SINQ: Scientific INQuiry Learning using Social Media -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we describe SINQ, a prototype web application that utilizes social participation to guide learners through the scientific inquiry process. The paper outlines the challenges associated with scientific inquiry learning within natural environments, and describes initial research to leverage technology mediated social participation (TMSP) to scaffold inquiry learning.
Programming by Voice: A Hands-Free Approach for Motorically Challenged Children -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper introduces a voice-driven tool applied to an Initial Programming Environment (IPE), which gives motorically challenged individuals the opportunity to learn programming skills; in particular, our project allows programming by voice within Scratch. Although the native Scratch environment allows users to create a program by arranging graphical blocks logically, such visual languages are completely dependent on the use of a mouse and keyboard. This modality of interaction limits users based on physical abilities. Our solution is a tool, called Myna, which is a voice-driven Java application executed parallel to Scratch. Myna processes voice commands from the user, interprets those commands according to a pre-defined grammar, and simulates synonymous actions of a mouse and keyboard within Scratch. The resulting environment assists those with a motor disability (particularly young children) in learning the joy of programming. This extended abstract describes the motivation behind the project, a technical description of Myna, and defines the current work in progress.
Climbing the Cool Wall: Exploring Teenage Preferences of Cool -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Cool is an essential characteristic when designing technologies that appeal to teenagers, but is very challenging to understand and design for. This paper describes a study that investigated cool with teenagers using a specially constructed ‘Cool Wall’ that allows items to be rated using a simple scale. We present the design of the Cool Wall prototype then the findings from two field studies in which it was used. The studies found that expensive mobile technologies were considered the most cool by teenagers participating in the studies, while items that are gender or age specific often divided opinion. This suggests that HCI practitioners wishing to ‘design for cool’ need to carefully understand the their user groups, also that the cool wall described in this paper is one low-cost tool for providing insights into this understanding.
School Friendly Participatory Research Activities with Children -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Participatory Design is a common practice in HCI and user based evaluations are also highly recommended. This paper looks at the practice of carrying out design and evaluation sessions with school aged children by describing a general method for carrying out and arranging whole class activities that are school friendly and then by analyzing the academic value of these activities. An analysis of 6 MESS days with 21 activities yielded a research out of 9 publications at a research output of 43%.
Family interaction for responsible natural resource consumption -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we propose a novel approach to persuasive technology, based on children-parent interaction, to be implemented in a smart pad ludic application; to contribute to the natural resource consumption problem, not only by raising awareness, but by encouraging informed decisions on their use. We conducted a survey to see which natural resources are more relevant to Japanese society. We designed an attractive multimedia tool, considering the family interaction, that uses eco-visualizations, a narrative and cartoon characters. If successful, we would achieve better informed consumption of food and other natural resources, reinforcing positive attitudes within the family.
Squishy Circuits as a Tangible Interface -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Squishy Circuits is an approach to exploring and learning electronics. This method uses homemade sculpting dough recipes- one that is conductive, and another that is insulating- to replace wires and insulators. Squishy Circuits can be used to model basic circuits, but can also be used as an interface for more advanced microcontroller projects.
Practices Surrounding Children’s Photos in Homes -
Works In ProgressAbstract » New parents cherish photos of their children. In their homes one can observe a varied set of arrangements of their young ones’ photos. We studied eight families with young children to learn about their practices related to photos. We provide preliminary results from the field study and elaborate on three interesting themes that came out very strongly from our data: physical platforms; family dynamics and values; and creative uses of photos. These themes provide an insight into families’ perceived values for photo curating, displaying and experiencing them over a longer period. We provide future directions for supporting practices surrounding children’s photos.
Using Need Validation to Design an Intelligent Tangible Learning Environment -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Tangible learning environments may be improved if combined with another successful educational technology, intelligent tutoring systems. However, design principles for tangible environments and intelligent support are often at odds. To reconcile these differences, we employ a need validation methodology to understand student needs in an intelligent tangible learning environment. We found that students seek activities that provide them with feelings of discovery, inter-group competition, and an appropriate level of challenge. In addition, students value physical movement, interactivity, and perceived relevance to their learning objectives. We discuss design implications of these findings for combining the benefits of tangible learning and intelligent support systems.
Sensor-Based Physical Interactions as Interventions for Change in Residential Energy Consumption -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Interventions for behavior change in domestic energy consumption rely critically on energy usage data. To obtain this data, collection systems must be established. Pervasive sensing systems enable such monitoring, but populating homes with sensors is challenging. We offer an alternative to feedback approaches that depend on the assumption that users are motivated by energy data in its raw state. Physical Experiential Technology Systems (PETS) is a behavior-and sensor-based platform supporting rich experiences and the diffusion of sensors in homes. In this paper, we present our novel approach to building sensor feedback systems and our initial product concepts.
A Subscription-Based Authoring Tool for Mobile Citizen Science Campaigns -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Across HCI and social computing platforms we have seen the rapid emergence and adoption of mobile applications to empower non-experts to explore, measure, and share data about their world from blooming flowers to air quality. However, the creation of mobile citizen science applications with the type and method of data collected remains under the control of the developers and accompanying infrastructure of each citizen science effort. In this paper we present a flexible subscription-based web tool for non-experts to create and manage citizen science campaigns. Using our system, people can author their own campaigns with no programming skills and development infrastructure. We evaluated a functional prototype of our system with three groups having genuine needs to develop and deploy their own mobile citizen science applications. We hope that our system can help flourish citizen science activities and increase everyday people’s participation in the citizen science data collection activities.
EVERT - Energy Representations for Probing Electric Vehicle Practice -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Energy and design of energy-feedback are becoming increasingly important in the HCI community. Our application area concerns electric vehicles, we thus depart from home and workplace appliances and address range and energy anxiety caused by short driving distance capabilities and long charging times in mobile settings. We explore this topic by letting conventional fuel car drivers reflect on their current driving habits through an exploration tool that we use as a technology probe. Our preliminary results demonstrate the educational values of the energy representations in the tool, and we also identify a design tension for map-related energy representations.
Practicing Eco-safe Driving at Scale -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Eco-safe driving is a driving style that tries to minimize
vehicle emissions and ensure the drivers’ safety. It is
an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions of transport. However, current methods do
not scale to teaching eco-safe driving to many people,
including the next generation of drivers. Consequently,
we developed BeGreen, an application for practicing
eco-safe driving based on our own massively multiuser
networked 3D virtual environment. A feasibility study of
our virtual environment technology was conducted at a
Japanese High School with 41 participants, and two
types of eco-feedback interfaces were compared.
Towards New Widgets to Reduce PC Power Consumption -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We present a study which describes the power con-sumption characteristics of a number of different inter-action techniques on a desktop and laptop computer. In total, 8 interactions that can be used to carry out a sin-gle task (navigating a PDF document) were compared for power consumption across both a desktop and a laptop computer and across two different power saver settings. The results suggest that the power consump-tion of different interaction techniques for a single task vary significantly. Furthermore, the results suggest that a key factor in the power consumption of the interaction technique is the number of screen updates involved.
