Augmenting Video Chat to Support Remote Participatory Design

Hi, I'm Teja!

PhD Candidate
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Maryland, USA

Contact:
hmaddali at umd dot edu

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THAT Lab

Augmenting Video Chat to Support Remote Participatory Design

Figure shows the participant, a person with dementia, using a tablet device to video chat with a remote researcher. There is a table in front of the participant with the proposed remote collaboration system on it. The system has four components. a printer to print paper prototypes (e.g. origami material), a 3d printer to print (e.g. a plastic cylinder prototype), a projector that projects an example view of a mobile app, and an overhead camera to capture hand movements of the participant. The remote researcher can relay commands to these devices and remotely trigger them to, for example, print through the video chat application on the participants tablet. The system therefore converts the table in front of the participant into a shared tablespace for both the participant and the reseacher. A caregiver is also shown next to the participant as an optional third person to help with the session if needed.

Leading a team in the development of a system to support remote participatory design sessions specifically with people with dementia. A Zoom based video chat app interfaces with devices at the participant’s location (e.g. printers, projectors) via bluetooth and a Raspberry Pi intermediary. A remote researcher can trigger these devices to create physically tangible design materials in real-time for activities with participants.

Publications: CSCW 2020,
Code Repos: Web App (Node.js + socket.io + Web Bluetooth + WebRTC) and Raspberry Pi code (Python)

(private repo, email to request access),

Tags: Remote Research, Dementia, Accessibility, IoT, Prototyping,