Paper reading #35: Addressing the Problems of Data-Centric Physiology-Affect Relations Modeling

Reference Information
Title: Addressing the Problems of Data-Centric Physiology-Affect Relations Modeling
Authors: Roberto Legaspi, Ken-ichi Fukui, Koichi Moriyama, Satoshi Kurihara, Masayuki Numao, Merlin Suarez.
Venue: IUI’10, February 7–10, 2010, Hong Kong, China.

Summary

Using a data-centric approach, the researchers of this paper attempted to come up with a way to use machine learning in order to define so called "affective states". Using an EEG helmet, the researchers attempted to classify, and define the different emotions that the wearer was experiencing. One of the main problems that they ran into was the size of the data set. Throughout the paper, they suggest several different changes to the algorithms used, and change in data set size, which may help improve the capabilities of the machine.

Discussion 

I don’t know what I was thinking choosing this paper. It was very hard to read. I ended up skimming through it.. I'm sure their research is interesting, but I'm not sure if anyone is going to ever know what they actually did, judging from this paper.

Paper reading #34: Facilitating Exploratory Search by Model-Based Navigational Cues"

 

Facilitating Exploratory Search by Model-Based Navigational Cues
Wai-Tat Fu, Thomas G. Kannampallil, and Ruogu Kan
University of Illinois
Presented at IUI’10, February 7–10, 2010, Hong Kong, China

 

Summary

In this paper, the authors talk about building a simulator to test the notion that unstructured social tagging may cause difficulties for searchers. The hypothesis is based on the notion that casual tagging will eventually become an incoherent mess of tags. The counter hypothesis is that tagging isn't as random as thought, and will instead follow cohesively from whichever tags are posted earliest. That is, early tagging heavily influences the tagging of later users.

The Semantic Imitation Model was designed to simulate the actions of expert and novice users across a document space assembled for the study. The results of the simulation did seem to indicate that convergence is experienced.

 

Discussion

I really don't understand some of the simulations. I would have preferred a user study. I think that would have helped the authors better illustrates some of the arguments put forward.

Paper reading #33: Enhanced Area Cursors: Reducing Fine Pointing Demands

Reference Info:

Leah Findlater

UIST’10, October 3–6, 2010, New York, New York, USA

 

Summary

This paper talked about different ways to aid those users who have impairments and difficulties using the conventional computer mouse. Two different methods were discussed in the paper that would help users in this area: Click-and-Cross and Visual-Motor-Magnifier. The Visual-Motor-Magnifier enables user to enlarge area of click in order to better see and control their mouse. This allows for users to click on the intended button. This reduces the amount of fine pointing.

 

Discussion

I thought this was an interesting alternative to the constraints of clicking with the mouse.. It is interesting that they had two major methods of doing this in order to adjust to different users and their needs.

Paper reading #32: DMacs: Building MultiDevice User Interfaces by Demonstrating, Sharing and Replaying Design Actions

 

 

Reference Info:
DMacs: Building MultiDevice User Interfaces by Demonstrating, Sharing and Replaying Design Actions
Jan Meskens, Kris Luyten, Karin Coninx
UIST’10, October 3–6, 2010, New York, New York, USA

Summary

This paper discusses the problem of having to design different user interfaces for different platforms for the same program. An example given is YouTube. There is a separate design for the web and telephone. The more variety of platforms, the more difficult it becomes to manually code the UI for the given program. Design tool Macros (D-Macs) is a multi-device GUI builder allowing designers to automate repetitive design actions. The main goal is to automate these transitions of UI from platform to platform in an appealing way. This tool allows developers to make a UI once and have it imported to other platforms.

Discussion

I found this an interesting article. I think it will cut down on so much time of coding extra UI for different platforms. In today's world, people want to be able to use their services in a variety of platforms and this will help us achieve that.

Paper reading #31: Raconteur: from intent to stories

 

Title: Raconteur: from intent to stories

Authors: Pei-Yu Chi, Henry Lieberman

Conference: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

 

Summary

When editing a story from a large collection of media, such as photos and video clips captured from daily life, it is not always easy to understand how particular scenes fit into the intent for the overall story. Especially for novice editors, there is often a lack of coherent connections between scenes, making it difficult for the viewers to follow the story. In this paper, we present Raconteur is a story editing system that helps users assemble coherent stories from media elements, each annotated with a sentence or two in unrestricted natural language. It uses a Commonsense knowledge base, and the AnalogySpace Commonsense reasoning technique. Raconteur focuses on finding story analogies – different elements illustrating the same overall "point", or independent stories exhibiting similar narrative structures.

