Context Sensing & Assistive Technology
A study exploring the use of context-aware artificial intelligences within assistive technologies.
Description
The Laboratory for Understanding Collaborative Technology at Northwestern University is studying how new technologies that can be taught to recognize and predict users' location, activity, and social context can be used to construct new software tools for people with impairments and disabilities.
We are looking for people with motor, cognitive, or sensory impairments to participate in this study. Currently, we are recruiting participants located in the Chicago and Evanston area that are primarily Mac OS X users.
Current work in progress
If you are interested in participating but are not sure what kinds of technologies we have in mind, here are some of our current projects and ideas:
A smart notification system that only interrupts you with new e-mails and instant messages based upon your current situation. Like a dedicated personal assistant, this system knows when to bother you and when to leave you alone.
A "smart home" system that manages your physical environment based upon what you are doing and where you are. For example, when your home is empty, the system can shut off the lights and adjust the thermostat to save energy. When someone begins to watch a film, the system automatically creates the perfect home theatre by closing the curtains, dimming the lights, and turning off the phone ringer for all but the most important callers.
A time tracking application that automatically watches you and logs what it sees. The application can the answer your questions about how you spend your time. You can ask questions like "What websites do I visit when I am at home or at work?" and "How much time did I spend last week on e-mail and chatting instead of writing or reading?".
We are already working on these ideas, and we are interested in working with you to identify other situations and potential tools that we could create or improve that use our custom context sensing artificial intelligence technology.
Study process, requirements, and rewards
If you are selected to participate, we will work with you to design and implement a new technology that aims to improve the activities of your daily living. Over 12 to 14 weeks, we will identify your technology needs, brainstorm new ideas for assistive technologies, implement one of those ideas, and evaluate the new technology. This process includes the following activities:
An interview with us to help us become acquainted with you and the details of your particular situation.
An on-site session where we observe some of your common activities and how you use current assistive technologies. During this session, you can help us identify activities or situations where a new technology might help.
Two design meetings where we brainstorm and discuss new technology ideas.
One session where we help you set up the newly created technology in your environment and help you start using it.
An evaluation period where we study how helpful the new technology actually is.
A final session where we discuss how well the new technology worked and how it might be improved.
For your participation, we will give you $350. In addition to the money, we will also provide you with free and unrestricted versions of any new technologies that we develop with full support (including bug fixes and feature enhancements) for six months after the end of the study.
This is a great opportunity to work directly with a technology developer to craft a tool designed expressly with you in mind.
Apply to participate
If you would like to participate in this study, please complete the form below. We will contact you to discuss more about participation.
Due to the involved nature of this study, we can only enroll a limited number of participants at this time. However, even if you are not selected to participate in the current study, we will still contact you to confirm that we received your submission and ask whether we may retain your contact information to let you know about future versions of this study. None of the information provided will be used for purposes other than recruitment into this study nor will it be provided to any third parties.