Sollen soziale Roboter Teil unserer Gesellschaft werden? Eingebettet in eine spannende Kriminalgeschichte vermittelt der Wissenschaftscomic von Oliver Korn und Jonas Grund den aktuellen Stand und Ausblick der Wissenschaft auf Social Robots. Die Geschichte spielt in der nahen Zukunft: In einem internationalen Projekt erforschen Wissenschaftler die Anforderungen an soziale Roboter für den Gesundheitsbereich. Kurz bevor der Prototyp eines Pflegeroboters in einer Feldstudie zum Einsatz kommt, verschwindet er spurlos. In ihrem ersten großen Fall begibt sich die junge Kommissarin Kira auf eine Reise in die Welt der Wissenschaft. Dabei lernt sie viel über soziale Roboter, KI und die Welt internationaler wissenschaftlicher Kooperationen. Immer wieder kommen kritische Stimmen zu Wort: Anti-Roboter-Aktivisten protestieren gegen Automatisierung und ein Schwinden von Menschlichkeit und Empathie. Selbst in der Familie der Kommissarin wird die mögliche Pflege älterer Menschen durch Roboter kontrovers diskutiert. Übergreifendes Ziel ist es, über alle Altersstufen hinweg Wissen aufzubauen, damit die Vor- und Nachteile dieser neuen Technologien kontrovers, aber kenntnisreich diskutiert werden können. „Soziale Roboter – ein Science Comic“ ist ein Beitrag zu einer informierten Diskussion in den Feldern Robotik, künstliche Intelligenz, Ethik und Politik und damit auch als Lehr- und Lernmittel geeignet. Der Comic wurde für Jugendliche und Erwachsene konzipiert und gestaltet. Insbesondere aber für jene, die bisher kaum in Berührung mit sozialen Robotern und künstlicher Intelligenz gekommen sind. Eine weitere Zielgruppe sind im Gesundheitswesen tätige Personen, denn die Betreuung und Pflege älterer Menschen gelten als einer der zukünftig wichtigsten Anwendungsbereiche für soziale Roboter. DINA4 Hochformat, Hardcover Fadenheftung, erschienen in Deutsch und Englisch. Herausgegeben im Selbstverlag Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI), Hochschule Offenburg
Social Robots - A Science Comic (2020)
Grund, Jonas ; Korn, Oliver
Should social robots become part of our society? Embedded in an exciting crime story, the science comic by Oliver Korn and Jonas Grund conveys the current state and outlook of science on social robots. The story takes place in the near future: In an international project, scientists are researching the requirements for social robots for the health sector. Shortly before the prototype of a nursing robot is used in a field study, it disappears without a trace. In her first major case, the young inspector Kira embarks on a journey into the world of science. In the process, she learns a lot about social robots, AI and the world of international scientific cooperation. Again and again, critical voices are heard: anti-robot activists protest against automation and a dwindling of humanity and empathy. Even in the Commissioner's family, the possible care of elderly people by robots is controversially discussed. The overarching goal is to build knowledge across all age groups so that the advantages and disadvantages of these new technologies can be discussed controversially but knowledgeably. "Social Robots - a Science Comic" is a contribution to an informed discussion in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, ethics and politics and is thus also suitable as a teaching and learning tool. The comic was conceived and designed for young people and adults. In particular, however, for those who have hardly come into contact with social robots and artificial intelligence so far. Another target group are people working in the health care sector, because the care and nursing of elderly people are considered to be one of the most important areas of application for social robots in the future. DINA4 portrait format, hardcover thread stitching, published in German and English. Self-published by the Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI), Offenburg University.
Assistive Systems for the Workplace: Towards Context-Aware Assistance (2015)
Korn, Oliver ; Funk, Markus ; Schmidt, Albrecht
Recent advances in motion recognition allow the development of Context-Aware Assistive Systems (CAAS) for industrial workplaces that go far beyond the state of the art: they can capture a user's movement in real-time and provide adequate feedback. Thus, CAAS can address important questions, like Which part is assembled next? Where do I fasten it? Did an error occur? Did I process the part in time? These new CAAS can also make use of projectors to display the feedback within the corresponding area on the workspace (in-situ). Furthermore, the real-time analysis of work processes allows the implementation of motivating elements (gamification) into the repetitive work routines that are common in manual production. In this chapter, the authors first describe the relevant backgrounds from industry, computer science, and psychology. They then briefly introduce a precedent implementation of CAAS and its inherent problems. The authors then provide a generic model of CAAS and finally present a revised and improved implementation.
Small-Scale Cross Media Productions: A Case Study of a Documentary Game (2015)
Korn, Oliver ; Rees, Adrian ; Schulz, Uwe
With major intellectual properties there is a long tradition of cross-media value chains -- usually starting with books and comics, then transgressing to film and TV and finally reaching interactive media like video games. In recent years the situation has changed: (1) smaller productions start to establish cross media value chains; (2) there is a trend from sequential towards parallel content production. In this work we describe how the production of a historic documentary takes a cross media approach right from the start. We analyze how this impacts the content creation pipelines with respect to story, audience and realization. The focus of the case study is the impact on the production of a documentary game. In a second step we reflect on the experiences gained so far and derive recommendations for future small-scale cross media productions.
Towards a gamification of industrial production: a comparative study in sheltered work environments (2015)
Korn, Oliver ; Funk, Markus ; Schmidt, Albrecht
Using video game elements to improve user experience and user engagement in non-game applications is called "gamification". This method of enriching human-computer interaction has been applied successfully in education, health and general business processes. However, it has not been established in industrial production so far. After discussing the requirements specific for the production domain we present two workplaces augmented with gamification. Both implementations are based on a common framework for context-aware assistive systems but exemplify different approaches: the visualization of work performance is complex in System 1 and simple in System 2. Based on two studies in sheltered work environments with impaired workers, we analyze and compare the systems' effects on work and on workers. We show that gamification leads to a speed-accuracy-tradeoff if no quality-related feedback is provided. Another finding is that there is a highly significant raise in acceptance if a straightforward visualization approach for gamification is used.
Comparing projected in-situ feedback at the manual assembly workplace with impaired workers (2015)
Funk, Markus ; Bächler, Andreas ; Bächler, Liane ; Korn, Oliver ; Krieger, Christoph ; Heidenreich, Thomas ; Schmidt, Albrecht
With projectors and depth cameras getting cheaper, assistive systems in industrial manufacturing are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. As these systems are able to continuously provide feedback using in-situ projection, they are perfectly suited for supporting impaired workers in assembling products. However, so far little research has been conducted to understand the effects of projected instructions on impaired workers. In this paper, we identify common visualizations used by assistive systems for impaired workers and introduce a simple contour visualization. Through a user study with 64 impaired participants we compare the different visualizations to a control group using no visual feedback in a real world assembly scenario, i.e. assembling a clamp. Furthermore, we introduce a simplified version of the NASA-TLX questionnaire designed for impaired participants. The results reveal that the contour visualization is significantly better in perceived mental load and perceived performance of the participants. Further, participants made fewer errors and were able to assemble the clamp faster using the contour visualization compared to a video visualization, a pictorial visualization and a control group using no visual feedback.
Design approaches for the gamification of production environments: a study focusing on acceptance (2015)
Korn, Oliver ; Funk, Markus ; Schmidt, Albrecht
Gamification is an ever more popular method to increase motivation and user experience in real-world settings. It is widely used in the areas of marketing, health and education. However, in production environments, it is a new concept. To be accepted in the industrial domain, it has to be seamlessly integrated in the regular work processes. In this work we make the following contributions to the field of gamification in production: (1) we analyze the state of the art and introduce domain-specific requirements; (2) we present two implementations gamifying production based on alternative design approaches; (3) these are evaluated in a sheltered work organization. The comparative study focuses acceptance, motivation and perceived happiness. The results reveal that a pyramid design showing each work process as a step on the way towards a cup at the top is strongly preferred to a more abstract approach where the processes are represented by a single circle and two bars.
