Making eMaking Accessible for People with Intellectual Disabilities. This interdisciplinary research will create an evidence based eMaking program that empowers people with Intellectual Disabilities. eMaking benefits include collaborative problem solving and employment pathways; however, people with disabilities are often excluded. Through a unique, inclusive, outreach van, strategies to build accessible eMaking will be generated. Project outcomes include replicable, scalable eMaking activities ....Making eMaking Accessible for People with Intellectual Disabilities. This interdisciplinary research will create an evidence based eMaking program that empowers people with Intellectual Disabilities. eMaking benefits include collaborative problem solving and employment pathways; however, people with disabilities are often excluded. Through a unique, inclusive, outreach van, strategies to build accessible eMaking will be generated. Project outcomes include replicable, scalable eMaking activities and toolkits to facilitate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for all. Project benefits include opportunities for people with Intellectual Disability to participate in meaningful recreational or work-focused eMaking, and changing community attitudes through shared eMaking participation.Read moreRead less
Using 3D printing to improve access to graphics by vision-impaired people. This project aims to investigate the possible benefits of 3D printing for production of accessible materials for vision-impaired people. Currently tactile graphics are used to provide severely vision-impaired adults and children with access to graphical content used in education and in orientation and mobility training. This project is expected to clarify the kinds of graphics for which 3D prints are better suited than ta ....Using 3D printing to improve access to graphics by vision-impaired people. This project aims to investigate the possible benefits of 3D printing for production of accessible materials for vision-impaired people. Currently tactile graphics are used to provide severely vision-impaired adults and children with access to graphical content used in education and in orientation and mobility training. This project is expected to clarify the kinds of graphics for which 3D prints are better suited than tactile graphics, and to build capacity within the national accessible format provision sector for the production and use of 3D prints. Benefits will include increased educational opportunities and quality of life for Australians with severe vision impairment, through improved access to graphic materials used in education and orientation and mobility training.
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New information access technologies for people with intellectual disability. New information access technologies for people with intellectual disability. This project aims to co-design a social, interactive and visual internet search interface for people with intellectual disability. Enabling choice and independence is key to the new National Disability Insurance Scheme, but people with intellectual disability are effectively excluded from much of the Web. This project will investigate ways to a ....New information access technologies for people with intellectual disability. New information access technologies for people with intellectual disability. This project aims to co-design a social, interactive and visual internet search interface for people with intellectual disability. Enabling choice and independence is key to the new National Disability Insurance Scheme, but people with intellectual disability are effectively excluded from much of the Web. This project will investigate ways to access and provide information using technologies such as interactive avatars, virtual worlds and trusted social support. New interfaces will enable people with intellectual disability to inform themselves, make choices and foster their social inclusion. Expected outcomes are new search interface technology, a theoretical framework and new Web accessibility guidelines.Read moreRead less
Designing for visual and auditory attention in complex high-tempo worlds. This research addresses the national priority of developing frontier technologies through smart information use. Advanced display technologies are positioned for rapid uptake in many sectors of the economy but are not fully tested. Results of our research will generalise to manufacturing, defence, aviation, and medicine. Given the focus on anaesthesia in this proposal, our research may help to make anaesthesia safer for pa ....Designing for visual and auditory attention in complex high-tempo worlds. This research addresses the national priority of developing frontier technologies through smart information use. Advanced display technologies are positioned for rapid uptake in many sectors of the economy but are not fully tested. Results of our research will generalise to manufacturing, defence, aviation, and medicine. Given the focus on anaesthesia in this proposal, our research may help to make anaesthesia safer for patients and easier for anaesthetists to administer. With this research, an Australian group will enhance its international lead in the area of innovative interfaces for safety critical applications. The proposed research should lead to further inventions that have the potential to benefit Australian industry.Read moreRead less
How, What and Who in Human Communication: Movement of Face and Voice. The aim of this project is to identify the essential characteristics of tone, affect, and identity from face and voice using a combination of signal processing, biological, and behavioural techniques in order to develop a comprehensive model of auditory-visual speech processing and communication. This research will significantly improve understanding of the basis of auditory-visual perception and production in tonal languages ....How, What and Who in Human Communication: Movement of Face and Voice. The aim of this project is to identify the essential characteristics of tone, affect, and identity from face and voice using a combination of signal processing, biological, and behavioural techniques in order to develop a comprehensive model of auditory-visual speech processing and communication. This research will significantly improve understanding of the basis of auditory-visual perception and production in tonal languages and in affective communication, facilitate links between neurophysiological processes and auditory-visual speech processing; and contribute to applications in automatic person recognition, automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech systems, and talking head aids for the hearing impaired.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354596
