A pilot trial of mobile, patient-performed teledermoscopy

BACKGROUND Early detection by skin self-examination (SSE) could improve outcomes from melanoma. Mobile teledermoscopy may aid this process. OBJECTIVES To establish clinical accuracy of SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy compared to clinical skin examination (CSE) and test whether providing people with detailed SSE instructions improves accuracy. METHODS Men and women 50-64 years (n=58) performed SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy in their homes between May and November 2013 and were given technical instructions plus detailed SSE instructions (intervention) or technical instructions only (control). Within three months, they underwent a CSE. Outcome measures included: a) body sites examined, lesions photographed, and missed; b) sensitivityof SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy compared to in-person CSE using either patients or lesions as denominator, and; c) concordance of telediagnosis with CSE. RESULTS: 49 of 58 randomised participants completed the study, and submitted 309 lesions to the teledermatologist (156 intervention; 153 control group). Intervention group participants were more likely to submit lesions from their legs compared to control (p=0.03), no other differences between groups in number or site of missed lesions.11 participants (22%) did not photograph 14 pigmented lesions the dermatologist considered worthwhile photographing or requiring clinical monitoring. Sensitivity of SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy was 81.8% (95% confidence interval 64.5-93.0) using the patient as the denominator and 41.9 (27.6-56.2) using the lesion as denominator.-There was substantial agreement between telediagnosis and CSE (Kappa =0.90) accounting for differential diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS SSE plus mobile teledermoscopy is promising for surveillance of particular lesions even without provision of detailed SSE instructions, but in the format tested in this study, consumers may overlook lesions and send many non-pigmented lesions. This investigation demonstrates that high quality dermoscopic images can be taken by patients at home and for those sent, telediagnosis is highly accurate.

‘Healthy mobile check-ins’ study: using GIS in smartphones to track use of urban environment by survivors of endometrial cancer

Aims/Objectives Our study aims to test the capacity of a newly developed smartphone innovation to obtain data on social, structural, and spatial determinants of the daily health-related behaviours of women living in urban Brisbane neighbourhoods who have survived endometrial cancer. Methods The women used a mobile web app designed specifically for the project to record GIS/location data on every destination they visited within their local urban neighbourhoods over a two-week period. Additionally, we gathered textual data on the social context/reasons for travel, as well as mode of transport to reach these destinations. The data was transported to SPSS and Google Earth for statistical and spatial analysis. We then met with the women to discuss lifestyle interventions to maximise their use of their local neighbourhoods in ways that could increase their physical activity levels and improve their overall health and well-being. These interventions will be evaluated and translated into a large-scale national study if effective. Results Initial findings about patterns in the group’s use of the local urban environment will be displayed, including daily distances travelled, types of locations visited, walking levels, use of public transport, use of green spaces and use of health-related resources. Any socio-demograpahic differences found between the women will be reported. Qualitative, quantitative, and spatial/mapping data will be displayed Conclusion The benefits and limitations of the mobile website designed to collect a range of data types about human-neighbourhood interactions with implications for intervention design will be discussed.

Effect of mobile phone distraction on car-following behaviour

Multitasking, such as the concurrent use of a mobile phone and operating a motor vehicle, is a significant distraction that impairs driving performance and is becoming a leading cause of motor vehicle crashes. This study investigates the impact of mobile phone conversations on car-following behaviour. The CARRS-Q Advanced Driving Simulator was used to test a group of young Australian drivers aged 18 to 26 years on a car-following task in three randomised phone conditions: baseline (no phone conversation), hands-free and handheld. Repeated measure ANOVA was applied to examine the effect of mobile phone distraction on selected car-following variables such as driving speed, spacing, and time headway. Overall, drivers tended to select slower driving speeds, larger vehicle spacings, and longer time headways when they were engaged in either hands-free or handheld phone conversations, suggesting possible risk compensatory behaviour. In addition, phone conversations while driving influenced car-following behaviour such that variability was increased in driving speeds, vehicle spacings, and acceleration and decelerations. To further investigate car-following behaviour of distracted drivers, driver time headways were modelled using Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE). After controlling for various exogenous factors, the model predicts an increase of 0.33 seconds in time headway when a driver is engaged in hands-free phone conversation and a 0.75 seconds increase for handheld phone conversation. The findings will improve the collective understanding of distraction on driving performance, in particular car following behaviour which is most critical in the determination of rear-end crashes.

