Authors: Simone Stumpf, Erin Sullivan, Erin Fitzhenry,
Ian Oberst, Weng-Keen Wong, Margaret Burnett
SUMMARY:
This paper studies a machine learning system the authors have created. The authors claim the machine needs to be able to absorb keyword rich information from the user. In order to do this the authors rely on feedback from the user. In their experiment the authors want to see how user feedback affects machine learning as well as the user experiment. Ultimately, the authors found that user feedback was reliable because when users provided useful feedback it made the program more accurate.
DISCUSSION:
While this experiment was a success for the authors, I have a few doubts about the entire concept. The authors main goal seem to be to create an intelligent program with the ability to learn. If user feedback is needed to make the program smarter, how intelligent is the program? The main point of a program that can learn is to take work off the user. If the users are always concerned about giving feedback it takes away from the time they are using the program for intended purposes.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
UIST2008: Annotating Gigapixel Images
Qing Luan
USTC
Hefei, China
Steven M. Drucker
Microsoft Live Labs
Redmond, WA
Johannes Kopf
University of Konstanz
Konstanz, Germany
Ying-Qing Xu
Microsoft Research
Asia Beijing, China
Michael F. Cohen
Microsoft Research
Redmond, WA
SUMMARY:
Panning and zooming interfaces for pictures with billions of pixels(gigapixel images) have recently appeared on the internet. The huge size of the images causes some issues that are discussed in this paper. There are three main types of annotations a text label, an audio loop, or a narrative audio. The main contribution of this paper is a distance function between the individual annotations and views of the image that guide the rendering of both audio and text annotations.
DISCUSSION:
Although this paper is somewhat short, they introduce some important concepts. Annotating gigapixel images is going to be important as computers become faster and more powerful. It is important to annotate the images in a way that is quick and doesn't obstruct the user's view of the image.
USTC
Hefei, China
Steven M. Drucker
Microsoft Live Labs
Redmond, WA
Johannes Kopf
University of Konstanz
Konstanz, Germany
Ying-Qing Xu
Microsoft Research
Asia Beijing, China
Michael F. Cohen
Microsoft Research
Redmond, WA
SUMMARY:
Panning and zooming interfaces for pictures with billions of pixels(gigapixel images) have recently appeared on the internet. The huge size of the images causes some issues that are discussed in this paper. There are three main types of annotations a text label, an audio loop, or a narrative audio. The main contribution of this paper is a distance function between the individual annotations and views of the image that guide the rendering of both audio and text annotations.
DISCUSSION:
Although this paper is somewhat short, they introduce some important concepts. Annotating gigapixel images is going to be important as computers become faster and more powerful. It is important to annotate the images in a way that is quick and doesn't obstruct the user's view of the image.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
UIST2008: Kinematic Templates for Content-Relative Cursor Manipulations
Richard Fung, Edward Lank, & Michael Terry
University of Waterloo, Computer Science
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Celine Latulipe
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC, USA
SUMMARY:
The authors of this paper explore kinematic templates. Kinematic templates are "an end-user tool for defining content-specific motor space manipulations in the context of editing 2D visual compositions." The picture below will give you a better idea of what they are. The shape on the left is the user input. The shapes with the background grids are kinematic templates. As you can see the software automatically adjusts the pend stroke depending on the template.
Previous work in a similar area has been done on snap and go cursor movements. Snap and go techniques cause the line or shape to snap or connect to another shape in the general area. Kinematic templates differ because they change anything written anywhere on its surface. Kinematic templates can be defined anywhere on the drawing surface and they can be of any size. Below is a result from their study where a user drew a sun.
In this drawing two templates were used. The first was a compass template to help the users draw near perfect circles. The second is a sand paper template which modifies the control-display gain of the cursor. Control-display gain is the when the cursor moves at a slower or quicker speed than what the user actually inputs. In this example the control-display gain is lowered to help the user draw the sun within a certain region.
The authors distinguish between two types of templates:
Passive Templates - Alter the control display gain
Active Templates - Alter the cursor movement independent of changes in the x and y coordinates
An example of an active template would be the magnetic template. This template actively pulls the cursor towards a defined point. It is important to note that ALL templates affect the cursor only when the mouse button is pushed down.
In conclusion templates provide a way of manipulating cursor placement without strictly prescribing output. They lie somewhere between free hand drawing and snap and go techniques.
DISCUSSION:
This is a very interesting tool that could provide useful for programs like paint, photoshop, and paint shop pro. It would also be interesting to try and apply this technique to our second project. It might even provide more useful when using a drawing pad than a mouse.
University of Waterloo, Computer Science
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Celine Latulipe
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC, USA
SUMMARY:
The authors of this paper explore kinematic templates. Kinematic templates are "an end-user tool for defining content-specific motor space manipulations in the context of editing 2D visual compositions." The picture below will give you a better idea of what they are. The shape on the left is the user input. The shapes with the background grids are kinematic templates. As you can see the software automatically adjusts the pend stroke depending on the template.
In this drawing two templates were used. The first was a compass template to help the users draw near perfect circles. The second is a sand paper template which modifies the control-display gain of the cursor. Control-display gain is the when the cursor moves at a slower or quicker speed than what the user actually inputs. In this example the control-display gain is lowered to help the user draw the sun within a certain region.
The authors distinguish between two types of templates:
Passive Templates - Alter the control display gain
Active Templates - Alter the cursor movement independent of changes in the x and y coordinates
An example of an active template would be the magnetic template. This template actively pulls the cursor towards a defined point. It is important to note that ALL templates affect the cursor only when the mouse button is pushed down.
In conclusion templates provide a way of manipulating cursor placement without strictly prescribing output. They lie somewhere between free hand drawing and snap and go techniques.
DISCUSSION:
This is a very interesting tool that could provide useful for programs like paint, photoshop, and paint shop pro. It would also be interesting to try and apply this technique to our second project. It might even provide more useful when using a drawing pad than a mouse.
IUI2009: Understanding the intent behind mobile information needs
Karen Church
Telefonica Research
Barcelona, Spain
Barry Smith
CLARITY
Belfield, Dublin, Ireland
SUMMARY:
The authors who wrote this paper performed several user studies that were meant to explore the goals behind mobile information needs. Devices like the iPhone have greatly increased the number of mobile users who access the world wide web. In particular web search needs differ for mobile users and PC users. The studies found that mobile user needs differ depending on time and location. Non-informational needs account for 42% of user needs while geographical needs accounted for 31%. Personal information was the intent only 10% of the time.
DISCUSSION:
This paper contains valuable information for any software engineer that works with mobile devices. Knowing what information people are looking for on their mobile phone can help programmers design their applications appropriately. This would also be useful for a company like Google or Microsoft that try to provide optimal search functionality for their users.