Gamification of Business Processes: Re-designing Work in Production and Service Industry (2015)
Korn, Oliver ; Schmidt, Albrecht
In this work we provide an overview of gamification, i.e. the application of methods from game design to enrich non-gaming processes. The contribution is divided into five subsections: an introduction focusing on the progression of gamification through the hype cycle in the recent years (1), a brief introduction to gamification mechanics (1) and an overview of the state of the art in established areas (3). The focus is a discussion of more recent attempts of gamification in service and production (4). We also discuss the ethical implications (5) and the future perspectives (6) of gamified business processes. Gamification has been successfully applied in the domains education (serious games) and health (exergames) and is spreading to other areas. In recent years there have been various attempts to “gamify” business processes. While the first efforts date back as far as the collection of miles in frequent flyer programs, we will portray some of the more recent and comprehensive software-based approaches in the service industry, e.g. the gamification of processes in sales and marketing. We discuss their accomplishments as well as their social and ethical implicatio. Finally a very recent approach is presented: the application of gamification in the domain of industrial production. We discuss the special requirements in this domain and the effects on the business level and on the users. We conclude with a prognosis on the future development of gamification.
Wearable or HMD?: How to Support Tactile Navigation (2020)
Nandkumar, Karan ; Schulz, Annika Sabrina ; Korn, Oliver
This paper describes a comparative study of two tactile systems supporting navigation for persons with little or no visual and auditory perception. The efficacy of a tactile head-mounted device (HMD) was compared to that of a wearable device, a tactile belt. A study with twenty participants showed that the participants took significantly less time to complete a course when navigating with the HMD, as compared to the belt.
The Effect of Gamification on Emotions - The Potential of Facial Recognition in Work Environmentsns (2015)
Korn, Oliver ; Boffo, Sandra ; Schmidt, Albrecht
Gamification means using video game elements to improve user experience and user engagement in non-game services and applications. This article describes the effects when gamification is used in work contexts. Here we focus on industrial production. We describe how facial recognition can be employed to measure and quantify the effect of gamification on the users’ emotions. The quantitative results show that gamification significantly reduces both task completion time and error rate. However, the results concerning the effect on emotions are surprising. Without gamification there are not only more unhappy expressions (as to expect) but surprisingly also more happy expressions. Both findings are statistically highly significant. We think that in redundant production work there are generally more (negative) emotions involved. When there is no gamification happy and unhappy balance each other. In contrast gamification seems to shift the spectrum of moods towards “relaxed”. Especially for work environments such a calm attitude is a desirable effect on the users. Thus our findings support the use of gamification.
Ethical Implications Regarding Assistive Technology at Workplaces (2015)
Behrendt, Hauke ; Funk, Markus ; Korn, Oliver
It is the purpose of this paper to address ethical issues concerning the development and application of Assistive Technology at Workplaces (ATW). We shall give a concrete technical concept how such technology might be constructed and propose eight technical functions it should adopt in order to serve its purpose. Then, we discuss the normative questions why one should use ATW, and by what means. We argue that ATW is good to the extent that it ensures social inclusion and consider four normative domains in which its worth might consists in. In addition, we insist that ATW must satisfy two requirements of good workplaces, which we specify as (a) an exploitation restraint and (b) a duty of care.
Determining the Characteristics of Preferred Virtual Faces Using an Avatar Generator (2015)
Schwind, Valentin ; Wolf, Katrin ; Henze, Niels ; Korn, Oliver
Video game developers continuously increase the degree of details and realism in games to create more human-like characters. But increasing the human-likeness becomes a problem in regard to the Uncanny Valley phenomenon that predicts negative feelings of people towards artificial entities. We developed an avatar creation system to examine preferences towards parametrized faces and explore in regard to the Uncanny Valley phenomenon how people design faces that they like or reject. Based on the 3D model of the Caucasian average face, 420 participants generate 1341 faces of positively and negatively associated concepts of both gender. The results show that some characteristics associated with the Uncanny Valley are used to create villains or repulsive faces. Heroic faces get attractive features but are rarely and little stylized. A voluntarily designed face is very similar to the heroine. This indicates that there is a tendency of users to design feminine and attractive but still credible faces.
A Gamified and Adaptive Learning System for Neurodivergent Workers in Electronic Assembling Tasks (2020)
Grund, Jonas ; Umfahrer, Moritz ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Gay, James ; Theil, Arthur ; Korn, Oliver
Learning and work-oriented assistive systems are often designed to ﬁt the workﬂow of neurotypical workers. Neurodivergent workers and individuals with learning disabilities often present cognitive and sensorimotor characteristics that are better accommodated with personalized learning and working processes. Therefore, we designed an adaptive learning system that combines an augmented interaction space with user-sensitive virtual assistance to support step-by-step guidance for neurodivergent workers in electronic assembling tasks. Gamiﬁed learning elements were also included in the interface to provide self-motivation and praise whenever users progress in their learning and work achievements.
Exploring Low-Cost Materials to Make Pattern-Based Lock-Screens Accessible for Users with Visual Impairments or Deafblindness (2020)
Buchweitz, Lea ; Theil, Arthur ; Gay, James ; Korn, Oliver
Nowadays, the wide majority of Europeans uses smartphones. However, touch displays are still not accessible by everyone. Individuals with deafblindness, for example, often face difculties in accessing vision-based touchscreens. Moreover, they typically have few fnancial resources which increases the need for customizable, low-cost assistive devices. In this work-in-progress, we present four prototypes made from low-cost, every-day materials, that make modern pattern lock mechanisms more accessible to individuals with vision impairments or even with deafblindness. Two out of four prototypes turned out to be functional tactile overlays for accessing digital 4-by-4 grids that are regularly used to encode dynamic dot patterns. In future work, we will conduct a user study investigating whether these two prototypes can make dot-based pattern lock mechanisms more accessible for individuals with visual impairments or deafblindness.
Keep Your Distance: A Playful Haptic Navigation Wearable for Individuals with Deafblindness (2020)
Gay, James ; Umfahrer, Moritz ; Theil, Arthur ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Lindell, Eva ; Guo, Li ; Persson, Nils-Krister ; Korn, Oliver
Deafblindness, a form of dual sensory impairment, signifcantly impacts communication, access to information and mobility. Inde- pendent navigation and wayfnding are main challenges faced by individuals living with combined hearing and visual impairments. We developed a haptic wearable that provides sensory substitution and navigational cues for users with deafblindness by conveying vibrotactile signals onto the body. Vibrotactile signals on the waist area convey directional and proximity information collected via a fisheye camera attached to the garment, while semantic informa- tion is provided with a tapping system on the shoulders. A playful scenario called “Keep Your Distance” was designed to test the navigation system: individuals with deafblindness were “secret agents” that needed to follow a “suspect”, but they should keep an opti- mal distance of 1.5 meters from the other person to win the game. Preliminary fndings suggest that individuals with deafblindness enjoyed the experience and were generally able to follow the directional cues.
Co-Designing Assistive Tools to Support Social Interactions by Individuals Living with Deafblindness (2020)
Theil, Arthur ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Fuentes, Mauricio ; Korn, Oliver
Deafblindness is a dual sensory impairment that affects many aspects of life, including mobility, access to information, communication, and social interactions. Furthermore, individuals living with deafblindness are under a high risk of social isolation. Therefore, we identified opportunities for applying assistive tools to support social interactions through co-ideation activities with members of the deafblind community. This work presents our co-design approach, lessons learned and directions for designing meaningful assistive tools for dual sensory loss.