HCI and Sustainability: The Role of Macrostructures -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Sustained behavior changes are required to reduce the impact of human society on the environment. Much research on how HCI may help do so focuses on changing behavior by providing information directed at an individual or a microstructure (e.g., household). We propose societal macrostructures (e.g., municipalities) and their interaction with microstructures as a focus for HCI aimed at designing behavior change. We present two ongoing case studies involving municipalities in Denmark and discuss how and why macrostructures may be used in the design of HCI for behavior based environmental sustainability.
Active Office: Towards an Activity-Promoting Office Workplace Design -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Work-related musculoskeletal disorders have become one of the most common chronic diseases of modern society. In this paper, we address the problem of physical inactivity in the context of office work and we introduce a new concept of working “in-motion” with high potential to reduce prolonged sedentary behavior and related degenerative phenomena. We promote a paradigm shift in workplace design towards an integrated supportive environment that provides opportunities for office workers to seamlessly change between different work environments. Based on that, we discuss associated opportunities and challenges for HCI design to encourage people for the adoption of a physically active work process in a more natural way.
Teenagers talking about energy: using narrative methods to inform design -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper explores teenagers’ attitudes towards energy consumption. The research is part of a wider project with the goal of designing, developing and evaluating mobile solutions to change teenagers’ attitudes and behaviour towards energy. Diaries, stories, written scenarios and focus groups provided initial insight into teenagers’ attitudes. The use of multiple methods engaged teenagers in the project and resulted in data that was rich in detail and context. Initial themes that emerged for the data were: type of energy used, impact of energy use, sources of information, location and green teens. Findings will inform the design of mobile solutions for teenagers and help in the development of a behavioural change programme.
TopicViz: Interactive Topic Exploration in Document Collections -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Existing methods for searching and exploring large
document collections focus on surface-level matches to
user queries, ignoring higher-level semantic structure. In
this paper we show how topic modeling -- a technique for
identifying latent themes across a large collection of
documents -- can support semantic exploration. We
present TopicViz: an interactive environment which
combines traditional search and citation-graph exploration
with a force-directed layout that links documents to the
latent themes discovered by the topic model. We describe
usage scenarios in which TopicViz supports rapid
sensemaking on large document collections.
A Study on Touch & Hover based Interaction for Zooming -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Proximity is a useful medium for interaction with high interactive digital contents. It can be used in different contexts such as for navigation through depth in 3D space in zoomable interfaces. In this paper, we propose hover-based zoom interaction as an alternative to multi-touch-based zoom interaction, such as expanding/pinching to zoom. It allows users to work rapidly and intuitively at multiple levels of zooming views as their fingertip is hovering over the surface. We evaluated our technique in the context of target search and found that hover-based zoom interaction significantly outperforms the conventional touch-based zoom interaction and touch/hover-based zoom interaction in both objective and subjective measurements: users searched targets more than twice as fast as with the conventional touch-based zoom interaction in our experiment.
EasyGroups: Binding Mobile Devices for Collaborative Interactions -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We present a touch and proximity based method for binding a group of mobile devices into an ecosystem for collaborative interactions. We aim to provide a seamless user experience by integrating the binding method with the application start-up flow. Our method also determines the order of the devices, allowing implementation of spatial interactions.
Blaze: Supporting Two-phased Call Graph Navigation in Source Code -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Understanding source code is crucial for successful software maintenance. A particularly important activity to understand source code is navigating the call graph. Programmers have developed distinct strategies for effective call graph exploration. We introduce Blaze, a source code exploration tool tailored closely to these strategies. In a study, we compare Blaze to Stacksplorer, a tool that visualizes the immediate neighborhood of the current method in the call graph, to a tool resembling the standard Call Hierarchy view in the Eclipse IDE, and to an unmodified Xcode installation. The call graph exploration tools significantly increased success rates in typical software maintenance tasks, and using Stacksplorer or Blaze significantly reduced task completion times compared to using the Call Hierarchy or Xcode.
Understanding Communicative Emotions from Collective External Observations -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper presents a research framework for understanding communicative emotions aroused between people while interacting in conversation. Our advance is to consider how these emotions are perceived by other people, rather than what the target's internal state really is. Because such perception is subjective, we introduce the concept of using a collection of subjective external observations to objectively identify a fact. By treating the difference in perceived state as a probability distribution, we propose a computational model that describes the relationship between the perceived emotion and participants' key nonverbal behaviors, i.e. gaze and facial expressions. We also propose an evaluation method to assess the model by comparing the distributions estimated by using it with those of observers'. This paper describes initial experiments and discusses its potential.
Design of a Shape Dependent Snapping Algorithm -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Many layout design applications support snapping functionalities to help users align objects precisely. Currently, the center location of the object’s bounding box is used for aligning the object. Users, however, may not perceive the bounding box center as the center of a shape, especially if that shape lacks symmetry. In this paper, we report on the results of our experiment, which examines how users perceive the center of a shape, and discuss how the research outcome can be applied to improve snapping algorithms for layout applications.
Using Scribble Gestures to Enhance Editing Behaviors of Sketch Recognition Systems -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Mechanix is a computer-assisted tutoring system for engineering students. It uses recognition of freehand sketches to provide instant, detailed, and formative feedback as a student progresses through each homework problem. By using recognition algorithms, the system allows students to solve free-body diagrams and truss problems as if they were using a pen and paper. However, the system currently provides little support for students to edit their drawings by using free hand sketches. Specifically, students may wish to delete part or the whole of a line or shape, and the natural response is to scribble that part of shape out. We developed a new method for integrating scribble gestures into a sketch recognition system. The algorithm automatically identifies and distinguishes scribble gestures from regular drawing input using three features. If the stroke is classified as a scribble, then the algorithm further decides which shape or which part of shape to be deleted. Instead of using slower brute-force methods, we use geometric-based linear-time algorithms which efficiently detect a scribble gesture and remove the intended shapes in real-time.
An Ecologically Valid Evaluation of Speech Summarization -
Works In ProgressAbstract » The past decade has witnessed an explosion in the size and availability of online audio-visual repositories, such as entertainment, news, or lectures. Summarization systems have the potential to provide significant assistance with navigating such repositories. Unfortunately, automatically-generated summaries often fall short of delivering the information needed by users. This is due, in no small part, to the fact that the natural language heuristics used to generate summaries are often optimized with respect to currently-used evaluation metrics. Such metrics simply score automatically-generated summaries against subjectively-classified gold standards without taking into account the usefulness of a summary in assisting a user achieve a certain goal or even overall summary coherence. We have previously shown that an immediate consequence of this problem is that even the most linguistically-complex summarization systems perform no better than basic heuristics, such as picking the longest sentences from a general-topic, spontaneous dialog, or the first few sentences from a news recording. Our hypothesis is that complex systems are in fact better, if measured properly. What is thus needed instead are evaluation metrics (and consequently, automatic summarizers) that incorporate features such as user preferences and task-orientation. For this, we propose an ecologically valid evaluation metric that determines the value of a summary when embedded in a task, rather than how closely a summary matches a gold standard.