Discussion

The research presented is interesting The idea did not sound novel in the beginning since this is what a movie producer essentially does: arrange consecutive pictures taken a fraction of a second apart from each other. However, after looking at the screenshots I realized that while using this tool, we can arrange our pictures in order to form a story. This can help us to remember not just the location where the picture was shot but also the events that occurred and the story surrounding the picture.

Paper reading #30: Personalized User Interfaces for Product Configuration

Reference Information

Title: Personalized User Interfaces for Product Configuration
Names of authors: Felfernig Alexander, Mandl Monika, Tiihonen Juha, Schubert Monika, Leitner Gerhard
Presentation venue: IUI '10 Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces

Summary

Configuration technologies are well established as a foundation of mass customization which is a production paradigm that supports the manufacturing of highly-variant products under pricing conditions similar to mass production. A side-effect of the high diversity of products offered by a configurator is that the complexity of the alternatives may outstrip a user’s capability to explore them and make a buying decision. In this paper the authors present configuration techniques that recommend personalized default values to users. Results of an empirical study show improvements in terms of, for example, user satisfaction or the quality of the configuration process.

Discussion

This paper was interesting to read, however, it was too technical and mathematical. I got confused pretty fast.  There were no graphics or images in the paper. Overall, the idea was still very interesting though. Recommender systems are becoming more and more common on shopping websites like Amazon, or Google checkout and can be used as an excellent marketing tool.

Paper reading #29: A multi-touch enabled steering wheel: exploring the design space

Reference Information

Pfeiffer, M., et al. (2010). A multi-touch enable steering wheel -

exploring the design space.

 Proceeding of the Acm conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 3355-3360). Atlanta.

Summary

Cars are becoming more and more “smarter” thanks to the technology the cars are getting nowadays. In this paper, the researchers investigate new interaction techniques that aim to make it easier to interact with these systems while driving. The reason is because, as we get more and more technology, that means more distraction. There is a need to find a non-invasive integrative system.  The researchers in this paper suggest using the steering wheel as an additional interface surface in contrast to the standard approach of combining all functions into hierarchical menus controlled by a multifunctional controller or a touch screen .

This paper talks, in particular,  about multi-touch interaction on a steering wheel and investigates how to deal with input and output while driving and hence rotating the wheel. It describes the details of a functional prototype of a multi-touch steering wheel that is based on FTIR and a projector, which was built to explore experimentally the user experience created. In an initial study with 12 participants, it was shown that the approach has a general utility and that people can use gestures for controlling applications intuitively. The researchers investigated new interaction techniques that aim to make it easier to interact with these systems while driving.

Discussion

I think the idea of putting the controls on the streering wheel is interesting. However when I drive I don’t really look at my steering wheel. Having controls on the dashboard can cause significant driver distraction, but I think I would prefer that display method.

Paper reading #28: The Coffee Lab: Developing a public Usability Space

Reference InformationTitle: The Coffee Lab: Developing a public Usability Space
Author: Maria Karam
Presented at: CHI 2010, April 10-15,2010, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Summary

This paper talks about coffee shops. In particular about a lab in a public usability space situated in a coffee shop in Toronto. It's a pilot project aimed at supporting usability studies in a mixed user space, where a variety of software applications, hardware systems and other interactive technologies are put to the public for evaluation. One advantage to this approach is to facilitate the collection of usability data from a large and diverse population of potential users.
The way the lab is setup is with wired and wireless network connections, a touch screen, multiple computers to run systems, web cameras for visual input and monitoring interactions.
The target participants can be anyone from staff, performers, students, spectators and local customers who frequent the coffee shop. Two main systems that are currently part of the Coffee Lab pilot tests are the Emoti-Chair and the  iGesture. Emoti Chair is a tactile audio system while the iGesture system is used to control the music at the Coffee Lab.

The authors had five evaluation stages:  

• Exposure: The first contact the user has with the technology.

• Experience: Researchers' interactions with the user while they are gaining experience with the system. Second stage participants often provide valuable feedback or report problems, if any.

• Experiment: Laboratory style experiments

• Extension: This stage offers an in-depth look at one or more users over time, providing a more detailed perspective of the user's interactions.

• Exploration: This stage occurs once the system has been evaluated, or when the research is between stages. Participants may leave feedback or provide comments.

Discussion

This was an interesting paper to read. The idea of using a coffee shop as a test location, rather  than the conventional lab is quite ingenious. I never would have thought that was possible, much less the owners of the coffee shop accepting to cooperate with the experiment. Coffee shops attract all kinds of people from various backgrounds who have different type of moods, so the authors can benefit from a wide pool of people.

