http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1450000/1449763/p287-lee.pdf?key1=1449763&key2=0408588621&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=76752576&CFTOKEN=55465958
Authors:
Johnny Chung Lee, Scott E. Hudson
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
and
Edward Tse
Smart Technologies
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Comment:
Mike
This paper outlined the authors attempts to create flexible interactive displays. This was done by placing tracking dots on the objects such as a scroll or umbrella. The system would track the dots and adjust the image projected onto the surface accordingly. The PixArt system was used to track the dots on the moving objects. The image, as the paper described, was created using an array of led's on the surface. These led's would run for hours, powered by a small battery on the unit.
The older technologies such as LCD and OLED, while promising a small amount of flexibility, are still mostly rigid and rectangular. This new system allows designers to create truly flexible materials. With the tracking system built in a user could even use the surface similar to a touch screen.
I thought this was really cool. I like the idea a lot. It only makes sense that things would go towards being more flexible. The idea of presenting an object with a changing display surrounding it seems really cool. There are some worries though. For example with these displays almost everything is now subject to advertising. Do we want our coke bottle becoming an ad? I feel like these ads could make the world begin to look like a giant ad. It still remains to be seen whether or not this would be reality however.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
A comparative user study on rating vs. personality quiz based preference elicitation methods, IUI 09
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1510000/1502702/p367-hu.pdf?key1=1502702&key2=9809528621&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=76752576&CFTOKEN=55465958
Authors:
Rong Hu - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
Perl Pu - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
This paper explained the differences between a ratings based approach to suggesting content and a personality quiz based approach to suggesting content to users. A ratings based approach will rely on the user rating content that they had already seen. For example if a user has seen movie X, they might rank movie X on a slider scale from 1 to 5. The system will then react to the rating and attempt to show more or less movies similar to movie X. In a personality based quiz method, the user will be asked many questions based on their personal likes or dislikes and suggestions will be provided based on these responses.
The authors chose two websites; MovieLens as the representative for the ratings based system, and WhatTorrent as the representative of the personality-based quiz approach. They took these two sites and provided a similar interface into both sites. Users were then put through the process on the sites and then took a survey on the users opinions about the suggestions given.
The researchers found that the personality-based quiz method generally yielded superior results. The personality-based approach saw great strides in how interested the user was in the results(see below). What was interesting to me however was that both system showed the same level of willingness to purchase. The personality based system did see a stronger desire to show to friends however so from a business stand point the personality based system should still be seen as being superior.
I really liked this idea. Now days there is so much content out there and I don't have time to sift through it all like I did back in High School so anything that helps me find content quickly is a positive for me. I would like to see more work being done on this and hopefully it will result in better ratings systems.
Authors:
Rong Hu - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
Perl Pu - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)
This paper explained the differences between a ratings based approach to suggesting content and a personality quiz based approach to suggesting content to users. A ratings based approach will rely on the user rating content that they had already seen. For example if a user has seen movie X, they might rank movie X on a slider scale from 1 to 5. The system will then react to the rating and attempt to show more or less movies similar to movie X. In a personality based quiz method, the user will be asked many questions based on their personal likes or dislikes and suggestions will be provided based on these responses.
The authors chose two websites; MovieLens as the representative for the ratings based system, and WhatTorrent as the representative of the personality-based quiz approach. They took these two sites and provided a similar interface into both sites. Users were then put through the process on the sites and then took a survey on the users opinions about the suggestions given.
The researchers found that the personality-based quiz method generally yielded superior results. The personality-based approach saw great strides in how interested the user was in the results(see below). What was interesting to me however was that both system showed the same level of willingness to purchase. The personality based system did see a stronger desire to show to friends however so from a business stand point the personality based system should still be seen as being superior.
I really liked this idea. Now days there is so much content out there and I don't have time to sift through it all like I did back in High School so anything that helps me find content quickly is a positive for me. I would like to see more work being done on this and hopefully it will result in better ratings systems.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
IUI’09 Workshop Summary: Sketch Recognition, IUI 2009
In this paper Dr. Hammond describes the need for and the benefits of a sketch recognition workshop in IUI. She outlines the fields and first points to a possible application of sketch recognition technology. Her example, if implemented, would allow students to draw graphs or images in response to test questions and these images could then be graded automatically. This would allow the teacher to give tests with more free response that could be graded in the same time it takes to grade scantron tests.
She also highlights the possibility of making a CAD program which would allow the user to directly draw their input into the program and CAD would parse that input producing a "pretty" image that takes advantage of all the features of CAD.
