PHD Dissertations

 

Dr. Anika Lizenich

Perception and social acceptance of carbon capture and utilisation Copyright: © © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Perception and social acceptance of carbon capture and utilisation.

Innovative technologies such as carbon capture and utilisation, short CCU, can contribute to the defossilisation of industrial production. The implementation of CCU will depend not only on technical parameters but also on public acceptance. Therefore, this thesis examines evaluation and decision-making patterns as well as acceptance factors for CCU. Guidelines for technical development and project planning are derived and a procedure for integrating acceptance into technology development is outlined.

 
 

Dr. Ralf Phillpsen

Transition to post-fossil mobility Copyright: © © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Transition to post-fossil mobility: integrating user requirements and behavioural patterns into the planning of charging infrastructure for electric cars.

The electrification of car transport, which can contribute to CO2 emission savings, is inhibited by user perceptions of the state of the charging infrastructure network. This challenge is addressed in this paper and the perception of charging, the requirements for charging locations and the concrete charging decisions from the user's perspective are addressed in order to integrate the findings into future infrastructure planning.

 
 

Dr. Julia Offermann-van Heek

Perspective-dependent perception of ageing and care associated with the acceptance of assistive technology Copyright: © © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Perspective-dependent perception of ageing and care associated with the acceptance of assistive technology.

Assistive technology has the potential to make everyday life easier for the ageing population. So far, little is known about individual needs in the context of ageing and care. Therefore, this thesis investigates the connection between the perception of ageing and care with the acceptance of assistive technology by comparing individual perspectives in a multi-level, empirical approach and deriving user-specific design and action recommendations.

 
 

Dr. Luisa Sophie Vervier

Acceptance, user diversity and design of digital information and communication technologies in the health sector Copyright: © © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Acceptance, user diversity and design of digital information and communication technologies in health care.

The use of modern information and communication technologies, short ICT, such as eHealth and mHealth applications, bring great potential for improving health care. However, the acceptance of digital ICT in Germany has been low so far. Based on four empirical studies, this work contributes to the understanding of acceptance, user diversity and design of digital ICT in health care and offers user-specific design and action recommendations.

 
  Technology Acceptance and Diabetes User Centered Design of Small Screen Devices for Diabetes Patients Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Dr. André Calero Valdez

Technology Acceptance and Diabetes
User Centered Design of Small Screen Devices for Diabetes Patients

The present work deals with the user-centered design process and its impact on technology acceptance of small screen devices for diabetics. The aim of this interdisciplinary work is to conceptualize a compact diabetes management assistant that meets the needs and requirements of its potential users. Moreover, a better understanding of the relationships of technical expertise, domain specificity, diversity and user acceptance should be obtained in relation to medical technology. Another research question deals with the purposeful endowment of acceptance: Can the user-centered design process, when it is accompanied by methods of technology acceptance research, systematically generate products that show more acceptability? How this can be achieved, is demonstrated in this work.

 
 

Dr. Teresa Brell

Humans in Cars. Users' Journey Towards Autonomous Driving

On this journey, an awareness of the major mobility challenges was raised. In future, the intelligent vehicle technologies will represent new solutions for more mobility, safety, and efficiency in road traffic. The aim of this work is to identify and quantify user factors relevant for technology acceptance with a multi-stage empirical procedure. The simultaneous examination of the automation level, the situation, and the context, established that a requirement-oriented mobility must create individual offers with a transparent communication and information strategy.

 
 

Dr. Florian Heller

Natural Interaction with Audio Playback: Tabbing Physical Skills

As humans, we possess inherent physical skills like stereoscopic vision, spatial hearing, and fine grained motor skills. Throughout our history we have developed physical tools that extend and leverage these skills. The PC as important tool of our time, however, has an interface that is not particularly suited to tasks outside the office domain, but we use it to work with various types of media. The aim of this thesis is to create audio playback interfaces that leverage our natural skills.

 
 

Dr. Chantal Lidynia

Count in IT! – Understanding the Acceptance of Life-Logging

The benefits of sufficient activity and a balanced diet are well documented. Yet a trend emerges of spending too much time seated in front of a computer, be it at work or home. Life-logging technologies can help to keep track of, such as steps or calories. They can also give reminders and induce more physical activity, e.g., by awarding (virtual) badges. The present thesis investigates perceived barriers and benefits to the use of life-logging to understand the acceptance of these technologies.

 
  Public perception of infrastructure for energy system transformation: The social acceptance of electricity storage facilities Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Dr. Barbara Zaunbrecher

Öffentliche Wahrnehmung von Infrastruktur für die Energiewende: Die soziale Akzeptanz von Stromspeichern

Electricity storage systems can help to ensure a stable electricity supply in the context of the energy turnaround. So far, however, little is known about society's requirements for storage infrastructure. This study contributes to closing this research gap by identifying acceptance-relevant topics in the context of municipal electricity storage facilities through empirical surveys and deriving recommendations for the planning of storage infrastructure.

 
  Effect of technology and space on the user-centred acceptance evaluation of Ambient Assisted Living Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Dr. Simon Himmel

Medizintechnik für eine alternde Gesellschaft: Wirkung von Technik und Raum auf die nutzerzentrierte Akzeptanzbewertung von Ambient Assisted Living

In the course of demographic change, Ambient Assisted Living, kurz AAL, systems offer potential solutions for an aging population with increasing care needs. The acceptance study of AAL systems, taking into account the influencing factors "user", "room" and "technology", shows The type of technology has the greatest influence, indirect sensor technology is currently accepted, even in private rooms. Audio and video surveillance rejected. This applies generically, regardless of user characteristics.