Physical Add-Ons for Haptic Human-Surrounding Interaction and Sensorial Augmentation (2020)
Lindell, Eva ; Theil, Arthur ; Guo, Li ; Olsson, Nasrine ; Korn, Oliver ; Persson, Nils-Krister
Interaction and capturing information from the surrounding is dominated by vision and hearing. Haptics on the other side, widens the bandwidth and could also replace senses (sense switching) for impaired. Haptic technologies are often limited to point-wise actuation. Here, we show that actuation in two-dimensional matrices instead creates a richer input. We describe the construction of a full-body garment for haptic communication with a distributed actuating network. The garment is divided into attachable-detachable panels or add-ons that each can carry a two dimensional matrix of actuating haptic elements. Each panel adds to an enhanced sensoric capability of the human- garment system so that together a 720° system is formed. The spatial separation of the panels on different body locations supports semantic and theme-wise separation of conversations conveyed by haptics. It also achieves directional faithfulness, which is maintaining any directional information about a distal stimulus in the haptic input.
Strangers in a Strange Land: Designing a Mobile Application to Combat Loneliness and Isolation Among Foreign University Students (2020)
Bordini, Rogério Augusto ; Münscher, Johann-Christoph ; Baumgartner, Kim Annabell ; Hagos, Sara ; Hornig, Jennifer ; Korn, Oliver ; Gampe, Stefano ; Yaman, Berkay ; Herzberg, Philipp Yorck
The findings presented in this article were obtained through a preliminary exploratory study conducted at the Offenburg University as part of the Fighting Loneliness project promoted by the institution’s Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI) from October 2019 to February 2020. The initiative’s main objective was to answer the research question “How should an app be designed to reduce loneliness and social isolation among university students?” with the collaboration of the institution’s students.
Tactile Navigation with Checkpoints as Progress Indicators?: Only when Walking Longer Straight Paths (2020)
Korn, Oliver ; Gay, James ; Gouveia, Rúben ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Schulz, Annika Sabrina ; Umfahrer, Moritz
Persons with both vision and hearing impairments have to rely primarily on tactile feedback, which is frequently used in assistive devices. We explore the use of checkpoints as a way to give them feedback during navigation tasks. Particularly, we investigate how checkpoints can impact performance and user experience. We hypothesized that individuals receiving checkpoint feedback would take less time and perceive the navigation experience as superior to those who did not receive such feedback. Our contribution is two-fold: a detailed report on the implementation of a smart wearable with tactile feedback (1), and a user study analyzing its effects (2). The results show that in contrast to our assumptions, individuals took considerably more time to complete routes with checkpoints. Also, they perceived navigating with checkpoints as inferior to navigating without checkpoints. While the quantitative data leave little room for doubt, the qualitative data open new aspects: when walking straight and not being "overwhelmed" by various forms of feedback in succession, several participants actually appreciated the checkpoint feedback.
Wow, You Are Terrible at This!: An Intercultural Study on Virtual Agents Giving Mixed Feedback (2020)
Wang, Isaac ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Smith, Jesse ; Bornholdt, Lara-Sophie ; Grund, Jonas ; Ruiz, Jaime ; Korn, Oliver
While the effects of virtual agents in terms of likeability, uncanniness, etc. are well explored, it is unclear how their appearance and the feedback they give affects people's reactions. Is critical feedback from an agent embodied as a mouse or a robot taken less serious than from a human agent? In an intercultural study with 120 participants from Germany and the US, participants had to find hidden objects in a game and received feedback on their performance by virtual agents with different appearances. As some levels were designed to be unsolvable, critical feedback was unavoidable. We hypothesized that feedback would be taken more serious, the more human the agent looked. Also, we expected the subjects from the US to react more sensitively to criticism. Surprisingly, our results showed that the agents' appearance did not significantly change the participants' perception. Also, while we found highly significant differences in inspirational and motivational effects as well as in perceived task load between the two cultures, the reactions to criticism were contrary to expectations based on established cultural models. This work improves our understanding on how affective virtual agents are to be designed, both with respect to culture and to dialogue strategies.
Tactile Board: A Multimodal Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device for Individuals with Deafblindness (2020)
Theil, Arthur ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Gay, James ; Lindell, Eva ; Guo, Li ; Persson, Nils-Krister ; Korn, Oliver
Deafblindness, also known as dual sensory loss, is the combination of sight and hearing impairments of such extent that it becomes difficult for one sense to compensate for the other. Communication issues are a key concern for the Deafblind community. We present the design and technical implementation of the Tactile Board: a mobile Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device for individuals with deafblindness. The Tactile Board allows text and speech to be translated into vibrotactile signs that are displayed real-time to the user via a haptic wearable. Our aim is to facilitate communication for the deafblind community, creating opportunities for these individuals to initiate and engage in social interactions with other people without the direct need of an intervener.
Captivating Product Experiences: How Virtual Reality Creates Flow and Thereby Optimize Product Presentations (2020)
Israel, Kai ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Tscheulin, Dieter K. ; Zerres, Christopher ; Korn, Oliver
Well-designed and informative product presentations can support consumers in making purchase decisions. There are plenty of facts and details about a product of interest. However, also emotions are an important aspect for the purchase decision. The unique visualization opportunities of virtual reality (VR) can give users of VR applications the feeling of being there (telepresence). The applications can intensely engage them in a flow experience, comprising the four dimensions of enjoyment, curiosity, focused attention and control. In this work, we claim that VR product presentations can create subjective product experiences for consumers and motivate them to reuse this innovative type of product presentation in the future, by immersing them in a virtual world and causing them to interact with it. To verify the conceptual model a study was conducted with 551 participants who explored a VR hotel application. The results indicate that VR product presentations evoke positive emotions among consumers. The virtual experience made potential customers focus their attention on the virtual world and aroused their curiosity about getting more information about the product in an enjoyable way. In contrast to the theoretical assumption, control did not influence the users’ behavioral intentions to reuse VR product presentation. We conclude that VR product presentations create a feeling of telepresence, which leads to a flow experience that contributes to the behavioral intention of users to reuse VR product presentations in the future.
Gamifying Onboarding: How to Increase Both Engagement and Integration of New Employees (2019)
Heimburger, Louisa ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Gouveia, Ruben ; Korn, Oliver
New employees are supposed to quickly understand their tasks, internal processes and familiarize with colleagues. This process is called “onboarding” and is still mainly realized by organizational methods from human resource management, such as introductory events or special employee sessions. Software tools and especially mobile applications are an innovative means to support provide onboarding processes in a modern, even remote, way. In this paper we analyze how the use of gamification can enhance onboarding processes. Firstly, we describe a mobile onboarding application specifically developed for the young, technically literate generations Y and Z, who are just about to start their career. Secondly, we report on a study with 98 students and young employees. We found that participants enjoyed the gamified application. They especially appreciated the feature “Team Bingo” which facilitates social integration and teambuilding. Based on the OCEAN personality model (“Big Five”), the personality traits agreeableness and openness revealed significant correlations with a preference for the gamified onboarding application.
A Short History of the Perception of Robots and Automata from Antiquity to Modern Times (2019)
Fron, Christian ; Korn, Oliver
Robots and automata are key elements of every vision and forecast of life in the near and distant future. However, robots and automata also have a long history, which reaches back into antiquity. Today most historians think that one of the key roles of robots and automata was to amaze or even terrify the audience: They were designed to express something mythical, magical, and not explainable. Moreover, the visions of robots and their envisioned fields of application reflect the different societies. Therefore, this short history of robotics and (especially) anthropomorphic automata aims to give an overview of several historical periods and their perspective on the topic. In a second step, this work aims to encourage readers to reflect on the recent discussion about fields of application as well as the role of robotics today and in the future.
