Welcome to the July 2022 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.

Remote Brain-Computer Interface Could Be Game-Changer for the Paralyzed
The Hill
Joseph Guzman
June 21, 2022

Researchers at Blackrock Neurotech and the University of Pittsburgh have developed a remote brain-computer interface (BCI) for home use. This will enable researchers to study BCIs on a broader range of participants and to collect more safety and efficacy data. The device features a cellphone-sized box attached to a medical brace, which is lightweight and can be attached to a wheelchair. Participants can use the device to write emails or text messages and to perform computer tasks. Said Blackrock Neurotech's Florian Solzbacher, "Being able to run things at home with a portable at-home system participants can start, or maybe a caretaker with no more knowledge than the lay person can start, is a big step."

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Wrist-Worn Trackers Can Detect COVID Before Symptoms
The Guardian (U.K.)
Andrew Gregory
June 21, 2022

An international team of researchers found combining data from wrist-worn health trackers with artificial intelligence can diagnose COVID-19 before symptoms manifest. The scientists tested the Ava fertility-tracker bracelet, which monitors respiration, heart rate, heart rate variability, wrist skin temperature, and blood flow, on more than 1,100 people under 51 years of age, in Liechtenstein. The bracelets were synchronized with a smartphone application, and participants recorded alcohol ingestion or other activities that could affect the results, as well as possible COVID-19 symptoms. A total of 1.5 million hours of physiological data was recorded, which was used to confirm the presence of the virus in 127 people, 66 of whom had worn the bracelet for at least 29 straight days. The combined health tracker and algorithm correctly identified 68% of COVID-19-positive subjects two days before symptoms appeared.

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Blood Pressure E-Tattoo Promises Continuous, Mobile Monitoring
UT News
June 20, 2022

Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) and Texas A&M University have developed an electronic tattoo that can monitor blood pressure continuously, with greater accuracy than nearly all available commercial solutions. The wrist-worn e-tattoo incorporates graphene arranged in thin layers, encasing sensors. The device shoots an electrical current into the skin and analyzes the body's reaction to it, which correlates with blood pressure changes driven by changes in blood volume. The researchers created a machine learning model to analyze this link to produce accurate blood pressure readings. UT Austin's Deji Akinwande suggested the data collected by the e-tattoo and other mobile monitoring technologies "can help create a digital twin to model the human body, to predict and show how it might react and respond to treatments over time."

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'Exomuscle' Boosts Upper Body Strength, Endurance
Futurity.org
Peter Rüegg
June 23, 2022

A wearable textile exomuscle developed by researchers at Switzerland's ETH Zurich aims to boost the upper body strength and endurance of individuals with restricted mobility. The Myoshirt is a vest featuring upper arm cuffs embedded with sensors that detect the user's intended movements and the amount of force required to complete them. The user's desired movement is then supported as a motor shortens a cable in the fabric running parallel to their muscles, acting as an artificial tendon. In a test of 12 people—10 without physical impairments, one with muscular dystrophy, and one with a spinal cord injury—an increase in endurance of about 33% was seen in the healthy participants, along with an increase of about 60% in the participant with muscular dystrophy. All participants saw an increase in the length of time they could lift their arms and/or objects.

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Cloud Labs: Where Robots Do the Research
Nature
Carrie Arnold
June 13, 2022

Cloud laboratories, automated research environments run by robots, are attracting attention from academics and small startups, among others. Germano Coppola of the Australian biotechnology firm CSL Behring said such cloud labs offer "tremendous potential for scientists to generate a lot of data without even having to enter a lab." Carnegie Mellon University has invested $40 million in a partnership with Emerald Cloud Lab (ECL) to build a cloud lab in Pittsburgh, the first to be built in an academic setting. The ECL dashboard enables researchers to specify their desired experiments, configure the equipment, adjust as necessary, and receive live progress updates. The lowest subscription tier starts at $24,000 per month, which is less expensive than purchasing the lab equipment that would be required.

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Amazon Has a Plan to Make Alexa Mimic Voices
Reuters
Jeffrey Dastin
June 22, 2022

Amazon researchers are working on a system that would allow its Alexa voice assistant to mimic any voice after listening to less than a minute of audio. Amazon's Rohit Prasad said the aim is to "make the memories last" following the loss of so many loved ones during the pandemic. Prasad said the company's goal for Alexa is "generalizable intelligence," allowing Alexa to adapt to user environments and learn new concepts with minimal external input, which he said is "not to be confused with the all-knowing, all-capable, uber artificial general intelligence" being sought by DeepMind and OpenAI. Amazon promoted the new technology with a video of a child asking for their late grandmother to finish reading them "The Wizard of Oz," after which Alexa changed her voice accordingly. It remains uncertain when Amazon will launch the feature.

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Social Media Use Sheds Light on Dads' Mental Health
Deakin University (Australia)
June 17, 2022

A study by researchers at Australia's Deakin University found that fathers' social media posts before and after their child's birth could help identify those suffering from depression. The researchers analyzed thousands of posts on Reddit's fatherhood forums r/Daddit and r/PreDaddit to study posting behaviors during the perinatal period, during which fathers generally receive limited support for mental health. The researchers developed a machine learning algorithm that was nearly 70% accurate in predicting which fathers would use language indicating postpartum depression more frequently, based on their prepartum posting behavior. The researchers developed the Rover app to help new fathers minimize stress, anxiety, and depression. Said Deakin's Sam Teague, "Rather than expecting men to come to the clinic, we can bring the clinic to them."

