This article presents a comprehensive literature review to investigate whether and why older adults accept handheld computers and how to design elderly-friendly handheld computers. Findings about acceptance, input devices, menu and functions, and output devices are summarized. First, older adults were under social pressure to use mobile phones, but they had low acceptance of advanced functions. Also, they had a different way to judge acceptance factors from younger adults. Second, older adults preferred the physical keyboard to the on-screen keyboard for text entry, whereas they preferred tapping the touch pad to the joystick and buttons for pointing tasks. Third, older adults had shallower mental representation of the mobile phone menus than younger adults. Navigation aids providing contextual information and large cognitive preview per screen could help them. Finally, recommended size and spacing for text and icons are presented.

Use and Design of Handheld Computers for Older Adults: A Review and Appraisal

This study examined the difference between younger adults and older adults in requirements for mobile phones and acceptance of new functions. A survey was conducted among 351 older adults and 140 younger adults in China. Four major findings were derived. Firstly, older adults perceived ease to understand manuals, font size, icon size, and feedback of the operation as more important compared with younger adults. Secondly, younger adults placed more emphasis on most non-visual aspects of mobile phones than older adults, while older adults placed more emphasis on visible attributes. Thirdly, the biggest age-related difference lays in connectivity. Younger adults perceived Internet access and the connection between mobile phones and other devices as much more important compared with older adults. Fourthly, older adults had more difficulties using soft keys and multi-tap than younger adults, which implied that smart phones with changing button labels and the touch & hold operation would be confusing for older adults. These results were interpreted in the context of the transition from feature phones to smart phones.

Age-related difference in the use of mobile phones

We deal with a problem of designing a user interface for touchscreen phones with respect to special needs of seniors. We conducted qualitative study (\(\hbox {n}=5\)) followed by quantitative one (\(\hbox {n}=118\)). From the comparison of our study with existing studies we observed an obvious trend in more extensive usage of advanced features, which cannot be explained only by the shift of the younger seniors to older age groups. We provided a set of recommendations and we designed a new touchscreen phone user interface to support needs of active seniors. In comparison (\(\hbox {n}=15\)) with standard Android UI our solution had higher completion rate in two of four complex tasks and 6\(\times \) higher completion rate of all tasks while producing 2.4\(\times \) fewer errors. Our interface was subjectively perceived more comfortable, efficient and producing less errors.

KoalaPhone: touchscreen mobile phone UI for active seniors

Old age brings several physical and cognitive challenges for elderly people, which complicates the utilization of modern information and communication technology (ICT) for daily task assistance and for caretakers and family support. One factor hindering the adoption of ICT is that most existing user interfaces (UIs) require prior knowledge of use metaphors that many elderly people cannot learn to master. Research on developing assistive technology exists, such as phones for the elderly, but these often have UIs that require prior knowledge and use experience. Recent research has introduced Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) concepts for users’ homes, for example projecting guidance into the environment. However, only a few empirical studies have attempted to define the type of projection-based UIs that would be intuitive for the elderly, and the system design processes that would help in developing such AAL have not been researched thoroughly. This work presents three design iterations and their empirical evaluations. From these, a body of knowledge was produced for designing and developing AALs with projected Augmented Reality (AR) UIs. The first iteration had a sentence-building UI implemented for a wearable Projector-Camera (ProCam) system, which had limits in technical suitability for the elderly. The second iteration changed the use metaphor to a simple icon-based menu, and produced a requirement guideline for UIs in AAL. In the final iteration, the wearable was replaced with a fixed ProCam, allowing the elderly to make menu selections effectively. This iteration supported sequential tasks, such as taking medicine, with visual guides. The suitability of the new UI was tested with computer literate young adults and elderly users, many of the latter having memory and motor skill limitations. The comparison showed that the two groups performed similarly; however, the elderly needed a slower and more direct interaction technique adapted to their preferences in the UI. Assistance for the sequential tasks was found feasible. This work produced a set of UI-related and technical factors that AAL designers should take into account when developing projector-based AR systems for the elderly with memory problems. In addition, this work offers suggestions on how to conduct UI testing sessions with this user group to reduce the amount of work and improve the success of the iterative development process.

