Extra Credit Paper #8 (CHI 2010 #16)

Title: Planz to Put Our Digital Information in Its Place

Authors: William Jones, Dawei Hou, Bhuricha Deen Sethanandh, Sheng Bi, and Jim Gemmell

Venue: CHI 2010

Summary
Planz is a personal project planner that works as an application overlay for the existing file system, or email and web pages. The author's state that they envision folders as working somewhat like doors, but would prefer them to work more like windows, and this is what their application attempts to implement. Planz focuses on a primary document that functions as an outline. Two primary features of Planz are "Drag & Link" and "In-context Create".

Discussion
This seems like a neat idea, but I think the author's are attempting to do too much. Its really hard to make an interface with lots of features that people still want to use, because the more features you add the more trouble people will have learning to use the software. This is a problem I think Planz will suffer from. Additionally, removing the windows style of file management altogether will raise heavy handicaps in the time it takes users to learn the new system, a price that probably doesn't justify the implementation of the interface.

Extra Credit Paper #7 (CHI 2010 #15)

Title: Manual Deskterity: An Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input
Authors: Ken Hinckley, Koji Yatani, Michel Pahud, Nicole Coddington, Jenny Rodenhouse, and Andy Wilson, Hrvoje Benko, Bill Buxton
Venue: CHI 2010

Summary
Manual Deskterity is a scrapbook application that  uses pen and touch devices to allow user to create a digital scrapbook. Although the application can certainly be used to create scrapbooks, the focus of the project was on the HCI elements between the users and the interface. The use of both a pen and touch input is important to this study, and was part of the reason why an application for scrapbooking was chosen for study.

Author's compared how users interacted with a real scrapbook and the digital version. While the digital interface was not intended to fully mimic how users interact with the real thing, it does have elements from this. For example, the pen is typically used for writing, while touch is used for object manipulation.

Discussion
I liked this application, although mostly for the elements of HCI study that the author's implemented into the application design. This application was extremely heavy on user studies, which I think is a good thing, and something other papers could use more of.

Extra Credit Paper #6 (CHI 2010 #14)

Title: Adaptive Mouse: A Deformable Computer Mouse Achieving Form-Function Synchronization
Authors: Shen Kai Tang and Wen Yen Tang
Venue: CHI 2010

Summary

This paper introduces a new input device termed Adaptive Mouse, which is similar to the existing device from which it got its name. The new device is intended to have a flexible shape that fits each user's hand differently, unlike existing models. The most interesting aspect of the Adaptive Mouse however, is that the device is initially circular, and users can hold it anyway they like. As the device is composed of eight subsections, clicking on any one of those locations will register a different click. Through the use of a hall-sensor, a magnet and a special algorithm, the device determines the location of the hand placed on it and activates appropriate regions to correspond to right and left clicks.

Discussion
I don't personally think this device has much application, or a future really beyond someone's pet project. While it is interesting to be able to hold the device any way you like, this is really more of a novelty and does little to enhance the user's interaction with a given interface. I feel the real innovations in HCI will come from voice and touch activated interfaces. The authors in this article are focusing on a device that is already extremely well established and requires virtually no improvement.

Extra Credit Paper #5 (CHI 2010 #13)

Title: Tangible Video Bubbles
Authors: Kimiko Ryokai, Hayes Raffle, Hiroshi Horii, and Yotam Mann
Venue: CHI 2010

Summary

Tangible Video Bubbles is an interface for children that allows for video recording manipulation. The interface is intended to be both fun and instructive, by helping to stimulate the understanding of semantics. Videos are recorded, and then displayed on a screen, where they can be repositioned and played back to the user through interaction with a ball. As the video is displayed in a bubble on the screen, it resembles the shape of the ball. Speed and position within the recorded clip can be controlled by various manipulations on the ball, such as squeezing.

Discussion
This is an interesting concept, and certainly very innovative. It would be interesting to incorporate some other type of visuals in the display, such as perhaps graphically displaying audio recorded by the child. Children could then manipulate the words and letters to play some type of game. The existing system is still very good though, and could be useful in enhancing basic intelligence in children.

Extra Credit Paper #4 (CHI 2010 #12)

Title: Tangible Interfaces for Download: Initial Observations from Users' Everyday Environments
Authors: Enrico Costanza, Matteo Giaccone, Olivier Kung, Simon Shelley, and Jeffrey Huang
Venue: CHI 2010

Summary
This paper presents Audio d-touch, a low cost tangible user interface for musical composition. As the software is free, the only costs associated with the interface are those related to hardware components required. A folded piece of paper is used to define the interface with key visual markers used as a reference. Interactions with objects on the paper are recorded by a webcam, and music composed can be played back to the user.

Discussion
While this software is still in the early phases of development, as freeware the authors are likely to do well with it. Projects like Audio d-touch represent an important counterbalance to commercial software, by forcing companies to maintain quality standards, and proving that sometimes their software isn't worth as much as they claim it is. A good example of this would be open office and Microsoft word, where the latter is encouraged to refine its interface, support, and features to continue to be distinguished as a superior product.