Remote Gaze-Tracking System with Automatic User Calibration Using Particle Filter -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We propose the use of a particle filter in an automatic user-calibration method for a remote gaze-tracking system. From previous studies, the optical axis of the eye is estimated using two calibrated cameras and two light sources. To realize gaze tracking without user calibration, we must estimate the offsets between the optical and visual axes of the eyes. We propose a method for estimating these offsets automatically. We use a particle filter to calculate the offsets based on the fact that true offsets make no distinction between the points of gaze (POGs) that are calculated from the optical axes of the eyes, irrespective of where the user gazes on the display. We evaluated the proposed method by simulation. Furthermore, we developed a prototype system, which was evaluated experimentally.
Exploring the Perceptual Space of a Novel Slip-Stick Haptic Surface Display -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Touch screens offer advantages for mobile interaction: large, rich graphical displays and powerful multi-touch input. However, they lack inherent haptic feedback to match this expressiveness. One recent approach to this problem has been to actuate glass plates at high frequency to controllably vary surface friction. This paper extends this work by describing vibration beating, a novel haptic actuation method that increases the range of cues that can be rendered via dynamic variations of surface friction. In order to understand how users perceive the cues it produces a set of 16 stimuli were chosen and two studies that generate and interpret a perceptual map are described. Three distinct clusters of tactile cues are identified, delimited and named. These groupings will form the basis of future work to develop interfaces and interaction techniques based on the vibration beating actuation method.
SpeckleEye: Gestural Interaction for Embedded Electronics in Ubiquitous Computing -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We introduce SpeckleEye, design and implementation of an embedded gesture and real-time motion tracking system using laser speckle. SpeckleEye is a low-cost, scalable, open source toolkit for embedded speckle sensing and gestural interaction with ubiquitous devices in the environment. We describe embedded speckle sensing hardware and firmware, a cross-platform gesture recognition library optimized to run on embedded processors, and a set of prototypes that illustrate the flexibility of our platform.
Reconstructing Multiparty Conversation Field by Augmenting Human Head Motions via Dynamic Displays -
Works In ProgressAbstract » A novel system is presented for reconstructing multiparty face-to-face conversation scenes in the real world through the use of dynamic displays that augment human head motion. This system aims to display and playback recorded conversations as if the remote people were talking in front of the viewer. It consists of multiple projectors and transparent screens attached to actuators. The screens displaying the life-size faces are spatially arranged to recreate the actual scene. Screen pose is dynamically synchronized to the actual head motions of the participants to emulate their head motions, which typically indicate shifts in visual attention. Our hypothesis is that physical screen motion with image motion can boost the viewer's understanding of others' visual attention. Experiments suggest that viewers can more clearly discern the attention of meeting participants, and more accurately identify the addressees.
mashpoint: Supporting Data-centric Navigation on the Web -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Large numbers of Web sites support rich data-centric features to explore and interact with data en masse. For example, online shopping or travel sites routinely offer users ways to filter, explore and interact with their data. The ability to find related information on other Web sites about selected subsets of the data, however, is currently compromised by the Web's inherent, one document at a time, navigation. In this paper we present work-in-progress on mashpoint, a framework that allows distributed data-powered Web applications to exchange subsets of their data, in effect enabling many-to-many navigation on the Web, at a more granular, data level. We hypothesise that allowing such navigation unlocks novel possibilities for information exploration and interaction on the Web. We present an initial prototype and discuss the opportunities and challenges of facilitating this kind of interaction.
Blink Suppression Sensing and Classification -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we propose a new alert system which precisely times dialog events depending on blinks. We hypothesize that during blinks human reaction time is significantly increased and by putting an intentional delay before alerts, the whole reaction time (including the intentional delay) may be reduced. This system architecture was achieved using a high-speed camera and a novel, fast detection algorithm. Experimental results show with precisely timed alerts (in some cases) it is possible to react more quickly than the worst case which occurs during blink suppression.
Distributed Multisensory Signals Acquisition and Analysis in Dyadic Interactions -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Human-machine interaction could be enhanced by providing information about the user's state, allowing for automated adaption of the system. Such context-aware system, however, should be able to deal with spontaneous and subtle user behavior. The artificial intelligence behind such systems, hence, also needs to deal with spontaneous behavior data for training as well as evaluation. Although harder to collect and annotate, spontaneous behavior data are preferable to posed as they are representative of real world behavior. Towards this end, we have designed a distributed testbed for multisensory signals acquisition while facilitating spontaneous interactions. We recorded audio-visual as well as physiological signals from 6 pairs of subjects while they were playing a bluffing dice game against each other. In this paper, we introduce the collected database and provide our preliminary results of bluff detection based on spatio-temporal face image signal analysis.
Age-Specific Predictive Models of Human Performance -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Designers often struggle to create interfaces that are optimal for both younger and older adults, as they may interact differently with the same interface. Human-performance models have been used to aid designers in evaluating the efficiency of user interfaces. Can we create age-specific models to help designers create interfaces that are efficient for all age groups? We modeled a target acquisition task using published younger and older person parameters. While the younger model’s mean prediction matches younger human data well (within 3.2%), the older model overestimates older users’ mean task times by 34.6%. Further work should explore the influence of device type and the role of error-avoidance on parameter values for models of older adult interactions with technology.
Transcribing Handwritten Text Images with a Word Soup Game -
Works In ProgressAbstract » The major contribution presented here is
the transformation of the tedious process of transcribing text images into an enjoyable game.
A web-based application is composed by a word soup interface and
a game engine that uses a system for automatic handwriting transcription as input to play the game.
This WiP describes the rationale and design principles for the game,
envisioning evaluation strategies
and deriving insights for future developments.
Avatarians: Playing with your Friends’ Data -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This article describes a new game mechanic called Game Entity Social Mapping (GESM) based on using social networking data fetched from a remote site about the player and his contacts to create characters, items or scenarios. A preliminary evaluation consisting of applying this mechanic to three different games was conducted. A small number of users tested those games to measure the enjoyment and learning about their contacts information.
Everscape: The Making of a Disaster Evacuation Experience -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Disaster evacuation studies are important but difficult or impossible to conduct in the real world. Evacuation simulation in a virtual world can be an important tool to obtain data on the escape and choice behavior of people. However, to obtain accurate “realistic” data, the engagement of participants is a key challenge. Therefore, we describe the making of an engaging evacuation scenario called “Everscape”, and highlight the collaborative effort of researchers from the informatics and transportation fields. Further, we describe encouraging results from a pilot study, which investigates the level of engagement of participants of the Everscape experience.
Mind Maps as Behavior Controllers for Virtual Characters -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We propose a new mind map interface method for
controlling virtual character’s artificial intelligence and
behavior in games. Commonly used techniques, such as
scripting, require an extensive analysis and discrimination
of all the possible behaviors that are triggered by the
stimuli received by the virtual character. Scripting is also
subject to strict syntax rules that may be hard to
comprehend by non-expert users. Instead, our method can
be easily created by users that do not have any technical
background, since they graphically represent the natural
process of organizing information in the human brain.
Our mind map interface method follows a behavior-based
architecture combined with an emotional depth module to
control the character’s behaviors individually in a game.
