Interactions with computing systems and conversational services such as ChatGPT have become an inherent part of our daily lives. It is surprising that user interfaces, the gateways through which we communicate with an interactive intelligent system, are still predominantly devoid from hedonic aspects. There is little attempt to make communication through user interfaces intentionally more like communication with humans. Anthropomorphic user interfaces can transform interactions with intelligent software into more pleasant experiences by integrating human-like attributes. Anthropomorphic user interfaces expose human-like attributes that enable people to perceive, connect and interact with the interfaces as social actors. This integration of human-like aspects not only enhances user experience but also holds the potential to make interfaces more sustainable, as they rely on familiar human interaction patterns, thus potentially reducing the learning curve and increasing user adoption rates. However, there is little consensus on how to build these anthropomorphic user interfaces. We conducted an extensive literature review on existing anthropomorphic user interfaces for software systems (past), in order to map and connect existing definitions and interpretations in an overarching taxonomy (present). The taxonomy is used to organize and structure examples of anthropomorphic user interfaces into an accessible collection. The taxonomy and an accompanying web tool provides designers with a reference framework for analyzing and dissecting existing anthropomorphic user interfaces, and for designing new anthropomorphic user interfaces (future).

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Non-ergonomic postures and the resulting musculoskeletal disorders are key factors in worker disability and well-being. This underlines the importance of designing ergonomic work environments and educating workers in performing tasks ergonomically. We present Work-a-Pose to increase awareness of non-ergonomic postures and promote long-term sustainable work postures. To this end, we combine camera-based posture tracking with the automatic application of ergonomic guidelines. Glanceable visualizations highlight the worker's posture and potential ergonomic risks. A complementary, personal tool provides a more detailed overview of the worker's ergonomic score and motivates the worker to strive for a healthy work posture through simple gamification techniques.

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The number of wearable devices that we carry increases, with smaller companion devices like smartwatches providing quick access for simple tasks. These devices are, however, not necessarily in direct sight of the user and during everyday activities, it is unlikely, even undesirable, that the user constantly focuses on or interacts with these screens. Furthermore, interaction is often limited because our hands are occupied carrying or holding items such as bags, papers, boxes, or tools. In this paper, we evaluate how encumbrance affects, among others, the time it takes to perceive and react to a notification depending on the placement of the companion device. Our experimental results can assist designers in choosing the right device for the task.

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Physical exercise training and medication compliance are primary components of cardiac rehabilitation. When rehabilitating independently at home, patients often fail to comply with their prescribed medication and find it challenging to interpret exercise targets or be aware of the expected efforts. Our work aims to assist cardiac patients in understanding their condition better, promoting medication adherence and motivating them to achieve their exercise targets in a tele-rehabilitation setting. We introduce a patient-centric intelligible visualization approach to present prescribed medication and exercise targets to patients. We assessed efficacy of intelligible visualizations on patients' comprehension in two lab studies. We evaluated the impact on patient motivation and health outcomes in field studies. Patients were able to adhere to medication prescriptions, manage their physical exercises, monitor their progress and gained better self-awareness on how they achieved their rehabilitation targets. Patients confirmed that the intelligible visualizations motivated them to achieve their targets better. We observed an improvement in overall physical activity levels and health outcomes of patients.

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Collaborative robot-assisted production has great potential for high variety low volume production lines. These type of production lines are common in both personal fabrication settings as well as in several types of flexible production lines. Moreover, many assembly tasks are in fact hard to complete by a single user or a single robot, and benefit greatly from a fluent collaboration between both. However, programming such systems is cumbersome, given the wide variation of tasks and the complexity of instructing a robot how it should move and operate in collaboration with a human user. In this paper we explore the case of collaborative assembly for personal fabrication. Based on a CAD model of the envisioned product, our software analyzes how this can be composed from a set of standardized pieces and suggests a series of collaborative assembly steps to complete the product. The proposed tool removes the need for the end-user to perform additional programming of the robot. We use a low-cost robot setup that is accessible and usable for typical personal fabrication activities in Fab Labs and Makerspaces. Participants in a first experimental study testified that our approach leads to a fluent collaborative assembly process. Based on this preliminary evaluation, we present next steps and potential implications.

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Patient coaching is integral to cardiac rehabilitation programs to help patients understand, cope better with their condition and become active participants in their care. The introduction of remote patient monitoring technologies and tele-monitoring solutions have proven to be effective and paved way for novel remote rehabilitation approaches. Nonetheless, these solutions focus largely on monitoring patients without a specific focus on coaching patients. Additionally, these systems lack personalization and a deeper understanding of individual patient needs. In our demonstration, we present a tool to personalize e-coaching based on individual patient risk factors, adherence rates and personal preferences of patients using a tele-rehabilitation solution. We developed the tool after conducting a workshop and multiple brainstorms with various caregivers involved in coaching cardiac patients to connect their perspectives with patient needs. It was integrated into a comprehensive tele-rehabilitation application.

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Body posture is one of many visual cues used by sighted persons to determine if someone would be open to initiate a conversation. These cues are inaccessible for individuals with blindness leading to difficulties when deciding whom to approach for eventual assistance. Current camera technologies, such as depth cameras, enable to automatically scan the environment to assess the approachability of nearby persons. We present Whom-I-Approach, a system that translates postures of bystanders into a measure of approachability and communicates this information using auditory and tactile cues. The system scans the environment and determines the approachability based on body posture for the persons in the vicinity of the user. Efficiency as well as perceived system usability and psychosocial attitudes are measured in a user study showing the potential to improve competence for users with blindness prior to engagement in social interactions.

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Intense and frequent motor training is essential in persons with neurological disorders as there are MS and stroke. Technology-based rehabilitation has been proven to be beneficial for specific patient groups, as it shows to be effective on muscle strength and active range of motion of the upper limbs. Personalized training in technology-supported rehabilitation setups using motivational techniques such as serious games have the potential to make repetitive training efforts more endurable. Most neurological rehabilitation approaches suffer from a strict separation between training scenarios and activities in daily living, but have difficulties to bridge the gap between exercising on a functional level and performing on the level of activities in daily living. To improve the integration of motor skill training in a daily living context we propose an approach and proof-of-concept implementation of the training device ReHappy, a tangible character that engages patient in performing additional training that complements the daily activities.

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Persons that suffered from a cardiac disease are often recommended to integrate a sufficient level of physical exercise in their daily life. Initially, cardiac rehabilitation takes place in a closely monitored setting in a hospital or a rehabilitation center. Sustaining the effort once the patient has left the ambulatory, supervised environment is a challenge, and drop-out rates are high. Emerging approaches such as telemonitoring and telerehabilitation have been proven to show the potential to support the cardiac patient in adhering to the advised physical exercise. However, most telerehabilitation solutions only support a limited range of physical exercise, such as step-counting during walking. We propose BoB (Back on Bike), a mobile application that guides cardiac patients while cycling. Design choices are explained according to three pillars: ease of use, reduce fear, and direct and indirect motivation. In this paper, we report the results from a field study with cardiac patients.

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