A new acronym I was not aware of: WOMBAT = Where are the Other Mobile Buddies Around Town?. It's actually taken from a recent EURESCOM study which "explored the communication needs of teenagers, how they could be met by location-based services, and which location technology is best suited: In the E...
Interview of Nokia's Director of Design Strategy
A very relevant interview of Nokia's director of design strategy. Among all what he said, some excerpts I found interesting: We actually do studies - with full consent of the users - on smartphones. We do 100% tracking of all functionalities over a period of time. This means, we have granular view ...
Last issue of Vodafone's Receiver
I just saw the last issue of Vodafone's Receiver which seems to be a great wine. There are papers by Mark Pesce, Jonathan Donner, Marc Prensky, James Katz,Mark Lowenstein,Nathan Eagle and Alex (Sandy) Pentland, Lars Erik Holmquist, Sara Price and Yvonne Rogers and Jeff Pierce. Sara Price and Yvonne...
Bye Bye Japan
I like those wires, it remind me 'Serial Experiment Lain'. ...
From direct physical interaction to hardware-based input devices
A very good resource about game controllers in Gamasutra: "Controller Mediation in Human-Computer Play". It's actually a thesis from Stanford University by Tony Thulatimutte. In the mid-to-late-20th century, the advent of the computer game signaled the beginning of a new mode of play interaction. W...
A study of martial art in mixed reality
I think I alreadyRegine blogged about Kick-ass Kung-Fu last year. It's a mixed reality game that merges virtual and real worlds to let players control a Kung-Fu game with their movements. What is interesting is that, the designers conducted some studies about its usage:, 46 persons tried the syste...
Mobile HCI 2006
Good to know: CALL FOR PAPERS - MOBILEHCI 2006 The 8th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services Dates: 12-15 September, 2006 Location: Espoo, Finland Website: www.mobilehci.org Deadlines: * Papers, Workshops and Tutorials: 1 March 2006 * Short Papers,...
'Beta' as a long-term label...
The WSJ last week had a good column about an interesting fact: for some technology companies, 'Beta' becomes a long-term label (by DAVID KESMODEL) For years, the term "beta" referred to a relatively short period of testing by a select group of outsiders. These days, beta editions are not only relea...
Gonzo Gizmos
This seems to be an intriguing resource: "Gonzo Gizmos: Projects & Devices to Channel Your Inner Geek" (Simon Field) Here is the blurb: It's possible to use optics to roast a hot dog without electricity or a stove; to make a simple radio with just an iron, a few basic circuits and three shiny pe...
Scientists, please share your data!
A step towards publication-sharing: scientists must embrace a culture of sharing and rethink their vision of databases, a great article in Nature. I fully conccur with the vision presented here. The point is that research can be empowered by webservices in multiple ways. This idea is well described...