Overall, this was a highly enjoyable read. The book presents two important views. The first is an insight into the life of people in the projects. The second is a glimpse into the mind of an ethnographer.
Life in the projects is not something that can be understood by someone who hasn't lived there. But poor locations such as these are a large source of our countries socioeconomic problems. This book gives an outsider's view on the projects, making it a more approachable text for other outsiders. Sudir managed to penetrate to some of the very central characters the culture of poverty. This is something that could only be managed by approaching the problem the way that Sudir did, and that is immersion. So I value this book for presenting to me perspectives that I could only be privy to if I had dedicated the years to living with and studying the residents of a poor community.
Also, this text allowed us to see the first hand accounts of an ethnographer carrying out an ethnography. Even more unique is that this is Sudir's first study. He had very little in the way of experience, and so his insights, particularly those into his own condition, were particularly pure. The lack of inhibition that older sociologists develop is what allowed him to tolerate the crime that he had to witness, and in some ways participate in, in order to become a trusted member of the community. Knowing the problems that an ethnographer must deal with not only assists our own studies of people, but also helps us to better understand our more typical interpersonal relations.
In the end, this was an excellent book and I would recommend it to your future classes.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Blog - Paper Reading #12
Enabling Beyond-Surface Interactions for Interactive Surface with An Invisible Projection
Authored by Li-Wei Chan, Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, Ju-Chun Ko, Home-Ru Lin, Mike Y. Chen, Jane Hsu, and Yi-Ping Hung.
Hsu and Hung are professors at the National Taiwan University. The remaining authors are all students at NTU. This paper was published at the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesized that their infrared tools could be used to interact with display surfaces supporting multi-touch interaction.
Methods
The team used a variety of tools. They used an infrared lamp, a flashlight, and a 3D image viewer implemented on a tablet pc. They had several users utilize their tools to inspect a map on an interactive surface. These tools could be used to reveal hidden detail in the maps or to view available photos for certain areas.
Results
The team stated that results were positive, but most of what was listed were complaints. Users found the flashlight difficult to use, as the height was not fixed. Additionally they wanted to be able to view 3D images at higher elevations, which was not supported. The design did work as they planned however, the infrared tools allowed viewers to examine hidden elements on the map without interfering with touch based manipulation.
Content
The paper begins by describing the technical details of the implementation of their setup. They describe how the surface was put together and what each of the infrared tools are composed of. Towards the end there is a small user study with vague feedback.
Discussion
I do not feel the authors completed their objective. It may be in part because I do not clearly understand what their objective was. The paper is too technical, and has very little detail when it comes to the actual user study. This may be a significant development, but I fail to see how. I don't know what use handheld devices would have for infrared markers on interactive surfaces. The examples they used to demonstrate their product seemed to be more effective when using the interactive surface as it was intended. The infrared tools did not seem to bring anything new to the table. Future work is questionable.
Authored by Li-Wei Chan, Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, Ju-Chun Ko, Home-Ru Lin, Mike Y. Chen, Jane Hsu, and Yi-Ping Hung.
Hsu and Hung are professors at the National Taiwan University. The remaining authors are all students at NTU. This paper was published at the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesized that their infrared tools could be used to interact with display surfaces supporting multi-touch interaction.
Methods
The team used a variety of tools. They used an infrared lamp, a flashlight, and a 3D image viewer implemented on a tablet pc. They had several users utilize their tools to inspect a map on an interactive surface. These tools could be used to reveal hidden detail in the maps or to view available photos for certain areas.
Results
The team stated that results were positive, but most of what was listed were complaints. Users found the flashlight difficult to use, as the height was not fixed. Additionally they wanted to be able to view 3D images at higher elevations, which was not supported. The design did work as they planned however, the infrared tools allowed viewers to examine hidden elements on the map without interfering with touch based manipulation.
Content
The paper begins by describing the technical details of the implementation of their setup. They describe how the surface was put together and what each of the infrared tools are composed of. Towards the end there is a small user study with vague feedback.
Discussion
I do not feel the authors completed their objective. It may be in part because I do not clearly understand what their objective was. The paper is too technical, and has very little detail when it comes to the actual user study. This may be a significant development, but I fail to see how. I don't know what use handheld devices would have for infrared markers on interactive surfaces. The examples they used to demonstrate their product seemed to be more effective when using the interactive surface as it was intended. The infrared tools did not seem to bring anything new to the table. Future work is questionable.
