SNS College of Engineering

Department of Computer Science and

Engineering

UNIVERSAL DESIGN

Presented By,
S.Yamuna
AP/CSE
12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 1
 Universal Design
Principles
• Equitable use
• Flexibility in use - NCSW
• Simple and intuitive to use
• Perceptible information
• Tolerance for error
• Low physical effort
• Size and space for approach and use

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 2

 Multi-Sensory Systems
• More than one sensory channel in interaction
– e.g. sounds, text, hypertext, animation, video, gestures, vision
• Used in a range of applications:
– particularly good for users with special needs, and virtual reality
• Will cover
– general terminology
– speech
– non-speech sounds
– handwriting
• considering applications as well as principles

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 3

 Usable Senses
The 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) are used by us
every day
– each is important on its own
– together, they provide a fuller interaction with the natural world

Computers rarely offer such a rich interaction

Can we use all the available senses?

– ideally, yes
– practically – no

We can use • sight • sound • touch (sometimes)

We cannot (yet) use • taste • smell

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 4
 Multi-modal vs. Multi-media
• Multi-modal systems
– use more than one sense (or mode ) of interaction
e.g. visual and aural senses: a text processor may speak the
words as well as echoing them to the screen

• Multi-media systems
– use a number of different media to communicate information
e.g. a computer-based teaching system:may use video,
animation, text and still images: different media all using the
visual mode of interaction; may also use sounds, both
speech and non-speech: two more media, now using a
different mode

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 5

 Speech

Human beings have a great and natural mastery of speech

– makes it difficult to appreciate the complexities

but
– it’s an easy medium for communication

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 6

 Structure of Speech
Phonemes
– 40 of them
– basic atomic units
– sound slightly different depending on the context they are in,
these larger units are …
Allophones
– all the sounds in the language
– between 120 and 130 of them
– these are formed into …
Morphemes
– smallest unit of language that has meaning.

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 7

 Speech (cont’d)
Other terminology:
• prosody
– alteration in tone and quality
– variations in emphasis, stress, pauses and pitch
– impart more meaning to sentences.
• co-articulation
– the effect of context on the sound
– transforms the phonemes into allophones
• syntax – structure of sentences
• semantics – meaning of sentences

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 8

 Speech Recognition Problems
• Different people speak differently:
– accent, intonation, stress, idiom, volume, etc.
• The syntax of semantically similar sentences may vary.
• Background noises can interfere.
• People often “ummm.....” and “errr.....”
• Words not enough - semantics needed as well
– requires intelligence to understand a sentence
– context of the utterance often has to be known
– also information about the subject and speaker
e.g. even if “Errr.... I, um, don’t like this” is recognised, it is a fairly
useless piece of information on it’s own

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 9

 The Phonetic Typewriter
• Developed for Finnish (a phonetic language, written as it is said)
• Trained on one speaker, will generalise to others.
• A neural network is trained to cluster together similar sounds, which
are then labelled with the corresponding character.
• When recognising speech, the sounds uttered are allocated to the
closest corresponding output, and the character for that output is
printed.
– requires large dictionary of minor variations to correct general
mechanism
– noticeably poorer performance on speakers it has not been
trained on

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 10

 The Phonetic Typewriter (ctd)

a a a ah h æ æ ø ø e e e

o a a h r æ l ø y y j i

o o a h r r r g g y j i

o o m a r m n m n j i i

l o u h v vm n n h hj j j

l u v v p d d t r h hi j

. . u v tk k p p p r k s

. . v k pt t p t p h s s
12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 11
 Speech Recognition: useful?
• Single user or limited vocabulary systems
e.g. computer dictation
• Open use, limited vocabulary systems can work satisfactorily
e.g. some voice activated telephone systems
• general user, wide vocabulary systems …
… still a problem
• Great potential, however
– when users hands are already occupied
e.g. driving, manufacturing
– for users with physical disabilities
– lightweight, mobile devices

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 12

 Speech Synthesis
The generation of speech

Useful
– natural and familiar way of receiving information
Problems
– similar to recognition: prosody particularly

Additional problems
– intrusive - needs headphones, or creates noise in the workplace
– transient - harder to review and browse

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 13

 Speech Synthesis: useful?
Successful in certain constrained applications
when the user:
– is particularly motivated to overcome problems
– has few alternatives

Examples:
• screen readers
– read the textual display to the user
utilised by visually impaired people
• warning signals
– spoken information sometimes presented to pilots whose visual
and haptic skills are already fully occupied

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 14

 Non-Speech Sounds
boings, bangs, squeaks, clicks etc.

