Via, this impressive game-controller trick to be used in Katamari Damacy for getting one million roses.
Why do I blog this? this is is a good expression of gamers' creativity to achieve their game goals. I also like the idea of using additional artifacts to act on the game. The use of rubber bands is interesting. Would we see some people using a vaccuum cleaner to create huge bubble with the bubble toy in Nintendogs on the DS?
One of the outcome of my research lately is that automating location-awareness might be detrimental to group collaboration in mobile settings (more about it in this paper .pdf). The concept of automation drawbacks has been already adresses in human-computer interaction and is often refered to as "clumsy automation". This is developed in David Woods' paper called "Human-Centered Software Agents: Lessons from Clumsy Automation". Some excerpts:
These machine agents often are called automation, and they were built in part in the hope that they would improve human performance by off loading work, freeing up attention, hiding complexity -- the same kinds of justifications touted for the benefits of software agents. (...)
The pattern that emerged is that strong but silent and difficult to direct machine agents create new operational complexities. In these studies we interacted with many different operational people and organizations, * through their descriptions of incidents where automated systems behaved in surprising ways, * through their behavior in incidents that occurred on the job, * through their cognitive activities as analyzed in simulator studies that examined the coordination between practitioner and automated systems in specific task contexts, * unfortunately, through the analysis of accidents where people misunderstood what their automated partners were doing until disaster struck.
In our case, the automation did not create cognitive or physical workload nor incidents or suprising things BUT it lead users to a certain inertia in terms of communication (they communicated less), strategy planning (they did not reshape their strategy). Users considered that the information given by the automatic location-awareness tool was sufficient to complete the task and that's it.
Ref: Woods, D. D. (1997). Human-centered software agents: Lessons from clumsy automation. In J. Flanagan, T. Huang, P. Jones, & S. Kasif, S. (Eds.), Human centered systems: Information, interactivity, and intelligence (pp. 288--293). Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.
Technorati Tags: hci, automation
Leapfrogging is not only for third-world countries. There is this relevant information in the NYT/IHT today:
A recent survey of how the Internet is being used in Europe shows that in some key areas, the east is ahead. It's a symptom of the "leapfrog effect," in which technology laggards skip a couple of middle steps that mature markets take, according to Alex Burmaster, European Internet analyst at Nielsen/Net Ratings.For instance, a higher percentage of Internet users in Lithuania - 42 percent - access the Web from portable devices like mobile phones than in Britain, where the figure is 25 percent, the Net Ratings survey showed.
The same is true for instant messaging, looking for a job online and a handful of other tasks that the industry considers advanced use of the Internet, Burmaster said. (...) More startling, perhaps, are the survey results for online news. Eastern European surfers are more likely to be reading the Internet version of newspapers than the print version, he said, and far more likely to get news off the Net than Western Europeans. Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and Latvia are the four European markets whose online users are most likely to read an online newspaper, the survey showed
For reader who are not aware of it, leapfrogging is "the notion that areas which have poorly-developed technology or economic bases can move themselves forward rapidly through the adoption of modern systems without going through intermediary steps
The best-known example of leapfrogging is the adoption of mobile phones in the developing world. It's easier and faster to put in cellular towers in rural and remote areas than to put in land lines, and as a result, cellular use is exploding." (According to Worldchanging).
Why do I blog this? this is very interesting, now old europe is made up of late adopters...
Some good folks in Zurich are working on using solar cells to measure distance indoors. It's called Luxtrace: a wearable location tracking by solar cells. It's described in "Towards LuxTrace: Using Solar Cells to Measure Distance Indoors" by Julian Randall, Oliver Amft, and Gerhard Troster (Wearable Computing Laboratory, IfE, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Navigation for and tracking of humans within a building usually implies significant infrastructure investment and devices are usually too high in weight and volume to be integrated into garments. We propose a system that relies on existing infrastructure (so requires little infrastructure investment) and is based on a sensor that is low cost, low weight, low volume and can be manufactured to have similar characteristics to everyday clothing (flexible, range of colours). This proposed solution is based on solar modules. This paper investigates their theoretical and practical characteristics in a simplified scenario. Two models based on theory and on experimental results (empirical model) are developed and validated. First distance estimations indicate that an empirical model for a particular scenario achieves an accuracy of 18cm with a confidence of 83%.