Programs and systems like these demonstrate the power of sketch recognition. With many programs becoming very difficult to use with just a mouse and keyboard, harnessing the power of sketch recognition could help users get more done quicker. I would no doubt support a workshop on sketch recognition. As mentioned in the paper, the field should be further along than it is. It seems like we almost never hear of anyone working on the problem even though the potential is limitless. Hopefully the workshop gets accepted and we can see some greater successes from other sources as well.
She also highlights the possibility of making a CAD program which would allow the user to directly draw their input into the program and CAD would parse that input producing a "pretty" image that takes advantage of all the features of CAD.
Programs and systems like these demonstrate the power of sketch recognition. With many programs becoming very difficult to use with just a mouse and keyboard, harnessing the power of sketch recognition could help users get more done quicker. I would no doubt support a workshop on sketch recognition. As mentioned in the paper, the field should be further along than it is. It seems like we almost never hear of anyone working on the problem even though the potential is limitless. Hopefully the workshop gets accepted and we can see some greater successes from other sources as well.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Have A Say Over What You See: Evaluating Interactive Compression Techniques, IUI 2009
When presented with as many documents and written data as we are today, it becomes almost impossible for us to read everything line by line. Many people are able to skim the document relatively quickly but in doing this much information could be lost. Tools for what the paper calls Interactive Compression, IC, could greatly help the reader better identify important parts of the document on which to focus. This paper highlights some functions and ideas from IC.
The paper attempts to identify effective principals for IC systems by looking at the following attributes; Comparisson with unmodiffied text, efficiency, accuracy, granularity, and interactivity. Using these principals the authors identified the two best forms of IC, word excision and word highlighting. Word excision will attempt to remove unimporatnt phrases and words where word highlighting attempts to hightlight the important words to aid a reader in skimming the document.
In a user study the word highlighting method was recieved better than the word excision method. We can propose that while these methods are similiar it would be fair to say that a user would most likely desire to still have all the information presented to him or her so that they can read in more depth for certain sections. This, while possible with word excision, is not as easy as with the word highlighting method.
The authors found that while some key elements were missed the systems as a whole were successful. This was especially true when the users were looking for some element of text in a large document. The scanning ability provided to them by IC allowed them to find it much faster.
I feel that systems like this could be tremendously usefull. I am always behind on my reading partially because I have no time to get any of it done. The ability to simply scan a document would be tremendously helpful to me. I feel that the system could become greatly overused however and at times very key elements could be missed causing great losses to some people.
You have to wonder, if these systems become popular, will they help the users by giving them more free time, or will people, thinking that we can now read more, just throw more documents at us causing us to be back where we started time wise. Questions like this may make systems like this ineffective in their quest to give the user more free time. With that being said, however, I would love to see an effective system like this come to frutition. It seems like I could learn a lot more if I had these capabilities because I would be able to read much more and gain more usefull knowledge. I would urge the authors to continue their work.
The paper attempts to identify effective principals for IC systems by looking at the following attributes; Comparisson with unmodiffied text, efficiency, accuracy, granularity, and interactivity. Using these principals the authors identified the two best forms of IC, word excision and word highlighting. Word excision will attempt to remove unimporatnt phrases and words where word highlighting attempts to hightlight the important words to aid a reader in skimming the document.
In a user study the word highlighting method was recieved better than the word excision method. We can propose that while these methods are similiar it would be fair to say that a user would most likely desire to still have all the information presented to him or her so that they can read in more depth for certain sections. This, while possible with word excision, is not as easy as with the word highlighting method.
The authors found that while some key elements were missed the systems as a whole were successful. This was especially true when the users were looking for some element of text in a large document. The scanning ability provided to them by IC allowed them to find it much faster.
I feel that systems like this could be tremendously usefull. I am always behind on my reading partially because I have no time to get any of it done. The ability to simply scan a document would be tremendously helpful to me. I feel that the system could become greatly overused however and at times very key elements could be missed causing great losses to some people.
You have to wonder, if these systems become popular, will they help the users by giving them more free time, or will people, thinking that we can now read more, just throw more documents at us causing us to be back where we started time wise. Questions like this may make systems like this ineffective in their quest to give the user more free time. With that being said, however, I would love to see an effective system like this come to frutition. It seems like I could learn a lot more if I had these capabilities because I would be able to read much more and gain more usefull knowledge. I would urge the authors to continue their work.
Emotional Design: Don Norman
Summary:
Emotional Design is a follow up to Don Norman's Design of Every Day Things. The book takes a different turn where instead of focusing on the ease of use of a product it focuses on the emotional appeal of an object. The emotion, Don argues, comes from many factors such as the visual appeal of an object. He claims that visualy striking objects that invoke pleasent emotions in the user will be easier to use because the user will be more tolerant to faults in the system. Systems without any visual appeal, on the other hand, will be less usefull because as using it the user will experience negative emotions causing them to notice and care about faults in the system much more.
