Chapter 8
Summary
The point of this chapter's case study was that of memories. The idea that memories were solid was challenged to see how fragile they really were. Apparently memories were not as good as once thought and even the mere mention of a wrong detail, the subject will go along with it or question themselves heavily.
Discussion
This is very interesting simply by the results but also the fact that it was long thought that memories were solid and good ways to remember things well. I like when obvious things are turned around because it shows to all that simple things should continue to be questioned.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Book Reading #28 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 9
Summary
This was a relatively short chapter in which different personalities were described. Also mentioned was comparisons do not really exist in the Samoan language.
Discussion
The interesting lives of these people show some very basic things can also be very different when compared to different cultures. I like the fact that some concepts can literally just not exist in a language.
Summary
This was a relatively short chapter in which different personalities were described. Also mentioned was comparisons do not really exist in the Samoan language.
Discussion
The interesting lives of these people show some very basic things can also be very different when compared to different cultures. I like the fact that some concepts can literally just not exist in a language.
Book Reading #27 - Emotional Design
Chapter 2
Summary
This chapter delves down into more layers of the different aspects of design. These levels are for example the appearance, behavioral response, reflective response, etc. The designer must now the audience that he or she is catering to in order to sell it well.
Discussion
Of course no product will sell to everyone since everyone has different responses to certain things. I think that these are obvious tips that designers should consider. Once again the author is going into obvious mode.
Summary
This chapter delves down into more layers of the different aspects of design. These levels are for example the appearance, behavioral response, reflective response, etc. The designer must now the audience that he or she is catering to in order to sell it well.
Discussion
Of course no product will sell to everyone since everyone has different responses to certain things. I think that these are obvious tips that designers should consider. Once again the author is going into obvious mode.
Ethnography Week 4
During this weeks studies I mainly just studied my friend's band interaction at practicing and also how they interacted when they were not working. The biggest event that happened this week was the fact that the entire band was finally practicing together after a month of the leader being in New York recording and producing new material. Many of them were quite antsy to get started as one of the members took off from school in order to pursue this career and one of them is just out of school ready to get started. The guitarist of the group was recently hired while the leader was in New York and has been quite busy over the last month. Therefore, no one in the band had played with him yet and this past practice was the first time to be done. The guitarist has his own studio at his house so the band met there in order to practice. However, within a short time it was very clear that the guitarist was in fact not very good and could not do simple things. When the leader would tell him simple chord changes or timing patterns, he did not understand at all. Unfortunately, this is just unacceptable in terms of a guitarist. Chord changes should be universally one of the first things that a musician learns and therefore he was dropped immediately. Apparently when the leader interviewed him, playing was not ever done, but the guitarist talked about how he had played on several albums and also produced them. He might be able to learn a song eventually, but not having these skills makes playing something live and changing it up nearly impossible. However, this was good because everyone saw immediately that he could not do the job and was therefore cut, and guitarists are relatively plentiful.
Paper Reading #12 - Detecting and leveraging finger orientation for interaction with direct-touch surfaces
Comments
Bain Mullins
Aaron Kirkes
Reference Information
Feng Wang, Xiang Cao, Xiangshi Ren, Pourang Irani, UIST’09, October 4–7, 2009, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Summary
This article continues similarly to my previous paper in that it is on the touch input of multi-touch screens of the emerging tablet market. The authors of this article are trying to show the benefits that come from easily determining the orientation of the user's finger direction and how it can be used as another type of input. This could be very helpful as humans use this kind of mentality all the time to point at objects or move them in this manner. In a game such as pool, the orientation could be used in order to easily aim the pool cue. Any sort of aiming would become much easier and more accurate. The algorithm for determining the actual orientation of the finger is quite simple in thinking, but harder to actually implement. When placing the finger down on the touch surface, the user will almost always place the tip of their finger first and then rock their finger back a little. So the pressure can be recorded and therefore determine which way the finger is being placed. Testing was done with a handful of subjects and showed positive results with minimal error.
Discussion
These types of articles are always very important to the future innovation of this area of technology. The touch screen input boon is still relatively new that there is much need for improvement to take over the mouse's territory. Currently, multi-touch is very primitive in that it is simply just tracking a handful of points on the screen in a fairly imprecise fashion. Orientation could open up a whole new area of menus and widgets that could be used. The menus would be semi-circles around a finger and the user would merely point to the relevant option.
Bain Mullins
Aaron Kirkes
Reference Information
Feng Wang, Xiang Cao, Xiangshi Ren, Pourang Irani, UIST’09, October 4–7, 2009, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Summary
This article continues similarly to my previous paper in that it is on the touch input of multi-touch screens of the emerging tablet market. The authors of this article are trying to show the benefits that come from easily determining the orientation of the user's finger direction and how it can be used as another type of input. This could be very helpful as humans use this kind of mentality all the time to point at objects or move them in this manner. In a game such as pool, the orientation could be used in order to easily aim the pool cue. Any sort of aiming would become much easier and more accurate. The algorithm for determining the actual orientation of the finger is quite simple in thinking, but harder to actually implement. When placing the finger down on the touch surface, the user will almost always place the tip of their finger first and then rock their finger back a little. So the pressure can be recorded and therefore determine which way the finger is being placed. Testing was done with a handful of subjects and showed positive results with minimal error.
Discussion
These types of articles are always very important to the future innovation of this area of technology. The touch screen input boon is still relatively new that there is much need for improvement to take over the mouse's territory. Currently, multi-touch is very primitive in that it is simply just tracking a handful of points on the screen in a fairly imprecise fashion. Orientation could open up a whole new area of menus and widgets that could be used. The menus would be semi-circles around a finger and the user would merely point to the relevant option.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Book Reading #26 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 7
Summary
In this chapter drug dependence is tested and observed. The idea of addiction is talked about and whether it really is a disease or what. It is mentioned that no matter the fluctuation of other variables, addiction constantly remains at around 1 percent.
Discussion
I find this study to be quite interesting just because of personal reasons. The idea of addiction being a disease I think is much more complicated than most people want to make it to be. They see it simply as a choice, which in a way it is but there is something more.
Summary
In this chapter drug dependence is tested and observed. The idea of addiction is talked about and whether it really is a disease or what. It is mentioned that no matter the fluctuation of other variables, addiction constantly remains at around 1 percent.
Discussion
I find this study to be quite interesting just because of personal reasons. The idea of addiction being a disease I think is much more complicated than most people want to make it to be. They see it simply as a choice, which in a way it is but there is something more.
Book Reading #25 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 8
Summary
This chapter talks about the activity that all persons in the community are allowed to participate in, dancing. All the different preparations are mentioned and how everyone gets in on the semi-formal event.
Discussion
This was kind of an interesting break as it just described the different emotions of all the people involved and how they felt about dancing. I like seeing these basic events being present in all different cultures.
