Welcome to the July 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.

The Robotic Arm Controlled by Your Mind
The Daily Mail
Sam Blanchard
June 20, 2019

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and University of Minnesota researchers have invented a thought-controlled robot arm, which a person commands via pads attached outside their head. Previous approaches required surgery to directly connect sensors to the operator's brain, but this non-invasive technology measures neural signals with electrodes placed on the outside of the head. The neural signals are fed to a computer, which translates the information into arm movement. CMU's Bin He said, "Advances in neural decoding and the practical utility of non-invasive robotic arm control will have major implications on the eventual development of non-invasive neurorobotics."

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Comcast Unveils Remote for Changing Channels With Your Eyes
Fast Company
Katharine Schwab
June 17, 2019

Telecommunications provider Comcast has launched a remote control TV interface that lets users switch channels via eye movements. The interface combines a commercially available eye tracker, a tablet or computer, and Comcast's Internet-linked Xfinity X1 Cloud digital video recorder. The system was chiefly designed for people with physical disabilities, like muscular dystrophy. Comcast said the interface works with any off-the-shelf eye tracker, which must be plugged into a tablet or computer with a USB port; customers then log in to a webpage to launch the interface on their screen. Clicking on a button via their eyes sends the user’s request to Comcast's cloud network, which routes it to the user’s TV.

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Self-Driving Cars Have a Problem: Safer Human-Driven Ones
The Wall Street Journal
Christopher Mims
June 15, 2019

Technology developed to enable fully autonomous cars could paradoxically impede their adoption. Nvidia's Danny Shapiro said self-driving systems "have to exceed the human level of skill at driving" in order to be deemed Level 3 autonomous driving—where humans must be in the driver's seat but do not need to use the steering wheel—by U.S. regulators. Automatic emergency braking and other advanced driver assistance systems are expected to significantly reduce crashes and fatalities. The addition of features designed for fully driverless cars, like ultra-accurate maps of U.S. highways, should further improve vehicle safety. Cleveland State University researchers forecast that only 10% to 30% of all vehicles will be fully self-driving by 2030, and Waymo CEO John Krafcik said autonomous autos may always need some kind of "user interaction" in bad weather.

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Can Bluetooth Headsets Alleviate Depression or Insomnia?
Financial Times
Chris Nuttall
June 13, 2019

Consumers are exploiting new Bluetooth headsets that read the brain's neural circuits, to improve mental and physical health. Brain-training product company URGOnight's headset has four electrodes serving as electroencephalography sensors, to detect and record brainwaves associated with sleep improvement; once detected, a linked smartphone app can train users to sustain beneficial brainwave activity over 20-minute sessions, to improve falling asleep and reduce sleep interruptions. Meanwhile, Halo Neuroscience's athlete-oriented Sport product features electrode spikes to transmit electrical current to the brain region that governs movement. Juniper Research's Nick Maynard said this encourages "'neuroplasticity,' which is increasing the ability of the brain to perform better, or learn at a more enhanced rate." Swedish startup Flow Neuroscience's Flow device is designed to treat depression via transcranial direct electrical stimulation, sending low-level current into the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to activate more neurons there.

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A Robot Has Learned to Use Irony and Now People Like It More
New Scientist
David Adam
June 12, 2019

A newly developed 30-centimeter-tall robot employs irony, combining nonchalant facial expressions with deadpan delivery. The researchers hope the technology will enable more natural interaction between robots and people. Elizabeth Andre of the University of Augsburg in Germany said, "Think of a robot in the role of a lifestyle adviser that feels the user should be more active and has to convey this message without appearing rude." The robot's algorithm analyzes the best response the machine should make in a normal dialogue, then switches words and adds verbal stress like overstatement to introduce irony. Tests showed participants consistently rated the ironic robot higher on qualities defined as likable, integrating, appealing, and motivating, compared to a standard robot.

