Welcome to the June 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.

Wearable Tech Can Spot Coronavirus Symptoms Before You Even Realize You're Sick
The Washington Post
Geoffrey A. Fowler
May 28, 2020

The initial findings of two academic studies suggest data from wearable devices can detect coronavirus symptoms before users realize they are ill. Researchers at West Virginia University (WVU) and the University of California, San Francisco are separately studying the Oura wireless health-tracking ring, while the Scripps Research biomedical research institute is using the Apple Watch and other trackers to investigate whether their heart readings can detect coronavirus or other viral infections. The WVU team said Oura ring data, combined with an application that measures cognition and other symptoms, can predict when people will register a fever, coughing, or shortness of breath up to three days in advance.

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Self-Isolating? Get Fit Faster with Multi-Ghost Racing
University of Bath
May 18, 2020

Researchers at the University of Bath's REal and Virtual Environments Augmentation Labs in the U.K. tested a virtual reality (VR) exergame in which home-bound cyclists raced versions of themselves. Each virtual opponent was either a replay (ghost) of the exergamer from a previous performance, or a model of future performance. Over a four-week study period, the researchers found game participants increased their power output twice as much by racing ghosts compared to solitary racing. Bath's Christof Lutteroth said, "We think this offers exciting possibilities for motivating rapid performance improvement in exergames, and may also apply to other types of activities."

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Now Google Wants You to Control Devices With Your Hoodie
ZDNet
Daphne Leprince-Ringuet
May 18, 2020

Google's artificial intelligence research team has developed an "e-textile" concept that could enable electronic devices to be controlled by the strings of a hoodie. The team's smart cord operates via twisting, flicking, sliding, pinching, grabbing, and patting. Some of these movements can be performed at different speeds and in different directions, to which the technology can provide a greater variety of response. The smart cord features eight sensor threads that each generate an electric field which, when disrupted, can detect objects like the user's hand. The cord can differentiate between different types of interaction, as it can sense proximity, contact area, contact time, roll, and pressure.

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Designing Technologies That Interpret Your Mood From Your Skin
Lancaster University
May 27, 2020

A team of researchers from Lancaster University in the U.K. and Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology has developed a method for interpreting biological signals produced by the conductance of skin. Skin conductance is a measure of how much someone sweats, and could be used to gauge a person's stress level or track their emotions, among other things. The prototype visualization system, known as Affective Health, aims to help users interpret and reflect on the data extracted from sensors on the skin, which is displayed on their smartphones in colorful spiral graphics. Said Lancaster’s Corina Sas, "The study revealed insights for designers of emerging wearable technologies, and in particular of biodata-based wearable devices."

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Feeling Covid-19 Stress? Video Games Could Be the Cure
University of Saskatchewan
May 4, 2020

Computer scientists at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) in Canada have developed an in-game social anxiety measure for multi-player online role-playing games. The team found that video gamers with social anxiety showed substantial mental health benefits from playing inherently social video games, because the games allow the players to connect more easily with others, feel more social competent, and perceive the game world as less broken than the real world. In a separate study, the USask researchers used computer modeling to help determine when games can help contribute to well-being and when they can lead to "problematic gaming" that can cause mental harm. The team concluded players' in-game behavior can predict with nearly 80% accuracy whether a particular social interaction is likely to be positive or negative.

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3D Breakthrough: Now Anyone Can Print an Interactive Model of the Brain
University of Copenhagen
May 12, 2020

Computer scientists at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) in Denmark have created a technique that permits anyone to print three-dimensional (3D) interactive objects, including models of the brain, for use as educational tools. The AirTouch method uses an air compressor and pneumatic sensors to make otherwise static objects interactive. Said UCHP's Carlos Eduardo Tejada, "We blow air into 3D-printed objects by way of tiny hoses with small openings that inject air and sense external pressure using a computer." Said Tejada, "The wild thing about our technique is that, in principle, anyone can use it to print objects and make them interactive.”

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Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in HCI
Carnegie Mellon University
May 11, 2020

A new undergraduate degree in human-computer interaction (HCI), among the first of its kind in the U.S., will be offered at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science this fall. The university said graduates of the program will have a strong foundational knowledge of computer science, as well as the skills needed to develop digital technologies that solve problems and benefit people. Said Vincent Aleven of the university’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, "The HCI field has grown tremendously, and it now seems right to view it as its own area of expertise, instead of an amalgam of other disciplines.”

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Gender Bias Doesn’t Affect How We View Robots
Futurity.org
Ben Brumfield
May 8, 2020

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) found that while gender bias may not affect people's perception of whether robots are competent at their jobs, people are also not very good at judging what robots can do well regardless of which gender they are assigned. As part of an experiment, humanoid robots introduced themselves via a video to randomly recruited online survey respondents. Those respondents, asked to rank the robots' career competencies, only trusted the machines to perform a few simple jobs competently. In total, 200 people across two studies thought robots would fail as nannies, therapists, nurses, firefighters, and comedians. However, the respondents felt confident robots could be package deliverers, receptionists, servers, and tour guides. Said Georgia Tech’s Ayanna Howard, "Developers should not force gender on robots. People are going to gender according to their own experiences. Give the user that right. Don’t reinforce gender stereotypes."