Telefonica Research
Barcelona, Spain
Barry Smith
CLARITY
Belfield, Dublin, Ireland
SUMMARY:
The authors who wrote this paper performed several user studies that were meant to explore the goals behind mobile information needs. Devices like the iPhone have greatly increased the number of mobile users who access the world wide web. In particular web search needs differ for mobile users and PC users. The studies found that mobile user needs differ depending on time and location. Non-informational needs account for 42% of user needs while geographical needs accounted for 31%. Personal information was the intent only 10% of the time.
DISCUSSION:
This paper contains valuable information for any software engineer that works with mobile devices. Knowing what information people are looking for on their mobile phone can help programmers design their applications appropriately. This would also be useful for a company like Google or Microsoft that try to provide optimal search functionality for their users.
IUI2009: Parakeet A Continuous Speech Recognition System for Mobile Touch-Screen Devices
Keith Vertanen
Per Ola Kristensson
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge
SUMMARY:
This paper presents a continuous speech recognition system for mobile touch screen devices. Participants had a word entry rate of 18 words per minute while seated and 13 words per minute while walking around. In the past speech recognition methods have suffered from poor accuracy. This paper uses Parakeet which is a touch screen system for recognizing continuous speech. Parakeet was the first system to test voice recognition while walking around.
DISCUSSION:
In my mind this system fails to prove it is accurate enough for people to actually use. It mentions that when the intended sentence was in the confusion network it was able to find and select the correct sentence 96% of the time. Future work would have to be done to improve performance with sentences that are not in the confusion network.
Per Ola Kristensson
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge
SUMMARY:
This paper presents a continuous speech recognition system for mobile touch screen devices. Participants had a word entry rate of 18 words per minute while seated and 13 words per minute while walking around. In the past speech recognition methods have suffered from poor accuracy. This paper uses Parakeet which is a touch screen system for recognizing continuous speech. Parakeet was the first system to test voice recognition while walking around.
DISCUSSION:
In my mind this system fails to prove it is accurate enough for people to actually use. It mentions that when the intended sentence was in the confusion network it was able to find and select the correct sentence 96% of the time. Future work would have to be done to improve performance with sentences that are not in the confusion network.
IUI2009:Learning To Recognize Value Tags
Shilad Sen, Jesse Vig, John Riedl
Grouplens Research, University of Minnesota
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses automatic tagging systems.
Wikipedia : In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file)
The authors looked at 21 different tagging algorithms and chose the best three to deploy on a movie website. The rest of the paper talks about the different methods.
DISCUSSION:
This is a very useful paper for someone looking to learn some tagging methods for their application/website. Future work involves testing their methods on more than just a movie application.
Grouplens Research, University of Minnesota
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses automatic tagging systems.
Wikipedia : In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file)
The authors looked at 21 different tagging algorithms and chose the best three to deploy on a movie website. The rest of the paper talks about the different methods.
DISCUSSION:
This is a very useful paper for someone looking to learn some tagging methods for their application/website. Future work involves testing their methods on more than just a movie application.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
CHI 2009b: A Sustainable Identity The Creativity of an Everyday Designer
Ron Wakkary and Karen Tanenbaum
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
SUMMARY
This paper explores sustainability in interaction design by reframing concepts of user identity and use in a domestic setting. The paper starts off by mentioning Western cultures are typically very wasteful. This means designers need to design for sustainability. The study in this paper focuses on interaction design principles in the domestic environment. They basically said that many designs in the home can be reusable. This will increase a products life cycle and mitigate harm to the environment.
DISCUSSION:
I thought I was going to be reading a paper about good design principles. The authors of this paper seemed to be environmentalists. All the paper did was talk about designing for sustainability. This means design with materials that will last people longer so they don't have to throw them away as quickly.
School of Interactive Arts and Technology
SUMMARY
This paper explores sustainability in interaction design by reframing concepts of user identity and use in a domestic setting. The paper starts off by mentioning Western cultures are typically very wasteful. This means designers need to design for sustainability. The study in this paper focuses on interaction design principles in the domestic environment. They basically said that many designs in the home can be reusable. This will increase a products life cycle and mitigate harm to the environment.
DISCUSSION:
I thought I was going to be reading a paper about good design principles. The authors of this paper seemed to be environmentalists. All the paper did was talk about designing for sustainability. This means design with materials that will last people longer so they don't have to throw them away as quickly.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
CHI 2009b: NewsCube Delivering Multiple Aspects of News to Mitigate Media Bias
Souneil Park, Seungwoo Kang, Sangyoung Chung, Junehwa Song
KAIST Computer Science, South Korea
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses a web service called NewsCube. NewsCube aims to mitigate the effects of media bias. They are the first know experiment to tackle the problem computationally. They mention they can reduce bias, but underlying causes make it impossible to eliminate bias. Look at the picture below to see how news gets from reality to print.
Some groups such as fair.org, NewsTrust.net, and skewz.com have tried to serve as watchdog groups on media bias. Problem is these news is usually immediate and can't wait for user reviews. NewsCube focuses on letting the user develop their own view on media bias.
NewsCube uses news structure-based extraction which involves classifying bias of a news article based on the aspect the author is writing the story from. For example, a news article could state Obama passes health care. While an article on the same topic from a different aspect might say McCain criticizes Obama's health care plan. NewsCube aims to distinguish the two views and present both of them to the user.
The authors claimed that NewsCube was effective. They stated they were planning on incorporating it as a service with a major internet news company in Korea.
DISCUSSION:
It is hard to evaluate NewsCube without actually using it but according to the study it works. The main problem is that there is no perfect algorithm for evaluating bias on a news article with an undefined subject. However, this product still interests me since I believe at critical times mainstream news can often be very biased.
KAIST Computer Science, South Korea
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses a web service called NewsCube. NewsCube aims to mitigate the effects of media bias. They are the first know experiment to tackle the problem computationally. They mention they can reduce bias, but underlying causes make it impossible to eliminate bias. Look at the picture below to see how news gets from reality to print.
Some groups such as fair.org, NewsTrust.net, and skewz.com have tried to serve as watchdog groups on media bias. Problem is these news is usually immediate and can't wait for user reviews. NewsCube focuses on letting the user develop their own view on media bias.
NewsCube uses news structure-based extraction which involves classifying bias of a news article based on the aspect the author is writing the story from. For example, a news article could state Obama passes health care. While an article on the same topic from a different aspect might say McCain criticizes Obama's health care plan. NewsCube aims to distinguish the two views and present both of them to the user.
The authors claimed that NewsCube was effective. They stated they were planning on incorporating it as a service with a major internet news company in Korea.
