Motivated by the need to support those self-managing chronic pain, we report on the development and evaluation of a novel pressure-based tangible user interface (TUI) for the self-report of scalar values representing pain intensity. Our TUI consists of a conductive foam-based, force-sensitive resistor (FSR) covered in a soft rubber with embedded signal conditioning, an ARM Cortex-M0 microprocessor, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). In-lab usability and feasibility studies with 28 participants found that individuals were able to use the device to make reliable reports with four degrees of freedom as well map squeeze pressure to pain level and visual feedback. Building on insights from these studies, we further redesigned the FSR into a wearable device with multiple form factors, including a necklace, bracelet, and keychain. A usability study with an additional 7 participants from our target population, elderly individuals with chronic pain, found high receptivity to the wearable design, which offered a number of participant-valued characteristics (e.g., discreetness) along with other design implications that serve to inform the continued refinement of tangible devices that support pain self-assessment.

中文翻译：

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Keppi：用于自我报告疼痛的有形用户界面。

出于支持自我管理慢性疼痛的需要，我们报告了一种新颖的基于压力的有形用户界面（TUI）的开发和评估，用于自我报告代表疼痛强度的标量值。我们的 TUI 包含一个基于导电泡沫的力敏电阻器 (FSR)，覆盖有嵌入式信号调节功能的软橡胶、ARM Cortex-M0 微处理器和低功耗蓝牙 (BLE)。对 28 名参与者进行的实验室可用性和可行性研究发现，个人能够使用该设备制作具有四个自由度的可靠报告，并将挤压压力映射到疼痛程度和视觉反馈。基于这些研究的见解，我们进一步将 FSR 重新设计成具有多种外形的可穿戴设备，包括项链、手镯和钥匙扣。对来自我们的目标人群（患有慢性疼痛的老年人）的另外 7 名参与者进行的一项可用性研究发现，可穿戴设计具有很高的接受度，它提供了许多参与者重视的特征（例如谨慎性）以及其他设计含义，可以提供信息不断完善支持疼痛自我评估的有形设备。