Extra Credit Paper #3 (CHI 2010 #11)

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Extra Credit Paper #2 (CHI 2010 #10)

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Extra Credit Paper #1 (CHI 2010 #9)

Title: There's Methodology in the Madness: Toward Critical HCI Ethnography
Authors: Amanda Williams, Lilly Irani
Venue: CHI 2010, Atlanta, Georgia

Summary
This paper details some of the problems found in qualitative data collection from current ethnographies, and suggests more generalized approaches than those currently used. The complication in rhetoric of the user and the expansion of field sites that widen the scope of HCI and the issues these topics raise are also discussed as new developments within HCI.

The authors also discuss how the boundaries of field sites have changed, and ethnographers have taken on a more direct invasive approach recently. To address this, they propose that the criteria for ethnographies be revaluated. Below is one of the models for ethnographic research discussed in the paper:

Discussion
While I wasn't terribly interested in the topic itself, I think the author's work is imporant. Certainly any time you feel that the validity of research in your field is being compromised you should speak out and do your best to address it. This paper might have been more interesting to read had I done so before our ethnography this semester.

Paper Reading #25: Using language complexity to measure cognitive load for adaptive interaction design

Title: Using language complexity to measure cognitive load for adaptive interaction design

Authors: M. Asif Khawaja, Fang Chen, and Nadine Marcus.

Venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Comments

http://isthishci.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-25-using-language.html
http://vincehci.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-25-email-overload.html

Summary
This paper was based heavily on the concept of cognitive load, the idea that a given task imposes a mental load on the individual working on it similar to the load on a CPU. The authors present an adaptive interaction system which measures this load, and adapts itself to improve user experience and performance. Cognitive load is measured through speech content analysis based on their language and dialog complexity. Because the medium used for measuring cognitive load was speech, operators (such as support) were analyzed for the data presented. A breakdown of data collected is included in the table below.

Discussion
I found that this paper was less about an adaptive system and more study focused than the authors originally claimed, which suggests that the abstract is somewhat misleading. As a study however, I feel their work is promising. There is obviously a correlation between speech and cognitive load, although more work should be done to investigate other ways of measuring cognitive load so that the results can be verified more strongly.

Paper Reading #24: Mobia Modeler: easing the creation process of mobile applications for non-technical users

Title: Mobia Modeler: easing the creation process of mobile applications for non-technical users

Authors: Florence Balagtas-Fernandez, Max Tafelmayer, and Heinrich Hussmann.

Venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Comments

http://isthishci.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-24-natural-language.html
http://vincehci.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-24-finding-your-way.html

Summary
This paper details a development tool termed Mobia Modeler designed to enable users without programing experience to create their own mobile applications. The tool features configurable components that are common in mobile applications. To illustrate the concept, this paper focused on health monitoring applications for mobile devices. The authors go on to describe a sample application called Health Monitor created using Mobia Modeler, and the steps taken to create the application. A labeled screenshot of the interface in use is shown below:

Discussion
I thought this was one of the most applicable projects of all the papers I have read in the intelligent user interfaces venue. While the quality of apps created by this program will almost certainly be lower than applications created by someone with programming knowledge, this type of innovation has great potential to take off. Blogs like this one are a similar concept, where most individuals don't have the time or experience to make quality websites, blogs provide a compromise between quality and features, and ease of use.

Paper Reading #23: Evaluating the design of inclusive interfaces by simulation

Title: Evaluating the design of inclusive interfaces by simulation

Authors: Pradipta Biswas, and Peter Robinson.

Venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Comments

http://detentionblockaa32.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-23-natural-language.html
http://vincehci.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-23-automatic-warning-cues.html

Summary
This paper details a proposed simulator for the design of assistive interfaces. The simulator can help predict possible interaction patterns when undertaking a task using different input devices in the presence of extraneous circumstances, such as disabilities. While the exact method of predication is not discussed in the paper, the authors describe the results of an experiment conducted with 7 individuals. Elements from figures 1 and 2 were isolated and displayed to each individual, and then they were asked to click on the same icon when it was displayed in a group.

The average relative error in response time was found to be 16% with a standard deviation of 54%. In 10% of the trials the relative error was more than 100%. Removing these outliers resulted in a average relative error of 6% with a standard deviation of 42%.

Discussion
I didn't like this paper very much. The general concept is interesting and somewhat unprecedented, as the authors are essentially attempting to quantify interface design, but the results were very poor in my opinion. Additionally, the sample size was too small to draw any meaningful conclusions from, and the paper states that all participants were trained for the experiment. Additionally, the authors appeared to think it was acceptable to remove 10% of the data points constituting outliers from the data analysis. If their system was implemented in interface design, I think a 10% chance for the system to just fail altogether on a prediction is extremely high, and not something that can be discounted.

Paper Reading #22: From documents to tasks: deriving user tasks from document usage patterns

Title: From documents to tasks: deriving user tasks from document usage patterns

Authors: Oliver Brdiczka

Venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Comments

http://detentionblockaa32.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-22-personalized-user.html
http://vincehci.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-22-pomdp-approach.html

Summary
The focus of this paper was on increasing the efficiency of multitasking in the average workplace. Existing systems for task management require a large amount of time investment from users to be effective, because the systems need to be 'trained' in order to work correctly. This paper proposes a new approach for automatically estimating a user's tasks from document interactions, without requiring access to the content of those documents. The system described in the paper instead looks at only the switches between which document is being interacted with by monitoring each user's activities and logging which documents had focus and when. Comparing this data allows the authors to build a similarity matrix based on document focus frequencies, dwell times, and switches. A clustering algorithm is then used to group documents into tasks based on the similarity matrix.

To evaluate the performance of the system, three values were used, called prevision, recall and F-measure. Precision refers to the faction of documents in a cluster that belong to the task label of that cluster, recall represents the fraction of all document that belong to a task label and appear in the corresponding cluster, and F-measure is the weighted mean of precision and recall. These values are graphed to the left.

Discussion
The system described in this paper seems promising. The authors described existing systems as either deficient, or requiring access to the content and title of each document in order to derive similarities from them, which raises security concerns in some businesses. It would be interesting to see how this approach compares to other systems that do analyze the content of each document in order to determine if the patterns associated with document access is sufficient to build similarities, or if more information is needed.

Paper Reading #21: iSlideShow: a content-aware slideshow system

Title: iSlideShow: a content-aware slideshow system

Authors: Jiajian Chen, Jun Xiao and Yuli Gao.

Venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Comments

http://shennessy11.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-21.html
http://detentionblockaa32.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-21-social-signal.html

Summary
iSlideShow is a system for automatically analyzing information from photo collections to create compositions and transitions similar to traditional slideshows. The authors describe two modes: a story-telling mode and a person-highlighting mode. The former mode instructs the system to use a theme-based clustering algorithm where multiple photos within a theme are tiled on the same slide. Different layouts are used and the slideshow is animated by transitions between clusters.

The second mode type, the system uses face detection algorithms to highlight faces within the photos and creates clusters based on the presence of certain individuals. Transitions in this mode are preformed between clusters of individuals within the photos.

To the left is an example interface for the slideshow. Each cluster is displayed as a sort of collage, and the location within the slideshow is displayed by the preview bar.

Discussion
While interesting, I felt this system had little to do with computer human interaction, or really anything beyond screen savers. The system described is obviously not intended for the creation of a presentation, and the uses of computer generated collages is fairly low. I didn't feel like the system really did innovated on anything either, as face detection algorithms are widely available through the Intel computer vision library (which is free to use). Themes were clustered by simply using time stamps on the photos, so besides utilizing well established algorithms for facial recognition, the system really isn't intelligent at all as the authors claim.

Paper Reading #20: Raconteur: from intent to stories

Title: Raconteur: from intent to stories
Authors: Chi, Pei-Yu and Lieberman, Henry
Venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Comments
http://angel-at-chi.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-20-rush-repeated.html
http://shennessy11.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-20.html

Summary
This paper presents a story editing system to help with video and picture editing for novices. The software, called Raconteur, helps users assemble coherent stories for media elements. Commonsense, a reasoning technique and database, is used to identify similar story elements and link them together. In other words, the interface provided is intelligent and attempts to automatically relate uploaded pictures based on a short description provided by the user. The picture below shows the interface of Raconteur.













Discussion
The interface presented in the article reminded me mostly of facebook, and I have a feeling that this is the audience the authors had in mind for the product. Unlike most articles, this one has the feel of also being a product in addition to being research, which makes me doubt the objectivity of the content. In any case, I like the general idea, even if the technology could be better applied else where. When it comes down to it, any system like this will get things wrong from time to time, and when it does users will spend much more time than they ordinary would have to fix it, or else wont notice the mistake at all. Intelligent systems are better used for data mining, such as Watson.

Paper Reading #19: Social signal processing: detecting small group interaction in leisure activity

Title: Social signal processing: detecting small group interaction in leisure activity
Authors: Eyal Dim, Tsvi Kuflik
Venue: IUI '10: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces


Comments
http://shennessy11.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-19.html
http://angel-at-chi.blogspot.com/2011/04/paper-reading-19-tell-me-more-not-just.html


Summary
This paper was about the use of social signal processing to identify key social behavior elements in a given environment. Social signal processing hopes to be able to classify groups of individuals in different social profiles, and identify the best time to introduce social stimulus when interaction is lacking. This paper attempted to implement these ideas at a museum, as the authors postulate that social interaction at museums constitutes a significant portion of the learning experience for visitors. Their system allowed them to direct social interaction when necessary to improve the experience.

