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Dr Jessica Korte
Dr

Jessica Korte

Email: 

Overview

Background

Dr Jessica Korte is passionate about the ways good technology can improve lives. To ensure technology is “good”, she advocates involving end users in the design process; especially when those people belong to “difficult” user groups - which usually translates to “minority” user groups. Her philosophy for technology design (and life in general) is that the needs of people who are disempowered or disabled by society should be considered first; everyone else will then benefit from technology that maximises usability. Her research areas include Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, and Participatory & Collaborative Design.

Jessica was drawn to research by a desire to explore some of the ways technology and design can empower and support people from marginalised groups. She has worked with Deaf children and members of the Deaf community to create a technology design approach, and successfully organised and run international workshops on Pushing the Boundaries of Participatory Design, leading to the World’s Most Inclusive Distributed Participatory Design Project.

Jessica has recently been awarded a TAS DCRC Fellowship to create an Auslan Communication Technologies Pipeline, a modular, AI-based Auslan-in, Auslan-out system capable of recognising, processing and producing Auslan signing.

Jessica is currently looking to recruit research students with an interest in exploring topics in an Auslan context, including machine learning, natural language processing, chatbots, video GAN, or procedural animation.

Availability

Dr Jessica Korte is:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours) of Information Technology, Griffith University
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Griffith University

Research interests

  • Auslan Communication Technologies Pipeline

    Sign language recognition, human-like artificial sign production, sign language processing

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) / Computer-Human Interaction

    The many ways humans interact with and use technologies.

  • Collaborative Design / Participatory Design / Co-Design

    Designing with, rather than for, the users of a new technology means that technology should be better suited to the users' needs, abilities and expectations. I am particularly interested in co-design with children and marginalised groups.

  • Design with Deaf children

    There is relatively little educational technology designed for young Deaf children and their families. By undertaking collaborative design with Deaf children, their families and educators, my research can create technologies to assist with early learning.

  • Women in STEM

    Women remain under-represented in STEM fields.

Research impacts

Working with members of marginalised groups in the design of new technologies helps to ensure the technologies created address the needs, expectations and abilites of members of that group. This can in turn support their involvement and empowerment in every day life.

Research (including my own) has shown that children benefit from involvement in collaborative design activities. Such benefits can include increased language skills, increased confidence, improved teamworking skills and increased technological skills.

Works

Search Professor Jessica Korte’s works on UQ eSpace

38 works between 2011 and 2024

1 - 20 of 38 works

2024

Conference Publication

From research participant to co-researcher: Chloe's story on co-designing inclusive technologies with people with intellectual disability

Haidenhofer, Choe, Sitbon, Laurianne, Beaumont, Chris P, Hoogstrate, Maria and Korte, Jessica L (2024). From research participant to co-researcher: Chloe's story on co-designing inclusive technologies with people with intellectual disability. New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3663548.3688541

From research participant to co-researcher: Chloe's story on co-designing inclusive technologies with people with intellectual disability

2024

Conference Publication

Exploring similarities and differences in a set of linked multiple-site design sessions with children

Read, Janet, Sim, Gavin, Fails, Jerry Alan, Boden, Marie A, Korte, Jessica L, Bhatnagar, Sanjana, Hope Borchardt, Lilly, Constantin, Aurora, Gavrilescu, Dina, Wilson, Cara, Good, Judith, Andries, Valentina and Eriksson, Eva (2024). Exploring similarities and differences in a set of linked multiple-site design sessions with children. CHI EA '24, Honolulu, HI, United States, 11-16 May 2024. New York, NY, United States: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3613905.3637143

Exploring similarities and differences in a set of linked multiple-site design sessions with children

2024

Other Outputs

Auslan@Home videos

Korte, Jessica, Lyons, Julie, Greedy-Vogel, Adele and Blackson, Bobbie (2024). Auslan@Home videos. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/3dcdf95

Auslan@Home videos

2024

Other Outputs

Zelda Smart Home: animated Auslan avatar videos

Korte, Jessica, Lyons, Julie, Zelenskaya, Maria and Greedy-Vogel, Adele (2024). Zelda Smart Home: animated Auslan avatar videos. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/64d2b87

Zelda Smart Home: animated Auslan avatar videos

2024

Conference Publication

What factors motivate culturally deaf people to want assistive technologies?