DISCUSSION:
It is hard to evaluate NewsCube without actually using it but according to the study it works. The main problem is that there is no perfect algorithm for evaluating bias on a news article with an undefined subject. However, this product still interests me since I believe at critical times mainstream news can often be very biased.
CHI 2009b: How Well do Visual Verbs Work in Daily Communication for Young and Old Adults?
Xiaojuan Ma, Princeton University Computer Science
Perry R. Cook, Princeton University Computer Science/Music
SUMMARY:
This paper studies how verbs are visually conveyed in daily communication for young and old adults. There are four visual modes compared in this study:
DISCUSSION:
This paper caught my eye at first but wasn't as interesting as I thought. I was hoping they would go into further detail about how to design images that communicate cross culture. I felt rather than focus on age difference, this study should have focused on people from different cultures.
Perry R. Cook, Princeton University Computer Science/Music
SUMMARY:
This paper studies how verbs are visually conveyed in daily communication for young and old adults. There are four visual modes compared in this study:
- Single static image
- A panel of four static images
- An animation
- A video clip
- Verb visualization - represent verb by using photos, signs, and other graphic designs
DISCUSSION:
This paper caught my eye at first but wasn't as interesting as I thought. I was hoping they would go into further detail about how to design images that communicate cross culture. I felt rather than focus on age difference, this study should have focused on people from different cultures.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
CHI 2009b: The Performance of Touch Screen Soft Buttons
Seungyon "Claire" Lee
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia
Shumin Zhai
IBM Almaden Research Center
San Jose, California
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses the performance of soft buttons on different types of touchscreens. A soft button refers to any button that is generated by the hardware. A hard button is an actual hardware button either on the screen or on an input device. The advantage of soft buttons is they can appear and disappear according to the user's context. The disadvantage of soft buttons is that it is difficult to give user feedback as to whether or not it is being pressed.
A previous study at the University of Maryland showed that when the cursor was placed 1/2 inch above the finger tip, less errors were made. More recent studies have shown complex techniques that amplify the fingertips movement and placement which is a tradeoff for detection speed.
One issue the authors plan to investigate is the accuracy of a soft button click with a stylus versus the accuracy of a fingertip. Another issue is button size. A previous study at grocery stores suggested 22mm as the minimum suggested size for a soft button.
The authors performed tests on five products:
Experiment 1: Operating Mode and Feedback
Experiment 2: Contact Force vs. Force Activation
In general there was no difference between the two types of touchscreens. I believe they should have used a phone that has a hard flip out keyboard. They also should have tested sending SMS messages in one of their experiments.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, Georgia
Shumin Zhai
IBM Almaden Research Center
San Jose, California
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses the performance of soft buttons on different types of touchscreens. A soft button refers to any button that is generated by the hardware. A hard button is an actual hardware button either on the screen or on an input device. The advantage of soft buttons is they can appear and disappear according to the user's context. The disadvantage of soft buttons is that it is difficult to give user feedback as to whether or not it is being pressed.
A previous study at the University of Maryland showed that when the cursor was placed 1/2 inch above the finger tip, less errors were made. More recent studies have shown complex techniques that amplify the fingertips movement and placement which is a tradeoff for detection speed.
One issue the authors plan to investigate is the accuracy of a soft button click with a stylus versus the accuracy of a fingertip. Another issue is button size. A previous study at grocery stores suggested 22mm as the minimum suggested size for a soft button.
The authors performed tests on five products:
- Apple Iphone (capacitive sensor, finger)
- HTC Touch phone (resistive sensor, finger or stylus)
- Canon DK10i (calculator with hard buttons)
- HP iPAQ 6315 smartphone (resistive sensor, finger or stylus, big like calculator)
- Nokia 6269 (mass market hard buttons)
Experiment 1: Operating Mode and Feedback
- Enter a multiplication operation, required 8 digits and 2 operator (x,=)
- Tested Canon calculator vs. HP smartphone
- Tested 4 different categories of feedback
- No feedback
- Audio feedback
- Tactile feedback
- Audio + tactile feedback
- Speed was similar in both cases
- Error rate was high with no feedback for the touch screen
- Audio + tactile feedback isn't necessary, just choose one
Experiment 2: Contact Force vs. Force Activation
- Iphone, HTC Touch, Nokia 6260
- Task was to dial 7 digit phone numbers
- In this experiment very few errors were made, speed was similar
- There wasn't a significant difference in any of the phones at this task
- Tested soft screen button sizes on the iPhone(contact) and HTC Touch(force)
- User had to enter a number, performance was measured by clicks per second
- Two phones had similar results
- Showed wide buttons(7.2mm) had better performance(clicks per second) than narrow buttons(4.9mm)
In general there was no difference between the two types of touchscreens. I believe they should have used a phone that has a hard flip out keyboard. They also should have tested sending SMS messages in one of their experiments.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
IUI2009: A Low-Order Markov Model integrating Long-Distance Histories for Collaborative Recommender Systems
SUMMARY:
This paper discusses a method to extract the most pertinent resources for a given user. This is a challenge for applications in areas such as e-commerce, resource acces, web navigation, and online communities.
One previous method, known as collaborative filtering, determines what resources to recommend based on similar users. Resources that have been highly rated in the past by similar users are recommended to the user. The traditional problems with this method are most calculations are done online and the context of the user is not considered. This causes a lack of speed and accuracy.
One way of improving upon online collaborative filtering is to use data mining techniques. This requires having a database of user histories to analyze. The data is made up of a set of users(U) and a set of resources(R).
Two techniques explained in the paper are association rules and sequential patterns. An association rule is when one resource U1 usually leads to another resource U2 being pertinent for the user. Thresholds are need to determine if there is an association between resources. Association rules can contain more than just 2 resources. Sequential patterns are similar to association rules but here the order matters. This results in sequential patterns being more constrained than association rules.
Another approach used in this paper is know as Markov Models. Markov models limit the window of history that is used for data mining on the user. A kth order Markov Model looks at k+1 history of resources. In this paper they use a second order markov model which looks at a history size of 3.
The final technique used in this paper is skipping. Skipping simply means that you skip over certain resources to save either time or space. The authors talk about several time when skipping might be applicable.
The authors of this paper combined several of these techniques to create a Skipping Based Recommender. In their study they investigate some of the tradeoffs between the methods to see what works best.
The most important finding in there study was that a window size of three for their Markov model worked fastest but was least accurate. They decide that the best solution is to calculate resources from a Markov model of three, then if there is more time, calculate pertinent resources based on higher order Markov models.
Discussion:
This article was confusing at first but became very interesting after I got a better understanding of what the authors were creating. The Skipping Based Recommender system would be very useful for a program like iTunes when they want to display songs that a user is most likely could by. This would result in a user being more likely to buy the song resulting in increased profits. There are many programs and websites who could benefit from this sort of sytem.