The authors observed 58 small groups of visitors at the Yitxhak Livneh-Astonishment exhibition at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Arts. Data collected included position proximity of group memebers and duration of voice interaction within 1 minute intervals. Proximity was rated as either separated, joined, or left. To the left is a picture of their voice detection application.


Discussion
While I thought this research was interesting, I think the factors that determine social interaction in a particular group should be considered fixed for the group's stay at the museum. The dynamics behind social interaction are complex and deep rooted. In order to truly make use of this data, I feel the authors would have needed to collect a great deal more information in order to identify those deep rooted variables, such as race, age, income, nationality and other demographics. Intervention based solely on proximity and voice activity of group members as observed for 10 minutes is insufficient both to justify intervention with regards to social interaction, or to justify filing a particular group as a specific profile.

Final Project Proposal

For the final project I am planning to implement the web app I presented for the second project. I will most likely revise the design while implementing it, so not all features will necessarily be in the final version. There are several other elements from other people's designs that I liked as well, so I may incorporate those. The goal will be to create a site with as few pages as possible that still does everything necessary to manage the class, while being as intuitive as possible. This is a fairly lofty goal however, so rather than compromise quality, I may choose to leave some pages or features conceptual only for the prototype. Currently I am working by myself, but I may do the project with Angel Narvaez (we are doing the ethnography together).

Paper Reading #18: Personalized user interfaces for product configuration

Title: Personalized user interfaces for product configuration
Authors: Alexander Felfernig, Monika Mandl, Juha Tiihonen, Monika Schubert, Gerhard Leitner
Venue: IUI '10: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Summary
The authors of this paper are presenting a system for improved product configuration. This is mostly with regards to customers, and the system is designed to increase user satisfaction with the product they decide on. The premise behind this research is that there are frequently too many alternatives to a product for a user to explore all of them and find the one that they want themselves. Instead, the system discussed will allow the user to configure their choices before recommending a product them. While the abstract and introduction are much more general, the products used throughout the paper as examples are mobile phones and the various subscriptions users can purchase for them.

Discussion
While there wasn't a huge amount of actual math, there was a considerable amount of technical jargon and database language in the paper. This made it a bit tedious to read, and difficult to summarize the exact process by which the authors employ their algorithms. Regardless, this sort of work is not new, though the authors claim that knowledge-based configuration is not available in commercial systems. Nearly any major mobile phone website, such as for Verizon or AT&T already has a section that helps users peruse their products in a streamlined fashion.

Paper Reading #17: A natural language interface of thorough coverage by concordance with knowledge bases

Title: A natural language interface of thorough coverage by concordance with knowledge bases
Authors: Yong-Jin Han, Tae-Gil Noh, Seong-Bae Park, Se Young Park, Sang-Jo Lee
Venue: IUI '10: Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces


Summary
This paper is about improving the use of natural language interfaces by converting them to a formal language acceptable to the system. While the authors in this paper are talking about a broader range of systems, this work is very similar to search engines such as Google. Essentially, when a user enters a query in natural language, like you would in Google, you are presented with a series of recognized keywords from your query. The user then reviews the system's interpretation of their query to make sure it makes sense. Since the query is now written purely in formal language the system understands, results are much more predictable and accurate.

Discussion
The concepts discussed in this paper are very similar to auto complete on Google searches. However, as seen in the image above, queries made through this system are configured to be very precise, and are probably more intended for knowledge base systems such as Watson. Ultimately it comes down to what sort of database you are searching. In this paper the authors are clearly searching a highly formatted database, where as Google has to search a database that looks more like a heap.


While this was a good idea for these systems, I don't feel like it was a particularly original or creative solution. Most computer scientists, if presented with this problem, would probably come to a similar solution on their own. Additionally, the methods employed by Google and Watson are clearly both excellent already, so to some extent this is recreating the wheel, and not really new research.

Paper Reading #16: Mixture model based label association techniques for web accessibility

Reference Information
Title: Mixture Model based Label Association Techniques for Web Accessibility
Authors: Muhammad Asiful Islam, Yevgen Borodin, I. V. Ramakrishnan
Venue: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology


Summary
With the continued growth of the internet, it becomes increasingly necessary for blind users to have access to it. The dominant method of accessibility to the web for people with difficulty seeing, is audio based browsing. Browsers designed to do this attempt to associate text labels with relevant elements on the page, and then read the labels to the user. This can range from very easy, to extremely difficult depending on how the labels are associated in the HTML code or if there are labels at all.


This article proposes a solution aimed to address this issue by using their Finite Mixture Model algorithm to associate text with nearby elements. Elements that don't have labels or candidate labels are assigned labels from a database. The most likely match is calculated by a similar algorithm. Once key elements on the page have labels, they can be read to the user to describe what is on the page.


