Use Of Touchscreen Research Articles

Usability and Feasibility of PIERS on the Move: An mHealth App for Pre-Eclampsia Triage.

BackgroundPre-eclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal death and morbidity in low-resource countries due to delays in case identification and a shortage of health workers trained to manage the disorder. Pre-eclampsia Integrated Estimate of RiSk (PIERS) on the Move (PotM) is a low cost, easy-to-use, mobile health (mHealth) platform that has been created to aid health workers in making decisions around the management of hypertensive pregnant women. PotM combines two previously successful innovations into a mHealth app: the miniPIERS risk assessment model and the Phone Oximeter.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the usability of PotM (with mid-level health workers) for iteratively refining the system.MethodsDevelopment of the PotM user interface involved usability testing with target end-users in South Africa. Users were asked to complete clinical scenario tasks, speaking aloud to give feedback on the interface and then complete a questionnaire. The tool was then evaluated in a pilot clinical evaluation in Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town.ResultsAfter ethical approval and informed consent, 37 nurses and midwives evaluated the tool. During Study 1, major issues in the functionality of the touch-screen keyboard and date scroll wheels were identified (total errors n=212); during Study 2 major improvements in navigation of the app were suggested (total errors n=144). Overall, users felt the app was usable using the Computer Systems Usability Questionnaire; median (range) values for Study 1 = 2 (1-6) and Study 2 = 1 (1-7). To demonstrate feasibility, PotM was used by one research nurse for the pilot clinical study. In total, more than 500 evaluations were performed on more than 200 patients. The median (interquartile range) time to complete an evaluation was 4 min 55 sec (3 min 25 sec to 6 min 56 sec).ConclusionsBy including target end-users in the design and evaluation of PotM, we have developed an app that can be easily integrated into health care settings in low- and middle-income countries. Usability problems were often related to mobile phone features (eg, scroll wheels, touch screen use). Larger scale evaluation of the clinical impact of this tool is underway.

How and Why Parents Guide the Media Use of Young Children.

Children use electronic screens at ever younger ages, but there is still little empirical research on how and why parents mediate this media use. In line with Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, we explored whether children’s media skills and media activities, next to parents’ attitudes about media for children, and several child and parent-family characteristics, predicted parental mediation practices. Furthermore, we investigated children’s use and ownership of electronic screens in the bedroom in relationship to the child’s media skills. Data from an online survey among 896 Dutch parents with young children (0–7 years) showed that children’s use and ownership of TV, game consoles, computers and touchscreens, primarily depended on their media skills and age, not on parent’s attitudes about media for children. Only touchscreens were used more often by children, when parents perceived media as helpful in providing moments of rest for the child. In line with former studies, parents consistently applied co-use, supervision, active mediation, restrictive mediation, and monitoring, depending on positive and negative attitudes about media. The child’s media skills and media activities, however, had stronger relationships with parental mediation styles, whereas age was not related. Canonical discriminant analysis, finally, captured how the five mediation strategies varied among infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers, and early childhood children, predominantly as a result of children’s media skills, and media activities, i.e., playing educational games and passive entertainment use.

Modern Devices to Support Early Development of Children with Visual Impairment

The article describes the options of the use of modern touch screen devices to stimulate vision and develop visual skills of children with low vision in early and pre-school age. The article concentrates specifically on the possibilities of using iPad touch screen device and Czech EDA Play application. The application is designed for visual stimulation and the development of visual and other skills in young children with visual and multiple impairments. The final section of the article provides the results of a pilot study used to collect the experience gained with the use of the device and application described above in Czech practice of early intervention.

