We present a system that, implemented as an iPhone app controllable from an Apple Watch, can help a blind person backtrack a route taken in a building. This system requires no maps of the building or environment modifications. While traversing a path from a starting location to a destination, the system builds and records a path representation in terms of a sequence of turns and of step counts between turns. If the user wants to backtrack the same path, the system can provide assistance by tracking the user’s location in the recorded path, and producing directional information in speech form about the next turns and step counts to follow. The system was tested with six blind participants in a controlled indoor experiment.

Background

The development of mobile computing technology has enabled the delivery of psychological interventions while people go about their everyday lives. The original visions of the potential of these "ecological momentary interventions" were presented over a decade ago, and the widespread adoption of smartphones in the intervening years has led to a variety of research studies exploring the feasibility of these aspirations. However, there is a dearth of research describing the different dimensions, characteristics, and features of these interventions, as constructed.

Objective

To provide an overview of the definitions given for "ecological momentary interventions" in the treatment of common mental health disorders, and describe the set of technological and interaction possibilities which have been used in the design of these interventions.

Methods

A systematic search identified relevant literature published between 2009 and 2020 in the PubMed, PsycInfo, and ACM Guide to the Computing Literature databases. Following screening, data were extracted from eligible articles using a standardized extraction worksheet. Selected articles were then thematically categorized.

Results

The search identified 583 articles of which 64 met the inclusion criteria. The interventions target a range of mental health problems, with diverse aims, intervention designs and evaluation approaches. The studies employed a variety of features for intervention delivery, but recent research is overwhelmingly comprised of studies based on smartphone apps (30 of 42 papers that described an intervention). Twenty two studies employed sensors for the collection of data in order to provide just-in-time support or predict psychological states.

Conclusions

With the shift towards smartphone apps, the vision for EMIs has begun to be realised. Recent years have seen increased exploration of the use of sensors and machine learning, but the role of humans in the delivery of EMI is also varied. The variety of capabilities exhibited by EMIs motivates development of a more precise vocabulary for capturing both automatic and human tailoring of these interventions.

We introduce Wordcraft, a new interactive tablet application that allows children to explore sentence structures and their meanings. Wordcraft uses a constructionist design: children manipulate word cards to build sentences, which come to life in a storybooklike animated world to illustrate meaning. Such visual feedback helps children play with parts of speech and understand how they fit together to form sentences. Preliminary studies suggest that children are able to observe and discuss how different sentence constructs result in different meanings.