Showing posts with label interaction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interaction. Show all posts

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Update: Newer links from the IMT blog

Below are links to my posts on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog that were written since my last update on this blog:
Children's Drawings Projected on Buckingham Palace and BBC's Big Screens in the UK
Septris: A game to teach about Sepsis
Multimedia:  Health Awareness and Rap Video about Sepsi
Large touch-screen display in a hotel lobby at Tides Hotel at Folly Beach
Update
Quick Post:  Media Facades and Luminous Tweets (Video featuring Thomas Schielke)
Digital Media and Learning: Video presentation by high schoolers, video of John Seely Brown's keynote at DML 2012
Future of Gaming Report SlideShare, from PSFK
IXDA Interaction Awards Winners. 2012:  LoopLoop, an interactive music toy by Stimulant/Sifteo, was best in show!
Workshop on Digital Ecosystems for Collaborative Learning: Embedding Personal and Collaborative Devices to Support Classrooms of the Future
Sonic Wire Sculptor and Rhonda, a 3D drawing tool
Numby:  App for learning how to count, via Creative Applications Network
Jennifer Pahlka's TED talk:  "Coding a Better Government" - how Code for America fellows and others are harnessing social media, mobile apps, and the web.
Seamless Collaborative Computing Between Tables and Tablets: nSquared Presenter (Video)
Creating Responsive HTML5 Touch Interfaces (Stephen Woods - Video and Slides)
Link to article about HTML5, web "apps", and the future, from a Yahoo perspective
Link to talks about technology, games, and learning from the Future of Learning Conference
Keepin' It Real: Organic, Natural, or Reality Based Interactions?  Video of TEI '12 panel discussion:  Bill Buxton, Rob Jacob, Mili John Tharakan, and Roel Vertegaal (and more from TEI '12)
Makego: Turn your iPhone into a vehicle, by creative digital artist Chris O'Shea

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Recent Interactive Multimedia Blog Post Links

Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces: Call for Papers and Notes (6th Annual ACM ITS 2011 November 13-16)
Call for Papers: Touch the Web 2011: 2nd International Workshop on Web-Enabled Objects
Links:  Web of Things, Web Patterns and the EPC Cloud, Windows 8 Rumors, Human Centered Service Design
Virtual History of Rome for the iPad, Created with Unity
Program - CHI 2011 Child Computer Interaction: 2nd Workshop on UI Technologies and Educational Pedagogy







http://www.nuiteq.com/images/menu01.png 

FYI: If you are new to this blog, my main blog is Interactive Multimedia Technology (IMT).  I update this blog with links to posts on the IMT blog every month or so.   I will resume this blog in this once I reduce my current workload.

If you are interested in technology, psychology, and education, take a look at my TechPsych blog.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Why GUI to NUI? Why WIMP to post-WIMP? Do we have the seeds of a manifesto?!

This is a remix of one of my recent long-titled blog posts, "Why bother switching from GUI to NUI?", asked and answered by Josh Blake; my "2 cents"; Stevie B's Microsoft Research video, Marco Silva's NUI-HCI presentation, and links".   


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.
3.  I want to buy a Kinect.
4.  I do NOT want to interact with my new TV with a Sony remote.  Too many tiny buttons!


5. I do NOT want to interact with my new TV with a keyboard,  because it reminds me of...work.

6.  Most importantly: 

I want to design apps for the people I care about, and others with similar needs:
    My mom.  
    My grandson.
Moms and dads with kids in tow.
People with special needs and/or health concerns, and the people who care and guide them.
Knowledge sharers and (life-long) learners....

RELATED

"Smart" Interactive Display Research

 
View more presentations from Marco Silva

My YouTube Playlist:
"Natural user interfaces, gesture interaction, multi-touch, natural interaction, post WIMP examples and more... "


RELATED - and somewhat related   
Encyclopedia:  Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, User Experience, Information Architecture, Usability and More (Interaction-Design.org)

Josh Blake's Blog: Deconstructing the NUI    Book: Chapter 1 (pdf)  Free!
Blake.NUI
"Blake.NUI is a collection of helpful controls, utilities, and samples useful for multi-touch and NUI development with WPF, Surface, and Silverlight."
 (This is not an inclusive list.)


