User's Daily Life Research Articles

Organic Neuroelectronics: From Neural Interfaces to Neuroprosthetics.

Requirements and recent advances in research on organic neuroelectronics are outlined herein. Neuroelectronics such as neural interfaces and neuroprosthetics provide a promising approach to diagnose and treat neurological diseases. However, the current neural interfaces are rigid and not biocompatible, so they induce an immune response and deterioration of neural signal transmission. Organic materials are promising candidates for neural interfaces, due to their mechanical softness, excellent electrochemical properties, and biocompatibility. Also, organic nervetronics, which mimics functional properties of the biological nerve system, is being developed to overcome the limitations of the complex and energy-consuming conventional neuroprosthetics that limit long-term implantation and daily-life usage. Examples of organic materials for neural interfaces and neural signal recordings are reviewed, recent advances of organic nervetronics that use organic artificial synapses are highlighted, and then further requirements for neuroprosthetics are discussed. Finally, the future challenges that must be overcome to achieve ideal organic neuroelectronics for next-generation neuroprosthetics are discussed.

Quantitative and Real-Time Evaluation of Human Respiration Signals with a Shape-Conformal Wireless Sensing System.

Respiration signals reflect many underlying health conditions, including cardiopulmonary functions, autonomic disorders and respiratory distress, therefore continuous measurement of respiration is needed in various cases. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of effective portable electronic devices that meet the demands for medical and daily respiration monitoring. This work showcases a soft, wireless, and non-invasive device for quantitative and real-time evaluation of human respiration. This device simultaneously captures respiration and temperature signatures using customized capacitive and resistive sensors, encapsulated by a breathable layer, and does not limit the user's daily life. Further a machine learning-based respiration classification algorithm with a set of carefully studied features as inputs is proposed and it is deployed into mobile clients. The body status of users, such as being quiet, active and coughing, can be accurately recognized by the algorithm and displayed on clients. Moreover, multiple devices can be linked to a server network to monitor a group of users and provide each user with the statistical duration of physiological activities, coughing alerts, and body health advice. With these devices, individual and group respiratory health status can be quantitatively collected, analyzed, and stored for daily physiological signal detections as well as medical assistance.

A critical analysis of water economics in public water and sanitation services in Morocco

PurposeThe objective of this article is to propose a panel of management performance evaluation indicators at operator level. This panel would be the tool to be made available to an observatory that should be set up by regulation. The proposal comes at the right time given that Morocco is planning a major reform of the sector very soon. A framework law has already been promulgated for this purpose (Law 51-21 relating to the reform of public establishments).Design/methodology/approachThe proposed panel is the result of (1) a review of the literature dealing with public management theories, in particular those relating to industrial and commercial public services and whose character is captive. The management of the latter requires a great deal of caution to preserve their economic balance and consequently their sustainability. (2) A review of experiences of countries is chosen because of contextual their similarities with Morocco like France having a similar legal background, Tunisia and Algeria chosen for geographical and economic similarities. The British experience is also discussed for what it represents as a liberal model in the management of public water and sanitation services, as opposed to the German model also studied and which stands as the only country where the management of public services has almost always been a communal prerogative. The analysis of these models has made it possible to identify management evaluation practices that could be adapted to the Moroccan context. (3) Research work by practitioners and reports from specialized international institutions (International Water Association [IWA]). (4) A critical analysis of a multitude of management and activity reports from 12 autonomous authorities and 4 private delegates covering 16 million inhabitants of the urban environment. A total of 15 indicators are developed. They aim to assess the effectiveness of management in terms of saving drinking water and preserving the natural environment from the pollution of water resources.FindingsApproximately, 15 indicators for assessing water resource management in public water and sanitation services are proposed. These indicators relate to the efficiency of pipe networks, the performance of storage systems and losses in users' homes. Indicators specific to liquid sanitation systems, particularly with regard to the control of wastewater overflows into the public highway and their treatment before discharge into the natural environment, are also proposed.Research limitations/implicationsThe application of the results of this research could be confronted with its appropriation by the operators. Indeed, the investment involved in setting up the proposed evaluation system, as well as the conflict of interest that may arise in the process of formalizing and standardizing the system at the national level, may slow down the process of setting it up.Practical implicationsIn practice, the implementation of a system for evaluating the performance of water resource management in public drinking water and liquid sanitation services would make it possible to optimize the volume of water to be mobilized. Substantial savings are expected both at the level of the resource itself and at the level of the investments that accompany the realization of the mobilization and distribution infrastructures. These savings will be very useful for the creation of other similar services and to serve more people.Social implicationsThe distribution of drinking water and liquid sanitation is a vital human need. These services are extremely captive. They are key factors in the socioeconomic development of the territory and the citizen. The impact is transversal and affects the lifestyle of the populations. On the one hand, it favors the sedentarization of the populations and on the other hand, preserves their health by fighting against the diseases of water origin. In addition, the comfort that it provides in the daily life of users is highly coveted when they are delivered in a modern way and arranged with modern technologies.Originality/valueThe regulation of public drinking water and liquid sanitation services in Morocco is the weakest link in the sector. The Ministry of the Interior is legally responsible for setting up a standard system for evaluating the management of these services to fill this gap (organic law 113-14 on municipalities). Unfortunately, this initiative is not yet underway. The opportunity to apply the results of this research is well timed. Morocco plans to launch a global reform of the sector starting in 2022–2023 (Law 50-21 on the reform of public institutions).

