Welcome to the March 2021 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.

Tech Firms Train Voice Assistants to Understand Atypical Speech
The Wall Street Journal
Katie Deighton
February 24, 2021

A number of technology companies are trying to train voice assistants like Alexa to understand everyone, including people with speech disabilities. Some firms have invested in voice accessibility after noting that people with dysarthria (a disorder caused by weakening speech muscles) may especially benefit. Google is compiling data for its Project Euphonia initiative, testing a prototype application to help people with atypical speech communicate with Google Assistant and smart Google Home products. Ecommerce giant Amazon is working with Israeli startup Voiceitt on an integration for Alexa that will enable those with atypical speech to operate Alexa devices by speaking into the Voiceitt app.

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Soft Robots Use Camera, Shadows to Sense Human Touch
Cornell Chronicle
David Nutt
February 8, 2021

Cornell University researchers have developed an inexpensive, touch-free method for soft robots to sense physical interactions with humans, by having a camera inside the robot capture the shadow movements of hand gestures on the robot's skin. The ShadowSense technology uses machine learning software to classify these movements. The prototype robot has a soft inflatable bladder of nylon skin stretched around a cylindrical skeleton mounted on a mobile base, while a Universal Serial Bus camera that connects to a laptop is planted beneath the skin. A neural network-based algorithm employs previously recorded training data to differentiate between six touch gestures with 87.5% to 96% accuracy, depending on the lighting. Cornell's Guy Hoffman suggested ShadowSense's technical limitations "could actually spark a new approach to social robot design that would support a visual touch sensor like the one we proposed."

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Artificial Emotional Intelligence: A Safer, Smarter Future With 5G, Emotion Recognition
Incheon National University (South Korea)
February 1, 2021

Researchers at South Korea's Incheon National University have developed a 5G-enabled, artificial intelligence (AI)-based system that recognizes emotion using wireless signals and body movement. The virtual emotion recognition system, 5G-I-VEmoSYS, detects at least five types of emotion: joy, pleasure, a neutral state, sadness, and anger. It features three subsystems focused on the detection, flow, and mapping of human emotions. The AI-Virtual Emotion Barrier detects emotion through wireless signals reflected from a human subject, while the AI-Virtual Emotion Flow facilitates the flow of specific emotion information at a specific time to a specific area. The AI-Virtual Emotion Map develops a map using this data that can be used for threat detection and crime prevention.

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What Might Sheep, Driverless Cars Have in Common? Following the Herd.
USC Viterbi News
Amy Blumenthal
February 24, 2021

University of Southern California (USC) computer scientists demonstrated a herd mentality when individuals with autonomous vehicles were told their peers were more likely to risk their own safety by programming their cars to hit a wall, rather than pedestrians. Four simulations explored how driverless car operators would contend with life-and-death decisions, with the first three focused on human behavior in a scenario where the vehicle would have to be programmed to either hit a wall or five pedestrians. Participants based their decisions on the severity of injury to self and the risk to others; the greater the risk to pedestrians, the more likely participants would sacrifice their own safety. The fourth scenario involved telling participants their peers would risk their personal safety in the same situation, causing the percentage of those willing to do so to increase from 30% to 50%.

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Stanford Researchers Identify 4 Causes for ‘Zoom Fatigue’ and Simple Fixes
Stanford News
Vignesh Ramachandran
February 23, 2021

Stanford University's Jeremy Bailenson reveals four main reasons behind Zoom fatigue in the first peer-reviewed article to consider the psychological impact of spending hours on video-calling interfaces. Bailenson suggests that video chats make users weary because everyone is starting at everyone and their faces appear too large. He recommends exiting out of the full-screen option and using an external keyboard to create a space between themselves and the screen. Other explanations for Zoom fatigue are the negative emotional consequences of seeing yourself in a mirror, that users are forced to sit for the duration of the call, and that it is difficult to see body language and communicate accordingly. To overcome these challenges, Bailenson suggests using the "hide self-view" button, using an external camera farther from the screen, and periodically turning off video during meetings. Stanford researchers also created the Zoom Exhaustion & Fatigue Scale to help measure workplace exhaustion.