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Soft Exosuit Makes Stroke Survivors Walk Faster, Farther
Wyss Institute at Harvard
Benjamin Boettner
May 11, 2020

A team of mechanical and electrical engineers, apparel designers, and neurorehabilitation experts at Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Boston University's College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences: Sargent College has advanced an ankle-assisting soft robotic exosuit for the rehabilitation of stroke survivors. The device targets the limbs during distinct phases of the gait cycle, and delivers mechanical power to the ankles through a cable-based mechanism. With its own battery and motor, the device was able to boost the walking speed of six hemiparetic stroke survivors by an average 0.14 meters per second. When asked to walk as far as they could in six minutes, all six could go 32 meters farther, on average, with one patient traveling more than 100 meters farther than he previously could.

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Sony Shows Off Research on Next-Gen Finger-Tracked VR Controllers
Venture Beat
Jamie Feltham
May 9, 2020

Sony researchers are showcasing their progress on next-generation virtual reality (VR) motion controllers equipped with finger tracking. A video and accompanying research paper detailed a prototype controller with sensors that can distinguish between when a user is gripping the device with all their fingers and when they lift individual fingers away. This movement is mimicked in a virtual hand, enabling deeper hand presence in VR. No external vision is required to track the fingers' position, and the controllers' performance is impressive in simulated scenarios with sweaty hands and hands fitted with rings and watches. The video and paper hint at the possibility that finger tracking will be a key feature of future Sony motion controllers for a PlayStation Move 2 VR device.

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Study Finds Decision-Making Algorithms Do Not Improve Lives in Child Welfare System
Milwaukee Independent
May 6, 2020

A review and analysis of 50 peer-reviewed publications on algorithms by researchers at Marquette University and the University of Central Florida found that decision-making algorithms used by states in the U.S. Child Welfare System (CWS) do not improve the quality of life of foster children. The researchers found that CWS computer models for determining placement and predicting maltreatment risk perform poorly, as regression models aim to omit statistical outliers—cases of severe abuse and neglect—to improve predictive power. Based on their findings, the study team urged a human-centered framework that actively engages stakeholders, embeds more comprehensive predictors, and concentrates on outcomes that improve foster children's lives rather than mitigating risk.

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Robot Vacuum Conveys 7 Dwarf Personalities by Movement Alone
Oregon State University News
May 4, 2020

A study by Oregon State University (OSU) researchers demonstrated that people can deduce a robot's personality by its movements alone, using a vacuum cleaner programmed with the personalities of three of the Seven Dwarfs from "Snow White." The team outfitted a Neato Botvac vacuum robot with movement patterns inspired by the personas of Happy, Sleepy, and Grumpy. Study participants rated the politeness, friendliness, and intelligence of each robot motion demo after trials that illustrated each of the motion personalities. They also unexpectedly inferred intelligence from motion behaviors, suggesting that people might trust autonomous systems more or less based on their movements. OSU's Heather Knight said study participants “were able to distinguish the motion-based personas, which bodes well for the integration of robot personality into simple robots.”

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Going Viral: Coronavirus Computer Game Teaches Children Social Distancing
Reuters
Emma Bartha
May 13, 2020

Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K. has launched a computer game to teach children social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Wiseman co-created the game "Can You Save the World?" with designer Martin Jacob; they think schools and health authorities could use the game to encourage the practice of social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Players control an avatar through an increasingly busy street and "save lives" by dodging pedestrians, cyclists, and people sneezing, who are surrounded by exclusion zones. Players also can pick up and drop off masks for health workers. The goal is to save as many lives as possible, and as the game progresses, the score starts accelerating to show how protecting oneself protects others. Said Wiseman, "It seems to me probably more effective than some of the scary announcements we're getting because it gets in under the radar, particularly with kids."

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Voice-Controlled Tech to Grow as People Seek 'No Touch' Choices
Voice of America (NY)
May 13, 2020

Experts think that the coronavirus pandemic could hasten the growth of voice-controlled technology, which some people increasingly favor over physical touch. ABI Research's Jonathan Collins said voice-activated systems in homes can help people avoid touching common surfaces to control smartphones, TVs, lighting, doors, and heating systems. Meanwhile, Avi Greengart at market research company Techsponential predicts a wider choice of business applications for voice technologies as companies confront new health and safety issues, including voice-activated solutions and motion sensor-driven lighting control. Futuresource Consulting's Julian Issa attributes the increasing use of voice assistants to the fact that people are spending much more time with their devices while staying home, rather than out of a desire to avoid touching surfaces. Experts also anticipate the expanding use of voice assistants in industries that deal with large numbers of people each day, like healthcare facilities, large retail businesses, and entertainment companies.

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