Blog - Paper Reading #11
Multitoe: High-Precision Interaction with Back-Projected Floors Based on High-Resolution Multi-Touch Input
Authored by Thomas Augsten, Konstantin Kaefer, René Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, Torsten Becker, Christian Holz, and Patrick Baudisch.
Augsten, Kaefer, and Holz are all students from the University at Potsdamn in Germany. Baudisch is a professor at the Hasso Plattner Institute where the remaining authors are students. This paper was published at the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors believe that what they call frustrated internal total reflection can be used to design a highly sensitive foot-based input system. They also believe that today's touchscreen interfaces may be dramatically scaled upward using this concept.
Methods
The authors went through a series of user studies to make important design choices about their system. The first test measured how users activated buttons. This data was used to distinguish between neutral walking over the surface, and actions meant to trigger buttons. The second study analyzed how users could select controls from a honeycomb grid of buttons. Each user would stand on this grid and announce which button should be depressed based on their foot position. The third test measured a user's ability to manipulate a "hot spot", or a concentrated point on the surface. The final test examined a user's lower bound on the size of object that could be accurately interacted with.
Results
The first user study revealed four useful types of input: tapping, double tapping, stomping, and jumping, with jumping being the most easily recognized. The authors also found that many users expected the whole area of their foot to be allowed for the purpose of selecting. Hotspot control varied highly from user to user, and reducing button size resulted in a reduction in accuracy. Although, it was found that some users preferred a medium keyboard to a large one in favor of the buttons being easier to reach.
Contents
This paper concerns a new method of registering touch based input to a touchscreen interface. Multitoe is built around a back projected floor utilizing frustrated total internal reflection. The paper describes several user studies that were carried out. The data yielded was used to construct the design parameters of Multitoe.
Discussion
I found this to be a well written and interesting paper. The authors seem to have achieved their goals quite accurately. The users were able to effectively open menus and manipulate objects using the Multitoe system. I found no fault with this study other than its focus on the technology itself, but that was clearly stated in the introduction. The authors clearly outline potential future work. They are constructing a large scale FTIR surface to continue their studies of Multitoe. I don't know that this system will be useful in the same markets as current touchscreen interfaces, but I'm certain that there are niches for large-scale touch screens. Multitoe seems a viable first attempt at such a scaled up design.
Authored by Thomas Augsten, Konstantin Kaefer, René Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, Torsten Becker, Christian Holz, and Patrick Baudisch.
Augsten, Kaefer, and Holz are all students from the University at Potsdamn in Germany. Baudisch is a professor at the Hasso Plattner Institute where the remaining authors are students. This paper was published at the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors believe that what they call frustrated internal total reflection can be used to design a highly sensitive foot-based input system. They also believe that today's touchscreen interfaces may be dramatically scaled upward using this concept.
Methods
The authors went through a series of user studies to make important design choices about their system. The first test measured how users activated buttons. This data was used to distinguish between neutral walking over the surface, and actions meant to trigger buttons. The second study analyzed how users could select controls from a honeycomb grid of buttons. Each user would stand on this grid and announce which button should be depressed based on their foot position. The third test measured a user's ability to manipulate a "hot spot", or a concentrated point on the surface. The final test examined a user's lower bound on the size of object that could be accurately interacted with.
Results
The first user study revealed four useful types of input: tapping, double tapping, stomping, and jumping, with jumping being the most easily recognized. The authors also found that many users expected the whole area of their foot to be allowed for the purpose of selecting. Hotspot control varied highly from user to user, and reducing button size resulted in a reduction in accuracy. Although, it was found that some users preferred a medium keyboard to a large one in favor of the buttons being easier to reach.
Contents
This paper concerns a new method of registering touch based input to a touchscreen interface. Multitoe is built around a back projected floor utilizing frustrated total internal reflection. The paper describes several user studies that were carried out. The data yielded was used to construct the design parameters of Multitoe.