Paper reading #27: Early Explorations of CAT: Canine Amusement and Training



Reference information

Title: Early Explorations of CAT: Canine Amusement and Training

Authors: Chadwick Wingrave, Todd Langston, Jeremy Rose and Joseph LaViola Jr.

Presentation: 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems

Summary

The paper talks about an application that has the potential to improve human-canine relations. The authors emphasize on developing software tools that can motivate humans to spend time with their canine in a healthy and informative environment. They have also developed some prototype games that are calm, healthy and enjoyable both for canine and humans.

This Canine Amusement and Training project aims to reclaim time for the human canine bond. Humans need to be entertained and taught how to interact with their canine. The system consists of 55" LCD TV, a projector and Wii(NINTENDO) remotes to track the position of the canine. The projector is mounted on a roof and an image is projected on the floor for the canine to see. The Wii-mote(remote) is attached on the back of the canine. A number of games, ranging from easy to more difficult can be designed.

Discussion

This paper was interesting to read. The first time I had heard about it was in class at the beginning of the semester. I just recalled it, and decided to read about it for extra credit.

I personnally would not use this system as I don't have a dog, but I could see this as a useful application.

The paper only talks about games that instructs the canine to sit, stand and stay calm though. It may perhaps be made more fun if better games are designed that involve activities like chasing an object, etc.

Paper reading #26: Sequential art for science and CHI

 

Title: Sequential Art for Science and CHI

Author: Duncan Rowland

Presentation Venue: CHI 2010: Monsters Attack! April 10-15, 2010 Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Summary

This paper illustrates how interactive tools that can generate sequential art can be used for entertainment, and  learning. The paper is presented in a comic book format to emphasize and highlight the communicative capabilities of the medium.

 

The author provides two examples. In the first example, primary school students documented a practical science session through the creation of a photo-story and in the second, participants in a study on the biological nature of thrill created a souvenir photo-story. The author argues that since the world we live in is visual, learning experience  should also stress on graphics and visual techniques. The paper suggests that sequential art offers unique mechanisms of communication that can find application in science, for example, in ethnographic work. The visual form can be both engaging and rapidly digested.

Discussion

 

I liked this paper, it was real short and straight to the point. It's not a paper by conventional means. Nevertheless, I agree with the author's point of view. I think I would like this method of learning. It definitely looks more appealing than learning froma a boring thick 200 page book.  

 

This method might not work for everyone though, and so, it should complement, not replace the traditional method of learning i.e. books. I'm sure it will immensely benefit audio-visual learners, who form the majority of the population

 

Reference Information

Full Blog: Living With Complexity

Discussion


Norman provides a lot of good examples throughout all the chapters. This is true about all his books. His books are always insightful, and detailed, however I did get bored when reading the chapters.in this particular book.  Perhaps I don't appreciate the material enough. Design of Everyday Things was by far my favourite amongst the Norman books.

I do have to take my hat off to him because his analysis is thorough all the time, and he really went out of his way to explain what complexity was, its causes, and the different types of complexity you have.

Full Blog: Why We Make Mistakes

Discussion

In the conclusion of his book, Hallinan gives some advice on how the readers can apply the ideas presented in his book to their lives. Some of the things he recommends we keep in mind are:

1. Think small
2. Calibration can be taught
3. Creating a written record helps a person fend off the rose-colored-glasses of hindsight bias
4. In some cases it will be important to look for and even expect failure
5. Don’t be set in your ways
6. Slow down
7. Be aware of the anecdote (he references NutriSystem here)
8. Get plenty of sleep
9. Be happy

Hallinan concludes by discussing how money does not eliminate mistakes and is not the currency of life.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book. It was a good change from reading the other Norman books. In particular, I like how the author illustrates all his claims with interesting examples. I especially liked the Conclusion, because Hallinan does a great job of summarizing his ideas.I personally think this book will be beneficial in helping us better understand mistakes we make in our respective fields.

Full Blog: Media Equation

Discussion


Part 3 was also interesting as it discussed a computer’s perceived personality which was a novel idea to me. It was neat to read about how even a simple trait like dominance and submission could have such a profound impact on the user. As the researchers note, these findings also back the findings described in the other two papers about how people respond socially to a computer. Part 1 was quite fun to read. In particular about how people would give intimate comments about computers.  I really enjoyed reading about the studies described and how weird we can sometimes be when presented in front of a computers.

I thought the paper in Part 2 was a good paper to read after the one in part 1.It went in further detail and explored the studies of part 1. Doing this validated what we read in the first part. In hindsight, it is simple to interact with a computer the way we do with people. However, some people can get carried away while interacting with their computers, and in that case I believe that person is exagerating.

