Friday, July 13, 2012
29 links to recent Interactive Multimedia Technology posts, for techies and the tech-curious
Quick Post: Design for Emotion, co-authored by Trevor van Gorp and Edie Adams
CFP for Special Issue of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing on Educational Interfaces, Software, and Technology (EIST)
CFP: Seventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, Feb 10-13, Barcelona, Spain
TechCrunch Charlotte Highlights: T1 Vision, inTouch Collaborative Software
PO-MO, a creative group that combines digital art, interaction, movement, and play to create engaging surfaces and spaces
Digitized History and Interactive Timelines: Lots of examples and links for your exploring pleasure!
Quirky, Fun Webisode from Dot Diva (a website that encourages young women to pursue careers in technology)
Checking out Recline js, an open-source, browser-based HTML and JavaScript library for data: "Relax with your data".
Good news for knowledge junkies! Data Journalism Handbook: How journalists can use data to improve the news, available online.
Infographic about CISPA, contrasted with SOPA, by Lumin Consulting. Food for thought for those who might be mistakenly viewed as a "cyber threat".
iMac Touch Concept Video -in case you missed it.
Quick link: Nextgov, "the all-day information resource for federal technology decision makers".
ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: May 5-10, Austin, Texas
Interactive Technology from CHI 2012 Supporting Literacy, Storytelling, and Narrative
Looking forward to CHI 2012: Child Computer Interaction, Educational Interfaces, Health, Special Needs, and Much More! (Includes several preview videos.)
NUITEQ's Latest Multitouch Showreel: Snowflake Suite
Games for Health Conference: June 12-14, Hyatt Harborside Hotel, Boston, MA
Johnny Chung Lee's Recent Words of Wisdom & Google's Open-Source Ceres Non-Linear Least Squares Solver
Vignettes exploring the dual capacities of software and medicine to heal and hurt. Food for thought, by Jonathan Harris
Interactive Music Challenge: The Reactable & the Reactable for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
FYI: TEDEd Education Beta Website and YouTube Channel
FYI: Google's Knowledge Graph
Urban Musical Game: Play with musical-sensor sports balls and friends (Real-Time Musical Interactions Team at IRCAM)
Quick CHI 2012 Slideshow
A fun HTML interactive music video: Evelyn, performed by Abby, Coded by Bleech
Leap Motion: Low Cost Gesture Control for Your Computer Display
First Moment of Truth in digital signage environments: Bill Gerba's Words of Wisdom
PhD. Student Positions: Intel Collaborative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities
More about the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Cities
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Why GUI to NUI? Why WIMP to post-WIMP? Do we have the seeds of a manifesto?!
I think we have the beginnings of a GUI to NUI/ postWIMP manifesto here.
In Chapter 1 of Natural User Interfaces in .NET, Josh Blake asks and answers a question posed by many people who have been under the spell of keyboard input and GUI/ WIMP interaction:
Why bother switching from GUI to NUI? The answer? Read Chapter 1 (pdf) of the book - the chapter is free.
Here are a few of my personal reasons:
1. I want to buy the next version of the iPad or something like it.
2. I want to buy a new large-screen Internet HD TV.
People with special needs and/or health concerns, and the people who care and guide them.
Knowledge sharers and (life-long) learners....
RELATED
RELATED - and somewhat related
GUI to NUI Post-WIMP Manifesto: TBA
Friday, December 11, 2009
Participatory Design Conference 2010 + Reflections about participatory design and usability...
Cross posted from Interactive Multimedia Technology:
I really want to go to Australia next year and attend this conference! Below are links to the conference, along with an excerpt from the conference description:
11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference: Participation :: The Challenge (pdf)
PDC2010 Conference Website
PDC2008 Conference Website
"Participation is the complex, contested, changing, creative and celebratory core of participatory design. We invite you to explore what participation can and needs to mean in the design contexts where we are working now and those we are likely to encounter soon. While current ‘best practice’ in many areas of interactive technology design now at least pays lip service to people’s participation, how is this participation being negotiated and defined, and by whom? And if Participatory Design methods developed some 20 years ago are claimed to have become standard design practice, how do we go about developing the methods that will define standard design practice 20 years from now?"
REFLECTION
Judging from what I've experienced as a consumer/user, there are many things that are floating around in the form of electronics, software, and related gadgets that are examples of the absence of participatory design.
My daily pet peeve is the remote control for my entertainment set-up, which includes DVR and a small but growing number of interactive TV channels. Another pet peeve is the usability of productivity software, including the software I must use for work.
