Human Systems Interaction: Assisting with Technology

Abstract

How does technology assist you in your daily life? Join us and hear how faculty and graduate students at Georgia Tech are developing new ways for technology to assist people in the areas of musical technology, public transport, and mobility assistance.

It is imperative to improve the reliability of public transportation because of the numerous societal benefits, including general mobility, congestion reduction and reduced environmental impacts. However, from a customer perspective, a mobility choice is only preferable if it is fast, comfortable and reliable. Although there are many measures that a transit agency can take to improve transit reliability, one goal of Dr. Watkins research is to combat unreliability with greater information to allow riders to have better control of their trip. This presentation focuses on the impacts of a transit rider information system OneBusAway (OBA), primarily used to provide real-time next bus countdown information for riders in greater Seattle via multiple interfaces. The underlying goal of OBA is to reduce the burden of using public transportation and thereby increase rider satisfaction and increase transit ridership. This presentation further discusses the proliferation of applications for transit riders and the role that open data plays in the continued development of such applications.

Tongue Drive System is a new wireless and wearable device that allows individuals with severe paralysis control their environments using their voluntary tongue motion. In this talk I will introduce the technology and its uses.