Can skin cancer prevention and early detection be improved via mobile phone text messaging? a randomised, attention-control trial.

Objective. To test the impact of a theory-based, SMS (text message)-delivered behavioural intervention (Healthy Text) targeting sun protection or skin self-examination behaviours compared to attention-control. Method. Overall, 546 participants aged 18–42 years were randomised using a computer-generated number list to the skin self-examination (N = 176), sun protection (N = 187), or attention-control (N = 183) text messages group. Each group received 21 text messages about their assigned topic over 12 months (12 weekly messages for three months, then monthly messages for the next nine months). Data was collected via telephone survey at baseline, three-, and 12-months across Queensland from January 2012 to August 2013. Results. One year after baseline, the sun protection (mean change 0.12; P = 0.030) and skin self-examination groups (mean change 0.12; P = 0.035) had significantly greater improvement in their sun protection habits (SPH) index compared to the attention-control group (reference mean change 0.02). The increase in the proportion of participants who reported any skin self-examination from baseline to 12 months was significantly greater in the skin self-examination intervention group (103/163; 63%; P < 0.001) than the sun protection (83/173; 48%), or attention-control (65/165; 36%) groups. There was no significant effect of the intervention for participants who self-reported whole-body skin self-examination, sun tanning behaviour, or sunburn behaviours. Conclusion. The Healthy Text intervention was effective in inducing significant improvements in sun protection and any type of skin self-examination behaviours.

Towards a spatial language for mobile robots

We present a framework and first set of simulations for evolving a language for communicating about space. The framework comprises two components: (1) An established mobile robot platform, RatSLAM, which has a "brain" architecture based on rodent hippocampus with the ability to integrate visual and odometric cues to create internal maps of its environment. (2) A language learning system based on a neural network architecture that has been designed and implemented with the ability to evolve generalizable languages which can be learned by naive learners. A study using visual scenes and internal maps streamed from the simulated world of the robots to evolve languages is presented. This study investigated the structure of the evolved languages showing that with these inputs, expressive languages can effectively categorize the world. Ongoing studies are extending these investigations to evolve languages that use the full power of the robots representations in populations of agents.

Enabling a positive first year experience in higher education through social media and mobile technologies

The first year experience for students within Higher Education institutions has become increasingly important as these institutions strive to improve student retention rates. With many universities also focusing on transforming teaching and learning in an effort to attract and retain students, there is a growing demand to understand and respond to individual student requirements, such as the need to feel a sense of belonging. The literature identifies a sense of belonging as being paramount to a students satisfaction with the institution and it is within this context that this paper reports on a three year study of how first year pre-service education students use social media and mobile technologies in their personal lives and their formal education. More specifically, the study identifies trends in the use of these technologies and the growing need for students to use digital media sharing tools to connect and engage with their peers. The paper contrasts the differences in use between these groups as it seeks to identify the role these technologies can play in their teaching and learning, as well as in promoting an overall positive first year experience.

User perceived video quality modelling on mobile devices for Vp9 and H265 encoders

This study constructs performance prediction models to estimate the end-user perceived video quality on mobile devices for the latest video encoding techniques –VP9 and H.265. Both subjective and objective video quality assessments were carried out for collecting data and selecting the most desirable predictors. Using statistical regression, two models were generated to achieve 94.5% and 91.5% of prediction accuracies respectively, depending on whether the predictor derived from the objective assessment is involved. These proposed models can be directly used by media industries for video quality estimation, and will ultimately help them to ensure a positive end-user quality of experience on future mobile devices after the adaptation of the latest video encoding technologies.