Full Blog: Things that Make Us Smart

Discussion

This was another assignment on a Norman book. I thought I was going to find the same recurring themes as in Design of Everyday Things, however I did find some interesting points developped in this book. Thanks to Norman, I feel I have learned some more useful tools that I'll definetely be trying out the next I have to work on some design project.

Book Reading #52: Living With Complexity

Chapter 3Summary
In chapter 3 Norman discusses how things get more complicated as the number of items increases. He provides remembering passwords as an example. He also discusses the “scaling problem,” something that works well with only a few cases, but often fails as the number grows. He finally mentions how in an ideal world we would not need signs and how too much information makes things complicated.

Chapter 4
Summary
Chapter 4 focuses on social signifiers, indicators in the environment that allow people to navigate in otherwise complex and confusing environments. These signifiers are referred to as “perceived affordances” by some.

Book Reading #51: Living With Complexity

Chapter 1Summary
The first chapter serves as an introduction to complexity. Norman differentiates between things being complex and the idea of things being complicated . He discusses keys to coping with complexity, and also brings up how some complicated systems occur as a result of poor design and he provides several examples of how we like complexity in certain instances.

Chapter 2
Summary
In chapter 2 Norman brings up the idea of the conceptual model, and how it helps to simplify the complexities of different systems. Norman discusses “featuritis,” adding more and more features, and explains how complexity is in the mind of the beholder.

Book Reading #50: Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 12Summary
In chapter 12, Hallinan discusses constraints and affordances. He defines constraints as “simple mental aids that keep us on the right track by limiting our alternatives.” He defines affordances as “clues to how a thing can be used.”

He discusses the technique by which different organizations name things and gives two examples: prescription drug names and identifiers that pilots use.

Chapter 13
Summary
In chapter 13 Hallinan begins with an example of two people who moved to L.A. and then ended up moving back to Wisconsin. He uses this example to show how people mispredict how they will feel about important life decisions in the future because they focus on relatively minor factors.

Book Reading #49: Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 10Summary
Chapter 10 focuses on how people tend to believe they are above average. Hallinan sites many examples of this: golfing, and credit card rates. Hallinan then discusses calibration, the difference between a person’s actual and perceived abilities. He discusses that calibration tends to be poor, but weather forecasts are well calibrated. The power of feedback is also discussed.

Hallinan also notes that as a task gets harder, people tend to be even more overconfident.

Chapter11
Summary
In chapter 11, Hallinan discusses how even professionals have difficulty in knowing how good or bad they are at something. He also discusses how experts become experts by practicing, starting at a young age and creating a library of specialized knowledge within the mind.

Book Reading #48: Media Equation

Media Equation Papers



Part 1
Summary
This paper discusses how people tend to apply social rules to computers and have certain expectations of their computers. Three main experiments were performed with different setups. All of these experiments helped to show how people react to computers by applying social interactions between people to how they interact with their computers.

The authors  then explored alternative explanations for their findings. They discuss anthropomorphism, the act of believing something is essentially human. They also discuss how some believe people aren’t reacting to the computer but to the programmer. They then discuss the methods of their experiments.


Part 2
Summary
The second paper further explores the ideas in the first and sites that the reason that people act the way they do with computers has to do with how commonplace and easy it is to generate such responses. The paper describes five experiments. Some items tested are: how a person will be polite to the computer, whether a person will apply the notion of ‘self’ and ‘other’ to the computer, how a person distinguishes between ‘self’ and ‘other,’ whether or not they will apply gender stereotypes to computers and why people act the way they do with computers.
The researchers concluded by saying that the computer-human relationship is a social one.

Part 3
Summary
This paper explores the idea of creating a personality for a computer, the minimum set of cues needed to make the personality and how powerful the effects of the personality are on the user.
The researchers concluded by saying that it is easier than expected to manipulate a personality even in its simplest form and that these findings also imply that humans respond socially to computers.

Book Reading #47: Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 8Summary
Chapter 8 focuses on a person’s desire to keep things organized in memory. Hallinan begins with several examples to demonstrate this: people drawing the Seine River straighter than it actually is and stating where Reno, Nevada is in relation to San Diego.
Hallinan also explains that who the person is will affect how he or she remembers things.

Chapter 9
Summary
Chapter 9 discusses the relationship between overconfidence and perceived risk. The  author also discusses how women seem to have less confidence than men in several areas. Examples he gives includes getting lost while driving, selling back lottery tickets and fixing bugs in a spreadsheet.