We implemented a graph-based visual editor to ease the
definition of the mind map nodes interactively. We also
show how mind maps were implemented in the
LIFEisGAME (LearnIng of Facial Expressions usIng
Serious GAMEs) project as a proof of concept.
Using the Kinect to Encourage Older Adults to Exercise: A Prototype -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper reports current progress on a project that aims to find the factors that play an important role in motivating older adults to maintain a physical exercise routine, a habit recommended by doctors but difficult to sustain. Our initial data gathering includes an interview with an expert in aging and physical therapy, and a focus group with older adults on the topics of exercise and technology. Based on these data, an early prototype game has been implemented for the Microsoft Kinect that aims to help encourage older adults to exercise. The Kinect application has been tested for basic usability and found to be promising. Next steps include play-tests with older adults, iterative development of the game to add motivational features, and evaluation of the game’s success in encouraging older adults to maintain an exercise regimen.
Get Lost: Facilitating Serendipitous exploration in Location-Sharing Services -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper describes ongoing work in developing social computing systems and services to support serendipitous real life experiences. The paper introduces the location-aware prototype service “GetLostBot”, which uses the Foursquare API to longitudinally monitor a user’s check-in locations and intervenes when they have fallen into a predictable routine. Interventions take the form of mysterious walking directions on a map to unknown destinations that challenge the user to take an explorative attitude and go into the unknown. Early results from a user trial suggest that while users are extremely positive about the ideas and concept of delivering serendipity through social computing, in this case there was low engagement with the actual suggested new experiences and activity. Despite this, the act of the intervention itself is reported to still have intrinsic value. This finding is discussed in terms of potential design issues around supporting serendipity in future systems.
CTArcade: Learning Computational Thinking While Training Virtual Characters Through Game Play -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we describe CTArcade, a web application framework that seeks to engage users through game play resulting in the improvement of computational thinking (CT) skills. Our formative study indicates that CT skills are employed when children are asked to define strategies of common games such as Connect Four. In CTArcade, users can train their own virtual characters while playing games with it. Trained characters then play matches against other virtual characters. Based on reviewing the matches played, users can improve their game character. A basic usability evaluation was performed on the system, which helped to define plans for improving CTArcade and assessing its design goals.
Biometric Storyboards: Visualising Game User Research Data -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Player experience is difficult to evaluate and report, especially using quantitative methodologies in addition to observations and interviews. One step towards tying quantitative physiological measures of player arousal to player experience reports are Biometric Storyboards (BioSt). They can visualise meaningful relationships between a player’s physiological changes and game events. This paper evaluates the usefulness of BioSt to the game industry. We presented the Biometric Storyboards technique to six game developers and interviewed them about the advantages and disadvantages of this technique.
Facilitation of Affection by Tactile Feedback of False Heratbeat -
Works In ProgressAbstract » When a person is attracted to someone, characteristic physiological responses are observed, such as flush and perspiration. Our goal was to control this affective feeling by using artificial autonomous physiological reactions. To achieve this goal, we used vibration to simulate a heartbeat on subjects’ chest with a voice-coil type actuator and controlled the frequency of the false heartbeat. In this study, we verify that the preference towards female nude photos was increased by modulating the frequency of the false heartbeat. We also discuss the suitable implementation of our method in applications such as movie viewing and daily communication.
Towards a Game Experience Design Model Centered on Participation -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we present a game design and evaluation model centered on the concept of participation, the way players take part in gameplay activity, from which gameplay experience emerges. The variety and subjectiveness of experiences enabled by the videogame medium lead us to consider the challenge of how to frame the notion of participation in a model of gameplay experience, that could serve as a guide for designers. The proposed model aims to contribute to an informed game design process by focusing on six perspectives of player participation: Playfulness, Challenge, Embodiment, Sociability, Sensemaking and Sensoriality. These perspectives are then exercised along three operational levels: Intention, Artifact and Participation - the setting of gameplay experience goals, the characterization of the videogame object, and the evaluation of the player experience.
Intergenerational Gameplay: Evaluating Social Interaction between Younger and Older Players -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper, we compared the digital gameplay of three user groups comprising of younger and older adults. Players were paired together with the game objective of cooperatively nurturing and maintaining a set of virtual garden plants using a novel form of silhouette interaction. Questionnaire and observations revealed marked differences in the communicative behavior of the age groups, with higher verbal communication amongst the older pairs, but lower gameplay competency. Variations were identified in the paired interaction of the younger and older players, highlighting the challenge of designing games to encourage intergenerational bonding.
Inspiring Creative Constructivist Play -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Inline with the BSCS 5E instructional model, we are using constructivist learning to teach physics in a heavily modified Minecraft game server. However, not all players like to be creative or are good at it. Because of this, we are creating three inspiration interventions to study their impact on learning and creative outcomes. Our model of inspiration incorporates three of the creativity resources defined by Investment Theory: knowledge, motivation and environment. We report on our current protocol, piloting of the protocol and our evolving methods of intervention creation.
Snap-n-Fold: Origami Pattern Generation based Real-life Object Structure -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Origami (Paper-folding) is one of the main forms of paper-craft which has been appreciated by people from different cultures all over the world. However, it is still difficult for ordinary people to model the real-life objects and design their paper-folding patterns. In this paper we present ``Snap-n-Fold'', an origami-generating system based on real-life objects' structures captured by a camera. It is based on the algorithm which combines object extraction, structure skeletonization, and origami generation. Users only need to capture the desired object through the camera to create origami folding pattern. Snap-n-Fold can be implemented on both PC and mobile platforms such as iOS and Andriod, therefore users can model the real-life objects using origami by only taking a snap-shot of the objects anytime and anywhere.
Tabletops in Motion: The Kinetics and Kinematics of Interactive Surface Physical Therapy -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Technology-based rehabilitation methods have shown promise for improving physical therapy programs, but much of the research is lacking quantitative analysis. We present a study conducted with healthy participants where we compared traditional “table-based” therapy methods with new technology-based methods. Using motion analysis and electromyography recordings, we assessed the kinetic and kinematic dimensions of participant motion during four activities. While technology-based methods are more enjoyable, our results indicate that it is the design of an activity that has a significant impact on the movements performed.
FEEL: Frequent EDA and Event Logging – A Mobile Social Interaction Stress Monitoring System -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This work proposes a system for the automatic annotation and monitoring of cell phone activity and stress responses of users. While mobile phone applications (e.g., e mail, voice, calendar) are used to non-intrusively extract the context of social interactions, a non-intrusive and comfortable biosensor is used to measure the electrodermal activity (EDA). Then, custom stress recognition software analyses the streams of data in real-time and associates stress levels to each event. Both contextual data and stress levels are aggregated in a searchable journal where the user can reflect on his/her physiological responses.
ActivMON: Encouraging Physical Activity Through Ambient Social Awareness -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we discuss the use of low-complexity interfaces to encourage users to increase their level of physical activity. We present ActivMON – a wearable device capable of representing a user's individual activity level, and that of a group, using an ambient display. We discuss the results of a preliminary usability evaluation of ActivMON.
