News
2022
Patterns for Designing Accessible Video Conferencing Tools
Lourdes Moreno, Paloma Martínez, and Rodrigo Alarcón have presented the article "Requirements and design patterns for an accessible video conferencing tool" at the XXII International Congress on Human-Computer Interaction (Interaction 2022).
Participation in the Women@Inf project to promote computer science vocations in girls
Paloma Martinez, on behalf of the Spanish Society for Natural Language Processing (SEPLN), and Lourdes Moreno on behalf of the Human-Computer Interaction Association (AIPO) participated in the 1st Workshop of the project “Computer Science Research in Spain: Visualizing and making visible the work of women (WOMEN@INF)” financed by the Institute for Women and Equal Opportunities.
This project is the main activity developed by the Women's Commission of the Spanish Scientific Society for Informatics (SCIE) and its intention is to create synergies between the actions carried out by different universities and organizations and promote measures that allow for reducing gender gap existing.
Participating in the project: Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Informática Educativa (ADIE), Asociación de Enseñantes Universitarios de la Informática (AENUI), Asociación Española para la Inteligencia Artificial (AEPIA), Asociación Española de Reconocimiento de Formas y Análisis de Imágenes (AERFAI), Asociación Interacción Persona-Ordenador (AIPO), Sección Española de la Asociación Europea de Gráficos por Ordenador (EUROGRAPHICS), Sociedad Española para las Ciencias del Videojuego (SECiVi), Sociedad de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores (SARTECO), Sociedad Española para el Procesamiento del Lenguaje Natural (SEPLN), Sociedad de Ingeniería y Tecnologías de Desarrollo de Software (SISTEDES).
Publication of an article in the journal "IEEE Transactions on Education"
Lourdes Moreno and Belen Ruiz Mezcua, along with other researchers, have published the article "Modular 3D Printed Education Tool For Blind And Visually Impaired Students Oriented To Net Structures" in the IEEE Transactions on Education Journal.
The article presents the design of a 3D printed educational tool to support a blind student to learn the theory of electrical circuits in higher education. The main objective of the tool is to increase the resources available in the field of teaching visually impaired students.
Sección Especial revista AIPO: “Procesamiento de Lenguaje Natural y Accesibilidad cognitiva”
La revista digital de AIPO (Interacción) solicita artículos sobre Procesamiento de Lenguaje Natural y Accesibilidad Cognitiva para un número especial. Sus editores son Paloma Martínez y Rodrigo Alarcón del grupo HULAT.Fundación Caser premia el proyecto sobre el subtitulado accesible de la música
Madrid, 3 de junio de 2022. La Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y el Centro Español del Subtitulado y la Audiodescripción (CESyA), centro asesor del Real Patronato sobre Discapacidad, celebra y agradece que la 13ª Edición de los Premios Dependencia y Sociedad de la Fundación Caser haya concedido el galardón de la categoría I+D+i a la investigación de la UC3M ‘Subtitulado accesible de la música de películas’ realizada por un equipo de investigadores de la universidad en el marco del CESyA y de los programas de doctorado de Ciencia y Tecnología Informática y de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y Automática de UC3M
Proyecto IntCARE: Sistema de Atención domiciliaria inteligente e interactivo par ala mitigación de la pandemia del COVID-19
Una de las consecuencias de la pandemia provocada por el COVID-19 ha sido la presión que ha sufrido el sistema sanitario y, en particular, el hospitalario. El proyecto se centra en el ámbito tecnológico y biomédico para la atención a pacientes de COVID-19 y propone el desarrollo de un sistema integral atención y cuidado domiciliario basado en el uso de inteligencia artificial y la medicina personalizada para la identificación temprana y el seguimiento de pacientes de COVID y COVID persistente. El proyecto IntCARE está financiado por la Comunidad de Madrid en la convocatoria REACT.
Defensa de tesis doctoral "Clinical word sense disambiguation" de Areej Jaber
Defensa de tesis doctoral de Rodrigo Alarcón "Lexical simplification for the systematic support of cognitive accessibility guidelines"
2021
The HULAT group has once again developed the "Navidad Accesible" app that allows blind people to enjoy the Christmas lights.
For the second consecutive year, Madrid City Council is bringing the Christmas lights to everyone through the mobile application "Navidad Accesible Madrid", which allows people with visual and intellectual disabilities to enjoy the traditional Christmas lights.
This system has been developed by professors and researchers from the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies Group (HULAT), belonging to the Department of Computer Science at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, whose work focuses on carrying out R+D+i projects related to natural language processing technologies, information retrieval and extraction in different domains, response search systems, usability and accessibility in user interfaces.
The application makes it possible to follow a guided route through the Christmas lights based on a system of audio descriptions, i.e. audios that narrate to people what is being shown in front of them. This application works when the user activates their phone's location system near the lights included in the application. At that moment, the geolocation system is activated and the audio description is played, providing information about the scenes represented by the lighting, the colours, the sensations they transmit and additional information about their creation and designers. In addition, the application allows this information on Madrid's lighting without having to move around by searching through the list of available streets.
In this year's version, the app has increased to 31 points of visit, including emblematic places such as Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Gran Vía or Plaza de España, recently reopened. As a new feature this year, the application has incorporated the possibility of taking guided tours, an option of four routes with which you can consult the lights of the same environment grouped together to make the walk more comfortable and easier. As last year, there are three formats for audio descriptions. Two of them are designed for adults, with synthetic voice and real voice, and the third is an option for children, with children's narrators and clear and simple language, adapted to them.
"Navidad Accesible Madrid" is free and available on both Android and iOS. It can also be found by searching for "Navidad Accesible" in any of the app shops.