Chris Creed

Birmingham City University, School of Computing and Digital Technology, Faculty Member

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Papers by Chris Creed

Multimodal Gaze Interaction for Creative Design

Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2020), 2020

We present a new application ("Sakura") that enables people with physical impairments to produce ... more We present a new application ("Sakura") that enables people with physical impairments to produce creative visual design work using a multimodal gaze approach. The system integrates multiple features tailored for gaze interaction including the selection of design artefacts via a novel grid approach, control methods for manipulating canvas objects, creative typography, a new color selection approach, and a customizable guide technique facilitating the alignment of design elements. A user evaluation (N=24) found that non-disabled users were able to utilize the application to complete common design activities and that they rated the system positively in terms of usability. A follow-up study with physically impaired participants (N=6) demonstrated they were able to control the system when working towards a website design, rating the application as having a good level of usability. Our research highlights new directions in making creative activities more accessible for people with physical impairments.

Assistive technology for disabled visual artists: exploring the impact of digital technologies on artistic practice

Disabled artists with physical impairments can experience significant barriers in producing creat... more Disabled artists with physical impairments can experience significant barriers in producing creative work. Digital technologies offer alternative opportunities to support artistic practice, but there has been a lack of research investigating the impact of assistive digital tools in this context. This paper explores the current practice of physically impaired visual artists and their experiences around the use of digital technologies. An online survey was conducted with professional disabled artists and followed up with face-to-face interviews with ten invited artists. The findings illustrate the issues disabled artists experience in their practice and highlight how they are commonly using mainstream digital technologies as part of their practice. However, there is little awareness around novel forms of technology (e.g. eye gaze tracking) that present new creative opportunities. The importance of digital tools for supporting wider practice (i.e. administrative and business tasks) was also highlighted as a key area where further work is required.

Enhancing Multi-Touch Table Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

Wheelchair users can find accessing digital content on large multi-touch tables particularly diff... more Wheelchair users can find accessing digital content on large multi-touch tables particularly difficult and frustrating due to their limited reach. We present work in progress that is exploring the potential of enhancing touch table accessibility through the use of mid-air gesturing technology. An overview of an experimental prototype is provided along with the key findings from an evaluation conducted with fifteen wheelchair users at a public library and heritage centre.

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Digital Tools for Physically Impaired Visual Artists

We present work-in-progress that is exploring the potential for visual artists with physical impa... more We present work-in-progress that is exploring the potential for visual artists with physical impairments to use new non-intrusive mid-air gesturing sensors to enhance and extend their practice. We highlight the key results from an initial informal user evaluation with two disabled and two non-disabled visual artists examining use of the Leap Motion sensor as an artistic tool. Future work will explore how related technologies can be better utilized to support disabled artists in their practice.

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The Impact of an Embodied Agent's Emotional Expressions Over Multiple Interactions

Interacting With Computers

The impact of simulated embodied agent emotion has been explored in short-term studies, but no wo... more The impact of simulated embodied agent emotion has been explored in short-term studies, but no work to date has examined its impact in longer interactions that involve multiple interactions with agents. We present an embodied agent (Rachael) that simulates a health professional and attempts to help people improve their fruit and vegetable consumption. Emotional and unemotional versions of the agent were developed to examine how user perceptions of the agent changed over an intervention period of 49 days and in turn how this influenced fruit and vegetable consumption. Results found that whilst participants consumed more daily portions of fruit and vegetables over the intervention period and reduced their consumption gains post-intervention, there was no significant difference in consumption gains over time between those who interacted with the emotional or unemotional agents. Qualitative feedback, however, highlighted a strong preference for the emotional agent. A novelty effect was also observed where the agents were perceived more positively initially and less so over time.

Multi-Touch Tables for Exploring Heritage Content in Public Spaces

Multi-touch tables are increasingly being used in public spaces such as museums, art galleries, a... more Multi-touch tables are increasingly being used in public spaces such as museums, art galleries, and libraries to help engage the public and provide access to collections. Design- ing applications for this type of environment where a wide variety of people can use the table raises unique interaction issues that need to be addressed. This chapter initially provides a detailed review of research studies that have investigated the impact of multi-touch tables in cultural heritage environments. A case study into the design of a touch table application for The Hive (the first integrated public/university library and history centre in Europe) is then presented where we highlight issues experienced and lessons learned during the development process. In particular, we cover requirements gathering, design approaches used, the selection of appropriate content (for a broad user base), installation and maintenance of a table, and details of an initial informal evaluation.

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Using Mid-Air Gestures To Enhance Collaborative Experiences For Disabled Users On Multi-Touch Tables

Multi-touch tables can help facilitate and improve collaborative interactions yet many users with... more Multi-touch tables can help facilitate and improve collaborative interactions yet many users with physical disabilities (e.g. wheelchair users) find it extremely difficult to interact with large tables. This paper presents work-in-progress that is exploring the potential to enhance multi-touch table accessibility to enable disabled users to participate more effectively in collaborative interactions. An overview of a prototype that allows disabled users to manipulate digital content via mid-air finger gestures is provided along with details of upcoming research studies we will be conducting.

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Library Collection Shoals For Multi-Touch Tables

We introduce a new multi-touch table “shoaling” application that we have been working on with the... more We introduce a new multi-touch table “shoaling” application that we have been working on with the new Library of Birmingham (UK). This application contains shoals of assets taken from the Library’s collections that flock and swim around the tabletop. The assets are initially represented as small circular crops taken from full-size assets that attempt to intrigue and draw users in to explore further. These cropped circles can then be selected by visitors and expanded to reveal the surprise of the full asset. In this paper, we provide an overview of the shoaling application and share the design considerations that had to be taken into account when attempting to create a shared and collaborative visitor experience.