GUI to NUI Post-WIMP Manifesto:  TBA

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Call for Participation - Large Displays in Urban Life: From Exhibition Halls to Media Facades (CHI 2011 Workshop)


Large Displays in Urban Life: From Exhibition Halls to Media Facades  
CHI 2010 Workshop May 7 or 8, 2011 (final date to be announced)

Call for Participation
Large interactive displays are now common in public urban life. Museums, libraries, public plazas, and architectural facades already take advantage of interactive technologies for visual and interactive information presentation. Researchers and practitioners from such varied disciplines as art, architecture, design, HCI, and media theory have started to explore the potential and impact of large display installations in public urban settings.

This workshop aims to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners from different disciplines such as art, architecture, design, HCI, social sciences, and media theory to exchange insights on current research questions in the area. The workshop will focus on to the following topics: how to design large interactive display installations that promote engaging experiences and go beyond playful interaction, how different interaction models shape people’s experience in urban spaces, and how to evaluate their impact.

Workshop Goals & Topics
The goal of this one-day CHI 2011 workshop is to cross-fertilize insights from different disciplines, to establish a more general understanding of large interactive displays in public urban contexts, and to develop an agenda for future research directions in this area. Rather than focusing on paper presentations, this workshop aims to trigger active and dynamic group discussions around the following topics:

Beyond Playful Interaction
A number of studies found that large display installations invite for playful interaction but often fail to convey meaningful experiences related to content. This raises the following questions:

  • How can we design installations that endure people’s attention past the initial novelty effect and direct the interest toward the content?
  • What design strategies can be applied to promote an active individual and social exploration and discussion of the presented information?
Character of Interaction
A number of interaction techniques have been explored for large displays in public spaces ranging from interaction via cell phones, to direct-touch or full body interaction. We would like to discuss:
  • How do different interaction methods shape people’s experience of large display installations in urban spaces?
  • How do interaction methods differ from each other in terms of triggering interaction and engagement with the presented content?
Evaluation
Different quantitative and qualitative methods have been applied to evaluate people’s experience and use of large display installations in public spaces. During the workshop we would like to discuss:
  • How can we evaluate the "success" of large display installations in urban spaces?
  • How can particular aspects of public large display installations such as engagement be evaluated?
  • What kind of evaluation methods are most effective in different progress stages (design phase/installment phase)?
We see this workshop as an opportunity to start thinking about a general framework that can inform the design and evaluation of large interactive displays in different urban contexts. With a diverse research community present at the workshop we hope to come up with an agenda for future research directions in this area.

For more details on the workshop please refer to our extended abstract and workshop proposal.

Submission Details
Submit a position paper (maximum 4 pages) to largedisplaysinurbanlife@gmail.com by January 14, 2011 using the CHI extended abstract format. The paper should describe experiences, works in progress, or theories around designing and/or evaluating large interactive displays in public urban settings. We plan to explore approaches and insights from different disciplines to this topic so submissions from art, architecture, design, HCI, media theory, and social science are highly encouraged. We welcome all methodological approaches and techniques centered around the topic of large interactive displays in urban life.

At least one author of each accepted position paper needs to register for the workshop and for one or more days of the CHI conference itself.
Important Dates
Submission Deadline: January 14, 2011 
Notification of acceptance: February 11, 2011 
Workshop: May 7 or 8, 2011 (final date to be announced)

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
Uta Hinrichs is a PhD candidate in computational media design at the Innovations in Visualization (InnoVis) research group of the University of Calgary, Canada, under the supervision of Sheelagh Carpendale. Her research focuses on the design and study of large display interfaces to support lightweight information exploration in walk-up-and-use scenarios

Nina Valkanova is doing her PhD at the interaction group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) in Barcelona, Spain under the supervision of Ernesto Arroyo. Her research interest focuses on the design of urban media facades exploring the intersections between scientific and artistic design knowledge.

Kai Kuikkaniemi is a project manager in Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. He is currently leading a national research project focusing on public displays. His earlier research has focused on exploring novel multiplayer game designs ranging from pervasive gaming to biosignal adaptive gaming.

Giulio Jacucci is a professor at the University of Helsinki at the Dept. of Computer Science and director of the Network Society Programme at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. He leads several interactional projects on interaction design and ubiquitous computing, and is co-founder of MultiTouch Ltd. a company commercializing products for multi-touch screens.

Sheelagh Carpendale is a Professor at the University of Calgary where she holds a Canada Research Chair: Information Visualization and an NSERC/iCORE/SMART Industrial Research Chair: Interactive Technologies. She directs the Innovations in Visualization (InnoVis) research group and her research focuses on information visualization, collaborative visualization, and large interactive displays.