At any rate, below are links to some of my thoughts related to usability topics that might be of interest to people who are thinking about or practicing participatory design or user-centered design.
2007 Letter to the Editor, Pervasive Computing
Useful Usability Studies (pdf)
2007 Blog Post
Usability/Interaction Hall of Shame (In a Hospital)
2008 Blog Posts
Interactive Touch-Screen Technology, Participatory Design, and "Getting It"
An Example of Convergence: Interactive TV: uxTV 2008
2009 Blog Posts
Microsoft: Are You Listening? Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki Davis) Tries out Microsoft's Multi-touch Surface Table
Haptic/Tactile Interface: Dynamically Changeable Physical Buttons
The Convergence of TV, the Internet, and Interactivity: Update
UX of ITV: The User Experience and Interactive TV (or Let's Stamp Out Bad Remote Controls)
ElderGadget Blog: Useful Tech and Tools
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
352 Media Group: Creating a Microsoft Deep Zoom Silverlight Wall: Great idea, could use some optimization for touch or IWB interaction.
Ever since I explored the Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia website on my HP TouchSmart PC, I've been on the look-out for other great touch-friendly applications created with Microsoft's Deep Zoom and Sliverlight. Today, I came across an example that holds some promise, although it needs some tweaking before it is truly touch-ready.
Note: I tried this in three browsers on my HP TouchSmart PC, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. At the top of the viewing box, it says, "Click inside to zoom in". Clicking the picture or touching my touch screen did not activate the zoom. However, it did enable me to zoom in the wall through scrolling with my mouse.
If you touch the picture with your finger, you can move it around, and you can do this with your mouse as well. At the upper left-hand corner of the frame, there are tiny icons that will allow you to zoom in or out. If the icons were just a little bit larger, with just a little bit more space between them, it would be easy to activate the zoom feature with my finger.
RELATED
Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines: Touch
Windows 7 Touch
Microsoft Silverlight Deep Zoom
Information from Microsoft Live Labs about Sliverlight Deep Zoom
Autostitch
This was the program used to help stitch together the pictures on the wall into a format that could be used with Deep Zoom.
Cross posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Transdisciplinary Design Approach to Building an Interfaced World: A smattering of ideas, food for further thought
I've noticed that number of research and commercial projects incorporate ideas from a variety of disciplines, and this trans-disciplinary approach has been the topic of a recent assortment of articles, presentations, and blog-posts:
Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries in Interaction Design
Eli Blevis and Erik Stolterman, Indiana University at Bloomington, Human Computer Interaction Design Group
In this article, Blevis and Stolterman, both discuss "issues of and distinctions between notions of disciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and interdisciplinarity.", and explain why Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and interaction design are transdisciplinary.
"HCI and interaction design are in a unique position to make a real change and to address some of the most urgent issues of our time. We can't let issues of collaboration and disciplinary complications stand in the way of our attempts to serve these societal goals".
The Transmedia Design Challenge: Co-Creation
Don Norman
"There is another side of this new transmedia: co-development, co-creation, co-ownership. In this new world, we all produce, we all share, we all enjoy. Teacher and student learn together achieving new understanding. Reader and writer create together. Game player and game developer work together. This is the age of creativity, where everyone can participate. Everyone can be a designer. Everyone can be involved."
"The new design challenge is to create true participatory designs coupled with true multi-media immersion that reveal new insights and create true novel experiences. We all participate, we all experience. We all design, we all partake. But much of this is meaningless: how do we provide richness and depth, enhanced through the active engagement of all, whether they be the originators or the recipients of the experience?"
Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing, recently wrote a blog post on a somewhat related note, Toward urban systems design. Although Adam speaks of urban design, Don Norman's ideas about encouraging the active engagement of everyone in the design process hold true.
Included in Adam's lengthily post is the abstract of one of his upcoming talks:
"The networked objects which are increasingly populating our lives and our cities already generate torrential, unceasing volumes of data about our whereabouts, activities, and even our intentions. How can we ensure that this data is used for the equal benefit of all? What provisions regarding such objects should citizens demand of their municipal governments? How might the juridical order respond most productively to the presence of these new urban actors?"
Adam goes on to describe what he's conceptualizing: "...it’s an attempt to use the appearance of networked informatics in our cities to argue a much larger point: that our times and circumstances call for a conscious art and craft of urban systems design."
Urban systems design. Who owns this domain?
Urban planners? Architects? The mobile phone companies? The Digital Out of Home folks? Google? Clear Channel?