Designing projected user interfaces as assistive technology for the elderly

An image processing apparatus includes a depth control signal generation unit generating a depth control signal controlling emphasis of the feel of each region of an input image based on the depth position of a subject in each region of the input image; a face skin region control signal generation unit generating a face skin region control signal controlling emphasis of the feel of each region in the input image based on the human face skin region in the input image; a person region control signal generation unit generating a person region control signal controlling emphasis of the feel of each region in the input image based on the region of the person in the input image; and a control signal synthesis unit synthesizing the depth control signal, the face skin region control signal, and the person region control signal to generate a control signal

Image processing apparatus, method, and program

This paper proposes tips for designing Web pages appropriate for the elderly. The characteristics of mobile phone Web pages and the effects of aging are elucidated. The elderly had difficulty in reading texts, finding the focus, operating pages and input, and understanding the contents in some cases. Tips for designing Web pages that are appropriate for the elderly are proposed based on our observations.

Tips for designing mobile phone web pages for the elderly

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a color conversion device which can present a color scheme proposal becoming a natural color scheme maintaining the intent of original design when the color scheme of an image is converted automatically. SOLUTION: A color conversion device comprises an image acquisition section 2-11 for acquiring an object image from an image file 2-2, a database 2-13 for color information analysis which contains information about the categorization criterion of color category, a color information analysis section 2-12 for analyzing color information in the image and categorizing the color information into color categories with reference to the database 2-13, a ranking calculation section 2-14 which determines the selection of color to be converted and the ranking for changing the amount of conversion, an amount-of-conversion determination section 2-15 which weights the amount of color conversion for the color in a categorized image according to the ranking determined at the ranking calculation section 2-14, a color conversion section 2-16 which performs color conversion according to a weighted amount of conversion, and a display section 2-17 which displays the results converted at the color conversion section 2-16. COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Color conversion device, color conversion method, and color conversion program

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a color scheme conversion device for increasing the contrast of a color, and for converting it into an easily visible color scheme in such a state that the features of such a color scheme as a tone brought about by the combination of the color scheme of electronic content including Web content, that is, the combination of a plurality of colors is maintained as much as possible. SOLUTION: The color scheme conversion device analyzes the distribution of a color scheme on an obtained image; sets up a color characteristic database equipped with information related with the definition of a color; sorts the analyzed color scheme into color scheme types by analyzing a color difference about the analyzed color scheme; sets up a color difference analysis information database equipped with information for analyzing the color difference; converts the color scheme on the obtained image by changing the color difference according to the sorted color scheme types; sets up a conversion rule database equipped with a rule related with the change of the color difference; and outputs the result of the conversion of the color scheme. COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Color scheme conversion device and program

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a character color proposing device, a character color proposing method and a program, for automatically maintaining brightness contrast within a range of a hue, which is freely designated, in coloring an electronic image and an electronic content. SOLUTION: The character color proposing device includes a color characteristic database which stores, with respect to a predetermined color, a plurality of pieces of information of color code value, brightness value and color phase angle as a set. An input background color input by a background color input means and a character color selected as a result of processing of the character color proposing device are displayed. The brightness value of the background color is extracted, a range of brightness value having a brightness contrast with character visibility higher than a predetermined value is calculated based on the brightness value of the background color, and candidate colors are extracted from the calculated range of brightness value. A user designates a character color. The candidate color designated by the user from the extracted candidate colors through the character color designation means is displayed. COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Character color proposing device, character color proposing method and program

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display specific information in a web page to be easily retrievedSOLUTION: A unified link text, which is created by incorporating and uniformly expressing a plurality of important keywords including words unique to a site and synonyms of the important keywords, is stored A type of a web page is determined by words unique to the site, and important keywords corresponding to the type are extracted The unified link text corresponding to the keywords is obtained from storage means, and a link text of the web page including the extracted important keywords is changed to the unified link text to display it at a desired position according to a style sheet

Saito Harumi

Papers

Tips for designing mobile phone web pages for the elderly

Color conversion device, color conversion method, and color conversion program

Color scheme conversion device and program

Character color proposing device, character color proposing method and program

Hyperlink rearrangement device, hyperlink rearrangement method and hyperlink rearrangement program