Improving Accessibility of Tactile Interaction for Older Users: Lowering Accuracy Requirements to Support Drag-and-Drop Interaction

Mobile applications offer great possibilities to the aging population but older adults face accessibility problems when using devices equipped with touchscreen. In order to respond to older users' special needs, it is necessary to support older users during tactile interaction to reduce error rates. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of the accuracy requirements for drag-and-drop interaction. 24 able-bodied older adults with different profiles (aged 65 to 86 years old, with corrected and not corrected eyesight, normal and low dexterity, different levels of education, different experience of use of computers and touchscreen) executed a series of tactile puzzle games on smartphone and tablet, with pen and fingers. We evaluate the number of errors for two levels of accuracy required for positioning the puzzle pieces: 95% (higher) and 80% (lower). Older adults made fewer errors of accuracy during lower accuracy levels and consequently fewer supplementary gestures for positioning the targets. Besides, lowering the accuracy requirement was an effective support for interaction because it also reduced the effects of users' profiles, improving the accessibility for people with no experience of use of computers.

Mind the hand: A study on children’s embodied and multimodal collaborative learning around touchscreens

Apart from touching the screen, what is the role of the hands for children collaborating around touchscreens? Based on embodied and multimodal interaction analysis of 8- and 9-year old pairs collaborating around touchscreens, we conclude that children use their hands to constrain and control access, to construct and problem solve, and to show and imitate. The analyses show how a space emerges from the interaction between the children and the touchscreen, and how their hand movements reveal intelligence-as-action. Three situations with three different pairs were analysed to explore how children use their hands in activities around touchscreens, focusing in particular on how they collaborate. The analysis presented here is part of a research study on the use of touchscreens in children’s embodied and multimodal collaborative learning activities in their everyday classrooms. The general aim of the study is to contribute to the understanding of children’s multimodal collaborative learning activities around touchscreens.

Effects of Grip Curvature and Size of Hand on Comfort for the Unimanual Operation of Handheld Touchscreen Device

This study aims to investigate the effect of size of a hand and curvature of handheld touchscreen devices on comfort when unimanually using the devices. By rated subjectively and recording EMG, comfort was measured for the use of three mock-ups of the device with different curvatures; one had flat surface and the others had curvatures of 400R and 100R for each. During the experiment, tapping, typing and dragging tasks were performed and the participants evaluated comfort subjectively and objectively. A difference among curvatures was analyzed as well as a difference among participant groups classified by size of their preferred hand. The results indicated that curvature of the handheld touchscreen devices affected neither muscle activities nor subjective comfort level. Moreover, size of hand was found to affect comfort objectively measured, but not the one subjectively rated. Overall, this study suggests that comfort measured subjectively does not consistent with comfort measured by objective data. Also, users’ hand size may be more critical factor than curvature of handheld touchscreen determining comfort of touch screen use.

Touch Screens on the Flight Deck

There is widespread interest in the aviation industry in using touch screen controls on the flight deck. While earlier research efforts have explored touch screen use in aircraft, relatively recent advancements in both hardware and software suggest that renewed attention to touch can help inform its use in modern aircraft. A study was conducted using a medium-fidelity motion flight simulator to investigate how touch target size, touch target spacing, and touch technology impacted pilot data entry performance, workload perception, and fatigue in varying levels of turbulence. The results are intended to support the development of guidelines and recommendations for the integration of touch screen controls into the flight deck.

Medical utilization of kiosks in the delivery of patient education: a systematic review.

The utilization of kiosks has previously been shown to be effective for collecting information, delivering educational modules, and providing access to health information. We discuss a review of current literature for the utilization of kiosks for the delivery of patient education. The criteria for inclusion in this literature review were: (1) study discusses the utilization of kiosks for patient health education; (2) study discusses the use of touch screens for patient health information; (3) published in English. Our review includes searches via MEDLINE databases and Google Scholar for the years 1996-2014. Overall, 167 articles were screened for final eligibility, and after discarding duplicates and non-eligible studies with abstract. Full-text review of 28 articles was included in the final analysis. The review of available literature demonstrates the effectiveness of touch screen kiosks to educate patients and to improve healthcare, both at a performance and cost advantage over other modes of patient education.