Adam explains that his vision of urban systems design "....would have to be able to model the role of all the interdependent actors involved in producing urbanity: from institutional and technological to climatological, animal and microbial. (The networked informatic systems I’m most personally concerned with would of course be numbered among these actors.)"
An example of a company that fits Adam's vision is Stamen Design "Big ideas worth pursuing" Stamen focuses on interactive design and data visualization projects. It was founded by Eric Rodenbeck in 2001, and later added partners Michal Migurski and Shawn Allen. They address a the needs of a very broad range of clients, and their transdisciplinary approach supports their ability to see the big picture and the details, and all of the relationships in-between.
Adam also mentions the work of Paul M. Torrens, who is an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, at Arizona State University. Dr. Torren's work is featured in the video below. The video + text was taken from BlipTV. The presentation was part of the 2008 O'Reilly Where 2.0 conference.
Modeling crowd behavior
"Paul Torrens (Arizona State University)--Ambient crowds are the new distributed computing platform. Smart mobs are fashioning new architectures for social networking. Armed with cell phones and mobile gaming devices, they are the new business model for location-based services. Seditious crowds are creating havoc in urban theaters of war and at global economic forums. Crowds of shoppers, endowed with smart chip credit cards and RFID tagged merchandise are trailed by long-lasting data shadows that follow them ubiquitously. Embedded in urban infrastructure and in the very products we consume, new technologies are emerging to enable cities to think about—and process—the people that pulse through them, with a burgeoning code-space being developed to capture the actions and interactions of individuals within large dynamic crowds. This presentation will focus on our recent research work in developing models of crowd behavior and their application to theory-building and scenario evaluation in the contexts just described. We have developed a reusable modeling platform for constructing large simulations of individual and collective behavior in dense urban environments. The simulations are developed with individual agents, equipped with geospatial AI that allows them to perceive and react to their evolving surroundings with an incredible level of behavioral realism. These agents are also capable of social and antisocial interactions. The simulation architecture is coupled to Geographic Information Systems, allowing for a suite of geospatial analytics and data-mining to be performed, across a wide array of scenarios. Moreover, the models have been developed as realistic 4D immersive environments with unprecedented levels of graphical realism."
At any rate, I haven't digested all that I've put out here in this post. I will return to this topic in the future.
RELATED
Transdisciplinary Design Approach: An Experimental Model to Project-based Teaching and Creative Problem Solving pdf Tatjana LeBlank
Rethinking Interdisciplinarity Helga Nowotny
SOMEWHAT RELATED
O'Reilly Where 2.0 2009
Location-based services, a historical view: "Look! A Map"
(I especially like the interactive map.)
Geography of the Stimulus Package -- from Stat to Stories
John Frank and John Seratts, from MetaCarta
The Emerging Geo-Web (video)
GeoEye
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Internet of People, Things, Surfaces, and Interactions: Insights from UX 2008 & Adaptive Path
Adaptive Path is a company full of forward-looking, creative people who focus on user experience, interaction design, and information architecture. It sponsors UX Week each year, which provides participants with a refreshing update on current trends in the field. The following videos are a sample of what was presented at UX 2008. I plan on updating this post soon with a few brief notes and comments.
If you are interested in learning more about all things related to UX, take some time to go through Adaptive Path's reading list!
Don Norman
Don Norman | UX Week 2008 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.
Dennis Wixon
Dennis Wixon | UX Week 2008 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.
Dan Saffer
Dan Saffer | UX Week 2008 | Adaptive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.
Dave Wolf
Dave Wolf | UX Week 2008 | AdaptEDive Path from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.
Dave discusses his company's philosophy of software design process: "Right Software, Right Device, on the Right Area on the Network, or Not on the Network at All". He highlights how this philosophy was incorporated into his company's contribution, "Ben", to the Microsoft Phizz Pop Design Challenge competition. The visualization about on-line news is interesting, incorporating the little video comments, which enriches the understanding of commentary.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Don't Make Me Click, Asa Raskin, Google TechTalk
In this presentation, Asa Raskin provides a history of interface and interaction design, including examples of bad "interaction seduction", and problems with search interactions.
Although this presentation focuses on web interaction, Aza covers concepts that designers of off-the-desktop applications should keep in mind. Asa's website is Humanized.com.
The presentation is over an hour, so feel free to come back!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Brief History of the Future of Urban Computing and Locative Media: Ann Galloway's Ph.D. Thesis
The purse lip square jaw blog was one of my favorite blogs. The author of the blog, Ann Galloway, focused on "critical social and cultural studies of technology and design", and published the blog from 2000-2008, as part of her Ph.D. work at Carelton University in Canada.
