GHOST TOUCH: A retrofittable system to make public touchscreens contactless for a post-Covid world

该项目将解决后Covid-19世界日常生活的一个简单方面，旨在实现“一切照旧”的行为。具体来说，这方面是在公共场所使用触摸屏。例如，博物馆和旅游景点行业使用触摸屏来加深和丰富体验，让游客探索更深层次的信息，这通常被称为“数字解释”。在一个我们都将更加意识到细菌的世界里，我们真的想像其他成千上万的陌生人一样用指尖触摸同样的玻璃和金属吗？冠状病毒可以在触摸屏上存活2-3天，它们的使用已被流行病学家标记为一个关注点。来自肯特州立大学的传染病流行病学家塔拉·史密斯博士说：“由于有这么多人日复一日地接触它们，它们是病毒和细菌被感染者沉积并被健康者携带的好地方，将细菌传播给新的人。“这个项目将提供一个原型系统，旨在创建一个新的模式，为游客的互动。这个想法是使“响应交互点”（屏幕，扬声器等）通过使它们能够将访问者识别为个体，并通过基于他们的偏好自动向他们呈现相关信息来响应：“推送”内容，而不是要求用户通过触摸交互来“拉取”内容。我们的目标是让它可以改造，但最重要的是，它应该消除用户直接触摸屏幕的需要。在第二个用例中，这个想法可以提高现有触摸屏的可用性，同时通过提供一种全新的方式来处理可访问性问题，从而减少所需的触摸次数。例如，如果访问者注册为重听，屏幕将自动为他们打开字幕。或者，如果访问者注册为视障人士，屏幕可以自动切换到高可见度模式，使用高对比度颜色和更大的字体。这里的主要创新将是新技术的新颖组合，以“被动”识别个人，并将他们的偏好应用于基于内容的体验。许多创新已融入现代生活。例如，在今天的大多数停车场，您不再需要担心为售票机寻找硬币;只需使用应用程序支付停车费，并获得额外的好处，您的手机将在它即将耗尽时提醒您。像这样的创新很快变得无处不在，并引发了一个问题：“我们是如何忍受旧的做法的？“当它可能是一个生死攸关的问题时，就像病毒传播一样，这样的问题就更有分量了。在新的世界里，可能会有许多日常困境，在方便与健康风险之间进行权衡。触摸屏的使用最初似乎并不重要，但它可能对许多行业的许多企业产生重大的经济影响，并影响丰富我们日常生活的娱乐和文化体验。这项创新注定会做出巨大的贡献，因为它适用于世界各地数百万人每天每时每刻使用的数百万台设备。

This project will address one simple aspect of daily life in a post-Covid-19 world with the aim of enabling 'business as usual' behaviour. Specifically, that aspect is the use of touchscreens in public spaces. For instance, the museum and visitor attractions industries use touch-screens to deepen and enrich experiences by allowing visitors to explore deeper layers of information that are often referred to as 'digital interpretation'. In a world where we will all be far more conscious of germs, will we really want to touch our fingertips to the same glass and metal as thousands of other strangers, bearing in mind pathogens can live for days on such surfaces?Coronavirus can live for 2-3 days on touchscreens and their use has been flagged as a concern by epidemiologists. Infectious disease epidemiologist Dr Tara Smith from Kent State University said: "Since so many people are touching them day in and day out, they're a great place for viruses and bacteria to be deposited by infected individuals and be picked up by healthy ones, spreading the germ to new people."This project will deliver a prototype system designed to create a new paradigm for visitor interactions. The idea is to make 'responsive interaction points' (screens, speakers etc.) by enabling them to identify visitors as individuals and respond by presenting relevant information to them automatically based on their preferences: 'pushing' content rather than requiring a user to 'pull' it via touch interactions. The aim is for it to be retrofittable but most importantly, it should remove the need for users to physically touch a screen directly.In a secondary use-case, the idea can work to enhance usability of existing touchscreens whilst also reducing the number of required touches by delivering a completely new way of handling accessibility issues. For instance, if a visitor has registered as hard of hearing, a screen would automatically switch on subtitles for them. Or, if a visitor has registered as visually impaired, the screen could automatically switch to a high-visibility mode with high contrast colours and larger font sizes.The primary innovation here will be in the novel combination of new technologies to identify an individual 'passively' and apply their preferences to a content-based experience.Many innovations have blended with modern life. For instance, in the majority of car parks today you no longer need to worry about finding coins for the ticket machine; just pay for parking with an app and get the added benefit that your phone will remind you when it's about to run out. Innovations like this soon become ubiquitous and prompt the question: "How did we ever put up with the old way of doing that?" And when it's potentially a matter of life and death, as with virus transmission, such a question has added weight.In the new world there are likely to be many daily dilemmas where convenience is weighed against health risk. The use of touchscreens may initially seem unimportant, but it could have significant economic impact on many businesses across many industries, as well as affecting entertainment and cultural experiences that enrich our daily lives. This innovation could be destined to make a small contribution in a big way, as it is applicable to millions of devices used by millions of people around the world, every minute of every day.