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Smart Speaker Listens for Audible Signs of Cardiac Arrest
IEEE Spectrum
Megan Scudellari
June 19, 2019

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a contactless system that can detect agonal breathing, a unique sound made by 50% of cardiac arrest patients. Research showed the smart speaker system detected agonal breathing events 97% of the time, with almost no false alarms. The tool can run on the Amazon Alexa or Google Home platforms, and could be used to passively monitor bedrooms for the sound of agonal breathing; if detected, it would set off an alarm. The researchers trained the system using 236 clips of agonal breathing taken from 911 calls between 2009 and 2017. The team played these clips at different distances to a speaker and added interfering sounds typically found in a bedroom. Said University of Washington researcher Justin Chan, "Our system is designed in such a way that it only requires local processing, so no data is sent over the Internet or the cloud."

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LGBTQ+ Youth Prefer to Seek Mental Health Help Digitally
Wired
Emily Dreyfuss
June 11, 2019

The advocacy nonprofit Trevor Project surveyed the state of mental health for LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S., and found a majority prefers to access mental health services digitally. The organization supports a round-the-clock service, which allows people to text or chat with a staffer. LGBTQ+ youth and adults often go to great lengths to ensure their safety for self-expression on mainstream social networking platforms. Oliver Haimson of the University of Michigan, who studies gender and online identity, said such online spaces "are important to people for finding community and support, and for exploring their identity before they come out to family or people at school, which are often very stressful environments."

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Solo, Yet Tutti: App Puts Orchestra in Your Living Room
Agence France-Presse
Rana Moussaoui
June 11, 2019

French start-up Digital Music Solutions has developed an app that can separate out the sound components of an orchestral score to remove any instrument as desired, allowing musicians at home to join in. The NomadPlay app can be downloaded for free and offers a catalog of albums ranging from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to Schubert's Fantasia in F Minor. The concept is similar to karaoke, where users sing along to an original backing track. NomadPlay is currently working with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre national d'Île de France, and the orchestra of the Opera de Rouen Normandie.

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These Colorful Stickers Help Blind People Find Their Way
Technology Review
Frank Swain
June 6, 2019

The public transport service of the city of Barcelona, Spain—known as Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB)—has launched a program to make the city easier to navigate for its thousands of visually impaired citizens. The system, developed by the Mobile Vision Research Lab at the University of Alicante in Spain in partnership with Spanish startup NaviLens, relies on a smartphone camera and a free app, which allow visual impaired people to scan pixelated stickers that have been placed around the city. The stickers can provide public transportation schedules, descriptions of the surrounding environment, or other relevant pieces of local information. The five-inch-wide NaviLens cards can be read by a smartphone from 12 meters (39 feet) away; smartphones can scan tags at up to a 160-degree angle, even while in motion.

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As Walmart Turns to Robots, Human Workers Feel Like Machines
The Washington Post
Drew Harwell
June 6, 2019

Walmart has installed robots at more than 1,500 of its mega-stores, including automated shelf-scanners, box-unloaders, and artificially intelligent cameras, but workers complain these deployments have made their own jobs feel more robotic. Employee stress comes from the experience of working alongside the robots, with many feeling their jobs are now to train and babysit the machines. Adding to the strain is the sense of being in a position of training potential replacements. On the other hand, Walmart officials say that the machines are meant to allow workers to focus on more-creative, customer-facing goals, adding that initial responses to the robots from workers have been “overwhelmingly positive.”

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'Screen Time' Is Over
The New York Times
Benedict Carey
May 31, 2019

A consortium of social and data scientists argues a new approach is required to measure "screen time"—the amount of daily human interaction with digital technology—and its sociological and psychological effects, by recognizing that it has become a way of life. Key to this is redefining screen-time quantification as a "screenome," a unique record of everything an individual sees, does, and types, on a digital device. The researchers demonstrated this concept by recording the digital threads of several dozen subjects, as screenshots captured every few minutes for intervals ranging from a day to several days. This documentation revealed that people continually switch between screen activities every 20 seconds on average, with few spending more than 20 minutes on any one activity. The scientists suggest screenome analysis could offer clues into whether online experience impacts people's moods or personality, as well as helping to define connections between biology and screen use.

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