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Momona Yamagami

Publications and source records attributed to Momona Yamagami.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Federated Learning in Offline and Online EMG Decoding: A Privacy and Performance Perspective

Neural interfaces offer a pathway to intuitive, high-bandwidth interaction, but the sensitive nature of neural data creates significant privacy hurdles for large-scale model training. Federated learning (FL) has emerged as a promising privacy-preserving solution, yet its efficacy in real-time, online neural interfaces remains unexplored. In this study, we 1) propose a conceptual framework for applying FL to the distinct constraints of neural interface application and 2) provide a systematic evaluation of FL-based neural decoding using high-dimensional electromyography (EMG) across both offline simulations and a real-time, online user study. While offline results suggest that FL can simultaneously enhance performance and privacy, our online experiments reveal a more complex landscape. We found that standard FL assumptions struggle to translate to real-time, sequential interactions with human-decoder co-adaptation. Our results show that while FL retains privacy advantages, it introduces performance tensions not predicted by offline simulations. These findings identify a critical gap in current FL methodologies and highlight the need for specialized algorithms designed to navigate the unique co-adaptive dynamics of sequential-user neural decoding.

cs.LG

Customized Mid-Air Gestures for Accessibility: A $B Recognizer for Multi-Dimensional Biosignal Gestures

Biosignal interfaces, using sensors in, on, or around the body, promise to enhance wearables interaction and improve device accessibility for people with motor disabilities. However, biosignals are multi-modal, multi-dimensional, and noisy, requiring domain expertise to design input features for gesture classifiers. The \$B-recognizer enables mid-air gesture recognition without needing expertise in biosignals or algorithms. \$B resamples, normalizes, and performs dimensionality reduction to reduce noise and enhance signals relevant to the recognition. We tested \$B on a dataset of 26 participants with and 8 participants without upper-body motor disabilities performing personalized ability-based gestures. For two conditions (user-dependent, gesture articulation variability), \$B outperformed our comparison algorithms (traditional machine learning with expert features and deep learning), with > 95% recognition rate. For the user-independent condition, \$B and deep learning performed comparably for participants with disabilities. Our biosignal dataset is publicly available online. $B highlights the potential and feasibility of accessible biosignal interfaces.

cs.HC

Two-In-One: A Design Space for Mapping Unimanual Input into Bimanual Interactions in VR for Users with Limited Movement

Virtual Reality (VR) applications often require users to perform actions with two hands when performing tasks and interacting with objects in virtual environments. Although bimanual interactions in VR can resemble real-world interactions -- thus increasing realism and improving immersion -- they can also pose significant accessibility challenges to people with limited mobility, such as for people who have full use of only one hand. An opportunity exists to create accessible techniques that take advantage of users' abilities, but designers currently lack structured tools to consider alternative approaches. To begin filling this gap, we propose Two-in-One, a design space that facilitates the creation of accessible methods for bimanual interactions in VR from unimanual input. Our design space comprises two dimensions, bimanual interactions and computer assistance, and we provide a detailed examination of issues to consider when creating new unimanual input techniques that map to bimanual interactions in VR. We used our design space to create three interaction techniques that we subsequently implemented for a subset of bimanual interactions and received user feedback through a video elicitation study with 17 people with limited mobility. Our findings explore complex tradeoffs associated with autonomy and agency and highlight the need for additional settings and methods to make VR accessible to people with limited mobility.

cs.HC

An Autoethnographic Case Study of Generative Artificial Intelligence's Utility for Accessibility

With the recent rapid rise in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools, it is imperative that we understand their impact on people with disabilities, both positive and negative. However, although we know that AI in general poses both risks and opportunities for people with disabilities, little is known specifically about GAI in particular. To address this, we conducted a three-month autoethnography of our use of GAI to meet personal and professional needs as a team of researchers with and without disabilities. Our findings demonstrate a wide variety of potential accessibility-related uses for GAI while also highlighting concerns around verifiability, training data, ableism, and false promises.

cs.HC

"I'm Just Overwhelmed": Investigating Physical Therapy Accessibility and Technology Interventions for People with Disabilities and/or Chronic Conditions

Many individuals with disabilities and/or chronic conditions (da/cc) experience symptoms that may require intermittent or on-going medical care. However, healthcare is an often-overlooked domain for accessibility work, where access needs associated with temporary and long-term disability must be addressed to increase the utility of physical and digital interactions with healthcare workers and spaces. Our work focuses on a specific domain of healthcare often used by individuals with da/cc: physical therapy (PT). Through a twelve-person interview study, we examined how people's access to PT for their da/cc is hampered by social (e.g., physically visiting a PT clinic) and physiological (e.g., chronic pain) barriers, and how technology could improve PT access. In-person PT is often inaccessible to our participants due to lack of transportation and insufficient insurance coverage. As such, many of our participants relied on at-home PT to manage their da/cc symptoms and work towards PT goals. Participants felt that PT barriers, such as having particularly bad symptoms or feeling short on time, could be addressed with well-designed technology that flexibly adapts to the person's dynamically changing needs while supporting their PT goals. We introduce core design principles (adaptability, movement tracking, community building) and tensions (insurance) to consider when developing technology to support PT access. Rethinking da/cc access to PT from a lens that includes social and physiological barriers presents opportunities to integrate accessibility and adaptability into PT technology.

cs.HC