Discussion
The article was interesting, and the approach is without a doubt effective at labeling elements, but I feel that the entire solution needs to be reworked. Reading small parts of pages designed to be visible to the user is a poor substitute for being able to actually see the page, and I have a feeling that getting anything done with audio based browsers, regardless of how well labels are associated, would take a very long time.


Instead perhaps one of the substitute sight technologies would be a better place to spend research money on this area. I know there is ongoing work to map visual elements to a person's tongue. While a bit awkward to use, perhaps perfecting a technique like or similar to that would be the best approach for blind people. 

Paper Reading #15: TurKit: human computation algorithms on mechanical turk

Reference Information
Title: TurKit: human computation algorithms on mechanical turk
Authors: Greg Little, Lydia B. Chilton, Max Goldman, Robert C. Miller
Venue: UIST '10: Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

Summary
This paper is about the integration of human computation into projects. As described in the article, Mechanical Turk is an on-demand source of human computation. People in third world countries are paid to work by answering queries relating to text recognition and CAPTCHA. The solution is implemented as a JavaScript that can be called by other programs, similar to how a library works. The system has already been used for a number of applications, including various psychological research.

Discussion
I liked this idea, even if it was a bit unorthodox. I don't see a huge amount of application for this however beyond research and text recognition. There aren't a whole lot of tasks that computers are unable to preform that are easy for your average person to preform.

Paper Reading #14: A framework for robust and flexible handling of inputs with uncertainty

Reference Information
Title: A framework for robust and flexible handling of inputs with uncertainty
Authors: Julia Schwarz, Scott E. Hudson, Jennifer Mankoff, Andrew D. Wilson
Venue: UIST '10: Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology


Summary
This paper is about addressing the natural error in new age user input devices such as touch screens and pointers. While these devices tend to convey input in a very error prone manner, the interpretation of their input is quickly converted to boolean values typically by programs. This results in a loss of information that is not ideal.


To address this, the authors propose ranking events on a decimal scale, similar to how analog to digital converters work. The event is either true or false dependent on a threshold set on the decimal value, but the information of what exactly happened is maintained, allowing additional logic to interpret the event.

Discussion
I found the concept behind this idea interesting, however the mouse is as uncertain as pointers and touch screens. The style of input hasn't changed, in all three cases you are essentially pointing to a location on screen and triggering an event. I wonder how useful this research really is, considering that the mouse works just fine, and touch screens appear to be doing quite well as well. If there is an issue with touch interfaces, it is because using a finger to point is too big, as opposed to a mouse or a pointer - not because the style or interaction has changed.

Paper Reading #11: Hands-on math: a page-based multi-touch and pen desktop for technical work and problem solving

Comments


Reference
Title: Hands-on math: a page-based multi-touch and pen desktop for technical work and problem solving
Author: Robert Zeleznik, Andrew Bragdon, Ferdi Adeputra, and Hsu-Sheng Ko
Venue: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

Summary
This paper details the use of multi-touch technology in teaching algebra. Students use a stylus to write equations, which they can then manipulate using a touch screen interface. Dragging to terms in an equation together will simplify them, while moving a term to the other side of an equation will either add/subtract it, or divide/multiply as appropriate. Additionally, users can create multiple pages and access them like they would on a real table.

Discussion
I liked this idea, as I know my work has a tendency to be hard to read when I am working math problems, especially if I make mistakes. This system would of course not allow students to make mistakes, but it would also keep the work tidy. Unfortunately in its current form the technology is really only applicable to high school students, as algebra is very basic math (even basic calculus is second nature to most computer oriented majors I think). I suspect that for this technology to have an impact on college level math or even Jr and Senior level high school math that the software will have to evolve significantly. It would be interesting however if the table was able to incorporate elements from say matlab along with text recognition from a stylus in order to make an easy to use interface capable of advanced calculus and Laplace/Fourier transforms. Such technology would be applicable even in the business environment.

Design of Everyday Things (Complete)

Summary
Donald Norman explains common misconceptions regarding the design of everyday items. These range from microwaves, to VCRs, and even simple doors. The author explains that it is the designer's job to ensure products are intuitive and obvious to the user. Prime examples of where design fails include doors that are perfectly symmetrical, so that users cannot tell which way they swing open. To better understand how such seemingly simple designs fail, the author also discusses human memory and concepts such as natural mapping. Norman suggests that designs should make things visible, allow users to easily determine their state, and communicate possible actions to the user easily. Using the example of a VCR, all of the controls should be clearly labeled and obvious. If the VCR is in a particular state, such as if it was recording, this should also be obvious, and finally the possible actions should be apparent, such as pausing or stopping the device. When these things are contrasted to real VCRs, most of these conditions are not met.

Discussion
I enjoyed this book most of all because it was interesting, but also because the concepts inside it are genuinely important concepts frequently overlooked by designers. As technology becomes more complex, designers have a tendency to pass that complexity on to the user. This approach is poor however, as users hardly have the time or ability to become familiar with every piece of technology in the world. If you design doors or light switches for public locations, it should be your goal that no one notices your design at all.

Paper Reading #10: PhoneTouch: A Technique for Direct Phone Interaction on Surfaces

Comments:


Reference:
Title: PhoneTouch: A Technique for Direct Phone Interaction on Surfaces
Author: Dominik Schmidt, Fadi Chehimi, Enrico Rukzio, and Hans Gellersen
Venue: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

Summary
This paper discusses a technique the authors term 'PhoneTouch', which allows users to use their phones as a pointer or stylus on an interactive table. The table is similar to a light table, but uses a projector underneath instead of a light. Contact with the table is determined using a camera. Images are ran though several filters, so that the program can easily verify if a phone or a finger touched the table. Phones communicate with the table using Bluetooth.

Discussion
Although the image processing used in this project has potential, I think the idea to use phones is poor. . You could easily use any other object to preform these tasks, including your fingers. Of course the paper does explain the use of fingers and phones together to form a more complex method of communication, but I don't really see the need. You can preform just about any task necessary on a normal touch screen without requiring multiple types of pointers, and even if you did, finding a way to simply distinguish different fingers from each other would be much more useful. A large part of the project was also displaying the contents of the phone on the table. This is a good idea, but it does not require you to use your phone as a pointer. At its most basic level, this project is just a computer wirelessly reading data off of phones and displaying it on a touch screen, which is far from innovative.

As I mentioned previously, I do think that the projection style interface using a camera to check for contact has potential though. Touch screen are still expensive, especially large ones, and this technology could be used to make large tables that would be useful in conferences, or even just dynamic user interfaces. For example, you could design a table that would function as a keyboard and mouse, but could double as an additional display/touchscreen as well.

Paper Reading #9: Imaginary interfaces: spatial interaction with empty hands and without visual feedback

Reference
Title: Imaginary Interfaces: Spatial Interaction with Empty Hands and without Visual Feedback
Author: Sean Gustafson, Daniel Bierwirth, Patrick Baudisch
Venue: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

Summary
This article is about "imaginary interfaces", or interfaces without visual feedback. Additionally, in the examples given in the article, there is no physical interaction with the device by the user either. Instead, the device monitors hand movements and determines what command the user is trying to convey. These commands are manifested by drawing with one hand, while using your other hand to anchor the virtual space. This gives the device a point of reference. The article states that users had some difficulty with remembering the different gestures they needed to make to accomplish things, as they have no visual cues to aid memory.


Discussion
I thought this article was really interesting, but it also has limited potential. This potential could be easily rectified with the addition of a visual interface possibly in the form of a projection. This would of course be counterproductive with regards to what the authors are attempting to research, but without a visual aid the system will be limited to simply applications. For example, this could have real application in cell phones and music players as a hands off alternative, but these devices are likely to still require a visual interface that users can use for more complicated tasks.


All things considered, I think voice recognition has a larger potential than this system. Voice recognition relies on our already huge vocabulary, where as this system essentially requires users to learn a new language. With the addition of a visual aid there could be some application as a replacement for keyboards on computers.

Week 2: Ethnography Results

This week both myself and Angel rode different routes. I made observations on route 31, shown below:

Observations

• Most people avoid talking when on the way to class, although this can vary if they know other commuters.
• Commuters on the return trip from campus made much more use of their cell phones to have conversations and text.
• The majority of people on the bus had class materials with them.
• Very few people eat on my bus route.

I have yet to ride this route either very early or very late, so my observations are very narrow in scope currently. I hope to make more observations at different times, and to gather more quantitative data.

Paper Reading #8: Early Explorations of CAT

Reference
Title: Early Explorations of CAT: Canine Amusement and Training
Author: Chadwick Wingrave, Todd Langston, Jeremy Rose and Joseph LaViola Jr.
Venue: CHI 2010, April 10-15

Summary:
This article is about how improvements in technology can be applied to other species, specifically dogs. The authors theorize that using computers to help train and entertain dogs will improve the canine-human bond. This project included a projector mounted on the ceiling to project different colored circles on the floor, and a tracking device attacked to the dog. The human can then select one of several modes to play the game. These modes are focused mostly on basic training, such as teaching your dog to come to you or stay.


Discussion:
I thought the whole thing was a bit silly. Training dogs is much less expensive when you use a bag of treats. Furthermore, the colored circles are largely pointless for the dog, as dogs can't see color, so they only server a visual aid to the human. Additionally, I'm not really sure why they didn't just place a couple circular colored mats on the floor. Its possible they wanted to keep the whole project electronic, but if you expect your system to make it into the consumer market, you can't expect everyone to put a projector on their ceiling.

Ethnography Proposal

The Culture of Public Transportation

For the subject of this ethnography we intend to study the culture surrounding public transportation services. A&M in particular has an intricate culture embedded in the bus network. Unlike similar services, the one provided by A&M is free to everyone in the Bryan-College Station area, making this culture even more dynamic.