Mobile interaction design approaches for reducing domestic food waste

This thesis is a trans-disciplinary study of domestic food waste in Australia. Firstly, it examines why consumers are prone to waste food. Secondly, it explores several situated design interventions to reduce domestic food waste by informing consumer food supply and location awareness, and improving the level of food literacy among consumers. The thesis outcomes have implications for academic and industry domains within the fields of Human-Computer Interaction, urban informatics, environmental sustainability, food security and public health.

Achievement unlocked: Investigating the design of effective gamification experiences for mobile applications and devices

This thesis investigates the design of motivating and engaging software experiences. In particular it examines the use of video game elements in non-game contexts, known as gamification, and how to effectively design gamification experiences for smartphone applications. The original contribution of this thesis is a novel framework for designing gamification, derived from an iterative process of evaluating gamified prototypes. The outcomes of this research can help us to better understand the impact of gamification in today's society and how it can be used to design more effective software.

Rubbing shoulders with mobile service robots

This paper is not about the details of yet another robot control system, but rather the issues surrounding realworld robotic implementation. It is a fact that in order to realise a future where robots co-exist with people in everyday places, we have to pass through a developmental phase that involves some risk. Putting a “Keep Out, Experiment in Progress” sign on the door is no longer possible since we are now at a level of capability that requires testing over long periods of time in complex realistic environments that contain people. We all know that controlling the risk is important – a serious accident could set the field back globally – but just as important is convincing others that the risks are known and controlled. In this article, we describe our experience going down this path and we show that mobile robotics research health and safety assessment is still unexplored territory in universities and is often ignored. We hope that the article will make robotics research labs in universities around the world take note of these issues rather than operating under the radar to prevent any catastrophic accidents.

An autonomous mobile manipulator for collecting sample containers

In this work we present an autonomous mobile ma- nipulator that is used to collect sample containers in an unknown environment. The manipulator is part of a team of heterogeneous mobile robots that are to search and identify sample containers in an unknown environment. A map of the environment along with possible positions of sample containers are shared between the robots in the team by using a cloud-based communication interface. To grasp a container with its manipulator arm the robot has to place itself in a position suitable for the manipulation task. This optimal base placement pose is selected by querying a precomputed inverse reachability database.

Impact of mobile phone use on car-following behaviour of young drivers

Multitasking, such as the concurrent use of a mobile phone and operating a motor vehicle, is a significant distraction that impairs driving performance and is becoming a leading cause of motor vehicle crashes. This study investigates the impact of mobile phone conversations on car-following behaviour. The CARRS-Q Advanced Driving Simulator was used to test a group of young Australian drivers aged 18–26 years on a car-following task in three randomised phone conditions: baseline (no phone conversation), hands-free and handheld. Repeated measure ANOVA was applied to examine the effect of mobile phone distraction on selected car-following variables such as driving speed, spacing, and time headway. Overall, drivers tended to select slower driving speeds, larger vehicle spacings, and longer time headways when they were engaged in either hands-free or handheld phone conversations, suggesting possible risk compensatory behaviour. In addition, phone conversations while driving influenced car-following behaviour such that variability was increased in driving speeds, vehicle spacings, and acceleration and decelerations. To further investigate car-following behaviour of distracted drivers, driver time headways were modelled using Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE). After controlling for various exogenous factors, the model predicts an increase of 0.33 s in time headway when a driver is engaged in hands-free phone conversation and a 0.75 s increase for handheld phone conversation. The findings will improve the collective understanding of distraction on driving performance, in particular car following behaviour which is most critical in the determination of rear-end crashes.

Cross cultural similarities in using mobile technologies to engage and connect with students

The access to mobile technologies is growing at an exponential rate in developed and developing countries, with some developing countries surpassing developed countries in terms of device ownership. It is both the demand for, and high usage of mobile technologies that have driven new and emerging pedagogical practices in higher education. These technologies have also exponentially increased access to information in a knowledge economy. While differences are often drawn between developing and developed countries in terms of the access and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), this paper will report on a study detailing how higher education students use mobile technologies and social media in their studies and in their personal lives. It will contrast the similarities in how students from an Australian and Vietnamese university access and use mobile and social media technologies while also highlighting ways in which these technologies can be embraced by academics to connect and engage with students.