Vogel, Adele and Korte, Jessica L (2024). What factors motivate culturally deaf people to want assistive technologies?. CHI EA '24: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, HI, United States, 11-16 May 2024. New York, NY, United States: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3613905.3650871

What factors motivate culturally deaf people to want assistive technologies?

2024

Other Outputs

Zelda Smart Home Prototype

Korte, Jessica, Lyons, Julie, Zelenskaya, Maria, Whittington, Scott and Greedy-Vogel, Adele (2024). Zelda Smart Home Prototype. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/bc096fa

Zelda Smart Home Prototype

2023

Conference Publication

Visual-gestural interface for Auslan virtual assistant

Zelenskaya, Maria, Whittington, Scott, Lyons, Julie, Vogel, Adele and Korte, Jessica (2023). Visual-gestural interface for Auslan virtual assistant. SA '23: SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Emerging Technologies, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 12-15 December 2023. New York, NY, United States: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3610541.3614566

Visual-gestural interface for Auslan virtual assistant

2023

Conference Publication

'Auslan Alexa': A case study of VR Wizard of Oz prototyping for requirements elicitation with Deaf participants

Vithanage, Shashindi, Dey, Arindam and Korte, Jessica (2023). 'Auslan Alexa': A case study of VR Wizard of Oz prototyping for requirements elicitation with Deaf participants. 30th IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), Shanghai, China, 25-29 March 2023. Piscataway, NJ United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.. doi: 10.1109/VRW58643.2023.00298

'Auslan Alexa': A case study of VR Wizard of Oz prototyping for requirements elicitation with Deaf participants

2023

Journal Article

Editorial: pushing the boundaries of Participatory Design with children

Korte, Jessica, Sim, Gavin, Constantin, Aurora, Eriksson, Eva, Fails, Jerry Alan, Alexandru, Cristina Adriana, Read, Janet C. and Wilson, Cara (2023). Editorial: pushing the boundaries of Participatory Design with children. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 35 100547, 1-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100547

Editorial: pushing the boundaries of Participatory Design with children

2023

Conference Publication

What do Deaf people want in a smart assistant?

Korte, Jessica and Lyons, Julie (2023). What do Deaf people want in a smart assistant?. TEDxUQ, St Lucia, QLD Australia, 13 August 2022. The University of Queensland.

What do Deaf people want in a smart assistant?

2022

Journal Article

YoungDeafDesign: participatory design with young deaf children

Korte, Jessica (2022). YoungDeafDesign: participatory design with young deaf children. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 34 100542, 1-20. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100542

YoungDeafDesign: participatory design with young deaf children

2022

Conference Publication

Ethical considerations of distributed participatory design with children

Constantin, Aurora, Andries, Valentina, Korte, Jessica, Alexandru, Cristina Adriana, Good, Judith, Sim, Gavin, Read, Janet, Fails, Jerry Alan and Eriksson, Eva (2022). Ethical considerations of distributed participatory design with children. IDC '22: Interaction Design and Children, Braga, Portugal, 27-30 June 2022. New York, NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3501712.3536386

Ethical considerations of distributed participatory design with children

2022

Conference Publication

A distributed participatory design research protocol for co-designing with children

Constantin, Aurora, Korte, Jessica, Good, Judith, Sim, Gavin, Read, Janet, Fails, Jerry Alan and Eriksson, Eva (2022). A distributed participatory design research protocol for co-designing with children. IDC '22: Interaction Design and Children, Braga, Portugal, 27-30 June 2022. New York, NY USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3501712.3535286

A distributed participatory design research protocol for co-designing with children