Soziale Roboter – Einführung und Potenziale für Pflege und Gesundheit (2019)
Korn, Oliver
Soziale Roboter unterscheiden sich von Servicerobotern, da sie auch komplexere Interaktionen und Kommunikation beherrschen. Einige können Emotionen simulieren oder sogar erkennen. Einsatzbereiche gibt es viele: vom Haushalt über die Pflege bis in den medizinischen Bereich. Wo liegen die Grenzen der aktuellen Systeme? Wie müssen soziale Roboter aussehen und interagieren, um als nützliche Helfer statt als Konkurrenten wahrgenommen zu werden? Dieser Artikel gibt einen kurzen Überblick bestehender sozialer Roboter. Er beleuchtet deren Akzeptanz im wichtigen Bereich Gesundheit und Pflege anhand der Ergebnisse einer Expertenstudie und gibt eine zeitliche Perspektive zur weiteren Entwicklung.
Affective Effects of Gamification: Using Biosignals to Measure the Effects on Working and Learning Users (2019)
Korn, Oliver ; Rees, Adrian
What emotional effects does gamification have on users who work or learn with repetitive tasks? In this work, we use biosignals to analyze these affective effects of gamification. After a brief discussion of related work, we describe the implementation of an assistive system augmenting work by projecting elements for guidance and gamification. We also show how this system can be extended to analyse users' emotions. In a user study, we analyse both biosignals (facial expressions and electrodermal activity), and regular performance measures (error rate and task completion time). For the performance measures, the results confirm known effects like increased speed and slightly increased error rate. In addition, the analysis of the biosignals provides strong evidence for two major affective effects: the gamification of work and learning tasks incites highly significantly more positive emotions and increases emotionality altogether. The results add to the design of assistive systems, which are aware of the physical as well as the affective context.
Hidden Champions: A Study on Recruiting Top-Level Staff in Rural Areas (2019)
Müller, Andrea ; Feldberger, Alexander ; Miclau, Christina ; Koch, Philipp ; Walter, Lena ; Feige, Sarah ; Schmidt, Nicolas ; Neth, Moritz ; Korn, Oliver
Top-level staff prefers to live in urban areas with perfect social infrastructure. This is a common problem for excellent companies (“hidden champions”) in rural areas: even if they can provide the services qualified applicants appreciate for daily living, they fail to attract them because important facts are not presented sufficiently in social media or on the corporate website. This is especially true for applicants with families. The contribution of this paper is four-fold: we provide an overview of the current state of online recruiting activities of hidden champions (1). Based on this corpus, we describe the applicant service gap for company information in rural communes (2). A study on user experience (UX) identifies the applicants’ wishes and needs, focusing on a family-oriented information system on living conditions in rural areas (3). Finally, we present the results of an online survey on the value of such information systems with more than 200 participants (4).
Presenting Your Products in Virtual Reality: Do not Underestimate Cybersickness (2019)
Israel, Kai ; Zerres, Christopher ; Tscheulin, Dieter K. ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Korn, Oliver
For e-commerce retailers it is crucial to present their products both informatively and attractively. Virtual reality (VR) systems represent a new marketing tool that supports customers in their decision-making process and offers an extraordinary product experience. Despite these advantages, the use of this technology for e-commerce retailers is also associated with risks, namely cybersickness. The aim of the study is to investigate the occurrence of cybersickness in the context of the customer’s perceived enjoyment and the perceived challenge of a VR product presentation. Based on a conceptual research framework, a laboratory study with 533 participants was conducted to determine the influence of these factors on the occurrence of cybersickness. The results demonstrate that the perceived challenge has a substantially stronger impact on the occurrence of cybersickness, which can only be partially reduced by perceived enjoyment. When realizing VR applications in general and VR product presentations in particular, e-commerce retailers should therefore first minimize possible challenges instead of focusing primarily on entertainment aspects of such applications.
Empowering Persons with Deafblindness: Designing an Intelligent Assistive Wearable in the SUITCEYES Project (2018)
Korn, Oliver ; Holt, Raymond ; Kontopoulos, Efstratios ; Kappers, Astrid ; Persson, Nils-Krister ; Olson, Nasrine
Deafblindness is a condition that limits communication capabilities primarily to the haptic channel. In the EU-funded project SUITCEYES we design a system which allows haptic and thermal communication via soft interfaces and textiles. Based on user needs and informed by disability studies, we combine elements from smart textiles, sensors, semantic technologies, image processing, face and object recognition, machine learning, affective computing, and gamification. In this work, we present the underlying concepts and the overall design vision of the resulting assistive smart wearable.
Autonomie beim Einsatz kontextbewusster Systeme: Der Weg zum Emotionsbewusstsein (2018)
Korn, Oliver
Dieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick der Möglichkeiten kontextbewusster Systeme und erläutert, wie diese die Autonomie zugleich erweitern und begrenzen können. Anwendungsbeispiele wie autonomes Fahren, Rehabilitation, industrielle Arbeit und Robotik zeigen die technischen Möglichkeiten auf. Neben der Erkennung von räumlichen Details werden auch die Potenziale der Erkennung von Emotionen beschrieben. Dabei wird zugunsten der Allgemeinverständlichkeit auf eine tiefe technische Detaillierung verzichtet, zugleich aber auf die jeweils relevante Forschungsliteratur verweisen.
Perspectives on Social Robots: From the Historic Background to an Experts' View on Future Developments (2018)
Korn, Oliver ; Bieber, Gerald ; Fron, Christian
Social robots are robots interacting with humans not only in collaborative settings, but also in personal settings like domestic services and healthcare. Some social robots simulate feelings (companions) while others just help lifting (assistants). However, they often incite both fascination and fear: what abilities should social robots have and what should remain exclusive to humans? We provide a historical background on the development of robots and related machines (1), discuss examples of social robots (2) and present an expert study on their desired future abilities and applications (3) conducted within the Forum of the European Active and Assisted Living Programme (AAL). The findings indicate that most technologies required for the social robots' emotion sensing are considered ready. For care robots, the experts approve health-related tasks like drawing blood while they prefer humans to do nursing tasks like washing. On a larger societal scale, the acceptance of social robots increases highly significantly with familiarity, making health robots and even military drones more acceptable than sex robots or child companion robots for childless couples. Accordingly, the acceptance of social robots seems to decrease with the level of face-to-face emotions involved.
A Taxonomy in Robot-Assisted Training: Current Trends, Needs and Challenges (2018)
Tsiakas, Konstantinos ; Kyrarini, Maria ; Karkaletsis, Vangelis ; Makedon, Fillia ; Korn, Oliver
In this article, we present a taxonomy in Robot-Assisted Training; a growing body of research in Human–Robot Interaction which focuses on how robotic agents and devices can be used to enhance user’s performance during a cognitive or physical training task. Robot-Assisted Training systems have been successfully deployed to enhance the effects of a training session in various contexts, i.e., rehabilitation systems, educational environments, vocational settings, etc. The proposed taxonomy suggests a set of categories and parameters that can be used to characterize such systems, considering the current research trends and needs for the design, development and evaluation of Robot-Assisted Training systems. To this end, we review recent works and applications in Robot-Assisted Training systems, as well as related taxonomies in Human–Robot Interaction. The goal is to identify and discuss open challenges, highlighting the different aspects of a Robot-Assisted Training system, considering both robot perception and behavior control.
Branded Gamification in Technical Education (2018)
Schulz, Annika Sabrina ; Schulz, Franziska ; Gouveia, Ruben ; Korn, Oliver
Brand identification has the potential of shaping individuals' attitudes, performance and commitment within learning and work contexts. We explore these effects, by incorporating elements of branded identification within gamified environments. We report a study with 44 employees, in which task performance and emotional outcomes are assessed in a real-world assembly scenario - namely, while performing a soldering task. Our results indicate that brand identification has a direct impact on individuals' attitude towards the task at hand: while instigating positive emotions, aversion and reactance also arise.