The flexible solar module system on the shoulder (1) transmits one or more RF pulses only when there is sufficient energy to do so i.e. beneath a light source. This data is collected and processed by the belt worn computer (3):
Why do I blog this? it's a novel way of doing location-tracking I was not aware of, interesting, after using gps, wifi, ultrasound, tv-signals, there is this.
A personal rescue system “Savior” as a pneumatic braking cone equipped with mini-compressor, and a dummy. This inflatable module is meant for rescuing both people and valuable cargo from high-rise buildings in case of fires and other calamities.
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A. Dix, A. Friday, B. Koleva, T. Rodden, H. Muller, C. Randell, A. Steed, "Managing multiple spaces" In P. Turner, E. Davenport (eds.) Space, Spatiality and Technologies, Kluwer, 2005. The authors' aim is analyse the way in which multiple spaces, both virtual and physical, can co-exist.
By this we mean that people and objects may have locations in and relationships to both physical space and one or more virtual spaces, and that these different spaces together interact to give an overall system behaviour and user experience.
They use 4 cases (City, CityWide, the Drift Table and Ambient Wood) to see how multiple physical and virtual spaces interact. The choice of the different environment is pretty pertinent since there are mobile applications and an interactive table. They then discriminate 3 types of space:
I like this representation, here is how they represent it (the discussion about each relation is vrey insightful afterwards):
Why do I blog this? this spatial topic is very central to my research in the sense that I adding another point to each these 3 spaces: a kind of social layer. It's actually thinking about how objects or people relates to the real space (for instance a person located somewhere) the measured space (which feature do we measure from this person? his/her proximity to me?) or the virtual space (What do we represent? and what do we want the user to be aware of with regards to this person/object?). Do people also keep in mind a representation of their partners' position when they're collaborating? Is is it useful in terms of task performance? communication? collaborative processes? The model they propose is very relevant and is a good brick to work on.
An as they say "Given a measured space we then obtain the location of objects within that space using some form of sensing. This sensing may vary in accuracy. (...) there is not a simple relationship between the real and the measured". This is definitely what fabien is investigating: how people deal with this gap between the real and the measured (which is in the end what is reflected by the service). The authors conclude, from their case studies, that people deal remarkably well with complex special relationships, but that it is harder for mere computers. I am not so sure about it (depending on the level of infoliteracy of the users, familiarity with the technology...) but hey let's fabien work on this ;)
Finally, there is surely some food for thoughts for end of cyberspace...
The Ambient peacock explorer is a project by Cati Vaucelle and Philip Vriend which I like. It's actually an interesting mobile unit that can be connected to an headquarter, here is the mobile unit:
mobile units: Independent from the headquarter / One shell per context of exploration / Shell inflated on top of the structure to indicate where the mobile unit is going / Context based shells per unitWater: Jelly Fish Organic Shell Countryside: Wooden structureCity: Inflatable ConcreteAir: Blimp
headquater Is composed of four gathering areas: the air, the countryside, the city and the water area, a studio and an editing room. Each wall receives life feed from the mobile units based on each unit context. Environmental data from sensing mobile units are also projected on the walls as meta information. The headquarter itself retro-project on its roof the life feed of its environment and on the external walls displays the video from mobiles units. The production centre also invites to discuss the documentaries and environmental issues and by that is also a showcase building.