Anne recently completed her Ph.D. dissertation, which is available on-line. (pdf)
If you are serious about issues related to pervasive computing, related technologies, and the "bigger picture", Anne's dissertation is well worth reading. For those oof you who have less time, visit the archived blog. It is conveniently organized by year and month. I encourage you to take some time to browse around.
Fellow bloggers and future historians of blogging/Web 2.0 will find that Anne's reflections and participation in the blogosphere over the past years enlightening. Here is one of my favorite quotes from her blog:
"But I started to rally for multiplicity instead of homogeneity. I wanted to belong to "the race of words, which homes are built with" and to "get free of myself". I chose to be guided by Deleuzian ethics. I recognised writing my blog as a method of inquiry and began to see my dissertation as writing to get free of myself."
Excerpt from Chapter 3:
"Emphasising how blogging is simultaneously private and public, individual and
collective, I raise a variety of questions about authorship, audience and authority
in contemporary academic knowledge production. Beginning with a discussion of
blogging and affective politics, I use excerpts from my blog and the comments
people made there to draw attention to the more physical and emotional,
financial and political, aspects of intellectual labour. They may be excluded from
our formal work, and often even from the classroom, but they can nonetheless
find a place online—where we and others can engage them in new and productive
ways." - Anne Galloway
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Airport Technology: Interactive Information Touch-Screens at the Edinburgh Airport (Scotland)
Seven of these wall-mounted interactive displays were installed at the Edinburgh airport in ScotlandThis interactive kiosk doesn't look cutting edge, as has the look of a pleasant, familiar ATM. It looks easy-to-use, for both the adult and child. This is important for rushed travelers in airports. by Scrimsign Microelectronics, LTD.
According to the company's website, options include a sunlight readable LDC, a thermal ticket or A4 printer, choice of cases, and a rugged keyboard.
I'm still looking for interactive displays in airports and other public spaces that are easy-to-use, yet also possess the "Wow!" factor.
Related:
Edinburgh Airport Buys Pods to Drive Public Transport Use
"Interactive access to Traveline Scotland from the arrivals hall is seen as a key element in encouraging a modal shift. By presenting passengers with practical public transport options the service is expected to influence both visitors’ choice of transport mode and destination, helping tourists to explore the historic city." -Transport Briefing
Monday, September 1, 2008
UNICEF's "Bee" Mobile Emergency Communication System
The following video clip is of UNICEF's "Bee" prototype, a mobile emergency communications system designed for deployment in communities during disasters and emergencies:
"Bee" system prototypes represent the future of connectivity in emergencies.
- "The system is designed to work within UNICEF's 'build back better' policy of helping families and communities recover from emergencies. While the components of the Bee are intended initially to facilitate crisis-response operations, they are eventually to be left behind and integrated into the community's monitoring, evaluation, education and health programmes."
The system allows for registering children during emergencies.
The solar-powered emergency system communication hub also functions as a temporary digital school-in-a-box, with access to to educational content through satellites and mobile networks.
BEE prototype; Low Tech School-in-a-Box
Saturday, August 30, 2008
User-Experience and Emerging Technology: Designer-Developers at Stimulant creates engaging multi-touch apps, and more...
Those of you who follow this blog know that I've found numerous examples of touch-screen applications in public spaces that fall in the Interactive Usability Hall of Shame category. This time, I've come across something that is headed directly to the Interactive Usability Hall of Fame!
Stimulant, the company that created the HP multi-touch wall of digital instruments, has created an application for GM that was on display at the NAIAS 2008 conference in Detroit.
According to Nathan Moody's post on the Stimulant news blog, a capacitance-sensing film was affixed to glass windows, and the images were displayed through rear projection, to create five interactive stations. The Stimulant team collaborated directly with the exhibit designer, Machinehead-Creative.
The photo below is another multi-touch application that Stimulant provided for GM. This time, it was for the Greenbuild conference, and later was displayed at the Electric Vehicle Show.
There is more. The next photo demonstrates Stimulant's work with Microsoft's Silverlight to create an interactive data visualization application along with StepChange. You can find a version of this application online on the Silverlight website.
I am sure we will see more of Stimulant's work in the future -perhaps in airports, cultural centers, libraries, aquariums, zoos, and school media centers?
Update: Stimulant's collaborative partners at Obscura Digital were involved with the experience design and hardware execution for NAIAS and Greenbuild projects. Interesting website!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Useful, Usable Interaction Information Displays at the Sydney Airport?!