Ernesto Arroyo holds an associate teaching position at the Dept. of Information and Communication Technologies of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra  (UPF) in Barcelona, Spain. He earned his PhD at MIT Media Lab in 2007. His research at the Interactive Technologies Group  focuses on interaction design, visualization, and user-centered interfaces, enabling and preserving the fluency of user engagement.

Thanks to Uta Hinrich for sending this my way!


Cross-posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Smule's Virtual Glee App for iPad or iPhone: Sing with yourself in perfect harmony- or with other Gleeks around the world!

This was originally posted on the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog.
Sing with yourself and Gleeks around the world in perfect harmony: 

Demo of the Glee iPhone + iPad App by Smule - "I'll Stand By You"
"Glee, for iPhone + iPad, by Smule. This impromptu, one-take performance by Smule engineer Nick late one night at HQ demonstrates how the app transforms his voice into a group of singers harmonizing with him."

This is exactly why I NEED an iPad!

Tutorial Part 1
"How To"



Tutorial Part II:
The Glee GlobeShows how you can share your Glee songs and sing with others around the globe!





RELATED 
Cool iPad Digital Piano App

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

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Near Field Communication Touch Interaction

From the Interactive Multimedia Technology blog:




http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/1616057288_fa6c86a991.jpg
The Touch Project is based in the Interaction Design department of the Oslow School of Architecture and Design in Norway. "Touch is a research project that investigates Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and physical things. We are developing applications and services that enable people to interact with everyday objects and situations through their mobile devices. Touch consists of an inter-disciplinary team involved in social and cultural enquiry, interaction/industrial design, rapid prototyping, software, testing and exhibitions." -

Nearness Explores Interaction Without Touching

Nearness from timo on Vimeo.

iPhone RFID: Object-based media

iPhone RFID: object-based media from timo on Vimeo.


















reTouch Info Sheet (pdf)

reTouch is part of the Touch project, and it " brings together hundreds of cross-cultural examples of social norms and values involving touch—all categorised according to actions related to touching. Using quotes from ethnographic accounts written between the late 1800s and the present, re/touch encourages designers and researchers to explore how touch is used by people to relate to one another and the worlds in which we live. Browse re/touch to create design briefs, refine interaction scenarios, devise game play, or otherwise think, make and do things touchrelated." -reTouch web info, Anne Galloway.


One of the members of the research team is Anne Galloway, a social researcher and the author of the  purselipsquarejaw blog, which she recently resurrected after taking a year off from blogging.

Anne also contributes to the space and culture journal.  I've followed Anne's writing for a while.  Over the course of her Ph.D. studies, she has thought deeply about the intersections of technology, space, and culture,  including cross-cultural meanings of touch.

RELATED
Inspiring Touch Related Interaction Design

Original Design Thinking Approach for Researching RFID
-Nikolas Nova, Pasta and Vinegar

Note:  Nikolas Nova's Pasta and Vinegar blog is worth taking a look at if you are interested in design, UX, emerging technologies, pervasive/ubiquitous computing.

About Nikolas and his blog:
"User Experience researcher at LIFTlab. My work is about studying how people use various technologies and turn them into insights, ideas, prototypes or recommendations to inform design and foresight.This blog is a selection of the material that I collect, especially in fields such as mobility, urban environments, digital entertainment and new interfaces. I am also part of the near future laboratory."

Sample of Pasta and Vinegar Posts:
(Touch) Interaction Vocabulary
A Graphic Language for Touch-based Interactions

Natural User Interface News: Bamboo Wacom multi-touch gesture tablet; SnowFlake Suite and PresTop multi-touch kiosks

Cross-post:
Wacom Tablets Get Multi-Touch, Gestures
(Charlie Sorrel, Wired, 9/24/09)
"For the tech-curious, the new tablets have 512 pressure levels in the pen tip and the active area of the tablet is 5.8 x 3.6 inches, and all lose the in-pack mouse (for obvious reasons). The Touch and the Pen models are both $70, and the Pen & Touch is $100. Also, if you were thinking of buying Photoshop Elements 7 for the same price, get a tablet instead — Elements comes in the box."




http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/09/cth460k_3-660x371.jpg

Official Wacom Video

"Bamboo Touch is new type of computer input device by Wacom that lets you navigate and perform commands like zoom, scroll, rotate and more with a series of simple finger taps and hand gestures. Bamboo Touch brings Multi-Touch capability to your Mac or PC"

Video from a Wacom user:

A nice alternative to a mouse.  I'm going to get one for my laptop!