This paper discusses a method to extract the most pertinent resources for a given user. This is a challenge for applications in areas such as e-commerce, resource acces, web navigation, and online communities.
One previous method, known as collaborative filtering, determines what resources to recommend based on similar users. Resources that have been highly rated in the past by similar users are recommended to the user. The traditional problems with this method are most calculations are done online and the context of the user is not considered. This causes a lack of speed and accuracy.
Sergei Brin - Co-founder of google, famous for his data mining techniques
One way of improving upon online collaborative filtering is to use data mining techniques. This requires having a database of user histories to analyze. The data is made up of a set of users(U) and a set of resources(R).
Two techniques explained in the paper are association rules and sequential patterns. An association rule is when one resource U1 usually leads to another resource U2 being pertinent for the user. Thresholds are need to determine if there is an association between resources. Association rules can contain more than just 2 resources. Sequential patterns are similar to association rules but here the order matters. This results in sequential patterns being more constrained than association rules.
Another approach used in this paper is know as Markov Models. Markov models limit the window of history that is used for data mining on the user. A kth order Markov Model looks at k+1 history of resources. In this paper they use a second order markov model which looks at a history size of 3.
The final technique used in this paper is skipping. Skipping simply means that you skip over certain resources to save either time or space. The authors talk about several time when skipping might be applicable.
The authors of this paper combined several of these techniques to create a Skipping Based Recommender. In their study they investigate some of the tradeoffs between the methods to see what works best.
The most important finding in there study was that a window size of three for their Markov model worked fastest but was least accurate. They decide that the best solution is to calculate resources from a Markov model of three, then if there is more time, calculate pertinent resources based on higher order Markov models.
Discussion:
This article was confusing at first but became very interesting after I got a better understanding of what the authors were creating. The Skipping Based Recommender system would be very useful for a program like iTunes when they want to display songs that a user is most likely could by. This would result in a user being more likely to buy the song resulting in increased profits. There are many programs and websites who could benefit from this sort of sytem.
BOOK: Emotional Design
SUMMARY:
The first chapter talks about why attractive designs work better. This is because machines can cause people to experience emotions. This results in people perceiving that beautiful things work better. Norman claims there are three levels of thinking: visceral(automatic), behavioral(every day), and reflective(contemplative). In this chapter he also mentions that it is trick to design things that accommodate both creative thinking and focus.
Three levels mapped to product characteristics
Visceral ==> Appearance
Behavioral ==> Pleasure & effectiveness of use
Reflective ==> Self-image, personal satisfaction, memories
In the second chapter Norman says to create a product that is truly long lasting it must evoke memories. This will help a person become emotionally attached to an object. Another way to induce positive emotions is for a product to get the user to feel positive about themselves. Products also contain a personality. This is another important aspect when designing for a positive emotional response.
The third chapter talks about the visceral, behavioral, and reflective design in products already out there. It reinforces the three levels mapped to product characteristics. In the fourth chapter he talks about designing for fun and pleasure. He also mentions designing for seduction. Another way to design for emotion is to use sounds. Music and sounds can bring out all kinds of emotions. He then talks about how people video games and movies seduce people.
The fifth chapter mentions how people often get mad at inanimate objects. This is a perfect example of people having emotions from design.
DISCUSSION:
I thought this book started off interesting then slowly got off topic as the book went on. I thought the distinction between three levels of thinking was clever. It allows software engineers to think on how people will react to their programs on three different levels. Towards the end of the book he started talking about robots. It was interesting at times but i felt like it contained little applicable knowledge. The last two chapters were more science fiction than fact.
The first chapter talks about why attractive designs work better. This is because machines can cause people to experience emotions. This results in people perceiving that beautiful things work better. Norman claims there are three levels of thinking: visceral(automatic), behavioral(every day), and reflective(contemplative). In this chapter he also mentions that it is trick to design things that accommodate both creative thinking and focus.
Three levels mapped to product characteristics
Visceral ==> Appearance
Behavioral ==> Pleasure & effectiveness of use
Reflective ==> Self-image, personal satisfaction, memories
In the second chapter Norman says to create a product that is truly long lasting it must evoke memories. This will help a person become emotionally attached to an object. Another way to induce positive emotions is for a product to get the user to feel positive about themselves. Products also contain a personality. This is another important aspect when designing for a positive emotional response.
The third chapter talks about the visceral, behavioral, and reflective design in products already out there. It reinforces the three levels mapped to product characteristics. In the fourth chapter he talks about designing for fun and pleasure. He also mentions designing for seduction. Another way to design for emotion is to use sounds. Music and sounds can bring out all kinds of emotions. He then talks about how people video games and movies seduce people.
The fifth chapter mentions how people often get mad at inanimate objects. This is a perfect example of people having emotions from design.
DISCUSSION:
I thought this book started off interesting then slowly got off topic as the book went on. I thought the distinction between three levels of thinking was clever. It allows software engineers to think on how people will react to their programs on three different levels. Towards the end of the book he started talking about robots. It was interesting at times but i felt like it contained little applicable knowledge. The last two chapters were more science fiction than fact.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
BOOK: The Inmates Are Running The Asylum(Chapters 1-7)
SUMMARY:
The author starts the book out by talking about what you get when you cross a computer with another product. These include an airplane, a camera, an alarm clock, a car, a bank, and even a navy ship. The point he is trying to get across is that you still get something that behaves like a computer. This can lead to problems. For instance, what if a navy ship's computer system crashes in the middle of a war? I think we would have a problem.
In the second chapter the author brings up a new term, cognitive friction. Basically cognitive friction is the resistance by human intellect when it engages in a complex system of rules that change as the problem changes. Software for instance has a lot of cognitive friction. A violin on the other hand has very little. Even though it is complex to play, nothing about the violin ever changes. The author also mentions he prefers interaction design over interface design. Interface design suggests the program is just a medium between the user and the computer. Interaction design suggests the designer should consider behavioral design and cognitive design. Another problem programmers run is to is they keep adding features rather than change the design. This can make the programs even more confusing. The author also brings up the concept of apologists and survivors. Most programmers are considered apologists. They blame themselves when they can not figure out how to use a program correctly. They tend to tout the benefits and ignore the negatives. Survivors tend to know whats wrong but they can't figure it out. This is where most of the general public falls.
The third chapter talks about wasting money. Many software managers have trouble with deadline management. If hey understand Parkinson's Law(90% of the work takes 90% of the time and 10% of the work takes 90% of the time) they should be reasonable about shipping late. If a manager obsesses about a product that never ships relevant features may be left out. The author also talks about prototyping. It should be used to understand how the programming will work but shouldn't be the final code.