Summary
This chapter talks about the activity that all persons in the community are allowed to participate in, dancing. All the different preparations are mentioned and how everyone gets in on the semi-formal event.
Discussion
This was kind of an interesting break as it just described the different emotions of all the people involved and how they felt about dancing. I like seeing these basic events being present in all different cultures.
Book Reading #24 - Emotional Design
Chapter 1
Summary
Emotion plays a key role in all aspects of design for humans and the objects they interact with. Aesthetics of objects therefore will play a role in whether or how a person uses it. Then described are the basic processing that all humans do. Exploiting these emotions are what all designers need to do to make great things.
Discussion
This looks like it will be a good compliment to the Design of Everyday Things. The emotional aspect of all objects is quite important to study when creating and designing them. This can increase the use of it as demonstrated in the chapter.
Summary
Emotion plays a key role in all aspects of design for humans and the objects they interact with. Aesthetics of objects therefore will play a role in whether or how a person uses it. Then described are the basic processing that all humans do. Exploiting these emotions are what all designers need to do to make great things.
Discussion
This looks like it will be a good compliment to the Design of Everyday Things. The emotional aspect of all objects is quite important to study when creating and designing them. This can increase the use of it as demonstrated in the chapter.
Full Blog Design of Everyday Things
Summary
The Design of Everyday Things gave an interesting portrayal of how the thought process works in creating interfaces and various objects and the pitfalls that occur when doing this. Throughout most of the chapters the author continually speaks about the minor problems that plague well known devices. These include the phone or temperature setting devices. Odd labeling, multiple switches, and information overload were just some of the examples that the author gave to why users are confused or just make mistakes. By pointing out these flaws the author was trying to give designers a way to see that thinking about the design through their own eyes is not always the best policy. The user usually will need to be catered to when it comes to these interfaces by giving the obvious functions in an obvious way and not making things complicated. This was the theme throughout the entire book.
Discussion
This book was actually my least favorite at the beginning of the course. The author simply pointed out the flaws of all these simple objects and went on and on about them. I could not see what he was doing by just mentioning these already obvious flaws. However, I grew to see that showing these simple examples show the underlaying cause of why these flaws come up in the first place. By the end the author was walking through the steps that designers should take heed of in order to not fall into these bad habits so the designer wont make obvious nor non-obvious mistakes.
The Design of Everyday Things gave an interesting portrayal of how the thought process works in creating interfaces and various objects and the pitfalls that occur when doing this. Throughout most of the chapters the author continually speaks about the minor problems that plague well known devices. These include the phone or temperature setting devices. Odd labeling, multiple switches, and information overload were just some of the examples that the author gave to why users are confused or just make mistakes. By pointing out these flaws the author was trying to give designers a way to see that thinking about the design through their own eyes is not always the best policy. The user usually will need to be catered to when it comes to these interfaces by giving the obvious functions in an obvious way and not making things complicated. This was the theme throughout the entire book.
Discussion
This book was actually my least favorite at the beginning of the course. The author simply pointed out the flaws of all these simple objects and went on and on about them. I could not see what he was doing by just mentioning these already obvious flaws. However, I grew to see that showing these simple examples show the underlaying cause of why these flaws come up in the first place. By the end the author was walking through the steps that designers should take heed of in order to not fall into these bad habits so the designer wont make obvious nor non-obvious mistakes.
Paper Reading #11 - Contact Area Interaction with Sliding Widgets
Comments
Brian Meyer
Felipe Othick
Reference Information
Tomer Moscovich, UIST’09, October 4–7, 2009, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Summary
This paper discusses the current situation in tablet computing input. The problem with current setups are the fact that the finger input maps to a pixel rather than the area under the finger. They coin this term the "fat finger problem". This accounts for many errors by the user when using any touch screen device. The author proposes to solve this by having the selection area be the small circle of the finger tip. Now any object in this area will respond to touch. In the article many different situations are proposed in order to show how a sliding widget interface can work well, be intuitive, and help the user. The trials that this system were put through did actually show a slight improvement in both time spent and the amount of errors the user caused.
Discussion
I have a problem with the authors initial proposal of having the finger tip area get a response from all near objects. This seems like a nightmare of frustration with users as they are only trying to manipulate one object but instead all the objects move. This is solved by the author in regard to action buttons by making everything need a sliding action to activate. So objects close to each other can be made to slide in opposite directions in order to not clash with each other. However, this was found to confuse the user slightly and might need to be reworked or thought of before setting the final design. The idea of this is a good one however. Deciding where a large finger is exactly pointing is hard and will probably cause problems for the user. Therefore just using the area is a logical solution.
Brian Meyer
Felipe Othick
Reference Information
Tomer Moscovich, UIST’09, October 4–7, 2009, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Summary
This paper discusses the current situation in tablet computing input. The problem with current setups are the fact that the finger input maps to a pixel rather than the area under the finger. They coin this term the "fat finger problem". This accounts for many errors by the user when using any touch screen device. The author proposes to solve this by having the selection area be the small circle of the finger tip. Now any object in this area will respond to touch. In the article many different situations are proposed in order to show how a sliding widget interface can work well, be intuitive, and help the user. The trials that this system were put through did actually show a slight improvement in both time spent and the amount of errors the user caused.
Discussion
I have a problem with the authors initial proposal of having the finger tip area get a response from all near objects. This seems like a nightmare of frustration with users as they are only trying to manipulate one object but instead all the objects move. This is solved by the author in regard to action buttons by making everything need a sliding action to activate. So objects close to each other can be made to slide in opposite directions in order to not clash with each other. However, this was found to confuse the user slightly and might need to be reworked or thought of before setting the final design. The idea of this is a good one however. Deciding where a large finger is exactly pointing is hard and will probably cause problems for the user. Therefore just using the area is a logical solution.
