Welcome to the March 2023 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.

Gregory Abowd Wins Computer-Human Interaction Field's 'Lifetime Research Award'
Northeastern Global News
Tanner Stening
February 17, 2023

Gregory D. Abowd, dean of Northeastern University's College of Engineering, has been named to receive the ACM Special Interest Group for Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) "Lifetime Research Award" for research in human-computer interaction. During his tenure at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Abowd researched the "inventions and application" of ubiquitous computing technologies. His career has focused on how the spread of computing impacts society in areas including classrooms, households, and healthcare. Abowd's classroom efforts explored tapping emerging technologies to augment the learning experience more seamlessly. He also founded the "Aware Home Research Initiative," which aimed to "develop the requisite technologies to create a home environment that can both perceive and assist its occupants." The SIGCHI awards announcement page can be found at https://sigchi.org/sigchi-awards-2023/.

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Human Augmentation with Robotic Body Parts At Hand, Say Scientists
The Guardian (U.K.)
Nicola Davis
March 2, 2023

Researchers at the U.K.'s Cambridge University have developed a three-dimensionally printed thumb that can be added to the human hand to increase productivity. Instead of a mounted device, the researchers created a robotic appendage that builds on the body's existing capabilities to allow for more precise control. The robotic thumb is connected to two wrist-based motors that are attached to a battery and microcontroller on the upper arm and wirelessly connected to microcontrollers on the shoes or ankles, with pressure sensors under the big toes controlling the thumb. Cambridge's Dani Clode said, "[It's] a layer on the body that can be used with the least amount of impact as possible for the most amount of gain."

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12-Year-Old Creates Computer Program After 'Chance Encounter' Fleeing Ukraine
News4Jax
Jennifer Waugh
February 27, 2023

The North Florida Regional Science and Engineering Fair named 12-year-old Jacksonville student Viktoriia Galushchak the first-place Computer Science award recipient for her development of a program that converts sign language into letters. Galushchak was inspired by the experience of fleeing Ukraine with her family last year, when a deaf/mute couple helped them find a hostel in Romania. “I was inspired by that situation because I understand that there are a lot of deaf, mute people in the world and sometimes it’s complicated to communicate with them, especially with people who do not speak sign language,” said Viktoriia. Her program allows someone who is deaf/mute to sign into any device with a camera. Galushchak also received the President's Award, the Lemelson Early Inventor Prize, and an invitation to the annual Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge.

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First Wearable Device for Vocal Fatigue Senses When Your Voice Needs a Break
Northwestern Now
Amanda Morris
February 20, 2023

A wireless smart device for measuring voice use developed by Northwestern University researchers can alert users to overuse, in order to prevent vocal fatigue and potential injury. The battery-powered tool adheres to the sternum to perceive vibrations associated with speaking and singing. Data can be streamed to users' smartphones or tablets via Bluetooth so they can track and quantify cumulative vocal usage. The application allows users to set individualized vocal thresholds, which trigger haptic alerts when they approach those thresholds. Explained Northwestern's John A. Rogers, "Being aware of [the amplitude and frequency for speaking and singing], both at a given instant and cumulatively over time, is essential for managing healthy patterns of vocalization."

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Government Aide Says It Knows What Voters Want. It's an AI Bot
The Washington Post
Leo Sands
March 2, 2023

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered government aide that calls itself "Ion," claiming the bot can interpret and communicate the opinions of the populace. Officials say Ion will help ministers craft policies that align more with voters' desires, and eventually will be able to make its own proposals. Romania's minister of research Sebastian Burduja said the bot employs AI and natural language processing to automatically identify opinions published on social media or posted to a newly established portal; it synthesizes posters' thoughts into categories prioritized by importance, and sends the data to decision-makers. Ion also speaks; Burduja said it can combine thousands of audio submissions into a Romanian accent.

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CityU Develops Wireless, Soft E-Skin for Interactive Touch Communication
City University of Hong Kong
February 23, 2023

A multi-institutional research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) scientists developed a wireless, soft electronic skin (e-skin) with the potential to augment distance touch communication. The e-skin integrates an array of flexible actuators, a microcontroller unit, and a Bluetooth module within a device resembling a skin patch. The actuators enable touch sensing and haptic feedback based on electromagnetic induction, emitting electrical signals for tactile perception to corresponding actuators in another e-skin patch. Said CityU's Yu Xinge, "Our e-skin can communicate with Bluetooth devices and transmit data through the Internet with smartphones and computers to perform ultralong-distance touch transmission, and to form a touch Internet of Things system, where one-to-one and one-to-multiple touch delivery could be realized."

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Metaverse Becoming a Popular Tool to Teach Black History
NBC News
Claretta Bellamy
February 16, 2023

Institutions, creatives, and educators are using virtual reality (VR) and other technologies to offer more comprehensive Black history education. This year, Morehouse College rolled out its first metaverse-based Black history course, immersing students in virtualized events. Creatives also are collaborating with companies like Meta to help tell Black heritage narratives. For example, in February 2022, artist Gabe Gault launched the "I Am A Man" VR tribute to Black figures like Martin Luther King, featuring digital recreations of historic sites such as the hotel where King was assassinated. The Route History museum in Springfield, IL, in May will launch a metaverse experience where visitors can view the world through the eyes of Black characters traveling along Route 66.

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Digital Markers Near-Perfect for Predicting Dementia
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
February 23, 2023

An algorithm developed by Columbia University researchers can be used to predict mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older drivers. The algorithm analyzes data collected through in-vehicle recording devices in real-world settings to assess driving behavior, performance, and tempo-spatial patterns. Using data on 2,977 drivers taking part in the Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) study, the researchers developed 200 variable modules on the driver, the vehicle, and the environment. The researchers determined the ensemble learning model outperformed traditional machine learning models and found that the right-to-left turn ratio and the number of hard braking events were the most influential driving variables.

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Breaking New Ground, Video Game Engages with Holocaust
France 24
February 28, 2023

Los Angeles-based game developer Luc Bernard has created what he calls the first video game to provide an accurate portrayal of the Holocaust. In "The Light in the Darkness," players become members of a Jewish family living under the Vichy regime in wartime France who are arrested during the 1943 Vel' d'Hiv roundup in Paris and sent to the Pithiviers internment camp. Bernard said the game is akin to an interactive film, but the player has no control over the ultimate storyline. For his research, Bernard consulted the archives of the Holocaust museums in Los Angeles and Washington and spoke with Holocaust survivors. An update to the game will include some of the survivors' experiences. Said Bernard, "My goal is to get more developers interested to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive."

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Real or Fake Text? We Can Learn to Spot the Difference
Penn Engineering Today
Devorah Fischler
February 27, 2023

Computer scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) have demonstrated that people can train themselves to distinguish between human-written and machine-generated text. SEAS' Chris Callison-Burch said, "Over time, given enough examples and explicit instruction, we can learn to pick up on the types of errors that machines are currently making." SEAS' Liam Dugan said such mistakes include errors in common sense, relevance, reasoning, and logic. The researchers applied data collated using the Web-based training game "Real or Fake Text?," showing participants examples that start as human-written, then transition into machine-generated text. Trainees achieved better detection scores than random chance, indicating artificial intelligence-authored text is, to some degree, perceptible.

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Hands-Free Tech Adds Realistic Sense of Touch in Extended Reality
Rice University News
Jade Boyd
February 22, 2023

New multisensory pseudo-haptic technology integrates a virtual reality (VR) headset's visual feedback and a mechanical bracelet's tactile sensations to make touch in extended reality environments more realistic. Researchers at Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine, and Meta Reality Labs combined pseudo-haptic visual cues with coordinated tactile sensations from Meta's Tasbi bracelet, which squeezes and vibrates the wrist in conjunction with VR movements. Rice's Marcia O'Malley said pseudo-haptics work by creating discrepancies between the brain's kinesthetic perception of where the hand should be when it moves, and the eye's perception of the hand's location. O'Malley explained, "What is most interesting about pseudo-haptics is that you can create these sensations without hardware encumbering the hands."

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Integrating Humans with AI in Structural Design
MIT News
David L. Chandler
March 2, 2023

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Dat Ha and Josephine Carstensen have developed a process for optimizing artificial intelligence-produced structural design by adding human feedback. The Human-Informed Topology Optimization process starts by establishing required specifications. Carstensen said the design model's evolution from those initial specs is periodically interrupted for user judging and tweaking, which the algorithm incorporates. "What we can show is that instead of using several hours to get something, we can use 10 minutes and get something much better than where we started off," explained Carstensen. The system can be used to optimize designs based on any desired characteristics.

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Scientists Find People Use Emojis to Hide, Show Their Feelings
Frontiers Science News
Angharad Brewer Gillham
March 3, 2023

Scientists at Japan's University of Tokyo (UOT) asked 1,289 emoji users to respond to online chat messages and report their feelings and emoji use. UOT's Moyu Liu found respondents expressed more emotions with emojis in private contexts or with close friends; they also used emojis to conceal their feelings when engaged with higher-status individuals. Intense emotional expressions correlated with matching emojis, unless people felt they had to hide their true emotions. They used negative emojis only where negative feelings were particularly intense, while the researchers associated such expression with higher subjective well-being compared to masking emotions. Said Liu, "With online socializing becoming ever more prevalent, it is important to consider whether it is causing us to become more detached from our true emotions."

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