While the most obvious use of the A&M bus system is for students to transit between home and classes, the bus system is used for a large number of other activities. These other activities are the main interest of this ethnography, but the focus of the ethnography is intended to be left open ended. This is important, as it will help us to avoid biasing our methodologies To this end, we hope to make objective observations on the culture of different bus routes. Following periods of study, we will attempt to draw conclusions from the data as opposed to forming goals prior to these experiences.

In order to better study this culture, we intend to sit in on a variety of different bus routes at different times of day. Considerations worthy of mention would include bus routes that travel to significant locations (besides campus) such as North gate, the mall, or the grocery store. In addition, the culture present on some of these routes may vary significantly at different times of day. To address this, we also intend to ride the routes during various times on the weekend, and later at night.

Our group intends to collect quantitative data out of observations that are of particular interest to our ethnography. As we will describe in the qualitative data section of this proposal, our intentions are to monitor student activities that are not necessarily related to school. With that in mind, we are interesting in knowing the amount of people who ride the bus to school, and people who ride the bus to other destinations. We are interested in knowing how many commuters use their phone instead of engaging in face to face social activities. Other observations will include determining the number of grocery shoppers and the number people eating on the bus. Despite all these early ideas, it is important to mention that our research will be tailored by our commuting experience.

The qualitative data for this ethnography will involve observing the environment and describing the overall mood. This will include taking notes on how friendly the passengers are, how they are dressed, and possibly ethnic backgrounds relating different bus routes. We want to take notes on how the times (morning, noon, and afternoon) of the bus routes affect people. For example, do people only eat in the mornings? Are people more likely to engage in conversations at night? All these ideas will compose our qualitative data.

Paper Reading #7: The Coffee Lab

Comments:

Reference:

Title: The Coffee Lab: Developing a Public Usability Space

Author: Maria Karam

Venue: CHI 2010, April 10-15

Summary

The Coffee Lab is somewhat like a real coffee shop, but with several interactive systems added for usability testing. Some of these systems include the Emoti-Chair, the iGesture System, a music visualization application, and several applications relating to captions. While all of the systems undergoing testing at the Coffee Lab are projects of their own, the focus of the Coffee Lab is to explore and research the public usability lab concept. Researchers evaluated the lab in five different stages, listed here in order: exposure, experience, experiment, extension, and exploration.

Discussion

While coffee shops have a high potential for this sort of public usability testing, I personally feel that this style of usability testing is flawed in general. This idea could work with more subtle and better known technology, but I felt like some of the ideas they were trying to test would have been either sufficiently uninteresting to patrons of an ordinary coffee shop, or else sufficiently outlandish so as to discourage interaction. These factors are diminished in the article, because while the Coffee Lab aims to be set in the public domain, it is a prototype as well. The article lacks a detailed description concerning how they avoided biasing customers and patrons, which most likely means that they didn't. As a result, I feel it is likely many individuals (myself included) would approach the coffee shop as a research enviroment - this naturally piques interesting and changes behavior.

To demonstrate this, imagine we took their Emoti-Chair and set it up in a real coffee shop - one without anyone standing around giving surveys and no visible surveillance or data collection. The difference here is that the expectations of the user are different, they no longer see the chair as a prototype. As a result, the chair will not immediately stand out as special either, and users will only notice it if the chair genuinely appeals to them. In the article, the attention of users is constantly drawn the items they wish to have tested, which defeats the purpose of doing the usability test in the public domain.

Paper Reading #6: A Multi-Touch Enabled Steering Wheel

Comments:

Reference:

Title: A multi-touch enabled steering wheel: exploring the design space

Author: Max Pfeiffer and 5 others

Venue: CHI 2010, April 12-13

Summary

The article details the author's design for a multi-touch steering wheel. This means that the steering wheel is intended to serve multiple functions, namely allow the user to interact with the car radio or computer system without taking their hands off of the steering wheel. A camera was used for the multi-touch tracking, while a projector mounted in the steering wheel column was used to display an interface onto the acrylic glass surface of the prototype steering wheel.

Discussion

I liked the idea behind this article. Unlike most of the other articles I have read, I feel like this project has real application, and related directly to CHI. While the prototype used in this article does of course have serious shortcomings, such as structural integrity, these are things that would be quickly sorted out by manufacturers if the design ever made it into industry. To some degree however, making the steering wheel purely electronic would be a mistake, as this vastly increases the number of points of failure for the system. The proposed system would need to undergo an absolutely huge amount of testing.

Week #1: Ethnography Results

Week #1: Ethnography Results

Due to some confusion about how groups would be assigned, my group formed this morning. We decided to go with my second idea regarding an ethnography of the A&M public transportation system and the culture surrounding it. Currently our team has only two members, myself and Angel Narvaez.