In the fourth chapter the author talks about some general problems with software. He claims software is lazy, forgets, inflexible, blames users, and won't take responsibility. These are things every software designer needs to consider when designing a program.
In the fifth chapter the author talks about customer disloyalty. A product should be capable(engineering), viable(business), and desirable(design). The author also says when considering time to market a programmer needs to consider behavior of the program before features.
Chapter six talks about how programmers are in control of the design of software. Companies that put features before behavior have failed before. Software engineers need to be in "harmony with silicon" to be professional. This causes them to see the product differently than most users.
Chapter seven brings up the term homo logicus. He uses this to describe the behavior of a typical software engineer. He claims that normal homo sapiens want things to be done for them. The metaphor he uses says they would ride in the passenger part of the plane. A homo logicus wants to be in control. He/she would go in the cockpit and control the airplane. He also mentions programmers act like jocks because they expect everyone to know technology as well as them.
DISCUSSION:
This book takes an interesting approach to try and get the reader to understand why user interaction needs to be carefully considered software design. So far the author has explained how programmers differ from normal users of a software program. I assume in the second half of the book he will get more into detail about how a programmer should design for desirable user interaction.
The author starts the book out by talking about what you get when you cross a computer with another product. These include an airplane, a camera, an alarm clock, a car, a bank, and even a navy ship. The point he is trying to get across is that you still get something that behaves like a computer. This can lead to problems. For instance, what if a navy ship's computer system crashes in the middle of a war? I think we would have a problem.
In the second chapter the author brings up a new term, cognitive friction. Basically cognitive friction is the resistance by human intellect when it engages in a complex system of rules that change as the problem changes. Software for instance has a lot of cognitive friction. A violin on the other hand has very little. Even though it is complex to play, nothing about the violin ever changes. The author also mentions he prefers interaction design over interface design. Interface design suggests the program is just a medium between the user and the computer. Interaction design suggests the designer should consider behavioral design and cognitive design. Another problem programmers run is to is they keep adding features rather than change the design. This can make the programs even more confusing. The author also brings up the concept of apologists and survivors. Most programmers are considered apologists. They blame themselves when they can not figure out how to use a program correctly. They tend to tout the benefits and ignore the negatives. Survivors tend to know whats wrong but they can't figure it out. This is where most of the general public falls.
The third chapter talks about wasting money. Many software managers have trouble with deadline management. If hey understand Parkinson's Law(90% of the work takes 90% of the time and 10% of the work takes 90% of the time) they should be reasonable about shipping late. If a manager obsesses about a product that never ships relevant features may be left out. The author also talks about prototyping. It should be used to understand how the programming will work but shouldn't be the final code.
In the fourth chapter the author talks about some general problems with software. He claims software is lazy, forgets, inflexible, blames users, and won't take responsibility. These are things every software designer needs to consider when designing a program.
In the fifth chapter the author talks about customer disloyalty. A product should be capable(engineering), viable(business), and desirable(design). The author also says when considering time to market a programmer needs to consider behavior of the program before features.
Chapter six talks about how programmers are in control of the design of software. Companies that put features before behavior have failed before. Software engineers need to be in "harmony with silicon" to be professional. This causes them to see the product differently than most users.
Chapter seven brings up the term homo logicus. He uses this to describe the behavior of a typical software engineer. He claims that normal homo sapiens want things to be done for them. The metaphor he uses says they would ride in the passenger part of the plane. A homo logicus wants to be in control. He/she would go in the cockpit and control the airplane. He also mentions programmers act like jocks because they expect everyone to know technology as well as them.
DISCUSSION:
This book takes an interesting approach to try and get the reader to understand why user interaction needs to be carefully considered software design. So far the author has explained how programmers differ from normal users of a software program. I assume in the second half of the book he will get more into detail about how a programmer should design for desirable user interaction.
CHI 2009a: Social Computing Privacy Concerns
SUMMARY:
This paper discussed privacy issues on social networking sites such as Flickr and Facebook. The authors believes that when a member of an online community shares information it makes them feel vulnerable because they don't know who will see this information. This leads to a restrictive amount of information sharing in the online community. The study proves the author to be correct. However this is something that is difficult to measure.
DISCUSSION:
This paper was interesting to me because I am a member of Facebook. I can remember the privacy policy changing many times in the past few years and this paper points out one of the reasons. Sharing too much information online can be dangerous. One fault of this work is that this is a difficult thing to prove is happening. The author studies private photo sharing in the study as an example of restrictive sharing. While I think this is a good measure of restrictive sharing, there also might be other reasons why some wants to private share a photo. Future work may be on tracking how much restrictive sharing is occurring each time facebook's privacy settings change.
This paper discussed privacy issues on social networking sites such as Flickr and Facebook. The authors believes that when a member of an online community shares information it makes them feel vulnerable because they don't know who will see this information. This leads to a restrictive amount of information sharing in the online community. The study proves the author to be correct. However this is something that is difficult to measure.
DISCUSSION:
This paper was interesting to me because I am a member of Facebook. I can remember the privacy policy changing many times in the past few years and this paper points out one of the reasons. Sharing too much information online can be dangerous. One fault of this work is that this is a difficult thing to prove is happening. The author studies private photo sharing in the study as an example of restrictive sharing. While I think this is a good measure of restrictive sharing, there also might be other reasons why some wants to private share a photo. Future work may be on tracking how much restrictive sharing is occurring each time facebook's privacy settings change.
CHI 2009a: Team Analytics
SUMMARY:
This paper is on a software program called team analytics. It helps synchronize employee directories and connect people in different time zones. It also creates group profile pages that contains information relative to the group. After deploying this application within a company many users claimed it was very helpful in phone calls. Over 75% of the participants used it once a week, while 31% used it on a daily basis.
DISCUSSION:
This paper was interesting to me because it reminds me of a facebook for companies. It has individual profiles and group pages. It is a great way to learn things about people without having to spend the time talking about it. I could see how this could be very useful for managers who have to interact with a lot of people. A fault of this work is that the time zone feature was not as successful as the programmers thought it would be. The authors talk about integrating this software with an instant messaging client in the future.
This paper is on a software program called team analytics. It helps synchronize employee directories and connect people in different time zones. It also creates group profile pages that contains information relative to the group. After deploying this application within a company many users claimed it was very helpful in phone calls. Over 75% of the participants used it once a week, while 31% used it on a daily basis.
DISCUSSION:
This paper was interesting to me because it reminds me of a facebook for companies. It has individual profiles and group pages. It is a great way to learn things about people without having to spend the time talking about it. I could see how this could be very useful for managers who have to interact with a lot of people. A fault of this work is that the time zone feature was not as successful as the programmers thought it would be. The authors talk about integrating this software with an instant messaging client in the future.