Using Augmented Reality and Gamification to Empower Rehabilitation Activities and Elderly Persons. A Study Applying Design Thinking (2018)
Korn, Oliver ; Buchweitz, Lea ; Rees, Adrian ; Bieber, Gerald ; Werner, Christian ; Hauer, Klaus
We present the design of a system combining augmented reality (AR) and gamification to support elderly persons’ rehabilitation activities. The system is attached to the waist; it collects detailed movement data and at the same time augments the user’s path by projections. The projected AR-elements can provide location-based information or incite movement games. The collected data can be observed by therapists. Based on this data, the challenge level can be more frequently adapted, keeping up the patient’s motivation. The exercises can involve cognitive elements (for mild cognitive impairments), physiological elements (rehabilitation), or both. The overall vision is an individualized and gamified therapy. Thus, the system also offers application scenarios beyond rehabilitation in sports. In accordance with the methodology of design thinking, we present a first specification and a design vision based on inputs from business experts, gerontologists, physiologists, psychologists, game designers, cognitive scientists and computer scientists.
Measuring the Influence of User Experience on Banking Customers’ Trust (2018)
Müller, Andrea ; Korn, Oliver ; Miclau, Christina ; Anke, Selina ; Herrmann, Sabrina ; Katz, Pia ; Leuchtweis, Christina ; Wörner, Sandra
Bank and trust – two words but one meaning in customers’ minds. When interacting with financial service providers, customers are consistently looking for “trust signals” that comfort their decisions and “distrust signals” which create doubt. Therefore, service providers need a deep understanding of the customers’ requirements and wishes. To identify trust and distrust signals, we combine established user experience research methods with a new testing procedure to gain helpful recommendations for optimizing the online appearance of banks. The contribution is divided into three parts: Firstly, we investigate current approaches in the financial service industry. Secondly, we provide a corpus describing the relationship between the customers’ perception of a bank’s website and trust. Thirdly, an empirical study based on qualitative user experience testing with banking website customers shows the value gained by optimizing the banks’ virtual interface by enhancing “trust signals” and avoiding “distrust signals”.
Gamification of a Workday: A Study on the Effects in Sheltered Employment (2016)
Korn, Oliver ; Lang, Johannes ; Korge, Andreas ; Causegic, Haris ; Schmidt, Albert
Gamification implies the application of methods and design patterns from gaming to non-gaming areas like learning or working. We applied an existing gamification design to production processes in an organization which provides sheltered employment for impaired persons. In contrast to existing work, we investigated not only a short period but a complete workday to measure the effects on the work performance. The study indicates that gamification has (1) a negative effect on workers with considerable cognitive impairments, (2) no significant effect on workers with medium cognitive impairments and (3) a positive effect on workers with mild cognitive impairments.
Gamification of Production? A Study on the Acceptance of Gamified Work Processes in the Automotive Industry (2016)
Korn, Oliver ; Muschick, Peter ; Schmidt, Albrecht
In this work, we investigate how gamification can be integrated into work processes in the automotive industry. The contribution contains five parts: (1) An introduction showing how gamification has become increasingly common, especially in education, health and the service industry. (2) An analysis on the state of the art of gamified applications, discussing several best practices. (3) An analysis of the special requirements for gamification in production, regarding both external norms and the mindset of workers in this domain. (4) An overview of first approaches towards a gamification of production, focusing on solutions for impaired workers in sheltered work organizations. (5) A study with a focus group of instructors at two large car manufacturers. Based on the presentation of three potential designs for the gamification of production, the study investigates the general acceptance of gamification in modern production and determines which design is best suited for future implementations.
Defining Recrutainment: A Model and a Survey on the Gamification of Recruiting and Human Resources (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Brenner, Florian ; Börsig, Julian ; Lalli, Fabio ; Mattmüller, Maik ; Müller, Andrea
Recrutainment, is a hybrid word combining recruiting and entertainment. It describes the combination of activities in human resources and gamification. Concepts and methods from game design are now used to assess and select future employees. Beyond this area, recrutainment is also applied for internal processes like professional development or even marketing campaigns. This paper’s contribution has four components: (1) we provide a conceptual background, leading to a more precise definition of recrutainment; (2) we develop a new model for analyzing solutions in recrutainment; (3) we present a corpus of 42 applications and use the new model to assess their strengths and potentials; (4) we provide a bird’s eye view on the state of the art in recrutainment and show the current weighting of gamification and recruiting aspects.
Do Zenware Applications Reduce the Digital Distraction of Knowledge Workers? A Qualitative Study Based on Expert Interviews (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Gerbaulet, Damian
Applications helping us to maintain the focus on work are called “Zenware” (from concentration and Zen). While form factors, use cases and functionality vary, all these applications have a common goal: creating uninterrupted, focused attention on the task at hand. The rise of such tools exemplifies the users’ desire to control their attention within the context of omnipresent distraction. In expert interviews we investigate approaches in the context of attention-management at the workplace of knowledge workers. To gain a broad understanding, we use judgement sampling in interviews with experts from several disciplines. We especially explore how focus and flow can be stimulated. Our contribution has four components: a brief overview on the state of the art (1), a presentation of the results (2), strategies for coping with digital distractions and design guidelines for future Zenware (3) and an outlook on the overall potential in digital work environments (4).
A Very Short History of Dynamic and Procedural Content Generation (2017)
Blatz, Michael ; Korn, Oliver
This chapter portrays the historical and mathematical background of dynamic and procedural content generation (PCG). We portray and compare various PCG methods and analyze which mathematical approach is suited for typical applications in game design. In the next step, a structural overview of games applying PCG as well as types of PCG is presented. As abundant PCG content can be overwhelming, we discuss context-aware adaptation as a way to adapt the challenge to individual players’ requirements. Finally, we take a brief look at the future of PCG.
Computerized Assessment of the Skills of Impaired and Elderly Workers. A Tool Survey and Comparative Study (2016)
Korn, Oliver ; Tso, Leslie ; Papagrigoriou, Cristos ; Sowoidnich, Yannic ; Konrad, Robert ; Schmidt, Albrecht
Strategies for Playful Design when Gamifying Rehabilitation. A Study on User Experience (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Tietz, Stefan
Gamifying rehabilitation is an efficient way to improve motivation and exercise frequency. However, between flow theory, self-determination theory or Bartle's player types there is much room for speculation regarding the mechanics required for successful gamification, which in turn leads to increased motivation. For our study, we selected a gamified solution for motion training (an exergame) where the playful design elements are extremely simple. The contribution is three-fold: we show best practices from the state of the art, present a study analyzing the effects of simple gamification mechanics on a quantitative and on a qualitative level and discuss strategies for playful design in therapeutic movement games.
Designing Authentic Emotions for Non-Human Characters. A Study Evaluating Virtual Affective Behavior (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Stamm, Lukas ; Möckl, Gerd
While human emotions have been researched for decades, designing authentic emotional behavior for non-human characters has received less attention. However, virtual behavior not only affects game design, but also allows creating authentic avatars or robotic companions. After a discussion of methods to model and recognize emotions, we present three characters with a decreasing level of human features and describe how established design techniques can be adapted for such characters. In a study, 220 participants assess these characters' emotional behavior, focusing on the emotion "anger". We want to determine how reliable users can recognize emotional behavior, if characters increasingly do not look and behave like humans. A secondary aim is determining if gender has an impact on the competence in emotion recognition. The findings indicate that there is an area of insecure attribution of virtual affective behavior not distant but close to human behavior. We also found that at least for anger, men and women assess emotional behavior equally well.
Procedural Content Generation for Game Props? A Study on the Effects on User Experience (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Blatz, Michael ; Rees, Adrian ; Schaal, Jakob ; Schwind, Valentin ; Görlich, Daniel
This work demonstrates the potentials of procedural content generation (PCG) for games, focusing on the generation of specific graphic props (reefs) in an explorer game. We briefly portray the state-of-the-art of PCG and compare various methods to create random patterns at runtime. Taking a step towards the game industry, we describe an actual game production and provide a detailed pseudocode implementation showing how Perlin or Simplex noise can be used efficiently. In a comparative study, we investigate two alternative implementations of a decisive game prop: once created traditionally by artists and once generated by procedural algorithms. 41 test subjects played both implementations. The analysis shows that PCG can create a user experience that is significantly more realistic and at the same time perceived as more aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the ever-changing nature of the procedurally generated environments is preferred with high significance, especially by players aged 45 and above.