Visual and visually mediated haptic illusions with Titchener’s ⊥

For a replication and expansion of a previous experiment of mine, 14 newly recruited participants provided haptic and verbal estimates of the lengths of the two lines that make up Titchener's ⊥. The stimulus was presented at two different orientations (frontoparallel vs. horizontal) and rotated in steps of 45deg around 2π. Haptically, the divided line of the ⊥ was generally underestimated, especially at a horizontal orientation. Verbal judgments also differed according to presentation condition and to which line was the target, with the overestimation of the undivided line ranging between 6.2% and 15.3%. The results are discussed with reference to the two-visual-systems theory of perception and action, neuroscientific accounts, and also recent historical developments (the use of handheld touchscreens, in particular), because the previously reported "haptic induction effect" (the scaling of haptic responses to the divided line of the ⊥, depending on the length of the undivided one) did not replicate.

Researchers and teachers learning together and from each other using video‐based multimodal analysis

AbstractThis paper discusses a year‐long technology integration project during which teachers and researchers joined forces to explore children's collaborative activities through the use of touch screens. In the research project discussed in this paper, 16 touch screens were integrated into teaching and learning activities in two separate classrooms; the learning and collaborative processes were captured by using a video, collecting over 150 hours of footage. By using digital research technologies and a longitudinal design, the authors of the research project studied how teachers and children gradually integrated touch screens into their teaching and learning. This paper examines the methodological usefulness of video‐based multimodal analysis. Through reflection on the research project, we discuss how, by using video‐based multimodal analysis, researchers and teachers can study children's touch‐screen supported collaboration and how researchers and teachers can learn together.

Effects of Orientation on Workload during Touch Screen Operation among Individuals With and Without Disabilities

As the use of touch screen technology increases in everyday situations for all walks of life, universal design should be taken into account when designing products to be used by a wide range of users. This re-search studies the workload associated with touch screen use from a front and parallel orientation for individuals with and without motor control disabilities. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) was used to assess workload. Participants with a motor control disability (+MCD; n=20) and age-matched participants without a motor control disability (-MCD; n=18) completed a four-digit touchscreen number entry task. Results show that the +MCD group had a higher perceived workload than the –MCD group. The workload demands of the parallel vs. front orientation were higher for both groups across most TLX subscales. The magnitude of the difference in workload between parallel and front orientation was greater for the +MCD group. The results from this study suggest that when the parallel orientation is necessary, careful consideration should be given to designing touch screen interfaces to reduce workload for all users.

Is the Ambidextrous Advantageous When using Large Touchscreens?

Conducting touch gestures on large format touchscreens for personal computers (PCs) is known to cause greater body discomforts than that from using a traditional PC due to frequent hand movements in floating arm postures. It was of interest whether the discomforts would vary depending on user’s handedness. The current study investigated potential associations between user’s handedness and subjectively assessed discomforts during the use of a 23” touchscreen personal computer. Twenty two participants were grouped by their handedness (left-handed, ambidextrous, right-handed), and conducted a typical web browsing task for 30 minutes while their hand/arm movements and subjective body discomfort ratings were periodically collected. Results show that ambidextrous participants used both hands more evenly than the other two groups, and they also reported significantly less body discomforts (p<0.05) compared to the others. To reduce physical discomforts and prevent musculoskeletal problems associated with the extended use of touchscreens, alternating hands in conducting touch gestures could be recommended.

Investigation, Formulation and Development of an Open GUI for the Touchscreen Smartphone

The use of touchscreens in handheld mobile devices, including mobile phones, PDA’s, media players and tablet PC’s, has rapidly increased in recent times. One of the most important aspects of these devices is the software which comprises the Graphical User Interface (GUI). This paper is centered on designing and implementing an open source GUI for a touchscreen smartphone, with the overall intent being to verify that the use of open source development tools can reduce the cost of production and by extension the cost of smartphones on the market. The methodology adopted to achieve successful completion of this research included comprehensive background research into existing GUI design theory and mobile usability studies, and applying these findings to the design of an open source GUI, within the constraints of an Embedded Linux target platform. The major outcomes of this study include the successful formulation and design of a hierarchical, touchscreen GUI suitable for a smartphone, as well as successful development and target-specific implementation of this GUI on an Embedded Linux, ARM-based platform, functioning as a hypothetical smartphone. After successful implementation of the GUI, it can be said that the adoption of an open source philosophy in the design of a smartphone GUI can reduce overall cost.