Multi-touch Kiosks!
Press release:  Dutch touchscreen supplier PresTop partners with Natural User Interface (NUITEQ)
 
http://prestop.nl/images/gallery/products/st_UU_zuil_wit.png
http://prestop.nl/images/gallery/products/st_DSC02106.png

RELATED

I couldn't find any video clips of PresTop's multi-touch interaction. From what I can tell, PresTop multi-touch screens will be using SnowFlake Suite from Natural User Interface Technogies AB.

How-to:SnowFlake Suite Flash multi-touch Interactable component (NUIversity)

Without a single line of code, you can do quite a bit with Snowflake Suite

"This video covers how to make a rotatable and scalable image. The beauty about this is, that we have developed a Flash mouse input simulator, so that there is no need for multi-touch hardware in order to develop your applications. Simply simulate multiple mouse inputs for multi-touch.This project is still in alpha phase and a download will become available with the next release of Snowflake Suite 1.7 for the NextWindow platform and camera based multi-touch solutions."


Below is a video of single-touch interaction for PresTop, from Omnivision:


PresTop  PresTop offers interactive hardware and software solutions that can be used indoors as well as in outdoor environments.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Artefact's Blog: Contextual Interventions for Sustainable User Experiences

I recently came across a thoughtful blog post about contextual design and user experience, written by "Dave" at Artefact. In his post, Dave discusses the variety of monitors, interfaces, and devices that have recently been developed to help people monitor and save the energy that they use:

Contextual Interventions for Sustainable User Experiences

"There is a great opportunity to make contextual interventions during people’s behaviors. The intervention might be a change in affordances or simply information. It’s like a nudge but the key is to design influences that are tightly coupled with specific user behavior, making a feedback loop that takes advantage of the way we naturally learn. Thus, it isn’t helping analyze your utility bill, it’s suggesting that you turn off the faucet while you’re not using it."


I especially liked Dave's example of the Disappearing Pattern Tiles. If you stay in the shower too long, the pattern disappears. For people who daydream too much in the shower, this clue might really help them conserve water, in an unobtrusive way.

Disappearing Pattern Tiles

disappearing_tile_pattern


This might work for certain types of people, but some of us might do better with a timer that turns the water from hot to cold after so long. A wake-up call while you take your morning shower! I guess this wouldn't be considered contextual, but it might change long-shower taking behaviors among some of us pretty quickly!

The people who make up the Artefact group are 'big advocates of surface computing and natural user interfaces". Artifact is a research and design studio in Seattle, WA, that designs user-focused software and technology product and services. The Artefact blog posts are informative.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Video Clip: Nokia's Study of Gestures Around the World (6th sense?)

The video explains it all.



The video is from the Nokia Conversations YouTube channel.

(Fritz Desir, thanks for the link!)

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Wow! A view of the ClustrMap of my blog visitors from around the world

http://www4.clustrmaps.com/counter/index2.php?url=http://interactivemultimeditechnology.blogspot.com
I have a ClustrMap widget on my Interactive Multimedia Technology blog- I forgot all about it until today, when I noticed it it was getting pretty full.

So I clicked on it to get a better look:

http://www4.clustrmaps.com/stats/maps-clusters/interactivemultimeditechnology.blogspot.com-world.jpg

The world map above represents 24,254 visits between December 2008 and May 2009. I am amazed. My on-line file cabinets really are open to the world!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

World Builder Video: Dream of the future of technology- supported human-world interaction?

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.



If you've seen this 9-minute video, you won't mind taking another look. It was created by Bruce Branit depicting a man who builds a holographic world sometime in the future. Branit is a visual effects artist, who reportedly used the Lightwave 3D graphics platform for post-production.

The music was composed by Randy Skach.


worldbuilder
http://newteevee.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/world-builder-still.jpg
http://www.feedhere.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/2009-03-03_2002.png

Friday, March 6, 2009

The Web of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks, Embedded Systems, and (Everyware) Health Care

What is the Web of Things?

I just came across the blog of the same name. The concept is similar to the "Internet of Things", but in my opinion, Vlad and Dominique, the guys behind the blog, have wrapped the concept into a more "user-friendly" package. They have found a way to articulate this concept far better than my feeble attempts, and for this, I am very thankful.