Most of what I've encountered in the way of interactive information displays in airports and other public spaces has been underpar, as several of my previous posts have documented. Maybe there is hope in Australia...
Although I haven't flown to Australia, I'm hoping that the latest installation of information displays will meet expectations.
Here are the details, from the NextWindow website:
"...To inform travelers about the progress of the upgrades, SACL has placed NextWindow 32” interactive touch screens throughout the complex. The touch screens provide virtual tours using animation software. "
"Passengers and airport staff have commented on the ease of use of the system and the immediate availability of relevant information at the touch of a finger."
"SACL chose integration partner Honeycom Solutions to bring the touch-enabled displays to reality. Honeycom used LCD monitors from LG Electronics in conjunction with NextWindow’s 2403 Touch Panel overlays. HoneyCom were supplied with the touch technology by NextWindow's Australian Distributor, Image Design Technology (IDT)."
The Bombay Sapphire display, also located at the Sydney airport, is visually appealing:
If you've encountered these displays at the Sydney airport, leave a comment and share your experience.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Microsoft Surface's Hotel Concierge Application: Let's see this deployed in classrooms, museums, libraries, welcome centers, convention halls..
Take a look at the following video to see how Microsoft Surface's Hotel Concierge application plays out at a Sheraton hotel:
Of course, surface-like applications would have to become much more affordable in order to become ubiquitous in our schools, libraries, airports, and other public spaces.
(Cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Chris O'Shea's Pixelsumo July Digest Posts - Design, Interactive Technology and the Arts
One of my favorite blogs is Chris O'Shea's "Pixelsumo". His July Digest is a compilation of the things he wished he had time to write about, saying, "I am finding less time to blog these days, and my list of things to blog keeps getting bigger and bigger. From now on I will do a Pixelsumo digest at the end of each month, containing projects that didn’t make it into full posts in time.
So to start off, here are projects I wish I had written about recently…"
Go on a treasure hunt to learn more about Pixelsumo by following the tags below:
- Installations
- Sound
- Games
- Toys
- Light
- Events
- Processing
- Objects
- AudioVisual
- Surfaces
- Instruments
- Physical Computing
- Tangible
- Performance
- Multi-touch
- Architecture
- Turntable
- MovingImage
- Playgrounds
- Furniture
- Tenori-On
- Sculpture
- Kinetic
- Products
- Virtual Reality
- Computer Vision
- Locative
- Open Source
- Glitch
- Urban Space
- Advertising
- Alternative Reality
- Circuit Bending
- Mobile
- openFrameworks
- Online
- Activism
- Wearable
- Food
- Robot
- Machinima
- Wayfinding
- RFID
- Digest
Here are the intriguing pictures from Chris O'Shea's July Digest. You will have to visit Pixelsumo to find out what they represent!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Multi-touch Innovations: Link to two posts with video demonstrations
Here are two links to posts and video demos on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog for those of you interested in multi-touch and interaction design related to emerging technologies:
Catchyoo's Interactive Touch-screen on the Panasonic Road Show
iPhone: Multi-touch Control of a Laptop Screen!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Twittervision and Flickrvision
If you are interested in human communication in the world, take a look at TwitterVision and FlickerVision. All of the twitters and flickrs that are geo-located are displayed in near-real time on a map or globe.
TwitterVision 3D Globe
TwitterVision on a map.
FlickrVision on a map.
FlickerVision on a 3D globe.
Dave Troy was involved in the creation of TwitterVision and FlickrVision
This will keep you occupied for a while.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Interactive Ubiquitous Maps? Not yet.. Charlotte recently spent 3.8 million dollars on STATIC city maps!
Not too long ago, I took this picture of an information and map display in uptown Charlotte, N.C., my home town. This sign is located near the basketball arena, near one of the new light rail stations.
As I approached the display, I was hoping that it was a digitally supported interactive map, since it was so shiny and new. I was disappointed to see that it was static. The display contained information appropriate to the setting, but wasn't nearly what I had expected.
I later learned that the cost of this project was 3.8 million dollars, mostly in the form of a grant from the federal government. Perhaps some of this money could have been spent on a system of interactive wayfinding displays, with multi-touch capabilities. In my dreams....
Designing and implementing this sort of system is complex, but in my opinion, important. If you are interested in this topic, take the time to read The invisible city: Design in the age of intelligent maps. The article, posted in the Think Tank section of the Adobe Design Center website, provides an in-depth exploration of the issues related to ubiquitous, interactive, information-rich maps. The authors, Kazys Varnelis and Leah Meisterline, are from from Netlab, the network architecture lab at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture.
