MACCS: enabling communications for mobile workers within healthcare environments

ABSTRACT

As wireless communications systems become more ubiquitous, enterprise workers are becoming more and more mobile. Addressing mobility in the enterprise has recently become a pressing concern for many corporations. In particular, there is a growing component of mobile workers whose job tasks require them to be mobile within their local workspace. These workers sometimes do not have a desk or phone and frequently use their hands in performing required tasks; they typically referred to as "corridor cruisers" or "campus roamers". One class of workers that fall under this category is healthcare professionals (e.g. nurses). Communication enabling these workers usually involves an expensive proposition: equipping them with a mobile/wireless phone, PDA or a paging device. Our goal was to see if we could address the communications needs of healthcare workers by using a small, inexpensive, wearable, hands-free audio device (a wireless headset) along with a speech interface to an intelligent agent. In this paper we present the results of an industrial user study in a real world healthcare environment of our Mobile Access to Converged Communications System (MACCS) which empowers mobile workers with a hands-free voice interface to manage their communications. In addition we also discuss the design, implementation and deployment of MACCS.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Voice I/O; User-centered design; Input devices and strategies (e.g., mouse, touchscreen)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Collaborative computing; Computer-supported cooperative work

  J. Computer Applications
  J.3 LIFE AND MEDICAL SCIENCES
  J.7 COMPUTERS IN OTHER SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
Bluetooth, availability, context awareness, headset, healthcare, intelligent agent, local mobility, location, manufacturing, presence, retail, speech user interface, wireless