Keynote speakers

Vicki Hanson

Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Dundee

The Human Side of Computing

Abstract

Historically, computing has been envisioned as a way to enhance what we, as humans, are able to do. Nowhere is such a computing goal more evident than in the field of accessibility where we seek to create devices and software to address needs of people who have disabilities. In creating accessible technology and novel accessibility tools, research has not only facilitated digital interactions and quality of life needs for many, but also has served to advance the field of computing more generally. The needs of users can and should inform the agenda for emerging research in areas such as augmented memory, physical interactions, and human communication.

Bio

Vicki Hanson is a Distinguished Professor at RIT within the HCI and Accessibility research groups. She also is Chair of Inclusive Technologies at the University of Dundee where she leads multiple efforts related to inclusion of older adults and individuals with disabilities. From 1986 – 2009 she was a Research Staff Member and Manager at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in New York, founding the Accessibility Research Group in 2000.
Her work on accessibility stemmed from language and educational access questions and over the years has grown to include development efforts to support the aging population and people with diverse abilities. For these efforts she has been recognized both by industry and academic honors, including an IBM Corporate Award, the Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society, the Social Impact Award from ACM SIGCHI and the ACM SIGCACCESS Award for Contributions to Computing and Accessibility.
She currently serves as the ACM Vice President and as a member of the ACM-W Europe Executive Committee. She is Past Chair of SIGACCESS and was Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transitions on Accessible Computing. She serves on Fellows Committees for ACM and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and has been active in conference organizing and program committees for ASSETS, CHI, and several other ACM conferences.
She is a Fellow of the ACM, a Chartered Fellow of the British Computer Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Christian Bühler

TU Dortmund

Changing Services in a Changing World

Abstract

In our days ICT technologies change very fast and are quickly taken up by the market. Digital natives, digital immigrants and nonliner describe digital socialization paths and lead to different user groups. It is very obvious that the ways of information and communication through technology have changed substantially with an immense impact on society. Private communications and interactions are run in social networks, e-commerce and e-government amend and replace traditional means. Services are available on the move and embedded in ambient intelligent environments through smartphones and data transfer options. At the very same time our societies are ageing, with less children, less people in gainful employment and a growing number of older people. Taking these two important trends together the question arises how to make best use of the available human and technological resources.
Most people agree that best use of human resources means to engage people in human oriented tasks with low physical burden, little negative stress and minimal risk for accidents, illness and death. Further, activities shall be connected to social interaction, support of wellbeing and health and a meaningful life. Best use of technological resources can support these objectives in various ways, by easing, simplifying, assisting tasks and jobs. They themselves shall not create damage or disadvantage to people. Everyone shall be able to use technological services or decide to continue in acquainted ways.
One problem is the exclusion of people from benefitting from new technological services. Main aspects here are required knowledge and skills, education, physical and cognitive abilities, affordability and data security issues. Availability of devices, infrastructures and services particularly in rural areas comprises another thread. Universal design and design for all provide concepts for overcoming these issues. ICT contains a huge potential for the implementation of such concepts.
Relating to the ageing population with changing physical, sensorial and cognitive abilities technological support also offers a lot. Traditionally, we have separated such support technologies as technical aids in a medical system often in a regulated health care market. Suitable and good functionalities have been offered to people, but often at high cost, with a need to accept to be old or having a disability and often with stigmatizing patterns. Now, carrying a mobile device, with computing power, with data connection to the cloud, connectivity to other devices and various sensor options, we have everyday technology at hand which can take over many of the traditional functionality of technical aids.
In order to unlock the inherent potential, we need to rethink the ways of interaction of the players, the market organization and support frameworks. Several initiatives have been started towards this and in this talk examples will be presented. Aspects of ongoing developments and discussions are taken up and reflected.

Bio

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian R. Bühler is Professor for Rehabilitation Technology at the Faculty for Rehabilitation Science of the TU Dortmund University and Founding Director of FTB (Research institute on technology and disability of the German rehab center ESV). He holds a degree in electrical engineering from University of Karlsruhe, a Doctoral Degree in engineering from University of Dortmund and an Honorary Professorship from the distance teaching University of Hagen. His main scientific interest has turned from control engineering and robotics to the support of older people and people with disabilities by assistive technology, accessibility and universal design. He has more than 20 years of experience in research, education and management in the areas of accessibility, eInclusion, assistive technology, and design for all. He is founding member and past president of “Association for the Advancement of Assistive Technology in Europe” (AAATE) and has supported the formation of “European Design for all eAccessibility Network” (EDeAN). He founded the German Alliance for Barrier-free Information Technology and is head of Agentur barrierferei NRW (Accessibility Agency NRW). He is expert member of the NRW Inklusionsbeirat (NRW Advisory Board for Inclusion) and director of the Research Cluster TIP (Technology for Inclusion and Participation) of TU Dortmund University. He is involved in many inter-/national projects and initiatives, and acts as a consultant for governments, standardisation, and companies. He has represented Germany in many international committees and commissions.