I guess I should be happy that the folks at the Charlotte City Hall understand the need for wayfinding solutions:
From the 7/3/08 Charlotte Observer:
"The pedestrian signs are part of a larger program to increase signage throughout the center city. The bigger chunk of the project is aimed at signs directing motorists to destinations as well as parking. Those signs are projected to go up in 2009 and 2010. Total cost for all: $3.8 million, much of which is paid through a federal grant. The city's portion is $780,000. .... "We wanted to make sure we could direct pedestrians getting off light rail," said Kimbler, the city's project manager for the wayfinding program... The first signs went up on streets, such as College, adjacent to the Lynx Blue line. A second set of signs was placed to direct people to uptown destinations, such as museums, libraries, The Square and the Charlotte Convention Center. Now 51 signs are up." -Amy Baldwin, Charlotte Observer Link
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Mobile Multi-Touch Computer, E-Reader, Graphics Tablet: The Promise of V12's 2G Canova Dual-Screen Laptop
I want one!
(photos from LaptopMag)
For more information and references about V12's Canova, follow the following link:
V12's Dual-Touch-screen Canova: Multi-touch could support applications for universal design, education, and assistive technology.
V12 is working with a US manufacturer to develop the next-gen version of this notebook, according to LaptopMag.Thursday, July 10, 2008
Airport Technology for the Usability Hall of Fame, if only it worked!
Albrecht Schmidt is the director of the Pervasive Computing and User Interface Engineering Group at the Universitat Duisburg Essen. When he was traveling in Seoul, he took some pictures of embedded information, which he uploaded to his blog post, Embedded Information: Airport
I was excited to see the pictures that Dr. Schmidt posted of an active computer display with a list of names of people who should contact an information desk, right in the middle of the baggage on the luggage belt.
This ALMOST made it to my Usability Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, the display was broken!
High-tech example
Low-tech example
I will give this an "A" for the concept, "E" for usefulness, since it the display wasn't working at the time it the picture was taken.
I think that Dr. Schmidt's key criteria for embedded information are important components to consider for information systems encountered in public spaces:
- Embedding information where and when it is useful
- Embedding information in a most unobtrusive way
- Providing information in a way that there is no interaction required*
Related:
[1] Albrecht Schmidt, Matthias Kranz, Paul Holleis. Embedded Information. UbiComp 2004, Workshop 'Ubiquitous Display Environments', September 2004
I especially like the following quote from the Ubicomp 2004 article:
"We investigate how information can be provided to users – exactly when it is needed. Our approach is based on a variety of information displays unobtrusively embedded into the user’s environment. We place the information displays in context."
Pictures and a discussion of airport technology I've recommended for the Usability Hall of Shame can be found on my previous post:
Off-the-desktop musings about future interactions: User experience, user-driven design, Universal Usability, Airports, and the "Internet of Things"
(I came across Albrecht Schmidt's blog, "User Interface Engineering: A blog on novel user interfaces, mobile applications, pervasive and ubiquitous computing- I use the blog as a note-pad" . It is interesting to note that I blog about similar topics, and use my blog as an on-line filing cabinet.)Monday, July 7, 2008
Gas Station TV - I spied this at a suburban Detroit gas station!
While I was visiting relatives in the Metro Detroit area recently, I spied "Gas Station TV" flashing at a service station as I was driving about. Unfortunately, I didn't have my digital equipment nearby.
Here is information from the source:
Gas Station TV:
"GSTV features ESPN sports, CBS News and Entertainment segments, and local market weather. GSTV's 4 1/2 minute lineup is designed to maximize consumer engagement."
"Destination Media (http://www.dmedia.com ), the digital out-of-home marketing leader and parent of Gas Station TV and LG Electronics (http://www.LGcommercial.com ), a leader in digital signage displays, today announced plans for a long-term strategic technology and marketing alliance." link
CBS News on Gas Station TV
Could it be possible to market one's place of worship through Gas Station TV?
I found this picture on Google Images. I don't know Joe Thorn, but it if you are interested, his blog post that accompanied this picture, "Does your church advertise?", sparked a discussion about marketing and churches...
Related article from msnbc.
Previous posts about gas pumps and human-world interaction:
Google Maps at the Gas Pump?! One Small Step Towards Ubiquitous Computing for the Masses
Interesting Technology: InfiniTouch Expands on the Concept of Touch-Screen Interaction
