Welcome to the September 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.

Bionic Hand Can Be Updated with New Gestures
Reuters
Paul Sandle
August 16, 2022

A bionic hand developed by researchers at U.K. prosthetics company Covvi can be updated remotely via an app. The company partnered with NetApp to collect anonymized data for every user. The Nexus bionic hand is unique in its ability to talk to a single device. Said Covvi's Simon Pollard, "The fact we can change some of the things that the customer wants remotely is a really powerful thing and a first to market." Australian Paralympian Jessica Smith, who was born without a left hand, was fitted with a Nexus hand in April. Smith said Covvi was creating new hand gestures for her, noting, "I asked Covvi this morning, and I know that will be done in the next couple of hours."

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Encrypted, One-Touch, Human-Machine Interface Technology Unveils User Physiology
UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
August 8, 2022

One-touch human-machine interface (HMI) technology developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University can provide information about the user’s blood composition, including metabolites, hormones, nutrients, and pharmaceuticals, along with heart rate and blood oxygen data. The technology integrates hydrogel-coated chemical sensors that detect molecules on the skin through perspiration with other biosensors and a fingerprint scanner. The researchers also developed algorithms to analyze the data. Said UCLA's Sam Emaminejad, "Importantly, it also can encrypt the data at the point of collection by leveraging the individual's unique fingerprint as a key, so the collected data remain secure and private."

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Man Sets Record for Wearing a Brain-Computer Interface
Wired
Emily Mullin
August 17, 2022

Nathan Copeland has been wearing a brain-computer interface (BCI) for over seven years and three months, the longest record to date for such an implant. An electrode installed in Copeland's motor cortex enables the paralyzed man to control external devices, including a computer, videogames, and a robotic arm, by thought. University of Pittsburgh researchers implanted a Utah array in Copeland to capture and record activity from hundreds of neurons, while a cable extends from a pedestal on his head to an external device that amplifies his neural signals, and a computer runs software to decode those signals. The long-term operation of Copeland's BCI without major side effects or complications reflects the devices' momentum toward commercial deployment in severely disabled patients.

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Study Combines Lithophane, 3D Printing to Make Data Accessible Regardless of Level of Eyesight
Baylor University
August 17, 2022

Researchers led by Baylor University chemists integrated the old-fashioned art-form of lithophane with three-dimensional (3D) printing to render data as glowing tactile graphics, allowing sighted and visually impaired users to perceive the data. The researchers 3D-printed lithophanes using free online software to transform two-dimensional images into 3D topographs. Participants interpreted five lithophane forms—gel electropherograms, micrographs, electronic and mass spectra, and textbook illustrations—by tactile perception or eyesight, with 79% overall accuracy. Baylor's Chad Dashnaw suggested the technology could help make the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields more accessible to blind persons. "This research is an example of art making science more accessible and inclusive," said Baylor's Bryan Shaw. "Art is rescuing science from itself."

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Toe-Tapping Test Evaluates Fall Risk in Parkinson's Patients
Texas A&M Engineering News
Michelle Revels
August 25, 2022

Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed a test for Parkinson's disease that records information from patients’ smart shoe insoles to help ascertain falling risk and symptom progression. The patient performs a series of toe-tapping patterns while the insole gathers and transfers data in real time to a phone application. Analysis indicated the toe-tapping tests can generate results that are nearly as accurate as walking tests, which rate a patient's risk of falling based on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Said Texas A&M's Ya Wang, "From just toe-tapping, the application can tell whether a symptom is being managed appropriately and whether the management, such as physical therapy or medication, is effective."

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From Mecca to the Vatican, Exploring Sacred Sites with VR
Associated Press
Luis Andres Henao
August 5, 2022

Virtual reality (VR) technology increasingly is being used to tour, and even worship, at sacred sites. HCXR and Blimey, for example, have produced an immersive VR experience called The Holy City, which allows users to virtually visit sacred Christian, Islamic, and Jewish sites in Jerusalem. Said HCXR and Blimey's Nimrod Shanit, "We believe that virtual reality is, if you like, the new Internet, the new way for people not to watch things passively on the screen and just to click on photos and videos, but to actually teleport themselves." Meanwhile, BSocial's Experience Makkah employs three-dimensional (3D) modeling to enable users to experience holy sites in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Vatican offers a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel on its website, created in collaboration with computer science students at Pennsylvania’s Villanova University.

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Earbuds May Soon Detect Ear Infections, Other Ailments
University at Buffalo News Center
Cory Nealon
August 3, 2022

A multi-institutional team of researchers led by the University at Buffalo has created a method of using earbuds to diagnose ear infections and other ear ailments. The EarHealth system couples Bluetooth earbuds with a smartphone outfitted with a deep learning platform. EarHealth transmits a chirp through the earbuds of a healthy user, recording its reverberation throughout the ear canals to generate a profile of the user's inner ear architecture. Subsequent chirps monitor each ear for earwax blockage, ruptured eardrums, and otitis media, which each possess a unique audio signature that the deep learning system can detect fairly accurately. The researchers said EarHealth detected ailments with 82.6% accuracy in 92 users, including 27 healthy individuals, 22 patients with a ruptured eardrum, 25 with otitis media, and 18 with earwax blockage.

