| Assignment 4 — CLever Paper and Demo - Jodi Kiefer |
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Read the following article:
Carmien, S., Dawe, M., Fischer, G., Gorman, A., Kintsch, A., & Sullivan, J. F. (2004) "Socio-Technical Environments Supporting People with Cognitive Disabilities Using Public Transportation," Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction (ToCHI), p. (in press).
http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/tochi-social-issues-final.pdf
More Information about the CLever Project can be found at:
http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/clever/index.html
Briefly discuss the following issues for the paper that you have read:
1. what did you find
1.1. interesting about the article?
I liked the way that this article explained the research process of the “Mobility-for-all” system, including background information about cognitive disabilities. I found the article to be very informative.
1.2. not interesting about the article?
Nothing. I thought the article was very intriguing.
2. what do you consider the main message of the article?
Understanding and traveling on the public transportation system involves a complexity barrier for some users, such as the cognitive disabled. The “Mobility-for-all” system is designed to help ease this complexity. Broken down into three main mobile technology tools (the Personal Travel Assistant, MAPS, and Lifeline), the project aims at aiding both the mobile user and their support communities.
3. what did you find interesting about the systems?
3.1. Personal Travel Assistant
The real-time GPS communication incorporated in the hand-held device which directs and guides the user to the correct inputted destination was interesting.
3.2. Memory Aiding Prompting System (MAPS)
I think that the ability for the support community to write and edit personalized scripts is crucial for a system like this to be truly beneficial.
3.3. Lifeline
I liked the future goals of the Lifeline to be able to detect/predict possible errors by examining subtle anomalies in the system.
4. do you know of other papers, ideas, and systems which are closely related to the article and the systems?
I have seen the updated estimate time of arrival for public transportation that was discussed in the article. The only other systems that are somewhat similar are the GPS units found in some cars today. Upon entering a destination address, the unit will direct you to the correct direction to take. If you happen to miss a turn or get off course, the unit will recalculate a route for you from your current location.
5. what do the article and the associated systems say about
5.1. design
This is definitely an example of an open-ended system. The MAPS system must be designed for the support community to become efficient and effective designers to write scripts for the mobile users.
5.2. learning
These systems aim to help the learning process of individuals with cognitive disabilities in developing life skills.
5.3. collaboration
The design of these systems would not be possible without collaboration from various experts in the areas of transportation services and the cognitive disabled support community.
5.4. innovative media to support these activities?
These systems are utilizing many technologies at the forefront of research such as GPS and PDA devices.
6. are themes discussed in the article which you would like to know more about?
I am personally interested in the interaction between the PDAs of the mobile user and the smart vehicle technologies on the public busses.
7. do you have any ideas how this research could / should be extended (based on your own knowledge and experience)?
Real-world testing will play a large part in designing/determining the functionality and usefulness of these tools by the end-user. Unfortunately, this process can not be performed until phase 3 of implementation. The mobility and usefulness of these systems leads me to believe that they may be useful to all users, not only the cognitive disabled, either as a whole or individually in other situations. For example, the idea of walking a user step-by-step through a process that is introduced with the Personal Travel Assistant could be applied to many different learning situations. One that comes to mind initially would be instruction-based tasks, for example, building a bookshelf.