CAMILE: Controlling AmI Lights Easily

Ambient Intelligent (AmI) environments bring a number of interoperating computing-embedded devices into our everyday life. The related usage scenarios get more complex when users with disabilities and elderly are taken into consideration. This paper presents an interactive application for intuitively controlling multiple sources of light in AmI environments, built so that it can be used by anyone, the young, the elderly, people with visual disabilities, and people with hand-motor disabilities alike. In order to accommodate such a wide range of users, we developed three different modes of interaction: (a) touch-screen-based for sighted users with no motor impairments; (b) remote controlled operation in combination with speech for visually impaired users or tele-operation by sighted users; and (c) scanning (both manual and automated) for motor-impaired users. In the paper, first we describe the design decisions taken and their rationale. Then, we present the user interface that was developed. Following that, we discuss the outcomes of a user-based evaluation in which people with disabilities also participated, suggesting potential interface improvements stemming from the evaluation results. Finally, we provide our conclusions and insight on future R&D work in this area.

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