User Needs in the Performance of Prescribed Home Exercise Therapy -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Musculoskeletal disorders are a globally significant health problem affecting millions. Physiotherapy, including prescribed exercises performed independently by patients in their homes, is a key treatment for many sufferers. However, many fail to complete home exercises, prolonging recovery periods or accelerating decline. Pervasive health technologies, capable of monitoring users in their homes, are ideally suited to address this problem. This paper describes user research with a group of three physiotherapists and eleven current physiotherapy patients to understand the problems and user needs underlying non-compliance with home exercise regimes. The user research adopted a speed dating approach and culminated with recommendations relating to the design of feedback, scheduling systems and privacy.
Factors Associated with Persistent Participation in an Online Diet Intervention -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In recent years, much work has been carried out in interface design and service quality in order to maximise user experience and sustain engagement. We are often unsure, however, what factors really influence user interactions with the technologies. Here we report on an ongoing examination of the relationships between user demographics, self reported attitudes, efficacy, and system feature, and participation on an online diet support site. Our findings indicate that not only the characteristics of the users themselves are associated with sustained engagement with a weight loss site, but also that usage of particular features on the site results in higher return rates. These findings support a push for designers to understand their users and features of their site, in order to maximise engagement with their target audiences.
Meeting Cancer Patient Needs: Designing a Patient Platform -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Cancer patients have a variety of unmet informational and support needs. Yet to date, online cancer resources only address a small number of these needs. The goal of this project, kanker.nl, is to address the changing needs of Dutch cancer patients for both information and support. Kanker.nl is a novel collaboration between institutions that provide complementary patient services: a major cancer charity, patient organizations and comprehensive care centers. To design a platform that is both innovative and useful to patients, we conducted a series of design research studies with patients including focus groups, interviews and surveys. Results suggest a demand for this type of platform, openness towards sharing medical information anonymously, and the inherent complexity of information searches in this environment. Based on these findings, we present an interactive prototype and proof of concept.
Constructionism of Virtual Humans to Improve Perceptions of Conversational Partners -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We propose a methodology to help people improve the accuracy of their mental model of a conversational partner by creating a virtual human representation of the partner. By creating a virtual human, the users will be able to transfer their mental model of the partner to a virtual human representation. Other people can then interact with the virtual human and provide feedback. The feedback will help the creator reduce the gap between their mental model of a partner and the actual qualities of the partner. Reducing this gap in perception is important in learning interpersonal skills. We implemented this methodology in a health professions course using Virtual People Factory, an online application for creating and interacting with virtual humans. The applicability of the methodology to reduce gaps in perception models was investigated through a user study with health professions students (n=32). The results indicate that students can reduce gaps in perceptions of conversational partners by creating virtual humans.
Controlling the Amount of Physical Activity in a Specific Exertion Interface -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We present the empirical validation of a system that controls the amount of physical activity that children do while playing in a specific exertion interface called the Interactive Slide. The control of the amount of physical activity is done through a newly defined system variable we call the Interaction Tempo. Moreover, the detection of this physical activity is done in a non-invasive manner using a computer vision system. Both the control potential of physical activity by the Interaction Tempo and the quantification of this physical activity by the computer vision system have been validated against the change in heart rate of the users. This provides a safe, unencumbered, comfortable and natural system for children play and opens the door to apply it in other exertion interfaces.
Playful Arm Hand Training after Stroke -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper presents the design of an interactive system designed to support arm-hand rehabilitation of stroke survivors through gaming. It consists in an interactive tabletop game and wearable sensing technology that provides feedback to patients to assist with the correct execution of movements. We present the motivation for this design, the main choices made during the design process, an initial evaluation, and an outline of ongoing work for developing this system further.
BreathTray: Augmenting Respiration Self-Regulation
without Cognitive Deficit
-
Works In ProgressAbstract » Concerns grow concerning the negative impact information work has on stress, anxiety, and cognitive performance. This has led to recent research on technological methods that attempt to augment the user’s psycho-physiological self-regulatory processes. Rather than explicit prompting and reminders, BreathTray incentivizes calm respiration with continuous monitoring and feedback integrated into the desktop. This paper shows that such techniques do not significantly distract users from their work. The feedback effectively influenced users’ respiration patterns when they worked on a single intensive task but not while multi-tasking.
Wind Runners: Designing a Game to Encourage Medical Adherence for Children with Asthma -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper, we present Wind Runners, which is a game designed for children with asthma. The goal of Wind Runners is to increase the likelihood of asthmatic children adhering to the NIH’s recommendation of measuring their peak expiratory flow (PEF) on a daily basis. We aim to accomplish this by incorporating both social gaming features and the actual medical regimen of measuring PEF into a mobile game.
Sharing Medical Data vs. Health Knowledge in Chronic Illness Care -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Chronic illnesses are becoming more prevalent worldwide breeding an interest in supporting patient care through electronic health information exchange. Through a study of diabetes patients and the specialists in their care network, the challenges involved in sharing health information from the two perspectives become apparent. There are opportunities in the design of electronic medical information exchange to support the patient's need for knowledge and specialist's need for data, bridging the gap that can lead to tensions and inefficiencies in the management of illness trajectories.
A Framework for Designing Assistive Technologies for Teaching Children with ASDs Emotions -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper presents a theory-driven serious game design framework for teaching emotions to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The framework is based on the integration of two theoretical models, Kolb’s experiential learning model and Piaget’s cognitive development model. Based on these theories, we extracted six essential elements (factors) for designing games (and other assistive technologies) to teach children with ASDs emotions: matching, recognizing, observing, understanding, generalizing and mimicking.
Magic Land on Interactive Tabletop for Play Therapy with Children -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We describe an ongoing study that explores the introduction of digital technology into play therapy. While digital technologies are increasingly used in educational and directive therapeutic contexts with older children, they are largely missing from non-directive play therapy settings with younger children. Based on the play therapy research and practice literature we describe the design and ongoing evaluation of Magic Land, a set of digital play activities for interactive tabletops used in non-directive play therapy with younger children.
Using a High-Resolution Wall-Sized Virtual Microscope to Teach Undergraduate Medical Students -
Works In ProgressAbstract » The Leeds Virtual Microscope is an interactive visualization system, capable of rendering gigapixel virtual slides onto high-resolution, wall-sized displays. We describe the evaluation of this technology for teaching pathology to undergraduate medical students, providing insights into the use of high-resolution, wall-sized displays in an educational context. Students were quickly able to become confident in using the technology, collaboratively exploring virtual slides in order to understand the mechanisms of disease. Being able to point with a finger to features on virtual slides promoted multi-way interaction between the students and tutor, led to the spontaneous expansion of the tutorial’s scope, and was indicative of a high level of engagement. Students were very positive about being able to interact with the virtual slides and described their increased enthusiasm for pathology as a subject.
User Needs for Technology Supporting Physical Activity in Chronic Pain -
Works In ProgressAbstract » An emerging field of HCI is the use of interactive technology to promote fitness. However, current persuasive fitness technologies for the general population do not address the psychological needs of users with chronic conditions. This is particularly the case in chronic pain. Research indicates that people with chronic pain have negative beliefs and experiences associated with pain such as anxiety about provoking pain through exercise. We interviewed physiotherapists and people with chronic pain to get an understanding of the physical and psychological needs that must be addressed by a technology for supporting physical activity in this population. Five themes emerged: pain management approach, personalisation/tailoring, exercise adherence, supportive functions, and visual representations.
Boneshaker – A generic framework for building physical therapy games -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We present the Boneshaker framework, a generic framework developed to facilitate the design of physical therapy games with the Unity 3D engine. The Boneshaker framework lowers the threshold for developing a variety of physical therapy games as it allows both developer and therapist to quickly add input devices and change specific game dynamics/therapy exercises.
Combining Visual Block Programming and Graph Manipulation for Clinical Alert Rule Building -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper, we present MARBLS (Medical Alert Rule BuiLding System) - a visual end-user programming environment to facilitate the design and testing of clinical alert rules. MARBLS enables a two-way, synchronized visual rule workspace and visual query explorer. Clinical rules can be built by docking relevant block components in the rule workspace, by directly manipulating graphs in the visual query explorer, or a combination of both. In a pilot study with five healthcare experts, we found MARBLS is easy to learn and users can build rules efficiently and discover errors in existing rules quickly with the visual environment provided by MARBLS.
What Colour is ‘Exercise?’ Designing Multimodal Reminders for the Home -
Works In ProgressAbstract » When designing home care systems to keep individuals independent in their homes longer, multimodal interaction provides a compelling approach to creating an enjoyable and usable experience. Previous work in multimodal home care systems has looked at how reminders might be disruptive [1] or socially appropriate [5]. However, previous work has not looked specifically at how reminder content is paired with a multimodal presentation, especially when that presentation is not speech or text based, for example an abstract visual or olfactory presentation. In order to explore these issues, we completed a survey that focused on how the content of a reminder might affect a variety of factors such as appropriateness, importance and annoyance. Building on this survey, we are currently completing a series of focus groups that looks at how users pair reminders with multimodal presentations.
Kin'touch: Understanding How Visually Impaired People Explore Tactile Maps -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Tactile or interactive maps are largely used as an orientation aid for visually impaired people. Yet, little is known about haptic exploration strategies and their influence on the resultant cognitive mapping. We have designed a prototype with the potential to automatically analyze different users’ exploration strategies. This prototype integrates data from the MS Kinect camera and a multi-touch table. It registers location of hands and digits on a tactile map. Results of preliminary studies show that this approach is promising.
CoStream: In-situ Co-construction of Shared Experiences Through Mobile Video Sharing During Live Events -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Mobile live video broadcasting has become increasingly popular as means for novel social media interactions. Recent research mainly focused on bridging larger physical distances in large-scale events such as car racing, where participants are unable to spectate from a certain location in the event. In this paper, we advo-cate using live video streams not only over larger dis-tances, but also in-situ in closed events such as soccer matches or concerts. We present CoStream, a mobile live video sharing system and present its iterative de-sign process. We used CoStream as an instrument in a field study to investigate the in-situ co-construction of shared experiences during live events.
Leveraging the Palm Surface as an Eyes-free TV Remote Control -
Works In ProgressAbstract » User input on television typically requires a mediator device such as a handheld remote control. While being a well-established interaction paradigm, a handheld device has serious drawbacks: it can be easily misplaced due to its mobility and in case of a touch screen interface, it also requires additional visual attention. Emerging interaction paradigms like 3D mid-air gestures using novel depth sensors such as Microsoft's Kinect aim at overcoming these limitations, but are known for instance to be tiring. In this paper, we propose to leverage the palm as an interactive surface for TV remote control. Our contribution is two-fold: (1) we have explored the conceptual design space in an exploratory study. (2) Based upon these results, we investigated the accuracy and effectiveness of such an interface in a controlled experiment. Our results show that the palm has the potential to be leveraged for device-less and eyes-free TV interactions –without any third-party mediator device.
Magic-Sense: Dynamic Cursor Sensitivity-Based Magic Pointing -
Works In ProgressAbstract » MAGIC (Manual and Gaze Input Cascaded) pointing methods use eye gaze as a complementary input for the primary input device. This paper introduces a novel MAGIC pointing technique to provide fast and accurate selection. Cursor sensitivity is reduced near eye focus to allow fine selection, and increased away from target to improve selection speed. MAGIC-SENSE is tested against a traditional mouse and a gaze only pointing method using an ISO 9241-9 compliant circular Fitts’ Law experiment. Using MAGIC-SENSE, subjects achieved lower error rates without compromising movement times compared to mouse-only method. A local calibration method that can boost all MAGIC pointing techniques is discussed.
From Texting App to Braille Literacy -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We report the results of a pilot study that explores potential uses for BrailleTouch in the instruction of braille literacy for the visually impaired. BrailleTouch is an eyes-free text entry application for smart phones. We conducted individual semi-structured interviews and a focus group with four domain expert participants.
We Like to Move it Move it! Motivation and Parasocial Interaction -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Researchers studying virtual coaching have identified a variety of characteristics associated with heightened motivation, but have not, to date, identified a mechanism underlying the success of particular coaches. This project tests two possible explanations for how coaches heighten motivation: the first is the straightforward explanation that coaching heightens self-efficacy, which in turn raises motivation; the second is the more novel idea that the quality of the pseudo-relationship between the virtual coach and the trainee is key to motivation. In an experiment comparing three systematically differing coaches, virtual coaches heightened both self-efficacy and parasocial interaction in some coaching conditions, but only parasocial interaction explained the patterns of results for intrinsic motivation. The findings have important theoretical implications for understanding the effects of parasocial interaction on health behaviors, with practical applications for the design of virtual coaches to improve health.
Informing the Design of Group Recommender Systems -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we present a literature study on social psychological concepts, which informs the design of group recommender process models in group recommender systems. We matched core concepts to well-established factors influencing satisfaction in groups, and obtained three most relevant social psychological concepts: group identification, group norms, and social roles.
LightBeam: Nomadic Pico Projector Interaction with Real World Objects -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Pico projectors have lately been investigated as mobile display and interaction devices. We propose to use them as ‘light beams’: Everyday objects sojourning in a beam are turned into dedicated projection surfaces and tangible interaction devices. While this has been explored for large projectors, the affordances of pico projectors are fundamentally different: they have a very small and strictly limited projection ray and can be carried around in a nomadic way during the day. Thus it is unclear how this could be actually leveraged for tangible interaction with physical, real world objects. We have investigated this in an exploratory field study and contribute the results. Based upon these, we present exemplary interaction techniques and early user feedback.
Proximity and Physical Navigation in Collaborative Work With a Multi-Touch Wall-Display -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Multi-touch, wall-sized displays afford new forms of collaboration. Yet, most data on collaboration with multi-touch displays come from tabletop settings, where users often sit and where space is a limited resource. We study how two-person groups navigate in relation to a 2.8m x 1.2m multi-touch display with 24.8 megapixels and to each other when solving a sensemaking task on a document collection. The results show that users physically navigate to shift fluently among different parts of the display and between parallel and joint group work.
Towards a Better Understanding of Adaptive Multitasking by Individuals -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper reports work in progress on understanding how multitasking performance is influenced by two factors: task difficulty and task priority. In a task that involved switching between typing and controlling a cursor, these two factors were experimentally manipulated and shown to affect the chosen strategy, where a strategy was defined as the number of digits typed per visit. A cognitive model was used to explore the range of strategies and associated individual differences. The implications for using cognitive models to predict multitasking performance are explored.
Occlusion-aware Interaction Techniques for Tabletop Systems -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper addresses challenges created by physical objects that occlude screen contents on interactive tabletops. We propose novel techniques to support awareness, access and overview of occluded digital objects. These techniques take into account different functional zones on tabletops to provide information at varying levels of detail. We also contribute the PressView technique, a pressure-based interaction technique to get a quick overview of occluded objects.
Design and Evaluation of a Service-Oriented Collaborative Consumption Platform for the Elderly -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Research indicates that social networking sites can be used to foster social interaction and reduce the risk of social isolation for the elderly demographic segment. Collaborative consumption, a new evolutionary step in SNS, enables the sharing of personal services, thus holding the potential to strengthen social integration and enable an independent lifestyle for the elderly. We therefore developed a local, service-oriented collaborative consumption platform called “Bring Dich ein!” with the purpose of facilitating social interaction across generations as well as the trade of peer-to-peer services. The platform was fully implemented in a participatory development process and evaluated in an extended pilot phase. The qualitative evaluation shows good usability for the elderly and high potential for the proposed concept within the target group.
Evaluating Mobile Projectors as a Shared Display Option for Small Groups -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This work in progress compares group use of mobile projector technology with an existing mobile solution in a simulated environment. Early Results indicate that while having potential, pico projectors still have areas that need to be improved such as focus and shakiness. In addition, personal control was found to be an important factor in user satisfaction when a small group uses a single mobile projector and may thus inhibit a projector-only solution. We also report on different group techniques and usage patterns observed while using a pico projector. A future part of this on going study will compare mobile tablets with the same existing mobile solution in a museum environment.
Using Real-time Feedback to Improve Visual Question Answering -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Technology holds great promise for improving the everyday lives of people with disabilities; however, automated systems are prone to errors and cannot handle many real-world tasks. VizWiz, a system for answering visual questions for blind users, has shown that crowdsourcing can be used for assistive technology in such domains. Our work extends the VizWiz model by enabling users to interact with the crowd via a real-time feedback loop. We introduce Legion:View, a system that enables such a real-time feedback loop for visual questions between users and crowd workers. Legion:View sends audio questions and streaming video to the crowd, and forwards feedback about the position and orientation of the camera and answers to questions back to users.
Self-Correcting Crowds -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Much of the current work in crowdsourcing is focused on increasing the quality of responses. Quality issues are most often due to a small subset of low quality workers. The ability to distinguish between high and low quality workers would allow a wide range of error correction to be performed for such tasks. However, differentiating between these types is difficult when no measure of individual success is available. We propose it is possible to use higher quality workers to compensate for lower quality ones, without explicitly identifying them, by allowing them to observe and react to the input of the collective. In this paper, we present initial work on eliciting this behavior and discuss how it may be possible to leverage self-correction in the crowd for better performance on continuous real-time tasks.
Multi-Touch based Video Selection with an Audio Emotional Curve -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This article describes a new multi-touch based method for selecting video parts on mobile devices. Basically, a video player displays only the current image and a timeline to interact with the entire video content. Rewinding and forwarding to a specific scene are thus little practicable for selecting the best video moments. Our proposal is the addition of an informative transparency overlay showing the salient information about a soccer game and allowing new multi-touch interactions. This audio emotional curve tends to describe crowd reactions and speaker excitements revealing the best soccer events. Our experiment shows that multi-touch selections based on this curve improve efficiency and fun.
Supporting Opportunistic Search in Meetings with Tangible Tabletop -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Web searches are often needed in collocated meetings. Many research projects have been conducted for supporting collaborative search in information-seeking meetings, where searches are executed both intentionally and intensively. However, for most common meetings, Web searches may happen randomly with low-intensity. They neither serve as main tasks nor major activities. This kind of search can be referred to as opportunistic search. The area of opportunistic search in meetings has not yet been studied. Our research is based upon this motivation. We propose an augmented tangible tabletop system with a semi-ambient conversation-context-aware surface as well as foldable paper browsers for supporting opportunistic search in collocated meetings. In this paper, we present our design of the system and initial findings.
Sharing Emotion on Facebook: Network Size, Density, and Individual Motivation -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Social networking sites afford substantial affective self-expression and hybrid social connections. In this study, we collected 185 Facebook users’ egocentric social network data and analyzed the words of positive emotion and negative emotion in their past status updates. Preliminary results reveal that sharing emotion on Facebook is associated with their social network size and density, and this association is moderated by the individual motivation for relationship management. We also found a decreasing trend of emotion sharing with longer usage of Facebook. Follow-up studies and implications are discussed.
Interacting with Videos On Paper-like Displays -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Analog paper is still often preferred over electronic documents due to specific affordances and rich spatial interaction, in particular if multiple pages are laid out and handled simultaneously. We investigated how interaction with video can benefit from paper-like displays that support interaction with motion and sound. We present a system that includes novel interaction concepts for both video and audio. This includes spatial techniques for temporal navigation, arranging and grouping of videos, virtualizing and materializing contents, as well as focusing on multiple parallel audio sources.
Reducing Visual Demand for Gestural Text Input on Touchscreen Devices -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We developed a text entry method for touchscreen devices using a Graffiti-like alphabet combined with automatic error correction. The method is novel in that the user does not receive the results of the recognition process, except at the end of a phrase. The method is justified over soft keyboards in terms of a Frame Model of Visual Attention, which reveals both the presence and advantage of reduced visual attention. With less on-going feedback to monitor, there is a tendency for the user to enter gestures more quickly. Preliminary testing reveals reasonably quick text entry speeds (>20 wpm) with low errors rates (<5%).
DigiGraff: Considering Graffiti as a Location Based Social Network -
Works In ProgressAbstract » We introduce DigiGraff: a technique to allow lightweight and unconstrained digital annotation of the physical environment via mobile digital projection. Using graffiti as a design meme, DigiGraff provides a way to study the role of location in the creation and browsing of social media, and introduces concepts of temporality, ageing and wear into message presentation. As the volume of geo-tagged social media increases, we outline why such consideration is relevant and important, and how DigiGraff will support deeper understanding of location data in social media.
Leveraging Motor Learning for a Tangible Password System -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) may allow users to have more direct interaction with systems when compared to traditional graphical user interfaces (GUIs). However, the full range of applications where TUIs can be utilized in practice is unclear. To resolve this problem, the benefits of TUIs must be analyzed and matched to an application domain where they hold advantages over more traditional systems. Since TUIs require users to use their hands in order to interact with the system, there is the possibility for these systems to leverage motor learning to help users perform specific tasks. In this paper we will describe an early attempt to understand how motor learning can be used to create a tangible password system. A novel tangible password system was created and a small study conducted in order to identify future research objectives.
