Welcome to the May 2020 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.

Emergency Ventilator Provides Patient Monitoring, Feedback Control
Georgia Tech News Center
April 27, 2020

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a prototype portable emergency ventilator that uses electronic sensors and computer control to manage and monitor patients' breathing. The Open-AirVentGT ventilator differs from other devices by allowing patients to trigger their own breaths for more natural respiration. The respirator pneumatically compresses a Bag Valve Mask array, and following initialization an onboard computer maintains the setpoints controlling respiration, while the sensors and computer allocate control and real-time monitoring for medical staff. The device employs a standard computer monitor to supply data on respiration rate, tidal volume, inspiration and expiration ratio, and pressure on the lungs. The Open-AirVentGT is designed to be manufactured from components available worldwide, with interchangeable parts to easily facilitate mass production.

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Reporting Tool Aims to Balance Hospitals' COVID-19 Load
MIT News
Jennifer Chu
April 23, 2020

Researchers in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and MIT spinoff Mobi Systems have created a real-time status application to balance hospitals' COVID-19 workload by giving patients, doctors, and emergency medical technicians tools to report and check on availability of resources and equipment. The Web-based interface allows users to report status across various metrics, including average wait time, and ventilator and intensive care unit bed numbers. The app heavily relies on crowdsourced data, combined with a probabilistic strategy to guard against uncertainty about the data's accuracy. The researchers are soliciting thousands of medical professionals to test the reporting tool, in the hope of improving the app's crowdsourcing component.

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Managers Turn to Surveillance Software, Always-On Webcams to Ensure Employees Are (Really) Working From Home
The Washington Post
Drew Harwell
April 30, 2020

Employers across the U.S. are using surveillance software, continuously operating webcams, and other technologies to ensure workers are actually working from home during the coronavirus lockdown, but some employees feel such policies encroach on their personal lives. Remote surveillance also is encouraged by so-called "tattleware" providers, offering products that enable managers to monitor employees and confirm their productivity. For example, InterGuard software can be secretly installed on workers' computers to provide a minute-by-minute timeline of every app and website they view, classifying each as productive or unproductive, and assigning workers a productivity score. The software also flags suspicious activity, records all users' communications and keystrokes, and captures images of their screens. Tech startup Pragli claims its systems can create more camaraderie and a happier workforce with otherwise isolated workers by using digital avatars to interact in virtual offices.

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Project Paves the Way for Forecasting COVID-19 Infection Transmission
Florida Atlantic University
Gisele Galoustian
April 29, 2020

Florida Atlantic University (FAU) researchers are working with the Florida city of West Palm Beach on a project to enable cutting-edge computational epidemiology to forecast COVID-19 transmission. The initiative revamps the collaborators' Mobility Intelligence Project (MIP), a mobility sensing, analytics, and recommendation platform originally developed to enhance the quality of life for downtown West Palm Beach residents. The overhaul aims to simulate virus transmission based on realistic, contextualized models of city dwellers' movements and interactions. FAU's Jason O. Hallstrom said, "The concept is to partner with the computational epidemiology community to integrate evidence-based models of COVID-19 transmission with hyper-local mobility data to provide place-specific forecasts of disease transmission." FAU's Stella Batalama added that the project will help assist urban planners and architects to design and construct cities that can prevent or ameliorate disease outbreaks.

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WhatsApp's New Limit Cuts Virality of 'Highly Forwarded" Messages by 70%
TechCrunch
Manish Singh
April 27, 2020

On April 7, WhatsApp rolled out a restriction aimed at cutting the virality of messages circulating on its platform by introducing an additional limit, a move that has since caused a drop in "highly forwarded" messages by 70% globally. The Facebook-owned platform said users could now send along frequently forwarded messages they receive to only one person or a group at a time, down from five. The change was made in response to scrutiny WhatsApp is receiving in many countries, including India, its biggest market. The Indian government asked WhatsApp and other messaging and social media companies to take more control over the viral hoaxes circulating on their platforms regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent weeks, several users in India have circulated messages claiming treatments had been found to battle the virus; fact checkers said none of these claims were true.

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Israeli Tech Helps Doctors Train in Crucial Lung Ultrasound
The Jerusalem Post
Rossella Tercatin
April 20, 2020

Researchers at Israel's Simbionix 3D Systems, along with colleagues at Ben-Gurion University, Soroka University Medical Center, and Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, have developed a virtual reality-based training system to help medical staff learn how interpret lung ultrasounds. The system will be important to help triage COVID-19 patients. The training module has been released to all hospitals that were already customers of Simbionix across Israel, the U.S., Europe, and China. In addition, the company created a mobile unit that provides virtual reality-based training free of charge to several medical centers in Israel. Said Dr. Lior Fuchs of Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheva, Israel, “A skilled point-of-care ultrasound scan has become a critical part of the COVID-19 diagnostic protocol.”

