Faculty Bibliography

Recent advances in genetic testing and Internet technologies have led to a dramatic increase in the access non-experts have to their own personal genomic data. Such data are complex and sensitive, involve multiple dimensions of uncertainty, and can have substantial implications on individuals' behavior, choices, and well-being. Personal genomic data are also unique because unlike other personal data, which might change frequently, genomic data are largely stable during a person's lifetime; it is their interpretation and implications that change over time as new medical research exposes relationships between genes and health. Future progress in genetic research and technologies is likely to further increase the availability of interactive personal genomic information to non-experts. This trend raises technological, ethical, and regulatory concerns related to how people make sense of, engage with, and rely on their personal genomic data. Such concerns are not only of paramount importance for health professionals and policymakers, but are also a pressing issue for human-computer interaction (HCI) research. HCI tools, methods, and practices can help make genomic information more accessible and understandable to non-experts. We argue that the complexity, importance, and personal relevance of this type of information makes understanding, informing, and empowering non-experts' interaction with personal genomics a key challenge that lies ahead for the HCI community. In this article, we explore the roles HCI can play in helping nonexperts contribute, understand, engage with, and share their personal genomic information. This article is also a call-to-action for those of us interested in the intersection of personal informatics and HCI, and, more broadly, in facilitating non-expert interaction with large amounts of complex, personal, and uncertain information.

Citizen science enables volunteers to contribute to scientific projects, where massive data collection and analysis are often required. Volunteers participate in citizen science activities online from their homes or in the field and are motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Here, we investigated the possibility of integrating citizen science tasks within physical exercises envisaged as part of a potential rehabilitation therapy session. The citizen science activity entailed environmental mapping of a polluted body of water using a miniature instrumented boat, which was remotely controlled by the participants through their physical gesture tracked by a low-cost markerless motion capture system. Our findings demonstrate that the natural user interface offers an engaging and effective means for performing environmental monitoring tasks. At the same time, the citizen science activity increases the commitment of the participants, leading to a better motion performance, quantified through an array of objective indices. The study constitutes a first and necessary step toward rehabilitative treatments of the upper limb through citizen science and low-cost markerless optical systems.