Discussion
I found this to be a well written and interesting paper. The authors seem to have achieved their goals quite accurately. The users were able to effectively open menus and manipulate objects using the Multitoe system. I found no fault with this study other than its focus on the technology itself, but that was clearly stated in the introduction. The authors clearly outline potential future work. They are constructing a large scale FTIR surface to continue their studies of Multitoe. I don't know that this system will be useful in the same markets as current touchscreen interfaces, but I'm certain that there are niches for large-scale touch screens. Multitoe seems a viable first attempt at such a scaled up design.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Blog - Paper Reading #10
Sensing Foot Gestures from the Pocket
Authored by Jeremy Scott, David Dearman, Koji Yatani, and Khai N. Truong.
The authors consist of students and faculty from the University of Torronto. This paper was published in the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesize that foot gestures constitute a robust input method in certain hands-free applications.
Methods
There were two tests conducted over the course of this experiment. The first was callibration, and a proof of concept. Users were asked to answer when they felt they had their foot at different angles according to the experiments four types of motion. They were each fitted with a "rigid foot model" that was tracked by six motion capture cameras. The test calculated how accurately users could hit target angles, and general range of motion. The second test involved utilizing an accelerometer in a mobile phone to record gestures rather than a battery of cameras. Six test participants were asked to go through a variety of selection scenarios and their data was recorded.
Content
This paper attempts to demonstrate the feasibility of foot gestures as a mode of hands and eyes-free interaction with our mobile devices. The text describes two experiments. The first examined user's ability to use foot gestures with a functional level of accuracy. Heel rotation and angling the foot towards the floor were found to be the most effective. The second test examined the possibility of a mobile phone's accelerometer being used to track the foot gestures. Using Naive Baye's to classify the foot gestures, they achieved around 86% accuracy.
Discussion
I believe the authors achieved their purpose in this paper. They did demonstrate that foot gestures can be used as input to a handheld device. I am not convinced that it would receive any market attention though. While the idea is to keep the hands free, the feet are just as often in use. Additionally, while the users in the study were able to operate with reasonable degree of accuracy, there was nothing to indicate that they'd be able to navigate an imaginary radial menu using their feet.
The only way I could see myself using something like this is if both foot and hand gestures were optionally available. I do not like the thought of having to stop walking to input a gesture to my ipod. While foot gestures might be useful in the car, as described in the paper, it would require you to select using the non-dominant foot, which would be far less accurate/comfortable. This circumstance is specifically not tested, and I believe the results on the left foot would have returned a substantially different data set.
Authored by Jeremy Scott, David Dearman, Koji Yatani, and Khai N. Truong.
The authors consist of students and faculty from the University of Torronto. This paper was published in the UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesize that foot gestures constitute a robust input method in certain hands-free applications.
Methods
There were two tests conducted over the course of this experiment. The first was callibration, and a proof of concept. Users were asked to answer when they felt they had their foot at different angles according to the experiments four types of motion. They were each fitted with a "rigid foot model" that was tracked by six motion capture cameras. The test calculated how accurately users could hit target angles, and general range of motion. The second test involved utilizing an accelerometer in a mobile phone to record gestures rather than a battery of cameras. Six test participants were asked to go through a variety of selection scenarios and their data was recorded.
Content
This paper attempts to demonstrate the feasibility of foot gestures as a mode of hands and eyes-free interaction with our mobile devices. The text describes two experiments. The first examined user's ability to use foot gestures with a functional level of accuracy. Heel rotation and angling the foot towards the floor were found to be the most effective. The second test examined the possibility of a mobile phone's accelerometer being used to track the foot gestures. Using Naive Baye's to classify the foot gestures, they achieved around 86% accuracy.
Discussion
I believe the authors achieved their purpose in this paper. They did demonstrate that foot gestures can be used as input to a handheld device. I am not convinced that it would receive any market attention though. While the idea is to keep the hands free, the feet are just as often in use. Additionally, while the users in the study were able to operate with reasonable degree of accuracy, there was nothing to indicate that they'd be able to navigate an imaginary radial menu using their feet.
The only way I could see myself using something like this is if both foot and hand gestures were optionally available. I do not like the thought of having to stop walking to input a gesture to my ipod. While foot gestures might be useful in the car, as described in the paper, it would require you to select using the non-dominant foot, which would be far less accurate/comfortable. This circumstance is specifically not tested, and I believe the results on the left foot would have returned a substantially different data set.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Ethnography Week 1
This week we attended a social function with Cepheid. Happy Yogurt at Northgate has a profit share with the organization on certain nights, and the turnout was impressive. The small establishment was packed wall to wall exclusively with Cepheids. The large bulk of people in a small place gave us the opportunity to split up and socialize with different groups. The collection of people I was talking to were largely new members. They all seemed to gravitate around the older members, often choosing one or two to stick to. This organization has a strange collection of personalities. I would categorize members into one of two groups. There are those that are extremely shy, and won't speak unless spoken to, and there are those who are also shy, but are covering it by ramped up friendliness. It gives interactions in Cepheid at large seem sometimes strained, though usually good natured. I suspect that becoming involved in Cepheid's small programs may give us the opportunity to see members in a more comfortable, more natural environment.