Recently, while re-doing my PhD mindmap, I thought again and again at methodologies to analyze user experienec in the context of mobile collaboration using certain technologies (e.g. lbs). One of the inspiring field is social psychology. I tried to think about some connection between social psychology and our field. The first point is that social psychology brings framework and theories relevant for CSCW: attribution theory (Heider), social comparison theory (Festinger, Doise and Mugny...) might be interesting to use (in the hypotheses or to the methodology in the qualitative analysis). Heider's attribution theory is about how people make causal explanations of phenomenon: the information they use in making these inferences, and with what they do with this information to answer causal questions. The social comparison theory postulates the existence of a drive to evaluate his opinions and abilities by comparison with the opinions and abilities of others. But, social psychologist with whom we discussed agrees that acknowledge that it is very difficult to take this into account. Anyway, this is useful when we use group-confrontation to traces of their activity (in the context of the CatchBob! replay tool for instance) or during game interviews. This means, for example, being careful when formulating questions, to prevent people from being compared or comparing each others..
In addition, methdologies and statistical techniques developed by social psychology can be helpful. Yes, we have a strong quantitative flavor at the lab, that's the why we're looking into that direction. Social psychology interestingly addressed the notion of 'unit of analysis' when investigating collaboration and small-group phenomenon. What's this unit: the individual? the group? The corollary conclusions social psychologists came out with is that some techniques can tell the observer what he should address. For instance, the intraclass correlation is a good index that can tell us whether the unit should be the individual or the group. The point is to verify the non-independence of the measures. This method has been formalized by Kenny (Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D. A., Bolger, N. (1998) Data analysis in social psychology. In D. Gilbert, S. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (eds.) Handbook of social psychology , vol. 1, pp. 233-251. Boston: McGraw-Hill. p233). I also presented this here.
Of course, there is also a lot to take from multi-level modeling orAPIM (Actor Partner Model...) as in Strijbos, J. W., Martens, R. L., Jochems, W. M. G., & Broers, N. J. (2004). The effect of functional roles on group efficiency: Using multilevel modeling and content analysis to investigate computer-supported collaboration in small groups. /Small Group Research/, /35/, 195-229. http://www.ou.nl/info-alg-english-r_d/OTEC_research/publications/jan%20willem%20strijbos/Strijbos%20et%20al.%20(2004)_Functional%20roles_SGR_35_195-229.pdf).
Californian IFTF pal Alex Pang started a new blog about a very pertinent concept: The End of Cyberspace. His take is that cyberspace, as a metaphor of a virtual and digital world emerged from sci-fi culture, is now coming to an end because of recent developments:
Why is cyberspace coming to an end? Our experience of interacting with digital information is changing. We're moving to a world in which we (or objects acting on our behalf) are online all the time, everywhere. Designers and computer scientists are also trying hard to create a new generation of devices and interfaces that don't monopolize our attention, but ride on the edges of our awareness. We'll no longer have to choose between cyberspace and the world; we'll constantly access the first while being fully part of the second. Because of this, the idea of cyberspace as separate from the real world will collapse.
So if "cyberspace" is no longer relevant, what will we call this new world? That's the big question, isn't it?
This reminds me some thought by dutch designer Rem Koolhas I blogged about two years ago. For instance, he claims that “words that die in the real world are reborn in the virtual”: webSITE, fireWALL, chatROOM. Would we see a reverse trend? Alex is right to raise the issue of the semantic layer of what is happening lately: what would be the name of this new world? The "augmented world" is a bit too narrow.
The manual for micro-dwelling shows interesting new micro-dwelling development:
| MICRO DWELLINGS is a system for making low cost dwellings of variable sizes for any number of persons. It consists of movable housing modules that can form different configurations on land, on water and under water. The system allows for a diversity of materials as well as changes and adaptations. The MICRO DWELLINGS are modular, can be scaled up and down, and expand and grow together with other systems into small communities. (...) An energy unit could be hooked on to the MICRO DWELLINGS, consisting of for example micro-windmills, solar panels and solar heat systems, heat pumps etc. (...) The MICRO DWELLINGS can be built onto rooftops of existing buildings or be suspended from a bridge or a wall. |  |
Why do I blog this? I like the last point: living above a bridge... that sounds so William Gibson.