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Robotic Glove Improves Muscle Grip
Evening Standard (U.K.)
Sean Morrison
February 16, 2021

The first product from Scottish startup BioLiberty is a robotic glove that helps to increase the user’s muscle grip, through the use of artificial intelligence. The glove uses electromyography to measure electrical activity in response to a nerve's stimulation of the muscle; an algorithm converts that perception of the wearer's intended action into force. This enables wearers suffering from hand weakness to hold an item, open jars, and more. BioLiberty's Ross O'Hanlon said, "We wanted to support independent living and healthy aging by enabling individuals to live more comfortably in their own homes for longer. While there are many gadgets on the market that address a specific grip challenge such as tools to help open jars, I wanted an all-encompassing solution to support a range of daily tasks.”

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Smart Speakers Could Hear Your Heart Beating From Across the Room
New Scientist
Matthew Sparkes
February 2, 2021

Researchers at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA) have developed a system that allows computers to emit ultrasound waves and analyze changes in those waves as they are reflected in a room, similar to how bats perform echolocation. The investigators used a laptop linked to a speaker to emit ultrasonic chirps as a standard microphone recorded signals reflected by objects in the room. Changes in the reflected audio could be used to map any movement in the room, down to the level of detecting a person's chest expanding and contracting during breathing. Pulse rate also can be calculated, because the system can detect the smaller chest movements induced by heartbeats, and can distinguish between the heartbeats of multiple individuals.

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Apple Tests Way to Unlock iPhone Without Removing Face Mask
CNN
Samantha Murphy Kelly
February 2, 2021

Apple is testing new iOS software that will let people unlock their iPhone's face recognition security application without having to remove their facial covering, as long as they also are wearing an Apple Watch. The Face ID app currently recognizes when someone is wearing a mask and summons the passcode entry screen, but the latest update allows the iPhone to communicate with a synced Apple Watch when the phone is raised to use Face ID. The iPhone will automatically unlock when authentication is completed, causing the smartwatch to vibrate. Apple said this will be an opt-in feature, and the update will only function to unlock the phone. The update aims to support mask wearing during the pandemic and potentially to incentivize Apple customers to purchase a smartwatch, or to use one they already own more often.

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GovLab at NYU Tandon Releases Report on the Impact of Online Communities, Role of Their Leaders
NYU Tandon School of Engineering
February 23, 2021

A study by the New York University Tandon School of Engineering's Governance Lab (GovLab) described the role of online groups in creating opportunities for people to form new communities. The report was based on queries of 50 Facebook community leaders in 17 countries, 26 academic and industry experts, access to Facebook's underlying research, and a YouGov survey of 15,000 members of online and in-person communities in 15 countries. Most YouGov poll respondents in 11 countries said the online communities they belong to were the most meaningful to them. The GovLab report found that online groups remain a fluid form of organization that often attract members and leaders on society's margins; the flexibility of online platforms also allows the emergence of new kinds of community leaders, who can moderate often-divisive dialogues. The report cited three vital traits common to leaders of such groups: openness to different opinions, visibility and skilled communication, and consistent ethical behavior.

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Who Should Stop Unethical AI?
The New Yorker
Matthew Hutson
February 15, 2021

Computer scientists increasingly face ethical questions related to artificial intelligence (AI) research. ACM SIGCHI has a research-ethics committee that reviews (and offers non-binding opinions on) papers submitted to SIGCHI conferences at the request of program chairs. Said the University of Maryland's Katie Shilton, chair of the committee, "Increasingly, we do see, especially in the AI space, more and more questions of, ‘should this kind of research even be a thing?’" Shilton said it is easier to determine whether research methods are ethical than to consider the ethical aspects of a technology's potential downstream effects. Questions about possible impacts generally fall into one of four categories, according to Shilton: AI that could be weaponized against populations; technologies that can "harden people into categories that don't fit well" like gender or sexual orientation; automated-weapons research; and tools "to create alternate sets of reality."

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