Namibian and American Cultural Orientations Toward Facebook -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Nadkarni and Hofman’s [8] meta-review of literature on Facebook usage recommends examining differences in Facebook use between collectivistic and individualistic cultures. We discuss early findings of an exploratory study to compare use between participants in America, Namibia, and expatriate Namibians. From this, we identified five key areas of difference: 1) Motivations for joining Facebook; 2) Attitude toward Facebook connections; 3) Self presentation and photo sharing; 4) Communication about death, religion, and politics; 5) General privacy definitions. However, our findings showed no statistical difference in the Collectivism Scale [10] administered among the three groups, despite Namibia being considered a highly collectivistic county [12] and the US being a highly individualistic country [6].
Considerate Supervisor: An Audio-only Facilitator for Multiparty Conference Calls -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This paper shows that automated feedback on an audio-only channel can reduce dominance in collaborative tasks. In a study of multiple three-person distributed groups solving Hangman, a word guessing game, the Considerate Supervisor reduced the difference between the most dominant and the most dormant participants significantly. This paper points towards opportunities for computers to improve communication between people through a pro-active and considerate interface, and calls for further exploration of the effectiveness of such interfaces.
An Initial Analysis of Communicability Evaluation Methods through a Case Study -
Works In ProgressAbstract » HCI researchers have raised the importance of research regarding HCI theories, as well as new evaluation methods that can take into consideration novel applications and technologies. Semiotic Engineering is an HCI theory in which the interface is perceived as a communicative act from designers of a system to its users. Based on this theory, new evaluation methods have been proposed, namely, the Semiotic Inspection Method (SIM) and Communicability Evaluation Method (CEM). Research assessing each of these methods has been carried out. However, a study comparing both methods has not yet been performed. In this paper we describe a case study performed comparing SIM and CEM methods and present the initial results obtained.
Characterizing the Effectiveness of Twitter Hashtags to Detect and Track Online Population Sentiment -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In this paper we describe the preliminary results and future directions of a research in progress, which aims at assessing the hashtag effectiveness as a resource for sentiment analysis expressed on Twitter. The results so far support our hypothesis that hashtags may facilitate the detection and
automatic tracking of online population sentiment about different events.
Making the Switch: Channel Switching in Romantic Couple Conflict -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This work explores the role of channel switching, or switching between forms of face-to-face and mediated communication (e.g., text messaging, instant messaging) in romantic couple conflict. Exploratory interviews were conducted with 24 individuals currently involved in a romantic relationship of at least 3 months. Initial results indicate that many patterns of channel switching are used during conflict and that participants have a number of motivations for initiating a channel switch. Implications for the design of communication technologies for romantic couples are discussed.
teleWEAR: Engaging Users and Suppliers of Telecare in Product Design -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Telecare is the remote or enhanced delivery of care services to people in their own home or community setting using ICT. Telecare is expected to play an important role in addressing some of the challenges of an ageing population. However, products are often unsatisfactory and a major contributing factor is that suppliers do not typically involve users in design processes. This paper describes a participatory design project involving 25 designers, 6 service users, 11 potential future service users and 2 telecare suppliers: six concept designs were created for a wearable alarm button in two half-day workshops. Our main contribution is to present the design features considered most important to users, which can be incorporated into future product designs and inform other wearable alarm systems for older people. As a result of the project, a leading supplier has invited users to participate in their research and development activities for the first time.
Effects of Input Device Familiarity on Content Creation and Sharing in Meetings -
Works In ProgressAbstract » In co-located meetings, content creation is often distributed among the group members and sharing requires transfer of content artifacts, which impedes collaboration. In this paper, we present the design of a collaborative environment to support this activity in meetings for small groups. The system consists of a shared wall-mounted workspace where users can interact using either mouse and keyboard or digital pen and paper. We also present a user study comparing the two input configurations and its preliminary results.
Exploring Infrastructure Assemblage in Volunteer Virtual Organizations -
Works In ProgressAbstract » This ongoing research project investigates ad-hoc infrastructure development in volunteer virtual organizations (VVOs). A comparative analysis of the tool appropriation of VVO activity among alternate reality game (ARG) players in three cities yielded insight for future research into underlying principles of infrastructure assemblage, types of ad-hoc resource provisioning, and potential means of design support.
Enhancing Web Page Skimmability -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Information overload on the Web and limited reading time force users to skim read web pages. For non-native English readers, it is challenging to understand first-hand information written in English under time constraints. Traditional readability enhancement research has focused on enhancing reading comprehension and user satisfaction, but average reading times for non-native readers have remained the same or even worse. In this paper, we investigate useful techniques for readers when reading web pages under time constraints, i.e., having skim reading capability. We propose two techniques to help non-native readers to skim read web pages: (1) content spotlight, masking and filtering; and (2) semantic data extraction and in-place translation. Froggy GX is a prototype system that implements proposed techniques to provide skim-reading support for non-native readers.
Watching You Moving the Mouse, I Know Who You Are -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Previous research on modeling human’s pointing behavior focuses on user-independent variables such as target width and distance. In this work-in-progress, we investigate a set of user-dependent variables, which are drawn from cursor trajectory data and may represent an individual user’s unique pattern when controlling mouse movement. Using these features, the 8 users in our experiment can be recognized at a promising accuracy as high as 87.5%.
A Crowdsourcing Quality Control Model for Tasks Distributed in Parallel -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Quality control for crowdsourcing systems has been identified as a significant challenge [2]. We propose a data-driven model for quality control in the context of crowdsourcing systems with the goal of assessing the quality of each individual contribution for parallel distributed tasks (allowing multiple people working on a same task). The model is initiated with a data training process providing a rough estimate for several quality-related performance measures (e.g. time spent on a task). The initial estimates are combined with observations of results produced by workers to estimate the quality for each individual contribution. We conduct a study to evaluate the model in the context of improving speech recognition-based text correction using MTurk services. Results indicate that the model accurately predicts quality for more than 92% of the non-negative (useful) contributions and 96% of the negative (useless) ones.
How Can a DSL for Expert End-Users be Designed for Better Usability? : A Case Study in Computer Music -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Programming languages have been rarely discussed from the perspective of user-centered design when compared to GUIs or Human Interface Devices. We de-scribe our case study in user-centered design of a do-main-specific language (DSL) for computer music. Since the potential usability problems of a DSL is large-ly unforeseeable in the early phase of the design, we took an approach that begins with the analysis of the usability problems in an existing DSL and then use the analysis for redesign of the DSL and design of a new DSL. The frameworks provided by the previous HCI studies are introduced into the design process. Such an approach is also valuable for claim-evidence corre-spondences for usability claims, which have been lack-ing in language design today.
Turning Personal Calendars into Scheduling Assistants -
Works In ProgressAbstract » Personal calendars have long played a major role in time management, but they have evolved little over the years, and their contribution to productivity has stagnated. Inspired by logical theories of intention as well as experimental results on human productivity, and leveraging the power of optimization algorithms, we seek to reinvent the digital calendar. First, we increase the expressive power of calendar systems by deriving new entity types that go beyond simple events to better represent human intentions, plans, and goals. Next, we build on social psychological research to characterize the properties of a schedule best engineered for human productivity. Finally, we develop an optimization framework and algorithm to generate these schedules from a set of entities. With these tools combined, we transform the digital calendar from a passive repository into an active scheduling assistant.