• commonly used for warnings and alarms

• Evidence to show they are useful

– fewer typing mistakes with key clicks
– video games harder without sound

• Language/culture independent, unlike speech

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 15

 Non-Speech Sounds: useful?
• Dual mode displays:
– information presented along two different sensory channels
– redundant presentation of information
– resolution of ambiguity in one mode through information in
another
• Sound good for
– transient information
– background status information

e.g. Sound can be used as a redundant mode in the Apple

Macintosh; almost any user action (file selection, window active, disk
insert, search error, copy complete, etc.) can have a different sound
associated with it.

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 16

 Auditory Icons
• Use natural sounds to represent different types of object or action
• Natural sounds have associated semantics which can be mapped
onto similar meanings in the interaction
e.g. throwing something away
~ the sound of smashing glass
• Problem: not all things have associated meanings

• Additional information can also be presented:

– muffled sounds if object is obscured or action is in the
background
– use of stereo allows positional information to be added

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 17

 SonicFinder for the Macintosh
• Items and actions on the desktop have associated sounds
• Folders have a papery noise
• Moving files – dragging sound
• Copying – a problem …
sound of a liquid being poured into a receptacle
rising pitch indicates the progress of the copy
• Big files have louder sound than smaller ones

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 18

 Earcons
• Synthetic sounds used to convey information
• Structured combinations of notes (motives ) represent actions and
objects
• Motives combined to provide rich information
– compound earcons
– multiple motives combined to make one more complicated
earcon

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 19

 Earcons (ctd)
• Family earcons
similar types of earcons represent similar classes of action or
similar objects: the family of “errors” would contain syntax and
operating system errors

• Earcons easily grouped and refined due to compositional and

hierarchical nature

• Harder to associate with the interface task since there is no natural

mapping

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 20

 Touch
• Haptic interaction
– cutaneous perception
• tactile sensation; vibrations on the skin
– kinesthetics
• movement and position; force feedback
• Information on shape, texture, resistance, temperature, comparative
spatial factors
• Example technologies
– electronic braille displays
– force feedback devices e.g. Phantom
• resistance, texture

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 21

 Handwriting recognition
Handwriting is another communication mechanism which we are
used to in day-to-day life

• Technology
– Handwriting consists of complex strokes and spaces
– Captured by digitising tablet
• strokes transformed to sequence of dots
– large tablets available
• suitable for digitising maps and technical drawings
– smaller devices, some incorporating thin screens to display the
information
• PDAs such as Palm Pilot
• tablet PCs

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 22

 Handwriting recognition (ctd)
• Problems
– personal differences in letter formation
– co-articulation effects

• Breakthroughs:
– stroke not just bitmap
– special ‘alphabet’ – Graffeti on PalmOS

• Current state:
– usable – even without training
– but many prefer keyboards!

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 23

 Gesture
• Applications
– gestural input - e.g. “put that there”
– sign language
• Technology
– data glove
– position sensing devices e.g MIT Media Room
• Benefits
– natural form of interaction - pointing
– enhance communication between signing and non-signing
users
• Problems
– user dependent, variable and issues of coarticulation

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 24

 Users with disabilities
• visual impairment
– screen readers, SonicFinder
• hearing impairment
– text communication, gesture, captions
• physical impairment
– speech I/O, eyegaze, gesture, predictive systems (e.g. Reactive
keyboard)
• speech impairment
– speech synthesis, text communication
• dyslexia
– speech input, output
• autism
– communication, education

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 25

 … plus …
• age groups
– older people e.g. disability aids, memory aids, communication
tools to prevent social isolation
– children e.g. appropriate input/output devices, involvement in
design process
• cultural differences
– influence of nationality, generation, gender, race, sexuality,
class, religion, political persuasion etc. on interpretation of
interface features
– e.g. interpretation and acceptability of language, cultural
symbols, gesture and colour

12/21/2017 S.Yamuna, AP/CSE 26