Modeling individuals’ preferences towards different levels of vehicle autonomy: A random parameter rank-ordered logit model

Vehicular automation is changing the conventional way of driving – e.g., the role of a driver is changing into an observer or a passenger due to the higher levels of automation. However, the success of this vehicle automation potentially leading to fully autonomous vehicles largely depends on the interest and comfort of consumers. Adoption of such disruptive technologies might have a retrospective aspect related to individuals’ experiences, such as exposure to technologies over their life course. This study adopts a life history-oriented approach to investigate individuals' preferences towards different levels of vehicle autonomy. The effects of historical experiences in different life domains such as technology usage in daily life and availability of vehicle technology, and the evolution of demographics such as historically living in an owned dwelling are explored. Data comes from a retrospective survey conducted in the Okanagan region of Canada. A random parameter rank-ordered logit model is developed to accommodate the relative ranked preferences of the alternatives and to capture unobserved heterogeneity. The model results suggest that individuals with historical exposure to vehicle technology have a higher likelihood of adopting higher levels of vehicle automation, whereas individuals having advanced technology only in the current vehicle reveal a lower interest towards higher vehicle autonomy. Individuals without a driver’s license show a higher interest in full automation, whereas they are less interested in no automation. The model confirms the existence of heterogeneity. For instance, pro-urban individuals prefer no automation, whereas pro-suburban individuals are inclined towards full automation. Both variables show significant heterogeneity with a large standard deviation. The findings of this study demonstrate the need to accommodate the effects of historical experiences while analyzing the preferences towards different levels of automation. Such inclusion of life history-oriented attributes within the travel demand forecasting models is expected to improve the demand and usage prediction accuracy of different levels of vehicle automation.

Conceptual Paper: The Use of Social Media Improved Academic Performance among University Students

Social media nowadays with the continuous development of ICT and technologies has penetrated into the daily life of users, especially students. It can clearly shown that social networking sites play an important role in education which enable students to have better collaborate to develop their skills that can be helpful for them in workplace. Nevertheless, the ‘new normal’ after the global pandemic have encouraged more and more social media users. Students especially the millennials are considering the digital natives are seeking for new creativity learning platforms. Therefore, this study concentrates on the determinants on the use of social media and university students’ academic performance with objective of investigating how student’s overall performance is affected by students’ use of social media. This paper is a conceptual paper using both Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behaviour and Cognitive Load Theory to determine the variables affecting the academic performance of university students.

Assessing the impact of Visible Light Communication on our daily life usage of Ubiquitous Computing Technology

Assessing the impact of Visible Light Communication on our daily life usage of Ubiquitous Computing Technology

Can smartphone presence affect cognitive function? The moderating role of fear of missing out

In current information society, the smartphone has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. However, along with its advantages, its problems have also become prominent. Against this background, this study examines the influence of smartphones on cognitive function and the potential moderating role of fear of missing out (FoMO). One hundred undergraduate students were randomly recruited and divided into smartphone presence and absence groups to compare the working memory capacity, which is a key element of cognitive function, and the FoMO was also assessed. The results indicated that: (1) Compared with the absence group, participants in the presence group showed lower accuracy and longer response time in the operation span task, suggesting that the presence of smartphones has a negative influence on cognitive function; (2) The FoMO moderated the influence of smartphone presence on the accuracy and response time in the operation span task, specifically, the effect was stronger for individuals with higher level of FoMO. This study deepens our understandings on the influence of smartphone use by considering the regular usage in daily life and cognitive function, as well as the role of FoMO, providing guidance for reasonable smartphone use and improving work efficiency (especially cognitive function).