Blog - Paper Reading #9
Jogging over a Distance between Europe and Australia
Authored by Florian "Floyd" Mueller, Frank Vetere, Martin R. Gibbs, Darren Edge, Stefan Agamanolis and Jennifer G. Sheridan.
Florian Mueller is a researcher at Stanford University. Vetere and Gibbs are both computer scientists working for the University of Melbourne. Darren Edge is a researcher in the field of Human Computer Interaction at Microsoft. Stefan Agamanolis is the Associate Director of the research institute located at Akron Children's Hospital. Jennifer is the Senior User Experience Consultant and Director of User Experience at BigDog Interactive.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesized that a technology like Jogging over a Distance could be used to facilitate social interaction in exertion activities.
Methods
A group of fourteen participants were selected on the grounds that they were social runners ranging from age 26 to 44. They each ran between 25 to 45 minutes. The Jogging over a Distance tool utilized cell phones to allow the user to simulate running with a partner in another location. Some ran with another user in a different country, others ran on the same track but in opposite directions. Afterward, participants reported their experiences during the test and their overall feelings about the equipment.
Contents
The paper details the background information regarding the studies on exertion activities. After explaining their hypothesis the authors describe the functions of Jogging over a Distance. A key feature is the audio feedback gives the illusion of one's partner speaking from locations that are relative to each runner's heart rate. A greater level of exertion will cause a runner's voice to seem as though it is coming from a location ahead of the listener. The study meets with positive results and some unexpected benefits provided by the system.
Discussion
This project is interesting in that it produces a very tangible physical experience in tandem with long distance communication. The shortcomings of this project were few, and quite suited to future work. The authors need to do a study over a longer period of time, to clear the uncertainty caused by the novelty of the tool. Also, though the project focused on social interaction, it would be good to know the effect it has on actual physical performance.
Of particular interest to me was the new rubric for competition that arose. This project was designed for non-competitive, social, runners. However, when runners did compete with each other, they found themselves relying on voice position to measure advantage. This means that level of exertion, not the actual product of the exertion, became the important element. This could be extensible to an interesting variety of games
Authored by Florian "Floyd" Mueller, Frank Vetere, Martin R. Gibbs, Darren Edge, Stefan Agamanolis and Jennifer G. Sheridan.
Florian Mueller is a researcher at Stanford University. Vetere and Gibbs are both computer scientists working for the University of Melbourne. Darren Edge is a researcher in the field of Human Computer Interaction at Microsoft. Stefan Agamanolis is the Associate Director of the research institute located at Akron Children's Hospital. Jennifer is the Senior User Experience Consultant and Director of User Experience at BigDog Interactive.
Summary
Hypothesis
The authors hypothesized that a technology like Jogging over a Distance could be used to facilitate social interaction in exertion activities.
Methods
A group of fourteen participants were selected on the grounds that they were social runners ranging from age 26 to 44. They each ran between 25 to 45 minutes. The Jogging over a Distance tool utilized cell phones to allow the user to simulate running with a partner in another location. Some ran with another user in a different country, others ran on the same track but in opposite directions. Afterward, participants reported their experiences during the test and their overall feelings about the equipment.
Contents
The paper details the background information regarding the studies on exertion activities. After explaining their hypothesis the authors describe the functions of Jogging over a Distance. A key feature is the audio feedback gives the illusion of one's partner speaking from locations that are relative to each runner's heart rate. A greater level of exertion will cause a runner's voice to seem as though it is coming from a location ahead of the listener. The study meets with positive results and some unexpected benefits provided by the system.
Discussion
This project is interesting in that it produces a very tangible physical experience in tandem with long distance communication. The shortcomings of this project were few, and quite suited to future work. The authors need to do a study over a longer period of time, to clear the uncertainty caused by the novelty of the tool. Also, though the project focused on social interaction, it would be good to know the effect it has on actual physical performance.
Of particular interest to me was the new rubric for competition that arose. This project was designed for non-competitive, social, runners. However, when runners did compete with each other, they found themselves relying on voice position to measure advantage. This means that level of exertion, not the actual product of the exertion, became the important element. This could be extensible to an interesting variety of games
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Blog - Paper Reading #7
Performance optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Text Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop
Authored by Jochen Rick.
Rick is a faculty member at Saarland University. He received his PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and has done work utilizing wikis.
Summary
Hypothesis
This paper predicted that the type of keyboard layout would substantially alter user input speeds when using stroke-based text entry.
Methods
The experiment was simple. Each participant had to trace through a series of four points. He measured time taken, angle and distance between strokes and utilized this data to design a pair of keyboards. These were then tested against existing keyboard layouts for effectiveness.
Results
The optimized keyboards outperformed the existing layouts as predicted. He observed that Qwerty, Dvorak, and Wide Alphabetic performed badly. This was expected as these layouts are designed specifically for ten finger typing.
Contents
This paper opens with a short history on the origins of current keyboard layouts, describing the motivation and inspiration for the dominant designs. He then describes a short test performed to calculate efficient motion when utilizing stroke-based text input. Using his findings, he develops a mathematical model implementing simulated annealing to design an optimized keyboard. He then runs a series of efficiency tests on a wide range of keyboards and compares the result to the optimized versions.
Discussion
The findings seem convincing, though I have qualms with the testing procedure. Once the optimized keyboards were designed, they were not tested in human studies. The existing layouts were simply compared to the optimized layouts using the altered mathematical model. It seems logical that the keyboard designed by said model would outperform others in a test graded by the same model. Additionally, as the author observes, when typing on a handheld device, users tend to use two fingers. This study does nothing to account for that factor.
The importance of the work is clear. In this modern day, and increasingly large portion of the population owns a handheld device requiring text input. Today's keyboards are based on layouts that were designed with a different scale in mind. This miniaturization requires that our styles of input be reformed with other constraints in mind.
I believe that now Jochen Rick has his theory worked out, he needs to proceed to more rigorous testing. He is aware of the reason that the Qwerty keypad is favored in handheld devices, familiarity. What needs to be tested now is how easily can the optimized keyboard be learned, and what real advantages does stroke based text input offer over two finger typing.
Authored by Jochen Rick.
Rick is a faculty member at Saarland University. He received his PhD from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and has done work utilizing wikis.
Summary
Hypothesis
This paper predicted that the type of keyboard layout would substantially alter user input speeds when using stroke-based text entry.
Methods
The experiment was simple. Each participant had to trace through a series of four points. He measured time taken, angle and distance between strokes and utilized this data to design a pair of keyboards. These were then tested against existing keyboard layouts for effectiveness.
Results
The optimized keyboards outperformed the existing layouts as predicted. He observed that Qwerty, Dvorak, and Wide Alphabetic performed badly. This was expected as these layouts are designed specifically for ten finger typing.
Contents
This paper opens with a short history on the origins of current keyboard layouts, describing the motivation and inspiration for the dominant designs. He then describes a short test performed to calculate efficient motion when utilizing stroke-based text input. Using his findings, he develops a mathematical model implementing simulated annealing to design an optimized keyboard. He then runs a series of efficiency tests on a wide range of keyboards and compares the result to the optimized versions.
Discussion
The findings seem convincing, though I have qualms with the testing procedure. Once the optimized keyboards were designed, they were not tested in human studies. The existing layouts were simply compared to the optimized layouts using the altered mathematical model. It seems logical that the keyboard designed by said model would outperform others in a test graded by the same model. Additionally, as the author observes, when typing on a handheld device, users tend to use two fingers. This study does nothing to account for that factor.
The importance of the work is clear. In this modern day, and increasingly large portion of the population owns a handheld device requiring text input. Today's keyboards are based on layouts that were designed with a different scale in mind. This miniaturization requires that our styles of input be reformed with other constraints in mind.
I believe that now Jochen Rick has his theory worked out, he needs to proceed to more rigorous testing. He is aware of the reason that the Qwerty keypad is favored in handheld devices, familiarity. What needs to be tested now is how easily can the optimized keyboard be learned, and what real advantages does stroke based text input offer over two finger typing.
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