Gamification in der Produktion – Anforderungen und Potenziale (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Vauderwange, Oliver
Gamification, die spielerische Anreicherung von Tätigkeiten, erfreut sich zunehmender Beliebtheit. Insbesondere in den Bereichen Gesundheit (Exergames) oder Lernen (Serious Games, Edutainment) gibt es eine Vielzahl erfolgreicher Anwendungen. Weniger verbreitet ist Gamification dagegen bislang bei Arbeitsprozessen. Zwar gibt es erfolgreiche Ansätze im Bereich Dienstleistung und Service (z. B. bei Callcentern), der Bereich der industriellen Produktion wurde jedoch bis vor wenigen Jahren nicht adressiert. Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick der Entwicklung von Gamification und zeigt den Stand der Technik. Wir leiten allgemeine Anforderungen für Gamification im Produktionsumfeld ab und stellen zwei neue Ansätze aus der aktuellen Forschung vor. Diese werden in einer Studie mit Trainern aus der Automobilbranche auf Akzeptanz untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine insgesamt positive Haltung zur Gamifizierung der Produktion und eine sehr hohe Akzeptanz insbesondere des Pyramiden-Designs.
Designing a System for Playful Coached Learning in the STEM Curriculum (2017)
Korn, Oliver ; Rees, Adrian ; Dix, Alan
We present the design outline of a context-aware interactive system for smart learning in the STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). It is based on a gameful design approach and enables "playful coached learning" (PCL): a learning process enriched by gamification but also close to the learner's activities and emotional setting. After a brief introduction on related work, we describe the technological setup, the integration of projected visual feedback and the use of object and motion recognition to interpret the learner's actions. We explain how this combination enables rapid feedback and why this is particularly important for correct habit formation in practical skills training. In a second step, we discuss gamification methods and analyze which are best suited for the PCL system. Finally, emotion recognition, a major element of the final PCL design not yet implemented, is briefly outlined.


I write think pieces crafted to entertain. I cover the waterfront: business, money, investing, technology, leadership, relationships, health, and fitness.
Albuquerque, NM
https://johncousins-68418.medium.com/
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The Most Underrated Investment Skill
John Cousins 2020-12-09
Through study and experience, successful investors develop valuable skills. These include researching a stock and applying critical thinking to opportunities.
In the great Herman Hesse novel, there are three things Siddhartha can do. Siddhartha can think, wait, and fast.
Thinking is crucial in investing. Reading and understanding financial statements, markets, and valuation are learnable skills.
One also needs to invest money that is not going to be required to pay bills. We need to be able to weather fasting periods.
Cultivating the ability to wait is challenging.
Patience is not only the capacity to wait, but also to keep the right attitude while waiting. It's discipline.
What three things can Siddhartha do? Siddhartha can think, wait, and fast. Siddhartha would make a good investor.
" Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." - Aristotle.
Warren Buffett is one of the greatest investors of all time. He is a living legend.
One widely quoted pearl of wisdom from the legendary investor is:
"Rule №1: Never lose money. Rule №2: Don't forget rule №1".
I take that to mean not necessarily how to be right, but how to be less wrong when investing. One meaningful way to interpret that is don't panic and sell a position in a market downturn.
"In the end, how your investments behave is much less important than how you behave."
— Benjamin Graham
That takes patience. The patience to hold on, weather the storm, and get rich slow.
"The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now."
- Zig Ziglar
Success in life comes down to variations of the marshmallow test of delayed gratification.
"Waiting helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can't stand to wait. If you didn't get the deferred-gratification gene, you've got to work very hard to overcome that." — Charlie Munger
Siddhartha can think, wait, and fast. Siddhartha would make a good investor.
Discipline to wait in trading and investing has become more challenging in the past year because now there are zero trading commissions. Paying a commission used to at least provided some inertia. That friction would encourage us to take a step back and redouble our analysis effort before pulling the trigger. Now it's more like: Ready, Fire, Aim.
Before making a move, take some time to review the situation and look at the company through its 10K.
There are four areas to keep in mind when you are analyzing business performance and its leadership:
Strategy: Do they articulate clear and compelling goals?
Structure: are they organized to fulfill those goals?
People: do they have the right people and capabilities to meet their goals?
Process: do they have the operations and supply chains needed to meet their target goals?
Read a company's last few 10Ks with these criteria in mind. And be mindful of how it's written. Do they keep it simple and straightforward?
Much of effective communication and leadership hinges on clarity.
Warren Buffett has shared his investment secrets. His investing success is based on three simple rules:
1. Invest based on the intrinsic value of a company.
2. Be prepared to hold your position in a company forever.
3. Never invest in a company with a business you don't understand.
These investment principles are simple. Everyone can follow these rules.
They are simple rules but not easy to follow.
"All know the way; few walk it." - Bodhidharma
Jeff Bezos asked Warren Buffett about this point:
"Warren, your investment thesis is so simple and yet so brilliant. Why doesn't everyone just copy you?"
Warren Buffett replied:
"Because nobody wants to get rich slow."
The way to wealth is the patience to get rich slow.
Getting rich slow requires patience.
Patience involves staying calm in situations where you lack control.
Being patient is hard. It means overcoming our instincts of fight or flight. We have evolved to take action in the face of perceived danger.
In many situations, action is the answer. Harry Truman said, "Imperfect action beats perfect inaction."
Having a bias toward action can help entrepreneurs and startups.
But in investing, perfect inaction may be a better strategy in many situations.
I like to go long stocks and short options. This long/short approach has been a very productive strategy for me as I can juice returns and create income to reinvest. But I can't count the times I have quickly unwound an investment position only to wish a day or two later that I had waited.
With investing, action can translate into selling something. Selling feels like you're shielding your investment portfolio from further harm. But selling at the wrong time is one of the biggest and most common investment mistakes.
"In the end, how your investments behave is much less important than how you behave." — Benjamin Graham
Benjamin Graham is known as the father of value investing. He was Warren Buffett's professor and mentored him at Columbia Business School, where Warren got his MBA. He understood the importance of patience in investing.
Patience is the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.
It also takes patience and discipline not to chase mediocre investment opportunities. Our instinct is to act and deploy a pile of cash. It takes discipline like a baseball batter not swinging at bad pitches and having the patience to wait for their pitch.
Like Charlie Munger, Buffett's partner, said, "It takes character to sit with all that cash and to do nothing. I didn't get where I am by going after mediocre opportunities."
The benefits of investing are typically reaped after many years. It's letting compounding work its magic. Patience is a behavior where the benefits are long-term. To be patient is to endure short-term hardship for a future reward.
Warren Buffett considers patience as a defining trait of successful investing. And lack of patience an investing flaw.
"The stock market is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient."
— Warren Buffett
Siddhartha's wisdom can help us be better investors by doing less. By doing less, we can avoid mistakes by being less wrong.
We can learn to be patient and stick to our investment strategy. We can learn to avoid emotional decision-making mistakes.
Time is on your side.
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I write think pieces crafted to entertain. I cover the waterfront: business, money, investing, technology, leadership, relationships, health, and fitness.
Albuquerque, NM
41 followers
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Person: Tiana (Disney) List of cards for Tiana_(Disney) https://pendect.com/people/Tiana_(Disney) https://pendect.com/++plone++pendect.portal/seo/pendect-og-v2.png
Tiana (Disney)
by @christoph
2020-06-26T08:06:01+00:00
Arts, Entertainment, Culture • TV & Movies
Disney re-brands Splash Mountain ride in theme parks with black Disney Princess
Credit: unsplash.com / Tomáš Nožina
After a petition had called for Disney to re-brand the log flume ride Splash Mountain as the story told is based "in extremely problematic and stereotypical racist tropes from the 1946 film Song of the South", the company has announced that their project Imagineers haven been working on a re-branding since 2019. The new story will incorporate the black princess Tiana from "The Princess and the Frog" a movie released in 2009 which fits into the theme of the park as the Splash Mountain ride is next to the New Orleans Square and the movie plays in the New Orleans bayou.