A Qualitative Research on Usage Intention and Platform Swinging Behavior of Anonymous Social Applications "Soul".

By iheriting online natural properties, anonymous social media (ASM) applications have become popular and have attracted large amounts of mobile users (e.g., the youth) who can construct new identities for role-play and show themselves in anonymous ways. In order to investigate the influencing factors toward usage intention (UI) and platform swinging (PS) behavior among anonymous social applications, we choose one of the most active ASM App “Soul” as the example in China and then conducte a semi-structured interview with 23 valid Soul users using qualitative methods. The results show that the factors, i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived privacy riskiness, perceived anonymity, subjective norms, emotional attachments, and perceived interactivity, indeed affect UI among Soul users via online communication. Moreover, we find that PS behavior is ubiquitous among interviewees and mainly depends on diversified needs, which consist of nine dimensions including different position and function among apps, usage comparison, friend migration, etc. Nearly 80% of interviewees believe that there exists a relationship between UI and PS, which can be described as a inverted U-shaped curve, i.e., the higher or lower UI, the less probability of PS. For the individuals’ social media usage behavior, a closed loop “Attitude–Intention–Behavior” is summarized. By conducting qualitative research, we intend to provide some insights and deepen the understanding of UI among ASM users in daily life.

EPPOC (Ecrans en Pédopsychiatrie en Occitanie au temps du COVID) : enquête en juillet 2020 sur l’utilisation des écrans chez les enfants des services de pédopsychiatrie en Occitanie avant et pendant confinement (17 mars au 11 mai): Résultats du volet parents

The EPPOC survey (flash survey in July 2020 in outpatient and hospital child psychiatry state departments in Occitania) allowed documenting parents’ and adolescents’ view on screen use, and on the impact of the first confinement (March to May 2020) on this variable in a pedopsychiatric population. To our knowledge, no such study exists. ResultsOne hundred six parents answered for their child (3 to 18 years old, 11.2 on average). Their answers were fractioned into three age groups (45.3 % of children were in kindergarten-primary, 30. 2 % in college, and 24.5 % in high school). Children mostly use television (93.8 %) and mobile phones (81.3 %). A third of the children used their screens for more than 4hours a day on weekends, 11.7 % on weekdays: this last proportion increased to 48.6 % during confinement. A third of the children had at least one type of screen in their room: this data correlates to an increase of screen time, especially during weekends. Children mainly used screens in the afternoons and evenings, especially in the high school students group. During confinement, the number of moments (morning, noon, afternoon, evening, before bedtime, other) of screen use during the day increased for 90.4 % of them. High school students spent most of their time on videos (91.3 %), social networks (82.6 %) and listening to music (73.9 %). The youngest mainly played games (72.5 %) and watched videos (70.7 %). Screen use was a problem for 37.3 % of parents prior to confinement. They put boundaries to screen use mainly for the youngest children: this seemed to have a positive impact on their child's reduction of screen time. ConclusionThe pedopsychiatric population of our care units did not seem to have a different screen use profile than the general population, based on their parents’ perception. The main elements increasing the time spent on screens in our study were the child having a screen in his/her room, parents not limiting screen time, and home confinement. However, the adjective “intensive” used in most studies to describe screen use should be redefined to include the child's age, the type of screen use (type of screens, type of activity, activity shared by the parent or not, etc.), the impact on the user's daily life and the level of addiction which should nuance the notion. Describing screen use and whether one should worry about it is a complex issue. The number of hours spent on screens is not a sufficient criterion. One should add the number of moments during the day when the screens are used, and the type of practice as well as a dependency score. These parameters altogether would better characterize the impact of screen use in daily life, and how much it occupies one's mind. In addition, sharing these tools would allow the caregivers to have a useful framework of discussion with the patients.

우리나라 증권 산업의 효율성 및 효율성변화 비교 분석

With the recent rapid development of FinTech, mobile payment service, has a great influence on the daily life of users. As for the current status of the third-party mobile payment service market in Korea and China, China is more actively the using third-party mobile payment service than Korea. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm why Chinese users are using third-party mobile payment service more frequently than Korean users. This study constructed a research model based on the TRI and the UTAUT. The results showed the reasons for the differences in the third-party mobile payment service usage between China and Korea. Based on the TRI, this study presented a new perspective for conducting a comparative study of the intention to use on third-party mobile payment in Korea and China. The findings of this study are expected to be a foundation for industrial activities of relevant companies by facilitating the understanding of the users of third party mobile payment service in Korea and China.