Web of Things: Architecting the Web of Things, for techies and thinkers!

Here is what I lifted from the "About" Section of this blog, plus a few other quotes:

"What is WebofThings.com?

It is a web page founded by Vlad Trifa and Dominique Guinard, two researchers/geeks working at ETH Zurich and SAP Research Zurich. It is more a scrap book that is here to dump our thoughts ideas on our research and work topic, which is the Web of Things. Unlike most Web 2.0 sites that are about advanced powerpoint engineering, we talk about real things that’s under the hood.

There are three main topics in here. First technologies, this section is only for geeks, simply put. It’s about coding, developing toys, plugging kettles on the web (and we actually did that!). The second part is about new ideas, new technologies that are in the lab. It’s about research papers, and software philosophy, and about researchers worldwide. The third part is about end-users and products. You, me, but especially my grand-ma. It’s about products that exist, or at least should exist (or should not!). It’s about marketing and new ideas out there.

Thanks, but it doesn’t help. What is the Web of Things then?

It is an alternative vision to what the Web of tomorrow will look like. It’s about taking the Web as we know it and extending it so that anyone can plug devices to it. It’s basically about giving eyes, ears, and all kinds of sensory appendixes located worldwide to it. It’s about seamlessly connecting the physical world with the virtual.

Why do you want to change the Internet? What’s wrong with it?

Not much really. It’s just a little boring. It only contains data published by other humans, but it’s not enough linked with our physical reality, not real time / real world enough for our taste!

Why should I read this blog?

Well depends how much you care about technology. It’s both for geeks/hackers who need a playground to develop and try ideas. But it’s also for the security expert who wants to take part to make the Web a safer place to hang out. It’s also for people who want to find new ideas.

Cool! SAP has a blog!

Actually, not really. All what we write here is only our own opinions and thoughts, and doesn’t reflect the views of any of our employers. "

"One things that I don’t understand, is that most people in our field do not really like our approach, or maybe they simply don’t get it. Indeed, we’re kind of stuck between several worlds: wireless sensor networks (WSN) people that find our approach too esoteric, and HCI people that find it not enough sexy. It is a bit annoying, as people don’t take us very seriously, especially not WSN researcher. I overheard comments like “What? You want to use the Web to connect devices? hahaha! I can’t stop laughing, haha it hurts me! Come on, be serious dude! Using the Web for that!! Man, you’re great, I gotta call my colleagues to tell them your idea, they’re gonna *love* it“. Jeez! -Vlad Trifa"


"Let’s do something concrete with WSN, that works, and that’s usable, and that people will really need.
"

Note: When you visit the Web of Things blog, make sure you visit their links!

Why do I think this is important?


First of all, I'm someone who would love to take a class about embedded systems and wireless sensor networks. I got a taste of some of this in a ubiquitous computing class I took a couple of years ago, and I'm still fascinated with these concepts. Imagine a web-browser that could support all sorts of data streaming in from all sorts of things and places, an intelligent web browser that could make perfect sense of he wealth of information that is potentially "out in the wild".

I think that the Web of Things is a concept that will have numerous applications in the very near future. The arena that is foremost in my mind is health care.

Why?
I've spent hours hanging around hospitals and health care facilities since my father's health took a down-turn a couple of years ago. If you've been in my shoes, you know what I mean.

I'm writing this from the family waiting room of the cardiac ICU at the Cleveland Clinic, where I've spent the better part of the week with my father, who had surgery and a few complications. I've had plenty of time to spend listening and observing.

Earlier today, as I was visiting my father in the ICU, I had a chance to chat with a nurse who was an IT guy in his previous life. I rarely have a chance to engage in "geek speak" in my day job as a school psychologist, so I welcomed the chance to talk about the concept technology and health care.

I asked the guy if he'd heard of the "Internet of Things", and we discussed how a cross platform web browser, linked to all of the various devices and patient monitors in the ICU could potentially solve many of the problems faced by nurses and related health professionals in their day-to-day tasks. T
he nurse pointed out that wireless technologies would eliminate the need for a number of the wires connected to my dad's body. That was a good point!

We had a good discussion about how software needs to be user-focused and user-friendly. In health care, as in many domains, it is not. Usable, intuitive software, at least in the health care setting, would decrease medical errors, increase efficiency, save time, save lives, and in the mid-to-long run, save lots of money.

Somewhat Related

(Previous post)
Everyware Health Care: Microsoft Health's Common User Interface, website, usable health care applications, pervasive health games.....

Wireless Sensor Networks for In-Home Healthcare: Potential and Challenges (pdf)

ALARM-Net: Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted Living and Residential Monitoring

(Crossbow Blog, 9/28/08)

"Wireless Nodes Dynamically Link to Build Intelligent Sensing Networks"
John Suh, RTC 6/2005


Wireless sensor and data transmission needs and technologies for patient monitoring in the operating room and intensive care unit
Paksuniemi, M., Sorvaja, H,; Alasaarela, E.' Mylyla, R. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2005, IEEE-EMBS 2005

Healthcare Service with Ubiquitous Sensor Networks for the Disabled and Elderly People

Yung Bok Kim & Daeyoung Kim, Computers Helping People with Special Needs 7/2006

Conferences:

Malignant Spaghetti: A Symposium on Wireless Technologies in Hospital Health Care
(A must-read if this topic is of interest)

S-CUBE 2009

The first international conference on Sensor System and Software


"The widespread acceptance of these new services can be improved by the definition of frameworks and architectures that have the potential to radically simplify software development for wireless sensor network based applications. The aim of these new architectures is to support flexible, scalable programming of applications based on adaptive middleware. As a consequence, WSNs require novel programming paradigms and technologies. Moreover the design of new complex systems, characterized by the interaction of different and heterogeneous resources, will allow the development of innovative applications that meet high performance goals. Hence, WSNs require contributions from many fields such as embedded systems, distributed systems, data management, system security and applications. The conference places emphasis on layers well above the traditional MAC and routing, and transport layer protocols."

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Why "new" ways of interaction?

Why "new" ways of interaction?

Jonathan Brill, of Point & Do, has several video clips that explain the basics of multi-touch and gesture interaction. He is currently leading a book study of Dan Saffer's "Designing Gestural Interfaces" and is one of a small (and growing) group of people who are looking at ways technology can support human interaction and activities in a more natural, enjoyable, and intuitive manner.

"Mouse-based thinking simply doesn't work here....WIMP best practices slow users down, confuse them, and make multi-touch applications difficult to learn...a new class of applications....make it easier for groups of users to interact with complex information.

In the video clip below, Brill discusses the need to escape from the WIMP mindset. (Windows, Icons, Mouse & Point, the current way most people interact with computers and related devices.)



Here is a transcript of key points from the video:

"It has been 25 years since the first rich multi-touch system was publicly shown. That's a lot of research for a shocking lack of progress. By contrast, 25 years after the demo of the mouse, GUI (graphical user interface)had evolved into Windows, MS Office, Mosaic, Lan, and the Apple Newton, the basis for today's business productivity tools."

"The mouse was successful because early engineers developed a simple, clear interaction framework that everyone could follow. It was called WIMP: Windows, Icons, Menus, & Pointers. WIMP worked. It was cool, and it increased usability and solved key technology issues of the day:"

  • Windows were a way to manage content on small displays
  • Icons were a space-efficient way to point and click on commands
  • Menus hid irrelevant content
  • Pointers visually tracked mouse interaction

"Multi-touch needs an analogue to WIMP that makes it easy to use, across platforms. At Point & Do, we think we've found it. It is what we call PATA:

Places
Lighting, focus, and depth, simplified searching and effecting hyperlinked content
Animation
Using animation to subtly demonstrate what applications do and how to use them is a better solution than using icons. Animations makes apps easier to learn.
Things
Back in the days of floppy disks, objects helped us organize our content. This limitation was forced by arcane technology, but it did have one huge advantage. We used our spatial memory to help us navigate content. Things will help us organize content and manipulate controllers across a growing variety of devices.
Auras
Auras will help us track what we are tracking and when an interaction has been successful."

Here are a few more videos from Jonathan Brill:
Multi-touch Design Techniques Part 1 of 3


Multi-touch Design Techniques Part 2 of 3




RELATED:

"Surface and Tangible Computing, and the "Small" Matter of People and Design" (pdf) -Bill Buxton, ISSCC 2008

Designing for Interaction -Dan Saffer

The Computer for the 21st Century
Mark Weiser, Scientific American, 09, 1991
(Note: I read this article when I was on a plane from Charlotte to Detroit, years ago, and never forgot about it. If you are just beginning to learn about HCI or ubiquitous/pervasive computing, or off-the desktop interaction design or application development, it is well worth the read!)