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$20,000.00
Summary
Perception and Action in Auditory Scenes (PAAS): Neural, Behavioural, Computational and Mechanical Systems. Auditory scenes are temporal and ephemeral yet pervasively influence human life. How humans negotiate such scenes has not been solved, a fact highlighted by attempts to build machines to respond to speech, warnings etc., in real-world situations with room reverberation, different talkers, and background noise. No one discipline can solve such problems. In this network outstanding researche ....Perception and Action in Auditory Scenes (PAAS): Neural, Behavioural, Computational and Mechanical Systems. Auditory scenes are temporal and ephemeral yet pervasively influence human life. How humans negotiate such scenes has not been solved, a fact highlighted by attempts to build machines to respond to speech, warnings etc., in real-world situations with room reverberation, different talkers, and background noise. No one discipline can solve such problems. In this network outstanding researchers from physical, medical, human, and social sciences with interests in speech, music and audition will provide insights into how humans and machines localize, recognize, interpret and produce auditory events, and advance frontier technologies, e.g., automatic speech recognition, hearing prostheses, auditory monitoring/warning systems.Read moreRead less
A pictorial communication framework for inclusion. A picture can tell a thousand words; many people with an intellectual disability can only communicate with pictures and are otherwise isolated. This project will research how computers can understand and facilitate a rich pictorial communication between people and person to machine, thereby supporting inclusion. This will be achieved by inclusively co-designing with people with ID and members of the community: a) an audio-visual accessible searc ....A pictorial communication framework for inclusion. A picture can tell a thousand words; many people with an intellectual disability can only communicate with pictures and are otherwise isolated. This project will research how computers can understand and facilitate a rich pictorial communication between people and person to machine, thereby supporting inclusion. This will be achieved by inclusively co-designing with people with ID and members of the community: a) an audio-visual accessible search tool, b) a pictorial communication device, and c) a visual inclusive social network. These applications will inform future innovations for everyone, and allow citizens with ID to access online information, participate in community activities and be included in the workplace.Read moreRead less
Sonification for complex, mission-critical work environments. Human operators must often pay attention to an immediate task while monitoring background information, but intrusive alarms often capture operators' attention inappropriately. We investigate how continuous auditory information ("sonification") can provide low-level background information when all is normal, yet capture attention to abnormalities only when needed. The results of three experiments will determine the most effective combi ....Sonification for complex, mission-critical work environments. Human operators must often pay attention to an immediate task while monitoring background information, but intrusive alarms often capture operators' attention inappropriately. We investigate how continuous auditory information ("sonification") can provide low-level background information when all is normal, yet capture attention to abnormalities only when needed. The results of three experiments will determine the most effective combination of visual and auditory information delivery; how well sonification captures attention when needed; and whether sonification captures attention to deviations from expected changes. Our findings will help establish principles of attentional mapping that significantly extend current approaches to interactive systems design.Read moreRead less
Filters reveal what flicker conceals: temporal processing in the human visual system. I have recently discovered a new form of camouflage using 10Hz luminance flicker. This project will quantify this effect and examine the extent to which it generalises across colour and spatial dimensions and to video sequences depicting natural scenes. This information is expected to provide foundational information to technologies relating to national security that rely on visual concealment. This research wi ....Filters reveal what flicker conceals: temporal processing in the human visual system. I have recently discovered a new form of camouflage using 10Hz luminance flicker. This project will quantify this effect and examine the extent to which it generalises across colour and spatial dimensions and to video sequences depicting natural scenes. This information is expected to provide foundational information to technologies relating to national security that rely on visual concealment. This research will examine the extent to which filtering out these camouflaging frequencies enhances our sensitivity to low temporal frequency information. This decamouflaging aspect of my research is expected to improve the clarity of digital video-based technologies including ultrasound, educational, info-tainment and defence applicationsRead moreRead less
Accessible Data Exploration and Analysis for Blind People. This project aims to develop new assistive technologies that will enable blind people to explore and analyse data more readily. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the fields of assistive technology, multimodal interfaces, dialogue systems and natural language understanding and generation. The expected outcome of the project is an innovative conversational agent that uses a mix of speech and tactile graphics to communicate ....Accessible Data Exploration and Analysis for Blind People. This project aims to develop new assistive technologies that will enable blind people to explore and analyse data more readily. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the fields of assistive technology, multimodal interfaces, dialogue systems and natural language understanding and generation. The expected outcome of the project is an innovative conversational agent that uses a mix of speech and tactile graphics to communicate with a blind user and proactively assists with data analysis tasks. This should provide significant benefits, as it will overcome barriers to data analysis and exploration by blind people that currently restrict access to government, health and personal data, and limit employment opportunities.Read moreRead less