Interaction Substitution for Mobile Games Accessibility and Exergaming
Speaker: Prof. Dragan Ahmetovic
Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi, Milano
DEIB - Seminar Room "N. Schiavoni" (Bld. 20)
Online by Zoom
May 27th, 2024 | 1.30 pm
Contact: Prof. Maristella Matera
Research Line: Data, web, and society
Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi, Milano
DEIB - Seminar Room "N. Schiavoni" (Bld. 20)
Online by Zoom
May 27th, 2024 | 1.30 pm
Contact: Prof. Maristella Matera
Research Line: Data, web, and society
Sommario
On May 27th, 2024 at 1.30 pm the seminar "Interaction Substitution for Mobile Games Accessibility and Exergaming" will take place at DEIB Seminar Room "Nicola Schiavoni" (Building 20) and on line by Zoom.
Mobile device interaction is based on touchscreen usage, which poses significant accessibility barriers to people with upper extremity motor impairments. Existing solutions, provided as software services, enable access to most mobile device functionalities by substituting the default touchscreen interaction paradigm with simpler alternatives. This is commonly achieved by replacing direct touchscreen access to interface elements with their sequential traversal, until a target element is reached. However, sequential access is slower, and therefore not suited for apps having time-constrained interaction requirements, such as games. Furthermore, since common game development kits do not advertise their interface elements to the mobile operating system, in many cases alternative interaction paradigms cannot be used at all. To address these issues, we research novel interaction substitution approaches that rely on the direct mapping of alternative triggering actions to touchscreen interaction events, which are previously annotated on the interface of a target game. The proposed approach can be used as an accessibility layer to make existing and popular games accessible without directly intervening on their code. Within this framework, we explore the design space of the alternative triggering actions, proposing four input modalities that can be personalized to the specific user needs. Through a series of studies with representative users, we assess the accuracy, time overhead, workload and appreciation of the proposed alternative inputs, compared to non-mediated touchscreen access by people without disabilities. Finally, we explore the applicability of the approach to telerehabilitation by transforming existing mobile games into full-fledged exergames.
Dragan Ahmetovic is an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Milan. His research focuses on assistive technologies designed to augment the cognitive capabilities of users and overcome barriers that limit their access to information and physical world. He investigates embodied sensing, knowledge retrieval, intelligent user interfaces and human computer interaction, mediated by mobile and pervasive devices.
Dragan conducted his doctoral studies at EveryWare Lab of the University of Milan and received his Ph.D. in March 2015. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow and project scientist at the Cognitive Assistance Lab of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA and as a postdoctoral researcher at the “S. Polin” Laboratory for Research and Experimentation with Novel Assistive Technologies for STEM at the University of Turin, Italy.
Mobile device interaction is based on touchscreen usage, which poses significant accessibility barriers to people with upper extremity motor impairments. Existing solutions, provided as software services, enable access to most mobile device functionalities by substituting the default touchscreen interaction paradigm with simpler alternatives. This is commonly achieved by replacing direct touchscreen access to interface elements with their sequential traversal, until a target element is reached. However, sequential access is slower, and therefore not suited for apps having time-constrained interaction requirements, such as games. Furthermore, since common game development kits do not advertise their interface elements to the mobile operating system, in many cases alternative interaction paradigms cannot be used at all. To address these issues, we research novel interaction substitution approaches that rely on the direct mapping of alternative triggering actions to touchscreen interaction events, which are previously annotated on the interface of a target game. The proposed approach can be used as an accessibility layer to make existing and popular games accessible without directly intervening on their code. Within this framework, we explore the design space of the alternative triggering actions, proposing four input modalities that can be personalized to the specific user needs. Through a series of studies with representative users, we assess the accuracy, time overhead, workload and appreciation of the proposed alternative inputs, compared to non-mediated touchscreen access by people without disabilities. Finally, we explore the applicability of the approach to telerehabilitation by transforming existing mobile games into full-fledged exergames.
Dragan Ahmetovic is an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Milan. His research focuses on assistive technologies designed to augment the cognitive capabilities of users and overcome barriers that limit their access to information and physical world. He investigates embodied sensing, knowledge retrieval, intelligent user interfaces and human computer interaction, mediated by mobile and pervasive devices.
Dragan conducted his doctoral studies at EveryWare Lab of the University of Milan and received his Ph.D. in March 2015. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow and project scientist at the Cognitive Assistance Lab of Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA and as a postdoctoral researcher at the “S. Polin” Laboratory for Research and Experimentation with Novel Assistive Technologies for STEM at the University of Turin, Italy.