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Sensor-Laden Vest Continuously Monitors Wearer's Lungs
New Atlas
Ben Coxworth
August 3, 2022

Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research organization have developed a vest that continuously monitors the lung functions of patients with respiratory problems, such as COVID-19. The Pneumo.Vest is equipped with piezoceramic acoustic sensors to detect any noise made by the lungs; the sensors help to identify exactly where in the lungs a noise is being generated. Custom software records and analyzes sensor readings and generates an image of the lungs, highlighting problem areas. The images are accessible via mobile device or a secure online server. Said Fraunhofer's Ralf Schallert, "Auscultation (listening to the chest with a stethoscope) or even CT [computed tomography] scans of the lungs only ever present a snapshot at the time of the examination. Our technology provides added value because it allows for the lungs to be monitored continuously."

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Researchers Launch Global Dashboard to Track Invasive Mosquitoes Carrying Deadly Diseases
University of South Florida Newsroom
August 2, 2022

A mosquito-tracking dashboard developed by University of South Florida (USF) researchers is part of a larger project to help reduce the threat of mosquito-borne diseases worldwide. The Global Mosquito Observations Dashboard integrates data from three apps that feature mosquito photos taken by citizen scientists: Mosquito Alert, NASA's GLOBE Observer, and iNaturalist. Said USF's Ryan Carney, "This tool will help mosquito control personnel to seek and destroy invasive species and monitor disease vectors on an international basis by leveraging the geo-reference computers people carry around in their pockets every day: their smartphones." The researchers found that citizen scientists successfully located vectors of Zika, yellow fever, dengue, and Chikungunya and provided the first U.S. observations of the invasive Aedes scapularis, which causes yellow fever.

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Experimental Surgical Robot Heads to the International Space Station
ScienceAlert
Matt Williams
August 9, 2022

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) developed a portable, miniaturized robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) platform that will be tested on the International Space Station in 2024. The Miniaturized In-vivo Robotic Assistant (MIRA) will enable doctors to perform minimally invasive operations via instruments that can be inserted through small incisions, as well as providing the ability to perform surgery remotely. John Murphy of Virtual Incision, a startup based at UNL's Nebraska Innovation Campus, said, "The Virtual Incision MIRA platform was designed to deliver the power of a mainframe [RAS] device in a miniaturized size, with the goal of making RAS accessible in any operating room on the planet. Working with NASA aboard the space station will test how MIRA can make surgery accessible in even the most faraway places."

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Wearables Take 'Logical' Step Toward Onboard Control
Rice University News
Mike Williams
August 30, 2022

A multi-institutional team of engineers has embedded textile-based pneumatic computers into garments using "fluidic digital logic" to generate bits. The researchers aspire to help functionally limited people through pneumatic actuators supported by textile-based logic gates, combined with an energy harvesting system. A laboratory led by Rice University's Daniel Preston tested the system on devices that assist users with physical motion, and an electricity-free system to lift and lower a hood for thermoregulation. The system relies on what Preston calls a mathematically designed kink geometry, deployed in pressure-controlled valves that block airflow. The valves are laminated into the textiles, and can tolerate 20,000 on-off cycles and 1 million flex cycles, as well as 20 cycles in a standard household washing machine.

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Hand Signals Help Overcome Zoom Fatigue in Online Meetings
University of Exeter (U.K.)
August 3, 2022

A study by researchers at the U.K.'s University of Exeter and University College London (UCL) revealed that hand signals can help individuals overcome online meeting fatigue and improve social connection. The study involved over 100 students divided into two groups, one of which was trained to use hand signals during online meetings, such as waving to take a turn speaking or raising a hand to express empathy. The researchers found participants in the group that used hand gestures reported feeling more connected to their peers, engaging in better interactions, and learning more than the group that did not use hand gestures. Said UCL's Daniel Richardson, "There have been attempts to use more technology to improve video conferencing, such as emojis and response buttons, but we found strong evidence that encouraging people to use more natural hand gestures had a much better effect on their experience."

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Sensor-Based Early Detection of Age-Related Diseases from Home
University of Bern (Switzerland)
August 30, 2022

Researchers at Switzerland's University of Bern and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital found that non-contact sensors could be used in the homes of seniors to facilitate early detection of health problems, allowing them to live independently longer and reduce their health care costs. The researchers collected over 1,200 health parameters using contactless motion sensors and sensors under the mattress, on the front door, and on the refrigerator. The sensors, connected to a base station that can issue alerts in an emergency, ensure privacy by not recording sound or video. Machine learning techniques were used to analyze the sensor data. Said the University of Bern's Tobias Nef, "We were able to show that such a systems approach–in contrast to the common use of a few health metrics–allows [us] to detect age-relevant health problems such as cognitive impairment, fall risk, or frailty surprisingly well."

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