2021

Conference Publication

Participatory design of the world's largest DPD project with children

Korte, Jessica L., Constantin, Aurora, Wilson, Cara, Alexandru, Cristina Adriana, Sim, Gavin, Read, Janet, Good, Judith, Fails, Jerry Alan and Eriksson, Eva (2021). Participatory design of the world's largest DPD project with children. IDC '21: Interaction Design and Children, Athens, Greece, 24-30 June 2021. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/3459990.3460514

Participatory design of the world's largest DPD project with children

2021

Journal Article

Distributing participation in design: addressing challenges of a global pandemic

Constantin, Aurora, Alexandru, Cristina, Korte, Jessica, Wilson, Cara, Fails, Jerry, Sim, Gavin, Read, Janet C. and Eriksson, Eva (2021). Distributing participation in design: addressing challenges of a global pandemic. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 28 100255, 100255. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100255

Distributing participation in design: addressing challenges of a global pandemic

2021

Other Outputs

A comparative review of military hand signals and natural sign languages

Korte, Jessica (2021). A comparative review of military hand signals and natural sign languages. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence Cooperative Research Centre; The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/104b38d

A comparative review of military hand signals and natural sign languages

2020

Conference Publication

Planning the world's most inclusive PD project

Constantin, Aurora, Korte, Jessica, Wilson, Cara, Alexandru, Cristina Adriana, Good, Judith, Sim, Gavin, Read, Janet, Fails, Jerry Alan and Eriksson, Eva (2020). Planning the world's most inclusive PD project. IDC '20: 2020 ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, London, United Kingdom, June 2020. New York, NY, United States: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3397617.3398066

Planning the world's most inclusive PD project

2020

Conference Publication

Physical requirements for Auslan robots and avatars: “Handy” hands

Korte, Jessica, Newton, Jacob, Goel, Rudraksh and Pounds, Pauline (2020). Physical requirements for Auslan robots and avatars: “Handy” hands. CoEDL Fest, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 3-6 February 2020. ARC CoEDL.

Physical requirements for Auslan robots and avatars: “Handy” hands

2020

Conference Publication

Multimodal machine learning for sign language recognition

Nguyen, Jameson and Korte, Jessica (2020). Multimodal machine learning for sign language recognition. CoEDL Fest, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 3-6 February 2020. ARC CoEDL.

Multimodal machine learning for sign language recognition

2020

Conference Publication

A plan for developing an Auslan communication technologies pipeline

Korte, Jessica, Bender, Axel, Gallasch, Guy, Wiles, Janet and Back, Andrew (2020). A plan for developing an Auslan communication technologies pipeline. ECCV 2020: Computer Vision – ECCV 2020 Workshops, Glasgow, Scotland, 23–28 August, 2020. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-66096-3_19

A plan for developing an Auslan communication technologies pipeline

Funding

Current funding

  • 2024
    Breaking the Communication Barrier for the Australian Deaf Community: Vision Based Australian Sign Language Translation and Production
    Google Inc
    Open grant

Past funding

  • 2020 - 2023
    Auslan Communication Technologies Pipeline
    Advance Queensland Trusted Autonomous Systems Defence CRC
    Open grant

Supervision

Availability

Dr Jessica Korte is:
Available for supervision

Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.

Available projects

  • Auslan Recognition

    A machine learning project to recognise Auslan signing.

  • Entropy-based video segmentation

    An AI approach to video segmentation, using the entropy of movement to identify signs and sign segements in Auslan video and live stream.

  • Auslan processing

    Applying natural language processing techniques to Auslan

  • Auslan production: Animation

    Designing a platform to generate Auslan signs through procedural animation

  • Auslan production: GAN

    Applying the technology behind DeepFakes to create synthetic Auslan communication

Media

Enquiries

Contact Dr Jessica Korte directly for media enquiries about:

  • Auslan
  • co-design
  • Collaborative design
  • Deaf children
  • Deaf community
  • Deaf education
  • participatory design
  • sign language technologies
  • technology design

Need help?

For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au