Book Reading #13: Microblog for Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 3
Summary
This chapter relates the experiences of Dr. Rosenhan while running an experiment to fake a mental illness in order to be admitted to a psychiatric ward. The author then repeated this experiment her self, and relates her own experiences. In contrast to Dr. Rosenhan's results, Slater was unable to convince psychiatrists that she should be admitted to a ward, however she was prescribed several medications, including anti-psychosis drugs.

Discussion
While this chapter was interesting, I can't help but feeling like Dr. Rosenhan's experiment was just some sort of silly bet with some friends. Following some google research, it appears that there are also some doubts that Slater actually preformed the experiment that she has never addressed. This also brought up some other points regarding the accuracy of previous chapters in the book (especially the first). All things considered, I am much less impressed with the author following this chapter.

Book Reading #12: Microblog for Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 4
Summary
The focus of this chapter was on the samoan family hierarchy. Hierarchy is mostly determined by age as opposed to sex, although the matai, who is head of the household, is typically male. Additionally, the matai is sort of outside the age-based hierarchy.

Discussion
Probably the most interesting aspect of samoan hierarchy is that status is largely independent of sex. This is not completely true, as the majority of matai's are men, and women, even as children, are typically expected to raise children and so forth. However, in contrast to most of the other well known cultures, samoa is remarkably close to equality between the sexes.

Book Reading #11: Microblog for The Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 4
Summary
This chapter focuses on the constraints commonly faced by designers. These include physical, cultural, and semantic constraints. The author uses the example of a lego motorcycle to demonstrate these concepts by pointing out that while the components of the motorcycle are largely interchangeable, the cultural and semantic constraints would not be met and most people would no longer recognize the toy as a motorcycle. A discussion of logical constraints is then included later. Norman then returns to the more specific topic of door design touched on in earlier chapters, and closes the chapter with some insights on how to improve light switches so that they are less ambiguous.

Discussion
Norman has some excellent points in this chapter, although I feel in general most doors are apparent in their use. The cases where poor design was used however do stand out in my mind. Light switches are a slightly different manner. Having unlabeled switches is generally alright, provided that there aren't a great number of lights in the vicinity of the switch. I can think of maybe one or two instances in my own apartment where the switches could be labeled, but in general it is not necessary as most people learn very quickly. Switches in public places however could stand to benefit greatly from improved design, and would probably be more worth the investment.

Book Reading #3: Microblog for HCI Remixed Ch. 1, 4, 5 ,18, 20, and 23

Chapter 1
Summary
The author describes his work with digital music in this chapter.While the content of his story is mostly about the machine used to create the music, he relates the moral of the story with the machine having been very user friendly.

Discussion
This chapter was alright, although the author's choice of diction in several places seemed somewhat strange. To say that he was biased in regard to this machine would be an understatement. I am not sure if there is a word to describe love for an inanimate object, but it would be appropriate here.

Chapter 4

Summary

This chapter details the program Sketchpad and its influence on HCI. Sketchpad is a drawing program that utilized unique input devices (for the time), such as a light pen and a display with a resolution nearly as high as modern LCDs.

Discussion

Each chapter in this book seems to have a moral presented by the author for the reader to take away from it. In this chapter, he finishes by telling the reader that we need to be on the look out for the next Sketchpads of our generation so that we can properly nurture them. This mentality is fine I suppose, but I guess I expected something more instructive, such as the content in the book The Design of Everyday Things.

Chapter 5

Summary

This chapter details some of the origins of the mouse and the difficulties Engelbart had finding an audience for it. There is also some reflection included by Engelbart himself in the chapter, where he laments that the mouse has become to easy to use.

Discussion

The nostalgia trip is continued in this chapter by a different author. There are a lot of parallels between this chapter and the previous one, and the moral content is the same. While it may be interesting from a historical perspective, again, I didn't find this chapter particularly instructive.

Chapter 18

Summary

As the title implies, this chapter was largely about the rise of collaboration within HCI. The author describes the 1980's, a period when computer scientists focused heavily on networking. Eventually this focus extended to human interaction across networks.

Discussion

This paper was refreshing coming from the earlier chapters. While I still felt like I was reading a history book to some extent, there was some real content as well.

Chapter 20

Summary

Articulation work is described as the extra layer of programming required when users work collaboratively. The author discusses how an earlier article called Taking CSCW Seriously influenced articulation work, and goes into details regarding early concepts of how to manage team work through CHI.

Discussion

I felt that this paper was more or less Taking CSCW Seriously rehashed with a slightly different name. The vast majority of the dialog is simply summaries and accounts from experiencing that stemmed out of the aforementioned paper.

Chapter 23

Summary

This chapter discusses the use of computers to enhance human-to-human interactions. The author encourages the use of technology in ways it was not intended.

Discussion

I liked this chapter. Unlike most of the other chapters, the moral and instructive content of this chapter was less intuitive, and therefore more deserving of commentary.