CHI 2009a: Designing Digital Games For Rural Children
SUMMARY:
This article discusses how to design educational games for poor children in India. The authors start out by explaining that some Western games are not understood by Indian children. They observed Indian children playing four different Western games and found out that most of the children didn't immediately understand how to play these games. To understand how to develop a game that Indian children better understand the authors looked at traditional Indian games. They noted there are two main differences between Indian and western games. First, most actions in traditional Indian games appeared to be atomic. Second, players would usually have their own "turf", in which they are safe from harm. To incorporate these ideas into video game, the authors came up with a game called Tree-Tree. It is meant to help Indian children learn English words for fruit. In the study most of the children grasped the concepts of the game immediately. They gave fuzzy numbers at the end but between 25-50% of the children seemed to enjoy playing it.
Discussion:
This paper was interesting to me because I didn't know rural Indian children had easy access to video games. The paper mentions mobile games are most popular among them. Educational games could be a great tool for helping India's poor people become more educated. One fault of this work is that they don't mention how helpful the game was in helping the children learn. They talk about proper use and enjoyment but never mention results on learning. One possible work that could come from this study is an iphone game aimed at Indian children.
This article discusses how to design educational games for poor children in India. The authors start out by explaining that some Western games are not understood by Indian children. They observed Indian children playing four different Western games and found out that most of the children didn't immediately understand how to play these games. To understand how to develop a game that Indian children better understand the authors looked at traditional Indian games. They noted there are two main differences between Indian and western games. First, most actions in traditional Indian games appeared to be atomic. Second, players would usually have their own "turf", in which they are safe from harm. To incorporate these ideas into video game, the authors came up with a game called Tree-Tree. It is meant to help Indian children learn English words for fruit. In the study most of the children grasped the concepts of the game immediately. They gave fuzzy numbers at the end but between 25-50% of the children seemed to enjoy playing it.
Discussion:
This paper was interesting to me because I didn't know rural Indian children had easy access to video games. The paper mentions mobile games are most popular among them. Educational games could be a great tool for helping India's poor people become more educated. One fault of this work is that they don't mention how helpful the game was in helping the children learn. They talk about proper use and enjoyment but never mention results on learning. One possible work that could come from this study is an iphone game aimed at Indian children.
Monday, February 8, 2010
CHI 2009a: A Comparative Study of Speech and Dialed Input Voice Interfaces in Rural India
by Neil Patel12, Sheetal Agarwal2, Nitendra Rajput2, Amit Nanavat2i, Paresh Dave3, Tapan S. Parikh4
1) Stanford University HCI Group
2) IBM India Research Laboratory
3) Development Support Center (Gujarat, India)
4) UC Berkeley School of Information
SUMMARY:
This paper presents a study comparing speech and dialed input voice user interfaces for farmers in Gujurat, India. India has over 480 million illiterate people who need an access to information. For some of them spoken language is the only way for them to obtain information. They could possibly obtain information anytime using a phone that gets information from a recording. Of course this is restricted only to people who have access to a phone.
In this study the authors performed a study on 45 participants. All of them were people living in rural India. 87% of the participants had never used a computer. 73% of the participants had less than an 8th grade education. The participants were both male and female. Due to some traveling constraints 7 of the women had to be observed within their own residence.
The authors tested two methods of interaction with the user. The first is called Voice User Interface (VUI). VUI is where the application will get user input by them speaking a word. Most of the questions in this study were yes-no questions. The authors managed to get a 2% error rate by using just 15 voices to compare to. Previous work shows that users prefer VUI for non-linear tasks. An example of this would be checking voicemails in a certain order.
The second method the authors used was called Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF). This works like voicemail. The user is presented with several options and then hits the corresponding number on their phone. Previous work shows that users prefer DTMF when they are doing linear tasks. An example of this would be listening to all your voicemails in order.
The prototype that the authors built was called Avaaj Otalo. It is a Gujarati language application that allows farmers to access agricultural information over the phone. The farmers could perform any of three tasks: listen to announcements, listen to radio archives, and post questions. These are in order of increased difficulty.
The overall completion rate was 74% for DTMF and 61% for VUI. The third task was the most difficult because it involved categorizing a question, recording the question, and recording your name and location. The completion rates for task 1 were 48% and 42%. The completion rate for task 2 was 81% and 67%. The completion rate for task 3 was 86% and 54%. Each time DTMF outperformed VUI. However, there was no significant difference in user satisfaction. Over 80% in both groups said they found it easy to access information on the system and 75% said they would use such an application. Most farmers said an ability to access such information anytime would dramatically change their lives.
DISCUSSION:
Although most people don't realize it, they use DTMF whenever they check their voicemail. This seems like such a simple task but this could be a useful application for farmers in India. I am not surprised DTMF outperformed performed VUI because I never use VUI on my phone. One fault in this work is that for VUI the questions were mostly yes/no questions. I believe a true VUI should accept any word as input. If this were the case error rates would probably be much higher.
Its hard to imagine but a product like this could change the lives of millions. We tend to take it for granted that we have such quick access to knowledge on the internet. Many people are still living in a developing world. Technologies such as DTMF that we take for granted could improve the lives of millions of people on the other side of the world.
1) Stanford University HCI Group
2) IBM India Research Laboratory
3) Development Support Center (Gujarat, India)
4) UC Berkeley School of Information
SUMMARY:
This paper presents a study comparing speech and dialed input voice user interfaces for farmers in Gujurat, India. India has over 480 million illiterate people who need an access to information. For some of them spoken language is the only way for them to obtain information. They could possibly obtain information anytime using a phone that gets information from a recording. Of course this is restricted only to people who have access to a phone.
In this study the authors performed a study on 45 participants. All of them were people living in rural India. 87% of the participants had never used a computer. 73% of the participants had less than an 8th grade education. The participants were both male and female. Due to some traveling constraints 7 of the women had to be observed within their own residence.
The authors tested two methods of interaction with the user. The first is called Voice User Interface (VUI). VUI is where the application will get user input by them speaking a word. Most of the questions in this study were yes-no questions. The authors managed to get a 2% error rate by using just 15 voices to compare to. Previous work shows that users prefer VUI for non-linear tasks. An example of this would be checking voicemails in a certain order.
The second method the authors used was called Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF). This works like voicemail. The user is presented with several options and then hits the corresponding number on their phone. Previous work shows that users prefer DTMF when they are doing linear tasks. An example of this would be listening to all your voicemails in order.
The prototype that the authors built was called Avaaj Otalo. It is a Gujarati language application that allows farmers to access agricultural information over the phone. The farmers could perform any of three tasks: listen to announcements, listen to radio archives, and post questions. These are in order of increased difficulty.