Deep Learning Models and Social Governance Guided by Fair Policies

With the rapid advancement of information technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning have become the central technology tools for information sharing. To speed up the efficiency of information resource transmission of national government departments and improve the informatization level of government social management and public service systems, the persona system is designed using an artificial neural network, and a social service and management resource pool system is developed. The behavior data randomly generated by users in daily life is collected and cleaned, and training samples are extracted for training an artificial neural network. Next, the demographic attribute tags and interest tags are modelled, and the social service and management resource pool system is built and tested. Results show that for the population attribute label construction, the index value using the app name is mapped to 0 or 1, and the sample sampling ratio is set to 1.0. The proposed model achieved the overall accuracies of 85.2%, 74.5%, and 99.0% for the prediction of constructed age, academic qualifications, and interest label, respectively. The constructed system greatly deepens the visualization of the characteristics of social governance elements. The system can enhance the level of resource sharing by government departments and provide the foundation for spatial decision-making in smart social governance.

No Young Carer Left Behind: A Two-Phased Study to Understand and Address the Needs of Young Carers from Rural and Urban Communities Before and During Covid-19

Canada has one of the largest cohorts of young carers aged 15 to 24 who provide unpaid care for a family member. Although the body of research on young carers is growing in Canada, knowledge on the experiences and needs of young carers living in remote and rural communities is almost absent. This study aimed to understand and address the needs of young carers in rural/remote communities to support our community partner’s goal of expanding their resources and support of this underserved population. The study was conducted in two phases with the first phase being a needs assessment and the second phase addressed those needs. In Phase 1 (conducted pre-COVID-19), three focus groups were conducted with young carers from rural and urban communities with 20 young carers participating in total. Six themes were identified: Internet Usage in Daily Life; Finding and Filtering Information; Concerns Related to Internet Use; Social and Mental Support; What Makes Caregiving More Challenging; and Designing Something to Make Caring Easier. During Phase 2 (conducted mid-COVID-19), 2 focus groups were held via Zoom for Healthcare with a mix of rural and urban young carers in each group. One of the focus groups was held with those under 18 years old and the other included those between 18 to 25 years old. Four themes were identified: Responses to Emergencies; Awareness of Emergency Planning; Potential Impact on Planned Behaviour; and Considerations and Suggestions for Improvement.

A rough set, formal concept analysis and SEM-PLS integrated approach towards sustainable wearable computing in the adoption of smartwatch

The rapid growth of sustainable computing towards the energy, power and environment seize an immense attention from bigger organizations to an individual life. Besides the world is advancing towards the digital mode and smartwatch is gaining its popularity because of additional importance to improve lifestyle. Moreover, it is not restricted to only time viewer rather paves a way in user's daily life. Therefore, it is highly cardinal in identifying the factors among consumers influencing the adoption of smartwatch in sustainable wearable computing. Traditional data modelling tools limited to technology acceptance model is used to this end. After all the study deals with user's behaviour that includes uncertainties and thus studying such problems using computational intelligence techniques is pivotal. In this research work we hybridize rough set, partial least square, and formal concept analysis to study smartwatch users adoption in wearable computing. Initially, the reliability and validity of the proposed model is analysed using structural equation modelling along with partial least square. Further, decision rules are generated using the rough set. Finally, important factors affecting the user's behavioural adoption towards sustainable wearable computing is discovered using formal concept analysis.

A flexible, and wireless LED therapy patch for skin wound photomedicine with IoT-connected healthcare application

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT), also known as photobiomodulation, is a safe and noninvasive method for various dermatological applications. However, most LLLT devices have limitations, such as low flexibility, high energy consumption, and huge equipment size, limiting their usage in daily life and clinical treatment. This study presents a flexible and wireless light emitting diode (LED) patch with an internet of thing (IoT) healthcare platform for wound healing applications. The flexible LED patch was designed with a high-efficiency performance of thermal stability, device uniformity, and mechanical durability for skin-attachable phototherapies application and clinical use. The application of a smartphone app with an IoT-connected healthcare platform for the flexible LED patch opens tremendous opportunities for the development of a remote healthcare system with cost-effectiveness in the future. In wound healing test on normal human fibroblasts, the LED light was proven to have no cytotoxic effect with high fibroblast proliferation and fibroblast migration (over 16% compared to control) under various light irradiations. Furthermore, a high association between wavelengths and exposure duration with biologic responses and migration effects was indicated in the study. The cell proliferation and migration experiments show the necessity of optimizing LED wavelength, radiation doses for better clinical assessment. Based on the results, the flexible LED patch is expected to be a suitable photomedical device for various types of dermatology applications.