This button makes you go up: three-year-olds and the Nintendo controller by Erik F. Strommen, Setareh Razavi and Lisa M. Medoff in Applied Ergonomics 1992, Vol. 23, No. 6, (pp. 409-413).
Abstract: Forty three-year-old children used the Nintendo controller in a simple cursor-placement task, with two different software interfaces. The directional interface required children to map specific directions of movement on to specific buttons on the controller. The non-directional interface simply advanced the cursor in a clockwise direction to the next placement location, regardless of the specific directional button pressed. Results indicate that while the youngest three-year-old children find the non-directional interface slightly easier to use, older three-year-olds are more successful with the directional interface. In addition, all three-year-olds actually experienced problems using the simpler, non-directional interface - and problems increased with age.
Why do I blog this? I am always interested by research about gamepad. This paper is a bit old but we can still consider some of thre results + the methodology since some gamepads are still similar (the Nintendo DS pads is very close to it).
Via heaven blog, this curious mouse-phone or phone-mouse:
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This product is a combination of a mouse and a telephone that will enable you to use the mouse and the telephone at the same time. The 3D roller will ease your reading by screen scrolling.
At the same time!!! This is so odd.. back to wired phones!
Another example is available here, the Aka mouse talk:
"Your room as your browser" is the motto of a project led by Philips Research:
Philips has developed a common language for describing experiences within an Ambient Intelligence environment: Physical Markup Language (PML). (...) An Ambient Intelligence system can interpret a description in PML in such a way that the devices in its network can jointly use their individual capabilities to render that experience at a given location.In effect, your whole room becomes a 'browser' that brings the experience to life. For example, PML-enabled lights add to the experience by getting brighter or dimmer, or changing colour. A PML-enabled hi-fi provides an appropriate soundscape. Almost any device can be PML-enabled: the possibilities are only limited by the imaginations of their manufacturers. Suppose a room is rendering an experience described as 'warm and sunny': the lights, the TV, the central heating, the electronically controlled blinds and (a little further into the future) even the ceiling, walls and floor coverings could all contribute to creating it.
The example they give is the following:
Ambient Intelligence, with its network of cooperating devices, offers the promise of providing us with exciting new experiences in the home. Suppose, for instance, that while you are reading a book or watching a movie the whole room around you begins to reflect the imaginary scene?
Why do I blog this? It's very close to their ambx idea (which is actually a spin-off from Philips): amBX-enabled games will provide gamers with the ability to use light, colour, sound, heat and even airflow in the real world during gameplay.
Would it be possible to connect this to Wil's taxonomy of his room?
(via skate infusion)Yes skateboarding companies had Research and Development facilities! This weblog gives a great account of a visit at the Powell company in Santa Barbara. The pictures they took are impressive:
This machine gives the shape: skateboard creation:
The tour video is a must-see.
Via Gamasutra, this new handheld device capable of playing games by Commodore International showed at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Navigator Combo is an upgradable handheld device with GPS functions that also plays games, music and video files. The Combo runs on the Windows CE platform, and contains a 20GB internal hard drive for storing media. Some of that media apparently includes games; the Combo will ship with 5 game titles pre-loaded, and 90 more available for down
There is also a Mediatower platform with no game functions (I'm less interested by this).
Why do I blog this? the interesting thing is that there is a GPS inside, do they believe in location-based games? I am looking forward to see this.