The overall completion rate was 74% for DTMF and 61% for VUI. The third task was the most difficult because it involved categorizing a question, recording the question, and recording your name and location. The completion rates for task 1 were 48% and 42%. The completion rate for task 2 was 81% and 67%. The completion rate for task 3 was 86% and 54%. Each time DTMF outperformed VUI. However, there was no significant difference in user satisfaction. Over 80% in both groups said they found it easy to access information on the system and 75% said they would use such an application. Most farmers said an ability to access such information anytime would dramatically change their lives.
DISCUSSION:
Although most people don't realize it, they use DTMF whenever they check their voicemail. This seems like such a simple task but this could be a useful application for farmers in India. I am not surprised DTMF outperformed performed VUI because I never use VUI on my phone. One fault in this work is that for VUI the questions were mostly yes/no questions. I believe a true VUI should accept any word as input. If this were the case error rates would probably be much higher.
Its hard to imagine but a product like this could change the lives of millions. We tend to take it for granted that we have such quick access to knowledge on the internet. Many people are still living in a developing world. Technologies such as DTMF that we take for granted could improve the lives of millions of people on the other side of the world.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Book: The Design Of Everyday Things
SUMMARY:
In The Design of Everyday Things Donald A. Norman discusses the design of all sorts of products. He repeats some of his ideas over and over but he is just trying to get a few key points across to the reader. Right from the beginning of the book he mentions designs should contain natural mappings to what the product actually does. His main example for this is a heating/AC unit . Although you can set your AC to any temperature there is really only two modes it can be set to, ON or OFF. If you increase the temperature more to get your house to heat up faster you actually aren't doing anything but wasting energy. Norman claims this to be bad mapping from the designer.
Another concept he talks about is there is information in the world and information in your head. Letters on a keyboard are a perfect example of information being in the world. He also talks about learned and taught helplessness. These ideas just prove that designers should always design for error and try to avoid user helplessness.
DISCUSSION:
Even thought this book was a bit repetitive at times I still found it to be useful for a computer engineering student. Whether you are designing hardware or software one of the most important parts of the design is its ease of use. This book gave a lot of different ways humans make errors when trying to use all sorts of products. By realizing common errors discussed in this book it is easy for me to apply them to making software. Themes such as correct mapping, information in the software, and feedback are very important in software design. The designer is not the typical user and it is important to try and find anything in your design that may mislead users. It is also important to realize that people will make errors when using your product so your design needs to lead the users who err back in the right direction.
In The Design of Everyday Things Donald A. Norman discusses the design of all sorts of products. He repeats some of his ideas over and over but he is just trying to get a few key points across to the reader. Right from the beginning of the book he mentions designs should contain natural mappings to what the product actually does. His main example for this is a heating/AC unit . Although you can set your AC to any temperature there is really only two modes it can be set to, ON or OFF. If you increase the temperature more to get your house to heat up faster you actually aren't doing anything but wasting energy. Norman claims this to be bad mapping from the designer.
Another concept he talks about is there is information in the world and information in your head. Letters on a keyboard are a perfect example of information being in the world. He also talks about learned and taught helplessness. These ideas just prove that designers should always design for error and try to avoid user helplessness.
DISCUSSION:
Even thought this book was a bit repetitive at times I still found it to be useful for a computer engineering student. Whether you are designing hardware or software one of the most important parts of the design is its ease of use. This book gave a lot of different ways humans make errors when trying to use all sorts of products. By realizing common errors discussed in this book it is easy for me to apply them to making software. Themes such as correct mapping, information in the software, and feedback are very important in software design. The designer is not the typical user and it is important to try and find anything in your design that may mislead users. It is also important to realize that people will make errors when using your product so your design needs to lead the users who err back in the right direction.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Ethnography
For my ethnography I am going to study whether people are more likely to cut through the dirt or the grass from the sidewalks on campus.
Monday, January 25, 2010
UIST2009: TapSongs: Tapping Rythm-Based Passwords On A Single Binary Sensor
Author: Jacob O. Wobbrock
Summary:
The author starts out by pointing out that many devices are coming out that have just one binary sensory input. To access a device like this a user could have to tap in their password to some preselected rhythm. Of course a user wouldn't be able to enter at the exact same each attempt so some room for error would have to be allowed. When the authors performed a study users had to enter in the rhythmic password 12 times to make sure their timing was consistent. When trying to log in after training users messed up just over 80% of the time. The authors did not say how strong these passwords would be.
Discussion:
This paper is interesting because more and more electronic devices are coming out that could implement this idea. The first concern that comes to my mind is how well can people remember these types of passwords over a long time. What if the user hasn't logged in for a week, a month, or even a year. Another concern is that the author failed to test security issues with these types of passwords. I would try and test both of these things if possible because they could cause major problems if someone were to implement this idea.
Summary:
The author starts out by pointing out that many devices are coming out that have just one binary sensory input. To access a device like this a user could have to tap in their password to some preselected rhythm. Of course a user wouldn't be able to enter at the exact same each attempt so some room for error would have to be allowed. When the authors performed a study users had to enter in the rhythmic password 12 times to make sure their timing was consistent. When trying to log in after training users messed up just over 80% of the time. The authors did not say how strong these passwords would be.
Discussion:
This paper is interesting because more and more electronic devices are coming out that could implement this idea. The first concern that comes to my mind is how well can people remember these types of passwords over a long time. What if the user hasn't logged in for a week, a month, or even a year. Another concern is that the author failed to test security issues with these types of passwords. I would try and test both of these things if possible because they could cause major problems if someone were to implement this idea.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
UIST2009: Disappearing Mobile Devices
Summary:
This paper discusses making mobile devices small enough to be unseen or integrated into the human skin. The author starts out by noting that mobile devices still need to be large enough for user interaction. To minimize the size of a mobile device it is possible a small projector for visual display could be inserted into the skin. Another option would be to insert the mobile device into a watch.
Any sort of miniature mobile device must contain a few things. For one it has to output to the user either in the form of an LED, projector, or audio. It also needs to accept input which can come from touch, pressure, motion, or sound. The author then talks about using several types of motions to get user input from a sort of watch device. He also talked about errors that occurred when testing the watch.
Discussion:
I would like to start out by saying people probably won't have devices implanted into their skin until they are extremely small. Not only would it be awkward but we don't know if this would be safe. Personally I would never have an electronic implanted into my body unless absolutely necessary. I think the idea of a watch as a mobile device sounds much more practical although I haven't seen any projection technology that would satisfy me as a permanent user interface for my phone. However, I don't think I will be replacing my LCD touchscreen mobile device any time soon.
This paper discusses making mobile devices small enough to be unseen or integrated into the human skin. The author starts out by noting that mobile devices still need to be large enough for user interaction. To minimize the size of a mobile device it is possible a small projector for visual display could be inserted into the skin. Another option would be to insert the mobile device into a watch.