Speed-Accuracy Testing on the Apple iPad® Provides a Quantitative Test of Upper Extremity Motor Performance in Children with Dystonia

The currently available scales for quantitative measurement of the severity of childhood dystonia require human observer ratings and provide poor granularity in the scores for individual limbs. We evaluated the use of new-generation high-quality touchscreens (an iPad) according with the Fitts law, which is a mathematical model that takes into account the relation between movement time and the task accuracy. We compared the abilities of healthy subjects and children with dystonia. The linear relation described by Fitts law held for all the groups. The movement time and the information transmitted were age and severity related. Our results provide evidence for the usability and validity of using Fitts law as a quantitative diagnostic tool in children with dystonia. Furthermore, testing on touchscreen tablets may help to guide the design of user interfaces to maximize the communication rate for children who depend upon assistive communication devices.

Assessing age differences in touchscreen pointing movements using the method of ballistic movement

To enhance the use of touchscreens for the elderly population, this study tested the ballistic movement method for assessing age-related differences when executing pointing movements. Six old and six young healthy participants performed ballistic movements of specific distances on a modified touchscreen monitor. The measured data of constant errors, variable errors, and movement time were statistically analyzed and fitted using the ballistic movement models. Except that the older participants aimed at approximately 4 mm above where the young participants did, no significant aging effect was found on ballistic movement time and endpoint variable errors using analysis of variance. The two ballistic movement models predicted well the measured data of movement time and variable errors, except for the vertical variable error committed by the older participants. The ballistic movement method can reveal detailed differences in age and separately predict motor properties of speed and accuracy, helping design target sizes for specific populations.

Graphene: Powder, Flakes, Ribbons, and Sheets

Graphene's unique physical and electrical properties (high tensile strength, Young's modulus, electron mobility, and thermal conductivity) have led to its nickname of "super carbon." Graphene research involves the study of several different physical forms of the material: powders, flakes, ribbons, and sheets and others not yet named or imagined. Within those forms, graphene can include a single layer, two layers, or ≤10 sheets of sp² carbon atoms. The chemistry and applications available with graphene depend on both the physical form of the graphene and the number of layers in the material. Therefore the available permutations of graphene are numerous, and we will discuss a subset of this work, covering some of our research on the synthesis and use of many of the different physical and layered forms of graphene. Initially, we worked with commercially available graphite, with which we extended diazonium chemistry developed to functionalize single-walled carbon nanotubes to produce graphitic materials. These structures were soluble in common organic solvents and were better dispersed in composites. We developed an improved synthesis of graphene oxide (GO) and explored how the workup protocol for the synthesis of GO can change the electronic structure and chemical functionality of the GO product. We also developed a method to remove graphene layers one-by-one from flakes. These powders and sheets of GO can serve as fluid loss prevention additives in drilling fluids for the oil industry. Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) combine small width with long length, producing valuable electronic and physical properties. We developed two complementary syntheses of GNRs from multiwalled carbon nanotubes: one simple oxidative method that produces GNRs with some defects and one reductive method that produces GNRs that are less defective and more electrically conductive. These GNRs can be used in low-loss, high permittivity composites, as conductive reinforcement coatings on Kevlar fibers and in the fabrication of large area transparent electrodes. Using solid carbon sources such as polymers, food, insects, and waste, we can grow monolayer and bilayer graphene directly on metal catalysts, and carbon-sources containing nitrogen can produce nitrogen-doped graphene. The resulting graphene can be transferred to other surfaces, such as metal grids, for potential use in transparent touch screens for applications in personal electronics and large area photovoltaic devices. Because the transfer of graphene from one surface to another can lead to defects, low yields, and higher costs, we have developed methods for growing graphene directly on the substrates of interest. We can also produce patterned graphene to make GNRs or graphane/graphene superlattices within a single sheet. These superlattices could have multiple functions for use in sensors and other devices. This Account only touches upon this burgeoning area of materials chemistry, and the field will continue to expand as researchers imagine new forms and applications of graphene.

The impact of on-road motion on BMS touch screen device operation

This study investigates the effect of vehicle motion on performance, usability and workload for a touch screen in-vehicle Battle Management System (BMS). Participants performed a series of battle management tasks while a vehicle was driven over sealed (characteristic of ‘normal’ vehicle motion) and unsealed (characteristic of ‘high’ vehicle motion) roads. The results indicate that unsealed road conditions impair the performance of information input tasks (tasks that require the user to enter information, e.g. text entry) but not information extraction tasks (tasks that require the user to retrieve information from the system, e.g. reading coordinates). Participants rated workload as higher and the system as less usable on the unsealed road. In closing, the implications for in-vehicle touch screen design and use in both military and civilian driving contexts are discussed. Practitioner Summary: The effect of motion on interacting with in-vehicle touch screen devices remains largely unexplored. This study examines the effect of different levels of vehicle motion on the use of a BMS. Using the system under off-road conditions had a detrimental impact on workload, performance and usability.

Improving clinical outcomes in psychiatric care with touch-screen technology.

Patient-focused research, which uses clinical characteristics to predict outcomes, is a field in which information technology has been effectively integrated with practice. The present research used touch-screen technology to monitor the daily self-report measures of 1,308 consecutive inpatients and day patients participating in a 2-week cognitive-behavioral therapy group. Providing regular feedback was effective in reducing symptoms for patients at risk of poor outcomes (Newnham, Hooke, & Page, 2010b). The use of touch screens in psychiatric monitoring encourages a collaborative dialogue between patients and therapists and promotes engagement in the process of progress monitoring and treatment evaluation.

User discomfort, work posture and muscle activity while using a touchscreen in a desktop PC setting

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate physical risk factors associated with the use of touchscreen in a desktop personal computer (PC) setting. Subjective rating of visual/body discomfort, shoulder and neck muscle activity, elbow movement and user-preferred positions of the workstation were quantified from 24 participants during a standardised computer use task with a standard keyboard and a mouse (traditional setting), with a touchscreen and the standard keyboard (mixed-use condition) and with the touchscreen only. The use of a touchscreen was associated with a significant increase of subjective discomfort on the shoulder, neck and fingers, myoelectric activity of shoulder and neck muscles and percentage of task duration that arms were in the air. Participants placed the touchscreen closer and lower when using touch interfaces compared with the traditional setting. Results suggest that users would need more frequent breaks and proper armrests to reduce physical risks associated with the use of a touchscreen in desktop PC settings. Statement of Relevance: In this study, subjective discomfort, work posture and muscle activity of touchscreendesktop PC users were quantitatively evaluated. The findings of this study can be used to understand potential risksfrom the use of a touchscreen desktop PC and to suggest design recommendations for computer workstations with the touchscreen.

Automatic Tri-Axial Add Sample System Is Designed Based on Windows CE

The design of automatic tri-axial add sample system is mainly used in industrial control. We design this system for solving existence in traditional control system problems. In our system we use based on S3C2440 embedded system. Through SDK which derived from the custom Windows CE Embedded System, we using integrated development environment vs2005 to develop applications program. The advantage of this application program is mainly embodied in the use of LCD touch screen to achieve human-computer interface. Through this interface can control the entire system work so that many people can be freed from the tedious labor, greatly improving work efficiency. By test this system in a practical way show that our design system has a high degree of automation, cost-effective and portable, real-time and other characteristics.