 
  Raumgeist - Prototypen der raumunterstützenden Technik Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Dr. Kai Kasugai

Space Spirit – Prototypes of the space-supporting technology

The work pursues a central question: How can technology extend a space? Within this question different points are addressed: How and where can or should this technology become visible and what role do displays play in the visibility of technology? How does a human interact with a space extended by technology and can the space itself be the interface or be perceived as such?

 
  Inhabitable Bits. Adaptive User Interfaces for Smart Environment Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Dr. Felix Heidrich

Inhabitable Bits. Adaptive User Interfaces for Smart Environments

An ever increasing amount of connected devices and systems is being integrated into buildings. However, a fundamental adaption of the interaction style similar to the adaption of mobile apps for smart phones is still missing. Furthermore, traditional applications of building automation technology are usually concerned with security, comfort, and energy efficiency, but many additional opportunities for usage contexts in buildings exist. This thesis describes the development of a smart environment that is fused with smart phones and other computing devices. To achieve this fusion, a variety of input devices are integrated into the environment. This approach enables the environment itself to become the user interface, and depending on the usage context, users may choose the most appropriate way of controlling it. In addition, new applications beyond the traditional themes of building automation are presented.

 
  Studies on User Diversity in Ambient Assisted Living Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen Advanced Studies on User Diversity in Ambient Assisted Living

Dr. Wiktoria Wilkowska

Acceptance of eHealth Technology in Home Environments: Advanced Studies on User Diversity in Ambient Assisted Living

The present work focuses on a psychological perspective of technology acceptance, considering the users of electronic Health technology, eHealth) in their home environments. The aim is to explore and identify factors that influence a successful interaction and adoption of such medical assistance technology that is meant to support people in an active and healthy aging. A particular attention is directed to the aspect of user diversity. To realize the objectives, a user-centered research approach was applied in an interdisciplinary environment. In this way, the exploration of how to design and adapt ambient systems to the individual concepts and needs could be optimized

 
  Serious Games for Healthcare in a Ambient Assisted Life Copyright: © Industrie für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen Serious Games for Healthcare in Ambient Assisted Living Environments.

Dr. Philipp Brauner

Serious Games for Healthcare in Ambient Assisted Living Environments. A Technology Acceptance Perspective

The work combines serious games and ambient assisted living as a solution to meet the demographic change. The empirical evaluation of games for physical and cognitive training with younger and elderly focuses on user and system factors and their relationship to performance and acceptance. It shows that serious games are a valuable contribution, but only if certain conditions are considered. Therefore, the book concludes with guidelines that leverage the use of serious games in technology augmented homes.

 
  A Platform For Autonomous, Facade Integrated Room Control Copyright: © Institut für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen A Platform For Autonomous, Facade Integrated Room Control

Dr. Christian Möllering

A Platform For Autonomous, Facade Integrated Room Control

Active systems in a building have enormous potential in terms of sustainability and comfort. While they are still not very much integrated in early design phases, many building concepts implicitly and strongly rely on such technical systems. Due to the complex configuration of active system components, which is crucial for the success of an installation, most buildings, once erected, are driven far from optimum. When operation starts, programmers of the technical systems, who could optimize, have long left the building.

 
  Protestler als Zielgruppe für Kommunikation bei Energie- und Infrastrukturprojekten Copyright: © Institut für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen Protestler als Zielgruppe für Kommunikation bei Energie- und Infrastrukturprojekten

Dr. Johanna Kluge

Protestler als Zielgruppe für Kommunikation bei Energie- und Infrastrukturprojekten

Protest is an important part of a living democracy and plays a significant role in shaping social challenges. Understanding protest can help to adapt communication recommendations in the context of energy and infrastructure projects and use them as a basis for dialogue. In this thesis, protest is therefore examined empirically and literature-based as a complex phenomenon. A person-centered approach is chosen to identify characteristics of protesters that can be transferred into considerations of appropriate communication options.

 
  Medizintechnik für eine digitale Gesundheitsversorgung Copyright: © Institut für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen Medizintechnik für eine digitale Gesundheitsversorgung

Dr. Anne Kathrin Schaar

Medizintechnik für eine digitale Gesundheitsversorgung

In view of demographic change, innovative concepts will be needed in the future for the care of people in need of medical support. Modern medical technology applications offer solution potential for the emerging challenges. Since the attitude of potential users is a critical factor for the successful use of such approaches, this thesis empirically examines different usage parameters from the perspective of future users.

 
  Perspective-dependent perceptions of aging and caregiving associated with acceptance of assistive technology. Copyright: © Institut für Industriekommunikation und Fachmedien (IIF) GmbH an der RWTH Aachen

Dr. Julia Offermann-van Heek

Perspective-dependent perceptions of aging and caregiving associated with acceptance of assistive technology.

Assistive technology has the potential to make everyday life easier for the aging population. To date, little is known about individual needs in the context of aging and caregiving. Therefore, this thesis investigates the relationship between perceptions of aging and caregiving with the acceptance of assistive technology by comparing individual perspectives in a multilevel, empirical approach and deriving user-specific design and action recommendations.

 
  Perspective-dependent perceptions of aging and caregiving associated with acceptance of assistive technology. Copyright: © Human-Computer Interaktion Center (HCIC) at RWTH Aachen

Dr. Luisa Sophie Vervier

Acceptance, user diversity and design of digital information and communication technologies in the health sector

The use of modern information and communication technologies, shortform ICT, such as eHealth and mHealth applications, bring great potential for improving the health care system. However, the acceptance of digital ICT in Germany has been low so far. Based on four empirical studies, this work contributes to the understanding of acceptance, user diversity and design of digital ICT in health care and offers user-specific design and action recommendations.