) unit in Bangkok, Thailand. ICRC developed a VR “game” to help first responders deal with the daunting tasks of identifying dead bodies. VR is increasingly being used for skills training, in settings ranging from hospitals to industry. Said Nithi Bundhuwong, head of Thailand's disaster victim identification department, "Thanks to virtual reality, we can simulate different scenarios" from crime scenes to the chaos of a natural disaster.

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Depressed and Anxious? These Video Games Want to Help
The New York Times
Laura Parker
March 24, 2019

A growing number of video games are designed to help users cope with mental health issues, including self-identity, anger, and post-traumatic stress disorder. One forthcoming game, Electronic Arts' "Sea of Solitude," has an avatar navigate a partly submerged city while dealing with creatures that were humans who became monsters when overwhelmed by loneliness; the main character fights to overcome her own loneliness to save herself. Some in the industry think the interactive nature of video games makes them more effective than film or TV at dealing with mental health. For example, embodying a game character who is depressed might leave a deeper impression of the challenges of depression than watching a film about the same character. Most mental health-oriented games to date have been pioneered by independent makers, but "Sea of Solitude" marks the first time a major game-maker will enter this arena.

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Technology's Impact on Learning a Foreign Language
Texas A&M Today
Ashley Greene
March 19, 2019

Texas A&M University researchers found technology can significantly help foreign language students, with Texas A&M's Fuhui Tong focusing on the use of electronic flashcards (E-flashcards) for learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. Said Tong, "We believed that with a dual-coding approach, plus audio support, students can learn the language in a more efficient way." Tong's team observed 100 fourth- and fifth-grade, English-speaking students using either E-flashcards or paper flashcards, with the goal of learning 20 new Chinese words in each lesson. E-flashcards were produced and saved on each student's iPad, containing verbal, visual, and audio cues; learners who used them statistically outperformed those who used paper flashcards. Tong said, "Students who were exposed to that particular approach were more confident and motivated in learning the Chinese language, compared to the other group of students who were exposed to the traditional flashcards."

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Alibaba's Adhesive Buttons Help Visually Impaired Interact With Smartphones
Fortune
Eamon Barrett
March 18, 2019

A design team led by Alibaba's DAMO Academy aims to improve smartphone accessibility for blind and visually-impaired users with a haptic solution combining software and hardware. The six "Braille Buttons" stick to the lower portion of a phone's screen, with three buttons aligned vertically on each side. The left-side buttons enable global navigation for the device, with the top button prompting the software to read out the screen's visual output, while the middle button tells the voice to stop. Right-side buttons offer different functionality, based on the app being used. DAMO's Chen Zhao said the smartphone's voice is designed to speak rapidly, in accordance with findings that many visually impaired people process speech much faster than sighted persons.

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It's No Fortnite, but It's Helping Stroke Survivors Move Again
Northwestern University Newscenter
Kristin Samuelson
March 19, 2019

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a myoelectric computer interface (MyoCI), a video game-led training device that helps severely impaired stroke survivors regain function in their arms. Most of the study participants experienced increased arm mobility and reduced arm stiffness while using the training interface, and most participants retained their arm function a month after finishing the training. The device identifies which muscles are abnormally coupled and retrains them into moving normally by using their electrical muscle activity to control a cursor in a customized video game. Study participants were subjected to three different regimens: 60 minutes of training with their arm restrained; 90 minutes of training with their arm restrained, and 90 minutes of training without arm restraints. Overall, arm function improved significantly in all groups and there was no significant difference between the three groups.

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Religions Use Robots to Connect With the Public
The Wall Street Journal
Rebecca Heilweil
March 28, 2019

Some religious institutions are developing robots to converse with visitors and share doctrine, for the purpose of making religion more publicly accessible. Manhattan College's Robert Geraci said, "One possibility is that religion gets radically reformulated in collaboration with the advancement of technology." Another possibility is potential competition between traditional religions and technology-centric movements like transhumanism. Gabriele Trovato at Waseda University in Japan has designed a small robot called a Sanctified Theomorphic Operator to assist and comfort seniors, via a computer, microphone, sensors, and a camera equipped with facial-recognition technology; he said such robots can make users comfortable by incorporating cultural touchstones, including religious features. Trovato added that religious officials have advised him against having robots offer interpretations of texts, because "there is a human factor which is very important in the communication of faith."

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