How do 3-year-olds use relevance inferencing to interpret indirect speech?

If a child asks a friend to play football and the friend replies, ‘I have a cough’, the requesting child must make a ‘relevance inference’ to determine the communicative intent. Relevance inferencing is a key component of pragmatics, that is, the ability to integrate social context into language interpretation and use. We tested which cognitive skills relate to relevance inferencing. In addition, we asked whether children’s lab-based pragmatic performance relates to children’s parent-assessed pragmatic language skills. We tested 3.5- to 4-year-old speakers of British English (Study 1: N = 40, Study 2: N = 32). Children were presented with video-recorded vignettes ending with an utterance requiring a relevance inference, for which children made a forced choice. Study 1 measured children’s Theory of Mind, their sentence comprehension and their real-world knowledge and found that only real-world knowledge retained significance in a regression analysis with children’s relevance inferencing as the outcome variable. Study 2 then manipulated children’s world-knowledge through priming but found this did not improve children’s performance on the relevance inferencing task. Study 2 did, however, reveal a significant correlation between children’s relevance inferencing and a measure of morpho-syntactic production. In both studies parents rated their children’s pragmatic language usage in daily life, which was found to relate to performance in our lab-based relevance inferencing task. This set of studies is the first to empirically demonstrate that lab-based measures of relevance inferencing are reflective of children’s pragmatic abilities ‘in the wild’. There was no clear association between relevance inferencing and Theory of Mind. There was mixed evidence for the role of formal language, which should be further investigated. Finally, real-world knowledge was indeed associated with relevance inferencing but future experimental work is required to test causal relations.

Psychological and Emotional Effects of Digital Technology on Children in COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 has caused obstacles in continuing normal life almost everywhere in the world by causing the implementation of social distancing and eventually imposing the lockdown. This has become the reason for the increase in technology usage in daily life for professional work as well as for entertainment purposes. There has been an increased prevalence of technology usage in adolescents and children during lockdown leaving its impact on their lives either in a positive or negative aspect. The overall documented percentage increase of technology usage in children was about 15%, of which smartphone usage has 61.7% of prevalence. Disturbance in brain functioning is suggested to be originated by compromise of neuroplasticity of the nerves. The radiofrequency (RF) radiations emitting from the smartphone are of doubtful concern as a brain tumor risk factor in children. The increased usage can have effects on brain functioning that will compromise sleep and cognitive abilities and develop risk for certain mental illnesses including, but not limited to, depression, anxiety, Alzheimer’s disease, and attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD). Despite being a threat for developing mental illness, video games are proven to reduce depression and anxiety, and increase creativity, skills, and cognition in children. The increased usage of technology can have a positive and negative impact on the mental development of adolescents and children depending on the trends in the usage. However, parents should be monitoring their children’s mental health and behavior in these difficult times of pandemic.

Robots for Elderly Care in the Home: A Landscape Analysis and Co-Design Toolkit

Over the last two decades, several deployments of robots for in-house assistance of older adults have been trialled. However, these solutions are mostly prototypes and remain unused in real-life scenarios. In this work, we review the historical and current landscape of the field, to try and understand why robots have yet to succeed as personal assistants in daily life. Our analysis focuses on two complementary aspects: the capabilities of the physical platform and the logic of the deployment. The former analysis shows regularities in hardware configurations and functionalities, leading to the definition of a set of six application-level capabilities (exploration, identification, remote control, communication, manipulation, and digital situatedness). The latter focuses on the impact of robots on the daily life of users and categorises the deployment of robots for healthcare interventions using three types of services: support, mitigation, and response. Our investigation reveals that the value of healthcare interventions is limited by a stagnation of functionalities and a disconnection between the robotic platform and the design of the intervention. To address this issue, we propose a novel co-design toolkit, which uses an ecological framework for robot interventions in the healthcare domain. Our approach connects robot capabilities with known geriatric factors, to create a holistic view encompassing both the physical platform and the logic of the deployment. As a case study-based validation, we discuss the use of the toolkit in the pre-design of the robotic platform for an pilot intervention, part of the EU large-scale pilot of the EU H2020 GATEKEEPER project.

