In today’s digital era, social media users are increasingly coming across fake news online. This leads to the pressing issue: What causes people to fall for misinformation on the Internet?

According to researchers at the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology,   users can easily fall into an echo chamber (回声室)—a sort of virtual space where users consume only one-sided news, eventually distrusting any opposing views. “We all tend to agree with the group opinion. Hence, people naturally get together with others who hold the same opinion,” said Dongwon Lee, one of the researchers. “But if you’re not cautious, there is a high risk of falling into an echo chamber.”

To prevent this phenomenon, the researchers have crafted a novel tool, a game named ChamberBreaker, to help players resist echo chambers and reduce the rate of fake news spread. The fundamental approach employed by ChamberBreaker centers around a decision-making procedure that mirrors the creation of echo chambers. In ChamberBreaker, a player is tasked with trying to have community members fall into an echo chamber. To begin, the player is randomly assigned a situation that focuses on a health, political or environmental issue, and is presented with six pieces of news on that topic. Then, the player selects news that could cause the other members to fall into an echo chamber while at the same time maintaining their trust. If successful, the community members will fall into an echo chamber and the player will witness the resulting negative effects on the community.

After developing ChamberBreaker, researchers tested it with over 800 subjects to see if it raised awareness of echo chambers and changed news consumption behaviors. The researchers found that those who played ChamberBreaker were significantly more likely to state their intention to observe online information from more diverse perspectives and showed an increased awareness of the echo chamber phenomenon.

Ultimately, the researchers hope that their methodology can excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study related to information consumption. The application of tools like ChamberBreaker, which focuses on fostering analytical reasoning, may lead us towards a more informed online community.

A robot created by Washington State University (WSU) scientists could help elderly people with dementia (痴呆) and other limitations live independently in their own homes.

The Robot Activity Support System, or RAS, uses sensors fixed in a WSU smart home to determine where its residents (居民) are, what they are doing and when they need assistance with daily activities. It navigates (定位) through rooms and around obstacles to find people on its own, provides video instructions on how to do simple tasks.

“RAS combines the convenience of a mobile robot with the activity detection (探测) technology of a WSU smart home to provide assistance in the moment, when the need for help is detected.” said Bryan Minor, a postdoctoral researcher in the WSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

RAS is the first robot researchers have tried to include into their smart home environment. They recently published a study in the Journal Cognitive Systems Research that shows how RAS could make life easier for older adults struggling to live independently.

“While we are still in an early stage of development, our initial results with RAS have been promising,” Minor said. “The next step in the research will be to test RAS’ performance with a group of older adults to get a better idea.”

Disability aids are vital to those who suffer problems with executing work with two hands. These are people who have been disabled due to some major sickness or some other problems. In order to help them carry on their work in the normal way, disability aids are manufactured. This helps them make their life a lot easier than what it would have been without these aids. The kind of disability aids that an individual might require depends on the person only. It is the problem that a person faces that decides the aids that he/she will use for carrying out their respective jobs. The following is the list of a few disability aids that come of significant use.

The first and foremost aid is the stocking aid, aiding the individuals suffering from the problem of bending down to reach the foot and wear their own socks. These stocking aids have a gutter that is made up of plastic material. These gutters are shaped in a certain way along with the attachment of cotton tapes in it. The sock is then put over the gutter. The foot is placed inside the gutter. The cotton tapes help in pulling the socks up the leg and subsequently the sock. In this manner, the sock is worn by a person who has problems wearing it by bending one’s back and reaching the foot.

There are openers that help the people who have problems with their hands or wrists to open bottles of ketchup, jam and other such bottles and jars that necessitates the use of hands and fingers.

The third type of disability aids that comes to our minds are lifts. Now what are lifts? Lifts are certain machines that help in lifting people from specific areas, such as a bathtub or a set of stairs. These lifts are of varied types and come for numerous applications. It is for the individual to decide the type that he/she requires to use.

For people, who have problems in balancing their upper bodies in a stable manner, there is something known as grab rails. These grab rails are installed for those who have mobility problems in their upper bodies. These rails come in varieties of shapes, sizes and angles. These grab rails are available to home users as well, in their different variations. One can purchase and fix one to their homes according to one’s specificities. These grab rails require the act of screwing and drilling in order to fix them to their appropriate place. The prices of these rails also vary according to the variation of their shapes and sizes.

A portable book holder is a much sought-after disability aid. It can be used by anybody for that matter, not just the disabled. These portable book holders are light-weight and can be easily moved about. These holders relieve the strains on one’s hands, necks and shoulders that might occur due to the handling of a book. The holders are provided with extended legs that help in placing the reading material at suitable distance.

Thus with the help of these disability aids, the old and disabled people can make their lives much more convenient and comfortable that would otherwise have been a cumbersome and complex one.

Disability Aids