Any sort of miniature mobile device must contain a few things. For one it has to output to the user either in the form of an LED, projector, or audio. It also needs to accept input which can come from touch, pressure, motion, or sound. The author then talks about using several types of motions to get user input from a sort of watch device. He also talked about errors that occurred when testing the watch.
Discussion:
I would like to start out by saying people probably won't have devices implanted into their skin until they are extremely small. Not only would it be awkward but we don't know if this would be safe. Personally I would never have an electronic implanted into my body unless absolutely necessary. I think the idea of a watch as a mobile device sounds much more practical although I haven't seen any projection technology that would satisfy me as a permanent user interface for my phone. However, I don't think I will be replacing my LCD touchscreen mobile device any time soon.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
UIST2009: A Practical Pressure Sensitive Keyboard
Summary
This paper discussed a possible method for creating a pressure sensitive keyboard. This is not talking about a touchscreen keyboard as I first thought. This means when the key is pressed there is a pressure sensor underneath it to detect how hard the key was pressed. These type of keyboards already exist but they use springs rather than a true pressure sensor. The problem with the spring pressure sensors is that they can be rather noisy and they consume more power. The author also mentions that their keyboard could be mass produced.
Discussion
This paper is significant because it discusses a way to build a pressure sensing keyboard that can be mass produced. There are several advantages for this new keyboard. For one it requires less power than other types of keyboards. Older keyboards can't handle when more than two keys are pressed on a row at once. The design of this keyboard allows this to occur. Some uses for a pressure sensing keyboard include gaming where different amounts of pressure to the key could perform different actions. The author also discusses "emotional instant messaging" where depending on how hard you hit the keys the letters show up larger or smaller.
One fault of this article that I found was they really haven't tested the demand for a keyboard like this. They claim it could be used for several different applications but the only one I found convincing was the gaming. Unless someone comes up with a better way of designing a pressure sensing keyboard I believe it will be put to mass production in the future.
This paper discussed a possible method for creating a pressure sensitive keyboard. This is not talking about a touchscreen keyboard as I first thought. This means when the key is pressed there is a pressure sensor underneath it to detect how hard the key was pressed. These type of keyboards already exist but they use springs rather than a true pressure sensor. The problem with the spring pressure sensors is that they can be rather noisy and they consume more power. The author also mentions that their keyboard could be mass produced.
A traditional keyboard on the left, a pressure sensing on the right, the main difference is the bottom contacts which are used for detecting pressure on the left
Discussion
This paper is significant because it discusses a way to build a pressure sensing keyboard that can be mass produced. There are several advantages for this new keyboard. For one it requires less power than other types of keyboards. Older keyboards can't handle when more than two keys are pressed on a row at once. The design of this keyboard allows this to occur. Some uses for a pressure sensing keyboard include gaming where different amounts of pressure to the key could perform different actions. The author also discusses "emotional instant messaging" where depending on how hard you hit the keys the letters show up larger or smaller.
One fault of this article that I found was they really haven't tested the demand for a keyboard like this. They claim it could be used for several different applications but the only one I found convincing was the gaming. Unless someone comes up with a better way of designing a pressure sensing keyboard I believe it will be put to mass production in the future.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
UIST2009: ARC-Pad: Absolute+Relative Cursor Positioning for Large Displays with a Mobile Touchscreen
Authors: David C. McCallum & Pourang Irani from University of Manitoba
Summary
This paper covers ARC-Pad which is short for Absolute+Relative Cursor pad. ARC-Pad is a method for controlling the cursor of a large screen display from a mobile phone with a touchscreen. The authors claim that ARC-PAD has several benefits when compared to other techniques.
ARC-Pad works by combining absolute and relative cursor positioning methods. Absolute cursor positioning is when the cursor on the big screen corresponds to the exact location the user touches on the touch screen. Relative cursor positioning is when the cursor moves a certain distance depending on how far a user moves their finger on the touchscreen. In previous methods the user had to explicitly switch between relative and absolute modes. ARC-Pad achieves this by going into absolute mode if the user taps the screen lightly and goes into relative mode if the user drags their finger on the touchscreen. This saves the user time by not having to explicitly switch between modes.
The authors also talked about clutching. Clutching is the amount of time the user drags his finger on the touchscreen. One thing ARC-Pad does to reduce clutch time is it makes use of Control-Display gain. Control-Display gain is when finger movements on the touchscreen are amplified resulting in large movements on the big screen. This will decrease clutch time but it will also decrease accuracy when the Control-Display gain is too high. Another technique used to reduce clutch time is cursor acceleration. When the user drags their finger across the touchscreen faster the cursor will travel further on the big screen.
All in all the ARC-Pad has two main benefits. One, it reduces cognitive load by not requiring the user to switch between relative and absolute cursor positioning. Secondly, it reduces occlusion of the screen by not taking up any of the display like other techniques do(radar view).
Discussion
This paper was significant because it was a practical solution to improving cursor positioning on displays from mobile touchscreens. The authors found that ACR-Pad reduced clutch time and the amount of time it took to move the cursor across the screen. The differences were much more noticeable the longer the distance the user had to move. However, the authors only mention performing one experiment with ACR-Pad leading me to believe their could still be some faults in their plan. In the experiment they use a HTC TouchDiamond mobile phone with a 640x480 and a 52" monitor with a 1360x768 display. Since the display ratios are different, the speed at which the phone could move the cursor had to be adjusted. This raised a few questions in my mind.
First, even though the experiment went smoothly with their display ratios, what if the display ratios were much different? If there was say a business presentation on a large screen with very different dimensions than the phone, would this technique work as smoothly as the others? I would think so, but I'm sure once the difference in ratios between the screens was so extreme this would eventually present a problem.
Second, how does the HTC TouchDiamond touchscreen compare to other touchscreens today. Is it more or less accurate than an iPhone? If it is a lot more accurate than other phones to the touch of a finger, then absolute cursor positioning could become a problem with other phones. Also, what percent of the time does the phone believe a quick touch is a drag and vice versa? Having experience with an iPhone, I know touchscreens sometimes are more difficult to work than intended.
Future uses of this technology could be widespread. First, they need to try it with many different devices and monitors. The authors also mention in the paper this could eventually be used on laptops to control the cursor when it is hooked up to a monitor. Controlling the mouse on a large monitor from a laptop touch pad can sometimes be very frustrating. Another future use they mention is they could implement dragging and dropping icons much quicker. The user could start dragging the icon with their finger then tap the screen once to go into absolute cursor positioning and move the icon anywhere on the screen with the click of a finger. The would greatly reduce clutch time when dragging icons.
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