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Touching Annotations: A Visual Metaphor for Navigation of Annotation in Digital Documents

Abstract Touchtable interactions are currently of high interest in HCI. Within the culture and he... more Abstract Touchtable interactions are currently of high interest in HCI. Within the culture and heritage domain such interactions can give people the opportunity to explore ancient manuscripts and historical documents in ways that would otherwise be unavailable. These documents are often heavily annotated and can be linked to a large array of related digital content, thus enriching the experience for the user. At present it is unclear what is the optimal interaction approach to navigating these annotations in a touchtable context.

Affective Interaction: How Emotional Agents Affect Users

Embodied agents have received large amounts of interest in recent years. They are often equipped ... more Embodied agents have received large amounts of interest in recent years. They are often equipped with the ability to express emotion,but without understanding the impact this can have on the user. Given the amount of research studies that are utilising agent technologywith affective capabilities, now is an important time to review the inﬂuence of synthetic agent emotion on user attitudes, perceptions andbehaviour. We therefore present a structured overview of the research into emotional simulation in agents, providing a summary of themain studies, re-formulating appropriate results in terms of the emotional effects demonstrated, and an in-depth analysis illustrating thesimilarities and inconsistencies between different experiments across a variety of different domains. We highlight important lessons,future areas for research, and provide a set of guidelines for conducting further research

User Interactions With An Affective Nutritional Coach

This paper investigates how users respond to emotional expressions displayed by an embodied agent... more This paper investigates how users respond to emotional expressions displayed by an embodied agent. In a betweensubjects experiment (N = 50) an emotionally expressive agent (simulating the role of a nutritional coach) was perceived as significantly more likeable and caring than an unemotional version. Feedback from participants also revealed detailed insights into their perceptions of the agents and highlighted a strong preference for the emotionally expressive version. Design implications for embodied agents are discussed and future research areas identified.

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Psychological Responses to Simulated Displays of Mismatched Emotional Expressions

Embodied agents are often designed with the ability to simulate human emotion. This paperinvestig... more Embodied agents are often designed with the ability to simulate human emotion. This paperinvestigates the psychological impact of simulated emotional expressions on computer users with aparticular emphasis on how mismatched facial and audio expressions are perceived (e.g. a happy facewith a concerned voice). In a within-subjects repeated measures experiment (N = 68), mismatchedanimations were perceived as more engaging, warm, concerned and happy when a happy or warm facewas in the animation (as opposed to a neutral or concerned face) and when a happy or warm voice was inthe animation (as opposed to a neutral or concerned voice). The results appear to follow cognitivedissonance theory as subjects attempted to make mismatched expressions consistent on both the visualand audio dimensions of animations, resulting in confused perceptions of the emotional expressions.Design implications for affective embodied agents are discussed and future research areas identified

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Using Computational Agents to Motivate Diet Change

Computational agents which make use of behaviour changemodels have the potential to help motivate... more Computational agents which make use of behaviour changemodels have the potential to help motivate people to change problematicbehaviour. The importance of emotion simulation in behaviour changeagents is discussed, along with an overview of a behaviour change model(the Transtheoretical Model [1]) that computational agents can makeuse of. Experiments that will investigate these areas further (within anutritional domain) are then described

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Emotional Intelligence: Giving Computers Effective Emotional Skills to Aid Interaction

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User Responses to Embodied Agent Emotion

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Affective agents for long-term interaction

Abusive Embodied Entities in Online Virtual Environments

Numerous research groups around the world are attempting to build realistic and believable ... more Numerous research groups around the world are attempting to build realistic and believable autonomousembodied agents that attempt to have natural interactions with users. Research into these entities hasprimarily focused on their potential to enhance human-computer interaction. As a result, there is littleunderstanding of the potential for embodied entities to abuse and manipulate users for questionablepurposes. We highlight the potential opportunities for abuse when interacting with embodied agents invirtual worlds and discuss how our social interactions with such entities can contribute to abusivebehaviour. Suggestions for reducing such risks are also provided, along with suggestions for importantfuture research areas

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Social-Emotional Relationships With Computers

Abusive interactions with embodied agents

Abstract: Numerous research groups around the world are attempting to build realistic and believa... more Abstract: Numerous research groups around the world are attempting to build realistic and believable autonomous embodied agents that attempt to have natural interactions with users. Research into these entities has primarily focused on their potential to enhance human-computer interaction. As a result, there is little understanding of the potential for embodied entities to abuse and manipulate users for questionable purposes.

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Using Emotion Simulation to Influence User Attitudes and Behaviour

Research related to emotion in human-computer interaction (HCI) often tends to focus onhow a comp... more Research related to emotion in human-computer interaction (HCI) often tends to focus onhow a computer can autonomously detect the emotional state of a user and then adapt itself accordingly. Another important strand of emotion-related research in HCI is the simula-tion of emotional expressions made by computer agents. Interface designers often includeemotional expressions and statements in their interfaces through the use of textual content,speech (synthetic and recorded), and synthetic facial expressions, but little is known of howwe respond
psychologically to these expressions of emotion and what eﬀect they have on auser’s perceptions, behaviour and performance. We are currently planning a series of ex-periments that will investigate the inﬂuence of synthetic emotions on a user’s attitudes andbehaviour

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