Disneyland
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Black Lives Matter
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Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush criticized President Barack Obama's initial handling of the Ebola crisis as "incompetent," saying it gave rise to unneeded fears among the American public about the virus.
Bush, who is the latest potential Republican presidential candidate to attack the president over Ebola, also said in a wide-ranging discussion at Vanderbilt University that he supports travel restrictions for people who have been to the most severely affected countries in Africa.
Bush said Obama should have been more "clear and concise" about his plans, and lent more credibility to health officials leading the response.
"It looked very incompetent to begin with, and that fueled fears that may not be justified," Bush said. "And now you have states that are legitimately acting on their concerns, creating a lot more confusion than is necessary." Source: Erik Schelzig, Huffington Post, "Bush Slams Obama On Ebola" , Oct 28, 2014
Handle Ebola like I handled anthrax in 2001
Bush said Obama should have been more "clear and concise" about his plans, and lent more credibility to health officials leading the response.
Obama has tried to place his own imprint on the government's Ebola response, making sure photographers captured images of him meeting with the Ebola team and embracing Nina Pham, one of the Dallas nurses who recovered after contracting the disease. He also called US workers in West Africa.
Bush contrasted what he characterized as the president's indecisive approach on Ebola to his own actions as governor when anthrax was mailed to a supermarket tabloid in Florida after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. "We gave people a sense of calm, what the plan was," Bush said. "We talked in plainspoken English. We were totally engaged." Source: Erik Schelzig, Huffington Post, "Bush Slams Obama On Ebola" , Oct 28, 2014
ObamaCare is flawed to its core, and doesn't work
What's his position on ObamaCare? One cannot be considering a run for president under the GOP without having his or her position on the Affordable Care Act examined. Jeb Bush, for his part, says that it is "flawed to its core," that it "doesn't work."
Even so, he has been less vocally against the law than others in his party, even counseling a more gentle response: "It might actually be a politically, a better approach to see the massive dysfunction. I think Republicans need to just take a step back and show a little self-restraint and let this happen a little more organically," said Bush, according to Politico. "I think the best way to repeal ObamaCare is to have an alternative; we never hear the alternative." Source: Wall St. Cheat Sheet: "6 questions about Jeb Bush" , May 10, 2014
ObamaCare is flawed to its core
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said that President Barack Obama's health care law "is flawed to its core" and will be a "big problem" for Democrats heading into the 2014 elections. "I don't think it will work," Bush said of the Affordable Care Act, known as ObamaCare.
Bush added, "If the objective is, don't worry about the budget, we'll just finance it the same way we're financing our deficits right now, build a bigger debt, you could see this thing surviving," he said. "But it will have failed what the promises were. It will have failed the American people. And I don't think it will bend the cost curve."
Bush has emerged over the years as a strong proponent of school choice, immigration reform and what he calls "consumer-directed health care." He noted that he underwent knee surgery a month ago and forced himself into the conversation on billing. "The whole experience is opaque," he said. "It's like smoke comes up, you don't know what's really happening, the third party pays." Source: Bill Glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Healthcare" , Nov 4, 2013
Let ObamaCare fail due to its own dysfunction
Q: This government shutdown started with House Republicans saying that they wanted to gut ObamaCare and they were willing to not fund the government until that happened. Your thoughts?
BUSH: Tactically it was a mistake to focus on something that couldn't be achieved. I would argue that allowing ObamaCare to be implemented, two things would happen. One, it would be so dysfunctional if it was implemented faithfully. Or it couldn't be implemented because the government is not capable of doing it. It looks like that, the latter rather than the former, may be happening.
Ted Cruz said, "Let's not agree to a funding resolution unless ObamaCare is defunded." Your message be to Ted Cruz?
BUSH: I think the best way to repeal ObamaCare is to have an alternative. We could do this in a much lower cost with improved quality based on free market principles. And show how ObamaCare, flawed to its core, doesn't work. It might actually be a politically better approach to see the massive dysfunction. Source: ABC This Week 2013 series of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Oct 20, 2013
Move Medicaid from "defined benefit" to defined contribution
Bush proposed an overhaul of Medicaid that reflected another major philosophical shift in the state's program, moving it from a "defined benefit" to a "defined contribution" basis. The proposal had two significant features. The first was acceptance of a lump sum of money from the federal government to fund the state's program in exchange for flexibility to determine eligibility and benefits levels. The state took on the responsibility for meeting the health-care needs of its residents regardless of whether the costs to do so exceeded the amount negotiated between Tallahassee and Washington. If costs exceeded negotiated levels, Florida would be able to use the flexibility granted by the federal government to impose benefit restrictions and cap program enrollment in order to contain costs. This provision was designed to permit the state to more accurately predict and control its costs.
The second major change was to provide each person with a risk-adjusted allotment of funds. Source: Aggressive Conservatism in Florida, by Robert Crew, p. 38 , Dec 11, 2009
Provide risk-adjusted premiums (insurance vouchers)
Announced in his State of the State Address, the governor's reform was to provide each person in the program with a risk-adjusted allotment of funds (a voucher which the state called a premium) with which to purchase health care. Using this voucher, enrollees were required to purchase a health-care plan from a participating managed-care organization. The benefit package offered had to be actuarially equivalent to the existing Medicaid benefit.
To entice companies to insure some of Florida's sickest and poorest citizens, the state proposed to cap Medicaid benefits, and set a ceiling on spending for each recipient. Managed-care companies and other health-care networks would design alternative health plans that Medicaid patients would use. Beyond that, different managed-care networks could attract patients by offering additional services. However, patients would have a choice only among managed-care plans and no longer have access to traditional fee-for-service health care. Source: Aggressive Conservatism in Florida, by Robert Crew, p. 38 , Dec 11, 2009
Slashed every request for adult mental health
Bush's lowest spending priorities were for Florida agencies dealing with its most vulnerable citizens.
One embarrassing consequence of his lack of attention to social services agencies emerged in the days just before Bush left office when his secretary of the Department of Children and Families was fined and threatened with jail time for failure to provide enough beds to treat county jail inmates with severe mental illness. Records from the department showed that it had called repeatedly for funds for adult health and that Bush had slashed every request--in 1 year by 93% (Hunt, 2006; Rushing, 2006). To avoid court sanctions, the governor was forced to ask the Legislative Budget Commissions, an organization that authorizes appropriations when the legislature itself is not in session, for an additional $16.6 million for hundreds of new beds for these individuals. Source: Aggressive Conservatism in Florida, by Robert Crew, p.107 , Dec 11, 2009
OpEd: Medicaid reforms won't cover chronic conditions
The Bush plan for reform of Medicaid fundamentally altered the underlying assumptions regarding the state's responsibility for helping disadvantaged citizens find medical care, and critics complained that Florida had abandoned its commitment as a social safety net for its most vulnerable citizens.
The governor proposed his plan as a way in which the state could more accurately predict and control its costs. Critics pointed out that no benefits were guaranteed , that access to care for all low-income families was questionable, and that there were no safeguards to make sure that private plans kept their promises. In particular, the AARP questioned whether or not service packages offered by the participants would be meaningful and cover the needs of persons with chronic conditions and special needs that the private market chose not to cover. It also wondered whether the premiums to be offered would be sufficient to purchase an adequate service package. Source: Aggressive Conservatism in Florida, by Robert Crew, p.152-3 , Dec 11, 2009
ObamaCare is focused on access; should be focused on quality
Q: What do you think of ObamaCare?
