Now showing 1 - 10 of 15
  • Publication
    Pesky gNATs: Using Games to Support Mental Health Interventions for Adolescents
    This position paper gives a brief overview of a long- term and ongoing series of projects focused on the design and evaluation of computer games that can support mental health interventions with young adolescents. The work has its origins in a HCI project, but has evolved into a long-term interdisciplinary collaboration involving game designers, computer scientists and clinical psychologists, amongst others. It has resulted in a series of computer games and mobile apps that support a range of interventions including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety, mindfulness-based CBT, an extended intervention CBT for adolescents experiencing trauma, and a CBT intervention for adults with intellectual disabilities. The games and mobile apps have been widely distributed and have been evaluated through randomised controlled trials in clinical settings. Here we briefly describe each game; the overall design process, motivation, and theoretical background; the results of key evaluations; some of our core lessons.
      609
  • Publication
    Personal Investigator: a Therapeutic 3D Game for Teenagers
    (SIGCHI, 2004-04-29) ;
    This position paper describes the implementation and initial findings of a game called Personal Investigator (PI). PI is an online 3D detective game that implements a model of Brief Solution Focused Therapy (BSFT). It aims to help teenagers overcome mental health problems and engage with traditional mental health care services. It is predicted that the combination of goal-oriented gaming with a model of goal-oriented therapy will help to attract and sustain the interest of teenagers, a group that therapists often have difficulty engaging with. PI is the first game to integrate this established psychotherapy approach into an engaging online 3D game.
      349
  • Publication
    I Really did That: Sense of Agency with Touchpad, Keyboard, and On-skin Interaction
    Input on the skin is emerging as an interaction style. At CHI 2012, Coyle and colleagues identified an increase in the sense of agency (SoA) as one benefit of skin input. However, their study only compared skin input to button presses and has not, to our knowledge, been replicated. Therefore, we had 24 participants compare skin input to both button presses and touch-pad input, measuring SoA using the Libet Clock paradigm. We replicate previous findings regarding increased SoA in skin versus button input and also find that SoA for skin is significantly increased compared to touch-pad input. Interview data addressing subjective experience further support these findings. We discuss agency and the experiences associated with skin input, as well as differences to input with non-skin devices.
      336Scopus© Citations 28
  • Publication
    Empirical evidence for a diminished sense of agency in speech interfaces
    While the technology underlying speech interfaces has improved in recent years, our understanding of the human side of speech interactions remains limited. This paper provides new insight on one important human aspect of speech interactions: the sense of agency - defined as the experience of controlling one's own actions and their outcomes. Two experiments are described. In each case a voice command is compared with keyboard input. Agency is measured using an implicit metric: intentional binding. In both experiments we find that participants' sense of agency is significantly reduced for voice commands as compared to keyboard input. This finding presents a fundamental challenge for the design of effective speech interfaces. We reflect on this finding and, based on current theory in HCI and cognitive neuroscience, offer possible explanations for the reduced sense of agency observed in speech interfaces. 
      370Scopus© Citations 39
  • Publication
    Liveness Through the Lens of Agency and Causality
    Liveness is a well-known problem with Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs). When used in performances, DMIs provide less visual information than acoustic instruments, preventing the audience from understanding how the musicians influence the music. In this paper, we look at this issue through the lens of causality. More specifically, we investigate the attribution of causality by an external observer to a performer, relying on the theory of apparent mental causation. We suggest that the perceived causality between a performer’s gestures and the musical result is central to liveness. We present a framework for assessing attributed causality and agency to a performer, based on a psychological theory which suggests three criteria for inferred causality. These criteria then provide the basis of an experimental study investigating the effect of visual augmentations on audience’s inferred causality. The results provide insights on how the visual component of performances with DMIs impacts the audience’s causal inferences about the performer. In particular we show that visual augmentations help highlight the influence of the musician when parts of the music are automated, and help clarify complex mappings between gestures and sounds. Finally we discuss the potential wider implications for assessing liveness in the design of new musical interfaces.
      294
  • Publication
    Personalized, Health-Aware Recipe Recommendation: An Ensemble Topic Modeling Based Approach
    Food choices are personal and complex and have a significant impact on our long-term health and quality of life. By helping users to make informed and satisfying decisions, Recommender Systems (RS) have the potential to support users in making healthier food choices. Intelligent users-modeling is a key challenge in achieving this potential. This paper investigates Ensemble Topic Modelling (EnsTM) based Feature Identification techniques for efficient user-modeling and recipe recommendation. It builds on findings in EnsTM to propose a reduced data representation format and a smart user-modeling strategy that makes capturing user-preference fast, efficient and interactive. This approach enables personalization, even in a cold-start scenario. We compared three EnsTM based variations through a user study with 48 participants, using a large-scale, real-world corpus of 230,876 recipes, and compare against a conventional Content Based (CB) approach. EnsTM based recommenders performed significantly better than the CB approach. Besides acknowledging multi-domain contents such as taste, demographics and cost, our proposed approach also considers user’s nutritional preference and assists them finding recipes under diverse nutritional categories. Furthermore, it provides excellent coverage and enables implicit understanding of user’s food practices. Subsequent analysis also exposed correlation between certain features and healthier lifestyle.
      208
  • Publication
    What Can I Help You With?: Infrequent Users Experiences of Intelligent Personal Assistants
    Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) are widely available on devices such as smartphones. However, most people do not use them regularly. Previous research has studied the experiences of frequent IPA users. Using qualitative methods we explore the experience of infrequent users: people who have tried IPAs, but choose not to use them regularly. Unsurprisingly infrequent users share some of the experiences of frequent users, e.g. frustration at limitations on fully hands-free interaction. Significant points of contrast and previously unidentified concerns also emerge. Cultural norms and social embarrassment take on added significance for infrequent users. Humanness of IPAs sparked comparisons with human assistants, juxtaposing their limitations. Most importantly, significant concerns emerged around privacy, monetization, data permanency and transparency. Drawing on these findings we discuss key challenges, including: designing for interruptability; reconsideration of the human metaphor; issues of trust and data ownership. Addressing these challenges may lead to more widespread IPA use.
      1768Scopus© Citations 249
  • Publication
    Inductive Power Transfer for On-body Sensors. Defining a design space for safe, wirelessly powered on-body health sensors
    Designers of on-body health sensing devices face a difficult choice. They must either minimise the power consumption of devices, which in reality means reducing the sensing capabilities, or build devices that require regular battery changes or recharging. Both options limit the effectiveness of devices. Here we investigate an alternative. This paper presents a method of designing safe, wireless, inductive power transfer into on-body sensor products. This approach can produce sensing devices that can be worn for longer durations without the need for human intervention, whilst also having greater sensing and data capture capabilities. The paper addresses significant challenges in achieving this aim, in particular: device safety, sufficient power transfer, and human factors regarding device geometry. We show how to develop a device that meets stringent international safety guidelines for electromagnetic energy on the body and describe a design space that allows designers to make trade-offs that balance power transfer with other constraints, e.g. size and bulk, that affect the wearability of devices. Finally we describe a rapid experimental method to investigate the optimal placement of on-body devices and the actual versus theoretical power transfer for on-body, inductively powered devices. 
      294Scopus© Citations 6
  • Publication
    Marionette: a Multi-Finger Tilt Feedback Device for Curvatures and Haptic Images Perception
    Marionette is a haptic device designed to explore touch perception limits between real and device induced shapes. Its novelty resides in the support for 2D exploration over a flat surface and multi-finger capabilities. Marionette is able to apply inclination to four fingers with two degrees of freedom while the user moves the device as if it were a mouse. The device is aimed at enabling a new set of haptic user studies. Preliminary results suggest that the limit of curvature perception in 2D curves is mainly determined by the inclination information while touching with both one and four fingers. Additionally, Marionette supports haptic images such as maps, time changing functions and haptically enhanced telepresence.
      310Scopus© Citations 3
  • Publication
    Investigating Contexts of Use for the Development of Domestic Healthcare Technology: An Ethnographic Study
    Current demographic and health trends mean it is becoming imperative to rethink healthcare provision worldwide. This paper introduces SPHERE, a large-scale Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration that aims to make a contribution to addressing this challenge. Specifically, SPHERE is developing a smart home system based on a common platform of non-medical/environmental sensors to address a variety of healthcare needs. In order to achieve its goal of widespread deployment, SPHERE technology must meet the requirements of its envisaged users. In this paper we present the rationale and methodology of an ethnographic study of people's experiences of health and technology. The aim of this study was to gather rich contextual data to inform the design of meaningful and inclusive healthcare technology.
      257Scopus© Citations 1