 |
| Notice the widgets all require a sliding motion to activate |
Monday, February 21, 2011
Ethnography Results Week 3
For the third week of study things are moving along a little better now that the topic for my proposal is essentially finished. Now that the topic is on music and the music scene in general and the background of the dealings that go on with modern artists. The past month or so my friend has been trying to launch his career into music. He was in New York recording music and meeting with people to see if record deals or other promotions were possible. He has a promotional deal now with a certain company and is in talks with a record label that has shown interest. The couple of songs that he was recording are nearly finished and he is now back in College Station. Over the following weeks I will see what exactly he does when he is recording, practicing, meeting with people, and various music related activities to see how the modern artist is getting along today. I got many interactions that he had while in New York with various executives and what went on when he was in the studio. These ranged from the usual working environment, to crazy exclusive clubs for meetings, to weird hour sessions on the computer finalizing the songs. I hope to complement these findings with how most people will consume their music and just the general landscape of music currently by looking at what surrounds me in life and what music is laced in it. This can reveal a lot by what is perceived to be popular.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Paper Reading #10 - Ripples: Utilizing Per-Contact Visualizations to Improve User Interaction with Touch Displays
Comments
Alyssa Nabors
Chris Kam
Reference Information
Daniel Wigdor, Sarah Williams, Michael Cronin, Robert Levy, Katie White, Maxim Mazeev, Hrvoje Benko, Microsoft, UIST’09, October 4–7, 2009, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Summary
This paper is on the topic of the recent trend of multi-touch input displays that have been starting to sell on electronics. These types of inputs have become very popular, but unfortunately the feedback to users has taken a step back. Often times an irregular result will come out of a particular action and cause the user confusion. This, however, is not accompanied by any sort of visual feedback in order for the user to figure out exactly what their mistake was. Ripple is a new program from these authors that provides the users with appropriate feedback through contact visualization to show correct operations and errors. Ripple is a way of standardizing this solution to a problem that will become prevalent as the products keep coming out. The program is friendly enough to be able to become implemented in different platforms by being the system level framework that renders visuals above all other layers. The whole point to the Ripple framework is to bring together a standard so users everywhere can easily pick up these devices and be able to use them with ease and fewer errors just like the mouse and keyboard.
Discussion
This topic is a very important aspect of computing as time goes on. The multi-touch screen is a huge new piece of hardware that will be frequently used in the coming future and I think that the biggest problem that it still faces is the annoyance with dealing with user input errors. People get frustrated because they do not realize what problems they are doing because no feedback is given. When devices freeze and the user continually tries to push a button on screen and it will not respond is often a problem and the user is receiving no feedback that the device is no understanding the input. However, a simple act of adding in vibration after every 'click' has not been accepted and is often turned off by the user. This will be a very important topic in human computer interaction realm for the coming years.
Alyssa Nabors
Chris Kam
Reference Information
Daniel Wigdor, Sarah Williams, Michael Cronin, Robert Levy, Katie White, Maxim Mazeev, Hrvoje Benko, Microsoft, UIST’09, October 4–7, 2009, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Summary
This paper is on the topic of the recent trend of multi-touch input displays that have been starting to sell on electronics. These types of inputs have become very popular, but unfortunately the feedback to users has taken a step back. Often times an irregular result will come out of a particular action and cause the user confusion. This, however, is not accompanied by any sort of visual feedback in order for the user to figure out exactly what their mistake was. Ripple is a new program from these authors that provides the users with appropriate feedback through contact visualization to show correct operations and errors. Ripple is a way of standardizing this solution to a problem that will become prevalent as the products keep coming out. The program is friendly enough to be able to become implemented in different platforms by being the system level framework that renders visuals above all other layers. The whole point to the Ripple framework is to bring together a standard so users everywhere can easily pick up these devices and be able to use them with ease and fewer errors just like the mouse and keyboard.
Discussion
This topic is a very important aspect of computing as time goes on. The multi-touch screen is a huge new piece of hardware that will be frequently used in the coming future and I think that the biggest problem that it still faces is the annoyance with dealing with user input errors. People get frustrated because they do not realize what problems they are doing because no feedback is given. When devices freeze and the user continually tries to push a button on screen and it will not respond is often a problem and the user is receiving no feedback that the device is no understanding the input. However, a simple act of adding in vibration after every 'click' has not been accepted and is often turned off by the user. This will be a very important topic in human computer interaction realm for the coming years.
Book Reading #23 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 6
Summary
The case study of this chapter is on personal attachment observed with monkeys. So essentially the relationship of love with our perception of touch and sight. The monkeys were fed by a metal figure and compared with the normal feeding ritual.
Discussion
This was an interesting take on how love and affection play a large role on animal's lives. Simply an inanimate object can be used to look like a mother to the monkeys and play an important role in affection.
Summary
The case study of this chapter is on personal attachment observed with monkeys. So essentially the relationship of love with our perception of touch and sight. The monkeys were fed by a metal figure and compared with the normal feeding ritual.
Discussion
This was an interesting take on how love and affection play a large role on animal's lives. Simply an inanimate object can be used to look like a mother to the monkeys and play an important role in affection.
Book Reading #22 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 7
Summary
Chapter seven talks about all the actual puberty type situations that happen within the tribe. All the sexual related aspects to relationships between the girls and boys are observed and their respective feelings. Even interesting superstitions are mentioned when it comes to these types of situations.
Discussion
It was interesting to see the superstitions that the tribe had and how they are relatable to other communities. This topic is obviously one of the most important of a community so therefore interesting to cover.
Summary
Chapter seven talks about all the actual puberty type situations that happen within the tribe. All the sexual related aspects to relationships between the girls and boys are observed and their respective feelings. Even interesting superstitions are mentioned when it comes to these types of situations.
Discussion
It was interesting to see the superstitions that the tribe had and how they are relatable to other communities. This topic is obviously one of the most important of a community so therefore interesting to cover.
Book Reading #21 - Design of Everyday Things
Chapter 7
Summary
This chapter finally brings together what steps or thought processes need to be used in order to fix common errors with design and human use. The biggest of these solutions would be the act of standardizing. This is huge especially in technology in order to ease the user into using these products
Discussion
Overall this book has been a little frustrating for me until this chapter because it finally spoke about ways to avoid the pitfalls of design and not focus on yourself when making a product. Instead think of all the users and/or test products beforehand.
Summary
This chapter finally brings together what steps or thought processes need to be used in order to fix common errors with design and human use. The biggest of these solutions would be the act of standardizing. This is huge especially in technology in order to ease the user into using these products
Discussion
Overall this book has been a little frustrating for me until this chapter because it finally spoke about ways to avoid the pitfalls of design and not focus on yourself when making a product. Instead think of all the users and/or test products beforehand.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Paper Reading #9 - VizWiz: Nearly Real-time Answers to Visual Questions
Comments
Jimmy Ho
Evin Schuchardt
Reference Information
Jeffrey P. Bigham, Chandrika Jayant, Hanjie Ji, Greg Little, Andrew Millerγ, Robert C. Miller, Robin Miller, Aubrey Tatarowicz, Brandyn White, Samuel White, and Tom Yeh, UIST’10, October 3-6, 2010, New York City, USA
Summary
The main point to this article is on a program that is being developed called VizWiz. The purpose of which is to help specifically blind people answer simple visual based questions for them. The blind user will take a picture of the environment that they have a question about and then speak a question about it. This is then sent off and answered by an actual human and then sent back. The article is generally about how the system is used to get the feedback to the person. Also, the authors deal with the fact that the images are not going to be very good because they are coming off of a cell phone camera. This also is compounded by the fact that the users are blind and therefore can not necessarily frame up a good shot of what they are asking about. This is where the human element helps because humans can see patterns and identify objects much better than a computer could.
Discussion
I like the idea of this program but only strictly in the since of a temporary solution. The whole argument for using human workers was that the computer could not do as well as a human could. However, this does not mean that computer programming will not improve to the point of being able to analyze images just as well as human do. This is the goal that needs to be achieved rather than just bad mouthing how the computer currently cannot do this. In fact, Google has their "Google Goggles" that is very similar to this article. However, I find their research in this area and using humans interesting especially when they say they can actually keep it cheaply enough to be profitable.
Jimmy Ho
Evin Schuchardt
Reference Information
Jeffrey P. Bigham, Chandrika Jayant, Hanjie Ji, Greg Little, Andrew Millerγ, Robert C. Miller, Robin Miller, Aubrey Tatarowicz, Brandyn White, Samuel White, and Tom Yeh, UIST’10, October 3-6, 2010, New York City, USA
Summary
The main point to this article is on a program that is being developed called VizWiz. The purpose of which is to help specifically blind people answer simple visual based questions for them. The blind user will take a picture of the environment that they have a question about and then speak a question about it. This is then sent off and answered by an actual human and then sent back. The article is generally about how the system is used to get the feedback to the person. Also, the authors deal with the fact that the images are not going to be very good because they are coming off of a cell phone camera. This also is compounded by the fact that the users are blind and therefore can not necessarily frame up a good shot of what they are asking about. This is where the human element helps because humans can see patterns and identify objects much better than a computer could.
Discussion
I like the idea of this program but only strictly in the since of a temporary solution. The whole argument for using human workers was that the computer could not do as well as a human could. However, this does not mean that computer programming will not improve to the point of being able to analyze images just as well as human do. This is the goal that needs to be achieved rather than just bad mouthing how the computer currently cannot do this. In fact, Google has their "Google Goggles" that is very similar to this article. However, I find their research in this area and using humans interesting especially when they say they can actually keep it cheaply enough to be profitable.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Book Reading #20 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 5
Summary
The case study of this chapter was of MIT professor, Festinger. They produced a study on the happenings of a person's belief when compared to their behavior that they showed. The surprising conclusion of which was that people would change their belief rather than their behavior to fit their belief (cognitive dissonance). This came through obviously when it came to cults and their sure belief of end times or something similar.
Discussion
This once again is quite interesting study in the psychology of people. I love reading about these studies that totally refute what most people think that people should act like. When in fact it is a normal reaction when place in those circumstances. The cult mentality or something similar is so strong that it can capture the smartest of people and cause them to think the weirdest things.
Summary
The case study of this chapter was of MIT professor, Festinger. They produced a study on the happenings of a person's belief when compared to their behavior that they showed. The surprising conclusion of which was that people would change their belief rather than their behavior to fit their belief (cognitive dissonance). This came through obviously when it came to cults and their sure belief of end times or something similar.
Discussion
This once again is quite interesting study in the psychology of people. I love reading about these studies that totally refute what most people think that people should act like. When in fact it is a normal reaction when place in those circumstances. The cult mentality or something similar is so strong that it can capture the smartest of people and cause them to think the weirdest things.
Book Reading #19 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 6
Summary
This chapter was about the role that girls play in the society in Samoa. Basically it spoke about how girls are treated from the beginning and as they are growing up in conjunction to the boys of the community. Once again it speaks of specific roles that the community expects certain genders and age groups to be performing.
Discussion
I find it pretty interesting the similarities that keep coming up while the communities still being quite different. I'm sure it will get there, but I'm interested to see what happens more in depth with certain rituals and various sacred actions.
Summary
This chapter was about the role that girls play in the society in Samoa. Basically it spoke about how girls are treated from the beginning and as they are growing up in conjunction to the boys of the community. Once again it speaks of specific roles that the community expects certain genders and age groups to be performing.
Discussion
I find it pretty interesting the similarities that keep coming up while the communities still being quite different. I'm sure it will get there, but I'm interested to see what happens more in depth with certain rituals and various sacred actions.
Book Reading #18 - Design of Everyday Things
Chapter 6
Summary
This chapter once again talks about the fact of design with respect of the users in mind. The designer must always be aware of the impending errors that users will have with their product based off of misunderstanding and poor design choices. Many times designers think that they will create their product with almost perfection when in fact this almost never happens. Also, technology currently doesn't allow for a good natural evolution of products because of the way that designers put out new products. The design of a new product should be based off the lessons learned on the last iteration, but almost always the next iteration is started during the development cycle of the current product.
Discussion
The chapter is an important thing to think about, but I think that this far in the book the topic is now being beaten like a dead horse. Maybe I just do not realize that the author is trying to show all the problems that have occurred in a wide range of products and it is not just a small problem that can be glossed over. However, I believe the point has been made and maybe more positive ways to fix the situation need to be introduced rather than the approach that the author is currently using.
Summary
This chapter once again talks about the fact of design with respect of the users in mind. The designer must always be aware of the impending errors that users will have with their product based off of misunderstanding and poor design choices. Many times designers think that they will create their product with almost perfection when in fact this almost never happens. Also, technology currently doesn't allow for a good natural evolution of products because of the way that designers put out new products. The design of a new product should be based off the lessons learned on the last iteration, but almost always the next iteration is started during the development cycle of the current product.
Discussion
The chapter is an important thing to think about, but I think that this far in the book the topic is now being beaten like a dead horse. Maybe I just do not realize that the author is trying to show all the problems that have occurred in a wide range of products and it is not just a small problem that can be glossed over. However, I believe the point has been made and maybe more positive ways to fix the situation need to be introduced rather than the approach that the author is currently using.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Paper Reading #8 - TAVR: Temporal-aural-visual Representation for Representing Imperceptible Spatial Information
Comments
Jimmy Ho
Keith Farinella
Reference Information
Minyoung Song, CHI 2010 Atlanta, GA, April 2010
Summary
The topic of this article was to address the problem that humans seem to have when it comes to perceiving numbers and sizes of objects that are not relative to our own size. So things that are astronomically large or microscopically small in size or number cause our mind to not usually able to process it. TAVR is a program on the microscopic end to allow for users to grasp the meaning of the size of cells or similarly small objects. The program will play an audio clip every time a cell comes into existence on the the head of a pin. This queues the user to know the exact number occurring. After a period of time, a large enough group of cells will be seen by the user and realize how many can fit on such a small area.
Discussion
This is a very interesting topic that I have experience personally a number of times. I think this idea is an interesting way to get people to understand these kind of numbers. However, I believe that this idea needs to be expanded on greatly. I think there is an innate characteristic for all humans to simply not understand these relatively weird sizes and numbers. To truly grasp this, I think a lot more needs to be done in the realm of learning physics, biology, etc. Having said that though, this program is a good way to start out and allow children to learn how vastly different these sizes and numbers are and then this could be built upon later.
Jimmy Ho
Keith Farinella
Reference Information
Minyoung Song, CHI 2010 Atlanta, GA, April 2010
Summary
The topic of this article was to address the problem that humans seem to have when it comes to perceiving numbers and sizes of objects that are not relative to our own size. So things that are astronomically large or microscopically small in size or number cause our mind to not usually able to process it. TAVR is a program on the microscopic end to allow for users to grasp the meaning of the size of cells or similarly small objects. The program will play an audio clip every time a cell comes into existence on the the head of a pin. This queues the user to know the exact number occurring. After a period of time, a large enough group of cells will be seen by the user and realize how many can fit on such a small area.
Discussion
This is a very interesting topic that I have experience personally a number of times. I think this idea is an interesting way to get people to understand these kind of numbers. However, I believe that this idea needs to be expanded on greatly. I think there is an innate characteristic for all humans to simply not understand these relatively weird sizes and numbers. To truly grasp this, I think a lot more needs to be done in the realm of learning physics, biology, etc. Having said that though, this program is a good way to start out and allow children to learn how vastly different these sizes and numbers are and then this could be built upon later.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Ethnography Results Week 2 and Finalization of Proposal
On this post I would like to start out by updating my original proposal and week 1 posts. I feel like I need to clarify exactly how my ethnography will be done. My previous posts have a misconception that it might just be a glorified survey that is being done since I will mainly have to interact with the people I am observing in order to get any data. So for the first continuing initial phase I will use my general music study based off of myself. A log will be kept of all music I hear by my choosing, but mostly not by my choosing. Also, commercials, tv shows, and movies will be sampled for their music. I will try obviously to take samples from different genres of these categories. Background music will also be taken from local stores and also what music I seek out online. Next, observation of my own collection of music will be used as a base. Then, to expand out, I will observe a real musician of today's music. My cousin is currently recording music and touring in order for a shot at it becoming a career. I can observe him and see what he sees the music scene as. Also, I am sure more opportunities will arise to observe, but these are only the initial few that can get me started in order to study the music scene.
For the second week of results, however, this was another testing week because my final proposal was not quite finalized. So I simply did some simple observations around myself. I observed on all my commutes on the bus this week that around half of the people on the bus had ear phones in and the radio was on in the bus. Also, several people responded to a couple of questions that I put out. I found out that around fifty percent of those who responded almost always listened to music during their study time. The other majority sometimes listened to music. Only a small percentage responded that they never listened to music while studying.
For the second week of results, however, this was another testing week because my final proposal was not quite finalized. So I simply did some simple observations around myself. I observed on all my commutes on the bus this week that around half of the people on the bus had ear phones in and the radio was on in the bus. Also, several people responded to a couple of questions that I put out. I found out that around fifty percent of those who responded almost always listened to music during their study time. The other majority sometimes listened to music. Only a small percentage responded that they never listened to music while studying.
Book Reading #17 - HCI Remixed
Chapter 6
Summary
This article was on the author studying and meeting the creator of essentially the first icon based interface. The inventor worked at Xerox and should be created with how everyone interacts with their computer today. It was borrowed and used for work at Macintosh.
Discussion
I like the angle that this article took in that these fundamental changes in HCI just don't occur very much anymore. This project had its share of problems but changed the industry in a big way. People need to quit the building upon the last idea approach.
Chapter 7
Summary
This chapter continued the discussion with the Xerox Star project. There existed a "red book" which spelled out all the standards that were in place and how the interface was supposed to be.
Discussion
Again this detailed even more the excitement that this project had on the entire computer interface world. It allowed many more people to get into computing than before.
Chapter 9
Summary
Streitz talks about the idea of having technology fade into our everyday lives. Good ideas should just integrate with what we already have.
Discussion
I believe this idea is entirely obvious, however, much harder to actually put into practice than most think. For these ideas to happen well, a critical mass must be met in adoption for the item to really take off. And trying to get obscure expensive objects to take off when the regular objects still exist is quite hard. The real factor is staying innovative and making it affordable.
Chapter 10
Summary
In this article the idea of location based services is talked about. This is an extremely hot topic at the moment and is allowing for many new ideas for programs to flourish. Cheap, location based hardware has been out of our reach but is now ubiquitous in smart phones.
Discussion
This really is and has been a big leap for a lot of ideas that are being pursued now. Catering to your customer from a world perspective is not very efficient. But when you know where that customer is exactly on earth it allows for a much better experience for them.
Chapter 46
Summary
In this chapter, mental models are discussed. This was basically studying how people interpret and perceive the system they are using in their mind.
Discussion
I like the idea of this because I have always been interested in the human mind and its workings. The author mentions that she has studied how the mind comprehends language and she does the same work on this topic. I think it is quite important to find out how our brain works with various interfaces because this information could be used to make it much more efficient.
Chapter 47
Summary
Olson discusses the idea of laws when it comes to designing with human-computer interaction. There are technically no laws but he mentions one in particular, Fitt's Law. Basically this law states what the movement time is based on target size.
Discussion
This law does not seem like it applies but when thinking about it differently it in fact does. The person dealing with human-computer interaction must deal with this all the time such as with interfaces. The designer must always keep track of the users "movement time" when going to a specific function that he or she wants to do. This can be very helpful in making the interface easier to use.
Summary
This article was on the author studying and meeting the creator of essentially the first icon based interface. The inventor worked at Xerox and should be created with how everyone interacts with their computer today. It was borrowed and used for work at Macintosh.
Discussion
I like the angle that this article took in that these fundamental changes in HCI just don't occur very much anymore. This project had its share of problems but changed the industry in a big way. People need to quit the building upon the last idea approach.
Chapter 7
Summary
This chapter continued the discussion with the Xerox Star project. There existed a "red book" which spelled out all the standards that were in place and how the interface was supposed to be.
Discussion
Again this detailed even more the excitement that this project had on the entire computer interface world. It allowed many more people to get into computing than before.
Chapter 9
Summary
Streitz talks about the idea of having technology fade into our everyday lives. Good ideas should just integrate with what we already have.
Discussion
I believe this idea is entirely obvious, however, much harder to actually put into practice than most think. For these ideas to happen well, a critical mass must be met in adoption for the item to really take off. And trying to get obscure expensive objects to take off when the regular objects still exist is quite hard. The real factor is staying innovative and making it affordable.
Chapter 10
Summary
In this article the idea of location based services is talked about. This is an extremely hot topic at the moment and is allowing for many new ideas for programs to flourish. Cheap, location based hardware has been out of our reach but is now ubiquitous in smart phones.
Discussion
This really is and has been a big leap for a lot of ideas that are being pursued now. Catering to your customer from a world perspective is not very efficient. But when you know where that customer is exactly on earth it allows for a much better experience for them.
Chapter 46
Summary
In this chapter, mental models are discussed. This was basically studying how people interpret and perceive the system they are using in their mind.
Discussion
I like the idea of this because I have always been interested in the human mind and its workings. The author mentions that she has studied how the mind comprehends language and she does the same work on this topic. I think it is quite important to find out how our brain works with various interfaces because this information could be used to make it much more efficient.
Chapter 47
Summary
Olson discusses the idea of laws when it comes to designing with human-computer interaction. There are technically no laws but he mentions one in particular, Fitt's Law. Basically this law states what the movement time is based on target size.
Discussion
This law does not seem like it applies but when thinking about it differently it in fact does. The person dealing with human-computer interaction must deal with this all the time such as with interfaces. The designer must always keep track of the users "movement time" when going to a specific function that he or she wants to do. This can be very helpful in making the interface easier to use.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Book Reading #16 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 4
Summary
The study of this chapter was essentially various scenarios where the general populous would be tested to see at what lengths they could be compelled to not give aid to those who needed it.
Discussion
The idea of the group dynamic is very fickle when it comes to danger and others well being. Its sad, but it seems like people are too worried about what others would think if they helped out and often simply think that they are already getting help from some other by standard.
Summary
The study of this chapter was essentially various scenarios where the general populous would be tested to see at what lengths they could be compelled to not give aid to those who needed it.
Discussion
The idea of the group dynamic is very fickle when it comes to danger and others well being. Its sad, but it seems like people are too worried about what others would think if they helped out and often simply think that they are already getting help from some other by standard.
Book Reading #15 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 5
Summary
This chapter is about the age groups that the natives are placed in and what roles that they play at which age. These are important for matching up the different children and adults as they become of age.
Discussion
The basic idea to the chapter is simply in this community when different aspects of people's lives occur at what time. So when marriages and such are acceptable and other major life events.
Summary
This chapter is about the age groups that the natives are placed in and what roles that they play at which age. These are important for matching up the different children and adults as they become of age.
Discussion
The basic idea to the chapter is simply in this community when different aspects of people's lives occur at what time. So when marriages and such are acceptable and other major life events.
Book Reading #14 - Design of Everyday Things
Chapter 5
Summary
This chapter of common problems were the different human errors that occur in interacting with various devices. This may be due to unfortunate circumstances or to human subconscious mistake.
Discussion
So the chapter essentially comes out with some of the most common human errors and obvious ways that they can be curbed. So these events will always happen and cannot be designed for. The design must incorporate a fail safe for these errors.
Summary
This chapter of common problems were the different human errors that occur in interacting with various devices. This may be due to unfortunate circumstances or to human subconscious mistake.
Discussion
So the chapter essentially comes out with some of the most common human errors and obvious ways that they can be curbed. So these events will always happen and cannot be designed for. The design must incorporate a fail safe for these errors.
Paper Reading #7 - Grassroots Heritage in the Crisis Context: A Social Media Probes Approach to Studying Heritage in a Participatory Age
Comments
Aaron Kirkes
Stuart Jones
Reference Information
Sophia B. Liu, CHI 2010 Atlanta, GA April 2010
Summary
This article is about how the study of social networking methods have impacted the way people record crisis events happen and how they are documented for the heritage purpose. The widespread use of this social networking tool will drastically allow for widespread documentation of things all around and in different cultures to come together. The new idea that has come around lately is that crowd sourcing is a very important and powerful new tool that how come to allow for massive data handling. To write history essentially, it is crowd sourced through these social networks and the best, most informative things will come out on top.
Discussion
I did not particularly like the format of this paper. It was quite convoluted and all over the place. His intent on what he was doing was a little confusing and unclear. Once I finally followed his logic, I believe that this is a very important ethnographic study to be done. The role of social networks will become very important in the short future as new ways to get information disseminated all over the globe. This is very much in its infancy and I am excited to see what comes of it.
Aaron Kirkes
Stuart Jones
Reference Information
Sophia B. Liu, CHI 2010 Atlanta, GA April 2010
Summary
This article is about how the study of social networking methods have impacted the way people record crisis events happen and how they are documented for the heritage purpose. The widespread use of this social networking tool will drastically allow for widespread documentation of things all around and in different cultures to come together. The new idea that has come around lately is that crowd sourcing is a very important and powerful new tool that how come to allow for massive data handling. To write history essentially, it is crowd sourced through these social networks and the best, most informative things will come out on top.
Discussion
I did not particularly like the format of this paper. It was quite convoluted and all over the place. His intent on what he was doing was a little confusing and unclear. Once I finally followed his logic, I believe that this is a very important ethnographic study to be done. The role of social networks will become very important in the short future as new ways to get information disseminated all over the globe. This is very much in its infancy and I am excited to see what comes of it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Ethnography Results, Week 1
The initial phase of this project was to simply test out our original proposed idea and see how well it goes. My original idea was to essentially see how music affects other people in their unique way. So this means how they usually listen to music, whether they see it as an appreciable art or just a fun hobby of listening, their amount of time listening to music, if they see music as beneficial to other forms of art or activities, etc. So far results mainly come from a demographic of students, but I would love to get results from all music lovers. Especially to compare and contrast how music has evolved over these past few generations.
My initial question was how long the person listens to music in a week. I found that music is a huge integral part to the student life style. Many people walk to and from class listening to music, on the bus, within TV programs, and also while they are studying. For some people the act of simply listening to music accounted for 40 to 50 percent of their free time. Also, for many, I wanted to see if listening to music helped their mood in any way. Almost everyone I asked responded that the music changed their mood in some way. However, obviously this is not always for the better since different mood music exists. I started also looking into whether people simply listen to music as their only activity at a time. This I observed very little from people. Most were always doing something else along with listening to music. The rare times when that was the only activity was when people were waiting on the bus or something similar.
Interesting to note is that I actually am listening to music while I am writing this blog. For me personally, music is a large part of my life. My grandfather played any instrument that required air and I also love creating music. I find it essential to my life and I also believe the same in regards to all humans.
My initial question was how long the person listens to music in a week. I found that music is a huge integral part to the student life style. Many people walk to and from class listening to music, on the bus, within TV programs, and also while they are studying. For some people the act of simply listening to music accounted for 40 to 50 percent of their free time. Also, for many, I wanted to see if listening to music helped their mood in any way. Almost everyone I asked responded that the music changed their mood in some way. However, obviously this is not always for the better since different mood music exists. I started also looking into whether people simply listen to music as their only activity at a time. This I observed very little from people. Most were always doing something else along with listening to music. The rare times when that was the only activity was when people were waiting on the bus or something similar.
Interesting to note is that I actually am listening to music while I am writing this blog. For me personally, music is a large part of my life. My grandfather played any instrument that required air and I also love creating music. I find it essential to my life and I also believe the same in regards to all humans.
Paper Reading #6 - Critical Point, A Composition for Cello and Computer
Comments
Jorge Perez
Jacob Lillard
Reference Information
Roger Dannenberg, Tomas Laurenzo, CHI 2010 April 2010, Atlanta, GA
Summary
This paper is about a project where once again the authors are trying to build on different ideas of art with technology as the aid. In this case a cellist is used to play a solo piece. This is fed into a computer and program which can then interpret the data in order to show animation in conjunction with whatever the soloist is playing at the moment. During the performance, someone can be manipulating what mode or processing feature is active in order to change up whats on the screen even further.
Discussion
It seems that some of these art projects are semi hit or miss with me. I do like the idea of this one, however, because I think that as long as the original art action is not covered up then it is fine. Since the authors are just trying to build off of classical music, then they should not cover it up. But I believe that they have done this successfully and the added animation could be a good visual add-on to the art of classical music.
Jorge Perez
Jacob Lillard
Reference Information
Roger Dannenberg, Tomas Laurenzo, CHI 2010 April 2010, Atlanta, GA
Summary
This paper is about a project where once again the authors are trying to build on different ideas of art with technology as the aid. In this case a cellist is used to play a solo piece. This is fed into a computer and program which can then interpret the data in order to show animation in conjunction with whatever the soloist is playing at the moment. During the performance, someone can be manipulating what mode or processing feature is active in order to change up whats on the screen even further.
Discussion
It seems that some of these art projects are semi hit or miss with me. I do like the idea of this one, however, because I think that as long as the original art action is not covered up then it is fine. Since the authors are just trying to build off of classical music, then they should not cover it up. But I believe that they have done this successfully and the added animation could be a good visual add-on to the art of classical music.
Book Reading #12 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 4
Summary
This chapter essentially summarizes the different roles of the various people in the household. Specifically the women are described as to when and what they do.
Discussion
Once again this chapter is describing the simple roles of how the village works and grows up and where everyone's role is in the society. I find it interesting to compare this with our own culture and how different and yet the same they are.
Summary
This chapter essentially summarizes the different roles of the various people in the household. Specifically the women are described as to when and what they do.
Discussion
Once again this chapter is describing the simple roles of how the village works and grows up and where everyone's role is in the society. I find it interesting to compare this with our own culture and how different and yet the same they are.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Book Reading #13 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 3
Summary
This chapter talked about a case study where a number of normal people check in to a mental asylum saying that they are hearing a voice in their head. This gets them committed. They are then ordered to cease the mental problems and see how long the psychologists take to actually say they are normal again.
Discussion
The idea of this study actually kind of scares me. To some people the accusation of being crazy could damage your reputation enough to not be able to convince someone that they are not crazy. So once you are in it might be difficult to get out.
Summary
This chapter talked about a case study where a number of normal people check in to a mental asylum saying that they are hearing a voice in their head. This gets them committed. They are then ordered to cease the mental problems and see how long the psychologists take to actually say they are normal again.
Discussion
The idea of this study actually kind of scares me. To some people the accusation of being crazy could damage your reputation enough to not be able to convince someone that they are not crazy. So once you are in it might be difficult to get out.
Book Reading #11 - Design of Everyday Things
Chapter 4
Summary
This chapter dealt much more in depth with the problem that machinery have when it comes to how the user perceives interacting with it. The author makes references to the fact that they make things to invisible to the user that they become confused about what is happening and what to do next. This meaning like after doing some action a feedback mechanism is needed to aid the user in what is happening.
Discussion
I think this is a very important chapter for any future designer of interfaces. Simple things such as grouping and hiding the controls that are very rarely used help in the day to day use of the invention.
Summary
This chapter dealt much more in depth with the problem that machinery have when it comes to how the user perceives interacting with it. The author makes references to the fact that they make things to invisible to the user that they become confused about what is happening and what to do next. This meaning like after doing some action a feedback mechanism is needed to aid the user in what is happening.
Discussion
I think this is a very important chapter for any future designer of interfaces. Simple things such as grouping and hiding the controls that are very rarely used help in the day to day use of the invention.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Ethnography Proposal
Study the effects that music has on nearly all people
The study that would be performed would be more specifically a look into how any person uses music in their daily life. This would include what activities are centered around the act of listening to music, how important music is to them, what effects that the person feels when music comes up in a certain situation, if and how music could persuade someone to do something specific, etc. The people that would be study could and should be as many different types of people that can realistically be surveyed. I have read a few journals that have studied the fact that every culture has had some form of music that was important to them and also the fact that nearly all people today enjoy some form of music or tolerate it. There are very few that hate music. This study would be an interesting way to confirm that and also find out how music affects them.
The study that would be performed would be more specifically a look into how any person uses music in their daily life. This would include what activities are centered around the act of listening to music, how important music is to them, what effects that the person feels when music comes up in a certain situation, if and how music could persuade someone to do something specific, etc. The people that would be study could and should be as many different types of people that can realistically be surveyed. I have read a few journals that have studied the fact that every culture has had some form of music that was important to them and also the fact that nearly all people today enjoy some form of music or tolerate it. There are very few that hate music. This study would be an interesting way to confirm that and also find out how music affects them.
Dr. Celine Latulipe Blog
I read the paper: Exploring the design space in technology-augmented dance
Summary
This consortium of authors here are putting together a project that combines technological aspects to different dance pieces. Different choreography was created for a special show and then first combined with 3D gyroscopic mice. The dancers held the mice while dancing and this data was then sent to a computer that could output a unique visualization on a screen that was projected behind them. This was very much a prototype because having to hold the mice did not allow the dancers to do certain moves since they needed to support themselves with their hands. Also the 3D data was sent to the computer in a 2D data stream so 3D positional data was not possible to use. However, later they created a small, vastly improved, wireless 3D sensor that could be combined into the dancers clothing. The group has a website showing some examples of ideas here.
Discussion
I found this project to be very interesting on how it was trying to expand on an old art form. If done correctly, a "painting" could be created for every dance show that has ever been made. Ideally this would be almost the same every time it is done and could add much needed interest to the waning field of classical art. I know for a fact that there would be many against this type of expansion on art or at least while the technology is in its infancy. I, however, would love to see the abstract nature of the visualizations clash with the very precise dance moves that must be pulled off. I remember going to an orchestra concert a few years ago where they tried to show visualizations of the music being played live. Many of the older generation tried to find something wrong with it including how the projector noise was distracting significantly from the show. This idea is interesting and is needed for art to evolve into the next era.
Summary
This consortium of authors here are putting together a project that combines technological aspects to different dance pieces. Different choreography was created for a special show and then first combined with 3D gyroscopic mice. The dancers held the mice while dancing and this data was then sent to a computer that could output a unique visualization on a screen that was projected behind them. This was very much a prototype because having to hold the mice did not allow the dancers to do certain moves since they needed to support themselves with their hands. Also the 3D data was sent to the computer in a 2D data stream so 3D positional data was not possible to use. However, later they created a small, vastly improved, wireless 3D sensor that could be combined into the dancers clothing. The group has a website showing some examples of ideas here.
Discussion
I found this project to be very interesting on how it was trying to expand on an old art form. If done correctly, a "painting" could be created for every dance show that has ever been made. Ideally this would be almost the same every time it is done and could add much needed interest to the waning field of classical art. I know for a fact that there would be many against this type of expansion on art or at least while the technology is in its infancy. I, however, would love to see the abstract nature of the visualizations clash with the very precise dance moves that must be pulled off. I remember going to an orchestra concert a few years ago where they tried to show visualizations of the music being played live. Many of the older generation tried to find something wrong with it including how the projector noise was distracting significantly from the show. This idea is interesting and is needed for art to evolve into the next era.
Book Reading #10 - Opening Skinner's Box
Chapter 2
Summary
This is where slater enters 1960 and looks at the Stanley Milgram Project: Obedience to Authority. This was where a shock machine was created that he brought volunteers in to use. When Milgram ordered them to use it, they were shocking someone else on his authority. A large number of people did this just based on the fact that he was telling them to.
Discussion
This is a very interesting study that still has ramifications today. The human psyche when it is in certain situations are just now becoming understood. The notion of authority is unfortunately used for many bad things in the past and can sometimes appear as the people being bad, but in fact it was simply the situation that they were placed in.
Summary
This is where slater enters 1960 and looks at the Stanley Milgram Project: Obedience to Authority. This was where a shock machine was created that he brought volunteers in to use. When Milgram ordered them to use it, they were shocking someone else on his authority. A large number of people did this just based on the fact that he was telling them to.
Discussion
This is a very interesting study that still has ramifications today. The human psyche when it is in certain situations are just now becoming understood. The notion of authority is unfortunately used for many bad things in the past and can sometimes appear as the people being bad, but in fact it was simply the situation that they were placed in.
Book Reading #9 - Coming of Age in Samoa
Chapter 3
Summary
In this chapter the author talks generally about how the youth of the people get a standard education. The society teaches them what is important and raises them to know what they need to know.
Discussion
I find the information from this chapter to show that once again the fine line of developing and developed nation are being met for that time period. Its definitely more on the developing end but you can see that they still are reaching and striving for better and they still do well.
Summary
In this chapter the author talks generally about how the youth of the people get a standard education. The society teaches them what is important and raises them to know what they need to know.
Discussion
I find the information from this chapter to show that once again the fine line of developing and developed nation are being met for that time period. Its definitely more on the developing end but you can see that they still are reaching and striving for better and they still do well.
Book Reading #8 - Design of Everyday Things
Chapter 3
Summary
This chapter was on the very important topic for a designer. It was based on the fact that how many people perceive things may not be straight forward. For example, how things are remembered in the mind may be due to other factors and not just memory.
Discussion
The topic of what exactly our minds do when it comes to operating different tasks is very interesting to me. The efficient ways the brain goes about doing the task are sometimes not as obvious as we would think; sometimes inefficient.
Summary
This chapter was on the very important topic for a designer. It was based on the fact that how many people perceive things may not be straight forward. For example, how things are remembered in the mind may be due to other factors and not just memory.
Discussion
The topic of what exactly our minds do when it comes to operating different tasks is very interesting to me. The efficient ways the brain goes about doing the task are sometimes not as obvious as we would think; sometimes inefficient.
Paper Reading #5 - Exploring the design space in technology-augmented dance
Comments
Stephen Morrow
Pape Youm
Reference Information
Celine Latulipe, David Wilson, Sybil Huskey, Melissa Word, Arthur Carroll, Erin Carroll, Berto Gonzalez, Vikash Singh, Mike Wirth, Danielle Lottridge, CHI 2010 Atlanta, GA, April 2010
Summary
This consortium of authors here are putting together a project that combines technological aspects to different dance pieces. Different choreography was created for a special show and then first combined with 3D gyroscopic mice. The dancers held the mice while dancing and this data was then sent to a computer that could output a unique visualization on a screen that was projected behind them. This was very much a prototype because having to hold the mice did not allow the dancers to do certain moves since they needed to support themselves with their hands. Also the 3D data was sent to the computer in a 2D data stream so 3D positional data was not possible to use. However, later they created a small, vastly improved, wireless 3D sensor that could be combined into the dancers clothing. The group has a website showing some examples of ideas here.
Discussion
I found this project to be very interesting on how it was trying to expand on an old art form. If done correctly, a "painting" could be created for every dance show that has ever been made. Ideally this would be almost the same every time it is done and could add much needed interest to the waning field of classical art. I know for a fact that there would be many against this type of expansion on art or at least while the technology is in its infancy. I, however, would love to see the abstract nature of the visualizations clash with the very precise dance moves that must be pulled off. I remember going to an orchestra concert a few years ago where they tried to show visualizations of the music being played live. Many of the older generation tried to find something wrong with it including how the projector noise was distracting significantly from the show. This idea is interesting and is needed for art to evolve into the next era.
Stephen Morrow
Pape Youm
Reference Information
Celine Latulipe, David Wilson, Sybil Huskey, Melissa Word, Arthur Carroll, Erin Carroll, Berto Gonzalez, Vikash Singh, Mike Wirth, Danielle Lottridge, CHI 2010 Atlanta, GA, April 2010
Summary
This consortium of authors here are putting together a project that combines technological aspects to different dance pieces. Different choreography was created for a special show and then first combined with 3D gyroscopic mice. The dancers held the mice while dancing and this data was then sent to a computer that could output a unique visualization on a screen that was projected behind them. This was very much a prototype because having to hold the mice did not allow the dancers to do certain moves since they needed to support themselves with their hands. Also the 3D data was sent to the computer in a 2D data stream so 3D positional data was not possible to use. However, later they created a small, vastly improved, wireless 3D sensor that could be combined into the dancers clothing. The group has a website showing some examples of ideas here.
Discussion
I found this project to be very interesting on how it was trying to expand on an old art form. If done correctly, a "painting" could be created for every dance show that has ever been made. Ideally this would be almost the same every time it is done and could add much needed interest to the waning field of classical art. I know for a fact that there would be many against this type of expansion on art or at least while the technology is in its infancy. I, however, would love to see the abstract nature of the visualizations clash with the very precise dance moves that must be pulled off. I remember going to an orchestra concert a few years ago where they tried to show visualizations of the music being played live. Many of the older generation tried to find something wrong with it including how the projector noise was distracting significantly from the show. This idea is interesting and is needed for art to evolve into the next era.
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