Leontios Hadjileontiadis

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Advanced signal processing perspectives towards innovative human assistive technology

Abstract

The proposed lecture will present advanced achievements in the field of affective computing towards more enhanced human-computer-interaction interfaces, presenting advanced signal processing techniques and implementations applied to Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. In particular, the way emotions are ‘reflected’ in our brain signals, the way actions (both in explicit and implicit way, e.g., gestures in music) are combined with internal representations in our brain (involving mirror neuron system activation), and how our brain decides if it likes or not the perceived music will be presented and discussed. Moreover, potential implementations of the findings in the field of human assistive technology will be shown, including innovative ways of pain management and Alzheimer’s community support.

Bio

Leontios J. Hadjileontiadis received the Diploma degree in Electrical Engineering in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1997, both from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Thessaloniki, Greece. Dr. Hadjileontiadis also holds a Diploma in Musicology (AUTH, Thessaloniki, 2011) and a Ph.D. degree in music composition (University of York, UK, 2004). Since December 1999 he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, AUTH, Greece as a faculty member, where he is a Professor, working on lung sounds, heart sounds, bowel sounds, ECG data compression, affective computing, educational data, seismic data analysis and crack detection in the Signal Processing and Biomedical Technology Unit of the Telecommunications Laboratory. He is also a Professor in composition at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, Greece. He was the recipient of eight international awards with the latest being the Faculty Champion Award 2012 from Microsoft. From 2004 till present, he has organized and served as a mentor to student teams that excelled in the worldwide Imagine Cup Competition (Microsoft) [Sao Paulo, Brazil (2004)/Yokohama, Japan (2005)/ Seoul, Korea (2007)/ New York, USA (2011)/Sydney, Australia (2012)] with projects involving technology-based solutions for people with disabilities. His research interests are in higher-order statistics, alpha-stable distributions, higher-order zero crossings, wavelets, polyspectra, fractals, neuro-fuzzy modeling for medical, mobile and digital signal processing applications. He is a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece, of the IEEE, of the Higher-Order Statistics Society, of the International Lung Sounds Association, and of the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Hadjileontiadis is a senior member of the IEEE.

Luís Carriço

LaSIGE, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa

The Accessible, the Mobile and the Web

Abstract

Being accessible means to provide a good experience to users, independently of their capabilities at the moment of use. Even in its most restricted definition, this implies that an accessible interactive system should address the needs of all. It encloses thus a universal implication. Mobility, when applied to these systems, means that a user should be able to use it wherever he stands and whatever he is doing. Implicitly, and the reality reinforces it, it encloses a notion of omnipresence, a different but yet related universal stance. It is not strange, therefore, that situational impairments often emerging from mobility should, at least for some, be considered under the accessibility umbrella. Finally, what could be more universal than the web? As the previous concepts it infolds, here by reality, intent or misconception, the perceptions of omnipresence, omniscience and egalitarianism.
This unequivocal similitudes imply for sure interrelated preoccupations for those developing interactive systems. As a consequence, systems, applications, frameworks and techniques, share related ideas and solutions. Moreover, at the fusion of these concerns, on mobile accessibility, mobile web, web accessibility, and of course mobile web accessibility, lies an extraordinary challenge to the designers that could actual provide universal solutions. Synergies, merged solutions, and holistic views will be contemplated hopefully raising awareness to a broader perspective of accessibility.

Bio

Luís Carriço holds a PhD (2000) and an MSc degree in Electronic and Computers Engineering, from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Technical University of Lisbon. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. He is a senior researcher at LaSIGE research Unit, and currently leads the Human Computer Interaction and Multimedia (HCIM) Group. The group’s main research areas are Accessibility and Mobile Interaction. He is General Chair for W4A 2015, was Program Chair of the W4A 2014, chaired the three editions of the Mobile Accessibility Workshop and was General Chair of ACM IUI 2012 and ACM MobileHCI 2010.
He has been evaluator for ICT (FP6 and FP7) project proposals, and ongoing projects, on the e-Inclusion area, including those in ICT and Ageing. He participated in several European Research Projects recently including ACCESSIBLE and GUIDE, both in the accessibility area, and coordinated several national research projects in areas of Web and Document Accessibility and mobile tools for Cognitive Impaired people. He is currently the Portuguese representative on the AGEISM COST action.
He was involved in technology transfer projects, namely on the assessment of electronic elections in Portugal, focussing on the Accessibility dimension, and coordinated the accessibility evaluation and recommendation for ANACOM, the Telecom Portuguese regulator. He is a founder and co-manager of BoomUX a company providing consultancy in the areas of Accessibility, Usability and User Experience.