A: Have you ever gone to HHS? Have you gone to CMS, the Centers for Medicare/Medicaid? It's scary. That's going to be the marketplace for health care if Democrats have their way. McCain had a fantastic health-care proposal that he had a hard time explaining, that said that basically you should empower people, individuals, to make choices, & they should be rewarded when they make choices that improve health-care outcomes. Under Obama, we're going to create a system that's not focused on quality; it's focused on access to care. You end up insuring fewer people the more government expands its insurance. People drop out of the private market. For every person the government takes on the rolls, there's an equal number of people leaving the private sector. We're like gerbils running in place. We're not expanding health-care access per se. There are all sorts of technologies that exist that allow us to improve health-care outcomes if we organize our system differently. Source: Tucker Carlson interview of Jeb Bush in Esquire , Aug 1, 2009
Terri Schiavo: Did all possible to keep her hooked up
Most famously was Michael Schiavo, the husband of Terri, who fell into a vegetative state in 1990, and who became the center of 1st a family, then a state, and finally a national dispute over her right to die with dignity. Jeb did all he could to keep her hooked up to the feeding tube--in fact, he even tried to do what he legally could NOT do with an aborted attempt to override a judge's order and take her into custody. In the end, Jeb lost. So he got even with Michael Schiavo by trying to launch a criminal investigation into the collapse 15 years earlier--essentially using his office to accuse Michael Schiavo of murdering his wife. If you're not with the Bushes, you're against them. Source: America's Next Bush, by S.V. Date, p. 60 , Feb 15, 2007
Compromised on limiting medical malpractice awards
Jeb stood in the Capitol rotunda, a pained smile on his face, explaining how he was glad that he and lawmakers were able to come to a reasonable compromise on his plan to limit pain and suffering jury awards to medical malpractice victims.
Jeb was saying this, but it was obvious that he wasn't enjoying it, probably because everyone knew it wasn't true. The "compromise" was hardly that--more like a near-total capitulation on Jeb's part. Behind him, state senators stood in the familiar semicircle of solidarity, but they were scarcely able to contain their glee.
Then, after hands were shaken and the senators had withdrawn to their private office, there were laughs and high fives all around. "This is probably the 1st time he's ever been spanked," crowed one. Said another: "I don't want to gloat. Well, yes I do." Source: America's Next Bush, by S.V. Date, p.129 , Feb 15, 2007
KidCare and Medikids: expand to 1.6M kids and then even more
Florida's KidCare program needs our attention. KidCare was created to provide insurance to children who have no other access to coverage. Today the program serves 1.6 million children-- 755,000 more than in 1998, and there are still more children waiting.
In addition to Medicaid, KidCare includes other valuable programs--specifically Medikids, Healthy Kids, and CMS. These non-Medicaid programs provide the critical safety net many parents need to ensure their children are protected. They are not offered as cheaper alternatives for parents who currently buy coverage through their employers. Florida received additional federal funds in January, a bonus for fully using the federal dollars to serve Florida's children in need. The new money will allow us to serve even more children. Source: 2004 State of the State speech to the Florida Legislature , Mar 2, 2004
Leave research funding to feds, not state
Senate Bill 330 appropriates General Revenue funds for capital improvements to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute for FY2001-02. Because Senate Bill 330 contains an appropriation, I have evaluated its merits based on the standards and guidelines used for similar appropriations. Although the Center provides outstanding research and treatment of cancer, funding for medical research is primarily a federal, not a state, responsibility. The state�s top priority for capital expenditures for health care is improvements to county health units, and Senate Bill 330 does not further that goal.
My veto of Senate Bill 330 does not diminish our state�s commitment to addressing the important public health issue of fighting and preventing cancer. In conclusion, the appropriation does not fulfill some of the most important criteria by which other appropriations are being evaluated. For these reasons I am withholding my approval of Senate Bill 330, and do hereby veto the same. Source: Veto notification on Senate Bill 330 , Jun 1, 2001
No physician-assisted suicide
Q: Should physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients be legal in Florida?
A: No. Source: 1998 Florida Gubernatorial National Political Awareness Test , Nov 1, 1998
No federal pre-emption of employee health plan regulation.
Bush adopted the National Governors Association position paper:
The Issue
In 1999, 42.6 million Americans did not have health insurance. All states have been fervently working to reduce the number of uninsured Americans, to make health insurance more affordable and secure, and to provide quality health care at a reasonable cost to the uninsured. However, the federal government has also expressed an interest in this issue. Any action taken at the federal level could have serious implications for traditional state authority to regulate the health insurance industry and protect consumers.
NGA�s Position
Although the Governors are extremely sensitive to the concerns of large multi-state employers, the fact remains that the complete federal preemption of state laws relating to employee health plans in the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is the greatest single barrier to many state reform and patient protection initiatives.
The Governors support efforts designed to enable small employers to join together to participate more effectively in the health insurance market. In fact, Governors have taken the lead in facilitating the development of such partnerships and alliances. However, these partnerships must be carefully structured and regulated by state agencies in order to protect consumers and small businesses from fraud and abuse and underinsurance. NGA opposes attempts to expand federal authority under ERISA. The Governors have identified the prevention of such federal legislation in the 107th Congress as a top legislative priority.
States have the primary responsibility for health insurance regulation. Across the nation, Governors are working to protect consumers and patients and to properly regulate the complicated health insurance industry. Source: National Governors Association "Issues / Positions" 01-NGA13 on Oct 5, 2001
Protect state tobacco settlement funds from federal seizure.
Bush adopted a letter to Congressional leaders from 53 Governors:
As you know, preserving and protecting the state tobacco settlement funds is the nation�s Governors� highest priority. We strongly urge you to reach final agreement and pass the conference report on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill soon, and to retain the Senate provision that protects our settlement funds from federal seizure.
Many of our state legislatures are currently in session, and some have already completed work on their budgets. Therefore, it is critical that conferees reach agreement quickly on this issue. Governors are unified in their commitment to ensuring that the funds remain in the states and that there be no restrictions on states� ability to tailor spending to meet the needs of their citizens.
We offer our strongest support for conferees to recede to the Senate version of the bill containing the Hutchison/Graham bipartisan tobacco recoupment protection legislation. Source: National Governor's Association letter to Congress 99-NGA31 on Apr 14, 1999
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Gubernatorial Debates 2014:
AL: Bentley(R) vs.Griffith(D)
AR: Ross(D) vs. Hutchinson(R) vs.Griffin(R,Lt.Gov.)
AZ: Ducey(R) vs.DuVal(D) vs.Mealer(AE) vs.Gilbert(L) vs.Riggs(R)
CA: Brown(D) vs.Kashkari(R)
CO: Hickenlooper(D) vs.Beauprez(R) vs.Tancredo(R) vs.Hess(L)
CT: Malloy(D) vs.Foley(R) vs.Walker(R,Lt.Gov.)
FL: Scott(R) vs.Crist(D) vs.Snitker(L,Lt.Gov.)
GA: Deal(R) vs.Carter(D) vs.Hunt(L)
HI: Ige(D) vs.Aiona(R) vs.Abercrombie(D)
IA: Branstad(R) vs. Hatch(D) vs.Hoefling(R)
MA: Coakley(D) vs. Baker(R) &Polito(R,Lt.Gov.) vs.Grossman(D) vs.Berwick(D)
ME: LePage(R) vs.Michaud(D) vs.Cutler(I)
MI: Snyder(R) vs.Schauer(D)
NM: Martinez(R) vs.King(D)
NY: Cuomo(D) &Hochul(D,Lt.Gov.) vs.Astorino(R) vs.Hawkins(G) vs.Teachout(D)
OK: Fallin(R) vs.Dorman(D)
PA: Corbett(R) vs. Wolf(D) vs.Schwartz(D,lost primary) vs.Critz(D,Lt.Gov.,lost primary) Newly-elected 2014: