Paper Reading#13 Combining Multiple Depth Cameras and Projectors for Interactions On, Above, and Between Surfaces

Authors: Andrew Wilson, Hrvoje Benko
Author info:
Andrew Wilson/Hrvoje Benko - Microsoft Research
Summary
Hypothesis
The experiment was conducted to see if the users were able to use the LightSpace device without trouble. They also predicted that the lightSpace device would be able to handle a number of people at once (several people at a time)

Method
The demo was tested for three days at a convention. There were about several hundred people that tested it during this time period. The people were given free usage to experiment during this course of time. The researchers watched and recorded the interaction by the users
Results
It was noted that there was no actual limit to number of people that can use the device all at once. However they noted that 6 was the limit in terms of practicality. This was due to the amount of errors that piled up quickly under such circumstances. There was also the issue that the computer system had a difficult time keeping up with all of the tasks that were constantly happening. Some errors included camera interference by the user.
Content
The paper was over a device called LightSpace, the system itself is based on depth cameras and projects to make a environment where the users would be able to interact. This whole process was achieved through the usage of interactive surfaces and projected displays. The displays were open to manipulated by the users via hand gestures and interaction with the surface. Examples included the ability to drag objects and move them around from one location to another. The paper focused mostly on the observations collected as the users interacted with LightSpace

Discussion-
I personally thought the whole interaction and idea was pretty interesting and i would've liked to try using the device myself. I personally think that by using this technology various types of games could be made that would allow a more unique method of interaction when playing a game. (much more unique compared to something like the wii) Although i don't see its commercial application anytime soon, i hope to see it in the future.

Paper Reading#12 Enabling Beyond-Surface Interactions for Interactive Surface with an Invisible Projection

Author: Li-Wei Chan, Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, Ju-Chun Ko, Home-Ru Lin, Mike Y. Chen, Jane Hsu, Yi-Ping Hung.  

Author info: 

Li-Wei Chan- PhD student at the National Taiwan University

Hsiang-Tao Wu, Hui-Shan Kao, and Home-Ru Lin - students at the National Taiwan University 

Ju-Chun Ko- PhD student at the National Taiwan University  

Mike Chen- professor at the National Taiwan University.  

Jane Hsu- professor at National Taiwan University. 
Yi-Ping Hung- professor at National Taiwan University.
Location:UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium New York

Summary

Hypothesis

Using programmable infrared techniques to see if it can allow support interaction with a device other than a simple display surface

Method

System implemented was based on the following:

-invisible light projector- designed to show invisible content for 3D localization. The projector used as a infrared based projector

-table surface- made of two layers: glass/diffuse layer. Diffuse layer is on top of the glass layer. This is done to allow the best quality of projection from the table itself

the paper was over a prototype that uses a IR projector to display IR markers on a user display surface. The IR markers then are used by objects above the surface to allow interaction and to display more information. This was done by using a iLamp, iflashlight, iview. The iLamp was a pocket projector on a IR camera. The users would manipulate it to move the high resolution projection on the surface. The iflashlight can be used by users to look at the fine details of a specific location by focusing the iflashlight towards that area. The iview is a table computer on a IR camera. It allowed exploration of 3D information. (done by looking about 3D buildings from above the 2D map)

Result

There were complaints from the users that only the bottom portion of the building could seen. It was also noted that they wanted to be able to see the upper parts of the buildings as well. This was solved by lifting imView up to see the upper part of the structure. Another problem was the fact that the imView got lost above the table system. Some of the users also expressed their desire to be able to drag the map using the imFlashlight as well. Some of the issues with the imFlashlight was that it was difficult to for the users to be aware of the actual scene. Overall however the participants gave a positive response about the other products such as imLamp.

Content

The paper showed an attempt to use infrared light that was programmable to show a support interaction beyound the surface multi touch system. By using mobile devices, cameras, and markers. The authors tried to produce a multi display multi touch table top system on a map surface.

Discussion

I personally thought it was a interesting idea as it can allow the people to see closely into certain geographical regions of interest. For me the whole thing kinda felt like a pretty upgraded version of zoomed in google maps. But personally I can't see much application for mass commercial usage since the surface table it self looks quite big and since the product itself seems a bit unwieldy for accurately looking at one small location. 

Paper Reading#11 Multitoe

Authors: Augsten, Konstantin Kaefer, Rene Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, Torsten Becker, Christian Holz, and Patrick Baudisch

Occupation: Thomas Augsten and Konstantin Kaefer- pursuing Masters degree at the University of Potsdamn Christian Holz- PhD student in HCI, University of Potsdamn.
Patrick Baudisch - professor in Computer Science at the Hasso Plattner Institute

Rene Meusel, Caroline Fetzer, Dorian Kanitz, Thomas Stoff, and Torsten Becker- students at the Hasso Plattner Institute

Location: Published in UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium New York

Summary:

Hypothesis

By creating a interface with a larger surface area and by using feet as interaction, the author believes that the touchscreen size limitation can be more easily over come.

Methods

There were 3 studies conducted in general:

determining how users interact with the floor, understanding the idea and how users step and select controls, and determining how users utilize the limited hotspot area, and finding the correct size the user can interact with.

1^st study-

participants activated buttons, methods, and techniques. Activation technique was also used for invoking menus. This experiment helped distinguish whether the user was talking or standing.

2^nd study-

Participants used a honeycomb grid and were asked which buttons on the honeycomb should be pressed based on the foot position of the users.

3^rd study-

participants placed their foot so that the hotspot was located directly under them. The participants were given 4 different conditions in which the foot should act. (ball of the hell, big toe, tip of toe, free choice)

4^th study-

This was done by having the participants type words out with their feet on keyboard set ups

Results

1^st study

From the Methods conducted the authors saw that there was a wide choice of actions and techniques used by the participants. Some of the successful techniques used included stomping, jumping, double tapping. It was also seem that jumping was most successful when attempting to invoke the menu.

2^nd study

it was found that most users were inclined to think that the entirety of the shoe sole should be used when selecting. The responses regarding the outer lining of the shoe usage was varied however.

3^rd study

the authors found that the user perception of where the hotspot would be was widely varied for the free choice style

4^th study

The author saw that there was a inverse relationship between size of button and rate of error

Content

The paper talked about the usage of touch based interaction using one's feet when using devices. The paper it self mainly focuses on the point of how the users perception and how they might think. It also talked about what kind of positioning or style should be employed to make it easier on the users.

Discussion

I personally thought the whole idea itself was neat since it is some what new. However in terms of practical usage I can't really say it would be that useful. This is mostly because I don't think that utilizing such a method of interaction would increase our productivity or provide a more effective means of doing something.

Gang leader for a day - Thoughts

 I personally thought the whole book was a interesting read and i had a lot of fun reading it. I thought that it was a very different perspective on what people usually think of sociologists. This is mostly because i think of a group of people crunching numbers, statistics, and data to come up with a general conclusion based on analysis and data. Although i do not think that direct confrontation with the group subjects itself is inaccurate i thought it was very different what the general thought that comes to mind. I also thought that the main character showed a considerable amount of courage to go through such a experience for the sake of data and learning. Although the pay off was great in the end for him, i am sure that the main character had no idea where it would lead him in the beginning. In general i thought the new perspective was fresh and interesting but frankly i did not think that taking such a approach as Sudar did was very good for research in general. I thought that he would've been better off if he just did the general research like his professors and colleagues. In that sense the only really good piece of information i thought he got in such terms is the fact that he was able to get the accounting ledger from T Bone before he was sent to prison. Apart from that i personally thought that a lot of the experience the character went through brought in too much personal bias and detracted Sudar from the important big picture that he was trying to capture. I also thought that it was a bit sad towards the end of the book how things ended up for everyone as they lost jobs, got sent to other projects, and as some people even ended up in prison. Although i had much misgivings about the method used by the protagonist of the story, it was a great read and i would recommend it for the future group of students taking this class

Paper Reading#10 Sensing foot gestures from the pocket

Authors: Jeremy Scott, David Dearman, Koji Yatani, Khai Truong

Occupation: University of Toronto

Location:

UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

Summary:

Hypothesis

Mobile device placed in a user's pocket can recognize foot gestures using a built in accelerometer

Method/Result:

Used 6 M series Vicon Motion capture cameras to capture movement of participant's foot

following gestures were tested:

• Dorsiflexion: four targets placed between 10° and 40° inclusive
• Plantar flexion: six targets placed between 10° and 60° inclusive
• Heel & toe rotation: 21 targets (each), with 9 internal rotation targets placed between -10° and -90° inclusive, and 12 external rotation targets placed between 10° and 120° inclusive

Sixteen right-footed participants for this study. Each participant completed 156 selections in the training phase and 468 selections in the testing phase.

system can classify ten different foot gestures at approximately 86% accuracy

The selection time for the 10° target for dorsiflexion was significantly faster than the other targets

The selection time for the 10° and 20° targets for plantar flexion was faster than the 40°, 50°, and 60° targets

Accuracy Decreased for each subsequent trials

For classification, Naïve Bayes theory was used to perform our classification of the user’s foot movements. (based on the Bayesian theorem and assumes that features are conditionally independent)

2 tests were conducted:

Leave-one-participant-out (LOPO) cross-validation:

We used the data gathered from 5 of the 6 participants for training, and used the data from the other participant for testing. This was repeated such that each participant’s data was used once for validation. This method of validation assumes weak user-dependency.

Within-participant (WP) stratified cross-validation:

We used data from only one participant at a time. The data for each participant was split into 10 stratified folds, meaning the ratio of data from each class was equal to the ratio in the total dataset. Using one fold for testing and the other 9 folds for training, tests were repeated such that each fold was used once for testing. The results were then averaged across tests for each participant and summed across participants. This protocol assumes a stronger user-dependency than LOPO.

Results:

WP protocol yielded greater accuracy than the LOPO protocol

Accuracy of the interaction:

side: 92.2%, front: 90.3%, and back: 75.5%

Naïve Bayes resulted in 82-92% classification accuracy for the gesture space

Content:

This paper is a study on performing foot based interactions such as lifting and rotation with the foot to classify gestures. Based on the results of interactions a system was created to recognize foot gestures using mobile phone placed in the user's pocket or holster.

Discussion:

Frankly although I thought the whole concept was very interesting I was not very interested in the whole idea in terms of using it in real life. Although the the interaction accuracy seemed very high according to their trials I would feel (as many would) uncomfortable without actually seeing what is happening on the mobile device with my own eyes. It would also be trouble some if doing leg motions randomly would do thing to my mobile device.

Paper Reading #9: Jogging Over a Distance Between Europe and Australia

Authors: Florian Mueller, Frank Vetere, Martin Gibbs, Darren Edge, Stefan Agamanolis, Jennifer Sheridan

occupation:

Florian Mueller is currently researching interactive technology as a Fullbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University

Frank Vetere is a senior lecturer in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne

Martin Gibbs is also a lecturer in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne

Darren Edge is currently a researcher in the HCI group for Microsoft Research

Stefan Agamanolis is currently Associate Director of the Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute at Akron Children's Hospital.

 Jennifer Sheridan is currently the Senior User Experience Consultant and Director of User Experience at BigDog Interactive

Location: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23rd annual ACM

Summary:

Hypothesis:

Jogging with other people will be more enjoyable when one is able to communicate with other people while doing so

Method/result: The participants ran from 25-45 minutes and communicated with someone during that time. Such people included friends, siblings, relatives, etc. The participants interviewed for about two hours afterward and responded to open ended questions regarding their experience. (17 participants, 14 runs)

The findings showed that Jogging Over a Distance was a great success. Joggers were able to experience more motivation to run especially due to the virtual mapping system that allowed the Joggers to feel ahead, behind, or right with their partner that was jogging with them. (This was done by using volume to give a illusion of where the two runners were while the heart rate gave the position of where the runner would be → virtual spacial environment) This attribute also promoted the spirit of competition greatly amongst some people allowing the participants to exert more on exercising.

Content:

The paper attempts to promote running into to a more social activity by allowing easy communication amongst different people and also allows people to enjoy running even when two people have a great disparity in fitness due to its measurement of heart rate system. It is important to note that the paper itself does not attempt to build running as a daily habit and also does not focus on performance. The paper instead focuses on a implementation done to increase social enjoyability of running itself.

Discussion:

As a occasional runner I thought that this product was a great way to promote social enjoyability of running. This is because in my personal experience running is very tiresome and music is not enough to keep me enthusiastic. But by using such a product one will feel more motivated as they realize that you are not alone in the suffering of running. It also makes for interesting competitions when doing this with a friend. I personally don't think that this product will be very effective in motivating people that usually do not run however. This is because motivating oneself to run is actually quite difficult even if one was to have something to talk to.

Paper Reading #8: Gesture Search: A Tool for Fast Mobile Data Access

Author: Yang Li

works at Google Research

location: UIST’10, October 3–6, 2010, New York

Summary:

Hypothesis:

It order to optimize the potential use of mobile devices It will be much more effective to create a gesture based program in order to navigate through one's interface. Such examples would include looking through contacts, application, music, etc. By doing this the amount of time consumed would be noticeably less and would allow quicker access for many users.

by using a tool called gesture search the users will be able to assess mobile phone data, applications, bookmarks, and music with more ease by drawing gestures. This will allow the user to remember and write a part of the data they may be looking for. The tool is based on search frequency and history to increase accuracy and time when obtaining results. 

Method/result:

This gesture tool was tested on the android platform and was user tests by 125 different mobile users. From the results it showed that contacts were mostly searched for using this tool and they were able to obtain results from two gestures.

Discussion: 

I was quite intrigued by this paper and i thought they did a great job in implementing a time saving tool such as this. This is mostly because i have to spend a lot of time navigating through my interface when using mobile devices as well. I hope that this application will be of wide spread use and other platforms of mobile device will choose to adopt this idea as well

Paper Reading#7 Performance Optimizations of Virtual Keyboards for Stroke-Based Entry on a Touch-Based Tabletop

Reference

Jochen Rick

He works at The Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

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

Hypothesis

finding a technique that will enhance the use of shape writing for table top touch devices 

shape writing- stoking through all the letters in a word on a virtual keyboard - and how this technique is affected by using different keyboard layouts

QWERTY layout is very inefficient because there is no surface to rest the hands

Method

User study was done among 8 users to determine the speed and efficiency in using different keyboard layouts.

It was suggested that shape writing based on user strokes on a virtual keyboard would be much more effective. This because the user would not have to lift his or her finger while using it and it would also make it easier to use when standing up or looking down on the surface of the device

Results

stroke-based qwerty input would have a 17% increase in imput speed, while switching to a layout such as OPTI II could yield speed improvement in the range of 50%

Discussion

I personally thought the whole idea was very interesting mostly because it related strongly with what cs majors do almost all the time which is typing. I think that his ideas are interesting and applicable but i still do not think that many people will be willing to change the keyboard layout from the traditional QWERTY anytime soon just because it is so ingrained in everyone 

Paper Reading#6 Turkit

Author: Greg Little, Lydia Chilton, Max Goldman, Robert Miller

People work for and are currently at MIT CSAIL and University of Washington

location -UIST’10, October 3–6, 2010, New York

Summary

Hypothesis

By implementing a programming model that allows TurKit possible it will be possible to allow programs to rerun the entire program up to where it crashed in a very cheap manner

Method 

Turkit was implemented in applications such as text recognition, psychophysics experimentation, and iterative writing

Case study results show that this model is good for algorithm style jobs on MTurk. It seems however that performance and usability was some what of a trade off. 

Users had a difficult time discerning parts of TurKit script in the execution trace

Content:

TurKit Script – a language for authoring human computation algorithms 

without re-running costly side-effecting functions.

Crash-and-rerun programming is the backbone of TurKit Script. It is a method for allowing a script to be re-executed.

Turkit allows algorithm tasks to be implemented as straight line imperative programs

Benefits such as incremental programming, print line debugging, easy implementation can be achieved as well

Discussion

I did not have much thought to this whole paper since i don't think it will be widely used anytime soon. This is because i feel that this is all very much still in a very developmental stage of the process. However i think if implemented correctly can save lots of time and increase efficiency in hardware that is used everyday.

Paper Reading#5 A Framework for Robust and Flexible Handling of Inputs with Uncertainty

Title: A Framework for Robust and Flexible Handling of Inputs with Uncertainty

Authors: Julia Schwarz, Scott E. Hudson, Jennifer Mankoff, Andrew D. Wilson

Author Bios:

Julia Schwarz is a grad student in Carnegie Mellon.

Scott E. Hudson is a professor for Carnegie Mellon.

Jennifer Mankoff is an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon

Andrew D. Wilson is a researcher at Microsoft

Everyone is currently still at Carnegie Mellon while Andrew is still at Microsoft

place: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology in New York.

Summary:

Hypothesis:

introducing a way to reduce the amount of uncertainty when devices are reading gestures done by users

method:

did a demo to show its effectiveness. Test various technologies that currently exist and also provide incite into how it can also be applied effectively in the future.

6 cases:

window resizing

sliders

tiny buttons for touch input

smart text

speech text entry

improved GUI pointing

Each possible event is given a probability and this probability greatly affects what decision a device may make in the face of uncertain inputs. Interactors handle all events and all the different interactors receive an event in the case of uncertainty or ambiguity. 2 possible actions are then taken: temporary/final. The mediator decides on the action performed

Result:

the authors demonstrates methods of improving user/technology interactions in a easy a straightforward way

Content: 

This whole paper was meant to address different ways to solve problems that people often get into when interacting with devices. This is handled partly through new input framework that can be easily integrated into current products. The new frame work is based on probabilities and allows a better method of decision making, feedback, and accuracy despite possible ambiguity or uncertainty.

Discussion:

Although there was a demo on their method I wish there was more feedback from actual users or more intense method of participation by people in regards to the products effectiveness. I really had a sense of connection with this paper because I have to deal with input problems all the time. This is sometimes cause I’m not paying attention or cause the devices themselves are not so friendly. 

Paper Reading#4 Gestalt

Title:Gestalt: Integrated Support for

Implementation and Analysis in Machine Learning

Authors: Kayur Patel, Naomi Bancroft, Steven Drucker, James Fogarty, Andrew Ko, James Landay

UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology

in NY

HCII, Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft Research WA

Summary:

Hypothesis: Traditional programming allows developers to explicitly describe the behavior of a program, but systems that use machine learning must learn behavior from data.

Although new advanced forms of interactions today they still produced inputs and areas of uncertainty and unpredictability. In such a sense there has been very little progress in terms of such improvements. In order to handle such types problems that are presented in the modern world this paper provides a possible method of basis of dealing with this is a some what convenient fashion. Several demonstrations have been used such as tiny manipulable buttons that can be interacted using touch manipulations or text boxes that can contain several interpretations of various input. Other examples of include methods to handle inputs that have been added in an inaccurate fashion. All these types of things can be used to help provide a better method to reduce uncertainties when interacting with devices today. Explanations contain various levels when it comes to clarifying uncertain aspects of user inputs and explains methods designed in such levels. The basis of such design is mostly designed on probability calculations and they can go through six different types of ambiguous input situations. Through such processes they showed how implementations of user device interaction can be significantly improved.

Contents:

• Gestalt supports the implementation of a classification pipeline, analysis of data as it moves through that pipeline, and easy transitions between implementation and analysis.
• Discussion of Gestalt’s capabilities, including a focus on generalizing lessons from domain-specific tools to
• provide general-purpose support for machine learning.
• An evaluation demonstrating that Gestalt significantly improves developer ability to find and fix bugs in two
• typical applications of machine learning.
• Discussion of current limitations and future opportunities for general-purpose machine learning support.

Discussion

I personally found this whole subject to be quite fascinating and I saw much promise in such aspect. This is especially because I have had many personal problems and experiences that I have had when interacting with devices that this paper speaks of. I think that this paper is a unique tool that can increase productivity greatly.

Paper Reading#3 Pen + Touch = New Tools

Title: Pen + Touch = new tools

author: Ken Hinckley, Koji Yatani, Michel Pahud, Nicole Coddington, Jenny Rodenhouse, Andy Wilson, Hrvoje Benko, and Bill Buxton

They are part of the Microsoft Research team and are currently working in One Microsoft Way

Presented during:UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface

software and technology in New York

Summary:

Hypothesis:

Create a human interaction system where the tools are divided:

pen writes, touch manipulates, and the combination of pen+touch yields new tools (This articulates how our system interprets unimodal pen,unimodal touch, and multimodal pen + touch inputs)

Create a method/device that offers the opportunity to craft new user experiences that are uniquely well suited to how people naturally work with pen and paper—without being beholden to physical mimicry of paper at the same time

Manual Deskterity is intended primarily as a research vehicle to explore pen + touch, which we believe has many potential applications

Methods:

Eight people were tested on 10 different behaviors in real life and the behaviors were used to give ideas in creating the division of tools including multimodal based tools

10 behaviors: Specific Roles, Tuck the Pen, Hold Clippings, Hold while writing, Framing, Scraps, Extended Work space, Piling, Drawing along Edges, Hold Page while Flipping

The research implementation of the device was done on Microsoft Surface with custom LED pen that is activated during contact via a tip switch

Device structuring:

Pen writes, touch manipulates

Zooming, selecting objects

Pen + Touch = new tools

x-acto knife: cutting items

stapler: grouping items into a stack

carbon copy: drag off with the pen

ruler: using object as straight edge

composition of straightedge with cutting

tape curve: holding a pen stroke as a drawing tool

Results:

-Users found our approach to combined pen and touch interaction appealing.

-quickly formed habits around the general pattern (hold touch + gesture with pen) common to most of our gestures

-currently the multimodal pen+touch gestures are not self revealing, nor in most cases is there sufficient feedback of the current action of the tools until after the user finishes articulating a gesture

-There is much potential overall and the usage of multimodal methods have more positive reception than expected

Discussion:

I thought the whole concept was interesting and I believe that it has much future potential in terms of

practical usage. I personally think that it would be difficult for people to get acquainted with bi manual forms of interaction however.