Don argues that objects can also impose feelings beyond their visual appeal. Some items can have emotional meaning because of a time they helped the user or for memories that the item invokes. Items such as pictures serve no utliitarian purpose beyond looking nice and evoking memories but they are some of peoples most prized possesions. He argues that even though they serve no apparent purpose these are the objects that people will run back into their burning homes to recover.
I personally didnt enjoy this book very much. He made good points but it was difficult to refrain from comparing some of his statments to the previous book Design of Everyday Things and to observe how in many cases the books, both by Don Norman, contradicted themselves. The lemon juicer on the front of the book is a great example. In his first book Don would have argued that the juicer was not usefull because if it is actually used, the plating will get eaten away. He would have most likely used his common derogatory phrase to indicate that it probably won a design award. In this book however, the lemon juicer is praised for its visual appeal.
These contradictions seemed to cause a lot of trouble for me. It felt like the credibility of the author was slipping. While there were many good points made in the book it was hard to focus on them when it felt like he was routinely backing off on his main points from the first book.
Emotional Design is a follow up to Don Norman's Design of Every Day Things. The book takes a different turn where instead of focusing on the ease of use of a product it focuses on the emotional appeal of an object. The emotion, Don argues, comes from many factors such as the visual appeal of an object. He claims that visualy striking objects that invoke pleasent emotions in the user will be easier to use because the user will be more tolerant to faults in the system. Systems without any visual appeal, on the other hand, will be less usefull because as using it the user will experience negative emotions causing them to notice and care about faults in the system much more.
Don argues that objects can also impose feelings beyond their visual appeal. Some items can have emotional meaning because of a time they helped the user or for memories that the item invokes. Items such as pictures serve no utliitarian purpose beyond looking nice and evoking memories but they are some of peoples most prized possesions. He argues that even though they serve no apparent purpose these are the objects that people will run back into their burning homes to recover.
I personally didnt enjoy this book very much. He made good points but it was difficult to refrain from comparing some of his statments to the previous book Design of Everyday Things and to observe how in many cases the books, both by Don Norman, contradicted themselves. The lemon juicer on the front of the book is a great example. In his first book Don would have argued that the juicer was not usefull because if it is actually used, the plating will get eaten away. He would have most likely used his common derogatory phrase to indicate that it probably won a design award. In this book however, the lemon juicer is praised for its visual appeal.
These contradictions seemed to cause a lot of trouble for me. It felt like the credibility of the author was slipping. While there were many good points made in the book it was hard to focus on them when it felt like he was routinely backing off on his main points from the first book.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
An Exploration of Social Requirements for Exercise Group Formation
Summary:
This paper highlighted and described the search for criteria needed in a system to help people find an exercise partner. A survey was taken by 100 people, most of which were active in fitness activities and clubs. They responded to questions about their work outs and whether or not they had a workout partner. The study was done to examine the following questions:
Q1. Do people who exercise have partners? If so, how did
they find them?
Q2. If people do not have exercise partners, what are the
reasons?
Q3. What happens when people do not have an exercise
partner?
Q4. What do people look for in their ideal exercise partner?
Q5. What information would people be willing to share to
find compatible exercise partners?
The data was about what was to be expected from a survey of this type. Most people had exercise partners and the ones that didn't generally said that they did.
Discussion:
I couldn't help but question how this even got published. Everything was common sense. There wasn't even anything in there related to the field of HCI. They claimed that they were designing a system for people to help find exercise partners but thats just a normal software system.
The biggest flaw in the paper was its predictability. They made one significant discovery, that people would rather rate potential exercise partners on a range of skill and not a skill level. I think its a good idea and they should go ahead and make the system but this paper was not needed.
This paper highlighted and described the search for criteria needed in a system to help people find an exercise partner. A survey was taken by 100 people, most of which were active in fitness activities and clubs. They responded to questions about their work outs and whether or not they had a workout partner. The study was done to examine the following questions:
Q1. Do people who exercise have partners? If so, how did
they find them?
Q2. If people do not have exercise partners, what are the
reasons?
Q3. What happens when people do not have an exercise
partner?
Q4. What do people look for in their ideal exercise partner?
Q5. What information would people be willing to share to
find compatible exercise partners?
The data was about what was to be expected from a survey of this type. Most people had exercise partners and the ones that didn't generally said that they did.
Discussion:
I couldn't help but question how this even got published. Everything was common sense. There wasn't even anything in there related to the field of HCI. They claimed that they were designing a system for people to help find exercise partners but thats just a normal software system.
The biggest flaw in the paper was its predictability. They made one significant discovery, that people would rather rate potential exercise partners on a range of skill and not a skill level. I think its a good idea and they should go ahead and make the system but this paper was not needed.
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