An intriguing notion: an Emotion-aware mobile music player described in a paper by andor Dornbush, Kevin Fisher, Kyle McKay, Alex Prikhodko, and Zary Segall at the soon-to-be International Conference on Mobile Technology, Applications and Systems (2006)
the notion of collecting human emotion and activity information from the user, and explore how this information could be used to improve the user experience with mobile music players. (...) a mobile MP3 player, XPod, which is able to automate the process of selecting the song best suited to the emotion and the current activity of the user. The XPod concept is based on the idea of automating much of the interaction between the music player and its user. (...) After an initial training period, the XPod is able to use its internal algorithms to make an educated selection of the song that would best fit its user's emotion and situation. We use the data gathered from a streaming version of the BodyMedia SenseWear to detect different levels of user activity and emotion. After determining the state of the user the neural network engine compares the user's current state, time, and activity levels to past user song preferences matching the existing set of conditions and makes a musical selection. The XPod system was trained to play different music based on the user’s activity level. A simple pattern was used so the state dependant customization could be verified. XPod successfully learned the pattern of listening behavior exhibited by the test user. As the training proceeded the XPod learned the desired behavior and chose music to match the preferences of the test user. XPod automates the process of choosing music best suited for a user’s current activity. The success of the initial implementation of XPod concepts provides the basis for further exploration of human- and emotion-aware mobile music players.
Read their paper here (pdf)
Why do I blog this? human- and emotion-aware technology is still in its infancy, I am curious to see how it can be included into the interaction design of various technologies (especially video-games) and what would be the users' reaction, i.e the adequation of the output (in this case the mp3 played) and the users' reaction: would there be a real matching? will it be well received. Also, the dark side of my mind think about potential hacks like using this to create new technosocial situation (it's the other way around: when the output is totally the opposite of what would fit).
We're getting closer and closer to the LIFT Conference in Geneva, our event about new technologies and people! On February 2-3, 2006, this event will gather great thinkers and doers to discuss about understanding current challenges and creative solutions presented by emerging technologies.
In this context, I also organize a workshop, along with californian pal Julian Bleecker. More about it later.
Found this on <a href="http://del.icio.usdel.icio.us: The Invisible Train by Daniel Wagner, Thomas Pintaric, Florian Ledermann, Dieter Schmalstieg, a cool augmented reality game with a multi-user component:
The Invisible Train is a mobile, collaborative multi-user Augmented Reality (AR) game, in which players control virtual trains on a real wooden miniature railroad track. These virtual trains are only visible to players through their PDA's video see-through display as they don't exist in the physical world. This type of user interface is commonly called the "magic lens metaphor".
Why do I blog this? I like this new trend in augmented reality called "handheld augmented reality": the interface is lighter, the rendering of the scene is done on a (cheap) handheld and (costly) glasses as represented on this picture:
This makes game development more realistic (through the lens), the point is now to create games with specific tags as in this case. I'd love to have such a feature on my DS.
Dr. Daniel Cerqui-Ducret is a social and cultural anthropologist who works on neat project:
My researches focus on the development of the new information technologies and the 'information society' these technologies are supposed to create. In such a society computers are more and more integrated everywhere in our environment ('pervasive computing'). Furthermore, chips and human bodies are merging and such a symbiosis has consequences for the future of humankind. I am especially interested in how engineers who work on these new technologies see this future: what is (descriptive aspect) and what should be (normative aspect) a human being according to them?Furthermore, I am interested in the ethical and social aspects of the convergent robotics, nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology, as all of them are merging to modify humankind.
Why do I blog this? Since she works close to our school (EPFL is close to the University of Lausanne) I'd love to hear her perspective on pervasive computing.
Besides, her current project is pretty interesting:
currently carrying out a two years research (since June 2004) in the Department of Cybernetics of the University of Reading, where Kevin Warwick was , in 2002, the first human with a chip implanted in his body and directly linked to his nervous system.
On the one hand, I am doing an ethnographical job in this Department, which means following Kevin in his activites, trying to understand which are his main values and how a cyborg culture can be promoted.
On the other hand, as I think that social scientists must be engaged, I collaborate with Kevin in order to make him aware of he main social. ethical, philosophical and anthropological issues related to his work.
Moreover, we are using our original collaboration to produce common papers. We hope that it will make social scientists aware of how far Kevin is going in his researches, and computer scientists aware of the fundamental issues raised by their practices , even if they are convinced that technology is just a neutral tool.