Brain-Computer interfaces for communication: preferences of individuals with locked-in syndrome, caregivers and researchers

Objectives The development of Brain-Computer Interfaces to restore communication (cBCIs) in people with severe motor impairment ideally relies on a close collaboration between end-users and other stakeholders, such as caregivers and researchers. Awareness about potential differences in opinion between these groups is crucial for development of usable cBCIs and access technology (AT) in general. In this study, we compared the opinions of prospective cBCI users, their caregivers and cBCI researchers regarding: (1) what applications would users like to control with a cBCI; (2) what mental strategies would users prefer to use for cBCI control; and (3) at what stage of their clinical trajectory would users like to be informed about AT and cBCIs. Methods We collected data from 28 individuals with locked-in syndrome, 29 of their caregivers and 28 cBCI researchers. The questionnaire was supported with animation videos to explain different cBCI concepts, the utility of which was also assessed. Results Opinions of the three groups were aligned with respect to the most desired cBCI applications, but diverged regarding mental strategies and the timing of being informed about cBCIs. Animation videos were regarded as clear and useful tools to explain cBCIs and mental strategies to end-users and other stakeholders. Conclusions Disagreements were clear between stakeholders regarding which mental strategies users prefer to use and when they would like to be informed about cBCIs. To move forward in the development and clinical implementation of cBCIs, it will be necessary to align the research agendas with the needs of the end-users and caregivers. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Brain-Computer Interfaces may offer people with severe motor impairment a brain-based and muscle-independent approach to control communication-technology. The successful development of communication BCIs (cBCIs) relies on a close collaboration between end-users and other stakeholders, such as caregivers and researchers. Our work reveals that people with locked-in syndrome (end-users), their caregivers and researchers developing cBCIs agree that direct and private forms of communication are the most desired cBCI applications, but disagree regarding the preferred mental strategies for cBCI control and when to be informed about cBCIs. Animation videos are an effective tool for providing information to individuals, independent of their level of health literacy, regarding the concept of cBCIs and mental strategies for control. The misalignment in opinions of different groups of stakeholders about cBCIs strengthens the argument for a user-centered design approach in the development of cBCIs and access technology designed for daily life usage.

Cost classification and decision-making: Practical approach

The application of concepts in a real-life situation is the fundamental requirement for experiential learning. The case provokes simple learning through a real-world learning activity and allow students to apply their knowledge of various cost concepts while taking decisions. The case is designed in such a way so that high level student engagement can be obtained from the initial stage of the course and can be used at an undergraduate or graduate level without calling for strong accounting background. The case could be used for classroom discussion or for individual or group assignment as well. The case contests students to think outside the business environment and apply cost concepts in a daily life for a small service company. Students’ responses indicates that the case was comprehensively designed to cover all the relevant concepts of Cost Classification and Decision Making and helped them to learn their practical daily life usage.

User feedback on usefulness and accessibility features of mobile applications by people with visual impairment.

Purpose:This study aimed at compiling a catalog of mobile applications with accessibility features. The results are expected to provide useful insight into its usage in daily life.Methods:This study was conducted at the Institute for Vision Rehabilitation, Hyderabad in two steps. In step one 57 potentials mobile applications that were useful for persons with visual impairment were identified. In step two, these were explored by 15 participants and their feedback was analyzed through SPSS statistical package.Results:Fifteen mobile users who are visually impaired took part in the study whose mean age was 22 years. A total of 57 mobile applications were explored and rated as per the user's feedback on its usage and accessibility features. Overall rating of general applications ranged from 2.3 to 4.55 and the rating of exclusive applications designed for visually impaired ranged from 2.8 to 4.8. Compilation of catalog of mobile assistive software and its usage through the data generated from this study provides important information to the early mobile users with visual impairment. The built-in accessibility features of the apps that were originally developed for the general population is the constructive move by the app developers towards inclusion. The same should be reinforced that henceforth all-new applications to be accessible for people with disabilities to the standard prescribed by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.Conclusion:Mobile technology is a real boon to persons with visual impairment in enhancing their independence. The catalog on accessible mobile applications developed through this study is a valuable tool in providing information on a wider collection of apps to new mobile users.