EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/H042865/1
Title: Collaborative Cross Modal Interfaces
Principal Investigator: Bryan-Kinns, Professor N
Other Investigators:
Stockman, Dr TS
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
British Computer Assoc. of the Blind Royal National Inst of Blind People RNIB
Department: Sch of Electronic Eng & Computer Science
Organisation: Queen Mary University of London
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 09 August 2010 Ends: 08 April 2012 Value (£): 230,927
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Design Processes Human-Computer Interactions
Media & Communication Studies New Media/Web-Based Studies
Software Engineering Vision & Senses - ICT appl.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Communications Information Technologies
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
27 Jan 2010 Digital Economy - Research in the Wild Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
We live in an information society where multiple methods of communication are commonplace. The rapid advancements in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) over the last few years has led to new methods of communication; both socially and professionally. This technology has allowed collaboration to become a cornerstone of problem solving through enabling people to work together with ease, despite being geographically apart. The improvement in ICT has also increased the inclusion of people who have perceptual impairments, for example, text messaging allows a person with hearing impairments to communicate relatively easily on their mobile phone. There is still, however, much work needed in the area of technology that allows collaborative communication between people who have differing perceptual awareness. In this project we will examine this important issue by addressing the challenge: How do we design support for collaboration where participants have differing access to modalities?Specifically, we will look at collaboration between visually impaired users and sighted users in the context of editing diagrams in the software engineering workplace. The deliverable for this project is an open-source software tool that enables collaborative diagram editing between visually impaired and sighted users.To do this, we will draw on a pilot study undertaken by the authors which demonstrates that auditory access to diagrams created in a collaborative context, in conjunction with shared auditory awareness mechanisms, supports participants in non-visual collaborative diagram editing and construction. The project will enlist the assistance of two project partners who have experience in this area (Royal National Institute of Blind People and British Computer Association of the Blind). The partners will assist in the recruitment of the user groups and sit on the steering committee. The user group studies will be carried out 'in the wild' to ensure the improvements are relevant. The feedback from the user studies will allow us to add appropriate haptic and auditory components, producing a user centric software tool. This tool will be released as an open-source resource and we will make the findings of our studies available to both academic and practitioner communities. The results of this project will broaden inclusion in the workplace and give the UK an advantage in the area of assistive technology. As the ageing population increases, so does the need for assistive technology, the software produced from this project will be contributing towards both inclusion in work based collaboration as well as social and creative collaboration. This project will also lead to further work such as creating software plug-ins and addressing the area of assistive collaborative technology in the teaching environment.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL: http://ccmi.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: