The advancement of motor augmentation and the broader domain of human-machine interaction rely on a seamless integration with users’ physical and cognitive capabilities. These considerations may markedly fluctuate among individuals on the basis of their age, form, and abilities. There is a need to develop a standard for considering these diversity needs and preferences to guide technological development, and large-scale testing can provide us with evidence for such considerations. Public engagement events provide an important opportunity to build a bidirectional discourse with potential users for the codevelopment of inclusive and accessible technologies. We exhibited the Third Thumb, a hand augmentation device, at a public engagement event and tested participants from the general public, who are often not involved in such early technological development of wearable robotic technology. We focused on wearability (fit and control), ability to successfully operate the device, and ability levels across diversity factors relevant for physical technologies (gender, handedness, and age). Our inclusive design was successful in 99.3% of our diverse sample of 596 individuals tested (age range from 3 to 96 years). Ninety-eight percent of participants were further able to successfully manipulate objects using the extra thumb during the first minute of use, with no significant influences of gender, handedness, or affinity for hobbies involving the hands. Performance was generally poorer among younger children (aged ≤11 years). Although older and younger adults performed the task comparably, we identified age costs with the older adults. Our findings offer tangible demonstration of the initial usability of the Third Thumb for a broad demographic.

中文翻译：

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在大量且多样化的样本中评估手部增强设备的初始可用性


运动增强的进步和更广泛的人机交互领域依赖于与用户的身体和认知能力的无缝集成。这些考虑因素可能会因个人的年龄、体型和能力而显着波动。有必要制定一个考虑这些多样性需求和偏好的标准来指导技术发展，而大规模测试可以为我们提供此类考虑的证据。公众参与活动提供了与潜在用户建立双向对话的重要机会，以共同开发包容性和可访问的技术。我们在一次公众参与活动中展示了“第三拇指”，这是一种手部增强设备，并对来自公众的参与者进行了测试，这些参与者通常不参与可穿戴机器人技术的早期技术开发。我们重点关注可穿戴性（贴合性和控制性）、成功操作设备的能力以及与物理技术相关的多样性因素（性别、惯用手和年龄）的能力水平。我们的包容性设计在 596 名测试个体（年龄范围从 3 岁到 96 岁）的多样化样本中取得了 99.3% 的成功。 98% 的参与者在使用的第一分钟内能够使用额外的拇指成功地操纵物体，而性别、惯用手或涉及手的爱好的亲和力没有显着影响。年幼儿童（年龄≤11 岁）的表现普遍较差。尽管老年人和年轻人执行任务的情况相当，但我们确定了老年人的年龄成本。我们的研究结果切实证明了第三拇指对于广大人群的初步可用性。