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

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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

 

 

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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

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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



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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

 

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