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Let Your Mind Control the Computer
University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
June 23, 2022

Researchers at Denmark's University of Copenhagen and Finland's University of Helsinki developed technology that enables a computer to edit images based on a person's thoughts. The study involved 30 participants wearing hoods equipped with electrodes that map electrical brain signals. The participants were given 200 facial images and tasked with looking for female faces, older people, or those with blond hair, among other things. They looked at each image for just half a second before the computer would assess their brain activity, map the given preference, and edit the images accordingly so that pictures of younger people were modified to look older, for instance. Said University of Helsinki's Keith Davis, "Here, the brain activity of the subjects was the only input. This is an entirely new paradigm in artificial intelligence–using the human brain directly as the source of input."

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Smart Jumpsuit Tracks Infants' Motor Development
University of Helsinki (Finland)
June 17, 2022

Scientists at Finland's University of Helsinki and Helsinki Children's Hospital (HUS) have developed MAIJU (Motor Assessment of Infants with a Jumpsuit), a smart garment for evaluating infants' motor development. MAIJU is outfitted with multiple movement sensors, which help to assess and to anticipate children's neurological development. The researchers assessed five- to 19-month-old infants using the jumpsuit during spontaneous playtime. Their postures and movements were identified visually from videos using a custom-developed motility description scheme, and then the researchers trained a machine learning algorithm to identify the same postures and movements for each second of playtime. HUS' Sampsa Vanhatalo said the research demonstrates "that it is very possible to assess the motor development of an infant outside of a hospital or special laboratory setting."

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Computer Tool Can Track Stroke Rehabilitation to Boost Recovery
NYU Langone NewsHub
June 16, 2022

Research by New York University scientists rated the sensor-equipped PrimSeq computer tool's accuracy in monitoring people undergoing stroke rehabilitation. PrimSeq counts arm movements prescribed for stroke patients, who wear sensors on their arms and back to track motion in three dimensions during rehab exercises. The nine sensors recorded more than 51,616 upper body movements from 41 patients, and the researchers matched digital recordings of each arm movement to functional categories. They then programmed machine learning software to identify patterns within the data and associate them with specific movements. When tested on eight stroke patients as they performed various exercises, PrimSeq was 77% effective in identifying 12,545 arm movements.

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AI Detects Autism Speech Patterns Across Different Languages
Northwestern Now
Max Witynski
June 14, 2022

An international team led by Northwestern University researchers identified speech patterns in children with autism using machine learning. Although researchers have observed that children with autism typically talk more slowly and show differences in pitch, intonation, and rhythm, it has been difficult to consistently and objectively characterize these differences. The researchers used recordings of English- and Cantonese-speaking children, with and without autism, to train the algorithm. Said Northwestern's Joseph C.Y. Lau, "Using this method, we were able to identify features of speech that can predict the diagnosis of autism. The most prominent of those features is rhythm." Northwestern's Molly Losh added, "Just as interesting is the variability we observed, which may point to features of speech that are more malleable, and potentially good targets for intervention."

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Researchers Consider Invisible Hurdles in Digital Ag Design
Cornell University Chronicle
Patricia Waldron
June 22, 2022

A study by Cornell University researchers found that involving farmers in the early stages of designing digital agricultural systems and letting them make changes could help ensure the technology is ready to use in the field. Said Cornell's Gloire Rubambiza, "Despite good intentions, researchers often are not familiar with the diverse, daily challenges of farming or the specific applications their systems will have. We need to acknowledge that gap, so that we can have the intended impact for this technology on rural farms." Challenges in bringing digital agriculture to rural farms include frequent weather-related power outages and poor Internet coverage. The researchers found farmers benefit from more resilient systems if allowed to customize their digital agriculture setups. They also indicated farmers should be informed of problems encountered during the development stages.

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Humans in the Loop Help Robots Find Their Way
Rice University News
Mike Williams
June 15, 2022

The Bayesian Learning IN the Dark (BLIND) method devised by Rice University engineers permits humans to help robots perceive their surroundings and perform tasks. An algorithm keeps people in the loop to "augment robot perception and, importantly, prevent the execution of unsafe motion." The researchers integrated Bayesian inverse reinforcement learning with motion planning processes to help robots with many parts that move in different directions, or "high degrees of freedom." The method inserts a human mid-task to hone the trajectory suggested by the robot's algorithm, approving or rejecting each trajectory motion to avoid obstacles efficiently. Said researcher Carlos Quintero-Peña, “If you have more joints, instructions to the robot are complicated.”

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Researchers Perform Non-Line-of-Sight Ghost Imaging with Human Vision
Optica
June 28, 2022

Researchers at the U.K.'s University of Glasgow (U of G) demonstrated that combining ghost imaging with human vision can facilitate imaging of objects outside the line of sight. Ghost imaging correlates a projected light pattern that interacts with an object and a non-interacting reference pattern to generate an image of the object. The new method taps the human visual system dynamically by having a person view light patterns, rather than using a camera. The brain's visual response is recorded via electroencephalography and harnessed as feedback for an algorithm that determines how to reconfigure the projected light patterns, and reassembles the final image. "This is one of the first times that computational imaging has been performed by using the human visual system in a neurofeedback loop that adjusts the imaging process in real time," explained U of G's Daniele Faccio.

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