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WVU Is Using Smart Rings, Apps, Algorithms to Identify COVID-19 Infections Before Symptoms Occur
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
David Templeton
April 19, 2020

West Virginia University (WVU) Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute researchers are using smart rings and smartphone applications originally created to detect influenza to monitor 200 healthcare professionals for early signs of COVID-19 infection. Sensors in the Oura Health smart rings record and analyze physiological responses to evaluate sleep duration and quality, body temperature, and variations in pulse rate and heart function, from which they provide a rating every morning. Artificial intelligence and machine learning continuously record and analyze these health metrics using algorithms designed to assess data and anticipate infection. WVU's Ali Rezai said the system taps into the autonomic nervous system, and the model is becoming increasingly adept at analyzing "the mind-body operating system" before symptoms manifest.

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U.S. Police Launch 'Homeless Outreach' Drones During Crisis
Financial Times
Patrick McGee
April 17, 2020

The police departments in San Pablo and Chula Vista, CA, are deploying "homeless outreach" drones to broadcast coronavirus safety messages. Those cities are the first in the U.S. to launch the drones as police operations are limited due to social distancing guidelines. The drones enable the departments to broadcast information in English and Spanish about available services and directions for help. The departments stress that the technology is not being used to patrol populations or conduct unrestricted surveillance. The drones allow the departments to complete homeless outreach missions over large areas and difficult terrain.

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For Seniors on COVID-19 Lockdown, Alexa Proves to Be Valuable Friend
ZDNet
Stephanie Condon
April 17, 2020

Since the COVID-19 pandemic's first appearance, residents at eight Eskaton assisted-living communities in California have been using the K4Community platform, which provides tools and services for residents and staff, in unique ways. Since early March, residents' active usage of K4Community communications tools has increased more than threefold, while the K4Community app's use by residents' family and friends has risen more than 12%. Eskaton's Therese ten Brinke said tools like artificial intelligence-powered voice assistants offer a more engaging platform for seniors seeking stronger community ties. She explained that voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa become more adept at understanding users as users engage with the tools more often. Ten Brinke said as seniors overcome the learning curve associated with new technology, "it'll be interesting to see, once visitation restrictions are lifted, if we'll see that desire to continue connecting virtually."

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UCI Team Develops Smartphone Application for Coronavirus Contact Tracing
University of California, Irvine
Brian Bell
April 15, 2020

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have developed a free, open-source smartphone application that allows contact tracing for potential coronavirus infections while protecting users' privacy. The TrackCOVID app works by creating an anonymous graph of interactions. Every time a user gathers with others or goes to a public place, he or she can use the app to log contacts by either hosting or joining a checkpoint; this allows possible paths of virus transmission to be identified. The first person to register as a checkpoint host is given a Quick Response (QR) code, and others can join the checkpoint by scanning the QR code. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 can anonymously report it through the app, which will then notify other users who may be at elevated risk of exposure.

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Johns Hopkins Measures Social Distancing by Twitter Use
Campus Technology
Rhea Kelly
April 8, 2020

Johns Hopkins University (JHU) researchers are employing Twitter data to determine whether social distancing is having an impact on the COVID-19 pandemic. The team developed a Twitter Social Mobility Index that uses geotagged data to compare the movement of Americans from March 16 through March 29 to their movements from Jan. 1 through March 16. Preliminary analysis of almost 400 million tweets from 3.7 million users indicated that travel reductions were most profound in states with social distancing measures in place, while the movement of people across the country has declined 49% since social distancing was imposed on March 16. JHU's Mark Dredze said, "We want to continue to track this to see if people's movement will continue to drop or if people will people get fed up with staying home and start moving around again. Understanding these behaviors will be important for decision-makers and public health researchers."

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For Addicts in Recovery, Technology Preserves Bonds Despite COVID-19 Crisis
U.S. News & World Report
Dennis Thompson
April 7, 2020

Technology offers ways for addicts in recovery programs to maintain communication and emotional ties while enduring isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online meetings are one tool, and Frankie Tack of West Virginia University said, "The number of virtual supports out there that are springing up are really heartening. What we want is to encourage people to feed a positive recovery-focused process, even in these weird circumstances." NYU Langone Health's Lipi Roy said addiction programs also are using digital therapeutics apps prescribed by physicians to help patients monitor cravings and triggers, and reward their efforts; doctors track data from the apps and provide patients with feedback.

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Reporting for Coronavirus Duty: Robots That Go Where Humans Fear to Tread
The Wall Street Journal
Christopher Mims
April 4, 2020

Hundreds of engineers, scientists, and software developers worldwide are working to build a robotic army to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Robots can sanitize floors and other surfaces, scan for fevers, and enforce mask-wearing, among other tasks. Many of these robots are being equipped with high-frequency UVC lights to sanitize rooms before humans enter in an effort to protect medical personnel, patients, and cleaning staff. Because these robots require minimal human oversight, they can be used by hospitals, warehouses, and other facilities to disinfect more frequently. However, humans are still required to clean door handles, elevator buttons, and similar hard surfaces because of the required level of dexterity and maneuverability.

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